I would like to think I buy adventures to play (run) them rather than read them, but honestly, a large amount of my shelf space at the moment is adventures that I have not even had the time to read!

There are a LOT of adventures out there at the moment.

Adventures are funny things. It is occasionally said that adventures have three audiences:

• The person who reads the adventure to be entertained
• The person who reads the adventure to work out how to run it
• The person running the adventure who needs to reference it

Those last two are a little more distinct than you might think. My experiences during the 4E days were with adventures that were extremely difficult to determine how they flowed, but individual encounters ran very well. (The “Delve” format).

(Oh, where are the players in that list? If you find a player reading an adventure, ask them when they are running it! 😄)

The larger the adventure, the harder it is to get the balance right. Rime of the Frostmaiden, at over 300 pages long, is one intimidating tome!

On the DMs Guild, I am far more likely to investigate a short one-session adventure than a large campaign adventure. I have enough of the campaign adventures from Wizards, and it is exceedingly rare to find the time to run one. I am far more likely to incorporate one-shots into my ongoing Greyhawk campaign.

Okay, I am likely to buy and possibly run Kobold Press campaign adventures! (I *did* manage to run Courts of the Shadow Fey. And I enjoyed it!).

It is really important to recognise the importance of time – or the lack of it – for DM preparation. It is one reason I have been hammering adventure length in my recent reviews. If I have to read 120 pages to run a 4-hour scenario, then that reading really needs to be worthwhile. I read quickly. Most people do not. And reading a lot of material that does not come up in a session – or, even worse – makes it harder to run a session because I cannot find what I need when running it? Not a good use of my time!

Now, for people who are just reading the adventure for enjoyment, or who want more details to prepare, they may enjoy adventures with more details and background.

However, speaking as someone who has run many adventures and continues to use many adventures in my game, I am not at all fond of overstuffed adventures. They need sufficient details to run and to inspire, but not so many that reading becomes a chore.