How Long Should An “Adventure" Be?...

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I submit that Matt's original placement of the axe trap was not a mistake. He emphasized that the trap could only be set off by creatures of a standard weight or heavier; lighter creatures like gnomes or GOBLINS would not set it off. This makes it clear to me that the trap is a recent addition to the tomb, made by the invading goblins.

I really liked this one. People resurrecting old post or video ideas and giving them their own spin is always a good one.

You've been doing these nature hike video shoots for a bit now, and I just have to say that I LOVE this presentation. It suits your general vibe so well.

Yep, I started playing 1E with those short modules. A lot less of a hassle than today's adventure "novels".

I recall a game where there was 5 rooms ending with a lack of BBEG or treasure. The "BBEG" was the town that didn't tell us the dungeon was beaten already, treasure taken, because they wanted to sell us stuff to go there that doesn't sell otherwise.... it was my first and only experience with changing alignment over 4 gold.

Those old 32 page modules often packed a lot more than one evening's adventure into them. And because they detailed locations, there was usually not a plot you had to follow (unless it had originally been a tournament module).

Those among us familiar with story structure will recognize the 5 room dungeon as a reskin of the 5 act play. Establish > Rising Action > Complication > Climax > Conclusion And I'll let you in on a secret: Every good story is a fractal of this pattern. Every dungeon, dungeon floor, dungeon area, dungeon room, event... they all follow this pattern in an engaging D&D session. Knowing this, you are now empowered to write your own dungeons, expanding past the first five rooms into 5 areas, 5 floors, 5 dungeons... you get the idea. Go, and create on my friends.

This is why I fell in love with 1 page dungeons. Before I discovered that entire glorious world, I didn't realize I was basically doing that with bloated existing modules, condensing them onto one or two pages myself for way easier management during games.

The Delian Tomb was my first try at DMing lol glad to see so many other people used it too 🤣🤣

I think there's also something to be said about those old adventures is how non uniformly they are expected to be ran, while the page count is light, there's a metric crap ton of content that GMs can get out of it, you could spend an incredibly variable amount of time in any given adventure (like for instance, The Isle of Dread, or The Lost City) that's very easy to stretch Into a "big" campaign (note: when I say "easy" i mean by the standards expected by a 1e era DM, which were kinda insane)

I love short dungeons/adventures you can just pop into any existing campaign! Just something that takes a bit off the burden from the DM for a couple of hours! That's also why I created a bunch of free ones to use! Best way to give back to the community

Killer park. Love the rocks

Even WotC used the 5-Room Dungeon structure in the 4E DMG for the introductory adventure Kobold Hall! It's just a really solid way of planning an adventure. You can even apply that structure as an overarching guide for a longer adventuring arc. I'm really happy you touched on the rooms not always having to be literal rooms, but different areas of a city or wilderness area.

Thanks for this video Bob. A lot of other creators in this space I respect pushed back against Matt's video, and while they had valid points, most of them seemed to miss that Matt was responding to actual commenters in his community. A lot of newer GMs really believed the "default" form of the game are these long, epic stories that take the better part of a year to play, and the WOTC hardcovers and the popular actual play channels weren't exactly disabusing them of this notion. So even if WOTC does publish shorter adventures, they're not doing the best job at directing new GMs towards them. Because I still see people thanking Matt for making that video! But thanks for getting to Matt's actual point and addressing it in the spirit it was intended.

I am going on adventure today. A five room adventure. I am vacuuming my house. Living Room. Dining Room. Kitchen. Main Bath. Now what is the fifth room? Computer room, Laundry Room, Art Room, or Bedroom. Who will adventure with me? I promise gold, riches, and hidden treasure. Beware the evil felines. Beware the traps (litter box DC Wis 18 or have to clean it.) Beware the sleeping monster. (Wife sleeps late.)

Yes they release short adventure anthologys, but the point is that you are still buying a big book of adventures that you may only run one or two of. When modules were the default, you could pick and chose what adventure would fit the style and kind of next adventure for your campaign. Yes I like some of the large adventures, but I have been playing for decades. For someone starting, modules are the way ahead, and yes you can buy them from third party publishers, but when the company that owns the D&D property doesn't support, it it gives new people to the game an unrealistic perspective. This is obviously only my opinion and yes adventures can be researched on line, but new people to the game may not realise this

Love this video! Too many people I think become overwhelmed by the reality of trying to run a really long adventure when it’s so easy to have fun playing the game.

My ideal number of rooms for a dungeon is 5 to 15 rooms per level and two to three levels and/or a sub-level. I prefer dungeons that require multiple trips to explore. Use up resources. Have factions that react to the player’s actions and the other factions. Rewards exploration and gives benefits when the players discover ways to exploit its layout. Have areas that probably won't be discovered.

I like this concept. A five room dungeon can certainly be explored in one night. With my group constantly battling the epic monster of "Schedule Conflicts" a small adventure is just what we need on the rare instances we can coordinate with each other.