The largest I've run was The Dark of Hot Springs Island which is 200 pages for the main book and about half as much for the Field Guide. The page count is just one aspect, though. The main thing for me is cognitive load since I need to have everything in my head before I really feel comfortable running a complex module. If there are dungeons and random tables in the book, those don't really add to the load. Spreads with faction breakdowns and a big picture overview of the critical parts really help. That way the lore can be denser, but I can read it once and just refer to the "cheat sheet" later on. I do struggle a bit with modules like A Pound of Flesh, but only when it comes to location descriptions - not my strong suit.
Yeah getting across the big picture interconnections between factions, locations, and other moving parts seems to be the hardest thing to do as scale increases in an easy to parse way
For sure. IIRC you've used diagrams in both DMoK and ACU to some extent, and for me, they're never a waste of space. Nested diagrams (patent pending™) seem like a good idea, especially if things are complex. Like having one diagram break down one faction and another show how different factions relate/interact. Zoomed-in and zoomed-out view type of thing.
The largest I've run was The Dark of Hot Springs Island which is 200 pages for the main book and about half as much for the Field Guide. The page count is just one aspect, though. The main thing for me is cognitive load since I need to have everything in my head before I really feel comfortable running a complex module. If there are dungeons and random tables in the book, those don't really add to the load. Spreads with faction breakdowns and a big picture overview of the critical parts really help. That way the lore can be denser, but I can read it once and just refer to the "cheat sheet" later on. I do struggle a bit with modules like A Pound of Flesh, but only when it comes to location descriptions - not my strong suit.
Yeah getting across the big picture interconnections between factions, locations, and other moving parts seems to be the hardest thing to do as scale increases in an easy to parse way
For sure. IIRC you've used diagrams in both DMoK and ACU to some extent, and for me, they're never a waste of space. Nested diagrams (patent pending™) seem like a good idea, especially if things are complex. Like having one diagram break down one faction and another show how different factions relate/interact. Zoomed-in and zoomed-out view type of thing.
nice, breakdown diagrams all the way down sounds good to me
Less than 100 for reading, but if it's that good I'll read a 500+.
Yeah seems like ~100 is something of a ceiling for easiest flipping reference
Love seeing some of The Shrike making its way out into the world!
It's coming!
The largest adventures that I still find use-able at the table are Neverland and Oz by Andrew Kolb
Another great edition. Love the quick summary of all the things an adventure module can do to up ease of use - very apropos!
Thanks!