I have had some intricately written modules before (Professional & Fan-Created), and they tended to be wonderful until I tried to implement them in a game. In every single case I can remember, I've had to gut the double crosses or reveals from the module and change them around because they just don't work with the game set up, character set up, current resources or, on a couple occasions, were just so obvious to the players it was pointless. (Oh, man - I bet that guy's really an imperial agent.)

In my experience the more intricate and complex the adventure, the more defend it requires the characters to be and the more limited their action is, or predictable it's required to be. It only works if they ask this guy about this thing and learn about this person before the stroke of midnight on the fourth day kinda thing.

We will have to agree to disagree, than.

I rather take setpieces from supplements then adventures and I don´t see my expectatation for some interesting plots equaling being so elaborate so they have to win awards, especially the Star Wars setting don´t need to be so deep as a horror or even a Firefly plot. Ripe with adventure, I don´t see it as that hard to make an interesting plot (as you can see in the career seeds).

Additionally, I don´t see it as you need huge player knowledge to get some universal twists or surprises going, especially again with Star Wars, where the universe is fairly simple and the adventure part jumps you in the face. Didn´t have the problem much that it doesn´t work, mostly I had to emphazise the plot a bit, replacing characters to strengthen the motivation, but mostly it worked.

And I would add that it is not only about twists, there´s some other stuff I regard as "quality" I mentioned earlier.

Multisession is a point, though, in a one shot I see that you don´t have really the time.

We can agreee that my concerns of the quality of the adventures don´t hit the general assessments, which is fine for the system, it will mean more published sourcebooks for me (which is great) and a bit more work, because I´ll avoiding the adventures.

I took this discussion as inspiration, will take BtR and giving the survivor camp more of a spin, relocate Act I und rewrite Act III

So far, this interesting discussion was at least some help for me.

I've found that the designers try to make their adventures more useful than just being run as is. Yes some things are left generic because they realize that a majority of GMs will probably tailor them to their group adding appropriate obstacles where needed, be they favored NPCs or moral dilemmas. Not only that they try to make set-pieces that are reusable in future adventures. Or maybe the fleshing out of some NPC in the adventure will lead to a recurring NPC in future adventures. Personally I find adventures like this much more useful. Besides, most adventures do not survive exposure to the players so trying to be too cute or specific tends to be a waste of time. Either the player characters completely miss things or just do not care. No matter how "good" or "bad" an adventure is written it all comes down to the GM running it and whether or not the players enjoy it.

I've found that the designers try to make their adventures more useful than just being run as is. Yes some things are left generic because they realize that a majority of GMs will probably tailor them to their group adding appropriate obstacles where needed, be they favored NPCs or moral dilemmas. Not only that they try to make set-pieces that are reusable in future adventures. Or maybe the fleshing out of some NPC in the adventure will lead to a recurring NPC in future adventures. Personally I find adventures like this much more useful. Besides, most adventures do not survive exposure to the players so trying to be too cute or specific tends to be a waste of time. Either the player characters completely miss things or just do not care. No matter how "good" or "bad" an adventure is written it all comes down to the GM running it and whether or not the players enjoy it.

Well, maybe after it was your turn we will see sometimes in the future more elaborate plots, we´ll see.

But at last, I´ll tailor BtR, I´ve bought it, so I can use some stuff. But I will certainly focus on making my own, it saves not much work for me. Actionpieces are mostly improvised anyway.

Hopefully for me the FFG will waste some time in the future, but as I said, it is obviously just me.

Maybe we´ll see more like the modular encounters in the supplements, than for me, it would be fine without the stuff in between I don´t need anyway.

Maybe we´ll see more like the modular encounters in the supplements, than for me, it would be fine without the stuff in between I don´t need anyway.

Both of the location splatbooks have had a handful of set pieces so far, and I hope that trend continues. There's also that community-created Environmental Setpieces supplement that's quite good and encompasses a lot.

Perhaps it doesn't go without saying that most people don't use 100% of every book, and the genesis of many stories do not lie within them completely.