She's Lost That Lovin' Feelin

The world is full of dichotomies.  Dungeons and Dragons is no different.  The perplexing opposition I wish to explore here is:  I am getting good at adapting fiction to make D&D adventures, yet I struggle to infuse my games with the excitement found in adventure novels (of many genres).

Thanks Amazon

I am not here to recommend books (though I am awfully tempted).  The covers presented serve as examples of the feelings of adventure and excitement I would like to invoke at the table.  I have lifted one or two of Leiber's stories for adventure outlines, and they work quite nicely.  However, rarely am I able to sense the players feeling the "aha!"s and the "oh croike!?!"s the characters in those stories experience.

I recently tried to put together a campaign which was centered around the Caves of Chaos (TM).  The first adventure we ran was the recently released Mines of Madness(TM) - part of the D&D Next(TM) play test.  I tried running an adaptation of Dracula I created as an interlude.  It went OK at the beginning, but the feeling of intrigue and mystery were not quite palpable enough.  At some point the players got a little stuck, and I myself was stuck in rigid thinking and failed my improvise check.  Before the pieces were put together and the town made safe from vampires the PCs were heard to remark: "Wait, why do I care about this infected broad?" and "Weren't there nefarious things in the caves causing problems? We could check that out..."

Oh well, apparently it was not the most sensational mystery adventure of the day.

PS - How cool is it that Dracula was billed as a mystery novel?  That is how I thought of it as I was adapting it.


What are some novels and stories you have adapted?  With what levels of success?


See ya soon!


-DM Josh