Building a Better Adventure: Fight, Evade, Corrupt, Deceive...

I'm afraid this is another tirade inspired by the "Black Crusade" adventure "Hand of Corruption", but it's actually applicable to the vast majority of prepublished adventures I've read. Paizo are occasionally better in this regard... but not too often.

In "Black Crusade", the PCs are heretics, followers of the Ruinous Powers. And one of the key conceits of the setting is that Chaos and its followers are essentially a cancer on the Imperium - they corrupt everything and everyone that they touch. That being the case, when "Hand of Corruption" has the PCs interacting with a significant number of NPCs, one might be forgiven for thinking that they might well choose to corrupt those NPCs into their followers. Indeed, the book itself notes that they might well have taken that route in order to sway enemies to their side.

Unfortunately, the book doesn't actually give any great indication as to how they might do that. The NPCs are given backstories, and personalities, and quirks, and all that good stuff... but for most of them there's no indication of how they might be corrupted. Is it money? Power? Sex? Revenge? Jealousy? Exactly what hook could a clever PC unearth enabling them to get at that NPC?

This points to a wider problem in most prepublished scenarios. Very often, the book simply assumes that the PCs are going to fight the NPCs, and that's it. Rarely, if ever, will the book consider other approaches to the encounter.

And that's quite frustrating, because quite often the adventure will spend time detailing the character's past and personality. We get told loads of things about the character... just not things that might be incredibly useful in actual play.

To that end, I'm inclined to think that every significant NPC write-up should include some specific notes on how the NPC might be influenced: how does he respond to charm? To intimidation? To bribery? Are there any specific deceptions he's liable to be taken in by, or specific bribes he might be offered? Just how can he be corrupted? (And, incidentally, in a game like "Black Crusade", the answer should never be "nothing". Even the most fanatically pious of souls has a price... and if not, then 'pride' might well be their downfall!)

Likewise, I'm inclined to think that every encounter should say something about the various possible ways to deal with it: how can it be avoided (is there a possibility for stealth?), what passwords with the orc guards accept? What disguises might the PCs use?

(Oh, and critically, when I say "every", I do indeed mean every NPC and encounter - not just the ones that the designers think the PCs "should" corrupt. Because, yes, when one of the NPCs is a corrupt degenerate then of course they're liable to use that, but what about the ones who aren't obviously corrupt? After all, those are the very ones that the GM might actually need help with!)