Stuff Gets Weird

Or: A man's journey through the metaphysical intelligent mushroom patch.
Make the giant shrieking mushroom endearing, the otyugh in a state of quantum flux, and that chest full of ambiguity. Not all DM's have the free time and/or creativity to pump out a solid six hours of coherent thought that mimics fantasy, so pre-mades are a God send, but they can get really dull. By the time I'm done with a module or standalone I will have read it anyway from 2-5 times depending on its length and complexity of encounters. Those who're actually playing it will only have heard it once, and perhaps the writers at Paizo or WoTC did a perfect job in its composition, but to the DM who has read it myriad times or merely realizes the monotony mantle setting in this chunk of adventure needs to get weird fast. If you're any good at it a spontaneous DM can really help keep premades dynamic. I'd love to be able to run a sandbox where spontaneity and yet still interesting encounters takes place, but right now I can't do that. So have the some of both realities, keep the adventures linear and manufactured, but remember once in awhile that you're the one true say in the setting and you know what sometimes mushrooms need to be as smart as your average eight year old. For whatever reason sometimes throw a monkey wrench into normality, it might tick some people off to have their gold and shinies randomly stolen but not you.