One of the weird things about my Dungeons & Dragons 5E journey is how, as the years have gone on, I've become more and more disappointed with the official Wizards adventures. I'm a big fan of published adventures, and in the early years of 5E, I greeted each new adventure with anticipation.
And I had a great, wonderful time. The early adventures are hardly flawless, but the themes and ambitions were big, and I found that even when others might struggle, I could make them work and make them into magical campaigns. (I've run the entirety of Tyranny of Dragons three times, I love it so much - despite some things underdeveloped and also hurt by being developed under the playtest rules).
Then came Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. And, while I consider the first chapters one of the triumphs of adventure design, after that it turns into an unfocused mess. I've also run it three times, having a lot of fun with it, but it required a lot more work than Tyranny of Dragons - and also drew heavily on my knowledge of Waterdeep and the Forgotten Realms.
I admire ambition. I'm okay with things not working 100% perfectly. But I expect the company to learn from its mistakes, and do better next time. And it's been a very patchy run.
There is a level of "this adventure isn't for me". And that I get. But often, I look at adventures and see fundamental structural flaws with their design. Or haphazard editing. Or a complete disregard for the source material. (I think both Shadow of the Dragon Queen and The Shattered Obelisk can be accused of that).
The Wild beyond the Witchlight may not be for me, but I can see the artistry that Will Doyle and Stacey Allen brought to that book. (Will is, in my opinion, one of the most gifted adventure writers). Other recent adventures? Poorly managed, lacking in ambition, or if they have ambition, not the skill or oversight to pull it off.
Hype is a funny thing. I went into The Shattered Obelisk expecting a book where the obelisks would be front and centre, and so, so important to the plot. I don't think that's what we got, and the "revelation" about the Obelisks doesn't feel that special. (In fact, it lowers my expectation for a follow-up, since they way they get used doesn't feel like foreshadowing at all.) But Hype makes you Stupid. And I'm not paying that much attention to what the designers are saying, so I may have missed something that would have tempered my expectations.
I look at Rime of the Frostmaiden and think, "the three villain structure worked a lot better in Legacy of the Crystal Shard". That shouldn't be my response!
The choice of Wizards to publish adventures as hardcover books has opened up a lot of possibilities not available to those published as instalments. You can see some of those ambitions realised in Curse of Strahd and Storm King's Thunder. Imagine those books published in the Paizo Adventure Path format - in six separate instalments! They'd have to be majorly reworked. (And while I have problems with both, those are minor compared to the joy both have given me).
One of the aspects of our hobby is that it is so rare for designers to write big adventures. So, people don't get many chances to develop that skill, or learn from their mistakes. I would hope, however, they'd learn from the mistakes of others!
Now, I'm sure some of this is grumpy old man syndrome, and I do look forward to the new Vecna adventure. I just want Wizards to show me stuff I haven't seen before. To be ambitious, and to pull it off!
Cheers,
Merric
And I had a great, wonderful time. The early adventures are hardly flawless, but the themes and ambitions were big, and I found that even when others might struggle, I could make them work and make them into magical campaigns. (I've run the entirety of Tyranny of Dragons three times, I love it so much - despite some things underdeveloped and also hurt by being developed under the playtest rules).
Then came Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. And, while I consider the first chapters one of the triumphs of adventure design, after that it turns into an unfocused mess. I've also run it three times, having a lot of fun with it, but it required a lot more work than Tyranny of Dragons - and also drew heavily on my knowledge of Waterdeep and the Forgotten Realms.
I admire ambition. I'm okay with things not working 100% perfectly. But I expect the company to learn from its mistakes, and do better next time. And it's been a very patchy run.
There is a level of "this adventure isn't for me". And that I get. But often, I look at adventures and see fundamental structural flaws with their design. Or haphazard editing. Or a complete disregard for the source material. (I think both Shadow of the Dragon Queen and The Shattered Obelisk can be accused of that).
The Wild beyond the Witchlight may not be for me, but I can see the artistry that Will Doyle and Stacey Allen brought to that book. (Will is, in my opinion, one of the most gifted adventure writers). Other recent adventures? Poorly managed, lacking in ambition, or if they have ambition, not the skill or oversight to pull it off.
Hype is a funny thing. I went into The Shattered Obelisk expecting a book where the obelisks would be front and centre, and so, so important to the plot. I don't think that's what we got, and the "revelation" about the Obelisks doesn't feel that special. (In fact, it lowers my expectation for a follow-up, since they way they get used doesn't feel like foreshadowing at all.) But Hype makes you Stupid. And I'm not paying that much attention to what the designers are saying, so I may have missed something that would have tempered my expectations.
I look at Rime of the Frostmaiden and think, "the three villain structure worked a lot better in Legacy of the Crystal Shard". That shouldn't be my response!
The choice of Wizards to publish adventures as hardcover books has opened up a lot of possibilities not available to those published as instalments. You can see some of those ambitions realised in Curse of Strahd and Storm King's Thunder. Imagine those books published in the Paizo Adventure Path format - in six separate instalments! They'd have to be majorly reworked. (And while I have problems with both, those are minor compared to the joy both have given me).
One of the aspects of our hobby is that it is so rare for designers to write big adventures. So, people don't get many chances to develop that skill, or learn from their mistakes. I would hope, however, they'd learn from the mistakes of others!
Now, I'm sure some of this is grumpy old man syndrome, and I do look forward to the new Vecna adventure. I just want Wizards to show me stuff I haven't seen before. To be ambitious, and to pull it off!
Cheers,
Merric
