An encounter and an organizing method - critique both

[Storminator]

So I've started using Mind Maps to map out everything in life, including my 4e game.

1) do you think you could run this encounter based just on this info?

2) do you think would challenge 7 level 12 PCs?

3) are you in my Goblins of Eberron game? Then stay the heck out of this thread!

[sblock] [/sblock]

PS

 

[the Jester]

Gah, that's... hideous.

Is it usable? I guess.

Is it easily usable? Is it the kind of thing where I'm going to remember any immediate actions, resistances, vulnerabilities and the like?

Good God, no. The information in that is a mess- it's hard to even tell where one creature starts and the next ends at a glance. Maybe if I was very familiar with it, I might consider it- but honestly, I see no benefit to this over a couple of pages of standard 4e stat blocks (which are readable and organized, especially the post-MM3 version). Unless maybe I was using the very last piece of paper in the world to print it and I couldn't otherwise fit the info on one page.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=305]Storminator[/MENTION]
Gah! Why would you do that to the wonderfully easy 4e stat blocks??

I like mind-mapping for story plotting especially, and I've posted examples done with FreeMind in the past. The way you're using it...just...ugh.

 

[Jhaelen]

I think I could use it, but I don't really see the benefit over statblocks. It doesn't appear to help to find information any faster.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I can see how that could be more convenient than a normal statblock if you made it and are intimately familiar with it.

Otherwise, no not really.

 

[Storminator]

I used Freemind mind mapping to design the encounter, so it grew organically until the outermost level as I collected ideas. Normally I would then go to the adventure tools and build regular stat blocks. But I realized I probably don't need to, because as VB said, I'm pretty familiar with it at this point.

So what do people think of the encounter? Or is it unreadable, and therefor can't be evaluated?

PS

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I can't zoom into the image, so I can't read it. I can't even evaluate if the image is readable, because ... I can't zoom in. (Presumably you could do so in the program. Could you make this available for download, or link to a larger version?)

 

[MarkB]

So what do people think of the encounter? Or is it unreadable, and therefor can't be evaluated?

PS

It's extremely difficult to read, and therefore hard to evaluate without significant eyestrain.

So far as I can make out, it's not an encounter, either. All I'm seeing is a set of statblocks - nothing about the encounter's terrain, and no information on the creatures' synergies, tactics and likely reactions. I'd be wanting a good deal more information, much more readably presented, before evaluating it as an encounter.

 

[Storminator]

I can't zoom into the image, so I can't read it. I can't even evaluate if the image is readable, because ... I can't zoom in. (Presumably you could do so in the program. Could you make this available for download, or link to a larger version?)

It looks like if you right click on it you can use View Image, and zoom. Then it comes out 12 point font.

PS

 

[MarkB]

It looks like if you right click on it you can use View Image, and zoom. Then it comes out 12 point font.

PS

That appears to be browser-dependent - it doesn't work for me in Chrome.

However, it looks like EN World's system is actually squashing the image to fit the window - by copying the URL and opening it in a new window, I can see it at more legible size. Here's a link.

EDIT: Can you provide a key for those symbols? I'm having a bit of a hard time picking out basic attacks.