Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Getting to 6 encounters in a day
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Harzel" data-source="post: 7488810" data-attributes="member: 6857506"><p>Thanks for going to the trouble to describe all that. I am trying to move toward doing things in my campaign more in a style such as you describe, and there are a few general issues on which I would be interested in your comments.</p><p></p><p>The first is level appropriateness. In a purely uncaring sandbox, the relative difficulty of challenges (perhaps Figures in your terminology) is determined by their inherent nature and internal logic, not by convenience for the PCs. That's fine as long as you are ok with the campaign being very episodic as the PCs confront and defeat (or retreat from) relatively self-contained, localized challenges. However, if you want the PCs to be able to pursue goals that involve overcoming a number of disparate challenges, then (it seems to me) something will have to have to go by the wayside - level appropriateness, or the freedom to tackle things in whatever order they choose, or the nature of the challenges being independent of the PCs' level progression. (In case it's not clear, I'm thinking here of a set of challenges that involve the PCs in sufficient adventuring that they will gain multiple levels in the process.)</p><p></p><p>To make this specific to your examples, consider the example five initial hooks you gave. Do these all provide level appropriate encounters for the PCs when they arrive on Windstone? If they pursue one single-mindedly, will they be able to conquer the underlying problem, or will they reach a point at which they have to back off and come back when they are more powerful?</p><p></p><p>As I read it, you imply that generally the threats not addressed will increase in difficulty. I assume it is also possible that Figures may be stymied or beaten down by processes not involving the PCs. However, even for the threats that grow, I have encountered a problem thinking about this for events in my own world: PCs level so fast that they easily outstrip any threat that grows at what I would consider a reasonable, natural pace. Do you find this to be a problem and if so, how do you handle it?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This sort of implies that you may (at least sometimes) time events that increase threat levels to synchronize with PC level progression. Is that true, or have I misunderstood?</p><p></p><p>The second main challenge that I have is finding ways to get enough information to the PCs so that their decisions are not just consequential, but also informed. (To me, uninformed decisions are quite meaningless, no matter how consequential they turn out to be.) I certainly avail myself of standard techniques - knowledgeable NPCs and written materials that the PCs can obtain by various means. I was just wondering if you had any special techniques (or if you consider it to be not that big a deal). Often, the desire to give the players the sense of venturing into the unknown seems to conflict with the desire to have them making informed decisions, particularly the relative degree of peril that awaits the PCs.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This is one thing I think I disagree with. As long as the PCs still have consequential choices, I think it is ok for something out of their control to intrude on the rare occasion. A natural disaster or the ripple of consequences from the actions of a powerful Figure is a fine way to change the landscape in ways that provide new opportunities and obstacles for the PCs.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Really, I think you did just fine.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Harzel, post: 7488810, member: 6857506"] Thanks for going to the trouble to describe all that. I am trying to move toward doing things in my campaign more in a style such as you describe, and there are a few general issues on which I would be interested in your comments. The first is level appropriateness. In a purely uncaring sandbox, the relative difficulty of challenges (perhaps Figures in your terminology) is determined by their inherent nature and internal logic, not by convenience for the PCs. That's fine as long as you are ok with the campaign being very episodic as the PCs confront and defeat (or retreat from) relatively self-contained, localized challenges. However, if you want the PCs to be able to pursue goals that involve overcoming a number of disparate challenges, then (it seems to me) something will have to have to go by the wayside - level appropriateness, or the freedom to tackle things in whatever order they choose, or the nature of the challenges being independent of the PCs' level progression. (In case it's not clear, I'm thinking here of a set of challenges that involve the PCs in sufficient adventuring that they will gain multiple levels in the process.) To make this specific to your examples, consider the example five initial hooks you gave. Do these all provide level appropriate encounters for the PCs when they arrive on Windstone? If they pursue one single-mindedly, will they be able to conquer the underlying problem, or will they reach a point at which they have to back off and come back when they are more powerful? As I read it, you imply that generally the threats not addressed will increase in difficulty. I assume it is also possible that Figures may be stymied or beaten down by processes not involving the PCs. However, even for the threats that grow, I have encountered a problem thinking about this for events in my own world: PCs level so fast that they easily outstrip any threat that grows at what I would consider a reasonable, natural pace. Do you find this to be a problem and if so, how do you handle it? This sort of implies that you may (at least sometimes) time events that increase threat levels to synchronize with PC level progression. Is that true, or have I misunderstood? The second main challenge that I have is finding ways to get enough information to the PCs so that their decisions are not just consequential, but also informed. (To me, uninformed decisions are quite meaningless, no matter how consequential they turn out to be.) I certainly avail myself of standard techniques - knowledgeable NPCs and written materials that the PCs can obtain by various means. I was just wondering if you had any special techniques (or if you consider it to be not that big a deal). Often, the desire to give the players the sense of venturing into the unknown seems to conflict with the desire to have them making informed decisions, particularly the relative degree of peril that awaits the PCs. This is one thing I think I disagree with. As long as the PCs still have consequential choices, I think it is ok for something out of their control to intrude on the rare occasion. A natural disaster or the ripple of consequences from the actions of a powerful Figure is a fine way to change the landscape in ways that provide new opportunities and obstacles for the PCs. Really, I think you did just fine. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Getting to 6 encounters in a day
Top