D&D 5E Justin Alexander's review of Shattered Obelisk is pretty scathing

[Parmandur]

In the context of an entertainment game product, "have to" is merely a "want to" that's on the road to hyperbole.

D&D is a very DIY game, and even WotC Adventure products are still DIY.

It's like reading reviews of a cookbook complaining thst it tastes like paper and ink.

 

[Charlaquin]

On that front, it is worth noting that thime review is riddled with falsified, either based in ignorance of the text or malice. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume thwt he is not a careful reader or writer...which is why I don't normally pay him any attention, because this is basically my experience of everything he has written.

Having read his response on the keyed dungeon point, I think it’s a matter of him being very passionate about dungeon design and feeling that WotC is moving in a direction that doesn’t value that as much (or at least not in the same way) as he does. Perhaps he’s overstating the seriousness of the issue, but it seems to be out of genuine concern that the art of dungeon design and keying is being deprioritized, which may lead to a loss of that generational knowledge.

 

[Parmandur]

Having read his response on the keyed dungeon point, I think it’s a matter of him being very passionate about dungeon design and feeling that WotC is moving in a direction that doesn’t value that as much (or at least not in the same way) as he does. Perhaps he’s overstating the seriousness of the issue, but it seems to be out of genuine concern that the art of dungeon design and keying is being deprioritized, which may lead to a loss of that generational knowledge.

...

It's a battle map. There is a single boss and treasure, in a single standalone room (albeit a large room with terrain to make for an interesting combat wncounter...hence the battle map).

There is literally nothing to key. It is like complaining that a Mosnter stat block doesn't have a dungeon key, and then going off on a rant about Modernism or something.

 

[Retreater]

In the context of an entertainment game product, "have to" is merely a "want to" that's on the road to hyperbole.

This. 100%.
We don't have to buy any product. We don't even have to play D&D (or any other TTRPG). We don't have to choose to be a GM.
And furthermore, if we choose to do any of these entirely optional things, we can choose to run an adventure that doesn't appeal to us or our players. We can choose to get a module that doesn't appeal to us and spend hours re-writing everything. We can choose to buy the adventure, review it ourselves, and then choose to not run it after all.
We can instead choose to sit in the living room and watch a movie.

100%. No one's forcing us to do anything.
But when we realize that we aren't willing to accept the consequence of intentionally providing a bad game experience for our players, we choose to do that vs. not doing that. In a sense, we have to do it - or not run the game at all.

 

[Raiztt]

Having read his response on the keyed dungeon point, I think it’s a matter of him being very passionate about dungeon design and feeling that WotC is moving in a direction that doesn’t value that as much (or at least not in the same way) as he does. Perhaps he’s overstating the seriousness of the issue, but it seems to be out of genuine concern that the art of dungeon design and keying is being deprioritized, which may lead to a loss of that generational knowledge.

IMO, WotC dungeon design has been bad for at least two decades.

 

[Retreater]

Having read his response on the keyed dungeon point, I think it’s a matter of him being very passionate about dungeon design and feeling that WotC is moving in a direction that doesn’t value that as much (or at least not in the same way) as he does. Perhaps he’s overstating the seriousness of the issue, but it seems to be out of genuine concern that the art of dungeon design and keying is being deprioritized, which may lead to a loss of that generational knowledge.

To be fair, I think WotC is moving in a direction where they don't value much of anything.
1) Bad card prints
2) AI art debacle
3) Spelljammer

 

[darjr]

I do like a lot Justin says. He’s smart and insightful quite a lot. Smarter than me for sure. But after seeing his keyed map of the dungeon room I laughed out loud.

 

[Charlaquin]

...

It's a battle map. There is a single boss and treasure, in a single standalone room (albeit a large room with terrain to make for an interesting combat wncounter...hence the battle map).

There is literally nothing to key. It is like complaining that a Mosnter stat block doesn't have a dungeon key, and then going off on a rant about Modernism or something.

Did you read his response post? He directly addresses the argument that there’s nothing to key, as well as pointing out multiple other maps in the book that are not keyed.

 

[Retreater]

IMO, WotC dungeon design has been bad for at least two decades.

That's, like, the entirety of WotC's ownership of D&D, right?

 

[Parmandur]

Did you read his response post? He directly addresses the argument that there’s nothing to key, as well as pointing out multiple other maps in the book that are not keyed.

I had not: now I have read it, and that made his take actually worse in my view.

Active twisting if facts it is.

I am now done paying attention to him, and would recommend the same for anyone else.