D&D General (SPOILERS for Vecna: Eve of Ruin) Are My Standards Too High for Adventures?

[KYRON45]

What’s funny about Strahd is it isn’t wholly created by modern WotC. It’s a remake of an old adventure.

I’ve seen people love the updated remasters of the old modules but when it comes to a whole new original adventure they bungle it. Not always of course but when you put out 1 adventure every few months they all need to be gold.

Not only is it a remake of a decades old adventure it's a riff on a 127 year old novel.

 

[TiQuinn]

I'm not sure I understand your concern @TiQuinn Do you think that the majority of D&D players do engage with non-WotC material? If so, what males you think so? Surely if they did, we wouldn't be shocked by $1million kickstarters with less than 10K backers. If a WotC book made $1million, it would probably be considered an abject failure.

Whatever, dude. You go engage with him then. I'm not going to play this game.

 

[Reynard]

Whatever, dude. You go engage with him then. I'm not going to play this game.

If you say so. I was honestly interested in where you were coming from, but okay.

 

[Stormonu]

Granted, I don't know if the Rod ever had an official image of it fully assembled before the 5E look.

The Rod of Seven Parts, as depicted in the 2E mega-adventure of the same name from 1996:

 

[DarkCrisis]

Not only is it a remake of a decades old adventure it's a riff on a 127 year old novel.

Darn good novel at all.

 

[TiQuinn]

The Rod of Seven Parts, as depicted in the mega-adventure of the same name:

View attachment 367083

I remember running part of this back in the day (we never finished.)

It was still a bit of a railroad because the rules stated that one part automatically gave you the approximate location of the next part and so and so on. Though I did like the understated design of the rod - it wasn't this big flashy thing. It had a One Ring kind of vibe to it where it was often hidden in plain sight, and many of the people who had a part didn't really know what they had, just that it was magical. I don't know if the new campaign does this same thing but I did like that aspect of the original.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The idea that they can publish whatever garbage they want and the rubes will lap it up is not a ringing endorsement for either WotC or the community.

We aren't "rubes". We're people whose tastes differ from yours. Just because we don't share what you like in adventures doesn't make our viewpoint any less valid, nor give you allowance to use insulting terms in describing us.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't think they are lazy or stupid. I think they aren't good adventure designers. They must have their fans though because WotC keeps paying them and releasing their products.

Though I'd say that says more about the current fandom perhaps. Of course when the majority of players don't venture past the modern WotC umbrella they have no full frame of reference. Which is fine, as long as people are having fun. Then again, If you've only ever had a ritz cracker it is of course the best cracker you've ever had.

That's fair. But then again from my perspective I don't think there are any good adventure designers in that case. Because I cannot think of a single designer whose bibliography includes nothing but good adventures. Even someone like Gygax has produced tons of crap.

Thus the WotC 5E designers are not anomalies in that sphere... they are just a part of the entirety of adventure writers who do good work sometimes for some people, and bad work sometimes for other people.

 

[Shardstone]

Rod of Seven Parts needs to be treated like the 7 dragon balls.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Rod of Seven Parts needs to be treated like the 7 dragon balls.

D&D combats at high level take long enough already without charging up for 3 episodes.