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

[KYRON45]

Don't forget nepotism and essentially embezzlement by way of the Buck Rogers license.

My point was. Creatives create and bean counters count beans. I don't know anything about graphs and diagrams but the cross section between "good" and "profitable" is the sweet spot. Does everything need to be high gloss, heavy weight and full color? Maybe...but then its expensive. Does that come at the expense of well formatted and thought out?

 

[Reynard]

My point was. Creatives create and bean counters count beans. I don't know anything about graphs and diagrams but the cross section between "good" and "profitable" is the sweet spot. Does everything need to be high gloss, heavy weight and full color? Maybe...but then its expensive. Does that come at the expense of well formatted and thought out?

I just think that anytime something goes "mainstream" there is a strong motivation to keep things safe and palatable. That's why smaller, niche and startup companies can be daring. They don't have shareholders to keep happy, and they have room to be truly creative.

I do wish WotC would let their creative staff go nuts a little bit and put out some smaller more niche products that don't need to set the world on fire (in addition to their usual output, just to be clear). I don't think the design team lacks creativity or talent. I think they lack freedom.

 

[KYRON45]

I just think that anytime something goes "mainstream" there is a strong motivation to keep things safe and palatable. That's why smaller, niche and startup companies can be daring. They don't have shareholders to keep happy, and they have room to be truly creative.

I do wish WotC would let their creative staff go nuts a little bit and put out some smaller more niche products that don't need to set the world on fire (in addition to their usual output, just to be clear). I don't think the design team lacks creativity or talent. I think they lack freedom.

I agree. Bring back the 64 page adventure. Well thought out. Lore tie ins. New spell here and there, a motivating treasure at the end. Does every adventure need to be 200 pages of high end art on expensive paper? And for the love of god, stop with the nostalgia for its own sake. I'm 50 years old and i could care less about any of the "old school" stuff. It's old....i can find it out in the aether if I need it.

Put together a team of a few of the older guys for wisdom and product management and get some of these new young turks and give them the chance to show us what the future of adventure making is.

 

[KYRON45]

Didn't Paizo have some kind of contest where people competed to create various aspects of an adventure and were eliminated along the way? Like a cooking show competition but for writers? How come D&D never did this?

 

[Reynard]

Didn't Paizo have some kind of contest where people competed to create various aspects of an adventure and were eliminated along the way? Like a cooking show competition but for writers? How come D&D never did this?

Paizo used to do RPG Superstar, which started simple (create an item or monster on this theme) as as it went on and the field narrowed, the challenges got more involved (create an adventure). The winner got a writing assignment, i think.

I am pretty sure it is still going but under Roll For Combat.

 

[KYRON45]

Paizo used to do RPG Superstar, which started simple (create an item or monster on this theme) as as it went on and the field narrowed, the challenges got more involved (create an adventure). The winner got a writing assignment, i think.

I am pretty sure it is still going but under Roll For Combat.

If WOTC is the big dog in the yard THEY should be innovating and at the forefront of the industry. They shouldn't be re-releasing new versions of old things over and over. I'm not anti-WOTC at all but i feel like they miss opportunities left and right.

 

[Stormonu]

Y'know, if they hadn't canned Dungeon, they'd have a perfect monthly venue for putting out shorter adventures that could be accumulated into longer games, if people wanted.

 

[KYRON45]

Back to the OP though.....For an MSRP of 59.99 we should expect a playable adventure out of the box. Of course were always going to have to adjust for the idiosyncrasies at our tables but we shouldn't have to rewrite the bulk of the adventure to be "useable". Pound for pound RPGs are the most cost effective hobby going*; but when you buy something it should be as advertised. We should also note that I have never run a published adventure I just part them out and use the parts that I think are cool.

*No i do not have any data to support this as I am not that kind of nerd.

 

[Reynard]

If WOTC is the big dog in the yard THEY should be innovating and at the forefront of the industry. They shouldn't be re-releasing new versions of old things over and over. I'm not anti-WOTC at all but i feel like they miss opportunities left and right.

That is like expecting Disney to put out experimental indie films. It doesn't make sense.

 

[wicked cool]

I think they need to really need playtesters on their adventures and if somehow they do then get better ones

I’ve been doing a lot of work on prepping for dm
Work and things I’ve noticed

Often they give the dm a snapshot of what’s going on but not much that the dm can use for the player

I don’t think they actually play the adventures. I’d love to give spoiler examples