Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silverblade The Ench" data-source="post: 4751819" data-attributes="member: 19083">An odd thought:As a DM, I adore the way adventures are laid out in modules in 4th ed. The format is so  SO much easier and fun to use than what's been before, it makes my job as DM a heck of a lot nicer <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />It's obviously based on concepts that came up in very late 3.5.You have overview of the story, with monsters/items in one booklet.In the other you have teh adventure "path", and set encounters on the path.Each encounter has it's own 2 pages, with stats, area info, and crucially, a mini map showing where NPCs etc are. Plus 4th ed makes a lot of use of special feaures of an area: dangerous runes, sticky mud etc.So on two pages, I have everything I need to reference for an encounter! (bar of course PCs and RP issues). Wow, lovely and simple!Now, anyone recall the old 1st ed modules? dense blocks of text....trying to DM that was a pain!! Really, you had to copy stuff out into a writing pad so you could unscramble it, soemtimes fix errors, and it often had little or no data on the area of the encounter: simple fights chop chop chop...no tactics built into it most of the time.And unlike 4th ed, where you get a full creature stat block, only the creature's hit points and maybe magic treasure are noted.having the creature's stats, ALL of them, there, makes it easy on the DM as he doens't have to switch between the MM etc all the damn time, sigh. Do player's realize how annoying that is? In 1st and 2nd ed, mosnters were far mroe regimented and unchanging, so emorizing them MMs was ok (especially for being able ot throw in of the cuff encounters, which I loved doing)But, in later editiosn we're moving more towars custom creatures, an orcis no longer just a !HD humanoid, so you cannot memorize all the variants, and therefor, must have the MM or combat stats, all at hand.2nd ed, thank goodness, improved the module layout a bit, more formatting so it wasn't solid blocks, etc, see "The Book of Lairs" for example. Still pretty basic though. ALso, better artwork, I really appreciate nice artwork on pages! 3rd ed, ah, now we're seeing some changes! And by late 3.5 we see the format of 4th ed style evolving, a huge step forward. See the "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" for 3rd ed, a good, easier to work with layout than original IMHO, but by 3.5, maps, critters and encounters on pages, a LOT better! See "Return to Undermountain".And then, we have 4th ed layouts.IMHO, having more space taken up by 2 page encounter layouts is very VERY necessary, never mind worthwhile. The DM is not a robot, so ease of use, with reference ot the map at hand, critters and area features on a set of 2facing pages is a world away from the painful 1st ed layout.Amazing change over the decades, and one I don't know if folk appreciate enough? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> It's like, oh cars from 1970s until today, we may love the styling of the oldone sbut they suck for safety and performance. Again, not an edition war, please! talking layouts of adventures I know purists may shriek <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> but if I was wanting to play/buy 1st and 2nd ed game modules, I'd like that kind of layout it's just much nicer for the DM.If folk are putitng them out as pdfs, well, consideration on page size, and thus bookweight and space, is less an issue?For the future, it has been, for DMs anyway, a MAJOR improvement.So just want to say thanks to whoever worke don evovling the format over the years, and hope to see it continue or improve <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification