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A Look Inside Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Contents, Saltmarsh Map, & More
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<blockquote data-quote="Tom B1" data-source="post: 7779530" data-attributes="member: 6879023"><p><strong>And then there's those of us that love setting-neutral sandboxes....</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I get that some people hate sandboxes. I and one of the groups I game with pretty much despise railroads, three-act-structure, and the lack of agency that carefully laid out encounters and pre-ordained plots and finales cause. </p><p></p><p>Maybe it's because I grew up when the original PHB and DMG were just released. You wanted setting, you created it. You wanted adventures, you took some fairly generic ones (B2, B1, N1, etc) and you dropped it into your game because few were so entirely specific as to require much filing off. </p><p></p><p>I'm disappointed they didn't go the way they said they were going to (setting neutral). That lack of setting neutrality and the absence of much in the way of sandboxing in most of the hardcover adventure paths for 5E have resulted in me not buying them. I was hoping this one was different. </p><p></p><p>And Greyhawk... that was excellent in the first folio set before everyone filled in every detail and revamped it in Greyhawk Wars, Living Greyhawk and all manner of follow up modules. That's the same sad death of fun that happened to the Forgotten Realms; The original boxed set was a great place to see hundreds of great stories and adventures, but then region module after module, adventure after adventure (some terrible like the one that had a high level wizard running a circus ride...) and then so much of the open, developable, discoverable potential of the original boxed set was buried and burnt. </p><p></p><p>You know, there are probably a lot of us that like sandboxing and would buy setting neutral product but WOTC just has not been putting that out for 5E. They are even weaving in more references to the Greyhawk setting... even though it isn't supported at the moment... <rolls eyes></p><p></p><p>Then people wonder why OSR has so many variations and so many devotees. It isn't the rules that are great (5E has some great rules), but the spirit is more sandboxy and adaptable in many cases than anything WOTC is putting out. </p><p></p><p>My group befriended the sea elf, smashed the shahuagin, and took one of the brothers who worked in custom's and excise as an NPC member of the party after U3 (the other died in the fighting). This series of three adventures brought the party from about L2 to L5. It had some great tales attached. The older module was pretty setting agnostic. Hopefully the new one isn't too hard to knock the branding off of.....</p><p></p><p>There's a reason B2, U1-3, N1, and T1 were such huge successes historically. They gave good starting locales and they some viable and interesting threats and setting adaptability was pretty easy in most cases. </p><p></p><p>Most of what they've done in 5E (Tiamat, SKT, others) seems much less easy to make setting agnostic and adapt into existing campaigns.</p><p></p><p>Now, I'm going to go shoo a bunch of Tieflings off my lawn.... where did those come from? I remember when.... blah blah old grognard blah blah....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tom B1, post: 7779530, member: 6879023"] [b]And then there's those of us that love setting-neutral sandboxes....[/b] I get that some people hate sandboxes. I and one of the groups I game with pretty much despise railroads, three-act-structure, and the lack of agency that carefully laid out encounters and pre-ordained plots and finales cause. Maybe it's because I grew up when the original PHB and DMG were just released. You wanted setting, you created it. You wanted adventures, you took some fairly generic ones (B2, B1, N1, etc) and you dropped it into your game because few were so entirely specific as to require much filing off. I'm disappointed they didn't go the way they said they were going to (setting neutral). That lack of setting neutrality and the absence of much in the way of sandboxing in most of the hardcover adventure paths for 5E have resulted in me not buying them. I was hoping this one was different. And Greyhawk... that was excellent in the first folio set before everyone filled in every detail and revamped it in Greyhawk Wars, Living Greyhawk and all manner of follow up modules. That's the same sad death of fun that happened to the Forgotten Realms; The original boxed set was a great place to see hundreds of great stories and adventures, but then region module after module, adventure after adventure (some terrible like the one that had a high level wizard running a circus ride...) and then so much of the open, developable, discoverable potential of the original boxed set was buried and burnt. You know, there are probably a lot of us that like sandboxing and would buy setting neutral product but WOTC just has not been putting that out for 5E. They are even weaving in more references to the Greyhawk setting... even though it isn't supported at the moment... <rolls eyes> Then people wonder why OSR has so many variations and so many devotees. It isn't the rules that are great (5E has some great rules), but the spirit is more sandboxy and adaptable in many cases than anything WOTC is putting out. My group befriended the sea elf, smashed the shahuagin, and took one of the brothers who worked in custom's and excise as an NPC member of the party after U3 (the other died in the fighting). This series of three adventures brought the party from about L2 to L5. It had some great tales attached. The older module was pretty setting agnostic. Hopefully the new one isn't too hard to knock the branding off of..... There's a reason B2, U1-3, N1, and T1 were such huge successes historically. They gave good starting locales and they some viable and interesting threats and setting adaptability was pretty easy in most cases. Most of what they've done in 5E (Tiamat, SKT, others) seems much less easy to make setting agnostic and adapt into existing campaigns. Now, I'm going to go shoo a bunch of Tieflings off my lawn.... where did those come from? I remember when.... blah blah old grognard blah blah.... [/QUOTE]
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