A new D&D Encounters format...

[Kafen]

One important thing is to avoid information overload. Unless it's relevant to the current session, it should simply not be present. If an NPC the characters met earlier will play a role in the session, then it should be in the DM's notes and possibly the players' recap as well. This does risk spoiling things a little, which is a problem I have with television shows (e.g. at the beginning of the show, during the recap, they show a character's brother who hasn't been relevant in 2 seasons, so you know that the brother is going to show up in this show...), but c'est la vie.

Agreed. It's why I only listed the four basic contact points. You only need a passing reference on most days, but players and GMs need the link if you are going to run sessions with rotating GMs in my own experience with the RPGA and table top.

 

[Asmor]

Agreed. It's why I only listed the four basic contact points. You only need a passing reference on most days, but players and GMs need the link if you are going to run sessions with rotating GMs in my own experience with the RPGA and table top.

What if there were a "Cast glossary," set up as sort of an optional reference? DMs aren't expected to read it, but if they need to know about a particular person they can find the vitals by the person's name pretty quickly.

 

[Kafen]

Yup yup... I print out a sheet and fit around fifty NPCs on one page. It would prevent the mother of a PC from suddenly becoming an arch enemy of the PC. If players want to keep exacting details, the burden is on them.

I might steal some of this stuff for my 4e zombie game that I am plotting.

 

[firesnakearies]

With this idea of the "revolving door" cast, players bringing in new characters at any time, and so forth, do you have any ideas on how to explain that from an in-game perspective? Or a way to set up the premise of the adventure that allows for the group to change every week without having to just sort of handwave and ignore it in-character?

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

Well, I view this as a much more 'gamist' thing

Oh god... I'll be taking a nap.

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

*There should be a combat every session. It needn't be the focus of the session, and if not the focus it shouldn't be a particularly involved combat, but there does need to be one for every session.
*It should be easy for players to come in and out at any point.
*It should be easy for DMs to come in and out at any point.
*It should be easy for a DM to not accidentally spoil future encounters for himself in case he's a player in the next session.
*The encounters should be part of a coherent adventure.
*Each session should move the adventure forward tangibly.

I was dozing off, then reread this.

What does your system do that D&D Encounters doesn't? Are you playing or running D&D Encounters during this current season?

The only thing D&D Encounters doesn't account for right now is rotating DMs. Which can be resolved by a given night's DM checking out and checking in the adventure pack and vowing to not read ahead.

I'm really, really enjoying D&D Encounters and coincidentally don't see how it needs to be "fixed".

 

[Plane Sailing]

Well, the base idea is from 4th edition and my implementation would be in 4th edition, but there's no reason you couldn't use the idea wholecloth with any system. The game system is really irrelevant, the meat of it is just a framework for presenting a traditional adventure in roughly hour-long increments which are meant to be easy for anyone to jump in and out of any role at any time.

OK, I'll leave it here for the moment.

 

[firesnakearies]

Now I'm thinking about running the new Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3E in this format. "Warhammer Encounters". Hmm...

 

[Zinovia]

With this idea of the "revolving door" cast, players bringing in new characters at any time, and so forth, do you have any ideas on how to explain that from an in-game perspective? Or a way to set up the premise of the adventure that allows for the group to change every week without having to just sort of handwave and ignore it in-character?

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[Asmor]

With this idea of the "revolving door" cast, players bringing in new characters at any time, and so forth, do you have any ideas on how to explain that from an in-game perspective? Or a way to set up the premise of the adventure that allows for the group to change every week without having to just sort of handwave and ignore it in-character?

Yes, actually.

"It was always like that." This differs from "ignoring it in-character" in that it's not like these guys just showed up and you're ignoring it; rather, this is the group you accepted the original hook with, and it's the group you've completed every encounter up to that point with. In character, at least.

There really isn't any in-character continuity. Each session begins anew with assumed resolutions for each previous encounter.

You could think of it sort of like a parallel universe kind of deal... an infinite number of universes where every conceivable composition of heroes accept the same quest and go down to do it together.

It's important to remember that this is not a D&D campaign, and issues like player influence over the story and PC continuity should not be assumed. In fact, those ideas actively work against the goal of a pick up game, where the focus is just giving people an easy, no-commitment, low-preparation chance to play the game.