A problem with Adventure Paths/Campaign Sagas/etc...

[Wik]

This is a little thing that's been bothering me, as I'm looking at the "war of the burning sky" campaign saga thing that E.N. publishing is going nuts about.

Namely, that it's 12 episodes long.

I can understand where this comes from - the Paizo Adventure Paths are 12 episodes long (and designed to cover 20 levels of play) because they don't want to make the arc run for more than a year. Fair enough.

But when you're making a "Campaign Saga" (as E.N. is doing, and I'm sure there are other publishers out there eager to cash in on Paizo's successes), why do you have to make a product 12 episodes long? Why not a round number, like 10? Hell, 20 is even a halfway decent idea - one plot per level!

In short, why are designers fixed on the number 12 when designing paths/sagas/whatever else?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm guessing it's because they also plan on releasing the adventures over the next 12 months. It starts in January so I would guess that one adventure will be coming out each month in 2007.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Nightfall]

Because 13 would just be too darn unlucky!

 

[Endur]

Although I bought the Paizo adventure paths, I personally like a somewhat smaller story length. Red Hand of Doom is perfect for me. Six levels (6-12), not twenty (1-20+).

 

[Nightfall]

Funny I hate Red Hand of Doom. Mostly because I was like "Why the hell would Tiamat trust these guys to be her new champions?!"

Never made any sense for me, no matter how much dragon blood the Hobbys had.

 

[jdrakeh]

Although I bought the Paizo adventure paths, I personally like a somewhat smaller story length. Red Hand of Doom is perfect for me. Six levels (6-12), not twenty (1-20+).

Yep. I'd rather see more focused adventure paths like Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (whci I came very close to pickign up, despite my not owning the D&D core books currently) and Red Hand of Doom (although the plote therein was a bit weak).

This was a large part of why I opted for The World's Largest Dunegon, rather than Shackled City (the WLD can be broken up into non-sequential, non-linked, adventures much easier, thus forming a shorter adventure path).

And, I'll be honest -- this is part of why I've been digging The Burning Wheel so much over the weekend (it has a much tighter focus than D&D where story arcs are concerned).

I really, really, love the idea of a long-lasting, year-spanning, campaign -- but in more than a decade of gaming, I've only ever seen one campaign actually last that long (and it did so specifically because it was very open-ended). I think that, for the vast majority of gamers, short, concise, adventure paths are a better investment.

 

[Nightfall]

JD,

My only problem with WLD dungeon is...the fact it bored the hell out of me. If I wanted a real dungeon romp, Rappan Athuk still sticks with me. Choosing that over SC made more sense in some ways. But I will agree that SC main fault is the fact the path is semi-disjointed in places.

Expeditions might indeed be something I look into...but after reading John Cooper's review (plus I agreed with him, the illustrations for Stradh sucked.) I'm wondering about the others.

*think you saying the plot for RHoD being weak is kind...*

 

[jdrakeh]

My only problem with WLD dungeon is...the fact it bored the hell out of me.

Only the first two areas are horribly boring, but I started a few threads here to determine exactly why other WLD campaigns had fizzled out and then took specific steps to avoid those same pitfalls. Areas A and B in my WLD campaign have been re-vamped significantly to alleviate what I considered to be the priamary source of boredom as relayed by other ENWorld posters (I'd say more, but at least two of my players post here).

I'd go wityh RA, but it's really a more of a meat grinder than what I like to run players through. That said, if I make the switch to Burning Wheel after I wind down the WLD camapign next year, the whole dynamic of play has to change -- trying to run BW characters through any D&D 'gauntlet' would quickly fill a cemetery (BW combat tends to be very, very, lethal compared to D&D combat).

 

[Nightfall]

jd,

I like meat grinders. Especially since RA has some of the best traps. Or at least ones you don't suspect.

My major problem was they tried to condense so much into one module...and it felt so darn forced. But hey if you got around it and/or found a way to work, more power to you.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And, I'll be honest -- this is part of why I've been digging The Burning Wheel so much over the weekend (it has a much tighter focus than D&D where story arcs are concerned).

Isn't D&D, as a game, totally neutral to story arcs?