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General Tabletop Discussion
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Are HotDQ Fights Too Deadly?
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<blockquote data-quote="GameOgre" data-source="post: 6515844" data-attributes="member: 57914"><p>It takes a skilled DMing hand to make this adventure workable with a 4 man party of the right levels. It's all well and good to say "This is the bad guy that is there doing stuff so deal with it". But when the adventure railroads the players into those fights it is just BAD DMing.</p><p></p><p>Many of the players of 3.5 and 4E set off on the 5E HOTDQ path with the wrong train of thought(encounters will be at least balanced so they stand a chance). This just isn't the case with a point buy 4 man party. Not unless the DM is skilled enough to both realize the deadly encounters contained in the adventure and works to alter either those encounters or the available actions of the party.</p><p></p><p>This is made worse by the VERY railroad nature of the adventure.</p><p></p><p>Classic D&D or 1E experienced players are on a much better footing here but the railroad suffers for it.</p><p></p><p>For instance my Classic D&D guys listened to my description of the horde and Dragon attacking the town and turned to me and said"Well bugger that! Mark a X on our map where this new ruin is going to be and we skedaddle back the other way".</p><p></p><p>See when players and their characters actually play the game with the real knowledge that encounters don't get made by some fair yardstick...they often don't act in the preset railroad fashion that HOTDQ sets before them.</p><p></p><p>You can't really have your cake and eat it to as far as word design goes.</p><p></p><p>Either you give the players and their characters a safety net (knowledge that no outrageous fights will happen) and set there little feet on the road you want them to take(often verse adversaries that seem unfair but secretly are not too hard) or don't give them that net, let them know that anything goes AND design adventures that allow for a wide range of player/character choices. Also be prepared for times when the party just says fook it and buggers off towards some random direction that they seem to think would be fun.</p><p></p><p>Instead what HOTDQ does is give them a narrow path to follow and punishing them for following it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GameOgre, post: 6515844, member: 57914"] It takes a skilled DMing hand to make this adventure workable with a 4 man party of the right levels. It's all well and good to say "This is the bad guy that is there doing stuff so deal with it". But when the adventure railroads the players into those fights it is just BAD DMing. Many of the players of 3.5 and 4E set off on the 5E HOTDQ path with the wrong train of thought(encounters will be at least balanced so they stand a chance). This just isn't the case with a point buy 4 man party. Not unless the DM is skilled enough to both realize the deadly encounters contained in the adventure and works to alter either those encounters or the available actions of the party. This is made worse by the VERY railroad nature of the adventure. Classic D&D or 1E experienced players are on a much better footing here but the railroad suffers for it. For instance my Classic D&D guys listened to my description of the horde and Dragon attacking the town and turned to me and said"Well bugger that! Mark a X on our map where this new ruin is going to be and we skedaddle back the other way". See when players and their characters actually play the game with the real knowledge that encounters don't get made by some fair yardstick...they often don't act in the preset railroad fashion that HOTDQ sets before them. You can't really have your cake and eat it to as far as word design goes. Either you give the players and their characters a safety net (knowledge that no outrageous fights will happen) and set there little feet on the road you want them to take(often verse adversaries that seem unfair but secretly are not too hard) or don't give them that net, let them know that anything goes AND design adventures that allow for a wide range of player/character choices. Also be prepared for times when the party just says fook it and buggers off towards some random direction that they seem to think would be fun. Instead what HOTDQ does is give them a narrow path to follow and punishing them for following it. [/QUOTE]
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