D&D 5E Are the AP's basically just a repeat of the previous complaints about FR? Why we need more short term adventures.

[Corpsetaker]

Through the years I have heard the same complaint about the Forgotten Realms with regards to the super NPC's everywhere. People complained they felt their characters meant nothing in the FR universe because there were all these super NPC's running around that could do the job instead.

I personally never had this problem but I acknowledge the complaint from others. Now it seems that Wizard's strategy on "story, story story" is basically just a repeat of that but in a different way. Their plan is to tie in all the stories to basically have one continuous story that all fit together. Well doesn't this basically mean that players have no overall control how the stories will turn out? In the scheme of things your characters are not going to change the outcome of how the stories end up because they need them to happen in a specific way in order to tie in things like the video games etc....

This is why I think short term adventures should be available to everyone because the Realms is huge and things that take place in small and obscure places don't really affect the overall Realms as a whole but can affect things in specific regions.

 

[delericho]

In fairness, the events of my campaign have never fed back into the official materials - for FR, for Pathfinder, for Vampire...

But if WotC, were so inclined, there's nothing to stop them adding two questions to an upcoming survey: "have your group completed ToD?", "which of the following best describes the outcome: total success, partial success, partial failure, total failure?" And then they can aggregate up all the results into an overall 'official' story.

 

[KahlessNestor]

As far as I know, no FR "superheroes" make any appearance in the APs. I know this is the case in the Tiamat storyline,and Drizzt is not in Abyss (other than as a mention on a rumor table). Don't think anyone is in Princes (I haven't finished reading through these two). Bruenor makes an appearance in Abyss, though only as a questgiver. Same with Liriel in the Tiamat storyline.

So it is the PCs that are saving the day, not the superheroes.

 

[Corpsetaker]

As far as I know, no FR "superheroes" make any appearance in the APs. I know this is the case in the Tiamat storyline,and Drizzt is not in Abyss (other than as a mention on a rumor table). Don't think anyone is in Princes (I haven't finished reading through these two). Bruenor makes an appearance in Abyss, though only as a questgiver. Same with Liriel in the Tiamat storyline.

So it is the PCs that are saving the day, not the superheroes.

This isn't about superheroes. This is a discussion about their current story strategy having the same kind of effect where as the players have really no control over the overall AP's because they are all tied in together.

 

[spectacle]

Is this thread basically just a repeat of Corpsetaker's previous complaints about WotC's publishing strategy for 5E?

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Read this yet?
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3033-WotC-s-Chris-Perkins-Talks-About-Everything!-Upcoming-Storylines-Products-Staffing-Other-Worlds-More!#.VlxSib_oT9c

Edit: I guess you've read it since you've posted a comment on the article. Why bring it up again then?

 

[Corpsetaker]

In fairness, the events of my campaign have never fed back into the official materials - for FR, for Pathfinder, for Vampire...

But if WotC, were so inclined, there's nothing to stop them adding two questions to an upcoming survey: "have your group completed ToD?", "which of the following best describes the outcome: total success, partial success, partial failure, total failure?" And then they can aggregate up all the results into an overall 'official' story.

Yeah but Wizards whole plan is that everything ties in together across multiple platforms. You can't really change the outcome if you want to play in their "living" stories which is what they are pushing.

 

[Corpsetaker]

Is this thread basically just a repeat of Corpsetaker's previous complaints about WotC's publishing strategy for 5E?

Unless you are going to post something on topic please don't troll the thread.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Any adventure for any setting, of any length, that is crafted as a story rather than a scenario isn't my cup of tea.

A story is what you end up with when an adventure is completed. Why would I buy that when the purpose of play is to find out what happens when the players interact with a scenario? Stories should be saved for novels.

Third party publishers are producing shorter adventures so it doesn't bother me that WOTC isn't doing them.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I wouldn't mind seeing some shorter adventure modules, but their current approach is not a problem in any way. Not unless you've always seen it as a problem.

In future products they'll simply refer to "a noble band of adventurers who rallied the people of the Sword Coast to defeat the Cult of the Dragon". They've always done this.

I think that what they're going for is shared experiences and stories, not some universal living campaign. Like if two people both play Fallout 4...they'll have some shared experiences and can discuss what was the same and what played out differently. But no one expects the game world to reflect someone else's game rather than their own.

The assumption of the APs is that the characters are mostly successful. Then, it's the DM's job to keep track of any significant changes.