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<blockquote data-quote="Thorin Stoutfoot" data-source="post: 2632093" data-attributes="member: 1887">Charles, I don't think that's true. For an adventure to work well, you need a really solid grasp of the rules --- better than the typical 3rd party game designer. (Note that most of those can't explain the difference between CR and EL and why the difference is important) Here's an example: templated monsters and monsters with classes tend to only come up in adventures written by WOTC or former WOTC employees --- I don't see a lot of those in adventures written by non-designers, even non-designers who submit to Dungeon, who have the benefit of editorial oversight from the editors of that magazine. I suspect many 3rd party authors have no clue what those do.Contrast that with designing prestige classes, feats, or spells. Anyone can do it, especially if they have no concern with play-testing or the final quality of the result. Unless the reader is particularly familiar with D&amp;D, it's not obvious immediately if something is broken, overpowered, or underpowered. An adventure with broken pieces, by contrast, is immediately obvious.So, if you were a mediocre designer looking to publish something, which would you pick? Not the adventure --- your failures there will be immediately obvious. Better to publish a splat book.Looking at my shelf, I realize that the only splat books I have (and are using) are the WoTC books. I got burned by a few earlier products (not the ones published by Malhavoc press), and decided that I'd rather have something safe.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thorin Stoutfoot, post: 2632093, member: 1887"] Charles, I don't think that's true. For an adventure to work well, you need a really solid grasp of the rules --- better than the typical 3rd party game designer. (Note that most of those can't explain the difference between CR and EL and why the difference is important) Here's an example: templated monsters and monsters with classes tend to only come up in adventures written by WOTC or former WOTC employees --- I don't see a lot of those in adventures written by non-designers, even non-designers who submit to Dungeon, who have the benefit of editorial oversight from the editors of that magazine. I suspect many 3rd party authors have no clue what those do. Contrast that with designing prestige classes, feats, or spells. Anyone can do it, especially if they have no concern with play-testing or the final quality of the result. Unless the reader is particularly familiar with D&D, it's not obvious immediately if something is broken, overpowered, or underpowered. An adventure with broken pieces, by contrast, is immediately obvious. So, if you were a mediocre designer looking to publish something, which would you pick? Not the adventure --- your failures there will be immediately obvious. Better to publish a splat book. Looking at my shelf, I realize that the only splat books I have (and are using) are the WoTC books. I got burned by a few earlier products (not the ones published by Malhavoc press), and decided that I'd rather have something safe. [/QUOTE]

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