Comments on Noonan's thoughts on Monsters

[Mercule]

That's great to hear, I guess... My benefits always outweigh my rewards nowadays

Fixed. And I have the warm fuzzy that comes from confidence that at least one person read my entire, overly wordy post.

 

[Wormwood]

However, I consider the need for that degree of preparation for a simple combat encounter to be a design flaw in a game where 4+ combat encounters are expected per session and where player freedom sometimes prevents complete advance preparation from occurring.

Agree x2.

Love playing 3.5, hate running it because there are too many variables for me to make the most of my encounters.

 

[Wormwood]

Fixed. And I have the warm fuzzy that comes from confidence that at least one person read my entire, overly wordy post.

Make that two---and another agreement.

 

[Badkarmaboy]

Wow, that was long--worth the read though Mercule.

-It sounds like the OP runs mostly home games?

How about us lowly DM's who run and write RPGA adventures (LG and the like)?

I can prep a mod plenty, but not knowing anything about the PCs until they show up can throw a wrench in the best laid plans. Also, I'm working with someone else's vision, not my own. I don't have the luxury of tailoring the adventure to the party.

Also, on the authoring front, I don't want to go into the amount of time spent crafting class-leveled NPCs over an APL spread 2-12 adventure. It hurts the brain.

BLUF- I say bring it on. I see an area that could use refinement. If they succeed, I'll be a happy man.

 

[Nellisir]

Running a mixed group of monsters is not hard at all, and should never make one feel that their head is going to explode. Simple monster management is all it takes. I’ve been doing monster management since the early 1980s, and it really hasn’t changed. Jot down important bits of info on a notecard or piece of paper. Highlight special abilities and, if needed, flag the pertinent pages in whatever rulebook is needed. Review your notes before the game begins and quickly scan them just before the encounter. Sometimes, if the creature has some particularly special things to do, I will make a note of what their first few rounds of actions will likely be. Keep encounters orderly should be a piece of cake.

This, to me, sounds the same as someone arguing that crankstarting a car is perfectly simple, and no one should really need keys (and by crankstarting, I do mean turning the crank at the front of the car, then running around and jumping in before it leaves you in the dust).

It's great that after 25 years you have it down pat, but some of us would be happy if WotC did a bit of that work for us.

 

[Hussar]

I dunno about anyone else, but, an encounter with say, 2 babau, 3 vrocks and a glabrezu is enough to make my head explode. It takes a huge amount of prep to make that encounter work, and, after it's done, I'm still aways banging my head because I forgot this or that ability.

Sure, at levels 1-7, it's not a problem to run mixed groups, because, let's face it, the only difference between an orc and an ogre is hit points. At high level when you have all sorts of special abilities and whatnot, it can be a right royal PITA.

 

[zoroaster100]

I strongly disagree with the OP's post. I think Noonan has pointed out very important flaws in the current game that could definitely use improvement. The fact that a great DM can over come these flaws with his awesome DM skills through great preparation does not mean the flaws should not be addressed so that the game can be fun for DM's with lesser skills or DM's with less time for such preparation.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I usually do all the prep that the OP listed. I'm pretty good at doing it efficiently, when I set my mind to it. I retain such information easily, making review a snap.

I'd still rather not do it, as it is the least fun part of running 3E, to me.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I'm not a layabout teenager anymore. I'm a busy adult. I don't have time to waste on prep work that could be streamlined for me. I'm already confined to running published adventures. It would be great if the system were designed so that I could spend some of my time worldbuilding rather than other bookkeeping tasks.

 

[sjmiller]

You know, after sleeping on it for a night I have decided that I really don't care how Mr. Noonan, et al., are going to change things in fourth edition. I don't feel like I need to, want to, or can afford to change editions. What minor things were wrong with the current edition are not enough to make me want a new edition. The things that have been shown as "cool and exciting" about the new edition strike me as "cold and uninteresting." So, I have decided that I just don't care about it. I am going to stop posting in the 4.0 forums. You folks are more than welcome to continue commenting here, but I think I will go back to the main forums for now.

Thank you.