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David Noonan on D&D Complexity
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<blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 3121201" data-attributes="member: 5868"><p>Wow, great couple of articles. Makes me really wish I could have participated in that Delve, 'casue it sounds like tremendous fun for all involved.</p><p></p><p>I thikn we're missing something with all of this sky-is-falling-its-too-complex hand wringing: Noonan was creating a high level scenario to run multiple intermediate players through in an hour's time. He intentionally restricted himself to getting key things on a single sheet of paper to enable a very compressed timeline for playing characters and creatures at the absolute pinnacle of the D&D game (Epic levels be damned). We're doing the game a disservice if you draw too many conclusions about the game's complexity from his example -- at 20th level, both the players and DM should have been playing long enough to understand well their abilities, and the level of complexity is less intimidating.</p><p></p><p>I take the following lessons from his articles:</p><p></p><p>- The flexibility in design is a great feature, because I can adapt the game to varying levels of complexity.</p><p>- High levels don't have to be nearly as complex, though you do have to invest some prep time in simplification.</p><p>- We make our own jobs too difficult when we try to be anal about every detail -- focus on the big stuff for a single-encounter villain, and let the little things fall by the wayside.</p><p>- Sometimes, you need to drop tactics, or eliminate options, to make the game more fun. It's about fun, not necessarily best or optimal.</p><p>- Just because there are a lot of options out there, doesn't mean you have to use all of them.</p><p>- High levels don't have to be intimidating, but they should be worked into slowly rather than jumped into, unless you want to invest in more prep time.</p><p>- Dragons are fun at all levels.</p><p></p><p>From my own experience, ending my last DMing with a campaign at about 15th level, I knew as a DM I wasn't running every opponent optimally at those levels, but you know what? I think it was OK -- we still had fun, even if the characters took the monster down a round or two earlier than they should have if the critter was being fought at 100%.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and I disagree with keeping dragons as only the toughest critters on the block. It's great that the current incarnation of the game allows them to be encountered at any level of experience. A dragon fight should always be fun and memorable -- I probably used 5-6 of them in the last campaign, and they were all much appreciated.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Olgar Shiverstone, post: 3121201, member: 5868"] Wow, great couple of articles. Makes me really wish I could have participated in that Delve, 'casue it sounds like tremendous fun for all involved. I thikn we're missing something with all of this sky-is-falling-its-too-complex hand wringing: Noonan was creating a high level scenario to run multiple intermediate players through in an hour's time. He intentionally restricted himself to getting key things on a single sheet of paper to enable a very compressed timeline for playing characters and creatures at the absolute pinnacle of the D&D game (Epic levels be damned). We're doing the game a disservice if you draw too many conclusions about the game's complexity from his example -- at 20th level, both the players and DM should have been playing long enough to understand well their abilities, and the level of complexity is less intimidating. I take the following lessons from his articles: - The flexibility in design is a great feature, because I can adapt the game to varying levels of complexity. - High levels don't have to be nearly as complex, though you do have to invest some prep time in simplification. - We make our own jobs too difficult when we try to be anal about every detail -- focus on the big stuff for a single-encounter villain, and let the little things fall by the wayside. - Sometimes, you need to drop tactics, or eliminate options, to make the game more fun. It's about fun, not necessarily best or optimal. - Just because there are a lot of options out there, doesn't mean you have to use all of them. - High levels don't have to be intimidating, but they should be worked into slowly rather than jumped into, unless you want to invest in more prep time. - Dragons are fun at all levels. From my own experience, ending my last DMing with a campaign at about 15th level, I knew as a DM I wasn't running every opponent optimally at those levels, but you know what? I think it was OK -- we still had fun, even if the characters took the monster down a round or two earlier than they should have if the critter was being fought at 100%. Oh, and I disagree with keeping dragons as only the toughest critters on the block. It's great that the current incarnation of the game allows them to be encountered at any level of experience. A dragon fight should always be fun and memorable -- I probably used 5-6 of them in the last campaign, and they were all much appreciated. [/QUOTE]
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