Design & Development: Quests

[Fifth Element]

Ergo, I'm not the target audience.

You think that's a brilliant idea? By all means, rejoice, be happy! More power to you!

If I were to go through the 1E, 2E, 3E or 3.5 DMGs, I would find many, many pieces of advice that I choose to ignore, since I prefer to do something different. This does not mean I am not among the target audience for the books.

Saying you're not the "target audience" implies something far more than your interest in certain specific bits of advice.

 

[Pale]

Please note, again, that this is a suggestion

Yes, and as a suggestion, I think it's a bunch of poo.

Also, did you really just say "back in my day"? Was that facetious?

Yes indeed, I was. Morris needs to give us a facetious smiley.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Not what I meant. I don't think the advice is relevant to me because I take notes during the game and ask players to do the same. I've been doing it for years, don't have issues about that kind of thing, and therefore do not consider modifying my way of DMing to include quest cards and such.

Ergo, I'm not the target audience.

You are missing the point. It is NOT a design and development article about quest cards. It is a design and development article about quests. Systemised story awards.

Whether you take notes during a game or not has no bearing on the whole basis of quests as described in the design and development article.

For some reason many people in this thread seem to be fixing their attention on the *suggestion* which will be made in the DMG for how to help players get their heads around... quests for story awards (note - not just xp awards but other stuff too - titles, grants etc). The *meat* of the article is about the quests themselves.

Cheers

 

[cthulhudarren]

Seems like another way to railroad the characters to me. I mean, if you give out a card for it the players know you REALLY want them to go this way.

 

[Pale]

Nice thing to do if you've got the time to spend on that. But there's still no guarantee they haven't missed your main plot points, despite the notes, though.

Well, you've got your own adventure notes for that, don't you? And how much time does it take to go over 2 to 5 pages of notes?

 

[Rechan]

I wish the 3E DMGs didn't have CR lists with XPs. Back in my day, a DM just knew how to run monsters and didn't need this "Encounter Level" system. He just eyeballed it and then slapped an XP award that he FELT was good enough.

And what's this "Characters making magical items" thing? Magical items just WERE. There was no creation. That is far too videogamey.

Clearly I am not the target audience for 3e.

 

[Odhanan]

You are missing the point. It is NOT a design and development article about quest cards. It is a design and development article about quests. Systemised story awards.

I think you are missing my point, Plane Sailing, that since this is a Design and Development article, its contents and how they are presented actually say something about the target audience of Fourth Edition, and that I do not recognize myself as the target audience here.

Both points can be valid. One does not refute the other.

 

[Scribble]

:-/ i prefer the good old way. players (characters) should make notes. if i want to have cards in a game, i would play a boardgame. i think, this is another aspect of the "new" game straying from RPGs in general. although the idea of using cards (in one way or another) is not a new one (dragonlance saga anyone), do you remmeber any of the more prominent RPG lines using cards? i think it is only another distraction from the game and minis and battlemaps are distracting enough with their potential of ruining a flavorful roleplaying expereince because players tend to focus on game pieces and oftentimes do not hear the (more important) descriptions...

And perhaps WotC makes the cards collectible? what then?

Huh?

I don't think they're talking about actual pre-made cards... nowhere in the article does it indicate that... I have a feeling they're talking about a notecard... Like the kind you make flash cards out of... You could just as easily use scraps of paper, or actual physical representations of the item (an old key you had around the house) with a note attached... or even a dead fish with the note written on the side if you want...

 

[Tquirky]

Well, you've got your own adventure notes for that, don't you? And how much time does it take to go over 2 to 5 pages of notes?

The players don't have the DM's notes. And it's very, very possible for them to miss things, or not make the connections that seem so obvious at the DM's end of the table. Especially when there's a week between sessions, or when the players just plain aren't as interested in your world, NPCs and plots as you are (shock! horror!).

What are you going to do, say "stop play, you've missed something important, refer to your notes for 5 minutes and get back to me"? And then play a game of "warmer, colder" while they guess what the important bits are? Er, no, I'll take the cards over that thanks.

 

[Rechan]

I wish players would bother taking notes. And I game online! They could just cut and paste my posts verbatim! But no.