Design & Development: Quests

[Baby Samurai]

Dude, it's just a suggestion in the DMG. THere's no rule that says "Make Quest Cards or you suck".

But the WotC ninjas will repel from your ceiling and force you to use quest cards if you are not already doing so.

 

[Maggan]

so if it's not covered in the rules it doesn't even cross our minds.

That is one way of playing the game. One other, which I find prevalent among new players I DM for, is the paralysis of not knowing what a PC can do.

"But, you can do anything you want!" I hear you say.

Yes, in theory that is true. But not every gamer embraces that freedom of action, or feel comfortable with it. They want to have five, ten or twenty options to look at, to get inspired by, to get ideas from.

Instead of being paralysed by the enormity of "do whatever you think is a good idea", they feel comfort in knowing what the scope of actions normally are. They will stick with the most common actions for a while, and then when they feel confidence will start making up actions of their own.

Notes/cards/reminders of what quests they are on and what they have learned while questing, will help them weigh up their options. Just having them always be totally free to do whatever they feel can be intimidating, for some players.

/M

 

[vagabundo]

That is one way of playing the game. One other, which I find prevalent among new players I DM for, is the paralysis of not knowing what a PC can do.

"But, you can do anything you want!" I hear you say.

Yes, in theory that is true. But not every gamer embraces that freedom of action, or feel comfortable with it. They want to have five, ten or twenty options to look at, to get inspired by, to get ideas from.

Instead of being paralysed by the enormity of "do whatever you think is a good idea", they feel comfort in knowing what the scope of actions normally are. They will stick with the most common actions for a while, and then when they feel confidence will start making up actions of their own.

Notes/cards/reminders of what quests they are on and what they have learned while questing, will help them weigh up their options. Just having them always be totally free to do whatever they feel can be intimidating, for some players.

/M

Or, as in my case, sometimes they will choose totally ineffective and obscure actions that should have little effect on the encounter and will bog it down.

Maybe I have very poor, tactically thinking, Players...

 

[ThirdWizard]

"But, you can do anything you want!" I hear you say.

Yes, in theory that is true. But not every gamer embraces that freedom of action, or feel comfortable with it. They want to have five, ten or twenty options to look at, to get inspired by, to get ideas from.

I shall never forget the first time I played D&D and the DM said we could do anything. One player, wide eyed and bushy-tailed, and slightly panicking, declared "I shoot the watchman!" And thus we had our first TPK. Good times, good times.

But, on topic, I love the idea of built in quest rewards. Very smooth.

 

[Baby Samurai]

This is the first tidbit about 4th Ed that leaves a slightly bad taste in my mouth.

As much as people are going on about the WoW impact on 4th Ed, I myself sometimes get a "Dungeons & Dragons:The Gathering" vibe.

But I'm still excited about 4th Ed, and the second I get my grubby little carnie hands on that PHB, I'm going to shove it straight up my bottom!

 

[Lackhand]

The cards aren't collectible. If premade packs of them were to be sold, many people would buy them, but to say that they kill imagination because they define the boundaries of the game is to admit that imagination was already dead.

They're more a litmus test for imagination than anything else.

 

[Derren]

The cards aren't collectible.

Of course not,it would be impossible to make cards for every adventure seed.

But with the tavern brawl card game which will com out, who knows if we won't see a D&D the CCG in a few years as a spinoff. After all thats where WotC/Hasbro makes the money.

Still, even as this card thing is optional it still shows where the designers want D&D to be heading and I don't know if I like that direction.

 

[Jinete]

That is one way of playing the game. One other, which I find prevalent among new players I DM for, is the paralysis of not knowing what a PC can do.

"But, you can do anything you want!" I hear you say.

Yes, in theory that is true. But not every gamer embraces that freedom of action, or feel comfortable with it. They want to have five, ten or twenty options to look at, to get inspired by, to get ideas from.

I was also a new player once I remember on my first session (lvl 9 ranger) we were attacking a mad baron's stronghold. The enemy archers were shooting, and the other players were saying things like "total defense as a standard action and move 30 feet" which at the time was all greek to me. I suggested we take cover behind the cart we arrived in, and push it towards the entrance to completely avoid the arrows.

Somewhere along the line, as I learned the rules i stopped thinking that way. A bush is no longer a bush, it's half movement+concealment, and this sort of thinking prevents me from using it in any other way (except if I'm playing a druid, then it's also a viable entangle target)

I forgot my point I guess I just miss that time when my D&D experience wasn't so much about number crunching and metagaming as it is now.

 

[glass]

[Sarcasm] No, they aren't MMO influenced [/Sarcasm]

One more time: MMOs are influenced by D&D!


glass.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Looking at my past games, and the fact that I usually had to recap what the characters were there for this time, and what happened to make them get there (or have a player with good notes do it), I don't think giving out advice on how to keep the last game in everybody's memory is a bad idea.

What I do think is a bad idea is "standardizing" the whole thing and putting it on the DM's shoulders on top of everything else. Sure, it might take only 5 minutes to prepare a few Quest Cards for the next adventure...or less than one to write one out in the middle of the game. But I'd really prefer it if it was less of the DM's job to keep his players on track, and more of the players' job. I mean...they come to my table to play, they bring their characters, they can bloody well take some notes about what they put their characters through, and why? And I'm only half-kidding here.

Also, I'd hate to see adventures for 4E come with pre-printed Quest Cards...and somehow, I have this weird impression it would happen, as marketing ploy under the guise of DM support. I realize that a new edition is as much aimed at new players as it is at the old guard, if not more, and that some support will help new DMs into their job better...but I'd view something like preprinted Quest Cards as stifling and limiting in the long run. Give the fellows as much advice as you can print in the DMG. Give examples on how to prepare adventures, what problems might arise at the game table, how to fix them, etc...but don't create tools that will turn into straightjackets after a while. That's all I'm asking for.