Disappointed in Dungeon, at least for adventures.

[hailstop]

I was going through a bunch of 15 year old Dungeon magazines and I realized how much the current version pales, at least as far as variety of adventures go.

Yes, we have some more content, but it's stuff that was originally in Dragon. Chaos Scar looks good, but so far they've only had a ton of 1st level adventures (and one 2nd).

We only get one non-adventure path adventure every month. That's disappointing.

15 Years ago, each issue (although it was bi-montly) had around 4-5 adventures in it...over the year that'd be 24-30 adventures!

I can't wait for the end of Scales of War...

 

[Stoat]

I agree that 4E Dungeon is subpar. The AP is lackluster. The Chaos Scar shows promise but hasn't developed yet. Non-AP adventures are generally wretched. In particular, I've noticed a number maps in Dungeon that are based around WotC's Dungeon tiles. In theory, a good idea, in practice it leads to boring, ugly maps.

That said, re: 4-5 adventures per mag 15 years ago -- wasn't Dungeon every other month then?

 

[hailstop]

Yeah, as I said in the OP it was bi-monthly...but many of those adventures were excellent.

 

[Markn]

Yeah, I can't say I'm overly fond of Dungeon either. I used to prefer Dungeon to Dragon, now its reverse. They've done a good job on the player side of things. The DM side, not so much.

 

[ExploderWizard]

You just don't see much cool, off-the -wall type stuff anymore like The Jingling Mordo Circus from issue #7. Good times.

 

[malraux]

In particular, I've noticed a number maps in Dungeon that are based around WotC's Dungeon tiles. In theory, a good idea, in practice it leads to boring, ugly maps.

I'm mixed on this. Cool looking maps are cool looking, but really on the DM sees that. In the group I play in that's going through the SoW AP, one of the big problems we've had is large numbers of maps that have incredible details and complicated art, yet is impossible to put down on paper/battlemat.

 

[Stoat]

I'm mixed on this. Cool looking maps are cool looking, but really on the DM sees that. In the group I play in that's going through the SoW AP, one of the big problems we've had is large numbers of maps that have incredible details and complicated art, yet is impossible to put down on paper/battlemat.

I'm somewhat of an anomaly because I play almost exclusively online. I can take a pretty map off the net and use it directly in my game.

When I posted, I was thinking specifically about a Dungeon adventure from a few months ago that featured a bunch of Neogi. Every map was built of WotC dungeontiles. Problem was, it was trying to depict areas that the tiles couldn't quite represent. I don't recall details, but I do recall the maps were ugly and weird looking.

 

[Truename]

I've been running the SoW adventure path through the heroic tier, with the climax coming on Saturday. I really wanted to like it, but instead what I've discovered is a series of generally well put-together set-piece battles. No NPCs to speak of, no consequences to player actions, no real moral choices or alternate pathways. The climax of the heroic tier

Spoiler

uses a victory point system, but the results of failure are nothing more than "you get less money." In the next adventure, everything resets

.

So we're starting over at level 1 with War of the Burning Sky. I've been doing prep for it and counted 18 significant NPCs to roleplay in the first adventure. That's more than the entire heroic tier of Scales of War.

We're going to keep the Scales of War campaign going as a series of one-offs for when we want some mindless kick-in-the-door action. It does have some fantastic set-pieces. But if you want more than combat, it falls far short. (Excepting Piratecat's excellent Paragon adventure, which doesn't make up for the rest.)

In particular, I've noticed a number maps in Dungeon that are based around WotC's Dungeon tiles. In theory, a good idea, in practice it leads to boring, ugly maps.

Hear, hear.

 

[Markn]

I'm mixed on this. Cool looking maps are cool looking, but really on the DM sees that. In the group I play in that's going through the SoW AP, one of the big problems we've had is large numbers of maps that have incredible details and complicated art, yet is impossible to put down on paper/battlemat.

Absolutely true. 4e maps are nice to look at, but a pain to draw. I think the next big innovation from Wotc needs to be large scale map prinouts that people can use so the players get to see what the DM sees!

 

[Scribble]

What dungeon needs in my opinion is a better organizational system. I mean if I want an adventure for say a 5th level group I can... I guess open all of them and see which link is a 5th level adventure?

They seriously need to let you organize by level.