Dungeon Editorial: Valley of Chaos?

[Imaro]

Agreed. Not been a fan of the vast majority of WOTC adventures since the late 2E days-whether they were published modules, published in Dungeon mag by WOTC proper or Piazo(print or electronic), etc. There have been a few exceptions, but not many.

That said, this new "B2" style Caves of Chaos approach is more interesting than the APs* as far as I'm concerned- And they should be easily used/transplanted to any DMs game- unlike an AP.



*not a fan of the AP style design, whether it's Paizo or WOTC- I understand they are popular, but if I had my druthers I'd like to see them go the way of the do-do bird.

I guess I could get more behind this thinking if Scales of War wasn't more similar to a bunch of regular Dungeon adventures...with tenuous ties than one of Paizo's AP's but I see nothing hard in transplanting any of the SoW encounters/adventure sites into a DM's campaign. Maybe some examples of the encounters/areas/etc. you feel couldn't easily be snatched out and used would be helpful.

 

[S'mon]

That's great...but again that's almost all we've gotten in the hardback books and many of the modules.

I certainly agree it would be nice to see something that's not based on the combat encounters. More high-drama plots and such.

 

[Imaro]

Just so everyone doesn't think I'm totally negative on the idea...

I would like to see WotC put up specific guidelines to submitting adventures for this. I think with the smaller scope of each installment, this could really be an opportunity for WotC to re-establish the magazine as a place where aspiring new writers can get their start, as opposed to the "in-house & friends" reputation and feel (whether it''s true or not) many fans associate with both Dragon and Dungeon since being taken over by WotC.

 

[alleynbard]

Eh, in all honesty this seems like clever marketing spin for what WotC has done for most of their 4e adventures anyway... a string of encounters with only the barest of narrative to tie them together and give the PC's a reason to go through them. I mean even many to most of their published modules (outside of Dungeon magazine) have been this way and they've already published a book of dungeon delves. If anything I would say this style of "adventure" is over represented in WotC material.

The funny thing is that on their boards many subscribers are complaining about Dungeon containing too many dungeoncrawls. That on top of the criticisms of the Scales of War not being up to par as a proper AP... Has me really wondering if it's a smart move. I mean creating encounters is so easy in 4e, that it's not the hard part anymore...it's creating a captivating narrative that I find myself looking moreso for inspiration. I also find this a strange move to make right before DMG 2 is released as it seems to focus on going beyond the "string of encounters" mentality. All IMHO of course.

I am pretty much in agreement with you here.

What I hope they do is integrate the necessary material for B2, the keep and the overland map, and provide some great guidelines on how to make the area feel more alive. They could also provide some suggestions on sandbox play and how the story develops in such a situation.

I don't know if they will or not. In the end, I am not playing 4e anymore so I am not sure how concerned I am. I just hope they go all out with this revival and make the classic actually mean something as opposed to just gutting it for encounter areas. There is a ton of potential in B2 and it deserves that kind of attention, whether I give two whits about 4e or not.