Ease of Adventure Creation

[Savage Wombat]

I wanted to ask a question but didn't want it to just boil down to a 4E edition flame war.

People claim that it's easier to design encounters for 4th ed because you don't have to spend all that time calculating monsters. I'd reply that I can do that too, if I just use monsters directly from the book.

So: when you (yes, you) say that you want 5e/DDN to be easier to design adventures for, what do you actually want to see?

 

[Halivar]

People claim that it's easier to design encounters for 4th ed because you don't have to spend all that time calculating monsters. I'd reply that I can do that too, if I just use monsters directly from the book.

What I want is the ability to take a monster I like, and scale it to the appropriate level in a matter of moments. This is trivial in 4E, sometimes time-consuming in 3E, and indeterminately difficult (because I haven't even tried bothering) in previous editions.

I want 5E to continue this trend.

 

[boredgremlin]

I liked how 3e did it. Sure it could kind of be a hassle if you wanted to make it one. But it could also be pretty easy to add NPC levels to critters if you kept it simple.

 

[kitsune9]

I like Pathfinder's approach to encounter design, but I saw some benefit when I looked at 4e's approach to it. Either system works for me.

 

[Astrosicebear]

The main issue with 3E design was that everyone tried to follow the same rules. You want to advance a rat? Well advance it this much, increase hit dice, calculate out the BAB, add abilities based on hit die, etc. Sure you could 'fudge' it and give the rat say 50 hit points and guess at the BAB, but then you might slaughter your players, or they will complain it wasnt fair. And good luck trying to make a 3E 12th lvl caster NPC in under a half hour (without pcgens or such). Gear alone could take hours.

4E said to hell with things being fair, and made them easy. The online char builder let you create NPC's of any level with ease. Monster design was simplistic and it made building encounters not focus so much on the monster design, but the encounter design itself (terrain, traps etc).

I'd like to see 5E follow the 4th trends, and it seems to be doing well. If a 2e module can be adapted on the fly, then I have good hopes. NPC's can be as easy or complex as the DM would like, and it seems that they can be created on the fly with ease with the core rules that we've guessed at. If you want a 5E NPC, it might even be as simple as pick thier stats, and you then have everything you need.

 

[Sunseeker]

So: when you (yes, you) say that you want 5e/DDN to be easier to design adventures for, what do you actually want to see?

I want to see software. I want essentially, a robust and developed tool like the DDI Monster Builder so that I can adjust, weaken, improve or scratch-build monsters. It's a great way to fine-tune even a pack of bandits that might have been too weak for your party, or too strong on their first encounter.

As for adventures...well, I'm not really sure there's anything they can do for that. I make my own worlds and I don't really use pre-made maps or tiles to create my dungeons.

 

[Savage Wombat]

The main issue with 3E design was that everyone tried to follow the same rules. You want to advance a rat? Well advance it this much, increase hit dice, calculate out the BAB, add abilities based on hit die, etc. Sure you could 'fudge' it and give the rat say 50 hit points and guess at the BAB, but then you might slaughter your players, or they will complain it wasnt fair. And good luck trying to make a 3E 12th lvl caster NPC in under a half hour (without pcgens or such). Gear alone could take hours.

4E said to hell with things being fair, and made them easy.

My concern with that way of thinking is whether it makes them too easy. Advancing a rat by increasing its HP and attack is just as easy in any edition, once you look at the math. But I look at a monster like a lich in 4E, and I don't see the versatility of the lich in earlier editions.

I don't want the monsters to be simple to run because the more complex option doesn't exist. I'd like to see, frex, a list of higher level powers and abilities balanced for level-appropriateness, that can be easily added to a monster to adjust it.

 

[the Jester]

I want the focus to be on adventure design, not encounter design.

I want the 4e ease of monster design with a module available for 3e style toolbox monster making as well.

I want monsters that are a threat at low levels to still be useful in an adventure at higher levels.

I want good support for groups with different playstyles; where some groups hate empty rooms, others prefer about 75% of rooms in a dungeon be unoccupied. Where some like the 6-room dungeon model, others prefer Gygaxian megadungeons. Both should be supported. Sandbox and story-driven should both be supported. Skip the gate guards and roleplay every encounter should both the supported.

I want pcs to be able to choose their danger level, with commensurate rewards.

 

[Blackwarder]

I would like just to be able to open the MM and pluck the monster to my game with minor adjustments done on the fly, I don't want a system that entourage me to build a balanced encounter, one that will cause my players to expect to survive every encounter I want a system that will allow me to populate the game world as I see fit with ease and won't require me spend ages to make or adjust higher level threats...

In essence I want the feel and versatility of 2e MM with the ease of use of 4e.

Warder

 

[Spatula]

I wanted to ask a question but didn't want it to just boil down to a 4E edition flame war.

People claim that it's easier to design encounters for 4th ed because you don't have to spend all that time calculating monsters. I'd reply that I can do that too, if I just use monsters directly from the book.

That's not an acceptable solution for me, personally.

So: when you (yes, you) say that you want 5e/DDN to be easier to design adventures for, what do you actually want to see?

An app like Masterplan would be a good start.

What I want is to not spend all of my time prepping for combat encounters, whether that's because monster statblocks are unwieldy, or monsters/NPCs are time-consuming to customize, or I have to prepare multiple statblocks (buffed or unbuffed), or I have to rewrite the statblocks to incorporate all the information I need (spell effects, durations, damage, DCs, etc.), or any and all of the above.

I want to focus on the design, the personalities, the plot, and not on the numbers or how to properly build an NPC just so that it can fulfill the needs of the design. But I also want the numbers to mostly work.

I want to be able to pull encounters out of my butt during the game. This requires monster statblocks that will comfortably fit onto an index card or two, and no need to look up external references (like spell descriptions) to know what the monster can do.