Has the wave crested? (Bo9S)

[Odhanan]

As a designer, how do I know how many encounters a particular gaming group will get through in a session?

Oh, right! I see what you mean now! Completely right, indeed!

So, instead of "per session", we can still have "per encounter" and "per scene/segment" instead, right? Designers can manage these time units, after all.

 

[Odhanan]

I don't know, what would've happened with "per-scene" - perhaps it would've been better, but I know that "per-day" was intuitively enough for me to grasp easily, without "metagame-thinking". And for new DMs, that's good, at least IMHO.

Thanks for your points, Tirian. Food for thought! As for the quote text above, well, all I can say is that, again, I've never seen a "storyteller" (God, I loathe the name) complain about "Scenes" and "Scenes duration" in World of Darkness games. I think it's just as intuitive. It just uses a different frame of reference.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Thanks for your points, Tirian. Food for thought! As for the quote text above, well, all I can say is that, again, I've never seen a "storyteller" (God, I loathe the name) complain about "Scenes" and "Scenes duration" in World of Darkness games. I think it's just as intuitive. It just uses a different frame of reference.

You have problems with "storyteller" but not, say, "Dungeon Master"? (Gosh, I feel embarrassed just typing that phrase!)

 

[GlassJaw]

I'd much rather it be varied*--Fighters and Warlocks who are weaker in a single encounter but who can go full-tilt all week, Wizards and... I don't know, maybe Paladins, who can do the "red-lined table saw" thing but take a while to recharge, Bards and Barbarians, who take a long time to recharge but also a long time to use their abilities, and now Martial Adepts and the like who have fast recharge times but still have to actively recharge. And, of course, a whole mess of stuff in splatbooks that smears these up into each other at the player's option.

Well that's essentially what core 3ed is. Fighter can swing his sword all he wants but the wizard has to save his nuke bomb for the BBEG. Recent WotC products, most notably Bo9S, all hint at getting away from this model. It also doesn't fit common MMO gameplay - which I equate to the "do something cool every round/get something cool at every level" gameplay philosophy.

Heck, that should be the tagline for 4ed:

D&D 4th Edition​

Do something cool every round
Get something cool every level​

 

[GlassJaw]

Oh, right! I see what you mean now! Completely right, indeed!

Not sure if this is sarcasm. The smiley face makes me want to say no but I'm not sure...

 

[Psion]

As a designer, how do I know how many encounters a particular gaming group will get through in a session? How do I know if a group plays in 2 or 4 hour blocks?

I think that the assumption is that a session is 4 hours, or a tolerable variation of that.

If a designer is concerned about it, a designer can offer adjustments for exceptionally long or short sessions. I'm not seeing this as a huge design challenge.

It only compounds when the in-game time during a particular session isn't linear. What if the party starts a session with a big battle (equal CR or higher) and then has to travel a week to another area and fight another big battle?

As I allude to earlier, I don't think that in game time is an especially compelling timeframe to base ability times around unless simulationism strongly compels such a timing. For arbitrary metagame constructs like action points/dice, there is no in-game logic for them. They exist purely as a dramatic construct. It makes more sense to me to relate their doling out to the time flow at the table -- where the dramatic highs and lows are happening -- than in-game time flow.

 

[Nifft]

Heck, that should be the tagline for 4ed:

D&D 4th Edition​

Do something cool every round
Get something cool every level​

Hell. Yes.

-- N

PS: "Kill something cool every session."

 

[Odhanan]

You have problems with "storyteller" but not, say, "Dungeon Master"? (Gosh, I feel embarrassed just typing that phrase!)

No. The Dungeon Master literally is the "master" (the one in a position of authority over) of "the dungeon" (the environment where adventures of D&D happen). As a matter of fact, I prefer DM to GM, since the former speaks of authority over the environment, and the latter authority over the whole game (not that it isn't true, but DM is more accurate, IMO).

 

[Odhanan]

Not sure if this is sarcasm. The smiley face makes me want to say no but I'm not sure...

No sarcasm involved.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I think that the assumption is that a session is 4 hours, or a tolerable variation of that.

You could do "per hour," but I think that would be messy.