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Legends and Lore 6/23: System vs. Content in D&D Next
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6149115" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>I'm surprised they're not taking a more concentrated approach to adventure design. It's <em>superb</em> to have a game system that is flexible and adroit, but adventures need not be. You can have some adventures that are a constant cinematic drive forward, and some adventures that are a more cautious strategic crawl. Adventures can come with their own modules or their own rules for how they should be used. Some adventures are high on intrigue, some adventures are high on mystery...adventures have different needs and different styles. Some adventures may benefit from a relationship map, others from a chase module, others from more cinematic HP rules. </p><p></p><p>The only baselie you need to assume is "basic, plus whatever you need specifically for this adventure." Slot in some conversion notes in the intro, and then relax. </p><p></p><p>Or, to put it another way, an adventure like <em>The Tomb of Horrors</em> is a classic meat grinder dungeon crawl. It doesn't need to be made into a different kind of adventure -- it just needs to embrace the kind of adventure that it is, and telegraph that: your characters will go into here, and probably die, so here's some rules to help that feel, and here's some notes about what removing those rules will entail. </p><p></p><p>An adventure like <em>Zietgiest</em> would not make a great dungeon crawl, though. Rather, you include things like relationship maps and detailed rules for uncovering mysteries, and use <em>those</em>. </p><p></p><p>Each adventure becomes something of a module package (which, as a bang-on effect, increases the potential customer base for them, and allows for substantial iteration on popular modules). Then the challenge just becomes to publish a diversity of adventure types, and to keep less-popular styles in the mix, like how console videogames have big AAA titles, and also have a thriving indie arcade (HINT: an OGL-friendly marketplace that WotC owns that allows for some self-publication without signing rights over would be boffo!). That keeps you hitting the high notes that the mass market loves the best, while being able to juggle some more interesting, more divisive material in there. </p><p></p><p>The system can be big. Adventures, I think, benefit from being narrower. Don't publish one big bland adventure that's all "Do what you want!" Publish two or three smaller, more focused adventures, and tell me specifically what you've got in mind for this little event.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6149115, member: 2067"] I'm surprised they're not taking a more concentrated approach to adventure design. It's [I]superb[/I] to have a game system that is flexible and adroit, but adventures need not be. You can have some adventures that are a constant cinematic drive forward, and some adventures that are a more cautious strategic crawl. Adventures can come with their own modules or their own rules for how they should be used. Some adventures are high on intrigue, some adventures are high on mystery...adventures have different needs and different styles. Some adventures may benefit from a relationship map, others from a chase module, others from more cinematic HP rules. The only baselie you need to assume is "basic, plus whatever you need specifically for this adventure." Slot in some conversion notes in the intro, and then relax. Or, to put it another way, an adventure like [I]The Tomb of Horrors[/I] is a classic meat grinder dungeon crawl. It doesn't need to be made into a different kind of adventure -- it just needs to embrace the kind of adventure that it is, and telegraph that: your characters will go into here, and probably die, so here's some rules to help that feel, and here's some notes about what removing those rules will entail. An adventure like [I]Zietgiest[/I] would not make a great dungeon crawl, though. Rather, you include things like relationship maps and detailed rules for uncovering mysteries, and use [I]those[/I]. Each adventure becomes something of a module package (which, as a bang-on effect, increases the potential customer base for them, and allows for substantial iteration on popular modules). Then the challenge just becomes to publish a diversity of adventure types, and to keep less-popular styles in the mix, like how console videogames have big AAA titles, and also have a thriving indie arcade (HINT: an OGL-friendly marketplace that WotC owns that allows for some self-publication without signing rights over would be boffo!). That keeps you hitting the high notes that the mass market loves the best, while being able to juggle some more interesting, more divisive material in there. The system can be big. Adventures, I think, benefit from being narrower. Don't publish one big bland adventure that's all "Do what you want!" Publish two or three smaller, more focused adventures, and tell me specifically what you've got in mind for this little event. [/QUOTE]
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