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Lylandra's War of the Burning Sky continued
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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7250634" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p>Hah, that sounds interesting!</p><p></p><p>Regarding 4e, I generally like 4th edition, but it also has many flaws. I love the tactical combat options. I like the concept of minions, elites and solos. I even like the general extended combat length due to more HP and more to do (especially for martial characters) - on paper it seems perfect for a group like mine which isn't really focused on combat, but likes flavorful and meaningful battles. Sadly, many of the "added content" for the 4e version is, as you said, small story arcs that add masses of combat. And you realize often that the new arcs don't share the same consistency or are as carefully inserted into the causal chains of events in relation to the original material. But I harvested some story and background snippets from the 4e version to create something else <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> </p><p></p><p>That being said, I'd rather cut down some of the non-story relevant combat would I play WotBS 4e. Encounters that only exist to grind enough XP are a waste of time, especially with so long time/combat ratios. Hand out more XP for story or roleplaying or do milestone leveling. </p><p></p><p>Regarding forshadowing: For me, it is somewhere between perfect and "Gimme more!". WotBS has enough open spaces and open ends for GMs who'd like to give the Saga their own touch. For someone like me who's reading every tiny bit of background material she deems relevant, I got enough information and inspiration to fill in some blanks and foreshadow developments which I thought would be interesting for my players. But there were some cases where I felt that a GM with less time to prep than I have would have to make compromises. And new GMs might struggle even more which is why I'd say WotBS is perfect for an experienced GM. </p><p>For example, I enjoyed designing all the Lords and Proxies of Dassen. Or fleshing out General Magdus. But it took me quite a while. Now to play WotBS, you don't need to do either, but I'd find it sad to reduce the possibility of a day full of negotiation to seven die rolls. </p><p></p><p>Plus, it was easier for me because I could read the whole campaign as a whole before letting my players create their PCs. And I took advantage of the many forum threads looming around. That really, really helped me to plan for changes and keep the consistency. It'd be a nightmare to read and play through the adventures one by one because there is so much background information in every adventure. </p><p></p><p>With ZEITGEIST I cannot really 100% compare the two because I GM WotBS and play ZEITGEIST as a player in Tizbiz' campaign. But from what he said (and he has less prep time), he really liked to see pre-scripted options for spotlighting or changing several NPC or the fact that, for example, we wouldn't have had to create a cover identity on our own in adventure 4 because there was a full set of identities to choose from. </p><p>But sometimes I felt the need to act on all that foreshadowing, to take the clues (for example, the visions) and make sense of it and then do something with it to get to know more (i.e. "Deva means deity in elven and in the Arsenal of Dhebisu a deity got transformed into a rakhshasa. Can a Deva - who's carrying some sort of divine essence - be transformed into a rakhshasa by 'exiling him' and are there means to find this out? I'm off to Pardwright library..."). Even if it is not meant to happen yet. But that's just me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7250634, member: 6816692"] Hah, that sounds interesting! Regarding 4e, I generally like 4th edition, but it also has many flaws. I love the tactical combat options. I like the concept of minions, elites and solos. I even like the general extended combat length due to more HP and more to do (especially for martial characters) - on paper it seems perfect for a group like mine which isn't really focused on combat, but likes flavorful and meaningful battles. Sadly, many of the "added content" for the 4e version is, as you said, small story arcs that add masses of combat. And you realize often that the new arcs don't share the same consistency or are as carefully inserted into the causal chains of events in relation to the original material. But I harvested some story and background snippets from the 4e version to create something else :) That being said, I'd rather cut down some of the non-story relevant combat would I play WotBS 4e. Encounters that only exist to grind enough XP are a waste of time, especially with so long time/combat ratios. Hand out more XP for story or roleplaying or do milestone leveling. Regarding forshadowing: For me, it is somewhere between perfect and "Gimme more!". WotBS has enough open spaces and open ends for GMs who'd like to give the Saga their own touch. For someone like me who's reading every tiny bit of background material she deems relevant, I got enough information and inspiration to fill in some blanks and foreshadow developments which I thought would be interesting for my players. But there were some cases where I felt that a GM with less time to prep than I have would have to make compromises. And new GMs might struggle even more which is why I'd say WotBS is perfect for an experienced GM. For example, I enjoyed designing all the Lords and Proxies of Dassen. Or fleshing out General Magdus. But it took me quite a while. Now to play WotBS, you don't need to do either, but I'd find it sad to reduce the possibility of a day full of negotiation to seven die rolls. Plus, it was easier for me because I could read the whole campaign as a whole before letting my players create their PCs. And I took advantage of the many forum threads looming around. That really, really helped me to plan for changes and keep the consistency. It'd be a nightmare to read and play through the adventures one by one because there is so much background information in every adventure. With ZEITGEIST I cannot really 100% compare the two because I GM WotBS and play ZEITGEIST as a player in Tizbiz' campaign. But from what he said (and he has less prep time), he really liked to see pre-scripted options for spotlighting or changing several NPC or the fact that, for example, we wouldn't have had to create a cover identity on our own in adventure 4 because there was a full set of identities to choose from. But sometimes I felt the need to act on all that foreshadowing, to take the clues (for example, the visions) and make sense of it and then do something with it to get to know more (i.e. "Deva means deity in elven and in the Arsenal of Dhebisu a deity got transformed into a rakhshasa. Can a Deva - who's carrying some sort of divine essence - be transformed into a rakhshasa by 'exiling him' and are there means to find this out? I'm off to Pardwright library..."). Even if it is not meant to happen yet. But that's just me. [/QUOTE]
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