Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5514185" data-attributes="member: 22424">The Delve format is a tool. Like all tools, there are good times to use it, and bad times to use it. WotC's biggest mistake with the format, as far as I can tell, is that they decided that this was the way to write an adventure, and so used it for everything.Largely as a result of this, WotC adventures since 2006 have been mostly soulless railroads.The great advantage of the Delve format is convenience - it allows the DM to run the adventure with little (or even no) preparation, it cuts way down on page flipping, and so forth.However, the disadvantages of the Delve format are that everything has to fit on a two page spread, and of course that it takes up a lot more space than the 'traditional' format.As such, I would argue that the ideal use for the Delve format would be for short low-prep adventures, featuring mostly static creatures, and relatively few paths through the adventure. That is, the Delve format is ideally suited for... Delve adventures.For pretty much all other adventure types, the Delve format has proven to be too limiting. Railroading shouldn't be inherent in the format... and yet the evidence strongly suggests otherwise. Static encounters shouldn't be inherent in the format... and yet the evidence strongly suggests otherwise.(And, incidentally, the if one major advantage of the Delve format is that the stat blocks are reprinted on the page, that benefit is negated the moment monsters are revised. When running &quot;Sceptre Tower of Spellgarde&quot;, my DM spent just as much time flipping through the Monster Vault for stats as he would have with any 'traditional' adventure.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="delericho, post: 5514185, member: 22424"] The Delve format is a tool. Like all tools, there are good times to use it, and bad times to use it. WotC's biggest mistake with the format, as far as I can tell, is that they decided that this was [i]the[/i] way to write an adventure, and so used it for everything. Largely as a result of this, WotC adventures since 2006 have been mostly soulless railroads. The great advantage of the Delve format is convenience - it allows the DM to run the adventure with little (or even no) preparation, it cuts way down on page flipping, and so forth. However, the disadvantages of the Delve format are that [i]everything[/i] has to fit on a two page spread, and of course that it takes up a lot more space than the 'traditional' format. As such, I would argue that the ideal use for the Delve format would be for short low-prep adventures, featuring mostly static creatures, and relatively few paths through the adventure. That is, the Delve format is ideally suited for... Delve adventures. For pretty much all other adventure types, the Delve format has proven to be too limiting. Railroading shouldn't be inherent in the format... and yet the evidence strongly suggests otherwise. Static encounters shouldn't be inherent in the format... and yet the evidence strongly suggests otherwise. (And, incidentally, the if one major advantage of the Delve format is that the stat blocks are reprinted on the page, that benefit is negated the moment monsters are revised. When running "Sceptre Tower of Spellgarde", my DM spent just as much time flipping through the Monster Vault for stats as he would have with any 'traditional' adventure.) [/QUOTE]

Verification