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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6206524" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is very interesting.I don't know how much I agree with your hypothesis about design - maybe there were competing design goals. Rob Heinsoo, <a href="http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2008/03/05/dd-xp-interview-sara-girard-rob-heinsoo/" target="_blank">in an interview that came out before release</a>, drew the comparison to indie design. And I think it's almost self-evident in the skill challenge idea. Mearls also as a long familiarity with the indie RPG scene. And given that DMG2 came out not much more than a year after release, they must have had Robin Laws lined up to contribute to it pretty early on. So I can't believe that they had no conception of what they were doing. (And I'm not sure if that's what you're saying.)But what's my counter-hypothesis, then? I'm not sure I've got one! - but maybe it's this:D&D adventure design has a certain historical style. The Delve format developed that in a particular direction. But it's always been about presenting the adventure essentially as a "tourist's guide" to the locations and intended events, with stats for the denizens and perhaps sidebars on encounter advice. But to make 4e work - for the reasons you've given - you have to run adventures in a less traditional way. And that requires writing them in a different way, particular with more direct designer to GM commentary as to the rationale for including certain elements in the adventure, and how the GM might respond to different approaches the players take (these don't belong in sidebars, on this approach - they are the heart of adventure presentation). I think Robin Laws example scenarios in his HeroWars Narrator's Book provide good examples of this; several of the Penumbra adventures, for 3E by Atlas Games, also exhibit this sort of approach to design within the D&D context.But that would be a huge departure for D&D adventure style. So I'm not surprised that WotC didn't go for it. And I agree with you that trad modules and 4e are not a very good mix.</blockquote>

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