No "wider" Sweet Spot in 4E after all?

[delericho]

I could be wrong, but I think 4e has more adventures out for it written by the parent company than most previous editions by this point.

Not even close. During the 1e/2e era, TSR put out a lot more adventures than WotC did during the 3.x era, or even now. If you include Dungeon in the count, then you should bear in mind that Paizo only held the license for five years out of the twenty or so for which the magazine ran. And, indeed, prior to 3e it wasn't uncommon for the magazine to include five or six adventures per issue. (Of course, it was bimonthly then.)

Again, maybe I'm wrong about that, but it seems like there's a lot out there. And the there's a decent range of levels, especially for so early in the life of the edition.

When you factor in 3rd party adventures, I'd say there's a good amount overall.

I won't disagree with this, though.

 

[D'karr]

Not even close. During the 1e/2e era, TSR put out a lot more adventures than WotC did during the 3.x era, or even now. If you include Dungeon in the count, then you should bear in mind that Paizo only held the license for five years out of the twenty or so for which the magazine ran. And, indeed, prior to 3e it wasn't uncommon for the magazine to include five or six adventures per issue. (Of course, it was bimonthly then.)



I won't disagree with this, though.

You missed the part where he said "by this point."

How many adventures did TSR/WotC publish for 1e, 2e or 3e, within 8 months of those games coming out?

 

[D'karr]

Double post - the site sucks goats.

 

[Negflar2099]

Did you hurt yourself with that stretch?

The number of adventures Wizards releases doesn't have anything to do with a sweet spot in the game at all. The sweet spot just means the place the game where the game is challenging enough without overwhelming the party, where the game is most fun. There's lots of reasons why Wizards might publish most of their adventures in those levels, most of which have already been gone over by other posters in this thread.

I mean c'mon. You have to know that's not what the developers meant when they said they would increase the sweet spot. So I have to wonder why you would post this. Are you trying to trigger a flame war? Are you angry at Wizards and you just want to bash them? Do you dislike 4e and want to convince those of us who like it that we wasted our money? What is the motivation here?

I'm sorry if this is sounding rude but these kind of "I gotcha Wizards" posts are just old. It's time to let it go and move on.

 

[delericho]

You missed the part where he said "by this point."

No, but I did parse the statement differently. I read it as "we've reached a point where 4e has more published adventures than previous editions", rather than "4e has more published adventures than previous editions did at a comparable point in their life cycles."

Obviously, that makes quite a difference.

How many adventures did TSR/WotC publish for 1e, 2e or 3e, within 8 months of those games coming out?

No idea. My gut feeling is that 2nd Edition probably still holds that record, but I don't have any stats to back that.

 

[Mournblade94]

Did you hurt yourself with that stretch?

The number of adventures Wizards releases doesn't have anything to do with a sweet spot in the game at all. The sweet spot just means the place the game where the game is challenging enough without overwhelming the party, where the game is most fun. There's lots of reasons why Wizards might publish most of their adventures in those levels, most of which have already been gone over by other posters in this thread.

I mean c'mon. You have to know that's not what the developers meant when they said they would increase the sweet spot. So I have to wonder why you would post this. Are you trying to trigger a flame war? Are you angry at Wizards and you just want to bash them? Do you dislike 4e and want to convince those of us who like it that we wasted our money? What is the motivation here?

I'm sorry if this is sounding rude but these kind of "I gotcha Wizards" posts are just old. It's time to let it go and move on.

If they're old don't read them. If you don't like 4e criticism threads... don't read them. ENWorld however is a completely appropriate place to voice YAY or NAY opinions on a game system.

If your interested in defending 4e then read away, but if they just annoy you, then leave them be. It is not worth the stress.

 

[El Mahdi]

Awesome. You forgot Treasure of Talon Pass (which is level 2, Free RPG day module on WotC site) and that's not even touching promo material (Into the Shadowhaunt) or RPGA/Living Realms modules.

What level was Into the Shadowhaunt? (I'm assuming 1st, but I wanted to be sure). I forgot all about those. When I clean it up, I'll update it. I don't think I'd include the RPGA stuff though, not everyone has acces to them (including yours truly). But then again, not everyone has access to Dungeon either. Where could I find a list of the RPGA adventure titles and their starting levels (and level span if available)? Maybe I can add them on a seperate chart?

Not to derail, but thanks everyone for the feedback. I didn't think it was a very good chart, I just threw together a rough one to get a visual of where the level distribution was. But, I could make a cleaner version and keep it updated. Where would be a good place to keep it linked for everyone?

One of the problems I had with it is that 4E adventures don't tell you how many levels the group should advance through the course of the adventure. On the chart, the level span is more based on a guess and the length of the title text, then on actual progression. If anyone knows what the level span of the published adventures is supposed to be (or how to figure them out), that would help?

I don't play 4E myself, but I find adventures to be fairly easy to convert from system to system. There are a couple of 4E adventures I'm planning on using in my current campaign. As long as I've got the plot and story down, the stats are easy (I can even just wing them most of the time, my players don't even notice). But, I can see how this chart could help in planning out a 4E campaign.

Anyways, thanks everyone. I'll work on cleaning it up a bit.

 

[Shroomy]

El Mahdi, another group of adventures to think of are all of the mini-adventures in Draconomicon and Open Grave. I believe there are at least 3 for each tier in both books.

 

[Jack99]

What level was Into the Shadowhaunt? (I'm assuming 1st, but I wanted to be sure).

It is.

 

[Mistwell]

Or, is it something else?

We are 6 months in, and those are the levels most people would have reached by now. It has nothing to do with a sweet spot, or laziness, or anything like that in my opinion.