How so? It's saying that by 3rd level they'll have gained enough fame that they'll start hearing some of these rumours, not that they'll be ready to immediately head out then. It's advising DMs to start sprinkling them in around 3rd level so that they'll start organically transitioning into these quests instead of them suddenly showing up once they hit the level requirement, CRPG style.
The earlier part of the book tells you to start using Chapter 2 at forth level, but Chapter 2 says to start using it at 3rd level. I'm not sure which is more correct (allowing for the slop in level appropriate encounters), but that's not a trivial issue. It's easy to confuse or be confused. Again, I don't think it's a major issue, but your explanation doesn't really touch on the reason the criticism exists because you're looking at it in isolation and ignoring the other part.
I'm in full agreement with you there.
That isn't the case. At the start of the Character Advancement section in chapter 2 it clearly states that the chapter is for characters of 4th level or higher.
Exactly. There is no ambiguity here, or inconsistent design. There are two places where it clearly says that Chpt 2 is for 4th level (the flowchart in the beginning, and the character advancement section at the start of chpt 2). The reference to 3rd level is solely around when the PCs hear rumors. That doesn't mean the PCs are 3rd level when chpt 2 starts any more than any other adventure hook rumor in every other adventure means the PCs are meant to face said rumor as soon as they hear it. E.g., level 1 PCs hearing about the caves of chaos rumors doesn't mean every cave is to be explored by level 1 PCs, or that Tiamat in HotDQ is meant to be encountered by low level PCs when they first hear those rumors.
Um, does it say that they should be discouraged from following up on these rumors until they reach 4th level? I mean, maybe I have weird players, but they tend to follow up pretty quickly on rumors that interest them, which, given this reading, would put me in a situation to decide to alter the encounters to be appropriate, fast track the milestone leveling, or invent stalls to prevent pursuing the rumors, all of which distort play. I suppose it's possible that the normal group of players do not attempt to follow up on rumors for a bit, but I find that unlikely. Which then means that the reading you're both advocating can often lead to distorting play experiences. I'd rather assume it was an unintended type than intentional design.
At that point they should still be knee-deep in active Ten Towns quests. Do your players consistently drop what they're doing in order to immediately pursue something new and further afield?
Looking at the structure of the quests, there's really not much difference between the Chapter 1 quests and the Chapter 2 quests outside of level expectations, so I'm not sure how players that just completed a quest to gain level 3 are meant to tell that these quests should wait until they've done a few more Chap 1 quests, especially if they go to a new town and receive the new quest there AND a rumor. If you're meant to be level 4 prior to attempting the quest, this needs to be part of the adventure. None of the rumors are just foreshadowing -- they're actual quest tags that have enough information to follow up on and enter the quest. Again, if this is intentional design, it's poor design, and I'm a huge fan of foreshadowing.
