D&D 5E So, 5e OGL

[Mark CMG]

Lost Mine may be their single best adventure ever

Of WotC produced adventures, I'd go with Red Hand of Doom but Lost Mine is right up there.

 

[delericho]

Just out of curiosity, how much of the recent "upping" of their game is due to them outsourcing the production of their adventures?

There's very little evidence of it so far: Lost Mine and Gardmore were done in-house, while Princes was contracted out... but Tyranny of Dragons was also contracted out and isn't exactly the best.

(My take on that is that they've upped their game across the board, but that ToD suffered for being written while the Edition-change was going on. That's also true of Lost Mine, of course, but I guess they got lucky on that one. )

 

[tomBitonti]

Of WotC produced adventures, I'd go with Red Hand of Doom but Lost Mine is right up there.

Red Hand of Doom seems hands down a much higher quality than everything else. Anyone have an idea of why it turned out so much better?

Or, am I deceived by the production quality?

Or, do folks consider it to be not quite big enough to be a proper adventure path? I'm interested in what would qualify as an adventure path. The whole Against the Giants line of modules seems to be nearly there, although, it spans level 8-14, and not 1-14 or 1-20 as do other adventure paths. The Night Below boxed set seems to almost qualify. Then there are the smaller adventure series, for example, the trilogy "A Darkness Gathering", "Masters of Eternal Night", and "Dawn of the Overmind".

Thx!

TomB

 

[Mark CMG]

Red Hand of Doom seems hands down a much higher quality than everything else. Anyone have an idea of why it turned out so much better?

I think you hit on it when you mentioned the Giant series. For me, "modules" rather than "adventures," which is to say those products set up as locations or mini-settings rather than a pre-plotted series of scenes, tend to strike me as better overall.

 

[Staffan]

Just out of curiosity, how much of the recent "upping" of their game is due to them outsourcing the production of their adventures? I haven't been following very closely, but I thought that several of their major adventures were written by other companies under contract (e.g. Kobold Press, Gale Force 9, etc.).

Many of Paizo's adventures are written by freelancers too.

 

[Kramodlog]

Red Hand of Doom seems hands down a much higher quality than everything else. Anyone have an idea of why it turned out so much better?

James Jacob worked on it? He is the big AP overlord at Paizo now.

 

[Alzrius]

Many of Paizo's adventures are written by freelancers too.

There's a difference between hiring a freelancer and outsourcing to another company.

Hiring a freelancer is simply having them produce a manuscript, after which point the company takes care of everything else, such as editing, layout, ordering artwork and maps, etc. The impression I was under (and I admit that it's just an impression) was that WotC was contracting other companies - rather than individual freelancers - so that they could have them do a lot more than that; that WotC was basically having those companies handle everything involved with the writing, development, production, etc.

 

[Morrus]

There's a difference between hiring a freelancer and outsourcing to another company.

Hiring a freelancer is simply having them produce a manuscript, after which point the company takes care of everything else, such as editing, layout, ordering artwork and maps, etc. The impression I was under (and I admit that it's just an impression) was that WotC was contracting other companies - rather than individual freelancers - so that they could have them do a lot more than that; that WotC was basically having those companies handle everything involved with the writing, development, production, etc.

The writing's what we're talking about here, though. Unless you're saying that the artwork and layout is better, too?

 

[Alzrius]

The writing's what we're talking about here, though. Unless you're saying that the artwork and layout is better, too?

Is the writing, and nothing else, what everyone here is talking about? Because this thread seems to be discussing "quality" overall, which I presume is an aggregate for everything about the materials in question.

 

[Staffan]

There's a difference between hiring a freelancer and outsourcing to another company.

Hiring a freelancer is simply having them produce a manuscript, after which point the company takes care of everything else, such as editing, layout, ordering artwork and maps, etc. The impression I was under (and I admit that it's just an impression) was that WotC was contracting other companies - rather than individual freelancers - so that they could have them do a lot more than that; that WotC was basically having those companies handle everything involved with the writing, development, production, etc.

Princes of the Apocalypse lists the following under Sasquatch Game Studio:
Lead Designer
Designers
Editors
Interior illustrators
Cartographers
Typesetter

And the following under Wizards of the Coast:
D&D Lead Designers
Story Lead
Managing Editor
Producer
Additional Design
Art Directors
Cover Illustrator
Graphic Designers
Proofreading
Project Management
Production Services
Brand and Marketing
Playtesters

I recognize many of the names on the Sasquatch side as being sub-freelancers - for example, I'm fairly certain that Ed Greenwood is not employed by Sasquatch, and neither is [MENTION=607]Klaus[/MENTION]. I'm also a bit uncertain as to why the Art Director is listed under Wizards and the illustrators under Sasquatch - my impression was that the AD is responsible for deciding what illustrations there should be, and the illustrators are responsible for actually drawing those pieces so in my mind, they should be on the same line of the divide.