Thank Goodness: Moving away from the Delve format

[Obryn]

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (D&D Adventure Format)

It's outside the paywall, thank goodness!

For what it's worth, I agree 100% with the thesis: While the 2-page tactical setup is convenient, it sucks the life out of adventures.

-O

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Yeah, the delve format has its place, but it should not be required. I don't think you'll see too many people crying over this one.

 

[the Jester]

Thank god.

 

[Lancelot]

That gets a hearty "Huzzah!" from me. I've disliked the Delve format ever since it's 3e introduction, and was disappointed to see 4e continue with it (especially given the generally reduced size of 4e monster statblocks - I thought it would have been an ideal time to return to inline encounter descriptions).

The room-specific combat maps have never added much value for me. We survived without them in 1e and 2e just fine. The main dungeon map shows the size of the area; the room description tells me there are 4 orcs inside. I don't need a half-page map to show me where those orcs are located. I'd rather have the flexibility as the DM to place them where I want. I also don't need a quarter page of text telling me the table is difficult terrain, or that it's a DC 13 check to swing on the chandelier. Just give me a room description (in boxed text!) and tell me what creatures and traps are present, thank you very much. And don't make me flick backwards and forth 20 pages every time the PCs open another door.

i.e. Die, Delve, die.

 

[Colmarr]

Not sure how I feel about this, and I won't really know until I see it in action.

I do know that attempting to find encounter 11 of 30 when the only visual clue is a "thin black line" doesn't sound very easy.

 

[Jack99]

I call awesomesauce!

 

[Windjammer]

I'm glad that in this day and age a company can promptly react to online customer feedback.

Of course, for WotC 'promptly' means five years.

Edit. So yes, the news are great, but Cordell's article strikes me like a Gary Jackson strip straight out of Knights of the Dinner Table. He goes into how awesome his research fu is - 'I read online feedback, talked to fellow R&D'ers, and perused the annals of D&D adventure writing' - to come up with this gem of a R&D insight:

The Result

The first thing to go was the two-page spread. Instead of forcing encounters across one or two pages no matter the nature of the encounter, we’ll instead just flow the encounter text however it falls. To make up for the loss of the visual cue delineating encounters, encounters should be separated by a graphical element: a thin black line. The line is a simple but effective way to visually/conceptually separate encounter areas from each other, and has the advantage of being aesthetically pleasing to boot.

A thin black line, I'm in awe.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Oh great, so we're possibly back to collating the necessary information from different books on the fly?

"Wait a minute, the Orc Hammerhead is on page 123 in MM2, the Wolf Hound from somewhere in MM2, the rules for this trap should be in DMG, or has it been errataed? The map is on that sheet; fold in the description on this page and - ah! - there's another monster from the back of this module."

While the Delve format has its weakness when reading through the adventure, it's fantastic for actually running encounters. And why so many of you think it's a bigger pain to flip between the pages in the adventure than juggling different books is simply beyond me.

Perhaps, as a compromise, WotC might switch to Mr. Cordell's new/old format and additionally offer Delve like spreads of the more complicated encounters for online access.

 

[vagabundo]

I think keeping the delve format for a few key, important, or very complex compat encounters would be a good thing, but for most it is a pain in the ass. As in: "wow, that's a lot of reading for a small band of snotty goblins".

When will be see the fruits of this delicious decision I wonder?

FAKE EDIt: okay next week it seems.

 

[DNH]

Wait, Bruce Cordell - Bruce "Sunless Citadel" Cordell - has a supervisor?!