D&D 5E Thinking about 5E releases...

[teitan]

I don't recall many of those old school modules being on shots by that definition. Four hours was not a good game back then. We would play 8-10.

Now lets think about the adventure paths as each chapter being a disconnected section like the old days of yore. The same 32 pages today would be $14-19. Multiply that by 8. Say you like 4 of those sections. 4*15 is 60 bucks.

 

[Mistwell]

So everything is either a one-shot or an adventure path? By that standard, almost every adventure ever published is an adventure path, which makes the definition useless.

Pick up an AD&D adventure like the ones we were discussing earlier. ALL one-shots, intended to be run at a convention tournament style. That was the point of the module. That's the things we were all discussing earlier where I was disagreeing and saying these new APs are like 16 of those old school modules.

I never heard of anyone playing through e.g. Keep on the Borderlands or Palace of the Silver Princess in a single session

Well I have, and did, as did literally thousands of people. Modules like A1-A4, they were DESIGNED for that. Read them - it says it right up front. They're intended for convention use, tournament-style. THAT's what we were comparing earlier in this thread.

Adventure paths don't have to take you from 1 to 20, but they should be the basis of an entire campaign

No they're not. They're just a path of adventures strung together over many levels as PART of a larger campaign. A1 to A4 is a path of related adventures. You will note the companies started to use even more adjectives to describe the ones that eventually became entire campaigns, like "Mega" and "Super" and such. You've confused the later descriptions with the original ones.

 

[Jester David]

Paizo are still doing non-AP adventures. They recently changed to a slightly beefier format - 64 pages, released every three months, as opposed to their old 32 pages bi-monthly - but they're still doing them.

I'm mostly familiar with their initial outing in the new format (Dragon's Demand), but it seems they're going for something that'll take a month or two to play.

A change they made because the small 32-page adventures were not doing well compared to the APs. And it remains to be seen if the beefier mega-modules have improved the viability of the line. Between the APs and the PFS scenerios, Pathfinder puts out a lot of adventures and I don't think many people would mourn the loss of the modules.

--edit--
I'm not sure they're "every three months" though. Since they started the new format in early 2014 they've released five. So it looks closer to one every 4 months. But other than the two RPG Superstar adventures, there doesn't seem to be a set release schedule.

 

[Jester David]

And the good thing about this setup is I can mix and match and not have to shell out tons of money. I don't want to pay 40 to 50 for an AP just to use a few bits when I don't want to use the whole thing. I would rather by a one shot module here and there to run.

The catch is a 32-page adventure will cost $10. Getting five will cost you the same price as Princes of the Apocalypse, which is the same content as 16. So even if you only like 1/3rd of the dungeons/adventures in PotA you'll still have paid even money. Only the book is a durable hardcover that will last much longer and can be used multiple times rather than a flimsy softcover that will look abused after a single use.

 

[Parmandur]

On dndclassics, is the going rate for the old modules $5 or $10? Either way, the same amount of adventure in PDF goes for way higher than the AP...

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, checking through, seems the same amount of adventure material, which is easier to take apart from a frame story than to put together, would be $80-160, depending, bases on how WOTC is charging for old PDFs and how a company like Goodman Games is pricing their modules. Thing is, even if Wizards sells something like a quarter as many copies because people don't want an AP (purely for arguments sake) they come out ahead from lower overhead and consolidated logistics.


[MENTION=2525]Mistwell[/MENTION] is right, this is economic natural selection. Goodman Games seems to make their model work with Kickstarter, which WOTC us unlikely to pursue for a 16 page module.

 

[Coredump]

Understood. I get that preference for one-shot adventures, and I like them sometimes as well.

But others prefer the AP format, which costs less when you combine the equivalent price for one-shot adventures that add up to anything close to that page count, and they can either split out the sections of the AP they like and treat them like individual adventures, or run it as a big adventure path.
.

The problem I have is the APs (at least at WotC so far) are woefully incomplete. The do *NOT* have enough content to actually get you from level 1 to level 15. We just did Episode 7 in HotDQ, supposed to get you from lvl6 to lvl7.... not even close, I am pretty sure we didn't even get 1/4 of what we needed, and many of the episodes are the same way.

From what I Hear, RoT is even worse. These are not a string of modules like A1-A4, these are more like a string of Dungeon Magazine mini-adventures and then a note to use 'milestone' advancement because they didn't put enough content in to actually level that far.

 

[HobbitFan]

Coredump has a good point. The use of "milestone" type advancement in the Tyranny of Dragons adventures betrays the fact that the content in parts is pretty light.

 

[Coredump]

The catch is a 32-page adventure will cost $10. Getting five will cost you the same price as Princes of the Apocalypse, which is the same content as 16. So even if you only like 1/3rd of the dungeons/adventures in PotA you'll still have paid even money. Only the book is a durable hardcover that will last much longer and can be used multiple times rather than a flimsy softcover that will look abused after a single use.

But it is *not* the same as 16 of them... not even close.

I am most familiar with HotDQ

Episode 4 was a caravan ride, with a list of possible random encounters.
Episode 5 was a short trip and a stop at a large "Inn" with a little to investigate.
Episode 6 was fairly bulky with content. But still only a small keep to clear out
Episode 7 is one building, with almost no one in the building.


None of these were even close to the content of a module like Keep on the Borderlands, or the Giants, or Shrine of Tamochaon, or..... or almost any of the TSR modules. (or the 3E modules)

 

[HobbitFan]

Another thing to think about when comparing page count between old school modules and modern adventures is differences in formatting and organization of material. That can make a big difference in terms of what you cover and in how many pages.
It's a lot more complicated than just counting pages.