Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Wandering "Monsters": Magic Items
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6251144" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>[MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION], [MENTION=58197]Dausuul[/MENTION], thanks for those replies.</p><p></p><p>Would it be fair to say that, in this sort of play, the idea of balancing encounters/effectiveness over "the adventure" doesn't really come into play, because in a certain sense there isn't such a thing as "the adventure" until the players actually play the game?</p><p></p><p>Where I'm going with this is that I see a contrast between the sort of play you are describing, and the approach found in (say) 13th Age but also hinted at from time-to-time in relation to D&Dnext. In 13th Age, for instance, the players don't have full control over "the adventure" - in particular, if they take a rest before dealing with the equivalent of 4 balanced encounters then the GM is entitled, and on my reading of the rules obliged, to impose a "campaign loss" of some sort. As well as a pacing device, this also balances the asymmetric resource suites of the different classes. A corollary of this approach, discussed in the 13th Age rulebook, is the factoring of items into "the maths".</p><p></p><p>The sandbox approach you both describe allows the players (via their PCs) to choose what they take on, and therefore to make their own allowances for whether or not they have items. The GM doesn't need to compensate. Do you worry that this sort of approach can produce balance issues with asymmetric resource suites, though? In classic D&D play like that described by Gygax in his PHB I think it obviously did cause balance issues, but that was part of the point: fighters were <em>meant</em> to be easier to play at low levels, and MUs were <em>meant</em> to somewhat overshadow them at high levels. Can D&Dnext be played this way?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6251144, member: 42582"] [MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION], [MENTION=58197]Dausuul[/MENTION], thanks for those replies. Would it be fair to say that, in this sort of play, the idea of balancing encounters/effectiveness over "the adventure" doesn't really come into play, because in a certain sense there isn't such a thing as "the adventure" until the players actually play the game? Where I'm going with this is that I see a contrast between the sort of play you are describing, and the approach found in (say) 13th Age but also hinted at from time-to-time in relation to D&Dnext. In 13th Age, for instance, the players don't have full control over "the adventure" - in particular, if they take a rest before dealing with the equivalent of 4 balanced encounters then the GM is entitled, and on my reading of the rules obliged, to impose a "campaign loss" of some sort. As well as a pacing device, this also balances the asymmetric resource suites of the different classes. A corollary of this approach, discussed in the 13th Age rulebook, is the factoring of items into "the maths". The sandbox approach you both describe allows the players (via their PCs) to choose what they take on, and therefore to make their own allowances for whether or not they have items. The GM doesn't need to compensate. Do you worry that this sort of approach can produce balance issues with asymmetric resource suites, though? In classic D&D play like that described by Gygax in his PHB I think it obviously did cause balance issues, but that was part of the point: fighters were [I]meant[/I] to be easier to play at low levels, and MUs were [I]meant[/I] to somewhat overshadow them at high levels. Can D&Dnext be played this way? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Wandering "Monsters": Magic Items
Top