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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GX.Sigma" data-source="post: 7695809" data-attributes="member: 6690511">OK, there's a difference, but does it really matter? The game will go on regardless, and the players will still come up with ways to do what they want to do. Is one of those possibilities inherently more fun than the other? I don't think so. Certainly not enough to justify adding more text to the already bloated book. To quote Shakespeare, "Brevity is the soul of wit." To quote Strunk, "Make every word tell." To quote Strunk again, "Omit needless words." To quote Perkins, "[D&D 5e] will succeed if we come up with a way to present adventures that don't require a lot of DM preparation to run. A structural way of presenting information." (Yes, the dude who wrote this adventure actually said that.)That's just one example of inefficient design, which I chose purely because it's demonstrably inferior to the original module. They got it right 33 years ago, why can't they get it right now? I could flip to any random page and find another example of inefficient design. It all adds up.Actually, sure, just for fun: page 56. Chosen at pure random. The first room description has boxed text describing a well-oiled suit of armor standing in an alcove. The body text then laboriously explains that "the suit of armor standing in the alcove is merely a normal suit of plate armor that is well cared for." (<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?148566-Example-from-the-worst-TSR-adventure-module(s)-ever-published/page2" target="_blank">Hmm, I wonder if it's joking loudly or singing?</a>) This sentence is completely extraneous, since there's no reason for me to assume the armor isn't normal. If this sentence was not here, I would have exactly the same amount of information; I'd just have to read one less sentence of pointless text. The entire next paragraph is as follows: "The staircase leads down to area K61 and up to area K30. The double doors provide access to area K10." Which is also completely extraneous, since the adventure comes with a map that shows this very clearly. And that's the whole room description! The next page describes the exact dimensions of an arrow slit. Twice. I'm not joking. (It's 2-1/2 feet tall and 4 inches wide, in case you were wondering.) This is embarrassing. I paid 50 dollars for this.I don't see how that makes it a better "story," just a worse game aid.They could include new monsters and competently present a well-designed adventure.If they just want to sell a "story," they should drop the pretext. Stop calling them "adventures," start calling them "storybooks." Maybe even write something with a tight plot and a vivid narrative, rather than pages upon pages of bland boxed text describing empty rooms for no reason. That's something I might actually want to sit down and read.The original Ravenloft had a great story and new monsters, and it was only 32 pages long, and it didn't make you carry around the Monster Manual! It was great for its time. The sad thing is, it's still better than WotC's recent products. Not only does CoS fail to exceed that level of quality (as I'd hoped it would, considering they've had 33 years of game design evolution), it fails to even match that level of quality. This is a very serious problem for D&D, and I should probably make a thread about it already, since no one else is going to read this conversation.Adding additional information is the opposite of what I want. (Although, it's nice when they include a little blurb on how they intended the adventure to play out, since that's often hard to tease out from the overwritten descriptions.) What I want is the same information, minus all the useless fluff, presented in a more efficient and less obnoxious way that's easier to quickly grok. I don't think that would detract from the story-reader's experience at all, and it would vastly improve the game-runner's experience (not to mention the players, who obviously benefit from a better-prepared, less-stressed DM).No problem - thank you for humoring me! This is the most pleasant conversation I've had on the internet since... ever.</blockquote>

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