War of the Burning Sky 4E?

[Marius Delphus]

Please do not use the same format as eDungeon. Pretty please...

The strongest similarity will be that I'm also using a three-column grid. But the new books will retain the portrait layout. (Apologies to fans of landscape layouts.)

I've pontificated before about how copying a layout is an interesting exercise but not something I intend to do, and I'm sticking with that. So I expect even untrained eyes will spot significant differences.

Sorry if that sounds cagey or incoherent. It's way past bedtime, I'm getting quite groggy, and there'll be babies wanting bottles in a few hours... things proceed apace however.

 

[Marius Delphus]

Thankfully, AFAIK, he is going for the alphabetical set up. Very simple every encounter, read out text, piece of background info, skill challenge, etc has a title and they are listed in alphabetical order.
At the end of each section it says go to Section Abc if Xyz happened or Section Def if Uvw happened. Very simple and effective, with all the information in an easy to find way.
Enjoy

I'm not sure what you mean by this (groggy, like I said), but I'll assume you're kidding.

I do fondly remember Choose Your Own Adventure, however.

 

[Jack99]

The strongest similarity will be that I'm also using a three-column grid. But the new books will retain the portrait layout. (Apologies to fans of landscape layouts.)

I've pontificated before about how copying a layout is an interesting exercise but not something I intend to do, and I'm sticking with that. So I expect even untrained eyes will spot significant differences.

Sorry if that sounds cagey or incoherent. It's way past bedtime, I'm getting quite groggy, and there'll be babies wanting bottles in a few hours... things proceed apace however.

Ah. Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear. I do not care if its portrait or landscape or that kind of layout things. I meant that I was hoping that you guys wouldnt use eDungeon's format, which has a page of setup for an encounter, and then the monster stats etc are at the end of the adventure. It makes you flip/scroll a lot, and it's extremely annoying. Anyway, just one man's opinion, ofc.

Cheers, and good luck

 

[mach1.9pants]

Yeah it was a (lame) joke using an alphabetised version of Fighting Fantasy etc
EDIT: I agree with Jack, it is lame. The modules are much better laid out

 

[Truename]

Ah. Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear. I do not care if its portrait or landscape or that kind of layout things. I meant that I was hoping that you guys wouldnt use eDungeon's format, which has a page of setup for an encounter, and then the monster stats etc are at the end of the adventure. It makes you flip/scroll a lot, and it's extremely annoying. Anyway, just one man's opinion, ofc.

Cheers, and good luck

Huh? DDI Dungeon uses the delve format and has all monsters/stats/map/everything on the two-page spread for the encounter... even if this means heavy repetition from the previous page. As a DM, I love it. No flipping at all during an encounter. In the recent issues, they've started to expand this to include "roleplaying encounters" and skill challenges too.

The downside is that the encounters are separate from the overview, plot, and other non-encounter material, such as dungeon rooms where nothing noteworthy happens. It seems to favor a combat-heavy approach. Maybe that's what you meant?

 

[Marius Delphus]

Ah. Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear. I do not care if its portrait or landscape or that kind of layout things. I meant that I was hoping that you guys wouldnt use eDungeon's format, which has a page of setup for an encounter, and then the monster stats etc are at the end of the adventure. It makes you flip/scroll a lot, and it's extremely annoying. Anyway, just one man's opinion, ofc.

Cheers, and good luck

Hey, good morning. The combat encounters appear at the end of the book, separated from the narrative. At each point in the narrative where combat is expected to break out, there's a reference to the page where the combat encounter begins. The only flipping a DM should have to do is to switch from "noncombat mode" to "combat mode." This more or less mirrors the 3.5 "Expedition to" and the 4E adventure format.

... Except that the odds each encounter will actually fit on two facing pages is slim at best. There's a lot of text in there, as Piratecat hinted. So there might be some minimal flipping during combat as well. I have an idea that might help with this, but again, the actual encounter format hasn't actually materialized yet....

 

[jbear]

Thanks for the link. Looks very cool. What I couldn't see was a price for the entire PDF subscription... or is that not an option?

Edit: Ok think I found it: $49.99? Right?

 

[catsclaw227]

PirateCat -- have any of the maps changed? And if so, are any of the artists going to rerelease the 4e battlemaps that did change?[/URL].

I see that the Poison Apple Pub changed, but have any of the other maps?

During playtesting, did you find that the sizes and layout of the 3.5 maps transferred well to 4e? Or were they a bit crowded with area spells, effects, etc?

 

[Mistwell]

We've played through the first encounter, and are liking it so far!

 

[merchantsteve]

I see that the Poison Apple Pub changed, but have any of the other maps?

During playtesting, did you find that the sizes and layout of the 3.5 maps transferred well to 4e? Or were they a bit crowded with area spells, effects, etc?

Yes!, the maps are a bit constricting, so the newer ones have a bit more room where it makes sense or nasty side effects otherwise. That's not a hard and fast rule for the first adventure, but module 2 is much more expansive. You can see all the maps through links from the main WotBS web page.