Mercule
Adventurer
That moment was this June when my wife took the kids to see her folks for a week. This is something she does every year and gives me some much appreciated "bachelor time" which is usually spent on gaming stuff. This year, I spent the week trying to map out levels 11-25 or so of a significant campaign.
During that week, I started to realize just how much time it was going to take to prep all the adventures. The actual map of events was pretty easy: test the elven knight, talk to the dracolich, visit some ancient runes with a secret, get the macguffin, face the horde, save a couple kingdoms, fight some bosses, stop the BBEG from ascending to godhood. The critters were easy to describe, too: dracolich, archivist, gnoll binders, psions, extraplanar guardians, etc.
The overwhelming task was trying to stat each classed NPC, balance the ELs, include the right amount of treasure to keep the PCs within the guidelines, etc. In that week, I got one adventure generally serviceable. Insane, I tell you, insane. I looked through Dungeon mags and misc modules I had, but all those yielded were a few maps. I could adjust some things, but I still had most of the hard work to do.
If my players hadn't invested so bloody much in their characters, I'd drop the game like a rock. This much prep time just isn't worth it. I could probably have an easier time of it if I was running Fantasy Hero. I've found a few tricks -- NPCs all use the alternate rules in UA that say all in-class skills are at character level -- but it's really this balance focused on treasure distribution and narrowly focused monsters* that kill the game for me.
* This point is a big one for me. Wizards (mainly Mearls, AFAIK) keeps pimping the idea that a monster should do one thing and do it well. That sounds like a key design component of 4E and I think it's a load of crap. Having monsters that can be easily blindsided by some oddity of presentation that the GM didn't consider makes prep time even more tedious because you have to figure out just the right balance and make sure you haven't just invited the PCs to waltz right in. I don't mind the PCs showing off on occasion, but combats are more interesting when they aren't just a couple rounds of staring at each other and then a landslide. This is especially true of boss fights. I hope Wizards keeps the one-trick ponies to a minimum in 4E.
During that week, I started to realize just how much time it was going to take to prep all the adventures. The actual map of events was pretty easy: test the elven knight, talk to the dracolich, visit some ancient runes with a secret, get the macguffin, face the horde, save a couple kingdoms, fight some bosses, stop the BBEG from ascending to godhood. The critters were easy to describe, too: dracolich, archivist, gnoll binders, psions, extraplanar guardians, etc.
The overwhelming task was trying to stat each classed NPC, balance the ELs, include the right amount of treasure to keep the PCs within the guidelines, etc. In that week, I got one adventure generally serviceable. Insane, I tell you, insane. I looked through Dungeon mags and misc modules I had, but all those yielded were a few maps. I could adjust some things, but I still had most of the hard work to do.
If my players hadn't invested so bloody much in their characters, I'd drop the game like a rock. This much prep time just isn't worth it. I could probably have an easier time of it if I was running Fantasy Hero. I've found a few tricks -- NPCs all use the alternate rules in UA that say all in-class skills are at character level -- but it's really this balance focused on treasure distribution and narrowly focused monsters* that kill the game for me.
* This point is a big one for me. Wizards (mainly Mearls, AFAIK) keeps pimping the idea that a monster should do one thing and do it well. That sounds like a key design component of 4E and I think it's a load of crap. Having monsters that can be easily blindsided by some oddity of presentation that the GM didn't consider makes prep time even more tedious because you have to figure out just the right balance and make sure you haven't just invited the PCs to waltz right in. I don't mind the PCs showing off on occasion, but combats are more interesting when they aren't just a couple rounds of staring at each other and then a landslide. This is especially true of boss fights. I hope Wizards keeps the one-trick ponies to a minimum in 4E.
