What do you think of WotC's new combat encounter or "Delve" format?

[RodneyThompson]

I'll bitch up a storm if I think a product's page-count has been padded with white-space or font-size increases or recycled artwork, but if that "wasted" space is actually used for something that makes my job as GM easier, I'm content.

For the record: no project I've ever worked on for WotC, as a freelancer or now, has ever needed to be padded. If anything, I think almost all of my projects have had to be cut to make room for things like art or making it hit page counts. Not saying that you were levelling any accusations, mind you, just detailing my experiences.

That said, I like the new encounter format. At very worst, you might have to flip pages to look up some Big Bad's stats...which you'd have to do anyways if it weren't using the new encounter format, most likely. I do think it works better for low-level and mid-level adventures, however.

 

[Klaus]

I think that the flipping can be reduced by simply copying down in a sheet of paper the stats of either a creature that is repeated a lot (like the Strahd Zombies, for instance) or is crucial in many encounters (like the stats of Strahd himslef). This not only gives you easy access to the stats, but it helps commit them to memory, minimizing referencing even more.

 

[El Ravager]

I think it is great. It is an innovation that actually makes DMing easier. As a DM with plenty of books with options now, what I want is books that help me DM. Not ones that help me by giving me more things to include in my game, but tools to make the game go smoother. I see this format as an inovation that makes a product already designed to help DMs (Adventures) an even better tool.

 

[Davelozzi]

I haven't used the new format in play yet but so far I'm not a fan. It is very jarring when reading the module to flip back and forth between the main text and the tactical section. Furthermore, it often seems that where a give piece of info gets printed is based more about where it fits space wise than where it makes sense, which I think may lead to even more confusion. For example, in Barrow of the Forgotten King, boxed text about what the PCs see in a given room was often divided between the two sections.

 

[robertsconley]

The new delve format is convenient and minimizes references to other books. But there is a downside and that is you getting less content for the money. Sure there is considerably less prep time but on the other hand how much are you getting?

If the market demands this of D20 publishers as well then costs will be driven up. The trade off of more art (the encounter maps) and complicated layout versus less written means more expense for the same page count. In addition to the lower amount of content.

Wizard can overcome this partly by the fact as a large publisher they have economy of scales that other companies can't match.

In writing The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor I was appalled how much of the text's space was taken up with full stat blocks (not half but it was a lot more than I expected). And now there is a new format that has two or more pages per encounter?

If this becomes the norm then there will be some interesting effects. For example games like Castles & Crusades where the stat blocks do not require the overhead of D20 will be able to produce adventures with more content or the same content in a smaller page count.

Or this format could be the staging ground of the future where we all have 8.5 by 11 iReader with hyperlink and context searching capabilities and all of our adventures are bought on-line even tho we still play table-top.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I might misplace them if I do take them apart. =)

Right - I don't think anything should appear on the perforated insert that can't be found elsewhere in the book. It's a consolidation of information in a mobile appendix, effectively. So if you lose it, the information is still there... you're just back to page-flipping.

-Hyp.

 

[Klaus]

Right - I don't think anything should appear on the perforated insert that can't be found elsewhere in the book. It's a consolidation of information in a mobile appendix, effectively. So if you lose it, the information is still there... you're just back to page-flipping.

-Hyp.

Then I'd rather just have the appendix as a web-enhancement downloadable PDF, like Red Hand of DOOOOOOOOOM.