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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowslayer" data-source="post: 3367511" data-attributes="member: 8400">I own Ravenloft, Barrow of the Forgotten King, and Scourge of the Howling Horde. Of the three, I've played Scourge, so I'll give you a playtested opinion.I like it. I like having everything there in one place for each encounter. I don't care if the same stat block was printed 8 pages ago. If they just settled for wrting the block in on just one encounter on page 5, and then every subsequent encounter with a similar beast just refererred you to page 5, all the "during encounter" page flipping you'd have to do would invalidate the purpoase of the format, which is meant to save all the page flipping. Having it all right there is perfect.Likewise, the focus on the tactics of the creatures, and a point by point rundown of all the types of terrain and obstacles pertinent to the encounter is all there. I don't have to open up the DMG and figure out how "dense rubble" or a waterfall affects movement.The format works. The only complaint I have, and I don't think it even applies to all the products, is that sometimes the encounters use critters from expansion books, and then don't tell you which book they came out of. But that's a minor complaint. The fact that I get a working statblock from an expansion book critter when I didn't even have to buy the expansion book in question balances it out IMO. One other bonus, and I haven't heard it mentioned yet, is that each encounter is pretty much a stand alone encounter. There's a value here if you look at your modules and harbacks as "encounter files" If I'm building a dungeon and I need a room with a fountain with a cool encounter, I can lift one wholesale out of one of my modules. The CRs don't even need to be calculated. I think that's neat.So, having said all this, the new format leads me to a new concern. (One that raised its head when I read through Barrow.) Now the adventures themselves appear to be nothing but a string of encounters. Next room, next encounter, next room, next encounter etc etc. The only thing breaking it up is that you occasionally get a room with a friendly or a puzzle. Even Ravenloft seems to suffer from this...though it manages to escape the "too linear" problem.  (And the two smaller modules in question are horribly linear, particularly Barrow.)  What the game designers should realize, and I'm sure they will soon, is that just because you have this big dungeon, doesn't mean that every room is worthy of the Delve treatment. Sometimes a room with a magic healing fountain is just a room with a magic healing fountain. Sometimes a room with a busted statue and bloodstains on the floor is just that. (I'm betting that this has been noted, by the way)So...Count me down as one who really likes the new encounter format....but maybe not so fussy on the new "adventure design" format...that part needs some tweaking IMO.I say "Keep up the good work!"  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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