What next for FR?

[rounser]

I'm not sure that's true anymore. As the game ages, more and more people become satisfied with (and sometimes overwhelmed by) the amount of rules options they have to choose from.

I think you misunderstand what I mean: I mean that preparing an adventure with all the i's dotted and the t's crossed to a degree implied by the RAW requires a massive amount of time to do, so most people don't.

Look at Dungeon's adventure paths; we can't seriously expect the average DM to put that amount of work into adventure writing...it'd be like a full time job. (Worldbuilding - on the other hand - quite possibly, because people enjoy doing that, and happily sink hundreds of hours into it.) Then again, I think most campaigns are done in a different style that dodges the need to make that time investment (or are simply lower quality). As a result, I think a lot of people are using workarounds.

 

[d20Dwarf]

As a result, I think a lot of people are using workarounds.

That's what MotM is supposed to facilitate...a DM that doesn't have the time to invest, but who still wants to run a high-quality campaign. Pick up this book, and bam!, much of your work is done, and with minimum effort you can squeeze maximum value out of your gaming time. I think that's something to aspire to, both as a personal preference (I definitely fall into that category) and as a beneficial evolution of the hobby itself.

 

[Sammael]

I can certainly understand that. Do you have the 2e Moonsea accessory? It might satisfy your craving for lore, and combined with MotM maybe give you the best of both worlds.

I have it on PDF, but I greatly prefer my lorebooks (as opposed to crunch-books) to be in physical book format so I can read them on a comfy couch, armchair, or in bed.

 

[Sammael]

So you have misconceptions like "it only take an 8-year old 3 minutes to create a CR 16 templated demon!" butting up against "don't give me plots and villains, I can do those myself, it's the WORK I want done for me."

I don't think people are claiming that. I certainly wasn't. But given that WotC has electronic tools for creating various stuff (and had them at least as early as 2000, from what SKR said), it shouldn't take more than a few mouse clicks to generate a 6 HD Monstrous Humanoid statblock. All that's left is to pick skills, feats, and (possibly) spells and then slap on a few special qualities. Now, if those are unique special qualities, the process may be a bit longer. On the other hand, a red-dragon related creature is easy as pie: Immune fire, paralysis, sleep; Weakness Vulnerable to cold.

 

[d20Dwarf]

I don't think people are claiming that. I certainly wasn't. But given that WotC has electronic tools for creating various stuff (and had them at least as early as 2000, from what SKR said), it shouldn't take more than a few mouse clicks to generate a 6 HD Monstrous Humanoid statblock. All that's left is to pick skills, feats, and (possibly) spells and then slap on a few special qualities. Now, if those are unique special qualities, the process may be a bit longer. On the other hand, a red-dragon related creature is easy as pie: Immune fire, paralysis, sleep; Weakness Vulnerable to cold.

I really wish the tools were like this magic button you've described, but unfortunately I'm working for WotC, not Staples. Also, mouse clicks don't equal playtesting, right?

Seriously, though, I think you're making too many assumptions, or else SKR has some super-secret tools that I'm not privy to.

 

[Sammael]

At the very least, WotC should have unlimited e-tools licenses, right? The statblock generators that Sean talked about were simple Excel macros.

If WotC don't have statblock generators (and perhaps they do have them in-house, they just don't give them to freelancers), they should honestly consider making some to make people's work easier. It's not "magic" (and I find the notion extremely amusing).

It should take a dedicated programmer about a week of work to make a passable (but not 100% automated) statblock generator. I know this, because I wrote one a while ago, along with designing a relational database for the ruleset. I scrapped the whole project because I overdid the database in terms of complexity (40 objects for just the basic stuff), so it was too difficult to maintain, but an easier database would be, well, even easier to design.

 

[d20Dwarf]

At the very least, WotC should have unlimited e-tools licenses, right? The statblock generators that Sean talked about were simple Excel macros.

If WotC don't have statblock generators (and perhaps they do have them in-house, they just don't give them to freelancers), they should honestly consider making some to make people's work easier. It's not "magic" (and I find the notion extremely amusing).

It should take a dedicated programmer about a week of work to make a passable (but not 100% automated) statblock generator. I know this, because I wrote one a while ago, along with designing a relational database for the ruleset. I scrapped the whole project because I overdid the database in terms of complexity (40 objects for just the basic stuff), so it was too difficult to maintain, but an easier database would be, well, even easier to design.

It's a shame you never followed through on your project, sounds like a useful fan tool that a lot of people here would appreciate!

 

[Sammael]

Unfortunately, I am a big procrastinator when it comes to stuff I don't have to get done. I recently started making an InfoPath form for entering stat-blocks, but I then realized that most people (my friends included) probably don't have access to InfoPath so I gave up on it.

 

[d20Dwarf]

Unfortunately, I am a big procrastinator when it comes to stuff I don't have to get done.

Yeah, I'd bet there are a lot of people out there like that. We pay for convenience a lot in our society.

 

[Vascant]

It should take a dedicated programmer about a week of work to make a passable (but not 100% automated) statblock generator. I know this, because I wrote one a while ago, along with designing a relational database for the ruleset. I scrapped the whole project because I overdid the database in terms of complexity (40 objects for just the basic stuff), so it was too difficult to maintain, but an easier database would be, well, even easier to design.

I think reaching that goal would be a little more of a challange then you realize.