Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
What the Heck is Fractal Adventure Design?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Deset Gled" data-source="post: 7652966" data-attributes="member: 7808"><p>Interestingly enough, I think "fractal design" (and like Umbran, I think that's a silly use of the word) is one of the biggest complaints most people had about D+D 3.x</p><p></p><p>3.0 used of the same stat block and rules for creating NPCs/monsters as it did characters. This was a really cool level of detail that let DMs and designers play around with customized enemies, and really added to the cohesive mechanics of the system. But it was also huge pain in the ass to have to build a complete character for every enemy. One of the biggest complaints about 3.x is the huge overhead for DMs at high level, largely due to the detail work required for enemies you know are going to die. Using pre-built, cookie cutter monsters or just plain making up certain numbers is the only way I found to solve this problem.</p><p></p><p>What people want is cohesive design. They want there to be consistent mechanics; always role high or always role low, but never switching. They want there to be standardized forms for charts and stat blocks; a monster stat block and an NPC stat block (or a city stat block or a boat stat block) need to be visually similar in layout and information so that you can glance at them quickly and read all of them without familiarizing yourself to a new format. They want common threads in the narrative that can be noted as the plot progresses, and they want recognizable symbolism across the game world.</p><p></p><p>But nobody really wants fractal design. Nobody wants colossi that are mechanically exactly the same as fairies, because that completely destroys the sense of scale that makes colossi and fairies cool. Nobody wants to put in the extreme level of detail into completely mundane and insignificant things that true fractal design would entail. And frankly, true fractal design would be downright boring. You need variation to keep things interesting.</p><p></p><p>So please, keep the design consistent, but keep fractals out of it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Deset Gled, post: 7652966, member: 7808"] Interestingly enough, I think "fractal design" (and like Umbran, I think that's a silly use of the word) is one of the biggest complaints most people had about D+D 3.x 3.0 used of the same stat block and rules for creating NPCs/monsters as it did characters. This was a really cool level of detail that let DMs and designers play around with customized enemies, and really added to the cohesive mechanics of the system. But it was also huge pain in the ass to have to build a complete character for every enemy. One of the biggest complaints about 3.x is the huge overhead for DMs at high level, largely due to the detail work required for enemies you know are going to die. Using pre-built, cookie cutter monsters or just plain making up certain numbers is the only way I found to solve this problem. What people want is cohesive design. They want there to be consistent mechanics; always role high or always role low, but never switching. They want there to be standardized forms for charts and stat blocks; a monster stat block and an NPC stat block (or a city stat block or a boat stat block) need to be visually similar in layout and information so that you can glance at them quickly and read all of them without familiarizing yourself to a new format. They want common threads in the narrative that can be noted as the plot progresses, and they want recognizable symbolism across the game world. But nobody really wants fractal design. Nobody wants colossi that are mechanically exactly the same as fairies, because that completely destroys the sense of scale that makes colossi and fairies cool. Nobody wants to put in the extreme level of detail into completely mundane and insignificant things that true fractal design would entail. And frankly, true fractal design would be downright boring. You need variation to keep things interesting. So please, keep the design consistent, but keep fractals out of it. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
What the Heck is Fractal Adventure Design?
Top