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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
Which 4E adventures did you play?
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<blockquote data-quote="D'karr" data-source="post: 6176335" data-attributes="member: 336"><p>Thanks for the compliment. Great minds think alike and all that. LOL</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I get that vibe too, but I'm not so sure if some of their comments are more a "devils' advocate" type comment, or not. I've argued against Mearls's "clueless" comments in the past. I think the comments sometimes come off as purposely ignorant. If he was not the Lead Dude(tm) at R&D it would really not even register on the "radar", but coming from the Lead Dude(tm) it is almost disturbing.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I've been running with this ruleset for a long time, and I can say that it is very robust and extremely tweakable. But you have to understand the underlying logic for why things work the way they do. When you understand that, the system and underlying subsystems are very "self-contained". With that understanding, you can rather easily see what knock-on effects would happen if you implement a specific house-rule. That is golden for hyper-tinkerers like myself.</p><p></p><p>So when I see the game designers say that the ruleset is inflexible I have to wonder if they really understand the underlying framework at all. I can understand if you don't want to make changes because the cost benefit is too high, but using the proper tools within the tool set is not really making sweeping changes. I can understand if you are mandated to use a crappy format for putting ALL encounters in, but then don't blame the tool. Put the blame where it belongs, the crappy adventure writing policy. </p><p></p><p>Chris Perkins and Steve Townshend quickly became my favorite go-to guys for adventure design. They seemed to really understand that the underlying story is what makes adventures exciting, then they used the ruleset to great effect to provide that. They made the game sing through their adventures. Perkins' DM advice on his column should have been mandatory reading for all 4e designers. Rich Baker also did some very awesome work. The rules tweaks for Gamma World, and 4e Dark Sun, which incidentally Schwalb co-wrote, were simply inspired. The idea of themes, brilliant. </p><p></p><p>Then we have another "gem" from Cordell with Marauders of the Dune Sea. I don't know why that adventure was even written for Dark Sun. I honestly believe that it must have been sitting somewhere as an adventure for use in Anauroch in the Forgotten Realms and they decided to do a straight up conversion to Dark Sun because Anauroch is a desert, and Athas is a desert planet so "it must fit". The fit to the campaign setting was simply that horrible.</p><p></p><p>Now don't think that I'm being overly critical of Cordell. I know that sometimes these things are just corporate decisions that the designer has no control over. But then when they spend time saying that the ruleset is inflexible it makes me wonder if they really understood the game at all.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Me too.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="D'karr, post: 6176335, member: 336"] Thanks for the compliment. Great minds think alike and all that. LOL I get that vibe too, but I'm not so sure if some of their comments are more a "devils' advocate" type comment, or not. I've argued against Mearls's "clueless" comments in the past. I think the comments sometimes come off as purposely ignorant. If he was not the Lead Dude(tm) at R&D it would really not even register on the "radar", but coming from the Lead Dude(tm) it is almost disturbing. I've been running with this ruleset for a long time, and I can say that it is very robust and extremely tweakable. But you have to understand the underlying logic for why things work the way they do. When you understand that, the system and underlying subsystems are very "self-contained". With that understanding, you can rather easily see what knock-on effects would happen if you implement a specific house-rule. That is golden for hyper-tinkerers like myself. So when I see the game designers say that the ruleset is inflexible I have to wonder if they really understand the underlying framework at all. I can understand if you don't want to make changes because the cost benefit is too high, but using the proper tools within the tool set is not really making sweeping changes. I can understand if you are mandated to use a crappy format for putting ALL encounters in, but then don't blame the tool. Put the blame where it belongs, the crappy adventure writing policy. Chris Perkins and Steve Townshend quickly became my favorite go-to guys for adventure design. They seemed to really understand that the underlying story is what makes adventures exciting, then they used the ruleset to great effect to provide that. They made the game sing through their adventures. Perkins' DM advice on his column should have been mandatory reading for all 4e designers. Rich Baker also did some very awesome work. The rules tweaks for Gamma World, and 4e Dark Sun, which incidentally Schwalb co-wrote, were simply inspired. The idea of themes, brilliant. Then we have another "gem" from Cordell with Marauders of the Dune Sea. I don't know why that adventure was even written for Dark Sun. I honestly believe that it must have been sitting somewhere as an adventure for use in Anauroch in the Forgotten Realms and they decided to do a straight up conversion to Dark Sun because Anauroch is a desert, and Athas is a desert planet so "it must fit". The fit to the campaign setting was simply that horrible. Now don't think that I'm being overly critical of Cordell. I know that sometimes these things are just corporate decisions that the designer has no control over. But then when they spend time saying that the ruleset is inflexible it makes me wonder if they really understood the game at all. Me too. [/QUOTE]
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Which 4E adventures did you play?
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