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General Tabletop Discussion
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Why does WotC put obviously bad or illogical elements in their adventures?
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<blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 7182291" data-attributes="member: 23935"><p>At best, it adds a moderate amount of time and cost since another human is involved and thus in addition to the actual reading interpretation and feedback we need to add communication and coordination. At worst it can add substantial delay cost as the iterative nature of quality assurance becomes key: now that X has been identified, the writer needs to repair it and resubmit for review and the reviewer has to check the whole again for unintended consequence or unintended alteration. Much like development, a mature shop can construct reasonable processes to guide the flow.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The problem with silliness is not only is humour an individual taste, but each table has different expectations regarding how much and what sort is appropriate. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Appendix N doesn't contain a lot of overt silliness: it has some humour, sure, but most of the works listed try to be at least moderately self-consistent at the story level and most manage it at the world level. </p><p></p><p>My DMing started before home video games were really a thing. Well-designed adventures neither need to be railroads nor need heavy improvisation. Good design can lead to easy improvisation as the world responses flow naturally from events and consequences in the rule set, but heavy improvisation is not a necessity.</p><p></p><p>It's relatively easy to design adventures that make sense within the domain of a particular setting and genre conceits some long as you are willing to create adventures that conform to the game expectations. Things go sideways when the designer either wants a trope the rules don't or only poorly support (i.e. "With his dying breath.. Wait! I cast CLW!!!!!!") or the designer wants to include a pop culture reference because he thinks its cute ("I know! Let's have the PCs fight the Pillsbury Dough Boy!" ).</p><p></p><p>I have more tolerance for whimsy than pop-culture reference. If a NPC has decided to ride around in a giant version of clothing stereotypical for his class then that informs the personality of the NPC for me. It's not like real people don't make similarly outrageous style choices when given sufficient wealth and latitude. It only becomes a problem when the whimsy specifically goes against the personality presented and I have to reconcile the one with the other or the whimsy goes against how the rules work for the rest of the universe and I want a justification as to why this exception exists.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nagol, post: 7182291, member: 23935"] At best, it adds a moderate amount of time and cost since another human is involved and thus in addition to the actual reading interpretation and feedback we need to add communication and coordination. At worst it can add substantial delay cost as the iterative nature of quality assurance becomes key: now that X has been identified, the writer needs to repair it and resubmit for review and the reviewer has to check the whole again for unintended consequence or unintended alteration. Much like development, a mature shop can construct reasonable processes to guide the flow. The problem with silliness is not only is humour an individual taste, but each table has different expectations regarding how much and what sort is appropriate. Appendix N doesn't contain a lot of overt silliness: it has some humour, sure, but most of the works listed try to be at least moderately self-consistent at the story level and most manage it at the world level. My DMing started before home video games were really a thing. Well-designed adventures neither need to be railroads nor need heavy improvisation. Good design can lead to easy improvisation as the world responses flow naturally from events and consequences in the rule set, but heavy improvisation is not a necessity. It's relatively easy to design adventures that make sense within the domain of a particular setting and genre conceits some long as you are willing to create adventures that conform to the game expectations. Things go sideways when the designer either wants a trope the rules don't or only poorly support (i.e. "With his dying breath.. Wait! I cast CLW!!!!!!") or the designer wants to include a pop culture reference because he thinks its cute ("I know! Let's have the PCs fight the Pillsbury Dough Boy!" ). I have more tolerance for whimsy than pop-culture reference. If a NPC has decided to ride around in a giant version of clothing stereotypical for his class then that informs the personality of the NPC for me. It's not like real people don't make similarly outrageous style choices when given sufficient wealth and latitude. It only becomes a problem when the whimsy specifically goes against the personality presented and I have to reconcile the one with the other or the whimsy goes against how the rules work for the rest of the universe and I want a justification as to why this exception exists. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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Why does WotC put obviously bad or illogical elements in their adventures?
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