Vrecknidj
Warlord
10492 Posts
    
United States
 | | 03/19/2006 9:20 AM |
| This was a pretty cool article: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060317a
I like where they're going with this. There's a weird blend between D&D and minis in the tactics portion of what's going on, but, there's plenty of room for dropping this kind of thing into a campaign where there's lots of rle playing going on outside these delves.
Dave | |
Knowledge Arcana editor issues 5-9, Phoenix Lore Magazine editor, assistant editor for Rite Publishing;
My Trade Thread and My Reference Thread; Winner of WBC IV, IX and XIII; Rule #0: bshugg is always right! | |
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kestrel.ca
Underboss
1687 Posts
| | 03/19/2006 11:05 AM |
| | I'm excited about this format. When creating my own adventures (which happens so rarely) I always include all the information I can. I really hate flipping through two or three books just to run an encounter. I tend to include spell effects (so no flipping through PHB), all monster stats (so no MM), and even special tactic rules (grapple/overrun, etc.). I also like how they're starting to include more info on tactics -- saves more of my time again. | |
Completed Trades/Transactions: 94 || Bad Trades: 3 (Chaotic Good x2, MackeyV) | |
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LargeMarmot
Sergeant
463 Posts
| | 03/19/2006 2:55 PM |
| | I agree this looks great. If I was a computer programer I'd work on one to be able to make pages with this for homemade adventures. But I'm not... | |
Champion of the Tohr-Kreen.
WotDQ Called Shot: Fang Dragon. | |
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True_Blue
Underboss
2386 Posts
| | 03/19/2006 5:40 PM |
| | Looks pretty great, but I wonder how well it will be in practice. Some things look good but end up not working out so well. But I'll keep an open mind and see what happens. | |
Champion of a Knight of Takhisis/Knight of Neraka | |
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Gristlemane
Sergeant
623 Posts
| | 03/19/2006 9:56 PM |
| I like to include monster stats, but I am not sure how much they will be able to fit onto one page. The format seems fine when it's just a monster in a 20' x 20' room sort of encounter. But what do you do with monsters that might be encountered in any one of several rooms? What about monsters that can react to what the players did in room X, or buff themselves? What about monsters that might talk to the players first?
I am becoming more interested in this adventure he is writing, though. It's all part of a fiendish plan by WotC's marketing team, I'm sure. | |
It's deja vu all over again. | |
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maijstral
Underboss
2105 Posts
| | 03/20/2006 12:43 AM |
| I played this at the exibition at GenCon '05 and it was pretty fun we only made it through 3 rooms before the TPK (well died in the 3rd).
Among other things they were trying to teach the game to newbies to a fair degree of success. Without having to constantly look thing up the game procceeded fairly quickly and smoothly which is a plus when trying to teach.
It could be a great help with running pregen encounters but I'm reseverving full judgement until I see how they do town and noncombat encounters. | | | |
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Grim
Sergeant
482 Posts
| | 03/21/2006 10:29 PM |
| | It looks and sounds like a great idea. Very intuitive. | |
I am a leaf on the wind...Urrk!!--Wash, "Serenity" | |
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Knight of Argenis
Corim Danex
Warlord
6842 Posts
West Valley City, Utah
| | 03/22/2006 12:58 AM |
| | I think it's a great idea. It would be nice having adventures being sold on disks in addition to the published part. Maybe with the disks, you can have an overall map where you can click on the room and it comes up, with all pertinent information. There could be links to pop up windows with the various information. | |
"Look to God and live." Alma 37:47
Vindicated Champ of Hippogriff (Arcadian Hippogriff) and Uncommon Horse | |
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Cosworth
Warrior
215 Posts
| | 03/22/2006 3:36 AM |
| I like it a lot too. It seems contrary to WotC current policy though.
How are they going to sell as many monster manuals if all the stats are included in the adventure module?
In "Red Hand of Doom" they still refer to MM frequently. Even the web enhancement with "stats for easy reference" doesn't include the standard MM critters.
So I don't see this happening as described. Instead we'll probably see some kind of mixture, where only non-standard monsters are included on the page (kind of ruining the idea).
On another note the format really offers itself up to computerization. Let the stats be pop-up's and you could cram dozens of critters into the same encounter and still keep the helicopter perspective. | |
Sorry Maxminis - find me at Hordelings from sep. 14 2006 | |
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Vrecknidj
Warlord
10492 Posts
United States
| | 03/24/2006 11:18 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Cosworth
On another note the format really offers itself up to computerization. Let the stats be pop-up's and you could cram dozens of critters into the same encounter and still keep the helicopter perspective.
Yep. Everything since the release of 3.0 has seemed strongly tainted to digitalization.
Dave | |
Knowledge Arcana editor issues 5-9, Phoenix Lore Magazine editor, assistant editor for Rite Publishing;
My Trade Thread and My Reference Thread; Winner of WBC IV, IX and XIII; Rule #0: bshugg is always right! | |
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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
| | 03/26/2006 8:37 PM |
| I'd throw out the fact the the First edition supplement "Greyhawk Adventures" included all kinds of items which ended up in 2nd edition.
Don't be surprised if this is part of the background development work for 4.0.
One of the biggest (and best) leaps WotC could do is to make 4.0 a MUCH better game when the DM has a laptop at his side.
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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Wrackspawn
ChristopherGroves
Warlord
6093 Posts
| | 03/26/2006 9:09 PM |
| I know it wastes space, and printing costs money, but the handy-dandy user interface like this is EXCELLENT. Sure, your page-count goes up and you've got alot of white-space, but it makes things much easier to run. Heck, the DM could easily print out the relevant pages or copy them from a hardcopy to mark up during the adventure. Rockitude...
Now, perhaps the most exciting thing about this is that they wouldn't be doing it if they had no intention of stopping/slowing publication of modules, etc. | |
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