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New encounter design format

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[quote][i]Originally posted by Bluenose[/i]
[br]Scourge's format is pretty much like that Halidan describes in the Ravenloft module. Most encounters have a one or two page description covering everything in the area. There's a section at the start describing it, with boxed flavour text for DMs. Then you get a section with things the PCs might interact with. This might be NPCs who they can talk to, and it describes what those NPCs look like/are doing, and what those NPCs might do for them. If they are hostile it describes the tactics those NPCs will use. It tells you about traps, with the different ways to detect them, the DC to disarm them, and the damage they'll do if you don't. All the stats for the NPCs in an area are on the same page. You also get a map of the area, enlarged from the one in the endplates but not big enough to use with miniatures without enlarging it. The encounter ends by telling you how many XPs you get for it.

The thing I like most about it is the map of the area being included with the description. I prefer that to looking back and forth between maps and descriptions. I don't like the way they repeat stats for creatures. There are at least five seperate encounters with goblins, and you get a full set of stats each time. I'd also prefer not to have check boxes for marking off damage, since I don't like writing in books. I'm also fairly sure that no-one needs to be told that awarding 300XP for an encounter means that you give 300XP if there's one PC, 150 each if there's two, 100 each for three, etc. I might be being optimistic here but even novice DMs surely don't need to be told that. [?]
[/quote]

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Mace Hammerhand	Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 13:17:06 What does it look like? I don't read many adventures...make that new adventures since I have a backlog of very good old adventures. Does anyone know what the new format looks like and/or can supply a graphic of some sorts, cuz I'm really interested in this (lazy arse that I am I wanna get things easier all the time )
5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
Bluenose	Posted - 23 Nov 2006 : 10:50:40 Scourge's format is pretty much like that Halidan describes in the Ravenloft module. Most encounters have a one or two page description covering everything in the area. There's a section at the start describing it, with boxed flavour text for DMs. Then you get a section with things the PCs might interact with. This might be NPCs who they can talk to, and it describes what those NPCs look like/are doing, and what those NPCs might do for them. If they are hostile it describes the tactics those NPCs will use. It tells you about traps, with the different ways to detect them, the DC to disarm them, and the damage they'll do if you don't. All the stats for the NPCs in an area are on the same page. You also get a map of the area, enlarged from the one in the endplates but not big enough to use with miniatures without enlarging it. The encounter ends by telling you how many XPs you get for it. The thing I like most about it is the map of the area being included with the description. I prefer that to looking back and forth between maps and descriptions. I don't like the way they repeat stats for creatures. There are at least five seperate encounters with goblins, and you get a full set of stats each time. I'd also prefer not to have check boxes for marking off damage, since I don't like writing in books. I'm also fairly sure that no-one needs to be told that awarding 300XP for an encounter means that you give 300XP if there's one PC, 150 each if there's two, 100 each for three, etc. I might be being optimistic here but even novice DMs surely don't need to be told that.
Mace Hammerhand	Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 16:51:49 OK, I've been DMing since 1985 or 86, and I am lazy :) Sounds like a good new format, I have to check it out.
Halidan	Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 15:38:16 I think you talking about the page format that WotC is used in both the new Ravenloft module and in "Secrets of the Howling Scourge." The layouts for those adventures seperates information used in combat (stat blocks, terrain, possible skill check values and other DC's related to the enviroment, etc. ) into a seperate section - apart from flavor text like room description. The combat sections of text are at the end of each chapter in the Ravenloft module. I don't recall how the do it in the Scourge module, sorry. Personally, I think the layout is unnecessarily repeditive and fragmented in the Ravenloft module. Bits of room description (like mentioning of the presence of furniture) are missing from the flavor text section. But turn to the combat description, and the furniture is described along with several different DC's for tumbling off of it and or throwing it as a weapon. Stat blocks for re-occuring monsters like Strahd are repeated several times in the text. Since Strahd is a complicated and major monster with several forms, each having different stats, you might imaging this takes up a lot of space - you'd be correct!!! Perhaps it's just the fact that I've been DMing the game since 1978 - but I don't need pre-generated DC's for every possible action my players take. If they do something unexpected, I can roll with the flow. I also don't need stat blocks for Strahd's wolf form repeated in three different places in the book. Give them to me once, and I'll copy them if necessary. It smacks of wasted space and filler text. This duplication might be necessary for beginning DM's. In a module like Scourge, it might even be benificial. But, beginning DM's shouldn't be running Strahd in Ravenloft Castle, so it was (in my mind) a poor decision on WotC's part to use the new style of layout for that particular module.
Mace Hammerhand	Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 14:57:24 Thanks, mate!
Bluenose	Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 14:25:00 quote: Originally posted by Mace Hammerhand What does it look like? I don't read many adventures...make that new adventures since I have a backlog of very good old adventures. Does anyone know what the new format looks like and/or can supply a graphic of some sorts, cuz I'm really interested in this (lazy arse that I am I wanna get things easier all the time ) Is that the one that's in "Secrets of the Howling Scourge"? I've got it on order and expect to find it when I get home this evening, so I can have a look at it tonight and post tomorrow if no-one else gets in first.

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