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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
 Posted - 22 Nov 2007 : 12:42:31
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... and prolly will keep on missing in newer incarnations of the game:
Story- and character-driven adventures. Back in the day of 1st and 2nd edition you had a lot of modules that were basically just encounters in a dungeon, but they were followed by stories that revolved, involved and immersed the players/PCs in the world. I have no idea how some of the old UK-modules, or some of the newer story-modules were doing financially, but to me as a DM they were more enthralling than what we see nowadays, and prolly will continue to see in the future.
Simple stat-blocks that did all that was necessary. As clumsy and twisted THAC0 and the negative AC-business was, it and the lack of feats, maneuvers and whatnot, saved space...LOTS of space. Combat now stretches a simple encounter over hours...sure it stretches the adventure over more days than one can count, and it helps visualize the actual event, but the stat-blocks in themselves take up valuable pages in an adventure that could better be served by more story/insights. When you think about it, the modular way 3.x approaches things, it would have been more than helpful for a DM if wizards had produced a "Book of Encounters" or some such thing, basically an assortment of monsters/NPCs of every level without any flavor, made that book into a 200+ pages monster, and basically would've said that any "irrelevant" encounter would just provide the basic stats (e.g. 4 human fighters Lvl 3-4, AC-range 16-18, HPs 20, 24, 30, 32, Dmg by weapon, see page x in "Book of Encounters"). This way only the "boss-mobs" would've been needed to be statted out, and thus a lot of space could've been instead used for stuff that really matters (to me!).
I like 3.x don't get me wrong...it made my job as DM so much easier...in one way, and so much harder in other ways.
Just something I thought about...
Cheers
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Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Jorkens
Great Reader
Norway
2950 Posts |
Posted - 23 Nov 2007 : 06:33:38
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| There is not much for me to disagree with here; for some reason I have gotten little use or inspiration out of the adventures I have read for this edition, even if I can see the usefulness of the format for some people. Then again I am still firmly placed in the old TSR versions of D&D, so it becomes a little wrong for me to judge 3ed. adventures usefulness. |
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Skeptic
Master of Realmslore
Canada
1273 Posts |
Posted - 23 Nov 2007 : 06:51:14
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Such an interesting topic, however, I've been warned not to discuss about RPG theory/design  |
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Chosen of Moradin
Master of Realmslore
Brazil
1120 Posts |
Posted - 23 Nov 2007 : 12:38:18
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I agree with you. They really make a good job in the 3rd edition, about the rules and mechanics... but let some interesting plots and things to us: recently, I DM the Twilight Tomb adventure. The group handle well the adventure, but they do much twists in the plot, and they are always hungry for descriptions, history, and knowledge... and this all stay in our hands, as DM.
No, I´m not saying that this is a bad thing. Much to the opost. But, take a look, by example, in the module Doom of Daggerdale! It´s an adventure module, but it´s complete in itself, too. Little stay out of the module, to the DM work. I´m one that miss these old modules, too.  |
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Things I miss...
