Community

The way I see it is we are getting more freedom and less bureaucracy, and that is a win. If you want to "farm" a mod for a certain item, why not?

I am in favor of less bureaucracy and less being under the control of a group of administrators that conveniently release and control a region's modules and storyline around their convention that they run.

Less is more, and I think this is going to end up being great for everyone involved.

The more I think about being able to play modules multiple times, the more I like it. If you really like a module or the module is just too big for you to do everything, you can really sink into it and play it multiple times and explore it in depth. Also, many mods play much differently with a 2nd level character and a high level character. This gives you a chance to explore the west wing of that drow citadel you missed the first time through.

Also, we may see mods being written especially for replay-ability and this is a great paradigm shift. Someone mentioned the train coming off the tracks earlier-and thats a good thing, because getting railroaded in a mod is getting old.

I can think of two or three modules right away that the author put so much work and depth into that it could have easily been a two rounder or played twice. Now you won't need to rush through mods-you can play it twice, or whatever you feel like doing-you have the freedom, you have the power. A couple of guys constantly complaining about needy players do not control your play experience. The mods could feature alternate goals, the mods can become more setting based. Its going to be alot more Keep on the Borderlands (finish that in 4 hours) more Lost Tomb of Martek, and Against the Giants, and a lot less of our current "Railroad, 3 encounters, ambushed outside the tavern, evil wizard with +20 init and quickened fireballs." I have played those and played them alot.

I think the writers are going to step up and these mods are going to be amazing. Its a stroke of genius.
No one is going to care about cheaters when this thing gets moving, your going to be too busy having fun. Your going to be too busy with great mods that DMs want to run twice or three times, the journey has just gotten better. Your airplane ticket has just been changed from "Houston Texas to New York" to "any city to any city, you choose because your the customer."

The people are still good, the people still want to do good. This will be amazing.

Who cares about people cheating? We may even see multiple ARs in the future.

Thank you, Sean Molley, for explaining the reasons behind being able to play an adventure multiple times. I was unhappy when I first read about this, but after reading your explanation, I am much more satisfied. Again, thank you. I guess all that I needed was an explanation.

trollbill wrote:

Everytime I've seen this happen the player with the inside knowledge usually deliberatly takes a passive role in the adventure, letting the other players take the spotlight and make the decisions. They do this to avoid spoiling everyone else's fun

I think that we can agree that this is the best case, and that more often than not that it should occur. Now I'm sure that while we've encountered situations at tables where things are less than optimal, for the most part the players are really good people.

However, how good is this best case?

In essence you have a person that's barely playing the mod.. taking up a space so to speak. We've all encountered this at cons (and after a few nights of midnight madness it might have been us doing it) where a player doesn't seem to get into the mod that they are playing. This is unfortunate, but it happens.

It seems that this system is basically insuring that this is going to occur.. at best.

So even with players being responsible and mature about things, the play does suffer. Worse than when the table next to you is playing the same mod and is about 1-2 minutes ahead of yours...

But in the end, what does it accomplish for the betterment of the players?

Does it avoid slot 0ing problems and eating modules? Perhaps, but there are other ways that this could be done. If it's simply a question about rewards, then have a judges reward pack for eating a module. It would make this issue even more simpler than allowing them to play it later (which would basically amount to a local group getting coerced into playing many modules multiple times which seems down right silly).

Does it make mustering easier? It some ways, and makes it harder in others. I know people are going to feel strongly about having other players at the table that have already played (or ran) the adventure that they're looking to play.

Can it undue a 'bad DM' experience? Not really. Better to just avoid the DM in the future and play a new mod than one that has already been 'spoiled'.

Does it handle lack of play opportunities? With being able to play the equivalent of what 7 regions worth of LG modules per year.. is this going to be a problem? I know that there are people who traveled to more regions than that in LG (and I was one of them for awhile), but for most people it shouldn't be an issue.

And lastly, the last thing I'd want to introduce new people to the RPGA with is a table where half the players have played the module already. They won't realize it at first and wonder why no one is 'pulling their weight' in terms of decision making.. and when they do I know if I were in their place it would turn me off to the whole thing.

-James