Community

eudemonist wrote:

The coolest thing about D&D, to me, is interacting with a reactive world, watching it change as a result of my actions. It's also one of the biggest selling points of a Living Campaign.

I also understand Wizard's desire to maintain tight control of their brand, since it's an active brand.

It seems to me, though, that the two things are mutually exclusive. Control over how the world evolves belongs to one group or the other. It's possible Wizards' plan is to base future products off the evolution of the Living Campaign storyline, but I find it much more likely that the reverse is true. This takes away a lot of the draw of the game, for me.

Actually, with the release of 4E we've been told that Living Forgotten Realms is now canonical - just like the novels. This opens up some intersting options. It means that based on the performance of PCs, events from LFR might find their way into the novels. It means that events in the novels might open up paths for future adventures for LFR.

Instead of being in a separate "reflection" of the Realms we're shaping the Realms as we go. Mind, we haven't had the opportunity to stir up world-altering events yet, but that time may yet still come.

Three months between adventures in a particular storyline is just too long for people to remember what's going on, I think. In two years I'll be able to go back and play all the Tymanther mods back-to-back, I guess, but I don't think that really cuts it.

I've heard it mentioned that mods are selected through 2010. That means the decisions our characters are making today will affect the world not tomorrow, but in two years. That seems like an awful long disconnect between character action and environmental reaction, to me. People's attention spans aren't that long, particularly newcomers to the game. If the SUPPLY of modules is so rich, the Fair Market Price Shawn mentioned should (eventually) come down, and Wizards should be able to purchase more. Theoretically. Really, though, Fair Market Price should be way lower, given that the suppliers (authors) are willing to pretty much volunteer, right?

It depends. I haven't heard it said that mods are selected from now to 2010, but let's assume that's true.

That could still mean that what's been selected is the "final version" of a module - but rather a module concept - an outline, if you will. It might be as simple as "The players go into the Shadowfell to pickup a MacGuffin opposed by . Average results from 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 will affect the flavor of this module".

This would mean that 3-6 months after a module's premier the Admins are collating the results and using that to "steer" future mods - while still keeping a general plot outline.

As for the costs being paid I believe one of the Global Admins said that part of the reason for purchasing mods is to help protect the IP rights of the Forgotten Realms at the suggestion from WotC/Hasbro Legal. I can't speak to the veracity of this statement, but it would seem to fit the situation.

Another facet that makes it difficult to engage players in particular storylines is that, by retirement, my character will most likely have played a total of nine Tymanther mods. You can't really develop just all that much in nine adventures.

I hope Wizards will eventually refine its model to make us happy customers, but it takes financial stimulus to get a corporation to act, and, since it doesn't directly make anything off of LFR, we probably won't ever be able to provide that stimulus.

Well, in an organized play environment, what the players want is typically taken under advisement. In addition to posting here, I'd try to contact your Regional point-of-contact with your concerns - just to make sure your comments are being heard by the administration, and run up the chain accordingly.

eudemonist wrote:

We can shape as we go only as long as we shape things the way Wizards wants them shaped.

This is true to a point, but we are working toward creating situations where the happenings in the campaign can shape FR. It is certainly not going to be the "Wild West" where anything goes, but hopefully we will get to the point where the players of the campaign shape not only the campaign itself, but the world itself.

eudemonist wrote:

My point was that it seems like there is a pretty ready supply of modules, and, according to economics, when supply is great, Fair Market Price goes down, which might (perhaps) allow for purchasing of more mods at the same cost to WotC.

Fair market price goes beyond just WotC. We are talking about fair market price for RPG adventures, and for the publishing world in general.

Shawn

eudemonist wrote:

What about paragraph 3? That was the "important" stuff.

Heh. Yeah. I know I sound like a broken record, but it is all in the works. We have regions in talks to create a cross/multi-regional series that would premiere consecutively, giving people the ability to run them one after another to create an instant and fully playable plot arc. We are talking about doing the same thing with Cores and regionals. The players have shared great ideas, some we have been working on since we first met with Chris at DDXP a year ago, and some that are just germinating now.

Shawn
LFR Global Admin