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bhale187 wrote:

I can appreciate that opinion, but it's still my opinion that playing a more difficult adventure should have reward outside of faster advancement. I don't think the system offers that reward, gp is essentially the same over the course of the character life, basically the difference comes down to the chance of getting a higher power magic item(s) at the expense of less magic items to choose from at any given level.

It's obviously a matter of opinion, and it appears no ones opinion is going to be swayed on this. Appearantly the half dozen of so people who have weighed in here think the current system is a proper reward for high and low tier play, the people I play with locally and I disagree.

I hate to say it, but your opinion is meaningless. One of the people who chimed in with the opposite opinion is a Regional Writing Director and another person who chimed in with the opposite opinion is a Global Director.

And, even if you ignore those two, WotC makes it very clear in the DMG that the game (D&D, not RPGA) is designed on the principle that treasure earned is based on level and should be roughly the same for any two adventuring parties of equal level, regardless of difficulty of encounters in the campaigns they are playing in. Based on that philosophy, WotC built the RPGA treasure system to try to simulate that (and it does a pretty good job of it).

You really need to stop seeing RPGA as a competition to be better than the next guy. It isn't. It is a shared, cooperative experience.

-SYB

bhale187 wrote:

I can appreciate that opinion, but it's still my opinion that playing a more difficult adventure should have reward outside of faster advancement.

Unfortunately, your premises are incorrect, though the internally inconsistent presentation of adventures doesn't help.

Under DM empowerment, "playing a more difficult adventure" is a meaningless statement.

Here's the newRPGA paradigm:

• The author writes a module containing what he considers an appropriate challenge for the stated level.
  
• The DM is free to modify the adventure in any way he feels necessary to maximize the fun of the table, and can increase or decrease the difficulty level of combats and other challenges in any way he feels appropriate.  The goal is to have fun; whether you objectively beat the challenges the author wrote is irrelevant.
  
• Rewards vary based on the level of the group, in order to keep relatively close to core assumptions as to what a level X PC should have.  It does not matter whether a DM felt it necessary to double the number of enemies you face or halve them, you still get the same rewards.

• A group whose levels fall into the bottom half of the level band can choose to face challenges appropriate for PCs at the upper half of the level band, and receive the rewards appropriate for PCs of the higher level instead of the rewards for PCs of their level.

SYB wrote:

I hate to say it, but your opinion is meaningless. One of the people who chimed in with the opposite opinion is a Regional Writing Director and another person who chimed in with the opposite opinion is a Global Director.

And, even if you ignore those two, WotC makes it very clear in the DMG that the game (D&D, not RPGA) is designed on the principle that treasure earned is based on level and should be roughly the same for any two adventuring parties of equal level, regardless of difficulty of encounters in the campaigns they are playing in. Based on that philosophy, WotC built the RPGA treasure system to try to simulate that (and it does a pretty good job of it).

You really need to stop seeing RPGA as a competition to be better than the next guy. It isn't. It is a shared, cooperative experience.

-SYB

And you really need to stop telling others how they should play and enjoy a game don't you think?

Competition is a part of life, and more importantly a part of this and every other game. You and every other PC is picking your items for the purpose of making your character more effective at whatever they do. If you want to look at character advancement and magic items obtained as a furtherance of the team goal goal so be it, but it's still a competition within the game to be better. Otherwise everyone would only be picking items that don't benefit them.

smerwin29 wrote:

I need to add here that no one's opinion doesn't matter. All opinions count, even if those opinions are not going to bring about change. I welcome all opinions, as those opinions help in many ways: possibly bringing about change, helping people understand why things are the way they are, or just illuminating why someone may be off-track on something. Sometimes the same people saying the same opinion over and over again gets wearisome to listen to, but that's why they invented the IGNORE function. :-)

Now back to the topic at hand--it is fine to feel that you should get some extra reward for playing the high-tier version of an adventure. However, the campaign is trying to keep the wealth-to-XP ratio consistent. And WotC is trying to remove the focus on competitive play from the campaign as well. So other than what has already described above, and a big old "attaboy" from me, playing up is not greater than playing down. Opinions and feelings understood, but I don't see this changing anytime soon.

Thanks,

Shawn

Understood, and I appreciate the sentiment. I understand you can't make everyone happy, and honestly I'm not at all unhappy with LFR. I'll still play 'up' for the challenge, and still enjoy the adventures LFR is offering. I was just saying I'd like to have seen a treasure reward higher for high tier.