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3 years ago ::
May 09, 2010 - 5:16PM
#51
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The Global Admins are considering the option of reducing the number of regions starting in 2011 as well as other changes to the campaign. Some of their ideas have been submitted to WotC and we are waiting on feedback/approval/disapproval.
Keith
I hope that starting character above one is not a change. (Yes I know theres another thread)
So far the changes are making me worry much more than hope. Thats an honest statement not hyperbole.
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3 years ago ::
May 09, 2010 - 7:31PM
#52
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2002
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But think about if you started LFR right now, knowing roughly how much you would play the mods and having a general idea from a friend "Hey, here are where the better LFR mods are."
That assumes that choosing adventures is my only constraint. See, I hate replaying. So, my top priority as a player is to try something new. A new H3 comes out, and it is in Waterdeep. My Waterdeep PC is 16, so let's look at who we have that can play it. Well, my Invoker hasn't played it, and has one other Waterdeep mod, so I'll play it with them.
As you know, I hate replaying too. But there are roughly 120 something mods/year. You could go to 6 conventions and play 6 mods each and then on top of it play a mod a week, and you're really only coming close to 3/4s of the available mods.
People really do have the ability to say, "Hey, there are more mods than I can play. I'm going to set up characters designed to wait on the mods to come out." - 3 regions seems to be the right number for focused play.
My LFR is usually limited to once a week, a saturday game about once every two months, and about two conventions. I know I'm not playing everything, so I don't have to rush to play things as soon as they come out.
Edit: I almost failed to note a really important point that just dawned on me. As I was looking over my ARs, every out-of-region mod was really memorable.
By definition, though, you're usually meeting a whole bunch of new players and learning how the rest of the world plays D&D. Almost any mod can be more exciting in that context, especially when you surprise them or they surprise you. And most people going to conventions are more serious about gaming. I'm pretty good with codes. At a battle interactive for the last Weekend in Dyvers, I shocked the table by decoding the coded message we found in real time. As in I read the 1st 5-6 words or so out loud as soon as the DM showed it to us. The expression on the DM's face will stay with me a long time.
When you play out of region now, odds are you are playing with the groups of people you normally play with for the most part...so you miss out on some of that surprise and shock value.
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3 years ago ::
May 09, 2010 - 8:36PM
#53
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Date Joined:
Jul 16, 2002
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Yeah, it took a while. Years, in some regions. We learned a lot over time.
Is there any reason we can't take the best of what we learned from LG on fun, immersion, and community, and apply it to LFR?
Or do we have to throw everything out, start all over and make all the same mistakes again?
Well, if you form community and immersion then you are a "hardcore elitist gamer" who doesn't want new poeple to experience the campaign and whose cliqish hate-mongering behavior knows no bounds. At least according to the thread discussing starting characters over 1st level. 
In all seriousness, I feel the issue on immersion was a bad combination between regions releasing 1/2 as many mods per year than they did in LG (It's hard to get much goign with a 4+1 release schedule for a region per year) and to top it off, the first year was focusing more on trying to release a wide variety of mods to allow peopel to advance instead of keeping the campaign progressing more linearly. Our first wave of mods was H1, next set was H2, next was H3, etc. Add to the combo that all of the story arcs jumped level bands and it made it worse. You did the first part in H1, 2nd part was in H2, and third was in H3.
Sorry WOTC, you lost me with Essentials. So where I used to buy every book that came out, now I will be very choosy about what I buy. Can we just get back to real 4e? Check out the 4e Conversion Wiki. 1. Wizards fight dirty. They hit their enemies in the NADs. -- Dragon9 2. A barbarian hits people with his axe. A warlord hits people with his barbarian. 3. Boo-freakin'-hoo, ya light-slingin' finger-wigglers. -- MrCelcius in response to the Cleric's Healer's Lore nerf
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3 years ago ::
May 10, 2010 - 7:46AM
#54
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2007
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If you are thinking of reducing mods, please consider cutting the "CORE" series so that more focus can be placed on the regional adventures. 12 regions was spreading the campaign, and adding the CORE just spreads it out even more.
I like the thought of a dedicated regional reviewer maintaining the flavor across a region. Continue to do this.
If you are keeping any CORE, please consider using them to "set-up" cross-regional quests/arcs/etc.
Save the other regions for SPECs, ADAPs, and MINIs.
Dan Anderson
@EpicUthrac
Living Forgotten Realms Calimshan Writing Director
Living Forgotten Realms Epic Writing Director
Meet me at TotalConfusion:
http://www.totalcon.com/RolePlaying.html
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3 years ago ::
May 10, 2010 - 8:31AM
#55
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Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2008
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I'd go the other way than Uthrac. Core adventures are a good way to bring up "global" threats and to play in areas other than the main regions. As much as folks might not like loosing their favorite region I'd really stick with removing one or more of the regions. You could even consolidate regions rather than loosing them entirely.
Of course, that's only if you're going to try and reduce the region count or try to consolidate staff for some reason.
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3 years ago ::
May 10, 2010 - 11:23AM
#56
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Date Joined:
Jul 13, 2008
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Rambling, random thoughts on stuff I'd like to see -
Recurring threats to the Realm.
As things seem to me now, you have one or two mods, then BAM! threats gone and you get the quest reward.
Now, if we could have lots of mods where this threat was just lurking in the background (example: That daughter your rescuing was kidnapped by thugs trying to prove themselves to the Zhents). Mods dealing with parts of the threat (Example: Zhents chasing gnolls into another area and then seeking employment to kill those gnolls.) Which finally lead up to a big confrontation (Zhent Special).
Instead of the few mods we had leading up to it.
Do think the "In Slumber Remains" quest line is doing a little better with the for-shadowing. Would be fun to see some mods actually dealing with the separate tasks. (Something along the lines of a scholar interested in the moldy tome and thinks there's a ruin that can help him figure it out - need adventures.)
OK, enough rambling.
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3 years ago ::
May 10, 2010 - 11:38AM
#57
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Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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I'd go the other way than Uthrac. Core adventures are a good way to bring up "global" threats and to play in areas other than the main regions. As much as folks might not like loosing their favorite region I'd really stick with removing one or more of the regions. You could even consolidate regions rather than loosing them entirely.
Of course, that's only if you're going to try and reduce the region count or try to consolidate staff for some reason.
Frankly, I think that Heroic tier modules should all be local regional adventures, Paragon tier modules should be regional adventures linked with other regions, and Epic tier modules should be core adventures that span multiple regions.
Throw in the occasional exception if you like, but I'm not really sure that level 3 adventurers should really be part of multiple-region-spanning story arcs in 4E - that is clearly a paragon thing.
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3 years ago ::
May 10, 2010 - 11:43PM
#58
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- Dragon Slayer
- If only he would apply himself
- Dammit Jim, this is Star Trek, not D&D!
Date Joined:
Jan 31, 2006
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I'm not a big fan of core adventures as a concept. They really work best as spot visits to fantastic/iconic locales. But, any core that just happens to be in place x and could be instead in place y...
I would really like Cores to take a back seat to regionals. While I get the globe-threat concept of Epic, there is no reason why it can't be based in a region and impacting others. Abolethic Sovereignty is a good example: It can happen in any of several Sea of Fallen Stars and can certainly be regional/meta-regional, but a large enough threat affects the whole Realms. It can still be a regional adventure.
Ok, getting on a plane and out of touch (probably) for the week.
Follow my blog and Twitter feed with Dark Sun campaign design and DM tips! Dark Sun's Ashes of Athas Campaign is now available for home play (PM me with your e-mail to order the campaign adventures).
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3 years ago ::
May 15, 2010 - 1:32PM
#59
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Date Joined:
Apr 19, 2008
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I don't have any news on the backlog, but I have overhead the Globals discussing bits and pieces of the problem. I'll ask for an official quote on the matter, but I know it's something that's very much on their minds right now.
Poke on the backlog question. All of this other discussion is kind of interesting, but ultimately pointless if modules don't get released. What is going on?
D&D rules were never meant to exist without the presence of a DM. RAW is a lie.
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3 years ago ::
May 17, 2010 - 8:46AM
#60
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Poke on the backlog question. All of this other discussion is kind of interesting, but ultimately pointless if modules don't get released. What is going on?
The issue has been covered, in depth, in numerous threads in the "LFR Adventures" sub-forum, including this thread:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
In short, we *have* had several modules come out over the past few weeks; it does look like the logjam is beginning to break up.
"Of course [Richard] has a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. It's 1183, and we're barbarians!" - Eleanor of Aquitaine, "The Lion in Winter"
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