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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 5:16PM
#1
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Given the amount of RPGA I play, I'm not looking forward to the retirement of the Year 1 adventures. New adventures aren't really being released at a rate to replace those being retired, and the amount of adventures currently available is barely enough to avoid replaying the same adventures too much.
My thoughts on it are this:
1. 3rd party fan updates to old Adventures to bring them in line with Monster Manual 3 and Rules Compendium(skills) guidelines.
2. Running retired mods as MYREs.
...whatever
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 6:04PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jan 27, 2009
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Some of the older mods I plan on running as MYRE as is mainly because I don't have the time to rework them.
A few others that I love the concept of I plan on fixing the skill challenge DCs, updating the monsters to MM3 expressions or changing the monsters and maybe changing up the skill challenges a bit to meet the evolution of skill challenges then run as MYRE adventures.
Either way, I don't think the retired mods will ever die, while 4th ed is alive, but they may be evloved into similar but slightly different mods in groups around the world.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 6:51PM
#3
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Some of the older mods really don't make sense anymore because time has passed in the FR just as it has in the real world. For example, older mods may involve NPCs that are now dead. Or the PCs are working for an NPC that is revealed to be an evil mastermind in later adventures. Or other silliness.
I actually saw this one in play: a PC wielding lesser Shadowbane playing the Bane of Shadows trilogy. "We're looking for this powerful sword that fights shadow!"
*player holds up Shadowbane*
"Oh, this thing? I have it right here. We don't actually need to go on the quest anymore, right?"
Mechanically many of the older mods were pretty bad as well. People were still trying to figure out 4e at that time and fumbling around trying to figure out what would make a good adventure. No offense to those authors, but some of the earliest mods were terrible. The campaign has learned a lot over the years about what makes a fun and interesting adventure.
So... Why exactly is it important to keep the old mods alive? The mechanics are generally bad and the stories generally don't make sense anymore. I don't see the benefit of playing retired year 1 adventures (that players have probably replayed several times already). If someone just wants to play, there is plenty of 4e content out there that can be used in LFR as a MYRE. Good, quality content that is probably much less effort to adjust for LFR than updating Year 1 LFR mods. (Really, you can play any adventure out there and call it a MYRE without needing to adjust anything at all.)
Lori Anderson
WotC Freelancer, LFR author
@LittleLorika
CALI3-3 The Agony of Almraiven (co-author)
NETH4-1 Containing Shadow (co-author)
CALI4-1 Plain of Stone Spiders (author)
QUES4-1 Liberation (co-author)
EPIC5-1 Plaguewrought Prism (co-author)
ADCP5-2 The Best Defense (co-author)
EPIC5-3 *Untitled* (co-author)
TotalCon: http://www.totalcon.com/RolePlaying.html
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 7:03PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jan 27, 2009
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Some of the older mods really don't make sense anymore because time has passed in the FR just as it has in the real world. For example, older mods may involve NPCs that are now dead. Or the PCs are working for an NPC that is revealed to be an evil mastermind in later adventures. Or other silliness.
I actually saw this one in play: a PC wielding lesser Shadowbane playing the Bane of Shadows trilogy. "We're looking for this powerful sword that fights shadow!"
*player holds up Shadowbane*
"Oh, this thing? I have it right here. We don't actually need to go on the quest anymore, right?"
Mechanically many of the older mods were pretty bad as well. People were still trying to figure out 4e at that time and fumbling around trying to figure out what would make a good adventure. No offense to those authors, but some of the earliest mods were terrible. The campaign has learned a lot over the years about what makes a fun and interesting adventure.
So... Why exactly is it important to keep the old mods alive? The mechanics are generally bad and the stories generally don't make sense anymore. I don't see the benefit of playing retired year 1 adventures (that players have probably replayed several times already). If someone just wants to play, there is plenty of 4e content out there that can be used in LFR as a MYRE. Good, quality content that is probably much less effort to adjust for LFR than updating Year 1 LFR mods. (Really, you can play any adventure out there and call it a MYRE without needing to adjust anything at all.)
This is all true, yes, but at the same time with a name change and a slight adjustment to skillchallenges and monster damage calculations you can make Alone or Flames of Initiation still as relevant today as it was at the beginning.
I don't see the original mods as bad, but they could use some sprucing up. I'm more than happy to still run most of the year 1 content as MYRE and often newer players are asking to be abel to play these mods as other mods they've played are calling for them as intros to their story.
Will all groups keep the old mods alive? No. Will there still be these old mods fkoating around at local cons and gems days? For sure.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 7:45PM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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I started running lots of old Year 1 modules on the VT with people new to LFR and with some experienced players that din't necessarly played them before or had no revelant Story Awards that ruined the adventure (to this date) and some adventures have good investigation and fun Roleplay opportunities etc...
But many fullfilled their job very well. We played and had fun. That must matters.
Oly reproach i'd make is that they are too easy with today's PC Rosters and need to be all played at High Tier practically systematically and often need a little bit of DME.
I wish them to not be retired. Because we will loose may be more than 30% of the LFR adventures vault the day it happens and as it was observed, the newer adventures don't roll out as fast.
I am in favor of the thecasualoblivion's suggestions too.
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 9:14PM
#6
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Some of the older mods really don't make sense anymore because time has passed in the FR just as it has in the real world. For example, older mods may involve NPCs that are now dead. Or the PCs are working for an NPC that is revealed to be an evil mastermind in later adventures. Or other silliness.
I actually saw this one in play: a PC wielding lesser Shadowbane playing the Bane of Shadows trilogy. "We're looking for this powerful sword that fights shadow!"
*player holds up Shadowbane*
"Oh, this thing? I have it right here. We don't actually need to go on the quest anymore, right?"
Mechanically many of the older mods were pretty bad as well. People were still trying to figure out 4e at that time and fumbling around trying to figure out what would make a good adventure. No offense to those authors, but some of the earliest mods were terrible. The campaign has learned a lot over the years about what makes a fun and interesting adventure.
So... Why exactly is it important to keep the old mods alive? The mechanics are generally bad and the stories generally don't make sense anymore. I don't see the benefit of playing retired year 1 adventures (that players have probably replayed several times already). If someone just wants to play, there is plenty of 4e content out there that can be used in LFR as a MYRE. Good, quality content that is probably much less effort to adjust for LFR than updating Year 1 LFR mods. (Really, you can play any adventure out there and call it a MYRE without needing to adjust anything at all.)
That is no worse than participating in every session of SPEC 1-3, despite the fact that all of the individual adventures supposedly happen on the same day. No worse than my Fighter, who played CORE 1-15 after having played NETH 3-1 and NETH 3-2.
...whatever
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2 years ago ::
Nov 15, 2011 - 12:35AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Jan 26, 2005
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I recall a statement that no adventures would be retired
without several months notice. Therefore we can ignore
the published retirement dates inside of the adventures.
Note new adventures do not have any retirement dates.
Globals, please feel free to correct me if I am incorrect.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 15, 2011 - 2:53AM
#8
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I recall a statement that no adventures would be retired
without several months notice. Therefore we can ignore
the published retirement dates inside of the adventures.
Note new adventures do not have any retirement dates.
Globals, please feel free to correct me if I am incorrect.
The year 1 adventures will retire next year. You are correct though that the exact date is up for grabs though, and we are working on an announcement.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 15, 2011 - 3:24PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2007
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I do not know the official position regarding play of retired LFR adventures using the MyRealms, but I am fairly confident that you would have to downsize treasure and xp to MyRealms standards, as a minimum.
Keith
Keith Hoffman
LFR Writing Director for Waterdeep
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2 years ago ::
Nov 16, 2011 - 6:49AM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 29, 2001
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I do not know the official position regarding play of retired LFR adventures using the MyRealms, but I am fairly confident that you would have to downsize treasure and xp to MyRealms standards, as a minimum.
That makes sense.
The existing MYRE packet has two different things that could be interpreted to either allow or disallow 're-skinning' of retired adventures:
Allowable -
"You may not rewrite, replace or re-skin an existing active Living Forgotten Realms adventure."
Since this refers only to active adventures, the implication is that inactive or retired adventures would be fair game, as long as they were adapted to follow MYRE guidelines for XP, treasure, story awards, etc.
Not Allowable -
"You cannot use material from a third-party publisher in your adventures, nor may you use publicly unavailable content that is the property of Wizards of the Coast."
The provided example is a monster stat block from an upcoming but as yet unpublished monster book, but if all LFR adventures are the property of WotC (and the blurb at the bottom of the title page of each LFR adventure seems to say that they are), then as soon as those adventures are no longer publicly available, the 'content' in the adventures is no longer allowable for use in MYRE adventures. Hard to imagine how you could MYRE an old adventure when all the 'content' in that adventure becomes disallowed.
--
Pauper
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