Late mods:
- BALD1-5 (sometime before the dawn of time...
- CORE1-16 (11/04)
- IMPI1-6 (11/11)
- AKAN1-6 (11/19)
- TYMA1-7 (12/2)
- EAST1-7 (12/16)
- AGLA1-7 (12/23)
- SPEC1-3 (1/4/2010)
The word is that there is now no official release date on these modules, because they're so late. I would think that SPEC1-3 wouldn't be too hard to release, seeing as how it's already done. Now that DDXP has come and gone (and I was there!!), hopefully things will move along a little more quickly now.
Damon
Just as a quick update, I wouldn't expect to see any new adventures going into the database for downloads at least until December 1. Just to save people from asking.
You would think that when someone goes on a long vacation, he might delegate his responsibilities to someone else during his absense.... especially when those responsibilities are quite trivial* and impact so many people.
*adding PDF files to a database seems trivial, at least...
Well, damn.
Ok, at least now we know ... thanks, Shawn, I appreciate the update.
Just as a quick update, I wouldn't expect to see any new adventures going into the database for downloads at least until December 1. Just to save people from asking.
You would think that when someone goes on a long vacation, he might delegate his responsibilities to someone else during his absense.... especially when those responsibilities are quite trivial* and impact so many people.
*adding PDF files to a database seems trivial, at least...
December 1st is only seven business days away.
Just as a quick update, I wouldn't expect to see any new adventures going into the database for downloads at least until December 1. Just to save people from asking.
You would think that when someone goes on a long vacation, he might delegate his responsibilities to someone else during his absense.... especially when those responsibilities are quite trivial* and impact so many people.
*adding PDF files to a database seems trivial, at least...
December 1st is only seven business days away.
...and when was the last database update? 10+ business days is a long vacation in any business.
Is this possible? I'm doubting it, given how many mods will need to be released after vacations are over, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
Damon
It'd be nice if the AKAN admin/writing director could tell us if they've handed it in to HQ (Tulach). At least then we could have some hope that it will be ready on the 1st. (ditto EAST1-6).
Wonder if it was worth the wait?
Just as a quick update, I wouldn't expect to see any new adventures going into the database for downloads at least until December 1. Just to save people from asking.
Okay, today is the 1st. May I ask what mods have been submitted and are in processing?
Thanks...
Damon
Not available to me as either public or private, either.
Engrish Transration Plobrem!
Since when does "these mods are late" mean that they are now available for downloading?
Damon
Damon
PS. Now name where "Engrish Transration Plobrem" comes from for extra geek points.
Yep, that's the same list that Kenny posted earlier that we didn't see on sanction. So, direct download possible, but not yet displaying in system. Interesting.
Where are you looking that you can't see it? I only ever go looking in the Event Sanctioning part of the DCI login.
Damon
Yep, that's the same list that Kenny posted earlier that we didn't see on sanction. So, direct download possible, but not yet displaying in system. Interesting.
So where do you go to find the direct download?
Even tried to get a mod I have downloaded the regular way and it did not work. I am not super computer knowledgeable and do not know how to do a direct download from the site.
webapp.wizards.com/download/adventure/TY...
Better yet, would someone please sticky this? A VCL just posted a *third* copy of this list, so you know the subject will keep coming up again and again... *sighs*
Oy! Just for that, no sticky for joo!
Better yet, would someone please sticky this? A VCL just posted a *third* copy of this list, so you know the subject will keep coming up again and again... *sighs*
Oy! Just for that, no sticky for joo!
To be fair that VCL is notoriously scatterbrained!
(Yes, I do see the holiday listings on the content calendar, but it's entirely possible that Tulach and other staff either cut out earlier or show up between Christmas and New Year's.)
There's a local convention that has scheduled AGLA1-7 to be played the weekend after New Year's, which strikes me as having an ample supply of optimism.
Chris will be out of the office after today until Jan 4th.
Keith
Chris will be out of the office after today until Jan 4th.
Keith
Hmmm . . . does this mean there will be no Q1 2010 release schedule available until, well, Q1 2010?
(Puts a crimp in the plans for those of us scheduling cons in Q1.)
Late mods:
- BALD1-5 (sometime before the dawn of time...
- CORE1-15 (10/28)
- CORE1-16 (11/04)
- IMPI1-6 (11/11)
- AKAN1-6 (11/19)
- EAST1-6 (11/19)
- TYMA1-7 (12/2)
- MOON1-7 (12/9)
- AKAN1-7 (12/16) -- shows up as available to order but there's no link to download it
- EAST1-7 (12/16)
- MINI1-5 (12/16)
There are now eleven mods that are late, ten from this quarter. I realize that getting things ready for DDXP is having an impact on getting these out the door, but this is getting ridiculous.
When can we have any reasonable expectation of seeing these? I'm guessing not until after the first of the new year, but I'd really like an official word on the matter.
Damon
what?
There are now eleven mods that are late, ten from this quarter. I realize that getting things ready for DDXP is having an impact on getting these out the door, but this is getting ridiculous.
I would guess the need to have errata commentary immediately may also have played a part.
I, for one, think we should all go out and enjoy the freshfreezing air.
what?
What next? Are you going to recommend that we take time off to be with family and friends, have eggnog, decorate trees, light Menorahs, enjoy the holidays, play in the snow...
actually, that's really good advice!
(And I have a ton of mods I haven't played anyway. I'm actuallly all for fewer mods released per quarter...)
All I can tell you is that we are working as quickly as we can to try and get the backlogged adventures out the door. This is not a situation that we are unaware of. Frankly, trying to do two sets of adventures in one quarter was probably a bit too ambitious. Of course we all liked the idea of the "bonus adventure" (which came from Living Greyhawk) when we were putting the schedule together but in the end it has turned out to be a much higher (compressed) workload than we were thinking. Add the fact that a good two-thirds of our Q1 2010 releases also have to be ready in the very near future so that they can be slot zeroed for DDXP, and in essence we are trying to finish 2.5 quarters' worth of adventures nearly simultaneously.
There are two schools of thought here (probably equally valid). It might have been better for us not to announce the bonus adventures at all, release them whenever we could find the time to work on them (perhaps throughout the year), and have them count as a pleasant surprise. Then we would get credit for doing more than what we said we would do (assuming we also did the things we said we would do, which for the most part, we have... and no, I haven't forgotten about BALD1-5, and yes, it's still coming.)
On the other hand, if you don't set the bar high, you often don't achieve as much as you would have achieved, even if you fall short of that high bar. If we had not announced all the extra adventures then we would have had less incentive to try and work extra hours to get them out the door; a deadline that nobody knows about isn't necessarily a deadline at all... human nature makes it very easy and tempting to forgive ourselves. By targeting (roughly) twice as many releases as a typical quarter, we established certain expectations; in trying to meet those expectations (generating the necessary amount of content), the end result is that the players are eventually going to get more adventures than they would have gotten otherwise, but we look bad as a campaign staff because we are now way (way) off vs. our projected release schedule.
None of that helps people who are waiting on overdue releases, I know; but maybe it gives you some insight into what's going on behind the scenes. We really appreciate everybody's patience and your continued support of the campaign. I know it is irritating when we say something is going to come out on date X and it doesn't. Nobody ever sets out to make that happen and there's been a lot more of a snowball effect over the last 4-5 weeks than any of us could possibly be happy with on the campaign staff.
Now, I have to get back to my pile of adventures.
I know someone mentioned that Chris Tulach is out of the office for the rest of the year, and that's true; however, we do still have a window for some adventures to be released next week, and we're all trying to get as much of the remaining 2009 release schedule out as we possibly can before that window closes. Ideally we wouldn't go into 2010 with any 2009 releases hanging over our heads, but I don't know if we will quite make that milestone or not. It seems unlikely but we should at least close the gap.
What next? Are you going to recommend that we take time off to be with family and friends, have eggnog, decorate trees, light Menorahs, enjoy the holidays, play in the snow...
actually, that's really good advice!
Blasphemy.
Sounds fun.
Frankly, trying to do two sets of adventures in one quarter was probably a bit too ambitious.
You know, bonus adventures don't have to all come out at the same time. Maybe plan them for several quarters next time and then you don't have to do 2x the work with the same number of people. You can make it 1.2x or 1.5x and be more likely to deliver. Or go and find twice the number of staff to help out.
Given that you've tried to do 2x, perhaps we can all cut you guys some slack, and let you try and catch up. Still, we're a demanding lot, so YMMV.
Thanks for the thorough post!
Two questions:
(1) Will 2009 shceduled-release mods that get pushed into 2010 be available for public and private play as soon as they are released, or will they go into the 3-month-wait queue for private play?
(2) Will the 2010 Q1 release schedule be available soon? (Looking ahead as to what to anticipate for Q1 conventions in 2010.)
Thanks for your Herculean efforts towards meeting the 2009 schedule, and keep the bar high - both for release dates and for quality. (I've been VERY impressed with the overall quality of the Q4 2009 mods, and remain excited about what is coming in 2010!)
All I can tell you is that we are working as quickly as we can to try and get the backlogged adventures out the door. This is not a situation that we are unaware of. Frankly, trying to do two sets of adventures in one quarter was probably a bit too ambitious. Of course we all liked the idea of the "bonus adventure" (which came from Living Greyhawk) when we were putting the schedule together but in the end it has turned out to be a much higher (compressed) workload than we were thinking. Add the fact that a good two-thirds of our Q1 2010 releases also have to be ready in the very near future so that they can be slot zeroed for DDXP, and in essence we are trying to finish 2.5 quarters' worth of adventures nearly simultaneously.
What I would recommend is to pick a quarter where you don't have an imminent convention hanging over your heads. While there are no quarters where you don't have ANY impact, the first quarter would probably be better than any other. Even though the first month of the quarter is probably going to be slow going because of DDXP, the next two months wouldn't be overshadowed by ANY convention.
It's up to you, of course. Another good idea that was just suggested is to spread the bonus adventures out over the whole year, but then I'm sure you'd get people griping that their favorite region's bonus mod will come out after some other region's bonus mod. You can't please everyone. Fun, innit? ;-p
Damon
I mean, if we just assume a mod a week and that you are responsible for 1/3 of those... with some being largely done by the regional admins (but the cores being all you)... that's still insane. Reading the adventures alone would break some of us, especially when you add reading playtest reports. Then they have to actually make comments and approve the final bit and send it to Tulach. That's really rough. And we haven't included all the other things (planning cons, discussing CCG/errata/rewards/new stuff/etc., writing Dragon articles, etc.).
It all sounds pretty insane to me. 
I have to imagine that most of us would cry "uncle" and go get some (spiked) eggnog.
I really feel the number of adventures is too high. It is high enough to make casual players feel like they are far behind. It is high enough to possibly water down quality. It is high enough to pull attention from larger campaign issues. It is high enough to make our admins lose their minds.
I'm not an admin, of course. Maybe these super-beings are doing just fine. Walk in the park and all.
Probably I should end this by saying, "Thank you, global and regional admins! Do try to enjoy your holidays!"
(1) Will 2009 shceduled-release mods that get pushed into 2010 be available for public and private play as soon as they are released, or will they go into the 3-month-wait queue for private play?
(2) Will the 2010 Q1 release schedule be available soon? (Looking ahead as to what to anticipate for Q1 conventions in 2010.)
Well, I don't personally control either of these things, but...
(1) I would expect that the remaining 2009 adventures will not fall under the "three months public play" policy. They were scheduled to be released before that policy comes into effect and so they shouldn't be subject to it (in my opinion).
(2) I know for a fact that Chris has been working on the Q1 2010 release schedule, because we were just talking about it.
I also know that he wants to get it posted before the Wizards offices shut down for the year on December 23rd. I am not sure what information he still needs or what remaining process steps he has to follow internally in order to make that happen, however, so I cannot promise that it will definitely get posted by then.YMMV, but as a regional director, I was not incredibly stressed by turning out two LFR adventures in one quarter. Having said that, truth in advertising, with Claire, we are two for the price of one, so maybe that is a "duh," it should be easy.
Keith
I, for one, think we should all go out and enjoy the freshfreezing air.
what?
Nooo! The sun burns!!!
We're now moving into a six-month period when (for home play, which I'm reasonably confident in saying is where the majority of LFR play takes place) we're going to have three months' worth of adventures spread over five level bands.
It will be interesting to see how the campaign reacts to moving from feast to famine mode.
Also, keep in mind that the overabundance of modules in one quarter served a useful function in masking any problems that might otherwise have been caused by the need to put out a slate of enough L11-14 modules to satisfy paragon PCs. I am curious to see how the campaign staff will balance the desires of those wanting L14-17 adventures and those wanting new L1-14 ones, without this cushion.
The 11 bonus regional adventures in Q4 were all in Heroic tier, but half of the 1-6 adventures were P1, so the distribution was mixed. Like Q3 when LFR started in Paragon, in Q1, you should expect COREs, Specials, and such to provide P2 play. There will be sufficient P2 adventures out in time for when the P3 adventures appear, but not enough to advance one level band in one quarter. A similar schema for P3 is planned to get the play up to Epic. With new Heroic Tier adventures coming out, new players and players wanting to start new characters will have new content, (or just continue playing Heroic Tier characters) but not so much as at the campaign start.
Keith
AKAN 1-6
BALD 1-5
CORE 1-16
EAST 1-7
IMPI 1-6
TYMA 1-7
Keith
Although, I don't currently see the other three in the ordering system either, so I'm not sure how you're able to see them.
If you know how the download links are structured you can check if the files are there.
I believe all adventures must be downloaded using the Sanctioning system. There have been posts deleted from this thread in the past, so it seems that remains the policy and we should refrain from discussing other methods.
On the one hand my players won't come to a convention I hold, if I don't have the latest and greatest adventures available.
On the other hand adventures that I order, that don't appear, makes me look like I can't work my ordering system. They get pissed and wait for a home game.
I put my reputation on the line, and front the money for hotel and printing, for a convention where I strive to break even. I don't get premiere modules like I do with other systems, or I did with Living Greyhawk.
I love making a con happen, but I hate it when I can't do a good job.
(And yes, it would be great if there were an RPGA page that tracked all mods out, late, revised, etc.)
Folks, do keep in mind that the rules always allow you to go to your regional admin and request and adventure that does not appear in the ordering system but which is out.
(And yes, it would be great if there were an RPGA page that tracked all mods out, late, revised, etc.)
Did that, our regional admins are great. They can't give me something that isn't done.
Well, a page exists:
community.wizards.com/lfr/wiki/Adventure...
but late mods are not updated with a new due date.
Keith
I have another major event (about 100 total players, and several hundred seats over 10 slots) to do in March.
I have to remember to be festive when the con starts! Put on my Pagliacci face! :-)
Also, you could plan a hard date for slot 0s that is 1.5 to 2 weeks in advance. Plan for adventures that will premiere in that time, but no later. If you reach that time and an adventure is not available, you can talk to the regional admin and substitute as necessary.
Just ideas for an imperfect situation. Hats off to con organizers for dealing with these difficult issues.
Where is MYRE1-4? I recall it was supposed to be released not long ago and I am not seeing it.
The adventure turned out to be more complex than anticipated, so the globals had to throw some more manpower at it. I'm sure it will be worth the wait when it's ready, though - I hear there are some really cool encounters!
Where is MYRE1-4? I recall it was supposed to be released not long ago and I am not seeing it.
The adventure turned out to be more complex than anticipated, so the globals had to throw some more manpower at it. I'm sure it will be worth the wait when it's ready, though - I hear there are some really cool encounters!
Dave, are you talking abour MYRE1-4 or another real "adventure"? MYRE1-4 is just the P1 MyRealms packet. Or, when you say really cool encounters do you mean regional MYRE1-4's plot hooks?
If you're talking about another true adventure and not a MYRE, I want to know which one!
I suspect that you could run your MYREs and just tell people to hold off putting in the effect til the packet is released. How much won't be predictable?Where is MYRE1-4? I recall it was supposed to be released not long ago and I am not seeing it.
The adventure turned out to be more complex than anticipated, so the globals had to throw some more manpower at it. I'm sure it will be worth the wait when it's ready, though - I hear there are some really cool encounters!
Dave, are you talking abour MYRE1-4 or another real "adventure"? MYRE1-4 is just the P1 MyRealms packet. Or, when you say really cool encounters do you mean regional MYRE1-4's plot hooks?
If you're talking about another true adventure and not a MYRE, I want to know which one!
Sorry, Don... I like to have a bit of fun with people from time to time without making it clear that I'm being facetious.
Sorry, Don... I like to have a bit of fun with people from time to time without making it clear that I'm being facetious.
LoL, thanks. I was all geared-up to hear about this adventure with really cool encounters, too! The humor is appreciated, though. And pretty funny now that I'm in on the joke.
Now, all I need to know is if warforged are an allowed race in LFR.
Happy New Year.
P.S. Sorry about the topic derailment.
Keith
I'm no one official, but you and other con organizers might consider reaching out to the regional admins in question with new mods you are planning on having at a convention.
Tried this on more than one occasion, sent mails to regional admins & my POC's without a glimmer of response. I have resigned myself to changing mods at the last minute, when the originals are weeks late.
Chris
Tarracon Organiser
If the regional is unresponsive, try going to the global. However, the globals are stretched a bit thin, depending on the time of year. Sorry!
There lies the problem.
In talking to people, it seems it takes forever to go from final author to release.
My problem is that the didn't do what they said they would do. Which is released on the due date, or announce a new one.
Any news on the Q1 2010 release schedule?
I heard via the grapevine that there is a moriatorium on all announcements on new adventures until after DDXP. Guess there is something big in the works?
Anyways, my group just put together a list of those adventures that we haven't played much over the last year and made our Jan/Feb schedule with that data
I heard via the grapevine that there is a moriatorium on all announcements on new adventures until after DDXP.
Not much help for those of us building a Con schedule in Q1. (Deadline for the program is DDXP weekend.)
I heard via the grapevine that there is a moriatorium on all announcements on new adventures until after DDXP.
Not much help for those of us building a Con schedule in Q1. (Deadline for the program is DDXP weekend.)
They know how to raise my blood pressure, and I have a CON in March! My BIGGEST SHOW for the year.
It's sad, but my recommendation to all convention organizers is not to to schedule things you don't physically have. My risk equation is basically at 8 weeks out, I'll risk 1-2 mods, and 12+ weeks out 3-4 mods. Beyond 16+ weeks I'll still only risk 3-4 mods, because they don't publish the next quarter schedule that far in advance. And always have a backup plan for EVERY mod you don't have.
The only adventures you can reliably count on are the DDXP/Origins/GenCon mods, and even then only if your event is 2-4 weeks after those (assume the mod gets approved the day of the big-3, you now have 2-4 weeks to zero/organize it).
It's also really important to get the mods early so you can properly vette them. I pulled BALD1-2 from a CON last year due to it running long; several other coordinators ditched SPEC1-2 for long run-time and un-fun TPK-fest. Similarly, CORM1-4 is on the "bad" list for being "un-fun without serious DME" and I've heard DALE1-6 can be too. See the other thread on paragon mod run-time issues as well (some mods take longer than others - CORE1-7 needs 5-6 hours to run in a convention environment).
Gone are the days of being able to get your regional story writer to give you your regional premiere, regional B.I., regional mini-missions and intro mods (which required minimal bureaucratic approval). It's safest to assume massive delays with WOTC.
* Showing that 2 adventures per region in 1 quarter is a tad too ambitious.
Lets not overreact with the "massive" delays here. Except for the last quarter*, the fast majority of adventures were released on time or within 1 week of its announced release date.
I don't think people are overreacting. Most stuff was released on time and ran smoothly, but when it didnt it was really bad. I went to a convention in November and they just weren't ready to handle the change in schedule of 3 or 4 modules not being out.
The grandpoobah post has some good advice if your planning to try a large event.
The fact that some modules won't be ready is something you have to be prepared for when scheduling large events. Most of the LFR staff are volunteers with lives, families and jobs, so not everything is going to come out on time. Why not just communicate that fact so people know ahead of time?
Typing out a quick memo "Chessenta 2-4 is 3 to 4 weeks behind schedule" isn't going to hurt anyone and doesn't take much time or effort, but does show a large degree of consideration to the community.
The only way to avoid this, is if we only announce release schedule for finished adventures, which either means late announcements (about which we get a lot of complaints as well right now) or an even longer pause between delivering a finished product and its release which also has its downsides.
Now, I don't know the status of most of the adventures. I have IMPI1-6 at the moment, but right now I am swamped with DDXP work. I don't know when I can give it a proper review. So how can I expect Chris to know when he can look at it? Or the web-people to upload it?
Having said that, we are aware of the issues in the last quarter of 2009 and we are looking at sollutions.
"Fewer mods. More quality. Fewer mods. More sanity." 
I have played some 80 adventures, which is far more than most of the people in my area. And, I have replayed some on top of that. That's a lot of play. In LG terms, I would have played all there was to play and then some.
And yet, there are some 50 adventures I have not played. 50!!! Really? Do we really need to put out so many adventures? I'm sure there is someone here who has played everything, but from what I can tell, the vast majority of posters, and I would guess LFR players, have yet to reach paragon.
We really can afford to publish fewer adventures and free up resources to make LFR a better campaign - the issues are known and what is needed is time, energy, and will. All suffer when everyone is busy.
If I try to think about how the tone has been on these boards (realizing that forums will always have more negative than positive), the tone went a bit south around GenCon as everyone involved had a crunch from convention season. I don't think the campaign ever recovered. Will things relent after D&DXP? And for how long... before you know it, PAX, then Origins, then GenCon...
There's MYRE and other ways to gain extra play if we need it, and I dont' mind replaying the really good mods.
I've played around 120 games since the campaign started, and played about 95% of all adventures out there, with significant replay (although lately -with the rate of module publishing, my replay is down a lot). Many adventures quickly go on the "do not play again list". Others are great to replay, either for the fun combats, good story, or heck (i'll admit it) the good rewards.
It seems to me our bottleneck is WOTC approving adventures... the biggest delay is now, with the 1-6/1-7 mods (this is also the biggest batch of adventures). If this continues (allowing regions to release 2 adventurs/quarter) then the baglog will only get worse.
Maybe there's way to streamline the approval process (less new monsters/rules that require approval?, using standard MM1/MM2 encounters?)
Reducing the number of regional adventures would have some negative consequences about story arcs as well as covering the level bands. There are better ways to address this concern.
Keith
Reducing the number of regional adventures would have some negative consequences about story arcs as well as covering the level bands. There are better ways to address this concern.
Keith
I would rather see the number of regions dropped and the number of adventures constant (this is slightly off-topic). I'd rather see 8mods/region/year across 8 regions than 5/year with 12 regions. Do we really need two big cities (baldur's gate and waterdeep), two out-door regions (aglarond and luruar), two "new" regions (tymanther and akanul). This allows for more storyline growth and fewer admin roles (do we really need a POC and convention rep for each region?). Absorbing these regions into the CORE zone allows them to still be used, but not at the expense of the depth of other regions.
Just my 2coppers.
I freely admit I have no idea what goes on at the regional admin level, outside of the writing directors.
I am with grandpoobah on the regions issue. As much as it is hard to "pick", I think LFR would be better with fewer regions and more per region. There is no reason (outside of convention organization) for the team to really be local. Our players have virtually no interaction with our region admins (completely unlike LG). If we had fewer regions we would get more story and more relevance per PC, which would be nice. Maybe the number of regional admins could grow, absorbing the staff not needed on any closed regions... or they could help with cores.
All of this said with the acknowledgement that I have virtually no knowledge of how the regions operate, but fewer regions and more mods per region would be fantastic for me as a player and DM.
Of course, it may not be so easy to decide which regions would 'go' in such a case.
I would really not want to give up the Dalelands, and I am sure other regions feel the same.
I would also advocate to assign regions to globals based on in-game rather than out-of-game proximity.
I.e. it is sort of odd that Cormyr and the Dalelands fall under different globals, as well as Luruar and Waterdeep.
I think it is more important that a global has means to stimulate regions working together (as we did with Cormyr, Dalelands, and Dragoncoast), than trying to get them in the same time zone as the regional admins.
As to regional admins, the situation is now much different than in LG days. Event mangers simply have little to do as their tasks have eroded away. PoCs maintain the group pages, butw e are still trying to figure out what we can put there, and WDs have a big pile of work every three months. The tasks aren't exactly even, so it is logical that some people are more active than others.
Gomez
Thanks...
Damon
In my area when the playtesting guy is overwhelmed he passes some of his work down to me and my crew to help him catch up. I also end up doing a lot of editing work on modules in the early phases of production. I'm sure there are tons of people willing to help out in similiar ways.
When the Global Admins meet with Mr Tulach at DDXP (for their private meeting), one of the primary discussion topics will be some staff structural changes to improve workload and adventure production/editing.
Keith
They probably also have a selective memory if they honestly remember things to have been better during LG, because the complaints about cores not being released on schedule were just as common,
While we're on the subject... any word yet on when we'll see Bridge over the Svartjet?
I talked to several authors/regional people in DEC about late mods (since I knew the authors/regional directors of mods running late) and the word I got was the final version had been turned in and they were waiting on WOTC to release it.
And of course, DDXP takes priority to any other backlog - it's WOTC's convention and they can't drop the ball on that one. I may not like it, but it's the right business decision.
The situation does illustrate a serious flaw in the review process. If they want to have a high volume of adventures, they need a non-WOTC review process (perhaps for adventures that have no "new" material?). I mean if if 30-40% of all adventures used all-published material, they could go through an "express lane" editting process. that would pull off 30-40% of the workload from WOTC employees onto the volunteer network.
The situation will only get worse in the summer with back-back Origins+GenCon. It kinda makes the whole "releasing in public play 3 months early" a moot point, since we can't count on those adventures to be ready on time anyway (there's no point in scheduling "premiere" content if it's not going to be available on schedule anyway).
I'd like to thank everyone that makes these adventures possible. Sure, it'd be great to have my hands on BALD1-5 and CORE1-16. But, it's certainly not going to stop us from playing and it doesn't affect our feelings on a campaign that has done very well in replacing Living Greyhawk.
I think the campaign did a pretty great job during the fourth quarter considering how ambitious the release schedule was. If there is valid room for improvement for WoTC and LFR it'd be in the communication department. But, I can't complain about a few free advnetures being late or even non-existent.
If they want to have a high volume of adventures, they need a non-WOTC review process (perhaps for adventures that have no "new" material?). I mean if if 30-40% of all adventures used all-published material, they could go through an "express lane" editting process. that would pull off 30-40% of the workload from WOTC employees onto the volunteer network.
I'm guessing that, by "new material", you mean new rules items, like custom monsters?
As I understand it, part of the reason why LFR modules have to be reviewed at WotC is that the Forgotten Realms are an actively-supported campaign world, and it's been expressly stated that LFR modules are canon. Given that, the WotC review may not be a review of the crunch so much as a review of the fluff...and, it may be that WotC's unwilling to allow any LFR module to see the light of day without that review.
Kenobi is correct btw. WotC wants to review the plot-lines and summaries for approval for the cited reasons. Game mechanics have little to do with it.
That's a bummer. I'd hoped there would be an easy way for them to streamline the process. Hopefully the global admin team will come up with something that will work during the DDXP meeting.
I think we have a lot of great adventures, and the rate at which we get new material is astounding. As a player and a DM, I'm happy. I never got to play this much with LG (except when I was dropping $5k a year in travel, thanks for giving me my travel budget back!).
The biggest challenge is as an ORGANIZER trying to promise premiere adventures / new material on any kind of regular basis. The system as-is has sufficient number of delayed modules to hurt anyone trying to organize an event with premiere material (unless you're just piggy-backing the big three conventions, as those are highly likely to have their adventures on time).
Every local convention in northern CA (with the exception of the first LFR convention) has had to have at least one (and sometimes more than one) module change due to adventure delays. It's annoying - and defeats the purpose of having material available for public play "three months early".
Again, as a player and a DM I am incredibly happy with LFR, and greatful for the huge volume of excellent play opporrunity. When I play with my friends, we're always picking up random new adventures to try and enjoying ourselves immensely - but it's easy to do that with a casual group.
), but I wonder if some of this is an LG vs LFR issue:In LG you had the whole system of premiers with major regional control (Triads integrated to con system, working with con organizers who were on 'speed dial', slot 0s involving everyone important, etc.).
In LFR the time-line of the adventures is known to a very few people, with no pressure from cons.
The systems could actually be very similar. With D&DXP, nothing can slip... exactly as with local cons back in LG. We just don't have that for normal LFR mods. A normal LFR mod can slip. Even a slip by a week can impact a local con, and that could easily be just due to the time for it to be uploaded to the server vs. making it to the event system, let alone a true delay.
I think if we looked at the percent in the event ordering system on the exact date specified, the on-time ratio would be fair, but not good. If we give a week or two leeway, most mods are roughly on time. The later is fine for home play, not for cons.
My guess is the whole system needs to have an earlier deadline by a week or two to account for server time and event system time. This would make most mods be on time. The only late ones would be those truly with issues (the ones that end up famous and in 3-4 threads).