Also it appears games will no longer be hoarded for conventions, with events now limited to "Wizards Play Network Public Play." Is my understanding of this correct? Will weekly/monthly public games days be able to order this game?
All in all I'm rather happy with what's being offered. We've got four paragon tier mods, but more importantly seven 1-4 mods for all of our PHB2 characters :D (compared with last quarter's paltry two 1-4 mods).
The ADCP mod should encourage and foster new adventure companies!
I'm intrigued to see a multi-region quest, and I'm glad to finally see QUES1-1! Unfortunately my only character whose at 7-10 who can do the quest is very close to reaching level 11. Fortunately if I only play 3 mods with him (2 for the Zhent tasks, 1 for an unrelated major quest) I'll be 80 XP short of level 11.
And we also get to have the MINI campaign! I'm going to roll up a dedicated character for it (or rather, select one of my unused characters for it ;)) even though we don't have to. I'll also see if I can get a special adventuring company going for it so we can all play the MINI campaign together
Multi-region quests are sexy.
I'm kind of curious what happened to CORE 1-11. There is CORE 1-10 already out and CORE 1-12 in the new list. It is a mystery to me.
Rather then stick to releasing the COREs in numerical sequence (which is fairly arbitrary) they delayed CORE1-11 to September 16th. Probably to avoid another instance like TYMA1-4.
Keith
I am not involved in the writing/editing of the mini=campaign, but I think the premise is it starts with a very Returned Abeir centric flavor. PCs which are designed to mesh with that might be more fun.
Keith
If I can't get my adventuring company idea going (3 of us are DMs so having all of us playing for an entire gamesday probably isn't that realistic), I'm definitely going to be playing my Prophetic Dragonborn Bard from Tymanther :D
Now if only Dragonmarks were legal in LFR (easy way to incorporate them into the Forgotten Realms: Dragonmarks come from Abeir), so I could have a manifestation of a prophetic force as well ;) I can always take a spellscar and say that my character believes its what grants him his prophetic abilities.
Gomez
Two of the modules are listed as "public play only", so I won't be able to order them for my private game days. However, QUES1-1 doesn't have that restriction. Does that mean QUES1-1 will be available for private play in July?
Thanks,
Paul
All in all I'm rather happy with what's being offered. We've got four paragon tier mods,
Nice, but I'd have liked to have seen more paragon mods. And the first one doesn't show up for months
Nice, but I'd have liked to have seen more paragon mods. And the first one doesn't show up for months
I was under the impression that Paragon tier would debut at Gen Con. So could it be that they're delaying the paragon mods until after Gen Con?
Also with PHB2 out WotC was torn as to who to cater for. People who want to try out their new PHB2 characters or people who want to continue a character they've had to retire for possibly months.
However, the numbers of Paragon Tier adventures released will always be less than the number of Heroic Tier adventures released so if you are expecting the same rapid rate of advancement, and the capacity to have two PCs advance without replay, that will not be true for some time. It will be more like a pyramid -- lots of heroic play, some paragon play, and the minimum epic play, depending upon how long the LFR campaign actually runs.
Keith
However, the numbers of Paragon Tier adventures released will always be less than the number of Heroic Tier adventures released so if you are expecting the same rapid rate of advancement, and the capacity to have two PCs advance without replay, that will not be true for some time. It will be more like a pyramid -- lots of heroic play, some paragon play, and the minimum epic play, depending upon how long the LFR campaign actually runs.
Keith
That is as it should be.
That is as it should be.
Why? Do characters stop being fun at paragon tier?
It keeps the campaign accessible to new and casual players.
Sure, although if someone is new they can just as easily play BALD1-1 as they can play the 20th 1-4 mod for the Baldur's Gate region.
I understand the decision. I'm not sure its the best one, although its a difficult issue with no clear choices. I was surprised to hear someone appear to say that people should be playing low level mods more then they play high level mods as if the reasoning was self explanatory.
Sure, although if someone is new they can just as easily play BALD1-1 as they can play the 20th 1-4 mod for the Baldur's Gate region.
I understand the decision. I'm not sure its the best one, although its a difficult issue with no clear choices. I was surprised to hear someone appear to say that people should be playing low level mods more then they play high level mods as if the reasoning was self explanatory.
Well, think about how many people have PCs of what level. It helps to think of a larger population - there might be pockets of players that don't follow my assumption.
Every player has a level 1 PC (or can have one at any time).
A slightly smaller number of people have characters of level 2.
A still smaller number have characters of level 3.
Etc.
A plot of the distribution of characters would look something like this:
(You could argue about the order of dependence and such, but this is what I imagine the numbers would work out.)
Sure, although if someone is new they can just as easily play BALD1-1 as they can play the 20th 1-4 mod for the Baldur's Gate region.
The new player: yes. The old players though would prefer a new adventure, and you need a table of 4 to 6 before you can run a RPGA adventure.
But there is another aspect to the reasoning as well. The initial surge targeted the more hard core gamer, who wanted to play often and to progress their PC quickly. The first three quarters provided content to help them advance two characters, maybe three with adaptables and such, to the top of heroic tier. However, there is a segment that would like to base their characters in a more limited set of regions (without the global travel), and may want to advance multiple characters without the replay experience. The pyramid helps address their desires as well.
Frankly many gamers will probably never advance any of their characters or perhaps only one or two of their characters to Epic Tiers, based upon prior campaign experience. In the days of LC, there were only 50-75 people who played the High Level LC adventures.
Remember the recent outcry that we had "too few" H1 adventures in the quarter when PHB2 was released? That reflected the desire of more hard core gamers to try new PC concepts but wanted fresh adventures.
Keith
And I am one that wont play a character in the Epic tier, and not so sure how far into the Paragon tier I will play my characters either.
Of course I dont play much LFR any more. Just not enough consistency and story in it for me.
I'm not sure I'll need more than a dozen 27th-30th adventures _ever_.
I'm pretty sure I'd like a dozen or so new 1-4 adventures a year, to cover trying out new character types.
I'm not sure I'll need more than a dozen 27th-30th adventures _ever_.
I would like to see them have like 5 to 6 1st thru 4th level modules per region within a story/plot arc or perhaps a couple of story/plot arcs going on at the same time.. That would then carry over into 5 to 6 4th thru 7th level modules per region along and expanding the same story/plot arcs. Just continue this trend etc etc.
With play open to modules from all regions players could run thru all of the Heroic tier modules/story/plot arcs in one region, and then when they wish to make a new character, could make one and go thru all of another regions modules/story/plot arcs.
And keep the modules available until the end of the campaign.
I know that WOTC had their hands pretty heavy in how the 1st few quarters modules were released. But I would have liked to have seen the 1st thru 6th quarters of year 1 have been all 1-4 lvl modules for each region. Then starting in year 2 start pumping out the 4-7 lvl modules for each region etc etc etc. And use the cores and Specials as fillers.
But alas that was not in the plans.
Remember the recent outcry that we had "too few" H1 adventures in the quarter when PHB2 was released? That reflected the desire of more hard core gamers to try new PC concepts but wanted fresh adventures.
I have also been hearing more and more complaints about the lack of Paragon tier games. Not everyone is happy to continue to play "save the farm" or "save the sibling" no matter how many times you put a new coat of paint on it ;)
I think on your current path you're definitely targeting people who want to try new characters and people who want to give LFR a try at all. At the moment this does outweigh those who want to continue onto Paragon. Although I think as time goes on, the amount of people willing to replay heroic tier will decrease. Hopefully if such a thing happens you'll consider revising your current strategy.
On the other hand, I have a barbarian that I'm having a blast playing who's still in the 1-4 bracket, so some new 1-4s would be very welcome, given that we've played all the 1-4s to death around here (apart from the latest crop in the last quarter).
It will be a shame to have to keep putting a character 'on hold' because they keep overlevelling during paragon tier play, though.
Fair enough, all that makes sense. Although...I have also been hearing more and more complaints about the lack of Paragon tier games. Not everyone is happy to continue to play "save the farm" or "save the sibling" no matter how many times you put a new coat of paint on it ;)
If previous campaigns have been any indication, there will be plenty of "save the giant farm" or "save the dragon sibling" quests at paragon tier. Not to mention the "explore the ruined drow temple." The kinds of things that could only be done at paragon don't lend themselves particularly well to 4 hour time slots.
The time issue is indeed a serious factor, and I am wondering if a decent (my opinion) Epic Tier adventure can be accomplished in one 4-5 hour game session. YMMV.
Keith
I hope there will be some differences in plot; certainly we are encouraged to do that. I think one difference will be your PC has a reputation and NPCs are more likely to seek them out personally and instead of a public notices -- adventurers wanted, apply here. Having said that, I don't speak for all the writing directors and certainly not for the global admins.
The time issue is indeed a serious factor, and I am wondering if a decent (my opinion) Epic Tier adventure can be accomplished in one 4-5 hour game session. YMMV.
Keith
I agree. I think the way to go in Epic tier will be to have more (although not necessarily only) multi-session adventures, the likes of the core specials, that can be split down the middle.
If previous campaigns have been any indication, there will be plenty of "save the giant farm" or "save the dragon sibling" quests at paragon tier.
Yeah it wasn't really a criticism as simply something someone pointed out to me. I accidentally suggested 2 mods in the same level bracket with the exact same hook (save the sibling) for a games day. It wasn't until a player pointed it out that I went "oops" ;) I also rather like two particular mods and wanted to suggest them for a games day, but again they're the same level bracket and both have the "save the farm" hook.
You save something /someone, protect something/someone, get something/somone, or prevent something from happening.
Sometimes you combine this. Anything that remains is often 'Move from A to B en get random encounters'.
People being saves often tend to be family (for emotional value) or important people (rather than joe the single farm hand nobody knows), and items tend to be important. Stuff generally happens in places that are either distant ot well guarded, since otherwise there is little challenge in getting there (or calling in the town militia to do it for you).
The main thing you can be creative with is the story around the 'save X, get X, protect X, or prevent X' thrope. I do believe that we are succeeding in that.
Of course, if someone thinks they has a good idea for an adventure that breaks these thropes, they are welcome to mail me with suggestions. But so far even the most creative ideas ultimatley fall in one or more of the thropes mentioned.
That will be in Paragon and Epic tier as well.
Gomez