Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Shadewyn Aug 21, 2014 10:02:51	In prior editions there was an expectation that with the release of a new game version we got a adventure path that covered from 1st level up to max and that in general an average group may take a year or more to chew through all of that.   3E = Sunless Citadel (1st) to Bastion of broken Souls (20th) 4E = Keep on the Shadowfell (1st) to Prince of Undeath (30th)   Now in 5th we have;   Horde of the Dragon Queen (1 to 7) Rise of Tiamat (8-15) ??? (16-20) This raises a few issues ...   What happened to the 16 to 20 content? Wasn't Tiamat the branding of all of the 5E release ... no epic content on it? Without going into spoliers ... the books are organized in chapters with each chapter being story arc that is a player level for those who do not want to track XP.  Combine that with combat being significanlty faster now in 5E than the prior two editions ... AND you get a reasonable expectation that a gaming group doing 4 hours a week will EASILY eat through one or more chapters per session.  I am not just talking about low levels but even the higher level content.   Assuming there is a capstone module that just isnt announced .. if the format is the same this isnt a year worth of content for a weekly group.  This is about 3 months of gaming from 1 to 20.   BTW ... this is not a knock of the module path its a very well done and well recieved by my group, this is more mechnical concerns with pacing and a very reasonable expectation that we will be level 15 by January / February with no cap stone module in sight.
#2 CorwynnMaelstrom Aug 21, 2014 10:06:59	I expect the DMG to offer up alternative advancement speed options. Personally I kind of like the idea that you'll be able to "retire" characters and play something new without spending four years getting there. ;)
#3 frothsof Aug 21, 2014 10:10:29	Horde can take you to 7th or 8th, so perhaps 17th is acheivable with Rise. I dont know if those last three levels become that critical to the average group; perhaps when the mags reboot there will be some side trek material similar to what was provided for the 4e paths to help fill out the progression.
(Reply to #2) Shadewyn	CorwynnMaelstrom wrote:
#5 FFSAA Aug 21, 2014 12:26:26	CorwynnMaelstrom wrote:
#6 The_Jester Aug 21, 2014 12:47:31	I think WotC is following Paizo's example of not necassarily going from 1-20 and ending the campaign where it ends rather than padding to hit all 20 levels.  I think they also acknowledge that weekly gaming groups are rare and most groups are unlikely to play all the way to level 20.
#7 Huscarl Aug 21, 2014 13:01:10	A pure combat night of gaming like a traditional dungoen crawl is 20+ "rooms" so as a DM you throw as much role play, fluff, puzzles, and other such at them as you can to slow them down.
(Reply to #6) AaronOfBarbaria	The_Jester wrote:
#9 AriKanen Aug 21, 2014 13:28:24	Also, I think they are releasing an average of 2 adventure paths a year.   August 19th - HoDQ October 21st - RoT March 17th - Princes of the Apolocolypse So basically if you wanted to get through all the content, you'd need to finish Tyranny of Dragons by March, which is 8 months from August 19th.    As far as high-level content, I think they should either do a Dragon article or web supplement on ideas for continuing each AP.
(Reply to #7) Shadewyn	Huscarl wrote:
(Reply to #9) Shadewyn	AriKanen wrote:
(Reply to #5) CorwynnMaelstrom	FFSAA wrote:
#13 h347h50 Aug 21, 2014 17:15:26	The_Jester wrote:
#14 The_Jester Aug 21, 2014 17:53:26	h347h50 wrote:
#15 Huscarl Aug 22, 2014 13:31:39	Anecdotal evidence, sales figures on products targeted at high-level vs. low-level characters, and the hard evidence provided by the 4E online character builder all indicate that a large majority of PCs never rise into double-digit levels. I expect that Rise of Tiamat will sell nearly as well as Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but far less people will play it and even fewer will complete it. There's a multitude of reasons why a campaign would reset to zero and it only takes one to make it happen, whereas it takes a long string of devotion and good luck to keep a campaign going into high levels. I've enjoyed plenty of high-level play, but most of it was in one-shot adventures or short campaigns that started at high level. I don't think my experience in this regard is unusual.   Steve
#16 Grazel Aug 22, 2014 14:41:09	Also keep in mind that the adventures are supposed to be part of Organized Play now, between Encounters and Expiditions. For 5e they suggest a 2 hour session for Encounters and Expiditions will likely be the same (The Encounters session starting in Sept. is the first part of HotDQ and the first Expidition will cover the entire book and the followup book as well).   So at 2 hours per week the content will last a while, even with fast combat. If a group does longer sessions they can compress the content, assuming the longer sessions are interruption free. Most enounters sessions I was in for 4e we barely kept up with the weekly goals because of out-of-group and in-group disruptions or people arriving late and that was with 3-4 hour sessions.   It seems they broke up the episodes to be one+ session's worth of content, and with the alternate levelling mechanic that's at most 1 level per week and likely no more than 2 levels per month, assuming longer episodes as the story progresses, and a weekly session that's productive all the time. My group won't be doing organized play (I can't find a place that does early afternoon Wed. sessions and I can't do Wed. evenings so Encounters at least is a no go for me) but we'll be doing our D&D every other week most likely so the party is likely to only get 1 level a month so if we managed to go all the way to 20 that's almost 2 years of gaming for a single pair of adventures.
#17 Plaguescarred1 Aug 23, 2014 7:31:00	Huscarl wrote:
#18 Emirikol Aug 23, 2014 7:46:10	I'm hoping for a larger variety of adventure paths.  paizo has made its living off of such things, ever since they too DUNGEON magazine (when it actually existed), to the next level.   I'm a long ways away from ever having the free time to write my own adventures anymore, so I count on Adventure Paths to fill that need.  Modification of Paizo's wouldn't be difficult, but I'm hoping that we can get some adventure (and not just more splat book production) out of WotC.  3rd party stuff is fine, but it creates a bit of a disjointed larger community when it comes to discussions and I prefer more stuff coming from under the main roof.       jh