New Adventure Format
After some five years, it looks like the guys over at WotC have decided to stop shoehorning encounters into the "delve format". In case you haven't cracked open an adventure published by them for a good while, the delve format is basically a two-page spread that is designed to let you run an encounter without having to reference anything else:
While a noble endeavor not every encounter demands the same amount of real-estate, and it sounds like a lot of people are happy to see it (mostly) go. I tried running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft recently and didn't mind flipping back and forth to encounters, especially since I'd converted it to 4th Edition and so didn't need to crack open other books to determine what various special abilities or spells did. I'm interested in seeing the new direction; from what we've been told, they are going to just let it flow across pages and divvy them up using a horizontal rule.
At any rate, at least one adventure this month--Going Ape--will rely on it. At least the cover looks badass (as do some of the articles).
At any rate, at least one adventure this month--Going Ape--will rely on it. At least the cover looks badass (as do some of the articles).
That picture of a mummified girallon holding a smiling woman was one of the weirdest I've seen in D&D.
ReplyDeleteI don't need the entire adventure to be on one page, but I do need the entire encounter to. It baffles me why some people think things like maps and loot belong in appendices.
ReplyDelete@Pekka: I've seen much, MUCH worse than a girallon mummy, even one carrying a person for whom this is apparently the norm.
ReplyDelete@Swordgleam: I would not mind seeing loot in an appendix, because it is not something that necessarily needs to be frequently referenced. For example, if a treasure entry mentions a lifedrinking longsword, I could flip to the back, tell the player what it does, and that's that.
I think that having a larger map near the front of the adventure (or chapter, part, etc) would be fine, with zoomed in maps where appropriate. The idea I am getting is that WotC is going to stop doing the full-blown, two-page spread for every encounter whether or not it is crucial.