tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post1437147738752139950..comments2023-10-14T03:58:59.333-06:00Comments on The Tao of D&D: The Lacking AdventureAlexis Smolenskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-33123070338921542242012-04-19T21:52:22.920-06:002012-04-19T21:52:22.920-06:00Tom LaPille is a transplant from Magic: the Gather...Tom LaPille is a transplant from Magic: the Gathering development. I remember him from his days as a wannabe professional player and as a writer for one of the major MtG strategy sites. Back then he went in for "law of attraction", NLP, and so on. He parleyed his small writing gig into a WotC job on the MtG side, so bully for him, I guess.<br /><br />I'm aware of no aptitude for RPG design on his part, nor of any personal traits that would lead one to believe he'll excel at it. In fact, he's shown an aptitude for completely honking off the MtG customer base. (To be fair, the MtG customer base is temperamentally similar to a throng of biting mullahs.)<br /><br />I have no idea why they moved him from CCG development to D&D, but based on his prior work, I'd expect glib, breathless, breathtakingly obtuse statements at every turn.Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00155926145150934199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-8131792122981557212012-04-19T14:36:29.920-06:002012-04-19T14:36:29.920-06:00It's a fucking toy company ... it doesn't ...It's a fucking <i>toy company</i> ... it doesn't understand D&D: it doesn't believe in it. Corporate mentality designed <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ViewersAreMorons" rel="nofollow">to sell to children</a>.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-32027722696537766282012-04-19T14:15:47.841-06:002012-04-19T14:15:47.841-06:00If that's true, that's about the most shor...If that's true, that's about the most short-sited business viewpoint a game company could have.<br /><br />Hell, if they provided a DM's Design Kit website and sold subscriptions to it they'd make money.<br /><br />I think their problem is that they can't figure out how to take the lessons from their successful card games and apply them to D&D.Original_Carlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03521777462227997158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-84150670343374287392012-04-19T13:24:40.804-06:002012-04-19T13:24:40.804-06:00No, WOTC looked at their business model and realiz...No, WOTC looked at their business model and realized that there's nothing to sell to people who are self-motivated. Which is incredible when you consider how much money is made by selling hundreds of other hobby-type supplies to people with hobbies.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-1328590607761041012012-04-19T13:02:57.045-06:002012-04-19T13:02:57.045-06:00Alexis,
Years ago I stumbled upon this:
http://e...Alexis,<br /><br />Years ago I stumbled upon this:<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Master%27s_Design_Kit<br /><br />I scoured eBay and bought two copies from a hobby shop going out of business for about $20.<br /><br />I relied on this for a while to build my adventures. It's a good place to start, but it doesn't contain the level of detail you call for in your article. And it does trend toward cliche adventures and set-piece battles. However, it does have a methodology and a set of worksheets a struggling DM can use to construct adventures. It discusses pacing and drama, maguffins, red herrings, and it isn't 100% focused on combat. It also includes templates for role-playing (non-combat) encounters, chases, and puzzles.<br /><br />The worksheets themselves are AD&D-focused, but they have enough room for notes that if someone were motivated to do so they could include their own campaign-specific data.<br /><br />This is the kind of tool that would help a newbie or struggling DM (like me) to build their own modules.<br /><br />What I've wanted, and what you're calling for seems to be this, only moreso. It showed me that someone at TSR was thinking about the same things that you and I have thought about -- how do you teach someone to build adventures?<br /><br />It would be nice if someone digitized this -- maybe an interactive website that allowed a DM to build up an adventure using the system and then printed out the worksheets, but that would mean fewer sales of monsters and modules. Or WotC just decided that modern DMs weren't interested in this kind of thing.<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />Carl (in Tacoma, WA)Original_Carlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03521777462227997158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-23478996568987878632012-04-19T11:59:57.752-06:002012-04-19T11:59:57.752-06:00I can't even begin to imagine what WOTC believ...I can't even begin to imagine what WOTC believes they have done to improve or even prolong the existence of tabletop gaming.<br /><br />It's awful to think that these people are essentially in charge of the hobby. Yes, yes, Pathfinder outsells them (even then, not so much outselling them as repackaging their own ruleset, further evidence they had no clue what made the game work) but nobody outside of RPG circles has a damn clue there's something besides D&D.<br /><br />The technology for all of this exists. Hell, what you describe does, in fact, exist. It just exists in about a thousand seperate sources, in small junks that are, by themselves, about as useful as yet another monster manual.<br /><br />I lament every day that I didn't decide early on to become a programmer, so I could be making the thing it is that I want so badly to have myself instead of waiting for someone else.Pandredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03917809464727878157noreply@blogger.com