Q&A Transcript about BASIC and Starter...

Omega · June 06, 2014, 04:47:52 PM

Quote from: Haffrung;756128By storytelling they mean concerning yourself with what's happening in the game world, not player-authored narrative mechanics. Don't let the peculiar way forgists used the term 'storytelling' sully a perfectly good word.

Thats what I'm guessing they mean. But the description of playing the pregens and tying into the story part felt a little odd. Dragonlance flashbacks. "Play the Characters! Live the Story!"

thedungeondelver · June 06, 2014, 05:40:29 PM

It seems laughably easy (to me) to insert AD&D style multi-classing (and dual-classing) rules (as well as differentiated XP tables) into this without breaking anything, and dropping the zero-level "at will blast" spells.

Oh and invert armor class.

And extricate it from FR and DL.

kurtomatic · June 07, 2014, 01:30:35 PM

The Q&A is now up on YouTube, and it's not terrible if you are genuinely interested in their thinking behind the Starter and Basic products:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYsdjZcfHm4

Akrasia · June 07, 2014, 02:44:06 PM

QuoteStarter set adventure?

MM: Night's Dark Terror. One of the best D&D adventures ever made. UK module. Spiritual example. An adventure that gives a central place, a village, a central quest, enough room so the player has options, wilderness map and places to go, and for the DM flexible enough to start making own adventures and add to the map.

Well this is somewhat encouraging, insofar as Night's Dark Terror is indeed one of the best adventures (really more of a mini-campaign) ever published. Not a pure sandbox, but "sandbox-ish" with a cool overarching structure and excellent conclusion.

Akrasia · June 07, 2014, 02:45:41 PM

QuoteLeveling up pacing?

MM: Leveling 1 and 2 in one session. The every other session leveling. 20th level in less than a year. D&D skews a lot younger than people think, fits with a college year. Plus playtest feedback said that. Most people in school or something, 30 year campaign is amazing, but not for everyone.

*sigh* Not a fan of this. But should be easy enough to tweak (slow down by ~50%).

Spellslinging Sellsword · June 07, 2014, 06:36:45 PM

Quote from: Akrasia;756326*sigh* Not a fan of this. But should be easy enough to tweak (slow down by ~50%).

In the video Mike states that the leveling was based on feedback from the younger D&D players who wanted to be able to start a campaign at the start of the school year and finish by the end of the school year. He also says that they did put in alternative leveling rates in the books for people that prefer more sessions per level.

Marleycat · June 07, 2014, 08:03:16 PM

Quote from: ptingler;756366In the video Mike states that the leveling was based on feedback from the younger D&D players who wanted to be able to start a campaign at the start of the school year and finish by the end of the school year. He also says that they did put in alternative leveling rates in the books for people that prefer more sessions per level.

Good catch! So it's like Pathfinder with their fast/medium/slow experience tracks. That was something I predicted would be an option.

Bill · June 09, 2014, 12:57:31 PM

Rate of advancement should be tailored to the groups preferences anyway.

I don't really have much use for a 'universal' xp gain rate. But I can see some system of slow, med, fast as a guideline.

Warthur · June 09, 2014, 04:08:00 PM

Quote from: Bill;756843Rate of advancement should be tailored to the groups preferences anyway.

I don't really have much use for a 'universal' xp gain rate. But I can see some system of slow, med, fast as a guideline.

I'd be disappointed if the DMG doesn't include some guidelines on modifying the rate of level gain to suit different campaigns' purposes. It seems like a no-brainer for including in the sort of book they want it to be.

RPGPundit · June 09, 2014, 04:30:03 PM

Quote from: Akrasia;756326*sigh* Not a fan of this. But should be easy enough to tweak (slow down by ~50%).

I'm not a fan of that speed of leveling either, but as you say, it can be tweaked easy enough.

Spinachcat · June 09, 2014, 05:40:49 PM

Quote from: Bill;756843Rate of advancement should be tailored to the groups preferences anyway.

Absolutely.

Since I mostly run short or mini-campaigns, I believe in high mortality / fast advancement, but you don't need fast advancement with groups where mortality is rare and there is plenty of long term play opportunities.

Haffrung · June 09, 2014, 05:54:42 PM

Fitting a full-level campaign into a school year wouldn't be a problem if they had sensibly capped the level at 12. Unless WotC has some data that proves otherwise, they continue to design the game around a scale that makes no sense to the vast majority of groups, who never play past level 11 or 12.

Marleycat · June 09, 2014, 06:48:12 PM

Quote from: Haffrung;756928Fitting a full-level campaign into a school year wouldn't be a problem if they had sensibly capped the level at 12. Unless WotC has some data that proves otherwise, they continue to design the game around a scale that makes no sense to the vast majority of groups, who never play past level 11 or 12.

There is a reason for that beyond if the game breaks at level 10-15 like 2-3e. Lots of people just play 6 months or so before going on to something different or like what would happen with us we'd quit at 7/8 level in 2e because it took us a year or so to reach that and no way were we going to play another year just to maybe get up to level 9 if we got lucky before we got bored with the whole thing.

Give me 3-4 sessions at each level maximum preferably 2-3 at 1st-5th levels and move it along already.

Bill · June 10, 2014, 10:52:54 AM

While I personally would have liked to see a 12 level range, scaled so level 12 characters are not greater deities, the bounded accuracy/better thought out math is likely a huuuuge improvement, at least for me.

Haffrung · June 10, 2014, 11:25:34 AM

Quote from: Marleycat;756947Give me 3-4 sessions at each level maximum preferably 2-3 at 1st-5th levels and move it along already.

That's the pace I prefer as well.