Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.quux.org!campaignwiki.org!.POSTED.dslb-088-064-218-003.088.064.pools.vodafone-ip.de!not-for-mail From: lkh Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: [boing boing] D&D's latest module, "Vecna: Eve of Ruin," and the trouble with high-level adventures Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2024 05:51:14 -0000 (UTC) Organization: Campaign Wiki Sender: Message-ID: References: <43jr5jthg3dmtmvs5g5vskgopte9ie7rrt@4ax.com> Injection-Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2024 05:51:14 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: sibirocobombus.campaignwiki; posting-host="dslb-088-064-218-003.088.064.pools.vodafone-ip.de:88.64.218.3"; logging-data="1974754"; mail-complaints-to="alex@alexschroeder.ch" User-Agent: tin/2.6.3-20231224 ("Banff") (Linux/6.9.3-arch1-1 (x86_64)) Cancel-Lock: sha1:MTPK8/cHyh3aC9cGOq/pxWJbfAM= sha256:gvXNe27tONe1Vne8VOvz9/dqLZX26WaGdHzAKw45Fxs= sha1:P2EyECMzXkEOXV9KOo5wTbxgZY0= sha256:0+TmInJja2iQA/OjPQqGowyDuR+/rX3jXYm6aNNiVO8= Bytes: 3813 Lines: 60 Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > On Mon, 3 Jun 2024 12:29:55 +0200, Kyonshi wrote: > >>Source: >>https://boingboing.net/2024/06/03/dds-latest-module-vecna-eve-of-ruin-and-the-trouble-with-high-level-adventures.html >> >> >>D&D's latest module, "Vecna: Eve of Ruin," and the trouble with >>high-level adventures >>Gareth Branwyn 3:00 am Mon Jun 3, 2024 >> > > That's not to say you can't have fun high-level D&D games, but it > often feels like a struggle; you're fighting against a system that > just isn't designed to scale up that high. Other systems are better > suited to those sorts of power levels (Exalted, for instance) but D&D? > It's meant for low-level play. let's put it like this: D&D in *dungeon crawling* mode doesn't scale up that well. *Hex crawl* mode does scale better I feel, and the *domain game* is literally made for high level play. To my mind *domain game* play, is much more free form than the more basic modes of play. It should generally be ruled by common sense and be driven by political scheming of experienced players. Little place for D&D's basic combat rules here. However, *that's* very hard to put in a module I guess, which could be the reason why a lot of high level modules so far are really bloated mid level modules. As to combat focusedness of D&D: yes it's chassis is a war game. And war gamey battles can take a lot of time. Why, when the game was conceived, playing out battles was the whole point of the game. I'd say long battles are a slog when they're boring battles. Which often happens when you're just rolling down hit points. Tactically interesting battles can be a lot of fun *if the group is so inclined*. I've seen large scale battles at my table that took up a whole sessions time, with everyone super enganged for those 4 hours. The problem I think is: when you're wary of lengthy battles, you tend to want to hold them short, which leads to skimping over the more involved (and tactically interesting) rules and options, thus leading to meaningless, boring combat. A self-fulfilling prophecy maybe? Let me point out again, I don't mean to say you're playing the game wrong, when your combats are boring. If you and your group don't like combat, maybe it's better to just roll percentiles to see who won and cut the whole thing short. That's fine too. But if you do like a tactical game on your table, don't skimp it, pull all the options and make it interesting! Coming back to the module (at last) ... Vecna trying to destroy the multiverse?! Damn it, I'm intrigued! Cheers, lkh