North of Nowhere

Paul over at Blog of Holding has a really interesting series of posts where he has graded the 4e cosmetology and the great wheel of earlier editions. They were really thought provoking, and I thought most of his grades were pretty spot on at least as far as the locations being good for adventuring is concerned. I might not agree with his conclusions though.

He comes down pretty hard on the Great Wheel as a place that wouldn’t be very fun to adventure in. Having been a huge Planescape fan, I might have to disagree. While I agree that many of the places he mentions (the elemental planes, the positive and negative energy planes) won’t be fun to adventure in, I think that’s kind of the point. The idea is that, is a player supposed to be able to go every where in a campaign, or are there places they just can’t go, no matter what.

Ultimately, I tend to view D&D cosmetology to be very malleable. The players are never going to walk from Sigil to one of the evil planes, or from the plane of water to the plane of earth. Instead it’s going to be through some form of magical means that they will arrive at a new location.

So how it’s organized matters less to me, than how I can apply it to my story I’m telling as a player or as a DM. Sometimes that includes having a villain threaten to send a player to the negative energy plane to die. And sometimes it’ll include the players adventuring in the Feywild or Astral Sea or in Sigil or Bytopia. Ultimately, the planes are meant to encompass all possible belief and possibility, so if things don’t always make sense to the players, I feel like it isn’t supposed to, berk. (Just a little planescape reference…)

I have just recently discovered the blog carnival, and have been enjoying reading through the archives. This topic is perfect, what with the D&D Next announcement and all the response it has had in the community.

I definitely go back and forth thinking about what I love in RPG. Ultimately, I think it is just quality.

What are the best adventures made of?
The best adventures have a number of common features for me. First, they aren’t too long. While I love hearing from my friends who buy them synopsis of adventure paths, I have no real desire to buy or play them. I know that there is no hope with the groups I play with to ever complete one of them. Instead, I like sort, quick adventures that hint at, but doesn’t enforce, a setting. In fact, some of my favorite adventures were the sets of adventures that TSR released with some of the campaign settings in 2nd edition. They could be tied together if you wanted to, but each adventure was self-contained. Which would be perfect for the people I play with, as we all have lives and most of us have kids. We want to roleplay, but we just don’t have the time to play long drawn out campaigns.

What do the worst adventure do wrong?
I think this is pretty simple for me: non-sensical story or encounters, railroading and overly long adventures.

What kills an adventure before it even gets off the ground?
Playing a game system that no one wants to.

What’s your favorite system? What are the things you love about it most? WHY?
My favorite system is the one my friends are playing. Secondly, I value simplicity and fun. I don’t want to be bogged down while creating a character by complex options and plans, but I like to have the options I make at character creation have both mechanical and roleplaying implications.

With D&D Next on the horizon, I’m sure you have an opinion regarding what the next edition should or shouldn’t be once it’s out.
I don’t really have a ton of opinions on what it should be, other than I really hope it gets more players into this great hobby of ours.