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Another open letter to Randy Buehler

Mr Buehler,

I just read your response to the community’s request that an overview be offered for the Scales of War Adventure Path.

As regards Scales of War, we’ve been getting a lot of feedback about our decision to hold the key plot elements pretty close to our chest. Some DMs like the suspense of being able to read along and watch as things unfold over time, and we’ve done our best to make the Path really easy to DM (with us seeding in cool plot hooks and NPCs ourselves), but we also recognize that other DMs prefer to have more context so that they can elaborate and expand things on their own. In order to help out that latter kind of DM, R&D has put together a couple of sentences worth of overview on each episode from the heroic tier along with a paragraph about the paragon tier and another on the epic tier (recall that this path is designed to take PCs all the way from level 1 to level 30). This overview is available to those who want it (and it’s surrounded by spoiler tags for those who don’t, though there’s not a ton of spoiler info in there since we’re still not revealing the details of the plot … just its overall trajectory). Meanwhile, episode 3, “The Shadow Rift of Umbraforge” (which includes a significant clue about how things will unfold along with the nature of the conflict in Elsir Vale) should be up within a week.

Thank you. The overview provided does a good job of summing up the key plot points and will help me determine when and where I want certain actions to occur.

Again, I say “Thank you” to you and your team for taking our words to heart and listening to your fan base.

Tony Law
www.rpgcentric.com

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Posted in: 4E, RPG

17 Responses to “Another open letter to Randy Buehler”

guy September 10th, 2008 at 3:11 PM

Hooray!

Randy Buehler September 10th, 2008 at 4:00 PM

You’re welcome.

Randy

reveal September 10th, 2008 at 4:06 PM

@Randy – You and your staff deserve it. One thing I love about the RPG industry is that people, regardless of their standing in the industry, are willing to listen to one another about ideas and truly want to make the it a great place for all to work in.

Tomcat1066 September 10th, 2008 at 4:58 PM

It does my heart good to see things like this happening. A decision was made, people didn’t like the decision, so a correction is made. Everyone wins.

Good job Randy and company!

Tomcat1066s last blog post..Required for Fun: Do We Need All That We Think We Do?

Questing GM September 10th, 2008 at 8:13 PM

Thank you, Randy! At least it’s better than nothing.

Questing GMs last blog post..Homebrew vs. Published

LTSE September 11th, 2008 at 12:28 AM

I just don’t see it. There is no overarching plot given. You one or two scant details are given about the next 4 adventures, and then paragon and epic tiers can be summarized as: “Things are more complicated than they seem. The plot against good is darker and deeper than the characters previously knew, and in the end the players end up making the difference between annihilation and salvation.

I gave a somewhat more scathing response on the gleemax boards, but really, the problem is just that I don’t know any better than before which NPCs need to stay alive and what hooks I can start laying immediately so that later the PCs won’t feel like the hooks are all the same thing over and over again. *Event occurs.* *PCs know they need to investigate.*
I’d like to be able to lay the foundations such that the PCs are genuinely invested in the storyline such that they’re genuinely interested and my hooks don’t have to be obvious This Way! signs. I’d like the PCs to meet and like Thanir Ironhaft (to randomly pick a name), maybe even owe him something, before he gets captured and they ‘need’ to go rescue him.

And, importantly!!! I am about to run H1 as a segue into the siege of Bordrins watch. I feel that it fits better into the AP than Rivenroar does, I can just leave the crumbs with different EGs. I think that Sinruth is just 3.5 fan service, nostalgia, and I’m betting there is nothing particular about Brindol which cannot be replaced by the KotS town.

But I don’t know that. If I knew a bit more, I could decide to place KotS around Brindol. Or is Rivenroar important? In that case, I need to pick the published adventures or the AP.

Its so frustrating.

reveal September 11th, 2008 at 6:51 AM

@LTSE – Is the overview perfect? No. Could it be a bit more fleshed out? Yes. But that’s not the point here. Mr. Buehler listened to the fans and gave us a good compromise. That’s what’s important.

Bagpuss September 11th, 2008 at 9:13 AM

But it’s not a good compromise. They are still playing things far too close to their chest. The “overview” they have provide tells you the region the adventure is in for the next four adventures and nothing else. It’s barely useful. At least now we know Overlook is going to be used for more than one adventure, its hardly the sort of think you can hang plot hooks off.

Bagpuss September 11th, 2008 at 9:15 AM

So thanks, but please try harder.

I’m also curious as to who these DM that want to be surprised each month are because I can’t recall seeing anyone saying they don’t want an overview in any of the threads on the matter.

Jack Colby September 11th, 2008 at 9:42 AM

The information in that overview reads like teaser/marketing back cover copy text from a module, not the more detailed information the DM needs to know. I am not giving any thanks, since WotC/Randy was basically forced into it, and still didn’t understand or provide what was actually needed. This is a minimal effort, purely a move to cover their butts, and does not solve the initial problem. Between Randy’s articles and the “ampersand” column I feel like I am sitting in on a corporate marketing test by Hasbro. Very disappointed in WotC and their attitude lately. And yes, it has and will continue to affect my purchases.

Jack Colby September 11th, 2008 at 9:45 AM

Bagpuss, I would be interested to see those DMs who want to be surprised also. In fact I dare anyone to come up with evidence of more than a handfull. It’s not even that this incident is so bad on it’s own, but that it is in many ways the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. WotC is failing almost constantly lately, and it’s quite sad. This corporate attitude is far worse than what I was feeling even in the 2nd edition days! Sad commentary on the state of the company and D&D.

Jack Colby September 11th, 2008 at 9:49 AM

“Randy listened to fans”? Ha…. Randy’s hand was forced by a huge backlash, and this is the half-hearted attempt to quell some of the negative chatter online, to protect WotCs bottom line. I would hope most of you can see that… it’s fairly transparent corporate thinking and behavior, as usual. If WotC learned from these incidents I might feel differently, but next month there will be another outrage against some obvious but dumb mistake they make. Just wait and see.

greywulf September 11th, 2008 at 10:05 AM

Works for me!

Many thanks to Randy for listening and giving us what we asked for

Tomcat1066 September 11th, 2008 at 10:23 AM

@Jack: I somehow doubt that negative ‘net chatter would hurt Wizard’s bottom line enough on something like an adventure path to warrant the change alone. While they may still be keeping to much to themselves, it’s a move in the right direction.

To anyone and everyone: If you don’t like what you’re getting from Wizards, then come up with your own adventure paths. DMs do it all the time, and then you’ll know exactly what’s going on from the get-go without waiting for the next part to come out

Tomcat1066s last blog post..The One Less Traveled By

LTSE September 11th, 2008 at 5:17 PM

@ Tomcat1066:

I get tired of the “If you don’t like it, go do your own” line. I want to play D&D 4e, I want to give WotC my money for a product that is quality and easy for me to use. I don’t have the time to sit down and flesh out an entire world to anywhere near the detail that we’re being fed, bite by bite, from WotC. Their adventures and detail level are sufficient, though I hope for improvement. What is not sufficient is having no control over my campaign world as the DM… at least not without the fear that something I do now will destroy and/or require massive effort to fix later on down the line.

These APs are supposed to make the DM’s storytelling easier… not tell a story to the DM himself!

@reveal:

I don’t feel like he listened at all. He didn’t give me any tools to tell the story in a more captivating way, beyond the fact that Elsir Vale is important throughout the heroic tier. He didn’t even tell me whether anything from Rivenroar gets used again later (except the area), so I don’t know who I need to make sure to include in my FR conversion/KotS hybridization.

reveal September 11th, 2008 at 8:13 PM

@LTSE – I think you’re wrong. He did listen. His stance went from “we will have no overview at all” to “we don’t want to give away too much so here’s a basic outline.” That’s a change based upon the feedback they received. Was the response to everyone’s liking? No. Was it as much as could have been given? No. But it shows that Wizards is willing to listen to its customers, which is more than you can say about a lot of company’s today.

LTSE September 11th, 2008 at 10:14 PM

@reveal: That’s fair enough, they DID change their stance. However, I am arguing there is virtually no difference between no overview and what they gave us, and I don’t think they are going to give us any more…