The Big Picture

I can't remember where I saw it, but somewhere I read that some came with B1, and others came with B2.

And I liked B1. Lots of combat, little talk. Perfect for a 14 year old.

 

What I didn't like was randomly generating X monster has Y treasure, and repeating this process for a lot of rooms! One room is full of skeletons, the next a handful of goblins....ad infinitum - ad nauseum. Not a very cohesive adventure. All my campaigns start with B2 now, or something I make up.

 

basic pc programming language in those days...handled lots of repetitive mundane tasks

 

Yeah...during those days, computers weren't even around in the sense you're familiar with. The PC was being built in someone's garage. "Computer Science" class consisted of marking cards by pencil with commands; they got fed into a reader. Playing games was a dream of the future.

I'm talking about randomly generated from a list in the module using dice. Same for the treasure.

 

I thought we pucnhed holes in the cards, not marked on them with pencil? Although I'm sure both varieties existed.

And hey. I STILL generate treasure and bad guys with dice (hey, it's fun) for various tabletop games I still play with my mates.

 

Of course. But in this module, EVERY flippin' room was that way. Blech. In my modules, that was for things I didn't specifically create, such as random encounters with another party. I like to know who's got what well in advance, and believe me...they use it.

Hmmm....maybe I'll post one here someday for all to enjoy. Anyone up for some PnP? I got a high level Greyhawk module ready for the scanner...

 

Hmmm. Well, I'm really rooting for portability. If that's the best way we can manage it, then by all means, though finding a simpler and more "user-proof" method would be desirable. (Yes, I've been having trouble with clients whose issues are PBKAC, could you tell?)

@Spike: I'm all over that, unless of course it's that abomination "Vecna Lives!" (which sadly I bought...) *shudder*

--Blair
"What do you mean, he kills everyone during Time Stop?! That's against the rules!" "Technically, it's not against the rules until 3.0."

 

The script could be written. That sounds like the best way to do it Allyx. It could be user-proofed by automatically taking the party back to the Shopmap at the end of ToEE and having a dialog with someone there explaining what the player needed to do, which would basically be save the game.

 

Yeah, being transported back to common ground makes sense. Definitely prefer the idea of a bit of wrap up upon completion of the module. In my ignorance I kindo of assume that even the save could be handled by a script. Rather than just removing unique numbers, why not use the equivalent of Agetan's front end (with his permission). We now where stat's, inventory, etc. are stored in the save game, if they were written as PC files in the new module folder players could start fresh. No worries about NPCs or anything, clean slate. Although a note to carry reputation over may be a good idea.

They could even pick different party members if they wanted but their current PCs would show up as is in the selction screen. I think that keeping the modules seperate would probably save us some headaches in the future. I realize the switching would have to take place after the game closes, but that should be doable.

Anyway that's my $0.02.

Cuchulainn.

 

Here's one problem with clearing out folk's inventory between modules. It seriously discourages crafting. Why waste XP that could turn into levels in the next module if your cool magical toys are going to be taken away?

(If I misunderstood what you guys mean by "return to common ground", I apologize.)