New Article: D&D Adventure Format

There's a bombshell of gaming gossip over at Wizards. One of my favorite D&D designers of all time, Bruce Cordell has written a new article for the Design & Development column. You shouldn't need an Insider subscription to read this. As a main designer of 4th edition D&D, Cordell surprisingly admits in this piece that he does not like the current tactical adventure format and that he is not alone at Wizards.

"The tactical format makes it difficult to generate a compelling adventure narrative with the richness and flexibility of past adventure formats.

Yes, I said it: I don’t care for the tactical two-page spread.

And it’s not just me. Discontent over the current format has gathered in dark dungeon corners, whispered across game designer cube walls, and cropped up on internet blogs.

The takeaway is that the tactical format boils adventures down to just key encounters, which tends to railroad adventure design. It also means that adventures tend to be fairly Spartan affairs, because too little space remains to include extra notes on exploration, or explanation of cool bits of lore, or character story."

Hear, hear. This actually started in 3rd edition, my most reviled example being the slightly similar "Delve" format that was used in the last Greyhawk module ever produced, Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk). Needless to say 4th edition took the ball and ran with it. Cordell's article is a vindication to those out there who felt 4th edition lacked the D&D feel. Don't believe me? For answers to his dilemma he goes back to the classics for examples of how to format compelling adventures.

"1st Edition adventures I looked at included Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Isle of Dread—and other classics. I also reviewed such modules as the Desert of Desolation series (which included I3: Pharaoh) and the Dragonlance modules (e.g., DL1: Dragons of Despair)." 

Good choices, Bruce. That's why I like ya! So now having looked back nostalgically at D&D (something that is still trending over at Wizards since last year) they came up with a new hybrid format apparently. Next month an adventure for eDungeon called Going Ape will showcase their new format. While I don't run 4th edition personally, I do applaud the courage of Bruce and others to finally recognize that the way a lot of people still to this day prefer D&D adventures to be written is still viable. So in the very least I will take a peek at what they come up with.