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alexmegelas
8 Posts
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 PostedÊ-Ê19 May 2004Ê:Ê 18:39:15 Ê Ê
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I just purchased your Deathtrap Dungeon release and although I was initially very excited about the product (having grown up with the fighting fantasy books), I was very dissapointed by the amount of omissions from the dungeon and alterations that were taken seemingly withouth reason.
For instance:
- Omiting the heat corridor trap, the acidic mud trap
- Making the end trialmaster a human sorcerer instead of a gnome
- Removing the pearl as an extra gem
- Not including the deathbird throne and overly simplifying the troglodyte encounter (withouth the flying arrow race)
- Not including the blue beam of light with faces encounter that tells players to dive under the water corridor.
- Simplyfing the encounter with the dwarf trialmaster (in the original one, you also needed to test your luck by picking a pill as well as grab a cobra without being bitten)
- Not including the original weapons listed (The ninja now has darts and a shortsword instead of shuriken and a katana. The shortsword is also poisoned whereas it wasn't originally. You gave the dwarf trialmaster a dwarven greataxe and full-plate whereas he had poisoned darts and no armour in the book)
There are more, but I'll stick to that for the sake of illustrating my point... What was the reasoning behind it? It doesn't really seem as if any of it was done for the sake of playability... A lot of the changes were too superficial for that. Did you need to cut out a few pages? If so, why include a completly made up description of the town? How much consultation with the original Fighting Fantasy went into this?
To be honest, and however much I appreciate your efforts in reviving some great adventure material, these changes were a dissapointment. I was also really looking forward to your Sorcery! adaptations, but to be honest, I'm now a lot more reluctant to pick them up than I initially was..
If you could address this, I'd definitly appreciate it...
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Eryx
United Kingdom
80 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê20 May 2004Ê:Ê 00:50:23 Ê Ê Ê Ê
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I don't work for Myriador so their views may be different from mine, but as I see it you can't stick 100% to the books as they are conversions not not complete re-writes. Some things have to be changed or removed for the sake of making it a module which isn't linear.
----
Love is what we're born with. Fear is what we learn here.
Checkout the IceHaven D&D online chat at:
http://www.exoduschat.org/IceHaven/ |
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jamie
United Kingdom
194 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê20 May 2004Ê:Ê 14:04:29 Ê Ê Ê
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Alex,
There are several reasons for the alterations in the d20 Deathtrap Dungeon:
1. space constraints. We only have 40 pages to play about with which includes all of the illustration, maps, pull out character sheets etc... I am afraid that something has to give here and there. As you imagine, Deathtrap had loads of small encounters and traps which I deemed omissible (so blame me... my head for the chop  ).
2. FFRPG: All of our adventures, since the very beginning, have been geared to towards compatibility with the FFRPG. Again, this has meant simplifying some of the encounters or, in some cases, altering them completely.
In my defence: Please note Alex, that both Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone read the final PDF versions of the adventures before they go to print. Any problems are then addressed and altered (which I am glad to say hasn’t been a lot).
I hope this helps mate? I was very aware of the amount of omissions on this adventure, but be assured that the others have lost very, very little (if any in some cases, none at all).
BTW what do you think of the maps? They have been created so that you can follow the FF book around just as well.
Jamie Wallis
Author
Myriador LTD |
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alexmegelas
8 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê20 May 2004Ê:Ê 20:28:16 Ê Ê
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Hi Jamie -
Thanks for answering. I can understand space limitations(although I still found some of the changes you've made to be unecessary in terms of saving space or maintaining playability balance.) Still - when it comes down to it, it wouldn't really take me more than an hour or so to make it 100% purist-friendly.
In terms of the map, great work. I'm actually sorry not to have mentioned it along with the negative aspects of my first post. I remember trying to map the dungeon on a few occasions as a kid and I could never get it right. So yeah - thanks.
Was the 40 page limit for Deathtrap only or is this a standard length for all your modules? I saw you were planning on releasing Crown of Kings later this year and I was just concerned that 40 pages might be cutting it close for that one in particular.. |
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jamie
United Kingdom
194 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê20 May 2004Ê:Ê 21:05:21 Ê Ê Ê
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Alex wrote: Was the 40 page limit for Deathtrap only or is this a standard length for all your modules? I saw you were planning on releasing Crown of Kings later this year and I was just concerned that 40 pages might be cutting it close for that one in particular..
I agree with you Alex. Not too sure how we will get around that at moment. We will either do it in 2 parts, or do a special, bigger adventure. Needless to say, there will not be many omissions or alterations.
40 pages is our limit due to costing etc.. however, our adventures do have more pages than the average 32 page adventures published by other companies.
Jamie Wallis
Author
Myriador LTD |
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alexmegelas
8 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê21 May 2004Ê:Ê 16:11:35 Ê Ê
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| You've probably thought about this already,but have you considered printing extra material (stuff like maps or character stats) as inserts? You could probably get 8.5/11 inserts printed single or double-sided relatively inexpensively compared to the double sided 11/14 you're printing for the module pages. This would allow you to free up a few pages inside the modules for extra encounters, etc.. anyhow... just a thought. |
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festaskull
23 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê24 May 2004Ê:Ê 08:12:57 Ê Ê
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I was going to write and complain that you seemed to miss out the crazy prize bubble thing in KCPOT where the little fey drops a prize down the chute for you in a tent somewhere...
as well as the crazy horse ride although I cant imagine how you would do that one anyway. Now I understand.
Im ordering all the orginal books on ebay so i can go though them page by page - compare everything to my notes and then pick apart you conversions. JUST KIDDING.
I like them and find them very playable and fun but when your a fan you cant help but feel a little sad that soem one somewhere isnt keeping the FF faith.
All I can do is try to beg you to include as much as possible if not everything, as well as downloadable PDFs with all the orignail artwork and make the Crown of Kings one jumbo adventure with orginal artwork and missing nothing.
If you do this I will send you Fifty Quid. In Fivers.
I will also pay up to 40 dollars for the module.
Best
WEZ
Tonight the moon is full ,
in the land beyond the forest,
the howling of the Wallachian wolves , a seranade to the dreareyst soul. |
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Eryx
United Kingdom
80 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê24 May 2004Ê:Ê 13:18:32 Ê Ê Ê Ê
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quote:
Originally posted by festaskull
(snip) and make the Crown of Kings one jumbo adventure with orginal artwork and missing nothing.
I have to agree. I'd really like to see Crown of Kings as a full, bigger module, if thats possible cost wise. I'd definately pay for it, and I'm sure the fans will do as well.
----
Love is what we're born with. Fear is what we learn here.
Checkout the IceHaven D&D online chat at:
http://www.exoduschat.org/IceHaven/
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alexmegelas
8 Posts
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PostedÊ-Ê28 May 2004Ê:Ê 17:09:17 Ê Ê
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| If people are into it, what I could propose is going back and listing all of the changes necessary to make the modules purist-friendly. I'm planning on picking up the 3rd edition rules and adapting the modules by creating the additional encounters necessary and tweeking the existing ones. |
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Êquestion for myriador
