On a lark, I've purchased HHQ1 Fighter's Challenge. This is a one-on-one adventure that I convinced my friend S. to play. Well, I asked him which of the four classes he'd be more interested in, and selected the module based on his "Fighter. Maybe wizard." response.
I should give the module a proper review here once I'm done with it, but it is actually much better than I expected. But what gets me a bit is the format of things, and these formats haven't changed all that much since the dawn of time (ok, 4e stuff did change the formats a bit). I've been looking at a lot of different modules in the past year, a few older than I am, a few from my time with AD&D 2nd Edition, and a few more recent. But they all seem to have similar problems which technology could help with.
My first complaint (because we love complaining) is the maps. Maps are always made for the DM, but it'd be great to be able to share them with the PCs (or PC, in this case). First, there's almost always just one version of the map, which is complete with things like "--> to wererat's lair" or the like. You really don't want to risk showing a map with secret doors or whatnot to the PCs. My friend S used to blow the maps up for his 4e games so you could actually put minis on them. He said there was the expected loss of resolution, but some maps if he couldn't easily photoshop some words or secret door symbols... he just had to wing it and presumably draw the map instead or otherwise claim there wasn't a good map for the encounter.
I should give the module a proper review here once I'm done with it, but it is actually much better than I expected. But what gets me a bit is the format of things, and these formats haven't changed all that much since the dawn of time (ok, 4e stuff did change the formats a bit). I've been looking at a lot of different modules in the past year, a few older than I am, a few from my time with AD&D 2nd Edition, and a few more recent. But they all seem to have similar problems which technology could help with.
My first complaint (because we love complaining) is the maps. Maps are always made for the DM, but it'd be great to be able to share them with the PCs (or PC, in this case). First, there's almost always just one version of the map, which is complete with things like "--> to wererat's lair" or the like. You really don't want to risk showing a map with secret doors or whatnot to the PCs. My friend S used to blow the maps up for his 4e games so you could actually put minis on them. He said there was the expected loss of resolution, but some maps if he couldn't easily photoshop some words or secret door symbols... he just had to wing it and presumably draw the map instead or otherwise claim there wasn't a good map for the encounter.
