They're soliciting adventures pretty far ahead of pub dates! :)
What I'm seeing from the Monster's Manual and the philosophy of 4e I've read about other places is this: your NPCs aren't PCs. They don't behave like PCs. They have stats more like monsters. This makes them simpler to run and simpler to insert (based on the adjustment statistics).
It doesn't necessarily make for meaningful PC vs. PC-like-characters confrontation.
I really *like* how easy it is to put the encounters together--but at the same time, I have trouble adjusting to the idea of not having PC-like NPCs. For example, when trying to figure out what kind of bandits I wanted to have, I had to look for level appropriate "monsters" that would approximate the type of NPC I was looking for. There are human minions at 7th level, and it's easy enough to take some of the other races--dwarves or tieflings, etc.--and adjust them to the appropriate challenge.
It's a very different style of encounter design. As someone who *hated* designing tier after tier of humanoid NPCs who got progressively more complicated with more and more opportunities for errors in math the higher up you got, I'm not sorry to see that go. On the other hand, I'm not sure how designing a meaningful, recurring NPC who is supposed to be *like* the PCs, will work yet. I'll be playing with that as I design my home game.
no subject
What I'm seeing from the Monster's Manual and the philosophy of 4e I've read about other places is this: your NPCs aren't PCs. They don't behave like PCs. They have stats more like monsters. This makes them simpler to run and simpler to insert (based on the adjustment statistics).
It doesn't necessarily make for meaningful PC vs. PC-like-characters confrontation.
I really *like* how easy it is to put the encounters together--but at the same time, I have trouble adjusting to the idea of not having PC-like NPCs. For example, when trying to figure out what kind of bandits I wanted to have, I had to look for level appropriate "monsters" that would approximate the type of NPC I was looking for. There are human minions at 7th level, and it's easy enough to take some of the other races--dwarves or tieflings, etc.--and adjust them to the appropriate challenge.
It's a very different style of encounter design. As someone who *hated* designing tier after tier of humanoid NPCs who got progressively more complicated with more and more opportunities for errors in math the higher up you got, I'm not sorry to see that go. On the other hand, I'm not sure how designing a meaningful, recurring NPC who is supposed to be *like* the PCs, will work yet. I'll be playing with that as I design my home game.