Published on July 23, 2024 2:00 AM GMT
There have been a lot of D&D.Sci scenarios, but there's a lot of variance between them in complexity and quality. Some are more difficult, and might not be a good place to start, while others are much simpler - some were very good, while others on reflection didn't flow quite right.
Unfortunately, LW karma doesn't track the quality of these scenarios very well: often mediocre scenarios are higher-karma than better scenarios (whether because they had good writing around a poor scenario, or because people upvoted before playing them, or just because more people happened to be online and see them).
If you're interested in playing D&D.Sci scenarios, but don't know where to start, this index (compiled by frequent authors abstractapplic and aphyer, we'll try to keep this updated going forwards) is a good reference point to make sure you can pick good scenarios at a difficulty level you're comfortable with.
If you're new to D&D.Sci, you should probably start with the lower-Complexity scenarios and move up to the higher-Complexity ones. Scenarios with Quality Rating 1-2 are probably less worth playing, while the higher-rated ones are ones we'd recommend.
If you disagree with any of these ratings let us know, we're happy to review - there were some scenarios where we disagreed on the correct rating while compiling this list, and we'd appreciate your comments as an outside view, especially if you're a frequent player!
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Keen-eyed readers will notice a correlation between this column and the 'Complexity' column.
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abstractapplic: These scenarios were attempts to convey / demonstrate specific ideas with real-world relevance; I judge that they failed at this; I therefore grade them a little less generously than you might.
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abstractapplic: These scenarios were attempts to convey / demonstrate specific ideas with real-world relevance; I judge that they succeeded at this; I therefore grade them a little more generously than you might.
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aphyer: I thought this scenario was great, and still do, but given that absolutely nobody but me liked it I am forced to admit that the odds suggest you will not like it either.
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aphyer: I'm quite proud of the writing in this scenario, but the actual scenario itself was mediocre.
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aphyer: Sadly the difficulty rating for this scenario arises less from complexity and more from tedium: the scenario doesn't have an intricate model with sneaky multivariate effects, it just has way too many simple effects to juggle and dull bits of work to do.
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