Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lakmoots 01-19-05, 10:39 PM	I have just purchased the three Eberron adventures, and I must say I have mixed feelings. I think that there is alot in these adventures that is excellent; I like the story and the adventures range through a variety of situations and set pieces. It is however, hampered by a number of gaping plot holes, as well as game mechanic issues. I felt the best adventure was Keith Bakers. I enjoyed how it roamed around a series of situations and gave the adventure room for plot development and mystery, whilst still throwing in a traditional dungeon crawl at the end. The horribly under-developed "Grasp of Emerald Claw" was pretty much nothing but a dungeon crawl. I very much enjoyed the attention for detail in these books about identiy papers, travelling papers and efficient town guards... except when the author forgets about these issues. One of my favorite gaffs is at the beginning of "Shadow of the Last War". The Sivis message station is invaded by kobolds. Now, apparently, the entire station and outpost for House Sivis contained a solitary gnome scribe... no militia or guards of any sorts... even for a post office? The thing that gets me the most is, if the message station was open, and unguarded, then why did the kobolds have to kick the door off the hinges instead of walking in!! That bit always makes me laugh. Areas like this present a large amount of work for the DM to fill in plot holes. I think these adventures have great potential, but they are best treated as "adventure skeletons" that need to be fleshed out. The adventure "Whispers of the Vampires' Blade" has a couple of really annoying points. One of course is the fact that Lucan escapes the PCs completely at least three times in the course of the adventure. At this point, a group of PCs will have to think hard what to do next, and at these times, the adventures directs them to keep following Lucan's trail to Kharrnath. This would be fine, if they didn't scew up at the train battle. At this point, Lucan flees again, but not back to the trail, he walks off into the wilderness to a conveniently located 'evil temple' (groan!). However, the PCs would be utterly forgiven for going straight back to the trail and going off to Kharrnath!! Just as they are directed!! I have talked to a couple of groups who have experienced the same thing, and the DM always had to provide a quick Deus-ex-machina to point them back the right way. Of course, when it is finished, the PCs are stranded in the middle of the Thrane wilderness with no way to get home but walk!! Also, there is a overlooked problem of giving the PCs magebred horses, a really cool gift, and then having to abandon them in the middle of the adventure... this causes major issue because no one wants to give them up, so the DM has to quickly work out a stable that materialises for the PCs. Oh well, at least they don't have to buy tickets for the lightning rail... for some reason. Now, the only real thread making "Whispers" relevant at all to the trilogy is Garrow the 'continuing villain'. There is a big problem with this. Only Keith Baker actually gives Garrow any room to make a dramatic speech or to even talk. The PCs may never even know that Garrow is any of the forms he takes. He would be seen once at the beginning, and then once at the very end when in the Creation FOrge. Once he is Killed a PC could be forgiven for saying "Who? Oh, him, right". To make Garrow a relevant and cool villain he needs a few more scenes to develop him, at this stage, he is bypassed so much that only the DM knows he is a player in this intrigue. The other villain, the Lord of Blades, becomes irrelevant when Scimitar joins up with the Emerald Claw... why? The PCs never know! The last adventure is easily the weakest. I loved the dungeon crawl, and think it is a great moody place, but the whole Xendrik adventure is a real misfire. Do we get any real information about it? The city of Stormreach, which should have been as good as any Waterdeep, is given short shift. In fact, the entire 1st half of the adventure seems highly tacked on to a traditional dungeon crawl. It should have been an excellent exposition into the tip of Xendrik. An astute reader will also notice that Sharn, The Darguun capitol, The Zilargo capital, and Stormreach are all described in almost the exact same terms. They are all a "mix of stone and wooden buildings built in a haphazard style". EcK! The real issue with the last adventure is the conclusion error. The PCs have two choices: Give the evil artifact to House Cannith, or forever earn its enmity (from two of the three factions?). Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know a group of PCs in the world who would hand that over at the end, unless they were playing Evil or Selfish characters. Handing it over also obviously violates the Treaty of Thronehold and the ban on creating Warforged... what kind of PC would violate the treaty and perhaps be responsible for sparking another Last War?? Unfortunately, the other option is terrible. All-time enmity of House Cannith? Can someone explain why? Wouldn't it be logical for the PCs to turn around and say to Lady Elaydren "WHAT LADY?? You wanted it? We didn't think you would want an insane-possessed-evil-artifact, so we destroyed it when it attacked us... er, sorry?" Besides, if they returned with the four Schemas, wouldn't that be enough to say mission accomplished? How would House Cannith even know that you betrayed them if you did? As you can see Bruce Cordell did not really think at all about the conclusion, and so it remains a mess. The crowning achievment of the confusing conclusion is the rule mistake. In order to take the Creation Pattern home, it needs to be dissasembled. However, this can only happen when at 0 hit points. At this point, Bruce forgets completely that objects and constructs are destroyed at 0 hit points. The PCs have no choice but to destroy it!! Of course, I assume Bruce meant that a Creation Pattern works like a warforged with regard to HP, but this is never mentioned. So the PCs have no choice but to destroy the pattern unless the DM fixes the silliest of rule mistakes. And even then, I know few parties who would happily hand over such a device with no qualms. So, ho-hum. I really do enjoy the story arcs of these adventures, and they have some very fine points, but also a large amount of work for DMs to plug all the holes. Although, I guess it is to be expected, I have seen larger and more expensive brochures in a doctors waiting room. As long as the plot and stories continue in a standard of quality, it is all good with me. An editor wouldn't go astray, though ;)
Lakmoots 01-20-05, 01:53 AM	Another thing that really bugs me is Merrix d'Cannith. He is only ever relevant to the DM. There is absolutely no way for a PC to find out even the slightest involvement by Merrix... unless the DM messes up big-time somehow and decides that one of the NPCs gives it away. It just seems odd and incredibly irrelevant. It is kind of like a red herring. Does it matter that Merrix is involved? The only reason is to give some sort of background credibility to the creation pattern, and that item remains a complete mystery to the players anyway, it is only ever revealed in meta-game material. Very strange.
Neofish 01-20-05, 02:23 AM	Another thing that really bugs me is Merrix d'Cannith. He is only ever relevant to the DM. There is absolutely no way for a PC to find out even the slightest involvement by Merrix... unless the DM messes up big-time somehow and decides that one of the NPCs gives it away. It just seems odd and incredibly irrelevant. It is kind of like a red herring. Does it matter that Merrix is involved? The only reason is to give some sort of background credibility to the creation pattern, and that item remains a complete mystery to the players anyway, it is only ever revealed in meta-game material. Very strange. Are you sure, I though they have a chance to find out in SotLW, it's a key point where the players find out the Elaydrin has been lying to them, perhaps I miss read it somewhere, but the fight at the broken anvil and her letters seem to point you in this direction.
Lakmoots 01-20-05, 02:30 AM	Are you sure, I though they have a chance to find out in SotLW, it's a key point where the players find out the Elaydrin has been lying to them, perhaps I miss read it somewhere, but the fight at the broken anvil and her letters seem to point you in this direction. Sure. But they don't find out the truth - only that there has been a lie. Unless Elaydren lays the whole thing out, exposition style, there is no way she just won't deliver them another line. I don't remember any DM directions that told me to reveal any plot elements on this occasion... it may be worth it, though.
Lakmoots 01-20-05, 02:41 AM	Humerous moments in Eberron Adventures: No. 1: "A disturbing break-in" House Sivis Scribe: "So there I was, scribing highly confidential documents, completely alone, when it happened. Of course, being an incredibly rich and important Dragonmark house, we don't employ any guards of any kind. Well, there I was, sitting alone, when four kobolds kicked the door in and attacked me! I remember thinking it was quite strange, seeing as we were open and the door was unlocked... No. 2: "An indecent proposal" Captain of the Dark Lanterns: "Now listen carefully my adventurers. I have a great mission for you all to perform on behalf of the Brelish Crown. But first... you must beat my monkey!!!" No. 3: "End of an Era" DM: "Congratulations you finally slew Garrow!" PC 1: "Who?" DM: "Garrow... your nemesis... the one who has plagued you throughout your adventures!" PC 2: "Has he?" DM: "YES! From the beginning through to the end!" PC 3: "Oh... you mean the fake vampire guy, right?" DM: "??... He's been more than that! Hes always been watching you... he was also the half-elf sky captain and... PC 4: "What? The one that rammed the airship? How did he escape?" DM: "Huh? Well... he... just did... but, never mind, he was other people too! That tubby woman you met just a moment ago... remember?" PC 1: "Um... yeah?" DM: "That was him too!" PC 1: "oh... okay. Can we just go find the scheckle now?" DM: "SCHEMA!" PC 1: "Whatever..." ----------------------------------------- Oh, the memories...
Gwion 01-20-05, 05:36 AM	Garrow? Oh yes - my PCs killed him pretty much as soon as they met him. <sigh> There was an Aereni wizard in the group - hated undead - and he always carried a few vials of holy water. A vampire shows up, terrifies the group, makes a speech and halfway through, the wizard soaks him. As there was no effect, the group got pretty suspicious. When he cast his obscuring mist spell, both the wizard and artificer identified it immediately and that was the end of his credibility as a vampire. He didn't last much longer, although the changeling rogue did give him a nice funeral afterwards. At the end of 'Shadows,' someone else led the Claws, and the group was none the wiser. They haven't done the other adventures yet, but I'll just replace him with some other people. If I'd waited to get the last adventure before starting this campaign, I'd have written the Emerald Claw out entirely, leaving just the 'forged. After all, they've got a valid reason to want the schemas. The Claw doesn't really - it's just power, and bearing in mind that they're more interested in life and undeath than artificing... It's not really their thing. Gwion
smerwin29 01-20-05, 08:12 AM	Tough audience! :D Seriously though, it is extremely difficult to write an excellent plot-driven module for publication--just way too much can go wrong. I've also found that writing for Eberron is even a little tougher than for generic D&D, as the "tone" that the game tries to capture forces you into modes of writing that you might normally avoid. Just as an example, one of the first things I tell new module writers is "Don't put the BBEG in an encounter before you want him to be dead, because he will inevitably get gacked." However, in all the best pulp media, the BBEG is always confronting the heroes, taunting them, making them despise him, and then escaping until the climactic scene. But you've got to admit also that part of the fun of running a game is getting creative (even with a published mod) when the PCs do something to muck up the plan. Regards, Shawn