The new adventure [Archive] - Wizards Community

The new adventure [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Xandore
03-05-07, 04:28 PM It seemed like a very good adventure, but please if you write one again do it for the crimson codex. If you do write another like it for the cabal, then please let us know its that kind so I can show up after the 1st 4 hours and play in the last hour. If I wasn't playing a no thinking combat oriented character the whole adventure would have been interesting.
Marcus Majarra
03-05-07, 04:45 PM D&D isn't just hack and slash, you know. Besides, I don't think that either of the factions (all four of them) want to retain agents that don't think. That's what hired goons are for.
smerwin29
03-05-07, 05:41 PM Besides, I don't think that either of the factions (all four of them) want to retain agents that don't think. That's what hired goons are for.

No, that's exactly what the Blackwheel Company is . . . :hides:
Xandore
03-05-07, 11:45 PM I was watching an episode recently on cartoon network of Naruto. I found it interesting is that the character Gaara of the Desert in personality is very much the same as my character. I’m not sure if I have this quote from Gaara exactly right, but it fits the central core of his personality, “My existence is to exterminate all other existences, save my own”. Hack and slash is all this character is interested in participating. The other characters shouldn't ask me to tag along when they just want to negotiate. Two of the other players actually use their heads and understand if there could be a fight bring me will result in a fight. Its quite simple if I think I can take them and they aren't under the protection of the RPGA rules then I kill them. Just think of me as an assassin type character. You want it dead then you send me otherwise don't ask.

So in the future if it isn't hack and slash please make it known so I won't play this character. It is funny when the other characters intervene to protect the NPCs from me.
smerwin29
03-06-07, 08:15 AM Just a reality check for me here: what you are asking is that Greg write modules specifically to fit your character concept, which, if I am reading it right, is that you want to kill everything and everyone? So anything that involves not killing everything in sight (including your own peers and superiors if it were allowed) makes an uninteresting Cabal adventure?
Skerrit
03-06-07, 09:41 AM I hate to say it, but not every single Cabal mod will be hack and slash. You should expect a mix of adventure styles.
Harliquinn
03-06-07, 09:49 AM I hate to say it, but not every single Cabal mod will be hack and slash. You should expect a mix of adventure styles.

I hope so! Personally, I enjoyed the Cabal Adventure because it was different than the 'expected'. So just to voice the other side of things, please continue to give us the high quality you have done so up until now. I say this as a combat-oriented character (duskblade) in the Cabal (but not just after hack-n-slash).

Harliquinn
ajpopp
03-06-07, 12:54 PM My changeling only wants to steal stuff. Combat? No thanks--it's too dangerous. Greg, could you please write all future scenarios with detailed descriptions of stuff I can steal, and lots of opportunities to steal? And no combat--it takes too much time. I'd rather role-play fencing my goods. A half-hour of RP for 10 extra GP is worth it in my book!
Xandore
03-06-07, 06:32 PM Just a reality check for me here: what you are asking is that Greg write modules specifically to fit your character concept, which, if I am reading it right, is that you want to kill everything and everyone? So anything that involves not killing everything in sight (including your own peers and superiors if it were allowed) makes an uninteresting Cabal adventure?

I am saying let us know if there is no combat so I can skip the adventure. I found the adventure interesting. My character found it boring until the fighting started. The fighting only started because my character initiated the fights. The others wanted to talk. Except one player which wanted me to help him kill someone.
Hellcast
03-06-07, 07:10 PM My character also likes to kill (although doesn't make it it's living) and it's a combat oriented PC and there was another guy who wanted to make undead of the ones whe fought.We all enjoyed.
But i don't think there should be any warning about what syle the mod is.
I agree you should roleplaying him trying to always getting into a fight, even if it meens attacking your party but that type of character is a rp challenge but you should skip adventures because they will definatly challenge you
rp wise.
smerwin29
03-07-07, 08:19 AM I am saying let us know if there is no combat so I can skip the adventure. I found the adventure interesting. My character found it boring until the fighting started. The fighting only started because my character initiated the fights. The others wanted to talk. Except one player which wanted me to help him kill someone.

I guess my question then becomes this: how exactly should we do this? Do we write in the adventure blurb, "This adventure contains no combat." Isn't that a bit of a spoiler? What about adventures that could have 5 combats or no combats depending on how the PCs approach it? "This adventure has the potential for no combat, but it also could have 5 combats." I'm not sure a majority of players want to have the blurb of the adventure telling them what's in the adventure: "This adventure contains 3 combats, 2 traps, 1 untiered encounter. It is not a good adventure for druids or PCs who like to do fire damage. PCs who disarm and sunder should find it fun."
Skerrit
03-07-07, 09:51 AM We will be adding blurbs to future mods, but they will not say things like "this mod has three hard fights and two traps, but nothinig in it for wizards." I haven't fully worked out the blurb for Cabal #5 yet, but the last line likely says something like "An adventure for calculating murderers" or something similar.
heirodule
03-07-07, 10:12 AM My character found it boring until the fighting started.

Are you sure?

I think, deep down, he started to question his choices in life.

Maybe another PC needs to charm you at the start of every mod :)
Marcus Majarra
03-07-07, 02:19 PM In the Naruto series (the first one), Gaara is mostly a one-dimension character. It's only natural that mods that do not satisfy this one dimenion will bore the character. The same is true for any unidimensional character. I suggest you try working a few more sides to his personality if you want to enjoy mods more often.
echoota
03-18-07, 07:57 AM Man... we just did it last night and it took 7.5 hours. One player aptly put it that it felt like your standard Shadownrun adventure, where you spend the whole time prepping for the run.

I'm not sure why it was taking us so long, I suspect it was that we didn't feel we were getting good info in our investigation, so we kept combing for more. Also we were doing a bit of metagaming and thought that the narrative structure demanded that we do some things that we didn't necessarily have to do.

That's good a bad I suppose. I really enjoy metagaming, it's one of the main factors why I play rpgs. I enjoy reading a DM's body language and demeanor for tells as to which way the party should be going on an adventure. I also like to figure out what to do via the normal demands of what a story is supposed to entail. Mind you, I'm not obnoxious about it, constantly streaming metagame commentary to the group, it's mostly in my head until we hit a brick wall and then I try to translate as much of that as possible into roleplayese. This time though it got us all fouled up. I enjoy it when it does work though, because then I feel like Neo in the Matrix, seeing the outside the box of the characters "worlding" and being able to leap to the next important scene via the skeleton of the story.

Anyway, my character is largely a brute, so I let others do the diplospeak as much as possible, but it was still fun. There are always creative ways of expressing oneself when in the Cabal!

It was interesting to hear from the DM that when he played that the game was over shockingly fast. Evidently they honed in on the main point of the story and just went for the juggular and before they knew it the mod was over. I like that it could swing in such huge ways and still be able to resolve itself. While being railroaded might ensure that the game is done in four hours it's also far less visceral with no real choice from the players. A good investigative mod should have a rather complex web of routes to the end.
dark_poet
03-23-07, 12:50 AM My favourite way to deal with party members who run around killing on sight. Half-elf bard RSL Soothing Voice. ;) :D
Randall Montgomery
03-23-07, 11:37 AM It was interesting to hear from the DM that when he played that the game was over shockingly fast. Evidently they honed in on the main point of the story and just went for the juggular and before they knew it the mod was over. I like that it could swing in such huge ways and still be able to resolve itself. While being railroaded might ensure that the game is done in four hours it's also far less visceral with no real choice from the players. A good investigative mod should have a rather complex web of routes to the end.

This was what happened with my group. We did what we needed to do so quickly that we couldn't play the final part of the mod. Consequently, I was unable to accomplish my obscura objective for the first time ever. Fortunantly my character is CN and couldn't really give a crap. :D
Xandore
04-09-07, 12:36 PM Possible Spoiler

Just great next adventure and we had another 3.5 hours of gathering information. Worst part was absolutely none of it appeared to make any difference in the encounters. It would seem those so interested in taking so much time in gathering information need to gather information on what to gather as they never found out anything of any use.
Marcus Majarra
04-12-07, 01:32 PM This can be due to many reasons:

1. The module doesn't provide sufficient or clear hooks for the players
2. The module places too much importance on elements of lesser importance in the whole of the module (IMHO, this was a problem in the first CoL module: Divine Inspiration)
3. The DM made a poor job of exposing the hooks
4. The players are simply overzealous. Of course, the players can have no initial idea as to how zealous they are, so the DM should use narrative devices to deter the players from pointless and time-wasting endeavours.
Mherduwynn
04-13-07, 10:11 AM Great...

I just love being an example... :(

-A
Marcus Majarra
04-13-07, 02:21 PM Don't take it that bad. The plot of the module was great; I just felt that the series of inconsquential encounters in the first part of the module didn't contribute all that well to the feeling of paranoia that part of the module was supposed to communicate.
Mherduwynn
04-13-07, 04:36 PM Sniff...

No...

It's all right...

/wrist

:)
Marcus Majarra
04-14-07, 01:32 AM If it's any consolation, Crisis of Faith and The Good Die Young were wonderful. I'm looking forward to Brave Soldiers and Things Fall Apart (the latter which I'm playing next week).
Mherduwynn
04-14-07, 02:50 AM I really hope you enjoy them, especially Things Fall Apart. I've gotten a lot of good feedback from it and it even includes a small piece of custom artwork from the lovely artist I own. :)

Please let me know what you think of them, good or bad!

-A
GaloisTheOmnipotent
05-03-07, 09:06 AM To the authors and the factionmaster: THANKS for that great adventure (CoS #5)!

I'm DMing CoS since the beginning of XE. Yesterday, we played Night of Shadows. When I prepared the adventure, I felt it was a great adventure and that if the players were put in the right mood, they would have a lot of fun.

But I couldn't expect that we would have THAT much fun... 7 hours of pure fun!

The authors did a great job at avoiding the usual traps that a lot of LG authors fall in... => linear adventures, no fluff, etc...

Please, provide us with more great adventures like this.

Sorry for my poor vocabulary, I'm a frenchie...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Xandore 03-05-07, 04:28 PM	It seemed like a very good adventure, but please if you write one again do it for the crimson codex. If you do write another like it for the cabal, then please let us know its that kind so I can show up after the 1st 4 hours and play in the last hour. If I wasn't playing a no thinking combat oriented character the whole adventure would have been interesting.
Marcus Majarra 03-05-07, 04:45 PM	D&D isn't just hack and slash, you know. Besides, I don't think that either of the factions (all four of them) want to retain agents that don't think. That's what hired goons are for.
smerwin29 03-05-07, 05:41 PM	Besides, I don't think that either of the factions (all four of them) want to retain agents that don't think. That's what hired goons are for. No, that's exactly what the Blackwheel Company is . . . :hides:
Xandore 03-05-07, 11:45 PM	I was watching an episode recently on cartoon network of Naruto. I found it interesting is that the character Gaara of the Desert in personality is very much the same as my character. I’m not sure if I have this quote from Gaara exactly right, but it fits the central core of his personality, “My existence is to exterminate all other existences, save my own”. Hack and slash is all this character is interested in participating. The other characters shouldn't ask me to tag along when they just want to negotiate. Two of the other players actually use their heads and understand if there could be a fight bring me will result in a fight. Its quite simple if I think I can take them and they aren't under the protection of the RPGA rules then I kill them. Just think of me as an assassin type character. You want it dead then you send me otherwise don't ask. So in the future if it isn't hack and slash please make it known so I won't play this character. It is funny when the other characters intervene to protect the NPCs from me.
smerwin29 03-06-07, 08:15 AM	Just a reality check for me here: what you are asking is that Greg write modules specifically to fit your character concept, which, if I am reading it right, is that you want to kill everything and everyone? So anything that involves not killing everything in sight (including your own peers and superiors if it were allowed) makes an uninteresting Cabal adventure?
Skerrit 03-06-07, 09:41 AM	I hate to say it, but not every single Cabal mod will be hack and slash. You should expect a mix of adventure styles.
Harliquinn 03-06-07, 09:49 AM	I hate to say it, but not every single Cabal mod will be hack and slash. You should expect a mix of adventure styles. I hope so! Personally, I enjoyed the Cabal Adventure because it was different than the 'expected'. So just to voice the other side of things, please continue to give us the high quality you have done so up until now. I say this as a combat-oriented character (duskblade) in the Cabal (but not just after hack-n-slash). Harliquinn
ajpopp 03-06-07, 12:54 PM	My changeling only wants to steal stuff. Combat? No thanks--it's too dangerous. Greg, could you please write all future scenarios with detailed descriptions of stuff I can steal, and lots of opportunities to steal? And no combat--it takes too much time. I'd rather role-play fencing my goods. A half-hour of RP for 10 extra GP is worth it in my book!
Xandore 03-06-07, 06:32 PM	Just a reality check for me here: what you are asking is that Greg write modules specifically to fit your character concept, which, if I am reading it right, is that you want to kill everything and everyone? So anything that involves not killing everything in sight (including your own peers and superiors if it were allowed) makes an uninteresting Cabal adventure? I am saying let us know if there is no combat so I can skip the adventure. I found the adventure interesting. My character found it boring until the fighting started. The fighting only started because my character initiated the fights. The others wanted to talk. Except one player which wanted me to help him kill someone.
Hellcast 03-06-07, 07:10 PM	My character also likes to kill (although doesn't make it it's living) and it's a combat oriented PC and there was another guy who wanted to make undead of the ones whe fought.We all enjoyed. But i don't think there should be any warning about what syle the mod is. I agree you should roleplaying him trying to always getting into a fight, even if it meens attacking your party but that type of character is a rp challenge but you should skip adventures because they will definatly challenge you rp wise.
smerwin29 03-07-07, 08:19 AM	I am saying let us know if there is no combat so I can skip the adventure. I found the adventure interesting. My character found it boring until the fighting started. The fighting only started because my character initiated the fights. The others wanted to talk. Except one player which wanted me to help him kill someone. I guess my question then becomes this: how exactly should we do this? Do we write in the adventure blurb, "This adventure contains no combat." Isn't that a bit of a spoiler? What about adventures that could have 5 combats or no combats depending on how the PCs approach it? "This adventure has the potential for no combat, but it also could have 5 combats." I'm not sure a majority of players want to have the blurb of the adventure telling them what's in the adventure: "This adventure contains 3 combats, 2 traps, 1 untiered encounter. It is not a good adventure for druids or PCs who like to do fire damage. PCs who disarm and sunder should find it fun."
Skerrit 03-07-07, 09:51 AM	We will be adding blurbs to future mods, but they will not say things like "this mod has three hard fights and two traps, but nothinig in it for wizards." I haven't fully worked out the blurb for Cabal #5 yet, but the last line likely says something like "An adventure for calculating murderers" or something similar.
heirodule 03-07-07, 10:12 AM	My character found it boring until the fighting started. Are you sure? I think, deep down, he started to question his choices in life. Maybe another PC needs to charm you at the start of every mod :)
Marcus Majarra 03-07-07, 02:19 PM	In the Naruto series (the first one), Gaara is mostly a one-dimension character. It's only natural that mods that do not satisfy this one dimenion will bore the character. The same is true for any unidimensional character. I suggest you try working a few more sides to his personality if you want to enjoy mods more often.
echoota 03-18-07, 07:57 AM	Man... we just did it last night and it took 7.5 hours. One player aptly put it that it felt like your standard Shadownrun adventure, where you spend the whole time prepping for the run. I'm not sure why it was taking us so long, I suspect it was that we didn't feel we were getting good info in our investigation, so we kept combing for more. Also we were doing a bit of metagaming and thought that the narrative structure demanded that we do some things that we didn't necessarily have to do. That's good a bad I suppose. I really enjoy metagaming, it's one of the main factors why I play rpgs. I enjoy reading a DM's body language and demeanor for tells as to which way the party should be going on an adventure. I also like to figure out what to do via the normal demands of what a story is supposed to entail. Mind you, I'm not obnoxious about it, constantly streaming metagame commentary to the group, it's mostly in my head until we hit a brick wall and then I try to translate as much of that as possible into roleplayese. This time though it got us all fouled up. I enjoy it when it does work though, because then I feel like Neo in the Matrix, seeing the outside the box of the characters "worlding" and being able to leap to the next important scene via the skeleton of the story. Anyway, my character is largely a brute, so I let others do the diplospeak as much as possible, but it was still fun. There are always creative ways of expressing oneself when in the Cabal! It was interesting to hear from the DM that when he played that the game was over shockingly fast. Evidently they honed in on the main point of the story and just went for the juggular and before they knew it the mod was over. I like that it could swing in such huge ways and still be able to resolve itself. While being railroaded might ensure that the game is done in four hours it's also far less visceral with no real choice from the players. A good investigative mod should have a rather complex web of routes to the end.
dark_poet 03-23-07, 12:50 AM	My favourite way to deal with party members who run around killing on sight. Half-elf bard RSL Soothing Voice. ;) :D
Randall Montgomery 03-23-07, 11:37 AM	It was interesting to hear from the DM that when he played that the game was over shockingly fast. Evidently they honed in on the main point of the story and just went for the juggular and before they knew it the mod was over. I like that it could swing in such huge ways and still be able to resolve itself. While being railroaded might ensure that the game is done in four hours it's also far less visceral with no real choice from the players. A good investigative mod should have a rather complex web of routes to the end. This was what happened with my group. We did what we needed to do so quickly that we couldn't play the final part of the mod. Consequently, I was unable to accomplish my obscura objective for the first time ever. Fortunantly my character is CN and couldn't really give a crap. :D
Xandore 04-09-07, 12:36 PM	Possible Spoiler Just great next adventure and we had another 3.5 hours of gathering information. Worst part was absolutely none of it appeared to make any difference in the encounters. It would seem those so interested in taking so much time in gathering information need to gather information on what to gather as they never found out anything of any use.
Marcus Majarra 04-12-07, 01:32 PM	This can be due to many reasons: 1. The module doesn't provide sufficient or clear hooks for the players 2. The module places too much importance on elements of lesser importance in the whole of the module (IMHO, this was a problem in the first CoL module: Divine Inspiration) 3. The DM made a poor job of exposing the hooks 4. The players are simply overzealous. Of course, the players can have no initial idea as to how zealous they are, so the DM should use narrative devices to deter the players from pointless and time-wasting endeavours.
Mherduwynn 04-13-07, 10:11 AM	Great... I just love being an example... :( -A
Marcus Majarra 04-13-07, 02:21 PM	Don't take it that bad. The plot of the module was great; I just felt that the series of inconsquential encounters in the first part of the module didn't contribute all that well to the feeling of paranoia that part of the module was supposed to communicate.
Mherduwynn 04-13-07, 04:36 PM	Sniff... No... It's all right... /wrist :)
Marcus Majarra 04-14-07, 01:32 AM	If it's any consolation, Crisis of Faith and The Good Die Young were wonderful. I'm looking forward to Brave Soldiers and Things Fall Apart (the latter which I'm playing next week).
Mherduwynn 04-14-07, 02:50 AM	I really hope you enjoy them, especially Things Fall Apart. I've gotten a lot of good feedback from it and it even includes a small piece of custom artwork from the lovely artist I own. :) Please let me know what you think of them, good or bad! -A
GaloisTheOmnipotent 05-03-07, 09:06 AM	To the authors and the factionmaster: THANKS for that great adventure (CoS #5)! I'm DMing CoS since the beginning of XE. Yesterday, we played Night of Shadows. When I prepared the adventure, I felt it was a great adventure and that if the players were put in the right mood, they would have a lot of fun. But I couldn't expect that we would have THAT much fun... 7 hours of pure fun! The authors did a great job at avoiding the usual traps that a lot of LG authors fall in... => linear adventures, no fluff, etc... Please, provide us with more great adventures like this. Sorry for my poor vocabulary, I'm a frenchie...