Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MysticRhythms 02-19-07, 11:03 AM	I jsut returned from DDXP and I msut say that all of my Xen'drik mods were fantastic fun. The writers of all the mods have given us some great gems with a lot of good faction-flavor within them. I devoted half of my convention to LG and half to DDXP and while I always enjoy playing Living Greyhawk, the XE stuff was just superior this year. Personally, I think that the 4th Blackwheel mod and the Expedition mod would be slightly better suited to a home game. They ran long (and that's not a bad thing whatsoever). Regardless, I had plenty of fun and the most memorable table experiences I walk away with all come from the XE campaign. I hope you all get a chance to play these mods and if anyone in the Wisconsin area is interested, I'd be happy to run any of them as a home game.
grahamdrew 02-19-07, 12:10 PM	I agree whole-heartedly. I played three XE mods (Blackwheel, Cabal, and the expedition) at the convention and each had a great writer, a great DM, and a table of great players. I really appreciate the effort everyone has put into the campaign so far, and hope that it will continue in the future.
Madfox11 02-22-07, 08:59 AM	I played three Xen'drik adventures, Trouble with Pirates, Brave Soldiers and Cairn of the Stone Hearts, and enjoyed them a lot. We had no problems with the time with Blackwheel and Expedition adventure, and we did role-play a lot. I had a great group with Brave Soldiers, but to be honest, there were a couple of things I disliked about the adventure. The adventure was a bit too lineair in my opinion, it was a bit like watching a movie with the player rolling dice during combat. It was a good movie, but still a movie. I also strongly disliked the presence of a very high level and very effective NPC who could single handedly do what the PCs could do. An alert DM would simply ignore him, but mine (otherwise very good, great role-player) made the mistake of letting him get involved once. It is really irritating to see NPCs cast baleful polymorph and desintegrate spells and finish the fight in 2 rounds.
Harliquinn 02-22-07, 09:52 AM	Our DM had to use that NPC once also, but if he hadn't we would have had a TPK :) So it was alright in my book. Harliquinn
Istaran 02-22-07, 05:18 PM	Our DM had to use that NPC once also, but if he hadn't we would have had a TPK So it was alright in my book. I DM'd and the PCs would have been TPK'd twice without the NPC. As it was they did plenty of fighting on their own despite his aid. In the end he had to burn two high-end expendable items he had on him to turn around the last fight he was in. We had a table of four, two of which were brand new to Xen'drik and would honestly have been better served by grabbing fastplays than the things they slapped together before the game (such as an elven ranger with no more than 2 points spent on each physical attribute). I also strongly disliked the presence of a very high level and very effective NPC who could single handedly do what the PCs could do. An alert DM would simply ignore him, but mine (otherwise very good, great role-player) made the mistake of letting him get involved once. It is really irritating to see NPCs cast baleful polymorph and desintegrate spells and finish the fight in 2 rounds. There were notes to the DM advising against overusing him. He should have been held in reserve in case the PCs are in deep trouble. He probably shouldn't be -in- the fight in the first two rounds, let alone winning it.
DarkWhite 02-22-07, 09:17 PM	Thanks for the positive feedback. As yet, I haven't been able to play Xen'drik Expeditions, as I only get an opportunity to play twice a year at local Cons, and XE wasn't available at our most recent Con due to the blackout period prior to level bump falling over that weekend. So I played four days of Living Greyhawk instead. I love Living Greyhawk, but given the positive feedback above, I might just try to muster a group together and see if I can run Xendrik Expditions as home games myself between Cons? I haven't ordered/reported RPGA mods before, although I have taken the DM test online and run a D&D Game Day session last year. I'll just have to figure out how to do the ordering and reporting stuff. I'm sure once I've done it once or twice, it'll become par for the course.
Senhouse 02-22-07, 10:20 PM	I played Covenant (hi again Myron!), Codex, and the Expedition at the D&D XP and had a great time. All the DMs were fun and engaging, and my group for Codex was inexperienced but got into the role-playing and investigation of the module. I just wish I could have woken up earlier and played a few more rounds, but I was staying on the other side of town and had to take a 40 minute Metro ride to get there. I was also glad to see my characters updated within a few days of the event! :D
Madfox11 02-24-07, 07:37 AM	There were notes to the DM advising against overusing him. He should have been held in reserve in case the PCs are in deep trouble. He probably shouldn't be -in- the fight in the first two rounds, let alone winning it. Even if used in that fashion that goes against everything I was taught about adventure design. I already felt cheated about that one fight, and I would have felt even more cheated if he needed to save our behinds. Like I said, great story, not too great adventure...
Mherduwynn 02-27-07, 08:02 PM	You felt "cheated"? Okay, perhaps I don't really understand where you are coming from, but if the adventure felt linear I apologize. There was a lot of story to put in the module and for the first part of it the trip is supposed to feel linear. It is, after all, a journey to a destination with someone else driving. As for "going against every rule of adventure design", I don't really understand how you could say that. One of the things I always do is check scenarios against the "rules" presented by WotC in the DungeonCraft series. Brave Soldiers checked out just fine. Now that said, individual milages may vary and I am again very sorry that you had such a bad time. I have to shoulder some of that blame and I'll try harder in the future to provide more options and more possibilities for PC interaction. -August
Senhouse 02-27-07, 09:32 PM	Don't sweat it too much August - your mods have been great overall and in my opinion, I like to have variety in my D&D. Not every adventure needs to have the same flow or structure or setting or whatever. Some people won't like some adventures, but that's alright! Also, the DM has a lot to do with it. I've seen situations where people with the same tastes had vastly differing opinions of a module because they played with different DMs. Keep that in mind when you evaluate these criticisms. I played Brave Soldiers and enjoyed it - it was nice to soak in the story and the atmosphere of the situation we were in.... :D
Mherduwynn 02-28-07, 04:14 AM	Very fair and very true. I am honestly not upset; I just like to make people happy. :) -A
smerwin29 02-28-07, 07:36 AM	You know what they say about making people happy . . . Actually, do they say anything about making people happy? Anyway, here's the problem with writing adventures (or anything else): there are always "unwritten rules" and "conventional wisdom." You can follow these rules and listen to this wisdom all the time, but after a while if you do your adventures can become conventional or go unwritten. But if you step outside the box and do something different, you risk having people accuse you of breaking the rules or designing an adventure poorly. You can eschew convention wisdom and still write a great adventure. In my writing class for fiction and nonfiction, that is rule #1: Eschew conventional wisdom. But you will get called on it when you do, so be prepared. I am just disappointed that spoilers on active adventures that were just released keep finding their way onto the boards. All of the Factionmasters have made themselves very available for comments via email and Private Message. If you have comments that contain spoilers to anything that happens in an active adventure, please use "secure channels" to convey that information. Shawn Crimson Codex guy
Madfox11 03-01-07, 04:14 AM	First of all, my appologies for the spoilers. I tried to keep them to a limit, but I despise saying I dislike something without saying why. It is rather unfair to the readers, especially if the things I dislike have to do with style differences. You felt "cheated"? The presence of a NPC powerful enough to do everything means that there is absolutely no reason what so ever for the PCs to be doing the job. The PCs could just have sit back and let the NPC do the fighting. In effect you are removing any chance for failure. Hence I feel cheated out of a victory. Okay, perhaps I don't really understand where you are coming from, but if the adventure felt linear I apologize. There was a lot of story to put in the module and for the first part of it the trip is supposed to feel linear. It is, after all, a journey to a destination with someone else driving. To be honest, I am not entirely sure why it felt so lineair compared to other adventures. After all, due to the time constraints of conventions many other scenarios are lineair as well. It might have something to do with the DM and the fact that at our table there was no change in pace for 2/3rds of the adventure. It gave me the feeling the trip could have been done in 5 minutes. I greatly enjoyed the interaction with the NPC for example, but after 2 hours it became grating and I had to strongly surpress the urge to kill that NPC. It might be better to add things that help the DM change the pace by big changes of scenery, adding more NPCs and offering choices (and every single challenge during the trip was resolved in 1rd). As for "going against every rule of adventure design", I don't really understand how you could say that. One of the things I always do is check scenarios against the "rules" presented by WotC in the DungeonCraft series. Brave Soldiers checked out just fine. I was specifcally talking about the presence of a NPC who was 10 levels higher than the PCs and who can and will solve the challenges of the adventure (or at least 2/3rds of the adventure's challenges). In effect you are making those challenges and victories meaningless, since one traveling companion could solve it with one flick of the wrist and a couple of arcane words. Now that said, individual milages may vary and I am again very sorry that you had such a bad time. I have to shoulder some of that blame and I'll try harder in the future to provide more options and more possibilities for PC interaction. I never said I had a bad time. I enjoyed playing it. It is just that IMO some things lessened my fun which could have easily been avoided. Some of those might be because of style difference, and there is little that can be done about those. I would really avoid adding powerful NPCs who can and will solve the better part of the challenges.
Madfox11 03-01-07, 04:24 AM	Anyway, here's the problem with writing adventures (or anything else): there are always "unwritten rules" and "conventional wisdom." You can follow these rules and listen to this wisdom all the time, but after a while if you do your adventures can become conventional or go unwritten. But if you step outside the box and do something different, you risk having people accuse you of breaking the rules or designing an adventure poorly. You can eschew convention wisdom and still write a great adventure. In my writing class for fiction and nonfiction, that is rule #1: Eschew conventional wisdom. But you will get called on it when you do, so be prepared. As a RPGA adventure reviewer and active author I know it is impossible to make everybody happy. I also know that you take a risk when you try to break with conventional wisdom. I know from personal experience, since I try to write outside the box all the time. I do want to hear it though whether or not people liked the experiment ;)