Anybody Finish City of the Spider Queen? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Anybody Finish City of the Spider Queen? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Chairman7w
01-24-06, 12:59 AM If so - how was it?

I'm thinking of running it for my group but it's a hefty commitment for many, many sessions and I'm wondering if you think it was worth it.

Tell me what you thought....

(Thanks in advance!)
Silverpanther
01-24-06, 01:33 AM do it :)

really, the mood your players will be in after some time in the underdark, will be worth it.

you`ll laugh as you can`t imagine it. must be the need to relax if you are in a hostile territory...
the overlord
01-24-06, 02:30 AM Played it twice with the same group under different DM's. The second time we did not even know we where playing city of the spiderqueen (just love the DM).

As a DM you'll need to prepare the sessions in advance (at least more then most are used to) but it will be worth the experience. Highly recomended.

Greets and good luck
DaRKhaN
01-24-06, 08:44 AM We got about half way through, I really enjoyed it, but you need a commited party, mine were all following their own agendas and things went horribly sideways near the end, our poor DM was running about 5 different subplots for all the evil scheming we were doing.

<off topic>
Does anyone know of any other modules of roughly the same length, I'd like to run a longish campaign but don't really have the time to give it the depth I'd like to
NightBreeze
01-24-06, 12:12 PM There's temple of elemental evil. And if just want a very long campaign, try the rod of seven parts, if you are used to 2e stuff.
Purple Dragon Knight
01-24-06, 12:51 PM No, sorry. Didn't finish it. Real-life commitment had my wife and I move 6 months after the module start and we were barely halfway through at that time (only playing twice a month though...)
GodwinX
01-24-06, 01:56 PM I ran it and was worth it but the PC's only made it to the end of part 2. Lack of prepartion and some bad judgements got 2 party members stuck in the astral plane (with no quick way home; they did some looting of a dead party member and put bag of holding in portable hole by accident) 2 party members unconscious with one still standing (though barely with 3 hp.) It didn't take long for the Illithid to round up the wounded and make them slaves. I ruled that the drow won the battle and have control of several Dales. Currently another DM is running the players and myself (secretly to the rest, in Ravenloft) and when his campaign is done the PC's will be ready to try to fix the problems the old PC's made, with me DMing an upgraded run of CotSQ one year later game time.
Imruphel
01-25-06, 09:59 PM We started but didn't finish. I really don't like the adventure (I'm the DM). It needs a fair bit of work, IMO, including, inter alia, at least one place similar to Mantol-Derith for trading and R&R.

Of course, part of my bias is that I thoroughly dislike the whole War of the Spider Queen metaplot, both for its general content and for the fact that it took over three years before the backstory for CotSQ to be revealed.

You really need to do a lot of preparation to run the adventure and I would rather spend that time preparing my own tailored for my players.
Purple Dragon Knight
01-25-06, 10:54 PM I will echo Imruphel's comments... the adventure DOES take a tremendous preparation time. Who can memorize chamber-based underground exploration? Isn't the point of an adventure to allow the DM to just flip pages once the game has started, beyond the first reading? This one takes more than one reading before being playable, and then some. I found myself constantly flipping pages whenever NPCs were encountered (another bright idea to put them at the end when the module is half as thick as my thumb!)

All in all: cool dungeon design for those who created the actual dungeon maps, but perhaps a little complicated to DM when the PCs set off alarms in the drow fortress; poor NPC stats; at best average module overall.

Edit: however I'll add that "Sons of Gruumsh" is "where the party's at!" :) This one is done to perfection, if you ask me. Not too long, not too short, not intrusive in my overall campaign plot... (I mean who cares about modules that end up levelling your characters by 5, let alone 10 whole levels!! [sigh] CotSQ requires your campaign to completely revolve around the module, and climax whenever the PCs get to the evil biatche... however... if one does not follow the guidelines, and start the module at 15th level instead of 10th... it **COULD** be very fun! :) )
Imruphel
01-25-06, 11:53 PM (snip) Edit: however I'll add that "Sons of Gruumsh" is "where the party's at!" :) This one is done to perfection, if you ask me. Not too long, not too short, not intrusive in my overall campaign plot... (snip)

Agreed. Chris Perkins still has to be one of the best adventure designers in the business. CotSQ could have done with his skilled hand before it was released.
hreslingozer
01-27-06, 09:13 PM My group is about half way through the deep wastes and having a blast. It involves prep, but I find it is because it gives the characters so many options. It's a little weak on roleplay, especially for the mostly good party I dm, so I have had to add a little (like a slyph colony in the wastes, and more hints for roleplay vs. combat situations). The party is designed for the underdark, with a dwarven darkrunner and a fighter with tunnel feats and good climbing and rappelling skills -- which has greatly enhanced their enjoyment of the game. The Underdark supplement is indispensable for making encounters more interesting and for rules on spelunking and survival. Many of the encounters have been 3.5'd in a previous thread, and I also have a PDF (don't know where it came from, but the conversions are great!). Message me if you would like it.
Ramar Aulinvox
01-28-06, 02:06 AM It is a great adventure that requires a lot of work. I got half way through it before I had to move, but up to that point it was great. It is a little light on the role-playing but you can just add a little bit here and there [my group was comprised of Vhearun worshiping drow from Cormanthor w/ one being the child of Irae T'sarran].

Another great mega-adventure is the 2nd ed. box set "Night Below: an underdark campaign." it takes a lot of work converting it but if you have Underdark, Lords of Madness, Lost Empires of Faerun, and Monster Manual 2, then the work is pretty much done for ya.
Gendar Manyspell
01-28-06, 02:25 PM I'm currently using the castle and the undying temple at the end of the adventure as a stand alone in my current campagin. And I agree it takes a lot of prep time, along with changing and adapting to 3.5. The PC's have only reached the second level in the castle. I think that my favorite thing during the whole session was after the first two large battles on the first and second floor, sneaking around is not their thing. They opened a door and were confronted by a nest of abyssal ghouls, well to put it bluntly I rolled poorly for the first couple of rounds for the ghouls, but when they started hitting/grappleing and draining wisdom. The PC's went from unconcerned to :censored: :weep: , and the DM was :D . Not to mention that the primary spellcaster couldn't make a spell resistance check to save her life.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Chairman7w 01-24-06, 12:59 AM	If so - how was it? I'm thinking of running it for my group but it's a hefty commitment for many, many sessions and I'm wondering if you think it was worth it. Tell me what you thought.... (Thanks in advance!)
Silverpanther 01-24-06, 01:33 AM	do it :) really, the mood your players will be in after some time in the underdark, will be worth it. you`ll laugh as you can`t imagine it. must be the need to relax if you are in a hostile territory...
the overlord 01-24-06, 02:30 AM	Played it twice with the same group under different DM's. The second time we did not even know we where playing city of the spiderqueen (just love the DM). As a DM you'll need to prepare the sessions in advance (at least more then most are used to) but it will be worth the experience. Highly recomended. Greets and good luck
DaRKhaN 01-24-06, 08:44 AM	We got about half way through, I really enjoyed it, but you need a commited party, mine were all following their own agendas and things went horribly sideways near the end, our poor DM was running about 5 different subplots for all the evil scheming we were doing. <off topic> Does anyone know of any other modules of roughly the same length, I'd like to run a longish campaign but don't really have the time to give it the depth I'd like to
NightBreeze 01-24-06, 12:12 PM	There's temple of elemental evil. And if just want a very long campaign, try the rod of seven parts, if you are used to 2e stuff.
Purple Dragon Knight 01-24-06, 12:51 PM	No, sorry. Didn't finish it. Real-life commitment had my wife and I move 6 months after the module start and we were barely halfway through at that time (only playing twice a month though...)
GodwinX 01-24-06, 01:56 PM	I ran it and was worth it but the PC's only made it to the end of part 2. Lack of prepartion and some bad judgements got 2 party members stuck in the astral plane (with no quick way home; they did some looting of a dead party member and put bag of holding in portable hole by accident) 2 party members unconscious with one still standing (though barely with 3 hp.) It didn't take long for the Illithid to round up the wounded and make them slaves. I ruled that the drow won the battle and have control of several Dales. Currently another DM is running the players and myself (secretly to the rest, in Ravenloft) and when his campaign is done the PC's will be ready to try to fix the problems the old PC's made, with me DMing an upgraded run of CotSQ one year later game time.
Imruphel 01-25-06, 09:59 PM	We started but didn't finish. I really don't like the adventure (I'm the DM). It needs a fair bit of work, IMO, including, inter alia, at least one place similar to Mantol-Derith for trading and R&R. Of course, part of my bias is that I thoroughly dislike the whole War of the Spider Queen metaplot, both for its general content and for the fact that it took over three years before the backstory for CotSQ to be revealed. You really need to do a lot of preparation to run the adventure and I would rather spend that time preparing my own tailored for my players.
Purple Dragon Knight 01-25-06, 10:54 PM	I will echo Imruphel's comments... the adventure DOES take a tremendous preparation time. Who can memorize chamber-based underground exploration? Isn't the point of an adventure to allow the DM to just flip pages once the game has started, beyond the first reading? This one takes more than one reading before being playable, and then some. I found myself constantly flipping pages whenever NPCs were encountered (another bright idea to put them at the end when the module is half as thick as my thumb!) All in all: cool dungeon design for those who created the actual dungeon maps, but perhaps a little complicated to DM when the PCs set off alarms in the drow fortress; poor NPC stats; at best average module overall. Edit: however I'll add that "Sons of Gruumsh" is "where the party's at!" :) This one is done to perfection, if you ask me. Not too long, not too short, not intrusive in my overall campaign plot... (I mean who cares about modules that end up levelling your characters by 5, let alone 10 whole levels!! [sigh] CotSQ requires your campaign to completely revolve around the module, and climax whenever the PCs get to the evil biatche... however... if one does not follow the guidelines, and start the module at 15th level instead of 10th... it COULD be very fun! :) )
Imruphel 01-25-06, 11:53 PM	(snip) Edit: however I'll add that "Sons of Gruumsh" is "where the party's at!" :) This one is done to perfection, if you ask me. Not too long, not too short, not intrusive in my overall campaign plot... (snip) Agreed. Chris Perkins still has to be one of the best adventure designers in the business. CotSQ could have done with his skilled hand before it was released.
hreslingozer 01-27-06, 09:13 PM	My group is about half way through the deep wastes and having a blast. It involves prep, but I find it is because it gives the characters so many options. It's a little weak on roleplay, especially for the mostly good party I dm, so I have had to add a little (like a slyph colony in the wastes, and more hints for roleplay vs. combat situations). The party is designed for the underdark, with a dwarven darkrunner and a fighter with tunnel feats and good climbing and rappelling skills -- which has greatly enhanced their enjoyment of the game. The Underdark supplement is indispensable for making encounters more interesting and for rules on spelunking and survival. Many of the encounters have been 3.5'd in a previous thread, and I also have a PDF (don't know where it came from, but the conversions are great!). Message me if you would like it.
Ramar Aulinvox 01-28-06, 02:06 AM	It is a great adventure that requires a lot of work. I got half way through it before I had to move, but up to that point it was great. It is a little light on the role-playing but you can just add a little bit here and there [my group was comprised of Vhearun worshiping drow from Cormanthor w/ one being the child of Irae T'sarran]. Another great mega-adventure is the 2nd ed. box set "Night Below: an underdark campaign." it takes a lot of work converting it but if you have Underdark, Lords of Madness, Lost Empires of Faerun, and Monster Manual 2, then the work is pretty much done for ya.
Gendar Manyspell 01-28-06, 02:25 PM	I'm currently using the castle and the undying temple at the end of the adventure as a stand alone in my current campagin. And I agree it takes a lot of prep time, along with changing and adapting to 3.5. The PC's have only reached the second level in the castle. I think that my favorite thing during the whole session was after the first two large battles on the first and second floor, sneaking around is not their thing. They opened a door and were confronted by a nest of abyssal ghouls, well to put it bluntly I rolled poorly for the first couple of rounds for the ghouls, but when they started hitting/grappleing and draining wisdom. The PC's went from unconcerned to :censored: :weep: , and the DM was :D . Not to mention that the primary spellcaster couldn't make a spell resistance check to save her life.