Post/Author/DateTime	Post
timerino 08-18-06, 02:34 PM	I am very greatful that TPTB has decided to let out the adaptables this year. Our troup had a BLAST with the Fane of the Drow: even our Rogue was useful! With their higher TU costs (encounters are 7 TUs and Red Hand being 51 TUs?) means that players have to plan their PC's TUs more carefully. I believe (I read somewhere) that three more ADPs are on the plate this year: Hellspike Prison, Fields of Ruin, and Red Hand of Doom. QUESTION: Does any one know the logistics for these modules so we can better plan: 1) TU costs 2) APL requirement (or current thinking) 3) Month of Release (it's August already) I know I have a few friends whose PCs are not going to make the ADPs this year because of APL/TU restrictions. So, we're all learning to plan with these GREAT new additions to LG! THANKS ahead of time. tim
trollbill 08-18-06, 03:04 PM	Out of curiousity, how long did it take your group to go through Fane?
TimRat 08-18-06, 04:36 PM	Yes red hand of doom and hellspike prison should be going up very soon to order and such. I am adapting dragondown grotto and will hopefully have the done by the end of the month and maybe up in the middle of sept.
kenobi65 08-18-06, 04:55 PM	Here's what the Verbobonc Triad posted on their web page in June about Red Hand of Dawn: The Circle has provided us with some information regarding the adapted adventure Red Hand of Doom that we felt should be passed along to you, including APL ranges, TU requirements, and general expectations, assumptions, and recommendations. The adventure is composed of five parts, and - when played back-to-back - will cost 51 TUs to play. PART - APL - TU One - 6 - 8 Two - 6 - 12 Three - 7 - 9 Four - 8 - 6 Five - 9 - 16 Total: 51 Note that APL 7 and APL 9 are exceptions to the standard method of calculating APL in Living Greyhawk, however all other rules related to APLs apply here. The expectation is that characters beginning in Part One are 6th level characters, or 5th level characters that are more than half-way to 6th level. 'Effective' 4th level characters could handle the adventure - however your mileage will vary on that. It's highly recommended that you play the adventure as intended so that the challenges throughout the adventure are appropriate for the party's experience level. Experience for each Part of the adventure is awarded separately, and each Part has it's own AR. It's recommended that experience and treasure be awarded as it is earn in the adventure (which is an exception to the standard rules for Living Greyhawk). This is neccesary for Red Hand of Doom as the adventure is balanced with the expectation that rewards are given when earned rather than at the end of each Part. Each Part must be played in order. A character cannot begin with Part Four and then participate in an earlier Part. While the adventure is adapted with the expectation that the characters will play all five parts in order, one after the next, the adventure is divided so that character may play each part individually - paying the TUs for each part and earning the rewards for each part separately. Because of this, it's possible to play other adventures between each Part - however, for purposes of both story and balance of play, it is not recommended. Characters are rewarded in later Parts of the adventure for actions taken in earlier Parts. For this reason, it is recommended that each part be played by the same party in order, without taking time to play adventures in between. While the adventure is written so that not all of the characters need have played earlier parts, at least one characcter at the start of each Part must have played all earlier Parts in the adventure. The adapted version of Red Hand of Doom is set in the southwestern end of Sterich, near the head of the Davish River where the Joten Mountains and the Crystalmist Mountains meet. Note that this was in June, and there was quite a bit of discussion about it, both on this board, and on the LG Yahoo group, so it's possible that some of the details above may wind up different when it gets released. (The biggest point of discussion was whether it'd retire at the end of 2007, as originally planned; many players complained that this would make it difficult to complete. The Circle indicated willingness to consider a change; we'll see if it does get changed.)
timerino 08-18-06, 05:03 PM	Yes red hand of doom and hellspike prison should be going up very soon to order and such. I am adapting dragondown grotto and will hopefully have the done by the end of the month and maybe up in the middle of sept. THANKS! What APLs will the Hellspike, Field of Ruin, and Dragondown Grotto be? or ... "still being worked on" is a good answer as well :-) tim
timerino 08-18-06, 05:06 PM	Out of curiousity, how long did it take your group to go through Fane? It took our 'full and balanced table" (where even my bard/marshall could go) all day. We started a 9am ... break for lunch ... got home late for dinner. I think 8 hours of gameplay. The difficulty is that our 'core group' already played it ... and it made it very difficult to play with the same folks (strong tatics strongly encouraged) through what is a very challenging dungeon crawl. tim
Snappa 08-18-06, 07:15 PM	Out of curiousity, how long did it take your group to go through Fane? Noon to 11pm with a half hour break around 3, and an hour and a half break at 6 for dinner. The module has a very good pace, and there are some logical stopping points for taking those necessary breaks. The adaptation isn't bad, though there isn't much of a hook for more mercenary pcs. My players had a blast though, once we got past the introduction.
Madfox11 08-19-06, 03:09 AM	Fields of Ruin is APL 8, and cost 7 TU. Of the three mentioned adaptables it probably is the quickest to finish. Pieter Sleijpen Living Greyhawk Circle Member The Splintered Suns
Mithreinmaethor 09-05-06, 06:26 PM	When will field of Ruins be released for play ? And will it have a, sorry to say it, silly retirement date at the end of 2007 ? Because if I blow my TU wad so to say on RHoD then my character wouldnt be able to play FoR due to it retiring so fast.
paigeoliver 09-05-06, 11:22 PM	There is no way you are going to be able to play the same character in Red Hand of Doom and Field of Ruin. It doesn't matter what the retirement schedules of them are. Any character playing Red Hand is going to level past APL 8 range, while any character that has already played Field of Ruin will be too high level for Red Hand of Doom.
opa 09-06-06, 02:56 AM	you can complete red hand of doom and still be within apl range to play fields of ruin.. actually well within.. you could be 9th.. if you start at 5th and you could play it even if you were 11th level.. actually you could play it with 6 11th level characters if you wanted.. not that it would be alot of fun Opa I was indeed incorrect I have edited my post from 12th level to 11th to avoid confusion Thanks Madfox11 | | V
Madfox11 09-06-06, 04:08 AM	Fields of Ruin is APL 8, so the max level you can actually play it is 11th, but further than that you are right. Mind you, it would be rather boring, and you would get 1/2 xp and gp, but it is still allowed by the rules. Remember though that you do NOT have to play all 5 parts of Red Hand of Doom in one go. While it is adviced not to do so, you can play another adventure in between parts.
NiTessine 09-06-06, 05:21 AM	By the way, have any preliminary decisions been made about the rest of WotC's D&D adventures for year 2006? At this point, I'm mostly curious if Expedition to Castle Ravenloft will even be considered for a Year 7 ADP, seeing as it's not really traditionally Greyhawk, and seems to be a fairly long haul. What about Scourge of the Howling Horde, or The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde? Yeah, I know it's early, but this is the kind of information you'll want to have before the module is released and you go and buy and run it in your home campaign for a bunch of LG players.
TimRat 09-06-06, 01:09 PM	castle ravenloft is a definite no. the scourge one i can't remember what i was told at gencon. i know one of them is FR pretty much so i highly doubt it even though it could be. the gates one if its generic like red hand of doom could be a possibility. we have to get the other stuff up first though lol
chesspiece 09-06-06, 04:05 PM	FR has Twilight Tombs and a large Cormyr module on the horizon. From the sounds of it, Howling Horde (and the follow-up Slaughtergarde) are generic for any D&D campaign. I think the Circle deserves advance copies! :D
NiTessine 09-08-06, 04:19 AM	castle ravenloft is a definite no. the scourge one i can't remember what i was told at gencon. i know one of them is FR pretty much so i highly doubt it even though it could be. the gates one if its generic like red hand of doom could be a possibility. we have to get the other stuff up first though lol Thanks. Now I can safely put them through Castle Ravenloft for Halloween. The only FR module that's coming this year is Twilight Tomb. I didn't mention it because I figured it just wouldn't happen, especially since it seems to tie pretty deeply into Realmslore with no equivalent in Greyhawk (star elves, in this case). Scourge of the Howling Horde and The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde both seem to be low-level and generic.
Gwumph 09-08-06, 06:10 AM	Sorry folks But am i missing something??? Why would you play "Red hand of doom" at 51 TU, thats like your entire year done in a single day, which means u can't play that character for another year? seems a bit odd to me!
Cynric 09-08-06, 06:24 AM	Because you have way too many characters to use. Personally, I have an 11, 6 (Bright Sands), 5, 4 and am starting up a new character for Ratik when it kicks in in a month.:P
Ariante 09-08-06, 06:28 AM	Sorry folks But am i missing something??? Why would you play "Red hand of doom" at 51 TU, thats like your entire year done in a single day, which means u can't play that character for another year? seems a bit odd to me! Well it would be, if it were true ;) Red Hand takes 51TU because there's enough stuff going on in there to take you (roughly) from L6 to L10, and presumably has a game time to match. I guess if you wanted to play it all in one go you could finish it in about a week if you don't roleplay much, but it would probably more fun to schedule 5 or 6 weekends. Play part 1 over Christmas, part 2 before new year, part 3 a week later, and so on (incidentally splitting the TU cost between this year and the next so you have TU's left for other stuff as well).
kenobi65 09-08-06, 10:19 AM	Red Hand takes 51TU because there's enough stuff going on in there to take you (roughly) from L6 to L10, and presumably has a game time to match. Indeed...I read somewhere (no idea if I'm remembering correctly, or if it's entirely accurate) that RHoD can be expected to take something like 100 hours to play. Even if you do go light on the role-playing, it's still likely to be far more than "done in a single day."
NiTessine 09-08-06, 10:59 AM	Indeed...I read somewhere (no idea if I'm remembering correctly, or if it's entirely accurate) that RHoD can be expected to take something like 100 hours to play. Even if you do go light on the role-playing, it's still likely to be far more than "done in a single day." Yeah. The adventure book is 128 pages long, about three, four times the length of the average LG adventure, and those have the stats for four to five APLs. The encounters themselves take up 97 pages of this, the rest being stats, background and instructions for the DM. And it's pretty combat-heavy stuff. Honestly, I doubt you'd be able to play even one of the five parts in a single day.