Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ezreal2001 12-19-05, 06:28 PM	Ok, we've heard about the duds and whats bads - so whats good? Is there a mod that really struck a cord? With out giving away spoilers what made it special Favs of mine include: the "Running with the Baatezu" series (Tiger's broken combat encounter not withstanding - the rest of the mod was good); Sheding Scales/Here there be dragons/Clipping Wings; the Iuz metaregion's Purification and Confluence cycles The personal fav is Playing Both Sides from the Iuz meta region - absolutely loved the intrigue and the combats.
solbergb 12-19-05, 07:33 PM	There's a lot that I like. It's hard to pick favorites. As a judge, I havea soft spot for When Orcs Attack, if only because, all the bad guys in that mod had either intelligence 6, or wisdom 4 or was drunk...but yet could communicate. A very good mod to run when you are trying to keep it together on the last day of a con. Probably one of the most fun I've had at a as a player was at a URD regional "Shaken not Stirred." It's still in play for a week or two, so no spoilers. While I'm sure some of the fun was the GM and the table we had, the mod was creative and unusual, giving us scope to stretch our talents, ingame and incharacter.
Namarus 12-19-05, 07:41 PM	Cores Shedding Scales That Which Was Not Meant To Be Known Verbobonc Ship Of Fools Fools Errand
StormCrow42 12-19-05, 11:37 PM	That Which Was Not Meant to be Known is a great mod, but is rough to cram into a 4 hour convention timeslot. It's a great roleplay mod when you have a longer time slot and a GM who's really prep'd the mod. It's a shame it's retireing in a couple of weeks.
smerwin29 12-20-05, 01:34 PM	So much depends on the judge that it's hard to separate a favorite play experience from a favorite mod. My two favorite Keoland mods have been "Pemlo's Lambic" and "Last Dance at Midnight." They both successful broke out of the standard LG formula in a great and entertaining way. My favorite Sheldomar Valley metaregional was "Shades of Grey." Lots of choices, cool NPC interaction, interesting encounters, and an intriguing story. When I first played the Core mod "By Cunning and Forced Cause" I thought it was not very good, but then I read it. Although there was one big plot problem, I thought it was a very well-written and interesting mod for people who liked to roleplay. I used to read every mod I played because I love to see how different writers handle things, but I haven't had time to do that lately, so I hesitate to make judgments in public based on an experience that could have had as much to do with the judge or other players or my own mod than the mod itself. Shawn
Stormydoom 12-20-05, 06:32 PM	I enjoyed That Which was not Meant to be Known because we had a combat heavy party that just hacked and slashed the enemies. We cramed it into a 3 hour game or thats how long it lasted and finished the whole thing.
JamesMaissen 12-20-05, 07:41 PM	So much depends on the judge that it's hard to separate a favorite play experience from a favorite mod. ... I used to read every mod I played because I love to see how different writers handle things, but I haven't had time to do that lately, so I hesitate to make judgments in public based on an experience that could have had as much to do with the judge or other players or my own mod than the mod itself. Shawn That's one reason why I think it's a shame that you can't get access to mods that retire. I'd love to read through a bunch of the mods I've played from other regions to see how it was written rather than how I remember it was judged and played at my table, James
beyowulf 12-20-05, 10:22 PM	Just played "Shedding Scales". Absolutely loved it. Hope I get to play the rest, as its near the end of the year.
Stormydoom 12-21-05, 12:28 AM	But my favourite mod would have to be Secrets of Tsojcanth-low level which I played at spring revel earlier this year. There was lot's of action and we fit it into a four hour convention slot. But there were some really close calls to death in it that I won't go into. I also gained a crap load of xp and gold for my apl.
SgtHulka 12-21-05, 12:32 AM	What did you guys think about Key to the Grave? It got quite a bad rap in my area, but I enjoyed both playing and running it. I found it interesting in that though the characters were confined to a (relatively) small area, they were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted there, since it was site-based rather than encounter-based. I don't know, I just thought that was a fairly unique approach to an investigative mod.
animus 12-21-05, 12:41 AM	I've only just started LG this year (June to be precise), but I've played some mods that were truly memorable. Core: That Which Was Not Meant To Be Known Atonement Shedding Scales/Clipping Wings The first two were the two longest mods I've ever played, but worth the time spent. I just wish I was warned ahead of time about the time. Shedding Scales had a very memorable NPC. Unfortunately I played Clipping Wings first, so I didn't get the full effect of knowing the coolness NPC when playing that mod. It was still fun though. Furyondy Regional: A Mine. A Plan. A Canard. Pandemonium! Death Of A Knight/The Falcon Time Will Tell. I would have picked three but two of them were the same story arc, so it's like picking one :P . Anyway, The first one was a "fun ride," and I'll leave it at that. The story arc of the two listed together (I can't remember the name) I just found intriguing. The last had a just plain awesome encounter. If you're ever in Michigan you have to play all of these. Unfortunately, Death of a Knight is a year 4, so it's going away. The others are year 5 though.
Stormydoom 12-21-05, 12:45 AM	I just played Key to the Grave and it was fun playing it but our last combat was just crazy. !Spoilers! The two highest level fighters (which included myself) at the table had gotten dominated by lord kolta and eventually the order to kill our friends came in. Luckily the other fighter power attaked the vampire down and we just followed him back to his hiding place in the sewers which we had searched the day before. The night fights were all easy as most of our party were awake on watch at each time. I had a ring of sustenance so I had to be on watch pretty much all the time. That comes to another point of mine. Is it worth buying a ring of sustenance? Are there many adventures where being able to watch almost all night is good? It would of been handy in Atonement and Duke of the Dust if I look back.
smerwin29 12-21-05, 08:15 AM	What did you guys think about Key to the Grave? minor spoiler for "Key to the Grave" I really enjoy Jason Bulmahn's work, and I ran Mad God's Key a half-dozen times for different groups, and it was a blast every time. "Key to the Grave" was one of those mods that was a good idea, but the implementation was lacking. Writing investigative mods is really tough. One of the traps of writing one, and the trap that Jason fell into, was what I call the "all in one day" trap. The mod gives you a rather large area (in terms of a 4-hour tournament play mod) to investigate without restrictions--which seems great at first--but then there is also a series of trigger events that essentially must occur for the PCs to "solve" the mystery. In the case of this mod, the first trigger happens the first night. So the PCs can spend all day (and the players spend the whole 4 hours) investigating the section of the city, or they can just wait in their rooms all day, and they are going to need to wait for those triggers to happen either way. If it's not a 4-hour time limit and you can take your time, it is no problem. You can both investigate everything at your leisure and still have time to wait for the triggers. But if you are playing at a con with the clock ticking, something needs to be done (either hints by the DM, or metagaming by the players) to finish in time. Shawn
solbergb 12-21-05, 12:22 PM	Key to the grave was memorable, but mostly because we were woefully unprepared and our ability to scrounge what we needed lead to some mighty creative stuff (our first level rogue managed to rob a silver shop in spite of alarm spells and similar defenses that needed like an 18 on his disable roll to bypass). We drove the plot forward ourselves, so we didn't notice any railroading. I do think at APL4 the last fight was a bit much, but we enjoyed the mod anyway....we were in full retreat when one party member stayed to take one last shot and rolled two 20s...had the bad guy not been in such bad shape and had the shots missed (he needed a 20 to hit), then the next action would have been an unrecoverable death by the guy who stayed behind.
SgtHulka 12-21-05, 02:42 PM	LOL Solbergb, I played that with you! That was the one where the Dwarf sister got dominated and we tied her up in a basement and she kept claiming she was okay just to get close enough to the Dwarf brother so she could try to eat him, right? Yeah, if it hadn't been for that Ranger's "called shot" -- "hey, DM, if I roll a 20, and then I confirm the crit with a 20, can I say I was trying shoot a stake through the heart of that vamp?" DM: "Sure." Ranger: "20.20." :OMG! Anyway, in response to Smerwin, I can see your point. I had the good fortune to play it online in a LONG role-playing heavy session, and then I ran it as a home game, so time was not an issue.
Namarus 12-21-05, 05:16 PM	What did you guys think about Key to the Grave? It got quite a bad rap in my area, but I enjoyed both playing and running it. I found it interesting in that though the characters were confined to a (relatively) small area, they were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted there, since it was site-based rather than encounter-based. I don't know, I just thought that was a fairly unique approach to an investigative mod. I enjoyed that mod, but it did suffer from the lack of triggers on the first day. The final encounter was an anti climax since we found the BBEG sleeping in his coffin, and waxed him.
solbergb 12-21-05, 06:25 PM	Yes, Hulka, that was your game. It turned out that by splashing it with holy water (mostly) we'd almost got it to gaseous, which is one reason the DM was willing to allow it to be staked. If Saka hadn't been dominated, the "Smash it with the prelatal army backpack full of oil and set the whole mess on fire" plan probably would have worked. But we didn't negotiate the mechanics with the DM until the round before she got dominated and after...well lets just say MY dwarf knew what his sister could do. BBEG: "Kill the annoying dwarf!" Saka looks at you, with a sudden clarity and focus and raises her axe:"I'll kill ya fast cause you're my brother!" Mogooom: "I withdraw! And keep running!" My goal was to stay out of reach until her rage ran out and fatigue slowed her down...unfortunately she has a really big constitution.... Actually...Hulka, was that your character who decided to bluff the inkeeper in the early scene with what turned out to be the ACTUAL threat? One of our rogues did, in an attempt to extort protection money or something. The DM did a good job of not giving anything away.
SgtHulka 12-21-05, 07:20 PM	Actually...Hulka, was that your character who decided to bluff the inkeeper in the early scene with what turned out to be the ACTUAL threat? One of our rogues did, in an attempt to extort protection money or something. The DM did a good job of not giving anything away. Yeah. I spent the entire mod in the meta-gaming comfort of knowing that the threat couldn't possibly be a vampire since surely that would be way above our APL. :embarrass So, yeah, I tried to extort people with the vampire threat, blissfully ignorant that that threat was real. That mod is one of the experiences that moved my character from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Good. :angelhide
JohnduBois 12-21-05, 11:10 PM	That's ok. I got accused of reading Key to the Grave beforehand because my PC, who comes from a city being infitrated by the king's undead son (can't say "Prince" because in Furyondy, the dead lose their titles and land), took one look at the blood on the wall, bombed the knowledge: religion check, and due to roleplaying reasons, automatically assumed the correct adversary...
JohnduBois 12-27-05, 11:38 PM	After looking through my list of mods played (and prepping one for DMing tomorrow), I've come to realize that Bruce Paris's Howling Hills series (IUZ3-07, IUZ4-06, and IUZ5-06) are my favorite mods. Very well-written, balanced, and inherently enjoyable. They also contain an excellent amount of "what if the PC's try to derail the mod?" text, which I find very helpful as a DM.
Kelez 12-28-05, 12:04 PM	Spoiler Yeah my Cleric was really nice to have in the party since he lives in Furyondy. The thing about Furyondy is.........almost all of the mods have Vampires or undead. So really, my cleric is an undead hunter. I casted Deific Vengeance two times and I hit the Vamp with a cure mod that did max damage and he died. Also, our rougue did a crit on the dominated fighter that we had and did 23 damage not including sneak attack, but then I also did a crit on him which brought him down. I really love my Cleric now cause then I can put bane (undead) on the sword that I have. IT WAS AWESOME!! I just played Key to the Grave and it was fun playing it but our last combat was just crazy. !Spoilers! The two highest level fighters (which included myself) at the table had gotten dominated by lord kolta and eventually the order to kill our friends came in. Luckily the other fighter power attaked the vampire down and we just followed him back to his hiding place in the sewers which we had searched the day before. The night fights were all easy as most of our party were awake on watch at each time. I had a ring of sustenance so I had to be on watch pretty much all the time. That comes to another point of mine. Is it worth buying a ring of sustenance? Are there many adventures where being able to watch almost all night is good? It would of been handy in Atonement and Duke of the Dust if I look back.
Kelez 12-28-05, 12:13 PM	Yeah.....It's a shame that in that game where you met the "Prince", you actually couldnt fight him or else you would die. My friend actually took his offer and went with him a human and came back a vampire. WOW. I want to be a vampire. But you know what I hate about Furyondy, It's the ghetto of all of the other regions in LG. That's ok. I got accused of reading Key to the Grave beforehand because my PC, who comes from a city being infitrated by the king's undead son (can't say "Prince" because in Furyondy, the dead lose their titles and land), took one look at the blood on the wall, bombed the knowledge: religion check, and due to roleplaying reasons, automatically assumed the correct adversary...
curseofgnome 12-31-05, 01:14 AM	By Cunning and Forced Cause has been my favorite mod so far to judge, with Don't Cry for me Nyrond coming in a close second My favorite mod to play was That Which Was Not Meant to be Known