Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Palladinae Jan 22, 2011 15:07:03	Ran first session of "Fury of the Wastewalker" last week. In my country there are no organised play events (no wonder, as publisher of fourth edition released "Player's Handbook", "Dungeon Master's Guide" and left players without Monster Manuals) so after obtaining adventure, I decided to organize my own event. Meeting went smooth: I talked about world, living on Athas, then explained rules, handled characters and dice and we began to play. Adventure is centered around strange sandstorm and silt runners ambush. There were two ragers, two darters and one inciter in adventure, but I removed inciter as party was weaker than standard one. After five  round another group comes. Combat lasted five rounds before we finished session, but it almost ended with Total Party Kill. I had to cheat on dice, dropped sandstorm effect (2 hp of damage to everybody outside of caravan's wagon) to prevent very first session from disaster (although I don't plan to be such merciful in a future). What is more interesting, almost the same encounter is opening stage for "Vault of Darom Madar". My party was made of experienced players who know Fourth Edition well, but it ended in almost the same way. Simply said: silt runners are terrifying opponents for first level characters. With powers dealing 4d6 of damage or paralyzing them, they can wipe all party. Do you think it was intentional (I remember discussion, but I'm not sure how it ended). Should the little creatures be a real terror of the desert? Or maybe the are to powerful or at least should not be presented as opponents in first scenario? Anyways, life on Athas is tough. None of heroes even thought of gathering survival days rations and I suspect, they will flee to desert, seeing another group of Silt runners approaching. Can't wait to another Thursday!
#2 Bly2729 Jan 22, 2011 18:00:13	It's pretty widely accepted that the damage in the first Dark Sun Encounters session was over the top and mathematically improbable for the PCs to defeat.  Whether it was deliberate or an oversight was a subject of great debate on these forums.  I'm not sure if anyone official ever copped to it.  Lowering the damage is definitely the right course of action. It's a situation that really requires above par DMing.  If you run the numbers game in Dark Sun, your PCs might very well be screwed.  I've seen people have fun living on the edge with backup characters ready to go, but I've seen just as many people become very frustrated and angry with "D&D on Hard Mode."  The best way to handle it is to lay out the stakes, threats, and opportunities for your PCs.  I think someone wrote that the PCs shouldn't expect victory in this Encounter, that they're supposed to get supplies and retreat.  If you don't tell them "you need to use a minor action to get supplies which are used to prevent a penalty at the beginning of each encounter" don't expect them to ask.  If you don't tell your PCs to run, expect them to want to stand their ground, as they're used to in 98% of the encounters they run into.
#3 tentagil Jan 23, 2011 1:56:02	The first chapter of the Dark Sun encounters adventure was purposely designed to be overly tough, however for an unprepared party its actually pretty ridiculous.  I ended up giving out some extra healing fruit and dropping out a few monsters here and there to give my players a break.  If you play the first chapter by the book you will most likely whipe the party every encounter.  Second chapter is a breeze in comparison, with teh third chapter being a bit in the middle. In general Silt Runners are tougher then they should be, they are the starter monster for Dark Sun and meant to showcase how harsh Athas is meant to be.
#4 Palladinae Jan 23, 2011 3:06:51	If Silt runners are to how how tough  adventuring on Athas is, they do well, but their number should be reduced, as in my case. We expect to show how live is dangerous, not how easy is to die. On the other hand, I said very strongly, that supplies are lying all around wagon, repeated this sentence twice more on different occasions but my words fell on deaf ears and I suppose at the beginning of next session player characters will flee to desert without any supplies. As we stated above, life is harsh under Crimson Sun  ...
#5 awaken_D_M_golem Jan 23, 2011 13:58:32	[Tangent]   ... publisher of fourth edition released "Player's Handbook", "Dungeon Master's Guide" and left players without Monster Manuals ... That sucks. But there is a work around. The DMG has a basic chart with the stats advancement for monsters. It also has suggestions // ~real rules, for designing new monsters. There's even a chart for damage. You can take 1 class, and select 1 or 2 or 3 powers relative to the monster's tier, and stick them on to a basic monster. And the template section has good info too. All in all, the necessary details are scattered throughout the DMG. Taken together, you get a 100% playable skeleton of a monster. That doesn't mean it's a clean looking finished project monster. Playable, and that's the most important thing. Fluff it with whatever ... Dark Sun or Forgotten Realms or older edition material. It all works. [/tangent]
#6 Palladinae Jan 24, 2011 5:33:11	Going a little bit offtopic. In my case, there is no problem, i'm fluent with English, as I'm actually translator. On the other hand  it shows how company treats it's customers. I'm a long time (A)D&D fan, I have played it, before anybody dreamt of polish editions and for a big part of my hobby history, AD&D meant RPG. But I pity those fellows who don't have my luck. It is why started my own D&D encounters. Going back to silt runners, I checked them against other Level 1 monsters, and the are definitely tough competition. Considering additional rules (obsidian storm meaning 2hp of damage per round) and strength of silt runners, first encounter is almost impossible to live through!