Which ones do people like the best of all the Expeditions so far?
Of those of you who have played many of the last two seasons, which were the most enjoyable and why?
I've only been a DM for Expeditions, but my favorites to run so far were Dues for the Dead and Embers of Elmwood. These were the two modules where the players also appeared to have the most fun, incidentally.
What do you think made those adventures the most fun?
Reasons why below...
Dues for the Dead is a solid dungeon crawl, and offers a lot opportunities for a variety of skills outside of combat. I had fun role playing Cassyt, even if I took a few liberties with her personality, especially when she goes nuclear at the end. Players got a kick out of that, too.
The midnight raid in part 2 of Embers of Elmwood made my day. Comes complete with a chandelier to swing on, and a banister to slide down. Generally speaking, I like a combat heavy module, and this one had plenty of it.
Cool!
Season 1: Tyranny in Phlan. Diversity of enemies and locals, good for multiple playthroughs. Allows for ample RP and combat. Fights are actually tough as opposed to the cake walk in most expeditions.
Season 2: So far, Earthspur Mines by FAR. The best plot hook imaginable, tough fights + diversity of enemies, lots of RP/combat chances. But the clear winner is the cart track option. So good.
Season 1: I also like Dues for the Dead. I do like a Good Dungeon Crawl and Monster choices that FIT the location. Dues for the Dead has both. Im not a fan of scenarios that insert Monster X because 'Monster X is cool!'. Dues for the Dead uses themed appropriate monsters and has a good call back to a certain Pool that reminds me of games gone by. Its also a set area which is good because sometimes players go off script!
Season 2: I havnt run a lot of these yet. I do like the Drowned Tower (I like the idea of heading into the Tower but starting at the top and going down. Its a Dungeon yes, but its a good variant on that). I was not a fan of Earthspur (Mostly because of the lack of variation for the table thing not being included) and it just seemed too long.. there was too much there. I did like Flames of Kythorn. Im not an art person by any stretch of the imagination but I like the ideas presented there.
(Yes I know that the Earthspur thing was done by design, it does not mean I like it)
EDIT: Sorry, I should state Im mostly a DM/GM/Overlord so I look at these from the view of a dm. I have played a few Season 1 scenarios and I enjoyed playing Dues the most.
Dues for the dead is a good dungeon, classic, the everyone enjoyed at my table. Offer RP choice between Cassit, the Welcomer and the player who want to steal all the jewelery in the catacombs. Good balance fights, great reward that ever group love to receive (compare to stupid Horn of Blasting (dirauptive item), splintmail+1 (item giving same bonus as a mundane item) and Rod of Pact keeper(can only be used by Warlock, so group without a warlock receive NOTHING) that for various reason some player might love but other HATE)
Tale Tell Trees and Shadow Over the Moon sea also offer a chance to the player to display their out of combat skill and if they fail, then they can show how good they are at fighting, great reward that never go uneeded.
Tyrrany in Phlan and Escape from Phlan seem like very cool adventure, but sadly I was stuck with a bad group of player and the DM was force to stream line them and remove the RP element and the choice from it.
I didn't play season 2 expedition yet.
Season 1 would be for 1-4 Tale Tell Trees and Dues for the dead and Scroll Theif. For 5-10 Tyrrany of Phlan. Season 2 it would be DDEX2-7 for 1-4 and DDEX2-4 for 5-10.
I keep telling people this, but the final action setpiece for Eye of the Tempest is fantastic.
devlin1 wrote:
RulesJD wrote:
RulesJD wrote:
RulesJD wrote:
imaginaryfriend wrote:
so I have a start of an answer. Sorry for being confusing. Memory of the encounter may be muddled buy yeah my initial question was in relation to one combatant that would be truly hurt by a silence. RulesJD wrote:
Heh, I started this thread then didn't check it before spontaneously starting to DM Tempest last week. We stopped as they approached the Palace. Im totally confused by the Part 2 section. Like, what's the point of talking to 750 monks? Just to figure out they need to go to the tower? Is there anything particularly wierd or entertaining about the monks? The "Howling Void" just came out, so I think I'll secretly switch to that as it seems alot more straightforward and visually epic.
Best Expeditions:
Shadows over the Moonsea and Shackles of Blood are two of my favorites as far as running them at the table, however I think both are poorly written.
Tales Trees Tell and Dues for the Dead are likely my favorite as they are written.
Howling Void is the one that I ran that I hear about a lot from players who played it. I think I've heard someone tell me a story about part of that mod that made them really excited a dozen times from 8-9 different people (most of which were not at the table).
In my experience the best mods are the ones that give you something to work with and then let you see what parts the players really want to interact with. The worst mods are the ones that assume the players are only going to make a specific choice or make all the other options so unappealing that they feel boxed in (3-3 and 2-15 I'm looking at you). But, in the end, its all in how the DM runs it.
DDEX2-6 was fun to run because I had a group of older players so I was able to "work blue," to use a show biz term.
I really like Cloak and shadow, a great adventure where the player need to use their brain and not simply plow there way through horde of monster.
Sorsohka wrote:
Cloak and Shadow reads well, but I KNOW that there are groups out there who wont run from a fight. Which would lead for a very early adventure end.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
THat too. Ive only glanced over it, what is the result of the party being captured?
Tyranthraxus wrote:
ZHDarkstar wrote:
Nutation wrote:
That appears incorrect: On page 9 The Sgts Quote is along the lines of : I want them brought in dead or Alive'. Now if they surrendered they might still be beaten into TKO land or you are right just shot at if the Sgt isnt present.
i totally agree with you ZHDarkstar. The issue is PLAYERS are going to think in terms of Modern Justice systems where surrendering and getting a trial is the way things are done.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
THanks. I think this season more so than season 2 there have been a lot of scenarios for me that have got me ...'thinking'. Not so much how to run them, but more what happens if the party does X instead of Y. I have 2 'groups' full of fairly consistent players I run games for at my two different locations. One group is very lawful, the other not (hell the Criminal Sorcerer has successfully managed to pass himself off as a Zor on more than one occasion). I think my Lawful group might try to surrender as there are Cloaks amongst them.
Hey folks, just to chime in here on the theatre scene for 2-10. When I run adventures in Mulmaster, I take extra time to describe what a corrupt, medieval place it is. You really don't want to throw yourself at the mercy of the courts - at best, you'd starve in a filthy dungeon for a few weeks, and then get treated to a sham trial where you're most likely to get sentenced as a scapegoat for a completely different crime.
When we ran the scenario at the UKGE, I heard one of the groups threw their weapons to the ground and flat-out surrendered. The DM dealt with it in a very cool way - he took the PCs to a nearby watchhouse, where a senior cloak interrogated them. Ultimately the cloak believed their story, but said his fellow officials wouldn't be so easy to convince. He told them they had until morning to find compelling evidence of their innocence, and the scenario proceeded as normal. If the PCs simply refuse to surrender and get beaten down, I'd probably take this approach too.
Anyway, if needed you could even ditch all the fugitive stuff and have the players simply hired by the cloaks to track down the cloak's killers. The bulk of the scenario doesn't actually *need* the PCs to be on the run.
Other options would be to play up any 'differences' between Guard, Cloaks, Hawks. Ex. the Cloaks may give them time, but can't prevent the Guard from hunting them, etc.
If a PC is faily high ranking Cloak, that may be a temporary 'out'. Or if they played 2-2, Zora Culkin may be able to intervene.
My Apologies for getting off topic earlier: I think its good though that the more recent scenarios are giving us so many things to talk about and debate!
Tyranthraxus wrote: