A Tyranny of Souls & paragon SoW adventures - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 nyteskie Jul 23, 2009 9:51:39	My group is immersed in the middle of Bordrin's Watch and having a blast, but I have to admit that as the new adventures are rolling out, I am getting more and more impatient to get through the heroic adventures to the new stuff. As the edition is progressing and the game "tech" of both encounters and skill challenges continues to evolve, I'm seeing a drastic improvement in the quality of the SoW adventures as the paragon tier progresses. That isn't to say that the heroic tier adventures are bad, but the later adventures seem both more cohesive and benefit from all of the thought and feedback (on skill challenges in particular) seen since the inception of the edition. What prompted this post though, was Tyranny of Souls. Tyranny impressed me most because of its flexibility. Without getting into spoiler territory, it gives the DM a big range of options so that you can allow the PCs more freedom to choose how they accomplish their goals while at the same time creating (surmountable) consequences for failing to achieve interim goals on their way to completing their tasks. Also, the extra encounters make it easy to adapt to the PCs' actions on the fly. Overall, I'd say it provides a great overall plot outline with a generous helping of improv assistance so a DM can let the players find their own way through the adventure with very little leading from the DM. Bordrin's Watch was also penned by Mr. Schwalb, and to call that adventure Tyranny's kid brother is not very far off, as it has a very similar 'hands off' approach and gives options for letting the PCs muddle their way through the adventure with little DM hand holding. I'm sure some will roll their eyes and call me a brown noser, but I tend to think that positive feedback is just as valuable as negative. So, if I have to deal with a little ridicule to see more adventures along the lines of Tyranny, so be it. Bravo Mr. Schwalb & Wizards!
#2 rob_douglas Jul 24, 2009 9:06:10	Agreed - I read through Tyranny and loved it - I can't wait to use it. And yes, the Skill Challenges are getting better. I just finished the Thornewaste Skill Challenge in Lost Mines, and it was very bad. 3 primary skills, that really only fit one characters main focus, 2 secondary that are the same skills as primary, even one has the same DC, but doesn't count - and no sense of progress or failure as you are going through. I wanted to run it, but it was painful for everyone. At least they made it - 8/2. The pieces put in place at the end of Tyranny are amazing - Spoiler alert! Show The action with the githyanki resets the game world in a new and exciting way - with the gith* getting back together possibly. It really ends the githyanki threat for some time - though of course it could always come back in a new form. The threads leading to Tiamat though are big! She will be pretty ******, and should lead to a showdown with Ephemelon, her Exarch, and her herself. She is even called out in the DMG as a deity that could be defeated by mortals! And did you see all those dragons!? Awesome. I have been bummed that in 4 episodes now, I haven't had one dragon fight. I know we get one soon, but I am itching. Been playing 4E for a year now, right? And no dragons? Unfortunately, Tyranny is more than a year away for me, unless I find ways to speed us up.
#3 Winterhaven_Regular Jul 24, 2009 12:10:59	I would agree that the paragon adventures look much, much better than the heroic ones. I had been looking forward to running Den of the Destroyer and Temple Between, but both didn't run as well as they read. Maybe that was my failure... but I think the players were really confused and bothered that Sarshan as not the big bad guy, but rather this "new guy" General Zithiruun. As for fighting dragons, yeah I think the first one in the path is General Zithiruun's undead dragon. And I just ran the fight against the two dragons in The Mottled Tower, and it was incredibly awesome! Considering the main villain of the path, you'd have thought there'd be a few more dragons in the heroic tier...
#4 nyteskie Jul 24, 2009 12:35:22	Agreed as to the dragons in heroic tier - which is why I added this encounter with a young green between Rivenroar and Bordrin's Watch. I can't take credit for foresight, though, just luck! Course, it doesn't help if you are already passed that transition, but if you just started SoW, it's an interesting encounter that adds a little foreshadowing to later events and fits fairly seamlessly in the overall narrative.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

nyteskie

Jul 23, 2009 9:51:39

My group is immersed in the middle of Bordrin's Watch and having a blast, but I have to admit that as the new adventures are rolling out, I am getting more and more impatient to get through the heroic adventures to the new stuff. As the edition is progressing and the game "tech" of both encounters and skill challenges continues to evolve, I'm seeing a drastic improvement in the quality of the SoW adventures as the paragon tier progresses. That isn't to say that the heroic tier adventures are bad, but the later adventures seem both more cohesive and benefit from all of the thought and feedback (on skill challenges in particular) seen since the inception of the edition. What prompted this post though, was Tyranny of Souls.

Tyranny impressed me most because of its flexibility. Without getting into spoiler territory, it gives the DM a big range of options so that you can allow the PCs more freedom to choose how they accomplish their goals while at the same time creating (surmountable) consequences for failing to achieve interim goals on their way to completing their tasks. Also, the extra encounters make it easy to adapt to the PCs' actions on the fly. Overall, I'd say it provides a great overall plot outline with a generous helping of improv assistance so a DM can let the players find their own way through the adventure with very little leading from the DM. Bordrin's Watch was also penned by Mr. Schwalb, and to call that adventure Tyranny's kid brother is not very far off, as it has a very similar 'hands off' approach and gives options for letting the PCs muddle their way through the adventure with little DM hand holding.

I'm sure some will roll their eyes and call me a brown noser, but I tend to think that positive feedback is just as valuable as negative. So, if I have to deal with a little ridicule to see more adventures along the lines of Tyranny, so be it.

Bravo Mr. Schwalb & Wizards!

rob_douglas

Jul 24, 2009 9:06:10

Agreed - I read through Tyranny and loved it - I can't wait to use it. And yes, the Skill Challenges are getting better. I just finished the Thornewaste Skill Challenge in Lost Mines, and it was very bad. 3 primary skills, that really only fit one characters main focus, 2 secondary that are the same skills as primary, even one has the same DC, but doesn't count - and no sense of progress or failure as you are going through. I wanted to run it, but it was painful for everyone. At least they made it - 8/2.

The pieces put in place at the end of Tyranny are amazing - Spoiler alert!

Show

The action with the githyanki resets the game world in a new and exciting way - with the gith* getting back together possibly. It really ends the githyanki threat for some time - though of course it could always come back in a new form. The threads leading to Tiamat though are big! She will be pretty ******, and should lead to a showdown with Ephemelon, her Exarch, and her herself. She is even called out in the DMG as a deity that could be defeated by mortals!

And did you see all those dragons!? Awesome. I have been bummed that in 4 episodes now, I haven't had one dragon fight. I know we get one soon, but I am itching. Been playing 4E for a year now, right? And no dragons? Unfortunately, Tyranny is more than a year away for me, unless I find ways to speed us up.

Winterhaven_Regular

Jul 24, 2009 12:10:59

I would agree that the paragon adventures look much, much better than the heroic ones. I had been looking forward to running Den of the Destroyer and Temple Between, but both didn't run as well as they read. Maybe that was my failure... but I think the players were really confused and bothered that Sarshan as not the big bad guy, but rather this "new guy" General Zithiruun.

As for fighting dragons, yeah I think the first one in the path is General Zithiruun's undead dragon. And I just ran the fight against the two dragons in The Mottled Tower, and it was incredibly awesome!

Considering the main villain of the path, you'd have thought there'd be a few more dragons in the heroic tier...

nyteskie

Jul 24, 2009 12:35:22

Agreed as to the dragons in heroic tier - which is why I added this encounter with a young green between Rivenroar and Bordrin's Watch. I can't take credit for foresight, though, just luck!

Course, it doesn't help if you are already passed that transition, but if you just started SoW, it's an interesting encounter that adds a little foreshadowing to later events and fits fairly seamlessly in the overall narrative.