Improving the "Riding the Rail" Adventure - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Improving the "Riding the Rail" Adventure

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
naturax
Aug 14, 2009 10:58:48 Here Be Spoilers

I am going to be running the "Riding the Rail" adventure from Dungeon #143 as a way to introduce both table-top gaming and Eberron to a pair of new players. There are going to be four people playing the adventure, two of which have been playing Eberron for years, and two of which have never seen a d20 in their lives, and it's those two new players I want to focus on.

My primary goals are to make the adventure fun and to make sure that the story makes sense. In order to accomplish the latter, and to make things relatively straightforward for new players, I've made some modifications to the adventure itself that I want some feedback about. I've replaced the Pilfered Wands with agents of the Lord of Blades, and instead of trying to direct the lightning rail into some canyon, they are going to redirect the lightning rail into the Mournland! To this end, the final destination of the train (and I guess the big column from Xen'drik too) is going to be Flamekeep so that the lightning rail takes the track that skirts the border of the Mournland.

I'm going to say that House Lyrandar has purchased the column via a third party (it doesn't matter who but it would be nice to drop a name) who is having it shipped to Flamekeep, from there it will be shipped via airship to Stormhome. One of the PCs is going to be a Lyrandar heir and another will be her bodyguard, both of which are riding the train incognito in order to make sure the column arrives without House Orien trying any nonsense, and the other two PCs are just going to happen to be seated across from them in the passenger car.

Now I have to make some modifications to all of the encounters, though. Obviously I get to keep the living spells, which works out nicely when warforged are herding them, but I'm wondering if I should stick to having the crew be the agents working for the Lord of Blades or if I should have warforged ambush the train somewhere along the tracks. If we say the warforged, and their equipment, were already on the train when it left Sharn, then I could use some help explaining how they all got on board in the first place. Disguised as the crew? A non-warforged member of the crew smuggled them aboard in boxes and frees them at some point? Is there a chance for the PCs to intervene before that happens?

In general, if anyone has any suggestions about how to run a successful action-packed adventure that includes fighting on top of a train for new players, I would love to hear from you. Thanks!

PS. I love this quote from tvtropes: "Eberron has a magic train for two purposes. To get the characters to places quickly, and for them to have climactic fights on top of it."
#2
Siberys
Aug 14, 2009 11:49:28 I'd go with ambush.

Oddly enough, I was retooling this same adventure to use agents of the LoBster. One of the player's in my campaign is playing a warforged Sympathetic to the LoBster, so he wanted some action involving them.
#3
naturax
Aug 14, 2009 12:21:15
I'd go with ambush.

Oddly enough, I was retooling this same adventure to use agents of the LoBster. One of the player's in my campaign is playing a warforged Sympathetic to the LoBster, so he wanted some action involving them.

Thanks for the reply! I was just reading about the RL Great Train Robbery and it looks the robbers jumped aboard the train at a switching station. I could easily have the warforged do just that, I'm wondering if there are any advantages to having the "trap sprung" while the train is still moving, however, for the purposes of really packing in as much action is possible into the adventure.

Also, I really feel as though this adventure lends itself to working better with agents of the LoB, so I can see how you reached the same conclusion when you ran it. How did your session go, by the way?
#4
Siberys
Aug 14, 2009 15:51:09 I haven't, yet. I'm planning to run it later. But it's on my list of conversions.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 naturax Aug 14, 2009 10:58:48	Here Be Spoilers I am going to be running the "Riding the Rail" adventure from Dungeon #143 as a way to introduce both table-top gaming and Eberron to a pair of new players. There are going to be four people playing the adventure, two of which have been playing Eberron for years, and two of which have never seen a d20 in their lives, and it's those two new players I want to focus on. My primary goals are to make the adventure fun and to make sure that the story makes sense. In order to accomplish the latter, and to make things relatively straightforward for new players, I've made some modifications to the adventure itself that I want some feedback about. I've replaced the Pilfered Wands with agents of the Lord of Blades, and instead of trying to direct the lightning rail into some canyon, they are going to redirect the lightning rail into the Mournland! To this end, the final destination of the train (and I guess the big column from Xen'drik too) is going to be Flamekeep so that the lightning rail takes the track that skirts the border of the Mournland. I'm going to say that House Lyrandar has purchased the column via a third party (it doesn't matter who but it would be nice to drop a name) who is having it shipped to Flamekeep, from there it will be shipped via airship to Stormhome. One of the PCs is going to be a Lyrandar heir and another will be her bodyguard, both of which are riding the train incognito in order to make sure the column arrives without House Orien trying any nonsense, and the other two PCs are just going to happen to be seated across from them in the passenger car. Now I have to make some modifications to all of the encounters, though. Obviously I get to keep the living spells, which works out nicely when warforged are herding them, but I'm wondering if I should stick to having the crew be the agents working for the Lord of Blades or if I should have warforged ambush the train somewhere along the tracks. If we say the warforged, and their equipment, were already on the train when it left Sharn, then I could use some help explaining how they all got on board in the first place. Disguised as the crew? A non-warforged member of the crew smuggled them aboard in boxes and frees them at some point? Is there a chance for the PCs to intervene before that happens? In general, if anyone has any suggestions about how to run a successful action-packed adventure that includes fighting on top of a train for new players, I would love to hear from you. Thanks! PS. I love this quote from tvtropes: "Eberron has a magic train for two purposes. To get the characters to places quickly, and for them to have climactic fights on top of it."
#2 Siberys Aug 14, 2009 11:49:28	I'd go with ambush. Oddly enough, I was retooling this same adventure to use agents of the LoBster. One of the player's in my campaign is playing a warforged Sympathetic to the LoBster, so he wanted some action involving them.
#3 naturax Aug 14, 2009 12:21:15	I'd go with ambush. Oddly enough, I was retooling this same adventure to use agents of the LoBster. One of the player's in my campaign is playing a warforged Sympathetic to the LoBster, so he wanted some action involving them. Thanks for the reply! I was just reading about the RL Great Train Robbery and it looks the robbers jumped aboard the train at a switching station. I could easily have the warforged do just that, I'm wondering if there are any advantages to having the "trap sprung" while the train is still moving, however, for the purposes of really packing in as much action is possible into the adventure. Also, I really feel as though this adventure lends itself to working better with agents of the LoB, so I can see how you reached the same conclusion when you ran it. How did your session go, by the way?
#4 Siberys Aug 14, 2009 15:51:09	I haven't, yet. I'm planning to run it later. But it's on my list of conversions.