The race sponsors and their supplies all showed a chance to be useful at some time or other. Some stuff is useful more often than others, but none of it just cried out, "Stay Away".
I made a tactical error in the first combat, so I was low on HP and healing surges thereafter. This is survivable, but makes things more tense. (I crawled across the finish line bloodied and with no surges left.)
Moral: Squishies and semi-squishies (me) should not charge headfirst into the setup for a brawl.
Suggestion for future modules: We need a way to go back to visit the Fey King, and get his fey mark updated to indicate 'this person keeps his promises'.
Suggestion for final combat: it is no fun to face off against an enemy you cannot engage (melee artist vs fliers). There should be a way to convince/force them to land, or hint at Improvised Weapons to throw at them. I personally had no problem with this - I'm a Warlock - but the Fighter in our group was getting out of sorts.
The module had a good balance of combat and skill challenges; neither one got in the way of the other. Our DM was able to describe what the skill challenges were and why they were there.
To LFR co-ordinators: Is there a way to determine which group won each year's race? And send them a rewards card with the sponsor's promise? Each playing group will know that they finished/failed.
Still, all in all, I enjoyed myself and recommend this module to other L1-L4 characters.
Suggestion for final combat: it is no fun to face off against an enemy you cannot engage (melee artist vs fliers). There should be a way to convince/force them to land, or hint at Improvised Weapons to throw at them. I personally had no problem with this - I'm a Warlock - but the Fighter in our group was getting out of sorts.
The flier has to get down for one of its attacks, doesn't it?
To LFR co-ordinators: Is there a way to determine which group won each year's race? And send them a rewards card with the sponsor's promise? Each playing group will know that they finished/failed.
Well, you have your own story awards for it. Also there is a scoring sheet at the back of the adventure. I am not sure if Dave collected them, but if he did, and there is a means to get it to me or one of my fellow globals, we could try to set up a blog. I will talk with Dave about it.
My only real complaint with what was otherwise a very good module was the length. Our DM had to basically hand-wave a combat, or else it would have taken us over 5 hours to have finished it (and it's not like our combats went slowly...it's just that there's a ton of role-playing and skill use in there, as well as all the combats.
I think your table was the most fun I had at the con (ironic since I hadn't read the adventure - but thanks to Dale King for running a great zero of it). The author did a FABULOUS job. Who did write that adventure? The Origins adventure description page doesn't say.
All of the factions and faerie NPC's were awesome. The adventure is long, however everyone should play it. Make sure you set aside a nice 5 hour block (plus or minus an hour). Hope to see more like this!
P.S. Anyone know what the highest score was?
Thanks kenobi65 - glad you had fun.
Absolutely! It was a high point of the con for me, too (I was playing the firesoul genasi wizard, Seipora, btw).
All of the factions and faerie NPC's were awesome. The adventure is long, however everyone should play it. Make sure you set aside a nice 5 hour block (plus or minus an hour). Hope to see more like this!
Agreed on all counts.
A question for the staff: will this be released for home play at some point, or will it be public-play only?
Thanks kenobi65 - glad you had fun.
I think your table was the most fun I had at the con (ironic since I hadn't read the adventure - but thanks to Dale King for running a great zero of it). The author did a FABULOUS job. Who did write that adventure? The Origins adventure description page doesn't say.
All of the factions and faerie NPC's were awesome. The adventure is long, however everyone should play it. Make sure you set aside a nice 5 hour block (plus or minus an hour). Hope to see more like this!
P.S. Anyone know what the highest score was?
Pieter Sleijpen (Madfox) and I wrote that mod. Thanks for the compliment, we put a lot of work in it and are happy to see so much positive comments. Part of the work is also due on the playtesters though.
Not sure on the highest score at Origins but the highest possible score is about 550 points.
Point breakdown *spoiler*
All legs with speed 11 (horses of 10 and a certain feat), acing all skill challenges and not taking a lot of rounds in the second fight
The flier has to get down for one of its attacks, doesn't it?
In our case, the fliers were hovering 2 squares off the ground. Was this a goof?
Well, you have your own story awards for it. Also there is a scoring sheet at the back of the adventure.
The story awards card I have is a photocopy and in effect tells everybody who plays that they won the race. This is cool, but such a card really should say "...managed to finish the race..." since the challenge-acing speed demons will get the same thing as the party that barely dragged themselves across the finish line and came in dead last.
I'm interested if there is a way to compile reports - every 6 months or so? - and send out something like "ADCP10 Victory! You and your team came in first place. You gain the reward your sponsor promised you beforehand. You also gain xxGP in prize money." cards to the table in question.
In my case, I'm going to have to figure out how to get a few extra personell out of the country in contravention of the local laws. {circumlocutions employed to evade spoilers}
I didn't see the scoring sheet so I have no idea how well/poorly/average my group did.
I am fully aware of the possibility that doing this would be more work than it is worth - but SOMEBODY ought to have one heck of a story to tell !
It is good to know people had fun. We were aware that if people love the RPing, they can have timing issues. The adventure contains some advice about it on purpose. Still, one of the complaints of Jungle Hunt was its lack of RPing, and we also wanted to make it a bit less railroading and RP was the only way to make that work. Races have a tendency to be a bit lineair...
Thanks kenobi65 - glad you had fun.
I think your table was the most fun I had at the con (ironic since I hadn't read the adventure - but thanks to Dale King for running a great zero of it). The author did a FABULOUS job. Who did write that adventure? The Origins adventure description page doesn't say.
All of the factions and faerie NPC's were awesome. The adventure is long, however everyone should play it. Make sure you set aside a nice 5 hour block (plus or minus an hour). Hope to see more like this!
P.S. Anyone know what the highest score was?
I want to second the praise for Dale and the amazing job he did DM'ing this mod. I actually played the adventure twice - once at H1 with my Avenger and once at H3 with my Warlock. Two very difference adventuring companies that took two very different approaches to the mod. Dale was the DM for both games and did a fantastic job of bringing out the personality of the NPCs and keeping the game moving a good pace.
We played the H2 version on Thursday afternoon at Origins, and had a blast with it (thanks, Rydia, for a great job judging, too!)
Heartily seconded! Hands down the winner for best LFR mod run at the con.
-VIC
Who played Priss, the assassin who vetoed half of the NPC emissaries before they got two words out. ;)
Where does "Ogre" liive in reality?
You guys should totally sign up for the Ravenloft Classic at GenCon (if your group is going). I'm judging it in slot 2, 3, 5, and 6.
Where does "Ogre" liive in reality?
All over the place. Most of us have been playing RPGA campaigns (and other stuff) together online for nearly a decade; there's about 15 of us in total. Of the folks at our table, Vic's from western Michigan, Maryrita's from the Seattle area, Kytte and Patrick are both from the Columbus area, and I'm from suburban Chicago. We've also got two in suburban D.C., three in and around NYC, one in upstate New York, two more in Michigan, and one in Utah.
We usually try to get together at either Origins or GenCon to see each other, and get to play face-to-face. Usually, there's at least a dozen of us at Origins, but the economy and some scheduling issues meant there were only seven of us at Origins this year (one rarely plays LFR, and Maryrita's husband is on the Origins staff, he was working security for most of the con).
We registered as a GAMA club (and came up with the OGRE name) three years ago, so we could get discounted badges.
You guys should totally sign up for the Ravenloft Classic at GenCon (if your group is going). I'm judging it in slot 2, 3, 5, and 6.
Vic and I will be there (along with several other of our friends from Chicago). We're signed up to play the Classic on Friday evening -- I think that must be slot 6. Hopefully, we'll see you there! (I'll bug the marshall to see if we can get you as our judge.
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