AKAN2-1 review {spoilers} - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

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#1 Uthrac Apr 29, 2010 9:10:32	AKAN2-1 Set Adrift (P1) is one of those mods that some people will love and some will hate, depending on your style of play. I had the opportunity to play this last Friday evening, prep it over the weekend, and run it on Monday - so I've seen this from both sides of the screen. Friday Night: Optimized party of 5 players who usually play together (familiar with each other's characters). Monday Night: LFGS of 6 players who are familiar with each other, but play in mixed groups. Introduction/Encounter 1 was typical for an AKAN mod. Get hired, and off you go. There are those who played AKAN1-5(H3) and delivered the package, and are just now picking up where that left off at the docks to "a week later" and taking the package across the Sea of Fallen Stars. This "feeds" those who hate the LFR discontinuity - - - play part of the story, go on a half-dozen or more other adventures, and then come back "a week later" for "the story continues." Both of my groups took it in stride, had a good chuckle, and dove into the mod. [Note: For future authors, it would be nice to see story lines like this at the same tier. They make a good back-to-back offering for a game day or convention. As an H3/P1 split, it is nearly impossible to play these in sequence - the first part would have to level you out of 10 so you can play part 2 at 11.] Encounter 2 is an attack on the ship by 3 monsters (4 with 6 players) - none elite. This is a race-against-the-clock encounter, as each passing round results in more destruction of the ship. Friday's DM added an extra monster (DME to challenge us - he knew the group and we still destroyed the encounter in 2 rounds). He gave great descriptions of the "minions" tearing apart the ship as time passed, which encouraged us to kill them quickly. I employed this tactic with the Monday group, and they were able to get through the combat in 4 rounds. (I DME'd an additional penalty for the blasts/bursts used that also targeted/damaged the ship. It made for a fun mechanic and decision points - trying to stop the bad guys while not hitting the sailors and ship.) Encounter 3 is a skill challenge, and done fine. In both sessions, each player described how they wanted to spend the next two days inspiring the crew and fixing the ship. We didn't use the "scenes" linearly - - mainly because with only 4 successes needed, the social/heal of the sailors would have had both teams done before any physical repairs were made (leaving out some of the players). On Friday, I made 1 failure, and there were no failures in the Monday game. Since this challenge spans several days, we got an extended rest. Three points on this: (1) On Friday, we all rolled our eyes that we were getting an Extended Rest in an LFR mod. We thought this was pretty lame. Especially since our items that rely on milestones could not be used. (2) On Monday, I gave a quick speech at the beginning that this mod "Does not fit the mold of what you've come to expect in an LFR mod - particularly with pacing and rules interpretations. Know that going in, and enjoy the adventure." This went over very well with players. (3) If your group asks for a "real challenge throw-the-kitchen-sink at us" experience, it's easy enough to say "The work you're doing gives you enough time for short breaks so that you are not fatigued, but you do not have time to take an Extended Rest." Encounter 4 was an amazing encounter. We used the gargantuan blue dragon mini for the BBEG, and that made a great impression! On Friday, the DM put all of the enemies at range 20 to start the encounter. This turned out to be bad. We won initiative and delayed. The BBEG beat out the other critters and closed the distance. We can out of delay and did our 1st round nova - bloody for the BBEG. The other critters closed the distance, but by then it was too late. Continuing to focus our fire, the BBEG was done and dead before offering a real challenge. To mitigate those problems, when I ran this on Monday, I had the 4 "cohorts" rise up around the four corners of the ship. This gave the party good targets early on. By the time the BBEG closed, enough resources had been spent bloodying the close-opponents that he got to last a while. Scary moment came when the BBEG took ongoing damage at the start of his turn (Poison Cloud), then followed it up with the Tentacle Flail. It gave the leader & healers a chance to shine with everyone blind/bloodied/ongoing damage! A very nice, very challenging paragon-feeling encounter overall. If you're running this and you can use or borrow a gargantuan mini (balanced on an upside-down cup or glass for height), it really makes the encounter memorable! If you're group is a stickler for rules, be wary! The monster has some "cheaty" abilities that make the encounter good, but allow it to ignore a lot of effects. (Another reason to provide other targets for those effects.) The mod also specifically denies forced vertical movement. (Some groups play this differently.) The effect of the crash at the end of the encounter is worth the rule-bend in my opinion, but expect tables to respond differently. (I've always found that "full disclosure" with players avoids any problems - just reminding up front "This guy doesn't look like he's moveable." is enough to avoid the frustration of a "gotcha - your power doesn't work." Encounter 5 was a good follow-up. Neither group got a short rest in-between. Encounter effects end. (Most of the party was bloodied on Monday, so I have them 2 rounds worth of powers/second wind/potions/etc. to do what they could.) I liked this mechanic - - paragon characters will have 3 dailies and 4 encounter powers. If the first fight has players down and dying - or took 6 or more rounds, it might be worth giving a short rest. I found in both sessions that the Ranged characters really got to shine and use their abilities in the BBEG fight. This mop-up fight seemed a great opportunity for the melee characters to carry the load. (Ranged were tapped-out from the BBEG fight, but Melee still had many encounter/daily powers to play with!) My biggest regret is that Currents of the Unknown didn't get to come into play. ("Miss on an odd" is a very cool mechanic that we haven't seen before!) Conclusion was fine. Treasure bundles nice and simple - I particularly liked the cookie for the "Couriers." Terrain was bland, but worked for this adventure. (Thanks for using Ship Tiles - a cookie for those of us who earned them, and simple enough to re-create the map for those who don't have them.) So, for those who have read this far, here are the changes I would make if running this again: • With an optimized group that wants a challenge, add an extra monster in Encounter 1 or remove the Extended Rest option. (If removing extended rest, award a milestone at the end of the skill challenge.) • Combine the scenes of the skill challenge to one large free-form encounter. [4 successes is not enough to keep everyone involved.] (As an aside - I loved that each failure had an impact on the mod - rather than 3 being the all-or-nothing break point.) • Start the Furies a square or two off-the-corner and above the ship. (Instead of 20 squares away with the BBEG.) • Give a short rest between 4 and 5 only if the players are having a tough time (down and dying). [It can give melee characters a real chance to shine after a fight that favors ranged characters.] • Don't sweat the rules. Within the "framework of D&D" I think this mod worked fine. We enjoyed it. (I enjoyed it twice!) If you're group is a stickler for RAW, then this is probably a mod you should avoid. (Mainly due to the forced-vertical movement interpretation used for the main combat.) Also, if you are a judge who insists on using "optimal tactics" for monsters - like hovering 10 squares above the combat and using just ranged attacks - this mod might not be fun for you and your players. (Moving the furies just close enough to use their aura puts them in just-enough of harm's way.) • Allow some free-form ideas to deal with the difficulties. We had characters climbing rigging and using other means to reach the monsters. Try to measure the frustration level of the characters and allow them (if needed) to bend the RAW if they need to in order to participate in the encounter. Finally, this thread was created as a review with suggestions for other judges running this encounter. If you would like to discuss whether fliers should stay out of reach, rules of forced movement, "bending RAW," or any other "correct rules interpretations," please create a separate thread of that discussion. (I'll gladly participate, but I'd like to keep this thread discussion on options to run the mod in a fun way, and not a debate about rule.) Thanks for reading! Final rating: 4 out-of 5 stars, and one of the best AKAN mods to date!
#2 Uthrac Apr 29, 2010 9:55:03	One last detail I forgot: Friday (optimized group of 5 players): 3 hours 30 minutes Monday (6 players, and I kept the pace fast): 4 hours 15 minutes Players will need to be familiar with their characters and take fast turns in order to complete the mod in under 4 hours.
#3 Keithric Apr 29, 2010 15:20:05	That Friday group was actually not optimized. Above average sure overall, but definitely not what folks on this board think of as optimized. Overall, I liked it - I'd change a few things. Like, I think it's a shame the module didn't have the ship literally breaking apart from the kraken attack. The tiles do, after all, separate, and that woulda made the terrain even more interesting for the next fight. I didn't like the entire deck becoming difficult terrain. That kinda sucked in terms of making it an even more bland fighting space. I'd have foreshadowed the last combat a little better, having them check out or sighted earlier. Definitely agree on starting things close up in the big combat, so that folks have more to do early on.
#4 Alphastream May 02, 2010 22:52:18	We ran two tables of this recently. I only was in one table as a player, so I cannot comment on the other one. This was a hugely enjoyable adventure. Hugely. We loved the combats, loved the concepts in encounters, loved how it played out. But. It. Was. Hard. I would compare it to DALE1-6, Vesperin Initiative. A welcome change from the "taken-for-granted" victory. We weren't the most ideal table for this, for sure. The way it played it was on the knife's edge of possible to win and unfair and frustrating. For more, we need spoilers. Spoilers for AKAN2-1: We had a table of four that were all heavily melee. We had an infernalock/battlemind hybrid that had some theoretically ranged capability. We had a barbarian and melee rogue. We had a melee Taclord. Our DM was a very experienced and often tough (but fair) DM. We are not a super-optimized bunch. Our rogue had really bad defenses and was not very high on attack bonus. My taclord is a dwarf... We were also playing up to high. My taclord was 14th, but the rest were 11th, 11th, and 12th. The first fight was fine. Straight-up fight with some good tactics used by the party to counter the threat. Good stuff. Skill challenges were often (as can happen with a table of four) not ideal for our party. We did have very strong History and Arcana, which helped, but we lacked social skills and some other areas. We still passed, but with some work to do so. An unkind DM that forced us to roll would have sunk us easily. The second combat was insane. Reach 6 (threatening) against an all-melee party? With the capability for it and the other three things to attack at range? Wow. If the DM had played it "challenging" and not allowed us to attack the tentacles, we would have been in a very ridiculous situation. Our DM interpreted the "not coordinating" clause as meaning the foes would not hesitate to catch one another in effects. This was one of the reasons we did not have a TPK. There was simply no way we could have killed off all of those foes if the Furies had not had some ongoing damage and attack damage from the Kraken. One of the first big moves my Taclord tried to do was to use a Voidcrystal weapon... but it is immune to teleport. Power wasted (we failed our knowledge checks) and no chance to put it on our deck. We had no forced movement powers, even for allies, so we could not stop grabs or immobilization. We luckily had two dwarves, thus canceling the Fury's aura and allowing us to do some attacks without provoking... especially since provoking leaves you immobilized... ouch. The immobilizing rendered our defender useless. Given our defender type, it really hurt by taking away our damage he would have inflicted as others were attacked (no Lighting Rush, no battlemind damage whatsoever). The poison cloud was horrid: blind aftereffect blind? On an all-melee no burst party? Wow. Plus ongoing. We had received a series of the bursts from the Fury's, so when this hit we were pretty much at an "everyone will die" stage. I had to shift-jump 1 from the stairs (seemed valid after some review) to attack a Fury and use my Action Point for a second attack. Being an Earthfast Brigadier meant my AP granted everyone a save. Stirring Force granted a second save... between those two we were done with the ongoing damage and down to the aftereffect blind on most of us. Stand the Fallen allowed everyone to spend a surge. We had one PC go down multiple times and everyone else was repeatedly bloodied, but my having a few tricks and heals kept us up long enough. With a lot of teamwork we finally killed everything (though we wanted to just kill the kraken, the threatening reach forced us to often fight a Fury instead or risk immobilization and being in really bad spots). It was thrilling, but "this close" to ridiculously unfair. We laughed all the time about this... "man, if you had not just crit, this would be so unfair," and so on. Lead The Attack was worth its weight in gold and it was another reason we did not face a certain TPK. +6 to attack made the defenses manageable. Scaling the Encounter: What???? In what way, shape, or form, is taking the kraken's HPs down by 23 a valid way to scale an encounter that features 4 creatures? I mean, that isn't even dropping the kraken a level... First, the core HPs seem to be wrong. You should have HPs of 8 + ConScore + (level * 8), and then that is doubled to make it an elite. That should make the high tier version have 360 HPs, not 370, right? Then you have scaling, which should generally drop an XP value to the next lower level. Down-leveling the Kraken would mean -1 to all defenses, -1 to all attacks, plus a drop of 16 HPs. Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems unfair to a table of four. It is also vastly different than the approach taken to a table of six, which is to add another Fury. If anything, it would make more sense to drop a Fury at a table of four and at a table of six increase the Kraken by a level (though this is a bit stronger than normal for the tier, so you could actually argue that just increasing HPs might be fair). Then we had some confusion around the sea elves. It was really hard for our DM to figure how to run this correctly. We had the thing unconscious, but they wouldn't talk to us. We weren't sure if we could interrogate, plus we IC and OOC thought that they would be allies due to hating the Sovereignty. Finally we did interrogate and then kill it... and then we luckily did the right things to short rest. If we had not, it would have been ridiculous. We actually did well in this fight, since we had all our good encounter powers which are very useful in a more normal melee fight. It was the easiest of the fights but also very enjoyable. I found again that it is just fine to end on an easy note when an earlier fight has been very hard. Despite the near TPKs, this was an awesome mod and one we would play again. I am very certain my blast/burst warlock would help make this much easier.
#5 ganadai May 03, 2010 16:31:44	I judged this twice this weekend. It is simple to run, but a good challenge for the PC's, and I really enjoyed judging it both times. The first party had four PC's and took 6 hours. The second party had 5 PC's and took 5 hours. Teos has already related the experiences of the first party in the previous post above, which I will expound upon. Spoilers for AKAN2-1: Encounter 1: Party 1 spent a fair amount of time questioning all the NPC's and trying to gather any information they could before the first encounter. However, the adventure doesn't really provide any helpful information for the PC's, so this was just a chance for the PC's to get some role playing in. Party 2 wasn't as inquisitive about the mission or package, and after a quick description of the boat and crew, went straight into the first combat. Encounter 2: At least one member of each party had a high enough passive perception to act in the surprise round. Luckily, the enemies got high initiatives, and were able to move onto the boat so the players acting in the surprise round had at least one target. Both parties had at least one PC get slid off the boat. No one had any trouble climbing back onto the boat with a single move action, so it didn't have much impact at all, but one player did decide to attack a minion while he was in the water, so I stressed the fact that there were dozens more where it came from. Both parties finished the first combat on round 4 which increased the DC's in encounter 3 by 2. Encounter 3: Party 1 failed two checks, but both players used a "That'll Do" to make them successes. Two characters failed their endurance checks which gave them penalties for the rest of the adventure. Party 2 easily succeeded on the skill challenge. Several players used "That'll Do" to succeed on the endurance check, and one character would have failed if he wasn't trained in nature. Encounter 4: Both parties were composed mainly of melee type characters and lacked ranged powers. After reading the boxed text, I gave both parties a few minutes to discuss tactics and how they could work together as a team. For party 1 I had the Furies start at 17 squares away so that they could use their ranged power on round 1. For party 2 I had the Furies start at 20 squares, so they did nothing but move forward on round 1. On round 2 they closed in and continually tried to get as many PC's in their burst as possible, even if it meant hurting the Kraken too. Luckily for both parties, the Furies never recharged their ranged power. For both parties I had the Kraken charge the closets player, as this was the only way he could reach the boat on round 1, and also allowed the melee type PC's a way to attack it. I think this helped Party 2 too much, as they were able to give it vulnerability 10 radiant, rolled great, used their action points, and hit it with radiant damage 7 times, doing over 200 damage in round one which bloodied it and its Poison Cloud power got wasted since it was more than 4 squares away from the boat. In round two I had it release any tentacle victims (aftereffect: Immobilized) and move to 20' (4 squares) above the lower deck to maximize the effectiveness of its threatening reach. For party 1 I positioned it 1 square over the boat which seemed to work well as it allowed the Furies to target multiple PC's with their burst. For party 2 I positioned it directly over the boat, which really hindered the Furies, and caused some of them to also damage the Kraken with their burst. Party 1 bloodied the Kraken after it was in position and got hit by the Poison Cloud and Tentical Flail. Party 2 only got hit by the Tentical Flail. Both parties knocked the Kraken unconcious, and it fell partially on the boat for Party 1 and directly on the boat for Party 2. Party 1 decided to interrogate the Kraken which gave them time for a short rest, which they really needed. Party 2 just wanted the kraken off the boat, and weren’t interested in trying to interrogate it. Despite the fact that party 2 had no failures in the skill challenge, they defeated the Kraken so easily that I decided they didn't need a short rest. Encounter 5: Party 1 noticed something was suspicious at a distance of 5 squares, but failed their bluff check, so the enemy got a surprise round. Party 2 noticed something was suspicious at a distance of 15 squares, and succeeded at beating the enemies’ passive insight with a bluff check, so the enemy didn't get a surprise round. Instead I allowed them one round to prepare while the enemy climbed onboard, which most of them used to second wind, then began full rounds. The encounter wasn't extremely difficult for either party. I had the Skirmishers fly onto the stairs in round 1 to block the party from getting to the Lurker. The Lurker never got to use it's Currents of the Unknown Tide power, but did get to use Tidal Surge a few times which was fun. Encounter 6: Both parties were suspicious of the Ambassador. I think it's because of the line in the boxed text, "I do not recall who was to have guided the Swift Current to us at this time." Both parties refused to give the package to the Ambassador on the boat, but both were willing to hand it over once they reached the embassy.
#6 Nutation May 18, 2010 11:13:20	This module can be trivially rewritten for H1. I much prefer paragon tier modules that feel like paragon in some way other than putting larger miniatures on the map to fight. At a minimum, when I run this, I think I will fully brief the PCs in Encounter 1. They were chosen for their reputations and ability to handle a wide variety of problems. The package itself could become a problem they have to handle. (It doesn't become a problem, of course, but the story element is pretty threadbare, and this way at least the players are guaranteed to experience it.)
#7 chitzk0i Jun 07, 2010 21:36:26	I was dissatisfied with a flying gargantuan creature. Would it be too simple to run a classic kraken-attacks-the-boat ship? It has to fly for no reason? Our DM was kind and kept it to the surface of the water, but for me, the flying ruined an awesome mood.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Uthrac

Apr 29, 2010 9:10:32

AKAN2-1 Set Adrift (P1) is one of those mods that some people will love and some will hate, depending on your style of play. I had the opportunity to play this last Friday evening, prep it over the weekend, and run it on Monday - so I've seen this from both sides of the screen.

Friday Night: Optimized party of 5 players who usually play together (familiar with each other's characters).
Monday Night: LFGS of 6 players who are familiar with each other, but play in mixed groups.

Introduction/Encounter 1 was typical for an AKAN mod. Get hired, and off you go. There are those who played AKAN1-5(H3) and delivered the package, and are just now picking up where that left off at the docks to "a week later" and taking the package across the Sea of Fallen Stars. This "feeds" those who hate the LFR discontinuity - - - play part of the story, go on a half-dozen or more other adventures, and then come back "a week later" for "the story continues." Both of my groups took it in stride, had a good chuckle, and dove into the mod. [Note: For future authors, it would be nice to see story lines like this at the same tier. They make a good back-to-back offering for a game day or convention. As an H3/P1 split, it is nearly impossible to play these in sequence - the first part would have to level you out of 10 so you can play part 2 at 11.]

Encounter 2 is an attack on the ship by 3 monsters (4 with 6 players) - none elite. This is a race-against-the-clock encounter, as each passing round results in more destruction of the ship. Friday's DM added an extra monster (DME to challenge us - he knew the group and we still destroyed the encounter in 2 rounds). He gave great descriptions of the "minions" tearing apart the ship as time passed, which encouraged us to kill them quickly. I employed this tactic with the Monday group, and they were able to get through the combat in 4 rounds. (I DME'd an additional penalty for the blasts/bursts used that also targeted/damaged the ship. It made for a fun mechanic and decision points - trying to stop the bad guys while not hitting the sailors and ship.)

Encounter 3 is a skill challenge, and done fine. In both sessions, each player described how they wanted to spend the next two days inspiring the crew and fixing the ship. We didn't use the "scenes" linearly - - mainly because with only 4 successes needed, the social/heal of the sailors would have had both teams done before any physical repairs were made (leaving out some of the players). On Friday, I made 1 failure, and there were no failures in the Monday game. Since this challenge spans several days, we got an extended rest. Three points on this: (1) On Friday, we all rolled our eyes that we were getting an Extended Rest in an LFR mod. We thought this was pretty lame. Especially since our items that rely on milestones could not be used. (2) On Monday, I gave a quick speech at the beginning that this mod "Does not fit the mold of what you've come to expect in an LFR mod - particularly with pacing and rules interpretations. Know that going in, and enjoy the adventure." This went over very well with players. (3) If your group asks for a "real challenge throw-the-kitchen-sink at us" experience, it's easy enough to say "The work you're doing gives you enough time for short breaks so that you are not fatigued, but you do not have time to take an Extended Rest."

Encounter 4 was an amazing encounter. We used the gargantuan blue dragon mini for the BBEG, and that made a great impression! On Friday, the DM put all of the enemies at range 20 to start the encounter. This turned out to be bad. We won initiative and delayed. The BBEG beat out the other critters and closed the distance. We can out of delay and did our 1st round nova - bloody for the BBEG. The other critters closed the distance, but by then it was too late. Continuing to focus our fire, the BBEG was done and dead before offering a real challenge. To mitigate those problems, when I ran this on Monday, I had the 4 "cohorts" rise up around the four corners of the ship. This gave the party good targets early on. By the time the BBEG closed, enough resources had been spent bloodying the close-opponents that he got to last a while. Scary moment came when the BBEG took ongoing damage at the start of his turn (Poison Cloud), then followed it up with the Tentacle Flail. It gave the leader & healers a chance to shine with everyone blind/bloodied/ongoing damage! A very nice, very challenging paragon-feeling encounter overall. If you're running this and you can use or borrow a gargantuan mini (balanced on an upside-down cup or glass for height), it really makes the encounter memorable!
If you're group is a stickler for rules, be wary! The monster has some "cheaty" abilities that make the encounter good, but allow it to ignore a lot of effects. (Another reason to provide other targets for those effects.) The mod also specifically denies forced vertical movement. (Some groups play this differently.) The effect of the crash at the end of the encounter is worth the rule-bend in my opinion, but expect tables to respond differently. (I've always found that "full disclosure" with players avoids any problems - just reminding up front "This guy doesn't look like he's moveable." is enough to avoid the frustration of a "gotcha - your power doesn't work."

Encounter 5 was a good follow-up. Neither group got a short rest in-between. Encounter effects end. (Most of the party was bloodied on Monday, so I have them 2 rounds worth of powers/second wind/potions/etc. to do what they could.) I liked this mechanic - - paragon characters will have 3 dailies and 4 encounter powers. If the first fight has players down and dying - or took 6 or more rounds, it might be worth giving a short rest. I found in both sessions that the Ranged characters really got to shine and use their abilities in the BBEG fight. This mop-up fight seemed a great opportunity for the melee characters to carry the load. (Ranged were tapped-out from the BBEG fight, but Melee still had many encounter/daily powers to play with!) My biggest regret is that Currents of the Unknown didn't get to come into play. ("Miss on an odd" is a very cool mechanic that we haven't seen before!)

Conclusion was fine. Treasure bundles nice and simple - I particularly liked the cookie for the "Couriers."

Terrain was bland, but worked for this adventure. (Thanks for using Ship Tiles - a cookie for those of us who earned them, and simple enough to re-create the map for those who don't have them.)

So, for those who have read this far, here are the changes I would make if running this again:
• With an optimized group that wants a challenge, add an extra monster in Encounter 1 or remove the Extended Rest option. (If removing extended rest, award a milestone at the end of the skill challenge.)
• Combine the scenes of the skill challenge to one large free-form encounter. [4 successes is not enough to keep everyone involved.] (As an aside - I loved that each failure had an impact on the mod - rather than 3 being the all-or-nothing break point.)
• Start the Furies a square or two off-the-corner and above the ship. (Instead of 20 squares away with the BBEG.)
• Give a short rest between 4 and 5 only if the players are having a tough time (down and dying). [It can give melee characters a real chance to shine after a fight that favors ranged characters.]
• Don't sweat the rules. Within the "framework of D&D" I think this mod worked fine. We enjoyed it. (I enjoyed it twice!) If you're group is a stickler for RAW, then this is probably a mod you should avoid. (Mainly due to the forced-vertical movement interpretation used for the main combat.) Also, if you are a judge who insists on using "optimal tactics" for monsters - like hovering 10 squares above the combat and using just ranged attacks - this mod might not be fun for you and your players. (Moving the furies just close enough to use their aura puts them in just-enough of harm's way.)
• Allow some free-form ideas to deal with the difficulties. We had characters climbing rigging and using other means to reach the monsters. Try to measure the frustration level of the characters and allow them (if needed) to bend the RAW if they need to in order to participate in the encounter.

Finally, this thread was created as a review with suggestions for other judges running this encounter. If you would like to discuss whether fliers should stay out of reach, rules of forced movement, "bending RAW," or any other "correct rules interpretations," please create a separate thread of that discussion. (I'll gladly participate, but I'd like to keep this thread discussion on options to run the mod in a fun way, and not a debate about rule.) Thanks for reading!

Final rating: 4 out-of 5 stars, and one of the best AKAN mods to date!

Uthrac

Apr 29, 2010 9:55:03

One last detail I forgot:

Friday (optimized group of 5 players): 3 hours 30 minutes
Monday (6 players, and I kept the pace fast): 4 hours 15 minutes

Players will need to be familiar with their characters and take fast turns in order to complete the mod in under 4 hours.

Keithric

Apr 29, 2010 15:20:05

That Friday group was actually not optimized. Above average sure overall, but definitely not what folks on this board think of as optimized.

Overall, I liked it - I'd change a few things. Like, I think it's a shame the module didn't have the ship literally breaking apart from the kraken attack. The tiles do, after all, separate, and that woulda made the terrain even more interesting for the next fight.

I didn't like the entire deck becoming difficult terrain. That kinda sucked in terms of making it an even more bland fighting space.

I'd have foreshadowed the last combat a little better, having them check out or sighted earlier.

Definitely agree on starting things close up in the big combat, so that folks have more to do early on.

Alphastream

May 02, 2010 22:52:18

We ran two tables of this recently. I only was in one table as a player, so I cannot comment on the other one.

This was a hugely enjoyable adventure. Hugely. We loved the combats, loved the concepts in encounters, loved how it played out.

But. It. Was. Hard. I would compare it to DALE1-6, Vesperin Initiative. A welcome change from the "taken-for-granted" victory. We weren't the most ideal table for this, for sure. The way it played it was on the knife's edge of possible to win and unfair and frustrating. For more, we need spoilers.

Spoilers for AKAN2-1:

We had a table of four that were all heavily melee. We had an infernalock/battlemind hybrid that had some theoretically ranged capability. We had a barbarian and melee rogue. We had a melee Taclord. Our DM was a very experienced and often tough (but fair) DM. We are not a super-optimized bunch. Our rogue had really bad defenses and was not very high on attack bonus. My taclord is a dwarf... We were also playing up to high. My taclord was 14th, but the rest were 11th, 11th, and 12th.

The first fight was fine. Straight-up fight with some good tactics used by the party to counter the threat. Good stuff.

Skill challenges were often (as can happen with a table of four) not ideal for our party. We did have very strong History and Arcana, which helped, but we lacked social skills and some other areas. We still passed, but with some work to do so. An unkind DM that forced us to roll would have sunk us easily.

The second combat was insane. Reach 6 (threatening) against an all-melee party? With the capability for it and the other three things to attack at range? Wow. If the DM had played it "challenging" and not allowed us to attack the tentacles, we would have been in a very ridiculous situation.

Our DM interpreted the "not coordinating" clause as meaning the foes would not hesitate to catch one another in effects. This was one of the reasons we did not have a TPK. There was simply no way we could have killed off all of those foes if the Furies had not had some ongoing damage and attack damage from the Kraken.

One of the first big moves my Taclord tried to do was to use a Voidcrystal weapon... but it is immune to teleport. Power wasted (we failed our knowledge checks) and no chance to put it on our deck. We had no forced movement powers, even for allies, so we could not stop grabs or immobilization. We luckily had two dwarves, thus canceling the Fury's aura and allowing us to do some attacks without provoking... especially since provoking leaves you immobilized... ouch.

The immobilizing rendered our defender useless. Given our defender type, it really hurt by taking away our damage he would have inflicted as others were attacked (no Lighting Rush, no battlemind damage whatsoever). The poison cloud was horrid: blind aftereffect blind? On an all-melee no burst party? Wow. Plus ongoing. We had received a series of the bursts from the Fury's, so when this hit we were pretty much at an "everyone will die" stage. I had to shift-jump 1 from the stairs (seemed valid after some review) to attack a Fury and use my Action Point for a second attack. Being an Earthfast Brigadier meant my AP granted everyone a save. Stirring Force granted a second save... between those two we were done with the ongoing damage and down to the aftereffect blind on most of us. Stand the Fallen allowed everyone to spend a surge. We had one PC go down multiple times and everyone else was repeatedly bloodied, but my having a few tricks and heals kept us up long enough. With a lot of teamwork we finally killed everything (though we wanted to just kill the kraken, the threatening reach forced us to often fight a Fury instead or risk immobilization and being in really bad spots). It was thrilling, but "this close" to ridiculously unfair. We laughed all the time about this... "man, if you had not just crit, this would be so unfair," and so on. Lead The Attack was worth its weight in gold and it was another reason we did not face a certain TPK. +6 to attack made the defenses manageable.

Scaling the Encounter: What???? In what way, shape, or form, is taking the kraken's HPs down by 23 a valid way to scale an encounter that features 4 creatures? I mean, that isn't even dropping the kraken a level... First, the core HPs seem to be wrong. You should have HPs of 8 + ConScore + (level * 8), and then that is doubled to make it an elite. That should make the high tier version have 360 HPs, not 370, right? Then you have scaling, which should generally drop an XP value to the next lower level. Down-leveling the Kraken would mean -1 to all defenses, -1 to all attacks, plus a drop of 16 HPs. Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems unfair to a table of four. It is also vastly different than the approach taken to a table of six, which is to add another Fury. If anything, it would make more sense to drop a Fury at a table of four and at a table of six increase the Kraken by a level (though this is a bit stronger than normal for the tier, so you could actually argue that just increasing HPs might be fair).

Then we had some confusion around the sea elves. It was really hard for our DM to figure how to run this correctly. We had the thing unconscious, but they wouldn't talk to us. We weren't sure if we could interrogate, plus we IC and OOC thought that they would be allies due to hating the Sovereignty. Finally we did interrogate and then kill it... and then we luckily did the right things to short rest. If we had not, it would have been ridiculous.

We actually did well in this fight, since we had all our good encounter powers which are very useful in a more normal melee fight. It was the easiest of the fights but also very enjoyable. I found again that it is just fine to end on an easy note when an earlier fight has been very hard.

Despite the near TPKs, this was an awesome mod and one we would play again. I am very certain my blast/burst warlock would help make this much easier.

ganadai

May 03, 2010 16:31:44

I judged this twice this weekend. It is simple to run, but a good challenge for the PC's, and I really enjoyed judging it both times. The first party had four PC's and took 6 hours. The second party had 5 PC's and took 5 hours. Teos has already related the experiences of the first party in the previous post above, which I will expound upon.

Spoilers for AKAN2-1:

Encounter 1:
Party 1 spent a fair amount of time questioning all the NPC's and trying to gather any information they could before the first encounter. However, the adventure doesn't really provide any helpful information for the PC's, so this was just a chance for the PC's to get some role playing in.
Party 2 wasn't as inquisitive about the mission or package, and after a quick description of the boat and crew, went straight into the first combat.

Encounter 2:
At least one member of each party had a high enough passive perception to act in the surprise round. Luckily, the enemies got high initiatives, and were able to move onto the boat so the players acting in the surprise round had at least one target. Both parties had at least one PC get slid off the boat. No one had any trouble climbing back onto the boat with a single move action, so it didn't have much impact at all, but one player did decide to attack a minion while he was in the water, so I stressed the fact that there were dozens more where it came from.
Both parties finished the first combat on round 4 which increased the DC's in encounter 3 by 2.

Encounter 3:
Party 1 failed two checks, but both players used a "That'll Do" to make them successes. Two characters failed their endurance checks which gave them penalties for the rest of the adventure.
Party 2 easily succeeded on the skill challenge. Several players used "That'll Do" to succeed on the endurance check, and one character would have failed if he wasn't trained in nature.

Encounter 4:
Both parties were composed mainly of melee type characters and lacked ranged powers.
After reading the boxed text, I gave both parties a few minutes to discuss tactics and how they could work together as a team.

For party 1 I had the Furies start at 17 squares away so that they could use their ranged power on round 1. For party 2 I had the Furies start at 20 squares, so they did nothing but move forward on round 1. On round 2 they closed in and continually tried to get as many PC's in their burst as possible, even if it meant hurting the Kraken too. Luckily for both parties, the Furies never recharged their ranged power.

For both parties I had the Kraken charge the closets player, as this was the only way he could reach the boat on round 1, and also allowed the melee type PC's a way to attack it. I think this helped Party 2 too much, as they were able to give it vulnerability 10 radiant, rolled great, used their action points, and hit it with radiant damage 7 times, doing over 200 damage in round one which bloodied it and its Poison Cloud power got wasted since it was more than 4 squares away from the boat. In round two I had it release any tentacle victims (aftereffect: Immobilized) and move to 20' (4 squares) above the lower deck to maximize the effectiveness of its threatening reach. For party 1 I positioned it 1 square over the boat which seemed to work well as it allowed the Furies to target multiple PC's with their burst. For party 2 I positioned it directly over the boat, which really hindered the Furies, and caused some of them to also damage the Kraken with their burst. Party 1 bloodied the Kraken after it was in position and got hit by the Poison Cloud and Tentical Flail. Party 2 only got hit by the Tentical Flail.

Both parties knocked the Kraken unconcious, and it fell partially on the boat for Party 1 and directly on the boat for Party 2.

Party 1 decided to interrogate the Kraken which gave them time for a short rest, which they really needed.
Party 2 just wanted the kraken off the boat, and weren’t interested in trying to interrogate it. Despite the fact that party 2 had no failures in the skill challenge, they defeated the Kraken so easily that I decided they didn't need a short rest.

Encounter 5:
Party 1 noticed something was suspicious at a distance of 5 squares, but failed their bluff check, so the enemy got a surprise round.
Party 2 noticed something was suspicious at a distance of 15 squares, and succeeded at beating the enemies’ passive insight with a bluff check, so the enemy didn't get a surprise round. Instead I allowed them one round to prepare while the enemy climbed onboard, which most of them used to second wind, then began full rounds.
The encounter wasn't extremely difficult for either party. I had the Skirmishers fly onto the stairs in round 1 to block the party from getting to the Lurker. The Lurker never got to use it's Currents of the Unknown Tide power, but did get to use Tidal Surge a few times which was fun.

Encounter 6:
Both parties were suspicious of the Ambassador. I think it's because of the line in the boxed text, "I do not recall who was to have guided the Swift Current to us at this time." Both parties refused to give the package to the Ambassador on the boat, but both were willing to hand it over once they reached the embassy.

Nutation

May 18, 2010 11:13:20

This module can be trivially rewritten for H1. I much prefer paragon tier modules that feel like paragon in some way other than putting larger miniatures on the map to fight.

At a minimum, when I run this, I think I will fully brief the PCs in Encounter 1. They were chosen for their reputations and ability to handle a wide variety of problems. The package itself could become a problem they have to handle.

(It doesn't become a problem, of course, but the story element is pretty threadbare, and this way at least the players are guaranteed to experience it.)

chitzk0i

Jun 07, 2010 21:36:26

I was dissatisfied with a flying gargantuan creature. Would it be too simple to run a classic kraken-attacks-the-boat ship? It has to fly for no reason? Our DM was kind and kept it to the surface of the water, but for me, the flying ruined an awesome mood.