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| #1matt12Nov 09, 2009 9:02:36 | My critique of Weekend in the Realms
Intro: When the party is tasked by Priatelle to find her husband, she mentions that he was sent to a place Taboo to the tribe. No reason was given for the Taboo. (Using DME, I mentioned that there is a portal to the Fey Realm and after a very long conflict that area has become a 'buffer' zone. This also gives a VERY good reason why you find Fey at the end of the mod.) When Argalath goes to drag her away, nothing is mentioned about what happens to the PC that actually try to help/defend her. (DME I had a bunch of Argalath's guards help him out, beat the PCs to a bloody pulp and toss them outside the fair grounds. With a snide comment of "You're lucky that Festival rules prevent us from killing you and taking your items."
For a mod that is supposed to draw in and help introduce new players to 4.0. That very first encounter is just deadly. Couple things stand out - Minions/Rupture Demons: Able to self destruct, healing everyone nearby and increasing all the Demon's damage. While also putting the restrain condition on the person they self destructed on. Then there was the Lesser Baazuled: The Throat Tear is just NASTY. Every time I've used during the encounter I dropped the player below 0. One player I just about killed. Any creature able to do 2d8+3 (+6, or more, from Rupture Demons) is just crazy.
While this fight isn't too bad for a experienced group of RPGA players, Slot 0 the mod and we had no problems at all. But with a table of new, or inexperienced players I could have easily TPKed two tables of them.
Encounter 3 What was the reason for the Fey to be in this mod and for Fey to be fighting either the Creel or the Party? I DME a reason for this to make it a bit more interesting, Taboo reason: there is a portal to the Fey Realm and after a very long conflict that area has become a 'buffer' zone between the Tribes and the Fey. The Dragon, by itself would have been enough to mess up a party. With the Two LT the fight is deadly for those parties that go straight into combat. Plus the mod seems to assume that the party will go and try and help the Icy Queen right away and not attempt to kill her and her guards. (Had one party do this and two of them spent Two rounds attacking her before they figured out they couldn't damage her.) I ended up having her treat the party as if they were annoying pests that are beneath her notice and gave them the info about the woman to stop bothering her and to leave.
Overall, the mod was a good one, fun to play and interesting to run. BUT, as a intro mod to draw in new people, it needed some serious DME to keep those parties alive. |
| #2Madfox11Nov 09, 2009 9:07:10 | It might be an idea to keep it to one thread? Some of your comments are dealt with in that topic. It is also explained why some of those are in the adventure in the first place. |