DRAG1-6 Night of Fallen Petals and story arc review - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Alphastream Apr 30, 2010 13:39:53	I greatly enjoyed the series of DRAG1-4, 1-5, and 1-6. I play the L5R game and I dig the Asian culture RP. I found myself really liking how those concepts (along with a lot of HK theatre action) were translated to LFR. In each mod there were some clever uses of rules to create flavor. In each mod there was something that would make the DM feel that the adventure could "go wrong" if certain things happened. None of these were a problem, but in each case the DM mentioned them later or a player that was replaying would share a story. I can't really comment on those since I was not present for them and have not judged them. To me it was a very creative series. For this adventure, the conclusion to the series, I found: Show We had a very strong table. We had strikers that hit hard and also controlled via things like blind. We then also had strong controllers. This resulted in our party dictating terms in almost every fight and thus minimizing what could have been strong threats. Regardless, each fight was enjoyable. We liked the option of how to get to the tea garden, plus we employed RP to have many of us do the ceremony despite being ill-suited for the task (we ditched metagaming). We still made it. The fight was very cinematic and enjoyable. The final portion was pretty cool. I liked the multiple routes and how that played. The final combat was fairly easy, but I can't say if that was due to the adventure. We had a great time playing the crowd and becoming the heroes.
#2 Thanlis Apr 30, 2010 13:46:28	This is my favorite LFR story arc to date. I'm a big HK movie fan, and played a lot of Feng Shui back in the day. I thought the flavor of the whole arc was excellent, and gave me plenty of scope to indulge my Asian action movie stylings. The skill challenges were always innovative and interesting; I'm a sucker for authors who stretch beyond the simple skill challenges and make them sing.
#3 Uthrac Apr 30, 2010 14:27:20	I also love the "not your traditional kill-the-monsters" encounters, and I felt that the authors did a great job mixing it up. They captured the flavor, kept things interesting, and with the use of 3-D terrain and skill challenges during combat, this series had a memorable effect! Looking forward, what makes this a strong series is that mods in the story arc were released sequentially and with a reasonable level-band distribution, so they could be played back-to-back. This sets up DRAG1-4, DRAG1-5, and DRAG1-6 as an excellent choice for a convention trio. (Day 1 - offer some H2 mods. Day 2, offer these 3. This allows players to get a 7th level character who could play all 3 parts of the story in a row, since the distribution is H2-H3-H3.) I wish more story arcs/quests were grouped like this!
#4 Keith53 May 02, 2010 12:32:00	There has been some campaign staff discussion about a possible change to the way we write and release LFR adventures, to allow tighter story arcs (such as a trilogy released together). Not sure if we will see that next year, but it might happen. To date, there has been much debate about assumptions of PC advancement when you release a story arc (major quest) one per quarter. For Q1, Q2, Q3 in 2010, Waterdeep is releasing a H3, P1, P1, based upon similar assumptions and goal. Keith
#5 Alphastream May 02, 2010 21:39:13	That's a great idea. I am not sure if there are still these kinds of limits in place, but I recall early in the campaign hearing that the same author could not sign up to write a trilogy - there was a desire to use new and different authors for projects (even for trilogies). While that can work, there is something to be said for the continuity an author can bring to the table. I also suspect that some of the more veteran authors would dig working with one another to write a trilogy (working on a common story theme but then hashing out the individual adventures on their own or with some cross-work).
#6 surgebuster May 02, 2010 23:47:48	A strong WD/Admin team can ensure the region maintains consistency of theme/flavour, rather than relying on one author to produce 60-80% of one whole region's output (3-4 adventures) for a year. Some regions have been more successful than others but ymmv. I do think we've achieved that with the Dragon Coast and it isn't always easy to do that with multiple authors, as 'cool ideas' in any one adventure don't always fit the big picture. Back to the White Petal arc - I am very glad at how the skill challenges were executed (the DRAG1-4 caravan kow-tow especially) and the overall unique feel of the trilogy. Many people associate the Dragon Coast with pirates and general scum and villany but you can find that in many regions of the Realms, Nathlan is unique to the region. The one "campaign promise" Bruce Paris and I made was to ensure the DRAG adventures had a point-of-difference with other regions. Apart from the cross-regional stories, that has (imho) definitely been the case. Cheers, Joe Fitzgerald (Dragon Coast admin)
#7 bgibbons May 03, 2010 0:20:35	I am very glad at how the skill challenges were executed (the DRAG1-4 caravan kow-tow especially) and the overall unique feel of the trilogy. Flavor-wise, I think the DRAG1-4 was one of the better ones to come out of those batch of modules, but mechanically, my opinion was that it badly needed an editor. Beyond the mechanical flaws I noted in my review, I dislikes challenges that are so all-or-nothing: if you succeed at the first skill challenge, the second one is trivial; if you fail the first skill challenge (and it's possible to auto-fail it without even making a skill check), you're pretty much going to fail the module.
#8 gomeztoo May 03, 2010 0:31:56	That's a great idea. I am not sure if there are still these kinds of limits in place, but I recall early in the campaign hearing that the same author could not sign up to write a trilogy I don't think that rule exists, but I wouldn't do that anyway. I prefer to rotate authors. Also, I would prefer to work with other WDs/regions on story arcs. Can't really be done everytime, but it allows for a tighter release of arcs. When you have adventures written in parallel, you obviously need to use different authors. The risk is otherwise that adventures are too far apart. For instance: the Byar's Seven quest and related adventures would have worked better if they had been released shortly after another, rather than spread over almost a year (more than a year if you include DALE2-1). Early scheduling didn't make that possible, but I hope regions will work closer together to tie together story arcs. (though I try to do that anyway, as you may notice if you read DRAG1-6). Gomez
#9 Madfox11 May 03, 2010 4:02:48	There is no hard rule in regards to authors, but it is a guideline. The biggest reason for the guideline though has not to do with using new authors (although it is a factor), but with our LG experience. Writing an adventure is time consuming, and all too often, authors had a burn out or a change in available time halfway a series, causing all kinds of problems for the developers with finding replacements and authors who feel too possessive about the storyline. By spreading out the responsibility in advance, you lower the chances for these issues. Besides, this series is a good example that multiple authors is not an issue as long as the WD is alert and the authors keep the theme and mood of the series in mind.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Alphastream

Apr 30, 2010 13:39:53

I greatly enjoyed the series of DRAG1-4, 1-5, and 1-6. I play the L5R game and I dig the Asian culture RP. I found myself really liking how those concepts (along with a lot of HK theatre action) were translated to LFR.

In each mod there were some clever uses of rules to create flavor. In each mod there was something that would make the DM feel that the adventure could "go wrong" if certain things happened. None of these were a problem, but in each case the DM mentioned them later or a player that was replaying would share a story. I can't really comment on those since I was not present for them and have not judged them. To me it was a very creative series.

For this adventure, the conclusion to the series, I found:

Show

We had a very strong table. We had strikers that hit hard and also controlled via things like blind. We then also had strong controllers. This resulted in our party dictating terms in almost every fight and thus minimizing what could have been strong threats. Regardless, each fight was enjoyable.

We liked the option of how to get to the tea garden, plus we employed RP to have many of us do the ceremony despite being ill-suited for the task (we ditched metagaming). We still made it. The fight was very cinematic and enjoyable.

The final portion was pretty cool. I liked the multiple routes and how that played. The final combat was fairly easy, but I can't say if that was due to the adventure. We had a great time playing the crowd and becoming the heroes.

Thanlis

Apr 30, 2010 13:46:28

This is my favorite LFR story arc to date. I'm a big HK movie fan, and played a lot of Feng Shui back in the day. I thought the flavor of the whole arc was excellent, and gave me plenty of scope to indulge my Asian action movie stylings. The skill challenges were always innovative and interesting; I'm a sucker for authors who stretch beyond the simple skill challenges and make them sing.

Uthrac

Apr 30, 2010 14:27:20

I also love the "not your traditional kill-the-monsters" encounters, and I felt that the authors did a great job mixing it up. They captured the flavor, kept things interesting, and with the use of 3-D terrain and skill challenges during combat, this series had a memorable effect!

Looking forward, what makes this a strong series is that mods in the story arc were released sequentially and with a reasonable level-band distribution, so they could be played back-to-back. This sets up DRAG1-4, DRAG1-5, and DRAG1-6 as an excellent choice for a convention trio. (Day 1 - offer some H2 mods. Day 2, offer these 3. This allows players to get a 7th level character who could play all 3 parts of the story in a row, since the distribution is H2-H3-H3.) I wish more story arcs/quests were grouped like this!

Keith53

May 02, 2010 12:32:00

There has been some campaign staff discussion about a possible change to the way we write and release LFR adventures, to allow tighter story arcs (such as a trilogy released together). Not sure if we will see that next year, but it might happen. To date, there has been much debate about assumptions of PC advancement when you release a story arc (major quest) one per quarter. For Q1, Q2, Q3 in 2010, Waterdeep is releasing a H3, P1, P1, based upon similar assumptions and goal.

Keith

Alphastream

May 02, 2010 21:39:13

That's a great idea. I am not sure if there are still these kinds of limits in place, but I recall early in the campaign hearing that the same author could not sign up to write a trilogy - there was a desire to use new and different authors for projects (even for trilogies). While that can work, there is something to be said for the continuity an author can bring to the table. I also suspect that some of the more veteran authors would dig working with one another to write a trilogy (working on a common story theme but then hashing out the individual adventures on their own or with some cross-work).

surgebuster

May 02, 2010 23:47:48

A strong WD/Admin team can ensure the region maintains consistency of theme/flavour, rather than relying on one author to produce 60-80% of one whole region's output (3-4 adventures) for a year.

Some regions have been more successful than others but ymmv. I do think we've achieved that with the Dragon Coast and it isn't always easy to do that with multiple authors, as 'cool ideas' in any one adventure don't always fit the big picture.

Back to the White Petal arc - I am very glad at how the skill challenges were executed (the DRAG1-4 caravan kow-tow especially) and the overall unique feel of the trilogy. Many people associate the Dragon Coast with pirates and general scum and villany but you can find that in many regions of the Realms, Nathlan is unique to the region.

The one "campaign promise" Bruce Paris and I made was to ensure the DRAG adventures had a point-of-difference with other regions. Apart from the cross-regional stories, that has (imho) definitely been the case.

Cheers,
Joe Fitzgerald
(Dragon Coast admin)

bgibbons

May 03, 2010 0:20:35

I am very glad at how the skill challenges were executed (the DRAG1-4 caravan kow-tow especially) and the overall unique feel of the trilogy.

Flavor-wise, I think the DRAG1-4 was one of the better ones to come out of those batch of modules, but mechanically, my opinion was that it badly needed an editor.

Beyond the mechanical flaws I noted in my review, I dislikes challenges that are so all-or-nothing: if you succeed at the first skill challenge, the second one is trivial; if you fail the first skill challenge (and it's possible to auto-fail it without even making a skill check), you're pretty much going to fail the module.

gomeztoo

May 03, 2010 0:31:56

That's a great idea. I am not sure if there are still these kinds of limits in place, but I recall early in the campaign hearing that the same author could not sign up to write a trilogy

I don't think that rule exists, but I wouldn't do that anyway. I prefer to rotate authors. Also, I would prefer to work with other WDs/regions on story arcs. Can't really be done everytime, but it allows for a tighter release of arcs. When you have adventures written in parallel, you obviously need to use different authors.
The risk is otherwise that adventures are too far apart. For instance: the Byar's Seven quest and related adventures would have worked better if they had been released shortly after another, rather than spread over almost a year (more than a year if you include DALE2-1).
Early scheduling didn't make that possible, but I hope regions will work closer together to tie together story arcs. (though I try to do that anyway, as you may notice if you read DRAG1-6).

Gomez

Madfox11

May 03, 2010 4:02:48

There is no hard rule in regards to authors, but it is a guideline. The biggest reason for the guideline though has not to do with using new authors (although it is a factor), but with our LG experience. Writing an adventure is time consuming, and all too often, authors had a burn out or a change in available time halfway a series, causing all kinds of problems for the developers with finding replacements and authors who feel too possessive about the storyline. By spreading out the responsibility in advance, you lower the chances for these issues. Besides, this series is a good example that multiple authors is not an issue as long as the WD is alert and the authors keep the theme and mood of the series in mind.