| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
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| #1DanTrackerSep 11, 2009 13:15:35 | my party is completing the first adventure and will all be lvl 4 characters. they work well together and we'll need to start a new adventure. i like to make sure i have a simple synopsis fo rthem to review before starting an adventure to see if they really want to invest time in the adventure. if you were given the following descriptions, which might be most interesting to you?
- Icebound Stream: (mostly riddle based story arc with story-related combat, and lots of dungeoneering and some other skills) Even deities long dead are subject to the call of resurrection through the faith of truly loyal followers. To those who know little of the god, these devoted few are cultists willing to kill or maim any who stand in the way of their god's will. A pair of bardic sisters is seeking to share the warning regarding a particular prophecy of the divine forms. If the party is willing to hear the prophecy and seek to prevent the fulfillment of it, they can prevent a new war between the gods and pick up many magic items.
- Voting Rights: (mostly story-related combat with some roleplay, plenty of nature and outdoor camping; political conspiracy related) Queen Isa encourages the Dukes to allow the voice of the people to dictate local leaders from the city governors, to hamlet masters. This monarchal democracy has greatly reduced the infighting among nobles for favor that will approximate them to the throne. Yet, there are many political factions and organizations that are formed to achieve civic programs. These groups are often guilty of corruption including vote buying, threats, violence, organized crime, and/or other illegal activities. Duke Athrepes believes that one such organization has taken root in one of the most lawless regions of the kingdom. Many lumber towns and mining towns contribute to the problem because the transient populations care but little for the permanent residents. The small hamlets and villages cannot easily protect themselves from the thugs hired to secure votes for the local politicians. If the party is interested in protecting the voting rights by ensuring a corruption free election, they will find that there are plenty of dunderheaded thugs looking for a severe beating.
- Sons of Nobility: (moderate story-related combat, but little roleplay while seeking runaway noble youths) Although the nobles of Taigreh have been brought down from their high horses through the generation after the civil war, many still have considerable land holdings and assets. In addition to that, they could never be accused of reproachful conduct. That is just the problem with the scandalous behavior of twin tiefling teens, Amarillo and Othello. Believing their parents to have died, their bachelor uncle took the twins into his care at his large estate in the mountains outside the capitol; however, their behavior has turned toward dreadfully frightful companions. If the party would like to help Uncle Hertio to find his nephews and beat some sense into them, he would be grateful. Of course, he would expect discretion because of their noble name.
- Cross-Town Race: (a cross-country endurance race with several check points and story-related combat; skills in nature, dungeoneering, athletics, acrobatics, endurance, and others will be useful) What began as a friendly contest between two city messenger services has, through multiple generations, grown into a no-holds-barred slugfest and race through many of the small hamlets and villages surrounding Deweyville. The number of teams has been slowly increasing through the years; the level of challenge for the teams has also slowly increased through the years as players must navigate a valley of obstacles and avoid other teams' efforts to slow or derail them in seeking to fulfill the check-point quests. If the party is interested in building reputation in a lengthy competition against time and contestants, they will receive a hefty reward and a fantastic reputation throughout the kingdom.
- Keep on the Shadowfell: (prevent cultists from accessing the land of the dead in story-related combat and short role play elements) Ages ago, a rift between an evil area of the Shadowfell was accessed and undead were released into the world. This rift was sealed, but the time passed has weakened the seal. Cultists have begun seeking to break the seal and have arranged to protect the old keep ruins from adventuring eyes through two protective forces, a kobold company as well as a goblin company. Both are relentless in maintaining defenses for the cultist group. If the party is interested in destroying undead, aberrant monsters, and cultists of Orcus, they will find significant reward and multiple minor quests near a small village in the northern region of the kingdom. |
| #2koukSep 12, 2009 13:58:08 | Just not Keep on the Shadowfell. But I'm biased.
These are all prewritten modules? Otherwise I'm not sure why combat has to be a certain way, roleplaying another way, or so on. Honestly none of them seem that interesting to me from the descriptions given. Your players of course may have different tastes :P |
| #3DanTrackerSep 12, 2009 14:34:49 |
oh, no none of these are pre-written except KotS. i'd have to build every adventure. i have a rough outline, but not all the details polished and ready. today, the party totally completed the previous adventure that was also a personally written adventure that used themes from the story of Brigadoon. they chose to move on now to KotS. two PCs are worshippers on RQ, so they will be especially valiant against the undead and cultists. |
| #4koukSep 12, 2009 17:34:01 | At level 4, it's a safe bet you're going to change the monsters. I would recommend adding a bit more of a storyline to the adventure as well. |
| #5DanTrackerSep 13, 2009 8:04:41 | i certainly will have to add story elements and increase the enounter challenge. the story elements will be easier because there is some backstory from the previous adventure. one character found a magic circle and is hoping to restore it to functional service. having the ritual book of the cult and having stones from the keep's magic seal will help him to accomplish that goal. the town on winterhaven will be a good place for another character to invest in property, as it is a popular resort town in a lush tropical region of the continent. many elderly citizens move there as a haven from the cold winters in the north. several academies and univesities are close enough that it is a popular place for festivals among the students. the town relies on a variety of tourism related income. so, she is thinking of buying property with part of the money rewarded in the last adventure, and winterhaven is a town that always wants new investors. i think that another character is most interested in fulfilling his cleric oath to the RQ by destroying the cult of orcus and killing undead. but, i'm going to be alert for other story elements he will be interested in. |
| #6emperorgruummSep 14, 2009 10:59:44 | Cross-Town Race, without a doubt! Anyone can do stop evil cultist or loot ancient treasures, but a race? Now we're talking! That sounds like a lot of fun. You can make it so that each of the hamlets or checkpoints has a challenge. Some are just complete these then you can go, others are bonus ones to give the team an advantage. Some cool ones could be: Duel another team, loser has to wait for 30min. Solve a riddle to get shown a short-cut. Complete an obstacle course to continue.
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| #7DanTrackerSep 14, 2009 15:58:19 |
that is exactly what i was thinking. the evil cults is a well worn pathway. even the political conspiracy is well worn. but i figured that a race is more fun to play out, but the stakes would have to be pretty high. |
| #8emperorgruummSep 15, 2009 9:30:28 | The only problem is if they know about both the cults and the race. Any "hero" is going to do "heroics", so the cultists/polotics is obvious. An unaligned character might think otherwise. "So what your telling me is that I can run around a bunch of vilages for a week or two. But if I do, then that cult over there will have assassinated the Royal family and placed changlings in their place. I dunno... The King will probably make me a duke or something if I save him... Whats that? 5000 gold, you say?!?! Guys, we are running this race. Exactly! If we win quickly we will still have time to save the Royal family!" |
| #9nowiwantmydmgSep 15, 2009 15:53:28 | I'd run both the Voting Rights and Race scenario but jumbled up and run together at the same time.
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| #10emperorgruummSep 15, 2009 16:30:57 |
You're a cruel, cruel DM. How do you expect the players to vote/protect a vote while racing? Everyone knows that heroes are never good at multi-tasking! Unless... They have to race to the ballot! |
| #11DanTrackerSep 15, 2009 16:58:27 | you know this does raise a question for me, i know that in Icebound Stream the cultists are never going to be close to resurrecting Khala. done. but, for KotS, what if they move very slowly and that priest of Orcus re-opens the sealed rift? what comes out? and do i really want that getting loose? i was thinking that maybe the kobolds worshipped the dragon whose bones are in that pit and have partnered up with the BBEG in order to bring back their dragon in a new body, they've captured a wyrmling that will be sacrificed to offer a new body to the previous dragon. so, then if the players are slow enough getting things done, there is a dragon to fight. which i already know they love. but, BBEG has been using the kobolds through deception. he promised them he'd bring their dragon back to life, but instead plans to create a zombie dragon with the body parts and the life force of the wyrmling, thus creating an even weirder ending in which the kobolds [if they are still alive at all, wait, not my party. scratch the kobolds] would turn against the priest, seeing as how he has defiled their favorit dragon spirit be binding it to a zombie body. anyway , just a thought. i still need to re-read KotS as i know that the .pdf version has some changes/improvements. thoughts? |
| #12PlulopSep 18, 2009 6:40:18 | I'm currently running KotS, but not as you know it... :D Many if not most of you will be familiar with the works of David Gemmell. I adapted KotS to be a re-imagining of Knights of Dark Renown, with the portal leading to the Vyre (a realm in the Shadowfell, in my campaign), and the PCs reprising the roles of the "new" Shining Ones (my Knights of the Gabala.) I'm using some of the places and a couple of the names from the KotS adventure book, and that's about all. So far, so good! Aside from that, I like the race idea a lot, but occasionally these things can grow a little stale if you're not careful. Depends what your group wants out of the game. |
| #13Lord_PhobetorSep 18, 2009 9:20:36 | Having played Keep on the Shadowfell, I'd say great concept but bad execution. The module was pure hack n' slash, and the End Boss was totally broken. |
| #14nowiwantmydmgSep 18, 2009 9:26:22 |
That's awesome! And much better than what the printed module is. But then I've always liked Gemmell, I was very sad when I heard he'd passed. |
| #15DanTrackerSep 18, 2009 15:08:16 |
i did tell them this would be low on RP and heavy on combat. the previous adventure had very littel combat and was heavy on RP. so, maybe they are ready for a change. it will still fulfill many character motivations even though they won't be doing lots of talking and skill challenges. but, tell me more about the broken BBEG at the end. what can i do to bring that into better balance. i have got a party of lvl 4 PCs. one may be bringing a companion character that he picked up from last adventure module. will i need to bump the BBEG upwards or downwards? is there a particular defense that was screwy? |
| #16Lord_PhobetorSep 19, 2009 0:00:04 | For the KotS "Big Bad," one of the things that was sheer over-the-top was hps. A party of 3rd or 4th level characters have no business facing anything that has nearly 200 hit points. Not to mention him doling out ongoing damage as an at-will, plus being able to get fast healing for himself. If he's standing in his circle of power, he heals 5 hps every round. That may not seem like much, but remember, vs. the 3rd level PCs the module was ostensibly designed for, that paces or outstrips pretty much anything but striker damage on average. Oh, and he's not alone! He comes with a few decent undead allies, but the kicker is The Thng in the Portal. No, seriously, that's its name. It's invulnerable and heals the BBEG when it hits you (in addition to his own healing ability and massive hps). If it drags you into the portal -and remember, it's immune to damage- you're dead, no save, no nothing, tear up your character sheet like back in 1st Ed. days. It gets better! If you get close enough to knock the BBEG out of his circle of power -the one that boosts all of his defenses in addition to the aforementioned healing- then you're also close enough to The Thing in the Portal to drag you to your doom. So yeah, the End Boss encounter for KotS was teh p00. I'd say dial down the BBEG's hps, and maybe either reduce The Thing's reach from 3 squares to 2, or better yet alter its position so that half the circle of power is no longer within its threatened area. |
| #17DanTrackerSep 19, 2009 7:13:15 |
okay, thanks for the review. that will be helpful. course, they've faced enemies above 200 hp and they'll be walking in at lvl 4 just to start this module. but i am thinking of changing the 'thingin the portal' into a zombie dragon instead. i know that the party likes to kill dragons. they got really excited by that for the previous adventure. i'll review that regeneration and at-will ongoing. both seem out of place. however, they've got a druid that understands her ability to push, pull, slide, whatever needed quite well. she's really tipped the scales in that way for several battles. i'm really thinking that i'll dump the stats from the BBEG and make hte dragon zombie the BBE thing instead. that way killing the priest will be easy, but he's called this zombie that is more powerful than he could even contain. i've always wondered about that theme, the minion that calls forth a beastie or demon that is more powerful than they could handle; they get killed by their deomn or beastie instead of by the good guys of the story. i've always kinda liked that. it seems like an example of hubris--that pride before the fall concept. |