I bought AD&D intending to follow it as closely as written as possible in order to get the full vision of the creator. I felt kind of defrauded after learning that the author didn't use the rules as written himself. In Gary Gygax's case it could be excused, as D&D probably just existed in his head, and he would have no need of a graven rules reference in order to play. However the fraudulent part is with the rules that he didn't play with, didn't playtest, and only included in the AD&D core books because of a friend's insistence or because they seemed like a good idea when writing. It makes the experience of actually playing AD&D a frustrating one, as these rules create large internal conflicts that must be addressed by each GM individually. An option would be to simply play OD&D + Greyhawk supplement, but OD&D and AD&D share the same critical flaw in not explaining themselves very well, and thus it again falls on the shoulders of the GM to make its systems work.
I'd say for Gygax, D&D lived in his head so he really didn't need written rules, and the impression I get is that he wasn't much of a strict rulekeeper at the table either, and so expected other GMs to follow his lead.
For another perspective, I was interested in Basic D&D, primarily through the Rules Cyclopedia but in modern OSR circles the Moldvay and Cook B/X version is regarded more highly. Instead I chose the Frank Mentzer revision and bought the BEC sets (out of BECMI) because of their promise of continued explanation and tutorial of the system as opposed to dry rules. I'm quite happy with these sets as I feel that I got exactly what I wanted - a system that works on its own merits with little requirement to houserule, and clear explanations of its features. Some of the systems are a bit too streamlined however, and I feel that AD&D has some good features that don't exist in BECMI.
One bonus for me in the Mentzer sets over the B/X or Rules Cyclopedia is the art. I know a lot of people online prefer the weird and grungy Errol Otus art because "it more accurately depicts the actual experience of playing Dungeons and Dragons", but as an amateur artist myself I appreciate the technical beauty of the Larry Elmore and Jeff Easley artwork. Since the Rules Cyclopedia tosses all that beautiful artwork out, I feel like I dodged a bullet by not buying that book.
I love reading the AD&D books, but I like playing BECMI a lot more.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
My beef with high fantasy
I love history, especially of the Ancient, Classical, Medieval, and Early Modern time periods. I'm one of those nerds that's a huge stickler for "historical accuracy". Which is why the standard "high fantasy" setting triggers me, and Angry GM does a great job explaining why:
"Technologically, it’s a mess of stuff from the late Roman Empire through to the early Renaissance. Except gunpowder. Unless there’s gunpowder. Politically, religiously, and socially it’s the modern world except that the predominant governing system is hereditary monarchies or aristocracies and the predominant religion is easily ignored polytheism that is ridiculously tolerant of atheism. They have nothing to do with actual feudalism or paganism. But they claim to be feudal. In short, it’s a standard high fantasy setting."
source: Drawing an Unnecessary Map of Nothing At All
"Technologically, it’s a mess of stuff from the late Roman Empire through to the early Renaissance. Except gunpowder. Unless there’s gunpowder. Politically, religiously, and socially it’s the modern world except that the predominant governing system is hereditary monarchies or aristocracies and the predominant religion is easily ignored polytheism that is ridiculously tolerant of atheism. They have nothing to do with actual feudalism or paganism. But they claim to be feudal. In short, it’s a standard high fantasy setting."
source: Drawing an Unnecessary Map of Nothing At All
Roleplaying
I'm not a fan of the amateur improv theater that most players seem to consider role playing as being. I also don't like DMs who approach the game as a collaborative creative writing session with dice. I prefer D&D as a game, to be played like a game, which is why I like gridded battle maps, miniature figures, and overland hex crawls.
Its undeniable that pure theater of the mind speeds up play, but most people's definition of role play belongs on a therapist's couch, or in an acting class, or in the bedroom with their significant other(s).
Its undeniable that pure theater of the mind speeds up play, but most people's definition of role play belongs on a therapist's couch, or in an acting class, or in the bedroom with their significant other(s).
Real world rules in (A)D&D
Gary Gygax asserts in the opening chapter of the Dungeon Masters Guide that between the approaches of the realism simulation school and the pure gamist school, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is primarily a game that does not seek to model realism or deeply simulate anything either. Originally, this statement made sense to me and instilled the notion that considerations of fun and smooth play took primacy over the necessity of laborious detailing of real world minutiae. But then, the rest of the 230 pages of the Dungeon Masters Guide are devoted to the simulation of a fantasy world, and laborious details of real world minutiae are precisely the sticking points of the text that have caused me to create this blog just to understand how they were intended to work. As with everything in the Guide, I find that the sentiment is fine but the practical implementation of the mechanic contradicts itself.
One thing I found fascinating was Delta's D&D's assertion that following the real world provided him with an elegant solution to most of the gaps with the OD&D system, explained in his post Realism in Game Design
Angry GM also makes an assertion that all rules firstly model the real world, then are modified and replaced by rules that seek to provide a more streamlined game experience, in this post Why Rules Exist , in which he also explicitly calls out Gary Gygax's assertions.
One of the things that drove me away from D&D 5th Edition was the lack of depth in the game system. I couldn't really articulate why I felt this way, because as much as anyone I dislike numerous and cumbersome rules, but I now take to the understanding that 5th Edition throw out many rules necessary for a comprehensive system, and its thin real world simulation is actually a design flaw.
Depth in gaming is a big, pervasive theme in this blog, whether I'm talking about tabletop RPGs or video games. Some of the deepest first person shooters have absolutely nothing to do with reality, such as Quake 3 Arena, but their simulation is so comprehensive that it stands by itself. On the other hand, 'realistic' shooters have gained unbelievable popularity in recent years and have almost completely supplanted pure game shooters, and that trend doesn't seem to ever be going away.
I feel that AD&D leans much harder into the real world simulation camp than Gygax would have you believe, probably as a result of general trends in wargaming from the 70's, and definitely more than modern editions of D&D.
One thing I found fascinating was Delta's D&D's assertion that following the real world provided him with an elegant solution to most of the gaps with the OD&D system, explained in his post Realism in Game Design
Angry GM also makes an assertion that all rules firstly model the real world, then are modified and replaced by rules that seek to provide a more streamlined game experience, in this post Why Rules Exist , in which he also explicitly calls out Gary Gygax's assertions.
One of the things that drove me away from D&D 5th Edition was the lack of depth in the game system. I couldn't really articulate why I felt this way, because as much as anyone I dislike numerous and cumbersome rules, but I now take to the understanding that 5th Edition throw out many rules necessary for a comprehensive system, and its thin real world simulation is actually a design flaw.
Depth in gaming is a big, pervasive theme in this blog, whether I'm talking about tabletop RPGs or video games. Some of the deepest first person shooters have absolutely nothing to do with reality, such as Quake 3 Arena, but their simulation is so comprehensive that it stands by itself. On the other hand, 'realistic' shooters have gained unbelievable popularity in recent years and have almost completely supplanted pure game shooters, and that trend doesn't seem to ever be going away.
I feel that AD&D leans much harder into the real world simulation camp than Gygax would have you believe, probably as a result of general trends in wargaming from the 70's, and definitely more than modern editions of D&D.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Bounded accuracy
This feature alone makes 5e a better system than 4e, which had level dependent scaling defenses and accuracy
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
More AD&D movement issues, this time for outdoor movement and encumbrance
The PHB states that under normal encumbrance condition, a PC can move '12" ', whatever that means. Whether its measured by a ruler on a tabletop, scaled to the miniature figure used in actual play, or scaled to the table map used in actual play is a huge problem. Still, the guide in AD&D is that 12" equals 120 feet in-game.
The DMG states that under normal encumbrance, a PC can move 30 miles per day.
If calculated from the PHB, where it states "Each 1" of movement equals the number of miles...in one-half day's trekking" (p.102), it would seem that the actual number for an unencumbered character would be 24 miles per day, so of course the two measurements are incongruous.
I, personally, would rather choose the explicitly stated rule in the DMG over the calculated measurement.
And a final note, "normal" encumbrance means up to 35 lbs.(PHB p 101) or 350 gold coin weight (PHB p.102) without strength bonuses.
p.27 of the DMG lists armor weight in pounds, which needs to be multiplied by 10 to get gold coin weight, in order to determine the total weight carried by a character, which can be used to determine accurate encumbrance.
And finally, the actual gold piece weight values of regular items is in an Appendix in the back of the DMG (p. 225) instead of in the inventory lists of either the PHB or DMG!
Putting together these rules piecemeal is a real pain
For exploration, the PHB states that movement is 1/10 the rate given in the combat movement table, which means that for 12" a character could only move at 12 feet per minute, much less than the actual human walking speed of 276 ft/min. I don't buy the in game explanation that mapping and being cautious reduces speed to this number, so this is a total house rule I use to make regular movement through a dungeon room or through a city to take 1 turn total, whether the distance is 12 feet (normally a round in exploration), 120 feet (normally a turn) or 1200 (beyond a turn).
yay someone collected the encumbrance rules into a "Master Encumbrance Table":
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/php4/archive.php?sectioninit=FT&fileid=175&watchfile=0
Delta's got a great breakdown of the issues with Movement and Encumbrance:
http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/p/primary-house-rules.html
The DMG states that under normal encumbrance, a PC can move 30 miles per day.
If calculated from the PHB, where it states "Each 1" of movement equals the number of miles...in one-half day's trekking" (p.102), it would seem that the actual number for an unencumbered character would be 24 miles per day, so of course the two measurements are incongruous.
I, personally, would rather choose the explicitly stated rule in the DMG over the calculated measurement.
And a final note, "normal" encumbrance means up to 35 lbs.(PHB p 101) or 350 gold coin weight (PHB p.102) without strength bonuses.
p.27 of the DMG lists armor weight in pounds, which needs to be multiplied by 10 to get gold coin weight, in order to determine the total weight carried by a character, which can be used to determine accurate encumbrance.
And finally, the actual gold piece weight values of regular items is in an Appendix in the back of the DMG (p. 225) instead of in the inventory lists of either the PHB or DMG!
Putting together these rules piecemeal is a real pain
For exploration, the PHB states that movement is 1/10 the rate given in the combat movement table, which means that for 12" a character could only move at 12 feet per minute, much less than the actual human walking speed of 276 ft/min. I don't buy the in game explanation that mapping and being cautious reduces speed to this number, so this is a total house rule I use to make regular movement through a dungeon room or through a city to take 1 turn total, whether the distance is 12 feet (normally a round in exploration), 120 feet (normally a turn) or 1200 (beyond a turn).
yay someone collected the encumbrance rules into a "Master Encumbrance Table":
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/php4/archive.php?sectioninit=FT&fileid=175&watchfile=0
Delta's got a great breakdown of the issues with Movement and Encumbrance:
http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/p/primary-house-rules.html
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Prehistoric setting in AD&D
Before I rediscovered D&D, I was on a huge "Barbarian fantasy" kick, styled after such video games as the Golden Axe series and the Gauntlet games, as well as movies like Conan the Barbarian and Fire and Ice, and books such as A Princess of Mars. This was fueled by a concurrent interest in primitive cultures and Stone Age technology, and I was fascinated at the probable structure of such a society, such as their day to day lives and hardships they would have faced.
I considered my fascination with primitive cultures and my interest with D&D to be compatible, but unrelated. The then current editions of D&D were the 4th and 5th edition by Wizards of the Coast, and they tended toward an implied high fantasy, high medieval setting. Even though the Barbarian existed as a class name, it did not make much sense thematically or historically, as I detailed in an earlier post.
I was actually surprised to find out that the 1e AD&D sourcebooks actually have explicit mention of primitive and tribal peoples, and actually have native support for a prehistoric styled world. The Man enemies of the Monster Manual strictly mention Cavemen and Tribesmen, and I could argue that Berserkers fit the bill as well, and with only minor changes so could Bandits. The only human enemy types I would consider unable to fit would be the Buccaneer and Dervish, as those imply a certain reliance on 16th century technology. And the Nomad, as they're basically stand in for Arabian tribesmen and raiders, and while its easy to argue that Arabian nomads lived in the Stone Age until about 1918, I don't really see them and the European concept of Barbarians actually freely mixing.
Aside from "Men" type, many, many of the entries in the Monster Manual depict primitive or brutish type enemies. Ogres, Hill Giants, Minotaurs, even Devils and Demons and more are depicted wearing only loincloths made from animal fur, brandishing crudely made spears, slings, clubs or simple bows, and little else. Most of the enemies are straight animalistic monsters, but even the humanoid ones are sometimes depicted completely naked, not just the infamous Succubus but male monsters as well like the Imp and Minotaur, and powerful ones like Orcus, Balor and the Pit Fiend. Ironically the humble Goblin, Orc and Kobolds are better dressed and equipped with more technologically advanced weaponry than world threatening monsters such as Orcus. And then there are the pages devoted to the many different type of Dinosaurs, and many entries of Pleistocene animals.
Not just in the Monster Manual, but Tribal Shamans, Witch-Doctors and other primitive spellcasters are directly mentioned in the Dungeon Master's Guide as well. All this points to native support for a primitive styled campaign in the AD&D system. Such a campaign would actually be enhanced by the onerous resource management and harsh penalties in the system, as primitive peoples were not expected to survive for very long, and neither are low level AD&D characters.
It seems obvious in hindsight, and other blogs such as Grognardia have taken deep analyses into the "pulp fantasy" influences within D&D, which are the sources of the barbarian hero and of which Gary Gygax was a big fan.
The newer editions basically throw all of this out. All the monsters and all the heroes are wearing properly tailored and modest clothing in the 4e and 5e source books, and most of the brutish enemies have been thrown out. The Cavemen and Tribesmen do not return, and neither is there mention of Tribal Spellcasters, its just assumed that monster magic users operate the same way as player ones. The dinosaurs make their return in 5th edition, because dinosaurs are cool, but the Pleistocene animals don't, mostly because the designers probably never expected players to play in that era.
Only a few supplements in the modern editions support a barbarian styled campaign. The Dark Sun setting for 4e (as early as 2e I guess) is set with such, but Dark Sun is more post apocalyptic in the style of Mad Max, except no one has firearms or diesel fuel. Storm King's Thunder is a 5e adventure module that promised a romp through savage barbarian territory, but in practice all the encountered NPCs, towns, and dungeons were very civilized and technologically advanced.
It's a shame that no official adventure module took place in an early prehistoric world. The closest to come was "X1: The Isle of Dread" and its callback in 5e's "Tomb of Annihilation", but in those instances players from the 'modern' world traveled to a secluded area where dinosaurs never went extinct. The Hollow World campaign setting for Mystara was similar where man and dinosaur live together in the core of the planet, untouched by the passage of time on the surface.
I feel that a straight adaptation of a late Stone Age, or Ice Age campaign could be a lot more intriguing and would contain a lot of unique and novel game play opportunities that none of the other settings have had.
I'd play "X1: The Isle of Dread", but I have no interest in a quick trip to The Land that Time Forgot, to meet the People that Time Forgot in the Savage Land, or sail 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth where At the Earth's Core the people live like its One Million Years B.C. at the time When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. Jurassic Park.
I considered my fascination with primitive cultures and my interest with D&D to be compatible, but unrelated. The then current editions of D&D were the 4th and 5th edition by Wizards of the Coast, and they tended toward an implied high fantasy, high medieval setting. Even though the Barbarian existed as a class name, it did not make much sense thematically or historically, as I detailed in an earlier post.
I was actually surprised to find out that the 1e AD&D sourcebooks actually have explicit mention of primitive and tribal peoples, and actually have native support for a prehistoric styled world. The Man enemies of the Monster Manual strictly mention Cavemen and Tribesmen, and I could argue that Berserkers fit the bill as well, and with only minor changes so could Bandits. The only human enemy types I would consider unable to fit would be the Buccaneer and Dervish, as those imply a certain reliance on 16th century technology. And the Nomad, as they're basically stand in for Arabian tribesmen and raiders, and while its easy to argue that Arabian nomads lived in the Stone Age until about 1918, I don't really see them and the European concept of Barbarians actually freely mixing.
Aside from "Men" type, many, many of the entries in the Monster Manual depict primitive or brutish type enemies. Ogres, Hill Giants, Minotaurs, even Devils and Demons and more are depicted wearing only loincloths made from animal fur, brandishing crudely made spears, slings, clubs or simple bows, and little else. Most of the enemies are straight animalistic monsters, but even the humanoid ones are sometimes depicted completely naked, not just the infamous Succubus but male monsters as well like the Imp and Minotaur, and powerful ones like Orcus, Balor and the Pit Fiend. Ironically the humble Goblin, Orc and Kobolds are better dressed and equipped with more technologically advanced weaponry than world threatening monsters such as Orcus. And then there are the pages devoted to the many different type of Dinosaurs, and many entries of Pleistocene animals.
Not just in the Monster Manual, but Tribal Shamans, Witch-Doctors and other primitive spellcasters are directly mentioned in the Dungeon Master's Guide as well. All this points to native support for a primitive styled campaign in the AD&D system. Such a campaign would actually be enhanced by the onerous resource management and harsh penalties in the system, as primitive peoples were not expected to survive for very long, and neither are low level AD&D characters.
It seems obvious in hindsight, and other blogs such as Grognardia have taken deep analyses into the "pulp fantasy" influences within D&D, which are the sources of the barbarian hero and of which Gary Gygax was a big fan.
The newer editions basically throw all of this out. All the monsters and all the heroes are wearing properly tailored and modest clothing in the 4e and 5e source books, and most of the brutish enemies have been thrown out. The Cavemen and Tribesmen do not return, and neither is there mention of Tribal Spellcasters, its just assumed that monster magic users operate the same way as player ones. The dinosaurs make their return in 5th edition, because dinosaurs are cool, but the Pleistocene animals don't, mostly because the designers probably never expected players to play in that era.
Only a few supplements in the modern editions support a barbarian styled campaign. The Dark Sun setting for 4e (as early as 2e I guess) is set with such, but Dark Sun is more post apocalyptic in the style of Mad Max, except no one has firearms or diesel fuel. Storm King's Thunder is a 5e adventure module that promised a romp through savage barbarian territory, but in practice all the encountered NPCs, towns, and dungeons were very civilized and technologically advanced.
It's a shame that no official adventure module took place in an early prehistoric world. The closest to come was "X1: The Isle of Dread" and its callback in 5e's "Tomb of Annihilation", but in those instances players from the 'modern' world traveled to a secluded area where dinosaurs never went extinct. The Hollow World campaign setting for Mystara was similar where man and dinosaur live together in the core of the planet, untouched by the passage of time on the surface.
I feel that a straight adaptation of a late Stone Age, or Ice Age campaign could be a lot more intriguing and would contain a lot of unique and novel game play opportunities that none of the other settings have had.
I'd play "X1: The Isle of Dread", but I have no interest in a quick trip to The Land that Time Forgot, to meet the People that Time Forgot in the Savage Land, or sail 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth where At the Earth's Core the people live like its One Million Years B.C. at the time When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. Jurassic Park.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Retooling Hoard of the Dragon Queen
I recently ended an unsuccessful campaign of Tyranny of Dragons, where my players were somewhere in the middle of Rise of Tiamat. Naturally, I thought back to what I could do better, or how I could have made the game more fun and engaging. Now, apart from my personal failings as a DM, I feel there are some issues with the adventure itself that if addressed would spare it from being such a slog.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the first adventure book, is highlighted in particular as being a bad adventure. Tons of groups around the internet seem to hold this view, and major complaints are that it is a railroad, there is a lot of missing information, the storyline has lots of dull moments where nothing of consequence happens, and its encounter balance is out of whack. My favorite shakedown of the module is on the Power Score blog here. He is considerably more even handed than most commenters and even defends the adventure against some unfair complaints.
That being said I agree with a lot of the complaints, but I really think that the module can be a lot of fun with the right amount of retooling.
My goals for this exercise is to make this adventure better by:
- Making the villains more engaging, thematically linked to the overarching dragon threat, and with a deeper plan.
- Adding more loot, magic items, and rewards for the players. After all, this whole module is about chasing a dragon's hoard and if followed as written, the players are as poor paupers at the end of this adventure as they are in the beginning.
- Avoiding the dull, uninteresting caravan ride
- Giving the players more agency and options with which to make it through the storyline
So let's get right into it
First things first, the Wyrmspeakers are boring dullards, the named villain NPCs in this module are boring dullards too, their plan is stupid, and half of the adventure is fighting mercenaries for hire instead of true believer Cultists. That all has to change.
In Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the coolest villains are Langdedrosa Cyanwrath and Rezmir, but they are called "Half-Dragons". Why? Was it because this book was written before 5e was fully designed, and the writers were unsure if the Dragonborn race would make the cut? Well, now we know that Dragonborn are part of the setting so let's make the villains Dragonborn instead of "half-dragons". 4e retconned the Forgotten Realms' "half dragons" into the Dragonborn race anyway.
In fact, turning the main villains into Dragonborn suddenly opens up a trove of options to be taken from 4e. Dragonborn followers of Tiamat are described in the Draconomicon, with such names as Sellswords, Exemplars, Blood Reavers and War Masters. The highest level of evil Dragonborn are called Annihilators and are taken as consorts of Tiamat herself. All this can be worked into the campaign. Langdedrosa Cyanwrath is the first badass evil Dragonborn the players meet, but he's only a level 6 champion, so he certainly shouldn't be the last.
Rezmir, now as a black Dragonborn, is the main "villain" of the module even if she's not the strongest monster in the final dungeon. Tracking and overcoming her should be the main point of the adventure, and she's decently powerful as written with a magic sword and several other magic items. Instead of having her become an incidental kill in Castle Naerytar or Skyreach Castle, she should be a gloriously deadly encounter for the players and should make her stand either atop Castle Naerytar, or on the first level of Skyreach Castle.
But killing dragons and dragon-like beings can get boring in repetition, so more variety in enemy types should be added. In this regard the published adventure module does well enough, but a lot of encounters end up against generic "cultists" who all look human, or are assumed so since they only get one portrait of a human male in a cultist outfit. Different races should be added to the cultists, or under the cultists thrall. Greedy, evil Dwarven mercenaries, Halfling cut-purses and criminals, Elven, Half-Elven and Half-Orcish bandits and thugs should be added into their ranks. The dungeon encounters created in this module are actually decently varied, with lots of weird little enemies scattered about, so I wouldn't change much except to add a few random monsters here and there.
The final two named Wyrmspeakers of the module, Frulam Mondath and Talis the White, are totally boring. They don't do anything - Talis waits around in the Hunting Lodge for a chance to betray the Cult and help the players, and Frulam Mondath sits in a caravan until the players finally catch her and shake her down for information.
I was going to break down a way to improve those two, but I found a much better analysis (and longer, though that one's a close call) here.
Even at the outset a problem can arise - the players might want to join the Cult of the Dragon. My players did this and apparently they're not the only group to have attempted so. I kind of had to force them to play the heroes but I wonder if its possible to have them play otherwise. Instead of saving townsfolk, they'll be trashing houses for loot, killing peasants and trying to break into the Keep. The encounter in the tunnel could be played the same way, but instead the players are trying to *break in* to the castle to let the Cult of the Dragon kill the mayor.
However, there's an easy way to get them back on track. My players are notoriously greedy and when the Cultists demand that they give up their stolen loot, I'm fairly certain my players will rebel. And there's a lynchpin to this which will allow players to properly hate the cult: Langdedrosa Cyanwrath the "boss" encounter at the end of the chapter. This could play out very similarly to the module as written, where Cyanwrath challenges any cultist wannabes to a duel. Obviously he beats them, then humiliates them and doesn't allow them to be part of the cult. That makes an easy ticker for the players to want revenge and to come back to the spirit of the adventure.
Of course, if your players aren't overtly evil, then there's not a lot in this chapter I would change. Lennithon is a great set piece battle, I would have him just fly away when he gets bored or his obligation to the cult is up, and its easy to move through the rescue encounters at a breakneck speed.
For one, the Cult of the Dragon is looting all valuables from the town of Greenest, and players in that first encounter should be more concerned with saving their own hide, and those of NPCs, than with looting everything in sight. Greenest should be mostly encounter focused, BUT there should be rewards at the end. Some minor rewards are given in the module itself, but the best thing would be to implement a plot hook - the mayor mentions that he has little to give because the Cult stole everything, but if they track the Cult down, they can be rewarded from the stolen loot. Instant lead in to Chapter 3.
However, Hoard of the Dragon Queen has many bait-and-switch moments, for example where players get to a treasure chest only to find that all its contents have been magically teleported away. I don't like to play bait and switch tricks on players (much) so its best to have actual monetary payoff. For example, the Cultists' camp in Chapter 3 should have actual loot that the players can then "liberate". A simple low level monetary treasure and nonmagical treasure from the DMG would suffice.
Chapter 4 in the Dragon Hatchery should have treasure too, but this is also when players get their first taste of magical items. By the book, this place should be abandoned, yet it still has a full office for Frulam Mondath, a shrine to Tiamat, and 3 NESTING DRAGON EGGS. Who abandons dragon eggs and just leaves them lying around??? Also, Langdedrosa Cyanwrath remains as the final encounter in this area, neatly capping the first Act of the story arc with a final boss fight. He should have magic weapons and equipment, which would focus on his deadliness as the final encounter. In my game I replaced his greatsword with a +1 Lifedrinker Greataxe.
A deeper discussion of the dragon eggs will be mentioned later, as I consider them to be the biggest wasted opportunity in this whole campaign
The Caravan ride itself has two stopovers in Neverwinter and Waterdeep. No information about these cities is given in this module, and the assumption is made that the DM already knows about these places, or will buy other WotC products for the background. The problem was that when this module came out, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide hadn't been published yet, and I had no previous knowledge of these cities. Also, locations as large and storied as Neverwinter and Waterdeep can be the basis for whole campaigns themselves, and if I or my players had known anything about the cities the whole adventure could have been completely derailed by spending it in one of the large towns. And finally, visiting these two cities does nothing for the campaign, once you leave the city you are back to a boring caravan ride, the same thing you were doing before you entered, and this happens twice. Instead, the best option is to just cut the stopovers out of the plot entirely, and allow your players to conduct town activities such as shopping and carousing with traveling merchants or other members in a friendly caravan.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the first adventure book, is highlighted in particular as being a bad adventure. Tons of groups around the internet seem to hold this view, and major complaints are that it is a railroad, there is a lot of missing information, the storyline has lots of dull moments where nothing of consequence happens, and its encounter balance is out of whack. My favorite shakedown of the module is on the Power Score blog here. He is considerably more even handed than most commenters and even defends the adventure against some unfair complaints.
That being said I agree with a lot of the complaints, but I really think that the module can be a lot of fun with the right amount of retooling.
My goals for this exercise is to make this adventure better by:
- Making the villains more engaging, thematically linked to the overarching dragon threat, and with a deeper plan.
- Adding more loot, magic items, and rewards for the players. After all, this whole module is about chasing a dragon's hoard and if followed as written, the players are as poor paupers at the end of this adventure as they are in the beginning.
- Avoiding the dull, uninteresting caravan ride
- Giving the players more agency and options with which to make it through the storyline
So let's get right into it
Better Villains
First things first, the Wyrmspeakers are boring dullards, the named villain NPCs in this module are boring dullards too, their plan is stupid, and half of the adventure is fighting mercenaries for hire instead of true believer Cultists. That all has to change.
In Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the coolest villains are Langdedrosa Cyanwrath and Rezmir, but they are called "Half-Dragons". Why? Was it because this book was written before 5e was fully designed, and the writers were unsure if the Dragonborn race would make the cut? Well, now we know that Dragonborn are part of the setting so let's make the villains Dragonborn instead of "half-dragons". 4e retconned the Forgotten Realms' "half dragons" into the Dragonborn race anyway.
In fact, turning the main villains into Dragonborn suddenly opens up a trove of options to be taken from 4e. Dragonborn followers of Tiamat are described in the Draconomicon, with such names as Sellswords, Exemplars, Blood Reavers and War Masters. The highest level of evil Dragonborn are called Annihilators and are taken as consorts of Tiamat herself. All this can be worked into the campaign. Langdedrosa Cyanwrath is the first badass evil Dragonborn the players meet, but he's only a level 6 champion, so he certainly shouldn't be the last.
Rezmir, now as a black Dragonborn, is the main "villain" of the module even if she's not the strongest monster in the final dungeon. Tracking and overcoming her should be the main point of the adventure, and she's decently powerful as written with a magic sword and several other magic items. Instead of having her become an incidental kill in Castle Naerytar or Skyreach Castle, she should be a gloriously deadly encounter for the players and should make her stand either atop Castle Naerytar, or on the first level of Skyreach Castle.
But killing dragons and dragon-like beings can get boring in repetition, so more variety in enemy types should be added. In this regard the published adventure module does well enough, but a lot of encounters end up against generic "cultists" who all look human, or are assumed so since they only get one portrait of a human male in a cultist outfit. Different races should be added to the cultists, or under the cultists thrall. Greedy, evil Dwarven mercenaries, Halfling cut-purses and criminals, Elven, Half-Elven and Half-Orcish bandits and thugs should be added into their ranks. The dungeon encounters created in this module are actually decently varied, with lots of weird little enemies scattered about, so I wouldn't change much except to add a few random monsters here and there.
The final two named Wyrmspeakers of the module, Frulam Mondath and Talis the White, are totally boring. They don't do anything - Talis waits around in the Hunting Lodge for a chance to betray the Cult and help the players, and Frulam Mondath sits in a caravan until the players finally catch her and shake her down for information.
I was going to break down a way to improve those two, but I found a much better analysis (and longer, though that one's a close call) here.
Improving the Encounters
I want to start off by saying that the encounter at Greenest is awesome. Its a great way to start an adventure and instantly engages the players. They came here for Dungeons and Dragons, and by gawd a dragon is attacking a town. I have one player in particular who loves dragons, so partly as an inspiration from her, I would focus this whole adventure more on the dragons, and less on random assassins and mercenaries.
Even at the outset a problem can arise - the players might want to join the Cult of the Dragon. My players did this and apparently they're not the only group to have attempted so. I kind of had to force them to play the heroes but I wonder if its possible to have them play otherwise. Instead of saving townsfolk, they'll be trashing houses for loot, killing peasants and trying to break into the Keep. The encounter in the tunnel could be played the same way, but instead the players are trying to *break in* to the castle to let the Cult of the Dragon kill the mayor.
However, there's an easy way to get them back on track. My players are notoriously greedy and when the Cultists demand that they give up their stolen loot, I'm fairly certain my players will rebel. And there's a lynchpin to this which will allow players to properly hate the cult: Langdedrosa Cyanwrath the "boss" encounter at the end of the chapter. This could play out very similarly to the module as written, where Cyanwrath challenges any cultist wannabes to a duel. Obviously he beats them, then humiliates them and doesn't allow them to be part of the cult. That makes an easy ticker for the players to want revenge and to come back to the spirit of the adventure.
Of course, if your players aren't overtly evil, then there's not a lot in this chapter I would change. Lennithon is a great set piece battle, I would have him just fly away when he gets bored or his obligation to the cult is up, and its easy to move through the rescue encounters at a breakneck speed.
More Loot, Treasure and Rewards
My players are notoriously greedy. To keep them happy the best way is to keep a steady drip of loot going throughout the campaign. In this adventure, they are supposed to chase stolen treasure to be amassed in a great dragon's hoard, but... the module doesn't actually give them much treasure at all. A major design goal for 5e was to reduce the necessity of magic items for players at higher levels. I think the designers over corrected, and now the players don't get any magic items until the end of the module. That has to change.
For one, the Cult of the Dragon is looting all valuables from the town of Greenest, and players in that first encounter should be more concerned with saving their own hide, and those of NPCs, than with looting everything in sight. Greenest should be mostly encounter focused, BUT there should be rewards at the end. Some minor rewards are given in the module itself, but the best thing would be to implement a plot hook - the mayor mentions that he has little to give because the Cult stole everything, but if they track the Cult down, they can be rewarded from the stolen loot. Instant lead in to Chapter 3.
However, Hoard of the Dragon Queen has many bait-and-switch moments, for example where players get to a treasure chest only to find that all its contents have been magically teleported away. I don't like to play bait and switch tricks on players (much) so its best to have actual monetary payoff. For example, the Cultists' camp in Chapter 3 should have actual loot that the players can then "liberate". A simple low level monetary treasure and nonmagical treasure from the DMG would suffice.
Chapter 4 in the Dragon Hatchery should have treasure too, but this is also when players get their first taste of magical items. By the book, this place should be abandoned, yet it still has a full office for Frulam Mondath, a shrine to Tiamat, and 3 NESTING DRAGON EGGS. Who abandons dragon eggs and just leaves them lying around??? Also, Langdedrosa Cyanwrath remains as the final encounter in this area, neatly capping the first Act of the story arc with a final boss fight. He should have magic weapons and equipment, which would focus on his deadliness as the final encounter. In my game I replaced his greatsword with a +1 Lifedrinker Greataxe.
A deeper discussion of the dragon eggs will be mentioned later, as I consider them to be the biggest wasted opportunity in this whole campaign
Avoiding the Dull, Uninteresting Caravan Ride
By far the worst chapters of this book are the two that deal with chasing the Cultist caravan along the Sword Coast. There's not a whole lot for players to do in this chapter and it seems like just a set up for a bunch of random encounters. Also, despite following the entirety of the looted hoard, the players don't get their hands on any of the treasure. A simple restructuring is to allow many Cult caravans to arrive from all different parts of Faerun, heading to be pooled into a single hoard in Skyreach Castle. The players should learn that there are multiple caravans, and that by confronting successive ones, they will slowly gain the information needed to track down the position of the hoard. This changes the whole situation from a passive "follow the hoard and try not to get killed and/or spotted" to an active "chase down the hoard and neutralize as many cultists as you can find" adventure. It also makes it easy to tie in all the random encounters into the main plot of the story - the random assassins at the tavern or the two doppelganger women can now be undercover cultists, trying to trick and kill the players through guile.
The Caravan ride itself has two stopovers in Neverwinter and Waterdeep. No information about these cities is given in this module, and the assumption is made that the DM already knows about these places, or will buy other WotC products for the background. The problem was that when this module came out, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide hadn't been published yet, and I had no previous knowledge of these cities. Also, locations as large and storied as Neverwinter and Waterdeep can be the basis for whole campaigns themselves, and if I or my players had known anything about the cities the whole adventure could have been completely derailed by spending it in one of the large towns. And finally, visiting these two cities does nothing for the campaign, once you leave the city you are back to a boring caravan ride, the same thing you were doing before you entered, and this happens twice. Instead, the best option is to just cut the stopovers out of the plot entirely, and allow your players to conduct town activities such as shopping and carousing with traveling merchants or other members in a friendly caravan.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Low level vs High level chars
Level 1 characters in 1e seem to be made for 1 combat encounter only. After that single encounter, they should tally their wins and losses, and move on to rest.
Low level D&D play is about struggling against the ever present specter of Death in a dark, lonely dungeon filled with monsters.
High level D&D play is about the monsters trying to survive the PCs.
High level play should be about your PCs having fun and going nuts with their power. Too many DMs and system designers don't get it and don't like it, and try to find ways to bring PCs back down to the relative power of beginner characters. Players, on the other hand, have an instinctive desire to make their characters ever more wildly powerful.
I'm a fan of the low level, deadly playstyle, but multiple sessions of play with (over)powered characters has shown me how that could be fun too. I think more players and DMs alike should embrace high power at times, and DMs should let them be free to take world shaking and nation shaping actions with their new abilities.
Low level D&D play is about struggling against the ever present specter of Death in a dark, lonely dungeon filled with monsters.
High level D&D play is about the monsters trying to survive the PCs.
High level play should be about your PCs having fun and going nuts with their power. Too many DMs and system designers don't get it and don't like it, and try to find ways to bring PCs back down to the relative power of beginner characters. Players, on the other hand, have an instinctive desire to make their characters ever more wildly powerful.
I'm a fan of the low level, deadly playstyle, but multiple sessions of play with (over)powered characters has shown me how that could be fun too. I think more players and DMs alike should embrace high power at times, and DMs should let them be free to take world shaking and nation shaping actions with their new abilities.
Monday, April 1, 2019
Storm King's Thunder: the Barbarian retooling
Storm King's Thunder is a good adventure module. Before playing it, I had no interest in Giants as villains or as central to the plot, but the cool cover art and the promise of Cimmerian-style high adventure in the "Savage Frontier" drew me in. The intro blurb also points out that the encounters are meant to be deadly, which was a challenge I was willing to accept.
Unfortunately I found the execution a bit lackluster. The encounters are only deadly in that the "Challenge Rating" of combat is very high, but if you work around combat or avoid it then there is no real threat. The "Savage Frontier" is actually a very tame place, most of the action happens in small towns and settlements, and the random wilderness encounters are meant to be completed through negotiation or clever problem solving. Rarely are players alone, fearing for their life. The overarching villains don't really care about anything but their own problems, and really only show up as occasional disasters until the players specifically break into their houses and try to beat them. The adventure module provides a lot of backstory and a lot of cool detail into the world, and then most of it is dropped.
I guess this goes back to that old school D&D sensibility - its the DM's job to make the game good.
One thing I wanted to do is refocus this adventure on the "Barbarian world" theme. This doesn't mean that the Barbarian, Druid and Ranger classes are the only allowable ones, or that "civilized" classes like the Paladin, Cleric and Wizard are precluded. Rather, it gives all the classes a new flavor, which I think could be really fun. For example, a Barbarian Cleric could be a Holy warrior, dedicated to the creed of some primitive god and traveling the land as part of a pilgrimage or holy quest. Why couldn't a barbarian cleric worship Annam the All-Father, the central deity of this adventure, or be styled after the gothi, the priests of the Vikings?
Secondly, the world should be much harsher. Gone are the comfortable trappings of civilization - the city of Neverwinter is just a fishing village and port city. It's still the largest city in the North, but that doesn't mean much. The outside wilderness is divided between fiercely territorial tribes of Human Barbarians, Savage Orcs, and Wild Elves who live in forests. Venturing out into any of their lands should be considered an incursion into hostile territory. Instead of most of the peaceable random encounters, players should be expected to fight or bargain for their life, otherwise be captured or killed by the wild peoples that rule the frontier.
Now, when I played through this module, I avoided every combat encounter that I could because I did not want to be bogged down by it. I'm not advocating that every encounter end in combat, but that every encounter should prove a risk to the PCs, and then it is up to them how to resolve it.
Now we get the central villains of the adventure - the Giants. The Giant races should be at war with each other. I read through the description of the Ordning several times and I still could not care about it or see the point it had in the story. Instead, the conflict should be a more down to earth one, King Hekaton, ruler of the Storm Giants and the top of the Giant hierarchy, is missing and now the domination of the Storm Giants as a whole is in jeopardy. As such, all Giants have declared war on each other and are doing whatever they can to establish themselves as the new head of the Giant races. And caught in the crossfire are all the 'little people' and civilized settlements unfortunate enough to be in the Giants' reach.
So in actual play, the initial attacks on the settlements remain largely unchanged as its assumed that the Giants are still executing their respective schemes to destroy the others, but now there would be more encounters of Giants fighting each other and crushing everything else in their wake, of Giants raising and moving with more armies of servant races, and so forth.
I realize this fundamentally changes the hidden villain of the story and the final encounter, but I did not find Iymrith to be a very compelling villain, and I had just played through Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, so I was tired of dragon villains. Instead, I would like to see the inclusion of a higher tier monster make their appearance, the Titans, and for the ending of this module to give way to planar adventures in the Astral Sea where players now interact with godlike beings.
This is also unlike the GDQ series, from which STK takes its inspiration from, but though I haven't played it I don't think the GDQ series ever gave a reason for the Giants to be working for the Drow, or even what the Drow's manipulation was like.
This also changes the first Giant included in the story, Zephyros the Cloud Giant. Instead of being a convenient gamist element, Zephyros would be retooled into a dying lawful good cloud giant, desperate for any option to end the war. His only hope before his life finally ebbs away is a group of adventurers he encountered by chance near the site of the last major Cloud Giant battle, and he offers them his knowledge and tools to stop the war. No silly, inconsistent explanation involving madness and clairvoyance necessary.
And I think the greatest weakness of Storm King's Thunder is the inclusion of too many taxi services. Zephyros, as mentioned before, only exists as a taxi for player characters to get from Nightstone to one of the 3 towns that really kick off this adventure. After that the players are introduced to a network of teleportation circles, and eventually a full airship and crew simply given to them by a Lawful Evil dragon for no reason. I think the designers for 5e truly hate map crawls, because this happens in every module. Instead, let the players actually walk around the map in that large, waste of space Chapter 3 that takes up a majority of the book, and simply scale up the encounters as players gain levels and complete chapters of the story.
And the last issue this would address is Harshnag. Simply have him show up as soon as possible in Chapter 3, and let him lead the players to the Temple of the All-Father in a good old fashioned wilderness adventure.
Unfortunately I found the execution a bit lackluster. The encounters are only deadly in that the "Challenge Rating" of combat is very high, but if you work around combat or avoid it then there is no real threat. The "Savage Frontier" is actually a very tame place, most of the action happens in small towns and settlements, and the random wilderness encounters are meant to be completed through negotiation or clever problem solving. Rarely are players alone, fearing for their life. The overarching villains don't really care about anything but their own problems, and really only show up as occasional disasters until the players specifically break into their houses and try to beat them. The adventure module provides a lot of backstory and a lot of cool detail into the world, and then most of it is dropped.
I guess this goes back to that old school D&D sensibility - its the DM's job to make the game good.
One thing I wanted to do is refocus this adventure on the "Barbarian world" theme. This doesn't mean that the Barbarian, Druid and Ranger classes are the only allowable ones, or that "civilized" classes like the Paladin, Cleric and Wizard are precluded. Rather, it gives all the classes a new flavor, which I think could be really fun. For example, a Barbarian Cleric could be a Holy warrior, dedicated to the creed of some primitive god and traveling the land as part of a pilgrimage or holy quest. Why couldn't a barbarian cleric worship Annam the All-Father, the central deity of this adventure, or be styled after the gothi, the priests of the Vikings?
Secondly, the world should be much harsher. Gone are the comfortable trappings of civilization - the city of Neverwinter is just a fishing village and port city. It's still the largest city in the North, but that doesn't mean much. The outside wilderness is divided between fiercely territorial tribes of Human Barbarians, Savage Orcs, and Wild Elves who live in forests. Venturing out into any of their lands should be considered an incursion into hostile territory. Instead of most of the peaceable random encounters, players should be expected to fight or bargain for their life, otherwise be captured or killed by the wild peoples that rule the frontier.
Now, when I played through this module, I avoided every combat encounter that I could because I did not want to be bogged down by it. I'm not advocating that every encounter end in combat, but that every encounter should prove a risk to the PCs, and then it is up to them how to resolve it.
Now we get the central villains of the adventure - the Giants. The Giant races should be at war with each other. I read through the description of the Ordning several times and I still could not care about it or see the point it had in the story. Instead, the conflict should be a more down to earth one, King Hekaton, ruler of the Storm Giants and the top of the Giant hierarchy, is missing and now the domination of the Storm Giants as a whole is in jeopardy. As such, all Giants have declared war on each other and are doing whatever they can to establish themselves as the new head of the Giant races. And caught in the crossfire are all the 'little people' and civilized settlements unfortunate enough to be in the Giants' reach.
So in actual play, the initial attacks on the settlements remain largely unchanged as its assumed that the Giants are still executing their respective schemes to destroy the others, but now there would be more encounters of Giants fighting each other and crushing everything else in their wake, of Giants raising and moving with more armies of servant races, and so forth.
I realize this fundamentally changes the hidden villain of the story and the final encounter, but I did not find Iymrith to be a very compelling villain, and I had just played through Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, so I was tired of dragon villains. Instead, I would like to see the inclusion of a higher tier monster make their appearance, the Titans, and for the ending of this module to give way to planar adventures in the Astral Sea where players now interact with godlike beings.
This is also unlike the GDQ series, from which STK takes its inspiration from, but though I haven't played it I don't think the GDQ series ever gave a reason for the Giants to be working for the Drow, or even what the Drow's manipulation was like.
This also changes the first Giant included in the story, Zephyros the Cloud Giant. Instead of being a convenient gamist element, Zephyros would be retooled into a dying lawful good cloud giant, desperate for any option to end the war. His only hope before his life finally ebbs away is a group of adventurers he encountered by chance near the site of the last major Cloud Giant battle, and he offers them his knowledge and tools to stop the war. No silly, inconsistent explanation involving madness and clairvoyance necessary.
And I think the greatest weakness of Storm King's Thunder is the inclusion of too many taxi services. Zephyros, as mentioned before, only exists as a taxi for player characters to get from Nightstone to one of the 3 towns that really kick off this adventure. After that the players are introduced to a network of teleportation circles, and eventually a full airship and crew simply given to them by a Lawful Evil dragon for no reason. I think the designers for 5e truly hate map crawls, because this happens in every module. Instead, let the players actually walk around the map in that large, waste of space Chapter 3 that takes up a majority of the book, and simply scale up the encounters as players gain levels and complete chapters of the story.
And the last issue this would address is Harshnag. Simply have him show up as soon as possible in Chapter 3, and let him lead the players to the Temple of the All-Father in a good old fashioned wilderness adventure.
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