There's a lot in the published Tyranny of Dragons campaign that's nonsensical, and the whole reason is because this storyline is a bad fit for the Forgotten Realms. Stripped of the setting of Faerun, and this adventure is almost exactly the Dragonlance storyline condensed into two volumes. The way to fix the fundamental story flaws is to bring that War of the Lance goodness back into plot.
No, I don't mean bring back Goldmoon and Raistlin.
In the adventure as written, Tiamat is almost an entirely passive entity and if run strictly by the book she should not appear at all at the Well of Dragons, as the Cult of Dragon's plans to resurrect her would be completely thwarted. What fun is that? Instead of such an anticlimactic end, Tiamat should be given a more active role in the story by taking cues from Dragonlance's Takhisis and restored to her place as the main antagonist of the story.
Similarly, Bahamut is not mentioned or used at all in this storyline, and the only time the Metallic Dragons are involved is during a turgidly dull political council scene. Instead of that scene, whisk the players away to Bahamut's castle, in Celestia from 4e's Scales of War adventure path, or Paladine's Glitter Palace, and have the heroes undergo Paladine's tests of worthiness.
The final assault on the Well of Dragons is meant to be a massive clash between the armies of good and the Cult of the Dragon, exactly like the climax to the War of the Lance, but this first publication for 5e lacks any sort of mass combat rules so it all falls by the wayside. Honestly though, I would rather leave it there, as I feel that shoehorning in a mass combat wargame would only detract from the chapter. Contextualize the PCs as a special unit sneaking behind the battle lines while the main forces of good hold off the enemy just long enough to give the players an opening.
The Well of Dragons itself is a terrible dungeon, as it only exists as an area for a large battle and a pit for Tiamat to rise from. Replace it with any of the Temples of Takhisis or Tiamat.
These suggestions change the ending, and in doing so re-contextualizes the whole adventure. Now it truly is an epic battle between good and evil, between the two dragon deities, and not a hodgepodge collection of loose allies from around the Sword Coast fighting a demented cult and some scheming wizards.
To build up to this finale, I sprinkle in references to the two dragon deities and explicitly have their mortal avatars show up in certain instances. For example, Takhisis speaks to Frulam and Cyanwrath in the dragon hatchery just before they are interrupted by the players, and Paladine is encountered during the long caravan ride and offers words of wisdom and caution.
This also resolves my issues with the "half-dragons" introduced in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, as they are clearly meant to be Dragonlance's Draconians, but the official races of 5e have already retrofitted Draconians into the Dragonborn race, so why do half-dragons even exist? Well now they don't, they're just evil dragonborn leading an army of dragon kind in service of the Queen of Dragons.
Showing posts with label retooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retooling. Show all posts
Monday, December 9, 2019
Monday, December 2, 2019
Retooling Hoard of the Dragon Queen...again Chapter 1
I'm starting to run this campaign again, because I just can't let it go. I posted a retrospective and a "what I would have done better" blog entry earlier, but now that I have more experience as a DM I have a lot harsher criticisms for this module and a lot more restructuring I would want to do.
Starting with Chapter 1, I like the metaplot of this chapter - a dragon attacks a town. It's the stuff of high fantasy and a great set-piece introduction. However the implementation of this chapter is terrible. The missions and encounters are written to be given to the players in a purely reactive manner. The DM is supposed to spring the encounters on the players in a random order, or have a quest giver NPC, Governer Nighthill, merely give players the missions in sequence, like an NPC in a video game. I do not like running my games this way and I prefer players to be more proactive and choose the encounters that they are involved in.
I never run the opening as written, where the PCs are assumed to be a random band of adventurers who see Greenest being attacked in the distance, and take it upon themselves (i.e. are railroaded) to help. Instead, I always use the classic opening - the players meet at an inn. I give them time to introduce themselves and their characters, and form some base level of comfort with each other. Then I tell them that they can hear sounds of an attack outside. The tavern that they're inside is in Greenest.
From there I let the players choose what they want to do. I've given them the basic hook - they're being attacked and the city is burning around them. Whether they choose to fight or flee is up to them. I'm still using some subtle railroading, but its much more interesting than the heavy handed method that the module itself provides.
But I do run one thing as written, which is the first encounter with Linan Swift and her family. I use this to give the players their first goal - run to the Keep for safety, and it helps me keep them on the rails in a subtle manner. The usefulness of Linan Swift as the voice of the DM cannot be understated.
But the worst part of the opening chapter is how the players get to the keep. By the book, for every 100 feet the party moves, the DM is to roll for a random encounter, then have those encounters sprung on the players. This is awful, because who is going to measure 100 ft increments? And with what map, the tiny quarter page one in the book? What is there to keep the players from simply making a beeline to the keep? Instead, I run this sequence as scenes of rioting or street fighting. I have Linan direct the way to the keep, but the party will frequently find their path blocked by fighting, looters, or fires and other hazards. This lets them choose whether to fight or find another way around. Sometimes I let them escape from the bands of kobolds and cultists roaming the streets, sometimes I have them give chase. Eventually the players reach the keep and bargain for entry with the Sergeant of the Guard, where they can finally rest and recover some HP and spells. By this point they should advance from level 1 to 2, and make it a little of the way to level 3. Since level 1 characters are fairly fragile, only one or two encounters are really necessary for them to cross into level 2, and if HP is a concern, a single short rest somewhere in the town should be enough, or the encounters can turn into roleplay or skill challenges instead of combat for XP. Inside the keep, I offer professional healing services and some minor provisions for the players to replenish their fighting capacity.
The advice in the DMG is that players should have around 6 encounters per level, one easy, one hard, and four of moderate difficulty. I think that results in a bit too much combat for this chapter, so by granting all players 100XP just for reaching the keep I lower the number of encounters necessary to level up by two. Using the option to grant players XP for saved civilians also lowers the necessary requirement, and boosts them on their way to level 3.
This means that the missions in the Keep bring the characters along the way to level 3. Honestly, I only run 3 of the encounters in this chapter - the secret tunnel with the swarm of rats, an optional save the mill, sanctuary or sally port, whichever is the player's choice, and the dragon assault. After the dragon assault, the players engage in the duel with Cyanwrath. With these 3-4 encounters, the players can make it just shy of level 3 and prepare themselves for Chapter 2.
As I said before, I think the assault on Greenest is a fantastic set piece battle, but the actual direction for running it in the book is lacking. By restructuring it so that players have more freedom of choice and more agency in their character actions, and by keeping a closer eye to the mechanical details of XP progression and encounter challenge, the event becomes much more enjoyable for the players, much less frustrating for the GM, and a better springboard into the larger campaign.
Starting with Chapter 1, I like the metaplot of this chapter - a dragon attacks a town. It's the stuff of high fantasy and a great set-piece introduction. However the implementation of this chapter is terrible. The missions and encounters are written to be given to the players in a purely reactive manner. The DM is supposed to spring the encounters on the players in a random order, or have a quest giver NPC, Governer Nighthill, merely give players the missions in sequence, like an NPC in a video game. I do not like running my games this way and I prefer players to be more proactive and choose the encounters that they are involved in.
I never run the opening as written, where the PCs are assumed to be a random band of adventurers who see Greenest being attacked in the distance, and take it upon themselves (i.e. are railroaded) to help. Instead, I always use the classic opening - the players meet at an inn. I give them time to introduce themselves and their characters, and form some base level of comfort with each other. Then I tell them that they can hear sounds of an attack outside. The tavern that they're inside is in Greenest.
From there I let the players choose what they want to do. I've given them the basic hook - they're being attacked and the city is burning around them. Whether they choose to fight or flee is up to them. I'm still using some subtle railroading, but its much more interesting than the heavy handed method that the module itself provides.
But I do run one thing as written, which is the first encounter with Linan Swift and her family. I use this to give the players their first goal - run to the Keep for safety, and it helps me keep them on the rails in a subtle manner. The usefulness of Linan Swift as the voice of the DM cannot be understated.
But the worst part of the opening chapter is how the players get to the keep. By the book, for every 100 feet the party moves, the DM is to roll for a random encounter, then have those encounters sprung on the players. This is awful, because who is going to measure 100 ft increments? And with what map, the tiny quarter page one in the book? What is there to keep the players from simply making a beeline to the keep? Instead, I run this sequence as scenes of rioting or street fighting. I have Linan direct the way to the keep, but the party will frequently find their path blocked by fighting, looters, or fires and other hazards. This lets them choose whether to fight or find another way around. Sometimes I let them escape from the bands of kobolds and cultists roaming the streets, sometimes I have them give chase. Eventually the players reach the keep and bargain for entry with the Sergeant of the Guard, where they can finally rest and recover some HP and spells. By this point they should advance from level 1 to 2, and make it a little of the way to level 3. Since level 1 characters are fairly fragile, only one or two encounters are really necessary for them to cross into level 2, and if HP is a concern, a single short rest somewhere in the town should be enough, or the encounters can turn into roleplay or skill challenges instead of combat for XP. Inside the keep, I offer professional healing services and some minor provisions for the players to replenish their fighting capacity.
The advice in the DMG is that players should have around 6 encounters per level, one easy, one hard, and four of moderate difficulty. I think that results in a bit too much combat for this chapter, so by granting all players 100XP just for reaching the keep I lower the number of encounters necessary to level up by two. Using the option to grant players XP for saved civilians also lowers the necessary requirement, and boosts them on their way to level 3.
This means that the missions in the Keep bring the characters along the way to level 3. Honestly, I only run 3 of the encounters in this chapter - the secret tunnel with the swarm of rats, an optional save the mill, sanctuary or sally port, whichever is the player's choice, and the dragon assault. After the dragon assault, the players engage in the duel with Cyanwrath. With these 3-4 encounters, the players can make it just shy of level 3 and prepare themselves for Chapter 2.
As I said before, I think the assault on Greenest is a fantastic set piece battle, but the actual direction for running it in the book is lacking. By restructuring it so that players have more freedom of choice and more agency in their character actions, and by keeping a closer eye to the mechanical details of XP progression and encounter challenge, the event becomes much more enjoyable for the players, much less frustrating for the GM, and a better springboard into the larger campaign.
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.
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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