More Frog God, woo!

You had me at "elves framing orcs". Or whatever is really going on. Buyan and downloadan.

More Frog God, woo!

You had me at "elves framing orcs". Or whatever is really going on. Buyan and downloadan.

They had me at the picture of the witch zooming around in her cauldron.

So, tell us... Is there a Baba Yaga tie in? Would this fit into Irissen?

There is and it could. Though the description of climatic effects might have to be altered a bit.

I made my very first attempt at a review on these message boards. Hopefully you will find this review useful.

I made my very first attempt at a review on these message boards. Hopefully you will find this review useful.

Since it's your first time I am sure everyone will be gentle :)

Nice to see you doing reviews.

Thanks DM! But I do not need folks to be gentle, just more reviews by those who have also read this book as they may perhaps spot things I did not see.
I did not, for example, check to see if the stat blocks contained no errors. I don't generally delve into that level of detail unless I am writing up encounters to be run in my game. I have 9 players. I have to redo, add to, beef up every encounter anyway. It is easier to add or correct things then or ignore things I don't need.

Thanks DM! But I do not need folks to be gentle, just more reviews by those who have also read this book as they may perhaps spot things I did not see.

I did not, for example, check to see if the stat blocks contained no errors. I don't generally delve into that level of detail unless I am writing up encounters to be run in my game. I have 9 players. I have to redo, add to, beef up every encounter anyway. It is easier to add or correct things then or ignore things I don't need.

It is on my list of things to do in the near future. I am hoping to get a review done in the next couple of weeks.

This adventure is excellent, no doubt about it.

As an owner of a copy, I would advise reconsidering purchasing the adventure without getting at least a glimpse at its contents.

In my opinion there are serious design flaws with the scenario, and while it is quite possible to salvage it, I would recommend making the decision an informed one.

I do not want to spoil anyone's fun here, so I am not going to post a review of my own, however it would be unfair of me to criticize the product without providing at least a few arguments. Oh, and just in case: I am really happy with my Slumbering Tsar subscription.

The spoilers follow:

Overall, I do not regret purchasing the book. I can easily mine it for ideas... I am not going to let my 13th level players anywhere near it though, as they would pick it apart in a session or two, even though my games feature very little of magic gear.

For challenging high level scenarios, I would recommend instead:
- Witchwar Legacy
- end of Kingmaker adventure path

Regards,
Ruemere

As an owner of a copy, I would advise reconsidering purchasing the adventure without getting at least a glimpse at its contents.

In my opinion there are serious design flaws with the scenario, and while it is quite possible to salvage it, I would recommend making the decision an informed one.

I do not want to spoil anyone's fun here, so I am not going to post a review of my own, however it would be unfair of me to criticize the product without providing at least a few arguments. Oh, and just in case: I am really happy with my Slumbering Tsar subscription.

The spoilers follow:** spoiler omitted **

Overall, I do not regret purchasing the book. I can easily mine it for ideas... I am not going to let my 13th level players anywhere near it though, as they would pick it apart in a session or two, even though my games feature very little of magic gear.

For challenging high level scenarios, I would recommend instead:
- Witchwar Legacy
- end of Kingmaker adventure path

Regards,
Ruemere

I completely understand your hesitation about posting a review, but I want to encourage you to do so. If I were a customer of paizo.com who didn't browse all the discussions, I might base my purchasing decision only on the current review. If I did that and felt as you do above, my disappointment would be significant.

Tam

Thank you for your kind words.

The full review would unfortunately require spoiling the adventure (including picking at stat blocks) and sending negative karma toward Frog God Games (whom I wholeheartedly support for saving legacy books from Necromancers Games, and whose Slumbering Tsar is very, very good).

So, as per the golden rule of "when one cannot say anything positive, it is preferable to remain silent" I would like not to do that. However, if you have specific questions, feel free to post them here.

I have already outlined several serious problems above -- consider them to be representative sample of contents.

Regards,
Ruemere

Thanks for that, ruemere.

That's pretty much the type of information I want to know when looking at high-level adventures.

For the love of pete... don't ever ignore the effect of spells on high-level campaigns!

Reviewed here, on RPGaggression and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on RPGaggression and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Aigh! You wound me when you mark us off for bookmarks! The PDFs are free and I was so naive! :p

Can the pdf be bookmarked after purchase ? Is it possible to alter it ?

Unlikely, as that could permit changing the content.

Yes, you can bookmark it.

I'm thinking about running this soon. Does anyone have any advice for addressing the issues Ruemere brought up?

Grimmy,

(note: this applies to PFRPG version)
(note 2: my opinion is based on my experiences of running games for 15-level adventurers who ply their job intentionally low magic campaign world... in case of high magic campaigns, issues outlined may become even more pronounced)

The adventure relies on players doing walking and talking with NPCs to get information. If your players tend to Fly/Wind Walk or use Divination magic a lot, you will need to come up with in game reason to limit these.

NPC defenses suck. Mind control specialists are going to have a field day with overabundance of Fighter types with really low Will saves. This goes double for single BBEG spellcasters - no items, no defenses, low hitpoints.

If your players like to test major NPCs (or indeed, like in case of certain druid and certain island sorceress, when the PCs are to have a major showdown), consider adding additional creatures and characters to provide meatshield for the casters. Alternatively, revise NPC builds to include sensible equipment and reasonable defenses. Plucking ready-to-run builds of similar level casters from end-game scenarios provided by Paizo should work.

Many encounters are against of high-level, underequipped (masterwork weapons, no save improving items) groups of fighters. This is either a boring grind or incredibly easy win for control casters. Either scrap such encounters altogether (there are only so many 12-level Fighter infantry patrols in the world) or change them to CR-appropriate creatures (charmed or dominated to serve as patrolmen).

Treasure levels seem to be inappropriate to CR of encounters (too low). While I actually like this, you may want to adjust them to reward your PCs properly.

Regards,
Ruemere

Thanks for the quick reply Ruemere!
I would be running this as a stand-alone. Like a one-off, mini-campaign kind of thing. New characters generated just for this adventure. Maybe I could just restrict some of the problematic spells you mentioned.
My group is used to somewhat gritty play with about 1/2 WBL as the expectation for PC's. They are also used to no "magic-marts" and don't usually have "big 6" type of equipment. They rely mostly on what they find in the field. Maybe the low treasure rewards here will work out ok.

Is the print edition here a Print/PDF bundle?

Thanks for the quick reply Ruemere!

I would be running this as a stand-alone. Like a one-off, mini-campaign kind of thing. New characters generated just for this adventure. Maybe I could just restrict some of the problematic spells you mentioned.
My group is used to somewhat gritty play with about 1/2 WBL as the expectation for PC's. They are also used to no "magic-marts" and don't usually have "big 6" type of equipment. They rely mostly on what they find in the field. Maybe the low treasure rewards here will work out ok.

Please share your notes or impressions afterwards.

Good luck!

Regards,
Ruemere

Is the print edition here a Print/PDF bundle?

So, no?

Brian, setting up print/PDF bundles for Frog God products that don't have them is on my to-do list. :D

Grimmy wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply Ruemere!

I would be running this as a stand-alone. Like a one-off, mini-campaign kind of thing. New characters generated just for this adventure. Maybe I could just restrict some of the problematic spells you mentioned.
My group is used to somewhat gritty play with about 1/2 WBL as the expectation for PC's. They are also used to no "magic-marts" and don't usually have "big 6" type of equipment. They rely mostly on what they find in the field. Maybe the low treasure rewards here will work out ok.

Please share your notes or impressions afterwards.

If you need anything, just drop me a mail at ruemere AT gmail DOT com

Good luck!

Regards,
Ruemere

I ended up starting Rappan Athuk instead of this back in September, but I'm thinking of prepping a scaled down version of this and giving them an option of transitioning over to it if they want. The PC's are around levels 6-8 in Rappan Athuk right now. I love RA but this same group got frustrated with Slumbering Tsar and gave up so I'm trying to pay attention to any clues that they might be getting frustrated or bored. I inserted one of the FGG One Night Stands for the last couple of sessions and that went over well so I think it can't hurt to have an option if they get tired of the mega-dungeon.

Looking over Fane of the Fallen I think I can tune it down to about their level by simply removing most of the class-levels from the monsters, and leaving the solo caster boss-fights as is.

Thanks again for the insight, I'll drop you a line if I get stuck.

Brian, setting up print/PDF bundles for Frog God products that don't have them is on my to-do list. :D

Hi Liz! Any movement on the to-do list? :D

Liz Courts wrote:

Brian, setting up print/PDF bundles for Frog God products that don't have them is on my to-do list. :D

Hi Liz! Any movement on the to-do list? :D

I'd love to know the status myself =)