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We played Slave Pits last night, and one of us died permanently and the rest of us were lucky to escape with our lives (albeit treasureless).
We had a really great GM who completely out-thought us tactically. Aside from a friendly bar brawl early on, we were completing everything via roleplaying instead of combat. As we approached the No Return at the end I was calling out that I wanted to buy the captain and crew drinks and discuss a possible business venture. The crew was intrigued by the offer of drinks but wasn't overly responsive, so I boarded.
The ensuing fight had two halfling archers, three halfling melee combatants, two sailors, and a gnoll with a greataxe. The greataxe took our ranger from up and fighting (albeit wounded) to -11 with one blow, and it wasn't even a critical. We might have been okay if that hadn't happened, I think. (I'm a second-level cleric with the healing domain and would have had her up again soon.) Our second-level conjurer was amazing bringing down all sorts of summoned creatures to fight our battles for us. Our lone first-level character (a paladin) was tripped into the water before she ever actually got on board. We never even saw the end boss, and the mission was an utter failure with almost no treasure.
Part of our surprise was that no officer would even come to one of the two nearby taverns, drink our ale, and just listen to our offer, which might have been lucrative. Of course, it didn't help that we were clearly the bad guys, invading their ship without any right to do so and trying to coerce them while fighting.
Our GM (correctly) pointed out that our tactics were far worse than his, and that probably we could have run away, dealt with some halflings, and come back. He's right, and maybe with good tactics we could have lived to see the big fight at the end. (I'm assuming that there's a big fight at the end; the sailors kept talking about the captain, and we never saw him.)
I might be running this soon for a group of first-level characters, and even if their tactics are amazing I can kill any one of them dead with two hits from the greataxe. It's a really fun module and we were having a great time until we were completely overwhelmed by superior numbers at the end. I even had a great plan for accomplishing my faction mission (which as a Taldan was essentially to screw over the Osirian) if she hadn't died before I could pull it off. Now I want to hear other people's experiences before I run it. The biggest problem, I think, is that greataxe; it's going to be really rough on a party of first-level characters.
Summary of my experience: fun module, creative elements, good roleplaying opportunities, overwhelming combat
Your GM combined two fights when he shouldn't have. That certainly makes it tougher.
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Your GM combined two fights when he shouldn't have. That certainly make it tougher.
That's good to know. So what do I do if my players try the same stunt? Let's say that I draw out the battlemap and my players want to board the ship. I have the halflings attack, and some of the players make it onto the ship while others don't. What happens next? How do I uncombine these encounters?
I could have the halflings ambush the party before they ever get to the docks, but the archers are clearly on top of that weird five-foot-wide inn, so that seems wrong.
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Okay, fair enough. The cheering made it all feel like one encounter, and we got jumped when we arrived on the scene and announced our intention to board the ship. I initially thought that the halflings had readied actions to attack any unwelcome boarders of the ship, and I didn't find out until later that these were two different groups. I'll try to come up with some way as a GM to let the PCs know that this is not actually all one encounter.
Thanks for the help.
I think it is fair to note that a crit from that greataxe will drop a first-level fighter from full hp to dead almost every time. It's a <1/20 chance per hit, but it's going to come up eventually. Humanoids with greataxes are nasty.
Spoiler for Frozen Fingers:
I actually appreciated that the Ulfen warriors in Frozen Fingers used battleaxes at the lower tier, as greataxes are incredibly unpredictable.
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Okay, fair enough. The cheering made it all feel like one encounter, and we got jumped when we arrived on the scene and announced our intention to board the ship. I initially thought that the halflings had readied actions to attack any unwelcome boarders of the ship, and I didn't find out until later that these were two different groups. I'll try to come up with some way as a GM to let the PCs know that this is not actually all one encounter.
Thanks for the help.
My suggestion would be to
Additionally, the weird 5' inn (which is really just a dock bar with some rooms over it) and the two other Inns can have guests on the porches. Consider having these can also take note of the fight and start some betting. That might let the PCs know that bystanders are just a general taking notice for flavor, not specifically part of the fight.
The player who fell in the water: did they get their save to grab the rope and hold on? If not that was a DM oversight. It's a very easy save meant to have tripping between the deck and the ship lend tension to the encounter, but not intended to create an insta-death trap!
Hope that helps.
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Thank-you for the advice, sir! I shall indeed make the changes you suggest. Specifically, if the sailors bet with each other over the outcome then it will be really clear that the group is not being jumped by crew.
As for the Sodden Sailor Inn, I was picturing it as having hammocks up both walls floor to ceiling and ladders alongside them, so sailors could just pay a minimal amount, climb up to a free hammock, and get some sleep. Thanks for filling in the details.
The paladin did indeed receive a saving throw against falling in the sea, but she failed it.
In case it wasn't clear: we liked the game. We had a lot of fun. Thanks for writing this. :)
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Thank-you for the advice, sir! I shall indeed make the changes you suggest. Specifically, if the sailors bet with each other over the outcome then it will be really clear that the group is not being jumped by crew.
As for the Sodden Sailor Inn, I was picturing it as having hammocks up both walls floor to ceiling and ladders alongside them, so sailors could just pay a minimal amount, climb up to a free hammock, and get some sleep. Thanks for filling in the details.
The paladin did indeed receive a saving throw against falling in the sea, but she failed it.
In case it wasn't clear: we liked the game. We had a lot of fun. Thanks for writing this. :)
Man! Screw what I said for the Sodden Sailor Inn -- I like your hammocks and ladders much better. Throw a bar (couple of boards from a shipwreck over old metal anchor ties, booze behind in an water damaged captains cabinet from the same shipwreck) downstairs and a room of hammocks upstairs, reached by ladders up through roughly sawn holes in the ceiling, and I want to stay there! Argh! Hey - and add one bedraggled prostitute, Seaside Betty, who handles all the trade at the Sodden Sailor. Nice.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I'm running "Slave Pits" this weekend at a FLGS, and I walked through the adventure with a friend last night as prep work.
Now, he's just one person, and one person can make tactical decisions that are harder for "organized play" parties, but he suggested sneaking up on the ship at night and boarding her quietly.
That's a sound decision, and halflings have neither darkvision nor low-light vision, so a sneaky party would have a good chance to avoid combat till it reached the ship.
That would lead to the really messy double-strength fight.
It might--but only if
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I'm running "Slave Pits" this weekend at a FLGS, and I walked through the adventure with a friend last night as prep work.
Now, he's just one person, and one person can make tactical decisions that are harder for "organized play" parties, but he suggested sneaking up on the ship at night and boarding her quietly.
That's a sound decision, and halflings have neither darkvision nor low-light vision, so a sneaky party would have a good chance to avoid combat till it reached the ship.
That would lead to the really messy double-strength fight.
Hi Chris,
I meant to chime in on this earlier. I think sneaking onboard is a fantastic approach. If you ever decide to run this scenario outside the PF society, as part of your home campaign for example, let me know. I'll pop you a couple of encounters and modifications that I developed but weren't appropraite for Society play. Just some stuff for you to play around with, if you're ever interested.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Hi Chris,I meant to chime in on this earlier. I think sneaking onboard is a fantastic approach. If you ever decide to run this scenario outside the PF society, as part of your home campaign for example, let me know. I'll pop you a couple of encounters and modifications that I developed but weren't appropraite for Society play. Just some stuff for you to play around with, if you're ever interested.
Hi, Lou. I'm interested. c (point) mortika at gmail (point) com
Thank you.
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Hi Chris,I meant to chime in on this earlier. I think sneaking onboard is a fantastic approach. If you ever decide to run this scenario outside the PF society, as part of your home campaign for example, let me know. I'll pop you a couple of encounters and modifications that I developed but weren't appropraite for Society play. Just some stuff for you to play around with, if you're ever interested.
Hi, Lou. I'm interested. c (point) mortika at gmail (point) com
Thank you.
Hi Chris,
Cool! I posted some stuff for you on my blog RPGAggression. Maybe more people than you and I will be interested. But I don't want anyone to mistake a discussion here for official PFS stuff, instead of just the fan musings that they are; ergo, me blog.
If you wind up playing around with any of it in your home campaign, please let me know how it worked out!
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Back to the original topic:
I ran "Slave Pits" this weekend, had the ship's crew just standing and cheering, along with people at the tavern windows, but the party still asked, during the fight, "Is that the ship?"
Yep.
"Is the crew armed?"
No so much of a crew, only two or three people on deck, but yeah, they're armed. The man and the woman have hammers and javelins, --
"Javelins? The one on the left get an arrow in the face."
And the two fights blended together. (Even worse, as soon as the first PC got on board, she made a bee-line for the hold, and started Act 5 before Act 3 was finished!)
It was a large party (7 PC's, five of whom were already 2nd Level) but it was still a very tough fight.
Putting one encounter within 20 feet of the next encounter's opponents makes it very tempting for a party to attack the crew of the No Return as soon as possible.
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Back to the original topic:
I ran "Slave Pits" this weekend, had the ship's crew just standing and cheering, along with people at the tavern windows, but the party still asked, during the fight, "Is that the ship?"
Yep.
"Is the crew armed?"
No so much of a crew, only two or three people on deck, but yeah, they're armed. The man and the woman have hammers and javelins, --
"Javelins? The one on the left get an arrow in the face."
And the two fights blended together. (Even worse, as soon as the first PC got on board, she made a bee-line for the hold, and started Act 5 before Act 3 was finished!)
It was a large party (7 PC's, five of whom were already 2nd Level) but it was still a very tough fight.
Putting one encounter within 20 feet of the next encounter's opponents makes it very tempting for a party to attack the crew of the No Return as soon as possible.
"Javelins? The one on the left gets an arrow in the face."
Great line. If Paizo had signatures on the post, I'd add it to mine! Please let me know how it goes if you ever run the pre-development version of the encounter I posted up for you.
Did your group have fun?
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Yes, they had fun. That final fight was long and hard, but engaging.
Act Two was easily the most frustrating part of the adventure.
After perhaps a half-hour of scheming, they decided to return to the place, claiming through the locked door to have slaves to sell, and Bluffed their way in. They killed Pildapush and questioned the slaves, who remembered that the noble lady was taken away by a "dog-man" who "reeked of brine".
By the way, does Pildapush really have both a magic +1 dagger and a masterwork throwing dagger?
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Yes, they had fun. That final fight was long and hard, but engaging.
Act Two was easily the most frustrating part of the adventure.
** spoiler omitted **
By the way, does Pildapush really have both a magic +1 dagger and a masterwork throwing dagger?
Glad they had fun!
In all honesty, I don't know. Stat blocks changed a bit during development, but he's definitely supposed to have a magic +1 dagger.
Then there's this:
I don't recall assigning a hardness to the door, though I'm sure it wound up specified. You had a largely level 2 party, right? That expalins the difficulty with your level 1 rogue. For a level 1 party the lock is a DC 10 not 15. Darn. Wish that hadn't caused them trouble.
Yes, they had fun. That final fight was long and hard, but engaging.
Act Two was easily the most frustrating part of the adventure.
** spoiler omitted **
By the way, does Pildapush really have both a magic +1 dagger and a masterwork throwing dagger?
Actually, you're reading the stat block incorrectly. He has a masterwork dagger for Tier 1-2 and a +1 dagger for Tier 4-5.
Under the "Offense" heading:
Melee mwk dagger +2 (1d4/19-20) (Tier 1–2)
Melee +1 dagger +2 (1d4+1/19-20) (Tier 4–5)
Under the "Gear" heading:
Gear masterwork dagger (Tier 1–2), +1 dagger (Tier 4–5)
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Lou,
Once on Misery Row, the PCs can easily locate
Spoiler:Pildapush Chattel—a sign announces it: “Pildapush Chattel: Absalom’s Finest.” Pildapush’s strong wooden front door is locked (Open
Lock DC 20) and a “Closed” sign swings from the latch. The few visible windows to the front of Pildapush Chattel are barred from the inside and take considerably longer to break through (hardness 15, 35 hp).
The DC doesn't change from tier to tier.
It also notes: "If the guards arrive and the PCs haven’t yet gained access... the heavily armed and armored security ...points barbed spears at the PCs and orders them out of [there]."
That's essentially the end of the adventure, then, yes?
Actually, you're reading the stat block incorrectly. He has a masterwork dagger for Tier 1-2 and a +1 dagger for Tier 4-5.
Many thanks for pointing that out. I guess I'm not used to reading a split stat block like that.
It also notes: "If the guards arrive and the PCs haven’t yet gained access... the heavily armed and armored security ...points barbed spears at the PCs and orders them out of [there]."
That's essentially the end of the adventure, then, yes?
Nope. As it says later in the development section:
And we don't use split DCs for Tiers (that was an artifact of the early design process that didn't see the light of day). We generally provide attainable DCs for all Tiers with different rewards and provide options if the specific checks fail.
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And we don't use split DCs for Tiers (that was an artifact of the early design process that didn't see the light of day). We generally provide attainable DCs for all Tiers with different rewards and provide options if the specific checks fail.
And sadly, I'm an artifact of the early design process. :(
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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I ran this last Sunday and the players really enjoyed it but it is tough. We got one PC dead and the majority of the characters spent some time in negative hit points. (I actually had one of the crew members stabilise a character - well the first mate told him they could get some money for a slave, nothing for a corpse!).
The gnolls are really tough opponents for a low level party (my group were averaging 2nd level being made up of a 3rd level rogue, 3rd level ranger, 2nd level ranger, 2nd level fighter and 1st level cleric). I think having battleaxes rather than greataxes would have been better (and possibly losing a fighter level).
Tripping the cleric into the water was a scary moment for him. And the captain killed the fighter (whip tripped him as he came down into the old as a surprise action then had the intitative on him so stepped in and hit him with the greataxe for a critical hit. Ouch!) There are some stat block errors (some have been mentioned like the lack of combat expertise, but something that stood out to me was the fact that the crewmen have the power attack feat but they are using light weapons).
The slave trader was instantly disliked by the party - I played him as an arrogant merchant convinced of his own vastly superior intellect to others. So when he told them to come back tomorrow they ended up coshing him into unconsciousness, stripped him and put him in one of the slave cages. So he wasn't even questioned by the party so I think the Taldan PC achieved his goal pretty easily with just an earlier comment about a name sounding Qadiran to him. Unfortunately although he achieved his goal (and even altered the name in the slave trader's ledger) he was the one who died.
The Puddlejumpers were fun. I played them as freerunners, leaping over crates and along the roofs, staying mobile to attack the PCs.
When the watching sailors saw the fight they started shouting out bets and one of the PCs placed a bet on themselves and made some money.
Overall, my players said: "an exciting and challenging scenario and I had great fun playing it" so thanks.
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Hi Chris,I meant to chime in on this earlier. I think sneaking onboard is a fantastic approach. If you ever decide to run this scenario outside the PF society, as part of your home campaign for example, let me know. I'll pop you a couple of encounters and modifications that I developed but weren't appropraite for Society play. Just some stuff for you to play around with, if you're ever interested.
Hi, Lou. I'm interested. c (point) mortika at gmail (point) com
Thank you.
Hi Chris,
Cool! I posted some stuff for you on my blog RPGAggression. Maybe more people than you and I will be interested. But I don't want anyone to mistake a discussion here for official PFS stuff, instead of just the fan musings that they are; ergo, me blog.
If you wind up playing around with any of it in your home campaign, please let me know how it worked out!
i will deffinitively check this
it will take a few weeks but the adventure is a great idea for the campaign i am going to begin... i can't follow a lot of pre-made adventures but i like to take guidelinesand while one of the characters is going to be a flashing swashbuckler i think the group would take the 'night-route'
of course if a DM doesn't want them to do this... justlet them overhears someone that the ship will be ready for departure in the afternoon... considering the odds... they will run for it at any time of the day (the venture captain left it clear that it was something very urgent)
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one question comes to mind Lou
** spoiler omitted **
thanks
Hey Montalve,
I posted the bodyguards for you with some encounter context on RPGAggression. If you've any problem downloading it, let me know. Hope it proves useful or at least interesting. Enjoy!
Note: This is a cross-post from the product discussion thread, because I'm not sure who is following which of these threads these days.
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Hey Montalve,I posted the bodyguards for you with some encounter context on RPGAggression. If you've any problem downloading it, let me know. Hope it proves useful or at least interesting. Enjoy!
Note: This is a cross-post from the product discussion thread, because I'm not sure who is following which of these threads these days.
weird
i was sure i already answered this post... mm ahhok i know think where i did :Pwill se how it works in the weekend :P they still need to find the kidnapper :D
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Cool! If you went with the updated material I posted, then I'm particularly interested to learn how they handled...
** spoiler omitted **
Can't wait to hear your play report.
actually after 5 hours of game...
they have not arrived that far... they just finished with the slave pits...it took so long aside ofgetting 3 very different characters with no relationship it no game took abit of time... even when 2 where already in the story since the day we made characters
-Bard (dancer), swashbuckling heroine, using dance to boost her combat style and that of her friends.
-Variant Fighter (no ehavu armor or tower shield, but firearms proficiency), City Guard (quite in the style of 3 Musqueters)
-Barbarian, Andoran agent under cover... (more like Porthos from 3 Musqueters, or Guts from Berserk, than Conan the Barbarian)
and NPC, a swashbuckling cleric/rogue of Calistria who helps in a few of tidbits... but mostly serving as background for the bard
i changed the story a bit... when the players arrive to the "Second Chance"events haven't unfolded, so they can see by themselves and act accordingly
they discuss their actions and arrive to the slave pits... the barbarian and guard (disguised as no guardian) pass themselves as bodyguard and servant for a noble inside and they are left in, the swashbuckling girls go by the roofs and alleys, both groups arrive to Pardu's office, and they notice he is not alone but witha girl with vudrani clothes... wich panics the bard's player
here the guard's player had to leave, so he stand watch, while the rogue/cleric goes to the back door... and after opening the door and not being noticed they enter rushing forward... the barbarian already in rage simply hits the surprised monk, while the bard jumps and grapples pardu in the surprise round
she threatens pardu, but before he tells the monk to surrender, she tries to reach the barbarian who cuts her cleanly (frist hit did 14 hps... next and last one wasa Crit... doing 28... and yes they know that if they let her come close they were as good as deadmeat that is why they charged in) i simply ruled that the barbarian cut the 'poor' monk in half, here Pardu surrenderd and spilled anuthign about Anhila to them, and trying not to be taken to the ship he reveals Renley involvement
the bard was deciding what to do, but as she was taking to long thebabrarian just cut the slaver's head (Andoran and all this he hate slavers) they freed the2 slaves a mwangi boy and a mwangi wood elven girl, the rogue/cleric took them to a safe place while they move to the ship... things ended here...
i think they will try to enter directly, they are beginning the night, but they know the ship is sailing at dawn... when they arrive tothe shipyards it willlbe almost midnight
tell you how it goes in 2 weeks...
and yes i don't complain about them taking 5 hours for that (online game and all that)... i am like them... lol and the guard did derail in purpose the game to show me how WE derail his adventures :P (he stoped to see what interesting products were sold in the way to the slave pits :P
and there is still a monk sister with a dead sister to revenge :) so i will see if mix this 2
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Played this module a while back. Went something like this:
Found the junkie involved in a bar brawl. Sleeped most of the combatants and dragged the junkie outside for some torture and interrogation. Got the intel on the slaver.
Went to the slave pits. Waited at the slaver's shop until the mark stepped outside. Dazed him, dragged him inside for some torture and interrogation. Got the intel on the gnoll slaver ship. Freed the slaves, sent them off to meet the underground railway and killed the slaver for being such a bad person.
Approached the slaver ship posing as drunken Chelaxian nobles and their bodyguard retinue. Got jumped by the halflings. Nearly got stoned to death before dispatching them with relative ease.
Sleeped the shiphands. Got jumped by the gnoll. Had to rescue a heavily armored cleric that got whipped into the water. Dazed the gnoll until the other cleric and the summoner's critters managed to slice him to ribbons.
Ran into the other gnoll below decks. Shot him full of arrows and bashed him to a pulp. Freed the damsel in distress.
All in all, a very enjoyable romp through the seedier parts of Absalom. A bit combat heavy at the end, though. By no means a hard fight for a group of veteran players with sensible character builds. The plot is very straightforward if you don't mind getting your hands dirty. I imagine that a party low on charisma and high on morals would have had a very difficult time coaxing all the needed information from the two sources. Also, the ambush right before the main event kind of comes out of the blue if your characters' aren't clued in on the bigger picture (which they most likely won't be).
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ahhh i expect that ambush to surprise them :P
Navdi, you really wear your colors
Lou, when i have the next part i will post it :)
I'll take that as a compliment, thank you. ;)
What I meant was that the players were surprised by the WTF factor of why there is a halfling bandit encounter of all things. The rationale behind said encounter is not evident from the narrative.
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ahhh i expect that ambush to surprise them :P
Navdi, you really wear your colors
Lou, when i have the next part i will post it :)
I'll take that as a compliment, thank you. ;)
What I meant was that the players were surprised by the WTF factor of why there is a halfling bandit encounter of all things. The rationale behind said encounter is not evident from the narrative.
oh it si a compliment :D
no unless you beat the crap out of one of the halflings :D (i know they are going to try before the barbarian kills them all)
i am sure they will exactly as your players :D
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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I'm running this tomorrow and looking forward to the mayhem, but there seems to be a discrepancy with the max gold amounts: if I add up the amount listed for the individual encounters in tier 4-5, it comes out to over 1,500 instead of 1,217. Tier 1-2 is off by 2 gp as well. Perhaps the oddest thing is that tier 4-5 is supposed to get less for Act 5 than tier 1-2.
Also, there is a provision to be sure the PCs get the Act 2 award in Act 5 if they missed it, but I'm not sure how likely it is that the group will get the Act 1 award at all.
** spoiler omitted **Forgive the cross-post, but I'll put this in the product discussion forum as well.
I thought the same about Act 1 reward when I ran it. None of my players even thought about getting any money out of that scene.
I'm running this tomorrow and looking forward to the mayhem, but there seems to be a discrepancy with the max gold amounts: if I add up the amount listed for the individual encounters in tier 4-5, it comes out to over 1,500 instead of 1,217. Tier 1-2 is off by 2 gp as well. Perhaps the oddest thing is that tier 4-5 is supposed to get less for Act 5 than tier 1-2.
Also, there is a provision to be sure the PCs get the Act 2 award in Act 5 if they missed it, but I'm not sure how likely it is that the group will get the Act 1 award at all.
** spoiler omitted **Forgive the cross-post, but I'll put this in the product discussion forum as well.
Looking over the spreadsheet for that scenario I see that we copied the gold totals incorrectly for Tier 4-5. The max gold for that Tier is supposed to be 1,500 gp--we'll need to fix that.
The max gold for Tier 1-2 should read 457 gp--you've just helped me find a fatal flaw in my treasure tracking spreadsheet. Namely, the gp calculations round up and that whacked 2gp out of the overall total. I'll need to not only adjust the spreadsheet to calculate these errors out but we'll need to adjust the chronicle on this scenario as well.
As for the specific gp total in Act 5--nope, they're correct. You get different gear out of each Tier of Act 5 since
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I thought the same about Act 1 reward when I ran it. None of my players even thought about getting any money out of that scene.I'm running this tomorrow and looking forward to the mayhem, but there seems to be a discrepancy with the max gold amounts: if I add up the amount listed for the individual encounters in tier 4-5, it comes out to over 1,500 instead of 1,217. Tier 1-2 is off by 2 gp as well. Perhaps the oddest thing is that tier 4-5 is supposed to get less for Act 5 than tier 1-2.
Also, there is a provision to be sure the PCs get the Act 2 award in Act 5 if they missed it, but I'm not sure how likely it is that the group will get the Act 1 award at all.
** spoiler omitted **Forgive the cross-post, but I'll put this in the product discussion forum as well.
mine din't even fought there :P
they just used brains... but i don't have trouble... they have good equipment (non magical) also heavily modified for my house game
As for the specific gp total in Act 5--nope, they're correct. You get different gear out of each Tier of Act 5 since ** spoiler omitted **Really? I'd have thought sure that weapon change would increase it
** spoiler omitted **
Ahh, now I see. There's a miscalculation in his statblock from a previously existing magic item that was removed later in development that's causing the skew in the lower Tier. I'll take that into account as I update the PDF.
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Contributor
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Played this module a while back. Went something like this:
** spoiler omitted **
All in all, a very enjoyable romp through the seedier parts of Absalom. A bit combat heavy at the end, though. By no means a hard fight for a group of veteran players with sensible character builds. The plot is very straightforward if you don't mind getting your hands dirty. I imagine that a party low on charisma and high on morals would have had a very difficult time coaxing all the needed information from the two sources. Also, the ambush right before the main event kind of comes out of the blue if your characters' aren't clued in on the bigger picture (which they most likely won't be).
Glad you had fun with it, and thanks for the play report!
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I thought the same about Act 1 reward when I ran it. None of my players even thought about getting any money out of that scene.I'm running this tomorrow and looking forward to the mayhem, but there seems to be a discrepancy with the max gold amounts: if I add up the amount listed for the individual encounters in tier 4-5, it comes out to over 1,500 instead of 1,217. Tier 1-2 is off by 2 gp as well. Perhaps the oddest thing is that tier 4-5 is supposed to get less for Act 5 than tier 1-2.
Also, there is a provision to be sure the PCs get the Act 2 award in Act 5 if they missed it, but I'm not sure how likely it is that the group will get the Act 1 award at all.
** spoiler omitted **Forgive the cross-post, but I'll put this in the product discussion forum as well.
mine din't even fought there :P
they just used brains... but i don't have trouble... they have good equipment (non magical) also heavily modified for my house game
I can't wait to hear how your player's dealt with the "extended version" of the final act! My prediction...
Have to know if I guess right. *bites fist and squeals*
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Have to know if I guess right. *bites fist and squeals*
i will tell you
the issue is thgat i am sure the bard will try to sneak, while the other 2 will go up normally...the issue is that if they catch the bard... with her charisma she is a lot better in a pen and sold than killed :P
so the other 2 might finish rescuin her... still we will see
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Now that's service! Revised PDF in a matter of hours. Thanks for the assistance.
Ahh, now I see. There's a miscalculation in his statblock from a previously existing magic item that was removed later in development that's causing the skew in the lower Tier. I'll take that into account as I update the PDF.
i agree
now i just need to print those parts that are different :P
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We played this last night. It was great fun, the bard almost died too! :S Though I do think that the greataxe should have stayed.
Personal favourite moment: My raging power-attacking barbarian critting the prone big badie for 40 points of damage! Apparently, she killed the ship in the process too. o_O
Cheers! :D
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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We played this last night. It was great fun, the bard almost died too! :S Though I do think that the greataxe should have stayed.
Personal favourite moment: My raging power-attacking barbarian critting the prone big badie for 40 points of damage! Apparently, she killed the ship in the process too. o_O
Cheers! :D
I had the reverse when I ran it - big baddie with greataxe crits the prone main fighter PC for 40+ points of damage. The greataxe is nasty for 1st-2nd level characters. The hand axe is an improvement (though I thought battleaxes would have been appropriate).