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No Spoilers, promise...
I've read through the mod and I'm VERY excited. It has a very old-school feel to it (imo), a la AD&D. It also has new-school as well. It looks like it may run long though. I'll be running it tonight and this weekend. I'll post my thoughts after the convention here in Georgia (Catchup Con).
No Spoilers, promise...
I've read through the mod and I'm VERY excited. It has a very old-school feel to it (imo), a la AD&D. It also has new-school as well. It looks like it may run long though. I'll be running it tonight and this weekend. I'll post my thoughts after the convention here in Georgia (Catchup Con).
I'm eager to hear how it goes! My suggestions have some spoilers...
Additionally, the derro torture-sage is no great supporter of his nightmarish leader: Skilled diplomacy or roleplay may convince the vile researcher and his thralls to stand aside while the party heads upstairs to the Masque of the Pallid Measure. Of course, the party needs to get Torvic off of him to pull this off.
A group with additional time for play might choose to add a horrific "dream sequence", taking advantage of Morilaeth's deadly power over night terrors. Once Lady Morilaeth knows of the party (probably from a fleeing mite), she can try to stalk them in their dreams. If the party chooses to rest, one of the party members could be targeted by night terrors, while the rest of the party is only present in the victim's dream. I wouldn't reveal who the real victim was until the scene ends (and he begins rolling saving throws) and I wouldn't tell them it was a dream: They'll figure it out soon enough.
Foreshadowing the Masque of the Pallid Measure... "Orchestral music awakens you, and you find yourself in an opulently-decorated ballroom. You're all seated at a feast table piled high with delicious dishes. Each of you wears a brightly-colored costume and ornate masks cover your faces.
Festive figures wheel and twirl across the dance floor as dwarfish servants pour wine and deliver trenchers filled with desserts. Beyond the revelers, an elegantly-clad woman urges her guests to enjoy themselves."
The revel continues until one of the PCs decides to take off their mask (or it becomes tiresome, in which case the revelers begin shouting "unmask!" The unmasking reveals each of the revelers (and the PCs) to be a ghoulish figure, which immediately begins attacking and devouring those around him. The "delicious food" on the table is revealed to be maggot-filled carrion. Blood flows copiously from the wounds the revelers (and PCs) inflict on each other, covering the floor. Shapes seem to rise from the spilled blood, arms pulling struggling victims into the floor beneath them.
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I loved the scenario. Beggar’s Pearl is very fun, and does feel very old-school to me. However, without throwing out a spoiler, it’s very ambitious in its scope to be completed in a convention slot. I ran it as a slot zero, then two times at the convention. We tabled the slot zero as a ‘home game’ so it could be completed legitimately. The first convention slot was able to start early and finish late through chance, and ran long by almost fifty minutes. The second convention slot finished ten minutes early, but only because I had learned where I could cut corners and where I had to focus attention.
On the whole it’s a VERY fun mod. I highly recommend the adventure, though my tables commented they were getting tired of mites and blue things for what it’s worth.
I didn't ready your post above this one until *after* I wrote everything in this post (other than this edit)...
My other critique is to add some call outs for the faction goals in the module text. I had a difficult time flipping back and forth from the faction goals in the back to the areas in the text until I made my own sidebars near them.
Lastly, I noticed the scaling for the tier 6-7 presented no challenge to my last table of six playing at that tier. The scaling seemed to use the idea of greater numbers presents a greater challenge, but that didn’t work out. Perhaps I ran the encounters wrong or the dice bounced against the monsters but it seemed like they waltzed right through it. I like the idea of not maxing out each encounter so some are easier rather than a full-on no holds barred such as many LG mods were/are. That’s part of the old-school feel I think. That’s my opinion. We welcome yours.
I recall it being about two flip-mats worth, but it's been a while.