Alexander Augunas Contributor |
Jason Keeley Editor |
9 people marked this as a favorite. |
To set the mood, I wrote this scenario by only the light of a candle made from wax produced by bees that never saw the sun and exclusively pollinated the Nicandra physalodes (commonly known as the shoo-fly plant) while listening to The Smiths. The bees have since died, and my life expectancy has yet to be fully determined.
I hope you enjoy it!
Hidesako YAMAMOTO |
Hi.
Very good an interesting scénario.
But, the rules for the second reenactement are awfully long to explain.
I'd give to my players a summary of the rules 30 minutes before the beginning and we can achieve the scenario in four hours.
If i run it again, I'll plan it to 6 hours, because this part can offer a lot of roleplay and it's a shame to skip it.
Thanks Jason and too bad for the bees.
Jason Keeley Editor |
Hi.
Very good an interesting scénario.
But, the rules for the second reenactement are awfully long to explain.
I'd give to my players a summary of the rules 30 minutes before the beginning and we can achieve the scenario in four hours.
If i run it again, I'll plan it to 6 hours, because this part can offer a lot of roleplay and it's a shame to skip it.
Thanks Jason and too bad for the bees.
No, thank you!
It is a bit of a complicated scenario in places. Sorry about that, but I just can't do things the easy way!
Without spoiling anything, GMs might want to brush up on Ultimate Intrigue's verbal duel rules...
grandpoobah |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I have a negative opinion of a scenario that spends 10 pages (almost half of this 25 page scenario) on a unique encounter and rule-set. I am prepping this adventure to run and am very annoyed that I am spending the majority of my time reading this one-off ruleset from Ultimate Intrigue (a book I do not own, that is not even on the Paizo PRD yet).
I hope running it goes well. I have printed off 6 sets of the Player handouts for the players to pre-read this alternate rules. I also find that this rule-set is being used in a non-standard way additionally frustrating and unnecessarily complicated.
I think this could have been handled with a half-page of skill checks and Role Playing commentary. I would rather spend this encounter & game-time role playing basic concepts and a few skill checks, then get mired an overly mechanical setup.
The remainder of the adventure looks straightforward, and the story is good. I will post a review after running it with real players.
I am highly tempted to Kobayashi-Maru this (scrub the whole encounter rules and re-write it myself to be something simpler), if that wouldn't set such a bad precedent for others.
TriOmegaZero |
For GMs that do not have Ultimate Intrigue, the extra rules can be found here.
Chris Mortika RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
With all respect due the author and editor of this adventure:
A few years ago, I got a chance to play "Assault on the Wound," and I thought that the mass combat rules, and in particular the "swarm of tieflings" rules were promising mechanics that belonged somewhere else. It might be fun to build a character who's good at mass combat, and then let him or her shine. It's awful to run a mass combat with inappropriate characters shoe-horned into it. It's fun to be powerful enough that masses of low-level humanoids act like a swarm. It's awful, awful, awful to be at a similar level to those enemies, who cannot be defeated until the last of them falls.
This scenario feels much the same. There are campaigns, and characters where "verbal duelling" is appropriate. And in particular there are situations where "try to look like you're winning, but actually lose" might be a valid option in a duel. (You're an envoy for a pig of a king, He expects you to persuade people to do X, which you really don't want to do...)
Let's contrast that to "Midnight Mauler" which introduced the chase mechanic. Normal PCs can participate in chases, and they can have a lot of fun. The mechanic doesn't have to be adapted to characters who weren't built around running after people.
So, I went into this adventure expecting very much to like it. I've had a Wayang ninja since you needed a special boon to play one, and she's been pining to find out information about her background. It was going to take something pretty awful to get me to dislike this scenario.
I dislike this scenario.
Sebastian Hirsch |
Ran this days ago, going to play it today.
Getting ready to run this one was unpleasant, I think I made the scenario a fun experience for my players... but frankly that was mostly me trying to be entertaining despite the scenario.
We had a couple of players with only a couple of scenarios at the table, and frankly, I was very happy, that we didn't have a player with no previous PFS experience at the table.
graywulfe |
Gorbacz wrote:Which chase rules are The Original Cherry Vanilla ones and which ones are the "New Chase - Different Formula, Same Great Taste" rules?The Midnight Mauler versus The Merchant's Wake.
Let us not forget the OG chase rules as presented in Curse of the Crimson Throne, my personal favorite.
[hipster]
I was a fan of the chase rules before they were cool.
[/hipster]
:P
Rysky |
TriOmegaZero wrote:Gorbacz wrote:Which chase rules are The Original Cherry Vanilla ones and which ones are the "New Chase - Different Formula, Same Great Taste" rules?The Midnight Mauler versus The Merchant's Wake.Let us not forget the OG chase rules as presented in Curse of the Crimson Throne, my personal favorite.
[hipster]
I was a fan of the chase rules before they were cool.
[/hipster]:P
The one in CotCT is the only chase scene I've gotten to play in.