Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Anyone (*cough* James *cough*) have details about this product? The little write up blurb doesn't give basic information like the appropriate character levels for the adventure. I am also intrigued by this "new format easily used by Dungeon Masters." What does this new format entail? Also, how exactly is it compatible w/the minatures game?
Creative Director
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As it turns out, I do indeed have details on this product.
1: You start "Red Hand of Doom" at 5th level and it should bring you to 11th level. Of course... that was what I turned over. Since then, I've heard you start at 6th and go to 9th. So really, I'm not sure. It's best to just say it's for mid-level adventurers, I suppose.
2: Likewise, since I haven't yet seen the final product, I'm not sure what form this "new format" took, but as far as I know they're making use of color coded text, callout boxes, and other things to make it easy for the DM to quickly find key parts of text on a page like DCs, stat blocks, boxed text, important rules, and so on. It doesn't use the format we use in Dungeon, but it's similar.
3: All monsters in the adventure have suggested WotC minis, although not all of the monsters in the adventure have minis yet. The adventure itself is a D&D adventure; you can't play it using the minis rules. So: It's compatibility with the miniatures game is pretty much limited to the fact that you can use the minis from that game to represent PCs and monsters.
...waiting not-so-patiently.
I really liked Forge of Fury and am trying to find Sunless Citadel at the local hobby stores.
I saw the SCAP hardcover at the store - verrrry nice. If I didn't have it in mag format, I would have bought it.
I wonder if Paizo or any other enterprising individual/company has thought about publishing a firt-run Adventure Path-like module in the form of hardcover, without first publishing it as magazine components?
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Thanks James. I'd be interested to hear more about the product if you are able. Why is WotC jumping back into publishing adventures? What do you like best about the product? What were you able to do in it that you couldn't do in Dungeon due to space constraints (and, of course, the evil tyranny of a certain Mr. Eric Mona)?
Your name has brand value to me, and I am inclined to purchase the Red Hand of Doom for that reason, but would appreciate learning more.
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Creative Director
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Yay! Brand value!
I'm not sure of the exact reason why WotC is returning to the adventure publishing field, aside from the simple probability that they've been out of the field long enough now that they simply want to test the waters again. Additionally, adventures are an excellent way to show people how to play the game—they're like scripts, and rather than bombarding you with new options, an adventure uses those options and provides inspiration on how to integrate everything together.
As for "Red Hand of Doom" itself, there were still space constraints. There always are. If we had run the adventure in Dungeon, we would have had to split it up over four or maybe five issues. By being able to put it all in one volume, we didn't have to repeat ourselves at the start of every adventure with recaps of the previous adventures. Additionally, we were able to get a little more experimental with layout and in choosing what information to provide people with.
There is now a very rich preview of tRHoD on WotC's website. It looks brilliant and exciting.
I just hope that my potential players will be grown ups enough not to cheat and read these pages.
Bocklin
I just got finished reading that preview myself, and I have to say this adventure looks fantastic, and is now at the top of my list for my next purchase. Since I have to wait a bit longer for it to hit the shelves, though, I may be picking up Races of the Dragon before then. As soon as RHoD appears at my FLGS I'm all over it, though. I smell the beginnings of a new campaign. James, do you perhaps have any suggestions for adventures from Dungeon that would make good follow-ups with potential ties for a long-term game beyond 10th level?
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Turns out Amazon thinks you have brand value as well:
We've noticed that customers who have purchased books by Andy Collins often purchased books by James Jacobs. For this reason you might like to know that James Jacobs's newest book, The Red Hand of Doom (D&D Accessory), will be released in paperback on February 14, 2006. You can pre-order your copy at a savings of 34% by following the link below.
There is now a very rich preview of tRHoD on WotC's website. It looks brilliant and exciting.
I just hope that my potential players will be grown ups enough not to cheat and read these pages.
Bocklin
Or be good enought to keep player & character knowledge separate.
This RHoD is timely as in my campaign the PCs are now 4th & 5th level and the next adventure is a goblins attack on the village they use as a base (really!). After that they'll be tasked to investigate what caused the raid and sneak into the goblins settlements, and reading the WoTC excerpt I think I just found the perfect hook for what comes next.
My goblins tribe will have been pushed into a preemptive strike by the advancing Kulkor Zhul hordes. Noone wanting to fight a 2 fronts war, they decided to attack the humans before being sandwiched. As the PCs visit the goblins, emissaries from the Son of the Dragon will deliver an ultimatum and they'll be caught in a goblins vs hobgoblins fight! Then we'll start the RHoD stuff.
Is there any Giants in this adventure?
What about the PC level? Is it really for 6th level? I find that most WoTC adventures either
- underestimate the level needed !!!
- assume Party rests & sleep every 2-3 encounters and enemies patiently wait for them to recover and recharge
- assume adventurers are willing to face high lethality while it's supposed to be their choice whether to fight or not and waiting a few weeks (and get a level) increase their survival chance by a lot.
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Creative Director
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Minor Spoiler alert...
Is there any Giants in this adventure?
Yes. Oh my yes.
What about the PC level?
Actually, you start the adventure at 5th level and should hit 10th or 11th by the time you're finished with it. There's a wide range of encounters in the adventure, ranging from enormous tough encounters where we expect the PCs to rest and recuperate before they attempt it, long strings of lesser encounters that the PCs can take on, and some encounters that don't allow a chance to rest at all so the PCs will need to ration and conserve their resources.
I will say this: parties who try to solve Every Encounter with combat will find the adventure to be a LOT tougher than those who don't attack everything they see.
3: All monsters in the adventure have suggested WotC minis, although not all of the monsters in the adventure have minis yet. The adventure itself is a D&D adventure; you can't play it using the minis rules. So: It's compatibility with the miniatures game is pretty much limited to the fact that you can use the minis from that game to represent PCs and monsters.
This actually isn’t the case that I can see. Was this dropped? It would be a nice feature. Not required of course as you can figure most of them out easily enougth, but a nice addition nonetheless.
Any suggestions for a more Githyanki related replacement monster for the Aspect? I am going to use this as part of Incursion and remove a lot (but not all) of the Tiamat stuff.
Have lore that will justify the aspect appearing. And its cool encounter to boot. But just wondering if anyone could think of something more appropriate?
Any suggestions for a more Githyanki related replacement monster for the Aspect? I am going to use this as part of Incursion and remove a lot (but not all) of the Tiamat stuff.
Have lore that will justify the aspect appearing. And its cool encounter to boot. But just wondering if anyone could think of something more appropriate?
Didn't Gith make a pact with Tiamat when she traveled to the Nine Hells (or was it a consort of Tiamat, I don't have my stuff in front of me)? I thought that was the reason that red dragons are githyanki allies.
Didn't Gith make a pact with Tiamat when she traveled to the Nine Hells (or was it a consort of Tiamat, I don't have my stuff in front of me)? I thought that was the reason that red dragons are githyanki allies.
Yep. So thats why an aspect of tiamat would still be workable.