I thought you all might like to check out how our Age of Worms group experienced the "Encounter at Blackwall Keep."
Before I go into the explanation of how the battle went down, I just want to take a minute to say how awesome this message board is. I'm not sure if everyone realizes this, but this is quite an extraordinary event in the history of D&D. I don't believe I've ever seen a discussion about a campaign on this scale before. Literally thousands and thousands of posts about the trials and errors of hundreds and hundreds of gaming groups on one campaign path. Amazing.
I just want to thank everyone for their incredible input, ideas, stories, and experiences that have helped me better prepare my own game - which I rank among the most rewarding gaming experiences in my 26 years of gaming. It's just so cool to see so much feedback from so many people! I mean how great is it that the game designers and writers are actually filling in the details on how they intended certain encounters to be run!
Okay, on with our handling of Blackwall Keep.
I decided early on that the encounter at Blackwall Keep was going to have to be changed considerably from how it was written in the adventure. First of all, there are seven players in my group. If I had left the encounter as written, the party would literally have rolled over the 30 or so lizardfolk that the adventure includes. Upping the numbers to 56 lizardfolk was a no-brainer.
Second, I really didn't like the idea of Allustan taking off on the group. I felt that the ten minutes or so he might save by teleporting back at the beginning of the fight as opposed to helping the group and THEN teleporting back to Diamond Lake would not sit well with my players. It just didn't seem to make sense to me. After all, it's going to be DAYS before Allustan gets back with more reinforcements, what difference is ten minutes going to make at that point? So, I included an additional batch of lizardfolk camped a little ways out into the swamp. That way, Allustan can tell the group to handle the rescue of the guardsmen in the keep while he flies out into the swamp to drop some fireballs and scorching rays on the camp to kill and/or scatter the reinforcements. This way, you don't have to steal the player's thunder by having Allustan drop the big bombs while the party acts as backup, and you also don't paint the picture of a very cowardly Allustan. This worked very well and I highly reccomend this change to anyone who hasn't run Blackwall Keep yet.
The other big difference from the adventure is that I allowed the players to not only play their characters but also the guardsman who are within the keep itself. I went all out and printed up character sheets for each guardsman and handed two sheets to each of the seven players. They each had their own names and personalities and it made the players care a little more about getting to the keep and saving the poor, underequipped guardsmen. This definitley made the encounter way more exciting, especially since the characters had a lot of ground to cover before they got to the keep itself.
Finally, and most importantly, we made the encounter at Blackwall Keep a three-dimensional extravaganza. I have the good fortune of owning a game store in Abington, Massachusetts (shameless plug: Battleground Games & Hobbies) and so I was able to use the store's resources to build a replica Blackwall Keep and surrounding countryside. I have posted pictures of the keep and the event as it transpired here:
http://www.battlegroundgames.com/blackwallkeep
We weren't able to finish the entire assault in one session so I'll have to update later with more pictures and the final death count for the soldiers within the keep.
As you can see, I made the keep considerably larger than the one depicted on the map with the adventure. It just seemed WAY too small to me. I understand the good folks at Paizo would be limited on providing a map any bigger than the one supplied, but I just couldn't bear putting that little map on the table and have the player's faces drop - especially after showing them the really cool cover page of the adventure with the lizardfolk in the foreground the keep in the distance.
I would also like to thank sobusTooms for giving me the idea of making Blackwall Keep a 3-dimensional encounter. I was inspired by the photos of how you handled it in your game.
Thanks again everyone for all the suggestions and comments on the AoW message boards. This is my first post, but I've been reading since the beginning. Keep 'em coming!
I would also like to thank sobusTooms for giving me the idea...
Hey I got props! Thanks! LOL If the players liked playing the soldiers during the assault I HIGHLY recommend running the "alternate" Kyuss zombie encounter proposed by Peter Fuesz. That was the icing on the cake for an awesome Encounter at Blackwall Keep adventure. You can find that here:
http://paizo.com/dungeon/messageboards/ageOfWorms/howIChangedTheBlackwallKe epAdventureSPOILERS&page=1#73577
BTW - I agree, these boards rock! And oh yeah, great job with the Keep!
Mike S.
I HIGHLY recommend running the "alternate" Kyuss zombie encounter proposed by Peter Fuesz.
I totally agree, and fully intend to run this in the manner Peter suggested. It will take on even more meaning now that the players are familiar with the keep's defenders.
That is one of the coolest set-ups I have ever seen for a D&D game! Great job on the keep itself and getting the players involed with the guardians.