so i have started the STAP for a few friends at work who are newbies to the game. i think only one guy has ever played, and for a few months time at that. we've had three sessions so far, and are only now up to the point of the parrot island tunnels. the entire group is having a great time. This is a fun AP to run, and here's why:
1. Every adventure is filled with action, adventure, 3 dimensional villains with clear cut motivations and believable back story. my players now want to kill vanthus next time they meet him, and can't wait for that event.
2. the sense of foreshadowing, and how every adventure leads into another one, which increases the dramatic tension and flow of the overall plot. just the first 4 adventures alone are filled with moments of harrowing excitement.
3. at times, there is space for side missions and other quests not even related to the main plot. the other APs seemed to be "railroading" the PCs from one part to the next with no break for other things. also, the adventures are so long, they will probably take 4 to 5 sessions each for me. this is great since i work a long series of shifts and have little time for game prep. it's great to just sit down and open up my magazine and start back up where we left off.
4. Vanthus is just one of the greatest villains of all the adventure paths. he is by far the best NPC bad guy i have seen in the pages of Dungeon in quite a long time. I can't wait for the PCs to meet him on parrot island, and thier reaction to his mocking taunts. this guy is my Iago, with a host of machiavellian plots, a great back story, and a future filled with selfish motivations of greed and power over all. if his parents had just given him the estate, it would have been easier for them.
5. the maps are stunning, great to look at, easy to use, and trouble free. they seem more lush and vibrant for some reason. i don't know if that is on purpose, or just because of the printing process, but they are very well done.
anyway, i just wanted to say Excellent work guys! this is one i'm looking forward to running for the next year or so. beautiful work.
I second this. My players hate Vanthus after the tunnels under Parrot Island and will hate him even more after the guildhall of the Lotusdragon.
Although it would have been great if the characters had encountered V. V. when he was fully human (before half-fiend/deathknight, as he might have never been human). I understand the difficulty in not getting a main villain get killed.
The adventures are perfectly, at least for our way of gaming, divided into several smaller "dungeons". Not the huge complexes as they were seen in SCAP and AoW.
Although I have to say I would love a dungeon like Wispering Cairn. So I hope to see it on the Isle of Dread.
But I would have loved to see an important true dragon. One should never get tired of dragons playing D&D!
Keep up this amazing work!
I just got finished with the second session in my STAP campaign, and having the most fun I have had DMing. Everything went so smoothly, and all my players seem genuinely interested in the plot :P The Wizard wants to hook up with Mrs Vanderborien, haha.
Major Props to Dungeon! I was debating buying a subscription (low on money) but all my players liked the AP so much they are splitting the cost!
(Can you give me a few quotes on what Varthus said at Parrot Island? I want to really irk my players.)
we played the parrot island scenario last night, and here's what i said, (in a jaunty, imperious english accent)think Kenneth Branagh in Othello, or alan rickman from die hard and robin hood. I happen to have done voice acting and voiceovers for some radios shows a long time ago, so it's easy for me to do this. i plan on using the same voice when i read aloud the notes from Vanthus to his paramour. I want my players to hear this voice and know who it is from now on throughout the campaign. he's such a rich and juicy character it's so fun to DM him.
The PCs just got down the hatch, and then the guy who led them there fell in with a dagger in the back. the rope fell down and then, they saw his shadow, leaning down to see them. here's the conversation, almost verbatim.
"Hello! I am Vanthus Vanderboren, I hear you've been looking for me. Well, found me, you have, but in a tight spot you are, yes?"
The greataxe fighter yelled, "When we get out of here you're a dead man!"
"My, listen to the braggard! that's the best you can do? empty threats proclaiming my doom? my, we have an overinflated sense of your own survivability, don't we? after all, this is what happens when you decide to become curious interlopers."
The ranger druid in the party tried to loose an arrow, and Vanthus just closed the trap door in time for the arrow to thud ineffectively into it's surface. Vanthus opened it back up and continued his diatribe.
"Well, i fear i must adjourn this place. you gentelmen bore me and there are more exciting events elsewhere that draw my attention. May your lives end mercilessly painful. perhaps this excersize may send a message to the next pitiful group of fools my sister hires. now, to you gentlemen, i say Good Day!"
with that the hatch closed and bathed the room in cloaking darkness. that's when they heard the boulders being pushed over the door.
at that, the guy playing the fighter with a great axe said to me with a straight face and a level voice, "JP when we meet that guy finally, i'm going to kill him. don't get too attached to this guy like other NPCs, he's a dead man. i plan on cleaving him stem to crown."
That particular event really steams players. Mine were pissed, too. We're just about to start The Sea Wyvern's Wake and my group still can't wait to get their hands on him. James and company did a terrific job constructing a really hateable archenemy. I think the one thing that players will remember after this AP is played out is how much they hated Vanthus Vanderboren.
BTW, nice monologue. Way to get the players even more pissed :)
Heh, I played Vanthus cocky, arrogant and smarmy (as written) saying things such as:
"which one of you sods did my sister have to sleep with to get you to risk life and limb for her petty baubles?"
and
"If you see Penkus down there, be sure to send my love. After all, you'll be sharing his fate and have a long time to talk things over"
and
"I know right now it looks bleak for you, but it's only going to get.... worse... hahhah"
I debated using the old intro from Impossible Mission (C64 game): "Another visitor...stay a while...stay forever..." but I thought after the hurled epithets from the Dwarven Cleric was a good time to seal the players in.
It was funny, though. A full minute of silence followed my pronouncement of their fate. Then the quietest member of my group looked up, seething hatred filling his eyes and said:
"I don't care if I have to do it as a ghost, I am going to kill that {expletive deleted} if its the last thing I do.
So yeah, Kudos to the entire staff that has contributed, this AP has it all; great maps, great adventures, NPC's, Villains etc.. The only problem is it is overshadowing my "main" campaign, and where at first I had to wheedle to get the players to participate in the STAP, I now have to work at getting them back into our main campaign, and this from a group that despises low level play.
My players get to meet Vanthus today, lucky them! Hopefully I can play him out as well as you guys did!
"I know right now it looks bleak for you, but it's only going to get.... worse... hahhah"
Great, great dialogue. Yoink!