Anyone get issue#143 yet? I recieved mine today, the last issue everyone was talking about and I was freaking out and asked my wife If she sent in the payment for Dungeon on time? Then I recieved It like 3 days later than everyone on here...or so It seemed? I haven't sat down to really read It yet been busy, but I'm diggin' Vanthus's new look!
Anyone get issue#143 yet? I recieved mine today, the last issue everyone was talking about and I was freaking out and asked my wife If she sent in the payment for Dungeon on time? Then I recieved It like 3 days later than everyone on here...or so It seemed? I haven't sat down to really read It yet been busy, but I'm diggin' Vanthus's new look!
No one huh? Pretty good read so far, If your players liked the first T-Rex there gonna love the second one! The little Phanatons make an appearance. Koprus,sea serpents,giant anacondas,couatls,rakastas and bat gods oh my!
yeah, 143 is a great adventure. i got mine yesterday and spent most of the night reading it. this one is going to take at least 4 or 5 sessions to get through. and vanthus? what can i say besides awesome! i CAN'T WAIT for my PCs to meet him in this incarnation. i already have the conversation in my head, waiting for that fateful meeting.
anyway, without spoilers, this is one of the best yet. i don't know how you guys at paizo do it, but for the last 3 years the writing and quality of adventures has been excellent. keep up the good work!
yeah, 143 is a great adventure. i got mine yesterday and spent most of the night reading it.
I wish I my group was going through it that quickly. My group has defeated Soller Vark's group and is about to go against the rhagodessa. They'll make it to 143 in 2013 at the rate they are going.
"Tides of Dread" is awesome, so much fun stuff to do. I'm disappointed that Vanthus is expected to die at the end, though. Of course you can modify your own campaign, but I was really hoping to see a lot more of him as a long-term developing villain.
Worry not, Occam. If you recall back in the Savage Tide preview in Dungeon 138, Vanthus will make at least one more return engagement with the PCs near the end - and as a death knight to boot... ;)
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"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
Worry not, Occam. If you recall back in the Savage Tide preview in Dungeon 138, Vanthus will make at least one more return engagement with the PCs near the end - and as a death knight to boot... ;)
Yup yup. Was going to mention that he's not out of the loop yet. This is by far the most exciting part of the campaign so far. I'm sure the players will like the fact that they have 2 months to prepare for war. The battle is looming on the horizon like a coming storm. It's a good thing (and rather coincidental) that I just picked up the Hero's of Battle.
Creative Director
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Yeah... Vanthus isn't out of the campaign yet! Part of the problem with recurring villians in D&D is that it's REALLY DIFFICULT to do them, since PCs have an annoying habit of killing them the first time they show up. Which is why we don't let the PCs actually encounter Vanthus until halfway through the adventure, and then his eventual return as an undead minion of Demogorgon can happen BECAUSE of what the PCs did to him, rather than because the DM pulled some strings and let him escape to fight another day even though by all rights the PCs should have been able to kill him in the first place.
In fact, I very much recomend that a DM of the Savage Tide read through that campaign summary we printed in issue #138. It lays out all of the major developments in the campaign so you can know what needs foreshadowing and what doesn't.
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Worry not, Occam. If you recall back in the Savage Tide preview in Dungeon 138, Vanthus will make at least one more return engagement with the PCs near the end - and as a death knight to boot... ;)
Ohh, yeah... I forgot about that, but I thought there was some reason I expected to see more of him. Cool. :)
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I absolutely ADORE this latest installment of the STAP. It is possibly one of the most perfect published adventures I've ever read, and I think it would stand strong even on its own. A tiny side quest tied to every location? A town to improve and protect? A mayoral race to win? My group is still on the very first issue due to scheduling conflicts, but this is exactly the adventure I've wanted to run/play for years now. Several of my group are veteran players of the old Quest for Glory/King's Quest "find the stick"-type games, and I know they'll get a kick out of how the mini-quests relate to one another, and all the heroic hoops they'll have to jump through. I myself wish I could be playing in this AP now; I'm a serious junkie for "fix the town" type games, console and otherwise.
Another element I definitely approve of is how Lavinia continues to level up as the AP progresses. In the AoW game I'm currently playing in, some of the players/PCs have decided they don't need to respect most of the townsfolk any more now that we're a whopping level 5. PCs are dynamic, and NPCs should be, too. I like seeing her grow from naive but kind-hearted debutante to a true action heroine in her own right. One of the PCs made a negative comment about Lavinia, and the rest of the group turned on him. "You can't talk about Lavinia like that!" "Show the lady some respect!" It was a happy moment.
On a related note, I appreciate the added focus on the relationships between the PCs and NPCs, providing ample opportunities to woo a sweetheart or compete with a rival. The Meravanchis that keep popping up are quite amusing, especially since one of my players IS a Meravanchi. Who was also a childhood friend of Lavinia. He's got some tough choices to make about where his loyalties lie. (Though if I know him, true love will conquer all...:) )
Apologies for going on and on about the adventure (and even more apologies for focusing on the stereotypically "female" elements in particular), but I feel like it has attained that perfect balance of swashbuckling action, dramatic confrontations, diplomatic opportunities, and character development that so many other adventures have tried for and failed to achieve.
Wow! ...I mean... WOW! Thank you, Courtney!
I wish I could suck up all your kind words and inflate my writer's ego with them, but I was only 1 of three of the writers responsible for this installment of the AP. Gary Holian and I are the credited authors, but a ton of credit has to go to Mr. James Jacobs for some extremely awesome additions and edits to our manuscript. Talk about polish... He did some crazy cool polishing on this one :)
I'm sorry you don't get to be a player in this AP, but I hope you have a great time DMing it.
About a year ago I previewed this campaign for my group of first edition vets by saying "Anyone play the old Isle of Dread adventure? The next AP is going to be 'Here's an island, now explore!" This adventure finally kicks off that premise. We played through it and my players really liked it. They've accused some of the adventures as being a little too linear but they definately couldn't say that about Tides of Dread. Great job on this one!
Thanks, Takasi! The whole board community here knows how critical and outspoken you can be when you don't like something ;). That makes your accolades that much cooler :). I would love to hear how Tides of Dread went for your uber sized gaming group. How did they end up doing at the end? How many character deaths and how? Details!
Because of the nature of the large group and the setting (it's our local D&D meetup so we occasionally have new players) I have a very liberal houseruled death system. You cannot die unless there is a TPK or a 'tactical retreat'. However, if you are at -10 you cannot participate in the rest of the encounter. People can (and do) still get very upset when they are knocked out of combat, especially in the first round (and with beefed up CRs for a group of 10 or more players that happens a lot).
I posted more info on another thread along with the stat block changes I needed; very few encounters resulted in more than half of the party 'surviving'. Some of the highlights of the day:
-Everyone hates the Meravanchis.
-The ethereal filchers made fools of the Jade Ravens (again).
-The party druid has a new dinosaur pal.
-The phanatons FEAR the druid.
-You can fit a lot of ewoks - er - phanatons on a ship.
-It's easier to store a T-Rex in a ship's hold after you cast reduce animal on it.
-Lithira and her aranea friends get seasickness easily.
-The party kobold bard learned not to put the moves on a trio of coutls shapechanged into scantily clad jaguar women
-Beware the gifts of bat gods.
-Innocent loch ness monsters trying to make out with your ship's figurehead aren't so innocent.
-A bag of devouring works great if you're just collecting tar.
-Lavinia has a very high diplomacy skill according to the new troglodyte farmworkers.
-Everybody STILL hates Vanthus.
-Innocent loch ness monsters trying to make out with your ship's figurehead aren't so innocent.
LOL. Holy crap, that's funny!
Steve, Gary, and James--I continue to be amazed and pleased by the sophisticated approach to scripting adventures being developed in this AP. While there seem to be fewer of those *drum roll* cool climactic encounters than in the last AP (so far--I'm thinking of the Ulgurstasta bursting through the arena floor, the worms pouring out of Ilthane's egg, the dream battle at the edge of the rift, and the numerous rockin boss villains in AoW), the great flavor and roll-playing opportunities, plus the way in which this AP provides structure without railroading makes STAP really interesting and fun. This adventure will take a lot of roleplaying work by the DM to make it great, but it will live up to its billing. I can hardly wait to get this far in the AP!
Before Tides of Dread, I was a bit iffy on whether or not I could stomach an entire campaign of pirate flavor. But after reading this one, I must play the Savage Tide someday. Somehow, I will survive the players going "Yar!" at every opportunity and bringing up stupid pirate vs. ninja website references if only to play through all of the cool portions of this adventure and the ones leading up to it.
One minor nitpick about verisimilitude in the backdrop: it seeems a bit odd to build a greenhouse in Farshore. Greenhouses serve to protect plants from cold temperatures by trapping heat inside but admitting light from outside. There is no need for greenhouses at sea level in the tropics because temperatures rarely get below 60 F.
It does, however, make lots of sense that the colonists at Farshore would be experimenting to discover which local plants might prove to have commercial value, and which cash crops (sugar, coffee, etc.) might be profitably grown in the local climate. So, for those of you with gardeners in your gaming groups, I suggest you replace the greenhouse with a plant nursery and experimental farm.
(As usual, my minor nitpicks should not be taken as serious criticism, but merely suggestions for DMs and for the editorial staff if this fine AP ever makes it into hardbound form).
One minor nitpick about verisimilitude in the backdrop: it seeems a bit odd to build a greenhouse in Farshore. Greenhouses serve to protect plants from cold temperatures by trapping heat inside but admitting light from outside. There is no need for greenhouses at sea level in the tropics because temperatures rarely get below 60 F.
It does, however, make lots of sense that the colonists at Farshore would be experimenting to discover which local plants might prove to have commercial value, and which cash crops (sugar, coffee, etc.) might be profitably grown in the local climate. So, for those of you with gardeners in your gaming groups, I suggest you replace the greenhouse with a plant nursery and experimental farm.
I suppose Gary and I's use of the term "greenhouse" might have been a bit looser than a strict interpretation of the word. The concept we had was exactly what you've described. Rather than store heat in a colder environment it is simply meant to provide a controlled environment for creating and studying new plant hybrids while at the same time protecting them from some of the islands harsher weather phenomenas.
In order for James to fit in ALL of the changes and additions to the backdrop article, a few area descriptions got trimmed a bit. This one got just enough trimmed to leave out a short description of how the greenhouse is used just as you described it.
I'm happy to hear you liked it and it's nice to hear that this was your only nitpick ;)
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Creative Director
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I've heard here and there that people miss the giant "boss battles" and tangles with infamous D&D personages in Savage Tide that were such a staple in Age of Worms. All I can say to that is "wait." You'll note that most of the big "boss battles" and tangles with infamous D&D personages occurred in the second half (or even the final third) of Age of Worms. Savage Tide is no different.
That is to say... there are some big names lined up to make appearances in the last few installments of Savage Tide. Demogorgon's not the only one to get his time in the spotlight.
Yeah, I have kind of had to make my own "boss battles" for Savage Tide so far.
For There is No Honor the climactic ending was wave after wave of pirate in the Lotus Dragon lair. The PCs ended up making a deal with Rowyn, so there was no need for a "boss".
For Bullywug Gambit I made the bullywug at the end a really tough Froghemoth Totemist as a homage to Madtooth.
For Sea Wyvern's Wake Sulatore was beefed up considerably and the Mother of All was a great ending IMC.
For Here There Be Monsters I gave the Naga a lot of Spell Compendium stuff (Greater D-Door), made it a metamagic specialist and gave it quicken spell and a maximize rod to make it a pretty nasty battle. Olangru and the Golem were tough, but the spellcaster was worse (especially since this was the first really tough spellcaster in the campaign so far).
For Tides of Dread there is nothing more climactic than combining three yuan-ti spellcasters with lightning bolt wands, flesh golems, vrocks dancing in a circle above and Vanthus with his keen shocking burst rapier in one hand and keen thundering rapier in the other. Make the battle take place in a supernatural fog and you have a recipe for a very memorable super battle.