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I've seen that lots of folks have played this module. Since the armies of the Hobgoblin King play a big role in my homebrew world, I'm thinking of trying to fit RHOD into the current campaign.
Did y'all like it?
What style of play does it favor?
Does it need a lot of modification?
Is it heavily dependent on any one setting?
Thanks,
Tom
I can't say as a DM, but as a player I loved it. It has several different elements so any type of character culd get his/her smack down on. We began play with a 6 character party and it was a little too easy. We cut it down to 4 and it was just right. I really enjoyed it and from what I've seen afterwards of the module, it could be fitted for any world with little to no extra work.
I've run RHoD once. The party died two rooms from the finale. You can read about it on the DM Kill Board And I just began running it for my other group. IMO it's a great module and is a nice break from the standard dungeon crawl. The players enjoyed it too, with only a minor complaint. Due to a war affecting the entire region it's really almost impossible for the party to buy and sell magic items. The module suggests changing treasure around to suit the needs of the party, but that will only get you so far. Usually I'm all for allowing the PC's to buy whatever they can afford, but in this case it made sense because it was tied into the plot. Actually the players that were bothered by this fact said later that they understood the why, but for their 9th level character it was a little frustrating.
The adventure doesn't rely heavily on one setting. As written, I think it's for just a generic setting. However it fits perfectly in the Channath Vale of the Forgotten Realms. I think the writer's used the Vale to build the locale, but there are no Realms' references.
I didn't need to modify it too much beyond changing the treasure around. The biggest change I intend to make on the 2nd run is making the Ghostlord's lair bigger. I think there's an article on it on WotC's site. And there's no descriptive text for some of the new monsters, so you'll have to supply that. There are lots of handy sidebars letting you know where changes might need to be made. Oh, and the cover says it's for levels 6-11, but it's actually written for 5-10 as it says on the inside.
The adventure is combat heavy, something my player's prefer, but there are lots of roleplaying encounters. Those encounters and the PC's decisions actually have significant impact on the adventure. My players really enjoyed it. It was great to see 5th level characters scared witless to stumble upon the hobgoblin army and by the end of the adventure they were wiping it out.
As a player I found it fairly boring, derivative and uninspired. It's good for people who really enjoy tactical battles (and strategic war with humanoids scenarios) but the story is very meh. I think beginner players would have a blast with this, but experienced players have already gone through this kind of thing a million times. However, we didn't finish the module (because we got bored with it), so my opinion is not complete. 2 out of 5 stars from me.
I've only read my own copy, never actually played it. That being said:
-It's deliberately set in an isolated area, someplace easy to move into another setting. There are no big canon-laden places like Waterdeep or Greyhawk included. Every city, settlement and geographical location is new to the product.
-There are several types of encounters: wilderness travel is a big part, with dungeon crawls being another predominant aspect. The great part is that the authors (some guys named "Rich Baker" and "James Jacobs"; I hope they're still working...) have provided sidebars on how to keep the "dungeon" areas active, so that there is a reasonable response to intruders. There is also a great siege section that can be very exciting.
-A cast of unique and distinct humanoid big bad guys and dragons; if you're looking to use goblinoids and dragonkind as big parts of your campaign, you can't go wrong.
I have not had a change to run the RHoD yet, but it is the only adventure I’ve ever seen that, after reading it in its entirety, I said to myself - if I want to, I could run this without changing one single thing. And that includes the Dungeon adventures I’ve read / played. So I think it is a very high quality product indeed. I’m looking forward to running my group through it in the future, although I’ll probably tinker with most of the encounters anyway and add another wyrmlord associated with a ghost white dragon (no love for the white dragon in RHoD – the only one mentioned is dead) and have him involved in a plot to neutralize Dennovar or something like that.
This is definitely one that I want to pick up. I know several individuals that frequent my FLGS that have (or are currently) running it, and they seem to have had a great time with it.
Just from perusing it several times, it looks great!
I'm definitely going to pick it up.
I'm loving it.
Running it on a wiki, play by post.
Should be very easy to modify if you need to.
I'm running in a generic Greyhawk-ish setting, but some players used FR stuff in their backgrounds, no problem for me, as the whole thing is set in one vale.
As for style, it is a mix of overland and dungeon, kinda. There is a lot of travel and encounters out and about. The dungeons are very different, a keep in one chapter, swamped ruins in another, the lich's lair, a besieged town, etc.
As already noted above, it is set more for levels 5 - 10 (than 6-12). I ended up with 8 players somehow, and started them at 4. They've been challenged enough so far (about to storm Vraath Keep, part 1).
Good luck!
-c
I ran through it as a player. I thought it was a lot of fun, but dragons and mass battles really make me a happy player. There's something cool about marshaling troops, and looking for ways to save people with more than just a half-dozen fireballs.
We moved the adventure to the Great Dale in the Forgotten Realms. The buying problem didn't become an issue because one of our party members was in the Nightsong Guild from Complete Adventurer. She black marketed everything.
Oooo! I forgot, we also played during the Rage of Dragons, so all the big lizards really laid the smack down. It also messed up the dragon cohort of the dragonborn cleric of Bahumut. Fun times!
I've seen that lots of folks have played this module. Since the armies of the Hobgoblin King play a big role in my homebrew world, I'm thinking of trying to fit RHOD into the current campaign.
Did y'all like it?
What style of play does it favor?
Does it need a lot of modification?
Is it heavily dependent on any one setting?Thanks,
Tom
I played through a couple chapters of RHoD and it was a lot of fun. It's a fast-paced high action AP, so don't expect much down time. The DM that ran the RHoD had a fairly busy life and he wasn't into modding so I don't think it needs any, but I can't say for sure. I don't think it's dependant on any setting, because we didn't play it as part of any setting.
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RHoD is the first 3.x adventure I read where I said to myself, "Ooh, ooh, I really want to DM this!"
It also sprung new hope into any material that might be released afterwards. It makes excellent use of templates and prestige classes for NPC builds that actually make sense in the context of things. And the challenges are concise, wide and varying, some using techniques that I hadn't seen before but look like a lot of fun to attempt. There is even a good mix of roleplaying opportunities in there that don't require a lot of DM fabrication and embellishment.
Parties that work well outdoors will have the easiest time. There are a few mistakes in the stat blocks, but certainly nothing major. Here is a review with some errata: Review at ENWorld
I forgot to add that I think almost every (maybe every) creature in the adventure has been produced as a plastic mini by WotC. I don't know if that helps you, but as a huge fan of the tactical side of the game it was a plus for me.
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I read it, went "Wow!", and used it in my campaign. (I normally do not use premade adventures, though I do sometimes cherry-pick encounters or concepts that strike my fancy). The players enjoyed most of the encounters, but with the reliance of each encounter affecting the attack on Brindol (which I thought was awesome), my group had missed some opportunities to help out. They enjoyed it (the bard took "Stormsinger" after encountering the hobgoblin stormsinger), and while some encounters were dealt with quicker than anticipated (the melee-heavy barbarian made short order of the Red Dragon and army General in Brindol), others became more tricky and led to recurring enemies (the Green Dragon encountered early on in the adventure escaped the party a total of 4 times before they finally finished him at the Fane of Tiamat, and the sniper encounter in Brindol escaped and ambushed the party in another city after they finished the adventure).
Overall, it was fun for both ends of the DM screen.
I started DMing this back in November 2006 for a group of 7 players. We only get to meet (on average) about twice a month and we're currently about 1/2-way thru the 4th of 5 chapters. Now my group of players had previously only played under a newbie DM who has aspirations of being a munchkin but that hasn't stopped them from enjoying the adventure. In fact, as they have progressed as players my enjoyment has increased a great deal also.
Historically I've run mostly either urban or site-based adventures so it's really been interesting and enjoyable getting to play a well-written war/wilderness campaign like this. As others have said, there are not many opportunities to buy or craft magic items but given my tendency to ensure the characters have plenty of interesting toys to compliment their abilities this hasn't been a problem for us. Mind You, a sidebar withing RHoD basically recommends tailoring treasure finds to suit the needs of the players (i.e. the fighter may get a cool new weapon by defeating the enemy who wielded it against the party).
As far as modifying the adventure, the ECL of all the characters in my group was about 1 or 2 levels higher than recommended. As such, I've ramped up the difficulty of fights that are meant to feel tough and decreased the CR/XP of the cannon-fodder battles. So far this has worked well and it's certainly cooler getting to fight huge and gargantuan dragons rather than large ones.
The only problems I've had with the adventure lay in the fact that while the adventure is easily placed into any world, the place names are naturally printed right onto the map in the book. As such, I had to spend many hours in Photoshop with the clone stamper removing all the place names and plot areas (i.e. lairs) so that it would match up with the appropriate region in my homebrew. What I'd have really loved is if a Flip Mat has been released with the campaign map (sans names & plot areas).
In another bit of oddness, it seems that James and Rich have a fetish for redheads. Now I like a red-headed lady as much as the next guy and my own characters are more often females than males but even my players have been commenting on the fact that well over half of all the NPCs in the adventure are red-headed women! The captain of the town guard in chapter 1, an important NPC in chapter 2, one of the enemy commanders in chapter 3, one of the leaders of the main city's defense council in chapter 4, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. After a while it really feels like the authors had a fetish for Red Sonja and Sorsha (from Willow). However, that's a minor matter and easily corrected — just kind of glaring after the 2nd occurrence.
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I haven't been able to get the adventure finished yet but the PC's are up to the sniper attacks in Brindol. So far there has only been one PC death. However one other PC did have to be reincarnated. Overall it does run a bit on the combat heavy side but I threw in a little more RP and the players were loving it. Until Brindol where they have gotten a steady beat down.
I've seen that lots of folks have played this module. Since the armies of the Hobgoblin King play a big role in my homebrew world, I'm thinking of trying to fit RHOD into the current campaign.
Did y'all like it?
What style of play does it favor?
Does it need a lot of modification?
Is it heavily dependent on any one setting?Thanks,
Tom
My group loved it ... right up until they ran into a quartet of Bluespawn Gawdslayers I replaced the end-fight in town with the scripted encounter, due to the HUGE party (10 players).
IMO, it favors beer-n-pretzels/hack-n-slash gaming over heavy RP. If your group is big into backstory filling and endless hours of fluff between themselves and the NPCs, they'll hate it.
Ironically, I found using the baddies 'as written' more effective than using homebrew villains. Only modding I generally made was the NPC responses when that large a group 'sounded the alarm' (which they did all too often sadly).
It is independant of any setting - IIRC, there are notes within suggesting where to place it in the active campaign worlds of 3e.
Wow, great input everyone, thank you very much.
This adventure has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I never even gave it a second glance. Can anyone tell me, does this adventure run basically on its own? In other words, does it allow for the insertion of side adventures into the main plot, or is the group hitting the ground running from the start and only slowing up when the adventures over?
Thanks again for the great reviews on the style of the adventure, it sounds like it's right up my players alley!
-Roth
Can anyone tell me, does this adventure run basically on its own? In other words, does it allow for the insertion of side adventures into the main plot, or is the group hitting the ground running from the start and only slowing up when the adventures over?
The hooks to get the players into the story are easy enough to bring into play as the result of travel following a low-level adventure.
Once the party is hooked, there is a definite timeline that the adventure runs on. This is due to the fact that there is an army that will overrun the whole area within a given period of time. Thus, if the party takes too much down time or doesn't act with the urgency one would expect heroes to act with in the face of such a threat then they'll either get steam-rolled or the adventure will pass them by. Yet even in those cases, there are contingencies in the adventure in case of a TPK or a failure by the PCs to stop the army.
With that said, I've had no problems adding a few short (i.e. takes a night or day of game-time) mini-quests that have masqueraded as random encounters. A few of these unexpected delays can even help to heighten the tension actually since every minute wasted allows the enemy to march further towards victory.
Speaking of "victory", the campaign uses Victory Points as detailed in Heroes of Battle. Basically, the various missions and "bosses" that comprise the adventure are worth differing amounts of VPs. This is a great aid to the DM as it gives You a clear idea of how well the party fares in their overall goal and enables You to narrate the outcome of the decisive encounters more appropriately.
Hope this answers Your question, I'm sure You guys will have fun with this. :)
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RHoD also has a nice downloadable extra.
The different enemies are listed and detailed in the appendix at the back, but you can download the npc stats for each encounter - which saves a lot of flipping and lets the DM scrawl on the printed stats.
Almost every problem in the game is solved by beating the stuffing out of something, but it's fun all the same.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I've run Red Hand of Doom once, and I'm prepping to run it a second time. It gives a great feeling of impending, well, doom.
Regarding modification:
The basis of the module is that the PC's know that there's a problem, that it's going to come to a head in perhaps a month's time, and they have to do whatever they can to ameliorate the threat.
My players took many of the actions the authors anticipated, but they also decided to "go off the map" as it were.
"We're going to try to gather as much money as we can to buy more mercenaries for the good guys. Where can we find lots of gold?"
"Do the bards and sages know of any legends of powerful magic items that we could seek out and use?"
"We have three days before the enemy army arrives and begins the siege. Are there any ways we can use our powerful wizard and druid powers to make the area outside the city?"
So, we came up with, essentially, side quests.
There are a few spots in the module that didn't sit well with me. If you look through some archived threads here, you'll see ome of them. Here are four others: in the siege, you try to keep ogres from breaking down Brindol's walls, but Brindol doesn't even have a friggin' wall on the entire north side of the city!! All the ogres have to do is cross the river, and they can throw rocks at actual city buildings.
Fix that, before you play.
While you're at it, liven up Brindol a little more. There are villains in the city that never get a chance to do anything villainous. See if any of them work out well as traitors, or as war profiteers, or as villains engaged in plots that have nothing to do with the oncoming army, and which the PC's must either ignore or divert time and resources to combat.
I found it a little unnerving to see that several hundreds, perhaps thousands, of enemy humanoid troops had potions of cure light wounds. Where did they get them all? And in a battle with the party, it almost never made sense for a hobgoblin to stop and spend a round drinking. (All right, I know, they're there as low-hanging fruit for the PCs to heal after battle, fine, but it had the wrong flavor for me.)
My solution, for when I DM the adventure again: I'm changing them to potions of lesser vigor, which (a) make more tactical sense for the hobgoblins to actually drink before fighting the PC's, and (b) taste like troll rather than positive energy.
(And once the enemy is aware of the party, and starts attacking them specificially, some of those enemy troops are going to be carrying vials of poisoned potions.)
The module seems to culminate in the siege of Brindol, and a fight with a powerful, megalomaniac favored soul with a breath weapon. Then, without any foreshadowing, come NPCs with word that there's another dungeon, out that-a-ways, that's the real threat, and another fight with a powerful, megalomaniac cleric with a breath weapon.
I'd make sure that (a) the party is at least suspicious that there's something else going on behind the advancing army, for several sessions before the siege, and that (b) the two climactic fights are as distinct as possible. (I re-wrote Wyrmlord Kharn as a Crusader from BoNS and gave him a practical, frank --but still wholly Lawful Evil-- personality.)
Good luck. It's a lot of fun.
Yes, side adventures can certainly be included. I was actually running the early stages of a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign (the Moathouse/Hommlet part) and combined it with RHoD. I even threw in some additional sidequests. There are certainly times where the RHoD timeline takes precedence/requires urgency but you can always alter that some as well. We've only gotten up to the attack on Brindol (Verbobonc in my game) but I've greatly enjoyed running it this way and my players have had a blast too.
