http://wolfgangbaur.com/opendesign/blood_gorgon.aspx
So, anyone got a review of this one? I'm not real anxious to spend $25 sight unseen, but I've liked the authors' work in the past, so I'm not going to dismiss it out of hand.
What're the selling points for this adventure?
How is the setting?
How strong are the hooks? Weak? Apt? Railroad?
How varied are the encounters?
What are some memorable characters?
How portable is it to an existing campaign?
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http://wolfgangbaur.com/opendesign/blood_gorgon.aspx
So, anyone got a review of this one? I'm not real anxious to spend $25 sight unseen, but I've liked the authors' work in the past, so I'm not going to dismiss it out of hand.
What're the selling points for this adventure?
How is the setting?
How strong are the hooks? Weak? Apt? Railroad?
How varied are the encounters?
What are some memorable characters?
How portable is it to an existing campaign?
So far we've worked on the outline of the adventure, the backstory, the villain, some monsters and some cool encounters. So far it looks really really cool. It has some very cool twists and turns, red herrings, etc. The setting is grim and dark urban, set in Wolfgang's neck of the woods, but there will be conversion notes to several settings (like Pathfinder).
The biggest selling point for me is to see and be able to input in the design process.
Hope that helps you.
If your curious about how the whole thing works and some specifics of what it would mean if you were a patron of the Project right now I might recommend checking out a series I am doing for my podcast. The Tome Show Presents: Blood of the Gorgon. The plan is for this to be a series of four: two chats with the author (Nick Logue), one chat with Wolfgang Baur (Open Design Master), and one chat including some info form Patrons.
The episode is here.
Or for more general information here are some chats with Nick Logue right before he stared the OD project and one with Wolfgang from last summer where we talk about the projects in general.
Just so you know, once the actual reviews are up, the product will only be available for purchase if you sign in for the next product. If you buy right now, you get a voice in shaping the final product (the design is well underway), and access to the discussion and special essays. So it's not a typical RPG product. (Oh, and once we're two projects out, Wolfgang usually stops allowing purchase to new patrons. So this is a fairly exclusive offer with a short window of time to decide.)
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"Casts resurrect on the thread." Woohoo, this finally came out (as of 7/30/08)! Thank you Mr. Logue for another splatterific mystery quest. Now to answer roguerouges questions from several months back:
"What're the selling points for this adventure?"
A jack the ripper like murderer terrorizing the streets of a city beset with alchemy run amock and deadly cults. Several new monsters and locations, that while city/urban specific can be dropped into any city in your campaign.
"How is the setting?"
Strong and weak at the same time. Logue etches a portrait of a city that is grim, dirty, and corrupt and laden with things best left alone. Yet its weak in that sense that the adventure can be slipped into almost any grimy city setting in your campaign. Greyhawk might be a stretch, but Lankhmar, New Crobuzon, and Freeport would be perfect places to set the locales in the module.
"How strong are the hooks? Weak? Apt? Railroad?"
The structure of the adventure is linear, but who you are up against and the nature of the foe does not become clear for most of the adventure. I have not run it yet, but just on an initial readthrough, it does not feel like a tournament module. For the "kill things, take their stuff" kinds of groups, Gorgon may not be an adventure that they'll enjoy. Groups that like intelligent villains, heavy roleplaying, intrigue, and a strong environmental element to their game will really like the module.
"How varied are the encounters?"
Very. Granted, Gorgon is an urban module with city oriented encounters, but there is a wide array of many different kinds of monsters the party may encounter
"What are some memorable characters?"
"How portable is it to an existing campaign?"
Its very portable. It must be set in a large town or city, and it is preferable that the city be run down and seedy, but other than that, it can be set anywhere. Just make sure your pc's are mature and have a taste for the macabre. There's no way WoTC would ever touch something like this with a ten foot pole--I'm very glad Wolfgang and Open Design did though ;)
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I just read the first few pages of BotG and... can't wait to run the adventure. Just from the introduction and the synopsis it has a lot of dark role-playing potential, and it looks like one hell of an adventure to run for a DM (in a good way, don't get me wrong!). Quite a number of scenes spark those narrative ideas every DM is fond of.
Won't spoil the juiciest bits, but it has a lot of narrative twists, thrilling back-stabs, and action-packed investigation. Also seems quite adaptable as a background secondary adventure for the first half of CotCT, a dark story within Korvosa walls.
Maybe it's not ideal for those players who like to charge headlong into combat and go door-bashing everywhere, and it has its share of moral shades (of black), true to Logue style. Some of them really, really evil.
So far it's really good.
So, uh...how's the artwork? Just out of curiosity.
Fun (and creepy!) fact: the Gibbering Malady includes the faces of patrons brave enough to send me photos of their faces along with Wolfgang Baur, myself (twice) and a few of my friends unfortunate enough to have hilarious Facebook photos.
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76 Pages, by Nicolas Logue
Artwork is color & B&W shaded and art and layout remind me a bit of a Ravenloft feel, but unique. The font isn't large, and the pages are packed with info.
Statblocks are Paizo style through and through. They are called out in shaded columns on the pages where they are needed, this organization is suberb.
Maps are also color and easy to read. And, wow, the big one on page 28 has an awesome feel to it!
There's a few new monstersand player handouts.
Someone was a patron for me but never read it, is sponsoring it for me as a birthday present. I can't figure out how to thank him, the more I see of this the more impressed I am. Now to give it a good, solid read.
Certainly if Mr. Baur and company continue this project I'll be jumping on board for the next one.
-DM Jeff
Fun (and creepy!) fact: the Gibbering Malady includes the faces of patrons brave enough to send me photos of their faces along with Wolfgang Baur, myself (twice) and a few of my friends unfortunate enough to have hilarious Facebook photos.
I showed the Malady to my wife, and she said "I thought you were supposed to look different!"