Hi all,
I'm running a fairly large (6) group of players through RotRL and we're just in the transition from Ch. 1 to 2. Three of my players, as well as myself, played through about half of it maybe 2 years ago - no problems with spoiling or anything like that - but I recall that we really didn't dig The Misgivings. Once we figured out how haunts function, it felt, mechanically, like there was nothing to but roll for initiative, make your save or deal with the damage, then move on to the next.
It seems like many teams have enjoyed the weirdness of the manor - but has anybody had this sort of "another haunt, yawn" experience there? Has anybody rewritten any, or all, of the haunts, to something more like a traditional encounter so a PC other than a cleric has something to do?
has anybody had this sort of "another haunt, yawn" experience there?
nope. my group loved it.
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has anybody had this sort of "another haunt, yawn" experience there?nope. my group loved it.
My group (of 6 players, at the time) also enjoyed Missgivings and the haunts. They work best when you approach not as encounters that deal some damage or have an effect associated with, but as a method for imparting tiny pieces of the background story to the players. Haunts are as much a storytelling device as anything.
And if you really feel your players are bored with them, you can always spice things up by adding more encounters between them, or encounter elements to them.
Lastly, since your playing with some new people this time around, the group dynamics might have changed enough to you see more enjoyment from them.
-Skeld
has anybody had this sort of "another haunt, yawn" experience there?nope. my group loved it.My group (of 6 players, at the time) also enjoyed Missgivings and the haunts. They work best when you approach not as encounters that deal some damage or have an effect associated with, but as a method for imparting tiny pieces of the background story to the players. Haunts are as much a storytelling device as anything.
And if you really feel your players are bored with them, you can always spice things up by adding more encounters between them, or encounter elements to them.
Lastly, since your playing with some new people this time around, the group dynamics might have changed enough to you see more enjoyment from them.
-Skeld
You certainly hit on many points here I've thought about as well - if you change the haunts to monster encounters, how do you make sure they still tell the Foxglove story?
I do hope for a different dynamic this run through - but one of the "old" players in particular can tune out pretty quickly if there's nothing to smash. I've read elsewhere about the technique of putting the haunt effects and story on a piece of paper or 3x5 card to hand to the person it affects. The rest of the party just sees the direct physical effects of what happens to them, hopefully creating more tension and creepiness.
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
has anybody had this sort of "another haunt, yawn" experience there?nope. my group loved it.My group (of 6 players, at the time) also enjoyed Missgivings and the haunts. They work best when you approach not as encounters that deal some damage or have an effect associated with, but as a method for imparting tiny pieces of the background story to the players. Haunts are as much a storytelling device as anything.
And if you really feel your players are bored with them, you can always spice things up by adding more encounters between them, or encounter elements to them.
Lastly, since your playing with some new people this time around, the group dynamics might have changed enough to you see more enjoyment from them.
-Skeld
You certainly hit on many points here I've thought about as well - if you change the haunts to monster encounters, how do you make sure they still tell the Foxglove story?
I do hope for a different dynamic this run through - but one of the "old" players in particular can tune out pretty quickly if there's nothing to smash. I've read elsewhere about the technique of putting the haunt effects and story on a piece of paper or 3x5 card to hand to the person it affects. The rest of the party just sees the direct physical effects of what happens to them, hopefully creating more tension and creepiness.
I wouldn't replace them with monster encounters, but some haunts lend themselves moreadily to being more fighty. allowing an opponent to linger until destroyed instead of disappearing after one round and so forth. The card idea is also good.
If I had one player that tuned out, I'd be inclined to just let them tune out, especially if the other 5 are enjoying themselves.
-Skeld
I do hope for a different dynamic this run through - but one of the "old" players in particular can tune out pretty quickly if there's nothing to smash.
IIRC, there is a long stretch where the party only encounters haunts. Mixing in some normal combat encounters might help to keep this player interested.
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I do hope for a different dynamic this run through - but one of the "old" players in particular can tune out pretty quickly if there's nothing to smash.IIRC, there is a long stretch where the party only encounters haunts. Mixing in some normal combat encounters might help to keep this player interested.
Yes, you can always thrown some ghoul encounters in there.
-Skeld
IIRC, there is a long stretch where the party only encounters haunts. Mixing in some normal combat encounters might help to keep this player interested.
Yeah, I took a look a while back, and as I recall there's something over a dozen haunts and basically no substantial encounters other than Iesha (which the party can and "should" avoid to make things easier on themselves) and the basement.
Yes, you can always thrown some ghoul encounters in there.
Ghouls creeping up from the basement, maybe the ghost or poltergeist of a former resident or servant. The Attic Whisperer seems appropriately horrible as well.
Thanks for your thoughts folks! I think I'll plan to run it pretty close to as written and just have some ooky stuff on hand behind the screen to toss out if and when attention starts to fade.
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My group loved it too. I really played up the "clue" aspect of the haunts. Each of the haunts, and sometimes their environment, gives clues as to what really happened so long ago. My players were really into sussing all that out. Even if it had no real impact on the future chapters of the AP.
This said, you know how it is with player theories. The more elaborate they become, the more tempting it is for the DM to weave in at least parts of them, if only as a reward to player agency. Or because they are cool & devious.
Posting in this old thread to say how my players reacted to the haunts.
And the results? They loved the haunts. Their characters were getting into unnerving situations at best, or were in legit danger at worst. Our kobold oracle DM’d me saying she had this feeling that there was a chance the party could get TPK’d at the manor, and she never had the feeling of a TTRPG team being in such danger before.
It also led to some great roleplaying! Ex: our elf rogue seeing the ground erupt into a flood of ghouls, and the rest of the party only sees the elf freaking out and his body getting coated in bite and slash marks, and our kobold oracle got so traumatized by the manor she retired from adventuring (the player for said oracle is replacing her with a sylph investigator).
I managed to write an ending if a character manages to destroy the cursed fungi that I think holds more thematic weight than the book ending