Book 3 Worst of All Possible Worlds and the end of section 1. SPOILERS.

[The Guilty Party]

Again, BIIIIG ol' spoilers. If you're playing don't read this.

The Spoils:

But if you're GMing... how do you feel about the end of section 1 of book 3? Where all the cards are suddenly stolen. I feel it needs more foreshadowing. The last card to be claimed being The Betrayal is a nice touch but doesn't seem enough. As written it feels a bit like just a GM fiat screwjob. I'd like to set it up and hint at it more throughout the adventures, so that it feels like a "ohhhh now I get it" moment. Like, the mystery of why the cards always kept flipping over! Or magnetizing to the west wall in the morning or whatever, suddenly it's clear why, it's because Evil McVillain enchanted them and has been fiddling/waiting for their chance to strike/whatever.

Am I nuts? Does it need this? Anyone gotten this far and can comment?

[mikeawmids]

If memory serves, don't the players get to keep and continue using 'ghost' versions of the cards they had equipped at the time? I may be misremembering that, as it's been awhile since I read this module.

The 'heroes gather artifacts only for villain to swoop in at the last moment' trope is pretty common across many genres, so I would say go with it. If your players are pissed, direct that frustration towards getting even with the villain.

[The Guilty Party]

Yeah, they keep ghost versions of the cards so they're not suddenly de-powered, but it feels a little too swoopy to me.

What I decided to do is to drop hints that something is wonky, after a certain number of cards are gathered. The simulacrums/epitomies in the pocket dimension occasionally glitch out and act like they're being chased by a giant raven. And the cards themselves mysteriously twitch/react/glow at some point in the story, hinting that something happened to them, but with no way of telling what. Basically setting some clues to look back at and say 'ahh, so that's what was going on'.

[OmegaZ]

The Guilty Party wrote:

Again, BIIIIG ol' spoilers. If you're playing don't read this.

** spoiler omitted **
Am I nuts? Does it need this? Anyone gotten this far and can comment?

Personally, I despise it. If I were a player, losing everything we had spent 2 books working on with zero chance of preventing the loss would make me leave the game. Absolutely hate it and seriously wonder why this was approved. The BBEG attacking the party with a surprise attack and trying to steal the cards? That's good! Love a proactive enemy. But automatically stealing them comes off as GM undercutting the party.

My recommendation is to have the robbery happen, but the party can try and hold onto cards if they take actions to do so during the fight. This makes the fight more dynamic as they have to decide whether to spend actions on holding onto cards or dealing with the monsters. As high level PC's they'll have plenty of options as well, but the BBEG can still get away with a good chunk of them. The rest of the book can still happen too, so it doesn't invalidate the rest of the adventure.

[Psykodemus]

OmegaZ wrote:

The Guilty Party wrote:

Again, BIIIIG ol' spoilers. If you're playing don't read this.

** spoiler omitted **
Am I nuts? Does it need this? Anyone gotten this far and can comment?

Personally, I despise it. If I were a player, losing everything we had spent 2 books working on with zero chance of preventing the loss would make me leave the game. Absolutely hate it and seriously wonder why this was approved. The BBEG attacking the party with a surprise attack and trying to steal the cards? That's good! Love a proactive enemy. But automatically stealing them comes off as GM undercutting the party.

My recommendation is to have the robbery happen, but the party can try and hold onto cards if they take actions to do so during the fight. This makes the fight more dynamic as they have to decide whether to spend actions on holding onto cards or dealing with the monsters. As high level PC's they'll have plenty of options as well, but the BBEG can still get away with a good chunk of them. The rest of the book can still happen too, so it doesn't invalidate the rest of the adventure.

I think this is a cool idea. Allowing the PCs to use their three actions to choose which of the three cards they want to hold while losing the two others they have invested should sting enough without taking away their favorites. I'll likely employ the idea and see how it goes.