Wardens of Wildwood: Severed at the Root (GM prep)

[UpliftedBearBramble]

This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for the Wardens of Wildwood: Severed at the Root, written by Jessica Catalan.

Below, here are my prep sessions for each chapter with the help of two other DMS. I'd love to see what how other GMs are preparing and what their reactions are to the narrative of the AP in the second module.

Chapter 1: Remnants of the Past
https://www.youtube.com/live/rnf-8KnFmaQ?si=QJjDSsJg1kYkZYHi

Chapter 2: Aberrant Growth
https://www.youtube.com/live/4fNT-7PBTMM?si=hOwzAmUfeT-ZVSsv

Chapter 3: Shadow of the Dragon
https://www.youtube.com/live/fOr9sopyabM?si=-sH6IpGFbncJCawU

[DenverGamer]

Man…. This is a mess as a DM to improve. The premise is simple, encounters boring (enemies and battle maps), and a lack of engagement. I’m cutting 80% . Thought the first book was good and last was self contained enough to allow easy adjustments.

[UpliftedBearBramble]

DenverGamer wrote:

Man…. This is a mess as a DM to improve. The premise is simple, encounters boring (enemies and battle maps), and a lack of engagement. I’m cutting 80% . Thought the first book was good and last was self contained enough to allow easy adjustments.

I'm gonna be honest here: You got the right idea. What we bought with Book 2 and Book 3 are just a bag of ideas. Andrew laid ground work for an entire campaign while Jessica and Mike just didn't know where to take it thanks to the vague outline they were all working from as referenced in our conversations with him.

What WW, CC, are from what I can see are just that, and I think Niktorak said it best we were just buying books of ideas which don't normally cost 30 USD+tax, we can get those third party and for much cheaper on DMs guild.

[CastleDour]

Ironically, CC tries TOO HARD to connect to a previous 2e AP which for me was not the compelling portion of it.

CC, if you look past the Nemesis, is amazing lol. Vyre is a model rogue city. Villains are outstanding. Bettayals are super hard to pull off, but I love how they did it and learned a lot from the execution of it. Art and maps are top notch. My favorite AP of 2e. I highly recommend you check it out and leave a thorough review. Remember to copy your text before hitting submit because it glitches and you can lose everything.

[CorvusMask]

? CC isn't really connected to any of previous 2e APs. Its more of that its general concept is "you can use it as sequel" but it clearly isn't written to assume any specific campaign as sequel (to compare, Devastation Ark in starfinder 1e is definitely thematically sequel to Dead Suns. CC uses art references to abomination vaults, but its not natural sequel to it anymore than fist of ruby phoenix is to same ap)

Like I'm bit confused of this CC slander, but I do need to read it carefully at some point ya.

[CastleDour]

we should move this discussion to the curtain call subforum:

An anguish Sakhil is created from the defeat of your nemesis, who creates a brainchild that takes on the form of your nemesis, who your opera is about defeating, and who crashes your opera on the premier. It's a lot. Some people will love that. Personally, I found the non-nemesis content much more impactful, especially if you've been building up Norgorber throughout the AP. Unfortunately none of sky kings tomb, abominations vaults or gatewalkers really set up the cult of norgorber so you still have a situation like 1e kingmaker where the last climatic arc comes a bit out of nowhere if you do 1-20 with those APs (Owlcat made the fey BBEG much more of a presence in early game which helped the story flow a lot better). So the nemesis content for me was the subplot, and the godsrain is the main plot or more interesting part of the AP.

[CorvusMask]

Prooobably, but yeah giving my reply on matter here: Oh yeah that's definitely the tough part of the ap, the opera part requires heavy amount of gm and party work to setup properly while the other half is great on its own, but would be enhanced if there was something you have run beforehand that is tied with same themes.