Comments on: Quick lessons from the Heroic tier, and looking ahead…

By: Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2009-10-02

Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2009-10-02 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:57:33 +0000

[...] Quick lessons from the Heroic tier, and looking ahead… Newbie DM has some great DM tips for all game systems, including his favorite, 4e D&D. [...]

By: Stormgaard

Stormgaard — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:04:06 +0000

I started out last year running Kobold Hall out of the back of the DMG. After that I moved on the Treasure of Talon Pass (from free RPG day). And only after those two mini adventures did I actually try my first “real” module, Scepter Tower of Spellgard.
That’s when I quit running published adventures. Where Kobold Hall and Treasure of Talon Pass were very straight forward, Scepter Tower was anything but. This made sense. Kobold Hall and ToTP were “for beginners” types of adventures – very basic and very linear. SToSG was for the more advanced DM and I could see what they were coming from. They wanted to give you lots of options. It almost seemed as if they wanted to give you more options than you COULD use even if you wanted to. They didn’t want to stifle your creativity as a DM.

The only problem with it IMO was that it was so free form that it left me wondering why I needed it in the first place. Turns out I didn’t. After about 2 or 3 sessions into it I took over the storyline completely and abandoned the rest of the module. It was easier for me to make up the story from that point on rather than try to glean anything else from the module.

And it wasn’t just the fact that it was too “Free Form”. It was also the fact that I had to reconstruct every single combat encounter in so they would balance with the party. I was doing all the work anyway, I may as well let myself have fun with the story while I’m at it.

That being said having operated for the better part of a year outside the framework of those published adventures I’ve had to do my homework in terms of Forgotten Realms lore and in coming up with a coherent and compelling backstory that will carry the characters all the way to level 30. Right now they’re starting out Paragon tier in the city of Waterdeep trying to take the city back from followers of Tiamat, which will (should) have greater implications further on down the line involving Tiamat Herself at level 30.

In terms of pure mechanics I’ve found that you really have to throw the book at them once they hit Paragon. Whereas before in Heroic an encounter that was APL+5 would challenge them, now I’m having to throw APL+10 to give them a run for their money (to honestly risk a TPK). Take that with a grain of salt though because my crew tends to be a bit overgeared.

By: newbiedm

newbiedm — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:36:05 +0000

@Mike: There are very, very loose connections to the modules though, that’s what bothered me about them, but towards the later adventures, they seem to get back on track… @Tyson: I started with a prebuilt to get the hang of Dm’ing… it may be a little too much to learn/create at the same time, in my opinion……. @Kameron: There is a 4e version of Red Hand somewhere on the ENWorld boards, you may want to look into it…

By: Kameron

Kameron — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:16:50 +0000

I plan on running H2, but not H3. Instead, I’m going to modify the 3.5 Red Hand of Doom megamodule to be a second Blood War, using the Bloodreaver slavers from H2 as a vanguard of the new army. I’ve already given one PC a hook concerning the Bloodreavers based on his background, and H1 provides a connection between Kalarel and the slavers. I may still throw out a hook to H3 at the end of H2, as my players have expressed a desire not to follow a strict plot path, but it certainly doesn’t have a strong thematic connection to the H series or the following series.

By: Tyson J. Hayes

Tyson J. Hayes — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:26:57 +0000

The first game I ever tried to run was a homebrew that I was making up. It worked, but I struggled coming up with material. My third time being a DM I am using a prebuilt as a base to get my players moving and will then delve off into my own stuff from there.

Personally I am finding it easier to start with a prebuilt so I can focus more on the characters and getting to know them and can then tailor the rest of the adventures to their needs. It’ll also allow the players to help guide the story as they can begin planning out arcs for where they want their characters to go.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:49:37 +0000

I’ve played through all the published adventures up to Nightwyrm Fortress so far with the same general campaign arc as you. I’ve had to modify it a little bit but in general I have a consistent theme. They could have made it a LITTLE more cohesive but overall I think it works. For now, at level 18, I see a consistent story all the way to 30 which isn’t bad.