RPG Review: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Fantasy Friday!

RPG Review: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
For Dungeons & Dragons 5E the team at Wizards of the Coast offered the core books (Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide) and adventure modules (campaign books). The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide came out as the first supplement book that was not part of a campaign book. Compared to the other publications, this volume stands out as shockingly thin with the page count. But I do like the book and I recommend it for groups, especially if they have been playing 5E for a couple of years and they want to vary things up with official material.

The book functions well for giving new options but I wouldn't truly call it a 5E version of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide because it is actually really weak as far as providing detailed information about the cities and personalities that make up the world of Toril. Perhaps the folks at Wizards of the Coast felt there were enough old used books and previous materials published with info about the realms, but I know I was looking forward to more detailed updates before this book came out. Despite that failing, I still like this book; after all, I already own all of the old Forgotten Realms guides and my own multiverse version of this world has been updated via my group's RPG sessions. Additionally, the Storm King's Thunder campaign book gives more detailed info about locations in the Sword Coast region.

The included artwork in the book is absolutely beautiful. As with all of the D&D 5E published books, I have to say I really appreciate the efforts made to include amazing quality art. Unfortunately, the large map of the Sword Coast has the edge trapped in the binding; the artist offered the work on the internet so it is available elsewhere, but the printed version in the book is somewhat lacking. I also wish they provided more maps zoomed into the various regions like the did in the older editions.

One of the best selling points of this book is the inclusion of new player options and the spells at the book stand out as some of the most useful (and powerful) material available. With Booming Blade and the Green-Flame Blade spells, casters can do even more in combat. It's also really nice to see the "Green Flame" revolution slowly progressing in the printed materials.

While some of the character options barely get any room in the book, that's ok because the writers were able to easily condense material like the "Half-Elf Variants" options in a green box. Certainly DMs and players were already customizing in these ways, but having the official printed material allows players to get even some of the more stubborn anti-customization DMs onboard with more roleplay-oriented possibilities.

My players and I were happy to see options like the official 5E bladesinger and the battlerager. I also remember the UA "playtest" version of the storm sorcerer and was glad that it made the cut, even though it kind of blurs the line with the genasi options (since it sounds like someone with "storm sorcery" bloodline should probably also have genasi blood, but maybe it's diluted after generations?).

Even though many players don't get excited about new background options, I really like the flavor of the ones available in the SCAG. The "Far Traveler" and "Inheritor" appeal to me personally as options for characters I would want to play in the future.

Before getting to my overall rating, I want to once again emphasize how much I love the artwork in the book. I think this may be the first female Purple Dragon Knight we have seen and she looks glorious. The picture below inspires me to at least have this person as an NPC in a campaign.

Overall 
Despite the book failing at the seemingly obvious mission of truly updating the Forgotten Realms setting for 5E and only providing a few new subclasses, I still want to give it a nice score. The artwork, the available options, and the ability to inspire (along with the new mechanical options) cause me to rate this work a 7 out of 10. We keep it on the shelf next to our table while we play and I recommend that each group (though not necessarily each person) should have one available (at least during character creation).

Thoughts: Acquisitions Inc

A Decade of Adventures!
Acquisitions, Incorporated
This week I spent several hours getting caught up on the adventures of the Acquisitions, Inc. characters. Long ago if you had asked me if I would enjoy listening to and/or watching other people play tabletop RPGs, I would have thought the answer would be no. But when the DM and the players aim to entertain, it can be a really fun experience. Thanks to the podcast revolution, YouTube, and other streaming services we now have "celebrity" roleplayers and that's awesome.

The Acquisitions, Inc. team started during D&D 4E and transitioned into 5E. Surprisingly, they only play the characters for public entertainment and thus they only have a few adventures a year; thus the characters, even after a decade, are still not epic level.

This page links to info about the entire series of adventures, with them in order from 2008 to now:
http://www.acq-inc.com/portfolio

I also found that someone on YouTube made a playlist with all of the full sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rXYCmL0roM&list=PLKq1kPlDnoWrcNW1OjubVOHNRnpDQnmUh

With Chris Perkins from Wizards of the Coast as the DM, this group really stands out as not only entertaining, but inspiration for any roleplaying group. Perkins often plays with the improv sense of trying to never say no to the players and he even fudges the official rules (even though he helped to write them, which is interesting); he also uses the D&D Next playtest rules for critical hits (instead of the official newer rules) even in the recent 5E adventures - but I'm nitpicking and it's really fun to watch. In my opinion the players meta-game too much talking strategy and telling each other what to do with their actions, but they are having fun and that's what matters. Anyone who wants to know how to play D&D could easily watch these videos and figure out many of the concepts of the game.

2008-2009
The original voice-only podcast contained "Season 1" (8 episodes) with the [D&D 4E] characters Omin Dran (half-elf war cleric), Jim Darkmagic (human wizard - played by someone who was brand new to playing D&D), and Binwin Bronzebottom (the dwarf fighter/barbarian). Celebrity Will Wheaton joined them in "Seaons 2-3" (8 episodes each, thus 16 total) as the elf Aofel.

2010
Jerry, who plays Omin DM'd a side series of Dark Sun adventures (that featured different characters entirely and thus is avoidable if someone just wants the Acquisitions, Inc. story). The year 2010 also gave us the first convention live play adventure with DM Chris Perkins and the Acquisitions, Inc. group (Omin, Jim, Binwin, and Aofel) at PAX Prime.

2011-2012
The group continued their new live convention play tradition at PAX Prime in 2011 and 2012, giving us the final Will Wheaton appearances for Acquisitions, Inc. D&D 5E team leader Mike Mearls participated in a 4-part podcast series helping the players convert their characters to 5th edition. This podcast is not necessary to listen to for people who just want to follow the story of the Acquisitions, Inc. characters since it's not story-based.

2013-2014
DM Chris Perkins led the group (Omin, Jim, Binwin, and Viari the human rogue) through an 8-episode podcast adventure "Ark of the Mad Archmage," leading up to a live convention play session at PAX Prime 2013. Viari is played by the bestselling fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss. When Rothfuss had a scheduling conflict in 2014, Morgan Webb joined as the elf ranger Morgaen for PAX East and PAX Prime live play sessions.

2015
Perkins led Omin, Jim, Binwin, and Viari through live convention sessions at the 2015 PAX East and PAX Prime events. The PAX Prime 2015 adventure gave the group the chance to fight the insane Drizzt Do'Urden, whom they rescued from the underdark (without the expressed permission of R.A. Salvatore - which Rothfuss seemed somewhat concerned about); as a result of this adventure, Drizzt was considered a friend/ally of the group in the future sessions.

2016
The PAX East 2016 event brought something really special because Perkins allowed the players a chance to DM if they wanted; both Rothfuss and Mike (who plays Jim) took the DM's seat. Their adventures were released as modules on the new Wizards of the Coast DMs Guild website - though the official publication doesn't mention Acquisitions, Inc: "How Not to Host a Murder" and "ISTAR Facilities." This year also brought a new YouTube series with 12 episodes (some of which were only about 30 minutes) that featured a dwarf vault heist adventure. The culmination of that series led to a conclusion as a live convention session at PAX West 2016 (with the group assaulting a cloud castle).

2017
In January the Acquisitions, Inc. group released a "Holiday Special" (filmed like the 2016 YouTube series) that used some of the material from Storm King's Thunder (with the village of Nightstone being where Viari grew up). Off-screen, Binwin resigned from the group after that session (going off into a spin-off called Binwin's Minions). Morgaen returned for live play at the PAX South 2017 convention. I just watched that event on YouTube last night.

Apparently just this month they released material for an Acquisitions, Inc. "Team C" group (which I still need to watch). On March 24 the the PAX East 2017 live play session featured Omin, Jim, Morgaen, and K'thriss Drow'b (a drow warlock). K'thriss is a part of the "Team C" split off group, with Jerry (who plays Omin) as the DM.

Updated character descriptions are posted here: http://www.acq-inc.com/our-company/staff/

Inspirations
Over time I mixed in small references to the existence of Acquisitions, Inc. for my own multiverse version of the Forgotten Realms. The characters became a background element for my campaign, but they were also great NPCs to add in for fun. More recently, I decided to use their connection to Drizzt as a story element. I also enjoyed running the Cloud Giant's Bargain adventure with my players actually vying for an intern job at the Neverwinter franchise of Acquisitions, Inc. I also decided to create an NPC group called Loot Company, inspired by the official characters.

FOE Log 19

Federation of Explorers (FOE)
Homebrew Campaign in the Forgotten Realms

Session 19: Hands of the Dwarf King
Regnar (human ranger), Zen (half-elf monk), and the 2 dwarf fighter brothers (Tacklinn and Orsik Ungard) woke up after resting for 4 days. Their unconscious bodies had been found by the dwarf king and his men and taken back to his palace for shelter. At breakfast, the dwarf king (Aldric Ironfist) introduced the FOE team to the human cleric Raylin Sunsoaker (a.k.a. "Scorching Ray") [my new character; 3rd time is a charm, right?] who came to join in on the adventuring.

The breakfast meeting also included representatives from the yuan-ti, orcs, etc. who all wanted to help to eliminate the undead and the threat from the dracolich. The FOE team received magic items and a 15,000 gp reward for their work. They decided to give 1,000 gp to Sareal and baby Thokson; the team divided up the rest of the rewards, including allowing Ray to gear up. Ray suggested they call themselves the "Hands of the Dwarf King" since they were doing missions for him.

The team spoke to various dwarf leaders and accepted quests (Dorvin tasked them with recruiting soldiers from the nearby mountain monastery, Baedol asked them to kill the bandits to the south, and someone else told them to go bring in the elf druid Amafry from the base of the mountain).

The team cleared out the bandit base with its 4 guards, 1 bear, 1 wyvern, and the champion leader. The next day they found Amafry's cave, befriended her, and convinced the gold dragon she lived with to later help in the battle against the dracolich; there was also a baby gold dragon at the cave. After bringing Amafry to help grow crops for the dwarves and the refugees, the team debriefed with the king, got permission to grow trees in the underground city, and left for the monastery of the 4 elements.

Zen went inside the monastery and made a deal. The team will have to kill a nearby necromancer in order for the monks to agree to come help the dwarves.

Module Review: Princes of the Apocalypse

End of the World?
For my module review this week I am looking back at Princes of the Apocalypse, which I experienced as both a player and a DM. I played through the early levels of this adventure, but that campaign fizzled out. Thus I decided to incorporate the rest of the module into the game I run and I found the transition was easy to make. I highly recommend using this module book for several reasons. I do have to warn though that DMs and players who get bored by long dungeons crawls will want to either avoid it or be willing to modify and/or skip certain elements (pun intended).

My history with Elemental Evil goes way back since I remember playing through the original Temple of Elemental modules and the PC TOEE computer game (with all of its glorious add-ons brought by the online "Circle of 8" programmers). I also remember the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, and the many reincarnations of EEE/Y/Tharizdun over the years. Needless to say, I get excited (as a DM / scared as a player) when people talk about Elemental Evil.

For once, I agree with the recommended levels on the back of a 5E adventure module (1-15).

The Table of Contents shows off the strange order in which the info in the book is presented. I know people tend to criticize these modules for being so "disorganized" but I have gotten used to reading through the books at least 3 times to make sure I have taken it all in properly so it's not a big deal to me at this point. The more recent publications are better organized; for example, the low level material is out of order in this book.

The artwork throughout the book really is great. I like the depictions of the various cult leaders and the weapons. I appreciate the coordination of putting the actual NPCs and villains from the module into multiple works of high quality art. Fans of the winged elf in charge of the air cult should be especially happy since there are so many depictions of her (including the cover).

The symbols for the cult harken back to old times. The upside-down pyramid and purple rock are a clear call back to the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (and maybe even WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure, with the purple rock there as well). I especially like the detail with the colorful elemental cult symbols that remind me of the old TOEE.

The low level material centers on the village of Red Larch and includes a fun nearby necromancer quest. I always like Hommlett-esque small villages. Low level play has a certain place in my heart and this village provides a nice opportunity for a DM to get those interactions from the group. Of course, it's also very easy to swap this section out with your own low level play or to bring a group in after the low level material.

The best parts of the book are not the tedious dungeon crawling or the endurance of fighting elemental cultists session after session, but rather the additions at the back of the book. In fact, Wizards of the Coast was very clever to put in the extra material because it makes the book more useful; even people who don't want to run the full module might buy the book just for the stats, player options, and spells at the back. For characters who summon or transform into elementals, this book gives some nice new monster stats. I was also happy to use the Princes of Elemental Evil multiple times since all 4 of them are given stats in this book.

The book gave players the option of creating genasi characters for each of the 4 elements. Genasi get a base +2 to CON and each variant received a different +1 stat (for example fire genasi got the bonus to INT) and some cool abilities (like fire genasi getting fire resistance). Note: I really like the fire genasi as a playable race.

Many of the spells are useful, especially for druids and wizards. When this campaign came out, spell cards were released just like the default packs for the player's handbook options. But seriously, if you're going to play a druid you should at least consider using these spells.

Overall

With many of today's players having less of an attention-span for long dungeon crawls (or MEGADUNGEONS as many of us bloggers like to call them), I was impressed that Wizards of the Coast released this product. The different creatures in the dungeons provide for some variety to break up the potential monotony. I give the campaign book a rating of 8 out of 10 because I enjoyed the concept, had fun as both a player and a DM, and I continue to use the player options/monsters/spells provided in the appendix.

SAGA Log 1434 Snake Island

The RPG Saga Continues with...
The adventures of Pylia, Blue, and Drizmar [a.k.a. Team Tortuga? Force Green?]!

Saga Log 1434
Module: Serpent's Skull Adventure Path [Modified]
After the intense battle from last time and resting up with the loot, the team (Pylia, Drizmar, and Blue) had to decide what to do with Iymrith’s baby purple worms; they killed the little monsters. The group left the dungeon and explored the strange new place they found themselves at - an island with a purple sky during the day.

On the beach they fought: 4 deep scions, 1 devourer demon, and 1 yuan-ti nightmare speaker. They flew around to avoid giant crabs, giant scorpions, and plant monsters. At the ruins of an old shipwreck they fought: 3 bodaks and 1 beholder-kin death kiss. The treasure chest there released 5 pirate ghosts that they destroyed. After this battle, they realized that any healing they received from wounds here caused skin to turn into yuan-ti scales.

They met Pezok the kenku, who had been living in a giant hermit crab shell after being the only survivor from a ship that was destroyed in the ocean by the sea kraken; Pezok told them the island was a part of the Purple Rocks island chain.

The next day, they continued by exploring into the jungle. They took on cannibals/vegepygmies. They split the party when one of the vegepygmies offered to bring Blue to the local dryad (who had a cave where she grew and protected psychedelic mushrooms). Meanwhile Pylia, Drizmar, and Pezok continued to the main cannibal village (where the locals thought Pylia was the goddess Ehlonna). The witch convinced the group to go to the bullywug village (where the frogfolk had a froghemoth). Blue rejoined the team.

Instead of attacking the bullywugs, the team made an alliance with them; the bullywug warriors killed off the cannibal tribe. Blue ended up with the pet monkey, who Pylia determined was a spy for the ape king; they found out about the ape king from the yuan-ti cleric that was visiting the bullywug swamp village. At first they asked the yuan-ti cleric to resurrect Blood, but when they realized she would come back as a yuan-ti, they changed their mind. Instead, they decided to have the yuan-ti cleric join the group.

After making plans to trick the ape king, they remembered the monkey was sitting there listening. They sent the monkey away. The cleric sent her 2 human slaves with her 2 yuan-ti guards to go get some of the human sorcerers from the human fishing village, but the group decided to follow after them anyway.

Next time they hope to find out about the disjunction sorcerers and to talk to the ape king about the magical vault (with its strange riddle) and the crystal skulls.

Module Review: Cloud Giant's Bargain

Module Review: Cloud Giant's Bargain
Following up my review for Storm King's Thunder, I decided I should also post my review for the connected module Cloud Giant's Bargain.

Our D&D group used this as a "side adventure" for one of the player characters who missed a weekly sessioin, allowing other people to play temporary characters assisting him in his task. For that purpose, the module worked really well. Specifically, our main PC involved had accepted the quest from Storm Giant's Thunder to avenge the death of the son of Blogothkus; thus I modified the module to put his target on the cloud castle in the module. The module would also work well as a part of the Storm King's Thunder storyline or as an independent quest.

As usual, I question the level suggesions when the book says it's for a group of characters of level 5-7:

I suggest a group of level 7-10 because the enemies are deadly and a fumble could mean falling to their death from the cloud castle. I was amused that the premise involved Acquisitions, Inc. since the modules written by the guys from that group did not mention Acquisitions, Inc. (and instead transplanted the adventures as being a part of the Zhentarim, etc.):

Ultimately, the Acquisitions, Inc. inclusion made sense because this module was given out "for free" to people who attended a special event involving the group's public play being shown in theatres; it's now available from some of those attendees as a used item on Ebay, etc. for about $5-$10. I bought it for $7 off of an Ebay seller and was happy with my purchase.

The players and I had a lot of fun running the session based off the module. We played for about 5 hours and finished the quest (in the sense of the character either dying or escaping with the info they needed), though there was technically more for them to have explored if they had wanted to.

Overall, I give the module a 6 out of 10. It was fun, but the maps were a little confusing and I think, instead of only offering this product to a select few, Wizards of the Coast should have made it available to the entire public. I also think it could have just been a part of Storm King's Thunder. It technically moves characters away from the main SKT plot because it mentions several more cloud castles like this one, poised to attack major cities. That could cause DMs quite a headache if the players decided to go after those (with no prepared maps, etc. for them).

Thoughts: Minecraft 1.11

What have I been thinking about?
Minecraft! It's a combination of my 2 favorite hobbies (Dungeons & Dragons and Lego) in the sense that it creates a digital building environment with adventure elements (and monsters). It's a fun game, but players end up having to create their own purpose/goals while in the game. I usually want to setup survival bases, cities, and underground railroads that connect an empire.

In the past I have played games on my computer, played on servers with friends, and even hosted my own Minecraft Realms server for about 2 years (in which we reset after about a year).

On Twitter there was an announcement that Minecraft version 1.12 was being worked on (with parrots and lots of color additions being added). When I saw that, I decided to check out what has changed with the 1.11 release (since I hadn't played Minecraft in a couple of months). I watched this YouTube video and decided to borrow seed #4 that was showcased:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAW5FPXuPQE

Minecraft 1.11 Seed: -4017869926782671687
I made a survival game on my computer. It's a nice seed because it starts in the plains with a Mushroom Island within viewing distance of spawn. Over the course of just 2.5 days I had a nice setup with a self-sustaining base growing wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, carrots, beats, melons, pumpkins, and netherwart. At the base I also had pigs, cows, chicken, and sheep (in all the colors except for brown - since I hadn't found a jungle yet). I had a "Spawn Station" (setup near the spawn point with my storage room, enchanting, and brewing), a "Central City" (at coordinates X=0, Z=0) started up with a desert temple, and I just found another temple with a desert village nearby. I also found both a skeleton spawner and a zombie spawner. In the Nether I found the fortress (with a blaze spawner) and I created a cobblestone road leading to it. I just got a saddle and I want to go capture some wild horses I saw near the spawn area.

Coordinates:
Spawn: -132, 68, 258 (in Plains Biome, with Mushroom Island in visible range)
6 Diamonds Near Spawn (and lava): -47, 13, 204
3 More Diamonds Near Spawn (and lava): -59, 11, 213
Zombie Spawner (near Mushroom Island): -273, 62, 573
Desert Temple 1: 0, 70, 122

Skeleton Spawner (Near Desert Temple 1): -125, 60, 18

Desert Temple 2: -207, 65, 730

Desert Village (no blacksmith): -236, 64, 821

Future goals for this game: find the end, defeat the end dragon, find the end cities (loot them), find some of the new 1.11 mansions (loot them), and find the rest of the biomes (mesa, ice spikes, jungle).

FOE Log 18

Federation of Explorers (FOE) 
Homebrew Campaign

Session 18: Stopping Sapphiraktar's Blood Ritual
Regnar (human ranger) , Zen (half-elf monk), Thunderforge (dwarf cleric), and the 2 dwarf fighter brothers (Tacklinn and Orsik Ungard) continued their quest to save the dwarf settlement overcome by drow, fiends, and undead by sneaking into the sewer to try to find a secret way into the palace keep (while avoided the evil army on the streets). In the sewer, the group battled and killed 7 zombies, 1 skeleton, 1 otyugh and 3 swarms of rats.

Continuing through the sewer, the team took out another 3 zombies and an undead dude infested with Kyuss worms. From behind a barricade some dwarves and a halfling greeted the group and thanked them for killing the undead monsters; they welcomed the team to come to their secret underground slum town. The slums provided a welcome rest and clean underground river for bathing. The group also managed to trade out some gear and get a map to go into the palace keep's crypts.

In the crypts, the team followed a blood trail, met a ghost who asked them to take his mace of disruption to avenge the dead dwarf nobles, and made their way up to an epic ritual room battle consisting of: 1 zombie beholder, 3 drow (1 was elite), piles of dead bodies (from which zombies popped out each round) with their blood flowing into a central pool, Sapphiraktar the blue dracolich chanting in the center pool, and a statue of Bhaal soaking in all of the blood energy from the ritual.

Thunderforge used the mace of disruption to start destroying the statue, which made him the prime target of the enemies; the zombie beholder disintegrated Thunderforge! Zen picked up the mace and continued destroying the statue. Regnar got the final blow that decapitated the statue and caused a huge blood explosion, knocking out the remaining people.

Next time we will find out what happened...

Module Review: Storm King's Thunder

Disclaimer: I only review modules that I have played (either as DM or a player) and I have been waiting for my group to finish Storm King's Thunder so I could write up my module review. Thanks to last week's session, I am ready to go. Also, as always, I want to point out that my players and I had a wonderful time playing through this campaign and my criticisms below are not meant to take away from that. I do highly recommend this campaign.

Module Review: Storm King's Thunder

If you think about it, the beautiful cover art actually gives away the plot of 2 of King Hekaton's daughters being evil; I mean, look at those faces. What I find ironic is that it looks like the Storm King is the bad guy, but the group ends up on a mission to rescue him. I do appreciate that the adventure path includes twists and turns with the giants seeming to be the villain in the beginning and the group finding out someone else is behind it (reminiscent of the old GDQ series Against the Giants when the Spider Queen ended up being the enemy). What's great is that there are multiple twists this time around, especially if the DM takes the other enemy groups seriously.

I was surprised to see the first 2-page table of contents in a 5E campaign book:

It's weird though that all of that material from Chapter 3 is in the book; I suspect that it was supposed to be in the previously released Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and it didn't meet the deadline or something so they reworked it to fit into this module. Honestly, it makes this book a follow up to the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and continues the 5E trend of the campaign books also being part of a Forgotten Realms setting update (which I am fine with, since I own all of them).

I feel like I should once again accuse the module authors of essentially lying about the levels for this campaign since the book claims it's for levels 1-10, but it really isn't; I recommend using it for just 7-10. As a DM I continue to refuse to use the "milestone" leveling system and rely on actual XP to level the players in my game. That means I notice how lacking the book is in giving what is needed to get the characters from one level to another. Luckily I was expecting this and had my players already at a higher level to start events in the campaign.

There's a nice campaign flowchart (with appropriate levels for locations) provided and I hope Wizards of the Coast and other companies continue to consider including these, even though it reveals some strange things about the adventure:

In the chart, you see a basic admission that adventuring parties should really start at level 5, not level 1. The beginning 2 options lead to 1 place, which provides 3 options, which all lead to 1 place and another, which then provides 5 options that could all lead to the final parts of the campaign. But it's strange because each of the 5 main options is a huge chapter with lots of combat; this setup provides the group with the ability to choose which giant lord's base to invade to get an item needed to get to the lair of the storm giants. I suppose you could argue that this system provides for re-playability options, but it was a lot of DM prep work to end up having a group pick just 1 of the 5 (and that's all they needed to pick). I considered having NPCs try to convince the group that they needed to kill all of the giant leaders in order to make sure they established peace, but it really wasn't necessary. That means a lot of the material is either wasted or will need to be somehow used later for something else.

They continue to print strange sayings on the backs on the 5E campaign books; for the record, my players were not giants, but they did fight giants:

We almost had a TPK at the end because the final battle is against an ancient dragon with plenty of minions around (so my group had to teleport out and come back later to finish the combat with more allies - and almost had a TPK again); it's really not an appropriate CR setup for a group of level 10 adventurers. My players actually asked, "What level did they expect us to be for this?" The writers of the campaign tried to cheat the situation by offering a bunch of powerful NPCs and magic items for the finale, but I'm tired of that happening at the ends of these campaigns. I would like a challenge that the group could take on by themselves.

Overall, I still give this campaign a rating of 7 out of 10 because it was lots of fun and the flaws are easy for experienced DMs to work around; I just feel bad for new DMs who are starting with this one because it could be a mess and lead to multiple party wipes.

SAGA Log 1433 Iymrith's Lair (Again)

The RPG Saga continues...
This week the group returned, determined to either slay Iymrith or die trying...

Session 1433
Module: Storm King's Thunder (Chapter 12, Again)
Pylia, Blue, Drizmar, Mercy, Blood, and the centaur warrior prepared for battle (after the 1 hour rest). They teleported back to Iymrith’s desert half-coliseum lair (and underground tunnels), where they battled: 15 gargoyles, 1 yuan-ti abomination, 4 air elementals, Iymrith, and the mummy lord (who was an ancient Netherese wizard); luckily Iymrith and the mummy lord turned on each other. In the end Pylia, Blue, and Drizmar were the only survivors - with the dead bodies of Blood and the blue dragon (and the dragon’s treasure).

Blue decided he wants to make his own throne, similar to the Wyrmskull Throne, so he's planning to keep Iymrith's skull:

The mummy lord’s ritual was completed upon the dragon’s death, plane-shifting the contents of the lair to an underground area on a jungle island where the yuan-ti god “The Night Serpent” had been killed long ago. The team realized they were in a different place. While they rested, Pylia read the mummy lord’s journal and discovered a plot to resurrect “The Night Serpent” and use its godly body to house an even more powerful ancient evil [thus transitioning into the next series of adventures for the team].

Module Review: Legacy of the Crystal Shard

Fantasy Friday
For my fantasy review for this week I decided to complete another module review.

Legacy of the Crystal Shard
This module remains one of my favorites. Just like the "Murder in Baldur's Gate" module, this module set came with a removable outer cover, 2 booklets (Adventure Book and Campaign Guide), and a really nice DM screen customized for the adventure. It was also released as a part of the Forgotten Realms Sundering series (during the D&D Next playtest time period). Thus the back of the packaging pointed out it included material for playing this module with 3E, 4E, or D&D Next rules:

The included DM screen was really nice and included useful randomizer charts on the inside, such as this one:

Someone clever at Wizards of the Coast was thinking about replayability and made the module include an option for the DM to randomly determine 1 of 3 possible main villains to focus on as the "big bad" (that way players who knew about the adventure or had played it before wouldn't know which character was their main nemesis each time it was played); having said that though, I have to admit that most gaming groups are not going to play a module multiple times.

When I ran the adventure my players really became invested in the NPCs and we had a great time with the adventure. The module included more encounters than I felt it needed, but my players didn't seem to mind that.

Overall I give the module a rating of 8 out of 10 and I wish Wizards of the Coast would release more material similar to this adventure.

Thoughts: D&D 5E Starter Set Review

Thoughts for the Week
This week I want to use my weekly thoughts blog post to go ahead and get another module review out of the way, but I will say that I recently reflected on how Wizards of the Coast launched Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. They did a marvelous job of getting their old fans/customers interested as well as attracting a new audience. The 5E Starter Set module was a big part of that, especially since it continues to be sold at many stores in the board game section (thus appealing to people looking for a new game to play) and comes prepackaged with a set of dice.

The Lost Mine of Phandelver
The D&D 5E Starter Set adventure is called "Lost Mine of Phandelver" and was created for 1st level adventuring parties, taking the characters all the way to 5th level. The product came in a nice box that really is bigger than it needs to be; I put several other older modules inside the box for storage when I added it to my shelf.

One of my favorite elements of the product was the inclusion of 5 pregenerated character with backgrounds custom-tailored for the adventure and specifics about how to level them up through level 5. The pregens included (a hill dwarf cleric with a soldier background, a lightfoot halfling rogue with a criminal background, a human fighter with a folk hero background, a human fighter with a noble background, and a high elf wizard with an acolyte background. The rogue is shown below:

Wizards of the Coast has also released a PDF file with the pregens as a free download from their website (along with many other useful resources). Of course my players knew we were getting involved in a longer campaign so they chose to make their own characters, but I used some of the pregens as NPCs.

The module made for a fun experience for both me as a DM and for my players. I think we played 5 sessions at about 5-6 hours each going through the material so there's probably 20-30 hours of material (depending on how your group plays, of course). My main criticisms of the adventure were that (1) the beginning was a potential TPK if the dice had been different and (2) the side quests seemed unnecessary to my group at first because they bought into the urgency of needing to rescue the kidnapped dwarf (and thus they didn't want to waste time on side quests).

As usual, I also did my research on the Forgotten Realms lore from previous editions (and video games) so I could include elements from 4E and Helm's Hold; I understand the lack of inclusion of the extra details because this was an "intro to D&D" product and I certainly had access to the lore that I wanted to add in for my players.

Overall I give the module a rating of 7 out of 10 because it was wonderful but, in addition to the previous issues I mentioned, I also had to rework the town of Thundertree (since there was a strange druid NPC (who I felt should have been more helpful and more powerful) and a green dragon that was too high of a CR for the party at the time).

More Tales of a Player: Cyrodiil 1-3

More Tales of a Player
Our DM for the FOE Campaign cancelled our session for this week so I don't have a new FOE Log for you. Instead, I went through my old notes to provide other "Tales of a Player" logs for you to enjoy. A few years back we had a short-lived campaign (with the DM basing the world on some of the Elder Scrolls Lore, modified for a D&D setting) in which I played a brave halfling fighter named Rej.

One of the funny things about the Cyrodiil campaign was that NH and I started at the table with our DM and decided to randomly roll for the classes and races of our characters and we both rolled for halfling fighters. NH decided to change her character to a druid. It was refreshing to play something different.

Cyrodiil Sessions 1-3:
Cyrodiil: In the city of Chorrol: 
Rej (halfling fighter) was living with the fighter’s guild (with the leader Jondar the dragonborn) when his former war buddy Shallon Tealeaf (halfling druid) showed up at the town (staying at the Gray Mare Inn). Jondar tasked them with investigating some goblins who had been messing with the local merchants. They recruited the dwarf cleric Harbin to join them.

After traveling for a few days, they found and killed the goblin bandits. They found a secret cave tunnel that went to the lair of a lich with a tied up, tortured halfling named Marinder. The group returned to the town and had the high elf (Sarial) at the mage guild agree to look through the lich’s journal and give them the info from it.

A farmer needed help so Rej, Shallon, Harbin, and Marinder headed out. They had to kill 3 goblins, 2 hobgoblins, 2 orcs, and 1 bugbear. They saved the farmers. Back in the town, Sarial reported that the lich’s books had necromancy info in them and the journal had the location of one of the lich’s apprentices. Rej started studying the books. The group travelled to the forest for Shallon’s druid initiation ceremony.

They went to Elenglynn to deal with the lich’s apprentice. They made it through some traps at some ruins and fought undead (skeletons, zombies, and a ghoul). Afterward, the group rested and returned to Chorrol. Rej quit the fighter’s guild and the group took the suggestion of an elf to go on a journey to Imperial City. On the way, the group spoke to a farmer who told them about danger at Fort Caractacus, where a wizard had moved in. Shallon took on a wolf as her animal companion.

The dwarf wizard Gondar Turkinson (who knew Shallon and Rej from the war) joined up with them. They fought an owlbear and a gang of bandits; Rej got a magic sword and made him super courageous. After they rested, they tracked the remaining bandits to Battlehorn Castle. A lich with an undead goblin wanted to “escape the island” of Cyrodiil and said he needed Marinder to do it. He demanded the group hand over Marinder, but Rej refused; the lich disintegrated Rej before taking Marinder away. Shallon and Gondar were horrified.

Module Review: Murder in Baldur's Gate

Module Review: Murder in Baldur's Gate!

This module set came with a removable outer cover, 2 booklets (Adventure Book and Campaign Guide), and a really nice DM screen customized for the adventure.

Fronts:

Backs:

Murder in Baldur's Gate came out as one of the transition modules during the shift from the D&D Next Playtest into the official release of 5E, thus the labeling that it had stats for 3E, 4E, and for D&D Next (thus the plot is meant to take place during The Sundering time period in the Forgotten Realms):

I wish they still made modules this way. The 5E hardbound books are nice, but I prefer having the nice set of smaller booklets and the custom DM screen as an inherent part of the purchase (and not something you need to buy separately). Even though I don't hide my dice rolls from my players and thus I don't need a DM screen, these are nice because they have lots of quick charts/maps with useful info. For example:

Just the fact that I wanted to spend much of my review showing the product says how much I liked this style of module. I suppose I should at least mention the adventure and the characters. Even though the product is labeled for levels 1-3, it's got a lot of political roleplay and potential combat so I would suggest that it really could work for anywhere in 1-6 and still come across as a good fit for a party. In fact, with simple combat modifications the roleplay-heaviness of this adventure really means a good DM could plop it down at any point in a campaign.

I enjoyed DMing this one and my players really enjoyed playing through the module. I will say that I noticed the correlation with the plot in this one and the real life history of Guy Fawkes in England so I purposely had us play the module on the 5th of November ("Remember, remember, the 5th of November..." became "Remember, remember the 5th of Uktar...").

Overall I give the module a rating of 7 out of 10 because it has interesting NPCs and fun encounters, but overall there really was too much going on for the amount of time my players wanted to spend dealing with Baldur's Gate at the time (though perhaps that was my fault for plopping this adventure down when my players visited the city in the middle of another campaign).