WotBS WotBS #12: C'mon then guys - what do you think?

We've finished, craploads of people have downloaded it or bought the paperback, but nobody's said a thing about it! Not even a peep!

Did you like it? Was it a fitting end to the saga? We're bursting to hear what people think!

The hardcover's coming along well. All 12 adventures are done; we're on to the appendices now, which will be massive. Then we'lll see what space we have left, because we'd like to include a couple of the side-quest competition entries, too. So some of those of you who entered (I've told the first-place winner already who he is) may well hear from me taking you up on the option of paying you to use the adventures.

We#d also love to see fan content. If you've written, drawn, painted or made anything, please share it with the rest of the WotBS fans. Whether it's a player handout, a cool map, artwork, reference sheets, additions... anything! And who knows, we may end up paying you to use it if we like it!

I have only glanced through it - we're still on O Wintry Song of Agony.

What did grab me was how many of the potential NPC allies didn't survive encountering our party. Finally I can make them suffer for their bloodthirsty ways!

I'm delighted that the PCs will get to visit Ragos. Ages ago I was disappointed when Ranger Wickett posted that he didn't think Ragos was likely to feature in the campaign.

It will be interesting to see how well the PCs manage to keep the alliance together. I doubt things will turn out well for the Shahalesti. The PCs hate them far more than the Ragesians.

I've finally had the time to go over it. Very very well done. I know that I complained quite a bit over the several months that this adventure was delayed, but it does seem to be worth the wait. It is much larger than i expected and it has a free-form element that I think will work well with my players. It is a fitting capstone to the series.

Everybody who participated in the making of this campaign saga didn't get half the credit they deserved. I know how it feels to finally release something and then die in vain to receive critics. Heck, not necessarily positive ones, I'm sure you'd rather read a bunch of insults than stand this uneasy silence.

The launch of 4E certainly dealt a crippling blow to WotBS, it probably contributed to jeopardize the release dates and then people lost interest.

With that being said, let me tell you my group is halfway through the Scouring of Gate Pass and it is a blast so far. I have read half of the adventures and I've been impressed everytime. It is so refreshing to get out of the dark and dampy dungeons, out into the wilderness to deal with "glossed-over" aspects of D&D such as politics, large-scale battles and such.

Having an easy access to most of the adventures' authors is also very helpful for DMs. RangerWickett in particular has answered some tricky questions and is always willing to share his thoughts behind this act or encounter, even though it would be easy (And perfectly understandable, one needs a break sometimes) for him to distance himself from the saga.

I didn't read adventure 12 per se, WotBS is so well-written I sometimes have the feeling I am reading a novel so I don't want to spoil the ending for myself even though I am DMing. I'll get to it soon enough and I am sure I won't be disappointed. Should there be stuff I don't agree it with, the saga is so open-ended I'll just mine what I like and piece it up together for the epic ending this campaign deserves.

Thanks to everyone for the countless hours, I'm sure evil thoughts such as "Hey, why do we give a damn anymore, what with everyone into 4E, they wouldn't even notice if we canned this project altogether" crossed your mind but you managed to keep the focus and deliver a product whose quality rivals everything on the market.

Trust me, you have a lot of (thus-far) quiet fans such as myself.

-Marcon

Still haven't had a chance to sit down with #12 yet, but I'll say that the first 11 set a very high standard. Certainly, I think you achieved your goals of presenting players a lot of ethical choices and not being rail-roady. I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to run WotBS (or any AP, really), but it's been a joy to read.

Marcon said:

Trust me, you have a lot of (thus-far) quiet fans such as myself.

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Thank you. It's really nice to hear that such people exist. On eof the worst things ever is to spend months creating something and being greeted with a resounding silence; and you don't know whether there's any point making more stuff.

As an example - I'm talking to someone about a novel series, I'm thinking about the 4E version, and I'm considering expansions, side-quests, setting details, etc. But without any feedback, it's hard to know whether we should do that. Is this a property that's worth further investment and development? I mean, we love it, and we, honestly, think it's better than most of the stuff out there (we wouldn't have made it otherwise; obviously we're biased). But we don't really get any feedback: we don't know if people like what we're doing. No reviews, no comments.

So comments like this mean a lot to us: at least we've reached someone.

So, to everyone out there: if you like it and want more of it, say so. Otherwise, it just won't happen. We can't read minds. For all we know, everybody hates it!

I downloaded it as soon as I could. But I haven't had chance to more than skim through it. If that.

Busy at home, busy at work. And my first go at the campaign died amidst a welter of player issues three months ago

I'm looking forward to getting some quiet time at work to print the rest of the saga out, have a read, and run the game. But, based on what I've read to date, I won't be disappointed.

Its out? I have not gotten my email yet telling me that it is out....

*sigh*

-- david

Like most, I haven't read through the whole thing in a deep fashion. I skimmed it especially the large battle scene and the final room. I'm still digesting 10 and 11 as my group is in 8 going on 9. So far, I have found the whole thing very well done and fun to run. I'm also glad there's a 3.5 version. I've played 4.0 several times and can't get into it. It's lost that D&D feeling for me. YMMV.

I really like how the stories unfold and link to each other. The players like the option for the bard to shine instead of the constant "kill everything" approach. I also like how each chapter has a different flavor: flaming undead, windy monks, orc soldiers, human knights, firery fey, etc. This really taxes the characters to develop good tactics and a breadth of spells.