Dead Gods - your experiences?
Atavar said:
I GM'ed it twice with 2 different groups. The first time was using AD&D and the 2nd I converted it to 3E.
The first time was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. But the 3E version was outstanding! Like Avatar, my group's encounter with the Ratatosk's was enormously entertaining. But the culminating battle atop Orcus's corpulent "godstone" body as it floated in the Astral Plane, with possession of the Wand of Orcus and the return of one of the multiverses most vile entities hanging in the balance was amazing. A couple of incredible disarming manuevers resulted in the Wand changing hands 4 different times in 2 rounds of play!
The GM really needs to prepare ahead of time and get his mind around this adventure as the party interacts in some amazing locales and with some bizarre beings. But if you can get your players to immerse themselves in the adventure, the ride it delivers is well worth the effort.
One of the very best adventure modules I have ever had the pleasure to run.
Oryan77
Adventurer
Wow, I'll be starting this adventure at our next game in 2 weeks! I've been planning this for a year now and we finally finished the last adventure last weekend. I just started preparing the first chapter and taking notes.
I've noticed this adventure is basically full of "main ideas" and the DM will need to add a lot of "in betweens" to turn it into a solid adventure. So, the book gives you scenario A that happens in location A, and then it tells you to go to location B so you can play out scenario B. But there is no solid information on what can happen while in location A or B other than the main objective. There's also no details on what happens while going from location A to B.
For example, you travel to a plane in search of information or to track someone down. The book just tells you, "When you arrive on the plane, you are confronted by the Bad Guy and you find out about who did what." It doesn't give you any idea about how far you travel until you find the bad guy, or how to spice up the travel so you aren't just telling the players, "You exit the portal and travel across a desert until you spot the Bad Guy".
So if you want to make things more interesting, you need to read up on other Planescape material about planar locations and creatures that live there. Then you'll need to come up with ideas to throw into the game to spice up those holes.
I have several ideas for other published adventures to throw into Dead Gods. Mostly I'll be picking portions out of the adventures and changing NPC's around. So far, I've spiced up the first chapter in Dead Gods by making the raiding Khaasta under the control of a Neogi. When the PC's chase them across the Outlands, I might be using a swamp side quest from a Dungeon magazine to spice up that journey. Then, instead of the PC's going to the Khaasta's village from Yggdrasil as described in the book, the portal on Yggdrasil takes them to the Beastlands where the Neogi/Khaasta reach the rest of their main caravan, the Colossal Kadtanach beast from Dungeon magazine #100. I'll be running the Beast of Burden quest out of that magazine and changing the Knolls to Khaasta and throwing in a bunch of Neogi slavemasters.
I'll be doing things like this throughout the adventure. But this adventure seems to make an awesome quest to use as a backbone to your campaign.
I've noticed this adventure is basically full of "main ideas" and the DM will need to add a lot of "in betweens" to turn it into a solid adventure. So, the book gives you scenario A that happens in location A, and then it tells you to go to location B so you can play out scenario B. But there is no solid information on what can happen while in location A or B other than the main objective. There's also no details on what happens while going from location A to B.
For example, you travel to a plane in search of information or to track someone down. The book just tells you, "When you arrive on the plane, you are confronted by the Bad Guy and you find out about who did what." It doesn't give you any idea about how far you travel until you find the bad guy, or how to spice up the travel so you aren't just telling the players, "You exit the portal and travel across a desert until you spot the Bad Guy".
So if you want to make things more interesting, you need to read up on other Planescape material about planar locations and creatures that live there. Then you'll need to come up with ideas to throw into the game to spice up those holes.
I have several ideas for other published adventures to throw into Dead Gods. Mostly I'll be picking portions out of the adventures and changing NPC's around. So far, I've spiced up the first chapter in Dead Gods by making the raiding Khaasta under the control of a Neogi. When the PC's chase them across the Outlands, I might be using a swamp side quest from a Dungeon magazine to spice up that journey. Then, instead of the PC's going to the Khaasta's village from Yggdrasil as described in the book, the portal on Yggdrasil takes them to the Beastlands where the Neogi/Khaasta reach the rest of their main caravan, the Colossal Kadtanach beast from Dungeon magazine #100. I'll be running the Beast of Burden quest out of that magazine and changing the Knolls to Khaasta and throwing in a bunch of Neogi slavemasters.
I'll be doing things like this throughout the adventure. But this adventure seems to make an awesome quest to use as a backbone to your campaign.
Oryan77 said:
I bought this adventure from RPGNow, and this was the part of Planescape that was left altogether unexplained. Even adventures that take place completely on the material plane address the issue of how characters know about going from point A to point B. Is it assumed that the party has a working knowledge of all the portals they need to get around in the adventure?
Oryan77
Adventurer
It's been several months since I finished reading the adventure, so I don't remember much about the explanation of portal hopping in the adventure. I can't remember if it even explained where PC's find all of the portals and how to activate them, or if it just says, "PC's will need to get to Pandemonium". But a DM can make that stuff up really easy. The hard part is figuring out how the PC's will find that info.Felon said:
Tricks you can use to do this are things like, making a portal work both ways. If the PC's figure out how to open the portal once, they can go back to it when they are ready to leave. Then they don't need to find another portal just to leave that plane. Use that when they go to a Material Plane. Or, when they go to a place like the Vault of the Drow, maybe they can meet an NPC down there that can send them back to whatever plane they want to go to when they are done with the Drow scenario. You can also let them find scrolls that allow planar travel. On the planes, it's common to find people that sell information about known portals. So PC's could plan ahead by buying information.
Garboshnik
First Post
The adventure usually suggests a way to get somewhere but notes that it is a long trek and encourages the DM to add stuff to the trip. I have been spacing Dead Gods out with custom adventures as well as some from the Great Modron March. That module can get a bit railroady at times...
eric mcloins
First Post
Ran the first part one time, the second part two times.
Both times were a blast, but I do like story driven adventures.
This one, along with infinite staircase is my favorite D&D adventure.
Both times were a blast, but I do like story driven adventures.
This one, along with infinite staircase is my favorite D&D adventure.
Anthraxus
Explorer
It was a very good read. I've never had a chance to run it, or The Great Modron March before it. Probably never will, either. 
I told a couple of friends about some of the stuff in it. We had a bit of fun with a couple things I told them about one "rumor" section. "There was a prince of Elemental Oozes?!?!"
Ah, poor Bwimb.
I told a couple of friends about some of the stuff in it. We had a bit of fun with a couple things I told them about one "rumor" section. "There was a prince of Elemental Oozes?!?!"
Ah, poor Bwimb.
an_idol_mind
Explorer
My group totally botched the chance to destroy the Wand of Orcus. The magic-user found out about the ritual to send it beyond the planes at the cost of his own life, but didn't want to die. So he finished most of the ritual and confronted Tenebrous himself with the bluff that he had his own Last Word -- a word that would destroy the wand and this doom Tenebrous. The bludd worked, and the two agreed to meet in a neutral space. Unfortunately for Tenebrous, the "neutral space" actually ended up transporting the whole party to Mount Celestia, where the mage and Tenebrous both landed in the waters. The mage threw the wand as deep as possible, and Tenebrous died trying to retrieve it. The mage himself drowned, but was revived by the remaining party.
A very, very fun adventure, although it played out very differently from what the module intended.
A very, very fun adventure, although it played out very differently from what the module intended.
Probably my favourite adventure either. I ran a 9 year Planescape campaign involving a bunch of custom modules, interspersed with some of the stand alones (Harbinger House, Well of Worlds, ran them through the Great Modron March, and finally through Dead Gods.
Fantastic, with some really creepy places like Tcian Sumere and the lost planet of Moil. I think we still have to finish the last part of the adventure, when the PCs go to the Astral......the campaign ended with the characters capturing the Rod of Orcus, and realizing they would be hunted to the ends of existence. To keep it out of his hands, they ended up getting themselves hipped on the Prime. One of the characters, a dwarven monk, offered to sacrifice himself, but the party didn't want to abandon him, so they all escorted the Rod through a malfunctioning one-way portal to the Rainward Isles of Taladas, where they became trapped in the Age of Mortals, with malfunctioning magic, and portals back to the planes that were unreliable or inaccessible. The intent was to throw the Rod into the burning sea of Hitehkel, with the intent of destroying it.
That was when the campaign ended, with the characters feeling they might never be able to return.
The intent was that after running another game for a while, we'd revisit the campaign, with the action of getting to the Burning Sea, possibly dealing with a Dragon Lord, and eventually, years afterwards, being able to return to the planes, to deal with Tenebrous' corpse on the Astral.
Unfortunately, the group dissolved, so I don't think it will ever be resolved.
Banshee
Fantastic, with some really creepy places like Tcian Sumere and the lost planet of Moil. I think we still have to finish the last part of the adventure, when the PCs go to the Astral......the campaign ended with the characters capturing the Rod of Orcus, and realizing they would be hunted to the ends of existence. To keep it out of his hands, they ended up getting themselves hipped on the Prime. One of the characters, a dwarven monk, offered to sacrifice himself, but the party didn't want to abandon him, so they all escorted the Rod through a malfunctioning one-way portal to the Rainward Isles of Taladas, where they became trapped in the Age of Mortals, with malfunctioning magic, and portals back to the planes that were unreliable or inaccessible. The intent was to throw the Rod into the burning sea of Hitehkel, with the intent of destroying it.
That was when the campaign ended, with the characters feeling they might never be able to return.
The intent was that after running another game for a while, we'd revisit the campaign, with the action of getting to the Burning Sea, possibly dealing with a Dragon Lord, and eventually, years afterwards, being able to return to the planes, to deal with Tenebrous' corpse on the Astral.
Unfortunately, the group dissolved, so I don't think it will ever be resolved.
Banshee
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