Malvoisin's War of the Burning Sky - OOC Thread

[stonegod]

Hmm...I haven't played AoW, but I've shyed away from it because I despise the Greyhawk pantheon (the only pantheon real-life or fantasy that I dislike, as an amateur mythologiy buff) and I'm generally negative towards Greyhawk in general, and I've heard it has a lot of ties to Greyhawk. SCAP and STAP seem much more flexible.

Like everything I run, my AoW is in Eberron. It does have a lot of "old skool" references, but I fixed modified those easily enough. "No, its not the rod of seven parts, its the dragonshard of seven parts, duh!

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Thanks for saying (and sorry again for sidetracking this thread). If it's okay, maybe I can pop in again in a month or two to ask again how opinions are forming up? And I'll continue to read now and then, of course.

Side note...I'm running (or, rather, was running 'til our fourth left on deployment) Shackled City. We've since converted what was a tabletop campaign to a short-term PbP fix here on EN World. The group's on the third module in the series, and I definitely agree that the module has its flaws. Still, even so, two of the original five players have been saying all along that their PCs are their all-time favorites. Go figure. If the group doesn't want to continue with the path, I might run WotBS for them. Savage Tide had my attention 'til I heard there were dinosaurs. I guess everyone's got their D&D breaking point, and mixing dinos in with my D&D was mine. Couldn't do it. The pirates part was appealing, though. I was interested in AoW but the kill ratio has seemed daunting. I'd rather the players have the opportunity to get invested in their characters than have to re-roll or raise new ones. I'll be particularly interested in watching how you guys' WotBS shapes up in terms of how often characters croak.

Anyway, thanks again.

 

[Malvoisin]

Thanks for saying (and sorry again for sidetracking this thread). If it's okay, maybe I can pop in again in a month or two to ask again how opinions are forming up? And I'll continue to read now and then, of course.

Side note...I'm running (or, rather, was running 'til our fourth left on deployment) Shackled City. We've since converted what was a tabletop campaign to a short-term PbP fix here on EN World. The group's on the third module in the series, and I definitely agree that the module has its flaws. Still, even so, two of the original five players have been saying all along that their PCs are their all-time favorites. Go figure. If the group doesn't want to continue with the path, I might run WotBS for them. Savage Tide had my attention 'til I heard there were dinosaurs. I guess everyone's got their D&D breaking point, and mixing dinos in with my D&D was mine. Couldn't do it. The pirates part was appealing, though. I was interested in AoW but the kill ratio has seemed daunting. I'd rather the players have the opportunity to get invested in their characters than have to re-roll or raise new ones. I'll be particularly interested in watching how you guys' WotBS shapes up in terms of how often characters croak.

Anyway, thanks again.

Hi, CB!

There's no need to apologize for your questions here, I'm happy to have the discussion. Obviously, I know the first installment of War of the Burning Sky better than the players, since I've read the whole thing, and they haven't (hopefully). Overall, I am happy with the product, and think it is well worth the purchase price. It's a nice adventure, though maybe a little linear in its plot development (although, one could argue that any Adventure Path/Campaign Saga is going to be so, by its very nature...that's another discussion). The linearity doesn't bother me, because as a very busy DM, I like to have a solid structure in place that requires minimal preparatory fuss on my part. You and your players may have different views, however. There are some very interesting encounters, as well as some that I would consider more 'stock' encounters. The adventure does a nice job, in my opinion, of capturing the mood of wartime, and of establishing the different political forces in play. Hopefully, I will be able to do justice to the treatment in this game. ENP has added some thoughtful inclusions to the package, such as unkeyed maps, a B&W version of the adventure for less costly printing, stat blocks collected in a separate document, etc. I appreciate these touches which make it easier to DM.

As for comparisons to Paizo's Adventure Paths, I would say that the first difference that springs to mind is production values. The maps and artwork suffer a bit by comparison to Paizo's products. I don't mean that as a slam, I know there are different budgets at work...but it is a noticeable difference. Beyond that, the jury's still out. As a subscriber to Dungeon magazine, I have become familiar with most of the autrhors working on the Savage Tide, and I know that I can expect great things from them...evocative settings, varied and interesting encounters, memorable NPCs. I like Shackled City and Age of Worms. I LOVE Savage Tide...the folks at Paizo have really found their stride with this AP. It's too bad that the Isle of Dread/dinos aren't your thing, CB, because I really think this a terrific campaign. My only regret is that I can't accelerate the darn thing in PbP, because I know there is so much awesome stuff awaiting the PCs. All of Paizo's APs are challenging, btw, not just AoW. In our Savage Tide, we've had numerous near-deaths...a combination of smart play and luck has helped avoid any casualties so far, but I don't see how that streak can hold up forever.

I have high hopes for WotBS, but it's just too early to say whether it will be able to live up to Paizo's high standard. I'm not familiar with the writing of the majority of the contributors, but I will say that Ryan Nock has started the ball rolling with a really solid outing. Once another couple or so adventures are released, I'll be able to offer more thoughts on the campaign as a whole. I'd be happy to discuss it further down the road.

There you go, I hope that helps you!
-Mal

 

[Rhun]

In our Savage Tide, we've had numerous near-deaths...a combination of smart play and luck has helped avoid any casualties so far, but I don't see how that streak can hold up forever.

Mal speaks the truth...my character has been reduced to negative hit points at least three times since the adventure started.

That said, I am truly enjoing playing Savage Tide. I would definitely recommend it.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Thanks for saying. Malvoisin, your comments are very helpful to me. In almost eight character levels, we've only had one death in Shackled City. The first session, the wizard did something stupid in that he tried to jump an open pit and fell to his death. I don't lay his death at the feet of the module; the player elected to have his character do something unintelligent. We have, however, had numerous instances of negative HP. Going into negative HP makes for a fun game, IMO. I love it as both DM and player.

I let my subscription to Dungeon lapse right before the first issue of Savage Tide came out because I suspected the new AP probably wouldn't be my thing. I'm on hiatus from Dungeon for a few more months and then I'll resubscribe. I probably missed a few other good adventures in the interim, but since I already have a veritable mountain of back issues to thumb through as fodder, I haven't been concerned. Maybe I'll take that 40 or 45 bucks that I saved by not subscribing to Dungeon this past year and roll it over to WotBS.

Thanks again for being open to letting an outsider pop in to query you all regarding this game. I appreciate the welcome.

 

[Malvoisin]

Hi All,

I just wanted to drop a quick line to let you all know that I will be on a brief hiatus, as I travel to interview for admission into a professional doctorate program...Pharmacy school at Purdue University, to be specific. I've been preparing for this for the last couple of weeks, and this has accounted in part for the dip in my posting rate. I'll be back this weekend, so I hope to be able to get something posted on Saturday or Sunday. The following couple of weeks will also be pretty busy as I head towards midterms, but I'll do my best to find some study breaks to post. I miss the gaming when I can't find the time. Anyway, wish me luck, and I'll be back in a couple of days.

Thanks,
Mal

 

[Erekose13]

Good luck Mal!

 

[Rhun]

Qapla' Mal!

 

[stonegod]

Lots a luck and see you in a few!

 

[Rystil Arden]

Good luck with the doctoral program! I just got into mine a little while back.