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Rappan Athuk 3
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<blockquote data-quote="Listlurker" data-source="post: 2014567" data-attributes="member: 9943"><p>(WARNING! A MAJOR SPOILER FOR THE END OF RAPPAN ATHUK 3 IS FLAGGED AND INCLUDED BELOW, FOR PROSPECTIVE DMs ONLY!)</p><p></p><p>Thanks for the intelligent and well-written review, Damien! Like you, I enjoyed the Rappan Athuk series. It is a mega-dungeon-crawl in all its glory, one which could occupy a gaming group for at least a year (probably two) if they played through all three modules in sequence and explored each one fully.</p><p></p><p>You mentioned that Rappan Athuk 3 can be "quite lethal", as with RA1 and RA2. This is certainly true, and players should bring more than one back-up character to each session, as Rappan Athuk isn't called "the dungeon of graves" for nothing. This lethality is pretty obvious to anyone who reads the cover text of the adventures, so I have no problem with that. Let the players beware! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>You also mentioned being disappointed with the finale of Rappan Athuk 3, saying you found the final confrontation with "The Master" to be less than satisying. I would strongly agree, though not for all the same reasons.</p><p></p><p>(SPOILER BEGINS HERE)</p><p></p><p>I don't know if you altered the ending as written when you ran RA3, but in the text, it explicitly states that the player characters should not be allowed to win (or survive) the final battle. Not only that, but upon dying, characters' souls are to be forever damned with no possibility or rescue or resurrection. I don't know what your players are like, but if I ran this series as written, and spent one-to-two years putting my players through the grinder, only to have their characters automatically lose and be irrevocably damned at the end -- they'd lynch me right there at the gaming table! Nobody expects they should be able to truly conquer "The Master Villain", but to tie the players' defeat to the automatic, permanent loss and damnation of their characters (are the characters' deities weaker than the "Master Villain"? I find that hard to believe!), it just seems too cruel and arbitrary in an ostensibly heroic game. Most players will accept a "clean, fair death". This seems neither clean nor fair, and amounts to a bad ending for all the players' efforts throughout the trilogy.</p><p></p><p>(SPOILER ENDS HERE)</p><p></p><p>So, yes, Rappan Athuk is a fun series in a deadly sort of way -- probably the ultimate example of a classic "killer dungeon crawl" for third edition, but I think a DM is going to have to consider the effects of leaving RA3's ending as written, unless he or she wants to risk being lynched by angry players.</p><p></p><p>Thanks again for a good review, I welcome any comments you might have, as well as the comments of others.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Listlurker, post: 2014567, member: 9943"] (WARNING! A MAJOR SPOILER FOR THE END OF RAPPAN ATHUK 3 IS FLAGGED AND INCLUDED BELOW, FOR PROSPECTIVE DMs ONLY!) Thanks for the intelligent and well-written review, Damien! Like you, I enjoyed the Rappan Athuk series. It is a mega-dungeon-crawl in all its glory, one which could occupy a gaming group for at least a year (probably two) if they played through all three modules in sequence and explored each one fully. You mentioned that Rappan Athuk 3 can be "quite lethal", as with RA1 and RA2. This is certainly true, and players should bring more than one back-up character to each session, as Rappan Athuk isn't called "the dungeon of graves" for nothing. This lethality is pretty obvious to anyone who reads the cover text of the adventures, so I have no problem with that. Let the players beware! :-) You also mentioned being disappointed with the finale of Rappan Athuk 3, saying you found the final confrontation with "The Master" to be less than satisying. I would strongly agree, though not for all the same reasons. (SPOILER BEGINS HERE) I don't know if you altered the ending as written when you ran RA3, but in the text, it explicitly states that the player characters should not be allowed to win (or survive) the final battle. Not only that, but upon dying, characters' souls are to be forever damned with no possibility or rescue or resurrection. I don't know what your players are like, but if I ran this series as written, and spent one-to-two years putting my players through the grinder, only to have their characters automatically lose and be irrevocably damned at the end -- they'd lynch me right there at the gaming table! Nobody expects they should be able to truly conquer "The Master Villain", but to tie the players' defeat to the automatic, permanent loss and damnation of their characters (are the characters' deities weaker than the "Master Villain"? I find that hard to believe!), it just seems too cruel and arbitrary in an ostensibly heroic game. Most players will accept a "clean, fair death". This seems neither clean nor fair, and amounts to a bad ending for all the players' efforts throughout the trilogy. (SPOILER ENDS HERE) So, yes, Rappan Athuk is a fun series in a deadly sort of way -- probably the ultimate example of a classic "killer dungeon crawl" for third edition, but I think a DM is going to have to consider the effects of leaving RA3's ending as written, unless he or she wants to risk being lynched by angry players. Thanks again for a good review, I welcome any comments you might have, as well as the comments of others. [/QUOTE]
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