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Rime of the Frostmaiden Post-Mortem (Spoilers)
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<blockquote data-quote="lluewhyn" data-source="post: 8518651" data-attributes="member: 6887379"><p>Sorry to hear that your campaign went so poorly. I think having the start of a near-TPK probably put a damper on things that made it hard to recover from.</p><p></p><p>I've ran three sessions so far, and the PCs are having a blast. However, it's because I read a number of reviews, scrolled through the number of common complaints, and also noticed some things I wanted to change myself.</p><p></p><p>First off, the PCs started at level 2. Lot of complaints about poorly balanced encounters, but I think a large part of this problem is that the adventure is poorly balanced for level <em>1 </em>characters. My PCs likewise started with Foaming Mugs and had a reasonable challenge. At level 2, they had double the HP, the Ranger was able to cast Speak with Animals on the Polar Bears, and the Fighter had Action Surge. Even still, the they probably collectively took about 40-50 points of damage from the encounter despite some optimal tactics.</p><p></p><p>The adventure as a whole has a lot of neat little parts, but there's little connective tissue between them, which is probably one area where the DM will have to put in the most work. I've discovered that most 5E modules tend to have poor frameworks that will give PCs a bad experience unless the GM polishes them a bit.</p><p></p><p>What I've done:</p><p>1. Instead of the adventure starting two YEARS into the Rime, I've started it two MONTHS, which is where it's been long enough that people are starting to lose hope but not so long that virtually all wildlife should be dead and any humans long since fled to the south (yeah, there are snow-covered passes but compared to the alternative hellscape that the IWD would be with this weather AND monthly sacrifices by your neighbors it's worth the risk).</p><p>2. Auril's going to have a little more purpose. Trying to lick her wounds after her conflict with the other Deities of Fury, she is planning on building her power back up to take on the challenges of the lost city of Ythryn so she can gain access to the magical secrets there. Since she gains satisfaction from cruelty to others, the purpose of her Rime is to force all of the Ten-Towns folk to suffer and even turn on each other in hopes of appeasing her, not knowing that her ultimate purpose is to see them suffer which powers up her god juice batteries which will eventually grant her the power to pursue her next step of goals. Any appeasement is thus just a false hope, a cruel jape to prolong the misery and increase the pain of those caught up in her spell.</p><p>3. The sacrifices are thus being encouraged by Auril's followers to the Ten Towns as opposed to originating from the town leaders themselves. Unlike the text, the sacrifices might actually grant a reprieve from the Rime.....for a time. And next time, the sacrifices required will be greater, because Auril (through her followers) wants to make the towns more and more desperate and willing to commit all kinds of atrocities in hopes of appeasing her, which will ultimately fail because <em>their suffering is the goal</em>. This is where the serial killer quest is coming in. Rather than killing people bribing their way out of the lottery (which hasn't happened yet), he's there to off a few selected individuals who might interfere with this plan. For example, when the Zhentarim speaker of Targos didn't immediately reject the suggestions made by one of Auril's Druids, a couple of townsfolk plotted to warn the Speaker of Bryn Shander and some of the other towns know about this development. The result was that the PCs found the messenger with an ice dagger in his heart as they were passing by Targos with a convenient letter in his possession that the killer missed. The PCs are already heavily discussing the events going down in the various towns and what the larger schemes are. Before they leave Targos, they'll run into the group of adventurers heading up to Kelvin's Cairn for the climb in case I want to use that plot hook later, and they're also going to encounter Torg's merchant caravan in hopes of them realizing that the murders are taking place at the same places where the caravan is visiting.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, they'll find a town that will start off with one of the weaker sacrifices, such as going a few hours without fire in the night, and the PCs can make their own judgments about what's going to happen next. I'll also be having more obvious links to the Duergar stealing, the Zhentarim taking advantage of the circumstances to try to strengthen their grip, and haven't decided what I'm doing about the Arcane Brotherhood.</p><p></p><p>As written, the OP is right about the adventure feeling disconnected, but you can overcome that with some tweaks to the plot, some foreshadowing, and some inserted plot to connect the disparate elements.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="lluewhyn, post: 8518651, member: 6887379"] Sorry to hear that your campaign went so poorly. I think having the start of a near-TPK probably put a damper on things that made it hard to recover from. I've ran three sessions so far, and the PCs are having a blast. However, it's because I read a number of reviews, scrolled through the number of common complaints, and also noticed some things I wanted to change myself. First off, the PCs started at level 2. Lot of complaints about poorly balanced encounters, but I think a large part of this problem is that the adventure is poorly balanced for level [I]1 [/I]characters. My PCs likewise started with Foaming Mugs and had a reasonable challenge. At level 2, they had double the HP, the Ranger was able to cast Speak with Animals on the Polar Bears, and the Fighter had Action Surge. Even still, the they probably collectively took about 40-50 points of damage from the encounter despite some optimal tactics. The adventure as a whole has a lot of neat little parts, but there's little connective tissue between them, which is probably one area where the DM will have to put in the most work. I've discovered that most 5E modules tend to have poor frameworks that will give PCs a bad experience unless the GM polishes them a bit. What I've done: 1. Instead of the adventure starting two YEARS into the Rime, I've started it two MONTHS, which is where it's been long enough that people are starting to lose hope but not so long that virtually all wildlife should be dead and any humans long since fled to the south (yeah, there are snow-covered passes but compared to the alternative hellscape that the IWD would be with this weather AND monthly sacrifices by your neighbors it's worth the risk). 2. Auril's going to have a little more purpose. Trying to lick her wounds after her conflict with the other Deities of Fury, she is planning on building her power back up to take on the challenges of the lost city of Ythryn so she can gain access to the magical secrets there. Since she gains satisfaction from cruelty to others, the purpose of her Rime is to force all of the Ten-Towns folk to suffer and even turn on each other in hopes of appeasing her, not knowing that her ultimate purpose is to see them suffer which powers up her god juice batteries which will eventually grant her the power to pursue her next step of goals. Any appeasement is thus just a false hope, a cruel jape to prolong the misery and increase the pain of those caught up in her spell. 3. The sacrifices are thus being encouraged by Auril's followers to the Ten Towns as opposed to originating from the town leaders themselves. Unlike the text, the sacrifices might actually grant a reprieve from the Rime.....for a time. And next time, the sacrifices required will be greater, because Auril (through her followers) wants to make the towns more and more desperate and willing to commit all kinds of atrocities in hopes of appeasing her, which will ultimately fail because [I]their suffering is the goal[/I]. This is where the serial killer quest is coming in. Rather than killing people bribing their way out of the lottery (which hasn't happened yet), he's there to off a few selected individuals who might interfere with this plan. For example, when the Zhentarim speaker of Targos didn't immediately reject the suggestions made by one of Auril's Druids, a couple of townsfolk plotted to warn the Speaker of Bryn Shander and some of the other towns know about this development. The result was that the PCs found the messenger with an ice dagger in his heart as they were passing by Targos with a convenient letter in his possession that the killer missed. The PCs are already heavily discussing the events going down in the various towns and what the larger schemes are. Before they leave Targos, they'll run into the group of adventurers heading up to Kelvin's Cairn for the climb in case I want to use that plot hook later, and they're also going to encounter Torg's merchant caravan in hopes of them realizing that the murders are taking place at the same places where the caravan is visiting. Eventually, they'll find a town that will start off with one of the weaker sacrifices, such as going a few hours without fire in the night, and the PCs can make their own judgments about what's going to happen next. I'll also be having more obvious links to the Duergar stealing, the Zhentarim taking advantage of the circumstances to try to strengthen their grip, and haven't decided what I'm doing about the Arcane Brotherhood. As written, the OP is right about the adventure feeling disconnected, but you can overcome that with some tweaks to the plot, some foreshadowing, and some inserted plot to connect the disparate elements. [/QUOTE]
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