Session Report - Against the (Frost) Giants

[Storminator]

Truly impressive! I love your recaps. 1) This was some seriously epic conflict and 2) how the heck do you keep track of all the stuff that happens?! Whenever I try to tell a game session recap I keep forgetting various parts.

PS

 

[Manbearcat]

The PCs in my 4e game have gone to the Feywild looking for the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, so they can destroy the Frost Giants who are massing, in alliance with Lolth and the Prince of Frost, to start a War of Seasons that will overthrow the Summer Fey and steal control over winter away from the Raven Queen.

I have to agree, of all the setting books I find Heroes of the Feywild to be a notch above. And all the other ones are quite good, so that is a tall order.

Consider the above overarching conflict. Its pretty awesome on its own even without the minor and major quest system. Now consider that I can think of several PC build components just off the top of my head (at all tiers) that would perpetuate player investment and PC involvement (both functionally from a mechanical perspective and dramatically from the associated thematic hooks) in several clear and focused conflicts that entrench those thematic build components against proper, mystical antagonists such as the Unseelie Fey and the WInter Court. And the canon is of low enough resolution that you can "play to find out what happens" rather than feeling straight-jacketed by canon saturation.

That is what a setting book should accomplish.

 

[pemerton]

Truly impressive! I love your recaps.

truly epic. I loved this recap.

Thanks both!

how the heck do you keep track of all the stuff that happens?! Whenever I try to tell a game session recap I keep forgetting various parts.

I don't remember all of it - I just post the bits I remember (the good bits!).

In this post-4e era, I think of my goal as being to show how the mechanical elements in 4e can be used to play a fun game. That's why I like to write my sessions up in the style of an actual play report rather than a story hour.

How are you enjoying GMing the Feywild material? I'm not a big setting guy but I've found that the 4e folks who worked on it really, really outdid themselves (all of the material, including the PC themes, backgrounds, monster themes, and setting hooks). I find that it truly conveys that disturbing, capricious, beauty and wonderment like no other iteration I've seen. I've loved GMing it.

I have to agree, of all the setting books I find Heroes of the Feywild to be a notch above.

I like the stuff, and I'm probably not doing it full justice in my game.

In my previous session report (linked to in the OP), I said a bit about how I adapted a Robin Laws HeroWars scenario, and I liked how that worked. I'm guessing that's probably as close to a Feywild flavour as I'll get, though. For my players, the focus will be on the alliance with Lolth, and the threat to the Raven Queen's control over winter, and the Prince of Frost and other fey elements will be subordinate to that.

In earlier sessions, stretching back over 20-something levels, there has been the odd bit of fey-ness: hags (twice), and rescuing a statute of the Summer Queen from an island that was taboo to the elves from whom the island's evil gnomes had stolen it (this was adapted from one of the mini-scenarios in Night's Dark Terror, a very good old B/X module). But the fey stuff has always been secondary - lending colour to the main action rather than the main action in and of itself.

For whatever reason, I find myself better at GMing cosmological drama (gods, primordial, ancient pacts broken, etc) than the ethereal mystery of the fey.

Maybe with the fomorians I'll get to do something interesting (or at least try to), but otherwise I envisage the game heading in an Elemental Chaos direction.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

@Scrivener of Doom , thanks.

The last time I GMed G2 was for AD&D, back in the mid-80s. I remember the verticality of the layout being a factor back then, too - I remember the high-level fighter jumping over the edge to escape some giants, because the player knew his PC could survive the maximum falling damage. But you're probably not surprised that I think 4e handles it better. It's not the most deep and meaningful scenario I've ever GMed, but it is visually exciting (at least in the mind's eye!).

Agreed.

I ran G2 in 2E and it was one of the adventures that simply broke AD&D for me. Having to wing the tactical element with absolutely no help from the rules made something that should and could be a lot of fun fairly dry and dull. (It's also one of the major reasons I have no interest in 5E.)

(snip) In this post-4e era, I think of my goal as being to show how the mechanical elements in 4e can be used to play a fun game. That's why I like to write my sessions up in the style of an actual play report rather than a story hour. (snip

Actually, I noticed something very similar with the Acquisitions Inc vidcasts. The 4E episodes seemed so exciting with the players really grasping how the mechanical elements in 4E could make the game fun... and then the 5E episodes came along and it was like watching victims of a forced orchidectomy carefully mincing - and wincing - their way through life thinking they were now going to miss some of the best parts.

 

[pemerton]

Having to wing the tactical element with absolutely no help from the rules made something that should and could be a lot of fun fairly dry and dull.

Agreed that rules should enhance and bring out what is fun and exciting, not detract from it or bury it.

What ticks that box obviously will differ from individual to individual - just as a trivial example, I'm pretty good at mental arithmetic of one and two-digit numbers, and if I wasn't I could imagine the handfuls of damage dice in epic 4e being a pain to work with. Whereas they don't both me, and I quite like the effect of picking up 4d12 or 6d10 to roll damage, and hearing the groans from the players.

I can safely say that I've never GMed a game in which position and movement mattered as much, in combat, as they have in my 4e game. And that's down to the rules. It made the aerial battle fun! Whereas in Rolemaster aerial battles which should have been fun too often became a headache, because the movement rules were too clunky to handle them.

 

[Manbearcat]

In this post-4e era, I think of my goal as being to show how the mechanical elements in 4e can be used to play a fun game. That's why I like to write my sessions up in the style of an actual play report rather than a story hour.

Its a worthwhile endeavor on that strength of this alone. Having a catalogue of posts such as this cannot but help new GMs and new players grok the ruleset and the principles and techniques which underwrite good gameplay.

This is the primary reason that I decided to run a single player PbP on here for 4e. We could have done it via email and just played out the combats at home when we had an opportunity. However, that wouldn't have yielded the opportunity to record, for folks who need some assistance in it, what a functional game (primarily dynamic combat and noncombat resolution using all of the available tools and techniques intrinsic to 4e) looks like "in-situ" nor to collect data on skill utility/potency (albeit skewed data).

 

[cavalier973]

I have to agree, of all the setting books I find Heroes of the Feywild to be a notch above. And all the other ones are quite good, so that is a tall order.

@pemerton, truly epic. I loved this recap.

In which book(s) does one find the Feywild setting detailed?

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

In which book(s) does one find the Feywild setting detailed?

Manual of the Planes and Heroes of the Feywild are the best sources.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Great stuff, Pemerton! I missed your first play report, and I'm now itching to read it.

Sadly though, I'll probably be troll-green with jealousy by the time I'm done! For various reasons, I've never been part of a campaign that's lasted more than five levels.

 

[pemerton]

Great stuff, Pemerton!

Thanks.

For various reasons, I've never been part of a campaign that's lasted more than five levels.

I'm sorry to hear that. I've been lucky to have a pretty stable group for a long period of time - although none of the original members (from undergraduat days) are still playing, I've known all my current players for over 20 years and the two longest members of the group have been regular members since 1998.

This is the 3rd long campaign I've run: two in Rolemaster (1990-97, reached somewhere in the mid-20s; 1998-2008, reached 27th) and now this 4e one (2009-present, just reached 27th). As far as mechanics are concerned, I definitely think that 4e has done the best job of making the game playable across that range of levels, while also allowing the stakes and drama to gradually build up over time.