Q&A about War of the Burning Sky

EN World’s own ‘adventure path’ has generated a fair amount of interest, but I’d like to spread the word to more people. This thread is intended to give people who have seen the banner ads and discussion threads a chance to ask about the campaign saga.

A lot of folks say they aren’t interested in adventures, and I was that way too until I read a friend’s Dungeon magazine and saw all sorts of cool ideas to scavenge for my own campaign. I got a subscription. So even if you don’t usually buy adventures, I encourage you to indulge your curiosity.

Now, instead of me telling you up front all there is to know about the adventure series, which is boring and might miss whatever it is that most interests you (and would likely get this thread moved to the press releases forum), I’m going to start with a nice little gallery of covers, and then just respond to your questions.

Adventure One - The Scouring of Gate Pass
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Adventure Two - The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar
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Adventure Three - Shelter from the Storm
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Adventure Four - The Mad King's Banquet
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Adventure Five - Mission to the Monastery of Two Winds
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Adventure Six - Tears of the Burning Sky
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Adventure Seven - The Trial of Echoed Souls
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(The covers for adventures 8, 10, 11, and 12 aren't ready quite yet, but here's the cover for adventure 9, my favorite so far.)

Adventure Nine - The Festival of Dreams



I hope y'all have some questions.

Honestly, I have heard ALOT of great things about what you guys have been doing with the WotBS Campaign. It is the next thing on my chopping block (a good thing ), after the current campaign I am running comes to an end. Altho that may be awhile.

A few questions, what was your main focus for this campaign saga? What has been the most fun/interesting part about being the Director?

Cheers,
E

edit: BTW, LOVE the cover art!!

Originally I had two main goals for WotBS.

First, we wanted to give people what they were asking for. I had read a lot of people saying that for Paizo's next adventure path they wanted enemies who were human, not gods or demon lords, and that a war would be a cool idea for a campaign. Since I already had a story in mind that had those things, I pitched the idea to Morrus, and he was all for it.

Second, E.N. Publishing hadn't released many products in 2006 due to various real-world issues cropping up, so we thought an impressive flagship product line would get us going strong again. It seems to be doing well so far. *grin*

(And third, I suppose as a personal desire, honestly I was hoping to create a nice portfolio I could show to publishers, like Paizo or WotC, the next time they had a job opening. )

How are the mass battles resolved?

Do the adventures include some kind of resolution mechanic, or it is all just narrative in the big picture with the PCs affecting a small area of the battle around them? Or something else?

So far the approach has been more of the 'PCs affecting their own part of the battle' rather than directing a large-scale conflict, though that's not entirely by design. In adventure three, I created a greatly pared-down version of Wulf Ratbane's mass combat system from Bad-Axe Games's "Grim Tales" to create a mini-game, representing a sort of strategy game called Conquest, which a retired general plays. If the heroes play well against him, they can gain his favor in some political dealings during that adventure.

My intention was to then move to the more detailed version in adventure 4, which would represent actually directing units in battle. However, the original author wasn't able to finish in time, so the adventure didn't get turned in for editing as early as I wanted, which meant I didn't have a chance to work that element in. For now that's alright, I suppose, since the heroes weren't really in a role yet that lends itself to commanding large units, but I still regret not getting it in there.

My original intention was to have a nice integration of small-unit tactics (30 or so to a side) and individual battles with just the PCs vs. a few 'bosses.' As is, in the big army vs. army battle of the 4th adventure, the heroes get a unit of 30 or so soldiers to aid them in holding part of a defensive line, and that many NPCs gets a little unwieldy in actual play.

We should have more lead time for the future adventures that have large-scale battles, so I hope to be able to use my original plan for the next big battle, which will be in the 8th adventure. Especially since, by that point, the heroes should be in a position to actually be commanding a battalion of their own.

(Of course, that one's coming out in August, so with my luck Gen Con will muck everything up. )

My issue with adventure paths is the linear nature of them. You said on the main WotBS page that there will be side quests and other stand alone adventures also published, which sounds great to me, but how essential is it for the PCs to run each adventure is the series? Could some be skipped because the PCs go off and do something else and then pick it up again with a later adventure without really messing things up?

I like the cover art for Episode 9. It's reminscent of Mardi Gras.

My personal favorite peice of cover art is from #2. The stag is very dramatic and you get a real sense of motion, especially on the full size peice that actually gets printed on the cover.

I havn't gotten around to running any of the WoTBS adventures for my group yet (hopefully I will in the next couple weeks) but I've read everything that's made it out so far and loved it. There are multiple ways to accomplish even short term goals, and though the plot is relatively linear it doesn't seem to feel that way since just about anything I can think of that the PC's could come up with is planned for. Really I'm not changing much except for a few stat blocks and classes for various NPC's since I can use stuff from all the different splatbooks without worrying about getting sued by WoTC .

Thornir Alekeg said:

My issue with adventure paths is the linear nature of them. You said on the main WotBS page that there will be side quests and other stand alone adventures also published, which sounds great to me, but how essential is it for the PCs to run each adventure is the series? Could some be skipped because the PCs go off and do something else and then pick it up again with a later adventure without really messing things up?

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Well, we don't have any sidequests yet. There are ideas presented in the GM's campaign guide pdf, but it takes more time to make one of these things than I expected, what with 'real' jobs taking up our time. *grin* So while I'd like to go back and make some sidequests along the way, if they do happen, they'll be short, like one-shots.

You certainly don't have to run all 12 adventures, and my intention is to make each one of them able to stand on its own. Also, in the GM's campaign guide (which is a free download, by the way), we suggest how to use the campaign in 4- or 5-adventure blocks. You can just use the first four adventures, shifting focus and geography a little bit so that the war has a much smaller scale. Or you can do from 4 to 8, where the goal is to find the dead emperor and get him raised so he can bring the war to an end. Or you can just do the high-level ones, from 8 to 12, which is the earth-shaking fate-of-the-world stuff, though it lacks some of the pay-off you get from playing them all.

If you only run some of them and not the others, that's the main drawback -- you don't get as much pay-off. Skip adventure 2, and when you get to #5 there isn't as much of an "Aha" moment. Skip the first one, which starts in a city under assault, and when you get to #9 it won't be as cool to go back and liberate that city with all your high-level bad-assitude. However, if you do skip one or two, you can assume that other folks are accomplishing the missions the heroes would have been a part of.

Also, the timeline isn't set, so if your group wants to go off and deal with a PC's backstory, things aren't happening at such a frenetic pace that it would be impossible for the heroes to come back.

If the adventures are 'linear' in any way, it's that there are secrets which are revealed over the course of the campaign, and certain objectives that drive the larger events of the war. In general, a given adventure isn't about winning a single battle, but rather doing those things that will help turn the tide in the favor of your side: get the secret information to the resistance; stop a plot to devastate the allied side with a magical attack, gain the allegiance of a nation in order to hold back an enemy army; recover an artifact that will let you strike at your enemy's heart; kill the heart.

First: throroughly enjoying the Campaign so far. Kudo to everyone involved.

My question is (hopefully) a simple one:

Is there a "Default" pantheon of Deities for the campaign?

For instance, I noticed in Adventure 1 ("Scouring of Gate Pass") that Torrent is listed as a Cleric of a "Water Deity".

Is it expected that most people will place her under the purview of Obod-Hai (who seems to be the most applicable deity from the core book)?

Or is there some "other" Pantheon expected to be in use?