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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Composer99" data-source="post: 9247003" data-attributes="member: 7030042">Thanks for your thoughts!In answer toI would say that, yes, much of the in-game activity does not directly relate to answering the crucial question that is settled in play, except insofar as it is putting the player characters in a position where they can answer it.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Partly I think this is a matter of design intent, insofar as WotC wants the average 5e table to be able to run through the entire AP without constant TPKs because it hasn't calibrated combat difficulty.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Partly, I think that as the first adventure path of the new edition, WotC (and Kobold Press, which actually wrote the AP) were still getting their footing on 5e adventure design. As a result, there are several missed opportunities, you might say, for there to be more that is settled in play. For instance, apropos of the coalition-building, the AP could have had some kind of gameplay structure whereby the players determine the outcome of a battle raging outside of the temple of Tiamat (during which time they themselves breach the temple in order to play out the final climax), independent of the outcome of their own struggle. If they had succeeded in coaltion-building, they could see their hard work rewarded!</li> </ul>This is not to say the activity isn't enjoyable, of course - I certainly enjoyed it, as did my players (so they tell me) - only that it doesn't feel, upon reflection, that it relates to settling the central question of the AP in play outside of preparing the player characters for such settlement. ("Everything we've done has led to this moment!" kind of thing.)In answer tothe AP does actually expect disaster to occur if the player characters fail. I'll quote at length from the final page of the text proper:[*] Indeed, during the final battle, if Tiamat is successfully summoned bodily into the world, she spends some time gloatingly devouring the cultists and rogue Red Wizards who made it possible. (That's gratitude for you, I guess.)So yes, the module does tell the GM what happens if the answer tois no, and there is no expectation that the GM is expected to blunt the impact. (Strictly speaking, nothing is stopping a GM from doing so, but the AP says what it says.)</blockquote>

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