Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
AL Season 5 without AL
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Burnside" data-source="post: 7247070" data-attributes="member: 6910340"><p><strong>EPISODE ONE: THE BLACK ROAD</strong></p><p></p><p>We started with a little epilogue for LMoP, a summary of their accomplishments and what the consequences of their actions or inactions (such as completely refusing to deal with the orcs at Wyvern Tor) turned out to be. Each player got a customized letter from their faction referring to past events and laying out hopes for the future. I introduced them to what the factions meant, and also the concepts of reputation and downtime, which we've not previously used. Klegg's player presented us with some refrigerator magnets he made to commemorate LMoP (each magnet has a map of a place we visited). </p><p></p><p><strong>The Black Road</strong> is a really well-regarded AL adventure and it's easy to see why. The writing is very strong - the text boxes provide memorable specificity and evocative flavor without running too long, the encounters are varied and interesting, the pacing is hard to screw up, choices matter, and enemies and NPCs behave in a psychologically plausible manner. </p><p></p><p>Plenty of hand-outs with this one. Everybody gets a message from their faction. The Emerald Enclave message arrives in the form of a talking fennec fox, which delighted Millie. The desert environment is very well-described, and the players like their desert gear with face-masks and pitch under the eyes. Azam and especially Hsing the pseudo-dragon were well-received. I didn't dump a bunch of background plot on them from the get-go; they know nothing about the Ordning. The found a statue in Wave Echo Cave; they now need to escort that statue across the desert to the Shrine of Axes in Parnast.</p><p></p><p>First night caravan is ambushed by goblins and we test out how this CR situation is going to play out. Fight was easy, but not comically so. I also did a not-great job with enemy tactics. Party takes a shoot first, ask questions never approach and coup de graces five sleeping goblins without questioning any of them. Arcana checks reveal goblins were carrying a bag of giant toenails.</p><p></p><p>Friendly parlay with Zhentish mercs mid-wasteland reveals there's a hobgoblin toll booth up the road.</p><p></p><p>Great sequence with cloud castle causing a sandstorm. Players come up with some fun ways to save the caravan, including scrambling to daisy-chain the wagons together with rope and using mage hand to lead a panicked camel to safety by its reigns. They manage to save three out of four wagons and three out of four camels, but don't lift a finger to help the drivers, who are all killed except Azam. Klegg vows to find that flying castle one day and "get in there and f*ck them up." I threw in a mini-tornado which threatened to suck the characters into the air, resulting in Tordeck holding the wagon with one hand and Wizma's foot in the other as she nearly blew past him into oblivion. Everyone rolled really well on their checks here except Klegg who was blowing one thing after another. </p><p></p><p>Climax is hobgoblin check point and here is where being fourth level and having some solid magic items made this quite easy at the suggested CR level (hobgoblin captain & three hobgoblins). Another handout here: Bad Fruul's forces have a mammoth skull banner ("It's adorable" - Millie). Wizma used her familiar to successfully scout the tollbooth and learned that most of the "hobgoblins" were straw dummies. Invisibility and spider climb were then used to move the rogue and the fighter into strategically advantageous positions for a possible surprise attack. Tordeck and Wizma tried to sneak within bow range of the main gate, but Tordeck did get spotted and challenged. Rather than pay the 15gp, the players opted to attack (the Order of the Gauntlet players had it in for the humanoids after hearing that a caravan of pilgrims had been attacked previously). Surprise round for Millie and Klegg had the foes immediately back on their heels and two hobgoblins down from a sleep spell. Hobgoblin captain dueled Klegg atop the battlements and did put up a bit of a fight, but with his men taken out pretty quickly the party was soon able to swarm and overcome him. Again, this fight was not comically easy, but given the resources generally at the disposal of the average 4-member 4th level party, you'd have to go max difficulty, rather than "average" if you really wanted to do a tough fight here. Hobgoblin captain had a really sweet pair of <strong>Bracers of Archery</strong> with nice flavor description which Millie now owns. This time, players do interrogate a prisoner but the hobgoblin is pretty disciplined and won't spill much except that they work for a clever hill giant named Bad Fruul. </p><p></p><p>There is a whole bunch of potential content to use if the party opts to either pay the toll or sneak around the roadblock, but that didn't end up coming into play here. </p><p></p><p>Adventure concludes with party arriving in Parnast, statue intact, and meeting priestess Chandra Stol and entrepreneur Ragnar Redtooth, NPCs who will be recurring characters for the season along with Azam and Hsing. They'll get a more detailed look at Parnast next time, when we play <strong>Uninvited Guests</strong>.</p><p></p><p><strong>Rating: </strong>A. The Black Road is a great adventure. If I have any criticism, it's that the recommended difficulty for the fights for fourth 4th level characters didn't really hold up, but I kinda new that going in and it was more on me to have fixed that if I wanted to. </p><p></p><p><strong>Playing time: </strong>About 2 hours 30 at a leisurely pace.</p><p></p><p>Next: </p><p><strong>DDAL5-03 The Uninvited Guests </strong></p><p>Everybody leveled up, so they're now all level 5 and I really will have to enhance the fights moving forward. Klegg is now a Fighter 4, Sorcerer 1 and I'll need to come up with a story explanation for that next week. </p><p>Parnast kinda gets a more thorough description later in the season, even though characters are based there from next episode onward. In particular, there are a couple of sidequests (“Stables” from <strong>Bad Business in Parnast</strong> and Sinkhole from <strong>Parnast Under Siege</strong>) that there is no particular reason to delay, so I'll be making those accessible during 5-03, 5-10, 5-12, and 5-16.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Burnside, post: 7247070, member: 6910340"] [B]EPISODE ONE: THE BLACK ROAD[/B] We started with a little epilogue for LMoP, a summary of their accomplishments and what the consequences of their actions or inactions (such as completely refusing to deal with the orcs at Wyvern Tor) turned out to be. Each player got a customized letter from their faction referring to past events and laying out hopes for the future. I introduced them to what the factions meant, and also the concepts of reputation and downtime, which we've not previously used. Klegg's player presented us with some refrigerator magnets he made to commemorate LMoP (each magnet has a map of a place we visited). [B]The Black Road[/B] is a really well-regarded AL adventure and it's easy to see why. The writing is very strong - the text boxes provide memorable specificity and evocative flavor without running too long, the encounters are varied and interesting, the pacing is hard to screw up, choices matter, and enemies and NPCs behave in a psychologically plausible manner. Plenty of hand-outs with this one. Everybody gets a message from their faction. The Emerald Enclave message arrives in the form of a talking fennec fox, which delighted Millie. The desert environment is very well-described, and the players like their desert gear with face-masks and pitch under the eyes. Azam and especially Hsing the pseudo-dragon were well-received. I didn't dump a bunch of background plot on them from the get-go; they know nothing about the Ordning. The found a statue in Wave Echo Cave; they now need to escort that statue across the desert to the Shrine of Axes in Parnast. First night caravan is ambushed by goblins and we test out how this CR situation is going to play out. Fight was easy, but not comically so. I also did a not-great job with enemy tactics. Party takes a shoot first, ask questions never approach and coup de graces five sleeping goblins without questioning any of them. Arcana checks reveal goblins were carrying a bag of giant toenails. Friendly parlay with Zhentish mercs mid-wasteland reveals there's a hobgoblin toll booth up the road. Great sequence with cloud castle causing a sandstorm. Players come up with some fun ways to save the caravan, including scrambling to daisy-chain the wagons together with rope and using mage hand to lead a panicked camel to safety by its reigns. They manage to save three out of four wagons and three out of four camels, but don't lift a finger to help the drivers, who are all killed except Azam. Klegg vows to find that flying castle one day and "get in there and f*ck them up." I threw in a mini-tornado which threatened to suck the characters into the air, resulting in Tordeck holding the wagon with one hand and Wizma's foot in the other as she nearly blew past him into oblivion. Everyone rolled really well on their checks here except Klegg who was blowing one thing after another. Climax is hobgoblin check point and here is where being fourth level and having some solid magic items made this quite easy at the suggested CR level (hobgoblin captain & three hobgoblins). Another handout here: Bad Fruul's forces have a mammoth skull banner ("It's adorable" - Millie). Wizma used her familiar to successfully scout the tollbooth and learned that most of the "hobgoblins" were straw dummies. Invisibility and spider climb were then used to move the rogue and the fighter into strategically advantageous positions for a possible surprise attack. Tordeck and Wizma tried to sneak within bow range of the main gate, but Tordeck did get spotted and challenged. Rather than pay the 15gp, the players opted to attack (the Order of the Gauntlet players had it in for the humanoids after hearing that a caravan of pilgrims had been attacked previously). Surprise round for Millie and Klegg had the foes immediately back on their heels and two hobgoblins down from a sleep spell. Hobgoblin captain dueled Klegg atop the battlements and did put up a bit of a fight, but with his men taken out pretty quickly the party was soon able to swarm and overcome him. Again, this fight was not comically easy, but given the resources generally at the disposal of the average 4-member 4th level party, you'd have to go max difficulty, rather than "average" if you really wanted to do a tough fight here. Hobgoblin captain had a really sweet pair of [B]Bracers of Archery[/B] with nice flavor description which Millie now owns. This time, players do interrogate a prisoner but the hobgoblin is pretty disciplined and won't spill much except that they work for a clever hill giant named Bad Fruul. There is a whole bunch of potential content to use if the party opts to either pay the toll or sneak around the roadblock, but that didn't end up coming into play here. Adventure concludes with party arriving in Parnast, statue intact, and meeting priestess Chandra Stol and entrepreneur Ragnar Redtooth, NPCs who will be recurring characters for the season along with Azam and Hsing. They'll get a more detailed look at Parnast next time, when we play [B]Uninvited Guests[/B]. [B]Rating: [/B]A. The Black Road is a great adventure. If I have any criticism, it's that the recommended difficulty for the fights for fourth 4th level characters didn't really hold up, but I kinda new that going in and it was more on me to have fixed that if I wanted to. [B]Playing time: [/B]About 2 hours 30 at a leisurely pace. Next: [B]DDAL5-03 The Uninvited Guests [/B] Everybody leveled up, so they're now all level 5 and I really will have to enhance the fights moving forward. Klegg is now a Fighter 4, Sorcerer 1 and I'll need to come up with a story explanation for that next week. Parnast kinda gets a more thorough description later in the season, even though characters are based there from next episode onward. In particular, there are a couple of sidequests (“Stables” from [B]Bad Business in Parnast[/B] and Sinkhole from [B]Parnast Under Siege[/B]) that there is no particular reason to delay, so I'll be making those accessible during 5-03, 5-10, 5-12, and 5-16. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
AL Season 5 without AL
Top