Anybody played D1: The Crown of the Kobold King? (/w SPOILERS)

[jasin]

Did anybody play this, the first in Paizo's GameMastery line?

I'm halfway through reading it, and unless it takes a sudden turn for worse, it will have been the final straw which got me decided on getting Pathfider.

At first, the kobold silliness (the queen poking out the king's eye with his own crown) had me confused if I was laughing with the adventure or at it. But the sudden dark twist the story takes when the party meets the werewolf girl, and it's background create a true tale atmosphere of an old skool fairy tale (you know, the kind that ends after the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood).

But it was the random encounters that made up my mind. When you find yourself wanting to use all of the random encounters on the table, and when one of them is a 102 hp hill giant, in a 2nd-level adventure... you know you've found something special.

 

[Nlogue]

Did anybody play this, the first in Paizo's GameMastery line?

I'm halfway through reading it, and unless it takes a sudden turn for worse, it will have been the final straw which got me decided on getting Pathfider.

At first, the kobold silliness (the queen poking out the king's eye with his own crown) had me confused if I was laughing with the adventure or at it. But the sudden dark twist the story takes when the party meets the werewolf girl, and it's background create a true tale atmosphere of an old skool fairy tale (you know, the kind that ends after the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood).

But it was the random encounters that made up my mind. When you find yourself wanting to use all of the random encounters on the table, and when one of them is a 102 hp hill giant, in a 2nd-level adventure... you know you've found something special.

Thanks Jasin. I had a great time writing this adventure. Paizo lets us freelancers really push adventures into the places we want them to go and the editors make our work really shine.

If you think Crown is good, wait until you read "Burnt Offerings"...I've seen it, and it is without a doubt the most freakishly brilliant adventure I've ever beheld. James Jacobs is a genius.

I'd love to hear what you think of the rest of "Crown" Jasin, thanks for the kind review thus far.

Nick

 

[physicscarp]

I haven't played through it yet, but I did finish reading it last week. I'm hoping to unleash this on a new group who are relatively unfamiliar with 3/3.5E.

It really is a great adventure, though I'm starting to expect that when I see the name Nicolas Logue in the credits (Excellent work on Quoth the Raven, Nic!). In addition to the things you pointed out, I really enjoyed the encounters with the wounded choker and the lodestone trap. When I first glanced at the section on the choker, I thought to myself "Great. Another choker in a low level adventure. How original." After actually reading the section though, it provided a fun twist on the encounter and allowed for some role playing while deep in a dungeon setting. The lodestone trap is just deadly, and I can see it leading to many TPK's.

It is doubly nice to find enemies within a dungeon which possess some personality. The factions among the kobolds are developed enough for the PC's to take advantage of without getting in the way of the adventure. And how freaking scary is the Forge Spurned! The picture of that is what got me to buy this module before GenCon.

Just so everyone doesn't accuse me of being a Nic Logue fanboy (Have you read Chimes at Midnight folks? ), I'll have to agree about the introduction. In fact, I do think the writing suffered from flipping between tones. Parts of it read as if this should be played as a scary, terrifying encounter while other parts are overly humorous. I also think that the second level of the dungeon was a bit weaker than the first level. In particular, I didn't see the need for the gargoyle and shadow encounters. They just felt like "not-kobold" encounters, which I can easily alter to better suit my desires.

Overall though, I'm extremely pleased with Crown of the Kobold King and if the next Gamemastery Module is this good, I may consider subscribing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I gather the slurk is detailed in this. Any other new crunch?

Is the kobold culture just spelled out in the course of the module, or is there anything written up earlier on? I'm thinking this is mostly going to be an idea source for me, as these guys are too low level to be the kobolds in my campaign. (I'll likely use the Hero Snare for that, when the poor bastard player characters finally invade their lair.)

 

[physicscarp]

Yep, the slurk is given stats in the module.

New crunch consists of writeups for two new monsters (the Forge Spurned and the Slurk), three new magic items and a new weapon. The weapon is kind of the spiked chain for kobolds.

The kobold culture is made apparent through the various encounters in the module, rather than being centralized in one location. You get an overview at the beginning as to who is in charge and what role the named antagonists play, but that is about it until you actually encounter a specific group.

 

[Nlogue]

For those of you who dig on Crown, the Gamemastery Module E1 (Carnival of Tears), which I co-wrote with Tim Hitchcock (he's awesome!) is a loose sequel to Crown.

Thanks for the kind words guys! Glad you liked "Quoth" Carp! I've been nervously waiting with baited breath to hear if people liked Viktor's reappearance or not. Sequels are always tricky. Whew!

 

[jasin]

It is doubly nice to find enemies within a dungeon which possess some personality.

The kobold obsidian scavangers really threw me.

The giant, while he sounds like loads of fun, is somewhat obviously a non-combat encounter, for any D&D player with a bit of experience.

However, the kobold slaves do fight you with their crappy slings, but once the guards are dead, they happily share info and turn into sycophantic (but apparently, relatively honest) followers who call you stuff along the lines of Grand Axe-Slasher.

I like situations like that, where it's not quite clear what colour the circle at the other guy's feet is. (Whether he's "a monster" or "an NPC", for those of you who haven't played Baldur's Gate & co. )

Just so everyone doesn't accuse me of being a Nic Logue fanboy (Have you read Chimes at Midnight folks? ), I'll have to agree about the introduction. In fact, I do think the writing suffered from flipping between tones.

I don't know... I don't think I actually mind it now. At first, I was a bit suspicious at the tone of the kobolod background, but now it seems almost like a deliberate setup for the sucker punch that came with the werewolf girl's story.

 

[jasin]

I'd love to hear what you think of the rest of "Crown" Jasin, thanks for the kind review thus far.

Well, as long as I've got your attention... I'm not quite clear on how the Ossuary encounter (area 14.) is supposed to work.

Are the openings in the back of the niches with the animated skelleton large enough for the skeletons (or the PCs) to pass through? Or do both sides stay on their side of the wall (and get cover when attacked through the opening)? Are skeletons supposed to be able to throw skulls only at a target that's right in front of them, or at anyone in the corridor?

I'm having some trouble visualizing all this.

 

[EricNoah]

It does indeed look like a great adventure. I'm torn -- I just ran my group through a low-level kobold dungeon crawl. Do save this baby for a future campaign, or do I chop it up into bits and use the bits as side-quests or random encounters? Or find a way to turn this into a sequel of what I ran? Decisions, decisions...

 

[Festivus]

I already brought out my choppy knife and carved out a few goodies I really liked from this. E.g. Glintaxe and similar. Thanks Nick, look forward to the next one.

Be sure to keep in touch with that friend with the twisted mind.