Are you playing the War of the Burning Sky?

[Mistwell]

Playing in the 4e version once every other week. So far, best 4e adventure path ever.

Only criticism is that foes sometimes seem overpowered. We get our butts kicked fairly often. But that's OK, feels a bit old-school in that way, and only one person his died so far.

 

[Iron Sky]

I put "not interested", but was really looking for an option somewhere between it and the other ones.

Like many others here, I'm generally not a fan of running APs. Maybe because my group never played modules in 2nd or 3rd edition (or even dungeons for that matter!), but using adventures that other people created is new to our group as of 4e.

We tried running SoW as a kinda roommate-only pickup game, but it generally feels like a chain of battles kinda loosely strung together. We made it 5 adventures in without really feeling any attachment to what was going on.

I also tend to find pre-made worlds/adventures difficult for two somewhat conflicting reasons:

1) If I'm going to run them, I want to run them "by the book" - get every detail exactly right and not stray outside the lines so I'm not "cheating"

2) Have free reign to make up my own stuff, throw in new creative stuff I find interesting, world build on the fly, stuff like that.

1 + 2 = AP difficulties. I can handle it for a random pickup adventure with "throw away" characters, but when it gets to be campaign setting scope or AP length, I just get sick of trying to stick with 1) and create a new campaign world to indulge in 2).


That said, I've heard enough good about Scales of War that I'm vaguely interested in trying it (especially since my roommate is a EN subscriber and has access to it), but I'm already running a game that just hit Paragon and our other DM (my roomie) is restarting his mid-Paragon game, so even if we did want to try it, neither of us would be up for it until we finish up our campaigns first.

Playing in the 4e version once every other week. So far, best 4e adventure path ever.

Only criticism is that foes sometimes seem overpowered. We get our butts kicked fairly often. But that's OK, feels a bit old-school in that way, and only one person his died so far.

For me, those are both positive notes.

 

[RangerWickett]

That said, I've heard enough good about Scales of War that I'm vaguely interested in trying it

War of the Burning Sky, you mean?

Originally we were going to call it Scourge of the Burning Sky, but thankfully WotC came out with "Scourge of the Howling Horde," so we switched to the better "War." And then WotC has their own AP with war in it now. I guess y'can't win.

 

[Morrus]

War of the Burning Sky, you mean?

Originally we were going to call it Scourge of the Burning Sky, but thankfully WotC came out with "Scourge of the Howling Horde," so we switched to the better "War." And then WotC has their own AP with war in it now. I guess y'can't win.

We shoulda gone with "Cupcakes of the Burning Sky". I think we'd be safe then!

 

[Kzach]

We tried running SoW as a kinda roommate-only pickup game, but it generally feels like a chain of battles kinda loosely strung together. We made it 5 adventures in without really feeling any attachment to what was going on.

Yeup, same experience I and a friend who DM'd it for another group have had.

It shoots itself in the foot multiple times and never rewards the players for following the plot.

The same can be said about Chaos Scar. Although it has the theme of chasing after meteorites going for it, that's all it has. It's still unconnected, random adventures strung together.

I haven't read through the rest (past module 2) of WotBS but if the rest of the series is as good as the first module, then I can safely say that it's nothing like the WotC AP's. Credit where credit is due, it's not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than anything else (for 4e, I have no interest in 3.x/Pathfinder stuff so I really can't compare or give comment about what's out there for it) that's out there.

 

[Jack99]

Playing in the 4e version once every other week. So far, best 4e adventure path ever.

Only criticism is that foes sometimes seem overpowered. We get our butts kicked fairly often. But that's OK, feels a bit old-school in that way, and only one person his died so far.

For me, those are both positive notes.

Seconded

 

[Kzach]

Seconded

Really? I kinda thought they're a bit underpowered.

Then again, I fly with some house rules that boost PC hit points and decrease enemy hit points so maybe I don't notice it as much.

 

[Daern]

I change every single monster and encounter, mostly cause the monster builder is so fun and easy, but also because I run the "Brutal" house rule (Monsters have low hp & do high damage).
Anyways, the second module is killer, the third seems neat, but the 4th "Mad King's Banquet" (the first paragon mod) looks like a really epic political/warfare scenario. Here's hoping I get there...

 

[Iron Sky]

War of the Burning Sky, you mean?

Yeah, that's what I mean. Oops.

 

[Jack99]

Really? I kinda thought they're a bit underpowered.

Then again, I fly with some house rules that boost PC hit points and decrease enemy hit points so maybe I don't notice it as much.

Nah, I was just agreeing that if they are overpowered and people die, I too think it's a good thing