BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
diaglo said:
Fair enough!
Baltron's Beacon - your experiences?
- Thread starter Quasqueton
- Start date
Fair enough!
Henry
Autoexreginated
EDIT:
Oops - Wrong Module!
I remembered it was a UK module, but mistakenly attrib'ed the origin and plot to I7. Ah, well.
I'll just leave this there for when Quas asks about Ravager of Time.
As for Baltron's Beacon, I used to own it, but never used it, and can obviously remember NOTHING about it, except for the sickly glowing green light in the top of the wizard's tower. Shows how big of an impression it made on me.
~H
[sblock]
I owned it, never played it. One reason I never used it back then was that it struck me as a total railroad, assuming I remember it properly.
IIRC, The party has no choice but to walk right into a trap, get nailed by a programmed force cage, and sit there to be drained into old age by a woman with a life-force vampire power. Then, they have to get free, fight a few fights in a decrepit state (there were rules for forgetting spells due to senility, rules for bone breakages, etc.) and trick the witch into giving them their youth back. There were several ways to do it, but the whole setup depended on them walking into a trap, taking it and sucking it up, and then figuring out how to get back to normal.[/sblock]
For that reason, I didn't like it.
Oops - Wrong Module!
I remembered it was a UK module, but mistakenly attrib'ed the origin and plot to I7. Ah, well.I'll just leave this there for when Quas asks about Ravager of Time.
As for Baltron's Beacon, I used to own it, but never used it, and can obviously remember NOTHING about it, except for the sickly glowing green light in the top of the wizard's tower. Shows how big of an impression it made on me.
~H
[sblock]
I owned it, never played it. One reason I never used it back then was that it struck me as a total railroad, assuming I remember it properly.
IIRC, The party has no choice but to walk right into a trap, get nailed by a programmed force cage, and sit there to be drained into old age by a woman with a life-force vampire power. Then, they have to get free, fight a few fights in a decrepit state (there were rules for forgetting spells due to senility, rules for bone breakages, etc.) and trick the witch into giving them their youth back. There were several ways to do it, but the whole setup depended on them walking into a trap, taking it and sucking it up, and then figuring out how to get back to normal.[/sblock]
For that reason, I didn't like it.
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Quasqueton
First Post
diaglo, we all know your stance that everything from 1980 on sucks. Repeating that beleif in *every* friggin' thread gets tiring and annoying. Is that your intention?
Note that I put "early" in quotes in my post. I7 was written for AD&D1, and is from the first half of D&D's existance. Hence "early".
Dungeons & Dragons [current edition] is the one true game. Every edition before was just an attempt to acheive this level of excellence.
Quasqueton
Note that I put "early" in quotes in my post. I7 was written for AD&D1, and is from the first half of D&D's existance. Hence "early".
Dungeons & Dragons [current edition] is the one true game. Every edition before was just an attempt to acheive this level of excellence.
Quasqueton
Quasqueton
First Post
Henry, I don't recognize that scenario. From any adventure module I own (including I7).
Quasqueton
Quasqueton
kilamanjaro
First Post
Quasqueton said:
Henry is thinking of Ravager of Time, which despite the railroad, is pretty fun. In a brutal way.
jodyjohnson
Adventurer
I ran it for my gestalt group a few months ago (party of 3).
The swamp went pretty much by the book. And they ended chatting with the lizardman king for an unusual RP encounter for us.
At the gatehouse they continued the RP with the competing party which was trying to get them to help get their money from the wizard.
Unfortunately I mentioned that a cleric of Hextor was with them and the party turned on the NPCs. A brief fight ensued with the wizard joining in from the top of the tower. Result one dead neutral NPC and one unconscious wizard. The NPC group fled after failing to inflict substantial damage on the PCs.
I removed the trolls, giants, wyverns, and the two entry mobs of the tower since it made more sense that they wouldn't have been left by the other party. I removed the demon and the undead in the dungeon.
The party made their way through the tower incapacitating the guard, and the woman left, not looking for a fight. On the roof they checked out the wizard but then went back downstairs. His imp returned with a CLW potion and the wizard escaped with his life and spellbook.
I removed the 2 McGuffins in the tower (which ended up being a mistake) since I was having a hard time with the wizard being there searching for weeks and not being able to find them (made more sense in 1e since you could only search once ever - and no one would ever think to look in the closet). I moved the McGuffin to the well bottom with the WoW. Unfortunately it took a long time and numerous hints before they delved into the well.
They cleared the basement and the spectre, finding the clues. Searched the entire tower and then finally searched the well.
From there they deciphered the teleport puzzle and proceded directly to the deep dungeon. A few traps and puzzles later they worked their way through the vault doors. 2 good fights in the dungeon, smartly avoiding/disabling all the traps (except the first which they fled from), and then completing the mission.
Upon leaving with the seeds and most of the tower's loot they returned to town where the townsfolk were suspicious of them. The other group had come through earlier and relayed a tale of murder (dead halfling). They were shady enough that it wasn't entirely believed. The party headed back to Demetrios after encountering the other party again. They were asking for their due reward from the tower and recompense for their party death. In a rare move the party made a deal and gave them part of the loot (there was a ton).
The wizard will probably recur in ToEE (replacing Falrinth) and the other party may reappear as a helpful ally later (maybe Slavers which we're doing now, or later in ToEE).
Overall, other than the preemptive strike by the party, the module gave some of the best RP encounters we've had, the traps were a change of pace, and the decreased number of creatures still offered some memorable fights. It lasted us two 6 hour sessions.
In my experience with most of the 1e modules in 3.x you need to axe at least half the encounters and tweak a few tricks/traps, but at the same time I could run the adventure again with a different mix of creatures and it would play again (leave the tower mobs and remove the human NPCs, swap the guardian for the demon, etc.)
The swamp went pretty much by the book. And they ended chatting with the lizardman king for an unusual RP encounter for us.
At the gatehouse they continued the RP with the competing party which was trying to get them to help get their money from the wizard.
Unfortunately I mentioned that a cleric of Hextor was with them and the party turned on the NPCs. A brief fight ensued with the wizard joining in from the top of the tower. Result one dead neutral NPC and one unconscious wizard. The NPC group fled after failing to inflict substantial damage on the PCs.
I removed the trolls, giants, wyverns, and the two entry mobs of the tower since it made more sense that they wouldn't have been left by the other party. I removed the demon and the undead in the dungeon.
The party made their way through the tower incapacitating the guard, and the woman left, not looking for a fight. On the roof they checked out the wizard but then went back downstairs. His imp returned with a CLW potion and the wizard escaped with his life and spellbook.
I removed the 2 McGuffins in the tower (which ended up being a mistake) since I was having a hard time with the wizard being there searching for weeks and not being able to find them (made more sense in 1e since you could only search once ever - and no one would ever think to look in the closet). I moved the McGuffin to the well bottom with the WoW. Unfortunately it took a long time and numerous hints before they delved into the well.
They cleared the basement and the spectre, finding the clues. Searched the entire tower and then finally searched the well.
From there they deciphered the teleport puzzle and proceded directly to the deep dungeon. A few traps and puzzles later they worked their way through the vault doors. 2 good fights in the dungeon, smartly avoiding/disabling all the traps (except the first which they fled from), and then completing the mission.
Upon leaving with the seeds and most of the tower's loot they returned to town where the townsfolk were suspicious of them. The other group had come through earlier and relayed a tale of murder (dead halfling). They were shady enough that it wasn't entirely believed. The party headed back to Demetrios after encountering the other party again. They were asking for their due reward from the tower and recompense for their party death. In a rare move the party made a deal and gave them part of the loot (there was a ton).
The wizard will probably recur in ToEE (replacing Falrinth) and the other party may reappear as a helpful ally later (maybe Slavers which we're doing now, or later in ToEE).
Overall, other than the preemptive strike by the party, the module gave some of the best RP encounters we've had, the traps were a change of pace, and the decreased number of creatures still offered some memorable fights. It lasted us two 6 hour sessions.
In my experience with most of the 1e modules in 3.x you need to axe at least half the encounters and tweak a few tricks/traps, but at the same time I could run the adventure again with a different mix of creatures and it would play again (leave the tower mobs and remove the human NPCs, swap the guardian for the demon, etc.)
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