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Corruption in Kryptgarden
- Thread starter Raddu
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smerwin29
Reluctant Time Traveler
5 out of 5 rating for Corruption in Kryptgarden
A review of any RPG adventure has to take into account the goals of the adventure and the fact that GMs deliver the product. Players who rate an adventure they have only played are rating the DM, the experience, and other factors--only someone who has read an adventure can really rate the adventure as an adventure.
As a GM of this event at GenCon and FanExpo Canada, I feel it was a fine initial foray into the large-scale interactive event. Knowing the difficulties of writing such an event, I can say the author did a great job of creating a fun story while at the same time introducing interactive elements. The fact that such a huge event even happened was amazing. The fact that it ran as smoothly as it did is a testament to the author and the AL staff. I have seen much, much smaller interactive events run much, much less smoothly than this did.
A review of any RPG adventure has to take into account the goals of the adventure and the fact that GMs deliver the product. Players who rate an adventure they have only played are rating the DM, the experience, and other factors--only someone who has read an adventure can really rate the adventure as an adventure.
As a GM of this event at GenCon and FanExpo Canada, I feel it was a fine initial foray into the large-scale interactive event. Knowing the difficulties of writing such an event, I can say the author did a great job of creating a fun story while at the same time introducing interactive elements. The fact that such a huge event even happened was amazing. The fact that it ran as smoothly as it did is a testament to the author and the AL staff. I have seen much, much smaller interactive events run much, much less smoothly than this did.
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4 out of 5 rating for Corruption in Kryptgarden
Corruption in Kryptgarden was a ton of fun but it was hectic. I played the adventure at Gen Con 2014 via the All Access morning pass. I came away with a sense of being in a whirlwind and didn't know quite what to think at the time. It was pretty awesome feeling being a room with a couple of hundred other players playing the same scenario. Richard Marflak was my DM and did an outstanding job judging the table. I really like the cooperative aspect of the Epic event and that your tables results contributed to the overall success (or failure) of the event. I really enjoyed the room wide events that happened as the adventure unfolded. The one I remember the best is when the dragon would make attack runs and each table to had to fend him off and tally up enough damage collectively to defeat the threat. As awesome as it was being in a room of a few hundred gamers tends to make it hard to hear and coupled with everyone being new to the system the pacing was a little too fast to fully enjoy all of the parts of the adventure. We also had to periodically report our progress to the judge captain so he could tally the result of our section. At times trying to make sure we got through the adventure, reported our progress and paid attention to the periodic announcements from HQ made it hard to keep track of everything and complete all of our parts on time. There was one particular section that we ran out of time to complete and had to move on. Also, being the first Epic of the Adventurers League line of adventures and being the first time it was played there was a feeling of kicking the tires and working out the kinks. I think the biggest overall improvement that could have been done for my session would be a better placed sound system. Most of the side tables didn't get any direct sound so it was hard to hear the HQ announcements that were important to the scenario. Overall Baldman Games, Wizards, and other the other team members put on a heck of a show and made my first Gen Con experience one to remember and will bring me back for more in the future. I do hope that the Epic is made available at some point for smaller venues to run. I am pretty sure we could get interest in my area to put it on.
Corruption in Kryptgarden was a ton of fun but it was hectic. I played the adventure at Gen Con 2014 via the All Access morning pass. I came away with a sense of being in a whirlwind and didn't know quite what to think at the time. It was pretty awesome feeling being a room with a couple of hundred other players playing the same scenario. Richard Marflak was my DM and did an outstanding job judging the table. I really like the cooperative aspect of the Epic event and that your tables results contributed to the overall success (or failure) of the event. I really enjoyed the room wide events that happened as the adventure unfolded. The one I remember the best is when the dragon would make attack runs and each table to had to fend him off and tally up enough damage collectively to defeat the threat. As awesome as it was being in a room of a few hundred gamers tends to make it hard to hear and coupled with everyone being new to the system the pacing was a little too fast to fully enjoy all of the parts of the adventure. We also had to periodically report our progress to the judge captain so he could tally the result of our section. At times trying to make sure we got through the adventure, reported our progress and paid attention to the periodic announcements from HQ made it hard to keep track of everything and complete all of our parts on time. There was one particular section that we ran out of time to complete and had to move on. Also, being the first Epic of the Adventurers League line of adventures and being the first time it was played there was a feeling of kicking the tires and working out the kinks. I think the biggest overall improvement that could have been done for my session would be a better placed sound system. Most of the side tables didn't get any direct sound so it was hard to hear the HQ announcements that were important to the scenario. Overall Baldman Games, Wizards, and other the other team members put on a heck of a show and made my first Gen Con experience one to remember and will bring me back for more in the future. I do hope that the Epic is made available at some point for smaller venues to run. I am pretty sure we could get interest in my area to put it on.
5 out of 5 rating for Corruption in Kryptgarden
I DMd this at GenCon and I thought it was very well done from a writing standpoint. It has got to be a challenging assignment to write an adventure for that many people to be run concurrently with each other and at the same time affecting each other. Very creative mechanics. I would have run things a little different at the start than they did at GenCon. I would have had the entire first read-aloud section of "A Meeting in the Woods" run from the HQ station with a mic addressing everyone, and then let the DM dive in with the players individually as they begin to seek out individual NPCs. That would have really added to the atmosphere of the Faction leaders addressing the players as if they were the adventurers about to go into battle. That's a small thing though. Each of the tracks were very creative and unique. I ran the Necromancer Track and it was very challenging for the players. I also played the Leader and Fey tracks in a slot zero before the Con. The Fey track was incredibly rich and interesting. It might have been cool for the Faction Champion table to be its own little adventure, but it still worked. The Dragon roaming the skies and descending on people was cool and reminded me of Candle Keep. My only other criticism with the adventure had to do with how it was run and not with the writing. At GenCon they formed tables and seated them and the tables began play immediately. Well it took about 30-40 minutes to get everyone seated. I was the very last table seated, so when we started, many tables were well into the second section. This made my table and the others near us feel like their outcomes didn't matter as much, particularly towards the end when it's supposed to be the most exciting. Also, the condition flags were not really that visible. There should be nice big colored flags that raise so people can see them. All of that is fluff, but it really adds to the experience, so I would suggest having all table start at the same time and give the flags some thought before hand. All of that is aside from the writing, but because this is such a huge group experience, it does matter, so consider that if running it. All said though, this was an outstanding adventure that lived up to Teos' previous Vault of the Dracolich offering. A+
I DMd this at GenCon and I thought it was very well done from a writing standpoint. It has got to be a challenging assignment to write an adventure for that many people to be run concurrently with each other and at the same time affecting each other. Very creative mechanics. I would have run things a little different at the start than they did at GenCon. I would have had the entire first read-aloud section of "A Meeting in the Woods" run from the HQ station with a mic addressing everyone, and then let the DM dive in with the players individually as they begin to seek out individual NPCs. That would have really added to the atmosphere of the Faction leaders addressing the players as if they were the adventurers about to go into battle. That's a small thing though. Each of the tracks were very creative and unique. I ran the Necromancer Track and it was very challenging for the players. I also played the Leader and Fey tracks in a slot zero before the Con. The Fey track was incredibly rich and interesting. It might have been cool for the Faction Champion table to be its own little adventure, but it still worked. The Dragon roaming the skies and descending on people was cool and reminded me of Candle Keep. My only other criticism with the adventure had to do with how it was run and not with the writing. At GenCon they formed tables and seated them and the tables began play immediately. Well it took about 30-40 minutes to get everyone seated. I was the very last table seated, so when we started, many tables were well into the second section. This made my table and the others near us feel like their outcomes didn't matter as much, particularly towards the end when it's supposed to be the most exciting. Also, the condition flags were not really that visible. There should be nice big colored flags that raise so people can see them. All of that is fluff, but it really adds to the experience, so I would suggest having all table start at the same time and give the flags some thought before hand. All of that is aside from the writing, but because this is such a huge group experience, it does matter, so consider that if running it. All said though, this was an outstanding adventure that lived up to Teos' previous Vault of the Dracolich offering. A+
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skerritthegreen
Explorer
4 out of 5 rating for Corruption in Kryptgarden
Awesome, too short
Awesome, too short
4 out of 5 rating for Corruption in Kryptgarden
I DM'ed Corruption in Kryptgarden at GenCon 2014 and had an absolute blast. My players were fantastic (it helped that four of the six came as a group, and the other two were very involved), and my only real complaint comes from the level of prep the DM had to have done in order to play through it. The scenario is broken into three "tracks" only one of which a given group is intended to go through. All three of them were complex in their own right, so not knowing which of the three my team was going to choose left me wasting a lot of time studying up on the other two. But overall the scenario played fantastically and had a real sense of the tables impacting the greater story and other tables in a meaningful way.
I DM'ed Corruption in Kryptgarden at GenCon 2014 and had an absolute blast. My players were fantastic (it helped that four of the six came as a group, and the other two were very involved), and my only real complaint comes from the level of prep the DM had to have done in order to play through it. The scenario is broken into three "tracks" only one of which a given group is intended to go through. All three of them were complex in their own right, so not knowing which of the three my team was going to choose left me wasting a lot of time studying up on the other two. But overall the scenario played fantastically and had a real sense of the tables impacting the greater story and other tables in a meaningful way.
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