Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Malmuria" data-source="post: 8406593" data-attributes="member: 7030755">Perhaps for random encounters, but for me this doesn't really work for scenario design.&nbsp; &nbsp; For example, I am currently running the essentials kit for my nephew.&nbsp; The background of the scenario is that there is a white dragon (CE) who has been pushed out of its territory in North by other dragons, and has taken the fortress of some Orcs.&nbsp; If the dragon shows up, it's mostly to pick off a horse or mule for food.&nbsp; The Orcs (CE) have been forced to &quot;flee into the foothills and forests,&quot; and have been raiding local villages.&nbsp; They have allied with some half-orc priests of talos (NE) because reasons, and the priests want to cause destruction because that's what their religion is I guess.&nbsp; The dragon also displaced a Manticore (LE) that's also attacking people randomly for food.&nbsp; In the dragon's new lair there is also a rival adventure party (NE) that wants to steal treasure from the fortress (unlike our heroes....??).What's interesting about this setup is that you have multiple factions all of which have different interests within an inter-related scenario.&nbsp; What's not so great (again, to emphasize, FOR ME), is that the &quot;Evil&quot; tag doesn't do a lot of work in summing up these interests.&nbsp; The dragon's villainy seems to be that it...needs to eat?&nbsp; It also displaced the orcs, but if that's an evil act than the town and perhaps PCs are also potentially evil.&nbsp; Meanwhile the displaced orcs are just trying to survive.&nbsp; The priests of talos (who are all half-orcs for some reason) are probably the most cosmologically Evil group, in the classic one-dimensional way of evil religions in dnd.&nbsp; The manticore is also hungry (how are Manticore's lawful again?&nbsp; I looked up the entry in the MM and it doesn't read to me as particularly lawful).&nbsp; The veterans are evil I guess because they are bandits?&nbsp; As <a href="https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/2020/05/dragon-of-icespire-peak-review.html" target="_blank">this review</a> puts it, there is potential for all these factions, with their different situations and motives, to create a lot of interactivity for the PCs, who can form alliances and decide for themselves who is &quot;evil.&quot;&nbsp; Instead, the scenario would seem to lead to a series of combat challenges with &quot;Evil&quot; enemies of increasing CR.&nbsp; Again, if a series of combat challenges against Evil enemies of increasing CR is your idea of fun, then go for it.&nbsp; What's more interesting for me are scenarios where there are a lot of factions with competing interests where the PCs can choose who's good, neutral, or evil, and who to side with. The linked review&nbsp; says this better than I can:</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Malmuria, post: 8406593, member: 7030755"] Perhaps for random encounters, but for me this doesn't really work for scenario design. For example, I am currently running the essentials kit for my nephew. The background of the scenario is that there is a white dragon (CE) who has been pushed out of its territory in North by other dragons, and has taken the fortress of some Orcs. If the dragon shows up, it's mostly to pick off a horse or mule for food. The Orcs (CE) have been forced to "flee into the foothills and forests," and have been raiding local villages. They have allied with some half-orc priests of talos (NE) because reasons, and the priests want to cause destruction because that's what their religion is I guess. The dragon also displaced a Manticore (LE) that's also attacking people randomly for food. In the dragon's new lair there is also a rival adventure party (NE) that wants to steal treasure from the fortress (unlike our heroes....??). What's interesting about this setup is that you have multiple factions all of which have different interests within an inter-related scenario. What's not so great (again, to emphasize, FOR ME), is that the "Evil" tag doesn't do a lot of work in summing up these interests. The dragon's villainy seems to be that it...needs to eat? It also displaced the orcs, but if that's an evil act than the town and perhaps PCs are also potentially evil. Meanwhile the displaced orcs are just trying to survive. The priests of talos (who are all half-orcs for some reason) are probably the most cosmologically Evil group, in the classic one-dimensional way of evil religions in dnd. The manticore is also hungry (how are Manticore's lawful again? I looked up the entry in the MM and it doesn't read to me as particularly lawful). The veterans are evil I guess because they are bandits? As [URL='https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/2020/05/dragon-of-icespire-peak-review.html']this review[/URL] puts it, there is potential for all these factions, with their different situations and motives, to create a lot of interactivity for the PCs, who can form alliances and decide for themselves who is "evil." Instead, the scenario would seem to lead to a series of combat challenges with "Evil" enemies of increasing CR. Again, if a series of combat challenges against Evil enemies of increasing CR is your idea of fun, then go for it. What's more interesting for me are scenarios where there are a lot of factions with competing interests where the PCs can choose who's good, neutral, or evil, and who to side with. The linked review says this better than I can: [/QUOTE]

Verification