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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 6276694" data-attributes="member: 58416">I haven't played Ghost of Dragonspear Castle, so no opinion.I felt that Murder In Balder's Gate was terrible; made even worse by being played during Encounters.  Why did I think it was terrible?  I felt as though it was a murder mystery in which none of my actions actually mattered.  I think the concept was cool, but the execution was not.  Overall, I felt as though -as mentioned already- my character choices had little to no impact on what was going on.  That's not a feeling I like to have during a rpg; especially during an adventure in which it's implied that you have a chance to investigate what is going on and stop a plot.  All-in-all, it made me feel as though either D&D isn't well suited to the style of adventure or the WoTC writing staff isn't good at writing that type of adventure; possibly both.  I came away feeling very negative about the game during the weeks in which this was the Encounters season.  It's a shame too because I liked the theory and idea behind the adventure; in the GURPS Supers game I'm currently GMing, the first story arc is a murder mystery, so I can appreciate the theme; it just wasn't well done.  Some day, I might sit down and try running Murder during a home game with Dungeon Fantasy to see if the results are different.  However, right now, I have a very negative opinion of the adventure.Legacy of The Crystal Shard was a saving grace for my continued participation in Encounters.  After Murder In Balder's Gate, I was ready to stop showing up.  Thankfully, Legacy turned out to be (in my opinion) a very good adventure.  It had some nice sandbox elements, branching paths which were engaging, and it appeared to be designed in such a way that I felt as though my actions and what I chose to do mattered.  I had a lot of fun with Legacy of The Crystal Shard, and, as things currently stand, it's my favorite 5th Edition adventure.  I'm planning to actually buy the adventure at some point for use with Dungeon Fantasy (if I were planning to buy D&D 5th, I'd run it with D&D 5th.)  I have a very positive opinion of this adventure.  Scourge of The Sword Coast...  is this the current Encounters season adventure?  If so, my opinion thus far is that it's painfully boring.  There seems to be little to no motivation for my character to be involved in anything.  Some jerkwad noble lost an artifact... I feel like that's supposed to be an adventure hook, but -as both a player and a character- I have little reason to care.  I then went to fight some goblins; as a cleric of war and battle, it was pretty easy to explain my character deciding to accompany a group of adventurers during their mission to fight an enemy.  However, it's been really dull.  Yeah, sure, I've fought a bunch of goblins, and I've fought a bunch of orcs, but the adventure seems like an endless string of encounters with not much of any motivation behind why.  Perhaps things are different during a home campaign in which a group has more time to explore the nuances of the area and roleplaying.  All I know is that it currently seems really really boring.  For what it's worth, I've been mentally comparing it to Mirror of The Fire Demon* because the horde of orcs theme is similar; I'd even go so far as to say the use of a magical macguffin as motivation for an adventure, and a plethora of combat encounters are both similar.  While Mirror does have a few layout issues which bother me, and some things I changed when running it for my home group, I thus far have a better opinion of it than I do of Scourge of The Sword Coast.  However, to be completely fair, one of the obstacles I have when playing Scourge of The Sword Coast is that I have little knowledge of Forgotten Realms... maybe being more fluent in the lore of the setting would help my enjoyment?  I'm not sure; it just seems dull at the moment.  Scourge still seems like a far better adventure than Murder in Balder's Gate, and it's possible that I may -in the future- use it in conjunction with Mirror of The Fire Demon to create a longer story arc, but, overall, my default opinion of Scourge is that it's very bland and boring.*link provided for reference: <a href="http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/dungeonfantasyadventure1/" target="_blank">http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/dungeonfantasyadventure1/</a>So, to sum up...Ghosts... no opinionMurder...  I think I threw up in my mouth a littleLegacy...  woohooScourge...   zzzzzzzz... huh, it's my turn?If the pattern remains the same, the next adventure should be pretty good, but the one after that will be terrible.</blockquote>

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