Stormtalon
First Post
Partly correct -- immune to forced movement, and gets to make a save when knocked prone to resist it.
Dark Sun DnD Game Day Adventure Review
Partly correct -- immune to forced movement, and gets to make a save when knocked prone to resist it.
darjr
I crit!
I ran for some friends that I hadn't seen or played games with in a while. Scheduling conflicts mostly.
I took them out with the elf encounter, there were only two of them, and they played the mul and the halfling. I did scale things way down, but it was to much for them.
I did the old 'you wake up striped of your equipment and tied up' thing in a desert camp while the elves pawed through their stuff. I almost took them out again but they managed to regain their weapons and I started rolling really badly. I don't use a DM screen.
They then avoided the pit like the plague and I tpk'd them again with the Templar. We rp'd them waking up in the slave pens of the arenas in some other city. We had blast.
One of the players has every thing for Darksun from 2e, one of everything. He immediately purchased the three 4e books and I gave him the mod and the freerpg day mod to complete his collection. I did forget to give him the rest of the pregens...
I did do the skill challenge in a free form way. There were skill checks but we mostly rp'd the desert trek. I did love how the encounters could be played out differently depending on how well they did things, very cool.
I took them out with the elf encounter, there were only two of them, and they played the mul and the halfling. I did scale things way down, but it was to much for them.
I did the old 'you wake up striped of your equipment and tied up' thing in a desert camp while the elves pawed through their stuff. I almost took them out again but they managed to regain their weapons and I started rolling really badly. I don't use a DM screen.
They then avoided the pit like the plague and I tpk'd them again with the Templar. We rp'd them waking up in the slave pens of the arenas in some other city. We had blast.
One of the players has every thing for Darksun from 2e, one of everything. He immediately purchased the three 4e books and I gave him the mod and the freerpg day mod to complete his collection. I did forget to give him the rest of the pregens...
I did do the skill challenge in a free form way. There were skill checks but we mostly rp'd the desert trek. I did love how the encounters could be played out differently depending on how well they did things, very cool.
Played this on Sat with a first-time DM. Overall I had a lot of fun, primarily, I believe, due to the great group at the table.
My only issue with the pregens was that they just didn't complement each other well. The ardent had buffs that really couldn't be taken advantage and the characters felt like they were built to be used in a long campaign not a one-and-done. More flavor than optimization. Don't get me wrong, I am not a huge fan of min-maxing, but I do think a one shot calls for an optimized build.
The skill challenge was a bit of a yawn, but as I mentioned before the DM was brand new and running a good skill challenge is tough. That may have been a factor. Imo 12 the need for 12 successes just means too much dice rolling. Its hard to RP though a skill challenge that long.
I loved all the combat encounters. The Tembo climbed out of the pit and at one point 3 of the 4 people in our party were unconscious, but we rallied and defeated them all.
My only real complaint is the size of the maps. When the DM unfolded the map I was like Seriously? Half the page was blank. Each of the maps could have been twice the size and would have made the encounters more fun. I get tired of combat taking place in spaces so small that range is never an issue. Imagine that elf ambush if the archers were twice as far away, raining arrows down on you as you fought through the fighters trying to get near them.
My only issue with the pregens was that they just didn't complement each other well. The ardent had buffs that really couldn't be taken advantage and the characters felt like they were built to be used in a long campaign not a one-and-done. More flavor than optimization. Don't get me wrong, I am not a huge fan of min-maxing, but I do think a one shot calls for an optimized build.
The skill challenge was a bit of a yawn, but as I mentioned before the DM was brand new and running a good skill challenge is tough. That may have been a factor. Imo 12 the need for 12 successes just means too much dice rolling. Its hard to RP though a skill challenge that long.
I loved all the combat encounters. The Tembo climbed out of the pit and at one point 3 of the 4 people in our party were unconscious, but we rallied and defeated them all.
My only real complaint is the size of the maps. When the DM unfolded the map I was like Seriously? Half the page was blank. Each of the maps could have been twice the size and would have made the encounters more fun. I get tired of combat taking place in spaces so small that range is never an issue. Imagine that elf ambush if the archers were twice as far away, raining arrows down on you as you fought through the fighters trying to get near them.
Boregar
First Post
I'll admit, I wasn't overly impressed. But I will say that might have been down to the fact that I seemed to be the only one at the table other than the DM's son who wasn't part of the same regular group, so there were a number of asides and in-jokes that I didn't get, and that could have coloured my experience.
But I'll say that I didn't think the adventure felt particularly 'Dark Sun'-like, even though I was playing a Mul, and we were searching for a water source. Now this could have been due to the almost complete lack of role-playing going on, aside from a tiny bit during the skill challenge (which our party pretty much breezed through), but given that we ended up with our templar almost becoming the first person to drown on Athas in centuries, it didn't seem much different to any other dungeon crawl to me.
Now I haven't read the adventure, so this could have been down to the way it was run / played, rather than an issue with the adventure itself. But it didn't grab me as much as I had hoped it would.
But I'll say that I didn't think the adventure felt particularly 'Dark Sun'-like, even though I was playing a Mul, and we were searching for a water source. Now this could have been due to the almost complete lack of role-playing going on, aside from a tiny bit during the skill challenge (which our party pretty much breezed through), but given that we ended up with our templar almost becoming the first person to drown on Athas in centuries, it didn't seem much different to any other dungeon crawl to me.
Now I haven't read the adventure, so this could have been down to the way it was run / played, rather than an issue with the adventure itself. But it didn't grab me as much as I had hoped it would.
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