Ever played the Dead Gods adventure?

[Oryan77]

*Warning, this thread may contain spoilers to the Dead Gods adventure. If you don't want to hear any spoilers, then these aren't the droids you're looking for. You can go about your business....move along....move along.*

I'm currently running the Dead Gods adventure converted to 3.5. I'm just wondering what peoples opinions are on this 170 page adventure as both a DM & a player.

This is always ranked as one of the top 10 D&D adventures of all time. And as I read it and prepared it, it really is a cool adventure. I even added a lot of material to it for the in-betweens to make the adventure more detailed and full. I also felt doing this would provide a lot more flavor to the planes and give me a chance to introduce new planar content to the players.

But we're on Chapter 6 now; right at the point where they first encounter Erehe & Verdaeth, and I gotta say, the entire adventure so far has been kind of a let down.

A big part of it was player/character turnover. So that's no ones fault. But one thing the long-time players keep bringing up is that they are clueless about what's going on. Not knowing what is going on is the main feature of the adventure; they are supposed to be confused about what is going on right up until the end of Chapter 6 (where they are now).

So I'm wondering, was this an issue with your group? Does this make the adventure suffer? I was aware of this issue, but I didn't think it was a problem because it seemed like being clueless would be part of the intrigue & reason for doing the adventure. I kept thinking that when the players got the chance, they'd leap at the chance to try and get answers to all of their questions.

Instead, they just keep waiting for me to railroad them into the next scenario & reveal everything to them without any effort on their part. I feel like all I do is railroad them, not because I want to, but because they wait for me to. When I don't railroad, then it takes them literally hours to decide what to do, and during that time they are complaining because there's no NPC to help them & tell them what to do.

The adventure became more of a let down to me recently because they had it in their minds to kill Erehe (because a Vampire Drow they met for all of 2 minutes told them to) and they still expected to kill him when they finally found him. I hoped that once they encountered the heavily well-equipped Erehe & Verdaeth and saw them mounted on Nightmares, surrounded by 6 Displacer Beasts, 3 Heavily Armed & decorated Drow personal guards, & another 6 Drow Warriors, also well-equipped, they'd realize that maybe killing Erehe isn't the best approach. Plus, they know that he has information that must be very important and that's why they were told to kill him. So I hoped they'd ask him questions since they always complain that they are confused.

But that didn't happen. Instead, 1 captured PC didn't ask a single question when he was being interrogated by them, nor did he even try to negotiate his release, 1 hidden PC almost shot at him with an arrow until the other players made fun of him for considering it, and the other PC stayed hidden to see what happened and complained after the game that I expected them to kill these guys when our 4th player didn't show up to game that day (as if a 4th PC woulda made a difference). Then after the game they all complained that they don't know what's going on in the adventure.

This has seemed to be the norm throughout this entire adventure. I got a bit annoyed and just pointed out their faulty logic & how they keep saying they have questions, yet they never ask anyone questions. I still think it's a great adventure when I think about the story. But as far as actually DMing it, I feel like it's been ruined by my constant need to railroad.

Is the adventure itself a big part to blame for my lack of fun running it? Or is our group (possibly including me) the real culprit? I'd love to hear other peoples experience playing in this adventure, so please share

 

[vagabundo]

It is possible that the adventure - although cool and all - may not be a fit for the groups playstyle.

I've not read Dead Gods, but, in general, I don't think multi-tiered or complex plots work well in RPGs for most groups; it is best to be simple, direct and not to convoluted. Also getting vital information to the players is most important and encouraging them to not just "shoot on sight" if there is a traditional "bad guy" as an NPC.

I've had lots and lots plots flounder due to players just not picking up on subtle hints. Be blunt and have a reward of extra information for those PCs who investigate more.

It sounds like this adventure might read well but not play well.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I kept thinking that when the players got the chance, they'd leap at the chance to try and get answers to all of their questions.

I feel your pain. Unfortunately I am in a similiar situation but I do not have the luxury of being able to blame a published adventure. I am running my own plot that even though the premise is mind bogglingly simple the information and situation surrounding it, or being caused by it, is astronomically complicated and gets more complicated the more the players interact with it.

My poor players have just hit level 18 (started from 1st) and the majority of them still do not really understand what they are supposed to be doing, at least beyond reacting to what ever current predicament they currently find themselves in.

At several points they have had opportunities to ask clever or at least direct questions that would give them answers or insights into the plot but for some reason they either just can't decide what to ask and waste their opportunities.

One of those face palm moments was about six levels ago when the group had just travelled about 600 miles to get somewhere and one player actually said;

"I don't know what we are we doing here"

I suppose I am the only person to blame in my situation as we are all very experienced roleplayers over many systems. It just seems like my group are not really that prepared for investigation or a slow reveal in a Fantasy setting, where as if they were playing Call of Cthulhu that is what they would expect.

My reaction to the players being overwhelmed by the apparent mystery of the plot was to make the next section of the campaign a lot more linear. But this just resulted in too much of a railroad situation and the players started to feel a little constricted, so I am now throwing all caution to the wind, ripping up my preconceptions and seeing where they go and what they do.......

the first thing I am expecting is a whole lot of in character bickering as they turn to each other and say "where do we go now?" but that at least is a start

And I agree with Vagabundo if subtle doesn't work..

Be blunt and have a reward of extra information for those PCs who investigate more

 

[Draksila]

I have to say I'm in the 'feel you pain' camp, myself. The first memory that comes to mind was a murder mystery that a friend and I wrote; yes, there were curveballs, but poking around and asking questions combined with the party rogue doing a little B&E would have made it a fairly short and simple adventure. Instead? The characters all moped around the town drinking and lingering on one suspect without gathering evidence (they were suspects, and so couldn't leave without a fight). They would then complain after sessions that the mystery was too hard and they didn't know what to do. After two sessions of this, my co-DM and I (it was an experiment) decided that we'd had enough of their whining, had the constable attack them 'while resisting arrest' (she was the killer), and had a sit down with them afterward to let them know we weren't going to bother writing out plotlines for them if they were going to just sit there and wait for things to happen to them.

What we were so upset about, and what it seems you're having problems with, is the fact that no matter what you do you're screwed. If you railroad them through the plot, then they complain that they're constrained and have no options. But if you give them a story with branching paths and possibilities, they complain that you're making them think too hard. It's a copout to say it's a problem inherent with D&D; I've run Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms campaigns where the players role-played, asked questions, and were proactive and I've run the same settings with players that were about as involved as unwilling opera patrons. It's a problem with the group dynamic.

The best advice I can give is to go over your methods; maybe record a session and listen to the playback. If you're giving the party leads and leaving them openings and they're just too lazy to run with them, then you aren't going to be able to run intellectual adventures for them. Period. However, if you think you're being a bit obtuse, then listen to what you think you're doing wrong and see if you can try to be a little more obvious with the options you're leaving open for them. Maybe once they see the branching paths a few times, they'll start looking for them.

 

[Oryan77]

Thanks for the comments guys. I think a few of the players fall in the "I'm lazy" category along with your groups. But I also blame most of it on the fact that we have had a lot of character turnover (players leaving & characters dying).

I won't blame it on Dead Gods...I spent too much money on that book to blame it on the adventure

I think I'll try to ride it out the rest of the adventure and then start the campaign over at level 1 and have everyone create new PCs. After giving it some thought, I really think the lack of a lot of character investment is a big part of the blame.

 

[malraux]

I found Dead Gods to not quite work when I ran it either. First, I think the adventure was a bit grander in scale than my DMing/storytelling abilities. Second, I think it really requires the group as a whole be invested in the PS universe, because it tends to jump across different planes frequently. Third, I found that 3e required a bit too much mechanical prepwork, which made it hard to do the story prepping. Lastly, I think the module has some of the problems common to Monte's modules which tend to read really well, but never quite play out as well as they read (at least in my experience); admittedly this could be a problem with Monte's modules and my playstyle meshing poorly.

 

[Shemeska]

I've never actually run it (actually I've never run -any- module), but I happily tore out major chunks of it for use in my own campaign (the dead world of Renais, and Orcus's fortress of Tchan Sumere in the Negative Energy Plane).