got my Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (mild spoilers)

[Shemeska]

Just got my copy today. [On first glance this will obviously be weighted towards what I like because it'll catch my eye more easily. But I'll add to this as I read the book more tonight and get a better feel for it]

The Good:
There's some really awesome material in here. The writing is top notch, and this bubbles with little touches on older lore and nuggets of stuff that expand on some juicy bits of planar lore. The politics of the Abyssal Lords are complex and amusing*

Allowing Pale Night to teleport within Lolth's deific domain, in blatant violation of the fact that Lolth is acting to restrict it... oh my.

Snippets of stuff on Rhyxali. Nice.

I will be using Mirror Mephits this month. No way around it.

Yggdrasil & Niddhog & Ratatosks =

The shifting map of the demonweb pits are a rather nice touch.

I don't find any issues with material for various monsters "not being there". From my look over it this afternoon since I've been home, I don't see any absolute need for books beyond the core trio. Anything that needs to be there is there in the module itself, or core substitutes are offered in a few places where they aren't.

The Neutral:
*if your group doesn't dive into the plot and get their heads into it, you run the risk of confused players. This module isn't for everyone. If you're expecting a rehashed Q1 dungeon crawl, this is not it. However the module does, in my opinion, strike a nice balance between RP and combat. It should fit nicely for lots of different groups' styles, but I wouldn't suggest a novice DM or beginner group dive headlong into this one.

The Bad:
The Sigil image is a cut&paste from the Planar Handbook, as are the city stats (including that book's wierdness with the Lady of Pain).

I just plain don't like the encounter "delve" format. I haven't seen any of the other recent modules to compare it to them, or to have gotten a feel for them, but it'd take me some time to get used to it.

 

[Mercule]

It's not, really. It's just a city where you meet the NPC, again and again. The authors use Sigil because it's an anything-goes city and because you can go anywhere, come back, go somewhere else, come back, etc. It seems like you have your own idea of plane-hopping, and it shouldn't be hard to adapt this to that. As I said before, Baur and Kestrel expect you to alter this to your campaign, and they kept things kinda modular for that reason. The Ysgard side-quest may be more difficult to adapt, though.

So, could you use something like Waterdeep, Greyhawk, or Sharn? Or does it have to be some absurd planar city?

My issue with Sigil is the idea of a somewhat neutral planar city where angels and demons could sit down and have a discussion or where someone could just kick back and relex. The former really only belongs on the Prime, in secret, IMO. The latter, well, maybe Elysium, but only if you're favored by the gods.

On the other hand, I'd love some Graz'zt action. So, could I get this adventure to work?

 

[Mercule]

I just plain don't like the encounter "delve" format. I haven't seen any of the other recent modules to compare it to them, or to have gotten a feel for them, but it'd take me some time to get used to it.

I didn't think I'd like it, either. After reading most of Exp. to Ravenloft, though, I have to say that it is pretty cool. Slot it under "uncertain" and give it some time. You can always move it back to "bad".

 

[Nightfall]

Shem,

I agree with most of your comments but I'll give a more thorough examination after I try running it in my upcoming session.

 

[Felon]

Well, I haven't had the chance to read very much yet, but the main idea is that you have to somehow get the party to Sigil. If the party ignores the elephant in the room, you eventually have to use the church of Corellon Larethian to beg them to get their asses to Sigil.

This makes it sound like Sigil is just another city the players can go run off to. How does the adventure get the characters--who, like myself, are unfamiliar with the planescape setting--acclimated to plane-hopping?

 

[Nightfall]

Felon,

There's always using Beyond Countless Doorways and going from there...

 

[Psion]

So is it true they totally botched the Cambion template?

 

[Nightfall]

You're asking me Psion or Shemmy? Cause I'll be honest, I never much cared for Cambions.

 

[Psion]

You're asking me Psion or Shemmy? Cause I'll be honest, I never much cared for Cambions.

Whoever.

Word has it that the cambion in the preview material had a bunch of mechanical oddities, like a big charisma hit (as if it were beauty), and odd stat modifiers.

 

[Nightfall]

Yes it does have odd stat bonuses (IE like +5 Str, +3 Dex) and the -10 Cha. It's a big hit on Cha.