How much background is too much?

[mmadsen]

As I recall, Aldriv's Revenge had a lot going for it, but a quick read of the prologue left me dizzy.

Now that I have Aldriv's Revenge in front of me, I can say that the prologue takes three pages of tiny print.

To summarize -- spoiler alert -- 61 years before the adventure starts, Duke Aldriv rules Etwerl, and his evil wife, Sondra, poisons him. Nine years later, the oldest of the three sons, Aldriv II overthrows her, with a court finding her guilty of high treason. He curses her, and she literally lives out her life as a malevolent vixen; she's cursed as a were-fox.

Cardor, the second son of Aldriv II, has a secret affair with a common elf, and she bears him a son, Mordeln. Five years later she dies in childbirth, along with that child.

Sondra researches lycanthropy and becomes a bandit. She uses the money to hire spies to monitor her sons. She ambushes Vrand, her youngest son and an adventurer, but her wounds don't turn him into a were-fox; that only works against women. So she kills him. She kills the second son, Bren, by biting his horse while he's hunting. He falls off a cliff, basically.

Sondra realizes that her were-fox affliction slowly turns her into an elf.

OK, that's not even the first half of the prologue. Summarized.

 

[Falcon]

I think Aldriv's Revenge is one of the best module purchases I have ever made, precisely because of the intracy of the background. Modules for me are a spring-board for campaign development, and a way to see how certain levels of play work, or how different designers focus on different aspects. I tend to run story-heavy campaigns, so a module like Aldriv's Revenge gives me plenty of material to weave into a series of adventures. That is probably why I liked the intial Ravenloft stuff way back and think that the SSS is right on the mark with their supplements.

I can gather what I need from a well-detailed adventure/module/supplement and tailor it to what I have in my campaign.

And, I actually enjoy reading all the background stories. The writers who spend time preparing a well-detailed background generally produce the most compelling producst, IMHO.

Context is everything, as we say in Anthropology.

 

[hong]

Sondra realizes that her were-fox affliction slowly turns her into an elf. <----- INSERT PUNCHLINE HERE

Hong "meanwhile, back on the ranch" Ooi

 

[mmadsen]

I think Aldriv's Revenge is one of the best module purchases I have ever made, precisely because of the intracy of the background.

The summary I gave clarifies the first half of the prologue. From there, Sondra takes advantage of her extended elven lifespan to study alchemy and develop a lycanthropy-inducing concoction.

She discovers that Aldriv II has died, leaving Aldriv III and Cardor. Neither has a male heir. Sondra claws Alissa, Aldriv III's second daughter. She dies of the lycanthropy disease, despite clerical remove disease spells.

Sondra magically disguises herself as a beautiful young maiden, seduces Cardor, and slips him the potion. And she claws him for good measure.

At this point we're almost two thirds through the prologue, the plot is plenty complex, and we've introduced lots of odd notions: lycanthropy turning Sondra into an elf, were-fox lycanthropy only affecting women, a woman dying of her lycanthropy, an alchemical lycanthropy potion, etc.

How much of this comes out in the adventure? Or leads to other adventures?