KotS Total-Party-Kill!!

[Leftahead]

This idea is rendered even more silly given that looking through the module I saw all kinds of roleplaying opportunities for interacting with the inhabitants of the keep, captured bandits and whatnot.

That comment about a lack of role-playing opportunities made me scratch my head, too. I'm DMing the module, and my PCs (we're running with the 5 in the book plus the Warlock from D&DXP Day) blew through the first encounter and proceeded to spend the rest of the session interacting with the various townsfolk, trying to get the Elven ranger to not be such a sourpuss, having some wine with the wizard in his tower, our lady cleric doing tea time with the flower girl, etc.

I suspect that a heavily-invested group who's playing it solely as a sort of academic exercise who doesn't feel the need to flesh out characters they know they won't play again may find it lacking, but just the village itself has dozens of great opportunities for RP. It feels disingenuous to condemn the system whole cloth because one session of a pregen introductory module fell short of a typical mid-long-running campaign session of heavily invested longtime PCs with a system everyone knows by heart.

I LOVE how much easier it is to DM this particular version of D&D, and the ability to uncork right off the bat on first-level PCs is SUCH a huge relief.

(Heh... I'm looking forward to shooting for that TPK! :

-Jim C.

 

[Leftahead]

One other thing...

...I realized is that though the general 'flow' of the module does sort of direct the party towards dealing with the kobold lair as the third encounter, if you're really nervous about that, you can always steer them towards tackling the 'dragon dig' encounter first, a much easier encounter that they'll walk away from with at least one decent magic item, and an XP award for having rescued the mentor NPC, possibly/probably putting them to 2nd level before the big Irontooth encounter.

-Jim C.

 

[JoeGKushner]

...I realized is that though the general 'flow' of the module does sort of direct the party towards dealing with the kobold lair as the third encounter, if you're really nervous about that, you can always steer them towards tackling the 'dragon dig' encounter first, a much easier encounter that they'll walk away from with at least one decent magic item, and an XP award for having rescued the mentor NPC, possibly/probably putting them to 2nd level before the big Irontooth encounter.

-Jim C.

But the mentor xp is only if you went with that thread. I went with the one about the cult activity since it had the biggest payout.

Indeed, if you don't use that thread as the initial hook, is that encounter supposed to happen anyway?

 

[Anguirus]

Indeed, if you don't use that thread as the initial hook, is that encounter supposed to happen anyway?

I used a different hook so I didn't expect it to happen, but my players were being extra-nice to Eilian the Old so I had him ask if they were "friends of Douven's" and tell them about the dig site.

So they did an extra good deed and got some extra stuff...I'm not giving them the quest XP but it helped them out. They still did it after beating up Irontooth, though. (Not counting when the rogue scouted it out the previous night. I decided that just the drakes would be left there guarding, and the rogue wisely decided to slip away and report back.)

As for Irontooth, the players used some solid tactics and I gave them the full three rounds before the second wave. The defenders did their jobs, both falling to Irontooth but weakening him significantly and letting the others finish him off. I did roll pretty badly on his attacks, though, so I'd have to say he should have been made a lower level.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I used a different hook so I didn't expect it to happen, but my players were being extra-nice to Eilian the Old so I had him ask if they were "friends of Douven's" and tell them about the dig site.

So they did an extra good deed and got some extra stuff...I'm not giving them the quest XP but it helped them out. They still did it after beating up Irontooth, though. (Not counting when the rogue scouted it out the previous night. I decided that just the drakes would be left there guarding, and the rogue wisely decided to slip away and report back.)

I'm planning on introducing all three hooks to different players - should drive some more interaction between them, give them more xp to play with and generally up the ante for everyone.

 

[Goonalan]

Used all three hooks, the Priest and Paladin are out to lay waste to the cult. Douven was our Halfling Rogue's mentor and the Wizard was hired to map the Keep, the Dwarf is his bodyguard, travelling companion.

And yes there was bags of role-play in the town, and some excellents stuff at that, my concern is the amount time spent in comabt severely impacts on time spent for insulting each other (the PCs) and insulting the general populace, which is their thing. I don't have roleplay issues, I have time issues.

So I have to report that the session went well, thanks to plenty of help from you people, and lots of prep. The group survived, and enjoyed the experience.

Although they said it was Vandal Hearts the RPG not D&D, their words.

So they did three encounters and a bag of roleplay in Winterhaven, they're just into the Irontooth fight, with a surprise round in stock- after the first fight they got all tactical on me, which they'd never done (particularly) in 3.5e. There were a lot of surprises, the person who didn't settle was the guy who spends his time on MMORPGs but that was more to do with the fact that he forgot we were playing 4e this week and hadn't read the rules, or looked at the pregens.

I worry too much, sorry for all the panic, but without the words of wisdom, and reassurance then it could have been a nightmare.

Thanks (x10).

Cheers Paul

Obviously TPK next week by Irontooth and his mob.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I also used all three hooks. I have a 4 man party and newly created characters. Lots of roleplaying in the village including several attempts to get Ninirian to open up, but ot no avail. So far I ran the first encounter unmodified and I replaced a dragonshield with 4 minions as I reckoned 3 dragonshelds would do them in.
I was right, The dragonshields got initiative on the fighter in turn 1 and dropped him to minus one. The palladin had to lay on hands to get him back up.
The ranger and rogue were particulary effective and they have completed the encounter but are planning to go luck for the kobold layer. Thinking about it they really do not have the healing capacity to manage it, but we will see how far they get.

 

[Meghan]

We played twice-- I don't know the whole adventure, and we didn't really follow much of the story elements so we could concentrate on the rules, but we had two encounters on the trail in the woods and then went to the map with the cauldron and had a TPK. Our first as a gaming group none the less!

We had a cleric, paladin, fighter and wizard.

 

[WheelsOnMeals]

I'm planning on starting in Fallcrest with Kobold Manor from the DMG (as mentioned above) to get the party to level 2 before Irontooth. Just a general hook about trade between Fallcrest & Winterhaven being completely shut down (by Kobold Manor at one end & Irontooth et al at the other). Then I'll stack the three hooks from the module (as needed) with different party members to get them to Winterhaven.

If the party still gets TPK'd, I'll go the capture route. If they haven't done the dragon burial site before that point, they'll wake up to find Douven in goblin jail with them. He'll be dragged off, tortured, and sacrificed to Orcus. The players get to find a corpse in the 2nd to last encounter.

I'm also going to play up the mirror that Kalarel allegedly needs from the dragon burial site but isn't mentioned again. He'll use it to focus necrotic energy into the portal or something. If the players have it, they'll unwittingly bring it to him. If they sell it, Ninaren will buy it and bring it to him. If they never get it, Kalarel will just have it and no one will be the wiser.

I don't get to start until 2 weeks from now (waiting for the core books), but I can't wait.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'm planning on starting in Fallcrest with Kobold Manor from the DMG (as mentioned above) to get the party to level 2 before Irontooth. Just a general hook about trade between Fallcrest & Winterhaven being completely shut down (by Kobold Manor at one end & Irontooth et al at the other). Then I'll stack the three hooks from the module (as needed) with different party members to get them to Winterhaven.

If the party still gets TPK'd, I'll go the capture route. If they haven't done the dragon burial site before that point, they'll wake up to find Douven in goblin jail with them. He'll be dragged off, tortured, and sacrificed to Orcus. The players get to find a corpse in the 2nd to last encounter.

I'm also going to play up the mirror that Kalarel allegedly needs from the dragon burial site but isn't mentioned again. He'll use it to focus necrotic energy into the portal or something. If the players have it, they'll unwittingly bring it to him. If they sell it, Ninaren will buy it and bring it to him. If they never get it, Kalarel will just have it and no one will be the wiser.

I don't get to start until 2 weeks from now (waiting for the core books), but I can't wait.

Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into the game - your players should appreciate it.

I like the stuff about the mirror, too.