Living Greyhawk - Opinions?

[Utrecht]

Last night I had the dubious "honor" of playing in my first Living Greyhawk session (Mysteries of Crystal Canyon part 1 or something like that) - and I have to say that it was one of the most dissapointing D&D experiences of my gaming career.

Further - I really do not blame my DM or the group - most of my complaints I believe are due to the nature of Living Greyhawk and the types of challenges it presents-

Specifically, the module was "designed" for first and second level characters featuring the following:

- A combat with 30-40 1/2 CR creatures (admittedly at a substantial tactical advantage), but outnumbering the party by 6-7 times

- A combat with 1 CR 2 and 1 CR 3 creature (fairly easy due to a foruitious crit)

- A combat with a CR 4 or 5 creature (that did ability damage)

- A combat with 3 CR 1/2 (an admitidly easy fight)

- A door/trap/puzzle whose discription covered over a page of text with no obvious method of opening, no paterns and no GM hints available like "your have heard legends of this door...." Basically reducing opening the door to a brute force approach (i.e. I try this...ouch). Now the damage dealth by this door was not trivial - i.e. 5-10 per "touch" with the potential of ability damage.

All of this left me thinking WTF? This is for first level? The potential for a TPK was so large and the capricious nature of the traps/puzzles was so "gleeful - almost "Grimworts" type traps. That I was left thinking to myself, why would anyone expose themselves to this type of gaming? I am not opposed to challenges (in fact they are needed to keep things interesting) - but "save or die" type challenges just suck - especially for first level chars and when they appear to be each encounter.

Further, talking to the other players, these types of experiences are were not limited to just this module, but are consistent with the whole of Living Greyhawk.

So, I am wondering what have other folks experiences have been? Am I just being bitter - or was this experience atypical for Living Greyhawk?

 

[Crispy Critter]

Living Greyhawk is a a brutal campaign. That's why I enjoy it so much. I've been part of it for two years now and there is a certain fear factor everytime you line your character up on the game table. For me that's fun, but I know that it's not what all gamers are looking for.

I've also met some great people at the GameDays and conventions that I've played at. If your still interested in the campaign, I'd recommend really getting to know your play region. I believe Colorado is in the County of Urnst. Their website is www.countyofurnst.com. There you can find out what's going on plot-line wise in your region, the various organizations a character can join, that sort of thing.

I've truly liked more scenarios than I've disliked since I've started playing and I think the scenario writing is getting better. But you're impression of the campaign is on target IMHO. It is tough and the body count has been high since its inception.

Jim

 

[buzzard]

Further, talking to the other players, these types of experiences are were not limited to just this module, but are consistent with the whole of Living Greyhawk.

So, I am wondering what have other folks experiences have been? Am I just being bitter - or was this experience atypical for Living Greyhawk?

Living Greyhawk is generally rather hit or miss. Some modules are quite fun, and not generally a series of death traps. Others are as you describe. It would appear than many of the adventure designers are out to make things challenging for experienced power gamers (which constitutes much of the clientele, well like me).

Now MOCS I(Mystery of Crystal Springs I) did seem to be rather odd to me. The wholesale slaughter by rolling rocks seemed stupid.

One thing to keep in mind though, was that MOCS I was a year one module, and those generally involved many writers trying to get a feel for the campaign. Many of the year two adventures are better.

The greatest weakness of the Living Greyhawk, and probably all of the living stuff is the fact that adventures are made for a wide variance of party levels, and have many listings for each encounter. These don't always scale very well.
Many of the modules are really written for one of the APLs indicated, and fudged for the rest.

The key to LG is getting a table of good gamers. If you do, it is worthwhile irrelevent of the module involved. If you don't, you just suck it up and get some experience. There are some quite good gamers around the Denver area. You are bound to hit a good table soon.

buzzard

 

[Endur]

Players & GM make all the difference

For Living Greyhawk, the players and the GM make all the difference.

If you are playing with fun players, how good or how bad the adventure is really doesn't matter.

A good GM can make a BADLY written adventure a great experience.

On the other hand, a bad GM can make a well-written adventure a terrible experience.

With regards to combat challenge, LG tends to take the approach of fewer, harder encounters. i.e. a typical LG adventure will have two or three combats. Each combat will be 2 to 4 EL's above the party level. You'll usually be able to rest inbetween each combat.

The only advantage LG has over regular home campaigns is that the characters are portable. That is, you can take your character and play at any LG table (so long as the levels are similar).

Tom