Zinovia
Explorer
Players of the campaign steer clear unless you're the type who read the end of a book first. 
So in my reading of Mad King, I was unable to find the answer to one very important question. Who actually killed the king's family? Was it Madness, or the Ragesians, or yet someone else? I went through the entire mod looking for an answer that doesn't seem to be there. I haven't gone through the 3.5 version yet, but found nothing in the 4e book that explained it; although if it is written in the tactical encounter appendix, I may have missed it.
Some player groups seem to be free-spirited to the point of running away from anything that looks remotely like a plot hook and see even the gentlest attempt to direct them as railroading. My group is pretty much the opposite of that. They seize on each clue with the ferocity of a terrier with a rat, shaking it until they have wrung every iota of information from it. They see dire prophecies in random events, and all too often take vague foreshadowing as something they need to act on immediately rather than allowing it to develop further in the fullness of time.
The first hint that the village of Vidor had missing people and some unknown menace preying upon the innocent citizens, and the party was off tracking, leaving Balan with the villagers. I had to craft a suitable troll encounter for them featuring Paradim as the troll wrangling biomancer, rather than Haddin, who is dead at this point in my game. See, it bothered my group that Paradim had escaped from Seaquen, and they felt that tracking him down was a high priority, because they can't let the Bad Guys get away! They are the heroes!
So now faced with a murder mystery, you can bet your britches that they won't rest until they know the true culprit. Getting arrested, or fleeing Bresk will not stand in the way of them solving it.
On top of that, they are all going nuts because of some foreknowledge I sent their way via an NPC with skill in divination. She sent a letter describing two visions. The first was of a royal banquet where the nobles all went insane and killed each other, the second was a similar banquet where the party presented some sort of dwarven craftsman to the king (who is a dwarf in my game). They've been going through Bresk determined to find out who this dwarven craftsman is, although the city abounds with dwarves, many of whom are craftsmen. They have no basis for knowing which one is the one from the vision, or why presenting him to the king would matter in the slightest, yet they are tenaciously following this lead. The genasi swordmage, who happens to be gay, visited a brothel to speak to an information broker there, and was wondering if he should ask about the dwarven craftsman. My husband jumped in with "Well there is a dwarf at the brothel who is skilled with his tools. They call him the Craftsman.".
So, moving right along... When it comes to the murderer of the king's family, knowing whodunit would be helpful. Perhaps I missed the info in my read-through. I can make stuff up if need be, but would prefer to not mess up anything planned in the mod. Thanks as always for the story, we're having a lot of fun with it, despite all my modifications.
So in my reading of Mad King, I was unable to find the answer to one very important question. Who actually killed the king's family? Was it Madness, or the Ragesians, or yet someone else? I went through the entire mod looking for an answer that doesn't seem to be there. I haven't gone through the 3.5 version yet, but found nothing in the 4e book that explained it; although if it is written in the tactical encounter appendix, I may have missed it.
Some player groups seem to be free-spirited to the point of running away from anything that looks remotely like a plot hook and see even the gentlest attempt to direct them as railroading. My group is pretty much the opposite of that. They seize on each clue with the ferocity of a terrier with a rat, shaking it until they have wrung every iota of information from it. They see dire prophecies in random events, and all too often take vague foreshadowing as something they need to act on immediately rather than allowing it to develop further in the fullness of time.
The first hint that the village of Vidor had missing people and some unknown menace preying upon the innocent citizens, and the party was off tracking, leaving Balan with the villagers. I had to craft a suitable troll encounter for them featuring Paradim as the troll wrangling biomancer, rather than Haddin, who is dead at this point in my game. See, it bothered my group that Paradim had escaped from Seaquen, and they felt that tracking him down was a high priority, because they can't let the Bad Guys get away! They are the heroes!
So now faced with a murder mystery, you can bet your britches that they won't rest until they know the true culprit. Getting arrested, or fleeing Bresk will not stand in the way of them solving it.
On top of that, they are all going nuts because of some foreknowledge I sent their way via an NPC with skill in divination. She sent a letter describing two visions. The first was of a royal banquet where the nobles all went insane and killed each other, the second was a similar banquet where the party presented some sort of dwarven craftsman to the king (who is a dwarf in my game). They've been going through Bresk determined to find out who this dwarven craftsman is, although the city abounds with dwarves, many of whom are craftsmen. They have no basis for knowing which one is the one from the vision, or why presenting him to the king would matter in the slightest, yet they are tenaciously following this lead. The genasi swordmage, who happens to be gay, visited a brothel to speak to an information broker there, and was wondering if he should ask about the dwarven craftsman. My husband jumped in with "Well there is a dwarf at the brothel who is skilled with his tools. They call him the Craftsman.".
So, moving right along... When it comes to the murderer of the king's family, knowing whodunit would be helpful. Perhaps I missed the info in my read-through. I can make stuff up if need be, but would prefer to not mess up anything planned in the mod. Thanks as always for the story, we're having a lot of fun with it, despite all my modifications.
