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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5517950" data-attributes="member: 78116">Eberron: Dark ProphecyBefore describing what my players have begun doing in this adventure, it's worth noting what I've done very differently to my "regular" design of a 4E campaign. Due to how difficult it was pre-MM3 to challenge players in paragon/epic tier, I got into a habit of carefully engineering each "Days" adventures. This meant out of say, five total encounters, the PCs would get drawn into doing certain things due to specific challenges/difficulties. For example one encounter would be very artillery based, with difficult or blocking terrain preventing easily getting near them and similar.This meant that I designed each adventure very linearly but in a very balanced manner. For example I would know that X encounters would drain my PCs Y resources, but then provide ample opportunity for them to rest. This was absolutely not the way I wanted to do things though, but due to the fact it was pretty much required to metagame every encounter specifically to challenge PCs. Once MM3 came out this suddenly no longer became required. Monsters were threatening enough and had interesting powers, so even if you didn't build a 100% optimal group an EL/EL+1 or EL+2 encounter was really challenging.The disadvantages of the way I designed things are obvious: It felt very on rails and didn't sell epic as anything more than a dungeon crawl. Albeit a very high powered dungeon crawl with extremely high stakes for failing. At the same time while I did manage to often fake "choice" and making sure every part of my paragon/epic games felt logical - the engineering required to make them challenging meant they weren't obviously like that. With MM3 creatures being so challenging however, I wanted to take this opportunity with this 'open' module in Dark Prophecy to design 4E like I would want to: Giving the PCs a goal and letting them figure out how to get there - not nudge or force them down scripted encounters.To accomplish this as I mentioned in the last post, I gave the PCs numerous hints and ideas as to what was going on. Plus some initial locations suggested by talking to people in town. Then that was it, the PCs were left to their own devices and could go or do whatever they wanted to do. Their initial instinct was to go to the Blind Bear Tribe in the hills - then pay a visit to the ominous sounding white dragon that lived up in the mountains. At the same time, they could equally have gone investigating the missing hunters in the forest or they could have gone looking for Eustace Isaac's and his accomplices suspected laboratory.All of these lead to different encounters - but to make the PCs choices matter there have to be consequences. Their actions have to logically do something and clearly do something or there isn't really any choice. At the same time, I'm one human being and while I have a lot of DnD experience I don't have infinite time. So I need to be able to build solid - fun - encounters and make the most of anything I do build.So I've got a rough system on how to accomplish this and it's the way I now design all my 4E games.1) The first is to give the PCs a general direction and make sure it's interesting to them. The secret of DMing in any game is not to give the PCs infinite choices, but rather lead them down a story track that is compatible with their characters and work with them. A good example is that the player of Hajan named the Blind Bear Tribe and developed some history with them spontaneously. Instead of saying "No", I immediately integrated all of his ideas - including the name - into the game. By doing this I allow him to feel like he's able to direct some of the story and it helps tie the PCs into the story more. By having these relations, it inserts interesting roleplaying opportunities and gives me some ideas as well. In a similar manner, I've wrote Eustace Isaacs - one of the other PCs personal antagonists - into each adventure to bring along an overall story arc across each adventure - trying them together.2) Workload is a massive issue as any DM and when you make an open module like this you need to consider what you can handle. The first thing to do was to consider encounters that would change over time and those that didn't. If an encounter doesn't change, those can be safely made and then ignored until the PCs encounter them. For example a trapped monster that only pops out when released - even so it might technically starve to death if the PCs take enough time. Encounters that changed - due to the PCs actions - needed to consider several different "states". Basically to reduce work the encounters change the monsters - not the actual area or similar.One example that I'll describe below was the difference in going to the Blind Bear tribe first or after a day. On the first day the PCs arrive, if they go there immediately they discover the immediate aftermath of the horrific massacre that occurred there. Besieged for a considerable amount of time, the Blind Bear Tribe has been exterminated except for one badly wounded individual - whose firmly insane cannibalistic clanmates haven't realized he's still alive. This allows the PCs to pick up a potential ally and find out what is going on. Now if they go later the encounter is entirely different and the wounded man is firmly dead. In order not to punish PCs unfairly or turn the game into a puzzle guessing game, each area changes over time - so regardless of the PCs first decisions they can get critical information. The difference is what kind of information they get and how that directs the adventure. In other words they can play this adventure multiple times - theoretically - getting entirely different story progression inevitably. While everything eventually will lead to similar points, their overall solution to the unnatural blizzard doesn't have to be the same and nor will the path to that solution be the same.To make this process easier, I made all the monsters used in the module first and then said "What do I need them to for and why?". In encounters where monsters "upgrade" or "change", I simply replace monsters with roughly equivalent XP - meaning I needed most creatures to be around the same level for this to work easily. Of course this gave me two challenges in particular: Because nothing in this module is linear just about - except a couple of roadside encounters - the PCs might face enemies in any order theoretically. This means that the ELs might be quite low to high - they start at 4th level. The highest EL is around 8 - but occur near the end of the adventure with some rare exceptions. At the same time, some of the lowest ELs are around 3 - which if the PCs encounter especially later on at level 6 (near the end of the adventure) won't be a problem at all.The challenge here is obvious: What if the PCs run into harder encounters early on? For example I'll describe the initial encounter with the now murderously cannibalistic remnants of the Blind Bear Tribe below, but that was one of the upper EL encounters. At the same time, it's a higher EL because the reward for doing it first was more direct than if the PCs go to another area first. At the same time, I wanted to make it clear that sometimes you just have to run away - the next encounter immediately after the initial battle in the village was an example of this. In fact emphasizing the concept that flight was important, was not just essential for fights that might be quite difficult....The overall effect is that I build the same amount of encounters, then simply replace the monsters within them. This means I use most of what I work on easily, while not giving myself an unreasonable amount of work to get the more "sandbox" effect I want. By keeping everything around the same level, I also keep things relatively balanced without grossly overwhelming the PCs. This also ensures even as the PCs level up, the encounters that are somewhat lower in EL aren't entirely pointless and will still be a reasonable challenge.3) Time. The PCs need to journey to regions far away from the town, but most importantly these journeys take considerable time and effort. To make a round trip from Dragon's Peak to the town is 36 hours - a day and a half almost. This means the PCs need to carefully plan their journey. Time is their enemy - while some areas don't change much over time some certainly do. The intense blizzard on the mountain gets stronger with every day and thus do their opponents become more bold. After a certain amount of time, even their safe haven may not be so safe anymore. Another thing I wanted to put a spin on was where to take an extended rest. Within the 'source' of the cold blizzard, PCs who take an extended rest suffer a -1 cumulative penalty to total surges per day. This penalty disappears if they rest within the town itself. Like many things though, I don't like just blind penalties without a way of getting an advantage, so if the PCs rest in the town (and have no current penalty) they get a +1 bonus to their total surge value - making it much more desirable than resting in the wilderness (which also brings the risk of an attack). These factors combine to give a sense of urgency and importance to the decisions the PCs make. At the same time I was also careful to provide ample time to do things and make some mistakes - so to ensure the PCs cannot become unfairly stuck (or feel like they weren't given enough of a chance to prevent or influence certain key events).The game itself!The PCs started off in town, with various NPCs giving them information and then moving off into the wilderness. The initial destination the PCs picked was the Blind Bear Tribe - especially as Hajan was concerned as to what happened to them. If the tough mountainfolk had disappeared to whatever caused the unnatural blizzard, that could be of grave concern.<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/FuninTown.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The local map of Stonehelm, showing various NPCs the PCs could interact with to gain information. Despite the unnatural weather, the town is surprisingly chipper and nobody gets over fussed about the problems they face. Mostly because they have no idea just how much danger they are in <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /> The PCs started by investigating a farm just up the road, discovering that it had been inundated with ferocious - but starving - wolves from the mountains! <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SavetheChicken2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Vicious wolf minions and several dire wolves rampaged over the farm, killing Archibald's remaining chickens. Saving chickens was the stuff heroes were born to do. This encounter was handled easily enough, with the minion wolves being suitably annoying - but mostly screening the dire wolves attacks. Given that wolves deal more damage to prone targets, getting PCs off their feat to make use of this was the key tactic. For the most part the wolves did fairly reliable damage - assisted by their pack harrier ability to gain CA with two allies adjacent to a target. Inevitably, the PCs cleaned up the wolves but not before a terrible cost - in chicken - had been paid. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SavetheChicken3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Numerous chickens lay dead and so too did Ying Ling, Dain's animal companion. The wolves took a terrible toll, but at least Mrs. Archibald survived as well as three chickens. The remaining wolf was critically shot through the head by Tybalts gun and the PCs soon sent Mrs. Archibald back to stonehelm - where it was safer. Curiously to Dain and Hajan, they found more strange tracks of a deer-like creature that walked upright. Unfortunately due to the obscurity of such a monster, nature knowledge checks were unsuccessful at identifying it - a most worrying thing. Moving onwards the PCs came across the second of the two bridges out of stonehelm, some distance away and were immediately accosted by further Yeti! <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/YetiBridgeMadness1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Some bridges have trolls, but in Stonehelm the bridges have yeti. I'd take the trolls personally. This battle was very different to the first encounter with Yeti. For one thing, the PCs immediately discovered that if yeti get you in a bunch you're in trouble. Although their physical melee attacks are poor - they make up for it with copious options for burst and blast attacks. This ensured they gave the party a considerable hammering early on and once again, Ying Ling the animal companion soon found himself dead - before he could even use combined attack more than once. This is a trend that will continue into the next encounter as well. In any event, things looked a bit dire for the PCs at this point with Yeti basically everywhere! <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/YetiBridgeMadness2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Sick and tired of these bloody yeti all over this bloody bridge! The PCs fought hard, defending the bridge area largely and a good use of the Kalashtar's racial encounter prevented some solid damage (and the rogue going down). With the death of the leader yeti, with the big blue aura, the combat got substantially easier and the rest of the yeti began to fall soon after. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/YetiBridgeMadness3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> That's a lot of yeti blood. Killing the remaining yeti, the PCs rested up and decided how to progress - heading towards the Blind Bear Tribe first. Due to the extremely cold weather, that was becoming noticeable now the PCs decided to make some cloaks out of the yeti-fur. After some thought, I decided this process could easily be done during an extended rest in town: Providing a blanket +3 bonus to endurance skill checks against the cold. Carrying on, the PCs found the blizzard becoming stronger and stronger - inevitably requiring an endurance check to hold off the biting cold. In addition, the closer they got to the blind bear tribes encampment the more a terrible wailing noise was heard over the howling wind of the blizzard. Something terrible awaited them and as they reached the village, their fears were soon realized. A terrible massacre lay before them, with several crazed looking individuals - clearly the remaining members of the tribe - feasting upon the flesh of their fellows. A wounded man lay in one of the nearby huts, but little else had been left and the barbarians and their pack wolves soon turned on the party. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/VillageMassacre1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The PCs entered the village to a scene of horror and weren't warmly welcomed at all. If you're wondering about the weird deer things there - those are lesser wendigo minions. A surprise for later in the fight. As I mentioned above in my summary of the adventure, these creatures were somewhat higher level than the party - as well as the EL. This encounter was a high risk, but had a solid reward - the knowledge that the wounded barbarian could impart (assuming they could get him back alive). Of course this involved removing the current crazy occupants, who began by hurling themselves into the party, brutally slamming their weapons down. Like many cases beforehand, Ying-Ling did not survive beyond the first round and even the normally stoic Battlemind defender was crunched down numerous times. A desperate use of arc lightning knocked down a whole bunch of people and the battle looked to be won... <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/VillageMassacre2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The lurking lesser wendigo - foul beasts created from the dead - rose up and attacked the party! When suddenly several of the corpses warped, screamed and then twisted into hideous deer and human like abominations. These creatures - wendigo as the PCs would later discover - charged into combat and wreaked further havoc (even though they were mere "minions" at that). Tybalt quickly got up on the fortified walls and keep his distance - "sniping" out the remaining beasts with his strange rifle like weapon. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/VillageMassacre4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Fighting hard, the PCs killed the remaining wendigo - but took a massive hammering in the process. By the end of the combat the PCs had little left and soon found that the horror hadn't ended yet - further corpses twisted and began to form into more lesser wendigo. A large horde - some 30-40 strong began to turn to the badly wounded characters, their eyes blazing with murder and hunger for flesh. At this point the PCs did the one thing they could, strap on the wounded barbarian to Ying Ling (handily resummoned by Dain) and then run the hell away. This resulted in a dramatic pursuit down the mountain, where the PCs needed to use their skills and cunning to flee from the rapidly closing in wendigo. Tired and exhausted, the PCs made it over the second of the bridges into town to see the wendigo do something curious: The vile beasts stopped dead and continued no further. Whatever the reason for that, the PCs were safe and now needed to find further information. It seemed these legendary "Wendigo" were not so legendary after all.... </blockquote>

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