Hooray! As of last Sunday, we have begun the final chapter in the HPE series of adventures - Prince of Undeath.
Before we could begin it, we had something of a major hiccup - two of our players have basically retired from the game, as Real Life(tm) has caught up with them - one's now in Melbourne, and the other has become extremely busy on the day we play. Which left with me with two players (both of whom have been playing since the beginning).
We were able to recruit another player, who hasn't played much 4E but is in an ongoing Pathfinder game, and I created a character for him - a 27th level Essentials Knight (fighter). I'm very happy to say he fitted into the group well and the character worked very nicely. (It's an Essentials one because I felt that it'd be easier to pick up for the 6-7 sessions we had remaining, but the character isn't lacking in options...)
With three PCs (Knight, Wizard, Cleric) and one NPC (Splug the Goblin Thief) we set out into E3. E2 had been a bit of a slog, but Prince of Undeath has begun very well. I made certain to give the players a lot of information about what was going on, so that the plot made sense to them (they were chasing the shards of Timesus, which Orcus had taken by Chaos Ship into his realm in the Elemental Chaos, and they had to steal Doresain's Chaos Ship to follow them).
Of course, even after the Chaos Ship was cleared of the servants of Orcus who manned it, the heroes couldn't take control of it. As a failsafe, it was grabbed by a mystical lock from the nearby base. Or a tractor beam, as we called it. And the group had to "infiltrate" (or storm) the base to deactivate it.
This led to a discussion as to who was the Obi-Wan of the party (because, obviously, they'd sacrifice themselves to save the other at the scene).
The next encounter was rather fun because I had the two beholder and one glabrezu miniatures we needed for it. There are advantages to having lots and lots of minis at times. It also was an extremely interesting combat, thanks in no small part to the design of the beholders, which really caused the group some trouble.
From here, we had the "moat" around the base which is a really, really cool idea but - as written - needs some work. Or alternatively was just Too Hard for the PCs. (And referenced the underwater rules in the DMG, which I didn't have with me. I about never need a rulebook running these adventures, so it threw me to need one now. You can also get a feeling for how little I "prep" these adventures...) However, as the PCs had the great idea of summoning a cloud chariot (thank you, 26th-level cleric), we managed to bypass the real danger of the moat and get into the actual base, where a fight with a vampire ensued.
And domination of the knight occurred, and that was amusing - especially as he kept failing his saves. And throwing his hammer at the wizard. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Eventually the vampire escaped, and we ended the session there. About four-and-a-half encounters in about four-and-a-half hours of play. Including getting a new player up to speed with the game. I'm pretty happy with that; and I'm really happy with how the adventure has started. The pacing is nice, and the group is actually pretty close to the tractor beam controls so we might not have to endure too much of the base.
Ah yes, adventure pacing. A pet peeve of mine. I really detest it when adventures put encounter after encounter after encounter which don't really add anything to the experience. E2 was full of them. This adventure does look like it has the "led by the nose" problem that the HPE series is full of, but at least the pacing seems better so far - and as the group has gone the Right Direction, we should be out of there and into the Elemental Chaos next session.
Just thinking about it, what are the encounters on the Death Star in "A New Hope"?
* Hide from the Stormtroopers and infiltrate the base
* Enter a room (blasting the Stormtroopers) and research where to go
* Fail to bluff the Stormtroopers in the prison block
* Meet the Princess
* Fight Stormtroopers in the prison block
* Deal with the Garbage Compactor
* Avoid Stormtroopers as the group returns to the Falcon (and swing over a chasm, etc.)
* EPILOGUE: Flee in the Falcon (and fight TIE Fighters).
If I were running it as a RPG adventure, I'd like to have all of that in the one session. You've got your goal for the session which gets concluded at the end of the session. It's not always possible to structure adventures that way, but it'd be nice.
This adventure looks like breaking it into two. Oh well. We've managed to agree to meet weekly for this final adventure, which means we've got a fair chance of finishing it this year. It's over three years since we started - back when this adventure was out and the PHB wasn't!
I love the overall story arc of the Epic adventures, and I particularly like where this one is going; we'll just have to see if it remains entertaining.
Cheers!
Before we could begin it, we had something of a major hiccup - two of our players have basically retired from the game, as Real Life(tm) has caught up with them - one's now in Melbourne, and the other has become extremely busy on the day we play. Which left with me with two players (both of whom have been playing since the beginning).
We were able to recruit another player, who hasn't played much 4E but is in an ongoing Pathfinder game, and I created a character for him - a 27th level Essentials Knight (fighter). I'm very happy to say he fitted into the group well and the character worked very nicely. (It's an Essentials one because I felt that it'd be easier to pick up for the 6-7 sessions we had remaining, but the character isn't lacking in options...)
With three PCs (Knight, Wizard, Cleric) and one NPC (Splug the Goblin Thief) we set out into E3. E2 had been a bit of a slog, but Prince of Undeath has begun very well. I made certain to give the players a lot of information about what was going on, so that the plot made sense to them (they were chasing the shards of Timesus, which Orcus had taken by Chaos Ship into his realm in the Elemental Chaos, and they had to steal Doresain's Chaos Ship to follow them).
Of course, even after the Chaos Ship was cleared of the servants of Orcus who manned it, the heroes couldn't take control of it. As a failsafe, it was grabbed by a mystical lock from the nearby base. Or a tractor beam, as we called it. And the group had to "infiltrate" (or storm) the base to deactivate it.
This led to a discussion as to who was the Obi-Wan of the party (because, obviously, they'd sacrifice themselves to save the other at the scene).
The next encounter was rather fun because I had the two beholder and one glabrezu miniatures we needed for it. There are advantages to having lots and lots of minis at times. It also was an extremely interesting combat, thanks in no small part to the design of the beholders, which really caused the group some trouble.
From here, we had the "moat" around the base which is a really, really cool idea but - as written - needs some work. Or alternatively was just Too Hard for the PCs. (And referenced the underwater rules in the DMG, which I didn't have with me. I about never need a rulebook running these adventures, so it threw me to need one now. You can also get a feeling for how little I "prep" these adventures...) However, as the PCs had the great idea of summoning a cloud chariot (thank you, 26th-level cleric), we managed to bypass the real danger of the moat and get into the actual base, where a fight with a vampire ensued.
And domination of the knight occurred, and that was amusing - especially as he kept failing his saves. And throwing his hammer at the wizard. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Eventually the vampire escaped, and we ended the session there. About four-and-a-half encounters in about four-and-a-half hours of play. Including getting a new player up to speed with the game. I'm pretty happy with that; and I'm really happy with how the adventure has started. The pacing is nice, and the group is actually pretty close to the tractor beam controls so we might not have to endure too much of the base.
Ah yes, adventure pacing. A pet peeve of mine. I really detest it when adventures put encounter after encounter after encounter which don't really add anything to the experience. E2 was full of them. This adventure does look like it has the "led by the nose" problem that the HPE series is full of, but at least the pacing seems better so far - and as the group has gone the Right Direction, we should be out of there and into the Elemental Chaos next session.
Just thinking about it, what are the encounters on the Death Star in "A New Hope"?
* Hide from the Stormtroopers and infiltrate the base
* Enter a room (blasting the Stormtroopers) and research where to go
* Fail to bluff the Stormtroopers in the prison block
* Meet the Princess
* Fight Stormtroopers in the prison block
* Deal with the Garbage Compactor
* Avoid Stormtroopers as the group returns to the Falcon (and swing over a chasm, etc.)
* EPILOGUE: Flee in the Falcon (and fight TIE Fighters).
If I were running it as a RPG adventure, I'd like to have all of that in the one session. You've got your goal for the session which gets concluded at the end of the session. It's not always possible to structure adventures that way, but it'd be nice.
This adventure looks like breaking it into two. Oh well. We've managed to agree to meet weekly for this final adventure, which means we've got a fair chance of finishing it this year. It's over three years since we started - back when this adventure was out and the PHB wasn't!
I love the overall story arc of the Epic adventures, and I particularly like where this one is going; we'll just have to see if it remains entertaining.
Cheers!
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