Question for Piratecat: Any tips for running OSM? [SPOILERS]

[arwink]

For extra fun, make it a psionic dorje, and make it vaguely intelligent with a passion for being high up in the air ("use me! We can get higher!") and a fear of being used ("nooo! Another charge gone! I'm dyiiiing!"). Fun for the whole group.

Yoink. (and damn you piratecat - could you not have mentioned this a year ago )

One thing I noticed about OSM is that after finishing it, standard DMG magic items just aren't the same anymore. Most of the permanent items in the adventure are subtle, flavorful things that will likely lurk in your campaign and your players memory long after most low-level magic items have been disregarded and replaced. The crystal whistle, the luck-bringer sword and the earing of fame are still among some of my players favorite items some six or so levels and a year of gameplay later.

The biggest problem the players in OSM had in my game was the fight against the goblins - they end up fairly outnumbered and if they don't stop the goblins from unleashing the dragonstone you can end up with a lot of character deaths very quickly. THe PC's start with the advantage of a surprise attack and a good firing position for archery (particulary if you've got a crosbowman, who can lay prone on the ramp while firing and get 9/10ths cover), but once they give that up they have problems (especially without a cleave happy fighter).

If you've got a 1st level psion or psi warrior with float, you might also want to put some thought into how the power works on inorganic matter in the game. My players ended up dumping bags of copper down the pit and using the power to keep it from sinking into the depths of the pool.

It's a damn fine module though (and I should probably pimp another OSM storyhour. One day I'm goign to find out exactly how many storyhours there are for the module)

 

[Grim]

Thanks for all the help, guys. I'm totally psyched to run this module, and this is definitly the help i need!

 

[Grim]

[SPOILERS!] BEST SESSION EVER!

I ran it! It was awsome! Probably the most memorable night of DND ever.

The party was first level, a shamen, a rogue, a wizard, and a specialist fighter.

They actually presented quite a DMing challenge, because they attacked the two horses on thier first ecounter with them (the horses got impatient with the party trying to take the crystals out of thier heads). They killed Broadsword, and blaze escaped, but I still had to deal with Othic's reaction, but keep him alive enough to be killed the next morning. Luckally, the wizard color sprayed him and then got his unconcious body real drunk/covered with liquer.

Then when they assulted the mountain, the rogue didn't share the journal section, and also didn't get the part about the tunnel from the old mine, so they ended up assulting the mountainm, succeeding due to some ingenious use of the Grease spell. (Splat goblins!) Unforntunatly, the Fighter fell down the waterfall to his death.

To solve this, I had the major goblin NPCs run through the dungeon backwards, attempting to escape to town. This was actually awsome because it created a pretty unstable three-way struggle as the Lizardman Shamen attacked the goblins and the party, and then got charmed.

The party actually rested after killing to bonetangle, which was bad when the thief started messing the the Dragonstone (now in thier possession), and got charmed. When she returned with townsfolk, the wizard color sprayed most of them, the shamen whacked the rogue into unconciousness, and as the townsfolk woke up, the wizard and the shamen made a mad dash to town, ringing the bell and destroying the stone.

It was... awsome. Story hour worthy. Thanks for the great module, PKitty!

 

[Piratecat]

You're welcome. It sounds great!

If you really want to thank me, go buy some of Fiery Dragon's amazing counters (designed by Claudio Pozas!) They're gorgeous, really useful, and one way of thanking the company (and guys!) without whom this adventure would never be written. Keen!

 

[Plane Sailing]

If you fancy any other ideas, you could check out what was probably the first OSM storyhour on ENworld...


http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6689

The party are about 4-5th level, and challenges were mostly scaled up by adding a few class levels.

Best of luck with it!