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Ravenloft Al modles Jasper questions and rants. Spoilers
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<blockquote data-quote="Pauper" data-source="post: 6897797" data-attributes="member: 17607"><p>I'll agree to a point -- the inclusion of yuan-ti and orcs did take my group out of the setting -- but for the most part, until you get to the last couple of adventures, the modules do feel mostly like Gothic horror, save for The Innocent.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Agreed -- I think a number of folks criticizing Season 4 don't seem to recall the adventures in the other seasons, particularly Season 3, that weren't all that impressive. The reason is that they might well not have played those mods, though -- in Season 4, you really had no choice but to play all the mods, even if some weren't all that exciting.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Absolutely agree -- this is one of the major flaws of the handling of the Orasnou setting in Season 4. Though I understand why the admins might not wanted to have released a more complete 'Guide to Orasnou' at the start of the season -- it would have necessarily contained some spoilers, for instance -- the lack of such a guide meant that the DM has no real alternative but to read each module in advance before running any of them, in order to know what is around for the PCs to interact with during each module. It's relatively nice that the modules focus on the areas that are important to that module -- it helps the DM know that anything not mentioned in the module can be glossed over if the PCs ask about it -- but the constant stream of 'oh, I guess you didn't notice this significant thing about the village and its inhabitants' throughout the first half of the season in particular must have been very irritating to a DM who ran the modules as soon as they came out and didn't have the opportunity to 'read ahead'.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I can see where, in your situation, this would be an issue, but I don't see this as a problem with the season as a whole.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The obvious solution is to create characters specifically for Season 4 -- which isn't much of a stretch, as each season starts out with a level 1-2 mod exclusive to it which assumes you're starting a new character for that season already.</p><p></p><p>The advantage of such a system is that it purported to solve one of the major issues with the Season 3 hardcover -- if you were playing Out of the Abyss, the campaign rules explicitly allowed you to visit a shop or other location between adventures to purchase gear, which, unless the DM enforced a rule preventing it, basically defeated the purpose of the 'survival horror' aspect of the hardcover module. If anything, the 'trapped in Barovia' mechanic didn't go far enough, because even though the characters couldn't leave Barovia, there are still locations in Barovia that the PCs can use to resupply using the generic AL rule on re-equipping between adventures, thus side-stepping things like the 'You Murderer!' story award meant to penalize players for thoughtless violence.</p><p></p><p>I'd hate to see the campaign abandon such plotlines simply because of a fear that some locations will have difficulty implementing them in a way that satisfies a more casual playerbase.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Should the admins decide to pursue this sort of tightly-connected adventure plotline in the future, I'd prefer to see an up-front admission that, if you are running AL in an environment that promotes more casual play, you should focus on a different season of AL adventures or run the hardcover adventure, if you are focused on playing out the current season anyway. This would free up the admins to make an adventure plotline that would be truly challenging to dedicated players, and likely be extremely memorable for that set of the playerbase.</p><p></p><p>--</p><p>Pauper</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pauper, post: 6897797, member: 17607"] I'll agree to a point -- the inclusion of yuan-ti and orcs did take my group out of the setting -- but for the most part, until you get to the last couple of adventures, the modules do feel mostly like Gothic horror, save for The Innocent. Agreed -- I think a number of folks criticizing Season 4 don't seem to recall the adventures in the other seasons, particularly Season 3, that weren't all that impressive. The reason is that they might well not have played those mods, though -- in Season 4, you really had no choice but to play all the mods, even if some weren't all that exciting. Absolutely agree -- this is one of the major flaws of the handling of the Orasnou setting in Season 4. Though I understand why the admins might not wanted to have released a more complete 'Guide to Orasnou' at the start of the season -- it would have necessarily contained some spoilers, for instance -- the lack of such a guide meant that the DM has no real alternative but to read each module in advance before running any of them, in order to know what is around for the PCs to interact with during each module. It's relatively nice that the modules focus on the areas that are important to that module -- it helps the DM know that anything not mentioned in the module can be glossed over if the PCs ask about it -- but the constant stream of 'oh, I guess you didn't notice this significant thing about the village and its inhabitants' throughout the first half of the season in particular must have been very irritating to a DM who ran the modules as soon as they came out and didn't have the opportunity to 'read ahead'. I can see where, in your situation, this would be an issue, but I don't see this as a problem with the season as a whole. The obvious solution is to create characters specifically for Season 4 -- which isn't much of a stretch, as each season starts out with a level 1-2 mod exclusive to it which assumes you're starting a new character for that season already. The advantage of such a system is that it purported to solve one of the major issues with the Season 3 hardcover -- if you were playing Out of the Abyss, the campaign rules explicitly allowed you to visit a shop or other location between adventures to purchase gear, which, unless the DM enforced a rule preventing it, basically defeated the purpose of the 'survival horror' aspect of the hardcover module. If anything, the 'trapped in Barovia' mechanic didn't go far enough, because even though the characters couldn't leave Barovia, there are still locations in Barovia that the PCs can use to resupply using the generic AL rule on re-equipping between adventures, thus side-stepping things like the 'You Murderer!' story award meant to penalize players for thoughtless violence. I'd hate to see the campaign abandon such plotlines simply because of a fear that some locations will have difficulty implementing them in a way that satisfies a more casual playerbase. Should the admins decide to pursue this sort of tightly-connected adventure plotline in the future, I'd prefer to see an up-front admission that, if you are running AL in an environment that promotes more casual play, you should focus on a different season of AL adventures or run the hardcover adventure, if you are focused on playing out the current season anyway. This would free up the admins to make an adventure plotline that would be truly challenging to dedicated players, and likely be extremely memorable for that set of the playerbase. -- Pauper [/QUOTE]
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