Revenge of the Giants - any thoughts?

[Lanefan]

Anyone got anything to say - good or bad or in between - about the new 4e mega-module "Revenge of the Giants"? I ask because I'd like to know a bit about it before laying down C$37 + tax on it, and don't have time to give it a deep flip-through in ye olde FLGS.

A few specific questions:

Is it just a re-write of the 1e G-series, or something totally new? I'm doing some long-range planning for my campaign, and might require a good Giant-based module down the road; but my players have seen the G-series once too often. So, if I can get them to expect G-series and then hit 'em with something different...

Would it port well to other editions (1e in particular) or is it bogged down by 4e-isms? For comparison, I ported Keep on the Shadowfell to 1e and was fairly disappointed with how the first 75% or so played out - the set-piece battles kinda fell flat. The last 5 or 6 areas rocked hard, however, and made up for the rest. I'm hoping for a better signal-to-noise ratio with this one.

Thoughts, anyone?

Lan-"I like Giants"-efan

 

[malraux]

I've read over the book, but not in super detail. Just enough to start thinking about the how I'll run it.

It's not a straightforward re-write of the G series, though there is an homage to it, in that you eventually fight first hill, then frost, then fire giants. Of course, there's more than just that. If someone is expecting the G series, this module will surprise them. It doesn't copy the maps or anything. It also has a cameo by Acerak, for example, which is certainly a change up.

I really can't say how well it'll translate to other edition. The set pieces are pretty cool, including defending a city, time travel, fights on ice flows, etc, but since I haven't run it, I can't say how they work in practice.

 

[Crothian]

I've read it and it seems pretty good. The ability to translate it to 1e hinges on your ability to translate 4e to 1e. Conversation is more art then science.

 

[ExploderWizard]

WARNING: This module can cause you to start bleeding from your ears.

I have read through it but have not seen it in actual play. For my tastes it is far too scripted. A module should present the adventure setting , describe people, creatures,places and objects of interest, and provide plans, tactics, and motivations for the principal players. The DM should not be led by the nose to run a pre-planned sequence of events such as:

Fight
Fight again
Fight some more
Talk to mouthpiece
Go do skill challenges A B or C in any order
Talk to mouthpiece
Fight
Fight again
The bear comes back for more fighting.....etc.

Oh yeah and go jump through all these hoops not that it matters. The finale will happen as planned despite your actions. Blech!

Oh, and one more tidbit that struck me as amusing. Out of all the encounters in this module (and there are a LOT) there is only a single blurb relating to actual roleplaying notes at the bottom of page 48. Don't flip too fast or you will miss it. This section sort of defines the module IMHO.

 

[malraux]

WARNING: This module can cause you to start bleeding from your ears.

I have read through it but have not seen it in actual play. For my tastes it is far too scripted. A module should present the adventure setting , describe people, creatures,places and objects of interest, and provide plans, tactics, and motivations for the principal players. The DM should not be led by the nose to run a pre-planned sequence of events such as:....

So pretty much you don't care for any of WotC's modules?

 

[Dragonbait]

You'll need to read it VERY CAREFULLY. It lacks a really cohesive synopses at the beginning and many MAJOR details are given in the middle of skill challenges or in the encounter descriptions. The adventure needed to be in a larger book.

I've always heard of converting older edition adventures to later editions, but not vice-versa. You'll probably have to make up a lot of rules to handle the environmental challenges in the encounters.

Oh yeah and go jump through all these hoops not that it matters. The finale will happen as planned despite your actions. Blech!

Granted, but a Gm can give the illusion that everything made a difference.

Side-tangent: I don't recall many adventures from 2ed-to 4ed where the character's choices really made any difference on the adventure's outcome outside of if they survive or not. The only exceptions I can think of are Expedition to Castle Ravenloft where

Spoiler

the PC's can destroyed a number of Strahd's power sources that give him better abilities and defenses

and in Shadowdale where

Spoiler

the PCs can miss a Shadow-weave mote (?) completely and then they would be suffering a major penalty to spellcasting throughout the rest of the adventure.

 

[ExploderWizard]

So pretty much you don't care for any of WotC's modules?

While I can't give that a blanket "yes" because Revenge of the Giants and KOTS are the only WOTC 4E modules I have had any contact with, if the others are similar in style and presentation then the magic 8 ball says very likely.

 

[Netherstorm]

I think porting this to 1e would work ok. I'm going to put my experience running this in spoiler tags just in case...

Spoiler

The adventure is laid out so in theory the players can decide what they want to do after defending Argent - go hunt down the Torrians, go after the divine engine, or track down the Hill giant leaders and kill them. The problem with this is that if you don't do these in the "right" order, the heroes will end up in a mini-adventure that is too high level for them, and then one that is too easy for them.

I told my players up front the situation, and they opted to go through it the "right" way.

So far there have been a LOT of awesome encounters. There's one where they fight giants on an aerial landing at the top of a mountain, and a roc swoops down on them, tries to grab them and THROW THEM OFF THE MOUNTAIN! It was one of the most intense, fun encounters I've run in 4e... just make sure you let your heroes know what the roc can do before it goes after them, otherwise it might end up a miserable experience.

And in the hill giant throne room, a trap door opens and sends some of the party into an earth titan ("Earthshaker", I guess a play on the giant steam robot basic d&d adventure) lair. You could end up with your heroes split and in two deadly encounters. This would have killed my party, but they found the stairs leading down to Earthshaker's before they found the throne room, so it worked out well. The battle with Earthshaker was awesome.

The book is laid out horribly. And there's almost no art at all. I think WOTC pays people to draw the encounter maps, which is annoying because they could just make some dungeon tile maps and I'd actually get to use my tiles! The skill challenge DCs, as always, are either way too easy or utterly impossible.

But my players are loving it and right now we are having a fantastic time playing through the adventure, so I'd definitely recommend that you give it a shot.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Probably fun to play. Not so fun to read. YMMV.

 

[TirionAnthion]

I agree that this module seems poorly written. The adventure lacks a comprehensive synopsis and it can be hard to get the big picture of the modules without reading the whole thing through. Even after several read throughs I am still finding things that I missed that effect the plot.

The modules is strange in that the opening is very linear and on the rails and after that it opens up to such a degree that the PCs can go virtually any direction. This can cause problems with the PCs running into encounters that are too high for their level. I have had to do some on the fly modifications to make some of the encounters level appropriate.

The module does require some leg work on the part of the DM. I find this to be true with any module I run. This one takes a little more work because of the open ended nature of the way the characters can approach the later part of the module.

If you tend to dislike the 4e module style, this one is no different. It is a frame work to hang a game on. I am running it as a follow up to the Red Hand of Doom so I will be making some changes to integrate the module with that story.

As for converting, I can't really speak to that. I convert alot to 4e but nothing from 4e. Your ability to convert from 4e will be the deciding factor in that regard.