Review: The Slumbering Tsar Saga

Having read the chapter version myself - yeah, it's that good.

 

[Greg V]

Sorry if this is dumb question, but I take it that Slumbering Tsar has evolved beyond its origin as a prequel to Rappan Athuk?

I'm trying to reconcile a product that takes you to level 20 as a prequel to anything...

Thanks!

Yep, what Dark Sasha said. It's a prequel background story-wise. It's very much it's own campaign, though they are linked. You could run one or both in either order, but it'd probably be two separate parties/campaigns unless you wanted to do a serious rewrite of one of them to amp it up to levels 20+.

 

[Gozuja]

Just wanted to chime in and say that Slumbering Tsar has been some of the most fun I've ever had running a campaign--and getting a rousing endorsement from Steel Wind is particularly keen and somewhat serendipitous in particular from my personal standpoint because I ran the Price of Immortality trilogy to get our party up to 7th level so that they could segue into Tsar--and listened extensively to his podcast when re-tooling and making adjustments to those modules.

We're running with a quite large party with players that are very mixed in experience (from some who have gamed since first edition to those for whom 3.5 was their first, and one who has played through the entirety of Rappan Athuk--and their Tsar character is their successor!) and we've been going for 22 weeks of 10+ hour sessions and we're just -barely- into the fourth and fifth book of the originally separate fourteen.

The amount of content is mind-blowing, frankly; there's so much to explore and encounter in the Slumbering Tsar Saga that a group can absolutely get a ton of bang for their buck out of it. I think the biggest factor in this is the sheer variety of the environments and encounters; all too often, material that even begins to approach this magnitude has a tendency to begin forming gluts and ruts of similar situations--but even in a party's first forays into the Desolation you're dealing with everything from a half-blue dragon greater basilisk with a mad derro sorcerer companion to an Army of Darkness style battle royal with waves of undead.

Greg has really done a terrific job with Tsar and I am so glad that something of this size and magnitude made it through the journey that it did to be available for folks to play; the story behind the whole of the work is epic in and of itself. Even if you don't foresee being able to run the Saga in its whole form, there's so many things that could certainly be lifted whole cloth and added to other adventures (such as the mentioned Army of Darkness fight, which was really a ton of fun at the table, or the entirety of the Crooked Tower, which is a roughly 80 room dungeon home for a powerful vampire lord.)

So overall, I highly recommend the Slumbering Tsar Saga as well and am also eagerly looking forward to the fruits of the Rappan Athuk rebirth--and definitely encourage folks to bip over to the kickstarter and help show that there is still a desire for such detailed, devious and deadly dungeons. If you're interested in the Tsar Saga at play, I've been blogging with session recaps, player journals, photos from the table and other such things over at Stranger Sojourns as well; Greg's labor of love has been a lot of fun for both sides of the screen!

 

[gambler1650]

So, I preordered this and in the review above it suggests that those who preorder automatically will get the PDF file. Should I see this already in my downloads? Because I don't, so I'm just checking...

Thanks.

 

[Greg V]

The pdf Steel Wind used was the proof for printing the hardcover book. The actual retail pdf is still in layout. It should be available and in your downloads at roughly the same time that the big book gets shipped. I was originally thinking there would be some lag in the pdf being completed due to the Rappan Athuk furor, but Chuck our layout guy has reassured me that this should not be the case. So look for it around Memorial Day. We'll send a mailing out to all the subscribers.

 

[Greg V]

Thanks, Gozuja. I'm glad you guys are having fun with it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

It's interesting that I'm not entirely sure which one of my players is son_of_frumm (none of the PCs had that name). Based on the number and types of PC deaths, though, I'm guessing...James.

TarionzCousin's comment below is extremely apt, because Steve actually is James' brother...but I never killed Steve.

w00t!

Wild Guess for the win. Obviously Steve needs to have one of his characters killed... stat!

 

[Greg V]

Obviously Steve needs to have one of his characters killed... stat!

I'm on it.

 

[gambler1650]

Ahh... Ok, thanks!

 

[DarkSasha]

Rappan Athuk Players!

Is your GM going to run Rappan Athuk? Has he pledged enough to get the player's guide? Perhaps he is waiting to purchase his copy at his local game store come August when it arrives. Whichever is the case, it pays for an experienced party to BE PREPARED! You know this is the deadliest dungeon ever to hit the shelves since the glory days of the Tomb of Horror. Have what you need to help keep your character alive! And get a spiffy "I went down the well" pin or even T-shirt.

Here's the link to the latest pledge awards for Rappan Athuk, Dungeon of Graves, the grand daddy of all dungeons and the predecessor to The Slumbering Tsar Saga.

P.S. We are dangerously close to our next stretch goal. Give your feedback on what you think you'd like to see for the next one. There are just over 30 days left to pledge.

 

[Ihsahn Satyricon]

This book is going to be freakin awesomely epic! I can't wait to pick it up!!