Scales of War experts: What part of the AP is actual war?

[fletch137]

I've done some skimming through the Scales of War AP in Dungeon Magazine, trying to glean some ideas for a war-themed campaign. However, my light read hasn't revealed a whole lot of the "war".

There's a pretty cool siege on the PCs home city, and what looks like a nice "pick the coalition leader" skill challenge a little later on. Other than that, though, I'm not seeing anything that makes it feel like there's a war going on.

What did I miss? How does the AP present an extra-planar incursion such that it's critical to choose a coalition leader or exciting to uncover a spy?

 

[mcmillan]

Note: some spoilers for players

The actual war is taking place during the paragon tier against the githyanki, with heroic giving some smaller threats that were meant to weaken the main plane before they invade, while epic tier reveals Tiamat is behind the whole thing and has you confronting her. That said, most of the adventures are more on the periphery to complete tasks that help the player's side, more than actually taking part in the war. This probably is a bit of an easier way to write adventures for a small party (and also made things more useable by people not running the whole path - which was probably also a goal of WoTC). However as you say, it takes away most of the feeling that the war is actually going on.

It's been a while since I did my readthrough, and only ran through heroic tier before I had to move away from my group, but my recollection of the most "war-like":

Seige of Bodrin's Watch - player's don't take part in the actual seige, though are sent to deal with a separate group trying to sneak through tunnels. When I ran it I gave the player's a choice of which part of the battle they wanted to be part of.

The Temple Between - The close of heroic tier, the first half is more mystery solving, while the second half gives you a big battle that reveals the githyanki


Garaitha's Anvil - The players gain control of a githyanki portal, along with info about the location of the enemies leadership. They lead a group through the portal to destroy this base.

 

[fletch137]

Excellent. Thanks, McM.

Temple Between was that city battle I recalled; I'll go take another read at Garaitha's Anvil.

To be honest, all I really need is a timeline of invasion so the players would feel the pressure of "Fort Donovan just fell" or something. (What I WANT is decision points so my players could feel involved in handling a war, but all I NEED is a timeline). I do have the Incursion issues of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. I could probably piece together something from that.

For full disclosure, my current half-baked plan is to end 'Gardmore Abbey' with the PCs becoming the lord of that revitalized town and then rolling into the Paragon tier with a Githyanki invasion of Nentir Vale. The Coalition skill challenge seemed like a good "unite the other cities" step in the war, but I couldn't figure out how SoW intended the rest of the war to go.

So thanks again for your insights.

 

[sabrinathecat]

The skill challenge, as written, for uniting the factions, is poor. In fact, almost all the skill challenges are poorly done. There is one in particular, which requires 12 successes, but (as written) it is impossible for the party to get more than 7 successes. There are a number of serious problems with SoW as written.
But this is a major problem with 4th ed in general: WotC did not bother with proper editing or proofreading. (My favorite typo is a monster with a close BLURST attack. Blurst? Is that supposed to be Blast of Burst? No correction or errata submitted to the best of my knowledge.)
Be prepared to do some major reworking or rewriting.

 

[Evenglare]

I would say major is a bit of a strong word. Major implies over half at least to me. Hell even a quarter. I dont think SoW is THAT bad.

 

[sabrinathecat]

No, the skill challenges are a major problem. At least 1/2 of them.
I think it stems from an assumption that the PCs will be a bunch of greedy, amoral munchkins or mercenaries more than they will heroic role-players. One mod has you rescue 2 people (one of whom you rescued in an earlier mod and interacted with). Once you do that, and then deal with the monsters loose in the building you rescued them from, you then have to convince them that you aren't out to just rob them blind.
In the big "Unite the Factions" challenge, every ruler there was a jerk or just uninterested, totally oblivious to the nature of the threat that the enemy posed.
One Githzeri champion, the poster-boy of law and order, tells one of his henchmen to "Kill ____, whether he is guilty or not." So, a champion of his people just ordered the unlawful murder of a prominent citizen, in his home, in his town. And he is supposed to be a model of wisdom and probity? I was wondering if he was a Githyanki meat-puppet.
So, be prepared for some major rewriting. Prep time.