Sell me on War of the Burning Sky

[Goddess FallenAngel]

So... I've read the reviews (okay, the one review that I found in the ENWorld database), and have been hearing about this adventure path for a while.

What I've heard, I've liked. And, of course, it's by EN Publishing, so I know it's good.

I've been considering running another game for a while, although it wouldn't be for a few months when I get the time.

However, I am a (fairly) new DM. I've ran three games in the past, but most of them failed - partly due to time constraints for me to work on them, and partly with difficulty with the gaming group (long story, and different group now). However, with a published adventure path, I doubt I would have the issues I had before - mostly because I'm running a published adventure and not trying to make up my own (which I've learned is a very bad idea for a newbie DM).

The group I would be DMming for is on average highly experienced - three of them have been playing and DMming 3rd edition since it came out. We do have one player who doesn't have as much experience, but she's learning and the other players help her out when she has questions, so I don't think it would be much of an issue.

So... I'm trying to figure out if this adventure path, awesome as it sounds, would be a good fit for me and my gaming group. Sell me on this adventure path, keeping in mind the following questions:

- The group tends to be fairly balanced between roleplaying and rollplaying, with perhaps leaning a bit on the roleplaying side. How is the adventure for this play style?

- I'd want to be using the core rules only (PHB, MM, DMG), with perhaps 1 or 2 other books - not the whole slew of WOTC and 3rd party items that are out now. How well would the adventure path - in your opinion - run with just the Core 3 books?

- How much prep time does this adventure require for each session? Are the NPCs and encounters fairly well statted out? How accurate are they? (I don't want to be spending time fixing them in addition to everything else.)

Please tell me your opinions, and direct me to any other reviews, if they are out there....

 

[Nightfall]

GFA,

I liked it and I'm a fairly hard guy to impress when it doesn't involve Orcus or the Scarred Lands.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

GFA,

I liked it and I'm a fairly hard guy to impress when it doesn't involve Orcus or the Scarred Lands.

Scarred Lands rocks, BTW. I'd like to run a game in Scarred Lands eventually, but I'm just not good with coming up with my own adventures yet, so I should get more experience first. (Not to mention, more of the books.... I only have 1 at the moment.)

 

[Nightfall]

GFA,

Hey that's why I'm here. I am the Sage and source of 75% of all Scarred Lands stuff. (Okay maybe not 75% but I am an NPC darnit!) As for adventures, hey that's fine. Not everyone can make a campaign, much less run consistently good adventures when they are learning. It's a matter of patience, practice and experience.

 

[Vanuslux]

You might want to check out my review of The Scouring of Gate Pass.

I own the first three adventures and so far the story is great with lots of great encounters of both the combat and non-combat sort (and those that could go either way). It should be great for the playstyle of your group, it sounds. There's also no problem only using the core rules with this path.

As for prep, the first two adventures suffer from an overabundance of "see the MM" in the place of combat stats, but they listened to feedback about how aggravating that is and by the third adventure seem to be a lot better about it (though I haven't given the third adventure a thorough look yet). Other than that you shouldn't have too much prep time aside from just thoroughly reading the part of the adventure you'll be running to make sure you're fresh on all the minute details that can play a part in the encounters. Of course, I can't really speak for the correctness of the stats as I generally don't pay them much mind as long as they're not way off.

 

[amethal]

- The group tends to be fairly balanced between roleplaying and rollplaying, with perhaps leaning a bit on the roleplaying side. How is the adventure for this play style?

Sounds well nigh perfect, at least based on the first three episodes.

- I'd want to be using the core rules only (PHB, MM, DMG), with perhaps 1 or 2 other books - not the whole slew of WOTC and 3rd party items that are out now. How well would the adventure path - in your opinion - run with just the Core 3 books?

You don't need anything other than the SRD. There is a fair amount of new stuff (feats, prestige classes etc.) but its fully detailed in the adventures and / or the WotBS plyers guide.

- How much prep time does this adventure require for each session? Are the NPCs and encounters fairly well statted out? How accurate are they? (I don't want to be spending time fixing them in addition to everything else.)

The encounters are pretty well statted out, and the battlemaps can be downloaded from the WotBS website.. The stats seem accurate, but I'm no John Cooper.

There is a suggestion about using psion/wilder levels instead of sorcerer levels for some NPCs, which is the approach I'll be adopting, so I'll have to restat some of the characters but its entirely my own fault for prefering the psionic version.

It seems to me that the first adventure could be run without any real prep at all.

The second one involves the Indomitable Fire Forest, you'd need to familiarise yourself with the forest's unique features.

I'm not as familar with the third one, but I have to say I'm finding it a bit confusing. Its fairly free form, and I think I will need to do some notes (and maybe flow charts) before I run it so I can keep track of what the heck is going on.

There also seem to be some plot holes, but possibly I just need to read it more carefully.

It also includes some optional encounters, so you'll have to decide how many of those you want to include - although its easy enough just to use none of them.

So far, WotBS looks like an excellent series. It remains to be seen how well it copes with high level play but I am extremely pleased with it so far.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

You might want to check out my review of The Scouring of Gate Pass.

Actually, that was the review I found, and it was quite helpful, along with your suggestions for the difficult EL4 encounters and Torrent, the first NPC.

 

[Vanuslux]

Actually, that was the review I found, and it was quite helpful, along with your suggestions for the difficult EL4 encounters and Torrent, the first NPC.

Whoops...didn't catch that you'd read the review on ENWorld...for some reason I was thinking the one review on RPGNow.

Anyway, I hope to have a review up for the second adventure up soon. If you have any more specific questions that I can bake the answers out of the first three adventures for, feel free to ask.

 

[Chimera]

As someone playing it, but only a couple of sessions in, I can give it my stamp of approval.

There are a lot of side quests and such that don't necessarily have to be done. We ignored a lot of the side issues in the first adventure because we didn't want to be constantly distracted and led away from our primary mission.

As a GM, be flexible about that, about the number of villains in the encounters (in other words, balance for your group), and basically allow the group to dictate the flow of the adventure within the path.

That last bit was extremely important for me and our GM is very committed to it. You see, I haven't done a lot of modules or adventure paths in my 29 years of D&D. Primarily because they tend to be railroads. You know you're going from point A to point Z and don't have a lot of choice in the matter. Now I've already pricked my GM a bit about it with this module, because I look at the map, see places marked A, B, C, laugh and go "I guess we're going to B next, fire up the choo-choo!" But honestly, he's done a great job of allowing us to make our own choices about where we're going and what we're doing, while keeping us within the context of the Adventure Path.

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm not as familar with the third one, but I have to say I'm finding it a bit confusing. Its fairly free form, and I think I will need to do some notes (and maybe flow charts) before I run it so I can keep track of what the heck is going on.

There also seem to be some plot holes, but possibly I just need to read it more carefully.

Amethal, what problem are you having? I'd be glad to clear up any confusion if I can.