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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Renfield" data-source="post: 4330227" data-attributes="member: 13493">I'm not sure where to put this as it's asking more for advice rather than rules clarification...The Forgotten Realms 'super adventures' that bear the "Expedition to" style and format tell a pretty damn good story. I really liked what they did and the story they told in Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave was wonderful but suffered from terrible game design (my players will never look at spiked chains the same way again, nor the emo-elves... I mean Shadar Kai who wield them) that included numerous mechanical errors and a lots of hate to anyone who likes finding magical items during the course of their adventuring career rather than going to 'magic mart' and buying them at market price. Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land, was the module that made me want to pick up the trilogy (and forced my players to suffer through Cormyr) and run it for my players as a sort of farewell to the Realms (considering none of us are too fond of the changes made to one of our favorite campaign settings) seeing as many impressive events occur as well as confrontations with major NPC's featured in the campaign book and other sourcebooks. That and a return to a module I ran two of them through back in 2nd edition, the one featuring the catacombs beneath the twisted tower which served as an introductory adventure in the last Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set, would make for a wonderful trip down memory lane. Save for one thing, this series seems intent on punishing players.By way of example, my players went up against a rather nasty skeletal dragon that caught them by surprise, suffice to say if I hadn't divvied out the attacks it would of been a rather disheartening TPK or at least have killed off enough players to effectively ruin the fun of the game. They recieved the Kiss of Sylune (or Selune? I don't have the book with me) which in the module offered no real benefits to the PC's perse. And then poof, one of the Seven Sisters, one of the the mainstays of the Realms was gone. Now this was a big event for the players who had gamed with me in the realms before and yet it didn't help soften the blow that much of the magic they wielded was being dampened. So I added something to the kiss that effectively reduced the effect of the weakened weave for them and them alone.I looked on, skimmed through the Anauroch book and couldn't help but frown at where this was going. Does it get worse for spellcasters as the game goes on? Two of my players are contemplating retiring their characters and making PC's of classes they hate just because it's no longer fun to play a spellcaster. If I'm correct magic items begin to get the shaft in the Anauroch module which would make things frustrating for the whole party. I know these modules are supposed to help with telling the story of the transition to a 4th edition setting but do they have to do such while screwing over the players who love the game and effectively punishing them for what they enjoy? That's not the most constructive question actually... instead I would like to ask those who have played or read the modules for advice:How would you adjust these modules so you can tell the story without ruining the fun for your players?How would you do the above so that your spellcasters wouldn't have to to resort to Book of the Nine Swords or Shadow Magic?Do things really get as worse as I fear (I have yet to purchase Anauroch as I'm not sure I'll get any use from it) and all the characters magic gets screwed over while the bad guys benefit from the addage: "evil gets blown" and have full power because they use Shadow Magic or whatnot?And any other advice you might be able to give for a DM who's just not sure how to run these. We stopped during the beginning of the Shadowdale module in favor of running the Pathfinder Adventure Path module "Burnt Offerings" under their PRGP Alpha rules and were meant to go back once we finished that first adventure. Well, it's finished and the players (and myself) are skeptical about investing more time in the realms adventures if it's just going to continue down that path. I wouldn't mind continuing with the Rise of the Runelords campaign but it would kind of disappoint me to have spent the money on the two modules without finishing them.Anyway, any advice, examples of what other DM's did, etc, would be most useful. Otherwise this will become a Fighter/Monk/Rogue/BookofNineSwords campaign. >.<</blockquote>

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