(Sigh) Another railroad ... (WotVB)

[Mystery Man]

I don't know if it's worth a sigh but....

I have those two modules, the storylines are both really very good.

I like the recommendations that are given in each encounter but when you string them all together it does assume way too much and does get railroady. You're better off just using them as a guideline rather than using every encounter to the letter. There is no way, with a resourceful and powerful group (and they will be with the Eberron system) that the bad guy is going to get away every single time to be in the next encounter.

Both of these module are workable as long as the DM understands that nothing that is written inside is going to go according to plan.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I guess the ideal for this sort of adventure is where there is *a* foil in each of the events, but not the BBEG... and the DM is given options for what happens if the foil in each case escapes or doesn't escape.

Railroading aside though - what is the adventure like? Interesting visuals, exciting scenes/environments?

Any real noir elements included?

Cheers

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I'm at the very end of the first,and about to start the second of these two mods.

And, I'll grant the chugga chugga criticisms -- especially the second one does seem to have very few places where the PC do much more that go along for the ride -- but it's an excellent ride, IMO.

The second mod has some great set pieces -- and clearly they are the anchors of the adventure. There's a costume ball, for one, and a mid-air battle between two flying ships. The overall arc may be a bit too linear and undeveloped, but the scenes themselves will make for exciting play.

And, as far as pushing for the NPCs to continue to escape from one scene to the next . . . well, yeah. It's a chase. If the PCs catch him, it's over. Perhaps some discussion in the introduction of the mod would help less experienced DMs deal with this -- discuss the idea that the mod as printed is a series of chances for the PCs to catch up to the bad guys -- and deal with obstacles that appear in their path as they continue the chase. If they managed to end the chase early by catching the target, well, the mod's over. Is that a problem? Well, if you didn't get to use one of your cool scenes, drag that scene over into another adventure later on.

Still, most good DMs will understand that the printed mod is a plan, not a program. It's a set of creative ideas and suggestions to work with, but individual games will do individual things, and the DM needs to roll with that. After all, this isn't NWN.

-rg

 

[VirgilCaine]

Still, most good DMs will understand that the printed mod is a plan, not a program. It's a set of creative ideas and suggestions to work with, but individual games will do individual things, and the DM needs to roll with that. After all, this isn't NWN.

-rg

But some people buy modules to *save* time...and expect them to be relatively ready out of the box.
Not me, I don't buy modules. But still, I would hope that they were better quality. I mean, these are official Dungeons and Dragons products here.

 

[devilish]

Ot -

When I saw the title, I thought "Not another (magically-powered) railroad!"
as is seen often in the Eberron campaign....

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Well it was intended as a bit of a double entendre, since part of the adventure

Spoiler

takes place on the lighnting rail

Railroading aside though - what is the adventure like? Interesting visuals, exciting scenes/environments?

Visuals? What art there is is pretty weak.

Individual scenes/environments are well done:

Spoiler

- A masked ball in the gnome capital
- A fight between and one two airships (that climaxes with the airships colliding and plummetting to earth
- A fight on a lighnting rail platform
- A fight on the lightning rail itself, where warforged on horses ride up and attack the train (think your average western, or The Great Train Robbery)
- An ancient ziggurat in the wilderness

There would be tremendous potential if the encounters weren't designed to be so lock-stepped, and so dependent on fixed outcomes. Or even if there were multiple paths through the encounters.

Still, you could mine it for the individual scenes, I suppose.

Any real noir elements included?

I wouldn't recognize a noir element if it crawled in and bit me on the butt. What do you mean, exactly?

 

[Soul]

The best prewritten adventures I've ever read for anygame are probably those from AEG's 7th Sea. I've found no other adventures that come close. Now, that doesn't mean they are problem free or even neccesarly have the best writing, or even best over all stories. It is how they are presented and the format. Each adventure usualy has a series of unchangine points that define the plot. They call them 'hard points', and then they have a series of events or situations that can fit inbetween each hard point to fill out the adventure and provide opertunities that are called 'soft points'. There is also usualy a little advice on adding your own soft points, or changing some of the details of both hard/soft points to best fit the group or bring out the dramatics more. This works very well in my opinion, and greatly increases the usability of the adventure. Perhaps since Ebberon is going for a similiar dramatic swashbuckling style, the design team could/should take some pointers from other games that already do this sort of style well. Thats probably just wishful thinking though.

 

[qstor]

anyone know the link that was posted a few weeks ago that had the lightning rail map on it?

thanks!

Mike

 

[tmaaas]

anyone know the link that was posted a few weeks ago that had the lightning rail map on it?

The lightning rail map was created with Dundjinni.

Check out their maps forum for a bunch of other Eberron-related (and other) maps.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Visuals? What art there is is pretty weak.

Individual scenes/environments are well done:

The scenes were what I had in mind rather than the artwork; a fight in a cavern is boring, a fight on rock floes floating in a sea of magma is an "exciting visual". Perhaps I should have said 'memorable environment' to be more accurate.

Thanks for posting those scenes. I've used the first one a couple of times in my own campaign to good effect, the second and third ones sound interesting.

I wouldn't recognize a noir element if it crawled in and bit me on the butt. What do you mean, exactly?

I could do better than quote from a website http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html the following

The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, socio-paths, crooks, war veterans, petty criminals, and murderers. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.

The females in film noir were either of two types - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femme fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him). Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one. Often, it would be to follow the goadings of a traitorous femme fatale who destructively would lead the struggling hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption and death.

Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites) showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.

...

Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.

Cheers