Tell me about "Of Sound Mind" (Spoilers Hopefully)

[Fiery James]

Of Sound Mind is one of my favorite adventures. I think any conversion work is worth it. Also, beyond the adventure, Kevin has included a lot of solid advice about GMing and running adventures that can only come from an RPGA multiple-award winning judge.

(One last note on a sales-front -- OSM is available as a PDF through DriveThruRPG, and it IS NOT DRM -- it is a fully-functional watermarked PDF).

- James

 

[Rel]

Riddle me this, Batman: How compatible is OSM with the Expanded Psionics Handbook? I haven't bought it yet but the word on the street is that if you're gonna have psionics in your campaign (and I am) then you gotta have the XPH as opposed to the old PsiH.

 

[Plane Sailing]

FWIW I wouldn't set the adventure in sharn because:

Spoiler

there is so much good stuff around the mountain (outside the mountain, the glowing waterfall inside the mountain etc.) It is especially good if you have any wildernessy type characters in the party since they get to shine a little with tracking and wotnot.

Plus you really, really want to have the farm and the horses. It is a major spooky scare for the players.

However, the fact that there was a copper mine there and they made bells, suggests that perhaps the copper mine went defunct because nearby Sharn started refining copper more cheaply in their own forges, hence certain characters that are hinted at in OSM could have relationships traced back into the cogs for sharn-based forge goodness.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

Riddle me this, Batman: How compatible is OSM with the Expanded Psionics Handbook? I haven't bought it yet but the word on the street is that if you're gonna have psionics in your campaign (and I am) then you gotta have the XPH as opposed to the old PsiH.

I think it would be a relatively small number of characters to rework - basically they are low level psions, so it is just a case of swapping round a few powers and working out whether it is worth them augmenting or not. Most of the powers are improved on the original book though. One big change is that psionic combat disappears entirely (yay!) and the old attack and defence modes simply become attack and defence powers on the list alongside everything else.

Take a look at the XPH in the SRD; it is all up there and you'll get a good idea of what you need for handling the conversion.

Cheers

 

[carpedavid]

(One last note on a sales-front -- OSM is available as a PDF through DriveThruRPG, and it IS NOT DRM -- it is a fully-functional watermarked PDF).

I would like to download it, but I can't, for the life of me, find it on DriveThruRPG. Can you provide a link? Please? From what I've read here, I think I may actually run it in the next session of my campaign.

 

[Davelozzi]

I would like to download it, but I can't, for the life of me, find it on DriveThruRPG. Can you provide a link? Please? From what I've read here, I think I may actually run it in the next session of my campaign.

Well, it's not just you, I tried to find it and it doesn't seem to be there, either by dedicated search or by going through all the Fiery Dragon listings. Likewise, the Available Now links from FDP's own site don't point to it either (the White Wolf link doesn't work at all, and the DriveThru link doesn't point to the module).

 

[Pielorinho]

My favorite aspect of the adventure is:

Spoiler

The Screaming Heads (a pile of decapitated heads just outside an evil priest's lair, ensorcelled to open their eyes and start screaming if anyone approaches them).

The first time I ran this adventure was at DragonCon, and a brilliant player responded to the screaming heads by treating them like footballs: he got another PC to chuck them to him, and then he tucked them under his arm, sprinted to the nearby coppermine shaft, and tossed them down. I loved that player.

The second time I ran this adventure was for my nine-year-old triplet cousins, and just when they approached this scene I realized that their mom might not appreciate me terrifying them with decapitated heads, so I made an on-the-spot decision to switch them to being a pile of children's dolls that started to scream. It was only afterwards when I realized that that might've been an even more frightening image to a nine-year-old.

Great adventure--tons of fun!

Daniel

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It was only afterwards when I realized that that might've been an even more frightening image to a nine-year-old.

You sick, sadistic bastard.


Wulf

 

[Desdichado]

Rel -- if I were you, and I were running in "crunch time" mode, it might be better to start with the intro adventure in the Eberron setting book; it's pretty good, gets a great flavor for the setting itself, and it a one-nighter for most groups.

Then you can take your time converting OSM into the setting for the next time you play.

 

[Gez]

In fact, it has a bittersweet creepiness factor that makes it more scary than the severed heads.

Hey! Kevin, were those severed heads in a psionic adventure a reference to someone?