I'm currently running Pyramid of Shadows, the third of the Wizards 4e adventures. It has a nice set-up, interesting locations, a great hook, and, despite all that, is falling rather flat.
Why is this? Well, in this writer's opinion, it's due to the incessant combat encounters with little chance for a change of pace.
Now, I'm not against combat in D&D. Most of my campaigns feature a great deal of combat. It's just that, in this instance, the adventure just seems to be combat, combat, combat and more combat. Now, I'll be the first to admit that we're still on the first level of the dungeon, and we've mostly been exploring north and west (away from the groups that might actually talk to the PCs), but given we've had two 4+ hour sessions of nothing but combat in this area, it's a fair amount of time spent.
Does that mean that there should have been roleplaying encounters here? No. not necessarily. What I would have liked was some exploration, something that Wizards seems exceptionally bad at including in their recent adventures. You can have empty areas if they have things to puzzle and intrigue the characters. Slightly extended descriptions of the areas would be nice. When you come down to it, the format of Pyramid of Shadows is dreadful. The numbers on the map have no relationship at all to the tactical encounters.
The other part of what I'd like to see in Wizards adventure design is this: easy encounters. Jesse Decker demonstrated in The Spire of Long Shadows the folly of putting a bunch of extremely tough encounters in a row: it makes them all blend into each other, the party want to rest after each one (even with milestones, etc.), and they're frustrating for the party. Easy encounters are great fun for the players: they get to show their power, demonstrate that they're better than they were, and provide a break between big battles. They also don't take so long; give me a room of five level 4 or 5 orcs, and the 8th level party will wipe them out in 20-30 minutes.
A related point is with terrain and special effects: not every combat needs to have them. Some times, the players like being able to maneuver their characters so they can actually use their abilities.
There are other things that are bothering me about the adventure, but that's enough for now. How have you found it?
Cheers!
Why is this? Well, in this writer's opinion, it's due to the incessant combat encounters with little chance for a change of pace.
Now, I'm not against combat in D&D. Most of my campaigns feature a great deal of combat. It's just that, in this instance, the adventure just seems to be combat, combat, combat and more combat. Now, I'll be the first to admit that we're still on the first level of the dungeon, and we've mostly been exploring north and west (away from the groups that might actually talk to the PCs), but given we've had two 4+ hour sessions of nothing but combat in this area, it's a fair amount of time spent.
Does that mean that there should have been roleplaying encounters here? No. not necessarily. What I would have liked was some exploration, something that Wizards seems exceptionally bad at including in their recent adventures. You can have empty areas if they have things to puzzle and intrigue the characters. Slightly extended descriptions of the areas would be nice. When you come down to it, the format of Pyramid of Shadows is dreadful. The numbers on the map have no relationship at all to the tactical encounters.
The other part of what I'd like to see in Wizards adventure design is this: easy encounters. Jesse Decker demonstrated in The Spire of Long Shadows the folly of putting a bunch of extremely tough encounters in a row: it makes them all blend into each other, the party want to rest after each one (even with milestones, etc.), and they're frustrating for the party. Easy encounters are great fun for the players: they get to show their power, demonstrate that they're better than they were, and provide a break between big battles. They also don't take so long; give me a room of five level 4 or 5 orcs, and the 8th level party will wipe them out in 20-30 minutes.
A related point is with terrain and special effects: not every combat needs to have them. Some times, the players like being able to maneuver their characters so they can actually use their abilities.
There are other things that are bothering me about the adventure, but that's enough for now. How have you found it?
Cheers!
