War of the Burning Sky – Scouring of Gate Pass detailed impressions (spoilers)

[aryus]

Do you have any ideas on an item that could be merged into the WotBS campaign and more specifically link to the Scouring of Gate Pass adventure, perhaps leading to the reason why the PCs want to meet Torrent?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Sky

Perhaps the Dianoem?

 

[Skyscraper]

I haven't read far enough into the AP yet to know what the dianoem does, would you mind sharing that with me?

Sky

 

[Bercilak]

The Dianoem (a dwarven artifact that becomes important in adventure 3, see page 20 of scouring of Gate Pass) would be a great call. Or if you want to be amusing, you could have Katrina send them to get the scroll she wants to leave her brother. (Of course, then he would later give it back to the PCs to take back to Katrina--although the players would likely not realize this until adventure 3 either.)
Berc

 

[Skyscraper]

The Dianoem (a dwarven artifact that becomes important in adventure 3, see page 20 of scouring of Gate Pass) would be a great call.

Yeah, I read page 20 but it doesn't say what it does (unless I skipped something), only that it becomes important in adventure 3. I'll read that eventually, but I need to read adventure 2 before so I won't know what the dianoem is about until a week or two at least. I might even start my game before then.

It reminds me of another thing in Gate Pass, for which I have a question: there is an encounter with a frightening creature that flies overhead while the PCs are running the streets: any idea what it is? Apparently it's too dark to see the creature (but some PCs have low-light vision... How to reconcile that??) but still I'd like to be able to navigate properly when asked the inevitable questions about what's happening.

Thanks,

Sky

 

[Daern]

The frightening creature is a dragon, but it is off stage, the encounter is all about dealing with the effects of dragonfear on crowded streets.
I also did a small pre-adventure, and while I also think HS1 is great, I suggest a slightly shorter scenario. In my case I used the freebie, "Kyber Pass".
Anyways, the Dionem would be a great item to throw out in that it remains mysterious for a long time. In fact, I'm about to start #4 and it is only now about to come into play. Unfortunately, I still don't really get it. Apparently its some ancient machine that helps Dwarves with their social skills, so of course they were thought to be destroyed. Likeable Dwarves could take over the world!
I think I'm going to use it as a Monster Tamer so the PCs can get a hold of some killer mounts to go along with paragon status!

 

[Skyscraper]

Thanks for the explanations, Durn.

The frightening creature is a dragon,

How did you handle this encounter out of curiosity, given that those with low-light vision are supposed to see at night?

 

[RangerWickett]

It's high up, visible only as a hole in the stars. Low light vision lets you see fine in dim light, but where the dragon is, it's in darkness.

 

[Daern]

Yeah, no chance of seeing it, or interacting, not that they wanted to, the players knew well enough what it was. I did a loose series of skill checks for that part, that whole getting across town sequence to me was all about maintaining a sense of momentum and urgency. I didn't want to get bogged down in combat or too many dice, it was a series of vignettes on the way to the next big thing, which if I remember correctly was the battle with the downed Wyvern rider. I added a wounded Wyvern to that one and it was a fun battle.

 

[Skyscraper]

Out of curiosity, how do you play low-light vision? I had always assumed that those with low-light vision see normally at night, or just about, except when they enter forests or heavily shadowed areas. (I believe the PHB says something to that effect.)

This aside, I assume that the story about a dragon that was fought by a druid who transforms into an eagle, story told by the council member whose name I can't remember and referring to the night when the attacks occurred, might refer to the dragon who inspired fear in the citizens that night. And, on another note, it's somewhat of a foreshadowing of events to come, with reference to the myth of the dragon and the eagle.

Sky

 

[KidSnide]

And, I admit, it has given me pause to consider the adventure path differently. There are some things that still don't jive with me in the Scouring of Gate Pass but perhaps I'm focusing too much on single encounters (such as the weasel one) and not enough on the big picture that includes some of the very strong upsides that the AP has to offer.

I'll have to reconsider my decision to avoid this adventure and perhaps work out a few of the disturbing (for me) elements (unnecessary encounters and too much Torrent intervention) and use those encounters I find cool in more of a free-form manner based on the good setting and story. Hmm. Food for thought.

. . .

- free form adventures are cool (inasmuch as design permits). E.g. provide a setting, a storyline, a goal, then let the players find their way to that goal anyway they like, providing numerous encounter a portion of which will probably remain unused. The precise time or sequence of encounters should be left out. Of course, this can only be done for a number of encounters, then a goal is achieved, the PCs have levelled up once or twice and you constrict the game back to a chokepoint, whereafter you let the PCs loose again, and so on.

I finished Scouring of Gate Pass last month and I should say that, in my experience, the story runs as good as it reads, but the encounters run much better. You're right that there are some problems (particularly around the 4e conversion), but I find that many of the "less important" encounters fulfill useful functions in the game. For example, the random series of events that occur while moving through the city early in the adventure provide an interactive (instead of narrative) way to establish the atmosphere of the city under attack. As for the weasel... well, if I used xp, I'd award it for analyzing the situation and deliberately deciding to skip the encounter.

The other thing I should mention is that Gate Pass is the beginning of a rather long AP. Starting off a campaign with a more "railroad-y" adventure is not a bad thing. You want the players to be able to make meaningful decisions in the world, but you need to teach them about the world first while giving them the opportunity to do something meaningful while they get their sea legs. Gate Pass is great at both those things. I wouldn't like it if all 12 modules were written like Gate Pass, but now that my group is playing through module #2 and I've read through #4, I'm satisfying that's not the case.

Also, while the overall plot is tightly directed, the PCs have a lot of simple decisions to make. There are several "negotiate or fight" decisions (my PCs skipped at least 3 battles), the combat encounters permit multiple approaches and there are at least a half dozen ways to get out of the city.

Even if the "1st conversion to 4e problems", I only found that I wanted to make four changes:

1) I re-statted the high level elite wizard to a lower level solo encounter. My PCs never fought her, but it would have been a hella boring encounter as written.

2) I wrote up a new general skill challenge for "convincing an NPC to go along with your reasonable plan" that (IMO) made for better encounters with the aforementioned high level wizard as well as the dwarf king.

3) When it came to leaving the city, I let the PCs decide whether they thought it was better for Torrent to come with them, or stay in Gate Pass to help the resistance. My PCs left her in Gate Pass (which was my preference - there are an awful lot of NPCs that can follow the party around), but even if they took her with them, I thought it would be better if it was their choice and not some sort of adventure mandate. (I had her give them a letter of introduction to her mentor.)

4) I re-statted Torrent, Crystin and Haddin to use the companion rules from DMG2. (As written, I think Haddin's attacks are for a level 16 wizard.)

-KS