What adventure should I run? Your input needed!

[s@squ@tch]

OK, YeOldeAlbatross -- it is settled. Jemal and I will play RttTOEE with you.

 

[Autumn]

Likewise, RttToEE is uncharted territory for me too. With it being talked about so often I'd love to finally play it.

 

[Insight]

If I were in the market to run a D&D game here on EN World, I'd pick something short. It takes too long for character creation, all the associated fiddling that takes place getting TO the adventure (like your current game )... and people lose interest before the game ever gets going.

 

[Lord_Raven88]

Well all this talk of RttToEE has got my interest piqued in maybe perhaps oneday DMing such a game.

Although I had the twisted thought of the PC's being Yaun Ti tained ones sent to infiltrate the Temple, and stop the Temple's plans from coming true. If the Temple is successful, this would severly cramp the chances of the Yaun Ti ever gaining dominance.

If I did do this (I need to look thru the adventure first to see if it's possible) then there would be less hack n slash initially, as the main purpose of the group would be to infilitrate the Temple organisation. From there the group could try to infiltrate to the highest levels of the Temple (so as to discover and disrupt their plans), try to orcastrate the various sects into open warfare, or any other plan that they could think of.

This adventure could be co-dmed I suppose, especially if one DM focused on running the adventure for the good guys, while another ran the adventure for the bad guys (Yaun Ti). Who knows, in the end the 'enemy of my enemy' could become my friend.

 

[s@squ@tch]

The crucial element is to select players who are in it for the long haul.

That, obviously, is very difficult to do on a message board.

Good players + good DM = game that will last.

Anything else will probably end with a "Where did he/they go??"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's funny how the DM's who suggest running short adventures end up ignoring there own advice, and running large campaigns.

One of the two I'm running here is a Goodman Games $2 Adventure -- 16 pages of goodness, and that includes the player handouts, cover page and introduction! The other one, well, I thought it was going to be short!

After Longcoat wraps up, if the players are still interested, I'll segue either into one of the short DCC adventures in The Adventure Begins, go with an urban Dungeon adventure or grab Ring of Thieves by the Game Mechanics, all of which are genuinely short.

Anyway, Albatross, I wish you nothing but success, whatever adventure you end up running.

 

[YeOldeAlbatross]

I appreciate everyone's input and advice!

I have to say that all the interest in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil surprises me a little bit, since it is an older product and all. Very interesting...I'll keep in mind that if I shoud decide to tackle that one, I'll have several very good players waiting in line.

Meanwhile, the critical consensus seems to be 'keep it short!' I appreciate that, believe me. I've been lurking 'round here for a long time now, and I've seen many, many interesting games die that PbP death that is oh so common. Will I have any better fortune and succeed where so many others have failed? Only time will tell. But, I certainly can't succeed if I don't give it a try, hmm?

I'll try to keep this thread alive for another couple of days and see if anyone else would like to 'vote' or otherwise express an opinion.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Jonventus]

Age of Worms!!!

I'm running Shackled City IRL and would really like to play an Adventure Path as a player. My preference would be for Age of Worms since I'm sure my friend will want to run Savage Tide since he's a pirate freak.

I understand the motivation to run a short game, but I would prefer a longer, more involved story. It's true that the same 4-6 players might not all have their characters retired at Level 20, but as long as the posts are frequent and the game interesting, I don't see why it can't go on as long as the DM wants. The Adventure Paths are neatly broken down into 12 self-conteained scenarios which means there are a lot of natural break points where players can be recruited to replace dropouts.

I have a few suggestions to help make a long campaign work:

1. Smaller party (preferably 4 PCs, 5 max).

This makes everyone feel like an integral part of the campaign. I find with larger parties, a few people tend to get lost in the shuffle or intimidated my the quantity of posts they have to read.

2. Restrict to core material

People get over-excited about cool, exotic, powered-up characters. This is great at first, but it quickly loses it's luster and often leads to bored players. Some people just like making characters. I find that simple characters are more conducive to good role-playing.

3. Visual Aids

I find this really helps in PbP. Even if it's just a cropped photo from the adventure or a nice-looking battle grid, it's nice to see what's going on every once in awhile rather than have to scroll back through old posts for a description. Seeing that the DM is putting it that extra effort is also a great motivator for players to log on every day and post.

Anyway, it sounds like you'll have interest no matter what you run, but that's my vote
Jon

 

[Jemal]

Also if you do try something a bit longer, be open to replacing PC's if/when they go Missing.

 

[YeOldeAlbatross]

If anybody is still interested in this thread, I thought I'd make known my plans to run the next GameMastery adventure from Paizo when it comes out. It's called 'The Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale' and it's a wilderness-based adventure for 6th level characters. Here's a little blurb:

Fallow and abandoned for years, Bloodsworn Vale has long been a dangerous wood separating two kingdoms. A recent call-to-arms asks adventurers from around the world to establish a trade route through this dark and forboding forest.

Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale is a wilderness adventure written by Jason Bulmahn that pits players against the evil fey tribes of the Vale. Only the valiant and clever can defeat the fey—but will you be clever enough to destroy their master?

A true recruiting post will go up before too long, but if anybody wants to express interest in this thread, that's perfectly fine with me! You can always check out the links in my sig for my other GameMastery adventure, Hollow's Last Hope, to get an idea of what to expect from me as a DM.