D&D 5E What is Iymrith's full plan? (spoilers for Storm King's Thunder)

[dropbear8mybaby]

She doesn't have a plan. Much like the entire book, everyone in it is bereft of any logical reasoning whatsoever and is just doing things because the plot demands that they do stuff.

Which would be at least somewhat acceptable if there was actually any plot to speak of...

 

[Jester David]

She doesn't have a plan. Much like the entire book, everyone in it is bereft of any logical reasoning whatsoever and is just doing things because the plot demands that they do stuff.

Which would be at least somewhat acceptable if there was actually any plot to speak of...

It is a good reminder... I'd forgotten so much of this.

Between this and the lack of real plot in Curse of Strahd, I really hope whatever Chris Perkins does next is amazing or it's going to start impacting my opinions of him as the main adventure writer...

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

It is a good reminder... I'd forgotten so much of this.

Between this and the lack of real plot in Curse of Strahd, I really hope whatever Chris Perkins does next is amazing or it's going to start impacting my opinions of him as the main adventure writer...

I'm currently running it and every time I read up on a section before the players play through it, I'm left bewildered at how this made it to publication. The PC's are currently going towards a certain secret location where all the answers will be given to them. A location so remote that only a handful of giants and three ancient dragons know of its existence. Hidden in a deep and inhospitable mountain range.

And yet, just by pure coincidence, a bunch of barbarians happen to be there when the PC's arrive. Why are they there? Err... because? Loots... n'stuff? Someone went in there by themselves and now the barbarian tribe are trying to get them back, even though, "...and his tribe strike out from this cavern only occasionally to defend their territory...", a cavern that is at least six days hard travel across harsh terrain.

Why did this lost tribe member go there? Umm... reasons?

This is the entire module. Reasons and because. Sorry, I'm venting, just frustrated that this campaign is more work than it would've been had I just made it all up myself.

 

[Jester David]

I'm currently running it and every time I read up on a section before the players play through it, I'm left bewildered at how this made it to publication. The PC's are currently going towards a certain secret location where all the answers will be given to them. A location so remote that only a handful of giants and three ancient dragons know of its existence. Hidden in a deep and inhospitable mountain range.

And yet, just by pure coincidence, a bunch of barbarians happen to be there when the PC's arrive. Why are they there? Err... because? Loots... n'stuff? Someone went in there by themselves and now the barbarian tribe are trying to get them back, even though, "...and his tribe strike out from this cavern only occasionally to defend their territory...", a cavern that is at least six days hard travel across harsh terrain.

Why did this lost tribe member go there? Umm... reasons?

This is the entire module. Reasons and because. Sorry, I'm venting, just frustrated that this campaign is more work than it would've been had I just made it all up myself.

And then they get there and ask the oracle the most obvious of questions, which all groups will ask: how do we restore the ordning? And the DM replies by flipping through the module, looking confused, shrugging, and finally saying "are you sure you don't want to instead ask about this king that hasn't been mentioned before now?"

 

[discosoc]

It is a good reminder... I'd forgotten so much of this.

Between this and the lack of real plot in Curse of Strahd, I really hope whatever Chris Perkins does next is amazing or it's going to start impacting my opinions of him as the main adventure writer...

I'm currently running it and every time I read up on a section before the players play through it, I'm left bewildered at how this made it to publication. The PC's are currently going towards a certain secret location where all the answers will be given to them.

My best guess is he's writing these things with Adventure League in mind. The kind of groups where DM's rotate, new players keep showing up, and the sessions are so short that the focus really is more on getting your 6-8 encounters in for the night than attempting to setup plausible RP or story sets. I wish he'd start writing higher quality stuff again, but I suspect this isn't happening because he suddenly became a crappy designer; he's just pandering to a niche in the community.

 

[Jester David]

My best guess is he's writing these things with Adventure League in mind. The kind of groups where DM's rotate, new players keep showing up, and the sessions are so short that the focus really is more on getting your 6-8 encounters in for the night than attempting to setup plausible RP or story sets. I wish he'd start writing higher quality stuff again, but I suspect this isn't happening because he suddenly became a crappy designer; he's just pandering to a niche in the community.

I doubt that very much. AL is tiny. A fractional part of sales and gaming. Under 2000 stores and maybe 1% of the player base. Probably less. And the AL running the storylines is an even smaller fraction.

Chris Perkins hasn't really written long form adventures. He's done smalll stuff. I think he's running stuff that he's find useful as a DM: a big toolbox of ideas he can pull from when he needs ideas. Characters he can have doing other things as needs. Which is great in the hands of a master (like him) but falls flat for so many others...

 

[pukunui]

My best guess is he's writing these things with Adventure League in mind. The kind of groups where DM's rotate, new players keep showing up, and the sessions are so short that the focus really is more on getting your 6-8 encounters in for the night than attempting to setup plausible RP or story sets. I wish he'd start writing higher quality stuff again, but I suspect this isn't happening because he suddenly became a crappy designer; he's just pandering to a niche in the community.

I reckon that's only part of it. I think they're also trying to set up each of these adventures as sandboxes / campaign settings.

Princes of the Apocalypse doubles as a sandbox / mini campaign setting of the Dessarin Valley.
Out of the Abyss doubles as a sandbox / campaign setting for part of the Underdark.
Curse of Strahd doubles as a sandbox / campaign setting for Barovia.
Storm King's Thunder doubles as a sandbox / campaign setting for the Sword Coast / the North.

It makes some sense to do it that way. DMs who don't like the default plot can ignore it and just use what's in the book to run their own campaigns set in those locations. Each plot is light so that each DM can customize it for their group.

Chris Perkins hasn't really written long form adventures. He's done smalll stuff. I think he's running stuff that he's find useful as a DM: a big toolbox of ideas he can pull from when he needs ideas. Characters he can have doing other things as needs. Which is great in the hands of a master (like him) but falls flat for so many others...

This too. I'm willing to bet that all these adventures make a lot more sense in Chris' head but, perhaps because of page count constraints and the like, the stuff in his head isn't getting translated onto the page as well as the rest of us might want/need it to be.

 

[Prakriti]

I'm currently running it and every time I read up on a section before the players play through it, I'm left bewildered at how this made it to publication.

I've read whole sections 8-9 times, trying to make sense of it, and yes, it's bewildering. I'm just hoping that my players don't try to delve too deep. With any luck, they're charitably assuming that, behind the scenes, it all makes sense.

 

[Prakriti]

This too. I'm willing to bet that all these adventures make a lot more sense in Chris' head but, perhaps because of page count constraints and the like, the stuff in his head isn't getting translated onto the page as well as the rest of us might want/need it to be.

I'm sure that's part of it. But my guess is that SKT was actually a victim of a writer's worst enemy: deadlines.

 

[discosoc]

I doubt that very much. AL is tiny. A fractional part of sales and gaming. Under 2000 stores and maybe 1% of the player base. Probably less. And the AL running the storylines is an even smaller fraction.

Chris Perkins hasn't really written long form adventures. He's done smalll stuff. I think he's running stuff that he's find useful as a DM: a big toolbox of ideas he can pull from when he needs ideas. Characters he can have doing other things as needs. Which is great in the hands of a master (like him) but falls flat for so many others...

In this podcast, he does specifically talk about design choices like the randomness intended to make the game different each time you play it. That personally sounds like a nod to the AL, but I could be wrong. I just can't think of many reasons why a DM would want to have an adventure like that unless they made it a habit of running with different groups or something. Just seemed weird (although highly useful for him).