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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 4063467" data-attributes="member: 63">As the director of the War of the Burning Sky campaign saga, I've personally gone over every adventure after they've been turned in to tie them together smoothly and compellingly. I do have it kind of easy, because since the heroes are helping out during a war, the people they take orders from can give them missions, but each mission develops from the previous one and builds toward the climax.In my opinion, combat has no value if there aren't roleplaying scenes that lead into and develop from it. I've tried to make sure the heroes never have a fight with an important villain they first don't get a chance to talk to. Some adventures are much more roleplay-oriented (adventure three is based in a city where you have to acquire allies for later in the war), while others are full of combats with pockets of roleplaying (adventure eight sees the heroes attacking a sort of 'magical research laboratory,' akin to assaulting the Death Star), while most have a mix.We decided early on that we had to allow the option of massive combat in the series -- after all, it's a war, and some players are going to want to command an army -- but never are you required to run massive battles. Usually the heroes are performing critical tasks while a battle goes on around them, or leading a small strike team against a remote enemy outpost, or doing reconnaissance to find the enemy's weak point.I know how tedious running dozens of NPCs can be, but so far we've only had two instances of that, in the 4th and 9th adventure. Each time the heroes are with a group of about two dozen allies, and they have to hold territory against oncoming enemy forces, while other groups on their side are busy defending other areas in the same battle.The first time it's much like a traditional war, with infantry and artillery and cavalry -- very Braveheart-esque. By the second time they're 16th level, and we felt the heroes deserved a chance to strut their stuff God of War-style, hewing through dozens of enemies apiece. There are occasions where the heroes have the chance to take command of whole units and do the Sun Tzu thing if they feel like it, but it's not required. I think most players get their kicks being Leonidas fighting in the midst of a horde of foes, rather than being Xerxes and managing units from afar.I think that if, by the end of the campaign saga there's any aspect of 'war stories' that we haven't dealt with, I'll be a little disappointed in myself. But ultimately we wanted to make a great series of adventures that would be fun to play, and have a memorable story. I've also read the first three issues of Rise of the Runelords, and the Savage Tide path, and they both were cool*, but if you want a campaign where the heroes' actions visibly and publicly change the world, and where your players will get to become legends, you should pick up War of the Burning Sky.* I also read the synopsis of Slavelords of Cydonia, and it sounded ridiculawesome.</blockquote>

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