World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[spectre72]

Well we finished the second session of WLD in Blackmoor and the group has explored about a third of Region A, North of the entrance.

We had 2 character deaths....

The Halfling Rogue died fighting stirges while scouting a room, the worst part was that the raging barbarian finished him off with his axe while attacking a stirge that was attached to the Halfling (The Barbarian was in a rage and attacked even after being told there was a chance he would hit the Halfling - The hit was a critical).

The Half-Elven Swashbuckler died when he ran into a room to loot orc bodies and ran into a Fiendish Rat Swarm. After the first round the Swashbuckler was down and someone threw a flask of oil over the swarm and the elf. As soon as it was apparent that the swarm was coming after the rest of the party they threw a torch onto the oil finishing off the Swashbuckler and pissing off the rats (the party also realized the fire did not seriously injure the swarm and they were very afraid). The party then tried to close the door to keep the rats in the room but they managed to escape and critically injured two other party members before they were destroyed.

The Swashbuckler had already done this two times before this and found Fiendish Rats, but maybe this time he learned that rushing ahead like this was a bad idea.

In addition we have several characters down severly on CON from stirges and a few people who are diseased.

So we ended the session with the party finding one of the doors to region E which I have locked with a magical key in my game, the key to be located in Region B.

So with 2 less characters and people sick and out of spells the party returned to their base camp to rest, recover, and wait for the effects of their diseases to take hold.

This is where we ended the session.

For those who read my introduction to the game after session 1 you now know why each player started off with 2 characters.

After 2 sessions most of the group have at least one character out of the game or incapacitated for a while (CON loss or Diseased).

I love it when a plan comes together

Scott

 

[jim pinto]

keep them coming

I know I've been quiet lately (and I don't really have time to even write this), but I wanted to say that I like what I'm reading and I wish I could be chiming in with more ideas.

I'd like to hear more stories of people running through Region N. I spent nearly a month editing and writing on this Region and I would love to read what your teams have accomplished.

As for magic items, burn gp worth of items in place of XP at a rate of 2 or 3 to 1. Especially if you're not using an XP system, but just bumping people. And if you are using magic items to fuel the creation of other magic items, the exchange rate should be on the side of the PCs.

I just started playing Knight of the Old Republic II and I can see they have all sorts of work stations for you to build stuff. DMs should drop in forges in places if the PCs aren't finding the 700 in the dungeon already.



Mappings a tough call and I'm not sure I've heard any bad ideas on here, but every group has a different style. I'm not sure what to tell you, but I find that drawing simple lines works really well until the PCs enter a room where fighting is about to take place.

Enough the book guys. I'll be back in a few weeks.

Peace

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I'd like to hear more stories of people running through Region N. I spent nearly a month editing and writing on this Region and I would love to read what your teams have accomplished.

My group will be entering Region J for the first time this Friday. So if everything goes as steadily as it currently does, Region N will be a possibility in 2 months. That assumes they want to take on Tyrus.

 

[jim pinto]

My group will be entering Region J for the first time this Friday. So if everything goes as steadily as it currently does, Region N will be a possibility in 2 months. That assumes they want to take on Tyrus.

Oh... dear sweet Region J... so much good... and so much bad...

I really wish I could have spent more time editing this one.

sigh

Ping me if you want to brainstorm better story threads.

 

[burnrate]

I just launched a new group last week. We have:

Half-elf Paladin
Human Cleric
Halfling Rogue
Half-Orc Druid (no - we didn't ban them)
Gnome Warlock

I like the party. We didn't plan it, but came to the table with 5 different races and classes!

We've only managed one session, exploring perhaps as much as 20% of region A in the first outing and ending the session with level two. The group did manage to find the secret room, so have a relatively safe place to camp out. Although it's drafty they are illuminating through the use of three continual flame items the church gave them to help track longtail.

They are doing surprisingly well so far, with only one dropping under 0 so far and no dead. I think the two healers (three now that the paladin is level 2) help out a great deal. They have been far more effective against the swarms than I expected them to be, and they haven't seen too much ability drain so far, although I've no doubt that will change.

We're trying out the transparency mapping idea, and it's working so far.

 

[Qwillion]

Region E ticks me off.

ok, my group is playing in banewarrens right now, when the get done with that I am launching WLD,

For now I am reading through the book making notes of what I want to change, tweaking little things here and there. So far my only complaints have been the introduction (playabiltiy vs. cool vs. making sense), overuse of specific cretures in region A, region B was wonderful though I think you could have done something more with the blink dogs (I am adding in new good aligned dogs and hounds to replace some overuse of them), Now I am reading Region E and I come to a line that straight ticked me off.

The writer of region E, has no regard for what will happen when the party does X, he treats the entire section as a site based adventure with no worry for the consequenses of the characters actions on the events that can occur. The introduction to the chapter even states that as the GM you will have to do a lot of work if you run the WLD as a campaign.

Now I have heard Jim state before that he did not plan to have anyone run this whole book as a campaign, but I would have expected that some one might use a section of dungeon as a campaign piece. Region E could have been a brilliant piece of desgin leaps and bounds above A and B, but the lack of follow up "what will happen to the region when X happens" just ticks me off.

So now I get to do a major piece of work that has nothing to do with my style of play, I just get to play "What if?" with the outcomes of the events presented. This is work the book should have done, not left for a gm to do.

So far region B has required the least amount of work, and is my fav. Region E could of and should have been my fav though (and may be again once I do the bloody work).

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Region E could of and should have been my fav though (and may be again once I do the bloody work).

My group loved our final session of Region E. Yes it involved some work on my part, but it turned out quite well. My only irritation with the region turned out to be a good adventure resolution idea. The factions within factions and so on bogged me down a bit, but once I got through it all, the pieces of what was set up in the region and what my players had done just seemed to fit perfectly.

The party had kill Morat and several of his barghests. That forced the rest of the barghests to side with Saraas.
The party had also sided with Kelara, and thusly against Dubar and his Inevitables. Dubar's programming finally snaps.
Dubar meet Saraas. Saraas meet Dubar. With the help of the barghests, Dubar became head of the Garrison and the barghests become the newest members of The Redeemed. (The previous members of The Redeemed "abandoned their posts" or otherwise disappeared.)

This all happened while the party was off adventuring in region I. So one time they return for rest and find barghests patrolling the area. The party was too afraid to kill off the barghests for fear of retaliation of the inevitables. It all turned out good in the end.

So I would say, if you're worried about "what if", figure it out yourself in a way that makes sense to you. If the group has not entered region XYZ yet, then don't worry about "what if" until it becomes an issue or something you can use.

So long as you and your group are having fun, fuhgetaboutit.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Oh... dear sweet Region J... so much good... and so much bad...

I really wish I could have spent more time editing this one.

sigh

Ping me if you want to brainstorm better story threads.

So far I like Region J as written...though I'm wondering where all the wood the fire giants are using came from...but eh.

But hey, any help you're willing to give, I'm willing to listen.

 

[Qwillion]

"So I would say, if you're worried about "what if", figure it out yourself in a way that makes sense to you. If the group has not entered region XYZ yet, then don't worry about "what if" until it becomes an issue or something you can use."

I know it falls between two of my dm rules.

1. Never create more than you will use

2. Be Prepared (for the stupid things your players will do)

Plus my players are evil humans, I am at least glad he gave an idea that players who run through this could be evil, most do not. So what happens here is a big deal, my players are going to side with the Barghests and the Shadows. It is possible one of them will even try to free the redeemed from the tyranny of the inevitables.

the Factions to me were great but just saying that "If you plan to run section E as a campaign, The GM needs to do a lot of work once the players leave the section" Just screams bad design to me. The statement that you realize that you did not do a good enough job, does not excuse you from not doing a better job.

 

[DemonGnome]

I'd like to hear more stories of people running through Region N. I spent nearly a month editing and writing on this Region and I would love to read what your teams have accomplished.

The group I am running has gotten quite far into Region N, having taken down Kasteoficiss, the Great Death, and the Wraith King. Unfortunately the group also ran into the sigil near the wraith king. The 'brains' of the group tried to examine it (Big mistake) and failed all 3 saves and so alignment changed from NG to LN and he is now under a geas/quest to 'champion the banner of the martyr Wraith King'. So first thing he does after the 'change' ... "Hey Guys, come take a look at this.".

So now after all but the cleric has examined it we have aslignments gone from LG to NN, LN to LE, NN to LE. Fortunately only the initial player failed the 3rd save and has to champion the banner of his dead king. Feel kinda sorry (well, not really ) for what the player who was absent last night will run into when he comes back.

As for the other leaders, the group has negotiated with Vinnarra (largely because they were concerned about being able to even defeat her) and one player has managed to use Sense the Void (Void Disciple from Complete Divine) to spy upon Invistis. Currently they have just entered his region and almost got ripped a new one by the alloy golem.

On a side note, (don't take this the wrong way) but there were a quite a few editing errors (like much of the book), but the funniest was the table for the sigil of the Wraith King. Was like (off of memory)

17 - PC suffers 1d4 Wis Drain

18 - PC suffers 1d8 Con Drain

19 - PC suffers