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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OnlineDM" data-source="post: 5265490" data-attributes="member: 90804">Note: Some spoilers are ahead.Since I'm running my online group through War of the Burning Sky using MapTool and Skype, I thought this forum might be interested to hear how it's going, what I've decided to change, what works and what doesn't for my group.  The details of the first two sessions can also be found <a href="http://onlinedm.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/war-of-the-burning-sky-session/" target="_blank">here</a>.To summarize, I'm using the campaign as inspiration rather than strict direction (I don't think I can run a long-term campaign as written without taking it in my own direction).  I had already run the group through one unrelated session before starting WotBS, so they were halfway through level 1 when we began.I ran the first encounter (meeting Torrent in the Poison Apple Inn, being ambushed by bounty hunters) pretty much as written, although I did a lousy job of forcing the battle into the alley (so the dogs never came into play).  I had a hard time grokking Kathor's motivations, so when the party kicked the bounty hunters' butts I had Kathor parlay with them.  The party decided to try to recruit Kathor into the Resistance, which I thought seemed pretty interesting (though we didn't end up picking this idea back up).I then ran the "trek though the burning city" skill challenges more or less as written.  I did run "Animal Crossing" (recovering Kiki the dire weasel), and I'm glad I did - the party had lots of fun with it.At this point, I started changing things around.  I honestly didn't like the complications of having an eladrin spy steal Rivereye's case (aka MacGuffin) and send it with his cronies back to the ghetto, then meet the party and flee with his solon.  It all seemed overly complicated, and it looked like the encounter in the depository would be boring.  So, I changed it completely.In <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6875434/Bank%20Battle.pdf" target="_blank">my version</a> of the depository encounter, it's a Ragesian counter-spy who has taken Rivereye out.  This one is a doppelganger with half-orc thug allies, and the case of information is locked in one of the bank vaults and requires Peppin's ring to get it out (Peppin had rented the vault for Rivereye and had the bankers key it to Peppin's ring for withdrawal).  When Torrent realizes that this isn't really Rivereye, the doppelganger and his cronies attack.  I also made the lightning trap a little more interesting - it deals 2d6 damage (I considered also having it daze until end of next turn), and it appears in a row determined by rolling 2d6 and subtracting 1 (and making a result of 1 count as a 2).  This way it's more likely to be in the middle rows, where the action will be.  It was a fun battle when I ran it.Next, since I wasn't running any of the "recover the case from the eladrin" encounters (since the party already had the case), the party needed to escape the city.  I offered them the option of working with the councilman as written, but I also said that some dwarves had recently joined the Resistance and gave the Resistance an ancestral map that showed that what is now the sewer of Gate Pass connects with some natural caverns leading into the southern mountains.  However, this exit from the sewers is only open today because it goes through a haunted crypt - yes, that's the Dead Rising encounter, repurposed.  Happily for me, the party decided to go through the sewers and the crypt.The Dead Rising battle was run exactly as written, except that I lowered the death explosion damage from the Boneshard Skeletons from 3d6+4 to 1d6+4 (maybe I'm a softie, but 3d6+4 seemed like way too much for a burst 3 attack).  It was a very tough battle (partly because my dice were hot), but the party made it.  I also put a big treasure cache here, since the earlier encounters bringing them to level 2 were a little light on loot.I've had a lot of fun with WotBS ever since I decided to go my own way with it.  Next up is a trek through the caverns, which we'll be running next time.  That one is entirely outside the published adventure, but I'll still be happy to share it here if anyone is interested.</blockquote>

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