Troll Lord Games

I should clarify that THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD

Overall, it was a fun mod; my group almost got TPKed by the mummies when the cleric failed to turn, but they walked away with a pretty sweet haul from that adventure.

A few minor gripes, though. I understand this was the author's first mod, so perhaps he can take these criticisms into his future work. I apologize if these come off as harsh; they're meant to be constructive, not mean.

1. You know what would've been nice? Grids on the maps. Because the room descriptions do not appear to match the map of the Barrow Complex (and indeed, some descriptions don't even give dimensions)...so it was an exercise in frustration to map out the complex for my group. If the author didn't draw the maps, he might want to think about doing so in the future.

2. The Queen wearing the Awakener should probably have had a separate writeup from the Lesser Mummy king....and it should've been a bit clearer how to destroy the Awakener (the whole "Detect Magic to discover the focus of the thing" was a bit befuddling; my group just banged it it with a hammer till they stumbled on the focus.)

3. Some of the creatures couldn't fit in the rooms they occupied; in the circular room, there's not enough room for 9 skeletons and the party. In the room with the Bag o' Bones, there's not enough room for the monster to stand against the wall and fight.

I think that's about it...overall, though, it was a fun adventure, even if I'm still getting the hang of running C&C.

Oh, also...XP values for the Lesser shadow and Lesser Mummies would've been helpful...

TGE,

First let me thank you for the criticisms....they were put forward in a constructive manner and I appreciate it!
As for the gripes, yes I should've given a bit more detail on the aAwakener...booboo on my part. Good point about the xp awards; will do better in the future...!

As for the map inconsistancies, all I can say is that I didn't do the maps nor did I get a chance to "look them over" before publication. Or rather, my wife to look them over and then tell me if any details are off. From what I've heard I think the maps were the single major complaint. I left the room sizes unspecified in the text so that whoever was doing the maps could read the text, get the idea of what was meant, and then draw them to a reasonable size. Probably wont' do that again. If SOTHH ever goes to a second printing maybe another mapper could redo the maps? We'll see...

But thanks, all constructive criticism welcome!

Mike
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Always remember, as a first principle of all D&D: playing BtB is not now, never was and never will be old school.- Tim Kask, Dragonsfoot

*smiles* When one gets 'guess so' maps to work from, one gets 'best guess' maps as a result. Cartography is a precise science. Precision begats precison. 8)
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

I've run this module and made extensive comments elsewhere. I think if there was ever a second printing, I'd do 1 of 2 things

a) remove some of the outlying farm info, and perhaps summerise it in a table, and use the space to detail the awakener a bit more, and have a couple plot hooks on what could happen if the awakener is left to be, or how to destroy it etc..

b) remove the kobold encounter, and do the same as i suggested above. though they don't take away at all from the module (kobolds or the farm descriptions) the space could really add some 'BAM' to the awakener.

but I did love running the module. the Bag o'bones nearly TPK'd the party because the party was dumb enough to chase after it into the darkenss, and running the fight with the animated halfling hands was quite the image of freakiness and fun...

Cheers,

J.

I agree, more info on the Awakener and less on the outlying farms. My group has the circlet, and doesn't know what it is(I'm not sure where to go with this, but I do have a few ideas).

The encounter with the halfling hands was great, it really got my players attention.

I never noticed a problem with the maps, maybe I just didn't pay close enough attention.
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Never throw rocks at a man with a Vorpal Sword!

Gideon,

...true, but how hard would it be to send me the maps for final perusal before publication so any "gross" errors could be caught?
Re: Farms, while I did have fun with those, I personally felt it was too much info as well. My original "Marching Orders" were that a mod should be 1/2 setting, 1/2 adventure. Personally I think 1/3 setting 2/3 adventure is better and I hope I got closer to that in VR but there you go. If there's a 2nd printing I think the Farms could get cut a bit and more detail given on the Awakener. However, I don't think more than a page extra on the Awakener would be possible!
Re: Awakener: Yeah, plot hooks were certainly needed. In my home game, I kept the Awakener "dormant" until the party carried it near a graveyard, old battlefield, etc. Then as the party camped at night....Wham-O! Skeletons and Zombies start bursting from the earth around them!
Again, critiques appreciated! I'm looking forward to some feedback on Verdant Rage as well.
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Always remember, as a first principle of all D&D: playing BtB is not now, never was and never will be old school.- Tim Kask, Dragonsfoot

sieg wrote:
Gideon,

...true, but how hard would it be to send me the maps for final perusal before publication so any "gross" errors could be caught?

*chuckles* I turned it all in to the main Troll who said he was going to do just that.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

Doesn't that just figure! BTW, that above wasn't aimed at you personally, just a general gripe. I don't think you even did the maps for SOTHH did you?
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Always remember, as a first principle of all D&D: playing BtB is not now, never was and never will be old school.- Tim Kask, Dragonsfoot

sieg wrote:
Doesn't that just figure! BTW, that above wasn't aimed at you personally, just a general gripe. I don't think you even did the maps for SOTHH did you?

Doesn't look like it. I must have been thinking of your other module.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

I had no problem at all with the dungeon room sizes. There was enough text description for several of the rooms to easily guess the size of others. An old school dungeon map would have been great, but not having one did not detract from the excellence of the module!
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Count Rhuveinus - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Franqueforte

"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth

jman5000 wrote:
I've run this module and made extensive comments elsewhere. I think if there was ever a second printing, I'd do 1 of 2 things

a) remove some of the outlying farm info, and perhaps summerise it in a table, and use the space to detail the awakener a bit more, and have a couple plot hooks on what could happen if the awakener is left to be, or how to destroy it etc..

Indeed. My players didn't bother with a single farm...though since I'm using the setting info as the basis for Hilldale, my Halfling/Gnome community, it'll be useful in the future.

Quote:
b) remove the kobold encounter, and do the same as i suggested above. though they don't take away at all from the module (kobolds or the farm descriptions) the space could really add some 'BAM' to the awakener.

I'd actually like to see the kobold encounter expanded, perhaps into a sequel module. I'm using it as a direct lead-in to Goodman Games' DCC 31...which will then lead into Necromancer Games' The Lost City of Barakus.

Quote:
but I did love running the module. the Bag o'bones nearly TPK'd the party because the party was dumb enough to chase after it into the darkenss, and running the fight with the animated halfling hands was quite the image of freakiness and fun...

Ah, that'd do it with the Bag o' Bones...in my game the party pretty well wasted it, and fast (but then, I rolled REALLY crappy for it). The hands they pretty much took in stride and the cleric turned them, no problem...then they just went around and stomped on them until they were mush.

The mummies were what wasted my group, hardcore. Two of them got hit with that lesser mummy rot, and one of them was taken down from damage...that left only one guy to fight the queen.

Anyone else find that the kobolds with AC 15 were a bit tough for first level characters to hit?

Also, shouldn't their AC have been 14 (assuming they were wearing studded leather armor)? 10 + 3 for armor + 1 for buckler. I give +1 for size as per 3.x d20 rules as well, so that made it 15, but that's not a standard C&C rule...

We had a lot of fun with the module as well. And the mummies were a tough fight at the end the gaming group as well. It was a close win, but that's how it should be, right?

The Grey Elf wrote:
Overall, it was a fun mod; my group almost got TPKed by the mummies when the cleric failed to turn, but they walked away with a pretty sweet haul from that adventure.