I've run this adventure 3 times now. The three groups all had different (all positive) experiences, which is what I like about it. There's a lot going on here, and things can come together in unexpected ways. I like the chaos of it. It isn't as easy to run as one might think, however, given how many little things the DM needs to keep track of at any one time (the location of the giant, the death knight, party noise levels, the twelve sigils, the rival adventuring party, and of course remembering to use the three random encounter tables, etc, and all while managing good pacing (such as giving players enough time to explore but also enforcing a bit of time pressure). I've added a few things which I felt were lacking, like a more concrete plan of action for the rival adventuring party (namely, Ann tries to trick the PCs into distracting the giant with the ballista on the tower so that she can escape alone) and more backstory between Lavinia and Elias (I added a hidden basement where the PCs can find and battle Lavinia's corpse, setting her spirit free, although frustrating Elias.) Thanks for the thoughtful review.
had a very fun session with this one. the ease of use is very seductive and i like the tailored crawl experience of omnipresent and escalating danger. that being said i felt this adventure sort of worked against itself in some ways: the immense and ever-escalating threat level seemed to clash with the very fiddly, poke and prod style room descriptions. these aren’t the sort of rooms that can be enjoyed to their fullest capacity in a highly time pressured crawl that encourages extreme precision and caution. i also had to throw away the “giant cant distinguish human size creatures” caveat; my players were just too eager to try and chat with him and i didn’t have the heart to just snatch one of them up and rag doll them 20 minutes into the session. a few issues of statz converting to basic. but otherwise a very fun session, my players completed it in 6 hours and it was memorable.
I think that's the tension with all time-pressure/super danger modules (DCO is like WWH re giants!). D&D is, really, a poke-and-see game, and rich environments are the real joy of the adventure. I don't tend to want to limit my players too much in that way...but I appreciate when a module does it cleverly.
Ben is great and I much look forward to more from him. I have yet to run this but plan to fit it in with other OSE modules like Hole in the Oak and The Incandescent Grottoes. It fits well thematically. Glad you took a look at this!!
I've run this adventure 3 times now. The three groups all had different (all positive) experiences, which is what I like about it. There's a lot going on here, and things can come together in unexpected ways. I like the chaos of it. It isn't as easy to run as one might think, however, given how many little things the DM needs to keep track of at any one time (the location of the giant, the death knight, party noise levels, the twelve sigils, the rival adventuring party, and of course remembering to use the three random encounter tables, etc, and all while managing good pacing (such as giving players enough time to explore but also enforcing a bit of time pressure).
I've added a few things which I felt were lacking, like a more concrete plan of action for the rival adventuring party (namely, Ann tries to trick the PCs into distracting the giant with the ballista on the tower so that she can escape alone) and more backstory between Lavinia and Elias (I added a hidden basement where the PCs can find and battle Lavinia's corpse, setting her spirit free, although frustrating Elias.)
Thanks for the thoughtful review.
Some good additions there
had a very fun session with this one. the ease of use is very seductive and i like the tailored crawl experience of omnipresent and escalating danger. that being said i felt this adventure sort of worked against itself in some ways: the immense and ever-escalating threat level seemed to clash with the very fiddly, poke and prod style room descriptions. these aren’t the sort of rooms that can be enjoyed to their fullest capacity in a highly time pressured crawl that encourages extreme precision and caution. i also had to throw away the “giant cant distinguish human size creatures” caveat; my players were just too eager to try and chat with him and i didn’t have the heart to just snatch one of them up and rag doll them 20 minutes into the session. a few issues of statz converting to basic. but otherwise a very fun session, my players completed it in 6 hours and it was memorable.
I think that's the tension with all time-pressure/super danger modules (DCO is like WWH re giants!). D&D is, really, a poke-and-see game, and rich environments are the real joy of the adventure. I don't tend to want to limit my players too much in that way...but I appreciate when a module does it cleverly.
Ben is great and I much look forward to more from him. I have yet to run this but plan to fit it in with other OSE modules like Hole in the Oak and The Incandescent Grottoes. It fits well thematically. Glad you took a look at this!!
Yes, definitely think it fits with Gavin's non-Dolmenwood fairytale modules very well.
love when u review OSR stuff!
Thanks man!