Review: HS2 “Orcs of Stonefang Pass”

What if you slew a level 16 earth Titan and nobody cared?”

I was expecting an adventure about slaying orcs, and was initially very excited about this module. The adventure really ran it of steam after the first two sessions and the rest was a bore. This is already starting to be a rant but I feel it’s almost a public service at this point.

This letdown was particularly acute because HS1 athe Slaying Stone was so excellent. HS2 was just puzzling. Not only is it completely linear but unnecessarily long. Everything it brought to the table was over with in the first 4 hours, the rest felt like bookkeeping. I had believed that the “HS” were do-overs of H1 and H2 and by the Ed of the adventure I was left pining for Thunderspire Labyrinth.

The first 2 sessions have a rough fight against some hippogriffs and crazy water shooting fish with a bridge and waterfall. There are some great moments exploring the pass and discovering its history. Then earthquakes and jumping spiders. And then a gatehouse with traps and a mechanism. This was the high point of the module and every thing after that was unfortunately down hill.

There are orcs. And then orcs, and then orcs. And not only were these orcs the same stat block and abilities as all other orcs, but the same Orc scenario was run an least 3 times with the same monsters – the players seemed to wonder what was going on.

I would definitely recommend the module’s first half, everything else requires a lot of fixing.

D&D Encounters “Beyond the Crystal Cave” Session 5: DM Commentary

In Encounters this week the players got their first real glimpse of the factions at play in the Feywild. I’m going to highlight some choices that I made in presenting these characters, that illustrate how in this session I used strong characterization to (try to) make the session really memorable.

Robin the Satyr

The adventure book has one line about Robin, that he’s a Skald (Bard) and that he’s a jester. When I introduce characters and locations, I try to present details that give the players an idea of what they’re in for, and help their memory in remembering who’s who in the adventure.

Robin’s salient features were a loud, gregarious voice and mannerisms, a ridiculous yellow bandana which trailed well below his knees, and an over-wide grin with sharp, almost filed teeth. Robin’s a troublemaker who is going to send the players on a dangerous “prank”. Here’s what I was trying to establish:

1. Robin is ridiculous and impractical (just look at his bandana!)
2. Robin has more friendliness than sense (loves to party!)
3. Robin is morally ambiguous (Uh, look at those teeth)

Eldin and Fiona, the Unicorns

The players have to convince two Unicorns to leave their magic garden. The adventure doesn’t detail much more that that except a skill challenge (yawn) that I pretty much didn’t run as-written (though I did use the bonuses and other crunch in the skill challenge to weight the success of the roleplaying encounter). Using my rule of “people are more interesting than things”, I gave the Unicorns personalities, but honestly on the fly. My idea was that one Unicorn was the boss, and the other one was a hanger-on. So how did I establish this?

Names: “Eldin” sounds like “elder”, sounds more classically Tokeiny and signifies higher stature – think “Elrond”. You’ll be suprised how much D&D milage you can get out of having names that sound like other things or recall memories your player has. “Fiona” is a little girl’s name, or maybe a cat, think “fifi”, “fido”, “dinah”. It’s also a prettier name, signifying less substance.

First impressions and actiona:
1. Fiona laughs at everything Eldin says. Big, snorting, hilarious laughter
2. Eldiin tells jokes and makes puns, and speaks assertively
3. Fiona asks dumb questions like, “Do halflings really eat poop?”, signifying immaturity, and lack of worldliness – has she really never met a halfling or heard tales of the material plane?

This made things more interesting when the players have to decide whether to use violence later to get the unicorns or kill off some pixies and dryads to take Eldin and Fiona with them. The players actually took into account the different personalities of the Unicorns in wondering who to approach. Which is awesome.

In other news, I missed a whole ton of exposition because the characters weren’t really interested.

Side Quests Are Lazy. There, I said it.

The side quest is a venerable RPG staple. It’s an excursion off the main plot that is supposed to provide an opportunity for players to dig deeper into a story, or investigate something interesting. Side quests and side encounters are provided in published modules to give the DM some flexibility in running an adventure where more encounters might be desirable.

20111107-214343.jpg

For a home game, a discerning DM should strive for a little bit more.
Continue reading →

An “Ordinary” Fantasy World: There’s No Place Like Home

This is the first of a couple of posts about applying screenwriting techniques to your rpg game

Adventure happens when the heroes leave their normal, comfortable life and strike out on a dangerous mission. When even your heroes’ normal, ordinary lives are in a fantasy world, it can be challenging to establish a separation between the everyday and the extraordinary.

Alexandra Sokoloff’s recent article on Ordinary World vs Special World at her blog Screenwriting Tips for Authors contains a key insight about the beginnings of heroic stories:

Drama loves CONTRAST, and [detailing the Ordinary World] is one of the easiest ways I know to provide it, as well as revealing character, developing character arc, and working the themes of your story.

Here are a couple of ways to establish ordinary vs special world in your fantasy game.
Continue reading →

Using Hooks to Discover Player Motivation

In the first act of a story, you meet the hero and the adversary, and discover the quest. In a cooperative storytelling game like D&D, however, the players provide a significant part of the story. Player motivations are hard to anticipate even for a discerning DM.

I try to structure the beginnings of my home game’s adventures specifically to gather information about player motivations.

Continue reading →

Choosing Your Paragon Path is an Adventure!


The journey of all epic tales truly begins when the hero is taken out of his comfort zone and must go into the underworld or some place of terrible danger to face his destiny. When he returns, he has been reborn into his new life, with the sword, or the princess, or the secret knowledge. In the case of 4e D&D, characters entering Paragon tier are literally transformed, as they gain new powers and traits which heavily theme their characters. The characters will never be the same. Continue reading →