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<blockquote data-quote="Fuzzybear" data-source="post: 9039759" data-attributes="member: 6917259"><p><h3>Def-Fending the Fend </h3><p><span style="font-size: 9px"><em>(I think it's getting worse)</em></span></p><p>Since Jack, Myetharia, and Bryn were arriving up at Gallo's Fend well before the others, I made the decision to allow Rayland and Winry to use temporary characters with simplified stat blocks to represent some experienced soldiers from Gallo's military to accompany the 3 on their trip up to the watchtowers in the Alydi Gap. The two that joined us were named Sterling, a massive hunk of a man who spent half of the time successfully hitting on Myetharia, and Clara, a business-like and serious fighter. These were pretty huge changes from Rayland and Winry respectively as each sought to seemingly create the character the least like their long-term one, Winry becoming Clara. It was a difficult transition for Winry to become Clara and lose all of the brightness and carefree attitude that she embodies, but Rayland playing Sterling was just a fun diversion and a chance to poke fun at the others.</p><p></p><p>This trip to the north is remembered for being the first time that Jack went ape... literally. Jack picked up Polymorph at his last level up and this was the first real chance to cause some mayhem with it. He took the chance to grab the wyvern around the next, punch it, and then slam it into the ground killing it. It was quite the memorable introduction. Meanwhile, the Ragesian Inquisitor, when they realized all was lost at the outpost, decided to try to take the party with them and cast Shatter in the middle of the watchtower causing it to partially collapse on everyone. This was a GREAT end to the fight, bringing half the party into dying states, and really punctuated the cornered enemy feeling that they fostered by doing their best to trap them in and prevent word from being sent to the rest of the army. </p><p></p><p>Returning to Gallo with the information, they get the quests to travel to other nobles to get Gallo some support in the coming battle against his king. As they begin to leave, Rayland and Winry arrive and the group is reunited. I wouldn't recommend for others to try to deal with the party being split like this as it is very challenging to keep everyone involved, but my group genuinely enjoys the others having spotlight. During the time that Rayland and Winry spent in Bresk, the others just listened and commented ideas, but the other 3 were going to have real fights and could use more swordarms to help, thus the necessity of fillers. It did work for us though and got all the information out and the timing worked pretty darn well for everyone to be reunited before further trips.</p><p></p><p>With Jack's ability to polymorph a few times and Bryn using Takasi, the group has some ability to take jumper flights a few times a day. This made their trip to Dashgoban easier as they effectively avoided the forest encounter. On the way from Dashgoban to Timor I tried to introduce the town and slowing the army, but they weren't interested and were quick enough that they really didn't need to be either. Jack's past events with the proxy of Dashgoban prove useful as he is simple to convert to the defense and Timor little problem herself once the problem is laid out. With both leaders sending support, the party groups to head back to Gallo when Bryn notices her son among the soldier militia of Lady Timor.</p><p></p><p>Bryn's family live in the farms around Gate Pass and were displaced during the fighting there. On their way in, her adult son Keth was separated from the rest and couldn't make it in before the siege began. Instead, he struck out the opposite direction and went south with a mission and retribution on his mind. There he met up with a patrol of Lady Timor's group and decided to join up to do what he could to protect others from what happened to him while learning to use his strength with the thought to return to help Gate Pass. Now this doesn't fit the best in terms of real world ideas in some ways, I wanted to get something for Bryn's story involved a bit more. Bryn is a bit of a mom for the group, but she is also a mother in the world, having a grown son that she decides to leave at the start of this adventure. Part of her impetus to leave is due to her failing marriage after catching her husband cheating. She never reacted and never told anyone in her family about what happened, so her meeting up with her son here started sparking all of the questions about what happened and why. Bryn did her best to assuage Keth's concerns that it was his fault, as well as his feelings of failure at being away from his family, Bryn has to confront her own cowardice in avoiding real conversation.</p><p></p><p>Once they return to Gallo's Fend, they have a few days to prepare for the incoming arrival of King Steppengard and the battle. Honestly, the battle itself was a huge amount of prep work but never felt very interesting for me or the players. It might have been partly due to their efforts beforehand to remove Kelkin, free Nashara, and then destroy literally every catapult the night before with a series of absurd stealth rolls by Winry and Rayland. It might also be though that the throwing massive amounts of normal men at effectively the brick wall that is the party felt like it had little chance of succeeding. There were also lots of rules and such thrown in about how the war was scored and such, but they all felt above and beyond what would actually happen in the adventure. Perhaps the party was too effective, perhaps it was my fault and I misunderstood, I'm really not sure, but I would say this is the weakest part of the adventure. </p><p></p><p>The one thing that really captured everyone's attention though was Myetharia getting a Sending just as the wall of Steppengard troops approach. Shalosha reaches out to her and informs her that Lord Shaaladel is sending troops to Gate Pass to "reinforce" the city. Everyone is suspicious, especially after recent Shahalesti attempts at "diplomacy" so this news is met with deep sighs and worried frowns. It is always fun to throw in a curveball just when they start to think they know what's going on. They had been so concerned with Gate Pass and heading back there previously when in Seaquen, but the talk had started to die down. This was like a slap in the face and a reminder of what is happening in their home and what they fight for.</p><p></p><p>DM speak, I use Shalosha and her contact with Myetharia as a way for more news of the world to find its way to the party's ears. Rayland actively searches it out some, but this gives another path and a reward for a backstory idea. It seems there is always a section in the adventures that talks about what is going on in the rest of the world which I really appreciate, so I try to get that information to the party whenever it makes sense to give the world more depth. This is one of the stronger points about the adventures I would say, the timetable exists and the world doesn't feel static as the players take action.</p><p></p><p>Next time, a double dose of returns!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fuzzybear, post: 9039759, member: 6917259"] [HEADING=2]Def-Fending the Fend [/HEADING] [SIZE=1][I](I think it's getting worse)[/I][/SIZE] Since Jack, Myetharia, and Bryn were arriving up at Gallo's Fend well before the others, I made the decision to allow Rayland and Winry to use temporary characters with simplified stat blocks to represent some experienced soldiers from Gallo's military to accompany the 3 on their trip up to the watchtowers in the Alydi Gap. The two that joined us were named Sterling, a massive hunk of a man who spent half of the time successfully hitting on Myetharia, and Clara, a business-like and serious fighter. These were pretty huge changes from Rayland and Winry respectively as each sought to seemingly create the character the least like their long-term one, Winry becoming Clara. It was a difficult transition for Winry to become Clara and lose all of the brightness and carefree attitude that she embodies, but Rayland playing Sterling was just a fun diversion and a chance to poke fun at the others. This trip to the north is remembered for being the first time that Jack went ape... literally. Jack picked up Polymorph at his last level up and this was the first real chance to cause some mayhem with it. He took the chance to grab the wyvern around the next, punch it, and then slam it into the ground killing it. It was quite the memorable introduction. Meanwhile, the Ragesian Inquisitor, when they realized all was lost at the outpost, decided to try to take the party with them and cast Shatter in the middle of the watchtower causing it to partially collapse on everyone. This was a GREAT end to the fight, bringing half the party into dying states, and really punctuated the cornered enemy feeling that they fostered by doing their best to trap them in and prevent word from being sent to the rest of the army. Returning to Gallo with the information, they get the quests to travel to other nobles to get Gallo some support in the coming battle against his king. As they begin to leave, Rayland and Winry arrive and the group is reunited. I wouldn't recommend for others to try to deal with the party being split like this as it is very challenging to keep everyone involved, but my group genuinely enjoys the others having spotlight. During the time that Rayland and Winry spent in Bresk, the others just listened and commented ideas, but the other 3 were going to have real fights and could use more swordarms to help, thus the necessity of fillers. It did work for us though and got all the information out and the timing worked pretty darn well for everyone to be reunited before further trips. With Jack's ability to polymorph a few times and Bryn using Takasi, the group has some ability to take jumper flights a few times a day. This made their trip to Dashgoban easier as they effectively avoided the forest encounter. On the way from Dashgoban to Timor I tried to introduce the town and slowing the army, but they weren't interested and were quick enough that they really didn't need to be either. Jack's past events with the proxy of Dashgoban prove useful as he is simple to convert to the defense and Timor little problem herself once the problem is laid out. With both leaders sending support, the party groups to head back to Gallo when Bryn notices her son among the soldier militia of Lady Timor. Bryn's family live in the farms around Gate Pass and were displaced during the fighting there. On their way in, her adult son Keth was separated from the rest and couldn't make it in before the siege began. Instead, he struck out the opposite direction and went south with a mission and retribution on his mind. There he met up with a patrol of Lady Timor's group and decided to join up to do what he could to protect others from what happened to him while learning to use his strength with the thought to return to help Gate Pass. Now this doesn't fit the best in terms of real world ideas in some ways, I wanted to get something for Bryn's story involved a bit more. Bryn is a bit of a mom for the group, but she is also a mother in the world, having a grown son that she decides to leave at the start of this adventure. Part of her impetus to leave is due to her failing marriage after catching her husband cheating. She never reacted and never told anyone in her family about what happened, so her meeting up with her son here started sparking all of the questions about what happened and why. Bryn did her best to assuage Keth's concerns that it was his fault, as well as his feelings of failure at being away from his family, Bryn has to confront her own cowardice in avoiding real conversation. Once they return to Gallo's Fend, they have a few days to prepare for the incoming arrival of King Steppengard and the battle. Honestly, the battle itself was a huge amount of prep work but never felt very interesting for me or the players. It might have been partly due to their efforts beforehand to remove Kelkin, free Nashara, and then destroy literally every catapult the night before with a series of absurd stealth rolls by Winry and Rayland. It might also be though that the throwing massive amounts of normal men at effectively the brick wall that is the party felt like it had little chance of succeeding. There were also lots of rules and such thrown in about how the war was scored and such, but they all felt above and beyond what would actually happen in the adventure. Perhaps the party was too effective, perhaps it was my fault and I misunderstood, I'm really not sure, but I would say this is the weakest part of the adventure. The one thing that really captured everyone's attention though was Myetharia getting a Sending just as the wall of Steppengard troops approach. Shalosha reaches out to her and informs her that Lord Shaaladel is sending troops to Gate Pass to "reinforce" the city. Everyone is suspicious, especially after recent Shahalesti attempts at "diplomacy" so this news is met with deep sighs and worried frowns. It is always fun to throw in a curveball just when they start to think they know what's going on. They had been so concerned with Gate Pass and heading back there previously when in Seaquen, but the talk had started to die down. This was like a slap in the face and a reminder of what is happening in their home and what they fight for. DM speak, I use Shalosha and her contact with Myetharia as a way for more news of the world to find its way to the party's ears. Rayland actively searches it out some, but this gives another path and a reward for a backstory idea. It seems there is always a section in the adventures that talks about what is going on in the rest of the world which I really appreciate, so I try to get that information to the party whenever it makes sense to give the world more depth. This is one of the stronger points about the adventures I would say, the timetable exists and the world doesn't feel static as the players take action. Next time, a double dose of returns! [/QUOTE]
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