Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-02-28
- For when you need to play that mix-tape and invade Hoth at the same time
- Little Big Planet and Rock Band coming to the PSP… somehow.
- RIP Phillip Jose Farmer. Thoughts to his family and friends.
- Are Space Marines recession-proof?
- Worldwide D&D Game Day Blog Carnival
- Stein of the Lich King
- Little Mac returns on May 18th to fight King Hippo and other classic characters
- Can it be true? A sequel to FF IV (2 here in the US) be coming to the Wii?
- WotC Update: March editorial calendar is up and it reveals the existence of Martial Power 2
Chatty's Preview: Master Dungeons H2, Curse of the Kingspire
Please note that this post reveals some spoilers about the adventure presented here.
A few days ago I was contacted by my good friend Ed who wanted to start another round of blog and podcasts posts about a common subject. This time around, the subject was to be Goodman Games’ Master Dungeon series of D&D 4e adventure.
The Master Dungeons series is about bringing adventures that are extremely challenging for players. It is aimed at DMs and players who’ve been around the block a few times and are ready to take on a little more.
I had really liked the first one, Dragora’s Dungeon, having played it as the first part of my 4e campaign. So I was eager to see what the next installment was to be.
Curse of the Kingspire is not a sequel to Dragora’s Dungeon. It’s a stand alone 64 pages adventure for 5 PCs between level 4 and 6.
Being in the Master Dungeons series, this adventure is not for the beginning DM or for introducing players to the 4th edition of the game. Partly because the encounters in this adventure are very hard for level 4 PCs but also because the way they can be sprung on careless players can spell rapid doom to even the best built party.
Curse of the Kingspire is unlike many of the adventures I’ve read, across several editions of the D&D game. It manages to mix both site-based and event-based encounters in relatively restrained adventure area: a hamlet, a swamp and a ruined castle standing in the middle of the swamp. It does that by making good use of the groundhog day trope.
The adventure’s core plot revolves around a cultist ritual gone wrong that snags the PC into an ancient curse that sends them back in time. There the PCs must forge alliances and battle constant threats while dealing with nothing less than a recurring time loop where everything resets after a set amount of time.
I must raise my hat to Harley for tackling something so definitely out of the established adventure format. In fact, it’s so much out of the beaten track that I’m not sure I could DM it properly! At least not with my current group. I’m not all that comfortable with dealing with time loops where we have to replay the same scenes over and over again.
However, if you like dealing with insane cultist NPCs, a spectral battlefield with hundred of ghost soldiers, a court of Evil Feys, a powerful yet cursed artifact and several ‘think or be severely wounded’ tricks and traps, this adventure is for you.
The adventure does have a few weaknesses, mainly that the final solution to break the curse is a bit anticlimactic. If played right, chances are the players will spend a long time wheeling and dealing with the factions of the Eladrin Court stuck in the Time-loop in order to decide what is the best way to escape the curse. However, whatever the faction they side with, breaking the curse is done in just one way and PCs do not get to see ‘different endings’ based on their choices. As soon as the trigger is ‘brought to light’ the adventure ends abruptly in a way reminiscent of Sarah Connors’ day dream in Terminator 2.
Then again, since the adventure is aimed at DMs with plenty of experience, the adventure is wide open for hacking and can be adjusted to fit the needs of pretty much any gaming group, ending included.
I’d probably do it in a very satisfying way where the Magnificent Bastard NPC featured in the adventure dies horribly just has he touches what he seeks… leaving the PCs with a pile of bones, a useful but scary McGuffin turned piece of Phat lootz and a feeling that they aren’t in Neverland anymore.
Hmmm, maybe I will play it after all…
So all in all a good adventure for DMs seeking to break out of the 4e model featured in Wizards of the Coast products and ready to put in some elbow grease to fit their natural styles.
Want to learn more about Master Dungeons? Read on…
- Atomic Array: Episode 017: Master Dungeons
- Game Cryer: Curse of the Kingspire Review
- Gnome Stew: Mastering Goodman’s Dungeons
- Campaign Mastery: The Plot Thickens – Hooking Players Into Adventure
Drop by Goodman Games to pick up your copy today!
10 Monsters I Use in Every D&D Campaign (And 5 I Don't)
I actually had come up with this post BEFORE everyone else on the RPG Bloggers Network started doing their own lists… honest! So here’s my list not necessarily of my favorite monsters in D&D, but of those that I always try to work into every campaign I run. Then, a list of 5 monsters we joke about including, but it never seems to happen except under rare circumstances.
10 MONSTERS I USE IN EVERY D&D CAMPAIGN…
1. Umber Hulk
Giant bugs with some ill-defined confusion attack. Do they have those swirly hypnotist eyes? Do they just rhythmically chant “Ummmmbbbbbeeerrr Huuullllkkkk” until you go crazy? Who knows… I just know these giant burrowing critters are an expected part of every one of my D&D games. [Read the rest of this article]
Bedtime Campaign: Indiana Nico and The Golden King (and his take on RPGs)
Earlier today we were driving to the restaurant for a family dinner. I’m telling my 7 year old son Nico about how long it’s been since we did an interactive story.
Nico “I’d like to have another of those stories”
Chatty “You know Nico, you’re old enough to play the real game of Dungeons and Dragons now”
Nico “I’d rather do the story… Dungeons and Dragons is just full of… rules you have to follow you know? In the stories we can do whatever we feel like doing! And the people reading about them like that, no?”
Like my buddy Dave would say: Zing!
So I guess we’ll stick with interactive storytelling for the time being…
Later, when I put my son to bed:
Chatty: So do we do another story game?
Nico: Yes! I want to do Indiana Nico! You know, he’s just like Indiana Jones, but he’s also me.
Sure thing! Okay what’s the mission?
I dunno…
Hmmm, how about we have Indy go and find a golden statue?
Ohh! I know, last time we went out and got some Golden Feet from that king who had lost his own and replaced them!
(I had no recollection of doing such a story but I went with it)
You mean there was this king a long time ago that lost his feet and made some out of gold?
No, he had a whole statue of him made of gold… and then he had an accident and lost both feet.
Oh, I get it and he used the golden feet of the statue to replace his feet?
Yeah, and when he died, his statue was lost somewhere and his feet got lost somewhere else, but we found them last time and now they are at my university… Oh, and the rest of his body became a mummy!
(Bang, instant backstory people… that little man is a genius!)
Okay, so we have the golden feet at your University. We’ll say that the legs of the golden statue were stolen by thieves who are hidden in Mexico. And let’s say that the rest of the statue is in the hands of some Russians hiding out in, let’s say, the South Pole, ok?
Cool!
Where do you want to go first?
I want to go to the South Pole!
Okay, what do you prepare?
Oh, the usual, some ropes and tool and lots of dynamite.
Oh yeah, never forget your dynamite. What else? It’s really cold over there.
Hmmm, how about this really hot snow suit that actually has a flamethrower built in so I can get hot real quick and melt ice creatures with it!
Sure, that’s a great idea! Okay, so in order to get there, you need to take a plane to Argentina, then you’ll take a second smaller one to get you to land near the University base where a student of yours will be waiting for you.
Okay.
As you board the plane, you see two men with big furry hats follow you. (I was going for the KGB trope…)
Oh, I know, they are the bandits from Mexico (alas a trope is only good if the audience recognizes it..)
Right you are. Throughout the flight to Argentina, nothing happens much, but you notice that they’re following you in the airport.
I go and see them!
Okay, they go “Hello Dr Nico, we know what you’re doing here”
Yes, I’m going to recover the lost parts of the Golden King statue! Including the part you stole and are hiding in mexico.
When you say that, they get out large wooden sticks in order to hit you!
I take out my whip and steal the sticks!
Your whip disarms both men who recover rapidly and get ready to attack you with their fists!
I grab the sticks and bonk each of them real hard on the head!
You have 2 unconscious bandits at your feet.
I search them!
You find a set of keys and a small piece of tube that seems to have been recently cut from an airplane! It seems they were trying to sabotage a plane.
I alert the whole airport that a plane could be damaged!
(I was proud to see that he knew what sabotage meant… wait, should I be worried? )
Excellent, the authorities find that it was your plane for Antartica that was sabotaged. The fuel line had been cut and your plane would have run out of fuel over the ocean!
All right! (Nico was getting really excited, always a good sign).
Okay, so you fly over the ocean and over the ice of Antarctica. You land on skis and you see a man with 2 dog sleds waiting for you. It’s your student. All right Nico, enough for tonight…
Daaaaaaaad!
Just kidding, the man is waiting for you.
I go and meet him.
It’s really really cold out here. The man says his name is Frost and he will take you to your university’s base at the South Pole. He gives you a dog sled. he tells you that to have the dogs start running you have to say ‘Mush, Mush!’
Mush, Mush, Mush!
You’re going really fast over the snow and ice. The wind screams in your ears. You hear Frost trying to tell you something but you can’t hear, he’s to far behind! What do you do?
I go faster!
Okay, but a few seconds later your first dogs slip and fall in an crevice… it’s a deep, deep hole that you can fall into! What do you do?
I stop and I try to pull my dogs out of the hole.
Frost arrives shortly after and helps you. He was trying to tell you to be careful about those crevices. Okay, a bit later you’re at the base and getting ready to go to the Russian base where the statue part is. There’s going to be guards all over the place, what are you going to do?
Hmmm, maybe I could dress like them?
That’s a good idea. Okay so you take a Ski-Do and you and Frost drive to the Russian base. It’s got 2 towers with one guard in each. A Fence surrounds the base and the base is this one large building. You also see another guard patrolling around the base on another Ski-do. When he stops near a place where you are hiding, you step behind the guard and stun him! What do you do?
I take his clothes!
But it’s freezing out here? What will happen to the guard?
(Nico becomes uncertain) But Dad, what can I do? I really need his clothes!
Do you give him your own?
No, I don’t want to! Oh, what can we do?
Frost tells you that he’s got a spare coat and hat, so you can cover him with that, is that okay?
Yeah! Now I enter the base from the back exit (apparently there was one)!
Okay, so you enter the base and see a pair of big Russians playing cards. Beside them is a huge box written: Fragile, ship to Moscow express!
That’s the statue part!
Yes. The big guards look at you and ask you what you want.
I tell them that I’m the guy who’s picking up the statue for shipping.
Okay, they ask you for your shipping papers.
Hmmmm, I don’t have any!
The guards don’t believe your story, they grab you and they tie you up! Okay, enough for tonight!
Dad!!!! I don’t want to finish like this!
You’d like to have something good happen to finish off?
Yeah!
Okay, so a some time later, while the guards are watching you, you hear explosions outside.
It’s Frost who’s using dynamite to save me!
You’re right! The Russian guards leave the base to see what’s happening. What do you do?
Can I use dynamite to untie myself?
That’s a bit too drastic, you can use a hidden knife you have on yourself.
Okay, when I’m free I open the base’s door and I throw some dynamite at the guards.
(Of course… payback time!) BOOM! No more guards!
Yay! I take the statue!
You return to your base with the statue! You’ve won! Good night Nico!
Good night daddy!
Man, I missed doing this!
Everyone Remembers Their First [DM]
Although it’s not a secret, it’s not oftentimes explicit: many of the primary writers and commentators on Critical Hits have known each other for quite a long time. In fact, most of us can trace back our D&D gaming lineage to a single Dungeon Master. That’s not to say we hadn’t played before or more often with others, but our friend Abe made an indelible mark on all of our gaming consciousnesses. This article examines our early gaming experiences with Abe and considers how they affected my current notions on role-playing and D&D. [Read the rest of this article]
got my book at home just waiting to run. But having problems getting my...
Loading ...
