# HS1 - The Slaying Stone - my poor reviewing skills review



## Festivus (May 13, 2010)

(I'll keep this fairly spoiler free)

I didn't find much information about what this adventure included, so I thought I would post here (since I picked it up last night at the game store).

The adventure is shorter than the last round of adventures, 32 pages long.  The cover is heavy cardstock, and the pages are heavier paper than I am used to.  If you have picked up the recent book Hammerfast or the Dragonborn book, this is the same quality.  The cover is stapled to the adventure pages (so basically you can't use it as your DM screen).  I was disappointed that there was no maps printed inside the cover, but since you can't detach it, it probably doesn't matter.  It would have been cool to have a hex map of the area, much liek they did in the Hammerfast product.

There is a double sided poster map, of the typical quality these maps are.  There are 3 encounter areas, and the side with two areas it nicely folds along that divide so you aren't folding your map in some new location.

I haven't finished reading the entire adventure, but I do like the layout.  Right on the title page is the introduction, background, and a plot synopsis.  There is a pre-planned opening scene that introduces the group to the current situation, although given the plot it wouldn't be hard to come up with my own hook.

Next is an overview of the story, and a rough timeline of what order things could progress, pointing out "iconic encounters" and suggestions for when those might run, but noting that you can sprinkle the others in pretty much any order.  This is a pretty free form adventure.

One of my favorites is the next section, "Factions and NPCs", which gives suggestions for motivations for the various factions and people the players will encounter, and how these factions interact with one another.  Good stuff there, great suggestions for a new DM.

There is information about the general plot theme, things found, and what various impacts each might have, as well as suggestions for minor plot hooks and future stories you could spin from here.

There is a description of the town, as once might expect when there is a town.  The writups for each location is very general, allowing for the DM to paint the picture using their own words rather than boxed text.  I rather liked this too, just give me enough to make a mental picture and then describe it.

There are two new magic items, but I can't describe them without spoilers.

There are a couple skill challenges, including some pretty good advice for running extended skill challenges and what happens when the group has any number of failures.  I would have preferred the new skill challenge format I had seen bandied about (can't recall where), for example pointing out that when the group is trying to hide during a skill challenge, the entire party ought to make that stealth check as a group, not the one person with the best skill.

Next is the encounter areas.  There about a dozen encounters, and they should take players to level 2 at their conclusion.  The encounter areas, the monster stat blocks use the new Monster Manual 3 format, so there are segments for traits, standard actions, triggered actions, minor actions, etc.  I never had trouble before but this does streamline it a bit more.  Also improved are that there is more information related to the encounter and a smaller map with where starting locations could be.  I found useful sidebars within the encounter area relating to things going on in that area, in case the group decided perhaps to suddenly negotiate with one of the bad guys.

The last pages have suggested additional encounters if you need to bump xp a bit, next steps for the party, including a plot hook for HS2, and an area to track treasure parcels and quests.  There is also a page with backgrounds, each of which introduces a minor quest along with it.  This was kind of a neat idea to have the players more interested in the story and a sense of purpose for why they are in the area to begin with.

Finally, I usually buy these adventures only for scraping encounters out of them and mainly the poster maps.  This one however, I might actually run and see how it goes.  It's aimed at the newer DMs it seems but the story looks fun and I like the interactions of all the factions involved.


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## vagabundo (May 13, 2010)

Any chance you could put some more of the plot into spoiler tags? It sounds very interesting and is only 9 quid delivered.... Yum...


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## TerraDave (May 13, 2010)

Ya, maybe without spoilers...is it event driven, dungeony, involve any funky oponents, have the PCs find ray guns and mushroom men (ok, that would be a spoiler).


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## Festivus (May 13, 2010)

Non-spoilery stuff:

I'd say it's a pretty non-linear adventure.  It's basically exploration of an area, finding hints and clues about things, perhaps not all encounters need end in violence.

There is some high tech stuff in there, but I can't go into details.  I will note that I did not see any details about a ray gun or a froghemoth.

Some of the creatures have some interesting abilities that make them interesting to run in combat situations.

Spoilery stuff:

[sblock]
The group is hired by one of the primary NPCs to seek out a powerful magical artifact (The Slaying Stone) so that she can destroy it before if falls into the wrong hands.  The artifact is supposed to be hidden in one of three locations in the town of Kiris Dahn (set in the Nentir Vale) which has been overrun by goblin hordes.

The PCs must infiltrate the city, stay hidden (since there are far too many goblins to fight them all), find the stone and get it back out.  In order to find the stone, the group is given a ritual that they can use at the three locations which will help to determine if the stone is nearby or not.  (it will turn out later that it's at none of those locations)

Things are never that simple of course, because a group of rival adventurers (well Orc mercenaries), have been hired by a competing NPC to find the slaying stone too.  The orcs brutalize the goblin and kobold residents to try and find the stone.  

There is an ongoing skill challenge throughout most of the adventure, where the group has to try to stay hidden from the orcs and goblins, or things get worse for them in terms of encounters.

There are unlikely allies with the kobolds, but that trust and alliance is difficult to attain.  The kobolds tinker with stuff and make constructs to guard what little turf they have.
[/sblock]

I think what I like best is the price point.  I figure about three 4 hour gaming sessions can be run out of this adventure, perhaps a little more if you stretch it with some additional encounters.  The shorter format is more appealing than the prior series where you were looking at nearly three times as many sessions to run an adventure.


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## TerraDave (May 13, 2010)

Ok, now that reads _really_ interesting.

Are you familiar with H1, how does it compare?


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## Festivus (May 13, 2010)

TerraDave said:


> Ok, now that reads _really_ interesting.
> 
> Are you familiar with H1, how does it compare?




I ran H1 as my first 4E adventure, so I can sort of compare.  Note that I haven't read all the encounters yet for HS1, but here is right off the bat:

[sblock]
It seems like much less of a dungeon crawl.  One thing with H1 was that there was an awful lot of crawling through a dungeon of interconnected rooms that you had little in terms of branching opportunities.

In HS1, the group is exploring a town.  There are several buildings who's interior is an encounter area, but the sequence that they explore is entirely up to the group (plus remember they need to be stealthy in a town occupied by hundreds of goblins), so crossing the main avenue is very likely a skill challenge event.

Where in H1 the party was trying to get to whatever the bad thing (kalarel) and his ritual, in this one the item they seek is actually quite safe to begin with, at least for the time being.

Big spoiler here, the stone is actually in the possession of a bronze dragon with whom the party must negotiate.  The dragon isn't statted up, and truly it would be a TPK should they even try.  It's listed as a skill challenge, but what I didn't notice (and I need to still really read this section in closer detail) is what happens should they fail to successfully negotiate with the dragon.  It wouldn't be hard to have the party be turned away and the bad guys be able to possibly get their hands on it (or even a showdown where the party and the bad guys both try to talk with the dragon at the same time to convince them that they should have it)[/sblock]

I'll know a bit more when I have a bit more time to read it.  I brought it to work with the intention or reading the encounters at lunch.


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## Festivus (May 13, 2010)

Monster list (not including the additional encounters that don't have tactical pages):

[sblock]
Grey Wolves
Ravenous Wolves
Kobold Guttersnipes
Kobold Dragonshields
Scurrying Rat Swarms
Stirges
Iron Defenders
Speelick, Kobold Scavenger
Ankheg
Goblin Cutters
Rort, Goblin Tomeripper
Gray Oozes
Goblin Beast Marshalls
Bloodmonger Wolves
Wolf Packmates
Krayd the Butcher (orc)
Kiris Hoyt, Wererat
Triflik, Goblin Silverblade
Goblin Grunts
Hu-Jat, Hobgoblin Boss
Rage Drake
Goblin Warriors
Severed Eye Orc Slashers
Vohx, Severed Eyes Leader
Orc Wolf Shaman
Severed Eyes Orc Bludgeoners
[/sblock]


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## Zaukrie (May 13, 2010)

So far I've only skimmed it. It is 100% not a dungeon crawl. Sure, there are places where you go into building or dungeony type place, but as said in the spoilers....well, it is not a dungeon crawl.

I'll read it in more detail this weekend, but I think it looks like a buy it right now.


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## Rechan (May 14, 2010)

[sblock]I'm really curious about what the following monsters do/how they're different from others:

Orc Wolf Shaman
Ravenous Wolves
Bloodmonger Wolves
Goblin Beast Marshall[/sblock]


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## Jools (May 14, 2010)

This sounds really good and the monster list matches my mini collection very well. I've been curious about this since the author (Bonner was it?) said how pleased he was with it just after he'd been laid off. Doh! Hope the new guys read it and learn from it.

A request, could someone take a quick pick (just with their phone or whatever) of each side of the map?


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## Festivus (May 14, 2010)

See your hidden (big time) spoiler block for short descriptions of their gimmicks:



Rechan said:


> [sblock]I'm really curious about what the following monsters do/how they're different from others:
> 
> Orc Wolf Shaman - Artillery with some neat encounter and bloodied powers.  Encounter power he can summon a spirit wolf that then charges through several creatures and makes an attack on each.
> Ravenous Wolves - Skirmishers that bite you and then drag you away
> ...


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## Festivus (May 14, 2010)

Pics of maps (and our really loud tablecloth) are at my meetup site.  I have no idea how to upload images here:

Photos - The Pasadena Dungeons & Dragons Meetup (Pasadena, CA) - Meetup.com
Photos - The Pasadena Dungeons & Dragons Meetup (Pasadena, CA) - Meetup.com


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## Dice4Hire (May 14, 2010)

Festivus said:


> Pics of maps (and our really loud tablecloth) are at my meetup site.  I have no idea how to upload images here:
> 
> Photos - The Pasadena Dungeons & Dragons Meetup (Pasadena, CA) - Meetup.com
> Photos - The Pasadena Dungeons & Dragons Meetup (Pasadena, CA) - Meetup.com




Wow, I's love to have some parts of those maps in my dungeon tiles collection.


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## Jools (May 14, 2010)

Two out of three of those maps are absolutely lovely (the small bridge map and the large map). This is looking like an essential purchase. Thanks for the pics!


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## firesnakearies (May 14, 2010)

Awesome.  Nice maps.  Thanks for the pictures!


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## Jhaelen (May 17, 2010)

Thanks for the review!


firesnakearies said:


> Awesome.  Nice maps.  Thanks for the pictures!



+1!
The poster map really turns this one into a must-buy for me.

The adventure sounds more interesting than I would have thought, too. I'd probably have to replace all of the encounters with something a bit less 'standard' if I was going to run it.


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## Holy Bovine (May 17, 2010)

I hope this is a sign of things to come - cool location, non-linear plot and great looking maps!  Can't wait to pick this up today.


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## the Jester (May 17, 2010)

I gather that this module is one booklet instead of two?

That can't help but be an improvement, imho. I just hope all the info for a given encounter is near that encounter.


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## Festivus (May 17, 2010)

the Jester said:


> I gather that this module is one booklet instead of two?
> 
> That can't help but be an improvement, imho. I just hope all the info for a given encounter is near that encounter.




It's a cardstock cover which is stapled to 32 pages in a single booklet with a fold out map in the middle that isn't attached to anything.  Very much reminds me of the old 1E adventures with two exceptions

1: The cover is stapled to the adventure
2: It's full color inside


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## Rechan (May 18, 2010)

Setting aside the context of the adventure.

Are there any exceptional encounters? Ones that stand out as worth mining from the adventure - like the Well of Demons from Thunderspire? 

In other words, is there anything in there that's valuable to those who don't run the module, but are looking for useful things?


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## AnthonyRoberson (May 18, 2010)

Rechan said:


> Setting aside the context of the adventure.
> 
> Are there any exceptional encounters? Ones that stand out as worth mining from the adventure - like the Well of Demons from Thunderspire?
> 
> In other words, is there anything in there that's valuable to those who don't run the module, but are looking for useful things?




I didn't run across any encounters that really made me say 'wow' but overall Ii think this is one of the best low-level modules WOTC has ever produced.  Everything from the open nature of the adventure to the DM advice is really top notch.


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## Festivus (May 18, 2010)

The only encounter that stood out to me as something the players would probably remember later...
[sblock]
... involves a kobold who carries with him a toxic oil that attracts an ankheg to that player.  Watch the hilarity and mayhem as a massive ankheg comes chasing after whomever is marked with the pheromone.[/sblock]

As a DM, there are several ways for that scene to play out that could be quite memorable.

I agree with Anthony that this is probably the best 4E low level adventure I have seen to date from WoTC.  Perhaps the feedback thread was really taken into consideration.


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## AnthonyRoberson (May 18, 2010)

Minor rant about HS1.  I appreciate that WoTC mentions in the module that they are providing a downloadable copy of the player's map on their website.  That's great!  But how about putting it somewhere SO I CAN ACTUALLY FIND IT!  Is that so hard?


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## TikkchikFenTikktikk (May 18, 2010)

Is it set in the generic D&D setting or the Forgotten Realms or other?


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## Kelanen (May 18, 2010)

It is set in the generic D&D setting. I agree that this is one of the best low level adventures they have done.


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## Logan_Bonner (Jun 7, 2010)

The map's actually made up of D&D Minis maps made for a starter that never came out. So you can thank Steve Schubert for designing those!

The adventure was a last-minute change to the schedule, so I couldn't commission new art or maps. Everything's made with existing stuff, except the map I drew myself.


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## ggroy (Jun 7, 2010)

- Question to Logan Bonner.

What happened to "Reavers of Harkenwold"?

(If you're allowed to answer this question).


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## JeffB (Jun 7, 2010)

Holy Bovine said:


> I hope this is a sign of things to come - cool location, non-linear plot and great looking maps!  Can't wait to pick this up today.




+1. Won't pick it up today  , but certainly will be picking this up.


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## Kelvor Ravenstar (Jun 7, 2010)

Starting to run this adventure at my FLGS in two days, and I'm really looking forward to it. 
[sblock]I can't wait to see what my players do with the dragon![/sblock]


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## Logan_Bonner (Jun 7, 2010)

ggroy said:


> - Question to Logan Bonner.
> 
> What happened to "Reavers of Harkenwold"?
> 
> (If you're allowed to answer this question).




It was originally one of the long-form adventures. I had the option to either adapt it or do something new, and I went with the latter. I think they found a way to re-use it. The art and maps were all done, so I sure hope they did!


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## Klaus (Jun 7, 2010)

Logan_Bonner said:


> It was originally one of the long-form adventures. I had the option to either adapt it or do something new, and I went with the latter. I think they found a way to re-use it. The art and maps were all done, so I sure hope they did!



Logan,

The adventure reads awesome (and I LOVE the initial scene, reminded me of The Howling Tower)!

Quick question:
- Keeping stats the same, what creatures would you use to replace orcs/goblins/kobolds?


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## Logan_Bonner (Jun 29, 2010)

I'm not really sure who to replace them with (maybe gnolls for orcs?). Is there a particular setting you're playing in, or a reason you don't want to use those monster types?


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## Klaus (Jun 30, 2010)

Logan_Bonner said:


> I'm not really sure who to replace them with (maybe gnolls for orcs?). Is there a particular setting you're playing in, or a reason you don't want to use those monster types?



The only adventure my group played before stopping due to real life issues was Keep On The Shadowfell, and halfway through it the players were already fed up with kobolds and gobbos. 

Mind you, I wouldn't change the stats, just the appearance. And no specific setting. Guess you could say it's the Nentir Vale...


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## Rechan (Jun 30, 2010)

Possible things to swap for other things:

Kobolds and Goblins
Xivarts
Bullywugs
Poisonscale Lizardfolk

Orcs
Kenku
Jackalwere
Dark Ones
Lizardfolk
Duergar


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## vagabundo (Jun 30, 2010)

Read most of the adventure there yesterday - nice breakfast reading - and I was very pleased with it. Nice setting, lots of scope for a memorable adventure.

I think I'll be putting lots of comic relief encounter with the goblins, using some of the ideas from Paizo's Monsters Revisited or some of the goblyns from the film Labyrinth (hmmm who would be the sexy goblyn king though).

Anyway, Kudos....


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## Kelvor Ravenstar (Jun 30, 2010)

My players are loving this adventure so far! Using the alternate plot suggestions in the module, I've implied that Treona may not be wanting to acquire the Slaying Stone for altruistic reasons, and that she and Dreus were contemporaries in some sort of wizard training. Also, rather than having Kiris Hoyt's problems be a family affliction, I tied his story to being punished by Dreus for some rude remarks and advances.
We're pretty far through the encounters, and I anticipate the PCs confronting Tyristys next session.
I think this is the best low-level module for 4e I've read or run, but it could use some more suggestions about how to handle the situation if the PCs choose to attack Tyristys rather than negotiate. Since I'm pretty sure at least one of my player's is planning on a fight, I'm going to set her level at or just above the maximum they should be able to handle at their level (say level 6 - 8) But I'm going to offer broad hints that they will be out of their depth should they choose the path of violence.


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## Logan_Bonner (Jul 6, 2010)

Rechan said:


> Possible things to swap for other things:
> 
> Kobolds and Goblins
> Xivarts
> ...




I think bullywugs would make good kobold replacements and duergar good orc swaps. For goblins... maybe just evil humans/halflings?


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## Logan_Bonner (Jul 6, 2010)

Kelvor Ravenstar said:


> I think this is the best low-level module for 4e I've read or run, but it could use some more suggestions about how to handle the situation if the PCs choose to attack Tyristys rather than negotiate.




You could drop in a brief vignette when the PCs approach her lair. Maybe they see some wandering goblins get too close. She pops out, flash fries like 10 of them, and goes back to bed.


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## Logan_Bonner (Jul 6, 2010)

Since the adventure doesn't give failure results for a couple of the skill challenges, people were wondering what to do. I wrote a blog post about this recently: http://loganbonner.blogspot.com/2010/06/slaying-stone-skill-challenges.html


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## Festivus (Jul 6, 2010)

Hey Logan, I don't know what kind of input you can provide to WoTC, but the downloadable player maps are still not up on the site (that I can find anyhow).


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## Kelvor Ravenstar (Jul 7, 2010)

Thanks for the input Logan, I wish I'd checked earlier, as I was already starting to run my game session tonight when your post showed up. I did arrive at something similar though, I had the entrance to the lair strewn with orc corpses. And since my players already knew to respect orc's strength, they were wary.
That blog post with the suggestions for the failings in the skill challenges was great, wish I'd read it earlier.


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## Riley (Jul 13, 2010)

Festivus said:


> Hey Logan, I don't know what kind of input you can provide to WoTC, but the downloadable player maps are still not up on the site (that I can find anyhow).




WOTC has not posted the players' map, but Logan has posted the original high resolution map on his blog:

Logan Bonner: Slaying Stone Kiris Dahn Map

or directly:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_raAzi3oUJ...0/P2myjFKqYjg/s1600/KirisDahnMap-FullSize.jpg

Nice map!  Sure beats all those Dungeon-Tile-based maps Wizards keeps putting in their adventures.


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## mudbunny (Jul 26, 2010)

I will poke WotC about this.


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## Klaus (Aug 19, 2010)

Just got my copy.

A few suggestions for folks wishing to flesh out Kiris Dan a bit more:

[sblock]
The city of Kiris Dan has always been famous for its hot springs. Wealthy nobles and merchants would spend days -- and gold -- here, during the height of Nerath, to enjoy the city's baths. This influx of wealth led to Kiris Dan being built in graceful stone arches and edifices, with the Kiris Manor standing atop it all.

Throughout its history, Kiris Dan was always able to fend off minor incursions from goblins that lived in the nearby swamps, mostly due to Nerath's knights and patrols. Kobolds would sometime crawl up from the sewers, but these were dealt with easily.

After the fall of Nerath, the rulers of Kiris Dan had to resort to their secret weapons, the slaying stones. In the aftermath of the empire's downfall, nobles and merchants stopped coming, and the city fell on hard times. Buildings were closed up, some crumbled, others were taken up by kobold settlers. When few humans remained, another goblin raiding party was surprised to find little resistance, and the nearby goblin tribes moved into the ruined, abandoned city.
[/sblock]

For visuals, I recommend that Kiris Dan be described as something akin to Osgiliath, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy:


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## buddhafrog (Nov 21, 2010)

I really like this little adventure (and have changed the set-up and motivation to my liking).

I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?


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## Wik (Nov 21, 2010)

buddhafrog said:


> I really like this little adventure (and have changed the set-up and motivation to my liking).
> 
> I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?




Not that I know of, out of the box.  However, with a touch of work, I was able to turn Sceptre Tower of Spellgard into a very sandboxy setting - I used the first book (which is a setting book) as my prime inspiration, and turned the second part (a long dungeon crawl) into several set-piece scenes.  Run that way, it was approximately two months worth of play (I'd guess a little shy of thirty hours play time), and very much dependant on player actions.


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## Jhaelen (Nov 22, 2010)

buddhafrog said:


> I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?



It's not exactly an adventure but 'Hammerfest' goes a long way in the same direction. It will require some additional work to turn it into one (or several) adventure(s).


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## Nahat Anoj (Nov 22, 2010)

buddhafrog said:


> I really like this little adventure (and have changed the set-up and motivation to my liking).
> 
> I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?



Reavers of Harkenwold, the adventure included in the DM's Kit, has a similar construction (not surprising, since both were written by the same author).

I have Cairn of the Winter King, the adventure included in the Monster Vault, but I have yet to read it. I'll get back to you on that ASAP.


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## Jools (Nov 23, 2010)

Nahat Anoj said:


> I have Cairn of the Winter King, the adventure included in the Monster Vault, but I have yet to read it. I'll get back to you on that ASAP.




I'd like to hear about that too.


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## buddhafrog (Nov 23, 2010)

Nahat Anoj said:


> Reavers of Harkenwold, the adventure included in the DM's Kit, has a similar construction (not surprising, since both were written by the same author).
> 
> I have Cairn of the Winter King, the adventure included in the Monster Vault, but I have yet to read it. I'll get back to you on that ASAP.




Good news as I've already bought both of these as well - though I haven't seen them yet because I'm still waiting for my (expensive) shipping to Korea.  

Thanks to the others for your ideas as well.  I've ordered Hammerfast as well as a some others.

I love good battle maps but wish I could see what maps come in the module.   I'm thinking of buying Vor Rukoth and Thunderspire Labyrinth, but the battle map could be the tipping point.  I haven't been able to find anything for Thunderspire and 1/2 for Vor Rukoth - anyone have links to either of these?

I play D&D with my son and 20+ kids in several weekly ESL classes in Korea.  I'm buying tons of materials for either Christmas or for my classes.  I love having an excuse to buy these. 

Besides dice/minis, I've never bought a single D&D product until recently - I've either had it handed down from my older brother or, well, pirated.  I hadn't played D&D for about 25 years and just got back into gaming last year.  Living in Korea makes getting movies, TV shows, rpg materials pretty hard (plus Doritos, decent Mexican food and more...).  We always download our TV shows and movies, and when I started looking into playing D&D again, I downloaded lots of 4e materials, including the CB.  

I'm not promoting this here - at all.  However, it is almost impossible for WotC to completely avoid pirated copies of anything digital, and often hard copies get scanned too.  My point is that I enjoyed it so much - the product was good enough - that I've ended up spending loads of money this year on "real" products now that I've had a taste.  Several of the modules/books I've bought recently I actually already have on digital files on my computer - but I want the real thing.  I mention this because of WotC's attempts to protect their products from piracy (recent new DDI being one, but not the only).  I do understand completely.  However, it doesn't really work too well for digital or hard copies, and often folks that download pirated materials wouldn't be spending their money anyway.  I feel WotC should spend their time focusing on getting the best product out and providing the best experience for D&D players.  This is what will reap profits, regardless of piracy.  I hope WotC makes tons of money b/c this will mean more products and gaming that I want to use and play.

....OK, sorry for the thread diversion.  My point was that I'm spending tons of money on these modules/kits/books because I'm excited about the products....


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## Nahat Anoj (Nov 23, 2010)

I read through Cairn of the Winter King. While I think it's a serviceable adventure, it doesn't feel like a mini-sandbox like how The Slaying Stone or Reavers of Harkenwold feel. It gets points for some "ooooh! aaaah!" moments, for presenting the danger in media res, and for advocating for more roleplay, but in the final analysis it feels basically a linear adventure. Because the adventure seems fun, I hesitate to call it a "railroad" - I think "roller coaster" would be a better term (but, ultimately, they're both things that follow a predetermined track).

Looking over The Slaying Stone and Reavers of Harkenwold, I don't think they present a completely wide open sandbox. Indeed, for the most part I feel the strengths of these two adventures are at selling a living scenario. They do this by presenting some (honestly limited) choice and having lots of little maps. For some reason, these maps are just great at suggesting a living world and other angles of attack (even if those things aren't spell out explicitly in the adventure).

For example, Reavers basically has four parts. They only have two options for the first part. Whichever one they do, they attract the attention of a major NPC which leads to the next part. Then there's a battle to defend a town (frankly, these kinds of encounters need more work to feel like they are part of a larger battle, but at least the adventure gives some idea of strategies that PCs can do). Finally, there's an infiltration scenario. The point is, Reavers doesn't actually have a lot of branching choices. But it just feels more open, less obviously a rail-road.


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## Klaus (Dec 22, 2010)

I'm hoping to run this shortly, and I've been cooking up little adjustments:

- In the opening encounter, the wolves are replaced with iron defenders gone haywire (keep stats, but use the cover image). As it turns out, the Slaying Stones weren't the only magical weapon out of Kiris Dahn. The city had quite a few arcane weapons that went missing or were taken away by fleeing citizens, so the outskirts of Kiris Dahn is prowled by runaway constructs, or even a living spell. This also foreshadows the use of constructs by the kobolds.

- The kobolds are more arcane-minded than average. They take their trap-making to the level of tinkering, and often make arcane traps. I also made them stockier.


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## Goonalan (Dec 22, 2010)

I'm running my players through HS1 at the mo, see sig.

I added a secret (sorta) magic item and ritual construction site beneath the Kiris library, this was home to Tyristys (the leader of the place- a half-elf), Treona and Dreus. I added a dungeon version of Stick in the Mud (see my sig for better explanation and nice maps et al) the Chaos Scar Adventure below. The PCs had a secondary quest to investigate the area from Treona.

I've tried to run the town as a dynamic environment, the Severed Eye Orcs arriving on the first evening while the PCs sat and shivered (after a dangerous river-crossing) in an abandoned farm house- keeping watch. Of course they only found out it was the Severed Eye a little later on, anyway take a look if you're interested.

I'm going to be using several of the NPCs from the town for most of the PCs Heroic tier action- I've got a massive city wide adventure for the PCs next- locating Dreus, with Treona as Patron again.

The PCs don't know anything about Tyristys, so please don't give the game away here (in this thread), unless you really have to.

Good luck.

Cheers Goonalan.

PS Read Cairn of the Winter King today, some nice points but mostly... middle of the road, slightly disappointing in fact, particularly in comparison to Reavers which I'm going to be using (Levelled up considerably) soon also.


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## Doploctor (Jan 29, 2011)

Hey i'm running my first game as a DM with this adventure we have done two 3 hour game sessions they are all new to d&d but i've played 3.5, they are currently clearing out the kobold slums but i have some questions that i will put into the spoiler thing 
 [sblock] My players are a group of three so only three characters but at least one of them gets knocked out During an encounter sometimes two. They consist of an Avenger a Bard and a Fighter. I wanted to give them a new member and thought the iron defender in encounter 6: unearthed pets but i didn't know if you could re-imprint an active iron defender or if it is too much to give to them. Any advice? [/sblock]


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## Festivus (Jan 31, 2011)

Well... [sblock]
I gave them a skill challenge to figure out how to control the Iron Defender and put it into various modes (defend me, guard area, detection mode).  They had limited control over the beast and repair was tricky to do as well.  Minor action burned to instruct it with a control box if I am remembering right.[/sblock]

Are you scaling the encounters any for only 3 players?


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## Doploctor (Jan 31, 2011)

yeah as best as i can, reducing damage a little and some hit points, we play this friday


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## surfarcher (Jan 31, 2011)

I think you are going to need to remove a couple standard monster worth of critter from each encounter.  Otherwise the PCs may be out of their league, moreso in in the tougher fights... See DMG 31.

Other options include allying the PCs with one or two NPCs or Companion Characters.  DMG2 has some good advice on small groups.


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## Doploctor (Jan 31, 2011)

alright i was thinking of giving them a 4th member but didn't know what to give them so i thought that maybe a monster turned ally would even it out


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## Festivus (Feb 1, 2011)

It probably would, depending on the level of the monster.  I think things like this are fun in stories.  I'd say try it and if it seems too unbalancing, have the monster have some problem that causes it to be less effective.  What you don't want is the companion to outshine the party.


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## Doploctor (Feb 1, 2011)

[sblock]The iron defenders are lvl 3 soldiers with 47 hp, 18ac, and do 1d8 +3 damage so i was thinking that after the fight they had damaged it so badly that it's hit points are reduced to 37 and maybe reduce the ac by 1, and i would only let the bard imprint it. i also wanted to know how you would scale back the Ankheg for a three man party? [/sblock]


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## fba827 (Feb 1, 2011)

Doploctor said:


> alright i was thinking of giving them a 4th member but didn't know what to give them so i thought that maybe a monster turned ally would even it out




Well, taking that monster and using the companion rules on it, you would end up with something like this ...

[sblock]
Iron Defender Level 3 Companion (Defender)
Medium natural animate (construct, homunculus)
HP 42
Healing Surges per day: 11
AC 20; Fort 16; Ref 16; Will 16
Speed 6
Immune disease, poison
Init +3

* Remove the pursue and attack (this ability got damaged during the initial combat with the PCs or something)
* Bite Attack: +7 vs AC; 1d8+4 and target is marked until end of iron defender's next turn
* Pick one Fight encounter attack power of 3rd level or lower that makes sense for it for it to have. The attack modifier is +7 regardless, and the damage modifier is +4
* Keep the guard creature power (it would take the place of the utility power that would otherwise be allowed for the companion - although atwill may be a bit much, at the same time it gets sort of conditional with needing to be both adjacent and adjacent to a specific creature at that)
Trained Skills: Perception +6, Endurance +8
Str 16 Dex 15 Wis 11
Con 15 Int 5 Cha 8
Alignment unaligned Languages -

Tactics: It doesn't know how to speak or understand commands, it just understands instincts to follow along the guarded ally and in the event of combat it attacks whoever seems the more immediate threat to the guarded ally (though the guarded ally may be able to use some sort of arcana skill check to get the defender to stay or other dog-like commands)


Every level up: HP+6; Attack Bonus +1, Defenses +1
Power: You can retrain(replace) the fighter encounter power with any fighter encounter attack power of it's level or lower
Every Even level up: Damage Bonus +1, Initiative +1, Skills +1
[/sblock]


Edit: Oh yeah, in case it needs to be said, he doesn't get feats or action points (that's just for PCs), or anything else when it levels up. and for simplicity's sake, don't give him any magic item slots since they would likely not count anyway.

Edit 2: for giving him commands, i'd probably refer to how Nature does handle animal and apply that to Arcana for controlling the thing beyond it's natural instincts.


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## Doploctor (Feb 1, 2011)

wow that looks great, thanks for all the help guys i hope i'm not bothering anyone


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