# Butterflies



## gideonpepys (Oct 28, 2011)

Got so excited about the release of Dying Skyseer, it was like the day before a much-anticipated movie comes out - or catching the trailer for it unexpectedly.  I haven't felt like that about a gaming product in years.

Where _Island_ was breathtakingly ambitious for a level one adventure, _Skyseer_ is smart, convoluted and compelling.  It is a heartfelt compliment when I say that I enjoyed reading it just for its own sake - which is not something I ever do with published adventures. 

Congratulations, guys, on producing another humdinger.  Can't wait til our first session on Tuesday, when Inspector Malthusius of the RHC is called to the Danoran Embassy!


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## Colmarr (Oct 28, 2011)

Agreed. I'm only up to the Wareye encounter so far but the summary at the start of the adventure and the events at the consulate, the Thinking Man tavern and the gnome shops kept me smiling in anticipation all through lunch.

I'm actually feeling some trepidation about adventure 3 because I know Rangerwickett won't be writing it...


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## Morrus (Oct 28, 2011)

gideonpepys said:


> Got so excited about the release of Dying Skyseer, it was like the day before a much-anticipated movie comes out - or catching the trailer for it unexpectedly.  I haven't felt like that about a gaming product in years.




This might actually be the best compliment we'e ever received.  Thank you!


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## Rugult (Oct 28, 2011)

Colmarr said:


> I'm actually feeling some trepidation about adventure 3 because I know Rangerwickett won't be writing it...




From what I understand Ryan will still have a fairly direct involvement with other adventures.  I know for a fact that I'm having to hold off on the PF conversion of Adventure 3 until he has had a chance to take his quill to it.

So, I wouldn't be worrying too much


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## MatthewJHanson (Oct 31, 2011)

Rugult said:


> From what I understand Ryan will still have a fairly direct involvement with other adventures.  I know for a fact that I'm having to hold off on the PF conversion of Adventure 3 until he has had a chance to take his quill to it.
> 
> So, I wouldn't be worrying too much




Yep. I have the great fortune of being the author for adventure three, and Ryan has provided a lot of guidance along with patiently answering dozens of questions. I'm currently revising it based on his feedback, and after I'm done he'll do a final go through to make sure that it syncs up with the overall adventure path.

(And while I may be biased, but I think there's a lot of cool stuff in the adventure).


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## DonTadow (Oct 31, 2011)

I agree with the original poster. I've already finished my review based on the 4e edition version.  

Last night, I was talking to my wife about why Zeitgeist has revived my DM spirit.  I tried running the last 2 Paizo adventure paths, and whereas they are detailed and well written, I felt I just had to do too much work in certain parts, to the point where dread overtook joy when I bought a new book. I have a friend who is running Jade Regent, he has tpk'd the party 4 times.  This is not the adventures fault, but the adventures at paizo are not built for every DM and every group. 

I feel the folk at enworld still DM.  They write from a DM perspective and not an RPG Industry pro perspective.  I don't feel like I have to redesign half the adventure to insert more role playing moments, or to work with my party makeup. 

Dying Skyseer is the kind of campaign that we will never see from the Paizo or Wotc.


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## Morrus (Oct 31, 2011)

DonTadow said:


> I agree with the original poster. I've already finished my review based on the 4e edition version.




A review?



DonTadow said:


> I feel the folk at enworld still DM.  They write from a DM perspective and not an RPG Industry pro perspective.




I think this is true.  I often send Ryan an email saying "I was running an adventure last night and found I really wished it did X; let's do that." 

Sometimes it's just little things - the NPC player handout for each adventure was something I wanted because I lost track of the number of times I'd mention an NPC to a player and they wouldn't remember who it was; the power fluff text in monster powers, too, because sometimes I struggled to describe why a power had the effects it did.

I also found that I kinda wanted an easily accessible recap of the previous adventure at the beginning of each new one - kinda like TV shows say "Previously on.....", and out of that was born the idea for the_ Flint Tribune_, which expanded to also provide setting or background information and so on.

So there is definitely stuff which is there because it solves issues that we personally experienced when running adventures.  That's not to say everybody has the same problems as, for example, I do - hell, I'm sure there are many much better DMs who simply don't struggle with these things at all - but I figured that if I did, then _some_ other people will, too, and will find the stuff helpful.

The other big thing we purposefully do, of course, is to design for ourselves in the sense that we're experienced DMs who don't need a _Keep on the Shadowfell_.  We write for experienced DMs, not beginner DMs (in the way that WotC has to accomodate new players, we don't - we assume you know what you're doing, have the experience to handle complex issues and plots, and leave as much scope for improvisation as possible without hand-holding the DM through the process).


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## DonTadow (Oct 31, 2011)

Morrus said:


> A review?



I review for DrivethruRPG. I primarily stick to pathfinder and horror RPG reviews.


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## Morrus (Oct 31, 2011)

DonTadow said:


> I review for DrivethruRPG. I primarily stick to pathfinder and horror RPG reviews.




Have you got a link to the review?  I love reading reviews!  (Well, not the bad ones, but I guess I have to read those, too!)


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## DonTadow (Nov 1, 2011)

Morrus said:


> Have you got a link to the review?  I love reading reviews!  (Well, not the bad ones, but I guess I have to read those, too!)




I won't post my dying seer review until the pathfinder version comes out, i need to see the mechanics first. But here's my first review of the last adventure

RPGNow.com - ZEITGEIST #1: Island at the Axis of the World (PATHFINDER) Reviews


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## Gaming Tonic (Nov 1, 2011)

I am sitting down to run a new game for my players (which there are 5) and I throw up a few choices for them on our Facebook RPG page and they selected Zeitgeist.  Each had their own reason which I think speaks well for the promo material and the setting.  I am jumping for joy that I get to run something so clever and varied from your standard fantasy product.


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## MatthewJHanson (Nov 1, 2011)

Morrus said:


> Have you got a link to the review?  I love reading reviews!  (Well, not the bad ones, but I guess I have to read those, too!)



If you haven't already done so, with RPGNow/DriveThruRPG you can set it up to email you whenever you receive a review there. Its under "account and payment settings."


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## Morrus (Nov 1, 2011)

MatthewJHanson said:


> If you haven't already done so, with RPGNow/DriveThruRPG you can set it up to email you whenever you receive a review there. Its under "account and payment settings."




I was aware of that review (though I keep rpgnow email settings off as much as I can); my interest was piqued when he said he'd just finished one for _Skyseer_ yet I couldn't find it. Turned out that was because he hasn't posted it yet!  Lokoing forward to it, though.


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## DonTadow (Nov 2, 2011)

Morrus said:


> I was aware of that review (though I keep rpgnow email settings off as much as I can); my interest was piqued when he said he'd just finished one for _Skyseer_ yet I couldn't find it. Turned out that was because he hasn't posted it yet!  Lokoing forward to it, though.



Yeah, haven't posted it yet. Mostly because I am not a master of 4e mechanics, and I don't feel right to review something if I don't have an understanding of the checks being accurate or not. 

What I will end up doing is posting a full review under pathfinder and maybe copying the non-mechanical parts of the review and pasting it under 4e as a nugget.


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## Morrus (Nov 2, 2011)

DonTadow said:


> Yeah, haven't posted it yet. Mostly because I am not a master of 4e mechanics, and I don't feel right to review something if I don't have an understanding of the checks being accurate or not.
> 
> What I will end up doing is posting a full review under pathfinder and maybe copying the non-mechanical parts of the review and pasting it under 4e as a nugget.




Any chance you could preview what you have here?  I find it as hard to wait for reviews as you do for the actual adventures! 

I won't comment on it other than thanking you for the review (I think that's the only appropriate response from a publisher to a review, whether positive or negative).


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