A Different Kind of Red Menace [gaming]
Oct. 28th, 2007 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_gneechWell, just because 4th edition is on the way, doesn't mean 3rd edition don't work. After a month or so of no gaming due to schedule conflicts and general life-being-a-pain, we finally got together again and I started a new mini-campaign running The Red Hand of Doom.
RHOD is probably WotC's iconic moment in 3rd edition; when it came out, several people hailed it as being an instant classic on par with Temple of Elemental Evil for enduring quality and generally setting the standard. (Some people would argue that Paizo's adventure paths in Dungeon magazine beat it, particularly "Age of Worms" -- I won't get into that here. "AoW" does look very cool -- unfortunately, as it'll never see hardcover compilation, it's sort of an apples/oranges comparison. But I digress.)
RHOD has a structure similar to Icewind Dale II, for those who've played that -- an army of evil humanoids is descending upon civilized lands and it's up to the heroes to turn the tide. The cover says it's intended to take characters from levels 6-12; the inside says levels 5-10. Which one is correct? Hard to say. We only got through the introductory teaser fight last night, and that was a pretty hefty slog for a party of five 6th-level characters. Granted, there's a lot of multiclassing and LA going on, so the party is not the most optimized you'll come across, but they're no pushovers.
Right now there's not a lot of characterization or group dynamic going on ... in order to get right into the action I just said, "You guys have been adventuring together for a while and you've got a treasure map. Go!" Who the characters are and how they relate is yet to be determined. There is no "GM's PC" right now, and I don't know if one will turn up. There is a tag-along NPC in the adventure who may or may not join up depending on how things go, but without wanting to give too much in the way of spoilers, his skillset would be a bit redundant with the group as it exists right now. If this group does have a weak spot, I'd say it was lacking in either a dedicated cleric, or a dedicated rogue. A scout might work, tho. Maybe I'll send them a Celedras-variant for support if they need it.
-The Gneech
RHOD is probably WotC's iconic moment in 3rd edition; when it came out, several people hailed it as being an instant classic on par with Temple of Elemental Evil for enduring quality and generally setting the standard. (Some people would argue that Paizo's adventure paths in Dungeon magazine beat it, particularly "Age of Worms" -- I won't get into that here. "AoW" does look very cool -- unfortunately, as it'll never see hardcover compilation, it's sort of an apples/oranges comparison. But I digress.)
RHOD has a structure similar to Icewind Dale II, for those who've played that -- an army of evil humanoids is descending upon civilized lands and it's up to the heroes to turn the tide. The cover says it's intended to take characters from levels 6-12; the inside says levels 5-10. Which one is correct? Hard to say. We only got through the introductory teaser fight last night, and that was a pretty hefty slog for a party of five 6th-level characters. Granted, there's a lot of multiclassing and LA going on, so the party is not the most optimized you'll come across, but they're no pushovers.
Right now there's not a lot of characterization or group dynamic going on ... in order to get right into the action I just said, "You guys have been adventuring together for a while and you've got a treasure map. Go!" Who the characters are and how they relate is yet to be determined. There is no "GM's PC" right now, and I don't know if one will turn up. There is a tag-along NPC in the adventure who may or may not join up depending on how things go, but without wanting to give too much in the way of spoilers, his skillset would be a bit redundant with the group as it exists right now. If this group does have a weak spot, I'd say it was lacking in either a dedicated cleric, or a dedicated rogue. A scout might work, tho. Maybe I'll send them a Celedras-variant for support if they need it.
-The Gneech
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 05:56 pm (UTC)I figure the financing of the army comes from the various dragons' hoards, and possibly gifts from Tiamat. Having a goddess on your side makes a big difference! :D
FWIW, the peculiarities of the story are largely game system artifacts, particularly level-based-game artifacts. Heroes get exponentially more powerful as they level up, so their foes must do the same. A skill-based system a la GURPS or HERO would probably clear up a lot of that, but for some reason nobody seems much interested in writing adventures for those!
-The Gneech
no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 10:59 pm (UTC)yeah, so basically reading this adventure made me think about how weird level-based systems are. :) but it seems adequately plausible, to me, to have a years-long epic with lots of between-adventure downtime that spans the same level range, and that would make it easier for me to suspend disbelief. maybe part of my problem is d&d having done away with level training; now you just magically *pop* up to the next level as soon as you hit the x.p. total. :)
(dragon-hoard financing makes sense; they even talk about how fanatically devoted to the cause the dragons are. but that still doesn't quite explain who made all those weapons... is there a hobgoblin city somewhere filled with hobgoblin master weaponsmiths? i guess there must be.)