As I am prepping for my Revenge of the Giants game tonight, which is being played out through Wizard’s Virtual Tabletop, I thought I would blog a bit about my thoughts on the module so far and playing at the Paragon Tier. The module itself is….okay. The production quality is fantastic (it makes me lament the fact that Wizard’s is not really publishing adventures anymore, I think we get one this year and the DDI stuff just isn’t the same). The story is fairly classic, with giantkind banding together to try and release an ancient primordial from its prison while wreaking havoc and laying waste to everything. The adventure essentially plays out in a series of delves or crawls and is very combat heavy, punctuated by forced and sometimes mechanically awkward skill challenges. There is a really weird section/delve where you travel back in time and lay some smack on Acererak before he became a lich. The hook is that you need to get some “sky metal” to make some potent magic weapons to aid you in your quest to defeat the giants. It left me thinking that if you can travel in time why not go back and alter the events that lead to the current predicament, but whataya going to do maybe that would violate the prime directive or something.
You can tell that this module was written early on in the life of 4th edition before they had a fuller understanding of how the system really worked and potential pitfalls (another reason why I lament the lack of new published modules because most of the ones in actual print suffer from this). The only tweaking I have done so far is to swap out monsters for their current versions post Monster Manual 3 or updated the damage to the new progression levels.
With regards to DM’ing at the Paragon tier, I have to honestly say I have no fucking clue about what’s going on during the game most of time. Each Character has so many powers, magic items and abilities that whenever I do anything 2 or 3 voices chirp up over the interwebs calling out numbers that reduce attack roles, damage rolls, or trigger some kind of awfulness for my monsters. It can be very confusing. I have access to all their character because they are stored on the virtual table, but really it is too much to keep track of and I think you have to just trust your players. It is even confusing for the players as some have crib sheets stored on the notes section detailing specifics or exceptions of how their characters work. Also, I can’t even imagine running this module or any paragon game without the new monster damage as it would be just a joke. Even with the pimped up monsters the party still hasn’t been really threatened. I haven’t dropped anyone unconscious yet and rarely bloody more than one person per encounter.
Here is the intro I sent out to the players as I wasn’t really feeling the initial hooks that were laid out in the adventure:
You are all members of the nation of Fallcrest’s Special Forces, some on the books and some off the books, whose mission has been the protection of your fledgling nation from the ever encroaching darkness.
Several weeks ago, tales began to circulate of a strange mechanical bird that flew into the throne room. After several minutes of just circling the room, the strange bird landed at the feet of the throne and began to address the king. Not all of the details of what was said have emerged but it is known that this strange bird addressed the King as “the mighty and benevolent ruler of Nerath” and repeatedly mentioned his duty to uphold “the Paragon Compact” and how the great city of Argent could not be left without champions as the world itself would suffer the consequences.
You have been ordered to equip yourself for deployment and present to his majesty in the throne room at first light.
When I had the king send them off to investigate the strange mechanical bird’s plea, I spoke as the King and asked if they had any questions. This was followed by nothing but dead air and the faint sound of crickets chirping. I then responded, as the king, “that’s what I like about you special forces types, all business no talk”. Guess this is the right module for this job after all 😉
I understand what you’re talking about in terms of things getting kind of messy in Paragon tier. My party have so many interrupts and disabling encounter powers, my monsters are mostly fairly ineffective.
But all that being said and done. The players have a blast. My only counter is, shouldn’t I be having fun too. Then again, I guess I should enjoy the game beyond just doing well in combat.
Still, I really wish I felt like my encounters felt threatening again.
for sure the more I think about it I don’t think most players mind if they are not challenged and like to pown the universe. but I really feel that gets old after a while and there needs to be the occasional threat or close call. as I player I like that, I like to sweat it out sometimes. Maybe it is a DM thing.
Just a little update, I just ran another couple quick encounters with my players last night. In the first round of the second encounters, the two striker players managed to focus fire enough damage to obliterate one mob before I even got a chance to put up it’s initiative card.
In the end, the encounter actually went well enough that I didn’t mind that one monster died instantly. If anything it’s showing that at least some of the players are starting to focus fire and really work as a team. That part is fun to watch.
That cool man, i had the same thing happen in an lfr game; I had the guys “twin brother”‘walk out from a side room the next round 🙂 in my last game they took care of the mobs pretty good but I had my monsters focus fire on the warden who had multiple marks and had him down to 3hp(crit for 44hp) bu in less than a round he was back up tO 3/4hp. Well see next session when they face off with a reskinned red dragon at level frOm the monster vault plus a couple of earth giants and a earth archon mooohaaa
Re: players wanting to pown the universe – I can only speak for myself, but can definitely say “Yes I do!”… sometimes. Power, however vicarious, is a delightful thing. Would I be interested in my charcter unleashing some oddly-named critter-frying power that obliterates an entire army, while I stand back and gloat?
Yes.
On the other hand, I do understand what Your Middleaged-ness is saying about it getting old. I’m confident it has to do with my own middle-aged status. As a younger man, I doubt that ultimate power would ever give me pause for thought. The culmination of the final fight scene in Highlander very much seemed like a good deal.
But, as an older man, it does seem a little bit… too easy, perhaps. I have to say that I have felt a certain thrill as it becomes obvious to me that the damage I’m taking is going to require more than a band-aid and a healing smooch from mommy. Maybe it has to do with being so new to gaming; everything is new, and helps me learn.
On the other hand, it reminds me of playing a video game on the easiest setting. I begin to yawn and daydream about other things, while mowing-down monsters like so much wheat. I assume that’s why the video-game makers include more difficult levels of play.
Anyway, looking forward to taking some damage Friday!
hmmm, in fairness I don’t really recall your character powning anything 🙂
Snort! True enough. Nor do I predict it anytime soon.
Do slots ever open up on your virtual gaming table? Or does everyone already need to have already been a previously chosen betatester of the app?
they are continually adding people to the beta in waves. they haven’t done so in a bit, but if you a ddi subscriber you can request an invite and you should be able to get one. if you do let me know cause I currently have an opening in my game if you would like to try it out.
Ok, will do. I recently asked to be a beta tester via my DDI account, but haven’t heard back as yet. Will keep my fingers crossed and eyes peeled.