An Introductory Adventure

[zedturtle]

Congratulations on the quality of this work, Zed. This would make a good transition adventure, too.

Thanks! Let me know if you happen to use it, I would love feedback...

[tomfish]

Hi Zed,

Here's a bit of feedback on the adventure after playing it with my two kids (10 & 12, already played a couple of TOR adventures but mostly new to RPG in general). It went very well overall, but I'll let you see the details.


Introduction & Trials

I had my players run in a couple of contests, as they had befriended a Beorning traveller who asked them to represent his family in the Trials. I made a slight adaptation to the adventure, saying that anyone was free to participate but had to do so in the name of one Beorning family, as I did not want the players to really win the Sickle for themselves in the end and felt that Beornings would not allow that to leave their clans.

The Trials were fun, and I believe my players would have liked to run more of them. The only issue I had is that winning a Trial does not really have an influence on the rest of the Adventure. I know it is by design, but I should have weaved more the consequence of winning at least one trial (which one player did - Torch Race) into the rest of the story but failed to do that properly on the spot.

I also decided that the one-dice-roll Trials (TN 20) could be made into two or three dice rolls with lower TN as it is a good way to build pressure. Ideally to make each trial personified and "visual" you need to come up with a short name & description for a major opponent (which I did not), maybe this could be embedded into the adventure but at the cost of space...


The Sickle is stolen

This may be the part I struggled the most with. Maybe that was because my young players were not so sure what to do, if they were expected to take a leading role on the interrogations or not. I felt that without some kind of pressure on their shoulders (like for instance meeting first with Ava who trusts them with the investigation of the theft, or them being suspected) new players may hesitate to step in and meddle with what appear to be purely internal Beorning affairs, especially if none of the player is from that region (which was our case).

But I somehow railroaded my players into the Encounters, and had Ava intervene to have Rathwulf confess the crime. It is not very clear also why Rathwulf remains on the scene and does not run away or hide. It would feel more natural that the company & Ava is alerted maybe by Ethal (who found the killed goblin), discovers Torbald unconscious in the tent and slowly makes the puzzle pieces up to Rathwulf, who is key to understand that Viglundings stole the Sickle and not goblins, and reveal the Falrock location.

So, I'm not yet completely sure how to make it right but I assume a new LM may need further guidance into this to make it "right".


The Chase

This was good and straightforward, and I was hoping to have an Eye on the Travel roll to add a little bit of spice, which we had. I improvised an encounter with a large pack of wolves but the Hunter spotted tracks early enough so they could avoid direct confrontation.


The Viglunding Thieves.

This was really the highlight of the night, as the Falrock setting is evocative (for me) of some sort of treasure island defended by unsuspecting pirates. My players had a blast playing a sort of intrusion, taking down a couple of thieves (but sparing their lives as they realized they were thralls), overhearing conversations about Jarl coming to pick up the Sickle in the night, setting up an ambush, having Jarl run away to his horse and being tackled into the river before fleeing. That was really memorable and fun, my kids loved it ! I especially like my son's quote 'These are Men after all, I resent killing them."


Overall

A great time, especially with the epic conclusion. It fits well with a 3.5 - 4 hr slot which is ideal for conventions or for new players who want to test the system. To make it perfect, some fine tuning on the interrogation phase could be done and the motivations of each NPC made clearer, but this is minor and I'd like to thank you again Zed for providing me & my kids an excellent time together.


Hoping this is useful feedback for you!

Tom

[zedturtle]

Excellent feedback! I will expand my thoughts when I get in front of a real keyboard but I really thank you for the help of writing everything up. In the newest version of the adventure (dare I say final?) the trials will each be multiple contests, we also found it worked better that way. I really like your sponsorship idea and it solves one issue with the adventure, namely that a PC might end up with Beorn's artefact.

Rathwulf is supposed to try and stick around so that he can claim it was goblins that stole the treasure. I will either make this clearer or rewrite along your suggested lines.

I'm glad that the fight went well... did it seem balanced? Was Jarn there or not?

Thanks!

[zedturtle]

Rereading your post, I guess Jarn was there or Cenric and Jarn got wrapped up together... (Which is fine, especially for a smaller party).

[zedturtle]

I had my players run in a couple of contests, as they had befriended a Beorning traveller who asked them to represent his family in the Trials. I made a slight adaptation to the adventure, saying that anyone was free to participate but had to do so in the name of one Beorning family, as I did not want the players to really win the Sickle for themselves in the end and felt that Beornings would not allow that to leave their clans.

As mentioned earlier, I really like this idea and I think I'll introduce it as an option in the write-up.

The Trials were fun, and I believe my players would have liked to run more of them. The only issue I had is that winning a Trial does not really have an influence on the rest of the Adventure. I know it is by design, but I should have weaved more the consequence of winning at least one trial (which one player did - Torch Race) into the rest of the story but failed to do that properly on the spot.

Hmm... I'm thinking that I should work on this. In my playtest run, I used the fact that three out of the four players had won a trial as a motivation... they wanted the Sickle back, so that they could be officially be rewarded it. Maybe I'll go that route or something else.

I also decided that the one-dice-roll Trials (TN 20) could be made into two or three dice rolls with lower TN as it is a good way to build pressure. Ideally to make each trial personified and "visual" you need to come up with a short name & description for a major opponent (which I did not), maybe this could be embedded into the adventure but at the cost of space...

Yep, I'm making both of those official changes, here's a page of the new version that has the personal opponents called out:

This may be the part I struggled the most with. Maybe that was because my young players were not so sure what to do, if they were expected to take a leading role on the interrogations or not. I felt that without some kind of pressure on their shoulders (like for instance meeting first with Ava who trusts them with the investigation of the theft, or them being suspected) new players may hesitate to step in and meddle with what appear to be purely internal Beorning affairs, especially if none of the player is from that region (which was our case).

Gotcha. I will work on this. My players instantly jumped on this (and instantly suspected Rathwulf), so there needs to be a little tweaking there.

But I somehow railroaded my players into the Encounters, and had Ava intervene to have Rathwulf confess the crime. It is not very clear also why Rathwulf remains on the scene and does not run away or hide. It would feel more natural that the company & Ava is alerted maybe by Ethal (who found the killed goblin), discovers Torbald unconscious in the tent and slowly makes the puzzle pieces up to Rathwulf, who is key to understand that Viglundings stole the Sickle and not goblins, and reveal the Falrock location.

So, I'm not yet completely sure how to make it right but I assume a new LM may need further guidance into this to make it "right".

Hmmm. As mentioned, I intended that Rathwulf be misdirecting the heroes, but I will either need to spell that out a little more or change it up.

The Chase

This was good and straightforward, and I was hoping to have an Eye on the Travel roll to add a little bit of spice, which we had. I improvised an encounter with a large pack of wolves but the Hunter spotted tracks early enough so they could avoid direct confrontation.

Good deal. I'll expand out and maybe use this as an example Hazard and how to deal with it.

The Viglunding Thieves.

This was really the highlight of the night, as the Falrock setting is evocative (for me) of some sort of treasure island defended by unsuspecting pirates. My players had a blast playing a sort of intrusion, taking down a couple of thieves (but sparing their lives as they realized they were thralls), overhearing conversations about Jarl coming to pick up the Sickle in the night, setting up an ambush, having Jarl run away to his horse and being tackled into the river before fleeing. That was really memorable and fun, my kids loved it ! I especially like my son's quote 'These are Men after all, I resent killing them."

Excellent stuff. And your son seems to be right on the money about the Viglunders.

Overall

A great time, especially with the epic conclusion. It fits well with a 3.5 - 4 hr slot which is ideal for conventions or for new players who want to test the system. To make it perfect, some fine tuning on the interrogation phase could be done and the motivations of each NPC made clearer, but this is minor and I'd like to thank you again Zed for providing me & my kids an excellent time together.

Very nice!

Hoping this is useful feedback for you!

Tom

Extraordinarily so. This is the exact sort of feedback that helps make things better. Thank you!

[tomfish]

Rereading your post, I guess Jarn was there or Cenric and Jarn got wrapped up together... (Which is fine, especially for a smaller party).

Actually no, but I skipped the Cenric part in the post, so here it is :

After an initial quick fight with two thieves who went down very quickly (due to fantastic rolls and the Elf using a deadly two-handed spear), the heroes realized there was some movement in the trees up on the Falrock, and they cautiously followed a trail leading to Cenric. I had him clim to the top of the Falrock and wait there until night for Jarn, as this was to be their secret meeting point. The heroes kept hiding (their choice) while Cenric and Jarn met, overheard their conversation, and saw the sickle shine under the moonlit sky as it exchanged hands with a heavy purse of gold. As Jarn went back down the Falrock (accompanied by another thief) the Elf in the company decided to frighten him by appearing as a spirit of the Woods - an Awe test - which worked well and sent Jarn running down to the river, and the thief to remain motionless. A mini-chase followed, quite fun, and the heroes almost missed catching up on Jarn, but managed to score a hope-enhanced, Athlectics-based, rugby-inspired tackle throwing Jarn to the river. As it was a great success I had him also lose the sickle, and they could easily retrieve it. Really great fun.

What I especially liked is the different motivations of the NPCs in that scene, well understood by my players : Cenric had his money and would not care too much for the rest (and would not budge if anything happened to Jarn), the thieves more concerned about their future as freemen, Jarn eager to run away as fast as possible with the Sickle, this really opens for a lot of possible situations for managing the conflict and my players did well here.

[tomfish]

But I somehow railroaded my players into the Encounters, and had Ava intervene to have Rathwulf confess the crime. It is not very clear also why Rathwulf remains on the scene and does not run away or hide. It would feel more natural that the company & Ava is alerted maybe by Ethal (who found the killed goblin), discovers Torbald unconscious in the tent and slowly makes the puzzle pieces up to Rathwulf, who is key to understand that Viglundings stole the Sickle and not goblins, and reveal the Falrock location.

So, I'm not yet completely sure how to make it right but I assume a new LM may need further guidance into this to make it "right".

Hmmm. As mentioned, I intended that Rathwulf be misdirecting the heroes, but I will either need to spell that out a little more or change it up.

Entirely right, and somehow it did not stick in my brain, or it felt a bit weird because I played him a bit defensive whereas he should be proud of killing a goblin and having made others run away. I think I would stress more an over-confidence in that character if I ever do the adventure once again, so that players may start suspecting something is maybe wrong with him (which they did not, also due to failed rolls).

[zedturtle]

Once again... thank you! I can't tell you how helpful this sort of feedback is. Thank you!

[Rich H]

This is great. Really looking forward to reading through the final version. Although my group is experienced and been playing TOR for a while this adventure is certainly something I'll be inserting into my campaign.

[zedturtle]

This is great. Really looking forward to reading through the final version. Although my group is experienced and been playing TOR for a while this adventure is certainly something I'll be inserting into my campaign.

Excellent! I'm going to try for a big push this weekend and then it will be on to (or a return to) other projects.