[dungeoncrawl] Tuesday morning review
- From: Johnathan Detrick <jdetrick@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Riders II <dungeoncrawl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 09:46:01 -0400
As I mentioned before, I thought last night was awesome! Jim did a
great job, and the night was a blast. Let's recap.
The adventure to rescue Karvas and Saurotte was nice and not
contrived, yet it didn't take up too much of the night. I was a little
disappointed that we couldn't play that smaller group more because I
enjoyed them, but it would have been sheer folly on Jim's part to drag
that out. Instead he made it just the right length, and it was great.
As he has throughout this adventure, Jim kept me guessing the entire
night. I was not aware that the battle with the Black Legion was the
end of the adventure. I assumed there would be more beyond them.
Personally, I'm thrilled that he made them the climax. If the Riders
were going to end their careers as adventurers, what is more appropriate
than a final battle with their most hated foes? It was the perfect
capper for them, and bravo to Jim for using it as the endpiece.
I sensed that Jim felt he wasn't using the Black Legion to their
full potential last night, or that they were too easy. Considering he
killed five characters throughout the fight, I'm not sure why he felt
that way. The Black Legion was doing incredibly well. Damon made the
statement that they never attacked us en masse. Thank God! Personally,
I think Jim used them exceedingly well. By having them attack us in
waves it kept the group off balance. It also should be noted that two
or three of them at a time was more than sufficient to keep 11 members
of the Riders busy. It made it seem like Amrikol had a master plan, and
made him seem much more like a brilliant strategist than if he had used
his power and simply tried to pummel the Riders into paste.
If Jim shot himself in the foot anywhere, it was in killing so many
people in the adventures of the past few weeks. Because an average of
two characters per week were dying on adventures, Faceous had taken all
Resurrections at 7th level. This enabled him to continually replenish
the ranks of the Riders from the dead characters. If he had not done
that, the Riders would have been in a lot more trouble. They would have
survived, I think, but it would have been by the skin of their teeth.
Anyway, the fight was great. It moved quite quickly; for someone
that does not have as firm a grasp of the rules as he did in second
edition, Jim kept things moving so smoothly. And considering that all
of the players had more than one character, we moved quickly as well.
There was a palpable sense of danger the entire time, and death was
constantly present. I just can't say how much fun I thought it was.
The was the perfect mix of danger and excitement. I didn't feel
completely overwhelmed and I didn't feel like it was easy. It was
great.
One side note. Amrikol broke his Staff of Power in a retributive
strike. I was surprised as hell, and said as much. I think Jim thought
I was fighting him on it. I was not. The villains are allowed to
surprise me, and I am not privy to their thoughts. I was not trying to
challenge Jim's ruling; I was just surprised. No doubt that was
Amrikol's plan, as he probably assumed the Riders wouldn't think him
capable of doing that. In that respect, it worked brilliantly. But I
just wanted to make it clear I was not disagreeing with what Jim was
doing; I was just amazed he did it.
I'll start sending out e-mail on the new gods and their world today
and through the week (expect them to start this afternoon). Jim did a
bang-up job, and here's a thank you from me!
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