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Crusaders
Thank you for a wonderful game. It's the players that really make a play-by-post great, and you guys stuck with me until the very end. Alas, it wasn't the victory you sought, but it was the most epic run I've had of this adventure.
Reveal: When you kill the ruach, violet fire bathes her remains until the start of her next turn. You must light the golden torch from that fire before that time. Unfortunately for Hanar, the ruach's turn was instantaneously after his.
Score = -15 pts.
- Four skull obtained, 200 pts.
- Stone table found, 10 pts.
- Reaper's Dice found, 25 pts.
- Hidden Shrine found, 50 pts.
- Talisman of Glory obtained, 100 pts.
- Eight dungeoneers perished x -50 pts each, -400 pts.
Special Thanks
- To Sersa Victory/SVD Press for producing such an awesome adventure and placing it out there for free. I look forward to runs of his future products.
- To the creators of Doombuilder2 and heXen, who made it possible for me to make 3D dungeon scenes while having about an ounce of artistic skill.
- To www.d20monkey.com for being cool with me stealing art from the site for my banner.
- To countless artists that I grabbed art from by google's image search. I'm getting better with citing my references!
- To all my #fourthcore twitter friends and acquaintances who followed along with excitement and enthusiasm.
Feedback
If you have a few moments, I'd love to pick your brain about what you liked and disliked about the Crucible of the Gods run. This feedback is open to lurkers to post to as well, not just players. (Do I have any lurkers?) Anyone is welcome to comment.
- What did you like the most about the game?
- What did you like the least about the game?
- What one thing would you change if you could?
- What one thing can I change to make myself a better DM?
What's next?
Where one game ends, another will begin. Look for an upcoming announcement inviting you to the next Grind4e game - the anniversary edition of awesome fourthcore adventure written by Sersa Victory and Jerry LeNeave...
Revenge of the Iron Lich!
This was AWESOME! I had hoped to survive, but even as a fine red mist I had a blast.
ReplyDelete1. How I was able to actually feel like a heroic adventurer, taking risks that none other would try, pushing my skills to the limit and being all around crazy.
2. I WOULD say nothing, but for criticism's sake I'll say that some of the traps/tricks should be easier to avoid, but harder to spot.
3. I'd change it so that Selvantis lived and took out the Ruach himself! No, but the treasures that were given were awesome, especially when they weren't 'standard' items, like the serpent staff and Selvantis's transformation.
4. Don't be so critical of yourself or your decisions. You've been an awesome game master during this and you held nothing back. You also allowed us some flexibility in our actions and decisions in the game, which does nothing but add to the fantasy feel of the adventure.
All together this game was 10/10 and I'm super stoked for RotIL!
I think CSR counts as a lurker :P
ReplyDelete1) Everything! I did a couple of FTDM games while this was going, but this truly feels like what fourthcore is supposed to be.
2) How hard it was to convince everyone I was correct about the portal, haha. I think if the flames had come up as any color other than red, it might have been easier on my part.
3) Trade training in Heal for Athletics
4) Other than missing a turn for Tak-tha against the dracolisk (which ultimately wouldn't have made a difference anyways), I honestly don't know what to put here. You were fair in your deadlines for post, the flexibility to let us do what we want (such as using an encounter to open a trapdoor in the death trap room), and you're a great writer that really helped bring this to life.
This was my first real taste of fourthcore, and I'm ready for more!
PS: RotIL will be in an alternate universe that will allow me to bring in a newly minted Tak-tha, right?
The next game will not be connected with Crucible. No boasts, for example. You can re-interpret Tak-tha as you wish!
DeleteFirst of all Joe, thanks so much for running this. All your hard work is apparent in the high quality of all the posts. This was both my first play by post and my first fourthcore so a bunch of new stuff for me to deal with.
ReplyDelete1) like most? The adventure was great. The mix of puzzles and over the top battle scenes makes fourthcore great. I wouldn't want every adventure to be that way but as an occasional challenge it was great. As someone who gets most of his D&D dming Encounters this was a true change of pace. I also loved the maps and how they were updated on the Vitals page.
2) like least? I found that the Play by Post thing really isn't for me. It has nothing to do with your DMing and everything to do with the weird pacing that comes from everyone having different schedules and rates at which they post their updates. Its not anyones fault it is just an unavoidable artifact of this style of play. I also had a hard time keeping track of what was going on from all the different posts.
3) I feel bad for leaving everyone hanging when I went away over spring break and couldn't post.
4) this was such a different experience for me that I don't have a frame of reference to comment. You did a super job.
In the end I really had a good time. Thanks.
Regards,
David Sowa
Joe and Sersa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great game! Bittersweet to get so far, know the audience was cheering for us, and failing us close to the end, killing the Ruach even! We were down to the last turn! So F$%^&())&^^()(*&&)^&##$^^^&#@-ing close!
As much as I want to beat this thing, I don't think I'll be able to play C1 again, not for a long while. I know too much and this was DnD at its best! Can't believe we got this far. Obviously, a group stands no chance w/o the talisman, and even with that, our tactics didnt work. This team was definitely top-notch, and I am sorry I ever doubted A1 (never again)! I'd have never made it out of Kotaresh's first puzzle alone, and after that we just cruised it seemed!
What did you like the most about the game?
The difficulty, for starters. Loved being in a game where I knew the DM would not be pulling punches, or have combats be a walk-thru. When the stone golem came at us with flaming-skeleton flails, I was hooked!
What did you like the least about the game?
LOSING! But seriously, the only way this could have been better would to have done it live. But then we may not have gotten to the end, so...
What one thing would you change if you could?
I would have changed Nevdor alot. Not his powers, but skills. I knew a rogue would be so useful here, and the fey step saved me multiple times. As the rogue, I barely helped in Asar-Segt's trial, and in the beginning, I kinda took a back-seat to see how things developed. Also, would have not dumped on my STR. So glad none of us took the pre-gens, now that I've had time to look at them!
I also would have grabbed the torch instead of getting up in the Ruach's grill. I thought we had to kill it, or wait for the flame to reveal itself. Thought that between the krater, my jump, and Hanar being right next to the Ruach, we had her #. Going back, we should have made them come to us, skeletons and all. But I feared dying every round! So even with hours to plot, we had to take the risk.
What one thing can I change to make myself a better DM?
Honestly, not much. The only thing that irked me (just a small bit) was when you finished Asar-Segt's trial for us using the urns/etc. But thats only b/c when I have DMed, I let the PCs live or suffer for their memory. But I understand that in the pbp format, waiting around and ret-conning all of this is hard, and it basically made the whole thing a cut scene. So if thats my biggest issue, you did great!
Oh yes, and least I forget, the imagery was amazing. You obviously put in tons of work mapping out everything, and it really brought everything together. An 11/10!
DeleteWill definitely be reading the RoIL pbp, can't wait to see that brought to life!
That was awesome to experience just as an outsider looking in, knowing what's around the next corner, seeing everyone sweat from the panic and fear. Great game!
ReplyDelete• What did you like the most about the game?
ReplyDeleteAw geez. Everything? My first PbP and my first Fourthcore (well, adventure-wise anyway - FTDM since October) was a phenomenal experience. The small experiences I've had at Giant in the Playground have been utter and complete letdowns compared to how you've handled visuals, setting, maps, player-wrangling, and general organization. In fact, you've totally inspired me to run PbP, and I'll definitely be emulating this style.
• What did you like the least about the game?
The OOC updates started slowing down towards the end of the game. (treasures, vitals) Seriously, if this is the thing I liked the least, awesome job! We can all point at Ross and LCTN and assume that had something to do with it.
• What one thing would you change if you could?
I'm honestly happy with every choice I made, and even with a loss and a negative score, I feel immense satisfaction with the game. That said, it would have been nice to spec Ashton's daily differently and have used it. Now that I've looked at the adventure (Sersa totally rocks for making an awesome free adventure), Frost Backlash would never have activated against the Ruach, because of the combo push and immediate action downgrade. Blergh.
• What one thing can I change to make myself a better DM?
I just have echoes of A1 and Deuce here. And faint ones at that. I have no clue what you're like at the table, but your PbP style worked great for me!
• Notes
I think it would be interesting to see what kind of success a veteran group would experience in this module. I imagine practically jogging through the great hall, with a party optimized against the three combat challenges, and it would still be up to chance and tactics in several key places. For example, the geomorphic tiles at the end could have come up with a straight path to the throne, but we had no way past the pits. The urge for replayability comes from the same place as Nintendo speedruns.
It's also interesting to note the anecdotal differences between at-table and PbP runs of this mod. Like Ross said at some point, it's the difference between madness and mistakes, and surgical precision.
Time for the last man standing to weigh in (definitely not how I wanted it)
ReplyDeleteWhat did you like the most about the game?
All the treasures and Selvantis' transformation. Gave the game a highly unique flavor.
What did you like the least about the game?
The pacing on the game. Sometimes it felt like the other players were moving really fast and I didn't have a chance to keep up. Sometimes it felt like I was moving really fast and the other players were slow. Same thing can happen just as easily in a tabletop game.
What one thing would you change if you could?
Have my poor, jaded wizard survive the elephant trap. Actually, I would have gone for actually retrieving the torch and lighting it in time. The whole 'burns till start of next turn' thing felt a bit cheap.
What one thing can I change to make myself a better DM?
Believe in yourself. You did something absolutely incredible and beautiful here. Keep up the good work!
Thank you everyone for your kind words and feedback. Play-By-Post/Blog has strengths and weaknesses, but I'm glad I'm able to focus on the former while keeping the latter to a minimum.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, you might have noticed the new post (dropped today, April 18, 2012) requesting players for Revenge of the Iron Lich. You guys get first "dibs", assuming you haven't played or run the adventure before.
After that, if we are still less than full, I will then look elsewhere (twitter, for example).
Send me those 16th level dungeoneers!
If any of you are interested in running Crucible of the Gods (or any other game) via a blog, feel free to use any of the art assets, style, etc, from this blog. All I ask if you let me know about it, so I can follow along with your game!
ReplyDelete