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| The Heresiarch, in all his divine glory. |
Your new GOD rules over your planet for 1001 years, bleeding it dry of all life, at which point it and its denizens are nothing more than a lifeless husks.
Seeking greener pastures elsewhere, he continues the cycle once again, launching deep into the stars, seeking out the next world to dominate.
It's a sad thing your adventures have ended here!
It's a sad thing your adventures have ended here!
Thank you for playing Fane of the Heresiarch. I do plan on running this adventure again (possibly summer 2013), and will be opening it up to repeat players. Take what you've learned in this run, and see if you can excel in your score!
Special Thanks
In the comments section, answer the following questions:
Thanks again Sersa Victory for an awesome adventure!
Feedback
If you have a few moments, I'd love to pick your brain about what you liked and disliked about the Fane of the Heresiarch run. This feedback is open to lurkers to post to as well, not just players.
Feedback
If you have a few moments, I'd love to pick your brain about what you liked and disliked about the Fane of the Heresiarch run. This feedback is open to lurkers to post to as well, not just players.
In the comments section, answer the following questions:
- 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?
- This run featured a new element: audio narration. Should I continue with this technique on future adventures? Did it add value to the game?
What's Next?
In early 2013, I will switch over from running SVD Press games (Revenge of the Iron Lich, Crucible of the Gods, Fane of the Heresiarch) to an adventure recently released at a great fourthcore website, Dungeon Oracle.
Here is a teaser of that upcoming adventure, Vault of the Wyrm Prince:
When the fires smoldered in the belly of an ancient red dragon tyrant, and his thirst had been slaked by the blood of countless innocents, the old wyrm made a deal with a succubus to spawn him a son and ensure his name would live forever. The demon held true, though she imbued the wyrmling with her own infernal blood.Those who fear and serve the abominable spawn of this pact know him as the Wyrm Prince.
Cast into the abyss centuries ago by the legendary Three- River Paladin, the Wyrm Prince licked his wounds and recovered his strength. The Three-River Paladin has passed into legend, and the Wyrm Prince has resurfaced, his vengeance awakened along with his hunger. The Wyrm Prince sacked the high city Zhaldanis, slaying its people and claiming the greatest gift from the gods— the Soulstone.
At this late hour, you must venture into the catacombs of the Wyrm Prince before the stone loses its power and all mortal souls are damned!
Point-wise, did better than we thought.
ReplyDeleteThe game was great, but I know that I had a hard time posting regularly enough to make the timeline. I suspect some others in the group had a similar issue. In that sense, the time crunch just doesn't feel the same in play-by-blog.
And I really screwed up my character creation... I rushed her, so I did a lot of things that were flat out wrong. Next time I'll get her right!
Thanks for the game!
I'm going to rethink the time limit the next time I run this. I will most likely push it out, but still have one.
DeleteBwa ha ha ha ha! Way to doom humanity, guys!
ReplyDeleteAs a champion of the Fane and an (eventual) lurker here, I have to say I quite enjoyed the audio element, Joe. I think it adds a lot.
Thanks!
DeleteSorry to be slow with the feedback.
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked most about the game: The adventure itself and the way you presented it. The feel of the delve was fantastic and I really enjoyed the astrological/otherworld theme. I also really liked the doombuilt environments, especially the Prison of the Frozen Gods. I thought the Crusader Achievement tab that was updated on the fly was great too. The fights were fun and tense; I thought we were toast in pretty much every combat except the minotaur.
I also had a lot of fun roleplaying my characters out, especially Sciora's interactions with Gardain.
What I liked least about the game: We really hit a time crunch, and I'm not sure exactly what the cause was other than we seemed slow for the first month of the adventure. I was pretty discouraged by the slow and infrequent posting by the group (excepting Paul), especially once it became apparent we were cutting it close. Maybe a longer time limit is deserved for this one. Alternatively, maybe some more incentive to post more frequently (or punishment for not) would work well.
I think the rules for out of combat healing for leader classes could have been made clearer before the start of the adventure. Different groups do this differently and it's nice to know what to expect if you're playing a healer!
One this I would change if I could: The memory game was hard to fully enjoy in this format, though I think it would be fantastic in person. I played by the rule to not record anything and play fair, but it felt like it would be a really slow part of the adventure, especially since it's limited by the posting speed of the rest of the group. I would consider subbing out the memory game for a different mechanic entirely for play-by-post.
I appreciated the experiment with the audio narration and the effort it took, but it didn't add value to the game for me personally. I'm sure others enjoyed it though!
Thanks a lot for the time you put into the adventure! I enjoyed it.
WOO, and I'm the last to jump in! Sorry for the lateness, holidays and then a family emergency took precedence.
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked most about the game: I loved the feel of this adventure, there was a real sense of foreboding over the entire game, particularly when we got down to the wire. I honestly felt like every corner we turned would end in our utter and total demise. The split-second decisions we had to make really felt life or death and it added a serious stress to the game. I also loved the freedom we had, if we had a great idea for an attack or action you worked with us and let us give it a shot, something you've always been great about.
What I liked least about the game: As always, the rather sporadic posting of my fellow players did raise its ugly head, especially in the crunch time of the last few weeks. It's understandable with work, family and other hobbies that we can't all always jump on a new post, but it did leave me pulling my hair more than once and hovering over the publish key with a particularly colorfully worded request. On the other hand, Bjorn always kept up with me tit-for-tat and even blew past me on a couple occasions, and you worked with us fantastically to bypass challenges and fights when it was clear we had it in the bag.
One thing I would change if I could: The death of Turen the druid! It's a shame he died early on, I really enjoyed his fervor and didn't get to play with many of his powers. But about the game itself, there were some elements that didn't quite translate well into the play by post model. Bjorn mentioned the memory game, but that actually didn't feel too cumbersome to me, thought I did miss two of the moves! What felt a little off was actually the gauntlet of walls. Maybe it was the descriptions or just the way I was looking at it, but it honestly threw me for a loop when I first got into it.
You deserve a lot more adulation than I think you get for the effort and time you put into every adventure you run, from fielding questions to making doomscapes for each room and area, you bring life to play-by-post games like no one I've ever seen. Thank you for all your hard work and I look forward to playing again!
Thank you everyone for the wonderful feedback. I appreciate it very much, and will be working to make future runs even better!
ReplyDelete