Feedback.

[Anastasia]

This topic serves two purposes:

1. GM comments and feedback. This won't occur until after the game for various reasons.

2. PC comments to me. If you have any now fire by all means. I appreciate 'em since this is a learning game.

[Anastasia]

Now that we've finished, I gnaw for player comments and feedback. I'll be just a bit with my post game manifesto due to this cold.

[Anastasia]

PC comments first.

Magus:

Build was highly effective, pretty much the melee combat god. His crits really held the group together through some hellish battles. I really have no complains there. I wouldn't give that build keenness easily in a real game, though. That's really freakin' nice.

Personalitywise, he was a Broody McMeanie pants! It was amusing to watch him, though. Poor Magus!

Natalya:

Well shit. Her build fuckin' worked. The summons were pure aces and her support healing/barkskin never failed to help out. I learned a lot with how useful summons were in 3rd and will adjust accordingly. The party would've died if not for her constant helpouts.

Personalitywise? Comrade Natalya! It worked fine for a oneshot game. The occasional play with Reiny or Averdui was amusing as well.

Reiny:

Mmm. Her build worked but was overshadowed for a few reasons. Her healing was useful as was her damage, but Natalya and Magus did each better. She turned into the red wizard of the group. Another note was not managing to smite anything. The entire shadow side was full of smitables in general, but it never happened. Oh well. I think there was a bit of confusion since this was the first time Hotaru ran a paladin, too.

RP? Eh. I got the vibe that Hotaru wasn't comfortable in her role, nor did she settle in until the very end. I think she knew how she wanted Reiny to go but the execution never quite set right.

Arvedui:

The ranged build worked in the first part of the dungeon. The damage was there but not spectacular and in the last half he did a bit more utility. Solid but it felt like it was a first run for Hal in 3rd, too.

Personality? A bit stock and nice. Didn't project much, but it worked for a one shot test game. Had a few good lines.

I'll comment on the areas and 3rd as well as the dungeon tomorrow.

[Halbarad]

Mmm. Not TOO much to say  here, as this was mostly me learning D&D in general.

The good: The system wasn't quite so bad once I got familiar with it. Combat flows fairly easily, and skill checks outside of combat weren't too bad either. Character creation isn't the ogre now that it's been in the past, either.

The bad: With the above taken into consideration, this system (and this game in particular) just didn't fit my taste. Nothing to do with the setting, but I'm not particularly fond of throwaway adventures, and as I've said before I don't like the system-centric nature of D&D in general.

Focus seems to be centered on the next level up, the next shiny new item, and the like. While I LIKE that kind of thing at times, tabletop RPing is not where I'd like to see it happen - a console or a computer can handle that much a lot more smoothly than a human can, so I'd rather go that route if I'm in the mood for godlike power (hi, Disgaea!)

RPwise, didn't invest a lot into the character - again, not particularly crazy about getting attached to a throwaway, and when you balance me trying to  learn the system with work while gaming, there wasn't a lot of time to try to develop a personality for Arvey - or inclination.

Final thoughts? Wouldn't MIND playing D&D again in a longer-term setting, but on the other hand I'm not going to be in a rush to seek it out either. It works for what it is, but if I'm RPing with other people I'd rather focus on what's unique to RPing with other people - the interaction with other people, not my character sheet.

My own impressions of the system aside? Liked the dungeon. Fewer traps and puzzles than I expected, but I suspect the former went into design given the fact that we didn't have any trap specialist with us. A lot more combat than I'd have expected personally - not that it was bad, just not what I'd anticipated. More involved puzzles with better clues would have been fun as well, but that's just me - what we had wasn't bad, just needed more of it.

Overall rating? 2.5 out of 4 stars. Fun, but what I didn't like wasn't something the GM could really control.

[Anastasia]

Focus seems to be centered on the next level up, the next shiny new item, and the like. While I LIKE that kind of thing at times, tabletop RPing is not where I'd like to see it happen - a console or a computer can handle that much a lot more smoothly than a human can, so I'd rather go that route if I'm in the mood for godlike power (hi, Disgaea!)

This is partly true, partly a caveat of running a one shot dungeon. Increasing in power is a strong part of the D/D stereotype, but you can weave in RP as well to whatever degree you wish. But you won't really get away from the powerup mindset.

RPwise, didn't invest a lot into the character - again, not particularly crazy about getting attached to a throwaway, and when you balance me trying to learn the system with work while gaming, there wasn't a lot of time to try to develop a personality for Arvey - or inclination.

Agreed. That's a lot of why I kept the NPC encounter chart down to the bare minimum. Not blamin' you or anything since you were in the same position I was to a large degree.

My own impressions of the system aside? Liked the dungeon. Fewer traps and puzzles than I expected, but I suspect the former went into design given the fact that we didn't have any trap specialist with us. A lot more combat than I'd have expected personally - not that it was bad, just not what I'd anticipated. More involved puzzles with better clues would have been fun as well, but that's just me - what we had wasn't bad, just needed more of it.

I kept direct thief style traps down because the party wasn't suited for them. No point in giving you something you couldn't handle dicewise. I did go for a lot more vague traps and situations - the various hints from the plaques and how they manifested in each section, how to tackle various clearly trapped areas, ect ect. I didn't get too insanely invovled for a few reasons - the main which was a time concern. This was meant to be a short game and we already ran a few weeks. Increasing the intracacy level another notch would've slowed us down even more.

[Anastasia]

Overview!

Entrance: The empty shooting dart trap was purely to put the PCs on guard. There was nothing of note nor any danger in this zone.

Light plate room: It took you guys a GM hint to Reiny to figure out to stand on the glowing plate. I can understand the cautiousness, but I was surprised it took so long to get to there. Oh well, happens. Anyway, the plaques were the key to the dungeon. The right side plaque talked about the right side branch, the left plaque the left branch, and the center the center tomb. Makes sense when you think about it that way, and most of the maxims applied throughout the area.

Angel Statue room: The statues used longswords+1, thundering. Lucky they never critted. They triggered if the north wall was attacked/hit or if the statues were directly messed with. They were enchanted to regenerate as they were a prime part of the temple's main thrust.

Mural room: Heh! I'm fond of this - a low DC trap that could theoretically wipe the party out if luck wasn't with them. It's DC varied depending on if you glanced, looked or studied the murals. This admittedly took GM discretion to decide when you warranted a check. The bit about always moving forward applied here - don't stop and look, keep going bravely on.

I would've laughed if you wiped on the mural. So hard.

Bulette fight: Another themed battle. The maxim applied - the faster you went forward and the faster you fought the easier this battle would go. Less buffing, and if you lingered it would get to use it's devastating jump attack.  I had it resist using full attacks for this reason and since it would probably instakill someone each round if so. There was also some balancing going on in this thing's case. There were a few tripups with this encounter - mainly using the SRD and not realising I had a crappy description for it. The thing has claws in theory, but I totally forgot to sell'em. Bleh.

The mages were pure stock, level 3 mages with buffs memorised.

Catherial: The inside room had the Assassin vines and the following setup - if you went right to the altar and continued on, resisting the side rooms? They would never wake up. This was augumented by another fact - if you resisted searching entirely and remembered to 'always move forward', you'd get all the goodies in the side rooms for free, and get a bigger bonus from the angel.

Side rooms: In no particular order?

If you took even a single charm of the dead in the coffin room before the trap was removed? The coffins would explode into nothingness, destroying the other charms and siccing a giant swarm of locusts on you. They'd also get a free round's damage, too. But since you refrained you were able to avoid that and get all of the talismans.

The trap in the mud room was a curse - no matter what you did you'd always be dripping mud and dirt. This was purely a bit of a mind game, as well as to encourage the PCs and tempt them to the purification room. That existed as a dual bail out and as a possible HP sacrifice for status curing.

Taking the scimitar triggered a trap which revive the bulette. It would've gotten a +4 berserk bonus if it got to attack whomever did the most damage to it last time.

Also in the mud room I forgot the second part of the trap. This was supposed to spawn 4-6 water mephits, but I completely forgot. Oh well, that was purely an annoyance encounter.

Acid river: Falling in would've done something like 10d6+10 damage or so. If you survived you'd get afull action to escape before you took more damage. The climb check to get out was pretty low, at least. Fortunately you all approached it sanely and the one jumper rolled well. The illusion in the back was meant to be a potential stopper/make you explore the other side sort of affair if you couldn't figure it out. The book above the waterfall would have given you a big clue on it if you hadn't figured it out yet. Again, the theme of 'always moving forward' and all that from the plaque plays in with that and the next.

Spear room: If someone kept running they'd dramatically be just missed by every spear. It's a shame Natalya decided to stop once inside. One of the sneakier traps, complicated by stupid dicing and Magus going charge crazy. I'm happy with how this one worked since it was entirely a resource drain before the boss.

Golden Altar: The angel was a custom creature since I didn't really like the stock angels in the SRD. He focused on being all around soild while the support harried you. It felt like a pretty good encounter overall, with Flame Strike being a sincere, deadly threat. I'm also surprised it took you awhile to figure out to put the earrings in the altar together. I thought that one would be obvious.

If you'd done a perfect on the section(Kept going forward, blah blah blah) the angel would've also given you all bonuses according to GM fiat. You still did good overall, though.

Part 2 and 3 coming later.

[Ebiris]

First to the PC comments - Natalya was fun to play. I settled on the Druid/Summoner class and role pretty much straight away once I knew it was core-only, but I spent a while searching for a personality type before - for some unknown reason - the idea of an obnoxious Russian chick hit me. She was lots of fun to play, and the summons worked beautifully. My only qualm was Wild Shape - I get the feeling it doesn't really come into its own until you can assume Large forms, since there's a big lack of decent Medium sized animals. That pretty much meant she had no combat potential outside of her spells, but luckily she got her money's worth.

Comments on the first dungeon section.

Can't really blame us for being dubious about stepping on funny plates when the place had been built up as a snare-infested deathtrap, can you?

As for 'always moving forward' at the cathedral, that's all well and good, but which way was 'forward'? Besides, we were there to explore and loot, so even if we did know, we still would have likely explored all we could. That scimitar could have been handy in the angel fight, so I'd say it was worth it.

I can't see any of us trusting that they could run past the spears and avoid harm, even if the first PC made it. We'd certainly have stuck around to demolish them before advancing - especially if we needed to retreat later on.

I'll comment on the rest once you post it.

Also, what about the list of all the loot we found?

[Anastasia]

First to the PC comments - Natalya was fun to play. I settled on the Druid/Summoner class and role pretty much straight away once I knew it was core-only, but I spent a while searching for a personality type before - for some unknown reason - the idea of an obnoxious Russian chick hit me. She was lots of fun to play, and the summons worked beautifully. My only qualm was Wild Shape - I get the feeling it doesn't really come into its own until you can assume Large forms, since there's a big lack of decent Medium sized animals. That pretty much meant she had no combat potential outside of her spells, but luckily she got her money's worth.

Agreed on Wild Shape. The auxiliary healing was the best part for you - it would be fun to see a higher level druid go nuts with it.

Can't really blame us for being dubious about stepping on funny plates when the place had been built up as a snare-infested deathtrap, can you?

Not really, no. I just had wondered if it would be quicker since there weren't any obvious ways to move on.

As for 'always moving forward' at the cathedral, that's all well and good, but which way was 'forward'? Besides, we were there to explore and loot, so even if we did know, we still would have likely explored all we could. That scimitar could have been handy in the angel fight, so I'd say it was worth it.

Past the catherial and away from all the little side rooms. Focuse don the altar and what it revealed, keeping going despite alluring, deadly distractions. The scimitar could've been useful, yeah. I don't think you ever used that Cause Serious Wounds that was stored in it, did you?

It was a balance - labor and bleed for the goodies now or get them for free later.

Also, what about the list of all the loot we found?

I'll post that after I finish this topic and the logs.

[Anastasia]

Dark Hallway: A simple mood setup and minor encounter. Bonus points if it saps strength from a PC, double bonus points if it's not noticed and gets to trail the party for awhile. Oh well.

Panther room: Basically this drilled in the concept for this floor. Search carefully and act intelligently. Natalya handled this encounter flawlessly. This was a rather sneaky way to set it up, but much of the floor was arraigned as such.

Waterfall room: Once again Natalya's  summons rued the day for evil GM plans! <_< Getting 1-2 party members into the drink, fighting lacedons/sharks and finally getting horribly diseased from the fouled water was a solid plan.

The room above the waterfall was an optional hint/booster room. If you needed it the hints from it would've varied to whereever you were stuck or likely to be stuck.

The recess behind the waterfall was something I'll go into later.

Finally, the trapdoor could've been found without any of that, but oh well. Figures that's the last place in the area you search.

Underground jungle: I really liked the design and motif for the area. Very alien, humid, lush feel to it.

Animal trap: This was oringinally merely a summoning trap, but the aura of the demon trapped nearby altered it into something nastier.I'm glad the natural folks in the party commented on this.

I couldn't resist a dire rabbit. 18-20 and 3x crits!

Vine trap: Purely a powerup to make fighting that demon more viable. Once again Nat's summons won the day.

Demon room: Poor Magus!

Anyway, I don't like how this executed. The idea was for it to have that giant independant whip of fiery pan/grapple you into the lava, while it pelted you with spells. I don't care for quite how the entire thing went down, but I still liked it's alternate fireball(Lavaburst).

Oh, and you disrupted it's heal spell! <_<

[Ebiris]

The Dark Hallway made me think there was more to it, or at least expecting to see more shadow things as we went on, since it's a bit odd to see just one of those things.

Panther thing was nice, since as a druid I couldn't attack animals as a first reaction, despite the misgivings of the party, so it was nice to get a diplomatic solution there (the only one in the dungeon, too!)

As soon as I saw the monsters in the water I grinned a little - it's pretty rare that aquatic creatures get used, so it was a nice chance to break out some lesser used summons. Had we went in to fight I think we'd have been badly owned - I recall some rule about only piercing melee weapons being fully effective underwater, which we completely lacked.

The underground area was interesting, and I liked that it gave a chance to use a lesser-used druid ability (woodland stride). I can see how you could have planned the Demon fight to go out the way you said there - that was what compelled me to go with the Epic Raptor Leap plan to avoid such! Aside from the leap (and flanking afterwards) I didn't really contribute much to that fight, sadly.

[Anastasia]

Just hitting one point of yours: I agree entirely about water combat. The monsters in there were decidely wimpy, but if you'd faced them underwater? It would've been a helluva nasty fight at best.