Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Cyriss May 23, 2006 14:57:53	I finally read through the Dead Gods adventure (had it all this time and never read it). It has a great storyline with a nice path through interesting locations, but it feels extremely loose inbetween the main ideas of the story. Every scenario feels really empty. It leaves it up to the DM to create all of the filler substance within the story. So I'm trying to prepare ahead of time and compile info to use that will spicen up the scenarios. (minor spoilers) For example, the scenario in the Vault of the Drow section doesn't seem to provide me with ideas to really make the players feel like they are in a Drow city. Sure there's Drow there, it's underground, and a war is going on; but it doesn't give me ideas to make the players feel like they are surrounded by Drow or that it's not just a typical war. Other modules, like Eternal Boundary & Fires of Dis, give lots of encounter suggestions for the Hive Ward, Avernus, & Dis which make the players feel like they are really surrounded by Hivers or Baatezu. I get the same impression in all of the other scenarios in Dead Gods like Ankhwugaht & the short trip through the Demonweb Pit, it feels "dry". Did other DM's feel this way? If you were a player in Dead Gods, did your trips to these cool realms feel empty and rushed? What did DM's do to immerse players into each of the scenarios in Dead Gods? I've never read over the old modules Vault of the Drow or Queen of the Demonweb Pits...is there good fluff/encounters in those modules that I could stick into Dead Gods? Any info from other modules I could stick in other Dead Gods scenarios? This is the first large published adventure I've attempted to run, so I'm not used to a module only giving you the main points of the adventure.
#2 ripvanwormer May 23, 2006 15:45:52	The Vault of the Drow was much better detailed in Dragon #298 and Dragon #300.
#3 zombiegleemax May 23, 2006 16:26:34	Well, I fear I can't be of too much assistance, not having run the adventure yet in my campaign either, but I have to say that indeed your impressions match my own. Call me crazy, but reading through the PS adventures he wrote I get the impression Monte Cook really, really likes to draw up his scenarios as a handful of props and stage directions, leaving much up to improv... For me, the solution seems to be to handle many of the stretches in the same manner I would handle any situation where the players are clearly up to a lot of things, but the situation does not involve too many particulars: considering the elements involved (and I suspect I will want to be getting a few other sources with applicable fluff) and then pre-writing a series of more or less extensive narrative passages, mixing and matching with more or less described encounters picked on a random or semi-random basis. Possibly there will be some need to leave a trail or two for the players to follow so that they get to the places required for the adventure to progress. I can only hope this will work for the best...