Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Cyriss Nov 30, 2004 20:02:25	Dead Gods is the most expensive adventure to buy now besides the Bloodwar box set. It's also one of the most all time favorite modules among gamers. I'm interested in running it, but for some reason the Adventure Summary just doesn't sound that great when I read it. I can't decide if I should run one of my other modules or Dead God's first. So here is your chance to persuade me either way. Can you guys tell me what made this module great? I'm not interested in general opinions; I'd like to know the specific reasons you enjoyed DM'ing or playing this adventure. What is so good about it that makes it's name pop up in so many discussions? And why is the Adventure Summary just not getting me excited to run this?
#2 zombiegleemax Dec 01, 2004 2:05:16	I'm just about to run it with my group. What I liked about it: - it's huge. Really, you could play a year if you wanted to. Most of the "sub"quests have enough material to spawn adventures of their own, for example the Vault of the Drow. I'll probably insert a full-fledged power struggle there, with the PCs being the pawns of one side or the other. - it's full of change. You get to see lots of different places, lots of different tasks to master - it's got a very "expansionist" kind of feeling. - it's got a really good build-up. In the beginning, the PCs won't get what this is all about, but toward the end, realization will dawn ;). - it has You-know-whom in it :D (Looking forward to the looks on my players' faces) but one caveat: Although I liked the adventure for the above reasons, some parts didn't hold any appeal to me: the lame beginning with the khaasta (not suitable for a non-good/neutral group), the whole Yggdrasil thing. I therefore modified these parts and inserted my own adventures at that point, building on what has happened in the campaign so far. I also will mix this up with the "killing spree" thing from Eternal Boundary and insert some Faction War stuff here and there. As to why you don't like the back cover text: I wouldn't know .
#3 zombiegleemax Dec 01, 2004 9:06:37	As said, it has a good build-up to lead into the main adventure. It's not so much of the typical cliche: "Man offers a quest with X rewards, you go beat up the bad guys, finish quest, come back and get paid." The significance of the quest is completely lost to the PCs in the beginning. You can build it up further with The Great Modron March. The plot is also non-linear and reflexible, with 2 parts (see below) whose chapters can be inter-mingled. I ran the module as a DM. The campaign journal (with some modifications) can be found in Act VII at http://www.geocities.com/avangion.rm/dnd/2ejournal. But a chapter by chapter summary would be.... Out of the Darkness 1. Khaasta steal "beauty" and flees through the Outlands to Yggdrasil. 2. Explore a town (Crux) on the Yggdrasil and learns about a corrupted region. 3. Follow a visage into Set's realm in Baator and return to find subversion in town. 4. Visit a dead prime world, then spy on a council of visages in Yggdrasil. 5. Visit the negative energy plane and seek a drow vampire. 6. Visit the Vault of the Drow in Oerth and find the warring drow houses. 7. Explore the ruins of the 3rd layer of Arborea to learn of the Last Word, which was used to kill Primus. 8. Visit the lowest layer of Pandemonium to get the Wand of Orcus. 9. Stop an evil dude from resurrecting Orcus in the astral plane. Into the Light 1. Learn about a strange old church in Sigil. 2. Mediate the factions which conflicts over the church. 3. Learn about the history of a dead god.
#4 zombiegleemax Dec 01, 2004 10:03:33	I've been running Dead Gods for more than 2 years now, with the occasional hiatus. It's got so many cool possibilities for sub-quests that I haven't been able to resist adding tonnes of new stuff from my own imagination. Among the highlights: + A walking tower with chicken legs! + The Vault of the Drow in Greyhawk, with a civil war (yeah, this is old-school) + A forgotten temple complex on the Negative Energy Plane + Going up and down the Yggdrasil, with ratatosk! + Secrets of the gods revealed on the plane of Pelion + Battles on the rotting husks of gods in the Astral + visits to many neat locations in the planescape It's really quite an epic, and it had a shaping influence on some of the backstory in 3rd Edition too. Very good illustrations make it shine. Well worth your money at any price.
#5 zombiegleemax Dec 02, 2004 14:16:02	We just finished the third chapter. One of the greatest things so far was the occassion to steal the beauty of one of the players (so the players don't have to be good to get involved in the beginning). The group really enjoyed their ambush on the khaasta demiplane. I really enjoyed playing a githzerai landlord who celebrated the death of a mind flayer power and hired the players because of their anarchistic behaviour, him being an anarchist, but they didn't get it. The visages are great enemies, if you really use their powers subtle (and not like in the suggestions in the book) and this resulted in one of the most exciting fights. The most important drawback is that the story is implemented in a lot of 3rd edition material and I fear it might spoil the adventure for some of my players (but I don't know if they read these spoilers by accident or not).