Chapter 3: When House Burns
I actually like how that is framing the start of this journey, by echoing, however circuitously mirroring, a number of parts within the earliest Dragonlance adventures. There’s a good narrative motive for the participant characters to have a connection to 1 one other, in addition to to the beginning location. There may be a number of work executed to make that beginning location a spot they’ll care about.
Vogler has a historical past that makes particulars of the traditional previous, just like the connection between Istar and Solamnia, related to the story. I like that the folks of Vogler really feel like common folks caught up in a battle, and that sufficient stakes for this part of the journey. PCs get to be heroes by saving on a regular basis folks from the horrors of battle.
Echoes of the Previous
As I discussed above, this echoes the sensation of the unique adventures, the place the PCs had some epic issues they had been doing, however had no actual context for a way wide-ranging issues can be at first. I additionally recognize that with the emphasis on the Knights of Solamnia as one of many defining traits of the setting, as offered within the ebook thus far, we get a stable instance proper from the beginning.
It’s additionally good to have an echo of the unique adventures in that the enemy doesn’t come proper out and announce themselves and their full intentions instantly, however there’s some mysterious interstitial story parts earlier than the total reveal hits.
New Heroes
I like the chance to present PCs their very own likelihood to inform tales in a single part of the journey. The one factor I’ll say about that is that is that some gamers get intimidated by on-the-spot storytelling, however when it really works, it really works nice. From a design standpoint, I like that there’s commentary making it clear that since X NPC is supposed to be a long-term trusted ally, it’s best to make certain they’re likable and reliable.
I additionally recognize that there are a number of issues that ought to occur for the narrative to progress, however there’s room for the PCs to tackle these duties in several methods. I actually like one specific encounter map, that’s semi-abstracted to assist mannequin a smaller battle inside a bigger battle. I like that form of factor to evoke the sensation with out making it too laborious for the DM to run.
The Pendulum of Steadiness
My critiques are fairly gentle on this. Like in different D&D 5e adventures, there are some random encounters that you should use, however the textual content is fuzzy on what number of to make use of. I do know that’s meant to present the DM flexibility, however I really feel like that may intimidate some DMs.
My long-term Dragonlance fan mind actually solely has just a few tweaks I might make, like reinforcing that PCs that had a divine revelation have a component to play, nevertheless it’s not proselytizing, as a result of that’s what the Disks of Mishakal and Elistan are going to be doing. That stated, proselytizing isn’t actually the purpose of this part of the journey, it’s simply one thing that’s briefly touched upon in just a few locations.
To this point, that is positively feeling like “Dragonlance” to me. In my thoughts, it’s not about utilizing X% of correct nouns within the journey, it’s about utilizing the identical narrative constructing blocks and doing one thing completely different however thematically aligned, with the unique.
Warriors of Krynn Integration
Yet one more factor . . . this has the primary occasion of with the ability to use the boardgame as a substitute of roleplaying via encounters, so I wished to the touch on what that appears like for anybody questioning. Principally, there’s a part of encounters you’ll skip should you play the battle state of affairs, and on the finish, you begin at first of X part and relying on how effectively you do, you may get some rewards for a way the state of affairs went.
There isn’t a catastrophic swing between the place you find yourself should you win or lose the state of affairs, it simply replaces a piece of encounters, with many of the “load bearing” encounters nonetheless occurring exterior of the state of affairs you might be taking part in via or skipping.
