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ka_bna
2010-09-18, 04:13 AM
First of all, als je in mijn groep zit die zaterdag de 25e speelt, wegwezen!

I am planning to run the Red Hand of Doom adventure for my group. First of all, I have some questions how start RHoD. Please keep in mind I´m still quite a new DM:smallwink:
1. Should I read the introduction text on page 3 to my players, or is it just a text to get DMs immersed in te story?
2. I'm planning to use the adventure hook of a treasure in Vraath Keep. I haven't read the whole book yet, but is this a valid hook (meaning: is there really treasure there?)
3. The adventure uses Victory Points in order to adjudicate the final battle. Should I tell my players about these Victory Points, or not?

Now for an other question: I'm planning to "introduce" my players to the Elsir Vale by a teleportation spell cast by a mage. In order to be more creative, I'm giving each of them a one-use item of feather fall. Of course, the teleport spell goes a little wrong and they'll end up teleported about 150 ft above the ground. While they're falling, they can see the Vale (and see they'd need horses to cover a lot of area), but they'll encounter a Hobgoblin patrol. The patrol is split up between some aerial combatants and a few Hobgoblins firing arrows from the ground. The tactical question is: will they stay airborne to fight the aerial things, or will they fall to the ground quickly?

So what creatures do you recommend for such an aerial encounter? I have considered a half-dragon (but as hobgoblins are medium they neither get wings or fly speed), a half-fiend (but it will give a hobgoblin 30ft fly with average maneuverability), arrowhawks and elementals (why would they associate with the Red Hand?).

So the creature(s) must have
- good fly speed with at least average maneuveribility
- a reason to be used by the Red Hand
- be around CR 4-5
Books normally used are PHB, DMG, MM, though other MM's are not excluded.

Thanks for giving it a thought!

Gan The Grey
2010-09-18, 04:35 AM
1. The only thing your players need to know about this is whatever hook you are using to get them into this module.

2. Hooks are valid regardless of their truth. If fact, occasionally throwing falsehoods at your players can help with the whole realism/verisimilitude.

3. Do not tell them about the Victory Points. They don't need to know they are being judged behind the scenes to determine a specific outcome. I told my players after they finished the campaign. Let them do what they are going to do due to their own wants/needs without tainting that with the module's expectations. If they know their actions are being judged for future occurrences, they will act differently.

Last Question - Feather Fall causes a character to fall at a rate of 60ft per round. They will fall straight down unless they have some mundane or magical way to move side to side. I don't recommend much of an aerial encounter here, as your players will be sitting ducks, and they will have to be pretty dang high to even make use of that time spent in the air.

I would use the fall to segue into the first encounter of the module. Have them see the farmhouse from the air. Maybe have a chance to spot a few of the baddies running around. Both sides can spot each other, so an ambush could be set up either way.

Morph Bark
2010-09-18, 04:46 AM
Maar... maar IK ben de DM in die--oh wait, forgot. I always presumed DnD groups in this country would be way too rare to ever encounter another. :smalltongue:


As Gan said: it doesn't matter what a hook says, it only matters if it works or not. Hooks are there to get the players to play along to your ideas, regardless of whether they are true or not, or what they say (treasure, fame, doing something your god would like, etc).

Telling them about the Victory Points will probably make them want to get as many as possible and tickle at least one player to metagame slightly.

Fizban
2010-09-18, 06:33 AM
Regarding flying mounts, well just about every standard flying mount could be used. Hippogriffs and Giant Eagles or Owls are CR 2-3, and Griffons are CR 4. If you're going to be using them with riders then I wouldn't go to heavy on it. I think RHoD started at level 5, so using multiple CR 4-5 creatures is probably more than you want to do, especially right at the beginning.

Like the others say, a fight while feather falling isn't much of a fight since you can't move. Feather fall also only lasts 1 round/level, which means that a caster level 1 item (the cheap kind you would hand out to players) will only last for the last 60' of the fall, needing to be used at the last fraction of a second before impact.

AslanCross
2010-09-18, 08:45 AM
First of all, als je in mijn groep zit die zaterdag de 25e speelt, wegwezen!

I am planning to run the Red Hand of Doom adventure for my group. First of all, I have some questions how start RHoD. Please keep in mind I´m still quite a new DM:smallwink:

I wish you all the best. It's a great module.



1. Should I read the introduction text on page 3 to my players, or is it just a text to get DMs immersed in te story?
I did, complete with dramatic background music. They completely forgot about everything a few minutes later. It helps set expectations, in any case.



2. I'm planning to use the adventure hook of a treasure in Vraath Keep. I haven't read the whole book yet, but is this a valid hook (meaning: is there really treasure there?)

There is treasure there, but you might have to change some of it, as the magic items (the treasure your PCs are most likely to use and keep) is rather bad---the +1 frost bastard sword comes to mind.

I didn't use the treasure hook, but even lies can help the PCs get to where they need to be, as was mentioned above.



3. The adventure uses Victory Points in order to adjudicate the final battle. Should I tell my players about these Victory Points, or not?
Don't tell them that they even exist. I silently kept track of these and only told my players about them after they finished the Siege of Brindol.



Now for an other question: I'm planning to "introduce" my players to the Elsir Vale by a teleportation spell cast by a mage. In order to be more creative, I'm giving each of them a one-use item of feather fall. Of course, the teleport spell goes a little wrong and they'll end up teleported about 150 ft above the ground. While they're falling, they can see the Vale (and see they'd need horses to cover a lot of area), but they'll encounter a Hobgoblin patrol. The patrol is split up between some aerial combatants and a few Hobgoblins firing arrows from the ground. The tactical question is: will they stay airborne to fight the aerial things, or will they fall to the ground quickly?


So what creatures do you recommend for such an aerial encounter? I have considered a half-dragon (but as hobgoblins are medium they neither get wings or fly speed), a half-fiend (but it will give a hobgoblin 30ft fly with average maneuverability), arrowhawks and elementals (why would they associate with the Red Hand?).

So the creature(s) must have
- good fly speed with at least average maneuveribility
- a reason to be used by the Red Hand
- be around CR 4-5
Books normally used are PHB, DMG, MM, though other MM's are not excluded.

Thanks for giving it a thought!

Okay, that's a pretty interesting way of introducing them (I sent them on a lightning rail, since we were using the Eberron campaign setting, but there was an assassin on the train). The difficult thing to adjudicate here is that the PCs cannot move laterally; all they can do is fall. Even if they did use their "parachutes," they can't maneuver at all and will get torn up by whatever flying creatures you use. You might be potentially setting them up for a TPK. Of course, they could just drop to the ground and activate the items close to the surface---at which point they're still sitting ducks, because the airborne creatures can dive (move at double speed downwards).

There are very few creatures with average maneuverability and good fly speed. The only ones that immediately come to mind are dragons, and I don't think you'd want to use them this early. The adventure builds up to a climactic dragon battle in each chapter, so having dragons fighting them in the opening battle might not be a very good idea.

None of the flying beasts that the Red Hand uses (manticores, chimerae) have good flying abilities. In fact, they're downright horrible.

Saintheart
2010-09-18, 10:27 AM
One thought -- why make it that the misfired teleport put them 150 feet off the ground? Why not say that it misfired by putting them...
...smack bang in the middle of the Road Cut where they get ambushed?

ka_bna
2010-09-18, 04:11 PM
Thanks for your suggestions and advice!

@M-Bark: Ow, helemaal vergeten dat ik een co-DM had!:smalltongue:

As for the answers on how to introduce the adventure, they've been helpful; they're little bits of practical information, but worthwhile. I especially like Aslans take on using background music:smallbiggrin:

My players will get the feather fall-items from their jobgiver (a Neutralish conversion of the Literati (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/oGR4l4SCYyNnlEcm81l.html), found on this very site), so money won't be a problem. Teleporting adventurers will be their trademark:smalltongue: I'll leave the aerial combat and take Gans suggestion by letting the PC's show the farmhouse, thanks!

The game will be next saturday, i'll let you know how it goes!

Gan The Grey
2010-09-19, 12:16 AM
All in all, I really enjoyed running this module. Hope you have as much fun as I did!

Phrennzy
2010-09-19, 01:09 AM
I used the Vraath keep treasure hook. The PCs started at level 1 hearing about it from one of the PCs father, a former adventurer. They set out from Brindol (Mancea in my campaign) with the intent to stop at Drellin's Ferry to get exact location of Vraath keep.

We used a 'level up quick' scale from 1st to 5th, then normal from 6-10 and slower at 11-20. Along the way they found a goblin cave with a note referencing the Red Hand of Doom, and demanding the goblins allegiance.

They were level 5 by the time they reached the first RHOD encounter, and so rolled right into Drellin's Ferry intent on helping them with their hobgoblin problem. It quickly got bigger from there.


I would also not tell them of the victory points. Its definitely a meta game element that is best seen only by you.


As for teleporting high - that would not make me too keen on using their services again, since the first time I will experience it, they screw the pooch.


The RHOD is a good adventure. Be sure to customize it for your players - there is very little down time for crafting, so it's a good idea to have some of the treasure be items the players want. Also, some of the items aren't quite level appropriate, so you might swap out a few lower level items in place.