Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde

[henebry]

I'm a DM with more than a year experience with the 3.5 rules but I still am occasionally confused about running encounters. (I sometimes get line-of-effect spells like "Deeper Darkness" wrong; I've never felt comfortable running exotic maneuvers like Trip or Bull Rush; I'm confused about whether spell-like abilities can be used in Attacks of Opportunity.) And I routinely DM for my son (age 11) and his friends, all of whom need to work on focusing attention on the game and playing characters rather than just rolling attacks.

Up to now I've mostly run encounters of my own design, thrown together at the last moment based on a vague script dreamed up in advance. I have also done a few old AD&D modules that I or someone else updated: White Plume Mtn, Keep on the Borderlands. Most of those old modules are dungeon-crawls, and at the rate of 1 or 2 encounters per session, a classic module takes far too long to play through. Plus there's really little more than combat, which doesn't help the players learn to roleplay.

So I'm wondering if any of you have used the Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde module, a recent issue from WoTC. It's designed with the novice DM in mind, providing detailed instructions for how to run each encounter. And this would seem to promise a more immersive experience, where the players learn to watch out for key details like trap doors, etc.

Any comments, praise or criticism for the Shattered Gates would be appreciated (aside from comments about the stupid, overdetermined name, that is. I mean, a gate that guards from slaughter, except they've been shattered. Yay. WOOT WoTC!)

[Xerillum]

Yeah, I have it. Pretty solid module.

[RobbieOC]

So I'm wondering if any of you have used the Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde module, a recent issue from WoTC. It's designed with the novice DM in mind, providing detailed instructions for how to run each encounter. And this would seem to promise a more immersive experience, where the players learn to watch out for key details like trap doors, etc.

Any comments, praise or criticism for the Shattered Gates would be appreciated (aside from comments about the stupid, overdetermined name, that is. I mean, a gate that guards from slaughter, except they've been shattered. Yay. WOOT WoTC!)

I just started SGoSG friday night with my group.

We've set it in Eberron, which I don't know if you're using. It doesn't change SG any, but it's kind of fun adding in warforged and Action Points and stuff. If any of that means anything to you, cool. If not... forget about it.

We got about 2/3 of the way through the first dungeon in about 4 hours. We're all upper level college students, so there's a difference in maturity (not a lot, mind you) from the group you're with, but it was a fairly quick, fun dungeon crawl so far.

We did get some good roleplaying in. At the beginning with Vintra Marktunsel when they received their mission, and again with the maug guarding the summoner's circles. Mostly it was a dungeon crawl, but it wasn't completely free of RP. Especially since my characters figured out there was something bigger going on than missing spices... the mirror room was really intriguing to them, it's a shame no one had any ranks in knowledge (the planes).

My group is also fairly weak in the "meat shield" department. The group consists of a human sorcerer, a human dread necromancer, a warforged artificer and an elf duskblade (specializing in a ranseur, which makes him a less than optimal tank). They weren't able to take tons of damage, which was scary against the ankheg and the howler, but they survived and were pretty satisfied with it.

I'd suggest giving them a little help. Give them a half-used wand of cure light to help them with their hurts. It's never fun to play a cleric at the low levels, when you have to blow all your spells on cure light wounds, so this little bit of help will be invaluable to them.

It's not an easy module for 1st level characters, so if they're not a good group tactically, I might suggest starting them at 2nd level. My group started at 1st and had one combat where two different PCs were knocked unconcious.

And yeah... the name is dumb, but it's fun so far. If you have any more specific questions, go ahead and ask. We'll be playing again next friday probably, so I can fill you in on the southern part of the dungeon then.

Enjoy it!

[henebry]

Thanks, Robbie, for your comment!

I look forward to an update this Friday!

Chuck

[AoiRorentsu]

Another good example that is similarly designed for novice players/DMs is the Scourge of the Howling Horde, also put out with that in mind. Fairly gentle, a few good opportunities for role-playing, also a few for various kinds of skill challenges. I haven't run through it with a group yet, but you might check that out as well.

[Raool]

Playing Scourge otHH with my group now. It's a load of fun. It's the DMs first adventure and he seems quite on top of it, with the occasional help from my part. Me being the usual DM.

[RobbieOC]

Thanks, Robbie, for your comment!

I look forward to an update this Friday!

Chuck

No problemo. Us DMs gotta look after one another.

I'm considering doing one of those campaign summary threads they do over on the wizards boards, but I wasn't sure if there would be much interest here. If there is interest, I'd be more than happy to start that (but not tonight... it's late). Otherwise, I'll just dig this thread up in about a week and update you a little more. Also, I'm working on some filler for in between the dungeons, so I'll let you know what I come up with when it's completed.

Good luck with those kiddos.