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keftiu
Senior Scribe
656 Posts |
 Posted - 17 Dec 2019 : 08:53:33
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Since I missed these back in their heyday, I'm super curious to hear from anyone who's played or trawled the archive; what are the standouts?
I just skimmed the entire Impiltur line and was pleasantly surprised at how interwoven the main plot threads are (the rising threat of unified goblins and disparate bits of hunting down demons and their cults culminate in the trial of a standing Grand Council member where you present evidence from across the whole campaign against him, followed by defending New Sarshel from a goblin army led by a demon who stepped into the power vacuum your assassinating the goblin warlord created). I've also heard high praise for the Calimshan line, though I haven't read them yet.
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4e fangirl. Here to queer up the Realms. |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4429 Posts |
Posted - 17 Dec 2019 : 15:26:01
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I've run quite a few of them, though there is a bit of reading to be had if you want to get a proper timeline on how things go, especially with the larger battles and engagements of the various warring nations. Netheril, the Dalelands, Myth Drannor, Cormyr, and Sembia are basically interlocked into a huge multi-regional war campaign, with the PCs plugged directly into the middle of most engagements.
There are other areas that don't center on this war and are stand-alone ones that can, if you want to, tie into other aspects. When I started using them, I went with the area directly outside of Loudwater - the beginning town in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide then did the two surrounding adventures there (Scepter Tower of Spellgard and Menace of the Icy Spire) close by. They're two pretty decent adventures and I think they can be found in the LFR archives. Two adventures stem from Scepter Tower and I'd recommend doing them sequentially.
I've also run a few around the Neverwinter area, mainly because I was playing a lot of the Neverwinter MMO on my Xbox One and I like how they sort of meshed up together. There's quite a good bit of info from the Neverwinter Campaign Setting book that you can use to start a game there and then incorporate the LFR adventures into that. For one, I had a player with a Lawful Good Paladin of Torm who was also a supporter of the Nasher Alagondar faction, a group wanting to dispose of the current ruler of Neverwinter as a usurper to the throne and how they had to come to grips with the fact that the tactics of the 'Nashers' were practically terrorists. They ended up fighting a bunch of orcs from the Clan Obould that were taking up residence in some of the dilapidated areas of Neverwinter and then confront some Sharran clergy at the top of this spire.
One other issue when using Living Forgotten Realms adventures is that you're going to come across things called Battle Interactives. When the Living games were going on at Conventions and during RPGA play the intent was that multiple tables were all doing the same adventure at the same time, albeit each table of players was taking on a different section of the battle or adventure. These were broken up into Tiers, so a table of 5 players with 4th level Characters were doing a job at the same time, in the same adventure, as a different table of 5 players with 13th level Characters. Each table had a role, a job, and a goal to get. If they didn't achieve their mission or quest, then it made the overall battle towards the end more difficult or another table's job harder with more monsters. So imagine say 20 tables of 5 players (100 total) all battling in the area against huge swaths of monster and if a group goes down or fails, it makes the adventure harder to pull off.
So with just one group, it might seem like a lot (and some of it's impossible given the level) to achieve ALL the stuff going on in a Battle Interactive. What I choose to do for the first time is just assume the others were successful and leave it up to the PCs to "win the day". Other ideas were to flip a coin or roll a percentage per mission the PCs were involved in (losses made their job harder) or just say half succeed and half fail, blaming attrition of war. When I ran ADCP 3-2: From Dawn til Dusk I was sort of lucky since the PCs 1) already knew the layout and had previously been there and 2) befrended a group of Kobolds digging under the walls of Spellgard, thus giving the PCs a huge advantage for taking out certain choke points to help the cause. Of course, this was really cool to the players who - unbeknownst to them - they were setting the groundwork for what would be a great route of Netheril and Zhentarim troops and put them into a lucky position of helping Lady Saharel. The fact that all 3 adventures interwove themselves and their previous good actions paid off was awesome.
The last thing I really liked about the Adventure Paths for LFR was that they were tiered to a lot of playstyles AND levels. You can take a Heroic tiered LFR adventure and all of the monster stats, all of the checks, and adventure loot is scaled depending on what level your group is at the current time. So you could run the adventure at 1st - 10th level with almost no worries of conversions. |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4429 Posts |
Posted - 17 Dec 2019 : 15:41:29
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Oh, LFRs that sort of stand out: Besides the ones I played (Scepter Tower of Spellgard; Shrouded Visions; and From Dawn til Dusk) I really liked reading all about the fall of Elturel and the issues they were having. I had my players in another campaign sort of Clear out Fort Morninglord where a lot of bad stuff happened involving the Crown of Thorns and the stealing of said crown by a necromancer-Shade. But otherwise, the Elturel campaign could easily get a group of players from 1st level into paragon tier with a few of the adventures. I'd start with SPEC2-1 H1 (The Scourge of Scornubel) and then follow that up with ADCP2-1 (The Paladin's Plague). This sets up the remaining adventures within Elturgard and the area with a lot of intrigue and excitement, bring in horrifying monsters like the Plaguespawn and shows just how bad the Order of Blue Fire really is.
You also meet a few interesting NPCs and characters, including Tyrangal, a character from the novel Edge of Chaos by Jak Koke. The adventures are inspired from the events of that book so you might enjoy them more if you read it (though it's not necessary). |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2442 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2019 : 20:43:37
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I was not very active on the LFR forums back in the day, but I remember that Cormyr and Tymanther were considered the best areas for LFR adventures. All adventures in those places were really good, sandboxy, and that stuff. The really good Cormyr adventures aren't until higher tiers, tho.
Recommended adventures:
CORM1-02 Gangs of Wheloon:
Escape from New York, LFR-style
CORM1-06 Curse of the Queen of Thorns, CORM2-03 Secret of the Queen of Thorns, CORM2-04 Fury of the Queen of Thorns:
Awesome quest chain to save Cormyr from the villain, and you really feel small-e epic in parts of it.
TYMA1-01 Elder Wisdom:
Starts you off with the fetch-questing for House Jalt and boy will you rack up a lot of Jalt bling over time.
TYMA1-05 From One Dwarf to Another is also very good.
TYMA2-01 Old Enemies Arise, TYMA2-02 The Hand of Darkness, TYMA2-04 Stand Against the Darkness:
These adventures are similar to the final ones from Impiltur; in this chain of quests the PCs must investigate why kobolds in the area became aggressive, and then things escalate quickly and the PCs must save the village of Ruinspoke from a monster invasion.
Another memorable adventures from other regions include:
Adventuring Company Adventures:
These were designed to be run at conventions with multiple tables at the same time, so not really suitable for a normal D&D game. That said, ADCP2-01 The Paladins' Plague is absolutely fantastic.
CORE1-02 The Radiant Vessel of Thesk is a fun adventure that starts off a nice "quest chain" in LFR (which unfortunately doesn't conclude until Paragon tier, though you could of course modify it). Good adventure overall.
CORE1-03 Sense of Wonder is also fun, if you can tolerate gnomes and Gond-ish stuff, and has a great puzzle if you like those.
EAST1-05 Mole Hunt (levels 4-7) is one of the best adventures in the East Rift region because it uses a unique (for LFR) premise: an undercover agent has failed to report in and need to be found. Just one problem: she's a changeling.
And you should avoid the Akanûl and Dalelands regions, the adventures there are awful. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
Edited by - Zeromaru X on 21 Dec 2019 21:09:57 |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2442 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2019 : 01:25:10
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| Now that I think about it, the LFR has some adventures that cover the Thay-Aglarond War. Well, year 5, so non-canon, but still, they can be useful for you. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
Edited by - Zeromaru X on 22 Dec 2019 01:26:08 |
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keftiu
Senior Scribe
656 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2019 : 01:45:07
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| What's so bad in Akanul? |
4e fangirl. Here to queer up the Realms. |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2442 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2019 : 02:11:03
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The LFR adventures set in that region and in the Dales, and in Luruar for that case, are rather uninspiring. Really boring, in fact. They can be fixed by a DM with the time and the will, of course, but you would need to put a lot of effort.
IMHO, more trouble than they are worth. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
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Best LFR adventures?
