Confused about recommended adventures

[Jaide]

I too was a bit confused as I was not used to the format of the adventures found in the pdf that came with the master edition.
(edit) most of my experience in TTRPGs is from 3.X/Pathfinder 1e.

I am trying my best and recording the results to YouTube of my players working their way through the adventures, we started with Beneath the Door and it went ok. But I think it is a lack of understanding, on my part, of cosmic horror that I feel like the adventure fell short. (edit)

The Second adventure Doomvault ended in a TPK as I threw too many fish people at the party while they were also dealing with a roper that they initiated combat with. The treat was robes of the cultist hanging on hooks near the lake, with the cloaks on they could have walked across the water. But they never tried… not sure what else I could have done. The next adventure we try, Eyes of Sett, will be tomorrow. Once again I will be recording the session and uploading it to YouTube in half-hour parts likely in October at the current pace. But I will try to post my notes here on Sunday with an update on how it went. (edit)

[Alex]

So, let’s recap here.

You asked for one ICRPG adventure. You were given a document, which has 18 of them.

You wanted the adventures to be full. They are full. With GM Bullets. Moments. Details. And in some adventures, optional rules, like sanity; loot; and tables. You literally have all the tools you need to be successful (except, perhaps, some imagination, required).

You wanted a bestiary. Most of the 18 adventures provided to you have full monsters, with descriptions, abilities, and stats.

You wanted the adventures to have maps. Nearly all of the 18 have maps. With rooms. And they are numbered for each location, with descriptors and optional details.

And I would like to point out, that the 18 adventures in the document, have been run by tons of folks all over. They have been run at conventions (to great success). They have been run in schools with students. They have been run with children and by children. They have been run online. They have been run at game stores. They have been run at countless tables in private homes. And at this point, they have been run in tons of locations around the world, by tons of DMs. Even in France. And all I hear, almost universally, is how great they and the system is.

So, at some point, with all of this evidence, I feel like you’re just being contrary to be contrary.

What, specifically, is missing for you? A script to read? Because I have looked at (and own) some of the mothership adventures, and I’ve looked at the Morkborg adventures, and there is literally NOTHING in them that isn’t in the 18 ICRPG adventures, except maybe some unnecessary wordiness.

[BlazingPolyhedron]

Make a thread to your video, I would like to listen to it!

[Jaide]

@BlazingPolyhedron

I will post it here as I don’t think it warrants a thread dedicated to itself.

If others believe it should then I will make a new thread collection for these one shots.

I will preface this… the audio is not the best quality, I am just starting out on YouTube and only have one mic, so it’s a bit reverby because of the room we play in.

This is the playlist for Beneath the Door

Part 1 Character Creation and the opening scene
Part 2 continues the adventure
Part 3 will come out Sunday.

[monomakes]

Which is why I suggested the topic be closed.

[chamochin]

Alex, thanks for not being disrespectful when everyone here is nice and willing to talk.

So 18 scenarios you say? Actually it’s 19 in the pdf.
But ok let’s see.
The brief is simple fantasy adventure written without holes for a one shot (But maybe you had a comprehension problem?).

Out of 19, 6 are discarded directly, because not in the fantasy setting.
So 13.
Of the 13, 6 more are just pieces with a scene, an encounter. Not a scenario.
So 7.
Relics of Odium is definitely removed for high level and not a classic scenario.
6.
Remove Doomvault, which is half of it to do yourself as discussed above.
5.
Remove Orwald’s Tower and Devious Dimensions, which are either not suitable for rpg beginners or not at all in classic fantasy.
So you say 19, I say 3:
Eyes of Sett, Heckoon Carapace and Red Fang.

For a tone of adventure, that’s short, isn’t it?
Now if we look at Eyes of Sett as Red Fang, there is no plan of the rooms, we don’t know the number of enemies, no branching because everything is a long corridor… and no Target ! This is one of the most central features of the game, and it’s not even mentioned. I think it’s crazy.
There is work to do, it’s not ready to go like they want to sell us.
So indeed my career with ICRPG seems very limited before I even start.

Now I want to make it clear that NOTHING I say is a value judgement, all this stuff is great, I’m just looking at what works for me in my own case, nothing else. If it works for you that’s great.

As for Mausritter’s pamphlet, or Mothership (and many others), they were only cited as examples. These are design gems, many of which have received awards. Everything is there, the author did his job and that’s why they are so successful.
I just thought I would find this for ICRPG which is so simple… my fault I should have known better.

I’ve received quite a few messages telling me that you understand what I’m saying, thanks to you too, and thanks for the links I’ve received. (because that’s what I was asking for, links to adventure pdf’s).

Thank you.

[Anthony_C]

Hey @chamochin ,

I hesitated to reply earlier because this topic was so active, but I will now because I want to share some thoughts with you. As a brief preface, I wrote and designed Eyes of Sett (Hank adjusted the lapis maze, and made all the artwork). So I have some idea of how it was written.

1. "There is no plan of the rooms"

The shape of the rooms is not important here, so I did not include them. It’s a haunted serpent temple in the desert. How big do you think the rooms are? (hint: whatever you say, you’re right)

2. "We don’t know the number of enemies"

STORM IN THE RUINS is not a kill 'em all encounter - it’s to push them into the temple, and therefore the HALLS OF SACRIFICE before they have too much time to flounder around. It’s a one shot - floundering is the death of one shots. That said, you could easily hang out in the temple ruins environs for an hour using the details on page 32 and some effort.

As for the other scenes, only two of them have enemies and they are again an environmental hazard - not a foe to be killed - with the exception of the “boss” at the end. It even specifically states, regarding the Lapis Maze, “how many are there? more than can be killed” on page 33.

3. "No branching because everything is a long corridor"

It’s a one shot my friend. Anyone who knows me will tell you I love sandboxes and branching paths connected by nodes… but not in a one shot.

4. "… and no Target!"

Default targets for ICRPG are explained on page 103 of ICRPG ME. Beyond that, you can simply pick a number. Anything between 8 and 13 is fine, modify with EASY/HARD. Some play experience will show that to be true. Many games use a Target 12 for the whole campaign and it works just fine.

5. "It’s not ready to go like they want to sell us"

This is simply false. I’ve seen folks run Eyes of Sett, and I’ve run the other adventures, with less than a half hour of reading and prep.

In my humble opinion, it sounds to me like you want a 100+ page adventure with each line of dialogue written for you. That way, you can have everything you need. You’ll need to spend a few days reading it, and a few more trying to understand and organize it, but that’s besides the point (only somewhat kidding).

My only suggestion for you is, try to actually play the adventures before you critique them. You were given 160 pages of adventures for free. Play them and report back.

EDIT: Additionally, because of the power of timers, targets, and the tier system, you can take any adventure from any other publisher and be ready to roll in… as long as it takes you to make a set of characters, +/- 20 minutes…

AC

[chamochin]

Hey Anthony, it’s a pleasure to read you, thanks for your message.

I hope I didn’t sound disrespectful. Your adventure is great, I see it is loved here, it’s great. I was explaining why it doesn’t suit me, nothing more.
So first my respect for producing this adventure.

What I’m looking for is a 100+ page adventure? Hell no, that’s what I ran away from when I got interested in OSR. I cited examples above (I won’t go back to them, it’s a bit awkward on another game’s forum) to explain my point, these are 1-6 page adventures. There are other short formats of course, but to say, in no case I can / want more for a one shot. Almost zero prep, and no DIY.

Then for the other points, of course we can have branches for one shot. I personally have tons of them.
And without that there would be no dungeon. Nothing is more like a hallway than another hallway…

The map or the description of the rooms not important? Wow, between the columns to hide in, the sarcophagi to open, the statues, the jars to plunder, the hieroglyphs, the engravings, encounters… in short, everything that is in the Egyptian theme, it would have brought a lot of richness and possibilities to the scenario. I would have liked to see what it gives from you.

For the Targets, as I explained I have the Core Edition, I wanted to start on this game and play my first game, without experience, and the key mechanics of ICRPG is not even mentioned in the adventure. So I, who never played the game, have to guess the Target, whether it is for this scenario or others. I don’t know, it is a big lack for me.

(Again I’m not here to criticize your work, I’m telling you why it doesn’t suit me, nothing else)

And to answer your edit: You can always convert, yes, it has existed for a very long time. But I still think that designing an adventure with a particular system in mind (here ICRPG) is not the same. I want to see the author’s vision, talent and experience in the text of the story, rather than letting me do the (his - if I’m teasing) work.

Again, no offense, just my personal opinion after thinking ICRPG was probably something else.

[Anthony_C]

Hey @chamochin ,

No worries! I have no “skin in the game”, and there are things I would change if I were to rewrite it (the first version of the lapis maze was, in hindsight, not clear). I actually am doing that. I only wanted to respond to some of your comments.

Hank already commented on the “hallway” idea, but in case it was missed in the stream of comments, the rooms don’t have to be linear like that. “Rooms” are scenes, and can be connected in any number of ways. Simply rolling a die and saying, “In the direction of the die-face with the number ‘x’ is where the passage goes” and riffing off a random encounter table is sufficient.

I did not say the descriptions weren’t important - just not the shape of the rooms - for Eyes of Sett. That said, you came up with seven awesome ideas in less than a minute. Why do you need them written for you? (You clearly don’t) There are several ideas for things to find though, a list of twenty of them.

Many of those adventures were in the 2E core book, after the sections on core mechanics such as targets. The key mechanics of ICRPG are in the core book (now ME), not each individual adventure, because the adventures are modular. You can take Last Flight of the Red Sword and play it at “level 0”, or with a dozen epic loot pieces, by exchanging enemies and incrementing DCs by a few factors.

And again - no worries if you don’t like the temple romp. It’s just words on a page!

I hope you’ll try a handful of the adventures and report back after. I think you’ll find they work a lot better as-is than you might believe. If you want stuff more “fully written”, I’m still not certain what that means other than my slightly hyperbolic “100+ page adventure”.

AC

[chamochin]

That said, you came up with seven awesome ideas in less than a minute. Why do you need them written for you? (You clearly don’t)

Because I want to taste YOUR cooking, not mine
And also because I’m tired and my short playing time I want to spend it telling a great story and being attentive to my players, not plugging holes

[Khan]

I think I understand what you want in an adventure. Anything I would write and publish would be in a similar vein because ICRPG community doesn’t usually work this way and there is a hole to be filled. At least, it would be a nice experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.

I was thinking about creating a “classical adventure” for ICRPG but it didn’t happen. I explained this in another thread.

I’d humbly suggest everyone that this thread has accomplished what it set out to do. Anything more would invite unnecessary friction.

[chamochin]

thank you for your message Khan.

I think indeed after 70+ messages we arrive at a dead end.
You pretty much sum up the conclusion I came to. We can indeed gently close the page of this thread and this game.

Thank you all.

[KaneDriscol]

Just as an update, Runehammer just dropped THE LAST VOYAGE OF FINNIGAN’S PRIDE over on Patreon. It’s a complete introductory adventure module inspired by Last Flight of the Red Sword, but done in a Fantasy setting. Check it out! It’s awesome

https://www.patreon.com/posts/finigans-pride-75627657?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_fan&utm_content=join_link

[chamochin]

Wow this topic is coming up again!
Well thanks for the info Kane, but if as you say this introductory adventure is similar to Last Flight of the Red Sword, it’s going to be a “no thanks” for me unfortunately…

[The_Merlitron]

I think “inspired by” is meant to mean it’s the same set up, but I think it is written as a “complete” adventure - no creative inputs from the GM required, other than running it.

[Runehammer]

Did you read it… or…
…the similarity is in a few conventions of ‘dungeon’ layout, imminent doom mechanics, and a simplified timer ‘practice’ mechanic for new GMs. Beyond that, it is really nothing like RED SWORD in its delivery… being specifically created to fulfill your original request with no concepts, dialogue, room descriptions, mechanics or scene flow left to the GMs DIY instincts… also includes all the VTT bits to build and run the scenes.

[chamochin]

Oh no no I haven’t read it I’m not subscribed to your Patreon. I was just replying to Kane’s description (I got an mail from the forum, actually).
Thanks for your clarification!
It’s exciting to see that you’re going to offer full adventures as well, that’s really cool, especially for new GMs or people like me who like to see the author’s vision through the adventure.

As soon as it’s available on DriveThruRPG I’m going to go for it!

[Runehammer]

just email me for a free copy… hankerin.ferinale@gmail.com

[chamochin]

That’s an absolutely kind move, thank you for that.
However I will decline. I’ve been quite critical of ICRPG (constructively, I hope), I’m not going to take advantage of this. I’ll wait until this “full” adventure is on sale.
I know what it’s like to be a solo creator (I am one, in a totally different field), and I respect the work done. I will buy it as it should be.

[KaneDriscol]

Just following up with the thread, this just dropped on the Runehammer Shop here:

https://www.runehammer.online/online-store/The-Last-Voyage-of-Finigans-Pride-p517489008

Hope it helps