Saving Feast of Goblyns

[Black Knight]

I believe that once the players discovered the name "Daegon" in relation to the crown they knew what was up, despite it not being clear exactly what was going to happen.

That one, while unclear, at least pointed to something. It makes sense to me that prophecies about the future would be vague. Others I'm not so sure about. How do the players know who the knave in Touch of Death is? Who's Inijara? How is that pact undone if Strahd made a pact with the powers of the Domain of Mist? Is there another pact I missed?

The knave isn't such a problem. I never saw Touch of Death as a real Ravenloft module. It's been a while since I read it, but all I recall was a dungeon with a theme of 'What people in the 50's thought ancient Egypt was like'.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

If the players are willing to take on the dungeon where Radaga stays, they'll probably be even more willing to take on a few woodcutters. It'd be simpler to just escort her.

And when she doesn't want to be escorted? will they escort her by force? turn on the tears, "You don't understand, they are watching me all the time <looks around paranoid> I shouldn't even be talking to you this long! There are so many of them... you can't just kill them all!" Make her paranoid enough and it will rub off on them.

[Bluebomber4evr]

I believe that once the players discovered the name "Daegon" in relation to the crown they knew what was up, despite it not being clear exactly what was going to happen.

That one, while unclear, at least pointed to something. It makes sense to me that prophecies about the future would be vague. Others I'm not so sure about. How do the players know who the knave in Touch of Death is? Who's Inijara? How is that pact undone if Strahd made a pact with the powers of the Domain of Mist? Is there another pact I missed?

The knave isn't such a problem. I never saw Touch of Death as a real Ravenloft module. It's been a while since I read it, but all I recall was a dungeon with a theme of 'What people in the 50's thought ancient Egypt was like'.

Touch of Death was plenty Ravenloft and was pretty decent as a Ravenloft module. In fact, I'd say it's right behind Night of the Walking Dead in terms of quality. The dungeon is only the very end of the adventure, most of it deals with desert survival and unraveling the cult of Set hidden in the village of Muhar. The couplet from the Hexad is also really easy to figure out in the course of the adventure, because the villagers all know of Anhktepot's legend and Senmet's identity as "the Knave" isn't hard to figure out once the PCs encounter him. They also get a lot of hints from Dulcimae's Tarokka reading.

The Inajira line isn't a mystery at all. Inajira shows up early in Roots of Evil and is named right away. The part about him making "his fortunes reverse" and "dooming all to live with the curse" is at the very end of the module, also quite obvious.

[alhoon]

My main problem with FotG is how deadly it is. What's the point in running an adventure that will probably end half-way with a TPK at a random deadly trap or encounter with spiders save-or-die poisons?
That's not horror, that's just punishing the players.

In the end, I didn't manage to run FotG because I couldn't save it. I ran ship of horrors though, adding in half the adventure (since it's missing) and changing that CNeutral dude from Darklord to just your regular cursed dude with a shady past.

[Black Knight]

I might need to take a second look at Touch of Death, thought the Egyptian theme was also a little offputting. I'm not a fan of 'you're whisked away by the mists, for module two!'. It feels more organic to let the players roam. Some adventures are set in places, waiting to be triggered. Some call to the players. Others can be set anywhere (I loved the Book of Crypts for this).

Then again, if the players wander into the mists, so be it.

As to changing the Necromancer in Ship of Horrors to a general baddie - seems the way to go. Further, I think I'll add in some powers from failed corruption tests. I never found adventures which had (a) people with failed power checks or (b) Calibans - surely there are some. The only adventure with a madman I saw was night of the living dead.

I was thinking of writing in some cult which gains powers through purposefully failing power checks, with an inhuman ringleader.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I never found adventures which had (a) people with failed power checks or (b) Calibans - surely there are some.

Adventures? I don't think so. There are some NPC's with failed powers checks in the later sourcebooks (Balfour de Casteele is the 1st one I recall seeing, but there could have been some earlier I'm forgetting. But as for Calibans, they were created for 3e, and there were no 3e adventures outside of Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends, and I don't recall any calibans in that one.

The only adventure with a madman I saw was night of the living dead.

Bleak House and The Nightmare Lands would like to have a word with you. Also, Mad Mary goes right back to the start in I6.

[Dark Angel]

The only adventure with a madman I saw was night of the living dead.

Bleak House and The Nightmare Lands would like to have a word with you. Also, Mad Mary goes right back to the start in I6.

There was the Midnight Slasher in Evil Eye (and MMII:CoN) as well.

[Mangrum]

I never found adventures which had (a) people with failed power checks or (b) Calibans - surely there are some.

There were a few characters who'd failed powers checks, yes. As has been mentioned, you won't find adventures with calibans because they weren't introduced until 3rd edition, but there were three characters from the 2E era I viewed retroactively as calibans: the protagonists of Tower of Doom and "The Freak" in Tales of Ravenloft, plus a side character in Requiem: The Grim Harvest.

[Garudos Celestar]

I never found adventures which had (a) people with failed power checks or (b) Calibans - surely there are some.

The main 2E non-Darklord characters with failed powers checks of which I can think are Radaga from Feast of Goblyns (who, of course, becomes a full Darklord by the end of the adventure) and Captain Garvyn from Ship of Horrors (who has the wonderful character plotline of trying to redeem himself instead of succumbing to the temptation of failing more checks).

I don't think it is explicity stated that their supernatural-abilities-that-come-with-a-curse are powers checks per se (for example, in Garvyn's case it is described as "his behavior caused him to be cursed"), but the written-out descriptions of their curses as penalties for their actions (without a maledictive Vistani or other such intermediary) certainly makes it seem like failed powers checks in action.

[Rathbone]

I wish I'd read this before I started running Feast Of Goblyns, especially Gonzoron's excellent journal. Oh well, we live and learn and this module strikes me as being the kind of game where the flaws aren't so apparent until you start running it and your players begin to question why they're being yanked all over the place instead of Akriel doing some of the running about.

We're coming to the end of our campaign now and I've run the game pretty much as it's written (time only allows for one hour's play each week so you can imagine how long this adventure has taken). Despite the head-scratching nature of the plot, the players have had a great time with it so I think they'll remember it fondly when they look back. We're definitely doing something shorter next time, though, even though I think there's a strong potential for returning to Kartakass in the future.

[Black Knight]

I feel like the time for a resurgence is long-overdue. There's still a demand for Ravenloft, but the old adventures really don't stand up to modern tabletop standards.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I wish I'd read this before I started running Feast Of Goblyns, especially Gonzoron's excellent journal.

Thanks for the compliment, though I too wish you'd read it in time to be of use. I'm glad that things seem to have worked out. As I said, with some work, this can be a really fun adventure... one of my faves.

Just goes to show you... for all your Ravenloft needs, when in doubt, always check here first.

[Rathbone]

I wish I'd read this before I started running Feast Of Goblyns, especially Gonzoron's excellent journal.

Thanks for the compliment, though I too wish you'd read it in time to be of use. I'm glad that things seem to have worked out. As I said, with some work, this can be a really fun adventure... one of my faves.

Just goes to show you... for all your Ravenloft needs, when in doubt, always check here first.