The Drow Wars (Requirements)

[Cut]

As I'm not a regular D&D gamer (not at all actually) I was wondering if one or more of you here could tell me what apart from the three books that make up the Drow War Saga and the D&D corebooks (PHB, DMG, MM) would be needed to have a good time with the Saga?

Perhaps you could on the one hand list books that are quite essential and then on the other hand those that support the campaign well but aren't necessarily needed.

I guess it would probably be a good buy to get "Underdark" wouldn't it, as it should detail the Drow. Or what books would you suggest to get one without too much knowledge of modern day fantasy (apart from Lord of the Rings stuff) into the picture?

And no: I didn't read any books about that Drizzt guy :wink:

 

[Cut]

And it seems that my questions have been answered already. Praise to the most magical device called the search button, which produced this thread by LastBestHope.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15560&highlight=drow+war

Well, anything anyone might want to add?

 

[psyclonejack]

I am still reading Book 1. I plan to start the campaign for my group after my wedding in May. However, from what I have seen in Book 1 all you NEED is the 3 Core books. That will grant you the basic Rule system for D20. And allow you play. Most of the monsters and villians, even a great number of NPCs have stat blocks. So the MM would be nice for you to have, but you could slink by without it.

It would be nice to start a Drow thread. Put alot of info in one place. I find I am going to revamp the opening of the a bit from the book. I plan to warm up my party by sending them through a scaled down version of the classic Temple of Elemental Evil. That way they will get a quick peak at Drow motives. And through a series of disturbing dreams and visions, be drawn to the first set of standing stones. From there the roller coaster ride will begin.

In order to have more party cohesion I also plan to have a guild or house that the PC's are from. That way, the party can cycle characters and not get burnt on the single one they are playing. Basicly having each PC make 3 characters. Not only will this give the Party a greater pool of resources, but could lead to some fun adventures. All mages for a short time, all thieves during a sneak. All fighters for the war front, any combo possible really.

sorry started to ramble. . . enjoy the Drow war, I am so far.

 

[Graphil]

Yep, you can run this with just the core books. The players are almost up to the temple now.

 

[psyclonejack]

Since your players are almost to the temple . . . any words of advice?

Suggestions, issues, or problems you have had to deal with?

 

[Graphil]

See my mass battle post elsewhere in the forum for one issue.

Pulling everything together before the battle was challenging. The one thing I did was start to march the army after 10 days and then assume about 10 miles travel a day. This gives more time for the party to do things.

You need to add in random encounters to get the party to the right levels for each chapter.

There are a number of places where it says the temple is to the west of the city. So either all of the maps have south at the bottom or you need to fix that in things like the scroll from the mage.

Did you notice that at the hobgoblin ambush site it says the players find signs of a battle and arrows left. However none of them use bows, they all have javelins.

I've probably got lots more but can't think of anything specific at the moment.

 

[Cavalorn]

There are a number of places where it says the temple is to the west of the city. So either all of the maps have south at the bottom or you need to fix that in things like the scroll from the mage.

Yes, that was my fault, sorry. The reason is that Crescent City is heavily based on New Orleans, which has land to the west; however, the Ashfar version is a mirror image, and I missed changing the compass direction in a few places.

Did you notice that at the hobgoblin ambush site it says the players find signs of a battle and arrows left. However none of them use bows, they all have javelins.

*headslap*

DOH.

I'm just going to explain that away by saying they shot all their arrows at the ambush and fell back on their javelins as a reserve weapon. Yep. That works.

 

[Graphil]

I did start a post at one point of things I found in error if it helps.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10253&highlight=

BTW Is there a complete list of all the month names to help with the temple birth and death puzzle?

 

[psyclonejack]

Thanks Graphil!

I haven't set down with all the maps yet, but once the PC's start running through them those will become clear as day.

How many randoms are you adding to pump the levels?
It is always better to create a side quest in my opinion to grant the exp's. Otherwise the party feels they level to quick and have not earned it, or they feel with too many randoms that you are picking on them and the fun level drops through the floor with all the combat.

Thanks in advance. . .

 

[Graphil]

They are generally doing as many side quests as I could fit in. I would generally throw in about 1 random encounter a day, mainly from the higher CR options in the provided encounter tables.
But an important point is that I'm allowing 6 characters which does skew things. It is likely using 4 that less encounters are needed.

I've found advance planning of how much XP they would end up on if they did everything planned is the best way to keep things on track.

 

[MadDrMark]

I pad experience when I need to with story and RP awards. I also use XP rewards for players who make outstanding contributions to the game outside of game sessions (I mean write-ups of adventures and the like, not overt bribery, but I'm open-minded about that).


My group meets for very short sessions, and side treks get get them too far off the main story. So, I take the already-rapid level progression of 3.x, and I accelerate it.

 

[MadDrMark]

Yes, that was my fault, sorry. The reason is that Crescent City is heavily based on New Orleans, which has land to the west; however, the Ashfar version is a mirror image, and I missed changing the compass direction in a few places.

. Long before the old Rogues Guild,
. Where the Crime Lords like to play,
. There's a city where the damned call home,
. Hear their hellish rondelet:
.
. Crescent City!
. Home of pirates, drunks, and whores...
. Crescent City!
. Tacky, overpriced souvenir stores...
.
. If you want to go to hell, you should make your way
. To the Sodom and Gomorrah of Caldraz-ay!:
.
. Crescent City!
. Stinking, rotten, vomiting, vile...
. Crescent City!
. Putrid, brackish, maggotty, foul...
.
. Crescent City!
. Crummy, lousy, rancid and rank...
. Crescent City!
. ...

 

[psyclonejack]

so is that from a poem about N'ar l'ens??

 

[MadDrMark]

It is my rendition of the song "New Orleans" from the Simpson's faux musical: "Streetcar!" The city, lacking a sense of humor about the sordid side of the city, threatened to sue the producers for defamation until they offered a public apology.

I suspect that they would chuckle even less in this post-Katrina world.