So happy days may be coming.
Your opinion on Thousand Thrones and Restless Dead campaings
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Knight of the Lady
- Posts: 188
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:04 am
Got a reply today, I'm very happy about a fast reply, and it seems like they want to release more of the 1st edition stuff, as soon as they get hold of physical copies to turn into PDFs, with the exception of the two Realm of Chaos supplements due to their links with the TT miniature game. Or at least that's what I took from the reply.
So happy days may be coming.
So happy days may be coming.
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Totsuzenheni Yukimi
- Posts: 345
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:38 pm
Good news. So do they have a copy of the Restless Dead? If not then maybe find a good one on eBay for them and send them the link.
I've ran most of Restless Dead and 3 chapters of TTT. TTT is much more satisfying than Restless Dead, which really is just a set of disparate adventures linked together by the most tenuous links. And I say this as a massive Carl Sargent fanboy, and with the knowledge that TTT is also a disparate set of adventures linked together.
I think what is particularly weird is it feels like in Restless Dead they couldn't change the adventure text, so the notes often contradict the published adventure. That said each of the Restless Dead scenarios stands on its own and most of the adventures are considered classics - Night of Blood has been redone for 4e, and Affair of the Jewel will be in the first TEW companion volume.
Grapes of Wrath will almost certainly be in the Enemy Within's 2nd or 3rd Companion volumes as it was written to bridge the gap between DotR and PBtT. It doesn't really do so particularly well, though it does provide the PCs with the chance to make friends that might be useful in Middenheim. Were I to run it I'd probably run it alongside Carrion up the Reik.
It makes me a little sad there's no White Dwarf equivalent for 4e to have scenarios in.
I think what is particularly weird is it feels like in Restless Dead they couldn't change the adventure text, so the notes often contradict the published adventure. That said each of the Restless Dead scenarios stands on its own and most of the adventures are considered classics - Night of Blood has been redone for 4e, and Affair of the Jewel will be in the first TEW companion volume.
Grapes of Wrath will almost certainly be in the Enemy Within's 2nd or 3rd Companion volumes as it was written to bridge the gap between DotR and PBtT. It doesn't really do so particularly well, though it does provide the PCs with the chance to make friends that might be useful in Middenheim. Were I to run it I'd probably run it alongside Carrion up the Reik.
It makes me a little sad there's no White Dwarf equivalent for 4e to have scenarios in.
I'd be amazed if they don't have all the 1e sourcebooks. The problem is that you need to sacrifice the physical copy to the great Scanner god to get a proper high-res scan (as in you unbind it and feed it in, or so I've heard). I think Marienburg was created from Dom's copy?Knight of the Lady wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2019 10:02 am it seems like they want to release more of the 1st edition stuff, as soon as they get hold of physical copies to turn into PDF
Verdant Castellan of Bretonnia and Purveyor of the Perilous Realm Podcast
it may be more of an issue of having a copy in condition good enough you can restore it to a suitable condition for sale. i've obtained PDF copies of plenty of books i own(d...) and a fair number of the older ones are barely legible due to muolding, stains or good ol' age discoloration obscuring the material. not everyone is able to keep their books in perfect condition....lost my first tyranid armybook that way, someone soaked it in cola and didn't mention it until i came to get it back a month later....skerrigan wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2019 1:19 pmI'd be amazed if they don't have all the 1e sourcebooks. The problem is that you need to sacrifice the physical copy to the great Scanner god to get a proper high-res scan (as in you unbind it and feed it in, or so I've heard). I think Marienburg was created from Dom's copy?Knight of the Lady wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2019 10:02 am it seems like they want to release more of the 1st edition stuff, as soon as they get hold of physical copies to turn into PDF
While it makes for somewhat clumsy reading and reference, I actually kind of like this in that it gives a very transparent insight into the process of rewriting and reframing someone else's adventure for your needs.
I've finished my read-through of the adventures section of The Restless Dead, and thought I'd throw down some brief thoughts on them, and what use I might find for them personally. Not sure if it's useful to anyone, but there you go.
General: As I've already said above, I think Carl Sargent's work in stringing a half-dozen unrelated White Dwarf adventures together into a sort-of-connected narrative is pretty clever. From a historical and pedagogical perspective I also like the fact that we get the unchanged adventure text next to the often-contradictory "campaign notes" - it makes for a very illustrative insight in how a GM might rework an adventure to fit their own campaign. At the same time, I think it might have been a more immediately readable and useful "adventure path" if the Restless Dead mini-campaign notes had been worked directly into the adventures.
The Enemy Within campaign notes, as I commented earlier on, are so perfunctory that I'm a bit confused as to why they were included at all. Unlike the Restless Dead campaign notes, which introduce a fairly clever connecting plot, they contribute nothing any half-competent GM couldn't think up themselves.
Night of Blood: Avoiding creepy things in the woods, the PCs take shelter at a coaching inn but finds out (in time or too late?) it's been taken over by a Chaos band. This looks like a tight, effective little adventure, probably deserving of its classic status. This is an example of the Enemy Within campaign notes dropping a very obvious ball - the obvious connection IMO would be to make Jinkerst's gang Red Crown followers. I might adapt this for an interlude in my own TEW remix - in that case I'll definitely use the Red Crown angle, and try to play it more for horror than for monster-slaying action.
On the Road: In the original version, a pair of simple but potentially interesting encounters: a werecat traveling to bail out her similarly afflicted lover, and a ghost needing to be put to rest. Again, I like how the mini-campaign notes expand them. I'll probably use Emmaretta (though I think I'll make her and her lover werewolves rather than werecats) and perhaps Johann to add interest to future journeys and detours in my campaign.
Eureka: I understand this is sort of the great lost WFRP 1E adventure, not included in any other reprints but this book. The PCs are hired to protect a crazy inventor from thugs who turn out to be corrupt Watchmen. It seems kind of fun, but also pretty railroaded and heavily slanted towards ending with the PCs having to flee the town it's set in as wanted criminals. I don't really see myself finding a use for this, and even its inclusion into the mini-campaign seems a little laboured. Might make for a fun "session 0" backstory-mini-adventure, though ("and that's why I can never go back to Volgen...").
A Rough Night at the Three Feathers: A deserved classic. The PCs seek lodgings at an inn, where half a dozen plots evolve and intermingle in what's been aptly described as "a classic British hotel farce". It looks like a challenge to run, what with all the things happening at once, but also like it might be tremendous fun. (And, if the PCs never have time to notice half of the plots,
they can always be recycled later.) I'll definitely be adapting this for my TEW remix, probably when the PCs are traveling to Middenheim in early Season 3. Incidentally, this is also one of the few adventures where the Enemy Within campaign notes are actually helpful, suggesting how contacts made in this adventure might open some doors in Power Behind the Throne
The Affair of the Hidden Jewel: As I commented above, a light-hearted swashbuckling adventure with no Chaos, magic or monsters. The PCs get involved in the schemes of a ruthless noble to acquire the hidden treasures of an outlaw band. Every NPC is explicitly a stock character from old adventure stories. It looks like it could be quite a bit of fun with a The Princess Bride-meets-Terry Gilliam kind of feel. I'll probably not find a use for it in my TEW, but it would also have made an excellent "session 0" prologue for one or two of my PCs.
The Ritual: In some town, the PCs stumble upon a cult murder and discover an underground lair where Skaven and human cultists are preparing for an evil ritual. This adventure might play much better than it reads, but reading it I couldn't help but feel it seemed a bit generic (and I guess the very generic title doesn't really help here). The twist that the drug-addled Skaven leader actually has no clue what he's doing and is proceeding from a series of misunderstandings is good, but unless I missed something on my read the players have little chance to discover this. Still, it's probably an effective action set piece, and if I need to whip up an underground cultist lair quickly I could do worse than using this.
The Haunting Horror: Following on from The Ritual, the PCs stumble into a haunted house and have to defeat the titular horror to escape. I wanted to like this adventure better than I did. I like a good haunted-house story, and there are several creepy atmospheric scenes, but far too many of them - almost all, in fact - are combat encounters. It feels like a (good) Fighting Fantasy gamebook (not least with the Russ Nicholson illustrations ). It definitely makes me want to put in a haunted house somewhere in TEW, probably in Middenheim since Power Behind the Throne is otherwise rather light on the horrific and weird elements, but I can't see myself running the adventure straight as written.
The Grapes of Wrath: The PCs are engaged to protect a wine-growing village from a bizarre haunting by flying skulls. Digging deeper into the mystery reveals a grubbily Gothic tale of infidelity, murder, revenge and madness. I really liked this little adventure. It's written in a nicely old-school, open fashion, detailing the setting, the NPCs and their motivations, and giving a timeline for what will happen without the PCs intervening. It's billed as an Enemy Within interlude, bridging Death on the Reik with Power Behind the Throne, but it really doesn't - at best, it introduces a couple of NPCs very tangential to the adventure that might provide contacts in Middenheim. Still, I'm definitely keen on adapting it for my TEW, probably sticking it in whenever we hit the right season (it's set at the time of the grape harvest, so late summer / early autumn). The actual flying skulls - while charming - are a bit too cheesy for the aesthetic I'm going for now, so I might substitute something else - undead or constructed bird-like things, perhaps.
General: As I've already said above, I think Carl Sargent's work in stringing a half-dozen unrelated White Dwarf adventures together into a sort-of-connected narrative is pretty clever. From a historical and pedagogical perspective I also like the fact that we get the unchanged adventure text next to the often-contradictory "campaign notes" - it makes for a very illustrative insight in how a GM might rework an adventure to fit their own campaign. At the same time, I think it might have been a more immediately readable and useful "adventure path" if the Restless Dead mini-campaign notes had been worked directly into the adventures.
The Enemy Within campaign notes, as I commented earlier on, are so perfunctory that I'm a bit confused as to why they were included at all. Unlike the Restless Dead campaign notes, which introduce a fairly clever connecting plot, they contribute nothing any half-competent GM couldn't think up themselves.
Night of Blood: Avoiding creepy things in the woods, the PCs take shelter at a coaching inn but finds out (in time or too late?) it's been taken over by a Chaos band. This looks like a tight, effective little adventure, probably deserving of its classic status. This is an example of the Enemy Within campaign notes dropping a very obvious ball - the obvious connection IMO would be to make Jinkerst's gang Red Crown followers. I might adapt this for an interlude in my own TEW remix - in that case I'll definitely use the Red Crown angle, and try to play it more for horror than for monster-slaying action.
On the Road: In the original version, a pair of simple but potentially interesting encounters: a werecat traveling to bail out her similarly afflicted lover, and a ghost needing to be put to rest. Again, I like how the mini-campaign notes expand them. I'll probably use Emmaretta (though I think I'll make her and her lover werewolves rather than werecats) and perhaps Johann to add interest to future journeys and detours in my campaign.
Eureka: I understand this is sort of the great lost WFRP 1E adventure, not included in any other reprints but this book. The PCs are hired to protect a crazy inventor from thugs who turn out to be corrupt Watchmen. It seems kind of fun, but also pretty railroaded and heavily slanted towards ending with the PCs having to flee the town it's set in as wanted criminals. I don't really see myself finding a use for this, and even its inclusion into the mini-campaign seems a little laboured. Might make for a fun "session 0" backstory-mini-adventure, though ("and that's why I can never go back to Volgen...").
A Rough Night at the Three Feathers: A deserved classic. The PCs seek lodgings at an inn, where half a dozen plots evolve and intermingle in what's been aptly described as "a classic British hotel farce". It looks like a challenge to run, what with all the things happening at once, but also like it might be tremendous fun. (And, if the PCs never have time to notice half of the plots,
they can always be recycled later.) I'll definitely be adapting this for my TEW remix, probably when the PCs are traveling to Middenheim in early Season 3. Incidentally, this is also one of the few adventures where the Enemy Within campaign notes are actually helpful, suggesting how contacts made in this adventure might open some doors in Power Behind the Throne
The Affair of the Hidden Jewel: As I commented above, a light-hearted swashbuckling adventure with no Chaos, magic or monsters. The PCs get involved in the schemes of a ruthless noble to acquire the hidden treasures of an outlaw band. Every NPC is explicitly a stock character from old adventure stories. It looks like it could be quite a bit of fun with a The Princess Bride-meets-Terry Gilliam kind of feel. I'll probably not find a use for it in my TEW, but it would also have made an excellent "session 0" prologue for one or two of my PCs.
The Ritual: In some town, the PCs stumble upon a cult murder and discover an underground lair where Skaven and human cultists are preparing for an evil ritual. This adventure might play much better than it reads, but reading it I couldn't help but feel it seemed a bit generic (and I guess the very generic title doesn't really help here). The twist that the drug-addled Skaven leader actually has no clue what he's doing and is proceeding from a series of misunderstandings is good, but unless I missed something on my read the players have little chance to discover this. Still, it's probably an effective action set piece, and if I need to whip up an underground cultist lair quickly I could do worse than using this.
The Haunting Horror: Following on from The Ritual, the PCs stumble into a haunted house and have to defeat the titular horror to escape. I wanted to like this adventure better than I did. I like a good haunted-house story, and there are several creepy atmospheric scenes, but far too many of them - almost all, in fact - are combat encounters. It feels like a (good) Fighting Fantasy gamebook (not least with the Russ Nicholson illustrations
). It definitely makes me want to put in a haunted house somewhere in TEW, probably in Middenheim since Power Behind the Throne is otherwise rather light on the horrific and weird elements, but I can't see myself running the adventure straight as written. The Grapes of Wrath: The PCs are engaged to protect a wine-growing village from a bizarre haunting by flying skulls. Digging deeper into the mystery reveals a grubbily Gothic tale of infidelity, murder, revenge and madness. I really liked this little adventure. It's written in a nicely old-school, open fashion, detailing the setting, the NPCs and their motivations, and giving a timeline for what will happen without the PCs intervening. It's billed as an Enemy Within interlude, bridging Death on the Reik with Power Behind the Throne, but it really doesn't - at best, it introduces a couple of NPCs very tangential to the adventure that might provide contacts in Middenheim. Still, I'm definitely keen on adapting it for my TEW, probably sticking it in whenever we hit the right season (it's set at the time of the grape harvest, so late summer / early autumn). The actual flying skulls - while charming - are a bit too cheesy for the aesthetic I'm going for now, so I might substitute something else - undead or constructed bird-like things, perhaps.
My players loved this adventure, especially escaping the city via hand-glider, though I thought it was a bit overly-comedic. I planned to have the Professor character shanghaied into the military and start making ridiculous siege contraptions in my campaign though. And yes, they can't go back to Volgen.Theo wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2019 3:10 pm Eureka: I understand this is sort of the great lost WFRP 1E adventure, not included in any other reprints but this book. The PCs are hired to protect a crazy inventor from thugs who turn out to be corrupt Watchmen. It seems kind of fun, but also pretty railroaded and heavily slanted towards ending with the PCs having to flee the town it's set in as wanted criminals. I don't really see myself finding a use for this, and even its inclusion into the mini-campaign seems a little laboured. Might make for a fun "session 0" backstory-mini-adventure, though ("and that's why I can never go back to Volgen...").
Trivia: I think this is one of Andy Law's favourite adventures, and he converted it to 2E back when he was a wee sprightly lad. The Ritual and the Affair of the Hidden Jewel were also updated on the BI site.
There's also a conversion for Night of Blood for 2E floating around the webs, and Cubicle 7's 4e version has beautiful artwork for all the major NPCs.
The Haunting Horror was written specially for this campaign, yet it was also reprinted in the 2E Plundered Vaults collection. They didn't even bother to get rid of the text that refers to earlier parts of the Restless Dead campaign...
To be honest I was working at the time so while I ran the Restless Dead I only really ran the sections that I had 2E conversions for already, except for Horror which is not well regarded. I retrofitted the excellent Warpstone adventure One Minute to Morr, as well as the 3E magic boxed set adventure to be the conclusion to the campaign in Altdorf (I also retrofitted it that the ghost was the Road Warden Jinkrest murdered before Night of Blood, I found the ghost's backstory contradictory and confusing at times as written in the campaign).
Oh and if you love haunted houses... *cough* plug *cough* there's my Weird Nights at the Wolfshead.
Verdant Castellan of Bretonnia and Purveyor of the Perilous Realm Podcast
Agreed, that seems like a no-brainer and the actual story we get seems needlessly complicated. IF I use both "Night of Blood" and Johann's ghost - big IF thereskerrigan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2019 5:09 pmTo be honest I was working at the time so while I ran the Restless Dead I only really ran the sections that I had 2E conversions for already, except for Horror which is not well regarded. I retrofitted the excellent Warpstone adventure One Minute to Morr, as well as the 3E magic boxed set adventure to be the conclusion to the campaign in Altdorf (I also retrofitted it that the ghost was the Road Warden Jinkrest murdered before Night of Blood, I found the ghost's backstory contradictory and confusing at times as written in the campaign).
- I'll definitely go with that too.I've read it, and been very intrigued though a bit confused.skerrigan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2019 5:09 pmOh and if you love haunted houses... *cough* plug *cough* there's my Weird Nights at the Wolfshead.
If I do find a place to use it, would you mind answering a few stupid questions?Sure. Essentially its a haunted inn that manifests 3 time periods.
Verdant Castellan of Bretonnia and Purveyor of the Perilous Realm Podcast
I have ran Thousand Thrones from start to finish twice. First time running it I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of prep that was involved. Ended up flying by the seat of my pants, so to speak, quite often during that campaign. The second time? Piece of cake as one might expect. All in all I think it is a very sold adventure sure to drive your players mad.
Can't say much for the Restless Dead I'm afraid, since I haven't ran it. But it looks cool!
Can't say much for the Restless Dead I'm afraid, since I haven't ran it. But it looks cool!
I've been called a grim bastard once or twice in my life.
Check me out on Twitter if you want: https://twitter.com/jaredsheth
Check me out on Twitter if you want: https://twitter.com/jaredsheth