Forum

Just another experience report here with some comments/questions.

I ran Riddermound with a party of 4 (using all the pregens minus the hunter). Short version: A great time was had by all, and overall I love the game and I think my players did too. The initiative card mechanic and single action economy is very nice. They managed to defeat all the monsters and get out with the treasure, though I made some mistakes (like not applying armor to fire damage, which made the mage extremely powerful), and they got pretty lucky with random encounters.

Thoughts on the scenario design:

The Lady
- Why does the Lady just get to sit at a plain table, while every other family member gets a fancy sarcophagus?
- Is the "mummy" meant to be the physical corpse of the lady (and if so, why would anyone put her corpse in a char like that?), or is it her "translucent" ghost form (and if so, where is her body/sarcophagus)?
- I assume it is her corpse in the chair and it will stay there as the ghost gets up to talk to the PCs, since it is described as wearing chainmail with certain stats (and the PCs will have to pry the chainmail off of the corpse if they want it). Presumably the ghost also wears a "translucent" version of the chainmail (and hammer), but with no mechanical effects.
- Ghosts usually have some sort of interesting story and thing they need help with to get their eternal rest. That does not seem to be the case here. She is just an enemy that the PCs pretty much have to defeat if they want any of the treasure. How/why did she turn into a ghost?
- Is the damage from the warhammer considered magical damage for purposes of damaging, for example, ghosts? I judged that it is. If so, that is fine, but maybe a bit too easy to provide the means to defeat an opponent right in her hands?
- Do the magical torches in the same room actually give off heat/fire damage? That makes them more useful for that fight, but seems a bit silly since it would be kind of tricky to manage torches that cannot be extinguished.

The Wight
- My main issue here is that Wights are described as corporeal in the rulebook, but in the scenario, the wight is "partially immaterial" and moves through locked portcullises. It might have made more sense to have the ghost wander around the crypt and move through portcullises... (indeed, my players assumed the ghost was the creature that Grub had told them about).
- Similarly to the ghost, it is a bit unclear why the warrior turned into a wight. Is it just because of the goblins disturbing his tomb?
- When the wight dies, since he is corporeal, presumably his corpse and gear remain, and the characters can take his plate armor (worth 500 gold!) and morningstar? I decided his body disappeared due to how he is described in the scenario, but again, that seems inconsistent with the rulebook description of wights.

Other issues
- I find the structure of the scenario a bit odd in that you have two "boss fights" right after one another.
- It would be better to have the "massacred goblin" be a fixed feature instead of an encounter. My group never ran into this, so that means all the other goblins made it out alive, which seems unlikely.

Thoughts on rules:
- Speaking of plate armor, the knight getting to start the game with it is kind of surprising and extremely generous. There is a huge disparity between the character types here... Not saying it has to be balanced, but it is quite striking.
- Monsters dodging/parrying. Why would they ever do this? It seems like always a bad choice given their limited action economy (not talking about NPCs here, which are in a different situation). I had the wight parry once just to try it out, but it seems like something you'd do mostly just to be nice to the players...
- Why would monsters ever parry rather than dodge? Given the same skill rating on both, dodging is strictly better since there is no chance of weapon breakage.
- When an encounter happens during a stretch rest, I guess the intent of the rules is that there is no benefit of the rest (and any spot hidden search is also not successful)? I rolled the Wight encounter when they rested right after fighting the ghost, and allowed the PCs to still take the rest benefits since it seemed a bit harsh otherwise in this case...
- The balance between the different character types does seem a bit off. It seems to me the knight and mage are almost indispensable (for soaking and dealing damage, respectively).

Excited for our next session, and I really like some of these scenarios a lot! This was meant to be a one-shot, but the players liked these characters, so we will weave this into the campaign. Since we didn't play the campaign intro scene, we will do that as a flashback scene next, and then have them arrive at Outskirt etc (we started Riddermound already on the journey to the adventure site).

- Why does the Lady just get to sit at a plain table, while every other family member gets a fancy sarcophagus?

In "The Lady's hall", she is described as being the Wright's wife, and she guards the entrance to her husbands crypt. The implication is that she opted to spend her final moments watching over her husbands resting place rather than letting herself be buried. And most likely, she likely remains there, not able to pass on until her husband finally and properly perishes.

- Is the "mummy" meant to be the physical corpse of the lady (and if so, why would anyone put her corpse in a char like that?), or is it her "translucent" ghost form (and if so, where is her body/sarcophagus)?

As my previous statement, she likely decided to spend her final moments in the crypt, so she most likely passed away while sitting there. No one likely moved her sense that might have been her final wish.

- I assume it is her corpse in the chair and it will stay there as the ghost gets up to talk to the PCs, since it is described as wearing chainmail with certain stats (and the PCs will have to pry the chainmail off of the corpse if they want it). Presumably the ghost also wears a "translucent" version of the chainmail (and hammer), but with no mechanical effects.

Pretty much.

- Ghosts usually have some sort of interesting story and thing they need help with to get their eternal rest. That does not seem to be the case here. She is just an enemy that the PCs pretty much have to defeat if they want any of the treasure. How/why did she turn into a ghost?

See my previous points :3

- Is the damage from the warhammer considered magical damage for purposes of damaging, for example, ghosts? I judged that it is. If so, that is fine, but maybe a bit too easy to provide the means to defeat an opponent right in her hands?

It is indeed magical. But note that only ONE player (unless there is a mage in the party, and unless the party figures to use the magical torches in the room as weapons) can actually harm her, and that is if they are trained in Hammers. So it is still not an easy fight.

- Do the magical torches in the same room actually give off heat/fire damage? That makes them more useful for that fight, but seems a bit silly since it would be kind of tricky to manage torches that cannot be extinguished.

Page 38 under the "Torches" segment: "The torches burn with magical fire which automatically goes out if they are removed from the burial mound.", so useful in the Mound, but that's it.

- My main issue here is that Wights are described as corporeal in the rulebook, but in the scenario, the wight is "partially immaterial" and moves through locked portcullises. It might have made more sense to have the ghost wander around the crypt and move through portcullises... (indeed, my players assumed the ghost was the creature that Grub had told them about).

I assume this is to make this particular Wright something of a "Horror monster", as the adventure encourages you to run it as such. This means the party can't "lock it out" when they go looting. I personally instead use "Horror monster teleportation" rather than letting it go through doorways. The party might hear it around the corner, but if they peek it is not there anymore.

- Similarly to the ghost, it is a bit unclear why the warrior turned into a wight. Is it just because of the goblins disturbing his tomb?

It is not explicitly made clear, but the implication (Or at least how i interpret it) is that he was an important knight, and most likely was buried to watch over something important (Either the statue piece, or the crown if your not running the campaign or have the statue piece elsewhere).

- When the wight dies, since he is corporeal, presumably his corpse and gear remain, and the characters can take his plate armor (worth 500 gold!) and morningstar? I decided his body disappeared due to how he is described in the scenario, but again, that seems inconsistent with the rulebook description of wights.

Pretty much what i do. Or i say "It's in really bad shape, it only worked because of the magic animating the Wright is what kept it in good condition".

- I find the structure of the scenario a bit odd in that you have two "boss fights" right after one another.

The lady is only aggressive if the party tries to steal from her, so it is possible to skip fighting her (I usually like to make it possible to negotiate with her if they can understand her, allowing them to get loot without bloodshed).
The Wright meanwhile i usually either pitch as a bossfight, but i also use it as a "lesson" that sometimes, running away (especially if they manage to loot the crypt) can be the wiser move than staying and fight.

- It would be better to have the "massacred goblin" be a fixed feature instead of an encounter. My group never ran into this, so that means all the other goblins made it out alive, which seems unlikely.

Can agree, usually throw it out in the servants crypt.

- Speaking of plate armor, the knight getting to start the game with it is kind of surprising and extremely generous. There is a huge disparity between the character types here... Not saying it has to be balanced, but it is quite striking.

True, but bare in mind plate armor gives you a bane on Sneaking, Acrobatics AND evade, and there are some attacks (though mainly in the beastiary) where armor has no effect. So while you reduce a lot of damage, your dodging is very meak (very few monster attacks can be parried) a lot of options become very difficult to do unless you really devote yourself to level those skills up.

- Monsters dodging/parrying. Why would they ever do this? It seems like always a bad choice given their limited action economy (not talking about NPCs here, which are in a different situation). I had the wight parry once just to try it out, but it seems like something you'd do mostly just to be nice to the players...

It depends on the situation, but while it can be done "to be nice to the players", the longer a monster stays up, the more it can keep beating the players up. Sense monsters hit automatically, it means it is ultimatly the players are on a time limit to defeat them.
For example, Wright have two actions, we have three players. Player 1 misses, player 2 hits, Wright parries the attack, player 3 misses, the Wright can now use it's last action to beat the snot out of the players, they are helpless to resist the attack, and the Wright is still on full health.
It is ultimatly very dependant on the situation, so there are indeed a lot of situation just keeping attacking is more useful. But a well placed dodge/parry can sink the players.

- When an encounter happens during a stretch rest, I guess the intent of the rules is that there is no benefit of the rest (and any spot hidden search is also not successful)? I rolled the Wight encounter when they rested right after fighting the ghost, and allowed the PCs to still take the rest benefits since it seemed a bit harsh otherwise in this case...

It is harsh. But it is the danger you face when you opt to rest in a dangerous location. It's one of the reasons why avoiding conflict is a good thing, so you are more fighting fit for when the danger arrives.

- The balance between the different character types does seem a bit off. It seems to me the knight and mage are almost indispensable (for soaking and dealing damage, respectively).

Kind off. As said previously, Knights suffers a lot of drawbacks in skills, and while they can soak damage, being able to dodge damage and take 0 damage is better than taking some damage, even if it is minor (The knight in my group got downed the most simply because the fact they got hit a lot sense their dodging was not ideal, and having a bane makes it harder). And while mages can deal A LOT of damage, they are the most dependant on their WP, which runs dry quick. This makes non-mages able to deal consistant good damage. Again, the party i run with, the mage is powerful, but the rest of the party have also quickly dispatched foes no problems.

Thanks, all good points!
Regarding the lady, it does say she wakes up if the PCs open the door to the tomb as well. While it doesn’t say she automatically attacks in that case, given her mission to guard the tomb, it is a bit difficult to see the PCs talk themselves out of that one, which is why I consider the encounter with her to be set up as a bit one-dimensional and less interesting than I would expect from an encounter with a ghost.

Not necessarily. I run her as being suspicious, but more willing to talk to the players than the goblins. And i leave her to be open to discuss or negotiate. Perhaps she is angry at first if the party tries to steal stuff or go into her husband's crypt, but i often let them bluff that they are part of the empire, or that she is willing to let the party take something in exchange for a service (like kill the giant spider, fetch the silver bands for her etc), so she will consider them as trustworthy.

Not explicitly written, but i like to make her into an encounter that can be resolved peacefully, giving the players options to resolve some alternatives.