Raiders of Ivywatch - Release Thread

[tidal dust]

The adventure is out! If you have issues or questions, please post them here. But just as a heads-up, I'm going on vacation for a week starting Sunday the 6th, and I will probably be unavailable to everyone and everything, if I can help it!

If you're a backer or a pre-orderer, check your email! If you're neither, but you're interested, look here! https://lookoutbehindyou.itch.io/raiders-of-ivywatch

A big thank you to everyone who supported the project and all my excellent playtesters!

[onyx shore]

I love the hand-drawn pixel line art in the adventure.

[tidal dust]

I'm glad 🙂

[icy heart]

Looks dope as hell 🔥

[opal ibex]

it is!

[pine wave]

The adventure story flow chart is such a good idea

[sterile bobcat]

This looks excellent!

[latent vigil]

Looks cool! How did you make that region map?

[tidal dust]

thanks! I drew it in photoshop lol

I mean if you want like my step by step process, I could maybe make a post on the subreddit or something

[latent vigil]

Ah cool! I know there's some specific programs out there for this sort of thing, was wondering if you used one of those.

[tidal dust]

I've tried a lot of different mapping softwares, and I like and use certain ones for certain types of maps. Combat maps I love using dungeondraft (that's what I used for all the combat maps in this adventure). For region maps, I just do it from scratch in photoshop yeah

[craggy wharf]

Just purchased this. Looking forward to run your adventure Gub.

[tidal dust]

Hope you enjoy!

[real pollen]

@tidal dust Hey! I bought the adventure and am gonna run the first session next week! Quick questions regarding the special Hostage rules. If a Hero attempts to use a maneuver to grab a hostage out of an enemy's clutches, is that an instant tier-3 success? If heroes target enemies carrying hostages, are the hostages at risk of damage?
In the first combat, are you really expecting any lizardfolk to make it all the way to the ESCAPE box? All the hostage carriers are minions, they'll get cut down fairly easily - and it's a long way over to that ESCAPE zone!

Also, what are you doing for captains? Example - if I have squads of 5 grunts as the first encounter sets up, what extra stats should a grunt have to elevate it to being a captain? I think normally the thing to do would be just attach a different monster statblock to the squad as captain

[tidal dust]

1. yeah instant tier3, though since minions usually carry the hostages, theyre supposed to just die rather than play tug of war
2. weirdly, if you take the north passage and use the 5-malice water pit effectively, it's very doable to get a lizard or two at least to the west half of the map - then I generally let the wookie (heroes) win

Ultimately it's the first encounter, it's not meant to be insanely hard, it's just introducing the lizards and the hostage idea, cuz that'll show up a lot more later

[tidal dust]

If they dont have a non-minion in the initiative group, they dont have a captain, is how I played it. Never tried boosting a minion to be captain

If a creature is intended to be a captain, they'll have "(capn)" on them in the encounter chart. And you just play them as is (the attached minions get their captained boost as normal)

Good luck! I hope you all have a blast. Hmu if you have more questions

[tidal dust]

Oh and the hostages are allies of the heroes, so they don't hurt them, basically ever. The one exception being when the human brawler in Act1 Scene...3? Is holding a hostage, it can use its trigger, literally called "Shoot the Hostage" (highly recommend making that happen)

[real pollen]

👀

[tidal dust]

https://tenor.com/view/perfection-perfect-michael-fassbender-magneto-x-men-first-class-gif-2260686001358167676

[real pollen]

@tidal dust another quick Q - in the map variants for 'Scene 3: The Hawklords!', there is one which has the gate intact, and one which has it broken . You make no mention of the gate in any of the three possible montage tiers for attempting to deflect the iron orbs. same goes for the walls. Seems like you forgot to put it in!

[tidal dust]

the walls and gate are one in the same

[real pollen]

but no matter what they roll, the wall and bridge get destroyed

according to that image from the pdf

[tidal dust]

Half or more succeed on any result and they don't

it used to be that the bridge wasn't destroyed on total success, but it was too many map pieces to juggle

[real pollen]

Ah, I see now how you've set that up

[tidal dust]

so now it's basically "if you succeed the group test, there's no destruction, if you fail, there's destruction + other consequences"

[real pollen]

the organisation of that info is a little coinfusing!

Thanks !

[real pollen]

@tidal dust I have another quick question for you, if that's OK! When an enemy is makred 'Squadless', what does that mean ? Are you intending that they should take their turn whenever ?

For example, 5 Ratcrobats who are all squadless

[tidal dust]

sorry, I've since updated the verbiage on that in my more recent stuff. it just means each entry in that group is in a separate initiative group

so the 5 Ratcrobats don't share a single initiative group, yeah. Take their turn whenever

you got it

[tidal dust]

@real pollen how'd it go?

[real pollen]

session Thursday

Helping the players get their characters together has been a blast! I've picked a vibey crew 😌 🙏🏻

[tidal dust]

how'd it go?

[real pollen]

They massacred the lizardfolk, force moved one Skyterror inside of a wall by two squares 🙂

[tidal dust]

Did yall have a good time? Did they follow the dog or head to the forest?

[real pollen]

Yeah, it was really fun! When they had to choose, one player was really enthused by that. It was a 'Wait, what?!' moment, and he's a ttrpg vet. There was a little party tension as they debated the best option, a little of the 'but we want to save everyone' angst, but they chased the dog and we'll do the Hawklord fight next (it's the one I'm more excited about, especially since the Radenwight encounter seems usable with no time-crunch, and I want them to meet the town npcs, etc)

A fun time!

One of them has Hawk Rider complication, I'm thinking of ways to deal with a hawk-mounted ranged-preference Hero

[tidal dust]

ooooooo awesome! Glad to hear it. Yeah you can definitely get creative with that complication, dang, that'll be cool

[tidal dust]

@real pollen still running the adventure? how's it going?

[real pollen]

One bridge-fight won, one Hawklord and her hawk captured, one town saved (for now!) !

Our Fury, Iog, escaped death by a lucky dice roll. She climbed the wall and took a Trickshot crossbow bolt to the gut. If I had rolled a 17+, the damage would have outright killed her 😮

[tidal dust]

Dope! Looks and sounds like a sick battle!

[real pollen]

Players found the fight very dynamic- they liked the challenge. Crashing iron balls on them at the end of each round was a fun highlight. I'm still trying to come up with ways to counter my hawkriding PC, as he is very strong currently.

[real pollen]

@tidal dust who is ||Thyll Hylacae|| in your world? Thinking I might just replace/turn that into a Spirit/Saint figure for my setting.

[tidal dust]

It's just a saint I grabbed from the heroes book!

Wode elf hero* I think

Ya page 357

[real pollen]

Hey @tidal dust ! Something fun for ya! Players have started a negotiation with Merlu (right at the start of the Radenwight fight). What do you think the esteemed rat-man wants ? Ideas for motivations/pitfalls, and things he'll boost the party with if they do well?

[tidal dust]

oooooo I think Merlu sees the whole region as his stage and he's just looking to put on the most interesting story. Something that'll put Tullow Vale in the history books, if not the lips of bards the world over for centuries. He's a bit of a Neutral Chaotic fella, he just wants maximum drama, and he'll play both sides to get it

Legacy is huge for him

but maybe not necessarily his name, just the legacy of the story itself

as for boosts, i think the obvious answer is the speaking stone, right? But beyond that, maybe one of his retinue will follow the heroes around from the shadows taking notes on their exploits. Potentially a follower?

[real pollen]

love this, and there is the Radenwight Sidekick statblock...

[tidal dust]

beware that in the dungeon coming up the heroes are LIKELY to get at least one retainer, possibly (probably) two, at least short term

that'll end up quite a big squad, but that's ok cuz the final fight is huge

[real pollen]

lol my party is going to be stacked up! One of them already has a Hawk (nerfed it a bit but it's a very useful Retainer). Feasibly 4/5 could have combat retainers, and the last has a backstory non-combat retainer already haha

[tidal dust]

good luck lol

[mild pawn]

Hey @tidal dust I'm prepping to run this and have a question about how monsters are grouped. In Scene 1, do the minions have captains, or are there 6 monster turns in a 4-player setup?

[tidal dust]

hi! no, no captains in scene 1, for 4 players there are 6 monster initiative groups, yep, you got it

[mild pawn]

Rad. looking forward to it!

[tidal dust]

you can assign some of the squadless non-minion fellas to be captains if that makes it easier to run for you. I'm not sure whether it would make the encounter easier or harder, it's a fairly easy encounter regardless (being the very first one, it's kind of a confidence booster)

good luck and lmk how it goes!

[mild pawn]

I'm not worried about the number of groups, I just wanted to check the intent

[mild pawn]

an effective surprise!

[mild pawn]

poor grunts never stood a chance

[mild pawn]

Scene 3 is very cinematic, nice stuff @tidal dust
||Having the Brawlers fall back and use “shoot the hostage” made the heroes PANIC in the best way||

[mild pawn]

@tidal dust We're going into 2.5 and the heroes have never taken a respite... 😓 time to tweak the difficulties

[mild pawn]

Never mind I crit with a bloodeye and almost one-tapped the conduit

[tidal dust]

oof!

[mild pawn]

things that happen when the beastheart is away...

[mild pawn]

That was intense! ||Thankful that 2.5 has a 3-round cap because that encounter was NASTY and my heroes are licking their wounds pretty bad. They all think that 2.8 is gonna be another fight and that they'll TPK. Fun surprise to open next week with a negotiation instead.||

Speaking of which, ||why is there an encounter map for 2.8?||

[tidal dust]

|| when you negotiate, one of the results can be an encounter ||

|| also on Round 4 of the combat, if there are monsters left, you finish the encounter on the map of 2.8, which lets you introduce Bleddyn as a badass who helps the heroes clean up ||

Have the heroes found Qoroth? || Bleddyn doesn't negotiate without Qoroth accounted for RAW|| which lets the players know there's more to the rest of the dungeon (otherwise they very well might just make a sprint to the bottom chamber)

2.7 was a favorite encounter for both my tester groups (and me), fwiw

[mild pawn]

Thanks for clearing that up. Guess we’re starting in the middle of the action next time…

[mild pawn]

Nope! Sped from 2.2 to 2.5 via ||the hidden tunnel||