Question about "The Balance Blade" conclusion

[JediOre]

Mr. Goodman,

You write "the wizard is typically slain by his allies."

I know my crew and this brings a question to mind and I would like your thoughts as author of this adventure.

My gang would not run the wizard through, 99 times out of 100. They would tackle him, knock him out, or otherwise attempt to incapacitate the possessed fellow. Either out of altruistic motives or to get that blade into the hands of a warrior.

How would you rule such an end? Would they escape with the blade and the wizard, who would surely be renouncing the patron either willingly or with strong encouragement of his allies?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks.

[catseye yellow]

Mr. Goodman,

You write "the wizard is typically slain by his allies."

I know my crew and this brings a question to mind and I would like your thoughts as author of this adventure.

My gang would not run the wizard through, 99 times out of 100. They would tackle him, knock him out, or otherwise attempt to incapacitate the possessed fellow. Either out of altruistic motives or to get that blade into the hands of a warrior.

How would you rule such an end? Would they escape with the blade and the wizard, who would surely be renouncing the patron either willingly or with strong encouragement of his allies?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks.

anything you want. bb is convention module created to showcase dcc peculiarities.

[JediOre]

anything you want. bb is convention module created to showcase dcc peculiarities.

Hi Catseye Yellow (Interesting name, how did you come by it? I also like your Cat Lord picture from the old MM2). Your spot on here. It can be anything I want.

That said, I have always enjoyed reading the thoughts of the author of an adventure. How would he have ruled it? Did such a thing occur in a playtest? As my friends know, I do try to keep the author's intent intact, if possible.

[NJPDX]

Hi Catseye Yellow (Interesting name, how did you come by it? I also like your Cat Lord picture from the old MM2). Your spot on here. It can be anything I want.

That said, I have always enjoyed reading the thoughts of the author of an adventure. How would he have ruled it? Did such a thing occur in a playtest? As my friends know, I do try to keep the author's intent intact, if possible.

What do you mean by "author's intent?" I can't claim to speak for any module author, but the "intent" is probably "challenge the players and inspire the judge." Adventures, whether homemade or off-the-shelf should be about emergent, not predetermined outcomes. Otherwise, they'd be writing short fiction and novels instead.

[JediOre]

What do you mean by "author's intent?"

Hello NJPDX,

I mean just what I said.

It is, to me, interesting to gain a better understanding of how the author of a particular module would have played out a given scenario.

If I don't like something, I have no problem ignoring or changing it. None-the-less, insight into the mindset of the author, I think, is important.

[themightyeroc]

I'm not the author, but I ran this adventure for my group. They also wanted to act much like yours, however I allowed the Wizard a choice and I asked him as Sezrekan to prove his worth to me and my patronage up to that point. The Wizard player had always rolled well when asking for aid from his Patron. Anyway, the Player decided he wanted to join the "Dark side" if you will and I had he and the party roll for initiative..... the Wizard won and KILLED everyone by spellburning Color spray, knocking them all out and slitting their throats! It was AMAZING!

The aftermath was a Player who elected to not join them for the Balance Blade scenario discovered what befell his friends. He then alone made a Pact with 3 different Gods to snatch back his friend's souls that were trapped beyond space & time for the promise that they would then hunt down and slay their former friend "the wizard", Kill him and retrieve the Balance Blade.

That little side adventure set up the rest of our campaign that up to this pint had just been about roaming about and going on adventures, suddenly the party created a goal that they all are eager to achieve, even the Player who the Wizard belonged to, his back-up characters have joined this quest as well. It was pretty amazing and they chose to do it all on their own.

[Pesky]

That little side adventure set up the rest of our campaign that up to this pint had just been about roaming about and going on adventures, suddenly the party created a goal that they all are eager to achieve, even the Player who the Wizard belonged to, his back-up characters have joined this quest as well. It was pretty amazing and they chose to do it all on their own.

That is awesome! Congrats on having such a creative group of players.

[JediOre]

Thanks for sharing what your gang did TheMightyEroc.

That was interesting and it seems you have a great group.