Storm Riders
Tag line: The Horde is riding!
Makers: TSR for AD&D 2nd edition (Forgotten Realms)
What is it?
The first module in the Empires Adventures Trilogy, the first adventure taking place in the steppes described in The Horde campaign box. Your 5-7th level characters flee from 40,000 barbaric horsemen and fall smack dab into AD&D's version of Tibet.
Neat stuff
-It's a fair oriental-style adventure for Euro-types, with a Dalai Lama, mountainous monasteries and Confucius wisdom.
-We don't often see adventures geared toward mid-orient settings. The elements are pulled from India, Tibet and oriental Russia, which is a refreshing change from the maidens in castles and samourai in dojos we're used to.
-The hook, twists, puzzles and dilemmas, I think, are well done.
Bad stuff
-Having to buy 3 adventures to get a complete tale always bothered me, especially when the appropriate levels jumped between modules. So I have to allow my players to go up 2 levels during this one adventure just so they're ready for the next chapter?
-Well, it's D&D isn't it? By that I mean that monsters popping up to fight, and magic items found or given, are all a little contrived, even in this adventure which isn't a dungeon crawl (there are still ruins to - sigh - explore). But this may be a personal bias.
Quote
"Should the party insist on inspecting the Tuigans' tongues..."
In conclusion
A good change of pace from the usual setting, playable even without The Hordes (IMO). On its strength, I also purchased the 2 other chapters.
How I've used it
As a Dream Park scenario. Converting to Dream Park isn't too hard a task, structurally, because each story stands on its own. Elements to change include the title of the story to something properly ambiguous so that there's a challenge to selecting your equipment, spells and skills. I chose "The Horse and the Lama". You also need a proper teaser, so that the characters are thrown into jeopardy as soon as the doors open. Thankfully, the module provides one, as the Horde chases the characters to a ravine on the border of the faux-Tibet. Other than that, there are stats to think of, ignoring quite a lot of monsters (which I would do anyway) and treasure (that goes double - I don't think magic items in an abandonned monastery's bed is proper treasure allocation).
In Dream Park, you're also a little more encouraged to kill off a couple characters since their "actors" can return as villains later in the scenario. My notes show a 50% kill ratio here, but the fault isn't all mine. My good friend Paul Ward is a rat bastard when it comes to making appointments he can't keep, so while he called for the second part of the adventure to be played on a Sunday morning (with half of us on a hangover), he plum forgot about it and started ripping out his carpets with his brother instead. As usual, he gave us permission to kill his character off, which we did in the usual manner: by throwing him off a cliff. The twist this time: He had been forzen solid and broke into a million pieces. The other death was (frequent replyer) Pout, who refused to listen to hints about feeling intangible when he took the wrong path towards the end of the adventure, and wound up ceasing to exist. That's harsh, but you gotta respect what it says in you fortune cookie.
It was a very different kind of tale, with lots of mysticism, riddles, exotic customs to be followed and an epic, if zen, ending, made better I think, by the removal of any random encounters. Lots of spelunking too, and the mountain environment can be played to good effect. Wish I'd see Michael Palin's Himalaya before I ran it, but it had more than enough texture by itself. Always meant to run the other parts at yearly intervals, but our Dream Park campaign collapsed. Ah well.
Tag line: The Horde is riding!Makers: TSR for AD&D 2nd edition (Forgotten Realms)
What is it?
The first module in the Empires Adventures Trilogy, the first adventure taking place in the steppes described in The Horde campaign box. Your 5-7th level characters flee from 40,000 barbaric horsemen and fall smack dab into AD&D's version of Tibet.
Neat stuff
-It's a fair oriental-style adventure for Euro-types, with a Dalai Lama, mountainous monasteries and Confucius wisdom.
-We don't often see adventures geared toward mid-orient settings. The elements are pulled from India, Tibet and oriental Russia, which is a refreshing change from the maidens in castles and samourai in dojos we're used to.
-The hook, twists, puzzles and dilemmas, I think, are well done.
Bad stuff
-Having to buy 3 adventures to get a complete tale always bothered me, especially when the appropriate levels jumped between modules. So I have to allow my players to go up 2 levels during this one adventure just so they're ready for the next chapter?
-Well, it's D&D isn't it? By that I mean that monsters popping up to fight, and magic items found or given, are all a little contrived, even in this adventure which isn't a dungeon crawl (there are still ruins to - sigh - explore). But this may be a personal bias.
Quote
"Should the party insist on inspecting the Tuigans' tongues..."
In conclusion
A good change of pace from the usual setting, playable even without The Hordes (IMO). On its strength, I also purchased the 2 other chapters.
How I've used it
As a Dream Park scenario. Converting to Dream Park isn't too hard a task, structurally, because each story stands on its own. Elements to change include the title of the story to something properly ambiguous so that there's a challenge to selecting your equipment, spells and skills. I chose "The Horse and the Lama". You also need a proper teaser, so that the characters are thrown into jeopardy as soon as the doors open. Thankfully, the module provides one, as the Horde chases the characters to a ravine on the border of the faux-Tibet. Other than that, there are stats to think of, ignoring quite a lot of monsters (which I would do anyway) and treasure (that goes double - I don't think magic items in an abandonned monastery's bed is proper treasure allocation).
In Dream Park, you're also a little more encouraged to kill off a couple characters since their "actors" can return as villains later in the scenario. My notes show a 50% kill ratio here, but the fault isn't all mine. My good friend Paul Ward is a rat bastard when it comes to making appointments he can't keep, so while he called for the second part of the adventure to be played on a Sunday morning (with half of us on a hangover), he plum forgot about it and started ripping out his carpets with his brother instead. As usual, he gave us permission to kill his character off, which we did in the usual manner: by throwing him off a cliff. The twist this time: He had been forzen solid and broke into a million pieces. The other death was (frequent replyer) Pout, who refused to listen to hints about feeling intangible when he took the wrong path towards the end of the adventure, and wound up ceasing to exist. That's harsh, but you gotta respect what it says in you fortune cookie.
It was a very different kind of tale, with lots of mysticism, riddles, exotic customs to be followed and an epic, if zen, ending, made better I think, by the removal of any random encounters. Lots of spelunking too, and the mountain environment can be played to good effect. Wish I'd see Michael Palin's Himalaya before I ran it, but it had more than enough texture by itself. Always meant to run the other parts at yearly intervals, but our Dream Park campaign collapsed. Ah well.
Comments