Dead Gods campaign, how was it for you? (minor spoilers)

Haven't had a chance to run this campaign yet myself but I was wondering did you guys connect it to the Great Modron March at all or just run Dead Gods by itself?

The only thing to watch out for - having seen this in Shemmie's campaign recently - is to be sure to give the players a feeling of hope/effectiveness. Having the bad guys be truly *bad* is good - but you'll need to keep close tabs on both the IC and OOC mentality of your players to keep them wanting to try to take them out. You should do well.

And remember the biggest flaw of stereotypical evil:

When feeling even slightly threatened, BBEG's overreact and kill insignificant characters' whole Friends and Family Plan, thereby turning a schmuck into a highly-motivated adventuring machine. All you need is an augury and a touch of extremism.

Scenario.

Orcus: "Will these insignificant peons affect my plan if not stopped?"
Augury: "Maybe."
Orcus: "Eliminate their entire lives. That'll teach them not to get involved."

-SPLAT-

Hero: "Orcus killed my whole Friends and Family Calling Circle, I have no one to talk to, and this strange hate on. Where's my sword?"
Hero #2:"He killed my whole internet forum! I'll help!"

Heheheheh.

How I love divinations...

My own experiences with Dead Gods was kind of messy. For one, my PCs were of a slightly higher level, so the beginning of the campaign was too easy for them. So I had to alter that a bit.

Now, the problems began after chapter III, when they were hurled towards Bottom of the Universe (actually had to help them get there too), as they had no idea whatsoever as to what they were doing there. And the hints given there did help much either. I did not want to spoil too much of the story already, so instead of giving the interludes, I had the vampire drow say a few things about his terrible master before he committed suicide (which was also a hard thing to do, as the Paladin of the party actually tried to rescue him and succeeded quite well with his rope of entanglement :roll: ; one piece of advice: don't give anyone a rope of entanglement).

The real problem was with the Vault of the Drow. There was no way my mostly Lawful Good party was going to cooperate with drow (and it is hard to see why the drow would do so either), so I had to rewrite this entire chapter to make it more realistic.

After that, I kept on having to rewrite parts of the story as PCs were doing things that weren't covered in the story, including some really clever thinking. It's just my PCs to be totally screwy at one moment, and totally brilliant the next.

The final flaw lay with the Visages themselves, as they had powers that were actually too powerful. If I had used them to the fullest, the PCs would never have been able to best them, even though they were of higher level than recommended.

To be honest, it was the last premade campaign I'll ever play. It had really good ideas in it, and a good story, but there was just too much altering to be done in the end. So now I write all my own stories (and do so one or two sessions at a time).

One thing though: it has been four years since we played this and in that time, nobody forgot the words "Badir". As bad as "Out of the Darkness went", so well did "Into the Light" perform.

Yeah, I had some real problems with Dead Gods as well. I mean, it had its moments, but it was really hard to get the PCs to actually work out where they were meant to go next...

I ran From the Darkness simultaneously with Into the Light, too, which confused them even more - the plot lines don't connect, but in the early stages it seems like they might.

But, when we hit the checking out Pelion bit the PCs finally twigged on - and decided to 'get their hate on' and go after whoever this evil guy is. Yes, they basically decided to go after Tenebrous because he had killed one of the two proxies protecting the Last Word, and their past characters (for the flashback) really liked those two.

I have no idea why.

But, I did add a fair bit to the campaign as well, just to keep things interesting - notable adversaries like the Shadowknave and Green Marvent from that 1st-level Dustie adventure, as well as a few characters from my own interludes including a disgraced Knight of the Rose from Krynn and a halfling from Dark Sun.

It worked out OK in the end, I guess, but it is a lot of effort to run the thing, and I can see how most of the time it would be a miss rather than a hit. It did have some great highlights though (trying to communicate with the Xag-yi in Tcian Sumere, for one), so I figure it was worth it.

I'm gonna transfer my FR campaign into Planescape, and intend to play The Modron March followed by Dead Gods.

Well, I usually think that, since the characters are quite different, their goals and motivations can be quite different. So, there are at two guys in the group who will, as soon as they hear about it, want The Wand of Orcus for themselves. Others will want to help 'cause that's what they do. And the neutral ones can be pursued by the Harmonium or others 'cause they made some mess...

Aren't you sleeping with him? Why threaten him with pointy object when you could just freeze him out of bed?

Of course, Shemmy's comment could be taken an entirely different way. "Nibbling on the carrot" indeed...

I think that using the "powerplay" factor is also a pretty good one to lure the players in to a campaign. In the case of DG, it may be enough to just give the players a promise of power; all they got to do is to follow that trail. If they are evil they can't resist the temptation. It will be impossible to pass an opportunity to learn of the Last Word!
(Killing all close relatives will work just as nicely with good and neutral chars, of course )