My God. I remember the Dragonwars of Trayth Kickstarter fiasco like it was yesterday. Actually, it was October of 2014 but hey, whose counting?
The posts regarding this Kickstarter probably generated more comments than anything else that's been discussed here at The Tavern, and that's not including the comments from one of those involved in the KS that were subsequently deleted (but saved as screenshots for the sake of history and entertainment value).
Here's the original posts:
Kickstarter - Dragonwars of Trayth - Tabletop RPG (Pathfinder / OSRIC) - Revised with new Pics and Awesome Legal Threat!
Wayward Kickstarter - Dragonwars of Trayth - Tabletop RPG (Pathfinder / OSRIC) - Indtroducing The PR Fail
Tales from the Backwater Tavern
Closing the Door on Dragonwars of Trayth Kickstarter - Restoring the Deleted Comments
So, here we are and the first installment of a 25 piece epic series known as Dragonwars of Trayth (yes, 25 parts) is available as a free download on RPGnow. Oh, and a free character sheet download (ignore the misspelling in the file name, "character" is spelled correctly on the actual sheet. DO NOT print out all four pages, the first two are simply ads and color ink killers)
Did I mention you can get the character sheets in Pathfinder and OSRIC flavors but the module is only available for Pathfinder thus far.
You know you want to. I WANT TO. And I shall. It is, sadly, pushing away other titles from the top of the review pile (Ed Greenwood's the Terrible Revenge of Simpering Malexineuss the Pretender may still go first)
Remember, the download is free and your time is precious.
I've been waiting for you to notice this. I wonder how long it will take before the threat of a lawsuit.
ReplyDeletedamn it Charles - you should have told me ;)
DeleteI here they may be at GaryCon this year...
Wow, I have only scanned the first few pages, and am staring at the screen in utter amazement. I think even at this price, the cost it a bit too high...
ReplyDeleteIt opens with such a sledgehammer between the eyes of a railroad plot that I had flashbacks to when I was in junior high school.
"[The PCs] awaken just after sunrise and have no memories of their past... No matter which way they choose to travel, a patrol from Alroth will ride out to them. They start with no possessions"
Yet, these 1st level characters that don't have a clue who they are, or why they are there, will be welcomed to town as the chosen ones spoken of in a prophecy, given a bunch of loot with almost no questions asked, and will meet a god almost immediately to be given extra information and support.
Combine all of this with the amazing lack of punctuation adn it just yanks me out of the realm of willing suspension of disbelief before I have had a chance to get comfy in my seat. Which is a shame, because the actual artwork that I see is actually quite nice. The computer generated maps are a bit jarring in contrast, but even those are easy enough to read, and for free, I won't complain.
And the sad part is they think this will convince people to invest in a 25 part adventure...
Oh dear... I just got around to reading the descriptions of the pregens.... what a bunch of Mary Sues!
DeleteAnd some of the descriptors just made me give the screen the confused puppy dog look at least once per character...
How does an 18 year old first level barbarian have a reputation for chasing an opponent until he, or the opponent, is dead?
How can a druid believe he has visions of past lives, yet not believe in reincarnation?!
How does a mere babe in arms elf -- 120 year old, 1st level rogue -- have a reputation for relentlessly pursuing enemies for years, or even decades?
The back stories do not match with the intention of having them be introductory characters, nor do they make any sense -- if the characters have no memories, a couple of descriptive phrases would have made much more sense.
Back in the kickstarter they bragged about having over 30 years gaming experience between all of them, while their webpage only claims 25, and it definitely shows.
I'm not sure how ANYONE of any age gets a reputation for chasing an opponent until the chaser himself is dead. I mean, once you earn that reputation, you won't be around to benefit from it.
DeleteSorry life's to short to fell it with subpar gaming product. I an make those all by myself.
ReplyDeleteThe main point I got from reading the older posts is that Tenkar plans to retire in 3 months (from job, not the tavern)
ReplyDeleteHello, I'm one of the artists working on Dragonwars of Trayth.
ReplyDeleteI understand not everyone is um...enamored by the project so far but constructive feedback is appreciated. The first 6 modules are now available in print and the series will develop through the characters full story arc.
The game will be at GaryCon next week with 8 adventures played on custom 3D boards, so please try it out and hopefully you will enjoy the gameplay.
The descriptions on the GaryCon site look fine. It is quite an impressive line-up of games they are planning to run. I hope they fill and are awesome--that is the kind of marketing needed.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have a field day with this adventure, but first I need to figure out how to unlock the damn PDF to allow copy/paste. Why in the hell do companies prevent you from doing this in PDF's?
ReplyDeleteI'm upto page 7 and the amount of notes, revisions, bad grammar, and downright wonky mechanics lead me to believe that the author(s) have great intentions on what they want this module and Adventure Path to be but miss out on design flow for, encounter challenges, and general adventure data blobs.
ReplyDeleteFor example: The PC's wake up and are told to come with some random guy they just met, well because. From there they must meet someone who then tells them they have to go look for this lost girl who happens to be BFF's with the princess of the kingdom who went missing and she sends her high ranking paladin to make this all happen.
Within 2 pages the PC's are bombarded with information overload and said "Go do this, because I said so."
I feel that the author(s) read the War of the Lance and said "We can make that!" and forgot to realize how horribly received those modules were.
I'll type up a review of this thing and post it on DTRPG, maybe send it to Tenkar for him to post, who knows.
you write the review, I'll print it and await for the threat of a lawsuit :)
DeleteConsider it a deal. I'm sure you know a few good suits :D
DeleteI can't even print out this module, save, export, or otherwise manipulate this PDF. I've never seen this done on any product I've purchased on DTRPG regardless of price.
ReplyDeletewait, you can't print it? not even pieces? how the hell would someone run it if they can't make notes on a physical copy?
DeleteI used both Adobe and Preview (Apples PDF Reader) to view the file.
DeleteAdobe: Unable to Print and Unable to Copy
OSX Preview: Able to copy albeit crudely. When trying to print I get "Without the proper password, you do not have permissions to print this document."
This is the first in a VERY long time I've encountered this type of 'feature'. I seem to recall that on some old PDF's in the early days companies initially had their PDF's locked and learned (by lack of sales and customer outrage) that preventing your buyers from doing whatever they want to their purchases was a Bad Business Decision(tm).
This seems so silly, but quite in line with the publisher's previous stances on social media.
Some days I regret not having a bag of popcorn with me. This is one of them.
ReplyDeleteHere is another fun fact for those of you keeping score: There are 3 versions of this module.
ReplyDelete1. There is the free PDF from DTRPG which has some of the necessary items and fluff ripped out.
2. PDF Version: I assume this is the one that is sold on their store
3. Print Version: I also assume this is the one that is sold on their store.
I got to this point because scattered through this adventure you see "in Full Printed Version" which I take to mean that this free version is even more "restricted".
There are 2 versions available.
ReplyDelete1. The free sample PDF contains Level 1 from the 'Rise of the Dragon Queen' module.
2. The full printed version from the store has 2 Levels and over 80 pages (including the monster pull-out section).
btw, you might have more luck with the download from the Dragonwars facebook page :)
DeleteTwo questions you may or may not have answers for me
1. Why do you, or the powers that be, feel the need to impose this level of restrictions on a FREE PDF?
2. Why should I have to goto another site (Facebook) to download an unrestricted copy of a FREE PDF? Why is the unlocked/unrestricted not hosted on the main DWoT site? What if the customer doesn't have Facebook?
Probably not for you but you may forward it onto someone who does:
I do not understand why a publishing company who is rolling out a 25 module adventure path as their first product, would purposely hinder a potential customer's use of said product. This action, to me, seems counter productive in drawing said customer into potentially purchasing additional content by hampering their first impression with the company.
/Baffled Customer
It's all sorted now. Slight oversight of a missed checkbox.
DeleteSo feel free to print and play. Thanks for downloading.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks for the fix. Glad it was as simple as a minor oversight.
Delete