tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post1485944664701516052..comments2024-03-18T07:25:03.802-07:00Comments on Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: an edition-agnostic adventure for D&DJoseph Manolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-86692491570360478612022-04-17T03:08:10.939-07:002022-04-17T03:08:10.939-07:00Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Editi...Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Edition-Agnostic Adventure For D And D >>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?32" rel="nofollow">Download Now</a></b><br><br>>>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?21" rel="nofollow">Download Full</a></b><br><br>Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Edition-Agnostic Adventure For D And D >>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?26" rel="nofollow">Download LINK</a></b><br><br>>>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?63" rel="nofollow">Download Now</a></b><br><br>Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Edition-Agnostic Adventure For D And D >>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?78" rel="nofollow">Download Full</a></b><br><br>>>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?70" rel="nofollow">Download LINK</a></b> m7 Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-30328784403928961912022-04-17T03:07:46.693-07:002022-04-17T03:07:46.693-07:00Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Editi...Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Edition-Agnostic Adventure For D And D >>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?32" rel="nofollow">Download Now</a></b><br><br>>>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?21" rel="nofollow">Download Full</a></b><br><br>Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Edition-Agnostic Adventure For D And D >>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?26" rel="nofollow">Download LINK</a></b><br><br>>>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?63" rel="nofollow">Download Now</a></b><br><br>Against The Wicked City: The White Tower: An Edition-Agnostic Adventure For D And D >>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?78" rel="nofollow">Download Full</a></b><br><br>>>>>> <b><a href="http://8on8.top/dkI7q?70" rel="nofollow">Download LINK</a></b> WT Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-67362750071930424192021-08-01T22:37:17.014-07:002021-08-01T22:37:17.014-07:00-What does the cleaver represent, then? Is the Coo...-What does the cleaver represent, then? Is the Cook even a Rival at all?<br />-The Stone might not be an *attempt* to take Lucia away from herself, but it sure does represent her separation. Also, you put it behind a serious challenge, and didn't signpost it as a weird easter-egg type bonus. It <i>should</i> be a key item, doubly so since there's an actual bonus room one floor back.<br />-Not needing all the keys *is* a good thing; sorry I wasn't clear about that. I just think adjusting the number of keys required to the amount of time you have to play is a good idea. I think this adventure works better as a oneshot.<br />-All the ghosts vanishing makes sense; all the ghosts <i>killing each other</i> seems like it might be kinda dissatisfying. The Cook in particular might be following the party so they can keep her on suicide watch, and the Maid can explicitly be talked into letting Lucia's favor go for Lucia's benefit. I might have ghosts who've been talked down promptly vanish, their underlying trauma having been dealt with.<br />(I don't like treating sapphic love as *unusually* salvific, since it feels like it's mostly based in cynicism. Kids are nice, y'know?)<br />-Did you have any idea for the ending if <i>all</i> of the Rivals have been dealt with? I suspect it would work best if Orazio shows up alone, more in the role of Lord than Husband, and the resulting interaction is some kind of microcosm for the ruin Lucia and Orazio's house brought to each other, possibly with reconciliation at the end.<br />-I doubt players are supposed to interfere in the ending cutscene, so maybe they ghosts involved are obviously transparent, non-hanged, and non-interactable? That, or there should be some provision for players interfering. Maybe one of the PCs wants to be a Rival themselves?Horatio Von Beckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04335352598096828392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-66488958320763483342021-07-31T06:16:43.393-07:002021-07-31T06:16:43.393-07:00No problem - thanks for the feedback! Lucia's ...No problem - thanks for the feedback! Lucia's wedding ring could be made a key object, though I'd make it an additional one rather than a replacement for one of the others. (The cleaver and the stone wouldn't work symbolically - neither represents an attempt to take Lucia away from herself.) Putting the painting in the entrance hall as foreshadowing is a great idea! <br /><br />The lake deliberately doesn't require all the items, as this means it's OK if the PCs miss some. It also means they can keep any two items if they want to, including the dagger, and still complete the adventure. You could give some kind of extra bonus if the PCs just keep throwing the damn things in, though. <br /><br />As written all the ghosts are doomed. Giuliano isn't even one of Lucia's 'suitors', and he'll still vanish once the curse is broken, even if the PCs don't kill him. (Symbolically this is because they're not so much people as trauma-echoes, and thus dissipate once the underlying trauma is resolved.) I take your point that PCs might be disappointed about not being able to save Bianca or Hortensia even after talking them down, though. If you were in a forgiving mood you could make them exceptions, ultimately redeemed by the salvific power of lesbian love!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-7328779912178648102021-07-28T23:29:58.174-07:002021-07-28T23:29:58.174-07:00This is pretty good. Reminds me of some of the adv...This is pretty good. Reminds me of some of the adventure games I've played. Reads well even without the sort of background I'd need to catch the Symbolism.<br /><br />I do want to nitpick the level design in two respects.Firstly, the basement area should have key items, since there's three Rooms and two fights there, including a Rival. Obvious candidates are the cleaver and the engraved stone.<br />Secondly, I would move the painting from the Library down to the entry hall, and give it pride of place. It'd set the scene better, and give the entry a bit of flavor.<br />Thirdly, I'd try to balance the trinkets better among the cast. The poor, prominent Maid only has one trinket, and the not-particularly-interesting Artist has two. Making the painting anonymous would help. I might also give the Gardener a trinket focused on how sad he was that Lucia was taking so much of the Doctor's attention.<br />And finally, I'd offer a bit more leeway in the lake's stages, so that completionists can use all the keys. (And maybe get the dagger back, since it's magic? Or maybe it shouldn't be an heirloom dagger.)<br />Oh, wait. Actual final thing. The Rivals killing each other in a scripted cutscene might be kind of unsatisfying, since the Maid and the Cook both have non-violent solutions, and the Cook in particular may have already been prevented from committing suicide. Also, just killing them all might keep the party from seeing a cool cutscene.<br />As such, I'd suggest that any Rivals *who haven't been talked down* show up for the fight, and if they have all been diplomanced, run the final scene as a forgiveness thing.<br /><br />Anyway, good mix of lore, key items, and point-scoring items (the sellable stuff). Good room to read into things, too. Thanks for posting it!Horatio Von Beckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04335352598096828392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-39241385793810885442021-07-28T20:47:34.528-07:002021-07-28T20:47:34.528-07:00Maybe you could frame it as a "one way I was ...Maybe you could frame it as a "one way I was told this" sort of thing? Multiple versions of a fairy tale.Horatio Von Beckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04335352598096828392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-73105997532204900532020-12-14T13:04:53.262-08:002020-12-14T13:04:53.262-08:00Thanks - hope you find something in there worth us...Thanks - hope you find something in there worth using!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-72833580085525544762020-12-14T09:51:46.878-08:002020-12-14T09:51:46.878-08:00This is really good stuff!This is really good stuff!Gwythainthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05184355400691527355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-58542554159963882022020-11-01T03:25:23.752-08:002020-11-01T03:25:23.752-08:00Great stuff. Glad to hear you got a good session o...Great stuff. Glad to hear you got a good session out of it!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-62803877639063767592020-10-31T18:22:31.474-07:002020-10-31T18:22:31.474-07:00The fights were good. I had the maid whip out twin...The fights were good. I had the maid whip out twin daggers when they tried to take the handkerchief. She jumped on one characters shoulders and started stabbing him in the neck. Everyone about had a heart attack because she transitioned so rapidly from crying to beserker rage when they tried to grab her precious kerchief. The best fight was, by far, the rose poison room. I used your dream sequence idea on a night in the woods on the way there as more foreshadowing. I explained that in the dream the roses choked the character and sucked his blood and it was something feeding on his life. So that character when they got in the room and finally discovered the lady in the roses willingly allowed the rose/thorn embrace, hoping he could revive her. But after a bit he realized it was killing him. By that point another character had failed a save and was falling asleep. It got pretty chaotic at that point as the other characters now knew it was dangerous and started hacking (failing) the rose branches. Which caused all the rose blossoms to "vape" at the same time, obscuring vision and forcing more saves. One player tried to throw some burning oil and missed. Then they finally figured to use the dagger they had retrieved and it worked they barely made it out alive. It was super tense. Loved it. By the time they found the bandages, they were in dire need. <br /><br />mbeacomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03674702605226704063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-52222364065497816472020-10-31T14:44:50.856-07:002020-10-31T14:44:50.856-07:00Hurrah! Playtest data!
I'm very glad to hear...Hurrah! Playtest data! <br /><br />I'm very glad to hear it worked for you, especially with such minimal changes. I guess I should have realised the possibility that 'water turns blood red' might be interpreted as 'you're doing it wrong'. Well done for keeping the show on the road!<br /><br />Distance distortions in the forest are a good idea. Did the fights work OK? Did the ghosts get a chance to use their powers before getting beaten down?<br /><br />Thanks again for the report. I'm always delighted when something I've written makes it into actual play!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-41193514535382829162020-10-31T08:10:38.777-07:002020-10-31T08:10:38.777-07:00Hello!
I've had this bookmarked since you pub...Hello! <br />I've had this bookmarked since you published it in case I had a chance to run my annual Halloween game session. And thank the maker, it worked out. I had this up my sleeve. Ran it and it was great. I love published adventures because they save me the hard work of creating a scenario with a beginning middle,end, characters motivations, a location, mood etc. All I have to do is customize them to my group, which only I can do. This almost always involved the hook. When you're running a campaign, you have to insert content in a way that furthers or at least doesn't contradict from the main conceits of the game. The game I was running is a pretty simple "tale of heroes" so getting them involved was as simple as hearing rumors of a haunted forest surrounding a mysterious tower where stories tell of a bizarre happening. And that the land was taken by the forest. Homes, farmsteads, etc were overgrown and citizens were pushed out. It took about 5 seconds for the team of heroic adventurers to recognize this was a job for them, to explore the tower, solve the mystery and reclaim the land for the good people of the realm. And that's just what they did. They headed there, had the spooky sightings in the forest, giving great foreshadowing of what they would find. This game them a chance to start to formulate ideas of what happened. I was able to gently guide their thinking towards a murder. So of course they were then motivated to solve it, find out who was murdered, by whom, and why. It quickly becomes apparent there is a very elaborate love triangle (or as we called it, a love PENTangle, lol). My group was thinking siren, so the book open to that page was a good head fake. Ultimately when it became clear she was a sea nymph, a lot more pieces fell into place. The hint "give me back to me" actually worked out far better than I expected. My group immediately though they needed to bring the things to her. It was just a matter of figuring out where she was. So I simply went back through the stuff they had discovered such as the painting of her by the lake and they immediately wanted to go there. One of them immediately tossed the handkerchief in the lake. Saw the churn and figured they'd throw more stuff in. When the second item turned the water blood red, they assumed that was a mistake. That some things were good to throw in and some bad, so I had to redirect them on that. But otherwise, it really went fantastically well. I played up the eerie nature of the forest on the approach. Distances were contorted. They were easily lost and their camp at first seemed to disappear, and then was overgrown. The "ranger" type character ended up putting stakes in the ground as reference points which I told him made it clear that there was a visual distortion present everywhere. Once he did that I allowed them to navigate normally and considered the forest problem "solved". It was super fun. Thanks for writing it up!mbeacomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03674702605226704063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-17616619087240926242020-10-20T03:41:45.791-07:002020-10-20T03:41:45.791-07:00Well, it's meant to be ambiguous, just like th...Well, it's meant to be ambiguous, just like the texts its emulating. In particular, the extent of Lucia's guilt or innocence is deliberately unclear: her killers all certainly *believed* that they had been seduced and bewitched by some kind of horrible sea-monster, but any or all of that could have been projection on their part. The crucial point is that, justifiably or otherwise, they responded by trying to define her to death. Thus the denouement. Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-14510742910080956322020-10-20T02:03:03.353-07:002020-10-20T02:03:03.353-07:00Oh boy, now I get it. So it's about returning ...Oh boy, now I get it. So it's about returning the things taken from her. Personally, I certainly wouldn't have caught on at the table, though. In my defense, D&D dungeons don't often warrant interpreting as if they were complex literary texts—I mean, in 99% of cases it would just lead to overanalysis, so most players probably wouldn't have the habit. Also, the "it came from the sea" theming becomes a bit of a red herring: for a while it looks like the solution is "there was never a woman, only a sea beast." Bottom line, I was reading this and not playing, you signposted the literary roots of this, and I was still too dumb to see the symbolism, so here are my excuses. Thank god for anonymity!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-64308392078448469542020-10-17T23:05:57.507-07:002020-10-17T23:05:57.507-07:00This is fantastic! I'd love to run this one. T...This is fantastic! I'd love to run this one. Thank you.<br /><br />I also appreciate the anonymous comment above, and your response. This kind of discussion is really helpful for envisioning how I would make this work at the table.<br /><br />That said, this is one of those RPG things that's actually a joy to read, so even if I don't get to run it I've still gotten a lot out of it already. Good stuff!Justin Stewarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05885816572933013245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-76290800791055097812020-10-17T13:37:16.413-07:002020-10-17T13:37:16.413-07:00Thanks for your thoughts on this. I run very sandb...Thanks for your thoughts on this. I run very sandboxy games, so I'm perfectly happy to have a map scattered with locations that PCs never visit, or places where they glance around, have a couple of weird encounters, do a little light looting, and then wander off without ever really working out what was going on. But I agree that if you wanted to use this as 'tonight's adventure' rather than 'random hex-fodder' then you'd want a much stronger hook. Your suggestion - 'you've just inherited a haunted forest, now go drive the ghosts out' is a great one. The PCs could also be sent there looking for something (e.g. Lucia's jewellery), or for someone - maybe a local villager who became obsessed with Lucia's story, and was last seen heading for the tower...<br /><br />I think I'd want to keep the lake as the key location: it's already fairly clearly signposted. (Just mentioning that the lake they see from the roof must be the same one depicted in the painting should do the trick.) I agree that 'throw stuff into the lake' could be more clearly telegraphed. Making Lucia a bit more talkative and a bit less dead would be an easy way to hand out hints via dreams, voices on the wind, etc. <br /><br />I don't feel that the solution is arbitrary, though, and I'd hope that most players will grasp at least part of the underlying symbolic logic. The divorce papers, drawing, medical diagnosis, painting, and statue are all parts of the same process of violent objectification that culminated in Lucia's stabbing: each of them took part of her from herself, until finally she was virtually nothing at all. That's why she needs them back before she can rise again!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-33206327697690261212020-10-17T12:52:59.748-07:002020-10-17T12:52:59.748-07:00You said it, Yami Bakura! I couldn't have put...You said it, Yami Bakura! I couldn't have put it better myself! <br /><br />Reading Joseph's post gives a feeling like wearing a fez and a smoking jacket, sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, sipping brandy, puffing on a hot coal of opium like the Trampier illustration of the rakshasa in the Monster Manual.Karel Machahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00753758856975674463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-73836490211401065482020-10-17T06:18:50.590-07:002020-10-17T06:18:50.590-07:00Stellar stuff. The only minor and easily fixable d...Stellar stuff. The only minor and easily fixable downsides are—I mean, this stuff is great and it's been praised properly in earlier comments, so I'll keep to this—the downsides, in my opinion, are that the "throw five items into the lake" solution doesn't necessarily follow from the problem as presented ("free the land from the monster lady") and the PCs don't seem to have any reason to meddle with any of this in the first place. There's no reason to even go to the tower; when there, there's no reason to mess with the haunting, considering the ghosts want nothing and pose no direct threat, they're just hanging around; having learned the goal of the adventure from the dead guy, there's no reason to go out of one's way to save the perfectly unpopulated place from the haunting; and even if players decide to exorcise the place, collecting five trinkets and throwing them into a remote forest lake seems arbitrary in a way that may not be satisfying to discover.<br /><br />But all of that is easily fixable, because the scenario itself is so good. One of the PCs may be that distant relative from the epilogue, giving them a reason to exorcise the place. The tower needn't even crumble and can be a treasure in itself. Really, I'd say that for gameplay purposes just destroying the fetishes would be enough without having to look for a lake. This loses some cool imagery but is probably better for the table. Alternatively, there can be a direct unmissable hint that you need to throw some stuff into some lake, and the players will be left with a puzzle: which stuff and what lake is this talking about? Then they may start to notice that each ghost has a trinket, discover a lake from the painting and/or the roof, and have a cool a-ha moment.<br /><br />Amazing stuff, as always.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-7985698181274613332020-10-15T07:01:23.809-07:002020-10-15T07:01:23.809-07:00Thanks, I think. Though the rape cannibals were on...Thanks, I think. Though the rape cannibals were only ever a small (albeit noisy) part of the overall landscape, and I think they've mostly wandered off now. Or maybe eaten each other.Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-24925576407018567502020-10-15T05:47:16.360-07:002020-10-15T05:47:16.360-07:00Nice to see an OSR adventure above the level of &q...Nice to see an OSR adventure above the level of "here is a dungeon, go loot it" and free of gratuitous porn cannibal rape gore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-12330588251452785542020-10-14T03:37:56.083-07:002020-10-14T03:37:56.083-07:00And thus my decision to explain nothing pays off!
...And thus my decision to explain nothing pays off!<br /><br />(In writing the adventure I had my own ideas about what 'really' happened, but I wouldn't want to impose them on anyone else. This sort of story works much better if it leaves some room for speculation...)Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-60896154688760627402020-10-13T15:34:05.738-07:002020-10-13T15:34:05.738-07:00"Still so very far above the sea" made m..."Still so very far above the sea" made me think that it was connected to Lucia somehow, yeah (before I got to the end, I thought that WAS Lucia)<br /><br />To tie it into symbolic roles, perhaps this isn't the first time this family has gone to the sea for a bride? Annon #8107https://www.blogger.com/profile/16869484989966434932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-37678509940296632192020-10-13T13:11:18.757-07:002020-10-13T13:11:18.757-07:00Thanks, both!Thanks, both!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-65615973857157048422020-10-13T12:33:42.120-07:002020-10-13T12:33:42.120-07:00This is some A+ folklore and spook story, and it m...This is some A+ folklore and spook story, and it makes ghosts interesting things to engage with. Really, really good job. Joshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11103061574208320331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-2956712331663474122020-10-13T11:47:27.817-07:002020-10-13T11:47:27.817-07:00Horror, mingled with beauty and sorrow. Terrible ...Horror, mingled with beauty and sorrow. Terrible sadness paired with tragedy and violence. I love it. Posts like this remind me of why I love D&D in general and this blog in particular. Yami Bakurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17266174008401745128noreply@blogger.com