Re: Vodoni

Static wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> In our last episode, Matthew Dean Reynolds said:
> >While there's been a great deal of discussion about both Unhuman Wars,
> >I've seen very little comment about the Vodoni.  Has anyone out there
> >actually used them in their campaign?
> 
>         I've never used the module -- though it is part of my histories --
> but here's the changes I would make.  First of all, I'd drop the power
> level of everything.  One ship full of berserking werewolves is bad enough.
> Having *thousands* of ships of 'em is a nightmare, and unrealistic.
> Another change I was thinking of was simply making the Vodoni empire
> into a single sphere somehow -- or maybe even two or three -- instead of
> thirteen (or was it twelve?).
> 
>         In my relatively low powered campaign, this module is unplayable
> as it stands.
> 
> -Static
> 
> --
>                          "Read more, kill less."
> 
>                  --==<< http://www.gwr.com/~eshum >>==--
> 

	Actually, I once analyzed the module, and realized that the Vodoni
Empire is really badly overextended.  Only 6 of the 12 spheres has any
use what so ever.  The rest only serve to drain the Emperor's resources
by the maintience of massive garrisons.  Here's my suggestions to make
it believable:

	1: Vodoni Grunts: Roughly same stats as enforcers, except they're 4 HD,
vulnerable to silver and magic weapons, and have AC 5 (hide only). 
These are the troopers of the empire, filling in 90% of the soldiers and
sailors (and killable by crewmen; otherwise, even hardened marines are
no match for an enforcer squad).

	2: Bigger Alliance: More spheres give aide to three under siege. 
Perhaps some of the other space empires would take exception to the
Vodoni expading into a "neutral zone" and attack.

	3: Recent Wars: Under the descriptions of the Empire's spheres, it
lists a few that were taken after a long, bloody campaign.  If the dates
of such campaigns were moved to only a few years before the Vodoni
attack, it could be that the Vodoni have not yet fully recovered and are
very badly overextended.

	4: Radiant Dragons: These creatures are ancient and consider themselves
ruler of the stars.  If it could be proven that the Vodoni murdered some
of them, then the Alliance would have a very powerful, and majorly
ticked, ally.

	5: Realms Wildcards: The Forgotten Realms is rich in magic.  The
wildspace captains could convince some of the more magically aligned
kingdoms to join them, giving them a higher magic than the Vodoni (oh,
your mages are all 14-17?  HA!  Meet Elminster and the crew of the
Mystra's Choice (as all other Alliance ships run for cover)).  Adding
the Red Wizards and the Drow, while not appealling at first, would go a
long way to evening up the odds (after all, they're in danger too!!).

	Hope that helps.

Night Druid