Re: Under the Dark Fist

*L*

Ah! My fellow jammers... Dark Fist was yet another module which, while it
seems to elicit groans from the list, I loved, and my players did as well.

Yes, though, it needed tweaking to say the least. My major adjustment was
[due to the relatively high-magic/level environment of teh campaign Cs at
the time] was to boost the regular Vodoni wolfmen to their Enforcer status.
I simply felt the grunt versions too weak to keep up with my players. Also,
I increased teh number of Breeders present on most ships encountered.  And,
the dragons guarding the gem mines on that iceball planet in the
Vodonisphere became a huge community, jealously guarding their charges.
These few tweaks made for an exciting series of nights that my players
really looked forward to, and i enjoyed DMing.

OK, now... for the complaints. Well, i feel that there could have been a
generic spell list for the Breeders offered somewhere to make things a bit
easier for myself; I'm sure you all know what an ass-pain compiling a
spell-list for an 18th level mage is! I wound up using all the wacky new
spells from the ToM, and any Dragon mags i could find, to confront the
players with new, nasty unknown spells from this alien sphere. I still have
a generic listing available [includes the powers for the Vodoni Staff o'
Power they all carried, if anyone could use it] in Word format.

I was OK with the ships, but I added a "Cerebus" dreadnought class, a
triple-headed ship of a bit over 100 tons with a load of weapons and attack
troops added, once the home-sphere was breached.

I, too, was totally disappointed with the lack of detail in a miles-high
tower. however, think about it, an air-land war is raging outside, adn the
players are going to have a real part in the outcome. I was not prepped for
a Battlesystems siege, so, having fisticuffs that end the war in about an
hour [*L*] was a more convenient set up for me.

Also bad was the lame set-ups for the other spheres of the V-empire. What
the heck was all that? I think the writers just threw some wierd ideas
together and passed it off as "this is for you, the DM, to develope
further".. come on!

I would also like to include my ~major~ addition: Vulkaran was, in fact, an
alien minion for Arioch, from the now-OOP Melnibonean mythos from Deities &
Demigods' first printing. Elric made an appearance too, heh!  A few
adventures occured later wherein Vulkaran, now changed into an enslaved
Planetar-status spirit for the charaters' forces [haunting  the
starfish-like battle station that commands their fleet], is set free by
Arioch, and takes their ship after slaughtering the crew. The characters
have to return to the Vodoni sphere to retake the ship, recapture the loose
& vengeful spirit, and finally confront Elric and Stormbringer in a battle
that wiped out several beloved artifacts and nearly slew a major PC forever.

But, they all lived happily ever after. :)

~ADA~


>From: Ahzad <ahzad@???????.com>
>Reply-To: Spelljammer <SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com>
>To: SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com
>Subject: [SPELLJAMMER] Under the Dark Fist
>Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 11:00:06 -0500
>
>Hi all,
>     I've got a question about Under the Dark Fist, now quit all that
>groaning :o) I can hear you :o)
>     Not being on the list for a great deal of time I've missed out on a
>lot
>of the complaints and what-not about the various SJ products. I have
>garnered a bit of info about how folks feel about various things, Athas
>used
>to cause massive flame wars, Astromundi Cluster while it was a good start,
>but left most feeling it was rushed and half-done, ect., ect.
>      Under the Dark Fist is what I want to know about, I've seen
>references
>to it in the past and the overwhelming majority IIRC have been negative.
>Why? While I didn't care for some of the aspects of it, and I'll list what
>I
>don't like. I found overall that UtDF was a well done skeleton that a DM
>could use to run an epic campaign from, and isn't that what most want from
>a
>product, a skeleton that they can flesh out to the ideals of their own
>campaign.
>       Things that I didn't like and would most likely change should I ever
>want to use UtDF would be...
>Vulkran's palace/ship, I didn't like the "dungeon" that's big enough to fly
>your ship around in in Wildspace and I don't like it here either.
>The Vodoni ship designs, I didn't care for they way they looked. I had no
>problem with the extended range weapons, after all it wasn't that big of a
>stretch for me to imagine that someone could come up with a more advanced
>version of them.
>Crystal spiders didn't care for them at all and I can't say for sure why, I
>just took a dislike to them.
>The gnomish ambassadors names, why is it that every freakin' gnome has to
>be
>comedy relief?
>The Vodoni themselves I like the wolf-like humanoids, but I'm not sure I
>care for the lycanthropy bit I've never been able to decide how I feel
>about
>this for sure. It sure makes them scary as hell, but I think if it came
>down
>to it I'd keep them and lose the lycanthropy and just give them beserking
>tendencies.
>     There may be a few other tidbits that I've missed, but I haven't
>looked
>at it in quite some time, but the fixes for my dislikes are easy enough and
>don't bother me that much.
>     So I ask what specifically didn't you like about it? Was it the whole
>intestellar war thing? To grand of a scope? Were the things you found wrong
>with it to great to fix so it wouldn't be worth the time to do?
>
>     Along the same vein, what was your favorite published SJ product
>outside
>the core box? Mine I think would have to be Skulls and Crossbones, I have
>found memories about that one. I used it for a long time dropping an
>encounter here and there. The players really enjoyed it as well and it's
>the
>groups favorite as well. They hated Cain and loved the Barre Sinster after
>I
>fleshed it out.
>
>I look forward to reading your comments.
>
>Terry
>(ICQ#59496435)
>
>"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - A.Einstein
>
>Visit my Spelljammer page at http://www.geocities.com/ahzad  Home of the
>Guide to the Known Spheres.
>
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