DCC#53: Sellswords Of Punjar

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doug99
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Re: DCC#53: Sellswords Of Punjar

Post by doug99 »

I had an interesting time in walking through Sellwords for the first time.

My experience in DnD adventures is limited though I'm fairly well versed in the rules.
I'm not sure yet if it is good news or bad news but right off the bat I ran into lots of 'opportunities' for making decisions on the fly because of the inexperience, lack of rulings in 4.0 and less detail in the scenario.

So I wanted to share how the adventure starts off for someone with less experience.

1) A nice change which I actually laughed about was that I had not caught on that all of the WotC adventures so far had been done on maps with every nook and cranny done in square and rectangular areas. So it was a breath of fresh air to see some angles built into the Sellswords buildings and even the first alley is at a diagonal!

2) And what a change - this place IS cramped - Close Quarters are the rule. That will certainly provide some different challenges than I am used to.

- But, when I started walking through possibilities, I realized the rules challenge - It looks like it is single file walking through the alley. But what about all those half spaces that are open? I've had spaces with furniture covering half the space, small trees, etc. And you could always be in the square it just might be considered difficult terrain. In this case we actually have half of a square filled.

It seems that you could apply the squeeze rules to it, but that seems so strange when you have a full open square next to you. End story though it appears that this is simple single file walking which is a neat new concept to me as it strings everyone out.

- In area 1-2 with the Sentries on the ledge, the cramped quarters tossing a bit of a wrench at me again. There are 5 sentries but only 3 full squares for them to occupy. Well, there are 5 of those half squares there! Of course I can assume the extra guys are coming off the other roofs, or I can just assume they were keeping themselves squeezed in the half squares (avoiding the rain you know!).

- The following attack from the room got a bit switched up. The good news is that I had already read elsewhere that the ledge was 15' high. But, if I am reading the text correctly, the Sentries are supposed to attack anyone caught in the net with their Longspear from the ledge. But I believe wit the ledge at 15' that you can't reach anyone down below. So I ended up switching it to 10'.

- 4e kind of lumps falling and jumping down into the same rule, and so having the sentries jump down from 10-15' ends up causing them damage which seems a bit wacky. But I assumed that the Sentries, if their plan was to jump down, that they all would have some type of acrobatics training and be able to reduce that damage.

- Where to jump to? One wacky 4e rule of sorts that I had encountered previously but it was not such a challenge as it is here, is that you can't occupy the same space as an opponent. The example is that when you GRAb someone, you actually stay in your own space while the opponent stays in his. You never merge into one space.

So my previous experience was that I had someone jump down on top of an opponent. I had them deal damage like an attack, but then had him roll off into an adjacent space. So I figure I apply the same thing here, but it was fun to realize that due to the cramped space, that there may be no open spaces to jump into nor any open spaces to roll off into if they jump on top of the oppoenent.

In other words, as long as the good guys stay single file in the ally, the sentries may have no where to go.

End story, this was a very challenging start to an adventure (wish it had come later) and I'm glad I walked through it before rolling it out in a game.

The good news is that it is a fresh challenge where some of the players can't even take part in the early going because of the cramped area and being back down the ally when the fun starts.

Doug A
vladsee
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Re: DCC#53: Sellswords Of Punjar

Post by vladsee »

Hi,

New guy on the forums here and just wanted to give my opinion, get some feedback and ask a question or two.

My friends and I played Sellswords via e-mail and finally completed it after almost a year of play! I had to scale down some of the combat as there were only 3 PCs. I have to put up a SPOILER ALERT for people who are still mid-way or are planning to play this game.

1. My first question to others is how did you handle the party taking an extended rest or healing from the diseases or removal of the curse at the fountain of orcus? Did you allow them to rest in the beggar king's domain but get attacked by random monsters (rats, bats, slavers, minions, etc.) or did you allow them to get back to town to heal up, restock and buy better gear and come back facing tougher odds?

2. I may be wrong but Orliss the goat seems to have too many HP for a warlord. I allowed the PCs to level up faster to balance being outnumbered in combat most of the time and found that Orliss has more HP than my level 3 fighter PC. I tried doing a lvl3 warlord in the character builder and cant seem to hit 56HP.

3. How did you guys handle the final encounter with the drake? The writing suggested that the PCs need to escape the tower. Did your PCs stand and fight? How do you give them the idea that running may be a better option?

Some Comments:

1. As noted by some in the forum, spaces are tight and cramped. My PC who played a dragonborn fighter made short work of many of the minions with his breath weapon blast (great tactic for clearing out minions). I watched the dice rolls to my surprise as the dragonborn cleared out 5 minion with one blast!

2. This game was combat and trap intensive. My players got tired of combat after combat from room to room. Some sort of break may be needed in between. The DCs for traps may be on the high side for level 1 players. Not much roleplaying was done (1 PC was frustrated for putting skill points in the social skills like bluff, diplomacy, etc. so I let him alter it when he leveled up) but its a good way for my group and I to learn the mechanics of the new edition at the time we started playing.

3. The curse of Orcus at the fountain could frustrate player very much. This should be handled with care by DMs.

4. My players got a rude surprise by the umbra drake at the end. They poured everything they had at the beggar king (using the daily powers they saved, with the fighter almost killed). Seeing the drake at the end frustrated them as they were low on HP and out of their hard hitting powers until I had to hint that they could escape the thing.

Overall, I would say this is an interesting dungeon crawl adventure at a very unique location. I like the trap at the beggar king's room leading to the undergound lair and the combat that ensues there. I think this is a module for beginners to learn combat mechanics and tactics as well as adventuring dos and don'ts. However, roleplay is limited and the DM has to make roleplaying moments otherwise it will end up combat heavy/intensive.

Hope to get your opinions or feedback. Thanks
Treebore
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Re: DCC#53: Sellswords Of Punjar

Post by Treebore »

Is there still a link to the interactive Punjar map that was put up? I believe it was done in Spanish. All I can find right now is the full page map link.
Castles and Crusades is my game of choice!
goodmangames
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Re: DCC#53: Sellswords Of Punjar

Post by goodmangames »

It was on an external site...which I can't find right now. So I'm afraid to say that no, I guess there's no link anymore!
Joseph Goodman
Goodman Games
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catseye yellow
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Re: DCC#53: Sellswords Of Punjar

Post by catseye yellow »

i am not sure if this should be here or upstairs in the dcc lobby but here it goes and please move it if it is no fit for here: has anyone converted sellswords to dcc rpg system? how hard is it? how complicated is converting 4e to dcc?

sorry for bother
cat
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