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3 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2010 - 12:27PM
#51
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Date Joined:
Oct 20, 2007
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As far as Dragon Coast goes, I think they are one of the better regions as far as developing plots. However, to put Drag 1-1 in a series with Drag 1-2 and Drag 1-3 is a pretty big stretch. Yes, there is a story award connection from Drag 1-1 to the other two, but the plot connection is so well hidden and tenuous that the bit of paper you get at the end will often be the first players hear of it.
The White petal arc is a also a bit bizarre from a regional flavor perspective. Now maybe 4e canon officially moved a Shou city into the dragon coast (I don't know for certain, there isn't a lot of 4e canon FR information on the web). And the region is "Dragon Coast," not "Westgate" which means that adventures should take place outside of Westgate in the wider region. But if you compare the various Westgate adventures to the White Petal adventures, they really have very little in common (yes, the primary NPC contact for Drag 1-4 may (or may not, depending on the players' actions and skills) be introduced in Drag 1-2)--I think there was more crossover between Nyrond and Theocracy of the Pale adventures in the early days of Living Greyhawk than there is between the two series. It feels rather like playing in two different regions rather than playing two stories in the same region.
In the end, I think the Dragon Coast team has done a good job of conveying a stereotypical Hong Kong action movie feel for the area detailed in the white lotus adventures. (Some day, someone will put subtitles on their DM screen). And, with the exception of Drag 1-1, they have pretty consistently portrayed Westgate as a cross between Moss Eisley spaceport and the San Francisco of the Dirty Harry movies. (I do wonder what happened to the Night Masks though--did they get killed off in the spellplague?) But while we have a strong flavor for both areas that Westgate adventures have explored, I do not have any idea about anything above that micro level. Are there any regional (rather than local) conflicts? I've no idea. In short, I have an idea what two parts of the region are like, but no real idea what is going on within the region as a whole.
I don't want to derail the thread, so I'll just say that reading the FR Player's Guide answers most of your questions. It's odd though, for someone so engaged in the campaign not to have read it...
You also don't have an idea of what's going on at a regional level because there have been no Paragon adventures before DRAG2-1. We're following a deliberate design goal of 4e. Heroic tier = local threats, Paragon tier = regional threats, Epic tier = worldwide threats.
As far as DRAG1-1 not conveying the Mos Eisley feel of Westgate, there's a reason why "light", "gray" and "dark" are in the titles of the first three adventures. The aim was for PCs to uncover more about the city's true self as they (and the campaign) matured.
Now, enough of me explaing why the Dragon Coast is the best! (joke).
Joe Fitzgerald | joerpga[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]au
LFR Global Administrator
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3 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2010 - 12:48PM
#52
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Date Joined:
Dec 16, 2005
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You also don't have an idea of what's going on at a regional level because there have been no Paragon adventures before DRAG2-1. We're following a deliberate design goal of 4e. Heroic tier = local threats, Paragon tier = regional threats, Epic tier = worldwide threats.
I don't think that has to mean what you take it to mean. To take some examples from another regions, in Dale 1-2, we discover that the immediate local threat is being created by a larger threat. Likewise, the discovery of a spy in Bald 1-6 (nothing the NPCs won't tell you without prompting within 5 minutes of starting the adventure), while a purely local threat in the immediate sense implies a larger picture. Similarly, Corm 1-3 deals with a purely local threat, but if you discover what is actually going on, it clues you in to a wider scheme. The heroic/paragon/epic threat at least should be more of a sliding scale than a hard and fast rule, but the interpretation that your post would indicate you are following is more restrictive than even the hard and fast rule would need to be. And, if that prevents you from getting an idea of what is going on beyond the micro level in the game world until you have an 11th level character, I would argue it is a destructive interpretation as well.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2010 - 12:56PM
#53
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Date Joined:
Oct 20, 2007
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To clarify - the Dragon Coast differs from most other regions because it is comprised of independant city-states that do not work well together (unlike the Dalelands). I understand your point but, frankly, conveying a sense of a "larger threat" within the context of a local threat is a heck of a lot easier when your whole region is just one large city or a single, unified nation.
Joe Fitzgerald | joerpga[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]au
LFR Global Administrator
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3 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2010 - 1:02PM
#54
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It's {DRAG1-7} the only DRAG adventure that begins in a tavern too
Perhaps you've forgotten that DRAG1-1 does, as well -- for that matter, it's the *same* bar. 
"Of course [Richard] has a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. It's 1183, and we're barbarians!" - Eleanor of Aquitaine, "The Lion in Winter"
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3 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2010 - 1:07PM
#55
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Date Joined:
Dec 16, 2005
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To clarify - the Dragon Coast differs from most other regions because it is comprised of independant city-states that do not work well together (unlike the Dalelands). I understand your point but, frankly, conveying a sense of a "larger threat" within the context of a local threat is a heck of a lot easier when your whole region is just one large city or a single, unified nation.
That also raises the question of whether internal conflicts between those city states are really regional threats in the same sense that local/regional/global=heroic/paragon/epic. It would seem to me that there's plenty of room for conflict between Westgate and its immediate neighbors (or between those neighbors) that would fall squarely within the local and heroic boxes no matter how tightly you define them.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2010 - 5:37PM
#56
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I also wanted to add that I enjoy the regions that use the NPCs to give regional flavor.
For example, the Moonshae Isles and the MacLyrr family (so is everyone related to Daffyd somehow?) are very good because the story comes from the NPC, the islands themselves, and the content of the adventure.
I also like the East Rift modules. For the most part, the NPCs are consistent and give a regional flavor to the module.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 21, 2010 - 7:23AM
#57
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Date Joined:
May 27, 2009
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I also wanted to add that I enjoy the regions that use the NPCs to give regional flavor.
On a sidways note. I always know I'm in an AKAN or EAST mod becuase of the descriptions in the flavor text. AKAN writers make good use of bringing elemental things into the flavor of the surroundings, plus encounters, and EAST writers make me want to wash my hands from all the frick'in rock dust everywhere.
heheh.
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