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9 months ago ::
Sep 23, 2012 - 8:14PM
#1
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- Senior Volunteer Community Lead
Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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EPIC4-2 Age of Ruin is available for download on livingforgottenrealms.com! It is highly suggested that players experience EPIC4-1 before playing this adventure. If you have not yet played EPIC4-1 to its conclusion, consider this entire thread full of spoilers and read no further!
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If you aren't a DM and haven't played yet, the same applies to you. Spoilers abound, and you'll miss the full gory impact of playing it fresh.
| Catastrophic events have transpired during your absence, and Faerûn lies in ruins. In a world covered in darkness that even the gods have forsaken, can you provide a shred of hope to the few survivors, or will you too succumb to despair? A three-round continuous-play Living Forgotten Realms Epic Campaign adventure for 25th-level characters. This adventure is a direct sequel to EPIC4-1 Shooting the Moon. We recommend that you allow 12-15 hours of playing time in order to complete this adventure. |
Expect spoilers from here on out. Any questions, advice - ask away! Disclaimer: Just to get it out early - this adventure is intentionally harder than the earlier epic adventures. There is a good reason for that, and hopefully there is a payoff in overcoming this additional hardship for everyone. I do encourage groups to consider what difficulty they should play based on the previous epic adventures and consider playing an appropriate difficulty (easier, harder, glory, scaling for lower or number PCs) to make sure they are properly challenged for this adventure and have fun. DMs have guidance for managing difficulty. It's also been observed that tables which are having difficulty, needing to make many suboptimal activities in order to keep their allies alive, can also run longer. Accordingly, you may need to keep a more careful eye on time than some of the other adventures. This adventure is totally playable in less than 12 hours, but it can also run in longer than 15 hours, so the usual advice being intended for 12-15 hours holds.
Keith Richmond
Living Forgotten Realms Epic Writing Director
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9 months ago ::
Sep 23, 2012 - 9:18PM
#2
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I wanted to post this now before spoilers start appearing and I have to avoid this thread.
Thanks to the writers of 4-1. I have played it once and run it twice and of the 13 people who played it, including myself, 12 of us thought it was the best of the four epics.
I have high hopes for 4-2 and I'm thrilled to see what ruin has befallen Faerun during our absence.
Brad
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9 months ago ::
Sep 23, 2012 - 11:07PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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Awesome! The blurb already sounds really cool. Can't wait to read it!
We're going to be playing EPIC4-1 end of October, so it's nice to know we can start planning the next episode as well. Thanks for posting it!
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8 months ago ::
Sep 24, 2012 - 5:35AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2007
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The authors did a really tremendous job with this one.
For DMs: As far as the series goes, this adventure has the most flexibility in customization for your particular players. If you are familiar with the PCs planning to play EPIC4-2, I recommend setting aside additional time during preparations to make adjustments to the adventure to bring some of the specific desires and goals of your PCs to the forefront.
Dan Anderson
@EpicUthrac
Living Forgotten Realms Calimshan Writing Director
Living Forgotten Realms Epic Writing Director
Meet me at TotalConfusion:
http://www.totalcon.com/RolePlaying.html
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8 months ago ::
Sep 28, 2012 - 10:31AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jun 14, 2009
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Holy cursewords! So, I've just recently played EPIC 4-1, will be next up to DM EPIC 4-1 and EPIC 4-2 for the group that includes the person who DM's the group I play for. Perused EPIC 4-2 and the story looks like a TON of awesome. Spoiler:
Show
Our DM had us recruit other PC's that we played as part of the armies for EPIC 4-1. I was on the fence about using the same idea, but now am absolutely going to do this. They'll make awesome "old soldiers" for Encounter 2, and 30 years of war will explain why they don't really have their old tricks anymore. I need to make it clear that these are NPC's, and that the events have no bearing on their actual LFR play up front, but man, the extra attachment of trying to save their own PC's in the first fight.
Just for fun, I might give each old soldier a minor power that can be triggered in place of their action - something thematic to what the characters used to do....but still on par with a shift 1 or move 2.
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8 months ago ::
Sep 28, 2012 - 12:08PM
#6
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- Senior Volunteer Community Lead
Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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That should work well! Spoiler:
Show
I need to make it clear that these are NPC's, and that the events have no bearing on their actual LFR play up front.
In playtests we used people's NPCs and we never had to clarify - most people assume that as long as they're successful, whatever's going on will get rolled back... or it's far enough along that it can't cause problems back on the main campaign.
Whatever powers you pick for them, I'd suggest you avoid problems that make escape easier 
Keith Richmond
Living Forgotten Realms Epic Writing Director
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8 months ago ::
Sep 28, 2012 - 12:19PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2007
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I agree. Sounds like a good way to customize the adventure for a group of players you know really well. Spoiler:
Show
or it's far enough along that it can't cause problems back on the main campaign.
A good description of the NPCs 30 years older conveys this well.
Dan Anderson
@EpicUthrac
Living Forgotten Realms Calimshan Writing Director
Living Forgotten Realms Epic Writing Director
Meet me at TotalConfusion:
http://www.totalcon.com/RolePlaying.html
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8 months ago ::
Oct 02, 2012 - 10:27AM
#8
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EPIC4-2 is by far and away the best LFR adventure I've ever played - including the other Epics. It was reminiscent of some of the best LG adventures, but on a grander scale.
Super well done. Can't wait to playtest the next one.
Dave Kay
LFR Writing Director Retiree
dkay807 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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8 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 6:45AM
#9
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EPIC4-2 is by far and away the best LFR adventure I've ever played
What specifically did you like about it?
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8 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 9:13AM
#10
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EPIC4-2 is by far and away the best LFR adventure I've ever played
What specifically did you like about it?
Without going into too much detail, when we set the vision for the adventure, I told everyone that if executed well, it could be the best one yet. Well, the team executed it better than I could have hoped.
The story is fantastic, the post-apocalyptic setting really comes through well, I love the despair/hope concepts in the adventure, the encounters feature some really tough SOB BBEGs, there's a great amount of FR story combined nicely with LFR storylines. I could probably go on, but I think that's enough.
I'm also a strong supporter of using pre-packaged maps (and doing it well). It's nice and clean.
Dave Kay
LFR Writing Director Retiree
dkay807 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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