Lord Ladurr has been far from all right these last few months since the loss of his mother. With each passing day, if he is seen at all - his actions, his words, his mind seems to be falling further from the man we once knew. And even now, as things are turning dark for the town Raven, their need for him is at its highest, or possibly a hero that will take his place. There are many unique items, encounter, and dynamic elements about Raven that will provide you with many hours of challenging game play. Raven should be played with a well-rounded group of 4-6 players, beginning at level 1. A 2nd healer class type wouldn't hurt. Many of the encounters, and battles are very challenging to even the most strategic players.
Posted by OpiumVanDerPol at 2008-06-26 23:54:12 Voted 5.00 on 06/26/08
I thought I would also mention that the areas were tortuously, needlessly huge and treasure was nonsensical. We encountered trapped containers filled with nothing but meat in several instances and in another we slaved through one of the aforementioned areas and killed numerous creatures only to be rewarded with a +1 quarterstaff and 8gp. The only fun I found in this module was interacting with my friends, and there are much better modules to do that in. Having said all this, this isn't the absolute worst module I have ever played. I am only commenting because it happens to be in the Hall of Fame, a distinction that confuses me. _________________________ "You're a dreamer, a schemer, a schemer who's schemes don't work. A man who is not a man..."
-Astrid Hadad "Pueblo Sin Suerte"
Posted by OpiumVanDerPol at 2008-06-26 23:42:00 Voted 5.00 on 06/26/08
Our group found this module to be highly frustrating, mostly because of the villains expert staffing department. They were able to recruit new employees while we were in the process of clearing a place. It was impossible to ever reconnoiter without running all the way back to town because all areas would have monsters replenished within mere moments. _________________________ "You're a dreamer, a schemer, a schemer who's schemes don't work. A man who is not a man..."
-Astrid Hadad "Pueblo Sin Suerte"
I hope someone is reading this. 5 summoning stones (read the walkthrough, can't believe I did, coloured hues on doors. I am not colour blind and I can't see any hues). Couls someone get back to me with which stones go where eg red stone middle left, green stone bottom left/right ie 2 pedestals in room.
Went down as a 5th lvl rgr. Now 6/3/2 rgr/ass/bg and yes it's tough.
If all goes well, myself and some online buddies are going to start this module tonight. Looking forward to it!
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2005-02-15 09:52:26 Voted 9.75 on 02/15/05
Depressing to hear about sibling rivalry going to this extreme, and there was no formal ending. I just wandered around waiting for what was to happen next.
But suspensful and a challenging mansion indeed. _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by Necrosis at 2005-01-07 16:47:43 Voted 5.00 on 01/07/05
Started out quite nice, played it as 2 players and we were both on around 5 levels each. Druid and Ranger, fairly standard.
Addy on the whole seemed fairly linear, if you're the type of player who checks every shop and every object for clues. Shops pretty oddly equipped, trust me when I saw the shop name reflects on its stock. Some +3 weapons very hard to come by, but on the whole +1 weaponry was easy to get, as well as a decent selection of boosting eq in the Leather shop.
Started well, a high point being the Fort scenario - very enjoyable. Went downhill from there however, with a sudden surreal difficulty change in the undead areas. Mobs went from dishing out pain and level drain to falling over very quickly after a little prodding. As if the first room was just to break the team spirit, then after that it was cake.
One notable annoyance was the long trawl back to the main town after completing any quest. In some instances a character would appear to teleport you home, but in general it was a long trawl through 4 or more very large subterranean levels, followed by 2 screens of woodland. Especially with no encounters to liven it up, or any seeming reason for having pcs trudge through the same patches of land over and over.
I am a big fan of riddles, and noted the homage to The Hobbit. Sadly the parser for the riddles is diabolically poor, and valid answers simply weren't accepted. I found this personally annoying, tbh the Crystal Guardians helped because by beating them senseless I got some satisfaction related to throttling the parser.
Glitches are seemingly rampant as the adventure draws to a close.
Noticeably the dire parser for the riddles, and I have sympathy for any low-level team who gave the correct answer but still had to face a Guardian.
Unlocked one locked door in the Estate, opened a farmhouse but game wouldn't let us enter. Nice.
The final battle is what seriously drops the score in my view. No satisfying payoff, and the cutscene is, to be honest, buggy as hell. After paralysing the PCs, both NPCs stood blankly. 10 minutes later we decided to save/quit/restart as a last gasp measure. Did make them start fighting, however the area effect spells managed to kill the other player who didn't make his save. Thankfully on his respawn he was able to heal me, and eventually waded into the NPC fight in a bid to try to finish it this century.
All in all a ridiculously poor finish to what was potentially a very nice addy. If the care taken on the first half of the addy was extended to the second half, then I'd cheerfully boost my score to 9, but having finished it I've ended up with a bad taste in my mouth - only marginally sweetened by being able to KILL the victorious NPC. Even if the end battle had went smoothly, this would barely scrape a 5.5
In summary, big buildups with poor payoffs do not an enjoyable addy make. The early fun of the game is hard to remember in the face of glaring endgame errors.
Posted by DevianDarkThunder at 2004-10-25 16:24:23 Voted 7.00 on 10/25/04
No offense, but how can this module be in the Hall of Fame? It looks like it is a few hours of going final, yet the builder didn't get the time (???) to finish it, leaving some BIG (yet cool) areas so empty...
There are some nice ideas behind the module and awesome fights (if you're into Hack'n'Slash, this module is for you), but there is also some work to do. Do it and I'll rethink my vote.
Posted by gpudney at 2004-10-24 17:39:23 Voted 7.00 on 10/24/04
Not bad. Had a fair amount of fun in patches. Some nice scripting here and there. Found that a fair few of the quests got very repeatative.
Posted by acamantor at 2004-08-05 13:15:20 Voted 6.75 on 08/05/04
lineal but solid plot line. Good typical adventure with a final a little anticlimax
Posted by Ultramundane at 2004-07-11 19:28:50 Voted 7.00 on 07/11/04
Hey-- a little late to the dance, but better than never.
>
I played this module last fall with the boys online, we were a party of 4-6. We were a good mix, and by virtue of being curious little bastards, we did really well with finding quests and such.
We enjoyed this module IMMENSELY, especially the defending and fall back from the fort, and then defending the keep. Well scripted, and fun.
This module set the bar for us for quite a while...
Good job!! Anymore on the way?
Many an ancient lord's last words have been, "You can't kill me because I've got magic aaargh."
- Terry Pratchett, In Death
Posted by erthule at 2004-04-01 01:38:13 Voted 6.00 on 04/01/04
Possible Spoilers
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I look for hack and slash modules that start at 1st with many hours of play. This one looked like a good choice. I started out like always as a rogue since so many adventures require rogue skills.
I went to the bartender asked about the town. The remaining two choices were meaningless since I saw no point in drinking and didn't need a room. I went to several merchants to check out what they had and not seeing anything of interest or any quests I left the town. I worked my way accross the map killing goblins and bandits. Found a farm house and led the only survivor back to town.
I was like ok so far lets continue. I continued exploring and found the entrance to a forest which had a locked gate I couldn't get through. Went back and continued exploring until I found a cave. I went through and killed everything in the 2 levels of the dungeon. I continued exploring and came to a ranch with nobody home. I found the fort behind it and they wouldn't let me in to check it out. I went back to town and killed more goblins and bandits on the way. I checked out the palace or whatever which had nothing of interest. I was now perplexed. Then noted the estate and went to explore and found again nothing.
Ok time to check the walk through. I'm now 1st level rogue, 2nd level paladin, 1st level monk. My favorite class combo. I read the walk through and find a number of quests, but the starting point for them is such that I would never find them unless I was in a bad mood being stupid. So I went to the archer and told him I wasn't interested in his merchandise and he gave me my 2nd quest if you count the bringing the survivor back to town as my 1st. I looked farther down on the list of quests about killing a certain guy would upon death give me a quest. I never found this guy or this bandit house. I found the farm and ranch at one area and to farms at the estate with their doors locked.
I decided I must me missing something or did something out of order. Well I'm done with this module. Modules that require this much hoop jumping are not my cup of tea. Don't worry about me rating this module. I normally only rate modules I complete and not being able to complete it I could hardly give it a correct rating.
In the future for noobs like me try having a choice for the bartender like you look like an adventurer. How about clearing out a room full of bats for me and I'll pay you for the trouble. For the archer merchant. How about one of the choices saying Yea, I know I don't have much to choose from, but there is this bandit problem we are having. If only someone was willing to help us out. Think brink wall falling on me and I might get the point.
Posted by lebowski at 2004-03-23 13:18:06 Voted 4.00 on 03/23/04
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at 2008-06-26 23:54:12
