Has some Forgotten Realms references, but could easily be any fantasy universe.
Gameplay Length
Estimated 8 hrs of gameplay.
Number Players
Designed for solo play, but should be able to accomodate a small party.
Language
English
Level Range
Designed to be challenging to a PC of level 7 using Normal difficulty setting. Higher level is recommended if you play a ranger, rogue, bard, or multiclass PC.
Races
All
Tricks & Traps
Heavy
Roleplay
Light
Hack & Slash
Heavy
Classes
All (but bards, rogues, and rangers may struggle).
Scope
Small
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player
Max Character Level
11
Max # Players
06
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
01
Content Rating
Mature
Alignments
Any.
Gameplay Hours
08
Description
A strange little town holds a deep, dark secret. What is the Grimshade Run?
Designed for solo play with a PC level 6-11 at Normal difficulty setting. For higher difficulty settings or weaker PC classes, consider starting at level 10 or more.
Instant XP upgrade is available for characters under level 6.
Scripted to accomodate a small party (6 PCs maximum), but untested for multiplayer.
Estimated play time: 6-8 hours
Treasure: Lots, with wide variety of custom, unique items.
Experience: Based on completing tasks, with minimal experience for killing. A character starting at level 6 or 7 will probably gain 4 levels.
Play style: Humor and light roleplay in a linear dungeon crawl. Some puzzles. Lots of combat, but much of it can be avoided by stealth. Many traps and locks--rogue skills can be helpful but are not required.
I found the module rather difficult to begin with, but once I got the hang of things, it smoothed out to be only a pain in the butt. The easiest time I had was with playing a straight cleric. The spells are really helpful, and the turning undead is very handy. I noticed 2 problems. 1) True Sight had absolutely no effect on miss chances for concealment, whether it be blur, displacement, or etheral visage ... at least from my side of the table. 2. I saw no xp garnered from the destruction of undead via turn undead attempts. A great module otherwise. Keep up the good work.
Posted by barnibus0 at on05/29/07
This is a great module, with much fun to be had. The few problems I had was when I died every now and then, reloading to saves that I did twenty minutes ago became tedious. Other then that, you did a a great job. Module building is tough-I've started over dozens of modules because of a tiny insecurity. My biggest mistake ever? Two words. Guardianblade Dungeons. I'll leave it at that! =) _________________________ Loved Games: Guild Wars, Neverwinter Nights Diamond (Org, HotU, SoU, Kingmaker).
Posted by styzygy at 2007-05-2804:45:27
@ Armin - I really appreciate your taking the time to write detailed responses. A lot of players when frustrated would just say "It sucks" with little explanation, and probably also leave a low rating number on their way out the door. In my day job I've always found that it's nice to get praise but I learn more improve by listening to people who aren't satisfied with what I delivered. That's equally true of this module-building hobby. Users like you are rare gold. I can't say thanks enough. I have some specific details/ideas to share with you, which I'll send you offline as you suggested.
Posted by Armin at 2007-05-2715:16:41
"I've said before that in making this mod the combat balancing has been the hardest thing to get right. Most of my testing was done with a straight Fighter, and also a Bard/RDD "Balancing" a mod with a straight fighter is a very bad idea imho. A minmaxed fighter has the best AC and the best attack bonus of *any* character that needs to deliver physical damage at close range. In order to make a mellee encounter "challenging" for a straight fighter it's needs to be near-impossible for a dual-wielding ranger, a ranger/rogue, a cleric that has run out of spells or any multiclass character not mindlessly munchkinned (like, by taking cheesy RDD levels ). ;-) "Challenge" for a straight fighter should not lie in melee encounters. I started with a ranger/rogue and quit in frustration on level 2 (after already almost quitting with all the undead on 1). Then I played a pure wizard starting at level 9 (with 1 fighter level for the feats) and most fights are indeeed ridiculously easy if you have a full load of spells and a summoned creature. Then you run out of spells and places to rest or get killed by 5 sneaking shadow cats that cannot be tageted with spells... ;) The problem reallyis, there's not much in between "boring and too easy" and "impossible and frunstrating"... However, I'm way too intimately familiar with all the traps and encounter triggers, and the strengths and weaknesses of every critter. I know exactly the easiest way to beat everything. (Level Six, for example, doesn't take long if you know the path through the labyrinth and use area damage spells for taking out the Shadowcats.) So my sense of how difficult the mod is has become badly distorted. Very true, the designer is inherently not qualified to judge the difficulty of his/her creation ;) A fine is example is the problem with level2: When *I* first enter I have no clue about Ferdinand approaching. I open the first few doors and chests, start using up my spells and cannot rest, because there are enemies nearby (the minotaurs behind closed doors). I can also not return to level 1 and rest there (cheesy as that might be). *Then* Ferdinand appears, my summon kills him perhaps once, and then I'm screwed. He keeps getting up *way* too fast and won't let me escape. I open doors at random, out of spells and out of summons. Reload. And so on. Your tactics work *after* what I know from a few reloads. About the shadow cats: hide in plain sight is one of the most cheesy and silly overpowered feats in the game. Every rogue player not taking one level of shadowdancer is basically an idiot (and every one taking more than one probably more so ;). It's limitless, free invisibility and a killer on enemies with sneak attack. *Groups* of enemies with this ability should be avoided, as there's nothing to do against them but massive AI abuse. They cannot be targeted with spells and once they appear around a spellcaster with low AC, the caster is dead. And no, setting difficulty to "normal" and dropping a fireball at my own feat *is* massive AI abuse ;) General suggestions and possible options: - make the cursed sentries respawn next to their sentry statue and NOT after only a second or two - make groups of enemies smaller and more varied. Two melee critters accompanied by something with ranged attack or magic is much more interesting than the same group of 6 things over and over again - tone down general diffulty a LOT and limit resting to once per level (at the exit to the next). This would add lot to the general feel of the "running the gauntlet against all odds" game, too. Allright, it's past midnight and I badly need some sleep ;) Feel free to mail me if you have some more specific questions. I'd be glad to add more unsolicited opinions ;-) _________________________ With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince... With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D.... ... and still keep the frog you started with.
Posted by styzygy at 2007-05-2708:04:13
@ Armin Graymaster - Wow, what a difference in your experiences... thanks both of you for leaving feedback. Armin, I'm really sorry Grimshade was a bad experience for you. I'm curious what PC class you played. Some are definitely harder than others. You're the second to report that the fights are too difficult and the game is not fun. I do take that kind of problem seriously. Thanks also for kindly mentioning what you liked about the mod not leaving a low number rating. I've said before that in making this mod the combat balancing has been the hardest thing to get right. Most of my testing was done with a straight Fighter, and also a Bard/RDD. They had it rough. However, for my last two complete run-throughs before releasing, I used a Wizard and a Cleric, both starting at the recommended level 7. With both, I used the tactic of casting my strongest Summon Monster, buffing the heck out of it, and letting it tank while I slung spells. With this tactic, most things were way too easy. However, I'm way too intimately familiar with all the traps and encounter triggers, and the strengths and weaknesses of every critter. I know exactly the easiest way to beat everything. (Level Six, for example, doesn't take long if you know the path through the labyrinth and use area damage spells for taking out the Shadowcats.) So my sense of how difficult the mod is has become badly distorted. Based on what I'm hearing from some, I suspect that I need to soften a lot of the encounters, and find some effective way to nerf the "summoned pet tank" tactic so casters don't have it too easy. It might help me a lot to know what PC build you're playing, and if there are any particular tactics that you expect should work but don't. I'll address the design of level Two because you specifically asked about the purpose: !!! Spoilers - hints for running level Two !!! 1) The key to "solving" level Two is keeping track of where Ferdinand the Cursed Sentry Minotaur is. You want to avoid him and go after his statue. When he comes near, duck into a room and close the door until he passes. His perception range is not long--you'll see him before he sees you if you move slow and careful. 2) Most rooms contain only a chest. They are perfectly safe if you don't open the chest. This gives you lots of places to hide even if you have no stealth--just duck into an alcove and close the door. 3) Don't run around trying doors at random. Wait until Ferdinand is moving away from where you are, and open a cluster of nearby doors. 4) If you can stealth, you can get away with opening a door and closing it quickly if there's a minotaur inside. If you have high stealth or invisibility, you can probably just work your way down the corridor and check all the doors until you find the statue, without a single fight. Mark the bad guy locations on your map, and don't fight them unless/until you have to. 5) You may have to fight a couple of the minotaurs behind some doors to clear out a zone where you can rest. Again, the key is to keep track of where Ferdinand is--you don't want him nearby when you're taking on a Minotaur Berserker. 6) An insider trick from the Builder: placement of the Sentry Statue is always in the North half of the corridor (so PCs won't reach it first before meeting Ferdinand). With this hint, level Two goes faster because you can skip the South end of the corridor in your search. 7) After you take out Ferdinand by destroying his Sentry Statue, this level becomes a Monty Haul giveaway--lots of treasure chests guarded by only a few monsters you can take out one at a time.
Posted by Armin at 2007-05-2608:45:52
For a straightforward, linear hackslash dungeon crawl with little to no story, I'm afraid, the emphasis is WAY to much on the "crawl" part. This was the most slow, drawn out, tedious and frustrating experience in a long while - at least I thought so at some point... and then I entered level 6 and it got worse. Fight balance is completely off for most characters, reloading all few minutes very much an integral part of the game and excessively unfair situations at *every* corner (the shadow cats on 6 alone would suffice as fun-killers for 3 mods). And in the second attempt (after quitting the first on level 2) I played with a character 3 level higher than recomended to boot. Playing a rogue would be comletely pointless, as the main focus of the mod is combat, which then has to be avoided at all costs. Bards, rangers, multiclass characters of almost any build need not apply. Just one example: is there any potential way to solve level 2 other than running through the corridor, opening all doors at random, reloading each time you get killed until you find the room with the sentry statue and reload once more? What gameplay is that supposed to be? (did I mention that level 6 is even worse...?). So, sorry for the rant. I appreciate all the work put into this, the technical aspects of the mod are all very well done, The humor is great at times and it looks good. It's just, for my tastes, no fun to play. I'll refrain from casting a vote, out of respect for the effort and all the good things about the mod, but really, this is in dire need of a reality check. _________________________ With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince... With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D.... ... and still keep the frog you started with.
Posted by Graymaster at on05/26/07
What a hoot! Great romp for one of those Don't-Much-Want-To-Think-a-Whole-Bunch days.
Posted by Steve_Savicki at on06/24/07
Styz, did you get my e-mail? _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them. Thanks, Steve
Posted by styzygy at 2007-05-2519:31:30
I just posted v1.1. This includes some important bug fixes and tweaks. Most noteworthy changes are a fix for an item blueprint error that made the Anvil of Transmogrification unusable, and a correction to the AI of a main nemesis which should dramatically improve the challenge of the final combat. Special thanks to Gylfi Gangler for excellent playtest feedback about this mod in The Builders Project forum!
Posted by styzygy at 2007-05-2208:56:16
@ RDS, thanks very much for the feedback! !!!Spoilers!!! re: combat balancing - It's one of the areas I've struggled with, particularly the final battle. Earlier versions were too tough for some PCs to win even with all the available "help". The current version is a little too weak even though the boss does scale a bit for tougher PCs. I'll take your feedback to heart and keep working on it. re: Emilia's head - that's a bug, it should not have a unique power. At one point I was planning to have her talk, but I never implemented it. re: Water - The water effect is created using Tile Magic and making it deeper than roughly the height of a PC seems to create issues. My PC is pretty old, and I hoped the slowing would not affect the majority of users. I really like the design concept but if I keep hearing from users that it's too slow, I'll have to come up with something else.
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