andyc
Kai Lord
Posts: 210
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Post by andyc on Jan 30, 2023 20:32:13 GMT
BA16 A Long and Dire Road Part 2 of Dire's adventure and it proved different to what I had expected. Rather than spend a lot of time surviving the Dark Lands, the adventure quickly reaches the Durncrag Mountains and details what you find there. This was probably quite a wise choice as how much fun can you wring out of a trudge through a Wastelands? Instead we happen upon an ancient Borese Fortress and must survive through to the other side. I must have chosen well as the adventure was incredibly easy, in fact I only faced one combat at the start and I had a combat ratio of +16 against the poor bastard. I enjoyed this little slice of Dire's adventure in its entirety, but it is too short to rate as highly as some of the more complete adventures, so it gets a 3.5/5 for me. The Dire saga as whole is definitely shaping up to be more than the sum of its parts. Just part 3 to go for now.
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Post by Black Cat on Jan 31, 2023 3:05:04 GMT
BA15 A Long and Dire Road Shouldn't it be BA16 instead? You already gave your thoughts on BA15 ( link). Also, your previous post talks about BA14. However, the title you have is the one of BA25 ( link). I think you use a translated Kindle version from the German edition, so it might be an error in the translation or Mantikore gave a new title to this adventure (and gave another new one for BA25).
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Post by Zipp on Jan 31, 2023 7:12:05 GMT
Re: #1 I wish I knew more about Zahda. I mean, it's not the end of the world but he seemed connected to something larger I just don't know what. You'll have to be patient then because I'm pretty sure this will be talked about in episode 7 of the podcast (which I think will come out on June 1st if they don't change their decision of "one new episode on the first Thursday of each month"). Yes! We cover Zahda in depth, for all those who (like me) don't have the bonus adventures. Also, we cover some things NOT covered anywhere else--bonus adventure, newsletter, nowhere! I won't spoil what those things are, but there are a couple of things never before heard anywhere else.
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andyc
Kai Lord
Posts: 210
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Post by andyc on Jan 31, 2023 15:34:24 GMT
BA15 A Long and Dire Road Shouldn't it be BA16 instead? You already gave your thoughts on BA15 ( link). Also, your previous post talks about BA14. However, the title you have is the one of BA25 ( link). I think you use a translated Kindle version from the German edition, so it might be an error in the translation or Mantikore gave a new title to this adventure (and gave another new one for BA25). I can assure you it is nothing to do with Mantikore or the translation and entirely up to me getting it completely wrong. I'll amend them now to avoid any confusion. I rate myself 1/5
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Post by Black Cat on Jan 31, 2023 16:29:15 GMT
I can assure you it is nothing to do with Mantikore or the translation and entirely up to me getting it completely wrong. I'll amend them now to avoid any confusion. I rate myself 1/5 Lol, don't be too harsh on yourself!
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andyc
Kai Lord
Posts: 210
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Post by andyc on Jun 19, 2023 20:29:01 GMT
19)Dire Straights So begins both the last of the Dire BAs and indeed the last of the CE BAs that I had yet to play. Once again this is via the German version and Google translate. In this adventure Dire is sent by Lone Wolf to investigate and potentially disrupt a secret meeting of enemies near the Durncrag mountains. It was nice to be back in Sommerlund's forests after such world traveling and you have to avoid both the good guys and the bad, since all would attack you. Regrettably if you do choose to avoid everything they you miss a lot of the BAs events which would be a shame...so I got stuck into everything and also managed to ruin a lot of the enemies plans. Unfortunately, the way the story ends seems to make it all pointless anyway. I've read the 4th and 5th Dire adventures and I couldn't recall why my Nemesis did what he did at the end of this book. Perhaps when I do a fully English playthrough from start to finish in the (hopefully still planned) compilation re-release later, it will make more sense, but for now I will leave myself mystified. The curse of difficulty balancing strikes again, and even without using the powerful Anathema sword, I steam-rolled all my encounters. Only the first Dire BA had proved any challenge out of the five, so perhaps Dire needs to have the Kai/MagnaKai stats (or even set stats) rather than GM stats, for the difficulty to be decent. Dire 1 would obviously have to be nerfed then (e.g. cut the Azavath fight and put it in the climax of book 5 like I said before I think). Anyway, I did enjoy it, but I'd probably rate it the same as the other Dire BAs so it gets a 3.5/5 With a bit of tweaking here and there to iron out the aforementioned difficulty balance problems I would probably give a theoretical whole Dire Saga re-release a 4.5/5 on the strength of August Hahn's lively writing and great imagination.
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andyc
Kai Lord
Posts: 210
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Post by andyc on Mar 4, 2024 20:06:31 GMT
Shadows over Fire Playable here: shadows-over-fire.com/This is new Magnamund author, Jonathan Stark, first adventure to be read by the public, and it is a damn good one too. Jonathan shows up some of the early LW BAs by squeezing a varied adventure in multiple locations from a small section count of only about 82. It's all well written and interesting and very much bodes well for the quality of his Huntress Trilogy. He also didn't sink the reader in a ton of skills to read and choices to make before even section 1 starts, something that very much suits a shorter adventure. The playable version also has very nicely atmospheric music that changes depending on what is happening. Any flaws? Not really, and while I can't give it the highest ranking due to its shortness, the whole package, including the music gets it a 4.5/5 from me. Oh one small flaw, at the end when you get the pain in the leg, but you don't have the missing dogs info or the signet ring, there didn't seem to be anyone there and the cause of the pain is not explained (unlike in the other too options with the hunter chappie). Nothing that important though.
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Post by Zipp on Mar 6, 2024 16:06:49 GMT
Shadows over Fire Playable here: shadows-over-fire.com/This is new Magnamund author, Jonathan Stark, first adventure to be read by the public, and it is a damn good one too. Jonathan shows up some of the early LW BAs by squeezing a varied adventure in multiple locations from a small section count of only about 82. It's all well written and interesting and very much bodes well for the quality of his Huntress Trilogy. He also didn't sink the reader in a ton of skills to read and choices to make before even section 1 starts, something that very much suits a shorter adventure. The playable version also has very nicely atmospheric music that changes depending on what is happening. Any flaws? Not really, and while I can't give it the highest ranking due to its shortness, the whole package, including the music gets it a 4.5/5 from me. Oh one small flaw, at the end when you get the pain in the leg, but you don't have the missing dogs info or the signet ring, there didn't seem to be anyone there and the cause of the pain is not explained (unlike in the other too options with the hunter chappie). Nothing that important though. Thank you for this review! How fun to be included in the bonus adventures! And good point about the ending; I'm keeping a list of errata and will update the HTML file periodically. On the next update, I'll fix this!
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