SPOILERS Review of CMP 2010-03 Ashes, Spoilers! For really. Options

[UmaroVI]

Spoilers to follow.

[ Spoiler ]

I played Ashes as Banshee with Ray Rigel as GM. He did a great job with a great mission.

This was my favorite of the Origins missions and I don't have any negative criticism of it, but I will ramble about the things I liked.

I really, REALLY liked the put out the fire challenge. I think this is a perfect example of how to do a challenge that requires diverse skills and teamwork; everyone found something helpful to do.

I liked the Sons of Sauron appearance; it felt like we had various different approaches for how to resolve it. We talked them down and prevented a blood bath, but it felt like it could easily have turned out differently.

I thought the fight with the Humanis in the tunnel was well-done and executed; we won handily, but our advantage came from coordination, stealth, and teamwork. I felt like it would have been a dramatically harder fight if we'd charged in blind or not cooperated.

Also, I thought the "Friend of the Ork Underground" badge reward was a nice touch and I appreciate rewards like that.

[Hida Tsuzua]

I was in the same group as Umaro.

[ Spoiler ]

I'm pretty much of the same opinion as Umaro on this mission. Putting out the fire is a quite excellent 'skill challenge' that everyone can help. We were hacker-lite if I recall, but I suspect they had ways to help as well. I might add some stuff in Pushing the Envelope about dealing smoke or even fire damage to the PCs.

The Sons of Sauron were a nice touch since they can be solved diplomatically or tactically and it was easy to weigh the arguments either way. If I had to make some changes, I would have some information on them in the adventure. While I didn't have much time to look, I couldn't find them in the new Seattle book. I remembered some stuff from New Seattle to refresh the GM's memory, but other groups may not have that option.

The fact that the Humanis guys (or was it Alamos 20k?) exploding was a new twist. I take it this was just a general policy thing since them getting mind probe didn't seem to change much of the adventure (we were able to get one to surrender).

[sinthalix]

Thanks for the feedback! I had played this one last year and was concerned about it when I ran it this year. I'm very happy that you enjoyed it!

All feedback is greatly appreciated because it helps me improve for the next group that comes to the table.