Red Fall is an official scenario included in the "introduction kit" of Shadows of Esteren: Book 0 - Prologue.
For Players and Leaders who are primarily interested in exploring the psychological and human aspect of Esteren, Red Fall provides a very good experience, where the PCs will have to get to the bottom of a very grim case with wisdom and caution. This is the opportunity for a Leader to invite his Players to exercise wits and sensibility over brute force.
If you have any questions about this scenario, the team will do their best to give you satisfactory answers. Likewise, feel free to share any remarks or suggestions you might have in mind.
Also, do not hesitate to create discussion threads to post reports of your game sessions!
[Official] Red Fall
Re: [Official] Red Fall
I will be first.
We was played "Red Fall" yesterday.
I really liked the scenario. We had limited time (Yaldiana's player had to go to work) and we had only 5 hours. I really did not want to run that scenario in two sessions as It lessens drama, but it turned out that this was enough time to play the whole scenario.
Most of all I loved the scene with the trial over Ean (who was a suspect).
I run scenario very close to the text. Unfortunately It was finished with tragedy. They did not have fighter character and Ean was critically wounded from the start of game. Dogs in final confrontation was very hard obstacle. Heroes managed to get Alban and his dogs flee from the shelter, but the Ean and Liam died and Yaldiana survived only by a miracle and saved the Maelle.
The dead heroes were buried and over their graves arranged pyramid of stone.
You can see our photos from the game here:
http://www.esteren.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 3&start=20
We was played "Red Fall" yesterday.
I really liked the scenario. We had limited time (Yaldiana's player had to go to work) and we had only 5 hours. I really did not want to run that scenario in two sessions as It lessens drama, but it turned out that this was enough time to play the whole scenario.
Most of all I loved the scene with the trial over Ean (who was a suspect).
I run scenario very close to the text. Unfortunately It was finished with tragedy. They did not have fighter character and Ean was critically wounded from the start of game. Dogs in final confrontation was very hard obstacle. Heroes managed to get Alban and his dogs flee from the shelter, but the Ean and Liam died and Yaldiana survived only by a miracle and saved the Maelle.
The dead heroes were buried and over their graves arranged pyramid of stone.
You can see our photos from the game here:
http://www.esteren.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 3&start=20
The Leader should not hesitate to slaughter the PCs at the slightest mistake in order to instil a heavy, horrific atmosphere
Для всех русскоговорящих игроков и ведущих - русский сайт Эстерина "вконтакте":
http://vk.com/club42561184
Для всех русскоговорящих игроков и ведущих - русский сайт Эстерина "вконтакте":
http://vk.com/club42561184
Re: [Official] Red Fall
5 hours is indeed a tad short, considering you've got to take some time to introduce the game, give the characters, answer some last-minute questions, etc. However, if you try to make it quick, it's possible to have the scenario fit... as you did, it seems.
Ean was a good choice for a suspect; he's precisely the sort of crooked sneak that other people would deem capable of such a sinister deed!
It's true that the end of the scenario may be pretty rough for the group, particularly if ther's only three members, and only one of them is a real fighter. What may be done in such a situation is to have an NPC tag along the Players; maybe one of the village's warrior, that could be appointed to accompany the PCs and see to their safety, but also to making sure that the suspect does not espace.
Will you run other sessions with new Characters to replace the dead ones, or was it essentially just a one-time thing?
Ean was a good choice for a suspect; he's precisely the sort of crooked sneak that other people would deem capable of such a sinister deed!
It's true that the end of the scenario may be pretty rough for the group, particularly if ther's only three members, and only one of them is a real fighter. What may be done in such a situation is to have an NPC tag along the Players; maybe one of the village's warrior, that could be appointed to accompany the PCs and see to their safety, but also to making sure that the suspect does not espace.
Will you run other sessions with new Characters to replace the dead ones, or was it essentially just a one-time thing?
Allez, come on, allons-y, here we go, en avant, godspeed, hardi, let's do this!
Re: [Official] Red Fall
I already run Poison for that group. So we skip "time to introduce the game".
Soon we will play Loch-Varn. They will select other characters and join Yaldiana in her quest to Loch-Varn vale.
Soon we will play Loch-Varn. They will select other characters and join Yaldiana in her quest to Loch-Varn vale.
The Leader should not hesitate to slaughter the PCs at the slightest mistake in order to instil a heavy, horrific atmosphere
Для всех русскоговорящих игроков и ведущих - русский сайт Эстерина "вконтакте":
http://vk.com/club42561184
Для всех русскоговорящих игроков и ведущих - русский сайт Эстерина "вконтакте":
http://vk.com/club42561184
Re: [Official] Red Fall
You beat me to it! I have run Red Fall and I just have to type it up. It took us 2 sessions so 6 hours or so? There was also some tragedy.....stay tuned!
@xtamsynx
Book 1 Farl Collector
Book 2 Farl Collector
MOT Tri-Kazelian
Book 1 Farl Collector
Book 2 Farl Collector
MOT Tri-Kazelian
Re: [Official] Red Fall
Looking forward to read about your Red Fall session tamsyn, and about your Loch Varn one, Valenae... if you feel like sharing the experience, of course.
Allez, come on, allons-y, here we go, en avant, godspeed, hardi, let's do this!
Re: [Official] Red Fall
I haven't forgotten I need to write thus up! Need more hours in the day. Or less children.
@xtamsynx
Book 1 Farl Collector
Book 2 Farl Collector
MOT Tri-Kazelian
Book 1 Farl Collector
Book 2 Farl Collector
MOT Tri-Kazelian
Re: [Official] Red Fall
Hmm, unfortunately, I can't give you either without breaking the laws of time or being a heinous criminal, so we'll wait! 
Allez, come on, allons-y, here we go, en avant, godspeed, hardi, let's do this!
Re: [Official] Red Fall
French camp would work
@xtamsynx
Book 1 Farl Collector
Book 2 Farl Collector
MOT Tri-Kazelian
Book 1 Farl Collector
Book 2 Farl Collector
MOT Tri-Kazelian
Re: [Official] Red Fall
This poor scenario hasn't received a lot of love. 
Time for that to change. We actually began this scenario at the end of our last session, after the conclusion of the events in Poison. Unfortunately, I decided not to prepare as much for this adventure since it seemed relatively straightforward in comparison with the others, and the introduction of this adventure was somewhat rushed because I wanted us to get started in our remaining time in the session. As such, it didn't go as well as the others, but maybe my experience will help future GLs think about how to do it better.
The party, accompanied by Jearon the Varigal on their way back to Reizh, stopped to rest at the village of Dearg. They had been there once while gathering supplies during the Poison adventure, but I reiterated some of the description about the town, and they now had a bit more time to explore the locale. They were especially fond of the curiosities shop owned by Zaig, but unfortunately they weren't able to find anything they wanted (the players kept asking for rare or exceptional items, so I had them make difficult Luck rolls, which they kept rolling very poorly on). Saeth the occultist spent most of his time looking at rare books at the shop, the Temple faithful hung out with Firmin the monk, etc.
We fast forwarded to the next morning, when I told the players that they weren't able to find Saeth. I then described Saeth finding himself nearly dead along the coast of the lake with a dead body. He decided to hide the body as well as he could nearby and then return to town. I told him very precisely that he had no recollection of events past the previous evening.
When he returned, the party found him and tried to get some answers. Father Harn was able to miraculously heal some of Saeth's wounds, but the sight of a bloody, wounded man straggling into town caused a bit of a stir and caught the attention of a local militiaman, who was also on the lookout for Herven, who had gone missing. He insisted that Saeth go in front of the council and give a report.
At the council meeting (and trust me, the players are pretty sick of council meetings by this point
) I introduced some of the big players in town, including Meog Elarig. A few of the townsfolk in attendance accused the monk Firmin or Feondas, which actually caused some nice uncertainty in the player of the Temple priest. Since Saeth was a son of the Mac Lyr family, the council agreed to give him three days to prove his innocence before he was formally brought to trial (which, of course, they would have agreed to anyway, since it is the crux of the adventure, but the PC's status gave me a good way to add additional narration).
We hold our sessions at the home of two of the players, who are a married couple. The husband was clearly ready for the game to wrap up and asked if we could call it a night soon, so I planned on ending at the end of the next scene, "A Suspicious Rendezvous." However, the wife wanted the PCs to go back and investigate the body by the lake. I figured, "Okay, this should just take a minute and then we can continue." Actually, she asked a laundry list of very precise questions, like, "What kind of scratch marks are on the body?" "Do I detect any chemical smell around his mouth or nose?" "Is there any blood or skin under his fingernails, like he was fighting?" When I realized that the scene was dragging on too long, I said "You can't figure anything else out from studying the body right now" and suggested that they take the body back to town for the Demorthen to investigate.
By the time the PCs got back to town, I declared that night was falling and that they should wait until morning to continue investigating. The players all narrated their PCs lodging up for the night, with the paranoid Saeth barricading himself in his room at the inn.
I told Ned, who is the only one with points in Perception or Stealth, that while walking to the inn at night he overheard a suspicion conversation. Fortunately, he succeeded on the Perception roll and eavesdropped on a Varigal speaking with Alban Elarig, who I then introduced. I said that Alban left through the far end of the alley while the Varigal passed by Ned, who unfortunately did not stop to question the Varigal. I'll have to have the Varigal show up again next session to give a further clue.
On that note, we called it a night. We'll begin Act II and, with any luck, finish the scenario this week.
Notes:
-I think that I should have had the PCs stay in the town at least another day or two before launching into the adventure. Since they had only been there for an evening beforehand, the players kept asking, "What did I see last night? What was so-and-so doing then?" Having them stay for a few days would increase the mystery of not knowing who was doing what and when.
-Likely due to a mixture of lack of preparation and a rushed narration, I didn't give a lot of "color" to the town and its inhabitants. At the start of the next session, I'll probably make a point of giving a more detailed description of the town and recap of events and the people that they've met, since it's been a couple of weeks since we played.
Time for that to change. We actually began this scenario at the end of our last session, after the conclusion of the events in Poison. Unfortunately, I decided not to prepare as much for this adventure since it seemed relatively straightforward in comparison with the others, and the introduction of this adventure was somewhat rushed because I wanted us to get started in our remaining time in the session. As such, it didn't go as well as the others, but maybe my experience will help future GLs think about how to do it better.The party, accompanied by Jearon the Varigal on their way back to Reizh, stopped to rest at the village of Dearg. They had been there once while gathering supplies during the Poison adventure, but I reiterated some of the description about the town, and they now had a bit more time to explore the locale. They were especially fond of the curiosities shop owned by Zaig, but unfortunately they weren't able to find anything they wanted (the players kept asking for rare or exceptional items, so I had them make difficult Luck rolls, which they kept rolling very poorly on). Saeth the occultist spent most of his time looking at rare books at the shop, the Temple faithful hung out with Firmin the monk, etc.
We fast forwarded to the next morning, when I told the players that they weren't able to find Saeth. I then described Saeth finding himself nearly dead along the coast of the lake with a dead body. He decided to hide the body as well as he could nearby and then return to town. I told him very precisely that he had no recollection of events past the previous evening.
When he returned, the party found him and tried to get some answers. Father Harn was able to miraculously heal some of Saeth's wounds, but the sight of a bloody, wounded man straggling into town caused a bit of a stir and caught the attention of a local militiaman, who was also on the lookout for Herven, who had gone missing. He insisted that Saeth go in front of the council and give a report.
At the council meeting (and trust me, the players are pretty sick of council meetings by this point
) I introduced some of the big players in town, including Meog Elarig. A few of the townsfolk in attendance accused the monk Firmin or Feondas, which actually caused some nice uncertainty in the player of the Temple priest. Since Saeth was a son of the Mac Lyr family, the council agreed to give him three days to prove his innocence before he was formally brought to trial (which, of course, they would have agreed to anyway, since it is the crux of the adventure, but the PC's status gave me a good way to add additional narration).We hold our sessions at the home of two of the players, who are a married couple. The husband was clearly ready for the game to wrap up and asked if we could call it a night soon, so I planned on ending at the end of the next scene, "A Suspicious Rendezvous." However, the wife wanted the PCs to go back and investigate the body by the lake. I figured, "Okay, this should just take a minute and then we can continue." Actually, she asked a laundry list of very precise questions, like, "What kind of scratch marks are on the body?" "Do I detect any chemical smell around his mouth or nose?" "Is there any blood or skin under his fingernails, like he was fighting?" When I realized that the scene was dragging on too long, I said "You can't figure anything else out from studying the body right now" and suggested that they take the body back to town for the Demorthen to investigate.
By the time the PCs got back to town, I declared that night was falling and that they should wait until morning to continue investigating. The players all narrated their PCs lodging up for the night, with the paranoid Saeth barricading himself in his room at the inn.
I told Ned, who is the only one with points in Perception or Stealth, that while walking to the inn at night he overheard a suspicion conversation. Fortunately, he succeeded on the Perception roll and eavesdropped on a Varigal speaking with Alban Elarig, who I then introduced. I said that Alban left through the far end of the alley while the Varigal passed by Ned, who unfortunately did not stop to question the Varigal. I'll have to have the Varigal show up again next session to give a further clue.
On that note, we called it a night. We'll begin Act II and, with any luck, finish the scenario this week.
Notes:
-I think that I should have had the PCs stay in the town at least another day or two before launching into the adventure. Since they had only been there for an evening beforehand, the players kept asking, "What did I see last night? What was so-and-so doing then?" Having them stay for a few days would increase the mystery of not knowing who was doing what and when.
-Likely due to a mixture of lack of preparation and a rushed narration, I didn't give a lot of "color" to the town and its inhabitants. At the start of the next session, I'll probably make a point of giving a more detailed description of the town and recap of events and the people that they've met, since it's been a couple of weeks since we played.