Jade Regent Retrospective, Part 1

The Fun Parts:

• Hongal’s captial Ordu-Aganhei – That place was awesome. Sort of like Vegas with a real hint of danger. The descriptions of the people, food, dress, and buildings caught my imagination. Kahn Kiriltai’s contests, feasts, and hospitality were awesome. I wish that country or even just the capital had played a larger part of the adventure path. [ I missed this session and regret it. It was fantasy Korea with a fantasy cross between Genghis Khan and Kim Jong-il. -Ed.]
• The Spirits – I liked how most of the nature spirits were peaceable, rather than the typical D&D default “…enjoys the taste of human flesh… highly prizes elf flesh.” In fact, once the supernatural element was removed the typical spirit was more like an NPC human villager with useful information. [Or not very useful, like that worthless damn lake spirit on the Imperial Shrine Island… -Ed.]
• The Human Spirits – This idea was original and fun. They are possession machines driven by appetites, revenge, sadness, or just plain craziness. Some good, some bad, and some “no big deal”. There seemed to be just enough balance between those three elements that some players decided letting one in was worth the risk. And the bizarre behavior of the possessed offered some interesting role-playing and moments of humor. [Everyone looked down on me because I refused to let myself get possessed! -Ed.]
• The Rift of Niltak – creepy, scary, and weird. Frightening monsters experimenting on humanity. Fungus that attracts ghouls. Crazy bondage soldiers ala The Beast Master. Well done, Paul. I totally wanted to go back after we saved the empire.
• The Ending – I actually cared if Minkai survived and prospered. I can’t identify the exact elements that made this so. The common backgrounds and occasionally strong ties between the PCs and also with Ameiko helped me believe that V’lk should care. The quests would be another factor – they were not stacked upon each other. And many of the quests had goals that would seem important to an oppressed population or to a revolution in the making.
• Every PC had a Moment – I think the variation in the adventure series was the main element. GMing, luck, and role-playing were also strong contributors.

It Went Both Directions:

• I really liked the Asian equipment, weapons, and magic items. They have colorful names (Ghost Mirror Armor), nifty effects (fugitive grenades), and cool imagery (freaking fireworks!). Who wouldn’t want to be a master of the katana or the kusari-gama? Who wouldn’t want to gear up and sneak around ninja style?   But you bastard Asiaphiles couldn’t leave it at that. You just had to make all of it better than their western equivalents, including the classes. The Samurai and Ninja classes have supplanted the Fighter and Rogue. Just marry an Asian and get over it already.

The Irritating Bits:

• Thank you, Mr Dungeon Designer, for the “Bow of Death”. Have we not passed the days where the high school GM decided to shove Stormbringer, Mjolnir, Excalibur, the Heartbow, or the Red Rider BB Gun (Fallout) into the game? Only one person gets to use it. Next time make it the Head of Vecna so the pcs can at least slaughter each other for the prize. But seriously, if you want powerful weapons in your module at least put enough in the game to cover everyone and mix it up a bit: Twelve Swords of Power or The Swords of Wayland. [I was the one who got that bow and it presented me with a dilemma – I even posted on RPG Stack Exchange about how to deal with suddenly being so uber. -Ed.]
• Monsters vs “Bow of Death” – Very few monsters tried to set the battle field to avoid the “Bow of Death”.
• Pandas – I wanted one panda themed monster. Just one.