Nythera Penny Dreadful Reviews?

[Memnaelar]

Anyone received and read through the Nythera Penny Dreadful and care to offer opinions?  I got into Malifaux about three weeks ago and have since taken a deep dive into the game and into TTB besides.  Missed the Nythera event so I have no idea what the quality is like in the PD and what I could potentially plumb from it for a game somewhere down the line.  There's not a lot of information on the content anywhere else so...  Thoughts?

[Nathan Caroland]

Assuming that e-mail that you have logged here with your account is the one that you have on DrivethruRPG (if you have one there), let me know and I'll give you a free PDF copy and you can review it for everyone and let them know if it's worth a moments look or something to toss in the trash. No expectations of a good review from me.

Fair? Lemme know.

:)

[Memnaelar]

More than fair.  

And yes, my account email is my DrivethruRPG email.

[Nathan Caroland]

Kick me next week when I'm back in the office and we'll get you sorted out on that (don't think I've got it uploaded there as of yet, so have to get in there and get that sorted). 

[Cinnamon Bear]

I don't know how much has changed, but there was more discussion during the campaign when more groups were running it, that is presumably lost now. Out of curiosity, what or how much was added from the version that Fatemasters received last fall? Its a little bit lower priority for me to pick up since the only people I could reasonably rope into coming over for an RPG already played through it last year. 

It would be nice to see more reviews of all the content/books though, especially the one shots. Granted, I suppose that means I ought to write some too...still haven't had a chance to run In Defense of Innocence yet, though.

[Mason]

We've added art and a few small bits here and there, but generally speaking, the full four Act version given to Fatemasters as our appreciation for running games during the Nythera Event was the complete book.

[Parker Barrows]

I enjoyed it (I didn't participate in the TTB Nythera campaign).

I do wish the goals could have been included along with the Governor General stuff. But still, it was pretty rockin'.

[Brancifer]

Can't wait for it to hit DriveThru! 

[Cinnamon Bear]

14 hours ago, Mason said:

We've added art and a few small bits here and there, but generally speaking, the full four Act version given to Fatemasters as our appreciation for running games during the Nythera Event was the complete book.

Thank you for the information. I generally prefer having physical copies of books, but this lets me prioritize different books instead (thinking of getting Under Quarantine/Rottenburg soon). I haven't written any reviews on DTRPG before, but do they let you write a review if you haven't purchased it? If so I might do a quick write-up/review of my impressions from last fall if I have time.

[NobbyTheKing]

As one of those fatemasters (who submitted stuff for each thing) should I have got the forth bit at some point?

[Memnaelar]

Really pleased with the first skim this morning.  I will take the time to write a full-on review for it in the next week after I've had a chance to properly sit down and read it, but it definitely makes me sad to have missed the event last year.  And raises my anticipation for the Malifaux Book 4 models and fluff more than a little!

[rythos42]

My crew are just about to finish In Defense of Innocence, and I wanted to get Nythera to have something to run next (should I allowed to be the game master after we're done!). I've only just read up to the start of Act 2. So far, I really like it.

I also really liked Innocence, but so far they seem to be very different books. Innocence had a relatively short storyline, with a big "sandbox" style city and a lot of people with a lot of things happening, as well as a lot of available side stories. I thought my guys would really enjoy it, but they've gotten stuck on the "World of Warcraft" nature of it -- ie, in order to present more than 10% of the content in the book, I've had to be less than subtle. "There's a guy over there who looks suspicious" "He claims that other guy has guns hidden" "That other guy does actually have guns hidden". It's been a trade-off between making sure that the story is told, making sure the city feels lively enough, and making sure they feel like they have choices as opposed to we must do everything that is presented. 

Nythera so far looks very different. It's presenting a story as opposed to a sandbox, and by the start of Act 2 if you deviate from that story your characters may be dead. On the one hand, I really like this because I really like the Malifaux story and I'd enjoy presenting the Malifaux story. On the other hand, if my guys felt railroaded before, when they actually had a ton of options...

(our group has tended towards custom build stories over our decades of RPing. This was my first time DMing, so I wanted to run something where I didn't have to make everything up, which is likely where some of our problem comes from. At least one guy doesn't like that I'm using a book...I told him to stuff it and that it was my game to run...)

[Memnaelar]

I've been slammed at work and haven't yet had a chance to sit down and compose my review on Nythera yet but I think that it's definitely a penny dreadful that requires setting expectations with your players both in and out of game.  

Out of game, telling them a bit about its origins as an Organized Play mod that had world-shaping consequences will, I think, set them up for a bit of the linearity of the storytelling so that they don't actively strain against it *quite* so much.  I think that while coming to some out-of-game agreement about what sort of degree of sandboxiness/jumping off the rails the story you're telling will support is necessary in ANY game you're running, it's especially important when running from a prepared adventure.  Your group has the experience to be prepared for that sort of conversation and as a first time DM, they should cut you some slack.  Stuff it indeed.  ;-)

In game, really reinforcing the magnitude of some of the NPCs with which they're dealing and providing some guidance about some of the potential repercussions of their actions are both going to be important.  I will say that the later chapters seem to branch out a bit more in terms of providing different options if the players choose to buck against working with one NPC or another or what to present if some critical NPCs die along the way, so while it's still a linear set of events in a lot of ways, there's a lot of consideration about how to handle branches along that linearity.

[rythos42]

The import of some of the characters is definitely something I'm wondering about how to make clear. Two Masters fighting would be something that, as a Malifaux player, I would stare at, especially if I decided to attack and find that I needed 18s to hit... but only one of my players has played the miniatures game, so having these Gods show up and basically ignore my guys would be funny. Or terrible.

After I wrote the above, I wondered if they'd be more accepting if I just didn't tell them I was running from a book.  

[Memnaelar]

I think you can definitely show off how crazy-powerful Kirai and Kaeris are in the narrative and give some suggestion of how they completely blow away the PCs in terms of overall power level.  Maybe have one or both of them draw on the power of a Soulstone in the midst of the combat and explain both just how valuable that stone is in terms of scrip as well as the rush of power they feel just in the wake of its proximity when the Master harnesses it.  Really pump up your description the collateral damage to the neighborhood between Kaeris' fire and Kirai's spirits if they're still not convinced.  It's tough because it's not always entirely fun for PCs when you're doing NPC Masterpiece Theater and they're observers rather than participants, but I'd keep the conversation brief and really focus on the environmental hazard two dueling Masters create -- that's certainly what the module's Ongoing Challenge and Battle Events suggest.

If one of your player talks about attacking one of the Masters, point out that they're essentially watching the equivalent of a volcano taking on an earthquake from the perspective of their PCs.  The chances of things working out in a way that's productive for the PCs if they do that should be obviously slim and, of course, they have poor Philip to tend to and he's the most important part of that moment anyhow.