Blood, Sweat, & Tears: E6M1 Revisions

Those crazy #$*&-ing fey...

After a very, very crazy round with a record number of deaths (50% more than the previous best 2-team match. Suck it, Graham & Ross!), we've finished the first test of E6M1: INTERECION IN THE FEYWILD!

Thanks to all the players who participated, including 3 FTDM newbies who gave the old-timers a run for their money.

So, what went right on this map?



1. Quadrants: People really seemed to dig the distinct flavor and benefits in each of the 4 quadrants. The fey relics were (mostly) used to great effect (particularly the scepter and the whip), and the special features of each quadrant were (mostly) well received.

2. Ley Lines: The ability to loop around the map kept the map small, even while making it feel like it was large. It did exactly what it was intended to.

3. The Baba Yaga's Hut: A moving zone of terror that zig-zagged everywhere, leaving destruction in it's wake? Awesome.

4. The Court of Stars Proclamations: Gave a fun and zany twist to every round, and led to some hilarious moments.


Now, what didn't go so well (aside from the very obvious and much needed revisions to the respawn rules)?

1. The Quadrants: The Spiders and Lullaby bushes having an effect that ended on a save tended to be hard to keep track of. These will be revised to affect people once, and that's it. No more conditions to keep track of. Most of the Feywild Relics went over well, with the exception of the Pendant. Since it essentially required several actions to use (move to get there, minor to pick up, minor to summon), the pendant's feature never came up. To address this, in the revised version, the pendant will automatically summon the owlbear when the user picks it up. In addition, the risk/reward feature of the Hag's Caldron aren't quite balanced out yet, so I'll be revising it to be a bit more desirable.

2. Ley Lines: The way it's set up, it more or less meant that ranged users always had line of effect no matter where they were. In the revised version, people will be able to move through the Ley Lines, but not attack across them. This should keep the primary purpose of the Ley Lines intact, while not giving an unfair advantage to Ranged users

3. The Dancing Hut: Lots of Problems here. The ongoing damage that was supposed to offset people from hiding out inside the hut...didn't really work. Furthermore, the items in the hut were either unused, or too difficult to keep track of, and were generally not as useful as the Fey Relics. Finally, the hut moved way too far, and could easily cross the entire map in one go. So, here are the fixes: No hiding out in the Dancing Hut. No more items in the Dancing Hut (so the only items are the Fey Relics), the dancing Hut's movement is limited to 1d6, and the size decreases down to Medium. This leaves it running around and chaotic, but will prevent it from being such a crazy map domination machine.

4. The Court of Stars Proclamations. Again, a lot of problems. I'll simply go down the list:

• Let the Wild Rumpus Begin: The biggest problem is how many zones & end-of-encouter effects this can generate. This will be revised so that all such effects end at the end of the round.
• A Year of Song: This one was fun, but I can see it having difficulty in live play. Also, all the dungeoneers chose Youtube videos, which I thought was pretty lame. I'd hoped for more limericks on the line of "There once was a dwarf from Nantucket..." This one will require some more thought before I nail down what changes to make
• Prince of Hearts: This was a fun one, but in a large tournament it kind of sucks to be doing well, then suddenly you're on a different team for the rest of the tournament. My thought for revision is that the two people chosen instead count as allies to each other, and cannot attack each other for the duration of the match.
• Lay Line Disorientation: This worked exactly as expected/hoped. It was crazy/awesome
• Little Red: This should be clarified that it only applies to what the players are wearing.
• Babe with the Power of Voodoo: The mechanical effects are a bit... "meh" and don't have a large impact on the game aside from humor. Expect revisions to come.
• Fortune's Favor & Reverse Time: Don't anticipate any issues
• Riddle of the Ancients: I'll be adding in a link for DMs to use when this comes up.
• Memory Scramble: No idea how this'll work.
• Diakkas Swarm: Rather than the DM placing the diakkas, each player gets to place one diakkas on the board anywhere he/she wants. This will double the number of diakkas, and should add a bit of strategy and flavor to it.

Overall, this map was a lot of fun, but was just a little too crazy, especially to be used in a live tournament. Simplifying quadrant effects; getting rid of items/hut insanity; and clarifying the Court of Stars Proclamations should go a long way towards removing a lot of the insanity. Expect these revisions to appear in the maps section soon.
So...thoughts? Suggestions? What other changes do you think should be made?