I run RPGs for a local high school and I have three 4 hour sessions coming up where my previous plans have fallen through.

I want to run something fantasy, relatively easy fun with a slight old school vibe but I have a number of options.

FWIW I am not really looking for new options. I also have run quite a raft of games for these guys, so this will not be their only and first introduction to RPGing.

I am also running this poll on RPGnet.

I voted special snowflake so I can see the poll results without clicking the button

Interesting to note the comparison that on RPGnet Elven Crystals and Crown of Kings both get equal votes and Ravenloft gets none. It would be interesting to analyse why that's the case.

Currently, Elven Crystals looks to be in the lead for the following reasons:

- popularity is higher overall;
- it fits the time I have available;
- it requires less prep as it has a little more structure; and
- I realised I can use the Shadows of Esteren full page PCs portraits (lack of decent pregens was a handicap for DW).

Its not a forgone conclusion though.

Dragon Warriors is a good system, I'm not sure that Elven Crystals is that great as an adventure go - mainly hack and slash motivation, fairly linear, may take longer than you expect? This is from my vague recollection so take with salt I guess - never played it although for some reason I own two copies. Expect it to be reasonably lethal I guess, too.

I think AFF is a pretty solid system and good for fast-moving light fantasy adventure. Crown of Kings is fairly good though I expect it may be more trouble to use/convert given that its set up for a single-player solo adventure format, and Khare in particular is railroady. Unless I'm underinformed and there's a different "Crown of Kings" written for AFF.

Thanks.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;580244Dragon Warriors is a good system, I'm not sure that Elven Crystals is that great as an adventure go - mainly hack and slash motivation, fairly linear, may take longer than you expect? This is from my vague recollection so take with salt I guess - never played it although for some reason I own two copies. Expect it to be reasonably lethal I guess, too.

Elven Crystals is relatively linear (though I would say structured rather than linear, as each part if effectively a dungeon that allows you to go wherever you please) but its got lots of creepy atmosphere and folklorish backstory. The "hack and slash" motivation is about the same with the other two options.

I agree that it may take longer than expected but it has some stopping points. Parts 1 and 2 are almost independent scenarios. Part 3 (and 4) is a culmination of the scenario but the recent release has improved it has mostly removed the disappointing parts from the original.

Sleeping Gods has some decent one shot scenarios and even the one in the rulebook is good, but I have run them recently. Fury of the Deep and Prince of Darkness are on my list to run but I think they would work better with a more experienced group, so they are reserved as sequels.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;580244I think AFF is a pretty solid system and good for fast-moving light fantasy adventure. Crown of Kings is fairly good though I expect it may be more trouble to use/convert given that its set up for a single-player solo adventure format, and Khare in particular is railroady. Unless I'm underinformed and there's a different "Crown of Kings" written for AFF.

Crown of Kings has already been converted for AFF2: http://shop.cubicle7store.com/epages/es113347.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es113347_shop/Products/CB77004

Ah fair enough, and thanks for the info. Good luck with it in any case.

Elven Crystals is the only one from the list that I know personally, and it's a good adventure so I would go with that.

Are you using the original or the new edition?

Quote from: vytzka;580274Elven Crystals is the only one from the list that I know personally, and it's a good adventure so I would go with that.

Are you using the original or the new edition?

New edition (not that there is much difference between the two).

I am only familiar with Ravenloft, but am curious about The Crown of Kings since I loved it when it was a gamebook. How does it work as a module? How much railroading is there?

(A Kakhabad sandbox + Kharé city setting + Mampang as a dungeon... :eek: would love to see it.)

Quote from: Melan;580278I am only familiar with Ravenloft, but am curious about The Crown of Kings since I loved it when it was a gamebook. How does it work as a module? How much railroading is there?

(A Kakhabad sandbox + Kharé city setting + Mampang as a dungeon... :eek: would love to see it.)

It runs pretty close to the books, so it's not as naturalistic in feel as it should. But it wouldn't be hard to use it as a base to make it so, if that's what you wanted.

I think Arion Games chose to cleave close to the source as Myrmidor's previous attempts to add new material was criticised pretty heavily.

That's too bad, because while these books would need expansion, they would really benefit from an expansion. If you take the set progression from Shamutanti Hills or Kharé (which is only dictated by the book format, really), they are basically already neat, imaginative sandboxes.

Agree. But it is hard to actually create new material that matches people's memories of such loved material. The book is a pretty good stepping stone if that's what you want.

This is surprisingly close race.

Current aggregate standings over the three places I have sought opinions:

Elven Crystals 14
Crown of Kings 11
Ravenloft 7

Thanks all for voting. In the end, I will be running Elven Crystals for Dragon Warriors. I have co-opted 10 PC portraits from Shadows of Esteren for 10 pregens (1 for each profession including the Hunter, and 2 for Knight and Barbarians) and they look pretty fabulous Reading the adventure again and it has me excited. All the best of Old School play but genuinely creepy.

Elven Crystals 15
Crown of Kings 11
Ravenloft 8