DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 34A: In the Dust of the Old City

You can assure Reggaloch that additional slaves will be sent to him within the week. We have become very interested to discover what our Brothers of Venom are doing that requires such a constant flow of common flock. We have asked Illadras, but she has told us not to concern ourselves with it. Be cautious, but discover what you can.

Urnest

Sauron and Saruman.

The similarity in their names — and the confusion it’s engendered in generations of book-readers and film-watchers — is often held up as a cautionary tale to writers: If character names are too similar to each other, it will make it difficult for your readers to differentiate them.

In the specific case of Sauron and Saruman, the confusion was so feared that, infamously, Saruman’s name was changed to Aruman in Ralph Bakshi’s animated version of The Lord of the Rings.

The questionable wisdom of Bakshi’s decision aside, this is nevertheless advice also well-heeded by GMs.

This confusion of names is actually something I ran afoul of in this session. In brief:

• Urnst is the name of the Commissar who rules the city of Ptolus.
• Urnest is the name of a chaos cultist based out of the Temple of the Rat God.

So when my players encountered this note from Urnest, the entire group was suddenly filled with dread: Oh, no! The Commissar is in league with the cultists!

… and this was despite the fact that they’d already made this mistake once before.

In that older installment of Running the Campaign, I talked about how and why you can maneuver your way out of that situation, but I wanted to approach it from a slightly different angle today: While acknowledging the logistical challenges that can be created by similar names, why would you want to nevertheless have similar names?

First, if you’re dealing with a sufficiently large cast of characters (which is not unusual in a long-running RPG campaign), it can simply be a matter of necessity. For example, you’ll sometimes hear the Sauron/Saruman rule given as, “You should never have two character names with the same first letter.”

Except that would mean never including more than twenty-six characters, and then only if you’re willing to include some exotic X’s and Z’s and the like. (Although this is quite a bit easier in your typical fantasy fare.)

Second, there could by any number of practical reasons for doing so. Tolkien, for example, may have chosen the names deliberately for their similarity and the thematic resonance it would have in the book. Or, because the names were ultimately derived from the languages he had created from Middle Earth, the linguistic world-building may have been the most important factor for him. (He never commented on this issue, so we don’t really know if it ever occurred to him.)

Similarly, in the Ptolus sourcebook there are two more characters named Urnst: Vladimir and Taltos Urnst are alchemists operating a shop in the Undercity. Unlike Urnest, however, the similarity of their names to Commissar Igor Urnst is not a coincidence, as they “claim to be distant cousins of the Commissar…”

When you have similarly named characters, though, there are a few things you can do to help your players (and maybe even yourself) keep things straight:

• Keep the characters in different spheres of the campaign from each other — different locations or different factions, for example.
• Is there a different name that they could be referred to? (A first name or nickname, for example.)
• Give one or more of the characters a title (Lord, Chancellor, Empress) and use it consistently to distinguish the characters.
• Provide context reminders to help nudge your players’ memory (e.g., “Tessa, who you meet at the tavern last week…”).

Some of these tips are a good idea even if the character’s name ISN’T similar to anyone else!

Campaign Journal: Session 34B – Running the Campaign: TBD
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Go to Table of Contents

Let’s cut to the chase: How do you solve the giant problem in Storm King’s Thunder?

(Pun intended.)

DESTROY THE THREAT

The most direct approach would be to simply smash the giants so that none of the giant factions pose a threat.

This can be crudely achieved by going from one giant lair to the next and stabbing giants in the face until there are no more giants, but I think there are both aesthetic and practical problems with this. The short version is that it’s difficult to really take the giant threat seriously if it can be trivially solved by five people acting alone.

This is something a lot of narratives — particularly “chosen one” narratives — get wrong. To understand why, consider two examples that get it right: Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and the droids can all be absolutely essential to the rebel victory, but if the Death Star was just blown up by the Millennium Falcon flying solo (pun intended), the stakes would immediately collapse. The same would be true if there were no armies in Middle Earth and Frodo and Sam could just walk up to Mt. Doom unaided and defeat Sauron. In both cases, the heroes are larger than life because they are the essential lynchpins in a much larger effort.

So if the PCs want to pull this off, they’ll need to start forming alliance(s) to make it happen.

PATH OF CONQUEST

The giants are the biggest problem (puns all over the place today), but the root of the problem is the Ordning, and clever PCs can flip this problem around and turn the Ordning into the solution by selecting one of the giant factions and helping them come out on top in the Ordning-Yet-to-Come.

Probably the most straightforward path here is “ally with a giant faction, then help them fight all the other giant clans into submission.” Any clan which has the strength to subjugate the other clans will naturally become Annam’s default pick for the new Ordning.

If you want to push this concept into the campaign, you can easily do so by waiting until the PCs have scored one or two big successes — e.g., crushing one of the giant factions — and then have one of the other giant factions approach them with the idea of forming an alliance. Even better, have two different clans approach them simultaneously, giving the players the opportunity to choose which faction they want to align with. (They could easily end up choosing a third, completely different faction. Or, of course, rejecting the concept entirely and choosing a different path.)

Following this path is a big deal: The choice becomes a crucible in which the characters not only express their most heartfelt beliefs, but shape the future of the Forgotten Realms in a truly fundamental way.

A variant of this idea would be to choose a giant not-of-the-clans and champion them as a new King of the Giants. Harshnag, for example, would be an obvious choice (see Part 3C), but one could easily imagine the players embracing another candidate, such as Zephyros (SKT, p. 33).

Along these same lines, the PCs might champion a clan while also deciding that the current leadership of the clan is kind of shit. (Most of the leaders presented in the book, after all, are villainous jerks.) So stage one of this plan might be removing the troublesome leader and replacing them with someone more amenable to the agenda of the PCs and/or their allies (by staging a formal duel, assassination, or some other surreptitious means).

A DRACONIC CRUSADE

Military campaigns of domination and subjugation, however, are not necessarily the only way a giant clan could have skarra shine upon them.

The reason Annam broke the Ordning is because the giants have allowed the dragons — the ancient enemies of giant-kind — to grow strong. Tiamat, the evil dragon goddess, stirs in her prison, and during the events of the A Tyranny of Dragons campaign she almost managed to escape without the giants doing anything to stop it.

So an alternative path to the Ordning-Yet-to-Come would be to ally with one of the giant clans and help them lead a Draconic Crusade. Such a clan would mark themselves as ready to lead the giants into a new era.

The sequence from Storm King’s Thunder in which Iymrith is hunted down in her lair could obviously serve as a seed here, but there are a number of other dragons detailed in the campaign book as well that we can develop.

A super-ambitious approach here would be to also remix A Tyranny of Dragons and run it simultaneously with Storm King’s Thunder: Annam isn’t angry because the giants were lackadaisical about Tiamat’s threatened return; he’s angry because it’s happening right now. Finding ways to seed the activities of the Cult of the Dragon into Storm King’s Thunder is certainly non-trivial, but probably not overwhelmingly so if you’re using node-based campaign design.

Something to note with any of these “ally with the giants” options for the campaign finale is that they will almost certainly represent a seismic thematic shift in giant society: The new Ordning will have been established on a principle of cooperation between the giants and the “little folk.” As a divine mandate from heaven, this will sink deep into the culture and politics of giant-kind, with ramifications that will be felt for years, decades, and even millennia. This might include stuff like:

• Giant pilgrims coming to the communities of humans, elves, dwarves, and others to help and learn the lessons of the little folk.
• A political alliance between giants and the Lords’ Alliance, perhaps representing a joint effort to wipe out the Cult of the Dragon. (Either initiating a Draconic Crusade, if it hasn’t already begun, or continuing it, perhaps even pursuing the Cult into the East.)
• The founding of a New Ostoria ruled jointly by both giants and little folk.

Tip: You might want to use an epilogue structure for your campaign finale, allowing you to emphasize these long-term effects of the PCs’ actions.

LEAD THE FUTURE

Along similar thematic lines, rather than having the PCs choose their horse for the Ordning race, you could instead have one or more of them saddle up as the new King of the Giants.

There are a few ways you could seed this option into the campaign:

• Giants who are defeated (or who see their leader defeated) by the PCs might bend the knee.
• Outriders of a clan whose citadel the PCs have wiped out might seek them out.
• Giant scholars like Zephyros and/or Countess Mulara (SKT, p. 113) might seek out the PCs to chronicle their deeds, creating — perhaps alongside Harshnag — the beginnings of a giant retinue and counsellors.
• Rogues, exiles, and other lone giants who have become separated from giant society — either before or because of the breaking of the Ordning — might seek the PCs out, either to get revenge on their former clans, in an effort to save their people, or for any other reason that makes sense given the PCs’ agendas and actions.

Old school D&D had the concept of high-level characters simply “attracting followers” due to their renown, and this would follow a similar logic (and tie in nicely with the broader concepts of forming alliances): The PCs are building a rep for themselves, and like Robin Hood or Spartacus or Guan Yu, they can gather a retinue of NPCs inspired by their deeds.

This path can then be escalated with divine connotations, for example:

• Giant pilgrims and/or warrior bands seek out the PCs, claiming to have followed “the beacon of Annam” and to see them “illuminated by the light of Annam.”
• The chosen PC(s) begin receiving cryptic visions from Annam.

This is likely all happening while the PCs are simultaneously pursuing a Path of Conquest, a Draconic Crusade, or both.

In any case, all of these threads can ultimately culminate with the PC(s) actually being anointed by Annam as the new leader of the giants during the forging of a new Ordning. This could happen during a communion with the Eye of the All-Father. (In fact, the PCs being responsible for rediscovering the lost oracle of Ostoria could play a significant role in the divine path.) One could imagine a ceremony in which representatives from all of the giant clans come to the Eye — summoned by decree, drawn by Annam’s will, or brought in captivity — and are present for Annam’s manifestation on the mortal plane.

If any of the PCs are a half-giant or goliath (or something of similar flavor), they would be a natural fit for this, but even that isn’t necessary. It wouldn’t be the first time Annam disowned the giants and spurned their failures. His primary goal remains the restoration of Ostoria as a perfect society on the mortal plane, and the destruction of the dragons who have so often sought (or achieved) Ostoria’s destruction. If he comes to believe that scions of the little folk are the most capable of achieving those goals — helping to fuel a rebirth of giant cultures which have become stagnant and moribund — then a radical transformation of giant society isn’t out of the question.

Perhaps such character(s) might become known as Divine Regents, leading the giants until such time as the Promised King comes at last. (A prophecy which may not be fulfilled until centuries from now.) Or perhaps Annam might give them the divine gift of giantdom, creating a new caste of giants.

Go to Part 5C: Running the Final Act

Go to Table of Contents

Storm King’s Thunder begins with the shattering of the Ordning by Annam. The giants, freed from their bonds by the destruction of their society and driven by a desire to claim lordship in the Ordning-yet-to-come, are suddenly more active — and more violent — than they’ve been in generations. Giant attacks run rampant across the Sword Coast and Savage Frontier.

The PCs get sucked into this morass and the question of the hour is: How can we stop it?

Logically, therefore, Storm King’s Thunder should conclude with the PCs resolving the crisis. Their actions should stop the giant attacks and restore the peace.

Oddly, however, as we discussed in Part 2B, this is not how Storm King’s Thunder ends. The book instead wraps up with the PCs rescuing Hekaton (he didn’t disappear until after the Ordning was broken) and then helping him slay the wyrm Iymrith (whose schemes also didn’t begin until after the Ordning was broken).

To complete our remix of Storm King’s Thunder, therefore, we need to conjure forth the missing ending.

THE ORDNING

In the real world, the divine right of kings was the belief that a king’s right to rule was granted by God. In practice, it was fairly circular logic: Everything in the world is the way it is due to God’s plan. Therefore, the fact that I’m in charge means that it’s God’s plan that I should be in charge. And because it’s God’s plan that I should be in charge, no one has a right to question my authority.

I’m in charge because I’m in charge. QED.

(“Hey! What about free will?” “I said no questions!”)

But what if you lived in a world where the gods were real? And you could just call them up and ask, “Who do you think should be in charge?” In fact, maybe your god is more than happy to tell you who’s in charge.

That’s the Ordning.

Annam, the god whom almost all giants worship, has decreed a divine hierarchy for giant society for more than 30,000 years. This hierarchy applied not only between the giant races (so that the cloud giants, for example, had dominion over the hill giants, but were subservient to the storm giants), but also to each individual giant.

The giants sometimes speak of this as skarra, the light of Annam:

• The light of Annam is upon him.
• Her skarra is brighter than mine.
• May the light of Annam shine on you.
• She burns with fiery skarra.

Annam’s light was a guide, a spotlight, a purpose, a blessing, and so much more.

And then the lights went out.

The result was the sort of total societal collapse you often find in failed states. Touchstones from the real world might include the dissolution of the USSR, the rise of ISIS, Rome after the assassination of Caesar, or the Communist Revolution in China.

The giants are a society now riven with strife. Paramilitary organizations struggle for power and/or survival, while the common folk desperately seek protection after aeons of having it assured. In fact, it’s not one conflict, but many different conflicts, all spilling out and affecting the other races and nations of Faerun.

Go to Part 5B: Solutions

Bedlam in Neverwinter is a D&D-themed escape room board game for 2-6 players.

Which is a lot of stuff for designers George Feledichuk, David “Duvey” Rudow, and Leo Taylor to cram into one box.

If you’re not familiar with the escape room board game genre, the basic format is a box filled with hidden cards and sealed containers or envelopes. Players are presented with a series of puzzles, and the solution to each puzzle will indicate which card to draw or sealed box to open in order to find the next puzzle.

In the case of Bedlam in Neverwinter, this primarily takes the form of a card deck and map boards. Each card has a three-digit number on the back. The map boards, on the other hand, depict different locations that the players can explore, each labeled with a three-digit number which indicates which card to draw when you go there. In addition to advancing the narrative of the story, each card may also include instructions (to draw additional cards, for example) or a puzzle (the solution of which will be a three-digit number indicating which card to draw).

If you’re not familiar with D&D, then… Wait. Really?

In any case, D&D is a fantasy roleplaying game in which players create characters by selecting their race, class, and ability scores. The actions taken by these characters are resolved by rolling a 20-sided die, adding a bonus from a relevant ability score, and comparing the result to a target number. There’s also a combat system in which damage is tracked and characters die if they lose all of their hit points.

All of these elements are also found in Bedlam in Neverwinter, albeit in a heavily modified form: Players will create their characters by selecting from a familiar range of races and classes, each of which will grant them proficiency in one of the six ability scores. Each class also has a unique, themed skill/power and will gain additional abilities as they level up at the end of each adventure.

Various cards will require either solo checks (which the current player rolls) or group checks (everyone rolls and at least half the group must succeed). Each check has one or two ability scores associated with it, and if you have a matching ability score you add +1d6 to your d20 roll.

Combat is resolved via round-robin skill checks against the monster’s target number. Weapons and other items can be equipped, granting additional bonuses if your attack roll is high enough. (For example, if you roll 17+ with a Sword of Sharpness, you deal +1 damage.)

And that’s basically it: Bedlam in Neverwinter consists of three adventures, each with a separate deck of cards and map boards. As you play through each deck, you’ll discover and overcome puzzles and monsters. The box states that each adventure takes about 90 minutes, but our experience was closer to 2 hours. (But we did have an ultra-excited 7-year-old playing with us, which may have prolonged things a bit.)

IMPRESSIONS

There will be ONE MINOR SPOILER in the discussion that follows. It will have no impact or insight into the puzzles or other hidden secrets of the game, but ye have been warned.

My overall takeaway from Bedlam in Neverwinter is that it’s an extremely easy game. The box lists a difficulty of 4 out of 5, but at no point did the group I was playing with feel remotely challenged: The puzzles were all trivially dispatched and the combat never once made us feel in danger for our lives.

As a result, it really felt more like an activity than a game. I mentioned that we played it with a fairly young child, and that may be an ideal use case: A pleasant way to pass some time with your friends and/or family. We certainly enjoyed it as such.

The biggest question I have about the game is why, if it’s called Bedlam in Neverwinter, is the entire story set in Icewind Dale? It’s quite baffling, honestly. My best guess — and it’s just a wild guess — is that somebody said, “Don’t we have a movie coming out in 2023 that’s set in Neverwinter?” and a few references to Neverwinter were shoved in and a new title pasted on the cover.

(I’m not going to get more specific than this because, again, I’m trying to avoid spoilers. But it’s very baffling.)

Bedlam in Neverwinter’s biggest flaw, however, is the map boards. As I mentioned before, the idea is that you put a map board on the table and then each player chooses where they want to explore, places their miniature there, and reads the associated card describing what they find. Unfortunately, the illustrations on the map boards don’t match the card descriptions. The first sentence on a card will be something like, “This body appears to have been…” and you’ll look back to the map board in confusion because there’s nobody there.

The first few times this happens, you may think you’ve made a mistake, but you haven’t. The bigger problem, however, is that this failure is so pervasive that selecting map board locations is basically just random noise. Other decisions make this even worse. For example, there’s one map where a clearly Dexterity-based activity is depicted. So you send the Dexterity-proficient character and… ha! ha! Nope! The skill check here is a Charisma-based check where you encourage the most dexterous character in your group to do the activity. (The most dexterous character does not actually contribute to the check in any way.)

I’m not certain if this sort of thing was a deliberate bait-and-switch or just more bad design, but either way what could have been — and arguably should have been — the most significant interactive element in the game is needlessly rendered meaningless.

Like the rest of the escape room genre, once you’ve played through the content once, you’ll be done with the game forever.

Which, ultimately, brings us back to what I said before: The game basically plays itself, but the activities along the way are a pleasant way of passing the time.

You’ll want to keep in mind, though, that like other escape room board games, Bedlam in Neverwinter is not designed to be replayed: You’ll play this once and then never again. (Unlike some games of its type, however, Bedlam in Neverwinter is not destructive, so you could reseal the envelopes and pass it along to someone else easily enough.) You’ll want to keep that in mind when deciding whether or not to grab a copy.

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