So I stopped playing after disciples of rage came out. I haven't seen anything about the new Sharn expansion. What's everyone's opnion here? Is it good? And is it comparable to ravenloft? Which I really enjoyed.

Dohhv wrote on Sep 12^th, 2019 at 7:17am:


Would you put it on par with shadowfell? Or is it better than that in your opinion?

Bushin wrote on Sep 12^th, 2019 at 7:32am:


That's a tough one. I think I'm gonna have to go with Sharn (mainly for the gear). The quests are also pretty fun in Sharn, but, they can be quite tough.

Shadowfell has better explorer areas and ambiance but is an obvious 2 pack bundle with no raids. Sharn has real raids, real gear, and s ton of quests. Personally I like the cogs quests a ton and the story quests are worse but passable.

WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Sep 12^th, 2019 at 10:28am:


Agreed.  A Wheloon adventure pack and a Stormhorns adventure pack would certainly be considered very good, in my book.  They just didn't make it to "Expansion" level in content, systems, or feel.   The lack of raids was certainly a part of that.  As was the loot.  Which felt more like a "we just moved the cap to 28, so lets give everyone some new ML 26/27 easy to get starter gear that will be quickly surpassed".   

As much as the expansion is rightly considered the weakest offering, Wheloon has aged nicely for me and I enjoy the adventure area and the quests.   Stormhorns is beautiful, but the adventure area is a bit too large and too sparsely populated for my liking.

goldgolem wrote on Sep 12^th, 2019 at 11:15am:


The one with the dapper dragonborn is fun. The one with the crests is cancer. The first one is cancer. The last one is cancer. That's a lot of cancer.

Rubbinns wrote on Sep 12^th, 2019 at 11:49am:


Is the quest design their pattented "50 mobs in a straight hallway, copy,  hold paste"?

Pros:
Sharn has 17 quests for first time RXP bonuses. 
Great gear.
Chunky saga XP for kickstarting an epic past life.
The Masterminds of Sharn quests look good -- variety of locations and atmospheres.

Cons:
The Sharn story is not compelling.  Vaunt as an antagonist can't hold a candle to Strahd, or even his sidekick Baba.
THTH is cancer.  PN is boring. 
Just Business is too long.
I'd rather slam my dick in a car door than do Smash & Burn.
Providing minor artifacts as saga rewards and quest drops was a mistake.  Now half of raid loot tables are full of gear that no one needs.

Meursault wrote on Sep 13^th, 2019 at 7:37am:

The "let's please everyone" approach of having them in raid loot tables, saga rewards and quest drops is the problem.  They're trying to appease too many audiences, and minor artifacts have been devalued as a result.

Carpone wrote on Sep 13^th, 2019 at 7:42am:

Trying to please everyone, or at least make changes that please some and piss off none, is actually a really good approach, the problem is that SSG sucks at it and threw a half assed attempt that pleases nobody and angered some. Having artifacts drop in quests isn't enough to close the power gap and let new players keep up, and it annoys hard core raiders who feel cheated.

But honestly, at this point what *can* they do to close the gap? I think they're finally seeing the gap is hurting them, but they let it grow to a yawning chasm before they did anything, and now it's too big to slap a patch on and get back to LARPing.

You're still going to buy the pack even if the minor artifacts are devalued, and they know it. But many people today won't even consider raids or raid loot when buying a pack, they needed to offer something to get those people to pony up their $$$, and Minor Artifacts was it. It certainly wasn't the "fun" of the shitty quests they vomited up after a hard night of binge drinking and fellatio.

NOTpopejubal wrote on Sep 13^th, 2019 at 7:48am:


How shitty are we talking with that pack? I saw it advertised but didn't really bother. Are we talking most recent xoriat chain shitty or worse?

Actually this reminds me of Age of rage pack - some great visual design and a few cool things here and there, but failing at the higher level of good quest design in places and failing in some specific and obvious design 101 in others. It feels like a new quest designer learning the ropes

I like that they attempted a mini boss end fight and some cool small mechanics

Sharn, from a technical point of view, is worth picking up.  After you've farmed it, your character will be more powerful.  The level range in heroic plus the two sagas mean you can start on Sharn at 17, complete all the quests, and have enough exp with saga turn-ins to hit 20.  So from that standpoint, yep, worth picking up.

From a gameplay point of view...there are good quests and bad quests.  The Cogs as an explorer area isn't very interesting, IMO.  The Barovia explorer was much better.  There's also no analog to Castle Ravenloft in Sharn.  In both Invitation to Dinner and Raven at the Door, there was an efficient path, but also tons of nooks and crannies to poke around in and explore.  Not just dead space with mobs, but rare random encounters, interactions, etc.  Sharn quests are pretty much on a rail and the optimal path will take you to 90+% of the overall quest content.

As far as new mechanics, traps and puzzles are either completely optional or easily avoided.  Soarsleds are gimmicy for ranged and annoying for melee.  Irk is a dick.  The shrine placement on a couple of the quests boggle the mind.  In Just Business, you don't get a shrine through the first 3/4 of the quest, and then you get 3 shrines within the last 4 fights (1 boat + archers fight, shrine, 3 boat fight, shrine, Gish fight, shrine, end fight).