I'm about halfway through running Lure of the Expanse and just thought I would share and get some thoughts on it.

How many sessions did you get out of the adventure?

Did you run it strait, or break it up and use it as material?

How do you feel about its long term value?

Would you buy it again?

(my answers in my next post)

How many sessions did you get out of the adventure?

It looks like we are going to get about 20 sessions out of it, some of that because of me tying in other adventures.

Did you run it strait, or break it up and use it as material?

I ran the dread pearl adventure, though I tweaked the encounters/npc's/etc, and threw in some extra adventures.

How do you feel about its long term value?

The various gazetteers have provided me with ideas for dozens of adventures, which I am very excited about. The best thing I have gotten out of it is the rival traders. They now have half a dozen well developed re-occuring characters to whom they have been introduced and have history with.

Would you buy it again?

In a second. 5+ months of great games, dozens of future plot hooks, and some fantastic rivals with established relationships for 40$? Some of the best money I have spent on a game in a long time.

Final Thoughts?

Traditionally I have written my own adventures. I've run modules and such from time to time, but they were typically of the one-off variety. 10-20$ for 1-3 games is a waste, and I still had to do all the footwork to incorperate it into the larger campaign. Plus I always had so much free I could develop large, intricate plots and worlds. But now I'm a lot older, have a family, career, etc.

Lure of the expanse was a godsend for me. It is taking me months to run and provides enough adventure hooks for at least another years worth of games. But for me the best part of all is that it is basically a big adventure for introducing lots of memorable characters. It's like the first season of a good show, and a great way to start a campaign. Additionally it is giving my players (who initially had a great deal of system shock at the scope of the game) a good foundation for a dynasty, one that they built and understand.

My only complaint is one that seems to be echo'd by several others: the elder. It is unfortunate that there is only one way to deal with them, and it takes a fair amount of re-writing to change that. And you would lose a lot of good material if your characters did so, so I think they are just going to have to man up and put down the pointy eared pansies. A pity, I usually prefer to provide diplomatic solutions.

So, I'm officially addicted to campaign books. I love that I can still run a good, fun game without having to come up with EVERY little detail. It saves me hours and hours every week, and gives me the freedom to focus on all the plots, mutinies, and intrigues I am so fond of.

I just hope the ork trilogy has started coming out by the time we finish this module.

How many sessions did you get out of the adventure?

Must be up to about 10 or so now and my players have just had their first session with boots on the dread pearl.

Did you run it strait, or break it up and use it as material?

Pretty much ran it straight.

How do you feel about its long term value?

Its very good, although i've modified it a bit most of it was playable from the get go and some of the rogue traders are set to become chronicle long baddies (especially that fiend Admiral Bastille).

Would you buy it again?

Hell yes, its the only worthwhile adventure i've ever bought, i usually can get some useful material from these but this one didn't need much alteration at all.

Final Thoughts?

As the above poster, i usually run my own material although i've taken much from other adventures in other games. This was a really quality adventure which even after it ends will have longevity in the form of the different gazzetters and the NPCs. Bastille has become the big bad of the adventure and my players have befriended and fought alongside Sun Lee and made closer ties to some of my own invented rogue traders.

There were a couple of moments where the adventure completely failed to anticipate the actions of my players but thats the nature of published adventures, not much that could possibly be done about that.

All in all, this was a quality book with great background, good plot and some really useful NPCs/ships/etc.

Cannot recommend it highly enough to other GMs.

Funny. I liked Bastille, but Haderak Fel has been the big performer for my group.

I play him a bit like Percy from "Scarlet Pimpernel", all crevats, pink suits, monicles, perfume, noble incompetance, AND ALWAYS THERE! HOW DOES HE ALWAYS KNOW EVERYTHING AND BEAT US THERE! I can't wait till they realize he isn't half the nancy boy he pretends to be, or a quarter as evil and corrupt as they suspect him to be. He's just very, very good at what he does.

How many sessions did you get out of the adventure? I think it will end up at about 15 in total. One session (The Light of Terra) lasted for 10 hours!

Did you run it strait, or break it up and use it as material? Pretty much straight up, just some very minor changes.

How do you feel about its long term value? Although my players might get through it in about 15 sessions, they will probably spend 5 sessions with picking up loose ends and hating several of the other Rogue Traders for as long as we game!

Would you buy it again? Yes!

Aaah, the Light of Terra. When I ran it, Bastille had got there beforehand. What followed was a fleet action, on one side Bastille had his flagship, the cruiser Colossus, 3 frigates and a raider, on the PCs side, their own cruiser the Thors Redemption, their raider The Foxes Gambit, and a pair of light cruisers under the command of their allies Solomon Haarlock and Sun Lee.

It was a rather epic battle indeed. They won eventually, Bastille escaped on his cruiser, the destroyed utterly 2 frigates and captured the other frigate and raider, along with a transport Bastille also had in system.

Hoorah!

How many sessions did you get out of the adventure?

About 20 or so sessions, some lasting longer than others, but the shortest session was about 4-5 hours.

Did you run it strait, or break it up and use it as material?

I ran it straight, because when I was running it I was playtesting it (my first playtested supplement... ahh, it feels so long ago now ).

How do you feel about its long term value?

Just for the setting stuff (several planets covered, Footfall covered, loads of great NPCs to use in future against the players (if they survived Lure ), and all the Eldar stuff), it's really good. The campaign was then one of the better pre-written stories I've ever used (I'm used to a generally low standard, but the FFG ones have generally been pretty good).

Would you buy it again?

Any day of the week, yes. It was well worth it for me and my players, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't wait to see the future Rogue Trader pre-written campaigns, if they are going to be of the same standard as this.