Holger wrote:
After reading RoAE and the background articles I have to say that I really like them. Thank you for sharing it with us, Arlun!
I am even thinking about starting a new campaign on this base. We will see...
I'm pleased you enjoyed it - the intention of what has grown into the Dark rethem (credit to Anders for that group title) was to encourage GMs to think about the West &/or go beyond what Golotha and the local politics have to offer. There's no reason why that can't provide a great backdrop but there's much more to the West than Kanday and Rethem.
Holger wrote:
There is only one thing I am missing (besides the following two adventures

): information about the ship Breyta and its crew. There are only the descriptions of the captain and of Vigdis but nothing else. I have got the impression that there could be a complete background article missing. After all, it is one of the main locations of the adventure.
You correctly identify something that might have been. A write-up of the
Breyta was in the original campaign plan but several things intervened:
1. Time - I was conscious that if I didn't get it out soon then I might never finish the damn thing; I am not by nature a 'completer finisher'. I was much more interested in getting it out to people and then finishing Part 3 and getting the structure of PArt 4 into a place that could allow it to be finished. I'll look for the spreadsheet I used to get as far as I did with defining her - anyone is welcome to fill in the blanks and post her back here, with my gratitude.
2. The Mechanics - I did once create a ship to carry players to Hepekeria and my recollection was that it was more trouble than it was worth. Don't get me wrong I think the Pilots Almanac has much to recommend it but it's just a bit too dense for me to want to use the ship building section more than once every decade or so. This time around it was enough to use the PA rules for movement and to summarise that in the notes from Captain Grim's rutter.
3. Dead Weight - I'd meant to mention this in the introductory notes but forgot; it would be possible to use that ship instead of the Breyta as a source of crew and ship. I know it's not a knaar and you'd have to change crew motive a lot, but as a characterful collection of NPCs it could be helpful.
Anyway - thanks for the feedback. I'd begun to think RoAE had disappeared without a trace.
200+ of you have downloaded it and the articles but few have commented.
Can I stress that any further feedback would be most welcome; even if you hated it I'd like to know why.