Merging Shattered Star and RotRL


Shattered Star


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I've been running the hardcover reissue of Rise of the Rune Lords -- and it's been a fantastic ride.

One of the things I really took to heart was the advice in the new edition to slow the time frame down significantly and allow the PCs to sandbox Varisia.

That's worked out beautifully.

While working through the first section of the AP, I started buying Shattered Star and realized that this wasn't/isn't a campaign for my group.

Too many dungeon crawls. To be clear, they're GREAT dungeon crawls. But still, just not right for my group.

Also, we're not big fans of the "Pathfinder Society" as a plot motivator.

But what I've found is that there is a TON of great material in SS that really fleshes out the whole Thassilonian adventure.

Everything from monsters to settings to side trek adventures.

To cite just one example: My players are leaving Sandpoint for a time to lead a trading expedition from Magnimar to Kaer Maga.

SS has a huge amount of material to flesh out that journey. I plan to cannibalize big chunks of book one, Shards of Sin, including small chunks of the dungeon.

Also, one of my PCs is fascinated by the Sczarni -- and he's now bound up in side-plot involving the Tower Girls.

I also suspect that I'll trade out the long side mission in ROTRL to energize weapons -- and replace it with the cleaner quest mechanic of rebuilding the star.

(By the way, the first person who turns out to have a piece of the shattered star in my narrative is Aldern Foxglove - cursed with the pride sin...)

They'll use the star against Karzoug, and inadvertently trigger the apocalyptic events in Dead Heart of Xin.

By incorporating Shattered Star, I'll also be able to flesh out significantly the role of the Denizens of Leng, which is a very cool but underdeveloped aspect of ROTRL.

So...I'll let you know how it goes.

My guess is that by the end of January, we'll have finished most of the plot elements in Shards of Sin and Burnt Offerings.

--Marsh


I'll be interested to see how this works out for your group. Will you be using the Slow advancement track to keep things on a more even keel in terms of XP gain?

Although I am greatly enjoying reading Shattered Star, I concede that my group is just a tiny bit burnt out on extensive dungeon crawling for the time being... so I'm having a similar dilemma to you as to how I can best use this material in the future.

Liberty's Edge

I am doing the same with those two AP, because of the same reasons.
I wrote every single part of both APs on post-its together with the level range. Than I started to put them in an order which might work.
I only found a problem with the last parts of both APs. Either doing Xin first, or Karzoug. I have to wait for part six of SS to finally make a decision.

Regarding XPs: I told my players, that i won't calculate them, but just tell them when their PCs go up a level. That's far easier for planning the whole campaign.

Dark Archive Contributor

I love this idea so much I'm tempted to restart Runelords from the beginning. But my players would surely revolt.

Contributor

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Dryder wrote:
Either doing Xin first, or Karzoug. I have to wait for part six of SS to finally make a decision.

My money's on Xin. You'll see. =-)


Can you give us a hint as to Xin's level?

We have to wait don't we?

Drat and Bother!

Liberty's Edge

Brandon Hodge wrote:
Dryder wrote:
Either doing Xin first, or Karzoug. I have to wait for part six of SS to finally make a decision.
My money's on Xin. You'll see. =-)

Oh man, glad to hear that. :)

I hoped to do Xin first, as the mountains and Shalast is so far out!
Can't wait to get my hands on part 6 of SS!


I'm doing this, but to a lesser extent.

I've been running Runelords for about a year-and-a-half, and we're about halfway through it. Since the number 7 has been so important through Runelords, I decided that I wanted to add a seventh book to the Runelords campaign, so I've cobbed together my own plotline for an entire chapter that occurs between the events of Hook Mountain Massacre and Fortress of the Stone Giants, mostly using PFS scenarios, the old module Seven Swords of Sin, and stealing sections of The Asylum Stone.

I posted my outline for this book on another thread.

One change I've made since I wrote the above plotline is that the PCs have gained the enmity of the Aspis Consortium, so the attack on the party's riverboat on the journey to Kaer Maga will now be an assassination attempt by an Aspis hit squad rather than the boggard encounter from Asylum Stone.


Things are going great so far. I've instituted a very deliberate system of leveling up, where PCs gain levels only when it is adventure-appropriate -- very slowly.

But they also gain additional campaign traits as miniature rewards within each level, so that they can continue to mod their characters and gain a sense of power progress.

I plan to end the campaign with three bad guy battles, probably in this order: Karzoug, Xin, Yamasoth.

Marsh

Contributor

I've been thinking about this a bit, and without revealing too much (you don't have to wait much longer!), I do think the finale for Shattered Star is much, much stronger and more cinematic than the final duel with Karzoug, and makes for a more fitting ending to a campaign. While I haven't read Spires of Xin-Shalast in quite some time, I do remember playing it quite well, and I think with the climatic action of Shattered Star, it would make a superior and action-packed finale for a campaign.

I mean, this thing is awesome, folks, and I'm not too proud to admit it. =-)

But on the other hand, if the PCs are putting the Sihedron together to combat the threat of rising Runelords, then it makes the most sense to put Dead Heart of Xin before Spires of Xin-Shalast. At this point, I don't think it is any big secret that putting the Sihedron back together is what triggers the events of Dead Heart of Xin, so unless you have a story element to delay the reunification until after the confrontation with Karzoug, then it seems to make the most sense to put it prior to Karzoug's reawakening, perhaps even having it be the ultimate trigger.

But, ultimately, who makes the bigger villain? One of the seven Runelords, or the First King that taught them everything their precursors knew, and that all had to band together to beat up on an elderly old man?

So, yeah, my money is on Xin being the more dire opponent, and as you'll soon see, he poses the greater threat to Golarion than poor little Karzoug. He probably makes more sense as the final opponent on that level, if you can justify the pause in putting the pieces back together.

Liberty's Edge

Ok, Xin will be last... Maybe Karzoug has the last Shard in his city...?!
Anyway, thanx for the info, Brandon.

I will have Sheila Heidmarch attend the Swallowtail festival in Sandpoint, where she was visiting Brodert Quing to discuss their latest research regarding Thassilon. They've found a scroll from thassilonian times, with the Sihedron on it. At each point of the Sihedron is a faded, almost no longer recognizeable face of a person. When Sheila and Brodert see the PCs for the first time, they are in shock - their faces are the ones on the scroll.
The scroll actually was made by a thassilonian Seer, who had a vision of those, who would finally prevent the rise of Thassilon after Earthfall. Every Runelord got one such scroll from the seer, but after the thousand of years which have past, the scrolls are forgotten. But the Runelords still have those images memorized.

I can't wait to see my players faces, once Sheila shows them the scroll, and as a sidenote telling them, that it's over 10.000 years old... :)

This way, I hope to be able to better merge the two APs. In the end, why should'nt both Lords rise at the same time...

Grand Lodge Contributor

Dryder wrote:

Ok, Xin will be last... Maybe Karzoug has the last Shard in his city...?!

Anyway, thanx for the info, Brandon.

I will have Sheila Heidmarch attend the Swallowtail festival in Sandpoint, where she was visiting Brodert Quing to discuss their latest research regarding Thassilon. They've found a scroll from thassilonian times, with the Sihedron on it. At each point of the Sihedron is a faded, almost no longer recognizeable face of a person. When Sheila and Brodert see the PCs for the first time, they are in shock - their faces are the ones on the scroll.
The scroll actually was made by a thassilonian Seer, who had a vision of those, who would finally prevent the rise of Thassilon after Earthfall. Every Runelord got one such scroll from the seer, but after the thousand of years which have past, the scrolls are forgotten. But the Runelords still have those images memorized.

I can't wait to see my players faces, once Sheila shows them the scroll, and as a sidenote telling them, that it's over 10.000 years old... :)

This way, I hope to be able to better merge the two APs. In the end, why should'nt both Lords rise at the same time...

What will you do in the event of players dropping out, or character death (assuming they're not raised)?

Liberty's Edge

I have only five players, so I have two faces, which are no longer recognizeable. This way, I have two options for new pcs.
I hope this will be enough. But in case it will not, I can still rule, that there have been other scrolls, and an accompanying text, where the seer explained his visions. Those texts are unfortunately lost in time....
I thought long about using this idea or not, but in the end, I thought it good enough to go with the option of two deaths.
Normally, that is enough for this experienced group in our campaigns.

The Exchange

What I figure should be possible for sure is just swapping out RotR #5 for Sahtterd Star #5 - both are dungeon adventures themed very closely after runelords, but the shattered star adventure is just that much more packed with awesome, and deals with Karzoug himself to boot.

Grand Lodge Contributor

I was originally planning to use encounter areas from RotRL and CotCT (Seven's Sawmill, Runeforge, Crypt of the Thrallkeepers, Sunken Queen)in my SS campaign, but instead I'm going to be threading the recent PFS 'Lissala' modules in to mix things up for my players. I'm considering making more of Ardathanatus' plot from Beyond the Doomsday Door and add a high-level mega adventure at the end of the AP to go into Hollow Mountain and take out the remnants of Yamasoth's forces on Golarion (and maybe face the big guy himself).

Liberty's Edge

Those are cool ideas as well! And I am tempted to do those also. Varisia just has so much awesome stuff by now, which is great. I fear, though, that one can't use all in one campaign. But not using XPs, instead just telling my players when their pcs level up, helps tremednously.

I love to read what others come up with, when it comes to those campaigns and society scenarios set in Varisia.

Grand Lodge Contributor

Yeah. When I was plotting out my Shattered Star campaign I was slotting in SO MUCH cool stuff from everywhere else that it was just becoming an unwiedly mess. I've settled with the Lissala modules because I think they're all pretty great and their short length means I can easily tweak them to thread together with the Sihedron plot.

This could all change, but I doubt it. My campaigns are always quite organic and run through severl different iterations of plot and side quests during development and as play progresses. As a GM I find it hard not to want to include everything that I think is appropriate.

Life is hard.

The Exchange

Shaun Hocking wrote:

Yeah. When I was plotting out my Shattered Star campaign I was slotting in SO MUCH cool stuff from everywhere else that it was just becoming an unwiedly mess. I've settled with the Lissala modules because I think they're all pretty great and their short length means I can easily tweak them to thread together with the Sihedron plot.

This could all change, but I doubt it. My campaigns are always quite organic and run through severl different iterations of plot and side quests during development and as play progresses. As a GM I find it hard not to want to include everything that I think is appropriate.

Life is hard.

what modules are these about Lissala? I like her a lot, I might be intrested in getting these... what are the moduels' names?

Grand Lodge Contributor

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Portal of the Sacred Rune from Season 3; Severing Ties, The Cultist's Kiss, Feast of Sigils, and The Refuge of Time from Season 4. There are two more forthcoming modules from season 4 to complete the metaplot - Words of the Ancients and The Walking Rune I believe.

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