Slow Down In Sandpoint


Rise of the Runelords


So, I have ran the beginning of Burnt Offerings twice and both times the players chomp at the bit to go after the goblins. I have tried to run some of the mini encounters, but the entire group is very suspicious of the goblins and just want to figure out what's going on. Do you have any suggestions, or should I just let it speed up?


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From all the posts I read before running, it seemed like bringing Sandpoint to life was quite important. And so I really tried to slow my players down - who, like yours, were chomping at the bit to get into action.

I opted to spend a lot of time with Madame Mvashti doing card readings for the PCs when they first got to town, as she "saw their aura" was going to be vital to the "rising darkness"; and made them RP getting rooms and board. I did have a quick encounter with several goblins attacking Mvashti as she was out and about on one of her walks with some druid initiates to foreshadow the goblins attacking. After however, I extended the Swallowtail festival out to a week, and had the goblin attack towards the end of it.

For my action heavy group, it was hard for them to handle - they started suspecting all the action was to be found in town, so they went around sneaking around town to inspect the new cathedral, went out to Chopper's Isle to poke around, etc.

One session was spent with them just finding all the various games at the festival - one player ranted that this was the first session he's ever played in over 25 years where there wasn't a combat. Made me smile 8-).

But, I'm glad I did because one the action starts in earnest with the Glassworks, it gets VERY dense VERY quick. And so taking the time with Sandpoint made it come alive to them, and they have built up quite a connection with it. So much so, that the discovery of who's behind the goblin attacks comes as a great shock; leading to lots of anger and malice towards the antagonist; and after taking care of N, great sadness upon learning (via another poster's wonderful suggestion of dream sequence flashbacks) what drove them to that point.

So, yeah - TLDR - it is very much worth it.


I guess I'll go ahead and try to elaborate. We started with the Festival and tried to run a few games. The group was moderately interested and kept going to games, but also had an attitude of, "okay, what next?" I also have 6 players, and they seemed a bit uninterested in letting individuals do things. There was a lot of, "well then I'm there too." So after a few hours of the festival, we started the attack.

I'm not sure what should and shouldn't be in spoilers, so I'll do my best.

Spoiler:

The first goblin attack went fine. I described a few goblin antics. The player's got a little mad at all the wasted food. But they didn't spread out much and kept the goblins contained fairly quickly. They immediately wanted to rush off, so the goblin pyros happened with almost no break. Even that combat didn't stress them too much, and not many were injured. They didn't really want a break here either, so Die, Dog, Die started pretty quick. Again, they made decent work of the goblins. I did double a lot of the goblin groups, but I wasn't rolling well and 14's to hit are hard to come by. The party ranger with favored enemy goblin noticed that two different tribes were present and became concerned.

So they immediately went to the Rusty Dragon and Lord Foxglove tried to thank them. Only one player actually wanted to talk to the Lord and wasn't very interested in the boar hunt. Foxglove went away a little disappointed, but left the invitation open. They went to bed for the night.

In the morning, 3 of the players wandered off into the woods to chat about goblins and the other 3 ended up with Father Zantus looking into Tobyn's tomb. They made quick work of the skeletons due to channel energy, but the skeletons got some good hits in as well.

Spoiler:

At this point they really decided that something big was going on and started running around bothering everyone for information. They grilled Father Zantus and the Sheriff regarding the temple burning down and as soon as Nualia was brought up one said, "If you even say her body wasn't..." So they have kind of already guessed her involvement from a storyline idea. I probably should have run the Shopkeeper's daughter or Something int he Closet, but I let them rush around. They did encounter Lonjiko at the Rusty Dragon and confronted him pretty quick.

They asked around a bit and found out about Shelelu, so they started running everywhere looking for her. It was obvious they really wanted something to happen, so I went ahead and had Shelelu show up to talk to the Mayor and Sheriff. It is now technically only one day after the attack and we finished with them returning to their rooms to sleep. The sheriff is leaving in the morning, but I think I'll have a lot of the rest just stop. Most of the citizens will return to their lives and assume that nothing is wrong. If they go wandering off into the woods, I'll run some sidequests with other tribes, possibly let them go to Thistletop if they think of it. I figure, 2 days to Magnimar, at least 2 days in Magnimar getting help, 2 more days back to Sandpoint means 5 days on their own. I'll wait 2 or 3 days before Ameiko goes missing.


I'll go ahead and let Monster in the Closet still happen, Father Zantus will just be the one to respond after the PCs clear it out.

Liberty's Edge

I don't think there is anything wrong with increasing the pacing. Go ahead and start the glassworks the next morning.

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
LankyOgre wrote:
I guess I'll go ahead and try to elaborate...

Here is my experience, but keep in mind that I ran the 3.5e version of Burnt Offerings and converted it up to PF.

Session #1:
I didn't run anything pre-festival; no games or an of that stuff. I just described the festival and got to the attack. Once that was over and they had a chance to introduce themselves, we moved on to introducing Aldern in the form of the Goblin Commando attack.

Session #2:
They found out about the theft of Tobyn's body, took care of the goblin in the closet, they went on the bore hunt, they met Shalelu, and they found out Ameiko had been kidnapped. By the end, they had rescued Ameiko and taken Tsuto prisoner.

As you can see, I skipped some stuff, but I know my players (we've been gaming together for years) and i know what will keep their interest and what won't. There's no need to spend hours on the festival unless you think that's what you players are going to enjoy. You can easily increase the pace and jump straight into the action and mystery of Chapter 1.

-Skeld

Shadow Lodge

I think the "bring Sandpoint to life" stuff is a bit overstated, if you know how to read your players. It seems you're aware, but if they are bored they are NOT forming positive associations with the people in Sandpoint. In fact if they found certain people annoying, they may wind up rooting for the bad guys.

Go for a light touch. Introduce your NPC in a few phrases, dangle out the hook if you will, and if they don't bit3 just keep going. Then, later, assume these encounters registered with the players by 'reminding' them. "Remember, he's that guy who really wanted to go boar hunting with you after you saved his dog."

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