Just so you know I am entering my fifth year running this particular AP for four players once a week for about five hours per session. Being that the entire campaign is very player driven, it really is up to the PCs how long the story will take. That's not necessarily a bad thing. There is PLENTY of potential down time that can be narrated during the months that you aren't playing. This would require you as the GM to take a bit more control of the Kingdom building aspect by making rolls and such. Then when it comes time for you and your group to meet, you can run a marathon session of exploration and adventure to set up the next prolonged break.
As far as a group of solid half orcs, it sounds great. There are plenty of ways to incorporate that into your story. It does require a bit more info to really help drop some advice. What kind of half-orc group are they thinking of playing? Are they brutish and chaotic or atypical and fighting to break convention? Are they good or evil?
If they are all related that should hold them together
Make them cursed so they will fall in love with fey and you should have loads fun
Good luck. By far my favourite AP.
Rekit Bokken the Crazy Hermit as an Alchemist. Give him a bizarro lab in his little hut where he can make prosthetics and junk for your crazy orcs.
At some point you need to give him an excuse to scream "It's Alive! ALIVE!!!"
Even with the 6-player conversion (and 6 players), book 1 at least is pretty easy, outside of a few hard-hitters like the whiptail centipede in the mite lair. One of the issues with the AP as a whole is that, lairs aside, players will usually only have one encounter per day, which will probably be a cakewalk (because they can dump all their daily resources on it). I'm not really sure what to do to remedy that, though.
If you're only playing once a year, be ready to gloss over the exploration part of book 1 if your players get bored. Do the trading post stuff, the mites/kobolds war, the tatzlwyrms, Nettles' Crossing, and Jhod Kavken & the Temple of the Elk. Maybe the Fairy Nest if you think your players will have fun with it. Those are the essentials, and then hit the Stag Lord.
All the other exploration encounters are grinding. I run the six player conversion with five players, and they breeze through the encounters. They've gotten kind of bored, so I started fast-tracking past it and getting to the event that will make them rulers, which is why players want to play the game.
But as for a party of all half-orcs, that sounds awesome. The KM player's guide actually touches on how this AP is great for misfit characters.
Even with the 6-player conversion (and 6 players), book 1 at least is pretty easy, outside of a few hard-hitters like the whiptail centipede in the mite lair. One of the issues with the AP as a whole is that, lairs aside, players will usually only have one encounter per day, which will probably be a cakewalk (because they can dump all their daily resources on it). I'm not really sure what to do to remedy that, though.
Good post. This is an issue with Book 1.
I think the answer is fewer encounters overall, but make the ones you do have even bigger.
Great comments, thanks! I was considering trimming Book 1: it looked fairly repetitive, plus I didn't want the players stuck at very low levels for so long (a few years real time). I haven't read the later books in detail yet - are any of the seemingly random side quests actually important?
Important sources of XP, if you track that. :) They're also an excuse to get the PCs to certain locations, providing an incentive to explore.
Personally I think a once per year game might necessitate glossing over experience rewards. Simply level the characters up when you want or when the plot necessitates it.
I love Orthos's Bokken idea.
Have you considered having other large groups of half-orcs flock to the area? Some clan fighting could be an awesome twist to give the campaign a more orcish feel. You could reskin both the troll presence and the tiger lords as rival tribes looking to overtake the PCs holdings.
BornofHate, I really like the idea of incorporating more half-orcs. Maybe full orc tribes, too - especially if only a half-orc party could negotiate any kind of peaceful co-existence.
In that case I'd definitely look at changing the Nomen centaurs in Book 3 to an orc tribe. Varnhold hasn't been willing to negotiate with them but the PCs are expected to, so it fits perfectly.
Great call Thrund. They totally slipped my mind, but add a third opposing orc group. Now that brings us to four total. In design you build your composition using odds so to follow suit lets make the Stag Lord and his crew half orcs as well!
Once the clans are united under one banner, I am sure an outside force will want to put the clans down. :)