Starting RotRL next week - any advice?

[Krathanos]

Hey all!

Last night week my buddy's homebrew campaign ended, so DMing is up to me again. Time to give that beautiful Anniversary Edition a whirl.

Since this section of the boards is by far the most active AP forum, it's kinda overwhelming - even to an old hand like me (RotRL will be the 10th AP I run).

So, in short, is there some advice the hivemind can agree on that I MUST know about? Are there any devious pitfalls for the hapless DM who dares to run this AP?

My players are a mix of experienced Pathfinders and relative newcomers. There are six of them, and the character classes will be: Fighter, Brawler, Hunter, Rogue, Arcanist and Cleric. Most of them know Sandpoint already, since I ran Jade Regent with them before (but RotRL will be a prequel).

I intend to play RotRL mostly by-the-book - I'm running Serpent's Skull with another group, so I've already got more than my fair share of customization work. But some things always need changing, and the fact that I let the PCs level up by DM fiat allows me to skip some boring combat encounters.

So hit me: What do I need to know? What do I need to change? And what's the deal with chapter four, it looks kinda grindy?

Thanks in advance!

[DanyRay]

Make sure your player take ranks in knowledges. My players don't care to do that and miss some(most) leads on missed knowledge check. In fact they make it to book five with enough intel to know where to go but not enough to know Why, they slowly lost interest. It's still an excellent path, will probably run it again with an other group in the futur.

[Misroi]

Hey yourself, Krathanos!

The first goal of the game is to get the PCs invested in Sandpoint. Since you've run Jade Regent, they're already familiar with some of the citizens, but this AP spends a lot more time there. To start with, I'd reintroduce the town with the Swallowtail Festival. There's a thread on this board detailing the extra games and speeches for the people there. You can find it here.

Also, the Local Heroes section is built for writing stuff exclusively for your PCs. When they've given you their backgrounds, you should be able to look at the town and see what plot threads need expanding. There's also some interesting side treks people have created here, including the Chopper's Isle adventure, which might be the first hint that there's something weird beneath Sandpoint. That can be found here.

[memorax]

First off no Gunslinger. Seriously. Thre are so many creatures with low touc AC it becomes a turkey shot. Unless the player running one is a complete beginner. Or willing to underplay his class. I had a Gunslinger in my current game. I had to multiply the hp for minor enemies by three sometimes even four times. As the Gunslinger was doing damage enough to one shot the weaker and sometimes even the major npcs. And wwere not even talking about a completely optimized character.

Reworking certain elements of the AP. At one point the group has to fight Ogres in a fort. All well and good except it's a fort sized for humans. Making it really hard for the Ogres to gang up on the players. The Ogres don't even attempt to resize the fort during their stay. My advice remove the Ogres and put something else in like a tribe of Hobgoblins or even orcs. Hell put in some humans who became greedy and they mutinyd.

Reworking of the main BBEGs. With the exception so far of Module 5 where I had not to alter major npcs. The majority of them will be defeated easily by even a group with minor optimization. In one of the modules the group fights a female spellcaster. While she can fly or was it climb walls she has no crowd control spells. In a area where it she should. Same thing with feat choices. One npc is buried underground for centuries. Has item creation feats yet has at most +2 with a majority of +1 gear on him. What a waste.

Take the time to thnk if you want Leadership feat in the game. Plenty of useful recruits in Sandpoint. Some dms dislike the feat so take care in allowing it in the game. Same with item creation feats and/or classes for other sourcebooks.

Have breaks in between modules with encounters combat and social of your own creation. It's a nice break from the pace of the AP and gives players a reason to scout the areas and maybe get to know the npcs on town.

[Krathanos]

That's why I love these boards - three answers and already a goldmine of cool stuff and good advice!

@Misroi: Awesome links, thanks for sharing! I probably wouldn't have found these and I will totally use them.

@memorax: Gunslingers and Leadership are banned from my game - I recently even nerfed a Gunslinger in my Serpent's Skull campaign (with the player's permission). Firearms as written are broken in Pathfinder.

[Phntm888]

I don't think firearms are broken, so much as so many APs prior to their introduction aren't designed to work with them. With 6 players, I think allowing Leadership would slow things down too much.

I just started this a couple months ago for 6 players, and most of the changes I made are increasing the number of enemies and maxing hit points. My group consists of a Two-Weapon Fighter, a Wizard, a Cleric, a Swashbuckler with the Musketeer archetype, a Rogue with the Burglar and Counterfeit Mage archetypes, and a Druid. Those changes seem to have kept things challenging.

Another change I suggest is increasing the size of some of the rooms. If I'd left the rooms the size they are in the book, it would have been far too cramped and a slaughter for the NPCs.

Regarding experience, I'd suggest going with the guide at the beginning of each chapter. That allows you to keep them about on pace with where the AP expects them to be. You should also be prepared for them doing things out of order. Due to some espionage by the Druid, my party decided to skip the Catacombs and go straight to Thistletop to stop what they think is a demon-summoning ritual. It's made some fights a lot more challenging without modification, and had the benefit of putting Thistletop on alert, which means they can't pick the named NPCs off one by one.

[captain yesterday]

i also ban leadership:) always have always will, that and summoners:)

[memorax]

Phntm888 wrote:

Another change I suggest is increasing the size of some of the rooms. If I'd left the rooms the size they are in the book, it would have been far too cramped and a slaughter for the NPCs.

Agreed and seconded. Espcially the encounters at the human fort. Otherwise it;s too easy for the npcs to get taken out by the players. My advice on rewriting the npcs still stands imo. Even if the group were complete beginners to the game I find them too underpowered.

Krathanos wrote:

@memorax: Gunslingers and Leadership are banned from my game - I recently even nerfed a Gunslinger in my Serpent's Skull campaign (with the player's permission). Firearms as written are broken in Pathfinder.

I think the item creation feats can do more damage in a game personally. YMMV. Gunslingers the reasoning behind them targeting touch AC bothered when they were released as a class and still do. If one class of ranged weapons bypass regular armor then imo they all should.

I rememebr looking at a drawing where a arrow from a longbow penetrated a knight in plate armor leg. Through and through going so far as to getting stuck into the horse as well. It's interesting how the devs insist on putting realism into a rpg that regularly breaks realism. I get if it was Ars Magica yet D&D has never been realistic. Or not that much imo. After sure it may take days or even months to craft a suit of armor. Kind of redudant when one can just walk into a dungeon and find one as part of treasure.