First time GM advice for Rise of the Runelords campaign


Advice


Hello everyone, this is my first post as I am quite new to Pathfinder, I have been lurking the forum and yes I am aware there are about 100 other threads for advice for new GM's etc. but I have a few questions which I haven't found answers to. First, here is a little info about me.

I have never played table top RPG's before but I am an avid gamer, I am also a Game Designer by profession so I understand the concepts of gaming very well. But as mentioned I have zero experience with Pathfinder. I am running Rise of the Runelords with 5 players, 2 have experience playing and the other 3 have none. We already went through character creation and everyone has their classes picked out. We have a fighter, druid, rogue, sorcerer and a ranger. We lack heals but the druid will most likely get a wand for heals.

I am planning the intro for the first session and I have all the swallowtail festival games planned but I want to do something different where I charge them money to play and depending on how well they do I'll give them tickets. These tickets can be exchanged for some basic prizes, with a cure light wounds probably being the top prize, just so they can be safe in case some early battles go wrong. I want to make sure it's easy for them to get into it and fun. (Mostly so they keep playing :) )

So based on their character preferences, none of them want to know each other prior to the campaign, and want to run into each other when it starts, but for the swallowtail festival I have created some mini games that are team based. Right now I am thinking of starting it with everyone in the town square for opening speeches, then let them play some games and earn tickets, after a while I will go to the consecration where the goblins strike and they will just happen to be the only ones in that didn't run away and are capable of fighting. Then they become the town heroes and when they are at the rusty dragon, I'll have a get together that Ameiko holds where all the players will introduce themselves to each other. Does that sound like a reasonable way to get everyone acquainted with one another?

Besides that, what are some other things I should have prepared?


The main problem I see with the group and without knowing if this is just the vanilla version of the classes is that you don't have any remove status characters. Healing is something you can get by with CLW wands quite frankly. Status removal is where a "healing" class is actually the most needed. Because negative status effects can kill a character or make playing them just not fun if you have no way as a group to get rid of them. You could "gift" them scrolls to get rid of negative status effects, btw, among the treasure the party will get while fighting.

So there's no status removal or a character among five that is a party support class. Having a fighter and rogue makes me think a bard with inspire courage would be better than the ranger. Bards can also heal and use wands, heck even be the rogue in the group if need be. Such a great support class.

But in terms of your questions, yes, those sound like good ideas. Having them get to know each other at the inn after the goblin attack is a logical way for strangers to bond and form a party. The ticket idea isn't a bad idea to get a CLW in the druid's hands either.


First recommendation: Check out the free Wayfinder fanzine. Issue #7 has some games for the Swallowtail festival that you might want to include or borrow ideas from... as well as potential additional encounters and side-quests.

Second recommendation: Read through the threads in the Rise of the Runelords forum. There's a lot of information about where others have had problems, and solutions they've found, as well as added materials.


Thanks, I did read way finder #7 and got some ideas for the swallowtail festival.

For the ticket system that is a good idea, I will add some scrolls as prizes as well, the idea is that it should be pretty easy for players to win these games, or pay a nominal fee to try again and once they have enough they can go buy some items to help them along the way, at least early on in the game.

About the team comp, everyone seems to be set on the characters they chose, which is good, I want them to be excited about what they play and I don't want to push them to a class they don't like, but feel they need to do. In case anyone dies though they can re-roll and then I will persuade them to a healer/support class such as a bard.


Also, does anyone have access to SoylentG's apparently amazing NPC lists and sandpoint info? I tried clicking all the URL's and they are broken dropbox links. If someone has those available I would greatly appreciate it,


Want to give a heads up on some advice as a way to ease ya in is believe it or not, look at the beginners box quest. It seems to basically be a prologue into rise of the rune lords. Forwarning though is that the beginners box is rules light but an excellent way to get into the adventure and get a crash course in things and a way to get everyone to know each other, plus other things I won't mention.

As far as lists go, the anniversary edition of rise of the rune lords has a detailed map of sand point and gives notable npcs and such.

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