Weak Connective Tissue


Rise of the Runelords


I love this AP and getting ready to start it for a second time (first gaming group fell apart around the end of Chapter 2) but is it just me or does it have REALLY weak connective tissue between the chapters?
I find it extremely convenient that the the NPCs always explicitly write the hints in their journals or keep some incriminating piece of correspondence that leads the PCs to the next bit.
I've found some good ideas on this board to deal with some of it, but I'm wondering what methods some of you other GMs have used to beef up some of the contrived plot hooks.
Thanks!

Paizo Employee

In general, I actually found most of the hooks worked well for my group. They didn't always read well, but they showed up well in play.

If you're going to change them up, I'd suggest inserting hints up front and keeping the original ones in your back pocket in case the PCs aren't sure what the next step is by the time they get there.

I started the constant rain right as they started in on Skinsaw Murders. Mentioned it raining a lot, NPCs complained about rain constantly, doomsday prophets, the whole nine yards. When they gathered information (with some help from the church of Desna), they found out that the storm was roughly circular and centered somewhere around Fort Rannick.

I also foreshadowed some things a lot in advance, like the involvement of Leng. The cleric of Desna in the group had some dreams about them and one of their ships showed up during Skinsaw Murders, plying some dubious trade in Magnimar.

Cheers!
Landon

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I agree with Landon. I also did a good bit of foreshadowing to buttress the connections between chapters.

-Skeld


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

I feel your pain Aaron, the connecting links feel a little forced at times (and some I just refused to believe - I'm looking at you Seven's Lumbermill).

I made a longish journal snippets for Naulia's Journal with lots of clues that will point to things all the way up to Turtleback Ferry. It is the "convenient journal that leads the PCs to the next bit", but it lets me be a little LESS explicit with the other handouts.

I think that something that has made the handouts a little better for me is that I have actually given the players a piece of paper handout - and allowed them to puzzle out meanings as they will. The handouts also seem flimsy and contrived when you read them all at once during a read through, but the PCs are going to encounter them much more slowly, and if they HAVE the actual handout, they can refer back to it when they want to learn something new, or a new puzzle piece drops into place.

Extra foreshadowing has been pretty useful as well.

Introduce NPCs before they are needed for their scene.
Let them give out little snippets of their story and leave, next time they meet the NPC (or find the NPCs corpse) it will have more meaning.

All that said - it would be easier to explain what was done to strengthen specific links.

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