New Ideas for Free RPG Day modules


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Per Chris's suggestion I'm going to toss this out here for people to post ideas about what they'd rather have for Free RPG Day modules. This year's is We B4 Goblins.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32

It might be useful to frame the discussion by saying the idea for Free RPG Day modules are to help bring new players into the hobby. Otherwise it might come across as complaining about free things, which is not the intent.

What sort of module do you think would help new players as an introduction to Pathfinder?

I actually liked Master of the Fallen Fortress for this purpose. So a short, introductory dungeon or adventure might be a nice idea.


I agree, it should be framed positively.

Pitches for future Free RPG Day or something.

Personally, I can't get enough piracy.

Or even something with fey and carnivals.


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Or what about something in Andoran, everyone loves freedom. :-)

Silver Crusade

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I think a good thing about the We Be Goblins scenarios is that they feature a combination of skill checks and combats, so you get a feel for the variety of things you can do in Pathfinder. I think something with some diplomacy would be good too, for the people who like the talky role-play. Risen from the Sands was not as good at this, because it ended up being a pretty tough dungeon crawl. I think pirate-y or carnival could work well. I was going to say "or a murder mystery" until I remembered how close we came to death in Dawn of the Scarlet Sun.


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While I'm a fan of the WBG series, I can see the desire for something a bit different, especially something to showcase Pathfinder for Free RPG day.

As it is a short module (16 pages, if I recall correctly) I would think you would need something thematic and contained. Concur on the need to showcase combat, skills, and RP.

A few thoughts:

Jury Duty - PCs are jurors in Andoran when the courthouse / town is attacked. Self-contained in that most will occur within the courthouse / basement / jail area. RP with guards / prisoners / attackers possible.

Shipwrecked - PCs are shipwrecked and must survive to find a way to signal for help, but must make sure they are signaling the right groups! Uses single island map with perhaps limited dungeon ish space below. RP with denizens of the island, pirates / slavers, and would-be rescuers.

Moon-cursed - PCs were attacked last night by lycanthropes and have to find a way to get cured by nightfall or risk falling prey to the curse themselves.

Ambushed - PCs were part of an ambushed caravan and must go and get help for the other survivors. A watch tower is not too far away, but PCs must get there and summon help before the survivors fall victim to their injuries / hour-duration poisons, etc.

Awaken into Nightmare - PCs are trapped in the Plane of Dreams and must seek allies to assist them in escaping before their bodies are found and possibly killed.

Unconfirmed - PCS are Pathfinders who failed their Confirmation and were not accepted into the Society. An opportunity for either redemption or revenge is presented to them in Absalom when they learn about Aspis activity nearby on Kortos, but is this an opportunity or the did their Confirmation trial actually truly end?


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I think clear themes for characters are really beneficial. I had massive fun with a Wayfinder game where we were all dwarves journeying to bury our father. We each had our own little foibles (other PCs we liked or didn't like). Games with simple built-in relations are incredibly useful for introducing people to the hobby.

A group of pirates is a great idea. Maybe the Free RPG Days could experiment with differing themes, too. A horror adventure for instance, (along the more Scooby Doo/Goosebumps line of creepy if really scary horror would be too much). A big mystery starring a bunch of two-bit criminals forced to work together to clear their names from a worse charge. A planehopping dimension involving a gang of misfit gnomes.


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Or, if you really want to cheese off the people who're burnt out on WBG, make all the aforementioned adventures—starring the goblins! Planehopping goblins! Mystery-solving goblins! Bomb-disabling goblins! X-Files goblins! Cthulhu-fighting goblins! Goblins investigating Scooby Doo-style mysteries!

...actually, that last one basically works.


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What I'd like to see is something that ties into the game, along the lines of using the new characters, classes, races and so on that have or are coming out.

Another line of thought might be to have the module use races that aren't normally allowed in PFS, which does double duty of showing "We're not just humans and elves and dwarves" as well as making a number of people in PFS currently happy that they can, even for a day, play a favorite race.


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We Be Kobolds?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Kobold Cleaver wrote:
Goblins investigating Scooby Doo-style mysteries!

Whodunnit? Oh—wedunnit.

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Aside from playing Goblin characters, there's nothing in the We Be Goblins! series that can't be done with a different theme.

-Skeld

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

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An adventure with playable flumphs trying to warn a town on impending doom from the stars!

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32

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I can see it now: Flumph-finder! We Are Flumphs, My Good Fellow (And We are Here to Hel... PUT DOWN THAT SWORD! STOP HITTING ME!)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

If we would eventually get Free RPG Day module about being a pirate, what about ninjas and vikings as well? :D

...What? Its not like that wouldn't work

...Oh wait, what about classics cliches like "You wake up in a prison and have to escape" or "You wake up without memories" module?

(Trapped in a room with murderer murder mystery would be fun too)


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Keep going with goblins!!!!
It may take 20 years, but eventually we will have our goblin AP!!!!


ideas I have
1 play as villagers defending your town from the we be goblins pcs who are currently trying reenact the goblin blood wars(minus the ending)
2 play as would be bandits in cheliax trying to rob a wagon train holding highly illegal and expensive items.(turns out to be old history books on their way to the clarity pyres)
3 play as survivors of a red dragon attack and have to head to the nearest village for aid.
4 play as moster hunters in sargava sent to hunt down a tyrannosaurus rex turns out to be James Jacobs.

Dark Archive

I would like a return to Ustalav. Perhaps a pre-cursor story to Wes' Bastardhall storyline. Preferred level range of 3rd-5th level. Just my 2cp.

Grand Lodge

Goblin 5 is alive : (inspire by one of the blog heading ;op )
a robot , goblin-like, came to sentience and is making a fuss in a small goblin town

Contributor

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How about fashioning the adventure around a play? It would be a perfect place to do combat, skill checks, and roleplay. It can even lead to a small search through backstage or the nearby environs to scratch the exploration itch.

Maybe something like this:

The Stolen Song

Trouble in the theater!

The quiet coastal town of Sandpoint is a beacon for creativity and adventure. The two mix once again as the PCs are invited to join the rehearsal for the town's latest play, The Harpy's Curse. The PCs are tasked with helping the house set up for the play and even participate in the play itself. If they play their card rights, the play will go down in the annals of Sandpoint Theater history!

Not all is well on stage, however. The two stars of the play go missing and this time, it isn't part of the show. With the stars kidnapped, it is up to the PCs to track them down and save the play!

"The Stolen Song" is a mystery themed adventure for four 2nd-level characters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world's oldest RPG. The adventure takes place in the town of Sandpoint and is the 2017 Free RPG Day module.

Written by James Jacobs.


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I would like a regular for-pay module centered on kobold PCs; if it's a Free RPG Day entry, that'd be even better. Who wouldn't enjoy blowing off steam pretending to be a party of pint-sized dragons for a game with friends? (We Be Wee Dragons?)

And why couldn't the gang of kobolds have discovered an abandoned pirate ship, repaired it, and take to the high seas as kobold pirates? (We Be Wee Pyre-ates?)

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I would love a kobold adventure/module. There's the PFS one, but it's hard to get to. Hrm, maybe I shouldn't share all my ideas!

We Be Goblins on the 5 Seas would be a nice higher-level sequel. I have no idea how

Spoiler:
Squealy Nord would handle the ocean, though.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

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I like the idea of a tie-in to the summer hardcover. So for this summer's Ultimate Intrigue, why not a city-based intrigue type adventure? Obviously nothing too in depth due to the short time limit, but certainly you could do a short murder mystery, or stop the king's assassination type scenario. Those always have good opportunities for skills and roleplay, and if you design them well, enough combat.

It may go without saying, but low level--nothing higher than 3--works best for Free RPG Day adventures. Players have enough on their hands learning the basics of the game without having to learn mid-level class abilities.

And Free RPG Day should be, if anything, easier than normal. Risen From the Sands was way beyond the appropriate level of difficulty.


* We Be Kobolds.

* We Be Hobgoblins.

* We Be Monkey Goblins.

* We Be Howlin'. (< Werewolves)

* We Be Looting.

* We Be Etc'ing.


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"We Be" only really makes sense with goblins, though. The rest probably have better grammar, or at least different grammatical tics.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

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Charlie Bell wrote:
It may go without saying, but low level--nothing higher than 3--works best for Free RPG Day adventures. Players have enough on their hands learning the basics of the game without having to learn mid-level class abilities.

Low level also keeps the length of stat blocks down, which is important in a 16-page module.

Grand Lodge

I like the villagers idea. Everyone plays, say, a 3rd level NPC class pregen (aristocrat, expert, etc.). It keeps new rules very minimal, and forces even experienced players to rely more on wits than powers and abilities.


That wouldn't help introduce new players to the variety of pathfinder classes, though. "I can swing a sword!" "So can I, but I'm a little better than you." "I can't use swords, but I can make lots of skill checks!" "I can't do anything."


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The goblin adventure theme is great. I think that once Squealy and the gang become too high level for new players to immediately understand (Pathfinder being what it is, and also now competing with 5e which is an easy system to jump right into and doesn't suffer from the bad press that made my friends choose pathfinder instead of 4e for our first system), they should write new goblin characters and keep up the simple hijinx. In my experience, new players, almost without exception, want to play silly chaotic evil neutral characters. It's a safe premise that everyone can understand and it fun for children, too.

Liberty's Edge

Well I think a Kobold adventure might be fun :3

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

What I really liked about the original We Be Goblins is that it was also a prequel of sorts for the Jade Regent AP.
So it introduced the game to new players, acted as a tie-in product for those who like running Adventure Paths and was also genuinely fun.

So I'd like to see that, because many APs do have an inciting incident that occurs off screen: The Night of Ashes for example. Where players play the bad guys or the NPCs who barely escape with their lives to recruit heroes. That's good times and gives GMs incentive to pick up the modules to add to their AP experience.

A prequel set in Trunau where the teenage players all go through an adventure and receive their hope knives!


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Personally, I'd be more interested in seeing new, obscure areas of Golarion than getting more adventures about playing monsters.


Steve Geddes wrote:

Personally, I'd be more interested in seeing new, obscure areas of Golarion than getting more adventures about playing monsters.

They aren't mutually exclusive. ;)


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The more adjectives one needs to sum up an adventure has the less well done they generally are, in my experience. I think focus is important - the goblin adventures devote space to 'gobliny games' like chasing pigs - space which isnt being used to flesh out an obscure bit of golarion lore because it's being used to flesh out goblin culture.

Not everything has to be gimmicky and different.


Steve Geddes wrote:

Personally, I'd be more interested in seeing new, obscure areas of Golarion than getting more adventures about playing monsters.

Or Golarion historical moments. New players won't know it isn't cannon, regulars get to step out of canon.

*This cavern is too big to cross. Find us another way across while the warriors hold off the orcs following us in our quest for sky.

*Now that we elves had safely escaped, we need to close these gates, but we've had no response from outpost 1121. Find them, close the gate.

*This new alchemical treatment could end the plague. Find out what these 'pesh' farmers need to sell us all their crops.

*Sarkarian city council wants to find out why all the summoning spells have become so erratic.

Dark Archive

I like the time travel idea in this format. You can do something that would be fun for players familiar with the history but the short format with pregens helps avoid the normal shenanigans with altering timelines that might result.

Liberty's Edge

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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I would like a module that would explore the overall experience of the Sewer Dragons (Kobold Tribe) and their commitment to the Pathfinder Society being strengthened by the actions within the module.

True Dragons of Absalom aside, having an evergreen where they are following or investigating some sort of disruption of trade, taking them out of the Sewers and interacting with humans above would be interesting.

Silver Crusade

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thaX wrote:

I would like a module that would explore the overall experience of the Sewer Dragons (Kobold Tribe) and their commitment to the Pathfinder Society being strengthened by the actions within the module.

True Dragons of Absalom aside, having an evergreen where they are following or investigating some sort of disruption of trade, taking them out of the Sewers and interacting with humans above would be interesting.

I love this idea. You could even throw in some diplomatic encounters. Something just warms my heart about a group of Kobolds conversing with the adventurers who'd normally be killing them.

Grand Lodge

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I'd love an evergreen with kobolds. And having them as neutral or good guys would be even better.

As for another suggestion I'd like to see another evergreen scenario that's basically a prequel to PCs becoming a PFS character. Much like Master of the Fallen Fortress. Where you do something as a standard group, and your accomplishments gets the attention of the Society who invite you in to join them.

Another suggestion is a scenario that has you face off against doppelgangers of the characters. Whether it be a cursed mirror or a magic item that clones evil versions of themselves. Let's be honest. The greatest threat to a PC is usually them self. This is even better when you have only a group of overly optimized parties that consistently one-shot everything. Give them a taste of their own medicine. Maybe add the Fiendish template to them too.


You aren't going to have "overly optimized parties" in a Free RPG Day module. That defeats the purpose. :P

Grand Lodge

Kobold Cleaver wrote:
You aren't going to have "overly optimized parties" in a Free RPG Day module. That defeats the purpose. :P

I'm thinking ahead to PFS usage where you don't have to use pregen characters. Not unless the pregens are specific races that you can't normally play.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition Subscriber

An idea came up yesterday while playing:

Paperwork Nightmare:

The party falls victim to a mislabeled chronicle and is in WAY over their heads. Simply escape to report the information and let someone more qualified handle it.

The encounters would be PL +(something big enough that they know to run), because we all know that the amount of danger expected is inversely proportional to the amount of danger found.

Grand Lodge

Eric Kaiser wrote:

An idea came up yesterday while playing:

Paperwork Nightmare:

The party falls victim to a mislabeled chronicle and is in WAY over their heads. Simply escape to report the information and let someone more qualified handle it.

The encounters would be PL +(something big enough that they know to run), because we all know that the amount of danger expected is inversely proportional to the amount of danger found.

Would depend on the party make up. I could see players jump at the challenge to take on something they can't handle because they believe that the tougher the monster, the better the rewards and treasure. Greedy PC's would definitely jump at the chance.


The goblin modules have always been fun to run for me but I would like to see a new trend for Free RPG Day modules. It's always a little strange for me saying welcome to Pathfinder Society, here are the rules for Pathfinder Society, today we will be ignoring these rules completely.

It would be nice to see a series of modules that better represent the heart of what Pathfinder Society is supposed to represent without the chance of arbitrary death that comes with Masters of the Fallen Fortress.

I suppose the quest series fills out that role somewhat, it might be worth trying to get some continuity between them going forward.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32

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Maybe something set in the History of the Society era? Perhaps an early Durvin Gest game or something where we get to play young Masters, like Aram Zey, Marcos Farabellos, Kreighton Shaine or Drendle Dreng?


So two free RPG day modules? one PFS friendly and one for those of us who don't play PFS?

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32

I don't think a PFS-friendly one necessarily has to be unfriendly to those who don't play PFS. It would ideally still be a fun story, just one that has a special appeal to PFS players.


We be Gnolls. I don't feel like I see enough Gnolls.


James Martin wrote:
I don't think a PFS-friendly one necessarily has to be unfriendly to those who don't play PFS. It would ideally still be a fun story, just one that has a special appeal to PFS players.

It is more the other way around, the PFS friendly one is frendly to non PFS as well, while the non PFS friendly version is, well, not PFS friendly.


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