Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition First Time


Rise of the Runelords


Hello! I've been a Pathfinder GM for several years, and recently picked up the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition. I plan to run it straight through, and maybe even tack on a shortened version of Jade Reagent afterwards. F2F, not PbP.

I'm in a new PbP Rise of the Runelords game, but have never been a player or GM for RotR. Can anyone offer any advice on what I should expect? Any changes that may need to be made? Any suggestions on continuing into another adventure path after the story is over? Even a link to a similar thread would be quite helpful.

Lastly, other than reading Campagin Journals, which I plan to do, is there anything else I could do as prepwork for this game? My group is a mix of not-quite-new-anymore players, and very experienced gamers.

Basically I'll take anything you have for me, forum-goers!


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Take a look at the community-created content thread. There are a lot of useful things there, like Swallowtail Festival games and many maps.

For example, the map of Sandpoint's tunnels were very useful to me, as will be the one for the giant raid on Sandpoint (with a round-by-round "where is it?" map for one of the primary raiders). (I can't remember who made those maps, unfortunately.)

Make sure that Aldern makes an impression in the first book. Shalelu too, as she also turns up later.

Sovereign Court

The community content includes some great versions of Zuddiger's Picnic to use as handouts.
If you want to splash out: the town square flip mat covers the first encounters, the pawn set is pretty good and there are loads more extras. It's the best supported AP in terms of fan content and products to purchase.

I would look at HMM and SM and think about your groups tolerance for creepiness too. I know I left a few details out at Mammy Graul's place.


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Read the entire AP cover-to-cover like a novel. Make sure you understand the overall story narrative and how the books connect to one another. Non-spoiler example: some NPC's encountered in Book 1 are important to Book 2. If something happens to them in Book 1, it might invalidate plot assumptions for Book 2.

Review the GM Reference threads (which is a LOT of material) - you'll see questions and discussions about issues and ideas from many GM's over the many years since the AP was first published. Note: there are changes between the original edition (for 3.5) and the Anniversary edition (updated to Pathfinder) beyond the rules-based updates.

<assume a long-winded ME TOO on the Community-created content thread is placed here>

There's an errata thread out here somewhere with specific updates or corrections to NPC's that are not built exactly according to RAW, if that sort of thing appeals to you. (So-and-so doesn't qualify for that feat; NPC #17 doesn't have the right amount of skill points, etc.)

Come back with questions and challenges and ideas, you'll find the community here pretty helpful. There's a good chance someone has run into something similar before or will have an interesting suggestion to help you over hurdles you may encounter. And add your voice to other discussions - that's how we sustain the community.


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Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

If your players like roleplaying opportunities, be sure that you heavily develop the NPCs in Sandpoint and Magnimar, and try to give players real attachments to some of those NPCs. The extant material is top-notch, but preparing character cards or summary sheets with NPC portraits next to publicly known info can go a long ways toward anchoring the NPCs in your players' minds.

RotRL is a "classic" adventure with many of the most iconic critters and adversaries ever imagined for D&D (and its descendants). Don't be afraid to depart a little from the campaign storyline, especially if your players come up with something clever. It doesn't have to be a railroad.


Excellent. Thank you all, that's a lot to go on, and precisely what I was looking for!

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