Aaron Gillespie's page

Thanks Sunderstone. I may give that a shot.
And also thanks for answering my question, rather than giving me an unsolicited opinion.
It is a huge pet peeve when people ignore the question to offer opinions/advice.
If my question had been, "is it a good idea to start II a different way," then sure, tell me what you think. But that's not what I asked.

I literally JUST had this idea and haven't had a chance to work it out, so if it's lame, or wont work, please let me know.
Trying to make a big bad guy with more resonance than the AP provides...

What if Kendra is the Big Bad? What if she ordered her dad killed?

Again, brand new idea that I haven't worked through yet....

I have all of the original CoCT. Is the updated version worth buying? How much is changed? I know it's been updated for the Pathfinder rules set.

My party just encountered the Frost Wight in RotRL. Two of the PCs took some energy drain.
Which energy drain is the right one? The one from the core rulebook or the one from the bestiary? I feel like the Bestiary should be the right one, but how have other people settled this?
Thanks!

My players have just defeated Aldern Foxglove. They haven't left for Magnimar yet.
One of my players came to me and admitted that he had just found the RotRL book at a comic shop and skimmed through it. He admitted that he now knows the plot hooks of each chapter, the bad guys encountered in each chapter, and the overall plot.
I'm kind of dumbfounded because this is one of my best players. His girlfriend plays as well and he told me he couldn't wait to gear up his girlfriend's character to be able to "mow through hordes of giants."
He told me he would try to forget what he read, but he doubt he could.
I was, and am, really angry about this. I told him I was upset but the more I think about it, the angrier I become.
My first thought was to kick him out of the group. I despise metagaming and see no way his knowledge will stay out of the game. If I do that, his girlfriend will definitely leave too, which will leave me with 2 players. It will effectively destroy the group.
My second thought was to scrap the campaign. Start something new. This hurts the other players who have devoted so much time to the story and their characters. It also punishes me, since I have put hours upon hours into this.
I could tell him that he's not allowed to be a proactive player. He has to just go with everyone else's decisions. But I know he's already talking to his girlfriend about what is to come. I won't go into it, but I know this player and know that he will do that.
So, I'm left with the idea that I need to just change as much as I can. Not just the monsters they encounter, but I need to tweak things so that he can't predict what is to come.
So, my question to you all is: What major changes have you made to the story that I might be able to borrow?

I just came to the board since I didn't know who to turn to.

I have been a longtime Pathfinder GM. I had some free time last night, and have been itching to play lately, so I went to my LGS to try out Pathfinder Society.
I won't even touch on how awful the GM was. Honestly, I was running games better in Jr. High. But I won't fault him for that. I will, however, fault him for not reigning two of the players in.
One player was a barbarian who did nothing but lift weights and drink protein shakes. He was named Bro-heim and worshiped a deity named Bro-nan. His war cries were "Come at me, Bro!" and "YOLO!" he made constant...I mean CONSTANT...jokes. Every single scenario had to stop while him and the other player made jokes in character as well as out of character.
The other player made him look amazing. The other player was named Backpack. Because he was, literally, an animated backpack. Let me say that again...he was actually an animated backpack. He even had a miniature that was just a backpack. I have pictures to prove it. He also joked constantly. Backpack tried to antagonize EVERY NPC we came across into a fight. He did this on purpose and openly declared it every time he did it.
At one point, we were being attacked by a group of female inn keepers. Bro-heim and Backpack made constant sexual jokes, and wanted to drag the women into their "sex dungeon" to have their way with them. I'm not a prude and it didn't offend me, but I thought it was entirely inappropriate.
In the final battle, Backpack approached a bad guy and chose to buff him until he was very powerful. He then provoked the buffed bad guy to attack him just to see if he could heal himself enough to survive the buffed attacks.
I spoke up quite a few times about this behavior, but I was the only one at the table that felt this way.
I am really upset at the GM for not doing anything to curb this behavior. He laughed at them quite a bit, and let them continue disrupting the entire game.
So, my question is, who do I report this GM to? I know there's nothing I can do about the players, but I am absolutely disgusted that a GM would allow this to happen. It has turned me off of PFS and I can only imagine it has turned others off, as well. I won't be playing again, that's for sure. And, before last night, I had been talking to the players in my game group about getting together to play PFS at this LGS, but I quickly told them what a mistake that would be.
Or am I jut overreacting?

My party just got done in Thistletop, and I'm running a short sidetrek to explain the origins of the ranger's new animal companion.
I am going to spend a few sessions laying a lot of groundwork in Sandpoint before starting Skinsaw. I want a few suspects to come to the players' minds when they start investigating...here's what I have so far:
Before leaving for Thistletop, the party barbarian/sorcerer hit Jubrayl in the face with a wooden sword. Jubrayl can't let a slight like that go unanswered. He chooses to use the law to his advantage. As soon as the party returns to Sandpoint, the barbarian will be arrested for assault (a good many people saw it, so there's no denying it)and will have to spend a couple days in jail. In that time, Jubrayl takes a fancy to the party's elven witch and continues to try to seduce her.
While this is going on, the witch...who runs a small apothocary in town...finds that her shop has been broken into. Little does she know, her herbs have been poisoned (nothing deadly)and anyone who comes to her for medicine ends up getting sicker. She will eventually discover that Aliver Podiker has hired a sczarni thug to mess with her inventory as a way of getting rid of his competition. The witch is also the character that Aldern has become infatuated with...so when some of her personal effects are messed with and stolen, she will probably assume it is Podiker messing with her even more.
The party's Ranger is having a relationship with the Vinder girl. The ranger is a shapeshifter and has been hulking out when angered. The townsfolk has seen this happen. The Vinder girl will break up with the Ranger right before she is killed, so even though the Witch is the object of Aldern's notes, the Ranger will also have some fingers pointed at him.
It's going to take a bit of groundwork, but I like the idea of pushing forward a few suspects.
Anyone out there have some good examples of creating suspects in their games?
Thanks!

Anyone want to share how you're using the Scarnetti's in your RotR campaign?

I have read the synopsis and frankly, I hate it. I hate the idea of bringing real world elements into the fantasy setting.
It's a shame too, because everything else about the AP is pretty great.
The inclusion of ww1 soldiers is a deal breaker, though.

Really interested in running RoW but I have to be honest...I think introducing real world ww1 russians and Rasputin is nothing short of stupid.
Anyone else feel this way? Know of anyone that changed it?

In going through the CotCT I am really unhappy with the way it starts off. The Lamm plot is weak and really does nothing for the rest of the AP. I'm trying to figure out a different way to start this whole thing. I was wondering if anyone else has done this and, if so, how it went/what they did.
I've read the idea of starting the characters off as Ex Lambs and while I love that idea, many of the players have already started coming up with character concepts and some have put a lot of time into them and I'd hate to make them start from scratch.
So, any suggestions?

What if Shalalu shows up before the festival and requests some of the city guards leave with her to help with something outside of town...leaving Sandpoint undermanned when the goblins strike?

My group and I started CoCT last week and in preparing next week's session, I'm a bit concerned about something...

Last week I ran my players through some individual "vignettes" that were meant to set up their grudges against Gaedren Lamm. For instance, one character is looking for his kidnapped niece and, in his investigation, suspects she is now working for Lamm. Another character figures out that Lamm murdered his uncle and now he wants revenge.

My players really enjoyed these vignettes and they're excited to get their revenge, but the one thing they keep saying is "This guy is going to be tough."

I definitely understand how/why they can think this. Their investigation (and the campaign itself) has led them to believe that Lamm is quite a powerful force. He has his fingers into many aspects of the underworld, he has caused a great deal of suffering for not only the PCs but for many inhabitants of Korvosa.

So next week they're going to the Fishery and I can already hear their surprise when they have little to no trouble dispatching Lamm. He's a withered old man who won't present much of a challenge to them.

I'm a bit confused as to what to do. Sure, I can make Lamm more dangerous and powerful, but then I risk making him a bigger part of the campaign than I really want to. I've also thought about explaining it away by saying that the Thieves Guild found out Lamm was working independantly and have hit him with some pretty heavy back taxes...he's been taxed so heavily that his organization is a shell of what it once was...

Curious to hear your thoughts on the subject!