Vimanda

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I love the idea of a marathon PF weekend where you play one chapter! But 6 years for a campaign is long ^^'

I don't know the Serpent Skull AP.

On our side, we played it using 5e rules. I hope one day I will play it using PF rules, but the table wanted to play 5e, and I was fine with that. The campaign is really well written. For me, it's less effort to adapt the fight opponents' statistics than to find such a top-notch story, setups, and NPCs. This is just my perspective, and I understand it might not be shared by everyone. I wouldn't totally dismiss it for your home group if you feel you would like this AP.


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Sure, no problem.

Volume 1:
Pros: Making Korvosa home to the PCs, meeting the NPCs. Nice way to gather the PCs together. I used Inspectre's idea of portraying the queen as poorly advised by Glorio, so it wasn't obvious she was that evil.
Cons: Nothing, really. If I had to redo it, I wouldn't mention the Hellknights.

Volume 2:
My PCs were neutral/evil, so the hook was tricky and a bit too loose for my group.
Pros: The PCs can pick and follow different leads. Interactions with the NPCs, especially the queen.
Cons: The queen's motive to spread the disease is weird, in my opinion, even for a villain. I prefer to keep the big surprise at the beginning of Chapter 3 that she is indeed that evil and dangerous.

Volume 3:
The beginning is awesome (the queen removing the arrow from her head). The Arkonas are fantastic.
Pros: The Arkonas' rotating dungeon is really cool. Great interactions with Melyia, the Seneschal, Glorio, and Vencarlo.
Cons: Think twice about the motives of Glorio and Melyia. Why do they keep the seneschal? Why do they hand him over to the PCs, or why don't they and send the PCs into the dungeon instead? Why do they want to kill each other, and why don't they? How will they consider an alliance (or not) with the PCs?

Volume 4:
We had a Shoanti PC, so he loved it.
Pros: The giant worm quest. Epic. The final confrontation with the Red Mantis. Going out of Korvosa is a bit refreshing after three volumes.
Cons: Too many side quests for my group, but as the book suggests, just pick your favorite ones.

Volume 5:
I used an idea gathered on this forum: the curse works as follows: the lethal damage to the queen is transferred to Kazavon's betrayer, who is attached as a kind of zombie in the tower. It's not so much about the holy sword as it is about removing the curse.
Pros: It's definitely epic, and it has a different atmosphere/environment than Chapters 1-3 and 4.
Cons: I didn't play it as a classic dungeon crawl, but I just picked a few fights from the book.

Volume 6:
Pros: All the alliances forged by the PCs finally come together. Special mention to Sabina, who has a very compelling reason to side with the queen but ultimately betrays her. Wow.
Cons: I also cut down on all the dungeon crawling and fights to fit the expectations of my table (not really into fights).

Generally speaking, I removed some fights a bit everywhere (in the city, in the dungeons, the Cinderlander, the otyugh at the painter's place, etc.). It's personal; we were playing about once a month and I wanted to get quickly to the meat of the story.

All in all, it was an awesome campaign. I have a lot of affection for all the NPCs. I love urban-themed campaigns, and I love the aesthetic of a few very epic moments (the giant worm, Blackjack at the trial, the queen removing the arrow from her head in the middle of the public square, the sunken queen, etc.). So I really had a blast.


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The PCs defeated her Majesty Ileosa yesterday evening! We had a blast with this AP over 2.5 years (roughly one session per month).

Big thanks to everyone on this forum; your contributions truly made the game unforgettable! (shoutout to AwesomenessDog, Inspectre, and Evilthorne if you're reading this!) There are incredible ideas scattered throughout the posts.

The party boss now sits on the Crimson Throne, the ranger leads the new official Thieves Guild, the paladin takes charge of the re-founded Sable Company, the rogue reigns over the Arkona house, and the changeling assassin serves the new queen. They've come a long way since their encounter with Gaedren Lamm.

Time to seek out a new AP :-)