I have an opening in an ongoing Reign of Winter game! this group has slowly but surely been making our way through the snowy lands of this wonderful AP for the last 3 years!
We have unfortunately lost a player and need a replacement.
you will be coming in at level 7, either at the very end of book 2 or the very start of book 3, depending on your character and how we decide to hook you in.
my number one priority is finding a player who will be consistent. our current players have invested a lot of time into this game (two of them are still from the original party, the others joined early in book 1), and we want someone to join who is willing to play with us long-term. as this is a long-form way to play the game we all have personal stuff come up and can't post for large chunks of time. just communicate with us when botting is needed and we can all keep enjoying the game together.
creation details:
Character Creation Guidelines
Race - any core or standard races. advanced races will be allowed but will need to be edited to bring them back down to 10 RP.
Class - any paizo published class. classes with unchained options much be unchained unless the concept is reliant on an archetype that is only available to the core version (e.g. Zen Archer)
archetypes - any paizo published archetypes are allowed, including the winter witch found in the player's guide
Traits - 2 traits, optionally one can be from the RoW campaign traits. originally i was requiring one campaign trait, but for late-joining PCs the traits don't always make as much sense as they do for an original party that needs a hook. May take a 3rd with a drawback, but the drawback must be approved by the GM.
Starting wealth - standard WBL for a 7th level character, no more than 25% of your starting gold should be used on a single item (exceptions can be made, but need to be cleared with the GM)
crafting - unchained crafting rules. you may add 25% to your starting gold if taking a crafting feat, and 15% to your starting gold for taking a rank in a crafting skill. these are cumulative
stats - 20 point buy, no stat can be below 8 after applying racial modifiers.
Alignment - any, but must be willing to work with the party. absolutely no PvP in this campaign (fights, stealing, etc)
optional rules - we will not be using background skills or hero points.
please post here with your interest in playing and at least a rough outline of a character. no need to make a full alias yet, but i may require it if the applications get down to a handful that are hard to pick between.
I will be having my existing players weigh in on applicants as well
Feel free to make any character you want, I don't ever insist that my players make a traditionally "balanced" party. we currently have:
Human Winter Witch 6
Human Gunslinger (Musket Master)6
Human Warpriest 6
Human Oracle 4 / Lore warden Fighter 2
no requirement to be a human, for some reason we have ended up being a very non-diverse group.
We are currently running the Ruins of Azlant AP, but had a player drop out do to real life and medical concerns. we are looking for a new player to join the team!
Our party is very magic-heavy right now:
cleric of abadar
wizard
druid
bard
we are losing our one real front line martial character, so I will only be looking at applications that will be able to fill that role.
in your application include:
character name/brief backstory
the party is part of an excursion that was sent to an island to explore and colonize it. they were meant to be the second wave of colonists, but the first wave was not there when the party arrived. there were a few dozen people that arrived with the party, plus a third ship-load of people that arrived at the end of book 1. your character would need to be from one of these 2 groups of colonists. refer to the players guide for more details about who might have been on board.
high level character details (class, archetype, any other details you feel are important)
you will be building a 4th level character. anything Paizo is allowed. use normal wealth by level rules for building a 4th level character. choose a campaign trait as usual. you do Not need to build a full character sheet or alias unless chosen, but you can if you want to. no need to put in the work of fleshing out crunch for a charcater that will be harder to reuse in a different campaign.
your level of familiarity with the AP How many other PbP games are you involved in
good luck!
I will be choosing a submission by Wednesday the 2nd
looking for a replacement character for one of my Reign of Winter games. We are losing one of our players due to real life concerns. He has genrously agreed to stick it out until the end of the current set of encounters, but I would like to bring in a replacement ASAP.
We are still in part one of book one. The PCs are level 2 right now, and exploring the unnatural winter in the border wood. for more context feel free to PM me or read the gameplay thread.
We are losing our only divine caster (a full cleric), so ideally the new PC would be able to cast divine spells whether or not they go full healer/support or something like a warpriest or inquisitor.
in addition to making a level 2 character, please include in your profile the reason your character would be in the border wood and would run into the party.
Any good stories of using the two captured and mind-controlled people from the end of book 1? they escaped in the final confrontation with the PCs, but I'm having trouble thinking of interesting ways to have them stir up trouble in book 2.
I'm thinking of three options, but I think they are mostly mutually exclusive so i need to choose one now.
1. the party finds Eliza while wandering in the island. either as a random encounter replacement or inside one of the ruins. I'm considering toning down the blast shadow encounters (especially the trap) and putting her in there. she acts friendly in this case, claiming to have hidden from her controller long enough to shake free from the compulsion. she acts as another source tryign to nudge the PCs towards killing off the hag. assuming she wins back their trust, I may have to fin a way to use her in book 3 as well.
2. the party finds both of them in the woods, and they are hostile. likely set up as an ambush after the PCs start acting suspicious of the other goings on in the village. this is the elast interesting option but involves a combat and wraps it up tightly.
3. Eliza ditches or kills Rayland, uses Alter Self to hide the skin condition and tries to worm her way back into the colony. happens while the PCs are busy on a side quest and when they return they find that Eliza is in town and has been accepted back in by many townsfolk with open arms. she helps sow seeds of distrust in the village, and joins in the fighting in the finale of book 2. this seems harder to pull off, as the PCs might just kill her on sight, bu could end upw ith some really fun RP as they try to convince the town not to trust the woman, while several well-liked and influential people in town argue very strongly for giving her a second chance at letting her prove herself.
Would love to hear about other games where the dou survived and what you did with them
Welcome players to the Reign of Winter campaign. Please dot and delete on this thread, and head over to the discussion thread to sort out any pre-game changes you want to make and finalize any character details. We will begin as soon as possible once everyone has arrived.
Welcome to the Reign of Winter campaign! please dot and delete in the gameplay thread, and use this thread to discuss the opening of the game.
Pre-Game
Take a moment to discuss your characters and find their place in the village of Heldren. For the purposes of this campaign, it is assumed that each of the PCs is a resident of Heldren. Whether that means you grew up in this small town, or if you have only lived here a few weeks on your way to other places is up to you.
Please discuss any pre-existing connections, relationships, or knowledge of each other your characters might have. remember that you have all lived in the same little town for some amount of time, but I don't expect you all to have big interwoven stories.
Posting rules
Please plan on posting AT LEAST 5 times a week. I would love to keep a fast pace on this game, because PbP is a slower medium by its nature. I will try to post at least once a day. if everyone has made a post since my last GM post I will do something to move the action forward. if we are waiting on a few posts, I will give reactions or answer questions but give time for everyone to have their say.
Once all but one PC has posted, that final PC has 24 hours to post or I will bot them. If we are in combat rounds, the botted action default will be to make an attack with the last weapon used. I will never bot a player to use any per day ability or other limited resources. If we are not in combat, your botted action will essentially be a variation of "Durian the Wanderer smiles and nods".
If you are going to miss posting due to any real life situation, that is perfectly ok. Real life issues happen. I'm sure I will have them come up as well over the course of the game. Please give us as much warning as you can, and I will happily bot you during your absence and will have your PC do anything you ask me to have them do.
Missing posts
If you do not post anything for a week without letting us know that you will be missing, I will consider your character gone. I will write them out in a suitably spectacular manner and we will move on. There were 27 applications for 10 spots in this game, so replacing a missing PC will not be a problem. I apologize if this sounds harsh, but many of the players in this game have said that in the past they have tried to play this AP and it fell apart. I would love to play this one for a good long time, and will try to keep things moving.
Game Style
In the end, I want you all to have fun. Please please please give me feedback on how things are going. I want to make this a rewarding and fun AP, but I know there are many ways to run a game.
Normally I am a very by-the-book GM. I like to stick to RAW as much as possible, and will play my creatures and NPCs by the rules as much as possible, and abide by what the dice roll.
I do like to tweak encounters as we go, either up or down in difficulty to match the party. if you feel like things have gotten too easy, let me know and I will try to keep things engaging and challenging.
This AP is fairly linear, as all APs tend to be. I am going to be taking steps to adjust the AP as written to avoid some of the worst of that, but it will still be there. I am happy to roll with the punches if you guys try unexpected solutions.
I would like to highly encourage interaction between PCs. talk in character, learn about each other, let your PC personalities show through. I have found this aspect lacking in some of my PbP, which is sad. this medium is awesome for RP if you want it to be. don't feel like you have to just post once a day and wait for a GM post before posting again. have conversations, come up with plans, try to figure out the back stories, etc.
Hopefully we will all have fun with this! I love this AP and am so excited to run it.
Welcome to the Reign of Winter campaign! please dot and delete in the gameplay thread, and use this thread to discuss the opening of the game.
Pre-Game
Take a moment to discuss your characters and find their place in the village of Heldren. For the purposes of this campaign, it is assumed that each of the PCs is a resident of Heldren. Whether that means you grew up in this small town, or if you have only lived here a few weeks on your way to other places is up to you.
Please discuss any pre-existing connections, relationships, or knowledge of each other your characters might have. remember that you have all lived in the same little town for some amount of time, but I don't expect you all to have big interwoven stories.
Posting rules
Please plan on posting AT LEAST 5 times a week. I would love to keep a fast pace on this game, because PbP is a slower medium by its nature. I will try to post at least once a day. if everyone has made a post since my last GM post I will do something to move the action forward. if we are waiting on a few posts, I will give reactions or answer questions but give time for everyone to have their say.
Once all but one PC has posted, that final PC has 24 hours to post or I will bot them. If we are in combat rounds, the botted action default will be to make an attack with the last weapon used. I will never bot a player to use any per day ability or other limited resources. If we are not in combat, your botted action will essentially be a variation of "Durian the Wanderer smiles and nods".
If you are going to miss posting due to any real life situation, that is perfectly ok. Real life issues happen. I'm sure I will have them come up as well over the course of the game. Please give us as much warning as you can, and I will happily bot you during your absence and will have your PC do anything you ask me to have them do.
Missing posts
If you do not post anything for a week without letting us know that you will be missing, I will consider your character gone. I will write them out in a suitably spectacular manner and we will move on. There were 27 applications for 10 spots in this game, so replacing a missing PC will not be a problem. I apologize if this sounds harsh, but many of the players in this game have said that in the past they have tried to play this AP and it fell apart. I would love to play this one for a good long time, and will try to keep things moving.
Game Style
In the end, I want you all to have fun. Please please please give me feedback on how things are going. I want to make this a rewarding and fun AP, but I know there are many ways to run a game.
Normally I am a very by-the-book GM. I like to stick to RAW as much as possible, and will play my creatures and NPCs by the rules as much as possible, and abide by what the dice roll.
I do like to tweak encounters as we go, either up or down in difficulty to match the party. if you feel like things have gotten too easy, let me know and I will try to keep things engaging and challenging.
This AP is fairly linear, as all APs tend to be. I am going to be taking steps to adjust the AP as written to avoid some of the worst of that, but it will still be there. I am happy to roll with the punches if you guys try unexpected solutions.
I would like to highly encourage interaction between PCs. talk in character, learn about each other, let your PC personalities show through. I have found this aspect lacking in some of my PbP, which is sad. this medium is awesome for RP if you want it to be. don't feel like you have to just post once a day and wait for a GM post before posting again. have conversations, come up with plans, try to figure out the back stories, etc.
Hopefully we will all have fun with this! I love this AP and am so excited to run it.
Welcome players to the Reign of Winter campaign. Please dot and delete on this thread, and head over to the discussion thread to sort out any pre-game changes you want to make and finalize any character details. We will begin as soon as possible once everyone has arrived.
It's recruiting time! I will be starting a game of Reign of Winter, and need players!
This will be my first AP to GM on a play by post format. I play in 3 right now, and I GM in real life. I am currently running a Curse of The Crimson Throne, and I attempted to run Reign of Winter but the group fell apart after book 1. but I have done a lot of the prep work for this AP and really want to run it!
campaign rules:
I will be running this campaign pretty much by the book. The one house rule I am planning on implementing is this:
at level 1 you will gain your full hit dice plus con. every level after first, both the GM and player will roll the hit dice, use the higher of the 2 rolls.
Reign of Winter is known to be a bit of a brutal one, especially at low levels. I am not planning on pulling punches, so survival is not guaranteed. I don't try for TPKs, but I don't like fudging rolls or stats to avoid them either.
We will be doing 20 point buy, and after racial bonuses no stat should be below 8.
I am allowing any published Paizo material. if a class has an unchained option, use that one. I may waive this if I agree that your character concept really needs to use the older rule set for your chosen class.
I usually do not allow 3PP stuff, but am willing to take it on a case-by-case basis. in my experience 3PP tends to be often broken, but it can also sometimes allow for interesting options. Just keep in mind, any 3PP I approve for you is also fair game for enemy creatures....
For posting, I am laying down the expectation that every player should post at least 5 times per week. I want to keep things moving, PbP is a slow medium. No one likes logging on 3 days in a row and not being able to take another turn. I am willing to bot the occasional missed post, but if it detracts from the game I will look for a replacement for you. please be mindful of the other players and give advance warning for vacations etc.
how to apply:
To apply to be in this game, post in this thread with the following information:
Time Zone
Number of PbP games you are currently active in
preference for maps (roll20, google docs, etc)
your familiarity with the Reign of Winter AP (have you played in one, GMd one or read the books). I won't disallow you based on having been in the campaign before, but i want to know who knows something about it.
Character concept
You do not need to make an alias to apply
Just post your concept now, if you're accepted you can make an alias then.
for your concept I want to see:
1. stat block
2. class and archetype if any
3. backstory (doesn't have to be long, just enough to see some hooks)
selection:
If the games I have applied for in the past are any indication, these games get a lot of people in line looking to play. I will likely have to turn away at least some applicants.
I will be capping this at 5 players.
I will be choosing the party based on a number of factors, some of which will be very subjective.
I will be looking to put together a party that covers most of the bases pretty well, so I will not be picking more than one PC of a given class.
Preference will be given to interesting backstories that feel well thought out or unique.
I will prefer PCs who have an idea in their concept of what they want to do with the character. for example, if my two choices are "Dwarf Fighter" and "human Fighter (Phalanx Soldier) with an emphasis on tanking" I'm going to like the second one better.
Please feel free to ask questions below
Hope to see some good applications! Good luck to you all
I am close to wrapping up Escape From Old Korvosa with my group (well, sort of. I'm adding in Academy of Secrets next before we leave the city) and I am starting to prep book 4.
I have read the old books, and am running this with the revised hardcover edition. I think the changes they made helped out a bit, removing the convoluted interconnected string of events and making it a little more sandbox-y.
I still think I am going to make a number of changes, and wanted to get thoughts and other ideas from the group here.
To start with, I want to make the travel more interesting. I am going to be using some stuff from The Angry GM blog that gave some cool ideas on making travel more a part of your game. To make that really work, though, I want to have some extra optional locations and enemies that the party can stumble on.
Some ideas I have so far for extra encounters (both for optional locales, and for things the party can fight for Respect Points):
* either the Red Dragon from the random encounter table or a group of fire drakes
* Harassing attacks from Cinderlander and Assassins if the party doesn't take steps to hide themselves
* an ancient ruin full of undead shoanti (maybe? plenty of undead next book, is it too much to add more here?)
* Ash Giants
* An orc warlord with a camp full of orcs that have been harassing the Sun Clan.
* some sort of ancient statue that has a hidden entrance to a dungeon. what kind of interesting loot could one find in a hidden temple in the middle of nowhere?
* environmental dangers. are any of these actually dangerous to a party at this level?
What other interesting encounters could I add to spice up the days of travel?
Are there any good maps of the Cinderlands that have been made? the one in the book is fairly empty. I'm guessing there aren't really many roads out there or anything, but the map feels very bare.
And finally, I would like to possibly make the House of the Moon a little more interesting. Has anyone changed that quest up a bit? The way it is written it feels like it could have been a random encounter. Go in, fight one creature, done. What could be added to make it more interesting?
I'm running Escape From Old Korvosa now. My PCs found the lockbox at Vencarlo's house and got it opened. At least one player just wants to sell it all off. Especially with how much that amulet costs.
Vencarlo's Gear Spoilers:
The player who was trying to sell off the Blackjack gear made a really good point. Why did Vencarlo decide it was a good idea to go in to the Arkona manor as himself?? As my player put it, either:
A. This box is just his spare outfit, and he has a second complete set of gear that he is using while trying to save Neolandus, in which case they could just sell it off without it being that big a deal.
B. Vencarlo is an idiot for walking into the maw of the beast without any of his gear, and somehow hoping to save Neolandus from a family that he knows is incredibly dangerous as a middle aged fencing instructor. If this is the case, he is probably dead and doesn't need his gear anymore anyways.
So that made me realize I need to come up with a good reason behind what Vencarlo went in there to do.
The best I have come up with so far is that Vencarlo went in to try to barter for the release of the Seneshal, but what could he have to offer that could be worth the same as the secret of Neolandus' survival? Maybe Vencarlo went in planning to offer up his own secret in exchange. The party has encountered Balckjack a few times already, and he even helped them clear out the Temple at the end of book 2. it's known to the PCs that the Arkonas and blackjack have had a lot of run-ins.
So if this is what I go with, Vencarlo goes in with a plan that likely ends in him sacrificing himself, giving up his secret identity and then dying or being imprisoned forever, but at least he saves the city by getting Neolandus out in order to overthrown the evil queen.
This is why he sends the note to Cressida. He is hoping that by the time someone comes in answer he will be gone, but Neolandus will be hiding out at the fencing academy ready to be picked up by agents of the Guard.
At this point, Vencarlo doesn't have someone to pass on his mantle to, but leaves his gear behind in the hopes that someone worthy will find it and carry on the tradition, even though his own plans for succession were such a failure.
Of course, his whole plan fails when Bahor decides to just throw him in the dungeons and doesn't accept the deal. I am still trying to decide if Vencarlo told his secret first and it wasn't good enough to win the release of Neolandus, or if Bahor just told him right out that no secret was worth giving up his trump card for and tossed him to his sister for the insult of even trying that gambit.
What have other GMs done with this? Have your players even thought it was odd that the gear was away from the guy who could have been using it to go sneak through the manor batman-style and maybe avoid being caught?
I am running my party through this AP, and we're dealing with the Emporer tonight. so the labyrinth is not far in the future. I am just really confused about how this should go down.
major spoilers:
How do you avoid the party just seeing the illusion wall and going strait in to save the seneshal and then just peace out? one room and they have the guy they're looking for?
I also don't see any other way in to the torture chambers. so if they don't notice the wall when they enter, how will they find the seneshal? I don't see anything in the labyrinth itself that could get them to their goal. am i missing a connection?
I am considering just having one of the teleport circles go in to that chamber, and have the wall illusion be the easiest way back out once they end up in that room. is there a better way to go about this?
Or are they supposed to wander the labyrinth until they find a few NPCs who then help them find the hidden room? this comes back to what happens if they just find that hidden room from the beginning?
I have just started running Reign of Winter for one of my groups. I have not found a lot of logs/journals/etc for this AP, and I found them immensely helpful in preparing for the Curse of The Crimson Throne game I am running.
Hopefully I will be able to keep this running and end up with a journal that goes beyond book 1 (where a lot of the journals I found end...).
I am planning on sticking pretty close to the plot of the book, but I have a number of changes already in mind. My hope will be to smooth out some of the abrupt transitions between books and keep things moving forward.
We had our first session this week. It was a short session, because a part of it was spent finishing up character sheets and talking over schedule/expectations etc.
We are playing with a 5-person party:
Fae - human sorcerer (arcane bloodline). A beggar, from a line of beggars spanning several generations. but somewhere in the family was a powerful arcane spellcaster that causes magical talent to appear every few generations. Each of these are born with a specific birthmark.
Cato - human gunslinger (musket master). Cato is a poor shepherd boy, who stumbled on a strange musket in the fields one day. no one else has seen such a weapon, but Cato quickly learned how to use it and how to make the things needed to fire it. He swears these designs were spoken to him by the gun, which he fears and worships like a deity. whether it really is a talking gun, or if the boy just has a knack is still to be seen.
Avid - Half-Orc cleric of Sarenrae. Avid is a half orc that tries very hard to blend in with human society. He has spent most of his life trying to hide his more orcish appearance and to learn to be refined in his speech and actions. But under the surface he still has a latent orc rage that comes out when it has been bottled up too long. One such event ended in the death of a classmate, and led to a period of travelling and seeking redemption.
Homer - human Bard. Homer is the old man of the group at 63. He has lived most of his adult life in Heldren, where he owned the local tavern until recently. He loves telling wild stories, and made the best cider around. But recently he has come on hard times, and is suffering greatly from depression because his daughter ran off with the son of Homer's best friend. After the boy poisoned his father. Now Homer seeks to leave it all behind and go back to his roots as an adventurer.
Zo'Lil - Aasimar Bloodrager (fire elemental bloodline). Zo'lil is unusualfor her kind. Instead of a mix of human and celestial, Zo'lil has celestial and fey blood. This heritage leads her to be somewhat detached and capricious, often making rash decisions without fully considering their consequences. She is not fully good and kind, but is also not evil. She is prone to bursts of rage, combined with fire. She has the least tie to Heldren and is just passing through on a Walkabout to find her place in the world.
These 5 strangers are all in the tavern, hearing some of the odd rumors of cold weather, strange animal sightings, and the passing caravan of Lady Argantea. Suddenly, a heavily injured man stumbles through the door, yelling for help.
After rendering some aid and getting the man something warm to eat, the group talks ot the man enough to learn that his name is Yulin, and that he is the only survivor of an attack on Lady Argentea's caravan. He is somewhat incoherent, talking about the winter-touched, and wondering how they followed him so far south and what is happening to the world.
Avid is able to get him to slow down and answer a few questions, which leads the party to understand that the Lady has been kidnapped and her guards killed. This was done by a band of a dozen men plus an unknown number of winter sprites with ice in their hearts (and we got our first player saying "like in Frozen!" just wait…. Haha). Yulin gives his cold iron sword to Zo'lil to help aid in rescuing his Lady.
When the group goes to investigate, they find several carriages wrecked in the road, with bodies everywhere. One of them has been frozen into a statue and is missing his arm. Homer finds the arm and a masterwork longsowrd in its grip.
Fae hears some noise coming from one of the carriages, and decides to investigate. He doesn't listen to Avid who is concerned about a trap and just pops the door open. 2 zombies are inside, but are quickly killed by Zo'lil and Avid.
A large number of foot prints very clearly lead into the forest, so the group decides to follow. They find a chest on the side of the road, but are much more cautious this time and see the tripwire. At this point, they realize none of them has a clue how to disable a trap, so they throw stuff at the rope until it triggers. They see an empty chest, but figure out pretty quickly that the treasure is underneath. They find a weapon cache of all of the looted caravan arms and armor.
At this point, they realize it will be dangerous to go forward in the snow, and backtrack to get some cold weather gear, sell off the weapons, and check in on Yulin. Avid spends his magic for the day healing Yulin, and the party asks him to come along. He is still hurt from his frostbite, but his desire to see the Lady Argantea safe leads him to come along despite the pain.
The group is ambushed by an arctic tatzlewyrm, which does a lot of damage to zo'lil, but is driven off by a fear spell from Avid.
Further down the path, Fae notices some odd fetishes hanging from trees, which turn out to be crows skewered by tiny little arrows. They heard voices speaking from all sides and dancing lights all around. Fae and Zo'lil both understood Sylvan and attempted to talk to the sprites. They took a guess and told the sprites that they were here to help drive out the winter-touched, which of course was the wrong side to say they were on, and the sprites attacked.
The battle took quite a few rounds as the sprites were difficult to hit, but they also didn't do much damage and were eventually beaten. The final blow was caused by a huge hit from Cato's musket that obliterated one of the fey.
Shortly after this battle, they saw hoofprints crossing over the human prints they had been following. A good knowledge role from Cato identified them as stag prints. There was some debate as to whether it was worth diverting from their course to find a stag, but the vote swung towards checking it out. They found the white stag, and amazingly it could talk!
They spent a bit of time talking to the stag who answered very few of their questions and tried to get some answers of its own about why these people were wandering the woods. The party stayed respectful and answered everything that was asked of them. They managed to glean the fact that the bandits had gone to the Ranger lodge further in the woods. The party and stag parted ways with a bow. Now I have to decide if the stag will make another appearance later, or just raise an alarm and be done…
The party headed towards to lodge, picking back up on the bandit trail. Before they could get to the lodge, a river stood in their way. There was a snowman with a sign on its neck that had a spell rigged to warn off intruders that approached. The party decided to back track and try crossing at a different point. The ice here was weaker, however and Yulin fell through the ice. Several others quickly got him some rope and hauled him out, but two ice elementals popped up to attack them.
The elementals were a surprisingly quick fight. Zo'lil quickly took one of them down with a fire-infused longsword hit, and then Yulin rolled a massive crit that destroyed the second one with almost maximum damage.
At this point the small bits of damage were adding up, and spells were running low. The party decided to retreat for the night and push back in the morning. Also time was running late, so we ended the session here. Next week this new party will get to the lodge and try to locate the kidnapped Lady!
Fairly new GM here, but learning quickly on my feet! I'm currently GM'ing for 2 different groups. Group 1 is going through the Crimson Throne AP, and group 2 has been doing a string of stand-alone modules to learn the system.
Group 2 has recently decided that they want something with a bit more story to it, and that they're ready to try a campaign. I want to run Reign of Winter, as it looks like a really fun one!
My question is this: are there any good GM or player logs from someone running this campaign in the past that I can read through? I found several for CoTCT, but it is a much older AP and seems to have a lot more play-throughs. I haven't been able to find any log/journal/notes that go past book 3.
I know it's a big thing to ask for, but has anyone finished the entire AP and recorded all or most of it as they went?
I found those resources to be a huge help in thinking through my Crimson Throne game. It helped me think through what parts were going to be hard/easy, and tended to give some cool ideas for side plots or ways of integrating other material.
I like the idea of the 7 different artists that had their work influenced by a certain someone that are referenced in Escape from Old Korvossa. I'm trying to find ways to hint at their existence before the PCs find their collected remains.
I have already decided to have the toy-maker from Raker's Alley be one of the 7, so when the PCs cleared out the shop instead of just finding poorly-made toys and such, the toys were actually creepy and evil-looking. I tried to describe it like something you might find in the Joker's lair. I also tried to point out that there was a lot of creepy blue stuff mixed in.
Then in the Corowyn Manor, they found a couple of paintings by mr Scream. I was having trouble describing them, however.
Have any of you GMs come up with fun descriptions for Scream's work that you give as flavor text?
And as a second piece, has anyone come up with other pieces from the other artists that could be sprinkled in the PCs' exploration of the city to tie in creepy blue things? maybe a poem, or song, or mural or something else?
Hey all, newer GM here, running my first AP, and I've chosen to run through Crimson Throne. The AP looks like a ton of fun, and I've found a lot of great ideas for improving it on these forums and elsewhere.
I've run a few smaller adventures before, but this is my first attempt at a larger campaign.
I am going to post brief summaries here from our sessions, because I personally like reading that kind of thread before I run a game, to see what others have done and what fun ideas other players had for solving the problems presented.
There will be spoilers! I will try not to spoil things ahead of where we are at, but no promises.
So we just finished session one, and had some good fun.
The Party:
Rosie the halfling ranger. Not Sable Company, but wants to get a hippogryph somehow. Was once a drug addict, has since found her way.
Janay the Elf Abjuration Mage. Awkwardly tall, used to be a Lamb working for Gaedron.
Gork the half-orc Paladin. lost his wife to an "accident" caused by Lamm, dedicated himselfto protecting the weak and finding revenge.
Thorbalt the Dwarf Inquisitor. Lost his daughter, and found religion to be a good way to hunt down those who wronged him. Took in Rosie (the only 2 who know each other before the adventure) and helped her recover from her drug habit.
Session 1
the party arrives at Zelarra's house and hear her story. They find her house to be a bit creepy, and are suspicious of the food offered. they still end up agreeing to go to the fishery to find the gangster.
Zelarra sends them on their way with 3 harrow points and a confusing harrow reading. Thorbalt grabs some bread and stuffs it in his pockets on the way out.
The party decides to try their luck at a night-time infiltration of the hideout. they try a few windows, but don't see much of anything in the dark. they enter through the office, but Gork makes a ton of noise (6 total on stealth) which gets Bloo barking. Rosie has some trouble with the lock into the big open room of the fishery, and Thorbalt examines the desk full of challboard ledgers, stealing several of them.
The group can't decide which way to go, and end up splitting up slightly. Rosie and Janay make their way into the big room with raised catwalks. Thorbalt and Gork hear someone coming through the opposite side and stay to fight.
Janay finds a large half-orc who looks intimidating but doesn't have much willpower and charms him.
Gork and Thorbalt take a couple rounds to down a man carrying an acid wand, and loot him. They are then confronted by a bleary-eyed young orphan who comes out and asks what Bloo is barking at. The adventurers tell the boy that they are here for Lamm and ask for directions. the boy tells them they should definitely check out the large ship outside. the half ork, dwarf and young boy head to regroup with the girls.
Meanwhile, Giggles the half-orc tells Janay about the other members of the gang, including a mean little gnome named hookshanks. as the party is about to regroup, the orphan (aka hookshanks the gnome) tries to stab thorbalt in the back. lucky for thorbalt the gnome is really bad at stabbing in the back. They drop him and steal his stuff.
Even after finding out that the orphan boy was really not a little boy and after getting almost stabbed in the back, the party still follows his advice and go explore the spider-filled boat. spiders are fought, fortitude saves are made. no one is seriously hurt.
Until Gork falls in the water and almost becomes shark bait.
Finally our motly troupe finds their old nemesis Mr Lamm. there is some yelling, some threatening, and a quick crossbow bolt into Thorbalt's shoulder. Suddenly the party pulls out all the stops. spells are cast, smite evil is called out, judgement is levied. 4 attacks from range later and Lamm is down, even with an angry crocodile trying to get at the melee PCs. Thorbalt the Inquisitor decides he wants to be the one to make sure Gaedron doesn't have a chance to slip away this time, and risks an attack from Gobblegut. He goes down as the party's first disabled character, dropping to exactly 0 hp.
The girls roll their eyes and shoot the angry lizard until it goes away.
Of course the only one who can cast any healing spells is the one down on the ground. Luckily he is only disabled, and will be fine.
And at this point we had to end our first session. We'll pick back up with looting the room and figuring out what to do next time!
