Gilbetron's page

I'm going to launch a new CotCT campaign soon, but two of the players aren't available for 6 more weeks. So I want to run some fun scenarios/modules for the other 2 players until the official launch.

Any suggestions of what to run? Things that help flesh out Korvosa would be awesome, but even fun ones that fit the mood of CotCT but aren't within Korvosa are cool too. Or ones that can be adapted.

So I find it interesting that Shattered Star takes the events of RotRL, CotCT, and SD into account. They all look interesting, and I'm trying to an AP to run for my group. I've run a heavily modified RotRL for them - is it worth it to run CotCT and SD before SS? Does it make SS more fun? Or are the connections only slight and rather superficial?

What's a good AP that uses bunches of "funky" monsters? And not in a "here's one in a room, kill it" what, but weaves them into the AP so that they make sense. Bullettes, Intellect Devourer's, anything beyond the standard.

I've asked this elsewhere, but I want opinions directly from those that most use the system. How is Pathfinder faring with caster/martial disparity these days? The "Linear Fighter, Quadratic Wizard" issue, or the fact that at higher levels (even at mid levels) casters dominate. Another name is CoDzilla (Cleric or Druid). Basically casters can perform as well as martial classes, but then have a whole toolchest of spells on top of it (teleport, fly, Ddoor, etc). Plus a lot of martial functionality relies on full attacks, but a moving opponent prevents such things (a big blow to Monk in particular), whereas a caster has no such issues.

D&D 3.5 had big problems with it, and PF core rules alleviated the rules a bit. But now with the Advanced Players Guide and other mechanic additions, I just wonder if things are better at all.

I'm curious both hypothetically (from a build perspective) and practically. In your campaigns do optimized casters run roughshod over the martial characters?

I remember in one high level (15ish) campaign of 3.5, 4 of the PCs (Monk, Warlock, Paladin, and Ranger) took out 2 Vrocks while the Cleric took out 4 others by himself. That kind of stuff.

Thanks!

The next campaign I run is going to be city-based, although probably not an adventure path (I may steal from one or more, however). I'm scanning through the various offerings in Golarion, and was wondering which ones are favorites, and why people like them.

Thoughts?

This is a variant of the "suggest an AP" thread. My group loves interacting with NPCs, it is undoubtedly their favorite part of RPGs. I'm on Book 2 of Rise of the Runelords with them, and so far I've been a bit disappointed with the NPCs - they're ok, but a bit dull. I really like the AP format, though, and it's proven a great springboard for my own style of GMing (which is largely improvisational).

So I ask, what AP (beyond RotRL) has the best NPCs? As in the most fun for players to interact with, and fleshed out in the AP itself.

I'm about mid way through the first book of Rise of the Runelords (run using Savage Worlds) and I really am happy with the choice. The material is top notch, even if on the verbose side. However, one thing that bugs me is there is no NPC list, with personality traits, physical descriptions, etc. NPCs tend to be described rather haphazardly (except for the Kaijitsu family), and I really wish there was an easy-to-use GM chart that laid all the major NPCs out. I know RotR was one of the first - do the later ones get better at NPC descriptions and compiling the info in one place?

So I started by "Rise of the Runelords" AP set in Hellfrost using Savage Worlds on Sunday evening and it was a good start. I've been trying out all kinds of game systems over the past few years, and I have to say it feels good to be back to Savage Worlds. To me it actually feels like AD&D2 done right ... or something ;) What I mean by that is in hindsight, AD&D2 was the system my group had most fun with. I'd say five out of the top ten campaigns we've played were in AD&D2. However, looking back over the rules, there are things now available in "modern" games that I enjoy that are absent. Savage Worlds seems to catch a lot of the flavor and fun we had in AD&D2, but adds to it.

As for our first game on Sunday, it was rather short for various reasons, but we still got through about 3x as much stuff as other games I've run recently. My wife glared at me when I started a combat with only 15 minutes left before the game was supposed to end - 10 minutes later we were done, and it was a fun combat! 6 monsters (furies) vs 4 PCs and 7 NPCs.

As for Hellfrost itself, all the players really took to the setting. It's the first "vanilla" fantasy setting I've run in many, many years. Besides a very small campaign 6 years ago, I don't think I've run vanilla fantasy since the late 90s.

The group is:
- Human (Saxa) man Road Warden swordsman with a ghost following him around.
- Human (Saxa/Tuomi) man Grey Legionnaire priest of Rigr - (think "Rooster" Cogburn from True Grit)
- Human (Saxa/Finnar) woman Ertha Elementalist of the Reliquary.
- Frost Dwarf crossbowman/Rune Mage (arrow rune, of course!)

I ran a prelude adventure from the Hellfrost Encounter Book 1 ("The Price of Sin") as an opportunity to get the characters together before getting to Sandpoint, and to introduce an NPC capable of magical healing. That worked out great, and next session will have them getting to Sandpoint.

As for Rise of the Runelords, well I haven't really gotten them into it yet, but it is really nice having a well developed campaign "at my back" so I don't worry about what the campaign is about, and instead can just add customization for the group and figure out how to make things more fun.

All-in-all a great start!

Is there a list of organizations/power-groups that exist in and around Varisia? I started building one up myself, but decided to see if anyone has already done the work for me. Mostly it is for character creation - I like to give my players options so that they don't just make a "half-orc fighter" but rather "Shoanti warrior of the Clan of the Moon", or a "half-elf Rogue of the Gargoyles."

Thanks!

One idea I have for my soon-to-be-run Rise of the Runelords campaign is that all of the characters come to Sandpoint to help setup/re-establish some sort of mage tower. This would have all the characters associated with some organization that would want such a tower in Sandpoint. Most would be spell-slingers of some sort, but there's also the option of warriors to protect them, rogue-types to deal with people, clerics of faiths friendly to mages, etc.

Unfortunately I'm a total newb to Golarion, so I look to you guys - any suggestions for organizations that would fit?

I'm looking to start up a RotR campaign shortly, but I like to have a strong "glue" between the characters, rather than "you stick together because ... well ... you do". Anyone have any suggestions how to do it that fits in well with RotR and/or Golarion? One thought I had was make them all part of a military group that just got done fighting some war in a distant land and have come to Sandpoint to get away from "all that". But I don't know Golarion well enough to find where such a war would have occurred. I can make stuff up, but I like embedding it in the setting as it exists.

Thanks!

I'm looking for conversion notes and suggestions for anyone that's run this adventure path using Savage Worlds or Fantasy Craft. I'm gearing up to run it using one of the two (although PFRPG is still in the running, as is AD&D2) and looking for experiences...

Thanks!