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I had been planning on running a basic Dragon hunt this weekend... But I may drop this on my players instead! It sounds awesome.

We're about to complete Hook Mountain Massacre.

I think I'm leaning towards keeping it as one big group. It's large, and kind of a pain... But everyone seems to be having a good time, and that's what it's all about, right?

Thanks for the ideas though.

Ooooh... I like that idea. I wish i had thought of it.

So I've got a party that's grown to over 12 PCs and I'm considering how best to manage it. We've been playing Rise of the Runelords off and on since it first released (I kept getting interrupted by life), and I just picked back up where we left off now that the Anniversary Edition is out.

Problem is, it's a fairly popular AP, and everyone I know wants to get in on my campaign. I guess that's a good sign.

But seriously. 12 people.

So, I have one guy who is willing to help me divide the party in half. He'll take one half, I'll take the other, and we can co-GM.

Question:
How well does RotRL lend itself to two parties wandering through the campaign simultaneously?

I would suspect that it would be disappointing to arrive at Fort Rannick and discover that the Kreegs were all dead, the loot was all plundered, etc.

Do I just run them as separate groups entirely?

Any thoughts?

Ok, I have a question about the flavor of the Kusari-Gama Faction from the Faction Guide.

I have a PC who plays a Sorcerer\Monk, and wants to join the KG faction. However, the condition "The order only accepts those who are willing to set aside - at least temporarily - their weapons and spells..." might prove a stumbling block.

I'm not allowing any of the other PCs to have factions in their background, they have to rollplay their way into them in-game, so it wouldn't be fair to hand-wave him into the faction in his distant past.

Has anyone else had this type of situation?

I am considering something along the lines of "Prove your worth by going a full month with no spells or weapons" (effectively a level or two), and the group will grant him access.

Here's a link to download the Sandpoint map as a MapTool campaign file. It's to scale with vision blocking. It does not have light sources, but I may add them in the future.

Sandpoint Map for MapTools (.cmpgn file)

There's a token of Sheriff Belor Hemlock just west of the Sandpoint Cathedral you can use to "explore" the town and see how the vision blocking works. :-)

Please let me know if there are any problems accessing the file or downloading it. Thanks.

I've never used MapTools... so forgive the newbie question.

Do you need a projector or something to use this properly? It sounds like a great idea though... I might need to look into that.

Can you use a wet erase marker on Battlegraph boards?

Hello - I don't see any battle maps for Fort Rannick up yet, so I whipped one up in DJ today. It lacks objects at this point (I'm going to add them later in MapTool), and it's slightly larger than the map in the module.

Here it is. Hope it's useful. When I get all the furniture, gore and so forth loaded into it I'll link that version too.

This thread is full of win, by the way. Finding lots of good stuff in here for my RotR play-by-post.

Excellent!

Looking forward to using this.

Tear these NPCs apart before the player's very eyes. Let them see the joy with which ogres regard gore as a plaything. Brutalize them.

I like your thinking. I will be doing this in my campaign!!!

Okay... I'm intrigued...

I'm a little late posting here, but I'm hoping for some ideas myself...

Ideas I've had so far (culled from what I've seen, and what I've been reading):

• On the river trip, they potentially notice that the riverboat captain has the tattoo.
  
• Stopping off in Whistledown, they are approached by a gnome in the early stages of the bleaching, who asks if he can join them in "A Grand Adventure" to stave off the effects of continued boredom. They can either accept, or help him find something that will occupy his time.
  
• Given that Sanos Forest is Gnome Country, I figure the chances that there will be unique items available in either Wartle or Whistledown is fairly good. If the PCs can tell a story, sing a song, or provide some entertainment that is as new to the gnome as the item is to the PC, the gnome will offer to sell the item.
  
• Of course, there will be plenty of wandering monsters
  

So I just tried to run this as a one-shot and was sorely disappointed. It has a lot of potential, but was unclear in crucial points. For instance, when presented with the false trail vs. the real trail, my players successfully found the real trail. Unfortunately, I could not figure out where the trail picked up in the book.

The initial romp through the forest also seemed a bit bizarre.

Perhaps I just didn't put enough time into game prep, and that would be my fault as a DM. Therefore, rather than actually say this is a bad review, take it rather as a warning to be prepared to spend a couple hours ahead of time figuring out how the module relates to itself.

For now, Dungeon Crawl Classics will continue to be my favorite one-shot adventures :)

Heya, I know someone was working on a custom GM Screen. Any chance that got completed? Seems like it would fit in this thread somewhere!!! :)

Great ideas! I'll definitely be incorporating the ideas about spacing and the weapons.

Also, I really like the suggestions on the foreshadowing.

I used pretty much all of Wingclipper's Revenge (sorry, I can't remember the issue #) during an early trip from Sandpoint to Magnimar. At the end of the side quest, the heroes were rewarded by the Shadar-Kai second-in-command with a two-headed coin that the PCs could use for a favor from the First World. The players (except for the one who was carrying it) forgot all about the coin until the party met Svevenka in Spires. She appeared in a threatening manner and then realized they carried "The Grey Man's Coin." She provided them with aid and shelter, which was a great closure moment in the campaign.

Thanks! I'll look that one up.

My RotRL campaign starts on the 25th of July. I have most of my pre-planning finished, but I'm trying to dig up some good supporting material. One thing I'm interested in is suggestions for Dungeon Magazine issues with good sidequests.

I'm planning on having the manticore from issue 98 as a diversion, and I also plan on having the Red Raven make an appearance during the swallowtail festival.

I'm looking for a couple other interesting ideas.

My players tend to spin off in all different directions, and I'd like to have a few red-herrings to throw at them in case they get too zany.

Thanks!

But I really think that the best option is to make Karzoug's potential return seem like a literally earth-shattering disaster, not just the arrival of a real powerful guy. It might help if the PCs somehow got wind of the function of the Leng Device and realized that, one way or another, it spells doom for the continent.

How much would it wreck things if the players heard rumors of a "long-dead evil which may one day return" early on? I'm thinking a Varisian fortune-teller that everyone ignores or some such thing. That would perhaps at least introduce the concept of Karzoug early enough that the players would get used to the idea that they need to track him down and destroy him.

I'm starting my RotRL campaign in two weeks, and have been considering this aspect for some time now.

Any thoughts???

I just bought a landscape insert DM screen from Paizo, and I'm assembling insert sheets to go in it, on both sides. If you guys can give me some suggestions on what you have found useful, I'll incorporate them and post the sheets for everyone.

Of course, you will need to buy the blank DM screen from Paizo ... :)

I can't wait!!!

As cool as the pictures on the cards would be, for me the big draw would be having the stats right in front of me without having to flip through my book. That would be awesome.

As it is, I have been developing my own 4x6 notecards with NPC stat-blocks, but it's not as nice looking as something Paizo could come up with.

Thats just my thought though...

Did anyone else have any problems getting things printed at Kinkos? They tried to tell me they weren't allowed to print the Pathfinder RPG rules. They wouldn't let me show them that we have permission to print them. Argh.

This is awesome!

I plan to make much use of it!

Absolutely amazing!

Keep up the good work everybody!

I would LOVE to see the community-created battle maps.

Speaking of maps, I'm working on reading through #1, and I could just about swear there are some areas missing. Specifically, in Thistletop, the last couple rooms before Dungeon Level 1 (I believe it's like C26 and C27) seem to be missing. Is this intentional???