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This thread is awesome.
Well, we've finally played Night of the Hissing Dead encounter and have started exploring the vaults. Three of the characters are suffering from madness (one PC and his cohort are paranoid, the oracle already has two other personalties from his MPD). I might be doing it wrong, but I didn't have an onset time, but simply had them roll saves after being in the vault for a while. Did you use the normal onset time? I mean, they can complete the entire part 4 in that time.. The First Vault has a little "murdering hobo" over it. The PCs simply attack and wipe out a tribe of keches that live there? For those group who tries not to be murderous hobos, the GM should let the characters use diplomacy and negotiations to relocate the ketches instead.
Thank you. I know of your posts, these are the numbers I am basing my own campaign on, actually. I was just wondering if the numbers were for combatants only, or the total amount of creatures. Now I know :)
Are there any apps out there which allows for both: a) SRD reference
PF Battle looks good for c), but for the rest I would need other apps?
Thanks Trellian for your comments. In general, the feeling I get in the forums is that the adventure path requires a good amount of work on the DM part. Yeah, I get that too. I just wish I had read more on the forums before putting this one up as one of the four possible adventure paths, and then ordering the entire adventure path and a lot of additional material.. The thing is, I don't mind at all doing prep work, but I just don't have the time right now. Maybe 30 mins every week. What I have been thinking about doing to emphasize faction strife is this: - One of the PCs have expressed interest in joining the Pathfinders. Gelik will introduce him to Amvor Glaur. Check, the Pathfinders are in the race. - Guess who will be saving the PCs from Smugglers Shiv? Kassata Lewyn. She will suspect something is up (she saw the lightning arc up from the island), and hopefully the PCs feel obligated by the rescue to let her in on the secret. - I will use an idea from the forum that they need to go find someone to tell them where Tazion is, and then use the River of Darkness module. The entire crew is Aspis Consortium of course, so they will learn about it either through spies or on the trip. They will also offer the Protean ship as a faster way of getting there (I'll leave it up to the PCs to figure out that that isn't true). - One of the PCs have rich parents from Eleder. When he comes home, he will tell them what they've found (unless he specifically says he doesn't). They will contact the government and ask for them to sponsor an expedition. Might cause some parents-son problem too. - Not too sure about the Mantis Society though. I've tried have Sasha seduce the cleric of Sarenrae, but he doesn't want anything to do with her. Typically player paranoia (oooh, an NPC wants to do it, she must be a succubus!) Heh.. So I'm not sure how much of the revolt or Nkechi or the trip I'll keep. They'll get some XP during the River of Darkness, and I'll just give them XP for role-playing negotiations and what not to cover for the encounters I won't be running. I think that can work pretty well actually.
It's great to read your input and suggestions for how to improve this adventure, which is not very good. I do hope it's salvageable though. Since this seems to be the most recent RtR thread, I hope you don't mind me doing a little analyzis of the encounters, my thoughts and ideas for how to improve them. Maybe you can give me some new ideas as well. Eleder/Freeman's revolt - Much of this depends on how the PC's interacted with the fellow castaways at the Shiv. My players haven't been all that interested in interacting too much with the NPCs, so this will be a challenge. I'm also not sure how much secrecy the players will institute when they discover Yarzoth's journal, and how much I can plausibly explain to the players when suddenly the entire city is abuzz with their discoveries. We'll se how it turns out. The Journey itself - Isn't it a faster route to go by boat to Kalabuto and then hire porters, pack animals and guards? Or all the way by boat, for that matter. Tempest - Why does he need to join them? Is there a benefit for having him there? Does the trip go slower if he's not around? I don't necessarily disprove of rail-roads, but there must be consequences to the PC's action. I cannot see a consequence of failure here. The Salt Mines - The caravan will save a day if the PC's clear the mines. Can a large caravans with wagons and pack animals really traverse this partly flooded mine? Cockfight - The players have to watch a hawk fight an eagle, but can make some money on it. No matter if they win or lose, or give in to the bad guys or not, they have to fight them. No choice. Village under siege - I like the encounter, but again, there is no choice. No matter what the PC's choose, they get attacked by the chemosits. I will not have the chemosit's attack if the characters avoid the village or refuse the witch's offer. A feast of vultures - I thought that vultures were carrion eaters, but I may be wrong. I will instead try to have the carrion bird appear if someone (a PC or NPC) dies or falls unconscious. Makes more sense. Gallows tree - I think I will have them encounter the gallows to get the feel it is meant to evoke "scars of a country at war", but I don't want them to fight any zombies. It just feels pointless and not plot advancing. Kalabuto - Again, no matter how the character's treat Kibi (short of killing her), she somehow manages to alert her handlers. If the PC's manage to stay hidden from her no matter what, I will not have them be discovered by the rival faction. Or maybe I will have Cheiton betray them. Lake of Vanishing Armies - This is actually rather good, because it gives the PCs a choice. Find the treasure and lose a day, or not. Warriors of the Child-God - thematical, but not very challenging and is there to give XP mostly. Hippo hunt - I don't have any rangers or druids in party currently, otherwise it could have been a good encounter for how to handle violent wildlife wihtout resorting to combat. Bodies on the riverbank - not bad either, plot advancing and allows the characters to use the spirit fetish Amghawe's tomb - Tweakable. I can perhaps add another treasure map at some point, giving the characters the choice between a detour for a treasure or not. Eloko Headhunters - Another relatively simple encounter which follows four other combat encounters without not much in-between. There are several days between these combats, and it is unlikely it will be very challenging. Spirit Dancers - on paper a fun encounter, but in reality, a dozen warning bells will ring for the players at this point. At this point, the concept of a totem spirit is known (through Tempest), so it might be possible to goad them into accepting a meal and companionship from three native women bathing nude in a river... maybe. I don't want to do too much work (that is why I bought an adventure path), but I just cannot run this as written.
In a related note, are there epic characters on Golarion? I have the feeling that Golarion isn't riddled with numerous level 20+-characters, in the same way as Faerun is. Maybe the Test of Starstone is appropriate for 20th level characters, and when they pass it, they are gods. See, no need for epic levels :)
For a long time now, I have had an idea to create a sandboxed portion of a gaming world where the characters are free to do exactly what they want. Not even the slightest hint of railroading. This will take a lot of work for me, as I intend to insert Dungeon adventures and Paizo modules (or parts of Paizo Modules) in places where it fits the sandbox. The general idea is that when beginning a session (unless left on a cliffhanger), it will be the PCs who proactively initiates an adventure. No stranger in a tavern. No running around finding information for a sage. Maybe they'll head out to the mountains in search for some adventure? Maybe they will go down to the dockside tavern to see if someone needs adventurers? Maybe the church of Pelor needs help? The adventure doesn't start with someone approaching the PCs, the adventure starts with the PCs searching for adventure. Anyway, I don't know if this made any sense, but what I'm looking for is a product (city product, regional product) that describes a location in great detail, which I then can improve upon. Doing it from scratch would take a great deal more work. My ideal location would be a medium-sized city (3,000-10,000), probably a harbor town, with some wilderness around it (forest, mountains) and maybe a couple of smaller villages. This area will constitute the sandbox. I was thinking of using Diamond Lake from the AoW adventure path, but my current campaign is set in Darkmoon Vale, and the two communities are really similar. Any suggestions? Doesn't have to be Paizo products, but I'll try to insert the sandbox into Golarion. |