|
Given that storylines particular to my group's backstories and motivations will occasionally take front stage from time to time, I'd like to plan ahead and identify possible adventures in the path that are either disappointing or less crucial to the overall flow of the plot. Sometimes those diversions will be small but other times they may be large enough in scope that it would make sense to skip over one of the adventures. What are your thoughts?
Thanks!
Doug
I don't know that I can really answer that as it pretty much depends on what level they are when you want to do your side quests.
I would look at a couple things.
1) Use the personal quests to boost levels to get the party ready for the next adventure.
2) Read the players. If they are tired of Dungeon Crawls but that is next up on the list, that is a good time.
3) When you identify one you want to skip, read through it, identify the things that move on the overall plot and incorporate those things into your adventure.
or
4) Do what you need to in order to incorporate the character background pieces into the existing adventures.
Sean Mahoney
Port Orchard, Washington
It all depends on how true you want tot stay to the original story arch. Every adventure in the AP has at least a small connection to the arch. This connection is weak in the first few installments (a couple of important characters are introduced), and becomes stronger towards the end. I would sugest against skipping an entire adventure, as you may miss an important part of the story arch.
I agree with sean. If there´s one part I would (and have) changed, it's the dungeon crawls. As it happens, they're also the easiest to skip, AP wise.
Another option would be to take the existing adventures and modify them to be MUCH shorter.
As an example. You could look at Life's Bazaar and decide you want it shorter. You then would need to decide what level you want it for, redesign the map of Jzadirun to have maybe 5 rooms or so and the access to the shaft leading down to the fortress. Do likewise to the fortress (you could also just lower the number of encounters with out changing the map as another alternative). You would then need to make sure the encounters are going to be appropriate for characters levels that you expect to arrive there (if this remains an intro adventure for lvl 1 you need to change the fight with Kazmojen for instance).
That would then mean the PCs have plenty more leveling they need to do but you can leave in the important parts of the adventure to maintain the AP in its entirty.
Sean Mahoney
Port Orchard, Washington
Another idea would be to identify the plot-critical elements and just export those into the character-building adventures you want to develop.
SPOILER SPACE
For example, I think it's a nice opening clue when the characters discover the first, half-formed Soul Cage in the Fire Giant's forge in the Demonskar. However, say you decided your story didn't need the Smoking Eye sideplot and have decided to replace those two adventures. I'd still try to find a place to have a fire giant constructing the Soul Cage, just so the players get the foreshadowing.
That being said, I think you could run the complete "Cagewrights trying to create a gate to Carceri" plot without the Adamarchus hook. You could skip Demonskar, Smoking Eye, and Abyss. Although I wouldn't, because those are some of my favorites.
Flood Season has the absolute least to do with Shackled City, only sharing a location (Cauldron) and a tenuous reference to a Soul Cage that the players will never actually see or hear about. I also personally plan on dropping Shatterhorn and just have the party confront Embril in Thirteen Cages.
One could also argue that Foundation of Flame can be reduced to a "there are some earthquakes and you need to stop them" hook at the start of Thirteen Cages. However, Foundation is a fun and unique adventure and worth running on its own merits.
The least expendable, I think, are Soul Pillars, Lords of Oblivion, and Thirteen Cages.
I would like to add that you may wish to take a long, hard look at The Demonskar Legacy, which for me was horribly disruptive to my campaign. Though it does lead into the Test of the Smoking Eye rather well, just give it a hard look and decide if it needs to be modified.
Beyond that, Flood Season is the only one without any real metaplot, but at the same time I (and my players) really liked Flood Season and so I ran it anyways. It's also a good way to get your players more accustomed to Cauldron. Additionally, since they "save" Cauldron in Flood Season, it gives the characters great incentive to remain involved in the overall plot; after all, they went to all that trouble to save it, they're certainly not going to let anyone else muck it up!