Well, Erik, since we can now obviously tell you have a large group, can you give us an idea of how to adjust the modules in AP2 for larger groups? I usually end up playing with 6 people, but 9 or 10 is not unheard of for me. Simple doubling up of the monsters and treasure doesn't necessarily work out, as I found out in AP1.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Squid
Well, Erik, since we can now obviously tell you have a large group, can you give us an idea of how to adjust the modules in AP2 for larger groups? I usually end up playing with 6 people, but 9 or 10 is not unheard of for me. Simple doubling up of the monsters and treasure doesn't necessarily work out, as I found out in AP1.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Squid
What Squid said. My group typically varies anywhere from 4 to 8 people. Any advice on this would definately be greatly appreciated.
Well, Erik, since we can now obviously tell you have a large group, can you give us an idea of how to adjust the modules in AP2 for larger groups? I usually end up playing with 6 people, but 9 or 10 is not unheard of for me. Simple doubling up of the monsters and treasure doesn't necessarily work out, as I found out in AP1.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Squid
I've been running the AP with a group of 9-12 players, with little trouble aside from beefing up the monster type or number.
In 'Flood Season', I gave the party two Umber Hulks instead of one and boosted the class levels of the three antagonists by a couple... I left out the whole were-baboon angle of the Lucky Monkey but made up for it by doubling the number of Alleybashers.
In 'Zenith Trajectory', I upped the age category for the dragon at Crazy Jared's and made it Black instead of Red (the party has a half-red-dragon fighter) and doubled the number of whips in the temple.
In 'The Demonskar Legacy', I added a few extra Hill giants and doubled the Fire Giants to two; I also increased the number of Babau demons at the end by half and enlarged Nabthoron by one size category.
In 'The Test of the Smoking Eye' so far, I've pretty much run the random encounters as written but increasing the number encountered by 50%; everything else has been as written so far, since the encounter frequency in the Abyss is slowly wearing the party down.
Of course, I altered the AP in other ways, but this may be a start...
This is how it turned out:
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dnd/campaignJournals/anAdventurePathEv ilVariant20042005
Hope this helps,
M
I've been running the AP with a group of 9-12 players, with little trouble aside from beefing up the monster type or number.
M
Ahhh, but your party mortality rate is around 90%...not that that is necessarily a bad thing, and it has definitely been an entertaining read.
ASEO out
I've been running the AP with a group of 9-12 players, with little trouble aside from beefing up the monster type or number.
MAhhh, but your party mortality rate is around 90%...not that that is necessarily a bad thing, and it has definitely been an entertaining read.
ASEO out
Hey... I've still got two original party members from the old 'Life's Bazaar' days...
Mwahahahahaaaa!
M
How about for smaller groups? I'll be running with a group of 2 players 3 if i'm lucky. I'm also lucky that they tend to be annoyingly clever and resourseful. :)
How about for smaller groups? I'll be running with a group of 2 players 3 if i'm lucky. I'm also lucky that they tend to be annoyingly clever and resourseful. :)
Same Here, I'm going to run Ages of worms with two players, one playing an H-Elven scout and the other one an Human cleric of Pelor (who wants to turn Radiant servant of Pelor), both have above average stats (14 average, just got lucky on dice :)) and I'm considering adding an npc, maybe a paladin of heironeous. Still I'm considering letting them start a 2nd level. Should I or will they be overpowered for the 1st installement?
...I'm going to run Ages of worms with two players, one playing an H-Elven scout and the other one an Human cleric of Pelor (who wants to turn Radiant servant of Pelor), both have above average stats (14 average, just got lucky on dice :)) and I'm considering adding an npc, maybe a paladin of heironeous. Still I'm considering letting them start a 2nd level. Should I or will they be overpowered for the 1st installement?
I'm going to be starting this adventure path with my girlfriend and two kids, both 12. This is going to be their first D&D experience, and my first stab at playing or DMing since the 80s. I plan on playing 1 or 2 npc player characters myself, although it would be nice to hand the reigns of the extra characters over to them if they do well enough with their characters, so I can focus more on DMing.
...I'm going to run Ages of worms with two players, one playing an H-Elven scout and the other one an Human cleric of Pelor (who wants to turn Radiant servant of Pelor), both have above average stats (14 average, just got lucky on dice :)) and I'm considering adding an npc, maybe a paladin of heironeous. Still I'm considering letting them start a 2nd level. Should I or will they be overpowered for the 1st installement?I'm going to be starting this adventure path with my girlfriend and two kids, both 12. This is going to be their first D&D experience, and my first stab at playing or DMing since the 80s. I plan on playing 1 or 2 npc player characters myself, although it would be nice to hand the reigns of the extra characters over to them if they do well enough with their characters, so I can focus more on DMing.
Considering another poor soul on here just wiped out an entire party of three first level PCs... I'd level them up to second.... or as you already thought of... make them each play two characters (provided they can handle it, I have a couple of people in my group who can barley handle one, let alone two!).
I'm going to be starting this adventure path with my girlfriend and two kids, both 12. This is going to be their first D&D experience, and my first stab at playing or DMing since the 80s. I plan on playing 1 or 2 npc player characters myself, although it would be nice to hand the reigns of the extra characters over to them if they do well enough with their characters, so I can focus more on DMing.
I'd recommend not giving newbie players multiple characters to play. Try to find someone else to join the group and play those NPCs (or better, their own PCs). It is difficult enough to roleplay one PC, much less two. I've been playing for a long time, and I really dislike having to play multiple characters -- in a roleplay-focused game, one character always gets neglected, and in a combat-focused game, neither character is as effective as it could be (I miss out on tactical opportunities).
I'd recommend not giving newbie players multiple characters to play. Try to find someone else to join the group and play those NPCs (or better, their own PCs). It is difficult enough to roleplay one PC, much less two. I've been playing for a long time, and I really dislike having to play multiple characters -- in a roleplay-focused game, one character always gets neglected, and in a combat-focused game, neither character is as effective as it could be (I miss out on tactical opportunities).
I'd agree, except in my case I'm going to pack a lot of playing into a short period of time. My girlfriend's son is only down here for one month of the summer, so we'll be squeezing a lot of sessions in together then. It would be too difficult to find additional players that would be able to make it on the random gaming schedule we'll have. Especially out of the group of people I know and am comfortable coming to game with me & my children.
Most likely I'll just be controlling an npc or two to help them.
Ya I agree about adding a couple extra characters as a boost. But for that I always recommend the DM only playing minor combat contributers like an Expert or Adept. Don't wanna steal the spotlight or the glory from the real heroes; the players!
Even better, the NPCs should wear red shirts and always stand with their backs to a hiding spot, or sometimes wander into a side cave, then scream and die, just like a clasic star trek episode....
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I've had a few NPC allies go down in history as more of a pain in the ass than as useful contributors to the group- I once had a wizard who was accident-prone with his crossbow and often hit his own allies (I used a homebrew rule for missed shots fired into melee). The group almost dismembered him once.
As for adjustments to group sizes- some info about how to adjust for larger or smaller groups would be great, but it really depends on the group. The group I started with in AP1 was three people at 2nd level (or equivalent- I think some had templates or played level adjusted races) and they kicked butt. Then I went online and heard of 8-person party TPK's with Kazmojen. That's just not right.
(Shrugs) I guess play it by ear- the PCs don't need to know that the normally CR Whatever fight gave them more or less experience if it proved more or less of a challenge. Even Erik's playtest group of eight had difficulties with the second encounter- the kind of difficulties that require a shovel and a priest, if you get my meaning.
I'm mainly just bumping this thread.
It now appears that my group will be at it's full strength of 7-8 PCs when we start AP2 in a couple of weeks and I was hoping Erik could offer up some of his advice on how he handled things for his large group.
I'm mainly just bumping this thread.
It now appears that my group will be at it's full strength of 7-8 PCs when we start AP2 in a couple of weeks and I was hoping Erik could offer up some of his advice on how he handled things for his large group.
I know I'm not Erik, but, I think if you just scale the adventure for a little bit higher level party then you'll do fine. The scaling sidebar is in the online supplement, maybe this will help...