I'll be starting the SCAP this weekend, to some extent. I'm also new to the boards ;-)
I'll be DMing with 6 players in the world of Eberron. The first run is to take the players from their respective homelands and bring them to Cauldron.
The characters:
Warforged Artificer
Warforged Paladin
Shifter Rogue
Halfling Bard
Stonechild (6 racial levels, no class decided yet)
And the last being I believe a Human Ranger
Several of them are experienced gamers, though all are new to 3.5 (the most experienced is a guy who has played in 1 session, and DMed 2). They're creative and I already know I'll likely be jumping up the difficulty of most encounters to provide a challenge. Of course the lack of a major healer and a mostly fighting-based party should be interesting. The artificer and paladin will pick up the slack for any healing, as well as the rogue with a few wounds of curing spells (he's going to be a run and hit rogue ;).
I've been playing in AoWAP for a bit, and after doing years of custom games (followed with about a year off from GMing with a few minor exceptions), and doing a lot games on the fly due to lack of time to properly prepare, I'm looking forward to the hardest part of my job adjusting the AP to both challenge my characters and ensure their enjoyment of it.
I've read up on the suggestions for Eberron, and plan on running with most of them ^_^
If anyone has any other thoughts or suggestions, feel free to share.
Well, I recommend that the party is from Cauldron, and that they already know each other before the game starts. I believe that the campaign works better when Cauldron = home.
yeah, it's pretty important the arty feels connected to cauldron. One thing you could do is give each PC a list of contacts in cauldron. People they know and who could be important to the story, such as Artus Shemswick, Skie, Ruphus Laro... you get the idea.
That makes sense. I'll tell them to work that into their histories.
The warforges are interesting, one is looking to prove that he has a soul (the paladin), and the other is more concerned about enhancing his own natural abilities.
If you are running the Hardcover SCAP then take note it's already adjusted in dificulty for SIX players, unlike the magazines that were for four if I recall correctly.
Even with experienced players it won't be that easy as written, it's pretty deadly at points. Especially as I've taken to rolling all my DM hits and damage out in the open. My players have a great sense of danger and potential loss now :)
If you are running the Hardcover SCAP then take note it's already adjusted in dificulty for SIX players, unlike the magazines that were for four if I recall correctly.
Even with experienced players it won't be that easy as written, it's pretty deadly at points. Especially as I've taken to rolling all my DM hits and damage out in the open. My players have a great sense of danger and potential loss now :)
I'm still waiting for my Hardcover to get here (next week), but I'm using the Mag until them. I've already told my players this isn't something that they can just walk through, and some liked that, some don't. Though I'm glad to hear that the Hardcover is made for six, so less adjusting the enemies and more customizing it to make it my own ^_^
I've never had a TPK in my years of DMing (one has been left standing three times though) because usually I'm too nice of a guy.