Anybody Skip Parts of the Path?

[MrFish]

I'm wondering if anyone started this adventure path midway through, picked and chose parts of it to use, or did anything totally unconventional with it. I may very well do that--my players are totally addicted to their current characters and we don't really have the time (family, work, etc) to do another adventure path for the next several months. If this were the case I would have to deal with my players have characters 8th level + to start with.

If this turns out to be the case I may just fit in the journey to the Isle of Dread in my current campaign. I may also just save it for later.

[Kruelaid]

God I've changed the whole story line. Basically, I'm just using maps and descriptions, the rest is mine.

[erian_7]

I freely modify as needed to keep everyone having a good time.

For the first adventure, I compressed the Lotus Dragon hideout down to about 6-7 encounter rooms and we skipped the whole dungeon crawl (we don't like dungeon crawls). For the final encounter with the guild I had all the surviving thieves grouped together in front of their leader (why would they spread themselves all over the place in convenient-to-kill groups?) and the party cut a deal to turn over the Vanderboren estate in exchange for Vanthus. They then set up a political trap to "beat" the guild without fighting by working with the leaders of the districts.

For the second adventure, I again compressed the dungeon crawl aspect, actually eliminating the assault on the Vanderboren manor entirely.

It's your game, have fun!

[Drawdy]

I'm going step by step with the AP. It works very well if done correctly. But to each his own.

[B_Wiklund]

I've been modifying it a bit as we've gone along. Reducing lengths of dungeoncrawls, eliminating some encounters, adding some sidetreks etc. Mostly I've been using it as is. The party just finished Tides of Dread and now I'm looking at considerably shortening the campaign. The Lightless Depths/City of Broken Idols is going to be condensed into one. After Serpents I will probably eliminate all the adventures save for the confrontation with Demogorgon. That will take some work but I wasn't impressed with the other abyssal adventures and felt it needed to cut to the chase.

[MrFish]

I'd be interested in hearing how you compressed the Lightless Depths and the City. I've thought of doing that but why reinvent the wheel...

I'm probably going to eliminate the Vanderboren plot altogether since I have my own hook that fits my current campaign much better and a villain that they already hate as opposed to creating a new one in Vanthus. As for Farshore I'll probably have it governed by a potentially friendly local ruler--instead of the vote I might have it optional that the pcs can sway him.

For the Sea Wyvern's Wake which will probably be the starting adventure I think I'm going to scale it up a bit as per the sidebars and have the pcs commissioned and thus add Avner, Urol, etc to their complement.

Also has anyone used Stormwrack to change the way some of the sea adventure parts went, or any homebrew or other seagoing ideas? I may use other kinds of ships than the caravels that seem to dominate this AP.

[lin_fusan]

I've been running it as by the "book" as possible. Because we started "There is No Honor" at 2nd level, I've had to increase the CRs, which pretty means I'd have to +1 CR everything from then on.

At Sea Wyvern's Wake, I decided to condense some parts and eliminate some encounters in order to bring down their XP levels so that at "Here There Be Monsters" they'd be exactly at the right levels.

They they got a near TPK and now are one level lower than normal. Doh!

I really haven't used much out of Stormwrack because none of the players were interested in "weakening" their characters by taking Profession (sailor) or Knowledge (geography), so I skimmed over any sailing-heavy stuff.

(On a side note, the group's ranger has a Rank in Knowledge (geography) and whenever I said Urol was plotting a course, he wanted to roll to see if he could beat him. The ranger would always roll an natural "1."

Ranger: "We're on water!")

[psionichamster]

running it pretty much as is

changes i have made (other than modifying spell lists/feat choices/treasure placement, or advancing monsters for my 8-person group) include:

started @ Challenge of the Champions. 5 of the original 6 still live.

many small "side-quests" including a trip to the cave of "He Who Hums", the elimination of most of the legendary monsters of the Isle, and real-eastate purchases.

Yes, one of the characters owns a manor in Sasserine, part of the Knowlern plantation (is engaged to one of the daughters), a manor in Farshore, a house in Cauldron, and is the keyholder for Fort Greenrock.

When you are the crafting wizard/crafting psion for a group of people who want specific things...you accumulate a lot of coin.

He also has a small fleet of Dromond Warships.

The party just finished City of Broken Idols, and is planning on taking some downtime before Serpents of Scuttlecove. ha!

-the hamster

[B_Wiklund]

MrFish wrote:

I'd be interested in hearing how you compressed the Lightless Depths and the City. I've thought of doing that but why reinvent the wheel...

I'm keeping Emrag, and the trogs but after the trog village speed up journey to Golismorga. After dealing with Holashner's Ziggurat I'll make the shaft more noticeable. With any luck the PCs will use the shaft to exit after dispatching Tlaloc's Tear. I know in City of Broken Idols it states the PCs would interrupt an army of 100 Skinwalkers but I'll alter that (probably use a group like the one the PCs are supposed to encounter en route to the plateau.

Also has anyone used Stormwrack to change the way some of the sea adventure parts went, or any homebrew or other seagoing ideas? I may use other kinds of ships than the caravels that seem to dominate this AP.

I defintely have been making use of Stormwrack for marine terrain, spells, gear etc. I tried the Narrative Naval combat once. My group didn't really enjoy it and neither did I. I've simplified it to opposed Profession (Sailor) checks as to whether the ship is boarded or gets away. Describe in general some of the action but go straight to the boarding for actual combat.

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

I ran a number of sea-based side quests, and greatly expanded the size, length and scope of Sea Wyvern's Wake. To compensate partly for that, and to not give the party a ton of XP for another "side" quest, we skipped the Tamoachan ruins. I gave the party the bat god idol in the Sargasso Sea stuff.

[MrFish]

For those who made some big changes--did you all keep the AP hooks, such as the Vanderboren family?

For the situation with the Knowlern connection--does that have an effect on the intrigues in Sasserine and in Farshore?

I may skip Tamoachan too--I'm thinking of running something similar to the Conan story "The Pool of the Black Ones" instead.

What do people think of the idea of modifying "City of Broken Idols" and running that first? And perhaps substituting the mongrelfolk with a troglodyte village instead?

[Turin the Mad]

I intend to add in stuff alongside the main arc of the campaign. As an interlude between There is No Honor and the Bullywug Gambit, I've inserted the modules Barrow of the Forgotten King and The Sinister Spire. I intend to fluff out the ruins of Tamoachan, and make available the Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk at roughly an appropriate point. In many ways, personally, the challenge as the GM is to see what I can do with the 'as written' bad guys against my player group(s).

They may well be able to gain gobs o' xp and schwag - but they can (and probably will) die in droves too, so I figure on the side quests to be the 'refill' points for xp lost due to character deaths.