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I first learned of the adventure paths when I bought an edition of Dungeon for an Eberron adventure. I immediatly started to gather the rest of the Savage Tide magazines. Then, in my excitement, I began to prepare to GM the STAP. The problem is that I didn't prepare enough.
I arrived at the game and told them that we would switch games. After the minimum required amount of hassle from the others, they began to make characters. We've played three sessions so far, taking out the Lotus Dragons, and are now switching to a different campaign for a while before getting back to the STAP. The problem is that my games has moved rather slowly so far. I desperatly desire for the game to get better and plan on doing more preparation. I welcome any advice.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Three sessions and they've taken out the dragons? How long is a session?
My players are still in the LD hideout and it's our 8th session, I think. Mind you we only play for about 4 hours every two weeks, but it's still 8 sessions! It doesn't sound like you're going too slowly at all.
One thing I can recommend is the statblocks pdf from Mando (Link here).
heh.. well we all do it with avrying level of detail.
Ive (almost) never bothered with drawing up a room and having miniatures or whatver determine in what order everyone fights everyone else..
But rather, i attack that black robes mage, and having a quick glance on wheter its remotely possible to reach in one round.. like less than a 40' across room at he isnt flying or such.. yeah, go ahead! Rolling hits & damage..
With full and messy rules a battle can take like an hour.. but if staying closer to earlier editions, its handled in 10mins. Loot & onward to the next encounter..
The sole exception being marching order, just to check who will fall into the traps and who will be attacked by rear ambushes and such ;)
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I think slowly was a bad choice of words. What I meant was that my game is not as dramatic as I pictured it. Sure, Vanthus is disliked, but he isn't loathed. The PCs like Lavinia, but they aren't loyal to her. I'm really going to work on getting them more into the game.
BTW: I cut out some of the lair of the Lotus Dragons and had them come at the party in larger chunks. The PCs chewed right through them and Rowyn didn't get a second action, which would have been to escape.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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With my group, I've found that posting the story of the session on our website (it's in Dutch or I'd post it here) helps get the group more involved. Having Vanthus do nasty stuff that gets the players (or teh most vocal player) upset is fun too.
Vanthus murdered one of my players animal companions, and I believe Turin the Mad is doing something with Girdles of Masculinity/ Femininity :)
Nothing gets players mad like messing with their genitals!
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as far as drama....don't worry.
keep the encounters dangerous, and play up the scum-bag nature of Vanthus, and you'll be all set.
if it takes an adventure or 2, that's ok. the PC's have to work themselves into the world...
which is why i ran a starter game where the party went through the challenge of the champions. that way, they're already a party when they started there is no honor.
and if worse comes to worse, get a vanthus-cronie (or himself if you're feeling confident about his ability to escape) to burn their ship to the waterline.
that'll get em to hate em.
(oh yeah, and consider savage parrots and dolphins, possibly a shark. i'm trying to get that idea to spread to as many games as possible)
-the hamster
With my group, I've found that posting the story of the session on our website (it's in Dutch or I'd post it here) helps get the group more involved. Having Vanthus do nasty stuff that gets the players (or teh most vocal player) upset is fun too.
Vanthus murdered one of my players animal companions, and I believe Turin the Mad is doing something with Girdles of Masculinity/ Femininity :)
Nothing gets players mad like messing with their genitals!
Especially after promising to make all of the females his breeders ... then going about making all of the males INTO breeders ... yeah, I'm looking forward to that ... *chuckles gleefully*
I'm going to threadjack a little, but I think that it could be considered slightly on topic.
First time GM, long time player. I ran my group through D0 and currently going through D1. I'll admit, we're a bunch of ROLLplayers.
How can I impress upon them that they don't need to kill everything? Would you suggest telling them outside of the game "Hey, keep in mind that you shouldn't fight everything." Or would you press them into non critical side events that would take on ROLEplaying opportunities?
Eventually, I'd like to run STAP, but I need to "mold" my group into something more encounter based. I need to take the ROLL out of roleplaying just enough.
Sorry for the threadjack, please continue on with your normal broadcast thread...
I'm going to threadjack a little, but I think that it could be considered slightly on topic.
First time GM, long time player. I ran my group through D0 and currently going through D1. I'll admit, we're a bunch of ROLLplayers.
How can I impress upon them that they don't need to kill everything? Would you suggest telling them outside of the game "Hey, keep in mind that you shouldn't fight everything." Or would you press them into non critical side events that would take on ROLEplaying opportunities?
Eventually, I'd like to run STAP, but I need to "mold" my group into something more encounter based. I need to take the ROLL out of roleplaying just enough.
Sorry for the threadjack, please continue on with your normal broadcast thread...
I've recently discovered the podcast Fear the Boot ( Feartheboot.com ), and they have some pretty good discussions about Roleplaying vs. Rollplaying. I have been playing D&D since I was 9 and DMing since I was 12, and have found a whole bunch of useful tips on getting the party more INTO the game.
I've recently discovered the podcast Fear the Boot ( Feartheboot.com ),
I'm with ya. I have about 7 D&D podcasts (Adam and his furries are at the top). Unfortunately, they're about an hour a piece and I got frustrated when they did their "design your own game". I have 22 to go, but they do have good advice.
I think that my best tactic is to do the "told ya so" and drop the not so subtle hints before the game ("you know, I'd suggest talking sometimes" or "you don't have to kill everything"). I did do the 3 bugbears fighting each other, but they went in anyway (which was a good thing because they had Jeva the werewolf in their midst).
Thanks for the info!