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I am about to start a Rise of the Runelords campaign, but I'm convinced we won't be anywhere near finished by the time Curse of the Crimson Throne is released and I'm wondering: if I convince someone who is playing my Runelords campaign to GM Curse of the Crimson Throne, would preparing for and running the second AP diminish his enjoyment of the second half of the first one? Or are the two APs sufficiently separate that you can run the second one without learning secrets or reading references to events which happened late in the first?
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I have been wanting to post on this topic (well a variation of it) for some time. I too am playing in a RotRL campaign and have have a general belief that all of the contents of my Pathfinders are basically off limits to me. I wanted to read up on Sandpoint, but from what little I read, some of the citizen's secrets were described there and I felt like I should not read on. I thus steadfastly avoided the article on Magnamar in Issue #2 and read only the article on Desna (which was very good, thanks!).
I would really like to get a better understanding of the world, the gods, PrC's, examine the maps, and glean other general information, but I never know if the article will contain spoilers. Is there any way to tell what is intended for players and what articles (other than the AP obviously) contain DM-only material?
If Pathfinder represents a mix between Dungeon and Dragon, is that mix clearly defined, or do the articles freely blend the two such that players in the AP essentially cannot make use of the articles because of the integrated nature of the information?
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We asked about PC-oriented products vs GM-oriented ones in last weeks chat. Well, it seems the Gazetteer might be read by PCs.
Otherwise, since most PC-oriented content more or less require crunch (rules heavy parts) in it, Paizo staff said they are waiting to decide what they do about 4e before they publish stuff like that.
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We asked about PC-oriented products vs GM-oriented ones in last weeks chat. Well, it seems the Gazetteer might be read by PCs.
Otherwise, since most PC-oriented content more or less require crunch (rules heavy parts) in it, Paizo staff said they are waiting to decide what they do about 4e before they publish stuff like that.
This makes some sense I suppose. It would be nice, in the interim, to get a PDF-only version of the content thought to be non-spoiler-containing. In this way, I can collect the Pathfinder series to run as a DM when I finish RotRL as a player and make immediate use of the PDFs as a player to enrich my game experience. I wouldn't even mind a "web supplement" approach - something pared down and
"quickly" put together.
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I have been wanting to post on this topic (well a variation of it) for some time. I too am playing in a RotRL campaign and have have a general belief that all of the contents of my Pathfinders are basically off limits to me. I wanted to read up on Sandpoint, but from what little I read, some of the citizen's secrets were described there and I felt like I should not read on. I thus steadfastly avoided the article on Magnamar in Issue #2 and read only the article on Desna (which was very good, thanks!).
I found the Sandpoint article to only really have spoilers in the last paragraph or two. I considered the insight into the people themselves to be a very easy gather information check during the festival at most. There may be a few tidbits that a local won't tell you, at least until you get a few drinks into them..
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I found the Sandpoint article to only really have spoilers in the last paragraph or two.
This is my point exactly. How is one to know the degree and placement of spoilers until it is too late? I know this viewpoint may be somewhat extreme, but after having read all there was to read on SC, AoW, ST and the Gamemastery modules, I am really hoping to see an AP unfold before me without all the prior knowledge. I have DM'd for so long that I relish every moment I get to sit in the player's seat without a clue as to what is going to happen next and where each lead will take us.
I considered the insight into the people themselves to be a very easy gather information check during the festival at most. There may be a few tidbits that a local won't tell you, at least until you get a few drinks into them.
Alas, our group has no rogue and no one has invested overmuch in this skill. Thus a great deal of what might be uncovered in this way and considered 'common knowledge' remains dark to us.
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I guess the amount of knowledge a PC has about the people of Sandpoint depends on if he is local. If he lived there for at least a few months and showed interrest in the social life, he would probably know everything in the Sandpoint section of PF#1, save for a few "background" info that is only for the DM.
For my game, I asked that all PCs not be locals of Sandpoint, so that they discovered it while they were there. To have this discovery happen, I had a teen native of Sandpoint offer himself to do a guided tour of Sandpoint on the first day after the goblin attack. During that tour, I handed every PC a map of the town with the list of all 50 important buildings detailed in the Sandpoint section. The guide gave them a few bits about Sandpoint history (foundation, 4 families, late unpleasantness). I organised the list of locations by subject, so that all taverns were grouped, all advanturers' stores were togetter, etc.
For the following days they spend in Sandpoint, every time they went to a tavern or decided to go around town and speak with the people, I had them roll Gather Info checks DC 10 (so absolutely no need to have spent point in it to succeed...). And every time they made the check, I handed them a few "rumors" they heard and "situations" they came into during that day. I had 30 rumors/situations to hand, based on everything that's said in the Sandpoint section of PF#1. What was fun is that many were useless bits of information, while some were definitely useful for the near future, and others seemed useful while they were absolutely useless. So they had quite an interresting roleplaying time deciding what was worth their attention, and what was not! And they met almost all people of interrest during their stay!
You could tell that to your DM, if you feel like you have spend a lot of time in Sandpoint but know nothing crunchy about the people living there so far.
Sounds like you put together some useful tools there, Djoc. Any chance you'd be willing to post as aids for others?
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Sounds like you put together some useful tools there, Djoc. Any chance you'd be willing to post as aids for others?
I would gladly share that work. Unfortunately, all that stuff is written in French, so I guess of limited interrest here :( I could still post it if there were requests, or even better, send it by e-mail, as this is a Word document of almost 10 pages.