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I know it's really a matter or DM discretion, but I was curious if there was a certain time frame that the AP would end? It starts in Autumn, roughly August right? So does it stretch into November/December-ish?
Reason I'm asking is that one of my players had a bit of *ehem* fun with Aldern the night after the boar hunt.
Now I want her to be carrying his child, but would she even notice she's pregnant by the time the AP is over? And since she's playing an elf, any idea how long it would take an elf to realize she was pregnant?
If this has been answered before, please point me in the right direction.
Thanks
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I know it's really a matter or DM discretion, but I was curious if there was a certain time frame that the AP would end? It starts in Autumn, roughly August right? So does it stretch into November/December-ish?
Reason I'm asking is that one of my players had a bit of *ehem* fun with Aldern the night after the boar hunt.
Now I want her to be carrying his child, but would she even notice she's pregnant by the time the AP is over? And since she's playing an elf, any idea how long it would take an elf to realize she was pregnant?
If this has been answered before, please point me in the right direction.
Thanks
Trust me, the time frame of the AP is the LAST thing you'll be worrying about... >_>o
Here's me thoughts. According to the Complete Book of Elves from 2nd Edition, I believe the gestation period for an elf is one year. Depending on how "in tune" the elf in question is with her own body (a Heal check should suffice for a skill check), she'll notice either immediately (as in the first month), or within the first trimester (trimester in this case being 4 months).
Creative Director
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The basic idea for all of our Pathfinder Adventure Paths is that, in game, they take about 6 months to pass. That way, the campaign and real time more or less stay in sync, and it's easier to track what year it is in the game and all that.
But that said... we aren't building much in the way of time into the campaigns. We'll probably nail down start dates now and then (like I did in Burnt Offerings), and individual adventures might now and then have sections on timers, but overall, the amount of time that passes in game is up to the GM. That way, GMs who can't stomach the idea of a 20-year-old archmage can stretch it out so that a campaign runs over sevearal decades, for example.
Extending the campaign out by an extra 9 months is certainly doable. Of course... the gestation period of a half elf is ? Elves in our world DO have pretty long gestation periods, I suspect, since there's a theory floating around that they take a LONG time to populate. Something to do with their long lifespans, I believe.
What a rare oppportunity you have there, Alric. I've not seen RotRL #2 yet, but I undersand Aldern has a pretty significant role to play in it and the idea of having a PC discover she's carrying his child is too rich to pass up.
Unless the Skinsaw Murders needs to take place within days of Burnt Offerings, I'd suggest you take some liberties and allow a few months to pass between the two. That way your player's elf would know she was pregnant and know who the father was *before* she cons to Aldern's fate in the Skinsaw Murders.
Again, that's without any personal knowledge of how Skinsaw unfolds, but if this is at all possible, I think it's worth the effort.
According to the Book of Erotic Fantasy, an elf has a gestation period of 24 months. I don't know if it takes a shorter time if it's an half-elf in the belly. Maybe 24+9/2 = 16 months? No matter how long you decide the pregnancy takes, play up the fact that Aldern is the father. But bear in mind that a pregnancy might impose difficulties for female adventurers.
Let us know how it goes!
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Races of the Wild, which I believe constitutes about as official a source as exists for any version of 3rd Edition, says that elven gestation is 9 months, "just as humans and other similarly sized creatures" have (pg 13). It also suggests that elves reach physical maturity at age 25, though, and could therefore go adventuring about 75 years sooner than the PHB would suggest, so I imagine there is some room to argue about the wisdom of using RotW's figures.
Races of the Wild is totally whacked out as far as the whole 'elven maturity' thing goes. Physical Maturity at 25, but not mentally mature until the ages listed in the PHB. WTF! RoW is an odd book. Its also completely contradictory to anything else ever published about elves in D&D.
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Races of the Wild is totally whacked out as far as the whole 'elven maturity' thing goes. Physical Maturity at 25, but not mentally mature until the ages listed in the PHB. WTF! RoW is an odd book. Its also completely contradictory to anything else ever published about elves in D&D.
It actually specifies mental maturity alongside physical maturity, at 25. The delay seems to come from something more like emotional maturity, for lack of a better word; it says that the PHB ages are when "many elf adventurers feel ready to leave their forests and roam the world outside for a time." Which is not really to defend the overall idea, but it is (mostly) internally consistent, at least...
Okay, maybe it does specifically go into seperating between 'mental' and 'emotional' maturity. I don't have it in front of me, nor do I really intend to look. Either way, it just seemed very odd.
Not to pick a fight or anything, but this has always been something that's bugged me about D&D non-human races, particularily the core ones. They borrow so heavily from Tolkien, but desperately want to hide the fact. Thus, you wind up with long-lived elves, 'cuz Tolkien elves were long lived (actually, they were immortal, but nevermind that).
But more importantly (and less snarkily), because they're trying to imitate Tolkien elves inside a system of rules, they're forced to quantify things that were never necessarily meant to be spelled out. And people wind up trying to figure out if the race matures at the same rate as a human, or if it takes a proportionally longer time to reach adulthood.
This was something I liked about 3.x -- they did some work to de-Tolkienize the races. Now, under 3.x rules, halflings look like hobbits, but act like gypsies. Gnomes actually behave more like hobbits, and are the D&D race that builds their homes in holes in the ground.
Usually in my D&D games, I get rid of one or more races (and add others). Frequently I toss halflings (and usually half-elves and half-orcs with them).
I'm working on a idea for a homebrew world where humans became so dominant, they actually destroyed most of the other monstrous humanoid races, and enslaved the elves and dwarves. I just thinking about real humans one day, and how they would behave if dropped in a world with all these other races, and I decided this was one of the most likely outcomes (given the parameters of the other races).
I think I'm going to use the racial stats for elves and dwarves as written, except for the ages. I've decided that elves and dwarves are so far removed now from their original states, that they no longer have such long life spans, but ones much closer to human life spans.
One funky fix for the Halfling/Hobbit problem. Kender ^_^
One funky fix for the Halfling/Hobbit problem. Kender ^_^
Yeah - the problem is that brings in more problems then it solves, Reading about 'borrowing' in a novel is fun. Having one character 'rob' another is a recipe for violence or at least anger.
Yeah - the problem is that brings in more problems then it solves, Reading about 'borrowing' in a novel is fun. Having one character 'rob' another is a recipe for violence or at least anger.
Oh believe me I know...I actually tried running a Dragonlance game years ago. I never should have trusted my players. They showed up to the first game with a party of 7 Kender...ALL KENDERS!
I pretty much cried.
Getting back to the original question... my campaign seems to be going a little too fast. I'm almost done with the first installment and less than a week has transpired. Everytime I try to slow them down they resist or out and out rebel wanting to get to the next part of the story line.
I haven't had time to read the second installment yet but I hope time slows down or rather the time between events increases.
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Creative Director
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Getting back to the original question... my campaign seems to be going a little too fast. I'm almost done with the first installment and less than a week has transpired. Everytime I try to slow them down they resist or out and out rebel wanting to get to the next part of the story line.
I haven't had time to read the second installment yet but I hope time slows down or rather the time between events increases.
Well... if the players are resisting slow downs, my advice is to not slow things down.
There are a few places in the adventure where time DOES slow down a bit, especially in some long overland travel sections between locations throughout Varisia, and between adventrues is a great time to slow down and advance time a few weeks or months or years, depending on your preference. All six adventures are constructed so that there's a bit of wiggle room there, timewise.
But overall if the PCs are having a good time wiht a faster pace... I say go for it!
Well... if the players are resisting slow downs, my advice is to not slow things down.There are a few places in the adventure where time DOES slow down a bit, especially in some long overland travel sections between locations throughout Varisia, and between adventrues is a great time to slow down and advance time a few weeks or months or years, depending on your preference. All six adventures are constructed so that there's a bit of wiggle room there, timewise.
But overall if the PCs are having a good time wiht a faster pace... I say go for it!
Thank you for the advice! They are definitely having a good time. In fact, I think this the best time they've had in quite a while and we're all grizzled veterans of at least 15 years of RP'ing under our belts.
I guess I just won't worry about it and let it flow naturally. Thanks again!
The basic idea for all of our Pathfinder Adventure Paths is that, in game, they take about 6 months to pass. That way, the campaign and real time more or less stay in sync, and it's easier to track what year it is in the game and all that.
I really love what I've seen of Pathfinder thus far. But I must confess that I really hate the idea of characters going from levels 1-15+ in the space of 6 months, which has been a problem with all the adventure paths thus far.
I know, I know... if I don't like it, it's up to me to fix it. But to stretch out a campaign that is supposed to have some built-in time pressures from 6 months to a decade or more of game time can be... challenging... Still one of 3.5's biggest flaws, IMO...
But to stretch out a campaign that is supposed to have some built-in time pressures from 6 months to a decade or more of game time can be... challenging... Still one of 3.5's biggest flaws, IMO...
That's not a flaw of 3.5, that's a flaw of us wanting Adventure Paths with ever-building plotlines. We ask for an interconnectedness between adventures and that's usually represented by having one adventure provide the hook leading into the next one.
I'd love to see it done otherwise 'cause frankly I'd like to see some character maturation at the same time I'm seeing level gain. The question then becomes - what do you have the PCs do during this off time?
I'd love to see it done otherwise 'cause frankly I'd like to see some character maturation at the same time I'm seeing level gain. The question then becomes - what do you have the PCs do during this off time?
If I might throw a few ideas out there...
There can be plenty of character maturation in Sandpoint. There is no end of things to do. Not the least of which is a trip to Magnimar to check on Amele Barett, and report the results of Chapter One in an order to seek some closure... Besides, if you have a group that is "less than standard" in makeup, you are going to have a group that will want to trade in all their treasure for more "likable" items. And that requires leaving Sandpoint for a time.
Yes, it is work. But what I have seen of RotRL so far can be stretched out.
I'd love to see it done otherwise 'cause frankly I'd like to see some character maturation at the same time I'm seeing level gain. The question then becomes - what do you have the PCs do during this off time?
That's up to the PCs' creativity to decide. Let's try to divide up a 15th level adventure path into three parts.
Level 1-5 takes a couple of months. Then we have a two-year break. Meanwhile, the cleric might be appointed as the high cleric in a small village, the fighter might start working for the town guard, the rogue is entangled in the local thieves' guild (maybe he's in jail for two years?) and the wizard is busy researching a way he can free his long lost mentor, currently being trapped in the Far Realms.
Then, something happens, which spurs the old companions to go adventuring again. Some old foe rears his head, an invading army etc.
Level 6-10 also takes a couple of months. Now, the adventurers are more powerful, and could do a variety of things. The cleric decides to build his own church in a city where his deity has no presence. The fighter is now a captain in the army, and is busy with wars elsewhere. The rogue plots and schemes and takes control of the local thieves' guild (maybe taking revenge on the person who framed him all those years ago?) and the wizard marries his sweetheart and spends his time tutoring apprentices.
Fast-forward 4 or 5 years, and the final phase of the path begins. Once again, the old friends must unite to stop the dangerous machinations of the mad wizard who has been the mastermind from the beginning. Maybe it's the wizard's mentor, his mind warped from the Far Realms?
I still see this as a campaign model I desperately want to play. Feels a little Star Wars-esque to me.
Some spot-on ideas there, Trellian. To be honest, I wouldn't want to roleplay my players through the busy-work sessions like what Disenchanter offers (sorry, Dis), I can see these models of 'social adventuring' being done as blog posts or play-by-mail.
You don't need everyone around the table to have the cleric be offered a position in the cathedral. That can all be done by email or what-have-you. Over the course of a week or two, the character has grown in position, seen his character develop, and discovered that there's more to Golarion than killing things and taking their stuff.
The only thing an Adventure Path needs to make this work is adventures that stop at the end but provide the hooks for the next adventure. Better yet, if those hooks require some research on the part of the PCs, that's an instant off-camera time-passer right there.