So far as I've said in other threads, I LOVE ROTRL...i haven't DMed since early high school, 14 or so years ago, and it has been a blast. We just played for the 3rd time this weekend, and FINALLY got through PF#1--although they stumbled right into nualia and barely took her out, then the rest of lv 2 seemed kind of anticlimactic. Not to mention by that time it was 12:30 am...
I am surprised it took 3 full daylong sessions to get through # 1...how long has it taken you all? We go noon-midnight usually, with about 2 hours worth of total breaks, dinner, etc...so that's 30 hours for one book...am I abnormally slow?
Session # 1 went from start--walking into the glassworkd
#2-from there to right before gogmurt
#3-from there to end...
your experiences?
My group is slow, but we meet bi-weekly.. from 4 pm to 9 pm (once till 10 PM)
We've gone six sessions, and they've killed Nualia, and just walked into Malfshknor's room- where I cut to next week.
There was a lot of role-playing though, because that's my thing. Lots of complicated interactions with the townsfolk. And, I was rusty with the rules, fortunately I have some game mechanic savants in my group who never cheat- so we don't get bogged down looking too much stuff up.
If I had my druthers, I'd like to have finished Chapter One last Saturday, but I wouldn't spoil their pace.
I do think Chapter Two will go a great deal faster, because they already know a lot of people in town, and those relationships are in place. There's just something abiout Chapter Two that looks like it will go faster than Chapter One or Three.
6 sessions would be about 30 hours of time on your schedule, which is = to mine...and if i hadn't said 'screw it' to the rest of lv 2 (the hermit crab and shadows, basically) i'd prolly be right where you are-good to know!
My party's encounter w/ Malfie was PRICELESS-have a gnome ranger obsessed with mysteries/thassalonian stuff, malfie actually appealed to her curiosity to the point where he got her to come RIGHT up next to him, EVEN AFTER the party had figured out he couldn't get out of the room, and eventually took a huge chunk out of her
Every group is different but I think your well within normal. Maybe slightly on the long side but I suspect thats really more to do with working out the kinks in not having DMed in a long time.
We've played for 6 sessions (24 hours total) and the party just killed Ripnugget. We're not slow at combat though, just roleplay, so I'm guessing we'll finish the module either next session or the one after that.
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My group kicked through it in three sessions. The first was about 12 hours that got us through the catacombs and the other two were about 6 each (top of thistletop, two basements). However, I didn't add a lot of extra stuff in town, my players are all very familiar and quick with combat and we have two characters that seem to mess things up. The gnome beguiler color sprayed through most of the goblins and blinded nualia on the first round before she got to act and the halfling druid on her giant gecko made quick work of some other encounters (running through the bramble walls, shooting the bunyip from the ceiling and using summonings and wild empathy to chase the giant crab away). I can't wait to throw undead at them.
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Our group usually plays about once a month but we play 12 to 14 hours at a stretch.
After two sessions they were finished with the 2nd level of Thistletop and about to go to the 3rd. My group did not take out any of the tougher folks the first time around except the Bugbear. So they were all waiting together after the group set off the trap in the hallway.
At the third session the group finished up the adventure in a couple of hours (30 hours is probably about right) and were off to solve the Skinsaw Murders without too much delay to get it together.
In the third session (which ran about 16 hours - I was beat but they did not want to stop) the group finished Thisletop - got to the Foxglove Mansion and finished off Foxglove. We stopped right after he went down...
In the fourth session they cleaned up things at the mansion. Went back to Sandpoint to regroup and then off to Magnimar. They actually finished Chapter two that session. It was also a good night and that session was probably only 12 or 13 hours.
Next session will be off to Hook Mountain. They have already accepted the assignment and are working our their travelling arrangements.
I go to a school that gives VERY short breaks (3 weeks for summer, 2 for winter and 4 days for Thanksgiving), so I try to cram in marathon 14-15 hour sessions during each session during these breaks. This Thanksgiving, the players made their characters and fought off the goblin raid for the first session. The next session took them through the Glassworks and the Catacombs, and the last session (the day before I drove to school), I took them through the thistles where they've just encountered Gogmurt. (We stopped at a cliffhanger, where the PCs hear menacing growling and the Birdcruncher goblin who they took prisoner wet his pants as he silently mouthed: "Gogmurt is gonna' eats us.")
My player and I play at least once a week, which means it's Friday for 2 to 2&1/2 hours. If we play again on the weekend, we sometimes can add in another 3 to maybe 5 hours. Since the AP became available as PDF, I've been running them close to the schedule of subsequent pathfinders each month (I've had to insert homebrew stuff to make the two month gap between pathfinders work.). At the moment, I actually have one part left, and may actually get the next Pathfinder before completing the previous one (Although, as suggested, I added in other encounters in the Shimmerglens.).
I think, however, that the primary factor regarding the speed of our play comes from having just a single player. There's no party discussion when decisions need to be made.
We have played 5 sessions (at about 3 hours per session, so 15 hours or so total playing time) and the group just took out the goblin druid, and are about to brave the bridge to thistletop. (they completly explored the cavern's of wrath and defeated the quasit before they decided to venture toward thistletop).
We play 4 to 5 hours sessions, after the 4th session they just arrived to Thistletop and we stopped. But i add a lot of background plot for PCs to spice the town and integrate the PCs better into the main plot.
Ha, it looks like a lot of us are about to fight Gogmurt. I hope the poor goblin can manage all these heroes taking on all of his alternate incarnations in alternate Varisias in alternate campaigns.
Thanks for the feedback-looks like our group isn't as pokey as I had feared :)
Just the information I was looking for. So, by my calculations he first module takes about 30 hours of play - which is 8 four-hour sessions. Or two months of weekly play.
Thanks for the info....
Our 1st session was last weekend. In about 5 hours, we covered the festival and the 3 goblin fights.
I guess we're the pokey group. We've had seven four-hour sessions and we've just finished part two (out of four) of volume one. To be fair, I started the game about a week before the Swallowtail festival, so that would take some extra time.
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Right now I am running Burnt Offerings and have broken the book into parts, that I am calling episodes. This is due to me being a Heroes fan.
Episode 1: This entailed the Swallowtail Festival attack to the Galssworks.
Episode 2: This entailed the Cavern of Wrath along with some role playing, shopping and
Episode 3: This will start this next game session with the party going to Thistletop. I am hoping that they can get themselves to the end of it all, but I am not worried. I can add an extra episode for the dungeons.
My group usually plays for about 10 hours a game and we break for diner, for the nicotine addicts and for the big combat set-ups, if they have the time to set up.
We have played 5 sessions (at about 3 hours per session, so 15 hours or so total playing time) and the group just took out the goblin druid, and are about to brave the bridge to thistletop. (they completly explored the cavern's of wrath and defeated the quasit before they decided to venture toward thistletop).
Well, 2 sessions (about 6 hours later) my players have completly cleared the stockade atop thistletop, and after going down the back stairs they surprised and killed the mage while she was hunched over the table studdying an ancient piece of bas relief... I figure it will take them anouther 2 (or maybe 3 sessions) to finish thistletop and get back to Sandpoint putting our playtime of the first module at 27-30 hours... roughly the same amount of time as it took the initial poster.
For $15/month, getting 30 hours per issue of gaming quality this good is a steal :)