Hello all. Since my Age of Worms game ended, I'm about to take up the mantle of Rise of the Runelords. I like the setting from everything I've read thus far, but I'm curious as to how much information to give the players regarding the previous age.
I know I have access to info about Thassilon, the Runelords, etc. and some of that is purposefully vague, but what would the standard young adventurer know. Are the Runelords boogeymen that parents use to frighten their children, or is it all mysterious with a faltering oral tradition akin to Earthdawn?
If someone can point me to a good source I may have overlooked, that would be great.
Knowing anything at all about them is a DC 35 check (of Knowledge: History or bardic knowledge or whatever), so first-level characters aren't likely to know anything at all about ten-thousand-year-old stuff. I'd tell them that they can read the player's guide, and leave it at that (at least as far as ancient Thassilon is concerned).
Somebody on another thread complained that 5 out of six of his players took Ancient Thassilonian as a language.
Bad idea in my opinion. When one of my players asked about it, I said no. End of discussion.
I think the AP will work much better if most Thassilonian lore is a slow reveal.
Part of the problem is that the Player's Guide was written really early in the process. I think it might conflict around the edges a bit with what is becoming canon as the rest of the books are published.
You could always just adjust your adventurers by explaining that the player's guide only really contains common information and then alter the bits you feel they shouldn't know about if its mentioned in the guide.
At the moment I'm looking at running it under runequest rules since I can't get the rest of the group interested in playing d&d 3.5, even Eberron so I appreciate this thread since this wasn't something I was considering but I would have to provide the players some background information...
Of course that means Ducks are replacing the halflings and the half orcs I might have to replace with Trollkin to keep that evil side of the campaign (I am starting with Falcon's Hollow after all...)
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According to the latest Pathfinder
So you should definitely keep them in the dark until then, so that what they learn becomes an exciting reward.
According to the latest Pathfinder ** spoiler omitted **
Thanks for the replies. I was blazing through the material and overlooked exactly how long ago that empire flourished. I do want to find a way to emphasize the themes of the seven sins in the campaign, so I'll look around for details on that.
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I put together a "player-safe" version of the Thassilon article. Turn out it takes half of one MsWord page in size 12, so there's realy not that much that can be said.
I gave that knowledge only to one of my player, one who took a lot of knowledge skills and other lore related feats/abilities, as well as building a background that gave me a good reason why she would know that. So I wanted to reward her for her efforts.
I also warned her: that knowledge is very obscure and all common people know only fairy/horror tales about that time, most of it unaccurate and being joked about. That meant that using that knowledge too much in social situations (even in Roleplaying with other adventurers in her party), could bring her to be seen as a little crazy, or just being ignored by the common people. The way Quink is seen in Sandpoint was my inspiration.
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According to the latest Pathfinder ** spoiler omitted **Thanks for the replies. I was blazing through the material and overlooked exactly how long ago that empire flourished. I do want to find a way to emphasize the themes of the seven sins in the campaign, so I'll look around for details on that.
also: we have been told that traps and encounters in "sins of the Saviors" will be keyed to the sins, so it is to your benefit to keep a tally of actions each PC makes that can be considered each of the sins. that is our extent on the knowledge on this subject I believe, but there are many times the many pointed star shows up and that random encounters point to certain sins.
Without taking any knowledge skills or having ranks in Lore, my take was that an adventurer would only know that Varisia is filled with old relics/ ruins, and that they were remnants of the Thassilonian empire. The citizens of Sandpoint have built their city by one such relic they believe to be an old Lighthouse although the local nutjob runs around town barking about it being a war engine that can spit fireballs at the moon and cure common ailments if you can crumble the stones into a tea. At night some folks claim to have seen Quink among the ruins shovelling dirt in his hair and talking to himself. When ever anyone makes a mistake in town, they apologize by saying they were only trying to do what Quink would do in their shoes and laugh it off.