Runelords or Crimson Throne? Help?

[Host of Angels]

I just finished my last campaign (Age of Worms) and am trying to decide which to go for next - Runelords or Crimson Throne.

I want to run something where the emphasis is not on the Hack and Slash. Age of Worms was far too dungeon crawly for my liking and I would like the next campaign to be more investigative and involve more role playing. From what I have read Crimson Throne may be the way to go. Is this the case?

However, the players are champing at the bit, baying for new characters and new challenges - and Crimson Throne does not start until Feb. A month of gaming withdrawal symptoms could be dangerous. Are there any Gamesmastery modules suited to being run before part one of Crimson Throne? And how would that work given that the players guide is not available?

Alternatively - how about a one off to kill time till Feb? Any suggestions on sutable modules?

Thanks

[James Jacobs]

There will indeed be a lot more diplomacy/politics/investigation/urban stuff in Curse of the Crimson Throne, but that's not to say there won't also be a lot of combat as well. But overall, yeah, we're going for less hack & slash in Crimson Throne than we had in Runelords (which, itself, had several sections that WEREN'T hackfests , just for the record).

One thing to keep in mind is that Crimson Throne expects the players to be 1st level when they begin. Even moreso than Burnt Offerings. Crimson Throne has a sort of "built in" pre-campaign adventure designed to give the new PCs a chance to meet and work together and go on a short adventure to bind them together as a group before the campaign's main plot begins.

Using a GameMastery module as a one-off sounds like the perfect solution.

[MrVergee]

James Jacobs wrote:

One thing to keep in mind is that Crimson Throne expects the players to be 1st level when they begin. Even moreso than Burnt Offerings. Crimson Throne has a sort of "built in" pre-campaign adventure designed to give the new PCs a chance to meet and work together and go on a short adventure to bind them together as a group before the campaign's main plot begins.

Nice to hear. It's exactly this kind of thing that I like in my campaigns.

[ericthecleric]

> Alternatively - how about a one off to kill time till Feb? Any suggestions on sutable modules?

Since you have the AoW AP, you should remember that there are other adventures in those Dungeon issues. You could try those, or adventures from any other issues of Dungeon that you have. There are quite a few mini-APs you could use, as well.

[Billzabub]

On that note, I've been thinking about trying a game w/ Fantasy Grounds with some friends that haven't played in a long time. In case the logistics are tough to work out long term to run the whole series, which of the two APs has a first adventure that better lends itself to a one shot?

And thanks, James, for suggesting the sequel to The Descent as a good read. You may remember I was reluctant to give it a shot because of some of the reviews, but I did pick it up. Although not quite as good as the original, it was still good fun.

[Salama]

I finished my Age of Worms campaign a few months ago, and we're halfway through Skinsaw murders in Rise of the Runelords. We all enjoyed Age of worms, but there was very little actual roleplaying. I think Runelords have lots of opportunities for roleplaying, our first session of Burnt offerings (about 6 hours) didn't involve any combat besides the goblin raid. Of course this might turn into more hack&slash in Hook mountain massacre and the rest of the campaign, but so far I'm liking it lot more than AoW. AoW was also good, but this one has a lot more room to play as written. Also in the Age of Worms the most hack&slash happened after level 15, where this one doesn't go.

[Host of Angels]

James - your words are music to my ears. To be honest my all time favourite game is Call of Cthulhu where the idea of actually getting involved in a combat is sheer madness. However, most of my group are monogamously D&D players. And between you, me and the rest of the board I do enjoy a little hack fest once in a while.

As to the suggestion of using the other scenarios in the Dungeon magazines that came with the Age of Worms scenarios (EricThe Cleric) - well, I sliced the AoW stuff out, perused the rest and then dumped it. Sacrilege? Possibly...

So - can anyone suggest a good one shot scenario, to run for maybe 4 sessions (of 3 to 4 hours), level 1 to about 7 and that has pregen characters included?

Ta

[evilvolus]

Host of Angels wrote:

So - can anyone suggest a good one shot scenario, to run for maybe 4 sessions (of 3 to 4 hours), level 1 to about 7 and that has pregen characters included?

Wow, that's a mighty tall order. You want half a Pathfinder AP's worth of leveling, pregenerated characters, and you want to run it in a month of evenings?

I think any one of the GMMs is likely to take you at least a few week's sessions, but it's not going to have your guys leveling twice every evening.

If you guys are some sort of crazy D&D ninjas and really need a supermodule in order to last a month, there's always Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave from WOTC. That goes from 4th-8th. I flipped through it in the bookstore and it seemed okay at a glance, though it featured a black dragon named Despayr, or something equally ridiculous.

[SterlingEdge]

Host of Angels wrote:

I just finished my last campaign (Age of Worms) and am trying to decide which to go for next - Runelords or Crimson Throne.

I want to run something where the emphasis is not on the Hack and Slash. Age of Worms was far too dungeon crawly for my liking and I would like the next campaign to be more investigative and involve more role playing. From what I have read Crimson Throne may be the way to go. Is this the case?

However, the players are champing at the bit, baying for new characters and new challenges - and Crimson Throne does not start until Feb. A month of gaming withdrawal symptoms could be dangerous. Are there any Gamesmastery modules suited to being run before part one of Crimson Throne? And how would that work given that the players guide is not available?

Alternatively - how about a one off to kill time till Feb? Any suggestions on sutable modules?

Thanks

GameMastery Module D0 - Free PDF even.

http://paizo.com/store/paizoExclusives/v5748btpy7xpy&source=search

GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King
http://paizo.com/store/downloads/gameMasteryModules/v5748btpy7wix

These adventures shouldnt yeild too much xp, even if they do I am running a set of 4th lvl players through RotRL, just tweak the monsters a bit. Works out well. To offset the XP difference to try and catch the campaign up to my PCs level I awarded them a "Noble Level" instead of XP (Ref Kobold Quarterly #2 for a huge write up on this)

--"The first level of Aristocrat is fairly
butch; it provides +1d8 hit points, four
skill points, and a +2 on the Will save."

Or there are the quickie adventures like:
GameMastery Encounter: Terror in the Chamber of Pain
http://paizo.com/store/sale/paizo/v5748btpy7uwc
There only 2 bucks at the moment.

[Wicht]

The Kalamar Coin Trilogy hits the levels you want using three modules. I don't know you would finish all three in 4 sessions though. They involve quite a bit of travel and role playing. They are not, generally speaking, hack and slash.