Hi guys.
I have DM'ed only a very little with 3.x and am preparing to run Rise of the Rune Lords. Amongst other things i will be fleshing out all named NPC's and writing additional encounters to give my three person group the slight exp boost i would imagin they will need to stay ahead of the experience curve on the adventure.
Any advice that you can give about running burnt offerings would be Much appreciated.
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My players are just nearing the end of that chapter, likely to finish this weekend so I can tell you what I've learned...
With that in mind, you may wish to start the campaign a bit before the swallowtail festival. Not necessarily very long, but enough to give the PCs a reason to care about the town even before the goblins attack. If the PCs are already residents of town, so much the better.
I'm guessing that since you said you haven't DMed 3.x much, that you have DMed other systems a fair amount, and so you are likely looking for some help with some of the crunch issues since the fluff tends to be similar across all systems.
The above poster mentioned the quasit being a boring battle for some people, that was quite the opposite for my group. They pretty much picked the most direct path they could to her, and I hadn't run any sort of side adventures for them yet(and they are a bit bigger then expected) so they were still first level when they encountered her and found themselves mostly unable to harm her past her DR and fast heal(no real ranged fighters, and a wizard who didn't come in there with any spells. sigh.) This led to an exciting battle for them, they would take little harm from her small weapons, but could do little back. It ended up being a matter of strategy. The druid summoned a hawk which managed to grab her and pull her to the ground in the one round it was there, letting the rest of the party jump it. Ended up being a great moment.
On the other side of things, there are a couple of spots that can be surprisingly dangerous. Depending on how many villians your party lets flee to her, Nualia can be suprisingly dangerou and Malfeshnekor can be a killer, though if need be the party can fall back from him and he can't follow.
Also, and this may sound stupid, the bridge to thistletop can be very dangerous. If the players don't send just one or two people across to scout(or those people don't notice the weakened support on the other side) when they try and move across, it can be a killer. The fall is long, and though its into water it still does a good chunk of damage(in my game, two fell(the one in back made her save) and one was put unconscious by the fall and the other couldn't swim in armor). If you only have three players, that means if all three step on it at once, you could be a reflex save away from all three starting to drown. And of course thats assuming that you play nice and don't have the bunyip come out and investigate the noise.
Over all, this module is great for just getting people into the feel of the world. If you can, read through all the adventures before starting and play up NPCs who don't have an appearance for quite some time right from the beginning. Make sure to emphasize the goblins comical menace, as far more frightening(and creepy) evils will be spotlighted in later books.
Above it all, make sure you know your players and have fun.
-Tarlane.
It sounds like the specific advice is pretty much covered. Also, if you hunt around in here, there are a number of posts along the lines of "I just finished Burnt Offerings and here are my thoughts." You might give those a browse. I would give you some more general advice though.
If you know your players well, make sure you focus primarily on developing only those things that your players will pursue.
There's nothing more frustrating than spending hours developing plot, characters and backstory for a town and all your players want to do is sell treasure and re-equip before heading back to the dungeon.
Also, it's a little embarrassing when you've spent all your prep time on monster combat strategy and your players are trying to get involved with the finer points of city politics. I've had things go both ways.
I have a lot of experience with other systems, (Mage both ascention/awakening, orpheus, Call of cthulhu, C.P.2020, WFRP to list just a few) so i am ok with the core stuff.
However, 3.5 is from a crunch and to a certain extent fluff(god i hate that term, it makes setting material sound unimportant.) point of view daunting. I have run a little bit of eberon and found it relatively enjoyable.
As for my group, i have only really played with one of them before, but i suspect i have two or three months worth of prep time for this.
I have the skinsaw murders as well, is it worth having the rest of the adventure path before getting seriously started into the preperation?
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I would say yes on the rest of the adventure path. Not only so you can see what NPCs and the like become more prevalent(and because if you buy Pett's module but not Logue's you could be tipping the precarious balance of their 'who is creepier' war to one side), but because there is a lot of general world information in each module. Whether its information about ruins or dragons or lamashtu or the like, it really adds a lot to the setting.
With that said, I would actually recommend picking up PF #7 as well, even if you aren't fully planning on running that module(or at least not for a long time). It has an article on Varisia that is great for players and DMs.
-Tarlane