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What foreshadowing would you have placed in the earlier adventures? What insertions would you make to make the storyline more cohesive and the story feel more "real" if that is the word?
I have about a month before I start RotRL for my group but my schedule is pretty crazy and I would deffinately like to take advantage of everyone else's experiences with the AP.
Thanks
Tam
I am just about to finish up Sins of the Saviors, and I am regretting
I would recommend increasing the visibility of this element from an earlier point in the campaign.
O
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I am just about to finish up Sins of the Saviors, and I am regretting ** spoiler omitted **
I would recommend increasing the visibility of this element from an earlier point in the campaign.O
Suggestions on how you would do such a thing... I have a number of ways like the players from some old scripture/writings about different runelords, the fortune telling Varisian in the group begins to see visions of the past and future, etc... what/ how would you do it?
Suggestions on how you would do such a thing... I have a number of ways like the players from some old scripture/writings about different runelords, the fortune telling Varisian in the group begins to see visions of the past and future, etc... what/ how would you do it?
I'd let them find the short blurb on Karzoug and the guy who lost 1 cp fromt he treasury (IIRC it's in Karzoug's writeup in Spires of Xin Shalast).
That's not the kind of guy you want running things I think!
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A few things I have done or would have done differently.
* I gave the Paladin a vision from her godess, Iomedae. She saw a dark army of giants and snake-women descending upon Varisia.
* I would have named the Brothers of the Seven something different. When the characters are starting to get wise to the concept of the runewells and the Sihedron rune, having an group coincidently named 'the Seven' is just a messy red herring.
* Xenesha, in her dying breath, cursed one of the characters (little curse, not big curse). She invoked Karzoug's name. This was of course all in Thassilonian. It will take the character some time to sort it out.
* I would have detailed the Catacombs of Wrath and the last rooms in Thistletop more carefully. There's almost nothing in the descriptive text that expresses the bizarre antiquity of Thassilon. 10,000 years is a long time, magical preservation or not.
* The next time the characters find coins in some Thassilonian ruin, it's going to have Karzoug's face stamped on it.
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I tossed a skull-ripper into Skull's crossing, beyond Wet Papa's blocked door. because 1. it explained why no one else found the place in 10000 years; 2. it's an awesome monster, and I wanted to use it somewhere.
But, I really played up the encounter. The PCs entered a collumned room, with a golden sarcophagus at one end. Strewn about on the floor, so old as to crumble to dust at their footfalls, are bodies. dozens of bodies. and each one is missing one thing: it's head.
Inscribed on one of the walls was a complicated pictogram. I drew out something stylized and hiroglyphic, in stick figures. pannel 1: the death of a great lord, and his slaves bearing his body to it's rest. Pannel 2: the construction of a tomb and a giant scorpion-like creature. pannel 3: the placement of the slaves, the body, and the scorpion in the tomb. pannel 4: the awakening of the scorpion. Pannel 5: the harvesting, and the grin of the dead lord.
I just thought it was cool and creepy, and it took a little while for the players to figure it out.
Then, one of them said "oh, it's like in egypt, and a few other places, when a king died they would bury him with all his servants."
Cue the fight with the skullripper.
And, after the fight, another player said
"damn, these people were really f*@#ed up."
So, my advice is to play up exactly how nasty, cruel, and inhumane Thassilon was. make it very, very clear that the wizards who ruled the place were singularly nasty, and one of the head honchos coming back is a very, very bad thing. pointless mass sacrifices to robot scorpions made of bones would be the least of it.
Hi guys, I really like the suggestions you've made so far. I'm planning to acquire RotR #1 the following month, so I'm saving this thread for later analysis.
If you have any other suggestion, especially regarding event foreshadowing or some recommendation about the final chapters of the campaign, please post!
Regards,
ZOOROOS
My party has soft-spoken, sickly cohort that is a favored soul of Pharasma, and has prophetic sendings from the Goddess of Fate.
It started out as a small time NPC that sought them out with warnings, after a fevered sending; but the party sorceror just got leadership and convinced the prophet to tag along. But it could just as easily be a one time (as I originally planned) or even recurring encounter, that unsettles the PCs.
I'm only halfway through the second book with my group, but already there are some things I would do different. My players are largely power gamers with almost non-existent RP. It's hard to get them into the mode of thinking that this adventure path calls for. Not everything is an exp speed bump. Somethings are meant to be killed, others talked to, and others could be let go. Murdering everything that comes your way can be counter productive. Their attitude is largely due to the last few years of gaming being light on plots.
Burnt Offerings
Make sure you players have good backgrounds and ties to the town. Most of my players made traveling adventurers with no living family members. The only one that made a good background is the one I forced to live in town as a trader for the local Shoanti tribe's goods.
Give out the map of the town and a legend of all the numbered locations. It will encourage them to check out a few other locations.
I wished I had spent more time on the various colorful NPC's in the town. I would recommend a lot of benign encounters in town. Flesh out the guards that work for Hemlock and when they go to buy/sell their loot describe shopkeepers such as the armorsmith, alchemist, and magic shop guy. While Hemlock is gone to Magnimar it can be a good time to introduce them to all the big name NPC's.
Dialog for the bad guys could have been better. Tsuto and Nualia didn't get a chance to say much during the fighting, but I would have liked to toss in a few lines to hint at their motivations.
Skinsaw Murders
I didn't spend enough time with the players in town during the murders as I would have liked. The players figured out where the Misgivings were shortly after the Asylum and set out for it right away. If they had spent some more time in town I could have done a few more neat encounters I had planned. There was going to be a chase through the streets that ended with the bad guy diving into the bay to escape. Later there would have been some lynch mob type citizens patrolling the streets at night and causing trouble with their witch hunt.
As per this thread I changed the fight sequence for Aldren so that he talks first and fights later. I had about a page and a half of dialog ready to go but my players ignored him while he was trying to talk and just attacked. I even had him back off during the fight and try to speak. This is one scene where having your players on the same page as you is important.
When the players reach Magnimar, make sure they understand how big and busy it is. My players expected to waltz in and do whatever they wanted, but being new in a huge city makes things tough. They have to hire street urchins to guide them around and show them where all the good shops are. Pickpockets abound everywhere. Their hero status isn't nearly as useful in the big city as it was in a small town, so they have a harder time getting their way all the time. Crime scenes are unavailable to them, they have to report to the head investigator of the watch, and sometimes they're not consulted before a move is made.
The sawmill still to come. I added some short phrases the cultists will say while fighting to add to their creepiness.
I also have a Pharasma priest in my group, and I have given him visions in his dreams of what is coming.
For instance, in his first vision, he saw a 7 pointed medallion waving in fogged air. It was dripping thick blood in a pool of orange light. Something that looked like fire, but without flames. In his vision, he heard deep laughter, and as he turned around, he saw a man with a long black ponytail, and gems in his head, laughing at him.
When the player saw the pool at the quasit, he was sure he had seen that pool before. He recognized the image of Karzoug in the room north of Malfeshnekor. They have come to see the Sihedron as something big is coming their way.
Before they entered Fort Rannick, they were unsure if they really should. It was filled with Ogres, and really, they weren't getting paid (and my group never does anything without getting paid). The priest cast Divination, with the question: "Will we have success if we attack the Fort", while the answer was "Varisia needs the success". One of the first times, they said, okay, we better do this,
With all the other dreams the priest have had, it is clear for them, that something is growing, and it is not for the good of Varisia, and Pharasma has chosen them to avoid it all. (On a thread about deities, I ask JJ about Pharasma and the runewells. When Karzoug is feeding on souls, JJ says, its like dipping on the souls, before they are sent to Pharasmas graveyard. I have changed that, as suggested by JJ, to have the souls consumed by Karzoug, and thereby not going to Pharasma. This makes Pharasma VERY much opposed to Karzoug.)
A last thing to give information is Brodert Quink. However, the players are very displeased with him at the moment, as he simply can't feed them fast enough with information. However, when they return from Hook Mountain, I plan to have Brodert give equal details on all of the 7 runelords.