For example, at the beginning of Burnt Offerings, the players are at a festival in Sandpoint. Am I supposed to tell them all about the speeches and the releasing of the fireflies and the free lunch, or do I just start with them standing out where the goblin attack begins?
This is a playstyle decision. I know some groups start with the PCs arriving at sandpoint days earlier, and then exploring the town.
Other groups simply start with the action.
None is better than the other, and the decision usually comes from how well you know your players. Unfortunately it seems you still don't know their playstyles, so I would reccomend that you choose based on your own confort zone. Would you prefer to have the players explore the town first? Or would you prefer to have them start whacking goblins?
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How much time do you have before you guys begin your first session? And how much time between sessions will you have to prepare for the next session?
If you have very little time before you guys begin then just read "Burnt Offerings" alone and then decide what info you give your Players. It's no biggie if you accidently give too much or too little info when you're first beginning, especially if you don't have as much time to prepare.
If you do have some extra time (and money) go ahead and buy all six Rise of the Runelords adventures and read all of them beforehand. This will give you some long term info for the campaign as a whole; plus, reading more adventures helps you learn to DM.
Also, regardless of how much time you have, read some Threads in the Rise of the Runelords Forum on the Boards. It will definetely help.
Have fun.
Keep us informed; we'll help.
-W. E. Ray
For example, at the beginning of Burnt Offerings, the players are at a festival in Sandpoint. Am I supposed to tell them all about the speeches and the releasing of the fireflies and the free lunch, or do I just start with them standing out where the goblin attack begins?
The Paizo staff and fans here on the boards will be glad to help and advise you, so fire away any time a question occurs to you.
To answer your question above, do you picture your players "hamming up" encounters with the townsfolk? If they enjoy that sort of thing, then make up some interactions with the townsfolk that they'll meet later. Sheriff Hemlock might size them up as potential recruits for the town guard (if they seem trustworthy) or warn them that "We have a decent town here and won't stand for ruffians!" (if they're an unsavory bunch). Shayless might flirt with one of the characters, the Mayor may jovially greet newcomers, Titus Scarnetti may awkwardly bump into someone as he argues with his young and extremely pregnant wife, and Aldern Foxglove is likely to buy drinks for everyone in the tavern (only to nervously count his money afterward).
If they would prefer a more action-packed adventure, skim over the "boring parts" and jump right into the fight. I recommend that you add several more goblins to the opening scene, but keep them occupied with "goblin foolishness": Fighting with other goblins over food, tormenting small animals, climbing things they shouldn't, getting stuck, and starting fires (remember everything's slightly damp, so these fires seldom spread).
Welcome aboard!
Goodness, I wish there were messageboards back when I first picked up that damned boxed set, years ago. As others have already mentioned, there is quite a bit of information about running "Rise of the Runelords" here. I hope you find all the information you need and you find it as addictive as I have.
John Gray
Hello Patrigon, welcome to the boards.
Your questions got me thinking, as I want to run rise of the Runelords but sadly my group is split up right now. However your question got me thinking. This suggestion might be a little much and somewhat slow for a first time GM but it might be well worth it.
Split this up to two or three sessions.
1. Have your players read the Players Primer on ROTRL, then have them make characters using the backgroud information. Ask your players if they have lived in Sandpoint or visting. If they are visiting ask them why. You have two choices at this point, have them know each other or not. As a long time GM I prefere giving my players the freedom of not knowing each other that way they have a free hand at their backgrounds. Being a newer GM I will say simply having them know each other will make things a little eaiser on them.
2. Read the first encounter and information about the town carefully, then split your group into two, divided into locals and visitors. If possible do this in two sessions, if not do it in a seperate room. Locals will be given more information, and may already know key charactes (look to the 2nd adv. if you like). With this information play out everything up to the attack then stop. Do the same with the vistor characters but in this case give them far less information on the town, and next to know about locals. Play out everything leading up to the goblin attack from their point of view.
3. Split up diologue so neither group sees and hears everything written in the advanture. In fact get discriptions of charactes so that you can discribe them to other players without them knowing who that person is, or is even an other player. This way you set up tension and some mistrust on who is who. The Locals may or may not know each other but the face willl at lest be familar. When doing backgrouds you might want to set up some gossipe about certain characters just to make it bit more realistic.
4. The next game session have everyone start exactly at the point of attack. By know they will be confused and surpised but they will not be heros that come out of nowhere in the middle of an attack, instead they will be full characters.
This isn't as much work as it sounds, mainly read carefully before the game the adv. Most of the above can be done with pure role-playing in one or two sessions, I would keep the group split but restrants might prevent that. Once the advanture beings they you can decide who would know what based on what they did in your set up.
Good luck with your game, and always feel free to ask for advise, this community is always ready to help.
TTFN Dre
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Some good replies. All I can think to say is to read it twice. Read it once a few days before, and then read it again a few hours before. Don't read the whole thing, just read enough to cover that game session.
How much you need to pre-read depends on your group.. I would suggest at least half the adventure for the first session since this is your first time DMing. After that just read however many pages you finish the first session plus half to be on the safe side from there on.
Monsters reference in other books I'd suggest typing their stats or photocopying or whatever so you have them prepared. You could even roll their initiative as part of your game prep (something I like to do.) Why type out a stat of "Initiative +2" when you could just roll the D20 now and type "Initiative 16" instead. :)
Monsters reference in other books I'd suggest typing their stats or photocopying or whatever so you have them prepared. You could even roll their initiative as part of your game prep (something I like to do.) Why type out a stat of "Initiative +2" when you could just roll the D20 now and type "Initiative 16" instead. :)
never thought of that, good idea.
never thought of that, good idea.
Monsters reference in other books I'd suggest typing their stats or photocopying or whatever so you have them prepared. You could even roll their initiative as part of your game prep (something I like to do.) Why type out a stat of "Initiative +2" when you could just roll the D20 now and type "Initiative 16" instead. :)
Read the modules three or 4 times, particularly after the group has started the mod. There are lots of connections you, as DM, need to build on, supplying information that isn't in the mods. Make sure the characters meet some of the folks around town, and get to learn their way around.
Welcome to the hobby, and the boards. May you rule the GM chair with an iron fist! ;)
The book has a little bit less instructions than I expected (I guess it assumes the DM knows what they are doing a little more than I do).
Yeah. Out of necessity, an adventure module will usually assume that the GM knows the ropes - otherwise, they would be a lot thicker.
For the stuff you don't know, I recommend reading the DMG, if you haven't done so - and if things are unclear, you know where to find us!
I am wondering if I am supposed to read a lot of the stuff or just mention it or if the players should read some of it in advance or... the list goes on there.
Stuff that you're supposed to read - or at least paraphrase* - is presented in special boxes, which are usually preceded by a sentence like: "read this to the players as soon as they enter the room"
As for other stuff: Always ask yourself: "does it make sense that the players know this?" and inform them accordingly.
By the way, always remember that the excuses people can pul off in computer games ("you can't go there because they haven't designed a level for it", or "well, it's a 2D- movement engine, which is why you can't get over there even though there's only a small step separating you from your goal") don't work in Roleplaying games. That can be inconvenient (you might to have things up on the fly because they want to go somewhere you haven't prepared for), but it also goes the other way: The characters are only supposed to know the stuff the characters know.**
As for players reading ahead: Absolutely not. At least not the adventure proper. That part is strictly off limits. It's like reading the last page in a whodunnit or using peeking at the answer for puzzles or riddles.
Some of the extra stuff in pathfinder books can be OK to read for players - like most of Burnt Offering's Sandpoint entry (but beware of the spoilers about Old Light!), though.
Another thing players need to keep their hands away from is monster/NPC stats. Knowledge checks (and some GM arbitration in case of common creatures and their traits, like trolls and their legendary vulnerability to fire) govern how much a character knows about a creature, including its strengths and weaknesses.
I've actually heard about one player bringing along his Monster Manual, and whenever the GM announced what they're up against, that player would open his MM and announce how best ot beat it. If you encounter anything like this, use your Stick of Pain without scruples!
For example, at the beginning of Burnt Offerings, the players are at a festival in Sandpoint. Am I supposed to tell them all about the speeches and the releasing of the fireflies and the free lunch, or do I just start with them standing out where the goblin attack begins?
If they were there when the speaches were spoken, the butterflies were released, and the free grub was handed out, tell them.
How far you go into detail depends on your preferred style - and on the players' preferred style. For some people, going on about the speeches (including a full speech spoken at the table), and the attractions, and what exactly the food was, and so on for an hour is a bit on the short side, and others will get restless if you "waste" more than a minute with such "trivialities".
You will all very probably be somewhere between those extremes, but it's good to talk to the players beforehand and find out how much detail they like.
It seems like a lot of the information is meant for the DM alone.
One of the perks for being GM: You always see the whole picture
I suppose that this information will slowly be revealed to the PCs later on.
Some of it, yes. Other parts are literally for your ears and eyes only. I often tell my players (not their characters) some of the juicier bits when I wrap up a campaign or at least big part of the adventure (being careful not to tell them something they're supposed to find out later - it's not an exact science).
For examle, during Rise of the Runelords, you'll find out a lot about the Big Bad Evil Guy they'll have to take on on the very end of the story, and after they've killed him, you can tell them more about his life and his character.
Anyway, aside from my specific questions here, any advice for a first-time DM would be welcomed.
Well, aside from reading the DMG a couple of times:
Get a good variety of music and know where to find what kind of music. Maybe make your own collections instead of just playing the stuff from its albums. A PC with lots of mp3 files makes an ideal hi-fi unit for this.
For example, I like to use music from Heroes of Might and Magic V, Neverwinter Nights, the newer Prince of Persia titles (especially Warrior Within) and the various Lord of the Rings soundtracks.
*one of the decisions about your GMing style is whether you want to read the stuff off the page, or whether you want to paraphrase it, using your own words. If you want to paraphrase, it never hurts to start with it right away, to get those GM muscles growing.
**Things a player knows but his character doesn't are called metagame knowledge. Good players don't use them - or at least try their best not to use it, sometimes it's just subconsciously and you can't help it. But you don't do it intentionally.
Also, there's another concept: Railroading. That's a lot like designing a computer game: If the players want to go somewhere, or do something, a railroading GM hasn't thought of, he'll just block it with any means necessary (like "spawning" powerful monsters on the road there so they will turn back, or using nature or even higher force to keep the PCs from doing what they want. It's like being on railroads - you can only go where the railroads want you to go, and nowhere else.
While a bit of "railroading" (well, call it "roading" - there's still plenty of choice, but people won't just go "offroad") is often necessary (or you can't prepare anything), you should go very easy on this, because it can drive players away faster than bad breath.
To keep the game running smoothly, here's what I do:
I take notes on the adventure in a notebook to refer to while running, but I do it in a very specific way. Basically, I write out any information I might need that is not specifically stated in the description, plus a place to keep track of monster hitpoints. It's hard to explain, so let me give you an example.
Say you are about to run a pre-made adventure with the following room description:
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"6. Ogre's Room - EL 6
This 40' wide square room is largely empty except for two ogre's, one in each corner closet to the door, each polishing a human skull from a pile of skulls at their feet.
There is a 10' wide Pit Trap in the center of the room. The Ogres will drop their skulls, draw weapons and attack on their turn. One will attempt to Bull Rush an opponent into the pit trap, the other simply attacks.
CR 2; manual reset; DC 20 Reflex save avoids; 40 ft. deep (4d6, fall); Search DC 20; Disable Device DC 20.
2 Ogres, 29 hp each, CR 3 each."
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That description contains pretty much everything you need to know what happens when the PCs walk into the room, but contains very little information that a first time DM would want to know.
-In my notebook, I would Make a heading "6. Ogre's Room".
-Then I would makes some notes about how Bull Rush works from the PHB, so I don't hold up the game looking up the rules for it. I'd probably also make sure I'm familiar with rules for Flanking, since there are two Ogres.
-I'd look up how Traps work in the DMG and write down anything I think I'd need to remember, and also maybe the Search and Disable Device skills, in case the PCs manage to kill the Ogres without them revealing the trap.
-Then I would either write down the stat block for Ogres, or maybe the page number in the Monster Manual so I can quickly get the book open to the page on Ogres.
-Finally, at the bottom, I'd write down the hp totals for each Ogre. You could just record 29hp for each one, or you could roll for their hp if you think that's more fun.
As you gain more experience, you might find it takes you less and less time to prepare. Eventually, you might look at the description above and realize you already have all the rules memorized for things like Traps, Bull Rush, Flanking, etc. in which case it might be enough just to have the page number for ogres.
Personally, I've been DMing for 14 years and I still take a lot of notes, but I run for a bunch of power gamers, so most of my notes are over combat strategies.
I'll update, maybe tomorrow, to let any interested parties know what I think of my first time DM'ing.
Do that.
Notes are a very good idea for another reason, what I call game drift. The game simply will not always go the way the modual or path wants it to go. Or key charactes will be killed by your players without knowing how important they will be in the future. This isn't a bad thing, don't railroad the players, take it as an oppotunity to take the adv. in new directions. This is usualy when the game becomes very sweet. You can lead them back to the core adv. as time goes one. But this also means you have to take notes on what has happaned that differs from the books.
Don't worry too much over all this, it'll become seconed nature before you know it.
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Clearly Paizo needs to look into the Way Way Back Machine and steal some ideas from TSR, and publish some GameMastery modules designed for novice DMs, like some of the old classics: Palace of the Silver Princess, In Search of the Unknown, or later versions like King'S Festival and Queen's Harvest.
In fact, to the original poster: both King's Festival and Queen's Harvest are available as pdfs for $5/pop. Both are full of great advice for running adventures written in the Pathfinder mode (while a module like B2: Palace of the Silver Princess is more for teaching old skool style of play, like the Dungeon Crawl Classics series).