hey there guys, thought i would join in with our opinions and such here. We are currently Running Curse of the Crimsom Throne in our Sunday Group, and Rise of the Runelords on Saturday. Every 3rd Saturday we are doing Second Darkness. So i will post about all three. I love constructive criticism so let me know whatcha think.
Here is the basics of my party and some opinions from the start:
First i would like to thank Paizo. Its been a Long time since i have enjoyed playing or Running a Module. With that said. Lets start my rants about COTCT.
Ok we are using Beta Rules. Our party to start consisted of a Fight, Monk, Cleric, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Swashbuckler.
Harrow Deck Readings: I must say, its a cool idea, i like it. As we move from Module to Module we got more info as a DM to make it easyer on us. Love the idea, Good Role Play Oppertunity.
Talk or Smash: One thing we noticed with COTCT was that in the first 3 books... You can talk your way through everything except the last area/encounter. My Party Loves this. They love the role-playing. On the other hand, you can Smash face as well. Great way to write it.
Mini-Games: Love this, good Way to give the players a Break. I will start with talking about Knivesies. My Players loved it. It was fun to run. And they made a lil coin off it. I Role-played Devargo with the same type of attitude as Badger from Firefly. Good times.
NPC's: So much detail, it makes them easy to play. Also makes them easy to love/hate by the party. At the end of the first Module My swashbuckler Player already had his heart set on finding out who blackjack was.
Rant: Edge of Anarchy
Poisons. I like how they were availible from the get-go. My rogue took to using them right away. We need rules In the book though about draining poison Glands, etc. Would it be alchemy or survival to drain a poison sack>?? Just a lil detail that should be in the book.
Last Encounter of Edge of Anarchy: Fun fight. Our righter had no ranged weapon so he was using a Zombie head as an improvised thrown Weapon. THAT WAS FUNNY.
ITEM: Raktavarna Was Great, my rogue would not let that dagger outta his site. The fact that it radiated magic but wasnt magical. He is a Long time player (Red Box was when he started) and thought it was either somthing strong or story related. Good times.
All in all, it was well written and well done. Some stuff seemed overly easy, but i had a big party.
Rant: Seven Days to the Grave
Ok i enjoyed this Book like no other. My Party was paranoid. The Dwarf Fighter was practicly invincible from the Plague, do to a high fort save. Roleplaying wise, he was always lathered in Bacon Greese... Even tried to lather the monk up haha.
New Spell:Now i gotta give props to my party here. They did one smart thing. They all pooled there Gold and Got the cleric to Research a new spell. Detect Disease. We posted about the spell on the forums. Alot of people argued that it should be a 0-Level spell but for story purposes i made it level 1. This stopped the unlimited use of it. Now the cleric could have made TONS of coin using that spell, but the Good cleric decided to share with the churches in the town. I gave him Bonus Points here, and it paid off later for him.
Spell can be found here: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/general/archives/newSpellNeededPossibleCurseOfTheCrimsonThroneSpoiler
Working with Dire rats... that was good. It took awhile for my party to decide if they really wanted to do this. In the end they did, and it was Good RP and Combat. The Combat after with Yvicca was Lacking. It just did not seem strong enough.
Hospice: Ok this place rocked. I loved how it was setup. My party Smashed Rolth down, but did not kill him. They bartered with him and Exciled him from the city rather then turn him in. In Return he ave them information about what was ahead.
Ramoska Arkminos: Ok this was Great. Party walked in expecting a fight and he just started to casually talking to them. Even asked asked the Sorceress to pass him a scalpal on the table beside her. Finally the Dwarf was like "Im gonna kill him"..... and then he was dominated. To say the least they talked there way outta that one.
The Leukodaemons could have been abit harder. but they were scarey lookin enough to freak the party abit. The Priestest at the end... Cake walk. It did make some of the party unnerved to see that the cleric had DIRECT divine intervention. That was a Cool effect.
I very much enjoyed James Jacobs Writen up called We all fall down. It is hard to do epidemics and such in the D&D world, but this is one of the best examples i have seen of it.
Rant: Escape From Old Korvolsa
Ok this book was sorta Interesting. I really enjoyed using the Rakshasa's and i loved Laori Vaus. I got into a Role playing thing with the party with her Describing in Great detail how to skin a man alive, and then heal back to full so you can do it again. And it wasnt just with the party... any time she talked to an npc she go into it too. Good times.
Ok... At this point the party just wanted to smash the queens face in. The assasination attempt stoped that. When they heard about what happened they knew they had to get outside help.
Red Mantis. One Word. Fun. I love using these guys. The Fight in Vencarlo's house was great. I managed to get the swashbuckler alone downstairs while everyone else was upstairs. Almost had him killed on the prey attack. Round 3.. before the mantis' turn, the fighter found them and smashed face. I like what has been done to make these NPC's, although they could be a little bit stronger.
Blood Pig. The idea kicked ass, but the game itself was stupid (JUST MY OPINION). We played for about an hour, and thats when the first point was scored. Almost killed our monk here, the Gnome brought the beat down on him. It was great. He has hated gnomes since.
Rakshasa: The party was expecting a fight when they showed up here, instead they were greeted with Cheese and Wine. The Labrynth was a pretty decent idea. I sorta changed things up since they had permission to go down into the Labrynth. I sent the Fungal Guardians on them when they got on the Barge to leave. 3 Using spore clouds left a 5 foot by 10 foot square that was spore free on the barge. It worked out well. Not sure if it was intended but the Breath of Fire healing Pool and poison pool was a good idea. Liked that alot.
One of my players (the Rogue) pointed out after the module that i should have done the Beatific one Differently but it was still good.