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Using "Pathfinder Beta RPG" rules throughout, our group finished "Curse of the Crimson Throne" tonight, Sunday Feb 22 at 10pm EST.
We logged 34 6-hour sessions. It was quite a haul. Overall, I think the group enjoyed it over RotRL by a small margin, but all still vote "Hook Mountian Massacre" from the frist Pathfinder camapign to be the best over-all module.
The group had loads of fun, and agreed CotCT was very cool, being mostly located in the same vicinity.
A Warlock, Cleric, a Noble/Rogue/Assassin and a Monk over all took Korvosa for all it was worth and made great contacts, friends, and threads to follow. So much so, that I'd wager we have 3-4 weeks left just picking up the pieces after the final book.
A great campaign Paizo, thank you!
-DM Jeff

Neil Spicer Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut |

Cool, Jeff! My group has just started Curse of the Crimson Throne. We're 3 sessions in now and having a blast!
Funny story:
My group managed to capture both Gaedren Lamm and Yargin. And, while transporting them to a temple of Iomedae (one of the PCs is a paladin of Iomedae), they ran into a Hellknight who helped them fight off an escaped otyugh rampaging through the city streets. After the fight, he questioned them for being out at night (with prisoners!) during the riots. Once the party persuaded the Hellknight of Lamm's guilt, he demanded they turn the villain over to him as rightful executor of the Queen's law. They reluctantly agreed. And the Hellknight executed Lamm on the spot. That little episode has set the tone for much of the adventure path, I think... ;-D
--Neil

Shadowborn |

Using "Pathfinder Beta RPG" rules throughout, our group finished "Curse of the Crimson Throne" tonight, Sunday Feb 22 at 10pm EST.
We logged 34 6-hour sessions. It was quite a haul. Overall, I think the group enjoyed it over RotRL by a small margin, but all still vote "Hook Mountian Massacre" from the frist Pathfinder camapign to be the best over-all module.
The group had loads of fun, and agreed CotCT was very cool, being mostly located in the same vicinity.
A Warlock, Cleric, a Noble/Rogue/Assassin and a Monk over all took Korvosa for all it was worth and made great contacts, friends, and threads to follow. So much so, that I'd wager we have 3-4 weeks left just picking up the pieces after the final book.
A great campaign Paizo, thank you!
-DM Jeff
Congratulations to you and your crew. As a DM (and a Jeff, coincidentally) I'm running CotCT currently. They're two sessions into "Crown of Fangs" at the moment, and on their first foray into the castle. They've learned to respect the old military adage that no battle plan survives past the initial engagement...
This is one of the best campaigns I've run in a while and I know my players are enjoying it immensely. After this, a co-DM is taking over for the Runelords campaign. (No one else has wanted to run a paladin with the Beta rules, so it falls to me.) We've all enjoyed Crimson Throne so much that I'm laying preliminary plans to pick up this campaign later with some home-made adventures that should carry the party through 20th level.

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We've all enjoyed Crimson Throne so much that I'm laying preliminary plans to pick up this campaign later with some home-made adventures that should carry the party through 20th level.
That's very much what happened to us. Korvosa is a great place it could take years of play to explore it all. In fact...
-DM Jeff

Shadowborn |

Shadowborn wrote:We've all enjoyed Crimson Throne so much that I'm laying preliminary plans to pick up this campaign later with some home-made adventures that should carry the party through 20th level.That's very much what happened to us. Korvosa is a great place it could take years of play to explore it all. In fact...
** spoiler omitted **
-DM Jeff
Sounds like great minds think alike; I had the same idea. I've also got plans for a certain necromancer and his paramour...

Shadowborn |

That's not a bad approach at all. I'd think of using it myself if I didn't already have him pegged in the campaign as a sort of workaholic who barely tolerates his adoring jester, continually giving her just enough slack in the rope to hang herself with.
Of course, with repeated thwarting by the PCs, he just might go insane himself...

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Congratulations on finishing CotCT DM Jeff! I'm curious... ** spoiler omitted **
Thanks! And since I feel this whole thread may turn into one big spoiler... :-)
For Sorshen herself (and I don't know if Paizo had this in mind when they described the Runelords), I'm using "The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" from Dungeon #38! Items in this module curiously port over very easily to Runelord ideals.
-DM Jeff

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Almost forgot, I used another Dungeon Adventure in the middle of the campaign as well...
-DM Jeff

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Congrats!
Shadowborn wrote:Same here, although I've found myself taking a Joker and Harley Quinn-style approach with them.
I've also got plans for a certain necromancer and his paramour...
Funny story from my game, One of our PC's is a Ranger/Rogue who has taken Human as her favored enemy, is rather dark and looming and has a bit of an anger management issue. The mini I painted up for her is heavy on black and super dark blue...everyone calls her Batman now. The party saw the picture of said Harley Quinn and couldn't stop laughing or making Dark Knight refrences.
Sadly the party put her down, however Joker is still on the loose (and will probably find a way to put her back into service)

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So, what were the highs and the lows? Which bits went like a charm from the published notes and which bits did your players mangle beyond recognition? Enquiring minds want to know...
Let’s see…beware spoilers and all…
Everyone loved Zelara and her cards. I sat at the opposite end of the table to do the readings. While I was able to weave some neat clues and evocative stuff throughout, in all 6 readings not a single PC ever had the card they picked show up in a spread! It’s a big deck. But the players thought it was great. Keeping her around (in the sack of the Cleric of Iomedae) meant she was like an extra party member, and so her happy ending was a good moment for all.
The first three books went like clockwork. The players love the city and really got involved with the nuances and all the plots. “Edge of Anarchy” was an exciting beginning. It also was one of the longest to run; they packed a lot into it. For the chase across the Shingles, I made cards and printed them for each player to ‘draw his challenge’ as they scrambled across the rooftops. “Seven Days” was easily the group’s favorite. Totally creepy and action-packed as they horrifically watched the city break down around them. This module had lots of elements I could expand upon. I took the little notes for running the 4 or 5 ‘set piece’ scenes and expanded them all and dropped them in throughout. It helped set the mood immensely. “Escape from old Korvosa” finally began providing some answers the group sought and played really well, but by the end I think the players got the vibe they’d be out of the city for a while. When the news finally came that they would be heading out, they got all paranoid and began setting up all sorts of contingencies, afraid they’d come back and I’d kill half their contacts or something. And I need to bring up the poor Swilts thing...
The “Emperor of old Korvosa” was taken out with a single blow in the first round of combat by a superbly planned and lucky critical hit double sneak attack. I spent 15 minutes the night before prepping this guy to watch him be slaughtered in the first 20 seconds of the big fight. Oi.
Books 4 and 5 each had some issues. “A History of Ashes” I must have read three or four times and made tons of notes as the module went all over the place. I had to print out a map and drew red lines showing the flow of the adventure, and by the time I was done it looked like a geometry experiment gone wrong. Also, the players began getting a little annoyed with all the tests, and by the time we got to the end there was no way I was still going to have them all sitting on giant pillars. So I axed that bit. I used the landsharks as a roaming encounter when things got slow.
“Skeletons of Scarwall” I dreaded running long before we ever got to it. When I first got the book and opened it to the huge complex map, I was both thrilled and worried. Mapping this thing would be agonizingly slow. Exploring every room and finding plenty just empty also reeked of slow play to me. How to do it justice but not be playing it for session on end with the unfun parts of adventuring? So just days before I came to run it I had an idea that saved the day. I took the pdf, blew up the map of Scarwall about 3x the size, and printed it all out and assembled a poster map. I cut the different floors into a few different sections, and as the group moved through and explored the sections, I’d lay them out together. We used one mini to track the party’s progress, and when we came to an encounter, we’d move the map aside and set up tiles for tactical positioning, ‘zooming in’ on the location. This turned the whole thing around. The group loved it for its ease of use and I got to concentrate on presenting the place in verbal and visual detail instead of mapping woes. It worked great.
“Crown of Fangs” was a super ending. The players and their characters were VERY glad to be back in the city and it all had a very swashbuckling feel as they ran around putting out the various ‘fires’ in the city. A defining moment in the campaign was Sabina’s turn, as up till that point I managed to portray her so well the party would discuss after every session if she was really evil or not and how it would all work out in the end, so it was very satisfying. The final battle with the queen went a little slow, because she was so well defended/protected the party wasn’t making much headway against her. On the other hand she was in no way a combat powerhouse so she also didn’t make any huge gains against the players. It was nearly a draw in the end! The party got some insanely lucky saving throws that had them jumping and cheering. At least two or three times there would have been some truly horrible death or removal from combat and luck truly helped them that night.
With all the fun we had setting this campaign up it should be of note that while we finished the 6 books we’re still not done with the campaign. We’re still playing, and the next two sessions we wrap it up with the rise of Runelord Sorshen.
-DM Jeff

arkady_v |

DM Jeff, if you have notes or anything like that put together for the endgame (or, hell, for the rest of the campaign), I'd love to see them if you're up for sharing them. I don't mind if they're nearly incoherent or if they're concise and beautiful. Any help would be appreciated. My email is stevenankeny@yahoo.com

wspatterson |

I wish I could continue on with my group. Unfortunately, the characters are almost all pretty sketchy at best, and about half have reasons to kill each other if they continue associating after the Queen is dead.
*sigh*
Using "Pathfinder Beta RPG" rules throughout, our group finished "Curse of the Crimson Throne" tonight, Sunday Feb 22 at 10pm EST.
We logged 34 6-hour sessions. It was quite a haul. Overall, I think the group enjoyed it over RotRL by a small margin, but all still vote "Hook Mountian Massacre" from the frist Pathfinder camapign to be the best over-all module.
The group had loads of fun, and agreed CotCT was very cool, being mostly located in the same vicinity.
A Warlock, Cleric, a Noble/Rogue/Assassin and a Monk over all took Korvosa for all it was worth and made great contacts, friends, and threads to follow. So much so, that I'd wager we have 3-4 weeks left just picking up the pieces after the final book.
A great campaign Paizo, thank you!
-DM Jeff

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If she got away in my campaign, I would be VERY tempted to tie her into a new Second Darkness campaign. Perhaps she flees to Riddleport, where she eventually comes into conflict with the new party. That was your entire Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign can serve as foreshadowing of the villain (or _a_ villain) in the next campaign!

wspatterson |

If she got away in my campaign, I would be VERY tempted to tie her into a new Second Darkness campaign. Perhaps she flees to Riddleport, where she eventually comes into conflict with the new party. That was your entire Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign can serve as foreshadowing of the villain (or _a_ villain) in the next campaign!
That just doesn't make any sense. Two very different villains with two very different goals.
In any event, the mad dogs that are my group are chomping at the bit to chase her down to Cheliax. They're practically an angry mob.
Shadowborn |

Erik Mona wrote:If she got away in my campaign, I would be VERY tempted to tie her into a new Second Darkness campaign. Perhaps she flees to Riddleport, where she eventually comes into conflict with the new party. That was your entire Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign can serve as foreshadowing of the villain (or _a_ villain) in the next campaign!
That just doesn't make any sense. Two very different villains with two very different goals.
In any event, the mad dogs that are my group are chomping at the bit to chase her down to Cheliax. They're practically an angry mob.
I can see a certain logic in the idea. While the villains have different goals, Ileosa is certainly a powerful figure. Perhaps she makes a bargain with the SD villains, offering certain services in exchange for their help in arranging an apocalyptic end to her old backwater city and the meddlesome heroes that inhabit it...

wspatterson |

wspatterson wrote:I can see a certain logic in the idea. While the villains have different goals, Ileosa is certainly a powerful figure. Perhaps she makes a bargain with the SD villains, offering certain services in exchange for their help in arranging an apocalyptic end to her old backwater city and the meddlesome heroes that inhabit it...Erik Mona wrote:If she got away in my campaign, I would be VERY tempted to tie her into a new Second Darkness campaign. Perhaps she flees to Riddleport, where she eventually comes into conflict with the new party. That was your entire Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign can serve as foreshadowing of the villain (or _a_ villain) in the next campaign!
That just doesn't make any sense. Two very different villains with two very different goals.
In any event, the mad dogs that are my group are chomping at the bit to chase her down to Cheliax. They're practically an angry mob.
No...no, it really doesn't make any sense. One would have to come up with something seriously convoluted to make it work. Not impossible, just improbable.