My group was on hiatus for a little over two months now (one player got hitched and is looking for a new apt, we are a small group) and it looks like we are going to start gaming again on the 26th of this month. Yay for us.
From my groups first shakeup (my longest running player moved to the west coast, we used his place to game, another long time player quit due to work,etc), weve taken on some new blood through the years.
My previous group's makeup was more into the deeper roleplaying aspect that Council of Thieves seems suited for (being mostly urban,YMMV of course), especially after reading the Sixfold Trial where most of it looks to be heavier on RPing although the Knot is large enough to appease the more action-oriented types. Half of my crew (two players) fall into the latter category. One seems more into the action aspect and is usually playing a tad more chaotic, the other is new to 3.5/Pathfinder, playing only for a few sessions after leaving a 4E group, her first gaming experience. Motivating their two characters into the essence of wanting to work for the greater good of Westcrown had been a minor speedbump (I encourage them to play their character the way they would most enjoy it, its their characters after all :) ). I think this AP just might not be their cup of tea (after speaking to them of course).
This AP is fantastic IMHO, and would have been perfect when I had my previous two players (the west coaster and workaholic) both would have liked the AP and the Sixfold Trial in particular.
I spoke to them at length and gave them the following campaign options (after we agreed to leave CoT behind)...
1) Start a new game or continue on in this AP or any other unfinished AP. We ran down the list of APs as well as older APs like SC/AoW/ST and Castle Whiterock (always wanted to play through it and it was a strong contender). We also discussed chains of smaller non-AP adventuring. One player said something like "I wanna finish what we started for once, one of those cool APs" *** (see group history).
They chose to continue a previous AP, Rise of the Runelords (my personal favorite fyi). They loved Sandpoint and liked their characters and we were just about to go to Thistletop (about halfway through). The game broke up for a good while a short time after we started this one, primarily for lack of a place to play.
2) Rules choice, 3.5 or Pathfinder. They chose Pathfinder (based on current CoT experience). So we are getting together this week or the next to convert our characters.
To the rest of the DMs running this great AP, good luck to you. Wish I had the time for a second group to do this one in its entirety. Im headed for Varisia..... again. Wish us luck. :)
***My groups AP history btw (abit stormy though we did finish many seperate smaller modules)...
Shackled City - Partial TPK about halfway through. Players didnt want new characters after building such close ties with the NPCs of Cauldron on previous characters.
Age of Worms - First attempt, TPK (Grimlock big cavern in Three Faces of Evil). Second attempt, finished Hall of Harsh Reflection before Workaholic core player had to quit gaming. Hiatus ensued and campign didnt survive.
Savage Tide - crazy Pirate cove in The Bullywug Gambit. Conflicting/Changing work schedules was killing the game, player moving dug the grave.
Rise of the Runelords - Halfway through Burnt Offerings, headed to Thistletop. Game fizzled due to scheduling at first, then place to play.
Council of Thieves - See above.
Thanks for listening :)
Sounds like you've been having some major challenges with your player roster. Hope your new crew works out for you!
I've had similar experiences (SCAP got killed after two players quit. STAP died after an almost TPK at the end of Bullywug Gambit, I'm on my second try at RotRL). I solved my group scheduling problems with one on one gaming with my wife. She's the only constant player I've had over the years.
|
Sounds like you've been having some major challenges with your player roster. Hope your new crew works out for you!
Have you considered starting RotRL over from scratch again? You're not very far along, and it might be fun to see how it changes with PRPG rules.
I agree with Xuttah, from the group makeup, it appears that the group wasn't exposed to the begining of the AP which is one of the best opening scenes I have ever seen. As the PCs seem to only be level 2 (maybe 3?) they should most likly be exposed to the people of Sandpoint
Sounds like you've been having some major challenges with your player roster. Hope your new crew works out for you!
Have you considered starting RotRL over from scratch again? You're not very far along, and it might be fun to see how it changes with PRPG rules.
I agree with Xuttah, from the group makeup, it appears that the group wasn't exposed to the begining of the AP which is one of the best opening scenes I have ever seen. As the PCs seem to only be level 2 (maybe 3?) they should most likly be exposed to the people of Sandpoint
** spoiler omitted **
I agree with both of you. :)
3 out of the four of us have been in Sandpoint (under the 3.5 rules) and we are using the same characters. They didnt want to restart at the beginning because they liked Sandpoints NPCs and the characters they played are all still living.We are basically picking up exactly where we left off....
I wrote out a refresher outline to remind them of everything that took place which I will go over pre-game (I may rerun the meeting with Shalelu anyway in the middle of it), and they already fondly remember...
If it were up to me id start from scratch because of the Pathfinder rules, but it wasnt all that long ago and still lingers in their memories.
I've had similar experiences (SCAP got killed after two players quit. STAP died after an almost TPK at the end of Bullywug Gambit, I'm on my second try at RotRL). I solved my group scheduling problems with one on one gaming with my wife. She's the only constant player I've had over the years.
:) You definately know how I feel.
Only one of my players besides the other two that moved and quit has gamed with me for many years. We had a chat about a possible one-on-one gaming a couple of weeks ago. We decided to give it another shot with another regular gamer who was the one advocating "finishing what we started".
So far we have 3 of us and we may or may not keep the 4th (new gamer). Problem is our gaming area is a tad small at my place and 3 of us would be comfortable. Most likely we are going with 3 PCs (one is a DMPC filling the role of what they dont want to play, in this case a healer), and an NPC (arcane caster).
|
Hm, I used to have the same problem with player scheduling. I solved it by changing the campaign archetype, running something akin to a Pathfinder Society game. Self contained adventures linked because players are part of the same organisation living in the same city. There was an over arching story behind the series of dungeons they visited, people that attended more games put the puzzle together and those that only made some games still had a clear picture of what was going on. The game lasted 6 sessions, the players completed a campaign (started level 5 finished level 7) and got a whole story. I highly recommend changing your campaign paradigm, feel free to steal dungeons and encounters from any of the APs. If your players want a coherent story but can't all attend every game it's certainly a way to go. The play's the thing after all.
Those with wife and kids are even better as they want a night off at least once a week. Them bums with long hair are quitters. :)
Hey I've got long hair... and a wife... and kids ! What does that make me ? A good bet or a quitter ? Also, my wife has been the only constant co-player in recent years, I wouldn't want the "night off" in this particular instance. :)