I'm concerned about a problem that I had in Savage Tide that I see as a possibility here in Serpent's Skull as well. Isolation. In Savage Tide, the group went for weeks upon weeks (and level after level) with no access to the outside world. Feats devoted to item crafting were completely wasted with no way to obtain supplies. Roleplaying was virtually non-existant as there were no interactions with anyone who was not already a part of the group.
I haven't read through the first adventure yet (in hopes of being able to play through it), but as soon as I read, "A deadly storm shipwrecks the passengers..." I was concerned.
Is this going to be an issue again?
I'm concerned about a problem that I had in Savage Tide that I see as a possibility here in Serpent's Skull as well. Isolation. In Savage Tide, the group went for weeks upon weeks (and level after level) with no access to the outside world. Feats devoted to item crafting were completely wasted with no way to obtain supplies. Roleplaying was virtually non-existant as there were no interactions with anyone who was not already a part of the group.
I haven't read through the first adventure yet (in hopes of being able to play through it), but as soon as I read, "A deadly storm shipwrecks the passengers..." I was concerned.
Is this going to be an issue again?
I suspect that there will be plenty of opportunities to roleplay with npc's each adventure.
I suspect times of isolation in this campaign, but for me, that's not a bad thing. I like man vs. environment type campaigns. I think as long as the players understand that they won't have ready access to cities then it's fine, obviously they might want to shy away from item creation feats.
I am running Legacy of Fire right now and I knew it'd be an issue and so I warned them ahead. Not only are item creation feats potentially lessened in that type of campaign, but also feats that focus on only one weapon as well. I had a character pick an exotic weapon and I warned that player plenty that it might be a problem getting a high powered magic weapon of that type later on, but thankfully there was a way to go around that in the LoF campaign.
Anyway, I also house ruled that casters were always picking up magical ingredients and fiddling with them on their free time. Just like you don't need to keep track of cheap material components. So, I ruled that at any level up, a character can cash in 100gp x their new level worth of valuable to reflect their time and resources spent gathering components. No one ended up taking any item creation feats for that to matter though so I can't say how well it worked.
Spoiler-free!
Really, it depends on how you define isolation.
There will be long stretches without towns, without a doubt. If you have a character concept or a GM-playstyle that absolutely requires "towns" to do certain things, then yes, by that definition, you're hosed.
However, you will be in the exotic jungle, filled with exotic things, with a lot of free time. A slightly lenient or creative GM will allow you to find the requisite "stuff" needed to craft, etc. The mods will also probably throw in the sidebar used in LoF when the same thing happened: you can use Crafting feats to dismantle magical equipment and harvest the raw materials to make your own stuff.
As far as roleplay diminishing, not a problem. One of the major themes of this campaign is "competing factions." There are essentially competing parties doing sorta the same thing as you. So it's not a whole town to wander through, but there are groups of people, with rules for keeping track of exactly everyone's opinion of you and the situation. And that doesn't even include the angry natives!
Hope that helps.
Creative Director
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The first few levels will indeed be on a remote island, but after that (at about 4th level) there'll be plenty of opportunities to buy and sell stuff. In fact, a part of the third adventure is handling the setting up of an expedition camp that the PCs can use for a base where they'll be able to buy and sell stuff (including materials to craft items, of course) while out in the jungle.
Okay, cool. I am less worried now. Thanks.
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Even in the first part, the PCs are not the only passengers. And interaction with the NPCs plays a great part in the adventure (and provides a lot of fun).
We have not finished the 1st adventure yet, but I already took the Charmer talent (from the APG) for my supposedly combat Rogue. o_O
Concerning the crafting topic, do you really believe that jungle tribes do not craft ? And they do not need a town for this.
All things said, the best way to prepare for this AP, as for any AP, is to get and read the AP Player's Guide. It is free download and really helps create an appropriate character who will not feel out of place.
I must say these AP PGs are just the most wonderful idea I have ever seen in 20+ years of RPG.
Isolation is pretty good for getting PCs to actually talk to each other. My party is currently taking a break from Kingmaker where we're mid level, and no one talks to anyone save for the plot elements, or something important to their character.
In contrast, our Serpent's Skull group is pretty closely bonded. The party paladin, a Tian samurai has taken to calling my Tiefling rogue Kitten for her unusual, fiend-inspired appearance, her chaotic behavior and her uncanny ability to hide. Maybe its because his player is my husband, but we spend a lot of time together in game, mostly because she knows he lays down the law and she doesn't want to be hit on by toothless, lecherous NPCs. Also, we were sick together at the same time, so we were all cuddled up in his tent sharing body heat when we were feverish and nearly dying. Our GM decided to use high level diseases against us, which we can only shake off with extremely high rolls at low levels.
Other members of our group consist of a cleric of Desna who I gamble with, who stalks around the pretty NPCs tent when he thinks no one else is looking, and a pretty savage looking elf who may or may not be hiding the fact that he has fangs who typically cleaves things in twain with a great axe. The cleric is a pretty nice guy, but we just haven't clicked yet in RP. The ranger is pretty reckless... I don't have great wisdom, but sometimes I just don't want to go on his idea of adventure.
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Just make a point of useing the npcs problums and personalitys witch in some cases are one in the same as role playing hooks. I ve noticed from other posts that iteam avalability has been a point of issue. But in most, including my own I ll add, gameplay this only added to the flaver of this story.
Jungil grub indeed tasts good.