I have been wanting to drop hints about the BBEG to the party, but didn't cause i did not have access to all the books. I do now, but i almost wish i waited till the whole path was out before starting so i could read it from start to finish.
As a not very experienced GM (who doesn't have a mind like a steel trap), sandbox is very challenging for me, but way more fun for my players. Murphy's Law (or is it some other law in gaming?) deems that the PCs will get on their horses and ride through 7 hexes just to get to one that is not prepared in my notes. You can plan for a guide. Or create challenges to corral them. For me, I've found that ending each session with the PCs around a campfire deciding what they will do the next day has helped my sanity. I can be better prepared and they still have the feeling of total freedom.
Haven't gotten to run it yet, but remember: sandbox for the players is sandbox for the GM, too. Use the fact that everything isn't set in stone and that everything doesn't hinge on everything happening to have fun, and tailor business to what you want to see.
I'm about a week and 1/2 out from starting this AP and I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for me. Any plot pitfalls/snags/redundancies?
Let me know if you would've wanted to know before YOU started YOUR campaign. Thanks!
The stag lord has a nice background story. If the PC's take him prisoner I would allow them to know his background, as well as the other named NPC's.
Have some planned out "random" encounters. Things you know ahead of time. Keep in mind that certain encounters do not have to be combat. A werewolf durring the day, for instance, could just be a random hunter passing by, perhaps looking to share a fire. Some of the high numbers on the random encounter table can easily wipe a party, so be aware of what they can do and have interesting stuff planned instead of just combat.
My group has found the encounters in the first book pretty tame so far, we are almost up to the stag lord. I have had to add templates to some monsters or increase their numbers to keep things challenging. The first bandit encounter, I added 2 bandits, and the second I doubled the camp. Even then, they were stomped on pretty hard. The Mites proved to be not worth rolling for many of the rooms. Others have not had this experience though. If the players seem to be enjoying a little too much of a cakewalk, I encourage you to beef up the monsters.
Long ago I learned an important rule in music: if you screw up, look like you meant to do it. Nine times out of ten, other people won't even realize that it was a mistake. This is especially true in this AP, and there's very little that a DM could do to "mess up" the adventure. So, be bold in your choices knowing that in the end, the players don't know what was "supposed" to happen.
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Long ago I learned an important rule in music: if you screw up, look like you meant to do it. Nine times out of ten, other people won't even realize that it was a mistake. This is especially true in this AP, and there's very little that a DM could do to "mess up" the adventure. So, be bold in your choices knowing that in the end, the players don't know what was "supposed" to happen.
Make sure you're flexible when it comes to random encounters, in the sense not every encounter needs to be a combat encounter.
Rolling 1d6 wolves might just be wolf tracks and spoor. Or the sound of wolf howls in the distance. Or an animal carcass picked clean by wolves. Etc
Just to add to my previous posts, check the reference threads, because some of the monsters have errors in their stat blocks. The Lonely Warrior and Rigg Gargadilly in Rivers Run Red have both been short-changed on attack bonus for example (by about ten points - I think maybe a '1' got left off the front side of their figures...)
Oh, and don't forget, it says in The Varnhold Vanishing that the Ruler of Brevoy's eldest daughter is getting married round about that time. It doesn't say to whom, and if you're feeling mischievous... well there are those 'celebrity visit' events which occasionally come up in the Kingdom Events Phase, and maybe the PCs don't pay too much attention to whatever 'trade agreements' are being put in front of them to sign, or didn't take Knowledge (Nobility) and have no idea who that female in the Brevoy delegation was....
I caught the lonely warrior one, but the the fey one got past me. I will just have to up the warrior's attack bonus to make up for it. thanks for the heads up.
number 1 rule. Random Encounter DOES NOT mean a fight
you will reap through PC's if you do
The AP is just a bucket full of awesome sauce, so enjoy. a lot!!
It is certainly may favourite d20 camapign since i returned to version 3.0
Another thing to add on to the heap of advice is to make sure your players know that part of the fun of a sandbox campaign is that it gives them an opportunity to bring some of the story elements to the table. If they just show up with a paper full of numbers and modifiers waiting for you to get through a description so they can roll combat dice they are in for some cold porridge.
The more your players dig in and share story elements and develop goals together, the less improv acting and story motivation elements you will have to pull out of your derrière. Having them read the player's guide isn't a bad place to start if they look at you like you have jam oozing out of your ears.
I think that is one of the things I enjoy most about sandbox GM'ing is that it feels more like collaborative story telling than your typical "Evil Queen Mini Mouse is going to feed the princess to her infernal dog Pluto! Go rescue her from Mickey Mouse's dungeon of horrors!"
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Another thing to add on to the heap of advice is to make sure your players know that part of the fun of a sandbox campaign is that it gives them an opportunity to bring some of the story elements to the table. If they just show up with a paper full of numbers and modifiers waiting for you to get through a description so they can roll combat dice they are in for some cold porridge.
The more your players dig in and share story elements and develop goals together, the less improv acting and story motivation elements you will have to pull out of your derrière. Having them read the player's guide isn't a bad place to start if they look at you like you have jam oozing out of your ears.
I think that is one of the things I enjoy most about sandbox GM'ing is that it feels more like collaborative story telling than your typical "Evil Queen Mini Mouse is going to feed the princess to her infernal dog Pluto! Go rescue her from Mickey Mouse's dungeon of horrors!"
I'm adding Mickey Mous
I'm glad this thread is here, I'm just now reading through the AP and will start DMing it in a month or so. I don't have much experience DMing to begin with, it's been years since I've run a campaign, and to add to the difficulty our playgroup is a mix of children and adults (ages 8 and up). I'm sure I can tone down anything too adult for the kids, I'm more nervous about sufficiently managing the sandbox style for the adults, especially the one who is normally the DM.
Just finished reading book 4 and one thing that struck me is the overreaching storyline that was foreshadowed in books 1 and 2 are notably absent from 3 and 4. Have any of you gotten that far and found it to be a problem? I was wondering if it'd be worthwhile to add a bit to the backstories to more strongly tie them into the big picture? Of course it will be a long time before we reach that point in the adventure.
Have some planned out "random" encounters. Things you know ahead of time. Keep in mind that certain encounters do not have to be combat.
This is probably the single best piece of advice to take if you're planning on running this AP.
You will need *many* random encounters, so just roll them up ahead of time and create reasons for them to be there. If you try to do it on the fly, it will seem a little "tacked on" whereas with a little prep before hand you can have more seemless encounters like "Hunter named X who had traveled here from Y to hunt Z can help in some small way". Use the random encounter table for some inspiration and go from there.