I'm starting up a Pathfinder-Ruleset Rise of the Runelords campaign today! I'm super excited, and I've been poring over every book I can to make sure I'm as prepared as can be.
Does anyone have any suggestions/trouble spots to watch out for? Any help would be most appreciated, even if it's just something your group ran into.
In case anyone's curious, the group consists of a Dwarven Conjurer (teleportation-focused), a Half-Elven Inquisitor, a Half-Orc Battle-Mystery Oracle (who worships Desna- that should be interesting), and a Half-Orc Fighter (who's half-Orc, half-Shoanti).
Sounds like fun :) GO through and flesh out as much of the towns NPC's as you can first as you would do well to use them as full characters. The town is a character in and of itself as you spend a lot of time there through the adventures getting to know the people and relying on them for healing, knowledge, gear, backup, extra help hear and there and even to point the PC's in the right direction.
Get to know the town. Ships come from all over the world to Korvosa,
and Magnimar before heading up to the Pirate city of Riddleport and they stop into Sandpoint to trade with the Renound Glassworks, and go to the Operahouse there... and Sandpoint gets a lot of general trade because of this that they wouldnt get otherwise... so merchants and pirates come to town. Also Varisia is full of ancient Thassilonian ruins and many Pathfinders find their way there to explore and there is a Major Pathfinder Chapter House in Magnimar with an extensive Library on Thassilon, and Noted Pathfinder Eando Kline comes through often.
Also not only do the Varisians (Gypsies) abound but the Scarni (their Gangsters) are in town as well...
We also had fun when I used the shop keepers slutty daughter to get one of the PC's into trouble with her dad...
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We also had fun when I used the shop keepers slutty daughter to get one of the PC's into trouble with her dad...
My subtly CE rogue is simultaneously getting in Ven Vinder's good graces (for some scheme that I am not privy to yet) and thoroughly enjoying the slutty daughter behind her father's back (I'm going to roll a flat 25% per month for pregnancy, per the normal real world statistics).
To the OP, the suggestion that I have heard is to supply an abundance of clues to help the PCs figure out the story because it's pretty subtle. It might be tough to get everything out in the open because it looks to me like most of your PCs are not locals. If they are locals, let them know the local gossip and have them know some of the principals by reputation - they should know that Nualia died in the fire and that Tsuto and Amieko had some mix-up in their past.
Also, it's a good idea to look ahead at what NPCs and facts will be important in later chapters and introduce them early. To wit, you should try to have the PCs meet Bethana Corwyn (the halfling lady who works at the Rusty Dragon), Brodert Quink (the sage in town who can help with the Thassilonian ruins). When one of my PCs made inquiries about some geographical location, it was suggested that Shalelu would be their best resource, which adds to the signifigance when she does show up.
I am also setting Ven Vinder up as a man with a temper to place him as a strongly motivated red herring for Skinsaw. They definately should hear the sawmill operating well after dark a few times long before skinsaw happens. On that front, I would try to introduce as many of the future murder victims as possible so the PCs have a hope of figuring out the greed sacrifice angle.
I made cut-out cue cards with a bunch of the NPC's pictures on them (with their description and room for DM notes on the back). I think it has really helped the PCs remember who's who and it has helped everyone get pretty engaged in the town.
Alright, last night went really well! I tried my best to involve the PCs with the town as much as possible, and they seemed to react well to it. They finished all of the goblin attacks, after which the Dwarven wizard subdued the goblin commando, charmed him, and used him for information (as little information as that may have been). They learned that the person who organized the attacks was a "longshanks", and that a bugbear named Bruthazmus was involved (I figured I'd toss that name in so that it would seem familiar later on). They tried using the goblin to see if he could point out the "longshanks" that organized them by walking him around town, but oce they realized he couldn't tell humanoids apart, the dwarf took him up atop the tallest building and pushed him off.
I sorta dodged a bullet by introducing Shalelu a little early, though- after getting this information from the goblin, the group were intent on heading out to the commando's tribe's lair (I mentioned he was a Birdcruncher goblin) to kill the rest/look for their leader, so I had Shalelu show up the morning after the initial attack to inform them about the five tribes, and so Sheriff Hemlock could request that they stay in town rather than going to kill more goblins.
Probably my favorite moment of the session was during the festival, when the half-orc Oracle went to the Hagfish to try their lobster chowder- he saw Norah's tank, and decided to give it a try. He passed out for a few minutes afterwards. He was offered a second try for half price, and, since he roled pretty high (mid-20's) on his fort save, I gave it to him, although he felt pretty and smelled pretty disgusting afterwards. (I even told him that, during the next twelve hours, he could use a projectile vomit attack once whenever he wished. I was hoping he'd have it to use against some goblins later, for goblin-related hilarity, but instead he used it against another PC who pushed him off the pier for smelling so horrible.) This gave him a small amount of fame even before the goblins attacked, which only got magnified later on.
I'm going to try to introduce as many NPCs as possible (including NPCs from later adventures, if possible). We've got a wikidot site set up, so I'll be putting info about every named NPC they encounter on there so the players can check it out any time they wish.
I'm super-excited about next week!
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The Quasit is annoying and my players hated those fights.
If they don't have any meta-gaming knowledge I would suggest restatting her (use stats for a flying goblin thaumaturge and keep the fluff the same) because the invisibility, spells and flight combine to be really annoying, rather than fun.
Also, be aware that the treasure is based upon your players stripping every location (including the giant helmet) for cash.
For the second adventure: Xanesha has killed a lot of characters and many GMs swapped Lucrecia and Xanesha. The mask is a player-killer in two rounds and her AC is demented.
Generally the masks are a pain (the treasure is all evil magic items) because good players can't benefit so they fall behind: some Paizo staff suggested a good church paying for evil magic-items which they will then destroy and I would recommend it.
Finally, make the rune-weapons much more awesome. They can fall a bit flat (lots of posts on this) and I am planning on making them greed-bane.
and her AC is demented.
True. Buffed, almost no conceivable character at level 6 will hit her with anything less than a natural 20. And she has about 150 hp. And she will kill most characters with one full attack. Did anyone mention she also has spell resistance?
Using her sister in her place at the end of The Skinsaw Murders is really good advice.
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On a side note, I recently paid a visit to the Newport Aquarium in Oregon, and I got to see what a hagfish is... I wouldn't want to drink the water that houses that monstrosity... though, the water was cleaned for the aquarium...
Enjoy the story, and run with it. Out of all of the times that I have seen this run, whether in person or via the forums, every single one was different. If you see an angle that will enrich the story, take it, look down the road through the path, and see how that might affect you down the road...
Sounds like you are going to have a great campaign down the road!
Thanks for the advice, guys. I've got a question, though- I see that Xanesha is a beast, but what good would come from swapping her for Lucrecia? They both seem more or less equal as far as HP and AC goes. Is there something I'm missing here?
Thanks for the advice, guys. I've got a question, though- I see that Xanesha is a beast, but what good would come from swapping her for Lucrecia? They both seem more or less equal as far as HP and AC goes. Is there something I'm missing here?
I didn't swap the two, I just took away her mask so to speak. I had her use it's 1/day ability on Ironbriar who had retreated to her and then she pushed him off the clock tower onto the pcs (Falling Block trap) :P. Made her mask cool and worked nicely.
As for the Quasit my party couldn't kill her but she couldn't kill them either. She healed too fast and did no damage hardly and they had a wand of cure light wounds so nothing was happening. Eventually she just kind of left into the complex and hid...
Tsuto Kaijitsu would make a great Red Mantis Assassin :)
The Local Priest of Desna is a good character to flesh out as well. And there is a local healer witch in town. A lady that goes herb collecting in the mornings... An elven woman or some such...
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Thanks for the advice, guys. I've got a question, though- I see that Xanesha is a beast, but what good would come from swapping her for Lucrecia? They both seem more or less equal as far as HP and AC goes. Is there something I'm missing here?
Dimension Door, FLy, Invisibility, Silence, Buffs (higher final AC), Mask (potential insta-kill), Impaler of Thorns.
She's designed to exploit the terrain, and she's mechanically superior anyway.
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Any ideas about what knowledges a new party of PC's can roll for certain bits of info? I'm always afraid I'll reveal too much.
That would depend on what knowledge you are talking about and what adventure.
I tend to reward players who spend skill resources and RP time on gathering information or on researching their enemies via knowledge skills. In the context of Burnt Offerings, I wouldn't tell anyone about Tsuto or Nualia until they were explicitly asking about them or until a number of plot triggers happen:
- The "longshanks" behind the Swallowtail Festival attack is to be a mystery for a while so there is no reason to start throwing out names
- As soon as Amieko disappears implicating Tsuto, I would allow for low DC knowledge local/gather info to get his relationship with his sister, his bastart lineage and that he was raised at the Turandarok Academy, a moderate DC to know that there was some incedent at his Mother's Funeral and a higher DC to know the specifics
- As soon as Nualia's name comes up in Tsuto's journal, I would allow a low DC check to know that there was a white-haired girl by that name who died in the church fire, a moderate DC to know she was an Aasimar, a high one to know she had a secret relationship with a Varisian boy and a very high DC (like 25) to know that she had a deformed baby and went into a coma before the fire.
- I think the history DCs for the catacombs etc. should be pretty high except for ubiquotous symbols like the Sihedron Rune.
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Im getting to start running this game as well. I havent finished reading all of Burnt Offerings yet, and dont have the other chapters yet, but I was hoping someone could give me an idea of some npcs who are important to the overarching plot of the AP that are introduced in Burnt Offerings and supposed to be around later on, so I can do my best to keep the PCs from killing them, lol.
Edit: Im running in pathfinder as well.
Im getting to start running this game as well. I havent finished reading all of Burnt Offerings yet, and dont have the other chapters yet, but I was hoping someone could give me an idea of some npcs who are important to the overarching plot of the AP that are introduced in Burnt Offerings and supposed to be around later on, so I can do my best to keep the PCs from killing them, lol.
Edit: Im running in pathfinder as well.
One npc who I feel should get more screen time and become close to the party is The town cleric Father Zantus (sp) due to his relation to the adventure number 5. Also Make sure to ply the shopkeepers daughter encounter and get the pcs to know Vin Vinder and his daughter and I would introduce the older daughter if but briefly. They play a good role in #2, as well as Aldern Foxglove 9which they mention somewhat) Who really needs to spend a good amount of time with the party in my opinion... just a few visits where he plays up his schtick and gets to know the party.