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I never see much movement on this board. I am starting a new group through Cauldron, but using Pathfinder rules. I am putting Cauldron on the island off the coast of the Shackles, that has Drenchport as the main city. I am going to use Port Peril as the main "other" city, rather than Saserine...Should be cool...
Yes, my group is running it for... 3-4 years now. We made a pause before midterms, somewhere in may and didn't play ever since. We're currently in Cagewright's HQ and just killed a female minotaur and some cleric, I think. It's still debatable whether will continue or not as it's kinda boring and it dragged off for years, we don't even remember why we do what we do.
Still plowing our way through on a bi-weekly basis for the past couple of years - we're just finishing Secrets of the Soul Pillars.
I'm DMing a group of players new to the game through SCAP these days; we've been playing roughly weekly (with time off for academic breaks) since around February, and we're getting close to being done with Drakthar now. (Poor guy is stuck in gaseous form and trying to shake his assaulters so he can get to his refuge.) I've done a lot of work to flesh out the city in various ways to enable the PCs to better develop their own character narratives, and maybe I'll post some of that stuff here or at the RPGenius SCAP depository. I've already put up a few of my newsletters there. And I find that if I have a specific problem or question about SCAP, I still get answers here pretty quickly!
Yep, tonight as a matter of fact.
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OK..I am running it starting tomorrow..I really don't anticipate it taking that long, since we will be gaming weekly. I hope to finish Life's Bazaar in 3 sittings. Maybe that's a bit of a pipe dream, but knowing these guys, they will be in a hurry to save the orphans, so probably no dilly-dallying for them. I ran Age of Worms in just about 10 months, so I am hoping for a similar time frame.
I found the RPGenius pages invaluable, as well as alot of Delvesdeep stuff..The first 2 adventures will probably go quick, since they will be amped to level up. it is a 5 player group, so I may have to beef the encounters up, since they are PF charaters.
Yep, I’m still running it, using 3.5, in a very slow moving game. Coming on 6 years now ... my group has just finished Demonskar Legacy.
Funny, just like me :)
I'm a bit ahead they are in the Test of the smoking eye and the group has now TWO Demon Lords....very very fun.I think you will jump ahead soon because I'm waiting for twins ;)
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congtraz Christian...you have some long nights ahead of you paesan...
Sounds like fun Roth. I am currently running 2 groups through SCAP..One is my regular Sunday night group that has been together for going on 25 years now, the other is the owner of my FLGS, his wife, and 2 other very good roleplayers...so there are different mechanics in each group. The second one meets about 3 times a month, and we are just starting Chapter 2, the first one is the secondary game to Runelords, that we play when we have a certain player absent due to LARPs or football, or work commitments...we are starting chapter 3 there, so group 2 will catch group 1 kinda fast...thought about merging them, but it will not be feasible..
Good gaming guys!!
I've been running the Shackled City path with my group, converting it over to the Savage Worlds ruleset. It's worked pretty well so far - magic items are a lot rarer, and I've had to fiddle with pricing and magic, but it's fast moving and relatively low prep.
My plans have recently been derailed - I ran the Dungeon module "Unfamiliar Ground" as a one-shot after Chapter 3, which resulted in a player getting mangled but surviving. (He was knocked unconscious and gelded by the imp.) The rest of the party decided they'd all go to Sasserine to find a cleric that would regenerate his mojo, and now they've decided to stay in Sasserine for a while so I'm starting up the Savage Tide adventure path.
I don't know whether we're changing paths, taking a break, or getting ready to start alternating paths. Time will tell.
My plans have recently been derailed - I ran the Dungeon module "Unfamiliar Ground" as a one-shot after Chapter 3, which resulted in a player getting mangled but surviving. (He was knocked unconscious and gelded by the imp.) The rest of the party decided they'd all go to Sasserine to find a cleric that would regenerate his mojo, and now they've decided to stay in Sasserine for a while so I'm starting up the Savage Tide adventure path.
I sincerely hope that it was the player character who suffered, and not the player! :)
I sincerely hope that it was the player character who suffered, and not the player! :)
Oops, yes. I'm not -that- cruel of a GM. As always, one more preview would have been a good idea...
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Our group started about 3 years ago and just finished the Temple of Wee Jas (Secrets of the Soul Pillars). We converted from 3.5 to Pathfinder during Demonskar. I interpolated the Paizo module Gallery of Evil between Zenith Trajectory and Demonskar, as it was a good fit and gave me the opportunity to provide more background info about the Cagewrights.
I started playing the SCAP when it first came out in Dungeon Magazine (no idea how long a go was that?!) and we are still playing. We are currently facing off against Shebeleth and Dyr'ryd infront of the Tree of Shackled Souls.
We haven't played for over 3/4 a year now as one of the players sadly died so we have taken an unscheduled break. Time to get back into it though as we all love the game.
The next adventure I will run will be one of my own writing as I've changed the ending of the campaign. It will involve the party heading into the Haunted Village to save Nidrama.
I'm looking forward to it
Delvesdeep
We just finished the Vampires of Water Deep campaign ark. Now we are gearing up to run Shackled City with the pathfinder rules.
Should be starting next Saturday if all goes as planed. I've run the first 4 adventurers before so I don't feel as I need a whole month to prep this time.
I Started running this with a mostly new group (4 players, opnly one with experience)about 3 years ago. We only meet monthly, at most, due to work commitments (we are all in our 30/40's). So far we have just finished the tax riot in chapter 5.
It would be faster but I ran a small intro adventure (Dark and Stomry night) before the group got to cauldron and I added in a slighlty modified Tomb of Horrors to play to several characters back stories. That added about 6 sessions or 6 months.
Actually this was brilliant. The Rogue, who had started a relationship with Jill was lured into helping her advance in the Last Laugh by finding the Jester coin minting machine. She couldn't find how to get to it from the surface but heard it was over a room in the Tomb of Horrors so they could get to it that way. When they broke through into the safe house the Jester and his hired assassin were waiting. Earlier (back in between chapter 2 and 3) the same rogue was asked by the guild to kill the priest of Pelor's sister who is a church dignatary (fits with the killing of other priests of Pelor) being good he settled for telling the group he was trying to prevent the killing and blamed an assassin he called Raven.
Turns out the Jester is the Rogues long lost father and the assassin is his friend from childhood who his father has recruited. Jill turns out to be the apprentice of the Jester (thanks Delvesdeep) and the whole thing is a set up. Now the Rogue finds himself in the room with a lover who betrayed him, a father he has never met, a childhood friend who he has blamed a murder on and to make matters worse his group are looking at him because the Ranger realises the assassin meets the description of the guy who killed his family (he is demonscarred but doesn't know it yet), The priest finds out his sister was meant to be murdered by the Rogue and the wizard is completely confused but actually his mother was abducted by the cagewrights.
The look on thier faces was priceless.
I suspect this will take another 5 years to finish...
Elcian
DD
I would like to hear about the rescue mission for Nidrama....
I have been working over Asylum and Nidrama is very interesting to me.
I would like to see what you did!
Here is a very unpolished 'framework' of the adventure.
The Haunted Village
Event One –
Travelling to the shadowy ruins of the Haunted Village and searching for the magically hidden Embril. Alurid ambushes them with any surviving ‘undead villains’ from the path such as Mhad the vampire and/or the Necroaunts or failing this, with some flesh golems of his own creation. The party discover that Embril has taken Nidrama beneath the lakes surface and into the Kopru Necropolis.
Event Two –
Descending into the lake the party see the alien appearing Kopru Necropolis resting in its murky depths. A wave of powerful Kopru ghosts appears around the party and attack.
Event Three –
As they enter the ruins the party find a great temple alit with green ghostly light at its zenith. When they enter the temple they are assaulted by visions of Adimarchus’ madness and continue to grow in strength as they move towards the temples heart. (Will DC 15 + 1 for every ten feet closer to altar, for a maximum of DC 25 or be confused as per the spell for 1d4 rounds)
Event Four –
In the temple corridors the party are assaulted by two sets of guardians –Two Darkwalkers and, as they approach the air-filled inner chamber, 3 Demodands.
Event Five -
Temple of Adimarchus, depicting Adimarchus more as a ‘fish-like/Kopru’ creature. Embril and the Spellweaver (as per same encounter found in Ruins of Shatterhorn) with the following exceptions.
- Embril and Nidrama lie next to each other in tranquil sleep. Standing over them is a Spellweaver who has weaved a dome of silvery web which glitters like a myrad of stars. Held in one of his hands is a strange device in which the Spellweaver continues spins and twirls, weaving ribbons of the stars around the sleeping figures.
Any items which move into the curtain/dome of stars disappear. Stepping into the dome casts the character into the Realm of Dreams.
When the party step through the gate they float in a great glittering violet and sliver haze 'sky'. Sparkling clusters of dreams float through the landscape like clouds. Looking deeper into the haze they find great black and red rivers slowly reaching out from a great lake of darkness (Dreamheart).
Embril has summoned 'Nightmare Creatures' (any ideas) to immediately attack any creatures stepping through the gate. Once the party desposed of the fiends, they can see two faint figures flying down one of the 'rivers' towards the inky heart of the Realm. The party can see the inky fingers of madness washing over countless dreams and into countless creature’s minds.
Willing themselves forward the party find they can 'fly' (Movement equals one foot per point of intelligence). The party attempt to catch the party but are again attacked by summoned fiends. This time Embril has relized the risk and returns to face the party leaving a bound Nidrama to continue to flow down the river towards the heart. The party have 6 rounds to rescue Nidrama who is 100 feet away from the party at the beginning of the encounter.
Once Embril is defeated and Nidrama saved, the party can return through the gate and emerge within the dome. The party can then attack the Spellweaver who immediately stops 'dream weaving' and attacks.
After they rescue Nidrama and take her from the Haunted Village, Nidrama asks for them to find rest. As they sleep Nidrama shares with them the final dream where Adimarchus commits the crime which is responsible for him being expelled from heaven and being torn from Nidrama.
As a side note
Embril captured Nidrama in an effort to finally destroy Adimarchus’ mind and therefore releasing his Inner Demon to fully control the angels body, effectively transforming Adimarchus into the demon mind and body.
Embril attempts to ‘find’ Adimarchus and show the angel his love before she kills Nidrama in front of him and destroys his mind altogether. Embril is unaware that she can not enter Adimarchus’ nightmares from the temple.
The party can not enter Adimarchus' Nightmare Realm in this way. Anything appraoching the heart of his Insanity is consumed in this manner. The only way to enter his dreams is to use the Dream Catcher while in his direct presence.
The party can claim the Spellweaver’s Dream Catcher to ‘Dream Travel’ 1/day, as per the Manual of the Planes spell. Only passing into the dream world in Adimarchus presence and through Adimarchus’ mind (while directly looking at the fallen angel) can the party hope to enter his nightmares and free him from his Inner Demon.
Hopefully this is of some use
Delvesdeep
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I eventually took the opportunity to buy the SCAP Hardcover and cannot wait 'till I get my hands on it. I already ran it when it was published in Dungeon Magazine but it went soon to hiatus when I suffered a DM burnout (too many campaigns at the same time). So I'm more than willing to give it another shot.
I eventually took the opportunity to buy the SCAP Hardcover and cannot wait 'till I get my hands on it.
Good move!!!
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My plans have recently been derailed - I ran the Dungeon module "Unfamiliar Ground" as a one-shot after Chapter 3, which resulted in a player getting mangled but surviving. (He was knocked unconscious and gelded by the imp.) The rest of the party decided they'd all go to Sasserine to find a cleric that would regenerate his mojo, and now they've decided to stay in Sasserine for a while so I'm starting up the Savage Tide adventure path.I sincerely hope that it was the player character who suffered, and not the player! :)
Savage Ztide is awesome at higher levels, some really good chances to role play, but I absolutely loved Age of Worms. It too about a year and a half, but my group finished it, and it was very rewarding. I highly recommend it.
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As an intro to Savage tide, I ran a little adventure from Dungeon, but I forget the name of it. I set it in Sasserine. It was a funeral of a serial killer. His funeral was ambushed by evil-doers and his corpse stolen and brought back..I forget what it was called, but i recommend it as an intro to any campaign...it was alot of fun.
Our group is running through it, now. Though, our pace is quite slow. We only get to play a marathon session or two every couple of months. We're just beginning Flood Season, now.
We're using primarily 3.x rules with some things from Malhavoc's BOXM, Trailblazer, the Pathfinder RPG, and even a little Revised Star Wars RPG thrown in.
We currently have two groups exploring in different areas, simultaneously.
We have been in the SCAP setting now for 5 years from late 2005 - 2010 and still going strong. My party is nearing the end of Lords of Oblivion as of last Friday 12/10/2010. Fun adventure!
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Our group is running through it, now. Though, our pace is quite slow. We only get to play a marathon session or two every couple of months. We're just beginning Flood Season, now.
We're using primarily 3.x rules with some things from Malhavoc's BOXM, Trailblazer, the Pathfinder RPG, and even a little Revised Star Wars RPG thrown in.
We currently have two groups exploring in different areas, simultaneously.
A vrey good introductory scenario.
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I bought the book years ago but only finally started running it for my players about 8 months ago. We're only playing about once or twice a month. I put Cauldron in the Kaava jungle east of Senghor. The group started the game by arriving in town as a bunch of Pathfinder Society applicants sent to retrieve a map from the gnome character Jasper Drundlesput as a trial mission. Naturally, they find he's been kidnapped, that a lot of others are kidnapped as well...and so they're into the flow of the book.
They've just finished clearing out Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress and took down Drakthar but haven't cleaned out his cave complex. I redid Drak's mercenaries as a ranger, alchemist, and oracle who now have orders to track the party into town and try to kill them before they can do any more damage to the baddies' plans. No actual PC deaths yet, but three of the seven players were severely mauled the last fight and almost went down (some seriously panicked looks for a while, heh). We're playing it as a Pathfinder game, so some conversion needed. One player tried an APG inquisitor character, didn't like it much, and went back to playing a ranger (like he pretty much always does); the APG base classes haven't been a big hit with them but they love the archetypes for the core classes. I will be using the APG classes to replace some of the NPCs in the book.
The big conversion problem is beefing things up because I've got the seven players--and with the more powerful Pathfinder classes. For instance, for the Malachite Fortress fight I converted Kazmojen to a Pathfinder fighter, gave him max hit points for each level, and increased his minions by two troll mercenaries (also both with max hit points per die) and a hobgoblin adept. Since Kaz is part troll and regenerates, they were actually able to capture him and hand him over to the town guard for trial (the paladin's idea). Next session they will get the map from Drundlesput but he'll say he's giving it to them rather than to the Pathfinder Society as a reward for freeing him from the slavers. The map will take them to a side adventure in the Keep of Jarl Khurok south of Cauldron involving monkeys...lots and lots of monkeys...
This is my 4th attempt to GM a group with this setting. Furthest we had gotten was chap. 3 before. The current group is on the 1st chapter.
I've converted it to 3.5 running in the Scarred Lands campaign setting. So converting the deities and some of the monsters is interesting.
My biggest crutch right now is that I've lost the GM maps from the hardcover, so I'm digging around in my Dungeon Mags to find them. :(
If anyone's willing to part with their maps, let me know & we can sort out a form of compensation.
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Finally had the bright idea to record our sessions. If anyone wants to listen, you can find it here. Minor profanity, and we have some derails, especially thanks to our puppy.