[Not sure if there's a better forum for this, so I'm dropping it here.]
I'm considering running a marathon Pathfinder campaign between Christmas & New Years. I figure I have at least 40 hours worth of play time available. With that, I'd like to run as much of a complete story arch as possible. Given my available prep time is limited, and that this is a single, one-off event, I'd like to use published adventures as much as possible. Suggestions?
I've thought about modifying one of the Adventure Paths, but I'm not even sure if that could work. Seems like running an Adventure Path would take at least double the amount of time I have (and even that's optimistic). Is it even worth trying to compress an Adventure Path into a week of intense game play? Does one particular Adventure Path better lend itself to such meddling?
If not an Adventure Path, then what?
How are you at improvisational GMing?
Decent, I hope. I tend to eschew miniatures and run sandbox-style campaigns in my own homebrew setting. I find this style frees up the game for more impromptu adventuring. That said, I've leaned on published material in the past. My last major campaign was based on Ptolus, which I love.
Given that I don't have a lot of time for prep work, and I know this "marathon" will take a lot of prep work, I want to get ahead as much as possible by using a published adventure or campaign. I may turn to Ptolus again (though that's still a lot of work), but I've been wanting to run an Adventure Path campaign for some time. So I thought this might be a way to do it.
Several of the Paizo modules are part of a multi-module arc (or can be). Crypt of the Everflame is one such example. That'll be far less than an adventure path, but more than a single module.
Several of the Paizo modules are part of a multi-module arc (or can be). Crypt of the Everflame is one such example. That'll be far less than an adventure path, but more than a single module.
Everflame is a good suggestion. I'll read up on it.
At this point I think I'll go with either Ptolus Banewarrens or a modified Kingmaker adventure path. For Kingmaker the premise would be the players have one week to prepare their fledgling Kingdom for a battle/war. That could be fun, or it could easily fall apart. So still thinking about this.
Try the Falcons Hollow series. D0 - Hollow's Last Hope, D1 - Crown of the Kobold King, and D1.5 - Revenge of the Kobold King.
That'd take up your 40 hours I bet. I have a small side group that has been working their way through this series and they've been having a blast. With ample roleplaying opportunities in Falcons Hollow they made D0 take about 14 hours.
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Several of the Paizo modules are part of a multi-module arc (or can be). Crypt of the Everflame is one such example. That'll be far less than an adventure path, but more than a single module.
Everflame is a good suggestion. I'll read up on it.
At this point I think I'll go with either Ptolus Banewarrens or a modified Kingmaker adventure path. For Kingmaker the premise would be the players have one week to prepare their fledgling Kingdom for a battle/war. That could be fun, or it could easily fall apart. So still thinking about this.
Kingmaker is one of the few campaigns that works best when you take your time with it. There's no clock on the PCs inherent in the adventure so they can take months/years/decades of game time without worrying about an impending apocalypse.
Have you thought about running Curse of the Crimson Throne?
The first three adventures are solid gold. Running them concurrently and then changing the climax of the third book ought to work.
Spoilers ahoy!
Book Two Plague comes to Korvosa, and the PCs find themselves in the thick of things. You can pretty much run this section pretty much as is, but make sure you play up the elements that tie the Queen to the plague ravaging the city. Essentially make it clear the queen hates poor people and savages and her plague is essentially her narcissistic way of shaping the city into an image she likes.
Book Three The Queen's Grey Maidens snatch the PCs and throw them into Old Korvosa. Escape from Old Korvosa is run more or less the same, except there's a secret tunnel leading out from Old Korvosa back into the city proper. Add in a climax where the PCs head into Castle Korvosa to fight the mad and petty queen. BAM! That should cover your fourty hours. Giving you about 13 hours per adventure, and taking players from level 1-10, and letting them depose a queen.
Which if you manage that in one week should be worth an achievement.
Have you thought about running Curse of the Crimson Throne?
The first three adventures are solid gold. Running them concurrently and then changing the climax of the third book ought to work.
Ah, that's a great suggestion. So many options...
I go back and forth on whether to have a strong story game or a more open ended dungeon crawl / set of modules. I really like a good story arch, but I'm worried that we won't have time to finish it.
One twist I'm considering is tying together the real-world time limit of one week with a similar in-game time limit. For example, the players have one week to accomplish/prepare/discover something before the next weekend when, ready or not, some cataclysm comes about. It's a twist I've never had a chance to play and could make for a very interesting game.
I wonder how frequent this trend is. Because I go home, I always play some kind of role playing game with old friends. In three weeks I am cramming in one MERP game and three pathfinder games (two different campaigns). Anyone else cramming in gaming?
You could also go with PFS play. Buy however many scenarios you want and run those if you run out you can always purchase more and run them since they are in PDF form.
Players then get credit and continue the character and you as GM can get credit also and it is a win win situation for all.
Try the Falcons Hollow series. D0 - Hollow's Last Hope, D1 - Crown of the Kobold King, and D1.5 - Revenge of the Kobold King.
That'd take up your 40 hours I bet. I have a small side group that has been working their way through this series and they've been having a blast. With ample roleplaying opportunities in Falcons Hollow they made D0 take about 14 hours.
Good choices. We had a lot of fun running through these as well. Jekkajak! Hold still, you little b*****d!