Looking for help / hints on running Throaty Mermaid smoothly

[raylyynsedai]

****please use spoiler tags****

I am looking for any advice from my Sempai on running Murder on the throaty mermaid. I have read and re read it many times. ideas i am contemplating in spoiler.

Ideas i have come up with:

1) I am putting the Clues for each NPC on 3x5 cards organized by the name of the murderer. this way when i pick the murderer i do not have to sort through pages of text figuring out who says what because he/she did it.

2) I think i ma going to have the characters make a perception, detect motives, bluff and Diplomacy check before each interview. then modify their results based upon RP throughout the encounter as needed. (same for each NPC's opposing roll's) this way they do not know when they stumbled on something or not because i make them roll.

3) the storm is optional depending on time. how many of you have had to skip it? the storm seets up the last combat and gives the NPC's a slight advantage. without the storm I see Marzack and his ally getting thier butts handed to them quickly by a prepared party. (especially if the casters have not used all their spells that day on the rust monster or Shira Acidaxe.

4) Shira Acid axe is almost to me a forgone conclusion of ending in combat. Have any of your players beaten her without combat? how did that happen. the way i read the encounter almost anything the party does will piss her off and end in combat. I am looking for ways to allow players to avoid combat creatively. I Guess I am looking for a clearer definition of her point of no return where she will get pissed and attack the party.

I am really looking forward to running this. my table is at 5 rite now. so i am not to worried about player kills from the combat or said combat taking too long (dice god's willing). So I am more looking for ways to improve the experience. I have two people totally new to Pathfinder society play. and 3 returning from my first event. as a new GM i feel i may have taken a challenging Scenario. but I LOVE RP and this has a plethora of RP. I am really excited to run it. I just want to run it well and thus the asking for help from my Sempai.

[Thea Peters]

I've run this twice .. each time the group came up with creative ways to circumvent the way the mod was intended to have been run. Both were creative but made for interesting GMing tactics

Table 1:

The first table of this I ran was a table of semi-local GMs and Twilight_Knight. We did the aquatic elves encounter w/out a problem, gave the scream that indicated that Sephriel had been murdered and they all rushed in to help. Brought in Killick and the captain, proceeded as normal. I added a twist of them seeing the rusted outline of a "small thin-bladed object" in the back of the rust monsters cage -- wherein they promptly lassoed the rust monsters and tied them to the edges of the cage to they could get in and look at it.

They had the murders figured out and in "custody" before the squall timing and as the table as a whole was getting worn out and tired (not to mention me) I didn't do it as it was just a time thing and we all needed a break

with Shira Acidaxe, the player at the table rolled a ridiculously high diplomacy -- archivist bard -- and I judged that she would give him the book.

table 2:

this table I judged, what I refer to as the Opto-twins.. good players, but they were definitely min/max players so the mod was broken from almost the beginning

The acquatic elves went off w/out a hitch and then the scream.... and this is where the mod broke .. they were in the room investigating it when the captain and Killick show up, C&K were not allowed in the room to do their thing, the party was still examining the room. The pet (an anklyosaurus) did it's sniff and scent thing -- had it pick up salt (from the sea), the "musk" (azuretta's perfume) and then various smells of wood and fabric.

They intimidated the captain into gathering everyone on the top level of the shop so that they could be sniffed and they figured that they would find the murderer from that... they were wrong as it wasn't azuretta.

then they kind of explored the hold, found the rust monster -- asked the smuggler to hold them back while they went in and got the rusted blade --- the smuggler whipped out a mandolin and played a song to sooth them -- they talked to snig, but didn't ask him anything that would give them much information.

They eventually sorted out who the murderer was and had him in custody before he and the 1st mate could attack them. So again no need for the squall or the end battle.

my ideas to try:

I was in the chat room and someone said that they were going to put the party in as a replacement party, so they had to go around and learn everything and talk to everyone.

If I know I have optimizers at my table again, I'm going to skip the first encounter with the elves and start it at them being summoned to the cabin and the captain accusing them, avoid the hassles that I had in the second table.

for prepping, I have basic information about each on printed out --I'm kind of OCD about my mod prepping and sense I know I'm going to be running this one a bunch more, I have the basic information and the what happened printed out and laminated so that I have quick reference for each one.

I also think I'm going to make the captain completely un-intimatable and more of a dictator type then a passive captain.

my opinion of the mod.. only read if you really really really want to know:

I'm not a fan of this one.. Mainly as I'm not a fan of murder mystery kind of things. I think that there is to much of a jump from the all combat style of the other mods to the all role-play style of this mod. Players aren't used to having to really role-play their characters and using their non-combat skills.

For me, from the GM perspective, depending on my mood or how tired I am it can be really hard to come up with something that sounds plausible and will keep the mod flowing right.

Each time I go into judging this mod I do my best to go in with an open mind and keep my personal prejudice from clouding the information that I have to give to the players. I also know I'm personally not a huge role-player.. I prefer to go up and poke things, or blow them up, talking is for the bardy types, not me. So the mod in general doesn't fit well with my play style and in turn makes it a harder one for me to GM

[raylyynsedai]

Much appreciated. My party is not min/max not only are most new to PFS most are new to pathfinder rules period. also my party is heavy rp oriented. the one Person most experienced with PFS (came to my first table with character and number already. has more materials as far as books than i do etc. he has skills min maxed in a diviner. so i am worried about the mystery part being broken early. I like your ideas on how to prevent that. the other good thing i think is everyone is level 1. makes it harder to break the session. again thanks thea. hope to see you at Paizocon!

[Thea Peters]

raylyynsedai wrote:

Much appreciated. My party is not min/max not only are most new to PFS most are new to pathfinder rules period. also my party is heavy rp oriented. the one Person most experienced with PFS (came to my first table with character and number already. has more materials as far as books than i do etc. he has skills min maxed in a diviner. so i am worried about the mystery part being broken early. I like your ideas on how to prevent that. the other good thing i think is everyone is level 1. makes it harder to break the session. again thanks thea. hope to see you at Paizocon!

yeah the 2nd table was a higher tier than 1-2..

as for Paizocon only if someone else is paying for it lol .. that's a long trek from Iowa

[raylyynsedai]

Thea Peters wrote:

as for Paizocon only if someone else is paying for it lol .. that's a long trek from Iowa

well maybe next years GenCon. this year I am running my own event at a Con locally.

[Thea Peters]

perhaps ...