The biggest is either PCs going to HarrowStone too soon (ie no research, just bolting straight into the dungeon and leaving the town behind), or the opposite, PCs are too afraid to go near the thing and just play defensive the whole time.
You need to strike a balance to get them to spend "some" time in Ravengro before assaulting the Prison.
Also, the Prison has 4 encounters that are potentially TPKs (the Piper, the Lopper, the flaming warden, and TSM). The prison is supposed to be done on multiple rests, and the PCs should not go after any of these big baddies in the same day.
There was an editing error: there's not nearly enough Trust given out. As a quick-and-dirty patch, you should double all printed Trust rewards (except the Ioun Stone), and give out ad-hoc Trust for good RP. Otherwise it's impossible to reach the top 2 rankings and the PCs will get driven out of town in just 2 weeks.
As a GM, know the Haunt rules well. Narrating and adjucating them well is all about the presentation and stagecraft. You don't want to look up rules mid-Haunt.
Hope that helps.
The biggest is either PCs going to HarrowStone too soon (ie no research, just bolting straight into the dungeon and leaving the town behind), or the opposite, PCs are too afraid to go near the thing and just play defensive the whole time.
You need to strike a balance to get them to spend "some" time in Ravengro before assaulting the Prison.Also, the Prison has 4 encounters that are potentially TPKs (the Piper, the Lopper, the flaming warden, and TSM). The prison is supposed to be done on multiple rests, and the PCs should not go after any of these big baddies in the same day.
There was an editing error: there's not nearly enough Trust given out. As a quick-and-dirty patch, you should double all printed Trust rewards (except the Ioun Stone), and give out ad-hoc Trust for good RP. Otherwise it's impossible to reach the top 2 rankings and the PCs will get driven out of town in just 2 weeks.
As a GM, know the Haunt rules well. Narrating and adjucating them well is all about the presentation and stagecraft. You don't want to look up rules mid-Haunt.
Hope that helps.
Is there some official commentary on the Trust somewhere? I haven't seen it (yet), but I'm still looking.
Is there some official commentary on the Trust somewhere? I haven't seen it (yet), but I'm still looking.
Yes, James and Wes have both commented on it explicitly, admitted the goof-up, and given all-but-official errata on it. Search the archives, there's a handful of threads where it gets addressed.
|
Thanks for the help guys, I can say that the first session was a success! The only thing that I am unsure of is the research xp awards. Should I only award the xp for the roll they got or should I award the cumulative xp for all the rolls below their highest roll? For example if my players rolled a 28 on their research roll on the Whispering Way should I only award them the 400xp for the DC 25 roll or should I award them a total of 750xp for surpassing the DC 10, DC 15, DC 20 and the DC 25 checks?
Add them all up (so 750xp in your example). Then divide them amoungst all the players (187xp each, assuming default party size).