So I'm not new to GMing in general, but this is my first time trying to run anything with a d20 in its ancestry. I've noticed that I'm not the only new Pathfinder GM to pick up Jade Regent with the intent of running. Actually, it looks like this is going to be a pretty popular AP all around. My hope is that some of us poor, inexperienced greenhorns can leverage the collective wisdom of the Pathfinder veterans that populate this board. We could scatter it out across specific threads, but that could clutter up the board. Collecting it in one place could make a valuable resource, too.
That said, I of course have a question to kick this off.
I've been told that the APs are generally balanced around a party size of four PCs, and I've heard about fan conversions of other APs for parties of about six PCs. Do parties of 3 or 5 need much adjustment, or is there enough wiggle room that you can generally run an AP as-is with one more or less player?
I've been told that the APs are generally balanced around a party size of four PCs, and I've heard about fan conversions of other APs for parties of about six PCs. Do parties of 3 or 5 need much adjustment, or is there enough wiggle room that you can generally run an AP as-is with one more or less player?
Welcome, Eel! I suspect you'll have fun with both Pathfinder and this AP. The d20 rules will come, so don't sweat it.
As for your particular question, 3 or 5 players shouldn't harm things too much. If you *really* want to balance, I might suggest using a 20-point buy for stats (Str, Dex, etc.) for a 3-party, and a 15-point for a 5 party, but it wouldn't be bad either way. If you find your 5-person party is walking through everything too easily, toss in an extra critter or so and see how they do. If your 3-party group is being trounced, toss 'em a bone instead. And, actually, with this particular AP, they'll have helpful NPCs with them in a three-man group who can help if they're struggling.
FYI--This board has some fantastic folks who are willing and able to help answer questions, so if you have 'em, ask away! :)
I agree with Chris0. +/-1 player shouldn't make too much of a difference. In addition to the point-buy suggestion, you can also adjust encounters on the fly. If it's too easy, increase everything on the bad guys by one or two (AC, Attack, Damage, Saves, etc.). Waaay too easy? Max out the hitpoints and/or bring in some weaker reinforcements to soak up attacks. Too hard? Drop all the rolls by one or two.
With three players the only real challenge they may run into at some point is a limited selection of abilities. Maybe they're missing a skill monkey, or a heal bot, or a tank, or whatever. Sometimes that can make particular fights or encounters more difficult than usual. But this can also happen with five players who just have an unusual party composition (aka, not well rounded). If that's the case, again, just drop the DCs, rolls, hitpoints, etc behind the scenes. Don't mention it or make a big deal of it; you don't want your players feeling crappy or like they're not measuring up. And you're not necessarily doing them a favor, either. You're just adjusting the encounter according to their abilities, as a good GM should.
Finally, as Chris0 stated, in this AP you have a minimum of four NPCs to pick from to help round out the party in a pinch. I'd limit the party's ability to rely on that assistance, but if you know a particularly tough challenge is coming up, have an NPC tag along. For example, if the PCs are getting absolutely whalloped and no amount of behind-the-scenes hand-waving is going to fix it, have Shalelu suddenly show up like an avenging angel firing arrows from the nearby woods. Keep it to a minimum, though... you want the PCs to be the heroes, not the proverbial damsels in distress.
Edit/PS: You can also eventually allow the Leadership Feat if it's posing a long-term problem, but that won't kick in probably until Chapter 3 of the AP.
READ EACH ENCOUNTER BEFORE YOU RUN IT!
I cannot stress this enough, hence the capitals. Goblins are hilarious little buggers in Golarion, and if you play them correctly, your players will love you for it. I ran the first goblin encounter standard, and as written raw statwise they're actually tough little monsters who can do significant damage. But played as goofy, sadistic little beasts who spend time eating rats to cheer on their firework wielding allies, or circling round the pig-pen to leap like professional wrestlers from the top rope, they become highly entertaining.
Also, have everyone stop combat if a PC gets a crit on a goblin. The rest dance around maniacally and point and laugh at the gobbo cut in half by the PC.
Every encounter has some unique advice and flavor on it (save issues like stock monsters, such as the giant spider) and you can make your AP really flow with descriptive tweaks and encouraging atmosphere.
We like to play "Benny Hill", "Ride of the Valkyries", "Circus Music", "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies", and "I Get Knocked Down" when the goblins are on screen, for instance. Just quietly in the background.
You'll find lots of suggestions for making encounters harder or easier than their stats will suggest in the written descriptions, and while I've found that a 3pc group can handle just about everything once they survive to their first level-up, a +size party needs a little extra fodder to feel satisfied.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I can tell this thread will be useful to me, and I hope other people new to running the game will make use of it too.
Another thing I'm curious about is random encounters. I played plenty of D&D ages ago (mostly second ed., but also a little 3.0 back when it was pretty new.) and I've been playing in a Pathfinder game for a while, but I'm still not sure what the protocol is on these. Random encounters in Kingmaker seem pretty easy to determine (when camping, when moving from hex to hex, etc.) but I'm not sure how to handle it in Jade Regent other than...
I can get that there's no hard-and-fast rule for how often you have random encounters; they are random, after all. Some rough guidelines would be nice though. I'd hate to throw XP off track by having too many or not enough of them.
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Eel, you shouldn't have too much trouble with that particular random encounter chance. It's only rolled when they cross bridges, which are relatively few within the swamp. Between their exploration and where the adventure sends them, I wouldn't imagine they'll be crossing bridges more than 10 times or so, max.
Should it become a problem, though, simply self-regulate it. Have they killed a giant leech at one bridge? Don't have them fight another one there should they cross it again, even if you roll it a second time. Are they crossing bridges purposely to "farm"? Make them waste their time, this is Pathfinder, not an SNES RPG!
Eel, you shouldn't have too much trouble with that particular random encounter chance. It's only rolled when they cross bridges, which are relatively few within the swamp. Between their exploration and where the adventure sends them, I wouldn't imagine they'll be crossing bridges more than 10 times or so, max.
Should it become a problem, though, simply self-regulate it. Have they killed a giant leech at one bridge? Don't have them fight another one there should they cross it again, even if you roll it a second time. Are they crossing bridges purposely to "farm"? Make them waste their time, this is Pathfinder, not an SNES RPG!
Thanks for the advice. I'm not too worried about the PCs grinding for XP or anything like that. The thing with the bridges makes a lot of sense, and I'm glad they put that detail into the adventure. I guess, to put a finer point on it, what I'm asking about is general random encounter frequency. Should I just roll when they cross the bridges? Should I roll when they cross bridges, and when they take nightly watches when camping? Should I roll up a random encounter every time they enter a new room or map and place it where appropriate?
I'm probably overthinking this, but I'd hate to bog the game down with too many, or be too conservative with them.
Random encounters can throw off your XP curve for an adventure. Use the chances for them sparingly, or just -decide- where you want to have them show up.
My party had no random encounters at all in the swamp, but they were totalled by the samurai skeleton. They could really have used the XP from cutting their teeth on some goblin units or some giant leeches.
I'd just follow the guideline in the module, wherever possible. Meaning encounters are scripted in the cave and gob village and the shacks, and there's a 10-20% chance as appropriate when crossing any bridge for the first time that day.
Hi Eel and welcome to the boards.
If your party is overnighting in the swamp then they deserve everything you want to throw at them.Sandpoint is only an hours march(3-4 miles depending on which trail you are using) from the marsh and it shouldn't take them more than an hour to get out off the depression no matter where they are.
So it's possible to visit the 'Warden of the Marsh' and then return to town for the night..then head out again to find the goblins.
The 'Warden's' house also gives them a possible safe place to rest up if they insist on staying out till the job is done.
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I am hoping some of you can help me manage the impact on my wallet of running Jade Regent.
Which books are absolutely necessary for a GM to own in order to run the first module, Brinewall Legacy? Obviously, the Core Rulebook is needed. I also already own the APG and UM.
Do I need both Beastiaries?
Do I need Ultimate Combat? I have already said I will not allow the Gunslinger class, in order to minimize the modifications I need to make to my first Pathfinder campaign as GM.
Any other books necessary or super helpful to the campaign?
Eventually, I intend to own all of the titles I have already mentioned, but I'd like to be able spread out the economic hit over some time. Any advice is appreciated.
@Green Eyed Liar.
UC will be required very sparsely in the first chapter of the AP and to be honest if they get the stuff from there into the PRD as fast as they did with UM you might not need to buy it for a bit.
As to creatures there isn't anything that will be too hard, anything not on the PRD already has full statblocks given in the adventure itself as far as I can remember(given the caveat that I'm working from memory at the moment and don't have my PDF available)
Our group for Jade Regent has 7 players.
Creative Director
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Bestiary 1 AND Bestiary 2 will be very helpful, since we won't be running full stat blocks for monsters we take out of either of those two books in the adventure path. If you don't have either of these books, you can always just grab the stats themselves from the internet, but having those books or the PDFs handy at the game is what we assume.
There'll be ninja and samurai as well, but we'll be printing full stat blocks for them. The only part we won't be reprinting there would be the rules for any feats or spells or class abilities they might have from Ultimate Magic or Ultimate Combat, so those two books (as well as Advanced Player's Guide) will be helpful, but if you don't have them we'll give you enough info that you can fake it and your players will never know.
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Where can I get a PDF of Bestiary 2? I am gonna try to run Jade Regent but all we have is #1.
Snarky answer: The Paizo store.
Less snarky answer: Here is the Bestiary 2 page and that has the ability to add PDF separately from purchase, as most paizo products have.
Also the Bestiary 2 stats are available on the Pathfinder Reference Document.
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What is the policy with regards to providing links to snipped portions of the map? I ordered the pdf in part because I wanted the cool map, which was marketted as something we could show our players without spoiling the locations of secret doors and such. If I am running a pbp, can I show parts of the maps online?
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Creative Director
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What is the policy with regards to providing links to snipped portions of the map? I ordered the pdf in part because I wanted the cool map, which was marketted as something we could show our players without spoiling the locations of secret doors and such. If I am running a pbp, can I show parts of the maps online?
If you're running your pbp in a private messageboard that is essentially a board used by your own gaming group and that's it, yes. But you can't re-post our maps or artwork on a public messageboard.
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Could I email them directly to my players instead?
I promise I am not trying to circumvent your policies...I am just trying to figure out a way to run the campaign as I envision AND be fully respectful of your hard work and excellent product. I've become a pretty big fan of your pbp boards, and do not want to step on any toes.
Unrelated question...what time of year does this campaign start? I ask so that I can do a decent job of describing the environment, particularly when the players are outdoors.
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Creative Director
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Could I email them directly to my players instead?
I promise I am not trying to circumvent your policies...I am just trying to figure out a way to run the campaign as I envision AND be fully respectful of your hard work and excellent product. I've become a pretty big fan of your pbp boards, and do not want to step on any toes.
Unrelated question...what time of year does this campaign start? I ask so that I can do a decent job of describing the environment, particularly when the players are outdoors.
Emailing maps to the players works fine. That's not public. The trick is to avoid public dispersal of copyrighted material.