Hi all,
I'm going to be running RotRL soon. I was looking over the character creation rules on the PRD and noticed that there are different levels of campaign types, low fantasy to epic fantasy. This will be the first time I've dm'ed in years (lots of years) and I'm playing with a few newbies and very inexperienced players. I want to avoid TPK's, been there done that, usually not a good thing. But I also don't want the PC's the bowl over any of the opposition and not be challenged at all.
There will be 5 players and 1 DM. 3 of the players range in age from 8 to 12, the other two players are in their 30's. My 10 yr old is playing a a fighter type, not sure if that is a straight up fighter, a paladin, range, or whatever. My younger son wants to play an assassin, so that mean rogue. My friend is going to be cleric. I'm don't know what my other friend (the only other one besides me with a lot of experience in rpgs) and his son are going to be yet. We haven't gotten that far.
In terms of prep, they all have the player's guide. I've read it, and I just downloaded the first adeventure. I'll be perusing this forum for ideas, hints and tricks.
So, looking for any good advice on point buy and I guess anything else you guys can help me out with.
Thanks,
Creeping Death
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Hi all,
I'm going to be running RotRL soon. I was looking over the character creation rules on the PRD and noticed that there are different levels of campaign types, low fantasy to epic fantasy. This will be the first time I've dm'ed in years (lots of years) and I'm playing with a few newbies and very inexperienced players. I want to avoid TPK's, been there done that, usually not a good thing. But I also don't want the PC's the bowl over any of the opposition and not be challenged at all.
There will be 5 players and 1 DM. 3 of the players range in age from 8 to 12, the other two players are in their 30's. My 10 yr old is playing a a fighter type, not sure if that is a straight up fighter, a paladin, range, or whatever. My younger son wants to play an assassin, so that mean rogue. My friend is going to be cleric. I'm don't know what my other friend (the only other one besides me with a lot of experience in rpgs) and his son are going to be yet. We haven't gotten that far.
In terms of prep, they all have the player's guide. I've read it, and I just downloaded the first adeventure. I'll be perusing this forum for ideas, hints and tricks.
So, looking for any good advice on point buy and I guess anything else you guys can help me out with.
Thanks,
Creeping Death
There is a notororious party killer at the end of book 2. Book 3 contains elements that are seriously not suitable for most of your group given the age range. You can minimise them, but be aware they're there. There's also an encounter in the first book that can be rough for younger players in terms of tone (the goblin in the cupboard). You might want to make that less horrific in its consequences.
As for point buy: 15 is the official standard of Adventure Paths, Most people play with 20, though, abnd that would give your group a little extra survivability.
RotRL is also a 3.5 AP so some work might be needed occasionally to make it fully compatible.
You can fing the conversions to PF here.
Also tone down the final encounter of the second book as Paul said.
Use fast xp track.
Even with 5 players 20 point buy shouldn't be much, especially if most of your players are kids.
You should watch out for some R-rated material, one in the first book, a few in the third, also i have heard that RotRL even makes use/mention of rape, so you should be aware of those and deal with them accordingly.
Hmm... It looks like I'm going to have to make some changes to get this to a PG rating, which I don't mind too much. Thanks for the advice, keep it coming.
Sexual themes, I want to steer clear of... violent and grotesque themes I can downplay and rewrite. You don't have to go too far to get the point across to children that these people/monsters are really evil and need to be eradicated/brought to justice.
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Hmm... It looks like I'm going to have to make some changes to get this to a PG rating, which I don't mind too much. Thanks for the advice, keep it coming.
Sexual themes, I want to steer clear of... violent and grotesque themes I can downplay and rewrite. You don't have to go too far to get the point across to children that these people/monsters are really evil and need to be eradicated/brought to justice.
Book 3 features in-bred hillbilly ogres who make the cast of Deliverence look like nice normal people.
There's also some problematic pieces in book 5 as that's all about the Runelords and their Sin magics. The Lust section could be tricky for your group.
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Also bear in mind that RotR is being officially converted to Pathfinder and released as a single book. Apparently there is some room for a few new bits and they are fixing you know who from book 2.
Doesn't help you now of course but if you are prepared to run something different for a while and wait for a few months all the work may be done for you.
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Are you absolutely wedded to RotRL? I know they've already started workign up concepts but another AP might work better. Curse of the Crimson Throne is another very good campaign without so many adult content situations.
There is
[EDIT} Also, the linked moduels of The Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God and City fo Golden Death might be easier to cope with. An AP is a long commitment, especially with so many youngsters. You're looking at a year or more from start to finish of the AP, so keeping attention might be an issue.
Just for the sake of discussion, i have heard that the legacy of fire and kingmaker are the most family friendly APs, for Kingmaker i can speak from experience that it is indeed a very family friendly AP.
Just for the sake of discussion, i have heard that the legacy of fire and kingmaker are the most family friendly APs, for Kingmaker i can speak from experience that it is indeed a very family friendly AP.
However, while family friendly Kingmaker is best played by players with some experiance and might not be the best choice for a group new to the game.
Just for the sake of discussion, i have heard that the legacy of fire and kingmaker are the most family friendly APs, for Kingmaker i can speak from experience that it is indeed a very family friendly AP.However, while family friendly Kingmaker is best played by players with some experiance and might not be the best choice for a group new to the game.
I had the opposite experience, the 15 minute workday tends to make games easier.
Having never seen Deliverance, I don't know the reference. We plan on playing about 4 hours a month, so I'll have plenty of time to edit things.
Unfortunately I bought some of the modules in PDF format. However, I do have another group that I can get together with so not all is lost. I think I'll settle on 20 point buy and edit the modules. If it gets too hard or bad, I'll just stop with this group and do another adventure path.
Thanks,
Creeping Death
At 4 hours a month, you'll be in RotRL a long time. We just finished it, playing 4 hours a week and it took about a year.
I would suggest Crypt of the Everflame. It's a module rather than AP. And it sounds good for your group mix.
The players start off as youngsters in a village chosen to do a coming-of-age quest.
A harmless village tradition (in which nobody has ever died and the "monsters" and traps aren't deadly) turns out to be very much a life or death struggle.
They even use one of the battle mats for the dungeon, so you can pick that up for added visual effect.
Having never seen Deliverance, I don't know the reference. We plan on playing about 4 hours a month, so I'll have plenty of time to edit things.
Deliverance is possibly an understated example. Say rather The Hills have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or any of the other backwoods mutant cannibal clan movies.
I'm running RotRL now, using the Pathfinder rules.
If you are using the Pathfinder rules, you will find that the XP available in the adventures does not match the XP progression of the characters. To put it another way, if you run the adventures as is, your players will be behind in experience level for the adventures you are trying to run.
I'm adding stuff of my own, as well as other published adventures, so I can feed my PCs enough XP to achieve the suggested level for the next book.
Also,
I agree, there is a lot of stuff in RotRL that may not be age appropriate for your players. Lots of brutality and sexual references. Keep an eye out.
I'm running RotRL now, using the Pathfinder rules.
If you are using the Pathfinder rules, you will find that the XP available in the adventures does not match the XP progression of the characters. To put it another way, if you run the adventures as is, your players will be behind in experience level for the adventures you are trying to run.
I'm adding stuff of my own, as well as other published adventures, so I can feed my PCs enough XP to achieve the suggested level for the next book.
Are you using medium or fast xp track?
Are you using medium or fast xp track?I'm running RotRL now, using the Pathfinder rules.
If you are using the Pathfinder rules, you will find that the XP available in the adventures does not match the XP progression of the characters. To put it another way, if you run the adventures as is, your players will be behind in experience level for the adventures you are trying to run.
I'm adding stuff of my own, as well as other published adventures, so I can feed my PCs enough XP to achieve the suggested level for the next book.
Medium. I suppose I could use fast, but I actually like breaking up the adventure with my own stuff. It allows me to mix in elements from the PC's backstories.
Medium. I suppose I could use fast, but I actually like breaking up the adventure with my own stuff. It allows me to mix in elements from the PC's backstories.Are you using medium or fast xp track?I'm running RotRL now, using the Pathfinder rules.
If you are using the Pathfinder rules, you will find that the XP available in the adventures does not match the XP progression of the characters. To put it another way, if you run the adventures as is, your players will be behind in experience level for the adventures you are trying to run.
I'm adding stuff of my own, as well as other published adventures, so I can feed my PCs enough XP to achieve the suggested level for the next book.
That's the problem. (it's a problem if you don't add more things and more xp than written)
The PF CR xp awards are about the same as they were in 3.5 (sure there is no scaling with level but with appropriate level the CR xp awards are about the same in PF and 3.5), and the fast xp track is very close to 3.5's xp table.
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For exp track, my group uses fast as well. I never bothered to check to see how close just a straight conversion might make it, and I do have to add alot of stuff since I have 7 players, but it appears that itll work out fairly close.
There is another thread around here someplace that lists suggested leveling up points. I use that as a general guideline so I know roundabout how much exp the party needs to gain between where they currently are and the next spot on the list.
Edit: Here is the link