So far my players have made it out of Restov and just finished the initial battle at Oleg's Trading Post. Some key points of interest.
We turned Nikta's Crossing (from book 3) into a neat side adventure where they got to meet Maegar Varn (the Nomen Heights group). He bragged about finding a decent map of the region (the Map folio map) while playing a dice gambling game (the example in the GameMastery Guide). The players having found no other reliable maps in the region gambled several items, until finally they bribed him to borrow it for a few hours so they could copy it. Other notable things, my players sometimes are on the fence and a little soft hearted, so when they saw bandits hanging from the wall and one in a crow's cage out in the cold weather it really set the scene for them. Locals had talked about some starving and going hungry because of bandits, because when you rob from people who don't have much, they do without and my players toughened up a little. Additionally, I had a drug dealer try and get our barbarian player hooked on drugs (from GM guide), I really wanted to try out those new rules.
So anyways, they got snowed in (using the weather chart for a cold climate) for a day and finally took off down to Oleg's. I had to give them a new map, because in book 3 you get an accurate map of the Restov-Oleg's journey, not in book 1. They get there and I play up the dark abandoned post atmosphere, but they hear some hammering noises. Now I'm a big fan of goblinscomic and I'm not a huge fan of racial steriotyping, so my first NPC is a lone goblin in a broken breastplate sitting in the fort chowing down on some meat. I had them preroll initiative as I always do in any situation just to raise tension. And the wizard, who was scouting for some reason, hailed the fort and the goblin starts yelling for Oleg. The tension in the room was huge and then a great look of relief passed over, they all got a little laugh about GetsthePig the goblin hunter.
My player's kept on trying to talk to Oleg, and Svetlana was described as a russian mail order bride, but they finally started listening to her as Oleg waived them off. My players figured out subtley that Oleg was very unhappy that they were mercenaries on a charter, not soldiers. They had a little discussion about how Oleg was probably not happy that they were there to claim land, not just protect them, it played out well. They were told about the bandits and the players designed a little wooden contraption that would slam the gate shut basically involving an engineering roll and a huge log and some rope. Given my group is 7 players, I doubled the number of bandits and the fight went off really well. My players interrogated the bandits and allowed the first one that surrendured to live, they executed the rest for banditry, especially Happs because he was yelling out racial insults to the elves the whole battle as he shot them (think Goblinslayer from Goblinscomic).
I had a carbunkle show up when the barbarian was chopping down a tree, he thought his character was hallucinating and the Gunslinger completely failed his perception so its a running gag now that the barbarian sees floating catapillars with jewels in their heads.
Overall, my players love this adventure so far. I was happy to find the entry on Maegar Varn (I think its in book 3/1?), so I could introduce him as a likeable and capable swordsman before book 3.
I've played up the cold climate alot, making my players check for weather everyday in fear of a blizzard or snowstorm, we have a very Game of Thrones atmosphere.
The party: Conan-ish Barbarian, Racist Elven Druid, Great Expectations (the book) Cavalier, Godchild (descendant) Oracle, Conniving Beggar Bard, Wandering Gunslinger, On the Run Wizard
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Sounds like an awesome beginning!
The three things I thought this AP sort of thrives on are: giving the players lots of choices, challenging perceptions of who is a monster and who is a "person", and differentiating each of the players as individuals despite the fact they adventure as a party.
It sounds like you are doing a great job of stimulating their imaginations and breaking preconceived notions regarding who can be an ally with the goblin (I love the name, btw!). The carbuncle encounter also sounds very cool, starting that "how each person experiences the Stolen Lands" aspect.
That sounds like a really cool start to the campaign.
I picked this AP to GM for the first time in almost 8 years. I'm rusty, but I'm slowly starting to hone my skills. I've been working up small details that aren't in the books as a way to, as the person above said, show the players that their notions of what a monster is. So far, they've allied with a kobold and saved the life of a small troll at the behest of their cleric because the player didn't assume that all trolls are completely evil.
It's been fun...some of the funnest campaigns we've played in all of our years of pen and paper gaming. Perhaps its because the GM, me, hasn't gotten burned out from wanting to play. We are 4 or 5 sessions in and they are about a 1/4 of the way into RRR, but we play for 10-12 hours a session, so they are getting 2 or 3 sessions worth of time in one.
I can't wait to hear more about your adventures.
Thanks for the compliments! I'll try and keep a summary going, because when I first started looking in these boards I was trying to see what other Dm's had done and see where I could improve.
The only development I have right now is that the party barbarian is interested in stealing Svetlana away from Oleg, he was apparently smitten with her at first sight.
I'm anxious to see which way they start out into the wilderness, I also just found some player handouts in the archives. I forget who made them, but they looked great!
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/kingmaker/kingmakerPlayerHandouts
I'll try and get my npc list posted in an attachment when I get a few minutes.
10/13/11 Update
After defeating the bandits and executing all of the ones who surrendered, except the first, the party spent most of the remaining day preparing the trading post for a second assault that they assume is coming. Having made preparations they got antsy and struck off into the wilderness with the hapless bandit lackey in tow. Now during the summary executions Happs admitted he would take them to the Bandit Camp and the surviving bandit admitted he might get lost in the forest on the way, but he'd do his best. After 4 days of failed geography/survival checks tempers were flaring at their supposed bandit convert named John. Several of the party believed he was leading them in circles intentionally, the cavalier had taken a special interest in his conversion and stood up for him, trying to show him a better way.
But on the fourth day, I rolled a random encounter with a hunter, who was surprised to see an armed group of 7 mounted people emerging from the woods, he fled at their approach and they surrounded him and the wizard tried to make a deal with him in regards to drawing the location of the bandit camp on the map. They were haggling price when the cavalier overran the hunter with his horse and demanded he give the information immediately and without payment, he thought the hunter a bandit and began making preparations to arrest the man, while the rest of the party sat in stunned silence. Without any other input and a few curses from the prone hunter, the cavalier impaled him with a lance. Now, our party is good and I was shocked, and tried to contain it as to not tip the party off. In reality the hunter was a CG, reformed criminal from Restov, one of my 50 pregen npc's I had made for the adventure.
A few days later, a minority in the party of seven were talking of bringing the cavalier up on charges of murder, which the rest of the party began to rebut as futile and counterproductive at best, at worst a struggle for the politically active mage to smear the cavalier's future run for King. As the party had already discussed upcoming roles as to who would assume what roles, had they they chance. So anyways, getting no satisfaction from group discussions the wizard challenges the cavalier to a duel, which is promptly dismissed. The barbarian starts belittling the cavalier for not accepting the duel and the gunslinger steps up to defend the cavalier's actions. This is where the game ended and roleplay by email started, I'm thinking the wizard is about to give a bad map to the rest of the party and try and beat them to the bandit camp, while the others have decidedly shunned the wizard (all in character).
My thoughts are, since I'm running the challenges with 2x monsters/npcs in fights for the 7 member party, the wizard will likely get trounced easily if he attempts his suicide mission. The roleplay is fairly intense and as a DM I find myself morally sided with the wizard, who admittedly is really trying to smear the cavalier and take the position of king eventually. My players did run through the fairies, which the wizard perceived with a natural 20 (always seems to happen with huge parties). Anyways, I borrowed the pranks list and some hilarity ensued, notably the wizard started trying to bribe the fairies and so far he's the only one exempt from their mayhem. My players failed to find the evidence of fairy mischief in the death of trapper Breeg. We will be resuming game at night, with the party camped on the shores of the Skunk River where the giant frogs are.
Game 3 overall opinion: Intense. Players are great role players and the adventure setup is keeping them motivated and intrigued.
I did the same thing.. I had Varn invite the party to their "Festival of the Four Winds" as soon as they started building their kingdom.. So they had 2-3 years of bonding, before ***cue music***
The Baron and Varn were getting to be real buddies, so imagine the impact in book TVV ;)
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In reality the hunter was a CG, reformed criminal from Restov, one of my 50 pregen npc's I had made for the adventure.
A few days later, a minority in the party of seven were talking of bringing the cavalier up on charges of murder, which the rest of the party began to rebut as futile and counterproductive at best, at worst a struggle for the politically active mage to smear the cavalier's future run for...
Your game sounds fantastic so far!
I'm definitely going to keep this encounter in mind for my playbook when I get started running KM in a few months. I'm chortling with wicked glee at the thought of Oleg asking the PCs if they've seen the man recently "a good man; had some troubles as a youngster but really cleaned himself up and made himself useful 'round these parts the last few years".