| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Our group had just finished a 3.5 campaign (me as a player), and the next campaign fell through. I had recently purchased the entire COTCC path and decided to try my hand at GMing it! We're just over a year into it, and have just started Book 6.
It has been my favorite experience in gaming as a GM or a player, and it seems that the players are enjoying it equally much! I try to weave the players into the story as much as possible. For example the Phalanx Fighter PC is a subnoble house trying to make a name in Korvosa, but overshadowed by Vencarlo's fighting school. Or the Oracle PC is actually a noble, who has been 'adopted' by Vencarlo. The Kobold Bard PC is one of Lamm's Lambs with ties to the Temple of Shelyn... that his Bronze Dragon mother is the head priestess of.
To make things harder for the players, I sometimes do some evil evil things....
1) The Cowhammer Boys from Book 1 escaped their 'execution' during the chaos of Blackjack saving Trinia and have made multiple cameos. Most of the have been killed, but one Cowhammer Boy remains and has actually been hired by the father of my Spartan PC as his personal bodyguard.
2) Rolth has turned into the most notorious of reoccurring villain. He has killed off the family of my Oracle PC (she didn't really like them though), he used the heads Vreeg and Cabbagehead to replace Gaekhens to make a 2 headed flesh golem. He turned the Oracle PC's birth mother into a golem zombie to lure the adventurer's into a trap. Finally - he conspired with Vimanda Arkona and set up a most diabolical plan. The Oracle PC I speak of was a noble, Vimanda took the identity of this PC and planned to marry Rolth so that they would both become nobles and eventually take over Korvosa. Vimanda has recently been slain, but Rolth remains at large.
3) I felt I was being too generous with the PC's, and one has expressed interest in switching characters. The Demilich promptly killed this PC (causing a big stir in my group as they faced permanent death for the first time). The character rerolled a Summoner and has been playing this one ever since.
4) The previously mentioned oracle PC was Vercarlo's adopted daughter, and somehow got involved in an arranged marriage with Krojun, yes THE Krojun. She has since 'fallen in love' with Krojun.
5) My Magus PC fell in love with Cressida Kroft.
6) My kobold bard PC befriended the Red Reaver with his beautiful music.
7) As a random encounter, the party found that a Pugwampi has taken residence under their cart. This Pugwampi was befriended.... however his curse was modified to a "Critical Misses auto confirm" curse - to enemies and allies alike. As evil as this sounds, this one has proven to be my personal favorite.
8) The Lady Andaisen fight happened simultaneously with the PC's releasing the Leukodaemon - it turned out to be one of the most memorable and rewarding fights the PC's had.
Well, there's more but this is all I can think of - and I apologize as a long time reader and first time poster, hopefully more posts to come!
Sounds like a blast. I especially like the fact that you took the AP and made it yours, adding in your own twists to suit yout players and their style.
And welcome to the active side of the boards, HH.
A year! How often / how long do you play?
I'm new to Pathfinder, and I don't currently have a gaming group, or even know people who would be interested in my life long geeky hobby. Instead, I am forced to run PbP games online.
I have the stupidly ambitious idea of trying to run the CotCT adventure path in this format. If it's taken your group a year to play through on the table top... wow. Hope I don't die of old age before this is over. I'll be amazed if any of my original players make it through.
We're playing with kids (7 and 10), so we play 3 times a week, 3-4 hours per session. (Lots of little sessions instead of one long one).
So say 10 hours/week.
And we've been at it for around 30 weeks now, so we've been roughly 300 hours to get to book 6.
On the other hand, I'd guess that a good 40-60 hours of that was side adventures to get the characters up to the "recommended" level for each module (they've wandered all over Varisia performing side quests), but you're still looking at 250+ hours of game time.
It depends on your party; we're very heavily into roleplaying, so the combats are "as short as possible", and the intercharacter interaction is lengthy, and I spend a lot of time storytelling and getting the scene "just right" to keep the kids enraptured. (My 7-year-old won't leave the table while I'm describing scenes, which makes me VERY proud).
P.S. Yeah, I know. 300 hours for 5 books at $19.95 apiece. I could take my family to Cirque du Soleil for 3 hours for $300, or run a module for 60 hours for $20. Hmmm.... I wonder which has the better entertainment value?
I really like the bit about Rolth and the Two-Headed Golem. I will definitely use this in my campaign.
Btw.: My "Grognard-Only" group plays approx. once a month. So it has taken more then a year just to get to Book 2. :-)
I'm new to Pathfinder, and I don't currently have a gaming group, or even know people who would be interested in my life long geeky hobby. Instead, I am forced to run PbP games online.
I have the stupidly ambitious idea of trying to run the CotCT adventure path in this format. If it's taken your group a year to play through on the table top... wow. Hope I don't die of old age before this is over. I'll be amazed if any of my original players make it through.
You never know -- I've been playing in a play-by-post of the Savage Tide adventure path for almost 4 years so far, and most of the players have been playing for almost that long!
We're not even half done, though... :-)
Ah, Jenner2057, don't get me started.
My wife calls me a "Pathfinder addict" because I buy a full new AP every month "to catch up", even though we haven't even finished our first one...
...and yet I'm not the one running through the house after dinner going, "Scarwall! Scarwall! Scarwall!" ;-)
P.S. Yes, she reads these boards.
P.P.S. Yes, we have a comfy couch.
Well, I'm not as active on these forums as I like. My CotCC group has completed their journey. I even added a bonus chapter where they fought Kazavon himself and his invading army. It was a ton of fun and I made an ending video for the group. I had to learn Windows Movie Maker on the fly to do it, so it is admittedly not the best!
Here it is, I figure someone out there besides my players might enjoy it!
http://youtu.be/qvcVOAiiGoU
Sounds like you guys had a blast. I've just begun this one myself and already I can see great things happening. You've given me some great ideas.