I'm going to start DMing again for a group in my local area and thought I would start with an AP, most likely Kingmaker, but I'm open to alternatives. I don't know the composition of this group or its numbers, it consists of my 3 of friends (who have 3.5 experience but no pathfinder experience) and an unknown number of "other people" who have "DND experience." My friends generally prefer hack and slash with some sand box thrown in, I don't know what the other people prefer.
So I'm asking a couple questions, generic advice for running AP's? (Besides, read the module thoroughly, already working on that one.) Is there something more hack and slash than Kingmaker? Anything else you think might be helpful for a DM who has never once ran a pre-written module?
If your group prefers Sandbox, then Kingmaker is the "Gold Standard." It also handles larger groups realtively well.
However, you will find that a fair amount extra role-playing and book keeping are Required, especially if you use the Kingdom Building rules.
From what I could see, the biggest complaint about the middle of Serpent's Skull was that it was very much a hack and slash fest. KingMaker has a lot of open ended RP aspects to it, or can, with the kingdom building and what have you.
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A quick rundown of the Paizo AP's for you:
Rise of the Runelords
STRENGTHS: Iconic by now amongst Paizo fans. Great characters, settings and memorable monsters leading up to an epic final confrontation. 3.5 rules aside it's the most standard and easy to get into heroic fantasy AP that Paizo have produced.
WEAKNESSES: Can be a little bit grim and nasty in places especially in the 3rd book. Mostly out of print and will cost a fortune to get in hardcopy at the moment (although a collected and updated edition is coming out next year.) Some encounters are notoriously difficult.
Curse of the Crimson Throne
WEAKNESSES: Criticised a little for leaving the city as it was about to get interesting.
Second Darkness
WEAKNESSES: Criticised for the 5th book which can lead to major anger from players. Some adventures are excellent but players may not be motivated to move on to the next module. A little bit of a railroad in places.
Legacy of Fire
Oh and there are some genies involved.
WEAKNESSES: If you don't like Arabian style adventures you are out of luck. Some major plane hopping which is not to everyone's tastes. Goes from one effective trap in book 4 to another in book 5 which can cause some frustration for players. No place to sell and restock supplies for a while
Council of Thieves
WEAKNESSES: Not the stirring revolutionary AP that a lot of people wanted. All city all the time can get a bit boring.
Kingmaker
WEAKNESSES: ...but not for everybody. Requires you to learn new rules for kingdom building. The sandbox nature of the game can lead the players into fights they may not be ready for. The final adventure can come out of nowhere for a lot of groups.
Serpent's Skull
WEAKNESSES: Not a huge number of places to sell gear you have found. Two cities to explore (one right after the other) could lead to fatigue and accusations that you are rehashing the same territory. Third adventure is not up to Paizo's usual standards. Mounted characters may encounter difficulties. Treasure earned is less than inspiring.
Carrion Crown
WEAKNESSES: If you don't like horror themed roleplaying this one is not for you. Links between the books are somewhat flimsy. By Paizo's own admission the final BBEG comes out of nowhere.
Jade Regent
WEAKNESSES: ...who are not really integrated well after the first book. Eastern theme may put some off. Not fully released yet.
Bear in mind that these are my own personal views and many people have other opinions on the various merits or otherwise of the AP's.
I would suggest that you do some research on the AP's that interest you then approach your players with a quick blurb about each one. Come to a consensus on which one you would prefer to run as a group. After all it's no good saying you want to run an AP that doesn't interest your players.
Here also are my 5 top tips for running prewritten adventures:
1) Manage player expectations.
A prewritten adventure will have it's own style, so make sure you let your players know what characters will work and what characters will fall flat. For example, an adventure may start at sea but 90% of it may take place in a dungeon where sea based skills and abilities will be useless. It's therefore important that you let the players know this.
Tied in with this is making sure concepts fit the campaign. If the campaign calls for revolutionaries try to steer the players away from government sympathisers. Likewise if a player has her heart set on playing a total coward in a game where you become lauded heroes, it may be an idea to steer her to a different concept (or at least a modified concept). Communication is the main thing, without it the players may feel railroaded and by extension resentful.
2) Preparation is still key
So the plot is written for you, the NPC's statblocks are generated, everything is there for you, so no work is needed right?
Wrong. I'm not saying that running a pre written adventure doesn't take out some of the grunt work of creating a game but nor does it mean that you have nothing that you need to do. The trick is not to memorise the whole thing but to get the flow of the plot as written. That way you can make the game flow to your style. Be confident in how the plot works. Ask yourself how the players get to a certain point and then make sure you give them the opportunity to get there. However...
3) Find the break points
A wise man once said that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Well the same can be said for RPG's. Of course it's feasible to allow your players to go completely off the rails and do something random. If the players want to spend their time running a bar rather than follow the plot then sure, knock yourself out if that's what you want to do.
That said by buying a prewritten adventure you have a perfectly acceptable plot that you have paid good money for. My contention is that you should try to run according to that plot wherever possible. Does that mean you should follow a plot religiously? No, and I will cover that in point 5. However if Bob the Lich is the enemy of the campaign it's a bit disappointing if the players don't end up fighting him.
To that end you have to find the break points. These are the points in an adventure where the writer will make an assumption about what the players will do and if they don't do it then the campaign can't continue. The trick is to identify these points before they come up and have a contingency plan in place in case the players don't do what the adventure assumes that they will do.
A good example is in Paizo's Legacy of Fire Adventure Path *obvious spoilers here folks*. The first adventure has one of the players become semi possessed by a friendly spirit. This is contingent on a particular monster hitting a PC and said PC failing a saving throw. If they don't become possessed then as written the plot comes to a shuddering halt in the second book because they wont find a secret passage without said spirit's help.
As a GM you have a few options here. Fudge things so someone automatically gets hit and fails the save (that's what I did btw) or have the secret door automatically found by the players. What you do is not important, what is important is that you identify these problems before they occur.
4) Messageboards are your friend
I think you already have this one covered but messageboards are a great resource for identifying issues with prewritten scenarios. Reading about what people are saying about an adventure gives you a great insight into the issues you can encounter when running it. It can help you identify problem encounters, plot issues and break points and the responses can help you mitigate problems before they occur. Use other's pain to your advantage.
For Paizo's AP's go to the section on this board and read through the threads that pertain to your chosen AP. The community is a huge resource, use it.
5) Personalise and alter
The last point and the most important. You know your players better than anyone else, what they like, what they hate and what helps you to all have a fun game.
Everybody's game is different even when it's a prewritten adventure. Running as written never works unless you adapt it for your players and their PC's. Find ways to include your PC's more closely in a plot, give them ties to important NPC's, implement their backgrounds into the plot. They will have much more fun if you do this. After all the story is about the players, they should feel intrinsically linked to the plot.
Also if there is an encounter that you don't like or you feel would work better in a different way then just alter it. The players will react better to interesting encounters than cookie cutter opponents. In addition no one likes annoying pointless obstacles. If an adventure has encounters that are not a threat but take up time (such as a Guards and Wards spell that isn't being monitored by an NPC) just handwave it. No one wants to sit rolling dice for no reason when they could be getting on with the plot
There's a lot there but I hope it helps.
Thank you all.
When do the kingdom building rules come into king maker? While my group generally enjoys leading armies and the like I'm afraid if I throw too many new rules at them too soon it will turn them off of the AP.
FallOfCamelot - GREAT help! Thanks!
To all - we are new to Pathfinder, but are chomping at the bit to do Jade Regent. We all love Asian-based adventures and this has some of that and also more traditional elements. Great!
However, we also wish we had already played Rise of the Runelords. I explained to the group that we could wait until the re-release in the spring but they don't want to wait.
So: while the first chapter of Jade Regent does a good job of explaining how to incorporate plot lines from Rise, what about going the other direction? What if we run Jade Regent first, then go on to Rise. Will the new bound version of Rise include suggestions about how to connect the two APs?
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FallOfCamelot - GREAT help! Thanks!
To all - we are new to Pathfinder, but are chomping at the bit to do Jade Regent. We all love Asian-based adventures and this has some of that and also more traditional elements. Great!
However, we also wish we had already played Rise of the Runelords. I explained to the group that we could wait until the re-release in the spring but they don't want to wait.
So: while the first chapter of Jade Regent does a good job of explaining how to incorporate plot lines from Rise, what about going the other direction? What if we run Jade Regent first, then go on to Rise. Will the new bound version of Rise include suggestions about how to connect the two APs?
Obviously I'm not an offical person so I can't answer that but...
[read spoiler only if you intend to GM both]Ameiko, at the start of JR, has seen her family die in horrific circumstances (father killed by son, who then kidnaps Ameiko, and is then killed by adventurers).
So, you would have to replace Ameiko and her whole family.
But... you could do that pretty easily.
Bob, Ian and Sue could fulfil all of those roles, only Sue would just be running the Rusty Dragon for her employer who has gone far away.