My group is complaining about the pace of the Serpent's Skull adventure.
We've only been playing for two weeks so far, but they are complaining and I can't exactly blame them. Almost nothing has happened so far. I think they were hoping for more of a dungeon crawl.
I was considering throwing a dungeon from another module into the middle of the island as a "ancient ruin". And use that to level them before they go off to the cannibal's camp and mountain. What do you think?
And if you think that is a good idea, any suggestions on which module to steal a dungeon from?
Remember APs are just the "bigger picture". What you do with it is up to you. If the PCs show interest in a minor area or topic in the AP, it is your choice to expand on it.
Isle of Dread was a good 2.0 module that was out there and could be easily converted.
Are they still on Smuggler's Shiv? Because it sounds like it.
Remind them that THEY SET THEIR OWN PACE with Smuggler's Shiv (as well as books 3 and 4). If they pick a place to go, they'll find something to do. Hell, there IS an ancient ruin area to explore in there.
Though you should know that if you're the GM, since you've read the whole book, right?
It's your group and you are the GM so it's up to you to pace the game however you see fit. I never run AP's "as is" personally, I'd rather add and take things from them to suit my style and my group's style. So I say go ahead and do whatever you think would be the most fun for your group and pick up the pace!
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What the other people said about the PC's setting their own pace.
If your players aren't used to this sort of gaming, then they are likely waiting for something to happen. If they head further into the jungle, things will certainly begin to happen. You should probably be liberal is deciding if they are close enough to a Key location on the map to trigger the event. I didn't make my PC walk right over the 'K' on the map but just be in the general area of the 'K.'
Also, if you don't think that the PCs are liking to get things moving along, then start things up for them with a little random encounter. I recommend an attack from the cannibals. Realizing there is a hostile group on the island will probably get them scheming and exploring. Feel free to have the cannibals kidnap an NPC or two.
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@Sloanzilla
Yeah, I forgot about the NPC quests. Once my PC's realized that they get tangible lasting benefits for helping the Castaways they were all about that, to the point of being a little nosy in fact.
EDIT: Also, I wasn't sure if it had been done yet, but I flagged this to be moved to the Serpent Skull Forum.
Thank you all for the great tips. I really like this Adventure but, as I said, my group seems to be disliking the pace. I will encourage them to explore more and try to get the NPCs interacting more to push them in one direction or another (if it comes to that). I also really like the idea of the different land-arks on the island peaking interest. I think that would work wonders.
I'm still fairly new to DMing. In fact, this is my first Pathfinder adventure. Before this I only did Star Wars Saga Edition.
Also, thanks for flagging it for a move. I didn't see the sub-forum for it.
As well, try putting the map up for them so they can see it better.
It might be a bit "game-y" but they may be more likely to participate if they have a clear goal like 'I want to head for Area K, and see what's there!" our group had a lot more fun once we did this.
Foreshadowing helps on Smuggler's Shiv.
Have them encounter footprints that lead in the general direction of the cannibal's camp or anything else you think would be interesting.
Have the Red Mountain Devil make a kill a couple hundred yards from camp - loud and noisy in the night but only blood if they check it out.
If they are on the beach they may see the Dryad swimming in the distance.
Have one of the NPC's vanish - except for tracks. They can run into trouble and need rescue or just wander to somewhere interesting.
Have the goats turn hostile...it's dangerous and funny at the same time. Even if it isn't foreshadowing.
There is also Ishouru's treasure map.
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To add onto Geo Fix's suggestions: It flat-out says in the book to do some heavy foreshadowing about the Red Mountain Devil. And if your adventurers/players are worth their salt; that should get them motivated, if only to save their own lives.
When I start this Monday, odds are I'll 'fast-track' the PCs to certain spots, especially if they're close enough. For example, if they decide to explore east.. after checking for a couple of random encounters, I'll just say "after a bit of travel, you come across (insert Area here)."
I really didnt like it.
Can get bogged down in too many random encounters, whinging npcs and endless disease rolls.
it was easily the longest single mod timewise to complete for our group.
I really didnt like it.
Can get bogged down in too many random encounters, whinging npcs and endless disease rolls.
it was easily the longest single mod timewise to complete for our group.
I agree about the disease checks. Frankly, I have mostly ignored that aspect. Later I might slap one on them, but I'm not going to have them get infected every other day. It seems silly.
On that thought, I have kind of smoothed over a lot of rolls and checks like that with them. Having them need to roll all kinds of checks just to move around the island kind of seems to be what they are getting fed up with. I still do the "heat of the day" rolls but I skip a lot of the other rolls. I think it keeps things moving a lot better.
That said, I will still throw wandering monsters and other encounters at them now and then. But only enough to keep them interested and scared. But not so much that they start groaning in frustration
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I've not long finished running this scenario and was lucky enough to have a group that were quite happy to self start and go looking for things to do. I dropped the number of checks per day to one for heat and one for disease to move things a bit quicker and to save me a little bit of book keeping. On the whole it went pretty well, wandering monsters kept them busy and they were hell bent on checking the shipwrecks for survivors, equipment and treasure.
I used the Red Mountain devil to keep them on their toes, the ideas they had as to what it may have been were certainly interesting although one of the group guessed it bang on, then was nearly killed by it on the rope bridges at the gorge.
On the whole we really liked it. It was quite refreshing to have a scenario that was a bit more player driven rather than me having to set the pace and the players liked the sandbox feel to it as well. All of which means I'm really looking forward to getting them to Saventh-Yhi.
The saying in my game is "Got to collect them all." It is a refrence to how often they got sick.
I suggest a liberal use of the "montage" effect on the road to Saventh-Yhi. Depending on how often your group plays that road is long.
I always go by the rule of thumb that if it isn't fun, don't include it. For the most part I ignored the illness roles, and once the PCs figured out that working in the heat of the day was bad, we came to an agreement that we'd just assume they took a rest during that time.
I also compacted time alot when the PCs were just grinding out hacking through the jungle. I'd ask them at the beginning of a game day where they were looking to head, either a direction, or towards a landmark, and then tell them they could cover x amount of ground in that direction, given the break for heat, etc. If that happened to cross near an encounter area, they'd trigger the encounter.
The group I had had a BLAST with climb and swim rolls, failing a LOT of them, but also coming up with clever ways to avoid damage (lots of rope was involved). When they came across interesting features in the landscape (trails, remnants of camps, etc), I played up the descriptions, made them make a lot of perception rolls, and described everything using as many of the senses as I could. The party soon became very wary of smells on the island, and often the lack of sound, things like that that kept things interesting, so the PCs would pay attention. If you make the game about the story, and the journey, rather than the "fight stuff and loot it", then you don't need to worry overly much about players being bored or losing interest.
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The AP, for the most part, is pretty sandboxy and that requires a fair amount of self direction and motivation on the part of the PCs. They set the pace of a sandbox and so a sandbox type game may not be the best choice for your group of players. Not everyone likes sandboxes just like not everyone likes more linear or plot-based games. It's just a matter of finding the right game for the right people and this may not be the right game for you guys.
I run games for two different groups right now and just started Serpent's Skull for my Friday group. They are the kind of folks that will dive into a sandbox and enjoy the hell out of exploring and setting their own pace. My Saturday group however, is mostly folks that get lost in a sandbox and really don't have any fun without clear goals and lines leading them to the next part of the adventure.
EDIT: I just realized I necroed a thread that was nearly a year dead. I really should make a point of looking at the dates of posts before I offer up advice...