Hey there fellow Pathfinders - it's the DM newbie asking some questions again.
---This thread will contain spoilers for Crown of the Kobold King---
I am currently DMing a group of 6 players. We're all newbies to tabletop RPGs and sometimes we don't progress very quickly. My group is varied and they often conjure up out-of-the-box ideas to deal with problems. This makes things fun but it can also make things go very slowly.
In short, I'm wondering how much progress we should be making in a single play session. We play once a week for 3-4 hours.
We have the following characters, all level 2:
Fighter
Rogue
Monk
Ranger
Druid
Sorcerer
In the Crown of the Kobold King quest module, the group just entered the main dungeon and began exploring it.
Here is how much progress they've made:
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They entered room number 1 which has 4 kobold warriors and 2 kobold slaves. They fought and killed 3 out of 4 warriors, and used charm person on the remaining one. They took the slaves and put the dead kobold warrior's armor on them.
They sent one kobold slave into room number 2, which had a grick inside. The kobold died. The group investigated the room and promptly left once they found out about the grick's dr/magic. It was eating a kobold, so there was no combat.
They progressed north to room 3, fought the shocker lizards inside and won. The rogue detected a trap in the next room, so they sent the charmed kobold warrior into the room. It died. The ranger tried to disarm the trap room and failed, taking damage and triggering the trap. The rogue attempted to disarm it (with help) and succeeded.
They entered room 8 which housed an allip. They fought and won. Jeva, the werewolf NPC, had to pee and convinced the group to wait in the trap room. Two of our female players stayed with Jeva to keep her safe, which resulted in them fighting the werewolf. They won the fight, although one of our girls (the sorcerer) was brought to -1 HP during the fight. Not a big deal, everyone healed up and prepared for what was ahead. Then the session ended.
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The group ultimately cleared 6 rooms out of 33, and won 4 battles.
The crew usually discusses things a lot before making decisions. Tonight, I accidentally scared the party into thinking they would die... after I told them I wasn't going easy on them and explained the death mechanics of Pathfinder. Although I enjoy watching them solve problems, it just slowed down the progress even more.
I occasionally try to prod the group to make a decision, but I realize that discussing the game gets people involved. I don't want to interfere with their strategy. However, if one play session clears 6 rooms then it will take over a month to finish the rest of this module.
What would you recommend? Thank you for reading this, and thank you for being patient with a new DM.
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Even for a level 1 game, getting 4 battles, plus role-playing out of a 3-4 time span is pretty good. Not to mention you have a FULL 6 player party to manage.
I don't think you are being too slow at all.
That said I never played the module, and you mention there is a need to speed up the game. So...
Suggestions:
1) Give the party more story "hooks". Have them heard the screaming of people from inside certain cells, pleas for help, cries of children...etc. Maybe a stealthily NPC can steal one of the party's magic items and ran into a room with it.
Use these and other tricks to "hook" your party into the rooms. Make them face problems where time is of importance and they can't afford to spend 15 mins discussion who/how to open a door or enter a room.
2) "PUSH" them along. Have tunnels flood with flames, water or swarms of killer insects. The classic rolling boulder works too! Push them in the right direction if you think they are taking too long.
An example, there is a boulder coming down the hall way and there are 3 doors, which door do they do in? (Start counting down the time.)
Scare them! Hearing the roar of a monster coming from behind them can be a way to move them along. So can ghostly hands that erupt from the walls and other environmental effects.
3) Lure them along. Kinda like hooks, but instead of playing to their Conscience, play to their need for rest and relief. A "Safe Room" at the end of a dangerous area, can be a good lure to keep them pushing forward.
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3-4 hrs can only get your party that far a week. Don't kill the joy of the game by speeding it too fast along. Seek a balance.
Hope all these helps.
In a similar situation with my Kingmaker game, and I'm excited any week where my group makes that much progress. 6 encounters and 4 combats and no skimping on the roleplay sounds great.
My game goes quicker (if rougher on them) when everybody doesn't show and I get to run in that 3-5 player sweet spot instead. My sympathies to someone else dealing with an almost too large group and sessions that are too short.
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Hey there fellow Pathfinders - it's the DM newbie asking some questions again.
---This thread will contain spoilers for Crown of the Kobold King---
I am currently DMing a group of 6 players. We're all newbies to tabletop RPGs and sometimes we don't progress very quickly. My group is varied and they often conjure up out-of-the-box ideas to deal with problems. This makes things fun but it can also make things go very slowly.
In short, I'm wondering how much progress we should be making in a single play session. We play once a week for 3-4 hours.
We have the following characters, all level 2:
Fighter
Rogue
Monk
Ranger
Druid
SorcererIn the Crown of the Kobold King quest module, the group just entered the main dungeon and began exploring it.
Here is how much progress they've made:
** spoiler omitted **...
if your playing games at 3-4 hours WEEKLY with up to 6 players you should be pretty happy(IMO)
Most of the PFS games are designed at that time frame with 4-5 players
In my experience, 4-5 hours is a goodly amount of time to play a sesson for weekly meetings...more than that and I'd tink you'd burn out or they would
More than 6 per session and honestly you'll need a break for your self or your plyaers
What would you recommend? Thank you for reading this, and thank you for being patient with a new DM.
Don't change what you're doing.
Also, bear in mind it's not imperative that a dungeon be "cleared" in order for the adventure to be a success. I ran that module (as well as the ones before and after it) and it's more fun when the players don't go room by room through the dungeon but are "drawn in" or "pushed along" as a previous poster said. Keep it dynamic.
If you can get through as many encounters as you are in a 3-4 hour time span with 6 players you are doing quite well I should think. I have 6 players in my group and we play for 4-5 hours every other week and we're usually lucky to get through 3 encounters in a session. /salute!
Thank you for your responses. I suppose I'll keep doing what I've been doing with the group.
After some research, it seems common for an adventure path to take 6 months to a year to complete. I like the game but it does seem to go very slow sometimes.
6 months to s year is pretty fast, that would require weekly sessions of 6+ hours I would guess. For most it would probably be 1-2 years.