I've just begun checking out the pdfs and I can't wait to inflict this on my players. One thing I'm worried about though is that I can't find any advancement rate suggested. It just feels wrong running this at fast progression, but will it work at medium? There's a whole lot of levels that need to be gained, especially if you have a large party.
It entirely depends on you group and what pace you prefer, but keep in mind the players need to stay quite a while out in the Desolation to gain enough xp to go up against Malerix(?).
If your group is not very fond of exploring around I'd go for fast, else medium which I believe it was written for.
If you plan to add other things too, then maybe slow progression is better.
Thanks Greg. I've waited many years for this and I love the way it ties into Rappan Athuk. I guess I'll still have to wait for the hardcover copy to fully grok it.
My major concern is that I want the set pieces to be the major highpoints and that if I have to stuff it with too much wandering monsters just to get the xp it will feel a bit grindy. But I have only been skimming so far and I like what I see.
I run it at slow, and they are between 9-11th level, fighting Malerix. 8 players strong. I can't believe how much they are complaining that the fight before entering the city is crippling them.
I ran a piece from Demons and Devils, and plan on using a few other Necro products to assist them in their travels. The game has been random encounter heavy because of die rolls.
We've had numerous lucky nights where nobody died. Tonight I think we reverse that trend with a karmic blow. Sorry, guys.
I've been running it at Medium and it's been spot on where it needs to be.
My players have just started exploring Tsar.
From what I have read it looks pretty dangerous throughout.
DaveMage,
How many players are in your group?
DaveMage,
How many players are in your group?
Six PCs.
DaveMage,
Thanks - I'll be running 6 as well.
My group varies from 4-6 depending on attendance here. They have just descended into the rift and are 8th level and having fun with gargoyles.
brvheart,
"4 - 6 depending on attendance" - does that mean you have characters appear/disappear based on who shows up? If it does I'm curious to know how that works out.
With children and other responsibilities we rarely have a full contingent but it means someone else plays a second character so that the party doesn't have a sudden loss in abilities/resources.
@Geo Fix, yeah unfortunately it does. Yesterday our wizard was out so I let them have Vilgara for the day so they would not be short on arcane. They may have 6 characters one week and two of them are different the next game. We developed the character bag of holding concept many years ago for characters that were not here that week. Our core group is 4-5 players that are there most of the time, but we have a turn over for the other spots. I try and not put the party into too much of a challenge when we have a short group (doesn't happen often) and try and add when we have a large one. The largest group I have had for RA is 13! It went pretty well considering. I split the encounters front and back of the group so everyone was involved. For instance the front of the group may be fighting the monsters in a room and a wanderer hits them from the rear. We have been doing it this way for about 10 years now and it seems to work for us. Some times when we have a large group we will split and run 2 games in 2 separate rooms. Did that for several months at one point last fall. My wife says she got the idea for the character bag of holding from Bugs Bunny!
@brvheart
Wow - You're a braver GM than I.
I spent over 20 years dming when we were glad when we had more than 1 or 2 players in 1E so I am not complaining!
As I run the game at a slow rate, they are finding side quests here and there. Tonight they are delving into the Sewers of the Underguild, in Liches and Vampires from Necromancer Games...
I wanted to run events like this in the mid-campaign so they would be able to enjoy other things that I thought were cool....