My 13yo daughter has been running BB for myself and a few of her friends - we alternate weeks and I run Labyrinth Lord.
She's finished up both Black Fang and the mine adventure from the GM Kit. I know she plans to work up some of her own adventures, but I'd like to pick up the first part of one of the APs to give her something to sink her teeth into and get an idea of how to begin laying out a campaign.
Which one would you recommend as the best model for her to learn from? I'm leaning towards Jade Regent just because it's the most recent and still easily obtainable. Classes used isn't an issue, since we have Ed o' War's BB stuff, but she'd need to convert a lot of the new monsters and ignore a bunch of non-BB info obviously.
So... Thoughts?
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I'd suggest modules rather than a whole AP campaign arc at this stage. At that age I started off running fun one-shot adventures, which eventually linked into each other and then eventually again became campaigns.
Well, to be honest, that was my 10x10 room with a large dragon and a treasure chest stage!
The key thing to encourage is her doing her own thing with adventures. I can't stress that enough. Feed her some good modules to read and then get her to write something that was inspired by them. Do you have Dungeon back-issues to mine?
I've picked up PDFs of Everflame and Fangs from the Past. Also have lots of old Dungeon issues - nothing as new as 3.5 though. I'd rather not have her need to convert stuff if she doesn't need to.
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I second the idea that a single module would be MUCH more appropriate than a full AP. And don't feel limited to just Paizo material either. There's plenty of 3PP stuff that's just as good, or even better, than the stuff Paizo puts out.
Frog God Games has some great short modules in their Saturday Night Special and One Night Stand lines. If you can't resist the lure of a campaign, but would rather it be broken into easier to swallow chunks, they also have the Spinters of Faith series.
Thanks for the advice guys. I do have a couple of modules, as I said, and some other odds and ends, but wanted to pick up the first part of an AP just to give her a bit more to look forward to, as she gets more comfortable as a DM. I think I will grab Jade Regent since it's readily available, and maybe the PDF of Rulelords - thought that's till the 3.5 version. Maybe I'll just hold off until the updated PF version is released,
The first module of Jade Regent is a good one to go with Koren. You can dial up or down the oriental adventure theme depending on group taste. It also gives a good variety of 'types' of adventuring for a burgeoning GM. And at the end you get a full campaign overview that could inspire her to either run them all, or get an idea of how the campaign unfolds from beginning to end.
In terms of the merits of Brinewall Legacy you've got a bit of wilderness exploration, dealing with a great group of iconic menaces (have her read We Be Goblins!), a cool journey through some of the more interesting locales in Varisia (RotRL#3: Hook Mtn Massacre has a Varisia gazetteer that can help bring those to life), a few story-telling plot elements to work in along the way, and a really fun site-based delve at the end.
I have been running Brinewall Legacy for a couple of old friends this past week by request. Even though I was a bit 'meh' on Jade Regent as a whole going in, BL has turned out to be some of the most fun I've had GM'ing in years. For a new GM it could really fan the fires of geekdom that any loving parent should light under their kids :-)
I'm just curious.
I've said this many times. Pick one that you and your players like the look of and run that. They are all good.
Be aware that Second Darkness and Serpent's Skull need some work and you are all set.
What about Kingmaker, with its Kingdom Building rules? They sound kind of confusing to me. Might that AP be too difficult for a child to run? Or to play? How does anyone feel about that?
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Kingmaker is a great AP, but even the first book would be difficult for a new GM. It is very open and the players can choose to go anywhere on the map so the GM needs to be prepared with all of Book 1 before the first session. Also, it requires juggling a lot of variables as the party moves through the wilderness. Not an easy adventure for a newbie to run.
I doubt we have any interest in the kingdom building aspect of Kingmaker, so that's out.
@Herbo - thanks for posting, I think there's some good thoughts there.
@Camelot: What do you mean by "adult material"? Kids today are pretty immune to most stuff. My girls will watch Law & Order (even SVU), CSI, NCIS and so on with no worries from me.
I also would recomend the 1st AP in Jade Regent, combined with the 1st Rise of the Runelords AP. The 1st Jade Regent repeats and recaps a lot of things from the Rise of the Runelords, and the new Rise of the Runelords Player's guide is out (nice maps of Sandpoint and Varisia, and overview of Varisia). The 1st Rise of the Runelords AP also describes Sandpoint in detail, while the 1st Jade Regent gives a great overview of the land around Sandpoint (and plenty of adventure plothooks for a variety of lower levels). Not to mention that any dungeon of tomb you wanted to drop in could be in the Tors nearby. (I confess I used bits of 'Hollows Last Hope' and the 'Kobold King' dropped into the Tors, reset for Sandpoint.)
Between the two, you should get a very workable place for many adventures, with the threads of 2 APs to work off of.
And the module Feast of Ravenmoor happens just a short distance away too.
Edit: As for "adult material" in the 2nd and 3rd Rise of the Runelords... the haunted manorhouse and inbred Ogrekin jump to mind right away. Let's just say I had some adults feeling a bit "squeemish" with the discriptions. It is something that you should read for yourself, as it is nighmare inducing to some people.
@Camelot: What do you mean by "adult material"?
In terms of analogies, The Skinsaw Murders (Part 2 of RotRL) has a few "Seven" (the movie) moments and a bit of gotcha-spookiness (similar to many of the haunted horror movies to come out in the last decade). Hookmountain Massacre (Part 3 of RotRL) has some real hillbilly horror (the Hills Have Eyes) moments.
Again, it may be a non-issue...but Richard Pett and Nick Logue are from the lower planes and they like to scare children for no reason and pull the wings off flies to hear their tiny screams. If I were in your shoes, I'd at least breeze through them beforehand. While the players may not get the full effect...preparing these adventures is a full experience for the GM/your daughter.
Fair enough guys, thanks for the heads up. If we ever get that far, I'll look them over first. For now, I'll try to rustle up a PDF of Runelords 1 and the players guide to give her a little sandbox to build in.
Incidentally, has anyone had a chance to run Skulls & Shackles yet?
I bought the first book, but it hasn't arrived yet.
If you've tried it... how would you rate it in difficulty to run?
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Incidentally, has anyone had a chance to run Skulls & Shackles yet?
I bought the first book, but it hasn't arrived yet.
If you've tried it... how would you rate it in difficulty to run?
I subscribed to the AP line to get this series, although I haven't yet had a chance to run it. My initial impression was that it's not the easiest adventure to run - a lot of it depends on just how well you can roleplay the vast cast of NPCs to let your players get a good feel for the shipboard life. You'll also need to be prepared for your players to find some way to deviate from the storyline of the module, and work out how you're going to get them back close enough to the plot for the next chapter to make sense.
My local VC is running this AP, and I'm watching over his shoulder as he does so. Admittedly he's got an extremely 'creative' hand-picked group of players, but everything I've seen so far bears out my opinion. I'm glad he's the one trying to steer that ship, not me :-)
Oh - and watch out for the rum ration.
The roleplaying various NPCs is a plus for me, as my other main hobbies are acting and improv.
So that's something I'm looking forward to... we'll see how the rest bares out once I get a chance to look at the book.