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So, I volunteered to run From Shore to Sea for an all day "mini-con" put on by one of the FLGS here in Austin. The coordinators placed modules in ~9 hours lots (10 if you took no breaks at all), so I knew I was going to be in for a time crunch. To speed up some of the more complicated moving pieces I made a number of tracking sheets/aids/handouts. Most of them were just reproductions of rules that would need to be used, but a number were custom. More on those in a moment.
As for running this in a PFS setting, a few observations. This way lies spoilers:
- Figure out a PFS oriented hook for caring about Blackcove..
Spoiler:My original "hook" was that they were traveling back to the nearest lodge in Cheliax after a round of guard duty at a dig of Azlanti ruins and worked well to explain why they were at the Hellmouth Coast and traveling together; it also meant they'd spent time together and knew each other in character. I thought that should be enough.
Only two of the characters at the table were good aligned and neither were of the more benevolent factions (Andoran & Silver Crusade). I found the party not terribly interested from a role-play perspective until the appraise check was made to realize the comb Adler offered them was of Azlanti origin. They were still happy to go help Blackcove, but I felt there was the meta-game action of "if we don't, we're done" going on without a good leaning group/good alignment driven lead PC.
- The PCs were much better prepared than I'd expected.
Spoiler:
If PFS has taught players anything by 5th-7th level, it's to be prepared. I was concerned being on the island without a reliable way back might make the module a bit too difficult, as they could not retreat to retrieve resources or aid from Blackcove's Druid in the event the healer was lost/incapacitated. One of the joys of a module over a scenario is that you can, at times, retreat to lick your wounds when things go bad. But the party had plenty of items in addition to the loot found to deal with things like ability damage and potentially being submerged in water.Another factor of this could also be that the resources of 5-6 PCs (average PFS table) outweighs that of 4 (expected group for the module). I noticed that only a few fights seemed to pose serious challenges (the Phase Spiders, the Aquarium, & the Final Encounter with both Gerlach & the Aboleth).
- Ten hours was a struggle.
This probably isn't a surprise to any of you. I say it because I feel like somewhere/someway it needs to be stressed on the materials for running PFS sanctioned modules that a minimum of twelve hours (three rounds) should be given for those coordinators not familiar with running these at events. Perhaps even a requirement (like scenarios needing to go no more than 5 hours). I've bulled through a couple of modules as a player at game days by buckling down for 12 hours and even that's a stretch. Ruby Phoenix Tournament can take even longer if done in its entirety as I understand it.
The coordinators have run some PFS events in store, but nothing involving modules, so they just weren't fully aware I think. I did give them the friendly feedback that 9-10 hours just isn't enough for most modules.
Spoiler:
To finish on time, I still had to cut out a number of the "speed bump" fights in Pt. III and the characters never triggered the role-play heavy encounter at the dig site (B6); it would have otherwise never come even close to finishing in time. And that's with making the Orrery check on the first try with some luck and smart thinking; if they'd had to comb the island for clues or more Spellcraft bonuses, the module would have dragged out. And even then, we cut it extremely close.
Now, for the GM aids I made, if anyone wants them. Spoiler cut added due to their titles/quick descriptions:
- Lighthouse Attack Tracker
For tracking assigned random numbers for tentacle targets, tentacles severed, and villagers captured. - The Warping Tracking Sheet
As paperwork and other things were being settled at the start of our session I rolled taint location at random ahead of time based on the table. I otherwise used it to track who had progressed to what level for their taints. - The Warping Taint Handout Cards
Truncated text for each taint and its description/effects. Not going to lie, it was great to see the looks one each player's face not as I described the visual of their warping but also handed them a little card. Cards were renamed from "Minor" and "Moderate" to avoid giving away immediately that the taint could get worse/had gradations. - Orrery Spellcraft Bonus Tracker
Reading the module I realized immediately it would be a nightmare to track all the potential bonuses accumulated throughout the island and/or to remember what all players could also do to get more. Fairly useful when the time came to make the check.
Had a great time at your table, and the work you put into it really showed! Thanks!
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How Far did you get?
I know the Season 4 Scenarios had problems completing in 4 Hour slots, which was some of the feedback I gave.
The next Event in November should not try to fit 3 Scenarios in a day unless they are going to open earlier.
I think they can fit 3 scenarios, but they need to have half-hour breaks vs. hour breaks between slots (i.e. Each slot is 4.5 hours officially). This keeps people from wandering off for too long if they do finish in 4 hours. First slot also needs to be scheduled to start thirty minutes after the store opens; not at open. Last slot needs to officially end 30 minutes before close, not at (and so on). Being a store run event, they were also in the unique situation of the staffers running it being "on the clock"; both of them actually had to leave before the day was done due to overtime. One of those things we just don't usually run into in a volunteer driven OP environment.
There were also issues with table assignments/marshaling that was mostly learning curve; maintaining a Marshaling Station/Table with someone present at all times to handle walk-in signups and signing boon Chronicles at the next one will probably help a lot (my table was interrupted a couple times by people looking for a game, having been told to just check with each table's GM).
I know the they are working closely with the area's VC & VLs, so I imagine the November one will reflect lessons learned from this event. Despite the bumps it was hugely successful and it's my hope they keep doing these every 2-3 months. We pulled a LOT of people in to PFS play who'd never tried it before and they had a blast.
As for encounters...
The PCs never visited B6 (the excavation site) as they weren't aware of it's presence until reaching the island's third tier (it wouldn't have been visible). This was a good thing, as they had already disabled the Orrery and would have had to do the role-play encounter confrontation between the newly liberated villagers and their skum kin.
I had Sara appear regardless, to push the PCs towards the Natatorium and give them the necessary back story for doing so in a quick fashion. But the Cloakers chasing her were cut out. So was the disguised Chuul intended to occur at an appropriate point after finding Sara.
All encounters at/beneath the Natatorium were cut out except for the eight Skum guards at the entrance, the iris door trap, the illusions of dead/dying villagers, and then the final encounter including the Skum workers, Gerlach, and the Aboleth. We had just over an hour left and I knew the last encounter alone would eat up that time easily given the many moving parts/the Aboleth's many crowd control tactics.
All in all, about six fights. Seven if you count the potential role-play encounter in B6 (which can also become a fight if the characters show up while the villagers are still enslaved and Skum guards are sent to drive them off). None of these cost them any significant treasure; they would have only served to make the last fight harder by eating up resources/healing. Only the pair of Chuuls and the two Cloaker fights (Sara & under the Natatorium) would have been any real challenge at that.
Had the group not been able to deal with the Orrery on their first attempt and had the Bard not made an extremely high Use Magic Device to figure out how to re-power the Quicksilver Graveyard in order to find the lenses I would have had to cut out more just to get them to the end. Figuring the Orrery out can become a huge time sink of trial and error.
Thank you for all your hard work, Mods are tough, and a Time crunch on some of these is very difficult, though some like Feast of Ravenmoor can be done in that amount of time.
I had the same experience with Crypt of the Everflame being doable in 9-10. I'm fairly certain that the time crunch for others comes mostly from the sheer number and complexity of encounters required to challenge PCs above 4th or 5th level. I may suggest to the coordinators to only run lower level modules unless they know for a fact they'll get a higher level table; neither of the other modules planned made (The Harrowing & Ruby Phoenix Tournament). This is probably a good thing as Ruby Phoenix Tournament would have had to be boiled down to the main matches only to finish.
Had a great time at your table, and the work you put into it really showed! Thanks!
Thank you all for playing! I was really impressed with your group, by the way. You dealt with some of the more confusing challenges rather swiftly and I don't think I've ever seen a Bard/Rogue do that kind of damage. Plus, it's rare I see people who make a point of carrying useful things like air crystals.
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Thank you all for playing! I was really impressed with your group, by the way. You dealt with some of the more confusing challenges rather swiftly and I don't think I've ever seen a Bard/Rogue do that kind of damage. Plus, it's rare I see people who make a point of carrying useful things like air crystals.
I make it a point to carry air crystals, antiplague/toxin, alchemist's fire, and ever since my untimely (yet thankfully temporary) demise to some nasty juju zombies, as many vials of holy water that my pockets will hold. You can never be too prepared.
It was a great challenge and a great presentation. Well done, sir.
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I know it has been awhile, but I also wanted to say that I really enjoyed playing this with you! I was super impressed by how prepared you were for us, it was really nice that we could move through so quickly since you had all your maps all set up. I kind of wish we could have had time to explore and do more but we just didn't have the luxury of time.
It helps alot that the five of us have played together in a lot of PFS scenarios, so that we are all pretty aware of what the others can do and so we work with each other to accomplish tasks. We also take orders from each other without question, so when someone says, we should get air crystals, we all get air crystals. =) (This worked against us once when we all bought silvered weapons for a scenario that didn't actually have werewolves, but you know, it will eventually come in handy!)