|
It's not a "Waste" of time letting them enjoy the festival. You could do a ring toss (Ranged Touch attack dc 10, 15, or 20 depending on distance) and award prizes of like a free dinner at the Red Dragon Inn this would allow you to introduce Amiko Kijutsu early. Also you could add the mallet to ring the bell game. Str Check. A lizard race, Handle Animal to convince a lizard to run the track. There are a lot of things to be done and your players will enjoy the atmosphere, and have some desire to defend these people that they've started to form a connection with. Sandpoint is going to be the focus of your campaign, your players need fond memories of it that don't just involve combats.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
The trick to RotRL is to get people to be both intrigued and attached to Sandpoint. You can introduce many NPC's at the festival, Ameiko, Belor, Father Zantus, Mayor Deverin etc. and use them to set up future events. Mention the Late Unplesantness, the Lighthouse, Shalelu etc. Make the place seem real and vibrant.
One thing you might do is have our favourite shopkeepers daughter fawning over Aldern Foxglove and pointedly ignoring the PC's. That way when she makes her move on the PC after they become the heroes of the town it makes it that more obvious that she's fickle and only interested in famous people.
In short don't just start with the Goblins. Build up Sandpoint as their home and then have it burnt by Goblins. If PC's have a reason to care it makes your life a whole lot easier.
+1 to everything said above. My group has just finished Burnt Offerings. I used the festival games from a forum thread and have used material from Wayfinder #7. Both are highly recommended.
Also, try this specific sub-forum: Rise of the Runelords.
I've flagged this to be moved into the rise of the runelords forum since you'll get better advice there from people who know more about the adventure.
That said, check out this thread on ideas for games and events at the festival.
And I definately dont think it will be a waste of time. I plan on running the campaign sometime soon and will definately expect to put some table time into the festival.
Give things class levels. Make the Goblins fighters instead of Warriors, and a decent feat like Dodge. I actually started everyone out at 2nd level and increased everything by one difficulty level (class levels, advanced creatures, and so forth) to compensate.
The thing is this module is built for 4-6 characters. Six will not necessarily get enough XPs to level up as often as needed but have the extra firepower to stay alive (and a few random encounters can help round them up). But by increasing levels of critters and the CR by one, that ensures that you get a decent fight and critters that can walk the walk and talk the talk.
That said? Certain foes are still going to be deadly, especially if the players suffer a couple bad die-rolls. The Big Bad in the Thistletop Dungeon (and I'm not talking Nualia) has caused several Total Party Kills in the past, and even with my own group (which was buffed up and knew something nasty was in there) almost lost their Barbarian warrior.
Also: Read up on the characters and double-check their abilities and weaknesses. I mistakenly forgot to use Damage Reduction with the Yeth Hounds, for instance... made up for it by siccing one last one on them with the damage reduction (that they're not getting XPs for though they're not aware of that) to compensate for the forgotten abilities.
To be honest? Many of these foes, when intelligently run, can leave a group of eight PCs struggling to survive. Double-check the monsters, double-check what they can do, and use them intelligently. And don't hesitate on leniency and ignoring a bad die roll... or switching a target to ensure a PC isn't killed. Players should leave a game feeling they COULD have died... and thrilled that they did not. That's what makes it truly fun to play. Not just killing someone because they weren't lucky.
I'm currently running 6 PC's. Plus I allowed a 20 point buy which I would not recommend . That said I usually only have 5 players (I ret con so PC's don't have to run each other). The other thing is my players are very optimized so yeah you'll want to bump the criters toughness for sure. Personally this is the first time I've used Hero Labs and I have to say it's worth every cent. Especially since someone has already added all of the encounters i HL importable files. This makes change the bad guy's toughness way way easier.. Plus if I get drunk at a game I don't have to do math...
I know this is too late for the OP, but when I ran this one of my (11 year old!) players immediately asked where the kissing booth was!
I had my RotRL Face Cards ready, so I brought out our town flirt, Shayliss Vinder. She and her sister (who later figures in the next chapter of RotRL) were both making money with a long line of potential paramours waiting, with his dad standing suspiciously nearby.
It was nice for the player to have a connection with Shayliss (even personally rescuing her during the goblin raid!) before his encounter with Shayliss later in RotRL. The whole story of being caught (and now banned) by her dad has made him completely vested in this relationship. And, when I had his weretiger taint (also his idea!) reveal itself to the party -- of course in the middle of his first date with Shayliss -- he became even more interested in pursuing the relationship. :)
I say this, because a Shayliss kissing booth might be a good way to introduce her, her sister and her dad to the party before events develop later.