In a about a month and a half we may be ready to start our next AP.
Shattered Star and Rise of the Rune Lords Anniversary Edition have been mentioned as getting excellent reviews.
Looking for some advice from people who have GM’d or played them.
I have some questions.
1 - I am not a terribly experienced GM yet and often have difficulty making up a bunch of carp on the fly. Is this very complicated for the GM to keep track of or prepare for and does the GM have to fill in a lot of blank space?
2- I know everyone wants a wide open environment with nearly complete freedom on what to do, a very classic ‘sandbox’ feel. My group actually doesn’t do well with that. If everything is open they have trouble making a plan and getting anything done. For Example: None of them are even slightly interested in Kingmaker from what we have heard even though it is supposed to be very popular. My group actually needs to be railroaded a fair amount or they just dither. We are currently in the “Curse of the Golden Spear Trilogy” and they are loving it. It is pretty clear what the next task is (even if it is somewhat open on how to accomplish it). Now I’m not necessarily looking for another horror or oriental series. But about that level of railroading or clear direction on what comes next. So does that sound like either of these AP’s?
Runelords is like a wilderness trail. You'll generally stay on a well-trodden path, but if you can see another path, you can hop through the brush to get there. At least, that's how I envision the experience for my players.
My experiences running it, as a first-time GM (we're almost done now): I sometimes joke about railroads, but generally it's a "what do you do now" situation, and the obvious answer is the one the AP takes. And when you deviate, it's usually in the form of the PCs figuring something out early, and bypassing part, or acquiring information in a way different than the AP expects. It does good work in sealing up loose ends, so you don't have to do it yourself, most of the time. What do I mean?
Everything you need to know is in the book. However, if you can get the original version, it has good background articles they removed in the Anniversary Edition. You won't need to make anything up, but, just prepare ahead of time by reading the entire chapter, in case the party "skips a step".
Not sure about Shattered Star, but if you're going to do both, do Runelords first.
If you think you are going to do both at any time, start with Rise of the Runelords. Shattered star is a direct sequel, and will almost certainly spoil some of rise of the runelords.
If you want to run both, Runelords first, definitely. I believe that it is generally easy to prepare and run.
However if you're asking what fits best as a easy to run, 'railroad' AP, I'd say Shattered Star. Been running it, so far things are fairly strait forward. It's essentially dungeon based, so as long as you can keep track of what's beyond the next door, should be good. Even when set in a chaotic city like Kaer Maga the adventure provides a NPC (or numerous) that can lead the party around and show them where they should be going.
THanks guys, I will suggest Runelords and see what they say.