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There is interest at my FLGS and Im trying to figure out how to schedule them. I have not played or ran them so not looking for scenario info. I have a 5 hour slot every other week with multi tables. Thinking of starting PT1A and than next time PT1A and PT1B. Will this work? Was told
PT1 was done in 11 hours, PT2 in 7, and PT3 nine. Any other time info would help, THANKS
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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Oh my... I've run the first three levels three times each (first level 4 times now that I think of it) I've never gone over 4-5 hours for any of them. They're slightly longer than scenarios, but they can easily be played in your 5 hour slots.
What I've done is 1, 2, 3, then taken a break to level characters up to 6th, then 5 and finish with 4.
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Sanctum of a lost age (I guess part 4? It's the 4th on listed but the highest level one...it's pretty strange) took us like 9 hours, and it's certainly the longest one.
But we didn't take as long as you claim on the other parts...part 1 (Accursed halls) was about 7 hours when I played, and the other 3 parts were all about 4-5 hours.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Thornkeep is a town / dungeon in the classic "Village of Hommlet" / "Keep on the Borderlands" / "Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh" tradition. I've seen a lot of people ignore the town during convention play, which speeds things up. That's not my style: I try to spend at least an hour over the first session getting the PCs acquainted with the village of Thornkeep: the power groups, the politics, and a lot of the resources. Not only does it provide color, but it can also provide clues to the party as they head down. Take a look at what the Blue Basilisk is advertizing, for example. There are humanoids in town who put the top level in perspective.
Another element is the sort of builds and playstyle the players bring to the table. I had one party that brought three negative energy clerics in heavy armor. They buffed the rest of the party, killed foes with negative energy, and looked around for some sort of undead to command. Fights took a long time!! Another group had a bunch of archers and boomy spellcasters. That cut an hour or two off the running time.
My attitude approaching Thornkeep is that a successful party will get 3 XP for completing each level; they're trading an entire character level for whatever Thornkeep can offer them. I don't want to short-change them.
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"The Accursed Halls" took my group 10+ hours to complete. I ran it much as Chris suggested and the party spent a great deal of time in town interacting with the various factions and notable individuals before venturing into the actual dungeon.
"The Forgotten Laboratory" took nearly 7 hours. As the village and its NPC were introduced in the first part, the party already knew who to see for certain information or services.
I'll be running "The Enigma Vaults" in two weeks.
Our Pathfinder Society runs a double-header on the third Saturday of each month at the FLGS. Two scenarios are scheduled to run for 6 hours each, beginning at 11am when the store opens; I've scheduled my Thornkeep tables to run at that same location on that same Saturday.
Since I have 12 hours to run, we have the luxury of taking our time and adding as much flavor and rolelay as we like. I've also told the players that I'll have a regular PFS scenario prepped should we finish early and have enough time for it and enough interested and willing players for a legal table. So far, we've managed to fit "Perils of the Pirates' Pact" in after "The Forgotten Laboratory"; I have "Fortune's Blight" prepped as the next "bonus" scenario.
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As many of the above have stated, the Thornkeep adventures will run in a single 5-hour slot. There may be a few that run short, and some may run long, but it's all in how the GM manages the table.
For Societies content, I do advocate reducing the amount of time that the players spend in the village. Thornkeep is by and large a dungeon delve format, and excels when presented as such.
I'm setting up a local miniconvention (in my store, actually!) in which we're running all 5 parts of Thornkeep as well as a few other adventures. Here's my main suggestion:
every adventure lets the PC gain 3 xp (or 1 1/2 for slow advancement)
if a PC starts a level 2, they can play all 5 parts non-stop
** level 5 should be played before level 4 **
TK part 1: levels 1-2
TK part 2: levels 2-4
TK part 3: levels 3-5
TK part 5: levels 5-7
TK part 4: levels 6-8
It's a bit goofy to set the levels up like that, but it works - just be mindful of scheduling and if you decide to run those games back-to-back, be sure to allow your players a few minutes to level up between sessions.
