So I just started GMing CotCT, and my party is currently getting ready to head to Eel's End. We are playing with the pathfinder Core Rulebook and Advanced Player's Guide, and I'm making my party follow a medium exp progression.
My main question is will there be a need to insert side quests, like another module or some homebrew content to keep my players up to pace with the challenges? I'd like to throw in some content, and can make the decision dynamically as we progress, but getting some advice would be good so I can plan ahead.
Thoughts?
I have to agree with HangarFlying. I am running Curse of the Crimson Throne right now and we are at the end of the first book. I have found that the experience progression pretty much almost exactly follows the fast experience progression, however I wonder if this will hold up as we progress into the final books.
We are following the fast experience track and I am finding that I have to be careful with what side adventures I add so my players don't level up too quickly. I fact, I don't have any wiggle room to add whole side adventures, I've just added a few extra challenges here and there.
I think at the medium experience track you will have plenty of room to add side adventures.
In our game (~75% History of Ashes, 4 member 10th level party) we also use medium xp track. And for that place game still look nice balanced. I just start wonder how SoS will be work with 11th level party but - no brain, no pain.
Individual chapter's work pretty nice, even if party was one level "weak" then game engine provides. But if you wanna more xp, then between parts it's so many oportunities to "put in" more content. Best for was Kaer Maga where party can at least get close to 10th. And in story like CoCT Ad Hoc and "roleplay" xp fit's great.
But if You wanna to your game be challange for players - don't bother yourself for that until HoA. Then You can add some side encounters (ah, Cinderlands hazards ;) ) to "cathc up" right level.
As HangarFlying posted, at medium experience you will have to add content if you want to stay on the level of the APs.
I agree with Taroot that Kaer Maga is an awesome place to add stuff (I had some Rolth revenge plots and had Sial save their bacon so that the group would be willing to deal with him later), as well as the Cinderlands. I also expanded the beginning so that the characters could live in pre-anarchy Korvosa, and had them chased to Kaer Maga by Red Mantis after they did nothing to hide their identity in Harse on the way to Blackbird Ranch (not to mention any brignad who liked the price on their heads). You could also make travelling across orc-infested Belkzen to Scarwall as difficult as you like. Plus, there are several ways to expand the revolution in Korvosa (I'm still working on that part since my group just finished SoS).
You could add a few mooks to several of the encounters -- it's a nice invisible way to give the PCs a bit more XP, and more mooks usually makes an encounter more interesting.
It's very easy to add a few random encounters (a crazed mob right after King Eodred's death, an escaped sewer monster), but it's more absorbing to add things connected to the PC's own activities. It ties them more into the campaign, and gives them more of a stake in defending and protecting Korvosa and its citizens.
Work with the players -- what do their characters express an interest in? What do they do in and around Korvosa? Is someone (the gang at Eel's End, the Arkonas, the doctors?) likely to react to what they do? Did one of the derro escape and might they be out for revenge? Did one of the players flirt with a handsome sailor, and is he perhaps now being pursued by one of the Grey Maidens?
This is also a nice way to foreshadow future stuff -- a face in an earlier random encounter can become a guard or victim a ways down the line, increasing the illusion that it's all part of a single world. It's a lot of fun when PCs begin making connections.
I have to agree with HangarFlying. I am running Curse of the Crimson Throne right now and we are at the end of the first book. I have found that the experience progression pretty much almost exactly follows the fast experience progression, however I wonder if this will hold up as we progress into the final books.
It does. The 3.5 modules were written with the 3.5 XP chart in mind, which more closely resembled the current fast track. And, IMHO, it shows in the new PF APs, where especially the later modules seem to have a lot of padding with too many combat encounters against relatively weak enemies.
To the OP: What is the build of your group, i.e. how many players, which classes, which point-buy? If you have the expected 4 players, 15 point buy party, it can be brutal to not be at the expected level. If you are playing with more players or/and a significantly better point-buy ( or rolled characters ), the discrepancy could be okay. To be honest, I would recommend just quietly adjusting the XP chart to the fast track, give out another level and avoid adding additional content. Although the last module could use some reworking to make the rebellion last longer and avoid the two consecutive dungeon crawls the module mostly dwells on.
To the OP: What is the build of your group, i.e. how many players, which classes, which point-buy? If you have the expected 4 players, 15 point buy party, it can be brutal to not be at the expected level. If you are playing with more players or/and a significantly better point-buy ( or rolled characters ), the discrepancy could be okay. To be honest, I would recommend just quietly adjusting the XP chart to the fast track, give out another level and avoid adding additional content. Although the last module could use some reworking to make the rebellion last longer and avoid the two consecutive dungeon crawls the module mostly dwells on.
My party is on a 25 point buy system with the following classes: Summoner, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger (Urban).
@Tonyz
I like the idea of playing off my PCs interests, and it fits well into our session style. We play this campaign online for ~4 hours per session and I often have a couple weeks to prep content. I can always just keep one step ahead and see if they need some side quests that fill in some story blanks. I'll have to read farther into the APs, however, so I'm not running over written plot elements...
25 point buy should help carry them through, but it depends. My group of five players ( at 15 point buy, IIRC, it has been a few years ) ran roughshod over the last module, but they had a way better set-up than yours ( Paladin, Cleric, Wizard, Sorcerer and Inquisitor ). And I used of course the fast XP track.