I have enjoyed Kingmaker because the players have many choices and it is considered 'sandbox' in nature.
If I were to read Jade Regent AP cover to cover, could I break apart the story elements, and possibly add my own content depending on player choices made during the game and create somewhat of a sandbox adventure?
What are your thoughts?
Thanks,
john
It's never going to be very sand-boxy because the adventure requires the PCs to travel half way round the world. This limits their options somewhat.
What you can do is customize who travels with them - let them recruit any NPCs they take a liking to. Then develop sub-plots involving members of the caravan, kidnappings, betrayals, romantic rivalries and so on.
When they get to book 5 they are no longer traveling; they are trying to start a revolution. There's a lot of room for adding content there.
|
Actually I feel that once you get them across the Crown of the World (basically from Book 4) you can start with a sort of a sandbox-ish run with them trying to make alliances, and possibly establish a stronghold as a base of operations, a la Suikoden.
At least as it looks so far (we are about half way through Book 5, I think.)
Indeed. While book five does a good job of having the PCs get allies, the sixth one seems a bit lacking. You basically do two big dungeons and only a very few small missions to help people and have won the revolution. This already happened in Curse of the Crimson Throne and could have been handled there better, too. I'm personally thinking about expanding the revolution part drastically.
Truthfully, I feel this AP is very sandbox-y.
The first adventure leaves a fair amount of choice, Brinewall is a dungeon crawl but theres lots of opportunities to make alliances, interact with the factions or just kick the door down.
The second adventure is an investigation and how the party accomplishes that is really up to them. I know that I tailored quite a bit to how the party deciding to go about it.
The third adventure is really the only travel adventure and I'm halfway through it with my group. In order to make it interesting I've added quite a bit to the encounters and overall feeling so that each session has some kind of story to it.
Not sure what I'm going to do with Forest of Spirits, I really loathe the dungeon crawl in it.
The last two books would benefit greatly from upping the sandbox quality as they are essentially about organizing a revolt and launching a coup.
I completely replaced the dungeon part with the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. The four NPCs are doing the dungeon while the PCs are away at the tournament. ;)
I completely replaced the dungeon part with the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. The four NPCs are doing the dungeon while the PCs are away at the tournament. ;)
Will have to check that module out. That said I like the setting of the Forest of Spirits, the first part with the Prince and meeting the kami, just the House of Withered Blossoms seems so ho-hum especially plunked in the middle of this fantastical exotic setting.
Yeah, I myself am simply no fan of giant dungeons. Thematically, I found the exploration of the oni palace to be of interest for the campaign, but I can simply relate that one, instead of having a dungeon crawl for two months. The tournament has worked out fine so far in being very entertaining ( although some of the fights seem weirdly balanced. There is an exhibition match which is by far deadlier than any of the real tournament matches, the one against the Atamahuta ). :)