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I'm organizing some PFS events for a fall convention.
The schedule on Sunday is short, only 8 hours, and a bit tight for trying to fit in two scenarios back to back.
I was thinking about the following module choices to cover a variety of PC levels. Are any of these likely to get us in time trouble if we only have 8 hours? I could require that GMs come with maps pre-drawn if that will significantly reduce the time or help keep it within the limit.
(1-2) The Godsmouth Heresy
(2-4) Feast of Ravenmoor
(3-5) Fangwood Keep
(4-6) Carrion Hill
(5-7) From Shore to Sea
Any advice or run time experience would be appreciated.
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With no prior prep, I last night ran Feast of Ravenmoor in about 7 hours, with a 6 player group.
I have previously run Godsmouth Heresy, with prep, in about 5 hours with a similar group.
Both groups contained mostly experienced players with characters they had played for a little while, although the Ravenmoor group had a couple of newbies in it.
The Godsmouth Heresy - yes,
(2-4) Feast of Ravenmoor -yes
(3-5) Fangwood Keep - yes
(4-6) Carrion Hill - no
(5-7) From Shore to Sea - I haven't played this one.
I think it's going to depend on group. But I would, generally, not count on running a module in 8 hours.
I've run two so far:
Realm of the Fellnight Queen: I got through this in about 8 hours because the party didn't do a ton of interacting, I glossed over a major discussion, and I skipped about 90% of the final dungeon, taking them straight to the bossfight.
Broken Chains: I ran this just a couple of weeks ago, and I had to edit very heavily for time (as well as beefing up encounters). There's no way this one is meant to be 8 hours worth, as it's effectively a brief investigation (took longer than I had anticipated), followed by three consecutive dungeons. I had already expected to edit some encounters out to cut down on repetition, but in the end I had to cut out a great many side rooms. This one has the potential for a lot of in-character moral drama, which also ate up time.
I've read From Shore To Sea a few times, as I would like to run it (and Carrion Hill as well, most likely, but I've just started reading that one), and I don't think it's doable in 8 hours. There's a lot of exploring the island, piecing together clues, and trying to complete task day after day.
I would suggest that the GMs have prepared with the time limit in mind, specifically considering which encounters and situations are good candidates to be removed to save time.
The more open-ended the adventure is, the more concerned I would be; things like the option in Fangwood Keep to assault or infiltrate could chew up a lot of time with some parties, arguing over which way to go.
Ran Fangwood last Saturday and it took a full 8 hours. However, the PCs did take a fair bit of time discussing their next moves. A group that is kept on track should be able to finish the mod in much shorter time.
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Shore to sea would be a real stretch in 8 hours. The best I've done it in was about 10-10.5 hours and that was still a bit of a stretch.
Feast of Ravenmoor is doable (ran it in a bit over 7 hours).
Fangwood Keep is definitely doable (though we took about 9 hours since we had the window to do so).
The biggest determinator will be the players and the PCs they play. Some mods are geared more for melee types, while others have good portions geared towards skill/face/stealth/etc types.
