I've recently bought the RotRL adventure Path and was wondering if I could get some advice before I start. This is my first GMing attempt.
I'm going to start characters at level 2 and use the medium level advancement. I want to add my own little missions to this chronicle because I think I would loose interest otherwise (I am the sort of person who need to actively flex their artistic muscles)
I am planing to print out all of the "notes" that the characters find as well as monster sheets so I can write on them to track the enemies. Does anyone know a good template for this that will leave space for me to write on?
I also want to only focus on one chapter at a time and not read ahead, I feel that I will want to share too much with the party with anticipation and negatively affect the game. That said, is there anything that I need to know in the chapters after Burnt offerings now?
I want to tie in all of the characters reasons for being at Sandpoint into the story.
I only have one character which I know at the moment, who is a carbon copy of Robin of Locksly(sp?) from Robin Hood Men in Tights. The player wants to be an Archer who is no slouch with a sword. I suggested Weapon Finesse so that he could run off pure Dex.
I haven't decided where he is from but for his back story I was thinking:
Robin is a nobleman who has returned from the frontlines of a war for his kingdom. He was arranged to be wed to the daughter of a prestigious family, but in his absence a man from a rivaling family voided the original agreement and made claim to her himself.
Robin discovered this upon his return and immediatly challenged the nobleman to a duel. The nobleman thought that the higher prestige of his family would convert to superior fighting prowess. It did not.
With the first blow of the fight Robin disarmed this nobleman, and was immediately named the victor. Not satisfied, Robin proceeded to bludgeon the crap out of him (Robin starts with +1 wrath point). Robin breaks his nose and jaw.
I originally wanted the Robin character to wield a fencing sword so I could say that Robin bludgeoned the man with the guard of his blade so viciously that the noblemans horrified expression is indented into it, and that Robin keeps the sword as a reminder (but not saying why so the player can decide that). Sadly though, when I asked the player what type of sword they used she said "not a fencing sword" completely unprompted (which sucks because I was proud of that bit.) I guess it could be a welt in a dueling gauntlet.
Robins ex-fiance was present at this duel, but I do not to share yet how she feels about it, this will be decided further into the story. I want to give the character the chance to flirt with NPCs in the Adventure path, and then after he has met all of those he would be interested in, finish this detail.
After these events the Father of the nobleman complained directly to the king for the dishonorable acts of Robin, and, due to the higher standing of the Noblemans family, Robin is striped of his title and prestige by the king.
An important detail of Robins family treats its slave with more respect than any other nobel in the kingdom. In fact many of the non-slave help in his manor are ex-slaves who chose to stay after their indenturement ended for love of the family.
In this nation (still need to decide which) nobility basically a free pass to do what you want without consequence to those of non-nobility. Stripped of his title, in the middle of the night, Robins manor is attacked by mercenaries sent by the nobleman(clean job, no goal other than to kill Robin and leave, no other damage). Robin is awakened by his butler and who give his some of his own money and tells him to flee while the staff hold off the mercenaries.
Robin finds a ship leading anywhere and buys fair, but it is refunded after defending the ship against pirates. He ends up in Varisia where he hears of an archery contest at the Swallowtail Festival in Sandpoint.
I want after a couple of minutes of this character arriving (preferably after the Archery contest) for Hemlock to capture and shackle him, claiming that the nobleman has put a bounty on his capture which could re-arm the entirety for his guard, but once the goblins attack for the Sheriff to to free him "because we need all the fighters he can get"
how does that sound?
Also to anyone who ran it before, would you add anything extra to burnt offerings, or have any specific advice to the chapter?
anyone? I could really use some advice
Did you come up with a backstory or did your player? Some players take offense to their characters backstory being dictated to them. That said, I think the backstory will work with minor tweeks to fit whatever country you decide on. As far as what can be added I suggest checking out the community created stuff thread. There is all kinds of goodies there, including a couple made by me (the goblin song and Something in the Attic).
The Ultimate Campaign book has a lot of useful advice on creating a character history and can be found online here. I suggest having your players use this to help create ideas for their background... or even just rolling on the charts if they can't decide. Letting your players craft backgrounds helps them become more invested in the characters rather than having pregenerated characters. At least in my experience.
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I've recently bought the RotRL adventure Path and was wondering if I could get some advice before I start. This is my first GMing attempt.
You picked a good campaign to GM. Since this is your first attempt at GM'ing, I hope you're prepared for a long haul. Personally, I think it makes more sense, for a first time GM, to start by running a smaller adventure or campaign, just to work out some of the kinks and give yourself a chance to get comfortable in the big chair before committing to some long-term. But don't worry, RotRL is a good starting point if you're going to jump in head first.
I'm going to start characters at level 2 and use the medium level advancement. I want to add my own little missions to this chronicle because I think I would loose interest otherwise (I am the sort of person who need to actively flex their artistic muscles)
Again, you might hold off on adding too much until you have a couple sessions under your belt. Get used to running things as presented before you start toying around with all the fiddly bits.
I am planing to print out all of the "notes" that the characters find as well as monster sheets so I can write on them to track the enemies. Does anyone know a good template for this that will leave space for me to write on?
Printing out notes is a good idea. For stat blocks, I do one of two things (usually). If it's a typical creature from the bestiary (like a generic goblin or ogre), I go to d20pfsrd and copy the stat block to a flat text file to print off. Then I have a print out that I can write all over. If it's a custom creature (like a named NPC or monster with class levels), I try to recreate it in HeroLab, then print the stat block out as plain text for mark up.
I also want to only focus on one chapter at a time and not read ahead, I feel that I will want to share too much with the party with anticipation and negatively affect the game. That said, is there anything that I need to know in the chapters after Burnt offerings now?
This isn't a good idea. As the GM, you need to have a firm grasp of the overall story and what lies ahead for the PCs. You can certainly run it reading a chapter at a time, but there are lots of things that are alluded to or foreshadowed early on that you need to be aware of. It's fine for players to get the "slow reveal," but the GM needs to understand where the overall story is going.
I want to tie in all of the characters reasons for being at Sandpoint into the story.
That's good. the campaign seems to work best when the players are emotionally invested in what happens in and to Sandpoint.
There's plenty of advice and additions here on the forums. Be sure to look through it all and cherry pick the stuff you like best.
Good luck with the campaign!
-Skeld
Alright, I'll fall back to level 1 and fast advancement, skeld, your right, no need to over complicate on my first time.
For the character story I worked on I know it is taking the creation tools out of the hands. the player asked to play a good looking character that is exactly like the main character from Robin Hood Men in Tights. I told her that she would have to choose to be him at the start, middle or end of the movie, since there didn't seem to be enough space in what I read of RotRL for the same character progression as there was in the movie. She wanted to regain her families name as part of her story so eventually I decided to add it into the campaign. I don't want to say no to my players unless I have a good reason or if it would negatively affect the game.
The player asked that she could together with "Maid Marian" in the campaign. I told her that the romance could be part of the story but not to limit yourself to only possibly being with that person. Mainly I want to put her character with the shopkeepers daughter and let him try to get out of it. If Robin rejects the RotRL NPCs I'll make the Maid Marian come into the story still enamored with Robin. (even if he doesn't I might do the same, everyone loves a love triangle) I just want to give her the options.
I know I have taken control of the characters backstory a bit but I feel that as part job of finishing the arc, and because I will be the one playing the characters from Robins past I need to have some control over the past. I tried not to be overbearing and stick to the general feel of the character she wanted, but it seems too hard to write the end of the story without having some power over the start.
I tried not to ever wright how the players character feels about the situation, leaving that to the player and from the start, I do not allow myself any control over the character. I aim to create the situation, it's up to the player to navigate it.
But if I have made a mistake in doing this please advice me on how to deal with the situation.
Now if you'll excuse me I have some goblin song to download :)
"I know I have taken control of the characters backstory".
I let my players create their own backstories. I noticed it got them very excited about starting, since through writing their backstories they have already started 'playing' their characters and investing emotionally.
The process in a bit more detail was:
- Explain Varisia too them. Give them the players guides and some extra information on the races.
- Ask them what kind of character they imagined they'd be. Provide some ideas for what they might have done in rough form. At this stage classes were chosen with some care to make the group reasonably well balanced.
- Based on this provide some options for where they may have been born and grown up, and some background information.
- Go through their outlines and encourage them to add more to areas where plot hooks and extra details will add richness to the campaign.
- Help them with incidental details in terms of accuracy to the game world and campaign.
- Then round them out with reasons to be in sandpoint and some basic 'jobs to be done' that fit their backstories.
- Reward them with a meaningful item that helps them and ties into the campaign.
- Lastly I took some time to make sure there was a good skills balance across the group, making some suggestions where I saw gaps (eg: one person with survival is useful, one person with animal handling, etc...)
- Meanwhile I have roughly planned out how their backstories will hook into the campaign. Note: I had to read all the campaign to do this, for one character it won't really connect until book 3, and for another the really strong connection will happen in the last two books mostly. Also this was important so that I could make sure there were no disastrous gaps in the group in terms of skills they chose.
Modifying a character's backstory is different than creation one from a blank slate. If your player is happy with it and feels it fits her views of what she wants for the character, then that's good. :)
I might recommend using Hero Points from the Advanced Player's Handbook (and reduce the cost to prevent death to 1 Hero Point) however - nothing sucks more than having a fun character concept and having an unlucky die roll end that character soon after you start it.
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I might recommend using Hero Points from the Advanced Player's Handbook (and reduce the cost to prevent death to 1 Hero Point) however - nothing sucks more than having a fun character concept and having an unlucky die roll end that character soon after you start it.
Hero points are a good idea. I left the cost of fending off death at 2 Hero points, but it wouldn't be problem to change it to 1.
I think you have the right idea going for the medium track. Fast might seem too fast, especially if the players are new to PF too. IMHO in Fast you barely get to know how the character behaves (in RP, capabilities and rules) before he's gone up another level. Mind you, you will indeed have to add stuff but that's generally not too hard. In every game I've run, side quests write themselves. Just be careful not to hand out too much loot.
My own non-Rotrl campaign uses the Slow track with SKR's step system, and it feels a whole lot more natural.
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I think you have the right idea going for the medium track. Fast might seem too fast, especially if the players are new to PF too. IMHO in Fast you barely get to know how the character behaves (in RP, capabilities and rules) before he's gone up another level. Mind you, you will indeed have to add stuff but that's generally not too hard. In every game I've run, side quests write themselves. Just be careful not to hand out too much loot.
My own non-Rotrl campaign uses the Slow track with SKR's step system, and it feels a whole lot more natural.
You can also throw XP out the window and just tell the players to level their characters as they accomplish certain milestones. There a handy advancement block for that at the beginning of each chapter. Going XP-less removes that aspect of bookkeeping. (I've been XP-less for several years now.)
-Skeld
I think you have the right idea going for the medium track. Fast might seem too fast, especially if the players are new to PF too. IMHO in Fast you barely get to know how the character behaves (in RP, capabilities and rules) before he's gone up another level. Mind you, you will indeed have to add stuff but that's generally not too hard. In every game I've run, side quests write themselves. Just be careful not to hand out too much loot.
My own non-Rotrl campaign uses the Slow track with SKR's step system, and it feels a whole lot more natural.
You can also throw XP out the window and just tell the players to level their characters as they accomplish certain milestones. There a handy advancement block for that at the beginning of each chapter. Going XP-less removes that aspect of bookkeeping. (I've been XP-less for several years now.)
-Skeld
Seconded. We've just finished the second book of RotRL, and I just tell my players when they level based on that advancement block.
