I recently picked up the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, and as a long-time home-brew campaign GM, I'm afraid I'm a little lost on what to do with these. I've seen modules before, and those are really just a campaign written out for you. Adventure paths seem more like well... adventures, that you can toss in as you go. My confusion lies that in the 6 Rise of the Runelords books, it seems like you go from level 1 to level like 14 in the course of 6 books. Are these just supposed to be used to supplement a campaign or what?
Sorry if this is a little noobish, I just don't understand.
Think of adventure paths as a collection of 6 modules that follow a continuous story arc at progressing levels of difficulty. They are fleshed out enough that you could play them from beginning to end without adding anything while being bare enough to incorporate into another campaign anywhere you like.
They are usually meant to be a standalone no-additions campaign up to whatever level cap is specified. A few, like Second Darkness, leave intentional gaps for sidequest stuff. I'm still running my first AP myself, but I've found that Second Darkness often needs some nudging to be a full campaign. That's probably true of any pre-built campaign, no matter the level of detail.
Oh that's cool. I'm assuming that using medium progression you just use standard EXP rewards for the encounters, and they should advance relatively steadily?
Oh that's cool. I'm assuming that using medium progression you just use standard EXP rewards for the encounters, and they should advance relatively steadily?
Aside from the fast track XP advancement in RotRL, all the other adventure paths (AFAIK) are designed to use the medium track with four characters built using 15 point buy for stats.
The 3.5 APs (Runelords, Crimson Throne, Second Darkness & Legacy of Fire) assume the Fast advancement; all the ones since then were written for Pathfinder RPG and assume Medium advancement.
Alright cool, thanks guys. I really appreciate the help.
What exactly is an Adventure Path?
A small, vice-like object?
The 3.5 APs (Runelords, Crimson Throne, Second Darkness & Legacy of Fire) assume the Fast advancement; all the ones since then were written for Pathfinder RPG and assume Medium advancement.
Technically those were written using 3.5's XP progression, which is actually than Pathfinder's 'Fast Track' progression. The RotRL AE was re-printed & updated, but since they would have had to add a lot more content to bring it up to 'Medium Track' Progression, they kept it at 'Fast Track'.
So a followup question. I have RotRL, but what do you think would be a good AP for a new-to-AP GM?
Creative Director
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The 3.5 APs (Runelords, Crimson Throne, Second Darkness & Legacy of Fire) assume the Fast advancement; all the ones since then were written for Pathfinder RPG and assume Medium advancement.
Actually... they assume the 3.5 XP advancement, which is a little faster even than Pathfinder's Fast XP track. That's why the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition assumes the Fast Track, and even then I had to add quite a few additional encounters to keep things on track...
Ah, I was running Second Darkness on the fast track and wondering why my group seemed a level or two behind by book 5. Assuming it's too late to switch to level-up-by-fiat, how would you run converted 3.5 APs, James? Extra story awards, or extra random encounters?
Amg. James Jacobs posted in my thread. -Faint-
Thanks guys, thanks James! I'll definitely have to try out an AP, and then start picking up some others.
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Creative Director
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Ah, I was running Second Darkness on the fast track and wondering why my group seemed a level or two behind by book 5. Assuming it's too late to switch to level-up-by-fiat, how would you run converted 3.5 APs, James? Extra story awards, or extra random encounters?
I would use the Fast XP track for converted 3.5 APs, but I'd keep an eye on player character levels. If they started lagging behind, I'd throw in some extra story awards or extra encounters. If they lagged significantly behind, I'd probably throw in a side quest or two.
Second Darkness is unique in that there's a built-in XP gap between the 2nd and 3rd adventure, in fact. And I'd use that to basically put in a new minor adventure where the PCs finish up their Gold Goblin stuff, giving them a more natural and satisfying conclusion to the Riddleport section of the campaign so that when they go off to Crying Leaf in the 3rd adventure, they're not leaving behind loose ends and won't regret not coming back to Riddleport. Something where they have to defend their business from a rival gang, perhaps, or maybe even an adventure where they receive an offer to buy the business as long as they get it up to a certain level of panache or whatever.