First time GM, running a newbie group through RotR


Rise of the Runelords


Hey all, hows it going?
I've been reading through the Rise of the Runelords adventure path and I've finally got a gaming group together and I'll be running the first session this week. I have a few questions about starting the campaign and with the Swallowtail festival in particular.

I was thinking about spending the first session exploring the festival itself, including some mini-games and events for the PC's to take part in and possibly introducing the goblin attack towards the end of the session.

Now, I've had some ideas as to some basic games to hold, and I was wondering if I'd be able to get some feedback and maybe some suggestions as to how they'd work in the system.

1.) Chasing the greased pig. (DC 20 check to grapple the pig. First to hold it for three consecutive rounds wins. Pig will move 10' in a random direction each round (decided by a warhammer scatter dice), unless grappled where by it will try and break free.)

2.) Feats of strength (Arm wrestelling, strongman contest, etc.) A simple strength based exercise, highest attack roll winds.

3.) Archery contest - the classic. Points are scored by hitting a simple (DC 10) target. For every 5 points the PC's get over the DC, they score more points. Every shooter gets 5 shots, highest score wins.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? How did you run this part of the campaign in your games?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Pretty good, calju, just catching up on the boards before I get to work on making cookies for tomorrow.

You're not the first person to have the idea to expand the Swallowtail Festival into a much longer and meaningful event, and I totally agree with you. This is the group's first introduction to Sandpoint, so you need to start early to get them to fall in love with it. A lot of work's gone into this thread on several events, including an archery competition, but I don't think anyone's suggested a greased pig event yet. I think that's a great idea!

It might be easiest to represent that contest as a chase, with the pig as the quarry and all the contestants the hunters. I'd come up with a number of challenges that both pig and contestant have to get past, and whoever is able to get to the pig and beat its increased CMD wins. Use the basic boar stats, remove its gore attack, give it the young template and add about two or three to its CMD to reflect how difficult it is to grapple, and you've got the stats.


When I ran Burnt Offerings at the table, I had one carnies there with "The Gauntlet" from the First Knight movie. Look that up, I think it's pretty sweet. The prize was an Adventuring Kit.


Thanks for the quick reply folks! I'll be honest, the greased pig may have been inspired by the Greased-Up Deaf Guy from Family Guy. ^.^

Superball, what do you mean by the First Knight? I don't think I've ever heard of that one.


Opposed STR rolls for arm-wrestling doesn't really work. You can have characters with Str 8 and 19 (one able to lift almost four times the other) with a mere +5 difference in Str mod. So there's a sizeable chance (27%, assuming ties are rerolled) of the weaker one winning.

Two ways to handle this:
* Instead of using d20+Str mod, use d20+Str instead. But because you have newbies you probably don't want to do this, as you'd be better off using standard rules.
* First one to beat the opponent 3 times wins. Gives much saner odds (3% in the above example), while using the RAW mechanism. Also use this for other games of pure Str, Dex or Int eg chess).


First Knight was an Arthurian film starring Richard Gere. A friend of mine was propmaster and showed me around Avalon at Pinewood studios.


Ahh, okies, thanks for that!

So, how have you all started the game / got the PC's to the festival? I'm considerong a couple of options, but I want to do my best to stay away from the whole "You all meet in an Inn. Suddenly, PLOT!" intro as I have a few players who've never been involved in the hobby before!


I had the group meet during the goblin raid. The three players and the NPC were all in the same area at the same time and ended up fighting together. Afterward, being considered heroes, they decided to stay together as a group. (Since then they've gained two cohorts and one additional player, who joined during the haunted manor adventure.)


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I worked with each player to come up with a reason for their character to be in Sandpoint (the Campaign Traits from the Anniversary Edition Player's Guide and the APG work great for this.)

The current party consists of:

Half-Orc fighter (adopted son of Savah Beviniky, who I re-worked to being a former adventurer prior starting her weapons business and encountered the orphaned child during one of her last adventures.)

Human fighter-tactician (disowned son of a Magnimar noble family who summered in Sandpoint and grew up friends with Ameiko and Tsuto)

Half-orc alchemist-preservationist (worked in Magnimar providing assorted nobles with various salves and tinctures for "discreet" problems. Had encounters with both Ironbriar and the Lord Mayor. Was hired by Aldern Foxglove to assist him in capturing one of the rats infesting his manor house "for a wizard friend of mine", but then Aldern decided they were going to the Swallowtail Festival first and would deal with the rat "later".)

Half-elf rogue (essentially banished from his village after a protracted war for not being able to settle back into civilized life. Was sent to Sandpoint with a message for Sheriff Hemlock and told to "not hurry back".)

Human wizard-fire elementalist (eldest son of a destitute noble family in Korvosa who had business dealings with the Scarnetti. Traveled to Sandpoint to ask for a loan from Titus to help them get back on their feet. Got stuck in Sandpoint after Titus denied him and a pickpocket made off with his purse.)

Human cleric of Gozreh (replacement character for previous cleric the player wasn't having any fun with. Rescued from the prison cells under Thistletop.)

With all the PCs established as being in Sandpoint at the start of the Festival, it wasn't tough to get them involved in the Festival itself (they talked to NPCs, played games, tried the food) and they "just happened" to be near each other when the goblins attacked. After getting through the three battles and saving Aldern, I immediately had Naffer Vosk report the break-in at the crypts while Hemlock was in the middle of thanking them for their assistance. Convincing them to go with him to make sure there wasn't a further threat to the town was easy enough, and once the mystery behind the attack piqued their interest and Ameiko offered them all free rooms at The Rusty Dragon for a week fro their service, the party pretty much congealed.

Of course, this also takes the players being willing to play along with the conventions of starting off a party-based RPG.


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Well, the first sesion's done and dusted, thanks for all your help folks! I'll be posting up a campaign log once I 've had the chance to get everything typed up!


Hey calju16,

I started the Campaign for the first time with my players around 6 months ago and at the time I found this great thread with loads of great ideas for games at the Swallowtail Festival:

It was invaluable for me as a character relationship building exercise and as a fleshed-out intro to Sandpoint.

In my game, I have an Aasimar Paladin and a Tiefling Ranger from Korvosa with a Drow Cleric from Darklands and a Human Rogue from Katheer. They all met in a small Varisian village prior to the start of the Campaign to participate in a small prequel adventure.

Good luck with your campaign, we are loving ours!

Edit: just saw the date of the thread and your last post. I hope you can still use some of the info!

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