Run length for Emerald Spire levels

[Peter Kies]

We are thinking about adding one weekend a month to our local play schedule, focusing on the Emerald Spire.

I'd like to know what folks are seeing for typical run time for each of the levels. Can you make it through the sanctioned content in most levels in 4-6 hours, or should we plan on extended or split sessions?

Of course, I'd like to complete levels without having to split them up over multiple sessions (and all the keeping track of people who attend one session but not the next). But if levels run much longer than 4-6 hours it would require me to make special arrangements with the hosting gaming stores or move the games to private venues.

[DrParty06]

I've run the first 4 levels (online) in less than 4 hours each. I did have the first level go to 5 hours once, but that was with a larger introduction to the Emerald Spire campaign as a whole. I've also played level 10, and we finished in ~3 hours, though we skipped a couple of rooms that were unimportant for the chronicle. Level 5 has the potential to run in the 5-6 hour range as do some of the other higher levels, but I don't have personal experience yet.

[David Neilson]

I have run both the first and second level. The first ran at about four hours, and so did the second. It was quite fun.

[Brian J. Fruzen]

I've run levels 1-5 and played most of them as well. It's never been a problem fitting them into a five hour slot, with the exception of level 4, which only takes about 20 minutes to get through unless you have murderous players or want to provide a custom introduction that sets some goals for the level (see these.) I recommend just folding it into the end of level 3 or the beginning of level 5, though both of those can push five hours depending on how things are handled.

[Belafon]

It depends completely on how you want to run it:

Level 1 (4 player party. Get an introduction to Fort Inevitable, a few plot hooks for the Spire levels, only one player has the ability to deal with the special condition, plenty of description) - 5 hours.
Level 1 (6 player party. Ignore the Fort, charge into the first level, half the party has the ability to deal with the special condition, plenty of description) - 3 hours.

Level 2 (4 player party. Downtime back in Fort Inevitable, plenty of atmosphere, role-play whenever possible) - 4 hours.
Level 2 (4 player party. Charge on through, roll initiative and start combat as soon as each door is opened) - 2.5 hours.

Level 3 - 4.5 hours.

Level 4 (Plenty of role-play, peace-loving, intelligent party) - less than an hour.
Level 4 (Murderous party -OR- you push them to take other actions [Getting a "full" result on the chronicle presumes certain actions that may be counterintuitive]) - 3.5 hours.

Level 5 (Party of players experienced with the conditions) - 4 hours
Level 5 (Party of players unable to figure out what to do in the conditions) - 5+ hours.

Level 6 - Over 5 hours.

Levels 7+ vary wildly depending on how much role-playing you want to do, even more than the previous levels. There's tons of room on each floor for interaction. If you have a "pure dungeon crawl" table they can go very fast, especially if some of the characters are at the high end of the level range.

Pretty much everything from 11 on is going to take longer than 5 hours (with the exception of 12 and 15 which can run fairly short if you ignore role-playing). Also these levels are where the outside world is going to be very interested so if you want to get a true role-playing experience you will need plenty of time before and after the "level" to interact with NPCs in Fort Inevitable.

[Matthew Pittard]

Thanks to the people above. Im hoping to run level 1 and 2 on the same day soon and this has been very useful.

[Eryx_UK]

I've run levels 1 & 2 so far for a group of players at our lodge.

Level 1 with a brief wander around the town and then going a bit too gung ho into the first level took 4 hours.

Level 2, the players were more cautious this time and we had slightly longer fights. I'd say it took 4 and a half hours to do.

[Serisan]

I ran a 5 player table of floor 1 and a 6 player table of floor 2 on the same day. It was about 5.5 hours per floor due to low damage output from the party.

I ran a 6 player table of level 3 on Saturday in about 5 hours. The damage output was still fairly low for some sections (basically until the Magus felt comfortable clearing out his spells for the day), but the Gibbering Mouther caused a lot of problems for them and soaked up a significant amount of time. This was made up with a surprise round against the cleric and her minions, as well as a creative solution to the wight.

[G-Zeus]

We ran level 9 in less than 4 hours, including food breaks and regular conversations.

[Cire]

I have run Level 1 3 times. 2 hours. 2 hours. 4.5 hours (I blame the players for the increased run length).

I have run level 2 one time. 2.5 hours.

[David Neilson]

Two hours is a bit fast. Was it the same group every time?

[roysier]

I've played levels 1-4 in under 4 hours. I have also run levels 1 & 3 in under 4 hours.

I know of a instance where a inexperienced GM did not even complete level 2 in 6 hours.

[grandpoobah]

I ran level one and level three each once. Both games took around three hours.

level_1:

Level 1: If enough damage dealers have darkvision, this can go fast (how hard is it to kill a bunch of goblins?).

level_3:

Level 3: If they spot the secret door, they will mow through the cultists.

In many ways, this goes to GM preparedness, and how efficient everyone is in combat.

I have the maps predrawn (or use the actual maps), mini's and init cards ready.

This is a dungeon crawl, not a lot of room for fluff. Some folks add a complex briefing or talk about Fort Inevitable, but we're technically not supposed to use any content except the level (so no RP in Fort Inevitable). YMMV

A well balanced table 5-6 PCs playing a module designed for 4 PCs is going to stomp those monsters.

I expect some levels to be slow (especially level 5), due to environmental complexity.

[Cire]

David Neilson wrote:

Two hours is a bit fast. Was it the same group every time?

Different groups each time. The quick ones were Roll20 if that helps. I have found that online games are a bit quicker due to the built in tools. Combat seems to go quicker and folks seem to waste less time on average than in person. Just my experience.

[DrParty06]

grandpoobah wrote:

I expect some levels to be slow (especially level 5), due to environmental complexity.

Level 5 took my group 7-8 hours split between 2 sessions, with me holding back a little to try and keep a couple alive that I knew didn't have other PFS characters or the money/PP to get a Raise Dead. Level 6 finished in 3.5 hours for me, but that involved an optimal decision by the group and a few poor rolls on my part. It probably would have gone over 4 if those 2 things had not happened, or if your mechanism for dealing with the map is less practiced.

[nosig]

Cire wrote:

I have run Level 1 3 times. 2 hours. 2 hours. 4.5 hours (I blame the players for the increased run length).

I have run level 2 one time. 2.5 hours.

Guilty as charged. ;-)

I've always said I tend to fill all the available time.... But heck, we had fun.

(and yes, we had the perfict party, Two heavy hitters, a Traps monkey, Knowledge expert, etc...)

[Expax]

For an experienced group look generally at 1 1/2 to 2 hours per floor.

In a recent play through we completed some floors in under an hour while other floors took at most maybe 2 1/2. If the group is fairly well balanced with someone good at trap finding and disable trap, then this whole module will be pretty much a cake walk.

[kinevon]

Expax wrote:

For an experienced group look generally at 1 1/2 to 2 hours per floor.

In a recent play through we completed some floors in under an hour while other floors took at most maybe 2 1/2. If the group is fairly well balanced with someone good at trap finding and disable trap, then this whole module will be pretty much a cake walk.

I disagree, in many ways. Just ran Splinterden, level 3, for a group of experienced players, and, despite having two trap finders, they can't find some of the traps if they don't look in the right place, since neither of them had trap spotter...

Then again, it didn't help that the archer had forgotten to stock back up on arrows, so he started the level with only 6 arrows available. Even more amusing, the armory, while it has bows, doesn't have any arrows...

Overall, started around 4:30, ended , in a bit of a rush, at 11:00, ran later with filling out chronicles...

[nosig]

Expax wrote:

For an experienced group look generally at 1 1/2 to 2 hours per floor.

In a recent play through we completed some floors in under an hour while other floors took at most maybe 2 1/2. If the group is fairly well balanced with someone good at trap finding and disable trap, then this whole module will be pretty much a cake walk.

I must disagree.

My group had a "well-balanced" party (Barbarian, Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Summoner - with a Trap specialist Eidolon) - with Perception +15 for traps and Disable Device of +17.

1st level spoiler:

and we all had Darkvision. 2 Dwarves, a 1/2 Orc, 2 Aasimar, and an Eidolon

We had something like a century of total RPG experience at the table - with most of us having played PFS from season 1, a large part of that together -

And level one took us 4 hours.

AND we skipped the town mostly.

Run time will often depend on the players play style. Some of us sit down to play a game with friends and enjoy the time together. to enjoy the trip, not just the arrival. And I think we all had fun... which is the important part right?

[Belafon]

Expax wrote:

For an experienced group look generally at 1 1/2 to 2 hours per floor.

In a recent play through we completed some floors in under an hour while other floors took at most maybe 2 1/2. If the group is fairly well balanced with someone good at trap finding and disable trap, then this whole module will be pretty much a cake walk.

I'm curious about how your GM ran this. Dis s/he have you roll initiative as soon as each door was opened? How much talking did the NPCs do?

[David Neilson]

I also would put in that Level 5 runs a little long, or at least it did so for me.

[Mitch Anderson]

The following Emerald Spire levels were completed in 1 four hour session. If I remember correctly, in levels 5, 9 and 10 the tables managed to barely pull it off in 4 hours.

Module Emerald Spire: The Tower Ruins
Module Emerald Spire: The Cellars
Module Emerald Spire Level 3 Splinterden 2–4
Module Emerald Spire – Level 4: Godhome 3–5*
Module Emerald Spire – Level 5: The Drowned Level 3–5*
Module Emerald Spire – Level 6: The Clockwork Maze 4–6
Module Emerald Spire – Level 7: Shrine of the Awakener 5–7
Module Emerald Spire – Level 8: The Circle of Vissk-Thar 6–8
Module Emerald Spire – Level 9: The Spire Axis 7–9
Module Emerald Spire – Level 10: The Magma Vault 8–10*

I used to schedule these every other week or twice per month, but the players have been getting a 'lil bit of Emerald burn out. So we've decided to have one level scheduled per month.

The group that has had the most fun in Emerald Spire are the ones that choose to play it in CORE mode. They've had some great challenges, while it's been a cake walk for Campaign Setting characters–except for The Drowned Level, everyone said that was a tough scenario.