Adventure planning assistance required


Advice

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Hello! I'll be starting an premade adventure soon. It is designed to go from level 1-18 or so. I absolutely hate calculating and awarding experience points and have always just granted levels at the appropriate time. The problem though, is that this adventure is somewhat open ended and sandboxy and they can easily travel to places that are under/over the appropriate challenge level. The adventure itself only starts the beginning and ending levels and nothing in between.

Is there any reasonable way to keep their level appropriate without awarding experience or doing a massive amount of bookkeeping?


I'd say just adjust the CR of whatever creatures they fight or encounters they have accordingly. That, or give them verbal clues that 'This area is wildly out of your skill range and can be quite deadly/dangerous.'


Is this a campaign published by a company, or homebrewed by another gaming group? If the former, may I ask what the campaign is?

Does the campaign recommend a level for the beginning and end of the entire story, or the beginning and end of multiple parts/chapters/books?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

It's Rise of the Drow, a published campaign. It just recommends the level for the beginning and end of the entire story.


Okay, I haven't read that one, so I can't offer any specifics, sorry, but the product pages seem to imply that there's a prologue section for levels 1 through 6. Have you skimmed the book yet, looking for advice on appropriate levels? In most Paizo APs, the books will say something about players being 'at least level X before facing boss Y'.

Beyond that, I recommend skimming the entire adventure and making a note (on a sheet of notepaper) of each major plot point (beating a boss, performing a significant deed, escaping a terrible predicament). If there are approximately 18 of them, you're done! If there are fewer, you may have to expand your definition of 'significant', and if there are more than 18, you can look at the overall pacing and decide which ones aren't all that important.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Cuuniyevo wrote:

Okay, I haven't read that one, so I can't offer any specifics, sorry, but the product pages seem to imply that there's a prologue section for levels 1 through 6. Have you skimmed the book yet, looking for advice on appropriate levels? In most Paizo APs, the books will say something about players being 'at least level X before facing boss Y'.

Beyond that, I recommend skimming the entire adventure and making a note (on a sheet of notepaper) of each major plot point (beating a boss, performing a significant deed, escaping a terrible predicament). If there are approximately 18 of them, you're done! If there are fewer, you may have to expand your definition of 'significant', and if there are more than 18, you can look at the overall pacing and decide which ones aren't all that important.

Yes, I have. There's absolutely nothing indicating level outside of the beginning and end. The actual adventure starts at 6, and ends at 16-18. The only thing I can think to do, is to go through each section and somehow figure out what level would be appropriate.

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