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Hey everyone! I'm a DM of about three years experience playing through my first long-term published campaign, and I just wanted to share my experiences with you all. I'm playing Rise of the Runelords using the Anniversary Edition but with D&D 5e rules, which has so far been a blast. Here's the recap of the campaign so far, we're currently halfway through Hook Mountain Massacre:
- Ran through 'Burnt Offerings' with little in the way of changes, it was a big damn hit. One of my players wanted to start the game as a dragonborn fighter, so I ended up inserting the dragonborn as a race into the Cinderlands, co-existing somewhat alongside the Shoanti.
- Characters took to Ameiko in a big way. After all the trouble she goes through with Tsuto, the party went out of its way to make sure that she was doing alright, checking up on her during her sick rest, ex cetera. In return, I had Ameiko help fund their business ventures in Sandpoint, to the point that she is both their friend and business partner.
- I have made Madame Mvashti a more conspicuous character than in the main adventure series, offering help somewhere between a fortune teller and arcane expert. The party has also met her embarrassingly large amount of children, including Kova Mvashti... planning for the good Madame to remain enigmatic about her true powers until the very end.
- Shayliss Vinder has been removed from the game entirely due to my party not being particularly well-suited for that kind of interaction. Instead, Ven Vinder has been aged down and is now nervously hitting on the party's female halfling rogue whenever he gets the chance.
- After Tsuto was captured, I had Erin Habe show up in town to ask specifically to take Tsuto into his custody. The party didn't trust him initially, but eventually agreed - when s&&& went down at the Sanitarium later, our party's rogue was ready to throttle the beleaguered doctor.
- The party ended up capturing Nualia as well at the end of the whole adventure, sending her to Magnimar to rot in a jail cell. Of course, Justice Ironbriar wasn't willing to play ball.
- I took a different approach to 'Skinsaw Murders' and changed up the entire adventure, namely to make up for the fact that the party didn't react all that strongly to Aldern's character. Tsuto instead became the murderer, becoming Patient Zero in the spread of Vorel's plague, which Aldern helped to facilitate.
- I also decided to switch up many of the future villains in the APs, since I wanted to place the focus more on dragons and dragonborn than the lamia and giants Karzoug has serving him. This makes more sense to me because A) dragons seem more likely to fall victim to the Runelord of Greed and B) dragon fights are iconic to the game. Mokmurian and Lucretia have been changed into dragons for the future adventures, with the blue dragon villain of Shattered Star also making an appearance. Xanesha I removed and Ironbriar was changed from an elf cleric of Norgorber to a dragon-in-hiding serving Karzoug. This also helped me simplify the plot a bit when I thought the mystery was dragging out too long.
- Tsuto ended up killing Jubrayl Vhiski, and captured Ven in an attempt to torture the halfling rogue that had grown attached to him. When the rogue went to investigate Ven's home in the aftermath of the abduction, I had her discover an engagement ring hidden under Ven's pillow.
- In an attempt to defeat the undead Tsuto, the party ended up recruiting the necromancer Caizarlu who... well, was rotting in a jail cell and didn't have much chance to disagree. Caizarlu actually ended up assuming control of Tsuto as a servitor and helped the party defeat Ironbriar, but swiftly disappeared after. If we end up running Curse of the Crimson Throne, I plan to have Caizarlu show up and be in charge of creating the plague, protected by a rabid Tsuto ghoul.
- We're running Hook Mountain Massacre right now, so far it is going well. The party has taken control of Fort Rannick and received orders to raise it back up to full strength from the Lord-Mayor of Magnimar... I plan to switch the climax of the adventure from an invasion of the Kreeg Clanhold to a siege of the Fort by an army of ogres, orcs, goblins, and dragonborn.
- In the future, I'm thinking of playing around with time travel of some kind? Either using the Leng Device or the Cyphergate, the party will get a chance to experience what Thassilon was like under Karzoug's rule... should serve as a good set-up for a desperate battle to stop him from regaining his power.
IMHO, modifying an AP is essential if any of your players have heard of (or even read) the adventure themselves. It also helps it feel more like your *own* campaign, rather than a pre-cooked ready meal.
Making the campaign more dragon-centric totally works with the Runelord theme, I think. If, in the official campaign, it's the giants who've enslaved the dragons, who's to say that behind another pel of the onion skin it isn't the dragon's who've enslaved the giants?
I can definitely see Caizarlu playing a bigger role. Bringing back unkilled foes from earlier chapters is a good way to keep the players on their toes. I'm also toying with having Nualia raised via raise dead, to fight again. The PCs thoughtlessly abandoned her body in their mad flight from a dragon turtle (don't ask) and it would've been a simple matter for some mad cultists to decide to bring her back.