Hello fellow DMs!
I was wondering: should I tell my players that we are going to play against quite a lot of undeads in the first book of CC?
One side of me wants them to know, so they can better prepare themselves to face the horrors of Harrowstone
The other side doesn't want to spoil what could be a nice surprise...!
My group is going to be (we will start CC mid March):
Half Orc Fighter
Human Bard
Half Elf (drow descendant) Arcanist
Dwarf Cleric
The most affected by undeads would be the Bard and the Arcanist, but I could try to warn them telling them we are going to face Swarms (not really a lie), Elementals (that's a lie) and other creatures usualy not targeted by mind-affecting spells...
What would/did you do?
Thanks a lot!
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Did they read the Player's Guide?
Also, how much do they know about the AP and Pathfinder in general?
If they know that CC is a horror adventure path and they are experienced, they can pretty much guess they will face undead first because most other horror creatures kill low level groups outright.
If they know the title of the module they can figure it out.
If they are experienced Pathfinder players they should be able to handle it.
On the other hand I feel like the module slowly introduces undead and if you buff up the shopping abilities in town they should be able to buy stuff to counter the undead.
Another idea I read was that the characters should start out on the carriage going towards Ravengro. This way they get to know each other and you can set up what they should expect without trapping them with the monsters (for example, you can throw in a broken down carriage with two zombies in it or a swarm which disbands naturally after a few rounds) - introducing them to the monsters and setting up the mood without actually endagering them too bad.
No, they didn't read that and probably wont for a couple of reasons (most of them does not speak english very well... or at all... and I have only the english version of that)
They do not know wich AP we are going to play and I'm changing the names of every NPC and Location in game (one of them has the bad habit of spoiling this kind of stuff for himself and the rest of the party)
I told them countless time it's going to be a horror campaing, with the classic "european" kind of horror
We are playing pathfinder since the first book was translated in Italian, so quite a bit of time (except the bard, my girlfriend) but I wouldn't say it's a strong group of people... not on the rules of the game at least (but they are a fun bunch to play with). I usually help them make their character (so they usually still end up quite optimized)
On the carriage thing: how should i justify it? Like, why are they on that carriage, instead of trying to reach the Ravengro on their own? Who paid the carriage? why did they meet in another town? Who introduced them? >_<
Being told about undead can help with class choices like Ranger, plus Oracles can get a lot of mileage out of Searing Light.
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On the carriage thing: how should i justify it? Like, why are they on that carriage, instead of trying to reach the Ravengro on their own? Who paid the carriage? why did they meet in another town? Who introduced them? >_<
They could gather in a town because the Professor wanted to meet with them. He doesn't show, they take the carriage to Ravengro and arrive just in time for the Professors funeral.
Makes more sense than "You gather from all over Ustalav and arrive JUST in time!". ;)
That is actually a very neat idea...!
I'm totally using that!
Going by what others have told me it sounds like mentioning it'll be a decently undead heavy campaign could be helpful. The first book in particular seems very heavily reliant on them having some means of inflicting positive energy damage, which could get expensive with just wands and holy water.
Also, I think I'll make use of the carriage as well. I was planning on having a prep session to finish up characters and maybe have a bit of in character introduction to get my new players into it and this sounds perfect for that.
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Yes, that's something I wish I had done back when I started. It just seemed so...contrived that people from all over Ustalav (and in one case Lastwall) were invited to come to a funeral and all arrive JUST when the funeral begins.
Additional ideas: If they choose to wait and lack any direction some traveller could talk about "Some old fellow dyin' over in Ravengro, terrible thing, a Professor or something" in the tavern. That might get them going. Bonus points if Lorrimor mentioned that he thinks he's onto something and it might get dangerous in his letter.
Hmm interesting stuff here. I had them roll initiative checks to determine how they arrived and gave the PC's all letters from Kendra requesting they attend his funeral on the day they should show up. Depending on who was from where they showed up at different times, but all in all attended the funeral at the same time. Some meeting before hand, while others met at the funeral. I told my group about the undead just due to the fact i didn't want them to make a character that did almost nothing to undead and just feel useless almost the entire game. If you didn't tell them you could always toss in some Looters or maybe some other type of low level monsters hiding in various parts of the prison just to make the non undead spec'd people feel useful and appreciated.
For the "timely" arrival in Ravengro, I had my PCs meet Petros in another city, in a side quest.
Then later, thy got a letter from Petroas sking for their help in an investigation in Ravengro. PCs travel and arrve in Ravengro just in time for the funerals. Adventure starts!
Joël