Second Darkness GM advice

[esecra]

Hi all,

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me. I don't know if this is where it should be posted, so please excuse if it is in the wrong spot.

I have recently starting running the Second Darkness adventure path and things are going great except one thing.

I have a party of experienced players and they are speeding through the content. We are about to wrap book 2 after only 6 total sessions (3 session for Shadow in the Sky and 3 for Children of the Void).

Our session are generally 6 hours long. I have added the set pieces in the back of the books and also included some other encounters of my own design as well.

My biggest concern, is that I am rewarding the players a level per session basically to keep them at the right level for the encounters. I would really like to keep it closer to 2 or 3 session before leveling.

Are there any scenarios you could recommend to add to this adventure path?

Help and thanks

[Rub-Eta]

How do they go about speeding through the game this fast? The adventure paths I've played and runned it's taken a lot longer than that. So I can't really help unless I know what you guys are doing.

[Dave Justus]

I haven't run second darkness myself, but it was made for 3.5, not pathfinder. While the two systems are similar, and mostly compatible, in general Pathfinder characters are more powerful than 3.5 ones. A little bit better stats, a few more class features and an extra hit point or skill from FCB actually makes quite a difference.

If it is going quickly because the bad guys are being wiped out in a single round each combat, this is probably the reason. I'd recommend adding at least the advanced simple template to all of the foes, and if that doesn't work, add in a few more bad guys or bonuses to the existing bad guys.

[esecra]

In an effort to mitigate PC power level, I required the players to only use the CRB for creation and progression, on top of a 15 pt buy. I don't think the speed of combat is an issue, as I would guess the average combat lasts 5-6 rounds or 45 -60 minutes.

I don't know how to add the spoiler tag so...

Spoiler:

Last session we covered the akata seige, the meeting with Zincher (no combat, just RP), the western lighthouse, an elemental combat at the crater I added, searching for skymetal, guard duty at the zincher camp, and finally the players ambushed Zincher on his way to meet with the Drow and plan on confronting them at the beginning of next session.

Maybe the issue lies with me and the roleplaying outside of combat. I guess chalk this up to my lack of experience on the other side of the GM screen.

I am curious to know if anyone else supplemented SD with anything else and if so, what material did you use?

Thanks

[Joana]

esecra wrote:

I am curious to know if anyone else supplemented SD with anything else and if so, what material did you use?

Thanks

You should ask this question in the Second Darkness subforum. You don't have to use spoilers there, and the people answering your questions will be largely GMs who have run or are running that AP.

[Protoman]

In case you haven't already, the enemies in Second Darkness probably shouldn't be run as is without updating them to Pathfinder or using ready-made Pathfinder stats.

Yea follow Joana's advice and post in the Second Darkness forums. More help available there. This thread and others like it would be useful.

[esecra]

Thanks for the help guys, the link to the subforum was really helpful