Hey, so I recently got my hands on the anniversary edition of CotCT. I've been running the path for some time now on the old material, and my Players were just at the start of Book 3, just after Meeting the young noble.
My problem is, that the AP suggests the PCs being Level 9 after dealing with the Emperor, but Level 10 before entering the final dungeon. How on earth is that supposed to work if they don't murderize their way through the Arkona's Palace? Glorio's whole point is to try and solve things diplomatically, but even the XP reward for that is not enough to Level up.
I couldn't find this Topic anywhere, so maybe I just misunderstood something...
Story awards to make up the difference, maybe.
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Let me answer your question with a question: In your game, if someone misses a session, do you withhold the XP from participation?
I'm with Skeld. I'm running this XP, and I've played or GM'd several others. Cinematic or story-based levels are the way to go.
I hate XP, as it has provides very little value, for 3 reasons: bookkeeping, party cohesion, GM strictures.
1) Bookkeeping - Most of us play games because it's not reality. I have a life in which I track rations (buy groceries), worry about lodging (pay mortgage), invest in menial tasks (commute to work). XP is a construct that has people track more numbers that have very little relevance.
2) Party Cohesion - In 20 years of role-playing, I've never found great value to have one or two characters at a different level from the rest of the group. Furthermore, once you have more than a 2-level difference, the impacts are very tangible. You'll end up losing players that way. If the party is the same level, who cares how many XP Alice and Bob have vs. Charlie and Delilah.
3) GM Strictures - Do you want to run an adventure, or do you want to kill PCs? The AP is built for everything to coincide with a certain power level of the party. If you do XP, and the players aren't at the appropriate level, how do you want to fix that? You can hope they survive, you can kill a few (maybe all) of the PCs, or you can adjust the encounters. I would argue that those items would contribute to losing players or GM burnout.
You're playing an AP because it's a great story, easy to run, and has a very well-rounded gaming experience to suit a variety of player preferences. If you want to hand-jam all the numbers, build your own encounters, and meticulously track party capabilities, you should probably run a home-brew game.
P.S. The percentage of home-brew games that go from Level 1 to Level 14-20 is probably much lower than the 100% of Adventure Paths.
Creative Director
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One of the main reasons we put in those "You should be this level before starting this part" sections for Adventure Paths is to help GMs keep things in line for this specific type of event.
In this case, the adventure expects the average party to fight their way through the palace, since using Stealth or Diplomacy is a LOT trickier to pull off for the average party (it only takes one noisy PC or one PC who's not interested in talking to ruin such a plan).
But if your group DOES manage to bypass the upper levels and gets to the next section, you absolutely SHOULD reward them by giving them a single story-based XP award as if they'd defeated the foes upstairs. Make sure you let your players KNOW this too, so that going forward they won't think that the only way to earn XP is by killing monsters.
AKA: If a dungeon has 100,000 worth of encounters, and the PCs manage to defeat the dungeon with a clever or impressive set of skill checks or other methods, you should still award them the 100,000 XP. Otherwise all you're doing is limiting player options in character builds because you're only rewarding a single style of game play.
The TRICKY part is then what if the PCs go back through and murderize the dungeon after they've already defeated it via Diplomacy or the like? In this case, you'll need to decide if you want to allow double-dipping XP. If you're running a sandbox, this is fine, since the XP progression is largely decoupled from the plot. But if you're running a story-based campaign (such as an Adventure Path) you'll want to keep an eye on the rate at which XP goes out for sure so your players don't outlevel upcoming content.
(In hindsight, I should have included something like this in the text of the adventure... or even better, something like this in the text of the Core Rulebook, so that GMs feel more empowered to adjust XP rewards as needed for unexpected moves by the party, or for a party that tackles adventures in an unusual way.)
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This ↑ is one of my favorite features of the Adventure Path lines. It is SO helpful in knowing how to pace the story-telling. And, as my players have gotten used to the system, they're much more inclined to try creative approaches that are more fun to GM--they know they don't have to worry about murderhoboing every single creature in order to assure being high enough level to face whatever is next.
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I just finished running this AP on Saturday night for my group. In the switch from the old 3.5 versions to the new Anniversary Edition, the XP they had been gaining just wasn't keeping pace with where the new edition said they should be, so I had to just throw that out the window and tell them when to level up.
One of the reasons games can turn into hack and slash fests is because players think 'thats how we level up'. If you as a GM make it clear that you are rewarding XP for the achieving objectives however they are achieved, you may find your players get much more creative.
For this AP I'm adjusting the XP track as follows:
- Switching to medium XP
- Adding two modules. Murders Mark to play at the start, to provide some time spent in 'normal korvosa' before things kick off. And a heavily modified version of Acadamy of Secrets (for backstory reasons).
- Adding sandbox-style storytelling using a host of NPCs (many in the main AP, but not all) overlayed on top of the sequential / mostly-linear AP plot. The plots here are emergent, based on NPC objectives and personalities, not a pre-written storyline. With the provisio the main story line doesn't get derailed in the process.
- Providing clear XP rewards for the players creating allies and strong bonds with key NPCs. Korvosa is full of factions and groups that are on the fence about how to react to the goings on in the city.
I also highly recommend the published Guide to Korvosa. It really brings the city to life, explains some of its more unusual aspects (such as the Cerulean Society), and especially it describes the delicate balance of power between all the groups. It has dozens of ideas for how to add extra encounters that can inject a bit more XP into your PCs levelling.
Good luck!