Hi everyone.
A little background first.
I've been a member of this forum for many years but have only recently returned after about a 3 year hiatus from roleplaying.
I've been GMing since the mid 1980's and have a reasonable amount of experience running campaigns with my most recent completing the Savage Tide Adventure path from Dungeon about 5 years ago.
ROTRL:
My daughter has always been interested since a young age (thanks in large part to me) in Rpg's and geek culture. She had always wanted to play a campaign and has enlisted a group of friends to do so. Aside from my daughter they are all first time rp gamers.
I will describe the story so far in a post below.
My main aim for coming here is to find out tips I may have missed and particularly learn of any foreshadowing I should try to add from the later parts of the story.
Any help and advice you all can give would be greatly appreciated
I have run them through a shortened version of the kids track program paizo put out basing the ship encounter on the Kaijitsu crossing to Varisia many years before and focussing the scene on the fireworks carried on board. I used pregens from beginner box and told them they all had an Tian flavor.
I had goblins come aboard and sever the tiller ropes which led the ship to crash into the swamp from we be goblins. The boxes of fireworks lashed on deck exploded leaving a gaping hole in the deck thanks to fire loving goblins. One of the party managed to roll two critical fumbles when swinging on a rope above the flaming hole in the deck and fell to her death.
The purpose of this was to set up the players understanding of how to mechanically proceed in a combat situation and make skill checks while giving them a cool media res scenario on a ship in a storm with fireworks exploding
I then jumped in time to 2 weeks before the swallowtail festival and ran Black fangs dungeon with them running the same pregens but from pf society.
I ran a roleplay dinner/interview with them, introducing them to the Rusty Dragon inn and Ameiko Kaijitsu. I also had them witness a heated discussion between Tsuto and Ameiko with him complaining about all the problems their father is causing. They then had an interview with the mayor who was harried and dropped lots of information about events around town - missing fireworks and supplies, the sczarni, sandpoint devil, junkers point goblins etc.
I'd also given them 3 personality cards as suggested in the kids track and got them to introduce their characters and hold a conversation demonstrating those traits. Upon completion each player got to pick a set of 7 polyhedrals in a velvet bag in their preference of color. I'd picked these up cheaply online for this purpose. It was very gratifying to see their reactions to getting their first set of rpg dice. I don't think i've mentioned this before but my players are all around 17 years old.
The party consisted of merisiel, valeros, ezren and kyra
They set out for the dungeon following the road. I had them meet Shalelu who gave them clearer directions and she pointed out some of the goblin atrocities in the nearby woodland
I also added jeva and the orphanage from crown of the kobold king which had some interesting repercussions when they found the priest that was scourging Jeva had been of the Sarenrae faith, the same as my Kyra player. This created all sorts of party tension with the group split between thinking Jeva was a monster and the others thinking she's a helpless tortured orphan. During one part the valeros player held a blade to jevas neck to get the truth out of her with the party struggling to free her and valeros getting scratched by the naturally hysterical child. I made the fighter make a save later with an undisclosed roll that everyone rolled and valeros failed so now has early stage lycanthropy - this will be fun.
Anyway, the purpose of these early scenes was to get the party to the dungeon and have them play a few roleplay situations to get them comfortable with the concept and also to introduce them to important background characters - Ameiko, Tsuto, Mayor Deverin and Shalelu
Eventually the Black fang dungeon went off well with the goblins having a box of old fireworks (from the ship in the setup scene).
The party had been escorting Jeva the poor tortured orphan and gave her the dragon toy they found. They later took it off her and gave it to the goblins for information which upset Jeva. They left her safely away from the goblins and went after Black fang.
Black fang tried to convince them that the humans of sandpoint were evil and had been destroying the natural habitat of creatures who were now forced to take cattle from farms to provide for her babies. The party finally worked out that Black Fang was both too young to birth and male so he was lying.
I also made the dragon bane sword intelligent with the soul of a Green dragon (Verminax) trapped inside it and extremely jealous of living dragons. He had a battle of wills with the valeros and won which forced the fighter to charge. After a couple of rounds the fighter rolled a crit with the dragonbane sword doing around 40+hp to Black fang. I decided his front claw had been severed. Black fang then leapt into the air and flew away.
As the party gathered the loot and a magic lamp with a trapped efreet I added. I had a visual/audio mix of the scene from Aladdin with an Electro Swing version of the song and told them he was like that but red - they loved it.
Just after that they headed back towards the goblins when a large explosion happened (the fireworks). Jeva, not being happy about losing her toy took matters into her own hands and dismembered the 4 goblins and with them trying to defend themselves with unstable old fireworks and thus the explosion. The party raced back in to see a flash of yellow dress and brown (fur) exit the room and body parts and gore strewn across the room.
A couple of players went after Jeva and the rogue scoured through the remains for treasure. The ones chasing Jeva caught up to her failing her concentration check trying to turn back into a little girl. The players freaked out with accusations flying across the table on how they should have killed her from the start. A tough fight ensued and they managed to kill her with some silver weapons placed earlier and brute force.
I had previously foreshadowed a full moon during the rusty dragon dinner and again when they left the dungeon. On their return trip I had them encounter a small campsite with a wagon and some tents just having dinner around a campfire. As it was getting late they decided to ask to join the campers. I had them recognize Tsuto from the Rusty Dragon. He was there with Lyrie and Orik making a run from sandpoint to thistletop with supplies (fireworks for the upcoming raid, food, writing and digging supplies for Nualias search). When they first got there I had them arrive mid conversation with Tsuto talking about how she will never love him and he just feels trapped by someone who's using him but he is devoted to her with Lyrie then telling him to forget about Nualia and try finding someone that is interested in him instead of what he can provide (hinting at herself).
I had previously decided that Black fang and his dungeon would be part of Nualias influence and a scout lookout for Sandpoint activity while her plans were building. So Tsuto was quite keen to hear about what the party was up to which the players found suspicious and were quite circumspect with their answers. Tsuto lied about his own group stating he'd had enough of his father and was heading to Magnimar for a while with some friends.
The rogue looked through the covered wagon and noted the fresh fireworks and the other items then went to bed. The party was paranoid and valeros was having stomach cramps and a headache throughout the night. Now the player wasn't sure if this was because of the full moon or the swords sentience which I described as feeling like it was taking pieces of your soul each time it won a contest of wills.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully and the party made it back to Sandpoint where they collected their reward from the Mayor saying they had destroyed Black Fang and eradicated the monsters in the dungeon - a lie. I'm going to have so much fun with the Sins part of this AP
I should note that I'm kind of using a hybrid of majority of PF 1st edition and some interesting ideas from both PF2e and D&D5e thrown in.
The purpose of camping scene was naturally for foreshadowing purposes.
Overall these new roleplayers tell me they are having a fantastic time and they are each keen to play more often. I'm currently on a weekly schedule and they want to add more sessions
I started the next session with the players rolling up their own characters and we spent this and the next session making them up. I told them they could port over all the things they gained from their intro characters but they would also have to port over any negative effects too. Or they could just start with a fresh slate.
My rogue character decided to change Merisiel into a male human rogue. He kept the Djini (Efreet) lamp and we came up with a backstory of him being a bastard son of King Eodred II from Korvosa who had to leave because Ileosa wanted him dead. He found the Lamp in the treasure room and used one of the wishes to escape. This got him and his companion (my valeros player) to Magnimar into a bit of trouble with the Szarni which they then started trading their work for training to be Varisian and fit into the lifestyle. They did this for 6 months when there was a raid by the city guard led by Justice Ironbriar which led to the imprisonment of most of the gang including their friend from Sandpoint Delek Viskanta (the Sczarni that got Nualia pregnant) who had been hiding out here since leaving his Uncle Jubrayl 4+ years ago. They then went to Sandpoint and met up with Jubrayl in a rp scene I ran after the characters were made
My valeros character decided to stay as a Fighter but became an Ifrit one who had been a slave/orphan from Katapesh and taken as a scullery wench in the Korvosan guard. She proved obstinate and worked her way into the city guard proper and was assigned to guard the Kings bastard son. Ileosa tried to get her to betray the rogue and set him up to get caught raiding the kings treasury so Ileosa could legally have him killed or exiled. The Ifrit was complicit in this to start with but had a change of heart and helped him escape stealing the Dragon bane bastard sword Verminax in the process (she chose to port over the assets from the previous character which also means she has early stage lycanthropy)
My ezren character (my daughter - only experienced player) decided to play a disguised drow sorcerer - a servant of the Azrinae clan out on the surface trying to find out about thassilonian relics and if they will be of any help for the future plans of the drow. The old light at Sandpoint is her focal point but she has met up with my rogue who is an information broker of sorts after 6 months living in sandpoint. She is disquised as an elf. I gave her a hat of disquise to help, it will also make a great heirloom item for Aldern to perhaps steal. None of the characters know this although the players do know some as none of these new players can keep secrets from each other.
My Kyra player has made a Druid Samsaran but it looks like work might get in the way of her regular play ability
I then have another new player who has made 1 session and is playing as a Elven Druid but we haven't fully developed her back story although I'm going to tie in some Fort Rannick stuff and play up a Game of Thrones - the wall feel to it
Finally my newest player who looks like being a regular is playing a half elf (Shoanti) Warpriest that grew up in Sandpoint. He has taken the Belor Hemlock connection and his religion is Pharasma so I made the gravedigger a priest of her who he also has a connection with. He is from a Shoanti tribe and his parents died so he was passed on to distant relative in sandpoint and works at the White deer and also as a part time militia member. His shoanti background will let me add some fort Rannick foreshadowing too if needed. I've also told him he had a crush on Nualia and gave him background for her pregnancy and his rival Delek who ran away after. He doesn't like the Sczarni much at all and this puts him at odds with the rest of the party. I haven't quite worked out how I'm going to reconcile the groups cohesion going forward. I'm intending to force them to work together during the Swallowtail fight. I have also had him be the connected to the Chopper incident and was saved by the previous Sheriff just before his death. His character was about 15 during the late unpleasantness
I forgot to mention a session we played before they made up characters.
I ran them through We Be Goblins to kind of get the murderous and destructive instincts out of new players that i've noticed over the years. I think this is a similar phenomena to how open world computer games have many players doing destructive things. The loss of real world consequences tends to lead many new players to push the envelope more than the otherwise would. This also allowed me to introduce the concept behind Pathfinder goblins really well with their chanting songs and murderous little black hearts making the players really enjoy them. It also introduced them to the death mechanics rather effectively with no permanent consequences. The goblin games were also great for getting the players more used to skill checks.
Anyway I set this up to let off steam and tie the fireworks narrative together. So we went back in time again as I set this to be 4 weeks before the Swallowtail festival and had the players go after the fireworks on the ship. They encountered the wreckage of their initial scenario complete with the dead body of my Kyra character at the bottom of the charred hole in the deck.
Vorka and co managed to kill 2 of the goblin characters with the scimitar taken from the previous players corpse which went over brilliantly with players loving the tie in and they couldn't get over using a previous players weapon to kill the current players. One of the characters lumbered away with the fireworks and the other close behind with Vorka shouting curses at them.
They then ran into the chief and the rest of the tribe who was surprised they were alive and admitted they were only a distraction while they got the weapons for the upcoming fight they needed but he added that the fireworks will come in handy for it. One of the goblins had the love interest mentioned in the module who I made the female dead goblin from Black Fangs dungeon and she had a brother Fatmouth who was to take the fireworks North to Black Fang. Again the players loved that they were the ones that brought the fireworks to Black Fangs dungeon which lead to the death of multiple goblins in a previous session.
The Chief wasn't pleased that one of the 2 remaining Goblins had lost his prized possessions so he killed that one leaving only Poog of Zarongal who I intend to insert into the Swallowtail attack somehow.
Following this session we then spent the next two sessions making characters as described in the previous post
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I was originally going to warn you about the darker aspects in Books 2 and 3 (being the target of a serial killer's obsession, backwoods horror, etc.), but then I read your later post about your players' ages and figured that everyone would be mature enough to take it (unless anyone has had an extremely protected upbringing).
In a slightly different vein: the Lust wing in Book 5 plus various implications about Pride's activities (and Sloth's voyeurism) might raise eyebrows in certain circles.
This AP is a great one for Wizard characters in particular, as it hands out spellbooks as treasure all the way through.
Have the players had a chance to learn about the importance of condition removal? If not, then I guess that they will learn during play. It's good to hear that they have divine spellcasters in the form of Druids and a Warpriest.
I strongly suggest that the Rogue be an Unchained Rogue (the improved version found in Pathfinder Unchained).
The new Sandpoint sourcebook has a wealth of information but is set a bit after the conclusion of RotR, so some parts are not immediately relevant (e.g., what happens to Shayliss after tragedy hits her family). Also, the tunnels under Sandpoint have been expanded in that sourcebook, so if using that then it might be a good idea to have some convenient rockfalls/blockages and extremely well hidden secret doors to prevent unnecessary distractions from the AP's storyline.
It's always a good idea to keep an eye on the GM threads for each book in the RotR sub-forum. And threads in that forum in general. The obituaries thread there can give you food for thought about which encounters are more dangerous (but keep in mind the changes made between the 3.5 and PF versions of the AP, like switching the stat blocks for X. in Book 2 with that of L. in Book 3). That thread can also be a source of amusement. :)
Foreshadowing ... if you have some way of working in references to/knowledge of Viorian Dekanti (Book 6), then the encounter with her will have far more meaning. Otherwise she becomes just another nameless henchman (despite her interesting backstory).
The Player's Guides (both 3.5 and PF versions) supply information about Varisia. However, depending upon how you want to run the encounter(s) in the Rimeskull area, you might want to excise any references to Arkhryst/Freezemaw so that the encounter with him will be a surprise. (Which might be just in the PF version of the Player's Guide; I'm AFB at the moment so I can't check that.)
Thanks for the advice Bellona. I'll probably tone down the lust/sins elements as they are still fairly young.
I'll also look into the Viorian Dekanti backstory and see if I can weave it in somehow.
I'll also sift through the other suggestions you made, thanks.
The sandpoint sourcebook you mention. Which one is that as i'm unfamiliar with it?
The new sourcebook is most likely this one
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Foreshadowing and losing the stories of bad guys is why I started writing vignettes for them. In hindsight, I should have included Viorian among them. Viorian's a good one to highlight because, unlike some others(the Scribbler), she was out in the world and doing things prior to her place in the adventure and the party has a good chance of running into people who knew her.
I wholeheartedly agree with foreshadowing upcoming baddies for your players.
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Roonfizzle's link is the sourcebook to which I was referring.
Regarding Viorian, I was lucky enough to have a half-orc Barbarian PC in one party (I'm currently running RotR for two different groups) with a suitable backstory. His mother was the human, and left him with his orcish father (and tribe) along with a letter. Being orcs, they didn't do much with the letter and in fact messed up his name (which became Donk). The only piece of complete information in that letter which survived to Donk's adulthood was the information on how to contact the livery stable in Sandpoint for a free, fully-trained warhorse (campaign trait).
So when the party spent some time in Riddleport (the Magus wanted to become a member of the Cyphermages), I dropped some information for the half-orc. Donk learned that there had been a very competent woman warrior by the name of Viorian Dekanti, who had lead her own mercenary company out of her Riddleport HQ. About five years ago, she disappeared on night, leaving behind a house full of dead minions and one broken display case. "Coincidentally", Dekanti was the name mentioned in that old letter which he'd received. If he chooses to follow up on that lead, he will find a partially destroyed portrait of her in the ruin of her house. Cue possible angst when they meet later! ;)
Other bits of foreshadowing: if there is anyone in the party with dwarven connections, then they might have heard about the Vekker expedition scandal.
Also, maybe Shalelu talks a bit with the party between books 1 and 2, about how she is leaving in order to look for someone, so it isn't such a "coincidence" when she turns up in book 3.
Bellona, I sent your example to my players to show them how a good backstory provides details, but also leaves openings for the DM to work subplots and foreshadowing into the campaign. Heh. Well done all around, there.
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I agree with Bellona on the ages being fine - at 17 they are practically adults. However, there are a lot of very limit-pushing sex topics (rape, incest, sex toys, BDSM, etc.) and you'll be presenting that material to your daughter (and friends). Books 2, 3, and 5 need some tweaking if you want to sidestep those topics.
I had to cut the book 1 Shayliss scene entirely. There was no way I was going to RP that scene with a group of strangers (my group at the time).
The AP does push the violence limits as well. A lot of it is needlessly gratuitous. But I expect that will be less of an issue than the sex.
All of the villains can use more foreshadowing. I'd suggest maybe using rumors - have the NPCs talk up the bad guys. When I ran this AP, many villains ended up dead without the PCs ever knowing who they were.
Mike, I cut the Shayliss scene too. At the beginning of our campaign, the players were my wife, and three kids (two of ours, one neighbor) who were 11, 12, and 14 years old, and I just didn’t think it would go well no matter how I modified it. When they went through the Lust wing of Runeforge in November, those kids were about 15, 16, and 18, and I toned it down as much for my comfort as theirs - call me a prude, but I’m not going into detail about magical demonic sex-toys with my kids no matter how old they are! I think I referred to them as “accessories” and “what-nots.” Nobody expressed any confusion or asked for any additional detail.