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For better formatting and faster response, see my Reddit post of the exact same thing. Formatting there is way easier than it is here. Sorry I'm lazy
Players stay out! You have been warned!
Preface: I have run the entirety of book one, and for any of the resources below or any thing else you might want to know, feel free to reply or PM me at any time.
Hey friends! I recently finished Book 1 of Rise of the Runelords. It took 21 4hr sessions over 8 months for them to kill Nualia. Yea, we're slow. We're now on session 27 and working through a book I created(threw together) and dubbed 1.5 Calm Before the Murders(Creative, I know).
I figured I'd take the time to reflect, and give back to the community that's given me so much. This post will be copied and immortalized to the Paizo forums as well.
To the content! In no Particular Order. Links below headings to original posts/sources.
The Lure of Greed Brodert Quink
Wayfinder 7(With the Lure of Greed to be run before the Catacombs), free on Paizo.com
My Original Post on Lucendi Quink
I loved running this module. It was myself and my player's first "dungeon" experience. It also does a great job at introducting the Runelords to the party earlier and more naturally to me then some random scary catacombs underground. Instead, a friendly old man needs some help, and the characters are sent to a scary old ruin that has much more interesting things going on inside of it, with more roleplay opportunities available.
My PCs have latched onto Brodert Quink as a good friend and source of knowledge and advice. As such, when running this module, I found that the lack of backstory for Lucendi was a major issue. Here's what I've written, feel free to use it as you'd like. Ask away for advice on running the module, and my personal experience. I don't want to make this post any longer than it already is.
The Bounty Board
Original Post by me.
Thanks to /u/Stryxin's Notice Board pack released on his Patreon(in collaboration with Elven Tower, I was able to make this nifty board for RotR. The full album. There's a bit of work that can be done on it still, but overall I'm happy with the results. I found the original versions of the notices on the Paizo forums I think.
Note: If you find yourself wanting to add or change things to this board and are lacking the resources, knowhow, or time to do so, feel free to PM me and I can make you one to order!
Bounty Board Writeup and how they worked in my campaign: Can be found on my original post.
Implementing the board: I'm posting 1 whole copy to my Campaign Discord, but as the board changes it will be doing so on Roll20. Upload the pieces seperate, and you can drag around and mix and match the boards how you please, while still maintaining the quality. Pretty neat.
Risa Magravi's Tales
Original Source of all the tales and their writeup.
This is the first time I'm releasing this.
The tales provided in the link above are a great way to get players involved with Golarion's lore if they're into reading. A lot. On the original post, only about a dozen or so were in handout form. So, I painstakingly spent an entire afternoon fixing that. After the first 5 or so I realized how much time consuming it was going to be if I added pictures and different fonts and stuff to each one, so sorry for the monotony.
My implementation: One of my players is Varisian. His parents died to the Sandpoint Devil and he barely escaped alive. Prior to his parents "settling down" with their new son (the PC) in a Varisian caravan, they were adventurers for a long time. They always found their way back to Sandpoint, however, and were good friends with Risa Magravi. Much of the tales written were shared to her by the PCs parents. When the PC started making a name for himself around town (prior to becoming a hero a farm nearby raised him after his parents died), Risa Magravi heard a name she hadn't heard in a very long time. In a very hearfelt scene between Risa, her daughter, and my PC, Risa passed on the book of tales to him, saying that she was returning a favor for an old friend long ago, and telling him to stop by her tavern sometime.
I actually cried as Risa delivered the book to him. It's one of my proudest moments as a GM; and, a secret shame.
Sandpoint Street Encounters
Original Source of all street encounters.
My Homebrewery PDF of the Street Encounters with minor changes.
My Suggestion on implementation: DMing online with this is much easier and less time consuming. I have a Sandpoint map that my players can all see on Downtime/Sandpoint days. I tell them to draw out the route they are taking to their destination, collect the street names, then roll on the table and describe what they see on their journey.
If you are a Roll20 Pro user, I can give you some advice that can let you click on the Street names and it instantly give you the roll results in chat without players seeing. Otherwise, rolling by hand or even digitally without the macros can be a little tedious. Personally I think its worth it, but /shrug.
Maps
I have, a lot of maps. Since I DM on Roll20, I can offer you Roll20 compatible conversions of most (if not all) maps in Book 1. I'm pretty sure I edited them all personally to ensure complete compatibility, it's been a while.
Here are some custom maps I made for Haldir's The Toadstool Goblins module using Forgotten Adventure's assets (Check them out, they're awesome).
If the link to Haldir's Toadstool Goblin ever dies, feel free to PM me at any time.
Implementation: None. I used none of these maps I spent hours creating on. My PCs did not like Shalelu for... various reasons... and still don't. So, they stood her up and she had to deal with the problem on her own. The rest of the book swept through after that, and I just haven't given much thought to going back and running the aftermath.
Prayerbook to Lamashtu
Here is a link to the original ideas/source for the Prayerbook.
The reason I am including this in my OC post is that I added some pages to the book. It took me a while to make the drawings look like drawings, but I like the end result.
Implementation: I gave it to them in infernal from the Catacombs. They gave it to Brodert to translate, and he told them that it was some f#+#ed up s&$! and he'd see what he could do. I still have not decided on whether or not Brodert would give it back to them, and the PCs seemingly forgot about it. Yay.
Advice
Lastly, feel free to discuss any of the above, or anything regarding to RotR in the comments or the DMs. I have only run book 1, and not fully canonical, with a lot of changes and additions. Like I mentioned before, I am working on running my PCs through 1.5 Calm before the Murders now, and if you aren't afraid of content bloat or the campaign being extended "unnaturally" in your own campaign feel free to ask about that as well. I will likely be posting asking about ideas in the coming weeks. By the end of this campaign, you won't be able to google "Rise of the Runelords Reddit" without seeing my posts, which hopefully is a good thing lol.
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Wow!
I forgot that my "Toadstool Goblins" adventure was still around!
I'm really glad you liked it!
I originally wrote that thing for a D&D 3.5 homebrew campaign, then later converted it to PFRPG after only playing PF for about six months. You can tell from a few 3.5 terms bleeding through, and my tenuous grasp of some Golarion lore. The big thing I'd rewrite is that the Toadstool Goblin camp is FAR too organized and militaristic.
That's pretty cool to see. I don't see any issue with bloat if you're running a slow xp track or using milestones instead. As far for how that goes with Book 2 and beyond, I wouldn't be able to give you any real advice as I've yet to go that far as GM or Player. But you certainly present some cool ideas. And good choice by using one of Haladir's creations, he's put some good ones out. I certainly enjoyed the one he created for the Tsuto encounter under the glass works. Btw, hope you're doing well Haladir!