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A pathfinder associate, working as a tax-collector, has gone missing trying to collect back-taxes from some middle-of-nowhere village on the edge of a marsh.
Your job is to find out what happened to him and report back. Collecting the taxes and bringing back the actual geezer would be extras.
So, an investigation is what you know.
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Took Improved Whip mastery, allows me to Threaten up to 5' feet around me so that I can make an AoO at someone on their way in.
Can you buy a cloak of resistance +3? It is 9k and I am at 26 Fame which allows me to only buy up to 8k items.
I Don't have a character around that level, other wise I would.
So I have 10, 158 gold left to spend.
Looking at Amulet of Natural Armor +1
Ring of Protection +1
Inquisitors Bastion Vembraces
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I've got two games at the moment which I am not really enjoying running.
One is because the adventure is a complete grind. If it wasn't PFS I would have made radical changes out of boredom. The players are pretty neat but all they get to do is fight. The best bit was the sandbox opening.
The other is a weird one and reading this made me worry.
Basically, the adventure is over-stuffed for a PFS adventure. Its structure is roughly this:
introduction
meet helpful NPC
mini-dungeon
investigation / clue hunting
rescue helpful NPC and meet meta-plot/easter egg NPC
(optional encounter for those who miss the clues)
mini dungeon
- The clue hunting has three sites, each with essentially one key skill check which nets you a clue. They are all diplomacy checks.
- The clues are not meaningful to the players: you don't get a map which the clues help you to understand or anything like that. They are garbled macguffin 'facts' which you need to take to the helpful NPC (or his library) and then they magically add up.
When I read it, I thought 'cool mix of investigation and combat'. Sadly not.
- I know the PFS GMs have some leeway to expand on the scenarios but my players mostly seem to be passive. One leads them along the obvious track and the others barely get involved outside of combat or direct GM requests.
Sorry, I just really needed to vent that and I guess this really cool group seemed like the place to do it.
But, anyway, a question: if the players want to ride the railroad, what can a GM do?
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Totally get and understand that on both ends. Straight combat on the plot-line express can definitely get tiresome, and parties as lit as a guy playing an accordion for two cats can get old quick too.
My answer is wait until the scenario lets the GM throw a wrench into it, and watch the railroad fall of the track when the party isn't prepared for it.
If you ever need a wrench player I would advise looking up a fox sorceress. She now has the spell Mad Monkeys :)
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As a counterpoint to Worg, I had some groups that just wanted to ride the rails and I would just go full steam ahead. Exposition scenes would get a summary and we'd wrap up a bit early. Some of this was because we only had around 3 1/2 hrs to get a scenario done on week nights. I'll admit I'm stronger on the roll play than the role play, but if they just want to get done I would oblige.
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As a counterpoint to Worg, I had some groups that just wanted to ride the rails and I would just go full steam ahead. Exposition scenes would get a summary and we'd wrap up a bit early. Some of this was because we only had around 3 1/2 hrs to get a scenario done on week nights. I'll admit I'm stronger on the roll play than the role play, but if they just want to get done I would oblige.
That's what I have ended up doing but it's just not been much fun.
On reflection, I could have expanded the roleplay. Maybe had NPCs focus on certain characters to try and engage that player in the roleplay. Given the rough sketch NPCs some interesting personality traits.
Also, look up the scenarios on PFS shared prep. There are usually some suggestions from GMs who have run the scenario before to clean things up.I've never done that. Is it on the paizo boards?
Separate boards, I usually just google "scenario name" shared prep
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I have put up a discussion and gameplay thread for The Feast of Ravenmoor.
We won't start for about a month, I need to finish up my current module and one scenario, both of which are into the final stretch, before I can start this one.
If you are listening to the Glass Cannon Side Quest Side Sesh... It's the same adventure, so either be really good at separating knowledge or give it a miss for now.
Also, I'm not as good a GM as Troy.
