What are the most "modular" adventures best suited to shorter game sessions (90 minutes to 2 hours)
I don't mean thing that need to be completed in that time frame. I mean content that can be relatively easily broken up.
With AP volumes ideally it would need to be something that can stand alone or not "require" full completion of the entire run.
As an example of what I mean. Book 1 of Curse of the Crimson Throne was quite modular from what I recall. There was the opening set piece which could be 2 or 3 of the shorter sessions. Then the transition and role-play. Then a series of missions of varying lengths.
But then the ending of it as written compels you to carry on into, what i recall, was a less modular follow up (but I haven't read 7 days for a while).
-
Hell's Rebels Book 1 is similar but Book 1 really can't stand alone.
*
Context: Looking to set up a VTT game during the current enforced Social distancing. There isn't a lot of desire for 4 hours in front of a screen so PFS is ruled out. So I need something (pre-written) that can be played across shorter time slots and both have scope to continue but also have sensible and satisfying stop off points
***
For options "off the table" (may not qualify anyway):
- Hell's Rebels (already run)
- Reign of Winter (already run)
I would appreciate any help or advice
(I am going to post in a couple of different sub forums on this site as it can arguably fit in AP discussion, Module discussion and General Advice)
|
What are the most "modular" adventures best suited to shorter game sessions (90 minutes to 2 hours)
I don't mean thing that need to be completed in that time frame. I mean content that can be relatively easily broken up.
With AP volumes ideally it would need to be something that can stand alone or not "require" full completion of the entire run.
As an example of what I mean. Book 1 of Curse of the Crimson Throne was quite modular from what I recall. There was the opening set piece which could be 2 or 3 of the shorter sessions. Then the transition and role-play. Then a series of missions of varying lengths.
But then the ending of it as written compels you to carry on into, what i recall, was a less modular follow up (but I haven't read 7 days for a while).
-
Hell's Rebels Book 1 is similar but Book 1 really can't stand alone.
*
Context: Looking to set up a VTT game during the current enforced Social distancing. There isn't a lot of desire for 4 hours in front of a screen so PFS is ruled out. So I need something (pre-written) that can be played across shorter time slots and both have scope to continue but also have sensible and satisfying stop off points
***
For options "off the table" (may not qualify anyway):
- Hell's Rebels (already run)
- Reign of Winter (already run)I would appreciate any help or advice
(I am going to post in a couple of different sub forums on this site as it can arguably fit in AP discussion, Module discussion and General Advice)
Kingmaker is perfect for this, at least for Books 1 and 2 when hands-on hexploration is still a thing. Every day's its own mini-adventure.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ruins of Azlant book 2 works okay for this. Might need to tweak it some, but it has a lot of exploration and events that can effectively be small missions, and it can easily be cut off from the broader campaign. There is one dungeon crawl, but it's fairly small as far as dungeon crawls go.
|
Council of Thieves can be run in smaller chunks.
"Bastards of Erebus" is pretty modular. Just remember to rewrite the speech by Janiven into a "Westcrown needs to be a place worth living again" speech (no "Down with Thrune" here!).
"Sixfold Trial" has a straightforward approach with succession of events followed by two dungeons.
"What Lies In Dust" is a series of smaller quests followed by a big dungeon crawl.
"The Infernal Syndrom" is a big event followed by a series of quests leading into a big dungeon crawl.
"The Mother of Flies" is a series of set pieces leading into a dungeon crawl
and the last part "Twice-Damned Prince" is a big series of events leading into a showdown in and on a very distinctive and visible part of the city.
1. Change Janivens speech to motivate the Characters into joining the Children of Westcrown to the Theme "We Are Batman! Make Westcrown a better place!".
2. Make it clear that there are different types of Hellknights, you need to forge an alliance later, when they are clearly villains in Part 1.
3. Use the events in Part 2 to also introduce some NPCs from Chapter 6, otherwise the players won't care about you they are going to help.
4. Sidonai's motivation to set the plan in motion was a reading by a Varisian fortune teller with harrow cards, that he will never sire a son.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Most of the books of Carrion Crown are pretty separate. With the exceptions of Book 6 and the second half of Book 3 you could do pretty well by running any of the adventures and just removing references to the Whispering Way. You do lose some aspects with Book 5 especially if you do that, but it isn't story breaking.
|
Skulls and Shackles could also be easily done modularly. I've only experienced books 1 through 3 so far, but in 1 you basically get shanghai'd and made a slave aboard a ship and the adventure goes day-by-day with some specific events that will take place. There is a bit of ship/crew politics you need to navigate, but as long as you keep good track (on say a spreadsheet) of who you are friends/neutral/enemies with it works out fine just playing a day at a time. Book 1 ends in a big dungeon crawl, but it has 3 or 4 very specific parts which can easily be treated modularly too. Book 2 is all about taking your ship out and being pirates. This can be done modularly based on some set pieces in various ports or just modularly based on capturing ships. Book 2 again ends in a big dungeon, so that might be the only difficult part of modularness, but I think dungeons work well for short play sessions as you treat each room/encounter as that evenings module. Book 3 is more investigative, but the nature of the game is traveling around to different ports of call, so each leg of the various fetch quests and investigations can be easily done modularly as well. The biggest trouble with Book 3 is the race at the end. But there are "waypoints" within the race that could be treated like a dungeon with each waypoint being that evening's module.
The Kingmaker suggestion is slightly “ruined” by it having been released as a PC game that some pathfinder fans are likely to have played at least part of. But it is still a good one that is worth investigating. I might check because it might not be thar close to the game
The Skull and shackles is an interesting option. Has there been a bit of a rewrite of any of the early part? Because when I read it seemed like it would be very hard on the PCs to take that much abuse. And the grog is straight up poison and crippling
I was actually looking into plunder and peril for a different group as that is split into three. And that can apparently replace book 2...
Some interesting ideas there . Thanks
I might start with it and move onto 3 maybe? Completely skip the cleaning of bilges, flogging and forced poison drinking?
|
|
The Kingmaker suggestion is slightly “ruined” by it having been released as a PC game that some pathfinder fans are likely to have played at least part of. But it is still a good one that is worth investigating. I might check because it might not be thar close to the game
The Skull and shackles is an interesting option. Has there been a bit of a rewrite of any of the early part? Because when I read it seemed like it would be very hard on the PCs to take that much abuse. And the grog is straight up poison and crippling
I was actually looking into plunder and peril for a different group as that is split into three. And that can apparently replace book 2...
Some interesting ideas there . Thanks
I wouldn't replace book 2 totally with Plunder and Peril, just the monotonous ship chasing/capturing/fighting part that goes on way too long. There are still a few set pieces in book 2 you probably should run.
Book 1 wasn't that difficult for us actually. It was annoying after the 4th time, which is what made it monotonous. But as players we found creative ways to avoid a lot of the worst parts of the punishment and grog.
Book 3 really ramped up the storyline and I absolutely adored it. The investigative and political stuff really fit my lying Gunslinger Buccaneer perfectly.
4th time of what?
And if I did plunder and peril it would just be straight up starting at level 4 rather than 1 and then giving the players the option to carry on if they still wanted to play after that (as virtual games will hopefully be less necessary at that point)
I know the biggest thing about that is who you race against in 3
|
|
4th time of what?Presumably the 4th day.
Correct. Book 1 basically progresses on a day-by-day basis. Each day you proceed with all the daily rituals of making rolls to not piss off your slave masters, getting assigned work, trying to succeed at that work, feeding, grog drinking, and sleeping. You can either fully work to succeed at all these things, or you can take some time away from focusing on the work to try and befriend your fellow crewmates/slaves. And I think you go through that for 16 days at least, but may have been 23. There are 3 to 5 separate events, like a huge storm and fighting another ship, that get thrown in there to interrupt the general monotony of the daily grind. After the 4th day of the daily grind, it got a bit monotonous. Fortunately all the players bought into the concept of trying to befriend the other captives and crewmates, and the GM did a good job of roleplaying with us on all those attempts. And he did a good job of allowing us to try creative things that weren't specifically written into the rules for this interaction. But the players who were determined to play more of a lone-wolf type or a stubborn type were the ones who kept getting lashed, forced to drink grog, or sent to the bilge pumps. One of them was the weak halfling rogue who could not succeed at bilge pumping, let alone while sick from the grog and injured from the lashing. I imagine it was not super fun for that player, since they basically had several weeks of failing before the dungeon crawl and mutiny. But if you built your character to have a more fluid and improvisational outlook, instead of being stubborn to a fault, then you could really find enjoyment in this. I think my character only experienced Grog twice, rarely got caught when trying to do politics in the middle of the night, was built to be extremely good in the rigging so even when fatigued, sick, or injured still succeeded at his tasks. Plus he was a master at bluff for a 1st level character (+9 or something like that I think). So I really enjoyed this aspect, even if it did get monotonous.
My favorite part, was one of the slaves who refused to ally himself with us, and even turned one of the player characters in to the Bosun's Mate for breaking the rules, got his comeuppance during a storm. I used the storm as cover to swing on a rope into him and knock him overboard. He was never seen again.
The point is, it can be fun as long as the players buy-in with appropriate characters, and as the GM you are willing to allow creative ideas to get through it. Focus more on the building of alliances and friendships rather than the daily grind (which can easily be relegated to 5 minutes of die rolling at the start of each daily phase.) Focus on the roleplaying. And if one player seems to get constantly targeted, unless that player is completely unwilling to try something new to survive, make sure random rolls don't target them.
Books 1 and 2 of Iron Gods can form a complete AP on their own.
Also, have you looked at the Quest line of PFS? The new ones that have been coming out monthly since PF2 came out, I mean. They're meant to be played in 1 hour, and they're semi-randomized to be repeatable.
Books 1 and 2 of Iron Gods can form a complete AP on their own.
Also, have you looked at the Quest line of PFS? The new ones that have been coming out monthly since PF2 came out, I mean. They're meant to be played in 1 hour, and they're semi-randomized to be repeatable.
I have looked at the Quests and am about to run out. And I don't really want to play PFS modules over two sessions as that isn't really the intent
Hence the question
I wasn't aware of Iron Gods but I have never really been drawn to that element of the setting. It isn't my thing. But thanks for the suggestion.
(Also I am looking at potential 2E conversions which will be tough with all the tech stuff at this stage)