GMing plaguestones rn and we're about to finish wanting to keep the characters going in another campaign.
I read people adapting the first book of APs to just run through them quickly but one of the characters in our party is amnesiac so I though I could use that angle to jump through the content from the first 3 levels with some rewrites/exposition dump.
The idea is to have the party abducted right at the end of the next session and then drop them into the new setting.
Now what I'm unsure about is which AP to go for for this. One idea was to have the deed for the Citadel in Age of Ashes be magically bound to the amnesiac character making it so he has to return.
The other is some form of ties into the Agents of Edgewatch but I don't know how that AP is regarding being part of the police essentially. If it's hamfisted or if being an independent branch means skirting most of the issues with being police. I do really like the idea of a bunch of adventures set in a single city is why I want to try it.
Don't much like the premise of extinction curse.
Is skipping parts of book 1 just a fools errant with the introduction missing or is it introductory for a reason and parts skippable, which AP would you recommend for this?
Are any of the players human? If not you could run some encounters to get them to 5th and start the Slithering. You might be able to introduce them to the pathfinder society and build your own sequence of adventures using society scenarios.
Or if you are willing to do your own conversions, you could probably make the first book of kingmaker stretch out to get them to 5th or maybe six level and have the next book go the next couple levels. Unfortunately the official 2nd edition version isn’t completed yet.
If you are worried about stretching the first book out, have a NPC have scouted out the region, found the stag lords lair and realized they didn’t have what it takes to take him down, so looks for adventurers to help them. Offering to share their charter with the adventurers in exchange for their aide. You can then presume the NPC tells them a generic version of all the book one tasks getting completed, one way or another.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm with Saashaa on that. Starting the adventure right from the beginning but at their level, with a slow progression at first (like gaining a level every 2 levels you'd normally gain). You can also spice things up a little by adding extra enemies sometimes or giving an enemy some advantage. The feeling of power would make this part an enjoyable one, considering it'll be temporary. A little cakewalk after Plaguestone is a nice reward.
One of the players is human and if we started Slithering we'd have the same problem at lvl 10 then with an even harder time to get into an AP.
I might just talk to the players after the next session and see what they want and have them be abducted as a cliffhanger w/o context.
With Age of Ashes skipping is a tad confusing, because you are sent into the adventure by being hired by the town to start working for them. Not having that means any help or ties to the town that come up later could be confusing for players.
Honestly I think the best AP for what you want to do is Extinction Curse, the Player's Guide specifically calls out the circus as being very ragtag and easy to drop into, but obviously if you don't want to run it then it'll be a bad fit.
Depending on how long you feel like waiting, you could also hold off until next year, when Abomination Vaults comes out? Waking up in a spooky dungeon seems pretty appropriate.
the idea would have been for the amnesiac player to already have done the setup so I'd just have to include that relationship in the rewrite.
Gonna check out extinction curse and see if I like the stuff outside of the circus.Do note: You could run them through the aventure path at the level they are and then they would, being higher level than intended, run through it quicker. I have found that players are not opposed to feeling powerful for a bit.
Right I could try and see if there's sections that are just cuttable from the first book and fast track them that way.
I can't speak about that AP specifically, but in general I would play the first part anyway, either upping the difficulty or not, or even skipping past encounters that are too trivial - just say that the party easily won the combat.
Currently listening to the Roll for Combat Agent of Edgewatch playthrough and I think for that one all the encounters so far have been skippable (just past the zoo), there's a chase sequences I'd definitely run since I love their implementation in Pathfinder. It is simply perfection.
Also the GM said it's still a traditional adventure in a sense. While you are always part of the guard, so gotta act the part, it's not a constant part of the campaign to go back there.
Talked it over with the players and the druid player wants something not too civilized for his anathema and as such I think we are going to do Extinction curse. Which fits rather well since they were already on the way to Almas.
Now since plaguestone started with a murder case I will definitely skip that and have one of the players inherit the circus instead of stepping up to lead it in the course of the first chapter.
Does the Extinction Curse AP ever return to the Isle of Erran? Cause if not then that would be the perfect way to start in the 2nd issue, running some encounters/mini adventure to get the players to lvl 5 first. Probably something in Absalom.
Anyone that ran it know of any essential parts in #1 besides the introduction to the circus?
Honestly, the circus elements of the AP can be completely moved to the very back burner of the AP with relative ease. You can cut out nearly everything, but have traveling with the circus work out to being a lucrative mobile base camp with some useful NPCs and there is enough to keep the story moving along just fine if the party starts caring about saving the world.
At least the first two books take place on the isle of Erran. Haven't really read past that point. But the final dungeon of book 1 could work as a standalone plot hook, skipping most of the book. Book 2 does lean into the circus stuff for the villains, though, so having something established there will probably be good.
If you want to use the same characters, though, I'd definitely talk to your players first. This may not feel like the most organic move for their PCs and they might prefer to just build new ones as well. "Well we run a circus now" is a pretty particular flavor.
Geographically it fits very well since plaguestone does have the characters travel into the direction of absalom to start and we started with blank slate characters so we never quite established why they want to go south from Elidir to Almas, which is the closest port town to the Isles of Erran.
I'm gonna read book 1 and see if I can tie them into that dungeon then.
My plan was to have the amnesiac character be arrested in absalom and be forced to use the circus as a hiding place / for safe travel. And another player inherits the circus from the family member he was going to visit.
Honestly, the circus elements of the AP can be completely moved to the very back burner of the AP with relative ease. You can cut out nearly everything, but have traveling with the circus work out to being a lucrative mobile base camp with some useful NPCs and there is enough to keep the story moving along just fine if the party starts caring about saving the world.
That is good to know, I will see how the players like it. I have mostly set my reservations to it aside but I have read that the system felt half baked.