| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm amazed at people finishing an AP in 10-15 months. I've been running Jade Regent since 2012.
I couldn't imagine taking 10 years for a campaign!
We do weekly 6 hour sessions, which makes a huge difference. The players all take the time they want to build relationships and side-quests when they want to (two get qute attached to NPCs), but they're fairly focused on the adventuring part of the APs and want most everything they do to be related to the main plot.
They all agree that they prefer to level up at least every 4 sessions, which typically works out, and none of them want to take too long with a campaign. This is partly because they want to try other classes and characters, partly because details from the beginning of the campaigns typically come back in later on so if a campaign took a few years they'd forget a lot of the details.
The APs I've run have taken:
Kingmaker: 52 sessions
Hell's Rebels: 40 sessions
Mummy's Mask: 38 sessions
Curse of the Crimson Throne: 37 sessions
Reign of Winter: 46 sessions
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Currently enamoured with the old 32 page modules. Allow for genre hopping to keep things interesting. Also, a lot of those old modules are really good. Current trends in D&D/PF adventure writing leave me cold.
Yeah I know the feeling. Kind of why I picked up the PDFs for Night Below and converted it to a Pathfinder campaign.
There is a lot to be said for an old school sandbox
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Next game day we will be making characters for Reign of Winter.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's honestly barely hanging by a thread now. First COVID cost us many game sessions and this year scheduling and health matters among the whole tribe have seen us play three, maybe four games all year. I sunk a ton of work into revamping an older unfinished campaign at the request of the players and we've played in it precisely once. I'm not seeing an end-of-tunnel light at the moment.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I will update what classes/characters will be eventually. Right now I am deciding from a Aasimar Unchained Monk(Scaled Fist), Human Sorceress(Unicorn), or Catfolk Kineticist(Air)(Overwhelming Soul).
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I may do that. I've been going over some old notes to see what I can work into some "pop up" adventures.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
They have looted a Dwarven Vault and found where the Bandits are hiding in the forest (though decided not to deal with the bandits just yet).
At present they are escorting a Merchant friend of theirs to a Party at Lord Palfray's castle
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
We have four players for Reign of Winter
Aasimar Unchained Monk(Scaled Fist)
Aasimar Shaman
Gnome Arcanist
Samsaran Inquisitor
Also using an optional rule that we loose 25% of wealth for an ability point gained every level after 1st. No magic items that increase stats such as belts, headbands, tomes, manuals, etc.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well they fought off a bandit ambush on the river. Smoke grenades laced with caustic spices and chemicals to make Verbal casting difficult (40% spell fail), not a huge problem but some of them got fairly hurt.
On they way to the party they heard about the Palfray Curse. Which has kept the Palfray family to a single heir for generations. Lord Palfray's other sons died within a year of their coming of age and if the curse holds true, now that he has only a single heir the Lord himself will die within a year of his son's coming of age.
The big party happens and Bart, the Celestial Badger animal Companion of the group's Aasimar Druid detects something amiss, triggers it's Smite Evil and chases an invisible something out the window. From Lord Palfray the group learns the truth. There is a Curse, long ago a court wizard tried to usurp the Palfray rule and summoned a devil, only to die by it's hands. However since then the Devil has haunted the Palfray family, kill it's members while allowing the line to remain.
The Key to defeating this devil, lies in a hidden sanctum in the Great Rock Dale, but the key to that is the Arcane Focus of the wizard who died long ago. His body should still be in the Old Keep hidden in the forest.
The very same one the Bandits now occupy.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
As our heroes made preparations to head for Thornwood and the Bandit keep, a wounded soldier arrived with dire news. Investigating an ancient barrow one of Lord Palfray's patrols had unleashed a small horde of undead. The poor soldiers died shortly after relaying his news only to rise again as one of the undead. Though they were able to lay the man to rest Belton found himself cursed by the same necromancy. Fortunately Tauster was able to perform a ritual to remove the foul magic.
Decided to asses the new threat our heroes head into the hills to find the barrow. They discovered that the other members of the patrol have themselves become undead and after defeating them, and a few other ancient zombies, they made retreat the better part of valor as a swarm of more than a dozen undead surged fro the crypt, lead by a pair of Barrow Wights and the Barrow king behind them giving orders. Retreating back to the Keep they informed lord Palfray of their discoveries when Gondreen appeared and offered them a bit of advice. Long ago, The Palfray founder, a Paladin of Libra battled a terrible death cult in Hardlow woods. Though the cult was defeated the woods were cursed and many of Palfray's companions fell in the battle. Their holy relics might still be found there, and would prove invaluable against the undead.
and so our heroes set out for Hardlow Wood
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
We played this Sunday and had much better luck, no one dropped to 0 HP or bellow this time. We are still level 1 but will more then likely be level 2 by the end of the next session.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
And then they changed their mind and went to the bandit keep instead of Hardlow Wood....I glad I had been getting the thing ready, huge battle in a 3d printed castle with multiple floors.
Knowing the keep was filled with enemies they chose to attack under the cover of night, Sneaking through the broken walls they ambushed the guards and managed to get into the courtyard before Axonite's clumsiness alerted someone to their presence. Belton brought forth the wrath of nature to occupy the bandits in the court yard entangling them with vines and roots. Azreal ambushed the guards on the walls and Axonite and Ashillar unleashed their respective wraths at any foe in reach. Ashillar got himself thrown from the walls to the courtyard below, Azreal used his rope and grapple to swing from one watch tower to the next. The Bandit leaders joined the fray but were forced to take the long way around because of Belton's Entangle spell. They were both handily dispatched and the battle was one. However Azreal had caught a brief glimpse of the evil priest who had ambushed them the month before and as they entered the main tower in search of him, they found he has fled to the dungeons below the keep.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
We officially kicked off our new campaign in October. Tonight will be our second game in it. The friggin' real world and its attendant foibles just keep screwing us over.
I'll be running what was to be our Halloween game. It'll be a pretty humorous one, as opposed to some of the really grim ones I've come up with in the past. I also have a couple of folks who were once part of the collective for many years in town this weekend and they'll be joining in for the first time in a long, long time.
Forum member Phillip Gastone came up with homebrewed stats for the One Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater in October of this year and it will be the baddy for the evening. It's a brilliant piece of work and I can't wait to use it. I modified it somewhat to fit with our house rules and it should be a hoot.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
The game was a bust. At the last minute, one of the crew texted me to let me know he had strep throat so he and his daughter wouldn't be able to attend. My remote player was having issues with her computer and she couldn't log into any remote gaming or conference website. My player who drove over two hours forgot her character sheet. I had a copy on my computer so I let her borrow my laptop to access it, but then that began to b&%%*$~s up. By this point over an hour had passed and I had just completely lost all momentum and interest in running the game.
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
The game was a bust. At the last minute, one of the crew texted me to let me know he had strep throat so he and his daughter wouldn't be able to attend. My remote player was having issues with her computer and she couldn't log into any remote gaming or conference website. My player who drove over two hours forgot her character sheet. I had a copy on my computer so I let her borrow my laptop to access it, but then that began to b&!#~*#s up. By this point over an hour had passed and I had just completely lost all momentum and interest in running the game.
Sometimes the fates are cruel. I hope your next experience is better.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sometimes the fates are cruel. I hope your next experience is better.
Thank you. I didn't fall asleep until around seven this morning, so as usual, my brain started churning.
I've tried to not think about it very much but last night just made me really wonder if I was finally "done with gaming." I still love the IDEA of playing in and creating a fantasy setting, all of the bells and whistles that can be found in the rules of a game system, and the friendships I've made over the last 37 years as a dice-hurling nerd. But in the last couple of years, with our almost total cessation of gaming because of COVID, the personal stumbling blocks from myself on through the rest of the group from conflicting schedules to health-related events, game night after game night was rescheduled or just canceled. But the frustration of just trying to get the stinking game STARTED last night and then shutting it down before I even finished setting the opening scene really has me thinking. I honestly don't know what I would do as a hobby without gaming as it's been the primary focus of my leisure time and creative energy for almost four decades.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Too bad we will not be playing again till next month. I hope my character survives this campaign, been enjoying playing my monk.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Skull & Shackles is going fantastically!
We started with Souls for the Smuggler's Shiv (relocated to the northern edge of the Cannibal Isles). While there they resuced Inkskin from the cannibals and then fought of Plugg and Scourge, who were copying ancient texts in a long-lost temple. From there they were rescued and brought to Lilywhite to start off Plunder & Peril. Inkskin was thankfully able to meet up with her old friend Captain Lanteri during the Rum Punch Festival since Lanteri has the ship and crew to get the to treasure and Inkskin has the map.
After defeating another ship the officers and crew were split in half with some giving sad goodbyes to the PCs and then taking the new ship south to get refitted.
I've been able to use most of the NPCs from book 1 of Skull & Shackles as well as some of the encounters. While they're travelling around the Shackles I've been using most of the encounters in chapter two from book 2 of S&S and I'll be using the first chapter of book 2 between Plunder & Peril and book 3 of S&S.
The PCs throughly trounced a captain of another ship and they've been quite popular amoung the crew and officers on the Magpie Princess, which is setting the good Captain a little on edge, but I'm sure nothing bad will come of that, especially with Slippery Syl, who one of the PCs made a mortal enemy of recently, whispering false stories into the captains ear. Caulky Taroon, who's still loyal to her previous captain, is making her own plans as well....
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Entering in the Dungeons below the keep the heroes faced several ambushes and deadly traps, rescued an imprisoned young girl, kidnapped for her latent magical powers and discovered a shrine to one of the Demon Princes made in a desecrated temple to Avanna. the Priest they found hiding in a secret room protected by Zombies and Orcs. A series of unfortunate mishaps put the heroes in a bind and Azrel fell victim to the Priests sinister magic, turning against his allies. Fortunately Bart the Badger was able to eviscerate the Priest and the others were able to subdue their companion.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Pretty much a shopping day and talking to NPCs, although they have also started training the various kid's they have picked up along their adventures.
Next week they finally start heading for Hardlow Woods
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Travelling through the hills, accompanied by Lianna, Chancy and the three kids. The group came across a pair of Ogres setting an ambush. As they made short work of the Ogres they discovered that their target was in fact the Terror of the Hills, a deadly Flail Snail. Ashillar's psychic powers seemed to reflect back at him, off the creatures magical shell and Axonite was pummelled brutally by it's flail like appendages. Azreal, ran his Halberd into the shell where Axonite had cracked it open and managed to finally kill the beast. After that they rescued a miner from another ogre, visited Belton's cave and Lianna's farm before entering into Hardlow Wood. In their search they came across a grizzly sight of a group of Orcs their skin flayed from their bodies. Moving on guided by Belton and pushing on through the night, they found the Gleaming Glade. Here an endless army of skeletons and the shadowy condemned soul of an ancient priest of Orcus sought to claim their lives. Ashillar managed to find the Wraith's weakness, the dead decaying tree at the centre of the Glade and used his psychic powers to set it ablaze, quickly attracting the dead priest's wrath. While He tried to fight off the wraith the rest of the group smashed their way through the Skeletons to battle the Skeletal General at their heart. With a combined effort they brought the undead warrior down and with his defeat the Skeletal Horde fell, but The Dead Priest remains and the fight continues next week.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
We played last Sunday, had one death(Inquisitor) and our Gnome Arcnaist almost died. We did get to have our Inquisitor raised but lost out in 500GP per person reward for saving that noble woman. So glad we finally got to 2nd level.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
After numerous starts and reschedulings, I ran my Halloween adventure this past Saturday. It was a one-off that really didn't impact the campaign itself, but was just designed to be the game I run every year. I had eleven players (didn't expect three of them). It didn't run really late, though, as one of them figured out early on that the BBEG was The One Horned One Eyed Flying Purple People Eater so I just went ahead with the boss fight. It was a blast.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Jade Regent: We are on book 4. The kitsune ranger used her Disguise Self magical tail to appear as a Withered Blossom Warrior. She "tied up" the rest of the party to pass as "prisoners" and bluffed her way through the hobgoblin encampments for two levels of Munasukaru's Penance. She kept rolling 20s on her Disguise and Bluff checks and I kept rolling a bunch of 1s on Perception and Self Motive. It was hilarious.
Mummy's Mask: I moved the setting to 1920s Earth. Magic is real, but hidden. I replaced many of the bad guys with proto-Nazi cultists called The Thule Society made up of German WW 1 veterans. Instead of the Ossumentals in Book 5, I borrowed the stats for the Russian troops and tanks from Reign of Winter. The party sorcerer is Betty White who was Isekai'd from 21st century and now goes by Betty the White. She cast reverse gravity on the tanks and through them up in the air. The party managed to commandeer one mostly in-tact and are now using that to attack Hakotep's pyramid.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Eyes of the Ten Part IV should hopefully complete this coming Monday. After that, not sure what other PFS I will be playing. Maybe some 2E.
Strange Aeons is shaping up nicely. I have a telekineticist who sees a lion-headed snake made of clouds in his dreams. Excited to learn what he has forgotten.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
They managed to survive the Wraith Priest, though drained of CON. Gathered up some Undead fighting magic items and Got some recovery time in Lord Palfray's keep and some help from the Wandering Priest Lafayer. After that they went and hunted down the Barghest of the Redwood. Next week they have their sights set on the Barrow King's tomb.
should they survive they will hit 5th level.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Shuffled together Skull & Shackles is going well.
The group (plus Inkskin) explored a small island, saved some hippocampi, and after looking over Inkskin's tattoos were able to track down Jemma Redclaw's treasure. After easily killing one captain and tossing the unconcious body of another into the gore-filled water they had a chance to start to look over the black coral covered ship.
Next session they'll try to figure out how to sail the Eth Abaddon, which has them a little concerned as there's a metal plinth instead of somewhere to mount a steering wheel. If they figure it out they'll set sail to Freeport (the capital of The Shackles) to meet with the Hurricane King and gain a letter of marque.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Got an hour into my last session and had an extremely bad panic attack and had to shut the whole thing down. Three players drove 2.5 hours to get here. I felt really bad about that, but I was on the verge of going to the hospital. So once again, my campaign is stalled. And honestly, I am not having a good time anymore.
I've been the Perma-GM since 2001 (and most of the 16 years prior to that) and I have nothing left in me. I love the IDEA of gaming still and reading all the monster stats, feats, spells, etc. I love the lore and world-building. I just don't think I want to play for a while. Maybe a long while. But then I feel guilty because one of my 30 year veteran players has a terminal illness and the other has had five strokes and can no longer drive (he's one of the ones who travel the 2.5 hours to get here). But if his drivers land jobs that demand they work on weekends, then HE will be left out.
....sigh....
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
You should have this conversation with your players. Sounds like you're burned out and could use some time away from the DM screen. Have you asked one of them to GM a one-shot for a couple months to give you a break? Play some Kingmaker or Wrath of the Righteous Crpg to get in your gaming without the headaches of live play for a while?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I've given playing online some thought recently as no one in my group will GM, even a one shot. I've asked before. I sometimes wonder if, because I'm disabled and can no longer work, I should have nothing to do but create adventures all day long. One of the guys thought it would be cool to get a DC Heroes game going again (we played that all throught the 1990s and it was so much fun). So, a bunch of us sunk our money into expensive, out of print rulebooks and he ran two sessions and then decided it was too much trouble trying to come up with adventures. He did the same with a Star Trek RPG. One game, then "too much trouble".
I'll take a gander at the Org Play stuff. Thanks!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Our last game session was cancelled so hopefully we will be gaming this Sunday.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
After no game last week, and this week we had the Psion sudden drop for family emergency. The group has defeated the Barrow king and handed his cursed sword over to the Dwarf Temple of Throff to be destroyed. From there they went to the great rock dale and battled a corrupted earth elemental, once defeated the Stonelord was able to reclaim the creature, freeing it from the infernal corruption and gained his Stone Servant.
Now they stand before the lair of the Devil that has been tormenting House Palfray for generations.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Female Aasimar(standard) Unchained Monk(Scaled Fist) Lv2
Female Aasimar(?) Shaman LV2
Male Gnome Arcanist(?) L1/Sorcerer(cross blooded)(Dragon-Gold/Phoenix) LV1
Female Half-Elf Druid(Leopard) Lv2 NEW PLAYER
Male Samsaran Inquisitor(Witch Hunter) Lv2
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I've put the game on hiatus for my health. I don't know for how long, but I'll know when the time is right to start things up again.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Entering the Arcane Sanctuary the heroes fought their way past the Gnoll guards and Ogre Butler to confront the Devil of Ursupation, who turned out to be none other than Shax, the Smuggler from Thurmaster, Who was more than happy to punish the heroes for all the times they had been rude to him. A deadly battle inside a ring of fire took place, Ashilar's keen psychic senses kept the Devil from stalking them invisibly and Bart, as a Celestial Badger, was able to lash out at the devil with holy empowered claws and teeth. Azrel managed to break off one of the Devil's horns and Belton and Ashillar retrieved it and stuffed it in the silver box before the Devil was at last destroyed. Laughing at their victory Shax vowed to return one day and the Sanctuary began to collapse. The group grabbed what treasure they could find and fled only moments before the entire place collapsed.
The Devil they faced was a CR 7 monster I created with the Unchained Monster creation rules and it worked out fairly well. Could have been a lot worse but the Psion picked up a power that lets him detect invisible which let them trap the thing in a corner rather quickly. Without that the Devil would have been wandering around the room with sneak attack and At-Will invisibility.
Next week they should be able to turn the horn into the local Wizard who will use it to make them a magic weapon of some kind, plus a nice set of rewards from the local lord.
|
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
My group is REALLY slow. After taking 5 years to get through Rise of the Runelords, we're now only at level 11 in Kingmaker after almost 5 years. The odd part is that we meet 3-4 times per month, but we just play slowly, and spend a lot of time chatting outside of actual play. We rarely do 2 combats in the same session, just because some people are so slow while we're in combat.
But we're still having fun with it, which is what matters.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
We just got to 3rd level at the end of our last game session. Though that means we will have to take up a lot of time with our next game session with leveling.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Not much last week. Group got their rewards from Lord Palfray, talked to Tauster the wizard about using the demon horn to make a magic weapon and then set out to Sardath, the nearest large city to do some shopping. ran a three week journey, random encounter along the way.
Next week is likely to be some shopping, Told them ahead of time they are probably find anything under 5000gp and spent some time rolling up a list of magic items the could find.
but The Psion's superiors at his order are going to have some work for him to take care of while the group is in Sardath.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well after some shopping in the city of Sardath, The Psion has been given the task of hunting down some fugitives from his order who have killed one of the higher ranking members and stolen some items, including a powerful Psicrown of Domination. They have managed to track the thieves to one of the abandoned mines, that is rumoured to descend into the underdark.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Finishing up Hell's Rebels in a few weeks, the guys are in Hell and pretty much wading through the opposition. I just gave up on keeping the opponents within the rules and started to randomly assign AC and HP numbers so that the PC's would get at least a little challenge. Turns out, some teamwork feats are pretty good and having a reactive build where two player characters attack with a high crit range and then proc attacks of opportunities of each other shreds a lot opponents even when their ACs are in the mid to high 40's range. I keep getting surprised by numbers like "I rolled a 58!" every once in a while as well. Might be a good time to upgrade Barzillai, so that the final fight lasts a bit.
Anyway, after we finish Hell's Rebels, I intend to write a review in the appropiate forum. We'll be playing Starfinder for a few weeks until one of the player takes over with Strange Aeons. Since he hasn't GM'ed anything in the D&D/Pathfinder area yet, I've been quietly preparing Return of the Runelords in the backgrounds, just in case he screws it up and the campaign crashes early on. Otherwise, I'll be happily to play a mad bomber Alchemist, which should be pretty appropiate for Strange Aeons.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hells rebels is supposedly relatively tough early on, was that your experience as well or were your players too good at building?
From what I get, it gets very tought for parties that build of "social with a bit more social", rather then "I can fight and also do social".Also, do the players in hell wreck as much face as a normally build player group wrecks in WOTR act 4? At some point I would be unsurprised if Nocticula and Eiseth are in a long term contest to direct powerful adventurer parties to their respective rivals holding (Dis or Alyushinyrra) with the expectation that nothing quite messes up an interplanar metropolis like a high level group of adventurers.
Eh, difficulty early on was pretty standard, IMO. Then again, I got five players, so that skews things towards their favor. The first party death occured in module four.
PC's in Wrath definitely wreck more face. You go from lvl 12 / tier 5 to lvl 15 / tier 7 in the fourth module, it's not even a competition. I think that was the module when things got really hard to manage for me as a GM in Wrath.