How’s your campaign going?

[keftiu]

I saw a lot of hype for this AP leading up to its release, but feel like I haven’t heard any impressions or stories so far. For those who’ve gotten Frozen Flame to the table, how’s it been?

[UnforcedError]

I just started running this. I love the unique vibes of a true wilderness campaign and the story plus the various side encounters seem to be really exciting. Players were fascinated in session 1, I hope this stays for a while :)
I'm missing various stuff from the AP. I already bought two items on drivethrurpg for this, Mammoth Lords Pack which has an awesome map for the camp (but not much else) and Mamoth Pack which has some nice descriptions for the spirit animals to flesh out characters. I did not use the custom backgrounds, I wanted to avoid people going meta about their animal choices.
For the weather generator I was looking into some Foundry mods but they seem to be pretty basic, so I ended up going with this.
I'm using artjuice's remakes for the battlemaps here, they are wonderful.
Was not really satisfied with the hexmaps, I think a wilderness campaign should at least make players feel there is a whole wide world around them to go to and explore even if they end up running from enemies in a straight line. So I created a continuous hexmap for books 1 and 2. The additional hexes will probably end up just being decoration depending on players' choices.
So, all in all very positive so far, hope RL issues won't bug the AP too much. I really can't wait to run the next session. :)

[SofaKing68]

Excellent, thank you! Began in late March, and as of yesterday the group is 7 sessions deep: they are alllllmost to Red Cat Cave (3-hour sessions).

Primordial Flame:

They do not know that the Primordial Flame has been stolen. I feel that withholding this info until they see it's missing will be a nice, gut-wrenching twist.

As far as logistics, artjuice's maps have been a godsend, as mentioned above, and I'm running this weather generator in case any are interested. I really like Unforced's continuous hex map above, I may steal that for Chapter 3 of Book 1.

The overall story of spunky lil Tusks vs. the massive, enigmatic, arcane warband is really resonating with the players. I felt that the hexploration in the first book could really use some beefing up, so I drafted up a lot of quick little mini-encounters that draw on future events in this book and later ones, as well as character-centric ones that focus on the PCs' backstories and the various NPCs in the following that the books don't touch on as much.

Also,

Adjustments:

I have edited Pakano's backstory somewhat, as my players are obsessed with him and I want his lineage to be as important as possible. Lomok and Metuak, in our story, were Pakano's grandparents, and both went off with the Burning Mammoths initially. Pakano was born 1/2 human, 1/4 aasimar, and 1/4 demon due to Kopua being conceived after Xeleria inhabited Metuak. The Burning Mammoths abandoned her at birth, where she was rescued by Eiwa and brought to the Tusks. The players will discover this piecemeal, but it will hopefully make the battles at Grimgorge Castle that much more compelling.

Oh, and I'm turning the

Book 3:

final siege at Hillcross into a lieutenant-only mega-battle (while the PCs are off fighting their final battle), complete with stat blocks for Merthig, Nakta, Letsua, and Argakoa

...very excited to get there a few years down the road irl XD

[demlin]

It's an amazing campaign akin to Kingmaker in many areas (without the Kingdom building).

Only downsides IMHO:

* Plot issues: BBEG's motivation is not fully clear and you need to put in work to make her relatable and reasonable
* Editing issues: BBEG is behind everything, did stuff that conflicts with the overall plot, maps don't match the monsters that are put there, someone forgot that PF2 has runes
* Maps: 3 maps in their PDFs can't have their traps or secret doors toggled off, you need to manually heal it. Lot's of missing maps, you need to come up with like 40-50 or so on your own. Map quality sucks, looks like they were drawn by someone not familiar with map making at all. Only saving grace is that hit has interesting terrain features
* Art: Book 1 has some nasty looking art

Other than that, it's amazing: so many neat and awesome encounters, great plot, fun exploration.

We're currently in mid book 2 and there's so much to love.

[teeheewilliam]

demlin wrote:

It's an amazing campaign akin to Kingmaker in many areas (without the Kingdom building).

Only downsides IMHO:

* Plot issues: BBEG's motivation is not fully clear and you need to put in work to make her relatable and reasonable
* Editing issues: BBEG is behind everything, did stuff that conflicts with the overall plot, maps don't match the monsters that are put there, someone forgot that PF2 has runes
* Maps: 3 maps in their PDFs can't have their traps or secret doors toggled off, you need to manually heal it. Lot's of missing maps, you need to come up with like 40-50 or so on your own. Map quality sucks, looks like they were drawn by someone not familiar with map making at all. Only saving grace is that hit has interesting terrain features
* Art: Book 1 has some nasty looking art

Other than that, it's amazing: so many neat and awesome encounters, great plot, fun exploration.

We're currently in mid book 2 and there's so much to love.

Would you mind sharing what maps you're using to fill the gaps from the AP?

[Leon Aquilla]

Quote:

* Plot issues: BBEG's motivation is not fully clear and you need to put in work to make her relatable and reasonable

If the antagonist was "reasonable" they wouldn't really be much of an antagonist, would they?

I felt her motivations were pretty clear.

Quote:

* Art: Book 1 has some nasty looking art

I liked it. Reminiscent of cave paintings. Definitely fit the mood.

Quote:

Would you mind sharing what maps you're using to fill the gaps from the AP?

I went to Reddit and various subforums like battlemaps and dndmaps and just plucked maps of empty fields and stuff. You could also use various Paizo flipmats if you've accumulated them through the years.

Anyone who wants more in-depth info can read my reviews. Don't feel like rehashing it all here.

[demlin]

teeheewilliam wrote:

Would you mind sharing what maps you're using to fill the gaps from the AP?

I made a FoundryVTT module that ships the random encounter maps from book 2 and 3 and includes some other stuff https://github.com/BernhardPosselt/pf2e-qftff-tools

Here are my AP notes and tips if anyone is interested https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-N3pz80sBL25ZEBIcxuf

[Ambush Rakshasa]

I'm running a play-by-Discord campaign for 4x PCs and we are having a great time — just hit 5th level. For us, the AP offers a nice story that's easy to create heroes for — the Broken Tusk scouts are stepping up to support their following and need to work together within the story, which makes for some strong emotional character arcs. The propulsive nature of the story is also appreciated — there's rarely a "what do your characters want to do next?" lull when the answer is always "FORWARD!" I would say it plays particularly well in a play-by-post format as many of the chapters have a constant flow from one cool/varied set piece to the next, where I can supply the connective tissue between encounters to move the plot forward. All in all, it's my favorite of the Pathfinder APs I've run to date in either edition.

[H2Osw]

I'm running for a group of 5. I'm not using any extra options since I'm running 1 extra and I'm also not planning on adjusting encounters to account for the extra player. We are approaching the end of the 1st book. We took a month break due to me needing cataract surgery. I'm just now getting back to being able to handle screen time and I've been working on preparing book 2.

Overall it's been okay. I think I would enjoy this more if my group RP'd a bit more. Most sessions I try and engage in RP a couple of the players just aren't having it.

They've got it set in their heads that the Mammoth Lords are pricks, and do most things out of duty, not because they want to.