Been GMing for ages, but it's been a few years, and I've got a new campaign starting on Sunday (PF2). 3 players, starting at 2nd level. Party consists of a cleric (warpriest), a wizard (universalist) and a ranger (animal companion and ranged attacks). I'm trying to finish the 1st adventure for Sunday (the 14th), and have the rest of the campaign outlined in broad strokes.
As far as the campaign goes, it's set primarily in Ustalav, around Caliphas, and I've projected 2 shorter adventures and the a few larger arcs.
1st adventure (2nd to 3rd level): Party starts on a ship en route to Caliphas. A rogue wave upends it and they wash up together in the Gravelands. They have to flee a horde of undead and seek refuge in an (apparently) abandonned homestead just across the Path River. They're lured into the basement and trapped by a sadistic bugbear and a handful of goblins he's cowed into helping him prey on travelers and refugees.
2nd adventure (3rd to 4th level): On their way to Caliphas the party is hounded by wild animals (to hint at the next arc) The party has to wait outside of Caliphas for a while before being admitted through the gates. In the meantime, they get roped into looking into a rash of disappearances, which takes them into Nar Voth to foil a cell of Derro that have started snatching people from the surface to run expiriments on.
1st major arc (levels 4-7): I want to do something with a druid villain who is having animals start attacking the city (not just the usually dangerous ones, but also birds, squirrels, etc... becoming weirdly organized and aggressive). Eventually they'll have to enter the wilderness to deal with them.
2nd arc (levels 8-11): The Pharasman Penitence is the major villain. A "priest" (he's actually a witch but doesn't know it - thinks he's talking directly to Pharasma) uses the druid's attack on Caliphas to definitively turn popular opinion against Prince Odranti and effectively seizes control of the city in a populist uprising. Oppression of local elements he deems heretical or unsavory (especially the Kellids and their beliefs) gets turns up, and in desperation, they reach out to some sort of Lovecraftian entity for help. Party will have to deal with both the church and the results of the Kellids' desperation.
3rd arc (levels 11-16): Not certain, but it's Ustalav and I've always like Nosferatu, so I want one to be the villain for this arc. During this arc the party hears rumors of Razmiran invading the River Kingdoms.
Final arc (levels 16-20): Razmir invades Caliphas from Lake Encarthan, his forces bolstered by undead given to him by the Whispering Tyrant (of whom he is a pawn).
Obviously some of these need fleshing out, but I also could use another set of eyes on what I'm planning for my 1st adventure. Outline/questions to follow.
So here's what I've got for my 1st adventure.
The party starts on a ship bound for Caliphas, crossing Lake Encarthan.They get a chance to meet each other and RP with NPCs if they want. When they are starting to get fidgity or bored, the ship is attacked by Skum (hinting at an Aloglthu presence that I might use later). the party just has to deal with 1 (while crew and passengers deal with others) so I can get a feeling for how they do in combat. A 2nd will join the fray if they do well. If they're on the ropes (or after they win), the ship is hit by a rogue wave. The 3 PCs wash up on the shore of the Gravelands, not far from the border of Ustalav.
They are spotted by a horde of undead that outnumber them so thoroughly they shouldn't even think twice fleeing. Tried to design a basic chase for this... I've got...
Obstacle 1: Copse of trees. DC 15. Survival, Perception, or Acrobatics to navigate succesfully.
Obstacle 2: Steep Hill -- DC 13 Athletics or Acrobatics to climb, or Fortitude to push through the strain.
Obs 3: Rainstorm begins, creating mud. DC 13. Athletics or Fortitude to power through, or Survival to navigate with wilderness savvy
Obs 4: Lightning strike creates rough terrain. Everyone makes ref save DC 15 to get clear (counts as a success for chase). If they fail they must use athletics or acrobatics to clear the terrain.
Obs 5: Cross river. DC 15. Athletics to swim across, Survival to find a ford, or Crafting to hastily repair a very rickety rope bridge.
Final obstacle: Defend/reinforce house. Party finds refuge but must defend it from a (relative) handful of undead that manage to cross the river. DC 16. They can make attack rolls to deal with undead pushing through, or Crafting checks to reinforce doors/windows with boards and such.
Once inside, I kind of want to aim for a Resident Evil vibe with them being trapped in the homestead. The gang of goblins who hides out there is lead by a bugbear who is basically a serial killer. He or a lackey use a Ghost Sound spell to lure the PCs into the cellar with the sound of a girl crying. They are locked in and have to escape. This is the part I still need to plan.
For a 3rd level party, how big should this "dungeon" be, and how many encounters should I split their dealings with the group of goblins across? I plan for the goblins to use the time the party needs to escape the cellar to arm traps and hide throughout the house, lock doors, etc, and try to whittle the PCs down hit-and-run attacks and traps before anyone engages them directly. How many goblins ought to be part of this gang?
Any tips for placing treasure? So far all I've got is that the bugbear has a cloak made from the sewn-together faces of previous victims. It functions like a classic hat of disguise, except it only allows you to take on the appearance of someone who's face has been incorporated into the cloak.
For 2nd level, going on third, I would include as treasure at least two +1 weapons, one something they want (longbow?) and one on a less optimal weapon. Then fill in the rest of the treasure per level as you will.
Good to know, thank ye. With all of a weapon's magic coming from runes now though, am I right in assuming that the type of weapon I give to enemies doesn't really matter? I was going to use the stats for a bugbear tormenter for the 1st adventure boss, but maybe swap out the sickle and dagger with something with marginally more oomph (like 1 die size up) - if I just put a potency rune on each of those, the party could transfer those runes to their own weapons, correct?
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It sounds like an interesting plan for a campaign. Just some random observations;
- They're only three players and the closest they have to melee is a war priest and an animal companion. That's a bit weak compared to the average 4-player party with a full martial frontline PC. That's okay, but you want to be a bit careful feeling out how much they can handle.
- They also don't have a rogue/investigator, ranger is perhaps the closest to it. They might be a little bit weak on the skill side, also socially. Take care when designing skill challenges and investigation scenarios; standard DCs might assume a bigger party with more dedicated skill PCs. Also, traps that require a specific amount of Thievery to disable could be a problem.
- Looking at your chase scene, most of the ways to deal with obstacles use the same skills and lean on the same ability scores. This is fine for the ranger who probably has acrobatics and athletics, but the wizard might have neither. The war priest might have good wisdom, but might not have survival trained. It's kinda obvious for chase scenes to have a lot of "parkour" kinda challenges but it's also good to try to vary the skill options a bit so all the PCs have their moment in the sun.
- The stats of NPCs don't really depend very much on their equipment. If a level 2 enemy needs to have a +9 to hit to be well-balanced, that could come from having a +8 of their own and a +1 weapon, or they could have a +9 of their own and no special weapon. This is good for you: you don't have to make things difficult to give out just the right amount of treasure. Just think of how much treasure you want to give out, and don't worry about how it would change enemy scores - it doesn't.
- Planning treasure is important. But also doesn't have to be hard. The table on page 509 (10-9) can be described pretty simply. During a level of play, the party should find about one good permanent item per PC, and half of those items are the same level as the PCs and the other half are one level higher. So for the party starting at level 2, you're basically thinking "what three total level 2 and 3 items are they going to find, and then where do I put them?".
Alright, I'll revisit the skill options for the chase. I'm also planning on letting them make a case for skills (or spells) that aren't on the list.
I hadn't considered the lack of thievery for the traps (good catch!) - I still like the idea of filling the house with traps, but in this case, at least, I'll set up alternate skills or checks that can disarm them once they're spotted (a way to set it off from a distance, a rope that can be cut, etc...)
I like the suggestion on just not counting some magic items that NPCs and monsters have on them (I did the same thing with Shadowrun - I didn't need to know skill ranks and ability scores, just total die pools).
If I want to stick with just placing fundamental runes on the weapons I want the baddies to use, do you forsee any major problems of just increasing the wealth I give the PCs by an extra 10% of each of those runes' value, expecting they will use it transfer it to their own weapons?
I think the big thing I need help figuring out isn't so much designing singular encounters, but deciding how many encounters I can have in this initial dungeon. I want an open to the campaign that has a gritty feel, so I want them to have to keep going after the shipwreck and chase, so there's a good chance they'll have taken some damage and used some resources by then so they FEEL like they're in dire straights, but I want to make sure to account for the fact they'll be weakened underneath the hood of everything.
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I'm always leery about any adventure with the premise of the PCs running away. Not that it can't work, but I've had several players not take the hint that a particular "challenge" cannot be met head-on and just be circumvented.
I'd suggest a somewhat challenging encounter, maybe like halfway between moderate and severe. Have them all be the same undead. After the party wins and heals up, that's when you show them the horde of that same kind of undead. So hopefully they realize "we can't fight this head-on".
I think that I'll probably just house rule it so that the PCs can transfer runes for no cost if they do it themselves with a skill check, or can hire someone to do it for them for a price that I scale to their current wealth. That being said, the warpriest IS a follower of Sarenrae, and I had already been thinking of swapping the bugbear's dagger and sickle for a scimitar and hatchet.
I'm also now thinking of just nixing the chase entirely and having the party wash up relatively close to the homestead I want the to find, and they will presumably seek refuge from a big rainstorm. If they start wandering away I can have something chase them, or just drop a different abandonned homestead in their paths (I imagine there are several near the border of the Gravelands).
So that lets me really focus on this minidungeon. Mild inspiration from RE7. I like the idea of them being stalked through a house with some small attached structured (a main house, a barn/livery, and maybe a smaller, partly buried building that used to be used to store perishables?)
I've got a bugbear tormentor (level 3, 60 xp for this party - should be a moderate threat on his own) for the main villain. Apart from that, I do kind of need help filling out the rest of the tribe. I was thinking it might fill out the rest of the gang with...
A goblin warchanter and a a goblin pyro who work together (both level 1 - 30 xp each), and a goblin commando who keeps 2 goblins dogs (also all level 1) Between those three, I'd have 2 encounters that are moderate threat (bugbear and the goblin pair), and one that is severe (the commando and 2 goblin dogs). This accounts for them being a party of 3 - would that be too much for a 2nd level party? I guess I could shuffle it by having the dogs attack the PCs on their own and shuffle the level 1 goblins around so the final encounter is bugbear + 1 goblin if I want the big boss encounter to be the toughest?
Treasure wise, I think I have a +1 scimitar, a +1 potency rune they can find somewhere, and the Cloak of Faces I mentioned (functions as Hat of Disguise, except it only allows you to look like one of the 17 people who's faces have been sewn into the cloak. In exchange, it takes 3 actions instead of 1 minute to activate, and can be used twice per day instead of 1).
So I guess from here I just need draw the map, place minor treasures, and figure out a handful of traps (maybe 2-4?)