Over the holiday weekend, I finished up a heavily abridged version of Crimson Throne while our Kingmaker game has been on hiatus. My intent was to distill the major beats of Crimson Throne into about 15 sessions, for a fast-paced, relatively linear campaign.
In the end, it took us about 20 sessions and four and a half months.
But, with this done, I figured I'd post my campaign outline for possible inspiration (if only in a "learn from my mistakes!" sense).
Disclaimers:
1. I ran this in D&D 5E. While I'd like to convert the players involved to Pathfinder, this was not the game to do it. Their familiarity with 5E is a big reason this game went as quickly as it did.
2. I cut a LOT of stuff. It's mostly just Books 1-3, with things cherry-picked from Books 4-6.
3. The party consisted of two players, each controlling their PC and one companion character. This likewise contributed to the speed of the game.
The Structure:
This campaign was split into a few batches of missions, most of which were given by Cressida Croft. While the batches themselves were largely set in stone, the order in which the players could complete the missions in each batch was up to them. Occasionally, the order in which they completed missions affected other missions in the batch. Usually the first and last missions in a batch were locked in.
Each mission was designed to be completed in one or two sessions, depending on how slap-happy the players got.
Batch 1:
-The Mobster. The opening of the campaign played out largely as-written: the party found and slayed Gaedren Lamm, delivered Ileosa's brooch, and met Cressida.
-The Missing Body. The party explores the Dead Warrens to recover the body of Thousand Bones' grandson.
-The Ambassador. The party travels to Eel's End to seek dirt on a politician.
-The Deserters. The party is sent to retrieve Verik Vancaskerkin and his fellow guards.
-The Suspect. When Trinia Sabor is accused of regicide, the party must protect her from Red Mantis Assassins and the Queen's new Grey Maiden force.
Batch 2:
-The Duelist. Vencarlo Orisini has gone missing, and the party must infiltrate the quarantined Old Korvosa for signs of where he went.
-The Emperor. The party investigates Pilts Swastel for information on the missing artist, Salvatore Scream, who may know where the Seneschal has diseappeared to.
-The Crime Lord. The party seeks an audience with Glorio Arkona for help in finding Vencarlo and the Seneschal.
Batch 3:
-The Manor. Carowyn Manor has fallen eerily silent since the Blood Veil began, and the party is asked to investigate a musician who never came back from the manor.
-The Ship. The party investigates the Direption for clues about the plague's origin.
-The Hospice. The party finally investigates the Queen's Physicians by infiltrating the Hospice of the Blind Maiden.
-The Temple. The party explores the temple underneath the Hospice and seeks the plague's origin.
Batch 4:
-The Castle. The party seeks the sacred sword Serithial from the haunted castle of Scarwall.
-The Academae. The party enters the Breaching Festival to win the favor of the Academae wizards (I imported Academy of Secrets for this one).
-The Maidens. The party infiltrates the Longacre Building to eliminate prominent figures in the Red Mantis and Grey Maidens.
-The Rebellion. With the Grey Maidens thrown off-guard, the party and their allies storm Castle Korvosa.
-The Everdawn Pool. The party descends into the Grand Mustaba to confront Queen Ileosa.
All in all, it was a fun way to breeze through this AP, and there was enough stuff on the cutting room floor that I could run the full campaign one day in the future and give those same players a very different experience.
So I actually ran a 2 player game as well of this and it was great, so glad to see you had a similar experience.
Out of curiosity, how did you handle the "and now we're suddenly in Belkzen" deal of getting the sword? Was the party just high enough level that you could handwave a teleport or was it more a "yada yada" through the traveling?
I very much yada-yada'd the traveling.
The players' PCs were half-elf, half-orc sisters, and I tweaked the orcs outside Scarwall to be extended family of theirs as a moment of levity before the (shortened) dungeon crawl.
How did you scale things for a party of two?
We were running PF1 but gestalt, so they were about the equivalent of 3 players until late game when they snowballed maybe a little harder than necessary, but with Trinia and another cohort giving them each a cohort they were right where they needed to be.
We were running PF1 but gestalt, so they were about the equivalent of 3 players until late game when they snowballed maybe a little harder than necessary, but with Trinia and another cohort giving them each a cohort they were right where they needed to be.
When you say that "they snowballed maybe a little harder than necessary" in the late game, do you mean that they would have run into difficulties were it not for the cohorts?
More so that they built their characters to self synergize and get ahead of expected level statistics by far too much that they weren't challenged by encounters that were meant to be difficult, even if they didn't have their cohorts. Like AC was at 50 by level 15 because dex kensai/fighter while not a single enemy in the Scarwall book had a +30 or better to hit even after buffing enemies as would otherwise be appropriate for the advanced level progression.