| treblignotrub |
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This is the 3rd AP I have run start to finish. I am glad it is done. There are numerous things I would tweak if I knew at the start what I know now.
If you are looking to run this AP do not let that opening statement push you away. As a GM I found the story to be excellent and well connected Book to Book. Nothing came truly out of left field story wise, it flowed logically in my mind. I found the full use of Mythic rules to be tough to counter mechanically. Part of that was due to having a party of 6 player. So be prepared.
Story Elements.
Number 1 I can not strongly enough recommend reading the "Narrative Prologue/Cut scenes" post started by Stip.
Thank you Stip.
The narrative juices that started to flow for me after reading these had a major impact for how the story unfolded. I also made liber use of them during my playthrough and the players loved them for the expanded story.
Number 2 Like all AP's, there needs to be more foreshadowing of the BBEG's in each Book earlier in the campaign. The campaign traits do a good job tying in backstories which resolve well in Book 3. But I would still recommend doing some name drops at least earlier on. Maybe as part of session zero character backgrounds, personal grudges, or during the play session via military reports or conversations that mention named bad guys from the next book out.
Number 3 Try to encourage having a Paladin PC in the party. Radiance/Yaniel is a good story line that should be explored.
Number 4 If your party likes relationship story lines, all I can say is Arueshale.
Number 5 Nocticulas Boon. This worked well for me since we game online via FoundryVTT. Instead of having this particular interaction happen in front of everyone fully in the open. I emailed each player an individualized offer from Nocticula. During the session I described this as she speaking to each PC mentally. No one knew what the other was offered and Nocticula told them "no need to decide now. get back to me if you are interested". two players email me back to accept. No one in the party discussed each others decision. For our group this ended up being more of an RP opportunity through the last 3 books.
Number 6 I might recommend enhancing the events that grant mythic trials. To sperate from level grinding xp character progression and show that Mythic is something special. Maybe describe some little spark or some feeling each time they complete a trial and a bigger jolt when they reach a new tier. A radiant glow or something. Make it feel more special than just another leveling mechanic.
Enough story stuff for now.
Mechanics.
Mythic... Mythic provides PC's a free second class. In a 4 person party, you can use the full rules. If you have a large party, like I did, I would recommend not using the full Mythic rules. It is just too over powering. I found that he who wins Initiative win the fight... quickly. I spent a lot of time preping for fights I thought would be good, only to have it end in one round. With a large party I would suggest only using the Base Mythic Abilities(table 1-1 in mythic book), and skip the Paths. If you like rebuilding encounters to make them challenging then feel free to use the full rules.
Also
Keep good track of the Mythic Trials that the PC's complete. Later in the game they will need multiple trials and I actually lost track of what they had completed towards the end and had to wing it.
Radiance... make yourself a list of when Radiance gets it power bumps, they are easy to miss and spread across multiple books.
In book 2 I found the Army mechanic to be wonky. I might recommend scrap it and do something different. I dont know what exactly, maybe use some troops vs troops. Or maybe use it in the background and have a better narrative cutscene to describe what happens. As a GM I fell I stumbled through this poorly.
Book 4,5, and 6 Make sure to use and emphasize the Abyssal Traits that debuff the party. the impacts are worse LG players than LN or NG.
There is a typo at the end in Threshold where to place Dimensional anchors. The book references one wrong room and a room that does not exist. I think they should be F2,F6,F17 and F21.
We started this AP in March of 2023. It has been 2 and a half years, gaming roughly every other week in four hour sessions. In the game world the Campaign started with the fall of Kenabres on Arodus 16th of 4713AR and the Wound was closed roughly a year and a half later, I stopped keeping track of the date towards the end.
That is everything I can think of the morning after completing this AP. On to the next one.
Tyrant's Grasp