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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2013 4:42:55 GMT -8
Hello, everyone! I thought I would share my Reign of Winter Campaign with you. Any suggestions or comments are always welcome!
I think I mentioned in my other thread that my group plays twice per month. Every two weeks we alternate which game we are going to play--either Carrion Crown or Reign of Winter.
For the Reign of Winter game, I decided to start the PCs off on a "get to know each other" adventure before starting the actual adventure path. We played "Crypt of the Everflame" (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS) and had a fantastic time, although this adventure is VERY hard if you don't have a cleric, and some of the dungeon crawl stuff in it is pretty silly (if we're going to be honest).
Summary is as follows:
The PCs were sent to replenish an eternal flame as part of a seasonal "eternal flame our town is wonderful go to the crypt of the founder blah blah blah festival." This is sort of a *wink wink* "adventure" set up for the town young men and women set up by the village council and the townsfolk. They fought some illusionary orcs, who knocked out the fighter because she couldn't disbelieve in them. Then, they camped, at which point they were attacked by wolves. Upon seeing the wolves, the magus smugly detected magic, only to detect know magic and be bitten by wolves. Rabies shots forthcoming!
Next, the PCs got to the valley where the crypt was, at which point they found an extremely steep hill. Despite having it described as extremely steep, and being asked a few times if they were sure they weren't goign to use any special precautions, they proceeded, "going slow." At which point they fell down the hill.
The fighter fell all the way down the hill, but was fairly fortunate and took only small injuries. The magus fell two thirds of the way down the hill, and was unconscious and dying the by the time he landed. After being stabilized by his friends and camping for a night in order to somewhat recover, the magus realized, "Hey! I have feather fall!"
At the crypt, the PCs found slaughtered horses outside of the crypt. But they went in anyway--at which point they were nearly killed by skeletons. They went outside and camped again. They went back inside and looked around. They triggered traps. They fought a shadow monster thing. They found a crazed survivor from the town, and added a rescue mission to their list of Things to Do. They fought bleeding skeletons (and nearly died again). And then they got ready to go...down the steps!
At the bottom of the steps they went through some ridiculous traps, found a fountain of healing, and then went to fight the big bad guy, who cut the fighter down in one round! The other fighter, the monk, and the magus all shrugged and proceeded to nearly die before finally defeating an undead mercenary who was the town's historical foe. Upon defeating him, the town's founder rose from the grave and rewarded them. They also found the missing sister of the crazed survivor and rescued her. Using magic, they healed the fallen fighter, collected the survivors, and headed back to town, wounded and out of food. Luckily for them, they were long overdue (as were the other townsfolk) and a rescue party greeted them. After a somber trip back, they were welcomed home and officially became "Big Damn Heroes."
More to come!
Thuv
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2013 6:49:34 GMT -8
So, that was our first two sessions. Our third session was actually the first one from Snows of Summer, the first of the Reign of Winter AP. It was kind of lackluster, honestly, which was really disappointing!
To make a long story short, the PCs were basking in their glory, when they heard of a severely injured mercenary coming into town. They went to see him, and immediately volunteered to go save Lady Whatsherface from the bandits that took her. They started on the mission, played a few combats, (not getting to the rangers' lodge), and then we had to call it quits due to time.
So, boo! That said, I think this was more to do with circumstances than anything. I.e. I had gotten home at 2:00 am that morning, and had to get up at 8:00 am. Then, I didn't get *any* downtime between then and 5:30 pm or so, when we started playing. In other words, I was *TIRED.*
As far as the adventure went, there were two things that I should have changed. The first thing is that there is a lot of information that the PCs should have to make it more interesting. They rolled to see what they could find out, but didn't get even half of it. I think I would have been better served to just tell them all that stuff. Also, upon hearing about it, they sought out the mercenary, so they weren't "tasked by the village council" or any of that stuff.
The second thing that I would have changed would have been to add some kind of movement ability to the "arctic" tatzlwyrm. My players made short work of it, and pretty much everything... In retrospect, I guess I should have beefed up the encounters a little bit to reflect that they were second level. I *didn't* because we had some no-shows for Crypt of the Everflame (who we considered "might shows") so we ran NPCs for them. Even with the NPCs, that was a very difficult module. For this one, we gave up on the "maybe's" and decided that their NPCs had decided to go back to farming, etc. So, they started off a man down. I guess it wasn't enough of a disadvantage. Hopefully things will perk up when they get to the lodge (and with me more rested).
Thuv
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Oct 16, 2013 7:51:23 GMT -8
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the adventure paths. I for one really enjoy Pathfinder and have gotten a lot of mileage out of it. As far as GMing 'tired' I tried to give that up years ago. College marathon sessions of 8-10 hours just ended with us getting cranky and the game turning into zombified dice rolling followed by the occasional mumbled character role play. It wasn't a good game, but "we just had to PLAY!" I now am very willing to say if real life events have gotten in the way, "Ya know, if someone else wants to run something nows the time, or lets cancel and play another time." Perhaps your players are still having fun and will do so regardless. But gaming for gamings sake when you are far from 100 percent seems to result in a game that was better off not occurring. With Pathfinder (and maybe many games) I CHANGE ENCOUNTERS ON THE FLY. (though it may be sacrilege) If the PCs have been waltzing through the encounter add an additional opponent, give them more hit points, increase their to hit bonus...Tyler mentioned this in podcast: if encounters are too easy simply by dividing the party amidst several opponents makes it vastly more challenging. I don't want TPKs. But I do want drama, tension, and conflict (TM) . My Pathfinder game Awakening of the Desert Kingjust took a two month break to allow my friend to GM for two months and then we'll switch off again. They decided to try and save (redeem) a demon possessed dragon that I thought would totally mop the floor with them. The sixth level paladin did 76 points of damage in two rounds (how the fuck do I narratively describe that!?! save smashing out teeth, bashing in scales and breaking bones) the dragon was a young adult 160 hp. I record all of our games using google hangout and going back and listening to an encounter that I thought was waaaay too much of a cake walk and the players were bored; I realized that the paladin was brought to his knees by a fiery breath staggering at -1 hp. The rest of the party was very beat up, save the min/max barb/rogue/wizard hide in the dark and shoot shit from far away bastard, played by my friend that GMs the other game. And on listening the players were freaking out the whole time thinking this was IT...TPK time and when they won and were actually able to save the beat up no longer possessed dragon, were pretty ecstatic. so the game may have seemed lackluster to you, but in fact the players might have really enjoyed themselves. Ask 'em ? Cheers, Curt J.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2013 9:03:44 GMT -8
Well, that's a good point. I typically do that as well (although I sometimes alter things to make them easier if need be). I guess I just wasn't awake enough to alter it the way that I should have.
Oh, things I also should have mentioned--the PCs killed one of the fey, and the other two retreated. They completely fell for the White Stag bit, (thus missing out on that encounter/combat). I don't know...I felt like we ended the session just sort of puzzled... Like, we didn't do anything but slog through some snow. I am definitely going to turn it up on them next session. I think being level two really ruined the tension of some of the encounters--specifically the fey, because the characters can stand being nickel and dimed for hitpoints for MUCH longer.
None the less, I will definitely up the drama for the next session. I may even kill my GM "Mary Sue," just to freak them out!
My GMPC is "Kord, the Seeker." He is a monk/sorceror (with CON as the dump stat, no less!) who seeks to take the test of the Starstone. He is convinced that the deities that resulted from the test are the "failures," choosing to become gods instead of transcending to true enlightenment.
He is basically my tool to say, "You're not in Greyhawk any more" to the players. I have him cast spells by performing karate kata. So he is slogging through the snow in a pair of pants and nothing else (not even shoes), having "received the benefits of the deeper insights of Seiunchin kata." I.e. Endure elements, but they don't know that.
During one of the best parts of the last session they said to him, "You are SO. WEIRD." Cracked me up.
Anyway, it would be great to get to the lodge and have the death priest guy kill him and reanimate him...I think that would blow their minds. I would then replace him with Ten-Penny Tacy (the thief/cook), and let them worry about whether or not she was going to betray them the whole time...
I haven't decided. Your thoughts?
Thuv
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