Two years?!? Really? Two years have passed since I posted anything here? Where did the time go?
Ah, well.
So, I said I'd be posting stuff about the Pathfinder game I'm running. And while I sit here, digesting lunch, I'll spend a few minutes doing so.
We started playing an adventure path published by Paizo called Council of Thieves. And without giving away too many spoilers for the players of mine who may be checking out my post, the general plot involves a large thieves' guild going through something of a leadership coup and the implications that has for the politics of the city at large. So far, the player characters have gotten themselves through 2/3 of the intended path. Only 2 major chapters remain.
I started running adventure paths for the Sunday Night game on a bit of a whim. We weren't sure what to start playing next at one point, so I grabbed up my hardcover compilation of The Shackled City adventure path that had originally been published in serial form in Dungeon Magazine. My players were interested and I've been running adventure paths ever since. Granted, since they can take a while to play out, this is only the 2nd one we've done. There's a lot of content to get through in a weekly 4 hour game. It takes many weeks to finish.
One thing about adventure paths, as published adventures, they can be pretty generic. They have to be designed for groups who play with a variety of styles and you never know what sorts of characters people will play. All humans, maybe an elf or two? Fighters, wizards but no clerics? Maybe all rogues? The rigors of the game itself will push players to adopt certain roles within the party - having someone good at hand to hand combat is usually good, same with magic, healing, and so on. But there are many, many ways to accomplish this that the original publishers can't account for in any specific fashion. That's the job of the group's referee - the Game Master. And I try to take that responsibility - customizing an adventure for the players - seriously.
I've created a few sub-plots not related to the adventure path directly and also expounded on other things going on with the player characters to add to the experience. I've stolen from other games I've been in and done so shamelessly. It's all part of the fun.
The party, first of all, is made up of a variety of short individuals. At first, it started with two players making up halflings - one a ranger/barbarian, the other a rogue. Halfling rogues are pretty traditional and date back to earlier editions of the D&D game. Ranger/barbarian halflings are a bit different because, given their size, they're usually at a disadvantage in hand to hand combat. In this case, he's mostly a slinger. Problem partly solved.
Then another player started looking at playing a gnome witch - mainly a user of arcane magic - the witch also has some healing powers and oddball hexes that act as supernatural abilities rather than spells. That's another short character. So I started joking about it and how the players should make up a party of all small characters. The fourth character did things a little differently and made up a dwarf monk. Dwarves in PF are technically medium sized rather than small, but they are still shorter than your average person on the street. He's also a hand to hand combatant, filling the niche left open by the ranger/barbarian's focus on the sling.
As a result of having a 3 out of 4 small characters, I had to think about how to get them appropriately-sized treasure. Most treasure found in hoards in your typical D&D game includes medium sized gear - weapons and armor, mostly. That stuff's too big for a halfling or gnome to use. So I took a potential secondary story line from the first chapter of the Council of Thieves and expanded on it. Whitechin, the goblin king, has a domain in the sewers of the city of Westcrown, the site of the adventure. Goblins are small like the halflings and hoard some treasure. Ergo, the Whitechin subplot would be a good method of funneling some appropriately-sized treasure into the hands of the characters. Fortunately, I've been able to keep Whitechin on the lam so I can use him again when I feel it's time to inject some more gear into the PCs' hands. That should be soon, as well.
That's probably enough for a first outing, or more accurately, return to this blog. More in the not too distant future (I hope).
Ah, well.
So, I said I'd be posting stuff about the Pathfinder game I'm running. And while I sit here, digesting lunch, I'll spend a few minutes doing so.
We started playing an adventure path published by Paizo called Council of Thieves. And without giving away too many spoilers for the players of mine who may be checking out my post, the general plot involves a large thieves' guild going through something of a leadership coup and the implications that has for the politics of the city at large. So far, the player characters have gotten themselves through 2/3 of the intended path. Only 2 major chapters remain.
I started running adventure paths for the Sunday Night game on a bit of a whim. We weren't sure what to start playing next at one point, so I grabbed up my hardcover compilation of The Shackled City adventure path that had originally been published in serial form in Dungeon Magazine. My players were interested and I've been running adventure paths ever since. Granted, since they can take a while to play out, this is only the 2nd one we've done. There's a lot of content to get through in a weekly 4 hour game. It takes many weeks to finish.
One thing about adventure paths, as published adventures, they can be pretty generic. They have to be designed for groups who play with a variety of styles and you never know what sorts of characters people will play. All humans, maybe an elf or two? Fighters, wizards but no clerics? Maybe all rogues? The rigors of the game itself will push players to adopt certain roles within the party - having someone good at hand to hand combat is usually good, same with magic, healing, and so on. But there are many, many ways to accomplish this that the original publishers can't account for in any specific fashion. That's the job of the group's referee - the Game Master. And I try to take that responsibility - customizing an adventure for the players - seriously.
I've created a few sub-plots not related to the adventure path directly and also expounded on other things going on with the player characters to add to the experience. I've stolen from other games I've been in and done so shamelessly. It's all part of the fun.
The party, first of all, is made up of a variety of short individuals. At first, it started with two players making up halflings - one a ranger/barbarian, the other a rogue. Halfling rogues are pretty traditional and date back to earlier editions of the D&D game. Ranger/barbarian halflings are a bit different because, given their size, they're usually at a disadvantage in hand to hand combat. In this case, he's mostly a slinger. Problem partly solved.
Then another player started looking at playing a gnome witch - mainly a user of arcane magic - the witch also has some healing powers and oddball hexes that act as supernatural abilities rather than spells. That's another short character. So I started joking about it and how the players should make up a party of all small characters. The fourth character did things a little differently and made up a dwarf monk. Dwarves in PF are technically medium sized rather than small, but they are still shorter than your average person on the street. He's also a hand to hand combatant, filling the niche left open by the ranger/barbarian's focus on the sling.
As a result of having a 3 out of 4 small characters, I had to think about how to get them appropriately-sized treasure. Most treasure found in hoards in your typical D&D game includes medium sized gear - weapons and armor, mostly. That stuff's too big for a halfling or gnome to use. So I took a potential secondary story line from the first chapter of the Council of Thieves and expanded on it. Whitechin, the goblin king, has a domain in the sewers of the city of Westcrown, the site of the adventure. Goblins are small like the halflings and hoard some treasure. Ergo, the Whitechin subplot would be a good method of funneling some appropriately-sized treasure into the hands of the characters. Fortunately, I've been able to keep Whitechin on the lam so I can use him again when I feel it's time to inject some more gear into the PCs' hands. That should be soon, as well.
That's probably enough for a first outing, or more accurately, return to this blog. More in the not too distant future (I hope).
posted by Bill D91 at 11:03 AM
3 Comments:
I'd forgotten about Whitechin thanks for the reminder.
Hey Bill,
I'm playing Pathfinder with another group periodically, the Council of Thieves adventure path actually. I find I like it a lot. Playing a straight fighter (named Jayne, and modeled after him), I've had a lot fun with both getting to say "Gorammit" and "Pain is Scary" a lot, and the system improvements over 3/3.5. So many cool feats for fighters, and I like how they're laid out through level progression.
Anyway, just thought I'd share, I too like Pathfinder.
Welcome aboard the PF ship, Anonymous. Hope you continue to find interesting things to read on this blog. Caution ahead, though, I may post the occasional minor spoiler. I try to not be too detailed in my account so I hope I don't unwittingly ruin any fun surprises for you.
One thing about RPGs though, even published adventures are rarely played the exact same way twice. Too much variation from gamer group to gamer group...
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