Thinking of running a pathfinder game. But Conflicted. Help?

[13ones]

So I've gotten my first proper taste of pen and paper games through pathfinder this year and I've had several ideas in my head that I think would make stellar settings. There are just a few small problems that seem to come with this interest in being a DM. The first issue is, I've never done it before so I have no idea how to properly stat things, how to build creatures and encouters nor do I have any idea what would be level appropriate. Secondly I'm not certain which of my three ideas would be the best received by the people I would be inviting to play it. Thirdly...every single idea is something I'D want to play in, so it's rather hard to want to DM when I'd rather play them. What I'm looking for are simply beginner guides on how to DM as well as some advice. Oh...and below are brief summaries of the ideas I have in mind.

City in the Sands
The Desert kingdom of Durand is a bloody dictatorship that controls vast swaths of desert and parts of the surrounding mountains. The players find themselves in the processing chambers at Kara'hm City. A vast prison made of everything from the worst criminals of the kingdom, to political prisoners, prisoners of war, unlucky adventurers caught breaking one of Durand's many laws and even members of Durand nobility thought to be a threat to the king. The prison just kept swelling to the point it became a sprawling city of inmates watched over by brutal guards. The city is surrounded by walls and domed in by a massive cage that is cursed so that any who touch it have all magic dispelled and are set ablaze. The players would be given the option to join with one of the many factions fighting for control of sections of the city, or to fight against them all to keep the innocent people safe and eventually break them free. Depending on who they side with and what they do it will change the encounters and eventually the final encounter. Also I was thinking of throwing environmental effects into this as well.

The War of Tarem
The continent of Tarem was made of a dozen kingdoms, mostly human with a single elven kingdom and several Orc tribes. The kingdoms are mostly on good terms with one another, and it's a fairly peaceful part of the world. From the Eastern most corner of the continent however a darkness falls across the rest of the land. An army of undead beings is spreading from the ruins of a kingdom long since left to decay. One by one the other kingdoms fall until only the kingdom of Avalon, a kingdom of pure white buildings and holy paladins. The paladins act as both the nobility, police force and elite wing of the army, while the king of this kingdom is a sort of Battle Chaplin, a warrior priest. Since this is the last remaining human kingdom it has refuges from all the other kingdoms, ambassadors from the Elves and it's own populace. The story would follow the party from battling the undead at the walls to fighting all the way to the base of the Necromancer behind all of this...and so much more. (i have a bit of a twist for this if asked I can reveal)

Temple of Jan-harim
The setting is a deep jungle area, far to the south of any civilized kingdoms. The party comes across a village that is the last civilization before a sprawling jungle. The village beset by cultists, attack them in the night and dragging off villagers to be sacrificed in a temple within the near by jungle mountains. The villagers ask the party to go into the temple to exterminate the cultists and rescue anyone they can find from the village. The party heads into the caves only to be ambushed by a creature that collapses the tunnel out. The mountain eventually opens up into a Caldera that is filled with water, with the temple resting in the very centre of this lake. the party ventures across to enter the temple where they will be attacked by numerous cultists, undead and a multitude of reptile and other lizard based creatures (From Lizard-men to Dinosaurs). As with the second idea this one also has a bit of a twist I could reveal on request.

So what do you think? Any of these ideas sound appealing? Any of them sound fun? And could people offer any help with these?

[Knaight]

Regarding the scenarios: All sound fun, but all sound a little over planned. You want to leave room for the players to have their part directing the story, and if you know how it is all going to be that probably won't happen. Not doing this is an easy trap to fall into, so be aware of it.

Regarding advice: RPG podcasts are your friend. I'd look into Fear the Boot, Postcards from the Dungeon, and maybe The Voice of the Revolution. The third largely looks at independent games, and is only tangentially useful, but the analysis on those games can shed light on more traditional games (e.g. Pathfinder). Between these three podcasts are hundreds of hours of material, and there are others out there. So, be particular regarding what podcasts and what episodes you listen to first.

[13ones]

So which of the ideas do you think would make a better game?

[Empedocles]

So which of the ideas do you think would make a better game?

I personally think the first one is a very cool idea. Also, this is my advice for preventing overplanning versus underplanning.

Make some broad maps. Nothing too specific, since coming up with "this room is a bedroom/storage area" is pretty easy to do on the spot. More importantly, you want a bunch of interesting NPCs for the PCs to interact with.

If you're looking for help with balance - and podcasts appeal to you - I'd suggest 3.5 Private Sanctuary podcast. They're largely 3.5 but that's still relevant to PF and they do have PF stuff now I think.

On another note, reading about 3.5 class tiers, (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1002.0) a guide to making monsters, (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10313) and most importantly homebrew theory (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150609) will all help you with homebrewing and balance.

[Knaight]

Of the three, City in the Sands sounds the most fun. It's likely to have a much higher degree of novelty at least, and that has to count for something.

[13ones]

Thanks folks? Any other input from peoples?

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, be ready to improvise. Whatever you expect the PCs to do, even if you're prepared for anything, they will do something else, and you have to be ready for it beyond "no, you can't do that".

To pick one at random, City In The Sands - the PCs could decide to become snitches and try to ally themselves with the guards. Insane, but they might think it's a good idea, and you need to be ready for that sort of off-the-cuff unpredictability.

[13ones]

To counter the players working with the guards I would make the political prisoners, the true innocent people locked up wary to talk to them, unsure, never trusting. All the other major playing factions would treat them as kill on sight or not to be trusted. Probably try to use them informing the guards against them. Like feeding false info.

I'm good at improvising :D

[Mnemnosyne]

City in the Sands sounds most interesting to me, but a query occurs to me that you should address in the background somehow. If Durand is such a brutal place and imprisonment in this city is for life, why is it even imprisonment at all? Why not just execute these people? Typically prisoners kept alive in brutal regimes are used as slaves or gladiatorial entertainment, but these appear to be neither, and it sounds like the distinct possibility exists that the prisoners will grow powerful enough to escape this type of prison. Therefore, you should come up with a solid justification why the kingdom does not simply execute all these people.

Also, make sure you take into account food and water needs, which are a major issue in the desert. Where does this prisoner-city get its food and water from? If the kingdom provides it, the aforementioned question becomes even more vital, because this would be a huge amount of resources being provided to these inmates - they need to provide some benefit to the kingdom equal or greater than the cost of maintaining this place.

I would also strongly recommend very carefully detailing exactly what the effects on the cage are, and how it reacts to various things. Make sure to set established rules on this, because the players will probably try to escape sooner or later. Establish all the containment measures that are in place, and if the players actually manage to defeat them all, let them escape, don't come up with counters in direct response to their plans.

[13ones]

Hmm. I do suppose the devil is in the details. Guess I'll need to give them all some greater thought.

[The Glyphstone]

To counter the players working with the guards I would make the political prisoners, the true innocent people locked up wary to talk to them, unsure, never trusting. All the other major playing factions would treat them as kill on sight or not to be trusted. Probably try to use them informing the guards against them. Like feeding false info.

I'm good at improvising :D

Well yeah, that was just one specific example. It's the more general situation you need to think about...they might sign up with the guards, they might ignore all your factional politics and try to start your own faction, they might try and gather the resources to build a Portable Hole and Bag of Holding and fling themselves to the Astral, they might just decide to screw the plot entirely and dig a tunnel down until they find the bottom of the cage or break out to China....you get the idea - whatever you expect, they will find what you didn't expect at the worst time possible.

[ngilop]

I hate undead. so I would go with the 2nd one for me.


and soembody ealrier asked why would a insane power crazed- dictator would make a jail an dnot just kill everybody.


my answer is ' the dictator is insane' that is all the explanation you need, Just look through our own history and see the crazyness insane rulers enacted. whats that naming a camel.. or was it a llama.. maybe a horse? to the senate in rome.

WHy.. becuase the man was crazy.

the 3rd one seems interesting and ic ould not help but hear this in my mind whilst reading the descritpionSuper Awesome Theme Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pNlMgH2p-Y)

[White_Drake]

Firstly, it's a myth that Caligula made his horse a senator; I love the first adventure, have you ever seen the movie Escape From New York? You should definitely look at that movie if you plan to use City in the Sands.

[GoatBoy]

When things don't go well, admit that your approach might be wrong and change things accordingly.

That puts you ahead of many DM's already.

It's intimidating at first, but it's like swimming. Just jump in and much of it comes naturally.

[13ones]

The first idea is basically Arkham city. I even rearranged the letters to make Kara'hm city. Was really inspired by that game and decided to work a plot similar to that.