Rise of the Runelords: What's The Idea?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Before anyone starts explaining the plot to Rise of the Runelords, I know what it's about: it starts with goblins crashing the local festival and then one thing leads to another and you discover an ancient evil wizard is starting to wake up after millenia imprisoned.

What I really want is an analysis of the campaign's literary themes and ideas. In my opinion, when you play in an Adventure Path your character should tie in to those themes and ideas so the overall story that's created makes sense. In Council of Thieves, for instance, there's a lot of tieflings that act as antagonists, so a heroic tiefling makes for great contrast and an exploration of the nature-vs.-nurture concept.

I know one thing that gets hammered repeatedly in Rise of the Runelords itself is Greed, at least because that's what the villain, Karzoug, represents, but other than that I don't know how else greed manifests in the campaign.

Basically, what kind of a character works well with the narrative Rise of the Runelords is trying to tell?

[moritheil]

I would imagine the theme is the similarities between vastly dissimilar evils: the ancient wizard and the goblins crashing the festival operate on very different scales, but both must be opposed by the PCs because they threaten the world they hold dear.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I don't know much of the details, but I think the reason the goblins attack and various other troubles occur in the first episode is because there's a relic of said evil wizard buried under the town. Said relic turned a favorite local woodcarver and artist into a serial killer.

[Andorax]

One of the overriding themes (the group I DM is just starting to explore Runeforge) is discovering the past. The PCs go from one ancient ruin to another, all over 10,000 years gone, and find they're related or interconnected. Having a "lore nut" in the party is really a must to get the most ouf of this aspect. I refluffed Primal Scholar from Secrets of Xen'Drik to Thassalonian Scholar, and the party's mage took me up on the offer..and has been loving it.


Another is that heroes have their weaknesses and flaws. DMs are encouraged to provide role play opportunities as the storyline progresses, and to keep track of each character's "dominant sin", which comes to play mechanically along the way.


A third is that some evils aren't just your standard "dark altar, sacrificing babies" type of evil, but are bizarre, alien and unfathomable. There's repeated mention of HP Lovecraft throughout, particularly in the latter half...and it's not a bad idea to read up on some of his works to get in the right mindset. Having the storyline skirt the borders of Leng (and involve some of its inhabitants) sounds like interesting fluff at first...but when you actually READ about Leng from the original author, it allows you to present these 'minor' aspects of the story much more effectively.