Questions for experienced GMs about RotRL

[D4rkh0rus]

Well, long story short, I'm used to DM'ing Homebrew settings and stories, and I've never actually ran a module or adventure path in my life. I have system mastery, and I'm in the midst of reading the anniversary edition of RofTL.
I'll be doing a campaign with my party, and I just didn't have the time to create a new setting and story from scratch while also making fun and balanced encounters, etc... So we opted to do a premade campaign, and we ended choosing between Rise of the Runelords and kingmaker, RotRL ended up winning by a vote....

So, any tips, tricks, or things to always keep in mind for running this, or any premade module in general?
As always, thanks for your time, guys!

[W3bDragon]

Firstly, read as much of it as you can in advance. It is a very long campaign, so its understandable if you can't read the whole thing, but at least read the adventure synopsis of all 6 chapters, and read the first chapter in depth.

Also, the paizo forums have a treasure trove of good information shared by GMs of this adventure path. Go through it to find the pitfalls that other GMs have had and what they did to get around it. It will be extremely useful.

Finally, there are a lot of good maps and hand outs for this AP, so prepare them in advance if you can and be ready to use them.

Best of luck!

[Calthropstu]

Adventure paths can be great.

But make sure to alter the material. As is, many of the adventure paths tend to go into grind mode, which turns some people off.

[MightyPirate]

Yup, in particular I'd recommend the PC obituary thread (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2hmpw&page=1?RotRL-Obituaries). Personally my PCs found hero points useful in a bind (we only used the stave off death functions so one per chapter was plenty) and where things were getting too easy intelligent enemies that would flee and then regroup with later encounters gave a better challenge.

[Sheogoroth]

A lot of level 1 content squeaks out as a little tedious, particularly in ROTR.

Like, don't be afraid to cut back some of the "ooh, there's a goblin hiding in this person's attic! won't the players have fun spending a half hour to kill 1/3rd CR monster." This stuff can characterize the world, but they give it to you so that you can use it if you want to.
Also, make sure you keep the accents on your NPC's straight. I always screw that up.

For ROTR, the more mysterious you can make everything feel- like there's obviously something beneath the surface, without giving them any info, the better. Don't be afraid to let them chase down false leads at any point.

Also, read and plan ahead- but stay flexible!

[Ssalarn]

****Don't be afraid to let them chase down false leads at any point.

***

Within reason. There are a couple areas, particularly early on, that are rife with false leads and out of context clues, and I've seen a couple games languish for an unfortunately long time.

[CockroachTeaParty]

The following NPCs deserve WARNING flags:


Ch. 1: Nualia. She's the 'final boss' of the chapter, and while she isn't necessarily the worst thing ever, she can be pretty nasty. If the PCs are running low on resources and approaching her, consider dropping a hint that they should rest first. The trap just before her lair is particularly nasty.

Ch. 1: Malfeshnekor. There's a good chance the PCs might completely miss him, and that's OK. He's an extremely dangerous enemy at the level you fight him. My first PC death was at his hands.

Ch. 2: Xanesha. She's a notorious TPK machine. Most of this chapter is pretty easy, but Xanesha is the 'you must be this tall to proceed' sign of the campaign. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

Ch. 5: Arkhyrst. If the PCs fail a Knowledge check, they might not hear the rumors of a white dragon in the area. If so, they'll be unprepared, and Arkhryst will get the drop on them. I've seen him TPK two different parties. HE IS NOT A JOKE.

Ch. 6: Karzoug. He's the final boss of the campaign, so of course he should be hard, but be aware of the party's optimization level. He is a level 20 wizard with several artifacts and powerful back-up dancers. He can and will destroy the party if they slip up. The last time I ran it, he killed everyone but the paladin with a Wail of the Banshee, and then killed the paladin a few rounds later. He might be the hardest final boss of any AP.

[upho]

I've probably run more homemade adventures and campaigns than published ones, and currently GM a modified/expanded version of RotRL for five (usually three or four) players (the PCs recently hit 10th level and we're about to start the final part of chapter 5). Besides what has already been mentioned by other posters, for a GM used to running homemade stuff, my advice on published adventures/campaigns in general and this AP in particular are:


1. If run "straight out of the box", published campaigns/APs will of course rarely be able to include the specific personalities/backgrounds/motives of your players' PCs as much as a tailored homemade campaign can, but this can usually be easily remedied. Don't be afraid to tweak the setting, story, and NPCs to better suit with the particulars of the PCs, making them more personally involved in the campaign rather than being some random heroes. Though this may of course require a little more work, it usually really pays off.

2. The same goes for the more technical sides of an AP. For example, if you have experienced players who generally make very capable PCs working well together, most challenges will likely feel a bit too easy if run as written. In the case of combat, I suggest you try to first increase the durability (hp/defenses/healing/etc) and control related abilities (combat maneuvers, melee reach, terrain spells etc) of especially "boss" enemies (giving them more time and tools for smart tactics), and second increase the number of lower CR opponents (reducing the action economy advantage the PCs usually enjoy), but generally refrain from otherwise boosting enemy offensive capabilities (notably DPR in earlier levels and SoS spells/abilities later on). IME these measures have less risk of causing unintentional PC deaths than increasing enemy CR through traditional means (like adding HD/levels, items, templates, etc), which typically increase all aspects of combat capacity. Also, an enemy likely to be overly weak or strong due to certain specific strengths or weaknesses of the party can often be made appropriate by changing nothing more than one or two spells, feats or items, or simply by slightly changing the conditions of the encounter (environment, timing, etc). And if that isn't enough or you wanna be lazy, simply delay the leveling (the PCs in my game are 3 levels behind the recommendations and do great). Lastly, RotRL contains a few challenges which many parties will find way more lethal than the others. The ones I think I've heard mentioned the most are:
Erylium chapter 1, part 3: small, flying and invisible sorcerer, can be lethal and seriously difficult to kill.
Nualia chapter 1, part 4: if the PCs aren't able to take care of her allies before facing the chapter BBEG, this encounter can become very dangerous.
Black Magga chapter 3, part 3: a CR 15 monster isn't easy for a 9th level party, even if it's already hurt. Watch the "confusion breath" and energy drain bite!
Arkrhyst chapter 5, part 2: if the PCs don't make their Knowledge checks, they're very likely to be ambushed and badly hurt by this sneaky dragon.
Karzoug chapter 6, part 7: famous for his many TPKs. Which is no surprise when considering he's a superhuman level 20 wizard, armed to the teeth and backed by giants and a dragon. Tweaking his tactics may be necessary.

3. The first two chapters of RotRL include several themes, including mystery, exploration, intrigue, horror and dungeon crawling, but later chapters become increasingly focused on that last aspect. So unless your players love more classic dungeon crawling, it can be a good idea to bring back some of the other aspects when suitable in between the crawls of the later chapters, and the story allows for even lengthy such digressions/expansions at many points (sometimes also called out in chapter/part intros). I've personally done this mainly through a big intertwined homemade storyline of primarily mystery, intrigue and horror, which involves the PCs - and those closest to them - directly and personally. But of course you could simply use another shorter AP from Paizo instead - there are several which take place in Varisia (and Sandypoint) and I believe quite a few of them have ample RotRL related story hooks which should make the mixing easy.

Hope this may help!

EDIT: Ninja'd! Oh, and CTP also remembered an important NPC I forgot to mention. /EDIT

[D4rkh0rus]

Thanks guys for all the info. This is pretty good