Module Questions

[Techwarrior]

I'm looking at starting a campaign for new players with the Rise of the Runelords AP, but was looking to start with book 2, the Skinsaw Murders. I wanted to start the players at level 3 for unrelated reasons, but this module is suggesting level 4.

1) From people with experience with this AP, how much prior knowledge from book 1 will they need? If I just get a copy of book 2 will that be alright or will I need to get some kind of overview of book 1?

2) I've been led to believe this is a relatively forgiving AP, and I've got a solid amount of experience with running challenging encounters. That said, will running this for a group of players starting at level 3 be that big of an issue as long as I'm aware and keeping an eye out for potential pitfalls?

3) Does anyone have any other suggestions for good modules to start a campaign with for level 3 players that might be better suited? I'm looking for something easy to slot into an existing world, preferably that's good for newer players, but with an experienced dm at the helm. Ideally what I'm looking for is basically a springboard campaign to introduce people to the game with enough give that I'll be able to easily just introduce my own story once I'm finished with the module.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Techwarrior
1) From people with experience with this AP, how much prior knowledge from book 1 will they need? If I just get a copy of book 2 will that be alright or will I need to get some kind of overview of book 1?

I dropped into an ongoing Runelords campaign with no prior knowledge and did all right, although I was coming in after Skinsaw Murders. One of the other PCs occasionally brought out some sort of skin-hood, and Really Bad Things happened when he did, but otherwise prior AP chapters didn’t seem to have much impact.


Originally Posted by Techwarrior
2) I've been led to believe this is a relatively forgiving AP….

Can’t speak for anyone else, but we were frequently clobbered and nearly TPK’d more times than I can count. Our DM did customize heavily, so he may have dialed it up somewhat, but I personally wouldn’t describe Runelords as “forgiving.”


Originally Posted by Techwarrior
3) Does anyone have any other suggestions for good modules to start a campaign with for level 3 players that might be better suited?

It’s 3.0, but Forge of Fury is classic for a reason—it’s a great way to bring a group together, run them through a basic dungeon crawl, and then turn them loose. That’s how it was with my first 3.5 group—the DM ran us through Sunless Citadel, on to Forge of Fury, and then we plunged into his own storyline.

Forge of Fury will need a bit of adaptation for Pathfinder, but that shouldn’t be too difficult. Although bear in mind I’m speaking from a place of deep nostalgia, and as a player rather than the DM for that module.

[Seerow]

I'm looking at starting a campaign for new players with the Rise of the Runelords AP, but was looking to start with book 2, the Skinsaw Murders. I wanted to start the players at level 3 for unrelated reasons, but this module is suggesting level 4.

1) From people with experience with this AP, how much prior knowledge from book 1 will they need? If I just get a copy of book 2 will that be alright or will I need to get some kind of overview of book 1?

2) I've been led to believe this is a relatively forgiving AP, and I've got a solid amount of experience with running challenging encounters. That said, will running this for a group of players starting at level 3 be that big of an issue as long as I'm aware and keeping an eye out for potential pitfalls?

3) Does anyone have any other suggestions for good modules to start a campaign with for level 3 players that might be better suited? I'm looking for something easy to slot into an existing world, preferably that's good for newer players, but with an experienced dm at the helm. Ideally what I'm looking for is basically a springboard campaign to introduce people to the game with enough give that I'll be able to easily just introduce my own story once I'm finished with the module.

1) The most important thing from part 1 is establishing a connection with the townsfolk. There's a mini dungeon under the town that I think becomes important around book 4, and there's some background info around the BBEG as well as a couple of NPCs that introduce the party to runewells, the Sihedron Rune, etc, early on and give them some grounds to recognize/understand there's something bigger going on when the Skinsaw Murders start up.

2) Most encounters are relatively forgiving, but there are a few really tough ones mixed in. The final fight of Part 2 for example is a notorious party killer, even after the nerf in the Anniversary Edition. It's enough that I'd recommend at least starting the players at the recommended 4th level, especially if they are newer/less optimized.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Rise of the Runelords is largely discontinuous between books till about Book 4. Every book prior only really makes any sense from the GM's side of the screen. The plot lines are connected but the PC's don't get to see those connections unless the GM works to make it plainly obvious.
Paizo AP's are, on whole, low on the power level. There are occassional spikes in difficulty but more often than not a mildly optimized party will breeze through AP's as written. I've played the Anniversary Edition of Rise, so I can't say exactly how challenging the original printing is but I doubt it be much harder. Our group was also fairly optimized so we rarely ran into issues. The main thing you should look out for, especially if you are starting them at lower level than recommended, is level-gating. Often, APs are written on the assumption of a standard Cleric-Rogue-Fighter-Wizard party of X level at Y point, so they present challenges that only that sort of party can handle. Usually certain spells needed to progress or to not be indefinitely crippled.
If you are looking at Pazio AP's to start mid-way, some of are a bit of a mixed bag. Some are really well thought out such that skipping any of the AP leaves you missing critical details. But some are also okay to skip sections because they are not overall important to the narrative. On average, the Paizo AP's start their second book at level 4. Rise is probably a good bet for this though.

[Efrate]

Yeah final fight of part 2 is nasty. Part 1 is not super important other than the dungeon underneath which comes up later but you can easily make that work without part 1. Provided your party is not all evlish murder hobos part 4 when Sandpoint gets attacked they should still want to protect it.

Sunless citadel and forge of fury are classic dungeon crawls but they lack a lot of RP. There are 2 places in sunless and none in forge from what I remember. Forge is just a dungeon in the classic sense with a dragon st the end. If you just use pf versions of monsters it shouldn't take much other than change search/listen/spot checks to perception, and wilderness lore/intuit direction to survival. Should be pretty easy as long as someone can deal with traps and the dragon fight is challenging but not as bad as end of rise part 2.