Hi guys!! I'm organizing the first event with multiples DMs in my city, and I'm having a bit of a struggle as to which scenarios I should recommend them.
I already asked them for their opinion, but they rely heavily on my advice as to where they should start.
I've seen many threads that organize scenarios in a row of 10-15, but they usually jump from one Season to the other, and I've got the feeling it would be a bit confusing.
So, which criteria do you usually follow when it comes to choose scenarios? One DM should stick to one season? You choose many scenarios based on one region?
There are a few considerations I thought about:
1- I believe that some players will stick to one DM, as in playing a traditional campaign, so there might be a bit of expectation for certain amount of continuity among scenarios.
2- I found this amazing post in the forums suggesting "simpler" scenarios for newer DMs, so I'll probably be suggesting them to my newest DM.
3- Three of my DMs are currently playing Rise of the Runelords, and I don't want to spoil them the AP.
As always, I really appreciate all your support, and any advice (on whatever) is highly appreciated.
Best regards!!
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How many slots is your event? Perhaps running some of the multi-part series, such as The Devil You Know or Quest for Perfection to name a few. Could be a good chance to get them all in rather than spread out over several game days in a month.
Depending on how large your event is (if you have at least 5 tables) you could run one of the end of season specials, such as 6-00 Legacy of the Stonelords, or Blood Under Absalom, etc.
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Well IIRC from your other posts, PFS in your area is still quite young, so I would suggest sticking to the lower level scenarios. Otherwise you could end up with tables full of higher level pregens, and that isn't really idea.
Seasons don't really matter all that much unless your GMs want to tell a particular story, and that could be difficult to manage.
If can recommend the following scenarios:
- The Dissapeared (1-5) -
Plays a bit like the mission impossible movies, and is a good fit for sneaky/social characters.. not so great for big stupid barbarians.
- The Wounded Whisp (1-2)
This recent replayable scenario is good, and like The Confirmation and a couple others is replayable, if you schedule this one, literally every one of your potential players can play this (either with a fresh level 1 character or a pregen).
- First steps part 1: In service to lore -
Another replayable scenario, but better used for new players. I can't really recommend it for experienced RPG fans.
- By Way of Bloodcove -
Great scenario, but if your group is lacking a specific item, they pretty much run into a brick wall..
There are others, do the players/GMs in your are have some preferences ?
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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We are still small here in the Netherlands. What we do is basically let the GM's pick the Scenarios they want to run.
A GM will also have a preference for scenarios. What I do is read the reviews for scenarios. Depending on story/type of scenario I decide what to run. I love roleplay scenarios and dont shy away from weird mechanics so those have my preference over plain fighting scenarios.
For example what Sebastian Hirsch said, the dissapered is one of my favorite scenarios. Its a wonderfull roleplay scenario that benefits greatly from player creativity.
But its not the easierst to prep and its hard to run. Due to some mechanic in the scenario, you need to keep track of time. The longer they players take, the bigger the chance they fail.
So it requires more of the GM then other scenarios.
If the GM's look to you for suggestions of scenarios, I would advice you do look trough the reviews for scenarios. Look to those that have a high rating, and cherry pick those you think fit the playstile of your GMs well.
Thank you for your input =)
There will be 5 tables, but I can't tell if they will be full. So far I've got many interested players, and there is a bit of hype about the event, but I can't really tell for sure.
I'll be running The Wounded Wisp for my DMs previous to the event. One of them was interested in Master of the Fallen Fortress, but beyond that, they haven't expresed any preference. Although knowing them as I do, I think that some of them would prefer to run a few related scenarios, in an AP-ish sort of way. Is this possible?
Also, will the 4th season spoil Rise of the Runelords for them? I haven't read all the scenarios.
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Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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As far as I know there is nothing in scenario's that spoil adventure paths, or rise of the runelords specifically. Of course, if your players fail, that would mean destruction of Varisia in RotRL, and since that hasnt happened... ;)
There are scenarios that tie together, either by storyline or location. There are several threads on the forum that explain how some of them tie together.
There are also of course the multi part scenarios.
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During the past summer, my event grew to the point where I required two tables. To ensure that people weren't lock into the same group every time, I tried to flip flop between scenarios. So one week Table 1 would run the Merchant's Wake while table two did the Horn of Aroden, the week after I had table one run The Horn and table 2 ran The Merchant's Wake, the two weeks after that I would run two other scenarios the same way.
This also helped with GM prepping as I usually printed the Scenarios out, the first GM to run it would highlight the important stuff and write in notes, so the 2nd GM usually had an easier time prepping it.
So every two weeks the groups would shuffle around a little. It was interesting to go over things with my co-GM cause one group would struggle horrible with one scenario while the other group would pass with flying colors, not because of the characters but because of how individual players approached things.
I personally pick scenarios that I can usually tie into a story line. I started running PFS locally a year ago, I pretty much stuck to Season 5, added in a few modulars, and a couple of older scenarios that tied in with the Season 5 plot. I found that my players did enjoy having scenarios that tie into a larger plot. It felt like being in a traditional campaign without actually being in one.
While I keep a plan on what I intend to run, things do change as newer players will come and sometimes players disappear for a month, and these things do interfere with trying to pick scenarios that fall in the level range of the players.
Might be a good idea to keep a few scenarios on stand by just in case the planned scenario for the night doesn't work out. I have a player that is interested in GMing but is new too it. I sometimes give him scenarios he has already played so he has an idea already how it is ran. Since the scenario has already been ran locally once or twice it has the highlighting and notes already in place and is easy to prep as a backup.
I am curious, will it be the same day and time or different times throughout the week? This could affect how you plan things out. But work with your GMs, as time goes on they might develop preferences in scenarios. Since you have 5 GMs, it is possible to run a scenario for the GMs before they GM it so that the less experienced GMs can get a feel for it first.
Thank you very much, Woran (I hadn't seen your previous post, seems you ninja'd me :D ).
I think I'll select among the easiest ones for my two newest DMs, and then I'll check the reviews and select the related scenarios among the ones with the highest rankings, to provide some sort of continuity as an option.
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Of the repeatables (evergreen) scenarios.
The Confirmation and Wounded Wisp are both good and have higher replay value than most due to random encounter tables (but both can be somewhat more prep intensive than some other 1-2), both offer good opportunities to use skills and combat however.
We Be Goblins is probably my favorite for new players, it tends to run short thus giving time to discuss rules/mechanics, and playing goblins can be a ton of fun. The biggest drawback is that you don't play your character, but use a pregen and apply it to a character, still definitely worth a play.
Master of the Fallen Fortress is more of a traditional dungeon crawl, but is quite good.
First Steps (I've never played or ran) I've heard it is pretty good the first time, but since it never changes can get stale quickly. Also, some (most) of the faction stuff is no longer applicable
Silverhex Chronicles - Chain of 6 quests, good for getting familiar with the system, and you can change what pregen you play for every quest to try a bunch of different classes. Each quest generally runs 30-60 mins. Same problem as We Be Goblins though, in that you don't play your character.
1-5's for new players
The Disappeared (I personally wouldn't run this week one as it's prep can be very intense) is one of the best scenarios out there very Mission Impossible as people have said.
Library of the Lion (tends to be combat light) great scenario for starting characters another one of the better scenarios out there IMO
Mists of Mwagi/Voice in the Void - I put these together since their setting is the same, I really like both of these, more atmospheric dungeon crawls, Mists has the potential however to be not fun if you fail a save with the wrong kind of character (still worth it IMO)
Severing Ties I love this one, but would probably avoid it until there were at least some level 2 characters.
Silent Tide/Prince Of Augustana from season 0 can both be a lot of fun, but since they are pre-rule change some things run a little wierd, (I found the combat in both to be on the easy side) but there were some fun RP moments at both.
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It's hard to tell what options to give you without some criteria - almost any scenario is a fine pick. Once the GMs know what level characters you have, it should really be up to them unless you actually do have a preference for something specific (which it sounds like you don't). Even having no preference is worth telling them about, once you've had a look.
Just steer clear of The Darkest Vengeance.
Thanks to you all for your great advice!!!
For this first event, I think we'll be running the introductory scenarios (such as The Wounded Wisp, Confirmation, In service of Lore) plus We be goblins for a little fun.
After that, I'll commend my DMs to decide what they want to run, letting them know that there are simpler scenarios and that some follow certain "plot line".
Thanks again, and I'll let you know how everything turned out!!!
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It might help to think of the scenarios as episodes in a normal series rather than a soap opera/telenovela. There is an overarching storyline to each season, but it mostly runs in the background to this week's adventures.
It will be best to concentrate on the types of scenarios. I tend to divide them into combat oriented, roleplay, investigation, and quest/exploration. A good mix of these gives different character types a chance to shine, and your DMs will probably have one or two types they prefer.
We have a lot of conventions in our area where we attract brand new players. Our current approach for this year is to use Silverhex Quests for the introductory slots.
We do a 10-20 minute introduction to the basic rules of the game (it's longer if we have to explain the concept of role playing games in general), then run one of the Silverhex quests to give the players a feel for how the game works. At some conventions, we stick to 1.5 hour slots, and this is all we do.
When we have longer slots, we run more quests or spend the extra time helping players build their own characters. Last year, we set aside a table just for game introductions and "new players only", which worked out very well.
On We Be Goblins:
If you have a table where people get help building characters, I do not recommend running We Be Goblins with those people. They just spent an hour or two working on a character, they are very excited about trying it out...and then they can't. In my experience, We Be Goblins is more fun for experienced players who have dealt with goblins and know how they act. I Recommend running goblin-heavy scenarios like Frostfur Captives and Rise of the Goblin Guild before trying out We Be Goblins. If you have a GMs who do a good "crazy goblin voice", have them run the other scenarios first so players get a feel for what goblins are like.
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If you have a GMs who do a good "crazy goblin voice", have them run the other scenarios first so players get a feel for what goblins are like.
I read somewhere on here about a GM affecting a terrible snooty french accent for gobbos. personally, I prefer more of a beavis type voice. lots of screaming (FIRE!) and unintelligible insults about the longshanks. goblins are my fave NPCs to play.
Thanks, Dorothy!! The type of scenario sounds as a pretty neat criteria to choose the best adventure to run for each DM. Are the reviews clear enough for us to easily identify the type os scenario?
@melferburque thanks for your advice, I'll make sure to pass it on my DMs. =)