Starting Savage Tide. A little nervous.

[Mitchbones]

The first session is monday, and honestly I am a little bit nervous. Nervous about it maybe being a little too hard for my players who have never played above level 4. Nervous that it won't go through all 12 issues and the campaign might go caput like the rest of the ones I have ran. Maybe I am just being silly </akward face>

As some of you know, I am one of EN's novice DMs that have just picked up the hobby this year and I am most defiantly still green to it(farm term meaning new...I think). My players know dnd3e a little less than I and roleplaying is still very fresh to them. I have heard from many people that this AP is very hard, and was wondering if you guys had any advice for me or my players (besides making the fights a little easier) or how you would handle the situation.

So far we have a Druid,Paladin(who wants me to eventually knock off his wife where he can fall down the spiral of evil and become a black guard),Duskblade,Cleric, and two melee-esque classes.

Thanks a lot!!!,
Mitchbones

P.S
Any general DMing advice is welcome too

 

[Crothian]

I'm a PC in it. Of the 6 PCs we started the AP with, only two of them are still alive. And we haven't completed the second chapter. I'm thinking that whatever level they say the PCs should be at the start of each chapter, add one to it.

 

[Wik]

Nah. YOu'll do fine. My group has only two of the five who are knowledgeable D&D Players - the rest just get by on playing character. So far, we've only had two character deaths, and they were both due to the same player not showing up for games (and thus taking an XP penalty, and the fact that NPCs are more likely to die than PCs).

There are definately some tougher parts in the game, but that's part of the fun. With a large group like you've got, you'll probably find that the PCs are walking over a lot of your encounters, unless you toughen them up a bit (just toughen 'em up a bit, though...)

 

[BiggusGeekus]

The first combat encounter is too hard in my opinion. The recent trend for adventure paths/campaigns has been to start out with a hard one. Monte Cook did it in RttToEE and apparently started a trend.

It's easy enough to fix though.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I had six PCs who went for a frontal assault on the first encounter and survived . . . it was really interesting.

 

[carborundum]

Give the PCs a chance with Action Points. They help the whole swashbuckling style too

 

[Nightfall]

Mitch,

I have to laugh...Paladin that goes blackguard... Reminds me of the bad/good ole days of 3.0 when that's all one of my friends would do, go paladin THEN go blackguard.

 

[Jdvn1]

The first session is monday, and honestly I am a little bit nervous. Nervous about it maybe being a little too hard for my players who have never played above level 4.

If you're worried, you might start them out a level higher, but I'd guess you'll do fine.

I have heard from many people that this AP is very hard, and was wondering if you guys had any advice for me or my players (besides making the fights a little easier) or how you would handle the situation.

I don't know a lot about it myself, but I think it's safe to expect a lot of water--heavy armor types might not do well. Take a look through the adventure and don't tell your players what's going to happen, but you might tell them what sorts of things to expect to help them out if they need it. If they don't heed your advice, that's okay.

Any general DMing advice is welcome too

That's a dangerous comment. You're liable to be thread-jacked! There are tons of great GM-advice threads on EN World (one like a day or two old, I think). Now, if you have any specific questions, we'll be happy to answer them.

 

[Nightfall]

Jdvn1,

Dangerous and probably annoying too! As for the heavy armor guys, well as long as they don't fall over...

 

[Kunimatyu]

Use the "lives" rule from Skull & Bones d20 -- basically, each player starts with 1d4+1 lives, rolled secretly by the DM, and when they die, they lose a life and come back shortly thereafter with an appropriately piratical tale of how they beat the odds (think "and then he roped himself a couple of sea turtles!" from Pirates of the Carribbean) and the DM rolls on a table that indicates whether the PC gets a scar, loses a hand, etc etc.

This variant, combined with the rather lethal nature of the Savage Tide, will get you a scarred scurvy crew in no time. My game currently has a peg-legged Warblade and a Psion with one eye, and everyone else has at least an impressive scar to show for their troubles.