KOTS: Run Time?

[nightspaladin]

I know this is very subjective based on the play style of your group and their familiarity with RPGs and 4e, but all of us that have read KOTS, how long do you think it would take to run from start to finish?

I am thinking 2 game sessions of 6-8 hours, but I'm curious what others here think.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

In my experience you can get about 3 encounters in 2 hours with some basic role-playing here and there. Factor in about 2 or 3 trips to town that may take about as long as an encounter each and you've got a total of about 18 hours worth of play, give or take.

I only get about 3 hours to play at a time, so I expect it'll take me 6 sessions. I'll let you know, but you'll be done before me if you can pull of 6-8 hours at a time.

Fitz

 

[Incenjucar]

A lot of it depends on how you're doing it as well.

We took three hours to handle that first encounter last night, but we were learning how to use an online tool system at the same time, and were overall uncoordinated.

But honestly I can't imagine drilling through three levels THAT quickly unless I'm trying to just eat up all that money as fast as humanly possible.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Though my 18 hour estimate seems a bit off to me as it took my party 4 of my 3 hour sessions to reach level 2 (which they did just before KotS came out, so I'm running it STARTING at level 2 - no problem notching it up.) At that rate it should take in excess of 24 hours. I guess we'll have to see.

Fitz

 

[bramadan]

We played two 5-hour sessions of KotS so far and the party is one encounter over the second level. By my count they will need two to three more 5 hour sessions so yeah, I am with the 24 hours of playtime crowd (making it crazy good buck per entertainment time - but we always knew that )

 

[D'karr]

I know this is very subjective based on the play style of your group and their familiarity with RPGs and 4e, but all of us that have read KOTS, how long do you think it would take to run from start to finish?

I am thinking 2 game sessions of 6-8 hours, but I'm curious what others here think.

I ran the adventure at my FLGS this past weekend. From what I saw, it will take about 20-25 hours to complete. If your party does not care about roleplaying in the town of Winterhaven you might be able to chop 1-3 hours. But the adventure itself has quite a bit of combat encounters and some of them can run long because of the amount of combatants.

However, the roleplaying in Winterhaven was some of the really good stuff, so I would not cut that stuff out on purpose.

 

[Jhaelen]

I am thinking 2 game sessions of 6-8 hours, but I'm curious what others here think.

Definitely longer. Even for a very fast group it should be at the very least three sessions. For my players it'll probably be closer to (at least!) 6 sessions (of 10+ hours each).

 

[OchreJelly]

Is there a lot of optional stuff? I keep hearing comparisons to Keep on the Borderlands (good thing) so I wonder if the adventure involves any side (non dungeon) treks in the environs. I don't need specifics but it would be nice to know. Thanks.

 

[Lanefan]

Is there a lot of optional stuff? I keep hearing comparisons to Keep on the Borderlands (good thing) so I wonder if the adventure involves any side (non dungeon) treks in the environs. I don't need specifics but it would be nice to know. Thanks.

Yeah, there's a couple given as possibilities, as ways of getting the party involved in the adventure; up to you as DM whether you use 'em or not. For my part, I'd use the Kobold lair (maybe expand it slightly into its own little pre-adventure) if only because in and of itself it's a nice setup. That, and the party could always decide on their own to go off into the woods and find trouble.

As for run time, it's a fairly big adventure as these things go (bigger if you include not-in-module wandering encounters outdoors, which I almost always do) and I'd guess my crew would take 2-4 months (10-15 sessions) to go start to finish. And "finish" would probably be by TPK in the final encounter...

Lanefan

 

[77IM]

My group measures about 3 encounters in a 4 hour session. Since there are 24 encounters in the adventure, that's 8 sessions. We could probably speed this up to 1 encounter per hour, and stretch our sessions to 5 hours, but that's still 5 sessions. That's like a mini-campaign for us (definitely a campaign arc).

I noticed that many of the encounters seemed redundant and/or skippable, if you are looking to shorten the adventure. For example:

[sblock]

• Do you really need the second kobold ambush on the way out of town?
• The side encounters (dragon burial site, graveyard) seem fun, but not necessary to the plot. I can see a party missing them purely by accident. (Save those cool maps for a future adventure!)
• Some of the dungeon encounters are purely redundant. Like, why is there another room full of hobgoblins? Didn't they hear the fighting in the first room full of hobgoblins? These can be skipped, or, if your party is doing well, combined into one big encounter.
• See Above regarding multiple similar oozes and Room Full Of Zombies #237.
• You could even skip the penultimate fight and just leave that room empty.

[/sblock]

Obviously you should not give out treasure or XP for skipped encounters which might affect the balance of some of the later encounters, but it seems like it should still be possible to get the group to 3rd level before the final encounter.

-- 77IM