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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 4560655" data-attributes="member: 40177">Yeah, Avner wound up dominating our STAP game - and I knew he would, so I had the foresight to introduce him within the first two or three encounters of the campaign.  When he faded away, I kept trying to re-introduce him, but by then, he was away from the party, and had less of a kick.  The captain didn't have much clout in our group, but Urol Forol (the gnome) did - and he was one I was able to attach to the party quite often as the game progressed.However, our STAP game fell apart about six episodes in, when the group had no NPCs pushing them forward, and they still hadn't really fallen on much of a plot or motivation beyond "explore the isle of dread".***Btw, Children of the Void is now my favourite Pathfinder Adventure, though I'll never run it as written.  It did give me ideas for a spelljammer-esque 4e campaign I'd love to run, and just might do if a TPK ever comes my way.Now, onto the question at hand:Motivating your PCs is always tough, but in an AP, it gets harder. I think the recurring villain theme is probably a bad one, unless you follow the "minion" approach, with each villain in the tree getting closer and closer to the BBEG.  Recurring NPCs are a GREAT idea, and I think they should be used whenever possible.  Unfortunately, in an AP, they are as you described - either NPCs that follow the PCs until they get killed and then get rail-roaded back to life or fade away from the plot, or they're "Stay at home" PCs that have to be rescued at least twice in the AP (STAP, I'm looking at you!).  I think a better way would be to have NPCs that are unkillable that follow the PCs around, but contribute little.  A talking sword, for example, would be a great NPC to hold the AP together.  Or Avner gets killed, and comes back as a ghost that haunts the PCs throughout the rest of the AP (heh heh).  In both cases, you have an NPC that will always be present, has no bookkeeping to keep track of (they don't make their own attack rolls), and doesn't effect the assumed encounter difficulties of the adventure as written.  STAP for me really worked until the BBEG was killed (for the first time).  After that, the PCs felt that they had finished the AP, and everything else was tacked on.</blockquote>

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