Our campaign kicks off on Saturday!

[Burchard]

With much anticipation and excitement (for me as DM and for the players), we are starting our campaign this Saturday. I'm going through my prep this week and could use a little advice from those that have gone before me.

Kathor
I'm working on the eventuality that the party is victorious in the pub and encounters Kathor in the street. In the text, it says that he would call for the remaining thugs to surrender. How would you handle this?
I'm thinking that with the chaos of the sudden Ragesian bombardment (presumably Kathor had no idea it was about to happen), he permits the party to escape and seek shelter, so that he and his men might do the same.
I envision him telling the party that they have unfinished business, setting up a more exciting encounter in The Gauntlet!

Terror in the Skies
I'm not sure about this whole sequence. How did it play for your group? Did it have the desired effect (establishing the pure chaos of the raid), or did it lead to frustration on the parts of the players?

Rivereye's Recollections
In Act 2 Scene 2, Rivereye comments that he overheard Larion speaking, but didn't understand him well. Shortly after that, he overheard the Solon speaking (presumably the same language, since it was to more eladrin) the same language, but understood distinct details!
Did this cause any problems? I've got a guy in my group that picks up on stuff like this...

Anyway, any advice for this first session is appreciated. I've been pouring through first session reports and found them very illuminating!

 

[Daern]

The 1st battle isn't too tough. I think having Kathor react to the bombardment and seek cover is a good idead, but its likely the PCs will kick his butt. Mine allowed him to surrender which turned out well.
I ran the 2nd sequence fast and loose. Show the chaos, let them interact with it, but do not set up tactical encounters.
I tried to maintain a sense of momentum in the adventure, that the Rags were coming and everything had to be rushed. To do this I dropped encounters I felt were less essential, but my party had a bit more XP.
As for Rivereye, I reckon you can get away with whatever you want by playing up just how injured and sick he is. Perhaps he was fading in and out of consciousness. You could have him faint when you run out of things for him to say!
Have fun! I am! Check the link below if you're interested.

 

[Kzach]

-snip-

What he said.

Also, with Kathor, unless the players are masochistic, they'll run out of the tavern as soon as it starts burning. It's almost inevitable that they're going to fight Kathor as he has a pretty big target on his his back.

My group kicked his arse and the arses of the rest of the bandits before I had much of a chance to run him as an entity. I roleplayed that he shouted out for his men to retreat in the face of the PC's onslaught but it was pretty much over by then anyway.

I put the pressure on, at that point, through Torrent and the chaos in the city, to get moving. Without being able to take him with them, they interrogated him a bit and after he expressed his disdain for his own actions and men, they decided to cut him loose.

I roleplayed him as being thankful and that he would repay the debt one day. I'm actually going to have Kathor use his influence to sabotage the Black Horse Mercenaries and inform the PC's of the Gauntlet setup.

I feel this is a nice way to reward the players for their good deed. They've earned an ally, and one that may not only help them in Gate Pass, but in the future as well.

 

[Burchard]

I'm going through my final preparations today for the first session tomorrow. This entails filling out DM tracking charts (I have a single page for each encounter with each enemy initiative pre-rolled. The chart also tracks ongoing effects, marks, recharge, etc...it save me probably 20 minutes a session to have it all pre-written and initiative pre-rolled...it then has a box for the initiative order where I make a numerical list of monsters and PCs. It's very similar to this but with a few custom changes), making the maps (I love my Chessex Battlemat, but for this first session I went ahead and ordered some Gaming Paper. I just finished the maps of the Poison Apple Pub, Flaganus Mortus and Dead Rising. The Depository and the White Wyrm encounter will take place on the trusty mat. But I'm now a big fan of the gaming paper. The maps look incredible and I know we'll have some oohs and ahhs when I pull them out, especially when they see the dead Wyvern laying under a bloody pile of roofing and timber!) and giving the first part of the adventure one last read-through with a highlighter and some post-it notes. I expect we'll finish the first session at the end of the Dead Rising encounter, or perhaps at the very beginning of it...I like to leave them at cliffhangers. Everything is ready to go, but I ran into a problem!

In the first encounter, it lists TWO thugs, but only shows one on the tactical map. Did you run it with two thugs or one?

Thanks, and I'll let you know how it all goes!

 

[Truename]

In the first encounter, it lists TWO thugs, but only shows one on the tactical map. Did you run it with two thugs or one?

Two thugs. My group wiped the floor with this encounter, but Kathor and the dogs stayed outside, and Kathor called a retreat before they joined.

Good luck! We just finished the Depository encounter and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

 

[Burchard]

One of our players is ill today, so we're cancelling the session. With Valentine's day (and wives that would KILL us if we gamed on THAT day) next weekend, we're looking at two weeks until we kick off the campaign. Yeah, I'm bummed!

 

[samursus]

My advice is to read ahead as far as you can...CAREFULLY. As much as I love this module, I have been a bit frustrated in finding quite a few errors and inconsistencies that must have crept into the conversion. My advice for treasure is to omit every instance of it and put in your own. Read carefully the Skill Challenges before you play them... I know one actually has entries from a previous Skill Challenge by mistake.


[sblock] My players wanted to know more about the tunnel in the Singing Chasm that they had been hearing about, that the eladrin were digging, but after dealing with Shealis, no more is mentioned of it. Also some of the experience totals seems off. [/sblock]

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

... I know one actually has entries from a previous Skill Challenge by mistake.

Can you post the errors you find in a new thread here? I know that Morrus and company are pretty good at updating the PDFs..

Thanks!