Shackled City for 4 players ideas

[Simplicity]

My players DO NOT READ.

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Okay, now that they're sure to be reading... (No seriously, don't do it.) I'm looking for ideas for converting the Shackled City Hardcover from the recommended 6-player group to a 4-player group. Dungeon originally ran the adventures as 4-player adventures, but then somehow it became 6-players WITH an additional adventure in the middle. I have no idea how that's supposed to work out. (You'd think the extra division of XP alone would make the 6-player group require more than just one extra adventure at 3rd level).

I've considered running an adventure before Life's Bazaar... Maybe introduce one of the major characters into the plot more. A small quest for Maavu maybe... I've looked at Mad God's Key which seems like it might get too entangled to work out well... I don't think I want to run it.

I'm also considering add some more RP elements into the middle of Life's Bazaar somehow... That is a pretty large dungeon to throw a party into right off the bat. Ideas here would be great too.

Suggestions?

 

[GlassJaw]

Wow, I didn't know the HC recommends a 6-character party. That's actually good advice IMO. The SC campaign is tough.

With 4 players, make sure someone is a cleric and someone has really good Search and Disable Device skills. You almost need an iconic group for the SC.

I would also start out the group at 2nd level. The extra level won't make them overpowered to the early encounters but it will help their survivability immensely. A small quest as a prelude is a good idea too. Check out the Paizo forums. They are a great help and some people have recommended other modules that would fit into SC well.

 

[GlassJaw]

I'm also considering add some more RP elements into the middle of Life's Bazaar somehow... That is a pretty large dungeon to throw a party into right off the bat.

Get used to it. Pretty much all of the SC modules have some kind of dungeon in them and the first 3-4 modules are very dungeon-intensive. The thing is, unless the party heads back to town, Jzadirune pretty much flows into the Malachite Fortress. You could introduce the Striders at some point though. I had the PC's followed one night by some of the Last Laugh thugs. They were ambushed and the Striders came to help them out. It was a good intro scene.

 

[Simplicity]

Get used to it. Pretty much all of the SC modules have some kind of dungeon in them and the first 3-4 modules are very dungeon-intensive. The thing is, unless the party heads back to town, Jzadirune pretty much flows into the Malachite Fortress. You could introduce the Striders at some point though. I had the PC's followed one night by some of the Last Laugh thugs. They were ambushed and the Striders came to help them out. It was a good intro scene.

Well, each of the rescued prisoners presents an opportunity to get the players out of the dungeon and back on the streets. The Striders are RP in the dungeon. The fact that it's in a dungeon doesn't mean there can't be RP. If there's a good enough hook, they may even be convinced to come back for the Malachite Fortress later... Although it's gotta be something more important than rescuing orphan children... Hmmm...

The Last Laugh encounter idea is a good one. I always thought their relationship to the plot was too tenous from the player's point of view.

 

[Dem]

I've been running a group of 4 PCs through the Shackled City for a few months now, and though it's been challenging for them in places it hasn't been too bad. We're right at the end of Flood Season (2nd adventure in the series as published in the magazine, but 3rd in the hard cover) and everyone is 6th level. The party consists of a human Ftr6, an elf Clr3/Ftr3, an elf Rog4/Wiz2, and a gnome Brd6. There haven't been any deaths yet, except for the Rog/Wiz's familiar, but just about every PC has been close at least once or twice. The only encounter thus far that I've had to 'intervene' to prevent a TPK was the last encounter of Life's Bazaar. I had to bring the Striders of Fharlanghn in to help finish that encounter, but it served as an opportunity to introduce Fario and Fellian.

I just got the hardcover this week, and didn't even realize they had changed the recommended party size from four to six. I will say, the campaign has been challenging enough for the group that the Cleric/Fighter is planning on taking Leadership at the next opportunity to supplement the group with a cohort.

An adjustment you may need to make, depending on how thoroughly your group explores the dungeons in Life's Bazaar and Flood Season (not sure about Drakthar's Way since I didn't run it), is to reduce XP awards a little bit. The group I am DMing explores everything, and by the time they finish Flood Season they will be closing fast on 7th level. If I would have run Drakthar's Way between the two adventures they'd be well into 7th level already, which is a level higher than recommended for starting Zenith Trajectory (the 4th adventure in the hardcover).

 

[Simplicity]

An adjustment you may need to make, depending on how thoroughly your group explores the dungeons in Life's Bazaar and Flood Season (not sure about Drakthar's Way since I didn't run it), is to reduce XP awards a little bit. The group I am DMing explores everything, and by the time they finish Flood Season they will be closing fast on 7th level. If I would have run Drakthar's Way between the two adventures they'd be well into 7th level already, which is a level higher than recommended for starting Zenith Trajectory (the 4th adventure in the hardcover).

Well, that makes sense if it was meant for a 6-player party...
I don't think I've ever run a group that doesn't do a room-by-room level-by-level annihilation of everything that moves and looting of everything that can be carried. I pretty much thought that was normal...

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Ooo, I was thinking of trying to run it with three people. Ah well, at least one of them is jonesing for an above 20th level experience.

Either that or it might be a good impetus to recruit new people.

 

[HellHound]

If running it with 3 players, DEFINITELY use the Gestalt rules from Unearthed Arcana.

Worked for us.

 

[GlassJaw]

Well, each of the rescued prisoners presents an opportunity to get the players out of the dungeon and back on the streets.

Hmm, I forgot about the prisoners. The first time the PC's found the prisoners was a great role-playing encounter. I really played up how broken the prisoners were and the players really felt for them. They dropped everything and made sure they got to the surface ASAP.

 

[farscapesg1]

I can definitely see the wisdom in increasing the recommended number of players to 6. We originally started the campaign with a party of 4 and about halfway through Jurizdun (sp?) we added a couple extra players. The first installment (from Dungeon) still kicked our tails. Of course, not having a rogue didn't help (and we still don't have one) :\ We haven't had any character deaths, but the DM has explicitly told us that the gloves are off (and we thought they already were).

Of course, it didn't help matters when the elevator platform was torched and we didn't have a good way back up the shaft