Blog Archives
RotRL – The Golemworks Incident
This session was a little different than our usual campaign episodes. It didn’t involve the main roster (for the most part.) No, this session was a chance to let the players scratch that itch and play their backup character. Anyone who has played tabletop RPGs knows that when you make a character, they’re just numbers on a page until you take them out for a spin. When they interact with the environment – and other players – they go from being a concept to an actual character. Personalities begin to develop.
That’s what I wanted for these characters. Give them some dice time, and let them interact with the World. See if what worked on paper translated to the actual game. This session was a one-shot to get the group (affectionately known as the B-Team) a bit of experience so that these backup characters could be called up to the main roster with a bit of dice-time to them.
How did the session go? Well, good for some. For others, not so much. Read for yourself in Rise of the Runelords Episode 29 – The Golemworks Incident!
RotRL – The Smoldering Sawmill
Rise of the Runelords – Episode Twenty-Seven
Having survived an ambush at the Magnimar townhouse of Aldern Foxglove, the Saviors of Sandpoint obtained evidence suggesting Aldern’s involvement with the mysterious group known as the Brothers of the Seven. They also recovered the deed to Foxglove Manor, which verified not only Aldern’s connection to the Brothers of the Seven, but that he was making payments to them at a place cleverly called the Seven’s Sawmill.
Would the sawmill bring the heroes one step closer to stopping the ritual murders from continuing in both Sandpoint and Magnimar? Would they discover the identity of the mysterious Xanesha, Mistress of the Seven?
Find out in Episode Twenty-Seven of Rise of the Runelords – The Seven’s Sawmill!
RotRL- Dropping the Dragonhammer
Rise of the Runelords – Episode Twenty-Five
Now I know what you’re thinking.
“Donny, I mean what the Hell man! I know you were looking for content for your blog. I know you wanted to post your Rise of the Runelord campaign session summaries. Tell the people about your party’s shenanigans, and maybe offer up some tips and things for other people who might run the Adventure Path someday.
Cool, right?
But last time I checked, you posted something for the Rise of the Runelord campaign called Session Two. Session Two! You’re talking about Episode Twenty-Five now! You either have a wacky naming convention, or you missed TWENTY-THREE EPISODES!
As stated above, WHAT THE HELL MAN!”
Allow me to retort.
…
I’ve got nothing. Nothing except the fact that I tend to forget to post things on here. Then when I remember that I have a thing called a blog, which hungers for a thing called CONTENT, so much time has passed that I tell myself I’ll start posting these things all right after the next session. But then the cycle starts all over again.
I am a horrible, horrible blogger. And for that, I give an apathetic shrug.
So, yes, I am posting a link to our latest session of Paizo’s Rise of the Runelord campaign (or Adventure Path, as the marketing geniuses like to say). And yes, I call it an Episode on the blog and a Session over on the World Anvil page because I’m just zany like that!
Here’s the link to Episode Rise of the Runelord Session Twenty-Five – Dropping the Dragonhammer!
Also, for the sake of full transparency (Editor’s Note – and to prevent having to go back and generate twenty-three new posts), I will post the link to the World of Golarion where you can find all of the previous Rise of the Runelord session summaries, along with some NPC’s, Locations, Organizations, and all that kind of good stuff.
Here’s the link to the World Anvil page for the World of Golarion!
Now that I’ve linked up everything, is there anything else I should add to these posts? GM thoughts and notes maybe? Tips? You know, like the stuff that was mentioned in the hypothetical quote that started this whole post in the first place? Let me know in the comments below what you’d like to see.
RotRL – Goblin Attack
Rise of the Runelords – Session Two
Having partaken in events of the Swallowtail Festival, the heroes now find themselves up to their elbows in combat as a large band of goblins have attacked the sleepy town of Sandpoint!
Blood, brutality, and the appearance of a masked hero? Yes, all of that and more! You can find the summary of the events over on our campaign World Anvil page by clicking HERE!
GM Thoughts
- The session introduced a few of the town’s NPCs, including Sheriff Belor Hemlock and owner of the Rusty Dragon, Ameiko Kaijitsu. It also briefly introduced a vigilante character that the party may bump into again. This character will have certain healing powers that may allow them to aid the party down the road. One of the players is a cleric; however he will rarely be able to attend sessions. The town has a cleric, but his healing powers are limited. The vigilante may become an NPC that could travel with the party and act as healer should they decided to add this mystery character. I hadn’t decided exactly what to do with the vigilante, and the players didn’t seem to show a great deal of interest when they made their appearance. So this mysterious hero may end up remaining in the shadows.
- What about the PC cleric? The player told me I could use the cleric as a healbot. I appreciate the effort on his part, but I don’t like using another player’s character. Should the dice go poorly and the character dies, I would feel guilty. My policy has always been that if a player can’t make it to a session, they just fade out of existence. When they can play, the character is there. In our last campaign, that resulted in some clutch strategy when the player ended up saving the party just by arriving in time.
- Level One is tricky for characters. They’re just so squishy! One day they’ll look back on facing a group of goblins and laugh. One day.
RotRL – Welcome to Sandpoint
Rise of the Runelords is one of the first adventure paths produced by Paizo for the Pathfinder RPG, and one of the most popular. My players voted on several options and they decided that they wanted to play this classic beauty. I got ahold of the Anniversary Edition and gave it a read.
Then, we gave it a play. You can find our Session One summary over on our World Anvil campaign page by clicking HERE!
I’ll go into the evolution of this campaign as we go along. Most of the campaign has been played over Roll20, and there have been issues with that as well. This session happened several months ago, but I’m posting it anyway for a) content, and b) continuity. I posted my last campaign, and there really isn’t alot of Pathfinder content online so I’m doing my part to spread the Good Word.
GM Thoughts
- This session revolved around getting the PC’s together and introducing some of the NPC’s from around town. They also met some characters who were not from the adventure path, but were actually from the previous Second Darkness campaign. They didn’t recall the characters until I mentioned it after the session.
- It was a good session in that it let everyone stretch their legs and roll some dice. The players had fun, and so did I… mostly.
- Right from the first session I knew I was going to have issues. I prepped for this session (overprepped actually – see my Party Time post) in record time. I thought I would like the fact that I didn’t need to do much of the heavy lifting with Rise of the Runelords. Unlike Second Darkness, Rise of the Runelords did not need any converting or fleshing out. It was fine to run right out of the box. It turns out I have a problem with this. That, coupled with COVID lockdowns and very little to do, got me twitching. I’d have to put my own spin on things because apparently I can’t help myself. But for Session One, I just briefly included a couple of NPC’s that were a nod to the previous campaign.
Rokk Talk 