Monestary of Whoa

[Ocule]

Figured i'd post this here since the GM section gets very little traffic. Spoiler free of course, but my group has an ongoing campaign as we are trying to make it through the premade material. Just thought i'd point out that the monestary of tuath told me it ran 5+ hours but we are 4 sessions in (4-5 hours each) and just now approaching the final scene. Anyone else run this and have a similar issue? I mean i'm loving the scenario but my players are at the point where they're more just ready to be done with this plot line. Or is this just a pacing thing I need to work on. This scenario is taking about 4x longer than what was written i expected to be long done with this by now.

[Clovis]

I guess it all depends on how much detail you and your Players put into gaming. I know for example that I tend to give much attention to things that may not seem very relevant as far as plot progression is concerned, so my sessions tend to run long.

If your Players are starting to get tired with the scenario, you can try to speed up the plot to have it reach its conclusion faster, instead of having it drag on to everyone's dissatisfaction.

[Nelyhann]

Ocule, the duration of the scenario is based upon my style of mastering, very tense : I put a lot of details in my description but the scenes follow quickly, they don't the time to breathe.

Several times people said : well Tuath is a short campaign, not a 5 hours investigation scenario ! And yes it is, it can be.

So now I think it is a mistake to put the time of the scenario because it really depends on the mood of the players and game master. Hope you enjoy it

[Ocule]

Yeah my players were just telling me it was a slow start without much happening since I was trying to be organic as possible and really showcase temple life here. Game time they've only been there like 4 or 5 days and I am enjoying it but also ready to wrap it up. Overall most of them seem to love it. A couple of times they have succeeded at something they tried in their investigation that actually made it more difficult but now they finally have most of the pieces except for any hard evidence.

As far as putting the time the scenario takes to complete, I like that its there when it gives me a rough estimation of if its something that can be done in one session, a couple sessions or weeks or months. Like paizo had a nifty thing, they had scenarios that were designed to be fit into a four block. Picking one of those up I know that I should be able to pick it up and finish it in a 4 hour block. Modules take anywhere between 2-4 sessions I believe, they're about 64 pages or so. But it tells that they're probably going to take a couple of sessions to finish but they'll finish before you make it to campaign. Campaign is anything longer. WotC used to have something similar except they had a few more catagories called super adventures or mini campaigns designed for months and campaigns something that will bring a character from low level to end game usually 1-20.

So its not a bad idea to have it written on the cover and 5+ hours wasn't really wrong but I would say most groups would probably finish this in 2-4 sessions depending on their pace. Our group just spent a bit more time early on with only three players the investigations left them largely stumped and at least in my game i've been leaving the ability to fast forward time aka wait and see if anything happens up to the players. Not sure if thats a good idea considering some of these events happen on a timeline.

[selderane]

From what I know about Paizo's modules, they can really fix down the time because of the amount of combat they typically contain. I've had Pathfinder Society GMs politely indicate to me that I may not have a good time because I'm looking to do a fair bit role-playing and while the modules may have some, the four-hour time frame keeps it from being the focus.

So, really, it all depends upon how much role-playing is in your game.

[Uggi]

Just thought i'd point out that the monestary of tuath told me it ran 5+ hours but we are 4 sessions in (4-5 hours each) and just now approaching the final scene. Anyone else run this and have a similar issue? I mean i'm loving the scenario but my players are at the point where they're more just ready to be done with this plot line.

Haha, I know what you mean, had a similar problem with this. I intented it as a oneshot on a small con in my town, but even within an 12-hour overnight session I had to leave out many things. My "problem" was probably, that I ran the monastery more as a sandbox and not as a railroad plot. My group did a lot of background research on many NPCs and after the arrival of the guests and the following events, my group decided to take matters into their own hands and "finished" the plot there. Probably due to overtime and because my group consisted mostly of fighters (Eoghan, Arven, a Demorthén [Arvens Sister or Friend?], Liam and Sid) they saw no resistance at all in the monastery and thought they could do whatever they pleased at that moment. The outcome was probably not intended at all by the original design, but it was an end.

Later I had the idea of turning the castle of this vale with its background and lord into an own oneshot, but this is nothing more than an idea, yet.


The book itself is cool, the story is nice, but I can't imagine any group rushing this within 5 hours, if it's not abbreviatedly played . ^^