Topic: Pathfinder Rise of the Rune Lords

[markc]

 I remember people posting about using Rise of the Rune Lords with RM and I was wondering if you could provide some feedback to me from your games.


 Right now after reading parts of the book I think if I did run it I would do the following:
 1) Lots of healing herb, potions, etc to help with woulds and crits
 2) Part 1 does not seem too much of a problem
 3) The section of the adventure with lots of traps could be a big problem for a group if they do not have the right personnel or spell lists
 4) Giants: Need I say more! Can be a huge problem in RM so I think RM PC's need to be at least 5 levels higher than described in the book.
 5) D&D dragons are not RM Dragons: See note 4 above and raise the PC's levels or down grade the dragons to other creatures
 6) Getting info from creatures might be easier as they do not die as easy in RM as in D&D, ie you can bring them back to a point where you might be able to question them freely.


 Again any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
MDC

[gandalf970]

I ran this campaign and it was good.  There were some serious modifications to the adventure as it progressed especially the Giants part you mention.  The Dragons are also an issue.  I provided a lot of healing herbs and the such you mentioned in #1. 
#3 is handled by the NPC's in town
#4 is as you say an issue since there are so many Giants.  I gave my players Giant slaying weapons.
#5 The Dragon doesn't have to engage the party which is what I did.
#6 The information gathering was very easy as you said due to not dying like in Pathfinder.

Another area of concern that you need to read and understand is the amount of Undead in Chapter 2.  It is a fun section, but read it carefully and get ready to modify the house a lot.

Overall the adventure was a lot of my fun.  i didn't pass out experience I just levelled them when they got to certain parts per the adventure.  Also this adventure is a lot of railroading so you need to engage your players.  Make them from Sandpoint or close by.  Make sure they have a lot of cousins to travel to the other locations. 

There is a pdf on drive thru rpg for the city of Magnimar, I would recommend purchasing it just for the Magnimar adventure.  It is a great city with a lot of detail. 

Also the players need to not be evil as it is too easy to switch sides.  If I had to do it again, I would have understood that not everything has to happen in sequence and then I wouldn't have railroaded my players as much.  They did enjoy the adventure greatly though.

[markc]

I am reading part 5 right now (I have gotten detained by other things and have not be able to read as much as I have liked).


 I agree with you that all parts do not have to happen or even happen in order, and as you have said there are some parts that need quite a few House Rules to run in RM (well or without too many problems).
 I can also see some problems in the last section as I have said RM levels do not match up to D&D levels so well, again I think RM level 50 might be D&D level 20 in this case as the last encounters look especially dangerous.


Thanks for your reply.
MDC

[VladD]

funny bit is that I have always assumed D&D characters and creatures to be less powerful than RM creatures. Being both a PF D&D 3.5+ and a RM GM, I have come to the realization that in scope both games are pretty similar: spell users get such spells as teleport, fireball and the best healing spells (organ repair/ heal) at roughly the same levels. Fighters become armored tanks at around 10th lvl.

The main difference lies in that in RM a single creature is likely to get critted to death rather quickly, so the common perception is to raise the lvl of the threat. On the other hand: getting swamped by loads of minions is no problem in D&D and a BIG problem in RM. Better is to straddle a mid way between these approaches. In the case of many minions, reduce them, in the case a single big one, level it up. Also it is prudent to allow for plenty of healing.

[gandalf970]

I am reading part 5 right now (I have gotten detained by other things and have not be able to read as much as I have liked).


 I agree with you that all parts do not have to happen or even happen in order, and as you have said there are some parts that need quite a few House Rules to run in RM (well or without too many problems).
 I can also see some problems in the last section as I have said RM levels do not match up to D&D levels so well, again I think RM level 50 might be D&D level 20 in this case as the last encounters look especially dangerous.


Thanks for your reply.
MDC

Mark
     I totally modified the final encounter to make it survivable for my players.  I do think you are right that level 50 RM is level 20 DnD.  What I did to make the game entertaining and a bit cinematic (my players loved it) was to give one person a dragon slayer with protection versus lightning and the other a giant slayer with a concussion hit buff.  Then I let the others deal with the mage.

To my groups benefit they did a lot of research into Karzoug and were very well prepared.  I continually reminded them of how powerful a RuneLord was through NPC's and lore that they found.  It ended up being a very memorable Rolemaster experience, even though a bit more cinematic than I or my players regularly enjoy.

[Deepfire]

I'm currently running rotrl with Rolemaster Fantasy rules. We are soon finishing the first book.

I had to scale down the number of attackers (like the other posters mentioned) and sometimes (un)lucky rolls finish a fight very fast and deadly (my 3-armed goblin had one round before he died; one of the watchers in the same dungeon killed two players before our bard killed him and another of his kind - everything in 2-3 rounds, it was a very crit-heavy evening, but that's why we play RM :-) )

Thank you all for the Giant/Dragon warning - I will run some test fights before I play these chapters.