Rivers Run Red is the second part of the Kingmaker Adventure Path. While it's designed for the Pathfinder role playing game, I've been using it for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.
I mixed the original starter set adventure, the Mines, with the first part of the Kingmaker Adventure Path. This worked well in most aspects in that I substituted a few bits like Harpers in the original book for Pathfinders and the city from the starter adventure with Pitax from Pathfinder. A few other changes here and there.
The bad thing is that the characters are all roughly fifth level, which puts them at a slightly advantage in this portion of the adventure. Another part thing is that I'm running seven players.
This part of the adventure also relies on the player's doing their own kingdom building. On one hand, it's an interesting concept. I was going to use the rules from the Pathfinder Ultimate Campaign but... Only one player is doing the actual kingdom building, determining the buildings and other bits that happen. I've been trying to blue book it so that it minimally impacts actual game play since only one player actual has the book and most of the players have expressed no interest in reading the rules or taking a more active part in that aspect of the game.
Mind you, just under half of the players are interested in that aspect of the campaign to speak of, so I suspect it'll just get dropped. That will upset some who are interested in it, but since their not willing to actually put the work into it, their disappointment will be like sugar on corn flakes.
I've also been doing, for the most part, on the fly conversions. I've been doing it by eyeballing it. For the most part the players haven't suffered too much. I've probably been going 'easy' on the players as opposed to going for the dreaded TPK.
I may also finally be getting around to using inspiration right. I awarded it twice in the game. Huzzah! Finally getting that mechanic aspect down.
Below is one I actually did some of the math on but I'd be open to hear any changes.
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 32 (5d8+10)
Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 13 (+1) 15 (+2) 2 (-4) 11 (+0) 6 (-2)
Saving Throws Int -4, Wis +0
Skills Perception +2,
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, ,
Passive Perception 12
Languages _
Challenge 3 (700 XP)
Keen Smell. The trollhound has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell
Regeneration: The trollhound regains 5 hit points at the start of its turn. If the trollhound takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the trollhound’s next turn.
ACTIONS
Weapon. Bite +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4),piercing damage., Disease A trollhound’s saliva is an infectious brew of contagion. Creatures bitten bya trollhound are often afflicted with bloodfire fever, a disease characterized by deep internal pain, as if the victim’s blood were on fire. Its symptoms include loss of muscular coordination and physical strength as well as lethargy and fatigue. Constituion Save DC 14; Target is exhausted. At the end of each long rest, an infected creature can make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On two successful saves the disease is overcome. If the user fails he takes another level of exhaustion.
I enjoy the adventure path, at least the first two books so far, because it's very open in allowing the players to do what they want. They have opportunity to explore, to hunt down monsters, to work with numerous NPCs and a lot of other bits that are not necessarily the normal standard for dungeon crawls. Mind you that's not always what the players are looking for as one of the players has expressed an interest in doing the Emerald Spire, which is what I initially was going to run before deciding to use Kingmaker.
Looking forward to next week's game as several of the encounters for it are potential role playing and a few brief dungeon crawls.
What's everyone else doing for adventures? Have you expanded the core one from the Starter Set? Have you used the two hardcovers? Taken older adventurers and converted them? Stuff off the cuff and homebrewed?
I mixed the original starter set adventure, the Mines, with the first part of the Kingmaker Adventure Path. This worked well in most aspects in that I substituted a few bits like Harpers in the original book for Pathfinders and the city from the starter adventure with Pitax from Pathfinder. A few other changes here and there.
The bad thing is that the characters are all roughly fifth level, which puts them at a slightly advantage in this portion of the adventure. Another part thing is that I'm running seven players.
This part of the adventure also relies on the player's doing their own kingdom building. On one hand, it's an interesting concept. I was going to use the rules from the Pathfinder Ultimate Campaign but... Only one player is doing the actual kingdom building, determining the buildings and other bits that happen. I've been trying to blue book it so that it minimally impacts actual game play since only one player actual has the book and most of the players have expressed no interest in reading the rules or taking a more active part in that aspect of the game.
Mind you, just under half of the players are interested in that aspect of the campaign to speak of, so I suspect it'll just get dropped. That will upset some who are interested in it, but since their not willing to actually put the work into it, their disappointment will be like sugar on corn flakes.
I've also been doing, for the most part, on the fly conversions. I've been doing it by eyeballing it. For the most part the players haven't suffered too much. I've probably been going 'easy' on the players as opposed to going for the dreaded TPK.
I may also finally be getting around to using inspiration right. I awarded it twice in the game. Huzzah! Finally getting that mechanic aspect down.
Below is one I actually did some of the math on but I'd be open to hear any changes.
Trollhound
Beast, unalignedArmor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 32 (5d8+10)
Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 13 (+1) 15 (+2) 2 (-4) 11 (+0) 6 (-2)
Saving Throws Int -4, Wis +0
Skills Perception +2,
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, ,
Passive Perception 12
Languages _
Challenge 3 (700 XP)
Keen Smell. The trollhound has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell
Regeneration: The trollhound regains 5 hit points at the start of its turn. If the trollhound takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the trollhound’s next turn.
ACTIONS
Weapon. Bite +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4),piercing damage., Disease A trollhound’s saliva is an infectious brew of contagion. Creatures bitten bya trollhound are often afflicted with bloodfire fever, a disease characterized by deep internal pain, as if the victim’s blood were on fire. Its symptoms include loss of muscular coordination and physical strength as well as lethargy and fatigue. Constituion Save DC 14; Target is exhausted. At the end of each long rest, an infected creature can make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On two successful saves the disease is overcome. If the user fails he takes another level of exhaustion.
I enjoy the adventure path, at least the first two books so far, because it's very open in allowing the players to do what they want. They have opportunity to explore, to hunt down monsters, to work with numerous NPCs and a lot of other bits that are not necessarily the normal standard for dungeon crawls. Mind you that's not always what the players are looking for as one of the players has expressed an interest in doing the Emerald Spire, which is what I initially was going to run before deciding to use Kingmaker.
Looking forward to next week's game as several of the encounters for it are potential role playing and a few brief dungeon crawls.
What's everyone else doing for adventures? Have you expanded the core one from the Starter Set? Have you used the two hardcovers? Taken older adventurers and converted them? Stuff off the cuff and homebrewed?
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