So for this new campaign i am going back to using pre-written bought modules. I am pretty excited about that. I have been thinking back and I'm wondering if some of my best story lines were a combination of pre-written work and on-the-fly role playing that naturally comes about from gaming.
I remember back to jr.high and high school ... i would run a party through Keep on the Boarderlands even though I needed to place that spot, that region into my own world. Heh now as i'm typing i am recalling many maps i hand drew and all those crazy games. **smile**
So i think i have a great foundation with the Pathfinder Canon, and the D0 "Hollow's Last Hope" module I will run this coming Monday.
I have purchased D1 as well and plan to see if the players can meet the challenges of D0 > D1. Then i think we'll have the ground work for a very fun low range story arc for the PCs levels 1 through 5.
CAN'T WAIT!!
I'm looking forward to your opinion on "modern" modules. One problem I have with newer adventures (whether 3.x or 4E, particularly anything from Paizo) is that they tend to be too overly developed for my tastes. They usually have good plot/story/characterization, but at the cost of flexibility. Granted, you can throw as much stuff out the window as you want, but if you only end up using, say, 10% of the module, and modifying most of the rest, it seems like a waste of money to have bought the adventure to begin with.
ReplyDeleteThese days I'm finding myself appreciating the rulesets and adventures from the "early days" (particularly the old D&D Basic/Expert rules), since they gave you a good framework to start with but with plenty of room for flexibility, improvisation, and creativity. I would love to run something a bit more "rules light" as I'm somewhat tired of the heaviness of 3.5, 4E, and Pathfinder, but most of my current players want "options" and would balk at the idea that they don't have hundreds of feats/powers/prestige classes/etc. to choose from when twinking out their "toon" (I pride myself on being relatively free of nerdrage, but when people call their PCs "toons" it just grates on my nerves :)
Anyway, I'm wondering if your memories of the old days are positive because the adventures published back then were more accomodating of the "sandbox" style of play (like "Keep on the Borderlands"). I'm sure you can work with whatever pre-published material you get, but I'll be curious how well the new stuff works for you if the players (or DM) decide to go "off-script".