I've been trying to get a facespace Pathfinder game together for about 3 years, but there's no convenient place to run a game on our main floor and our basement is still full of boxes from us moving into the house almost 6 years ago. (Most of it is the gf's stuff, otherwise I would have just pitched what I needed to make room years ago.) So I decided to give running a game online with a VTT a try.

Since I'm experimenting anyway, I decided to run the Rise of the Runelords adventure path. (I've been gaming for over 25 years and have never actually run or played through a published adventure, but have heard plenty of stories from friends who have.) This should be an interesting experience both for the novelty and because the AP features some darker elements than I normally incorporate into my own games. (The first half of the campaign has storylines involving a serial killer, a highly deadly haunted house and an encounter with a family of ogrekin that's an homage to the X-Files episode "Home.")

I've warned the players I'm going to try to evoke the old school published adventure feel by letting the dice fall where they may and not pulling any punches (I'm normally willing to fudge when necessary to prevent unlucky die rolls from killing a character outright, though suicidal stupidity will still lead to their demise.) though I am using the Hero Point mechanics to allow them to earn a chance to cheat death if they wish. (Two of them so far have opted to forgo Hero Points in favor of a bonus feat.)

Should be interesting.

Oh, Laga, I meant to agree that bards can be a lot of fun to play, especially when they have memorable companions.

I once joined a game in progress with a bard and the DM asked "Why would your character want to join up with them?" My response was "Are you kidding me? These guys are a goldmine of potential tales."

The PAX live game.

SKYRIM

Wow. Spent the better part of the whole day playing today. Knocked off a handful of smaller quests, and a couple major ones with achievements.

Two things. One, Lyda died. Ugg. How do I get another follower to carry the plunder?

Two? I'm starting to realize, but please confirm... is there any end to this game?

Skyrim I have not reached the end but then I'm the kind who realizes she would have done something differently and starts all over with a whole new character.

Each time you buy property you get a house carl who will follow you if asked. You can also gain followers by doing things for people. If you have the Hearth...somthing pack this is also how you get a spouse and many followers can also be spouses. Hint setting up the lovers in Riverwood is an easy one .

Why did I ever think running a published Adventure Path would actually be less work then running a homebrew game?

Finally got character histories (mostly) settled for my players and I have all the maps for the encounters I expect them to get through in first season setup in Roll20 for the game tomorrow night, but it's taken about 20 hours of work according to Roll20's playtime counter and it'd probably take another 20 hours to implement everything I'd like to have setup.

I'm also stressing my self trying to remember all the major players in Sandpoint. On one hand, it's nice to have a ready answer, but on the other it's a lot more work then just making up "Lar the tailor" on the fly.

Of course, it's a tossup whether my players will want to spend time chatting up the locals, or if they'll just want to push on to the next adventure.

I feel your pain. The one time I GM'd our BSG, I felt a bit... Well, what you are. And that is cake compared. I'm very grateful for all the hard work BT does to keep our games moving.

I love in the new Acquisitions Incorporated vid- They introduce all the characters and then the GM says, "I'm tired." Been there so many times. I do think it is easier running a campaign from scratch 'cause you can always wing it.

The other issue for me is I don't know Golarion (the default Pathfinder setting) at all, so my players are asking me questions or bouncing character background ideas off me and I have to go scour the interwebs and assorted PDFs trying to find an answer (because I want it to be RIGHT, even if my players probably don't care as long as it makes sense.) whereas with my home world I either know the answer already or I can just make something up and it automatically becomes the answer (provided I remember to write it down for future reference, anyway.)

Oh so true. And I've been running a module and thought I knew the answer then in the next session realized I'd gotten it totally wrong and had to retcon.