Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 gmanjkd Jul 04, 2015 20:49:09	Hello all.  It pains me to come to this realization, but my gaming time is getting to be less and less.  I am currently working 7 days per week including 2, 12 hour shift over the course of sat and sun, needless to say I don't have much free time.  I desperatly want to run PotA or OotA (probably PotA) however there is NO WAY IN the 9 HELLS that i will have the time to run the entire campaigne.  In addition to my scheduling issues my group has gotten progressivly busyer over the years.  Most of them have kids etc.   Scheduling is brutal and maintaining a group for a solid year or 2 is almost imposible.  This brings me to my idea.   I know this will come across as blasphemy and believe me If  I were'nt in such short supply of  time I woulnt even consider it.    I want to take all of the dungeons in PotA, I think there are like.....12 and essentially abridge them.  Basically this is my plan.    Each dungeon has an underliying theme and encounters that drive the story forward and give each section of the campaigne its feel/flavor.  I think each section of the campaign contains encounters that are either IMPORTANT encounters or FLUFF encounters.  The  more important and integral encounters create the overall purpose of that dungeon.  I want to cherry pick the most important encounters of say a 30 room dungeon and shrink that down into a 6 - 10 room dungeon.  In essence I would be restructuring each dungeon, changing it from a location based adventure into an Event based adventure.  Im confident my group could get through 6 - 10 encounters in a 3 hour session which is the most time that we will have.  I would probably have to award a XP level after each game session and im guessing that this would likely make the entire campaign last around 15 sessions.     I think I would have to redraw the dungeons, shrinking them down to 6 to 10 rooms each.  The redesign shouldnt take much time.  Stocking abridged dungeons with  the most important encounters should also be pretty easy.    So what do you think?  Would this work?  Has anyone done anything like this?  Would this completely destroy the feeling of campaine?   Thanks for any advice.  I really want to get back to running a game.  I just have to figure out how to make it work.   Thanks again Gary
#2 Nevvur Jul 04, 2015 22:05:30	There's a lot of great material in PotA to work with and tailor to your needs, and what you're planning is definitely feasible. My biggest concern would be that I might feel like I was robbing the players of the full experience, but if everyone is busy and no one is going to have the opportunity to play it otherwise, some is better than none.   A question to pose to your players: "Do you think you'll ever get the chance to play the full version?" If the answer is no, go full speed ahead. If maybe or yes... well, then you really should ask for their consent, but I suspect they'll be happy to play something rather than nothing. Remind them other APs will be released (albeit slowly) that will match the scope of PotA.   Also, you can always run through it again with new PCs the 'right' way, if you free up the time for it in the future. Many people in Adventurer's League will replay a module with a new character, depending on which stores/locations are offering what, and still have fun doing it despite knowing the ins and outs of the adventure.
#3 gmanjkd Jul 04, 2015 22:25:41	Thanks for the feedback.  I thought it would work but wanted other opinions in case there is something i am missing that would result in a broken game or a horrible experience.  I agree that I would prefer to do it the "right" way but time is short.   Thanks again.  I appreciate your insight.
#4 Noon Jul 05, 2015 0:12:10	Not worth it - the pivotal choice that makes play thrilling is players choosing whether they will or wont go into certain rooms.   The way you're setting it up, you're intending they go through each one no matter what. You'll be making play incredibly flat by doing that.
#5 gmanjkd Jul 05, 2015 0:51:02	Thanks for you thoughts Noon. Would you go into more detail? Have you ever played an event based game as apposed to a location based game? In my experience long dungeons often feel grindy and can drag on so long that they get boring. This is not an issue with an event based game. Event based games arw often more open to improve and player license than linear dungeons. Cause ultimately it doesnt matter what order you enter the rooms in a dungeon, they all lead to the important monster at the end. Different strokes i guess.
#6 Noon Jul 05, 2015 2:16:20	Ultimately it doesn't matter what order you do rooms in - if you've gotta do them all, it's linear. When all roads lead to rome/the important monster, it's linear.   Are you allowing building in some capacity to do things/choose things that bypass some rooms or something and I missed that bit of the discription?
#7 gmanjkd Jul 05, 2015 10:40:29	I think i would free form some of the rooms to provied some "X" factor. What ideas do you have that would make Pota possible considering my circumstances? Thanks
#8 Noon Jul 05, 2015 19:27:05	I'd ask the players for their ideas of compression methods - atleast then they've had a choice in terms of what compression method is used, if any. Give a rough idea of the themes of POTA and what sort of thing they'd be looking for (since you're stuck having to keep the content hidden until the game night, you can only work with vague hints of what they could pursue, of course)
(Reply to #4) Nevvur	Noon wrote:
#10 Noon Jul 06, 2015 22:03:43	Nevvur wrote:
#11 Nevvur Jul 06, 2015 23:20:20	Defensive much? If you don't like people expressing opinions about the opinions you express, don't express them.    FWIW, you're right. I was mistaken to call your post hyperbolic. You meant "incredibly flat" to be taken seriously.