@KorvinStarmast Eh, the video's a bit too rambly

@MikeQ So are all youtubes having to do with RPGs. It is endemic to the artform, I guess, and I suspect within the community at large. Even the stuff that Mearls and Crawford put out are to flabby, time wise.

@MikeQ That said, how are ya? been away for a few days, and I hope we can get the ToA fun resumed saturday

@MikeQ I admit that my views on that are biased by having had to work with production teams to make training films ... and videos ...

@KorvinStarmast My views on any of these "explain a list of things" are based on many engineering seminars and having to sit through badly organized presentations

@MikeQ Fair point. I imagine we are fellow sufferers.

@KorvinStarmast Overall ok. Was sick all last week so I'm catching up with things now.

I've also given up on trying to brainstorm campaign stuff here, so I've emailed my players saying we should meet up for a much-belated Session Zero discussion

@MikeQ If I could remote cast a "lesser restoration" spell I would :) best wishes on sess zero.

We've already had like 8 sessions of play, so I kinda forgot about it

I haven't managed this very well

Hang in there, if they keep coming to play all is not lost.

So originally, this campaign was supposed to be a continuation of a previous campaign, with me taking over as GM because the GM had too much going on

And we had a session zero for that game

But before it could start, half of the players cycled, and I realized that the premise and story wouldn't make any sense to the newcomers, so I had to sorta write a new plot

And the prewritten adventure isn't very coherent to begin with, so I have very little direction

@MikeQ Sounds like a golden opportunity for your creative instincts to flourish.

@KorvinStarmast That's a very optimistic perspective

@MikeQ I was given three tablespoons of Pangloss Syrup this afternoon, why do you ask? :)

Not sure if that joke works, as one can never tell who got force fed Voltaire in High School or College.

It kinda works

As with all of my jokes ... they sorta work. (So I won't quite my day job).

@KorvinStarmast Anyway, my biggest GM struggle right now (other than organizing players, which is an eternal struggle) is pacing. I'm working with a setting that's too big, has too many NPCs and places, and too many sideplots. I need to weave it into something coherent while also giving the players lots of freedom.

Levels?

Pathfinder, started at 10, planning to go up to 14. Players are currently at 11, but they're very optimized and clever, so level hasn't mattered too much.

Hmm, I'd say they need a goal. Does the campaign already have one built in, or do you need to make one?

@KorvinStarmast I made one because I picked up the story at a point in the written adventure without any real plot hooks. Or plot.

arrgh

The premise I gave my players is that they were on a treasure expedition in pirateland, but the mission was sabotaged and a notorious pirate stole their treasure. So they have to get it back.

They know that this pirate is somehow associated with the spy network for a foreign empire, so they're searching for answers in a port town where, rumor has it, the spies hang out

(For comparison, at this point in the written adventure, it's like 2 straight books of miscellaneous fort-building and disjointed sidequests. No obvious places to start up a new story altogether.)

@MikeQ Sounds like a nice place to insert a few doppelgangers/imposters. And slavers.

At level 10, I'd suggest a cult/demon/devil connection.

With plenty of demons coming through gates

Or devils. I'd say they have the stroke to deal with that.

@KorvinStarmast Funnily enough, the spies are strongly associated with devil stuff

sounds like a marriage made in heaven, uh ... hell

I've been tinkering with a bunch of ideas for what exactly I should put in this town, but I think by the end of it, the players should have a sense of the spies' goals (which involves the stolen treasure)

Do they know what's in the treasure?

The players/

So it's complicated. The sabotage technically failed (the PCs caught on very quickly), and the PCs are holding on to the one piece of treasure that actually matters. But the spies took all the shiny valuable stuff. In other words, both the PCs and spies are chasing after each other.

Is there a more valuable treasure/item connected to taking the spies down ... or is the reward just getting the shiny stuff and WBL restored?

@MikeQ I'm imagining the PCs following a set of prints until they come across the point where they started following them, only to find not only their own prints, but ANOTHER set of the prints they are following.

Mrs starmast has returned to our casa, best wishes all! Din Din is in the offing ...

@KorvinStarmast I'm not sure what you mean. What is WBL?

Wealth By Level, I'd assume

Oh I see.

Anyway, my goal is to convey the plot information in a way that involves player discovery, i.e., in a paced way that lets them learn it themselves, rather than me dumping exposition on them