Campaign Pacing and drama

[Maitete]

Hey all,

I've been working on a small-group campaign, and would like some advice on certain points, for whoever is interested. Here's a summary of the events so far, which have occurred over two 6-8 hour sessions:

• 
  *PC's ordered to retrieve Count Valenso de Korzetta for varying reasons
  *Ambushed by Raven Picts who had captured Korzetta, all NPC party members slaughtered, PC's barely escaped with their lives
  *Lost in the wilderness for 8 days, blood-poisoned and fatigued
  *Returned to beach, accosted by teenage Cormorant braves on the beach, and "traded" away their armor (they pretty much extorted it out of the weakened PC's)
  *Found themselves betrayed by the pirate captain they'd hired, who left them stranded
  *Gathered supplies at Korzetta's abandoned fort, and decided to walk 1500 miles south along the beach to Kordava (rather than cross the Pictish wilderness again... I'm quite proud of that)
  *Met a strange white man who claimed to be a druid, and had seen them in a dream
  *Accidentally disturbed a Pict burial ground, and chased (slowly) for 3 days before out pacing the risen dead
  *Rescued a lone Shark Pict badly bitten by a shark during his test of manhood
  *"Rescued" themselves by a Stygian Slave Galley, captained by a beautiful woman with red flowers in her hair
  *PC's Attempted mutiny foiled by the "dance of desire" of the lovely captain, then chained in the bowels of the ship with the Pict slaves to row
  *Dragged onto the dock at Khemi to be turned over in slavery, only to escape and run off into Khemi

So, we left the last session with them stealing some local outfits, and on the lam in Khemi... with all that happening, my questions are:

• 
  *Is this pace too quick? They're still 1st level and have had a ton of stuff happen!
  *Are they traveling the world too fast (campaign-wise)?
  *Should they have more victories? I find Conan is usually on the run, in trouble, and more is piling on his back, but is that too frustrating for PC's?
  *Any other advice?

Thanks,
Maitete

 

[Spectator]

still first level??
dude you suck,
your players are going to ass rape you if you domt get them to third level ASAP.
Fast pace, well its understandable, but let them advance quickly!!The 1500 mile trel thrpugh the wilderness is worth a level in itself!!!

OK I think I will be banned after what I just said. Mea Culpa.

 

[Evil_Trevor]

It seems like a lot to squeeze into two short sessions, without sitting in on your sessions I don't know how you play but I doubt I would get as far as the first two fights in two sessions with my usual players

 

[librarycharlie]

Good Gods, we've been playing for about 8 sessions, the characters have gone from 8 to 9th level, and we've only cleared about half a dungeon (the former menagerie of an Acheronian wizard).

Yes, your pace is too fast. Get some random encounter tables from standard D&D and roll every day. Figure 15 miles per day means 100 random encounter rolls just for trolling the beach.

That said, your plot sounds awesome... but your characters definitely should be level 2 by now.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

It seems like a lot to squeeze into two short sessions, without sitting in on your sessions I don't know how you play but I doubt I would get as far as the first two fights in two sessions with my usual players

Six to eight hour sessions are short? Egad. These days, I normally don't get to play for longer than three hours...

As for the original poster - I'd definitely let them level (you can slow the pace down after 3rd or 4th level if you want).

 

[Axerules]

Welcome to the board, Maitete.
Only IMHO of course:

*Is this pace too quick? They're still 1st level and have had a ton of stuff happen!

I think they should be 2nd or 3rd level now.

*Are they traveling the world too fast (campaign-wise)?

Same thing as for "the pace" to me: I don't think that a Conan campaign COULD be TOO quick or fast. Crazy, fast-paced action is exactly what this setting is all about.

*Should they have more victories? I find Conan is usually on the run, in trouble, and more is piling on his back, but is that too frustrating for PC's?
*Any other advice?

This isn't a D&D game. Your PC's won't collect as much wealth and be "victorious" each time. The "success" is often, like in horror tales or movies, to get out barely alive and heavily bruised of the situation.
I think you handled things pretty well thus far, except that you could be a little bit more generous with level advancement. If so many things happen to them each time you play, my advice would be to give them one level per game session when they "succeeded" (i.e. as far as a "success" is possible) during the first five levels and to slow down advancement later (two "successful" 8-hours game sessions from 6th to 10th level, 3 from 11th to 15th...). Of course, if they didn't fulfill any of the objectives of the story, they don't deserve too much XPs and the advancement should be slower...

 

[Maitete]

Thanks for the helpful advice everyone (except Spectator)! To be truthful, they're only 100xp from leveling, so perhaps I'm not TOO far off. XP is the easiest to adjust, so I think I'll take the advice so far and boost that up a bit (okay, maybe a lot).

I was more concerned that this might be too frenetic a pace to keep their interest, but the comment about Conan being action-packed and fast-paced really hit the mark for me. At the very least, they'll never be bored, which is pretty much what I wanted.

Thanks to librarycharlie for the compliment on the plot. It's been a blast to run, and I think they have enjoyed the sheer tenacity required to make it. I do think a part of that is not using random encounters, since each one is designed to push them the way they've been pushed. It's not really a lack of encounters I have a problem with, it's just that most of my encounters thus far have been either travel, running away or being enslaved. Once I bump them up a level or two, and they have to honestly contest against something, I'm sure the encounters will become more time-consuming and slow down a bit.

Thanks again everyone! I'll be anxious to see if anyone else wants to jump in with some advice, since I'm all about getting better and making our games as Conan-esque as possible!

 

[Azgulor]

While that seems like a lot of ground to cover in two sessions, the story sounds great and definitely in the spirit of Howard!

I'm also guessing that the Stygian ship came into play before they traveled the 1500 miles.

I would have them level to 2nd or 3rd by this point also. However, it's your game and if the PCs aren't outclassed by every encounter it may not be an issue. I tend to view 1st level characters as teenagers. Most average adults range from levels 2 - 4 in my campaign, so my 3rd level PCs have progressed from wet-behind-the-ears newbie to hold-their-own warriors and thieves. They've enjoyed being something of the underdog to this point but are guessing (correctly) that they're on the verge of busting into ranks of season veterans. The important thing, though, is that their actions have been heroic since day one. Your PCs seem to be having heroic escapades as well, and in my opinion, that's more important than character level.