I've been watching the Paizo.com message boards about the Tyrant's Grasp Adventure Path very closely. Considering that this adventure path has been my primary work for the last 9 months, I'm very interested in what people think. I want to make it the best experience I can, especially because it's the last adventure path for Pathfinder First Edition (the last adventure in this adventure path is Pathfinder #144: Midwives to Death, which is followed by Pathfinder #145 Hellknight Hill, the first adventure in the new Age of Ashes Adventure Path for Pathfinder Second Edition).
One message board poster noted that a backmatter article after the fourth adventure, Gardens of Gallowspire, is a series of short mini-adventures set in Lastwall, the nation where the bulk of the adventure path is set. This poster opined that mini-adventures aren't as useful, since they're often hard to integrate with the primary campaign. I responded to let the poster know a bunch of ways they might be used, and I thought it a good topic to post here.
In short: what can you do with a handful of mini-adventures that run parallel to, but aren't part of, the main campaign you're running?
How to use them in the adventure path:
* Identify which of the missions fit best with the existing campaign (as far as level range and setting). Drop the mini-missions right into the ongoing narrative of the adventure path. The players then consider those part of the adventure path experience, and might not even realize that they'd detoured into a side mission for a session or two.
* Use missions that have the right level range but wrong setting by reskinning them to appear in a setting that works. If the mini-adventure is in a keep but the characters are in a port city at that level range, perhaps the keep is on a small island in the bay, or maybe the adventure is in a fortified lighthouse rather than a keep.
* Use missions that have the right setting but the wrong level range by scaling the opposition up or down as needed. Although this isn't something that can necessarily be done on the fly, it's easy to do with a little preparation (and easier than many people think). If the players are 3 levels lower than the mini-mission assumes, for example, ignore the suggestion to use a 9th-level evil cleric from the NPC Codex and use a 7th-level evil cleric instead. Swap a CR 12 sea serpent for a CR 9 giant squid. And so on.
The mini-adventures stand alone from the primary Tyrant's Grasp Adventure Path (and from each other), although they all share a theme and location with the events of the campaign. You might use one as a break from the primary campaign in several ways:
* You might talk with your players about building new characters as a single-session break. This lets players try new character classes and options they might never otherwise consider. Some of your players might even like their new characters and want to switch over to them for the main campaign (or perhaps keep the new character as a back-up in case some unfortunate end meets their old character). This also works well if the party is still low-level and you have your players each build a much higher-level character for a single-session game; it gives them a preview of what higher-level play will be like.
* You can take a break from GMing to play, having one of your players run one of the mini-adventures instead. They don't spoil the plots of the individual Tyrant's Grasp adventures.
* With some work, you could flesh out all the mini-adventures presented here to create a short campaign of its own, running it before, after, or alongside your Tyrant's Grasp campaign. This mini-campaign would run from about 9th to 13th level.
* You can try a "killer mode" style of play where your players build characters a few levels lower than the mini-adventure is designed for. The game becomes a test for them to see how long they can last in an adventure with challenges that can overwhelm them. If these characters dies, it doesn't impact their primary characters (other than to emphasize the "survival horror" theme of the adventure path!).
Precisely because this is the last First Edition adventure path, we wanted to ensure that as much material about Lastwall and the many adventure opportunities it presents are included. Enjoy!
