The Know Direction Network is proud to announce its latest partnership and welcome the members of the Dashing Dwarves to the staff. 

Who?

Dashing Dwarves is the original APAPSR – Adventure Path Actual Play Speed Runners. Their goal is to get through Adventure Paths as quickly as possible. The team, run by producer, manager, Game Master, and Dashing Dwarves LLC owner Sprint Rendar had already run through every Pathfinder 1e AP by the time Pathfinder 2e came out, and they only started during the 2e playtest. 

What?

Are you like me when it comes to starting a new actual play podcast? You work out how many more hours of content it’ll take them to finish the AP they’re playing and think “there has to be a better way!” Rendar found that better way. 

“People don’t want to slog through the grind of dungeon crawls, subplots, world building and exploration, for years just to get to the conclusion that was spoiled by the AP’s title,” he explains. “We want to get in, get to the bottom of things, and get out. We finished Reign of Winter in one episode, including character introductions. Let me tell you, winter was coming, then winter was going.”

How?

By following the strictly defined rules of Adventure Path Speed Running, which they developed themselves for the express purpose of running Speed Run Actual Plays. These rules include:

• All shopping and leveling is done before the first episode begins;
• Play begins with a level 20 character equipped with 880 000 gp of gear, no single item of which can cost more than 440 000 gp;
• 20-points point buy;
• Backgrounds and motivations are determined by rolling 1d6 and consulting this chart:
  1. Eager: You just want to see what adventure is out there
  2. Agreeable: It doesn’t take much to convince you to go along with things
  3. Determined: This WILL be the adventure of a lifetime!
  4. Lethargic: Sure, you’ll go on an adventure or whatever. 
  5. Predestined: You don’t know what your destiny is exactly, but you know you have one and you suspect this adventure is it
  6. Orphan: Without the burden of family holding you back, of course you’ll on an adventure
• The Leadership feat is banned. 

Rendar continues, “You know how much less investigating a party has to do when you can cast miracle from the first session? Or wish, and not even the limited one? The goblins had barely crashed the Swallowtail festival before the PCs were feeding Karzoug his own butt.”

Why?

On a personal note, sometimes I look at the “progress” we’ve made in Adventurous getting through War For The Crown, bogged down by party banter, developing relationships, and so much roleplaying and worry we could be meeting our objections in a fraction of the time. The Dashing Dwarves put the complete in “technically they completed the adventure path.”

“Look at it this way,” Rendar began the argument that won me over. “Have you beat Super Mario Bros? Probably. Did you beat every level? Probably not. But just because you knew the warp pipes to take to get to World 9-1 doesn’t mean you didn’t find the princess. You just skipped being told that she was in another castle 8 times.”

When?

Dashing Dwarves joins the Know Direction Network as soon as we figure out what day it is.