EccentricOwl's page

This module looks fantastic. I'm a little skeptical about pulling my players around by the nose for the first few days. Wish me luck! Any other tips ?

There are a lot of cities and a lot of expansion books for those cities.

I'm looking for the city that *you*, my fellow message-boarder, find the most interesting. It could be because you wrote it, or because the guidebook was the best, or because it has the best adventure path appearance - but all in all, what city of the many cities on the planet is most appealing to you?

My main issue isn't some BBEG being behind it all, it's the weird interplanar stuff. I've run Kingmaker once 'straight' and it was fun but i'm trying it again with a little less magic.

I'm a huge , epic, massive fan of the Kingmaker adventure path for Pathfinder. I think it's one of Paizo's best products ever, in fact.

I do take exception to part 6. Nyrissa, the fey queen, didn't really appear to do much until chapter 5, and it seems like she might be written out... though then the conclusion might not be as fun.

I just feel that she changes the tone quite a bit.

What do you think? Is she integral? If I didn't want to use her, how might I edit or change the story? Has this already been answered elsewhere?

You guys understand the question, I assume. ;)

Ours was "Olberria," since they found an Owlbear and made it a mascot. yeah. You know the one.

Wait, which one is VV again?

A big preface - I've run Kingmaker 'straight' once before, deviating only narrowly from the original plot, which is pretty open-ended and fairly good.

Now, I am going to try to run it again with a completely different group.

This time around, I'm going to be using the Fate system, with some of the rules from the in-development "Wrath of the Autarch" as my kingdom-building engine. (If you have any other favorite systems to help simulate the development of a polity, please tell me - I'm all ears!)

However, a lot of Kingmaker's explortion ends up being a little same-y. Strange villages of enemies that you can either kill or ally with. Odd temples and ancient locations that basically end up being combat encounters. Lots of hexes with fairies.

I want to maybe change some of the subplots and elements. I want to add more stories that focus on the exploration (maybe new events and encounters in hexes) or add in new longer-term events. I'm not entirely sure how this might mesh with the 'on-map' nature of Kingmaker.

I guess that's really what I want; more events, more things to find in the wild, and more decisions. Also, I'm not too picky; don't worry too much about fitting them into the campaign, as these stories could probably fit into pretty much any game where you run a kingdom or do lots of open-world exploration.

EccentricOwl wrote:

But you've intrigued me so much that I might throw away the Conan universe in favor of Golarion if even half of what you guys said is true. ;)

Serpent's Skull is totaly Conan-esque. It does need some changes to function perfectly, but the overall AP is great, particularly Books 1 and 3.

** spoiler omitted **

The AP, exactly as written, is FAR from perfect, but in the hands of a good DM that realizes what to cut and what to leave, I believe it to be one of Paizo's greatests.

That's awesome. Thanks for the info! Book 2 looked interesting, but not up to snuff with the high quality that the team puts out for other APs.

Book 5 and 6 sounded like gigantic dungeon crawls, which might be interesting for me but doesn't seem interesting for my players, you know?

Okay... so... Reign of Winter is a no-go for a low-fantasy world.

But you've intrigued me so much that I might throw away the Conan universe in favor of Golarion if even half of what you guys said is true. ;)

All of these sound... dear sweet lord, all of these keep on sounding more and more cool.

I'd be willing to throw my low-fantasy intentions to the curb if Reign of Winter is indeed as totally awesome and baller as you describe. :P

How do the other APs stack up?

Second Darkness, Council of Thieves, Shattered Star and the new ones? Totally ridiculous or low enough to fit into, say, a Conan-style world?

Curse is about as fantastic as Kingmaker, maybe a little less so.

Legacy of Fire is very fantastic, particularly in the later modules. Currently playing S&S so I don't have any opinion on it.

Okay, that's good to know. So no major planes-walking craziness? Or if there is, it's rare? That's awesome. Any gigantic world-changing evil monsters from Wonderland?

I'm thinking of running a game using the new Iron Kingdoms RPG. I was looking at buying all the Skull & Shackles pdfs, butI wanted to hear opinions first. (I'm sorry, fellow Paizo fans - I hope it doesn't bother you *too* much that I'm not using the venerable and awesome Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. ;)

How high-magic do the APs get? How many crazy demons and over-the-top epic planeswalkers show up?

I ran "Kingmaker" and it was all pretty down to earth. There were hints of some crazy monstrosities, yeah. There was a lich that took over at own, but that could have happened in Lord of the Rings. It wasn't until the 6th chapter that things got... weird. (I still loved it. :)

How do the other APs stack up?

Specifically, I'm interested in Curse of the Crimson Throne, Legacy of Fire, and Skull & Shackles. (And if anyone's familiar with ENWorld's "War of the Burning Sky."

Pretty interesting! Very cool. :)

Thanks for the definitive answer as always, James! :)

Also , big thanks on keeping the APs light on metaplot. Whew! What a relief for me and my players.

The encounters really are swingy. I finished the campaign and my players were either panting to catch their breath or they had totally obliterated the enemy.

Example: mites were no problem. Meanwhile, the fort almost destroyed them.

It's a fun game, and realistically it's pretty much set for you; the obvious answer is to just throw more encounters at them. If they want that sort of thing that is.

I was about to post about the male gay couple in the "Rival Guide," and then I noticed the thread had been going for 5 years and had 4,000 posts. Keep it up! There's a prize if we get to 100 pages!

Hey guys! I just bought the softcover edition.

I'm curious and I want the earnest feedback from my fellow fans of Paizo's excellent cartography...

How should i handle maps? Seriously. they're going to be moving across a large area.

Should I provide them with the map?

Should I buy the map pack?

Should I have them draw it up?

Should I abstract everything?

And what did you do?

So I'm looking at running Skull & Shackles. I hear it's absolutely THE BOMB with the exception of the first half of part 1. (Are parts 4, 5, and 6 any good?)

I want to know about these 'interactive maps' I hear tell of. What are they? Are they any good? How do you use them? Do you click on them and they bring up some bigger map or something?

For that matter, can I just pay $20 for a gigantic poster of the Shackles instead?

I ran Kingmaker and loved it; our map got marked to hell and it was a good feeling (sort of like Risk Legacy) to see it destroyed and covered in memories.