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We did find that we can spread out the group quite effectively, with everyone focusing on locations they are strong in. So it wasn't as much an RPG adventuring group, as a blitz of many locations at once by individuals or pairs of characters. When necessary, we'd join up again for healing or support. We also tended to explore as often as our hands would reasonably allow, and we didn't focus much on making sure we got all the boons from all location - we tended to close them when we could.

I like the idea of location-based Blessings - but it seems then one should do that for spells as well.

PS - the nomenclature was for easy remembering: 0 1 2 B L BL

Yup - you have to be very careful about using your hand when you run low on cards in your deck.

After playing from Perils through to the end of Hook Mountain with a party of 5, and rarely encountering a situation where we felt we could lose the scenario, we've come up with the following house rules to bump up the difficulty. I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on these - too much, too little, off the mark?

0B/1L/2BL House Rules:

0B:
The rules state that if you have no cards left in hand, you ignore any extra damage you take. This means there is little to no risk in exploring with an empty hand, since you cannot really get hurt.
House Rule 0B: If you end up with zero cards left in your hand when taking damage, and still have at least 1 point of damage remaining to take, bury the top card of your deck and then ignore the rest of the damage.

1L:
We found the turn limit imposed by the Blessings deck was not limiting for our 5 player group. We never came really close to losing on time.
House Rule 1L: Add an additional location.

2BL:
We found that with 5 players there are too many Blessings being thrown in the key combats, against the henchmen and villain, making them far too easy.
House Rule 2BL: Limit of 2 Blessings in a combat.

I need some explanation of Walcourt's layout.

I hear you, I understand you, I've read the other threads, but the bottom line is that the result of the changes I've seen so far is not as excellent of a product, and that is a crying shame.

Paizo has had great success with the introduction of the Pathfinder APs, and I hate to see this success dilute the product quality because of increased publication volume. I understand the business consideration of publishing at the rate and volume of materials you have expanded to, but I hope you can react to the feedback and bring the extraordinary quality back.

A suggestion might be to reduce the rate of publication for an AP to once every 2 months. You could still publish at 1 magazine per month by publishing two APs at a time, alternating months. Individual editorial staff could focus on just one AP.

I am sorry to feel the need to write this, but I am hoping that by reading these comments, you may return future AP's to the format and content that I feel made RotRL and CotCT so extraordinary.

I waited until I'd had the chance to read at least 3 of the Second Darkness modules, even though I had a bad feeling already after reading the first, and finding myself wanting much more content on the city and its NPCs than was offered.

In a nutshell, in the SD AP I miss the depth, complexity, difficulty, and engagement of the first two APs. The plot and NPC motivations are fairly flat and one-dimensional (except Saul), the opportunity for the PCs to become emotionally involved is poor, and the actions in the 2nd and 3rd module are essentially a hack&slash dungeon crawl.

I'm not saying they're bad modules. Each has some great individual ideas and events, and they are well done. But they are not exceptional as an AP with a campaign-spanning plot. There are a ton of good modules out there, and for the average of $150 I'd spend for an AP, I want something exceptional.

The stated aim to make the main module easier to create and edit may have succeeded, but it is also a lesser product as a result.

The overarcing module plot feels thin. It's a cool idea, but I think you can tell that the main plot was originally something that could have fit into perhaps 3 modules. The modules feel a bit tacked on with little depth in their connection. Riddleport promises an interesting start, but quickly becomes unimportant to the AP.

The Set Piece Adventure takes space away from the major module, and is only loosely integrated. Essentially it is a filler, which is not important enough to the plot to include. While the Set Pieces are also well written, the cost of including them (taking space from the main module) is too high.

The initial setting is interesting, but the level of detail in its description fails to approach Sandpoint or Korvosa. When I first read it, I felt like perhaps you had too much going on to give it the depth and detail that would make it excellent. There is little in terms of backstory for any of the individual NPCs, certainly none as interesting as those in the first APs.

Again, I want this to be constructive criticism. But I think the philosophy expressed in some threads on this board, which essentially boils down to simplifying the modules in terms of both volume and difficulty, would need to change for me to get my hopes up.

I enjoy the plot and NPC character development aided by the cut scenes. However, I want the GM to be able to look at the scene and understand how it could actually work within the rules mechanics, so that players can interact if appropriate, or at least be able to draw accurate conclusions. So I would say, don't get rid of them entirely, but make sure they are well thought out when you use them.

Note that all cut scenes are not created equal. The different cut scenes cause a different degree of difficulty:

PF7 - The Blackjack rescue scene is fairly easy to stage, with the main difficulty being that you need to figure out why there are no magical detection and protection spells active to prevent such a rescue. But that's not too far-fetched. The actions and their motives are reasonable.

PF8 - The Sinking of the Ship scene is very troublesome. Not only are the mechanics of how that ship is sunk at that location fairly unrealistic, but the whole plan for why it is sunk there is overly complicated and ill conceived. This is discussed in depth in another thread.

PF9 - The Assassination Attempt is moderately difficult to make believable. As written, it makes little sense. Some heavy backup of the motives and actions has to be decided by the GM, so that PCs are not mislead by the description. This is also discussed in depth in another thread.

...Even if D20 uses hit-points as an abstract, it is (in my eyes) an absolute non sequitur that NPCs would take this fact into consideration when determining their actions.

...
But I think if your group would indeed have a problem with a scene like that, maybe a better solution would be to talk to them about it, out-of-game.

We'll just have to disagree on this one. I feel it takes away from the story if NPCs act stupidly or non-sensically. I abhor having to use GM fiat to explain story elements. I want to let the players uncover the mystery and discover the solution, not explain to them that they should just accept an unlikely action as fact because it railroads the story along. And I certainly don't want to have to tell a player that his character cannot ever do the same thing that an NPC did, because that was bending the rules.

The story should flow consistently, not be hampered by gotchas that require GM hand-waving. For instance, I've found the Pathfinder Journal stories to be very carefully written with the physical/magical laws of the world (if you will) of d20 in mind. The stories flow, and you can see how you might actually have the same actions happen during a game.

Lots of good ideas and feedback - thanks!

I can work with the ideas of Endrin's desparate position and like the idea of a magical crossbow bolt that he is reasonably certain should take out a human tyrant. I do not like any suggestion that Endrin is ignorant, stupid, or forgetful about the potential toughness of a person. Like it or not, if you're playing d20, the option of an instant kill with a single weapon strike is simply not to be expected when you're dealing with any person of note, no matter how well placed the strike. I strongly believe this has to be reflected in the attitude, actions, and plans of the NPCs in the world, otherwise you'll always have disjointed stories, which destroys the suspension of disbelief that makes for a good story.

Norgerber's post actually illustrates my issue very well. His description of the combat is farcical - and that is exactly what the players will think when they hear the story told as it is written in the module, because players will dissect what the GM is telling them to glean important information.

Mary hit the nail on the head with her post. It should be clear that my issue is not with the coolness of the story, or the need for detailed combat explanations in the module. I just want actions that won't mislead the players due to inconsistency with the rules.

So, I think my version of the story will run along the lines of:
- Endrin has developed huge misgivings about the Queen, and has talked to Kroft and other confidants about it at some length, including his thoughts that she needs to be removed
- Endrin takes a very powerful crossbow bolt (note Bane is not really enough with 2d6 damage - it should probably be a unique, deadly artifact level magic item) from the Sable Company Vault of magic weapons (this can come out later, or be surmised by Kroft)
- Endrin decides to take action out of desparation, and because he has the weapon he thinks will do the job
- Endrin must be fairly certain that the assassination will not simply be reversed by a Raise Dead, hence he must also have at least talked to the senior Clerics of Abadar and Sarenrae about their opinions of the Queen, in order to have hope that her assassination will spark a general uprising against the current monarchy which will be supported by many other powers in Korvosa (this may come as info to the players, depending on their contacts)
- Endrin's attack fails, to his and everyone else's great surprise, as the Queen recovers from a crossbow bolt to the head within seconds
- Ileosa pins him to the wall, and over several agonizing rounds strangles and stabs him to death, while everyone else watches in horror at the apparent ease and glee with which she does it

Maybe I need to explain better, in order to get some reasoned responses:

1 - For an assassination attempt to be Lawful, it needs to at least be planned. If it was planned, I'd like to know what the plan was. If there was something special about the crossbow bolt that should guarantee a kill against a human, I'd like to know it.

2 - For an assassination attempt to be Good, it has to be against a proven Evil, not just something unpleasant. If the Commandant knows something about the Queen for sure, rather than just being upset about "shameful reign" and Korvosa not being "free" (his quote when he attacks), I'd like to know that.

3 - For a crossbow shot meant as an assassination to make any sense, it cannot depend on getting a critical hit. Not to mention that even with a critical hit, who are you kidding - no NPC of more than a couple levels would be threatened by it. There needs to be some more chance of expected success to this assassination attempt, especially if Field Marshal Croft then thinks it should have succeeded.

4 - For the Queen to pick up, pin, and kill the Commandant without him being able to do anything about it, there has to be more than just strength. I'd like to know how she does it. Admittedly, this point is the least of my concerns - perhaps she has the grapple capability to do so. But that will need to be evident when her stats eventually come out.

To be clear - I'm not against the scene, I just think it needs a lot of work by the GM to avoid unnecessary player frustration. I'm hoping for some solid ideas from this forum.

Sorry, but none of those answers make for a game that can stand up to any kind of player scrutiny. While you can certainly explain it away that way, and happily play on, this kind of inconsistency serves to make players later ignore important clues about actions and events that they really should be questioning and pursuing.

The setup of the Escape from Korvosa includes a description of an ill-planned and ill-fated attempt by Commandant Endrin to assassinate Queen Ileosa. Unfortunately, the whole scenario is barely believable, unjustifiable with the Sable Company morality, and seems impossible to make work under d20 rules. This story, even if only told to PCs, only serves to make them question how such utter nonsense could occur - and what it might really mean.

If someone could explain to me how to have this whole encounter make sense both from an in-game standpoint, and how it is supposed to work using the d20 rules, I'd appreciate it. Summarizing:

1 - It makes no sense that Commandant Endrin, leader of a supposedly LG military organization, suddenly decides to pull a crossbow and take one shot at the Queen. That's neither Lawful, nor Good, nor smart, nor wise, nor ... Any PC will look at this and have to wonder what's really the story.

2 - Under d20 rules, how does this one shot hit the Queen in the temple, and how does she then pull it out and kill the certainly high-level Commandant with one strike?

The prices for houses in Korvosa were changed at my prompting. The way Mike had them originally, an individual could have bought the place with about two years' rent, as I remember. I urged him to bump that up closer to 20 or 30 years' rent, about in line with a modern-day mortgage.

And to elaborate on James' comment of "In City prices of Korvosa are indeed probably too high for In Town prices for Sandpoint..."

Korvosa is a major city in the area. Sandpoint is a small town. The home prices in Sandpoint should be much lower, in my mind (by orders of magnitude). But I'm coming from a real-world economy perspective on that.

I would say the published purchase prices in Korvosa are too high. They appear to be calculated at 300 times monthly rental cost. That makes 25 years of rental payments, which is too high. Rental payments include overhead for maintenance and management that is not included in purchase costs. A better estimate would be about half that.

The cost of both rental and purchase could be significantly lower in Sandpoint, since city real estate prices tend to be higher. For real estate in the countryside, the price would be even less. You could easily drop the price in Sandpoint by a factor of 2-3 from the adjusted Korvosa prices, and another factor of 2-3 for houses that are not within the protected confines of a town or city.

One other thing to consider: one can argue that Korvosa, with its huge surplus of housing, should have depressed prices, and drop those by another factor of 2. That should not apply to Sandpoint yet.

Also keep in mind that I _think_ (and I could be wrong here) that the number listed only includes able-bodied adults, and excludes children and those unable to contribute to society.

That would be important to know - is that how the stat block for locations is defined?

After I started writing the book I think we realized we wanted Korvosa to be bigger than it is. Unfortunately, we had already published its population size.

Thanks for all the feedback and insights. With that information in mind, I will assume that the official census includes only people of certain means. In particular, it excludes all transients and emptys, as well as anyone who hasn't paid an annual 1 gp census tax. It is common to ignore the census tax, unless you are someone who owns property, or who needs to deal with the magistrates in other matters such as licenses, permits and fees. The actual population is at least twice or thrice the official number, with those uncounted numbers made up by the common workers and the poor. The exact number is of course not really that important to any adventurer, and few would ever ask. However, knowing a ballpark figure will help me in GMing the game.

The setting and atmosphere of the Guide to Korvosa are great, you really get a good feeling for the flavor of the city. However, I am having some problems accepting the numbers behind the scenes - and that makes it difficult for me to work with some of the content.

The city is only supposed to have about 18500 current inhabitants, which is not a huge amount, although it is good-sized for a city in medieval times. However, somehow, this population supports 700 full-time Korvosan Guard, and over 200 Sable Company, on top of the bureaucratic structure of the Magistrates, the King, the Arbiters, as well as having cash for expenditures for fantastic structures such as the Tower, the Ampitheater, etc.

Which community of 18500 people could afford all this? Assuming normal proportions, we are talking 10% of the active adult population is in the military, not to mention any of the other overhead. That's huge!

The problem also shows in the map. The number of buildings is hard to estimate, but I would guess 10000 is not unreasonable. Even with the underpopulation due to the Magnimar exodus, that's still only a few people per house - which is very low for a city. 10% of the city, i.e. let's say 2000, live in Bridgefront, 3 blocks of buildings averaging at least 3 stories high with the Shingles. If you look at the map, you're seeing at least several hundred buildings. So the poor are living in 3-story buildings at only 10 persons per building?

I'm wondering what reality checks and considerations were made to provide a basis for the economic structure of the city as it is described. Otherwise I feel the population should be increased by about a factor of 3 at least, and that's assuming the outlying holdings of Korvosa double that population number.