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I thought (keeping it general so as not to identify particular entries) that it would be interesting to post a thread focusing on things we're seeing in the better items that we wish some of the others entries could have done. I think most of this stuff is going to be equally important in the latter rounds as well. Name
Mojo/Wow Factor/Superstar
Active Voice
And so what things are you observing that the better items are doing? Best Regards
Hello Everyone, With less than a day before the big reveal, I thought I would post some “imagined” feedback that might help the top 32 sculpt their round two entries. It's a bit all over the place but it is based on feedback given in previous years that seems applicable to this new "Organization" round. I hope it helps; take out of it what you can. :) The Good:
The Bad:
The Ugly:
Feel free to add more good/bad/ugly comments and stuff that you think will help guide the top 32. Best Regards
The "create a new organisation" round seems a great way of getting the top 32 to flex their writing chops. It should really highlight those who are serious about making top 4 and give them a good opportunity to build some momentum at the start of the competition. I'm not too sure all of last year's top 32 made the most out of the "archetype" round; this year's top 32 round seems to give a little more creative room. What do you think? Best Regards
Background:
While I have played numerous computer games since Dungeons of Daggeroth on the TRS-80 and Dark Castle on my MacPlus through the decades, I have never played an MMO. I think I have always feared the time sink qualities of such games and avoided them. I wonder how many people are similar to me in this regard:
Is it possible for me to enjoy this experience too? Now you will have to excuse me because obviously my knowledge of MMO's is incredibly lacking. But is there a way that I as a player can contribute and be involved without the time dedication required in the "adventuring" component of the game? Could I for example: - Create "NPCs" that basically just "sit" in the village, township or city they live in? I don't control them, but I create their existence. Their stats are rolled (for example my NPC "Tom" has his stats randomly determined) and I the player through a character creation system work out that becoming a smith is his most suited occupation (you could have a very large number of occupations to choose from here). I set how he will work within the game, his alignment and react to different things (how he does his job as smith). For example, as part of his creation, he is apprenticed to a local smith within a particular town (the computer chooses the town most suitable in terms of population) and that is where he lives. - However, Tom the NPC smith produces things that adventurers and other NPCs require and so develops on his own but in symbiosis with the adventurers that need his services. The fun for me then becomes watching him develop over time (along with tens of other NPCs I have created). Some will not develop that much, but some may rise in status, becoming important cogs in the town (and possibly realm). - It would be fun to check in and see that Tom had levelled and the option was there to move him to his own smith in a different town. Perhaps a different NPC I created has been murdered by an adventurer and I get to put a bounty on the offending character's head? Perhaps another NPC has been upgraded to captain of the guard in such-a-such town and so on. Perhaps Tom the smith is the only one in his new town capable of crafting a particular item. Perhaps my mage is the only one capable of identifying a magical item that an adventurer has brought in? It would be fun to play with these tropes of the pathfinder game within the online MMO. - I understand that the OGL does not extend to computer games, but I'm sure you could do something for NPCs here that more closely follows the typical level 1 to 20 abilities of that Pathfinder game, than what you have planned for the MMO (and I can understand on both counts why the traditional MMO play needs to be quite different from what happens at the tabletop; this just allows a compromise for the dearth of people looking for something more closely tied to the pathfinder experience). I think this might be a neat way to hook in more of your paizo audience that wants to help create this online sandbox, without requiring the extreme time commitment of adventuring and typical MMOing. - Alternatively, as well as NPCs, perhaps I can also create monsters. Perhaps I can create a little tribe of goblins? Dependng upon their success against adventurers in their little pocket of the realm, I earn some sort of currency to then craft tougher monsters. Perhaps earning enough currency to introduce a dragon into the game. Is there anything that time poor me can do to add to the online Golarion world without having to commit to the time requirements of playing it to its fullest? Perhaps if you have two games in one in symbiosis; one for the PCs (hardcore MMO players), and one for the NPCs and Monsters (time poor but interested in bringing and developing Pathfinder to an online community), then you will have something for everyone and a unique experience in the MMO world. Is any of this possible? Best Regards
Hello Everyone, The following is what I have done that is slightly different and will hopefully provide a few ideas out there for other GMs (particularly the foreshadowing mentioned below). It took almost a year but I finally got my Kingmaker campaign started (and we are now three 10 hour sessions in). Like some other GMs, I knew my group would be looking to interact with the various goings on in Brevoy as well as the hexploration of the Stolen Lands. While my group would enjoy a sandbox, I also knew that they would need a few more directed vignette's along the way. However, reading through Haunting of Harrowstone (and now Rule of Fear), I could not help but thinking that super-imposing certain elements of Ustalav onto Brevoy could work (I have not specifically set this in Golarion and so have a little wriggle room in this regard). Of note is that I have selected the slow advancement track The PCs started out in Restov with an old Patron (Galhavrin) of theirs owning the charter and organising the party to attempt to map the area (with various conflicting political intrigue from the Swordlords of Restove in the background). The party consists of:
They have cleared out the Thorn River Bandit Camp as well as dealt with the Mites and Kobolds and so at this point, I have kicked the Haunting of Harrowstone into gear. They are visited at Oleg's trading post by Oleg's wife's (Svetlana's) uncle - Professor Petros Lorrimor. He has delivered a package from their patron Galhavrin which includes a nice little wand of cure light wounds (CL 5) and so with the great trust and friendship they have already developed with Oleg and Svetlana, that relationship has been quickly extended to the Professor as well. At this point the Professor plans two days travel north to go to his home of Ravengro (I've placed it halfway between Oleg's and New Stetven in Brevoy). However, they are alerted by a local hunter that bandits having set an ambush site along that road and so the PCs are easily encouraged to escort the Professor to Ravengro while trimming up the local bandit population at the same time. This has worked a treat, bandits have been despatched and the Professor arrives safely at his manse in Ravengro that second evening and the PCs are invited to stay over and meet his daughter (Svetlana's cousin) Kendra. That night however, each of the PCs suffers a particularly vivid dream/nightmare. :) ============[ Foreshadowing the Haunting of Harrowstone ]============ I think there has been some mention on a different thread regarding a poster's ideas regarding Blackwall Keep in the Age of Worms adventure path. I did foreshadowing then and I have done it again now with excellent effect - I could not be happier with the results. I have told the players to turn over their character sheets and proceeded to hand out the following five characters (each sheet produced in Hero Lab had an extensive background reading for each character): - Vance Saetressle (The Lopper)
Please note that I have made a handful of minor adjustments to make this all fit seamlessly:
The set is staged in a courtroom in New Stetven where the Lopper is sentenced to his short unreturning stay to Harrowstone by the judge. There is a small amount of interaction with some relatives of his last victim in the public gallery ("you note the young girl's eyes are the same as her mother's - your final headless victim"). The next scene involves a "tea" at the Hawkran Manor for the latest two inductees (Jerome and Eduardo) of the Harrowstone Brotherhood. The Warden and Vesorianna treat them to a civilized tea where he learns of their different backgrounds. Importantly he discusses with them the oath of the Brotherhood and why Harrowstone does what it does and the role it plays in the country at large. The bell sounds of the latest arrival (the Lopper) and the three of them leave Vesorianna to wait for the wagon carrying the prisoner - where they learn a few more things about the Lopper and his hideous crimes. The Lopper is taken in under guard to where the lift is. At this point the Warden invites one of the new guards down to the dungeon area while the other is "hazed" by having to load the returning lift with over thirty freshly delivered barrels of oil and provisions to be taken above. The Warden, two guards and Jerome the new prison guard go down to the dungeons via the lift where they are met by the hulking figure of Gurtis Vortch. Vortch takes the new guard Jerome and easily handles the completely cuffed Lopper as they take him to U4 where the oubliette is. However, also in that wing is the freshly moved Lopper (in preparation for his execution). Vortch torments the Lopper telling him that he normally breaks at least one leg when he throws someone into the oubliette to "start" their stay at Harrowstone. He dismissively thrusts the Lopper into the oubliette except the push is interrupted by the maximised empowered magic missile courtesy of the Splatter Man. A reflex save means the lopper is free on the ground and he quickly snatches the warden's keys. The splatter man quickly finishes off the new guard "Jerome" with another barrage of missiles while the Lopper unlocks his chains and discovers a masterwork dagger on Vortch. He also notices that Vortch is weakly trying to get up. Within a minute all the prisoners of that wing have been secretly unlocked from their cells while the Lopper has sawed off Vortch's head. At this point the prisoner's dash out of the ring but the Warden pulls the deadfall and the stalemate begins. Sort of. My player's had so much fun with this - even the player playing Jerome. They try to bargain their way out but this fails. Meanwhile Vesorianna has entered the prison wondering what the hell is going on. Now at this point the two player's playing the Lopper and Splatter Man devise a Hannibal-like plan where they wear prison uniforms (and faces), carrying the now-unconscious Warden. They plead with the guards above to send the lift down so they can escape - they are pretending to hold the other prisoners off with some sort of device. The lead officer upstairs rolls a 1 on his sense motive (I rolled everything in front of the players for this). The Splatter Man rolls a 20 on his bluff!!! Just one of those moments, so they are about to winch the lift down when Vesorianna who had not witnesses any of this runs in - guess's the situation and pulls the safety latch on the lift sending 30 barrel's of oil crashing over 80 feet down into the dungeon.
Below, the splatter man feels the full weight of the lift destroying his two legs, the Warden is similarly crushed while the Lopper with his good reflex save dodges out of the way (except for the wave from broken barrels of oil exploding over everything and everyone). At this point, all the PCs wake up and get up to look out of their windows where upon the hill... they see the distant shell that is the burnt out remains of Harrowstone prison. I left the game right there. From this point:
If I get the time and it is allowed, I will do up this Foreshadowing of Harrowstone in pdf form for other GMs to use as suits. I can thoroughly recommend doing something like this to really ratchet up the excitement and expectation of the adventure (which is seriously one of Paizo's best thus far). Best Regards
Hello Paizo, I received order 1664446 by USPS First-Class Mail and there is a small problem:
This Map Pack is excellent so if you could please charge me for this accidental addition. If you could also send me AP44 though, it would be much appreciated. Best Regards
Hello Everyone but specifically to the Top 32, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about you? Is this your first or fourth time entering? Do you have a website or blog I can look at? What do you do when not designing gaming stuff? What's it like to be in your shoes at the moment in the spotlight? Any really weird advice for those who didn't make it? Basically, I would like to know a little bit more about you. I'm really excited for you all and cannot wait to see what you design so I can do some serious voting. Best Regards
Hello, I have just added a Pathfinder Module Ongoing Subscription starting with The Godsmouth Heresy which has been placed in the sidecart awaiting my normal Adventure Path Subscription shipment. Is it possible to send The Godsmouth Heresy on its own now or as soon as possible rather than waiting for the next subscription shipment? I would love to be able to download the pdf soon. Thank you very much for your help. Best Regards
Hello Everyone, Now that I've happily completed my item, I thought I'd post a handful of things that I've learned through the process of trying to craft a wondrous item that may help fellow competitors. This is my first year contesting and so I've pretty much gone over every thread I could to work out what the judges want to see. I'm hoping like everyone that I've got something that will attract the judge's attention but realistically, I think it's going to be a struggle with so many strong performers entering. I hope the following helps: - Toughness. Making top 32 this year is going to be real tough. More than any other year, competitors have a good idea of what not to do. This means differentiating your item from the rest is more important than in previous years. - Focus. Have your item do a single thing and do it really well. Diluting an idea with extra "things" muddies the impression it gives the judges. If you need to add more things to your item to make it better, then it wasn't good enough in the first place and adding those extra elements is not going to change that. This should also keep your word count down. - Language. Neil gives some excellent advice for active versus passive voice in last year's Crystal Chalice of Dawnflower Dew thread as does Sean in auto-reject #10. If you have a look through some of the rejected items threads, you can see another important language issue that people were getting tripped on: clarity and concision. Suet-thick prose filled with lots of big words makes for terrible wondrous item reading (and more than likely reading in general). Yes this is fantasy. Yes this involves writing. But expressing in simple terms what your item does and what it looks like is best. Flowery/pretentious prose weakens more than strengthens a submission. Another element of language important for the contest is knowing the jargon in the core rulebook. Know and understand how certain elements are expressed and use that language in your own writing. - Elegance. This is the holy grail of design and is equally difficult to achieve. If you find your item has too many exceptions to too many rules, then you're kludging your entry with unneeded complexity. Elegant rules on the other hand present fewer corner cases and describe more situations with simple statements. This becomes more difficult when trying to break new ground with items that haven't been seen before. - Familiarity. If you are like me, you have become way too familiar with your item; you have lost the ability to freshly analyze it. Receiving feedback from just about anyone helps immensely. However, breaking your description down sentence by sentence really helps. Write out every question that the sentence answers with the answer it provides. This way, you directly see what your language is expressing. It will help you note gaps or confusion in rules application as well as where you have over-emphasized a particular element, or under-described another. It also highlights what is filler and what is essential. Be ruthless in cutting away the fat and stick to the meat of your description. - Be direct. In previous years, reading some rejected entries has been like wading through thickened soup trying to find out what the item actually does. Be direct and state with no confusion what your wondrous item does. This is the most important element in your description so make sure it's easy to find (usually right in the starting sentence) and simply expressed. If an item is weak sauce or not superstar material, doing this will feel a little awkward and exposed and thus be a good sign that your item is not up to scratch. Hiding it's purpose amongst the description is a sure sign your wondrous item is not superstar. At the same time, if you can't express the core of what your item does in one sentence, then perhaps the item is too complex or muddied in purpose. Anyway, I hope you find my experiences above of some use and best of luck everyone in capturing a top 32 spot. Best Regards
Hello Everyone, Just pondering which of all the wondrous items from past RPG Superstar competitions is your favorite? For me, it still has to be the Migrus Locker. As good as the creepy flavor is, it is the player and DM applications of this thing that keep you continually thinking. Simple item -> many uses seems the key. I also thought as a runner-up the Charts of the Shadow Voyage worthy of note in terms of flavour and visuals. And so what is your favorite? Best Regards
Hello Everyone, Any advice on the following would be appreciated. In regards to a magic item's requirements and from the core rules: "Certain requirements must be met in order for a character to create a magic item. These include feats, spells, and miscellaneous requirements such as level, alignment, and race or kind." The "miscellaneous requirements" are then expanded upon with some core rule magic items requiring the creator to have ranks in a skill as a requirement. Is it possible then to come up with a further style of requirement? Does this need to reflect the nature or capacity of the creator or could it be furthered to include a specific material or item? Could it even be furthered to require a particular process in the item's manufacture such as the tempering of the item's glass by a dragon's breath? I'd love to be daring with this project but I would not want such pushing of the envelope to transgress the line of auto-fail stupidity. Any thoughts appreciated. Best Regards
Hello Everyone, The Magus should be a class that seamlessly blends the arcane with the martial. However, what role can the magus play as part of an adventuring party? Are they meant to be in the thick of the action, or constantly skirting around melee to take down the biggest enemy threat with sporadic high damage attacks? I think if done right, the Magus should be capable of focusing on either or doing both somewhat admirably. However, right off the bat I have a disconnect with the nature of arcane study and the quick martial delivery of arcane effects through standard rather than spontaneous casting methods. The "feel" of the magus seems somewhat distorted - spontaneous casting ala the sorcerer or bard would seem to marry up far better with this concept rather than the awkward moonlighting study concept presented. Library expeditions for esoterica just does not mesh with a martialist in my opinion when the magic and the weapon-skill need to be as one. However if an intelligence based study version is required, what if the Magus "invests" arcane energy directly into their weapon to be accessed as appropriate. They study various rituals to imbue their weapon with a spell effect that may be accessed later, rather than being a half-weapon, half-casting two-"weapon" fighter? Such a ritualistic approach is the only way how I can make the Magus concept as presented work in my head in terms of roleplaying it. Otherwise it just feels like a fighter and a wizard bolted together rather than a true base class. Anyway, in terms of playtesting, this was the very first thing that struck me as awkward. I would prefer the "story" of the Magus to be either spontaneously arcane weapon dancing, or carefully invested rituals into the Magus's weapon; not a frankenstein of the two. Best Regards
Hello Everyone, I've been making plans for this adventure path and have come to the conclusion that a couple of my players would be "OK" with the start but they would not really appreciate the "placing the train upon the tracks" nature of the starting point. At first, I thought I'd just ratchet it back to the night before as the Jenivere crunches into the reef surrounding Smuggler's Shiv. But the more I got thinking about it, the more I thought a fuller prelude might be in order with the starting point being a murder mystery in the last port of call: Senghor. The aim here is to: - Get the PCs to know a little bit more about one another. The starting on the beach thing is excellent, but starting on board the Jenivere with poison coursing through your veins a little bit less so. A more passive start travelling through the canals of the Senghor metropolis allows for a more thorough build-up to the action to come. - It allows the PCs to see the 5 NPCs more in their natural environment. Aerys Mavato drinking herself into oblivion and getting into trouble; Gelik Aberwhinge regaling a tavern audience with tales of the latest ship to meet it's doom upon Smuggler's Shiv; Ishirou making strange dealings procurring an impressive (but disturbing looking) scroll case; Jask Derindi in the stocks awaiting his passage on board the Jenivere to Eleder to face his doom; Sasha Nevah being her mysterious but enigmatic self. I think this is important as it gives these NPCs a more immediate direction as well as a "relationship" with the PCs. - The murder mystery (of two of the Jenivere sailors) is a good start for 1st level PCs finding their way together and gives them a little XP to begin with (in exchange for the XP they would receive for changing the NPCs attitudes).
- I might place Smuggler's Shiv a little closer to Senghor so that there is less time between the murder mystery and the abandoning of the Jenivere near Smuggler's Shiv. I plan on having the Jenivere be wrecked a little further out so that accessing the ship is more difficult from the Shiv.
- I'm going to get to work on the map so that traversing certain parts of the Shiv are more difficult. Beaches are broken up by cliff faces stretching out into the surf meaning that access to other parts of the island need to be made by scaling the cliff tops to the Jungle above. Other parts of the Jungle will be near impassable (and particularly dangerous with the plant life taken out of the Heart of the Jungle book - how good is that supplement!). Having some massive undefeatable dinosaur upon the Shive might be interesting too. In this way, the island is discovered in a more metered way with different revelations propelling the story and PCs forward. - With the extra XP they have gained, I will most likely be more aggressive with the cannibals making the PCs have to defend themselves more so. Evidence of the cannibal’s behaviour (ritually eaten carcasses) will be hopefully confused but eventually differentiated from the Red Mountain Devil. - Meeting up with the NPCs should be quite interesting - they will have made a makeshift camp further down the map. How they react will depend very much on their interactions with the NPCs thus far. They might ally or they might be aloof. Perhaps there are secrets they know that they may reveal if made friendly. I enjoy having NPCs like this to play with - they become excellent role-playing vehicles. - Of further interest is:
* Ishirou's scrollcase being washed upon on the beach to be discovered by the PCs. They discover inside numerous "treasure maps", one of which they hopefully work out is upon this very island - the treasure pit. How this plays out with Ishirou when they finally meet up with the NPCs might be very interesting. * Needing a craft to make it to the Jenivere when the seas are calm (otherwise the danger of being thrown onto the reef is too great). * A mysterious box in the hold of the Jenivere (although now, the hold has become a home to a CR 5 Bluetip Eurypterid. * Having Jask either tagging along if the PCs need the help or more than likely having a bad infection claim his leg (boot soup or something). This means that he will have to wait in a secured psuedo-cave in one of the cliff faces. Jask will be good for some divinations augmenting the nightmares the PCs will suffer. He will claim things as either good or bad juju producing a range of weird juju fetishes in his tiny cave. * Introducing a volcano onto the Shiv. It might not do much (except perhaps augmenting the physical effect of the tidestone) but it certainly adds to the Jungle/Lost world feel. Anyway, I thought I'd present this to everyone here for possible ideas and suggestions and to discuss alternative ways of starting the adventure path. As further instalments are released, there might be more ways of tying things together foreshadowing and enriching the interactivity between the different instalments. Best Regards
Hello Everyone, I'm just looking for a few ideas here for changing around the dynamic of the Stolen Land module - mainly introducing a "Bartertown"-like bandit village to add some role-playing depth to the bandit interactions. I'm looking at starting the first module a season back to when the Stag Lord arrives to claim the Tuskwater Fort. Effectively, the relationships would be:
I think by introducing a bandit war, it gives the PCs a little more space to choose how they will react to the various bandits in the Greenbelt. As long as it provides a shade of grey rather than "kill all bandits except for the cranky ex-paladin", then I'll be happy. With maybe a couple of other pockets of Bandit groups, I think this provides a suitable change from the exploring mentality that encompasses the majority of the module. So anyway, any suggestions for Bartertown/Haven?
I think there are many places you can take this, all rich in fun and depth for the PCs to chew on. If you can help me round this out with some suggestions, it would be hugely appreciated. Help me bring Bartertwon/Haven alive. Best Regards
Hello Everyone, How do the bandits of the Greenbelt make a living? Where do they go to perform their banditry (aside from poor Oleg's)? I understand they venture North into Rostland but that's a fair way away. Is there anywhere else south or west that is an easy enough target? Surely lone bandits would suffer a terrible fate in the greenbelt dying in the jaws of some worg or somesuch. So do they perform expeditions grouping together in significant multiples? Where to though and perhaps they have boltholes or safecamps within the boundaries of Rostland? I suppose I'm trying to get a solid idea of how the bandits work as I'm looking at starting my Kingmaker campaign slightly differently to how it is written. I'm thinking of starting the campaign from an earlier point on the timeline: - Having the PCs assist Oleg in establishing the outpost (Oleg already deals with many of the hunters and trappers and even bandits).
And thus the question becomes, what do the bandits have to rob aside from poor Oleg's and each other? Best Regards
Hello Everyone, The Kingmaker adventure "path"/sandbox has gotten me absolutely pumped in terms of DMing again for our group (we are a group of 6 DMs and 1 player). I plan to run it in a few months when our current campaign has a break. However, I have a few issues with the "story" setup that I need to resolve so if you can help - please add your thoughts and experiences. The charters presented to the PCs in the first and particularly the second module seem overly "nice" to me.
I suppose these are only small issues, but I know for my group who play a gritty hardball game, these elements would be issues that in the end will dampen versimilitude for them. How has your group resolved these "issues" or alternatively, have they not worried about such things? Best Regards
PS: My rough plan to get bolster this is as follows. It means a greater interest in Brevoy politics but I think that would be a fun addition to the Kingmaker campaign. - The original charter to the "stolen lands" was owned by one of the Houses (perhaps House Lebeda). It basically said that they owned the stolen lands in perpetuity. However, seeing the non-profitability of the venture after several colonising attempts, they decided to desolve the original charter into four separate charters that they could sell off to interested buyers or possibly as alliance favours.
I have further ideas but this is the basis for the moment. I'm obviously waiting for the entire path to be revealed before setting things in stone.
Hello Guys, I have several orders that are waiting in my sidecart as well as a new one just placed. I was wondering if you could ship them all together as soon as possible? I'm looking at:
I understand that you are moving and I hope all goes well in the new place. If you can charge my card (giving me access to the AP pdfs) and send the above as soon as possible, it would be really appreciated. Best Regards
Hello Friendly Folk at Paizo, This one might be a little complicated but if you can help me out, I'd really appreciate it. I have recently made the following orders: #1215800
#1215971
#1224102
I received notice today that the Core Rulebook has shipped - so thank you very much! :) Now shipping for me to Sydney Australia is close to USD40 a pop so if there is anything you could do to help me out here, it would be really appreciated. What I would like is to:
Obviously the less I can spend on shipping, the happier my wife and thus the more I can spend on Pathfinder products. If this is going to be too awkward, then that's cool too - just hoping you guys can help. My second query is in regards to getting a free pdf of the Core Rulebook. I purchased the core rulebook as a standalone (order #1215800) but have since (order #1224102) gone for the subscription - even though it starts with the bestiary. Is there anything you can do to wrangle this around? Best Regards and thanks for any help you can send my way.
Hello Everyone, I have no idea if this has been mentioned or not so here it goes. One of the things I liked about playing a 4E Cleric (one of our regular group ran a 4E one-off) was the ability to help an ally as well as do something else during a turn. As it stands in 3.5/Pathfinder for a cleric, the usual role is to make a decision each round as to whether to help an ally or to have a dig yourself. If certain curing spells/blesses/prayers/group buffs could have their casting time changed from a Standard Action to a Move Equivalent, I have a feeling that the burden on playing a cleric could be lessened. Perhaps a new selection of spells that do this could be crafted. I would still maintain the personal buff spells/attack spells as a standard action. What are your thoughts? Does it make the already powerful Cleric too powerful? Best Regards
I was just wondering what (official or otherwise) knowledge we have of Irori to date. I've plucked out the following but is there anything else around? Standard Information:
Other references:
From the Blog:
Best Regards
Hello Everyone, My group have just chased Ilthane off, she has been sent with tail firmly between hindlegs getting blasted by maximised and empowered lightning bolts. I believe she would fly back to her lair, feeling seriously outmatched by the group. However, my PCs intend to blast her out of her lair or wherever she has gone. What would you do? I'm not too sure I'm keen to send the PCs into her lair at their present level. I'm not too sure whether to change the status of what's happening there either (I was intending a year's downtime between the 6th and 7th modules with the Age of Worms temporarily averted by the PCs at the Champion's Games). What would you suggest? Best Regards
Hello Everyone, Due to a large group and some interesting augmented story elements, my PCs killed Lord Raknian along with Bozal Zahol down in the Kyuss Shrine as they were preparing the final sacrifices before its release on the morrow. The Ulgurstasta remains unreleased deep below the arena and the PCs are due to fight Auric's Warband (it currently being just after midnight going into the final day). My timeline for tomorrow's "planned" festivities is the final fight at dusk (6:00pm) after a day of preliminary events. However with Lord Raknian and Captain Okaral missing, as well as Lord Smenk (the manager of Auric's Warband to boot), I'm thinking the PCs are going to find themselves on the end of a harsh inquisition. With the support Raknian would have in Greyhawk, I'm thinking legal action of some nature might be in store. A situation where the group has to talk there way out of what will be "made" to look like cold-blooded murder and an attempted cover-up. Any ideas as to how to finish off what has been an exceedingly enjoyable 5th module for my group? Best Regards
Hi Everyone, I was just wondering what other DMs have done to introduce downtime into the adventure path? Obviously, between adventures but what about during the actual modules. What have you done to each of the modules to give your wizards and crafters extra time to put spells into spellbooks and craft items? Best Regards
Hi Everyone, I was just wondering what caused the split between Allustan and Tenser (Manzorian)? There are hints here and there but nothing substantial.
Best Regards
Hi Everyone, There have been several requests for an errata thread but understandably, the Dungeon staff have plenty on their plate bringing out new stuff rather than revising old stuff. As such, I thought I'd start this thread to help everyone out (and I'll then start up individual threads for each of the other modules). Feel free to post on this thread - if it is to work, it needs as many people posting as possible. There are several areas that I think are worth covering:
If there is anything else you think this thread should be doing, post it and I'll edit this post. Remember, the aim of this is to have a lot of useful information in the one place - a Whispering Cairn Compendium so to speak. Soon I will collate all the responses into a single post to post up later. We'll see how this goes. Best Regards and Looking Forward to Your Responses
Hi Everyone, I was just wondering on some advice hunting down some resources suitable for the Age of Worms adventure path. In particular any details or maps of the Greyhawk, Diamond Lake, Cairns region that I can purchase would be appreciated. As I am more after fluff than crunch, any edition that I can purchase online would be cool. As we are finishing off the current campaign, I won’t be starting this with my group until mid to late December so I have a good amount of preparation time up the sleeve. On an additional note, if you have already done a chunk of the adventure path, is there anything that you would have done differently or perhaps set up at the outset if you had have had the opportunity? What would you have developed if you could go back in time so to speak? The five players have already decided on characters as follows:
As I am a DM who is big on little details (with a group of players of like mind), I was not overly happy with how the module starts the ball rolling. As such, I was planning the following (comments or further ideas would be appreciated too): - The Whispering Cairn is actually not well known at all. Details of it have in fact been lost, although obviously some people have made contact with it – and almost all of them have paid with their lives.
Actually, I’m pretty sure they won’t so here we go:
What the PCs will find in the bag are several maps... including one penned by Ulavant himself detailing a smudge high in the Cairn Hills with the words “Whispering Cairn” next to it. These details are obviously different to the other maps in the backpack. In addition is a note detailing the directions as well as a small wooden box containing a nice fat diamond that has obviously been used as payment. Carelessly forgotten by Khellek though is an eight-pointed star printed on the underside of the cloth wrapping the diamond in its box. I figure this should motivate the PCs to investigate what all the fuss is about. With a week’s holiday in front of them, a trip to the Whispering Cairn should soon be organised by the group and upon the path they go. If you guys have any further ideas or suggestions, I’d love any and all help and assistance. Best Regards
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