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I am considering a couple changes to Graveclaw, thought I'd post and ask if anyone had opinions on it. I also have only scanned it once or twice, and maybe I am missing a great part of the adventure, so if you think there is something I shouldnt "remove" I'd love to know about it.
First off I think 4 witches is way too much, my PCs would likely get bored by the third witch and begin to think of this as the witch campaign (not an undead campaign). So I am thinking I'll bring it down to 3 or less hags, as it might be a very long journey with 4 hags.
I am also feeling that the adventure doesnt really give a feel of Geb..
The first chapter with Iron Taviah in the forest, is a traditional trope haunted woods that could be anywhere.
The third chapter with Decrosia is a bit tech focused (guns, industry etc), and I get that its close to Alkenstar so that makes sense, I just feel my characters are excited about the undead not tech and gunslingers and its somewhat of a distraction.
The last chapter with Nathnelma in the necromancy school has tons of potential, I love the idea. I was somewhat disapointed to find its based outside Yeld and doesnt include quests in Yeld. I get why they did this as Yeld is a huge can of worms, but I would have preferred if the whole adventure focused on Yeld.
So one of my ideas is to move Nathnelma to corpselight so the school is outside of Farms of the living. Its close to GrayDirge, and what could be more exciting to navigate then Human/Elf farms. It seems like it might be something easy to homebrew (take a farm adventure and put humans in it). Who knows maybe my players want to free the farms, tons of potential for them to roleplay and not a ton of planning.
I might keep Iron Taviah and just play up the undead woods aspect a bit.
Anyone else feel like this adventure is a bit underwhelming for the setting, or have other ideas on how to make it feel more like an undead nation?
Edit - Having just read the synopsis of Adventure 5, I see that its in Yled. Maybe I should keep it in adventure 2 for foreshadowing.
I'm thinking about starting the campaign with a Monte python homage.
Intro scene, characters all work for berline. They are pushing a kart through a poorer area, ringing a bell, saying bring out your dead. Bring out your dead. When someone brings out a body that is not quite dead yet.
I'm thinking that berline reanimates anyone who dies in the city as a mindless zombie. It also got me to thinking.
Is there some item that ensures you reanimate as a better undead? With more willpower memories etc. It would be something a living person would like to have a blessing or something. If I ever come back, I'm not going to be a mindless zombie type of thing.
Just checking about this plan in zombie feast. It presents no problem to the majority of the population in the players home city because their undead and don't eat right? Or am I missing something here.
Wondering if this came up with any tables as most of my players will likely be undead and may root for the plan. I guess they will still jump the hoops as requested by Berline but i wonder if there's a way to change this
Is there a way for the plot to effect the undead? Anyone think about changing this?
Hi everyone, so I am beginning to plan the seeds of my next campaign. The campaign wont be for a few more months, and I have lots of time to plan the first couple adventures, and the BBEG. I want to foreshadow a bit in the first couple adventures. I don't want to necessarily plan and railroad the whole campaign, but I do want to have some cool ideas for foreshadowing. My players aren't really sandbox type players, the appreciate a good story, the ability to make some choices but expect to follow the planned idea generally.
The idea for my next campaign is to have Characters from a ten year old campaign affect in this one. It would be in the same area, of the same homebrew world.
So my old campaign from 10 years ago ended around 18th level with this ending story:
- A wizard turned into a lich, and took over a tower being served by undead.
- A druid battled another great druid (which used to be AD&D rules) and then took over his grove, with a unicorn and became a sort of "Tom Bombadil" Character. But the interesting part here is that his grove was next to the liches tower. They were friends and the druid thought that they could "live in peace". We've laughed as a group about this for years because the lich probably ended up killing the unicorn.
- A dwarven fighter became a king of dwarves under a mountain
- The cleric didnt really have an ending story, but I am considering he became a wandering judge and jury, bringing justice from his god.
So for my next campaign, I am considering using Strange Aeons.
Starting adventure: Players wake up within the walls of an asylum, their minds wracked and memories missing. As they work together to recover their missing time, they soon learn that the cause of their eerie amnesia is but a symptom of a much greater cosmic menace. As they struggle to retain their sanity, the heroes must ally with other asylum residents and fight against the monstrosities that have taken over the asylum and plunged it into nightmare. Some things I would add to the adventure are nightmares about unicorns and other fey chasing them.
Second adventure: The players go to their hometown to find out who they are and how they lost their memories. Following much of the same story line, except I would add fighting undead, fears of a nearby tower. Maybe even an old abandoned druid grove..
Third adventure: this may be where I depart from the path significantly or use bits and pieces. Perhaps they find out their minds were effected by some memory artifact that is effecting the whole region and the answers can be found in a dwarven mine.
This is all just my initial thoughts, and I am hoping you might be able to give me cooler ideas?
My ideas on whats happening and how it ties to the whole "Strange Aeons" campaign. Maybe the lich did kill the grove and the unicorn. Maybe the druid didn't give up on the lich though, and cast some spell trying to get him to remember the "old days" his "old self".
So if the druid was/is trying to save the Lich, maybe this memory spell or artefact was so strong it tore a whole in the "dream plane" and now people all over the world are having nightmares about unicorns dieing. Maybe the lich really is saveable? Maybe the dwarven army can help defeat him, or maybe the memory artefact is in the dwarven mine? Maybe the cleric can be the liches judge in the end? Should this be so far in the future that the old chars are dead, or is having pcs meet their prior selves cooler? I am undecided.
What do you think? I am not tied to strange aeons, but I do like cool path and it seems to fit. How would you make this cooler?
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Hi, I am hoping you can help me choose from a new(er) AP.
I haven't been back to Paizo in a while, I homebrewed my last couple campaigns after getting burnt out on kingmaker, but here I am again browsing APs that occurred after it.
I am looking for something a bit more straight forward, which doesnt take as much planning from me, I was interested in Giantslayer, but I am not sure if my players would be as interested in the same type of NPC for that long, so something varied would be great. While I like to challenge my players with some roleplaying, I find they like straight forward stuff as well, so anything overly bent towards non combat roleplaying I may have to skip or modify.
Also, I'd like an AP that is "easier to run". In the past I have purchased APs because I wanted to save on work. But with some APs they had so many NPCs, so much backstory, some much prose about the world altering plans of the BBEG, that after an hour I still wasn't sure what the adventure would be. I am wondering if there is an AP with a little less of this (but obviously not so simple that it is simply a few dungeon crawls tied togetger).
Is there an AP after kingmaker you would suggest I check out?
PS - my favourite AP pre kingmaker will always be age of worms, great starter town, standard lizard type adventure after that, then off to the free city to fight in an arena. And all pretty straight forward stuff the whole way too.
PPS - After some reading, and previewing... Strange Aeons sounds promising. Although maybe I am just a sucker for the starting hook
Hi,
I am starting a new campaign and I really like the first adventure of this path. Unfortunately my players are explicitly anti tech, and I want to tread lightly. I am considering modifying parts of the adventure or path, and looking for feedback from people who have read more of the campaign.
I have a player who wants to play the typical conan barbarian. In fact, he always worships "Crom" in our campaigns, and roleplays this quite well.
I am thinking a great start to one of our new campaigns, would be for them to start in a city where the fire of Crom has dies out. And he takes it as a sign from his god to turn it back on, delving into the dungeon and figuring out how to fix it.
It might also be cool if there was a new power in the world that is weakening Crom and he looks to fix it. Low tech, but no lasers of course.
Do you think squeezing this idea into Iron Gods is compatible or should I just modify a different adventure with my ideA?
Hi, I'm sort following skull and shackles but with some heavy modifications. I've incorporated a bit of savage tide as well as some other aps.
For my next adventure the pc's are traveling to a town Fishguts has advised will be a great a place to sell and trade their loot.
I am planning for that port to be under attack by cheliaxians when they arrive, and have the pc's intervene. Some encounters I am considering include:
-the pc's attacking a ship with ballista
-boarding a warship and defeating it
-chasing a fleeing ship
-attacking the advanced party of soldiers in the town
-being thanked as heroes by the town
-and most importantly finding a hook to lead them to the invaders base
I am fishing for some neat ideas to flesh this out a bit... does anyone have ideas or know of an adventure along the same line I could use for ideas? It doesnt have to be a naval adventure, as I am sure a "arrive in a town while it's being attacked" adventure would give me lots of ideas.
Hi everyone,
So tomorrow my players take over a pirate ship and sail for rickety squibs and or attack some coastal villages.
One of my players is a necromancer and will certainly want to have his skeletons perform a duty. The ship will also have some NPCs that volunteer to help.
What could undead do? I was thinking that they could be underneath "rowing" but thats not common in a pirate ship is it? Maybe security/initial boarding party as well?
Also, what are the general roles in a ship that you used?
Hi my campaign is transitioning into skull and shackles from another adventure. When we last left the adventure, the players were stranded on an island, where they lit a signal fire and a ship is coming to "Rescue them". I was thinking about using this as a transition to get their on boat.
Im thinking the ship is a cheliax ship, and they are coming to take the players prisoner. The players job is to overcome the ship. They are level 4, and one of our players is a necromancer who dreams of being a piratee with undead sailors. This would lead into ap book 2, with the players going to rickety squibbs.
So the question is how do I make this believable? I want to stay away from the prisoner/mutiny storyline. Would it be cheesey if it was relatively easy to take over the ship? How would you modify the story to be more interesting and believable?
So in my last post (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p685?Enemy-Race-or-Empire-in-the-shackles) we discussed having the player pirates have an enemy empire that they can be pirates against. I thought a good idea was using Cheliax, and modifying the setting a bit so that they held Port Peril as well were encouraging pilgrimage in small towns on the island. I don't see my players burning towns, raiding merchant ships and so on without an "evil enemy race", Cheliax serves well for that. I have also added in that in that the players small hometown was razed by the evil Chiliaxian empire. This should serve as a sufficient back story for the AP.
Some things need to be modified in the AP to do this. For example:
The first adventure worm wood mutiny makes a little less sense in this idea, I want pirates to be good rebels, not evil slavers. So instead my players were escaping their recently razed village by overcoming a merchant ship. They had a little diversion being stranded on an island (I used Souls from Smugglers Shiv) and they are now sailing to "rickety squibs" to get the merchant ship cleaned and painted so that it does not match a chelixian stolen ship to draw attention (they also brought a helpful former pirate with them).
The second adventure (raiders of the fever sea) works quite well. I will run it mostly as is. The part where they invade a fortress will be turned into a Cheliaxian fortress, and theres even a gem of an encounter where they have to avoid a cheliaxian warship.
Adventures 3 & 4 don't really seem to fit however (I only skimmed em). I don't know why my players would want to race in a "regatta" in, and I don't like the idea of a hurricane king so much as I want the focus to be on Cheliax.
Adventures 5 & 6 seem to fit right in though. Recruiting other pirates to there cause to defend against a looming invasion.
Anyone else modifying the AP like this. Got ideas on how to modify and any possible alternative adventures that might take the place of the Regatta?
Hi I am using the AP to run a sandbox style pirate campaign. I made my own first adventure, and at the end of our last session the players are on an island, and a ship is coming toward them (hopefully to rescue the players). I plan one having the ship full of an enemy race, so that the players have an encounter seize the ship and inherit their own pirate ship (they find a prisoner who will support them, show them the ways of the sea, etc). This will lead inyto Adventure 2 of Skull and shackles, they will go to port, fix their ship, and then go in search of plunder etc.
But one of the main differences I want to introduce into this AP is an enemy race or kingdom. Basically bad guys who have invaded a place the players hold dear, so that the player pirates can hunt down their ships, forts and loot them with glee.
I have read a bit of the AP and the campaign setting book and I have yet to find a likely candidate. Looking for maybe some foreign invaders who have attacked a place in the shackles and now the players can give em some revenge. Does anyone have suggestions that might fit well with the setting/campaign?
Looking over the campaign theres a few things I don't want to incorporate. I dont like the idea of the free captains, or a head pirate guy that they need to seek approval from. I'd rather them be on boats, hunting down "enemies", invading small towns, chasing great treasures (possibly in dungeons). So any advice on how to incorporate this AP into that theme would be welcome. Adventure 2 seems to fit pretty well. But the idea of racing in a "captains regatta" or setting dinner for other pirates not so much (although Im sure I can find a reason for them to do that.... maybe they need to impress other pirates to help them invade an enemy fleet?)
Anyone else got ideas like this or advice on how to modify without modifying too much?
Hi so, I have a weird idea for the start of a campaign and I thought the many creative people on this site could give me great some feedback.
First off, this campaign we are going to try something different, one of the players (who often dms), we all agree he makes amazing items, makes them come to life with the littlest of things, they cackle or glow or do neat things. Its what he does best. So him and I talked and I thought it would be neat if he played in my campaign but had a "power" where he could create items, like an artificer. So it would sort of be co-dming, only that would be his only area, and it would "make sense" in the story.
I also like weird starts to a campaign, heres what I was thinking.
Another high level party of adventurers is in a dungeon, they are looking for a powerful artifact that grants the wearer the ability to make magic items. Unfortunately the whole party save the necromancer named Leshrac dies in the dungeon from some poisonous monster. Leshrac revives his party, but unfortunately for some reason, it doesnt work... they are brought back to life, but they do not retain their memories, or skills, they are just level 1 adventurers who have an urge to follow Leshrac. Yep... thats my players. I know some of my players will find it cool Ill even play up how their arms were ripped apart and they have scars, one of my players will hope hes undead and be pumped to follow an undead wizard around.
Leshrac will mention that actually this is a good turn of events, more treasure for him. So he will order them to continue on, and in a couple rooms they meet a giant serpent that is protecting the artifact. They defeat the serpent but Leshrac dies at the end. The players are free, but dont know how to get out of this dungeon. After some hints from a note Leshrac has on him, they find the artifact, an arm that lets the wearer create magic items.
Im thinking of running this with the the first adventure of "serpents skull AP", smugglers shiv. The players escape the dungeon, battling low level serpent-people along the way (maybe leshrac just put them all to sleep instead of slaughtering them) only to find that the dungeon was on an island. How do they get off the island? build a boat, there is a lighthouse but it seems a cannibal tribe lives on it and they would have to be dealt with first.
This would be the story arc for the first 3-4 sessions. Revived by a necromancer, get a powerful artifact, escape the dungeon, find a way to get off the island/explore the island.
What do you think about this idea? Any ideas to flesh it out, or make it better? I know it's kind of railroady at first but I am less concerned about that as my players dont seem to mind that as long as it serves to make a good story. And of course it would only be the first bit of the first session that would be railroady.
Also one of my other players wants to be a necromancer.. so maybe he gets leshracs spell book or something. Or maybe leshrac comes back in some other form in the future, was he just using them all along? I donno :)
Just looking for some real gems in different APs.
My faves from the ones I ran
AOW - Champions Belt (or whispering cairn)
Rise of the Runelords - Sins of the saviours
Kingmaker - Varnhold Vanishing
Second Darkness - Armageddon Echo
I'm planning a campaign, and am considering stringing using adventures from different APs, so your suggestions may point me in the right direction :)
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