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Have you ever considered just answering questions without lashing out at your customers and assuming that they have nefarious intentions? A simple "I don't know the spell, can't comment," would have been A+.If something doesn't work for your game because you feel it's too powerful (or not powerful enough), then don't use it in your games. Let your players KNOW though as soon as you make that decision.
If this is a complaint about a spell making organized play games less fun for you, you should talk to the org play folks.
If you're trying to provide feedback on rules or asking for an "official ruling" then you need to do so in the rules forums and/or in the product that published that spell int he first place.
The vast majority of my answers don't lash out at customers or assume nefarious intentions, but after answering tens of thousands of questions on this thread, I've been hit enough times by gamers who DO hide their actual intentions and are looking to twist my words or use my rulings as bludgeons to get their way in their games against their GMs to be wary about it.
I've answered "I don't know the spell, can't comment" (or the equivalent) plenty of times, but when I see someone phrase a question in a way that I interpret as being accusatory or hostile (and a hyperbolic statement like "most controversial spell in the game" qualifies as both to me, since that reminds me of how worked up and angry gamers, be they customers or friends or co-workers, get over things like, say, snowball), I reflexively assume that they're up to something. I suppose that's part of the price the world has to pay for me putting myself out there and being so obsessed with answering questions here.
If I hurt someone's feelings or angered them with my reply, I apologize. But that said, if you don't like how I answer questions, you don't have to read my answers or ask questions of your own. I understand that I'm not likely to be able to be everyone's friend, and I'm at peace with that.
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Hi James,
I know you have said in the past that witch patrons are more like concepts and ideas than entities, but:
Could Baba Yaga ever act as a witch patron? Has she ever?
The use of the word "patron" as a witch's focus is, to a certain extent, an unfortunate choice on our part.
Unlike clerics, witches don't have a "boss" that they have to associate with. A witch's patron is more akin to a student's area of study or college major, or a scholar's subject of specialization than it is an actual "patron" (using the real-world definition of the word).
You'll note that all the patrons are not actually people or things but ideas and concepts. We don't have a patron named "Gozreh," for example—we have things like "anmials" and "elements" and "water."
As such, no, Baba Yaga wouldn't ever act as a witch patron. But a witch could absolutely choose as her patron one that puts her area of focus in line with things that Baba Yaga represents.
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The use of the word "patron" as a witch's focus is, to a certain extent, an unfortunate choice on our part.
Unlike clerics, witches don't have a "boss" that they have to associate with. A witch's patron is more akin to a student's area of study or college major, or a scholar's subject of specialization than it is an actual "patron" (using the real-world definition of the word).
You'll note that all the patrons are not actually people or things but ideas and concepts. We don't have a patron named "Gozreh," for example—we have things like "anmials" and "elements" and "water."
James,
This seems oddly contradictory to the witch flavour text:
Some gain power through study, some through devotion, others through blood, but the witch gains power from her communion with the unknown. Generally feared and misunderstood, the witch draws her magic from a pact made with an otherworldly power. Communing with that source, using her familiar as a conduit, the witch gains not only a host of spells, but a number of strange abilities known as hexes. As a witch grows in power, she might learn about the source of her magic, but some remain blissfully unaware. Some are even afraid of that source, fearful of what it might be or where its true purposes lie.Here are two other important quotes:
This patron is a vague and mysterious force, granting the witch power for reasons that she might not entirely understand. While these forces need not be named, they typically hold influence over one of the following forces.By forging strange bonds with unnameable beings, witches gain the service of a mystical adviser, a familiar to both serve her and reveal to her secrets unknown to most mortals.So witches do "study" because their familiar teaches them magic, but their familiar is granted power through the patron, correct?
What is the "pact" made with this otherworldly source? How is it a pact if the witch...
The contradiction you note is precisely the thing I want to some day clear up. Frankly, I'd like witches to be more like "arcane clerics" in that they have to adhere to a set of specific studies and rituals and what not determined by their patron, and if they go against these studies they become ex-witches. But there's no mechanic in the class to account for this, so for now it's all vague and confusing. It's kinda sloppy in its execution, alas, and that means that when you start getting pedantic or dig too deep into the actual meaning of words, you find holes in the concept that should be patched.
Handle it how you wish in your game. In games I run, if and when I ever have one with a PC witch, I might try out a system where when you pick a patron, you don't pick a thing like "elements" or "winter" but instead pick an actual PATRON like Baba Yaga, Nocticula, Nex, Black Butterfly, the Oliphaunt of Jandelay, King Mogaru, or whatever. I like the idea of a patron being anything powerful who has a stat block (aka no full-on deities, and nothing that's under CR 20... or mabye even nothing under CR 26.)
(makes a note to get all meddlesome when and if work on a witch class picks up for 2nd edition...)
Dear James Jacobs,
Can I still get a 1st edition PF Skald in a 2nd PF game? Also, and pardon me for going beyond one question, what would you say has been the best thing about doing roleplaying games for others?
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Dear James Jacobs,
Can I still get a 1st edition PF Skald in a 2nd PF game? Also, and pardon me for going beyond one question, what would you say has been the best thing about doing roleplaying games for others?
I'm not sure what you mean by "get a 1st edition PF Skald in a 2nd PF game" means. If you're asking me to reveal the presence or absence of a skald class in the core rules (and if not there, when), I can't say yes or no at this point at all. Have patience and stay tuned.
The best thing about doing roleplaying games for others is that I've helped bring fun and joy and entertainment and inspiration to far more people than I could have on my own.
I deeply enjoyed chatting with you briefly at PaizoCon, but that aside...
Which NPC (that you remember) is your favorite from Red Hand of Doom?
Hi James, I just heard about Tyrant's Grasp and now I'm all excited and my gears are turning.
If I wanted to start forshadowing TG in the next couple adventure paths I'm running (CotCT & WotR), would you have any recommendations for how to set up Tar Baphon as the BBEG and maybe some other exciting themes or elements we can expect in the adventure?
Also, not just for Tar Baphon but for all liches, is there any way to prevent phylacteries from being kept on the astral plane or other similarily impossible to find locations? I understand that liches are supposed to be essentially immortal, but the most logical location for them to keep their phylacteries is also the least interesting on a thematic level.
I understand that some RPG systems make it so the phylactery must be easilly on hand, but pathfinder doesn't have those requirements.
Hi James,
I'm curious about the munavris down in Orv; they're very similar to the drow in a lot of ways, and where they are different, they are often total opposites.
Were they intentionally designed to be the drow's "good" counterpart?
I'd appreciate any sort of insights you can give on the design decisions behind the munavris, really.
There are a LOT of stories that work better as stand-alone adventures (be they 64 page adventures or 256 pages or whatever). The "Kill the Dragon" plot is the classic one, and is a good example of a plot we rejected for an AP and instead used for a stand-alone adventure ("The Dragon's Demand").James,
I've noticed that 5th editions adventures are usually single hardcover books. In my experience they can feel quite different to pathfinder adventure paths. The paths have more of a series/season feel. There is a conclusion at the end of each book and a couple of storylines across the whole path. The 5e books feel more like a movie with a singular theme and one resolution point.
Have the design team rejected concepts that you dont think would mesh with your 6 part adventure path format? If so can you tell us more about the ideas.
Thanks for that. Can I ask if Paizo has examined doing stand alone adventures longer than 64 pages? And if so what were the arguments against doing so?
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I deeply enjoyed chatting with you briefly at PaizoCon, but that aside...
Which NPC (that you remember) is your favorite from Red Hand of Doom?
Hmmm... the hobgoblin bard is a strong contender, if only because I've heard that she used her bard tactics to wreck a lot of parties. Ha.
But then again, Tiamat's pretty awesome.
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Hi James, I just heard about Tyrant's Grasp and now I'm all excited and my gears are turning.
If I wanted to start forshadowing TG in the next couple adventure paths I'm running (CotCT & WotR), would you have any recommendations for how to set up Tar Baphon as the BBEG and maybe some other exciting themes or elements we can expect in the adventure?
Consider running Return of the Runelords, since it has elements that specifically foreshadow Tyrant's Grasp.
Carrion Crown is also a good prequel to Tyrant's Grasp.
Tar-Baphon doesn't really fit well into Curse of the Crimson Throne or Wrath of the Righteous. I wouldn't shoe-horn him into either of those, to be honest.
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Also, not just for Tar Baphon but for all liches, is there any way to prevent phylacteries from being kept on the astral plane or other similarily impossible to find locations? I understand that liches are supposed to be essentially immortal, but the most logical location for them to keep their phylacteries is also the least interesting on a thematic level.
I understand that some RPG systems make it so the phylactery must be easilly on hand, but pathfinder doesn't have those requirements.
If you make the phylactery impossible to find, you're basically making the lich impossible to defeat, and that will (rightfully) annoy and aggravate your players. Don't do this.
If you want in-world justification for why a phylactery needs to be relatively accessable to a lich, use some of the vampire lore (and their dependency on their coffins or native soil)—they need it close because if it's too far away, they start to weaken.
Alternately, you could set up an adventure that has the PCs first tracking down the phylactery and destroying it and THEN racing against the clock to destroy the lich before he can craft a replacement.
The point of the phylactery is to add a level of complexity to liches... not to give GMs an excuse to never let the PCs win a fight, after all.
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Hi James,
I'm curious about the munavris down in Orv; they're very similar to the drow in a lot of ways, and where they are different, they are often total opposites.
Were they intentionally designed to be the drow's "good" counterpart?I'd appreciate any sort of insights you can give on the design decisions behind the munavris, really.
They were intentionally designed to be a good-aligned Darklands race. There are none otherwise, so it was a niche that needed representation. My original take on them was that they were basically psychic swashbucklers who sailed the underground seas and wore armor made of jade. Nothing there really sets them up as "opposite drow" really... but the actual development of the munavri beyond my original invention of them in Into the Darklands was handled by other authors on books I didn't develop, so I'm not 100% familiar with their history or role these days.
But as originally concepted, no, they were not meant to be a specific counterpart to the drow.
...Handle it how you wish in your game. In games I run, if and when I ever have one with a PC witch, I might try out a system where when you pick a patron, you don't pick a thing like "elements" or "winter" but instead pick an actual PATRON like Baba Yaga, Nocticula, Nex, Black Butterfly, the Oliphaunt of Jandelay, King Mogaru, or whatever. I like the idea of a patron being anything powerful who has a stat block (aka no full-on deities, and nothing that's under CR 20... or mabye even nothing under CR 26.)
(makes a note to get all meddlesome when and if work on a witch class picks up for 2nd edition...)
Yes, please! In fact, that reminds me of how a lot of real-world witches operate.
Onto questions...
How would a witch directly interact with their patron? And would it be possible to gain spells some other way then besides a familiar?
So, I'm working on making an add on to an existing adventure path, essentially adding a final part from lv 17 to lv 20, taking inspiration from D&D's Tomb of Annihilation.
The premise is that there will be an artifact that uses souls as fuel and prevents all souls from joining the river of souls.
My question is, what kind of retaliation would you expect from the psychopomps or Pharasma herself for the activation of such an extreme and powerful artifact and are there any other organizations/ outsiders that would likely get involved?
At 17th to 20th level, the retalliation and involvement should be significant. If I were to put a storyline like this into play, I'd have Pharasma use an avatar to contact the PCs and enjoin them to step in to destroy the artifact, and perhaps give them some powerful psychopomp-flavored aid... but I'd also have something in effect that prevents psychopomps from directly handling the situation. That job should be for the PCs.
This is exactly the structure i've used to continue Rise of the Runelords to level 20. Made very easy in our case due to having an Inquisitor of Pharasma in the party. Lots of scope for epic tales, planar travel, hobnobbing with Outsiders and so on. Which at those levels is needed given the massive firepower your PCs will have.
You might want to check out the Witchwar Legacy, which is straightforward to retro-fit to a soul-stealing type story. And contains all sorts of Greg Vaughan-designed encounters, he's brilliant when it comes to unique challenges and forcing the PCs to use their heads as well as their damage output.
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How would a witch directly interact with their patron? And would it be possible to gain spells some other way then besides a familiar?
With the current rules they can't. You can't "interact" with a concept like agility or deception or trickery. That's what I'm trying to say is awkward about how the patron system currently works.
I love the fact that their familiars store their spells and wouldn't want that to change.
If I had all the power, a witch would select a theme (like now) but would also then have to pick a specific entity to be the actual patron. And then her familiar becomes a sort of ambassador between herself and her patron, bringing her power from her patron in return for her study and focus on the patron. They'd end up being religious scholars to an extent. And then they could use spells like contact other plane or commune or whatever to directly interact with their patron... or simply seek said patron out and hope that they can secure an audience if they wanna chat.
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Between Geb and Tar-Baphon, who would win in a fight if they were both at the height of their powers.
Depends on a lot of factors. Tar-Baphon is more powerful than Geb, but that by no means ensures success (if dozens of adventure paths in which the PCs are less powerful than all the big bad end guys yet still tend to win the day is any indication).
For me, it'd depend 100% on what sort of story I wanted to tell and not at all on rules.
So, about those wacky Vancaskerkins...
Is there no end to way in they appear capable of screwing things up for themselves and those around them?
I'm planning to run WotR while maintaining the majority of mythic as written, but I prefer my campaigns have higher risk and I've heard mythic knocks that option out...
Currently I'm thinking of halving the number of tiers I hand out but I'm not sure if that's the right answer. I guess my question is, how would you include mythic so your players get to feel powerful and epic while maintaining a sense of high risk.
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I'm planning to run WotR while maintaining the majority of mythic as written, but I prefer my campaigns have higher risk and I've heard mythic knocks that option out...
Currently I'm thinking of halving the number of tiers I hand out but I'm not sure if that's the right answer. I guess my question is, how would you include mythic so your players get to feel powerful and epic while maintaining a sense of high risk.
The way Mythic plays out more or less turns the genre of the game from fantasy to superhero. If you're looking for something with more risk, try running Wrath of the Righteous WITHOUT giving the PCs mythic tiers.
That said, I would suggest that instead of giving out 10 tiers, give out 1 tier at the end of book 1, one at the end of book 3 one at the start of book 5, and then maybe 1 in the middle of book 6. And stay open to speeding or slowing the tier rate as you see fit as things play out in your game.
What is the best paizo forum for posting articles?
Thanks for that. Can I ask if Paizo has examined doing stand alone adventures longer than 64 pages? And if so what were the arguments against doing so?There are a LOT of stories that work better as stand-alone adventures (be they 64 page adventures or 256 pages or whatever). The "Kill the Dragon" plot is the classic one, and is a good example of a plot we rejected for an AP and instead used for a stand-alone adventure ("The Dragon's Demand").James,
I've noticed that 5th editions adventures are usually single hardcover books. In my experience they can feel quite different to pathfinder adventure paths. The paths have more of a series/season feel. There is a conclusion at the end of each book and a couple of storylines across the whole path. The 5e books feel more like a movie with a singular theme and one resolution point.
Have the design team rejected concepts that you dont think would mesh with your 6 part adventure path format? If so can you tell us more about the ideas.
Did you miss my above question with it being written so close to one your answers or does it hold 'closely guarded unmentionable secrets' TM.
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What is the best paizo forum for posting articles?
None really. These forums are for conversations, not for posting entire articles. We don't host a spot on this website that publishes articles. The closest we get would be blog posts and web supplements and the like, and those are pretty much all done by us in-house.
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Thanks for that. Can I ask if Paizo has examined doing stand alone adventures longer than 64 pages? And if so what were the arguments against doing so?Did you miss my above question with it being written so close to one your answers or does it hold 'closely guarded unmentionable secrets' TM.
I missed it.
I would LOVE to do more adventures that are longer than 64 pages, and yes we have examined doing this. We've published one already—Emerald Spire (which is a big hardcover), and the upcoming playtest adventure, "Doomsday Dawn," is 96 pages long.
Going forward, adventures are going to be a more regular and stable offering, and they will, if I get my way and Erik gets his way, periodically be larger than 64 pages. How much larger? As large as they need to be while also being something we can handle on our production schedule.
How would a witch directly interact with their patron? And would it be possible to gain spells some other way then besides a familiar?With the current rules they can't. You can't "interact" with a concept like agility or deception or trickery. That's what I'm trying to say is awkward about how the patron system currently works.
I love the fact that their familiars store their spells and wouldn't want that to change.
If I had all the power, a witch would select a theme (like now) but would also then have to pick a specific entity to be the actual patron. And then her familiar becomes a sort of ambassador between herself and her patron, bringing her power from her patron in return for her study and focus on the patron. They'd end up being religious scholars to an extent. And then they could use spells like contact other plane or commune or whatever to directly interact with their patron... or simply seek said patron out and hope that they can secure an audience if they wanna chat.
I was referring to how you'd do things in the new edition, but the big paragraph answered that.
Would it be possible to have...humanoid familiars? Advanced Familiar permits any outsider (like tieflings and aasimar), right? That could stay the same in the new edition. More importantly, some notably intimate patrons could make animal familiars problematic. Plus there's simply not wanting to have to have a pet, even if it's a adorable fuzzy jumping spider.
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How would a witch directly interact with their patron? And would it be possible to gain spells some other way then besides a familiar?With the current rules they can't. You can't "interact" with a concept like agility or deception or trickery. That's what I'm trying to say is awkward about how the patron system currently works.
I love the fact that their familiars store their spells and wouldn't want that to change.
If I had all the power, a witch would select a theme (like now) but would also then have to pick a specific entity to be the actual patron. And then her familiar becomes a sort of ambassador between herself and her patron, bringing her power from her patron in return for her study and focus on the patron. They'd end up being religious scholars to an extent. And then they could use spells like contact other plane or commune or whatever to directly interact with their patron... or simply seek said patron out and hope that they can secure an audience if they wanna chat.
I was referring to how you'd do things in the new edition, but the big paragraph answered that.
Would it be possible to have...humanoid familiars? Advanced Familiar permits any outsider (like tieflings and aasimar), right? That could stay the same in the new edition. More importantly, some notably intimate patrons could make animal familiars problematic. Plus there's simply not wanting to have to have a pet, even if it's a adorable fuzzy jumping spider.
Keep in mind that I'm not on the design team for 2nd edition. While I'll certainly be advising and developing and editing the new edition, whether or not my preferences for decisions get into print is not solely up to me, so don't take any of what I'm saying here for a "preview."
Familiars, in my opinion, are not well served as humanoids. They work better and look better and play better as little critters. Improved Familiar (which is what I'm assuming you're talking about when you say "Advanced Familiar") in the current edition allows for a spellcaster to gain a specific outsider that is allowed to serve as a familiar—these are specified in the individual monster entries for things like quasits or imps or pseudodragons or whatever. Improved Familiar doesn't let you pick anything you want.
If instead you're talking about something else ACTUALLY called "Advanced Familiar" then I don't know what your'e talking about, to be honest.
Once something gets to be something that has a significant impact in combat in size and power, it crosses the line from familiar into something better served by mechanics like Animal Companions, Eidolons, or the Leadership feat.
Your use of the word "intimate" with emphasis of italics combined with the nature of many of your previous questions here suggests to me that you're asking if we'll ever publish rules for a character to get a familiar that they can have sex with, and the answer to that is no. That's not something we do. If you want sex-slave familiars you'll need to work that out with your GM. And I'd hope that if you do, your entire table consents to having such adult content in your game.
Thank you for the thorough answer (and yes, I meant Improved Familiar), but:
If you want sex-slave familiars you'll need to work that out with your GM. And I'd hope that if you do, your entire table consents to having such adult content in your game.
Who said anything about slavery? Or not talking things out with other players? Way to pre-judge me. ): Why do you often assume the worst?
I apologize for making you uncomfortable, but given how mature topics were brought up in Paizo products that it'd be okay to talk about.
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Thank you for the thorough answer (and yes, I meant Improved Familiar), but:
If you want sex-slave familiars you'll need to work that out with your GM. And I'd hope that if you do, your entire table consents to having such adult content in your game.Who said anything about slavery? Or not talking things out with other players? Way to pre-judge me. ): Why do you often assume the worst?
I apologize for making you uncomfortable, but given how mature topics were brought up in Paizo products that it'd be okay to talk about.
I often assume the "worst" because that way when I'm right about someone's motives, I'm not as disappointed, and when I'm wrong, I get to be pleasantly surprised.
It's just a bit of expectation management that the internet has trained me to rely upon, unfortunately.
Thanks for your reply James. I didn't realise the emerald dungeon was hardcover.
Another question, you mentioned a while back that your preference was to keep drow purple skinned and you've provided some excellent commentary as to why.
I'm curious then as to why Duegar seem to be a dark grey colour? Was this as intentional as the drow colour choices?
Mr Jacobs, I was really excited to hear that there are things that will be considered cannon in 2E that happened on PFS, and that's mainly because I really like the outcome of S8. There's no way to ask this without spoiling too much so...
I have always liked the elemental planes more them the outer planes myself, and the elemental lords are awesome foes, but I've to say that I had to some changes regarding the good aligned ones - so that my good aligned players had divine patrons in the elemental planes.
I know you once said that the good elemental lords were meant to be gone, but things moved from the original concept, and that's why I would like to know if you have anything in mind for them in 2E.
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James, the first adventure of a new edition is difficult to do, since usually it must be written before the rules themselves are finished, right? So, how does Paizo plan to handle the first AP of the new edition? Did Council of Thieves provide many lessons on how to do it? I guess I'm just curious about the logistics involved.
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Another question, you mentioned a while back that your preference was to keep drow purple skinned and you've provided some excellent commentary as to why.
I'm curious then as to why Duegar seem to be a dark grey colour? Was this as intentional as the drow colour choices?
Because another name for duergar is "gray dwarf." And because gray skin is more fantasy than real-world skin colors it doesn't have as much of a gross racisim element to it.
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Mr Jacobs, I was really excited to hear that there are things that will be considered cannon in 2E that happened on PFS, and that's mainly because I really like the outcome of S8. There's no way to ask this without spoiling too much so...
** spoiler omitted **
I have always liked the elemental planes more them the outer planes myself, and the elemental lords are awesome foes, but I've to say that I had to some changes regarding the good aligned ones - so that my good aligned players had divine patrons in the elemental planes.
I know you once said that the good elemental lords were meant to be gone, but things moved from the original concept, and that's why I would like to know if you have anything in mind for them in 2E.
You'll need to tune in late next year once 2nd edition is out to find out the details like that. Now is WAY too soon to get into the details of revealing all the plans we've got, especially since not all of those plans are finished baking.
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James, the first adventure of a new edition is difficult to do, since usually it must be written before the rules themselves are finished, right? So, how does Paizo plan to handle the first AP of the new edition? Did Council of Thieves provide many lessons on how to do it? I guess I'm just curious about the logistics involved.
They're written by employees at the company, but also developed by employees of the company.
As an example, for Council of Thieves, Sean K Reynolds wrote the first one and he worked at Paizo so he had access to the rules from the start. For the next two, we supplied those rules to the authors in their raw form, and then I ended up rewriting large portions of the adventures during development to sync things up with the final rules.
Wait...that happens in the PFS is becoming cannon...interest level dropping.
Is this true?
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Wait...that happens in the PFS is becoming cannon...interest level dropping.
Is this true?
PFS is its own campaign. Its events are canon for itself, and SOME of those will become canon in print adventures and products now and then as it makes sense (we've already done this a few times in Adventure Paths, in fact), but the fact that this campaign is a massively multiplayer one makes full scale adoption of all of that tricky.
Wait and see, I guess.
What legacy mechanic from 3.5 are you glad that you finally could remove or completely change in the rise of 2nd edition?
I know PF was made out of their loyalty to the 3.5 system, but its interesting to hear what systems that couldnt be changed/removed from PF1 before it was properly established.
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What legacy mechanic from 3.5 are you glad that you finally could remove or completely change in the rise of 2nd edition?
I know PF was made out of their loyalty to the 3.5 system, but its interesting to hear what systems that couldnt be changed/removed from PF1 before it was properly established.
There's several. Some of them have been removed from the playtest already (but could, in theory, get put back in for the final game if that's what the playtest suggests we should do), and some of them have not and are still in the playtest (but may well be excised once we get to the final game). Since neither the final game NOR the playtest is out yet, though, now is not the right time for me to publicly point out my own thoughts here. I'd rather let the playtest and the final book speak for themselves and then, maybe, a few months after the final game is out in late 2019, I'll feel comfortable answering this question.
In Strange Aeons, I feel like the desired effect is to have a continuous campaign of eldritch horror, like a pervasive atmosphere that permeates everything. There are some occassions where I felt like this could be lost however, or momentum would prevent the atmosphere from coming through.
I haven't played the adventure through yet, so maybe my reading just missed pieces, but between moments where things slow down for rest, shopping or other non plot essential RP (talking to eachother or friendly NPCs) or in locations
I get the sense that the creepy horror feel could be easily lost.
I don't mean any offense by asking this and questioning the writers and design, but it would be great to understand a bit better. Are these breaks intentional and beneficial to the horror feel in the long run, or if not, what is a good method of maintaining the sense or horror in these instances.
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In Strange Aeons, I feel like the desired effect is to have a continuous campaign of eldritch horror, like a pervasive atmosphere that permeates everything. There are some occassions where I felt like this could be lost however, or momentum would prevent the atmosphere from coming through.
I haven't played the adventure through yet, so maybe my reading just missed pieces, but between moments where things slow down for rest, shopping or other non plot essential RP (talking to eachother or friendly NPCs) or in locations like
Spoiler:Okeno, Casmaron, and the Parchlands
I get the sense that the creepy horror feel could be easily lost.I don't mean any offense by asking this and questioning the writers and design, but it would be great to understand a bit better. Are these breaks intentional and beneficial to the horror feel in the long run, or if not, what is a good method of maintaining the sense or horror in these instances.
The desired effect is to have a campaign of Lovecraftian elements, but NOT a sustained non-stop horror game. In fact, it's important for breaks in the horror to happen to give the players chances now and then to catch their breath, cleanse their palate, and enjoy some other themes now and then, so that when the horror comes back, it's refreshed in its power.