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There's something to be said for grossly powerful 12-13 tables making running the demons easy, Kyle....I meant it more along the lines of ~12 different demons, each have their own unique abilities. Going to be a challenge to use them effectively, especially the Epic target at the end for 14-15. Already spent an hour play-testing tactics with it.
I wouldn't mind picking your brain on the high tier stuff if we get the chance.
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I wouldn't mind picking your brain on the high tier stuff if we get the chance.There's something to be said for grossly powerful 12-13 tables making running the demons easy, Kyle....I meant it more along the lines of ~12 different demons, each have their own unique abilities. Going to be a challenge to use them effectively, especially the Epic target at the end for 14-15. Already spent an hour play-testing tactics with it.
Sure, just find me when I'm not busy collecting tears. I'll be warming up for the Special by running Eyes of the Ten.
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I did not mention what changes the threat level caused to my players. So for the most part it was just an indicator of how much work needed to be done in each district. One amusing thing was how everyone would rush to the red districts, and no one would be maintaining the green districts, so by the time they had improved the red ones, the green ones had gone red. :)
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That kinda how I expect it to be, TOZ. Players are going to see the threat level as which areas need the most help, so they'll want to go there. I wasn't planning to tell them about the mechanical changes, though I might drop a vague hint when they enter a red district that things might be harder here.
I'm also going to try and make a point of being next to a seeker table, so that my table can pick up an aid token or two along the way. I love that they came up with a good table interaction mechanic for this one, so I want to make sure I get to use it. And I have friends playing at tier 14-15, so I hope I can be at the table next to theirs.
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I'm also going to try and make a point of being next to a seeker table, so that my table can pick up an aid token or two along the way. I love that they came up with a good table interaction mechanic for this one, so I want to make sure I get to use it. And I have friends playing at tier 14-15, so I hope I can be at the table next to theirs.
Same here, I know a bunch of folks from Atlanta and Birmingham making a 14-15 table under Kyle B, and I hope my 7-11s can sit next to them and listen to the weeping.
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I did not mention what changes the threat level caused to my players. So for the most part it was just an indicator of how much work needed to be done in each district. One amusing thing was how everyone would rush to the red districts, and no one would be maintaining the green districts, so by the time they had improved the red ones, the green ones had gone red. :)
After reading through it, I kinda thought this would be a major issue.
I'm running one of the 12+ tables, so what do you all think about, if while handing out their Aid Tokens, that we have the seekers kinda take command of which district they should go to, so that we make sure we have at least one or two teams still covering the Green Districts.
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After reading the aid section, I feel as if things are a little unclear. The section could be interpreted to give players aid tokens after every encounter, or once after any encounter. How should it be read?
I took it to mean that they get the tokens after every encounter. Just re-read it to be sure, and I still that's the intent.
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During our playtest, every Seeker player was able to hand out a token to a lower level table. This was a little rough as we didn't have enough aid tokens to go around. (Hopefully they have fixed this problem.) Reading the final document, it seems this is still the case. Another problem was the fact that players had to run and find a table to give the token to, and some Seeker tables were right next to each other. I also understand that my wife's lower level table had a whole pile of unused tokens. (I imagine the upped difficulty will help that issue.) I had personally written out the available uses on note cards for my players to know what they could use them for. (Which then were useless at my table. XD)
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Those of you who played/ran A5. Who's the foulest of them all? (The shadow demon encounter) - can you give me an idea of how that encounter played out at your tables? It looks like one of the hardest to prep for and I'm curious how it played out at Paizocon.
I notice nobody really answered this. I agree that this looks like one of the toughest to run, but potentially the most fun for an RP heavy group. Anyone have any suggestions?
Also, for encounter selection throughout Act 2, how is everyone planning to do this? Actually roll dice for random selection? Try to get a feel for the group and feed them encounters you think they'd like? Plan in advance for which encounters you'd most like to run?
I was actually thinking of asking my players before hand whether they like social encounters, or lean more towards the "hack-n-slash" play style, then picking encounters based on how they respond. I was also thinking that since there's one encounter that takes place right there where they start at the Starrise Spire, I might just start Act 2 with that one regardless of other considerations, then move on to the rest of the encounters more randomly after that.
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Also, for encounter selection throughout Act 2, how is everyone planning to do this? Actually roll dice for random selection? Try to get a feel for the group and feed them encounters you think they'd like? Plan in advance for which encounters you'd most like to run?
I was actually thinking of asking my players before hand whether they like social encounters, or lean more towards the "hack-n-slash" play style, then picking encounters based on how they respond.
I'm going to choose them ahead of time though I'm prepping two different versions of the order: one that leans more towards combat and one that is RP/skill heavy. I'm sure I'll modify or ignore the preset order though once the rubber hits the road.
I was also thinking that since there's one encounter that takes place right there where they start at the Starrise Spire, I might just start Act 2 with that one regardless of other considerations...
Good idea. Yoink!
I noticed an oddity while rereading the scenario last night. Act 2 kicks off by saying that everyone hears Thurl's lodge explode but A9 make no mention of such an explosion. I wonder if it would be kosher to combine A9 and A2, to make it that an explosion did indeed occur at the lodge and the looters are ransacking it rather than a random bank.
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Well, two of the three that can take place in any location are social encounters, so you can choose to either run those or not depending on party preference. And there's one trap-focused encounter that you'll probably only want to run if there's a rogue with some trap finding/disabling ability. So there's definitely things you can do to choose encounters based on your party.
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Here's a silly question: What alignment are the NPCs in this? I'm talking about all those enemy NPCs with stats from the NPC Codex or Gamemastery Guide. Should we use the alignment from the Codex, or assume they're all chaotic evil, given that they're helping demons? Just in case of spells, smites, or other abilities that vary their effect by alignment, this is important to know.
For that matter, for AoE stuff that varies by alignment, the alignments of the innocent bystanders could be important, too. Should we assume all the random crusaders throughout are lawful good?
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I'm planning on running random selection unless we hit a pocket of encounters with similar areas of focus and the players appear to be frustrated or bored, in which case I'll make sure the next encounter shakes things up a bit.
As for demonic abilities, most demons around the Worldwound have planeshifted themselves or have been called rather than summoned, so they would have access to teleportation and summoning abilities. Unless they're triggered by a summoning circle or something similar, of course!
I'd guess the explosion at Thurl's lodge could simply be from that area. It's not close enough to the Starrise Spire that we'd really know in-game where it occurred, and it doesn't get mentioned explicitly in boxed text -- only that there's an explosion and reports of demons invading the city.
Quick question on the aid/supplies stuff: In Act 2, Pathfinder Supplies, subtier 1-2 says that aid can be received up to 3 times between encounters. The wording says “each PC may choose to receive”. Does this mean each PC receives a selection for each aid (so 12 selections total for a table of four) or that each aid allows one PC to choose from those selections (so only 3 selections total at a table of four)? BIG DIFFERENCE!
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I GMed this at PaizoCon UK...
I'm planning on running random selection unless we hit a pocket of encounters with similar areas of focus and the players appear to be frustrated or bored, in which case I'll make sure the next encounter shakes things up a bit.
That's exactly what I did, and the random selection worked well enough that I didn't need to tamper.
Quick question on the aid/supplies stuff: In Act 2, Pathfinder Supplies, subtier 1-2 says that aid can be received up to 3 times between encounters. The wording says “each PC may choose to receive”. Does this mean each PC receives a selection for each aid (so 12 selections total for a table of four) or that each aid allows one PC to choose from those selections (so only 3 selections total at a table of four)? BIG DIFFERENCE!
The party can call for aid three times. Each time they do, every PC chooses one of the options available (healing or weapon/ammo) individually.
Remember that this aid can only be called for in Act 2.
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There's something to be said for grossly powerful 12-13 tables making running the demons easy, Kyle....I meant it more along the lines of ~12 different demons, each have their own unique abilities. Going to be a challenge to use them effectively, especially the Epic target at the end for 14-15. Already spent an hour play-testing tactics with it.
For those wondering, Kyle's "tactics" consisted of spending every other turn teleporting away from our big damage dealers. It's purely coincidence that the destination was right next to Joe Caubo.
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Posted this in another thread - realized it was probably more relevant here.
One thing that could've been clearer was how to deal with the gold in this adventure. I had a table at subtier 1-2 with a pair of level 3 players. My solution was to make a "out of subtier" between 1-2 and 3-4 and give them that, and since it sounded reasonable to the HQ guy who was standing behind me (Kyle Pratt, iirc), I went with it. It would be nice to see some official guidance as to how to deal with Out-of-Subtier gold for scenarios with more than 2 subtiers. (See also, all the 1-7's from year 0 & 1)
