Just Announced: The Strange Aeons Adventure Path!

Mar Nakrum wrote:

Personally, I'd prefer it if the AP's end boss was a powerful servant of a Lawful deity, if you get my drift.

I don't get your drift.

I'm talking about joining the winning team.

PCs *are* the winning team...

Interesting thought, though, getting Cthulhu to join *them*...

PCs *are* the winning team...

Depends on your perspective. Try looking at things on a cosmic scale.

I don't when I'm playing Pathfinder. ;)

I don't when I'm playing Pathfinder. ;)

But you could, and it could be fun.

Why chance 'could', when I have a sure bet in what *would* be fun?

Why chance 'could', when I have a sure bet in what *would* be fun?

Because that is an argument for never trying anything new.

For all to many people, DnD(in this case in it's guise as pathfinder) is the only game that people play. In all to many of those cases, the only style of play that is commonly approached is which Kthulhu earlier in this thread brilliantly termed "bully fantasy". It is the kind of game that is raw, unadulterated power fantasy.

There is nothing wrong with such a style, but there is a lot to be said in favor of variety.

This AP offers the chance to do something different. There has never been a time better suited to exploring a different, and equally fun approach to pathfinder, and between the waste of that opportunity and the dilution of a genre of horror I love, I have to say it is a shame.

Horror Adventures, the new hardcover from Paizo for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game will launch I’m August next year, along side the Strange Aeons Adventure path!

Features Include:

Advice for running horror themed Adventures in Pathfinder.

Madness rules will be Included.

Lovecraftian horror Included.

Major character system: Corruption.
System by which you can slowly descend into a new form. Vampires hinted at after the biting.

Embracing the corruption gives you abilities for your character, such as becoming more charming… But a drawback is tied to it. Such as aversion to sunlight.

Lovecraftian, werewolves, insanity, possession mentioned as possibilities.

Touches of playing monsters, but focusing on the RP possibilities and the slow turning and resisting or embracing that.

Body failing and replacing with golem parts?

That's great, but my immediate question is... will there be Aeons? Yknow... the true neutral duality based outsiders?

They always struck me as eerie enough to fit such an adventure path.

I ran a cosmic horror campaign a while back incorporating the old 3.5 "Taint" mechanics and space travel. Essentially the campaign finished with Hastur the Unspeakable totally wiping out the party (who were Mythic and level 20)

One thing these campaigns need is the sense that the characters may die at any given moment. The old Call of Cthulu games had a pretty high mortality rate. Then a new character (pregenerated with tie-in to back story) can be brought into the investigation and intrigue.

With the Occult Adventures book out (and it's so so good) there is even greater potential for a frightening foray into the unspeakable.

Remember. Yog Sothoth is the Gate.

Perram wrote:

Horror Adventures, the new hardcover from Paizo for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game will launch I’m August next year, along side the Strange Aeons Adventure path!

Features Include:

Advice for running horror themed Adventures in Pathfinder.

Madness rules will be Included.

Lovecraftian horror Included.

Major character system: Corruption.
System by which you can slowly descend into a new form. Vampires hinted at after the biting.

Embracing the corruption gives you abilities for your character, such as becoming more charming… But a drawback is tied to it. Such as aversion to sunlight.

Lovecraftian, werewolves, insanity, possession mentioned as possibilities.

Touches of playing monsters, but focusing on the RP possibilities and the slow turning and resisting or embracing that.

Body failing and replacing with golem parts?

That's great, but my immediate question is... will there be Aeons? Yknow... the true neutral duality based outsiders?

They always struck me as eerie enough to fit such an adventure path.

No. No aeons. They don't really fit into the themes of a Lovecraftian adventure path, at least not the one I've outlined and is already in writing.

So...the adventure path called Strange Aeons doesn't actually have any aeons in it.

How strange.

;)

I will point out that the release date of this lines up with the ship dates for the Reaper Bones 3 kickstarter with Shub-Niggurath and Dark Young minis....

So...the adventure path called Strange Aeons doesn't actually have any aeons in it.

How strange.

;)

Not if you know where the words "strange aeons" come from...

Soooo...

Does this mean we're gonna deal with Earth again? Maybe not traveling there but some other meaningful, if subtle, interaction? Cause I'd like that very much.

Course I can understand the desire to tell a Lovecraftian story with original content (ie Golarion) rather than rely on familiar ol'Earth.

Also if I run this I'm including the Dee of the Black, no matter if they play a non-existent role. I WILL shoehorn them dag nabbit!

Castrovel! That would be awesome! As well as some elf origins and Lashunta! Hot stuff! Also weird exotic riding beasts! Good fit with the psychic stuff if you ask me!

Soooo...

Does this mean we're gonna deal with Earth again? Maybe not traveling there but some other meaningful, if subtle, interaction? Cause I'd like that very much.

Course I can understand the desire to tell a Lovecraftian story with original content (ie Golarion) rather than rely on familiar ol'Earth.

Also if I run this I'm including the Dee of the Black, no matter if they play a non-existent role. I WILL shoehorn them dag nabbit!

I don't want to spoil EVERY surprise...

...but...

Castrovel! That would be awesome! As well as some elf origins and Lashunta! Hot stuff! Also weird exotic riding beasts! Good fit with the psychic stuff if you ask me!

Castrovel is not involved in this AP. It IS involved (very very slightly) in Iron Gods though!

No. No aeons. They don't really fit into the themes of a Lovecraftian adventure path...

Whaaaat?

The "faceless caretakers of reality" who "exist beyond the understanding of most mortals" while "endlessly striving towards goals unfathomable even to many of the planes' eldest inhabitants" aren't Lovecraftian? They have multilateral body symmetry, flesh whose properties aren't exhibited by normal matter, and a mode of communication that relies upon telepathic fever dreams. If you kill one, it's parting 'words' might be a vision of its hivemind race at work across all of space and time, guiding the future of the multiverse on scales so vast, your victory and your life are stripped of all significance in the face of the aeons' cosmic endeavor, the smallest fraction of which is beyond your power to effect in any meaningful way.

Aeons are more Lovecraftian than half of the actual Lovecraftian monsters in the Pathfinder bestiaries.

Will we be headed to Carcosa at some point in this adventure? Or, more accurately, is Carcosa coming for us?

Hayato Ken wrote:

Castrovel! That would be awesome! As well as some elf origins and Lashunta! Hot stuff! Also weird exotic riding beasts! Good fit with the psychic stuff if you ask me!

Castrovel is not involved in this AP. It IS involved (very very slightly) in Iron Gods though!

Well not there yet playing IG.

I would welcome more Castrovel and Akiton though.
Will sacrifice and feed an Indominus Rex to you for that!
To me it seems the conservatives got enough^^ The time to be progressive comes again!

James Jacobs wrote:

No. No aeons. They don't really fit into the themes of a Lovecraftian adventure path...

Whaaaat?

The "faceless caretakers of reality" who "exist beyond the understanding of most mortals" while "endlessly striving towards goals unfathomable even to many of the planes' eldest inhabitants" aren't Lovecraftian? They have multilateral body symmetry, flesh whose properties aren't exhibited by normal matter, and a mode of communication that relies upon telepathic fever dreams. If you kill one, it's parting 'words' might be a vision of its hivemind race at work across all of space and time, guiding the future of the multiverse on scales so vast, your victory and your life are stripped of all significance in the face of the aeons' cosmic endeavor, the smallest fraction of which is beyond your power to effect in any meaningful way.

Aeons are more Lovecraftian than half of the actual Lovecraftian monsters in the Pathfinder bestiaries.

I'm not so sure I agree, but that's beside the point.

In any event, the aeons themselves aren't involved in this AP, any more than Monte Cook's game "The Strange" is.

Will we be headed to Carcosa at some point in this adventure? Or, more accurately, is Carcosa coming for us?

I'm not so sure I agree, but that's beside the point.

That's fair. If everyone had the same opinion of classic literature, we wouldn't get any creative reinterpretations that breathe new life into it. To each his own. :)

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.

Neongelion wrote:

Soooo...

Does this mean we're gonna deal with Earth again? Maybe not traveling there but some other meaningful, if subtle, interaction? Cause I'd like that very much.

Course I can understand the desire to tell a Lovecraftian story with original content (ie Golarion) rather than rely on familiar ol'Earth.

Also if I run this I'm including the Dee of the Black, no matter if they play a non-existent role. I WILL shoehorn them dag nabbit!

I don't want to spoil EVERY surprise...

...but...

** spoiler omitted **

Neongelion wrote:

Soooo...

Does this mean we're gonna deal with Earth again? Maybe not traveling there but some other meaningful, if subtle, interaction? Cause I'd like that very much.

Course I can understand the desire to tell a Lovecraftian story with original content (ie Golarion) rather than rely on familiar ol'Earth.

Also if I run this I'm including the Dee of the Black, no matter if they play a non-existent role. I WILL shoehorn them dag nabbit!

I don't want to spoil EVERY surprise...

...but...

** spoiler omitted **

Is there going to be a separate Horror adventures hardcover?

Already announced.

Is there going to be a separate Horror adventures hardcover?

Is there going to be a separate Horror adventures hardcover?

Yes.

KiY? I have a horrid and creeping feeling that this AP is going to be a special kind of hell for me.

Take it Iconics for this one have already been decided?

I didn't see it mentioned on this thread. I was at the announcement for this and what I thought was really cool was the characters would start in an insane asylum with amnesia. And over the course of the AP they would slowly get clues as to what had previously happened to them. Jacobs stated that they would remember their class abilities but if a GM wanted too started the players out as commoners could be an option.

Misroi wrote:

Will we be headed to Carcosa at some point in this adventure? Or, more accurately, is Carcosa coming for us?

Spoiler:

Yes.

To both questions.

Damn. I guess I better find Marty.

Take it Iconics for this one have already been decided?

Yup, but I'm not gonna say who yet. Gotta spread out the teases between now and next August, after all!

I didn't see it mentioned on this thread. I was at the announcement for this and what I thought was really cool was the characters would start in an insane asylum with amnesia. And over the course of the AP they would slowly get clues as to what had previously happened to them. Jacobs stated that they would remember their class abilities but if a GM wanted too started the players out as commoners could be an option.

The amnesia element is really a pretty unusual one for an AP... it'll be detailed more fully in the Player's Guide and the AP volumes themselves.

Is it possible to have the asylum you start the game in be a certain institution in the town of Carrion Hill?

Is it possible to have the asylum you start the game in be a certain institution in the town of Carrion Hill?

Nope. It's pretty closely tied in to the plot of the AP in its location, which is very near to Thrushmoor.

I'm utterly thrilled by the spoilers for so far. This will probably be the wildest, surreal, and terrifying AP Paizo's done yet.

I would like to know: will each volume of the AP have a deity article for Cthulhu, Hastur, Nyarlahotep, Yog-Sothoth, et cetera?

Misroi wrote:

Will we be headed to Carcosa at some point in this adventure? Or, more accurately, is Carcosa coming for us?

** spoiler omitted **

Fingers crossed then.

I'm utterly thrilled by the spoilers for so far. This will probably be the wildest, surreal, and terrifying AP Paizo's done yet.

I would like to know: will each volume of the AP have a deity article for Cthulhu, Hastur, Nyarlahotep, Yog-Sothoth, et cetera?

Nope.

Just 2 full-length deity articles, and one longer overview article for the lot of them.

Misroi wrote:

Will we be headed to Carcosa at some point in this adventure? Or, more accurately, is Carcosa coming for us?

** spoiler omitted **

Perhaps I missed this in an earlier question, but it relates.

Any visits to Aucturn? Or visits from natives of Aucturn?

It would certainly fit...

James Jacobs wrote:

Misroi wrote:

Will we be headed to Carcosa at some point in this adventure? Or, more accurately, is Carcosa coming for us?

** spoiler omitted **

Perhaps I missed this in an earlier question, but it relates.

Any visits to Aucturn? Or visits from natives of Aucturn?

It would certainly fit...

Nope. No Aucturn stuff.

(side tangent) This AP is certainly a Lovecraftian Adventure Path, but before it's that, it has to be a compelling story that makes sense to itself. Cramming every possible Lovecraftian element into it, including every Lovecraftian site or easter egg we've mentioned in Golarion over the past decade or so, wouldn't be good for the story's health. As a result... the majority of "Will it include INSERT LOCATION/CREATURE/TOPIC HERE" questions will be no. Just trying to manage expectations... and also not going to reveal much about the actual plot for many many months to come!

Is this going to feel like typical Paizo paths, where stomping through the game and decorating the walls with the heads of the slain is pretty much par the course but with the Mythos Monsters instead of the normal cast of sacrificial lambs, or is this going to more Mythos-style where the enemies might well stomp your face in and your soul, sanity and life are at risk from simply cracking open a book?

'Cos we all know which one I vote for...

Will this book talk about any new old ones and/or elder gods?

Is this going to feel like typical Paizo paths, where stomping through the game and decorating the walls with the heads of the slain is pretty much par the course but with the Mythos Monsters instead of the normal cast of sacrificial lambs, or is this going to more Mythos-style where the enemies might well stomp your face in and your soul, sanity and life are at risk from simply cracking open a book?

'Cos we all know which one I vote for...

Sheer speculation, but from what I've heard so far, it'll be both.

You're going to stomp through piles of bad guys. It's still PF. You're still playing powerful combat characters. The game is still going to be largely combat. They're not going to just up the CRs a couple notches so you get stomped most of the time. That doesn't work.

OTOH, given the Horror book coming out with rules for insanity and that you start in an asylum with amnesia, it's going to be a little different in tone. It's not going to be as physically deadly as CoC, but I think soul & sanity being at risk sounds like a real possibility.

The absence of Aeons (Outsider subtype) seems like a missed opportunity. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for terrible puns, so I might be a bit biased . . . .

Edit: Speaking of missed opportunity:

James Jacobs wrote:

Hayato Ken wrote:

Castrovel! That would be awesome! As well as some elf origins and Lashunta! Hot stuff! Also weird exotic riding beasts! Good fit with the psychic stuff if you ask me!

Castrovel is not involved in this AP. It IS involved (very very slightly) in Iron Gods though!

Well not there yet playing IG.

I would welcome more Castrovel and Akiton though.
Will sacrifice and feed an Indominus Rex to you for that!
To me it seems the conservatives got enough^^ The time to be progressive comes again!

Now why did the Jurassic World genetic engineers settle for Indominus rex, which is just a souped up Tyrannosaurus rex? If you're going to go insane genetically engineering a new creature, go REALLY INSANE, and give us a Chthulhusaurus rex!

Is this going to feel like typical Paizo paths, where stomping through the game and decorating the walls with the heads of the slain is pretty much par the course but with the Mythos Monsters instead of the normal cast of sacrificial lambs, or is this going to more Mythos-style where the enemies might well stomp your face in and your soul, sanity and life are at risk from simply cracking open a book?

'Cos we all know which one I vote for...

It's more of the former. This is not going to be a Call of Cthulhu adventure with Pathfinder rules. It's a Pathfinder adventure with Lovecraftian themes. We've done a LOT of adventures with similar themes already; check out Feast of Ravenmoor, Carrion Hill, Wake of the Watcher, and Valley of the Brain Collectors for examples of how we tend to involve the mythos. There WILL be some encounters that your PCs won't be able to defeat with sword and spell, though... but just how those will play out, you'll need to be patient to see.

Will this book talk about any new old ones and/or elder gods?

Perhaps. And it depends on your definition of "new."

What kind of lovecraftian Campaign Setting and Player Companion support can we expect to see for this?