Introducing the Outlaws of Alkenstar Player’s Guide

Awesome! Downloading now.

OMG
OMG
OMG
OMG
OMG

Bang Bang!

I'M AN OUTLAW!

Ahem...

and other professional posts.

I hope y'all enjoy the AP!

I remember back during one of the Gen Con panels, it was mentioned that there would be options for tailoring the Mana Wastes’ impact on magic for your terrible - yet this PG only presents magic as working normally. Are those options going to be somewhere else, or did they end up not working out?

I was pretty excited to contend with wild and dead magic zones.

The Suggested Character Options table is an absolute joy and I hope it’s in every Player’s Guide going forward - thank you, whoever made it!

I’m also tickled by the mention of Alkenstar having a port for “airships” and “dirigibles” that apparently departs for others of the same in Eastern Garund; that’s an awesome new detail, and something I’m keen to see more of.

It's great to see gnolls be given a mention - I still remember the art from the 1e Inner Sea World Guide, of a mutant gnoll with a musket.

That said, the Recommended Options table (great new element!) erroneously refers players to the LO Ancestry Guide for them, rather than to LO Mwangi Expanse book in which they were actually introduced.
(And for that matter, doesn't mark the Oracle, Investigator and Swashbuckler with the cross symbol the way that other APG options are.)

I remember back during one of the Gen Con panels, it was mentioned that there would be options for tailoring the Mana Wastes’ impact on magic for your terrible - yet this PG only presents magic as working normally. Are those options going to be somewhere else, or did they end up not working out?

I was pretty excited to contend with wild and dead magic zones.

I found a sidebar for the GM in volume one that might shed some some light.

I am loving the Recommended Options table. Its a fantastic boon that I really hope is implemented in every player guide from now on.

One of the APs currently being ran at my table is running into some rough ground due to some character choices that don't mesh well with the campaign. Not only does this serve to inform the players on how to make great characters that fit the story but it does so in a way that relieves the GM of the burden of having to do so.

The overview table about character suggestions is a nice innovation, but this one has a quirk:

"If so, lawful neutral or lawful good are great alignment options."

"Not Recommended: LG LE NE CE"

The suggested options table is fantastic. And while I understand that there likely isn't a lot of medicine-related content in the adventure itself, having Medicine "not recommended" makes me wonder whether Paizo has played Pathfinder Second Edition.

keftiu wrote:

I remember back during one of the Gen Con panels, it was mentioned that there would be options for tailoring the Mana Wastes’ impact on magic for your terrible - yet this PG only presents magic as working normally. Are those options going to be somewhere else, or did they end up not working out?

I was pretty excited to contend with wild and dead magic zones.

I found a sidebar for the GM in volume one that might shed some some light.

** spoiler omitted **

I had planned on using the Wellspring Mage archetype to represent the instability of magic in the Mana Wastes, so this is reassuring to see!

Also throwing in my love for the new Suggested Options table, but I have to chuckle at Medicine being "Not Recommended" when I find nearly every party needs someone who can do it just for removing the wounded condition alone.

Probably going to have to get this one even though I use PF1 and don't really like PF2. Hopefully Alkenstar's material will stand up and isn't PF2-ified too much. (PF2-ified meaning: all "too weird" with everyone being odd species and odd classes, stuff like "shoot while midair to jump again", and whatnot. Anime-absurdism.)

Definitely like the "suggested" table. Other posts indicate this is new? I don't remember seeing it before, but I haven't looked at the AP player guides in quite a while. Good stuff.

Can I saw I love the suitability chart. I would love it if it became standard practice for future players guides!

Never thought I'd see medicine not recommended though.

+1 to all the praise for the Suggested Character Options table! Would love to see this become a new fixture of the Player's Guides!

The table is interesting because it adds info compared to the text, especially for skill feats. Otherwise, it is redundant.

And I find that it can stifle the imagination compared to the text, which fires it and is actually very well written IMO. Not to mention that some players will just pack the better options as shown by the table.

Finally, I feel the Skill feats should not have a better rating than the Skill they use.

I like that we have the description of the city before the mechanics as it forces the reader to dive into the flavor before getting into the building / optimizing parts. I believe it is a new thing, but I might be mistaken.

Very good PG IMO. And it is still free :-)

Gnolls and Fleshwarps are among my favorite Ancestries out there; glad to see both in the spotlight!

{. . .} Many spend their days toiling without respite in grimy workshops or smoky factories. {. . .}

Sounds ripe for the growth of Droskar worship.

{. . .} Most of Alkenstar’s citizenry can be divided into either the working class or the aristocratic elite. The former labor ceaselessly to produce goods, services, and wealth, while the latter live to consume these resources. {. . .}

This sounds awfully familiar . . . .

{. . .} lawful neutral or lawful good are great alignment options {. . .}

. . . and the table says these are Not Recommended. Table also says Nature is Not Recommended; but aren't you going to need this when venturing out in the desert, including the Mana Wastes? After all, Erastil is widely enough worshipped there to get a listing soon after Brigh and Abadar.

From the store pages for each volume, I don't expect all that long out in the desert; it sounds like you're mostly in Alkenstar proper, with a trip out there to go visit a dungeon.

I do want to say: thank you for acknowledging non-Core Ancestries in this one! Unless I'm wrong, previous Player's Guides have mostly stuck to the core options and not explicitly named ethnicities - the extra specificity is awesome, and much appreciated.

Now, if someone could point me to where there's any info on the Vourinoi elves...

Character Guide and P1's People of the Sands I believe would have info.

Hey, this is probably the best players guide I've ever seen. Absolutely does every job a players guide should:

- Gets the audience hype.
- Sets expectations both mechanically and thematically for the players.
- Anchors the Players in the world.

Anyway, I hope this level of quality and utility continues with player's guides going forward :)

Character Guide and P1's People of the Sands I believe would have info.

People of the Sands had nothing :c

I think this Player's Guide recommends against the Medicine skill out of pure self-interest, it just wants to be used to create as many new characters as possible.

Rysky wrote:

Character Guide and P1's People of the Sands I believe would have info.

People of the Sands had nothing :c

:(

I do want to say: thank you for acknowledging non-Core Ancestries in this one! Unless I'm wrong, previous Player's Guides have mostly stuck to the core options and not explicitly named ethnicities - the extra specificity is awesome, and much appreciated.

Now, if someone could point me to where there's any info on the Vourinoi elves...

Vourinoi

I love the SUGGESTED CHARACTER OPTIONS on page 9, that would be great to see in future player's guides! Other people have noted where the text disagrees.

I like that magic is suggested to work normally, subject to GM discretion. It does contradict setting lore but it'll make a better game.

It's interesting that the Alkenstar section precedes the character option section. It sugggest that the setting Alkenstar central to the narrative.

I dislike that Taldane is the primary language. Given Alkenstar's location and history it should have been Osiriani IMO.

I think this Player's Guide recommends against the Medicine skill out of pure self-interest, it just wants to be used to create as many new characters as possible.

I think that’s just saying “don’t expect many Medicine checks in the text of the AP.”

I do like the Stoolie background - very much the feel from 'The Departed'.

Zaister wrote:

I think this Player's Guide recommends against the Medicine skill out of pure self-interest, it just wants to be used to create as many new characters as possible.

I think that’s just saying “don’t expect many Medicine checks in the text of the AP.”

FWIW Battle Medicine and Treat wounds are Medicine checks. As is treating for poison and diseases.

Glad to know PCs won't lose HPs, suffer from poison or from disease in this AP ;-D

This is specifically what the text beyond the chart says:

While Medicine and Occultism are always useful skills to have on hand, neither will open any special doors in this campaign.

It's not that Medicine isn't still good to have, just that it won't be specifically important to the story of the campaign if you don't have someone with it.

Yes. The text is better than the chart on the whole, but the chart is easier to reference and many people will just not read the text.

In the end, I feel it is better not to have the table.

I loved the chart. It was super intuitive and a great way to quickly summarize things. It should be the standard going forward, very nicely done!

That said, I would probably never put medicine in the not-recommended list since it is always essential. I know it explained it later but still, just leads to confusion as not everyone will read all the followup text hah.

This chart is excellent and should be mandatory in all future players guides.

I'm disappointed however that the designers of the AP have opted not to discourage casters. This was a fantastic opportunity to let non-caster classes shine or alternately introduce an impediment that only casters would have to overcome.

I found a sidebar for the GM in volume one that might shed some some light.

Oh, thank you!

I'm dissapointed that Paizo didn't provide a leeway for Evil characters. Playing as an outlaw with Evil alignment would've been perfect and fun with the right party. Would you reckon Paizo would provide options for Evil Aligned characters or do we have to homebrew it.

I really like the table of "SUGGESTED CHARACTER OPTIONS" since that's a thing that would be useful in literally every Pathfinder AP, so I hope that's a thing we're going to keep seeing in the Players Guide. Since "how useful is underwater marauder here ?" is a normal thing for a player to ask the GM, so putting "not at all" right up front saves everyone time and effort.

I'm dissapointed that Paizo didn't provide a leeway for Evil characters. Playing as an outlaw with Evil alignment would've been perfect and fun with the right party. Would you reckon Paizo would provide options for Evil Aligned characters or do we have to homebrew it.

I mean you can play an evil character in almost any campaign, it just boils down to making sure it's okay at your table. Just because a campaign isn't written specifically for a character doesn't mean that that character isn't playable. There probably won't be a clear-cut "here's what to do with an evil party" add-on, because that's too specific to be applicable to most tables.

I'm dissapointed that Paizo didn't provide a leeway for Evil characters. Playing as an outlaw with Evil alignment would've been perfect and fun with the right party. Would you reckon Paizo would provide options for Evil Aligned characters or do we have to homebrew it.

You can always make something against the theme of an AP work, but that takes the players and the GM to work together and so shouldn't be something suggested in the Player's Guide. The basically thing we're doing here is a story where the people on the side of the law are the "bad guys" and the people on the opposite side of the law are the "good guys". It's a lot murkier when the nominal "good guys" are themselves bad. You can make it work but "everybody is bad" is a different kind of story.

Don't worry though, since the next AP is the "no good character" one.

Whether Paizo intended it that way or not, I imagined this as the Law vs Chaos adventure path, where the "Law" were mostly LE folks who were bending the letter of the law for their own gain and the suffering of others.

As outlaws, the PCs represent Chaos and the power of freedom where, when wielded with wholesome intentions and not constrained by law, can be a better arbiter of justice than pure Law.

Either way, it's a rootin' tootin' good time!

I'm dissapointed that Paizo didn't provide a leeway for Evil characters. Playing as an outlaw with Evil alignment would've been perfect and fun with the right party. Would you reckon Paizo would provide options for Evil Aligned characters or do we have to homebrew it.

I reckon Paizo thinks fans of Evil characters should wait for Blood Lords, which is six books of adventure for non-Good groups:)

I mean nothing in the players guide says you're not actually guilty of the crime you're on the lam for -- and murder is cited as an example.

"I shot a man in Smokeside, just to watch him die" is an excellent Johnny Cash reference and a one-sentence summary of a character concept, all in one.

Don't worry though, since the next AP is the "no good character" one.

I reckon Paizo thinks fans of Evil characters should wait for Blood Lords, which is six books of adventure for non-Good groups:)

Paizo said Blood Lords is next AP and it's "no good character" one???

PossibleCabbage wrote:

Don't worry though, since the next AP is the "no good character" one.

keftiu wrote:

I reckon Paizo thinks fans of Evil characters should wait for Blood Lords, which is six books of adventure for non-Good groups:)

Paizo said Blood Lords is next AP and it's "no good character" one???

This was all announced a fair while back, yes. The store pages for all but the last volume of Blood Lords are up.

I love the SUGGESTED CHARACTER OPTIONS on page 9, that would be great to see in future player's guides! Other people have noted where the text disagrees.

I like that magic is suggested to work normally, subject to GM discretion. It does contradict setting lore but it'll make a better game.
{. . .}

This page (which gives some references, but I haven't followed them up) indicated that the Smokeside part of Alkenstar was magic dead. I would have liked to see somebody come up with a Pro-Magic Field to counteract this and the magic-dead areas of the Mana Wastes. But not have it available right away -- that would be one of the PCs quests, to get hold of this.

I mean nothing in the players guide says you're not actually guilty of the crime you're on the lam for -- and murder is cited as an example.

"I shot a man in Smokeside, just to watch him die" is an excellent Johnny Cash reference and a one-sentence summary of a character concept, all in one.

And then they say this:

it’s assumed that the deeds that made your character a wanted criminal weren’t motivated by greed, malevolence, or depravity (or, if they were, your character has had a dramatic and sincere change of heart between the crime and the beginning of the campaign). As usual, intentionally committing atrocities or victimizing others will make it much harder for you to work with your party and potential allies who don’t want anything to do with evildoers.

I admit I am a bit puzzled. I also don't really believe in non-evil shady arms dealers (one of the backgrounds).

Again, just as the text points out, evil people don't get along well with parties most of the time. This is why it's a table decision and not an assumed status for the adventure path. If you and your GM agree to make an evil character (or a full evil party) work, that's completely up to you, but it's not the assumption that that will be the case.

Again, just as the text points out, evil people don't get along well with parties most of the time. This is why it's a table decision and not an assumed status for the adventure path. If you and your GM agree to make an evil character (or a full evil party) work, that's completely up to you, but it's not the assumption that that will be the case.

This. It's not that you can't be evil. It's that the story of the adventure isn't going to go out of its way to give you opportunities to be evil. And you creating your own opportunities to be evil, can severely disrupt the party dynamic (and potentially make people at the table uncomfortable). Which is why you work with your GM on this.

Based on the player guide, revenge against the person(s) that led to your downfall seems to be a big theme. So if your NE and are here 100% for revenge, to satisfy your own selfishness sort of deal, you probably wont have an issue.

But if your CE, and want to to break away from this revenge story to do CE things, the story isn't designed for that and it will create party friction.

CE can be big on revenge. " You don't do that to ME."

Again, just as the text points out, evil people don't get along well with parties most of the time. This is why it's a table decision and not an assumed status for the adventure path. If you and your GM agree to make an evil character (or a full evil party) work, that's completely up to you, but it's not the assumption that that will be the case.

Except I didn't say they should've allowed evil parties. I say that a part of their story could be very unfeasible in the assumption all PCs are non-evil. It's not the policy it's the story. Guess I don't believe in robin-hoods.