Introducing the Season of Ghosts Player’s Guide

Ahhhh what a brilliant players guide, it really gives you such a lovely sense of the town as well as setting expectations for what players and gms should bring and discuss! Very excited for the path!

Looks very cool! I've been looking forward to this coming out.

(Also, might be a good idea to include an arachnophobia warning at the top of the post, since the guide is "spiders on the cover and every single page".)

Such a cool concept for an AP. Looking forward to checking it out. I love that Paizo are continuing to experiment with different lengths and formats for APs, I really hope this 4-parter does well.

You’ll begin as 1st-level characters who, if you haven’t lived in Willowshore your whole lives, have come to be recognized and welcomed as locals after arriving in town in the recent past.

I really like the GMG idea of lvl 0 characters, and would love to see if people could come up with some mini-adventure that introduces characters to the world while filling in the gaps here.

noticed the above text pretty much says it starts at the start of spring, but we've been told previously, and the PG says start of summer, probably worth correcting the text above?

Love love LOVE the fact that it's an adventure set in Golarion's past.

I hope Paizo do so again.

noticed the above text pretty much says it starts at the start of spring, but we've been told previously, and the PG says start of summer, probably worth correcting the text above?

Correct. The adventure starts in summer. We will make the correction.

noticed the above text pretty much says it starts at the start of spring, but we've been told previously, and the PG says start of summer, probably worth correcting the text above?

Yup that's a typo...oops. Will be fixed. EDIT Ninjaed by Aaron by 17 seconds!

ICYMI:
Tian Xia: Coming 2023–2024!

I think the Kineticist advice (about a “wood against metal” subtheme and which side is which) is one of the most useful tidbits I’ve seen in a PG, that’s really insightful.

This Willowshore gazetteer is packed! It feels like a real place with a lived-in history. The minor miracles of the foxes protecting the baby and the glowing coin-lamp are so fun! I really like getting to see a setting where you’re more likely to meet a Tengu or a Riftspawn Tiefling than you are a Dwarf - and the note about poor Androids (no, you can’t be a nanomachine-powered robot at this point in timeline yet) is everything I love about Golarion canon.

If you don't have a FLGS and live in close shipping distance to Paizo, consider the Pathfinder Adventure Path Ongoing Subscription to get all 4 seasons sent to you directly with care!

If you don't have a FLGS and live in close shipping distance to Paizo, consider the Pathfinder Adventure Path Ongoing Subscription to get all 4 seasons sent to you directly with care!

I wish there was a way to blend the two: Order my subscriptions thru my FLGS and still get the PDF.

I wish there was a way to blend the two: Order my subscriptions thru my FLGS and still get the PDF.

This has long been a goal of many, many parties, including FLGSes and Paizo. To date, we haven't found a solution that works for everyone, but we're always looking into new technologies or systems to explore in this regard.

Anorak wrote:

I wish there was a way to blend the two: Order my subscriptions thru my FLGS and still get the PDF.

This has long been a goal of many, many parties, including FLGSes and Paizo. To date, we haven't found a solution that works for everyone, but we're always looking into new technologies or systems to explore in this regard.

Thanks, Mark!

Anyhoo, I am looking forward to this AP. The Jade Regent was where I hopped back on the Pathfinder train after taking a break. Hard to believe it's been 10-plus years!

Looks very cool! I've been looking forward to this coming out.

(Also, might be a good idea to include an arachnophobia warning at the top of the post, since the guide is "spiders on the cover and every single page".)

I was going to commend the artist and the art director for choosing spider images which look relatively harmless and almost cute, but then I focused my eyes on the top of the page and nearly dropped my phone :(

Going through the guide right now and I'm absolutely loving the backgrounds, they're so meaty ahaha. I also appreciate the more offbeat Attribute + Skill + Skill Feat combos in it.

EDIT: Also background adjustments! Super neat!

Anorak wrote:

I wish there was a way to blend the two: Order my subscriptions thru my FLGS and still get the PDF.

This has long been a goal of many, many parties, including FLGSes and Paizo. To date, we haven't found a solution that works for everyone, but we're always looking into new technologies or systems to explore in this regard.

Take a page from the console game industry and package a one time use code with your physical books. First person to buy the book can use the code to download the PDF from the shop for free.

Such a cool concept for an AP. Looking forward to checking it out. I love that Paizo are continuing to experiment with different lengths and formats for APs, I really hope this 4-parter does well.

Quote:

You’ll begin as 1st-level characters who, if you haven’t lived in Willowshore your whole lives, have come to be recognized and welcomed as locals after arriving in town in the recent past.

I really like the GMG idea of lvl 0 characters, and would love to see if people could come up with some mini-adventure that introduces characters to the world while filling in the gaps here.

I am planning on running this AP for my group next year and ALL I have been thinking about is starting them as Level 0 the day of the festival and have them play out that day.

This player's guide is actually really fascinating to me since its feels subtly different from lot of previous player's guides :O Like lot of player's guide seem to treat classes as mostly mechanical packages, so its funny to see mention on lack of barbarian clans. Or maybe I just misremember

But yeah I like that player's guide on few places is basically like "there probably isn't prewritten expectation for pcs to face discrimination, but if you want to experience that, talk to your gm". That is kind of nuance that is interesting to see since I feel like lot of previous player's guides tend to be more like "And despite history of goblins in region, this particular starter town has zero problems with goblins". Like its good to both have safe space from real life unpleasantness and options to explore the topic if you want to and its nice player's guide acknowledges both.

QuidEst wrote:

Looks very cool! I've been looking forward to this coming out.

(Also, might be a good idea to include an arachnophobia warning at the top of the post, since the guide is "spiders on the cover and every single page".)

I was going to commend the artist and the art director for choosing spider images which look relatively harmless and almost cute, but then I focused my eyes on the top of the page and nearly dropped my phone :(

I have very mild arachnophobia and I felt too that the little spiders were very much on the cute side.

But yes, the big one at the center top of pages is very much not friendly/cute looking. Note that it is plainly visible only on the cover page. On other pages, the AP logo thankfully masks much of its looks.

I would echo other posters thoughts on this Player’s Guide feeling a little…more than usual in a number of ways. It feels much more nuanced, thoughtful and even interesting. I normally feel a sense of being vaguely let down after reading a Player’s Guide, but this one felt both more generally informative, (again) thoughtful and added quite a bit of verisimilitude. And I too liked the background adjustments…

Yup that's a typo...oops. Will be fixed.

On page 23, there's also a small typo on "Gree Silk Peak" on the map, as well as a stray "A" on the map, which I assume is marking an encounter in the AP that players shouldn't know about.

These 2E player's guides have been fantastic, particularly since Strength of Thousands. This one is no exception... love the margin art!

Wow. This is the best Player's Guide in a while. I had no intention of running this campaign, even though it sounded cool, but reading this Guide REALLY changed my mind. It's just so well-written with honesty towards the players. Build advice, languages explained in a more tiered way, the BACKGROUND ADJUSTMENTS!!! So cool. Props to Paizo.

Excellent PG. I do have a question: what is the custom in Tian Xia regarding the order of names (and for that matter how many names)? There's this guide for Terran Oriental conventions, but I get a sense (maybe I'm wrong) that people in Tian Xia use the "given name first, family name last" convention throughout -- in spite of the fact that I look at some Tian Xia names and say to myself "that looks like it goes the other way".

CyberMephit wrote:

QuidEst wrote:

Looks very cool! I've been looking forward to this coming out.

(Also, might be a good idea to include an arachnophobia warning at the top of the post, since the guide is "spiders on the cover and every single page".)

I was going to commend the artist and the art director for choosing spider images which look relatively harmless and almost cute, but then I focused my eyes on the top of the page and nearly dropped my phone :(

I have very mild arachnophobia and I felt too that the little spiders were very much on the cute side.

But yes, the big one at the center top of pages is very much not friendly/cute looking. Note that it is plainly visible only on the cover page. On other pages, the AP logo thankfully masks much of its looks.

Heh. I didn't even notice that big one. :-)

Excellent PG. I do have a question: what is the custom in Tian Xia regarding the order of names (and for that matter how many names)? There's this guide for Terran Oriental conventions, but I get a sense (maybe I'm wrong) that people in Tian Xia use the "given name first, family name last" convention throughout -- in spite of the fact that I look at some Tian Xia names and say to myself "that looks like it goes the other way".

The general custom in Tian-Xia is generally family name first, given name last, but there's a few cases (particularly with characters who aren't originally from Tian-Xia) where that's not the case. Sometimes NPCs will have names are similar or the same as real world names. Other times they'll have nonsense word names, and sometimes a mix of the both. I largely left the bulk of the naming conventions to the individual authors and then had some great help from the editors in all of this as well.

As the author of the Willowshore Gazatteer (...and the AP), I can clarify on names specifically for the town.

Chinese, Japanese, and Korean names are almost all family name then given names. Given names are often two syllable with hyphens, particularly with Chinese and Korean, if that helps to identify them in case we slip up here and there or family name goes unmentioned.

English-like and Filipino names (Elizeth and Doctor Dami specifically) are given name first, family name last.

Some names are intentionally picked or designed so it might be from different languages, is a mixed, or truly fictitious. In such cases, usually the narrative text will refer to the NPC by given name, so use that to determine what part of a full name is a given name.

I’m i missing something here? the Player's Guide refers to the year 7108 as being in the past, but the current year is 4723. it also says that the Lung Wa empire collapsed in 7106, but previous books stats that it collapsed in 4606

If I remember correctly, Tian Xia has its own calendar, so I would assume thats where the discrepancy comes from. It was 2500 years difference or similar.

Would fit for
4606 AR + 2500 years = 7106 IC (i think it was Imperial Calendar)
which would make
4723 AR + 2500 years = 7223 IC

I’m i missing something here? the Player's Guide refers to the year 7108 as being in the past, but the current year is 4723. it also says that the Lung Wa empire collapsed in 7106, but previous books stats that it collapsed in 4606

The Tian calendar and the Inner Sea calendar are distinct, as are several others detailed in the Travel Guide. This AP’s 7108 is 4608 in the “standard” Pathfinder calendar, about a century before the “present” of 4723.

Tiberius Cailean wrote:

I’m i missing something here? the Player's Guide refers to the year 7108 as being in the past, but the current year is 4723. it also says that the Lung Wa empire collapsed in 7106, but previous books stats that it collapsed in 4606

The Tian calendar and the Inner Sea calendar are distinct, as are several others detailed in the Travel Guide. This AP’s 7108 is 4608 in the “standard” Pathfinder calendar, about a century before the “present” of 4723.

Correct. The "Where (and When) on Golarion" sidebar on page 3 of the Player's Guide gives more context and information about the fact that this Adventure Path doesn't use the Inner Sea's calendar.

The Tian calendar and the Inner Sea calendar are distinct, as are several others detailed in the Travel Guide. This AP’s 7108 is 4608 in the “standard” Pathfinder calendar, about a century before the “present” of 4723.

I seem to have this memory of having read exactly this explicitly in the Players' Guide.

City Feller to Farmer: Why are you beating that mule in the head with a two-by-four, you evil man?!
Farmer: I can get him to pull this plow, but first I need to get his attention!

Just wanted to add my praise for this Player’s Guide - it’s the first one I’ve ever downloaded so close to publication date and read through in one sitting. And the background adjustments are a fantastic idea! Please consider using them again for future AP PGs!

Link found on Reddit HERE!

There's a good chunk of technical difficulties as they try to ask Sen questions, since her camera wouldn't work half of the time during the Q&A portion. Damn!

Need to note about I have no idea who or what Sangpotshi, Midwifery, Qi-Zhong are. I know Jorogumo being part of spider shenanigans.

Ezekieru wrote:

Link found on Reddit HERE!

Ezekieru in Reddit wrote:

There's a good chunk of technical difficulties as they try to ask Sen questions, since her camera wouldn't work half of the time during the Q&A portion. Damn!

Need to note about I have no idea who or what Sangpotshi, Midwifery, Qi-Zhong are. I know Jorogumo being part of spider shenanigans.

Qi Zhong is a Tian deity, Sangpotshi is a Tian spiritual belief system.

I love the Gazetteer for Willowshore. I couldn't read it straight through as I kept hopping to cool sounding names, or seeing a location on the maps and skipping to find it. :) I think my character will be well-grounded to the city and region. :)

Kudos Sen H.H.S & thank you!

Laclale♪ wrote:

Ezekieru wrote:

Link found on Reddit HERE!

Ezekieru in Reddit wrote:

There's a good chunk of technical difficulties as they try to ask Sen questions, since her camera wouldn't work half of the time during the Q&A portion. Damn!

Need to note about I have no idea who or what Sangpotshi, Midwifery, Qi-Zhong are. I know Jorogumo being part of spider shenanigans.

Qi Zhong is a Tian deity, Sangpotshi is a Tian spiritual belief system.

And midwifery is the skill of assisting with the care and health of pregnant people and newborn children, most commonly associated with the actual delivery of babies during the process of birth, but also encompassing prenatal and post-partum care.

This guide is a definite work of art. The character build advices are well given with an eye to explicitly stating what is there for the flavor. I really enjoyed reading them and I am usually a harsh critic on these.

And the gazeteer is just awesome. Full of potential story hooks, with a maybe unintended nod to RotRL, though I am sure nothing can possibly go wrong with the barrage and the lake and the shrine. And full of awesome characterization for all NPCs.

And they both mesh very well to deliver the impression of a vibrant lively locale where it will be a pleasure to integrate PCs.

Thanks a lot to the writers. This is a true masterpiece.

I want to add, after reading The Summer That Never Was, that the guide was very well written to avoid spoilers.

Kudos!

Hi there, in the SoG players' guide, I noticed that "Willowshore Urchin" is the only non-rare background specific to this AP. Is that a misprint?
Also, the skill feats given in each background do not match those with the skill training given from the same background. How is that possible, when the skill feats require one to be trained in the skills being used for them in the first place?

Hi there, in the SoG players' guide, I noticed that "Willowshore Urchin" is the only non-rare background specific to this AP. Is that a misprint?

Also, the skill feats given in each background do not match those with the skill training given from the same background. How is that possible, when the skill feats require one to be trained in the skills being used for them in the first place?

That's a typo. All of the backgrounds should be Rare since they only really work well or make sense for this specific Adventure Path.

The skill feats granted by the backgrounds bypass the normal requirements for those skill feats. In effect, taking that background replaces the normal prerequisites you need to select that skill feat. Another reason why these backgrounds are Rare—they bend the rules slightly.

Really good looking guide and nice to see little details.

I especially enjoyed well-provided map of the locale and descriptions of places in the town.

However reading it left me with some questions - one that most important - it feels like there are some elements that are mentioned but there are no clear references where to look for the information about them. For this particular guide that would be information on local deities. I know a bit about Pharasma, but everyone else is new to me. Would be nice to either have a short description about local deities (or figures of power or whatnot) or at least get a short reference list to books where such information could be found.
It could prove useful for both new and experienced players and GMs alike - always having some data where to find some knowledge without having to go and search several books and trying to find information there. Would save a lot of time in a long run.

I find it interesting that worship of a CE goddess like Lady Nanbyo is more acceptable in the town than even in some evil-aligned governments.

I find it interesting that worship of a CE goddess like Lady Nanbyo is more acceptable in the town than even in some evil-aligned governments.

To be fair it's likely less that they're actively worshipping her so much as engaging in an extremely common historical practice of supplicating her to avoid her attention by appeasing her.

Yeah Lady Nanbyo is explicitly one of those "people try to appease the god of disaster" dealios in lore