Question on Liberty's Edge Liberator Reward, is that supposed to be 6+ goals completed or was it meant to be 7 like the other cards?
It is meant to be 6+ goals because the Liberty's Edge Faction Journal Card is an exception to the rule that all cards have seven non-GM-related goals. The card does, however, have the same number of checkbox requirements (not including a few special "you can check this box in addition to another box" ones).
Thank you for the clarification. You can see how far I've read on the cards so far. Looking great so far!
The other thing that GM stars allow on the RP side of things is a bonus on rerolls equal to the number of GM Stars and also you can use your GM stars to replay a scenario or module since there is a no replay rule. Also, there's a chronicle sheet that you can add to a character to gain bonuses as well based on your GM Star count.
Since the ACG allows replays as you can't exactly use out of character knowledge to gain an advantage and adding your star total to a reroll in ACG would be very powerful, I don't think we need those rewards. In my opinion, if there was a reward for "ACG Stars", it would have to be something specific for ACG and not just a copy/paste of the RPG rewards. Mainly, I'd just like them as bragging rights.
I agree with Paladin in Citadel. I would like to see some recognition for sessions ran, but it would need to be separate from RPG stars. I don't know if you want to call it "ACG Stars" or any other name someone can think of, but if we were to have stars linked to the number of games organized, I think it would need to be double or triple compared to the RPG side of things.
For our weekly group, I normally schedule a 4 hour window like we would normally for PFS, but I also run two or three scenarios in a night. Not only that, but I think with giving out "ACG Stars", it would help promote people running more games in my opinion, similar to the RPG side. Of course, some people still wouldn't want to organize the game, but it would be a nice reward.
Since there was a post on the FB group for PFS, I figured I'd post my picture again here to show how I reported it. In my characters situation, I played Wu Jen, took the reward and drew a dagger, but chose not to take it. I then upgraded one card in my deck from the board and took the MW Tools (Item B) to replace my Caltrops.
Here's an additional question: Should we follow the same PFS template and include both the date and the event code in the "GM Initials and Pathfinder Society ID#" field? That way it's a little easier to track.
Edit: MW Tools is an Item B card, not Item 1 - Sorry!
If this works out anything like PFS does, then you should be able to sign off on chronicle sheets without a problem. I don't see anything in the guide saying you have to have a VO sign off on a chronicle sheet.
Nefreet wrote up a great post in regards to this subject, along with links backing up all official decisions. This is something handy that all gunslingers should keep around, especially when messing with different material types.
Amazing! I know I'll be getting a deck. I've been tempted to do something like this on my own, but now I just need to be patient and wait until December. (Sounds like a great Christmas gift for any PFS judges you want to show your appreciation to!)
The worst thing I've seen happen from the player perspective is having the GM come to the table with the mentality "If I don't kill a player during this scenario, I will feel like I've failed as a GM", and announce that to the players. Later, there was a brief moment with the BBEG where it was very literally the PCs vs the GM. Also, the GM became very agitated when he didn't kill anyone, which just made things worse.
First off, thank you for posting this. I'm getting ready to run a scenario with a chase, so it's always good to review these rules.
I agree with The Fox on this one. It's always going to be based on what kind of challenge the PCs are facing. I'm going to use the example chase map that is included in the chase rules from the PRD. This is all matter of opinion on how I'd run this chase map.
Assuming you're getting the +16 from fly, you could auto pass the cluttered rooftop check (acrobatics dc 10) and use fly to fly over the secret handholds (perception dc25)
The only ones I see that would be a problem to overtake with fly would be "Gap in the Wall", "Hidden Shortcut" and "Narrow Hole in the Wall". For those three, it all depends on how the area is described. If it's a wall that leads into a building, the flying PC isn't going to just fly to overtake, he's going to need to enter the building. If it's just a crack in a wall that he could climb over (such as Gap in the Wall combined with Clothesline Tightrope), then I'd let him use fly to get over that one as well.
Thanks BNW! In situations like you're referring to, I completely agree. The examples you gave is just like forcing a rouge to search every 10 feet down a dungeon corridor in my opinion. That even includes scenarios like Library in the Lion. I don't expect them to know the mechanics of searching a room, so I took time to explain that the moment they opened the first door.
Since this is a puzzle room, that's where my thought was coming from. I didn't know if anyone had a player ask if they can calculate the angles or trying to use cleverness to figure out the solution to the puzzle. Since this is a puzzle that can be figured out with trial and error, I didn't want to give them the answer on a silver platter, but make them feel like they figured something out on their own.
Fully agree on your point Jeff. I've been looking over the differences between all three options and it's just surprising how much of a power difference you'll have between those three. The players who own Mythic Adventures are going to have a much greater advantage over those who don't.
This is one of those situations where my economics degree kicks in and I'm curious if this scenario is going to cause a large increase of sales of Mythic Adventures or not, just to take advantage of option 1.
BNW, here's some differences I'm noticing between options 2 and 3. (Option 2 = chronicle sheets, option 3 = someone who hasn't played part 2)
Minor differences:
1. HP: Option 2 gives you 12 extra HP and option 3 gives you 15
2. Ability Score: Option 2 gives you a +2 to any ability score and option 3 does not.
3. Mythic Power Usage: Option 2 gives you 9 usages of Mythic Power and option 3 gives you 11.
4. Surge: Option 2 gives you 1d6+1, rolled twice, taking the highest to add into a d20 and option 3 is only 1d6 rolled once.
Major differences:
Option 2 allows you to pick two of the following mythic abilities on the second mythic sheet: Absorb Blow, Beast's Fury, Fleet Charge, Legendary Magic, Rally, or Surprise Strike.
Option 3 allows you to choose two of the following abilities: Heroic Dodge, Heroic Resilience, Heroic Skills, Heroic Speed, Heroic Spellcasting, Heroic Warrior AND you get a versatile surge ability that lets you use Mythic Might, Penetrating Strike, Savant and Unbeatable.
The Heroic abilities are just things you get to add to your character and are static bonuses, but the versatile surge abilities are similar in nature with the mythic choices from option 2, but still less powerful than option 2.
In summary, option 1 (having the book) is better than option 2 and option 2 is better than option 3 in my opinion.
While the GM in question does sound like a jerk, remember that it is the GM's job to be the antagonist to the players. I know it might look like we're maliciously trying to kill your characters, but we're secretly rooting for them the entire time.
Victor, I respectfully disagree with your views expressed above.
I agree with nosig on this one Victor. When judging, for me, the story is more important than the combats in 90% of the cases. (I've played through Bonekeep and that's the one time I've seen that combat is more important than the story.)
As judge, I want to challenge the PCs, but it's not ME who's challenging them, it's the bad guys and encounters that the writer has provided me to deliver those challenges, I'm just the puppet master making those monsters do what they do. I'm sitting at under ~15 PFS scenarios and no character deaths. I've had a few close calls, but I don't pull my punches. I don't bask in the glory of the moment when a creature crits with a x4 weapon, because it wasn't me who crit, but that creature. There's a difference between being a jerk and being a good judge. There's a paragraph in the GM 101 that best explains my viewpoint. (Bolding for emphasis.)
GM 101 wrote:
Killing PCs
PC death should be fairly rare. A GM’s job is to create a fun
time for the players, so don’t adopt a GM vs. player mentality.
That said, PC deaths do happen for any number of reasons.
A GM should try to avoid PC deaths with less-experienced
players and lower tiers. PC death is more acceptable at the
higher tiers and with more experienced players.
I've seen what some of those mythic feats can do and even a one time use boon is still going to be a game changer. I would of hated to see what would happen if you could gain a free mythic feat or change a current feat to a mythic feat. Things would have gotten crazy, fast. Pick just the right feat and you could make scenarios like Bonekeep look like child's play.
I ran this on 3/23. I hated it and my players hated it. I think it should be taken off the website and rewritten. I will certainly avoid any scenarios written by the this author in the future.
DonKeebals, I respectfully disagree with your views expressed above.
I am on the other end of the scale from you in view...
I'm going to agree with nosig. This is by far one of my favorite scenarios ran to date and my players loved it. Even the fighters who didn't have many skills still had ways to contribute.
I like the suggestions you've provided in regards to Jerusen as that makes a ton of sense as well as for Nyxervex, so I'm going to be working that into my game.
I've had one idea that I've been running through my head in regards to the Mayor and the Council:
CoT:
This idea starts about two weeks before the explosion. What if Crosael has finally gotten tired of trying to find the contract through stealth and finally showed her true colors, let some of the CoT into the lower levels and then roughed up the mayor in order to have him show them the Nessian Spiral and also to try to get the contract from him.
I would imagine that since the Mayor was a bit of a softie that he would be trying to save his own hide as much as possible, so he would show them where the entrance was (since he knew that there was some things down there that he never wanted to see, out of fear of death, so why not send some thieves down there to their own graves), but would hide the contract as he didn't want them to have full control over the manor.
When the explosion happens, he then sees this as a chance to escape and track down the PCs in order to ask them to help him out. It even says in his red text that Crosael was even trying to find the contract, so I think this might help out a little.
As for the barricades to the area...
Barricades:
If we go with the assumption that Ilnerek has sent his minion to the area to look out for the PCs and he took over the Lieutenants of the Dottari before the explosion, then in Part 1, it mentions that there is a group of nobles that need help with a vampire infestation. Why wouldn't the vampire take this opportunity to send his guards to the area and better secure the area for himself while making it look like the guards are protecting the public?
Thanks once again for your help. I think with these suggestions and getting a chance to talk this through with someone else, I can make this flow a little better. It just means giving my PCs a little downtime after Delvehaven to give them a few breadcrumbs as Treppa stated.
Since this thread hasn't had anything posted in a while, I figured I'll throw my 2cp in here also. Thank you EVERYONE for all your great comments so far. I'm going to be using a ton of the suggestions that have been provided because I do feel like Delvehaven just needed a little extra OOMPH because it's been the thing of legends so far to them.
So here's my thoughts so far. I'll try and use the spoiler buttons liberally:
Dolls:
I do like the idea of giving the dolls spring attack, but I think that I'm going to slowly introduce them throughout the manor. Just watching the PCs at first. I've been listening to some recordings from PaizoCon 2013 (specifically fear 101) and I think I'm going to have them just watch one PC a piece using some of the suggestions given through that session, such as whispering "beware" or "leave this place" when a PC gets close.
I'll also have the dolls be on the lookout for a wayfinder to see if the PCs are friends or enemies (I have a bard in the party that's trying to become a pathfinder, so he took the trait that gave him one). The dolls are on Bisby's side of things, so I figured they are one of his lookouts in the area. I just can't see them getting into too much combat except the hit and run tactics. If the dolls deem them a threat, then I'll have them do the spring attacks and other tactics to try and scare them away. If the PCs are deemed friends, they'll walk into the tea party and be invited to join them. I think then they'll be taken down to Bisby since that would join those two plot lines perfectly.
Vampire's Dilemma:
I love the idea of them plotting back and forth and coming up with a plan on how to attack the PCs. I'm going to be using the ideas Christopher Dudley came up with. I think it's a perfect situation and I think it would compliment the vampires nicely. Much better than just hanging out and waiting.
Also, I think that the stomping around of the triceratops would also alert the vampires just as well as the baying of the hounds, so I'm going to be using that as a conditional factor also.
How to open Delvehaven:
This has been bugging me also. Delvehaven, just based on the prior books, is supposed to be warded, protected and sealed by the Pre-Thrune pathfinders. I think that I'll be putting some puzzle with a wayfinder as well as the red door to help protect the lower levels of Delvehaven. Secondly, the Thrune pathfinders were supposed to have warded this also, so I think that I'm going to set up another puzzle to get past the main gates/front door to Delvehaven. Since this was supposed to be warded by Vheed and the Crux was his personal item, I'm going to link the two together. My initial idea (which will be refined over the weekend, since we game on Tuesday's) is to make it where the crux has to be presented placed on a seal on a specific side and when it's placed on the correct side, it'll release the initial ward. If they place it on the wrong side, I think this would be a good opportunity to revisit the fire damage from the Crux. I'm thinking I'm going to use the 20 fire damage on this one since one of my players currently has resistance to fire 10.
I think that's a good summary of my thoughts so far about what my plans are for Delvehaven. Again, thank you everyone for the suggestions and the ideas. I'll be reading the forums for the rest of the books for sure now. If there's any additional ideas or suggestions, please let me know.
