I came to this thread since I realized there was a gap in my book shelves, and I am super happy with all the replies Paizo & Aaron have been giving. Most online retailers today would simply say "backorder" or "out-of-stock", but Paizo goes the extra mile to publicly answer questions and explain things out-right. KUDOS!
I also appreciate that Paizo supports their physical suppliers, such as FLGSs, by not releasing digital product until their physical products hit their street date. This AP's delay has shown that Paizo sticks by that philosophy and has not caved on their morals. Double KUDOS!!
As a TL;DR:
- Book delayed due to import issues
- Ports operate via top-of-stack instead of first-in-first-out, so the container is buried under more recent containers
- There are global supply-chain issues and this just happened to get caught in it
- People are people, so please be patient
- Aaron Shanks is awesome
A big step forward. I'm proud to see the landscape changing is positive ways. I continue to be a fan and ally of the excellent creators and workers of Paizo. Recognizing and accepting this change in business will allow the company to grow as a whole.
When it is time to start a new adventure, I tend to have lots of ideas on games I’m interested in GMing, and pitch those ideas to my players to let them decide which one they want to pursue. The pitch my players have currently selected is for the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path.
The AP is mostly set in Korvosa, and I’ve always loved the details about the Acadamae in that city. I also wanted to incorporate the Academy of Secrets module into the adventure. I like the idea of having the PCs be students at the Academae, and so I have dubbed this modification: “Harry Potter and the Curse of the Crimson Throne”
I will be using this thread as kind of a development diary & campaign journal - this first post is long and explains my set-up, but I’ll come back every few weeks with a new comment summarizing the most recent session.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Initial Concept Pitch to the Players:
All is not well in the Varisian city of Korvosa and its Acadamae of Arcane Arts; your first day as an incoming freshman has been marked by the death of the king, and riots in the streets! While the school traditionally only takes Wizards, they have been forced to expand enrollment due to the high student-mortality rate and dwindling finances; PCs should be some casting class, or find ways to fake it. Can you survive the oncoming rise of tyranny *and* prepare for your potions final?
Expanded Concept:
Welcome to the Korvosan Acadamae for Arcane Arts and Sciences!
To some surprise, you have recently been accepted as a new student to the Acadamae, a university for arcane study in the heart of the city-state of Korvosa, in southern Varisia. Traditionally, the school only accepts wizards who have passed rigorous magical tests, but for one reason or another, these tests have been waived for you and no one has checked to see if you really are a wizard!
Perhaps you just never thought of yourself as powerful enough to get into the Acadamae, or were pressured to apply by overbearing family members out of a sense of tradition. You could have faked your application, bribed a university official, or even had someone else apply on your behalf with embellished stories. Maybe you appealed to a sense of magical diversity, were a part of a legacy admission, or are from a culture or family that the Acadamae wants to make a good impression with. You may not even have any magical talent at all, and were accepted in error, bullied and cheated your way in, or were contracted to have diabolic power forced upon you to correct the deficiency.
The details of your application process and background are up to you, but now that you are accepted the challenge is to avoid expulsion. Students at the Acadamae are pledged as a resource to the university for a period of at least ten years—students either graduate by that time, or die in the process. Failing students are put into dangerous situations to force success as the prevailing teaching philosophy is “diamonds must be forged under heat and pressure.”
Your arrival at the Acadamae is peppered with despair. The Acadamae’s finances are stretched thin, and the student mortality rate is at an all-time high. Your workload and expectations look insurmountable, and each student appears to be focused on advancement in their craft at the expense of all others. Finally, Korvosa’s king, Eodred Arabasti II, has taken ill, resulting in unrest in the streets and a cloud of foul disposition to grip its people.
The kings and queens of Korvosa have long ruled under the shadow of the Curse of the Crimson Throne—an infamous superstition claiming that no monarch of the city of Korvosa shall ever die of old age or produce an heir. Whether or not there is any truth to the legend of the curse, King Arabasti II is poised to be the latest victim to succumb to this foul legacy. Now, the metropolis teeters on the edge of anarchy, and it will fall to a band of new heroes to save Korvosa from the greatest threat it has ever known!
Can you save Korvosa from the oncoming doom and still pass conjuration class?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Beyond the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP, I’ll be layering in material from these sources:
Borrowing NPCs from novels, webfiction, and some PFS player characters, that all have ties to the Acadamae
Before the game began, each player received a “New Student Packet” from the school which included:
A player’s guide formatted and themed as a New Student Guide
A freshman house assignment (they were all House Drake, but I mocked-up one for House Imp too)
A letter of acceptance
A letter from their academic advisor
And a harrow card with a mysterious message on the back ;-)
A picture of the materials is on Know Direction’s facebook page.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The Prologue
I try to find creative ways to provide exposition to my players and set-the-scene for an AP, and I’ve recently found that doing a prologue chapter helps me to accomplish this. In the prologue, the PCs will spend 3 semesters (9 months) attending classes at the Acadamae. This gives the PCs a period of time in which they can get to know each other as both players out-of-game, and characters in-game. The prologue is also meant to give context to the adventure, world-build, and foreshadow NPCs that will play larger roles later in the AP.
I foresaw this playing out as little vignettes of RP, similar to the “scenes in the classrooms” montage in the Harry Potter movies helps to show the kids learning and bonding. Each vignette will introduce 1-3 NPCs that the PCs should vaguely know about, drop a piece of information about Korvosa or the Pathfinder universe, and let the PCs RP out how they generally respond to that NPC and/or ask questions about them.
This also give the PCs room to be creative and come-up with their own situations they feel their characters would get into while at a wizarding boarding school, and RP out how the other PCs would have joined-in or responded to the situation.
Each semester will also have an “electives” course where a PC can ask the GM to detail out a question as it relates to the game world, and I’ll provide them a short paragraph answer summarizing what stuck with them the most from that class.
I’m not going to be super restrictive about time-versus-information in this chapter either, to avoid constantly returning to every NPC. The character may spend 100% of their time at the school, but the game is only taking-up maybe 2% of the player’s time. So there will be times when I say something to the effect of: “over the course of the semester you will discover that this NPC has X, Y, and Z social traits and quirks.” It may not be the most immersive means, but it is effective on making an impression with the PCs such that they remember that individual.
There are some very-low combats planned so the PCs can get to know how each responds to combat, and some skill challenges planned as part of “course-work” so that party can tell who is good at covering which skills. They can also adjust their 1st level builds as needed during the prologue.
As a reward for completing the prologue, the PCs will be level 2 before the actual story of the AP kicks-in.
I have GMd a few sessions of Starfinder for Society, and am now swinging a home-game into full gear. A common complaint I have heard while GMing, and in talking with fellow players and GMs, is that the Mystic (particularly the pregen Mystic) does not have a true role in starship combat: Their class skills do not lend them to being great at any of the main roles on the ship, and in most parties they end up being a back-up gunner.
Now for my home game, one player has decided to be a shirren-mystic, and takes a stance against being the ship's back-up gunner as they are drawing from the pacifist flavor of some shirren from the core rulebook. So my problem becomes how do I keep them engaged in starship combat?
The answer I've landed on is homebrewing a Medical Officer role. I have heard a few people comment on the lack of a Medical Officer role aboard starships. You have medical officers playing big roles in classic sci-fi shows like Star Trek, so why isn't there one in Starfinder?
Short answer is that there is only a very low chance to inflict damage to PCs/NPCs during starship combat so there is only a cinematic need for a medical officer and not a mechanical need. Hence the need for an alternative rule that having a Medical Officer supports.
Alternative Rule: Player Damage on Critical Thresholds
During cinematic space fights across many sci-fi genres, you will find camera shots that go into the ship and show the crew being tossed around after taking a hit from enemy fire. This might be punctuated by a console exploding and throwing someone back, or by an explosion followed by a stream of cloud-like gas venting.
In this alternative rule set, when a ship receives critical damage (from either a critical hit or by reaching a critical threshold), the crew takes damage after the results of the impacted system are determined.
If a system is brought to Glitching, the officers responsible for that system take 1 point of damage. Bringing a system to Malfunctioning system deals 1d4 damage to its responsible officers and 1 damage to all other officers. Wrecking a system deals 2d6 damage to its responsible officers, and 1d4 damage to all other officers. Finally, if any system rolled was already wrecked, then in addition to moving further up the chart to find the next system impacted, crew damage is inflicted as if the wrecked system hit was a wrecked power core (see page 321 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook).
On capital ships (size huge or larger) where there are more crew members than PCs usually, a wrecked system results in 3d4 incapacitate crew members that support its associated system, and a damaged system that was already wrecked results in an additional 3d4 incapacitated crew members spread evenly across the crew. These crew members are not dead, just temporarily unavailable to assist officers. This may result in a ship not having enough crew members to support all of the officers - or may prevent the ship from being immediately operable in rare circumstances.
Alternative Starship Role: Medical Officer
Your role during starship combat is to keep the crew alive, and to attend to any critical injuries to the crew. A starship can have multiple medical officers and can act during the engineering phase. A medical officer takes penalties associated with damaged life support systems and is responsible for those systems along with the captain. A ship is not required to have a medical officer, but it is encouraged if you are using the Player Damage on Critical Thresholds alternative rules above.
Medical Officer Actions:
Maintain Life Support (Engineering Phase):
You can use your knowledge and understanding of healing and anatomy to push life support systems back into functional range for short periods. This functions as the Hold It Together action for the engineer role except that the medical officer can substitute the Life Science, Medicine, or Mysticism skill in place of an Engineering check, and the action can only target the life support systems of a ship.
Restore Life Support (Engineering Phase, Push):
By succeeding at a Life Sciences, Medicine, or Mysticism check (DC = 15 + 2 x your starship tier), and spending a point of resolve, you can repair the life support system of a ship by two steps. This repair remains in effect for 1 hour.
Assign Medical Teams (Engineering Phase, Minor):
On capital ships, a team of 3 crew members can form a medical team on command to attend to incapacitated crew members. With a Medicine or Mysticism check (DC = 15 + your starship tier) you can assign a medical team to restore 1d4 crew members back to active duty in a singular system role of your choice. For every 5 by which you beat the DC, you restore an additional 1 crew member to active duty.
Treat Bridge Crew (Engineering Phase):
You can actively attend to the effects of stressful combat on the ship's officers. With a Life Sciences, Medicine, or Mysticism check (DC = 10 + 2 x your starship tier), you can restore either 1d4 stamina points to a singular officer, or 1 stamina point to all officers (including yourself). If treating an individual officer, you restore an additional 1d4 stamina for every 5 by which you beat the DC. This can restore stamina to a maximum amount of stamina equal to what their stamina score was at the start of starship combat.
Mid-Combat Surgery (Engineering Phase):
If you have at least 6 ranks in Medicine, you can use the Treat Deadly Wounds function of the Medicine skill once during a starship combat encounter. This action costs 1 resolve point, but takes only a singular round of starship combat.
Faith Shielding (Engineering Phase, Push):
By being particularly devout, you can momentarily increase the shields of your ship. By succeeding at a Mysticism check (DC = 20 + 2 x your starship tier) you gain an amount of temporary Shield Points equal to 5% of your ship's PCU rating. These points are evenly distributed at first but can be reassigned by the science officer as normal. Treat these Shield Points as temporary and subtract from them first. Any temporary Shield Points remaining at the end of the round are lost.
OMG! I can actually see what changes are in the Additional Resources without needing to squint and wiggle the screen! Thank you for that. It may not seem like much to others, but that is by-far the best change for myself and other color-blind users ^_^
Love the character concept. I have a similar character (Kitsune Wood Oracle - melee type with daisho and the wood-armor revelation looking like samurai armor) and I went with Sovereign Court. That faction is supposed to be "nobles without boarders" and being a chosen defender of the First World meant I was essentially a noble or ambassador. That was my reasoning anyway.
Just an FYI: Armor for unusual creatures states that creatures of size Tiny or smaller divide the armor bonus by 2 from armor and shields.
Still a nice AC boost for your wizard, but the bonus to AC would be 6, not 13, unless your familiar was altered to size Small or larger at the time you activated the immediate action.
I feel there are far better boosts to your AC though... Mage Armor and Shield come to mind.
Wonderful writing Linda! The story-so-far cards look like they will make an excellent way to easily summarize meta-plot before running some of the older scenarios that are linked to that meta-plot.
Justin Riddler
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 8
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Mountain Stance Armor Aura moderate transmutation and conjuration; CL 6th
Slot armor; Price 29,250 gp; Weight 40 lbs.
Description
This +2 balanced (Ultimate Equipment) adamantine mountain pattern armor (Ultimate Equipment) sheds pebbles and dirt while worn, and assists in holding the front line of battle. Its wearer gains a +4 bonus to his CMD to resist bull rush, drag, pull, and reposition combat maneuvers so long as he stands on natural or worked stone or earth. This bonus also applies to his CMD when calculating the acrobatics check needed to move through his square or to pass through a threatened area without provoking an attack of opportunity.
At the beginning of his turn, if the armor’s wearer is occupying the same square he was occupying since the beginning of his last turn, then his DR from this armor doubles to 4/-, and all squares adjacent to him count as difficult terrain for his enemies. These effects cease as soon as the wearer moves intentionally or is moved forcibly from that square.
Construction Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, cat’s grace, stone call (Advanced Player’s Guide); Cost 19,900 gp
The 2 things which stood out to me about the playtest format was the time frame, and the no GM credit.
I understand that 1 month is the best time frame for the design team, however I plan-out the PFS event I organize several months out and did not find time to play a PFS game during the span of time. Probably poor foresight on my part for not realizing when the upcoming playtest window was, but even 1-2 extra weeks would have made a difference.
I did find time to read-up on a few of the classes and even start GMing a game specifically for playtesting them, but it was something I had already done most of the prep-work for GMing anyway. The toughest part was finding the time to read-up all of the appropriate rules for my players to assist them with character building and rules; which caused a few of them to change their mind about playing a playtest class b/c I was unable to answer questions as quickly as usual.
I understand that when GMing you are not providing as much feedback on the playtest as you would be if you were playing one of the new classes, but there is definitely an investment in learning and adjudicating the interaction of the new abilities with the existing rules - and I feel that for the PFS boon, this would merit some GM incentive. I really liked the way the boon worked that John and Mark put together; I would suggest that maybe 1 line be able to be applied as GM credit for a game where you had one or more playtesting players. This way those who would like to contribute to the playtest do not feel like they HAVE to be playing, and they can GM at least one time around.
Played this on Saturday with a small group (3 players + pregen Seoni). I really enjoyed it.
Spoiler:
I played a Sovereign Court LN Cleric of Abadar, so my character was none-too-keen on revolution, or on overthrowing the city's government. With ungodly amounts of diplomacy and some fun role-playing we were able to garner much-of if not the entire background of the city.
It became clear to my character that the queen had seized control of the area in a subversive manner, but was not guilty of any crimes that would warrant overthrowing her. We talked with many members of the populace and arrived at the conclusion that the majority of the city wanted another form of government and were not happy with their immortal ruler.
Since the elemental guards refused to acknowledge my character's own nobility and grant us an audience with the queen, we forced our way into her chambers to begin discussing the situation.
We expressed to her that her subjects are restless and warned her that rebellion will be continuous if she does not abdicate her throne and go into exile. Due to some misconstrued messages between player characters, combat began when the party monk/cavalier tried to free to Oread captive before we could negotiate for their release.
When the dust settled, I used my magic to prevent the Queen and her lover from dying, and revived them. She plead to be allowed to leave and offered our group wishes in exchange. Our group discussed it, agreed to let her live in exile (as befits a noble), and used the 3 wishes for the following:
1) that she return to the City of Brass and never leave its confines so long as she draws breath,
2) that she never set mind upon Crystalcrag again, and
3) that she is always able to find contentment in the City of Brass
As a slight critique, I really really wanted to know the names of the captive Pathfinders... now I just have to make-up names for the 3 follow vanities I just purchased :-p
~animate dead pregens even if the skeletonized gunslinger retains weapon proficiencies
~animate dead pregens even it they were only controlled by the GM to make the table's 4th PC
~use Ventriloquism to bluff a Speak with Dead spell
~off-balance the cost of death at multi-table events by bringing a Staff of Life
~be a smart-allec to Ambrus Valsin about his receding hair-line
~call attention to Aram Zey's mole
~ask the Paracountess what she did with all those shoes I brought her in
Spoiler:
Darkest Vengeance
~charge outside of channel radius of our cleric or life-oracle
~charge outside of the sight range of our clouded-vision oracle
~charge outside of channel radius/sight range of our clouded-vision life-oracle
~speed-run First Steps b/c everyone at the table has played it already
~lie to my faction leader that I accomplished my mission and think that they can't overcome my Bluff check
~reassure a player that their high AC with only a 5% chance of being hit by the BBEG will mean they will survive the scenario
~organize PFS events at 4 locations a week (pre my VL days)
~protest that Venture-Lieutenants *DO* exist even when there is no published material to verify this
~doubt that Sheila Heidmarch has properly prepared the party and throughly answered all of our questions
~request that Aram Zey teleport us to the location of our mission rather than send us by boat
~use the word "Priest" to describe my Razmiran sorcerer and let the party think they've got a cleric up until someone asks for me to channel
~call any class overpowered in the wake of me running
Spoiler:
Cultist's Kiss, Drow of Darklands Pyramid, Waking Rune, No Plunder No Pay, or Eyes of the Ten... take your pick
~purposefully fail my Knowledge (Religion) check so that I can call Lissala the goddess of runes, obedience, friendship, & rainbows
~accuse Osprey of being useless
~use my Batman voice when RPing Osprey
~retort accusations of Osprey being useless with "Because I'm Osprey!"
~channel my inner Ron Holgate (ala 1776) when RPing Colson Maldris
wow almost a month later and support is still nonexistent. not to mention one more module iv been charged for and haven't received. am i the only person in the world being shafted by this company?
Sorry to hear that your comics arrived damaged. Which ones arrived damaged?
As the Pathfinder Comics are produced by Dynamite and not Paizo, we do not control its release schedule. The month of November had 5 comic releases, which lumped together with the comic release for December to bring you to 6 comics. The month of November did not have a general subscription run, so many comics subscribers saw these subs roll together.
I have my own Razmirian Priest, so I'll change-it-up with some of my own examples:
Blargh Blark is a Rogue/Barbarian who is convinced that doors are the most dangerous foe on the face of Golarion (since everyone else seems to freak-out when they encounter them in dungeons). Mixed with Orcish warrior-mentality Blargh calls himself a "Slayer of Doors".
There is also Shikibu who, while he's a Tiefling Ranger/Living Monolith, is flavored more on traditional and popular Oni mythology and calls himself a Bushi. He activates his Freebooter's Bane by calling out "challenges" to the enemy's honor.
I applaud creative and themed character concepts; especially when the player really gets into their character and/or the characters of others.
The 2 promo cards (Poog of Zarongel & Fire Sneeze) that are currently released are available to subscribers who's subscriptions include either a copy of the Base Set or the Character Add-On Deck. If you start a subscription with the Skinsaw Murder's Deck and notify us via email, we can add the Character Add-On Deck to your subscription—which will ship as soon as possible and include the 2 promo cards.
Beyond the subscription, Poog of Zarongel as well as many future promos are available to retailers for including in their Adventure Card Game sales, however it is up to each individual retailer to work this out with their distributor. Fire Sneeze is our convention promo and may be available at conventions in the future.
I am not sure if i should post this question here or in the paizo products subforum (or even in the customer service subforum), if it doesn't belong here please move it.
I just recieved AP 52, jade regent 4 forest of spirits that i ordered from via amazon.uk from the books2anywhereUS seller and the book is pretty beat up for a new copy.
So i would like to ask Paizo if they had any printing issues with that volume, specifically the book has folding marks and a little scratched top right corner, the upper end of the binding is a little loose and the lower left corner also has folding marks.
Do any or all of these faults lie with Paizo and their priters or not?
PS. I am saying this just to be clear, i don't have any claims of Paizo for my somewhat damaged product, i didn't buy it from them so i can't ask anything, i am just trying to find out how to rate this specific seller and i don't want to blame them for something that isn't their fault (in the case that this specific AP volume, or a batch of it had problems from the printing end).
We ask that you first go through the original seller of the product to refund and exchange your damaged copy. If they are unwilling or unable to assist you, please let us know via email: customer.service@paizo.com
I am always struck with awe and amazement with how excellent some costumers are since I was never really good at it. Very superb work! Hope your professor recognizes your talent ^_^
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
