King.Ozymandius's page

King.Ozymandius wrote:

Considering the decay that happened to the Serpent Folk after the 'death' of Ydersius, I am honestly surprised that more humans are not attempting to find out what happened to Aroden and fix it, before the same decay affects humans. Or maybe it already has. Hrrm. Interesting thought: perhaps the assassination of Aroden was a potentially successful attempt to destroy all humans?

Interesting!

The largest human civilization, one that expanded across and explored the known world, Taldor, has fallen into decline, with various nations splitting off from it. A nation centered primarily around his faith has fallen to diabolism, and literally embraces Hell.

Decline of humanity, as a race? You're soaking in it!

If one were inclined, this would be a great seed to steer Golarion away from being a humanocentric setting, with the current situation of Taldor, bemoaning it's glory days (and sort of reliving that, rather than facing their decline), being spread around the world. (Tian Xa is already facing a similar situation, with a great nation fallen into a dozen successor states, some ruled by oni, a kraken or jorogumo!)

Absolutely. The evidence of human decay and decline over the past century (since whatever happened to Aroden) is definitely there. This thread has also prompted me to contemplate what that possible motive implies.

Even the sudden explosion of other races as 'playable' could be traced back to this. We never used to be able to play Goblins or Strix, for example, and now those options are available. Humans are no longer the 'major race' in this game to the same extent as they were. Their days are numbered, exactly like what happened to the Serpent Folk.

Seriously, you'd expect intelligent humans to work this out, and want to fix it. Desperately. Every bit as much as the Serpent Folk want to heal and recover Ydersius.

Considering the decay that happened to the Serpent Folk after the 'death' of Ydersius, I am honestly surprised that more humans are not attempting to find out what happened to Aroden and fix it, before the same decay affects humans. Or maybe it already has. Hrrm. Interesting thought: perhaps the assassination of Aroden was a potentially successful attempt to destroy all humans?

Ah, I see, then - you use a different metric than me. For me the APs are measured by:

1) How exciting the overall story and feel of the campaign are
2) How engaging are the NPCs and environments
3) How many exciting specific moments/encounters are there in the AP

Or, in short, how much the AP inspires me to tell it's story to the players. I don't really adhere to the "AP as written" view point either - I always change a ton of stuff. What I care about, though, is that the AP as written be a story I wish to share with my friends. So for me, Curse of the Crimson Throne is much much better than Mummy's Mask, despite a lot of design flaws in it.

Oh! I see. Yes, those three criteria are also vital, but I usually spruce things up as necessary, adding NPCs as required for my story.

For example, when I began Serpent's Skull, I included three extra NPCs over and above the ones in the AP.

I also allowed the PCs to rescue and heal Alton Devers so that he could tell them about the backstory.

I have done something very similar with Mummy's Mask as below (campaign synopsis written for my players).

THE MUMMY’S MASK – THE STORM RIDERS
Date/Time: 13/06/4714, 8:00pm
Current Party Location: The Whispering Stone

While the party rests at the Whispering Stone on the night of 13th 4714 AR, the following things occur.

• Amestri is openly approached by Teht Blackblossom and invited to participate in the rites of Calistria downstairs.
• Nathan Alabaster reads the spellbooks looted from the Sand Scorpions and the Scorched Hand for research purposes.
• Reis Kho discovers that he has indeed been accepted as a Pathfinder when he is asked to write full reports for the Society.
• Shahazadei contemplates seeking training in how to fight, after feeling completely useless in the battle with the Agash Div.
• Suhad Sawalha has absented herself from the Storm Riders for currently unknown reasons.
• Tsuki Takahashi remains mysterious. That night, however, she sees familiar faces in the crowd at the Whispering Stone.
• Vagna ‘Troubled’ Hammertime continues his annoyance with rest of the Storm Riders over the whole Scythe trap incident.

The following things also become apparent from overheard rumours.

• An auction is announced that will be held in three days time for all of the artefacts recovered from the Necropolis.
• The lottery of Pharasma has been placed on hold pending review. Sites already assigned remain available, though.
• Angus, Groknar, Patricia, and Simon have decided to register as their own adventuring company, the ‘Brave Raiders’.
• Azaz Arafe is working 100 hours of community service at the Grand Mausoleum of Wati. He is not speaking to Khelru.
• Khelru, after being freed from magical compulsions, voluntarily chooses to serve penance at the Insula Mater Hospital.
• Farhaan, friendly owner of the Tooth and Hookah Inn, has closed his establishment while renovations occur after the fire.
• Black Kiss is found dead in her cell, having written in her own blood on the walls, threats of vengeance eternal on everyone.
• The other members of the Sand Scorpions are also deceased, having died attempting to betray and murder the Scorched Hand.
• Velriana Hypaxes is ransomed by her mysterious and wealthy patron, released from prison, and her whereabouts are unknown.

I am primarily running Mummy's Mask because I am a massive fan of the Mummy movies with Brendan Frazer, which is the kind of story I am going for. :) Now I will have to check out Crimson Throne more closely, have never run that one.

King.Ozymandius wrote:

I do not agree. I am finding Mummy's Mask an excellent AP, better even than Serpent's Skull, because it gives me all the tools I need as GM to build an actual world for my players. Admittedly, I am not running it exactly as written, but that is because I am allowing the decisions made by my players to influence the outcome.

This has led to two major differences which will impact on play.

- Due to a PC offhand comment, Velriana Hypaxes and Black Kiss are allied, both intending to betray the other at the first opportunity.
- Ydorii, seduced and then treated very well by one of the PCs, reconsidered her association with people who treat her poorly.

There are also numerous minor changes I am keeping track of. All six of the players seem very interested in the game and what will happen next, to the point where apparently they talk about it while I am not there. :)

Isn't this just an example of good GMing, though? I mean, which AP would not give you the tools to build an actual world for your players? (among the Paizo APs, that is).

I'm asking, because Serpent's Skull is universally considered to be one of the most problematic APs Paizo has ever done, because it requires a ton of GM work to make it playable, and even then the potential is not all that high, if you just stick to the books (the latter half of the campaign is mostly unexciting dungeon crawls).

Compared to the other Paizo APs, would you still say Mummy's Mask is excellent? if you had to rank the APs, how highly would Mummy's Mask rank?

Well. I must admit that I rarely stick to the 'AP as written' viewpoint, I take what is given and make it fly. So you may have a point there, Lord Snow. :)

My personal opinion is that there is a definite improvement in quality over time for the Adventure Paths.

The latest ones are simply better than the older ones, though there is still room for improvement in places.

I presume this is because of experience.

My evidence for this is simple: I needed to do far less work as GM to get Mummy's Mask off the ground than I needed to do for any of the others that I have run as GM.