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World maps would always be useful. The societies do not have to be fleshed out in detail, but general brush strokes would be useful. Stellar organizations and corporations would also be helpful. How do these groups actually operate across multiple planets? How did they get so big? What do they sell and why is it different from other competitors? You can never have enough starships and most importantly starship pawns! Gizmos! Never enough tech toys.
I have no problem with what the Paladin did. He is sworn to oppose Chaos. The succubus was Chaotic. Therefore smite. The same could be said for a chaotic neutral rogue. He was not sworn to oppose evil, he was sworn to oppose chaos. No matter what Abbadar would have been pleased with the disposal of anther chaotic creature, succubus or rogue.
The guards are running toward the bar, you are a bystander at the doorway. They obvious notice you are there. They will not ignore you as if you were to there. You decide to ready your weapon to brace. Roll initiative. Depending upon your roll you may be last, so readying that weapon my not b very useful. Let's assume initiative is Guard 1, you, guard 2. Guard 1 moves to you and attacks. You ready your weapon of a charge. Guard 2 moves forward and attacks you. This does not set off the readied action... Just in general I think the whole idea is a pretty ill conceived one. I presume the guards are complete and total idiots who think you do not in any way exist. They see you at the door with a pole arm. Yes, you are a threat. You want to begin combat? Sure thin roll initiative. No free actions, no surprise actions. In fact, heck if I were GM, I would do something like "If the PC at the door with the big obvious weapon decides to ready his spear for a brace, I will throw my sword and cut his head off first." There, fixes that problem. Generally speaking when you have to ask, "Hey why can't I do this?
Surprise
Sometimes all the combatants on a side are aware of their opponents, sometimes none are, and sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few combatants on each side are aware and the other combatants on each side are unaware. Determining awareness may call for Perception checks or other checks. The Surprise Round: If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take a standard or move action during the surprise round. You can also take free actions during the surprise round. If no one or everyone is surprised, no surprise round occurs. Unaware Combatants: Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC. Those are the rules for Surprise. I do not think that using Slight of Hand will suddenly make an opponent unaware that you are there. While the opponent might be alarmed, or shocked, that you would pull a weapon he was not expecting, he is still on his guard and in a defensive position against you.
Technically TSR was using the phrase Adventure Path long before Paizo existed. That is why Paizo dropped their trademark on the phrase Adventure Path, it was in use long before them. If you look at the earliest AP from Paizo the have the ™ symbol by the phrase Adventure Path. They later dropped the ™ when they realized it had a firm back history within the industry and they would have large legal costs trying to defend that trademark. The term Adventure Path is generic.
Is forced servitude of something that has no soul innate slavery? Fire elementals are creatures of fire. They have no souls. They are living fire. by the same logic is using a horse the same as enslaving the horse. I would imagine that a horse forced into battle by a fighter is not wildly happy about the situation. I also expect the cow on the farm is not real happy about becoming next week's dinner. Should these animals not be set free? I like the idea behind this topic of discussion.
The way I handle banks and national currency in my Golarion games is the Church of Abadar. The church of Abadar sets the international standard of what a gold piece is and is worth, it sets the value of items such as spices, silk, eggs, and swords. And nearly all of their temples, churches, and shrines act as banks. This explains why every country's currency is worth the same amount, and why prices are the same everywhere. On the front of the coin is an image chosen by the country, and on the back is a symbol chosen by the church. All coins are actually minted by the church. I also have market days opened and closed by a cleric of Abadar. He wanders the market and randomly checks vendors and buyers to be sure they are not cheating by using shaved coins or whatever. For banks, the grandest temples in a country's capital serves as the county's national bank. Smaller churches and even shrines act as banks in smaller communities. They lend money and collect interest. They protect valuables and cash. There just are not many people who are willing to risk the wrath of one of the most popular, and powerful deities. Especially in a world where the god's are so active. I also use Abadar banks for long distance "bank notes." A character traveling from Absalom to Janderhoff can deposit cash in Absalom and receive a certificate of deposit. When he arrives in Janderhoff he presents the certificate of deposit to the local church of Abadar and receives credit worth that 1/2 that amount, until verified (usually 2 weeks to a month). No one in my games has attempted fraud due to the perceived severe repercussions that could follow.
So I was browsing magic items and had a thought. Magic Items are generally designed for combat or adventuring. Yet the majority of the world's inhabitants are non-adventurers. Shouldn't there be magic items for the every day person in the world? So I was wondering what kinds of magic items would you craft to make every day life easier on the average worker?
these seem like things that Prestidigitation could do... so how would use Prestidigitation or other 0-level or low level spells to make magic items for the every day person? Also, how much would you charge for something like this? Browsing the magic item creation rules, wondrous items, it would seem prices would be around 2700gp. (Using .5 modifier for 0-level spell and cast at minimum caster level 3 to craft wondrous items, a command word activated skillet of cooking and cleaning would cost .5 x 3 x 1,800gp for a total of 2700gp! That seems very expensive.)
Now here is the problem... No character can command its mount to make a charge in the same round per RAW and FAQs. The reason why, is that to begin the whole process the ride rust expend a Move Action to make the Handle Animal check to initiate the attack. And the Charge itself is a Full Round Action, so the rider cannot take both a Move Action and a Full Round Action. A rider could make the Handle Animal check and then Charge on the next round by RAW and FAQs. But that essentially means the rider must take two rounds to make a charge. However, this is the way I propose it be handled. 1) The knight uses his Move Action to attempt a DC 10 Handle Animal check. If successful the horse makes a Charge down the field. 2) The movement and charge are part of the horse's action allotments. Full Round Action to Charge 3) The knight must attempt a DC 5 Ride check to guide the horse with his knees. If he fails he must choose which hand to use to guide the horse. Using the primary hand means not making the attack attempt. Using the secondary had means lowering his shield, reducing his AC. This is not an action. 4) Assuming success the knight must now make a DC 10 Ride check to be able to make his attack. This is a Free Action 5) Assuming another success, he then makes a single attack "as if he were the one making the charge himself." That is he incurs the -2 AC penalty and gains the +2 bonus to hit, and if using a lance, it deals triple damage. This would be handled as a Standard Action. 6) The horse also makes an attack, with -2 penalty to AC and bonus +2 to hit. This is the free attack the horse gets as part of its Charge. 7) After the attack, the knight has been hit. He must attempt a DC 5 Ride check to Stay in the Saddle, otherwise he falls from his horse. This is not an action. Now we can try this same scenario in a slightly different way. Instead of the knight attacking with lance, he is attacking with bow and arrow. 1) The knight uses his Move Action to attempt a DC 10 Handle Animal check. If successful the horse makes a Charge down the field. 2) The movement and charge are part of the horse's action allotments. Horse's full round action 3) The knight must attempt a DC 5 Ride check to guide the horse with his knees. If he fails he must choose which hand to use to guide the horse. Either way he cannot make his bow attack as both hands are needed to make the attack. If the knight fails the Ride check it would be logical to use the primary hand, allowing him to use his secondary had, and its buckler for defense. This is not an action. 4) Assuming success the knight must now make a DC 10 Ride check to be able to make his attack. This is a Free Action. 5) Assuming another success, he then uses a standard action to make a single attack . He fires his bow. He does not gain the +2 bonus to hit, nor the -2 penalty to AC because the knight himself is not using the charge action. This is a standard action, but gains no penalties or bonuses from the Charge. 6) The horse makes its attack that was part of the charge attack. The horse gains +2 to hit, but suffers -2 to AC. This is the free attack part of the Charge. 7) After the attack, the knight has been hit. He must attempt a DC 5 Ride check to Stay in the Saddle, otherwise he falls from his horse. This is not an Action. Those are essentially the steps and rolls that I would use to make either a charge, or attack while the mount is charging in mounted combat. Both scenarios require 7 steps, and are the same, except for step 5. It is a pain in the a$$ if you ask me. To clear this all up, Handle Animal must be modified to change the action type necessary to have an animal attack. To be honest in the case of a Mounted Charge, or Mounted Combat in any form, I would drop the Handle Animal check (unless the animal was not combat trained). I would also add the damage taken to the Ride check to Stay in the Saddle when damage has been taken.
This is in fact a wonderful thing for power gamers to ignore. No power gamer wants those extra, unnecessary pounds of encumbrance. But as a GM I LOVE power gamers. What? No bedroll? Really? Okay, you had a hard time sleeping last night, and all the creepy crawlies kept bothering you. Make a Fort save against fatigue. Maybe next time you will bring your bedroll...
A friend of mins is running a game and it has made me want to run one similar to his. He is using PFS scenarios as scenes in an ongoing narrative campaign. It is a lot of fun to work on with him. So what I am interested in knowing is, could I make this work within PFS? In essence we are tying together scenarios with a narrative thread. There is a big story going on in Absalom. All kinds of hurt is on the way. But these stories are played out in ROLEplaying between scenarios that occur in Absalom (or nearby). The story and roleplaying does not affect what happens IN scenarios. They are run as written. We use all PFS rules, including 3 scenarios to level. So, could I run this and award the players actual Chronicles for having completed the scenarios? There is nothing that we are doing that changes Society play, other than making a narrative campaign out of the scenarios.
The rules prevent it. Magic Item Creation are guidelines not hard set rules, they are up to GM to allow/disallow or change. The Item can not be created by RAW as it is not listed under spells able to be made permanent on items, just a location. So if you want to play king of the hill and stand in a spot then sure you can have hour AMF. And without magic a Dragon will still mess up/ murderate said fighter in hand to hand. Please show the quote by RAW where ONLY spells able to be made permanent (assuming using the Permanency spell) can be made into magic items. In the section on creating magic-items there is no mention of this at all. The Permanency spell is not necessary for creating items.
Agreed. Admittedly I am the player that doesn't like "editing" in my backstory, and that hasn't changed; although I make my backgrounds for games a lot less story now and more just background stuff. I heard that if it can't be summed up in a paragraph then it's too complicated, so I quit doing that. Also in any AP I always take campaign specific things, and pour over the gazeteer to find some angle, I put effort into integrating so as not to... Every character can be reduced to a paragraph description, but to get to that paragraph there are volumes of interest still available, even if to yourself if no one else. In my opinion, a background should cover the basic reporter's questions: Who, where, when, what, and why. They can be as short or as elaborate as you want. At a recent game session the GM turned to a new player and asked him where his character was from. The player responded "I am an elf." The GM responded "Okay, I did not ask WHAT you were, I asked where you are from. So where does your elf come from?" The player's eyes literally bulged (I swear they did) and he looked like a deer staring at headlights. I grabbed a map and pointed to a few likely places and the GM and I decided where he was from, and why he had gone from his homeland to the Land of the Linnorn Kings. Now the GM knew WHO he was, WHERE he came from and WHY he left, and was able to enter him into the game. We knew WHAT he was (a gunslinger). The only question left was WHEN, which I assume is young adult (sort of the default starting age)- his age answers When because it gives us a starting point in history and everything can be answered within the range of his age. Anyway, short and sweet or long and narrative, that is what I look for in a background; Who, When, Where, What and Why. BTW usually I am not interested in How... but if you can make it interesting then sure.
When I run a game the first session is about creating characters. No one brings a character, no one should even have a character concept in mind yet. The first session does all of that. Character creation becomes a group exercise, and as GM I direct where the players are going, but let them run wild within the framework I set up. At the end of the session, every player has a character and a history. Every character has a link to the other characters. The party has formed and we are now ready to "begin" the adventure. BTW I like random background generators. People tend to pick the same background over and over, varying the flavor only by the smallest amounts. Go to one PFS game and find an elven ranger (almost certainly named Legollas); ask his background; go to another session and find another elven ranger (almost certainly named Legollas); yeah his background is almost the same as that other guy's. A random generator makes the player figure out a character based upon things he would not have normally chosen.
There are no rules, to me, that are blatantly broken or require extensive overhaul. From 3.0 to 3.5, Pathfinder Beta, and Pathfinder, I think the core rule system of the d20 works quite well. HOWEVER We need a 2nd edition for one major reason. Organization. If you want to find a rule for something you probably need to check at least four chapters. Even then you will probably not have found all the rules applying. In my vision of Pathfinder 2.0, there is no abandoning of the system at all. People will want to buy the new rules simply to have something more easily searched, that makes sense from an organizational view. They can keep their old rules, or just update to a better book. Not all players will upgrade, but many will, and all new players will. It avoids an edition war. Total win-win for everyone.
Th issue about desert and ranged combat... From the CRB... "Rocky deserts have towers and mesas consisting of flat ground surrounded on all sides by cliffs and steep slopes (as described in Mountain Terrain). Sandy deserts sometimes have quicksand; this functions as described in Marsh Terrain, although desert quicksand is a waterless mixture of fine sand and dust. All desert terrain is crisscrossed with dry streambeds (treat as trenches 5 to 15 feet wide) that fill with water on the rare occasions when rain falls." So we have towers, and mesas, cliffs, and steep slopes, quicksand, and trench like stream beds. All of these areas and more bring combat in nice and close. Dunes are flowing hills of sand. You have no idea what lies on the other side until you get to the top at best. It does not take much to make a low level party suffer in the desert.
UGGGGG you broke my heart! I assumed this water trap was derived from the legend of Queen Nitocris. Her husband, the Pharaoh, was murdered by rebel nobles. She created a new feast room in the palace and invited the murderers to feast to make peace. She left the room and pulled a lever outside that locked the door and opened a channel that led to the Nile. It flooded the feast hall and killed her husband's murderers. So when I saw that water trap I was excited that someone knew their Egyptian history! Alas, it was just a cool trap. :( Still a cool trap though.
I am trying to put together a list of all Blakros family related scenarios. So far I have:
The Disappeared and Fortress of the Nail are listed on Pathfinderwiki.com as being part of the Blakros Matrimony Arc. While the descriptions of the scenarios leave room that this could be the case, I could see no hard and fast connection without purchasing them Additionally, Pathfinderwiki.com lists
Can anyone definitively confirm that The Disappeared, Fortress of the Nail, The Dog Pharaoh's Tomb, Snakes in the Field, and Storming the Diamond Gate are connected to the Blakros family? Additionally are there any other scenarios and resources that mention or are connected to the Blakros family?
O MG THAT is awesome. The Reckoning has come to the Grand Lodge... I am weaving together a (non-PFS) campaign that uses pathfinder scenarios with modules and home-brew adventures. THAT just became the end fight for the game.
A fantastic source for character names is Babynames.com In the advanced search you can select gender, number of syllables, and ethnic origin. Also useful is NameList.net with its random name generator creating first and surnames for a handful of countries. I often take two first names and mash them to get a "fantasy" name. But I also make sure that the name sounds good and does not make me snicker.
Also: I'd love to hear from other folks as well. What do people think of having... In the days of old, characters earned XP by doing two things: Killing monsters and hoarding gold. Every monster was worth a set number of XP and each gold piece was worth one XP. I thought it was a great idea to get rid of the link between gold and XP. The gold was reward enough in its own right. But that left killing monsters as the only way to level a character. But killing monsters leads to some pretty stupid game results. For example I once had my party about to leave town on a quest, and the town's general store owner came running out to join them so he could level up. lol Personally, I believe XP should ONLY be awarded for completing quests. This provides incentive for players to be more creative in how they deal with obstacles. Killing is not the only way to deal with monsters then. I know there will be a lot of people who hate this idea, but then I am sure there were a lot of people who hated that gold no longer awarded XP. I think as the industry matures that quest rewards will be the way to get XP in the future.
This is a great time to create a new look for the Adventure Paths. The 3.5 APs used a specific design style for their covers. The covers changed for Pathfinder rules. The current style of cover is several years old now, and it is time to retire that look. Instead, the covers of the IG AP should harken to metal band album art just like IxionZero posted.
It's just a shame the artwork put into the maps basically goes to waste during play. With just a shading layer and a quick FoW deal, it could help heighten the mood. Then again, I am a tech guy trying to bridge my hobby with my hobby. :)I don't consider it going "to waste" at all. If something is beautiful to the GM, that can inspire the GM to run the game. If it's ugly, it won't. Well I suppose that is one way of looking at it. But back in the heyday of the 80s, the maps in adventures were not "beautiful" but GMs still ran them. The maps then were often just graph paper maps with symbols for features. I am not sure how many people flip through adventures and judge whether they want to run the game mostly on the look of the maps. I doubt there are very many who base their purchases on the maps. Honestly, yeah I have always considered the gorgeous maps produced by Paizo to be a tragic waste. Every time I see one of the gorgeous maps I sigh because the map the players see is a crudely hand-drawn graph paper map on a big mat. But 4 out of 5 people who participate in the adventure only see a crappy hand drawn map. Now don't get me wrong, I am not faulting Paizo at all. It would be prohibitively expensive to print full scale versions of every map. I have created scale maps and printed them out and even relatively small maps require many pages. BUT!!!!!! I think when Paizo releases Game Space one of the best sales pitches will be that finally those beautiful maps can be fully utilized. The problem hasn't been a lack of beautiful maps, or the printing of the maps, but the consumer-level technology to fully utilize those maps at a cost effective manner. So in effect, Paizo has always been just ahead of its time. The tech is just now becoming available to use those maps. So keep them coming. BTW... another viable alternative... 3d Virtual Tabletop should be able to link tablets, PCs, and phones together. So players can manipulate their characters on their devices and everyone will see the results! AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting ideas here. Easiest way around the problem of what XP path to use is to not use one at all. When I run an AP I never track XP, there is no need for it ever, really. Just tell your players when they level up. I would warn them ahead of time that leveling will be VERY SLOW and ad hoc to fit the story as needed.
With the spread the Endure Elements protects against, heat and cold should not be an issue. It protects from a range of -50F to 140F. Dehydration and lack of game for food is a problem PCs will run into. They will have to either prepare spells or have wands or scrolls at the ready. I would expect Survival checks to be a some penalty due to scarceness. Movement would also be a problem. Sand and rough terrain will hamper movement. Fighters wanting to make charge attacks will be quite upset. Desert blindness would be an issue. I am sure there will be some kind of goggles to help with that. As with today's real world, a well prepared party could find ways to mitigate the hazards and penalties of a desert environment. But then, that still gets down to resource management. They have to spend gold on spells for their comfort rather than on keeping them alive. Also don't forget sandstorms and other natural and unnatural phenomena will be darn near impossible to guard against. And unless the PCs intend to haul all of their gear down onto the dungeons (tents and barrels of water become quite difficult to carry during combat) their supplies are always subject to raiders. Personally I would expect the natural desert to play a role only in the first book. After that the PCs should be able to mitigate the hazards of a natural desert. Further books can feature UNnatural hazards of the desert, such as magic sandstorms, glass-sand, living sand (sand elementals), etc.
I try and speed up combat in several ways. First is remove any and all clutter. That includes rule books. Have each player print a copy of ALL applicable rules for his character. Start with all racial rules, then class features, and feats. Should a character want to use an ability and not remember how it works, I have them look it up, during which time their character Delays its action. Spellcasters use spell cards. This removes the temptation to browse through spells and not pay attention to what is going on. No web browsing, no Facebook, no texting. Other things I do to speed up combat is to lessen the rolling I do as GM. I do this in a couple of ways. First, when I make my notes before the game, I include a FULL stat block for every NPC. I preroll initiative for everyone and write the total amount for initiative. If the NPC is not named I always assume a roll of 10 and just go with it. Named NPCs actually get a d20 roll. BBEG get a d20 and d6 roll for initiative. Every NPC with the same init modifier always is run as a group this way. Second thing I do is when making my stat blocks, I change skills to skill total plus 10, and use that number and do not roll even for BBEGs. So an NPC will Perception +6 is written as Perception 16. Same thing for Saves. The next thing I do in combat is have the PCs roll my attacks. Wait, you say, that is ridiculous! Well, not really... Let's say I have a NPC with a melee attack of Long Sword +8 (1d8+4/19-20). I rewrite that attack as Long Sword 18 (8/1-2). The PC rolls his DEFENSE against my attack score. So, I have the fighter (AC = 10+ 8 for armor and +2 for Dex)) make an AC roll of 10 ( armor and Dex) plus d20, against my attack of 18 ( as above). If the PC rolls a 1 or 2 it is a potential crit. If the confirmation roll fails to block the attack it IS a crit. I do this for each type of AC, so if I need to make a touch attack, I have the PC roll his Touch AC against my attack. The dame is an average amount for a hit, so often this is how I ask for the roll: "John make an AC roll against an 18 long sword attack, 8 damage." John rolls a 16 and knows to automatically apply 8 damage. If he rolled a 1 or a 2 I would ask him to confirm his miss. He still does not get above an 18, I get a crit. In this case, the crit would result in 16 damage. The only exception to this is Named N{PCs, I run them as usual. Why do this? It gives me time to focus my attention on WHAT the NPC is doing rather than on the dice rolls. It also forces players to pay attention when it is not their turn. I MIGHT steal your egg timer rule. My version would be if they do not tell me their action within one minute they delay action as their character is indecisive. I think I would reward resolving the action within one minute by allowing them to move their initiative up one place. So if the initiative was BBEG, Skeleton, Fighter, I would allow the player of the Fighter to move up, so it was BBEG, Fighter, Skeleton. He could move up before the BBEG the next round if he was quick. In a way it makes sense, the action is so quick compared to the other combatants that you move sooner next time.
In my game Mayor Deverin hired a sculptor to fashion a statue of the characters in heroic poses over defeated goblins. It was placed in the Cathedral square with a plaque titled "Heroes of Sandpoint" and their names. Unfortunately the group did not survive Foxglove Manor, and I decided the town quietly pulled down the statue and no one ever talked about it again. lol
Mine was a playboy sorcerer who was very very happy to help Shayliss with her "problem." Ven shows up and is about to punch the poor sorcerer out when the playboy apologizes and asks what he can do to make things right. This led to the immediate betrothal to Shayliss, and Ven demanded the sorcerer investigate just what that scoundrel Harker was doing to brainwash his other daughter Katrine. This led to the party making a late night visit to the sawmill. They get caught lurking about the sawmill. Iborn Thorn gets into a fight with them, thinking they are thieves, and the PCs think he is Harker up to some trick. Everyone but the Barbarian decides to get out of there before things get out of hand... then the barbarian kills Thorn. This leads into a very interesting murder investigation, as the other players had all stepped away as the fight happened. The players themselves did not know what happened. So they begin investigating the murder and the trail leads to their barbarian. Boy were the other players surprised! As the other PCs are closing in on the barbarian, he deciders to make a run for it. He heads to the "safest" place he can think of... the Devil's Plateau– "They will never look for me there!" So I handed another player the Bestiary, and said, "Pick a monster, any monster at all." He picked an Invisible Stalker, which easily killed the barbarian. Yeah, there is a REASON they won't look for you there!
Fortunately the mansion is fireproof and cannot be burned down. The mansion is harsh... harsh enough we had a total party kill in it! On several of the haunts I even added in extra saves to give them chances. Still killed everyone.
Something that might be fun for your players... Run the basic adventure to get them familiar with things... Then run We Be Goblins, a FREE PDF module where the players are goblins near Sandpoint. They get to have FUN as "bad guys," and explore the insanity that is goblins! Then bring them into Rise of the Runelords, either with their first characters or brand new ones that meet their old characters in Sandpoint. For XP, there are a couple of choices. First the AP is designed for FAST XP so you can either slow it down and award actual XP, or Second you can just level them up by GM fiat when they are supposed to. I prefer GM fiat... SO MUCH EASIER!
I like these ideas of using him for side quests. One of the best campaigns I ever played in, a minor NPC managed to escape justice from us players, and became a recurring pain in the a$$. His favorite way of staying alive, was as the fight went against him, he threw down his weapon, dropped to his knees, and pleaded for mercy to the most LG of the players. So I am thinking, run one of these side quests, but when the fight goes against him, he pleads for his life, in a sort of pathetic, sniveling sort of way. Once in jail he manages to escape and come back later in Book 2, in Magnimar to offer trouble again. Then later when the giants attack sand point, he could somehow play a role in the attack...
Just for giggles... This is how *I* would run this... The building is beginning to wobble from the raging fire. It is obvious to you that it is about to collapse in a fiery blaze. The firepelt cougar suddenly begins rolling on the ground, growling and hissing. A faint illusionary image appears over the cougar, of a wounded man writhing in agony as he burns alive. The cougar rears up and attacks the player's ranger (for betraying his bond to nature by killing another ranger- or just because it senses this PC SHOULD have saved the ranger NPC). Just as the building collapses, it explodes, showering shrapnel in a 120-ft. radius around the building (REF for half damage) (FORT to keep from being blown back...say 30 feet). Investigating the ruined building Shelalu finds Jak burned and torn apart... JUST AT THE DOOR! In tears, she curses the PCs as murderers. She tries to collect his remains... but he crumbles to ash. She screams out in agony. She gathers a handful of his ashes, stares menacingly at the PCs and then runs off into the forest. Later she is unable to find a cleric of sufficient power to help her with the money she has. A Contract Devil shows up (Bestiary 3), and offers her comfort. She signs his contract and is granted 3 wishes... but you see, to actually bring him back ALIVE she has to provide a death for his life. So she wishes herself to the PCs (not thinking that it would have been better to wish a PC to her), uses the second wish against the PC she would hate the most "I WISH YOU WERE DEAD" she hisses venomously, and POOF PC drops dead. She has to have her third wish to bring him back so she flees into the woods... maybe caught and killed be preferably gets away. Now the PCs must find a way to bring THEIR guy back from the dead. Ultimately Shelalu joins forces with the Runelord and she faces off against them again in book six, along with Jak...
Okay, first, start your game with the FREE PDF module "We Be Goblins." Run this module as your VERY FIRST Pathfinder adventure. First of all, it is short and easy to run. It will give you a great feel for the game and let you know what your strengths and weaknesses are. Second, the players will get to become familiar with the rules of the game without it affecting their long-term play. Third, it fits well into the first adventure anyway... sort of a foreshadowing of sorts. Okay, Second... or is this the second second... whatever... The Swallowtail Festival is NOT to be overlooked. I believe it is vital to making the locale and personalities of Sandpoint an integral part of the adventure. Have the PCs go through the games, talk to NPCs, try to get them to strike up conversations, have NPCs challenge them to games. Another part I think is vital at the Festival, and you have to ADD this in, is to introduce Justice Ironbriar (who appears in the second book). Have him be a speaker, have him greet the PCs, just a couple of casual encounters is all. The other thing I had him do, is when Sheriff Hemlock goes to Magnimar for support, I had Ironbriar come back with him. Ironbriar has "special" interests in Sandpoint *See second book– I won't put spoilers in here* He helped organize and coordinate the "law" during the final crisis in my game. It worked VERY well. I have a 48 page PDF that I used for my game, my complete notes, even with a time line with a calendar (complete with weather and holidays and planned events for the first part of the game). It should be on my Google Drive (I think). Drop me an email at oclark86 AT gmail DOT com and I will send you a link.
Every time I have a player find something like this and he wants to exploit it I have the same canned response. GM – "You want your character to craft these bullets instead, to make his money?" PC– "Yeah, guaranteed GOLD!" GM– "Yeah, no problem. Let me see your character?" *Takes Character* "Cool, he is now an NPC shopkeeper. Please write up a new character that is going to be an ADVENTURER." PC- *blinks dazedly* GM– "Not kidding. New character."
Much of this rambling is partly for myself :) I too want a metric version of Pathfinder rules, so bear with me. The most fundamental problem involved in converting Pathfinder’s 5-foot square to a metric one has nothing to do with the actual system involved, but with the number of squares involved. A human moves at 6 squares per round, a dwarf at 4 squares per round. During combat, every square matters, so we cannot really change the number of squares used. Using the Imperial metrics a 5-foot square at 6 squares per round equals 30 feet. In one minute that becomes 300 feet, and then an hour becomes 18,000 feet (rounded to 3 miles-which is one league), and then in a 9 hour day we get to 162,000 feet which is 30.6 miles, rounded to 30 miles. BTW this is elegantly displayed as 30 – 300 – 3 – 30. Now using Metric we have two possible options. First we can designate a square as 1 meter, second we can designate it as 1.5 meters. 2-meters will be obviously too much as we will see. At 1-meter per square we get 6 meters per six seconds, which becomes 60 meters in a minute. Then we get 3,600 meters in an hour (round to 4 kilometers). In a 9 hour day we get 32,400 meters or about 32 kilometers. In the 1-meter situation our adventurer travels the equivalent of only 20 miles in a day. That is obviously much too slow. The more optimum scale seems to be 1.5 meters per square, which at 6 squares a round is 9 meters per round. 9 meters per round equals 90 meters per minute, which becomes 5,400 meters per hour (5km), and in a 9 hour day becomes 48,600 meters (50km). At 48,600 meters it is 30.1 miles; almost exactly the distance of the 5-foot square. It also looks pretty cool, 9 – 90 – 5 – 50. The only real problem is we are moving at 1.5 units per square. This means instead of counting movement as 5 – 10 – 15 – 20 – 25 – 30, we count our movement as 1.5 – 3 – 4.5 – 6 – 7.5 – 9. Easy enough until you have to start adding in 1.5 squares for every other diagonal move! In that case the only real way to play the game is to count squares instead of actual distance. Then it just becomes a board game… it’s rather hard to role-play squares! But I have been wanting a metric version of Pathfinder myself, and while writing this it seems, to me, that the optimum conversion is 1.5 meters per square should be used for each 5-square. During combat count in squares rather that meters, or more ideally, use hexes instead of squares! lol
I start a game usually with a conflict, a fight of some kind in the very first scene. It tells the players this will be dangerous, there will be action, don't sit back and expect to be held by the hand. Immediately after that initial conflict I begin world building. By that I mean I introduce the players to NPCs, some important, some not important at all. I let the players interact with the NPCs and react to what they are doing, whether simply exploring, or wenching, or getting drunk in every bar available. I always slide in an important NPC or two very early in the game, usually just a casual mention, and move on. The most important part of the story, for me, is to make it all feel real. I want the players to to "see" the town streets, I want them to "see" the villagers, and I want them to FEEL their home is threatened when stuff starts to happen. The plot will carry itself, the important part to me, is creating fun, interesting and engaging NPCs to bring that plot to life.
The Adventure Card game is designed for supplemental releases of card decks to fill out the game. In addition to the Boxed set you will need to purchase at least 6 other decks. To quote the blurb directly at the top of the page for the Pathfinder Adventure Game "Your adventure begins with a Base Set containing nearly 500 cards, including the first chapter of an Adventure Path that offers your characters interesting locations to explore, monsters to fight, and villains to hunt down, as well as piles of weapons, spells, armor, loot, and everything you need to build you own unique character deck. Expand your party with the Expansion Deck, which offers additional character classes along with more equipment and other options for customizing your character, and lets you bring up to 6 players to the gaming table! The adventure continues in bimonthly Adventure Decks containing 110 cards that extend the Adventure Path begun in the Base Set, adding new scenarios, monsters, villains, weapons, spells, allies, loot, and more! Subscribe to the line to have each new release delivered directly to you. Subscribers receive a 20% discount off MSRP on each new release." Tells you up front that you need additional decks to be released later.
My last group of players died miserably in Aldern's haunted house. Then I got Mythic and decided this AP is PERFECT for Mythic characters. I'm re-writing it now for my next group to try. I'm planning on my group being 5th-tier when they face Karzoug. Each book has a "boss" and I intend to give each boss tiers appropriate to the book number. (for example Nualia would have 1st-tier, Xanesha would be 2nd-tier, Barl Breakbones would be 3rd-tier, etc). The big trick for me is to rewrite the locations in a way to give them that "Mythic" feel. I do not want other, lesser, characters to have mythic tiers. That just seems to dilute the specialness of Mythic. If EVERYONE is mythic then no one really is. Also this is a great way to make Bosses FEEL like
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