NineHostages's page

I love the Estrels and I think they should have their own book one day, "Practical Starfish Summoning for Beginners"

I promised I would share this, the Gullslayer!

Gullslayer – Aura – moderate abjuration; CL – 5th Slot – None – Price – 8000 gp Weight – 3ibs.

This +1 returning boomerang is carved from a rare hard wood, which is black and resinous. It’s surface is decorated with stylized images of human hunters dancing over a fallen bird. If thrown at a target with a natural fly speed, the boomerang has the additional effect of removing the target’s ability to fly, if it fails a Fortitude save (DC 20). With a loud crack of thunder and a dramatic burst of light, gravity will claim the offender. The struck target immediately plummets to the ground, and will be dealt falling damage based on it’s height. The subject’s fly speed is reduced to 0 for 1d4 rounds, but is otherwise unaffected and can still act normally on the ground.

Construction – Requirements – Craft Magic Arms and Armor, hold animal, feather fall, Cost – 4000 gp

Thank you LazarX, that is an elegant solution. I'm looking to make this more low-powered, so I don't think it will actually paralyze the target, just make them fall. I will share when I calculate cost and crafting stuff.

Reverse Gravity? It's certainly powerful enough (if not more).

That is quite a spell, but I believe it says flying creatures can maintain their position.

I'm designing a magic weapon with the intended purpose of bringing down any monster with a natural fly speed, for a short time. I've been sifting through the books to find a suitable spell or magic weapon property that fits the bill, but I can't seem to find one (and that's ok, I just want to know if there's a model I can use).

To be more specific, I'm thinking this is a boomerang which can, on a successful hit, and with a failed save, reduce a creature's fly speed to 0, and bring them crashing down to earth. The effect should only last a few rounds, or just one.

Disturbing things lurk in the deep sea! Azure Abyss is coming the end of this month (for real this time). We hit a few snags that had delayed the project and playtesting took much longer than expected as well. All the bumps have been ironed out, and we are in the final editing phase for most of it.

WOO! Good to hear, definitely looking forward to it. I just want to take this opportunity to say that Alluria Publishing is awesome in every way, and in the last year you've gone above and beyond my expectations in terms of the great products you've put out.

The Cobalt Coast and the Viridian Veil will be postponed, and the Bestiary Compendium will be next, followed by a few surprise products. Onward!

Too bad about the setting stuff, but I am REALLY excited about the Bestiary, and I think even Paizo fans who don't use Cerulean Seas will be pleased with it when it's ready to go.

JiCi wrote:

Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:

Hey people. Just a heads up, work has resumed on Azure Abyss. It's looking great.

Alrighty, keep us posted ^_^

Will do.

Once again, the anticipation is KILLING ME!!!

I think some interesting things have been touched on here. A lot of the responses have focused more on general GMing advice than on writing adventures. It makes me realize that writing an adventure is, to a certain extent, creating an incredibly detailed set of campaign notes for other people to use. A writer needs to make some good solid stat blocks, useful maps, but otherwise do the same thing any GM would do when planning a game (with more detail). Not such a deep observation I guess.

I find it challenging because I don't run campaigns that way. I improvise like crazy, I barely plot out encounters, I ignore a whole bunch of rules, and my games are usually really fun for everyone (maybe they wouldn't be for some of you). When I make storytelling mistakes, or the players don't do what I expect, I simply steer the story in a new direction, because that is one of the wonderful things that role-playing games allow you to do.

From what people have described, running a flexible, open-ended story, with emphasis on player choice and control is a recipe for success in this game, and I would agree. But an adventure module seems to be the opposite of that by it's very nature.

I'm not saying writing one isn't worth my time, I find it to be a rewarding challenge. But there's so much about them that are sort of inimical to a successful game (railroading). Eh, I'm not saying anything constructive here...

I really appreciate all of this advice though! I guess I'm curious now about how people think of modules as providing something "different" from normal homebrew campaign experiences. When is a module innovative or inspiring? When does it do something amazing that you couldn't do left to your own devices?

Wow! Thank you so much for the responses everyone, this is some great advice. I'm feeling kind of stupid for buying the Kobold Guide to Game Design now (not really, it's actually a pretty cool book).

A few things I am hearing consistently -

- Avoid railroading (I'm trying to go as sandbox as possible while still having it be investigation-focused)

- Let the players be in the spotlight, and let them feel rewarded (I do get attached to my NPC's, but yes, absolutely)

- Don't let back-story dominate the text (another personal pitfall of mine, I love Rise of the Runelords for it's attention to detail and atmosphere, but I see that there are lines to be drawn)

Here's something I'm hung up on. Some people are saying that in a "mystery-style adventure", you shouldn't place impassable brick walls in front of the players, in the form of tough skill checks or obscure clues. Other people are saying that you shouldn't hold the players hands as they work through the story, and that they should feel like they're accomplishing something. It's honestly a tough balance to strike, for me anyway. Right now I'm considering just having a fail-safe event occur after a period of time that points the investigators toward the final dungeon, where all questions will be answered. If they solved any previous mysteries, they will be better prepared and better informed about what they are facing, but they still get to go fight the Big Bad. Does that reduce the importance of their investigations to mere side quests? Am I being too nice here!?

- Don't assume they will understand clues.

- Don't assume they will make their skill checks.
- Don't assume they won't figure everything out quicker than you anticipated.
- Don't assume they will fail at something.
- Don't assume they will care about a cool backstory for your adventure/NPCs.
- Don't assume they won't retreat.
- Don't assume they will retreat!
- Don't assume they will like or hate someone they're supposed to.

Thanks! Those are very helpful actually, I'm trying to put together an investigative/roleplaying heavy story. Here's a much more specific question. Do any of you find the inclusion of NPC quoted text annoying? I find myself doing that a lot, and because I have lots of weird, grotesque characters I feel like it's necessary to evoke their personalities and quirks.

I'm trying my hand at writing up a proper adventure module, with a fairly complex story, interesting encounters, etc. I'm wondering what people think defines a truly awful adventure. What should I avoid? With both the story and the statistics, what are the worst mistakes a writer can make? As players or GMs using a module, what drives you crazy?

For me, this is sort of an attempt to approach my campaigns differently. As a GM I normally run a loose, open-ended story where I improvise pretty much everything.

And maybe, just maybe if there's room, we could have some NPC's that feature the new base classes included in the books (of which there are now 5, and we may have more coming). I find the NPC Codex to be insanely useful, and I would love to have some Mariners and Kahunas to insert into my campaign. Even if they only go up to level 10, it would still be awesome.

I think the Kahuna class opened up a whole can of worms about spirits and spiritual influence in the Cerulean Seas, so I personally would like to see some of those appear in the Bestiary. They could be incorporeal, or be more like the Kami from the PFB3. Also, I second the call for more outsiders!

I too was very impressed with the books that have come out thus far, and am desperately excited for Indigo Ice, I HOPE IT COMES SOON!!!. Since people are suggesting ideas for updates and stuff for new products, I thought I'd throw in some ideas of my own.

- I like the idea of aquatic class archetypes, and it would be really awesome to see some expanded material for the new cerulean seas classes, especially the Mariner (archetypes, swim stunts, etc.). In Waves of Thought, I can see some interesting synergy between the Mariner and the psychoportation discipline.

- The aquanaut's mutation abilities are really wonderful and full of flavor, and it would be cool to see them implemented in some new ways. There could be feats or racial traits that grant permanent mutations to starting characters. I can also imagine mutations working really well for psionic items. Who wouldn't want to wear a suit of living armor that can inflate like a blowfish?

- On the subject of Psionics Expanded, one of my players wanted to play a regular human, so we decided to re-skin the Aegis class to make an ancient diving suit from a lost civilization, which can manifest customization powers. He is currently trapped in the suit, but he doesn't really mind.

It's interesting that you bring this up, because I've been thinking about using moneyless, anarchist communities in my homebrew Pathfinder setting, and I'm still struggling to make it work without science fiction technology.

My inspiration is actually drawn from a totally separate rpg called Eclipse Phase, which you should all check out because it's awesome, and it features some interesting examples of a "post-scarcity society". Basically, there are three different kinds of economy that people use, New, Transitional, and Old. A new economy is totally moneyless, with reputation networks replacing any kind of capital. Basically, imagine that your whole community monitors your activities and contributions, and you have a rep score that improves based on how much you help out. This then gives you access to more resources and services. A transitional system uses money and reputation, with corporations and political blocs maintaining tight control over people's use of fabrication devices. The old system is basically the same as what we have now, and in the future setting of Eclipse Phase, only psychotic military despots still use it.

For my (fantasy) setting, I have small, mostly rural communities that are self-governing, and mostly self-sufficient thanks to an alliance between a circle of wizards and some local indigenous medicine men, who can work together to ensure bountiful harvests, and enough food for everyone. I've decided to use a system where each member of a community has a magical sigil, or a tattoo, that represents his or her contributions, and also valuable skills and knowledge. This sigil determines what kinds of resources the players in my game can get for free, and what kinds of favors they can call in if they need them. If they go out and kill a dragon, and thus save all the villages in the area, they are rewarded with influence and the resources of a whole community, which seems to me like a better reward anyway (plus it's easier to manage).