Oliver von Spreckelsen's page

You misunderstand me. If you get to rehearsals, you will have bypassed the problem my group had. My players objected to being actors in a murder play in the first place.

With my first group I had everything in place that the idea to participate in the murder PLay would have come from the group (and not from the Pathfinder agent). One member had the Pathfinder connection as background plus he was a descendant of a member of the Expedition 100 years ago. Another member of my group was an illusionist and was working together with Rogall from the theatre troup.

The missing link would have been the information about the Chelaxian Crux. This would have come from a letter from the society or I would have placed the information with the bodyguard of an ancient family in Westcrown who was let go because the family had a big loss on his watch (a third player).

Oliver von Spreckelsen wrote:

Another thing I have found problematic is the motivation of the twins father in the original books. I have found a solution. A harrow reading promised him no male offspring.

That isn't helpful, unless there is a way for the PCs to find out about it.

One of my players will be a Varisian that is a relative of the person who did that Harrow reading.

Oliver von Spreckelsen wrote:

In the dungeon of the first part, let the group find a picture on the wall of "The Founder". This gives a foreshadowing of the end boss of the campaign.

You mean under the temple of Erastil? How would the...

Because his first young endeavor was founding the Bastards, as he was very discintent with his being a tiefling. Later he got more responsibilities in the Council from his Granddad and sister. He used his true form for the Bastards but has been using a Hat of Disguise ever since.

(PM sent.)

Consider the idea with the Shipyard Rats swiped for my campaign. (Thank you)

Dead God's Head = Ydersius...

I have a prepared German document with the campaign backgrounds and the first chapter conversion is nearing completion... but... it is in German.

My German translation of the campaign has been published by Ulisses Spiele and it contains small changes to the campaign regarding the initial motivation to join (no more "Down with the House Thrune", but "We are Batman. Let's make this town a better place to live!") and other clarifications (i.e the motivation of Sidonai) and foreshadowings (a picture of the end boss is shown in the dungeon of the first chapter as "The Founder") to make the campaign more cohesive in terms of motivation for the villains and the PC's.

I'm still here.

PF2e is awesome.

Yesterday my first Paizo shipment without extra import tax arrived (after the new regulations were implemented by the EU). Good job!

I have rewritten the speech of Janiven Key for "Council of Thieves" where the players join the "We are Batman" troupe. It's very easy to shift the tone of the AP from "We are Rebels" to "We want to make the city liveable again".

With the hardest strike against the AP removed, it becomes a much better experience.

I have also changed the Lore skill of the Conspiracy Hunter background to Underground Lore (Westcrown Lore for 3 beackgrounds was too much for me).

Oliver von Spreckelsen wrote:

I will so borrow these backgrounds for my campaign...

THANK YOU !!!!

The only one I'm not completely happy with is The Pathfinder Exile. It still feels a bit underpowered compared to the rest of the list.

In the 1e version of this background the character gains a broken Wayfinder. How about that?

My take would be, that a Delay would not refresh a characters reaction(s). If he still has a reaction from the turn before he is entitled to use it while he delays. His reaction refreshes when he steps back into the initiative order and his turn begins.

Sold! I'm in. Take my money.

"Road to Revolution" by 0OneGames
"Rise of the Drow" by AAW
"The Slumbering Tsar", "The Blight", "Sword of Air", "Northlands" and "Razor Coast" by Frog God Games
"Legendary Planet" by Legendary Games

plus Zeitgeist (ENWorld) and Way of the Wicked (Fire Mountain Games)

Those are finished AP's and all really good ones.

But there are many more unfinished ones (sadly).

I'm in. If you build it, I will come (and give money)...

As soon as the chaos starts the Oberigo family will vanish in fear of further assassination attempts.

Copy editing and then sending it to the printer...looks like June/July at the earliest to me, but that would clash with the release of the Mwangi book.

It's hard to compare something like a Babau and a 6th level Rogue (since both have 2d6 sneak attack) and not say the Babau is stronger in almost every way. Even the weaknesses it has are compensated for by a huge HP pool. Same thing with a Fighter and a Troll, for example.

That is, because one Babau is a same-level threat for a group of 4 PC's. It is not a same-level threat for one PC. You should compare the babau to PC's of of levels 9 or 10 (or even higher). You should find some similarities at that point.

One of the main differences between PF1e and PF2e is it focus of mastery.

PF1e has its focus on the mastery of character creation/optimization.
PF2e has its focus on the mastery of play itself.

If you built a character in PF1e that specialized in something, you had no problem with any encounter, where you were able to use the specialization (e.g. grappling). This leads to many adventures being a cakewalk and not a challenge for the PC's (and neither for the players).

In PF2e you have to find solutions to the different problems that arise from the very different monsters, the three Bestiaries present. If the players do not find the solution, the PC's should either flee or a TPK is imminent. This is what I mean with mastery of play and I find it a much more rewarding way to play (for the players AND the GM).

Beginner Box with the option to continue in "Troubles in Otari" (this will bring you up to level 5) will let you test the waters and see if you like the new system (I love it as a GM btw). If you want to continue, you can use "The Slithering", but that one plays in the deep Mwangi Expanse. With "The Slithering" you will have to start with non-human characters in the Beginner Box.

Afterwards you can start the first 3-issue AP "The Abomination Vaults" (as that one also plays in, around and under Otari) or plunge into a full blown AP (Age of Ashes is an AP where you discover lots of different places around Golarion, Extinction Curse is a romp around the Isle of Kortos, Agents of Edgewatch is an urban AP in Absalom where the PCs are members of the City Watch).

You have to distinguish between the Fame points (and Popularity) throughout the campaign and the Fame (and Prestige i think) from the Faction book (which was released one year later than the AP).

The Fame points from the AP are for the complete group and will determine the overall success for the campaign after the showdown with the main antagonists. These Fame points are also used in the last part of the AP for Fame checks and can be converted into Popularity points (that also count into the final aggregation for the overall success of the campaign).

What you can do, is to calculate in advance, how the group has fared in the first five parts. This together with a measure about how many of the subquests they have solved in the final adventure (i.e. this one), can give you a hint, which kind of success/failure the overall campaign will have for the city and the PCs. You can handwave the final Fame check and describe the outcome after General Vourne has surveyed the situation after the attempted takeover of the antagonists.

Just do whatever you feel is best for your campaign and play style.

I think there is a forum thread in this sub-forum where all the different sources for Fame points throughout the campaign are summarized.

Tieflings of Golarion is the main book to consider for this campaign. My group will have two tieflings and this Player Companion is a must have for any tiefling character.

Path of the Hellknight from the Campaign Setting line comes to my mind, to flesh out the Hellknights.

You need to change the intro to the campaign from "We are going to be rebels" to "We are Batman, we want to make Westcrown a better place to live in". This will save your players from disillusioned anger because the campaign promised something other. The order of the Rack is zealous enough to consider vigilantism as a kind of rebellion against the normal lawful policing groups.

In order to accomplish that you need to rewrite Janivens intro to the group in the tavern (I have done that for my campaign, but in German).

Two other changes I'd suggest:

1) Sidonais motive for starting this mess is unclear. Make it a harrow reading by a Varisian fortune teller, that he would never sire a male offspring.

2) The Bastards of Erebus offer the perfect opportunity to introduce the main villain fairly early and bring some foreshadowing into the campaign. Make it that he is the founder of that group and a picture of his likeness (in all his tiefling glory) hangs on the wall in Palaveen's room.

The Adventurer's Guide has the Council of Thieves as an organization, but it also contains spoilers to the campaign itself.

Some elements of the campaign may be interesting for rules elements from Occult Adventures (i.e. speaking with the ghosts in the third chapter).

Those are products from the 3.5 era of Pathfinder. With the Pathfinder RPG the connection to Psionics was severed.
Dreamscarred Press is essentially a one or two man show now and struggling with the Covid situation. They have a product in developement (Psionics for Starfinder) that takes them ages to finish, but the company is still alive (but not kicking very hard atm).

After layout comes copy editing then printing, shipping, order fulfillment. I'd say in 5-6 months time (middle of second quarter 2021).

I will change the first speech Janiven gives into a speech about making Westcrown a place worth living again. I have also found a motivation for the twins father to make that deal with Hell (a varisian harrower told him he would not sire a male scion).

This should take care of the biggest problems of the AP, i.e. not a rebellion against the House of Thrune instead of saying so in the beginning and having no motive for the Drovenge father to make that deal with Mamon in the first place. (Yes, the sequence of adventures is also not optimal, but if you don't let the group have much downtime between the chapters 3,4,5 and 6 it should work better)

I will so borrow these backgrounds for my campaign...

THANK YOU !!!!

Have someone appear in Falcon's Hollow that is searching for Drazmorg. He's posting a bounty for some things Drazmorg has stolen and made his way here, as Drazmorg seems to search for something important the dwarves in this area have been keeping for a long long time.

Edgrin and his band of adventurers have accompanied Drazmorg and his group. They got separated when the tunnel caved in, i.e. Drazmorg gave the order watch out for the Kobolds here and then the tunnel was coming down (perhaps Drazmorg gave that order too?). Edgrin & company wanted to know about Glimmaxe, so they joined the Drazmorg and his cronies when they met in the Sitting Duck.

One Constitution for Two Nations?

This is one of the campaigns that is on my shortlist to run (the long list is really long).

Aye, that is an ability from her being a succubus, so it is just missing from her statblock.

Puh. Probably she went out disguised as a guard (Alter self) and brought her victim with her and used Charm Monster to bring her victim into the Spiral.

Perhaps the characters are awakened by a combat between the different factions outside of their room in the Spiral.

Introduce him in the theatre after the Six Trials of Larazod with his granddaughter in tow (and perhaps even his grandson with a Hat of Disguise), as he is imperious to his grandchildren.

His death is "shown" in the exploration of Walcourt as the PCs encounter his mutilated corpse in the entry hall.

You need a little side quest to bring the XP of the charachters on par with the campaign. One possibility would be, that Ilnerik sends Vanwhynne after the SCs and they have to put her down in order to be able to resurrect her.

The SC can try to use the Morrowfall to fight the shadow beasts in the streets of Westcrown at night. That should give some XP. You can also set up a first encounter with Dog's Tongue cornered by some shadow beasts.

The SC can try to clear a guild house of the Council of Thieves they have spotted following the shipments that went through the Devildrome. (You can use the maps in the Thieves' Guild Article in part 5)

Some rumours about devils in the city in the south east may also surface, foreshadowing the attempt of the bone devil and the errinyes to free their lord.

Start the fourth chapter when your group has reached 7th level and try to give an emphasis on the side quests before going down into the spiral (the erinnye is a very tough encounter by the way).

Perhaps they are going to be defeated by the council troops when they first attempt to enter the villa and imprisoned. They are freed by one of the traditionalist Council members and need to power up before they can make another attempt to enter the spiral.

The elven queen of Kyonin had 3.5 stats in Elves of Golarion.

Often you can find good ways to explain some of those inconsistencies.

Another Council of Thieves inconsistency (no spoiler is necessary here):
The biggest reason this AP is held in such low regard ist failed expectations. From the start it seems, the PCs have a chance to strike against House Thrune. If the beginning of the campaign would have concentrated on themes like "Make Westcrown Great Again" or "We are Batman" the reviews would have been much more favorable, because then the expectations would have met the outcome of the AP.

"Charter" subscriber here (in at Pathfinder Zero Hour, read the chat protocol - sir_ollibolli). I had one book that took ages to arrive (8 weeks, out of 150+ shipments), one book was damaged (the 2008 Campaign Setting and replaced at no extra cost, provided I send a picture of the damage), one shipment was sent back due to the German Post Office requiring action in 5 days (a change at the beginning of a new year to minimize warehouse cost and I was still thinking two weeks would be sufficient) when you need to get to the Customs Office (this one was resent by Paizo and I had to pay the shipping, but that was my own fault).

Overall: Paizo is very reliable and tries to minimize the (very) high international shipping costs by using smaller (but more) envelopes. Kudos!

I am sorry that I had to cancel the Flip-Mat and Map Pack Accessory subscriptions, but the mixed packages (books and game accessories) was the reasopn that every single shipment to be picked up at the customs office (paying 19% import tax for the accessories instad of 7% for the books always broke the 5 Euro limit for income tax). And it took me about 2 hours to get to the customs office and back.

First Hollow's Last Hope
then Crown of the Kobold King
then the Pallid Plague
then the Return of the Kobold King
then Carnival of Tears
and conclude with Hungry are the Dead

There are many small things you can do to knit those adventures together to form a cohesive campaign.

He has some tunnels running under the walls into the Regio Cader that the Council is using for smuggling things into/from the dead part of the city. Perhaps they find a schedule when the next smuggling shipments are to arrive.

The 10 is from the history of D&D. It is the Base number for Armor Class. A non-armored person with average Dexterity has an AC of 10. This has not changed since 1974.

With the 3rd edition of D&D many mechanics were streamlined, i.e. higher AC value = better AC (before that that acronym THAC0 was very important for playing D&D), the determination of saving throw DC's used the same mechanics (i.e. 10 + spell level + attribute mofifier for spells, 10 + 1/2 hit dice + attribute modifier for monster abilities etc.).

With Pathfidner 1e CMD also used this mechanic. CMD = 10 + Dex-modifier + STR-modifier + size bonus.

Basically 10 has been established as the base target number for any checks involving a D20.

"It takes you 2 minutes to find out, that 3 of the 30 scrolls are magical." In exploration mode you have enough time to do just that.

"After you pitched the Animted Statue into the deep crevasse you look around" "I want to cast Detect Magic." "Are we still in Encounter Mode?" "Yes." "I will move to the corner and cast Detect Magic." "Me. too, but from another corner." "As you do, you feel the earth shudder, as the Animated Statue hits the bottom. There is dust and pebbles coming down from the ceiling as the earth does not stop shaking." "We don't have time to search for all magic items, grab the best things you can get and we need to get out of here...!"

If you do not have enough time, then Detect Magic will only give you a hint. You will have to make your own decisions.

My opinion? This gives better story telling options.

I think one exclusive tavern and inn on the Regicona is in the Westcrown article, The westcrown article also has some shops on the southern part of the peninsula (but not many).

If you want to populate the city further, you can use the Citybooks from Flying Buffalo Games (those are systemless classics, with a lot of meat) or Bard's Gate from Frog God Games, The Great City from 0OneGames or Freeport from Green Ronin.

What I did... (and I GM'ed it twice)

Dear Liz, an important voice in the Paizonian choir is going solo. I will certainly try to hear your voice in the RPG community in the future. I look forward to the same awesome stuff like "The Sundered Legion".

0One Games's "Road to Revolution" is an all-city Adventure Path with the task to discover a conspiracy (i.e. prevent a coup). It features adventures by Tim Hitchcock, Adam Daigle, Liz Courts, John Ling and more Werecabbages. The adventures were written in 3.5 but have been converted to Pathfinder and are available in a collected edition. In conjunction with "The Great City" as a city campaign setting book it is one neat package.

*waves*

My wife suffered a stroke 3,5 years ago. She has recovered quite well, but not well enough to resume her work. Stress causes her bouts of vertigo, her field of vision is impaired and her "Know Direction" skill has some serious mali.

I hope all the best for ktfish7.

...That the guys at the hospital were quick enough to be able to "disintegrate" the blood knot that was causing the trouble before the brain parts died, that suffered the loss of blood supply. This is usually a six hour window and helps tremendously with the recovery (my wife was not able to receive this treatment, as she was already under blood thinners/heart medictaion). Otherwise he will have to relearn many things.

If you want to start in Sandpoint you can begin with the adventures from the Beginner's Box (+ the additional ones that are avaible here for free as PDF). In addition to the "Godsmouth Heresy", there is a 3rd level module "Feast of Ravenmoor" and "Murder's Mark" another 1st level module that are set in Varisia. "Burnt Offering" contains some hooks for the other parts of the campaign.

In addition you can adapt the various Pathfinder Society Scenarios from the current season.

2009 was also the year our translation group and Ulisses Spiele started issuing the first German books for Pathfinder. Only one book (Falkengrunds Letzte Hoffnung = Hollow's Last Hope, as a magazine inlay) that was published still used 3.5 rules (and was also converted in our PDF download). We even managed to publish our Core Rulebook 6 weeks after the original one...

but still - to hold this book in our hands, with our names in it - this moment was special.

We have learned a lot since then, especially about quality, editing and publishing workflow. Now at least 2 books per month are published, 3 Adventure Paths have been issued completely.

Liz Courts wrote:

Oh my poor chat server that day...I think I heard it die in a pyroclastic explosion all the way in Bend.

I kept a log from that day in chat.

goblins.txt

Our first awareness of what Paizo was doing came at 18/03/2008 21:52:19 in the log.

Pardon the PG-13 language throughout...

lalala... (ollibolli@work) ... good times indeed...

18/03/2008 21:02:53 ‹ollibolli› Erik or Czarina: on a completely other channel... what about translations to German? Any news?

Four years and more than 50 German books later..

My role as the fortune teller ascertained that all Paizo employees are indeed...

"Groar..."
"HELP!!! Where's the witch when you need her..?"

On Sunday I watched 'Blues Brothers' and I see some parallels about getting "The Band" back together... "Are you from the police?" "No, we're gamers, Mrs Tarantula"