Oliver von Spreckelsen's page

Haven't thought about the Battle in Devildrome yet (I loved the atmosphere in the original adventure).

as for Dinketry: I will need to finish chapter 1 first. I am thinking of making it available via Pathfinder Infinite. (I have a separate translation job, that has a higher prioritiy atm)

The Backgrounds are nearly 1:1 the one's that were posted here elsewhere. I just made some tiny changes to them.

The biggest problem of Council of Thieves is disappointed expections. The Players expect an AP where they are rebelling against the House of Thrune, but in the end they are the Batman of Westcrown. You only need to change the initial speech of Janiven Key and the players will know what to expect from this campaign. (Yes, there are some other problems, too, but that's the main one. And Second Darkness + Serpent Skull have this problem, too)

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).

Have you reached The Sixfold Trial yet?

No, but I am aware of the complications that might arise. I will test the waters with the amount of acting they like to do during the rehearsals.

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)

One of the biggest disappointments (wrong expectations) can be salvaged, if you switch the speech of Janiven Key at the beginning to a speech, trying to make Westcrown a place worth living again. This shifts the tone of the complete campaign from "Down with the House Thrune" to "We are Batman".

For my translation I have redone the complete speech. If anyone is interested, I can send it via PM (in German, but i can try to translate to English).

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.

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.

Those small changes circumvent a lot of the issues this campaign has.

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.

I can help... I have translated the Adventure Path (with some minor corrections) and I also have the original part for 6 players.

... and now Peter Lankton, too.

Just an idea for the original poster... put this play for six roles up at Pathfinder Infinite.

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.

But to get out ahead and manage expectations, after learning some key lessons from Council of Thieves...

That's why I changed the campaign around to a "We are Batman" vibe... rewrote the speech from Janiven completely. => no more false expectations

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).

Great news. (plus the book is now ordered...)

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.

I'd say "Got for it!".

Let the players get rid of Arael and take over the Children of Anarchy. Make sure Janiven stays with them so you still have a guiding hand o0ver the actions of the group.

No sub or PDF for AP subscribers => no book sale from me (and I am a completionist).

Reason: Paying for shipping to Germany for the book plus paying extra for the PDF means I will have costs of more than double the normal asking price to have the book in paper and PDF.

Plan:
Step 1: Buy the book at my FLGS (no shipping costs there).
Step 2: Buy the PDF, when I need it (i.e. I will DM the adventure). Since I have not run a Starfinder campaign yet, the probability of this happening is between 0 and 1%.
Step 3: Ask the same about the next adventure in Starfinder Adventures.

QED - Therefore: No book sale from me. PDF only when I am going to play this thing (in other words - probably never). I will look at it at my LFGS and make my decision there. I am profoundly puzzled by this decision.

Seconded, the shipping costs to Germany for the book only (and no PDF) would kill the orders for Starfinder Adventures for me.

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.

Given that the exploration of Walcourt may take more than one trip into the house, the group may change their decision upon the second or thrird tmie they enter the house.

That will make the encounter with Ilnerik very challenging... Good luck!

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.

a level 6 monster can barely hit a level 10 PC. It's considered an "extremely low threat lackey", by the book's definition.

That is correct, if you want to compare its lethality. But you wanted to compare its statistics because a level 6 monster is a challenge for a group of level 6 PCs it should have the same values for attributes and hit points and that is not the case.

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.

As I am preparing Council of Thieves for PF 2e, this is interesting for me, too.

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)

Fireball, focus, full attack, focus, full attack...

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

THANK YOU !!!!

This one has "Adventure Path" on its cover...

Sailing from Egorian to Westcrown is possible using the Stavian Arches. They are described in the Player's Guide and the Cheliax Campaign Setting book.

Count me in! Will there be another big compilation at the end or should I pull the trigger for each book?

No, he's not supposed to die in Act VI. It should be a narrow thing, and perhaps he goes unconscious, but dying is not the expected outcome for that act.

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.

I'd go with higher levels of the Stupefied condition.

Critical Failure = Stupefied level + 4 (and perhaps Doomed +1)
Failure = Stupefied level + 2
Success = Stupefied level + 1
Critical Success = Stupefied level stays

Cure: 2 successful critical successes?

As long as the Kyuss worm runs rampant in your body, the Stupefied condition does not go down automatically.

Once the level of Stupefied reaches half your INT (rounded up), each failure and critical failure adds one level of the Doomed condition. That will make players very uncomfortable.

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).

My hat's off to you all and your great work to bring the Paizo crew into our homes.

Thank you! (<- Insert all caps to the left)