Any chance these map offerings will be available digitally at a discount for us online DMs?
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Believe me, it's been toned down so much from its initial incarnation that it's almost a different place. I haven't read it through, just scanned it, but near as I can tell, none of the frequent images that caused such discord have remained part of the final version. Any chance we can get an inside scoop what kinds of things were cut?
I'm a pretty big fan of this book. I love the mythological, Epic-sized bent, like the headless titan stumbling through the maelstrom seeking his blaspheming head, or the progenitor hydra whose cultists have spent the last age feeding his entrails in order to reconstitute him. We also get an Essentials sorcerer, the Sha'ir with a heavy focus on elemental familiars, and Monk benders ala Avatar. I'm also a big fan of the elemental companion rules. Really nice all around.
Agree, Blazej. It's still an ugly situation, even after all this time. But there are level heads, mostly from the management and employees of both companies. I hope we fans can take some cues in civility and tact.
Slithering Horror was my favorite by far. My perfect type of monster. Ossuary Golem came in second. I agreed with one of the judges that breaking something isn't always the best answer, and this really turns the idea of bash-now-worry-later on its head. Skintaker was another because it filled such a nice niche, and it was eerie besides. And lastly Splorudra, because of its really old school vibe. I could see it in a number of jungle or swamp based 1e modules, including Temple of the Frog hehe.
Thanks for the third set of eyes on it, Azmahel! I appreciate all feedback. As I suspected before, maybe the noose just isn't right for Pathfinder, at least not in a PG-13 aimed game. I think my preference in more mature games may have blinded me to compatibility issues. I can't really deny the multiple rolls and how clunky they are. The item isn't designed (and probably another fault with it) to be a quick use or particularly easy. It's meant to be an experience, a scene, and I thought the potential of death gave it weight enough to hold players' attentions a few minutes for the rolls and the answers. I guess I also struggle with in-game practicality vs. roleplaying opportunity. Some (probably most) parties would know of a much easier way to acquire divinations and thus purchase the proper scrolls, versus using this item that risks life and death for up to three revelations. I feel the former is a little "gamey", while the latter may be too impractical. I imagine it's all a matter of taste, and how do you account for the tastes of the entire Pathfinder community? I guess that is the essence of being a designer haha. Me personally, I would want to introduce the noose versus a scroll to offer players a chance to explore something new with divinations. I figure even if it's a last resort item, in the proper setting where there's no means to buy any Divination scrolls, they've all run out or they never bothered to purchase any, a player might be willing to risk it all for insight into saving his friends from a dungeon they're trapped in, or to prevent a murder or something like that. That sounds exciting to me. I definitely see your issues with the item and they may very well be the reasons it didn't succeed. Thanks again for your insight, and I'd be interested to hear more of your thoughts.
Hehe, fair enough. I guess the fact there's an easier and safer way to acquire divinations greatly stymies the effectiveness of the item, unless a DM makes considerable adjustments to his game (removing the easy availability of divination scrolls and the divination spell at large). I still really like the concept, and I think it could spark some very intense and dramatic moments in a game, but I realize now for the wider Paizo community it is on the darker side.
I appreciate the honesty, Winterwalker. I certainly understand if the noose isn't for everyone, perhaps only serving a niche of mature, even morbid campaigns. Believe it or not, your words soften the blow of not making the Top 32, though I'm convinced there are deeper issues with the design itself.
I'm sure there's glaring mechanical errors, but I really liked my concept at least. I think the risk of the noose killing a PC might have put me on the rejection pile, even though I sort of revel big risks for big rewards. Feedback is appreciated!
Once a day, whoever possesses the noose may ask a question and slip it around her neck. Immediately the coarse hemp tightens and she begins to suffocate. It is a panicked few seconds, during which the character must make a DC 15 Will save to resist tearing the noose away. A successful check provides her with a revelation akin to the divination spell with 90% correctness, but which also relates in some way to her past. She is now at 0 hit points and unconscious. If her check was a success, she may choose to end the revelation chain, otherwise she slips closer to death. In the blackness of her mind, she struggles to hold onto the noose's prophetic link. She must make a DC 20 Will save or lose the connection. Success affords her a second revelation related to her present. Success or failure, she now drops to -1 hp and is dying. If her check was successful, she may choose to end the revelations, or otherwise broach oblivion for one final answer. On the cusp of death, a DC 25 Will save unlocks the noose's most potent revelation, one related to her future. If her check was successful, she remains in her dying state and the noose loosens. If she failed her check, the noose breaks her neck and she dies.
Yeah, good luck everyone! Cannot wait to see your 32 awesome items.
I'd also add that a lot of hybrid combinations are sub-par or quite terrible. They do fill in niches, though, especially when 2 classes have elements you really like. I used an invoker/druid hybrid to make a fairly decent 'fury' class. Then again, they're releasing their final incarnation in this month's Dragon, so we'll have to see.
It'd be cool if every subsequent round built off the wondrous item, like designing its very first maker, an organization based around it, a monster that might logically guard or carry it, an adventure site where it might be kept, and then combining all of those things into an adventure.
I can't wait to see these submissions!
I kept saying I wasn't going to do it, wasn't going to do it, and now I JUST submitted with 4 minutes to spare off an idea I had during the Winter Classic. Haha fun! Good luck all!
Great job! Urgathoa for the win?
I really like this scenario. The idea of following a dwarven thief in the hinterlands and facing her trapped vault is one of those premises that immediately gets both a DM's and players' imaginations going. I also admire anyone who takes dwarves outside their normal expectations (they're one of my favorite races). I think that the story is missing something, though, one more complication or angle. As it is now, it's a very straight forward plot: She was stealing from the society, society sends people after her, those pathfinders go through her trapped vault and recover items (but not her). We never got to hunt her down really, or be duped by her. I think she needed more presence in the adventure. And take my critique as the opinion of an unpublished upstart, but I would have liked to have seen some sort of complication that stretched the boundaries of your multiple-solutions-to-scenarios further. Maybe you could have played more with the Lumber Consortium hot on her heels, or her having stolen a specific relic too desired for her to safely keep, or given the option for Pathfinders to more-cleverly rob the robber. I think if there was just a little more dynamic woven into the plot, it would have carried it that much further. I'm also not sure Torra would be a completely acceptable name. I know you had no intention of likening her to the Torah, but some people get funny about that sort of thing. I don't though and maybe I'm nitpicking. Great submission and I would have played it. I bet the art would have been pretty cool, too, and traps never get enough love so it was good to see them in your submission. Best of luck in then next open call!
Thanks everyone for the guidance. I can't tell you how much better I feel about my next submission after having gone through the process once, seen the latest round of critiques and gotten feedback.
Awesome news!
Thanks for the comments. I should have seen it ran too long from the start, but I guess I was too deep in the process at the time. I sort of took the 5 encounters + 1 optional as the minimum, hehe, oops. Next open call I'm going to give myself time to reflect a little and look back over my submission. I own Decline of Glory and Shipyard Rats I, and both aren't nearly as long as this (and open calls likely would never, ever be accepted as a part 1 of something anyway). You did name my worry with choosing Orcus over Urgathoa. I admittedly haven't read the scenarios including any followers of the Pallid Princess, and I did notice in the Campaign Guide Orcus was mentioned as a minor presence. I figured a disillusioned son of a necromancer might be a small enough sort of in for the demon lord. Then again, it probably came off as not Golarion enough, which is very well might not be. I like the idea of the Urgathoans making the Ring of Unrot and the Cult of Pharasma as the ones to partner with.
Hi all. Looking for critiques. I promise to post to your rejections, too. Bride of Orcus: The tomb of an ancient lich has been discovered outside the town of Falcon's Hollow, drawing the attention of both the Pathfinder Society and the local Cult of Urgathoa. When a magic ring goes missing from the crypt and undead begin attacking the Hollow in waves, Pathfinders and cultists must work together to uncover the hidden master of these soulless monsters. Through the streets and graveyard of an isolated town, black forests, a demonic chapel, and a dwarven necropolis, PCs will pit their will against unspeakable horror disguised as undying love. PCs arrive in Falcon's Hollow during a zombie attack, helping repel the monsters and earning the appreciation of Sheriff Baleson and Gavel Kreed. Investigation of the newly-discovered tomb shows evidence of a missing ring, but only after an encounter with cultists of Urgathoa do they learn the true nature of the Ring of Unrot and its rejuvenating properties. Sheshema, leader of the Urgathoans, insists on a partnership to recover the relic and expose the source of the recent undead. In the graveyard near town, the PCs stop Kreed and his goons from killing an unconscious man named Sharvaros Vade and his fearful son Savram, the former accused of necromancy. Before anything can be sorted out, a swarm of wights attack, killing many goons and cultists and sending Sheshema fleeing towards the woods. The PCs escort the Vades safely home and learn Sharvaros is indeed a necromancer, that his recent experiments mirror the properties of the Ring of Unrot, and that his driving ambition is raising his dead wife without the help of the gods. Sheriff Baleson arrives after hearing reports of undead in the graveyard, relating that the Hollow had been attacked a second time. Three women were stolen away by ghasts, spurring the PCs to follow the trail into Darkmoon Wood while Baleson takes the Vades into custody. Sheshema reappears, leading them to an unholy site she discovered. The group fights assassin vines to enter a grizzly chapel of Orcus, where two of the women have been slain in some foul ritual by ghasts and a fiendish parson. The PCs manage to save one of the women and take her back home while Sheshema puzzles over the Orcusian ritual. The town is suffering from a third attack when the PCs arrive, this time mobs of dretch. They rescue trapped deputies in the Sheriff's Office and discover Sharvaros, Savram and one of the female deputies are missing. Baleson urges the PCs to go after them, spurring the group back into the Darkmoon Wood. Sheshema finds them and explains the ritual was designed to sacrifice three women for the return of one. With the chapel destroyed, the ceremony must be performed somewhere infused with powerful necromancy, somewhere like Raseri Kanton. The PCs enter the dwarven necropolis, slipping by the roaming dead and finding the new site of the ritual, a half-buried manor. Fighting through gargoyle guardians, they finally come face to face with the secret supplicant of Orcus, the boy Savram. He's convinced a demonic anti-marriage is the only way to restore his family. Savram sacrifices the deputy while his horrified father watches, slipping the rejuvenating Ring of Unrot on his mother's finger and reanimating her gowned corpse. However, Sharvaros recognizes her as nothing more than an abomination and tears the ring off, revealing a bloated, twisted, rotting entity. The necromancer is knocked aside and the PCs must battle the Bride of Orcus. Encounters include a zombie horde on the outskirts of town, an optional battle with cultists of Urgathoa within the lich's tomb, a wight attack in the graveyard, assassin vines in the Darkmoon Wood, ghasts and a fiendish parson in the Chapel of Orcus, a dretch mob inside the town Sheriff's Office, gargoyles in the foyer of the half-buried manor, and a finale with Savram and the abominable Bride in the bedroom suite. The PCs were confronted with a terrible decision during their battle with the Bride, namely what to do about Savram. If they killed him during the final battle, they've made a terrible enemy of Sharvaros, but if they subdued the wayward son they've instead won the necromancer as an ally. Falcon's Hollow is in the PCs' debt. Depending on what the PCs do with the Ring of Unrot, they've gained standing with the Cult of Urgathoa, or otherwise made themselves targets until the relic is in Sheshema's possession. Worst of all, they've garnered Orcus's notice.
Should we expect a confirmation email? I got my confirmation within the allotted 72 hours, so I imagine you will too. I was on the edge of my seat for 2 days, though, hehe. And good luck to everyone! I'm really curious what we all managed to come up with, but I guess I'll have to wait until after acceptance/rejection notices to read any of them.
Were the guidelines of what to include in the pitch also a mandatory format? My submission included everything asked for, but didn't organize things a., b., c., d., e. Regardless my submission was received, but I thought I'd ask for everyone who hasn't submitted yet (and for my future submissions). |