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I expect pre-written adventures to have built their narrative track in a way that makes the scaling somewhat sensible: the goblins reveal their links to their hobgoblin masters, who serve the graveknight, and so on... One of the things I do when writing my own stuff is "You Must Be This Tall to Ride" process - throw out a threat that is quite clearly beyond the party's capabilities to incite them to seek to build their own power. For my wife's first campaign, set in the Forgotten Realms, the PCs were present for a manifestation of an Avatar of Tempus, who charged the cleric (one of the PCs) to sack Menzoberranzan. They were 1st level. They went looking for trouble as a process to gather power and material to fulfill the quest.
For our group, at least, trust is "I trust you not to make this unfun." But that trust must extend not only to the GM, but to the other players. - Don't hog the spotlight.
The fudging question has to do, it seems to me, with the group's definition of fun and whether the game or the story is the priority. There's no wrong choice in that, but the group should all be on board with what the priority is.
I'm playing in a campaign where I have a mask that grants me see inadvisability for a short time. I know exactly what you meant, but never have I wanted a magic item so much as a mask that grants me "see inadvisability." "No, Bob, you probably should not do that or you're going to get yourself and your party in a world of hurt."
I'm actually planning to go analog in my next campaign while at the table - prepping monster stat blocks and the like beforehand and focusing on making noted of player choices and decisions at the table in ye olde wire-bound notebook. I found that too many electronics at the table, especially to try and make notes of what was going on, led to me trying to keep it all on the computer and I spent more time managing my tools than managing the game.
It's helpful to think of an AP as at least 3 different games. Levels 1-5 are far closer to a survival game, where a lot of tactical decisions are based on "could I get killed doing this?" For a lot of folks, that's part of the fun and, I theorize, that's where some of the rationale for E6 types games comes from. 5-14 (maybe 13, maybe 15, YMMV) is what a lot of folks (including, I suspect, a lot of the folks who hate 1st level) are thinking of when they say "Pathfinder." It's not impossible to die, but it doesn't come easy. Magic flies thick and fast, but doesn't utterly rewrite encounters or the landscape. Adventurers resemble really competent people, though at the upper ends, you start to see... 15+ starts to tread into Superhero territory. Flying, teleporting, earth-shaking folks challenging the lords of heaven and/or hell, depending on your proclivities. One of the biggest design traps I've seen people fall into is building a high-level adventure like it's a mid-level adventure plus. Single bad guys increase the "rocket tag" problem, since they can likely wipe out any individual PC, but aren't going to last five rounds against a party. So why play 1st level? Because the survival thing interests you. Because you don't necessarily even want to have a brute force option and are willing to risk the continuance of the story in the interest of pushing that particular narrative button. There are other reasons - maybe it's part of an adversarial GM/Player paradigm, though that's not really my cup of tea. TL;DR - all depends on your playstyle.
We are, if Lovecraft is to be believed, most readily and most strongly frightened by what we don't know. Identify what the characters don't know about what they're facing and make them cognizant of their ignorance. To this, I'd add: reskin monsters to appear as things that don't have a Bestiary entry, I endorse the observations above regarding leaving evidence of a thing unseen. When the brains of the operation start trying to piece together what it is, provide physical details, but avoid giving a monster name. The more uncertainty you can introduce, the better. Some of this starts to fall apart when PCs can blow through DC 30 Knowledge checks without a sweat, but that's the nature of the rules we're playing with. Breaking out my old Van Richten's guides, one option is to create a suite of "possible powers" for high-powered monsters, which means that the brainy PC lists all of these things it *could* do, without identifying what it actually can do until it does it.
Ok, count me as one more advocate for the Midnight Lord. When the Nidal tribes cried out for succor, what they were offered was not simply pain, but the strength to survive pain. In thinking about why anyone would worship a god of pain, it helps to remember those cultures and ideologies that see life in terms of struggle. Zon-Kuthon promises pain, but then so does existence itself. What Zon-Kuthon brings to the party is the wisdom (mind-blasting as it may be) to master pain and to use pain. Nidal's relationship with Cheliax also makes their relationship with Z-K important in terms of his role as the god of envy. The Umbral Court hides and dreams of the day when Queen Abrogail is in a collar and on her knees. They covet fiercely and those who covet make great antagonists. Those who covet and think themselves strong-willed survivors make great long-term antagonists. Z-K gets you to insular (we do not share our strength with others), xenophobic (the outsider will cheat you because they have things you don't - still with the envy), and paranoid (None can know our wants, for exploiting want is the key to True Pain).
In the end, a lot of evil is preferring expediency to empathy. Norgorber makes his bones off this sort of thing - I could spend endless months trying to convince the vizier that he's holding the Emperor back from doing the right thing by his people, or I could poison him, blackmail him, have his throat cut in the night, and I don't have to go through all that silliness. That appears to be a stark example, but think of the number of dramatic situations we see on TV and in movies where someone starts shouting "There's no time!" Crisis is where morality goes to die, and engendering crisis is how we get entire peoples to accept abhorrent things (see Cheliax and/or Japanese Internment). The great thing about crisis, rhetorically, is that it can completely reframe the question to skip over all the moral hand-wringing: No longer do we ask, "ought we do this?" In a crisis, it becomes "How could we do it?" While Norgorber is an expert expediter, Asmodeus lives where the big decisions are made - the hard decisions that no one wants to make. Allowing a plurality of viewpoints may be moral, but it's also damaging to stability in the long-term: the inability to reach consensus means that progress slows to a crawl. How much wiser and more progressive to simply silence dissenters and do what must be done! The greatest good for the greatest number can be achieved if only the wreckers and dissenters are silenced!
Asmodeus is the God who is there, waiting to help, when you are opposed by people who have no interest in deliberation. Maybe they're badly misinformed, maybe their POV stems from their faith and they have no interest in deliberating, maybe both - but important work does not get done because someone just won't listen. That's when he shows up, offering to change minds for you. Just this once, only if you ask, and for the Greater Good, right? Yoda was right - the Dark Side is quicker, easier, and more seductive. Also, I hear they have cookies.
I confess that, amidst the opera references, no one mentioned Faust, complete with a Wikipedia page that has an aria of a man selling his soul.
Both Shax and Nocticula, as demons, have a pretty clear agenda. Shax wants you carving people into little bits and Nocticula has other plans for your bits entirely. Norgorber's agenda is unknowable, at least at present, which can make it hard to make good use of him as a force in the game...except that his portfolio makes him the patron of people who don't realize he's their patron. Everyone who cuts a throat in place of a standup fight they might lose. Everyone who uses blackmail to win an argument they might have lost rhetorically. The people who do dishonorable things for what they see as all the right reasons, like poisoning an enemy general to stop a war. All of that feeds Norgorber. What does it all mean and what's he after? Who the heck knows, and I admit that can be a challenge. But like our worst concerns over what espionage organizations might be doing in our name, Norgorber gets a lot of people to do a lot of terrible things, all by pointing out that it's just more expedient that way.
I'm using a riff on Gwaihir Scout's idea, in conjunction with a change to the end. Raven's Head has the Tyrant's blood on it, which is part of Adrisant's Incantation. When he doesn't get the blood, he grabs the Count. When the PCs rescue the count from Renchurch, it screws up the Incantation, which was designed to draw the Tyrant's power forth, but channel the Tyrant's mind to his blood, allowing Adrisant all of Tar-Baphon's power, while sticking the old lich himself somewhere convenient. So when Adrisant actually does the ritual, and the Count isn't where he's supposed to be, he going to be possessed by Tar-Baphon himself. The PCs will, therefore, need those mythic tiers I've been handing them.
If you wanted to insert some Gothic history (and tie the names back to their literary roots), you could incorporate an ancestor, Manfred, who forsook the lands after a "dark and terrible incident," with another man, Theodore, as the ancestor of the Muralts. Manfred's own descendants (presuming he either adopted or remarried after taking holy vows in penance) then progressively rose in rank through a variety of marriages that left Aduard as the heir of an admittedly messed-up, but high-ranking family. If you haven't read the "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole, get thee to a public domain source posthaste!
I tend to make edits whenever I get ready to run a campaign. I'm about to start running Carrion Crown, and I decided to replace Broken Moon with a different adventure. As a result, the County of Lozeri has been removed lock, stock, and barrel. It has been replaced with the equally-wooded County of Barovia, which is still very much under the thumb of its feared overlord.
Sharing a name of the artifact and then pointing out that the artifact is mentioned in a single line of a single book - and nowhere else in the piles of texts our scholar has perused is a clue worth having. Highlight how much the PC knows about all these different topics, and you inform the players that recorded information does not exist on this topic, and your brainy PC is a really brainy PC. Win-win.
Yeah, swapping out treasure for capital is a simple enough conversion. As long as you can trust players not to mix pools (It doesn't necessarily make narrative sense, but players who cotton on to what you're trying to do may come with you), you could even just tack it on to the treasure, rather than substituting. I'd work out appropriate amounts in the opposite direction from standard treasure allotment: what do your PCs want to do with capital? What do they want to build or endorse or develop? Come up with a rough notion of how long you would like such a project to take (thus integrating it into your larger story) and dollop it out that way.
When I was pitching this game to my players, I did have a player say that, should I choose to run it, he'd take a pass and come back when we were finished. Evil is not everyone's cup of tea. I didn't find the adventures any more railroad-y than the average Paizo AP, with a bit more encouragement to be proactive, since you are, after all, the bad guy.
For me, Rogue Genius Games' War Master has filled a niche in terms of "combatant commander" that I can sometimes fill with a Cavalier, but usually don't want the horse, to say nothing of the elegant way it solves some MAD problems in making a thinking, sociable warrior.
We at Fat Goblin Games have heard tell that Intrigue is afoot over at Paizo. It must, therefore, be part of our master plan that Knowledge Check: Codes and Cyphers is available now here at Paizo.com! Codes and Cyphers is your quick and dirty entry into the world of secret writing. The book starts with the history of secret codes in our own world, along with some notions on how to incorporate those themes into your own games. Players get spells, feats, a new archetype, and a set of easy-to-use hand codes to give a few new twists on the old brain teaser. For the GM, the Prismatic Chamber, a cabal of NPC cryptographers, stands ready to aid or vex your players as you see fit, and those hand codes work both ways, of course. Break the code – get your copy today. It’s also available in Print over at RPGNow.com.
1. The book breaks down (and adds to) the skill rules for breaking codes (nominally, a function of the Linguistics skill), but is also aimed at providing some challenges for players, many of whom are keen on that sort of thing. 2. I'll talk to the publisher about the preview and see what we can do!
Genre fight! Genre fight! The elements that make up a particular literary genre are no less arbitrary than the elements of what makes "authentic" jambalaya. First and foremost, it should be acknowledged that the acceptance or prohibition of firearms, technology, democracy, or letterpress printing is quite frankly a matter of taste. If you like them, great. If not, that's ok too. In either event, the settings in which exist the games you run and the games I run are a matter for us and our fellow players to decide, and certainly not something to be making ex cathedra proclamations about. Going back to the original post and the author's blog, let me raise the same objection I did on his Facebook page: While we avoid getting into quibbles about the historicity of certain items and concepts, allowing cultural elements in our stories to produce the same exclusionary mores (and resultant odious behavior) as those elements did back in the day is not a quest for historical specificity as much as it is a comment on the way in which power relationships impact culture. Westeros is not a misogynist place because England in the era of the War of the Roses was a misogynist place - it's misogynist because that is the result of a culture built on primogeniture and violence as the preferred method of large-scale conflict resolution. When life is cheap, a lot of lives get sold cheaply, and that has less to do with history and more to do with values.
I don't know how you get rid of prepared spells without killing them - prepared spells remain in a wizard's mind until they are cast or new spells are prepared. Insofar as components go, there are a number of good 0- and 1st-level spells that don't have material components: acid splash, jolt, charm person, shield, burning hands, magic missile.
If the point of the exercise is a bit of escapism, it shouldn't be prohibitively difficult for me to play someone smarter or more charming than I am in real life. If I can play someone significantly stronger than I am, smarter should also be on the table. On the other hand, how you go about playing that in Pathfinder is a bit complicated, if for no other reason than the game requires you to begin stitching on some of the additional rules systems they've crafted before mental and social skills are represented by anything more than a handful of pass/fail die rolls. For me, I'm with Turin - higher mental stats should permit a bit more metagaming as your character makes leaps of logic and reasoning. Social skills are their own problem, as the most charming people in the world are limited when an individual is determined to exercise their own agency. Then again, that's what dominate person is for.
So, crazily enough, I actually blogged about this about a week ago. Like a lot of people have said, it comes down to a player preference. Some players want to be directly challenged by the adventure, while others prefer for their characters to handle the challenges presented, and it's one of the stickier points of contention between RPG players. I break it down between role-players and game-players, but that's an imperfect comparison that needs validity wording: Usually role-players will prefer for their characters to be challenged, and for mental riddles and puzzles to be handled with die rolls, and usually game-players will want to try and figure it out themselves. For my own part, I enjoy riddles...right up until I'm playing an RPG - then I usually hate them.
I have two thoughts on possible small-size bad guys, one of which I'll share. Halflings are more nimble than humans, stealthier than just about any race that is allowed inside of city walls for any length of time, and are physically gifted for the most part. Why, then, don't they just take over the local thieves' guild? A halfling-exclusive thieves' guild that ruthlessly put down competitors would be a nightmare in an urban campaign. Run by Masterminds and staffed to the gills with rogues and alchemists, they'd be the bane of any law enforcement agency, and a fantastic foil for PCs - will the big folk dare a guildhouse where they'll have to crouch the whole time, laden with traps and murder holes? In terms of narrative, it opens up interesting story explorations of how and why criminal organizations form, the reasons they might create rules of exclusivity, and how those rules help or hurt. I'd play that game every day and twice on Sunday.
I say Paizo has a bit of a size fetish. Giants appear regularly as the stars of AP episodes - sometimes dominating single books, sometimes becoming the theme of an entire AP. Kobolds and Goblins: Book 1-and-done. I think there probably is a question of intimidation factor in the minds of the writers and designers. I note that they'll happily give class levels to all manner of medium and large monsters to make them CR-appropriate, but the little races still disappear after book 1. Does it bug me sometimes? Sure, but I see it as Paizo's prerogative to establish what they consider to be serious bad guys. If there's a demand for little bad guys, a supply will appear.
It's worth noting that, in a lot of cases, teamwork feats for non-cheaters would mean feats spent by classes for whom feats are a precious resource (i.e. those without bonus feats). That heightens the opportunity cost for taking situationally useful feats that can immediately become dead weight in the event of PC death.
Imposing penalties (like fatigue or exhaustion) on PCs at low-levels can heighten tension, but only when done at dramatic moments. As a constant, it just makes the players feel like they're constantly trudging uphill. Without getting into details, the first book of Iron Gods has the PCs making multiple Fortitude saves a day at 1st level - this is interesting at first, and then it just makes you realize how fragile a 1st level PC is, and how much more fragile you are when constantly sickened.
Our second session took us through several chunks of the caves beneath Torch, as well as beyond the silver door, so I'll drop this one behind a spoiler tag. A Sonnet of Two Wolves: Two Wolves In endless night beneath the poison lake
While attempting to expand my answer, I appear to have run over my allotted time to do so. I haven't read Grose's book, but judging by its description, Grose focuses on general street slang. So, where Grose's book will include "belly cheat" as a nickname for an apron (which also appeared in several of my own sources), The TC Dictionary will give you terms like "Pincher," which was a swindler who used sleight of hand to cheat moneylenders. Additionally, our dictionary, like every Fat Goblin product, is graced with the amazing artwork of the Fattest Goblin himself, Mssr. Rick Hershey. Take a look and I think you'll agree that it's the prettiest lexicon of larceny you're ever likely to find!
(Reposting to the thread where others have replied) Clearly this means a lot to you, as you've posted it thrice! I don't believe any of the APs are pro-Cheliax, as that would involve endorsing an evil government, which is not really part of the AP build, as such. I need a little clarification, though: are you looking for adventures where the PCs will actively support House Thrune, or just where they don't actively oppose the government?
How does this compare to any of the real world, collected works of Francis Grose - especially The Vulgar Tongue - Buckish slang and Pickpocket Eloquence or Lobcocks and Fartleberries? It's different in a few ways. Grose' book dates to 1785 and focuses on common speech. This book draws from some older sources (about 200 years older) and is focused on Criminal Cant - how swindlers described themselves and their operations - rather than just the common phrases and euphemisms of the age.
Clearly this means a lot to you, as you've posted it thrice! I don't believe any of the APs are pro-Cheliax, as that would involve endorsing an evil government, which is not really part of the AP build, as such. I need a little clarification, though: are you looking for adventures where the PCs will actively support House Thrune, or just where they don't actively oppose the government?
Can’t bite the cull now, wait for darkmans, when he’s clear. Keep the secret speech of the streets in your back pocket! Add the clandestine tongue of thieves and swindlers to your game with the Thieves’ Cant Dictionary from Fat Goblin Games! With over 200 entries, the Thieves’ Cant Dictionary is your linguistic passport to a life of larceny and duplicity, all safely concealed in codewords and double-speak. Get yours now, before the Harman slaps the darbies on you! The dictionary is world- and system-agnostic, the better to aid schemers and swindlers, wherever they gather.
Don't be too quick to judge. If I had an arcane lightning hand, I'd probably announce it on gaming forums too. You might live the cover. Also, it's 46 pages. If you see Garrett Guillote around, be sure to let him know how much you're enjoying the book.
Buffers always seem to carry the party. I get a little of that from my investigator, i hate playing skill focused/support but the group seems to feel its just too useful. I think it's stil a "seems to" though - support characters are useless without characters to support. Yeah, it feels like they're giving steroids to the rest of the party, until you realize that doing so is their role in the game. Personally, I enjoy playing those characters (insert YMMV statements here), but I'm playing a barbarian right now and wishing we had a little more support integral to the party.
The Iron Gods Adventure Path brought technology into the fantasy realm. Also, I've heard there's this movie trailer out the other day about a space fantasy story of some sort... For those of you who want a little more circuit and lightning in your fantasy, Fat Goblin Games is here for you with Call to Arms: Fantastic Technology! Call to Arms is a book line for players and gamemasters alike. Each book focuses on a different type of item, expanding rules for those items and adding everything from new mundane and magical examples of the item to new character options related to the item. Call to Arms: Fantastic Technology brings new eras of scientific advancement into your setting, including rules, setting, and plot options for researching and developing new technologies and applications. New kingdom-building rules let rulers build their fantasy nations into technological juggernauts, and new crafting rules help engineers bolt and tape technology onto their favorite mundane and magical weapons and armor. New setting concepts ease the gradual introduction of tech into fantasy worlds, gremlin-tainted crafting materials offer new ways to “curse” technological gear, and new artificially intelligent item options help get digital life out of its shell and into your sword. Capped with a new artifact, new legendary item abilities, and new feats, Call to Arms: Fantastic Technology makes it easier than ever to add super-science tech to classic swords and sorcery. This represents the first product out of the Call to Arms line's Open Call that FGG did a few months ago. You'll get to read the work of some of the newest names in game design, along with some great old hands. Don't wait another minute! Go check it out!
My friends and I recently started playing Iron Gods. I had gotten into the semi-habit of writing campaign logs during our Shattered Star campaign, but I wanted to try something different for this go-round. Having just re-read a batch of Robert E. Howard's poetry, I decided to give it a go. At my GM's behest, I share with all of you. Numeria, where iron flesh and languid steel
Hither came Bil, feral master of war and wild
Hither came Cathal, bright-eyed, dark-haired warrior born
Also came Dysim – the scholar, wizard, trickster
Gilimphiloditangle Giampalixatangle
Hither came Lantis, the dark accursed, the damned
Came Veredel, master of metal and magic
Came Zelaran, the thunderer of steel and fire
By bonds, by blood, by hate were these men called to go
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