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How would a GM approach a PC wanting to stay a ghost but continuing on the campaign?

For context,

Open to suggestions :)

Hi all,

My group will enter the monastery in the next session or two. As the statue purification is a big part of progression, I wondered how heavy-handed I should be with letting the PCs know they should be doing this. They must do at least one before the ghost appears and explains anything.

How did other GMs handle it?

My players just finished chapter 1 of "Let the Leaves Fall", and they are complaining about how poor they are and how they did all this work in town and didn't get paid.

My counter has been that this is your town, and not everything is done for pay. If the town is destroyed, you die too. I also pointed out they can sell loot they have found if they need money. So, I'm not sure it's a money issue.

Am I being too strict? Should they are paid for their work to some degree? 1 GP a task, at least?

Thanks.

Hi all,

My players just finished book 1 with about 1.5 months to spare, so only downtime activities left, and the first chapter of book two is all downtime. Since I have a new player who is just here for the subsequent two sessions, I am not sure that playing downtime for those sessions would be very interesting for him (and probably not a good reflection of what pf2e is).
I was thinking of hand-waiving all this and jumping to chapter 2 - the monastery, and, once that is finished, allowing the downtime activities to happen during the remainder of the fall. I appreciate Chapter 2 is somewhat reliant on Chapter 1's downtime to access the monastery, but I am not sure that's a really big deal - I can narrate that away.

Thoughs?

PS I have 6 players so I expect at level 4 they could handle the initial challenges of the monastery without needing them to level up again.

Hi all,
Any suggestions on a 12 to 20 campaign/adventure that involves dealing with Kugaptee directly? I get that I could continue the campaign by using Phoenix Tournament, but, I expect my players may want to finish off Kugaptee, so looking for other adventures/mini-campaigns I could "reskin" for this?

Thanks.

Hi all,
I am migrating my game from 5e/pf1e to pf2e and I am new to pf2e as well.

Since I use my own setting, which is a Dying Earth-type setting (magic is technology, and laser pistols are not unheard of, just not called that). Can I use Starfinder as a source for future tech gear in pf2e or its not really computable?

In 5e/pf1e I used the Technology Guide extensively for my setting, so wondering if I could do that with Starfinder books.

Thanks in advance.

Are the battle maps purchasable by chance? I play face to face so prefer a physical map. Can always draw one out but curious of any were produced. Thanks. Michael.

Before I convert this for my home campaign, has anyone else done this already?

Any advice generally on convertign 2e to 1e? Never done it, is it just a monster swap?

Thanks.

So, my PCs just finished book two, and Nazheena got away. I would like to make her a recurring villain; however, the way the adventure path is constructed, I would like it to make sense that she turns up in these places. Knowing her mother is in the Hut the entire time (or at least has access through the AP), I thought this was the "head cannon" for me as the GM.

But any specific advice on when/how to add her to the following adventures?

Thanks.

Is there a specific sourcebook that goes into detail of Whitethrone? The two "of the North" sourcebooks doesnt really have details of the city. Thanks.

Any advice on adding more Nazhena foreshadowing? On the GM thread, one of the suggestions was to interrupt a "Skype call" between her and Radosek. Great idea but my PCs are about to start Shackled Hut so I cant use this.

I though perhaps the PCs get a glimpse of her in a window, but when they look again she is gone. Not much but its something.

Thanks.

I am running my PCs through this AP and enjoying it. I just finished reading through the entire AP (PCs are at the start of book 2 about to head to Whitethrone). One question that remains unanswered (or I missed it) is why is Baba Yaga keeping Irrisen in winter?

She even says she has lost interst in Irrisen but wont allow winter to be reversed.

Thanks.

Hi all, I am looking to run this campaign for my players as it sounds like it fits in with the kind of game they want and I want (I really like the planet travel part and fairy tale parts).

However, I have run multiple APs before and my experience doing all the way back to Shackaled City is there is usually either a chunk or one entire adventure that could be cut out and have no impact on the story. Does this AP suffer any such issues?

And also just any other GM”gotchas” I should be wary of. Thank you.

Hi all,
In my campaign world UNITY has become a fixture as goddess. Not the Iron Goddess (which my PCs destroyed back in 2015) but the Golden Goddess - an uncorrupted backup of the original.

I maybe misremembering but wasn't UNITY an acronym?

If not, any good ideas on what this could be an acronym for?

I currently have a PC who worships UNITY and is a cleric of UNITY. And at some point he is going to ask!

Unified
N?
Integrated
T?
sYstem?

Thanks in advance.

Where are all the weapons for each family?

Amatatsu/Suishen - Brinewell Legacy.
Sugimatu/Thundering Blade - Fores of Spirits.

Other 3?

Thanks.

Curious if you did and if you used any of the hooks provided at the end of Empty Throne? Thanks.

Hi all,
I like to introduce the campaign big-bad as early as possible in some way. The intent is to expose the PCs to the bad guy before they can do anything about it.

Can’t really think of way to do this for JR so looking for ideas.

Thanks.

Hi all, since I will be setting this in my own world which is more dying earth than Tolkien fantasy I am looking for any suggestions to incorporate some space-magic into the AP.

Adding magic items of a more technological bent is relatively easy but would like to add a bit more dying earth/ninth world type weirdness. Thanks.

Hi all,

My PCs are just finishing up a campaign and have asked for a Asian/Japanese setting campaign next. Looking at old 1e oriental adventure modules I didn’t like them much. I do like the premise of the Jade Regent - restoring a queen to her throne. However, since I want it to be set in fantasy Japan with Japanese classes I want to modify the AP to be all set in Minkai. Any advice on this? My thoughts:

Play book 1 almost as is except set it in Minkai with Minkai “bakemono” goblins.
Skip book 2 and 3 then play from 4 as normal.

(Will also be converting it to 5e as I go because I just want to make things even more challenging).

Thanks all.

So, I am running a mini-campaign for my kids and my wife. The kids wanted a combat heavy game so I grabbed the 4e adventure Revenge of the Giants and started converting it as I wanted to play something like Against the Giants. One of the optional quests is to retrieve skymetal to create some special artifact weapons. In the adventure, all the skymetal is gone so the characters go back in time and steal it from a wizard.

Since in my AP the adventurers (literally) nuked Silver Mount and it no longer exists, this gave me the idea to have that wizard be Furkas Xoud while he was still with the Technic League. Not only did this give the players a kick as they played through the Iron Gods AP and so knew who he was it let me revisit the setting and create some updated gearsmen and other tech gear.

They eventually faced the living Xoud but instead of fighting him they talked him into providing the skymetal they needed but also to trade future knowledge for some technological weapons. Not only did he find out that there is an evil intelligence in Silver Mount but that his future self-found out about it from an android called Casandalee (they did not reveal that the hunt killed him). Nicely setting him up for the AP.

Was a fun little side trek for me and the players. I always like doing campaign callback when I can to see that the players actions actually do change things in the continuity of my world.

Hi all,

I like the Paizo pawns and use them in my games - all 5e so not Paizo adventures at this stage. I am currently running a mini-campaign that is giant and elemental heavy (fire, frost and earth/hill giant/elementals). Can someone suggest which box of pawns are best to buy to get the maximum number of these monster types?

Thanks :)

Hi all I am looking at running the last three adventures as a mini campaign set in the dragon empire. A sort of old school oriental adventure. Wondering if the first three adventures have anything in them that would still be useful in the last three adventures?

I only bought the last three for now.

Thanks.

So we finished the campaign last night. It took us 18 months to get through and here is my opinion of the whole thing as the DM.

I bit off more than I could chew taking this Pathfinder game and converting it to 5e. Though I did do it in the end and I did enjoy the conversion it was very time consuming.

I felt the adventure path was too long. In retrospect I would have completely cut out The Choking Tower and perhaps even Starfall component and just have them commando run the Divinity Drive. The reason I would do this is because the Divinity Drive is a giant dungeon crawl which are very time consuming and probably not the best fit for my group to put at the end of an 18 month long campaign (thats a personal preference). For my group it would have been better to bring the mega-dungeon forward as soon as possible.

The Scar of the Spider was the best adventure IMO. I ran it as a hex-crawl and it was great.

Not all my players had buy-in. One of my players didn't like the crossing of the streams and so spent the entire campaign not taking anything seriously and doing silly things. I didn't do what I normally do with my campaigns which is sit down before hand and say "this is the idea, I need everyones buy-in or we find a different idea".

There was too much technology. My players got lost with it all and after the 1st adventure I started removing tech treasure. This is another personal preference, not a slight against the adventure. In retrospect I would have doen the following:

• Made the tech incomprehensible - more like magic items.
  
• Made the language incompressible - add more mystery.
  
• Removed charges and just have tech items deplete on 1/fumble or similar.
  

Having said that I think this is a FINE inheritor to the original Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Good job Paizo people :)

Would love to see you guys churn out 5e content (Pathfinder 2.0?)

I posted this over on the EnWorld boards as its a very 5e related question. However I am happy to get feedback from fellow Pathfinder and Iron God aficionados as well :)

Hi all,
This bit of loot can be found in Palace of Fallen Stars. Reading the spell description it sounds like it could turn the glaucite doors (and walls) to rust. Am I right?

Another boss fight. It's 5e but shouldn't be too much trouble to convert to 3.5.

Hi everyone,
My party will start Palace of Fallen Stars this week and I have started thinking about the final showdown with UNITY. My current plan is to have a two phase fight essentially.

First phase is as described in the adventure vs the digital solar. Once that is defeated I was going to have a spiel from UNITY making fun of them and telling them how she delayed them long enough to transfer herself to the shuttle which is about to launch into space. Assuming the party gets to the shuttle thats where the second battle will occur as the shuttle hurtles into space.

But I am not sure what to do here in terms of mechanics that would make sense thematically. Open to ideas/suggestions.

It started with Tufast, our cleric of Thor, playing "Thunderstruck" from ACDC every time he cast a thunder spell. AS the campaign as gone on people have earned theme songs. Thought I would share :)

Charisma, a “human” -mutant- sorceress whose power source is Gamma Radiation which she was exposed to as a child. As a child of the Atom her hair goes green in the presence of radiation and she progressively gets greener the more powerful spells she casts (and as she gets angry). She has no love for the Technic League. She also earned a new theme song as she has gained levels and her spells have become tactically game changers.

Sylvanus, a dark elf monk who escaped the clutches of mind flayer slavemasters in the area of the Scar of the Spider after a daring raid by surface dwelling heroes freed her.

Brokthor, a human fighter who was raised by dwarfs and thinks he IS a dwarf. He earned this theme song after donning a cursed Belt of Giant Strength which turned him into a short asian lady (never trust an Ogre-Magi magic dealer). They then played on the yakuza theme during Lords of Rust establishing the Japanese styled Crimson Lotus gang.

Tufast, a human cleric who serves Thor – power of thunder and lightning. Much like his barbarian family he hates technology and has a particular spite for robots. He sees the cleansing power of lightning as the perfect antidote to the curse of the robot infestation of Nimmeria.

Heidt, a ranger who has traded an affinity for nature for an affinity for machines. This android has mastered cybertheurgy as well as the lasgun. Has chosen the mechromancer archetype (blog post at some later point!). Seeking to learn more about his history he has become an archaeological expert on all things related to the Rain of Stars.

Rikku, an elven rogue who was adopted by Khonnir Baine when he found her wandering the wasteland near Torch more than a decade ago. She claims to be a blood elf from a far-away land. Her history is tied up with a nearby ruin. She also liked pilfering change from other party members and she has never been caught, earning her the her theme song.

My daughter - Rikku - gifted a theme song to UNITY as well. I thought it was appropriate considering how little they know about UNITY.

Hi all, my 11 year old started making a comic about her adventures in the Numeria. I thought it was good enough to share. First panel is up and I'll publish the rest as the days go by. She has done out to the Gremlin Cave section of Fires of Creation at the moment so about 20 pages.

This actually maybe more appropriate under Kingmaker but I'll post here first.

My players want to do kingdom building with Scrapwall as their initial starting hex. Numeria seems ripe for this type of play as its so chaotic. It's essentially one huge bandit kingdom outside of Starfall. Which isn't much better either.

After reading the Ultimate Campaign rules on this I put together some info for my players including a hex map. But I wanted to know if any DMs who have run Kingmaker or anyone doing the same thing in Numeria would care to chip in.

At the moment I am working on filling out the hexes around Scrapwall with interesting things and putting together some events. I am also slowly reading through Kimgmaker just for reference/inspiration and ideas.

My players have basically said that why enter Starfall covertly when they can just take out the League with an army. Which is fine - more than one way to skin a cat. But it kind of changes the AP dramatically if they do that. Though the biggest impact is on the last two adventures more than anything else.

I recently picked up Ultimate Campaign as I want to co-opt the Kingdom rules for my game but I had some questions.

When the rules talk about kingdom size this is in hexes?

Unless there is a recruitment cost listed for the example armies they are essentially free (assuming they are a logical choice for the particular kingdom) and then it's just the weekly consumption (maintenance) cost that needs to be paid?

Hi all,

I recently rewrote The Choking Tower to accommodate my groups tastes a bit more. But it occurs to me that TCT and Valley of the Brain Collector are "filler" kind of adventures - the characters are chasing a mcguffin to point A, don't find it then go to B (VotBC).

I feel this AP has a distinct lack of mutations. Problem solved!

Hi all, apart from IG and the original Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and The City of the Gods does anyone know of any other similar adventures in D&D/Pathfinder-verse?

Thanks in advance.

Hi all,

Working on a sorcerous bloodline (or origin since this is 5e) for one of my characters. This is what I have so far but not 100% happy with the last two options - the last more than the power leap. Thought I would post it here for brainstorming... open to suggestions.

The Rain of Stars not only brought strange fauna with it but strange flora as well. Nimmeria can go from barren wasteland of yellow and brown to areas bursting with colour where alien flora has taken root. I pictured Nimmeria something similar to the mix of fauna and flora from Defiance but took many of the specific inspirations from the game Endless Legend. I try to sprinkle these “snippets” of descriptions into any outdoor travelling that occurs mixing them in with normal descriptions of the landscape (e.g. vast grassland with patches of glasssilk). Makes for quite an alienscape. Here are some examples.

FYI - Nimmeria = Numeria. Renamed for my own home-brew.

Are there weather charts or guidelines for Numeria anywhere? Seems it's mostly grassland or desert/wasteland.

Anyone run any of the side missions in Choking Tower by chance?

Is there a source book specifically for Chesed beyond the information in the Nimmeria gazetter? Or a specific adventure that goes into more detail like The Palace of Stars does for Starfall?

Thanks in advance.

For those interested in reading along with the group I am running through the AP:

https://itsmygamemyrules.wordpress.com/category/game-log/

Googling turned this up by accident:

http://www.thecomicsplace.com/product/pathfinder-adventure-path-iron-gods-p art-2-lords-of-rust/

Was their alternate art at one stage and if so who is that on the cover?

Decided to turn Hellion into a Boss Fight. Thematically inspired by raid bosses in games like WoW and mechanically by Angry DM's template. Though I feel 5e solves many of these issues a 3 stage boss fight when a solo monster is involved I think is inherently more satisfying for the players.

Here is the Boss Fight version in D&D 5e. Though it wouldn't take much at all to convert it back to 3.5e:

https://itsmygamemyrules.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/boss-fight-hellion/

BF Hellion is totally untested. My characters won't face him for a few sessions yet. So use at your own risk. For 5e he looks fine on paper.

I don't plan on letting my characters use any of the labs to perform crafting of any tech items - I just feel its just beyond anyone in my home-brew and it also keeps the items highly valuable due to rarity.

Having said that I don't have an issue with them gaining implants. But I am not sure how to allow this. Only thing I can think of is if they somehow robojack the doctor-bot in the final adventure.

Anyone else have thoughts?

I was *thinking* of dropping a timeworn non-rechargeable version of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device into the game. Mostly just to see what my players do with it. Am I asking for trouble as a DM?

Here are the game mechanics off the top of my head (5e):
http://i.imgur.com/nTorD6L.png

If I remember correctly only 3 instalments where published in Dragon for Maure Castle. Was anything else every published?

Thanks!

Hi all,

I am currently running this under 5e and converting as I go. I thought I may share my experiences for anyone else who decides to go down this path. My group has just hit the science deck for context as of this post.

Because 5e is more like 3.5e than any other editions in terms of stats its pretty straightforward to run monsters as written. That was my initial plan but as the monsters start ramping up in power the bounded math of 5e makes running them as is problematic. The biggest reason is players won't be able to hit the mobs by the end of the first adventure reliably.

The other issue I found is the 3.5e mobs don't quite have the HPs of 5e mobs so die very quickly if they are hit.

First thing I did was replace monsters wherever I could with their 5e MM equivalents. I would beef them up or reduce their power as needed. I have six players in my party so generally I didn't need to modify them if they were a CR or 2 above the actual monster.

Failing that I would find base monster in 5e and build off that. For example a zombie for Hetuath. For the truly original monsters/characters I used a conversion document I found an enWorld which was very useful as well. They are simple enough to use them on the fly.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?335778-Attempt-at-Conversion-do c-to-convert-3-5-edition-and-Pathfinder-monsters-to-D-amp-D-Next-on-the-fly

My 3.5 is rusty so help me out.

I noticed that some of the robots in Choking Tower had a damage bonus to their laser fire. Where is this coming from?

Hi all,

I picked this set of modules to run in my own D&D campaign. As a big fan of science-fantasy and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Iron Gods is perfect for me as a DM.

One thing, I have read the first adventure and all the other suggested reading like the Technology Guide but I couldn't see how characters learn how to use the future technology. Is it just assumed they can figure it out? No need to roll on tables or spend feats to use firearms effectively?

Hi all,

Google revealed that Pathfinder/Paizo remade the vegepygmy recently and it looks like the froghemouth as well. Was this part of a particuler adventure - if so can someone point me to it? Or was it only a monster entry?

Thanks in advance.