Thadyne's page

Thadyne wrote:

One thing I did which made the research stuff more interesting was I somewhat utilized the research rules from Ultimate Intrigue and then wrote up a bunch of what the characters would actually be reading- a newspaper story, some letters, some journal entries- in order to fully convey the story. My group seemed to really enjoy it more than just some skill checks and "here's what you found out". You may not have enough time left to do that though.

Would you consider sharing this Thadyne? Sounds awesome.

Sadly, I did it all by hand so there are no electronic versions.

The points system to increase reputation with the villagers in the first book- I would discard that and just roleplay it out instead- the villagers are slow to trust outsiders, but will respect competent and well meaning people.

It is a good idea to make AA appear early. The AP as a whole struggles with not having a clear villain throughout the story, which the writers address in the last book.

I would strongly suggest having the maps for the whole first book ready ahead of time- my group wanted to dash straight up to Harrowstone- I managed to delay them for a level or so, but they still got there quickly, and there are multiple ways into the building. Everything will go smoother if you just have the whole thing ready to go.

One thing I did which made the research stuff more interesting was I somewhat utilized the research rules from Ultimate Intrigue and then wrote up a bunch of what the characters would actually be reading- a newspaper story, some letters, some journal entries- in order to fully convey the story. My group seemed to really enjoy it more than just some skill checks and "here's what you found out". You may not have enough time left to do that though.

Good luck!

If you try to make it un-winnable, you will earn yourself a bunch of power gamers for however long you game with these people. Make adjustments to the story- What would a brand new lich be working on during the time period they were delayed for? Make it natural consequences.

Was the group aware of the kidnapping? If not, I would definitely handwave it.

If they were, then I would only slightly adjust the story... The kidnap victim is now dead (died before the ritual could be completed during an escape attempt or some such thing), and AA completed the ritual on himself as described in the book. Unfortunately, he is now trapped at the top of the tower, and is trying to figure out how to leave and trying to cement his power as a lich who cannot travel. Just adjust where the NPCs are and what they are doing, have some extra traps on the tower, have a formal guard schedule, have AA fully prepared for the fight, maybe bring in some extra NPCs that have come to check out this new lich...

It will make it harder (which sounds OK given their power level) and yet they can still defeat AA, and yet the delay will have had consequences for the kidnap victim. Whispering Way plans will have proceeded, but they don't have the bitter feeling of such a technical and unforeseen way to be defeated by an AP that they have spent a long time on.

Name of PCs: Makoa (Oracle 3) and Sumak (Cavalier 3)
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Yeth Hounds

Story: Having burned town the stockade at Thistletop and destroyed the bridge to the mainland, the party (oracle, wizard, cavalier, and NPC ranger) descended into the first level of the dungeon. When they opened the door to the temple, one yeth hound feared the wizard and cavaliers mount, who ran for it, leaving the cavalier on the floor. The oracle buffed and entered the room, and the second yeth hound charged, leaving the oracle bleeding out on the floor.
The cavalier stood up and pulled out their gun. The ranger shot some arrows at the yeth hounds, rather ineffectively. The first yeth hound charged the cavalier, and then the cavalier tried to shoot, provoking an attack of opportunity. As the cavalier died, the oracle finished bleeding out on the floor.

Character Name: Vic
Class/Level: Arcanist 3
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The dungeon of Harrowstone
Catalyst: Splatterman+Magic Missile+ Metamagic
The Details: After taking some damage from the collapsing dungeon, Vic attacked the new threat with magic missile. Having his own spell turned against him angered the vengeful ghost, and he Magic Missiled Vic back, causing Vic's immediate demise.

I am familiar with Carrion Crown. My suggestion is to relax and have fun with the story as it goes and not worry too much about the final boss fight. There is lots of good story along the way, make sure you enjoy that and don't worry too much about the end.

That isn't to say don't make effective characters- but you can do that while enjoying the story as it unfolds.

Character Name: Longus
Class/Level: Rogue 2
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The main floor of Harrowstone
Catalyst: Stirges plus Old Ember Maw
The Details: Having come in on the top floor of Harrowstone and having already waded through a number of stirges and taken some Con damage, the group came downstairs and started working through the main floor. The Old Ember Maw haunt activated when Longus was standing front and center in front of the furnace, and poor Longus got burned to death by the scorching ray.

Spoilers in my post as well....

Like you, I had some concerns with the first chapter- the background story was so interesting, I wanted more opportunity for story to come out, the Trust mechanic had lots of ways to lose but few ways to gain trust...

So the changes I made was I really boosted up the research stuff at the beginning- wrote out diary entries, newspaper clippings, prisoner transfer papers- all to really convey the story. I also used the opportunity to put in some nuggets about liches and Pharasma and the secret society. Basically, now my group expects that if there is a book, they will see an excerpt from it.

I scrapped the trust mechanic. Just had the locals be gruff and unhelpful with hints that if the PCs do a great service for the town they would be rewarded.

I also sped up the frequency of splatter man letters. In my game Gibs got caught early, so the next night Kendra was targeted- she made her will save, but now the PCs are super invested in protecting Kendra from being possessed.

I also wondered why a level 7 cleric had not been fixing the problem at Harrowstone this whole time, so made him a mostly lame elderly man who had moved to town 30 years ago. For him to go into Harrowstone he has to find someone willing to carry him- and his pride won't allow that often- he did it once to allow someone else to carry out the Professor's body, but he is not interested in doing that on a regular basis.

I know we are going in different directions with our fixes, but I think your fixes are interesting.

I suspect it would be exceptionally impairing at the low levels. They do bring those rules in for the 4th book, by which point the PCs should have the survivability and ability to change strategies to allow them to survive and still meet their goals. But do that to a level one or two character, and they are having no fun because their character is dragging down the game and once everyone gets impaired at a low level, the game might as well be over.

I am in the 6th book now, and did make a few changes to the story along the way:
Book One- I allowed for resetting of daily abilities with each level up.
Book Two- No changes.
Book Three- I changed the goal- instead of having the heroes relight the forge, now the giants were trying to relight the forge, and the heroes had to get to all the necessary components first to destroy them so that the forge could no be relit. It just made no sense to me that the heroes would use and then abandon this huge artifact, and they still got to go through all the encounters as well.
Book Four- No changes.
Book Five- Book five looked very repetitive, especially in the bottom levels. So I just changed the layout, where instead of having the hallway lead from room to room, the rooms were down a separate corridor. That way the party could check out the room first and decide if the fight looked worth it. Of course, this only works if you are using milestone leveling, but we definitely had more fun this way.
Book Six- No changes.

On the language rank 1, if the skill check is failed by 5 or more, you have writer that the opposite message was received from what was intended. I would drop this. If you are trying to make your system more realistic, inability to communicate is complete inability- the message receiver is left with the feeling of "I haven't got a clue" versus "My house is drowning" (a possible opposite to his house being on fire).

I do think this is too complex for a player to know what is expected of them (let alone a GM with who is trying to tell a story while balancing layers upon layers of rules), but that part is up to you.