Vinyard Vaughn's page

As somesone who constantly had to and still has to adjust the regular Paizo adventure paths to still be able to challenge the players once they've crossed the level 10 mark (we all know how crazy pathfinder characters explode in higher levels with regards to damage per round etc.) I wanted to inquire on the expected difficulty level of this AP.

If you ask me and all the people I play with: go crazy. No wait, go a$%@!+&, batcrap crazy. Crank up the difficulty to 11. Or at least make it challenging. :)

For a new GM, as a single module play, consider Crypt of the Everflame. It has some really nice sidebars explaining the mechanics of Pathfinder, and is designed, at least at the beginning, for new 1st level PCs.

You might want to consider following "Crypt of the Everflame" with "The Godsmouth Heresy" as another fairly contained (and easy to GM) dungeon crawl for level 1-2 characters.

Then bridge the gap to the next dungeon "Fangwood Keep", which is for 4th level chars with either the "Masks of the Living God" the direct follow up to "Crypt of the Everflame" (and 2nd part of the "Price of Immortality" trilogie) or with 3 easy/dungeon heavy PFS season 1 scenarios (#39 "Citadel of Flame", #49 "Among the Dead" and #55 "The Infernal Vault" come to mind), if the cult aspect of "Masks of the Living God" is to much for the younger family members.

And when you're there go directly in "City of Golden Death" at 5th level to finish of that trilogie. That should keep you busy and in dungeon-heaven for quite a while.

Also stay away from "Thornkeep" because its just a really bad designed dungeon. Awful, but thats just my two cents.

Gratz from Hamburg!

Hope to see you at Feen-con

Almost the whole Rhein-Main VO team will be there, but this time as players, visiting our colleagues there and running our Core chars through "Legacy of the Stonelords"! Looking forward to it.

It is a great pleasure for me to announce the promotion of two of the most dedicated PFS players of the Rhein-Main region to venture-lieutenants.

Sebastian Hirsch joined us last August at our yearly PFS convention here (where I unsucessfully tried to dissuade him from playing “Bonekeep 3“ with a pregen) and has since then become a staple in our community. His fantastic help in organizing our game days and con appereances is highly appreciated, although we have to resort to increasingly forceful measures to get him out of the kitchen (where he prepares lunch for players and GMs alike) and back to the game table. Oh, and he has an unhealthy obsession for “Mythic“. Yuk.

Sebastian will take over the area of Aschaffenburg and Würzburg, where he has already started to breathe new life into a previous PFS location and we already see the renewed interest there.

Alexander Lenz came to join our community in February 2014 during a game day and shortly after he started to GM. Reliable, dedicated and commited he volunteered to help out at cons, took over organizing and GM duties, and is simply pleasant to have around. Thanks to Nils (our VL for Frankfurt city) and my continuous disapproving stares he has started to tone down his cheese levels and overuse of the “Summon Monster“ spells.

Alexander will be VL for the whole Rhein-Main region to help out where needed, taking off some work load off my shoulders for that matter.

Last but not least both of them earned their next set of stars last Saturday during our monthly game day: Sebastian received his second star while Alexander earned his fourth! So lets give these fine gentlemen a round of applause they deserve.

And now *cracks whip* back to work, the both of you!

Backer #43 with $400 in (only reason I didn't go to $500 is I won't be able to afford the flight to the US next year).

I've been waiting for an AP like this for quite a while. Can't decide if I want to GM or play it. Hope it blasts through all possible stretch goals as this one needs to be as extensive and epic as possible. :)

Hi everyone,

I wanted to introduce Alexander Bielke as the new Venture-Lieutenant for Mainz and surroundings. Alexander has been a very enthusiastic participant at our gaming days here in Frankfurt and will now help in growing the society in this part of the Rhein/Main area.

Welcome aboard Alexander - and now off with you to the salt mines. The fun & games time as player is over! :-)

There are a couple of extra sessions visible on Warhorn.

If there's something of your liking send an email to Chris and she'll add you to that session.

Thanks guys. I haven't visited the Warhorn page in quite a while so I haven't noticed that all these sessions poped up there. Fancy. Hmmm...Thornkeep or Vengeance...

My flight back only leaves on Monday morning so there's quite some time to kill on Sunday evening. Anyone else staying / interested in another session or getting together for a chat?

So, are there any sessions on Friday (Auke wanted to run something, if he hasn't changed his mind)? If yes what will be offered? If no I'm more than willing to do so.

The "at a time" means ...

Damn - missed this little part. Thanks Eric.

I'm wondering about the wording for area 15, the "Chamber of the Four Elements" on page 9. It says on the bottom of the page:

but opening the panel likely requires touching the obelisk, which summons another fire elemental to attack.

The room description clearly states that only one of each elemental type can be summoned, so I'm wondering if opening the secret panel will really call another critter. I'm inclined to say no, as the previous text calls it out specifically, but I wanted to check here.

Anyway looking forward to GMing it on Saturday.

No update today. This is likely to be pushed out a bit, due to ramping up for the convention season and Mike being out of the office. With any luck we'll be able to get it up sooner than later. :)

Any update on when we'll be able to report "Mummy's Mask" for PFS? My group already finished up book 1 :-).

As I wasn’t able to attend last year I’m very, very much looking forward to this year’s PaizoCon UK. Also I’m fine with either food choice you guys make (as long as non-spicy food options are available), but if I have to put it to the vote I’ll say “3-course sit down” - if we’re going to do it, we do it right :-).

The Ghost Walk thing sounds like a neat idea, I’m in. And (as much as I’m a movie fan/nerd) I’d rather use the time Friday evening to chat, tattle, slag off and swap stories from the trenches with my colleagues from all over Europe, instead of going to the movies.

Also Dave, please let us know when the GM registration opens, as I’d really like to GM a couple of sessions.

After my previous VL for Frankfurt had to retire due to work constrains it's my pleasure to announce the promotion of Nils Hendrik Janson as the new VL.

Nils is with us since autumn of last year and has taken on the GM mantle since January doing a terrific job. So my man - put away your cheese platter and get to work! :-)

Congratulations Markus, finally a first link between Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. Let us know if you need any help!

I'm shocked, too.

But seriously, fantastic adventure - can't wait to run it and see jaws dropping on the table. Keep up the great work John!

As far as I can remember I killed 18 player characters (6 of which were a TPK) being currently at 180 tables of credit. Most of them were simply unlucky dice for the players but some…well.

#3-08 Among the Gods

#3-15 The Haunting of Hinojai

#4-13 Fortress of the Nail

Pathfinder Online Thornkeep

Jade Regent Adventure Path

Bonekeep Level 2 - Maze to the Mind Slave

I don’t enjoy killing players, even the arrogant or foolhardy ones as it always leaves me with an empty kind of feeling. And I find it rather disturbing (not to say silly) that some GMs seem to be proud of having killed a huge number of PCs. I always wonder how much they go out of their way to actually do kill players – are they going after downed ones with a vengeance? Yes there are monsters that will simply continue hitting on characters that are already in the minus as it’s their nature or an effectively placed area affect gets them but in general I leave downed players alone. The “don’t be a jerk” rule goes for GMs, too.

Alas, I must admit I’d really like to wipe the smile of my VL’s face by killing his level 11 dwarven fighter/stalwart defender. He simply can’t stop bragging about his AC 43, rubbing it in my face every time. He even bough a glamour for his full plate so it looks like simple clothing, to fool the opposition. I really have to get him to play “The Waking Rune” before he hits level 12…

I'd like to give a very warm welcome to the 4th VL of the Rhein-Main area in Germany: Tomas Popp. Now lead the charge and fill some tables :-).

We GMed this one for 2 crowded tables (with 6 and 7 players) ca. 2 weeks ago in a store event and had a fantastic evening. It's a bodaciously written adventure that drops tons of knowledge and good advice, especially for new players (and yes I know that's the intention). Even some of the old timers just nodded in appreciation.

I really liked that

There was just one thing that made me knit my brows:

Also for the minotaur (I love scaring the s~@$ out of low level players with such beasties :-) I was missing a nice, big Baphomet tattoo or branding, to draw the connection to the overall Worldwound incident.

P.S. No PC deaths occured. I'm very sorry Mr. Baird, I'll try to be meaner the next time.

And backed right away, without hesitation on the Pathfinder Esquire level. Looking very much forward to it.

It's my pleasure to announce the third Venture-Lieutenant for the Rhine-Main area around Frankfurt, Germany - Jan Cora. He'll be responsible for helping grow PFS in Darmstadt and it's surroundings.

Welcome to the team Jan.

This time I got to vent a bit, too. My August shipment is also pending since 09. August and I do have selected "never hold anything" as I'd rather pay more shipping instead of waiting for my stuff. I don't understand why the available items aren't being shipped but rather everything is collated in 1 mega package that again, as every month, guarantees another trip to my local customs office.

2 things are making it even worse this month: there are a lot of Cons I will attend for PFS so I'd appreciate having e.g. Bestiary Box 2 available instead of having to carry minis. Second and worst of all my order is over 800$ and won't be billed to my August credit card statement but rather September and was likely to go beyond the scope of the credit line (now cushioned via a gift certificate/store credit).

The only thing worse is having to pay for priority shipment almost every time and getting my stuff only after 3 or more weeks anyway (happend 4 times now).

Again very unhappy customer.

It's my pleasure to announce the new Venture-Lieutenant for Hamburg, Germany - Andreas Forster. Andreas has already been involved in organizing and GM-ing PFS for over a year (well under the radar of the German VO team), but has now been caught and press-ganged into the crew to grow, organize and represent PFS in his part of northern Germany.

So, welcome aboard Andreas.

Curry...I just realized where we will be eating Friday evening. I sure hope they have non-hot/spicy dishes (or the option to have them not spicy) as my stomach is very sensitive and doesn't agree with that kind of cuisine.

So very much looking forward to this, especially "Siege of the Diamond City" - got a Paladin level 8 waiting to kick some demon ass :-).

The only regret is that my flight back to Frankfurt leaves at 6:30pm on Sunday so I won't be able to play/finish "Rivalry's End" which would have been really awesome (got a lot of Shadow Lodge player's at home waiting for his one and the player insight before running it would have been nice). Anyone up for a special session on Friday maybe? My flight arrives in Birmingham at 9am and there's plenty of time until the Balti...just saying.

Yes, yes and again yes. I'd buy a stand alone, AP or boxed set of the infamous "Shadows Under Sandpoint" campaign or even better ALL OF THEM if they'd ever be published.

In fact I'm very much looking forward for the next AP installment "by James Jacobs", and no "The Midnight Isles" don't count fully as he's only co-author - but to be fair: Vaughan AND Jacobs in one adventure...that's almost an overload of awesomeness.

I DMed it a week ago and what I did was badging it with tracing paper (leaving all the distracting numbers and the perfidious crop circle out that way) and

Yes copying the maps with tracing paper will cost you some more minutes of prep work, but it's definitely worth it.

I'd love to see "Shadows under Sandpoint" as an AP or even 64-page module for that matter if that's the only way for it to see the light of day...but to be honest I'd settle for another AP installment "by James Jacobs" right away. It's been far too long since his last one.

Something that's on my mind concerning the "Reign of Winter" player's guide (see "People of the North") since first reading it: it states on page 30 that "The winter witch archetype in Inner Sea Magic is perfect for a witch character, as is the winter witch prestige class from Paths of Prestige". Despite the fact that the Winter Witches are "the enemy" from Irrisen I can dig that for fluff reasons this might fit the campaign perfectly - but (and this is important for me personally as I'll be playing a witch in this AP) what would I want with cold spells in an adventure where a big chunk of all baddies, especially in the later parts of the AP or even right from the start will be cold immune frost giants, winter wolfs, ice trolls, boreal/frost/ice [insert creature name here]? Adding 1d4 cold damage to the spell against the immune creature? Spraying him with a cone of cold?

The endure elements and ice immunity of later levels might be nice but I'd feel like a fire spell specialised caster in the "Legacy of Fire" AP: sure you'd be ok for most of the first half but later you're pretty muched f@!!ed.

I'm discussing the APs premise currently with my soon-to-be GM and we're seriously wondering how the winter/cold spell witch would be of use here. Cause there is nothing more frustrating and bitter than playing a useless character. Thanks.

I'm actually unable to express how insanely excited I am for this AP not only because I can finally play again (I always GM ALL the APs) but because of the great writer line up and fantastical setting and storyline. Now please let Greg A. Vaughan bring this baby home for volumne 6 - he HAS to, it's been way too long since he was allowed to write a high level chapter.

What the ... 6 hours ago you where still playing in my Heidelberg group and now this? ;-) Congratulations Wolf! Let me know if you can make it to the Aschaffenburg PFS-Gaming Day next Thursday.

I just released my case from the customs office - 96€ VAT made me gnash my teeth for a moment but then I decided to simply not give a f*§%. I finally have my new critters and am happy. Can't believe I promised my girlfriend (again) to wait until she comes home to break it open.

Early this morning I received an email stating that the miniatures along with the comics will ship next week (I thought they would start going out to the subscribers this week) but what made my eye twitch for a second were the shipping costs: 164$ for international shipping is no chicken feed.

With the hardcopy subscriptions earlier this month this really pushes my RPG budget. Guess I have to ask the players of my 4 groups to spring lunch for the next month :-).

Will the above mentioned "Mushfen support article" be included in the web enhancement? That'd be especially interessting and quite useful not only for "Curse of the Lady's Light" but also for

Concerning the thread topic: all my players and myself are PFS members, we like the society and the scenarios and we all are looking forward to returning to Varisia (were we all started with the unforgettable "Rise of the Runelords") as Pathfinders. Having the chance to use fame/prestige within an AP sounds fun so no reservations from here :-).

My only frustration comes from the fact that although it's already Thursday I still haven't received anything from my monthly subscriptions. -.- Very annoying.

Sooo preordered. The shipping costs for the November subscriptions will be a wee bit higher then usual thanks to this behemoth but I don't care about the money (at all) - the collector in me demands more limited editions. :-)

Richard Pett ftw! It's fascinating how Paizo manages every time again to get me even more excited for the next AP with each announced book. But seriously there mustn't be any future AP without the two titans Greg Vaughan and Richard Pett.

(P.S. Mr. Vaughan really needs to get to write more books #5 or #6 of an AP so his amazing player killing abilities can truely unfold.)

Got my email notification yesterday and downloaded it immediately (already tired out from hitting F5 every 10 seconds). Had to laugh about the "Savage Tide" wink with

I'm not quite finished reading the whole thing but great stuff so far and I know my players will love it all, especially the

One of the things that you need to remind your characters is, what in their background allows them to know about rakshasha and their abilities or mannerisms?

Well, that's what "Knowledge (Arcana)" is for - to identify the critter, his usual MO, his weaknesses and strengths and where he's coming from. And although my players are experienced and mostly know all monsters they still act as if they don't, make their respective knowledge roll and act appropriately. [And as they're all reading the messageboard, too - Thank you guys for not being pricks! :-) and if I ever catch you reading the GM reference threads you can go ahead rolling D20 to see how painful you'll die!]

The player may know that Glorio is a Rakshasha, but his character would probably have no reason to suspect otherwise.

Thanks for the tip but I don't see this happening - if they know he's trafficking with powerful fiends such as Rakshasas even their chars will suspect that he might be one, too or maybe something even more powerful/superevil. And as they all are good aligned (LG, 2x CG...well and one CN Cleric of Gorum who's ALWAYS in for a fight) with the Rogue/Wizard suspecting the Arkonas to be (rightfully) behind many outrages anyway they'll grill Bahor/Glorio on that. Not even a +55 on Bluff checks (looking despiteously at a certain Succubus in another AP) will help him then convincing the players that these are only bodyguards.

Oh well, I still can try that angle since I don't have any other great ideas to avoid this Catch 22 (other then broad hinting that they REALLY don't want to mess with that guy). I'll keep checking here, maybe somthing comes up in the next 9 hours until the session starts.

As my party is currently negotiating with the Emperor of Old Korvosa to see Salvator (and therefore about to have some nice matches of blood pig) it won't be long until they'll have to deal with the Arkonas and this is were my headaches start. I'm usually good in anticipating the moves of my groups but as of now I'm unsure if they will try to stealthily invade palace Arkona to find Vencarlo/Neolandus or march up to the front door asking bluntly for them. In the end it won't matter but mearly prolong the inevitable.

If they invade the palace they'll encounter the 4 Rakshasa guards and in slaying them witness their transformation back into their true form -> corrupting, dispicable, viciously evil outsiders. There's no way this WON'T come up in their little chat with Bahor/Glorio upstairs in his private quarters were he's supposed to idly sit around waiting for them to show up so he can present his vexing offer smiling through his beguiling 70s mustache. They will accuse him of having these fiends around strongly suspecting him to be one, too. [After all they're experienced players with some of them having played D&D for nearly 25 years)

Even if they parley with him and go down into the Vivified Labyrinth as tasked there's also no way they will only open the secret door to the labyrinth and so ignoring the big double doors at the bottom of the cave resulting in a skirmish with Avidexus and his little pets. If that's not a dead certain clue to what's going on in this noble house it'll be the encounter with Bahors/Glorios sister Vimanda. At the latest there they'll notice the Rakshasa infiltration amongst the Arkonas resulting again in a confrontation of the current landlord.

To bring my certainly unnecessarily long lead in to it's point: my players will confront Bahor/Glorio with the Rakshasa sightings in his house and will with 110% certainty suspect him to be one, too if not actively trying to unmask his doings therefore triggering his morale that clearly states "Bahor only stays behind to fight to the death if his enemies show that they know of his true nature—allowing anyone to escape his clutches with this knowledge is the thing he fears the most" (page 44).

This means all possible approaches to the Arkona problem will end inevitably in a fight with Bahor/Glorio and most certainly in a TPK as he's a nearly impossible to beat CR 15 encounter. At least for my 4 player, 15-points-point-buy group.

I'd sure appreciate any help, suggestions and/or tips here. Sir Pett? ;-)

Also thanks from my end for the good advice on toning down the Rakshasas - my two "Curse of the Crimson Throne" groups are advancing to the final showdown in "Seven Days to the Grave" and I just finished the Pathfinder conversion of Bahor (always doing this myself) and threw my hands up in horror. There's no way in the 9 hells the players will be able to beat this atrocious monstrosity. As Midnight_Angel noted they'll already have a damn hard time fighting two of the regular Rakshasa at once.

Then I thought "Oh well, they don't actually have to fight him..." but knowing my players (especially the rogue/wizard who is convinced since the first round that these "accursed" Arkonas are behind everything) I already see them smiling when they realize they'll have a one-on-one private discussion with Glorio believing this to be their lucky moment to take out one of the mean string pullers.

Alright - back to the drawing board. Let's see how Bahor is turning out this way. After all if the PCs want to have his "shinies" they have to work for it ;-).

According to this the C7 thugs are supposed to be in two places at once. I'm guessing the fact that they were said to move to C6 and C8 was overlooked, and that the Ravenscraeg on Alert way is probably what I should run, rather than the C3 development way, which would have my players returning to find 20 thugs waiting for them on the landing after only one day away. It seems like a bit much.

In my opinion this is exactly the way it's supposed to be - when the PCs penetrate Ravenscraegs defences and the alarm is raised all defenders on the Cliff Level act as outlined in "Ravenscreag on alert" then moving to C3 to guard the area for the PCs return in case they retreat. Having them wait in their rooms kicking one's heels would not only be grossly negligent from their leaders but plain stupid.

I guess I'm one of the lucky few whose subscription was shipped Wednesday - staring on the "pending" status every hour made me again bite my fingernails. I immediately downloaded it yesterday morning and have read it 2 times by now.

Gotta say it's the best book from this AP so far and Mr. Spicer really needs to put his shoulder to the wheel if he wants to be able to hold a candle to Tito :-). Awesome roleplay situations, great characters and locations and good fights. This is the kind of material I'd love to see more of.

(Sorry for the empty comment, not intentional)

Just came back from the customs office and released my case (another 40 Euros...the damn customs fees are killing me). Shipped in the States last Thursday, arrived in Germany this Wednesday - Thursday I received my notification. I just love priority shipping. Can't belive I promised my girlfriend I'd open it with her together this evening, this means 9 more hours of nail-biting until I can hug my little new critters.

But I almost had to relinquish this pleasure as this time I didn't print out the invoice when going to the customs office as Paizo always puts one inside the box. Not this time. It almost made me go on a rampage when I didn't find one anywhere in the box. Good thing the customs officer let me use his PC to print it out directly from my Paizo account. Close one.

After 2 years of having the “CotCT” books collecting dust on my shelf I finally managed to start GMing it with one of my groups (which recently finished “Rise of the Runelords”) and although I’ve read “Edge of Anarchy” 4 times in preparation I’m still wondering about the rewards the party should receive from Field Marshal Cressida Kroft:

In her speech for the “All the World’s Meat” assignment on page 27 the field marshal states “Bring me Verik alive, and there’s another thousand gold in it for you. Dead, he’s only worth half that.” Does that mean the party gets 1000 gp for dealing with the deserters PLUS another 1000 gp for bringing in Verik alive (500 gp if dead)?

Seems a wee bit much for their first job on the force also in comparison to the “Eel’s End”, “The Queen’s Scapegoat” and “A missing Body” assignments where it always comes down to 1000gp.

Maybe it’s intended this way or maybe I’ve overseen the respective passage (or it’s an editorial mistake) – can someone advice here? Many thanks.