The living brew is missing. The table isn't there, nor are the stats.
It's also pretty weak as written unless the living brew is very powerful. Some of the brews just do one aspect of what the mutagen normally can do from level 1.
As mentioned, the Living Brew isn't there yet.
We just wanted to put it up to get some discussion on the idea.
And we were considering making the Alcomancer do the opposite and weaken an enemy with his alcohols but we weren't sure how to balance it as easily.
Any opinions or help would be very helpful.
And the Living Brew is on its way, we're still wrangling the damn thing into its jar.
EDIT: As well, the Living Brew is indeed its key feature, seeing as it replaces the bombs and discoveries. Think of it as a unique cross between an eidolon and animal companion, except its an elemental formed of alcohol.
Here is a new archetype, currently finished except for a few last abilities, notably the Living Brew Table and Abilities as well as the Lingering Alcohol ability (which is essentially persistent mutagen.)
The brewing academy of Casker Hill is the home of these strange alchemists and are part of a very fun and interesting storyline. Let's just hope someone on your team has a taste for fine brews and the constitution to survive them!
One little bit of feedback, on one small detail: A single move action, to run over to a previously unmentioned coop (which is a building, you'd think someone might notice a building), undo a latch, grab a pigeon and release it into the air?
The coop is actually a just a cage behind the barricades, not an actual house. He literally just flips the latch.
All the soldiers carry pigeon cages (should probably just call it a cage then I guess) and use it to report to their commander. They're not heavily mage dependent.
The text has been reworded to say as much and mention the pigeon cage earlier.
Again, I'd like to thank you for these wonderful suggestions. We're coming up with some fun interactions between them and the Big Eight (the eight main NPCs who are constant companions).
In thanks we want to showcase one of the encounters from our adventure:
He would stick to a city, where money is to be made, unless of course a business venture on the side brought him elsewhere. Not that he would discuss that much.
The center of attention while keeping his personal business out of conversation. I like it.
Patrick may very well get the pc's unused horses away from conbat.
"Smiles" T'leaux (cn rogue) This local pimp and former small time crook knows every the name of man, women and child in town. A giant of a man with a glint in his eye and ready smile, even the most virtuous cannot help being drawn into his tall tales, nor resist the laughter brought on by his (occasionally crude) tales of the various characters he has met in his time. There are truly few who dislike him, and those unlucky few are the ones who have crossed him financially.
Would "Smiles" journey with them for a reason? Is he on his own mission or simply getting a ride? What race would he be? I can very well see him being both the center of attention around the evening campfires as well as bothering the fair-hearted cleric about her chastity.
Patrick Randall (NG male human commoner 3): Patrick joins as a simple passenger and plans to get off at the next town to seek his fortunes as a farmhand, as all the local farmsteads aren't hiring. He spends most of the trip explaining animal husbandry and crop planting. During combat he nevertheless grabs whatever he can and fights until brought below half health.
While we have finished writing our general outline of the campaign, we've decided to go ahead and ask the community for some good old friendly input.
As we've mentioned before, our campaign will feature a lot of travelling and exploration and we are slowly building a list of travelers and passengers that can accompany your players on their journey.
These travelers can range from anything to anyone.
In short, we're looking to make a good collection of NPC personalities that can serve to provide social interactions and good roleplay opportunities.
These travelers may stay anywhere from a day or two to months at a time depending on how the players go about the campaign.
So, that's where you can help. With a list traversing every kind of country, region and culture you can imagine, we hope to give players a chance to have some rather fun times.
Hmmm... thank you for putting that up actually. We've been wondering just what we should show on the forums as material we've made but I'd rather keep certain things away now.
Though honestly, Paizo's been pretty great about crediting people and they have a good moral code so I don't think they would just go and right ahead steal something. They might get inspired by a few things in my opinion, but I don't they'd go so far as to outright copypasta your material.
I agree. But when it comes to certain things I would rather post them in a Google Docs file with an OGL/OGC disclaimer and link to them.
Hmmm... thank you for putting that up actually. We've been wondering just what we should show on the forums as material we've made but I'd rather keep certain things away now.
Though honestly, Paizo's been pretty great about crediting people and they have a good moral code so I don't think they would just go and right ahead steal something. They might get inspired by a few things in my opinion, but I don't they'd go so far as to outright copypasta your material.
Oh ok, but I meant that the fact that it's essentially a quality you can move from item to item, should the item cost more? I could just make the gem worth much more of course.
We were wondering though, out of curiosity, how would you price these? As something that can be carried over to another suit or weapon, how much more should they be worth?
1000 plus the cost of the gem.
Even for some that provide bonuses such as the flaming quality (or fire resistance if used on an armor)? Would a percentage cost work better instead?
As we continue writing the first adventure of our campaign, we figured, while we still finalize the drafts of the subsequent adventures, there's room for a lot of monsters, characters, items, spells, etc, etc, etc.
In short, and of course with no obligations, we offer you the chance to include your own material within our adventure.
As to not spoiler the entire campaign until Adventure #1 comes out, we won't currently provide a detailed list of things we are looking for.
If you decide to contribute anything, please just let us know in your post or by Private Message the proper way to credit you.
Credit is given in any of the published products we use your idea in.
Ideas can be either rough unfinished or completed.
Everything submitted WILL BE INCLUDED in an adventure. If it really doesn't fit we'll PM you. But it shouldn't happen.
Currently Working On and Looking For:
Adventure #1: An Overture of Night Part I of the Clockspinnings Campaign
Emberglow Quartz This particular gemstone shines with a soft light.
As long as this gemstone is affixed, the affixed object sheds light like an ordinary torch, but it does not emit heat or deal fire damage if used as a weapon.
===
Arcane Gemstones
These gemstones can be encrusted into a suit of armor or a weapon pommel. To affix or remove a gemstone, it requires a DC 15 + gemstone's caster level Profession (jeweler) to remove it.
We were wondering though, out of curiosity, how would you price these? As something that can be carried over to another suit or weapon, how much more should they be worth?
You can use cinnamint in crafting a Mask of Humanity. Made with an Alter self spell, it changes the outer species. Harpies use them to look pretty. It disables their claw attacks, but their singing remains full powered. A mask of goblinkind can just as easily be crafted, but the specific type must be set at creation.
Good ideas, but if we included so much information for each item we'd have way too many pages. We're trying to get a broader effect, so these items most likely will do the following things:
- Increase item/spell potency, save DCs, etc
- Reduce creation costs for certain items
- Can be eaten/used directly for a set bonus
Hex Grids: We are currently hex gridding the world map and having overland travel be done by hex to simplify the arduous task of getting everywhere. Any views or opinions on this matter? (Yes, you heard me, everywhere. Suck it up and buy a horse.)
Show roads and major caravan routes, sea routes etc. That is one thing many worlds just don't do including Golarion. That is one of my big issues with Golarion, I can work around it but having them adds a LOT.
Quote:
Global Campaign Timeline: We are setting up a timeline that spans a good portion of the campaign after one of the chapters end. This gives us encounters and events GMs will run at certain days, while players will attempt to save the world before time runs out. (We plan on having notes on managing the timeline and on how to cut some slack.)
Interesting and more or less how I run home games.
Quote:
Tying up Loose Ends/ Living, Breathing World: As we continue to write up Chapter I, we've added in some parts of the story that are only completed later on. I don't want to give the example away, even in spoilers, but we plan on having some parts of the story only find closure later on. Expect NPCs names to matter and the fates of friends and foes to play on around you.
Then you need to make it very clear who and what is important and give enough information so the GM can RP them correctly to match things up latter. Otherwise it could cause huge problems. That is one of the reasons I never run Pathfinder AP's till all the books are out.
Quote:
Enhanced Professions: We're currently in the steps of trying out our prototype subsystem allowing you to obtain rare materials and resources to craft more powerful equipment. Balancing is currently the issue, and we're continuing to work on this.
Not much to say about this, as it depends how it is done.
Quote:
Expanded Races: Dryhten, the player character's starting
...
Thanks again for your feedback Dark_Mistress.
I have indeed noticed Endzeitgeist's great reviews and have begun looking into 3rd party material. Super Genius Games has quite the number of good classes as does Adamant Entertainment and a few others on the d20pfsrd.
As to some of your points:
1) Roads will be noted as they are required anyways. Remember that it takes less time to travel on roads than across mountains so we knew we'd need those included, especially in an adventure that involves quite a bit of world-crossing.
2) We're still trying out new things with the Craft/Professions so we'll let you all know when that's done. Here's an example of just one of the many new items we plan on having. We're trying to break away from just "I buy 500 gp of alchemical components" and reach a level where players can actually use these sort of items instead.
Spoiler:
Cinnamint
Cinnamint is an uncommon species of plant that is gathered in temperate climates, usually to be found in hilly or mountainous terrain. The plant itself is composed of long curled up leaves, forming straight stalks. Cinnamint is a non-magical plant by nature and though it has a crisp aroma, not many uses for it has been found.
Common Uses: Eating a stalk of cinnamint grants a +1 alchemical bonus to Diplomacy as the aroma washes away foul odors and cleans up both your oral and nasal cavities. Cinnamint is a viable plant to use for crafting antitoxins as well and if used in its creation, reduces the cost of producing the antitoxin by its purchase cost. A single cinnamint stalk is worth 10 gp.
I'm saying, allow a PC to take an animal that is in an adventure as an animal companion. Say a bad guy uses a chained up dire wolf as a guard for their lair. A druid can sway the wolf to become their animal companion. The GM then changes whatever stats are necessary.
Now I understand, thank you.
And yes, some of these animal companions will be in the possession of enemies, but some are simply rare and hard to find animals that roam the land.
Convention style animal companions: This is how you add a critter from an adventure. It's a bit of work for a familiar or a paladin's warhorse, but it gave a lot of roleplaying depth.
Updating Again Because I Work Late And It's Boring Here
Just here to add in a real quick update to the long list of things we already have planned.
Here it is.
Spoiler:
New Animal Companions. And we don't mean just another new animal... no, these are animal companions that people are going to stare at if you walk into town with them.
Thank you for posting a link to the hexcrawl thread, I'd already been made aware of it thanks to another thread, but thank you nonetheless. Weather has already been thought of, and I can tell you, it's not just rain and shine out there. You're going to need much more than an umbrella.
We like the idea of Prestige Classes, especially since we have planned factions and adding in that little touch of flavor in the form of a PrC is something we want to reinforce.
Hex Grids: We are currently hex gridding the world map and having overland travel be done by hex to simplify the arduous task of getting everywhere. Any views or opinions on this matter? (Yes, you heard me, everywhere. Suck it up and buy a horse.)
Global Campaign Timeline: We are setting up a timeline that spans a good portion of the campaign after one of the chapters end. This gives us encounters and events GMs will run at certain days, while players will attempt to save the world before time runs out. (We plan on having notes on managing the timeline and on how to cut some slack.)
Tying up Loose Ends/ Living, Breathing World: As we continue to write up Chapter I, we've added in some parts of the story that are only completed later on. I don't want to give the example away, even in spoilers, but we plan on having some parts of the story only find closure later on. Expect NPCs names to matter and the fates of friends and foes to play on around you.
Enhanced Professions: We're currently in the steps of trying out our prototype subsystem allowing you to obtain rare materials and resources to craft more powerful equipment. Balancing is currently the issue, and we're continuing to work on this.
Expanded Races: Dryhten, the player character's starting location and the major settlement of Pendallwater is home to a large community of ratfolk. This is but the first step in bringing less common races into the foreground, including some new ones.
No New Classes: We have decided to not create any new base classes. Some Prestige Classes maybe. Archetypes probably.
Slow Experience Track
This adventure is a long one, but some GMs may want to move quicker. We're including a section on how to run the... almost said the adventure's name there... whoops... anyways, there will be notes on what to remove to keep the player experience/wealth on track if you decide to move to a medium track. A fast track is not recommended.
Third Party OGL: Again, if anyone knows of any great 3rd Party Material that is OGL, we'd love to hear it. We're always ready to expand our options.
We do have recurring villains, and we'll envision adding occasions for villainy, but we're not sold on doing a "You can switch over to the entire team" plot. That really costs a lot of space and extra planning.
We'll see.
Remember, if you have any ideas keep posting, it can only help!
No thanks. I mean I like war as a backdrop or even playing a strike-team while a battle rages nearby but I don't have the mindset for playing warhammer and the like.
- Post - 20th Level Content (Not necessarily 21st level)
Although I always wish I had more power and rarely get to roll with characters above, say, 8th level; Epic-level stuff is just...meh. It's like DBZ when every single character is strong enough to blow up a planet, it just doesn't seem to make sense.
- Some Science-Fiction Elements
I could take it or leave it. It's usually fun for me, depending on the implementation, but if it provokes a particularly hateful response among other players they tend to suck the fun out of the whole thing.
- Diplomacy and Intrigue (More Roleplay than Rollplay)
Yeah. I also like "dynamic diplomacy," where the adventure includes choosing whether to, say, rescue the princess or deliver her to different kidnappers and the related political ramifications. Not everybody's good at acting, but most of us have played a bioware game.
- Modified Profession/Craft Skills (Opening up new options)
Huh?
- A World With More Races (More than just the core races appearing prominently)
Yes, actually. I was just thinking about how much I don't like Elves and Dwarves, or more accurately "declining and waning" Tolkien-style elves and dwarves. I listen to enough whining from long-lived people about the decline and decay of western civilization in the real world and *everybody* has elves and dwarves. I especially like the rat-folk, there's something charming about those little gypsies.
- Time Travel (Only to a specific event in time)
I could take it or leave it. It's a solid plot device but whether or not it's fun depends on the implementation, much like the entirety of the plot.
- Less Good vs Evil and more Lesser of Two Evils.
What about greater of two goods? I don't like,...
Thanks for replying and helping out there!
As to answer a few questions:
1) We don't plan on having the mass-combat play out as wargaming.
2) Post 20th level will be far from "planet destroying". We feel that an ending set possibly off-world requires some spectacular heroes.
3) I should really change the "Lesser of Two Evils" to a different name. It's essentially a war between two beliefs, two different values. Not necessarily good vs evil.
4) I like some of your last ideas, especially better living through magic, ambiguous necromancy and mobile living space.
I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed so far and with such a great gaming community here I hope more will add their voice.
For better or for worse, we've begun writing the 1st chapter of the adventure, set in the smoggy industrious port side city of Dryhten.
For your pleasure, here is Dryhten's settlement statistics.
Dryhten:
Dryhten
N small city
Corruption +1; Crime -2; Economy +1; Law +3; Lore +4; Society +2
Qualities: (4) Port-of-Call, Rumormongering Citizens, Strategic Location, Superstitious
Danger +5
Demographics
Government autocracy
Population 10,000 (6,000 humans, 4,000 mixed (elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, half-elf and ratfolk)
Notable NPCs
Lord Mayor Peter Shahend (LN male human aristocrat 5)
Officer Vivianne Krohs (LG female fighter 2/ cavalier (Order of Progress) 2)
Bishop Querich Sr. (NG old male human cleric of Eveldine 6)
Detective Wallen O'Kenner (CG male half-elf bard (detective) 4)
Marketplace
Base Value 4,400 gp; Purchase Limit 25,000 gp; Spellcasting 4th
Magic Items: See individual shops on page XX
1) People have mentioned a separate PDF containing all the required necessary statblocks, separated by chapter. Would this also interest you?
2) I loved the Hook Mountain Massacre personally! Wake of the Watcher was also quite fun.
3) We've really focused on steering away from stereotypes but not to the point to make it seem obvious. For example, we've kept the races as history has noted them as being. Elves in the forest, dwarves in the mountain for example. However, not every elf is aloof, not every dwarf is obviously a drinker and I know for a fact we have a gnome statted out to be more creepy than quirky... the ugly creepy.
I like Kickstarter but unfortunately I do not live in the states so I won't be using it. As for the preview I meant more along products like an extra gazetteer on the region itself, a campaign preview (much like the old Age of Worms Campaign Overload), etc.
I see you listed Steampunk as Science fiction. To me they are not the same thing. When I think science fiction I think, laser, space ships, robots, things beyond modern tech.
Steampunk I like and if done well don't mind it mixed with fantasy.
As for the evil vs evil, good vs good might be interesting. Or just factions fighting with no one really being good or evil but a bit of both. Just not a fan of evil vs evil. Been done and tends to be hard to pull off IMHO.
I'd always considered Steampunk as a sci-fi/fantasy blend. The furthest "technology" we currently envision is the ability to reach the moon.
War Granted I don't have a lot of experience in this arena, but is it the PC's vs. a horde? Or are the PC's controlling multiple NPC's in the war party? If you only have a table of 3-4 would they want to play a whole bunch of people? Not sure myself...
Post 20th level I certainly enjoy what I've heard so far about the Mythic stuff from Paizo....
Once again, thank you for your swift replies.
War: We are between a few ideas. Kingmaker provided us with a mass-combat system of rules bur we are also contemplating player's doing their own actions while the war rages around them. There may also be a mix between mass-combat and player oriented combat.
Post-20th: Prestige Classes were one of the bigger ideas we were considering.
Science-Fiction: Again, I'll be putting this in spoilers.
Spoiler:
The technology level would be such that people are in the process of designing the first methods of reaching the moon. Nearing the end, they might very well either be able to see the first moon walk, assist on its completion, or actually be the ones to do it.
Profession/Craft: I like the ideas you have.
Time Travel: Actually, the repercussions are not to be campaign-wrecking.
Spoiler:
As everyone on the ship is fated to die and the ship to be destroyed, the only option available to the players would be to attempt to save the ship from being destroyed. Of course, the campaign uses this as a plot point, not a method for players to ruin the game.
Conclusion: We promise, there is no god killing. As for side-quests, we feel it wouldn't be too hard to include rules for this.
- War: What do you mean by not enough players?
- Post - 20th Level Content: Glad to see that you like the idea. Do you have any opinions on how you envision this being done?
- Some Science-Fiction Elements: By science fiction we mean including some elements from genres such as steampunk and include material from alchemical engines to perhaps even forays to the moon or other planets.
- Diplomacy and Intrigue (More Roleplay than Rollplay): Granted, but the whole adventure cannot be just optional events.
- Modified Profession/Craft Skills (Opening up new options): You seem quite interested with this point. What do you personally feel is lacking from these two skills? (Aside that Profession does nothing but give meager gp compensation...)
- A World With More Races (More than just the core races appearing prominently): Exactly our point.
- Time Travel (Only to a specific event in time): In our case, and I'll be putting this in spoilers, we want it more to work like this.
Spoiler:
The players need to speak with some people who unfortunately passed away while on a cruise aboard a sailing ship. The players go back to the cruise itself and manage to talk with them to obtain the information they need before they pass away. As a contained event, and with knowledge that catastrophic events may occur should things go differently, they must succeed in only obtaining the information while leaving the past as it is.
- Less Good vs Evil and more Lesser of Two Evils. Please yes.
- Factions (Earn reputation and rewards) I highly doubt they would include our factions in PFS. In fact, we plan on having factions work much like they do in the Faction Guide but with minor adjustments.
- Optional Objectives and Locations (Small side-quests and locales for players to explore.) We had ideas for this but weren't sure if GMs would prefer all the side-quests to be made, or need them to work more. If interest seems high we could most likely include information on creating and implementing GM- homebrewed ideas.
EDIT: Bonus Questions
Your answers have been noted.
What do you NOT want to see?: We would very much like this adventure to reach 20th level.
Also, we have strongly been considering releasing this as just a single adventure, start to finish. It would be very much like having an entire AP in one volume a la Rise of the Runelords Anniversary or the Shackled City Adventure Path for example.
Again, thank you for taking the time to answer.
Every time we get feedback, we get closer to a product we think you'll enjoy even more.
Also, my team is asking me if you'd enjoy having pre-generated characters included at the back of the book? It's another small thing that people may or may not like.
As for the Lesser of Two Evils, I may have explained it wrong. What I mean to say is that this will be more of a fight between beliefs or values than necessarily the good guys versus the villainous overlord and his evil henchmen.
I'll address a few points, point by point as well.
1) Post 20th Level Content: We have our own ideas of what to make of post 20th content and it will most likely go no further than 23rd level. As for Mythic rules, it all depends on when it comes out and what me make of it.
2) Science Fiction Elements: So I take it you are not a large fan of Numeria?
3) Time Travel: I'm guessing this goes with the lack of interest for science-fiction. Is there a particular reason you are not interested?
4) Less Good vs Evil and more Lesser of Two Evils: What would you consider a job done poorly as to this aspect?
5) Monsters/Statblocks: What about the new monsters and NPCs we make? Where in the adventure would you prefer having to look them up?
6) Artwork and Maps: Noted, we don't have a huge budget so artwork will most likely be black and white and small. I am taking courses on landscape painting so some regional artwork should be there. Maps are a given.
7) Player's Guide: Would a set piece, or preview of the campaign setting be of interest though?
P.S.-I would probably try and keep such products pdf only and as low price as possible as they add an additional cost that DMs may find hard to chip in for just to run such an AP.
P.P.S.-I would also suggest looking at what the guys at Fire Mountain Games are producing in Way of the Wicked if your looking for what high quality 3rd party APs are going for these days. If anything it would give you a good understanding as to the standards of the competition.
As to your point of keeping it on a smaller scale, we are thinking of making something more akin to the first Pathfinder Adventure Path, where Golarion itself was but a name and everything began in Varisia. The players and GMs would get their first glimpse of our world through the adventure. Players would most likely know only so much about the world at large, much as in most people don't know every country, every place and every important person in the world.
We want this to be a complete adventure: Setting descriptions, Adventure and material all together.
We are only considering PDF for now and the price will definitely not be high. Our objective is to provide a worthwhile adventure for the community, not to make a profit. In fact, the cost we set may only be to refund what we use to pay for artwork and other such material.
As for Fire Mountain Games, I have already looked at their work and it was mostly the amazing quality they put out that led me to believe that a 3rd Party could produce content that I believe is as strong and fun to play as any official Paizo AP.
