As the end to our current Kingmaker AP, the party was faced with each member's diametric opposite. My character (the wizard) was one who escaped a reality where the Worldwound was never closed. I wrote up a short description of the event, part of which I'll post here:
** spoiler omitted **...
You've got to write this up as a Pathfinder Tales . . . .
Good to see that this thread is being kept up to date!
You mean Pathfinder Chronicles, yes? (the fan-fiction base).I seriously doubt that I'd get a contract to write a Pathfinder Tales novel :) But yes, that would be a fun thing to finish writing up (and expand). Maybe :)
Cool ideas! Which D&D modules did you use in relation to Strange Aeons? I'm in the planning stages for running that AP next and am looking to broaden its scope and open things up.
So we used X1: The Isle of Dread as a fun romp through dinosaurs and increasingly Cthulhu-ish menaces. Think of it as a Rogue One-type mission and tell the PCs to not get too attached to their characters. In fact, tell them this is a great chance to make PCs they otherwise wouldn't play.
Anyways, we set X1 out in the Castrovin Sea east of the Stolen Lands. You can read about it here.
We also ran U1: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh because if you rework the module (which is not too difficult using Realm Works) you can add in a lot of the Horror Adventures rules for things like Haunts, etc... SSoS is a "haunted house" adventure, where the PCs find (among other things) old tomes that could be lead ins for Strange Aeons. Again, we set ours east of the Stolen Lands along the coast. If you want to continue the SSoS storyline, I recommend changing the backstory to have something to do with the rival city-states in Iobaria and humanoid incursions from the hills.
Firstly, we've always started with new characters for each AP, so it's not like we've got 18th level characters running through the first book of an AP. :) That would be silly!
--some people would consider what follows to be spoilers for some or all APs. I'll try to keep it vague and campaign specific, but of necessity I'll be touching on individual plot points. Cave at emptor!--
Giantslayer was easy to set in our little nation. Instead of Belkzen, we used the mountainous areas east of Brevoy. We started in Brunderton, with the new party asking the locally famous bard to perform at our kingdom's anniversary celebration. In our campaign setting, the central government of Brevoy was shattered into innumerable petty factions with the return of Choral. Humanoids and monsters from Iobaria moved in, making travel immediately away from keeps dangerous. I put most of the locations somewhere in the mountains east of the kingdom. I substituted cyclopses for giants at the top and added an additional twist with a hook from Kingmaker.
Strange Aeons dropped in pretty easily as well as AP1 is almost completely self contained. We decided that the plane shifting at the end of Kingmaker had some unfortunate effects on some people and they were beyond even regular magical care. A town developed around the institution - we considered having both on Candlemere island (which was keeping with the spirit of the original AP). Later books don't even reference the original country, so you don't have to change much.
Which brings me to a great point about moving APs - the ones where you start out in the homeland and move away as the APs go on are best. We could probably do Iron Gods easily as we adjoin Numeria and we could also do Ironfang Invasion as a sequel to Giantslayer, with Brevoy taking the brunt of it.
Lastly, I ran a few side quests for our party (sort of as a guest GM) which expanded the world. In our campaign we filled in the map east between the Stolen Lands and the Castrovin Sea - it's mostly empty terrain, but it explains in-universe why it wasn't colonized. And I did a couple of old ADnD modules to give some background to Strange Aeons.
I wonder if it is going to be like Kingmaker from what has been revealed in the Player's Guide.
There aren't any kingdom-building elements hard coded into the Adventure Path, though a GM could easily add that in. The AP isn't about micromanaging a colony. It's about exploration and uncovering lost lore.
I wonder if the organisation rules might be an interesting mechanic to use here as its a little small to be a kingdom. We're talking about tens of people rather than hundreds or thousands - at least at first. (And I'm not sure if, based on the maps, theres enough land for a kingdom of the size of the stolen lands.)
So in keeping with our group's 'continuity' to run everything as a sequel to our original Kingmaker AP in the Stolen Lands, I'm going to prep this AP as being a colony of our new kingdom. It's not that much of a stretch, financially... the expedition will be funded by one of the original PCs (now an NPC) who is quite wealthy.
The two caveats I'm going to make are 1. There's a small, hidden port in Varisia that will be the "base" from the Inner Sea to Azlant. It'll be a heretefore unknown town along the coast. I figure there's a bunch of these along the coast that just haven't been fleshed out. And 2. One of the 'quirks' surrounding the shattered continent is that it messes with teleportation spells, meaning that you have to sail a ways away from the continent before you can teleport out.
Depending on how the AP works out, I may decide to have some Taldane encounters in the later APs... as our little nation is encroaching on "their" claim. (this could also lead into War of the Crown) But earth's colonial history is replete with countries you've never heard of setting up (and usually subsequently losing) said colonies to other countries. It'll be fun to see how magic affects this. (And how magic can affect building a colony from scratch).
Any other thoughts about how this might unfold or other problems/interesting evenst this premise might cause?
I am incredibly excited for this AP. Although we will be starting out adventure out of the Stolen Lands. :) And we'll be including the interview process. With paperwork. In triplicate. Sign here please!
So far this AP sounds awesome, Adam. Our group will probably make use of some colony building. As GM, my big challenge will be to try and figure out how to make our established corner of the world (the stolen lands and points east) connect to Azlant, which is the other side of the continent and half an ocean away.
Because someone asked (and because I have my 1st Ed books handy):
Lightning bolt: underwater, this spell resembles a fireball as pertains to ates of effect. Instead of a stroke the electrical discharge takes the form of a 2" radius sphere (note: they used a different metric then) centering on the point where the stroke would originate were the spell vast above water. All those within the sphere will suffer the full effect (saving throw for half)
Maze of Death key monster types: minotaur artillery, Ghul, large blue dragon, mind frond, huge air elemental. Huge water elemental (Erik points out the drowned dudes inside the mini of the elemental).
Promises huge earth & fire elementals in the future.
*sigh* that's something I wish I had the money for... I got the first set and could never bring myself to spring for the rest.
Thanks! Not to spoil anything at all, but the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild has taught us a ton about how to deliver story content. We're smart enough to learn from that knowledge.
But yeah, we're still crafting the details, so nothing to say yet. Soon, though.
Sure! Obviously, this is an iterative process. The computer ACG app I think did a lot to make the game more accessible for us. Still, I'd much rather hold actual cards in my hand than look at a screen. So, good luck :)
I'm glad to hear that the ACG is going to be revised. I always thought the storyline aspect was a little weak. My 11 year old loves playing but has never felt invested in the story.
I have no idea how you'll achieve this, but I'm extremely glad for the attempt.
So, when the PCs finally obtains the artifact Two-Handed Sword that is the only mean of killing the demigod BBEG, what do they do?
They act like adults and recognize that the artifact is a tool that is needed by the party as a whole. That item is placed into the party "ownership" category, and is used by whomever can best deliver its potency when the time comes. It is not sold.
This actually happened during our last campaign. The uber-sword which was clearly meant for the paladin wound up in the mage's hand (who had taken proficiency in the longsword for previous plot reasons) when the paladin went down momentarily during the BBEG fight.
Seriously, though. The parties I'm in always talk it out. Yeah, the meat-shields wind up with more stuff because - well, meat-shields. If I'm playing a squishy I want my first line of defense to be the guy up there taking hits for me. So if that means he gets the ring of protection +4 before me, then so be it. As the mage, I'm the last line of defense / the guy who grabs the corpses and gets us all resurrected.
In practice what it means is that we look at the loot list after a battle and we decide collectively not "What we want" but rather "what's best for the party". Protection-stuff goes to the front line, scrolls to the back. Yeah, the bard can use a scroll once, but if its something that isn't in the mage's spellbook and its a reasonably decent spell it makes no sense to "one and done". Anything that's not immediately useful gets sold for cash and that gets divided up equally for the party. (which is usually spent on the mage crafting magic items anyways - which he does, free of charge for reasons enumerated above).
note: this only works when you're playing with a group that meets regualarly. If you are playing PFS or something like that, I'd imagine you'd have to go the accountant route. I've never played PFS so I have no experience there.
Addendum - somewhere I worked out a rule of thumb that, all things being equal, you gained a level for each ten years past 20. So 2nd Level at 30, 3rd at 40, etc...
You can probably front-load that a bit, and don't forget to take into account aging as well.
At one point I started going through all the Campaign setting books I had to list all the NPCs by class and level. I wanted to get a sense of how it all broke down in terms of what was really "high level" in Golarion. The idea being that the Campaign Setting books provided a statistical sample - and that you could extrapolate the sample to the whole population.
Anyways, after going through a half-dozen books, I found only one level 4 commoner. I did find one L12 expert, though! Radas Menadian, from Andorra.
Also, for the record, full arcane casters made up about 9% of the total sample, whereas Fighters made up 17% and rogues 15%. And finding a L 19th character of any class in Golarion was something like a 1 in 10,000 occurrence. So a L 19 full arcane caster was something like 1 in 100,000.
I dunno if that breakdown was Paizo's intent, but it's how it worked out and it doesn't seem too unreasonable.
I would like to run a campaign where the economy and people of Golarion are realistically run. I'm fairly certain it would grind down into a terrible, terrible dystopian future pretty darn quickly lol.
"what do you mean the demons left the worldwound?"
"Dunno.. the just shook their heads, muttered something about 'damaged goods' and fell back through the abyss. It's closed now."
Somewhere I did a thing where I tried to mathematically break down NPC levels by age (Pathfinder being very much NOT 1st Ed AD&D). It came out to something like this...
At 16ish you're level one. Barring any actual "adventuring" you gain a level through your day job and day-to-day activities about every 10 years, ending up withe between 4-5 levels by the time you hit retirement age. Granted, these are frequently in NPC classes (commoner, expert) but they exist.
Furthermore, you can add a level based on your level of education - 1 more for undergrad/trade school, one for an MS, one for a PhD. You can argue whether these levels are transferable to actual PC levels (chemist = alchemist, musician = bard, etc...)
This doesn't take into account any special training, like a navy seal having levels in Brawler, fighter or slayer.
But the point is that there's a definite correlation between age / work experience and class level. And thanks to Ultimate Campaign, we can retrain!
Divine classes would have to actually adhere to religious tenets to get spells and... whoops! we have several religions that follow the same god but only one of those is actually going to get spells (Sorry Christians, turns out the Jews were right...)
What you said about all arcane classes starting at 1st level is probably true for wizards, but not sorcerers. I find it hard to believe that every single sorcerer on Golarion is 1st level when their powers manifest and has the potential to reach 20th level. Since sorcery is innate, some sorcerers are probably born more powerful than others.
You still have to start at 1st level. Them's the rules! (unless we're living in a homebrew universe. Oh, the horror!)
slachance6 wrote:
Also, what you said about religions, what do you mean? Are you trying to incorporate your personal beliefs or something? Why would the Jews receive spells but not the Christians?
That.. was a joke. Wow. Calm down. I just picked Judaism out of a hat of the big 3. The point was that in a universe where deities actually bequeathed powers to their followers, it becomes pretty obvious who's doing the right thing because they get the spell slots filled. You can say "I'm a paladin of Iomedae and she told me to burn down all the orphanages" but I doubt very much you'd get spells from her. So think all of the denominations and sects that exist. Then consider how they differ - some mildly, some not-so-much. Now imagine if you could demonstrably show which sects had divine approval through daily spells granted. I think there would be a corresponding reduction in religious variety once certain denominations (not saying who - not going there) stopped getting spells.
That'd be an incredibly bleak future. Consider that any arcane classes would start at 1st level (or higher than first as martial, but have to retrain). There'd be no spell books to learn from, so everyone would be learning from scratch. Perhaps some good aligned "monsters" could help, but maybe only the bad ones come over?
Divine classes would have to actually adhere to religious tenets to get spells and... whoops! we have several religions that follow the same god but only one of those is actually going to get spells (Sorry Christians, turns out the Jews were right...)
Weapons would be masterwork (almost all) but that's not going to help you against something that is immune or has significant DR.
So, if the monsters all suddenly appeared (say they plane shifted over en masse as the two universes overlapped) that initial wave would cripple modern society. After that, what was left of humanity would retreat to what easily defensible locations they had (Manhattan island, for example) and either try to retake the planet or slowly get starved/beaten out of existence.
I'm sure there's a truckload of novels that cover this dystopian future.
It is still closer to Arcadia then we have been before;)
In an adventure. ;)
So if your PCs intentionally overshoot Azlant and keep on going west, is it thematically appropriate to throw waves upon waves of angry thunderbirds at them as they approach Arcadia?
(I just read about thunderbirds as possibly being inspired by pterodactyl skeletons in the American midwest. That's cool!)
Based on my sample size (one) I think I can confidently predict Kingmaker as the next hardcover AP. Unless I change my mind.
But honestly, whichever one they decide to do, I have faith that they'll put in enough stuff and tweak enough things that it'll be worth the investment.
Yeah, I've tried both of those and while I agree they are great for day-to-day stuff (though at upper levels, I had trouble incorporating everything into it), its not really what I'm looking for.
So I'm retiring a long running and complicated character (L20 alchemist / Mythic 4) whose sheet has become quite extensive. He resides in Hero Lab right now, but I'd like to have a permanent, paper copy of him for posterity.
What, in your opinion, would be the best way to do this? I looked at Paizo's Character Folio and it didn't quite have the right "feel" to it. (For example, he's an alchemist with an extensive list of spells and the spell page just won't cover that).
If I have to, I'll make up my own sheet, but I would be totally open to something that was pre-made.
If they ever did a mass-combat game for Golarion, this would fit in perfectly. Until then, and although I would be very interested in seeing this, it's likely to remain only a wish.
For the record, I would not expect an electronic-only subscription to show up earlier in the month. For me the reason to go electronic-only is two fold:
bookshelf space (and having to lug books everywhere) and cost. I'll happily pay the part of the cost that covers the author and the layout, whether that's 50% or 65%. (Heh.. though if its 99.8%, I'm going to raise an eyebrow).
But realistically, when I need rules I go to the web or to Hero Lab. In fact, when I want to evaluate a new set of rules, my general order of purchase is Hero Lab, then electronic, then heavily-discounted dead tree (through bn.com). Hero Lab comes first because its something that I can use to make my play / prep time easier. And I know that I'm still supporting Paizo through LW's licensing of the product.
Indeed, about 80% of the modules I have in print from Paizo are through their warehouse reduction sales (where the ole 3.5 modules are like 80% off).
Its a matter of stretching that dollar. Btw, for the record, the odds of me migrating over to 5E is very small to nonexistant - mostly because I'm already heavily invested (in both time and money) in pathfinder and really don't want to start over again.
For me its bookshelf space. I don't "read" the campaign series, player companions or the rulebooks cover to cover. I refer to them, or to d20pfsrd or somewhere else. These do not need to be physical copies for me - they can be electronic.
But I'm not going to spend $16- on the pdf of the campaign setting, or $11 on the companion when the pdf of a hardback rulebook is $9.99. Rather, "if" I get them, it's going to be off Barnes and Nobles's website when they are half off and I can apply my member discount.
Give us an electronic-only version of the campaign setting subscription at 50% off the paperback price and I'll sign up. Until then, I have to pick and choose what I buy. Cause frankly, too much comes out at once.
Kingmaker is a good choice provided you're willing to invest some time in keeping the NPCs straight. Its other drawback is that the threads don't always tie together perfectly well (it sometimes feels disjointed out of the box). Fortunately, there's a whole subforum devoted to cleaning that up.
The biggest issue with Kingmaker is that its partially out of print (and print-wise generally the least accessible Paizo AP out there).
Going point by point:
1 - Includes many recurring NPCs and opportunities for roleplaying...
Tons of this. Though a lot is just sketched out and is left for the GM to further fill in.
2 - Does not include game mechanics that can bog down play...
The big "hook" for Kingmaker is kingdom building, which, as others have said can be "dumbed down". Mass combat makes an appearance a couple of times as well, though this can also be minimized. (you could be directing troops from behind, not leading them personally).
3 - Will work with a varied party makeup that may not be very optimized or min/maxed. If there is an essential class/role/etc. for a path, I'd love to have that advice up front.
Nothing is absolutely essential. There's a lot of wilderness / fey, so druids and rangers are probably good. We played with 4: a bard, paladin, cleric and arcanist. The GM wound up bumping up a lot of encounters.
4 - Has an interesting plot that won't be hard to keep players motivated in. I'd like to avoid a story that is only interesting to read, but not interesting to play through...
KM is a sandbox. There's a background plot, but it can be adjusted to suit the campaign (or never conclude if that's what you want). There's a bunch of stand-alone modules that work well within this setting (Carnival of Fear comes to mind as an early on module) where all you do is rearrange the background motivations. I've found that you could set a lot of Giantslayer in and around the Stolen Lands (where Kingmaker is set) as well. Again, gotta tweak stuff a little, but not as much as you'd think.
Kingmaker is great for foreshadowing as well. For example, you don't really interact with the nation of Pitax until the last couple of books.. but have a diplomatic event early on where you meet the Pitaxians so that each group gets a "history". Want to include more on Mivon? (it really gets short shrift in the AP) Check out the subforum and/or ask in there - its a really helpful group.
Like I said - great AP for RP. But RP always means more work for the GM. The GM can mitigate that somewhat by doing things like asking the PCs to design their castle and by having the PCs telegraph a little what they intend to do for the next few game sessions (do you want to explore or work on the kingdom?) We spent a couple of sessions at one point planning anniversaries for the kingdom (I believe the Cult of Gyronna interrupted one of those anniversaries) and another building a monument to those lost in the troll attacks.
As the end to our current Kingmaker AP, the party was faced with each member's diametric opposite. My character (the wizard) was one who escaped a reality where the Worldwound was never closed. I wrote up a short description of the event, part of which I'll post here:
wall of exposition:
"But time ran short. The year was 4713 and the Worldwound was about to collapse. Zi knew little of the story of the foolish adventurers who tried and utterly failed to close the worldwound. But he saw, firsthand, the demonic armies pouring out of the country and into Ustalav. He fought them as well, as good and evil put aside their differences to combat the ongoing threat. When the front lines engulfed Varisia, Lastwall and Nirmithas, Zi Mishkal was there. By now he had grown powerful, picking the choicest items from the corpses of his friends and foes alike. So it was not unsurprising that they came.
Devils. They stood as much to lose in Golarion as the mortal folk did. The balance had been upset, and badly so. Hundreds of thousands of souls had been devoured by the Abyss. Though the blip was momentary, the soulcountants and mysticticans recognized that the balance, once upset would be difficult to restore. Moreover, the continued upsetting of the balance could be dire for the devils. And so, Mephistopheles did the unthinkable. He came up with fair terms.
Thousands and tens of thousands signed up for a moment of infernal power in exchange for something less than their souls. Lives were shortened, agonies were endured, children were offered up freely without their consent to close the worldwound. When Zi’s turn came, he saw the terms - a goodly percentage of power in exchange for half of his remaining mortal life. He reread the terms and saw them to be completely fair.
“Sign here”, the contract devil advised.
Zi hesitated.
“Has someone cast feeblemind on you, human? Put your idiot signature on the dotted line. I have a quota to keep.”
Zi looked the contract devil in the eye. “No.”
“You’ll be fodder on the front line for disloyalty like this.”
“I’ve no desire to see the demons overrun Golarion more than you. But understand this. I am my own man.”
The devil spat on him “Remove him!”
Three days later, a very mortal Zi Mishkal, stood with the rest of the fodder in front of the walls of Kintargo in Cheliax. Ahead of him, an army of unspeakable terrors slowly, leisurely advanced on the city. Most of Zi’s magical accoutrements had disappeared - ‘reassigned’ by the devil-tainted commanders. He managed to keep only his staff and his ring of sustenance. As he watched the army advance, he heard a soft, feminine voice inside of his head. It whispered “You want to survive, don’t you?” Zi tensed at the voice. “Not to worry… you will see another dawn… someday.”
Zi could not dwell on the voice for now the demonic army was upon him. The battle was unspeakable; the casualties were immense. Zi fought long and hard throughout the struggle, at one point rallying the devil-tainted counterattack through the breach in the city’s walls. The demons were unprepared for the new strength of their enemy and it shook their army to the core. As he lead the counter-charge, he could see the tent of the Demon-Lord Deskari ahead, a look a confused surprise on his face as the demonic attack crumbled…
Zi never knew the shot that killed him. His first inclination was the burning sensation - not fire, more like acid, he thought. His second thought was that the sensation seemed to work from within - as if he were dissolving from inside. He felt lighter, then heavier, then felt nothing at all…"
1. Some of Azlant. As we don't know much about it, it's hard to be more specific.
2. Any of the named locations in Iobaria dealing with cyclopsean ruins.
3. First Step in Razmiran.
4. Hermea
That's just off the top of my head. As for outside of Golarion itself, Triaxus would be fun to hear about. It would have to be a planet who is significantly inclined to the rest of the solar system so it doesn't crash into everything else. Also, it would spend less time near the sun and more time away (cause.. gravity). That makes it a very interesting world.
Ok, wow. So, real short and final since this thread has been completely hijacked by.. I dunno.. some weird group of people intent on putting words in my mouth.
I AM NOT intending on telling the White Savior story, retelling the colonization story or propagating any sort of weird fantasies that you seem completely and wholehartedly bent on making it seem like I am. I can't state it any more clearly than that.
As best I can tell, you're looking at the fact that monstrous humanoid races are, in some way, inferior to the usual PC races. And wow... doesn't that say more about you than it does about me? I was trying to tell a COMPLETELY different story - what would happen in a world where the standard PC races were non-existent? How would those civilizations rise and fall? (remember, I was coming up with this idea when all Paizo had was a couple sentences about Arcadia) What would motivate those cultures?
But no, you don't want to talk about that concept. Rather, it's all "OMFG. There's no PC races there - this place is savage and untamed. There's only low level XP there. Clearly it's prime for settling by the civilized folk." Yeah. I'm the one telling the 'racist' story.
Anyway, I'm done with this topic and I'm sorry I even brought it up. I was under the impression that this group was actually open minded. I was apparently incorrect.
That's fine, coffee demon. You're allowed to disagree. I'm just not going to engage the debate you seem eager to have. As I've pointed out theres enough room in the game world to tell both stories. I encourage you to start your own thread and describe your own ideas. Point me to it and I'll offer constructive criticsm as well.
Personally, I'm going to put together a nice map of the arcadia already described and go from there. As I mentioned earlier the new supplements have changed my narrative.
*addendum (as I've exceeded the time with which I can edit my previous post)
I just reread the Distant Shores supplement and frankly its nearness to where I'd considered placing this AP invalidates a lot of what I have here. So I'd rewrite to make it more human-centric or move it somewhere else.
Hey, when I first kicked this idea around Shattered Star was just wrapping up as the AP de jure. And Paizo spent a lot of time not saying anything about Arcadia ;)
Unfortunately, it doesn't meet the second criterion. According to Mr. Wertz*, the two criteria are (1) mostly sold out, and (2) 3.5 material. They may change their minds about one or both of these, but the most recent info is fairly clear. ^_^
*I'd link the post, but I'm on mobile. It's in one of the Crimson Throne hardcover threads.
I was being somewhat facetious there ;) However, I would also add Rule Zero: The devs reserve the right to change their minds.
Which frankly puts this all into rampant speculation. *shrug*. We'll see what / if they decide to do.
know what the summer 2017 AP is going to be, because I'm announcing it at GenCon in a few weeks. There have been some semi-close guesses in this thread, but someone pretty much nailed the Adventure Path title in a post in the last 10 or so pages, and that's had me tickled since I noticed it.
"Adam Daigle, Boy Adventurer?" (making use of the young PC rules?) ;)
So I'm going to preface my follow-up thoughts by saying Arcadia is huge. It is the equivalent of North and South America. So there is room for dozens, if not hundreds of AP ideas. What I was proposing would only occupy a small portion of the contient - something equivalent to the size of Nova Scotia or Maine. Or to reverse the idea - imagine if the description of Golarion started in Arcadia and someone wanted to "do an AP about Avistan". Because, you know, all Avistan looks the same.
Anyway, on to my follow-up comments.
So, I kept the initial comments somewhat vague because of spoilers (you know, on the one in a million chance that Paizo liked the idea (ok.. one in a trillion ;) )). Its somewhat amusing because several of the complaints I'd addressed internally but didn't mention here. So, apologies for that. Let's recap and fill in:
AP1 starts with finding the ruined ship washed up onshore and the map (MacGuffin). The first third is very traditional, with some intrigue and subterfuge dealing with the Taldane court. There's a couple attempts on the PCs lives and the chance to do a deal with some other elements in the court that could affect later books but in the end the PC's get their charter (and 2nd level) and set sail.
The middle third is the crossing, which is mostly an exploration of the edge of the Arcadian archepilago. I would throw in some ship problems forcing the PCs to land, look for supplies, etc.. which also strengthens the bond between the PCs and the crew, thus putting them in the role of natural leaders. Remember, while the PCs have the charter to explore, they do not necessarily have the role of colony organizer and they certainly aren't ship captains. At this point, they're important, but not the most important people on board. So they need to build that trust with the crew.
The end third is landing on the shores of Arcadia - at the mouth of a river system, likely. (That's what I had on my maps, anyway). They find some remnants of the ruined ship's landfall, and set up a small stockade. While they are preparing their base of operations, they are attacked by a large band of CR appropriate level humanoids (I think I had kobolds listed here, but goblins or someone else works). Depending on how the PCs do, the colony could take some to many casualties. But they eventually win. From some of the survivors, they learn of large settlements of humanoids off to the north and south. They triangulate themselves with known colonies and basically find themselves in a rather large "blank" part of the map - essentially a part of Arcadia where traditional PC races don't venture far. It's sort of like Iobaria, but more remote and probably more deadly. The AP ends with the PCs sending a report back home via one of the ships, likely with a nice chunk of skymetal as proof of the colony's viability.
AP2 is the main hex-exploring wilderness AP. Kinda like kingmaker, but not really. Because you're not building a kingdom - there's never going to be enough people to claim more than 2 or 3 8 mile hexes. I liken it more to the old X1: Isle of Dread module. Old school GMs and players will have a lot of fun giving their players the opportunity to map out the area. Things like "there is a lone mountain off to the northwest - you'd guess about 50 miles away" sort of thing. The PCs will also encoutner the nearby humanoid settlements and start to understand that the humanoids have organized into a semblence of society and that they can't just exterminate them any more than they can exterminate all of Belkzen. So the PCs will have to treat with them like any other city state. Based on PC party make up they might side with kobolds, lizardmen, gnolls... etc. This is a area that exists in a tenuous state of peace and the PCs are just the element to shake things up. I see two main goals of AP2 - meeting the neighbors and setting up the relationships that are going to resonate through AP 3-6. So, in terms of climax, this is probably the weakest of all the APs. IT ends with the next resupply ship coming back, some more colonists arriving and the PCs becoming the official leaders of the colony (when the previous leaders die in a raid).
AP3 is where the PCs really start to dig into Arcadia. They learn that the real reason that the humanoids haven't torn each other apart is that they live in fear of the things in the mountains to the west. When one of the towns to the west gets massacred, all the settlements get filled with a sense of dread. They turn to the PCs (as impartial, expendable outsiders) to investigate. Yes. The monsters are recruiting PCs for an adventure. :P The PCs are doubly interested because they have been noting that the meagre placer deposits seem to indicate the source of the skymetal is somewhere in the mountains. I won't go too much into detail here... you know spoilers. But this is the first time the PCs really venture inland.
When I thought of AP4, it was originally going to be dealing with the giants in the highlands between the humanoids in the flatlants and the BBEGs in the mountains. That was before Giantslayer came out and putting giants in here would be too close to that AP. So I'm going to change this on the fly and make use of some of the neighboring (well, several hundred mile distant) city states in Arcadia. The AP would be predicated on the colony hitting some serious survival difficulties, forcing the PCs to take some of the skymetal and hawk it at one or more of the city states. Bringing that much skymetal to any market is bound to attract the attention of soemone in charge, leading the PCs to forge ties with the PC races in Arcadia.
AP5 will deal with the unintended consequences of AP4 - that is that once the secret of the skymetal is revealed, Cheliax will come a knocking. The PCs will get wind of a great fleet of Cheliaxian vessels coming to take control of the colony and wipe out the PCs and humanoids. It's up to the PCs to organize a defence of the colony using both the humanoids and the city states. The PCs have to maintain possibly the most diverse assortment of soldiers ever collected and teach Cheliax a lesson to prevent this from ever happening again. I forsee a naval battle (or at least a skirmish), Cheliax landing with an army, burning its way through some humanoid settlements and eventually beseiging the PCs base (which, by now, should be well defended). Perhaps some of the PCs will have taken advantage of the opportunities availed them in AP1 and let Cheliax in? Interesitngly, the conflict can end with the colony being chelaxin or Taldane.
AP6 has the PCs finally getting to the source of the skymetal, which will be a combinataion of Iron Gods, Giantslayer and Horror Adventures. Basically, something huge and terrible has been sleeping in the ruins (which is what kept the PC races out of this area for milennia) and the arrival of the PCs has woken it up. This has a large, regional effect - driving several of the humanoid tribes into madness and threatening to tear the colony apart.
So that's my follow-up clarification. I still haven't said everything about APs 4-6 because I do want to do this someday and I think its a fun idea. And also, there are about a million loose ends to tie up (that Paizo does this well twice a year continues to amaze me). Again, to reiterate... you can have more or less untamed wilderness in Maine coexisting with great cultures in Mesoamerica and mound builders in the Ohio Valley. Arcadia is vast.
