Is this a duplication of the pawns in the Paper Mini's sets from the individual Reign of Winter adventures? (I already purchased all 6, so I don't want to buy this if it's just a single-volume set of the stuff I already have.)
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Hey! Does this mean we have a workaround to the gifting options? If someone adds something to their wishlist, can it be purchased for them even while the standard route is still being fixed?
Thanks for this, Gary! I totally understand the knots involved in debugging things. What I've seen of the new shopping interface is exciting, so it's worth the bumps in the road. Best of luck to the team on the ground!
Do you have a rough ETA on a fix to the gifting options at checkout? I'm aware that bug-fix timelines are fickle things, but it would be handy to have a ballpark figure. I've been checking a few times a day, but knowing it could still be days to a week or something would allow me to chill out and poke my head in at more realistic intervals. :)
It *could*, but business days are typically Monday to Friday, and so you'd be looking at an expected minimum 11, maximum 46 business days which could theoretically mean January. Maybe plan for a nice gift-announcement card as a backup if the order's meant as a gift?
I'm late to the party here, but I'd suggest reading "charges forward onto the deck" less in terms of combat action charge and more in terms of just moving to get onto deck as quickly and efficiently as possible under the conditions they've arrived at. That other thread does have a lot of super ideas!
I agree that's probably why the length is kept down. That said, I always end up putting together a full enemy block complete with notes on the special abilities I don't know by heart, so I don't have to flip between 4 books during a session. I now have an electronic device to view that stat block with (I still print the PDF), but before then I was printing all of those enemy blocks in addition to the PDF. It wasn't saving me any paper. That said, while it would be LOVELY to have a point form version of the act goals/plot hooks and the full enemy blocks (maybe 2 per page to minimize printing), the act of building those cheat sheets actually helps me learn the scenario better. Reading alone almost never gets the information to stick for me. EDIT: The Fox posted while I was writing this. I'd completely missed the suggestion that the stat block go at the end. And I agree that does nullify arguments of page length for people who can refer to their devices.
I have some concerns about this, too. * What happens if someone's character dies earlier at the Con and their other favourite/available is a totally different subtier?* What happens if they'd planned right for their local store schedule, but some unexpected life event blows up those plans between purchase and the Special? This isn't going to affect half the attendees or anything so drastic, but with the number of people attending these events it's also not likely to be an insignificant number. In my case, I'd definitely not be willing to play a Special with a pregen if I've got other characters. Yeah, that would be my decision, but it seems like a needless disappointment for people who registered in advance. Still, the idea of pre-registering subtiers is intriguing and there are potential solutions for this snag:
Jeff, you're not looking for validation, but reading your account of the events I don't see anything you did wrong. An enemy NPC (Aspis, no less) would definitely be willing to threaten people who were trying to kill her. And if the opportunity arose (impossible until round 2 of combat, likely), it *is* PFS legal for an NPC to coup-de-grace a player character. Heck, it's written into the tactics in a few scenarios! It probably shouldn't be a priority move unless written into the tactics, but the alchemist's player was definitely out of line. If you're feeling charitable, chalk it up to player burnout after a convention with long days and little sleep. They're fun, but exhausting, and sometimes it can be difficult to regulate emotions by the end. And I have to say, thanks VERY much for stepping up to GM. It's folks like you that make the convention events so much fun, and I hope you don't let one crack-pot table sour you on the experience. I've GM'd a small local convention and a handful of local store game nights, and the community overall is a great one. :)
I'm planning on running random selection unless we hit a pocket of encounters with similar areas of focus and the players appear to be frustrated or bored, in which case I'll make sure the next encounter shakes things up a bit. As for demonic abilities, most demons around the Worldwound have planeshifted themselves or have been called rather than summoned, so they would have access to teleportation and summoning abilities. Unless they're triggered by a summoning circle or something similar, of course! I'd guess the explosion at Thurl's lodge could simply be from that area. It's not close enough to the Starrise Spire that we'd really know in-game where it occurred, and it doesn't get mentioned explicitly in boxed text -- only that there's an explosion and reports of demons invading the city. Quick question on the aid/supplies stuff: In Act 2, Pathfinder Supplies, subtier 1-2 says that aid can be received up to 3 times between encounters. The wording says “each PC may choose to receive”. Does this mean each PC receives a selection for each aid (so 12 selections total for a table of four) or that each aid allows one PC to choose from those selections (so only 3 selections total at a table of four)? BIG DIFFERENCE!
Patrick is correct! It's kind of a "yes, but" due to a few exceptions, though, that you might want to know. With the exception of Level 1 or 1/2 modules and scenarios, you can only give yourself a chronicle sheet once for any particular scenario, even if you GM it multiple times. As of August 14, you have the option of re-playing or re-GMing one scenario for each star you've earned. Details about stars and this rule are listed in the new Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Thanks for stepping up to run in your area!
Here is my overdue account of how my first table of Way of the Kirin went down, spoiler-tagged for space: How things went down:
5 players, low subtier: Kyra(4), Valeros(4), Summoner(4), Oracle/Paladin/somethingIforgotpossiblybard (3), and Ninja (4?). The Sczarni mission was confusing, but worked out. The GM notes talk about convincing the shopkeeper to make Karela's shipment a priority, but the faction handout talks about getting the name of a warehouse in Varisia. Eventually, the Sczarni offered a bribe, which the shopkeeper accepted as a down-payment on an order, thereby providing access to warehouse details. I forgot to roll for overheard conversations and such, and the players didn't ask for details about anticipated threats, so they got to the island rather blind and found the location to be entirely suspect. They suggested moving the tea ceremony to the top of the lighthouse for safety, much to Amara Li's horror. She was willing to move within reason, if they could ensure the table and tea service would fit comfortably, and the PCs ultimately decided to leave the ceremony in place. The eidolon scouted the area, discovering the secret tunnels and following them to the cave entrance by the water. The team found the supplies in the lighthouse and proceeded to put bear traps outside the tea room windows, and spreading whale oil around the entire perimeter of the house, 10-ft deep (78 5-ft squares), with a plan to set it on fire. [I was unclear about the mechanics of this, so we settled on burning for 10 rounds, 1d6 damage passing through a square with a chance of catching fire on a failed reflex save. I've researched the relevant data for use in future games and provided those details in another post.] At the tea ceremony, everyone was eager to impress Iko and told tales of the great good that the Pathfinder society did. [I didn't think to roll sense motive, but several characters clearly didn't believe what they were saying.] Valeros echoed their sentiments, but then expressed that he was discouraged from saying more, much to everyone's delight. The Andorans told a rousing tale of the majestic and Good eagle, with Valeros miming the action for added emphasis. (Apparently he was still allowed to participate in silence!) The boat afire caught everyone off guard, along with the size of the invading group. The PCs immediately scrambled to assemble the catapult, while the Ninja scouted out to mark the front line and attempt to route them, bringing back intel on how tough and dedicated they were. The catapult landed two blows before the army was sufficiently scattered, and the party retreated into the house and set the oil on fire as the first wave reached the top of the path. Upon seeing the fire, the invaders split up. Two with the portable ram dashed through the fire to bash down the door. It's a shame the BBEG sent his most novice conscripts up first, because they clearly didn’t know which end of the ram to point toward the door. After three rounds, the defenders actually opened the door themselves as the conscripts swung the ram at the door, causing them to stumble inward and provoke a round of attacks. One other attempts to dive through a window, but gets caught in a bear trap and catches fire. He stumbles around and is unable to escape the flames before getting stabbed to death. The other two who survived the blasts tried shooting through other windows. The final two began shooting arrows through windows, only to be sniped at and finally also decided to charge through the flames, falling to snipers and the other trap. Time at the gaming shop was short at this point, so Amara Li’s message arrived before Wave 2 and we skipped the optional encounter. The edgy PCs shot the bird, but then opened the note and headed down the tunnels to aid in the battle unfolding in the caves. The summoner recognized the location from his eidolon’s description. Valeros chugged a potion of enlarge, and the BBEG responded by cursing him with inactivity. The saboteur attempted to disrupt the spellcasters with a fuse grenade, but only succeeded in making himself a target, and his subsequent bomb did little to change his dire predicament. The ninja got into position to attack the BBEG from behind, flanking with Valeros. The summoner proceeded to hold the BBEG and Valeros took him down with a single mighty blow. In re-prepping the scenario, I’ve realized that the Ramparassad missions weren’t only activated if there were party members in a faction, but run regardless. It was a silly oversight, especially given the number of times I read that section, and would have given the players more of a heads-up about what was going on. I’ve brainstormed a few approaches for the Sczarni mission now, too, that should flow better between the backstory and the actual faction request.
There's been some discussion and frustration already expressed in this thread over GMs cutting essentially making there be two optional encounters. In my case, we were running at a store that officially gives us a 3.5-hour slot, although we often stretch it to 4 hours and make it up by helping to straighten-up the room before we leave (so the staff don't have to spend even MORE time after closing). The house preparations and first encounters took a long time, but the players roleplayed the heck out of them. They would have enjoyed the second wave and I'm sorry they missed it, but we ran over 4 hours as it was and I'd rather skip the second wave than the ending, especially with veteran Lantern Lodge characters present. The second table I ran did manage to run everything except the optional encounter, although it took us about 5 hours (different store, weekend slot). I will happily post the details of that encounter another day.
Well, I had a fantastic time playing today. Assuming that it was you (I admit to not recognizing the clovercanuck name) you did a great job, I It was indeed me who ran your table (I go under a different name on our local forums). Glad to hear you had a great time! I did too. :D
Super-late follow-up, but can anyone help me figure out the windows? The windows have no screens... but do they have glass? Does that change how difficult it is to break in? Are acrobatics checks needed to leap through a window on the ground floor? What sort of DC would be typical? It's probably a 3-foot vertical jump, but anything beyond that? If this is in a reference book somewhere, can someone give me approximate directions?
Okay, so I ran this on Thursday, and I'll be running it again tomorrow. I've filled in a few of my gaps, but I have a few questions remaining.
The biggest: How does one really handle the environment here?
It's possible that I'm overlooking some basic rules, which could help me figure out what this all means. For example:
I'll post more later about our adventure -- it was quite fun in spite of how much we had to cut (we took a long time every step of the way and had to cut both the optional encounter AND Wave 2).
+2 here! We'll be exploring Seattle proper earlier in the day, but we're looking forward to meeting fellow Pathfinders before the official PaizoCon festivities begin. Thanks for hosting this Big Kyle!
This sounds like a lot of fun, count 2 more in! (We might be arriving a little later on, as we'll be exploring Seattle earlier in the day.)
Max here's summarized stuff well. Their party chewed through all the challenges as though there weren't any. I did forget to use the stench aura in 1C, but aside from that the scenario's lack of difficulty really came down to them planning well and going first a lot. This really opened my eyes to the sort of variation an encounter can provide, since a lot of people have squished 4/5 parties in the boss fight at the very least. Thanks to everyone who shared tips and ideas -- both in this thread and from the original Paz pointed me to. It made a big difference for a newbie GM! Edit: I should also add that unfortunately we had to skip the optional encounter (something I'd pre-planned due to a short slot and knowing I wouldn't be fast enough to make room) and all the roleplay at the end around obtaining the braid. That last part was disappointing, since there's such a cool story there, so while I enjoyed roleplaying the beginning a bit, I'd actually trade it off the other way around the next time.
What's crazy is that I played this at ComicCon with my freshly level 2 sorcerer. I have no recollection of what level the rest of the group was, but most of the games I played there had at least one pregen. It didn't seem so difficult aside from the optional encounter. Now that I've READ the scenario, I understand how incredibly lucky we were. I'm a fresh GM, but running it at 4/5 at a shop filled with experienced players. Everyone there seems to enjoy a good challenge and the exhilaration of staring death in the face and coming out on top. Fingers crossed that's how it ends!
Hello, experienced GMs! I've posted this to my local gaming forum, but figured since there isn't any relevant topic here in the Paizo GM Discussion pages yet, it might be nice to pave the road for others in my shoes. I'll be running QFP1: The Edge of Heaven next Thursday as my first public GMing experience (second real GMing experience ever). As such, I'm looking for any guidance you may have. I played this scenario in early July, and most of it seems pretty straight-forward. For prep, I've read the scenario, studied my minions, and scoured Paizo's reviews and message boards for tips. I'll be re-reading this week, and taking special note of the Pathfinder rules that are relevant to the action (since it's all really new to me). Lack of roleplaying opportunities is one complaint that is repeated on the Paizo pages, but there isn't any in-depth discussion of solutions, perhaps because so many people here are experienced GMs from other systems? Roleplaying is still my weakest skill as a player, so tips in this area are especially welcome. Thanks for any tips you can share -- be they for roleplaying or other aspects of the scenario! |
