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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber. Organized Play Member. 9 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

How have folks been handling Akiton's atmosphere? The way I read the bullet point no air quality, it seems like only characters who are Legendary will truly acclimate. Unless the intent is just that folks are fatigued on day 1, and acclimate after that? The difference between Legendary and Master seems irrelevant then.

My players are starting to do a fun creative "lets stitch together fictional elements of different spells and effects to come up with a fun cool solution!" so I'm probably gonna follow their lead, but I'm curious what other folks have done.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

PSA - looks like the letter keys in Kho are mis-placed in the physical book. I thought I was going crazy and misunderstanding things until I checked the foundry version, which appears to have them correct.

Basically, the Map assumes that the Enclave is Location A, and bumps all the other locations back by one step (so the actual Location A, the Academy is marked as B, B -> C, C -> D, D -> E, and E -> F - there is no location F).


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Hey folks! I recently ran the first Chapter of Book 4, and was pretty disappointed with application of the Influence system. In brief, the way things are set up leads to far too many dice rolls that low stakes (arguably no stakes), with very little to break up that action. Ultimately, running this chapter convinced me that the Influence system is NOT scenario design, and should never be treated as such.

I did a writeup of my full review, as well as the things I did change, here https://weplayinasociety.blogspot.com/2023/11/words-for-the-dead-part-1.htm l

And I did some brainstorming about how I might restructure the chapter were I to do it again here https://weplayinasociety.blogspot.com/2023/11/words-for-the-dead-part-2.htm l

To be clear, we still overall had fun with the chapter, and have been having a blast with this AP otherwise! There was just basically a lot of unnecessary slog, a lack of tension, and a lot of repetition that I think better scenario design would have helped us avoid. That's what I tried to provide in post 2, and I hope it is helpful for other folks who run this chapter!


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Paul Worthen wrote:
Are the discovery DCs for Sihar missing from page 19? Anyone know where I can find them?

My guess is that she would be particularly hard to find info about, as the leader of the Bright Lions, so I could see her not having been included.

More broadly, regarding some of the discussion above about tonal dissonance between chapters 1 and 3, I am going with having the Aspis Consortium (who my players already fought in a side-quest during Book 2) also send a delegation, and have them work with Worknesh to go behind Walkena's back to sack Osibu. I'm not sure yet how I'll end up actually changing encounters, but I think it should help that ending be a little less whip-lashy.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I ended up taking a quick stab at a remix, trying to bring out more of that investigative, city-crawling kinda feel - it's definitely pretty rough since I ran this chapter before remixing it haha, but if anyone has yet to run it I hope this is helpful! And if you do try it, let me know how it goes! https://weplayinasociety.blogspot.com/2023/09/stolen-fate-chapter-1-remix.h tml


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Thanks for the feedback, all!

Thanks for the thoughts James! Just have to say before anything else that I really appreciate how active y'all are with the community (even if I didn't see it for like a week haha).

I actually do like the influence subsystem, I think it's pretty neat! I just don't think it was particularly well suited to this chapter?

I'm running 3 campaigns now right now haha (this, Strength of Thousands, and getting some new players into the game with the Beginner Box + Plaguestone), and I'm really looking forward to using the Influence system in Book 4 of SoT! I think it's perfect for slow, deliberate chipping away at several important figures in the city, and I really appreciate how it gives folks with non-charisma based skills room to really shine and not just take a back seat or roll insight forever.

I'll also say that writing rules for social encounters is really freaking hard haha - I have no idea how to do better, and have been running for long enough that I just tend to wing it based on what the NPCs want and how I think they'd act, but I know that's not very helpful for newer GMs so I appreciate y'all putting the subsystems there to try to help folks out. I also know y'all have pretty tough space constraints and not nearly unlimited time for all of this, and I'm always impressed with what you do given all of that.

For this chapter specifically, though, it really didn't fit the pacing. The influence system doesn't fit an investigation nearly as well as it does convincing a series of diplomats - while one of the NPCs needed their trust earned before telling the party anything, the other two basically seemed on board pretty quickly but just... don't remember the relevant information until the party hits a certain amount of influence. It felt pretty arbitrary to me. Because I did not prep nearly far enough in advance haha, I ended up basically using the basic structure but speeding things along so fewer successes were needed (so the party wasn't just spinning their wheels having the same conversations for 3 days) and using the mercenaries as a proactive clue (as the sidebar recommends).

If I'd had more time to rewrite the chapter, I think it could benefit a lot from being restructured into more of an actual investigation, with different clues sending the PCs across the Grand Bazaar! Less detail on each NPC/location, but more NPCs/locations overall as they slowly put the clues together and hopefully reach the harrow barrow before their opponents! I'm a huge fan of the Alexandrian's node-based design / 3 clues rule for urban investigations like this, and I think it could've helped the chapter feel more like it should - a fast paced investigation as the players race to save a man's life and start piecing the clues together - while still keeping it as a primarily non-combat challenge.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Hey folks! I just started running this AP, and the pacing of chapter 1 honestly feels pretty weird. It starts off with a bang, with a murder and devils and stuff, but then it seems like the adventure assumes the players will slowly, casually chat up three NPCs and get to know them rather than having any sense of urgency? And it feels weird that some of the NPCs kinda just, forget the important clues until the PCs make friends.

Basically, the pacing seems off, and the tension seems much lower than it ought to be given the situation.

Has anyone run this chapter already, and if so, how'd it go? Even if you haven't, are there ways to up the tension without just rewriting the whole thing? I have ideas for that, based on the Alexandrian's 3-clues rule and adding a bunch of content haha, but I don't have time for that before the next session.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

As cool as this is, I think it will in many ways make Book 2 weaker, or at least require some substantial change. It doesn't really make sense that a crime boss could amass wealth and power in a society where wealth is meaningless. Her entire motivation and structure would have to change into something more overtly sinister. And IMO thats a shame, because I really love her as a sympathetic bad guy! Especially contrasted with the more overtly terrible Stone Ghost and Salathiss.

What I would recommend instead is still playing up the ways in which Nantambu approaches this ideal while having it fall short for practical reasons (the rest of the world is not like this, after all) and then having some of those shortcomings resolve throughout the AP. I am personally much more interested in a society that can change, and in watching the PCs drive that change if they want to, than portraying an already existing perfect utopia. Obviously the players won't be the only actors with influence, but I think letting them shape society through their actions will be a more rewarding experience overall.

Maybe froglegs using amassed wealth and power is a great reason for the people of Nantambu to try to abolish money once and for all! Maybe the discovery of Salathiss's plot is an argument for either more democracy, better transparency / civilian oversight of whatever elected representatives are in power (the whole plot point rests on Asanda being in a position of power in a representative democracy, after all, rather than a direct democracy like most anarchists would prefer, and at no point did it seem possible to recall him when he neglected his duties in favor of "fixing up his manor" (sidenote why are people allowed to have manors all to themselves lol?))

I will say as well, part of the fantasy of a game like D&D (at least by default, as written in the rules) is amassing wealth and treasure. That's just a part of the game's style of play, meaning that you'll have to do a lot of work to work around that default if this is the route you wanna go. Possibly worthwhile ofc!

In response to mechanical questions:

1. There is value to bookkeeping, even if it can be annoying, it can also add depth, and it seems like changing to a new treasure system will likely be as much bookkeeping if not more

2. I'd have magic items still be relatively rare, and broadly more in the "personal property" than "private property" camp. This both explains why the PCs dont start with many (and limits their acquisition) and why its not super weird and gross that they amass so many by level 20 lol. If you want you could even have this be what Froglegs is targetting, stealing magic items from people?

3. if its a level-based DC (with the hard adjustment for things the party probably shouldnt have), they wont usually succeed on higher level stuff. More than that though, I think people usually just, won't wanna give them the magic items lol because someone is using them already.

4. Makes sense to me! I think there probably have to be other concessions to the fact that the rest of the world is very much not a utopia as well.

5. Either trade it to people directly, or have it help generate like a "goodwill" stat or something that often results in people gifting them things or makes their rewards better in an obvious and tangible way.

I'm curious how this goes though! Super interesting idea, I think there's a lot of room to play with this.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Hey folks!

I wrote up some thoughts on opening up Book 2 Chapter 2 in order to let the PCs drive the story rather than being handed quests one after another, and fleshing out the factions involved to create a more open and dynamic experience. It's been working great in my game so far, but let me know if you have thoughts, especially if you actually give it a try!

https://weplayinasociety.blogspot.com/2022/05/strength-of-thousands-book-2- remix.html