Search Posts
Specifically, the SF2E GM Screen should have all the information of the P2FE revision screen with the following additions (as I understand it, but willing to be corrected) Creature Identification: Dream, Robot, Time traits
When investigating a purchase of the SF2E GM Screen I happened on this disparity: I discovered that the counteract table on Demiplane's SF2E Player Core had the "critical success" and "success" table headers backwards, and that the PDF version of the SF2E Player Core I downloaded in August from the Paizo website the same issue was present, and that in looking at the Paizo FAQ/Errata for SF2E Player Core up to now, this issue has not been addressed (?). The reason I was looking this up is that I heard the GM Screen for SF2E includes the counteract table (as well as the SF2E specific conditions I presume) and so would make a good stand in for my PF2E revised Core Edition GM Screen even when I mostly run PF2E rather than Starfinder, because in addition to all the PF2E GM screen information, it would include an updated/expanded creature type identification table, SF specific conditions in addition to the PF ones, as well as the counteract table. Can someone confirm for me whether the SF2E GM Screen has the success/critical success column headers in the correct order rather than the mistaken order in the Player Core? If it turns out the SF2E GM Screen has the counteract table correctly printed and is in all other ways a direct upgrade to the PF2E GM Screen, I'll be sending out my order immediately. A physical GM screen has been an invaluable reference, even when I run completely online games
Thanks for the responses. Still curious if the community in general would consider reshaping the wood into rough impeding shapes spread on the ground for difficult terrain since creating cover also seems like a legitimate use.
As a mega fan, with all pf2e, sf2e and many other content unlocked to the tune of thousands of dollars, I just would like to take a moment to mourn the state of release timings… I preordered the full sf2e set via demiplane months ago. The GM Core is listed on the release schedule page as being in August. On its individual page it had said scheduled for September 3. Being in Japan time zones work against me but even still at 10pm September 3 in Japan, 6am Seattle time, demiplane hasn’t released so the book I ordered months ago hasn’t been added to digital downloads, and this is for a book marked as an August release. If the release so I can access the book I preordered months ago is actually early September, just mark it as such rather than falsely promise a release date that is not met. This has happened almost every month for me for the last year for adventure paths, rule books and standalone adventures… preordered content marked for a months release doesn’t actually become available until the second week of the following month. Rather than post an early timing, I’d prefer you just mark when I can actually get it and not have false expectations.
Is a carrot woody enough? I suddenly want to play an awakened rabbit and try to play an entire campaign using only this one spell after reaching level 3.
Would (haha) like to get some clarification on the intent of this spell... Can Shape Wood expand a twig into up to 20 cubic feet or shrink 20 cubic feet of wood into a twig? (expand or shrink) Can Shape Wood entrap an unwilling NPC in some way in a wall of wood or like wrap a branch around someone's legs or arms? Can Shape Wood create a metal gear solid box/basket for concealment? Or how about a cutting line of sight to prevent casting a spell against a target? Can Shape Wood be used with a stick with the tip pushed into a lock to expand and pop a lock (brute application of pressure)? Or like slipped under a portcullis and used like a jack to lift something... Could a bundle of sticks be used rather than a single piece? How well grafted do they need to be to contribute to the piece of wood Does cactus/succulent plant flesh count as wood? Leaves? Flowers? Could wood be used to convert to a wall of leafy vines? Are rose bushes wood? Could shape wood be used to create difficult terrain? across how many squares? Is a coconut wood? Could a tree trunk be shaped into multiple coconuts? Can wood be shaped into edible roots like lotus root? Can it be shaped into poisonous woods like arsenic? Can it be shaped into medicinal woods like willow bark (pain killer)? It says no intricate parts or fine details, but how much text could be formed to leave a message with a casting of this spell before it becomes intricate? It says no moving parts, but wood is flexible... could I form a bow minus the drawstring? Some guidance please. There are so many possible shenanigans in this spell...
Basically, in the hardcover edition, I'm imagining replacing the page count from the final dungeon with random darklands encounter tables for various levels and "rumors" tables that can drop in hints about the major tensions: (a) bloodbane coalition gathered by a hryngar that resents dwarves completing the quest for sky and wants to warp their history to turn against them (b) dwarven pathenon (toragg) vs. traditional spiritualist rivethunn (c) negative impacts of the quest for sky on darklands inhabitants that continue to echo until today.
As a general note, the scales on all the maps in this adventure should be adjusted and/or the maps should be replaced with ones that better reflect the scale in the text of the adventure. Also, this is a darklands adventure so there should be plenty of time to enjoy darklands. In the travel sequences use the following rules:
Okay let's get to fixing the adventure: Prelude: Choose a different starting point: In my case, all the characters were on the road traveling to Highhelm to respond to the invitation to the festival. As an introductory adventure, we have them sitting around a campfire and getting to know each other and then the camp is attacked by forces foreshadowing future events... the campsite was accidentally located right by the exit of a smuggling tunnel: Blacknoon weapons smugglers with clan a Molgrade weapons shipment pop out of the cave and surprise watchers.. in their loot there is PO indicating these will be sold to a buyer named Cadji)... the tunnel has been collapsed internally by the Blacknoon when the smugglers fail to return in case players investigate the tunnel Book 1 Chapter 1... add content from the Highhelm book. We expanded on the basilisk game and the adolescent cloud dragon MJ's pranks quite a bit. I also added an underlying plot by low level agents of the Ash Engineer.... ALSO... make sure to highlight the tension between the religious establishment in Highhelm and the small community of Rivethunn. Foreshadowing this and building on this tension is the underlying theme of the whole adventure. Chapter 2... expand the travel montages and camping scenes through the darkands! This adventure will hinge on you adding extra underdark exploration... this is another good place to highlight the lasting impact of the quest for sky, the tension between dwarven pantheon and rivethun, and darklands denizens receiving a call to join the bloodbane coalition ... also, point out if possible that the hryngar are resentful to dwarves that completed the quest for sky through the environment (this lays the foundation for BBEG's motivation) as you travel in the direction of Hagegraff for a bit before turning off to Guldrige Chapter 3... can be mostly run as written Book 2 Chapter 1 Expand and fill in the darklands exploration... use the environment to show the lasting influence of the quest for sky on the darklands and begin hinting at the bloodbane coalition being gathered. Show the major story beats of the quest for sky through battle sites in the timeline at the start of book 1, etc. and also reveal the rivethunn heritage of the dwarves with relevant spiritual sites ... The court of ether encounters can be played for the most part as is, but the ritual and cult infiltration needs to be fleshed out more since it's almost the whole reason to come here... like the fulcrum this chapter turns on is the least described part... this is a heads-up to GM's running it... get yourself a cultist compound map and build out a bigger infiltration/dungeon crawl here ... The journey back should also be expanded on with more darklands travel and environmental story telling but stronger hints about the bloodbane coalition being gathered while also outlining with environment/neutral wandering NPCs telling how hryngar chose to not complete quest for sky and how this dispute split the dwarven community ... as well as the abandoned ruins of an ancient abandoned orc settlements with that have been converted to dwarven pantheon related structures Reaching highhelm should result in another homebrew adventure here as well... more mid-level Ash Engineer goons this time connecting the Ash Engineer to Hagegraff and Narseigus ... In the victory, clan matron or other NPC holds a shindig to celebrate these heroes and then takes them aside. She introduces them to Bronwyll, who has come secretly to highhelm to recruit adventurers to help her bring down Narseigus. She's jealous because he took a promotion meant for her and she wants the help of outsiders to Hagegraff to get in the penthouse and find incriminating evidence of his diversion of Ministry of Magic resources for his plot with the Bloodbane Coalition. The clan matron/other NPC is convinced that the party should also find some information that could help them defeat the sorcerer that threatens all the Five Kings Mountains. Bronwyll provides a list of contacts in Hagegraff that should enable them to gain access to the penthouse... (the PCs they're going to meet in Hagegraff in the next chapter) After that, the Hagegraff story pretty much plays out as expected, but Bronwyll's actual plot at the end is to catch the heroes raiding the penthouse to arrest them and that's how she plans to get ahead in the political scene of the city. In the penthouse they find a journal with information that if players look closely should help them understand that they can break Narseigus' spell holding Zogototaru in the third book by reminding the worm of his connection to Taargick.The penthouse should be a massive enough map to allow for multiple troops on each side to do combat while players try to get out of dodge. Book 3 At the start of book 3 we take a short montage and I explain the gap as like going from Empire Strikes Back to Return of the Jedi... the clan matron/other NPC has used their contacts and devised a plan (not unlike the battle of endor) where the situation is described: the korr well is situated at the heart of the five kings mountains, the fortress above it is key to security for the region. below it forces are gathering at the cavern waiting for even deeper down where narseigus will gain control of the worm and together undo the seals and then attack the whole of the five kings mountains.... the plan is to send a small strike force onto the moon, cough, into the cavern to disrupt the bloodbane coalition and then turn off the shield generator, cough , open the seals while chaos reigns to allow the combined fleet, cough, a larger legion to descend and fight them while the characters board the death star and fight the emperor, cough, descend to the depths and defeat narseigus... hopefully when the dwarven legion arrives the seals will not be operational .... and montage complete we open book 3 at the cavern skipping the negotiation scene in this chapter. the rest can play as written until the after fight with Narseigus. Rather than having another dungeon after the BBEG... it's time to land this thing. Present a closing choice instead: The outer tomb has carvings depicting Taargick as leader and proud defender of dwarven legacy, and Stoneriver awaits in this chamber like the grail knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade... This encounter can play out as a social encounter: he poses a sphinx-like riddle that is designed to test if the players have internalized the broad messages of the campaign Consider carefully the way you go
basically, should the party choose to allow dwarvish society to retain stability in the white-washed version of the pantheon of Torag, or follow the truth, uncover ancient traditions, reopen the origin lands of the dwarves, but unleash possible widespread confusion as dwarves are forced to reconsider Taargick's legacy and the quest for sky... the choice is in the player's hands...will they choose, wisely? If they advance forwards, Stoneriver announces that it seems Taargick's secrets shall remain sealed until others come bearing Skysunder and a teleportation circle activates, retuning the party to Highhelm... roll credits with a montage of the heroes defeating the forces of the Ash Engineer focused on Highhelm If they go back towards the door they entered by, Stoneriver nods solemnly and tells the party that his time watching the tomb has come to an end, and he returns to Toragg's side with a dimension door. The second room is a corridor with friezes depicting the hard moral choices that Taargick made during the Quest for Sky summarizing the content of the four visions and the original Stoneriver questions the voices of opposition to return or to stop halfway
The third chamber is vast and empty and engraved with the directions back to Felgunn in a pattern that can only be completed by inserting Skysunder into a backlit slot so the light shines through the gem in the pommel to get a map to the planet luke has been hiding on all these years, cough... Felgunn ... roll credits with a montage of journeys through the Darklands ending at an opening of a cave giving us a teasing peak of Felgunn
OMG... I just finished playing this two months ago... I'm really needing to put the hardcover on my shelf. What an amazing journey it was and this will be a prize to hang up for the foreseeable future. Congratulations!
If you haven't done it already... it might be a good moment to have an adventure that highlights and hints towards the end of this adventure... SPOILERS FOLLOW: Have a tumulus that has "the grave of a kingdom" ... feature chalices and mysterious writings that say "I'm sorry", "forgive me", "pardon me", "apologies", etc. ... a beautiful maiden, a spurned creature of flame and creation ... have citizens approach the capital with scraps of the story of Zuddiger's picnic ... have a horned-elf avatar of the great hunt/lantern king point them in the right direction (so as to defeat Nyrissa's plan) ... etc.
TBH I just ran them as felt best narratively. I've watched critrole do resurrection and that's basically how I did all of them. I don't like the time gate locking, and I don't like a fail state for a necessary check so it's always going to at least fail forwards. A "failed" state just means that the wall of ghosts leaves them with a feared 1 until the end of the next encounter, a "failed" state with reincarnation might result in fatigued or damage debuff, a "failed" result for the second reincarnation might result in weakness to vitality for a few weeks... there's no reason to punish players with a do-over that's going to take several weeks.
We finished the Drootorca Cavern and are doing the Kor Well puzzles now... and I'm looking at the last chapter and trying to figure out how to cut and paste the last bits all together. I don't think it makes sense for there to be a dungeon after the final BBEG fight so I think I'm going to strip the tomb sequence down to maybe three rooms: The outer tomb has carvings depicting Taargick as leader and proud defender of dwarven legacy, and Stoneriver awaits in this chamber like the grail knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade... This encounter can play out as a social encounter: he poses a sphinx-like riddle that is designed to test if the players have internalized the broad messages of the campaign Consider carefully the way you go
If they advance forwards, Stoneriver announces that it seems Taargick's secrets shall remain sealed until others come bearing Skysunder and a teleportation circle activates, retuning the party to Highhelm... roll credits with a montage of the heroes defeating the forces of the Ash Engineer (who was another antagonist throughout my playthrough) If they go back towards the door they entered by, Stoneriver nods solemnly and tells the party that his time watching the tomb has come to an end, and he returns to Toragg's side with a dimension door. The second room is a corridor with friezes depicting the hard moral choices that Taargick made during the Quest for Sky summarizing the content of the four visions and the original Stoneriver questions the voices of opposition to return or to stop halfway
The third chamber is vast and empty and engraved with the directions back to Felgunn in a pattern that can only be completed by inserting Skysunder into a backlit slot so the light shines through the gem in the pommel. ... roll credits with a montage of journeys through the Darklands ending at an opening of a cave giving us a teasing peak of Felgunn
On the opposite side, I'm starting a new Kingmaker in August. to start the game "today" (4725 AR), other than Gorum's death, what other events should we be aware of/update... Refugees from Kyonin from the Spore War? Rumors of inner sea war floating around... I'd love to hear about what changes would be necessary to set the adventure in 4725 AR
Just finished running this AP. Our players loved it so much. Western horror tends to emphasize gore and jump scare in a very in-your-face way. Asian horror memes tend to have have an alien quality of strangeness, unexplained phenomena, creepy stillness, and subverted expectations to create the atmosphere of fear.
It's pretty much all-in on the horror, so I'm comfortable saying "if you don't like the horror genre, Season of Ghosts isn't for you" unfortunately.Bit unfortunate when I consider that I've heard great things about this AP. I don't mind a little horror sprinkled into other genres to spice it up a bit, but if it's all in on The horror then it's probably not going to be for me. Thanks for the reply James. ;-) Just finished this really awesome AP! Our group loved it sooo much. But there's a lot of "body horror" with creatures with very twisted bodies, creepy atmosphere with unexplained phenomena meant to set you off, etc. It's much less "western" horror tropes, and really more Asian horror tropes, which might not hit your group the same way as just saying "horror". Like not so much gore/blood/jump scare, and more brooding, creepy, strangeness and spooky silence. I think you could lighten the descriptions of those themes but you'd be working against the design of the adventure rather than with it.
Thanks for the review Vance. A lot of your comments here are confirming my thoughts on an initial reading. Cheers!
Curious if anyone understands the modifiers on the "Resource Dice Example":
Why is the modifier for stability +9? None of these make sense with the information provided as near as I can tell.
With all the talk around the houserule consolidation and myself also considering what I'd like to do with the rules, I decided to pick up the Legendary Games supplements sold on Paizo's website here: https://paizo.com/products/btq02epd?Ultimate-Rulership and here: https://paizo.com/products/btq02ew3?Ultimate-Cities I'm surprised that in the recent threads no one has mentioned these because they're pretty cheap in PDF form, and address a lot of the same issues that people are houseruling around. I love the streamlined kingdom turn (no commerce phase) and I'm definitely going to incorporate many of their extra feats, activities, etc. Experience gains are faster and their reconnoiter activity (Send Surveyors) is more generous than the patched version. On the other hand, I don't like the RP being split between attributes so I'll probably keep them as is and there are some of the city rules that I don't feel are very thematic to this campaign :) I'm not sure yet about the new negotiation and trade systems, but I feel they feed more into the fiction of nations interacting than the original rules so I think my players will enjoy it more at the table. Anyway, for anyone thinking through trying to have foreground kingdom development, these supplements are worth a look.
Thanks for the responses. I’m reading and thinking about it a lot and it’s kind of weird to me that there’s always ever only three region actions and early on I’m not really sure what a leader should do if there’s not much ruin/unrest to repair. Here’s my thoughts at the moment for some house rules and I’d love to hear what you think. Start with zero base region actions. (Rationale: We can do them with leadership and armies as below and scale with the kingdom. ) Leaders can use leadership activities to perform regional and civic activities. (Rationale: This can accelerate early stages for the kingdom and settlements and make the leadership turns more dynamic rather than just repair and resource.) Armies (even level 1 infantry) can also perform regional activities after they are deployed to a hex in the hex they are deployed to. (Rationale: This makes them like civ game builders or engineers. They give us extra actions for regional actions that scale up and incentivize an early army, even if not for combat.Abuse is curtailed by the penalties of size and army consumption ) Of course this also assumes reconnoiter is a regional action that could be performed by a leadership action or army in hex action and other K&V etc. mods
Hmmm... Yeah still looking through the rules and trying a few mock rounds to work out what needs to happen. Depending on where they are thinking about placing their starting settlement, I think my steward should recommend a starting hex with river or lake, so that fishing can happen for food right away (and point out about how useful it is to have access to rivers for trade routes). I think he'll also point out that an early town hall allows for third actions by each leader as a early goal to work towards. Speaking of leadership actions... I'm wondering if the idea during these phases is to repair ruin and unrest scores; then if there's no bad stuff, generate as much RP and commodities as possible; and if there's nothing else going on try creative/supernatural solution once to generate kingdom XP
Good to note. Since we're starting in July with chapter 1, we probably won't have a kingdom until Battlecry is out and we can do some early troop vs. troop combat before upgrading to warfare. It just seems thematic though to have there be some level of mass combat scenes earlier than chapter 8. I'm thinking to have Brevoy houses and Mivon be skirmishing on the edges of the kingdom.
I'm reading the rules and thinking that there should have been more clear tiers for abilities and buildings, etc. My preparation for starting a campaign in July has mostly consisted in playing through a few mock scenarios so I can give good advice to my players and role play through it. This is what I'm thinking/planning. In the first scene of the campaign I'll introduce a clerk of Abadar ... he's going to in-character be introducing the rules as they come up. During the camp/hexploration scenes happening until establishment of the kingdom, this clerk of Abadar will chat with the players about what it means to civilize the wilds and establish a kingdom... I think we'll montage a little as they return to Rostov and then a whole group of settlers accompanies the adventurers to the starting hex When we establish the kingdom, and during kingdom turns, the clerk of Abadar will "call the meeting to order" and run through the agenda using a Robert's Rules of Order style. For the first couple moves, the clerk will suggest a few things that need to get done:
I've actually only got that far, but it would be great to hear if there is some other advice about first steps/build order for using these rules to establish a kingdom well. One thing I'm interested in is introducing warfare rules early so I wonder what it looks like to establish militia at a fairly early stage of the campaign as well....
So my group has been playing Season of Ghosts, in Japan, matching story beats to IRL calendar for almost one year now. We started on the summer solstice last year with the Reenactment Festival, managed to line up the events so that we started book two on the autumn equinox, completed the monastery and began book three on winter solstice, and are almost certainly about to end book 4 one week before summer solstice, so we will have a five years later recap session on the summer solstice. This adventure tapped in so hard to our local environment, customs and presented us with deeply thematic horror and moving moments as Willowshore became our home. I have had to do very little to no work as a GM to bridge inconsistencies or bring the events to life, we've skipped almost none of the content (players skipped a few rooms in the bigger "dungeon crawls") and I've almost never felt compelled to add content, although there was of course some adaptation due to the players' backgrounds and actions interacting with the story. All that to say... BRAVO! There are no words to describe how awesome this adventure was for us and our group... except for the closing chapter. So... here's my take on the closing chapter of this adventure: Kugaptee's Willowshore is as described in the book but empty... deadly silent except for the occasional fluttering of the crimson moths of Kugaptee. A trail (made by the killer of chapter 2) leads the party to the home of one of our party's characters... there's a cave leading under the hill of the Great Willow and this allows the player to reveal a secret to their background that they've been hiding before we finish out the campaign, but also, the cave walls have been defaced since what that character knows they should be... deep under the hill, a fog surrounds and they emerge... Final fight 1: Summer... Gurglegut was far less interesting of a fight than Zoudou, so she's there at the altar about to sacrifice... not a child but the chained spirit of Kazuma Oono (who was murdered in our play of chapter 2, but in our case is also the grandson of one of our players...) All of the stats were buffed to current level by adding 13 to all of her d20 target rolls and giving appropriately scaled up spells (minions had her stats -2)... at the end of each round the big stomping sound beyond the wall of ghosts pounds against it and actually an arm of kugaptee smashes through the wall of ghosts every other round (Basic Reflex DC 39 6d12+33 << the hazard damage/DC taken from GM Core) after defeating Zoudou the claw of Kugapteee retreats, they can try to help Kazuma to remember, and an opening is there in the wall of ghosts Final fight 2: Autumn... mystery tree is not an option... we push through the wall of ghosts into the root chamber below the Tan Sugi Monastery and face off against Xin Yue, stats buffed to present... in the fight another Kugaptee claw hazard from below. Rather than help from Zhi Hui, it is a manifestation of Tan Sui-jin that assists them. Held prisoner for sacrifice here is You So-jin (also murdered in chapter 2, since they were able to guard Elizeth very well) ... the opposite side from where they enter this root chamber has a gate to the Karahai garden... Final fight 3: Winter... the Karahai central garden, stripped bare of trees... lined by exorcists converted to follow the Kugaptee cult. standing center waiting the party is Fenfang (who our party uncovered as the Kugaptee agent, they also made peace with Mago Kai rather than fight so the Mago Kai as written didn't work at all) ... when challenged her body twists, throat slits, head falls off and we have the original adventure's showdown against the Argyrzei fiend but with the addition of a Kugaptee Claw hazard... in this space they rescue the emaciated form of Ol' Matsuki, who was exorcised and disappeared from the mindscape during the winter months of our game. Exiting the opposite gate to the garden, they find... Final fight 4: Spring.... we didn't fight the path maidens... actually it works to just go straight to the governor's mansion as described with eyes, etc., but have them enter the central courtyard to find it full of bodies. Faces familiar and yet different, like the grandchildren of the willlowshore population they know, seeming to have committed a mass suicide. The shisagishins are there as written, and the encounter with Heh and the aftermath are as written. Conclusion: they leave the manor through the door in the governor's quarters, drawn on by the sound of a flute... they are in the Tan Sugi Monestery by the great cedar. The flute is being played by Zhi Hui (one that has never met the characters) but more interesting is the scene around the Tan Sugi cedar. An axe embedded in its side leaking black tarry sap. The yard containing four or five bodies of Mago Kai loggers that have been left unburied for close to a year, and the broken body of Ugly Cute, roughly hewn by loggers... fireflies gently carried on the wind coalesce into Tan Sui-jin... she bows to the party, smiles wordlessly, an looks at the axe embedded in the tree before another breeze causes her form to revert to the fireflies... scene fades to black with the haunting sound of Zhi Hui on the flute... and then we pick up at the summer solstice festival in Willowshore five years later... players tell us what they've been doing, and help me narrate the changes to Willowshore, and especially the new way the festival is held in Willowshore
Also, as I posted in the other thread, here's what I did for the start of Book 2 (the journey out from Highhelm to the Court of Ether) Yeah so, first of all there's my travel/camping rules... TRAVEL: I describe some basic elements of the environment they are traveling through and a "mood" and then allow the players to give the LoTR travel scene directors cut description of the scene to earn a Hero Point. CAMPING: Watches are done in pairs and two players at a time do some social bonding. Okay... and then 10 days through the darklands: Day 1:
Day 2:
Orcish runes on the floor (requiring orc language): a riddle. Through the darkness I always pierce,
[The answer is light.] This phrase opens the door to a tomb to an orcish community that was killed by the dwarves during the quest for sky tended by an orcish cleric that tells them the story
Day 3:
Day 4:
Day 5:
Day 6:
Day 7:
Day 8:
Day 9:
Day 10: traveling around the edge of the gulf and encountering the redcaps as told in the AP
Great stuff! Really looking forward to the edition with the Warfare rules! My Kingmaker campaign starts mid-July so I'm deep in the preparation for it!
Wow! Great stuff. Gonna yoink some of that for sure. We're just doing the penthouse ourselves now. I had to completely rejigger the Hagegraff part too...We are going to wrap up Book 1 in a session or 2... what did you do to improve Hagregaf? Well basically, I felt like there wasn't much motivation to go to Hagegraf and no reason for the characters to be trying to get in the penthouse, and then the penthouse wasn't really a good size for such a prominent figure so: On the trip back to Highhelm from the Court of Ether, I made sure the encounters (plus a few I added) really started to tell the tale of Narseigus and his plot. Upon arriving back at Highhelm they actually find a Highhelm patrol under assault by a scouting force from the Bloodbane Coalition. Lady Dux (a Taldan spy introduced in LO:Highhelm) holds a shindig to celebrate these heroes and then takes them aside. She introduces them to Bronwyll, who has come secretly through her contact with Lady Dux to recruit adventurers to help her bring down Narseigus. She's jealous because he took a promotion meant for her and she wants the help of outsiders to Hagegraff to get in the penthouse and find incriminating evidence of his diversion of Ministry of Magic resources for his plot with the Bloodbane Coalition. Lady Dux is convinced that the party should also find some information that could help them defeat the sorcerer that threatens all the Five Kings Mountains. Bronwyll provides a list of contacts in Hagegraff that should enable them to gain access to the penthouse... After that, the Hagegraff story pretty much plays out as expected, but Bronwyll's actual plot at the end is to catch the heroes raiding the penthouse to arrest them and that's how she plans to get ahead in the political scene of the city. I planted the journal entry posted above as information the party found in the penthouse, and just added a few hints throughout that if my players look closely should help them understand that they can break Narseigus' spell holding Zogototaru in the third book by reminding the worm of his connection to Taargick. For the penthouse map, I felt something much larger and grand would be a better location so I borrowed a battlemap conversion of the Scarlet Cathedral from WoW. Also, the players going through the city ended up making an arrangement with a local captain of the guard who showed up with even more troops to confront Bronwyll and her forces at the penthouse. Chaos ensued and a good time was had by all.
Well the way I'm planning to run it is allowing for rebuilds/regrouping between floors anyway. I'm not sure that all the players will be present for all of the sessions and I want to give everyone a chance to try out a lot of the options as we're running this as an introduction to Starfinder for our gaming community. The ground floor is taking place on the swamp moon of Dagobahn't, and then when they find "stairs" these are actually computer banks with the coordinates of asteroids that have been launched at Absolom Station that need to be disabled ... each asteroid contains a floor of the dungeon. They'll travel between the asteroids on the Starship Otari, and a different "away team" can be present for each asteroid.
Hi there. Starting an SF2e run through Abomination Vaults and planning to start in July with about one session per month. Unfortunately that probably means our first session will be before the release of the the Player Core. Curious how extensive the updates will be to the level 1 experience (since we'll only have one session before the Player Core comes out). Is it reasonable to assume that most of the basic mechanics for first level were pretty solid at the time of the playtest, or will there be so many changes that it just makes more sense to wait until August to start playing to avoid confusion at the table? Curious to hear what people think
I think the book 1 event can be handled as we rush back to the Otari and rescue the ship from invading forces (Wrin can be hiding in a cargo compartment). I haven't read the whole AP super closely (just skimmed) so I'm not sure about the book 2 event but there should be a creative way to incorporate it when I get there. I'll look into it now. (Thanks for the heads up)
I'm planning to start a Starfinder 2e conversion of Abomination Vaults and call it Abomination Station. The party will arrive at the swamp-type planet of Dagobahn't aboard the Starfinder expedition ship Otari, captained by Wrin Sivinxi. Her star readings indicated that an abandoned research station had come back online and we've come to check it out... The miflits will be called grogus... After exploring the first floor the remaining "floors" will be launched into space hidden in separate asteroids for an attack on Absolom Station with encoded transponders for each of the asteroids located in databanks positioned where the stairs are in the AP. Between floors the party will naturally have to return to the Otari to fly to the next asteroid. Will they stop each asteroid before they reach Absolom Station? In a first skim through the monster selection seems like it would fit with a little tuning on the numbers and a sprinkle of technology things everywhere... Definitely gonna need to change the treasures/rewards but otherwise should be a pretty easy conversion.
I'm planning to start a Kingmaker campaign this summer... I'm wondering about a few things... 1) Battlecry! is coming out and says it will come with mass combat rules. I wonder if the Battlecry! rules will make a good replacement for the Kingmaker AP mass combat rules. 2) Is there possibly also going to be an update for Kingdom Management say in the upcoming releases around the events of the "Hellbreakers" AP / LO:Shining Kingdoms or another near future release?
Wow! Great stuff. Gonna yoink some of that for sure. We're just doing the penthouse ourselves now. I had to completely rejigger the Hagegraff part too...
I don't think I described my approach to overland travel well so let me give an example: GM: "Long plains stretch ahead with rocky outcroppings. The party feels a mix of hope, knowing that the elvish pin you found means you are headed in the right direction, and urgency, to catch up with the orcish column before harm comes to your friends. Who wants to describe the directors cut cinematics of the scene for a hero point? Make sure to cue the other players to contribute to the scene." Ranger player: "A long shot of the party descending, the dwarf huffing to keep up as the ranger leads, eyes always on the horizon. A drone shot over the column of orcs zooms in on the hostages carried on their shoulders. We get a cameo of the dwarf" (dwarf player: "Just Breathe") "The party comes up a ridge standing at its top we get a cameo by the elf." (elf player: "We're gaining on them") ... etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE1fR9_Lcko And the point with this kind of travel is that we could be covering 1 or 5 hexes depending on how I want to pace the game.
For my camping, I've taken inspiration from Fabula Ultima... 1) Watches are taken in pairs, not one-by-one, with players RPing with each other to build deeper intercharacter relationships and earn hero points. 2) Random encounters are very rare and almost never result in Encounter mode. On night watch you'll mostly encounter friendly or at least neutral NPCs attracted to the safety/warmth of a fire. This is where I like to break out the harrow deck too if it feels right to give the party an oracle or to foreshadow upcoming stuff. 3) If there is going to be combat, it most likely won't be wild animals but bandits, etc. setting up an attack that makes sense narratively. ... For normal overland travel, I like to also give a basic description of terrain features and a mood and then let the players describe the cinematics of a directors cut scene (like two towers from LOTR style travel). The player describing the scene can earn a hero point. ... As for frequency of encounters during travel, I agree with what James said above... how eager are the players to get to the next beat or are they really into the feeling of the wilderness exploration... that will also determine how many times we repeat the camp/overland travel loop between the starting point and destination rather than a fixed number of times per hex traveled. We might do the loop for every hex on the way to Oleg's Outpost, but it's okay to "montage" the travel a bit more after you've established your Kingdom. Likewise, I'm not there yet but I imagine early on we'll lean into the Kingdom rules hard, but probably transition towards less focus on them if they start to feel stale... Basically, we're not playing a simulation board game so refer to the First Rule of Pathfinder as needed.
I'm planning to start a Starfinder 2e conversion of Abomination Vaults and call it Abomination Station. The party will arrive at the swamp-type planet of Dagobahn't aboard the Starfinder expedition ship Otari, captained by Wrin Sivinxi. Her star readings indicated that an abandoned research station had come back online and we've come to check it out... The miflits will be called grogus... After exploring the first floor the remaining "floors" will be launched into space hidden in separate asteroids for an attack on Absolom Station with encoded transponders for each of the asteroids located in databanks positioned where the stairs are in the AP. Between floors the party will naturally have to return to the Otari to fly to the next asteroid. Will they stop each asteroid before they reach Absolom Station? In a first skim through the monster selection seems like it would fit with a little tuning on the numbers and a sprinkle of technology things everywhere... Definitely gonna need to change the treasures/rewards but otherwise should be a pretty easy conversion.
I've also found the content of this AP to be quite disjointed and story-wise very difficult to follow without a lot of work on my side to connect the dots and remind the characters what is going on while foreshadowing what is upcoming. Next Thursday will probably be my last or second-to-last in book 2 and I'm still figuring out how exactly to connect to Heavy is the Crown myself. I'll be interested to hear other's thoughts.
before even setting a DC, the GM gets a veto on whether Aid is even possible (INFINITE DC) I’m saying that even before setting a DC, it has to be justified narratively. If the player says, I Aid, and rolls a natural 20 on their legendary skill but can’t describe what they are doing to meaningfully change the circumstances, the GM can just say no unless they are convinced that there’s a narrative reason for the circumstance bonus. That’s in the first paragraph of the rule before determining skill checks or DCs.
I agree with those who are saying that RAW does not permit the GM to change the DCs on a whim. It allows them to increase the DC if and only if they genuinely believe that a particular use of aid is harder than typical - no other reasons. Of course, as a practical matter they can use that to justify changing it for other reasons if they are prepared to lie but that does not make such changes RAW. I disagree... before even setting a DC, the GM gets a veto on whether Aid is even possible (INFINITE DC) based on the character's description (QUOTH: "You must explain to the GM exactly how you’re trying to help, and they determine whether you can Aid your ally.") . Aid demands the player to describe exactly what they are doing that changes the situation to the GM to justify a circumstance bonus. The DC will necessarily depend on what they are doing, but often will be something fun narratively so it's okay to set this low or award hero points for creative uses contributing to the fun at the table (see Rule One of Pathfinder). If what they are doing is standard combat tactics such as flanking, creating a diversion, feinting, demoralizing, etc., there are already rules for that, it doesn't change the combat situation, and it's boring. Do-over.
And one last note... This also is how I as the GM use Aid for leftover third actions on my monsters... I too can use Aid by affecting the environment in a manner favorable to my monsters if they have enough Intelligence to create conditions by altering the parameters of the scenario. MUWAHAHAHAHAHA Rats aren't that smart, but kobolds certainly know how to roll barrels at PCs sticking their snouts where they shouldn't.
I'm planning to start a Kingmaker campaign this summer... I'm wondering about a few things... 1) Battlecry! is coming out and says it will come with mass combat rules. I wonder if the Battlecry! rules will make a good replacement for the Kingmaker AP mass combat rules. 2) Is there possibly also going to be an update for Kingdom Management say in the upcoming releases around the events of the "Hellbreakers" AP / LO:Shining Kingdoms or another near future release?
Like let's expound on it a little... GM Core says ("Adjudicating Actions") "For rules decisions that are either/or (such as whether a creature can Aid or Take Cover), a PC can usually determine before they take the action whether doing so is viable; if it isn’t viable for some reason, alert them that it won’t work before they spend time, actions, or resources trying. " ... My do-over in case of a bad attempt is how it is supposed to happen RAW. GM Core continues... "It’s up to you whether someone’s preparation is enough to let them Aid an ally. The preparation should be specific to the task at hand. Helping someone hold a lockpick steady might be enough preparation to Aid an attempt to Pick a Lock, but just saying you’re going to “encourage” them likely wouldn’t. " ... Basically, there's lots of situations the GM should actually say that Aid doesn't really change the circumstances in a practical sense so a circumstance bonus can't be earned by that action. And now an example: The first encounter in the basement of the Beginner Box: A backline player says they "aid" ... I ask for a description and they say, they sling a stone near the rats to distract. I reply with Aid can't do that since it involves trying to make a strike without a feat that would let them do it outside their turn and ask them try something more narrative... is there something in the environment that could help you? They try kicking a pickled fish that has spilled out onto the floor from the broken barrels at the rats coming through the wall opening to distract a rat so as to open it up for an attack from the fighter... that's good: Preparation action: lines up the field goal Fighter attacks on their turn, backliner reacts with the kick: DC 15 seems good, probably an athletics check but I'd take a creative sports lore. Critical success: fish hits rat in head dazing it (not the dazed condition) +2 to hit
Both critical success and critical failure are super funny so the table gets a laugh and the player gets a hero point. ... This is how Aid works at my table.
Hot take... I think the onus is really on the character describing their action to justify it. (QUOTH: "You must explain to the GM exactly how you’re trying to help, and they determine whether you can Aid your ally.") Normally an Aid action in combat for my table has to involve the player interacting with the scene or environment since there are already rules for distracting, feinting, and almost every other standard tactical combat stuff. If all you've go is some kind of standard tactic, it's already factored into the AC of the enemy and your normal attack bonus (plus off-guard). Aid is for kicking a nearby chair at the enemy's legs, tipping a table over with a hip-check spraying drinks everywhere, or stomping on the floorboard that got loosened by the critical miss earlier to make the guy trip up a little... Aid is bending over so your friend can Shove them and send them over the banister behind you, knocking over the rickety scarecrow behind the giant's kneecaps, or slamming down on the handle of the frying pan to send fried rice at the enemy... and other exceptional circumstantial situations in a dynamic battle scenario not covered by rules and thus a circumstance bonus. It's narrative candy. A low DC like static 15 is intended to encourage this kind of fun at the table. Even outside of combat, Aid is low hanging fruit for encouraging narrative interaction with the scenario in unexpected ways, not standard rules play. This is for me Aid RAW... the circumstance bonus demands a narrative circumstance and the narrative would determine the final DC. Someone saying "I aid" and rolling would be given a chance first to describe in more detail ... If the description they came up with was either (a) something not narratively possible or (b) no description at all or (c) a description of some other action already found in the rules (feint, cause a diversion, demoralize, flanking etc.) I'd tell them it doesn't really work that way and give them a do-over. I wouldn't have them lose their action. So to the OP: Let's play pathfinder, a storytelling game and tell stories together that we will remember forever. To the MAP appliers: I like where you're coming from in general in thinking through the rule, but I just don't think Aid is for handling standard combat situations... the rules already have actions for that. To the ones that might tell me I'm playing calvinball: no, this is RAW. "You must explain to the GM exactly how you’re trying to help" followed by the ambiguous DCs tells me this is a narrative lever, not intended for standard situations and I won't let you use it to gain a circumstance bonus unless you're creating a new circumstance.
I'm currently about to start Book 3 of Sky King's Tomb with my Thursday knights, and about 1/3 of the way into Book 4 of Season of Ghosts with my Sunday knights and I have to say, Season of Ghosts has been narratively very satisfying including it's ticking clock (calendar). I actually managed to run it so we started Book 1 on last summer solstice, Book 2 on autumn equinox, Book 3 on winter solstice and Book 4 on spring equinox so it lines up even with the local weather, which I actually used as the weather in each session (we're playing in Japan). Kind of a side tangent for what to do about higher level APs, but I meant to say that I'm so grateful for the exception that was made to have a 4 part AP in the case of Season of Ghosts. In some ways, having a fourth book allowed the AP to do extra story telling (more room to breathe) that kind of got rushed in Sky King's Tomb. And just to add to that, because it was based on a calendar, the story structure for each book is also very satisfying that makes it easy as a GM to jump around a little... each book has a set of events that can be played out as it fits the table narrative with dungeon delves to anchor or bookend the story beat milestones. I can see this book structure being useful even for someone not playing through Season of Ghosts... so perhaps that's an interesting way to compose higher level APs so the content can be adapted to whatever ongoing story the GM and players are playing. Book 1 is a "transition book" with a series of events that gradually demands more and more attention leading to a dungeon delve, etc., and then book 2 and 3 can fill out the story however is needed from there.
The map image has a 100 mile scale on it (which would make the cavern more than 600 miles in length) but the text says it's 2 miles wide and 4 miles long. Like the other maps in this AP, it feels like there wasn't enough review.
2: I developed a whole bunch of Darklands encounters that flesh out the quest for sky background... monuments, sites that were once great battles, wandering NPCs to tell more of the story (grabbing from the timeline in the start of the adventure) a few microdungeons along the way too. If this is the darklands AP we should experience darklands. Yeah so, first of all there's my travel/camping rules... TRAVEL: I describe some basic elements of the environment they are traveling through and a "mood" and then allow the players to give the LoTR travel scene directors cut description of the scene to earn a Hero Point. CAMPING: Watches are done in pairs and two players at a time do some social bonding. Okay... and then 10 days through the darklands: Day 1:
Day 2:
Orcish runes on the floor (requiring orc language): a riddle. Through the darkness I always pierce,
[The answer is light.] This phrase opens the door to a tomb to an orcish community that was killed by the dwarves during the quest for sky tended by an orcish cleric that tells them the story
Day 3:
Day 4:
Day 5:
Day 6:
Day 7:
Day 8:
Day 9:
Day 10: traveling around the edge of the gulf and encountering the redcaps as told in the AP
Currently running SKT weekly. We're in the transition now between chapter 2 and 3 of book 2. And yup, I've added a lot of extra content to make up for some of the shortcomings of the AP as-is. 1: Using the Highhelm book I added an extra "front" to the adventure... the Ashen Engineer who is striking at Highhelm as a proxy/setup for when Narseigus does eventually arrive. Right now we've faced down a couple of his lower level bosses, etc. but each time they come to Highhelm I use agents of the Ash Engineer to create a threat to Highhelm and with some pointers in the right direction from Lady Dux/Clan Tolorr so there's some meat for the transitions and more dwarfiness to the AP overall. 2: I developed a whole bunch of Darklands encounters that flesh out the quest for sky background... monuments, sites that were once great battles, wandering NPCs to tell more of the story (grabbing from the timeline in the start of the adventure) a few microdungeons along the way too. If this is the darklands AP we should experience darklands. 3: I'm still considering what needs to be done to make book three more connective... especially foreshadowing for the last chapter of book three.
Not sure if this is deep lore or something but Instant Spy says it has the same mechanism as a "clockwork spy (Monster Core 2 70)." (P71)... The original Clockwork Spy listing is Bestiary 3, page 48, so ... is there a Monster Core 2 partially lain out somewhere in the depths of Paizo with Clockwork Spy on page 70? That makes for almost twice as many A-C entries as Bestiary 3 to push it to page 70... hmmm ... exciting Cool. Another friend I mentioned this to speculated that the additional page count for creatures A-C probably indicates that Monster Core 2 will combine Bestiary 2 and Bestiary 3 with new additions. There's a second reference to the same "clockwork spy (Monster Core 2 70)" on page 98 with the entry for Ambling Survivor so it's almost certainly not a mistake.
Not sure if this is deep lore or something but Instant Spy says it has the same mechanism as a "clockwork spy (Monster Core 2 70)." (P71)... The original Clockwork Spy listing is Bestiary 3, page 48, so ... is there a Monster Core 2 partially lain out somewhere in the depths of Paizo with Clockwork Spy on page 70? That makes for almost twice as many A-C entries as Bestiary 3 to push it to page 70... hmmm ... exciting
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I don’t have the experience yet with PF2 to make this call so it’s very valuable to me as a post-OGL 5e refugee
I'm currently running Season of Ghosts Sundays and Sky King's Tomb Thursdays and both campaigns are closing in on their end points. For my next campaign I'm thinking to run Kingmaker (possibly with the Sunday Knights and Thursday Knights running on the same map in parallel ... ) but I had an idea for giving players more options for their characters and thought I'd like to hear some other more experienced GMs chime in with their thoughts with these systems: During character creation, a player can choose 0, 1 or 2 of the following:
Players that choose:
The one player I asked about this said he'd just take 0 options, fast XP every time to unlock spell ranks quickly and get extra bonuses across all his rolls rather than explore the other options, which defeats the purpose of having players explore different builds and options. After a little talk with him I thought, maybe I'd just say that each player can choose one option and every stays on the standard XP track... So basically my questions to the community here are: 1. Would you also **always** choose 0 options to get fast track XP and ignore the options? Does any combination of extra feats balance slower XP progression?
Hoping for a reprint...
|
