The original outline for "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv" actually had the first 3rd of the adventure take place on the ship, with lots of on-board antics, an encounter on a recently risen-to-the-surface islet, a big storm, and some mahyem with stowaways.
Ehm... there's no chance to have this material posted as a "bonus" somewhere, right? I'd really love to read it.
I'm just starting Shiv with a new group and I plan to make a lot of small encounters along the way (I happen to own cities of Golarion + map folio... time to put Corentyn and Ilizmagorti to good use!).
This will allow me to consolidate the playing group and give them plenty of opportunity to interact with the NPCs. Too bad you didn't expand on the ship journey, although I understand you motivations...
ciao
S
PS: Shiv is one of the best adventures I've ever read. And I started playing (against Bargle, of course) in 1984...
I've got a quick question for the guys in charge: have you already sold the translation rights for the Tales line, somewhere in the world? What about Italy?
thanks,
S
PS OK I'll admit it... I'm a (micro) publisher and I'm thinking about it
Inference I drew is the very fact the PCs get rescued lets the cat out of the bag.
Yeah, but as I wrote above, the real problem is the other factions knowing the exact location of Tazion. The module itself implies that at the beginning they don't; that's the very reason why they vie for the PC's help (since in fact the PCs offer nothing more than that, being a low-level party with no experience whatsoever in jungle expeditions).
James, above, suggests that the factions can mount their own expedition to the Shiv. If they do that, of course they need no more info from the PCs (and in this case they are not even going to ask for their help anymore).
So, what really needs some work here is justifying the fact that everybody knows Tazion's location. You can have the notes stolen or copied from the PCs in Eleder, have the other factions mount their own expeditions to the Shiv, or a mixture of that (considering also that the factions can steal info from each other "off stage").
At the end, and at the risk of sounding a bit annoying, I still consider this part of the adventure seriously under-developed... APs are nice because they don't require a huge amount of work. Serpent's Skull is more open-ended than most, and that's something to commend it for, but it doesn't mean it can't help DMs consider and manage all options.
Hi guys, I'm re-reading the first volumes of the AP, and I've got a question about this "race". It's spoiler-y, so... here's the spoiler:
question:
At the beginning the group has to decipher Yarzoth's notes, and it seems pretty safe to assume they own the only copy. Also, they may clearly state to the GM that they are reasearching in secrecy (some players may really do their best to do so), and it's even possible that no NPC castaway survives from the Shiv.
That said, how come that everybody instantly knows they're looking for Tazion/Saventh-Yhi, and moreover, everybody knows exactly where Tazion is? Frankly, it's a pretty serious plot hole. The text only says that "rumors travel fast", a pretty weak statement. This could justify other groups tailing the PCS and arriving after them, but winning the race? Of course they need to know Tazion's exact location. For this to work there should be a plot hook, eg somebody stealing the notes, or a crooked librarian making some copies, or something.
Of course it may be that Yarzoth is still alive, or that an NPC knows everything about the "library use" (or even partecipates to it). Once the news are out, the GM can assume that the various faction spy each other out of every detail.
Yet, the whole thing is still pretty hard to justify, and I'm frankly surprised that the text does not go in more depth. Since the whole adventure revolves around the race, it would have been nice to set it up a little better...
So, what is your best idea? How would you set up the scene and justify the race?
As for the speed in which we're putting out books... we're still dedicated to 3 rulebooks a year.
Ok, great. Thanks a lot for the reply! I hope you understand that I was only concerned. I have to say, it does make sense to get the system "out" as soon as possibile and then hammer it to perfection in the next years...
To close the topic, I want to repeat again that I'm a huge fan -- I'm reading the Serpent's Skull AP and boy, that stuff is EPIC :)
Paizo doesn't have to open their playtests to their consumers. They could do what most RPG companies do and put out their books and tell you to deal with it. This shows commitment to the fan base and should earn them a bit more trust.
Don't get me wrong: of course, I know they are committed to quality etc etc. I do trust them. I'm simply afraid they'll going to release too many books in too short a time, when there's no need to do so and, fatally, this will have an impact on quality.
Since the majority of fans, when something is announced, react like "OMG yes! I want it now!", I just wanted to tell them to take their time. It's not that there's a shortage of material to play, again, thanks to them :)
later,
S
PS about words of power in particular, I have to say that I find it incredibly promising, but let's say it, what we've been seeing in the beta is very, very "beta" for a product allegedly out in 3 months... this is not an extra class that one can always ignore, it's a whole overhaul of a core system. It's bound to require much more than that to really work.
I think your concern has been dealt with very very extensivly in the class-bloat thread.
In short, no need to worry about further class-bloat, there will be other books, they have to make money, but quality should stay as good as it is.
Great. But what about words of power? That sort of thing could be a real revolution in the history of D&D, but it would need many, many months of testing and care.
If it gets published hastily, and with plenty of errata, it'll just be a curiosity that nobody actually uses and will be soon forgotten (and that would burn away the chance of it actually getting developed and adopted).
You say "quality as good as it is", but sadly I have to say that the quality (of the cruch -- fluff is great, as usual) has already began to go down.
Oh well, let's hope for the best. Just remember, Paizo: pushing books forward to improve them will never remembered as a bad choice, afterwards!
Hi,
I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I want to voice my concerns. I think Paizo may be working on too many "core" products, too quickly, and they are getting out too soon.
Now, before you say the new classes/mechanics (ie words of power) are all optional and not "official" or anything, I respond: A 20-lev base class is "core" enough; and I think that -- if one gets published -- it has to be refined and balanced enough to be 100% official (think APG).
So, I'd rather have a single, well-developed hardbound book every year (or even 18 months) than the current, announced avalanche. I'm excited as everyone for the gunslinger, magus and words of power; I simply believe that they need much more playtesting to be bulletproof & a worthy addition to the system.
We already have 18 base classes, do we really need 4 more in the next 6 months? Paizo thrives because so far it's been protecting the system, that's its first and foremost mission. I cannot but fear a wotc-like devolution, and that would be much worse than waiting a few months for a new class...
You don't need awesome social skills to be badass. Take the feat that lets you add STR bonus to Intimidate if you want "badass"
I know we can go on forever about this, but CHA is definitely not a measure of "social skills". Those are a consequence of CHA, which is a concept that can be best explained by the original (Polynesian) term "mana".
CHA is pure personal magnetism, an aura that can take an arcane, praeternatural form (sorcerers), or express rock-steady faith (paladins) or religious kerigma (clerics)(*). And yes, it can be sexy too (although, as I said, it's very wrong to associate it with comeliness). And can make for a great orator.
This is the reason why it fuels so many different classes: the cleric, for example, calls upon her personal aura, her inner power, to repel/destroy undead.
In this sense, for gunslingers CHA may be taken as a measure of "badass", since (as somebody else noted) it has to fuel the grit, which is the inner reserve.
In other words, badass is the gunslinger's ki :)
later,
S
(*) Kerigma is the greek word from which CHA is derived. It's not by chance that in the New Testament it's used exactly to mean the announcement of the christian message. Even now, the Pope is considered (by dogma) the embodiment of the "apostolic kerigma".
For what it's worth, add my vote to CHA. And that's because CHA can mean a lot of things (*), but one thing is for sure: gunslingers are BADASS.
And PF's 'slingers are EVEN more badass -- just see the description and the grit mechanic.
Now, I understand that WIS can mean courage, poise and stuff, but c'mon... just say it alound -- "a wise gunslinger". It's just wrong! It's so wrong that if it came from another source I would have bet it was a typo!
So, please, just scratch this WIS silliness and make it CHA-based. CHA is perfect, but even other solutions (DEX, CON, whatever) make much more sense than WIS.
thanks,
Stefano
(*) although definitely NOT comeliness... this is for the guy noting that gunslingers are "fugly" -- huh?
Hi Paizo, first of all, excuse me if I'm posting in the wrong place -- I haven't been able to find a better one :)
I am a customer from Europe (Italy) and, once again, I'd like to ask about subscriptions: as many Europeans, I find the shipping rates from the US prohibitive (moreso considering taxes), so I'm buying the odd PDF here and there and some books through http://www.bookdepository.co.uk.
So far I've been happy with them, so I was wondering: why don't you just strengthen your partnership and simply use them to "funnel" through any subscription? This way I'd be able to get the PDFs as well!
I recently pre-ordered the newest hardcovers (GMG and APG) and don't feel like shelling out extra money to get the electronic formats as well...
