Has anyone made a full list of the panic reductions / increases in this adventure? I have a nagging feeling that barring additional (GM Discretion) awards, the event requiring "panic < 15" will never "fire", blocking quite a bit of encounters.
Speaking of Panic levels - I've raised my panic level twice - 1 for my player stealing from the auction house, and 1 for shooting a teenager. Sadly the teenager lived due to another player healing him so the Wight didn't get to rise. I was wondering if most agree with my reactions?
How did you handle/reflavour the Church of Pharasma, the other adventuring parties and the non-ruin parts of Wati?
Details!
Possible Spoilers:
So far instead of the church of Pharasma running things, I had it as the government. I kept the idea that it was sealed ruins that had not been explored yet, and the history of madness (it's still a world with magic/evil - just hidden from the world). The other adventuring parties were mostly kept the same - but like the halflings were made into midgets, if they were a dwarf they were stocky etc. I upgraded their gear to have more modern equipment similar to my PC's, and using the same armor system - which I will do for all non-monsters. The non-ruin parts of Wati and the location of Wati I put near the Valley of the Kings after some research (Wati reminded me of Luxor).
So I've run two games with an updated gun system, and using the strain-injury variant. I also used the 3.5 unearthed arcana alternate system of no armor bonuses.
Thoughts so far -
1. The strain-injury variant has made up for a lower AC (even with the bonuses). I'm not sure how my game would have done without it - probably - probably leaving a place, resting, and coming back - and who wants that.
2. It's too early to tell if the guns will be too powerful or not. The fact that the guns don't get through a lot of DR helps mitigate the high damage. They have 1 melee fighter - which is amusing because he is often providing cover for the enemy (and giving a -4 to those without precise shot).
3. My dollar amounts might be off, but I'm not too concerned. If anyone has suggestions on a gold to Dollar conversion, i'll listen. Currently I'm just having gold amounts = dollar amounts (I.E. Selling the treasure for 50% of value in money).
4. Other then replacing Golarion gods with Egyptian gods and the word Osirini with Egyptian - I haven't had to change the mod too much to fit the campaign. To give an idea - it's similar to an Arhkam Horror feel - you are regular people - and there is now supernatural things happening - no one is likely to believe you, and you have to learn to cope with it and fight it.
Thanks for the help everyone! I will definitely look into some of those books for different options to improve my campign. I am still going to try and run it with the pathfinder system and adventure path. I will let you know how it goes.
How are you going to handle AC? Pulp 1920s heroes don't generally wear armour, but the game engine assumes PCs are wearing the best armour they can get. Maybe a dodge AC bonus? Swap out armour proficiencies for a +2 dodge bonus per level swapped out (eg heavy > nil = +6 AC), I think would work out about right. Access to healing could also be an issue.
I will definitely consider using that. My initial thought was that the characters likely would be starting with minimal armor (such as leather), and a higher dex. Not the best AC to be sure. Once they get into the tombs they will find archaic armor that may choose to use if they wish.
Healing is somewhat limited, in that it will rely initially on the Alchemist. The Bard will also be able to assist. It is also likely that they might find something in the tomb to help them. If it becomes an issue, I was considering that there will be NPC's who are more knowledgeable of the supernatural world that might be able to help them. There is always the fact that you heal while sleeping too - another rule that rarely is used because magic is so prevelant (At least in my games)
I am going to attempt to run the adventure path based in the 1920's, switching Osirion out for Egypt. I wanted to run a game with a change of pace from:
1. Buff w/magic and magic items
2. Roll knowledge check on monsters.
3. Annihilate Monsters.
Inspirations include: The Mummy, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, The Invisible Man, Cthulu Mythos.
My adventurers are going to be mostly naive to the supernatural world. I'm going to allow magic items as they discover them, but there will be no creation or magic shops to buy them.
Firearms everywhere.
20 point buy, and hero point system (not mythic system)
The party consists of an all human party:
A Alchemist (not magic, SCIENCE!)
A Slayer (Gun Bunny)
A Brawler
A Bard (likely Comedic bent)
It is my hope with these adjustments and limitations that the mod (including weather conditions, terrain, and monsters) will actually prove challenging, without having to make adjustments.
I am certainly not an expert on CRs, but you could probably just add class levels to some of the enemies (the intelligent ones) and raise the monsters to advanced templates to raise the difficulty to a proper level, instead of coming up with new enemies.
I understand there is no new mini game system in Shattered star. With the new streamline, does this mean that there will be no new mechanics from here on (or a return to previous new mechanics?) I gotta say, my players really enjoyed the Jade regent relationship scores and I know other players did as well. There has been a few mods with relationship type opprotunities and incentives which were a great addition. I'm sure you've been asked this a hundred times, so if someone wants to direct me to a link of a response, that works too.
Galnörag wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Galnörag wrote:
So please don't shoot me if there is already a thread, but the search came up empty.
Two Questions:
1) Will the players guide hit before Gencon or during?
2) Any hints on if/what the new rule mechanic that might be featured in the players guide this time around?
There's not really any new rule mechanic. In fact, starting with Shattered Star, the players guides are going to be a lot more streamlined, mostly because that makes it less onerous on the staff to produce them and helps tremendously in the goal of keeping the Adventure Paths on schedule.
The Shattered Star Player's Guide will include the following:
Campaign traits
General advice on character building (such as good choices for favored enemies and the like)
An updated version of the Pathfinder Society faction from the Faction Guide.
An updated map of Heidmarch Manor in Magnimar.
And that, I believe, is it.
I'm cool with on time :)
Thanks for the note, so anytime this month it could show up in a random weekly blog post.
I do enjoy the subsystems where they are appropriate, a terror/horror system for CC would have been awesome. But on the other hand not every AP needs extra lairs of complexity to be awesome. It really is going to very a lot by group, I know our KM group gave up on the Kingdom Building aspect, or at least pushed it far to the back. For the lot of us day job desk jockies, it felt like game night was turning into a business meeting, and we had all had our fill of those during the 9-5.
So I've found that when I am playing my captain, I pretty much talk in the style of Captain Barbossa. It just kinda happened ;-) Does anyone else have this style of voice (or other recognizable styles)?
Below is some Calculations I made about the end bosses in the sixth book (The Empty Throne). I would like to get some other ST opinions.
Calculations spoiler:
So I did some calculations on the end bosses in book six.I got basically 605,000. Based on a normal party of 4, level 15 - it should be 960,000. Throw in the fact that the Jade Regent has access to tons of money, and the end result is very surprising. The book of course suggests in a side panel to make challenges harder for your party to ensure a challenge, but I feel the end needs severe modifications! Of course it is all based on your party.
Part of my issue (and I wonder if some people have had the same problem) is that the value of gold for the PC's equipment far exceeds what they should have at their current level (average of 199,400 per character at level 13. I have 5 players) I haven't really given out too much extra, and they have even spent a bunch of money on their caravan, gifts to npcs, buying all the ninja clans, and even buying a miracle to save the wife of an NPC! (book 5, the evil socererer's wife - I wonder if anyone else's party has done that?) My party is very efficent, and so it is often a struggle to give them a good challenge.
So to get back to topic - I will have 5 PC's and Ameiko going up against 4 enemies with a value of 960,000 to them. I am thinking of drastically upgrading their gear to equal what the PC's party would be if they were all level 15. I would like to hear thoughts on this, and if anyone else has had a similar problem.
This has got to be the deadliest Paizo Adventure path I have ever played in. Every person playing in the campaign has had to make at 1 new character. One person had to make two.
First Blood:
Fell of the boat during the raid, got eaten by Sharks.
Party Wipe:
The ghouls in the tent paralyzed the party and proceded to kill them. Later our new characters fought our old characters as Ghouls.
Added a 5th player:
So we added a 5th player, who got killed in the Whale and Queen fight (Granted, he made a silly combat move and paid for it). The rest of the group felt satisfied as he too had to make his 2nd character.
