Greg Vaughan...nuff said.
Fixed. :-)
Gary = KING!
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Huh, I checked out this tread to see if it was more Logue bashing.
But no, now hes shilling his new product.
Are these adventurers long enough to be a good playtest for the PFRPG?
I gather from reading on the Sinister site that they definetly give the system a though run, as Combat Maneuvers, Spells, Skills, etc.
Huh, I checked out this tread to see if it was more Logue bashing.
But no, now hes shilling his new product.
Are these adventurers long enough to be a good playtest for the PFRPG?
I gather from reading on the Sinister site that they definetly give the system a though run, as Combat Maneuvers, Spells, Skills, etc.
This one especially would push hard on poor Jason. It takes place entirely underwater (I love underwater adventures). It might be fun to playtest some interesting underwater combat rules for PRPG.
This one is about 10,000 words long (12 pages or so). about six encounters (plus some random encounter options).
Greg A. Vaughan at the helm too! It's good stuff!
Sounds really reasonably, maybe I'll switch over the Pathfinder iconics to Alpha, and the module(this will by my first actual play test) with Alpha. 7th level should be great.
Right on Andrew! I'd love to hear how it goes! Drop by our forums or post a little play report here if you get a chance. Thanks!
PLAYTEST
My group assembled with the goal to mix Pathfinder Alpha 1.1 & Sinister Adventure Indulgences. We only played a little bit of the game during our meeting time, but here're highlights:
4 party members are:
An "Art of the Duel" themed halfling rogue;
Elven evoker, the ship's cannon;
Dwarven cleric (Nick! I need a sneak at a sexy sea deity/domain/weapon, man. Help?!)
Human rogue, akin to an underwater sunken treasure finder.
Used the plot device that this group works for the Sea Spider Trading Company, and has worked together for years. Although we start at 7th level, I have full expectations to purchase the Razor Coast. Sharing this idea, the group agrees that having "prequel" adventures at 4th level would be fun and make the book more useful, perhaps. If not, I'll play with CR.
SPOILERS*****
I wanted to see players' reactions to the new skills system, as well as set the tone early. Sucessful Perception checks showed a small boat off port, near shore. Closer inspection by the mage showed that three men were chumming, but they had no nets. Party investigated. Secretly, these men were devotees of Dajobas, fanatic to the point they cut off the tips of their fingers to bleed blood for the blood god while chumming for an audience with the toothy beast. Bewildered and not sure what to make of this scene, the lost time allowed another ship to skirt the players' ship. This was the customs ship described on p. 3. Thinking the PCs were party to these blood-letting cultists, the customs officers attacked the ship. WHOO!-HOO! The magic flew, and it was awesome. The evoker acted like the ship's main cannon. Blast- Crrrack- Boom! The cleric made good use of his domain abilities, although the player was a bit upset. He picked the Water and Weather domains from his Pathfinder deity, Gozrah. Many of the domains' special powers were too similar. Again, Nick, if you have any suggestions, lemmie know! Would Pele fit as a proper diety for a dwarf, like the whole mountains and fire-forges, etc.? The halfling made good use of the bind action, especially as a cloaked duelist. He was very excited to sidestep issues about his size when binding as a combat move, too.
To summerize, the PCs uncovered the tentacle-suckered inspector, and his crew of Harthagoa-pledged souls (my idea). This damned crew was actually looking to take-out the chummers,and ran into (almost literally at on point) the PCs. The chummers captured a druid- Old Edigar, whom the PCs will meet momentarily (did the customers crew know he was on board the boat?!). The customs crew dispatched the chummers (sort of like the current poll :( ), but sank it. The PCs saw a body lightly floating and active, and pursued it beneath the waves. There, they meet the old half-elf, who is badly wounded at the time. The party mage is able to cast some magic for some, but Edigar casts mass countenance of the deep for the rest of the party. The treasure-hunter rogue is very excited about this idea. His eyes catch some treasure beneath some coral, and starts pulling and tempting the rest of the party. Jab'roth intercepts the group, and asks about Edigar, who has since disappeared. Lots of questions are asked and a few answered. Left alone, the one rogue draws closer to the coral bed, and a upsets the Sahuagin Shark Raiders. This evil group was sent here to these blood-swept waters to see who was calling their master, Dajobas. I wanted to fight to be quick but powerful. I reduced the number of riders and sharks, but gave Katanga cleric levels and the feats Chosen of the Shark God and Blood Hunter, which were...simply awesome. The feats made sense to his presence here, and made him seem more powerful. The players got a real sense that the water denziens were playing havoc with them, and would rend them. This combat took almost as long as the ship-to-ship-to-ship combat earlier, mostly because the casters wanted to try out different spells underwater (which they planned on trying, after my prep work before the game).
We ended the day with the conclusion of this victory. The PCs think that the shark raiders must have gotten Edigar, eather as food or as a prisoner. That they didn't think the shark-devotees would have simply devoured the druid means I'm not being brutal enough! Mwwaaahhhh! The next session will start with the speech from Jab'roth...
We had fun! The biggest plea for help came from the wizard, who wants a powerful water-based familiar, or familiar-enhancing feats, like those in the PHB2. She currently has a sea turtle (no stats on it as a familiar that I could find), so in addition to its normal animal and familiar based bonuses, I ruled that it grants her a +2 AC bonus. Too much? Not enough? Better familiar? If she were a lower level, she wanted an otter, but there, I'd have no idea what kind of special bonus to grant. Nick or Greg, can you help with this, too (water familiars in general)? Thanks in advance. Our group meets in two weeks (April 20th). I'll post more then, because this adventure has been very fun, very dark (partly my doing, partly Greg's, and partly Nick's, I'd imagine), and a great playtest of the Alpha 1.1 rules. Making the NPCs was an easy thing, especially with the new skills system in place. I appreciate comments and direction!
Wow Szombulis! Sound kickass!
You are spot on with the customs inspector and his crew being sworn to Hartagoa...they'd probably belong to a little old cult called the Ring of the Kraken.
As for an otter, I think a bonus that helps offset underwater fighting or casting penalties might be cool. Better than just your standard Swim bonus I say!
Can't wait to hear more!
Thanks, Greg. I wasn't sure how to handle the adventure underwater, especially since some players never even tried playing on a boat! Wolfgang's article on underwater play really helped out, and we shared bits of it. In Razor Coast, please tell me I can find some new familiars/animal companions specific to the locale? Plleeeaaasssseee? Hmmm...but then, if you and Nick keep going the way you have started, we might get piranha (+3 Initiative Underwater?) familiars.
Hmmm...waitaminute :)
Thanks, Greg. I wasn't sure how to handle the adventure underwater, especially since some players never even tried playing on a boat! Wolfgang's article on underwater play really helped out, and we shared bits of it. In Razor Coast, please tell me I can find some new familiars/animal companions specific to the locale? Plleeeaaasssseee? Hmmm...but then, if you and Nick keep going the way you have started, we might get piranha (+3 Initiative Underwater?) familiars.
Hmmm...waitaminute :)
Dude, I'd love to have a piranha on my side for a change.
::rubs stump of left leg, feels phantom pain::
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Looks cool, I'm going to run it for 5 or 6 players on Sunday, though I probably won't be able to use any of the hooks given since I made the silly mistake of just letting people loose with a mission to create 32-point buy, 7th level, all splatbooks available characters for an aquatic one-off, before I noticed all the hooks involve being primarily land-dwelling types. So now I'm anticipating a motley collection of aquatic elves/mermaids/were sharks/assorted obscure races whose only reason for being together would be if I put them all in a sack and dumped them in front of Jab'roth! Hohum, I'll do a writeup when we're through anyways.
Looks cool, I'm going to run it for 5 or 6 players on Sunday, though I probably won't be able to use any of the hooks given since I made the silly mistake of just letting people loose with a mission to create 32-point buy, 7th level, all splatbooks available characters for an aquatic one-off, before I noticed all the hooks involve being primarily land-dwelling types. So now I'm anticipating a motley collection of aquatic elves/mermaids/were sharks/assorted obscure races whose only reason for being together would be if I put them all in a sack and dumped them in front of Jab'roth! Hohum, I'll do a writeup when we're through anyways.
Sweet! For aquatic hooks, go ahead and go with some sort of "envoys from a neighboring underwater kingdom sent to help the Coral Kingdom in their fight against Hartagoa" maybe. Can't wait to hear how the adventure goes!
Would this make a good side trek for a Savage Tide campaign? Specifically if they've already reached the Isle of Dread? If our group has levelled according to the STAP layout, I'd have to up the challenges in Blood Waters, but that isn't a problem for me.
You'd have to tweak the plot slightly, but yeah it would work well!