Pathfinder Adventure: The Dead God's Hand

By the way, having met Erik in person almost 9 years ago, I can attest that he was well on his way to semi-vegetatism already back then! ;P

Alright, seriously, I'd rather get two excellent books over the course of several months than see poor Erik driven to utter madness and exhaustion, not to mention how that would affect the quality of both publications. Besides, although it's set in a part of Golarion where I'm not likely to start a campaign, I'm really intrigued by The Slithering.

So, so very disappointed by this news. Our PFS Smackdown was fired up to play Dead God's Hand.

Very disappointed in the delay but very, very pleased that quality is the focus over meeting deadlines.

Good call (Adam? Erik? Whoever's call it was..)

Looking forward to the Slithering too. Rescheduling is way better than the old modules release rate, for sure!

This still on schedule for November?

This still on schedule for November?

Barring any unexpected delays, looks like it! The previous placeholder date was December 2020.

The placeholder date hasn't actually changed, and it comes only one month after the release of another standalone adventure. It is just that we are now close enough to that placeholder date in real terms that we can now see its preorder date.

I would be very surprised if they actually release standalone adventure books in back to back months.

Yeah so date seems to have disapeared so guessing not for quite a while (Also no mention of it at the Pax panel either.)

Yeah, best-case-scenario is Q1 2021. Who knows, though. My guess is more like a year from now.

It'll be in 2021, more or less for sure.

I screwed up big time trying to juggle major additions to Absalom and this adventure at the same time, and unfortunately this adventure is second in line.

I am sorry. On the other hand, all of the additional writing is now done for Absalom and that project should be moving forward again soon, so the big logjam is cleared, and we'll all be 400 NPCs richer for it. :)

Absolutely no need to apologize, Erik. We're just excited, is all. Everyone here is happy to wait till it's right! Just very curious about the timeline. :)

we'll all be 400 NPCs richer for it. :)

That's going to be a heck of a pawn collection.

Is there an expected month for release?

Is there an expected month for release?

See three posts above yours for the most up to date, official information from the author of the adventure.

The main paizo page still shows this as an upcoming release for Dec 2020. Based on the above post (And CS Dec subscriptions) I believe we need to change some numbers somewhere so this and the map pack don't show up under "upcoming releases"

I see this listed on the Pathfinder landing page as upcoming. I'm pretty sure it was pushed back again but was hoping to see some confirmation here but it seems unclear here too.

I see this listed on the Pathfinder landing page as upcoming. I'm pretty sure it was pushed back again but was hoping to see some confirmation here but it seems unclear here too.

Would be cool to get an update for sure at this point.

There's a "blue moon" coming up. This adventure will be out after that, but before the next one. :-)

Any updates on the release date?

(Yes, I know it's going to be 2021--wondering if it's expected to be February, June, or December of 2021.)

Any updates on the release date?

(Yes, I know it's going to be 2021--wondering if it's expected to be February, June, or December of 2021.)

The current current release schedule goes through April. The next Adventure is "Malevolence", scheduled for late April.

So, likely not going to be available until July/August at the earliest.

SageSTL wrote:

Any updates on the release date?

(Yes, I know it's going to be 2021--wondering if it's expected to be February, June, or December of 2021.)

The current current release schedule goes through April. The next Adventure is "Malevolence", scheduled for late April.

So, likely not going to be available until July/August at the earliest.

In the words of the great Inigo Montoya, "I hate waiting."

No new updates on a release date for this one I take it?

No new updates on a release date for this one I take it?

I'd presume whenever absalom book would get released

Since it looks like the Absalom book might come out this fall, maybe this will too?

Since it looks like the Absalom book might come out this fall, maybe this will too?

We have no update at this time.

I knew I forgot about asking this in the PIAZOCON Panels!! :(

Any further final release info, this year I'm hoping at least??

Thanks :)

Tom (TRDG11 Twitch Handle)

I knew I forgot about asking this in the PIAZOCON Panels!! :(

Any further final release info, this year I'm hoping at least??

Thanks :)

Tom (TRDG11 Twitch Handle)

Erik Mona was nice enough to reply to me about Dead God's Hand on Reddit during the PaizoCon weekend. Here's what he said:

"I'll get back to it when Absalom is done. As a bigger and more important book, that had to take the priority. Once that is done I'll jump back to Dead God's hand, which still needs about 9,000 more words to finish (out of about 80,000). As recently as today the delay is paying off as I finally figured out how to make a sort of undercooked element of the adventure about a thousand times cooler. It's exciting to think of getting back to that for real in the relatively near future.

Thanks for your patience with these two books. I hope/think the wait will be worth it."

Thanks Ezekieru, I thought for some reason they were both being done at the same time, so looking like a 2022 release I bet now. Thats fine and I was asking as I was thinking of as an extra to run my edgewatch group through that well I feel there is a player lull or something a bit different.

Tom

what are the levels for this?

1st - ?

what are the levels for this?

1st - ?

The Dead God’s Hand is a campaign-arc adventure for five 1st-level characters. Throughout the course of play, the player characters should advance to 4th level. Product is not final and subject to change.

A few updates, long overdue.

The final adventure will probably get you to 6th level.

It's about 9,000 words (of 80,000) from completion, and is still parked behind the Absalom book, which is more or less in its final stages and should go to editing this week or next (meaning my grubby, omnipotent hands are for the most part off it and "the process" carries it through to completion).

The Dead God's Hand will now be a 2022 release. Still planning/hoping Absalom is out by Christmas.

Creatively, the delay has done a world of good for The Dead God's Hand. The adventure is based off the dungeon I used to run at conventions and the Paizo staff "home game" we played at the office about the time the Advanced Player's Guide came out for Pathfinder 1. I converted the adventure from my notes and audio recordings of all those games, and while that generated a lot of cool asides and corner cases, there were some aspects of how the adventure tied into Absalom and the overall "continuing the campaign" threads that I never felt quite connected in my notes (because they never happened at the table, where our play ended at the end of the adventure).

The Dead God's Hand is designed to be a lead-in adventure to a longer campaign, either something we will eventually publish over geologic time or (much more likely) with further adventures of your own design, inspired by some of the plot threads that run through it and stick out the end. In this regards, it is not a wholly self-contained dungeon.

By the time you complete the adventure and have interacted with the NPCs and clues discovered within, you not only (I hope) have a satisfying conclusion to the "story" of the Sanctum of Aroden, but you've also got a huge number of story and motivational ties to things that can be resolved later in the campaign. That runs from potentially campaign-lasting major enemies to minor friends, each with their own connections to Absalom and adventure hooks for further development once you make it back to the surface.

In these regards, the delay has been enormously helpful. It's allowed me to more elegantly tie the NPCs to Absalom (because there is now much more of Absalom available for tie-ins), massage major elements related to at least five critical NPCs, and so on.

It's also nice, as I did just yesterday, to come back to a manuscript that you've had to set aside for a while. It's much better to approach it with fresh eyes, and it's easier to be more objective about what works and what doesn't work.

So, the Dead God's Hand will be a much stronger adventure with a much stronger Absalom book to back it up, so at least there's that.

But yeah, 2022. Bummer. Sorry.

Huzzah for more development time!

As excited as I am for this I understand that creativity and perfecting these kinds of things takes time. Thank you for the update, this sounds like it will be awesome!

in the meantime I have plenty of PF2e and converted PF1 APs and adventures and loads of Starfinder to run not to mention all the cool upcoming stuff to keep me tied over.

Yakman wrote:

what are the levels for this?

1st - ?

The Dead God’s Hand is a campaign-arc adventure for five 1st-level characters. Throughout the course of play, the player characters should advance to 4th level. Product is not final and subject to change.

Is this really for five characters instead of the usual 4?

Aaron Shanks wrote:

Yakman wrote:

what are the levels for this?

1st - ?

The Dead God’s Hand is a campaign-arc adventure for five 1st-level characters. Throughout the course of play, the player characters should advance to 4th level. Product is not final and subject to change.

Is this really for five characters instead of the usual 4?

That's the way I'm writing it (because that's the way it was in our office campaign), but I suppose that could change in development if someone gets super ornery about it.

logic_poet wrote:

Aaron Shanks wrote:

Yakman wrote:

what are the levels for this?

1st - ?

The Dead God’s Hand is a campaign-arc adventure for five 1st-level characters. Throughout the course of play, the player characters should advance to 4th level. Product is not final and subject to change.

Is this really for five characters instead of the usual 4?

That's the way I'm writing it (because that's the way it was in our office campaign), but I suppose that could change in development if someone gets super ornery about it.

I wouldn't say to change it, but a cool blog post (or series) would be to show off who played what and post the office characters so a GM could use them as helper NPCs.

Fun idea, but a big part of the plot involves lots of existing "helper NPCs," so at a certain point the cast list can get a little out of control.

Please take as much time as is needed to make it as good as it can be. A late product is only late until it's released; a bad product is probably going to remain bad forever.

Thanks Erik for all of the updates. That kind of transparency is one of the thngs I love about Paizo. IF it does continue to be for 5 players I hope it includes some kind of advice on how to modify it for 4 seeing as thats the most common number of players, the number that most groups probably already are, and the number that any adventures run after DGH will have been written for.

A lot of groups I see online usually has 5-6 players in my experience so good so see this!! I run 6 on average myself :)

Tom

Six is, I think, traditional D&D. At least that's what I remember from fifty years ago.

6 is the magic number for me, you get a way more diversified groups that way, also if someone bails, flakes out or legit can't make sessions one is still good to go with 5, or even 4, but especially in online play starting with 4 is just asking for big disruptions over my 9 years at Roll20.

If one has a long term group then not as much of an issue but I do stranger games where you grab the best (after Discord voice vetting naturally) for new groups, has its own problems at times, but with all the diverse groups I have I hardly ever get GM burn out.

Not sure when I'll get the time to run this, perhaps plug it into my Edgewatch game. But I'll have to adjust the encounters as the group will be at a much higher level, but we will see :)

Tom

I'd always heard four being the tradition number. I personally prefer five as the sweet spot between having enough characters to cover bases while also not overly dividing screen time. Six feels like too much and four too little.

For those who want to reference it, the Pathfinder Core Rulebook discusses adjusting for Different Party Sizes on page 489. Four is the usual default, but the rulebooks support GM's in adjusting as necessary.

It's great to see this back again after having not been listed on 'Upcoming Releases' for some while.

But ... there is no release date listed. Paizo stop teasing!

When will this be released?

Next year.

It's great to see this back again after having not been listed on 'Upcoming Releases' for some while.

But ... there is no release date listed. Paizo stop teasing!

When will this be released?

I believe Erik talks about release during paizocon opening. You can find it on youtube.

AbyssDancer wrote:

It's great to see this back again after having not been listed on 'Upcoming Releases' for some while.

But ... there is no release date listed. Paizo stop teasing!

When will this be released?

I believe Erik talks about release during paizocon opening. You can find it on youtube.

We don't have a release date for Pathfinder Adventure: The Dead God's Hand at this time. We anticipate 2022.

Just been watching Gencon 2021, and I have seen a lot announced, source books, monsters, classes, adventure paths, and more.
Is there a reason that I haven't seen this adventure, even though it was announced over 2 years ago?
Is this because the process is different, or less important?

Still excited though. Happy to wait.

This adventure is tied closely to the Absalom hardcover, and as that got delayed so did this. With that finally getting out the door in December, this will probably follow pretty quick.

Just been watching Gencon 2021, and I have seen a lot announced, source books, monsters, classes, adventure paths, and more.

Is there a reason that I haven't seen this adventure, even though it was announced over 2 years ago?
Is this because the process is different, or less important?

Still excited though. Happy to wait.

This adventure is tied closely to the Absalom hardcover, and as that got delayed so did this. With that finally getting out the door in December, this will probably follow pretty quick.

It was addressed in the Standalone Adventures panel at Gen Con 2021. Cori Marie is right: Erik Mona was in charge of both "Lost Omens: Absalom the City of Lost Omens" and this adventure, and needed to put this adventure on the backburner in order to finish Absalom... which ended up getting over 100 new pages and tons and tons of NPCs.

Now that Absalom is confirmed at the printers and set to come out in December, Erik can focus on this adventure. It's expected to come out early-to-mid 2022. Before it will come out, "Night of the Grey Death" and "Shadows at Sundown" Standalone Adventures will be released (Grey Death coming out next month, and Sundown coming out early next year).