A vision of a strange shop in the Grand Bazaar of Absalom accompanies the unexpected arrival of powerful magic cards that mysteriously manifest in the possession of a band of adventurers. But when an investigation of this vision reveals murder, treachery, and fiendish machinations, the adventurers are thrown into a race to control the very future of all things to come, tied to the ubiquitous fortune-telling cards known as the Harrow! Who has chosen your characters for this deadly quest, and what might become of your destinies should you fail?
The Choosing is a Pathfinder adventure for four 11th-level characters. This adventure begins the Stolen Fate Adventure Path, a three-part monthly campaign in which a group of adventurers race against time to gather the scattered parts of a powerful deck of magical fortune-telling cards. This adventure also includes a detailed look at a brand new demiplane tied to the Harrow deck, new rules options to explore these magical cards, and several new monsters ready to test your characters' mettle!
Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world’s oldest fantasy RPG.
Written by: Ron Lundeen
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-511-3
The Stolen Fate Adventure Path is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle Sheets are available as a free download (774 KB PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I have finished prepping this (bar sorting the maps) and am thoroughly looking forward to running it. It has a broad mix of social, exploration, travel and combat against an interesting mix of opposition. A wide range of different methods are available for dealing with different obstacles and there are plenty of interesting NPCs to interact with.
My one disappointment is that the AP doesnt provide us with art for all of the cards and that the new Harrow deck will be a physical only product.
Interesting card collection premise, but I wonder if 50+ cards by campaign's end, each with their own magical bulls**t will prove overwhelming. The first 18 are included with this volume, and it already feels like too many, but I guess collecting cards is the whole point of this AP, so....
Part 1 is fine; arrive in Absalom and begin investigating the mysterious cards. The author spends WAAAAY too long describing a subsystem for influencing three different merchants. Did we really need 3+ pages describing Tim the Cabbage Salesman and the varied responses he might offer to the most rudimentary questions, if appropriately motivated? Another merchant wants you to do an obstacle course before she ladles out that sweet, sweet exposition. This entire section is bulls**t. Even the book knows it is bulls**t, and specifically tells you it can be skipped, if you can stomach losing the XP.
After collecting an arbitrary number of cards, the PCs are transported to a demiplane, occupied by characters based on the cards they have collected. This is an awesome premise and has a lot of potential for RP with the fun personalities unlocked by the different cards. This is easily the best idea in the book.
Next, the AP leapfrogs around Golarion, collecting 6 different cards from 6 different locations. These mini-adventures are pretty "meh", but they don't outstay their welcome, so there is that.
Next, the party travel to the Storval Stair to recover more cards. It seems like every man and his dog here have a card in their possession. Pretty mundane dungeon crawl, followed by an unremarkable boss fight. The other two villains foreshadowed in this book (Prince of Wolves and the Raven) sound memorable and menacing, this dude is just A Guy In Armour.
Conclusion: A bland first book, elevated by strong theming and ties to the Harrow deck. Populating the Harrow Court seems like it will be fun.
I have mixed feelings after reading this adventure.
There are some things to enjoy about it. I definitely want to see more high level adventures (and Adventure Paths specifically), and I love that the adventure acknowledges that high level PCs will have options that might trivialize some encounters, such as being able to fly or speak to dead characters. I like the demiplane home base for the PC's and the fact that they get to spend some time in Absalom. I like the philisophical question at the heart of the AP, even though it doesn't get many words dedicated to it in the actual adventure.
Now to the bad. First off, the PDF is a staggering 196MB for some arcane reason. The map pack is missing the end-of-module dungeon from the back of the book. Usually Paizo is much better about this sort of structural work and it's a bit disappointing to see errors like these.
But to speak to the adventure content, I'm also disappointed here. Fanservice is a knife that cuts both ways, unfortunately, and while I know that I as a GM have enough Golarion lore knowledge that the significance of seeing some of these locations is interesting... I know for a fact my players will not notice or care. References to old adventure paths and modules are going to be meaningless to the vast majority of players.
I'm not a fan of teleporting into a location for a single encounter and then disappearing to never speak of it again. There's a lot of places where the adventure just says "regardless of what the players do, [X] attacks shortly." It makes every location feel meaningless, with only the lore novelty to string it together. The Harrow theming is interesting but not even I (the resident lore buff of the group) have bothered to memorize the symbology of the entire fictional deck.
I'm especially disturbed by the sidebar that recommends teleporting your players back to the plot if they jump the rails (!!!).
Overall if I ran this I would do heavy rewriting to allow more player agency.
Ya know, its really refreshing to get AP plot line that's whole theme is about Age of Lost Omens :'D Like we sometimes get APs related to Aroden, or things started same year Age of Lost Omen's started(like worldwound), but its much rarer to get adventures directly about lost prophecies and such. Plus its nice to have first harrow themed adventure in 2e as well(note: interesting to notice that some of the names have changed like The Mute Hag to The Silent Hag. I don't know if it was old names were offensive, but paizo is playing it safe I see), I really liked Crimson Throne and have wanted to run carrion crown because it also has harrow theme but haven't yet gotten around to it :D
Anyway so a globe trotting artifact hunt ap with fun villains, cool lore callbacks(npc from The Harrowing makes a cameo :D seems like Harrowing will be referred to in next book as well) and interesting philosophical theme. This one starts in Absalom and makes use out of the Grand Bazaar book npcs which is cool to me.
I love how the high level adventures in 2e acknowledge the high level options, like multiple mentions of possibility of party having Talking corpse spell :D I also realized that I love the deck of destiny's mechanics and Harrow Court because its closest I'm gonna get to feeling of playing something like Hand of Fate(cool video game ;D) in trpg format. Though admittedly adventure does kinda remind me of Age of Ashes in that its also adventure that involves using portals to traveling to distant locations, but here it is in larger scale than just inner sea. We even get to visit Halana Theocracy(still wondering where do Syrinx live and if they have their own nation or just city states :D) Term "Mivanian" confused me at first because I first mistook it for Mivon related thing due to reading few letters wrong. Also surprised of the new category of fiends called lilu(from akkadian mythology) related to pazuzu. Its always neat to have new things.
But yaeh all of the cards being located in locations that explore newer of 2e lore is fun :3 Like I've been saying for while that finding out Vudra has hole in ground where horrifying aberrations grow up was one of my favorite details and we get to visit there and see the cool new flesh monsters in the bestiary :D Awesome ya. This is also first adventure where you get to visit Nagajor! (I think, I'm not sure of 1e pfs)
I'm also glad to see some old familiar monsters from 1e back such as rust devil and cabal devil :3 Man this one is just up to my alley
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Might we expect this week will be the week for maybe the Player's Guide? Or official cover art? (Just trying to judge when the release might be and counting back 30 days)
Might we expect this week will be the week for maybe the Player's Guide? Or official cover art? (Just trying to judge when the release might be and counting back 30 days)
Two comments up from you, Aaron says mid-April for the PG :>
will be perfect when I end AV AP. Will this also be available in a foundry module?
If nothing change until then, yes. The last word on foundry modules is "All new AP books as they are released, all other content will be as a case by case basis." (Paraphrased)
I can also confirm that the module work has started for this one so it is for sure happening.
will be perfect when I end AV AP. Will this also be available in a foundry module?
If nothing change until then, yes. The last word on foundry modules is "All new AP books as they are released, all other content will be as a case by case basis." (Paraphrased)
I can also confirm that the module work has started for this one so it is for sure happening.
Ecstatic to hear this! The modules really are fantastic
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Weird. Looking forward to seeing how "harrowed" is a bloodline. :-)
Weird. Looking forward to seeing how "harrowed" is a bloodline. :-)
That's mostly left up to the individual player, but the basic idea is that one of your ancestors had a harrow reading performed that was so impactful that it was passed on to a descendant, or perhaps that ancestor's harrow reading more or less predicted your character's birth and fate, so that you were empowered by the harrow from the moment you took your first breath.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Choose Your Fate!
When strange cards from a magical harrow deck manifest without explanation among the belongings of a group of powerful adventurers, the fate of reality falls on their shoulders. You are those adventurers! Are you up to the task of defending fate itself from those who seek to bend the forces of destiny to their whims? The Stolen Fate Adventure Path begins with “The Choosing,” a complete adventure for 11th- to 13th-level characters.
We are preparing the free player's guide, promotional video and AP landing page for this Friday! I hope it is in our cards.
Will this AP be fully supported in foundry vtt similar to how abomination vaults was supported?
That is up to Foundry. Paizo licenses the use of their intellectual property to Foundry, but it's a business decision by Foundry as to what materials they license.
Foundry staff do all the work to convert Paizo materials for use on Foundry. No Paizo staff involvement in the creation of Foundry products.
Just got access to this and the interactive maps are missing quite a few maps: Areas C,D,E,F,G, opera house on page 43, basically every map in Chapter 2 is missing. Also hex map on page 70.
Just got access to this and the interactive maps are missing quite a few maps: Areas C,D,E,F,G, opera house on page 43, basically every map in Chapter 2 is missing. Also hex map on page 70.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
I am currently reading through the adventure. I very much enjoy the references to past works (adventures, settings, and novels). Speaking of which...
Spoiler:
"Prince of Wolves," eh? I think a certain tiefling bodyguard might have a few things to say about that. Hopefully with his boss and their faithful hound (I am not expecting this, but it would be fun to get them in on it).
First post as an AP subscriber!....and this AP looks like a good one to start with indeed. A neat follow on perhaps from Abomination Vaults as someone else previosuly mentioned.
(I find the new website difficult to navigate. The older version had a much easier to find/read page overview of all the APs and smoother transitions from one AP listing to another via the numerical sequence. This new website keeps dumping me back on a very colourful PF2 summary page - which doesn't include the latest ones in the pipeline.)
(I find the new website difficult to navigate. The older version had a much easier to find/read page overview of all the APs and smoother transitions from one AP listing to another via the numerical sequence. This new website keeps dumping me back on a very colourful PF2 summary page - which doesn't include the latest ones in the pipeline.)
I think in this case it's not the fault of the website, it's not published on the website yet but the URL is up. I imagine the proper page for it will come up later today.
I just want to comment that the way thematically appropriate classes and class options are covered in the Player's Guide is lovely and a great addition to recent 2E APs. I love how you folks balance avoiding spoilers vs making characters that get interesting opportunities to use their abilities.
Oh this would have been nice to run for my players...
If only we had a PF1e Version of this...
Shame. As usual.
At what point does one stop beating the dead horse?
PF2 launched four years ago, and has been doing quite well for itself. Paizo's been nothing but honest about how unfeasible straddling multiple rulesets is for their team. PF1 got a decade of content, more than any one table can ever hope to see all of - so why do this? Being publicly bitter and spiteful won't change the realities of their staffing or the interests of their writers, it just looks unflattering.
If the AP sounds interesting, buy it. If you don't want to convert it - something people do for both editions of Pathfinder and every other RPGs all the time - then don't. It's really that simple.
Honestly between 6 bestiaries the NPC codex and all the statted up characters in various 1e books I find it's fairly easy to switch 2e for 1e characters like 90% of the time same for monsters (Either a direct switch or in the case of new 2e monsters something in 1e thats fairly close.)
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
For some reason, the PDF for this is enormous - it's 192 MB. By contrast, the core rulebook is about 80 MB. The entire Kingmaker AP + the Companion Guide together weigh in at about 160 MB.
Most individual AP volumes weigh in between about 20-50 MB.
Can someone please fix the PDF? It's large enough that it's actually inconvenient - it looks like Gatewalkers 3 has a similar (but not as bad) issue, as does the new Starfinder Drift Hackers volume (109 MB). Starfinder Adventure Path PDFs have had similar issues in the past, too.
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