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I just want to make clear, I'm still getting Shattered Star, and it still looks like a lot of fun, but I was thinking of purchasing the RotR anniversary book, rerunning that, and then linking it directly into Shattered Star...but now it sounds like that isn't happening anymore? It's not a direct sequel, but more of spiritual sequel?
Waa! Head hurt. What is truth? Do your characters from RotR come into play in Shattered Star? I was super excited because I had been hearing about this AP for so long now, and that we'd be able to reuse the characters from RotR. So...no? Yes? Can I get a definitive answer?
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Shattered Star, unlike all other APs to date, assumes that RotRL, CotCT, and SD have already happened. Karzoug came back (and was stopped), Korvosa underwent riots and regicide, and the drow tried to drop an asteroid on all of Varisia.
In terms of what your prior PCs did, that's kind of up to the GM to determine.
In any case, Shattered Star, like all APs, is intended to be played with 1st level characters. It is not intended to be played with 16th to 18th level characters coming out of Rise of the Runelords. An AP like that would not really be possible with the current rule set, as there are no real rules for characters beyond level 20.
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My thoughts mainly come from discussions during last years PaizoCon, which discussed how the AP would start differently depending on certain actions taken by the players in RotR, and that the RotR characters would just be 'reset'.
I assume that the 'reset' thing was likely the reason that it doesn't tie directly back into RotR.
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My thoughts mainly come from discussions during last years PaizoCon, which discussed how the AP would start differently depending on certain actions taken by the players in RotR, and that the RotR characters would just be 'reset'.
I assume that the 'reset' thing was likely the reason that it doesn't tie directly back into RotR.
I have the vaguest memory of discussing something like that in the earliest days of this AP's brainstorming, but that's not something we considered as a serious part of the AP's set up or featured in our marketing for this AP - largely becuase the Pathfinder RPG just doesn't have hardcoded rules for resetting your character. (And I'm fairly sure we didn't announced Shattered Star until Gen Con last year, so maybe you're thinking about some other crazy scheme we had.)
Regardless, this is not a direct sequel to Rise of the Runelords. However, it does happen AFTER Rise of the Runelords happened and is dependent on the general events of its plot for certain elements. Writing that, I see how that can seem a bit confusing. But - emphatically - this is in no way a direct continuation of the Rise of the Runelords AP. In a somewhat clunky analogy, Rise of the Runelords is to the Hobbit what Shattered Star is to Lord of the Rings, they're related, they feature many of the same elements, the latter draws off elements of the former, and they're set in about the same place, but the latter is its own distinct and complete thing.
ALL OF THAT SAID: If you want to send your PC's through the ol'brain scrubber, set them back to 1st level, and send them out to deal with more crazy Thassilonian STUFF, this AP DOES NOT preclude that.
If you're looking for something a bit more epic, though - and that might not screw with your player's sense of verisimilitude too much - why don't you have them play their first character's kids? (Pull an Avatar: The Last Airbender - Legend of Korra kind of thing.) The world's timeline has advanced, that is intrinsic to this AP's plot, but 1 year, 5, years, 30 years, is kind of all the same (there's no timer here). With something like this you've got fresh characters who have reasons to know about Thassionlian stuff, might have already studied it, might have some heirloom gear from their parents, might have made many of the same choices of their parents (but don't need to be carbon copies), and are perhaps itching to show their parents up or prove themselves worthy members of their family's heroic tradition. This would all be especially if those parents settled in Magnimar too - and they might replace the Pathfinder Society and live in Heidmarch Manor if you wanted to personalize this even more. Lots of neat potential here!
Overall, we couldn't build this AP assuming readers had played through another entire AP or were entirely familiar with its nuances. But I think you see that with only a modicum of effort, Shattered Star can link to Rise of the Runelords far more elegantly than any other pair of Adventure Paths we've ever produced.
I was going to combine Shattered Star and Rise of the Runelords and weave the plotlines together and have my players on a slighter slower than slow XP progression. It will take some moding, but I think it will be fun.
I was going to combine Shattered Star and Rise of the Runelords and weave the plotlines together and have my players on a slighter slower than slow XP progression. It will take some moding, but I think it will be fun.
Neat idea! Be sure to post and let us all know how it works out!
I was going to combine Shattered Star and Rise of the Runelords and weave the plotlines together and have my players on a slighter slower than slow XP progression. It will take some moding, but I think it will be fun.Neat idea! Be sure to post and let us all know how it works out!
Will do! Sat down with my players today to make characters, should have the first session next Thursday.
I was going to combine Shattered Star and Rise of the Runelords and weave the plotlines together and have my players on a slighter slower than slow XP progression. It will take some moding, but I think it will be fun.Neat idea! Be sure to post and let us all know how it works out!
I started a campaign journal here:
Warning spoilers for two APs found above.