Just wanted to let the good folks of Paizoville know that I ran up to the start of investigation and it's been really solid. I haven't had to alter anything from the adventure at all and my players were eating it up. So far I give it a big thumbs up! If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Cool! Glad to know it was a fun adventure (come on, Thursday...). Might I recommend heading over to the product page and giving it a review? They are a nice way for prospective customers and Paizo alike to track opinion of the product.
As for questions... the Pathfinder Society. In your opinion, how easy would it be to omit it from the game? Was the presence particularly heavy, or just a hook with little follow-up?
Oh I will but I want to run it in its entirety first.
As for your question, to me the adventure wouldn't have been as interesting or effective without the Pathfinder Society. I know there are people who love them and those who don't but I felt that overall the Society was there to help facilitate a reason to meet and introduce some interesting characters to set the various scenes. I could see where you could possibly reduce their influence or replace them with an organization of your choosing who has a vested interest in exploring and cataloging Varisian ruins.
How much of an impact the Society has on future APs I have no clue.
just given it a first read through, and having just run the dungeon free KM this looks a nice change
seems a good old mix of investigation, riddles, and dungeoneering.
Not running it till 2013 though, ;-(
As for questions... the Pathfinder Society. In your opinion, how easy would it be to omit it from the game? Was the presence particularly heavy, or just a hook with little follow-up?
Just got my copy last night and skimmed through it, but I do recall that the module specifically points out that the party's patron is set up in such a manner to be able to minimize or eliminate the Pathfinder Society presence if unwanted.
Yeah, that's what I will do, too.
My contact will be the daughter of one of the original party's members, which had discovered and defeated Karzoug in RotRL.
Ruyan.
My group is a year or two away from this, but I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't bought the first issue yet, but I'm hoping it's similar to the famous Rod of Seven Parts 2nd edition adventure which my group actually asked me to run a second time as they loved it so much. My group doesn't use the Pathfinder Society, but (as I mentioned in another thread), I'm thinking of making their contact Karzoug, since we were TPKed in chapter three of RotRL. Do you think that could work?
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I ran this friday night, they did the investigation stuff.
Puzzle box went well. I swapped Cruel/Lucre for Chore/Ochre abd described the box as clay-like.
Pugwampis only lasted two rounds but made for some fun crit fumbles
Zograthy ended with them being chased out of the carnival by angry gypsies
The plutivarch encounter worked mechanically, but fely very weak story-wise.
Kasadei coulda used a picture, hopefully she pops up again. Players liked her.
Fenster was fun. They only gave 1gp in the tin, he was unimpressed and went back in his tent, the fighter followed in, there was some wrestling and now the fighter has red ache and shakes. The other pcs managed to calm him down and pay for the info.
Karzoug could get tricky in the long run - depending on who/what appears after completing the sihedron rune; aka: a lot of extra prep for you as GM.
Ruyan.
I ran it Friday and, without giving too much away, one of the players took two handfuls of crap to the face. Once you get to that part of the story you'll know what I mean. We could not stop laughing.
PugwampisAw really?
That sucks, was thinking of buying this module...
Oh well :P
That's a fun little encounter as written, my friend. =)
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That's a fun little encounter as written, my friend. =)PugwampisAw really?
That sucks, was thinking of buying this module...
Oh well :P
I'm sure it is, but my players would toss me from a moving vehicle if they saw another pugwampi. I'm treading on thin ice as it is when I use a quickling. Now there's an idea, a fey army consisting of pugwampis and quicklings (equipped with scrolls of divine favor). PC's will beg to be brought to the sword.
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I ran Curse of the Crimson Throne last year and subscribed so that I could run Skull & Shackles for my party this year. CoCT was superb. Absolutely top-notch. S&S would be the best published adventure I've ever seen if not for CoCT. S&S is requiring a bit more work and fudging from me to be as enjoyable, but still excellent.
I had planned to cancel my subscription before Shattered Star because dungeon-crawling is my least favorite aspect of Pathfinder. 60 & 61 arrived simultaneously though and I gave the first book of Shattered Star a read and I have to say... well done, Paizo.
You kept my subscription with excellent writing. Even though it is an awful lot of dungeon crawling the whole Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider vibe is awesome. The encounters are diverse. There are some things I can see being hilarious. A couple encounters that would creep my players out. Lots of mystery that will draw the players on.
I see in a lot of the threads here that people are complaining about or wanting to minimize the Pathfinder Society role in the AP. Personally I'm gonna do exactly the opposite. Academic interest is a far more exciting motivator than greed. Way better to have characters who actually want to know the history and backstory and linger over strange inscriptions than characters who just want to get the loot and get out.
We're only in book 2 of Skull & Shackles so it will be a while before we get to this, but I'm already excited.
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The pugwampis are only one short scene, they aren't really part of the plot. Heck if your players hate them that much that scene works even better.
Not to spoil too much, but they are actually part of a summon monster trap. You could simply substitute another monster that the players would hate you less for. I would probably take a vicious twist on an old gag and have a pair of fiendish vipers spring from the trap.
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The pugwampis are only one short scene, they aren't really part of the plot. Heck if your players hate them that much that scene works even better.Not to spoil too much, but they are actually part of a summon monster trap. You could simply substitute another monster that the players would hate you less for. I would probably take a vicious twist on an old gag and have a pair of fiendish vipers spring from the trap.
The Pugwampis do make for a specific role though -
I would recommand picking some other monster that does something similar -
like maybe a water or air elemental - nothing to mess up a library like some strong winds and splashes of water. Could also be fire, but that's just too cruel.... right? ;)