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Pathfinder Fans:
Welcome to our home thread for The Giantslayer Endeavor! Here we will take any questions you have for either the players or GM involved in the most ambitious endeavor in RPG history. These can be about the Giantslayer AP, the marathon experience, or anything you want to ask!
To read the entire Giantslayer Endeavor, see our Dropbox
For a visual journey through the endeavor with us, see our Facebook and Instagram.
Also, check back here for Paizo's recaps of our marathons!
We look forward to sharing our story with the community over the next six months.
Order of the Amber Die
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I noticed as I was looking at your Dropbox document that you have assigned each segment an approximate number of hours (mostly 72, but 48 in one case and 96 for the finale). How do you determine how long you think it will take to complete a given marathon? Have you worked out an approximate guideline, or is it more... freeform... than that?
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Good question; ideally, we would love to have 72 hours for each marathon, but our personal schedules are the controlling factor for how much time we can allot. In the case of the projected 48 hours in June, we will likely have to cut sleep to make that one work--it's extremely tight. Unfortunately, it's all we can do for now unless two members' schedules open up to allow for a 72-hour block that weekend. A serious diplomacy check has to made with families and bosses to put together so many of these in a row!
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Have you guys set a date for part 2 of this adventure yet?
We have all of our dates set through August as of right now, thanks for checking back! Look for our next report on the Paizo blog in the coming month.
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We're officially halfway through Giantslayer at this point! It's been an incredible ride, though a tough one to be sure. Tabletop Terrors just ran a feature on their website that delves into some of the issues concerning The Giantslayer Endeavor.
To read the full interview:
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We're officially halfway through Giantslayer at this point! It's been an incredible ride, though a tough one to be sure. Tabletop Terrors just ran a feature on their website that delves into some of the issues concerning The Giantslayer Endeavor.
To read the full interview:
Good interview
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Good interviewWe're officially halfway through Giantslayer at this point! It's been an incredible ride, though a tough one to be sure. Tabletop Terrors just ran a feature on their website that delves into some of the issues concerning The Giantslayer Endeavor.
To read the full interview:
Thanks for taking the time to read it. Everything's been getting more intense as the marathons keep happening every 4 weeks, so endeavor prep is eating up most of my life right now. We just confirmed our location for marathon 4 a few days ago. We also updated the PDF with a bunch more photos from marathon 3, and we'll keep dropping content for everyone as time goes on. Hope to have some good news for you in a month!
Adam
GM
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I'm curious about your experiences too. It looks like in books 3+ a lot of the fights take place in areas so big that they're effectively blank maps.
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Do you use the gaming paper roll for the enormous maps?
Thanks for giving our content a read-through! I actually draw the big maps on a Mondomat from Chessex. Mondomats are roughly 9ft. x 5ft., and for modules 3 & 4 I had to use both of them side-by-side to fit some of the massive maps. I made a booklet showing some tips on how I drew the Cathedral of Minderhal, and you can find it in our Dropbox. I might try and put together another tip-book for the Tomb of Skirkatla in module 4, as it is officially the largest indoor dungeon I've ever drawn. Look for a picture of it in our upcoming blog next week.
In regard to Gaming Paper, I have tried it, and really would love to give it a nice review except for a couple of issues that prevent me from using it in the endeavor. The first is that Gaming Paper is only 30 inches wide (150ft.), and therefore cannot fit most of the large maps in Giantslayer. The second is that Gaming Paper is unforgiving when it comes to mistakes, and mistakes are part of any large map that you will spend hours drawing. Sadly, a single line drawn incorrectly on paper and then erased still leaves a stain. However, in defense of Gaming Paper, it does offer one thing that no vinyl mat can: the ability to keep your map forever. All vinyls must be wiped quickly if you don't want them to stain, and even then, certain colors usually stain for a while. It is definitely painful washing off your maps when you spend so much time on them (Tomb of Skirkatla took around 25 hours), but I try to stay inspired by thinking of the Tibetan monks who create intricate sand paintings before washing them away completely.
Let me know if you have any more questions, and hope this helps a bit!
Adam
GM
Order of the Amber Die
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I'm curious about your experiences too. It looks like in books 3+ a lot of the fights take place in areas so big that they're effectively blank maps.
There are definitely some open encounter areas coming up, but I'm not sure I follow exactly, could you be more specific about which locations and/or modules?
Any updates yet on the Order of the Amber Die and their GiantSlayer Marathon? You guy's are my HERO'S for doing it!
I'm curious about your experiences too. It looks like in books 3+ a lot of the fights take place in areas so big that they're effectively blank maps.There are definitely some open encounter areas coming up, but I'm not sure I follow exactly, could you be more specific about which locations and/or modules?
The cathedral would be a good example, or the huge dungeon. Many of those rooms and encounter areas are so large that I can envision the fights taking place in a small portion of them and not using many features.
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The cathedral would be a good example, or the huge dungeon. Many of those rooms and encounter areas are so large that I can envision the fights taking place in a small portion of them and not using many features.I'm curious about your experiences too. It looks like in books 3+ a lot of the fights take place in areas so big that they're effectively blank maps.There are definitely some open encounter areas coming up, but I'm not sure I follow exactly, could you be more specific about which locations and/or modules?
Ah, gotcha. Thinking back to our experiences so far over the last 4 modules, I'd say there have been several factors that affect how the large maps get used. Much of how the encounters play out will depend on the GM, and where she places the enemies at the start of an encounter; in addition, players' abilities will surely affect how the maps end up being used. Flying PCs will find lots of room to maneuver in this AP, and we've seen some great use out of our flying bases throughout. Also, remember that giants always have lots of fun things to throw at PCs, so to make sure and get the most out of that, I've tried to use the size of the maps to the giants' advantage, and often had them engage from range and force the PCs the close the long distances on the map. A couple of the modules have even included special rules in some of the battles for large objects that can be thrown at PCs (tables, barrels, cauldrons, etc.). Our warpriest with a 20' movement has definitely had some issues crossing the maps, and so the party has had to play a strong grid-game to make sure that players aren't separated too far from one another, as two giants on one PC can quickly mean character death. The best thing we can probably offer you in regard to this is either the booklet in our Dropbox on how to make the map of the Cathedral (which includes many scenes of fights inside it), or the sheer number of photos we will continue to drop on our Facebook. As for the Tomb of Skirkatla, we definitely used a lot of the terrain features in there, and many of the fights are designed to allow for some great turn-based strategy. Lastly, I'd have to mention that huge creatures with a 15' or 20' reach control a lot of space on the battlefield, and PCs will need a good amount of area to confront these foes; our players have used the Escape Route and Swing About teamwork feats to cope with some of the reach issues they confront.
Let me know if you have any more questions. Hope this helps!
Adam
GM
Order of the Amber Die
As for the Tomb of Skirkatla, we definitely used a lot of the terrain features in there, and many of the fights are designed to allow for some great turn-based strategy.
Happy to read this! Really looking forward to the Chapter Four Blog!
The fourth report is live!
And it's a good one :-)
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The fourth report is live!And it's a good one :-)
Glad you liked it! The big folk had a good showing, but we really stepped our game up for this adventure. We can't say enough about how much Paizo and Groves did to provide a fresh take on (what we thought would be) fighting lots of frost giants. Every veteran at the table had no idea what to expect by the time we stood ready for the finale.
Semi-finals, here we come!
Do you have a journal for your Rise of the Runelords campaign?
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Do you have a journal for your Rise of the Runelords campaign?
So far we don't have one for our Runelords campaign, but once The Giantslayer Endeavor is over we'll try and put something together in the fall for that. Since Runelords wasn't a project and was more of a standard monthly campaign, we originally didn't intend to write up a report; however, it's become such an involved campaign that we will definitely write it up. As soon as it's finished we'll let everyone know through our Facebook. Thanks for checking back!
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super awesome stuff.
keep up the amazing work.
Thank you! I can speak for all of us when I say that remembering positive feedback from the community is one thing that keeps us going in the middle of some of the longest sessions. Here's to module 5!
Adam
GM
Order of the Amber Die
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GEN CON 2015 Update
The Giantslayer Endeavor fans:
In response to the many questions about Gen Con through private message/Facebook, we just wanted to let everyone know that we WILL be at Gen Con this year. We'd be happy to answer any questions about marathons or the endeavor, even just talk about anything gaming in general, so look for the logo on our shirts! We'll be seen out on Georgia St. plenty of evenings, and even trying to get some late-night dungeon delving in with anyone that wants to roll with us.
Hope to see some of you there!
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With our new project just around the corner, we are proud to announce the release of the final version of The Giantslayer Endeavor PDF! At 51,484 words across 217 pages, this is the single largest documentation of a Pathfinder Adventure Path ever produced--or even any RPG campaign for that matter. Remember, the entire path was played as closely as possible to the way it was written and with the complete Pathfinder rules set; nothing was altered or removed from the original material. As a treasure for GMs and a gift to the RPG community, we are also proud to say that it is totally FREE. Most importantly, we hope that this entire endeavor stands the test of time alongside some of the great contributions to the game since its conception by Gygax and Arneson.
See our Dropbox to download the final version.
Also in our Dropbox, we would like to leave you with the final scene from the aftermath of our campaign. It takes place in the near future following our TPK in the finale of module six. This was motivated by moments from when we first got to know our iconic characters through roleplaying in Trunau, so it's only fitting that our story came full circle and concluded there. It was written by our resident screenwriter Aerick Lim, and we hope you enjoy it.
(For added effect, consider listening to "Closure" by Chevelle while reading, as it was Lim's inspiration when he scripted this emotional scene.)
Thanks to all of our fans for going on this journey with us!