| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hey everybody. I've been playing with a specific Pathfinder group for about... going on two years now, spread out all across Canada and the United States, and since we have an excess of Cthulhu fans in the group, I got together 4 people from said group, and began running Strange Aeons.
There's only one homebrew element in this campaign... First off, I've started the PCs with an alignment of "???". As soon as the first module concludes, we'll be talking about our characters and decide as a group which alignment fits who. Also, our Alchemist possess a custom Archetype. It may not be immediately apparent his abilities, but I hope you'll enjoy it as it goes.
THE PARTY
Nik - Playing Ken, Alchemist (???), Tiefling
Steph - Playing Azuma, Unchained Rogue (Knife Master), Kitsune
Derek - Playing Nevaeh, Time Oracle, Aasimar
Scott - Playing Renza, Alchemist (Eldritch Font), Fetchling
If anyone has questions, or thoughts, please, I love hearing conversation about my games, and I know the players will enjoy it as well!
And obviously, SPOILERS AHEAD!
Sorry this is coming so late, we certainly didn't stop playing! From now on, all sessions will be posted here Thursday evening, around midnight EST, right after we finished the most recent session, provided we played. We usually play weekly if we can! If you want to see them when they go up, this is where I shamelessly ask you to click that little "subscribe" button, there! Ken's player (Nik) is the one capturing and uploading all the episodes, so big ups to him, cause god knows I'm too lazy to do it.
#LazyGMsUNITE
So, first off, I'd like to correct one glaring flaw with the first post.
Scott is playing an ARCANIST, with the Eldritch Font archetype, not an Alchemist. I don't even know what that'd look like.
Regardless, in this episode, finally above ground, the group continues their quest to prove their innocence; Kill three dopplegangers, bring back their corpses. Easier said than done...
As before, happy to answer any questions about our experience, and appreciate all thoughts on the session. Until next time!
We've got a new episode up to peruse! "Praise Praise Praise" also known as, "The one where they almost get TPK'd." Rough fight this week, they did their best, but the dice weren't entirely on their side for this one, and it was stacked heavily against them in the first place. However, in good news... meet the debut of the "Volatile Boxer" Alchemist archetype (plus a little brain fart from the GM on one of its design aspects!)
In case we have any GMs that are a little antsy about killing off PCs on this forum, you see how you can manage fiats, while still keeping the atmosphere tense and honest. After all, this early on, it's better to use a near death experience to drive home the severity of the situation, as opposed to... well, having the game end 3 sessions in! Nothing fun about that!
As always, feel free to leave your comments and questions either here in this forum, on on the video itself. Thanks for watching!
Keep 'em coming guys, these are great! Only through the second pair of episodes thus far (2A & 2B). GM's doing a great job setting the mood. Favorite characters so far are Ken (that's how they get you!) and that random cultist (Praise praise praise!)
Ah yes, long may he Praise.
A new day, and a new episode is here to follow. I hope you like atmosphere, roleplay, and death, because I've got about 2 and a half hours of it on tap. The Amnesiacs finished their "day" helping out around the chapel, and getting a bit of information about their predicament from Winter. But they're far from out of the fire. In fact, they may find themselves slipping farther and farther into it. The primary source of their fear and confusion, not 30 feet outside the door to the chapel, rests a red curtain, behind which none are permitted to tread...
A lot of the APs that I GM, I find take longer to progress through a module than I see some others taking. Part of this is my unwillingness to progress through even short time skips without ensuring every PC has had a chance to have their input seen. The other part is, and this may just be the kind of player I am, but I firmly believe the most memorable moments in a campaign don't necessarily come from encounters, combat, or otherwise (though they certainly can!) Often the most personal, enduring moments come from roleplay between the PCs. Moments of downtime, where they take a breath, hash out their interpersonal issues, and begin to evolve as characters. Two years ago in a homebrew game of mine, the rogue tried to explain to the paladin how magic worked, and attempted to use cake as an analogy. For two years, the paladin has been pretty sure the wizard is a baker. This happened in a moment of in-between, a moment of downtime, and it was beautiful. GM tip of the week? Don't be afraid of downtime. Give your players a chance to get to know their characters, and get invested in them. If they're not that kind of player, that's fine. But if they are...? They'll never wanna go back.
4A - Long May He Praise
(Part 2 coming soon!)
As always, look forward to seeing your comments and questions on the forum, or on the video! Strange Aeons has been a blast to GM so far, and it's only looking to get better from here. Thanks for watching!
As promised, Part 2 of session 4 is up! Had a bit of an internet issue with uploading taking approximately 4000 years.
October is come and gone, and so comes a new part of our group's Strange Aeons playthrough! The encounters in this module have proven to be a godsend for GMs who like to cheat to win, much as I do! For the first time, the Amnesiacs pushed on further into Briarstone Asylum, at the behest of Winter, to try and find a way past the thick encroaching fog permeating the perimeter. Of course, it's never that simple, as they quickly discover they have numerous problems beyond Dopplegangers and Ghouls to contest with in these walls...
5A - The Birds!!!
5B - Three Burned Mice
We have no plans to stop playing this session anytime soon, though there is still one small encounter later on in the first module that sends shivers even up MY spine! Who knows if the party will make it past that brutal trial. I've dedicated myself to not pulling any punches this campaign, so who knows what will happen!? Tune in next time!
Thanks for continuing this series of videos!
New session up for viewing pleasure, one of our number wasn't feeling too hot so we ended up calling it early. It's just under an hour, but next session we were able to go for a good 2-3 hours! This session contains primarily RP interactions, character development, atmosphere setting, and world building.
Tune in next week for more violent action, and steadily encroaching dread! As always, thanks for watching, and let us know what you think in the comments of the videos, or here on the Paizo forums!
It's 2:44 am, my voice is shattered into 7000 pieces, I am an exhausted husk of a man, but more importantly, we got a new part of Strange Aeons up for your viewing pleasure! In this episode, we learn about friendship, cooperation, and the danger of bookcases. Oh so much danger. Now, if y'all are GMs following along, reading the books, looking at our videos, first of all, thank you (panderpanderpanderpander) but you may notice some things from time to time. For starters, you will see discrepancies between what I present in a session, and the material in the book. The simple reason for this, I view an adventure path as little more than a very well written series of blueprints. The leg work is done, concept, maps, encounters, and 50% of the execution is prepared for you, but, I started GMing on homebrew. And in homebrew, your greatest asset, is improvisation. The capacity to pluck an encounter, an NPC, a plot arc, right from your imagination with zero prep time, and if you know anything about improv, you know that you go with the first idea that comes to mind. So, occasionally, like this session, I'll get an idea, and I'll just run with it. I'll play it out, and work it into the story later (take notes, my 2014-present homebrew campaign would be so much cleaner if I had taken notes when I didn't know what the f*** I was doing). Sometimes an idea can be as grand as "A mysterious horned figure draped in parchment casually steps out of a writhing portal to the abyss, whistling as he does." or be as simple as "You notice a few spots of blood on the ground ahead of you that weren't there before..." Trust your instincts, GMs. Sometimes you'll crash and burn. But that's the only way they're going to be honed.
Part 7A - It Came
Part 7B - A Jarring Experience
That's all for this week! Come back again next week as the PCs catch the first horrifying hint of the true goings on at this asylum... If you've got something to say, we're happy to hear it, either on the videos proper, or here on the forums, and as always, thanks for watching!
Hello again! It's been nearly a month, and we've taken just a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit of a break the past few weeks. Finals coming up really killed one of our players, and your humble GM has been KIA with eye surgery, which I highly recommend if you really are going out of your way to be miserable for a week or so. But, we're back posting episodes to the forums. I wanna give a shout out to all the people that subscribed to the youtube channel, and watch the uploads when they come out. It really brightens everyone's day when we see the views tick in, and we see comments left. We really appreciate it! Now without further ado, I present, my personal favourite session yet...
A message/plea to ALL GMs out there; please, please, please, practice your voices, and take improv classes! Improvisational theatre is really one of the cornerstones of Role-Playing in the first place, but it gives many helpful tools especially to a GM. Learning about accepting and giving offers, saying yes, and accepting the first thing that pops into your head, are all invaluable tools for your toolbox as a Gamemaster for any system, not just Pathfinder. Most importantly, I believe, it frees up your mind to just, go, and will brings worlds of dimensions to your NPCs, really helping to immerse the players in your world.
As always, thanks for watching! Next week another session will be posted here on the forums, and if you don't want to wait for my lazy ass to come update on here, consider subscribing! We all look forward to seeing comments on the videos, and the forum, so if you've got something to say, throw it out there! Thanks a lot, and see you next week.