Hello,
this will be my first PF game as a GM with 3 players.
To people who already played this adventure, is there anything I should be careful about? The GM book for the adventure path is insanely helpful, but is there anything I should know that is not in the book?
:)
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I would HIGHLY suggest reading the Book threads that are pinned (they have some really good information in them). People have a lot of differing opinions, changes and ideas and you can draw a lot of inspiration from them.
Go there! However some of my opinions...
AP as a Whole
Play up the Briarstone Witch's lore. Drop hints here and there. There isn't a lot on her and many parties may be disappointed with this random witch being the final encounter. Have her insidious influence move around the AP, through whispers and tomes.
Book 1
Watch out for the Ghouls and Doppelgangers. Especially with a 3 person party these creatures can easily cause a wipe (one bad save on ghoul for instance and you're paralyzed). They are intelligent so maybe don't always have them fight to the death, or have them make some suboptimal moves here or there.
The Tatterman's Fear aura is incredibly swingy and his ability to Shadowwalk someone to another part of the asylum is basically a SoD (you won't survive 1v1 against him), so I would avoid using it offensively. Between the first and second phase of that fight, maybe give your party some hints that something else is coming, especially if they need the rest for a few rounds.
With that, let them utilize the library once they clean it out. This can provide you some really good backstory on the Asylum, the Tatterman, and the Briarstone Witch, which are all lacking from the players' PoV. It can also help by giving them hints about the Silver weakness the Tatterman has (again judge based on your party's strength).
Winter is a Cleric by default, but if you want to ramp up the difficulty and remove her 2nd level spells, make her an Inquisitor instead. This will also answer why she can't just keep conjuring food and drink and water for the survivors and why she has limited healing. Then again with 3 people, you may want her to come along on certain excursions, but keep in mind she doesn't quite know the PCs and she has a duty to the people there who are struggling to survive.
Book 2
The Revenant Encounter is DEVASTATING. This can easily cause a TPK if they fail their checks. Give them a few Perception checks to notice its obsession with its target (a fairly big hint); so that they can tactically defeat it instead of just slugging back and forth (and losing).
The Assassin encounter with Risi could be very nasty if your party is sleeping and she sneaks up. Assassin encounters are cheap like that though, so keep that in mind. Maybe have an ex-machina save them (like her having a scuffle with another person in the inn on her way to their rooms). This can also let them have some blood on their hands which is good for the guilt and horror aspects.
I like the Troop subtype for the Fort Hailcourse raid as otherwise there are a lot of enemies there and it may bog the game down. Play up the mirror creature (can't recall its name) and its hit and run tactics.
During the dinner at Iris Hill ignore the rules for casting in public as it makes the evil enchanters a lot less dangerous if your team knows they're enchanters.
I would also recommend using the Denizen of Leng throughout the whole AP. She regenerates when she dies in this plane so there is no reason to not have her becoming more and more obsessed each time.
Book 3
Its a fun adventure more or less, since for the most part you can't really die in the Dreamlands. I would replace the Bloodmist captain with our favourite Denizen of Leng here.
Try to spread out the real world encounters and the Dreamland encounters as it makes the Bloodmist encounter a lot more interesting.
You may want to drop a hint that the staircase focus is sellable as most of the gear in this part of the adventure can't leave the Dreamlands.
The final encounter is COOL AS HECK. Play up the clones, learn your party's builds and strategies, play like them. Ultimately the conclusion of this adventure is them getting their memories back, the biggest reveal so far, so make it momentous. Get some drama here, set some actual narration time aside, this is a BIG event.
Book 4
I have my qualms with this book (Cough Gnolls). In terms of things to look out for, the boss monster of the Mysterium is pretty rough, and the Hounds of Tindalos if not dealt with are serious threats (they must break that mirror so hint at that).
Don't bother with the Derro passageway in Mun's place. It just draws in and sidetracks parties so don't even include it. I would rather not include it and maintain the illusion of choice.
Book 5
Play up how vile Lowls is/was. All of the seeded here have name and backstories, make each one feel like a knife in the players' hearts. Lowls is willing to sacrifice anyone and ANYTHING to get what he wants so make them HATE him.
Try to hint that once they go through the ritual, there is no going back. Some parties may be upset that they aren't ready for the final stretch.
This is the book I've read the least.
Book 6
The Pallid Mask should be a omnipresent force in this realm. That doesn't mean he's always aiming to kill the PCs, he has machinations that possibly go beyond that.
Ariadnah is a fairly easy encounter. People recommend switching the Pallid Mask and her as encounters, but you can see more about that in various threads here.
I haven't read too much into this book.
I hope this helps!
Hubaris,
wow!
This is REALLY helpful.
I will definitely come back to your post as we're progressing through the adventures. Thank you.
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One big mechanical thing to note with Thrushmoor -
Winter is basically the only real healer in town. The town cleric is missing (read : dead) when the PCs arrive, and the only other documented spellcaster is a 7th level Alchemist. Nobody in town can cast Restoration or Raise Dead...so, any deaths or permanent level drains (which can be inflicted by the Spectre in the Wailing House), and the only way to fix them is to travel all the way to Caliphas, which is several days walk away.
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My players and I are both extremely frustrated by the extremely vague timeline in Books 1 and 2. APs such as Rise of the Runelords are great: "This AP starts on the day of the Swallowtail Festival in 4708, so adjust your starting day accordingly."
This AP is all about, "This happened a few days ago. Oh, now fit in this other event. Oh, and in Book 2 here's something else you didn't take into consideration that you now have to fit in to your already-ludicrously-crowded timeline."
Someone responded to me in the GM thread with a link to a timeline. I strongly suggest having it printed out, because as your PCs investigate their own pasts, they WILL want exact days, and not just, "Oh, it was a few days ago, but I'm an old NPC and can't remember that far back..."
The exact timeline just isn't that important, once you get past the Thrushmoor. The fact that there's a 90-day boat trip built into the assumptions kind of make sure of that...
What's important and what players obsess about are rarely related...
The party needs someone who has access to restoration/lesser restoration. My party had a huge slog through book 3, after they tpk'ed in one of the dream quests, and had a hell of a time getting rid of the madnesses.
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The players and/or characters can obsess about it all they like...it's thematic and appropriate for the answers a GM might give to these sorts of questions in this AP to be confusing and contradictory, especially in the Asylum.
I'll respectfully disagree once they arrive in Thrushmoor.
"How many days ago did Lowls depart?""I... don't know..."
"OK, when did your cleric go missing?"
"I... don't know..."
"OK, you claim to be my good friend. What's the last day you saw me?"
"I... don't know..."
Rather than feeling like they're in a mysterious half-reality, the PCs are convinced they're in a village full of idiots...
EDIT: More seriously, Book 2 is basically a detective story: What's going on? Why did these people disappear? Where are they?
So any reasonable group of PCs is going to do what any good group of detectives does and gather facts and try to build a timeline, whether or not that timeline is important.
So as a GM, you start handing them dates that you make up. Then as you run through Book 2, additional dates and events get added, so you have to try to fit them in with the timeline you just made up. You're sure to end up with inconsistencies.
And, like good detectives, the PCs will go after those inconsistencies as the "key" to solving the mystery.
At which point you have to stop the game, say, "Sorry, guys, that was my bad. The dates in this game don't matter," which really messes up immersion.
Far better to have a timeline written down so it's all consistent and your players don't go off the rails in their investigation.
I'm also doing some light prep-work on this, NobodysHome, and would appreciate the link to that timeline if you have it available. Thanks!
I'm also doing some light prep-work on this, NobodysHome, and would appreciate the link to that timeline if you have it available. Thanks!
Here's the linky.
I'm also doing some light prep-work on this, NobodysHome, and would appreciate the link to that timeline if you have it available. Thanks!Here's the linky.
Thanks! I need to re-read these threads again. I'm probably not going to start running this until August but it's nice to have everything compiled in my notes.
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A couple more links for you:
Another chronology..
A serious warning about Dreams of the Yellow King. The author of Book 2 does a really nice job of saying, "These books are really important! The PCs need to understand A, B, and C before they go on! And make sure they're carrying xxx with them!"
For all my complaining about the timeline, book 2 does a good job of warning you of what the PCs need for Book 3.
Unfortunately, there are some serious "lack of motivation" moments that can cause you issues:
Which kind of breaks Book 3 pretty badly, so you have to figure out how to coax them in there somehow, or drop that content, which would be tragic because it really is well-done, concept-wise.
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You know, you could always fix the majority of the Dreamlands problems by either warning the players ahead of time that they REALLY need experts in knowledges, or by simply lowering the DCs of the ritual, to ensure they succeed.
Honestly, the bigger game-breaker for me has been that most of the environments the players travel through offer very limited chances to go shopping, meaning the characters are very often finding themselves relatively under-geared, or unable to find a way to heal a condition they can't deal with. Both the asylum, and the trip down the Sellen River impose a lot of restrictions on what the characters have available.
You know, you could always fix the majority of the Dreamlands problems by either warning the players ahead of time that they REALLY need experts in knowledges, or by simply lowering the DCs of the ritual, to ensure they succeed.
Honestly, the bigger game-breaker for me has been that most of the environments the players travel through offer very limited chances to go shopping, meaning the characters are very often finding themselves relatively under-geared, or unable to find a way to heal a condition they can't deal with. Both the asylum, and the trip down the Sellen River impose a lot of restrictions on what the characters have available.
Seconding YugoZuno on lowering the DC -- I'd suggest DC 20.
I'm lucky in that my three players demanded a prepared divine caster as the GMNPC (shaman), so so far the conditions haven't been debilitating.
But yes, if our bloodrager didn't have Magic Weapon as a prepared spell, the Animate Dream would have TPK'ed the party in the Material Plane, ending the AP on a downer. So the lack of places to shop is just starting for me in Book 3.
Hahaha!
Like YugoZuno said. No shop in the asylum.
One of my player got Leprosy, Ghoul Fever AND Filth Fever! If he survives the asylum, I will let them buy a potion of remove disease from the alchemist in Thrushmore.
Last session, they captured Zandalus and tried to get informations from him and next session they will fight the Tatterman.
The sick player has 3 Constitution Score. I really hope he will survive, but he will need to be very careful.
I'm also surprised that the Tatterman concentration on spell-like is 23! It's insane! Does that include his combat casting feat?
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As mentioned in another threat, i had some issues as the amount of madnesses slowed down my game to a point where some characters started to misstrust each other and decided to pause their exploration until they got a chance to heal their afflictions
So my advice: Be a little creative in ways to lift these madnesses from time to time. Healing them magically take some serious time in which storry progression nearly comes to a dead end (especially when it comes to greater madnesses)
Feel free to come up with a solution to replenish your players sanity points more often.
One of my houserules switch a greater madness to the dormant condition when the character is at least on half on his sanity points.
Risi is a pain in the ass, as it is the revenant. Both encounters can easily kill of one character. The lack of resurrection spells in that town make this even worth.
Risi is chaotic evil. In my second group she was a lover of one of my players. So she decided not to kill the party and instead was trying to get a personal benefit by helping them. Cause she was not ready to openly work against Melissen.
For the revenant. I hintet my group that this creature could not stand his own reflection. So they came up with the idea to use a shield as an mirrow. Remember that some good old "protection from evil" will prevent the revenant to touch his victim. My group managed to do some kind of aggro ping pong.
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Risi is a pain in the ass, as it is the revenant. Both encounters can easily kill of one character. The lack of resurrection spells in that town make this even worth.
I'm not sure why you would characterize Risi and the revenant this way in view of the campaign itself. For that matter, there are challenges even later into the AP that PCs *definitely* won't survive if they make the wrong choice or even have lingering bouts of indecision. These are exceptional threats, yes, but they're designed to be. It's a Lovecraftian-styled AP, after all.
As such, hero deaths to things that can't be recovered from fits comfortably into the theme. This ain't your Rise of the Runelords.
Somehow, my players escaped harrowing doom with both Risi and the revenant, but only because doses of luck and quick thinking came together to make it possible. Each case brought someone within a hair's breadth of the grave. It's SO memorable because of that, however. After the survival-horror that was Chapter 1, and the sort of surprise-doom being thrown at them in Chapter 2, they realize they are never safe in this AP and death awaits around every foggy corner.
That said, anyone intending to run this AP should warn players that it is a more challenging path that will probably result in the deaths of at least some PCs along the way. If the group doesn't like that, they probably don't really enjoy the Lovecraftian themes of overwhelming struggle and terror either, and it isn't the best AP to play anyhow. It loses a lot of its impact and the sense of reward if its dangers are toned down.
This is all my humble opinion, of course.
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Risi is a pain in the ass, as it is the revenant. Both encounters can easily kill of one character. The lack of resurrection spells in that town make this even worth.I'm not sure why you would characterize Risi and the revenant this way in view of the campaign itself. For that matter, there are challenges even later into the AP that PCs *definitely* won't survive if they make the wrong choice or even have lingering bouts of indecision. These are exceptional threats, yes, but they're designed to be. It's a Lovecraftian-styled AP, after all.
As such, hero deaths to things that can't be recovered from fits comfortably into the theme. This ain't your Rise of the Runelords.
Somehow, my players escaped harrowing doom with both Risi and the revenant, but only because doses of luck and quick thinking came together to make it possible. Each case brought someone within a hair's breadth of the grave. It's SO memorable because of that, however. After the survival-horror that was Chapter 1, and the sort of surprise-doom being thrown at them in Chapter 2, they realize they are never safe in this AP and death awaits around every foggy corner.
That said, anyone intending to run this AP should warn players that it is a more challenging path that will probably result in the deaths of at least some PCs along the way. If the group doesn't like that, they probably don't really enjoy the Lovecraftian themes of overwhelming struggle and terror either, and it isn't the best AP to play anyhow. It loses a lot of its impact and the sense of reward if its dangers are toned down.
This is all my humble opinion, of course.
The problem is that the unique hook of the PCs' amnesia means you really want the original crop of PCs to survive at least until the fourth book.
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you really want the original crop of PCs to survive at least until the fourth book
If you read ahead, the overall finale also encourages the use of the original characters. Although it is not at all mandatory, I expect the player coolness would be reduced if they had replaced characters along the way.
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The problem is that the unique hook of the PCs' amnesia means you really want the original crop of PCs to survive at least until the fourth book.
Thats the point cause i mentioned this one. @Midnight Anarch: You are absolutely right that these encounters and encounters in later books are designed to be tough and frightening. But it will slow you game down, killing characters where there is actually no way you can bring them back. You will have to introduce new characters and these players will miss out the big revelations in book 3 about their characters past.
I did not want to imply that these encounters are too difficult and you should leave them out. I just wanted to point out that a GM should be prepared to intervene if players are too bold or to careless in their approach.
But after all it comes down to the playstyle your group´s preferring. I and my group are fixated on the plot. Other may prefere a simulation where a character dies when the dice aren´t in the favour of the player.
Both are legit playstiles. Just wantet to point that out for the OP.
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For players about to read this, note that SPOILERS lay ahead.
If you read ahead, the overall finale also encourages the use of the original characters. Although it is not at all mandatory, I expect the player coolness would be reduced if they had replaced characters along the way.
I agree that at least one of the PCs should be among the original. I'd even argue that if none of the original group survive along the way, that the AP should probably be considered over with the last one's death anyhow. They aren't *all* necessary, but at least one surviving seems intrinsic given how things are driven from chapter 4 onward.
That said, with a little extra work and narrative it's entirely possible to maintain the story's horror and impact without the original PCs. There may even be an added element of terror for new characters encountering chapter 3's finale as the originals come back to have a word or two with them.
I'll even throw a twist on it -- imagine if the DM allowed PCs who defeated their earlier counterparts to act as a "host body" for the defeated dreamland's PC "spirit," thereby reviving that original PC going forward (but losing some or all of the "host" PC as well). Later on, throw in a madness that occasionally suppresses one personality or another for even more RP fun.
There's all sorts of delightful things that can be done to keep things moving along.
I did not want to imply that these encounters are too difficult and you should leave them out. I just wanted to point out that a GM should be prepared to intervene if players are too bold or to careless in their approach.
In this AP, if you're having to intervene as the DM you've potentially failed your duty to the PCs who are carelessly approaching a damning situation. Foreshadowing is SOOO necessary to create dread and horror (in both PCs and players alike) but also to give players a chance to help their PCs survive encounters that are likely to kill them.
And then the situations should play out as they are, at full danger and lethality. It's so rewarding for players when they overcome what seemed like certain doom.
For my players, as one example, I'd dropped subtle hints of the revenant as early as mid-Chapter 1, so around 6 sessions worth of growing buildup and foreshadowing. Before the full melee with the monster, I also initiated a brief encounter that by now filled them with terrible alarm--the players completely understood how dangerous it was and how likely its targets were to die when it would finally catch up to them. The resulting tension was fantastic. After they defeated it in a harrowing battle and without any deaths, the sense of relief and accomplishment was exhilarating for them all.
I'd wager that this encounter ranks in the top 3 for them throughout the AP and would have been critically deflated if I'd intervened to save them or blunt the result in some way.
But after all it comes down to the playstyle your group´s preferring.
While this is true, it also comes down to choosing the right AP and adventures that match a particular group's playstyle. Not all groups will fit all adventures, and Strange Aeons is less suitable for many because of its themes, nature and native difficulty.
My group is also very (very) focused on the plot but we all see the challenges as inseparable from it. The beating heart behind this plot is the overwhelming danger and continued desperation against alien forces as experienced by the PCs. Dulling any of that dulls the plot, as we see it.
And in case it isn't clear, all of this is just my opinion and outlook on the AP. It's entirely fine and welcome for others to view and play it different. There's more than one way to skin a yellow-robed cat.