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For the duration of the Playtest I am going to run a game with a few friends and try to post feedback of the game on these forums (time permitting.)
The campaign will NOT be Doomsday Dawn, instead it will be a custom game that I am making for the purpose of this Playtest.
So I wrote up a few ideas and polished them a little and I wanted to present them here to see what particular parts of the new system people would be interested in us exploring for this Playtest. Each of the ideas stretches Pathfinder 2ed in different ways and some do it more than others.
Below the Synopsis of each "Adventure Path/Module" is a quick straw poll so anyone interested can vote for their favorite. I'm interested in what the people on this board want to hear about, especially the developers. In about a week, once I know what the people I play with want, I'll combine the votes here and the votes with my players to decide the game and start preparing.
Without further ado:
Description: You have been ship-wrecked! Now you must explore your environment, a bizarre unknown island, in order to survive. You must learn to craft your own supplies, equipment, and weaponry, scrounging for any useful material you can and then transforming them into powerful items.
As you explore the island, you will stumble upon strange mechanical and magical structures. Perhaps left behind by an ancient and powerful civilization?
Can you uncover the island’s secrets and make it out alive?
Player Restriction: 5
Alignment Restriction – No Evil/Chaotic Neutral: This campaign requires group cooperation for survival, which Evil/Chaotic Neutral characters can mess up.
Combat Difficulty – You can Breath(Medium)
Quirks
Survival: You will start out with little more than the clothes on your back. You will need to gather supplies and build shelters in order to survive.
Crafting: You will need to craft all of your gear, BUT don’t worry, there will be many resources to aid you.
Puzzles: You will need to solve strange foreign structures in order to progress.
Permanent Death: When you die, you do NOT make a new character. You can still be resurrected, but there is no guarantee you will be.
Try if you like: Myst, Minecraft
Description: The town of Rimeavan is a paradise amognst the frozen wastes of the north. Protected by the weather-wards of the wizard Galicar, not ice nor snow can enter the prosperous town. You are a townee of Rimeavan and you are one of the talented few in this town to the far north, though you would prove yourself anywhere else, you are relegated to a life of peaceful work.
It is said that the frozen tundras north of Rimeavan contain caves in which abominations best unspoken of lurk. Some of these caves are lined with a strange metal, strong as adamantine, and light as mithril, that contains natural magical properties. Little of this metal has been found, but that which has, made the seller very rich, very quick. Any weapons made from this material has become the stuff of legends. It’s said the metal can even be used to make magic staves, ones that surpass even the Staff of Power.
But alas, you are just a simple citizen, but just how long can things stay the same?
Player Restriction: 4
Alignment Restriction – None
Combat Difficulty – Hard
Quirks
Firearms: Firearms from Original Pathfinder will be available.
It’s Fridig: Expect to deal with sub-zero temperatures.
Horror: This campaign may contain nasty surprises, and is not for the weak. You have been warned...
Try if you like: Bioshock, The Village of Hommlet
Description: Fortune favors the bold! You are part of a small guild: just you and your traveling companions; on a quest to find the abandoned Sky Citadels of the dwarves: colossal floating cities beyond the clouds.
After tracking down all other leads and spending much gold, you have exhausted all but one rumor:
Atop the sky-piercing Mountain Atolph, lies a giant metal chain tethering the mountain to the first of the Sky Citadels: Borogh Ma-gan. Though the winds toward and up the Atolph are hostile, and climbing the chain by hand is impossible, one may bring a sky-worthy vessel to the top of the mountain and couple it with the chain. Then one might reach the first of the many fabled cities.
Are you ready to make a fortune?
Player Restriction: 4
Alignment Restriction – Any non-Evil: You will be expected to cooperate with the group to beat deadly encounters, which Evil characters can often complicate.
Combat Difficulty – Hard
Quirks
Part of a Guild: You and the other player’s are tight, and you trust each-other with your lives. You all also want to make a boat-load of gold.
Skyships: You might be able to snag a ship that is worthy of the four mighty winds!
Acrophobia: Falling Damage is not your friend.
Try if you like: Morrowind
Description: The last thing you remember is drowning. You awake in a wet, hazy stupor. Your clothes drenched, your steel rusty, spellbook covered in sludge, and the gods can’t hear you.
You are alone, it’s dark, and it is DANGEROUS.
Underneath unknown depths below the sea, You must trudge through ancient ruins of a lost civilization, where you may just find artifacts that rival the powers of gods. Though take care, for such artifacts are not without wielders that would rather not part with them.
Are you prepared to explore the ruins of the greatest civilization this world has ever known?
Player Restriction: 3
Alignment Restriction – None
Combat Difficulty – Insanity: The encounters in this campaign will be turned up to 11, prepare to die!
Quirks
Deathless: When you die, your character automatically respawns nearby. HOWEVER, you lose all experience points earned during your current level. // For Example: if you were level 3 and had 3,500 xp, you would go to 3,000 xp. //
Insta-Lore: You don’t need to identify magic items, you will learn their abilities and be told their related lore once acquired.
Brutal Beginnings: You will start with almost nothing, and work up from there. But awesome things come to those that earn them.
Try if you like: Dark Souls
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Pretty sure Paizo is most interested in feedback based on the adventures they're bundling with the playtests. At the very least, that's what I'll be using if my group decides to participate.
While Doomsday Dawn makes for a great control group, I'm sure Paizo also wants to hear from GM's how easy/difficult it is to design homebrew campaigns using the new rules. As such some custom stuff would definitely be helpful.
Sky Reach: Description: Fortune favors the bold! You are part of a small guild: just you and your traveling companions; on a quest to find the abandoned Sky Citadels of the dwarves: colossal floating cities beyond the clouds.
While that is what "Sky Citadel" would mean in any other setting, I'm pretty sure the dwarven Sky Citadels of Golarion are grounded. So I recommend against this option---unless I'm just missing some relevant Golarion lore, which is quite possible.
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^ What Fuzzy-Wuzzy said. You're thinking of the flying cities of the Shory.
Pretty sure Paizo is most interested in feedback based on the adventures they're bundling with the playtests. At the very least, that's what I'll be using if my group decides to participate.While Doomsday Dawn makes for a great control group, I'm sure Paizo also wants to hear from GM's how easy/difficult it is to design homebrew campaigns using the new rules. As such some custom stuff would definitely be helpful.
I can't say what they'll wind up doing with playtest surveys, but I think what I would do is have a section for the players/GM to write "We are/aren't playing Doomsday Dawn (and if they are, where they are in it). We are level X." so they know wherearound people are or aren't enjoying the system. And if they aren't playing DD, then that's where GMs or players could list things that came up that might not have come up in a standard module.
Sky Reach: Description: Fortune favors the bold! You are part of a small guild: just you and your traveling companions; on a quest to find the abandoned Sky Citadels of the dwarves: colossal floating cities beyond the clouds.While that is what "Sky Citadel" would mean in any other setting, I'm pretty sure the dwarven Sky Citadels of Golarion are grounded. So I recommend against this option---unless I'm just missing some relevant Golarion lore, which is quite possible.
That would, of course, be relevant if the adventures are based in Golarion. I don't see that being explicitly written anywhere.
As for the adventures themselves. Keep in mind that the Doomsday Dawn adventures are specifically meant to test out certain rules in each adventure. If your adventures here don't touch on any of those rules they'll fall in the "generic feedback" category I'd guess. That's not to say that it's not important feedback, though.
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I think out of all of them, Stranded has the most merit because by it's very nature you will end up stress testing a part of the system I doubt Doomsday Dawn will: the crafting and survival rules.
It'd be interesting to see how the "4 days to craft" rules interact with foraging and such.
Also it's similar to what I plan to do for the playtest (though only if Dawn seems boring), but I'm just calling it 'The Grimrock 2: Electric Boogaloo PnP Edition"
That would, of course, be relevant if the adventures are based in Golarion. I don't see that being explicitly written anywhere.
You would be absolutely correct! These are not Golarion specific adventures, although they could be. Sorry about that, I should've been more specific.
While Doomsday Dawn makes for a great control group, I'm sure Paizo also wants to hear from GM's how easy/difficult it is to design homebrew campaigns using the new rules. As such some custom stuff would definitely be helpful.
That exactly my thought as well. I definitely think Paizo will focus on the quantitative data they'll get from Doomsday Dawn, but I also think they'll be interested in qualitative data from custom games. As well as testing out the modularity of the rules and how easy it will be to add in new rules systems could be important to Paizo because of third-party publishers and the OGL.
I think out of all of them, Stranded has the most merit because by it's very nature you will end up stress testing a part of the system I doubt Doomsday Dawn will: the crafting and survival rules.
I'm inclined to agree with you. Stranded also seems to be the most popular pick with my players, so there's that to.
Also thank you for the feedback so far everyone!
If you go with the Stranded option, check out Souls for Smugglers' Shiv (book 1 of Serpent Skull) for inspiration. It's a fantastic module about being stuck on a desert island that could easily be expanded into a larger campaign.
I would also recommend Stranded, but your permadeath thing seems flipped on its head. I'd expect no resurrection, but you can make a new character. If they can't make a new character and resurrection isn't guaranteed, you're just kicking players out of your group when their characters die, which is no fun and will cause hard feelings.
If you go with the Stranded option, check out Souls for Smugglers' Shiv (book 1 of Serpent Skull) for inspiration. It's a fantastic module about being stuck on a desert island that could easily be expanded into a larger campaign.
That adventure had a hand in kick-starting this actually. I was going through it because I liked the idea alot, but the implementation of the adventure wasn't too much to my liking, so I though "why not start from scratch!"
I will definitely be using it as a point of reference and might even steal a thing or two from it.
I would also recommend Stranded, but your permadeath thing seems flipped on its head. I'd expect no resurrection, but you can make a new character. If they can't make a new character and resurrection isn't guaranteed, you're just kicking players out of your group when their characters die, which is no fun and will cause hard feelings.
You're absolutely right that it's a dangerous game and when I presented the adventures to my player's I've made a point of making sure they really understand the ramifications of the rule. This is also why combat will be a bit more chill and no evil/chaotic neutral is allowed in the game. I'll probably also rule "no hidden information/resources", so no one can point fingers in case some one does die.
Even if someone does die, it's not really too bad. We all have several Pathfinder/Starfinder games we play together, so people won't be cut from gaming entirely. Also this game is only running the length of the play-test, so it's not a huge deal if someone dies, it's not a long game anyway.
It's an idea I had kicking around for a while that I wanted to test. I want to see how player's act in situations knowing that if their character dies, that's it. I think it will add a lot of interesting drama.