Creative Director
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But mainly, the theme of "Galt" or "Brevoy" would be a war-centric theme where the PCs get to decide which faction to back and perhaps at some point becoming a faction of their own. And then add all the elements that could be involved in a war-torn region with court intrigue,...Similar to how "Hell's Rebels" used up the Rebellion theme for a while, do you think 'War for the Crown" used up that intra-country/region factional struggle for a bit? And "Iron Legion" used "cold war suddenly gets hotter"?
Any Adventure Path uses up its theme for a while.
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I think it would be much more interesting to set part of something like the inverted dungeon crawl, where the heroes have a treasure they have to return to a tomb or crypt, in a location like Galt, because the necessity of dealing with local factions when you have another mission to do creates an interesting background without forcing the PCs to have to be able to "fix" something. Even if they tried to get wrapped up in the local politics of it, unless they commit to staying, things are probably going to change again when their absence creates a power vacuum.
I wouldn't think the whole thing should be set in galt, but it could be an interesting setting for the 3r or 4th book, where the threat of final blades would be very serious, enough to tamper down the impetus for heroes to walk around and assume themselves gods who can do anything they want.
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Brevoy civil war would be interesting to see resolves if we talk about resolutions...
..Anyway, I still say Children of Westcrown feel more like activists, since if you don't count fighting crime they in general just do charity work to help around city and remind people that things could be better. I mean, I can see how that would count as rebel behavior in fascist country, but I think they feel more closer to environmental activist than "let's take down thrune!" (even if their main goal is to solve shadow beast problem)
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..Anyway, I still say Children of Westcrown feel more like activists, since if you don't count fighting crime they in general just do charity work to help around city and remind people that things could be better. I mean, I can see how that would count as rebel behavior in fascist country, but I think they feel more closer to environmental activist than "let's take down thrune!" (even if their main goal is to solve shadow beast problem)
Removing what is basically an occupying secret police from a city of more than a hundred thousand souls is a more radical program than anything advanced or achieved by any of the parties in Curse of the Crimson Throne, Jade Regent, or Hell's Rebels, and because the impetus came from the street rather than the palace, even War for the Crown. The reform only looks less radical because it didn't come with regime change, but most of the time when Paizo does regime changes, they come without reforms (as in Curse of the Crimson Throne and Jade Regent). Hell's Rebels' regime change came with reforms both constitutional and on the level of policy. But the constitutional reforms were largely reactionary throwbacks dictated by the Kintargo Contract (an upper house for federal representation of regions, ratification of the Lord Mayor/Domina by a feudal Board of Governors), and also instituted an unelected lower house. And the political reforms more or less swept away laws that imposed on rather than reflected existing conditions (disestablishment of unpopular Asmodeanism, abolition of uncommon slavery). One of the possible endings for War for the Crown involves Eutropia introducing a form of parliamentarianism to Taldor, but this is merely at her whim and as such 1) is likely subject to the whole litany of liberal franchise restrictions (property/wealth, education, etc.), and 2) likely leaves ministers serving at the crown's pleasure rather than parliament's.
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Any Adventure Path uses up its theme for a while.
Sadly, "dungeon heavy" AP never seems to be used up as a theme. :p
One of the possible endings for War for the Crown involves Eutropia introducing a form of parliamentarianism to Taldor, but this is merely at her whim and as such 1) is likely subject to the whole litany of liberal franchise restrictions (property/wealth, education, etc.), and 2) likely leaves ministers serving at the crown's pleasure rather than parliament's.
Even that is a gradual change for better which is much more likely historically than a radical change of government (which then often turn out rather bloody and not exactly for the better in at least the short term). Most historical governmental change was gradual and began with rather small concessions by the ruling class.
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Even that is a gradual change for better which is much more likely historically than a radical change of government (which then often turn out rather bloody and not exactly for the better in at least the short term). Most historical governmental change was gradual and began with rather small concessions by the ruling class.
My point is, it's not a concession, because there was no one making a demand. Eutropia's party of supporters was not parliamentarian, nor was there any sort of chartist movement (either for an aristocratic Magna Carta or a democratic People's Charter, or anything in between) in Taldor during the War for the Crown. As such, Taldor's parliament (which may or may not be canon in the Lost Omens Campaign Setting - I can find no mention of it in the World Guide or on the wiki), represents nothing. It is merely a whim.
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Even that is a gradual change for better which is much more likely historically than a radical change of government (which then often turn out rather bloody and not exactly for the better in at least the short term). Most historical governmental change was gradual and began with rather small concessions by the ruling class.My point is, it's not a concession, because there was no one making a demand. It is merely a whim.
Okay, true enough on that account.
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The further away an Adventure Path gets from the expected norm of the core ancestries and implied play experience, the less popular it's going to be overall. An all underwater Adventure Path or an all flying one would require a lot of work on the back end in a lot of ways, such as twisting/changing rules so that the core ancestries are viable, or making up a bunch of new ancestries, but also creating a LOT of new monsters to populate a campaign that goes from 1st level to 20th level.
Would something like "there's a lot of neat stuff on the bottom of the ocean, let's go on an expedition to see what's there" support an AP without having to go too far afield?
Aquatic Adventures was chock full of plot hooks and while some of those are left for GMs to set on their own, I'd like to see Paizo tackle some of them.
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The further away an Adventure Path gets from the expected norm of the core ancestries and implied play experience, the less popular it's going to be overall. An all underwater Adventure Path or an all flying one would require a lot of work on the back end in a lot of ways, such as twisting/changing rules so that the core ancestries are viable, or making up a bunch of new ancestries, but also creating a LOT of new monsters to populate a campaign that goes from 1st level to 20th level.Would something like "there's a lot of neat stuff on the bottom of the ocean, let's go on an expedition to see what's there" support an AP without having to go too far afield?
Aquatic Adventures was chock full of plot hooks and while some of those are left for GMs to set on their own, I'd like to see Paizo tackle some of them.
James is busy singing the "Meow Mix" theme on Twitch right now, but based on some of their previous APs, I think they might go for it. That isn't far from describing Jade Regent and Ruins of Azlant.
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Sadly, "dungeon heavy" AP never seems to be used up as a theme. :pTo be fair, "dungeon-heavy" isn't a theme in the first place. Rarely do APs have anything to say about dungeons, they simply use dungeons as set pieces, motifs, and plot devices.
C'mon, don't be such a literalist. ^^
AP's which are heavy on dungeons are not a "theme", per se, but long dungeons are very heavily featured in the vast majority of Paizo AP's. I personally am sick of them and would wish that the whole trope would be deemphasized and rather interesting encounters/plots in more socially active environments would be encouraged. War for the Crown was very good with this, as obviously were large parts of the city AP's.
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But mainly, the theme of "Galt" or "Brevoy" would be a war-centric theme where the PCs get to decide which faction to back and perhaps at some point becoming a faction of their own. And then add all the elements that could be involved in a war-torn region with court intrigue,...Similar to how "Hell's Rebels" used up the Rebellion theme for a while, do you think 'War for the Crown" used up that intra-country/region factional struggle for a bit? And "Iron Legion" used "cold war suddenly gets hotter"?
Probably. But I would argue that there is a lot going on Theme-Wise in Galt that could be played with that would make the "rebellion" or "court intrigue" theme fresh. Brevoy probably not.
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Between the political thoughts expressed here and the notion of a "Disney Princess" AP, I find myself very drawn to the concept of an AP focused on what a constitutional monarchy is and how it works, the benefits of separating head of state from head of government (such as how strongly it cuts against conflating disagreeing with the head of government with treason to the state) and so on; there is I think room for a positive story about young royals learning responsibility as part of a functioning system there. (And hey, it could have a 23-F climax.)
More generally, a nation-bulding AP that modelled the complexities of nation-building in more detail than Kingmaker and focused on diplomacy and compromise as means of attaining goals would be catnip for me, and that's certainly what I'd like to see done with Galt; fight daemons for whatever the irreducible minimum of combat in an AP is and talk with people the rest of the time.
what might be fun - ambitious but fun - is a set of 2 APs in Galt.
The first could be 'Against the Mind Warp' or whatever, a more traditional AP where the PCs figure out what is driving the country insane. Full level 1-20. The theme would be post-apocalyptic spy story.
The second is 'For the Restoration' or whatever, where the PCs do a sort of Kingmaker, but in the shattered nation of Galt as the agents of the formative government (possibly led by the PCs (or key NPCs) from the prior AP). Again, full level 1-20, and building on the lessons learned from Kingmaker and some of the other 'national' APs such as War for the Crown and Hell's Rebels. At the end, there's that sort of War for the Crown-style scorecard where the PCs are graded on their actions. Here, the theme is nation-building and diplomacy.
I dunno. Just a thought.
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I'd like to see an environmental themed AP. Base it in the Mana Wastes, where the PCs are part of an international organization brought in by Alkenstar to clean up the devastation amidst a flimsy ceasefire between Geb and Nix. Throw in some sidequests to other parts of the world to find rare florae and faunae to bring back.
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I'd like to see an environmental themed AP. Base it in the Mana Wastes, where the PCs are part of an international organization brought in by Alkenstar to clean up the devastation amidst a flimsy ceasefire between Geb and Nix. Throw in some sidequests to other parts of the world to find rare florae and faunae to bring back.
Plaguestone and Extinction Cuse both have themes related to environmental degradation.
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I'd like to see an environmental themed AP. Base it in the Mana Wastes, where the PCs are part of an international organization brought in by Alkenstar to clean up the devastation amidst a flimsy ceasefire between Geb and Nix. Throw in some sidequests to other parts of the world to find rare florae and faunae to bring back.
I would /love/ a Mana Wastes/Alkenstar AP, but I don't see them ever doing it.
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A Postal Service AP where you deliver packages to such far flung locations as a remote mountain village ("Such Great Heights"), the Shadow Plane ("We Will Become Silhouettes"), the dimension of dreams ("Sleeping In"), Dunrock Island ("This Place is a Prison"), Vallenhall ("Brand New Colony"), the dimension of time ("There's Never Enough Time"), and a city in a dome on the bottom of the ocean ("Recycled Air").
I'd like to see a Logan's Run kind of thing set in Hermea, where you have been targeted for extermination and have to escape only to be pursued over the course of the AP. Not sure how to resolve the chase, though...
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Hermea was done in the first AP for P2.
I'll have to check that out. Thanks!
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Hermea was done in the first AP for P2.
That same AP also gave us a glimpse of Mwangi culture that's made me super hungry for more ever since.
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I remembered another theme I'd like to see eventually :3
Anti chaos ap. And by that I mean stuff like proteans and such. Like, there is something really appealing about fighting forces of chaos that threatens to tear world down without really being malevolent and more like being a force of nature. Chaos beasts, proteans and other creatures from Maelstrom have really uniquely horrific modus operandi
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Actually I could see an AP where PCs have to alternately face the unleashed powers of Chaos and Law which are trying to encroach on the material plane because something disrupted the usual flow of things and put those two on overdrive. And the last volume would be about putting things back to normal, with maybe a few changes the PCs could rewrite on reality.
This AP could also get PCs to the First World when looking for a solution and have allies from both Good and Evil planes trying to protect their status quo, as well as antagonists also from any alignments trying to benefit from the upheaval.
And the cause / author of the disruption can be anything alignment-wise.
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I want another horror AP. I would prefer gothic/classic horror, but would still be pleased with cosmic horror.
Agreed, very much this. I know that a shorter adventure module is coming out this spring with a "haunted house" theme, but I recently having been diving into Call of Cthulhu and more... I think a good horror-based campaign would be so cool.
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Creative Director
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There's a fair amount of spooky horror going on in Abomination Vaults, the Adventure Path I helped to write that's launching January 2021. The primary theme of this three-part Adventure Path is "dungeon crawl" of course, but there's a lot of moody spooky stuff going on in there as well.
Not quite cosmic horror, but still pretty spooky.
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I’d love to see more involving the Shory Aeromancers, and in general would love a sky-based campaign.
I’d also enjoy a campaign based around two gods known as allies, whose sudden falling out has huge upheavals in multiple faiths and nations.
would love a sky-based campaign.
Can you elaborate what you mean by this?
would love a sky-based campaign.Can you elaborate what you mean by this?
The most obvious way to go sky-based, despite JJ’s declaration in 2007 (and maybe since as well), and despite the danger of it just being “flying Skull&Shackles”, would be an airship campaign.
Alternately, yet still sky themed, I’m in a home brew game in which the sky is literally falling, Yan-C-Bin and Pazuzu have allied, and the sentient surface-dwelling races of said world have been driven into the dwarven holds and goblin burrows beneath the ground. Our heroes can all fly, and there is a LOT of aerial combat, both in this world and the Plane of Air, all of which I’ve enjoyed much more than I would have expected: “yay, more detail-less blue... yawn.
Aerial races; roc- or dragon-riders; the return of lost Shory floating cities; storm-based travel magic; hot air balloons traveling the world... so many options!
Themes of freedom and the risks thereof; storms as losing control (Shakespeare’s The Tempest... domestic violence...); deities clashing; climate change and nature’s needs vs the needs of sentient beings. Even room for some horror themes: death from above... the vulnerability of being limited in your movement when others are not... Hitchcock’s the Birds...
et cetera, et cetera...
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Several variants of what AP would you like to see ago, I said something Airship related, like Voyage of the Princess Ark. Glad I'm not the only one who likes a sky-based AP!
My real reason for coming back to this thread though, was brought on by thinking about the secret keepers in Harry Potter. I'd like an AP where it's The One About Keeping the Secret. War for the Crown is kind of like this, but there they have a covert agenda. Here the overt agenda would be to keep something covert. Basically, Second Darkness, as if they work for the Lantern Bearers from the beginning.
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The One About the Adorable Pet. Maybe a psuedodragon shows them the real Korvosa. Or a pipefox leads a team of gnomes and friends on a grand tour of the First World. Or, like an anti-Horagnamon, a powerful wizard's familiar needs the party's help to rescue its incapacitated master. Something becomes the party's mascot and they adopt each other, basically. IRL, I'm not a pet person, but this seemed like it could be fun.
The One About the Strange Tattoo. A secret society identified by the tattoo hunts the party. Maybe people with a distinctive tattoo keep crossing paths with the party, but their interest in the PCs takes a while to uncover. Maybe one or more PCs have a tattoo but are unaware, like the Shackleborn from Shackled City. A PC could have been a Shoanti with a tattoo on the top of their head, but hair has grown over it, and they forgot or never knew its existence because they were kidnapped very young, etc.
The One About the Unusual Patron. The party is part of the joint Sarenite/Norgoberite ring smuggling religious material into Rahadoum. Or Shimon-Je and others in the church of Sivanah are unusual benefactors who contract them for bizarre tasks, never with the same disguise twice.
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Imagine an AP where you can start at any level.
The PCs are legendary heroes who are stuck in a repeating time-loop where they nearly save the world, but they fail. However, the timestream repeats itself, and the heroes must try and save the world again. Each adventure module has one critical point that the PCs must do *something* the correct way in order for the time-loop to break.
The standard play-start would be that the PCs realize they are in a loop at level 1, and have to break the loop from the beginning. HOWEVER, the point in which the heroes realize they are in a loop could be at any point: at level 4, at level 10, or even at the beginning of the last adventure module! They have to correct their mistakes going forward, but then they have to loop back to the lower levels and make the corrections back then. As soon as they correct the 6 mistakes, the rest of the timeline plays out 'correctly', and the adventure path finishes. A party could start the campaign at level 8, go up to level 20, start again at level 1, and then finish at level 7!
This would also be a great AP to use Relics for: having them as touchstones for the PCs, watching them grow and regress with the PCs, and maybe even changing in-between time loops.
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Imagine an AP where you can start at any level.
The PCs are legendary heroes who are stuck in a repeating time-loop where they nearly save the world, but they fail. However, the timestream repeats itself, and the heroes must try and save the world again. Each adventure module has one critical point that the PCs must do *something* the correct way in order for the time-loop to break.
The standard play-start would be that the PCs realize they are in a loop at level 1, and have to break the loop from the beginning. HOWEVER, the point in which the heroes realize they are in a loop could be at any point: at level 4, at level 10, or even at the beginning of the last adventure module! They have to correct their mistakes going forward, but then they have to loop back to the lower levels and make the corrections back then. As soon as they correct the 6 mistakes, the rest of the timeline plays out 'correctly', and the adventure path finishes. A party could start the campaign at level 8, go up to level 20, start again at level 1, and then finish at level 7!
This would also be a great AP to use Relics for: having them as touchstones for the PCs, watching them grow and regress with the PCs, and maybe even changing in-between time loops.
That sounds like such a nightmare to run as a player that I wouldn't even bother. Also, PCs rarely give up levels anytime but begrudgingly.
To me, appeal of the time loop story is the slow mastery over the limited circumstances. Live, Die, Repeat and et al. Every iteration through a certain encounter would give stacking bonuses until it was impossible to fail (in PF2, this would happen naturally by leveling up) but having to replay the encounter over and over again isn't exciting at the table and there gets to a point where the party asks the GM to skip the encounters they've mastered, which devalues it.
Future's Past 3rd party AP for Starfinder is something I'd recommend checking out ;D
Imagine an AP where you can start at any level.
The PCs are legendary heroes who are stuck in a repeating time-loop where they nearly save the world, but they fail. However, the timestream repeats itself, and the heroes must try and save the world again. Each adventure module has one critical point that the PCs must do *something* the correct way in order for the time-loop to break.
The standard play-start would be that the PCs realize they are in a loop at level 1, and have to break the loop from the beginning. HOWEVER, the point in which the heroes realize they are in a loop could be at any point: at level 4, at level 10, or even at the beginning of the last adventure module! They have to correct their mistakes going forward, but then they have to loop back to the lower levels and make the corrections back then. As soon as they correct the 6 mistakes, the rest of the timeline plays out 'correctly', and the adventure path finishes. A party could start the campaign at level 8, go up to level 20, start again at level 1, and then finish at level 7!
This would also be a great AP to use Relics for: having them as touchstones for the PCs, watching them grow and regress with the PCs, and maybe even changing in-between time loops.
That sounds like such a nightmare to run as a player that I wouldn't even bother. Also, PCs rarely give up levels anytime but begrudgingly.
To me, appeal of the time loop story is the slow mastery over the limited circumstances. Live, Die, Repeat and et al. Every iteration through a certain encounter would give stacking bonuses until it was impossible to fail (in PF2, this would happen naturally by leveling up) but having to replay the encounter over and over again isn't exciting at the table and there gets to a point where the party asks the GM to skip the encounters they've mastered, which devalues it.
Hmm, a good time loop story does allow the protagonist to skip or speed past certain encounters. Often enough the point of the time loop is to make sure a certain encounter does not happen, or breaks differently. So maybe at 1st level you become strawberry jam trying to get past The Door. So you do some stuff, level up, take away some of the terrain and other advantages the door has, and by level 3 you can just walk through without a pause. But then there's a whole other set of obstacles to defeat. By level 7 The Door is just a door.
I recall a scenario in World of Warcraft where you had a limited amount of time to prevent a dragon from being assassinated. Since the dragon in question was a master of time, she let you try over and over, slowly building up your abilities and giving you additional time so that you could successfully stop the attacks.
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An idea I’ve mused over for a campaign, but which I suspect falls foul of the Paizo logic of timelines.
Book 1: The characters are low level, they have some adventures, and in the process find a McGuffin.
Book 2: Picks up the story a few years later, the same characters are more experienced, and their adventure is somehow triggered by said McGuffin. They defeat the big bad.
Book 3: Several years later, the characters have settled into retirement / become famous and successful / otherwise reached high level. The heir of the big bad comes to take revenge with the army he has been secretly building up.
Plot etc is open to tweaking, the key thing is that there is plenty of time between the sections, and some of the character levelling up is done in downtime, so rather than ‘goes from L1 to L20 in six months’ the characters can have gone off and fought a war, or trained with the famous wizard, or spent six years meditating on a mountaintop to become powerful heroes.
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One of the brief rays of light from the quickly locked discussion of the Edgewatch blog post was a flippant reference to a "Disney Princess AP"
You found me to be "flippant"? :(
I was just raising an example of where current Paizo seemed to be headed.
One of the brief rays of light from the quickly locked discussion of the Edgewatch blog post was a flippant reference to a "Disney Princess AP"
You found me to be "flippant"? :(
I was just raising an example of where current Paizo seemed to be headed.
Have you looked at Devil at the Dreaming Palace yet? If so, are you happier with what you're seeing?
One of the brief rays of light from the quickly locked discussion of the Edgewatch blog post was a flippant reference to a "Disney Princess AP"
You found me to be "flippant"? :(
I was just raising an example of where current Paizo seemed to be headed.
Probably the wrong word. But it seemed tangential and perhaps a little tongue in cheek but was very positively received...
I cannot recall why I thought that though and seems like I was wrong!
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The One About the Proteans. Sometimes, change is inevitable. Sometimes change is for the best. Change is hard. Some people just resist change. The party sometimes has occasion to work with chaos, and at other times tries to resist entropy, and difficult decisions abound. The PCs also sometimes struggle to stay true to themselves.
The One About the Great Famine. Crop failures from pests and bad weather are natural phenomena, but most famines have a (large) political component. In this case, the ultimate villains of the piece follow Trelmarixian. Along the way, they must persuade druids not to hinder their efforts, help desperately hungry people find refuge and overcome prejudice, publicly speak some uncomfortable truths, afflict those who are comfortable taking advantage of a bad situation, and so on.
The One About the Coast Guard. Like Skull & Shackles, but the party are (almost) all virtuous sea-goers. Andoran privateers feels like it might not be different enough, so maybe they're crew aboard an elven vessel out of the Mordant Spire or Arsmeril. Maybe Holomog pays for them to take a ship out and do good works, perhaps as a soft exile for people who would otherwise become troublemakers if they stayed at home. The empire of Kelesh needs the sea lanes kept open, and we get another crack at the Sinbad feel, like part of Legacy of Fire. Maybe a bronze dragon secretly disguised as the ship captain is fated to make the Captain of the Sunset Ship his white whale, absent PC help.
The One About the Divorce. Rostland and Issia are going their separate ways, and it's all the PCs can do to minimize the harm to the other kids as Mom and Dad fight. Probably not as likely with all the work being done on Kingmaker, but Paizo has done sequels before and some folks who played the original Kingmaker may want one rather than a replay.
The One About the Wedding. Full British royals, maybe with some Game of Thrones alliance-making, but for Telandia Edasseril. Help the elves throw an epic party, diffuse tension between important guests, obtain the perfect gift, compose the perfect toast, prevent any disruption, eject any drow party crashers, rehabilitate the image of the elves, and so on.
The One About the Marriage (of Convenience). The PCs early on acquire an unlikely ally, or someone else finds working with them towards the same larger goal convenient, and they struggle to make that work long-term.
The One About the Tea House. A little like Extinction Curse, a little like Council of Thieves, a little like Agents of Edgewatch, a little like early Second Darkness, and little like Cheers. The PCs establish and run a Third Place kind of business, striving to be pillars of the community and improve the neighborhood. Set in Kasai, with challenges that could instead be about becoming the next boss of the yakuza for the O-ren Ishii fans. Key scene from Adventure 6 just before credits roll: tea with the queen. Iconics: Harsk, Fumbus, Korakai, and Seoni.
The One About the Price of Fame and Glory. Kind of like the Iliad, plus maybe a little War for the Crown. The PCs are right there alongside someone who, like Achilles, would willingly die young if that is the price of great deeds and fame enough to live in glory forever. Like maybe they're all Vikings and the Achilles gets a linnorm's death curse. Or maybe their patron pays incredibly well, almost never expects them to make the evil choice, and is nevertheless personally Zon-Kuthon Ride or Die.
The One About the Firebrands. Like Serpent's Skull or Shattered Star as if they had been trying to be The One About the Pathfinder Society, but with one of the new organizations in Lost Omens Character Guide.
The One About the Cosmic Caravan. Like how Curse of the Crimson Throne had so many Harrow elements, but with zodiac flavor. Possibly another long voyage AP, like Jade Regent or Reign of Winter, with at least one adventure off-world in keeping with the theme. Maybe a short and circular voyage AP, with most of the caravaning being not-world-spanning, like a circuit of Thuvia's cities with agents of Ahriman as the final villains.
The One About the Harrow. Like how Curse of the Crimson Throne had so many Harrow elements, but instead of a ghost, they have a live diviner of some kind to help out and be helped by. Every adventure is named for a Harrow card, one from each suit. Like a half-orc/half-Varisian is the only person in the caravan who can hear what the cards have to say. They help overcome threats like villagers think she's a witch, they are suspected of being Sczarni, the cards and a mothman try to warn of an avalanche of some kind, and so forth.
The One About Dark Fairy Tales. Starts in Shenmen, with strong horror elements. Every background in the player's guide is cursed in some way. Arachnophobes beware. Not too clear on what should be the plot of such an AP, since "breaking my curse" feels like it should take less than 20 levels, mechanically.
The One About the Great Beast. Set in Belkzen or the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, at least one of the PCs seeks to tame and ride an unusual mount like a mammoth, dino, or rhino. The other players might have more metaphorical beasts to tame, like the source of their sorcerer bloodline; lycanthropy or skinwalker heritage; a raging anger management problem; alcoholism; or the desire to use a mutagen to bring out and eventually control their worst self; or maybe they'll all just mount up. Adversaries include a power that does not want to be tamed, harsh environments, jealous rivals, and foes who lack the honor to be straightforward front-stabbers. Not sure about the final villain on this one. Maybe an agent of Tar-Baphon or some kind of demonic threat from Sarkoris, but maybe just some rival warlord with his own fierce mount. Or maybe the warlord as the puppet of an Iriseni witch. An anti-paladin of Rovagug might be interesting, since it's been since Legacy of Fire since the servants of the Rough Beast were major foes. Perhaps a theme of Erastil vs. Rovagug, with a subtheme of who can lead the most followers of Gorum. Tag line: "He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount."
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The One About Divided Loyalties. I realized that some of my espionage request way upthread was from liking The Witch Who Came in from the Cold Season 1 so much.
1. The PCs are members of an organization, and seek to do well in it either as a means to an end or because they are true believers.
2. The PCs are secretly members of another organization, and need to advance its cause while keeping their membership in Org #2 secret from Org #1, because:
3. There exists secret organization #3, which is the mortal enemy of Org #2. Some of its members also find it useful to belong to Org #1, just like the PCs!
4. Most of the membership of Org 1 belongs to neither org 2 nor org 3.
5. There exists organization #4, opposed to Org #1. Two proper, non-intersecting, non-empty subsets of its membership consist of members of Orgs 2 and 3, and together these two subsets do not cover Org 4.
6. Sometimes, Orgs 1 and 2 are like two ships passing in the night, and if everyone in the party does their best all will be well. Other times, it's more like Titanic & iceberg. Somehow, the PCs always avoid a collision. Or at least collisions resulting in surviving enemy witnesses, maybe. Three-body interactions keep everybody's life interesting.
Some similarities to Masks of the Living God and factions in Pathfinder Society play, but with more complications. Call it the Olympic Venn Diagram AP.
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The One About Divided Loyalties. I realized that some of my espionage request way upthread was from liking The Witch Who Came in from the Cold Season 1 so much. ** spoiler omitted ** Maybe I should have called this one the One About Working at Cross-Purposes, or the One About Dual Loyalties. In any case, I meant a Golarion version of this kind of balancing act.
1. The PCs are members of an organization, and seek to do well in it either as a means to an end or because they are true believers.
2. The PCs are secretly members of another organization, and need to advance its cause while keeping their membership in Org #2 secret from Org #1, because:
3. There exists secret organization #3, which is the mortal enemy of Org #2. Some of its members also find it useful to belong to Org #1, just like the PCs!
4. Most of the membership of Org 1 belongs to neither org 2 nor org 3.
5. There exists organization #4, opposed to Org #1. Two proper, non-intersecting, non-empty subsets of its membership consist of members of Orgs 2 and 3, and together these two subsets do not cover Org 4.
6. Sometimes, Orgs 1 and 2 are like two ships passing in the night, and if everyone in the party does their best all will be well. Other times, it's more like Titanic & iceberg. Somehow, the PCs always avoid a collision. Or at least collisions resulting in surviving enemy witnesses, maybe. Three-body...
way too confusing. no one at my table would be able to follow this.
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I would like to see an AP where the adventurer's acquire weapons in the first module that they build up throughout the series until they become legendary heroes renowned not only for their heroics, but for the legendary weapons they wielded.
A Seven Samurai AP that starts off with a village and ends with the heroes squaring off in a battle to the death against a BBEG tyrant out to conquer the world.
A Kingmaker type of campaign focused on being evil and building up an undead or demon kingdom where the PCs end as the legendary BBEGs of a dark kingdom that heroes seek to destroy. They start being called by dark powers to build this kingdom for personal greed by conquering neighboring good kingdoms to grow to immense power.
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The One About the Coast Guard. Like Skull & Shackles, but the party are (almost) all virtuous sea-goers. Andoran privateers feels like it might not be different enough, so maybe they're crew aboard an elven vessel out of the Mordant Spire or Arsmeril. Maybe Holomog pays for them to take a ship out and do good works, perhaps as a soft exile for people who would otherwise become troublemakers if they stayed at home. The empire of Kelesh needs the sea lanes kept open, and we get another crack at the Sinbad feel, like part of Legacy of Fire. Maybe a bronze dragon secretly disguised as the ship captain is fated to make the Captain of the Sunset Ship his white whale, absent PC help.
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Variation of this that lends itself to Andoren privateers: The party's mission is to disrupt the slave trade. Of course, as they proceed, risking (and sometimes losing) their own freedom) and eventually earn their own ship, they uncover more secretive nefarious plots to undo the freedom of Andoran, including corruption from within . . . .
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{. . .}
The One About the Coast Guard. Like Skull & Shackles, but the party are (almost) all virtuous sea-goers. Andoran privateers feels like it might not be different enough, so maybe they're crew aboard an elven vessel out of the Mordant Spire or Arsmeril. Maybe Holomog pays for them to take a ship out and do good works, perhaps as a soft exile for people who would otherwise become troublemakers if they stayed at home. The empire of Kelesh needs the sea lanes kept open, and we get another crack at the Sinbad feel, like part of Legacy of Fire. Maybe a bronze dragon secretly disguised as the ship captain is fated to make the Captain of the Sunset Ship his white whale, absent PC help.
{. . .}Variation of this that lends itself to Andoren privateers: The party's mission is to disrupt the slave trade. Of course, as they proceed, risking (and sometimes losing) their own freedom) and eventually earn their own ship, they uncover more secretive nefarious plots to undo the freedom of Andoran, including corruption from within . . . .
I would buy this.
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We do need new ship/sailing AP and that sounds like fresh take on it rather than another CN pirate ap
Also Lost Omen Legends themes. There are lot of hooks and themes from that book that would be fun to see in ap yeah
I actually have bit of problem with horror themed aps... Mainly that all of paizo writers love horror, so EVERY AP has a segment in it that is high on horror tropes. So it kinda feels like every ap has book with whole chapter being dedicated to horror at minimum