Creative Director
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The bulk of the 1st level is on the top of a low hill. The edges, where it moves to the water, slope downward to meet the water. Probably could have been more clear in my map turnover that there's steep slopes along the shorelines on the uppermost level. (It was a bit more clear on the side view of the dungeon I sketched out while building all the maps for all ten levels, but we didn't have room to publish a fancier version of that map, alas).
The bulk of the 1st level is on the top of a low hill. The edges, where it moves to the water, slope downward to meet the water. Probably could have been more clear in my map turnover that there's steep slopes along the shorelines on the uppermost level. (It was a bit more clear on the side view of the dungeon I sketched out while building all the maps for all ten levels, but we didn't have room to publish a fancier version of that map, alas).
Would you be able to share the sketchout in the gm advice thread for the books? (Given how many gms would find it useful)
Oh and, I hope to see more books written by you going forwards (if you still want to ofc) it is a really fun adventure so far.
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Creative Director
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The bulk of the 1st level is on the top of a low hill. The edges, where it moves to the water, slope downward to meet the water. Probably could have been more clear in my map turnover that there's steep slopes along the shorelines on the uppermost level. (It was a bit more clear on the side view of the dungeon I sketched out while building all the maps for all ten levels, but we didn't have room to publish a fancier version of that map, alas).Would you be able to share the sketchout in the gm advice thread for the books? (Given how many gms would find it useful)
Oh and, I hope to see more books written by you going forwards (if you still want to ofc) it is a really fun adventure so far.
Not at this time, because it's a really basic sketch that I didn't make pretty enough so that I'm comfortable showing it off in public, and I'm not even sure where it is (it's probably still at the office, which I've not really been to in about a year), and because I don't want to undermine other adjustments that may have happened to the adventure in the 2nd and 3rd parts that I may not know about, since I didn't write or develop them.
BUT thanks for the kind words! I do have two more adventures coming very soon. One of them is Malevolence but the other one hasn't yet been announced (but will be out a lot sooner than that implies).
It's ALWAYS a good thing to hear back that folks are enjoying things I do, since adventures often fall into a sort of purgatory as far as feedback is involved. Especially if they're part of a series of adventures thats's been going for well over a hundred months, and no longer has that element of "the shiny new thing." And since they're not for players, GMs often hide them and "protect" their secrets, whether or not they ever actually run them, and many GMs do make so many changes along the way that the end result is something entirely new (be it for the better or the worse). If you see an adventure that you like, it's always good to drop in reviews or spread the word, since the above factors can make them tougher to get more well known than a rulebook full of player options that everyone buys, rather than just GMs.
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It's ALWAYS a good thing to hear back that folks are enjoying things I do, since adventures often fall into a sort of purgatory as far as feedback is involved.
My initial impression of Ruins of Gauntlight was that it was the best Paizo adventure released since the Anniv Edition of CotCT... your last weighty tome with haunts.
The changes you did to Scarwall in that one echo here, too, in RoG.
My initial impression hasn't changed as I built it all in Foundry VTT and started to run it last week. Session 2 is this weekend - I am looking forward to it!
I especially liked the ambiguous start. I know some others complained but I really appreciated it. I changed things, especially at the start as I am looking for a more organic feel customized for my players PCs. I used the Kobolds in Menace under Otari as having been displaced from RoG. My PCs - two of which speak Draconic - came to a diplomatic solution with the Kobolds (as I expected they would) and it has all flowed tickety boo. I also increased the role of the owner of the Thirsty Alpaca - missing these past two weeks. He's with the 3 thieves from Crook's Nook in the same cell.
The whole thing has been a delight James. I think it's your best work and I have no doubt that this will become the intro adventure to PF2 that ends up being regularly recommended online as "the place to start".
I also changed things with Rajani, which I felt was really awkward in Vol 2. I had the AP open with the spring berry pie festival on the Otari commons - and it's an election year. Mayor Menhemes, Rajani and a drunken fisherman (Four-fingered Pete) gave a brief spiel as judges for "best pie". It established Oseph as a smooth diplomat and Rajani as a brusque rude man - as well as a known NPC from the get-go. I felt that needed far more work than it received to make Vol 2 work better.
I have moved the sword out of the library and into the Rajani family tomb. It was sealed there and the Priests refused to let Carman break the seal to the tomb and disturb his ancestor's remains. The undead brought to life by the Gauntlight will do that for him - putting the sword in play. That seems more organic to me.
I have been toying with the idea of either persuading Rajani to bring the sword down into the AV to open the seal -- with the consequence of making Rajani a "hero" who steals the PCs thunder and wins the election (becoming a foe and a terrible leader for Otari in the short term), or having the PCs make a choice to steal the sword in order to use it - and Rajani loses the election as he has lost the previous four. It will also make the choice re Urevian more of a real quandary.
My hope is that it all feels more organic that way. The presentation in Vol 2 is too... convenient and not properly foreshadowed. Ronald D Moore would call it a "Hollywood Moment" in the script.
I'll move one of the heirlooms to the abandoned fish camp from Troubles in Otari to be retrieved. I think the module can benefit from a little more "not in the Dungeon" screen time - and I have a flip-mat from TiO that can be used for it. Unlike Paizo, I don't have the same "space considerations".
Still not sure about the Denizen of Leng and possession of Dorianna. The payoff just isn't there; it needs more -- WAY more. Still thinking about that one. I do have one of the PCs as her tutor. So I am trying to do more to work her in earlier.
Hopefully there is nothing too bad in Vol 3 that leaves me wide-eyed wondering how to work that in too!
If I appear to be complaining, it's not intended to be. This really is the best adventure I have read in a very, very long time. (And I read a lot of them.)
Thanks again for this one.
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Creative Director
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Thanks for the kind words! I had a lot less to do with volume 2 and 3; I did the maps and wrote an article in part 3, but Vanessa and Stephen did those two, with Ron Lundeen of course developing all three of our adventures, so I don't have any insights for those two adventures really... but certainly it sounds like you know what you're doing when it comes to adapting all three adventures into your game! Yay!
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Creative Director
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The bulk of the 1st level is on the top of a low hill. The edges, where it moves to the water, slope downward to meet the water. Probably could have been more clear in my map turnover that there's steep slopes along the shorelines on the uppermost level. (It was a bit more clear on the side view of the dungeon I sketched out while building all the maps for all ten levels, but we didn't have room to publish a fancier version of that map, alas).Thanks for the clarification! I do have one more question to help figure this out, and it has to do with the exact location of the opening to the cave area B19. It looks like the entrance is directly under the boathouse dock, A17? Am I interpreting that correctly? And if so, how far above the water is this dock, exactly?
I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around elevation between A7 and a straight line to A23.
If I'm understanding - A7 is on the hill, there's a drop down to A16/17 which are at water level, A24 is water level, then A23 is back up and elevated quickly?
TL;DR: Yes, there's some quick elevation changes in the hill itself, and the water is at least five feet below the dock.
So, if the water surface is at an elevation of, let's say, +0 feet, then the elevation of the roof of area B19 is +3 feet, and the elevation of the pier at area A17 is +5 feet (aka; it's a five foot drop to the water below from the pier).
Area A16's floor is a little higher still, at maybe a height of +6 or +7 feet. The hill rises pretty steeply from the edges of the water up to the structure itself. I'd say that the floor in areas A1–A15 (and A19–A23) is at an elevation of about +17 feet, in fact, with an average of five feet of stone foundation between the floors in those areas and the ceilings of the level below.
That's all kind of at a glance, without looking back through all the room descriptions. I think probably the easiest place to adjust if you need to is to raise the level of the piers themselves to be ten feet above water level or more.