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Chapter 5 of Reign of Winter is in the books, and we are currently grinding our way through the early stages of Book 6.
The initial fight in Book 5 was EPIC! New to the location, we players all wondered what the heck was going on. But we soon adapted once the Big Guns arrived ;)
RoW has been a great campaign, though I might have enjoyed Strange Aeons slightly more.
Our most awesome GM P has announced we will be commencing Tyrant’s Grasp in the new year. I will likely be playing an Oradin for the first time, if anyone has any build advice.
The Succor mystery is pretty cool. Wall of Suppression at 18th level is pretty sweet.
The Solar mystery would also work well for the Tyrant's Grasp AP.
Chapter 5 of Reign of Winter is in the books, and we are currently grinding our way through the early stages of Book 6.
The initial fight in Book 5 was EPIC! New to the location, we players all wondered what the heck was going on. But we soon adapted once the Big Guns arrived ;)
RoW has been a great campaign, though I might have enjoyed Strange Aeons slightly more.
Our most awesome GM P has announced we will be commencing Tyrant’s Grasp in the new year. I will likely be playing an Oradin for the first time, if anyone has any build advice.
We’re approaching the end of the middle section of book six of ROW.
they like the information broker, but they wonder why he's always submerged in water :D
Do point out to them that he has extensive burn scars. I don't know much about proper burn care IRL, but the affected area needs to be kept clean, and IIRC, some of these scenarios refer to oils, unguents, etc., that he also uses; some might be administered via bath.
Also, IMHO, meeting people in bathhouses has become an affectation for Torch. His injuries unsettle people, and the juxtaposition of physical vulnerability and Torch's aura of being all-knowing make for some delicious cognitive dissonance.
as well as others that involve Amenopheus, the Jeweled Sages, and the Sage jewels because one of the players is in the Osirion faction and they look like they're appropriate for the GMT storyline.
Torch involves himself in the Scarab Sages' business more and more as that faction's story grows, so these are highly appropriate to include.
Next Sunday is the first part of "Eyes of the Ten", [...] (I'm so glad I don't have to worry about what level the group is!)
This does hurt my head a bit, given the huge level jump involved for anyone playing these by standard PF rules.
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Do point out to them that he has extensive burn scars. I don't know much about proper burn care IRL, but the affected area needs to be kept clean, and IIRC, some of these scenarios refer to oils, unguents, etc., that he also uses; some might be administered via bath.
Also, IMHO, meeting people in bathhouses has become an affectation for Torch. His injuries unsettle people, and the juxtaposition of physical vulnerability and Torch's aura of being all-knowing make for some delicious cognitive dissonance.
Oh, they are definately a little creeped out by him always being in the bath, especially when he invited them to join him in the bathhouse. :)
(They did, because they're at least a little afraid of him.)Torch involves himself in the Scarab Sages' business more and more as that faction's story grows, so these are highly appropriate to include.
That's what I figured, yeah.
This does hurt my head a bit, given the huge level jump involved for anyone playing these by standard PF rules.
With the system I'm using, it kind of comes down to enemies having 3 levels of difficulties so as long as you roll good enough on 3-9 D6s you've hit them, and they need to be hit 3 times. (Defending against them is much the same). So it is very different than pretty much any other system I've seen.
(There are slightly more complex rules for special enemies, but they're not needed... my games are mostly about the story rather than difficulties of the fights)They did Eyes of the Ten, Part 1 on Sunday (level 12) and they'll be doing The City of Strangers, Part 1 next week (levels 1-7) :D
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So my Night Below game is taking a break while one players has stepped away the rest of the group decided they wanted to wait till he comes back. Meanwhile they want to play something a little different
"We all want to be Kobolds" they said
So I have 1 week to get an Episodic Kobold campaign ready to go.
It is a fine excuse to bust out the Savage Company books that I kickstartered ages ago.
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We finished Jade Regent after something scary like six year's real time (with a big break in the middle due to pandemic). Minkai is now rued by the woman who picked Wisdom as her dump stat - so there will probably be another revolution in a couple of years.
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(the other is Abomination Vaults, but obviously that is outside the scope of this thread.
I was going to ask "how come?" and then realized this is supposed to be for PF1 campaigns.
Meanwhile I've been posting about using a non-Pathfinder system, but using PF1 PFS scenarios to create the campaign soooo.... I'm just gonna keep posting my updates every once in awhile anyways :)
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Or was your attention elsewhere?..
I had to make sure none of the ... foreign objects in the water made their way over to me!
I think if you're using PF1 adventures with a different system (or vice versa), that's close enough for government work. Whereas AbV is neither designed for PF1 nor being run with it.
I, at least, would be like to keep hearing about what you're doing....
That was my thought too. And thanks! It's good to see that people enjoy it :D
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I realized the other day that Eyes of the Ten should all be played right after each other instead of delayed like the releases were. I ran the first part, then started City of Strangers, then realized my error.
So I'm going to run the second part of City of Strangers then back to finish Eyes of the Ten.
I've added a full list of the scenarios I'm planning on running, and the order I'm doing it in (which is, essentially, the order they were released) in my profile, behind a spoiler tag due to how many there are.
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I’m a player in reign of winter right now, we are having fun. I invented a new spell that makes cute little snowball creatures to zoom around and scout. I also took a level in gunslinger, for obvious reasons if you know the adventure.
I’m a player in reign of winter right now, we are having fun. I invented a new spell that makes cute little snowball creatures to zoom around and scout. I also took a level in gunslinger, for obvious reasons if you know the adventure.
Which book are you in? I’m midway through six. Halfling winter witch.
I’m not sure what book, but probably nearing the end as we are lvl 14 right now. I’m a halfling too, though not by choice as that is because I reincarnated, twice now, though the first was just background history. My character is mainly winter witch, but with some arcanist, and the gunslinger level. I’m making her out to be a savant of sorts with magic, hence doing unusual magical things and spell creation.
Figure my character will become Selena the one ever rejected by death. :) She has plenty in place to always recover from dying.
I’m not sure what book, but probably nearing the end as we are lvl 14 right now. I’m a halfling too, though not by choice as that is because I reincarnated, twice now, though the first was just background history. My character is mainly winter witch, but with some arcanist, and the gunslinger level. I’m making her out to be a savant of sorts with magic, hence doing unusual magical things and spell creation.
Figure my character will become Selena the one ever rejected by death. :) She has plenty in place to always recover from dying.
Ok. End of book five likely then. I’m a bit ahead of you.
My little group took on the dam at Skull's Crossing in Book 3 of Rise of the Runelords over the weekend, in an effort to save Turtleback Ferry from further damage.
The first ettin went down quick, as did the exhausted ogres at the top of the dam. The GM... okay, me... accidentally got the scale of the dam wrong and lined them all up in a row. One lightning bolt spell and a bunch of failed reflex saves pretty much did the trick.
The trolls inside took a little effort, but the magus using spell combat with acid splash helped keep their regeneration in check.
The graffiti upstairs made the heroes leery of Wet Papa Grazuul, but he also quickly succumbed to some swarm tactics by our heroes.
The real challenge was the skull ripper next door. It didn't take long before the two big damage dealers were grappled and constricted nearly to death, but a lucky roll by the cleric to overcome spell resistance and successfully cast the recently acquired flame strike spell brought combat to an end before anyone perished.
The devil tried to trick the group into letting him free, but was no match for the cleric's Sense Motive skill. Our sorcerer then jumped into the other magic circle, causing the dam to release the building water pressure and finish off the other pit fiend for good.
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Modded Skull & Shackles:
Players finished up the Last Baron Module (modified to take place on an island), killing the Governor pretty swiftly, thanks to clever disguises, turning the cannons on the gates as a big distraction and just absolutely going buck-wild with SWAT tactics.
(Darkness, Smoke, Explosions and AoEs), the poor Vendikon didn't know what hit him.
One of my plundering pirates ran up the tower, found the secret laboratory at which point the Fiendflesh Golem construct awoke and was immediately berserk, chasing down Flynn like that scene from Avengers with Black Widow and Hulk.
The heroes fought the Fiendflesh golem on the stairwell, while the remaining guards piled into the war room with guns ready if the Golem broke through. A hellfire beam left the ship Captain vitally wounded, and killed 5 of the fortress guards out-right. Knight-Captain Blacklock took some heavy hits as well.
Eventually our Pirates managed to defeat the Fiendflesh Golem, and the Crepitus.
We then cut to the epilogue, our Pirates looting as much as they could carry, and leaving with a Taldan Letter of Marque allowing them safe passage through Taldan Waters and free reign to plunder Taldor's enemies.
On this island they recruited to their ship:
Two (2) Random Guards (Sean and Geoff)
Two (2) Hellhounds (Zeke and Coal)
One (1) Dropbear (Barry)
One (1) High Mediator of Asmodeus (Booking safe passage to Bloodcove).
Dragon's Demand
My players cleared the crypt of Tula, with our dwarven fighter having a hard time against Arturic, as the incorporeal miss chance didn't take kindly on them. She almost died to his Con-Drain, but our oracle saved her with a clutch restoration.
After that they encountered lady Tula's spirit, which thanked them for their service and allowed them to take up arms from the crypt but asked them to return them once their task was done, to ensure the weapons are available should bellhaim be in danger once again.
This was some kind of in-game reasoning to strip the group of some higher level loot after their victory over Aeteperax, so I have an easier job balancing encounters if they want to take on another adventure/module with the same characters after wrapping up Dragon's Demand.
Next session they'll head back to belhaim, heal up and restock resources before taking on the monastery.
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We gamed last Sunday, finally got out of that hut and are now on Triaxus defending a fort.
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We gamed last Sunday, finally got out of that hut and are now on Triaxus defending a fort.
Oooh, that was fun.
I remember that. It was interesting.
Also, it is a good example of why I think in a fantasy world, you have dungeons instead of castles. Active forts would be underground, maze like, and broken into defensible areas where only a few enemies can attack at once, should they get past one of the gates.
Also works as reasoning for why there are so many dungeons in a world. If they are the standard defensive structures, then plenty enough will be abandoned and taken over by nature and monsters.
it is just a fantasy trope as IRL without good drainage holes in the ground(aka dungeons or crypts) tend to fill with water.
A problem likely solved if dungeons are common.
But while it may have become a trope, in a world of medieval technology or less with flying monsters and mounts, a real world style of castle is not sufficient as aerial defense would be just as important as ground defense, thus the creation of underground fortresses makes sense as the solution, which, trope or not, leads to underground forts becoming a fantasy world’s equivalent to the real world’s castles.
Consider real world forts made during world war 1 and 2. Many were underground and most that were not, were concrete solid structures. And we had far more effective weapons than a medieval level of technology can provide. A few ballistae would not provide sufficient aerial defense.
Oh, and don’t forget scouting and reconnaissance. A flying mount can more easily see what’s going on in a castle that would otherwise be hidden from the view of groundbound observers. Underground forts solve that too.
New PF1 campaign: I'm currently trying to run one that is pretty much the opposite of everything I normally do.
Instead of an AP, it's a homebrew hexcrawl. Instead of being over-prepared and ready for every possible thing the players will do, I'm giving them freedom to set their own goals. I'm limiting the characters - no flight, no teleportation - so not every problem can be solved with magic. Every monster in this part of the world is a previously undiscovered species, so knowledge skills don't tell the players much. Instead of making every intelligent creature speak common so I can give them dialogue, NPCs speak completely unknown languages that must be individually learned. Instead of prepping all 'random' encounters in advance for maximum drama, variety, and game balance, I'm rolling on wandering monster tables as the party explores. Instead of ignoring all the mundane details to focus on big narrative action, food is important and in short supply, and hours in the day must be used wisely if you want to rest safely.
Rating the experience so far (from a GM perspective; the players seem happy enough, but they were happy with my version of Jade Regent too): My original goal was to have a game that I could run without prepping heavily for every session so I'd feel less overworked. It was probably a mistake to decide that all monsters should be new species that I'd create myself, since creating sixty different creatures for different locations/biomes that the players might choose to visit is a massive amount of work up front. Similarly, I need to create interesting things for them to find no matter where they go, and because I'm using random tables I need to create more than I actually need.
I'm trying to reduce my workload by turning to AI. ChatGPT is pretty good for creating filler content - "Give me a list of 20 things the party might find in the forest I described." However, I have to go through everything it creates and sanity check it. It's also fairly bland and vague, but I can use my own creativity to make it more interesting. It's also able to output Pathfinder stat-blocks - "Generate a new Pathfinder 1e CR2 forest monster with a spell-like ability and an unusual weakness" - that kind of thing. Again, you have to sanity check it all, so it's still a lot of work.
We gamed last Sunday, two combats in and we leveled but we still haven't had a chance to rest.....since we are still in a siege.
We gamed last Sunday, two combats in and we leveled but we still haven't had a chance to rest.....since we are still in a siege.
I’d say where we are but it would give you spoilers.
After taking a month off due to various reasons (which is very unlike us, but it happens)... the group finished off their time in Kaer Maga (played through "The City of Strangers, Part II: The Twofold Demise") and now I'll be running the rest of "Eyes of the Ten".
They love Kaer Maga (familiar with it from when we played through Curse of the Crimson Throne) so they were happy to revisit it.
The player in the Taldan faction is starting to think they made a bad choice because the Taldan faction leader seems to be at least a little insane, so I'm quite excited for running "The Dalsine Affair".
The players also joked about how Torch is clearly in charge of the Shadow Lodge but then decided that no, in fact, he's the entire Decemvirate and he only uses "Decemvirate" to throw people off to the fact that it's just him. (And no, they don't really believe either of these "theories").
On top of that, the Osirion faction player is a little suspicious of his leader as well due to handing off coded messages while finding other sorts of coded messages in Kaer Maga, so it's all working out wonderfully!
Eyes of the Ten, Part IV has the Osirion mission written by a different NPC so, thankfully, I send a text version of the mission to my players the day before we get together along with an image of it. I'll just so happen to "forget" to send the image the day before I run that scenario and I'll change who it's signed by in the text I send him.
I've also had to add in "The Chasm of Screams" because the group wants to find a way to cure Kyalla after what she goes through in Eyes of the Ten, Part II, so I think they'll be happy with that.
Overall, it's still working out well even though a month long break requires a lot of "remember how this all happened recently?" but it's all good.
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Book V of Kingmaker ends with a airship fight against the BBEG, a dragon, linnorm, and giant! Just as these were settled, the machine built to control cross planar incursion overloads, piercing the reddened sky with a beam of pure light.
We wake rested on the ship in a strange land. The plane itself seems to be railroading us, but with flight from an allied silver dragon and the resources of a grand coven, we are moving through the areas with blistering speed, hopefully quick enough to catch up with the BBEG unprepared.
The question remains as to the destiny of the party’s changeling companion and adopted daughter of the party Medium, as it seems the companion’s presence is what brought the ship through the planar rift.