Player's Guide and Backgrounds

[ckobbe]

I suspect the answer will be no, but with subscribers and soon the public getting access to the new Beginners Box - Secrets of the Unlit Star and Troubles in Grayce adventure and both stating they can work as leadins to a longer campaign with Bastion of Blasphemies, is there chance that any custom backgrounds for Bastion of Blasphemies will be released early for use in building characters for these adventures so they can foreshadow the longer campaign?

[Perses13]

James Jacobs responded to a similar question about a month ago here. Although since a month has gone by, hopefully you get a more up-to-date answer.

[James Jacobs]

Still unlikely to happen. I wrote the player's guide a while back, but it still needs to be edited and laid out and then edited again, and those schedules are really disruptive to shift around. There's just going to have to be a few months of awkwardness for folks who are hoping to use Bastion's player's guide to start out the Unlit Star—Troubles in Grayce move... but THAT said, GMs absolutely should let players rebuild their characters to fit Bastion once that comes close, even if they've already played the other two. That sort of thing is less invasive and more fun than forcing a player to kill off or retire a character they've been playing just to make one that'll fit in better to the new game you're running.

ALSO: Those custom backgrounds for Bastion are for Bastion. They're not really meant to work for other stuff anyway, so you MIGHT have to deal with 4 levels of time-delay for that background to kick in before you reach Bastion, unless your GM rebuilds and reworks the other two to incorporate things better. Which is more work than just letting players adjust/retrain their characters for free between Troubles in Grayce and Bastion.

And there's also this paragraph I wrote for the Backgrounds section of the Bastion of Blasphemies Player's Guide to encourage GMs to do that:

"Also, if you’re starting Bastion of Blasphemies with an established character, speak to your GM about potentially swapping out your previous background for one of these choices. Provided you, your GM, and the other players are willing to stretch verisimilitude a bit in ret-conning this element of your character’s history, swapping out the background you chose at 1st level (perhaps as part of playing in the the adventure that came with the Beginner Box) for one of these more thematic options can go a long way toward making your Bastion of Blasphemies experience more fun. You can even use these backgrounds as selections when making your character for that first adventure, with your GM’s approval—in which case your association with XXX can carry through those first four levels of adventure in the background, only to step up to center stage as you begin this Adventure Path!"

That XXX is an NPC whose name I wasn't QUITE yet ready to reveal, alas.

In the end, if you and your group REALLY want to do this holistically, I suppose you'll just need to wait a few extra months for all three products to be out.

[Cori Marie]

Is XXX the NPC whose name was revealed at Paizo live? From a certain family close to Wes's cold black heart? (said lovingly)

[James Jacobs]

Cori Marie wrote:

Is XXX the NPC whose name was revealed at Paizo live? From a certain family close to Wes's cold black heart? (said lovingly)

OH! I guess so! Said XXX NPC is:

Spoiler:

Florin Kindler

Who is a new NPC I invented for Bastion of Blasphemies. She doesn't have a role in the Beginner Box. She MIGHT be name dropped in Troubles in Grayce, but a GM who wants to introduce her early as all of that would be best served waiting until all three products are out, I guess.

[Davor Firetusk]

Is there anywhere that gives more details yet on the specific adventures within Troubles in Grayce and there level ranges?

[James Jacobs]

Davor Firetusk wrote:

Is there anywhere that gives more details yet on the specific adventures within Troubles in Grayce and there level ranges?

The new beginner box covers level 1.

Troubles in Gracye covers levels 2–4. (It has 2 adventures for each of those, so a GM can pick and choose which three of the six adventures they want to run for the PCs—or if they want to run them all, to slow down XP progression for this adventure so the PCs still end at 5th level).

Bastion starts at 5th level and goes to 13th (or maybe even 14th or completionist-focused parties).

[James Jacobs]

Also, I believe last Friday's Paizo Live show talked more about the new Beginner Box and about Troubles in Grayce.

We'll be doing a more in-depth show on Bastion of Blasphemies sometime later this year. Not sure when though.

[Dragonchess Player]

James Jacobs wrote:

We'll be doing a more in-depth show on Bastion of Blasphemies sometime later this year. Not sure when though.

"You can ask me for anything you like, except time."

Project schedules are very unforgiving.

[ckobbe]

Thank you for the response, about what I figured. I already have experience as a GM with allowing characters to rebuild portions of their character to account for time jumps or tone shifts so I'm fine with that as a answer and solution presented in an AP that starts out at 5th level.

To those that asked, yes there is a The Road to Bastardhall section in Troubles in Grayce that talks about Florin being in Grayce and looking for adventurers and transitioning to the Bastion of Blasphemies adventure. I am curious about who specifically her parents are though since that isn't mentioned or how they all fit in the larger Kindler clan. Looking forward to those lore bits being revealed.