A while back, Paizo released a new adventure, set in Galt. I knew from the second I saw the promo text that I wanted to run it. I love high-level Pathfinder play, and I love it even more when it’s given a novel backdrop.
Galt’s executioners are the masked and mysterious Gray Gardeners. Held above the laws of the chaotic nation, these grim killers soak the revolution-wracked land in dread and blood. They behead the guilty and innocent alike with their magical guillotines, but few possess the courage to stand against them. Powerful heroes must infiltrate the Gray Gardeners and put an end to their reign of terror. As the heroes race from haunted crypts to the elegant opulence of an ill-fated masque, the midnight chime will bring salvation or doom to a nation.
For those who don’t know, Galt is basically Golarion’s France, but stuck in a perpetual revolution. This adventure leans into that hard, bringing together the paranoia of a state tearing itself apart and elaborate balls.
It’s also high-level and feels it. The challenges were no joke, but there were still multiple situations where a competent player can short circuit a problem with a well-applied feat. For me, that’s peak high-level play: Either screaming in terror or waltzing past dangers.
Our group
Our group was made of a group of PCs from a West Marches campaign. Initially, it was a polycule who was extremely extra, but eventually they had to call in back-up when it became clear they couldn’t charm or sneak their way past some upcoming challenges. The make-up:
Two rogues (one thief, one scoundrel)
A swashbuckler
A bard (controlled by me)
A fighter (called in later, because lord, we were squishy)
We played once a month, during the week, so the sessions were shorter than a weekend one might have been. I recorded every session, which left us with 18 hours of recorded playtime. We’re a fairly focused group when it comes to moving the plot along, so if your group is more chaotic, it might take longer to complete.
Note: After this point, there be spoilers, so if you want to play in this, begone!
Pros
There’s something for everyone! A large part of the game involves gathering information in multiple ways. Maybe the face charms the dress-maker. Maybe the rogue sneaks into the quiet mansion. Maybe the fighter goes and beats the snot out of someone in their way. There’s always a path forward, and there’s always something for everyone to do.
It’s also great to see high-level adventures. So many companies struggle to put out content for characters past the midway point. It can be rough for GMs who lean on pre-packaged content. There’s a reason we do this, after all! This was not only high-level when it came to challenges, but also concerning the stakes at hand. This isn’t about taking out a pesky dragon. This is about saving a nation.
It’s also easy to slot into any existing campaign. Your group (probably already well-known) gets called in. In fact, it works better if none of you are from Galt. You’re neutral parties that aren’t being closely watched by the Revolution.
There’s also so many fun NPCs. It’s honestly a challenge to fit so many of them in, but this just makes it appealing for me to run again.
Cons
There is one fight that can be a game ender: Three Lesser Deaths. It happens in the middle of the second chapter which is run hour-by-hour. Because of this, if the combat knocks out a character, they’re OUT for the rest of the chapter, which could run for several sessions. This one worried me so much, we pulled in a Fighter to boost our very squishy party. Nearly all other fights were fine with a sensible group, but that one could have been rough.
Speaking of, a high-level adventure can be both a boon and a bane. With our players, we shared a high level of mastery and familiarity with our builds. This is not a module for complete beginners. Experienced players with new sheets may also struggle at first, so don’t skip the easier fights in chapter one. They’ll need that practical experience for chapter 2.
There are a number of encounters that never happen, so you may end up prepping maps you never use. If that’s something that bugs you, consider reshaping the first chapter to guide the players a bit more tightly. Each path leads to what they need, so select whichever one seems like it fits with the group’s vibe.
If I were to run it again…
I would probably cut references to NPCs the players never met. This happens in the later chapters, and while it does add to the air of menace, it also confused them, thinking they were clues rather than ambiance. I would also make sure to hint that the Lesser Deaths were a thing somehow, so players could prepare. Otherwise, I would keep it as is! It’s an awesome adventure that had something for everyone.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m a few years late to this. Starfinder has been out for a hot minute (and may even be due for a version 2 in the next few years). It’s one of those systems that’s always flittered around the periphery of my awareness. I vaguely knew it as “Pathfinder in Spaaaaaaace,” but never looked any deeper.
I did grab a Humble Bundle or two, because I have a problem, but it was more because it was too good a deal to pass up, and I love Paizo. Recently, though, those PDFs have gone from collecting digital dust to being actively perused, as I consider diving in.
Why now?
A little bit of timing, and a little bit of needing something to spice up my RPG life.
My home game runs Pathfinder 1e. Specifically, we run Adventure Paths because we’re all busy professionals with schedules that can get wild at random times, so having a published adventure gives us something to fall back on. We swap around being GMs, with each of us claiming a different AP well in advance. While I love APs… I’ve come to the end of APs I want to run.
I’ve also played a lot of fantasy in the past two decades, and a moderate amount of modern. I’ve barely touched sci-fi, though, and I feel like it’s time.
Why Starfinder? Why not [insert system here]?
People have been trying to get me to play Star Wars for years, and I always have to turn them down. I know I’ll get flack for this, but I just don’t like Star Wars. The movies are good, I enjoyed reading the Thrawn Triology, but that’s about as much as I want to engage with the universe.
I’d love to play Cyberpunk, but I really really want to play in Spaaaaaaaaaace, not on dystopian Earth. I won’t turn down a campaign (one is even on the horizon), but it’s not what I want to run.
With Starfinder, I’m already somewhat familiar with the system (especially since it’s a blend of Pathfinder 1e and 2e rules) and the world (at least, what’s left of it), but it’s different enough to be interesting. Like, they removed a whole planet and a swath of time! There’s cool new species to play around with! SPACE COMBAT!
Also, it has Adventure Paths. Again, during my hectic times, I really need a plot structure to fall back on so I don’t end up burnt out. They also help get me and players on the same page, since it’s well-known what themes each AP covers. No one’s going to show up to the Firefly-like game expecting Starship Troopers.
How deep am I?
I read through the Beginner Box and ran it over on D20Saves.
Uploaded on my back-up channel
I highly recommend starting with reading the Beginner Box, because it gave me a great base for diving into the core books. True, it’s a streamlined version of the rules, but the overview helped me get situated quickly.
Now, I’m making my way through the CRB, which is shockingly readable for a rulebook. It has a great blend of humor and getting to the point which is making it a joy rather than a chore.
Chloe was less than thrilled with losing access to my lap every morning.
Reading a rulebook from front to back is unusual for me. Normally, I read what I absolutely have to in order to create a character, and then look up things over time. Eventually, the whole book gets read, but it takes some time.
So, what next?
My home game group has agreed to run through Into the Unknown, which looks like a great intro for experienced players. After that, I still have to finish my PF1 AP (we’re on Book 4 of Ruins of Azlant), but after that, I have a decision to make:
Against the Aeon Throne has the benefit of already being in Roll20, so this cuts my prep time in half.
Fly Free or Die sounds like something my players would love, since we usually end up being a bunch of morally gray weirdos on our own.
I already own Dawn of Flame, so I might as well use it…
Honestly, all of the APs sound fun, so it’s likely going to be a tough choice. It’s one I’m looking forward to!
Over on D20Saves, I’m running Gatewalkers, one of the latest APs from Paizo! From the official website:
After they walked through that glowing gateway, nothing was ever the same. A band of characters become paranormal investigators in order to figure out the cause of a global amnesic episode. Their quest takes them to lands near, far, and outside of this reality altogether. Along the way, the characters meet fellow “gatewalkers,” defeat alien monsters, and explore strange realms also touched by the so-called Missing Moment. And when it comes time to learn the grim truth of what happened to them on that fated summer night, what then?
Warning: The first part of this blog will cover what happened in the stream, so there's spoilers for Book one. Part two will include my thoughts as a GM, so there's major spoilers for everything.
If you’d want to watch the previous episodes, check out the playlist here!
Chapter one recap: We meet our heroes (?)
Several months after the missing moment turned their lives upside down, each member of the future party received an invite from a famous researcher in Lepidstadt, a sizable town in the ever-cozy country of Ustalav.
Each of the recipients had been trying to piece their lives together after being removed from the material plane for three months, and this seemed to be as good a direction as any. There are worse things than being research assistants in a field that isn’t yet flooded, right? And they might find what happened to them on the way!
The first mission was to investigate the druid town of Seven Arches in the River Kingdoms. The town had been under a curse, killing all elves who came there… until the Missing Moment happened. Just as the gates lit up all over Golarion, the curse was dispelled. Obviously, the two events are connected, but how?
The crew quickly got embroiled in the politics of the city, agreeing to investigate a rogue druid who had absconded with a relic called the Shadewither Key. Leaving a trail of naked, bound rebel druids behind them (they have an MO, apparently), they eventually captured the head rebel, Bolan. He taunted them, telling them someone named Kaneepo the Slim now had the key, and would use it to “restore the balance” between nature and civilization. Chapter One ended with the party making their way back to town, hoping their work in the town was done.
It was not.
GM thoughts
I said it last time and I’ll say it again: Good lord, this book is a lot. It’s been a while since I had players at level one this long, even in an AP. Looking at my raw recordings, we’re at about 10 hours of play, and this is with the group being fairly focused.
I’m also done prepping book one, and let me tell you, it doesn’t calm down. Each chapter is packed with custom creatures, maps, encounters… So much happens.
The good stuff in Chapter 1
The players had quite a bit of fun in Seven Arches. They enjoyed the NPCs, and honestly, I’m a bit sad that some of them have to be left behind, since the AP is clear that the PCs don’t return to the town.
The plot was also laid-out well enough so that you didn’t get the cursed “Why are we doing this again?” banter. They had a mission (Investigate the curse) and steps to take (Talk to people, check out the rogue druid, find the key) the entire time.
They also loved finding out Bolan (the rebel druid) is another deviant. It gave the boss fight some real X-Men vibes. Make sure to use that deviant power of his! To be honest, it was one of the scariest things he could do.
The less good stuff
This list will be longer, but they’re mostly nitpicks, and extremely manageable.
En medias res. The AP starts with everyone already on their way to Seven Arches, which felt too sudden. I inserted a whole session before this, allowing them to get the letters, make their way to town, meet each other, and finally, meet the good professor. It helped the team gel, which is important since things move quickly once you’re in town.
The big bad. It’s very easy for the players to figure out who the Big Bad is. If you have players who jackrabbit the second they get a sniff of “potential double cross”, play the professor with a light hand. If you REALLY think that the players will run, insert a different NPC and make the professor his boss. Basically, know your players.
The treehouse. This is an awesome dungeon! However, it’s big, and it made my VTT crawl without some major tweaking. I recommend splitting it between two maps, even if one map feels more convenient.
Also, there’s a bit where a druid pulls up a ladder in order to block the way forward for the PCs, forcing them to go through most of the treehouse, looking for a way up. If you want players to explore, YEET THAT LADDER INTO THE SUN. If it’s anywhere close to the edge, they might have an ability that allows them to get the ladder and skip half of the encounters. (On the flip side, if you want to compress the treehouse, leave the ladder dangling).
Night visitations. The PCs were supposed to get dreams that awakened their deviant powers… except the PCs don’t have much need to sleep on the road. This left one PC odd-man-out, and this was with me doubling up one night. I recommend either doing them all at once, or having them start the game with deviant powers awakened, making the dreams spooky, but not attached to any mechanics.
Next chapters!
Having prepped the next two chapters, I’m super excited for the team to start bouncing around the cosmos. Chapter two sends them to the First World, but with a twist. Rather than the neon fever dream of Kingmaker, you’re sent to a place that’s grey and strange. This is probably a good choice, because the next stop is Castrovel, which has a jungle that’s as colorful as it is dangerous.
My only concern right now is a fairly big one: Will the players go through the portal that leads them to the rest of the plot. I’m trying to hammer home that they have to go get that stupid key, so let’s hope they follow the plot thread without me having to kidnap them.
I’m going to start this post out by saying something up front: I am nowhere near ready to start a new West Marches adventure. I love the format, but I’ve really been enjoying having time to run smaller, more focused games. I’ve been chewing my way through some Paizo APs and Adventures, and I wouldn’t have the time to prep for them if I was worried about a sandbox game as well.
That said, I still find myself thinking about the next one… after all, it is a format I deeply enjoy, and surely, I’ll run out of Adventure Paths at some point, right? I might as well jot down some notes on what I’ve been mulling over.
The basics
The system, obviously, would be Pathfinder 2e for any fantasy sandbox. I’ve already written about how PF2 is well-tuned for West Marches, and time hasn’t dulled that opinion.
The world is robust, so there’s no need for me to do a ton of worldbuilding.
The math works for encounters, making it easy to adjust to pick-up groups.
There’s so many heritages / ancestries / classes to pick from.
It requires pretty much no GM fiat to run, making it easier to keep track of what house rules you have at a shared table.
The rules are all free and online!
Lessons learned and potential improvements
It would be pointless if I co-ran a game for almost three years and didn’t come away with some lessons learned. No attempt is perfect, and there’s always ways to improve.
Levels!
One of the biggest bugbears we had was dealing with level spread. When we started, chat would determine how much XP we got, and everyone had different levels of XP, due to everyone starting at level one when they joined. Level spread became a bigger and bigger problem as time went on, to the point where the GMs started to burn out trying to offer enough games for everyone. In our experience, you couldn’t have more than a three level spread before someone overshadowed the rest or the lower levels were in danger of being one-shot.
We eventually solved this by introducing banding, which worked, but I’ve since grown disillusioned with that as a solution. My other West Marches game (VtM V5) used that, but we eventually abandoned it to make everyone the same level.
Lesson learned: Kill level spread before it kills you.
XP!
In the last server, XP was awarded for chatting in our Discord. This made sense at the time, but also wore down mods and GMs who felt obliged to keep things active. After all, players who don’t get a level get cranky, and might just leave for greener pastures. This is another idea I’ll be swapping out. Some alternative ideas:
A flat amount each month. Easy to plan for, but doesn’t motivate players.
An amount for each game played, but given to everyone. Great for getting games on the calendars, but might cause some pain if we have low months due to Real Life.
A totally random amount between 250 and 1000. I’m including this mostly because it amuses me.
Lesson learned: Link XP to something that’s sustainable for the GMs, since they’re the most limited resource.
Play-by-post!
This one is tricky… Many people love PBP. Hell, I love running and being in text scenes. I’ll also be the first to admit that it can take so much time. Our intention with pushing more PBP in the old game was two-fold:
More XP at the end of the month
Allow people to roleplay, with the live games being more combat focused.
In the end, it kind of worked, but it also fed the issue with GMs feeling burnt out due to pressure to post. We created a ton of channels so people could post in set “locations” (think #tavern, #bookstore, #market, etc), but newcomers were overwhelmed by so many options. Also, not everyone likes PBP, and would rather roleplay during a game!
While I don’t want to block PBP (the people who like it REALLY REALLY like it), I think I’ll tweak a few things:
No creating dozens of channels. Instead, keep it to a single digits number. If channels are busy, players can always RP in DMs and post the result later if they want.
Disconnect XP from posts
Offer more games where RP is the focus rather than straight combat.
Lesson learned: PBP is great, but isn’t for everyone.
Time zones!
Good lord, this one bit us so hard.
If you have players separated by an ocean, scheduling games can become complicated fast. Most of our players were in the US, so games in those time zones made sense. This left EU or third-shift players without games unless a US GM was willing to run super late or super early. Personally, I didn’t have a problem running the odd early game on the weekend, but I wasn’t willing to do that every weekend.
I never want to tell someone they can’t play… but on the other hand, it’s not like GMs are paid employees who agreed to all-hours shifts. They’re volunteers who have their own lives, games, and need for sleep.
The solution for this one is tough, and one I’m still working through. “Have GMs in every time zone” isn’t feasible, and having GMs run at all times isn’t sustainable. Some ideas I’ve had:
Have set timeslots and stick to them. This way, incoming people know if the server will work for them.
Don’t set timeslots, but have core hours. For example, if the core hours are weekdays 5-12, games can start no earlier than 5pm, and must end by 12am.
Do nothing and hope for the best? Obviously, this one is my least favorite.
Lesson learned: Round Earth is a terrible design. Whoever thought of it should be fired.
Classes and alts!
One awesome thing about PF2? It’s constantly coming out with new classes and ancestries and heritages! One rough thing about PF2? The exact same thing.
Because games blossom when people bond and make connections, I’m not a huge fan of a revolving door of PCs, especially if players expect that they’ll be pulled into the plot quickly. On the old server, we decided to let people have alts, allowing them to have multiple characters (three, to be exact). Some people loved this, and some had trouble keeping up. Also, to be honest, as a GM it became difficult to keep track of all of the personalities. Classes weren’t as much of a problem as bodies. People want to play with their buddies, but if the buddy is a different level / same class, they may not feel like they can ever be in a game with them.
I still love the idea of alts, because they give the server flexibility and let people try out new stuff without dropping an old character. So… is there a way to meld to two?
My potential fix: Let a PC have more than one build.
This would be built into the story via some sort of magic device. Essentially, PCs would be gifted an artifact that has the “impression” of another former adventurer. How this plays out is up to the player. Maybe it’s just one personality and three different classes, or maybe they choose to have different “personalities”, depending on which class is active.
This is one of those ideas that either have people super excited to play, or who immediately aren’t into it. My hope is that it’s a mechanic that can add to the game without taking away from anyone who would rather just have one class. As someone who never got to play her Rogue main in WoW, I 100% get that.
Lesson learned: Not everyone wants to juggle three personalities, and it can start to tax the GMs.
Streaming!
I’ll be real: This was a lot of fun to do. No, we never had a huge audience, but players who couldn’t join a game could watch, and it was fun to clip moments. I got so used to doing this that I started recording (though not streaming) my regular games.
It does require set-up to do, and a machine beefy enough to handle a VTT, Discord, and OBS at once, but this is one of the things I would pitch to the server as an option. The only problem would be if a player didn’t want to stream, which I 100% get. In that case, some options might be:
Don’t record the game at all
Stream the game through Discord
Record it and post a link to the game later
I’m leaning towards the last one, since if you can stream, you can record.
Lesson learned: A record of games is nice to have!
Final thoughts
Okay, decent write-up, but when is the next game happening? A few months ago, I would have said “January 2023” but… I’m writing this in May 2023, so that obviously didn’t happen.
I would say it would be more likely to happen sometime in 2024. The itch for more loose games is growing, and I have a growing number of people I’d love to play with who can’t commit to a full AP. When it does happen, I’m sure I’ll post about it here!
Right now, we’re seeing 5e GMs checking Pathfinder 2e and asking about what they should know before starting. The advice in the 2e subreddit has been spectacular, like what materials to start with, how to make a sheet easily, and even how to convert beloved characters.
If I had to give just one piece of advice for GMs, it would be this: The balance of power at the table is about to shift. Embrace it.
I don’t mean mechanics, though they do play into it. 5e is considered “cinematic,” which often comes down to bids between players and the GM. Players have an idea, pitch it to the GM, and the GM can set a DC that the player can then try to hit. GM fiat rules the day, encouraged by a ruleset where less is spelled out in favor of a more flexible experience. It can feel like you’re in an action-adventure movie as the scene is played out in the most ” interesting way.”
Pathfinder 2e tends to spell things out more explicitly, meaning GM fiats aren’t as necessary. Nearly every action you can do has been written out in the rules, including DCs and who can attempt them. Of course, GMs have wiggle room, but most tend to roll with what the book says. If a player is given all of the information ahead of time, they can plan their turn without GM input.
Basically, it’s like watching competence porn.
Elle Woods is peak Competence Porn, I am taking no questions at this time.
I’m not even joking: If you sit down with a group of players who know their sheets and know the system, it’s a thing of beauty, watching them take apart an encounter by breaking out every tool in their toolbox. It hits differently, knowing you took out the mouthy bad guy because the bard drained them and boosted everyone else, the caster made them clumsy and on fire, the fighter scared them and put them on the ground, and the ranger then filled them with arrows. That’s where the magic is.
Don’t mess with the magic
If I’ve seen a 5e GM struggle, it’s because they’re used to molding the surroundings to fit the story they want to tell. The problem is that PF2 gives players a robust toolkit, and many players come to know this toolkit inside and out, and they are relentless in deploying that knowledge.
The bad guy is monologuing? Ranger: Hunt prey. Draw longbow. Hunted shot. They’re within 200ft of us if we can hear them, right? GM: Uh, they’re behind a rock. Full cover. Bard: Quickened heightened Dimension Door. Telekinetic Maneuver to get him from behind the rock. GM: ON A CLIFF. Oracle: Moonlight bridge 🙂 Bard: Oh, can I just toss him off the cliff?! Monk: [cracks knuckles, about to do some monk BS]
There’s a reason why Paizo APs don’t have the bad guy monologue unless they’re okay with them biting it at that particular moment. Even in exceptionally well-laid-out APs, I’ve had plans wrecked by a group of players who saw an opportunity no one had thought of and took it, bypassing weeks of material.
That’s because the balance of power has changed.
The balance of power
The GM holds the most power at a typical 5e/cinematic table since everything comes down to their in-the-moment calls. However, as more rules become explicit and call for fewer fiats, the power shifts to the players. I’ve seen 5e GMs struggle with this as they try to wrest power back by blocking feats and abilities.
Maybe they don’t say that the feat doesn’t work… but they’ll move the baddie to what they think is out of range. Or they give them a power they shouldn’t have because it doesn’t exist (think free-action-uninterruptable-teleport). Or they make up reasons specific spells/skills don’t work against that creature.
This isn’t how you end up with a happy table. Players will feel stymied, the GM will feel like they’re plugging holes in a leaking dam, and the story will feel stilted.
A different perspective on stories
So, if you can’t depend on events falling out a certain way without frustrating your players and yourself, is it even possible to plot ahead in strategic games?!
Absolutely. It just takes a shift in your perspective.
The most significant shift is that you stop seeing your plans as plotsto be experienced and more as problems to be solved. You give your players a puzzle, and they have to use their wits and toolkits to figure it out. The story comes from how they do it. You start with the assumption that there’s more than one way to resolve the conflict and that the players will likely surprise you.
One of my favorite scenarios was a murder mystery, where the PCs were tasked to find the body (hidden away), discover who was guilty (probably one of the noble hosts), and find some additional dirt on them (the murder wouldn’t be enough because this was Cheliax). While writing it up, I laid out all that had gone before, who was involved, how, who knew what… but had no idea how they would succeed.
As Matt Colville once said, that wasn’t my problem. That was their problem.
My players were resourceful, using tricks I hadn’t thought of to get information, snoop around, find dirt, and even bring the victim back to life. They even made a few allies along the way! It’s not an outcome I could have predicted, but it’s one that the players still talk about to this day. And, even better, I could just relax and eat cookies while the players planned and poked around, watching them engage with the world without me having to make up anything on the fly.
Ever since Paizo announced the wild ride that would prove to be Gatewalkers, I’ve been dying to run it. A group of people pulled together by weird shit and bounced around the universe to completely new locales? Sign me up! Happily, the crew I stream with on D20Saves was also eager to play it, so I had a ready-made crew!
One downside of running a brand-new AP is that you don’t have many lessons learned from the community to help you out. Therefore, I decided to document my thoughts about the AP, which might help GMs considering it but haven’t started it yet. So, the first part of this post will be about the stream, and the second half will be more GM and prep focused. Spoilers will run rampant in the second half.
Stream
The stream will be every other Wednesday (7:30pm EST) on D20Saves and features most of the crew from our sister stream, Fists of the Ruby Phoenix.
The cast (in alphabetical order, by class):
Dr. Bjorrlbr Wat’Zin, Grippli Cleric of Arazni (@DicePorn)
I can say from a wealth of personal experience that this is a great group to run with: Knowledgeable as hell, but not afraid of just relaxing and having fun with how the story plays out.
You can watch the first episode of Gatewalkers here. I’d embed the video, but apparently, we classify as adult content. Maybe one too many f-bombs? At any rate, in Episode one, the PCs receive a letter from an academic asking them to join him in researching mysterious gates that opened across Golarion some six months ago. This disparate crew is especially motivated since they all went through said gates but returned three months later with no memory of what happened while they were gone…
The GM stuff (SPOILERS BEWARE, PLAYERS GO AWAY)
……
….
…
..
Okay, you’ve had plenty of time to leave. Here there be spoilers.
While prepping this book, I realized this was a packed AP. I’m no stranger to running Adventure Paths, but the content in the first chapter is usually light: The players get to know each other, the GM gets a handle on the world, and you have a few mild encounters to set the mood. In GW? You do a whole investigation, AND you go through a dungeon.
It doesn’t seem to drag, though. There’s always something pushing the players forward, so hopefully, they won’t feel like their level is too delayed. Even so, I got a new shirt to add to my collection.
They say this to me even when I’m not the one GMing.
Another thing that the AP feels like it’s missing is the players meeting each other. To be fair, most APs start with the PCs having minimal reasons to know one another, but in this case, you start on the road, heading toward your first assignment with someone who just hired you. I started the game slightly earlier, giving each player a letter from Dr. Ritalson. The handout:
"My name is Dr. Etward Ritalson, formally of Lepidstadt University. We have more than a few things in common, starting with a particular jaunt through a mysterious portal. While some are content to forget the whole matter, I cannot let such an intriguing (and personal) mystery rest! As such, I have taken a sabbatical from my duties at the University and have dedicated myself full-time to unraveling the missing moment.
"I am reaching out to those who had a similar experience in hopes of putting together a research team. There's too much for one man to do alone, and more minds always make for a better thesis. I have enclosed funds for travel. Any Lodge should be able to teleport you to the Vodavani Lodge or perhaps even the University. The hazard fee is included in the sum reserved for you, so please don't let them upsell you!
"My office is just outside of the University grounds. Anyone should be able to lead you to the office for the Illuminated Consortium of Epopts. I look forward to the work we shall do together!
"Sincerely, ER"
This gave the players a chance to talk about their background, roleplay getting to a lodge (mostly handwaved, but it was amusing to see the differences between all of them), and then give them a chance to meet each other before the Good Doctor (who was out for a few days). Looking ahead to book three, it appears that Dr. Ritalson has a manor in town, complete with staff, so it might be a chance to let the crew get to know some of those NPCs.
The biggest challenge I think the AP will have? Having the players not twig to what’s really going on too early. Already, one jokingly said “X is the behind it all.” I now have book three in hand and… he isn’t wrong.
Anyway, those are my thoughts so far on Gatewalkers. I highly recommend it as an AP, though maybe not if you’re new to Pathfinder, due to deviant abilities and all the jumping around in the world.
Session zeros are awesome. Being an old, I remember a time when they weren’t a thing, and boy, we had so many mis-steps. Beyond lines being crossed, there were very basic things that we missed, like “how long should this campaign be” and “what’s the premise”? Yes, there was a time when you just showed up with a sheet and hoped it would all turn out for the best, and that the GM wouldn’t hit you with “Oh, I decided this would be a low magic campaign and also everyone hates elves” as you sit down with your Elven Wizard. I love a solid Session Zero, and I fully believe they lead to longer, more fulfilling campaigns.
There are great guides out there as to what your session zero should cover, from the game stuff to the safety stuff. There are some things, though, that get left out because they’re boring. People want to talk about the fun stuff, like if characters know each other or if the GM is going to allow third party content. No one wants to talk about spreadsheets.
You need to talk about spreadsheets.
Taking notes
Notes are one of those things that happen accidentally at a table. They honestly shouldn’t be. Notes can be a huge boon to both the players and the GM, since memories get foggy and gaps in play happen.
After you get all the fun and important stuff settled, talk about who’s going to be taking notes. If no one steps up, then talk about that. I’m an avid note-taker, but I know that this isn’t for everyone. This might change how the GM chooses to run the game (fewer subplots, reminding players of critical details) or it might encourage them to record what happened another way (like an actual recording). In a few of the games I GM, no one takes notes, so I use OBS to record the screen and then upload it for everyone later.
Oh, and also important? Where are you keeping the notes?! Decide this, record it somewhere, and keep it pinned. People will keep askingif you don’t.
Loot tracking
If there’s any place that a campaign can go haywire, it’s over loot. I’ve lost entire sessions to someone insisting that at some point, we got a certain wand, and yet no one can find it on their sheet, or discovering that more than one person wrote down a critical item as belonging to them.
Even if no one wants to take notes, I’ll often insist that someone keep track of the loot. In my games, we do this via spreadsheet. It’s taken years, but we finally figured out the minimum number of things you want to track per item:
What was it?
How much is it worth?
How many did you get?
Are we selling it or giving it to someone? Who got it?
How much gold is everyone getting once we hit the pawn shop?
Screenshot of my group’s loot sheet for our Curse of the Crimson Throne game. Each tab covers what we got between our chances to sell stuff. We’re currently in book 5, so we have a LOT of tabs.
Can it seem like a lot to keep track of? Sure. But it’s also stopped several arguments about who got what, or the GM insisting we got X when it was accidentally skipped.
Streaming / Recording
This seems like an odd one to bring up, since wouldn’t you discuss this well before session zero? I’ve seen it happen a few times, though: Mid-game, someone says, hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we could put this on Twitch… Or, hey, we already have these recordings. Why not put them on YouTube?
This is a good time to get everyone’s feeling on this ever happening. Some people work in jobs where they don’t want their face out there. Some are in precarious personal situations. Some just hate how they sound or look in video.
So get everyone’s feeling on this before anyone starts dreaming, because this is an all-yes/one-no situation.
Audio / Video
And while you’re at it, check everyone’s audio and video. Even if you’re all in-person, things happen [waves frantically at the world circa 2020].
Quorum?
The hardest part of playing TTRPGs isn’t punching above your weight class: it’s scheduling. Life is busy. People work late, get sick, have other obligations. What’s your minimum group size?
Your first instinct might be to say “everyone is here or no one plays,” but that’s the fastest way to a dead game. A more nuanced approach is deciding what the minimum number is, and how you’ll deal with balancing for it. For my games, my minimum tends to be three players, and we balance by tossing in an NPC or two during fights so that I don’t have to redo all of my encounters.
You also need to decide what the missing player was doing. I strongly advise against anything that gives anyone IC reasons to snipe at the missing PC. It already sucks that they didn’t get to play with everyone. There’s no need to rub salt in the wound.
Food
Okay, this one feels dumb and obvious, but if you’re eating together, this one thing can make gathering super complicated. I’ve lost so much time during sessions because someone said “hey, is anyone else hungry…?”
So, during session zero, hash out food.
Does anyone have any allergies? Food restrictions?
How about other medical conditions? (Waves in hypoglycemia)
Are we eating during the game? Or should everyone grab their food beforehand?
WHERE are we eating (nothing like being told you can’t eat at the game table, only to find out there’s literally nowhere else with a flat, clear surface)
And the dumbest boring thing…
Dice.
Because people will die on the hill of using physical dice over the VTT roller. Best to know from the beginning, so you can tell them they completely misunderstood what ‘pseudorandom’ means.
Why the boring stuff matters
It can feel like so much of this is silly and pointless, and that it’ll work itself out over time. However, this is the kind of stuff that can derail a session, and I’ve seen some of these things end a really cool campaign well before its time.
When Paizo announced that they were releasing an Adventure Path set in the Crown of the World, my first reaction was to squeal MIMMIFS and immediately recruit a group. Let’s just say I’m super into a campaign where mammoth races could potentially be a thing.
The group
Because people will ask, the group make-up was:
Human Gunslinger
Orc Monk
Human Alchemist
Orc Battle Oracle
Elf Fighter
We opted for monthly play because everyone involved tends to be busy, and bi-weekly slots are precious. Only one person was new to PF2, and everyone had significant experience with TTRPGs. Hell, a few of them had even played in a wilderness campaign before.
The set-up
I decided to run this game with Automatic Bonus Progression, because it takes the pressure off of me as a GM. It means I don’t have to worry about players getting runes at the right time in order to keep balance, and they can save their cash for more interesting options.
I didn’t use Free Archetype because the AP didn’t explicitly recommend it, and none of the players were clamoring for it.
Otherwise, I had no limits, outside of anything tagged Unique. If it’s printed by Paizo, it’s up for grabs.
And… I decided to try something new.
Speed run!
I love the idea of running APs in non-traditional ways. While I still enjoy (and default to) running them as written, I’m drawn to the idea of mucking around with them. For this game, I pitched an idea to the players: SPEED RUN.
Rather than start at level one, players would start at the max level for that book. So, they start the game at level 3, at the start of book 2, they’ll be level 7, and at the start of the last book, they’ll be level 10. My hypothesis was that the players would blast through the first half of the book, but by the end, will be appropriately challenged.
I wasn’t doing this just because I could. My biggest concern with the game was that we could only play once a month, and one player was in a drastically different time zone, so would be staying up until WTF o’clock to play with us. I wanted to keep things moving at a decent clip without taking two years to finish one book. I considered streamlining the AP, but this can be tricky: Sometimes, that innocuous encounter comes up again later, so if you skip it, you could end up having to frantically backfill content.
I already spend enough time prepping. I don’t want to spend even more time re-writing.
In the end, it played out just how I thought: Players raced through the first two chapters, but by the last chapter, were appropriately challenged. This does mean players don’t get a chance to get used to their classes over time, though, so I’d only recommend it for a group with some experience.
So, how’d it go?
Warning: After this point, I will be spoiling with unfettered glee. Abandon all hope of a blind run, and that includes my players.
The book
In this AP, you play as members of the Broken Tusk tribe. The players are at the cusp of being accepted as official scouts, whether they’ve been with the tribe their entire life, or only the past few months. The main conflict is facing off with a rival tribe that they were once a part of, who have, quite frankly, lost their god-damn minds.
When Paizo said that this was a wilderness campaign, they were not joking. There are no towns, encampments, other tribes, magic shops, ANYTHING you can trade with during book one. You do find treasure, but if your group is loot hungry, it won’t be enough to satisfy them. Yes, crafting is a thing, but you spend much of the AP literally on the run. There’s no downtime to speak of, unless you want to risk coming face to face with your rivals.
While there were lots of fights, there were also lots of opportunities to solve conflicts peacefully. Nearly every encounter included a chance to recruit members to your following (something that becomes important later), or to walk away without a fight. If you have players who are always looking to avoid coming to blows, they’ll have lots of chances to stretch their social skills.
What’d the players think?
The players seemed super engaged with the plot, and quickly caught on that they were going to have to take the wilderness part of the story seriously. They also all agreed that without ABP, they would have been struggling.
Also, they hated, and I mean HATED, the personal antagonist. While the Burning Mammoths are the real danger, the face of them throughout the book is Pakano, a jerk from your tribe who defects to the enemy. Something about this NPC rubbed them the wrong way, and the normally peaceful PCs were thirsting for his blood. In fact, one told me that his eventual death didn’t feel badenough.
My thoughts
Personally, I think this is an awesome AP for anyone who’s up for the challenge of surviving in the wild and living communally. The only issue I had was that there was no motivation to explore, since you were being chased. Okay, the Burning Mammoths are way behind you and quite a bit slower, but the pressure is still on. One encounter was so far out of the way that I couldn’t imagine a group ever going that way, unless they were extremely cocky or obsessive completionists.
Even with ABP, loot is still very low, so if you have a hungry group, I’d recommend planting a traveling merchant somewhere, or establishing a crafter in the following who can provide certain items. You may even want to tweak the rules to make crafting on the run easier to do.
I didn’t push hard to get players to grow the tribe, since in this book, it’s not super important. They passed over a few encounters where they could have recruited someone, but this was mostly because they were focused on the task at hand. Having prepped book 2, though, I know I’m going to have to push them to get more people to join up. In fact, I’m going to put a rough counter on the start page so we can all keep track.
My recommendations
Automatic Bonus Progression, in case you missed that
Figure out crafting and/or shopping
Make sure players have their skills covered. There are lots of skill checks in this AP.
If no one is playing a healer, plan for that (or let the bodies hit the floor). Maybe a healer in the tribe, or a steady supply of discount healing potions?
Next book!
I just finished prepping Book 2, and I’m stoked. It has a small dungeon crawl (it’s Paizo, there always has to be at least one), and so many more opportunities for exploration and roleplay. If your players were annoyed by being chased, rest easy, because the Burning Mammoths are basically stuck behind an ice wall, giving players a chance to explore at their leisure.
Author’s note: I’ve recently started a PF2 stream with a few friends on the Twitch channel Roll the Role. The premise: A crew of dhampirs with the same ‘sire’ have banded together to make coin, a name for themselves, and sort out their complicated past and future. This flashback takes place after session session 5.
Absolom seemed to be the place to start. Where else to plan but in the city at the center of the world?
Anna dismissed her driver, sending her off with some coin and a glowing reference. The Kellid woman seemed relieved to go. Ever since taking the position, she’d had nightmares and had been growing ever weaker. Her once ruddy complexion had become sallow and pale. Obviously, traveling in this soft, hot land was taking its toll on her.
Obviously.
Anna set up in a small apartment her father had set up for ‘business.’ As the business was less than gentlemanly, it wasn’t a part of his holdings that the rest of the family knew about. She could remain there unperturbed… mostly.
Lucia kept to herself, mostly hovering in corners, watching Anna sort through papers. She sometimes offered a morose comment, but she was hardly one for conversation. Left to her own devices, Anna noticed that the spirit tended towards household tasks. She even took to braiding Anna’s hair, which was just as well: It wasn’t as if Anna could hire a proper staff.
Still, it was curious, and a clue. Had the spirit been a lady’s maid?
Whatever she had been, a conversationalist she was not. Anna was never overly social, but her time at The Acadamae had given her a taste for company. She found she regretted not doing more to bring back poor Everett, and missed the uneasy banter between herself and Maizon. She wondered if he had made his way to the Magaambya. Perhaps she could visit… but no, that would be too much of a distraction. Besides that, she had read up on the arcane college’s moral bent. She doubted her research would be welcome there.
She sighed. It was a pointless train of thought, at any rate. While she hadn’t been explicit, Maizon was no fool. He realized what she was, and had left as soon as humanly possible. Anyone who realized would quit her company out of ignorant fear and, she had to admit, valid concerns.
She ran her tongue over her sharp cuspid, and an idea came to her. Mortals would flee, but if they were like her…
Her father said little about her condition, save that it was an unfortunate side-effect of his attempt to break the family’s curse. He would obliquely mention a visitor, some sort of expert, in unguarded moments, but if she pressed, he would change the subject. She moved to a trunk that she had yet to unpack and opened it. She hadn’t packed much when she left, but she did take what couldn’t be replaced: The LeClerche registry and journals.
It was the custom amongst the noble class to keep track of who visited the estate, when, and for how long. After all, one never knew when a biographer might see fit to immortalize you, and you would want to prove that you had hosted illustrious individuals. More practically, it allowed the house staff to prepare for a returning guest.
Anna flipped through the leather bound journal, scanning until she got to her birth. No, she knew all these names… family, clergy, healers. Back further, then. Few visitors during her mother’s confinement. A dinner party with cousins. A visit from some of father’s business associates. And then…
She found it. Her blood turned to ice.
Julian. A viscount, with a family name she can barely make out. He stayed for a month, so obviously a traveler from far. That month? Nine months before her birth.
She did some quick mental math. A human pregnancy is 40 weeks, but two of those weeks don’t count. Her mother may have already been with child when he arrived… or Anna may have arrived early.
She stared at the name. She had her father’s journals, but she’d never seen mention of a Viscount, nor a Julian. She’d read over the events of her birth more times than she could count on the way to Absolom, and outside of family and healers, there were no visitors. Her father had always been a voracious journaler, never leaving out a detail of leading his household. Would he have been able to resist recording such an auspicious visit?
Of course not. Not unless he wanted to hide something…
She found herself looking around the sitting room. The accommodations were lush in a way her home never was: Deep, soft fabrics, overstuffed divans, candleholders placed just so in order to give guests a lovely glow to their skin, suggestive paintings of fruit and scantily clad nymphs. A love nest for a man who, at home, was formal to a fault and never drank more than one glass of wine in an evening.
If he had kept a secret apartment, then why not a secret journal…?
She was on her feet in a second, tearing apart the desk. Lucia rose from her morose reverie. [Mistress? What do you seek?]
“A journal. One my father kept.” The spirit looked at the trunk Anna had brought with her. “No, not any of those. One that’s here. It might be hidden, or it might be out…”
It took an hour. The bookshelves were emptied, the desks and curios gutted, the walls tapped upon. Anna finally found it: A slim green volume, just like the others, with only one difference: The pages were gilded silver rather than gold. A subtle difference, but one that would stand out to one in the know. She opened it, and her father’s words stared back at her.
Met with the most unusual gentleman at Mistress Honeysuckle’s salon. A Viscount… My favorite practitioner had taken ill, so I spent the evening talking with him instead. I find myself envious of how well-traveled he is. I can barely extract myself from my responsibilities long enough to look after our interests here once a month.
She looked at the date. A year before her mother would have fallen pregnant with her. She scanned forward. It seemed that every time her father made his way to Absolom, he made certain to find time to spend with the mysterious Viscount. ‘Smitten’ was the only word she could use to describe his entries.
Nine months after their first meeting: He asked if the rumors of the LeClerche curse were true, and I confess, I was too drunk to be a convincing liar. A fortunate folly, though, for it seems he has some ideas on how to break it… He spoke of previous ‘experiments’, but I was too much in my spirits to retain details. Not that it matters. Vincent is terribly clever, and I confess, my training was scant at best.
She stared at the words for a long time. Experiment.
And she wasn’t the only one.
And her father… not a bad man. Never a bad man. But obviously pulled too easily into someone’s confidence. She suspected his favorite ‘practitioner’ falling ill was no accident. Anna never knew her mother, but by all accounts, she was a lovely and mild woman… And even if she were a shrew, she was Anna’s shrew.
Carefully, she paged back to their first meeting and started making notes. Where had the Viscount been. How long had he stayed. What names he dropped. It wasn’t much information, but it was enough, for she knew two things: She wasn’t alone, and this man had likely killed her mother and preyed upon her father’s hope. He promised a cure and left behind a monster. Well, so be it. A plan was forming her head:
I want to start off things on the right foot: When it comes to tarot, I am at best a dilletante. I got into it back when I was in high school in the mid- to late-nineties, when there was a resurgence in interest in anything “New Age.” I had runestones, crystals, decks of all kinds, books on numerology, reading palms and tea leaves. I had pretty much everything but astrology.
Ya girl was woo as hell.
These days, I view most of those things as interesting, but tend to use them as tools in creative pursuits or self-reflection. If you’re a believer, trust me, I don’t mean any of what follows as any sort of insult, but you may want to skip the rest of this post.
For those of you who are still here, let’s talk about tarot and RPGs!
Tarot and planning
While most of the games I run are pre-written, I also run games that are completely homebrew plots. For these, I’ve found that using tarot as a kind of prompt has helped me come up with scenarios that I may not have reached for before because I’m a bit of a softie. Tarot cards are not soft.
The idea behind a tarot spread is that you lay out cards in a pre-determined pattern, with each position having a different question, and each card having a different meaning. If a card is reversed (upside down) the meaning is going to altered (usually worse, but not always). There’s a lot more that can go into it, but for our purposes, this is enough to work off of.
My favorite spread for this sort of planning is the Celtic Cross. I don’t use it quite like you might find in any guide, since we’re not looking to tell a fortune. We’re looking for inspiration. I don’t even try to use all of the cards. I use the ones that stick out to me as being potentially interesting for the game to pivot around.
Resources
You’ll need a few things to get started. Thankfully, they can all be found for free or cheap!
Cards: I love using physical cards (they’re just so pretty!), but you can find all sorts of apps and websites that will let you draw a random card. Just make sure, if you choose an app or a site, that the drawn cards are sometimes reversed.
A guide: There’s so many books, sites, and apps out there to tell you what all the cards mean. Hell, if you bought a deck, it’ll come with a little guide. The trick is finding a good one that hasn’t gone soft. Some modern guides try to put a positive spin on every card, and some even leave out the reverse meanings. We are not here to give your players a good time. We’re here for mayhem.
A quick way to see if a guide is soft? Look for their interpretation of The Tower. If you think “Hey, that doesn’t sound too bad,” put it back and keep looking. The Tower is pretty much always bad. I’ve linked some of my favorite resources at the end of this post.
The layout: The Celtic Cross
The Celtic Cross layout! Terrible graphic by me.
As I said before, I like using the Celtic Cross because it covers a lot of ground. You may get inspiration from an event you can introduce during the game, or it may remind you of an event in the past that you should drag up.
It’s a rather old layout (it’s first referenced around 1910, but it could be older? Or it could have been made up by the author. Tarot history can get wobbly), so you’ll find a ton of variations out there. This is what I came up with specifically for planning a game.
1: The current situation
This card is all about the status quo, or rather, a part of it. Is this aspect of ‘now’ something you can focus on? Maybe give players a moment to chill out in the present? Consider this card with the next card, which is…
2: An obstacle or challenge
This card covers the first card because it’s what is going to shake up the status quo. If the first card was a peaceful one, this could be what disrupts the calm. If the first card is gloomy and chaotic, this might be what makes it worse. In short, this card kicks the players in the pants.
3: The past
What happened in previous games, or before the game even started? Even if it’s the first session, a game has a past. The world existed before the PCs showed up (unless you’re playing a really out there system). This card might inspire you to bring this bit of history back for the players to deal with.
4: The future
What could be happening in the near future that you could drop hints about? This card deals with the immediate future. We’re talking weeks, not years. Unlike the second card, this is less a kick in the pants, and more a note that the players are scheduled to be kicked in the pants next month.
5: Current concerns
What are the players openly concerned about? A table of observant players are always worried about something. Someone finding that body. Losing position. That dragon finally showing up. This card might inspire you to press on something the PCs have openly worried about.
6: Secrets
Players also have things they tend to hide: A secret tryst, a worrisome bit of their backstory, a stolen trinket, a promise made behind closed doors, hidden feelings… What’s going on beneath the surface? This card might inspire you to drag that morsel into the light.
7: Advice
This one is pretty straightforward: What’s a piece of advice or a request that could be made of the PCs? I like working with this one because it can get the PCs moving in a completely different direction than they’re used to.
8: NPCs
Most games have a number of NPCs knocking around, doing their own thing. If this card reminds you of one of them (or a group!) maybe it’s time for them to come back and poke the PCs some.
9: Hopes / Fears
What are the players striving for, and what are they running from? If this card plays into your player’s deepest fears or furthest hope, now might be the time to play on those. After all, a fear isn’t worth anything if it never happens, and hope is for naught if it’s always just out of reach.
10: Outcome
Is this something you could hint at happening (especially in conjunction with one of the other cards)? If it’s good, you can use it as a carrot. If it’s bad, it’s what should be avoided. This card should not be taken as a given, since it’s only one of many possible outcomes. Players still need to work towards this if it’s positive, or against it if it’s a negative outcome.
Reading time!
Once you have your cards laid out, write down all of the positions and meanings, then start looking for things to jump out at you. I never use the whole reading, but rather pick a few cards that give me an interesting direction to move in. Maybe they’re evocative… but maybe they just remind me of something I’d been meaning to return to from a previous game.
I do recommend resisting the urge to do another layout if the current one doesn’t appeal to you. When you do that, it’s often because you’re looking for something safe, and that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to shake things up. So spend some time pairing up different cards/interpretations to see what might take your story forward in the most interesting way.
A sample layout
I tend to use this layout the most with my VTM games, since those tend to be less tightly plotted. Vampires have a tendency to make their own problems, so it’s often wiser to just set up a situation and see how kind the dice are to them that evening. This is the layout I drew for them:
The deck, if you’re curious, is The Shadowland Tarot by Monica Bodirsky. Also, my 14yo upon seeing the spread: “Sucks to be them…”
First, I did a quick and dirty reading, which was just me writing down the cards, positions, and some of the meanings that stood out to me.
Position
Card
Meaning
Interpretation
Situation
Death
Endings, change, transitions
I tend to run games in arcs. Could the game be ready for the next arc?
Obstacle
7 of Wands, Reversed
Exhaustion, giving up, overwhelmed
Has someone been pushed to the brink recently? Could we get them there?
Past
6 of Cups, Reversed
Living in the past…
Maybe an older vampire… One who’s been mentioned before?
Future
5 of Cups, Reversed
Personal setbacks, moving on
Once again, maybe the players are meant to be moving on to a new arc…
Current concerns
The World, Reversed
Seeking personal closure
Are there any personal plots that the players want to see wrapped up?
Secrets
The Devil
Addiction, restriction, sexuality
Maybe poke the players’ baser natures, which they spend a lot of time repressing
Advice
Page of Swords
New ideas….
Someone could prod them to go in a new direction?
NPCs
5 of Swords
Conflict, winning at all costs
Could that old vampire be looking to win at any cost?
Hopes / Fears
The Empress, Reversed
Dependence on others
Absolutely something the group fears. Play on that.
Outcome
8 of Swords
Imprisonment, negative thoughts
So the stick rather than the carrot: Something to work against, since the group tends towards being hopeful
After writing down all the meanings, I realized that I probably should kick off the next arc, which I’d been putting off. So many of the cards pointed towards change, decisions, and showdowns. In the end, it worked out perfectly: A (very, very) old Kindred showing up in town came looking for a place to settle (conquer), which kicked the crew into high gear. They were forced to band together and make some big decisions. Not only did they have to decide what to do with the old guy, but they had to decide what they, as a group, stood for.
Sure, I could have read the cards differently, but this methodology is all about inspiration and letting a mix of chance and context take you to new, interesting places.
Favorite Resources
One would think I’d have a ton of books about tarot cards, but when it comes to interpretation, I tend to prefer apps and websites.
Biddy Tarot: I use this site for card meanings, but also potential layouts. For quick readings, I love their list of three card layouts. They also have a great run-down of the Celtic Cross spread.
If I’m on the go, I use the app from Labyrinthos. It has a good database, and you can do a layout on your phone (and yes, it has reversed cards!).
The book that inspired me to use tarot for game planning was Corrine Kenner’s Tarot for Writers. A great book with some alternative layouts that are geared towards plot rather than traditional readings.
If I’m at my desk, I use this absolutely baller Google sheet (via Reddit) by u/adlist for looking up meanings, grabbed from various sources.
Physical cards: 100% optional, but if you decide to get a deck, make sure you get one with the traditional cards. That means 78 cards, major and minor arcana. There’s some decks out there that have their own system, which is fine, but I find that traditional cards Rider Waite set to be the most varied. Llewellyn Publications makes some super nice sets, and tend to be my go-to.
An alter cloth: Even if you’re not into new age, there’s a very good reason to get a piece of cloth to read on: It protects your cards. You don’t need anything fancy! I’ve used t-shirts and dishtowels when I’m not sure if my my table is perfectly oil-free.
Katie Plays Games 