Against the Aeon Throne: Book 1 – GM thoughts

Ages ago, I grabbed a good chunk of the Starfinder RPG off of Humble Bundle. As a system, it’s always fascinated me: Magic and sci-fi with a healthy sense of humor mingled with world-shattering threats to keep things interesting. When my Abomination Vaults game ended, I asked my pool of players if anyone might be interested in magic and guns in space.

I got an enthusiastic response. The players were all experienced with RPGs, with everyone having experience with Pathfinder (some 1e, some 2e, some both). Only one player had ever played Starfinder, though, so we were still readying ourselves for a learning curve.

The party:

Trox Nanocyte
Vesk Vanguard
Kitsune Witchwarper
Dirindi Operative
Human Mechanic + his artillery drone
Lashunta Technomancer
Lashunta Envoy
Kasatha Mystic

Yes, it’s a large party, but we operate on a quorum system. If four players can make it, we play, and assume the other PCs are off doing something else. So far, though, games have hit at least 80% attendance, so we’ve still had a large party on average!

Thoughts on moving to Starfinder 1e

First off, I’ll say that everyone in the game has loved Starfinder, and I’m kicking myself for not starting a game sooner. This fun world has been sitting on my shelf for years!

There have been a few hiccups that, while not insurmountable, would be worth considering for any other group looking to try SF1e out.

Experience is a double-edged sword. The group is made up of highly experienced players, but sometimes this tripped us up. SF1e rules are similar to PF1 and PF2, but they’re not the same. The first few sessions had us mixing in rules from the Pathfinder systems at random until we got serious about looking everything up.
Starship combat threw us for a loop. I’m sure an experienced group could have tackled the few starship combats in Book One in under an hour. We took an embarrassingly long time. For book 1, I wanted to use the standard rules, but moving forward, I may move to the cinematic system from Starfinder Enhanced.
Some habits needed to change. Loot is less valuable in SF1e. If you’re not going to use it, you should probably leave it. Also, one cannot get by just swinging a vibroblade. You need a gun in space.
Encounter balance is… different? Because our group was large, I thought I’d rebalance the encounters so that everyone would get a turn. Except, when I ran the numbers through a calculator, it turned out I didn’t need to adjust anything. I still need to look into how the system is balanced, but in practice, the encounters were perfectly fine without adjustment.

Thoughts on Book 1

Spoilers ahoy after this point!

Dear lord, this book moves fast. Looking at our recordings, it took us 19 hours to finish book 1. Had we been more experienced, I’m sure that would have been closer to 15. A book of an AP usually takes us closer to 24 hours. Some might say that having a larger group made it move faster, but I’m not sure about that, since it also slowed us down (more abilities to look up, more pauses to ask about a mechanic, etc).

Also, this AP has a much slower leveling curve than others, which has been a boon for a new group. You only hit three at the end of book 1, while other first books have you ending at 4. I have to say, I was impressed with how much the crew could do at super low levels, so I’d say this is system where you probably don’t want to skip the early levels with newish players.

That said, I do feel like Against the Aeon Throne is a good candidate for a speed-run. You’re gated between books, so players can’t sequence-break the encounters. The low levels mean the players wouldn’t be getting too much of a power boost, but they could churn through some encounters faster, and have slightly better odds of accessing some lore and paths that are locked behind skill checks. It could turn the AP into something closer to an adventure if your group isn’t looking to invest in a long-term campaign.

I’ll probably be back here soon with thoughts on book two, because we’re darn close to finishing part two. Like I said, it moves FAST.

Screamsheet: Entrance Exams

“Entrance Exams” is a one-shot Screamsheet that should take no more than one session to complete. It’s a part of The Big Book of Screamsheets project.

Player Information

When your favorite bartender calls in a favor, it’s probably a good idea to do it. Besides, how hard can tracking down a few stupid kids be in Night City? It’s finals season, so it’s not like they could have gone far…

Download the screamsheet and GM details here!

Features

Combat
Investigation
Social interactions
Stays in town
Linear plot

Note: Due to some of the themes in this screamsheet, the GM should read it fully before running it.

Screamsheet: When the Lights Go Down in the Badlands

“When the Lights…” is a one-shot Screamsheet that should take no more than one session to complete. It’s a part of The Big Book of Screamsheets project.

Player Information

Sometimes, you find the gig. Sometimes, the gig finds you. When rent is due and you’re out of kibble, who can be picky? Besides, it has to be good karma to help out some choom stuck out in the Badlands…

Download the screamsheet and GM details here!

Features

Combat
Investigation
Social interactions
Badlands / Vehicles
Linear plot

Gatewalkers AP: Book 3 Chapter 2 Recap and GM Insights

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 to determine the cause of a global amnesic episode. Their quest takes them to lands near, far, and outside this reality altogether. Along the way, the characters meet fellow “gatewalkers,” defeat alien monsters, and explore strange realms touched by the 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 are spoilers for the end of Book Two. Part two will include my thoughts as a GM, so there are major spoilers for the AP overall.

Check out the playlist here if you want to watch the previous episodes.

Recap

This chapter features a trek across the unforgiving High Ice as the players make their way to the Nameless Spires. Though they’ve been given some tools to help them survive, it’s still a relentless journey that wears down not only their bodies, but their minds. Every day is a struggle to push forward, and the ice isn’t as uninhabited as they might have hoped. Every night is a battle with Osoyo, who sense their approach and tries to reassert his dominance over his former thralls.

Just as the journey seems likely to break the heroes, they enter The Dreaming with Snowy Owl. There, they witness a tearful reunion with Sakuachi’s grandmother, who seems to have been waiting for them. She helps them recover the last of their missing memories, offers them a final boon, and then moves their hut to within a day’s walk of the Spires. Osoyo must be resealed soon, or all of Golarion will suffer.

Jorge, Don, Ricardo, James, and Daton: I love you all, but you need to LEAVE this post now! Spoilers ahead!

GM thoughts

This is probably the second most griped about section of Gatewalkers. Personally, my players and I enjoyed it, but I made some modifications (shocking, I know).

Pre-rolling: In another AP I’m running [Frozen Link], there’s a section that requires rolling on multiple tables every day. I knew this could get fairly tedious and might lead to the players not seeing some of the cooler encounters. So, for this section, I pre-rolled every day. For the most part, I stuck to what I rolled, but in a few cases, I swapped in an encounter I knew they’d enjoy (my players love a good beatdown).

One thing I wish I had done was figure out how I was going to track expedition points ahead of time. If I were to do it again, I would have kept track of the total points rather than zeroing them out at 8 points. It’s less ambiguous, and I’ll take recalling my timetables from third grade over trying to figure out bad accounting.

Another change I made was killing off Seshu, the grandmother, in order to patch up a few plot holes. The first hole is why Seshu didn’t give poor Sakuachi the full details before she left on her journey. I played it off as Seshu not having the full details herself until she was sent to the graveyard. The second isn’t from the books, but from my players: Our Champion had been searching for his wife this whole time, since she was gone when he returned from the Missing Moment. Guess who else was dead?

I swear, I’m not usually this wanton with the death, but this dream was the last chance to tie up his personal plot neatly. Sorry, Jorge! I promise, I’ll let the next spouse live!

Looking forward

Up next is the last chapter of the AP, which still feels unreal. This AP moves fast if the players stay on task, but is still chock full of different backdrops and challenges.

Screamsheet: The “It” Girl

“The ‘It’ Girl” is a one-shot Screamsheet that should take no more than one session to complete. It’s a part of The Big Book of Screamsheets project (the first one!).

Player Information

It’s a quiet evening in NC. Gangs seem to have taken a holiday, no one’s agent is buzzing with potential gigs, and even the screamsheets are full of filler. Great for NC citizens, but bad for business. It’s so bad, the crew has resorted to looking at the lifestyle section to find some way to get work…

Download the screamsheet and GM details here!

Features

Combat
Investigation
Social interactions
In-town antics
All roads lead to Rome

The Big Book of Screamsheets

A few months ago, my VTM group, having hit peak chaos that you can achieve in V5, transitioned over to Cyberpunk Red. I have to say, I’m thoroughly enjoying the system, though I was distressed at how quickly I ran through the pre-written one-shots (called Screamsheets in the CPR ecosystem). For those not in the know, a screamsheet is a one-page sheet that mimics a local newspaper, often with a supplementary adventure to go with it. They’re an awesome way to kick off a session by giving the players something to look over and research while you get the last of your GM bits and bobs in a row.

Around the time I ran out of screamsheets, I was reading The Big Book of Cyberpunk for inspiration, which is a collection of over a hundred cyberpunk short stories. I realized that quite a few of them would make decent adventures on their own if you ripped the protagonists out and plopped the crew in. Thus, a new project was born: The Big Book of Screamsheets!

(Note: I’m calling it the “Big Book of Screamsheets” as an homage to the inspiration, not as a promise to publish 100+ screamsheets.)

Each screamsheet is inspired by a story from The Big Book of Cyberpunk. Reading the story isn’t required for running the sheet, and ‘inspired’ may be doing some heavy lifting. Sometimes, I lift the whole plot. Sometimes, I just take an element that I found to be interesting and expand on it. Also, because the story’s title could be a spoiler, I only include it in the GM notes at the end.

A bit about my style

Because I know my players will grab onto any potential hook like a terrier with a stolen bone, I don’t tend to put red herrings in my games. My screamsheets reflect this, with each story leading to uncovering a part of the underlying plot. Even in games that start with the crew getting the hook directly, the stories will help them uncover clues as to what the heck is going on. Each story has their own set of skills that can be used for research, as well as what information certain DVs will get them.

I also tend to take an ‘all roads lead to Rome’ perspective when it comes to plot: There are many ways to get pulled in, but everything will lead to one final resolution. That said, there isn’t one given outcome assumed. While one group may negotiate with words, another might use guns, and that’s perfectly fine.

When it comes to combat, I give some guidance as to how many combatants, but nothing is set in stone. Crank up the heat as needed.

Finally, I have a section on ways the crew could get paid, though not how much. I leave that to the GM since they know how much they want their players to feast or starve.

The Screamsheets!

Enough chatter! Let’s get to the screamsheets!

New Tool: The Net Architecture Generator for Cyberpunk Red!

When new coders ask me about ideas for personal projects, I always tell them to solve the little annoyances in their lives. Maybe it’s a template engine for sending out repetitive emails. Maybe it’s a script that helps you clean up messy spreadsheets. Or, in my case, it’s a bunch of little tools to help me run my tabletop games.

I recently started co-running Cyberpunk Red games, and I realized I was choking when it came to giving our poor netrunner something to do. Red has absolutely made netrunning during combat feasible, but it still requires a different sort of prep than it does for the meatbags in the group. Enter the Net Architecture Generator!

How does it work?

Launch the app (of course).
Select the difficulty. “Interface” is the Netrunner’s Role Ability. An arch that’s too hard for a netrunner could easily fry them, so be careful about tossing them into the deep end.
Click “Generate Floors” (the button won’t appear until you’ve selected a difficulty).
To reveal a floor, click on it. If you want to hide it again due to a mis-click, left-click on it. Scroll down or use the arrow keys to show the rest of the architecture.
Click on the green arrow to go back, if you want to select a different difficulty.

A Basic NetArch with no floors revealed yet

What doesn’t it do?

According to the rules in CPR, an arch can branch multiple times. I made the maximum number of branches one, because I was under a bit of a time crunch. I wanted to test it out in an actual game, and I also had another project I wanted to get back to. I may update it to have more branches in the future, but so far, one branch meets my needs.

Also, due to said time crunch, the entire arch is visible at the start. This is fine if the GM is narrating the arch, but it isn’t ideal if the player can see the app. This is something I intend to update at a future date, although I haven’t found it to be a significant issue in games.

What is it written in?

Godot! For those who don’t know, Godot is a free and open-source game engine. I’ve been toying around with it since the Unity debacle, and I adore it. Though I could have written this in a number of other languages, I’ve been trying to push myself when it comes to using GDScript.

How do I get it?!

If you’re on Windows (or are running WINE), here’s an executable!

NetArchGenerator 1.0 Download

If you’d prefer to run it through a browser, I did an HTML5 export. However, be warned, it’s a tiny bit wonky.

NetArchGenerator (Web Version)

I found a bug!

I’m not shocked, since this was something I slapped together during lunch breaks and while waiting for dinner to finish. Drop me a line via my contact page, and I’ll look into it.

Can I contribute?

Sure! I’m not the fastest one to accept merge requests, but I welcome all well-intentioned updates. Just don’t judge my code too harshly. This was a ‘get it done’ project, not a ‘hang in a museum’ project.

NetArchGenerator at GitHub

Abomination Vaults: Stripping it for Parts

I’m a huge lover of Paizo’s Adventure paths. They’re a huge timesaver for busy GMs, and not just those who want to run a long pre-written campaign! You can easily pull out interesting scenarios from the APs, rub off a few serial numbers, and slot them into your custom campaign with no one the wiser. I’ve written about this for other APs, and now it’s time for me to give Abomination Vaults the same treatment.

Overall notes

Abomination Vaults is a unique campaign in that each chapter is a floor. Because of how the vaults are set up, there’s many floors you could pull out on their own and plop into a campaign. Creatures tend to stick to their designated areas, so there’s no worry about the floors bleeding together. They also tend to all have their own theme, based on who’s moved in.

You also don’t have to use the whole floor, since many have encounters that are self-contained enough to pull out and plop in the basement of some BBEG’s lair or in your own dungeon.

Book one

Otari

One major thing you can pull from this book is the town of Otari. It’s a small port town that’s perfect for adventurers just starting out. It’s filled with interesting characters who have their own potential plots going on, and it’s not too far off from Absolom. It could be a fun place for PCs to start their adventure, stock up, or save at some point.

Floor 1: Ruins of Gauntlight

The first floor is completely above ground, so it would fit in any swamp-like setting. It’s filled with the sorts of creatures you could see cramming into a deteriorating structure, including natural creatures, the fey, and even an undead or two. There’s even non-combat encounters, including a brownie that my group adopted (Tangletop!) and a tribe of mitflits (who my players immediately slaughtered).

Possible hooks:

The PCs need to clear this old fort / lighthouse / whatever out for cold hard cash.
The party stumbles upon the structure and decides to make it a new hideout.
They’re there to ‘rescue’ the soulbound doll Mister Beak (the previous owner doesn’t know the doll left of his own accord and has fallen in with a bad crowd).
The locals think the old outpost is haunted, but it turns out that this is just Tangletop trying to keep the other creatures nearby away.

Floor 2: The Forgotten Dungeon

This is the first floor that’s completely underground. It has an interesting mix of creatures, with a dose of undead, aberrations, and even some infernal! The overall vibe I get from this floor is that of an abandoned villain’s lair. The old experiments have broken loose, the old staff has been turned, and the devils are stuck until their contract is completed. This also features a fight with a river drake that thoroughly handed my players their butts the first time they encountered it.

Possible hooks:

That drake has taken up residence in an abandoned structure outside of town, and it’s bothering the residents. The party has been hired to get rid of it… but no one knew that the abandoned mansion wasn’t so abandoned.
If you have a BBEG in your campaign, this could be an old lair of his before he upgraded. Crawling through it could give your party more information about their potential rival.
If you want to make allies of the morlocks, they want their old digs back, but aren’t quite up to the task of clearing them out. They do have their old boss’s funds, so they’re willing to throw money at the problem! Just don’t ask what happened to him…

Floor 3: Cult of the Canker

An undead library! This floor is a library populated by intelligent undead, so could fit in many places: Geb, a necromancer’s lair, the site of a former cult that went in a bit too hard… And, being a library, it’s a great place to drop lore or information that would be difficult to deliver via NPC. It also features an NPC who became a fast favorite of my group: Augrael! He’s a friendly ghoul who really just wants to sit in his cubby hole and read his books (I made him a fan of bodice rippers, but you do you). He’s not a fan of his ‘coworkers’, so he can offer a place for the party to rest and heal.

Possibly hooks:

This library used to belong to the group’s patron, but it was taken over by a cult of undead morlocks.
This library belongs to the BBEG of the campaign, and could offer clues about their motivations and abilities.
It could be a non-combat location if your party is in Geb or an otherwise undead-friendly location.
The group has been tasked with delivering books to Augreal… they just have to find him first amidst all the hostile undead.

Floor 4: An abandoned retreat

The theme for the fourth floor is a luxurious retreat for a villain that has been long abandoned. Of course, other creatures have moved in, and some unfortunate individuals were never able to leave. There’s a mix of undead, aberrations, and demonic, so a little bit of something for everyone. The main goal of this floor is to find the ghost of a long-dead adventurer so he can give you a lore dump, but he can easily be swapped out for anything that would suit your campaign better.

Possible hooks:

Something has been harassing the local town… turns out it’s a werewolf, holed up in some local caves. Time to problem solve!
If you have a BBEG, this would be a great place for the players to learn about them without being face to face.
Or, heck, clean up the descriptions slightly and pop your BBEG in there! They could take the place of the voidglutton (who can be rough on a level 4 party)
An adventuring party lost one of its members when they separated in the dungeon. They’ve come down with a case of being lily-livered, so have hired you to find their friend.

Book 2

Book two includes quite a few side quests for the party, and they’re fairly easy to pop into most campaigns.

The Stolen Blade

A famous sword, passed down over generations, has been stolen. The owner knows who it was, but doesn’t know where the culprit is, and doesn’t reveal to the party why the thief may actually have a claim to it. This quest has the players bouncing around town a bit to find clues, then cornering the thief in a cave before he can run off with his prize.

Dorianna’s Dreams

The party has been approached about a young woman in town who’s been suffering from increasingly strong nightmares, none of which she remembers upon waking. Her father is desperate to find the cause and do whatever it takes to heal her. This has the party doing some investigation based on their own wits (or what wits they can hire), and leads them eventually to a confrontation with a creature from Leng.

Floors 5 and 6: The Arena and Labs

These floors go together, if you’re plugging whole floors into your campaign. The first is the largely abandoned lair of a BBEG (starting to see a theme?), while the second level is occupied by various groups that have moved in. The most striking feature is one that spans both floors: An enormous colosseum that currently houses a shanrigol behemoth, but this could be swapped out for most gargantuan creatures. Outside of the arena, there are signs of terrible experiments being done in the past, some of which are still being carried out.

The arena isn’t the only feature of the floors. Floor six has a tavern, with its very own punk band!. Honestly, if you steal anything from this book, let it be these guys. They deserve to make it big in more campaigns.

Possible hooks:

Once again, this is a good addition to any campaign where the players are chasing a somewhat unhinged BBEG. There’s lots of places to sprinkle clues about what their nemesis can do, and hooks to where they should go next.
A talent scout has contracted the party, with rumors of a band with a hot new sound… they just have to make their way to them. Easy money!
The party hears a rumor of an undefeated champion somewhere near their home. It’s not really their problem… but someone keeps luring young idiots to challenge it, and no one has come back…

Floor 7: Soul Keepers

This floor is more devil-y than some of the others, and includes a puzzle that has the players collecting various keys around the dungeon in order to open a magically sealed door. It also has a collection of stasis chambers that can have players either saying “Let’s poke every button” or “Absolutely not” and turning their heel. The ‘big bad’ of the floor is a contract devil eager to make a deal in order to get a soul owed to him, so meeting him could lead to a fun new plot or a blow-out of a fight.

Possible hooks:

Set this in Chelliax, and it’s just another admin building! If the players aren’t on the offensive, they have a handful of interesting NPCs to talk to. If they’re there to throw down, it’s already thematic!
Odd requests have been popping up on the request board in town: Find certain creatures, but do not kill them. Capture them, then leave them in a clearing outside town. The mayor wants to know what’s behind this.
If the party is morally grey, they receive a letter requesting help tracking down a certain ne’er-do-well and bringing him to a newly rented office in town. It reads like the guy owes someone money, but something feels off…
A tiefling bounty hunter has gone missing, and his partner is desperate to find him. Everyone thinks he just skipped town, but she knows him better than that…

Book 3

Normally, by the last book in an AP, I don’t have much to suggest when it comes to plundering. AV, however, still has lots to borrow and shove into your own games! Book three has a few clusters of NPCs, some interesting dungeons, and a big set-piece for whatever BBEG you might have in your campaign.

Floor 8: Decaying Gardens

The major NPCs of this floor are a group of Calgni cultists… but nice ones! They probably won’t turn the party into soup since they’re so intent on finding their oracle who hears whispers from a magical MacGuffin. They’re more than happy to work with the party, given that they’re polite and don’t poke them too hard about their strange beliefs. On the less cult-y side of things are a small party of Drow / cave elves who are hunting these wild caves for food and sport. The caves also feature wee bog mummies (their original bodies came from deep gnomes) and a delightful mix of deadly flora and fauna.

Potential hooks:

The friendly cult is in freakout mode, since their oracle wandered off. They need you to find him and bring him back, unharmed… though one might bribe the party to lead him somewhere even more secret, and tell only her the location.
The drow have been tasked with getting this floor under control, but they’ll begrudgingly admit they bit off more than they could chew. Since the party is hanging around and looking dangerous anyway, maybe they could help out?
Not far out of town, the roof of a cavern has fallen in, revealing dangerous previously unknown in the peaceful village. The mayor is asking for someone to come and ‘neutralize’ the cave, either through negotiations or violence.

Floor 9: Hunting Grounds

This floor has two groups of NPCs that you could easily pluck up and place into a campaign that has any access to the underdark. The first is a sizable enclave of Drow (the ones the hunters on floor 8 belong to, but you can easily just use them) who are stuck where they are due to previous vows, but would really rather go home. The other is a group of Caligni who would also prefer to return to their main settlement deep in the Underdark, but are blocked from going back. There’s also a group of immediately hostile urdefhan and an abandoned temple that could be scooped up and reused.

Potential hooks:

The Drow hunters have lost track of a precious MacGuffin (a crystal lens in the AP, but it can be anything). They can’t return to their people without it, but their attempts to find it have been thwarted by a cave system filled with dangerous flora and fauna.
The Caligni outpost was only supposed to be out here for a few months, mapping this section of the Underdark. While they were working, however, their way back has been blocked by a dragon. Being a selection of slightly sturdy cartographers, they’re stuck where they are until someone takes care of the problem for them.
A mysterious temple has been discovered outside of an abandoned settlement. The party is hired to check it out and document it for a local historian. This could easily lead to floor 10, or a plot of the GM’s choice.
A town has been reporting disappearances, mostly of scouts or individuals who live alone in the outskirts. An investigation points to a cavern that’s supposed to be empty… or at least, it was.

Floor 10: The Temple

The last floor! This entire floor is a gauntlet, with the players being pushed through various challenges meant to wear them down. That isn’t a metaphor, by the way. It was literally built for the followers of the BBEG of AV to prove themselves. For your players, it could be that, or it could be the barriers set in place by their foe to slow them down.

Potential hooks:

Obviously, this could be put in place by their nemesis to keep their inner sanctum from being invaded by the unworthy. If you do this, you may want to remove a room that’s explicitly set aside for their peons to rest in before entering the sanctum.
This could also be presented as a challenge to overcome. A local lodge has set it up as a way to train potential Pathfinders more efficiently than tossing them to someone more experienced and saying “Good luck!”
Or you could do a bit of both. The party has been tasked with infiltrating a local cult, and if they choose the sneaky option, they could pretend to be members in order to get a shot at the big boss.

Final thoughts

AV is hands down one of my favorite APs, mostly because it’s filled with so many fun and varied encounters. I really hope more people give it a go, either as an AP, or inserting chunks of it into their ongoing campaign.

Gatewalkers AP: Book 3 Chapter 1 Recap and GM Insights

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 to determine the cause of a global amnesic episode. Their quest takes them to lands near, far, and outside this reality altogether. Along the way, the characters meet fellow “gatewalkers,” defeat alien monsters, and explore strange realms touched by the 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 are spoilers for the end of Book Two. Part two will include my thoughts as a GM, so there are major spoilers for the AP overall.

Check out the playlist here if you want to watch the previous episodes.

Recap

In this chapter, the PCs finally made it back to Ustalav! In the town of Lepidstadt, they made a beeline to Dr. Ritalson’s manor, only to find that they had just missed him. Not to worry, though! The staff invited them to relax for a few days and recuperate from their journey, and perhaps even talk to some of their fellow Gatewalkers who had arrived just before them.

Of course, the gang decided to do some breaking and entering instead.

To be fair, it was clear that something was off in the mansion, which lead to them finding a basement filled with horrors. They realize that Ritalson had not only been spying on various Gatewalkers in their dreams, but also killing them and using their memories to increase his own knowledge and access to power.

They ran off to confront him before he could return, knowing that he is no longer their biggest problem. Ritalson had been working for someone… Osoyo.

Jorge, Don, Ricardo, James, and Daton: I love you all, but you need to LEAVE this post now! Spoilers ahead!

GM thoughts

Honestly, the biggest danger in this chapter is the players themselves. If they’re not suspicious of Ritalson by now (and good lord, they should be), and they take the week to chill out, they could very well end up with their brains in a jar. Hey, at least there’s a new party upstairs they could take over…? But seriously, if your players haven’t twigged to the good doctor being kinda sus, drop some hints in their lap to get them looking around.

The ‘dungeon’ of the chapter was also quite good, and perfect for ripping out and adding to your own campaign. It’s rife with places where you can add in your own plots, and if you’ve needed a place to get some infodumps out of the way, there’s a place to find heap of journals and research. You would just need to update two rooms to fit your campaign, unless your main baddy is also a big psychic whale.

Speaking of looking around, I loved the investigation in this chapter. There are so many clues to find if the players are keen to dig for them. My players aren’t even done yet! Some of the clues are housed in books that they managed to take with them, so they’ll be doing a lot of reading on the road.

Looking forward

We have the big trek over the ice! I think I’ll be pre-rolling most of the encounters to streamline my planning and dead air on the stream. Also, I want to make sure they have the encounters that will hit home the hardest, so… maybe those dice are going to be a bit loaded.

Gatewalkers AP: Book 2 Chapter 4 Recap and GM Insights

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 to determine the cause of a global amnesic episode. Their quest takes them to lands near, far, and outside this reality altogether. Along the way, the characters meet fellow “gatewalkers,” defeat alien monsters, and explore strange realms touched by the 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 are spoilers for the end of Book Two. Part two will include my thoughts as a GM, so there are major spoilers for the AP overall.

Check out the playlist here if you want to watch the previous episodes.

Chapter Four recap

Chapter four takes place in the long abandoned city of Domora, former home of the Godcallers of Sarkoris. The PCs, determined to help their baby Godcaller fulfill her destiny, branch out over the city to research what they can. After a fair amount of mucking about, they realize they need to investigate a cistern that may contain the magics and lore she needs. After a chat with the spirit Ruun, they run a gambit of challenges, finally allowing Sakuachi to transform into a white owl, her soul bonded to the god of old. They all agree to return, finally, to Ustalav to check in with their patron.

GM thoughts

Okay, seriously, if you’re a player in my stream, DO NOT KEEP READING. Don, James, Jorge, Daton, Ricardo, CLOSE THIS TAB.

Investigation. The players enjoyed the investigations in this chapter, which had a nice balance between lores and skills to keep everyone busy. It helped that each investigation included clearing out some nasties, so even our meatiest-headed characters were vital to moving forward.

Cistern. Most of the cistern was perfectly fine, but the challenges themselves were a bit samey. I decided to spice things up and change two of the encounters. Rather than two stone owls, room F12 had two Griffons, and F7 had two Elite Giant Mantises. I kept F11 the same because the stone owls are kind of cool.

Sakuachi the owl. In the book, Sakuachi keeps her human form… but I decided to just use the owl and give her some limited telepathy. Any powers she has in the book have also been stripped for now, since the players aren’t hurting.

Overall book thoughts

This AP is probably amongst the lowest ranking of the Paizo 2e APs, and it does have some flaws… but flaws that I think are easy enough for a GM to solve without rewriting the whole book.

For me, making Sakuachi a ghost and killing off her party helped fix many of the issues with book two. Also, putting Skywatch in a different plane helped focus that particular chapter. Without it, the whole book hinges on the players helping this random group of strangers out. My players will happily follow plot hooks, but I could have also seen them just leaving and going on their way.

Now, if homebrew is your bag, this is a book that you could absolutely remove and replace with your own adventures! All you really need to do is make sure the players get back to Ustalav, so if you want to do a roadtrip-style adventure, that would totally work. Just make sure they don’t get to Ustalav under-leveled… or do, and watch the struggle bus kick off. It’s your circus, you do what you want with your monkeys.

Looking forward

I am very excited to get back to Ustalav. It’s been on the players’ to-do list for months. They also love investigating and chatting with NPCs, so I think the mansion is going to be fun for them.

Some complain about the long overland travel section, but I feel like it fits perfectly with Lovecraftian mythos. Creepy travel in a hostile landscape with no way to go but forward? Chef’s kiss. Man loved him some unforgiving expanses.