#Season of Ghosts

1472 messages · Page 2 of 2 (latest)

delicate bloom
#

pc who eaves dropped it left at the 4th minute thinking there is loot if they cut the tree. didint bother investigating her since they concluded that its just an average schism between people of faith

#

they were informed, thats the worst part. i even told them this is colossaly bad idea when a pc was away for an hour (so i told them that pc was telling them) session before the final one

hallow heath
#

Bruh.

trail crag
#

Hopefully the players I have will be able to use their brains to prevent something like that. Or at least do it in a way that is more narratively satisfying .

hallow heath
#

If they knew this was a horrible idea, why the fuck did they do it?

trail crag
#

Did they not know any of the better options?

orchid verge
delicate bloom
delicate bloom
#

worst part i prepped tea with spider session -_-

#

second worst part i deus ex it with ex witch pcs patron (quelaunt stuck in mindscape for reasons, tho they dont know its quelaunt) forcibly astral projected itself and told them stop this, it will doom everyone

#

they said "you deceived us long enough with your boons and shit ! away ye demon !"

orchid verge
#

How did they take it when the inevitable occured?

delicate bloom
#

i told it as another shadow of kugaptee emerged, claimed he is going outside today. smol fight, they lost and ran away. 1 pc got soul trapped. since tree no more conditon to keep stuff stable, told as shinzo came to do his original purpose as shinigami

#

ex patron tried again to "help me escape i help you mend tree" after another "fuck you" it, shinzo beheaded remaning ghost pcs.

#

jubei managed to do ritual (long story but she became ex patrons new witch after another duck up by the party) after looting parties mindscpae corpses for ritual stuff. she returned with patron to tree, seperated ranger from it and left. ranger left, then mago kai came and cut what remains of tree since nobody stopped fenfang from deceiving him

#

dead pcs sent to abaddon, given choice to hell or abyss (given in my opinion good intentions dont excuse the calamity they caused)

safe osprey
#

Did anyone ever see Mo Douqiu's drink oil in action?

delicate bloom
#

no, i turned him into a tian vampire thingy and gave reactive strike instead. while draining breath of the people he hanged in the boss room.

#

was it harder ? yes. was it memorable ? apparently also yes, i got told pcs liked it though opinions may differ

trail crag
#

So, I am curious about something. In case one of my players would want to play an Animist, how good would Seer be in this campaign?

safe osprey
safe osprey
#

When did you guys level up the players to level 3

alpine iron
#

when the bk says to

#

The PCs should be 3rd level before they begin Chapter 4.

restive flower
# trail crag So, I am curious about something. In case one of my players would want to play a...

I have an Animist in my game right now and I would still avoid it. There are not many ghostly enemies in the game and most of the haunts have stealth scores so high they will easily thwart Apparition sense. The opportunity cost of not having Liturgist is just too great, which is unfortunate.
My player took Liturgist and then grabbed Apparition Sense using an ancestry feat and it hasn't been that great for them.
If I could turn back time I would have told the players not to bother with campaign backgrounds and let that player take the one that gives you permanent spirit sense.

safe osprey
#

Did anyone try out the remastered foundry maps? Do you think they are a substantial improvement over the old maps?

quick shell
#

Thinking about running this AP after finishing up Spore War. And reading through everything, I know myself and players always like to have parallels to other media to set a mood or tone for a campaign. Wondering everyone’s thoughts on season of ghosts? My go-to thought was Inuyasha as far as setting with that anime’s ghosts and spirits and demons and the like. But was struggling to think of anything else that gets the same feeling when reading through the players guide and the hardcover adventure path.

alpine iron
#

Something that deals with cycles & reincarnated?

quick shell
#

I guess I was thinking more style and aesthetic similarities vs plot and themes.

Inuyasha seems very Tian Xia to me (not the more modern day kagome aspects of course). The music and setting and style with some characters in the anime being playable races (Kitsune and Tanuki)

Doesn’t have to be anime either, just trying to find that vibe ya know.

delicate bloom
#

season of ghost is

#

big boom happened, noone knows it happened

#

it killed everyone, trapped in a buble as souls thinking theyre alive

#

and reliving same year since start of boom for 1 year until big booms anniversary

#

then reset, foreget eveeything

stuck smelt
#

I've been using Mushi Shi as a reference for the vibe (and some of the economic conditions) of the setting, but if you're looking more for the monsters and creatures then that might be a bit escoteric

delicate bloom
#

as for vibe id say watch forbidden siren game series videos

#

old ps2 game

#

since ap is themed around horror

raw sable
#

Starting this campaign tonight. Party is a psychic kitsune, psychic awakened owl, minotaur oracle, nagaji fighter and either a tengue rogue or monk. I'm sure we'll be fine and the tengu won't be an issue.

Okay, I at least trust the fighter, oracle and the kitsune. We'll be fine.

raw sable
#

For those curious, the player chose to build a tengue drunken master monk with the Willowshore urchin background.

delicate bloom
#

local homeless hobo drunk ?

#

cuz a pc that left me sog game was the local homeless rat

#

he gained copper for meal by making illegal graffitis iirc

raw sable
#

Yup. The local homeless drunken hobo monk.

brittle blaze
#

My party wants to skip the Mo do qui boss battle because they feel they are inadequte to face him and want to go on the hunt for Ugly Cute instead. Will this be a problem? I know that Granny Hu or Matsuki would be giving them a quest to go to Karahai first as an introduction of the Hinterlands and I dont want to ruin the experience for them

stuck smelt
#

Technically no? As long as you maneuver them in a way that avoids encountering the Mindscape Border, which is the important part of the introduction and the part that would have them sidetrack even harder
The encounter attached to finding Ugly Cute is a Moderate 2 so that shouldn't a problem either

The bigger problem would be narratively, possibly twofold.
First, tracking through the hinterlands without first talking to the Hunters after they've had time to investigate the matter themselves, means searching for the Spider with no leads, which might take longer than usual. Any day they spend bumbling about the Hinterlands is another day that Mo Doquo spends torturing and eating people...so that's not ideal, so that's something you may want to integrate into the game, via some forshadowing or at least some consequences after the fact

Secondly, they don't normally stand to gain anything from doing this. As written, Ugly Cute is not in fighting condition by the time they find it and would need more time to recover. (And lets be real, the reward item isn't changing the math here.) Since they should already be level 2 by this point it also shouldn't give them nearly enough to go to Level 3.
I guess this could be circumvented by giving some healing (repairs?) to it and since downtown isn't cleared it doesn't have an incentive to just go hang out by the Spider Gate like it usually would, so then it'd be reasonable that it accompanies them to the bossfight afterwards.

So yeah, this could work out, as long as you keep them away from the border and they don't spend too long searching

brittle blaze
#

thank you!

safe osprey
#

They are gonna try to build the entire teahouse down which will have some ... interesting consequences down the line

stuck smelt
#

My first group has now finished Book 1 and voted to jump over to Outlaws of Alkenstar instead of continuing to Book 2, but are quite likely to come back to it in the future

safe osprey
stuck smelt
#

They've been enjoying it
They love the setting and the mystery elements, but they struggle with a lot of roleplay scenes especially if they are supposed to be more on the emotional side
(They're also really bad at asking NPCs questions proactively)

And the fights, even with various buffs really weren't doing it for them for the most part either

So after talking about it and having a vote we very narrowly ended up agreeing on the switch

After out last campaign we also agreed that we'd be tackling campaigns book by book rather than as a whole, with the option to jump around and take intermissions when we want, so simply going for variety was also a big factor

In the end I forsee that once Book 1 of OoA is over, we go back for Book 2 of SoG and then see from there

errant temple
#

Hi, how much info did your players get about ugly cute at first? Did you onlg tell them a statue is missing known as ugly cute or give them details about it’s purpose /background as well?

stuck smelt
#

In both campaigns I've had PCs who have some sort of strong connection / investment with the town's history and its lore, so I thought it was fair to inform them of it's purpose as a guardian statue as something they'd simply already be aware of
Imo if it's well known enough to have a widely used nickname, then that fact is probably not uncomon knowledge

errant temple
#

Oh true, I imagined a reveal of her purpse later on to be pretty cool and only the knowledge of a giant missing statue to be more mysterious, but all of us as first time everythings, I am a bit worried she might be forgotten by book 2

stuck smelt
#

Not even, you go out looking for it in Chapter 3 and it kinda just parks itself back at gate after that

errant temple
#

Oh so it is even later? Wowie

stuck smelt
#

Chapter 3 of Book 1, not Book 3

errant temple
#

Ohhh I see okay, they should be able to remember it until then I hope:D

#

But knowing that the giant, guardian statue is suddenly missing sounds pretty cool as well

stuck smelt
#

Guardian Statues of this nature are also pretty common throughout east-asia, so it's something a lot of people would be familiar with anyhow

errant temple
#

Thank you!!

hallow heath
stuck smelt
#

That's really cute actually

hallow heath
#

Same with Great Willow up atop the hill.
Those two spiritual entities have gotten a lot more screen time than I imagine was expected

fleet elm
#

there's the idea that both settings are a small, superstitious village in a non-physical bubble beset by supernatural monsters

#

but like, more generally the idyllic, more slice of life vibes can fit well in willowshore

#

I'm thinking of using touhou title screen/ending themes as the motif for willowshore I feel like that'd be fun

safe osprey
#

Would You so-Jin know anything about nindoru considering she was/is a practicer of Sangpotshi

delicate bloom
#

ye

#

she did kill kugaptee, nindoru astetic, aka nindoru demigod

#

failed her recovery check and died at dying4 but gm let her become a tree bro to keep fiend not be a nuisance even in death

hallow heath
#

You So-Jin is the elf alchemist in town.

delicate bloom
#

ah i forgot the name

quick shell
#

Hey all, about to start our session 0 on Friday. Was wondering how much the players should start off knowing about the jorogumo? Do they know that they are shapeshifting spider people who prey on other sentient creatures? How well known are their abilities to the people of willowshore?

stuck smelt
#

Somewhere in the AP background it explains that the Jorogumo taking over is still just a rumor in Willowshore, so in all likelyhood people know little to nothing about them

ruby palm
#

Gonna GM the ap, was gonna read thru the whole pdf but a few pages in, I doubt I'll remember everything, which sections are most important for a session 0/1st session

quick shell
#

Finished the session 0/1 myself and after character building and playtime we ended at the eastern guard tower before heading further into willowshore to get to their homes and granny hu.

Right now the lore didn’t come up all that much. I ended up cherry-picking info from the players guide to give them some setup to what the reenactment festival was and why they do it, and their role in completing it, and that they were supposed to have a delicious breakfast but there was no luck.

They all rolled awful on the ugly cute knowledge as well, so while hilarious, it required hai-er ha to convey that information and question their drinking habits.

We’re playing on foundry and the players do have access to information by clicking the map so they have some general knowledge of locations that would probably be similar to what’s in the players guide but i haven’t double checked.

delicate bloom
#

i mean if they live in the town entire life, some stuff shouldbt require rk

#

given population is smoll enough that you saw everyone at leadt once

quick shell
# delicate bloom i mean if they live in the town entire life, some stuff shouldbt require rk

100% agreed for everything else in town but It played into them already losing their sense of direction and traveling away from willowshore at the start. The players also laughed a ton with the whole situation and they leaned into it with their roleplay for their characters being very disorientated. Moving forward I’m Not going to make them roll any rk checks for common knowledge things.

delicate bloom
#

ah i see

raw sable
#

You could give it a really low DC. I mean, do you know everything about your home town?

vagrant talon
#

Has anyone thrown a gau cho rong into their SoG campaign? It fits in so well, especially during the downtime between liberating the town and the logging camp.

hallow heath
#

Today's the day the gang properly meets Ren Mei Li.
The real one in the present.

delicate bloom
#

wish me pcs didint cut the tan sugi tree

quick shell
delicate bloom
#

that npc found the pcs bodies in mindscape where they did rank 4 transmigrate, along with loot + ritual notee while they got beheaded by shinzo in real world for almost releasing kugaptee and refusing ex patrons help (a pc was killed by shadow of kugaptee at the tree after they cut it and soul trapped into a tree branch, later released by npc witch as thanks for all she did)

#

npc did the transmigrate ritual

#

villagers werent told about kugaptee nor the pcs killed noppera at the mago kais castle.

#

he cut the tree at end of may

vapid horizon
#

is the hard bound collection much different than the individual parts?

hallow heath
#

Might be killing an NPC today.
Godspeed, Kazuma.

alpine iron
#

only 1?

#

at the end of bk 3? you kill loads!

hallow heath
#

Yeah. Kazuma’s just the first.
And he’s got until next session, as the party is mid-fight with the opossums in the orchard.

hallow heath
raw sable
#

My party has the blessed coins and we lighting the lantern this week.

alpine iron
#

i mean the ones that are killed by the serial killer

hallow heath
#

Yeah, three. Kazuma, Eliseth, and the alchemist whose name presently escapes me.

dense solstice
#

I bought the Season of Ghosts PDF off of Paizo... When I look at the interactive maps that it comes with some are small on the page? like there is a large blank space between the maps adn the edge and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to use the interactive maps. Should I be able to just print them out on A4 paper? sorry im new to using APs

sorry this is the third place I've asked this question but I'm really unsure how the maps are supposed to work...

alpine iron
#

the maps pdf isn't really directly usable to run in person cause they're all the wrong size for that, you'd have to go to a printer shop or use software yourself to blow it up generally

dense solstice
alpine iron
#

for VTT use they seem designed for

#

more recent APs don't even have them i think?

dense solstice
#

I might print them out anyways so the players can see what I am talking about or if they are investigating something, and then for combat I will use a draw on combat map

#

is that a good idea?

alpine iron
#

could work, might be useful to draw the maps in advance on a big map thing

dense solstice
brittle blaze
#

I'm kind of new to the GM scene and I've had players that most likely angered their deities.

They've befriended a Jinkin who I've turned into an NPC and while he never outright killed or maimed, he still is a Jinkin and advocates for it.

They promised him a home and said to follow some path to get their (along with a crude map they've drawn poorly) I made the Jinkin roll private survival and he missed the DC by a little. The home is right next to the Shrine of Daikitsu, so I made him think the shrine was the home they promised him.

When the Jinkin arrived, a separate event happened a few days ago unbeknownst to the players, that a foul monster came and slaughtered those that were here. The Jinkin found the place blood ridden with bodies but still made himself at home.

I have a Leshy Cleric of Daikitsu and a Human Champion of Aesocar. They found him on the offering stand of Daikitsu, looking to steal what was there.

The two immediately acted and killed him in front of the alter.

I feel this would anger the God's. Because while it is a Jinkin, they befriended it, mad promises to it, and it wasn't hostile. They didn't ask questions, just snapped his neck.

Am I right to think this way? And if so, what would the God's think or do because of this?

#

I also feel that killing him in Daikitsus shrine and in front of he offering box no less, would gain some of her ire

stuck smelt
#

This whole thing is a chain of misunderstandings, so it depends on how strict you want to portray Daikitsu

Violence in the Temple probably isn't a huge issue, because to their understanding the party attacked what they assumed to be a dangerous murderer - it's not like they assaulted a priest

They technically commited one of Daikitsu's Anathema, harming an innocent, because the jinkin technically hadn't done anything (yet)
However they didn't do it intentionally, they just acted too hastily

My recommendation would be to not dole out anything too harsh, especially this early in the campaign but instead prepare a new scene (a vision, dream or other spiritual moment) that shows or hints at the error they made and then see how they react

If you hit them with a punishment, be that a minor curse let alone revoking spells, the players would likely just get upset because they would have no real way of piecing together what actually happened

Unless you actively want the gods to appear where haughty and strict, but that's a hell of a tightrope act for a new DM when it only affects one player

brittle blaze
#

I wasn't thinking of anything major. But I did want to inflict a "nip" from Daikitsu so to speak.

Or even a small side quest where she teaches them a lesson in a strange way. Like showing them how misunderstandings can bring misfortune to everyone. In my opinion, she values understanding and patience, and acting hasty and out of anger is also an anathema.

Aesocar, I'm not too sure. I feel Aesocar is a little more rigid? Though he would be disappointed that his champion also acted hasty and out of anger. He's supposed to "Listen and judge"

So whole this isn't a "you've lost all privileges to your deity" act, I did want to emphasize to importance of not indulging in your God's anathema

stuck smelt
#

Sounds like you're on the right track then, both very much checks out

#

I do think that maybe, if you're not feeling confident about it, then don't turn it into a whole Sidequest simply because the longer it takes / the more complex the situation, the higher the chance things get lost in translation so to speak

I'd still advocate for a vision or dream, because it gets the point across a little cleaner (and probably also feels less contrived than trying to set up a whole new situation with a moral - can work, it's just harder)

Perhaps it could project them into the perspective of the Jinkin, have them feel what it felt you know
Possibly ending by them waking up to actual foxes literally nipping at them (and an easy religion check if they don't piece together the message by themselves)

dense solstice
#

So I'm reading through the AP and I'm reading through chapter 1... How much should the party know about Kugaptee at the beginning of the game? My first instinct was that they shouldn't know anything about them, but the wording of some stuff in the AP I feel implies otherwise?

#

Also would you guys recommend XP leveling or Milestone? Just wondering your thoughts. I'm leaning towards milestone, myself

stuck smelt
#

No you're right on that, it's completely obscure

There's a bit in chapter 4 that spells it out where they encounter a statue and even an very hard check is supposed to give barely any information

dense solstice
#

ok gotcha. So I shouldn't even mention Kugaptee's name until way later...

brittle blaze
dense solstice
stuck smelt
#

Yeah they're meant to hear it for the first time from the cultists in Chapter 4 and then look into it in future books

brittle blaze
dense solstice
stuck smelt
#

For a moment I was like "There isn't really much side content"
And then I realised, no, the side content was just never up for debate with either of my groups laranityLol

dense solstice
dense solstice
#

Another thought. Maybe I missed it, but doesnt the game want you to be giving Runes to players at some point? Does the book give guidance on how to go about this or should I just use the automatic thingy

stuck smelt
#

SoG is kinda famously bad at handing out relevant loot
They technically get enough raw gold, but most of it is tied up in what are essentially souvenirs

It's fairly unintuitive but the players are meant to sell a lot of them and then use the downtime to craft the items themselves

A solution I came up with is I'll have one of the NPCs open up a museum of sorts, which they can sell those unique items too without feeling weird about giving them away

orchid verge
#

God and the kinds of weapons you get; it's a Tian Xia campaign dude why am I being told to give my players shortswords and longswords??

alpine iron
#

cause they're also present on TX 100 yrs ago

stuck smelt
# orchid verge God and the kinds of weapons you get; it's a Tian Xia campaign dude why am I bei...

Ok ok so, let me nerd out for a second
If you really wanted to get into this, it's because all the classic "eastern style" swords that people think of (katana, nodachi, wakizachi ect) are all Japanese specifically
The in universe equivalent is Minata, and their accompanying ethnicity is the Tian-Min, which are present in Willowshore, but they are a minority, compared to the Tian-Shu, which are more closely Chinese
And the Chinese traditional blades (at least that have a specific name) don't have independant stats with their names attached to them

image.png
#

hence, it falls back on long & short-swords
That said, it's an easy enough change to make to swap them for Japanese style swords

orchid verge
alpine iron
orchid verge
#

Yeah like these

stuck smelt
#

Hook Swords are classed as advanced so they make for bad generic loot

alpine iron
#

i don't think any of those other chinese ones are statted?

orchid verge
#

Eh it's a nitpick, not a deal breaker anyway

alpine iron
#

could always reflavour some

stuck smelt
#

And I think the Jin Huan Dao wasn't printed at the time
It came out in the Tian Xia Character guide a year after SoG and then added to the remaster of Treasure Vault and Gods & Magic
Not totally sure on that though

alpine iron
#

yep, TXCG was later, TV probably not though?

#

don't think anything was added to TV in remaster?

stuck smelt
#

Ah, checked again, yeah Treasure Vault came out in Febuary 2023 including the JHD and then SoG1 came out in Autumn that year
I just missed it

trail crag
stuck smelt
#

Ah damnit, I was looking at the globe on the wiki laranityLol

#

I'm bad with names, but you know the idea tracks anyway

dense solstice
stuck smelt
dense solstice
stuck smelt
#

They're not mutually exclusive anyhow
The crafting starts to become much more important economy wise from level 4 onwards

dense solstice
stuck smelt
#

They can buy stuff and they can also craft stuff, they don't necesarrily have to pick one or the other

#

and you can take expert crafting at 3rd level and 4th level has one of the first super important standard magic items in a striking runes
So that's where crafting starts to become really key
Because crafting essentially costs halve as much as buying

dense solstice
#

so should I encourage them to possibly pick up crafting or is it like a "they can or can not its up to them"

stuck smelt
#

You probably should encourage them
Downtime is a big part of Season of Ghosts in particular, which is why it's so important

dense solstice
#

ok at least one of them is trained in crafting so

lucid viper
stuck smelt
#

Because you need to buy the runes
Crafting costs half the sell price

#

You could argue that it doesn't save you anything because the downtime you spend crafting you could instead use on Earn Income which you can then use to buy them and it comes out to about the same

dense solstice
#

so then for runes, i was just reading up on the rules for them.

Can a normal weapon have striking or resilience runes on them or does it have to at least be a +1 weapon for them to be put on. Also can you put multiple runes of striking/resilience or does it have to be like upgraded to striking (major)

stuck smelt
#

This is turning more into rules questions about crafting and equipment
You two should take that to another channel (either QQ or general) and you'll get more people who have answers ready

dense solstice
#

Just did. Does SoG give decent loot weapons and armor and magic items wise or do I need to do extra work in that regard

#

Or I guess I should ask: i have the gm core does that help describe when to give loot to players or am I reliant on whats in the AP

stuck smelt
dense solstice
#

I see. So the players can craft magic items?

hallow heath
#

And what do you know, there’s a significant amount of downtime built into the adventure.

restive flower
dense solstice
hallow heath
#

Pour one out for Kazuma.
He dies tomorrow.

velvet abyss
#

Hey, all. I'm new to Pathfinder (coming from DMing D&D 5e) and I have a question about Lore skills: the player's guide to SoG makes it seem like the Willowshore Lore skill is very important, but even the campaign backgrounds don't grant it to players. Should I just give them the skill for free?

stuck smelt
#

Generally no, it's encouraging them to take the Additional Lore feat for that purpose

hallow heath
#

RIP Kazuma

hallow heath
#

So, with Kazuma dead and the party blowing the investigation checks out of the water the party has elected to Peaceful Rest his body until they can either free his soul or confirm he’s wholly unavailable.

trail crag
#

Guessing they could have found the answers if they succeeded at those checks?

hallow heath
#

Oh no they took a crack at Resurrecting him just to make sure, depite being pretty sure that it wouldn't work.

#

Succeeded at the ritual, determined his soul was unavailable, and aborted the ritual there.

dense solstice
#

How much harder did the hardcover make the combats? I know that they were considered extremely easy in the original books, and I heard they made the combats harder but Idk how hard. Basically the other night I threw a spider swarm at them but I had to make it elite and double its health for it to be like a fun challenge

dense solstice
#

Got a question. What time would you guys consider to be night time and day time? I was thinking that 8pm to 6am would be night time as its the summer time and daylihgt should be around longer. I am tracking time too

safe osprey
safe osprey
safe osprey
# safe osprey Not too hard. It is still a very easy AP

My players also really like dungeon crawling so I had to modify some of the content. I made the fungus infestation a full mushroom gauntlet/dungeon.

I also added an old abandoned temple of Susumu to function as a fun combat challenge before the final boss of book 1 since I felt the book was lacking those. (And it tied in with a PC's backstory)

keen crane
#

Hey, I'm trying to hit some foreshadowing notes as my players hit the Pilgrims Path and deliver the knowledge from the sidebar in a interesting way, I'm wondering if anyone already has notes on how they ran this bit to reveal this information to the players, or to make it more obvious to the players what these shrines are representing

#

These shrines—one on a floating platform in a lake, one near an ancient dead tree, and one on a secluded, rocky perch overlooking the path below—represented the traveler’s past lives, their future lives, and their current life. By turning the short hike into a multiday meditative trip, the seeker of knowledge and enlightenment adopts a mindset better suited to receiving the teachings of the monks of the Tan Sugi monastery.

hallow heath
#

The party saved Eliseth’s life on today’s episode.

#

Having killed it on the investigation around Kazuma’s death, they were able to ultimately deduce the next likely target, got to her right before Heh Shan Bao struck, and protected her throughout the attempt.

broken crown
#

damn

broken crown
#

but now they just want to burn down the manor instead of going inside

#

in what funny ways can i handle this?

hallow heath
# broken crown damn

Yeah. My gang’s pretty much killed it on all their longterm goals.
Prepping for winter was basically a parade of crits.

broken crown
#

My players just… avoided the semi mindscape governor manor at the start of book 4 chapter 3

#

Yup that’s right, they looted exactly ZERO of the items

#

I don’t think the final encounter will be particularly pleasant for them

broken crown
restive flower
#

Can anyone explain ||Xin Yue|| in a bit more detail to me?

#

||her backstory sort of implies Kugaptee just talked her in to reincarnation being stupid, somehow, even though she is also said to enjoy it||

#

||then it references her being trapped in death because Zhi Hui is dead (???) but she was also killed and raised by the governor's ritual ||

#

||and NOW she is helping Kugaptee because she thinks being undead is icky?||

hallow heath
#

Death cultist.
They’re under the impression that if Kugaptee is released and devours the mindscape that they’ll be annihilated and know peace.

vagrant talon
#

If Mugirou is defeated and surrenders*, do ALL Rovers leave, or just the ones in his area?

summer cloak
#

I’m prepping to run a game for some folks, and am curious what people have come up with for upping the difficulty. I’m likely looking at a five player party with some folks being very new, and some substantially more experienced, but I think having some more difficulty would make for a good time for this group

#

I imagine it’s largely “add a few dudes” but I’m also looking at more specific encounter adjustments too.

broken crown
#

you could keep the monsters as is but add a few weaker minions on the side, or make the enemies stronger.
For that second point, rather than just making them elite (which just adds stats) you can rework the statblock by giving them new abilities/spells. Also beware that as written, some encounters are disappointingly trivial (like book 2's final encounter) so you might want to rework those a lot if interesting and challenging combat is a thing you need at your table

hallow heath
#

My party is likely to hit level 12 this coming game.

summer cloak
broken crown
stuck smelt
#

Sooo group 2 had 3/5 people die at Mo Doquo just now laranityNervous We talked about it and agreed to have them taken prisoner instead of being killed outright, so next session's gonna be a prison break, but that was ROUGH
I did modify the fight quite significantly, but the problem was I was just not rolling anything below 10 the entire fight and among that a lot of 19s & 20s
I feel so bad about how this went

dense solstice
summer cloak
dense solstice
#

but apparently thats just what barb do and it gets better as we level

broken crown
broken crown
#

the only kinda useful thing they bring is the info "they're not supposed to be aggressive so something's wrong"

dense solstice
#

I should probably ask in here, but I had posted in #2e│gm_and_homebrew about changing up "The Trapped Hunter" quest for my lvl 2 party and to try and make it possibly less "silly" (taking out the weird word rhymes that are just kinda weird) and also trying to make the situation more legit that a hunter would be scared. What do you guys think?

#

I was thinking of basically the situation being that I changed it to be a couple of jinkins who had gotten their hands on some alchemist potions and (not in the direct knowledge of the party) had mutated a goat in the barn, which injures Sumika so thats why she goes and hides in the house in teh first place, but then the jinkins start a fire. Do yall think I'm doing too much here?

hallow heath
hallow heath
#

And thus my party is level 12.
We’re in the final stretch.

hallow heath
#

The wizard in my gang proposed to be Ren Mei Li’s consort.

broken crown
#

well did she accept

hallow heath
#

With his framing it as a political maneuver, yes she did.
And made it clear that if he really wants to reside within her demesne in Shin-Yisai he can…but that she really doesn’t recommend it.

broken crown
#

Finally finished the AP

#

~14 months

trail crag
#

Good stuff.

#

How was it?

broken crown
#

overall a positive note, some good stuff some bad stuff. I (as the GM) really like the story, unfortunately i don't think it was the best choice for my party. The were invested in the story but like, not enough, especially on the roleplay side, and resorted to violence a bit too much to my liking (though from personal experience this tends to be a common trait among ttrpgs groups).

That being said, the AP itself has a lot of positive points, but encounter balance is not one of them. I know it was intentionally written as easy to not only prevent deaths but also make the players more engaged in the story (that didn't work), but it was far too extreme in that direction. As written, most of the enemies barely have time to even do anything before dying, and sometimes you even get big stretches with no encounter at all. Was supposed to be easy, ended up more than trivial.
Except for that one will o wisp encounter. wtf was that.

Now I've learned a lot and if I were to GM this AP again, there are things I would do differently (not only for myself but also to provide a better experience to the players) and it would be in my top choices of APs to run

delicate bloom
#

i removed wisp iirc

#

to something else

#

idk, i changed most combats so they eould be challanging but not over the top

#

like its an actual horror movie

hallow heath
#

I left the wisp in, because I’m also running Abomination Vaults and wanted my SoGang to know the AV party’s suffering.

delicate bloom
#

wisp like thing i used was a floating slull iirc. not tanky but can cast whisper of void

#

1 crit fail and 3 fail iirc

#

due to poor rolls

hallow heath
#

Oh, I used a capital W Will o’ Wisp

#

I was not generous to the Kineticist in that fight either.

summer cloak
#

im starting up season of ghosts this sunday, and am anticipating altering most of the combats tbh. I know my players like a good fight

vagrant talon
#

well if your players ambush the apron, the fight suddenly gets a lot more difficult 😛 as written he sits back while his minions do the fighting

summer cloak
coarse egret
#

Maybe a silly question but I'm only midway through reading the first AP... Would it matter if I changed the wall of ghosts from being a wall of mist to some other phenomenon that has all the same effects? I'm thinking describing it as looking something like if the world was a watercolour painting, the colours are beginning to run there.

My group will have just finished a Curse of Strahd campaign, so I'm just trying to slightly deviate from being trapped in one set of by mists to another. I know this is purely a visual change but I think even a small difference on that front would be desirable.

Just wondering if the actual mist itself is important later for some reason or another I can't anticipate

broken crown
#

well, the wall of ghosts specifically isn't mist and appears to be more of a solid border. That being said, the rest of the magical barrier could be something else: A common theme of the different mindscapes the PCs will have to explore is that many things are there just as the result of someone's imagination. So you could absolutely have a watercolor painting as some sort of poorly imagined version of the world. In book 4 chapter 3, the interior of the buildings is described as completely flat and 2D, like painted onto the walls, because the mindscape isn't even bothering with those details anymore, so you could do something similar

stuck smelt
#

The only thing I'd have concerns about is that it might make the twist a little too obvious
Because after discovering the border everyone operates under the assumption that the place is just cursed to turn them around
But if it turns surreal, then it's obvious that there must be something more going on

coarse egret
coarse egret
stuck smelt
#

Yeah, pretty much. It wouldn't cause any plotholes or anything, it just takes it from "Weird unexplainable occurence" to "This is someone's fault for sure"
The fog is at least vaguely natural, which means it's pretty much impossible to pin down where it comes from without first getting further information, but something like a painterly scene has a very strong human touch too it, giving them extra clues
The rest of Book 1 is a lot of trying and failing to find those clues, while actually figuring out the nature of a mindscape is a major part of upcoming Books - so while it's not a dealbreaker it might end up feeling more frustrating, or like they're just wasting time

coarse egret
#

That's a good point, it's probably not worth the change on reflection. I'm sure there'd be a moment of 'AGAIN?' when they reach some kind of barrier around the area regardless (not of actual frustration ofc or I wouldnt run SoG right away after CoS)

#

Is the no Gunslingers thing supposed to be a timeline choice as well by the way? I'm not familiar with PF's lore so I'm assuming it's the case that there were no firearms at this point in time so no gunslingers allowed, not that having firearms would in someway break the mechanics of the story?

stuck smelt
#

Honestly if they go "AGAIN" then it might make the "OH SHIT" of the later reveals and the transmigration even stronger because they thought they knew where it was going...but they didn't laranityLol

coarse egret
#

True lol

stuck smelt
#

It's a bit of both, but more that the setting breaks gunslinger not that gunslinger breaks the setting (mechanically)

#

Lore wise Firearms were in their early stages by they time of 1E and over the handful of years to 2E have improved to the point where they are mere martial weapons instead of advanced one's, making them semi-common in many places instead of a total outlier

But 100 years back from that, you can find ways to justify it but it's a bit out of place

coarse egret
#

If I were scratching all the names off of like Tian Xia etc, and making it in its own fantasy world where firearms were invented 100 years earlier it wouldn't break anything then?

#

Cause my table is not familiar at all with PF lore

stuck smelt
#

Mechanically there's noone who sells ammo or gun related items which can cause some issues when they have to rely 100% on Shinzo to get them stuff they might not even have the vocabulary for (in universe)

stuck smelt
coarse egret
#

Thanks, that's helpful

raw sable
#

An apron may end up killing me...oh well.

hallow heath
raw sable
# hallow heath Oh man I know what you're fighting.

We got the bridge guy and then the guy in the tea house, and as soon as we walked out, there's the apron wanting to run the ones.

I been up since morning, got 18 out of 34 HP and using swords. We all been beat to hells and just want to go to bed

hallow heath
raw sable
#

We already met the apron, paraded around with it, and now we got to kill it.

broken crown
#

Yeah this place is very very very spoiler heavy

solemn heath
#

Hi, I'm planning to run this module in foundry. I like playing in foundryvtt, but I don't like to prepare there. Are there bundles including foundryvtt adventure and .pdf version?

trail crag
#

First of all, whic version of Foundry VTT do you have? Version 14 probably does not have Season of Ghosts yet.

restive flower
#

Definitely a big weakness of that product

solemn heath
#

I have run Descent into Avernus on Foundry. I have dragged my friends through the cursed mists of Barovia in Curse of Strahd. I am currently conducting psychological and occult damage aboard the Horror on the Orient Express. I have placed walls, adjusted lights, fixed tokens, prepared journals, imported handouts, configured scenes, and whispered “why is this secret door not working” into the void more times than any human being should. So yes. I know Seson of Gosts is on version 13 Foundry.

#

I know exactly what Foundry is. Foundry is not “software” to me anymore. It is the haunted machine through which I keep my friendships alive. That is exactly why I asked about a bundle for Season of Ghosts. Because I am not buying a shiny toy. I am buying back hours of my life. I work all day, I do not have the time or mental strength to manually prepare maps, walls, lighting, tokens, journals, encounters, loot, NPCs, music cues, and dramatic little handouts like some sort of sleep-deprived fantasy accountant. This one game night is the one evening in the week where I get to feel like a person again. I know because Foundry already cost me what feels like a luxury purchase in my country. I live in Poland. I earn about 3600 PLN a month. By the time rent, food, bills, fuel, and the silent existential tax of being alive are done with me, I am basically a medieval peasant with internet access. I want the Foundry version because I work all day and I do not have the time or mental strength to manually prepare everything.

#

I do not run Foundry because I am some wealthy digital baron. I run Foundry because meeting in person costs fuel, and fuel costs around 6 PLN per liter. My old Golf drinks 7 liters per 100 km like it is trying to ruin my bloodline. Online play is financial self-defense. I do not even have a laptop to lie in bed and prep for 20 minutes before sleep like a civilized human being. I have an old PC and a second-hand ebook reader that looks like it has survived a small war. I literally set up my Foundry server on Oracle Always Free because “free” is my favorite infrastructure tier. So yes, I would love the Foundry AND pdf version bundle, because it saves time, and time is the only thing I have less of than money.

#

But then I look at the pricing and realize that if I buy the Foundry module and then also buy the PDF separately, I am staring at something close to 600 PLN. That is not “a hobby purchase.” That is groceries. That is bills. That is half of rent. That is the amount of money where I start hearing my ancestors whisper, “Maybe just describe the dungeon verbally, my son.” So forgive me if my soul briefly left my body when I discovered there may not be a bundle. I am not asking for charity. I am not asking for a golden throne. I am simply asking whether there is a sane way to buy the adventure for Foundry and also read the actual text without needing to choose between goblin encounters and basic nutrition.

#

Thank you for coming to my tragic Pathfinder monologue.

stuck smelt
#

Dramatic crashout aside, there's a module called "Export to Markdown", which lets you export the entire Journal into a set of Markdown files
You can then import that folder into something like Obsidian (which is free) and essentially make an alternative to the PDF yourself

I've been using that for all my prep and it works great

raw sable
#

Without getting too spoiler, should I get my nagaji fighter the water nagaji ancestry feat and underwater maurader?

stuck smelt
#

As a player you shouldn't be in this thread at all laranityNervous
(but the answer is probably no)

raw sable
#

Was simply wondering as I may reach level three and thinking ancestral paragon, but didn't know if swimming and underwater combat were going to be factors in this campaign.

summer cloak
#

On a different note I ran my first session on Sunday and it went swimmingly.

The party right now is:
Kitsune Witch
Human Monk
Yaogoai Guardian
Leshy Alchemist
And most spicy, Awakened Animal Exemplar

And they made a lot of progress. We went pretty long, and they ended up capping the session with fighting gurglegut. The monk got humbled instantly by trying to be cool, rushing ahead of the party, getting grabbed and then crit for all their health

coarse egret
#

That will be an important lesson I'm sure lol

#

I'm still in the prep stage myself. I'm considering just presenting all the locations in the players guide as the options for where the PCs and their families can be from in town, making some adjustments to the NPCs that live there as needed if they don't feel drawn to the existing ones. Obvious exceptions being I wouldn't allow them to be a Hu or Matsuki. Does anyone know if this has the potential to cause me any major headaches in later books?

hallow heath
#

If they’re an orphan, they could possibly have been adopted by the now late Anjal, like Jubei was.

stuck smelt
#

One of my players is playing one of Hu's grandkids
The family tree got more confusing (and I don't know about the later books) but it's been a fun thing so far

I don't know how well that would work out though, since most of the locations in the player's guide are shops / workplaces / community spaces and the NPCs associated with them do get involved in things sooner or later
You might also get a bit of an Ancestry problem if they're all supposed to be related to existing NPCs

To get people to bond with the town and ground their characters I had all of my players pick jobs and an NPC best friend, which might get you what you're looking for as well

coarse egret
#

Can't I get around the ancestry thing fairly easily by just saying actually Yong Wu-Xiu isn't a Kitsune, they're an Elf like the PC. Or is there some Willowshore racial politics later where it's vital that a given NPC is a given Ancestry? (which doesn't feel like the vibe I have of the campaign so far 😅 ) Or some other reason I can't really change the Ancestries?

stuck smelt
#

Tengu matter later, but otherwise it mainly means you can't use the art anymore
(there might also be some statblocks later)

coarse egret
#

And I guess them getting involved in other ways is kind of why I was thinking of doing this - it gives the players families something more to do rather than just be standing around and getting visited from time to time. I was more just worrying about if, idk, the Mother's Coil wizards are supposed to betray the town in Act 3 or something and then I have some player's family that betray them now

stuck smelt
#

Oh yeah some of the npc's canonically get murdered and/or replaced by doppelgangers later on

coarse egret
#

Oh snap

#

Which I suppose technically could happen to a PC's family but might feel quite bad to have your family get 'off-screened'

stuck smelt
#

Also don't know about your players, but a lot of PCs just end up not having families that are alive anyway

coarse egret
#

ik the oops all orphans thing is a ttrpg trope for a reason but I'd like to avoid it if I can

coarse egret
#

Do all of those murders/replacements happen in the same book?

hallow heath
coarse egret
#

But then their family is Anjal and the other orphan :p

#

Weird that it doesn't mention him adopting an orphan in the players guide

stuck smelt
#

Someone else is gonna have to explain that because I don't know the details laranityNervous
But yeah so far, I've been very happy with the best-friend approach, you can always give them the option of integrating into an existing family if they want that
Mandating it feels like it adds restrictions while creating about as many problems as it solves compared to the alternative

stuck smelt
#

(Anjal, not the Orphan)

hallow heath
coarse egret
#

I was worried about the feeling restrictive thing when I started exploring this, but then I began writing out what all the options would be and realised there's 26 options I could give and it stopped feeling like an issue

hallow heath
stuck smelt
#

Depends on how much your players like writing backstories I guess

hallow heath
#

My gang actually managed to avert the second two murders, so in my version of Willowshore Elizeth and Sou-Jin are alive.

coarse egret
#

As in, what's their location in willowshore

coarse egret
#

Thank you both for the help!

hallow heath
stuck smelt
#

As an aside, I'd also recommend getting rid of the Heirlooms
They're just kind of weird, because what they actually are is the portion of the loot that's supposed to be given out over the course of chapter 1
But by labeling them as heirlooms, it makes people feel bad about selling / using them
And most of them just don't make sense as "heirlooms" either
So instead you can just hand them out as regular loot or have them be given as supplies / contributions when they find their friends / families

tacit yarrow
#

How do you guys keep track of all the NPCs? This is my first time running an AP but I have no idea how to keep track of all of these guys and how many are important. I have a copy of Wonton's tracking sheet but I was wondering if anyone has a better way to do it.

broken crown
#

I used a text document. It works, it’s not great. If i were to do it again, I’d use a spreadsheet

#

If you’re more into non digital stuff you could have npc cards

long fractal
#

I printed out a bunch of NPC cards (In the style of MtG cards) with Name, ancestry, gender, profession, and a brief synopsis of the character for the players to have. Thinking about it, I need to make more for Book 2...

stuck smelt
#

I have a simple list with name, ancestry, job and location only the most necessary info so its easy to keep an overview
Anything concerning the characters that's gonna come back later goes in the future-events file, along with a quick note if the players have managed to piss of a particular character especially badly

broken crown
#

i would definitely add a section to track that npc's attitude towards the PCs on said cards

hallow heath
#

I'm adding meladaemons to a late game encounter, and I'm using the 5e24 Arcanaloth art to make them look fancy

trail crag
#

The 5e24 Arcanaloth does look fancy.

hallow heath
#

I replaced one of the groups of jiang-shi in the governor’s manor with Meladaemons, resized to be medium.
Kept things varied.

#

Also presented an interesting mechanical synergy; the Meladaemons have nasty fort saves between disease and fatigue, and jiang-shi can seriously stack up Drained.

trail crag
#

How does someone edit that sort of stuff on Foundry?

hallow heath
#

Edit what? The encounter, or the creature token?

trail crag
#

Like, putting in creature tokens and stuff. And taking them off.

#

Especially with these premade-modules.

hallow heath
#

Oh I just pulled the Meladaemon sheet from the compendium, and changed the token image.

carmine marsh
#

I’m planning to run SoG soon. Any tips?

stuck smelt
#

Session 0's matters a lot for this one, so make sure everyone gets their expectations in line. The combats are very easy as written and a lot of the best moments especially early on come from getting emotionally invested in the RP.
Scaling the encounters up isn't too much of a hassle, but if they're not very RP-oriented then it can sometimes feel like things are stalling

Here's some from me as well

  • Do away with the "heirlooms" from the players guide and instead just hand them out as loot at appropriate times, that's their entire purpose and they're unecessarily confusing otherwise
  • More than being Willowshore Natives, what matters for the PCs is that they feel like part of the community, consider asking them to choose a close friend or two from among the characters in the Player's Guide and perhaps a dayjob
  • Each book is meant to take place over the course of 3 months, but the events as described tend to only take a couple weeks each. The downtime is intentional, but it's also largely meant to be self-directed, which doesn't work for everyone. Consider adding some in-universe breaks before and after Chapter 3 of book 1 for example to space out the downtime more evenly (and maybe come up with some extra things for them to do besides roll Earn Income 60 times in a row)
carmine marsh
#

Thanks

torn jacinth
#

Reading through Zhi Hui's scripted answers got me wondering, is there a reason why this monastic leader couldn't count up to 115 years as the cycle repeated? Is it because she has been an agonized hostage of Kugaptee ever since Xin Yue betrayed the order and undermined her dominion over the monastery?

Moreover, is there a reason for staying vague with the players instead of divulging an exact timeline?

hallow heath
#

You got it more or less right.
As for why it's vague, it's for the sake of being spooky.

torn jacinth
#

Got another question, I'm wondering if this inconsistency was addressed in the remastered version. On Governor Heh Shan-Bao's knowledge of the situation:

"As with the PCs, since Governor Heh Shan-Bao’s
memories reset each time his mindscape’s yearly
cycle resets, he isn’t aware that he has repeated these
actions 115 times."

But then later: "The governor fights to the death, knowing that
he’ll have another chance to achieve his goal once his
mindscape resets."

torn jacinth
#

I think fighting to the death would still be warranted if he didn't know of the mindscape's cyclical nature given that he could only hope to research a solution with the resources in his manor.

I also like the idea of Zhi Hui divulging one aspect of the nature (cyclical) while Heh Shan-Bao is ignorant of that but knows the greater truth that they're spirits in limbo between life and death.

torn jacinth
#

If they were to fight at this juncture, I think that could also be a powerful motivator for Heh Shan-Bao to submit to Kugaptee: So long as he was still free to act he had the opportunity to fix his mistake, but with true death awaiting him he would imagine what shameful reincarnation he might have earned by sacrificing the innocents of Willowshore for naught. Pretty powerful reason for wanting out of the cycle of rebirth.

hallow heath
#

@willow heron
Somewhere between Chapters 1 and 2.
Basically however long it takes for them to reach downtown.

willow heron
#

ok cool thankyou

#

Has anybody ran the AP with Foundry, and used the (now included) soundtrack by Michaël Ghelfi Studios?

hallow heath
#

The manor’s downtown, basically across the road from the town guards’ HQ.

willow heron
#

I was just wondering if there's links in the module now for what song to play at the various locations

#

i did find a post on reddit about where they belong at least

hallow heath
#

The foundry module is rad, but no.
The base module has nothing about the soundtrack in it, as as far as I’m aware it predates the soundtrack by a solid amount of time.

willow heron
#

yeah i just know it's included now so i didn't know if there was like an addon module or something that adds those notes

#

¯_(ツ)_/¯

hallow heath
#

My own gang is in the final stretch of the adventure; they’re almost assuredly going to have their final showdown with the governor this coming game.

willow heron
#

we're on session 8 and still technically in chapter 1 book 1 lol

#

but really about to be chapter 2 since they already did the dawnstep bridge stuff and relit the lantern

#

they just haven't met with granny hu yet

#

they're now at the clinic about to do that encounter with the centipedes and ghost gecko

hallow heath
#

Chapters 1 and 2 can easily blend together, just depending on how the party decides to do things.
There’s enough shrines on the south side of the river that the gang can get the coins blessed without ever having to cross the bridge.

willow heron
#

yeah my group got one coin blessed, then just ended up killing gurglegut

#

who had the three old coins on them

#

so they gave up on the new ones and just used the old ones

hallow heath
#

Gurglegut got fucking eviscerated by a Fatal d10 crit.

willow heron
#

yeah my party destroyed him

#

and i even used the elite template on him

#

they're kind of a big group though i guess

#

nothing crazy just 5 players

#

but still

hallow heath
#

The Book 4 rematch saw him get finished off by a wombo combo of Reactive Strikes from the barbarian and animist.

willow heron
#

my group is a kineticist, investigator, rogue, monk, and oracle

#

so i wasn't really expecting them to wipe the floor with gurglegut quite that badly

#

but yeah

#

they did

#

having just ran abomination vaults before this i have to say the combat encounters feel much easier in this

#

that isn't really a bad thing though

#

it was however enough to make me use an elite template at level 1 which is something i never did in AV lol

#

although by level 9 i was using a lot of elite templates in AV

hallow heath
#

Mine is;

  • Spirit Barb
  • Flurry Ranger
  • Cosmos Oracle
  • Liturgist Animist
  • Gate Wizard/Wood Kineticist
    That last one started as a Dragon Summoner, but I gave the player the opportunity to free their eidolon, which was his sister, bound to him to save her life.
willow heron
#

ah the kineticist in my group is wood also

#

but they're just now level 2 so nothing more than that yet

hallow heath
#

They took it, and rebuilt.
The way I’m handling it is that the player picks which sibling is the active one at the start of an outing.

#

Into the breach for the final showdown is the wizard brother.

willow heron
#

At what point in the AP do the player characters learn that they've been groundhog day'd for like 100 years?

#

pseudo groundhog day'd

hallow heath
#

Late Book 2, and they learn they’re dead very early in Book 3.

willow heron
#

ah ok

hallow heath
#

The animist is an interesting one, since that player joined at exactly that point; the last day of Autumn.

willow heron
#

so there's a chunk of the AP that they've gone "back to the future" right?

#

towards the end i guess?

hallow heath
#

She’d been hired to “help deal with the monster problem in Willowshore,” and woke up in the back of Shinzo’s cart, with him bringing her into town.

willow heron
#

ah yeah they haven't run into Shinzo yet in the game i'm running. not sure when that happens

#

i did read about him some though

hallow heath
#

What happened is that she’d been hired by the Mago Kai to help either exorcizing Ghost town, but was attacked and killed by the jiang-shi that appears early in Book 4, with her soul getting grabbed by the mindscape.

willow heron
#

when is shinzo normally introduced?

#

i also saw he has his own song in the soundtrack lol

hallow heath
#

Start of Chapter 2, when the monsters are dealt with and the town starts trying to recover.

willow heron
#

oh ok

#

so relatively soon for our group then

hallow heath
#

Yeah. He ride into town the day after the party deals with Mo Doqui.

#

Shinzo was great fun for me.

willow heron
#

any advice / tips for running him?

hallow heath
#

I portrayed him as polite, friendly, and as helpful as he’s allowed to be, while also not really giving any answers when questioned about the outside world.

willow heron
#

yeah it says he starts as polite and helpful, but enigmatic. that if pressed about where he gets the stuff he says he doesn't really know or something

hallow heath
#

When the party said they needed to go to Karahai, he even suggested they accompany him there, and offered to let them ride in his cart.

#

…but of course when he crossed the border the fog descended and they were left behind.

#

The way I handled his stock is that he had the necessities like Potency and Striking runes when applicable, with a curated list of other goodies based on player requests, and whatever I thought was fun.

willow heron
#

yeah sounds reasonable

#

thankyou

hallow heath
#

Also subtly hinted the passage of time with him selling “modern” gear, like spell scrolls of recently invented spells.

willow heron
#

ah that's a cool idea

#

alright gotta run tonights session, thanks again

winter fable
#

the SoG foundry module is awesome and amazing, except the map art just isn't super in my taste. I've had a hard time finding alternate packs that cover most/all of the SoG maps. Anyone know of any that might be worth a shot? They aren't bad by any means I just like things slightly grittier

strange dome
#

Is there anything in later books that explains what Fan Hongrui was actually up to? I'm thinking of weaving her into a larger story but I couldn't tell if the lack of her body was intended to be open ended for GM discretion or of it was picked up later.

orchid verge
torn jacinth
ivory stump
#

For GMs who have run SoG through the official Foundry VTT content, is it worth it buying the Remastered PDF as well, or is it a one or the other sort of deal?

stuck smelt
#

You mean get the module and the pdf?
Not really worth it, the module has the pdf as a journal in foundry
(Which can be exported to markdown if you don't wanna do prep in foundry)

torn jacinth
ivory stump
#

I’m running SoG in about a month so I need some helping understanding something: When exactly does the Mindscape get created, because there’s two explanations I’ve heard

  1. The mindscape is created the night the PCs were abductees. Everything after that point is a result of the looping mindscape.

  2. The mindscape is created the following year you were abductees. This means that there was an “orignal” year experienced by the PCs and every subsequent loop are deviations from that original version of the year

stuck smelt
#

The first one
In the "original timeline" everyone dies in their sleep on the night of the reenactment festival
Every day experienced from the first day of summer has been in the mindscape

Hence the name "the summer that never was"

ivory stump
stuck smelt
#

I wouldn't know sorry, I don't read more than a chapter ahead of where my players are

stuck smelt
#

Alright had a quick look ahead in the book and it's spelled out part way through Book 3 Chapter 2
She's essentially a psychic imprint caused by the real one snooping around the current day version of willowshore

wild dome
#

Hello!

One of my players wants to be an investigator that was involved in the conflict between governor Heh Shan-Bao and the lumber workers he forced to stay in Willowshore following Lung Wa’s collapse.

Is this something that is relevant in the campaign? Do characters like Myna Kawaka (the “guild master” of the industrial district) do something story relevant later on?

I’ve only read through act one, but if one of my players wants a ‘history’ with the lumber workers, I’d like to know how that might effect things later

gentle sparrow
#

My players have been at level 1 for a while now, we're making slow progress through part 1 of Act 1. It's been 5 sessions so far and they are about to do the Dawnstep Bridge stuff tomorrow.

Would it break anything if I leveled them to level 2 after just the Gurglegut fight? They've been asking to level up for several sessions in a row and I agree that it would feel nice to at least hit level 2 soon. What do you all think?

stuck smelt
#

Not really
As written the fights are a joke regardless, so if you want anything to be a challenge you'll have to make adjustments no matter if they're level 1 or 2

#

Though you might have to do some expectation management
There's a lot of story, a lot of RP and downtime
So unless the group is rushing through things leveling can be quite slow

torn jacinth
# stuck smelt Alright had a quick look ahead in the book and it's spelled out part way through...

To put a finer point on this, the psychic imprint of Ren Mei Li got incorporated during her initial visit in the months following the town's disappearance 115 years ago. Shinzo alludes to her appearance in the Mindscape as an event that occurs reliably in every cycle.

I believe it's in book 4 when they are preparing to meet her for real that they specifically call out that certain things the party may have gleaned from the Mindscape imprint may not apply to the true version as she has changed with the passage of time.

hallow heath
#

Present Ren Mei Li is surprisingly chill

torn jacinth
#

I know a common complaint with book 4 is many parties aren't receptive to working for a Jorogumo – even a chill one.

I've been thinking that I might take her chillness to an extreme and say she was radicalized in the interim. I think she would view Willowshore's sudden appearance as a boon for her cause. She would still need to visit and convince the town leaders to maintain appearances of fealty to the oppressive regime while enlisting them in her plan to eventually depose Lady Lang Loi.

torn jacinth
spice moss
#

My Champion (and cleric ded, and duskwalker) of Pharasma did the main casting roll for the final ritual tonight. Master in Religion, 4 wisdom, shining symbol... and a NAT 20 BAYBEEE! Pharasma brought us ALL back! (Ok, not all, 20% didn't come through, but apparently that was the best possible for our resource levels. Season prep is brutal with only 3 players.)

patent plume
#

Thinking of running this AP and glad to see there is so much active people here !!
I was wondering, when checking to buy the adventure, that there was a remastered version ? Are they any big changes, I don't want to miss anything from one version to the next !

spice moss
#

There are (to my knowledge) no plot changes, or even changes to creatures / rules beyond terms and the replacement of alignment damage with holy / unholy.

patent plume
#

Okay, thanks for the link !! I also saw there was a Foundry VTT version ? How does it compare to the PDF version ? Same maps and all ? I'm wondering if it would be easier to use it, I'm a newbie to all of that ! ✨

stuck smelt
#

The foundry versions comes with all the contents of the pdf as well as fully set up scenes, maps, tokens ect to run the game in Foundry
But it doesn't come with the PDF, which means that you normally can't easily look at anything without loading into the program and checking the journal

patent plume
#

Yeah...that's those scenes and the like that I am interested about but if it is that complicated to roam around the adventure, I'm doubting...
Is there any way to know in more precision what comes with the foundry version ?

stuck smelt
#

Have you used Foundry before?

patent plume
#

No...😖 But I'm ready to try !!

stuck smelt
#

https://demo.foundryvtt.com/join
Then check out the online demo, it should give you an idea of how the thing works
Afaik you can only preview the player side of things, so there's a lot hidden from you
But you can imagine that getting the foundry module means not having to set up all these maps and tokens and so on for yourself

Wether foundry as a program is a good fit for you and your group is something we'd have to take to another channel at the very least

Foundry Demo (PF2E)

Foundry Virtual Tabletop - A Self-Hosted & Modern Role-playing Platform

queen birch
#

Considering the fact that the PCs are essentially inside a giant dreamscape, could it be fitting to add enemies like the denizens of leng or the astral plane?

stuck smelt
#

Would be easy to justify, though they would break with the Asian Fantasy theme that the campaign is going for
And always gotta take care that they don't catch on too early

spice moss
velvet abyss
# stuck smelt Not really As written the fights are a joke regardless, so if you want anything...

What adjustments would you recommend? Elite template, adding monsters, adding more interesting monsters from the monster cores/bestiaries?

My table enjoys combat, and although we're still early in the adventure (about to storm Dawnstep bridge, relight the lantern, and explore downtown), the encounters have felt somewhat bland. I'm excited for the PCs to fight Mo Douqiu because he seems unique and interesting, for example.

stuck smelt
#

https://maxiride.github.io/pf2e-encounters/#/
Run them through the encounter builder, XP math can generally be trusted
It will typically be a mix of basic Elite/Weak adjustments + additional minions

Recommendation is to not have a creature that is more than Average Party Level+2, because at +3, let alone +4 things tend to become really swingy and not as fun, instead add more lower level creatures to act as minions, which also gives you more tactical options

The one bit of specific feedback I've gotten from my players is to avoid having several sources of persistant damage at once, at least at early levels, because that can snowball extremely hard since there's not that many tools to deal with them quickly

PF2 Encounter builder

A PF2 tool to balance encounters

#

Even the bosses in Season of Ghost often don't go above a Medium Encounter so they end up feeling lackluster
Gurglegut as written is not even a real fight, because the dreamtime tea is basically an instant win and at his normal sickened status he's also a joke
Because the party is explicitly prompted for the tea, I've been running it as the poison giving him Sickened 2 and not having any debuff by default

velvet abyss
#

It's funny you mention that since I was planning to run the fight exactly the same way.

stuck smelt
#

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people came to that conclusion

carmine marsh
#

I changed the tea in Gut to two poisons of the parties choice. One hurt him over time, the other weakened him. Also made it so that Gut was a proper boss fight.

spice moss
#

In my group, we had our 4rth player drop out around level 5 (right before we got to the monastery) and we decided to proceed with just 3, not making any encounter adjustments. The fights feel pretty good at that level. We had one fight almost go TPK and it was just bad luck / player tactics; the main plot point fights have felt like moderate / severe.
On the other hand, some skill related things had been hard. We got crazy lucky with ritual rolls (nat 19 and 20 on the big ones) and even squeaked through victory point challenges making 1/4 fewer rolls, but some hazards were just brick walls due to low skills or bad rolls.

hallow heath
#

On my end, Gurglegut got one-shot by a Leiomano crit rolling high.

velvet abyss
carmine marsh
#

I gave him a few abilities from the rematch. Obviously toned down.

hallow heath
#

My party is near assuredly going to complete the adventure today.

viscid elk
#

Congrats! Big accomplishment!

hallow heath
#

Very close, not quite.
They are on the literal doorstep of the final confrontation with Heh Shan-Bao

#

He demanded to know by what right do they stand before him, and I put a pause on things since we were right at the cutoff time.

#

They have a week to consider their answers.

carmine marsh
#

The group I played SoG in blew HSB up with a series of crits. He really didn’t get to do much

#

In his defense, one of the crits was a magus with Shocking Grasp

spice moss
#

We walked the gov right up to Matsuki last night. All rolled crit fails on perception. 😆

#

And then I rolled a nat 20 apologizing to Matsuki, by the fate of Pharasma.

violet python
#

Anyone know if the tian xia guide is spoiler free?

orchid verge
spice moss
#

Level 10 picks I would never take in another AP that organically make sense here:

  • +1 int on a Champion
  • Trained in Performance
  • Additional Lore; Willowshore

As a Champion of Pharasma I need to be able to catalog the lost and make sure they all make it to the river of souls. (Performance is mostly because it's the one skill our party was flat out missing. Looking forward to fluit duets with Elizeth, she's my character's "close ties".)

hallow heath
violet prawn
#

all it really mentions is "oh theres ghosts" and "oh the spider ladies are scary" lol

#

I actually read the Shenmen section as a player and I got scared that I accidentally spoiled myself, because I had assumed that the big bad would be the spider ladies

#

I was very wrong

hallow heath
#

The wizard in my gang proposed to be Ren Mei Li’s consort as a political move.

stuck smelt
#

A political move, I'm sure that's their only motivation

violet python
#

Any tips or ideas for increasing the horror vibe?

hallow heath
willow heron
#

I'm trying to find the part of the module where they end up finally running into / saving ugly cute

#

anybody remember what chapter thats in?

#

3, it's 3 i found it