ZEITGEIST Starting Zeitgeist in 5e - Master thesis, Conversion and other shenanigans

[Levistej]

Update: Bought it through en5ider and like how the conversion was done. I think we'll reach The dying skyseer before it's officially released but at least I'll have a sense on how the designers meant for it to be converted.

I just have one question. The themes all mention some prestige classes that the corresponding characters could take. Am I missing something or are they not released yet?

 

[Levistej]

So, we're gonna have the "Session 0" this Sunday where I'll introduce the players to the setting and we'll be making characters. They've all already decided which class, race and theme they're gonna be, but I plan to let them change that on Sunday if they see the urge to do so.
The party consists of a Vakeshi mystic Monk, a Martial scientist Rogue, a Skyseeing Artificer, a Spirit medium Paladin and a Technologist Gunslinger. All are human except the gunslinger, she decided on a gnome.

There's no full caster in the party, so larger fights and out of the box solutions are bound to be tricky. Any last tips on what and how to present to the players?

 

[RangerWickett]

New players always require a careful hand. Pay attention to what they respond to. I find that dropping non-verbal sense information - the wafting scent of sea air and soot, the tactile jostling of the crowd, the humid warmth of the afternoon sun - helps players get that they're supposed to act like they're in the world, not just talking about a story happening to someone else. Maybe you don't get as immersive as that, though.

If you can have a map of the setting printed out - ideally one of the continent and another of Flint - it might help them keep track of the sides in various conflicts.

How far ahead have you read in the campaign? I think we paced the unrolling of setting elements well enough so you shouldn't ever need to dump a bunch of exposition on the players. I'd avoid being tempted to try to do too much extra foreshadowing.

I'm not sure how scrolls work in 5e, compared to earlier edition. When the party goes to the island, make sure they're able to use the scrolls to sneak into the fort and water breath to the lighthouse.

Think about whether you want to use accents and distinct voices, and do a bit of practice with each character. We do have a lot of NPCs, so having a distinctive speech pattern or posture makes it easier for the players to keep track of who's who.

Good luck!

 

[Levistej]

Oh, I'm full on immersion, I don't even consider playing without tabletop audio on. A hounted house without candles and creepy music? No way!

Scrolls will work how I need them to work, regardless of the official 5e rules. I think I'll let the artificer have ritual casting and use any magic item, that's kinda their thing and 5e does a lousy job with them imho.

I have read the whole module for pathfinder and know the "Island at the..." adventure by heart. Also, I prepared some handouts with all the characters my party should know of and have an A3 format map of both the continent and of Flint already printed out.

When it comes to accents, it's not my strong suit but I always incorporate them in my games and this should be no different. Teiflings will be French, the Clergy mobster Italian, Drakrans shall be German, and Risuri will propably be a mix of english accents. I have no idea what to do with Ber and Elfaivar. Only other accents I'm comfortable pulling of are Russian and Ozzie and I can hardly imagine elves as Russians, even harder to imagine them as Ozzies when we figure in where they stand contextually in the campaign.

I'm really glad that the player with the most common sense in my party decided to be a skyseer, I'm sure she wont gaze into the stars at every given moment and will surely be satisfied with rather cryptic answers. On the other hand the spirit medium paladin I could see having trouble with. Not so much because of the player, the power to speak with the dead could pose trouble in an investigation based module.

 

[RangerWickett]

Spirit Medium speak with dead shouldn't be that huge of a problem. In adventure two the villain is clever enough to keep levels of deniability between himself and the street-level baddies, so by the time the party might come across the dead body of someone who knows the villain's identity, they should already be ready for the climax. In adventure three nobody really knows what's going on with the main villain, and we establish that geas can apply even to a dead person, keeping them from revealing information about the Ob. Adventure four has some great times to speak with dead, since you're on a spy mission, but even then the goal is to see whom your target is going to meet, so the party doesn't want to just capture or kill the bad guys until they reach their destination.

I themed eladrin as Indian/Persian, but I can't really do either of those accents, so I went with Arabic-esque.

 

[Levistej]

So the first session went well and almost by the book.
They identified all the suspects before the nobles arrived and disabled the explosion by sending the energy to the cannon on the deck. This coincided well with the fact that they already used up the fireworks meant for that evening during a quite amusing train of thought from one of them. The evacuation was already taking place and the elemental almost wiped them out so I wouldn't call it a critical success but still, they managed quite well.

We left the debriefing for the next session when they're gonna meet Lya. I have mostly everything planned out but one thing bugs me. I really don't like the riddle/puzzle as presented. :/

Any tips on changing it? Has anyone implemented something else? Actually, has anyone got a really nice puzzle/riddle at hand?

Also, my skyseeing artificer will most likely ask for a vision concerning the eventual dangers and mishaps on the mission soon to follow. I think I'll give her something like:

" A dreamy and starless night sky is reflected in jet-black oily waters as a blue sun gently shines upon you. Countless fireflies swim beneath the surface, drowning, wandering, struggling in the murky liquid - not able outside the waters grasp. The eery silence is pierced as a blazing inferno explodes into existence and illuminates the darkness. The smell of smoke, burning wood and flesh fills your nose as a lion with stags antlers protruding from its maned head slowly prowls out of the blinding flames, vengeance and betrayal in its eyes. "

Is this too edgy or giving too much away?

 

[Levistej]

Update:
We just had our third session and they just passed the axis fort walls and are all dressed up in uniforms they stole from the island patrol. Before that they almost perished to Dupier and his minions but other than that, they had no problems and are loving it.

As they first saw the witch oil that a golem left behind our spirit medium paladin heard hundreds of whispers. He tried to divine sense the hell out of it and was surprised that nothing came out of it except a slight sense of desecration. As she feels that the oil is referenced in her vision, our skyseer artificer decided to try a few experiments with the oil, including burning it and asking the party monk to drink a bit of it. The burning part was really painful to our paladin.

The next session is gonna be a big one - the sea gate encounter, Ashrabei and the duchess, some glimpses of the big reveal...any tips from personal experience? I'm only really worried of what I should do with the duchess and how to roleplay Ashrabei and the mention of Kasvarina. It's always tricky to get scenes were a lot of npc's have something to say quite right.

Also, as my group has a few cosplayers, it has been decided that RHC badges will be made. I'm looking for inspiration on the design, motives and details, just give me some ideas and I'll pass them on to my players who'll do the real job.

 

[RangerWickett]

Good to hear from you.

I never made a formal badge design, but there was one group that made their own. I'll see if I can track it down, because I think they posted it here, but it was a few years ago.

For PF, Asrabey had only 1 hp, I think, because his AC was unreachable for 1st level PCs. In 4e he had like 20, because even 1st level PCs have powers that do chip damage on a miss.

In 5e, his AC is more bounded. Honestly, you don't want the PCs to die here, so I'd just fuzz how many HP he has, so that the party gets to be terrified of him for two turns, then on the third or fourth turn any hit takes him out.

I don't really have any good suggestions of how to present a scene with three talking characters. Audio books pull it off all the time, so I wouldn't stress about it.

 

[Levistej]

Yeah, I'll buff up Asrabey even further than the conversion suggests, I really believe he should unleash some AoE spells when he jumps out of the ships cargo bay, of course, they wont be targeting the PC's.

I also forgot to ask, any chance the next adventure will be up and ready in the next 2 weeks? The last update was on October the 30th so I was hoping I maybe wouldn't have to convert the second adventure by myself.

 

[Tormyr]

I would recommend just playing fast and loose the with Asrabey's HP. If the PCs all beat him in initiative and all roll critical hits, he needs to go down before having a chance to attack. The players / PCs need to understand through the build up and roll play that Asrabey is incredibly dangerous but injured. So there just might be a chance to beat him. There are a few important things from this encounter, and none of them are actually having a good encounter in the traditional sense:
1. Asrabey has just mowed through an army to get were he is. He is in bad shape for his standards, but he still has enough power to decimate the PCs given the chance. So there is significant danger in attacking him.
2. Magic missile, spells requiring saving throws for half damage, and critical hits are the main dangers for Asrabey. He gets enough of these thrown his way and he should go down.
3. The key for this encounter is how the PCs handle themselves in the run up to the encounter and its aftermath. Do they talk him down? Do they force him to retreat? Critically, if they defeat him, do they kill him? I personally run big NPCs with death saving throws which allows PCs to take prisoners without needing to use the "knock unconscious at 0hp from a melee attack" rule. That way, spells and ranged attacks can be used to take someone prisoner if they are fast and stabilize the enemy. It also allows you to see the intent of the PCs. If Asrabey is rolling death saving throws and the coup de grace him. Then any number of NPCs can tear them a new one in the aftermath.

Good luck!