ZEITGEIST Suggestions for things to improve, fix, or add for the ZEITGEIST Act One compilation?

[gideonpepys]

Yeah, I think too many themes means that interesting stuff gets overlooked. The party is supposed to be able to pick from a few campaign-specific themes in order to tie themselves into the world in unexpected ways, perhaps ways that give an interesting twist to their build. Each adventure what have to be filled with half a dozen more links which groups wouldn't get to experience. I think the number of themes is just fine. Though I'd like to have a bit more of an idea of how spirit medium is specifically tied to Zeitgeist. (It's the only one I don't get, even though I like it a lot. It feels like it could apply to any campaign, not just this one. So far...)

 

[skotothalamos]

One thing I love about the existing Zeitgeist themes is that they are almost all based on philosophies or beliefs. They are as much a description of how that person views the world as they are a description of what that person can do. Any additional themes should adhere to that standard.

 

[Tukka]

I think I've spotted an inconsistency. In Digging for Lies, the map in the Ziggurat that shows the location of the Mashiva temple incorporates ancient brass plates. The Ancients are supposed to have lacked metalworking ability apart from their use of gold.

 

[RangerWickett]

Hm! Good spot. That didn't even occur to me.

 

[Elfshire]

Minor, but potentially important quibble about the Gunsmith theme:

if the Man with Two Guns is God power allows them to attack with two pistols, shouldn't they also, by necessity, gain the benefit "Gunsmiths can use pistols as off-hand weapons" ?

 

[RangerWickett]

Is that not a default rule? God I hate 4e sometimes.

Okay, I'll note that.

 

[Tukka]

In Digging for Lies, it says that calling in a favor to get Captain Smith and the Impossible has a favor level of 6. This means that with maximum Prestige (having a Yerasol Veteran and no screw-ups in previous adventures) it will take about a month for the favor to be fulfilled according to the guidelines given in the Zeitgeist Players' Guide.

I think a Favor 5 rating would be more appropriate, as then it would take a week with max Prestige. That means it would effectively take the Impossible ten days to reach the Temple of Mashiva (7 day wait + 3 days of travel), where I imagine an excise cutter could make the trip to the Temple of Mashiva in about 5 days, and a steam cutter could make it in about 8 days. This seems more appropriate to me than a 33 day wait/trip, which would throw off the whole timeline of the adventure and make the Impossible effectively a non-option.

 

[Ajar]

Digging for Lies, p56, paragraph 3:

Whenever the PCs defeat the last for of any of these encounters...

I'm actually not sure what's meant there.

 

[Elfshire]

Digging for Lies, p56, paragraph 3:



I'm actually not sure what's meant there.

I'm gonna go with the possibility that they meant to write "foe" instead of "for."

 

[gideonpepys]

In Cauldron Born, on p.8 and p.46, reference is made to the 'Player's Handout: Subrail Opening' which doesn't appear to exist.