The Campaign Guide is here!

[Dog Moon]

Just reread and noticed the release dates for the campaign adventures. It actually works out pretty well for me, given that the leveling rate from my last campaign worked out to be somewhat slower than the release schedule here; though I think I'll try to keep at least one adventure ahead of the release schedule when I start running it.

All in all; still looking forward to it; and I'm glad I bought it.

I saw the release dates and was surprised. I don't know how these adventures compare to Paizo AP adventures, but my group goes through about one adventure per two weeks. So about 12 weeks for one AP. So assuming about twice the number of adventures, 24 weeks. Meaning with a supposed end date of June 2014 our group shouldn't begin to even start the AP until about January of 2014. Even if I assume twice as long as Paizo AP, then that's 48 weeks, starting at about July of 2013.

As interested as I was in this, I don't think I'll be worrying about getting this AP for a long time.

 

[Morrus]

I saw the release dates and was surprised. I don't know how these adventures compare to Paizo AP adventures, but my group goes through about one adventure per two weeks. So about 12 weeks for one AP. So assuming about twice the number of adventures, 24 weeks. Meaning with a supposed end date of June 2014 our group shouldn't begin to even start the AP until about January of 2014. Even if I assume twice as long as Paizo AP, then that's 48 weeks, starting at about July of 2013.

As interested as I was in this, I don't think I'll be worrying about getting this AP for a long time.

We don't have the money Paizo has, unfortunately. We can only afford to pay artists and writers and the like at a certain rate.

If I win the lottery next week, I promise to release the entire thing within 5 minutes (or as fast as Ryan can write). But yes, I am painfully aware of the unfortunate delay-based loophole inherent in a subscription product. We just have to hope not too many people do it, or we won't be around for long. It's an unavoidable but unfortunate problem with the business model, but there isn't a viable alterative model which will enable us to provide over a thousand pages of full-colour intricately crafted adventure path made up of tens of thousands of hours of writing, illustrating, editing, and layout. Hopefully this model won't bite us on the ass too much, but only you can decide what it's worth to you.

Although - 12 weeks for one AP? I'm playing through WotBS right now, and we're approaching the two-year mark. I'd suggest that you may be something of an outlier. 12 weeks? Really? For the whole thing? That only just got us through the first adventure! Honestly, if you go through an adventure in two weeks, you really are best waiting. That's a phenomenal play rate outside my experience. How many hours do you play each week? We design for 4 hours a week or so.

 

[Dog Moon]

We don't have the money Paizo has, unfortunately. We can only afford to pay artists and writers and the like at a certain rate.

If I win the lottery next week, I promise to release the entire thing within 5 minutes (or as fast as Ryan can write). But yes, I am painfully aware of the unfortunate delay-based loophole inherent in a subscription product. We just have to hope not too many people do it, or we won't be around for long. It's an unavoidable but unfortunate problem with the business model, but there isn't a viable alterative model which will enable us to provide over a thousand pages of full-colour intricately crafted adventure path made up of tens of thousands of hours of writing, illustrating, editing, and layout. Hopefully this model won't bite us on the ass too much, but only you can decide what it's worth to you.

Although - 12 weeks for one AP? I'm playing through WotBS right now, and we're approaching the two-year mark. I'd suggest that you may be something of an outlier. 12 weeks? Really? For the whole thing? That only just got us through the first adventure! Honestly, if you go through an adventure in two weeks, you really are best waiting. That's a phenomenal play rate outside my experience. How many hours do you play each week? We design for 4 hours a week or so.

We play weekly for about 12-14 hours, minus maybe about an hour for dinner. Usually start around 2pm and depending on where we are in the adventure, usually stop around 2am - 4am.

Ah, sadly we no longer do the start at 11am on saturday, game to 5am, sleep till about 11am and them resume until 9-10pm on sunday when we finally force ourselves to go home to be ready for monday mornings. Those were the days.

But I guess now that I know there's a reason for delaying the adventures [I was like what kind of planning is that?], it makes sense. I'm sure I'll do something to pitch in at some point, but it will probably be a little farther down the line. I do hope everything goes good for you and hope that not every group is as fast as ours.

 

[benfromidaho]

I was also a little concerned about my players moving too fast compared to the release schedule, but after checking out this guide I'm not worried at all. I've been playing with my group about six months (known most for years), and we're finally getting a good groove going for non-combat roleplaying. I think it'll be exciting to see how we fill some of the breaks. Otherwise, I'm not too worried! As soon as Ultimate Combat (we're using Pathfinder) is released, character creation will begin!!!

Also, what is the intended party size for Zeitgeist?

 

[Morrus]

We play weekly for about 12-14 hours,

Holy crap!

I'm sorry, we simply can't keep up with that rate of play. You're literally playing faster than we can write. If it's any comfort, I envy you - I get 3-4 hours per week, max! You're playing at 4-5 times the rate we do!

 

[RangerWickett]

Also, what is the intended party size for Zeitgeist?

For 4e, it's 5 PCs. I believe Pathfinder also assumes 5 PCs; I'll ask Thurston (who has been doing the rules work for the PF version).

 

[benfromidaho]

[MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION] I certainly hope you're correct, 'cause that's wicked awesome! I'm losing one player from my regular group because of school in the Fall, which will bring us down to five, and I was not excited about either adding more baddies to make up for it or telling one of them that he couldn't play.

 

[Dog Moon]

Holy crap!

I'm sorry, we simply can't keep up with that rate of play. You're literally playing faster than we can write. If it's any comfort, I envy you - I get 3-4 hours per week, max! You're playing at 4-5 times the rate we do!

Ouch. Although it certainly helps that two of the others in my group live in the same house and one lives like a mile away [The last one lives a decent drive away and makes it randomly due to work schedule, but we technically have enough without him if he can't make it] which makes it pretty easy for us to get together and to game pretty much as late as we want. "Ugh, I'm so tired I can't keep my eyes open."

"That's fine. You should be able to walk the twenty feet to your bedroom with your eyes closed by now."

 

[Rugult]

For 4e, it's 5 PCs. I believe Pathfinder also assumes 5 PCs; I'll ask Thurston (who has been doing the rules work for the PF version).

For the PF version we're assuming 4-5 PCs as per standard adventures. PF XP breaks are strange in that it assumes a party of 4-5 base and then modifies challenges for groups of 6+ and 3 or less.

That being said, I would suggest sticking with 5 PCs as some of the encounters might be dicey (blame Ryan's insane ideas of PC torture). 4 PCs can work well, but if you are GMing it, I would suggest offering the PCs a bit of mercy once in a while.

 

[benfromidaho]

Thanks [MENTION=53273]Rugult[/MENTION] it's awesome to get that sort of insight on GMing things ahead of time. It'd be no fun to introduce this whole new awesome world and then end it all with an early TPK. This might be getting a little specific in terms of topics for the thread, but since I didn't see any mention of it in the Campaign Guide, is there a specific need to keep track of XP in Zeitgeist? I've been toying with just leveling according to required level for the adventure, and not keeping track of specific XP. I know it works well in campaigns that don't involve a lot of level draining monsters or XP consuming abilities. Any advice?