ZEITGEIST Zeitvice: one GM's guide to the best AP

[Andrew Moreton]

For the ZG setting where you are getting cartridge firearms with revolvers and breech loaders you probably need guns to be better than bows except possibly for the very best archers, for the earlier smoothbore muzzleloaders PF makes them far to good historically until at least the 1870's a skilled archer was better than a musket armed soldier. It is just easier to train musketeers it takes a few weeks not the years to train a longbowman.
This of course is the opposite of almost every RPG systems which makes smoothbore guns require skilled experts and be much more accurate than bows. Just make early firearms useless so pc's don't use them and make revolvers and breechloading rifles slightly better than longbows , small bonus to hit and the same damage should work. The big advantage they had was they were still easier to use and you could take cover while loading and firing which is not well represented in most RPG rules anyway

 

[Arcaneshield]

I'm running the fourth edition version of this adventure and have decided not to use the Naval combat rules. They were a bit too complicated and my party did not seem interested in going into in depth naval combat. So I ask with the ending of act one how do you suggest I run the big epic confrontation with borne?

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Wing it.
Let the players make decisons maybe make a few dice rolls then describe events, use the examples from the naval combat description as inspirations and just allow a few personal encounters with whitch oil slimes etc. I think most GM's just wing this encounter and don't use the naval rules

 

[EarthSeraphEdna]

I would focus on constructing a set-piece battle against vengeful spirits released by Borne, with the PCs charged with protecting Aodhan. The raging waters and the cannon fire would be a backdrop to that. I might also consider running a naval battle anyway, with a more skill-challenge-like structure, rather than anything focusing on ship statistics.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I made sure to make the players feel very inolved in the decision making so beside protecting the king they came up with several schemes to confuse and distract bourne to prevent him sinking ships. Every time they succesfully implemented a plan I amde sure to describe how it had ennabled one or more warships to disengage from him and avoid being sunk

 

[Gort]

My group's just starting the last two adventures now. Any tips on making the ending of the campaign land well?

They pretty much got the "good" ending for Ber, Drakr and Crissilyir, so the world's doing about as well as could be expected.

At the start of Adventure 12 it mentions that Rock Rackus is dating a ghost now. Who is it?

 

[Andrew Moreton]

If you look at my ongoing write up you will see what I am doing.
1) Tailor it to your group. This is the most important thing anything suggested which won't fit your group is bad even if in other contexts it is great.
2) Will your group enjoy playing building blocks with the Gyre and the Axis island ritual. If they do seriously consider adding a few extra worlds . In particular I think Water , Time , Fire and Space could use some more difficult choices. But add planes which go with your idea of the Gyre and what your group will find interesting.
3) The Voice of Rot probably needs reinforcments to face a reasonably well designed and coordinated team. May depend on the system but in Pathfinder and probably 5th ed Action economy is a killer, Bosses need minions to distract the team. I went for the 4 remaining riders from Drakr , the Cleric Professor from the assasination of the King and Creed. They were loose ends and this ties them up also my players though Creed may make another appearance and I hate to dissapoint them.
4) Think about the confrontation with Nicodemus. If your group has worked hard to win over Kasavarina and other allies a straight battle may not work so well. I am going for more of a philosophical confrontation punctuated by violence. I am also giving them all their allies to help, Nic will have allies many of which will defect and finally call in his recently aquired allies of the shining legion , my players thought he had made the shift over to definite evil so I am going to give them that. It wil lead to a big confrontation and the world they build will end up letting them drive off the legion. Your group may want to fight Nic and kill him and not worry about philosphy if so give them that but make sure he had enough minions to put up a good fight
5) When they race around the world to stop Nic's plot think what if any loose ends and interests they have in each of those places and add them in

 

[Lylandra]

Also, decide on how to run the adventures. You can either use 12 or 13 as the last one or split both up and run them side by side. The latter version seems to be the suggested path, but it leads to player-character dissonance, and possibly a bit of frustration. I'll go more into our "problems" with the amnesiac start of adventure 13 in my thread, but if your party plays less by adventure logic and more like hardcore "actual people", then you'd really risk them joining forces with Nic in the last part.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I let my players know they had a hunch something would turn up for the ritual. Even then Nic had managed to annoy them so much they would not have trusted him to buy a sandwhich let alone fix the world. Using just the 4 icons they picked up earlier and the Ob planes they could do something more workable than the current configuration , and if you let the players know what configuration he is planning to use then I can't see any group signing up to implement his clockwork disaster with no planar protection plan. It is clear evidence he has jumped the shark and not just any shark , a Nightwave.

But how the split between the two arcs works is down to what will fit your groups style, I established the split and then took book 12 all the way to the fight with the Voice before doing book 13 . I had a crazy moment when I considered doing the final battles of both books side by side but that would be a nightmare to run particularly in time limited sessions over the internet so I abandoned my thoughts of drama management

 

[jjtraw]

I am so glad I've read this. I started Module 3 Digging for Lies a few weeks ago, and the info here has been incredibly helpful. It was really good to have an idea of what was in the Pemberton tent, because I knew my players wouldn't let that go! I don't think it's a problem, though, that Sijen is more or less sane after millenia in a portal. He's a thoughtform creature, after all, and that changes the rules of psychology for him quite a bit. If my players manage to kill him in the end, rather than threatening that his "brother" will come back, I'll have Sijen mutter that "It's not so easy to kill an idea." That thought should resonate with the philosophical tone of the campaign in general as well.