Should You GM Outlaws of Alkenstar? - Part 2 (SPOILERS)

[@ElGodzillo]

One easy way to "fix" the players constantly being late in book 2 is to slightly change their objektives. So when they learn that they were too late and that Mugland has the formula, you could also tell them then that he already sold it. Now they need to get to him to learn the names of who he sold the formula to (or at least get a clue), instead of stopping him from selling it. You could also have Gattlebee play a big part in solving some of the problems in book 2 or 3 (maybe by coming up with some helpful invention). That way it doesn't feel like a complete waste that you managed to save him in book 1.

[@philippedaigneault366]

Just occurred to me that a neat way of doing Surgetime Vs Bronzetime is simply to look at your local weather forecast and base it on chance of rain/partly cloudy/(You choice of weather here) during the day the game runs and the days ahead. That way the weather website did the work of randomizing for you and even break it down hour to hour plus you get the the multi day forecast too. It's easy, on your phone and just a touch away.

[@AhhFa]

Would work excellent if one lives in a place where weather fluctuates regularly. Alternatively, one could roll like what was suggested in the video, 15+ being Surge Time. Make a few sheets ahead of time (4-8), and have the players roll the associated dice when they buy a Forecast

[@jasonkeeley7426]

Here's a couple of things I did in my own Outlaws of Alkenstar campaign: * I started Book 1 with a little "flash forward" to the toppling of the tower of trash in the junkyard, just to start things off with some excitement (and to give Loveless some "screen time" right away). * Book 2 has nothing to do with the formula for pyronite. Instead, one of Mugland's goons kidnaps Oloman Kosowana to get the time rewinding magic of the Cradle of Quartz. The PCs get wind of this and don't want Mugland to have that magic, so it's a chase. It didn't hurt that the goon was one of the PCs' son. * I really focused Book 3 on Loveless' plan to convince the city government for the need of a standing army with her phony terrorist attack. By this point, I wanted to speed the group along to the riverboat, so I skipped a few encounters in parts 1 & 2 (including the clockwork puppeteer). I think my crew would have been more happy with a sandbox-y Book 2 where they secured a criminal enterprise to rival Mugland's. Something real Blades in the Dark. A few characters didn't really care for the fact that they were working for the Duchess. But they still had fun, so I think this AP can really sing with a few tweaks.

[@bmardiney]

If you blow up a giant rock cliff (which is what a waterfall is), and you turn that into a rockslide that a giant river would erode away afterwards, you’d have a big, steep, fast rapid. Also the surrounding lower parts of the city would be flooded, but I doubt Geb and Nex care about that. Basically, you take away that sheer cliff under the water, and you get a really messy steep hill.

[@RealLordFuture]

The arch villain for the TV Series "Wild Wild West" was called Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless and the Movie Reboot arch villain was called Dr. Arliss Loveless, someone at Paizo loved that IP.

[@kocakbil]

I keep coming back to this video for a quick refresher or when I need a second opinion on my Outlaws campaign. Solid video!

[@fruitbowlman1006]

Genuinely a really great video! I'm currently GM'ing a remixed version of Outlaws of Alkenstar and this video guide has helped a lot. small general thoughts (spoilers of course): our group 100% ran into the issue you mentioned before with how the thematics encourage martial heavy parties but the enemy roaster is very resistant to physical damage. Our party at the start was a metal kineticist, a gunslinger, a fighter, and a barbarian. The kineticist did have access to electricity damage, however no one in the party also had any noteworthy recall knowledge abilities, and when it came time to figure out how to fight the many different early clockwork monsters, they were unable to figure out their electricity weaknesses. Many of the enemies are mindless as well, which has bummed out the fighter of the group, as they have a focus on demoralize that only comes up half the time seemingly. This is also somewhat of an issue that I don't see brought up a whole lot. Parties who refuse to take crafting or Alkenstar Lore as a skill will struggle greatly. There is an entire fight involving a "machine spirit" (yes really) that requires religion or crafting lore to exorcise, with Alkenstar lore making it more easy by lowering the DC. Our little group did not have access to this, and breaking the engine its possessing is more or less impossible, so I had to quickly rectify the situation by letting them use a star grenade to blow up the engine through a bit of RP. Overall I not only stress having a session 0 talk to the party about magic and the enemy types they will be facing (on top of discussing optional bronzetime/surgetime rules), but to also make sure SOMEONE has crafting and or alkenstar lore trained. In fact, consider even offering some of the players Alkenstar lore for free, I mean it. I've warned the players a bit that book 2 might feel a bit slow, and I've taken into consideration some changes I'll be including. I think the party will be fine with the slowed down pace of the RP heavy airship chapter. I have been very concerned with the claws of time and have considered running it strictly as a sort of horror segment, where I purposefully outright cause a false TPK, then force the party into a timeloop, with their hp and other resources reset to what they were before, as they figure out how to defeat the horrifying creature while avoiding the timewarped duplicates of themselves trekking through the dungeon (which, coming into contact with is the only TRUE way to die in this little segment i'm workshopping). For the two wizard terrorists, I've been thinking about what to do with their motives. For Ibrium, the Nexian wizard, my choices are either: 1. trying to also trigger a false flag operation and blame it on Geb, as a way to give creditability to Nex for an annexation of Alkenstar, or 2. He is genuinely an idiot and think's blowing up the entire waterfall will make both trading and invading easier along the river. Parsus, the Geb wizard, is more of a good ole fashion terrorist, who's in it for the money and to prove to his disapproving father that they're not daddy's little failure. All in all, i'm mostly pleased with book one of Outlaws of Alkenstar, and more then pleased to have watched this video. Thank you again!!

[@LuckoDaStars]

Okay what you just mention with the Cradle of quartz and the time Loop actually sounds like a pretty awesome idea. So that if they do get overwhelmed by the monster, time resets and you start at the beginning. So yeah the concept of if you encounter yourself both of you implode and there is absolutely no save. Not even true Resurrection will bring it back from that

[@urbanapeful]

Thank you for the time and effort you put into these videos! It's so useful to know what kind of experience my players will be getting and more importantly what parts are weak and need a little fine tuning.

[@travisbaggett2813]

I love this series of videos!

[@fuzzyfirecadet]

Great video, I’m running an adventure in Alkenstar, and this AP has been a great resource, as have your videos. Thank you!

[@bmardiney]

To be fair, bards and clerics would be very setting-friendly. The local church is very dominant and a guy with a guitar is perfect in a western.

[@danrimo826]

Hell yes. Very Desperado vibes for the bard. Guitar case full of guns

[@bmardiney]

@@danrimo826 totally forgot about the movie. Badass.

[@starstreak13]

The lore inconsistency go so far beyond Surge/Bronze time. Smokeside is supposed to be a dead magic zone, and yet there are several of set pieces in book 1 which involves spellcasters and summoning circles. Ironside is supposed to be a bombed out quarantine zone with no way in or out and yet several set pieces in book 1 allegedly take place in Ironside. Kosowano's Clockwork Manufactory is located in Smokeside, but you can't make clockworks in dead-magic zones. I feel like this campaign was written before the setting was decided, and would've been better suited to the Deadshot Lands in Arcadia, than the Mana Wastes. There's even more inconsistencies, like mages being restricted to the area around Blythir College, and the city being very insular, isolationist and intolerant, and yet every other NPC is something the average citizen would consider "mutants". They literally bombed an entire section of the city for fear of mutants...

[@craigjones7343]

Is that 1e lore regarding Alkenstar?

[@starstreak13]

@@craigjones7343 Smokeside being a dead magic zone, mutants being forcibly evicted from Ironside, Ironside currently being a monster infested ruin, spellcasters having to register with the shieldmarshals, being confined to Blythir College and being subject to curfews, Alkenstari driving mutants, defined as anyone "not conforming to common appearance," out of the city with gunfire, and clockworks needing magic to be made, but able to patrol dead magic zones without issue are all mentioned in Lost Omens Impossible Lands.

[@craigjones7343]

@@starstreak13 awesome. Thanks. I have not started reading Impossible Lands yet. Alkenstar was published quite some time before IL was published. A couple years I think. So it would make sense that they had not fully explored Alkenstar, or perhaps all of that occurred after the adventure.

[@danrimo826]

As to what next I'd be very keen to hear your thoughts on Kingmaker 2e and Quest for the Frozen Flame

[@Dudeman715]

With the water fall thing I'm not sure how the travel thing is important because there is literally a roman road style highway between nex and Geb.... I forget exactly where it is but if you look at the pathfinder world map if you read the towns around the mana wastes it will say oh this town is part of the big road thing.

[@HeathenHammer8]

Please, please, please, do Agent's of Edgewatch next! I am itching to run an urban campaign and could use some insight. Much appreciated! 🙏🙏🙏

[@Vipertooth007]

The hound aura wasn't very troublesome for my party as they were all ranged and ended their turns outside of the aura by simply walking away or utilizing line of sight with the walls. It only triggered like 2-3 times at the start of the fight as they experimented with the triggers.

[@Rythian]

I just finished GMing a year+ long campaign of this, and really really enjoyed it. That said, all the criticisms mentioned in the video are 100% accurate, though obviously things will vary from party to party. I changed up some things to incorporate more player stories, and tweaked some story weirdness (always too late, airship passenger weirdness, the cradle being kind of pointless, villain motivations, etc) Still, overall a super fun time. The steampunk wild west theme was very unique and I feel like the AP nailed the promise of that kind of story feel.

[@danrimo826]

So weird that the airship progress (getting passengers) was gated behind skill rolls. That is textbook poor adventure design. If the adventure needed the airship to have 4 additional passengers why didn't it just... have 4 additional passengers? Easy enough to swing it so that after the PCs booked passage, one of the NPCs was replaced with a mole or something

[@CraigSteinhoff]

The representatives are being funded to blow up the screw since they have a different route. A route they control and will be profitable. It is not written great but called out on the top page 5.

[@Rythian]

I think you may be misreading it. Page 5 says "they intend to create a new, faster waterway to transport troops and goods. [They] know a quicker route would be valuable for both sides." Not "they know OF a quicker route" - there is no other route. It really sounds like the writers somehow thought exploding bombs at a waterfall would somehow improve and help travel through it? It's all very bizarre, I rewrote it to just be a straightforward attack against Alkenstar.

[@danrimo826]

Such a missed opportunity that this was not designed for a bunch of martial characters. Diluting the path so that any class can do it just feels, well, not brave. How hard would it have been to make the path for non-casters and then have a GM note saying something like "include casters if you like, if you do here is how to adjust things"? I was similarly disappointed with Strength of Thousands where the most prestigious magical academy in the world accepts... well anyone. It would have been much more interesting to say "PCs need to be caster or kineticist classes only. This is what you will need to consider to make a balanced party. If you want to include non-casters, here are ideas on how to do so (other players' bodyguard, someone who works at the university etc...)"

[@sirderik]

18:38 Just gonna spit ball 3 things to do....first if they save the guy he gives the player something that supposedly helps them maybe a reactive chemcial to cuase the boom to be inherent...so when they find the reverse engineerer they can if they are fast make a load of his newly made and sold product, useless and therfore harmless....than thr big bady, if the players are early i guess you have him go into a speech that "you fuckers i havent gotten payed for selling it yet, i fuckin hate you meddeling kids and your dumb dog" ....its hard to fix this but i think "pretend" rewards for good work is the way. Like emotional or Monetary or non relevant mechanical rewards....

[@craigjones7343]

This AP sounds like Raider of the Lost Ark. Indy has no impact on anything that happens in the movie.

[@bmardiney]

Okay so question: why not let the players play things out in an evil way? If that’s fun for them, who cares? In fact, the idea that we have to be heroic because Paizo says so makes me want to allow evil even more. The whole “playing evil is icky” thing seems kind of…silly/juvenile. Especially if it’s a “the ends justify the means” towards the good goal. Which is what outlaws would think like.

[@leonelegender]

Because most gms are not competent or mature enough to let evil prevail.

[@philippedaigneault366]

@@leonelegender Addendum: Also most players are also not competent and mature enough to play evil in such a way that will not end up with in party fighting. "It's what my character would do" campaign showstopping is about 5 times worst with evil characters.

[@bmardiney]

@@philippedaigneault366 yeah ever since I started playing tabletop 2 years ago, I’ve compiled a huge amount of psychological profiling material on different kinds of players. It knew it was nerdy and a little autistic. I had no idea about the emotionalism though.

[@philippedaigneault366]

@@bmardiney It's kinda of the question of people looking for an outlet for frustration and using their character's motivation as an excuse to be disruptive. Like the rogue who steals from party member and expecting to get a free pass because it's between PCs or being emotionally abusive because it's in character. There's already players like that in regular gameplay, doing an evil play through just seem to give carte blanche to that kind of behavior.

[@bmardiney]

@@philippedaigneault366 Yeah and I'm saying that's a really juvenile/narcissistic way to play a group game. It's like the weird kid who doesn't know how to join a pick-up game of basketball.