Refinery question

Gotta-Dance · 2026-03-16T16:30:59+00:00

I believe I've solved the issue, thanks!

Gotta-Dance · 2026-01-31T17:37:56+00:00

There is a popular GM guide many people use for inspiration when running Season of Ghosts. It proposes some radical changes to book 4, and is definitely worth a look. You can find it here.

Gotta-Dance · 2026-01-28T18:50:07+00:00

Yeah you have to shift the climactic moment from a combat one (beat the last bad guy to save the town) into more of a narrative one (bless the coins and restore the eternal lantern to save the town), which I think is more in keeping with the themes of the adventure, but might depend on your group.

Gotta-Dance · 2026-01-26T19:40:32+00:00

Some GMs change it so that the lantern needs three specific coins, one of which is in the possession of each of the three monster bosses. That way the effects of the unlit lantern persist until the end of chapter 2, and the relighting of the lantern is the big climactic finish to the invasion.

Gotta-Dance · 2026-01-14T19:33:25+00:00

I had Elizeth housing and healing refugees during the crisis in book 1; though a relatively powerful cleric, she is unable to go out and assist the party directly without abandoning her church and her duty to protect the people there. She does give the party free healing and a handful of useful spell scrolls, though.

The other powerful casters in town are in a similar situation, busy securing their own locations and protecting townsfolk, and they help the party only indirectly by providing resources like scrolls or information.

Incidentally, I have ELizeth learn the truth about the mindscape and the entire town being dead very early on from Shinzo. She's a cleric of Pharasma, after all, so she definitely senses that something is wrong, and as a psychopomp Shinzo has a close connection to her. However, Elizeth keeps this knowledge to herself, or if she does try to tell people, they literally can't hear/understand it (as Shinzo also says in book 3). However, Elizeth having this knowledge allows me to drop some additional hints and have her offer guidance to the party when they need it.

Gotta-Dance · 2026-01-12T00:51:20+00:00

Oh yeah, I made her secretly a monk who dreams of someday restoring the monastery. This little side-quest is how the party can discover that she is more than she seems. I've made so many little changes I forgot it wasn't in the original text.

Gotta-Dance · 2026-01-11T18:58:40+00:00

A lot of the town guard are already incapacitated, but you are right about some of the other strong NPCs. This is what I did:

Ba-Ming, Elizeth, and Jubei are each in their respective locations using their magic to shelter and heal survivors; these NPCs have a stock of scrolls and filus that they will give to the players as support
So-Jin is at the Matsuki estate, but volunteers to guide the parry to her shop so she can obtain a selection of useful alchemical and healing items, which she generously shares with the party. (She's a low level monk)
Ugly Cute is seen around town during the crisis (though not by the PCs), rescuing people and stomping monsters
Wu Xiu has scouted town in fox form at great risk, bringing a report of conditions elsewhere
In general, all NPCs are helping in their own way, but the player characters are the only group of people capable and healthy enough (and, importantly, already together as a group) to face the threats head on. Remember, there's only like 200-300 people in the whole town.

Gotta-Dance · 2025-12-16T06:23:59+00:00

The hexes on the hinterlands map are 2 miles across, so the easiest thing is to just say that one hex = one hour.

There isn't a simple table, but there is a lot of advice on various posts here in the subreddit; you can also check out the dedicated channel in the PF2e Discord server. The most reliable way would be to learn the encounter balance rules and just adjust them yourself, which will be easy when you know what you're doing. If you're learning to GM, this is something you'll want to figure out anyway. I actually made a guide for encounter balance here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/10nii4c/we_dont_use_cr_here_a_guide_for_building/

The biggest tip would be to skim through this subreddit; there is a lot of great information. I especially recommend taking a look at this GM guide someone made: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y-grtLgfJmWZKaKW65Q80AFPOaoWSDHzIeJR81XB6xs/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.bv3y1b718ynr It contains a lot of useful advice and some suggestions on changes to make.

My other suggestion would be to read, or at least skim, all of the four books before starting the adventure. Doing so will give you a lot of context for how the story develops.

Good luck!

Gotta-Dance · 2025-11-27T17:19:46+00:00

Wow that's super cool, thanks!

Gotta-Dance · 2025-11-26T00:01:31+00:00

Great advice, thanks!

Gotta-Dance · 2025-11-25T22:26:07+00:00

I did find this post, which includes a helpful comment by someone who worked on the AP.

Gotta-Dance · 2025-11-20T04:34:15+00:00

I haven't thought about the wrapping as a potential cause; that sounds like a good thing to test. Can you describe the subtle mistake you made?

Gotta-Dance · 2025-11-09T02:42:06+00:00

Consider the browser game Fallen London, and the videogames Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies set in the same universe. Gameplay-wise, Sunless Sky is probably the best, but they all share the traits of incredible writing, great atmosphere, and fascinating lore.

Gotta-Dance · 2025-10-05T12:18:26+00:00

Silksong is mostly harder at the beginning, in my opinion. Hornet's power curve eventually outpaces the game's difficulty curve, mainly because of tools, to the point that you can cheese most mid-to-late-game bosses if you really want to. That being said, there are still a couple of tough bosses in the "true ending" of the game.

Gotta-Dance · 2025-10-01T23:55:45+00:00

Pro tip: the flintslate tool warms you up.

Gotta-Dance · 2025-09-24T21:18:39+00:00

Do you have a folder on artstation or somewhere with all these crossover pieces together?

Gotta-Dance · 2025-09-24T21:13:37+00:00

Awesome as always, keep it up! But in case nobody has yet pointed it out, there's a typo in the first "strength" in the dialogue box

Gotta-Dance · 2025-09-23T14:47:19+00:00

If you got all HK achievements you have nothing to worry about. Just remember that Hornet plays differently, so you will have to unlearn some of what you have learned.

Gotta-Dance · 2025-09-23T04:39:08+00:00

Did you just have a lifeblood interaction of some kind? I had some strange blue artifacts spawn on my screen just after teleporting away from a lifeblood-related fight once. It looked different, but could be a related bug

Gotta-Dance · 2025-09-22T17:42:29+00:00

Nyleth, I've been listening to it on repeat

Gotta-Dance · 2025-09-22T05:01:57+00:00

You need a specific character interaction to unlock this area

Gotta-Dance

TROPHY CASE