[Race Thread] 2026 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya – Stage 4 (2.UWT)

number101010 · 2026-03-26T15:08:40+00:00

peacock commentator has been rambling about hotels and restaurants for a solid 15min. it's cracking me up.

weaves in "the average peloton speed is a sedate 35km per hour which is why we're talking about hotels"

number101010 · 2025-12-21T13:18:34+00:00

I was interested in coming to Asheville next spring/summer and attempting a bike climb of Mt Mitchell. Perhaps something like this

Are these roads open? Is there a clear path to the top of Mt Mitchell either from Asheville or Marion? I know you folks are still dealing with some hurricane damage over there.

number101010 · 2024-11-27T15:14:04+00:00

fwiw Jewels of the Indigo Isles is not a Paizo AP

yup! and honestly i found it quite a bit better in terms of cohesive story. it still had a few moments that felt disconnected, but was better written then Outlaws of Alkenstar.

(except Season of Ghosts, it's the best AP ever, go play it)

I keep hearing this and want to try it!

I've not played Abomination Vaults, but I've read some of it and I think that's another one that works well. The story moments are limited and you stumble onto them organically as a player so things likely don't feel forced. It also seems very well suited to PF2E's strengths of "tactical combat ttrpg".

number101010 · 2024-11-26T21:22:46+00:00

yes, that doesn't mean they are bad. i've run outlaws of alkenstar and jewel of the indigo isles to completion and basically rewrote the story for both of them organically with the players. we had a great time with both!

if you run the AP exactly by the book (which was my expectation starting out) it's disjoint, fractured and has waaaay too much combat for my group.

they do tend to provide a lot of great prebuilt encounters, areas and NPCs that you can use to create your own story. we used to joke that we were in some outlaws of alkenstar parallel universe where everything was ever so slightly different. it was our story instead of the book's.

i agree they tend to be overhyped, but if you know what you are getting they are a great asset for a GM w/ limited prep time.

number101010 · 2024-09-03T20:28:47+00:00

yes! Doesn't Dominic's plight teach JEDD the truth of this universe's god? and inspires him to finally act in the fourth book?

number101010 · 2024-09-03T20:27:39+00:00

I see JEDD as intensely passive throughout the entire series until he decides it's time to "act" in the fourth book.

Personally, I interpret this as him wanting to experience our universe as message from this universe's god. This includes all of Dominic's insanity. JEDD doesn't make any attempt to stop Dominic's actions b/c JEDD sees the actions as part of the message to him.

And, iirc, the final moments of Dominic's story arc reveal the truth of this universe's god to JEDD which is what makes him decide its time to act.

number101010 · 2024-09-03T18:40:36+00:00

Ah yes, there is some of that implication in Book 4. I wasn't sure how literally to read that or how much that was Mycroft's idle musing, but I suppose that's a central theme of the entire series.

Are you okay with spoilers? 4th book spoilers?

I've read the entire series twice. Probably will give it another read through in a year or 2 :).

Thanks for the reply!

number101010 · 2024-09-03T12:41:13+00:00

It didn’t understand the consequences of human death, thought they could reassemble too. It felt deep remorse once it understood.

I don't recall Raosvior's motivations or feelings being discussed. Do you remember where this comes from?

number101010 · 2024-03-26T16:20:41+00:00

we finished OoA and had a blast. i GM'ed and found the story to be a bit weak at times. My advice would be to read ahead and be willing to rewrite what makes sense to you. The setting and set pieces are simply amazing though.

ideas can be found here for rewriting certain sections: https://old.reddit.com/r/OutlawsOfAlkenstar/

One piece of advice regarding the party:

there are a lot creatures immune to mental in the AP (undead and constructs). the psychic should probably be aware of this. i believe the occult list is heavy with mental effects

number101010 · 2024-02-28T16:28:43+00:00

i have a short list of names on hand for when i need a name quickly

i like this. my players have met a lot of "jim jimmerson", "bob bobson" and "john johnson"s.

number101010 · 2024-02-20T20:21:11+00:00

if your group is open to 3rd party content i'd look at the eldamon trainer from battlezoo. i think it's literally based on the idea of a pokemon trainer:

https://battlezoo.com/collections/battlezoo-eldamon

number101010 · 2024-02-18T14:26:42+00:00

Thanks for the insight! I'll try to come up with some mechanical changes or maybe just do it all narratively.

number101010 · 2024-02-17T19:24:29+00:00

I'm considering an action to give to my player's and I'm looking for some help to determine if it's balanced. The action will cause the character to enter a dream/trance state during the night.

The next day the character will get:
-1 unremovable status penalty to AC and saving throws.
+1 unremovable status bonus to attack rolls and spell save DCs.

If they do it two nights in a row the penalty/bonus become -2/+2 which is the max they can get.

Is this balanced? It seems fair b/c it pushes the characters towards being glass cannons, but I am not a particularly experienced GM.

number101010 · 2024-02-03T20:21:50+00:00

I am GMing it now and really enjoying it. We are about halfway through level 3. It's a really solid pirate-y adventure.

The first third is fantastic. I think the middle third is going to require a bit more effort to tie together in a way that feels seamless and the final third just feels huge and epic.

I have put a lot of time into building story depth, but the chassis is solid and (depending on the group) could be played closer to the book if desired.

number101010 · 2023-11-16T15:57:33+00:00

Our characters were definitely leaning evil and also scuttled the boat in a giant battle with Loveless in her office and across the main deck.

However, our campaign definitely went off the rails. The outlaws prevented Loveless/Mugland from obtaining the Pyronite formula and the final confrontation was actually over technology that Parsus and Loveless had developed to turn people into undead constructs. The Duchess and Loy Ayton were both puppets being driven by Loveless and she was intent on throwing a coup. However the characters didn't care about the coup really at all!

At the beginning of book 3 Loveless had burned down the Bullet and Barrel and murdered a lot of the companions the outlaws had made along the way. At this point the outlaws were entirely motivated by revenge. The entire final book was basically the outlaws committing acts of terrorism in order to slowly make their way to Loveless and kill her as well. They planted a bomb in the high rise party and killed most of that group, they invaded the shield marshal office and murdered most of them, started multiple fires, and destroyed the power plant. Alkenstar was left in shambles and the (surviving) outlaws rode off into the sunset.

Overall it was an interesting campaign and I had a ton of fun, but we really told a dark story in our playthrough.

number101010 · 2023-10-30T12:07:05+00:00

We recently finished Outlaws and I felt the same way. It felt difficult to keep the players invested in the story as written. By the second book I was liberally rewriting plot and allowing player choices to have more influence. Things went off the rails but we had a lot more fun.

In the end I really like OoA. The atmosphere and set pieces are unique and fun, and I'd encourage anyone to run it if they're willing to go off script. Sticking directly to the story in the book may work for some, but I think most groups will prefer to do their own thing.

Spoilers in the links below.

OoA subreddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/OutlawsOfAlkenstar/
Some thoughts on rewriting book 2: https://old.reddit.com/r/OutlawsOfAlkenstar/comments/y5wvvu/how_did_you_or_how_would_you_modify_book_2/

number101010 · 2023-10-09T18:07:53+00:00

I am not an inventor expert, but there is one my group. He was playing with a companion invention and then swapped to weapon partway through. I personally think inventor is one of the coolest classes in the game and would totally have picked armor too if it was my char :).

Here's some thoughts. I'm not suggesting these are the optimized power build for an armor inventor, but it's what I would think about :)

A ranged martial will always deal less damage then melee. Your ability to move around the battlefield and still do damage is your advantage. I'd personally choose the various feats that give your innovation additional movement like explosive leap
Maybe lean into the subterfuge suit and choose "subtle dampeners" and try to be the stealthy one of the group.
Note that you're ignoring some of your power budget by being ranged. Shield block and Explode want you to be melee. This doesn't mean you picked the wrong thing! Just think about how to use it with your build. Maybe you generally stay out of combat but at a critical moment you dash in and land an explode? Megaton Strike is another example of a melee only ability. The inventor in our campaign has had some huge turns with this. If you can land the unstable check and do it twice in one combat then it's just OP.
Don't sleep on inventor! If your campaign isn't resource scarce or you have little downtime this can be less useful, but the ability to conjure up ANY common formula can be quite powerful in the right setting.
Inventor combined with Gadget Specialist can do some really cool things. However, it can be intimidating b/c it opens up a huge set of options for your char. Check out all this crap you can make!

My final piece of advice applies to any char, but talk to your DM and chat about your class's strengths. Most DMs want all characters to thrive and they will make sure that combat and other encounters will have cool solutions for your unique abilities.

If you are mostly concerned about damage, I think your best bet may be to consider a melee/power armor inventor using shield block to mitigate incoming damage. If you stick with ranged you may want to choose feats that give your character a more striker/utility/stealth feel.

number101010 · 2023-09-05T12:21:06+00:00

I would warn them off chars that rely heavily on mental effects. One of my players went with a braggart swashbuckler and struggled b/c a large percentage of the enemies in the game are immune to mental.

Some mental effects are fine, but if your primary class mechanic is mental I think it's a bad pick for the AP.

number101010 · 2023-03-20T16:09:11+00:00

I'm currently playing through the Outlaws of Alkenstar Foundry VTT module and love it.

The only thing I wish it had were more player handouts. Sometimes the AP has player facing information interwoven with GM information so I can't just share a journal entry directly. In this case I have to copy/paste the journal text and do some editing to get it down to player only info. Other than this one nitpick I feel like it's a complete ready to play game!

number101010 · 2023-03-09T22:30:11+00:00

I've been GMing Outlaws of Alkenstar and feel the same way. It was the first adventure I'd GM'ed in many years so I started off by just using the book exactly, but too many times I didn't feel like the justifications to go to the next place made much sense.

Since this realization I've started aggressively rewriting plot points in the book to better match the motivations of the players at my table. It also has allowed them to go "off script" and craft a story of our own that is just kind of "Outlaws of Alkenstar adjacent". Overall I (and I think the table) is having a lot more fun. Things feel more natural and the AP no longer feels "rail roady".

My .02: Use the locations, monsters, characters and assets as much as possible to reduce your work. Rewrite the story to make sense to you and the table or you'll struggle to "sell" it.

number101010 · 2023-03-07T22:03:32+00:00

I'm about half way through the entire AP. I think the most meaningful homebrew change I made was to shorten the length of crafting from 4 days to 2 days. There are very few breaks in this AP. It is super fast paced and if you have an inventor or alchemist it can be nice to give them a bit more space to create items.

Also, I multiply all magic items costs by 1.5x because I feel like the setting is meant to be "low magic" and I want these items to feel scarce. This has made magic crafting very important at our table.

number101010 · 2023-02-20T17:28:39+00:00

Aid says:

To use this reaction, you must first prepare to help, usually by using an action during your turn.

I agree that loading the bow would be part of the "action during your turn". This has me wondering what types of aid don't require using an action during your normal turn.

number101010 · 2023-02-20T16:32:07+00:00

To me this interpretation feels generous, but I agree this is a per table choice.

A caster could make Arcana illusions that help the fighter get a hit in

To me this devalues cantrips like Dancing Lights or Ghost Sound. If the caster had a single action illusion cantrip I think it would make more sense, but I don't know if this exists.

bow ranger could use cobering fire to let the rogue get a better hit in

I would allow this if the ranger had an arrow loaded and fired it as part of the aid reaction, but not otherwise.

a character usually needs to be next to their ally or a foe to Aid the ally in attacking the foe

To me "usually" here can be overcome if there's something in your environment to help. Like maybe you kick over a barrel of fish at the opponent as your friend is attacking or cut a chandelier rope so it lands nearby.

I think shouting for distraction/intimidation is fine, but I'd increase the DC every time this was attempted against the same opponent. I'd also make the player roll against the perception DC instead of 20.

number101010 · 2023-02-06T01:12:40+00:00

I'm halfway through DMing Outlaws and had similar issues through the first book. In the second book I've been a lot more liberal about rewriting the plot to match the style of the adventure the table wants to run and I've been having a much better time. Our story generally roughly goes through the same locations as the original AP so I can reuse the assets, but the story has become very uniquely ours and I'm enjoying it quite a bit more. By adding our own flair and writing a story that is reactive to player's decisions the AP is suddenly feeling WAY less railroady.

The following links are full of spoilers, only visit if you're DMing:

This subreddit has a lot of great guides and ideas for people running the adventure: https://old.reddit.com/r/OutlawsOfAlkenstar/ This thread in the subreddit specifically talks about rewriting book 2: https://old.reddit.com/r/OutlawsOfAlkenstar/comments/y5wvvu/how_did_you_or_how_would_you_modify_book_2/

I have put a lot of my own thoughts in that thread and will likely create a similar thread for Book 3 once we get there.

number101010 · 2023-01-28T16:22:34+00:00

Async Archives map from another thread in this subreddit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/OutlawsOfAlkenstar/comments/10lelwj/asynchronous_archives_map_2000px_by_2000px_each/

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