Review: Gatewalkers AP

I've been interested in Gatewalkers for some time, but have been put off by the reviews! Even from the start folks were saying it did not deliver on the promise of Paranormal Investigation, and some recent reviews really cemented that opinion.

I do love a challenge, however! And Investigation scenarios are some of my favorites, if also some of the hardest to pull off successfully (though the Three Clues Rule and Node Based Design help a ton). There's a large part of me that wants to remix this AP into actually delivering on its promise, because that promise is so cool!

Before I put in too much work, I want to get a strong sense of what's already there, how much work "fixing" it would be, and whether it's going to be worth it! Note: I won't be looking at all at challenge per say, but rather the overall scenario design and narrative. I also haven't run it yet, this is based on reading the books and other peoples reviews.

So, is Gatewalkers worth running? Does it fulfill our investigative dreams? Let's jump in!

Book 1: The Seventh Arch

Overall, I think this book mostly works fine! The PCs set out to investigate the Missing Moment, which makes sense since that's their whole reason for adventuring. Their investigation slowly takes them to stranger and stranger places, culminating in them travelling back and forth across the galaxy! I do have a lot of nitpicks, and would probably change the structure were I to remix, but I think you can run it as is just fine for the most part.

Chapter 1 is a little straightforward for my tastes. The PCs have a fun little non-combat challenge to solve, but then the secondary quest giver just... tells them everything they need to know. How does she know all that info? She's an elf, and therefore not allowed in town (it makes sense in context). I think this chapter would work much better if the PCs were the ones gathering those clues and uncovering the truth of what's been happening in the forest! We'd want some proactive clues in case they get stuck, but they should be the ones driving the investigation. The Unicorn Ritual feels like filler, however, and the timeline feels arbitrary. The tree dungeon is whatever, though very tight quarters - I might remove some monsters but have them react more realistically (they can probably hear what's going on quite well). And again, how the PCs find this location will be key.

Chapter 2 has a Research section that works thematically, but is a little baffling. I would much rather the mystery be part of the scenario design rather than being reduced to rolling your best skill in one of several locations, but I think that could work okay if not for two things:

1. You track total research points in addition to location-specific research points, and whenever you get enough total research points you just, spontaneously learn some new info! Where did it come from? Is the GM just supposed to make up the how? This totally misses the fun of players collecting clues and connecting the dots that is core to what I love about mysteries. (To be clear, I don't really have a problem with the individual location research as such.)
2. Success literally doesn't matter! The PCs are given a timeline (though how the NPC knows it, I have no idea), but if they don't meet that deadline, they just... I guess personally don't learn as much? But the fey still tempts them into the portal regardless, and there's no benefit for finding the realm early and taking the initiative.

I didn't read through the dungeon that closely - it seemed mostly fine? It's got some great creepy ambience that definitely feels appropriate for this AP. Again, I think we want more "PCs learning things" rather than "NPCs telling PCs to do things", but workable! I agree with this review that Kaneepo feels like they should be scarier than they are, as well. 

As for Castrovel, it feels like it should be in a later book. Especially after reading through Book 2, the idea that they go to a full alien planet at level 3 and then just caravan overland at higher levels feels very goofy. The fact that they were affected by an alien entity also feels like a really big reveal for this early in the AP! (As does the identity of the big bad, as pointed out here.) The actual fights in this back half of Chapter 2 / front half of their time on Castrovel feel mostly tacked on to fill XP quotas. Why not just start the PCs at or near the elf city? I would also personally make language matter more - they shouldn't know Common! But maybe an archaic form of Elvish that's close enough to work? Or maybe Draconic is more unchanging?

Chapter 3 is mostly fine other than that narrative dissonance. The dungeon is my least favorite kind of linear (in that in curves in such a way to suggest that it isn't, but there's never a real choice) - which makes sense from a combat-XP perspective but is a bummer from an exploration perspective (which a Mystery should be all about!!) - but narratively it makes sense! Finding and questioning a decapitated elf head is absolutely some paranormal PI shit. The fights while opening the gate are also kinda fun, definitely work thematically.

Book 2: They Watched the Stars

This is the book that people hate the most, and I can see why. As I was jotting down notes, I frequently just wrote down, "why?" I usually try not to throw shade at individual writers/designers, because I know there are both tough time constraints and less-than-ideal writing standards, but like... Jason, my guy, what you doin??

Generally, I agree with folks that say this feels like an escort quest. It's very railroady in the worst way, with the real main character telling the PCs where to go and what to do at every turn, and while I don't mind the PCs being whisked away to Castrovel in the previous book as such, it feels extremely bad to go straight from that to this. The reveal in Book 3 that the PCs fucked everything up does not make them feel like heroes, despite what this book says. It also just, feels unnecessary! I'll get to this more in Book 3, but I cannot figure out why Sakuachi needs to be there, other than lazy/bad scenario design, even for the finale.

Chapter 1 is rough. First off, I hate when writers are like "it's a crime place, where people do crime! And just vaguely fuck each other over all the time, because crime!" It's lazy, it's bad worldbuilding, it leads to flat scenarios, and it reproduces harmful stereotypes about how and why crime happens. That's ultimately ancillary to the core issue, however, which is who the fuck are all these people, and why should the PCs care about them? IMO, this is a fine-ish scenario if Sakuachi is one of the PCs, and not otherwise. Why are we here? Why does this fucking city matter? What clues can the PCs find to advance their quest?

I think there's a way to turn these encounters into something useful for an investigation mystery, but... it'd mean completely re-designing the underlying structure.

Chapter 2 had the most "whys?". Why are they heading here? Why is the one way to travel this weird ghost ship (as vaguely cool as that is)? Why does this random Naiad just so happen to have the perfect ghost ship ritual? Why is she fine with the PCs killing and looting everything in her temple, as long as they also kill the Bad Things? Why are we spending all this time getting a fucking boat in a fucking mystery adventure centered around magic portals?

I'm also not a fan of the PTSD pirates, or the fact that the captain conveniently waits to join the attack until after the PCs defeat her lackeys, or the only clues/revelations being a weird psychic vision instead of any actual investigating. This is such an unsatisfying way to regain memories that are central to the mystery. I'm glad they just happened to travel through this weird cloud thing. And here I thought prophecy was dead and destiny had no hold.

Chapter 3 is a little better? The town is like, kinda interesting I guess? The fanatics becoming fanatical about the PCs instead is a fun twist for this genre, but I'm really struggling to see how this connects to the central mystery. Without any concrete explanation beyond "burgeoning xenophobia" and vague superstition. It's like in Dracula if the superstitious peasants weren't terrified of the monster on their doorstep but actually just rude fascists! Very "unwashed masses" of you. This chunk needs some work.

I'm deeply confused why Dr. Ritalson wants the PCS to stay with Sakuachi, other than that it would be convenient for the adventure writers? In Book 3 he appears to not like that the PCs want to stop Osoyo, but I feel like Sakuachi is pretty clear she's trying to lock shit down? Even if the details are unclear? Also, he couldn't pay them at all in Book 1, but will now casually send along a bank note for hundreds of gold? Also also, why is he tipping his hand like this, especially for such a nothing letter? This whole letter just feels wild. Easily justified by lazy meta encounter-design, but not by anything in-world.

Railroading persists as well! "Primary Objective: Follow Sakuachi's omens." Sick. She's the one that gets the caravan and sets the stops while the PCs just... try not to get killed, I guess? Then the journey itself is like, whatever, they tried, PF2 needs better travel rules (which is why I made my own).

Then the fucking falling star. This is such a cool moment, that has absolutely nothing to do with the ongoing mystery!! Why does this adventure refuse to engage with that mystery? Why does it consistently come up with the most threadbare connections that just coincidentally get the PCs exactly where they need to be? How will that make them feel like heroes?

Chapter 4 is, kinda fine in a vacuum? Like, at least they're doing investigation, though as far as I can tell they have no reason to care about any of this. This is the same problem as the rest of the book - Sakuachi just says she's after a god, so I guess so are they. This would be so much cooler if the PCs knew that they needed a god to sacrifice itself ahead of time, rather than iirc learning that live in Book 3, and had to convince that god to go through with it. Or even one of several, and whichever one was lost would have an impact on the world by its absence. It would also be way cooler if the PCs did it, rather than Sakuachi! 

The research itself has the same problem as Book 1 - why are location-IP and total-IP tracked separately, and each gives different information? It'd be much cooler to have to find specific clues in specific locations and then put them together to solve the overall mystery. It also feels like way more of the XP budget should be in the mystery, and not in the combats. Still, it's better than most chunks!

Overall, this book feels stretched super thin. It's like they knew they needed Sakuachi, and they knew the book would end with the weird god shit, and just added whatever bullshit filler they could to pad the levels. There might be a way to fix it (one redditor tried here!), but if I were to run this I'd want to gut it and rework it entirely.

Book 3: Dreamers of the Nameless Spires

This one is, better? Mostly. Mostly!

Chapter 1 does the best job of an investigation out of anything in this AP! There are concrete clues that can lead to both general context and specifically advancing the mystery. Failure to investigate even leads to consequences (a much tougher fight!) without grinding things to a halt! However, there are several things that are weird:

• I don't think the PCs are given ample enough reason to investigate, other than the GM just being like "but you're supposed to guys!"
• "Investigation" just boils down to picking a vague tactic and rolling some dice. IMO, it's much more effective to place specific clues in specific places and have the PCs explore!
• There's no map! Why? The actual answer is, I think, that the designers don't expect combat in the manor. Still, lame AF! How can you meaningfully explore a location without the layout of that location? Trying to keep all the vague details in your head seems tough. Doesn't even have to be a nice map, just a sketch!

To fix this, we'd want a map, we'd want a stronger hook to draw the PCs into investigating, we'd want to give specific clues to specific NPCs / locations, and we'd want to rigorously use Revelation Lists and the Three Clues Rule to make sure the scenario was robust enough that the PCs can move forward. Still, again, better than the rest of the AP!

The dungeon below is... fine. I'm annoyed that the final puzzle door is resolved via skills checks rather than the players actually, solving a puzzle, but... whatever. Ogmunzorius is fun, though IMO should be a bit vaguer to preserve mystery? Etwards plan vaguely makes sense, though needs better foreshadowing. It's kinda fun that you just get the Lab Secrets if you spend the time, rather than having to roll for them, and I like how languages matter, but it being a random list is kinda wild. I feel like there should be some way to prioritize topics?

Chapter 2 is alright? There's an interesting social encounter with some elves, though it does suffer a bit from Paizo's usual over-writing (even worse for running a conversation). I love that it breaks down their responses by final attitude, though, and cool that it interplays with the next dungeon.

The Findeladlara Temple feels weirdly important given that the PCs hook is "the doctor left a cool tent here that'd probably help" - what if they have a cozy cabin and create food and decide to skip it? It is cool to have blackfrost zombies, and, again, if they get on well with the elves, there could be a cool moment where they rescue one of them from the blackfrost, but it just feels like 1. a really tenuous plothook and 2. kinda late in the game for that level of sidequesting.

The journey from the Temple to the Nameless Spire is really weird. First off, it feels weird to have another really long trek after a whole book of really long treks, especially in an AP about magical teleportation gates. I feel like having this journey itself is okay - maybe the gates are too dangerous to use this close! maybe there isn't one nearby! and it does help make the PCs feel isolated and far off the beaten path - but only if we heavily revamp book 2. Beyond that, this adventure is going to take forever!! There are 34 waypoints, each of which requires 8 Expedition Points - assuming 1 check per point, that's almost 300 dice rolls, and even with several crits in there it's probably around 200! Holy shit.  It's cool that there are Expedition Events (and oh boy, you're gonna roll a lot of them), love a good random table, but that's not enough to sustain this!! This either needs a much more simplified skill challenge or some proper travel rules.

Lastly, there is a cool dream sequence with Sakuachi's grandmother... which would be great if they knew who that was!!  Imagine if it was one of the PCs grandmothers, or if they'd gotten trapped in Book 2 and needed to retreat with Sakuachi to her village, gotten cool advice from the grandmother, and maybe inspired Sakuachi to join them as a retainer or something, rather than her being the main character who just tells them what to do? 

Chapter 3: finale! Overall, I like this chapter. It's fine! On it's own, in a vacuum. It's still weird that Snowy Owl (formerly Sakuachi) does the Main Thing (even if she's dead, a ghost version of her shows up... no consequences ftw). There still isn't really a choice between keeping the aberrant powers and saving the last suamen kar, because the powers are kinda lame for their level. It's still a bit railroady. But, for the most part, the dungeon is good and there's some cool stuff in here. I might make some tweaks, like having the PCs work on the ritual during the last fight rather than after winning it, but this chapter is not where the most work is needed. I also like that there's advice on what to do next, even if the PCs fail! That's neat.

Overall Thoughts

It feels like this AP wasn't designed as a mystery, or as a paranormal investigation, but rather as "what vaguely on theme bullshit encounters can we include to hit the XP Cap?" And that's a damned shame! To some degree, inevitable given how Paizo writes modules (in particular, having several different authors each writing books at the same time makes planning out an epic mystery difficult), but still a shame.

There are lots of small things that I think could improve this AP overall:

• Either don't use XP, use fast-levelling (or super-expedited 500 XP/level), or give out a LOT of achievement-XP for finding clues/etc.
• Cut out many fights (which the designers couldn't do without changing the above). Not only do many of them feel random and unnecessary, but they steal focus from actual investigating.
• Incorporate Dr. Ritalson more and earlier. He should be an established persona, so that his growing mania by Book 3 becomes apparent and causes them to investigate. Maybe start at the manor?
• Slightly rework Book 2, even if you don't want to completely re-write it. This blogger started by killing off the Skywatch and having Sakuachi as a ghost, very curious to see how she handles the rest of the book!
• Rework Sakuachi to be less core, or even ask one of the PCs if they wanted to fill Sakuachi's role (they could make their own character, but would trade freedom of backstory for cool divination powers).
• Streamline all the various travel, either with some better travel rules or handwaved into a couple of dice rolls.
• Make Deviant Powers better! Either give them the powers sooner, and create an even cooler epic capstone power for right at the end, or just bump the numbers up. Maybe even say that choosing to keep the powers makes them even stronger, somehow.

But ultimately, I don't think I'd feel comfortable running it with just those changes. Books 1 and 3 could be fine with some normal remixing (it'd be extensive, since it's the entire structure of the adventure, but the core mysteries themselves are at least mostly okay), but I'd want to entirely re-write Book 2, and possibly move around some of the other chunks (should plane-hopping move later? how else can we use the gates? what other gatewalkers can we include, either as antagonists or dark mirrors of the PCs? Maybe even just expanding book 1 as discussed here). Maybe one day I'll do that! But not idly. It would require a group I was running for to be really specifically interested in a globe-spanning paranormal investigation campaign, and I feel like there are other adventures out there that are better uses of my time.

It's unfortunate! I really wanted to like Gatewalkers. But ultimately, I think it requires juuuust too much beating into shape to be worth it.