Stolen Fate Masterpost

Hey folks!

I finally finished running Stolen Fate, so I figured I should compile all those posts into one place! I'll also briefly comment on each chapter that I didn't remix or change, and include links to other resources I found on the internet.

SF Book 3: Worst of All Possible Worlds

Hey folks!

It's been a minute since I worked on Stolen Fate, as real life has gotten in the way. Me any my partner are playing this campaign one-on-one in a continuation from Abomination Vaults, and we're not really planning sessions so much as playing whenever we both have the energy.

We just finished Chapter 1 of Book 3 - a fairly chill search for all the remaining cards (bar one) - and now it's time to prep the rest of the book!

I was going to keep this relatively contained, but it being me, I ended up prepping the rest of Book 3 in one go. Sorry it's a little sprawling, hopefully it's helpful!

Here there be spoilers. You have been warned!

Homebrew Musings: Minion Numbers & Defenses

Original Minion rules

Short post today!

I've been running Book 3 Chapter 2 of Stolen Fate - full post on book 3 coming soon! - and in part to test Mooks and in part because I wanted more enemies, I converted Svarýr Soldiers into Svarýr Soldier Minions! It's been getting me thinking a bit more about Mook design, and in particular how they might need to scale as we get higher in levels.

Stolen Fate Book 2: The Harrowed Realm

from the Wiki

The Harrowed Realm is pretty cool! Especially if you've played the 1st edition module that not only inspired this chapter but the whole adventure path. Unfortunately, outside of the scripted locations, there's not a ton of detail on how to run it. It's not nearly as bad as Katapesh in Chapter 1, or any of the popcorn locations in Book 1, that really feel like you need 7 other books and hours of research just to set the scene, but I think this scenario would benefit from a little more connection between those disparate threads.

And there are hints in the module that it originally was going to be! Page 49 says "three events will take place as they travel. The first of these, Event 5, takes place automatically the first time they arrive in the Harrowed Realm." James Jacobs confirmed that these events were incorporated into the set adventure locations, and this line was meant to be cut but was missed. On the upside, this probably made those locations cooler! On the downside, it makes the Harrowed Realm feel more static in a way I don't love.

So, today we'll be going through this chapter and the 1e module to better orient ourselves in the Harrowed Realm and help breathe some life into it!

Game Rant: Module Layouts

 Hey folks!

This is a less formal post, and is basically just me venting a bit about the way the Pathfinder adventures tend to be written. I've been running Pathfinder 2e for years now. In that time, I've run a conversion of 1e's Quest for the Everflame, The Fall of Plaguestone, the Beginner Box, Abomination Vaults, the first three and a half books of Strength of Thousands, and the first book and a half of Stolen Fate.

I'll be using Strength of Thousands Book 4: Secrets of the Temple City as my example here (spoilers!), because that's the module I'm running right now, but all the adventures above (and several others that I've just idly flipped through) share several pretty frustrating tendencies. No shade to the individual writers/designers (see my praise of chapter 2 here), it's clearly a style guide problem (or a knock on effect of being paid by the word), not an individual writer problem, and their release schedule adds its own challenges.

It's also an industry-wide problem - I'm not aware of a publisher as large as Paizo that doesn't have similar problems! WotC is definitely worse, as showcased by one of the most scathing reviews I've ever read - after years of running 5e, I've just given up hope in making it worth playing, whereas I believe strongly in PF2 as a game and want its modules to be better!

Ultimately, the problem boils down to modules being designed to be read rather than used, which can lead to some frustrating moments as a GM. So, today we'll be walking through some of that and contrasting Paizo's approach with that of smaller RPGs.

Stolen Fate Book 2: Negotiation in Kho

I'm on a negotiation kick! I know the MCDM negotiation rules will likely change, but I also really like them in their present form, and they seem relevant to several of the projects I'm working on right now. 

Kho, before its fall

Today, we'll be talking about Stolen Fate Book 2, The Destiny War, Chapter 2, Cards of Kho, and breaking down the 5 people the party is meant to deal with! We will stat out 4 of them as negotiations. The 5th (the Lich) has an offer he is prepared to do, end of story (and the party might decide to fight him instead).

Some of these are harder than others - that's intentional! Hopefully this will keep the party on their toes.

Stolen Fate Chapter 1: Luck of the Draw

Harrow Master by
WillOBrien on DeviantArt

I am now running three campaigns, one of which is Stolen Fate! It's a fun adventure so far (we just finished chapter 2, which was full of lovely little vignette adventures), but I was struck by how off the structure of Chapter 1 felt. So, let's fix it! Spoilers from here on out.

The Trouble with Chapter 1

The adventure starts off with a Bang! The players make their way to Three Moves Ahead, where they find the shopkeeper dead and devils ransacking the place! As it turns out, they were looking for harrow cards from the same deck as the ones the players just found, and that guided them to this very shop. In the shop are clues to one more card somewhere in the city, owned by Dieral Myrnese, owner of the Harrow barrow, a neat steampunk wheelbarrow occult shop. There are three people who might know something: an antique collector, a tattoo artist, and a scrapyard mechanic, and the players must convince them to help!

This is where the trouble starts. The chapter uses the Influence subsystem, which I overall think is pretty neat! But that honestly does not fit this scenario at all.