Deck16

I am a big fan of the Guild Wars series, so an announcement like this makes me both excited and nervous. I get worried about "what might go wrong" precisely because I love the franchise.

Writing my thoughts now will be interesting... we'll see if I was right or wrong in due time!

My first reaction was: "this doesn't feel like Guild Wars". But let's break that down.

Orr-igin St-Orr-y

The official site says:

Guild Wars 3 takes place more than a thousand years before the original game...

And...

Set in the enchanting frontier of Orr...

So, it's going to be completely different. Totally detached, really. Very few people, places, or things from GW2.

At first that made me sad. Because what I was mentally hoping for was a game just like Guild Wars 2, but with an engine revamp and some system improvements. More of the same, but modern.

Orr's changed, man.

But then I thought about it... a clean break is probably a good thing.

I thought about World of Warcraft and its expansions, where the constant escalation and expanding made a farce of setting and story. I don't want that!

I thought about the Halo series (not an MMO, but still) and how the fresh spin-offs like Reach and ODST were better than the tired old Master Chief sequels.

So overall I don't mind leaving the old stuff behind. Better to leave it at a good point than milk it until it is dry. (Assuming the lore is in a good state? I'm not caught up to all the GW2 expansions!)

I will miss many things about GW2, like being able to play as charr, but it's probably better this way. And besides, GW2 hopefully isn't going anywhere just as GW1 hasn't gone away.

This picture isn't really relevant but I just love it so I'm including it.

Very Col-Orr-ful

This trailer worries me a little with the environment. Also, the fact it's for consoles as well worries me.

This trailer has an odd "smell" about it that puts me off.

Firstly, the environment is super-saturated, colourful, very idyllic fantasy, with lots of exaggerated mountains and structures about. Characters and mounts also have that "shiny" high fantasy look. Nothing wrong with that inherently, lots of games go that style.

A random moment where I joined two other players in posing. Guild Wars 2 characters run the gamut from shiny to shabby. These ones are middle-of-the-road. Mine's the purple one, but I do like the looks the others have.

But it doesn't feel in the sprit of GW1 or of GW2, though. Those games had stunning, but mostly-realistic scenery. When epic fantasy elements were present, they didn't feel crowded in or overused. (When everything is epic, nothing is epic.)

I kind of don't want to explore this new Orr. I don't really feel interested in seeing what's on the other side of that mountain. Hard to explain why. It feels confected? Not my cup of tea, I guess.

I realise what I'm saying isn't totally fair. This is set in Orr, and GW2's Orr was crammed with epic architecture -- those big stone rings aren't wrong! But Orr in GW2 was (in vanilla) an end-game zone, the cumulation of the story and of levelling. You started in quaint rural farmland (or the other races' equivalents).

And GW2 does have some pretty crazy zones like Bloodstone Fen and Skywatch Archipelago. So it's not chalk and cheese, this GW3 Orr.

And trailers, obviously, don't always fully represent the final and full game.

Guild Wars 2's beauty is subtle, I think. Its places are special not so much because they stagger or stun, but because they're inspiring or cosy. They don't blow you away, they draw you in.

Con-sold Out. Con-sell Out?

(With puns, it's the thought that counts, right? 😓)

It's going to be on consoles! It's going to be dumbed down!

Maybe, maybe not. It's not like GW2 didn't have its foot in both action and RPG camps anyway.

The limited setting of "Orr only" seems a change from the wide expanses of Tyria.

This trailer smells like an Anthem, or Destiny to me. Alternatively, it may actually be aiming more for a feel like Amazon's New World, which I could potentially get behind.

We'll have to see.

These have been sorted into three columns, as per the pictures.

Left: Games I'm going to keep, for sentimental reasons or because there's a slim chance maybe I'll play them. I probably won't, but hey, it's not like I can't charity them later. (The blank green case is Xbox Original San Andreas. And Mass Effect 3 got moved to the middle stack after I took the photo.)

Middle: Games I'm taking to the charity store.

Right: Games I'm taking to the charity store that used to belong to my dad. You can see he had a certain taste in genres! (The very top case is a DVD documentary, not a game.)

I'm old enough to be a kid that could have had an 8-bit NES, but my family household had a PC, not consoles. (My library of physical PC games is another matter entirely.)

I bought myself an original Xbox not long after getting my first job about a year after leaving high school. At first I played in a back room of the family home on small portable CRT TV. Bit of a rough setup but much fun was had.

Later I got an Xbox 360 and (lesser-used) PS3. Had a lot of fun with them. By then I had a place of my own, a proper big telly, and had a lot of fun with that, too. Single-player, of course, but also a lot of "couch co-op", especially the Halo series. A little bit of system-link and some online play too.

Yes, I suffered through the "red ring of death" and Microsoft's shitty warranty repair. I think in the end I bought and used two 360s.

I used to buy a lot of games from an online store called Play Asia. It still exists but think it may have shifted gears a little in the intervening years. You could buy games from Play Asia, usually from Hong Kong, much cheaper than locally, especially when the Australian dollar was strong. Their store was very clear about what game worked on what console vis-a-vis region locking and what languages it supported -- they knew who their customers were!

The version of GTA 4 Liberty City (see left column, near the bottom) I have was not even available locally -- Australia has the censored version. (Gaming classification has improved since then, though it's still imperfect.)

After that I never got another console. Mostly been a PC gamer.

Not to be confused with Destiny's Edge, which is a whole other book, even though Edge of Destiny is about a group called Destiny's Edge. 😵‍💫

This series started with Ghosts of Ascalon. I've got all three of the "Guild Wars novels" and I plan to read them.

Now, if I remember correctly, Edge of Destiny is the generally agreed to be the worst of the three. Considering I wasn't exactly blown away by Ghosts of Ascalon I wasn't holding out much hope.

However I have been pleasantly surprised by the first two chapters.

Faolain had been all about questions, and Caithe had been all about answers. They were dear to each other and set out together to explore the world. But Caithe's spirit had grown straight and true like a young tree while Faolain's had grown twisted like a poison-ivy vine. When the pair encountered a great darkness, Caithe pulled back from it, while Faolain embraced it.

(I copied that from the Wiki. But I read something identical or close to it from the book, so I suspect it's originally from the book.)

That's a rich setup. Even a touch purple, perhaps. But it those are aren't hollow words of unrequited exposition. From there, the first chapter, short as it is, shows you the fucked-up relationship between Caithe and Faolain, between Dream and Nightmare.

The second chapter impressed as well.

So far I'm finding this book much better than Ghosts of Ascalon. Ghosts of Ascalon feels quite bland compared to this book's vividness.

Will the rest of the book hold up? Will it commit some horrible sin that wipes away this solid start? We'll see. I'll do a full review when done.

I should've taken more screenshots, but when the headset is on one can't easily search for "how to take a screenshot with the VR controllers". I've looked it up since, so I'll know for next time.

I appreciate this little puzzle in Boneworks. One of its more easy ones. You could climb along the wall to the left using the lighter-grey "grab-able" tiles. Or you could do what I did and throw a flat loose piece over the gap like a bridge. It's quite eerie running across loose bridges in VR, I don't enjoy heights and VR really captures heights well. (Not that I'm complaining. I quite like how VR can make this sort of thing feel more real.)

I do enjoy how Boneworks save points are not too far apart. I really like to explore at a leisurely pace in VR, so I go slow. Bite-sized puzzles.

Since last time I played VR, I got a swivel office chair for my desk. This is nice in a sense, as I can swivel around myself rather than have to shunt my whole character using the controller. But on the downside I lose track of which way I'm facing and/or slowly wrap the cord around myself. It's an amusing issue rather than a serious one.

Dawnsbury Days is an indie cRPG. But it is perhaps the first game to use the Pathfinder Second Edition rules. (Games like Kingmaker are First Edition.)

The story mode features four characters whose names, personalities, and voices are set. But you can customise them otherwise completely. Here's my all-elf team, based on various PF2e characters I have played in the more traditional game.

It's an indie game, and with its limited resources it has chosen to focus on combat. The "story mode" goes: cut-scene, combat, repeat; with occasional rests (short or full) at various points.

This game is really giving me Divinity Original Sin Tactician Mode vibes. Every fight feels like a puzzle and I don't mind losing and starting again. (I am playing on one of the harder difficulties.)

I am a PF2e GM and player of many years. But this game is teaching me new tricks because it's a fantastic sandbox to experiment in. It's the perfect tactics playground: try something, see how it goes, and then try something else.

I played for about 2 hours and had a lot of fun. I have played before but not heaps.

Planes

The new planes were a constant presence in my game, but as mere rifleman they didn't really interact with me, friend or foe.

They fly now? Yep! That's the point of the recent expansion! An enemy Warden plane streaks by.

The one pictured above I think is an enemy plane, because that line is red. That line shows its altitude... in this case very low. That's useful because Foxhole is a top-down game, and elevation clues are important. As a rifleman mostly I just saw lines, saw shadows, and heard engines rather than seeing actual planes.

They fly slow. Slow enough that I'm fairly sure they'd stall if they were real. But not so slow that it looks farcical. I really do wonder what it's like to fly them, given Foxhole is a top-down game? Maybe one day I can be a rear gunner and get a sense for it.

Cog in the Machine

I've actually experienced very little of the "big boy" Foxhole game. I just potter around as a rifleman. I don't know if I'll ever have the time to get deeper into the game to get organised and do the "big boy" stuff.

This poor guy is the only chap I know for sure I killed. He had unlucky timing. I had just scavenged and reloaded a 9mm SMG as he came running across field and into my trench. Foxhole features chaotic battles and doesn't have kill notifications or such (as far as I know?) so more often than not an enemy's killer is ambiguous.

It's nice to know if ever I want to do more, there's a lot more to do. But for now I'm very happy playing for spectacle, and planes and boats and tanks and logistics support all add to that!

I did a few different things in my recent play session:

Rifleman. Stand in trenches, watch for enemies, push forward occasionally. Sometimes scavenge an SMG or grenades and get a bit more aggressive. I prefer go out with a minimalist kit and scavenge, rather than just load-up greedily at base. Reuse and recycle! ♻️

One-man mortar team. I could tell I was being useful when using flares at night to light up the enemy. I could see each flare working. But when the flares ran out I had to use explosive rounds, and I couldn't swap back to binocs fast enough to see my shells landing. I had no idea if I was being effective, so I didn't keep that up for long.

Manual labour. See further below.

That's me, next to the bleed-out counter. I bet you're wondering how a Colonial Legionary like me wound up spilling vital fluids on a muddy road somewhere in a made-up European WW2 facsimile? Well you shouldn't be, I said just above I was playing Foxhole. Pay attention! (This was my last death of the play-session.)

Multicultural

Foxhole has only one "instance" at the moment, and it's worldwide. Because of my time zone I saw a lot of East Asian players (I think mostly from China) and Russian players. It was quite busy, and that's likely because of the new-expansion buzz. I suspect the game is bigger in EU and America so I will have to try play when they're on to see how busy and wild it can get.

Yep. A big bump in players. Foxhole's doing well though... if SteamDB is to be believed this 9 Feb bump is the most concurrent players ever.

Now I'm a Foxhole novice, and I'm bad at high-reaction twitch-gaming generally. So take my opinion with a pinch of salt. But Foxhole doesn't suffer too badly from latency. Sure, you can see and notice it. But it didn't ruin my experience. As an Australian gamer, this is fantastic. We'll see if I change my mind on this with further play.

Look, it's Dougal Keane! I 'member him! And look, it's Ember Doomforge, I 'member her!

The Good

Pre-established Setting. The book mentions people, places, and things I recognise from the game. That's quite cool. It's fun to enjoy works that are part of a familiar universe, that my characters have visited. Though I do admit this can be a cheap nostalgic buzz a la member berries.

Touching Moments. There are a handful of moments that carry emotional weight.

Decent Action. There are some engaging action scenes against a variety of fantasy foes.

Foefire's Heart features in the game. Here you can see the ghostly light rising from the deep pit, as in the book. Since the advent of the book, the charr have thoughtfully put safety fencing around the pit into the sunken city. You can get down there, and wander around catacombs that more-or-less match the book. What doesn't quite match, however, is the size and scope of the city. In the book, it's a big scary place. In the game, it's a mildly dangerous area at the back of a starting zone; the real scary ghosts live in the dungeons underneath. But I don't hold this against either game or novel, liberties must be taken sometimes.

The Bad

Lore Smuggling. Parents often smuggle vegetables in meals for fussy-eating children. Similarly, this book really wants to impart the broader lore of Guild Wars 2. It "smuggles" the lore into other things -- usually character conversations. This usually feels a bit ham-fisted, but I will admit, there are worse ways it can be done. Some of this lore is needed, but much of it is not, and could be omitted or left to a footnote or appendix section.

Pacing. The book's premise is that an unlikely crew have to perform a pretty epic heist. Awesome! But the set-up to this heist takes more than half of the book, with the real meat of it limited to maybe fifty pages at the back.

Mediocre. It feels harsh to list this under "bad". It's not "bad". But I must mention it to capture the overall feeling of this book. The book is passable. It's fine. It's okay. The writing is solid. It'll do on a boring train ride.

The most egregious example of "lore smuggling" is when the protagonist walks past a puppet show which is re-enacting some historic event. It's the fantasy book version of the TV in the background showing the news.

The Ugly

Nothing. There's nothing Ugly about Ghosts of Ascalon.

Conclusion

For Guild Wars fans? Rated Good ★★★☆ It's a solid fantasy book whose cross-over elements will likely give you some joy.

Ghosts of Ascalon

I'm reading Ghosts of Ascalon. I'll probably post a little review when done, so I won't get too deep into thoughts.

Why did I choose that book? It's not exactly regarded as peak literature or fiction. It is true I am a fan of the Guild Wars series; but that's just part of it.

I'm also have this occasional yet morbid fascination with:

Odd spin-off fiction.

Very mediocre and obscure fantasy.

Is it very mediocre? Yes, but it's mediocre in a decent way, not a dull way. It's "fine".

One fun thing about reading fiction from a broader setting is recognising the people, places, and things. The screenshot above is an example: I read about that very location in the novel and thought, "hang on, I remember a place like that". So I went there and took the screenshot above.

On reading the Wiki, I see that it's actually somewhere I must've been to more than just look at (I've looked at everything); I needed to go there as part of making my only decent weapon, the poor man's Ascended weapon Caladbolg.

It's also a stone's throw away from a Sentinel fortress I used in my Guild Wars Pathfinder campaign.

It's borderline member berries stuff but I do enjoy when things tie in like that.

I'm up to 1,400 citizens in my Songs of Syx game. Not exactly a diverse population, though...

Songs of Syx

Yeah, this game tickles my neurons. I've spent a good amount of time playing it.

It is a game that captures the duelling phenomena of economies of scale and diseconomies of scale.

In your quaint starting village of 20 people you really just need everyone to work on getting food and building homes. That's all you need.

When you get into the thousands of people, you need people being doctors, janitors, guards, soldiers, carpenters, diplomats, and so on. Fewer and fewer people -- proportionally -- can work on farms. But you do start to get productivity boosts like tools and nobility to offset this. I've not quite seen any other game like this capture that particular aspect so well.

In Dwarf Fortress nobility are a burden. In Songs of Syx they are peak civil servant overseers who provide massive multiplicative boosts to industry. I mean, look at them; some of them have gotten their faces (and presumably hands) dirty.

Pathfinder Comics

I like the Pathfinder TTRPG, and so I've been reading the Pathfinder Comics. I got a heap in a Humble Bundle, and I even have some physical ones from when they were cheap (10 AUD) on a book site sale.

I've read "Dark Waters Rising" and "Of Tooth and Claw". Both digital.

I will save deeper thoughts for a possible later review post. Just some observations for now.

Different artists have done different chapters/parts of the comics. I quite like seeing the different styles. I mean, take a look at these three takes on Valeros the fighter:

Yes. Valeros drinks a lot. The fact he gets a serious hangover with an Expert Fortitude Save speaks to some truly dedicated binge drinking!

Above, we've got two fairly "clean" styles and one "grotesque" one. I think I prefer the cleaner ones overall. That said, the "grotesque" one can really capture something. It's very evocative. Makes me think of Ren and Stimpy.

The comparison above is a little unfair because the "grotesque" one is meant to show him at his worst. I quite like the scene. After a heavy night of drinking Valeros tries to recruit a cleric for the party and the visuals are both striking and amusing.

Love the colours, especially contrasting the dirty browns of the previous drinking scene (and Valeros' vomit-face).

As a Pathfinder player and GM, I also appreciate how the comic makes a nod to many elements of play. It's subtle enough about it to not be obnoxious.

"Make a Perception check!" ... And... Uhm, actually, Kyra, you can't cast that spell now. Hold Person was rebranded to Paralyze from first to second edition rules and is no longer on the Divine spell list.

Guild Wars 2 Story

For a long time I've wanted to re-visit Living World Season 1 after they made it replayable. Because I didn't quite see all of it when it originally came out. Turns out my elementalist was part-way through so I carried on.

I made this guild logo as a joke. I like chickens. I use to have pet chickens. The joke is that this has a more salacious double-meaning. But I'm hesitant to show the cape in public, because people won't obviously know the joke's background. The idea of triggering bigots amuses me, but I also don't want people to get the wrong idea.

Stories in MMOs are quite difficult because unless you've got the big-boy money to make loads of rendered/animated cutscenes, you've basically only got voice.

I thought vanilla GW2 approached this in an elegant way with the "talking heads" cutscenes. They are basic, but have that quintessential artsy style (i.e. the backdrop). Imagination fills in the gaps.

In Living World Season 1 they start using in-engine cutscenes. Little people saying things as they walk from here to there. They did improve with this over time but at the start it's quite ropey.

Season 1 is a contrast to Season 4, and the Drizzlewood-era story, both of which I remember really enjoying.

Oh no! The representatives got zapped by a trap! To be fair to in-engine cutscenes, you can't really do this sort-of thing in a talking-heads cutscene.

Songs of Syx

I'd describe it as Rimworld with 10,000 plebs rather than 10, or Dwarf Fortress with less eccentric developer focus-points.

It's the kind of game I can get lost in. Lots of fossicking with supply chains and such.

In Songs of Syx you can build latrines and watch barely clothed* elven tilapian women use them. Ban this sick filth! (*Barely clothed because my clothing supply chain is busted.)

The tutorial helps flatten the early learning curve, which is a nice way to get ankle-deep in the game. From then it's learning. My first settlement was on the precipice of starvation because I grew the population without building up food sources. But in these games it's always fun to start again!

I suspect this game will provide many happy hours of engrossment before I bump into limitations due to its Early Access nature.

Mr Inbetween

Saw only the first episode. I'm interested enough to see the rest. It's hard to say too much at this early stage.

But one thing I love about the show already is the very Australian setting. The characters are very Aussie, though obviously a bit embellished for dramatic and narrative reasons.

What I find really authentic is the setting. The streets, with familiar sights. And the extras prowling those streets who are extremely typical in their varied abnormality. No curse -- this is so much better than a background of "Hollywood extras" as you might see in many other television and film productions.

This street scene. They didn't select some gorgeous inner-city promenade, lined with heritage buildings and sleek modern glass. They didn't pick some super-grungy location to suit the "criminal theme". They picked something so ordinary. I love it.

And take a look at this extra, passing the protagonist. An old mate visiting the shops in his daggy casual wear and his Akubra. This is a real, normal, authentic person.

I've spoken before about my love for Guild Wars 2 and how it suits me as a very casual gamer. So I won't repeat all that.

I wanted to get this achievement because I like Guild Wars 2. I think nostalgia drove me to particularly want to explore the vanilla game.

The Strategy

Many achievements in GW2 can be split across an account, using different characters to do each part. World complete does not work that way. One character must "Go Everywhere, Do Everything".

My choice of character was easy: Nibani the Deadeye. The very definition of a glass cannon, she was perfect for blazing at speed through these lower-level areas. Even though GW2 lowers your level to match the zone, such zones are still relatively safe for a max-level well-equipped character. Thus mitigating the fragility of a glass cannon while fully using the high damage output.

I also waited to get the skyscale and roller beetle mounts, to aid with travel.

The Experience

This was not a risky or challenging achievement. Progress was essentially guaranteed with effort.

Nibani had already some amount of scattered completion, so I was starting with an average of 40% completion in each zone. At first I cleared out "regions" of zones (Ascalon, Shiverpeaks, etc). Then I pushed through to Mount Maelstrom and then across Orr. Finally, I did the capital cities.

That vista up ahead, in Lion's Arch, was the last thing I needed for World Complete. I took this screenshot as I approached.

I would basically go from point to point, slowly clearing each map. The majority of this was quite routine. But there were some special moments:

Off-the-Path Places. Just finding interesting spots. Sometimes marked, sometimes not. Sometimes featuring things of note, sometimes just nowhere-places with an interesting "feel". GW2 is a great game for curious explorers, and because not everything is marked that's true even when chasing an achievement like this.

Mini-Dungeons. These are usually not marked with anything, and so not part of world completion. They're easy to miss, and I wonder how many I missed? I would take the time to explore these when I did find them. In one case, I met another player solving one of these and we worked together to get through.

Jumping Puzzles. Usually to ascend to a Vista. I used to dislike these, but they're warming on me. These are easy to cheat as mounts are now in the game. I would only partially cheat: I'd ascend as if I didn't have a mount, but if I slipped, you could be damned sure the Skyscale would arrest my fall so I didn't have to start from the bottom.

Invisible Walls. Mounts weren't a thing in pre-expansion Guild Wars. Now that they are, invisible walls have been hastily put up all over the original zones to stop you getting off-map. I ran into these a lot but didn't find them egregiously over-used.

Helping New Players. Mostly feeding them birthday cake in passing; sometimes chasing them down to ensure they eat. Occasionally offering more direction or assistance if it was needed. I abandoned one stint of achievement-unlocking to help a fresh player get high enough level to unlock his first mount.

Nostalgia. Some of these zones I've not really looked at for years. Going back to the centaur/Seraph meta-event war reminded me of being impressed by the chaining quests as a new player. The vanilla music, too, was nice to hear again. (Until I eventually got sick of it and turned it off.)

The Lion's Arch Aerodrome is post-expansion (I think). I'd say newer GW2 zones became more vast and high-poly as hardware moved on. There also seems to be a sort-of post-processing shading to increase the contrast and "sharpness".

The Scenery

GW2 has some breathtaking scenery, especially given the content involved in this achievement is all about thirteen years old.

Guild Wars 1 was pretty too. The skill obviously transferred.

The biggest downside to these old maps is the view distance. The world feels rather foggy, which might suit some locations, but not all. This is something later expansions would improve on.

The second biggest downside is night-time. It feels like those old films where they'd film at day and then put a filter over the scene. Basically, night-time served only to make gorgeous scenes less gorgeous. It looks like an overcast day instead of actual night. This is another thing the expansions would greatly improve on; nights in Path of Fire feature gorgeous star-studded skies.

A scene that would look much better with a sunny blue daytime sky.

Personally, I loved the jungle and alpine forest zones the most. Autumn-time Ascalon and rural Kryta came in second. Full-snow scenes were my least preferred. Caves varied highly; some great, some bland.

Orr is interesting. It's ugly but that suits. It certainly has a sense of place. I think the fog-factor was a bit of a shame there; to be able to see the full enormity of that ruined city would be awesome.

What Next?

I don't know. The nice thing about Guild Wars 2 is that there's no monthly payment and no gear treadmill. I can play it very sporadically without feeling like I'm throwing away money. I can leave it totally for a spell if I want to, and maybe I will.

But I do want to come back. I've explored the zones of the Living Stories fairly well (mainly thanks to getting a Skyscale). I've done End of Dragons but haven't really explored it deeply. I've barely touched Secrets of the Obscure and haven't even started Wilds of Janthir or Visions of Eternity.

There's also Guild Wars Reforged!

Plenty more to do in and around Tyria.

Scenic Screenshots

I took a number of screenshots of favourite scenes. They're shown below. Click any to expand.

Overview

Outlaws of Alkenstar is a medium-length campaign set in and around the wild-west-meets-steampunk city of Alkenstar. I had purchased the Foundry VTT modules for it cheap as part of a Humble Bundle.

The campaign started in June 2024 and ended late November 2025. We played weekly, fairly regularly.

I will give spoiler warnings where needed. However, I won't give spoiler warnings for extra content I added to AP that isn't related to the main plot. I also won't give warnings for anything that is revealed in the Player's Guide or otherwise very early into the story.

The back-rooms of the Bullet and Barrel Saloon, where the heroes were often briefed on their next move by "quest giver NPC" Foebe Dunsmith.

Reviewing the Adventure Path

Here I'll talk about my thoughts on the adventure path (AP) itself. Is it a good AP? This is mostly a review of the AP but I will mention the Foundry VTT modules too.

The AP's hook is simple: the heroes have been individually wronged by one of two villains: Ambrost Mugland the "Cutthroat Underworld Mogul" and Anjelique Loveless the "Ruthless Corrupt Deputy". The heroes receive an offer that lets them get revenge on these villains while getting rich at the same time. As the adventure continues, the plot thickens, and the heroes are tasked with stopping a devious plan. You can read more in the Player's Guide if so inclined.

Positives:

Unique Setting, Well-Utilised. Steampunk wild west is different from the usual fantasy fare. The AP leans into this setting, with plenty of gunslingers, clockwork constructs, and weird tech. These things are not mere window dressing; they're core to the plot and form part of some extremely memorable locales and set-pieces.

Player's Guide. Paizo APs very often come with Player's Guides. The one for Outlaws of Alkenstar is a useful primer for players to read. It explains the premise and points out what kind of character features are and aren't likely to be useful. Good stuff! That said, I find it baffling that Medicine is "Not Recommended".

Well-Paced. Apart from one large exception (mentioned below) the AP has a good pace, with each arc rising to a climax, and the final arc rising to a big climax. I felt my players were really getting drawn into the larger plot.

Extra Lore. The AP is full of jumping-off points to allows GMs to create more content relevant to the places the heroes go and the NPCs they meet. There are full chapters that describe locations like The Spellscar Desert and The Gunworks. Certain NPCs are given (spoiler link) elaborate backstories that aren't fully leveraged in the "core" story. This stuff is mostly optional but I really appreciate it. Some GMs won't use it, but I think it's worth including this kind of content and encourage GMs to expand on the adventure and really make it their own.

Solid Story. I didn't enjoy the plot as much as, say, Kingmaker. But it's not bad. It's interesting. It's cliche, but in a way that fits the setting.

Interesting Villains. Paizo does some great villains. (Spoiler links follow.) I loved Vilree from Plaguestone, and Nyrissa from Kingmaker, but Anjelique Loveless is my new favourite.

Not Just Combat. Effort is made not just to have combat. The various investigation, planning, research, and social scenes are a mixed bag -- some more fun than others -- but it's nice they exist.

Solid VTT Implementation. The Foundry modules were solid, covering the necessary things as well as including some fun extras like macros that do animations and sounds. One big positive is that the modules appear to get updated. When Foundry moved to v13, the modules were not left to languish: someone updated them, and in a fairly timely manner. I appreciate that.

Screenshot from actual play. A condition-laden Rakk moves to flank an out-of-control clockwork construct.

Negatives:

Underutilised Villains. I spoke above about how I loved the AP's villains. But the core story doesn't really utilise or show any of this brilliance. They are mostly spoken about until they are confronted. This isn't great if the heroes' impetus is ostensibly revenge: how can they hate NPCs that they never interact with? I would've preferred to see the villains appear more in the core story. (You'll see I made efforts to address this in my play-through.)

Light-hearted. The AP is a bit silly and wacky. There's a talking cactus bounty hunter. It leans more "Saturday Morning Cartoon" than "Game of Thrones". Don't worry: it doesn't overdo the silliness. Trust me, I would hate it if it did. But if you are looking for something more gritty or dark, don't go for Outlaws of Alkenstar.

Dull Gunslinger Foes. We can split the AP's NPC/monster adversaries into three groups: monsters, clockworks, and gunslingers. The monsters are mostly taken from broader Paizo fare, and are quite interesting. The clockworks are interesting, too. But the NPC gunslingers -- various punks, mercs, and corrupt marshals -- are boring and in some cases badly designed. One often-reused mook stat-block was lacking Athletics, making it a joke of itself. I felt compelled to re-make many of the standard mooks. Not only did I design them better (IMHO) but I made a few different types (rifleman, scatter-gun, pistol-and-sword, etc) so there was some variety.

These are the variants of NPCs I cooked up to replace the boring and badly-designed (IMHO) corrupt shieldmarshal. Each had unique abilities.

Linear. To be fair, most APs are linear. Outlaws of Alkenstar doesn't have any kind of "meta" overarching mechanic, like Kingmaker's kingdom-management, or the rebellion system in Hell's Rebels. But is that so bad? Those things are often not especially memorable or well-done.

Meandering Second Book. The second book is a bit of a weird tangent. A side-quest that goes on a bit too long. It's a fun affair in and of itself, but it stalls the otherwise excellent pacing.

Leans Easy. The AP does have a variety of encounter difficulties. There are some tough solo-monster fights. But mostly things were too easy, and I think that's true not just for my players (who are fairly skilled) but would be true for the "typical" PF2e party. It doesn't help that the gunslinger mooks are boring and lacking versatility (see above point). That said, keep in mind for much of the campaign I had five players, not four. I altered some encounters because of this, but not all. And I was also somewhat generous with items and custom feats.

Continuity Errors. The AP is split into three books, and apparently these are written simultaneously by different authors? Well, if that's true, it shows. There are various minor errors, usually related to geography, that could be off-putting to a novice GM. I suppose the city map wasn't finalised before writing got started?

Compared to other APs I've seen (which to be upfront, isn't that many) I'd rate Outlaws of Alkenstar:

Good ★★★☆

It terms of value for money? Fantastic. My players and I got many, many hours of play and fun out of it. This is especially true as I got it cheap in a Humble Bundle.

Not a bad deal...

Would I recommend it over other APs? Only if it fit with a person's interests. Someone who wants a change from generic fantasy fair, who loves steampunk or the weird-west, or who wants a fairly light-hearted and cruisy campaign.

The Player Characters

We originally nicknamed the game "The Constable, The Cleric, and The Chemist" after the three original players:

A half-elf rogue (ex-marshal).

A human war-priest cleric of Brigh.

An alchemist kobold.

Early on, we had a bit of churn. Some players were too transient to mention. Things settled mid-game, giving a new steady roster:

The alchemist and cleric mentioned above. (The rogue's player left.)

A kholo barbarian.

An ifrit inventor.

A half-elf magus.

The party, resplendent in dynamic token rings.

I comment on the PCs below. Some of these feature quotes from the player of the character.

PC Spotlight: The Cleric (Human Cleric)

Watt was a cleric of Brigh who defied Mugland and withheld notes on (spoiler link) a heretical practice. The villain burnt his library and framed him for it, alleging the cleric burnt the library carelessly when burning the heretical material.

Watt was a typical war-priest. Tough and reliable in combat with plenty of magical healing. The party's backbone.

Watt and Knapp, being the only two characters that participated in the AP's entire length, were very close. Good buddies. While there was camaraderie between everyone in the party (once things settled mid-game), I think these two had the strongest bond.

Knapp would make jokes about some of Watt's past misadventures:

Being a rather unreliable healer using Medicine early game, allegedly after buying a junkyard medical kit from junkyard goblins.

Making a machine-spirit cry after performing terribly with prayers to soothe it.

Failing terribly to fit in at a dance club by doing The Worm. But doing it with such confidence that it became a dance craze.

During a scene where the party mixed with high society, Watt charmed a dance instructor (who had heard about The Worm). The pair met up again after the events of the AP and will keep in touch.

But Watt's post-AP future lies with Venn. He's determined to help the boy out on his quest.

Travel to Geb

Fairly early on I would add an extra arc where Watt was tasked by a (spoiler link) sub-villain (not yet revealed to be villainous) to fetch and destroy their notes on aforementioned heretical subject, which had been lost in an airship crash. This employer did not need their notes, did not want these notes spreading, and reasoned Watt would be very keen to destroy them.

When the heroes found the crashed airship and the notes they also found a beheaded. This was one of Watt's old church colleagues Eric Waldegrave, who had gone to investigate the heretical teachings, and ended up an undead experiment. Eric told the party of a lab in Pagked, in the undead nation of Geb, where these heretical studies were being undertaken. Determined to erase this foul study, Watt took the party to this lab, and together they burned it down.

There's a couple of memorable moments from that dungeon. The first being a squadron of skeletal archers that kept the party pinned down; thwarted when Watt used sanctuary to approach in range of a three-action heal, destroying them all.

A recreation of the sanctuary event. The entire squad of skeletons eventually critically failed, meaning none of them could fire at Watt.

The second being a hulking brute undead that chased the party out of the lab (after they had started some fires).

Watt's destruction of this lab earned him the favour of Brigh, and a free class feat (at 4th level I think). Watt would later confront and defeat the sub-villain as part of the AP's story. This is where Eric Waldegrave would meet his end, battling the person who turned him into an undead experiment, as was his express wish.

Poor Eric was meant to be something of an upgradable party battle-companion. Not super-powerful but useful in a pinch and able (and willing) to be repaired after each defeat. But save for his final battle, the party never used him for combat. They preferred to bring him out for conversation and to impress or shock NPCs.

PC Spotlight: The Chemist (Kobold Alchemist)

Knapp was an arms dealer on the run from the Loveless. He was a kobold that was equal parts sly, cunning, and confident.

He was not a heavy-hitter in combat but knew how to use his alchemical goodies to fantastic use. He had a knack for the right tool at the right time. I remember a number of stories:

Gassing a ratfolk assassin. The poor ratfolk lingered, fascinated, in a cloud of mind-altering fear-gas as his comrades were beaten down in a violent bar-brawl.

Poisoning that same ratfolk some time later with a nasty poison. The poor creature fled combat, but died in an alleyway from the poison.

Doling out darkvision elixirs and teaming with the cleric to trivialise what should've been a very dangerous encounter with a bunch of assassins when they were "supposed to" negotiate.

Filling a office space with snares and causing chaos when the mooks stormed in.

Going around fights invisible to keep out of trouble, feeding his comrades various elixirs, and doing things like disarming bombs while everyone else was fighting.

When out of alchemical options, Knapp would throw a magically-returning spear. Not being his primary weapon, and not being a very martial or strong thrower, it did woeful damage. But it was almost a source of party pride to see this spear critically hit enemies.

As GM, I did sprinkle some fun alchemical toys into the game for Knapp to find. One was a device that allowed re-rolling of effects (e.g. healing or damage) for alchemical items. Another was a clockwork flying contraption that could deliver elixirs and other things to distant party members.

The clockwork brewsender proved to be valuable in a few encounters.

My memorable moment of Knapp is when Knapp's player changed him from the toxin alchemist sub-class to the healer alchemist subclass. He asked the cleric to teach him the ways of medicine, and the two built a steam-punk practise dummy to train on. Knapp was a fast learner and soon could do medicine better than his teacher.

After the AP, Knapp retired to Rakk's farming community as the local doctor. He also helped Watt build an artistic tree made of copper, something the pair had agreed to do way back at the start of the AP.

PC Spotlight: The Crafter (Ifrit Inventor)

(This spotlight contains some minor spoilers about an early villain.)

The heroes defeated an early villain: Shoma Lyzerius. But they didn't kill him. Utterly defeated, he resigned himself to work with them.

When a new player joined, the NPC was presented as an option, and was taken. I actually quite appreciated this as a great way to bring in a new PC. Shoma was "promoted" to full-fledged PC and joined up with the party. The players did a good job of playing out some initial mistrust, but before too long, Shoma was a core team member.

Shoma's backstory, of course, was entirely defined by the NPC's. As a PC, Shoma was an inventor. Alchemist would've also probably worked.

I'd say Shoma was a solid martial with some extra tricks. He was a top-tier crafter, and could do most Thievery work with his Crafting score. His invention was a gauntlet which ultimately had a laundry list of features: inbuilt crossbow, healing explosions, shooting lightning, and just punching hard with elemental damage. His elemental damage came in handy against a variety of foes in the AP.

Shoma was played as a planner, very often thinking ahead; the first to put together plot pieces and reason out NPC motives.

It's often said that Inventor is a class that needs some love, and I can understand. I don't think the class is terrible, but the "gambling" mechanic is perhaps a bit too severe for what it gives. I tried to compensate with some homebrew items and feats that made gambling less severe.

One example of a homebrew feat to help the Inventor out. (This was a bonus feat, not a class feat, so it didn't displace other Inventor feats.)

Speaking of gambling, Shoma seemed to have awful luck. It might've been bad rolls, it might've been confirmation bias. It was probably a bit of both. But the reputation stuck. This is why one of my homebrew items was (to simplify) something that gave sure strike after a critical miss.

Big Punch

Bad luck didn't mean Shoma never got in some good hits. If I recall correctly, his character got the campaign's all-time high-damage award for 108 damage (or thereabouts) in a single punch.

If I remember correctly, a big hit like that changed the course of the campaign. This is a good place to mention the end fight. (Big spoilers follow for the rest of this Character Spotlight.)

The end fight saw Loveless and Ibrium square off against the party. The heroes had used helpful steps to enter Loveless' cabin via a window, bypassing her men waiting in ambush. The players knew Ibrium was a caster, knew he was planning something with teleportation, and were all over him the moment combat started. The poor wizard was strangled, tripped, silenced, and otherwise kept from casting.

It seemed Ibrium was not going to get his moment. Except as GM I saw a opening. Looking at the turn order, I saw that if I could waste Rakk's reaction, Ibrium could get free of all this and cast the crucial teleportation spell to teleport the paddle-steamer to Alkenstar falls. So Loveless baited Rakk with a reload. Rakk took the bait, spending his reaction. Ibrium just needed to get to his turn, and he had a good amount of health (about two-thirds full) to weather any attacks...

... Just not Shoma-punch levels of health. When it came to Shoma's turn, he pulverised Ibrium, taking him out with a single hit.

I found the actual roll back in the chat lots.

This is where I had to pause the game and talk GM-to-players. They had effectively foiled the teleportation. I offered them a choice, out-of-game as players: did they want the teleportation to happen anyway, for a climactic ending? Or did they want me to stay true to what had happened? They chose the climactic ending, and so I had Loveless activate a "contingency rune" hidden on a counter under some papers.

I would've been happy with either choice, but it warms my heart that I have players who'll choose "cool story" over "winning". I did award them bonus hero points to tackle the ending sequence, so they did get a small reward at least.

PC Spotlight: The Chelaxian (Half-Elf Magus)

"Venn" (real name Marcius) was on the run after his tyrant father was overthrown as part of the rebellion than ended Sargarva. He ended up in Alkenstar where he joined the prestigious Blythir College. His studies into teleportation were scuttled when one of Mugland's cronies framed Venn for plagiarism and had him kicked out. Venn lost access to his prototypes and his notes.

Venn was introduced to the party during Watt's side-quest. Venn was a prisoner in the Pagked laboratory, and once freed joined the party.

Venn takes a big hit in the final battle.

As a magus, Venn served two main roles: martial and arcane caster.

Maguses (magi?) love big hits with big spellstrikes and Venn certainly did those. He was a decent front-liner.

As an arcane caster be brought all that arcane-spell-list utility to bear. Scrolls supplemented his spell slots. Most memorably he used various invisibility spells to immense effect -- especially shared invisibility -- get to the party into and out of danger.

After the AP, Venn decided to confront his father (see below), accompanied by his mentor Firion and also Watt.

Campfire Story about Vidric Rebels

I added extra content to the campaign related to Venn's story.

(Dear reader, if you are knowledgeable on Golarian lore, you'll probably find I've made a lot of mistakes in this story. Neither I or my players are very deep in Golarion lore.)

First was a re-enactment of his escape from his tyrannical father. This was pitched as a camp-fire story re-telling. I set up a short scenario where players took on roles of rebels supporting the Vidric Rebellion, many of whom were prominent figures in Venn's past. The characters were designed to be a bit over-the-top with their powers (including some fourth-wall-breaking "no that's not how it happened" retcon abilities). They also came with secret instructions from me on their motives and plans.

This was very fun. The players hammed up their roles. The first encounter was against a pack of Hellknights to free Venn (known then as Marcius), with one of the rebels leaving to escort him to safety.

The second encounter was against Venn's father, the evil baron. The baron was played by the player whose character was chosen to leave with Venn, and he had support from one of the other characters whose instructions included betraying the rebels at this point. The players really chewed the scenery, and the battle itself was edge-of-the-seat stuff with dramatic turns. The Baron defeated his attackers, killed Venn's mother, and escaped through a portal dragging Venn's beaten mentor. This was all unplanned, but it became canon as it played out.

A recreation of how the battle against the baron ended.

Teleportation to Nex and Joniah's Funeral

(Spoilers in this section.)

Later on, Venn would find that Loveless had (with help) rebuilt and enhanced his teleportation device, after presumably getting it from Mugland. With some eavesdropping, the heroes discovered she was waiting for someone on the other side to turn on the device's twin. When connected, these twinned devices made teleportation into and out of the Spellscar Desert safe.

Loveless had no time to just sit and wait, so she left some lackeys to mind the device. The players, of course, took out these lackeys. When they saw the device had connected with its twin, they decided (with some trepidation) to see where Loveless was headed. Turns out she was headed to Osirion to visit the tomb of her adopted father Entarish.

The heroes visited the tomb and used talking corpse to get some information from Entarish. Then, the heroes were lured to the lair of Loveless' hag mother, Gris Nightspittle, by one of Gris' other changeling daughters. Rakk was charmed by this changeling and he encouraged the party to go with her. Gris was dead, but hag ghosts are a thing! The heroes learnt more about Loveless by visiting Entarish's tomb and by speaking with the deranged ghost. They also got some rather nice loot (homebrew items designed to suit each of them).

The teleporter's twin device had been activated by a powerful Chelaxian wizard (hired by Loveless) and his manual labourer shovel-loving patsy. The party decided to kill this wizard (he was an evil Chelaxian sort). Funnily enough he was the highest-level creature they fought during the whole campaign. But with numbers on their side they killed the wizard and pacified the shovel-lackey. The battle very nearly went the other way when Rakk failed a saving throw against dominate; but Venn disrupted the casting with a reactive strike.

The heroes didn't want to delay heading back to Alkenstar, because they feared what might happen to the Alkenstar-side teleporter while they were gone. They were right to worry: Loveless was waiting with a squad of goons as well as her accomplice Ibrium.

A recreation of the scene where Loveless ambushes the returning heroes.

One of my favourite moments was that scene right after we teleported back from Osirion and Loveless and Ibrium was waiting. That scene was cinematic af.

Luckily, Foebe (the campaign's primary "quest giver") had sent Joniah (a small boy the party had befriended) to check on them. Joniah tossed a bomb that slowed time into Loveless's group. The heroes could see their foes were moving very slowly, but also recovering fast. Sadly, Joniah was slowed by his own bomb and Ibrium managed to kill him with a fireball. The distraught heroes decided they had no choice but to flee.

The heroes were angry at Foebe. She had told Joniah to just scout, but Joniah had decided to help. Still, was Foebe right to send a child, who might make foolish decisions? Kosowana, an NPC engineer aided earlier in the campaign, had gifted the time bomb to Joniah as a means to escape enemies.

Screenshot from play. Joniah's funeral. Watt says a few words.

The tensions simmered. Foebe organised a funeral for Joniah, and the heroes attended, each saying a little something and earning a campaign feat of their choice from several that basically allowed them to evoke Joniah's memory to push a little harder or do a little better.

One of the campaign feats available after Joniah's funeral.

PC Spotlight: The Kholo (Gnoll Barbarian)

Rakk was a simple farm-hand who had left behind a thuggish career. Introduced mid-campaign, his character was part of a farming community.

Rakk was a barbarian's barbarian. He did big damage with his trusty macuahuitl. And with the wrestler dedication he could grab, shove, trip, and suplex the enemy, often using his jaws.

A recreation of a scene on the observation deck atop an airship. An assassin tries to isolate Knapp and push him overboard. Things go wrong for her and instead Rakk tosses her off the edge. She grabs an edge, but Rakk insists she disembark. She bounces off the canopy and into one of the airship propellers.

Perhaps Rakk's most memorable combat moment was a scene in a high-rise building. The party were descending in an elevator. It stopped at a floor where goons were waiting for them: an ambush! Rakk leapt out of the elevator and into the crowd of goons just as some goons entered the elevator. One of the goons sent the elevator continuing back down, reasoning they'd do better with the heroes split up. Rakk was left alone with the majority of the goons. But as the saying goes, he wasn't trapped with them, they were trapped with him. Many goons were thrown out the window of that high-rise.

Also any moment Rakk got to flex his strength was so fun. Picking up the (goblin?) on the airship and holding them out the door was the quintessential Rakk experience.

Rakk liked a fight, liked a challenge, and sought out enemies that seemed threatening. The first was a monstrous creature from a dungeon in the Spell Scar desert -- one the party ultimately fled from. (In an epilogue scene a sub-set of the party returned, led by Rakk, to kill this beast.) The second was a cyclops lieutenant to one of the villains who made the mistake of threatening Rakk. Rakk ultimately defeated him on the barrel of the Maw of Rovagug.

A picture from the AP of Droven fighting the aforementioned cyclops on the Maw of Rovagug.

Rakk did not, however, like flying. Echoing another tough guy.

I think one of my favorite moments was actually really early on. I decided in the moment to make an offhand comment, giving Rakk a distaste for trusting machinery with his life (the airship). Then the party decided the answer was to set up a ladder(that's a machine right lol), and simulate Rakk being in the airship with his eyes closed. (I think magic and shaking was involved as well)

Rakk also had a problem with mind-affecting magic. Such is the weakness of a barbarian! He was often controlled, confused, and the like; he knew he was vulnerable; and he didn't like it!

Rakk was played as not the smartest. He wasn't stupid or foolish, but just couldn't keep up with some of the brainier goings-on. Yet Rakk never held back in situations where brawn wasn't useful. He participated in social scenes, research, investigation, exploration. Even if he wasn't useful, he was present (and often funny), and I appreciate that.

Rakk's favourite weapon, as it was at campaign end.

At the end of everything, Rakk was offered the job of sheriff for his small farming community. He took it, and now keeps the place safe from out-of-town bandits, or crooks like Mugland.

Mugland's Protection Racket

I added a short story arc where the heroes helped Rakk's farming community, both to introduce Rakk, and to flesh out Mugland some more. Mugland was, canonically, getting desperate for funds after other actions by the heroes, so he was putting pressure on anyone that could give him money. This include extorting protection money out of this farming community.

The heroes (including Rakk) were tipped off about some goons that Mugland was going to hire as muscle. Through a violent bar-fight, they ensured this muscle wouldn't be present, and took their place themselves. They witnessed Mugland's cruelty and desperation as he shook down the small community, demanding money by tomorrow. The party couldn't attack Mugland there and then -- he had too many other goons with him -- but they did intercept and defeat Mugland's goons who came to collect the cash the next day, further depriving the mogul of cash. And thus Rakk joined the crew, eager to help out more.

Screenshot from actual play. The heroes are in disguise -- magical and mundane -- as they try to sneak in somewhere. One of Loveless' goons looks them over. None of them will be discovered.

Story Alterations

As mentioned in the AP review, Outlaws of Alkenstar has plenty of jumping-off points for extra content.

Some of these I've mentioned in the Player Spotlights:

Watt taking the party to Geb to destroy heretical materials.

Mugland demanding protection money from Rakk's farm community.

Venn's story of rebellion.

Travel to Nex via Venn's teleportation device.

I did not add to or embellish every PC's backstory equally. Knapp and Shoma had very little extra content. My choices were partly based on perceived player interest in such things. I also favoured players who were not in other games I was running. I'd say this thinking was mostly fair, but not completely fair. I don't think any player was annoyed or saddened by lack of extra story, but I do acknowledge I wasn't 100% even-handed.

More additions I made to the story:

It Was All a Dream. The very, very first adventure went poorly, resulting in a TPK. As things were going irrecoverably wrong, I had the main villain appear and shoot one of the heroes (the rogue) dead. (Very easy to critically hit a level 1 when you've got many, many levels on them.) I then narrated this hero awakening in a cold sweat after having a dream where their approach failed badly. Everyone ran with this: the party met up "for real" and this hero explained, "we might need a different approach". Things worked better the second time around.

Pocket Watch. (Spoilers in this bullet point.) A small murder-mystery for a shortly-participating player playing an Investigator. I have given Loveless a musical pocket watch; a gift from her adoptive father Entarish. She had murdered a tinkerer who repaired it for her, because he knew of the engraving from Entarish. The heroes had to find and help a number of witnesses evade Loveless and her goons as she tried to tie up loose ends. The pocket watch was an obvious reference. I had planned to incorporate it more into the story, but never really did.

Yeti Suits. The party were stopped in Cloudreaver Keep when a session missing some players was scheduled, so I cooked up a side-quest where the players piloted "yeti suits" to infiltrate a yeti cave. The two heroes piloting the suit did well enough to get to the cave undetected. Sadly they lacked darkvision, so when they entered the cave they couldn't see. Opening the yeti suit and casting light was not a good idea as it blew their cover and the yetis attacked. The other heroes had to rush inside to help win the bloody fight.

A recreation of the yeti scene.

Clockwork Cave. Right after Venn's campfire story, there was another session where not all players could attend, so I expanded the cave they were sheltering in to have more to explore. They had to climb, swim, and jump to get to a cavern in the back that was full of clockwork and mechanical junk. As they were picking some juicy homebrew items out from the junk, a giant accosted them. But before they could truly fight this giant, a high-tech Nexian construct from the Geb/Nex war emerged from the junk and killed the giant with a very powerful heat ray. The construct, not being well-serviced, damaged itself with with ability (I basically gave it 5 or 6 levels of a condition like Sickened). It turned on the players, who fought it for a little while, but realised it was slowly repairing itself. Wisely, the party decided to flee, and now the climbing, swimming, and jumping was an impediment to escape as this construct floated after them. It was close but they did manage to escape just as its repairs were making it extremely dangerous again.

Glass Rakk. (Spoilers in this bullet point.) For a session where not all players could attend I created a mission for the party to investigate Ibrium's house in Alkenstar. He wasn't home, but his medusa wife was. The party bluffed their way in as staff, which helped them investigate the house and pick up several useful clues and leads. But ultimately a fight broke out where Rakk was turned to glass (this medusa doesn't do stone). The party managed to defeat the medusa and save Rakk, later un-petrifying him.

Mentor Menace. (Spoilers in this bullet point.) I didn't realise Ibrium's medusa wife was supposed to feature in the final area of the AP. But she was. So I replaced her with Venn's mentor Firion, who had been forced with horrible mind-dominating magic to bring Venn back to his father. He was being watched by an erinys and several Hellknights. The party managed to knock Firion out, and later free his mind, though the tortuous trauma that accompanied it scarred him still.

I also removed parts from the story, but not much. I bypassed a small an investigation part in book three that I felt was a bit tedious and uninteresting.

A recreation of an early scene where the party found themselves shrunk by a mana storm.

Music

I wanted the game's music to be as unique as its setting. Much of the music I used was "wild west": Red Dead Redemption (1 and 2), 3:10 to Yuma, Outlaws (video game), The Dollars Trilogy.

Music from King Arthur (2011) provided some "janky-sounding" yet driving tracks.

Non-signature tracks from Arcane was a bit more typical fantasy fare, but not quite.

Alien Isolation (video game) provided some unsettling music for one particular dungeon.

A recreated scene. The party unknowingly avoided this clockwork monstrosity, so I had it wait for them under a walkway over a cistern. It was a hard fight, made all the harder by the location as the monster didn't need to breathe if underwater and could climb the walls of the cistern.

Conclusion

I should mention that the party of heroes did indeed defeat the bad guys and save the day, without a single PC fatality the whole way through.

One thing that surprised me about this campaign was that this group ended up working so well despite the early issues with player churn. A partially-completed AP that's experienced player churn is not what most people would describe as an ideal game to join. But it ended up a success and a great deal of fun. That's largely because the players leaned into the game, and I thank them for that. This was a solid group who played and role-played excellently.

I am very happy to have run this game. It's always nice to conclude a campaign when the sad reality is that so many campaigns fizzle out.

The Labor Party's national plan for fast internet is hobbled by the conservative Liberal Party who decide to go with a mixed-copper solution instead of a full-fibre solution. Ostensibly this is to save money. In reality, costs of repairing and maintaining old copper lines is expensive enough to swallow any savings.

Over a decade later, eventually, full-fibre starts to be rolled out. It comes to my area but my strata management company demonstrates absolute uselessness and a "not my problem" attitude.

The roll-out proceeds and my area goes from being "it might be available" to "it's definitely available". My strata changes management companies and this new lot actually does their job upon request.

Every strata has "that person", and in this case they tried to discourage other owners from getting the upgrade by lying about the increased speed and catastrophising about possible extra costs.

Thankfully "that person" has a poor reputation, and thankfully the quoted cost for install is low. Votes are cast by owners, it's agreed we go ahead, money is paid. All went smoothly from then on.

At $250 per premises, it's a bargain. This has to be a subsidised cost, but I think that's good. Good infrastructure is worth taxpayer money.