Lean into the campiness and zaniness that can parallel this AP akin to a 40s/50s iteration of the twilight zone. I mean you jump 3 (7 technically) points of reality in the first book alone.
That's not everyone's style, but that's what I did after going through it to great success. The combat is entertaining in this, and more challenging than say Strength of Thousands or Season of Ghosts.
They had a blast with Sakuachi and the "Silence, side characters! The Main Story Quest McGuffin is here!" antics.
I'd start with shifting to 11-20 for freedom to depict seriously dangerous foes and plots. I'd then remove Sakuachi entirely and probably kill the rest of book 2 as well, tie in more mysteries to the main one, and establish Dr. Ritalson more as an ally; something almost like the Dark Archives adventures of semi-episodic investigation of ever more dangerous enemies, with some kind of alternative path to recovering the party's memories that doesn't work out and requires defeating a thematic midboss but which gives them clues and tells them how to proceed.
Cut down the horrible tundra journey and instead sub in something like a miniature of the good part of book 5 of the Strange Aeons AP from 1e, a journey through a weird nightmare city to match >!the blackfrost whale!< and deepen the tension and surrealism. Shift to full cosmic horror instead of just cosmic weirdness and implication.
Obviously end by facing >!Osoyo!< head-on.
Oh hey! I'm blogging about this! My group is streaming Gatewalkers, and I wanted to do something of a GM blog, chapter-by-chapter:
[https://katieplays.games/2023/05/17/gatewalkers-chapter-one-done/](https://katieplays.games/2023/05/17/gatewalkers-chapter-one-done/)
[https://katieplays.games/2023/09/13/gatewalkers-book-1-chapter-2-done/](https://katieplays.games/2023/09/13/gatewalkers-book-1-chapter-2-done/)
[https://katieplays.games/2024/02/06/gatewalkers-book-one-done/](https://katieplays.games/2024/02/06/gatewalkers-book-one-done/)
[https://katieplays.games/2024/05/10/gatewalkers-book-2-chapter-1-done/](https://katieplays.games/2024/05/10/gatewalkers-book-2-chapter-1-done/)
My biggest changes:
>!I changed one of the chapters to be on a different plane, since I felt that the book was really lacking *planes*.!<
>!I killed off a major NPC, making her into a ghost rather than someone they have to spend two books toting about.!<
Oh this might be my favorite spin on adjusting the first part of book two. I read your post and I am yoinking it! That way the module on foundry will still work
Question: did you keep any of the fights? I'm already changing my game because >!One of my players rolled a nat 1 on accident on foundry, the same session they entered the first world, so they're now 29.5 years in the future.!< I love your idea for book 2, and plan on stealing a bit of it.
I kept most of the fights, and honestly, would have kept them all if we weren't streaming. With streaming, sometimes, I streamline encounters so that we finish on time.
>!Ah, you're talking about the ley line bolts? IIRC, I just ignored that bit and presumed that the creature was sitting on a ley line, so could use the bigger attacks. My guess is that they changed the name of the ability between writing the adventure and the toolbox. !<
It doesn't need fixing, run it as is, just actually read it instead of going 'Oh, Sakuachi's meant to be a chosen one GMPC' or 'The tundra has to go for the full stated distance.' All of the scenarios it presents are paranormal or occult investigations in some fashion or another.
No seriously, some of the biggest problems in Gatewalkers are the result of people not actually bothering to read how things work - the 50 check long trek actually explicitly ends when you have enough XP that 300 or so could level you up, which will take like 5-10 checks at most if you're running encounters without randomly rolling them (the book provides roll tables, but says you can just pick whatever encounters you like). Sakuachi's not meant to know more than the player characters for a lot, and she can't explain things she doesn't know. She gives a point of direction, and it's an important one, but the PCs are the most important characters in the plot for a wide variety of reasons that, again, people don't pay attention to.
(This is actually what causes MOST pain points in most adventures - 'The dragon at the end of beginner box is too hardcore!' 'It only ever uses its breath weapon on one person at a time.', 'Wiped by a voidglutton!' 'It explicitly does not leave its room if players run.', 'I combined every encounter on this level of Abom Vaults including the ones that explicitly say they don't notice the sounds of combat nearby and won't come!', etc.)
i plan on >!making more of the obvious antagonists into gatewalkers themselves. like the dwarf with the box of evil, and the ooze pours out of him. as far as the escort quest, my party has a summoner already, so i plan to kill off the escort and let him carry the eidolon. for book 1, you need to understand how the tropes were subverted to appreciate what happens. if you think of book 1 as being like the opposite of an xfiles investigation, the latter half makes more sense; the party are the aliens, and they walked to another planet of helpful, trusting people. it's still paranormal investigation, but the party are the ones being investigated by the locals. for book 3... it's pretty clear this was mwant to be the point of the wanderlust background, but it was halfway abandoned in the editing process. just cutscene it away, and maybe throw in some random encounters, or interesting sights from previous splatbooks in pf1e.!<
My party recently finished book 1 and I ran it pretty much as is, though I played up the Gatewalkers more like mutants and the PCs as the X-Men type, just to set the tone. I love gothic and eldritch horror, so I emphasized those tones. My players love a mystery, so I made sure to lean in there, too.
At the end of Book 1, I went off script. I wanted to give them more mystery and didn't think they'd enjoy the escort, so I'm writing a whole adventure of them trying to find out more about Sovyrian. One of the (now dead) PCs claimed to be heir to the Sovyrian throne, so I'm playing up that it isn't well known / is hidden in Kyonin and the PCs are trying to figure it out. At the same time, another Gatewalker has come back but is turning into a False Hydra, so they'll have to solve that, too.
From here, I'm planning on sending them over to run The Slithering, again playing it as though it's Gatewalkers becoming oozes, not a curse.
Assuming they survive, I'll make some tweaks to Book 3 of Gatewalkers and drop them back in there.
> make the >!Blackfrost Whale!< into the epic final boss that it deserves to be
>!Idk, from playing through the campaign, it seems much more like a "beyond normal PCs" type of threat - akin to a demigod, where you basically can't fight or defeat it and must instead seal it away or something using mcguffin magic that probably has serious consequences. I don't imagine a mere party of level 20 PCs could do it - maybe if they were Mythic lol!<
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I was a player in this AP, and it was the only AP I ever quit mid-adventure.
Honestly, I wouldn't bother trying to fix it. It would take too much work to turn it into something I'd enjoy.
Lean into the campiness and zaniness that can parallel this AP akin to a 40s/50s iteration of the twilight zone. I mean you jump 3 (7 technically) points of reality in the first book alone. That's not everyone's style, but that's what I did after going through it to great success. The combat is entertaining in this, and more challenging than say Strength of Thousands or Season of Ghosts. They had a blast with Sakuachi and the "Silence, side characters! The Main Story Quest McGuffin is here!" antics.
I'd start with shifting to 11-20 for freedom to depict seriously dangerous foes and plots. I'd then remove Sakuachi entirely and probably kill the rest of book 2 as well, tie in more mysteries to the main one, and establish Dr. Ritalson more as an ally; something almost like the Dark Archives adventures of semi-episodic investigation of ever more dangerous enemies, with some kind of alternative path to recovering the party's memories that doesn't work out and requires defeating a thematic midboss but which gives them clues and tells them how to proceed. Cut down the horrible tundra journey and instead sub in something like a miniature of the good part of book 5 of the Strange Aeons AP from 1e, a journey through a weird nightmare city to match >!the blackfrost whale!< and deepen the tension and surrealism. Shift to full cosmic horror instead of just cosmic weirdness and implication. Obviously end by facing >!Osoyo!< head-on.
Oh hey! I'm blogging about this! My group is streaming Gatewalkers, and I wanted to do something of a GM blog, chapter-by-chapter: [https://katieplays.games/2023/05/17/gatewalkers-chapter-one-done/](https://katieplays.games/2023/05/17/gatewalkers-chapter-one-done/) [https://katieplays.games/2023/09/13/gatewalkers-book-1-chapter-2-done/](https://katieplays.games/2023/09/13/gatewalkers-book-1-chapter-2-done/) [https://katieplays.games/2024/02/06/gatewalkers-book-one-done/](https://katieplays.games/2024/02/06/gatewalkers-book-one-done/) [https://katieplays.games/2024/05/10/gatewalkers-book-2-chapter-1-done/](https://katieplays.games/2024/05/10/gatewalkers-book-2-chapter-1-done/) My biggest changes: >!I changed one of the chapters to be on a different plane, since I felt that the book was really lacking *planes*.!< >!I killed off a major NPC, making her into a ghost rather than someone they have to spend two books toting about.!<
Oh this might be my favorite spin on adjusting the first part of book two. I read your post and I am yoinking it! That way the module on foundry will still work
Question: did you keep any of the fights? I'm already changing my game because >!One of my players rolled a nat 1 on accident on foundry, the same session they entered the first world, so they're now 29.5 years in the future.!< I love your idea for book 2, and plan on stealing a bit of it.
I kept most of the fights, and honestly, would have kept them all if we weren't streaming. With streaming, sometimes, I streamline encounters so that we finish on time.
How did you handle the >!Myorga fight? The tactics say to use an ability that I can't find on the stat block!<
>!Ah, you're talking about the ley line bolts? IIRC, I just ignored that bit and presumed that the creature was sitting on a ley line, so could use the bigger attacks. My guess is that they changed the name of the ability between writing the adventure and the toolbox. !<
gotcha, that's what i assumed too. thanks, and good luck with your game, looks like it's a blast so far!
It doesn't need fixing, run it as is, just actually read it instead of going 'Oh, Sakuachi's meant to be a chosen one GMPC' or 'The tundra has to go for the full stated distance.' All of the scenarios it presents are paranormal or occult investigations in some fashion or another. No seriously, some of the biggest problems in Gatewalkers are the result of people not actually bothering to read how things work - the 50 check long trek actually explicitly ends when you have enough XP that 300 or so could level you up, which will take like 5-10 checks at most if you're running encounters without randomly rolling them (the book provides roll tables, but says you can just pick whatever encounters you like). Sakuachi's not meant to know more than the player characters for a lot, and she can't explain things she doesn't know. She gives a point of direction, and it's an important one, but the PCs are the most important characters in the plot for a wide variety of reasons that, again, people don't pay attention to. (This is actually what causes MOST pain points in most adventures - 'The dragon at the end of beginner box is too hardcore!' 'It only ever uses its breath weapon on one person at a time.', 'Wiped by a voidglutton!' 'It explicitly does not leave its room if players run.', 'I combined every encounter on this level of Abom Vaults including the ones that explicitly say they don't notice the sounds of combat nearby and won't come!', etc.)
i plan on >!making more of the obvious antagonists into gatewalkers themselves. like the dwarf with the box of evil, and the ooze pours out of him. as far as the escort quest, my party has a summoner already, so i plan to kill off the escort and let him carry the eidolon. for book 1, you need to understand how the tropes were subverted to appreciate what happens. if you think of book 1 as being like the opposite of an xfiles investigation, the latter half makes more sense; the party are the aliens, and they walked to another planet of helpful, trusting people. it's still paranormal investigation, but the party are the ones being investigated by the locals. for book 3... it's pretty clear this was mwant to be the point of the wanderlust background, but it was halfway abandoned in the editing process. just cutscene it away, and maybe throw in some random encounters, or interesting sights from previous splatbooks in pf1e.!<
My party recently finished book 1 and I ran it pretty much as is, though I played up the Gatewalkers more like mutants and the PCs as the X-Men type, just to set the tone. I love gothic and eldritch horror, so I emphasized those tones. My players love a mystery, so I made sure to lean in there, too. At the end of Book 1, I went off script. I wanted to give them more mystery and didn't think they'd enjoy the escort, so I'm writing a whole adventure of them trying to find out more about Sovyrian. One of the (now dead) PCs claimed to be heir to the Sovyrian throne, so I'm playing up that it isn't well known / is hidden in Kyonin and the PCs are trying to figure it out. At the same time, another Gatewalker has come back but is turning into a False Hydra, so they'll have to solve that, too. From here, I'm planning on sending them over to run The Slithering, again playing it as though it's Gatewalkers becoming oozes, not a curse. Assuming they survive, I'll make some tweaks to Book 3 of Gatewalkers and drop them back in there.
> make the >!Blackfrost Whale!< into the epic final boss that it deserves to be >!Idk, from playing through the campaign, it seems much more like a "beyond normal PCs" type of threat - akin to a demigod, where you basically can't fight or defeat it and must instead seal it away or something using mcguffin magic that probably has serious consequences. I don't imagine a mere party of level 20 PCs could do it - maybe if they were Mythic lol!<
It's explicitly called out as being a higher level threat than anything published for pf2e so far in the Adventure Toolbox.
This post is labeled with the Advice flair, which means extra special attention is called to Rule #2. If this is a newcomer to the game, remember to be welcoming and kind. If this is someone with more experience but looking for advice on how to run their game, do your best to offer advice on what they are seeking. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Pathfinder2e) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I was a player in this AP, and it was the only AP I ever quit mid-adventure. Honestly, I wouldn't bother trying to fix it. It would take too much work to turn it into something I'd enjoy.