BlueDrake
March 17th, 2023, 14:36
The FG version of the Player's Guide contains a fair amount of spoilers and is missing the Otari Gazetteer from the original player's guide.
I'll try to keep this as vague as possible to avoid major spoilers for any players that read this, but if you are planning to play Abomination Vaults I recommend not reading further.
Revealing the main antagonist's object of worship here is a major spoiler. Unless the party has the right skill(s) they may have no idea who or what this 'thing' is. Part of the adventure is finding the connection between antagonist and 'thing' as that's part of the villain's motivation.
The new archetypes need to be found in the adventure. I know the guide has a warning about the unlocks, but the entry titles give a bit away and may be read by accident. I would suggest separating these out into their own modules or something (yes it's more work, but it gives GMs more granular control over what players can see).
I was a bit disappointed that the Coming Together section and the player-friendly Otari Gazetteer are missing as well. This is helpful information that the player's should have. I know that Paizo publishes the Player's Guide separately as a free download and it's not part of the core product that has been converted into FG, but I really think they should be included here with their respective adventure paths, or at least available for sale at a nominal fee (although it would be better to include them as a courtesy and also would help FG stand out from the competition.)
Unfortunately, in it's current state I'm just going to lock the player's guide so my players can't open it in FG. I think it does more harm then good. The only thing to be gained is the backgrounds, and while I'd prefer they show up in the tracker for player creation, it's easy enough to copy and paste them onto the character sheets.
I know there's probably not one solution-fits all groups answer here. I get that some groups may want the spoiler material available for player use, either in Abom. Vaults or another adventure. It would be nice if the GM could limit the information in some way and reveal it when the time is right instead of it being an all or nothing thing though. Being able to share the whole guide but letting the GM control what sections are unlocked would be the perfect solution, but I'm not sure the current programming could support such a feature.
Anyway, those are my thoughts and suggestions for ways to possibly improve player guides. I'd be interested to hear what other GMs and players think and what their experience with the player-facing materials in FG was.
Happy Adventuring!
I'll try to keep this as vague as possible to avoid major spoilers for any players that read this, but if you are planning to play Abomination Vaults I recommend not reading further.
Revealing the main antagonist's object of worship here is a major spoiler. Unless the party has the right skill(s) they may have no idea who or what this 'thing' is. Part of the adventure is finding the connection between antagonist and 'thing' as that's part of the villain's motivation.
The new archetypes need to be found in the adventure. I know the guide has a warning about the unlocks, but the entry titles give a bit away and may be read by accident. I would suggest separating these out into their own modules or something (yes it's more work, but it gives GMs more granular control over what players can see).
I was a bit disappointed that the Coming Together section and the player-friendly Otari Gazetteer are missing as well. This is helpful information that the player's should have. I know that Paizo publishes the Player's Guide separately as a free download and it's not part of the core product that has been converted into FG, but I really think they should be included here with their respective adventure paths, or at least available for sale at a nominal fee (although it would be better to include them as a courtesy and also would help FG stand out from the competition.)
Unfortunately, in it's current state I'm just going to lock the player's guide so my players can't open it in FG. I think it does more harm then good. The only thing to be gained is the backgrounds, and while I'd prefer they show up in the tracker for player creation, it's easy enough to copy and paste them onto the character sheets.
I know there's probably not one solution-fits all groups answer here. I get that some groups may want the spoiler material available for player use, either in Abom. Vaults or another adventure. It would be nice if the GM could limit the information in some way and reveal it when the time is right instead of it being an all or nothing thing though. Being able to share the whole guide but letting the GM control what sections are unlocked would be the perfect solution, but I'm not sure the current programming could support such a feature.
Anyway, those are my thoughts and suggestions for ways to possibly improve player guides. I'd be interested to hear what other GMs and players think and what their experience with the player-facing materials in FG was.
Happy Adventuring!