# Status of Adventure 4, Always on Time



## RangerWickett

Recalling a recommendation by the poster [MENTION=55066]Dice4Hire[/MENTION], here's where we stand with Adventure 4, _Always on Time_.

The famous Avery Coast Railroad thunders along on its week-long journey through the grandest cities of civilization. Among its roster of international passengers travel stowaways and scoundrels, slavers and spies – and one shadowy figure, bearing an invention that will illuminate the world and cast it into darkness.

Riding undercover, agents from Risur have one week until this invention falls into the hands of a sinister conspiracy. Before then they must suss out who they can trust, and who’s out to stop them. But on a train full of liars, will they be able to solve the mystery in time?

We've sent out most of the art calls and some of the map calls. I just need to finish writing up the details for [MENTION=607]Klaus[/MENTION] to do the portraits, and sketch the remaining maps so our new cartographer, James Hazelett, can finish those. 

Here's an unfinished draft of the map of the varieties of train cars.







We're also working again with the artists ShenFei and Eleni Tsami.

As for the text, [MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION] and I are working through some revisions, trying to make sure that an adventure that occurs on a literal railroad still gives players plenty of options for accomplishing their mission.

Meanwhile, [MENTION=53273]Rugult[/MENTION] is working on adventure five, _Cauldron-Born_, which will be designed at first in Pathfinder, then converted to 4th edition by me, in a bit of a switch from our normal routine.

Finally, if you're not aware, we're planning to release a naval rules supplement, *Admiral o' the High Seas*, which you can help fund through Kickstarter.


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## gideonpepys

Looking absolutely splendid, as always.  The plot synopsis alone is enough to send shivers of anticipation down my spine.

Thanks for keeping us posted.


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## mort655

This is probably the adventure I've been looking forward to the most.

Will there be info available on the Gold Community Forum in the near future?


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## Colmarr

New cartographer?

I'm a bit disappointed. I loved the maps in Axis and Dying Skyseer. Looking forward to seeing what the new guy can do.


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## RangerWickett

Brian Patterson, who did the battle maps for 1, 2, and 3, wanted to move on to other endeavors. The new guy was recommended by Jonathan Roberts, who did the maps of Flint, the countries, Axis Island, and the fort.


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## Morrus

mort655 said:


> This is probably the adventure I've been looking forward to the most.




Me too.  When I first read Ryan's campaign outline, this is the one which reall stuck in my mind.  It conjured images of _Murder on the Orient Express_ and _From Russia With Love_ in my mind.  And - at least to my knowledge - this is a pretty new thing to do with a D&D or Pathfinder game.



> Will there be info available on the Gold Community Forum in the near future?




There will!


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## Falkus

I just watched the latest Orient Express myself; and, I've got to say, like Mort, this is the adventure I've been looking forward to the most. I love trains


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## mort655

Will the fourth adventure have more general information on the rail system? Are all trains steam-powered? Are there magically-powered trains too? 

Will there be a map of Lanjyr depicting major rail lines?...or at least descriptions of major lines?


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## RangerWickett

mort655 said:
			
		

> Will there be info available on the Gold Community Forum in the near future?






Morrus said:


> There will!




Do note, please, that Jacob Driscoll and I are doing a fairly substantial revision to the text. What Russ has now is just a rough draft.



mort655 said:


> Will the fourth adventure have more general information on the rail system? Are all trains steam-powered? Are there magically-powered trains too?




The train operates in Danor's dead magic zone. It's a steam locomotive.



> Will there be a map of Lanjyr depicting major rail lines?...or at least descriptions of major lines?




I might whip up a text overview of that, but I wasn't planning a map. I recently learned that the one rail line we show in Risur doesn't make a ton of sense, since it runs in the same direction that a river flows. Typically you'd want a railroad to run perpendicular to rivers, to provide more connections in the trade economy. 

(I did come up with a sorta b.s. explanation for why, though. It all has to do with Not In My Back Yard politics.)


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## gideonpepys

I love the train maps, but I have a question for the design team.

Some time ago, for another campaign, I purchased the following product:

e-Adventure Tiles: Arcane Express - SkeletonKey Games | RPGNow.com

Given that I already have several of these cars printed out, I was wondering how specific the maps of the Avery Coast Railroad cars are, or whether it would be feasible (in your opinion) to substitute these generic (and unbelievably wide...) battlemaps.


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## RangerWickett

Specific designs don't matter too much, but we've got details of who's in the first class suites and second class rooms, so if you have different sized rooms it could muck with the NPC distribution.


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## gideonpepys

To be honest, I'll probably use the maps provided for everything other than a fight, at which point all we need is something roughly representative. I'll have to wait until I get a look at the full adventure to be 100% happy with this plan.  Do you guys still anticipate an April release date?


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## RangerWickett

I'm still going to shoot for getting out by the end of this month, but that would be tight. I'm still waiting to receive the final version of the author's text to go into editing.


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## gideonpepys

*Unhappy camper*

That's disappointing.  And ironic, considering the title of the adventure.

Are we two assume that the adventure path will now run _two_ months behind schedule?  Or will it take an extra month to produce each installment?  (Leading to the path over-running by almost a year.)

Might an ardent fan and customer request a more accurate release schedule, please? It really is quite important!


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## Falkus

An updated release schedule is something I'd like as well.


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## RangerWickett

The original plan was to start layout on the 16th. Since I do not have the full text available to edit quite yet (it should be coming soon, though), I will make sure that I've gotten all of the additional material possible written so I can get to editing right away.

Thurston is writing adventure 5. I will see him at GenCon, and so he is motivated by a desire to earn free alcohol. I expect the text will be perfectly punctual, only for us to discover that the internet has raptured itself to Lolcat heaven, forcing us to collaborate via traditional stamp-and-post.

One benefit of having different authors work on different adventures is that if we fall a bit behind, the next person should be able to keep us on schedule. I expect to maintain the current planned schedule. 4 in April (maaaybe early May), 5 in July, 6 in October, etc.


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## Rugult

RangerWickett said:


> Thurston is writing adventure 5. I will see him at GenCon, and so he is motivated by a desire to earn free alcohol.




I'm holding you to this.


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## gideonpepys

Many thanks for the prompt and detailed reply. I hope you can sympathise with my anxiety and forgive any apparent impatience: I have 7 players whose loyalty and commitment I will struggle to repay if the AP falls too far behind schedule. I just don't have the time to create rewarding and complex adventures these days! And the main campaign sets such a high standard that my buffer adventures pale by comparison.


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## RangerWickett

We are behind schedule. I can only apologize and get back to work, because I am the bottleneck here.


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## gideonpepys

I was hoping this might be some good news!

By 'schedule' I'm assuming you mean the most recent estimate that said _maybe_ early May?  Does that mean we will now be seeing adventure 4 in mid to late May?

How far behind schedule, exactly?


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## Isklexi

Keep at it; the adventures so far have been excellent, and I trust you will deliver similar quality with subsequent adventures. They're certainly worth the wait.


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## Multiplesofme

My group is on Dying Skyseer right now, and since we meet every two weeks, I'm not up against the wall awaiting the next module. We might get to that point, but worst case scenario is my gaming group substitutes Axis and Allies until the next module is available.

I do look forward to them all, as they are a blast to read (study, as my wife describes it).


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## RangerWickett

Guys, you're not supposed to make me feel relaxed. C'mon, let's have some rancor.

The status is that we have art and maps. What's not done is the text. I'm editing and adding materials (typically we have an author write 60% -- the main body -- and I write 40% -- the little flavor bits of the world and the connections to the rest of the campaign).


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## Multiplesofme

Damn, I'm not very good at the internetz. I work in a world where product schedule extensions are the norm, so I'm used to it. I will say that I might be more relaxed because I'm just now reading Digging for Lies. I can only play Axis and Allies for so long, and with this material I'd *much* rather continue the campaign than not. So, in that vein, I'll try again..

You n00b! Where the &#%^ is the module I deserve! I can't believe this ^@$@ is slipping past the published schedule YOU put out there. Now get back in your basement and put out the high quality modules that I pay a small  amount of money for in the time frame promised. If you don't, I'll take my cookies and go home.


hmm..my rant probably started out more internet like than it ended. /shrug

I do have an actual question though - do you feel like after adventure 4 that you will get back on track regarding the published timeframe?


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## RangerWickett

One of the reasons we've put different authors on each adventure is so that delays in one shouldn't affect others. Thurston Hillman (rugult; he does the Pathfinder conversions) is writing #5, and so #4 being late won't have any effect on his writing.

That's not to say something else won't go wrong. So far we've had artists disappearing, writing back-up, and various family troubles. I would not be surprised if Morrus got hit by a comet or something.


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## Rugult

RangerWickett said:


> One of the reasons we've put different authors on each adventure is so that delays in one shouldn't affect others. Thurston Hillman (rugult; he does the Pathfinder conversions) is writing #5, and so #4 being late won't have any effect on his writing.
> 
> That's not to say something else won't go wrong. So far we've had artists disappearing, writing back-up, and various family troubles. I would not be surprised if Morrus got hit by a comet or something.




I will do my best to avoid the Black Death.


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## gideonpepys

So is there an ETA?  I can only hold off starting #3 for another two weeks, and I was trying to make sure I had an adventure 'in hand' so to speak.  An approximate deadline would be much appreciated.


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## ve4grm

Rugult said:


> I will do my best to avoid the Black Death.



Nah, you're from Winnipeg. It's the West Nile you have to watch out for.

(Sorry, it's my hometown, too. )


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## RangerWickett

This is _almost_ funny. My apartment has bed bugs.

This will be resolved on Thursday, and by hell or high water I will get the text to layout by Friday the 18th.


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## nrhelms

RangerWickett, I just wanted to chime in and say I love the work you guys are doing on this campaign.  My players are continually astonished by just how deep the rabbit hole goes.  Keep the quality coming, and don't stress too much over the delays.  Zeit has been worth the wait.

Is this an appropriate time to say, "Don't let the bed bugs bite"?


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## gideonpepys

I guess no one else meets once a week, then, huh?


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## Falkus

Once every two weeks. Of course, I'm running another campaign on the alternate weeks.


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## Colmarr

We're lucky to get together fortnightly.

I envy both your group and your schedule


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## gideonpepys

Well, my players enjoyed their game of Capture the Flag this week.  (Training at the Battalion.) I'm going to have to abandon my plan to wait until #4 comes out before I start #3 as I've run out of buffers after two months of play.

We start _Digging for Lies _next week.


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## Noodle

RangerWickett pleading with gideonpepys:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFvujknrBuE]Ranger pleading with gideon[/ame]

  j/k.. we love y'all.


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## mort655

I'm looking forward to the next adventure. Keep up the great work RangerWicket and company. 

My group meets every two weeks, and we just made it to the Ziggurat portion of Digging for Lies. 

I'm excited to lead my group on the first true dungeon crawl of the campaign. My players spent some time during the previous session stocking up on adventuring supplies...though no one actually bought a ten and a half foot pole. 

There was, however, a lot of in-character grumbling about being outside of the city and having to deal with bugs and stuff.


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## Cheezmo Miner

RangerWickett said:


> My apartment has bed bugs.




Man I sympathize. If you do most of your gaming work in your flat, like I do mine, those little bastards make it _impossible _to concentrate. When I had them I was getting up every minute or so thinking they were on me, even when they weren't. The feeling that they're there persists for days after you get rid of them, too.


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## RangerWickett

Well the treatment is done, though all my clothes are still in big plastic bags on my bed. Only one bite this whole week so far, so they should be dying or dead. We'll know in two weeks (when the next generation would be hatching, if the eggs survived).

I believe layout for adventure 4 will be starting this weekend. Gideonpepys, if you want the text I can send it along. Just drop me an email at ryanznock@gmail.com. Sorry again for the delays.


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## gideonpepys

Bed bugs are hideous.  Now I have another reason to hate them!

I'd love to see the text for Adventure #4, thanks: I like to drop seeds into the campaign during the prior adventure (like letting the party's history expert know a thing or two about the Ancients before the start of _Digging for Lies_; and having a new player character investigating 'Distant Madness', thus giving the party a neat reason to bring him into their group).  We've just begun adventure #3, so it would be great to know where the campaign is headed.


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## Falkus

Incidentally, for my fellow Pathfinder GMs, I recently came across the Road to Revolution Campaign; and I think it's going to make an excellent source to get intermission session adventures from. They seem to be perfect to give the feel of RHC investigations in the city of Flint.

The Road to Revolution: The Campaign - 0one Games | Urban Adventures | DriveThruRPG.com


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## DonTadow

Falkus said:


> Incidentally, for my fellow Pathfinder GMs, I recently came across the Road to Revolution Campaign; and I think it's going to make an excellent source to get intermission session adventures from. They seem to be perfect to give the feel of RHC investigations in the city of Flint.
> 
> The Road to Revolution: The Campaign - 0one Games | Urban Adventures | DriveThruRPG.com




Tanks faulkus, i know the writers of these and have read each one, great stuff, though i wondered how difficult it would be to convert the city stuff going on here into flynt.


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