Decided to go with a Red Rider instead of the Black Rider. We've been coronavirus-ing the campaign, google hangout every other week, supplemented by blogging. It's been fun. This is what happened at the Winter Portal (aka the Siege Frigia). The Rider is already laying on the ground with an ice spear sticking out of his side and blue/green veins of ugly energy writhing on him.
A preternatural silence envelops the party, the roar of the Winter Portal’s snowy fountain dropping to a gentle, continuous murmur. The Rider looks each of you in the eye, measuring your resolve. Upon closer examination, he appears to have a faint trace of elfin blood in the fine features behind the substantial beard. Then he nods firmly. Shifting slightly, the Rider pulls the rucksack on which he is lying around to his lap.
Reaching inside the sack, he pulls out a package wrapped in festive paper and festooned with colorful ribbons, a riot of reds, orange, and yellow. The package is roughly a three foot square, and about six inches deep. He hands the package to Camerata. “Sister Camerata, of the family Stokes! Forget not your Lady. Though your travels take you far, if you keep your Faith, she will be ever with you.”
Reaching in the rucksack a second time, he pulls out a decorated package and hands it to Siggie. The theme of the décor appears to be faeries and fairy tale creatures. The package is long and narrow, roughly four feet long and about six inches square. He hands the package to Siggie. “Siggie Floid! Forget not your roots in the First World! Whatever power you might need will surround all of you, if you are willing to use it. But always consider the costs. You most of all, young magus.”
Reaching in the sack once more, he pulls out another colorful package and hands it to Cael. The theme of the wrapping is icy blues and varying shades of purple. The small package is easily held in both hands. “Cael Fiondearg! There is already some small piece of Winter in your heart, as in all of us. Be sure that if you continue to embrace it, you do so knowing that once given a seat, the cold beast is loath to give up territory.”
Finally, he pulls a fourth package wrapped in festive paper and festooned with colorful ribbons from his sack, decorated in the silver and gold of Iomedae. The package is roughly four feet long, and narrow. He hands the package to the young paladin. “Gareth Ulix! Faerie steel is my Gift to you. Use it in good health, and your Lady’s honor, and you just might survive this. If you get a chance, put it between the ribs of Logrivich! That worm is, in the end, the death of me.”
Gesturing impatiently to Gareth and Cael, the Rider takes a hand from each and struggles to his feet. He grunts. “Last things.” The big man takes a pouch from his belt and extends it before him in his right hand. Then reaching across his abdomen with his left hand, he grasps the ice spear still jutting from his side. A faint sizzle can be heard from where he grasps the ice. With a mighty bellow, he jerks the spear from his wound, which starts to flow freely with his life’s blood. Grunting, he draws the spear across the pouch. An intense blue light pulses strong from the pouch for a few seconds, then fades away. He flips the pouch to Cael. “Keys to the Hut. Don’t lose them; I don’t have a spare set.”
Giving a single sharp barking laugh that ends in a groan, the Rider turns to face the crashing noises that have increased in intensity from the Border Wood. Holding the now-smoking ice spear in one hand, he reaches over his shoulder with his free hand, draws the great battle axe, and appears to grow a foot taller, regaining his lost bulk even as a torrent of Winter creatures begins to pour forth from the Woods. A dozen flitting pixies are first to appear, quickly followed by a white weasel the size of a large dog, then a couple of frosty looking, indigo-skinned elf lords. A few towering blue trolls walk out from the woods as well. Finally, a shaggy snow-white creature that looks like a cross between an ogre and an albino bear ambles into view.
The Red Rider sneers. “You traitorous toad lickers! Come to get some, did you?” Bellowing, he hefts his weapons high, now seemingly unaffected by his mortal wounds, then shrugs his shoulders a couple times as if to loosen them up. ”Yeti! You scum. Even on your worst day you’d not have rebelled from Baba Yaga on your own!” He looks at each minion of winter present in turn. “Some would offer you each a chance to come home. Screw that.” The Rider spits blood on the ground. “You’re all going to die here. You are each going to be an example to all the nations of Winter. It will be a thousand years before any of the Cold Blood even think of disobeying Baba Yaga without shuddering and looking for a place to puke.” The Rider takes a single step forward, and all the gathered fae take a half step back in response. The Red Rider grins wickedly, then beckons. The Yeti howls in challenge and starts to stride forward. The rest follow suit, though not as fast.
Red nods, suddenly solemn. “Mother,” he says softly. “Know your Son was faithful to the end.” He looks at the party as if suddenly realizing they were still there. “Oi! You folks have places to be. Go!” he barks sharply, gesturing toward the Winter Portal. Turning his attention back to the advancing denizens of Winter, he spoke his last. “And be sure that when, not if, you free Baba Yaga, you tell her that the Kringle was ever loyal.”
As the party passed into the whirling blue pillar of snow, one by one, the last thing they saw was the Red Rider, striding down the snow-covered slope, singing a merry tune that had something to do with making a list and checking it twice.
Asking here because I could not find the answer elsewhere. I have several high-level characters that will serve as aid characters for highest tier champion scenario. What level of brushing up do I need to do for those aid characters? Are we making full use of class abilities and gear? Or just checking a couple numbers like stats, saves, XP, or fame?
I like the idea of revisiting old friends/characters. I hate the idea that I have to get it all done before next Saturday night, and do not want to waste time doing things that are unnecessary.
A player gave me a heads up that he will be playing a mesmerist in the tier 8-9 subtier when I run this tomorrow. I am unfamiliar with the class. He sent me a couple clips with the contents for bold stare and psychic inception. Any thoughts on particular concerns with mesmerists in this scenario? I told him he would be on honor system because I am unfamiliar with the class, but would like to spot any issues ahead of time if possible.
In flipping through the scenario, one of the first things that struck me was that the Beheaded King has no head and, therefore, no ears. Would he be susceptible to language dependent spells or spell likes or supernaturals from any party members if he has no ears?
Sorry, its no different than Thursday or Friday night if you are not interested in PFS. Specials sell tickets and we have consistently sold these events out for a number of years. Since they have minimum requirements that a lot of areas struggle or simply cannot meet, Gen Con and other large venues are the only time they can play them. We want to provide as many opportunities to play the specials as possible.
It's a pretty big bummer to have ZERO offerings from the flagship game on the last night of the con. It's not very fun to be force fed Starfinder as the only Paizo offering that night. Especially two years in a row. My two cents.
Saying it's like Thursday or Friday is like saying that McDonalds could reasonably tell everyone to not eat hamburgers for a day; they must eat McPizza. That doesn't make sense.
Yeah, it'a a pretty big bummer to have ZERO offerings from the flagship game on the last night of the con. It's not very fun to be force fed Starfinder as the only Paizo offering that night. Especially two years in a row. My two cents.
Related question, sort of: for GM volunteers who are receiving badges with the GM packets on August 1 in person at Sagamore Ballroom (at least that is how I understand it will go down), will we be able to register for events before we officially have our badges? And is that the time when we will know which scenarios that we are running, or will we know sooner than that?
Through 2015, Paizo PFS events were posted in the Gencon catalog/events listing when they went online. This is the third year in a row that the Paizo events have been posted late. Given the short window between when the events catalog is made public and registration, This has been incredibly inconvenient, especially when trying to coordinate for a group.
So, I was just made aware of the fact that weapon damage is not halved against troops. I apologize to my GenCon tables and encourage all GMs to thoroughly read the troop section. Because I was so used to swarm rules, I had read a 50% halving mechanic into the first encounter which made that encounter nearly impossible for certain tables.
We accept! Still a ton of fun. The near death experience was quite invigorating.
I was in Andrew's group, and I agree with his assessment. The wand when used by a single caster isn't particularly powerful, given that it takes two standard actions to be useful. It saw very little use in combat. The brokenness would definitely come from the free actions provided by a wand using familiar every single round. That gets broken. But then, it has for a while now. This just makes it worse.
Could we get comment on how to handle the lack of gravity from either the author of the scenario or some one with some authority? As-is, the ethereal plane has no gravity. There are specific rules for that. Making it up as you go along on such a big point is huge table variation. I looked up the issue in other posts, and saw that the author addressed it in
Some Other Scenario:
The Green Market
at one point as to his own scenario.
Does the Floating Market have some artificial gravity maybe? Can everyone fly at will as suggested by one GM? Could we get an answer to provide some clarity?
Thanks Cap, but the link was a dead link. What was there?
I saw that the GenCon event schedule is coming out May 6 at noon, which is very exciting. However, that is about four months later than Paizo has regularly released the scenario list for GenCon. Therefore, I was wondering if the info was either already out there or available before the GenCon event release.
Well, I'm sure once the catalog comes out we'll see what's being run. :) That usually comes out the week before I believe.
I would have to guess that given the well-oiled machine that is campaign management, the scenarios are already chosen. It sure would make for an easy PFS blog post . . . practically writes itself . . . cough cough . . .
Plus, makes it easier for the planners to get ready for registration, which is only a couple weeks away. Personally, I have a gaming group with eight members that tries to coordinate as many overlapping PFS scenarios as possible, in addition to new games, classic games, and dealer room time at Gencon. Nice lunches are optional. Personal hygiene is not. But none of it happens without a quad-colored spreadsheet laid out by the groups' anal retentive planner. In at least three dimensions. I think the one last year used four. Somehow.
I have looked for a list of scenarios to expect at Gen Con this year in PFS and have been unable to find it. The list was posted in February last year. Is it out yet somewhere else in the message boards? Thank you!
I have looked for a list of scenarios to expect at Gen Con this year in PFS and have been unable to find it. The list was posted in February last year. Is it out yet somewhere else in the message boards? Thank you!
I was spoiled when, as I began my journey as an NFL fan, I lived in Indianapolis and Peyton Manning had just become the team's starting QB the previous year. Regardless of where you fall on the issue of in-season performance versus post-season performance, I have had the pleasure of watching the growth of an organization I love led in part by a highly skilled guy who is also a class act. Then I had to watch him leave. I will be a Peyton Manning fan where ever he lands.
I understand that maybe there are reasons, and maybe those folks are just peachy keen wonderful when we're not there. It doesn't change the fact that for me and a lot of Gencon attendees, the experience of the city itself remains horrible when we're there. Not just in how they treat us, how they treat the diner staff as well.
A lot of Gencon attendees? Not seen it. Indy has been nothing but welcoming. If what Lazar said was true, I think there would be few more posts along that vein. But there are not. Sounds like a case of nostalgia. It is not a typical experience.
Too many kineticists being built, not enough of the other classes imo.
I think that speaks more to the composition of the other classes than anything to do with the choices made by playtesters. The whole thing strikes me more as a passion project by one of the developers than something that fits a demand in the customer base. Hopefully it sells very well, because I love the company and what they do for the community. In the alternative, hopefully Paizo can carry the cost of a barely profitable niche publication, as opposed to trying for something that might appeal to more of their customers.
Sanctioned Adventure Paths, which does not include Wraith of the Righteous, can be run in one of two modes.
Mode 1 is to just run the actual sanctioned section as a PFS game, with regular PFS PCs.
Mode 2 is in what is typically called home game or campaign mode, where you run the entirety of the AP for non-PFS PCs, and the players and GM get chronicles as the game finishes the sanctioned segments, treated as though played with pregens or assigned like GM credit, to a PDS PC.
In home game mode, anything pretty much goes, as long as the players get to experience the AP story. In other threads, not only has non-PFS PCs been discussed, but using a different game system entirely....
In the interest of not starting a new thread, is there a static list of sanctioned AP content somewhere? I just looked under Products, and it only listed scenarios and the stand alone modules. No AP list there.
Halp?
Disregard, had looked under something else, found it.
Sanctioned Adventure Paths, which does not include Wraith of the Righteous, can be run in one of two modes.
Mode 1 is to just run the actual sanctioned section as a PFS game, with regular PFS PCs.
Mode 2 is in what is typically called home game or campaign mode, where you run the entirety of the AP for non-PFS PCs, and the players and GM get chronicles as the game finishes the sanctioned segments, treated as though played with pregens or assigned like GM credit, to a PDS PC.
In home game mode, anything pretty much goes, as long as the players get to experience the AP story. In other threads, not only has non-PFS PCs been discussed, but using a different game system entirely....
In the interest of not starting a new thread, is there a static list of sanctioned AP content somewhere? I just looked under Products, and it only listed scenarios and the stand alone modules. No AP list there.
Wolf made my point for me exactly. If you are building a scenario saying "A two-handed fighter can easily muddle through this encouner.", you are assuming that every party has a two-handed fighter. One handed fighter, even stacking strength and with power attack is, at most, 1d10+7 damage. Average damage of 2.5 per attack, with 30% clanking off hardness.
If you have a one handed fighter with power attack, how are they not able to at the very least have some kind of secondary weapon that they can grip in two hands and, presto two handed fighter with a bigger weapon die and 1.5 times strength that easily goes over that damage? It is not. That. Hard. Molehill < mountain.
What Jeff said. And we're not even talking optimizing, that's just power attack which is a single feat. As to the rest, being able to do blunt damage is pretty basic, in addition to the low level energy type stuff (various flasks). Look at it as a learning opportunity.
Without having time to go into detail, the scenario was fun and definitely worth playing.
The Season 2 special (and Season 3?) had the float level at 7, but it got moved to 9 with the thought that there would likely be fewer characters at 9 in the game than 7, so less need for the float level to actually be used.
Aaaand our group is coming in at level 9, of course. Any idea if the gold would be some kind of out of tier average between the two, or full 10-11 gold if we played up? I guess it would depend on if there was a 4 player adjustment included of the 10-11 sub-tier for the level 9 group to play.
Yeah, there isn't great news on the food front this year, unfortunately.
However, the hotel we are moving to NEXT year has lots more food options, including a Subway, Denny's, Taco Bell, a Thai restaurant, and a really good "American" food restaurant right across the street.
Any chance of food trucks making an appearance? Even one or two should be kept pretty busy with gamers running in and out between sessions, no? No idea how common they are over there. The huge jump in the number of food trucks here in Indy that congregate just outside Gencon on Maryland Street has been incredible. Seems like someone could set up shop and clean up.
Running this next week. Went to find these materials in the GM shared prep folders on google docs and could not find them. Actually, could not find the GM prep folder at all. Is it still out there? Anyone have the link?
Ultimately, what I need is these stat blocks IF they already exist out there. Anyone have those? I am very excited to run this. Upon first read through, lots going on.
Not sure this has been answered yet. Do we know what the sub-tier breakdown will be for the Friday night special of the tier 1-11 adventure? OR can we at least hazard a good guess at what the breakdown would be, based on past years?
Is there somewhere that discusses how to apply the 4th chronicle for Dragon's Demand? My specific question would be, does it earn a character 3 xp and 4 pa for each of the fill tiers listed on that 4th chronicle?
RULE OF THUMB: It is often claimed that the term's etymological origin lies in a law that limited the maximum thickness of a stick with which it was permissible for a man to beat his wife.
I saw a link to this thing one time when doing some GM prep, now wanted to make use of it as a player (wizard doing some summoning in PFS events at gencon.
It allowed you to pick monsters, then checkbox different things like templates, augmented summoning stat mods, etc, and generated a statblock based on the modifications.
So, if a large majority of players feels not using character sheets is a good idea, we should abandon that rule?
+1. Coming up next: let's just stop following all the laws we don't like.
Checks Akeela's mattress for tags
The law of mattress tags:
According to the U.S. Code, it's only unlawful to remove the tag prior to the sale and delivery of a pillow or mattress to the final consumer. Title 15 - Commerce and Trade, Chapter 2, Subchapter V - Textile Fiber Products Identification, Section 70c - Removal of stamp, tag, label, or other identification Statute (a) Removal or mutilation after shipment in commerce states:
"After shipment of a textile fiber product in commerce it shall be unlawful, except as provided in this subchapter, to remove or mutilate, or cause or participate in the removal or mutilation of, prior to the time any textile fiber product is sold and delivered to the ultimate consumer, any stamp, tag, label, or other identification required by this subchapter to be affixed to such textile fiber product, any person violating this section shall be guilty of an unfair method of competition, and an unfair or deceptive act or practice, under the Federal Trade Commission Act. "
In case you can't find your copy of the U.S. Code, simply look at the tag in question. One of our pillow tags displayed the following text:
"50910180K C
UNDER PENALTY OF LAW THIS TAG NO TO BE REMOVED EXCEPT BY THE CONSUMER
--------------
Feel free to tear them off.
PS Kyle, I know a table full of lawyers that would love to play at your table at Gencon. Not a joke. Ask Mike Brock.
I haven't seen on a single !! Of these sheets the hardness and HP for
Spell component pouch
Holy symbol
RAW they are not given. No - I'm not a jerk GM - roll reasonably and they will be destroyed. But that is what I try to tell why these are not liked by GMs - you are forced to adjucate them outside RAW - with all the possible discussions if a player dislikes how you handle it.
GMs don't like to be forced outside their comfort zone of actions they feel comfortable to adjucate. Sunder can have more of these as a simple melee attack or a standard grapple.
The table at p. 175 of CRB gives hardness for cloth, leather, wood, steel. Molehill /= mountain.
So if it takes an extra 30-60 seconds by the player to make the GMs job easier, then it isn't worth the extra work. That is what I'm reading from all of the uproar.
Mike, I mean this as respectfully as I possibly can. You're a smart person who obviously has the best interests of PFS at heart. You also listen and change your mind on many occassions. You're doing an excellent job as campaign coordinator.
But if that is what you're getting from the uproar then I think that you're too close to the issue and, unconsciously, are getting defensive.
A lot of people have raised quite reasonable points.
The store where I'm the coordinator has a VERY tight schedule. People often find it hard to get there on time so we tend to start a little late. The store closes at 10pm sharp. We almost always have a little less than 4 hours to complete the scemario.
We have a mix of GMs. Some quite inexperienced.
On at least 2 occassions that I am aware of the game ran a little long and even the basic signing of chronicle sheets did not happen in the store. Instead, they went to a nearby food court. It is VERY common for the GM to be frantically signing the chroniole sheets while the store employees are standing there hurrying us up.
That is the kind of time pressure that we're under.
We currently ignore the current rules. The GM signs the chronicle sheets, the players fill it in later (if at all). We have essentially no audits of characters.
So yes, I'm concerned about extra overhead. Just following the current rules is extra overhead. Following the new rules will be still more extra overhead.
The issue really isn't "What is the change from the current rules to the new rules" it is "What is the change from the current practice to the new rules".
I think that concern is valid.
Looks like the bigger issue there is trying to jam 5-6 hours of gaming into 4 hours.
I hate any rules that players use, but don't understand and require me to correct them on how to play their character.
If you're going to make a sundering character, please take the time to learn the sunder, item hardness/hit points, and broken condition rules and be prepared to calculate those things on the fly. Also be prepared to mend or make whole NPC gear if you want to use it during the scenario.
If you're going to make a grappler, I expect you to have the grapple rules, conditions, and blog clarifications all handy and properly understood.
If it's part of the game, great, do it, have fun doing it, but please at least put some effort into understanding it! Unless you're a 1st level newbie, GMs don't have the time to help you run your character. ;-)
My one sunder guy has the broken condition description plus the item hardness/hp tables in his character file. Honestly, with those things in hand, sunder is waaaay easier to manage than grappling, who is grappling, who can do what when grappling, blah blah blah.
CM total is X. I hit it the item? I did X damage. More than hardness? Hells yes. Subtract hit points. Rinse and repeat.