Alex Draconis's page

Season 4 is extremely good. I was impressed, this coming from someone who has been in since day 1.

Aw John thanks for taking that photo and being part of the best two tables all weekend.
Special thanks to Fabian Franco who ran those excellent tables!

Always a pleasure playing with Will J. and Mr. Kendall who dogged my steps all weekend.

Thanks Joshua for organizing, Azmyth as well who gave me that boon just in time. I used it for something magnificent, total fluff.

Kudos to everyone who ran and played Society at DunDraCon 2013. Every con has been consistently better than the last surpassing a very high bar.

-Alex Draconis

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Welcome to PathfinderSociety at DunDraCon!

Cherry seems unsure whether she is channeling her inner Dalek or a Cyberman.
If you could get past the scariness of encountering these two at the desk, you could have a good time ...

All this and more!

This is the main PFS room - there's another room with four more tables next door, and even that wasn't enough space - at peak times a couple of extra tables were set up in the hallway.
In the picture sharp-eyed viewers can make out VC Azmyth (handing out a boon), at least one other venture officer, and eight full tables of folks enjoying themselves. You can also see the youngest future pathfinder. She was probably the best-behaved person at the con; both my wife and I had the pleasure of her company at tables we were running, and she caused absolutely no trouble apart from being distractingly cute.

Miniature Gaming

Just across the hall from the PFS area was a large room dedicated to miniature gaming. Some of the setups there had figures considerably scarier than anything our GMs threw at us.

Meddle not in the affairs of lizards ..

The last table I played in at the con. Here you can see a wild-shaped druid (carrying a musket master inquisitor), the druid's animal companion, a summoned monster, and Kita Sharpclaw. Also present are a two-weapon fighter, my Monk, and the two unfortunate guards that were tasked with blocking our progress. One of them is down and out, and the other is grappled by Kita. I believe this is part-way through the first round; by the end of the next round the remaining guard had been repositioned under water, had taken full attacks from the fighter and the monk, and been bitten in half by a dinosaur.

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I love it. I mean I have a regular home campaign, but society offers a unique flavor.
It's like a regular poker night. It takes you out of you comfort zone, you get to play with varied individuals and styles. Doing so you become a better player and GM.

I don't obsess over the mechanics.

Hmm interesting. In society play my female druid wild shaped into a lizard grappled a succubus as well and took level drain. They must teach that in druid school. I happily took that one for the team. "Wait, what were we fighting about?"

I'm working on it. I've had to go back and reference my library as it's been awhile. Likely done tomorrow.

Sure, why not?
I like the Nemetondevos pantheon.

Magic Missile. Seriously, a single missile. It's got range and just let the GM try and tell me they don't wake up after that.

That's an extremely strong schedule. I'm used to having two or three choices a slot, but if you went with as proposed I'd have at the minimum four or more scenarios I could play per slot. That's saying something as I've played about 90% of everything that has been released.

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I love when some gamers jump all over furries. *rubs temples and sighs*
If that's not the pot calling the kettle black...

What's your encore? Going after the Otaku? LoL

Hmm there's a couple good ideas I hadn't considered. Good thread as I've thought about the same.

Sigh. I remember that time that I missed being at the best table ever.

Jealousy, I know ye yet again.

-Pain

Which one was that Pain?

What about in the "We Be Goblins" Module? It is legal for play in PFS, yet the players are meant to play Goblin characters. Are goblins only legal in this module but nowhere else?

It's a one shot, you only get to play goblins in that one mod.

You apply that chronicle to another character.

BTW: Combat Healer doesn't work on Cleanse. Only on spells with "Cure" in the name.

Ah Rob, that reminds me you made that Haunting of Hinojai game twice as fun as it would have been without you. I was thoroughly amused.

Cactaur?

Alex Draconis wrote:

I make it every year, the "specials" make it more than worth it. Once again I'll be there to save your tails yet again.

Alex is good at saving lives because he can look at a situation, instantly analyze it, and say, "The freaking idiot gnome, our only healer, just charged into melee. He's definitely going to die. I'd better pull out this scroll of breath of life now. Let's hope for the gnome's sake I don't botch the UMD roll."

As the gnome who was yanked back from Pharasma's Boneyard, I heartily endorse gaming with any of Alex' characters.

Thanks Will I appreciate the endorsement. Now of course here's the question that will really bake your noodle. If I knew what was likely to occur, would you have still done it if I had warned you? ; )

Technically Equestria is a country not a planet but I get your point.
I don't see why it can't be another crystal sphere, another world in the heavens. Albeit one that is directly influenced by beings of a demigod level at the very least. But of course Celestia's meddling is no different than Arodens.

Pacificon is great! I was there only a day there last year (curse you, real life!), but it was an awesome event. Smaller, but that means you are likely to get to know the other players more. And Painlord is usually there. And that is always a plus!

Pacificon is where all the cool kids will be. ; )

I make it every year, the "specials" make it more than worth it. Once again I'll be there to save your tails yet again.

I can't stress enough how much unadulterated fun that table was. From turret Gnomes to Wet Noodle battles, from twine to whine, from fallen clerics to falling foes, from 7:00 PM to 2:00 AM, it was amazing. Thank you all for an excellent evening!

Hmm interesting you where right behind me while we where doing Cyphermage and I didn't even know. I'd have said hi. }: )

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Lawful Neutral. Next question?

I can't remember the last time I had so little sleep for so long.
Great time at Kubla as usual. Thanks for running those 20+ hours Rob. Totally got that crit I called before the con.

Nice seeing old friends and making new ones.
See now everyone knows my avatar looks like me. }; P

Less than 24 hours.
Staying at the hotel this year so I can observe the drunken after hours crazyness. ; )

Alex Draconis wrote:

Uh I'm with Brock on this Pain.

First of all who appoints your Triad? You? Because I sure as hell don't support your choice(s).

*left wondering if I should be offended by this* :)

No, not at all. I uh saved you from bureaucracy. Think of the paperwork alone. Nobody should be subjected to that kind of torture, save perhaps Joseph Caubo. *makes bluff check while grinning toothily*

Painlord wrote:

I'd take the 10% on these boards and be happy with it.

-Pain

Because it is clear that the 10% here don't have a unilateral agreement on most things (1st level retraining aside).

We are the 10%? Sorry couldn't resist.

On that note, see you next Friday. ; P

Uh I'm with Brock on this Pain.
First of all who appoints your Triad? You? Because I sure as hell don't support your choice(s).

Hooray is this a "The rules board is a wretched hive of scum and villany" thread?

rules board= place where people go to be "right" and argue until they've beaten a dead horse into a few hundred posts.

PFS board= place where people go to get insight into how to build and play their PFS characters, DM, and get on with their lives without the pedantic BS.

Darn. That I missed that bit. That totally kills the fluff and feeling that I wanted.

Of course it does.

Wow look at that, this instance coming up again. Who would have thought?

I ban all dice at my table. We resolve actions with sock puppets and a pop-o-matic. No cheating that way! And you can hear the die results shouted from the other side of the room.

Linky

Jiggy wrote:

Also, what creature name are you called by? I'd like to look you up and see all your statistical glory.

The creature that looks similar to me was an efreeti great ghul sorcerer.

Then he beheaded it and stole its juicy powers as there can be only one.

I'm sorely tempted to see what the Baird fuss is all about.
I haven't even been moderately challenged since Pain turned Lady Nocturne into a pony and Dismissed her in midair. He was cranky that day. }; P

Alex Draconis wrote:

He's avoiding the injured while casting concentration check by provoking before starting the spell. It's a dangerous tactic to say the least.

Alex, I did that exact same maneuver with my gnome oracle of battle in one of the games you ran.

Indeed, Everwar 3 or 4 as I recall. I remember wishing I had a bite/grabber. Which is exactly what Kita my new character is.

I made her specifically to lock down foes so the rest of the party can pummel on them. Mages are her favorite snack.

Society foes are usually less specialized so you can get away with those kind of shenanigans. That's kinda why I wish they'd open up more usable material for scenario writers.

I suppose if you really want pain, you can free action drop to the ground, then move action to stand up, also provoking. It's painfully silly to do, but also works.

Or you can move away to provoke then move back, then cast.

Lots of ways to do it.

he heh heh heh huh heh...i said 'do it'...heh huh heh heh heh

-Pain

Nah they'd get the prone bonus that way.

Still it is sly so I approve.

He's avoiding the injured while casting concentration check by provoking before starting the spell. It's a dangerous tactic to say the least.

Int 7, Chr 7? Seriously?
The PFS GMs I know will not let you forget nor ignore stat dumps.

151. Bacon can fix anything.

I thought that was duct tape.

150. Trust No One

Ah Eclipse Phase, extremely good setting and fluff writing. It's dense, well written and thought out. Written by people who do their research or specialists in their fields. It's certainly an advanced game aimed at older adults probably with a degree or two. Engineers, computer people, and biologists (yours truly) seem to be drawn to it like flies to honey.

Running a game however is a total pain in the tail as a GM. You can't die per se, surveillance is omnipresent, and money is effectively worthless (most of the system is a reputation economy).
How do you motivate players? How do you threaten them? I mean as a player you can always just "abort" a scenario and farcast your ego out only losing the cost of a body. If it's an ego fork doing the mission you care even less.

Daunting as James puts it. It's a well crafted, well thought out, niche product of beauty. Will it ever replace Traveller for instance? Not a chance.

In other words it's the greatest game of which I have all the hardcover books that I'll probably never get to play. Transhuman Space for GURPS was the same way.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely, but know you're jumping in the deep end of sci-fi.

*rolls eyes* zombie aroden }: P

*sigh*

I pity the players that have to put with GMs who don't see the big picture, who need to put classes/roles on players rather than prioritizing character and flavor and working with the players.

*shudder*

I really hope that doesn't happen...but I'm sure it does.

You know for a fact it does happen.

Alex Draconis wrote:

Painlord wrote:

I think some BBEG is going to have a new set of eido-alligator skin boots.

-Pain

Crocodile! (obligatory diagram for Pain) BBEG

Are you sure that's a crocodile? It's hard to be certain, because the hand obscures the most obvious differentiating feature, but that looks more like an alligator to me

(If you can hear the clock ticking, though, it's definitely a crocodile)

Oh I'm very sure. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-448152/The-man-lent-hand-crocodile. html

The Future of Lord Sobek?

The future of Alyssia?

Not quite. That's like the opposite.

Hey Rob I haven't had the chance to execute a x4 crit in ages, a year to be exact.
I'll be happy to show your little monsters what one of those looks like. }: P

Pirate Rob wrote:

Will Johnson wrote:

The plan is still to bribe Kubla and use the horde of kids to round up players, right?

Actually the plan is to press gang you and your fellow players into service after I slaughter your characters in Eyes of the Ten and free up your schedule.

Yeah, I'm not even going to bother to prep Part IV. I mean, why waste the time if you're just going to die on the way there?

Yeah, we'll see what happens.

But I think some BBEG is going to have a new set of eido-alligator skin boots.

-Pain

Crocodile! (obligatory diagram for Pain) BBEG

I just assumed Pain put that table together just to keep us out of harm's way for half the con. ;-)

You mean to keep everyone else out of harms way.

The great, benevolent, and hungry god Sobek says hi!

BTW Rob I've had the entire eyes of the ten arc printed out in color for the past year. You don't need to print hardcopies.

Come adventure in the grand daddy of rpg settings, Tolkien's middle-earth.

I'm running a One Ring game Sundays 12:30 to 8pm at my house in Newark,CA and could use a couple more players. Picking people up from BART isn't a problem. We'll probably start the weekend after KublaCon, early June.

We're late 20's, normally favoring a 50/50 combat roleplay style, but since The One Ring is fairly rules light and the setting is well developed I think it'll be about 75% roleplay in this case.

Email me at DraconisCA at yahoo.com and I can answer any questions you might have.

Thieves. Oh wait no, that's real life. }: P

Advice? I would say remember it's not just about you. Your character, your role. I try and engage other players even when I'm not DM to give them the chance to roleplay.

This meshes with Roleplaying Mastery btw in rule #5. Make sure everybody (including yourself) is having fun.

I've been dissecting in my mind the past year the best Society table I've been at. Painlord was there by the way. I think what raised it to great from mediocre was the knowledge of each characters role/concept/outlook/quirks then engaging each other based on that knowledge. It was reciprocal altruism at it's finest. It was synergistic.

In short, we brought out the "best" in each other and that's what took it off the scale.

I'm looking forward to trying to capture that experience again next month. }; )

Anyway, you should recognize the effort that people put into their characters and utilize it. Playing with a cleric? Ask them about their religious beliefs. Playing with a character that is sage like in their knowledges? Ask them an esoteric question.
I've let a dwarf fighter guard me because that was his nature. I've let a scrawny wizard use my nightmare as a bargaining tool. I've discussed hacking and drinking with barbarians because that's what they enjoy.

Essentially figure out and give them what they want.

On the other hand, Ultimate Magic FAQ was just released. So I'm sure all of the questions have been answered and no more issues with the summoner ever again.

I see what you did there. ;)

Hi Akaitachi

I play Anima every Sunday. It's been an interesting experience.
There are pretty much no pdfs out there. FF doesn't even make them I guess to discourage piracy.

It's subsystems on subsystems. It's honestly the most complex rpg I've played in over twenty years. Combats take forever but they are amusing and deadly.
There's a new book coming out next month, Arcana Exxet. Should be interesting, new spells and probably yet more rules.

If it isn't translucent then how do I see out? :p

"HELP ITS DARK IN HERE!"

Funny Shifty, funny. "(you)..percieve through the eidolon's senses.."

Seriously though did I trip and fall into the rules forum while I wasn't looking or is it bleeding through like radiation?

Focus, people, focus. We're shooting for compromise here not one upmanship.

I just have a problem with people viewing this as "fluff that has an unintended mechanical consequence." I would never have come up with that interpretation, as it seems completely obvious to me that the mechanical distinction *is* intentional, that the goal of the phrase is to eliminate the idea that the eidolon can be used to disguise the synthesist as anything he wants, and that it's not actually fluff at all.

It's one thing to argue that that it could be developed in a way that allows for more flexibility (like Kerney's conjoined twin idea) while still preventing the eidolon from being a "disguise myself as any monster" kit, but trying to argue that it's only a mechanical element by accident is actually pretty insulting in my view. Our writers—and Jason more than many—understand how to write description that doesn't include unintended mechanical elements.

Bravo, see there's a reasonable point of view. Although probably could have been brought up months ago in the other thread addressing this same issue. See we don't all hide under your desk. But that's neither here nor there, I can roll with that premise.

Now that being said let's elucidate the points. You guys are concerned that it can be used as some kind of disguise. Cute notion as it's an outlandish possibility and there's a hell of a lot easier ways to get magic disguises than take an entire class but ok ok that's good let's go with that. No judgements.

We, hi, ya me and others. You know the guys who are your ardent supporters, have all your products, have a very very low 4 digit (18XX) Society number been there from day one, well we want to play what we want. I don't want a cheap monster disguise I want to play.... brace yourself for this...a horse. Ok ya a flaming, flying, scary as hell horse but you get the idea. This class allows me to do that. Well except for the 2 hours a day they have to sleep but let's not go there at the moment.

You basically said you're in a cheap transparent monster suit. Hmmm that sort of makes things difficult for oh I don't know the people who want to be angels or at least look like it.

See now here's the deal. I don't see why the two points are mutually exclusive. There is cake and we can eat it. Simply add a bit more where you're satisfied that it can't be used as a disguise but not transparent and leave it open to interpretation. The interpretations I outlined in yon earlier thread. Actually I thought that what the whole sigil thing was for but I guess not.

See then the mechanically inclined and us fluffy types can get along once more and be one big uh happy..anatagonistic family again.

Oh and nobody is knocking Jason(nice guy, I will say hi at Kubla next month) or anyone else. In this case it falls under the rarer unintended nonmechanical element.

When you sign up for PFS you agree not to buck against rules rather you understand them or not. And Vic's not likely the person who wrote Synthesist (correct me if I'm wrong) he's just pointing out that the rules are the rules.

I know who wrote the synthesist. I asked Jason Bulmahn at KublaCon 2011. I wanted him to thank them personally for writing my favorite class, scratch that my formerly favorite class, the one class where you get to customize your appearance to match your concept.

Seriously.
Wow you know this just made up my mind. I'm being honest here I was thinking about going to PaizoCon this year because PainLord always seems to have a good time. But ya no way, I had a feeling this would come up, I'm not going to get into rules err fluff arguments over a game.
Not even kidding.

Alex Draconis wrote:

Vic Wertz wrote:

Whether you think it's "fluff" or not, it is what it is. Fireballs begin as glowing, pea-sized beads, and detonate with a low roar. Fused eidolons are translucent. Just because those things are descriptive doesn't mean you get to change them at your whim.

And what do Magic Missiles look like Vic? Oh that's right they can look like whatever you want. Blue, green, mauve, balls, arrows, glowing mugs of ale. It doesn't modify the spellcraft (mechanical) check to identify but they can look however you like.

The difference there is those interpretations don't actually contradict with what's written in the rulebook, so long as they still fit the description of "missiles of magical energy." Saying the synthesist's eidolon is *not* translucent *does* actually contradict what's written in the rulebook, and in PFS play, you don't get to make that call.

Perhaps what's written in the rulebook should be changed then to be inclusive of what people want to play rather than exclusionary.

Incorporating people's ideas rather than telling us what we have to make and look like. Because really how long until your view of society, you telling us how it IS can no longer can incorporate my concepts and I can no longer participate?

When did this authoritarian streak start?