Bagpuss's page

What happens with the Shemhazian, which is Gargantuan in the game? Are there going to be Gargantuan minis?

There at the top end of the size I'm OK with. I wish minis hadn't grown as much as they have, but I hope it doesn't continue.

I can see the concerns about it putting off a bunch of people (concerns JJ expressed when this thread started in 2009). I felt pretty much the same way about Jade Regent and a burst of Oriental-Golarion stuff (fortunately Jade Regent doesn't spend all the time in the East).

I would also like to see a Vudra AP and associated material (and I don't see why it needs psionics) but I assume that's never going to be popular enough to happen.

I'd love to see an AP that spends significant time in Numeria, though.

Feegle, the addition of the set pieces added extra development time (which was not good for the staff and production schedule) and customers at the time complained about the inclusion of them, so they got dropped after Legacy of Fire.

Hmmm, a book of just set pieces could be pretty cool, though...

Sealed case. All the boosters were taped. Nothing broken, although I wouldn't mind much if the Lizardfolk Champions had all been broken.

Seemed to be some variability in quality of painting on the faces, but I might be imagining that (just put them all back in their boxes). Pretty happy with the rarities, other than that I think Gargoyle should have been uncommon and elf wizard rare. And Lizardfolk Champion should have been so rare no one ever saw it, ever.

COMMON

1 Goblin Warrior (Red) x2
2 Goblin Hero (Red) x2
3 Goblin Warrior (Blue) x2
4 Goblin Hero (Blue) x2
5 Orc Brute x3
6 Orc Warrior x3
7 Skeleton x4
8 Watch Guard x2
9 Watch Officer x2
10 Lizardfolk Champion x4 (godamnit)
11 Zombie x3
12 Giant Spider x2
13 Wolf x1

UNCOMMON

14 Venomous Snake x2
15 Mummy x2
16 Human Rogue x2
17 Human Ranger x3
18 Elf Wizard x3
19 Half-Elf Cleric x3
20 Dwarf Fighter x3
21 Human Druid x3
22 Gnome Fighter x2
23 Dire Rat x2

RARE

24 Gargoyle x2
25 Half-Orc Barbarian x2
26 Spectre x2
27 Seelah, Human Paladin x1
28 Werewolf x1
29 Medusa x3
30 Minotaur x1
31 Ogre x2
32 Troll x2
33 Ettin x3
34 Chimera x1
35 Manticore x1
36 Giant Caveweaver Spider x1
37 Frost Giant x1
38 Succubus x1
39 Lich x2
40 Vampire x1

I love C&C, but I play 1e modules with it. You'd have to restat a lot of monsters to play the 3.x APs wirh C&C, though, if you wwnted it to plwy righy, I think.

It is a pretty mini, but for nearly 8 bucks? Cheaper with the AP discount, but I don't think I'm going to buy at that price, not for a standard sized mini. The Reaper sculpts are great (as are the Crocodile sculpts they took over) but the prices are getting a bit silly.

Holy expensive mini, Batman. That's a medium, right?

I like the look of them, but the thumbnails just link back to this page (not to a larger image). Would like to take a closer look.

Bagpuss wrote:

Liz Courts wrote:

Our distributor is listing this as temporarily out of stock--I'll poke them and see if I can't get any further information about its status.

Thanks, Liz!

It looks like AEG should be planning to reprint this, but I don't have a set date for release.

That is excellent news, if true (one wonders why it's not on their website, or maybe it is and I missed it). Thanks!

Our distributor is listing this as temporarily out of stock--I'll poke them and see if I can't get any further information about its status.

Thanks, Liz!

I created a tutorial on how to make your own do-it-yourself Beginner Box style pawns.

Here's an image of the finished product.

The two pawns in the middle are from the Beginner Box; the others are ones I made myself using Paizo images.

If you wanted to spend the time you could create a couple of hundred for all the monsters and NPCs you might encounter. I think this technique has a lot of promise. Only thing is you have to know a little about image editing (I use Gimp, but Photoshop will do) to pull this off.

The plan in general would be to grab Bestiary images and use them?

Is this really a backorder, or is it impossible to get? AEG don't even have it on their own webpage, so I'm assuming the latter but thought I'd check. I know that Cryptmaster can stand alone, but I like the original Tomb.

2) I could see them doing 3 sizes of die-cuts on sheets of pawns but how do you expect anything like true scale? This is unrealistic. Look at the black dragon from the BB set. They probably aren't going to do giant standee pawns that take up half a sheet of cardstock. What would the base be like?

I assume you'd need a wider base and to have, say, two of them to support the bigger pawn. Up to size huge or even gargantuan, at least, I think that there wouldn't be a significant issue, although I would agree that bigger than gargantuan would be problematic (as it is for existing minis, it's hard to get one that large for anything other than the previously-released dragons).

I hear and obey.

I know you were excited about them before, but did you realise how awesome and useful they were going to be?

A Sharpie and a "Dot" and facing is done if needed. /shrug

Sure, or I could use something else to represent my minis. It's just a preference on my part that wouldn't require new art (although they'd still need to make sure they printed the right stuff on each side, so there's some more complexity, except if it's die-cut sheets again they'd need different arrangements for front and back in any case even with the same art on each side).

One problem with this is that it would be quite expensive for Paizo.

They needed no (or almost no) art budget for these pawns because they have lots of art from all their books. However, that art is always one-sided. "Portrait" pictures are almost always full frontal, and even action shots are only shown from one angle.

If they wanted to put front and back pictures on those pawns (without cheaping out by having only a silhouette for the back picture or something), they'd need completely new art, and art costs money.

Yeah, on reflection I think if they were going to indicate facing (to widen the appeal, say) they should just put a mark of some sort on one side, or overlay some shading, or something, but keep the images the same on each side. New matching art for the back of the pawn would just be too much effort and expense.

Frankly, a bunch of these would be the most awesome thing in the Gamemastery line, for me (and I like a lot of their Gamemastery stuff).

I was just looking at my BB and the pawns are the best thing about it. I'd certainly buy more if they were made (sub to them, even) and I'd love for them to have a different back and front just because it looks better (and I'd also use them in other games, like C&C; they look like a great game aid in general).

Written a review (summary: I really like the book).

I personally don't care about any speedy advance in power that wouldn't happen in-game, because the rules aren't written to make good fiction.

Yeah, I wanted to point out that most poeple don't feel the need to talk about the condition of something they order unless there is a problem, which can lead to the perception of a widespread problem when it's really just a few minority cases. I mean, if you buy a DVD at Wal-Mart and it works, do you think about going to customer service and thanking them for selling you a DVD that was in good condition? No, you only go there when you're watching the movie and the video dies halfway through.

With mine, I think that it was the packaging, which wasn't that padded at all. I don't know if they were all packaged the same way, but when I get stuff packed like that, I often find it's been damaged somewhat in transit (not just with USPS, incidentally).

Getting a bit concerned about what the condition of my book will be. I have heard some say their book has come in great condition with no dents or dings, but more have said their book has been damaged in some sort of way.

I am hoping it falls under the rule of those who are 100% happy with their product usually do not voice themselves.

It sounds like a bit of a crapshoot, which I am not sure it should be for a $90 purchase of a book.

Mine came in the mail recently, but direct from Frog God. I like the fact that Bill signed it, but most of the corners are somewhat dinged and the shipping packaging (one wrap of bubblewrap in a box, as I recall) wasn't very good for protecting it. As they're all sold out I assume the only option is putting up with it or else not having a copy.

Paizo said it's random or not at all, because of how the business works. While we might want non-random minis, we presumably don't want it at the price it would cost and if we did, well, the singles market will be selling it at the price, so you can get them from there. I don't see the particular issue, unless someone wants non-random minis cheaper than that, but we'd all like things we want for cheaper than the market value.

I didn't really believe the "there will never be another one, ever", particularly once Paizo had ordered some extras, because I figured that if it sold well, Paizo or FGG or both would do another run if only to make sad people happy.

I am personally glad another run will happen, although I got mine via direct pre-order from FGG. I've only ever bought one thing because I knew it'd run out and that was Castle Zagyg, so the loss in value of the first edition (and I don't think there's any real doubt that the value aspect of its collectability won't really survive a second printing) doesn't bother me, if for no other reason than I have never sold an rpg book in my life (or given one away; I have every rpg item I've ever bought, pretty much, other than a few which might have been lost or damaged).

Given that it's OGL (as Clark reminded us upthread), it wouldn't take all that long for someone to strip the text and pdf-ify it, I would think, so it's not that the material could never see light of day again if someone wanted to PoD it in parts at Lulu. The proper one-volume version, with art, looks to be pretty special, though, so it's cool we'll see another print run.

The only thing I'd say that is that the promise to never print another run was perhaps not well-judged. A little bit of weakening of that statement -- closer to what Clark said at the time -- might have led to less potential irritation and also without Bill and Erik feeling like bounders.

Plus, we have another book coming out very shortly that threatens to have almost as big a popularity as ToH, which means we're still under the gun. This kind of insanely fast growth actually creates dangers for a company.

What book is that?

Please, please, please do not water down Pathfinder RPG with a minis game.

Why would it comprise a "watering-down"?

I mean, I'm far from sure I'd want to play one, but I'm not sure why it'd mean "watering down" the RPG. To be honest, if it slowed the output of RPG crunch, I'd be pretty happy with it just for that reason.

I applaud Paizo for taking this risk. And yes, I mean risk. The financial outlay for such a venture is vast and the hope for reward is limited. It is clear that their love of the hobby is high on their priority list. We should be grateful.

I'm not unhappy at this move (and have ordered a case) but is the risk really Paizo's? They're advertising this and licensing it (and will presumably stock a lot of them!) but isn't it Wizkids producing the things and taking the initial costs?

My inner Pathfinder completist says "buy them", but I dislike prepaints. I don't mind the randomness, for the reason that Lisa mentions.

Maybe I'll treat myself to them. Maybe.

Vic Wertz wrote:

At this time, however, the Beginner Box is not on the list of products that parties using the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License may reference.

But nothing to stop someone releasing a "Basic Game" compatible with Pathfinder that has the 1-5 rules from the Starter game and then carries them to 20th level or more, I guess? Or even just drop the "compatible with Pathfinder" bit and just use the rules and expand them?

Agree with Chavamana on 1-3 (I think a party of four comes out about 200 xp short or so of third level, or did in my case).

4) With four players who'd all played PF before, it took us two sessions, one of about 6 hours and one of about four hours, until it was done.

Cool, thanks.

I loves me some Freeport.

What happened to Dark Deeds in Freeport? Did it not get funded, or what?

It seems to me that if Paizo released epic-level stuff and it did well, then they'd definintely want to make it work for Golarion, as their setting and if they worked out how to go to very high levels without breaking Golarion and could sell the supporting material, then they would.

I remember reading that the Tome of Secrets was released the same day that the Core Rulebook was released. Take from that what you will, but I wasn't too happy with that purchase.

I am pretty sure that Adamant (and other 3PPs) had seen the rules pre-release, so why is a simultaneous release a problem?

I don't see the need for a Golarion level cap and I'd love, love, love to see some workable higher-level rules in general (and I'd sure as Hell use them in Golarion).

Tian Xia hardcover, though? Do. Not. Want.

Thanks for the feedback! Two other users have reported this as well, and I will patch this for the next release, which should arrive about easter-ish.

Any update on this?

Bagpuss wrote:

Assuming this is just a backorder (and not out of print), any idea how long it'll take to reappear?

I verified that our distributor no longer carries this—looks like it's PDF only now.

Ah, thanks. Thought that was probably the case.

Assuming this is just a backorder (and not out of print), any idea how long it'll take to reappear?

I don't have a problem with it at all. As Thraxus points out, it doesn't say how the condition was achieved, so the DM can create from fluff to describe that if it's a problem for the group.

As I recall, when it has more than one address for you, it'll use the default unless you select the new one and then click to specifically confirm that that's the address you want.

Personally, I'd just make it an AoO (so if possible they should all go through the same creature, unless it has combat reflexes, and send the toughest first) and have it grant no cover unless it's ghost touch.

Incorporeal creatures are bad enough as it is, for groups that aren't prepared for them.

As I'm moving to Kindle reading, and new Kindle versions cost more than $9.99 in general (as the publisher sets that price) and the subscription comes with an electronic version, it works pretty well for me. Mind you, an ebook-only subscription would also suit me; I think that I'm done with physical books for fiction.

Where would people stick it in Golarion? Ustalav, somewhere?

what I meant by "old School" B&W is this or this, I am not a fan of that "Old School" art, be it Color or B&W.

Normally I don't care about art at all -- I just want my book cheaper -- but art like the stuff you linked would make me happy to pay more for it. I don't have any attachment to the modern rpg art at all, but something that had the old-school feel would be a huge plus for me, given that I have to expect art of some sort.

Colour is irrelevant to me (I like the old-school feel of black and white and, in any case, I want it not to be insanely expensive).

I would also really like to be able to pre-order. If pre-orders are opened, I'll commit immediately.

Sadly, we didn't notice that on the digital proof, so we only found out about it when we got our first printed copies in. We're now looking for that issue specifically in all future products. (I think you identified all of the pages with the problem—it's not that bad, but it's not what we wanted to see.)

Yeah, it's not terrible, or anything like that. On the bright side, it's a very good book.

More than one piece of art is pixelated at the edges, as if it was a lower-quality web version that ended up in the book. I'm thinking of the four pictures in the "Demonic Horde" chapter, on pages 55, 57, 59 and 61. Pazuzu, on page 23, looks somehow out-of-focus.

I'm not obsessive about the art -- I wish more people cared less about it so that products could be cheaper, in fact -- but it was jarring enough even for me to notice.

I like the book as a whole, it's given me an idea for some adventure on the way to the giant-slaying in RotRL#4.

]Not expensive ? The PDF version is 35$, compared to the other products which range from 5$ to 15$.

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is a 576-page full-color hardcover. = 9,99$

Golarion, the exciting world of the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and Pathfinder Modules, comes alive in this massive 256-page full-color hardcover tome primed up and ready to go for your new campaign! = 34,99$

Any reasons why the PDF is that expensive ?

It's more that the RPG pdfs are cheap, way cheaper than much of the rest of the market (and, of course, the material in them is OGL).

I reviewed it the product discussion thread and I liked it sort-of, but not as much as Prince of Wolves. I think it's better than Ms. Cunningham's FR books, but for me it was workmanlike rather than stunning. Take Golarion out of it and I am not sure I'd be buying more -- although I'm 50/50 on that, I'd give it at least another book purchase, I reckon -- whereas that wasn't the case with Prince of Wolves, which I liked regardless of the setting.

It's a decent start to Pathfinder fiction, to have two readable books. I think that WotC has to put out fifty books to have two readable ones.

I reviewed it earlier on today. I liked it OK, although I liked Prince of Wolves a hell of a lot more (which I gave four stars; by that measure, this would be more of a 2.5 but I gave it three because we're limited to integers). Whereas PoW had a bit of a mystery story going on, this was more of a standard quest travelogue, although decently-written.

By the standards of RPG fiction, it's a master-work, but that's a low bar to clear.