Brian E. Harris's page

Brian, Brian, Brian, you know that we need to get our ducks in order. And, heck, the ducks haven't even hatched yet, much less shipped to us here in Seattle so the ordering can commence. Give us some time to find out exactly WHAT Dynamite will be doing with the Pathfinder comics, and THEN you'll probably see a subscription announcement. So hold your horses, my friend. :)

-Lisa

Curse you, Stevens! Your disorderly ducks have foiled me for the last time!

How many ducks are we talking here? The local farmer's market will have hatchlings come spring, and they sell for a song. I shall acquire NEW ducks, free from the congenital disorderliness that seems to afflict the ducks from your supplier, ripe for fresh programming, and send them to your doorstep!

Subscription details needed! :D

I don't want to scour ebay for the minis I want, and have to worry about outbidding all the other gamers trying to scavenge enough goblins or orcs for their encounters.

Now I can't wait for all the Paizo sycophants to talk down to me, for not understanding that there is no third option or some other BS.

There IS a third option.

Pretend that Paizo's not selling minis at all, and don't buy them.

It amazes me that people feel that they're worse off for Paizo/WizKids making minis in a format that doesn't appeal to them than if Paizo/Wizkids wasn't making them at all.

I can only assume that this is for one of two reasons:

1. International customers do not matter and are not important because they are not american.

It's this one. Totally. The Beginner Box sales are indicative of Paizo's jingoistic attitudes and imperialist agenda to take over the RPG world.

Thank you, Vic.

Yes. I see Vic's post asking if it's something people are interested.

I see replies to Vic's post stating the affirmative.

Now, I see Justin's post, made AFTER all of those posts, asking if it's going to happen.

In Vista or Windows 7, there is a Snipping Tool that I think is part of the Windows Tablet Package.

I think it's part of all packages. It's certainly on my desktop.

Pertinent to this line of conversation is the fact wizards' reliance on spellbooks in most fantasy worlds would be fairly common knowledge. Even if you imagined some campaign world in which wizards were some kind of rare, monolithic figures ruling in a LE magocracy and knowledge of magic among the common people was harshly suppressed, the highest you're talking is a DC 11 Knowledge (arcana) check. Where there's a wizard, there's a spellbook nearby. That's pretty much the end of the story.

NO NO NO THAT'S METAGAMING!!

Seriously, though, you're absolutely right. In the default high-magic world that the game proposes, hammering a spellbook isn't some contrived "OMG HE SHOULDN'T KNOW THAT!" perfect-counter situation.

If random thugs or kobolds are displaying tactics to take down the party (covering all variables) that would otherwise require patient observation and preparation for weeks/months, there's a valid complaint to be made.

A DM crafting a situation such as the above, and weaving the appropriate backstory to explain it? That's not metagaming, that's good DM'ing.

Good job then you answered your own question.

Perhaps I'm obtuse, but I'm not seeing an answer to the question. I'm seeing a question posed earlier asking if it was something people wanted to see, and I'm seeing Justin's follow-up question asking about the chances of it happening.

Obey the law.

I think the "GM not metagaming" statement means that NPC's should not be using information they should not have access too.

From a PC perspective, the knowledge (and sources of that knowledge) of NPCs is ineffable. They player doesn't/can't know what an NPC would, could or should know until the DM provides that information, and even then, did the DM provide accurate information to the players?

It seems to me most attempts at removing/destroying a spellbook would be metagaming on part of the DM.

I just felt the need to point something out:

The DM's job is to metagame. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the DM metagaming. If the DM doesn't metagame, then there is no game.

While we're on the subject of providing links;

To all you gaming geniuses, getting yourselves irate at the fact that people aren't using the search function to applaud your pearls of wisdom: you might get more traffic, if your magnum opus of mathematical marvels wasn't hidden behind thread titles such as "More broken crud from [book X]", "MAD Tank suxxors at AGGRO vs kiting switch-hitter", and other information-free invitations to TrollTown.

Perhaps we need a new thread, titled "Please stop singling out a specific class/group of board members for behavior exhibited by members of ALL classes/groups of board members."

Although kickstarter seems to profit quite well acting as escrow for projects like this.

Kickstarter doesn't charge until funding goals are met. An authorization is made via Amazon payments, but that's it.

Kickstarter projects would probably count as the whole "deposit on custom work" Vic mentioned, as well...

Both Visa and MasterCard prohibit charging prior to delivery in most circumstances*, but a startling number of companies seem to disregard that prohibition.

Don't they also prohibit asking for identification, as the signature on the card (and matching it to the charge slip) is supposed to be all the identification required?

That's also disregarded by about everyone...

Another thing to keep in mind, there are going to be rare minis, so there will be minis that you probably will only see one of in case.

Hence my statement to not expect more than one of in a case.

Saying that someone would be better served by not having that ‘x’ rare mini because you will get only one, would apply to any rare that will be in the set, including those cool NPC/monsters.

Not really. Not even close.

For those that want a commoner or similar non-combatants, they'll very likely want more than one of them, hence, distributing such a mini as a rare isn't effective.

For things like Karzoug the Runelord, distributing as a rare, with the potential to only get one per case makes total sense.

"Rare" rarity is best used for either minis that a buyer will only need/use one of, or to facilitate the "chase rare" system.

Besides, at least for me, getting one is better than none.

And that's totally cool - for me, however, getting a useless commoner as one of my few rares would be incredibly lame and frustrating. Even worse would be a tree or a unicorn or something like that.

Given the talk about distribution, if you were to put such a mini in a rare slot, you'll get 1 in a case - incredibly bad odds to expect more than one in that case.

Honestly, it seems that if having those commoners and what not were your thing, you wouldn't be served well by having them in such limited distribution.

Count me as someone who really doesn't want to see any non-combatants, and especially doesn't want any set-dressing minis (treasure chests, vegetation, etc).

I fully realize that there's multiple ways to play, and that's great, but for me, unless it actually needs to be on a battle grid, I don't need to know that the bartender is 30ft away and the mayor is 40ft away in a non-combat scenario.

I'd rather that space in the set be taken up by cool PC/NPC figures or by awesome monsters/critters.

Also, despite claims that might be made about an ignore feature being used on flamers and trolls, I think the real reason most people use an ignore button is so that they can avoid debate altogether when they find someone they disagree with but aren't able to "defeat" in discussion.

On the other hand, I think the real reason most people are opposed to an ignore button is so they can force everyone to read feculence such as this.

Seriously, if that's what you believe, then so what? If that's what people want to do, then let them. You're not entitled to their attention or response. If they'd prefer to maintain their sanity by avoidance of your inanity, LET THEM.

I thought this matter was done, anyhow? Didn't Paizo say no?

Brian E. Harris wrote:

Knowing nothing about these scripts/extensions, how hard would it be to create one that filters all instances of a particular word (in this case, one that triggers an avatar change here on the forum), replacing the word with text of one's choosing, and replacing the newly-replaced avatar icon with an icon of one's choosing?

I could make one that replaced it with a specific word and specific icon without too much trouble. Being able to choose the word and choose the icon is a little more complicated though.

Oh, just a pre-defined specific word and icon would be fine.

Unless you're saying choosing the word and icon that would be replaced would be complicated?

deinol wrote:

When 3.0 came out, I couldn't believe how much they'd borrowed from the Talislanta system.

That's not really surprising, given that the first RPG book WotC published was Talislanta, way before they acquired TSR.

Even less surprising when you consider that Jonathan Tweet was the designer/author of Talislanta 3rd Edition under WotC's license of the property, and went on to be one of the designers of D&D 3E...

Brian E. Harris wrote:

I think you'll be lucky to get one of each "rare" out of a single case.

No, I don't think so. I think there is going to be high chance you will get every rare, and actually at least one of every miniature in the set. From what Paizo has said, WizKids/Paizo are planning for at least a complete set in each case (and I say 'at least' as of course you will have duplicates in only a 40 mini set). The only reason they don't guarantee anything as they said there is the element of human error during packaging.

The distribution is not going to be anything like a case of DDM where you received 4 of one rare and 6 rares you didn't even see.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying, you probably shouldn't gamble on getting a third complete set out of the purchase of two cases.

If I didn't phrase that correctly, my apologies.

For example, lets say our fighter in full plate gets encased in ice. Could we not use heat metal to free him?

And cook him in the process...

This is not about shipping costs but about how to deal with this & future $30+ products that are classified as games due to the inclusion of 'toy' components such as dice & figures - this is the reason that certain non NA subscibers will be hit with import duties that push the cost of these otherwise reasonably priced products into the daftly expensive price bracket.

This will be my last comment on the matter, since it really doesn't matter to me anyhow, but:

This isn't the harbinger of the slippery slope of boxed sets being sold under the subscription. This is a one-time thing.

Paizo has already stated that they're not going to publish box sets of stuff due to the cost of doing so, and that this product is special.

I understand your concerns, but at the same time, Paizo has addressed them by providing you the option to unsubscribe/resubscribe, and, while not explicitly confirmed, it stands to reason that, since this is part of the RPG subscription/line, the PDFs will be offered at the same price as the rest of the RPG line, allowing you to circumvent those exorbitant import duties/fees. As such, you only really have to deal with it this time - not multiple additional times in the future.

I'm surprised the d20 isn't purple, like the awesome Paizo purple d20 I bought from you folks...

So far only hardcover core books have been reprinted, with one exception, the softcover Adventurer's Armory.

Are you talking about the core rulebooks? You can find the errata here errata is generally updated when there is a new printing.

If that covers it, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

Please do me the courtesy of reading the full post before responding.

I read the full post.

That's your only option. You're not willing to pay shipping. Paizo has a solution that meets your unwillingness to pay a "100% price premium".

Unsubscribe. Purchase product locally. Pay Paizo $9.99 for PDFs. Resubscribe after product is shipped.

No 100% premium. Cheaper than shipping.

Your work speaks for itself, Mr. Harris. What more needs to be said? I couldn't possibly prove my point better than you yourself have. Adieu.

Before you leave, I just wanted to thank you for the comedy that is your profile:

Special Abilities

Throw Tantrum (3/week)

This is quite possibly one of the most unintentionally hilarious things I've seen lately.

Thank you!

Ah, yes. I'm making emotional outbursts, and you're making reasoned statements. Thank you for clearing that up.

If your point truly is that this is an inappropriate item for the subscription, I will again point out, again, for the third time, that you're wrong, based on the description of said subscription. This easily falls under the category of "rules-focused accessory" as illustrated.

And for the record, if you don't like flame wars, don't gallivant around with lit matches and a can of gasoline. Your opening salvo in this thread was nothing short of incendiary.

You should get more than 76 minis in case. If you only get 76 you would be missing some smalls. Remember, the standard booster is 2 smalls or 1 medium. You get 64 of these, each will contain 1 medium or 2 smalls. You get 12 large boosters, these have 1 large. So if you only got 76 minis, that would be 64 mediums, 12 larges, and no smalls. Unless they pack these really bad, you should be getting more than 100 minis, give or take.

And we don't yet know how many of each size there are. They only thing we can say is that if they expect many people to get a full set in one case, that there are 12 or less large. Cause if there were 13 or more, no one would get a full set in the case. We don't know how many are medium or small.

I'm guesstimating here, based on DDM distribution, which I'll freely admit, doesn't exactly correspond given that this isn't DDM, and I'm not exactly pulling from compiled statistics anywhere.

I suspect that we'll see 6-8 different larges, and probably 6-8 different small pairs, leaving 24-28 different mediums.

This would allow for duplicates (uncommon/common) in all size categories, and mediums typically make up the majority of sets since they're the most common PC/NPC/encounter critter size.

I honestly can't guess at rarity distribution, as that's been all over the scale in DDM and SWM sets. I only hope that we see the "normal" C/U/R distribution rather than the C/U/R/VR style.

Then the reason I am considering a second case is it might mean I get three complete sets out of it. (Fingers crossed)

While the statements made about case distribution lead me to bank on getting a complete set (or darned close to it) in a single case, I so totally would NOT bank on coming close to three complete sets from two cases.

I think you'll be lucky to get one of each "rare" out of a single case.

Were any of those directed at you or other customers, or at Paizo?

Are you actually trying to claim that they're not?

Claiming that Paizo is somehow disloyal, or that they're attempting to force upon or impose fraudulently or unjustifiably the box set on their customers isn't directed towards Paizo?

Calling the box set a board game for children while books are for adults isn't an insinuated insult towards those that want the product?

Seriously?!

and please people hold off from the pseudo-anodyne response to cancel & then re-subscribe after this product has shipped as that does not address the core issues of shipping these type of products that will be classified as games or toys to non local subscribers.

Please explain how the "pseudo-anodyne response" does not address this.

I'm also not being melodramatic, sarcastic, or insulting.

You're not?!

Foisting a kid's game on your subscribers is, frankly, a very Wizards of the Coast-style thing to do. I thought you were better than that.

It certainly isn't a product intended for established players. So what it boils down to is that you're going to advertise for Paizo and pay them for the privilege!

they've always been loyal to their loyal fan base. This represents a change in that philosophy.

"board game for 13 year olds"

books for grown-ups

No, not melodramatic, sarcastic or insulting. Not at all. Oh, the farthest thing from it!

greatamericanfolkhero wrote:

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

...

And d20 Spectaculars, though that wasn't quite finished...

I so wanted this book to come out. I own everything that WotC and Green Ronin decided to publish for d20 Modern. I think I even offered a bribe to someone who worked on it to get a copy of the shelved manuscript.

I've certainly been offered bribes for peaks at this project. Some more NSFW than others. But I know for a fact the final manuscript was never finished, so there's nothing worth being bribed for, more's the pity.

Are you contractually prohibited from writing a similar product and releasing it under the SGG label?

Because I still play d20 Modern, and it'd be super-sweet to have something like this. :D

Excellent suggestions from everyone.

Anyone have any ideas that are just as good for Flip-Maps?

I use the empty Treasure Chest boxes mentioned above for my flip mats.

I should probably buy a couple more of those before they disappear...

Retracted.

And again, I'll point out:

Take your game to the cutting edge with a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game ongoing subscription! Stay on top of new rules developments, exciting new classes and character abilities, and great game mastering tools with hardcover rulebooks, monster books, and rules-focused accessories aimed at giving you the best possible Pathfinder RPG experience!

See the bold part?

The RPG subscription most definitely IS the place for it.

Ultimately, though, the solution is simple, as I and others have pointed out.

Cancel your sub via the extremely quick and simple method provided, wait until the product ships, and restart your sub.

You've spent more time complaining about it being part of the sub then it would have taken to ensure you don't receive a copy as part of your sub.

As an obsessive-compulsive collector and addict of your printed content, can you tell me, is there a central list somewhere of what books (both hardcover and softcover) you have reprinted, how many printings those books have gone through, and whether or not the content changed between printings?

I don't think that it can be reasonably argued that this should be a part of the regular subscription (or that it was implied by Paizo that the subscription would encompass items like this). It's completely different from what I signed up for.

Take your game to the cutting edge with a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game ongoing subscription! Stay on top of new rules developments, exciting new classes and character abilities, and great game mastering tools with hardcover rulebooks, monster books, and rules-focused accessories aimed at giving you the best possible Pathfinder RPG experience!

I'm actually really surprised that people think this is ok. Everyone that's left a comment here has stated that they're going to gift this set to someone else.

I intend to keep this. Now it's not "everyone" (not that it ever was).

It certainly isn't a product intended for established players.

How do you figure? I intend to utilize the box to introduce new people to the game, and I'm an established player.

So what it boils down to is that you're going to advertise for Paizo and pay them for the privilege!

Pump the brakes. I'm "advertising" for players so that I can continue gaming. It *IS* a privilege that I have a product designed specifically to introduce new players. I *NEED* new players.

Now, what should really disturb you is that it's pretty clear they knew that this act would alienate some of their subscribers, but they felt that the cost/benefit ratio would play out in their favor with new customers. That's the kind of trade-off Paizo has never made before - they've always been loyal to their loyal fan base. This represents a change in that philosophy. I don't think it's good at all.

What really disturbs me is comments like this. How would Paizo know that it would "alienate" their subscribers? There's an extremely simple method to temporarily end your subscription and pick it up after this product comes out.

This alienates people no more so than any other rulebook that people have complained about.

The fact that this is part of the subscription means that Paizo listened to their loyal fan base - when queried, posters here overwhelmingly responded in support of this being part of the subscription.

So do these minis come with stat cards like the DnD mini random sets did? Otherwise what is meant by "fully compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game"? I have a bunch of pennies and bottlecaps that are fully compatible with the pathfinder roleplaying game too :D

I think this is intended to reference the fact that these minis are not only representative of creatures from the game, but that they're also sized per gaming rules, for example, a medium mini will have a 1" base, a large a 2" base, etc.

I use these:

Box

I suppose they don't give you visibility, but are quite handy, when paired with something like these:

Dividers

I'm torn - I don't want to wait until December to see what minis I'm going to get, but at the same time, I'm kinda excited to setup a "pick-up" game where everyone throws together a new character, and play is determined by what minis come out of the packs over the course of the night...

:D

Back in 1984 Apple introduced the first home-targeted laser printer. It cost something like $10,000. That's probably $20k in today's dollars. Within a decade those prices had dropped to a few hundred dollars as the market expanded and the technology became more powerful and cheaper. I just saw a personal laser printer on sale at Amazon.com this week for $69. I fully expect the same thing to happen with 3D printers.

Actually, HP introduced the first mass-market laser printer, the LaserJet, in '84 for $3500. Apple introduced the fourth, the LaserWriter (but the first for a Mac), the following year, for $7000.

Pricing HAS dropped dramatically, though, but more in the last 5-10 years. Amazingly, you can actually get wireless networked laser printers from HP under $100 if you shop around, and color lasers from various manufacturers have gotten incredibly cheap, too.

The key to cheap 3D printers will be a mass-market application - the general populace will need a big reason to utilize the printer. Not really sure what that "killer app" would be for such a device...

Thanks Owen.

That's it (and thanks to Owen as well!).

The intent was that this would be available for sale outside of the patronage/Kickstarter project at a $39.95 price point.

another_mage wrote:

hogarth wrote:

It keeps reverting to a single poster not of my choosing.

As for a single poster, that is very odd behavior? Let me review the source and get back to you.

Ahhh yes, you are correct. What a stupid mistake; the comment said "// create an empty ignore list", but that's not what the code was doing.

Thank you for the bug report. :-)

Knowing nothing about these scripts/extensions, how hard would it be to create one that filters all instances of a particular word (in this case, one that triggers an avatar change here on the forum), replacing the word with text of one's choosing, and replacing the newly-replaced avatar icon with an icon of one's choosing?

More than likely they'll cut out the scenes where he flirts at men for the American audience. Or they'll have stunt women standins for quick edits.

Except, they haven't, and they've actually cut short Jack's sex scenes with a guy from the BRITISH version.

I still mourn the Death Star Sourcebook project Rodney and I completed.

Never heard of this, but now that I have, I'm sad.

And d20 Spectaculars, though that wasn't quite finished...

I did, however, hear of this, and am horribly sad that we didn't get to see it. Would have been really good to have a nice seamless supers plug-in.

I've heard mention of e20, and heard equal mention of its vaporware status.

It's definitely taken longer than originally proposed, but supposedly, the book is going to print right now - Sarli missed the deadline to get it in before GenCon, but was going to finalize all that once he was back.

It's supposedly "done".

I'm a patron on this, and I must say, that while it would have been cool to have it earlier, any delays on this have been far from an issue, because Gary has been VERY communicative - the longest delay has maybe been a couple of weeks?

We've received updates, and I've never felt that Gary was avoiding the pre-paid/patronage user base.

I'm not trying to be asinine

I thought nothing of the sort. I was merely curious as I didn't consider Oregon anything special in the variety department, and you documented nearly the exact variety of a number of locales near me.

logic_poet wrote:

Canada has about 10% of the US population. Maybe the reason Canadian food culture is so uniform is because there's not enough people to support it? Perhaps the Australians on the board can comment on differences across regions over there.

Uniform in the fast food sense... but Canada is also one of the most multi-cultural populations on the planet.

When I stand on the corner of my office building I look at 2 vietnamese restaurants, a korean, a thai, indian, an english pub and an irish pub.

Up the street is an Italian deli, chinese and 2 japanese, etc.

We may not have a lot of variety in fast food, but Canada (Particularly in the major city centers) has long been known in the culinary culture to have an astounding level of variety.

Is this level of variety outside Canada unheard of to Canadians?

This seems like pretty much the norm for any of the larger cities here in Oregon (and even some of the smaller ones).