Okay. Here's some hype. And, to add some fuel to that fire, it appears I've got room for one more player with an extra pregen PC if anyone's interested. Anyone who reads this posting can sound off in the thread above, expressing interest in the game. Rather than first-come, first-serve, I'll go with the same method as last year. Do your best to convince me you should be the one I add to the game...and you just might make it in.
What is the etiquette for dropping something else for this? I had this as a 4, but did not get it in the lottery. I did get a 2, which is full also (20 of 20) and would hate to keep someone out if I did switch. Before I make a case for getting in, can someone help a newbie out now that trading is closed?
I am going to need the weekend to fully come up with the backstory, but I wanted get some discussion going or at least throw out some details for those of you who have signed up.
Choose a monster with CR of 4, 5, 6.
Add class levels of 6, 5, or 4 (so the total is 10).
Eight people are signed up, so we will run four matches roughly an hour apeice, this will give a little under an hour at the beginning to finish characters and match people up.
I had an instructor tell me that you can not play tennis without a net. He was talking about poetry of course, free form taking the craft out of the art. For this reason I was thinking to limit the choices of class. This is a game however. The number one rule is FUN.
If you think this will ruin your fun please speak up!
If you think this will enhance the challenge and the fun, please speak up!
If you are excited for Paizocon and my small part of it, please speak up!
Saturday
08:00 AM – 01:00 PM
Shades of Ice, Part 1: Written in Blood
I've never played PFS ever. From what I've gathered, you have to either bring a PFS character of the correct level range that you have actually leveled legally in actual PFS games OR you have to play one of the official PFS pre gen characters. Is that right?
Assuming so, I'm planning to just pick one of the official PFS pre gens at the start of each game. That's really my only option, right?
Thanks!
+1
Also, how do I know what level the event I signed up for is?
... I ask now of those that know they deserve this PC death and who know them, to pass to me their weakness and secrets so we can assure the death of their PCs!
My players were pretty upset at the financial limits on farshore. They did focus on that aspect quite a bit, even though I never said more than to increase Farshore's productivity work on X.
Their preparations in the outpost led to massive amounts of fabricate spells, cutting all the scripted fortifications to a day and half. After that I pretty much just ignored the points myself until the end. Oddly they planned to go from point C to point Z then to point A but as they actually did it pretty much followed the order the adventure was printed in. Vanthus got his shadowpearl off, but the mage was readying a globe of invulnerability in case the barbarian got into too much trouble. I let him make a reflex to change the target of the globe. A miles worth of madness contained in a tiny force sphere with only Vanthus for company. gave an A- on that one :)
EDIT: I really should read the OP more often, you are probably already done with this adventure.
...offer a certain games (or earlier lottery) to a select few: third consecutive paizocon, winners of last year's banquet quiz, those who need a passport to attend, etc. OK this is more an incentive than a better system, but it sounded cool.
We don't want first-time attendees to automatically have less fun than people who have been to the show before. I can see an argument for volunteers and GMs getting early picks, but I still think random draws help us provide the best experiences for the most people.
Thanks Vic.
EDIT: Oh and thanks (to you or whomever) for breaking the schedule into tabs for the different days. I was really struggling to recognize the days when I was scrolling back and forth :)
Under the current system, it seems like if you're running a game you end up with actually *less* chance of getting into the lottery events than otherwise
This is not so. The chance is the same, merely the possible selection is reduced. Unless you're completely blocked off for a day of course - but that wouldn't change by putting them in a different pool.
Having five hour events overlap each other does. Maybe that is the way it has to be to fit everything in in three days. Both my volunteer slots start at 8 am, and end at 1:00. The next slot of games starts at 12:00 (many of my 4s :) so I could not sign up for any of them. Because of the banquet on Saturday and the official end in the afternoon on Sunday, this only left me two gaming slots to even try for. Fortunately, there are a lot of seminars I wanted to attend at these times :)
Possible options?
1. less overlap in the gaming slots (if it is even realistic?)
2. sell tickets to certain games like you do the banquet: If James only has two gaming slots, sell tickets for one (for $0 or 'proceeds to Tsunami recovery' etc.)
3. offer a certain games (or earlier lottery) to a select few: third consecutive paizocon, winners of last year's banquet quiz, those who need a passport to attend, etc. OK this is more an incentive than a better system, but it sounded cool.
I like wow minis for their poses. Though technically Ruby and Tinker are gnomes they come close. Technically mages too, but that is how no-armor works :) You will have to rebase them for most battle mats however.
I'm sorry if this has been asked before, somewhere else, but for those of us running a PFS game, when do we get a copy of the module. I ran a couple last year, but I had already purchased the modules I ran. Now I'm running something that comes out after PaizoCon and would really like to read it and process it.
Again, I'm sorry if this has been asked and answered somewhere else, I just couldn't find it.
Thanks
I remember a week or so before being said, but I cannae find it now. Since the lottery does not close until next monday, and we are a go two weeks after that. Sorry that is only a half an answer :)
A thin, slimy material coats the inside of this dark green bottle. The glass stopper looks like a mushroom with spots of white on a long red cap.
Pouring the material (full round action) onto the body of a creature causes the corpse to bubble, hiss and dissolve into a thick viscous liquid which evaporates 1d4 rounds later. Emptying the bottle in this way on certain corpses causes three mushrooms to grow as the liquid evaporates. The mushrooms grow from the corpse of any creature with a natural poison attack, size small or larger, as long as it is poured within one minute of death. A harvested mushroom can be ingested by a poisoned individual to prevent any further effects by soaking the poison from the victim’s system. Eating the mushroom can also prevent an individual from becoming poisoned, but this protection lasts only for three rounds. The mushrooms do not cure damage caused by poison. Eating a mushroom is a move action, feeding a mushroom to an unconscious person is a full round action, harvesting each mushroom is a standard action. Harvested mushrooms last for one week and the liquid reforms in the bottle the day after the third mushroom disappears or is consumed.
Construction Requirements delay poison, purify food and drink; Cost 1000 gp
While the PFS events aren't included in the lottery I've added all of the volunteer information so the lottery will take into account your volunteer schedule and compare it to the master schedule of events. If you've volunteered to run an event you can check out your schedule via the GM/Events tab in the PFS section of the site.
The non-PFS game I am running does not show up on my schedule. Also it is scheduled until 1 (as Deidre pointed out) though the next set of things (including lots of my 4's :) begin at 12. Is that correct? I really will have room for a 5 hour lunch :)
Should I sign up or not for any of the cool stuff starting at noon?
Hmm, May already? This item's a little rushed, but here's my item for may:
Portrait of a Spy Aura faint divination, transmutation; CL 7th
Slot --; Price 20,000 gp; Weight 10 lbs.
Description
This large painting contains a tremendously detailed image of one particular individual, and it’s eyes seem to follow you. When created, a portrait of a spy is attuned to the particular individual in the painting only . At any time after the painting’s creation, the wearer can transfer his consciousness into the painting by concentrating on doing so as a standard action. While the wearer’s consciousness is so transferred, his original body is helpless, though it remains standing or sitting if it was doing so while the user activated the portrait. During this time, the painting animates with the user's consiousness, allowing the wearer to see and hear everything her image would be able to, and even speak aloud through or interact with items within the portrait itself.
When the wearer's consiousness leaves the portrait, the image returns to it's original state, regardless of the position or state the character's image was in. While the user's consiousness is transferred, she remains vaguely aware of her original body's state, but is unable to control it. She may return to her original body as a swift action.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, clairaudience/clairvoyance, enter image; Cost 10,000 gp
Nice Ronars! Dorian Gray was my first thought, even though that would be a very complicated item. This is one aspect of that, and therefore much more manageable.
Why an assassin's portrait? Presumeably to study the target. This is a complication though. The target would have to want a painting of the assassin. Or be tricked into the musuem where such a painting is displayed. or enter an established pre-determined by the assassin or maybe in the BBEG's waiting room (at which point I wonder why have the painting?) Mechanically I think this works, I think it is not an item most adventures can use (plot device is what I think SKR's rules called it. Baron: Honey? did you replace granpapa's portrait? Baroness: No dear. That red mantis outfit is much, much too garish for the throne-room. Though I do love they way his eyes follow you around the room. How are negotions going with the merchant's guild? An early Nick Logue PF module featured lots of creepy/animated art that might be worth locating for fine tuning.
I can see it working as one card in a CCG (or even a standard deck of cards) or some other way to get into a lot of different places. Most likely I think this would work as a minor word of recall, presuming I had my picture painted in front of a rack of cure serious wounds potions (depending on how you work the magic concern earlier :). Or as a teleporter who wanted to study any number of locations without having to get their themselves could send his portait on a world tour. An art theif could use it to case a joint, but he would have to get a Michaelangelo to make the painting for him.
A little plot device-ish, but a nice idea working here. O:)
hehe. Read this yesterday so while I was waiting for a prescription this morning, I am not sure how, but I found myself suddenly staring at toys looking for a bag of dinosaurs and bugs to cut and piece :)
Title: Bestiary Bash 2
System: Pathfinder
Short Description: Monsters with class levels duking it out in a tournament arena.
Number of Players (Min/Max): 4/min 8 or 10/max.
Character Level: 10-12 (with ECL)
Pregens Provided (yes/no): yes, but not required.
Maturity Rating: Everyone
Control the Heart Fountain of Scipio by controlling the board and all challengers. Had a ball last year so will do it again. :) You choose the monster, I will choose the class (suggestions welcome). I hope to add an element of terrain control and not straight brute force, but brute force is a lot of fun. Round robin or swiss tournament depending on numbers.
I still say that for the utility, this item is way overpriced and feels broken as a result. There are, if you search the PRD, 13 monsters that have swallow whole (counting engulf). They only start doing acid damage from level 15 and up.
The odds of fighting more than one of these creatures in *any* particular adventure is fairly low already. And, as half of them are lower CR than you could reasonably afford this - even if you do fight, say, a dire crocodile, a dire shark and a sea serpent in the same adventure, you're not going to have had this item until after the halfway point.
Agreed. Swallow hole was a lot more common in 3.5, which is where the idea started. I figure it works for an exercise though :)
Rewrite after taking your helpful suggestions into account:
Spoiler:
Gizzard’s Bane Scabbard Aura moderate enchantment, transmutation; CL 8th
Slot --; Price 23,040 gp; Weight 2 lbs.
Description
A monstrous face carved in the strangely polished stone scabbard appears to swallow whatever blade is placed inside. The scabbard resizes to fit any small, medium, or large bladed weapon. Attuning a weapon requires carrying it in the gizzard’s bane scabbard for 24 hours. To activate the scabbard, the attuned weapon must strike a creature one size larger than the wearer. When activated (free action as part of the attack) the scabbard whispers commands to the creature. If the creature fails a Will save (DC 18) it must attack the wearer with a series of specific attacks. First it must bite the wearer, then start a grab, and finally it must swallow the wearer. These actions take their normal time and the creature is unable to attempt any other action until successful. If the creature does not have the swallow whole ability, the domination ends after the bite attack (if it has no bite attack the save automatically succeeds.) While swallowed in this manner, the wearer gains resistance to acid 10 and DR 10/adamantine. The swallowed wearer may also wield the attuned weapon as if it were light. The scabbard only recognizes size, it cannot determine if a creature has a bite attack or the grab or swallow whole abilities. The scabbard can only affect one creature per day.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, dominate monster, energy resistance, mage hand, stoneskin; Cost 11,520 gp
(as far as it being a one time then resell item, keep in mind that 'any blade' includes the holy avenger you were already weilding :)
Gizzard Stone Scabbard Aura moderate enchantment, transmutation; CL 8th
Slot --; Price 98,000 gp; Weight 2 lbs.
Description
Carved from the ivory enamel of a dragon’s fang this scabbard resizes to fit any small, medium, or large bladed weapon. A weapon must be carried in the scabbard for 24 hours to become attuned to the gizzard stone scabbard. The wearer may activate the scabbard when the attuned weapon strikes a creature one size larger than the wearer. The scabbard begins whispering commands to the creature. If the creature fails a Will save (DC 18) it must attack the wearer with its bite attack and if successful start a grab, and finally swallow the wearer on its next available action. If the creature does not have the swallow whole ability, the domination ends after the bite attack (if it has no bite attack the save automatically succeeds.) While swallowed, the scabbard grants the wearer resistance to acid 10 and DR 10/adamantine. The swallowed wearer may also wield the attuned weapon as if it were light. The scabbard only recognizes size, it cannot determine if a creature has a bite attack or the grab or swallow whole abilities. The scabbard can only affect one creature per day.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, dominate monster, energy resistance, mage hand, stoneskin; Cost 49,000 gp
Spoiler:
swallow hole is not as popular in PF as it was in 3.5. Since this is based on a legacy weapon for my anti-dragon character I do not think it is strong enough for superstar. go ahead hit me :)
just a nit - 'made' is still passive in your correction (which is nevertheless an improvement). I think the improvement largely stems from putting 'this cape' adjacent to 'glistens' which strengthens the sentence.
hehe, good call. :) in which case this silk cape glistens... O:)
Sure, I'll start us off with one or two of my self-rejected items from this year. Maybe someone will come up with something awesome from their remains. No formatting, and minimal polish though.
This cape is typically made of fine silk, and glistens in the light with all the colors of the rainbow. In presence of dim light or better it sheds light as a torch, amplifying the light that falls across it into a shimmering spectrum of colors.
As a standard action, the wearer of the cape can transform it from a simple piece of fabric into interwoven beams of light. The cape may maintain this form for up to ten minutes each day, and extinguishing the cape is a swift action. This blazing light causes a distraction effect to all creatures in adjacent squares, and also prevents targets from looking directly at the wearer – preventing them from being flanked, and granting a +6 bonus to all saves versus gaze attacks while the cape is active. While the cape is active, it also sheds bright light in a 60ft radius.
Formatting. Typically made of silk, this cape glistens... (suggestion to correct active voice). simple torch effect, nice. Ten minutes a day is much more than most parties will spend in combat, meaning this is under-priced at 7k. If it functions only once per day, and that happens to be ten minutes, that is different, but it is unclear on time being consecutive. Simple piece of fabric or fine silk? define 'distraction' mechanically (dazed? blinded? fatigued? AC bonus? other?) what type of save bonus? can't be flanked is general, but you might be able to say adjacent enemies do not threaten a square except on their action, but that might be making it more complicated too. Last line should be sooner, and could be shortened to strengthen it :) My internal designer wants to add a laser-beam attack :)
Nice job Ronars, :) I will have one ready by this weekend.
Focus: The item should do one thing, and do it well. Unless a second effect is a side-effect, it's probably not needed. Focusing on one idea helps make it clear, and the clearer an idea is the easier it is to explain.
Flavor: The item should be exciting. I like flash and bang, but it's like Zack Snyder (director of Sucker Punch, Watchmen and 300), that's not the only way to make something awesome to see. One tight flavor element tied into the mechanics of the item and you're set.
Of course if the one thing is flavor, you can probably work in a few other effects, as a certain set of dryad leaves has shown. :)
Neil Spicer wrote:
Well, I should also say that I really liked your idea.
Thanks Neil, that means a lot. For what it is worth, the fact that you remembered my item from 2009 in one of these threads also means a lot. :) (Cerberus Collar :) I really look forward to a superstar workshop at paizocon (and would offer to run one myself if I had any sort of credentials to support it :)
Neil Spicer wrote:
an item that gets her in and out of "hot spots" by ...all while lighting up a path of smoke and flame to scorch everyone else along the way.
Interestingly this effect was tweaked from something else when one of my proof-readers commented that it was like Batman getting out of a scrape... :)
Do you really think it's possible to miss me here? :-)
A nat 1 is a miss right? I roll a lot of those.... :)
Thanks as always Neil. True Superstar work! I originally based this on fly (OK originally it used the first line of the fireball spell :). Trying to cover all various skill checks for both the wasp and the user, maneuverability ratings, attacks of opportunities, etc., while NOT repeating core text was very confusing. In simplifying it I switched to dimdoor. Oops :).
*...There's more flavor than crunch to this one. It's written fairly well. And, you can tell the designer is striving really hard to stand out. There are a lot of "cool effects" that they've injected into this thing. ...with an obscuring trail of smoke left behind...and a pillar of damaging flame at the end. ...
Hey Neil, I waited until some of the noise died down here, so if I missed you that is OK. If not I do not need an in-depth review but would appreciate the "summary" and "advice" bits you've offered. Also if you could expand the above bolded I would appreciate it. Or I will see you at PaizoCon :) Thanks!
Well as John pointed out the banner is gone and Sam has had a while to bask in his well-earned glory (congrats again :).
You may remember DankeSean's recommendation to write one good item every month so we will have some awesome stuff for next year. It worked too, carrying him to Top Four and he is one of the few people to have Top 32 twice (congrats again :)
So are you ready to put some items out for practice and critique? One a month is not so bad (spend the rest of the month writing PFS submissions :).
Spoiler:
If you do not want to tip your hand we could stay away from wondrous items--weapons, armor, rings, and potions are fair game, but all the other rules apply.
In response to critiques, try rewriting the item addressing questions and concerns. Every good writer is first a re-writer first :)
Do not put anything you want to actually submit here. This is for practice after all. :)
I stayed with my sister last year, and my nephew was intrigued by all my stories. He may be coming this year for the games, but would need something like this to get started. So +1 and pre-thanks for any who run such a game.
James I really appreciated your and Chris's feedback. Thanks so much for that! I think you had a lot more people at the seminar than actually turned in stories which I think even those not getting personal critique appreciated.
Workshop are favored for me over seminars, but I will attend every writing workshop and seminar that is offered. With so many authors I hope that means quite a few!
I think the line from the FAQ for each round's rules might be appropriate here: We at Paizo do not see these two as opposites (to paraphrase :)
That said in the one shot modules the niche is a good way to go from a marketing stand-point. It might draw in some people who otherwise do not buy stuff and a lot of RPGSS is about the marketability of the company. (I say a lot, but I only surmise that from the 'no child endangerment' and 'no vomit jokes' in SKR's advice threads :)
But in a proposal (as round 5 actually is) niche is not the way to go. Paizo needs X type of adventures here and Y type adventures there. Unless you know if they are here or there you will want to appeal to the broadest audience available. In the editing process, they will then (hopefully?) tell you which direction this needs to go for the finished project.
I will now have to compare Christine's, Neil's and Matt's proposals compared to the final products and see if this theory holds any water :) (and plan my next entry approprately :)
Way back in January I took the 32 and played my own RPGSS Fantasy.
Only one person that I predicted making it to top 4 made it to top four, so I should vote for Sean. (congratulations Sean :)
Of course two people I thought would stop at 32 made it to top 4 so perhaps I should be voting for Jerall or Sam. Sam edging Jerall for having won more of my votes in previous rounds. (Congratulations Jerrall and Sam :).
One of my top 16 picks made it to top 4 and he also collected the most of my votes through the months, so perhaps I should vote for Cody. (Congratulations Cody :)
but I made all those predictions before reading the final entries. Based on the entries for round four...
I was actually really impressed with the pitches this year. They may have been less gonzo than some previous years' submissions, but I really don't see that as a bad thing - quite the opposite; I felt that there was really great work done on fleshing out a cool concept, playing out a good story, trying something different.
Notice also that the most common (and cutting) criticism used to be "this is way too much material for a single module." We didn't have that this year - proposals are getting better, more professional, more ready for publication.
...
+1 I think some submissions lost my vote in the past because I could never work something so gonzo into my group. all these I think have place at my table. And +1 they do seem much tighter submissions.
With three points each for writing, fun to play, and understandable/cool map (playability being the tie breaker :) I had two ties for first and two for second. Fortunately that means I had an easy vote this round. :)
Zeitlen, The Black Mirror
Coffelt, Broken Crucible Foundry
Merback, Razorbreath Chasm
McKowen, The Rotting Kremlin
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