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Posts
 Recent Posts
Personally I think chaotic nice is a reasonable compromise, maybe neutral nice. :)
So from my point of view as a spectator (and sometime contributor, but at the fringes), it's great. People slow down to watch car wrecks too. Doesn't make it an activity that should be encouraged, though. For every gem that comes up on the threads that devolve into bickering, the amount of dross to be waded through is stupendous. Its not worth it. I pity Jason if he is actually bothering to. Edit: Sorry if it double posts. Darn PostMonster!
Now that guy, is a Gamer! Great story. And a great line. My high school group had a similar end. We got back together about a year after finishing high school. Some were off in different universities, some were out working, but one last night we managed to get together and roll some dice. White Plume Mountain. Got to the Giant Crabs, characters squared off against them, ready to do battle, and... we ended. Never got together again. I picture those characters still standing there, ready to go at it even after all this time. Maybe someday...
Gamers do love their brew. Locally, we have Oktoberfest coming up, and while in general it is quantity that garners the most attention this time of year, it does start to whet my appetite to try some brews I haven't before.
Hey we have a ski resort named after you! Well, more of a ski hill, or a mound, or...
I'd like to see more flexibility in all aspects of favoured enemy. I don't like to whine about it, 'cause I've mentioned this in other threads on the ranger already... but who am I kidding, I'm gonna whine. Flexibility in favoured enemy whether its in dispersal of bonuses, or more importantly to me, the ability to change your favoured enemies, is an important part of keeping the ranger invested into a campaign plot that may have changed drastically since the beginning. A great example is Harsk in COTC. Yes, his favoured enemy: giants is great for his character and fuel for roleplaying, but also raises the question, if giants are his main enemy, why is he sticking around in Korvosa? There is precedent in PHB2 to use time/money to change out class features, and I think this would be a valuable option to increase the range of rangers :)
Ok, might be a little dated, but I'm adding to my list: Had the chance to try mead for the first time. I know technically its probably not a beer, but it was a pub with a microbrewery on the back brewing their own stuff so I'm counting it as one. Apparently they brew up a batch once a summer. Anyway, it was interesting, Lion's Mead (might have been Lion's Head Mead - it was a long night). I think its an acquired taste, but cool to drink something I've ordered "in game" so often.
You also have the University of Waterloo, which is a well-respected university. True. I forgot Oktoberfest too, which is well-respected beer drinking. :)
Our biggest claim to fame in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada is being the home of the Blackberry. We were voted the world's Most Intelligent Community by the ICF in 2007. Prior to this, we also figured prominently in a financing scam for RIM Park development that was supposed to be $112 million over 30 years but really was over $227 million. Apparently our treasurer and city leaders had a problem with math. Go figure :/
No offense to the OP, but seriously, no thanks. I came here 4 years ago after dipping my toes into the WOTC boards and pulling them back with CharOp stuff stuck to them. I know some people find it an interesting side hobby to their RPG'ing, but not what I want to see for Paizo or Pathfinder culture.
Fixed link.
Good to know. Thanks! Hmmm... Can I stand to wait that long if you do another printing? Nope. And realistically, my nerves wouldn't handle the chance I might miss it entire, so... to the Paizo Store! I'll reward the FLGS with a Paizo purchase another time. Thing that bugs me about that second store I mentioned, is the behind the counter thing hurts the Pathfinder brand. I think one of the strongest selling features for your products is the immediately apparent quality when flipping through them. Since that store keeps it behind a counter, you lose the casual shopper who can't randomly pick up a product and think, "wow this is good". I'll have to ask them next time why the setup; must have been some pretty bad mojo in the past.
Only two FLGS's left in town. One changed owners and is focussed almost exclusively on Warhammer stuff. He'll order in stuff you request and keeps a very small amount of new WOTC and Exalted books in stock: still has a bunch of old 3.0/3.5 stock from the previous owner. Doesn't keep Pathfinder on the shelf though. Second place is well diversified. Big. Looks like its doing reasonably well. Lots of board games (one day I gave up counting the various versions of Monopoly at 50), hobby shop stuff (model trains etc.), Warhammer, and even Webkinz! No Bella Sara, though :(
Anyway, second place stocks the Pathfinder AP's, looks to have the complete 1st AP and part of the 2nd. I asked about Pathfinder RPG Beta and guy said it was sold out, he knew Paizo had sold out completely at GenCon, and he'd had "lots" of people asking for it in the store. He said Paizo would "have to" do another printing, and I didn't have the heart to tell him Erik Mona didn't sound optimistic about that in another thread. He was enthusiastic about Pathfinder RPG and that was pretty neat to see.
It may help to remember that the product subscriptions are not like magazine subscriptions that include a discount on the price. The only "financial" advantage to subscribing is the bonus pdf - or flipside, a bonus print product with your pdf subscription :) I assume the advantage to Paizo is some slight increased predictability in how many copies they will sell. I understand how you feel - I buy the Chronicles line separately and every once in a while get this "gak, no pdf!" feeling. It's human nature to covet what someone else gets for "free", but we should try not to :) Edit: Congrats Paizo on how well this is selling at GenCon, but for gosh sakes save some copies for those of us who couldn't go!!
I've given up on predicting when Canadian shipments arrive, but I usually assume around the six week mark following the email notice. Like armac, big surprise this month - #10 came Monday, and then #11 came Wednesday. All of a sudden, I feel swamped!
You're right. If I think about it, I'm not a loyal fanbase to 3.5. I bought just about every WOTC book for it and 3.0 except for a few (and some of the recent stock at used bookstores has helped fill holes). But in my heart, I really only consider 1e AD&D to be "the real" D&D, and everything since (2, 3.0, 3.5, 4) to be its children (Yes I played Basic from the Blue book first but most of my adolescence was with 1e. Whoah! Flashback to the Forum in Dragon, too many arguments Basic vs. AD&D!). The link does keep me fond of all the kids. If I'm a loyal fanbase to anything in this world though, it's Paizo. When they took over Dragon and Dungeon, they kept the 1e feel alive and I still feel that in their design of Golarion. I think one of the futures of D&D is in good hands with them.
LOL. I had this image in my head as I read your statement of a group of sweaty gamers, down in the basement, finishing up a 5 year campaign by reaching 30th level, jumping up and down, hugging each other and saying "We finally won, now we can go back to playing on XBox!" :) Can't say I agree with you on this one. I've never put much stock in the "opinion" that is included in the rules write up, and while I remember the passage you're talking about re: winning in 4e, my take on it was different probably owing to a different impression of the context. I do recall thinking "They can't make me stop if I want to go to level 32", though.
...Us old timers... Not to discount your hopes, I think you'll find most of the outspoken 4e supporters here are old-timers who have either been here all along or migrated from "younger-majority" boards to be around people their age (obviously a horrible generalization itself but there you go). An example, me=old timer of ~29 years. Open to 4e, fan of Pathfinder, still like playing older editions. Don't think of myself as a "fan boy", don't really think of myself as a "boy" anymore, period. Like I said, I don't want to discount your hopes and I share your overall hopes for Pathfinder, but basing your argument on "old timers" in this forum weakens it a bit.
My second point is that Harry Potter is, at its core, definitely NOT a camp-inspired action fest. It's on the "average joe becoming a hero" side of things, since we are seeing the wizarding world from Harry's point of view. He may be called "special" by everybody he encounters, but he is, for the reader and himself at least, the most mundane guy you come around while reading the books. True. But Harry isn't operating in the milieu that I would describe as "classical" fantasy. My "classical" is a product of Howard, Tolkien, Leiber, etc., and then the late 70's early 80's fantasy novels created to feed demand created by D&D. I agree with your characterization of Harry (and I can't remember the name writers use for that Role, oh well, someone will pop up with it). My impression is that it is Harry's setting, however, that is changing what younger generations recognize as being "classical". Hogwart's is "classical" to them. The roles and characters are the same, but they're operating in different terrain. And overall that's changing the landscape of the game.
I agree with your overall goal of reducing trolling and the predictable counter-responses. I guess that I tend to lump FabesMini into the "Comic Threadjacking"-type group recently discussed elsewhere rather than trolling. Reviewing my post, I find I don't like the tone I used, and blame it on frustration towards the whole issue. My apologies.
Wow. Pretty young to get into Furry. Where does one go from there? Actually, don't answer that, I'm pretty straight-laced, and tales of your adolescence might be too much for me. :) I don't know what that word means, and I'm going to try very hard never to learn. (Though it does roll of the tongue in a very mysterious, almost hypnotic way...)
Interesting statement. But my impression is that Harry Potter, books and films, made the genre "cool" to multiple age groups, whereas LOTR (the film) reinvigorated the genre in older generations that had read the books and moved on. LOTR (the film) also introduced the story to a younger Harry Potter-generation that has never, and may never, read the LOTR books. From purely anecdotal evidence, the younger crowd seems to be more reluctant to read through LOTR, and their sense of fantasy is driven more by Harry and the numerous young adult fantasy series that have attached themselves to his coattails. I believe it does represent a shift in what the "core" of fantasy is, and part of that shift does seem to be represented in 4e.
Aww... What a cute little horsie! I also look forward to more details in your review of the website gameplay. Will it be better than Webkinz? Are there lots of options to decorate your rooms? Can you put ribbons on your horses? I've got a 5 year old and a 7 year old who may really like to play this. So, get crackin' Sebastian; we need to know!
Sometimes I'm reading these threads, and I get feeling sorry for the people on both sides of 3.5e/4e who are so unhappy. I've had a great time with 3.5; I've still got product I've never gotten around to using; and I'm likely to get more with the OGL sales that keep popping up (picked up all the Thieves World stuff for a song)! The AP's are pure gold. Pathfinder RPG is reinvigorating my interest in the basics of 3.5 and with the quality of Paizo's stuff, I know we're in for a good time. I picked up the 4e books and from what I've read, it sounds like a fun game. I probably won't DM it, but I look forward to playing and discussing it on the boards. I've never done a pbp, but maybe 4e will be the way I give it a go. We recently dug up our old characters from a 1ed campaign last played about 18 years ago and started running White Plume Mountain, which we had never gotten around to doing before. Fantastic! While getting ready for that, I was digging through old boxes of supplies and found a pristine copy of The Scarlet Brotherhood, a Greyhawk supplement that I got at a store closing sale about 3 years ago and forgot about in a move. Its like new Greyhawk stuff was published for me!! There are so many options right now. My gaming time is more limited, but I'm happier with D&D and the choices I have than ever before. Well, except for the mags. That gets a tear. But otherwise... WOOT!
I'm not optimistic about how this will turn out. I've never been a big fan of WotC material outside of the core rules. Seems to me 3PPs were doing better work (the good ones anyway). Paizo does set the bar pretty high. WOTC might have been better off not describing it as an Adventure Path to minimize comparisons.
A roommate from university went on a student exchange to Scotland for 4 months. When he came back, he had a subtle scottish accent. He didn't notice it. I think some people are more "plastic" in the biological sense, ie. they adapt better/faster to their environment than others, and this fellow had many qualities that seemed to go along with that. Within 3 weeks of being back, the accent was gone.
A newbie wouldn't know what a monk was about, would he? I would think that, for the most part, only people with experience from previous editions (or other games) that had monks would care about being able to play monks in 4E. Exactly. Someone from other editions/games is going to have the experience to describe how their choice of powers, feats and trained skills makes their character a monk rather than a ranger. Alternatively, you could build the monk and give it to the newbie to play and how would he know there was any difference from previous editions?
If we agree that one of the goals of 4e is to have more balance between the classes, then I would suggest some uniformity among all powers of a certain level is necessary. Even desirable - I hope that there is a "standard" by which each power is judged at each level to help prevent power creep with future splatbooks. It took me a while to wade through all the powers, and my sense was that each level, particularly within a class, had a "base" damage of so many die of damage against a single opponent, and then each modification of the power (ie burst, secondary target, push/pull etc. ) "cost" a certain number of dies of damage. (Not sure if I'm getting across what I mean). If they didn't do that, its unfortunate and the potential for future abuses is higher. In 3.5, a difficulty in creating a new spell was judging (or at least coming to agreement with the player creating it) what level it was. Trying to compare class features can be even more difficult. So far, by standardizing the options 4e seems to have given an easier way of directly comparing what each class offers. Clearly, some classes excel in certain areas aimed at fulfilling their roles, though. I have trouble understanding the difficulty people have with changing the flavour in order to play a different class. I remember when a suggestion for differentiating a 3.5 necromancer from another wizard was to describe their magic missile as "mini-skulls". Sounds a little silly but the underlying idea was that a first level spell will cause so much damage, the actual description of how that damage is caused is really up to us. Take the fishmonger example above, if I describe "Fresh Fish Call" as "The scent of the sea and its creatures clings to you, creating an irresistible hunger in one target and distracting it from your allies, allowing you to mark it until the end of your next turn. While marked, the target takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls for any attack that does not include you as a target", I would hope that the player would roleplay it differently then Combat Challenge. I think it feels different despite causing the same effect. Maybe we'll need to agree to disagree here, but I maintain its the roleplaying that makes a character, and not the mechanics of what rolls you make in combat. I do agree that when the actual classes come out and there are different mechanics, it will be an improvement. Until then, if I have someone who really wants to play a monk, I would rather give him some way to do that then just say "no".
This is a fantastic description of the setting - it would make a good back cover copy! If a DM tried to sell me on starting a campaign with this, I would be drooling to play. Obviously, to each his own, but what you describe gets my rebel backside up and leaves me aching to jump a Legate. In other words, playing the underdog, even a hopeless underdog, has appeal to some people. Someone of more philosophical bent could probably describe it better, but there is something liberating in complete hopelessness. Having just bought the DVD set for Angel, the series finale is a good example of a similar scenario, and how heroes may respond.
This announcement made me go and hunt down Red Hand of Doom. It truly is an excellent adventure. It reminded me that James Jacob was an author of Red Hand of Doom, so when I saw the last copy at my FLGS, I snapped it up (despite the Delve format). Now if I could just get James to come up to Canada to sign my copy... :)
Actually, the term adventure path was being used to describe some Star Wars adventures and some D&D adventures prior to what we now think of as "real" Adventure Paths. The following quote from Vic talks about it in this thread:
So the term was in use at least a year on the web before Shackled City, but Shackled City really created the "brand" and the inherent sense of quality I think is now associated with the term.
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