Gibbering Mouther

Daerthon's page

Goblin Squad Member. RPG Superstar 6 Season Dedicated Voter. Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber. *** Pathfinder Society GM. 81 posts (83 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 8 Organized Play characters. 1 alias.



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I'm happy to see how committed Paizo is to taking their rules off of the OGL and into the ORC. These upgrades have been made very quickly from a design point of view. The poor devs must be sleepwalking with all the hard work they've had to do getting these out so fast. :-)
I'm excited to see the new upgrades!


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Oozes also tend to be easy to hit. What you hit them with tends to make a huge difference in what happens, but hitting and even getting crits on them at low levels shouldn't be too difficult.
Try hitting them with something and if something bad happens, don't hit them with that again. I usually try to hit oozes with nearby goblins. Those pesky critters are always crawling about. And they make this satisfying sizzling sound as they hit most oozes.

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Fromper wrote:

In the Player Basics section of the Guide, the Purchasing Equipment section says that you can buy common items up to 2 levels above your current level. The Starting Wealth and Equipment section on the same page says that you can buy common items of your level or lower.

Unless this is supposed to be a limitation only one new PCs at character creation, these seem to be contradictory.

I'm glad this was brought up. It caused me some confusion as well. There should be some clarification on this.

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Character Creation wrote:

Ability Scores

Generate your Pathfinder Society character’s ability scores using the method detailed on page 20 of the Core Rulebook.

There are actually two methods to generate PFS character ability scores detailed on page 20 of the Core Rulebook.

For the sake of new players reading for the first time, you may want to clarify that PFS does not use the alternative method.

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I downloaded the pdf the same day that it hit my inbox, and reveled in your story the rest of that evening. It was glorious. You should seriously author more adventures.
I finally have something to take to Paizocon next year for you to sign!
Keep up the great work!

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm not sure how you added this feature, but if you could turn it off, or at least give me the option of turning it off and on, I would appreciate it!

Thanks!

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Of course all the comments in this thread are speculative without at least the information of what typical DCs are for each level. I'm personally excited about a tiered proficiency system that unlocks greater abilities and feat options the more proficient you are.
Without DCs to check them against though, we'll have to wait and see how the rest of the math in the system plays out before we can really understand the affect proficiency has on the system overall.
Cool tease though!

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Thank you for all your help and inspiration!

Good hunting in your future endeavors!

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Joey Virtue wrote:
Im sure the Sac Society Group is still recovering from ConQuest. I was looking at the site and it hasnt been updated, still looking for some society games starting in June cause I move to Loomis in May (looking to find a game group for weekly or bi weekly gaming)

Hey Joey,

I'm working on updating pathfinderfan.com with some pretty big changes, so until I get the changes up and running, I've been updating the warhorn site on a weekly basis instead of the two months or so that I usually post at one time.
If you have any scheduling questions or requests, don't hesitate to contact me. :-)

Have Fun!

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Following is my understanding of the issues that were brought up in the podcast.

MBM are trying to address a fundamental problem with the way that wealth has been distributed to characters in PFS to date. The system that we currently use was designed under the assumption that although there are high and low tiers of wealth distributed in each scenario, the amount of wealth for a character would average out because the expectation was that characters will play in both high and low tiers over the course of their adventuring careers in about even amounts. There would, of course, be occasional outliers that had too much or too little wealth for their level, but as a whole, PFS characters would maintain wealth somewhat comparable to the Character Wealth By Level chart in the Core Rulebook.

The fundamental flaw in the system is that players have too much of a choice as to whether they get more wealth. Players can far too often choose to play up (at greater risk), which causes the following problems:

  • There are too many characters that are overpowered because they consistently play up, giving them too much wealth for their level. That issue is exacerbated at higher levels (for instance, some Level 8 characters are actually as powerful as Level 9 or Level 10 characters should be due to their increased wealth).
  • It promotes a culture where groups of characters that have no business playing up are pressured into doing so. Remember that most of the time, the creatures and dangers in higher tiers are not just twice as powerful than the lower tiers, they are closer to four times as powerful.
  • The imbalance of too many characters that are overpowered cause players to complain that scenarios are too easy, forcing writers to design more deadly encounters. The overall problem is that the characters are too powerful, not that the scenarios are too easy. This is the case where you have an imbalance in the system directly causing power creep.

As the VC of an area where PFS is booming (yay!) I am responsible for organizing lots of games, and dealing with player complaints. I've run and played tons of scenarios. The experiences I've had in the past year support the assertions above that MBM were making. These are real, valid issues.

My opinion is that the changes they suggested in the podcast are elegant and effective. The solution they gave addresses the fundamental problem, which helps to solve all of the problems listed above, without the need for a new tracking system.

I've been following this thread most of the evening, and the only other viable option that I saw was the use of a chart like the Character Wealth by Level table to enforce wealth limits. While that would solve the problem as well, it requires additional tracking to be added to an already complex system. Also, as a player I don't like the idea of having to wait until I gain a level before gaining more gold (that's a minor quirk, but that's my opinion).

Most of the rest of the thread seems obsessed with options that don't fix the primary flaw. Remember, the problem isn't one of trying to get less powerful characters even with their overpowered buddies, the issue is trying to stop characters from becoming overpowered in the first place.

Even if I'm misunderstanding how offering more XP (and PP?) is supposedly helping to keep characters from becoming overpowered, it is still the antithesis of the very real problem of pressuring low level characters to play up. As an organizer, I see first hand that characters die way more often than players think they do, and more often than not, it's due to the party choosing to play up. I think that changing the system so that the only reason to play up is because you like the challenge will definitely help solve this problem.

Let me go through some other arguments that I've seen in the thread that are, in my opinion, misnomers.

'My character is being 'punished' because of the proposed changes.'
In reality, there has been a flaw in the system that has been allowing you to become overpowered over time. Correcting this flaw, and allowing your character to develop in a manner that is more in line with the game rules is not the same thing as punishing your character.

'I take more risk by playing high, so it is only fair that I should get more reward.'
This line of thinking is a trap. The amount of risk that you take has no correlation to whether or not your character was given the correct amount of wealth for her level.

'Having the option of gaining more wealth by playing high is what is balancing the fact that dying is so expensive.'
The system has the cost of paying for death (or afflictions, or curses, or other conditions) built into it without having to play high. Also, consistently playing in a tier appropriate to your level will keep you from dying as much.

'Having a pre-gen at the table or having to play one at all is not a viable solution.'
There are lots of reasons that people have to play pre-gens (not just to make a 4th), and with as many games that go off in my area there are plenty of people that have to play them. Far more often I hear that someone was grateful to have an option to play, or that they were glad someone sat down with Kyra at their table, then I do hearing people complain about how badly the table goes with a pre-gen there. In my experience pre-gens are a totally viable option. Even more so in an environment that isn't filled with characters that are overpowered because they have too much wealth.

'Organizing games will be more difficult because of these changes.'
The rules for which characters can play in which scenarios, and the rules GMs follow to determine which tier to run remain completely unchanged. The choices are all in the player's hands. If you're literally having a problem with players that will consistently drop just because of these wealth changes, please get a hold of the Venture Officer for your area, or come here to the boards to see how we can help. This issue should, in and of itself, not be causing lots of players to drop from games.

Once again, these are just my opinions, but I hope I bring some clarity to the discussion.

Edit: Changed spacing to make it more legible.

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

For those of you who missed it:

Last Saturday one of the local TV stations had a live interview with the convention owner of ConQuest Sacramento. He was so impressed with what we were doing in the PFS room, that he chose to showcase our room in the broadcast.
You can see VL Rich Flynn running a table on the right, VC Scott Yaeger from Reno running a game to the left, as well as my back to the far left as I discuss the virtues of Pathfinder with an off-screen mother who had brought her two sons to the convention to check out PFS.
Cool Stuff!

http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/8748553-the-return-of-the-conqu est/

Have Fun!

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
KestlerGunner wrote:

Great report!

The news team didn't attempt to 'other' roleplaying, they talked about how people could get involved and they presented the entire event in a very positive and fun manner. I like it a lot! :)

I agree. I am very happy with how everything was presented in such a fun and positive manner. I especially liked it when the news crew asked if it was easy to find someone to help you learn to play if you're a new player. :-)

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Last Saturday one of the local TV stations had a live interview with the convention owner of ConQuest Sacramento. He was so impressed with what we were doing in the PFS room, that he chose to showcase our room in the broadcast.
You can see VL Rich Flynn running a table on the right, VC Scott Yaeger from Reno running a game to the left, as well as my back to the far left as I discuss the virtues of Pathfinder with an off-screen mother who had brought her two sons to the convention to check out PFS.
Cool Stuff!

http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/8748553-the-return-of-the-conqu est/

Have Fun!

Brent Holtsberry
VC Sacramento

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Hey Everyone,

It is time for us to start cleaning up the warhorn site for ConQuest Sacramento in preparation for getting the PDFs out to our GMs. On Monday sometime I will be taking a look at the games that we have and removing some that have few or no people signed up for them.

We have the GenCon Special, a great gaming schedule, tons of experienced GMs as well as many new faces signed up to play from the local community. Not only do we have all of the Central California and Reno Venture Officers signed up to attend, but Mike Azzalino, Josh Archer, and the infamous Cherry Pie are going to be visiting us on Sunday! And we still have a few exciting surprises up our sleeve that we haven't announced yet. For all of the above reasons, this is going to be an event you don't want to miss.

I hating dropping games that people want to play, so please take a moment over the weekend to look at the schedule, and make sure to sign up for any you don't want to disappear!

The warhorn site for ConQuest Sacramento can be found here:
http://warhorn.net/conquestsac-2013-pfs/

The official ConQuest Sacramento site can be found here:
http://www.conquestsac.com/

Also, I wanted to announce that I am going to be running a GM 101 and ConQuest Sacramento GM meetup at Mage's Realm on Thursday March 28th at 6 PM. See pathfinderfan.com for more information.

As always if you have any questions, don't hesitate to post them to the yahoo groups, or send me an email. :-)

Have Fun!

Brent

Scarab Sages Dedicated Voter Season 6

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Woot! I finally saw mine!

I spent the better part of the past two days voting.

I was beginning to go nuts thinking about what could possibly have disqualified it. Nothing it turns out. :-)

Happy Hunting!

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Michael Azzolino wrote:

I'm pretty sure I can take any of my VL's in a 1 on 1 cage match...

I'll even post odds and cover the spread.

I'd pay good money to watch that event. Maybe we can get something set up for Kublacon? My money is on Rand... Oh wait, I guess he's not in this fight due to a technicality... :-)

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I've only got three things to say:
1. Donkey Rats
2. Tower Girls
3. Awesome

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to note that after the midnight deadline passed, I took into account the recommendations that were made from the community (there were only a small handful), made a few modifications to the schedule (I think I only changed four scenarios), and passed the torch onto the team member responsible for getting the schedule set up on the warhorn site in the form of an email to the Cincorate.

I hope looking into the process of creating the schedule for Pacificon can help many of you in your future endeavors.

Forever Yours,

Brent Holtsberry, Cincorate Piddlespot

Scarab Sages

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Hey Everyone,

My name is Brent Holtsberry. I'm in Sacramento trying to get some PFS action going and would like some advice.

Recently, Pathfinder Society play in Sacramento has mainly consisted of a few home games and the occasional Meetup game.

I'd like to get more public games going, so I've been working with a couple of the stores in the area, and arranged to have a weekly PFS night at each of the stores and a Monthly PFS games day at one of them.

There is a new local website to help facilitate communication for the PFS community here, and a Sacramento PFS group that has around 50 members which has been the primary means of communication for PFS play here the past few years.

I've gotten the games set up, posted their availability to the yahoo group and website, have a warhorn website people can sign up for the games on, as well as posted them here on Paizo (of course).

So now I'm looking for what to do next.

There are all kinds of things I could try, to get people to show up for games, and I'm looking to see if organizers from other areas have advice on what worked (and what didn't work) to get people to actually sign up and show up.

I don't necessarily expect tons of people to show up just out of the gate, but I'd hate to be in a position six months from now where the GMs still have to run a pre-gen themselves just to have most of the tables make.

And of course the long-term goal is the get PFS to consistently grow here over the next few years.

So any advice from you organizers out there?

Thanks for your help!

Brent (Daerthon)