Elorebaen's page

Thanks for the review, End. I will be picking this up sometime next month. Side note, based on RS's quality and End and DM's reviews I purchased both random woodland encounters and what's the npc like anyway. I figured everyone involved should know.

Cheers!

Sounds great. I really think the GM 101 workshop should be spiffed up and placed in the PFS section of the site. The better the GMs the better the experience for everyone.

Thank you for the updates!

Small subsystems are OK, but campaign-spanning ones seldom work, due to the sheer amount of variables that the players can bring to a table.

The caravan rules in JR were really misplaced. For all the buzz and space taken in player's guide we got:

Adventure 1: Not really much use of them, but that's understandable.
Adventure 2: So yeah you get from point A to B and that's it.
Adventure 3: The Great Caravan Rules Story
Adventure 4: See adventure 2, and even less so.
Adventure 5: "Well this is about time you should forget about the caravan altogether".

"Mini-games" are great if they're about things such as earning respect from hostile locals, surviving stranded on an island, running a play/trial, chasing across rooftops or playing a game of wicked bloodsports, all tied to one specific adventure but open-ended enough for an enterprising GM to use in his own games. In all above examples, those mini-systems worked great.

I sort of agree, though I would say that campaign-spanning subsystems are cool as long as they are fully integrated into the campaign.

Thank you for sharing!!

Definitely looking forward to this one!

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

It's impossible to write a rule so clearly that everyone will understand it.

The problem seems to be that the first time a new rule appears it is in the permanent medium (print) then subsequently errors are fixed in the malleable one (web). That's backwards. The first version should be in the soft form and the final version in the hard one.

Maybe have a section of the website for potential new rules, spells, feats, magic items, etc, that are being considered for publication and have the public comment on them. Include a simple voting mechanism for each and when the votes meet a threshold the item becomes a paper publishing candidate for a future book. It could be done both on a micro level (feat, spell, monster ability, etc) or on a macro level (caravan rules, trust point rules, etc).

If an item doesn't get enough votes it never sees print. This could be for lack of interest or for technical problems, but either way it works. You don't want to print something no one wants or something that no one can agree on how it should work. In the interim any other Paizo publications only use rules already in print.

This doesn't help existing problems but it could reduce future ones.

Eek. If products had to wait on a bunch of gamers who are not professional developers to see the light of day, we would never see anything =) Maybe for some things a playtest period works out, which we have seen, but I just do not see how that could feasibly be the SOP.

Great story. Deliciously dark. Give me a dark Golarion over nice Golarion any day.

Thanks for the update and have a great vacation.

Out of all the blogs, this one has me the most excited about the design plan. I would like to offer some critical comments, but, honestly, it is right on the money. Now, just build it with those specs and we are good! =)

Both the interconnectedness and the random/persistence ideas have me excited.

Arnwyn wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

We've tried a couple of times to shift adventures away from being obviously set in Golarion, and the results were less than satisfying.

I'm not really sure what "the results were less than satisfying" really means, but I'm curious what those were...

What I do know is that the APs that were too Golarion (and yes, there is very much such a thing) were the stinkiest APs that Paizo put out (SD and CoT, I'm looking at you), so maybe a middle ground would be great for everyone (as the best Paizo APs have clearly shown can be done - RotRL, CotCT, even LoF and KM).

Beware the Midnight problem and its fate - make an overly niche-y setting, and watch it dwindle away to death as it is supported by an ever-reducing number of wacko fanboys only.

"Results less than satisfying" basically means one of two things.

1) The fact that we created cool new elements and continuity but did not anchor it to Golarion well made it difficult in years to come for various reasons to work that continuity into the world in future products—for example, this is why information on the Shory civilization may have felt "tacked on" to the world for a time.

2) By exploring themes and ideas in non-Golarion-specific areas, we were diverting resources away from expanding our campaign setting and, in a way, were competing against ourselves. This was especially frustrating in cases where we did things that, in hindsight, could not fit into the world of Golarion as we had been expanding and detailing it in other lines.

I like to think that we've learned from some of our mis-steps in the Adventure Paths, in any event—I don't think those missteps suffered from making things TOO Golarion, though, but from perhaps using authors who weren't the best suited for adventure path content, or as an unavoidable result of the chaos one gets when you switch a game edition, or simply as a mis-reading of the audience's perceived interest in a certain topic. Or simple errors in...

I hope we see more and more integration with Golarion in the APs. =)

Thank you for the update. I am especially glad that module-play has been brought more in line with typical play.

I like the writing and the characters are believable. Kudos!

Sooo ... about dropping fiction out of APs? Now that we have a fiction line, weekly blog fiction and stuff...

*Gorbacz's hopeless post on the matter, episode 352*

*whacks Gorbacz* Snap out of it man! Besides, there is a ton of GM resources in the AP fiction. =)

Cool deal. I'm thinking we are going to be seeing some Magnimar lovin' in the year ahead.

Cool adventure, in an interesting and new locale. I'm not sure I get the two ultra-negative reviews as the AP is billed as a road-trip, so I'm not sure how you can pan it for being what it is.

btw, who did the art in the Crown of the World article? Whomever that is, throw money at them and keep using them, because those pieces are AMAZING!!!

I love that you guys are embracing the idea of risk! Too many present MMO's have significantly removed serious risk from their game design, which has led to a kind of flat atmosphere.

I can see serious quests around finding one's husk. I also, think the bounty and marshal systems sounds really promising. Keep it coming!

I don't think so, though it really does depend on the idea. I think the main thing is that it is not needed.

Yet again, quality product plus quality review has made me decide to purchase! Thank you RS and End.

Definitely looks cool!

Congrats all! It is great to see PFS continue to grow.

I am pretty sure this has been touched on above, but one of the reasons experienced companies like Paizo hire the people they do is because those people have a sense and experience for what works and what doesn't. Professionals gain an intuitive sense over time, and as such, I would expect that they would not need to playtest everything. Moreover, as has been mentioned, the value of playtesting is quite variable.

I am using http://paizo.com/paizo/blog&xml=atom and the entries will not load. I am using a Google Gadget on a Google Site. Seems pretty straight forward, just not sure why the entries are not loading.

Anybody tried obtaining the Paizo feeds through Google Sites?

Thanks.

Thanks Gary!

Hello,

How would I go about showing the RSS feed on my own website? I have a gadget that will show the feed's entries, but I do not know what url to use for the Blog, Store, News, and Messageboards.

Help!

Thanks!

I do not think the design philosophy of the APs needs to change.

There will always be ways to tweak the particulars to be better. But notice, that is precisely what we have seen. As long as we keep seeing rich and new campaigns, and ongoing interest in addressing common concerns that pop-up with APs I think we are good.

Added discussion thread for Goblinworks Blog: Your Pathfinder Online Character.

Thank you for the head's up. Side note, I signed up for the newsletter, and received an e-mail for the first blog, but have not received an e-mail since then. Is a blog notification being sent out?

Thank you for the head's up!

Heck yea! Definitely a must buy.

The reviews(thanks reviewers!) helped me make up my mind. I have placed it in my cart for the next purchase.

Well-written and interesting story! Additionally, I think this is a stellar example of how to bring a setting to life. All of the Golarion elements felt natural, and it gave me a feel for the atmosphere. Spot on!

Awesome job to all contributors! Special thanks to Jon R for the Great Hunt goodness.

Welcome aboard!

For roleplaying to be fostered it must be meaningful. In order to make it meaningful, it must be a means to end, and it should be integrated from the get go. Otherwise it will always be just something on the side, and will barely, if at all, contribute to the overall atmosphere.

Animations, filters, etc are symptoms of what has become a near complete annihilation of the importance of roleplaying that has become the norm for MMORPGs for about the last 10 years. While they are useful, they do not do much to make roleplaying meaningful.

The question is, is roleplaying meaningful for PFO?

This is a good idea. We've actually been doing this in some stat blocks here and there, but haven't been very consistent about it. I'll see if we can't get MORE consistent in the future.

Thank you!

I suggest that all of the PCs should be natives of Sandpoint. In fact, I think it would be really useful to run some pre-Burnt Offering session(s) to help build the connection Sandpoint.

I posit the NPC gallery isn't for typical NPCs of their station, but interesting ones. I don't need stats for a commoner 1 beggar. AC 10, HP 4 will suffice. I need stats for when I want a beggar that is important.

This.

Louis,

Thank you for the update! I think you are doing a great thing here, and you should know it is much appreciated.

I noticed that RC was conspicuously left out of the discussion. Damn, I really hope that comes to light.

kudos to you sir!!

This sounds ultra-cool!

Very cool!

As written it can take a bit of work for a GM, though that will of course depend on your players. Note, there is quite a bit of supplemental material within the SD forum that can help.

With that said, if the party starts off as a) elven, and b) fledgling members of Shin'Rakorath it makes the whole AP easier to run as written.

Ralantar is right, so I'll just add a couple things.

My group has been using Maptool + Skype for the last 4 years and it has been awesome. As R mentioned, you have to adapt to some elements of the medium, but that is really no different than face-to-face.

As long as everyone is onboard with the plan, you should have a great experience. There is no reason specific to the medium that should cause RP to drop-off.

Best.

The people and, especially, the guilds chosen for early entry will have a huge impact on the spirit of the game. Choose wisely. My vote would be for those who are interested in Golarion and roleplaying.

fricking AWESOME!

Sort of a side note, but it would be wonderful if Paizo were to offer an AP dramatis personae, which would make these sorts of things a lot easier for GMs.

Total awesomeness!

I also think it is important for players to realize that because an option is not available doesn't mean that the GM is trying to railroad them. Just as a GM will try to present world/story elements in the most logical way, while integrating player ideas.

Contrary to all calenders that state otherwise, THIS is Friday.

The file for ST 11 is now checked and verified as the correct one at FGG's download service. Those who ordered directly from FGG may now dl the new file.

Sorry for the long delay! Holidays play merrily with troubleshooting timelines.
We thank you all for your patience!

Thank you for the head's up!

I really like these ideas, and I appreciate bringing the sanctioned module rules in line with the normal rules.

I do think that the available pre-gens will need to be increased, and probably made more "robust."

These look GREAT!