Foxish's page

Got mine yesterday (Greenville, SC)...

2: (AKA the Main Reason): Once the PCs get halfway through the Adventure Path, they suddenly have access to spells like teleport, plane shift, sending, shadow walk, wind walk, and the like. Spells that, in one way or another, allow the PCs to easilly re-establish contact with the mainland and take away any sense of isolation. Therefore, a 20-level campaign about being stranded on a strange land either ends at 7th or 9th or 11th level (depending on what kind of spellcasters are in your group), has to be for non-spellcasters only (not an option for the magazine), or has to be set in some strange realm where these spells don't work (too much railroading).

A conspiracy plot would work great in this instance. The ship gets sabotaged, stranding the PCs in a hostile, uncharted land. The PCs must battle to survive, meanwhile learning the shipwreck was no accident. Once they return to the mainland, they must take action against the party responsible. For example, the BBEG/BBEW has successfully carried out a coup d'etat in the PCs absence, and the PCs must inspire a rebellion to restore the rightful government and defeat the BBEG/BBEW...

Here in Greenville, SC, I get my issues the second Saturday after the subscriber mailing date. Which is annoying for two reasons:

1) My best friend often orders issues from the Paizo shop the same day the subscriber issues mail. She receives hers within 5 days.

2) By the time I receive my issues, not a couple of days later, the thing appears on the newsstand. My girlfriend is also an employee of Barnes & Noble. She can pull the issue out of the Monday morning newsstand shipment, and I can have it a full 24 hours before the newsstand date. And with her employee discount, I'm only paying $4 an issue.

Not too long ago, someone proposed a third subscription option where for paying more on the subscription, a better shipping method can be employed. I'd like to put in my vote for such a service as having subscriptions isn't an advantage...

I've been drawn to Eberron for much the same reason as I'm drawn to Star Wars or Fading Suns, for examples. It isn't a setting that's limited to a single genre. FR and Greyhawk, I've found, work best for traditional fantasy games and don't lend themselves well to shifts in genre (FR as a Western; etc.). The two settings possess a very specific tone and deviations from that tone feel awkward and artificial.

Eberron, by contrast I feel, is somewhat more adaptable. I can run a Spagetti Western campaign one time, then High Adventure the next without the shift feeling foreign. In short, a single setting that accomodates the moods and styles of those at my table is definitely a prize...

I've played Basic, Expert, 1st Ed, 2nd Ed... up through 2 decades. You do not get to stroll in here and tell me that everything I remember loving is dead, dust, and buried just because the new parent Co. decided to run some contest and throw all thier money behind the new upstart winner. Using Eberron as the setting for the on-line world was a SLAP IN THE FACE to old time gamers, and this new setting that you love so much IS getting the lion's share of resources from Wizards already, so what are you complaining about? One of the things I LOVE about Paizo is the nod they give to those of us that have watched this game develop over 20 years (Morgan Ironwolf in April's Dragon comes to mind.... even if it appears the illustrator gave her a sex change operation). I love that feeling of connection. I love that feeling of history. And I love Paizo for nurturing it.

As one of those "old timers" (playing since '79), I have to say that I credit Eberron with restoring my interest in pre-fab settings. Prior, I felt D&D had gone stale and it was only through homebrew settings that the game remained exciting.

Regardless of my preferences though, it shouldn't be Paizo's business to arbitrarily show favoritism to any particular setting. Just because Greyhawk is the old standby and Eberron is the golden child, doesn't mean that the magazines should cater strictly to those. Put out a good mix of the best submissions as they always do. "I hate that setting so don't support it," isn't a valid argument. Nor is it an editor's job to determine quality based on how easy or difficult a piece is to convert. Conversion is a matter of a few moments thought and creativity; leave opinions of that sort to the gamers. If an adventure has a great story and exciting elements, publish it! Let the gamers at home figure how to make it work for them. If a segment of the readership is unwilling to do this, let them miss out. The game shouldn't be dumbed-down or exclusive because a few aren't willing to extend an effort to do for themselves...

I have no use for Eberron adventures. If the day comes that a new edition makes Eberron the core setting, that will be the day I don't convert to a new edition. Still, I don't begrudge the necessary evil that Dungeon will have to (for my purposes) "waste" some space on Eberron adventures, as I realize Dungeon has to cater to several groups of players, including those who like settings that do nothing for me. But certainly, it is the increase in Greyhawk content and content easily portable to Greyhawk that has prompted me to renew my Dungeon subscription and to once more subscribe to Dragon.

I can't say I understand this attitude. Although I drift between Eberron and settings of my own creation, I've never looked at FR, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, whathaveyou material as "waste." One DMs waste, is another's "Hey! Cool map!"...

I've never had any trouble converting generic or FR adventures to Eberron. It's much easier to add elements to an adventure than it is to take things out when doing a conversion.

As far as AoW in Eberron, my opinion since Day One has been that AoW has out-Eberron'd any Eberron adventures I've seen (whether in Dungeon or the WotC releases). How could you not look at Diamond Lake and not think "Spagetti Western?"

I do see the other side, however. Where Greyhawk and FR are straightforward fantasy worlds, Eberron, although a fantasy setting, was designed specifically to accommodate non-fantasy stories. So, yes, it can be problematic to give an FR adventure a noirish detective flavor, for example, if that adventure was never intended to be such; the workload involved in changing NPC motives, altering the plot and so forth can be frustrating. It's not impossible though...

I've experimented with a number of house rules in this area. One is that I never allow a class to have less than 6 + Int mod for skill points.
Second, the class skills list is merely a suggestion on common skills employed by that class. Using that list, I allow my players to tailor their class skills based on the character's background. Obviously, the resume of a fighter from a noble background is going to be very different than a fighter who was once a professional soldier; this should be reflected in the skill list.
Third, and most successful, eliminate class skills/cross-class skills altogether. I've always found it odd that according to the rules as written, adventurers can spend their lives traveling the wilderness, engaging in combat and encountering exotic cultures, yet Survive, Heal and Speak Language are outside most classes' sphere of abilities. Makes no sense...

One thing I'd like to see from AP3 is the PCs spending more time in adventure locales. I haven't enjoyed about Age of Worms that characters don't become as familiar or attached with Diamond Lake or the Free City, as Shackled City characters did with Cauldron. There is too much of a splash-and-dash quality to AoW. Maybe a toning down of the travel; having PCs participate in a good number of adventures in or around a locale before moving on to the next site?...

On an unrelated note, when are Spellweavers going to move to the front and become the main villains? They've been in the background of the APs so far. Isn't it about time they pushed to reestablish their empire? Or is that something for AP4 or AP5?...