Greg Volz's page

The AP mentions the Council of Thieves Gamemaster's Guide pdf - is this somewhere on the site?

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Games.

I ran Frozen Fingers and The Hydra's Fang at GenCon. When I get home I'll clean up the maps I made for both of those and post as well. I thought I might as well share:)

As for Dundjinni - it's a great program but what really makes it work is the fan art that you can pull down and use (like the cliff overlays).

I've recently had to reinstall so I'm going through all my custom art and re-adding pieces as I go. It'll take a while but then I can get back on track and start redoing all the maps in the AP's.

Later,

Greg Volz

All,

I ran Silent Tide last week at a Meetup.com event. I've made some maps for the encounter areas (they were done quickly but they should work for just about anyone)

Go to:
Cliff side Map 3.2 MB

Granary Map 4.2 MB

I'm redoing the last maps and will post later this weekend.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

Meh - I find this cartoon no more ridiculous than Apple comparing cool-looking Apple users to nerdy PC users.

As normal the West Coast brand of marketing is full of itself. I think it's indicative of the latest bunch of WotC staffers that they pulled from outside the gaming element.

According to the credits Chris Perkins is listed as the kobold wrangler. He's more funny than this cartoon.

Charlie and the Candy Mountain is a better video than this:)

Or the warforged could be the children of the Mithril Golem who's divine essence animated some of the pieces left over from it's sacrifice.

Heck - there could even be a pilgrimage held each year and the characters could hire on as guards to protect the pilgrims or non-warlike women/children warforged.

Later,

Greg V.

The Warforged can be a project by the Salacerians or that Titan that was made of molten metal. He's the only one who couldn't spawn rat people. Anyways the War Forges kept running and the WarForged started to come out looking for materials and possibly a life.

I'll be right behind you. I've liked what I've seen I just wait until the end of the month when the PDF version is compiled, print it out on the color laser jet and put it in bathroo...err...reading room like my old Dungeon & Dragon mags:)

Darn I was enjoying the freebies.

**Grabs wallet and sighs**

Scarred Lands - the Sword & Sorcery Imprint are bringing back 4e versions of The Creature Collection and Relics & Rituals - http://www.fierydragon.com/ -

I don't know any specifics yet but that will be AWESOME. Nothing says "points of light" like The Scarred Lands!

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

I'm going to have to hang-out here more. I miss all the good threads. On a serious note - this is a 4e forum correct? Am I to assume that this fori also attracts 4e detractors who are "haters"?

crosswiredmind wrote:

pres man wrote:

If there are not at least a half dozen well identified individuals who are causing problems then you have no reason to complain.

LOL

I think that is a problem if even one person is doing stuff like this. It would be worse if more people were doing it, but just because few people are doing it doesn't make it fine.

However, I wouldn't really call it something prevalent on the boards if it is only a minority of people doing it.

I ran Hydra's Fang (for a table of 4) on Saturday and then ran Frozen Fingers (for a table of 6). The mods were great and each had it's own particular mood/feeling as well. The characters all really played their factions well and the faction missions meshed well with both stories.

All-in-all a well organized event. A kudos to Paizo again for starting this up.

Thanks,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

If you play at a convention you're expected to have your character on the standard Pathfinder Society sheet. It makes the job as a DM much easier when you review the characters for things that may cause you to investigate further. Plus there's documentation that the DM has to do and it makes his/her job much easier to validate the player number, faction, etc vs. looking at a custom sheet.

For home games it would matter what you used but when you've got a limited time to run the event, finishe the paper work and move the group onto the next event it makes a world of difference.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
Pathfinder# 1987

There's nothing stopping you from recording the skill points next to the language in the languages section. Or of writing in at the bottom of the skill list the extra points you put into languages.

Also, I haven't seen anything that states you HAVE to use the character sheet provided. I just used the excel based on I typically used and added a few fields for faction, PFS #, etc.

I bought mine on Thursday afternoon and they were literally being grabbed off the shelves at a breakneck pace. It was good to hold the book in my hands and start to go over it. It's not perfect but damn is it nice to have something to page through.

I ran two adventures today (Hydra's Fang and Frozen Fingers) and it was close. Two very good tables with excellent tactics made it through. The first table was rather magic lite but still packed a wallop. The second table had a specialized chain fighter (gasp) who didn't own the table...much:).

This sounds exactly like Winter Fantasy circa 1994/95 at the Hyatt in Milwaukee...were you there:)

And you can engage in all your normal swinish gaming behavior -- like snacking and beer swilling -- without disturbing the folks at the Diplomacy table.

But of course - that's what I'm talking about. If I can get it done quick enough I'll print out multiple copies and bring them along for anyone to use.

I tend to put mine under a flexible transparent cover (think clear battlemat) so I can use vis-a-vis markers on it.

Greg Volz wrote:

Roger that. In regards to battlemaps if we get the adventures early enough is it alright if I make color maps with Dundjinni?

Yes, as long as you're using them for personal use only and are just rebuilding them in Dundjinni. (And by personal use, I mean using them to GM PFS events.)

A slot zero is a game run before a convention or game day for GMs. This allows them to play the adventure before running it and helps them better prepare.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

Michael Meunier wrote:

I've run slot 0s online for a couple cons now and I'm willing to organize tables for PFS judges at GenCon. I've used several different methods but I've found the best for me is a program called MapTool (rptools.net) and either Skype or Ventriolio (trust me, voice = better). If you're interested, post here and/or contact me off board at dagent145 -at- gmail -dot- com. If there's enough interest I'll take the extra step of creating a yahoo group.

Ok..i have now seen a few posts now.. mentioning Slot 0....

WHat the hell is a Slot 0?

Hoody Hoo!

Slot 5: Saturday 8am to 12pm #2: Hydra's Fang Incident
Slot 6: Saturday 1pm to 5pm #4: Frozen Fingers of Midnight

Now if only I can find somebody locally to Slot 0 these - if not no biggy - I like to DM more than play these days:).

I may end up running these online via Fantasy Grounds 2 or ScreenMonkey for anyone who's also running these.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

You'd have had to sign up for it during open registration at www.gencon.com . Since event registration is closed you'll have to get some generic tickets and go to the event. I'm sure there'll be seats available:)

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

Howdy folks,

Here's another update that's accurate as of this morning.

Writing for Paizo
Thu 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm (SEM00106)
55 seats reserved, 70 seats remaining

How does one go about reserving a seat?

Home game guidelines have not come out yet. It'll be much the same I'd imagine but you'll game with people you know. The RPGA process, which this is modelled after goes as such:

1. DM logs into a website and registers his home game and orders events. Home players are limited to the same number of events as con players. This is due to the fact that you can take your character that you play at home to any con and/vice-versa. The primary advantage of home play is you know everyone:)

2. Once the DM has the events he/she runs them for his group.

3. The DM logs who played which adventure and some database stuff takes place which in turn affects the game world.

The neat thing about organized play is the sense of a shared game world. Gamers from all over are participating in the same adventures and can regale tales of glory if they meet at a con or online in a message board.

The biggest thing I've found though is that level of participation can cause some fractures between those that play organized play exlcusively and those that dabble. That, in my experience as an organzied play DM, is the fine line that I have to walk. Engaging both those that know the fluff by heart and those that are just looking for a good game.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

Does anyone have any comments about home games (i.e. not at a convention)? That's the type of Pathfinder Society play I'd likely be interested in.

Marshalling -

I expect a Paizo rep (employee or volunteer) will assist in marshalling groups together. Prior to the event all the players huddle together, whether singly or in groups of known associates. The marshal organizes groups of six and matches them up with a DM, assigns a table and off you go. This act continues until all players and DM's are assigned.

It works rather well but can sometimes be like herding cats. To me though the chaos gets everything going and that's when the lights come on and it's "showtime".

I love running con events:)

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

Not really - some graphics programs (GIMP, Photoshop, Fireworks) allow you to scale to larger size and then print in "poster" format which is how you could take a map from a Paizo AP (pdf) and scale it to 1" square size.

Dundjinni let's you create your own maps so what I'd do is create approximations of the maps from the modules. Since these are con modules I doubt we'll see full-color maps ala West or Lazzaretti.

As an example here's a work-in-progress for a 4e battlemap I'm working on titled Bandit Attack.

I'd make the maps in Dundjinni and then print them out, tape together and have'em ready for the con.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

Greg Volz wrote:

Roger that. In regards to battlemaps if we get the adventures early enough is it alright if I make color maps with Dundjinni?

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

In the interests of keeping the playing field level and fair, probably not. We can't expect every GM to have these tools.

oooohhh... Explain how you do that?.... Been looking for away to take the maps from the adventures and accuratly printing them up to Battlemap size...

Dundjinni does that?..

Roger that. In regards to battlemaps if we get the adventures early enough is it alright if I make color maps with Dundjinni?

In the interests of keeping the playing field level and fair, probably not. We can't expect every GM to have these tools.

For DM's

Be prepared and flexible.

Because you're running a con game you have to expect that you may have people with multiple playing styles. Con games are not for everyone and since this is a new organized play campaign you may get new con players. Expect to teach some of the rules but most player's will also help other players out as well.

Set the expectations down at the beginning of the game like No Rules Lawyering - if a rule comes up in question accept the DM's ruling and go on with it - especially if it will stop the action at the table...but don't be a dick about it. Have another player who's not acting at the moment look up the rule if he/she can and then adjudicate accordingly.

Let each person have a small amount of stagetime if they are role-playing but keep it moving. With the limited amount of game time you have to watch the clock.

Con adventures are usually broken down into 2 combats, 1 or 2 skill type challenges and maybe 1 role-playing encounter. At lower levels there may be some smaller combat encounter along the way as well.

READ YOUR ADVENTURE. Yes I'm yelling. Nothing irks a player more than getting a DM who hasn't read the adventure. I know this sounds dumb but I've heard (and particpated) in (about) adventures where the DM had no clue what was going on. Sometimes this is the organizer's fault for not having enough DM's but from what I've seen Josh send out this is not the case.

IF YOU SIGNED UP TO DM YOU'D BETTER BE THERE. (yelling again) - I know the Ram is a great bar but if you've got an 8:00 event running a game hung-over is no fun for you or your table.

For the DM and Players

Shower. Yes I know this sounds like common sense but having the cat-piss man as a fellow player or DM can ruin the experience for everyone.

For Players

Be prepared and flexible. If you are an experienced player have your character ready and all books necessary to play your character. It is up to you to have a PHB, dice and potentially miniature.

Because you're playing a con game you have to expect that you may have people with multiple playing styles. Con games are not for everyone and since this is a new organized play campaign you may get new con players.

Don't bring your house-rules. Everyone plays by the Rules-As-Written. Don't try to bend, break or bring in your rules from your home DM.

Bring the DM treats - he/she will like them:)

I'm sure I'll think up some more after the coffee's kicked in.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

I know that this will probably come up in the Aug 1 release but as a DM can I use the Critical Hit and/or Critical Fumble decks?

(the sneaky bastard in me loves some fumbles:) )

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming.

And the reason it's still made with sucrose is because the Mexican population still knows how to throw a revolution/rebellion vs. consumerist America (I kid I just love Mexican Coke and any other soda that's made with real sugar vs. HFCS).

For the record: Mexican Coke is still made with sucrose and it is damn tasty.

They are from Andreas Blicher (Warhammer mapmaker extraordinaire) - http://www.andreas.blicher.info/

I'm curious, where or how do you get the parchment effect for the background on the letter?
If I could locate that I would quiet happily type up my own letters, I could also use it on other games where I need to issue handouts of various letters.

You want them as images instead of pdfs or just three separate pdfs.

Greg Volz wrote:

Anything else for handouts in Skinsaw that I can whip together?

I need to check but aren't there some other creepy notes later in the adventure?

Is there any chance you could split the notes from Hemlock up into 3 documents? I play online and only want to send the relevant note.

Anything else for handouts in Skinsaw that I can whip together?

Thanks,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Don't forget that the Blackmoor MMRPG by Arneson is also debuting at GenCon.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Here's one (with the three variations) of the handouts that kick off the Skinsaw Murders - Your Lordship notes from Hemlock - page 10. I used some of the background splatters from the adventure itself - thanks Paizo!

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Excellent because I like to DM more than play (call me a sadist:)).

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Yay! I got into all four scenarios. It looks like lots of tickets are selling for Pathfinder Society. Thursday morning's Silent Tide looks like it is full.

Looks like I'll have to get to work again. I'm about 1/2 way through running Burnt Offerings and this is my off week so it's on to The Skinsaw projects.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

How do we sign up to judge? I've already had my badge ordered for a few months (and room at the Omni Severin - my fave).

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

deathboy wrote:

My question is will judges get a chance to play these events before they run them?

Of course!

I always get confused with former and latter - is it the Ewok's you have a problem with - cause I loved Star Wars:Battlefront where I could blow the fuzzy bastards away:)

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Norgerber wrote:

People's unwillingness to accept the death of the king through a mysterious, unidentifiable poison that seems to manifest itself as a disease, but perfectly willing to accept the other elements of the adventure strikes me rather the same way as someone complaining about the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, but enjoying the rest of the movie.

I disagree. I think that the former is somewhat illogical and unreasonable.

Indeed. I'll have to add that to the list:) It requires concentration which can be noticed or else it wouldn't cause an AoO - so in my example ignore the acting paladin spouting the words...and the guards still surround him:).

(I like my version better:))

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Sure, but that's definitely a house rule. According to the SRD the paladin only needs to concentrate. "A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus or have an XP cost. The user activates it mentally."

I've kit-bashed these together from Russell (who made Tsuto's Journal images - I just added a background and charcoaled the writing) and made Tsuto's letters myself.

Tsutos Journal

Tsutos Letter in Common

Tsutos Letter in Minkai

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Nah - at the speed I play through these (I'm just starting the 1st Pathfinder AP for an online group) you'll be done with this one and the third one will be just coming out:)

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Alternately, we could include full details of Queen Ileosa's powers and the powers of the Fangs of Kazavon right there at the start. That'd take up several pages of Pathfinder. Is it worth sacrificing the other content just for this? I don't feel that it is, but I could be convinced otherwise, I suppose.

Just have the poison provoke a death attack (save or die and raise dead won't work).

When a king dies - do you think that anyone can approach and just start casting spells. Unless you are high-born there is no way on Golarian that you'll be let near the corpse.

The queen, if she's any good will have only people that she owns and are loyal to her anywhere near the body.

Before playing any of these take some time (yes some of these books are lengthy) and read:

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Rules of Ascension by David B. Coe

and see what power a noble should have. Unless you have a noble background you are far beneath any of these people. The Queen is a monarch, she answers to no one, and dissenters would and should be summarily executed.

Later

Now we're tangential but I'll go with it. A paladin's Detect Evil ability is considered a Spell-Like ability and therefore has at least the concentration factor. I interpret that it requires the components of said spell. The spell description requires V, S, & DF. So the paladin must gesture - sweeps hand broadly in front of him, proclaiming - "May the evil reveal itself", while presenting his sword point down with his holy symbol etched upon the blade. Since this is a spell-like ability and it causes the provocation of an AoO I'd rule that it is definitley a breach of ettiquette while in the presence of royalty to be searching out evil doers.

Before he get's this ability off he's surrounded by guards (which will make a concentration check necessary) and he'll be summarily banished from the court (if the monarch is in a good mood) or it'll be the prison and gallows (if the monarch is not having a good day).

Of course rules are open to interpretation but this is how I would rule.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Hmmm, don't know if I agree on the breach of etiquette thing, but either way, how would she know? I'm tempted to let my Paladin player do this just so I can play on his paranoia for a while. :) He obviously won't be able to do anything direct about it. But reporting it to his church is reasonable, and why wouldn't they advise the same thing?... play along... see what's afoot and report back. Even if they surmise she's evil and obtained the throne nefariously, I don't think it gives away the whole story right away. <shrug> It's an awfully big hint probably... but as DM, I can imagine several ways of playing this out in a manner that won't break the story and would probably be entertaining.

Color me very excited. I've been a long-time member of the RPGA (#154777 - sometime back in the late 80's early 90's) and used to love organized play in the hey-day of Living City, Virtual Seattle and at the very beginning of Living Greyhawk.

I know organized play has moved away from the "classic" adventures but Pathfinder/Golarian calls out for it!

As an example, at the latest meetup I ran UK 4 When a Star Falls using Castles & Crusades as a "classic" game. I made up the PC's and the player's had a blast by using the background blurbs to get into the rp'ing aspect.

Instead of just organized play I think that adding a "classic element" to the Pathfinder RPG would get some of the grognards to join in (of which I'm one:)). I'd definitely volunteer to assist in either organized play, classic play or online play.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

I've read through the majority of this thread and the disconnect I see is that in Mary's DM's world there are no murders of high-level characters. Magic has a way of working around deceit (raise dead, commune, etc). Magic is...well...not really a magic bullet:)

sidebar: This has always been an issue. Just read the latest Erevis Cale novel to see how they get around this issue.

Edge, to me, has a real Game of Thrones feel to it and the politics of a large city, regardless of magic, are going to play a large part in how I run it.

For me - if I was the a high-level priest of any of the churches mentioned would have welcomed the death of the king because he was an awful king - even being lawful good would not have stopped me from wanting that - the gods will judge him now and who am I to question the gods will?

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming

Great work Russel! I'm going to run RotRL in a few weeks online using Fantasy Grounds and I've taken your drawings and put them on some backgrounds. Download Here.

My previous attempts at Tsuto's Letter can be Tsuto's Letter in Common and Tsuto's Letter in Common.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

I'm starting up an online (Fantasy Grounds see ad here ) campaign with all new players on April 1st. I've downloaded the Pathfinder Alpha and I'll give it a once over and see if we can use it.

I'll keep you posted and put updates on my blogs

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming.

Wildfire142 wrote:

I'm just about to start running RoTRL with a new party, I'm going to see if any are willing to help playtest the new rules in this campaign.

Whoa, that'd be awesome. Totally keep us posted on how it goes! This sounds like the perfect playtest.

Hoody Hoo! I like the system as is and will continue to support it in any way I can (including running it via any means possible - Fantasy Grounds, stores, etc!).

Good on ya Paizo

Gregory A. Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
http://www.naturaltwenty.com

Gahh - April - I want to inflict some serious hurt on my players now gosh darnit - the 1's just keep getting rolled lately.

Ah well - I'll wait patiently.

Later,

Greg Volz

Please cancel the following order: 838706.

Thanks,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

I always assumed it was a nod to the Wormy cartoon with the giant fish eating one of the trolls:).

Later,

Greg Volz

1. Open file in PDF viewer (more than likely Adobe)
2. Open GIMP.
3. Click File=>New and make sure your canvas will be large enough for your picture and select the Advanced option.
4. Increase your pixel count to a minimum of 300x300.
5. Use the Magic Wand tool and erase to your hearts content.
6. Save image as JPG or GIF or whatever.

It takes a little time but your images will be better resolution. Once I got going it took about 20 minutes to do most of the art for the Pathfinder 1.

Then you can use these things for you peronsal use like this:

Sinspawn Minis

Darkyl's Spellbook (although I just used the sihedron image on this one.

Later,

Greg Volz

I used it for the first time last session and there were three criticals in 3 hours (Crusader with a scimitar). The best was the decapitation pull on one of the big bads.

Can't wait for the Fumble deck though because we also had 3 "1's" rolled that evening as well.

Later,

Greg Volz