RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32. Pathfinder Society Member. 1,148 posts (5,434 including aliases). 1 review. No lists. 1 wishlist. 4 Pathfinder Society characters. 49 aliases.
I live with a Venture Lieutennant. If I recall correctly, there are things that you make your folks sign NDA's for. Although I could be thinking of something else. But then again much of your rules set is open, whereas everything of WOTC's is closed IP. So your operating conditions are different.
Oh, don't get me wrong, we have lots of NDAs and such. For instance, Venture Captains and Lieutenants have to sign NDAs because we have a private forum where we talk to them about confidential issues. Authors and artists sign NDAs when they sign their contracts because we don't want them talking about our plans before we are ready to announce it ourselves. Employees have NDAs so they don't do the same. Companies use NDAs all the time. I have signed my share in the course of my career. I just wanted to clarify that we never have done it in the area of playtesting. Some folks made the assumption that we did and I wanted to clarify. That is all. :)
First off let me apologize for my long absence from the Internet. I don’t use it for anything beyond work email these days and I am about as far out of the electronic loop as is humanly possible – my own fault, and my undoing on many levels.
I deeply apologize for the debacle that was Sinister Adventures – I can honestly say there has been nothing in my life I regret more than attempting to run my own publishing company. I have done severe damage to my own finances over the past several years, ruined my reputation as a game designer, and transformed a hobby that used to be the most enjoyable part of my life into my own personal mire of misery and shame. But most importantly I have alienated a host of lovely people who love RPGS. I used to take great joy in communicating with my former fans, and felt a growing camaraderie with several of the people who enjoyed my work, or even hated my work, but just downright enjoyed this great hobby. I let those people down, betrayed them, and damaged their enthusiasm for the game, not to mention lost the hard-earned money they entrusted to me through pre-orders.
I dealt with the avalanche of problems Sinister experienced ineptly to say the least. The failure of this company combined with crushing stress from my 90 hour-a-week day job of the last three years shook the foundation of my sense of self. This led to a downward spiral of alcoholism and depression.
My recent move back to Hawaii has restored a great deal of the vitality and psychological well-being I lost over the last few years and I am finally in a place to take serious action against the start-up gaming company that has become my personal nemesis.
I have lost over $15,000 personally on this endeavor through my gross ineptitude as a publisher. I paid for a great deal of top quality art, web design and other start up costs and then as problems arose that siphoned off more funds, I found the company wallowing in destitution. As the problems piled up, I eventually lost any ability to deal with them and kept attempting to tell myself I would “get around to it soon” once I was able to save up more funds and free up more time. I grappled with the idea of bankruptcy, but didn’t want to end up not giving those who trusted me their money back.
Fortunately I have been able to shift some funds around recently and replenish Sinister’s coffers enough to get everyone their money back. To ensure this happens in a timely fashion I will not trust my own dire worthlessness with the task. Instead the heroic Lou is once again stepping up to bat.
Through the invaluable assistance of Louis Agresta – one of the truest friends a man could ask for – I am now in a position to refund all and sundry for their pre-orders to Sinister. Lou has very kindly offered to assist me yet again, this time pooling through my mangled attempts at record keeping to ensure all of you who have not yet been refunded get your money returned.
Lou has posted instructions and details above.
Now allow me to move off my own dire failures as a businessman and human being and move on to a more salient point.
Paizo Publishing is a true gem - A company full of caring individuals who are entirely the opposite of Sinister Adventures. They care deeply about their fans, their authors, and the hobby. From my close contact with them for years, first as a rabid fan and aspiring writer, then as a go-to freelancer, then as a brief employee I have a unique view of the fine people of Paizo inside and out. They are compassionate, professional, creative, enthusiastic, and possessed of a deep well of forgiveness and generosity. They don’t just uphold high standards of how companies should operate – they set the standards as far as I’m concerned.
It hurts me deeply that their remarkable feat of kindness and an attempt to rehabilitate the degenerate hobbyist and writer I have become over the last few years could result in any sort of backlash. These fine upstanding people pour their love, blood and sweat into their company daily.
To those of you hurt by the Sinister fiasco: I implore you to keep the sights of your (righteous) anger focused entirely on me. I will happily give ample opportunity for those of you slighted (or worse) by my mistakes and failures a chance to redress the wrongs you suffered at Sinister (and my) hands. I will gladly listen to your anger, apologize, and try to make amends as best I can at Paizocon. I will attempt to run games for those of you who suffered from Sinister’s flop, languishing in limbo while awaiting news or refunds from me.
I humbly apologize for the long and resounding silence and for thinking I could get things back on the rails.
Thank you for your time and patience. Please follow the instructions and details Lou posted above on how to FINALLY get your money back.
So this afternoon I started work on a pathfinder home brew that addresses some of my biggest issues with it. I love pathfinder in and out, the systems great for customization and the classes all feel alive and useful by design. My Issue is that its a metric F*** ton of crunch, which I am no fan of. I don't need my rpg systems to care so much about "realism" that they confuse my players and take a whole session to create characters.
I'm gonna stop you right there. Pathfinder cares nothing for realism just like D&D does not care for it. I am assuming you got into RPGs with 4th edition so let me just tell you that 4th edition is about as streamlined a system as you will find. With that simplicity comes a certain blandness as all the characters kinda feel the same.
Systems that do realism are very complex and involved as they try to simulate real world effects and attributes. Character creation, character improvement, combat, skills all tend to be very complex in realistic games. Fortunately, these games are boring and dull and die a quick death.
D&D and PF are not streamlined or simple. They have a good sized learning curve but the base mechanics are pretty simple: Roll a d20 based on that result some damage or knowledge or both might result. Creating characters becomes very easy once you have a little experience. Once I decide to play a class or concept I can create a character in less than 20 minutes. I am sure some people can do it faster.
Really the problem is choosing. Most of the time in character creation is usually taken up with deciding what to play. With 4e classes are so bland that choosing one over the other does not matter much. In PF the choice matters so people spend a lot of time on it.
The "at will" mechanic in 4th edition is based upon abilities that are not that powerful. You also have the once per combat abilities for slightly stronger stuff. It was rightly compared to World of Warcraft in that characters could go through an entire adventure and never need to rest because most abilities constantly reset.
In PF and 3.x that does not work very well as the rationing of resources is very important. If you use up your rounds of rage or your smite or whatever then you will feel it and the choices you make early in the day affect battles later in the day. That goes all the way back to the roots of D&D in tactical war-games. The game is built around the assumption of the usage of resources on a daily basis and by giving unlimited uses you throw that out the window.
The result is that you will throw off the ability to make encounters that challenge your players because they don't need to worry about using up resources. A paladin with unlimited smites it going to cut through everything like butter. Same with other classes with the same type of mechanic.
So how will you get the mechanics you like without all the rules? Only use the core book. The extra books introduce new mechanics to make new classes and equipment work. So you end up learning all this extra stuff without mastering the basics. Use just the core book until the game mechanics are easy for you to use. Then add another book to the game until you master it. I have played D&D for nearly 35 years and 3rd edition from since it first came out. Even back then I limited the number of resources my players could use so I could have a handle on the rules rather than needing to constantly look things up in unfamiliar books.
Actually... we had a Rise of the Runelords item card set, and some of the initial map products were intended to work well with the AP—Flip-Map Mountain Pass, for example, came out at about the same time as the last installment of Runelords, which took place entirely in the mountains.
The stunt of actually using the map products and the AP at the same time did take us a while to sort out, though.
There WILL be this level of support with the revised book—we've got a Flip Map coming soon that has a few key locations in Sandpoint that should help folks run the first parts of "Burnt Offerings" and "Fortress of the Stone Giants," for example.
With less than a day before the big reveal, I thought I would post some “imagined” feedback that might help the top 32 sculpt their round two entries. It's a bit all over the place but it is based on feedback given in previous years that seems applicable to this new "Organization" round. I hope it helps; take out of it what you can. :)
The Good:
- The execution isn’t great but there are still a lot of useful ideas here for a campaign. The submitter got the “antagonist” part right.
- This organization is seven bags of fun for a DM to throw at their players. Excellent stuff!!!
- I really like how this competitor writes. She has clearly expressed herself, hit the notes she needed with not a groat more. Other competitors are struggling to present half as many ideas within the same word limit.
- Love the name, premise and delivery.
- This one hooked me straight away. Excellent ideas and description had me engaged from the get go.
- Mojo through the roof on this one. I’m not quite so sure on the execution but damn do I want to get this group into my game like yesterday! Why hasn’t anyone come up with something like this before?
- Now this is how you write! Economy of expression, with precise dynamic language. I really want to workshop this one for our next RPG Superstar panel. This gal knows how to turn a phrase and convey an idea.
- Smart design. The writer has picked the point exactly where the reader can join the dots without it being vague. I can’t believe they packed this much useable detail into so few words.
- My players are going to love to hate this bunch.
- I love the versatility offered here. There are so many ways I can push this lot in front of the PCs.
- This is good stuff. This organization is doing something and I mean DOING something. There are so many consequences here for the PCs.
- Scarily good. This gives me so many ideas and that is the best sign that the writer has hit on something special. I love it when Superstar gives us these moments.
- This writer has nailed unique and gonzo together but in a good way. This is weird but a good weird. It is making me think and again, that is the sign of a good submission.
- An old concept but a fresh presentation really makes this sing. Engaging stuff.
- This one’s mojo gets it through but only just… and I mean only just.
- This is really innovative. I don’t think anyone’s done something quite like this before. Wow!!!
The Ugly:
- This does not follow the template and is all over the place. Very disappointing considering how much we all loved her wondrous item.
- It says a Golarion organization and this is just… not that. Should be disqualified.
- This organization is dead set for the PCs. How is this going to antagonize them or present some measure of villainy? Pure failure to read the instructions on the tin.
- I literally can’t read this. The writer has misguidedly gone to a thesaurus to pile in as many out-of-context big words they can find. This IS NOT writing; it is torture!
- I am sure this is the most boring organization the competitor could think of. Ross, can you just check that the emails match up on this one or something because there is NO WAY, that the author of THAT wondrous item could have written THIS.
- Ahhh… the unprepared deer in the headlights follow-up submission. This one’s just weak sauce and that’s a shame because I golden ticketed this competitor. What a waste!
- Don’t DM the DM. Don’t present the DM with vague, undescribed mysteries. The DM needs to know this stuff so they can present this organization to their players and your submission has failed the DM with a lack of information. The DM provides the mystery to their players, not you to the DM.
- Please tell me he didn’t go there? He went there didn’t he? Seriously, who did he think was going to try and publish this? Push weird and gonzo too far and unfortunately, this is what you get.
- If you only have 100 words to describe your organization’s goals, why start with THIS! Too much useless detail that leaves me with no clue why this organization even exists. What self-respecting NPC would buy into this rubbish?
- If this was design a villain, then fine but this simply is not a true organization. Fail.
Feel free to add more good/bad/ugly comments and stuff that you think will help guide the top 32.
'Twas brillig and the subscriptive toves
Did gyre and unsuspend in the wabe:
All mimsey were the bookiegroves,
And the pending order outgrabe.
BEWARE the Shipping Fee my son!
The Jaws that bite, the fee that catch!
Beware the Jubjub email, and shen
The frumious Ordersnatch!
I took my vorpal powers in hand:
Long time the manxome order I sought--
So rested me by the Off Topic tree,
and stood awhile in thought.
And, in uffish thought I stood
The Shipping Fee, with eyes of flame,
came whiffling through the tulgey order,
and burbled as it came!
One, TWO! One, TWO! And through and through
My Vorpal powers went snicker-snack!
And left it combined, and with it's new confirmation email
went galumphing back.
"And, hast thou slain the Shipping Fee, Cosmo?
I'll check out my order history, my beamish friend!
O frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!"
You chortled in your joy.
'Twas brillig and the subscriptive toves
Did gyre and unsuspend in the wabe:
All mimsey were the bookiegroves,
And the pending order outgrabe.
In other words...:
I have unsuspended your subscriptions, added the stuff to your pending order, and sent you a new confirmation email which should reflect the changes.
If you want to add items to the order, go ahead and order them as normal, then select "Ship with existing pending order" in the shipping options.
The Adventure Path product is one of our flagship lines. What does that mean? Among other things... it means that it makes us a HECK of a lot of money. Furthermore, it's the reason why Paizo exists today as a game company at all and not just, say, a game-focused web store. When we lost the license for Dragon and Dungeon, it was pretty much the success (and subscription and sales income) of Pathfinder that kept things afloat long enough for us to not only get Golarion off the ground... but to get the Pathfinder RPG off the ground. Furhtermore... back when we started Shackled City, Dungeon magazine was in dire condition—it was hemorrhaging subscribers and we were trying all sorts of things to get folks to keep subscribing and to even BUILD the subscriptions. Folks will doubtless remember numerous "stunts" we pulled with Dungeon back around issues 92–100—some of the bigger ones included bundling Polyhedron with the magazine, putting "subscriber only" content into the magazine, and going monthly with the magazine. Starting a series of linked adventures was one of those "stunts."
I've probably worked on Adventure Paths longer than anyone else in the industry today—I was brought on by Chris early on to write the second installment of Shackled City, and by the time the third installment was being published I'd been hired as an assistant editor for Dungeon. I've been working on Adventure Paths ever since, and during that time I've seen them work magic. They're the reason Dungeon not only kept going, but saw a dramatic INCREASE in subscription numbers. They win awards. And as mentioned above, they're the reason Paizo exists today.
During the last 10 years or so of Adventure Paths, we have indeed listened to feedback and tried new things with them. With each AP, I like to think we get a little closer to perfection... but I also believe that the "perfect" AP is a moving target you can never quite reach. So we DO keep making changes to the format... but those changes are, nowadays, relatively small. Things like adding an NPC index and magic item appendix like we did with Jade Regent.
And the idea that we don't take risks or try out strange adventures in an AP is, frankly, ridiculous. We've published adventures where the heroes have to star in a play, where they have to take part in a trial, where they wash ashore on a hostile island with very few resources, where they have to disguise themselves as drow and invade an evil society, where they get to use wishes over and over and over, where they lead armies, where the villains were deep into the "vile darkness territory," and where they need to build and run their own kingdoms. And we'll keep testing boundaries and limits with the APs. Coming up we've got things like naval battles, adventures that start the PCs out with NO equipment, true sequals to previous APs, and plenty more "risks and innovations" planned for the future for APs that I'm not yet at liberty to speak about.
Honestly, if I had to pick one thing that WON'T be going away from Paizo's book lines, that would be the Adventure Path line. As long as Paizo's around, our Adventure Paths will be around.
And to speak directly to the recent announcement from WotC... I personally think it would be the HEIGHT of foolishness for us to abandon the product line that's kept us afloat, helped define the company, and remains the flagship line at any time... but especially as a knee-jerk reaction to ANY announcement from ANY company.
I'm always eager to hear suggestions on how to change or add to or enhance the AP (with the caveat that I've seen a LOT of things tried with them over the past decade, and many suggestions aren't as viable as some folks think they might be)... but ending the line? Not gonna happen.
Out of curiosity how many of you were content with 3.5?
I might recall jemstone not being a fan, from another thread(though I could be wrong)
I personally dislike/am tired of the overall 'handle' of 3.x systems,that is why I'm asking
I like 3.5 well enough, I just contend that D&D 3.X is not an entirely "new and unique" system - it grabs and borrows and blatantly steals a lot of its ideas from other game lines. My biggest contention with it is not the system itself, it's the people who view it as the Ultimate System, and who say "Oh, this stat-plus-skill-plus-die-roll game is just like 3.X!" No, no it's not. 3.X is similar to these other systems which came before it.
Saga, as I've mentioned, is a proto-4E system that (imho) handles a lot of things better than 4E actually ended up doing. The Condition Track, for one. The method of handling abilities, for another. Whereas in 4E, you have X number of Encounter powers, and N number of At-will powers, and blah blah dailies, Saga gives you a straight-forward encounter based mechanic. You can use this ability X number of times during an encounter (where X is usually equal to a stat modifier or a level value), or you can use this ability whenever you want. Nearly all abilities are usable whenever you want, with game-changers like The Force coming down to a per encounter basis.
Something else to mention is that while weapon damage rarely changes in Saga, that's okay, because as characters get more competent, their damage increases. Tucked away in the combat section is a rule that states that as characters progress in level, their damage goes up. This, I think, handles the "need" for damage escalation against tougher opponents quite well, and also helps deal with lower level enemies handily - as it enables the "one shot, droid goes up in a shower of sparks" dynamic.
Now, really, Mr Spicer, I must protest at this abuse of her Majesty's great language. If you colonial types will insist on flaunting your inability to spell properly, that is one thing, but insisting, nay, demanding that the loyal servants of Ablion must participate in this debasement of our beautiful mother tongue is simply not acceptable. If this keeps up, I shall write a stern letter to the Times about it. You just see if I don't.
"We won a war so we wouldn't have to spell 'color' with a 'u.'" --Erik Mona
Greblak looks around at their new situation, then carefully and methodically goes below decks to the hold, finds a pile of old burlap sacks, and hides under them.
Me'sa still a'sitting on ma baby Gerblat. Ma'ba put poops on'em to keep 'em warm.
Ay tink I'm under da stairs on da main deck, but I forgetz.
It'z tough be'n a working mommy in todayz Goblin ecco-nom-neittey.
Raxus looks inside the house for just a moment, glances at the child and says "Eat your food, Billy." then circles around the house to head for the main road.
Ma' mah sat on me when ay waz an egg, afta poop'n me oot. Sha kept ma all warm wit her hairy buns.
Blarg finds a bucket and some worm padding. Old shirts, rag or whatever. He makes a cozy nest for Gerblat and starts a'sitting on the bucket, keeping him warm.
Bralg's ah mommy now! he smile a big toothy grin.
Hush li'l eggy, dont say a work
Blarg gona sit on'ya, just like that bird
An since dat bird dont sing, Blarg gona keep da magic ring
An if this bucket hurts my ass, Blarg gona drink wiskey from a glass
An if dat glass run dry, Blarg gona poke some'on in da eye
An if dat eye pop outa da head, din dat creature's gona be dead
An if dat dead un' come back to life, Blarg gona run for his life
An if Blarg run far far away, ay leave ya hear, too bad fur you, la la la
Despite what Linux fanboys think, their OS isn't that great. Andrew said something about putting Android on it, which is what I was responding to. I don't care about some discussion about Linux because that is irrelevant to what I was responding to.
Android IS Linux.
Android is not Ubuntu.
No, it's just being developped on Ubuntu, can be run as an interface to Ubuntu and share a large amout of code with Ubuntu, but is not identical to Ubuntu... Please read on a subject before giving into easy rhetoric.
Also:
ThechNewsWorld 08/26/11 wrote:
Further, there are reports that at least one TouchPad actually came preinstalled with Android 2.2.1 on top of an Ubuntu-based system, and that this seemed to have been preinstalled by Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM).
So the best way to actually run Android on the Hp Pad is actually by... installing Ubuntu.
Why, because the modified Linux Kernel Ubuntu is using probably has a better support for the hardware than the generic kernel usually shipped with the Android interface.
Seriously. I get that you're upset about not getting a) the module or b) your money back. But it doesn't help.
For one reason or another, Nick has not been able to finish the project. None of us know what those reasons are. He tried to do an exciting RPG book, but failed on the target line, and the money he got from preorders was used for art, if I got it right. Some of you have asked for your money back, and apparently some have gotten it. Others have not.
What this tells me is that Nick is swamped, for whatever reason, and is trying to pay people back through his monthly paycheck. The stress must be massive. The fact that he actually tries to pay people back means he cares about the situation. Seeing as the money isn't there, however, he can't very well proclaim this is so without getting more of a headache.
Yes, he did take your money. No, he didn't give you what you ordered for it. He most likely knows that this in itself has destroyed him in the RPG publishing business. Which means the holdup must be pretty bad for him.
Look at it this way: He took money you otherwise would have spent on roleplaying games. It's not your mum's cancer medications, people. He did so a long time ago by now, and I imagine your economy hasn't been shot down by this (or alone if it has). Even screaming bloody murder about your MASsive LOSS of MONey for several years on this board would have netted you much more money by now if you had spent that time productively.
So: The entire situation is a bloody miserable tragedy, and frankly, it's disgraceful that you're still whining about it. Draw a line somewhere. It's not likely he's going to get the book done by now, so cut your losses, people. And if you never preorder another book by him, let that be the sum of consequences for this.
I know I am going to get flak about this. I can live with that.
I would go with Amiri, Lini, Harsk, and Seltyiel. That way you keep the gender balance and you have an arcane spellcaster, a divine spellcaster, a skills character, and a martial character, thus keeping the role balance as well.
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