Klaus van der Kroft's page

So, I go to this meeting. Meet a couple of gentlement. It all goes very well and all, until the waitress comes by to ask what we're having (we're at an icecream cafe -a coffehouse where you also, well, eat icecream-). She suggests trying out the tripple delight icecream, when one of the gentlemen says:

"No, thanks. I do not like icecream"

The gentleman. He does not like icecream. Ice-cream. He dislikes it. A human being who has not an ounce of love for a cream of ice.

IS THERE NO HOPE LEFT IN MAN?!

Lads and lasses,

It just came to my attention that I have somehow accumulated 30 DOTA 2 invites.

If anyone's interested in one, give me your Steam username (or send it by PM if you want to keep it private) and I'll toss one your way.

I've always been pretty happy with the sort-of Magical Medieval/Rennaissance style of games like D&D and Pathfinder, and honestly I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. It's a comfortable setting and commonplace enough that you can spice it up with just about anything without throwing it out the window.

That said, I do like trying out new stuff now and then.

Which settings, themes, subjects, cultures or epochs do you think have been traditionally underused/ignored by RPGs in general? Which ones would you like to see more often?

Personally, I've always been a sucker for Bronze Age "Cradle of Civilization"-type cultures, like Babylonians, Assyrians, and Sumerians. Something about the awesome beards and towers that pierce the sky.

I also feel the earlier stages of the Age of Discovery have been generally forgotten. I mean, few periods have been more ripe for adventure than the Conquest of the New World, with mustachioed conquistadors searching for golden cities and fountains of youth.

Lastly, though it is generally present in one way or another in most fantasy settings, Middle Eastern settings, both pre- and post-Islamic, very rarely get a properly in-depth treatment, usually just a Hollywood Arabia thing that, while I still enjoy immensely, still leaves out so much awesomeness.

I'm sure we've all got a handful of games that we just have to keep installed, regardless how old it is and how many times we've changed the 'puter, those games that make things like DOSBox and SCUMMV a necessity just between "drinking water" and "underwear".

Which ones are on your "DO NOT UNINSTALL" list?

Mine would be:

-The Settlers II: The Bluebyte classic about making tiny people build tiny houses to raise tiny pigs and then club enemies to death with porkchops.

-SimCity 4: The game that, in my view, perfected city-building.

-Masters of Magic: That marvelous crossbreed between Civilization and MTG. Casting Armaggedon just never gets old.

-Star Wars Rebellion: The much-maligned Star Wars strategy game from the late 90's, that for some reason I adore. I still play it on MP once in a while.

-Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: A slightly newer game, but one that I never manage to get bored of.

-Baldur's Gate II: I have finished it several times already and I just can't bring myself to not having installed. My favourite RPG of all times.

Got this game a couple of days ago. I was never much of a fan of the first one, but I decided to try out the second installment (either that or Steam is effectively transmiting radiowaves to force me to buy stuff).

CiM2 is a transport game, in the line of the fabulous Transport Tycoon and the not so fabulous Locomotion. Rather than a lengthy review, I'll just give the good and bad points I've noticed:

The Good:

-Graphics: Pretty realistic and detailed. Nice reflections on the water, trees move with the wind, people walk around town doing their business, streets alight during the nights. All in all, a nice-looking experience.

-Dynamic Cities: This is one of the coolest things ever. While you cannot actually build appartments and shops, people will slowly grow their buildings around the transport networks you lay. You just connected that nuclear plant to a nearby town and there are not enough workers? Some houses will start plopping along your road. A hotel you just linked has no nearby entertainment? Maybe some shops and a cinema will get built in the area. This creates very unique experiences every time you play, and makes the game seem very realistic.

-Route Construction: CiM2 gives you a huge level of freedom when building roads and rails, allowing the construction of some really convoluted networks. Best of all, the game uses an intelligent adaptation system that changes the surroundings to fit your work, making ledges, bridges, tunels, and whathaveyou without any kind of fuss, and making it look right in the process. Just building roads is a load of fun in this game.

-Map Editor: The game comes with a very handy map editor, with several automation tools that make creating new scenarios a breeze. For example, you can lay down some roads and activate the building generator, which will create communities around them; the bigger the street/network, the larger the urbanization.

-Easy Line Creation: Creating transport networks is extremely user-friendly in CiM2. You create a depot, plop some stations around and then create a line, selecting which stops you want. The game automatically finds the best routes (showing it with spiffy flowing lines on the game), calculates the time it takes to reach each station, and even gives you the average and optimal amount of vehicles of each type you'd need to service it. You don't have to manually assign each vehicle, either, as depots intelligently assign available vehicles to the various routes they service. Everything also nicely adapts to the changes you make on the timetables: If you, say, increase the frecuency of buses going though Station A by 15 minutes, the depot will adapt the vehicles to the new requeriments (though it will likely ask you to purchase aditional buses, or you run the risk of them arriving behind schedule and making passengers angry).

-Map Size: Maps in CiM2 are pretty huge. Never as big as those in TTD, but still very large, enough to house giantic metropolises or several smaller cities, with large tracks of countryside and tiny villages in-between.

The Bad:

-Number of Vehicles: The game has very little vehicle variety. Even though you can work with buses, trolleys, trams, trains, and waterbuses, you only get 3 models for each category, and that's it. The shop already has several additional vehicles as DLCs (at 0.99 each), so it is clear the route the devs wanted to take the game.

-Emptyness: I'm still not quite so sure how exactly the game fills up, but it seems that cities are static until you connect them. This means that cities will seem empty and lifeless for a long while, with hardly a car of person walking around. Things get better once you start connecting things, but I found this odd and rather disconcerting.

-No Random Maps: Even though the game has a great editor, I miss having a random map generator. There is already a hefty number of player-made maps (even one uploaded by yours truly), but it's not the same as the good old automagically generated scenarios of TTD.

-Types of Goods: Unlike games like TTD and Locomotion, in CiM2 all you move around are passengers. It is still very fun and challenging, but you won't be playing around with production chains and selling goods to distant cities.

-Music: There is almost no music to speak of, just some themes when the sun goes up or down. You'll be cracking open some MP3s or Grooveshark soon enough.

After seeing a picture on the Science is Cool topic, I remembered a conversation I had with my dad some years ago, when I was teaching him how to use Google Earth on his iPad:

Dad: So can I see the house in this thing?
Me: Sure, dad. Here, we just type the address and... there. That's the house.
Dad: Hm
Me: Dad, you've always loved sci-fi. Did you ever expect to be looking at your house from space, while sitting on a couch in your room, using a computer smaller than a book which you control by touching it's screen?
Dad: To be honest, I was expecting a lot more tubes, wheels, and guys in labcoats.

So, particularly to the older ones among us, how has the state of things surprised you (for better or worse) compared to what you imagined years ago?

Just got the news: The Conclave has elected Argentinian Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, to be the CCLXVI Pontifex Maximus of the Catholic Church! He has taken the name of Francis I, most likely in honour of Saint Francis of Assissi.

It's a pretty historical election as well:

-He's the first non-European Pope in 1,200 years.
-He's the first American Pope.
-He's the first Jesuit Pope (so technically we can speak of a Black Pope, hah!)
-He's the first Spanish-speaking Pope in 500 years.
-He's the first Pope to take the name of Francis (Franciscus).

As a Catholic I'm pretty happy with the election. Cardinal Bergoglio is well-known for his keen interest in helping the poor, his simplicity, his humility, his acute theology, and his criticism of the dehumanizing routes modern economical and social models can take. He's pretty adamantly against homosexual marriage, however, so that might cause some controversy.

As a Latin American, I'm ecstatic. We've been waiting for a Latin American Pope for as long as I can remember, our continent being home to 40% of all the Catholics in the world. I'm glad our particular culture and way of seeing things and understanding Christ will have a chance to assist and enrich the Universal Church.

And finally, as a Chilean, I'm proud to see a fellow Argentinian brother on the Throne of Saint Peter, one that underwent his Jesuit formation here in Chile interestingly.

Thought I'd share the news.

I understand the Golarion World Map is explicitly not to scale, but it still leaves me wondering, how far, approximately, is the Crown of the World/North Pole (I'm not too knowledgeable about the Crown of the World, so I'm not exactly sure if it represents precisely the North Pole of the region near it) from the Inner Sea region?

It's mainly for a campaign I'm currently working on, that will have an important "Let Us Traverse the Northern Frost Atop These Quant Numerian Machines While Hunting Mammoths and Linnorm!" segment.

Just a rough estimate would help me greatly.

Thanks beforehand.

Here, I offer you a topic surprisingly not started by our esteemed Grand Magus.

Come with me if you want to live!

Considering PFO will be likely filled with P&P roleplayers, who have a predilection for miniatures, what about considering the option of deal with, say, Reapers (given how they have been working on the reward minis) that would allow to purchase miniatures made out of PFO characters?

Since we know PFO will feature some sort of microtransaction store, such a service could be put into that.

After reading of Mikaze's wonderfully generous actions which still have me smiling of joy, I felt it was time to join in the Christmas spirit and try to do at least something in the same line, hoping to make someone else at least a bit happy somewhere.

So in the same line as Mikaze, I'm giving away a 25$ Paizo Giftcode to the first 8 people who request one, so you can spend them however you like. No need to say, give or do anything in return, except getting something you like.

Just post here and I'll contact you via PM to handle out the details.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

EDIT: Thanks everyone who participated! To those who got their codes, to those who didn't; to those with outdated afro haircuts and to those with missmatched socks. Regardless if you call it Christmas, Holiday, End of the Fiscal Year or Wednesday, I wish you a merry day regardless to you, your friends, and your families.

As everyone with History Channel should know by now, the world is 3 days from ending.

What are your plans for what's left of history?

I hadn't paid much attention to the Gears of War series, to be honest, until a friend gave me the third installment for my birthday last week.

And oh-boy am I happy he did. The game is like a trip into the Elemental Plane of 80's Action Hero Tough Guys, oversized chins and everything; the over-the-topness, it never stops. And I'm loving it. Not to mention the gameplay itself is tremendously entertaining. I'm particularly happy with the Horde mode multiplayer.

Anyone else plays this thing?

This is the counterpart to Forum Rivals, so we can pat on the back forum users we think are particularly nice and congratulationable(even if it is not an actual word). This is independent of whether or not we actually interact with them on a regular basis; some users seem outright cool just from reading them.

Off the top of my head (thus likely forgetting someone) and in no particular order:

-Doodlebug Anklebitter: One of the most entertaining and indecent posters to read. Also, I like the way in which he showcases his ideological views, even if I can disagree with most of them. Plus his aliases are awesome.

-Orthos: All-around cool guy and very even tempered. Always a good addition to a discussion and one of the voices of reason in this otherwise mad world of Paizo forums.

-Meatrace: Quite a clever and assertive poster, even if we sometimes bump heads on certain delicate matters. I like his argumentative consistency and debate stamina, and can be a pretty fun poster to read in less serious topics.

-James Jacob: This man has the patience to answer even our silliest questions. I particularly enjoy the fact he takes the time to personally explain the reasoning behind design decisions, and that he does so in a light-hearted and pleasant to read manner.

-TOZ: Has probably the best one-liners in the forums. And his coments seem to have the capacity to quickly defuse otherwise tense topics, which is a remarkable quality.

-Mr Fishy: Mr Fishy does not care if you like Mr Fishy. Mr Fishy likes Mr Fishy.

-Aberzombie: Very entertaining and informative fellow. I keep reading his name as "Amberzombie", however.

-Gorbacz: Funny, clever, and polemic, all wrapped up inside a bag that will eat your magic items in the worst possible moment.

-Mikaze: Always an interesting read, and able to delve in often ignored but important subjects in a well-versed and thoughtful manner.

-Evil Lincoln: A very clever and articulate poster that consistently brings worthwhile material into topics, regardless of subject.

-Crimsom Jester: Makes justice to his name. A very comical, entertaining, and clever user. Seeing his name on the posters list often drives me to check the topic in question.

-Celestial Healer: I can't quite put my finger of it, but there is just something very cool and stylish about this guy that makes him very likeable.

Do you feel like adventurers never appreciate what you do for/to/with/on them, their items or their organs?

That DM's only call you in when they want to fill a nasty corner of a dungeon, never getting a chance to be that important NPC everyone wants to rescue or at least get allowed to hand out a sidequest?

Does it seem like all you can do is force people to make saving throws, when all you really wanted was a hug?

Then, my friend, this is the place for you. Grab a chair, pick up some donuts, join the circle, and tell us your woes. We're here to listen, not to judge.

After unadvertedly hopping into a DeLorean, you travel back in time a number of years equal to the sum of the digits of the hour currently being shown in your closest time-keeping device (most likely your computer's clock).

Where did you end up?

11:02 here, so I travel back in time to... 910 AD.

According to Wikipedia, the year started on a Monday. That can't be good.

What kind of aether pressure waves are currently being absorved by your ear canal?

Oberon, by Carl Maria von Weber

This information is important. I need it for my nefarious plans. Would you deny a man his nefarious plans?

Myself? I was just reading an article regarding avocados.

Context: Last Sunday, just after morning mass, I meet up with my brother and a friend to visit a faire being organized at our old school, to catch up with some teachers and in general check how everyone is doing.

Intention: To eat a caramel apple being sold in a caramel apple stand, because I was in the mood for a caramel apple.

Reason To Suspect: The student handling the stand is the little brother of a well-known prankster from the time I was in school. Also, the apple was unusually round.

Problem: After the first bite, I find out it was a caramel onion, not an apple.

And no, the onion was not softened in water prior to caramelization. Tears were shed, oh indeed they were.

No, really, what are you getting for lunch today?

Little time for me today, so I'll just have to take a quick trip to the closest Burger King.

There comes a time in every person's life that they must ask themselves the question: Do I like Borneo or Sumatra more?

Sumatra

Good Things
-It is not Borneo - Objectively awesome.

-Sixth Largest Island in the world - Six is a good number, ie, having six donuts is better than having five.

-Home of the Sumatran Orangutan, Sumatran Tiger, and, according to Peter Jackson, the Sumatran Rat-Monkey - Cool fauna which also can turn your enemies into zombies.

-Was visited by Marco Polo - What would we play in the pool if not for him?

-Has lots of gold deposits - Gotta love the bling.

-The indigenous population didn't have a name for it - So cool they didn't even need to call it something; people just know when you're talking about Sumatra.

Bad Things
-There is only one Sumatra - Curses!

Borneo

Good Things
-It could have even more bad things - Being bad is not as terrible as being worse.

Bad Things
-It is not Sumatra - Psh, amateur.

-Third Largest Island in the world - Having three donuts is worse than having six donuts, QED.

-Its name comes from Boring Neo, in reference to Keanu Reeves' poor acting skills - Self-sustaining argument.

So, with these compelling reasons in hand, is it Borneo or Sumatra for you?

PS: It's Sumatra.

PPS: Because Borneo sucks.

PPPS: Really.

Last saturday, after we finished our Pathfinder session (where I'm the DM), we came to realise one thing: It was the first time since we've been playing together (since 1996; we all started roleplaying together and the same group continues to this day) that a dragon of any sorts has been featured in one of my campaigns. It has never really been something I do on purpose, but for some reason I never create stories that include dragons, and this time it was mostly because, when we started the current campaign, one of the players directly requested me the option of, eventually, becoming a dragon rider of sorts.

What typical elements of D&D/Pathfinder, that you feel ought to be fundamental to the game, rarely or never show up in your campaigns?

Anyone else has gone throught this wonderful series of books?

Written by french historian and former Minister of Culture Maurice Druon, The Accursed Kings is a novelized history series of 7 books (about 300-400 pages each) about the life in the french court of the XIV century and all the issues that sprang from the curse that supposedly threw at them the Gran Master of the Templar Order when the King of France sent him to the pyre.

Although it starts a bit slow, it quickly picks up pace and becomes an incredibly enthralling morass of intertwined stories, that give a really amazing view into just how complicated a time period was. The number of characters is staggering (although Druon takes his time to carefully detail every single one of them, with proper historical refferences, in the appendix found at the end of every tome. I would advice not reading it until finishing, however, as while a historical reccord, it does contains spoilers of an otherwise captivatingly twisting story). All this while throwing in all manners of very interesting facts about medieval life, in the masterfully detailed and well-documented style of the writter.

I fully reccommend these books to anyone. I cannot begin to say how many campaign ideas I've taken out of them.

Who else is into these brick-laying, street-drawing, people-controlling sort of games? And what are your favourites?

I'm currently caught by Anno 2070, a city/resource game set in the near future when the seas have risen and you have to play as either the Tycoons (heavy industrialists who put efficiency first, and tend to pollute a lot) or Ecos (enviromentally dedicated folks who try to remain at peace with nature, but in return sacrifice efficiency) to dominate the world's last remaining spits of land. While I thought the sci-fi would swim against the style of the previous installments, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how deep the game is.

My heart remains with SimCity 4, though. Verily, t'was the pinnacle of builder games.

In a time where most topics in Off-Topic Discussions count themselves in the hundreds and thousands of replies, there must be a place for us to enjoy the peace and lack of redeeming content of a short thread.

So here is a short thread, only ONE reply long. You are welcomed to walk around in our exceedingly small but comfy living room.

Earlier today, when I was driving from home to work, I was stuck in a bit of traffic, about 10 blocks from where I'm currently sitting. The weekend had been raininy and windy, with snow falling in the mountains, but other than that a typical late-may weather (I live in Chile, so it's the start of the cold season down here). The sky was very cloudy, but there was no rain or snow.

Then, all of the sudden, a white ball of ice drops from the sky and splatters right in the middle of the street, about five cars further ahead. I couldn't tell how high it came from as I only saw the last 100-or-so metres of its drop, but it was clear no one had thrown it (there are no tall buildings in this area, and in fact I was between a hospital and a supermarket, both which, as far as I understand, lack ice-ball cannons).

The ball looked like it was at least twice as big as a soccer ball, and when I drove past it, it looked just like your average pile of snow.

So, any ideas on what could cause this sort of phenomenon? It's like the clouds were having connection issues and the snow came together at the end of the stream.

Greetings and well met!

Earlier today, while spending some sacred time at the Ivory Throne, I was thinking about crafting and how it could be made more cooperative. So if you have some spare minutes, this is my idea

Tandem Crafting

The central idea behind this is that, just like players can get together to fight monsters, they could get together to craft. Usually, we see games handling this by a method of handing over materials to a crafter in order to get a particular item made. Tandem Crafting is about making this proces a bit easier.

First, you need to get into the same party with one or more players, and then send them a Tandem Crafting request (such as clicking from a drop-down list on the character portrait or something). Multiple people can be sent this request, so long as they are both within the party and within a short distance of each other. The other players get a message asking if they want to accept (with a cooldown to avoid spamming), and if they do, the Tandem Crafting window opens.

The screen would show a series of parallel columns where the players would be able to input materials, while in the lower part a drop-down menu (or maybe a drag-and-drop method with icons) each player would be able to select the particular crafting skill they'll be providing. Then there is a "Craft" button for each player; to start the process, everyone must have clicked.

Now, here would be two things: Singular Tradeskills and Cooperative Tradeskills.

Singular Tradeskills are those that need only be done by a single person. For example, let us say a Copper Sword. All it takes is for one player to input it and starts crafting, and all the materials added in tandem will then start being converted into copper swords (so Player A can provide the copper ingots and Player B the hilt, both being counted as the same material pool). If other players also have the same tradeskill, then they can also input them for additional benefits, such as faster crafting, better material efficiency, or perhaps some chance for an improved result. If two or more conflicting tradeskills are selected, the "Craft" button can't be pressed until they have been sorted out.

Cooperative Tradeskills, on the other hand, and those that can be combined to get a certain crafting done. It could be reserved for more powerful items, or used for some item categories that would require multiple types of knowledge. For example, let's say Alchemical Silver, requiring two Cooperative Tradeskills called Silver Smelting(also used for smelting down silver ore) and Alchemical Treatment (also used for imbuing other materials with alchemical properties). So two different players add the skills, provide the materials, and press "Craft". If more players can also add those tradeskills, they could get an added benefit as in the previous case.

Crafted items could be placed into a temporary "Common Bag" from which players pick them up, maybe on a Free-for-All method or following a certain rule (such as the party leader taking them or designating who takes it), or go directly to the backpack of the person determined by the same methods.

The idea here is that crafters would have an easier time putting their skills for hire, taking out two steps from the process (the handing-over of the materials and then giving back the results), while also promoting in-situ trades as players could get together to craft in group. It would also allow for particularly important items to require direct group work and players sharing their tradeskills, promoting groupwork and the building of trading ties.

What do you think?

Last saturday my group and me got together to design new characters for our new Pathfinder campaign. We had had a few talks prior to that about what was allowed and what wasn't, but since this is the group I've been DMing to since around 1998, I didn't worry too much about bad characters. Also, we never really worry about creating balanced parties (I find it more entertaining that way, since they'll have to work out the missing parts creatively).

And there were no bad characters.

But when we gathered to work on the storylines, they presented their characters (designed at home to speed things up), and what I got was:

-2 summoners
-2 druids
-A warrior
-A cavalier

So six characters, with an extra of 4 pets, plus a potential of many more summoned creatures. They all have outstandingly interesting concepts, but I was thinking the numbers, and the minimum amount of stuff involved in a typical combat would be 11 entities (6 characters, 4 pets, and at least 1 enemy), and that's counting out the cavalier's horse and any potential NPC ally.

Today I realised I should have presented the issue during the character creation session, but we got carried away with storytelling and the point escaped my mind. And while I enjoy challenges, I don't think I want to run a campaign with that many individuals again (I once ran a 12-player campaign for 2 years. Great fun, but I aged 10 years).

How would you break the issue to the party? These are my best friends, so it's not really a confidence issue, but more like "Who should take one for the team" thing. Or maybe there is a better way to fix it than asking someone to change classes.

Help me, Advice subforum of the Paizo boards. I don't want to die like the guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I don't want to choose poorly!

I think we can already presume magic will play an important role in the game, considering it is based on Pathfinder. I was wondering, however, if there will be a place for utilitarian magic, one that does not serve specific combat purposes.

Every MMO with magic has some kind of utility magic: Teleportation is common, as well as spells intended to reduce downtime or avoid certain environmental hazards such as drowning or falling damage. But it is very rare to see a system taking magic beyond those -very necessary- basic commodities.

I'm thinking more about spells that exist to enhance the other aspects of the game, namely crafting and roleplaying, with cosmetic effects or minor useful bonuses to make the life in the game more colourful.

For example, some ideas:

-Unseen Servant: Creates a magical companion that temporarily assists you in the gathering of resources and crafting of items, such as by granting a speed/quality bonus to the task.

-Tavern Finder: Creates a glowing ball of light that travels toward the closest inn, tavern or alehouse.

-Alarm: Creates a sensor in the target location, sending the player a warning message whenever a hostile character or monster passes nearby.

-Structural Transference: Allows the caster to fold a building he owns into a small pocket dimension and carry it to a new location.

-Dimensional Courrier: Lets the caster start a trade with another character anywhere in the world.

-Ghost Sound: The caster creates a sensor that emits a predefined sound (might have a list from where the player selects, such as a bell toll, a dog bark, an ominous "Warning" voice, etc) whenever someone walks within its area of effect.

-Figment: Allows the caster to produce an illusion (from among a predetermined list of options, such as an illusion of himself, a particular creature, a tree, etc) on the spell's target location.

-Expeditous Retreat: Greatly increases the caster's movement speed.

-Feet of Lead: The target of this spell becomes unable to swim, instead walking on the bottom as if he were on the surface (might be simultaneously a nice travelling spell and a potential fatal effect if no water-breathing effect is also included).

I really don't knowhow the game will work, so these are simply speculative proposals, but the main idea is spells that serve to enhance those aspects of the game that magic often overlooks in most MMOs.

The only proper way to make a hot-dog is:

Bread at the bottom
Mashed avocado between the bread and the sausage
Sausage
Mayonnaise over the sausage
Chopped tomatoes over the mayonnaise
Mustard over the chopped tomatoes
Sauerkraut over the mustard
Ketchup over the sauerkraut

Though sauerkraut is optional (it has to be very good sauerkraut, or it ruins the hot-dog).

It has been said so, it shall be so.

While I'm no futurologist, I can safely predict that, being this a game based on Pathfinder, its chances of success will be determined by the way it models one of the key mechanics in the PnP: Basketweaving.

What engine will be the game using to best simulate the intertwinging of various vegetable fibers into portable containers?

How will Basketweaving be featured in the endgame?

Will there be a Collectors Edition which includes baskets?

Will the lore take us into a profound trip of revelation and introspection regarding the true nature of the Ars Cista?

I must know this!

I've always been enthralled by the idea of an MMO that incorporates supply and demand mechanics directly into the game. Sure, all of the modern MMOs include it in a certain way through Auction House systems, but I'm talking about something more engaging, where the game itself is in for the ride.

Some thoughts on the matter:

1.- Supply Areas: Rather than having NPCs serve as walking bags of holding with unlimited gold and wares, I was thinking about what if the game world was split into "Supply Areas" that share a common central stockpile of goods and gold, which fluctuates according to the way players interact with them. For instance, Avendale would have its own Supply Area, while Voluse has yet another. When a player goes to Avendale and sells 10 iron ingots, the local stockpile grows by that amount, while the gold available in the local economy decreases by the amount paid by the NPC. Each of these Supply Areas could have a particular rate of self-stockpiling, representing the NPC economical activity (and also allowing stockpiles to self-regulate at a certain speed, refilling local products and accumulating money).

2.- Supply-Demand: If we had different parts of the game world split into these Supply Areas, then the prices for selling and buying could be automatically regulated based on both the amount of items in stockpile and the speed at which they are sold/bought, creating a self-regulating market that fluctuates according to player activities (again, there could be an NPC factor set in order to increase/decrease market regulation). There could be a baseline consumption/supply representing the NPC economy (ie, if left alone by the players, bread loafs would eventually reach an equilibrium of, say, 1cp, as every week the city produces and eats bread following an equilibrium equation that sets itself at 1cp), which pulls markets in a certain direction if needed be (the bigger the % represented by this NPC economy, the less impact players would have on it, thus allowing fluctuations to be softened should they become too volatile). And since money would be limited to a certain amount (say, Artume starts with 100,000 gold pieces, amount which goes up or down depending on player activity), it would even model inflationary/deflationary effects!

3.- Market Caps: Since they would have independent stockpiles (the bread sold in Daggermark is not the same bread sold in Riverton) and a native NPC economy with set supply and demand baselines, markets would develop caps on certain goods that are being sold or bought in quantities that go beyond their capabilities (so if Wilkesmont only has 100 swords available per week and no player sells any new blades there, someone trying to buy the 101th blade would have to find a new place to get it). Similarly, flooding small markets with goods will eventually saturate them, and more goods simply won't be able to be sold of that particular type until the market has time to recover (or players buy those wares in the same Supply Area and start emptying the stockpile).

In general, the idea is that the market stops being seccluded to an Auction House and starts becoming something you interact often with, where players can become traders travelling to distant shores to buy and sells things not normally available.

Of course, this is a game, and some types of simulations would detract more than provide fun, such as spiraling inflation on the underwear market caused by the daring Pantaloon Trading Company guild spending more time inside the game than the other players and thus making it impossible for John "1st Level" Fighterhand to keep his nether regions warm while killing rats. So that's what the NPC economic baselines would be there for, setting up "shock insulators" in every Supply Area that would lessen the effects of players as needed be (for instance, it would be preferable for basic weapons to be readily available at low prices at all times for new players, so the NPC economic baselines could be set up to provide a continous high volume of them so that prices would always be low and supply always high, which would naturally deter speculation in said market).

Anyway, just a few thoughts on the matter. No idea if such a thing could be implemented (probably there are a lot of implications I haven't considered), but I find it a very interesting subject to talk about.

Got any other ideas on matters like these?

Here's the deal, chaps: You are making an MMO based on Pathfinder; that means you already have stolen some years from my life to be charged once you release.

Be that as it may: BEARDS.

I've played more MMOs than for decency's sake I dare admit, and in almost all of them I encounter the same gut-wrenching issue: Bears that look more like overgrown mutton chops than actual beards. And even in those few games where you get actual beards (such as WoW, WAR, LotRO or Darkfall), it is usually restricted to dwarfs.

Now, I understand that dwarfs are indeed the best of races and thus deserving of the finest of beards. But we all like to play Elmin-gandalf-tilus once in a while, and that just doesn't work with a proper beard on humans. Elves, pff; no beards for them. We don't want them getting tangled on their dandy harps.

So my request, from the bottom of my chin, is to please put an eye out for a dignifying beard selection in character customization, one that makes our XIX century ancestors proud.

A lemon-pie granola bar I found in one of the drawers of my desk.

And it doesn't taste good.

What are you chewing?

Well met!

My roleplaying group has been getting into board games, and we are looking for a big, dense, complex, 6+ player board game with lots of strategic thinking involved and different ways of playing.

Hopefully fantasy, but other genres are alright.

We're not particularly picky when it comes to random/not-random styles, so regardless of the system using dice, cards, spinning wheels, throwing darts, or beer barrels rolling down the hill, it works for us.

We're mostly looking for a game that can keep the 6 of us playing for many long hours and cracking our heads open with ellaborate stuff.

What can you good lads recommend?

My thanks beforehand.

Not sure if you guys will understand much (as it is in Castillian), but here's the trailer for the movie one of my Pathfinder players and long-time friend is currently directing, an indie parody that mixes Ghostbusters and The Exorcist, set in our hometown of Santiago de Chile.

Trailer

I was driving back from work today (I work at an olive-oil company and I was doing an inspection on our plantations, about 3 hours away from town), when I stumbled upon the crash site of two trucks.

The first 50 or so metres were covered in millions of grapes (judging from the size and colour, I'd say Red Globe variety); felt like driving on bubblewrap, but my ninja skills helped avoid crashing myself (hard to brake on grapes, I noticed).

But the next part was covered in avocados (of what I'd say was the Hass variety), which was extremely tricky. Imagine driving on watery snow filled with rocks, except that the snow is green and it breaks under your wheels, which avocado hearts shooting in all directions.

Lost control of the car on the second one and ended up inside a puddle of grape juice and mashed avocado.

And the first thought that came to my mind was "Dayum shame, if only a potato chip truck had crashed nearby".

I've been either blessed or cursed with a very creative gaming group that constantly tries to find alternative ways to use the rules. And a typical thing they ask for is for spells to be usable in ways that, while reasonable to their base effects, are not exactly by the book.

For instance, using a Ray of Frost several times to freeze a water in the shape of arrowheads for when the archer ran out of arrows, employing Grease to make the inside of an armour suit slippery and thus reduce the time it takes to remove it, and stuff like that.

Do you allow such alternative uses of spells, or do you prefer to stick specifically to what their entries say?

That's right. I figured out any community this big needs a topic where all questions are answered with the letter P.

So ask away!

I'm not particularly old (turning 27 in december), I don't have any degenerative brain disease (as far as I know), and I have not crashed against a pole since at least two weeks ago (I tell ya, those poles should watch their step, always crashing into people).

Yet during our gaming session last saturday, I spent the better part of an hour DMing the wrong story, including NPCs, sites, and encounters that had absolutely nothing to do with the campaign we were playing.

And the group just played along with it!

<Shakes angry fist>

As it turns out, I figured something was wrong when one of the players didn't know how to answer something that was patently obvious -for me-; of course there was a dragon in the tower! What tower? I don't know! There never was a tower in the story, nor a dragon, nor a wizard named Wulfgar!

Apparently, I had a mental lagoon and started the session convinced we were going through part of a very old campaign I ran during my AD&D years in school, one that I never finished. Then the whole party noticed and decided to play along with it. I like to think they did it to avoid making me look ridiculous, but I'm quite sure the objective was exactly the opposite.

Ah, the tricks of the mind. Poor old Wulfgar never got to use his dragon.

There was I, reading through my copy of the new setting book, when the turning of pages reveals a world map I had not seen before, a world map that shows a proposed outline of the lands beyond the Inner Sea.

So there was I, drinking ginger ale, and thinking: Has there anything been suggested about the kind of stuff we might find in, say, the southern half of Garund (this continent being my favourite part of the Inner Sea)? Does it continue the African theme of the northern half, or does it get involved in stuff that has no direct earthly correspondence?

Maybe stuff in the line of the fabbled realm of Prester John? Maybe bewildering Numeria-like stuff? Tentacles from outer space? Unheard offshots of Azlant? Another Azlant-like lost culture? Very large muffins?

I first heard about Pathfinder sometime during 2009, about the same time my group and I decided to jump from 3.5 to 4e.

Then, after 5 sessions of 4e, we acknowledged it was a good game, but not our cup of tea. So we went back to 3.5, and shortly after moved sort-of-sideways-but-also-forward-a-bit ("diagonally", as the kids say these days) to Pathfinder.

And then we started our current campaign, in January 2010, if memory helps, campaign that is pretty much about to end in all manners of bangs.

So, after a year and three quarters of campaign later, what can I say? Well, Paizo, thanks for all the fun. Your game has kept me and my group entertained like the kids with receeding hair and beer bellies we are today, and I can safely say it has been the most entertaining campaign I've been involved with since the Planescape ones I had back in late-90's AD&D.

The results so far: 6 players fully converted to Pathfinder; 5 of them with their own hardback Core Rulebooks; 3 of them with expanding Pathfinder collections including essentially every splatbook that is not a module (but this only because we never play premade modules); all 6 of them in love with Golarion. And a DM who at this point would probably even buy a soggy waffle covered in fish oil so long as it was between two Pathfinder Something-Something covers.

So in representation of us 6 far away chileans, thank you, Paizo, for a game well done.

Currently I'm running a Pathfinder campaign set mainly in Katapesh and Osirion, and now that it's approaching conclusion (planning on finishing it around September; it began in April 2010), I'm working on the next one, which I intend to make very much in the tone of the adventures of Sinbad and Odysseus, that's it, peril-infested trips through awe-inspiring locations that throw the characters into a series of truly fantastical adventures (our current campaign is very heavy on the political/conspiracy side, so now I want a switch into cliffhanger high-fantasy).

However, while I've been culturing myself (Golarion is the first non-homebrew setting I've run since my Dragonlance/Pathfinder days in the late 90's), I still don't feel like I know the setting well enough to be sure that I'm contemplating all the possibilities.

So, my question is, where in Golarion would you reccomend to set a campaign of the aforementioned type?

As an addendum, I'm planning on a level 1 to 10 campaign (so extremely darkbad locations might not be ideal at first).

Thank you very much beforehand.

It is no surprise that we all have different takes on the various changes Pathfinder made to D&D, and in general I suppose we can agree most of them were for the better (or we wouldn't be playing Pathfinder to begin with).

But are there any rules you have found to be better/closer to your style in 3.5 and thus decided to retrofit it to the older version? Which ones?

In my case, so far I've brought back the following:

XP Cost for Spells and Crafting: Since magic items and powerful spells are not aplenty in my games, I like there being a heavy, hard to recover cost involved when making them. Plus my players are used to it.

d4 for Wizards and Sorcerers: This is more a customary change than anything, since the actual difference for characters that rarely stack Constitution and seldom wear armour is quite small.

Level-loss on Death: I just like the concept in general. PC deaths are not too regular in my games, though.

Turn/Command Undead: While I do like the Energy Channel rules, I feel like getting the old turn/command undead thing (which I've always seen as a stapple of the standard D&D cleric) was too complicated with this system. But I didn't want to scrap the new rules, so I let my players pick turn/command undead for free at 1st level in exchange for halving their channel uses per day.

Use Rope Checks: Though rather than reinstating the skill, I folded it under Sleight of Hand. My opinion is that tying a proper knot should matter.

Old Half-Orc Ability Bonus/Penalty: I've never really seen half-orcs as cosmopolitan and varied race, thus I reverted to the old stat modifiers.

How about you guys? Any changes back so far? Maybe even more retro-retrofitted and brought back non-weapon proficiencies and % rolls for rogue skills?

How does it goes in your table? Do your players cast "Crushing Hand" or "Bigby's Crushing Hand"? Do you let them get stranded on a "Mage's Magnifiscent Mansion", or on a "Mordenkainen's Magnifiscent Mansion"?

All spells get names in my games, even the ones without names, as well as some extra unnecessary pompous adjectives thrown in for good measure. "Oleg's Wondrous Magic Missile" and "Thromund's Most Stupendous Invisible Servant" get added to the more traditional "Melf's Acid Arrow" and "Drawmij's Instant Cake".

There is something about spells needing to have complicated names I cannot avoid loving.

I was trying to find a previous topic on this, but I was unable to.

What would be the ability scores normally presumed to be available to a character as he levels up for the content of the game to be balanced?

For instance, I know that with a point-buy system a level 1 character can potentially reach abnormally high numbers in one of his scores by dumping all the rest, and that at certain levels most characters are asumed to have stat-boosting items at least for their primary ones.

But what are the "standards"? As in, what does Paizo usually consider to be expected when creating monsters, adventures, and so forth?

Thanks beforehand.

Some people like Prestige Classes, some people do not like Prestige Classes. Since we are free to use the pages we like from the manuals, I am not in any way morally, physically, mentally, or spiritually troubled by there being Prestige Classes, my personal preferences regarding them notwithstanding.

I was having a discussion with a long-time friend and fellow DM the other day about the D&D cosmology (in its various incarnations, from the early bare-bones Aristotelian model to the current contending visions of Pathfinder and 4e) and how he saw big chunks of it as useless, unvisitable territories of doom and nothingness, while I insisted on the charm of having places where normal -or even heroic- characters are not supposed to go.

The discussion about how "playable" the cosmology is maybe goes as far back as the original Manual of the Planes, when players were first properly introduced to entire universes composed of nothing more than flames or vacuums that extend forever. To some, the planes should be accessible somehow, and thus dislike the idea of these realms were survival is, at best, almost impossible; to others, it just makes sense for them to be like that and adds to the mystery and wonder of the planes.

Personally, I like my cosmology to be dangerous and consistent within its own crazy paradigms: The Elemental Planes should not be welcoming to players, because they are the sources of the fundamental forces of the cosmos and just as you don't get it easy in the Earth's core, you shouldn't get it easy in the Plane of Fire; the Abyss should have unknown depths were characters are lost forever from merely thinking about them; there shouldn't be a need to populate the Negative Energy Plane with themed creatures so it is not an endless emptiness -it should be an endless emptiness!

What's your take, and how do you transport it to the Great Beyond?

I'm one of those roleplayers who cannot live without physical, tangible books; while I recognize the ease of use of PDFs, I never buy them, because I know I'd rather have the printed version. Manuals add a sense of style to the roleplaying table that I just need to have every time.

So in that regard, when I got the Pathfinder Core Rulebook a couple of years ago and saw how big it was, I was thrilled (the only thing better than a book is a very large book). Then 3 of my players got their own copies, so we ended up with 4 enormous volumes alongside all the other things, which was very nice.

However, as time went by, I began noticing a trend: Since we do not use PDFs when playing (I only allow laptops on the table during character creation and similar meta-game situations), we check our manuals pretty often, and due to their size, tear and wear is starting much earlier than I'm used to (truth be told I'm careful with books, and my AD&D 2e ones are still in perfect condition), particularly in the binding, as the weight of the book is very straining on the material when left open for too long. Plus the fact it does get eventually tiring to hold the book for too long.

Anyone else experiencing these problems already? Visually I really like the book, but now I'm starting to see the logistical issues of such a large tome, and admiting I'd prefer a return to the Player's Handbook/DM's Guide split (I'd actually buy them if they re-released a split version for Pathfinder).