Laserray's page

Well, OK, since you asked nicely. I wont tell much about the plot in case there are people who are going to play it...

Thanks, Rich. A great story!

Reviews aren't available from the product discussion page... only the actual product page (which is probably something we should change). So if you go here, you should see the "Write a Review" link.

Got it!

TEACHERS UNTIE! oops, I mean, . . .

Junior high English teacher here.

We thouroughly enjoyed the Pathfinder society games despite the total party wipe in our first one ; ) more on this in another thread later when ive un packed my goodies and eaten a pizza. Oh and washed.....

Rich

Now that you've unpacked and washed, keep that promise! Lead us to the thread or tell us here about the total party wipe. That's gotta' be a great story.

Vic, I want to post a review of PC Pearls, but don't see a reviewer option on the product page.

As originator and co-creator of Bedlam Havok, thank you! If you get a chance, we'd love to hear your same comments in a review. Glad you enjoyed the book!

Never posted a review, but would if I could. On another thread someone mentioned having trouble with posting reviews. I'll check back later to see if the review option appears.

Meanwhile, I just ordered five more hard copies as gifts for gamer friends and relatives, one serving in Korea. I've also purchased the PDF to make copies for my own group. What an inexpensive way for the GM to spice up play.

ambiguously

Yah, these slippers are a great gift idea, but for the price it's important that they fit.

I personally vastly prefer these boards over every other site I visit...

Long live the Loaf!

Yes! These boards set the standard for what other messageboards should be like. Paizo boards, keep up the good work.

PC Pearls is amazing!

I got my pre-orderd copy from Paizo yesterday. It's full of unusual and serious advice, with sprinklings of levity that caught me off guard and had me laughing out loud. The cover art is gorgeous and the inner art adds spice to the text. The Lord Bedlam Havok section and insets are hysterical - worth the price of the book by themselves.

You gotta' get your hands on a copy.

By not voting, by not caring and by not taking part in the process (no matter how flawed it is) all you'll ever have is impotent grumbling and ineffectual whining.

Hear, hear!

. . . Quite simply I had an utter ball. . .

Thank you for the detailed description. Felt like I was there.

Varianor, when I pasted www.varianor.livejournal.com as the address, live journal gave me an error report. : (

The title pretty much sums it up. I live in Newfoundland (Eastern Canada) and have as yet never had the opportunity to travel the thousands of miles to attend the event ( sigh).

Basically I would love to hear stories or thoughts about this year's Con, or any Con that you have been to in the past. ( The good, bad, and ugly).

thanks.

Me too; me too - but specifically GenCon 2008. Did you meet people from these message boards? Did you meet authors whose work you've read? Where/what did you eat? Where did you stay? Did you meet Paizo personnel? Did you spend a mint? Was it worth it? Should I save to go next year?

PAIZO's website is excellent!

Doomlounge wrote:

This sounds like a perfect way to induct my daughter into gaming! I thought she could play a familiar when she was old enough, and then expand from there. Who produces Faeries Tale?

Firefly-games.com. Paizo.com also sells the .pdf and a spooky adventure here. Realize that there are about 5 adventures for the game, but only two are sold ($3.00 or so). I do NOT know if the Paizo edition is the Deluxe edition or not; go with the deluxe edition.

Maybe this response should start a new thread: GAMING AND THE CLASSROOM.

How about ideas for games appropriate for use in junior high classrooms? My language arts curriculum would be enhanced by spending some class periods (or having a unit) on role-playing games: plot, setting, and character development; creative thinking skills; verbal skills . . . I see great potential.

In fact, I actually had one of the RPG Superstars (whose name I won't disclose without permission) develop character sheets and a simplified role-playing game that we called The Even More Dangerous Game for ninth graders who had read "The Most Dangerous Game." It truly engaged the students in the literary process - especially conflict.

KEEP THE IDEAS COMING FOR KID-APPROPRIATE GAMES.

I'm currently in the middle of the Frankenstein unit with my Honors English 8 class. Thanks to you both, I've ordered Frankenstein's Cat , the book, from Amazon; but it would be great fun to have the animated show, which Amazon doesn't list. How can I get it --- online?

Check out our crazy Dark Challenges at Sinister. We are looking for some up and coming new designers with mad skillz to join our crew!

Hey, we spent months reading entries and voting for the best "up coming new designers with mad skillz."

I understand that you want to increase involvement in rpg and that competition draws people in, but look after those of us who invested our time and energy in the last competition. What's on the agenda for those RPG Superstar contestants?

Are you utilizing their talents now that you've found them? (And that includes Kisko.) When will we see more of their products?

We've invested in them and we want to see their work.

Laserray wrote:

What to do now?

Look at the rest of the boards?

I know. You're right. Day after tomorrow, we need to break the RPG Superstar habit until further notice.

For ingenious ideas, amazing writing, wonderful commentary, as well as camaraderie and competition, go to the rest of the boards.

Paizo rocks!

with voting done it's...

boring. . .

The contest has had everything: ingenious ideas, amazing writing, great editing, wonderful commentary, fascinating competition. . .

What to do now?

Boomer: With editting (maybe the PCs get called in after the Duke is assassinated, for a start) it might be a pair of books or even a trilogy or adventure path I might look at buying, but I'm not seeing this as a 32 page module, or not without losing what makes it what it is.

Before the entries were released to us, I read the rules in order to know how to judge once the submissions were available. I've been surprised to see so much concern regarding whether proposals would fit into thirty-two pages, so I reread the rules for this round. Here's how the rules section ends:

"Lastly and most importantly: Make the proposal awesome."

Though the other three submissions are great, it's your intrigue, double-cross, escape, sea adventure, and jungle treck that keep running through my head.

You've done it . . .YOUR PROPOSAL IS AWESOME!

Rob, I read the entries differently from many who've posted responses. An industry that wants to reach new players should encourage work like "Twilight of the Phoenix." Not all of us have been there and done that.

In response to the concern that your proposal is a bit much for a 32-page adventure, better that than a paucity of content.

Reading your proposal was a pleasure!

Boomer, you've wowed me again.

Your ideas show intriguing creativity, wonderful writing ability, and amazing versatility. This is exciting! It got my juices flowing after a full day of work, reading all four entries, voting, and THEN reading the comments.

Phooey on "can't be done in thirty-two pages." This amazing proposal IS the most fascinating and fun of the four. It's within the stated the word limit; why would anyone doubt your ability to create the best full adventure? Not me, chief.

You made our long wait worth it. You're my RPG Superstar!

Oh, no. Tomorrow is Valentine's day, too?

I'll need to get any tokens purchased before noon Pacific time, or my eyes will be too bloodshot to shop.

Come on, come on, noon tomorrow. Bring me four adventures!

P.S. Thanks, Christine, for taking the time to let your Paizo people know how you're doing.

I have seen so many concerns posted about the TRAPS that I thought I'd point out that Boomer created a hot-link to the SRD entry for the trap - it has the caster level, the DC, and hot-links to the spells used in creating it.

For those people (like varianor) having trouble with the three wail of the banshee traps, particularly those confused about Caster Level, click on the blue words "wail of the banshee" under the word Traps in the submission.

I caught the links on my first read-through, but with so many comments that the traps haven't been properly covered, I figure the links must be easy to miss on some computers; but the traps' links are there.

Though not marketing experts, we who have followed Paizo's RPG Superstar Contest – reading, commenting, and voting - have made an unusual commitment. We have developed a sense of ownership and will always believe that our participation helped create "authors." Many will want a hard copy that represents not only the writers' contributions, but our own investment in their efforts.

Also, people LOVE to see their friend's and/or family's work in print. Producing a compilation of one entry from each of the thirty-two finalists would garner purchases for/from children, spouses, parents, friends, and extended family, as well as from the authors themselves.

If a reader wants stat blocks or spoilers in order to run an entry, the text can send them to Paizo.com. My desire is to have a copy in the classroom as inspiration for students to write. Each level of the Paizo RPG competition provides creative writing opportunities and meritorious examples.

Laserray wrote:

Hear, hear!

The decision about whether to include authors' names won't matter to those of us who've "lived" on the RPG Superstar boards for months. Having read and re-read the earlier submissions, we'll know who wrote each of the four entries in the last round.

Each writer has a specific and identifiable voice.

Then taking off their names shouldn't matter

Exactly.

Hear, hear!

The decision about whether to include authors' names won't matter to those of us who've "lived" on the RPG Superstar boards for months. Having read and re-read the earlier submissions, we'll know who wrote each of the four entries in the last round.

Each writer has a specific and identifiable voice.

Reading material, though not simply books:

Latest issue of PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, quasi-intellectual, light, and fun

Collections of short stories, currently Stephen King's FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT

Michael Erard's UM: SLIPS, STUMBLES, AND VERBAL BLUNDERS AND WHAT THEY MEAN

Zadie Smith's ON BEAUTY, a gift that has lain bedside over a year, the title precluding interest

Just finished one I highly recommend, THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy.
Am now enjoying the "oldie," FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT by Stephen King.

Usually I can understand what respondents mean when they post on these threads, even if I don't agree; however, I am stupefied by anyone's saying they "don't get it" after reading your entry.

While I don't normally care much for psionics, I could easily use Arthelia as a "foreigner," travelling across my home-brew (in the guise of a young actor, I love that part!) with skills, abilities and motives as an assassin that my players have never seen before, which is really, really wonderful.

Arthelia is a villain par excellence and has my vote!

The technique of voting for submissions you don't think are the best - if commonly used by voters - will affect the validity of the results.

Since I intend to buy products created by the winner, I recommend that people vote for their favorite entries, period.

Maybe someone ELSE would like to answer Wayland's questions?

PLEASE?

I'll take a stab at it!

But now I'm in doubt for two reasons. First of all, the psionics, I'm not against it, but it's still a niche and one I don't feel adds that much special here that couldn't have been achieved in a more conventional manner.

I don't like psionics, probably because the only players who ever seem to want them are munchkins. Still, I think this villain could be used in any campaign, be it one that includes psionics or no.

Because the Ul-Shadai's specific psionic abilities are not particularly complex (he is resistant to fire, he can set his hand on fire, he shoots fire and he can nimbus himself in fire) and all of the rules for that are included right there in stat-block, this really isn't "psionics". I looked up the prestige class, and it's all just: here are some superpowers. No need for a DM to otherwise include psychics at all.

Clinton found a flavory PrC (with some cool unique abilities) that had weird entry requirements: waste a feat, take some cross-class a few ranks in an obscure Knowledge, and now you can shoot fire. That I had never thought of using this class makes it good design.

And this guy is supposed to be eleventy-million years old; if he has a different understanding of reality than the PCs and totally weird powers, good. Make him the only psion in the whole universe! That's what I'll probably do.

Second, I don't feel he has a high persistancy factor. The most likely way players encounter him is on a service for somebody else, which gives a high chance of a one time cameo for out ancient menace.

I think that in the hands of a clever DM, he could be used and re-used: sinking ships, knocking over banks (maybe literally!), killing good-guy NPCs, always showing up at the worst possible time and then suddenly leaving.

The Ul-Shadai is crazy, right. If he's on a job for a new 'Master', he might ignore the PCs as they ineffectually try to stop him or even chat with them while he burns crops or steals casks full of gold and jewels from a treasury.

He could seem almost schizophrenic - stealing a priceless statue one day and returning it the next; burning down vessels of the Royal Navy for a while and then hunting pirate ships; the PCs would never know what he was really up to until all the little villains that he has collected start working for HIM.

The bigger picture: So, what is the Ul-Shadai after, in the end? Is it re-establishing his world-kingdom, or resurrecting his Mother, or finding the artifact of the Storm Scholar, or ... something else?

I'm happy that Clinton didn't say, because leaves it open for me to decide.

A delicious tasting party, even though I had to provide my own wine
and cheese. Based on a variety of factors including novelty (yet
connectivity for my players), potential for riveting campaigns, and
the author's writing capability, I have cast my votes for the
following countries:
Yithnai
Cyrehllan
Stained Peaks
Iskandria
Eluraelon

I rest my palate for the next round.

"Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragon's Horde" vs. Arthurian-era
Ireland, Britain and Scotland . . . Sign me up and give me more! I
want to get a letter from Ulliam, I want to sneak into King's port and
fight dirty drow ninja, I want to rendezvous with poor Lord Fhlynn and
help him out, and I want to return the land to the golden age of the
Kingdom of the Emerald Star! With me on the Throne, obviously. 8D
It would be fun to play someone whose parents escaped when the King
was killed, going back to the Emerald Isle to defeat the Tigers.

BTW, I don't understand the criticism of all the Y's – if Clinton is
evoke a feeling of ancient Gaelic legend, with a magic king who 'drove
the serpents out' and stuff, then 'witches' probably 'should' be
spelled "wytches."

This has my vote, and I'm surprised, because I don't particularly care
for the PSAs, unlike all the guys I know. And Good Luck!

I am thinking I will have to just go see it and decide for myself.

Have you seen it?

If so, what say you now?