Mark L. Crowell's page

55 posts. Alias of sarokcat.


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Sczarni

?

Sczarni

i have long had the Pathfinder society subscription, yet as i was prepping for the first con i've been able to attend for a while, i've noticed that the quests don't seem to be unlocked as part of this subscription? is this intenntional?

Sczarni

It looks like shipping end date is here and gone and it still hasn't shipped? just checking if everything is ok with this.

Sczarni

pathfinder scenarios please! and thank you for sorting this out!

Sczarni

Was Checking as i REcently got only a starfinder Adeventure path, to discover something happened to my Pathfinder Adventure path subscription... I never canceled it, and i got book 1 of the Ashes path... but book 2 was never shipped me, nor is it in my downloads. How do i get this sent with the rest of my subscription.

Sczarni

yes please could i have the items in the order reinstated.

Sczarni

just checking up on things

Sczarni

I would like to cancel my players companion subscription.

and how would i go about fixing Order 7864401 since i only noticed it was messed up when i was the only one not getting my core books recently

Also there are some items in my sidecart(all of them) i inteded to be in my regular cart if they could be moved back

Sczarni

Thank you very much! Looks good to me and i look forward to it shipping! Thank you for working it out for me.

Sczarni

the payment method for subscriptions should be fine to handle it currently? Once the card game items are removed anyways. And is everything ok with the first order?

Sczarni

ok back to checking on this now, since it has been pending for around 18 days now, And now there seems to be a new problem, as im seeing order Order 4756374 which had been pending but was sorted out after removal of card game stuff is now canceled...

Is something still going on, and when can i expect things? we really want to start Dead suns soon, but i don't want to start until books 5-6 arrive.

Sczarni

ok, i went back through and reordered the subscription, hopefully that should have me resubscribed without an issue? Really don't want to miss these.

Sczarni

thanks! ship it when ready. Thank you for fixing the adventure path subscription, more than anything thats the one we look forward too the most.

Sczarni

updated the information, though if thats the case it seems my adventure paths are listed as canceled too when the only thing i wanted removed was the cards. so those need to be reactivated then?

Sczarni

i am once again looking at this, and finding the card game subscription which i thought i had canceled on there. waiting to fix the payment until this is sorted out hasn't worked yet, is there anything else i need to do.

Sczarni

I kept waiting for this to come, and yesterday i got information it was cancelled... looks like it kept trying to authorize an old card, instead of using the store credit that it was supposed to, or using the current card like i had told it to do several times... is this fixable by using the 0835 card on my accoount.

Sczarni

Turns out I won't be able to make this, would like to cancel the order sadly. maybe next year.

Sczarni

payment was supposedly sorted out over a week ago. any further estimate on this?

Sczarni

any further estimate on this being shipped?

Sczarni

was looking around and realized my subscriptions hadn't arrived for a while. it's getting kinda worrisome. Don't see a shipped order either. is everything ok?

Sczarni

please cancel my core game subscription only things are tight this holiday season.

Sczarni

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Once this releases, the organized play tables will all be goblins... and I am ok with this.

Sczarni

hey I have the emerald spire, and the maps that go along with it, but at one point after an event where I had the maps with me, one of the maps has gone Awol. (The map of levels 7/8 is sadly now missing) is there a way to just Purchase this particular map, or is it only available in the multipack bundle. I didn't see a way on the site but figured I would ask.

Sczarni

Ok, Thanks! I was waiting but when it went past the ship date I got worried!

Sczarni

still haven't got my September subscription ship notice. double checked my subscription and the order status just says pending. Checking up on this.

Sczarni 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kalindlara wrote:
Prepping this for next Friday, in a convention's 6-10:30. The comments here are not giving me much confidence...

It's rough, part of it is that all three names are pronounced pretty much the same(technically jax and jacks ARE pronounced the same). so when speaking the scenario instead of reading it, confusion WILL run rampant. I'd suggest little cards with their spelling on it so you can hold them up, and emphasize little differences in each name. Also there is almost too much to do in town and too long for them to do it before stuff starts happening, stretching the first part out, where it is actually impossible for them to actually accomplish anything other then raising the awareness, isn't very fun.

I would suggest a gather information roll right after they get out into town to learn the 'important locations' where the people they are looking for frequent. (perhaps playing up the names a bit here... oh JACKS! I thought you meant JAX! sorry he hangs out more at...) Also either a Cheat sheet for the locations and who hangs out there, or encouraging the players to write it down themselves will be VERY helpful for this module. And if I were going to do this one again, I would DEFINITELY make cheat sheets for the factions for the players to refer to during the module.

This one will need a lot of prep, and be prepared for your players to be confused and or lost on what to do next more then a little bit, so I hope it goes well for you.

Sczarni 4/5

It sounds like we basically played hard mode without planning too, we got to town with less then 30 minutes left we were told, because no one had disable... so I guess we should have had more time to actually investigate instead of rush towards the event. In the first fight, I don't know what happened, but almost everything in that fight was flying, most of which had arrows and didn't come even slightly close until the end. So I don't know what to say about that other than it burned a LOT of table time just trying to survive the onslaught without being able to retaliate. As for the force fields, well if they weren't supposed to be there, there might have been a chance at us figuring out the puzzle... on the other hand I suppose I feel a little less stupid knowing that it actually wasn't possible to solve the way it was presented to our group. We all chipped in to raise the bard, So not sure If we want to jump through hoops to try to retcon a scenario or a death, hate second guessing like that since we cleared it. as for someone in the gears for multiple rounds... yeah the fighter was trapped in them for ages unable to make any of the checks before getting out through sheer desperation and luck, scared the rest of us out of messing with the gears considering how hard the check dc was.

As for the gm running it cold, I don't think it was cold, but he freely admitted he didn't realize how complicated or how much prep this one would take when he picked It to prep, so probably not quite enough time to prepare it if it has this much crazy stuff in it.

Sczarni 4/5

Just played this and came here to see just how the heck we were supposed to deal with this. We had to call it at 7 HOURS of play, and we didn't get to the last fight, we couldn't even get past the puzzle with 4 players. (admittedly one of them died to the bag and so couldn't really contribute to the puzzle.... ). This one seemed both amazingly rough, and amazingly complex. Due to party composition, we barely ended up playing up with 4 player adjustment.

Starting from the top, we had a pretty decently rounded group, and we made the heal checks with the travelers pretty easily... but no one had disable device, (though we had tons of survival and perception which apparently wouldn't work for this?) so we apparently made it to town with almost no time left before the big event. Everyone was confused since we all thought we would have a day or so at least to get ready/ask around. So we basically rushed to the tower after talking with the mayors... talk to the pixie and the event starts.

details of our ignomious failure:

So the first fight happens,Then we take about 3 aoes on the surprise round from the invisible foes... backed up by the same greater invisible foes debuffing and aoeing again right away, taking down the fighter before anyone could actually act. Follow this up by a large number of rounds of creatures flying at 60-80 feet up raining down arrows with occasional aoes. The first fight was absolutely brutal and nearly destroyed us. and eventually ended up being almost an hour and a half of us being attacked by foes that could fly and/or greater invis, running away whenever we got close, and raining down spells and arrows before they finally got bored and tried melee (where most of them died.) and we still had to spend 20ish minutes chasing down the greater invisible gloom dragons before they would stop glooming/aoeing us due to finally getting enough together to glitterdust them.

So now we finally get to enter the tower! or at least try... while several of the party are able to climb up to the window, I am outside attempting to break the door down to get in(can't make the climb check and thought it would be faster.) they get in easily enough, and the bard wants to come down to help open the door... only there is apparently a horizontal wall of force blocking movement up and down the tower? The bard is then grabbed by a bag in the surprise round, and constricted.... combat starts, people try to rush over, the door finally gives way.... and the bard gets constricted to death on the bags next turn before anyone can really do anything about it. the bag then dies easily enough.... but the stairways are still blocked so no one can go up or down save through random portals.

The pixie passes us a diagram which says alternate on it, and we attempt to use the portals.... which leads to a massive amount of trial and error, and one person in heavy armor in the gears with a penalty to acrobatics.... slowly dieing. No one can go down to help because there are forcefields separating every layer of the tower. so we start trying to track the portals we went through to find a way to him... and end up split up all over the tower. The thing that threw us off the most, was some portals going up one time, and other locations on the floor another time. We never did manage to solve the situation, and were forced to jump into the gears to make our way down and out of the place after almost 3 hours(actual time spent) of "i move here, where does this portal go this time?" The clues only served to confuse us more since they seemed to refer to one set of answers.... that didn't work or make sense in the puzzle we were presented. we even tried stringing ropes outside the tower from the higher floors only to find that wouldn't work to bypass the annoying portals or planes of force separating the levels.

As we never made the final combat, I certainly cant comment on that, and when the gm showed us how the puzzle was supposed to be solved... not a single one of us could figure out how we were supposed to actually DO the puzzle if the portals were the only way up or down the tower... nor could any of us figure out how the 'clues' were actually supposed to help.

All in all, not an enjoyable scenario for most of us, a near tpk in the first fight... actual death in the second before anyone could really act, and a very narrowly avoided death(the GM threw us a bone here I think instead of autokilling the person).... in the PUZZLE, And the worst part is, for most of the scenario it was just a lot of feeling like no matter what we did, it didn't really matter, especially during the puzzle. I unfortunately cannot comment on the finale of the event, though the combat probably could have been handled decently with the team we had left.... we just couldn't make it there.

Sczarni

So as a 4 star gm... how do i go about getting this to run now that Gen con has ended.

Sczarni 4/5

nosig wrote:


I'm getting sucked back into this thread! arg! missed my Will save!

Ok, so we are advised to play chases more like an RPG... "allow creative ideas" to replace the fixed skill DCs, have one players actions effect all the other players "gates" (challanges?)... why do the chase mechanics at all?

Just say:
Judge: "your target brakes into a run, as he ducks thru the back door and out into the alley."
When the players respond:
Player 1: "I leap over the tables and sprint out the door!"
Judge: "roll acrobatics"
Player 2: "I step back out the front door and cut left to the alley entrance!"
Player 3: "Out the front like #2 and turn right in case he goes the other way."
Player 4: "HA! I move up to the bar and order a beer. 'I say barkeep, the guy that just fled out the back, do you know where he lives?'"
Judge: "seeing you" pointing at Player #3 "at the foot of the alley, the suspect climbs thru a window back into the bar - "
Player 4: "where I hit him with my beer! 'Bloody waste!' I say."

I do not think I am doing a good job of what I mean.

A chase...

To be fair I actually do enjoy chase scenes and they Should play out more like this. From the first few chases i ran it said refer to the Gamemastery guide or use these abbreviated rules... i find the rules and the advice for chase scenes in the guide to be FAR more helpful.

I always describe the problem, and some of the suggested checks, but most importantly i tell them what they SEE happening and describe their successes or failures in a dramatic way. Also probably the biggest thing with chase scenes, is some of the barriers don't make too much sense for back to back people to encounter, and i have allowed people to attempt harder checks, or use spells, as suggested by the GM guide, to actually remove obstacles for those following. so they can move faster through the area.

Honestly i feel good that i still occassionally hear people chatting over some of the chase scenes as memorable encounters.... like the paladin who rolled a nat 1 with an armor check penalty into the Ornamental pond... and had to get fished out by a rogue using an actual fishing pole with rope tied to it... or the time one of the players in a certain scenario encountered a mob... and made a diplomacy check to lead the whole mob away, leading them away from the beast they were chasing.... taking himself AND that square out of the chase and the fight following... but having a blast doing so.

Personally i think the chase mechanic CAN be fun, but there are more rules to it and it does give a lot of room for GM intervention using the full chase rule set. And requires a bit more work from the GM to make things interesting..

Personally i like using Index cards, with a notation on it of What the challenge is (but no dcs listed... they shouldn't know that anyways.) and only setting out the next cards as they Actually get in a position to see what is going on in the chase. It feels a lot more like a chase in progress towards an unknown destination that way, instead of just moving along boxes. And I also love describing their quarry's successes, or failures.

Your table may be different, but i really think this is a mechanic that used sparingly, CAN make things more exciting and spice up a scenario... but it is also one that requires more than just slapping the paper on the table and saying, hey this is how it works, start rolling. Because that isn't going to be fun for ANYONE.

Sczarni 4/5

I just ended up running this one, and it went pretty rough... I think the players got more confused by the

Spoiler:
jax, jak, jacks issue.
Than the factions were supposed to be, and it doesn't help that they all are pronounced very similarly. If i were to run this again, i would definitely have cards to hold up to differentiate them and refer to their last names WAY more often as it is really the only way to tell them apart...

The party got really frustrated by the entire first part leading up to the show, really feeling like nothing was happening for the longest time and that they couldn't really accomplish anything... Which is Sadly kind of true as well, unless i am missing something.

This was definitely a rough one to run, and you DEFINITELY need to do a lot of prep to keep things straight as a GM, the table practically cried out in relief when they finally actually got to the combats, even though they were very short and easy combats all around.

Sczarni

I prefer them sent with the subscriptions, so that is perffect.

Sczarni

if it would be easier just to do the difference as store credit that would be fine by me as well.

Sczarni

very well.

Order 3571873
has been placed.

Sczarni

sadly prices reverted as soon as i hit show cart... It wouldn't even last long enough for me to get to the checkout process.

Sczarni

Was trying to place an order for the Pathfinder society face cards, and a couple PFS scenarios to run this month... only to find it wasn't applying the subscriber discount, even though i was having it shipped with my subscription. Is something wonky or did i click something wrong when trying to checkout....

Sczarni

Bump? any comments or help?

Sczarni

Had this come up in a pfs game the other day, and I wanted to make sure of the ruling that this actually works the way i thought it did. The question was with the spell pyrotechnics... (and by extension several other spells with similar or the same language.) to help the spell text is here.

Smoke Cloud: A stream of smoke billows out from the fire, forming a choking cloud that spreads 20 feet in all directions and lasts for 1 round per caster level. All sight, even darkvision, is ineffective in or through the cloud. All within the cloud take -4 penalties to Strength and Dexterity (Fortitude negates). These effects last for 1d4+1 rounds after the cloud dissipates or after the creature leaves the area of the cloud. Spell resistance does not apply.

There is the pertinent portion of the spell ALL sight even darkvision is blocked by the smoke.

My Ifrit bard decided it would be an amazing spell to use to screw with enemies... since he has two abilities. these are the abilities.

Firesight (Ifrit)
Prerequisites: Ifrit.

Benefit: You can see through fire and smoke without penalty, ignoring any cover or concealment bonuses from fire and smoke. This does not allow you to see anything you could not otherwise see (for example, invisible creatures are still invisible). You are immune to the dazzled condition.

and

Song of the Fiery Gaze (Su): At 3rd level, a fire dancer can allow allies to see through flames without any distortion. Any ally within 30 feet of the bard who can hear the performance can see through fire, fog, and smoke without penalty as long as the light is sufficient to allow him to see normally, as with the base effect of the gaze of flames oracle revelation. Song of the fiery gaze relies on audible components.

This essentially allows his party (and him) to see through the firey smoke as i understood it. However the phrasing blocks all sight had the question come up in game. Do these abilities allow one to see through even magical sight blocking smoke, since it seems that is part of what is intended. or is the magic of the smoke blocking the see through smoke abilities? If possible it would be nice to get an answer on this matter for next time i wish to use the character.

Sczarni 4/5

I audit my players, the first time they sit with me I go hey let me see your character/chronicles real fast to check. I do a quick stat check, look for anything that seems odd in hp/saves, ask them if there is anything I should be aware of.. .and check feat number and if anything sticks out as odd race/classwise. It takes less then 4-5 minutes, and I usually do this during character introductions to each other.

Once a character has sat at my table before, and I know their character... I almost will never call for a look unless something seems odd. Though on several occasions my players have asked for me to take a look to help make sure they are good and their math was ok, usually before cons or events (or just after taking a weird level to make sure they understand the rule).

This generally serves me pretty well and it familiarizes me slightly with what is coming. I always ask, does anyone have anything odd or unusual that your character has or does, and if so be prepared to have the reference handy for When you use it. If someone Doesn't have a reference, which has happened a few times, I inform them they need to acquire the reference, and the first time it happens for that player, I allow them to use it for that scenario... as long as they promise to have it for the next scenario with the proper reference. (and that character isn't allowed at my tables until it DOES have its reference and is legal.)

AS for conventions, often at conventions there isn't time to get to know all the people, so for the strangers at my table, I will have them roll a d20.... high roll gets a quick look at their character, during introductions, and the table prize if there is one and their character checks out. So it doesn't slow it down much and I am checking a random player at the table each time... which is about the best compromise I can find at cons between paperwork and play.

Sczarni

Ok thanks for looking in to it, I was rather confused.

Sczarni

My order just arrived, and it seems to be missing the strategy guide and iconic heroes set 2... The guide is however on the paper and the heroes 2 set isn't. The order had a problem earlier in the month with the guide not showing up... or was it shipped seperately, the PDF is in my downloads however so that is there.

Sczarni 4/5

Theryon Stormrune wrote:
Jason S wrote:

I'm encountering this problem as well. In addition to the problem already mentioned, most of the cards in the class deck box aren't suitable for my character. So it makes it even less likely that I'll draw something I'd use.

It makes more sense that we'd draw a card from the adventure deck box, and use the set # of the drawn card to pick something from our class deck box. We're not guaranteed an upgrade, but it's more likely.

I'm not sure how other people are doing in OP, but it's quite often in scenarios that I don't get any reward... and I could use them! And other times it's feast or famine, and I can only pick 1 upgrade. This is solo, don't know how it plays in larger groups.

At this point, when my players see the reward is a random this or that, they pretty much ignore the reward. The chance of pulling something they need versus just upgrading from the cards we gather is very slim. I'm truly hoping that the reward system makes some significant changes for Season 1.

Indeed actually last time we played an adventure at game day with a random reward, only one person even bothered to try drawing for it, and they didn't keep it, which is unfortunately becoming the norm. It pretty much reads to the groups in the 4s and 5s as if the scenario said- hey no reward, but maybe you get a deck upgrade for playing the scenario. Especially since about 75% of the cards are geared for one of the other character cards in the box... or in some cases just in the box because reasons.

My suggestion for this? Make the random reward drawn from only the cards of that type within the box, of the adventure deck number and those with numbers up to two lower. Make a guide to org play note on how random rewards are done, and you no longer have the problem of being at 5 and getting a random reward with 90% of the available rewards being B or 1 cards, (I know there are more of these cards for the initial deckbuilding, a lot more than any other option... but we ALWAYS seem to draw them on a random reward...)

Sczarni 4/5

Andrew L Klein wrote:

If the credit didn't mean much it would have made sense to keep, but it means a lot on the RPG side, so getting credit for something completely unrelated would have caused problems.

Prepping one scenario makes sense, but setting up multiple scenarios means those cards in the first scenario of the day can't show up in the second, neither of those in the third, and so on. I'd love to spend the prep time when no one is waiting to play, but it messes stuff up.

Indeed the table aspects do mean something for the RPG side, which I enjoy running also, but i have more then enough tables of credit anyways the numbers didn't really matter for me since I am already at 4 star. (Not sure why my stars and subscription stuff doesn't show up anymore on this alias.) Was just fun to see the extra high number of tables for a while for promoting the card game in the area so much.

This is actually one reason i bought an extra box set for the events in the area... i prebuild 2 from my low build box, and 2 from the 3-5 box... then when i have time during the second or just after the first and while the second is running... i build the next scenarios for the tables going off. (then again i regularly seat 2 tables of the card game at the event... so every leg up helps.)

Yes it does mean those in the first scenario won't show up in the second, but with only one pulled out before it doesn't really change things much i feel. I just lay out and build the extra locations for the second scenario at the same time, and it is just about as random as ever. I just really enjoy, game is over, set up the next on the table while deck upgrades are discussed, and they are ready to go while i get the next one set up.

Sczarni 4/5

It was an interesting 'feature' indeed, though there can be a lot of work for the organizer showing up early and setting all the scenarios up ahead, (if you do that, i find it helps massively not to have to take a 10 min break between scenarios for setup.). Personally i shall miss my 100ish card game tables of credit... it was hilarious to see while it lasted. ^.^

Sczarni

Ok thank you, this month just seems to be acting weird i guess, thank you for straightening it out.

Sczarni

There is another issue with this order, I just got an Email saying there was an authorization problem with the order. When I take a look it tried to authorize using an older card instead of the current card it has listed for subscriptions ? I have no clue how to fix this so can someone please look into this.

Sczarni

Thank you very much!

Sczarni

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I want to play this so bad...

Sczarni

This order does not seem to have the items in my sidecart listed, should be the preordered strategy guide +pdf and the iconic heroes minis in this order as well.

Sczarni

And there was much rejoicing! (seriously, major rejoicing and congrats!)

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