Mark Moreland's page

Here's a few tips:

1) Prep. If you know the players/characters that are going to be playing a scenario you're GMing, read through the scenario and imagine what the PCs are likely to do. Come up with clever ways the NPCs can react (see #2).
2) Be a person, not a computer. Tactics for most NPCs last about one round. Beyond that, play the NPC as an intelligent creature (assuming they are one). Use some of the players tactics against them. Learn to be a better tactician. Practice.
3) Ignore individuals. Most often, some of the worst powergamer table-killer annoying people are there only to get attention from the GM and the rest of the table. The best tactic I've found? Ignore them. Focus on everyone else at the table. When it's the annoying person's turn, resolve everything normally, stay as emotionless as possible and quickly move on to the next person. With the normal players, spend more time describing the scene. Have the NPCs prefer to interact with them. Be colorful and entertaining.
4) As Jason said, most players who are "power gamers" are actually "misinterpreting" the rules in their favor. If you're unfamiliar with something, ask them to show it to you. You're there to learn too. If something seems to powerful to be true, 99% of the time it is. Read it for yourself. If it's unclear, make your best ruling.
5) If the entire table is "breezing through" a scenario, but they're having fun, go with it. That's really the point of all of this and even if they're "breaking" a scenario, who really cares as long as everyone is having fun? If it's just one or two jerks, see #3.

I was surprised that these pregenerated characters did not exist in Herolab. The pregenerated characters in the {My Documents}/Hero Lab/pathfinder folder were not to Pathfinder Society requirements found here:

Pathfinder Core Rulebook Pregenerated Characters (PDF)

So I took the liberty of creating the Pregens for the following:

• Hero Lab Pathfinder Core Rulebook Pregenerated Cleric (Level 1), for Pathfinder Society 4.1 Play

• Hero Lab Pathfinder Core Rulebook Pregenerated Fighter (Level 1), for Pathfinder Society 4.1 Play

• Hero Lab Pathfinder Core Rulebook Pregenerated Rogue (Level 1), for Pathfinder Society 4.1 Play

• Hero Lab Pathfinder Core Rulebook Pregenerated Wizard (Level 1), for Pathfinder Society 4.1 Play

Possible Issues

• I had to fudge the Wizard because there isn't a "masterwork cane" in Herolab so the character wealth is off. [Discussion]
  
• I wasn't sure on the Ethnicities. I used this thread about Human Icon's Ethnicities
  
• You may get errors about some Hero settings for content that you don't have, I believe I removed the settings to the bare minimum, but I could have missed some
  

Please let me know if there are any issues with the files. These files were generated using Herolab 4.0b.

You should be able to:

1) Download the .POR file
2) Open the file in Herolab
3) Go to Character => Configure Hero...
4) Enter your Pathfinder Society ID #
5) Go to Background tab
6) Select a Faction

Enjoy.

I believe her plans after dropping the party involve some sacks, some bricks, and a deep moat.

My sympathies to your players.

There is a bottomless pit nearby...

.

.

...Just sayin.

I got very lucky as a GM. They party had healing resources (a bard and a druid) but no cleric and no paladin. And the APL was 6 plus 1 for a 6-player table. And they decided to play up. So there was already a sense of danger n the party before the first die was rolled.

As Kristen says, I considered it my job to increase the tension for about 45 minutes out of every hour of game play. And yes, one of the tools at our disposal is to avoid the really nice map on page 8. If you lay out the map, so that everybody can see how the house is laid out, it's very comfortable for the players, and they approach the situation strategically. Don't let them. Describe each room with all the details you think you need -- underplay the creepiness; a little goes a long way -- and explain how many doors there are and where. Spend as much time on sound and smell as you do on sight.

Use miniatures and maps when you have to: for complex combats, or to cut the party a break. See below.

Bob Jonquet did me a great favor by reminded me that Scenario 10, "Blood at Dralkard Manor" has a lot of terrific mood-setting pieces: the sound of babies crying, floorboards creaking in rooms behind the party, or sudden gusts of wind. Even though that scenario isn't legal to play in Pathfinder Society, there's a treasure trove of spooky stuff there that we can use for window dressing.

One of the differences between "horror" and "action/adventure with a strange and powerful foe" is that horror depends on the protagonists' choices. "The engine on our bus konked out, and we're stuck in the woods" isn't horror. "The cute girl and I snuck out on our own to make out in private" is horror, because the danger is the protagonists' fault. So, give the players choices: will the PCs stay outside, hoping to avoid the witchfire and the hungry fog, or will they go into the house, weakened and fatigued? Are they going to separate the party, or are they going to all go down into the basement, leaving the wind to slam the trapdoor shut? Shirt re-rolls are your friend: every single time someone makes a Perception roll or a saving throw, you can ask "Is that good enough for you?" So going ahead with a roll of 14 is the player's choice.

All of this can be heavy-handed and overdone. That's no fun for anybody. Also, you need to get a sense of when there's a good time to ease up and give the party a clean victory. But really, there are some nice tools in Hinojai that you can use to scare the players.

Dear Paizo Fans,

First off let me apologize for my long absence from the Internet. I don’t use it for anything beyond work email these days and I am about as far out of the electronic loop as is humanly possible – my own fault, and my undoing on many levels.

I deeply apologize for the debacle that was Sinister Adventures – I can honestly say there has been nothing in my life I regret more than attempting to run my own publishing company. I have done severe damage to my own finances over the past several years, ruined my reputation as a game designer, and transformed a hobby that used to be the most enjoyable part of my life into my own personal mire of misery and shame. But most importantly I have alienated a host of lovely people who love RPGS. I used to take great joy in communicating with my former fans, and felt a growing camaraderie with several of the people who enjoyed my work, or even hated my work, but just downright enjoyed this great hobby. I let those people down, betrayed them, and damaged their enthusiasm for the game, not to mention lost the hard-earned money they entrusted to me through pre-orders.

I dealt with the avalanche of problems Sinister experienced ineptly to say the least. The failure of this company combined with crushing stress from my 90 hour-a-week day job of the last three years shook the foundation of my sense of self. This led to a downward spiral of alcoholism and depression.

My recent move back to Hawaii has restored a great deal of the vitality and psychological well-being I lost over the last few years and I am finally in a place to take serious action against the start-up gaming company that has become my personal nemesis.

I have lost over $15,000 personally on this endeavor through my gross ineptitude as a publisher. I paid for a great deal of top quality art, web design and other start up costs and then as problems arose that siphoned off more funds, I found the company wallowing in destitution. As the problems piled up, I eventually lost any ability to deal with them and kept attempting to tell myself I would “get around to it soon” once I was able to save up more funds and free up more time. I grappled with the idea of bankruptcy, but didn’t want to end up not giving those who trusted me their money back.

Fortunately I have been able to shift some funds around recently and replenish Sinister’s coffers enough to get everyone their money back. To ensure this happens in a timely fashion I will not trust my own dire worthlessness with the task. Instead the heroic Lou is once again stepping up to bat.

Through the invaluable assistance of Louis Agresta – one of the truest friends a man could ask for – I am now in a position to refund all and sundry for their pre-orders to Sinister. Lou has very kindly offered to assist me yet again, this time pooling through my mangled attempts at record keeping to ensure all of you who have not yet been refunded get your money returned.

Lou has posted instructions and details above.

Now allow me to move off my own dire failures as a businessman and human being and move on to a more salient point.

Paizo Publishing is a true gem - A company full of caring individuals who are entirely the opposite of Sinister Adventures. They care deeply about their fans, their authors, and the hobby. From my close contact with them for years, first as a rabid fan and aspiring writer, then as a go-to freelancer, then as a brief employee I have a unique view of the fine people of Paizo inside and out. They are compassionate, professional, creative, enthusiastic, and possessed of a deep well of forgiveness and generosity. They don’t just uphold high standards of how companies should operate – they set the standards as far as I’m concerned.

It hurts me deeply that their remarkable feat of kindness and an attempt to rehabilitate the degenerate hobbyist and writer I have become over the last few years could result in any sort of backlash. These fine upstanding people pour their love, blood and sweat into their company daily.

To those of you hurt by the Sinister fiasco: I implore you to keep the sights of your (righteous) anger focused entirely on me. I will happily give ample opportunity for those of you slighted (or worse) by my mistakes and failures a chance to redress the wrongs you suffered at Sinister (and my) hands. I will gladly listen to your anger, apologize, and try to make amends as best I can at Paizocon. I will attempt to run games for those of you who suffered from Sinister’s flop, languishing in limbo while awaiting news or refunds from me.

I humbly apologize for the long and resounding silence and for thinking I could get things back on the rails.

Thank you for your time and patience. Please follow the instructions and details Lou posted above on how to FINALLY get your money back.

Yours,

Nicolas Logue

I've been in this job for almost 6 months. I started out where many of you are right now: as a local coordinator about 3 years ago.

I started with a playerbase of 5 in Atlanta. When I left for Paizo, it was 174. We ran 56 game days in 48 weeks in my year as VC. I also spent more than $3000 to print scenarios, maps, buy con prize support, set up GM rewards program, and the like. I've been in those ranks where I was just a GM for the love and promotion of the game and nothing more. That love of the game is why I took a paycut, left a secure career for one up in the air, and moved my family from our large house across country to a small, two bedroom apartment.

Just know that I love PFS with all my heart and soul. In the future, I'll be sharing with you my vision for the future of PFS in a sort of state of the region blog post.

However, before I can get there, I'd like to re-address an issue. I know my please don't cheat post caused a lot of discussion and dialogue and not quite in the way I had hoped. I realize that my post and tone did not achieve what I really wanted: to encourage the Community to work with me on making the PFS campaign as good as it can be.
This post isn't about those issues necessarily, but a call for you to join me in creating campaign cohesion.

I want this Society to grow and be successful.

I want you all to be working with me on addressing the issues that we face in common.

I want you to know that I read these boards every day and am trying to make the Pathfinder Society better each day.

The kicker - I want everyone working with me, working with each other, as we do this.
The 'Please Do Not Cheat' post was meant to address a few issues...but with this post I want to address *why* they are issues.

First instance: We know that some local coordinators have allowed 8 player tables (and choose to report them as one 8 player table or two 4 player tables).

We know this is a problem. However, our response (both from me and the community) should not just be "Don't do that. Period." The response from all of us should be: "Running 8 player tables really cheats your players of the best experience they can have of the scenario. We want all PFS players to have a chance to shine, contribute, and enjoy every scenario. How can we help you get more judges, play space, or XYZ, so that this doesn't happen again? How can we help you deliver a better play experience for your players?" I don't want our players playing at an 8 person table. It's a disservice to their experience of the campaign.

Second instance: We had reports of playing out of tier and applying a Chronicle incorrectly (i.e. Playing a 6th level PC in a Tier 7-11 game and applying a Chronicle to that 6th level PC).

We know this is a problem as well. Again, our response should be more than "Don't do that." We should explain that PFS is better when there are clear rewards for play. We want our players to understand that their characters matter and that, through their experiences, they get trusted for more and more dangerous work. We want rewards for continuous play to matter. We want our players to see the value in that and, in turn, value their PFS experiences. In a way, the players themselves are being cheated when allowed to skip tiers. We should all want our players to have chances to earn their rewards properly. This is what makes PFS special: our higher level players have earned where they are.

Third instance: We have even had cases where a group would play pre-gens, not take credit, and then turn around a month or so later and play the same scenario with their real characters so they know what risks they faced.

Like the above, this is a problem. We want all our players to have the best possible experience with all PFS play opportunities and that involves having a vested interest in the game: I want choices to matter. I want character decisions to matter. In allowing re-playing (via pregens or otherwise), we are cheating that experience and we are allowing those re-players to cheapen the scenario for others. Our response (both from me and the community) should reflect that focus. Our goal should be making sure that each run of every scenario is a new, exciting experience where a player doesn't feel like he or she has wasted their time.

Fourth instance: GMs adjusting scenarios on the fly...adding to the difficulty or challenge of a scenario.

This is a different kind of problem, but one that we need to address as a community. When GMs change scenarios, Mark and I have no metric to look at, to see where we need to make changes for future scenarios. If GMs add creatures or stats to scenarios, or any other mechanical changes, the players all say it was a great experience, and no one is the wiser for it. I feel this may have been one of the problem in the past, especially with Seasons 0 and 1 scenarios presenting little to no challenge. People changed scenarios, added to the scenarios, or otherwise altered them mechanically, and the campaign staff was unaware there were some serious problems with the scenarios.

Campaign cohesion requires that we need accurate reporting in order to properly evaluate our scenarios going forward. I want you to join me in helping us rate the difficulty in our scenarios so we can address the problem on a larger scale. Scenarios have a rating system in place. It was put there so campaign staff can evaluate scenarios and make changes in accordance to what the playerbase wants or expects. Thus far, it has been a very under utilized tool, and I encourage each of you to take a few minutes after playing each scenario to give current campaign staff feedback on scenarios, let us know where you see problems, let us know how we can make future scenarios better for all of you, and what we did wrong and right in each scenario. Only with your help can we make future scenarios a better experience that don't feel like a waste of time for you.

As a GM before, I know what challenges all of you PFS GMs face because I have been there and done that. I have the 14th most games GMed in PFS worldwide. It is why I worked with Mark for the start of season 4, for having scenarios written with six players in mind instead of four, and to have guidelines included in the scenario to run the scenario for a table of four. We're making these changes because of your direct feedback.

I truly understand there are a lot of mixed feelings about the rules, our player base, and the negativity that has been present on these very message boards. I want passion and I want your thoughts, but I want all of you to join me in creating a friendly, cohesive community, one that is a great, fun, inclusive Pathfinder Society.

What I want more than anything else for the future versions of the guide is for them to have a Table of Contents, a Glossary, or both.

It doesnt need to be extensive to be helpful, and anything would be better than the nothing the guide has now.

This is a long thread to dive into...

Here's what I do:

IF I have time before a slot starts AND I've had enough time to prepare and lay everything out AND the players show up early, I'll often casually ask to see their character sheet. Normally when I do this, I'm just looking at how they've built their character, what feats they've taken or any clues on how to tailor the adventure to make it more enjoyable for the player. (Mental note: this character has greater improved super bull rush, I could "accidentally" position one of the baddies in Act 3 near that ledge...) I don't tell the players what I'm looking for, and leave it up to them to feel nervous that I'm looking for cheating. My favorite example was at Gamicon last year when I asked to see an 11th level fighter's character sheet after he had already been bragging up his "incredible" attack bonus. After looking it over, I let him know that he was actually +1 higher than he had on his character sheet. :-)

Before the scenario starts, I let players know that I'll need their most recent chronicle at the end of the scenario. This chronicle needs to be fully filled out in order to receive their new chronicle. I stole this idea from Douglas Douglason and it works pretty well. Most players will check immediately if they have their chronicles and if they're filled out. If they're missing them, we can address that issue before getting into the story. If they aren't filled out all the way, they can work on them during the slot (perhaps mid-way through the slot when their character has been slain for the second time?). At the end of the scenario, I briefly glance at the chronicle and hand them their new one. IF I've got extra time, I may actually read some of it... ;-)

If I'm late, the players are late, the slot is short or there's another reason we're pressed for time, I don't do any of this crap. Let's get to the killing... er, I mean the story!

For 4 years now Jacobs has been saying that APs can't be anything but 6 volumes and for 4 years now I've felt that every "reason" he gives is silly. Harder work on the designers, no doubt. But not undoable (You guys are working your dream-careers, yes?) Not impossible to make sure a new AP begins every GenCon. You got 12 months: One 7 and one 5. Or a 6 and two 3s. Or a 4 a 6 and a 2. Harder work but doable . . . . And you don't have to start every one at 1st level. Starting a 3 volume AP at level 9 would not lose customers. Finishing an 8 volume AP at level 21 would not lose customers. (in theory)

Frankly... "harder work on the designers" is perhaps the number ONE reason I'm not all that eager to switch the 2 APs a year formula. (To a lesser extent is my fear that many AP readers and players would be less interested in shorter Adventure Paths, since we've seen a fair amount of resistance already to APs that don't go as high level as others.)

But working a "dream-career" should NOT be code for "you get to work 80 hours a week on a salary that assumes a 40 hour week just because you enjoy your job enough that if we asked you to work that much you would."

Hooray! It's my day!

I didn't even notice until just now, because back in the day, folks used to send us pizzas or something around here.

I am starting to think that hiring Mark and Liz may have been the worst mistake (for Erik Mona Day) that we have ever made.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Forgive the ignorant question, I'm just looking for a rules reference for something that I believe is worded poorly in the GOP.

As far as I can find, the table of prestige vs. price for items doesn't actually accompany a description of what the table refers to. I had someone ask me a month ago how they could buy a 1000 gp item off their chronicle if their fame was only 6, since you need 9 fame to raise your purchasing power to 1500 gp items.

I explained that, the way I understand it, the prestige table indicates what's available from the "Always Available" list - that is, once you get to 9 fame, you can buy any item from the valid rulebooks that is worth up to 1500gp. Stuff on the Chronicles is added to the your Always Available list regardless of your fame.

They said, "Oh, that's different. Where does it say that?" I looked, and couldn't find a sentence anywhere that laid it out like that. Can anyone reference that system for me? Or am I reading it wrong after all?

Okay, there are three ways for you to gain access to purchase an item:

#1 - The "always available" list. Key word here? "Always." Anything listed as "always available" in the Guide is available for purchase any time you have the money. If your brand-new character's first adventure involved getting seated (due to ridiculous logistical issues) with a table of level 7 PCs and you just stood in the back and tried not to die, and then walked away with 1 Prestige and 3,000 gold, you could immediately buy +1 full plate. Why? Because basic +1 armor is always available, regardless of Fame or chronicles.

#2 - Chronicles. If an item is on a chronicle sheet, you can buy that item. You can buy it now, you can wait and buy it later. But you can buy it. It has permanently become available for purchase (unless a quantity limit is specified on the chronicle, but that's the exception, not the rule). Your Fame doesn't matter if the item is on a chronicle.

#3 - Fame. Your Fame is for "everything else". If something is on the AA list, you can already buy it. If it's on a chronicle, you can already buy it. It's only when a legal item is neither on the AA list nor on a chronicle that Fame even becomes an issue. For such items, you can only buy them (or upgrade to them, in the case of things like +2 weapons) if the final cost of the item would be within the GP limit set by the Fame table in the Guide.

So let's say you have 6 Fame and (somehow) 10,000gp. You could buy anything that's on your chronicles, you could buy anything from the "always available" list, and you could buy any legal item that costs 500gp or less. You could buy a few sets of +1 full plate. Or you could buy a potion or oil of a level 2 spell (or a scroll of a level 3 spell). Or if you had a +1 flaming greataxe on a chronicle you could buy that.

All that make sense?

Greetings to everyone from Portland, OR aka Stumptown aka PDX aka the City of Roses.

We run a biweekly game every other Friday at Portal Games. To signup, please visit BigTent.com and look for Portland Pathfinder Society. You can also follow us on Facebook (Portland Pathfinder Society) and on Twitter @PortlandPFS.

In honor of my elevation, I have written a little ditty to be sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "I am the very model of a modern major general". Enjoy!

"I am the very model of the modern Venture Cap-i-tan,
I inculcate the newbies with the game rules I am rapid in.

I quote the rules both ancient and the new ones from the eff-a-queue,
I know the cost of +2 mithral elven chain, why didn’t you?

I’m often found at gaming stores, both friendly and deplorable,
at cons I make appearances, those cos-play’s are adorable!

I play ‘til I am insensate by running games at tables round,
And make damn sure that all side quest maguffins always can be found.

I keep the factions cordial, I brook no malicious mummery,
I stay away from all boxed text, and paraphrase a summary.

In short in matters prestige, fame, shirt rerolls, magi murderous,
I am the very model of a V-C in the PFS!"

Ultimately, what equipment is available depends on what equipment the foes the PCs face have on them. And what those foes can have on them is limited by what's appropriate for NPCs of their given level as defined on table 14–9 on page 454 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. When NPC wealth deviates too far from this, it can impact the CR system and unbalance encounters. Even moreso, it makes it difficult to ensure the total wealth given per scenario is within the target range (which is usually about a 5% deviation from a given number).

So let's take a look at a CR 10 opponent, as an example, and see what equipment she can reasonably have. If she's an 11th-level creature with no racial hit dice and at least 1 player class level, that puts her at CR 10 and her target wealth should be 16,350 gp.

If she has a +2 weapon, that's already half her wealth, and we generally try not to give any NPC a single item worth more than half his or her total wealth. Assuming that weapon cost 8,350 gp (like a +2 greatsword) she's got 8,000 gp left. Assuming she's got a stat-boosting item (with a +2 bonus), that eats another 4,000 gp, leaving enough for a cloak of resistance +2 or a +1 armor and some scrolls and potions and such.

If she's the only creature in the encounter (making a CR 10 encounter), 16,350 gp is roughly 3 times the target amount of gold for a CR 10 encounter based on table 12–5 on page 399 of the Core Rulebook. That means that for her wealth not to throw the entire scenario out of whack in terms of rewards offered, at least two other CR 10 encounters need to give no wealth or significantly less than their target amount to even it out.

From your examples, many of the items are well above what a CR 10 opponent can afford, such as a ring of protection +4 (32,000 gp, or nearly twice her entire wealth allotment), bracers of armor +6 (36,000 gp, so even higher than the ring), or the cheapest staff in the Core Rulebook, the staff of fire (18,950 gp, or 2,600 gp more than she's got in total).

Consider, however, that a tenth level character must have 27 XP to level from 9th to 10th level. Over the course of the 27 scenarios required to earn that XP, such a character will have had the opportunity to earn 54 Prestige Points, and thus have a Fame score of somewhere around 40–50, assuming that PC didn't get every single item. With a Fame score of 45, that PC can purchase an item costing up to 41,000 gp. That covers every item you consider appropriate for a 10th-level PC. So you can still get all those items, even without us needing to design scenarios backwards around a specific expensive item for the PCs to get access to at the end.

So in short—er, long—there's more that goes in to what gear you get than just us deciding what we want to show up on a Chronicle sheet, and I think you'll find that if you look at the cogs that make the whole system keep churning level after level that it all works out in the end.

Edit: Thanks, Neil. You Canadians and your brevity. Ninjaing me because I can't type less than a five-hundred-word response...

I've played alongside one local player who has killed multiple characters doing this exact sort of thing. The player, unfortunately, is a very skilled arguer, and every single time he killed another PC, he justified it with an entirely sound strategic reason. One time in particular, he was stuck in a hallway fleeing from a group of enemies, the other PC was in the room surrounded by the enemies and barely propped up by temporary HP. The player fireballed the room against the wishes of THE ENTIRE TABLE OF PLAYERS, and the GM allowed it because, technically, he felt that it isn't in the GM's power to deny a player the right to perform an action. It killed the PC, and pretty much squashed interest in the rest of the scenario for everyone involved. No one wanted to play with such an awful player, or with a GM who wouldn't step in and protect the interests of the ENTIRE table against one rogue player.

This player is falling under the "Jerk" rule and should be put on notice by your local VC or game coordinator. If he killed a PC in mistake, that is one thing. But it clearly sounds like it has happened multiple times and that is unacceptable.

The GM in your example is clearly wrong as well. It is well within the DM's power to deny a player a right to perform an action. Afterall, the DM is the moderator of the game. I wasn't there and am only hearing one side of the story, but it sounds to me like the DM was afraid to get into an argument with the player because that particular player is very good at arguing. Perhaps I am wrong but that is how i read it.

The fact that the DM failed to nip it in the bud is the exact reason no PVP is in place. Per your own account, it killed the PC, and pretty much squashed interest in the rest of the scenario for everyone involved. No one wanted to play with such an awful player, or with a GM who wouldn't step in and protect the interests of the ENTIRE table against one rogue player.

Squashing interests and making people not want to play is counter to everything that Organized Play is set up for.

As someone who doesn't have a horse in this particular race, I'll say this.

People complained about the animal training rules in PFS. The organisers listened, and have changed the rules in an attempt to answer these complaints.

How about we give this new rule a bit of time to bed in and see what the response from the tables is before we theorycraft it to death?

I'm sure if the players of PFS don't think this rule solves the problem, they will make their opinions known in time through con reports and through talks with their GMs, and these reports will filter up to the Venture Captains and beyond.

I can see a small and vocal group of people decrying this new rule immediately, and I'm not saying that their concerns aren't valid, but I am saying that they do not speak for the entirety of PFS. Let's give the community a chance to make their opinions known at the table before we write this change off.

Rogue Eidolon wrote:

...whereas my PCs just love dropping gold on information from the man, which I provide them via Golarion lore or just general knowledge of the PFS faction struggle (who the other factions' heads are, which Pathfinders work for which faction, etc). I think Grandmaster Torch has made nearly 2,000 gold from them all told on non-mission related information sales, and I've actually only run Silent Tide and Delirium's Tangle with him in it (they sometimes go to him after other missions to spend money on info).

As the official wrangler of Grandmaster Torch since taking over development of the campaign, I expect a 20% cut from all his earnings spreading such information. As long as that's factored into how much he's made, continue this! I like it!

Then you'll particularly enjoy the 20% cut you are receiving from the coffers of one Avir Silvertongue, Chelaxian expatriate and Andoran operative who staged his own death in Westcrown and is operating under an assumed identity. When GMT made a subtle hint that he knew all this, Avir decided to pay GMT not to tell anyone. True to form, GMT said that all information had its price--while he couldn't promise never to tell anyone, he could charge any amount of Avir's choice to make the cost of the information 10x as high as Avir paid. I think Avir paid 500 gold to make the cost of the information 5000, then when he saw how suspicious his fellow PCs were, he paid another 500 to take it up to 10,000!

Unfortunately, the organized play rules do not allow characters to craft special items for themselves outside of scenarios and do not allow such items to remain from one scenario to another. Player characters aren't permitted Craft (magic item) feats and cannot keep things like animated dead or items with continual flame from one scenario to another.

If your character wants to create some sort of booby-trapped attire or other unique item in the course of a scenario, that can be adjucated by the GM at the table. Just keep your spending within limits, as you will only be able to add the item to your character's inventory at the adventure's end if it can be fairly described as one of the items available for characters to purchase in an authorized gamebook.

Creativity is encouraged, but GMs have a responsibility to ensure that such creativity doesn't cause problems for other players or undermine game balance.

I won't steal Sean's thunder by relating the fact that, statistically speaking, most of our books are more dependable than the most common forms of birth control. (Wait... damn....)

What I will say is that the FDA has guidelines for how much rat poop can show up in your food. Same with hair, dangerous chemicals, etc. Those numbers are not zero, because they *can't* be zero. Rat poop happens. What they've done is set the bar as high as seems feasible (and, hopefully, safe).

Editing is a lot like that. We do the best we can, but things will inevitably slip through. Are we always trying to make things better? You bet. And when errors crop up, we're terribly embarrassed (you should see the look in Chris Carey's eyes when he sees something he was *sure* he fixed). But the willingness to risk imperfection--and in fact, to totally bomb on occasion--is necessary for any artist or entertainer. It's part of the job. (Terrifyingly, the same is also true of surgeons and other professions where the consequences are much, much greater.)

This is not an excuse, it's just how it is. We're going to keep doing our best, and if that's not enough, it's not enough. But I hope that the totally awesome content in the books will continue to outweigh the occasional "teh" or convoluted feat description.

An error that needs to be fixed. On page 22, the Taldor faction missions are not listed.