Fair. And I agree that would be a huge change, hence why it's purely a hypothetical thought at this point. But I do think something needs to change. Serial shows are generally agreed to be the most interesting, but also the most disappointing because it's almost impossible to survive the current model. And basing the cost on ratings will only continue to make it worse as reality shows become ever cheaper. Eventually, scripted shows will either vanish entirely or be almost unrecognizable behind the product placement. It's already hitting ridiculous levels as I have to endure a 30 second scene during a car chase as the characters discuss the awesome features of the car that come standard while bragging how refreshing their drink is.
.
Your last paragraph is an excellent point. Yes, you get lots of channels for the money you pay. But how much of that do you actually watch? The cable company doesn't buy individual channels, which is why they don't offer them that way. In order to get USA you have to get TNT, etc. Most of my monthly payment isn't going anywhere near shows I actually want to watch (hence the common complaint of 800 channels and nothing to watch). With the stranglehold that the sports industry has over cable, a HUGE portion is going towards ESPN and other sport oriented programming, and I've never sat down and watched a single game. I have to believe that if we only paid for what we watched, good programming would come back. The sports fans might lose out, but I could care less.
I think that's absolutely a big factor in how the item is made, Matthew. It's like last year's Scent of the Savored Sting, where it pointed out it used pheromones, to one of the judge's irritation. That makes it feel like something other than magic.
To me that's like saying a +1 sword isn't magic because you need to find/craft a masterwork sword first. A spellcaster waving his hands over an empty bottle and having stuff just appear inside seems rather silly to me. I always pictured the main difference as magic items getting that extra kick of magic to bump it up. IE - both start off the same way, magic items just have a few more steps of magic infusion to enhance them, hence why alchemical items are so much weaker.
Just another place where I don't think the same way as everyone else, I guess. I'll have to keep that in mind next time around.
RE: Dragonstink - I think two things probably worked against it. It's a bit niche -- while dragons obviously play a huge part in the game, and especially the game's lore, you don't go up against them THAT much, I don't think. I think you could have added a bit of utility by making you immune to a single source of damage of the same energy as the source dragon (though that of course is nowhere NEAR as elegant, especially in that horrible way I phrased it; and by making it that much more utilitarian having complete immunity -- instead of a DR 30 or something -- would probably be overpowered).
I think the other problem that may have worked against you slightly, and I'm not sure on this one, is it almost feels more alchemical than a wondrous item.
I like the name, but I can also see it throwing some people off, if they're not aware of the concept (I'm assuming it's based on hunters using scents to mask themselves).
A few other small issues:
You've also got a few formatting problems. Spells should be lower case; your item should also be lower case and italicized when you refer to it in the description.
I also want more description. What's the jelly look like. Or with jelly, you could even do a smell or feel (fire would be hot, electricity would shock you slightly, etc. though again detailing all the possibilities might be too unwieldy). You had plenty more words to play with, so really try to draw me in.
Anyway, I think those are things that may have worked against the item, but in general I liked it. I don't know if I'd get a lot of use out of it, but if I were going dragon hunting, it'd be a MUST have.
Thank you Jacob.
It's a shame the name threw off some people. I thought the name was fairly evocative of what it does. Apparently it was a little *too* evocative :)
I really stared at the oils/elixers in the wondrous item section before giving myself the go-ahead for that very same reason: alchemical vs. wondrous. I decided the power level put it squarely in wondrous. However, one thing I notice is that the oils/elixers generally don't go into *how* the item is made, and I'm wondering if that's what made the difference for some. At this point I have to accept that I went askew somewhere in that evaluation, it's just a matter of figuring out what set off that alarm in people. Then again, if it occurred to me, I should have known it would occur to others and gone with something else.
I fought between wanting to get more detailed in a flavor-sense, but in the end went with succinct and to the point as much as possible. I'm thrilled to hear someone actually wanted to hear more.
I can see now what people mean when they say it's not really a superstar item, despite liking it most other respects. All in all, the critique's are pointing at things I didn't think about, so I'm definitely walking away the better for it.
Part of the problem with that is that people who record a show don't really matter for the measure of ratings. Most people who record skip the commercials, which is what keeps most television on the air. Ratings are more about setting the price for ads than who watches the show.
Wow, then I guess my viewing habits count for nothing. I go to bed early, so the DVR is my friend.
total tangent derail:
Here's a thought: would there be less shows on this list if these shows had their ads replaced with a per-viewing cost? Whether you watch it on tv, amazon, hulu, netflix, there were a small surcharge to the makers of the show? The networks can air what they want, but as long as the makers get enough money the show continues to air in a medium such at netflix. In short, instead of live-viewership determining ratings determining money, the equation simply becomes viewings of any kind translating directly into money.
And would you as the viewer be willing to pay a little extra if it means that more of your pet shows continue to be made.
Because frankly, we need to come up with another economic model. Live-viewership is going to continue to dwindle and we will be left with only shows that are minimal cost: Jeopardy, Ghost Hunters, and Swamp People
I have to admit, I was watching Destination Truth on SyFy. This show is pretty typical of what you're describing. They were hunting for some mythical ape-man in China. They're out there at night, no lights, all green-lit night cam and everything, and the host turns and says to his partner (more or less) "Isn't it a great job we have? We get paid to travel all over the world so we can run around in the dark jumping at noises and almost find things." I had to laugh, because it's true. This guy is making good money to be a world traveler and make bad TV. Who could ask for a better career?
Destination Truth gets a pass from me because the host is hi-freaking-larious. And not in a "these chumps amuse me" way. He's genuinely funny. It's not a monster hunt, it's a comedy.
Rome (ok, it wasn't cancelled, they didn't want to do it anymore. And there really wasn't much of a cast left. But man I miss it)
This thread is bringing back many memories that in my tears of loss I'd blacked out.
+1 Pirates of Darkwater
+1 Brisco County Jr
+1 Alcatraz (very rough start, which is always bad news)
+1 Clerks (the second episode being the "clip show" was fantastic)
+1 The Tick (live) (did seinfeld better than seinfeld. with superheroes)
+1 Flashforward (I love metaplot. I will forgive a lot if I like the metaplot. The fact that it lost out to V still kills me)
+1 Dresden (I liked the cast, but now that I'm reading the books they definitely needed character rewrites)
Honorable Mentions (+0)
Caprica - I liked it, but I have to agree with MM that it might have worked better in another medium. Or perhaps have had the storyline abridged. It was just very very slow
The Lone Gunmen - I loved this show when it aired. I bought it on DVD when it was released and tried to show it to my friends. They managed to ruin it by pointing out all the places where it was just plain goofy. If you wanted it to be another hour of the X-Files, it failed miserably. I mean really, it was silly. The logic was way out of bounds, even for the X-Files. While it still holds a special place in my heart, I realize that it was really a guilty pleasure for a bad bad show.
Needs to be said:
+1 "every episodic television series should have a "four-episode" run-out clause in its contract, wherein if it gets cancelled, the writers get four episodes to wrap up all the loose endings in a neat and tidy way."
In PFS as a rogue I would sometimes prefer a cavalier tank to a fighter (both on foot). At least then when I have sneak attack I also get the teamwork feat benifit. My PFS cavilier is just speced out as a fighter who has a lance on his horse in case its ever useful, and gives better advice than a 'normal' fighter
Also in CT PFS we have 3 samurai and at least one caviler.... havnt seen a single alchemist yet though.... and the samuri order of the seal dominate most fights in under 2 rounds
Oh Earl... why didn't you say so? I may have to play my gnome alchemist with post-nasal drip come Saturday...
I'm really late to this party, and don't expect anyone to take the time, BUT if someone wants to comment go ahead:
Dragonstink
This is out of order with the other reviews (I'm still planning on going back and hitting the other items when I get a chance), but I saw this item and I felt it fell prey to the "not a wondrous item" bit. This seemed more like it should've been an alchemical item rather than a magical one.
That was something I worried about, and went through the wondrous item section to make sure before I chose to go ahead with it. A lot of the elixers do dance that line and yours is a perfectly valid decision. Thank you for the input!
I really enjoyed the Aegis of the Three Realms with its ties to the darklands, the watery depths, and the dark tapestry. Dragonstink was also a great one shot item.
I'm really late to this party, and don't expect anyone to take the time, BUT if someone wants to comment go ahead:
Dragonstink Aura moderate abjuration; CL 8th
Slot none; Price 2,400 gp; Weight ½ lb.
Description
Mixed from the scent gland of a dragon, a jar full of this jelly contains enough for a single application. Covering a humanoid fully with this unguent will mask his scent from dragons of the chosen type. While the dragon may still detect the user with a perception check, blindsense will not allow the dragon to automatically pinpoint them. Additionally, as dragons are immune to their own type of breath, the oil will provide immunity to a single blast of dragon breath before evaporating. Each type of Dragonstink will only provide this protection from the same type of dragon the scent gland was collected from. It’s effect lasts for ten hours or until the user is the target of dragon breath, at which time the unguent evaporates.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Confusion, Protection from Energy; Cost 1,200 gp
They also didn't capitalize ZZfeats, or put a comma in the thousands digit of ZZprice, either. Or spell out that you should italicize your item's name when you refer to it in it's own body text, but only when you use the full item name.
What they provided you was a template, they can't do all the work for you. They're trying to make it easy, but it can't be foolproof.
Besides, if they had said zzspells[i], people would put [i]spell1, spell2 (which is incorrect, because the comma is italicized where it shouldn't be), and if they said zzspell1, zzspell2, people would ask questions about "what if my item uses only one spell?" which should be an obvious question.
And besides, if you aren't able to make simple judgement calls about whether or not to italicize a spell name, what can that be said about your overall ability to work on a module, or other project?
... And yes, I probably sound snippy too. It's a tit-for-tat thing, where one person is snippy because they're tired of people not reading all the instructions, and then people get snippy back, and it progressively gets more and more irate until someone changes the subject. I'm not doing it to be rude, I'm doing it to be blunt. It takes a lot less effort than being gentle about the whole thing. Most of the time, it's the only way to get through to someone who's upset on the internet anyways. :p
I'm not upset, merely showing how the given instructions, which can be seen as clear by one, might be seen as contradictory by another.
The proper answer in that situation, is to not make presumptions, point out the confusion and ask. Given that I have been out of touch and almost missed the contest entirely, I was left with gut feeling and just short enough on time to begin second-guessing myself into paralysis. The intense desire to not screw it up can quickly lead to overthinking the issue. This is not the fault of the contest organizers and not their responsibility.
Ultimately, had I chosen poorly, the test is in whether the lesson is learned and the mistake avoided in the future. Anyone getting horribly upset over the issue fails to realize that they can enter the contest again next year. If they have the skills to win once, they have the skills to do it again. If they don't, it would have been a very very short career anyways.
This must have been in the works for a while. You folks have let slip a couple times that you were planning something special that would use the AA's quite some time ago.
Both yes, and no.
We had another setting in mind for the AA material back in march/April of this year. It seemed like a good idea, and we did some concept art, some product outlines, and worked on making it gel in our heads.
It didn't.
So as we were considering going a different direction, this opportunity came along. Since I have a HUGE fan of Post Apocalypse gaming I had always kept the idea of a AA PA setting in mind (Mutant Age was my working title, and I ran a long playtest campaign for it). But that was never meant to be Warlords of the Apocalypse.
When we talking about this idea at a SGG Planning call, it just seemed like a better fit for what we wanted to do. so, our plans changed.
That said, working out details both internally and with Adamant has taken a while. In fact, we're done done with the internal discussions. But when we actually had a contract I decided we had to go public first, and work out details later, rather than doing it in the normal order.
There's something to be said for happy coincidences. Good luck with it, can't wait to check it out!
The Anachronistic Adventurers material is very much in my mind as I plan this out, and there's a good chance I'll use it as the framework for WotA classes, though that will call for tweaks at both end.
This must have been in the works for a while. You folks have let slip a couple times that you were planning something special that would use the AA's quite some time ago.
It won't get you auto-rejected to not use italics.
But this isn't a small detail. This is, basically, a job interview to be a freelancer for Paizo. They expect their freelancers to italicize spell names and item names. If you don't you are just saying "I may not be ready to be a superstar."
In the core rulebook, which the rules state to follow, the spell requirements are italicized. But on the round one rules page, the example format does not show italicizing the spell name. Since one of the core goals of the contest is to show the capacity to follow instructions, I had to pick which was accurate (I won't say what I ultimately chose, I am merely stating that I was initially unsure of which guideline to follow: the suggested cut and paste format or the core rulebook).
You're asking the wrong folks. This is something where the answer depends heavily on the group makeup.
I have players who would be happy to be killed if it meant their death was integral to the storyline because they feel it gives that specific character importance, value, and ownership of the storyline. The characters value to the story trumps the players control.
I have other players who think the GM's only role should be to witness die rolls because otherwise they as players have no ownership of the story. The players control trumps the specific characters importance.
Storyteller or judge? Depends on who the player is. Neither is technically wrong. But if you misjudge how your players will react, nothing we say here will stop your players from being upset.
In my younger days we would RP during combat. Over various editions of the game combat has become time intensive enough that we often just want to finish the combat and get back to the story.
In general, we find descriptive text in combat is best kept for outliers. Crits, fumbles, death blows, hints at fast healing/regneration/DR, etc. Describing every little attack adds far too much time.
I'll have to pick this up at some point. It sounds very similar to Skill tricks from ye olde Complete Scoundrel, which I sorely miss and was disappointed it wasn't fleshed into a larger system. Once a thief hits a +60 Stealth with HiP... what else is he to do?
Forgive me if someone mentioned it already, but are there any plans to make it easier to spot if a product has been updated since the last time it was downloaded.
I know buyers get an email, but sometimes things end up in a spam folder. Drivethrurpg has a nice method wherein if a product has been updated since it was last downloaded, it will turn red on your product archive.
This would be an ideal solution for me, as it means whenever I'm looking at my downloads section, I could make a quick visual scan to see if I missed any updates.
I know I can sort by date updated, but when you have a product list as long as I have, the idealness of the method weakens.
You guys have several methods to help, so I'm not complaining in the slightest, so much as offering suggestions to help you help me. If it's an idea that's been brought up and dismissed, I'm not upset or anything, I just thought I'd ask.
However, there is a problem with the bones line with washing. It is still a little too slippery for washing so if you want to wash before painting the entire thing you still do want to use a primer coat so the wash sticks a little better.
Is there a reason why you would want to wash before painting instead of afterwards? Is it not beneficial, or as beneficial, after painting the fig?
If you don't have the time to paint all your minis, a quick wash will cause the details to stand out. So instead of looking like a lump of white plastic, it would look like a ghost.
If you (yes, you) bid at the $50 level, I'll add an alternate psionic version of one monster from the dungeon of your choice. :D
Alright, you evil man, I'm in at $50.
:D
Lemme know which foe you want psionic alternatives for at your convenience, and I'll get it done.
Now, for each new person who pledges at $75 or more AND chimes in here that they did it to follow in Jeremy's footsteps, I'll let them pick *another* monster to get a psionic alternate version of. So if you psionics fans want to see more psionic monsters, now's your chance!
Jumped in on day one, pledged $150, begging anyway...
M*A*S*H had way too much of Alan Alda's ego imprinted in it, as did the later seasons anyway.
What are you talking about? M*A*S*H ended when Henry Blake died. They replaced a really good comedy with a drama that occasionally had comedic moments, but less and less as time went on.
I just presumed they were pulling a Roseanne and the rest of the series was in Hawkeye's head as he tried to wrap his head around it the loss of his friend.
Obviously, Blake didn't die, they just presumed so because they didn't find his body. He was captured by the Korean army, and put to work in a hospital for military prisoners, with hilarious results.
The Soul mate feat references a Gather Information check. This is a 3.5ism and should probably reference a Diplomacy to gather the relevant information.
It probably should not be capitalized, but I believe the gather information usage of the Diplomacy skill is still referred to as a gather information check in Pathfinder. If not in print, then definitely out of habit.
And, failing that, it would be nice if the laws stepped in to regulate the people who won't stop unless there is a law against it. And no, I don't mean "fine them $40,000 per copied PDF or MP3."
I think if they were just forced to pay double for every copied product, that would be enough.
Or heck, even MSRP.
I know the base reaction will be that this would not be a punishment as it's no more than they would have paid for in the shop, but consider that most of that they would not have bought anyway and you see that in the end they are paying far more than if they'd stayed legit. Even if they would have, I can't imagine having to pay for my entire collection up front in one lump sum. It would bankrupt me.
There are two types of pirates: those that dabble, who don't need more than a slap on the wrist (like any five year old experimenting with shoplifting bubblegum) and the dude who gets caught with 50 gigs of pirated music.
Any idea how much 50 gigs of $.99 songs will cost you? I'll give you a hint, it's about 300 songs per gig. Enough to cripple you, but not so insurmountable it becomes meaningless.
But yeah, I think there needs to be more reasonable punishment, more often. Instead, there's one court case that makes the news every few years about some absolutely ridicuolous half a million dollar settlement against a ten year old kid. It's too big and too rare for pirates to wrap their heads around.
Most damage done by pirates is the experimenters. If every 15 year old pirate personally knows someone that got tagged for $2k, he might be far more hesitant to do it.
Peppers, like most items of produce, are not intellectual property, and thus are not protected by copyright laws. Germinate all you like.
Now, if you take a cutting without permission of a unique patented rose hybrid, you might get in trouble, so I'd just stick to vegetables to be safe. :)
QFT. I remember watching a documentary about how a major chemical company was suing farmers for allegedly collecting part of their crop of it's patented genetically modified corn (that they had lawfully purchased nonetheless) for sowing the following year (I guess there was some kind of contract forbidding that and requiring that they had to purchase seed again from the company).
EDIT: Therefore, being a food and a necessity as James said has nothing to do with it. If it is considered IP of some sort, that's the end of the story.
you can patent a DNA structure that doesn't occur naturally in nature. Monstanto patents all of it's seeds. Percy Schmeiser was sued by Monsanto because seeds from a neighboring farm landed in his. The canadian Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto.
So yes, as far as the government is concerned you are a Pepper Felon.
I sent invites for dropbox to everyone I know and ended up with almost 17 gigs of free space.
I was still pushing the limit and had other things I wanted to backup, so I dropped $100 on 50 more gigs, which they recently doubled so I'm up to 117 gb.
I occasionally backup again to a 500 gb external drive.
EDIT: oh, I also keep a 32 gb flash drive strapped to my hip with all my paizo files
ARGH!!!! I had forgotten this as well. I like many anime's, and quite a few have bad endings..or just stop. It seems to be endemic to the genre.
However, Evangelion was a big..<insert many many foul expletives> to the audience. I would rather it had just.. stopped. Truely, I watched the ending twice back to back because I just felt I must have missed something...
Argh!!!!
Greg
I describe the american ending thusly:
Imagine Star Wars, except that instead of getting in an X-Wing and spending ten minutes of screen time blowing up the death star, luke runs to his room and spends the whole fight (drawn out to a full 45 minutes of excruciating screen time) sitting in a chair sobbing like a child and waxing philosophical about how much the world sucks, occasionally falling to the floor and flopping around like he's been possessed, followed by uncontrollable shaking. Then the battle ends, and he goes out to get his medal.
Oh dear science, I had blocked that one out. I hated the ending so bad. I'm trying, but I honestly can't think of a bigger disappointment than that piece of gosa.
Xyber 9 New Dawn. Great cartoon, but a rushed and terrible ending.
Also, Pirates of Darkwater. Another great cartoon, but cancelled too soon. No ending.
Oh my god, Pirates of Darkwater. Definitely an IP that needs reviving by competent people--not only was it a great world, handled well you could merchandise the heck out of it. I'd aim it at teens rather than kids.
I've been entertaining myself with thought of a PoD campaign setting for years. It really was a better D&D cartoon than the D&D cartoon.
I've had this in my "to buy" list since the day it came out. Sadly though, it will have to wait until i get another job. The wife gets all frowny when I spend my unemployment check on game books instead of things like... food....
*L* I just saw your account page Sethvir, I never knew you worshiped me. I mean everyone should of course.
Pity i have no way to find out who else worships me. So i can punish the unbelievers... and believers... but the believers get the fun punishments. :)
Yeah, there was a discussion somewhere more than a year ago in some thread we were participating in about prophets and priests as I recall and a passing reference, so I added it!
I can't remember, did anyone bring up the topic of a "players guide" to Dragon's Delve? There's a smattering of feats, magic items, and whatnot scattered throughout the delve, that couldn't hurt to compile. Maybe some traits, etc?
I was just thinking that Dungeonaday is mostly for the DM/GM's, you might get more sponsors if you had a reward for players. I know a couple of my players kicked in. I might have gotten more of them if there was something on the lower end of the reward tier for them.
Of course, it's hit the funding goals, so what do I know? :-)
So happy that we're gonna get another year out of this, and can't wait to see how far we can take it!
JMS started writing comics. He's famous for the best Spiderman writing in decades only to have Marvel undo everything he wrote as soon as he left. He wrote an award winning comic called "Rising Stars" (highly recommended). He rebooted Thor, turning him from the cartoony character we're used to and making him one of the most interesting characters in the Marvel U. He also wrote the Avengers movie. Among other things. Ironically, huge JMS fan that I am, I've never seen B5
EDIT: Not Avengers. He's credited with Thor. My bad.
This is one of those rules that, having been around for 12 years, gets taken for granted. I actually did a double take when I read the OP in surprise that someone needed to ask (no offense meant). As I read through further, I can easily see why someone might need the clarification.
In short, the extra attacks on the class level progression table are shorthand meant to make it easier for you to calculate the value of interative attacks. BAB is not +6/+1, it's +6. Having a +6 gives you an extra attack at -5, aka +1.
In other words, the second attack is not coming from having a 6th level of fighter, but rather from having a BAB of +6.
At the end of the third season they were granted seasons 4-6 to plan the shows ending (whether they actually did that or not). The show definitely had a different feel from that point on.
I liked Lost and thought the ending wasn't all that I wanted it to be, but it wasn't a bad ending. I have a feeling you don't know how the show really ended ** spoiler omitted **
I've learned not to talk about how I feel about the end of LOST lest I be rent apart by seething haters.
I thought the ending was just fine and it's still in my top three shows of all time (#1 and #2 are both Firefly, because it's too awesome for just one slot). But you're the only other person I've met who doesn't froth at the mouth when discussing it, so I just keep my head down and say "yup, that show had a lot of flaws. Moving on..."
Then again, I've been told my brain doesn't register things I don't like, so I generally walk away from shows only remembering the good parts.
Matthew Winn
