Michael Gear's page

Pagan priest wrote:

Now that Mongoose Traveller is taking off, and there is still d20 Traveller and Star Wars and various other SF rpgs I would really like to see Paizo branch out beyond just fantasy accesories.

That doesn't make sense, though. There's only a limited market for SF RPG, and if Traveller and Star Wars are becoming increasingly popular there's no good reason for Paizo to try to compete.

HERE HERE! Paizo has A LOT of good stuff on their plate as is, I see no reason to try to take little bites off of everyone else's, as well. The only reason I would want Paizo to handle it is because of their quality of products, that said, undertaking MORE could jeopardize existing projects.

Cpt_kristov is right. Here's what I recommend: Give it until next Wednesday or Thursday or so, then shoot us and email and we'll put together some replacements.

Cool...no problem at all, my problem was counting days rather than business days. I've been spoiled by receiving packages 2-3 days after the bank notified me of the withdrawal.

Pandora Radio: Autechre, and the like.

Gun guy, here...over the past 15 years my collection has grown, shrunk, and is back on the grow. I started with guns around 11 with the usual BB/Pellet, and I was hooked pretty quick. By 13 I was using grandpa's bolt action Springfield 35 that he got when he was a kid. Like many of the kids I hung out with in our tiny rural town I was an "avid avian opportunist" until I was 15 or so, regrettable now, but dumbarse kid stuff was the name of the game. I also got a little experience with grandpa's 16g breech load shotgun that he got for his birthday in 1936, not sure of the make though. Finally, when I was 22 I had a job that paid enough to justify buying my own gun; I talked it over with the "gun people" that I associated with, and they all agreed that the best handgun round for personal defense is the .40 S&W. So I went to my local dealer, who conveniently has an indoor range attached, and fired all of the .40's that they had to rent. By the end of the testing I had gone through 500 rounds and filled out the paperwork to buy a Glock 23C, which has the ported barrel to reduce recoil and muzzle climb. About 3 months later my boss sold me one of his SKS's, and 6 months after that I bought his Ruger Mini 14. Good times...we would go out on the farm and shoot thousands of rounds in a day, from a myriad of different guns. My boss, at the time, was what some people would call a "gun nut", he was a collector for 40 years by this time. We were going to the gun show once a month to buy cases of ammo...5000rnds of 7.62, 5000rnds of 223/5.56, 2000rnds of .40 S&W, we blew out the tires on our dolly more than once.
Anyway, stopped working for him and got BROKE real quick...so I sold him back his rifles, and sold the pistol to my best friend so that I could have a roof over my head.
About 2 years later I started making good money again, got a place on a nice piece of property 3/4 of a mile from my nearest neighbor; and the urge to shoot got REALLY STRONG. First things first Mossberg 500, 12g "tactical" shotgun to shoot skeet. Next came the new pistol, I LOVED the Glock 23C; but I wanted something in a sub-compact, so I repeated my test fire day and settled on a Springfield XD40 Sub, which was especially nice because it was VERY cost friendly and had ZERO malfunctions while testing (and still). The nice thing about using Rental guns at the range is that they've been beaten, abused, and neglected over thousands of rounds; which tells me that the ones that still function flawlessly are pretty well made.
Next I got the urge for a rifle, but I decided to go with something a little different. So I got a Beretta CX4 .40 S&W carbine, this way I'm only concerned with buying ONE kind of ammo. I have never been happier with a firearm purchase before or since, just a joy in every way. Well, except that now I want to buy a PX4 pistol so that I can share magazines between my primary and my sidearm; but that a story yet to be told.
And then I got my wife involved, which some of you know, can be a challenge. I took her to the range and set her up with some of the rentals a Ruger .22, a .380 Walther (I think), and a full frame Springfield XD9. She flatly refused to try a revolver. The 9mm was "a handful" (toss), the .380 FELL APART after 3 rounds (range abuse :) ), but the .22 was just right. Next was picking her frame, I offered minimum input and set her off on the .22 test drive. Winner is The Ruger Mark3 Hunter, with the fluted bull barrel and fiber optic front sight, "because it's the pretty one"; and now we she's well on her way to being a deadeye.

Cheers,
A Gun Nut

An idea struck me - since they're all made in Alkenstar, located in the inherently antimagical Mana Wastes, what if firearms themselves couldn't be enchanted? No +1 blunderbusses, no +3 holy rifles, no +5 flaming frost shocking unholy revolvers, none of it. But we increase the damage dice all by 1 (1d8 to 2d8, 2d6 to 3d6, etc.)?

I think that it's totally appropriate that firearms CANNOT be enchanted. Perhaps ENHANCEMENTS can be made, for a hefty fee, that increase accuracy, damage, conceal ability, FORT v. misfire, hardness+HP...each enhancement can cost 1000g. And any given firearm may only have, say...2 enhancements on handguns/carbines, and 3 on rifles/scatterguns.

But what about magical ammunition, if/when there is a base price for that?

I'm living in Chicago and looking to meet up with a game group/larger game community here. Have experience in D&D Kingdoms of Kalamar. Open to other games/venues. Very open to playing pathfinder.

We play Tuesday nights in the Orland Park/Tinley area. Currently 4e :( But 2 of the 4 of us have been smitten by Pathfinder Society, and are working to convert the group.

Michael Gear wrote:

I was notified that it was shipped 08/04, has not arrived.

Shipping on 8/4 would mean that it left on 8/5. From 8/5-8/19 is 10 business days. While that is 2 days over the normal 4-8 business day shipping window (if you used standard mail and live in the US) it is not so late as to consider it lost yet.

Yeah, good point...I guess I got twitchy.

The Authority wrote:

Useless?

Yet another "if my toy isn't the obvious choice I don't like it" gamer.

Enjoy your tiered equipment.

There's a point where usefulness has to outweigh flavor, especially in the deadly Paizo adventures.

If you're going to have them cost more than a composite longbow (str+3) they shouldn't be weaker than them AND require a special exotic weapons proficiency.

Either up the damage or add a "If hit by a gun the target must make a DC 10 + damage dealt will save or be shaken for 1d4 rounds". That was the guns biggest advantage historically when they started replacing bows, their sheer intimidation factor.

I REALLY like the idea of leaving the target shaken. But I also like that the price makes them prohibitive to players unwilling to pay gold and a feat for flavor, thus keeping firearms VERY rare in a sword and armor world.

Michael Gear wrote:

Game MUST run smoothly consider the percussion cap rifle to be a paper cartridge minie ball breech loader, like the Enfield 1851. And the Flintlock is a Ferguson; which, while fragile, had a 1 round/6 seconds rate of fire.

Thanks for the Education Michael. I wasn't aware of the Ferguson musket. Though, if the setting musket is a Ferguson, it should probably have better damage.

I'm just not sure that the setting has the sort of technical and scientific infrastructure required to produce Enfields. You don't get to Enfield from crossbow without huge cultural and technological advances. Sure you could say it is fantasy/magic...but that is sort of a cop-out.

CJ

Cop-out, yeah, just funnin'.

Pictured in the Campaign setting are a blunderbuss pistol and a flintlock musket that looks like a French 1763. The percussion cap firearms look like models from the mid-1800's.

They cost as much as +1 weapons and more, but no cost for ammo.

If its only once a month, and its not on a weekend that I have my daughter, and my wife doesn't kill me, I may be able to do something if we can figure out a location, but I can't promise too much until we have more details worked out.

However, the good news is that if I can show up, I'm more than happy to GM all the freaking time. I like to run games, so that's not a problem.

So far, game night has been on Tuesday nights, over the coming months, starting this week, I will be able to add Monday nights, as well. I work noon-midnight Saturdays and spend Sundays with my wife; since it's our only day together, while school is in session, weekends have just become impossible.

We are talking one round to load, tamp/ram, and prime. One round. Six seconds. Each of these actions should probably take 1-round plus.

Now I understand that this is probably NOT the forum for this. But that seems inherently silly.

CJ

Fantasy: Bigger, Better, Faster, and then we loot their corpses!

Game MUST run smoothly consider the percussion cap rifle to be a paper cartridge minie ball breech loader, like the Enfield 1851. And the Flintlock is a Ferguson; which, while fragile, had a 1 round/6 seconds rate of fire.

I like that none of the "factory" guns in PFS are Masterwork until you take them to a gunsmith and pay another 600g. I also like that the factory only produces one gun per day to keep availability down and cost up.

It seems we'll need to find some halfway point for each of us...even if we just do one per month due to the overwhelming cost of petrol.

Please include whether or not you can take on the DM's privilege/burden so that we can get a rotation that lets everyone advance. Vellic Of Talstone is in, he said so yesterday; his brother is a potential player/GM, but he may yet prove moody. Since we're looking at 4-6 players per table, we may be on to something already.

I am not a weapon expert so...

the Campaign guide says the Percussion caps uses Gun cotton.

Also it describes the loading the flintlock weapons as a taking 1 round while the Percussion Cap only takes a move action, so by that description and the description of the weapons, only the flint locks seem to be muzzle loaders.

I am not an expert either, but I have more practice than some, and wikipedia in another tab. :)

Gun Cotton, even though the name brings pictures of cloth, is still a powder; the powder results when fine cotton or wool is immersed in 15 parts of a 50/50 blend of nitric and sulfuric acid. The resulting substance produced 6 times the gas of an equal amount of Black Powder, less flame, and less smoke.
If I were playing a demolitions character, this would be my choice; although it is MUCH more hazardous to produce.

Black Powder, on the other hand, would be relatively easy to make yourself in a fantasy setting because of the proliferation of horses and beasts of burden, which urinate all over, you just need to separate the crystallized nitrogen from the "dung heaps". Charcoal is easy enough to find, sulfur may be hit and miss, add potassium nitrate from the urine and you are in business.

From a character perspective I'd go for the Craft Alchemy (black powder); DC 15=1d3 fire/1d3 sonic; DC 20=1d6/1d6; DC 25=2d6/2d6 against structures, but I'd have to make it less effective against living targets lest you have some SUPER-POWER-GAMEY ULTRA-WEAPON; perhaps by doing half damage and a low DC Reflex save to avoid the blast. I dunno...gotta go to work.

Cheers

Hey there all,

This one got cut on purpose, just to bring up this issue. Should these bonuses (along with the dwarven and gnomish hatreds/trainings) be cut.

Not cut, maybe a Racial Feat where the player chooses a single "racial weapon" to apply Weapon Focus to, and gains +2 instead of +1. That way EVERYBODY can benefit.

I'd like to follow that with the idea that there be a "Halfling Sling" like the War Sling in Races Of The Wild [maybe without the X4 Crit though, seems a bit much] since Slings are so important to Halflings in general.

Small size does grant a +1 ATT anyway, but when you look at the DAM from small weapons, "we" need to be more accurate in order to survive.

As far as Dwarven and Gnomish H/T, I'd like to see it treated like favored enemies, with +2 dodge bonus against selected enemy; so that the type/sub-type can correspond with the backstory of the character.

Cheers

There are 2 types in pathfinder.

Flintlocks

And

Percussion Caps

The Flintlock requires you add your own Gunpowder the Percussion Caps do not.

They don't seem to go into how you get the gunpowder for the flintlocks.

Percussion caps just replace the powder in the pan that ignites the main charge to throw the projectile, so there will still be a powder horn involved. There have been a few tiny pistols that used ONLY the percussion cap to throw the ball; but they were, essentially, Derringers; they're good for point blank w/i 6 feet. Game equivalent damage would be 1hp.

hogarth wrote:

Dragnmoon wrote:

Since there is Gun powder I was hoping to do something with that, but gun powder alone is not sold, only in bullets.

Ah...now I know what kind of explosives you're talking about.

yup...

stuff that goes BOOM!!!!!!...

"Bullets"? As in, casing packed with powder, capped with projectile, ignited by a primer? I think these firearms are muzzle-loaders, which would mean that powder is carried in its own "horn", or some-such. No? Or is it a matter of how it's sold as "ammunition" instead of separate components?

Norgerber wrote:

The deity known as "Outback".

Alignment: BBQ

Portfolio: Hunting, Cooking, Joy, Blooming Onion, Dancing
Domains: Animal, BBQ, Charm, Glory

Isn't Ted Nugent "Outback's" avatar on this plane?

This seems like the place, so now it's my call to PFS members in the E/NE IL area...Toilet, er Joliet; Orland; Frankfort; even CHI if that's what it will come to. Have 2 GM's willing to share duty, but we'd like to progress our own characters as well.

Maybe halflings and gnomes should get riding hyenas or riding emus.

Many games ago, my Halfling Rogue had a hyena named "Mangy Dog" as a mount. It added just the right amount of flavor to a ner-do-well character.

I was notified that it was shipped 08/04, has not arrived.

I think you guys are confused. Uzzy is talking about a fictional organization in the Forgotten Realms that gave it's members a pin (of a Harp.) Not an actual real life item. :P

You think? Okay, well the idea has evolved into something else. I still have this money burning a hole in my pocket; and I only want to give it to Paizo. :)

So, when I was playing in the Realms, I really liked the Harpers. And I always thought a great idea for a product would be a Harper Pin, which as anyone who knows the Realms will tell you, is the symbol of the Harpers. Getting to have an actual physical thing to give to players would have been great.

Anyway, this moves me on quite nicely to Pathfinders. It would appear that the symbol of the Pathfinders is the Wayfinder (as shown in the Campaign Setting). So, I think actually having a physical Wayfinder would be a nice product to sell. I know I'd get one!

Seconded...my friend and I were also discussing FACTION pins (lapel style) for The Pathfinder Society, which I would rather, since I can pin it to whatever I'm wearing and represent.

Cheers

We play Savage Tide with the rule that a 1 rerolls to confirm the fumble, and I once fumbled on both of my attacks, dealing damage to myself twice (once with a magic weapon) and to top it all off I am in the category of my favored enemy, so I did extra damage from that. Dropped myself from well over 10hp to close to dead in one round.

We play with the rule that if you fumble, you lose all subsequent attacks that round. So there would be no potential for this to happen. This rule has "robbed" each of us at higher levels, but it conveys the severity of mistakes in combat.

The rules and optional rules are shown in the example cards. On a natural "1", you would have to re-roll the attach and if that attack misses, it is a critical fumble. One of the optional rules is that you can only critical fumble once per combat. I assume that is there to prevent the characters from killing themselves.

I considered "confirming" fumbles, but we decided that it is easier to make a BAD mistake than it is to have an awesome success ie. Crit Hit. So now a 1 results in a card. Even though this has resulted in some SERIOUSLY injured characters, it has added a great measure of chaotic fun. I have also limited "non-character" foes from drawing Crit Hit cards, but everyone suffers Crit Fumbles. So far everyone is pleased.

Hey Michael,

How many units must sell in order to make a deck worth producing? Many, many of hundreds. Probably more closely measurable in the thousands.

No kidding? I would not have expected thousands of units would be required to break even on production, and start seeing a profit. I guess that depends on the cost per unit and the number being produced. It's very unlikely that we the customers could amass enough pre-orders to offset those amounts. Oh well, I bounced an idea; thanks for bouncing back.

Cheers

More cards! Not only have item cards added to the richness of my/our/the campaigns; but, it seems, having "tangible" equipment has made my/our/the new players more interested in learning how to play the games and continue roleplaying. It falls into the, apparent, truth of the world: People Want Stuff. Lovely, keep them coming Paizo; and I intend to keep on buying.

Cheers

I've had some questions that keep springing up in the Ol' Thinker. How many units must sell in order to make a deck worth producing? If enough individuals were willing to pre-order a deck, and THEN submit requests on its content, discuss, debate, and agree; would "The Powers That BE" be willing and able to produce? Many people have had excellent ideas about what could be included in/comprise a whole deck; and I find myself sitting here reading it and saying "I'd buy that"; I'm guessing some of you have done this, as well. Thoughts?

...cheers...

Can anyone tell me if ANY of the item cards in ANY deck is a spear? I think I have 50 wands, 40 staves and 79 potions...but no spears. :-)

-DM Jeff

Well...you're not going to like this, Item Pack 1 had one; but it's no longer available. And I have another one from the Elements Of Power deck, which is still available. What I'm waiting for is a Halberd, a couple close ones that substitute fine, but no proper Halberd yet.

...cheers...

Although I have most, if not all, of these cards already; I am certain to buy this set when it releases. I love the Item Card Decks. As I was furthering my knowledge of Alpha3, I noticed that the list of Animal Companions had a total of 55 creatures, which is one more than the standard 54 card decks; but includes some Very unusual choices. I would really like to see a deck dedicated to Familiars and Animal Companions; where each animal is tweaked just a bit, to show their connection to the Arcane/Divine; different fur patterns, feather length or colour, jeweled scales, etc. Perhaps a double set including "Improved Familiars"; winged cat, undead dire rat...oh, but one request...as stated months ago; no, unnecessary, boney plates or horns in awkward places.

...cheers...

Anyone know of a website/book/magazine that might have an image of a Goblin with a pair of pistols? I'm looking for a character I made up in Eberron.

Freebooter Miniature: Goblin Pirate.

...cheers...

Armor as DR is something I would really really like to see, I already use it in my game and will continue to use it; and with everyone...

Why not rely on the Hardness and HP of the armor in question. it can only absorb so much damage before it is no longer functional, and requires repair. It seems easy enough to determine if a hit was scored on the armor. We need, only, to determine armor type vs. weapon type, bonuses and penalties. I have found that damaging armor leads to MANY story hooks, since PCs need to find; someone that can fix their armor, or someone that will let them use their shop to fix their own. In the mean time, their armor is useless weight; and then their unarmored until repairs are finished.

I was wondering if it would possible with PRPG to get dire animals to look more normal again? You know like they used to, before they became deformed parodies of the animals they are dire versions of, with inexplicable bumps, spikes, horns and tumorous growths.

Agreed, my players and I laugh all the time about that. "You know it's dire, look at the boney jags of spine." If we look at animals with horns...they serve a survival related purpose, usually combat. What circumstances prompted such, seemingly, useless, if not cumbersome, horns and boney protursions?

Perhaps dire animals should get Gore attecks added to their stat blocks to account for their sharp bits.

I liked Apprentice levels from 3.0 too and was disappointed to see them go with 3.5.

I wonder be in favor of adding a 0 level to all the classes, but keep it separate from the regular rules. Apprentice levels should be an Option that the DM allows for advanced players, just like it was in the 3.0 DMG.

I like the idea that a character, with intent toward a partiular multi-class, recieves the 0 level benefits when they reach 1/2 way to the next level, and then subtract the new features from the new class level when they get there. Minor adjudication is needed from time to time, but I find that this makes the character more interesting to play than a series of stats on paper.

I have spent countless hours building worlds. I really enjoy paying attention to the tiny details. When I put together a calendar, and want to add festival days, I start with the seasons and how each region is affected. Then I consider the food; crops, livestock, fishing, etc; and I work out when one or more of these are in surpuls in a region. This makes local festivals seem more organic, to me; and it inspires trade routes and commerce as the timeline progresses. I do like the idea of non-days, where "who-knows-what" can happen.