The University of Toronto Roleplaying Club is hosting an RPG convention on March 17-19. It will feature lots of Pathfinder games, both PFS and non-PFS.

New players welcome!

The venue is top drawer: Hart House, which is an absolutely atmospheric place to game (downtown Toronto at the University). Special guests include Ed Greenwood and Robin Laws.

The Event's facebook page

I am very happy to be digging into Jim Grove’s “The Half-Dead City”.

One thing that has just jumped out at me is the footnote to “Twilight of the Phoenix”, the adventure proposal from 2008, which was from the final round of the original RPG Superstar competition.

Anybody else remember the camel chase, the collapsing tower of glass? Or the eclipse event?

That brings back great memories. If you happen to be an Osirion junkie who came into Pathfinder post-08, I would look it up. It might be among the ‘awesomest’ of adventures to remain in concept form and you can already see its formative influence in "Mummy's Mask".

All money goes to Wayfinder? How surprised am I that Paizo is doing something swell for the fans who do great stuff for Paizo? Not very. Nice synergy guys - or should I say stacking bonus.

Looking good Angus! Hope you had an awesome con!

Dear Paizonians,

There is a company that donates a dollar to a charity each time someone hits the “like” button on its charitable facebook page . < ---- that’s the link!

Currently, the featured charity is one that is very near and dear to me: Bond Child and Family Development.

Could you please take a half second and hit that “like” button?

Bond Child and Family Development (AKA Bond Street by us old timers) is a charity that targets two very poor neighbourhoods in Toronto, Canada by focussing on the youngest of children. The crown jewels of the charity is an award winning day care program which is teamed by specialists trained to work with kids with special needs, particularly autism. They also have a park with actual grass in the middle of the concrete jungle and something called a Snoezelin room. The kids are adorably cute and totally worth an electronic click.

Like everywhere these days, money is tight. In fact Bond almost had to close shop recently and so every fundraising drive matters. Over the years I’ve learned that gamers are unusually charitable and typically above the curve on tech savvy. Please prove me right and hit that button. But I’d love it if you could do more – if everyone just alerts one other person to this, we could really set that like button on fire. (DC 22 Will save against chain letter - no need to go crazy!)

Lastly, for the sake of disclosure, I should mention I am well familiar with both Bond as well as the company doing the donating, but those are both good things.

Now in order to satisfy the traditions of a truly off topic posting and to add some Paizo-inspired content, here’s a collection some of my favourite old Paizo threads that I got to play around in over the years (sniff, sniff). This one pertains to one of my favourite gaming sessions during the 3.5 Paizo Dungeon era arising from an old Paizo contest, from a time long before rpg Superstar. This one is about what happens if the Were Cabbages foolishly attempt to conquer True Dungeon. This one is the chronicle of the first Green Blood on a Black Rock tournament, an event which thanks to Adam Daigle and Brandon Hodge has since become a really awesome event. I hope it will continue to rock houses at PaizoCon to come. And of course, as long as I am reminiscing, here is the thread where Ask a Shoanti finally got his start as an advice columnist (thanks Liz!). Where has the time gone?

I just saw the photos for the 'arena' that Adam Daigle and Brandon Hodge have been building for this particular Paizo Con event.

And I just wanted to post that it looks awesome.

I can only conclude that it would be an honor to be maimed on the Black Rock for the mere sporting amusement of the Free Captains.

(Apologies if you guys were trying to keep this under wraps)

Quarter Finals 1: Mr. Inky v. Stampy

The biggest crowd pleasing battle was an elephant (yes, elephant) versus a black pudding. Some match-ups should just never take place. But here at Green Blood we do not shy away.

The elephant was unable to line-up a trample attack thanks to some “slick” manoeuvring by Mr. Inky. Once they met in close-quarters, the ooze swarmed over the elephant’s body and bathed it in acid while the elephant stomped it into puddles. Early on for one round the elephant also gored with its tusks, but this only caused Mr. Inky to divide into Inky “A” and Inky “B”, doubling the creatures’ offence, and the elephant had to learn fast. It was a super tight match that ultimately came down to the dice but in the end it was the pudding that walked (er sloshed) away.

Winner: Black Pudding

“Greetings Phalanx of the Empire!

What a gathering this is.

As you know our fine nation recently honored the Isle of Kortos by sending a delegation to Absalom for their Grand Tournament. And what a delegation it was!

I am pleased to report that _as anticipated_ once again Taldor walked away victorious. Our champion raised Taldor’s flag over the fallen of many other lesser nations. Truly a sign that Taldor’s glory remains unimpeded.

May we please take a moment to give another thundering round of applause to our champion (who was a druid no less).”

Sense Motive DC 20

On cue the crowd explodes into applause followed by another chorus of “In Service Lies Honor!”

Raise your hand in this thread if you too share the elite honour of having died in the Slumbering Tsar play test at Paizo Con.

Hey Torontonians and those close enough to drop by!

More details to follow soon, I hope, but there’s a D&D mini-con taking place on January 16-18, tentatively set at one of the downtown colleges or university campuses (tentatively U of T or possibly Ryerson, I suspect).

It’s really a 4E org play event, but I was invited to run a table or two of PFS. Those 4E guys are quite cool. But I’d still like to demonstrate that we can still kick it 3.X with an awesome of setting.

If you can make the date and are interested, please post up here and I’ll see if there’s a table to be formed. I am happy to prep and run any module, so feel free to let me know your PC level and what mod you’d like to play in and I’ll see how I can accommodate the group. If you’d like to GM a table instead, just let me know; I bet we could arrange that too. Players new to PFS are welcome – as are players new to the game entirely.

All I ask is that the game exude an intensity level worthy of the PFS island it will be surrounded by those 4E tables! ! !

So! Anyone out there?

Scribling Rambler – can you make it?!

Rambling Scribe? Steph says you should come!

Dear Confused on the Storval:

Neither. Wait for the bugbears to attack. Then, as soon as the Varisians inevitably wet themselves, swoop in and kill all the bugbears. (Do it with your off-hand if you need a better workout.) Then suggest to the Varisians that they move off to a land more agreeable to their delicate nature. Wherever they go, they will speak of your deeds. Don’t forget: Varisians are good for something.

Yours very truly,

Ask a Shoanti

If I am right, the feat Deflect Arrows hasn’t gotten a significant treatment yet. Has this been discussed anywhere already? If so, link love appreciated. (If so, apologies for duplication guys.)

Deflect Arrows in its current incarnation remains a good feat, but for me, it’s not yet entirely satisfying.

1. I still have trouble that it’s an auto success. For example, a 1st level monk automatically blocks the first shot of a 20th level ranger as long, as the monk is not flat-footed.

2. The one arrow per round limit is well balanced, but it excludes the flavorful opportunity for the classic scene of the monk who blocks a whole bunch of arrows. I’d prefer it if it were hard to do, but not impossible.

It isn’t lost on me that this suggests the rejected Reflex save mechanic from 3.0. . .

Anybody got an idea for a better way? Here’s my thoughts:

OK, this is just a minor tweak to simplify a favorite feat of mine. Augment Summoning has two issues that, while I can’t go so far as call them problems, never sat quite right with me:

1. +4 to Str and Con is pretty potent;

2. While the pre-requisite of Spell Focus (conjuration) does a nice job of balancing out the first problem, it’s just really annoying. Especially if the PC you have designed will never find a use for it as anything but a pre-requisite.

It’s almost like gaining a powerful ability you need to pay two feats for. Which is satisfactory but my suggestion is this:

Just dump the prerequisite and reduce the bonus to +2 Str and +2 Con.

It becomes a simpler more accessible feat and it might even make room for a Greater Augmented Summoning feat at some point.

Tracking the Numbers

[Insert standard spoiler warning here]

OK! Sometime back I had the pleasure of being involved in a module called “Entombed with the Pharaohs”. In the module there is a numerology shtick in which the numbers 11 and 56 appear an inordinate number of times, too many times to be a coincidence. Hopefully the ever present numbers contribute to the suspense aspect of the game’s atmosphere. It was brought to my attention that I promised to post my list of all the known spots where the numbers occur but I never actually did.

This is to finally take care of that. Also, it may shed a bit of light on which occurrences are by design and which are just coincidences. Every time somebody shows me one I have missed I get the willies. If anyone knows of any more, please let me know.

The Number 11

The Number 56

Lodge Brothers! Lodge Sisters!

Please join me in briefly putting our many secondary allegiances aside and join me in a toast!

For as you know on Oathday many of us will arrive in Absalom. There we shall have our courage and ingenuity tested time and time again. Not all of us are coming back.

For there we will face challenges not meant to be challenged and discover secrets not made for discovery.

And we do it all with only ourselves and our fellow Pathfinders!

To the greatest calling in all of Golarion!

TO THE PATHFINDERS! ! !

. . . because everyone loves a villain with class. And if you don't, you can be dealt with.

"Soon Absalom's soul will belong to the Majestrix. . ."

It sounds like this faction could be a home for both Braveheart and James Bond. Go Andoran!

"For the People!!!"

I am enjoying Pathfinder Alpha – thanks for making it publicly available and including us in the process.

Here is a small suggested design change. The change is respecting the second use of the Acrobatics skill: moving past opponents without drawing attacks of opportunity (p.22).

Currently the skill is resolved through the use of rolling over a static DC of 15. It’s easy to remember and easy to resolve.

But this has three collateral effects which I think might be avoided:

Introducing the Party:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the “Knights of the Moonlit Cabbage”!!!

Could there have been a more valiant (and ruggedly handsome) party?

As you may have already surmised from the title, our group was recruited from amongst the Were Cabbages, an overly-keen writing collective. The Were Cabbages formed a few years back when Dryder (Tom Ganz) had the idea to form a group from these very Paizo boards to make a collective proposal to Dungeon magazine. Although I can’t claim any involvement myself, I do know that their effort eventually went on to form the popular three-part Seeds of Sehan arc (Dungeon 145-147) which has been the collaboration template for many of the group’s future projects.

So without further ado, here are our knights:

Steve Greer, AKA “Spendric” – A founding Were-Cabbage, Steve naturally took on the role of the party bard. He frequently provided us with buffs in the form of his inspirational singing, which was, and I’m not making this up, most often a song by Queen. It was my desperate hope that “We are the Champions” would come up more often than “Another One Bites the Dust”.

Greg Oppedisano – Greg volunteered to be the party tank, our stalwart fighter. Melee attacks in True Dungeon are made with a device somewhat akin to shuffleboard. Greg joked that because he was Italian and had experience at bocce, he should be able to handle it. What he didn’t tell us was that he was actually phenomenal. Who would have thought it would be handy to bring an actual athlete to one of these things?

Rone Barton, AKA “Sparky” – No doubt you know Rone from the Paizo boards as “The Jade”. I gotta tell you the Jade’s even funnier in person. Rone took on the role of the party Wizard as well as that of a surrogate cleric whenever a certain someone needed help.

Tim Hitchcock – The party rogue, Tim proudly identified himself as “the ringer”. There is, he explained, no trap he is incapable of disarming. As the only one amongst us with prior True Dungeon experience Tim was the default Yoda for our intrepid expedition.

And last there was me (Mike). Although technically the party cleric, surrounded by these bright lights, I at times felt more like my true role was as the party Nodwick.

Well I got my #142 and am reading through it and I was wondering if anyone has had a chance to play Masque of Dreams yet? It is great to be back to the Lost City, be it ever so found.

In particular, the adventure looks like an interesting way to bring a new party together to kick things off: "Oh, us? We all met at an oasis party, with most of the guests under a drug-induced haze, while being raided by goblinoids for sacrificial slaves. You know how it is. I recollect the crab-cakes were terrific."

I think I will give XP awards for players who come up with particularly interesting masks for their PCs. I also suspect one of my players in particular will be disappointed if his PC doesn't manage to consume some elixir of fantasy of his own and get to ham up his own delusions. Chapter One may call for some Mountain Dew (Yes, we're wild and crazy).

Finally, Durakka just rocks. Beware getting pummeled by bugbear women. Yikes! Just say'in is all.

Good stuff GGG! Keep bringing it.

PART II - OUTSIDE THE STORE

Dawn broke (Repair DC 25). Kian began his morning meditation ritual interrupted only by the sweet sounds of Vrodish’s use of the chamber pot. (Regrettably, I did not make that scene up.) Thankfully, Vrodish soon left to go drinking. It was, after all, well past sunrise.

Rimbener determined that after The 20 Strong’s last adventuring debacle he had run out of material components for Hypnotic Pattern, his only useful level 2 combat spell (Nobody accuses Herman Lau of being a Power Gamer). Naturally, the respected advice and counsel of Kian lead to a decision to procure more components at Gwen’s Relics, a local store with a veritable cornucopia of goodies for spell-casting types. If only the 20 Strong had known that they were, in actual fact, the victims of a plot hook.

Despite their courtesy of scheduling their attendance during statutory business hours, when Kian and Rembener arrived at Gwen’s Relics, they were surprised to find the shop was closed. Something was definitely amiss, a sizeable crowd flocked outside the store. Most were rivited by the tales of a nutty fisherman racing among them as he insisted over and over that monsters were lose inside the store. (For those of you following along diligently with your copy of the mod, the nutty fisherman in question would be Javers Ibbelbbek, the NPC who triggers the untoward events in the adventure’s backstory.)

Concerted crowd control efforts were undertaken. Kian and Rimbener urged the flocking bystanders to move back so that The 20 Strong, the trained professionals that they are, could handle this crisis (“Who ya gonna Call?”). Fortunately Kian and Rimbener made what was perhaps their best decision of the day: they waited for Vrodish to join them.

Also fortunate was that before entering Gwen’s Relics, the party took the time to speak with Elgeen, a store employee who had also recently arrived on the scene. In so doing, the 20 Strong engaged in some essential intel gathering. The 20 Strong quickly learned that the magic shop had imported several expensive critters: cockatrices, shocker lizards, a dark mantle and even an exotic giant spider. . .

More importantly though, Elgeen impressed upon the 20 Strong, in no uncertain terms, that it was critical to ensure they did not damage “the merchandise”.

Rimbrener looked at Vrodish patting his axe as he frothed at the mouth (it might have been beer froth), then he looked at Kian’s bag of tricks with a Rhino horn, half popping out, and promptly assured Elgeen it wouldn’t be a problem.

Then, after a deep strategy session, the party settled on the front door as its subtle choice of entrance. Wiser still, Kian concluded The 20 Strong could best protect the innocent bystanders clustered outside of Gwen’s Relics by sealing_the_door_behind_them. It’s this kind of prudent thinking that makes Kian so popular with his fellow party members.

Stay tuned. . .

One of the recurring themes which has come out over the past few months is that word count is at a premium. Dungeon cannot be all-things-to-all-people-all-the-time because of the logistics of space restrictions in a magazine. Obviously the solution is to simply get an extradimensional Dungeon with a ridiculously expanded space, similar to a bag of holding. But since I am told that idea has already been discarded as impractical due to its effect on the cover price, I am forced to consider other ideas. Below is my modest proposal of how we might scrimp and save a few words in Dungeon. Not very many, I admit, but I get the impression that we are at the point where every syllable saved might help.

One of my very favourite sections of the magazine is “tactics”. People often talk about what they read first in each issue, but for me, I usually scan my swanky new mag for the bold heading “tactics” to see if the writers or staff have inserted something nasty or clever I can use, and they usually have.

With 3.5 ed, it’s common to list which spells are cast in advance by villains before the battle. This leads to the inevitable question of whether the buffs are already in the stat block. Stat block seers can usually figure it out by reverse engineering the stats, but it’s often too time consuming when one is in the middle of a game. To solve this, the author usually sacrifices the word count to tell you directly. I.e. “Lupe the Sorcerer casts Bull’s Strength, which is included in the statistics block.” or “If Lenny the Cleric of Kortes hears the PCs on the stairs he uses his scroll of magic vestment, and so the DM should increase his AC from 10 to 11.”

Here’s my thought: what if instead of writing out what tactics modify the stat block, we instead just mark it with a superscript symbol? I.e. Just, "Lupe the Sorcerer casts Bull's Strength -symbol-." I unfortunately can't draw superscript on on the message board to illustrate, but it would look similar to how we mark domain spells in stat blocks with the snazzy, upper case “D”. (Like a footnote people, you know what I mean)

One symbol would mean “already factored into the stat block” and the second would stand for “not in the stat block and the DM must add it.” It would save space and more importantly it would avoid those unfortunate times when a DM accidentally buffs the NPC twice or not at all.

There is, of course, a downside. We’d be introducing yet more obscure symbols in a game which is already working overtime in order to be inclusive to new players. That alone makes me wonder if this could fly. But hey, if it helps make room for a few more lines of flavor text or more space for a sidebar, maybe its worth a consideration?