Mr Baron's page

I just skimmed through it, and my first reaction is that is truly disgusting....

I just can't wait to get my hands on the actual book to really enjoy all the nastiness ;)

Nice job!

Same issue with me...I have a bunch of items (including PF8) waiting for PF9. I want PF8 to ship ASAP, and whatever is waiting for it to ship too.

Please do not hold up the PF's!

Thanks...

James,

Thanks for asking. I agree with what a lot of the folks have said. Here is what I think:

1) Fluff & flavor of the starting area, to include maps as appropriate. Could include some reprinted summaries hitting the high points of the city/town/village.

2) PrC's that will be useful, and that could be gained by going through the adventure. 2-3 is plenty.

3) A bit of foreshadowing could be a nice touch. Not spoilers, but hints at what lies ahead. Maybe a teaser to get folks interested.

4) A bit of fiction to give additional flavor. Maybe a letter, a journal entry, etc.

5) Some sort of intro that explains why the characters are together and where they start.

6) Regional skills & feats...a couple of each.

7) Culture & customs stuff.

8) Mythology, legends and/or history

9) A reason to want to make PC's from the area (interesting & useful stuff)

Looking forward to reading the finished product.

Cheers!

What's Ryan doing these days? What's he working on?

Its April...will they be hitting the warehouse this week?

Hehe. Weihai, Shandong here. Too far away.

You might be able to get some foreigners to play, though.

If you are willing to teach local people how to play, I suggest you find an 'English corner' and meet some people who you think will like the game and want to practice their English.

I've taught all my players.

Hey, quick question...any trouble getting Paizo products delivered?

I will be moving to Shanghai for a year. Any gamers in that part of the world?

a couple of follow on comments:

1) I love the horse flavor, but you rarely get a chance to use it. I can safely say that there was only 1 time I really ever used a paladin on a horse and that was with a halfling on a wardog. Basically you need a small character riding a small-medium mount in order for it to work in a dungeon environment. I would be sad to see the horse go, but normally you do nto get a chance to use it.

2) Paladins should be tied their diety's code of conduct, not just a random set of LG morality concepts. The class has got to be playable. I have known DM's to really hamstring paladins with a bunch of extra-nonsense that makes the class un-playable. Different dieties should have slightly different codes of conduct, that are in keeping with what the diety stands for.

At the moment I am leaning towards keeping the basic system, but then have a side bar with a discussion about optional 1st level starting HPs, and then list out several options. I think most folks are already giving out max HP's/HD, so we can assume that is the standard.

I like the idea of racial HP bonus and I like adding in the total constituion score. But I think if you add them both together it is a bit high.

This was actually a post that I was thinking about starting.

In my current campaign, I have been using "Hero Points," which are a little different than action points, but it is the same idea.

Here are the basic rules that we have been using. Characters start out with 3 hero points at first level, and then gain 1 point for every third level (4th, 7th, 10th, 14th, etc..). These are usable each day, and you cannot save up un-used points for the next day. With these points, players can do the following:

1) Add 1 to ANY die roll per hero point that you have available (including a point to bump up the die roll on #3). This was a very straight forward, and it was more frequently used when the characters just missed a monster, but were able to use a point or two to bump up the to hit die roll.

2) Add 1 die to any spell (ie fireball, cure, etc). This definitely gave a boost to spell casters going up against tough opponents.

3) Roll a DC15 save against any attack for no damage (1 chance per attack). You can use a hero point to bump up your roll.

I really liked the way this worked out. They were a limited resource that had to be managed, and sometimes was the difference between life and death of the character. They had a couple of diffent options for use, and every character class could take advantage of them. There were a couple of times that the characters took a brutal hit and then used a hero point to see if they could survive. Needless to say, this turned into a very exciting moment.

I realize that the Eberron action points work a bit differently. I really like the concept of the players being able to be "Heroes" and be able to defy the odds.

Count me in on supporting a system of hero or action points, as long as they are limited in number, but have several different uses.

One possibility, which would require scrapping the paladin for a generic holy knight, would be to give them "domain" like abilities in place of smite and cure disease. Most of the core abilities could be kept the same. Effectively, they would be fighters with some divine powers. I am uncertain if this versaion should keep it its spellcasting or not.

Doing a generic class like this would allow for the paladin and blackguard to be logical prestige classes for certain religions.

I really like the idea of Paladins/holy/unholy knights getting domain abilities/spells that reflect their deity. This provides them some measure of customization and adds a bit of flavor.

A couple of quick thoughts on Paladins

1) Paladins should be LG only. Opening up the alignment does nto feel right, as this has been apart of the rules since day 1. Now with that said....

2) For other alignments, we should come up with a new class name...knight, crusader, hellknight, holy/unholy warrior, etc...

3) I have always hated the class name "anti-paladin." I agree we need one, I just hate the name.

I totally agree that the Paladin class is too front loaded. Once you pass ~5th level, the class becomes un-interesting. I am going to think about this for a bit, and provide some recommendations.

If the final product is fully compatible, we should be able to use all the classes in the complete series of books.

Now with that said, I am hoping for a couple of interesting Pathfinder specific classes. I really like the idea of an actual "Pathfinder" class.

I would be interesting to work in some of his ideas. From what I can gather, some of the Paizo staff were regulars in his games. I would like to think that some of their game discussions made it into this version of the game.

Any plans to add more core classes?

I am still in!

on a side note, did anyone catch the p-dragons and the imps glaring at each other in the player's guide at the start of some of the chapters...its a nice touch!

When I first read that section, I thought that the flavor really popped out at me. It was just a really cool idea. Then I started thinking about the mechanics of it and quickly realized that they probably did not add up. So I went back to thinking how cool the flavor was.

Now with that said, any time there is a really interesting flavor item, including some additional mechanics or other information is a good thing and is greatly appreciated. My thought is that this is sub-type of p-dragon that has evolved to hunt imps. This should lead to an interesting p-dragon write up. I have some ideas, but I would like to read the official Paizo version, as it promises to be a good one :)

smurf....whoops...got carried away

test, test, test..... :)

Superscriber!

Most excellent!

yeah, its one of the problems with the game mechanics. If you have access to even medium level clerics/wizards/etc.. it would become very evident what is going on.

I am just posting to say I have downloaded the PDF, and can't wait to start reading it.

Classy move by the WotC staff.

One more vote for Linnorn Kings AP! vikings just rock!

Answers.. (drum roll please..)

1) Do you plan to convert to the new edition of D&D?
--Yes. not sure when, but probably in late 2009 or 2010.

2) If Paizo converts its RPG products to 4.0, how will that affect your purchasing patterns for our products?
-- No effect. I will continue buying quality Paizo products. I have no plans to discontinue my subscriptions. I am hoping that you do convert to 4th. I am also hoping that 4th edition does prove to be a better game.

3) If Paizo does not convert its RPG products to 4.0, how will that affect your purchasing patterns for our products?
-- No effect, at least not initially. I have no plans to discontinue my subscriptions. If 4th edition takes off, I suspect that I will at some point scale back on 3rd edition products and game play. Obviously if 4th edition is bad, I will stick with 3rd edition.

As a side note, I do appreciate that you have asked the questions of your customers. This is one of the reasons that I am planning on staying a Paizo customer.

Very nice! Many thanks!

I like the idea of drow/dark elves as shadow fey. Mysterious elves that inhabit the underdark. The issue I have with the FR drow is that they are too well known. They come across as evil humans living in the underdark. In 1st ed they had a mysterious feel to them, as they came across as shadow fey and they were all about hit and run tactics. They would strike then melt away into the darkness. There was almost an alien feel to them. They had a special relationship with demons, that set them apart. I am hoping that paizo brings this feel back to the drow.

Does anyone feel like this?

Ross Byers wrote:

I've created a mock-up (as promised, if late) of what I think a RotRL Slipcase might look like. Images at Link

What do people think?

Well, that didn't take long to overload the bandwidth limit on my old free geocities account.

Let's try this again with beter hosting:
Back-Left View
Front-Left View
Front-Right View
Back-Right View

very nice :)

At the moment, I am reading a bunch of filler books until Shadowplay from Tad Williams comes out in paperback. His first book was great, and I am really looking forward to the second.

Last five books include:
1) Olympos by Dan Simmons. This is the second book in a 2 book series. This is a good read if you like SF & the Trojan War

2) Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon. This is book 6 in The Horus Heresy series. The series is very good (especially the first 3). This book is good, but it really nothing to do with the series.

3) Faith & Fire by James Swallow. Its ok...I will leave it at that.

4) The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas (unabridged version). Excellent! Dumas has to be one of my favorite authors!

5) Shadowbred by Paul S. Kemp. I am in the middle of this one.

Faerie Tale is an excellent read. Possibly his best book..

a book on the underdark.

This is what I don't want, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.

Don't get me wrong, I love the book. It's beautiful. It made my Realms 3E. Did I mention it's beautiful and probably the finest book Wizards published?

But one thing went wrong for me, the Player's Guide to Forgotten Realms. When 3.5e hit, Wizards took all the crunch from the FRCS and put it in the Player's Guide, altering some of it just because they wanted to it, and reprinting other things from other 3.0 Realms books (like Races of Faerun.)

Now why was that bad? Well it's bad because I still need the FRCS. I still need Races. The Player's Guide added a third hardcover to my carrying needs with updated rules but brought none of the fluff.

Short version is. I don't mind carrying 3 books, I do mind carrying 3 books because book 1 and 2 were made useless game mechanics-wise by book 3. Don't take bits and pieces from a book and put it in another. Either reprint it all, or don't reprint it at all.

So in 3 years, when 4.5 or 4 Revised or 4 edition comes out, reprint your books in full, don't create patch books.

Side note, a monster collection is alright. I can use a monster manual without even playing a pathfinder game.

I think I am in agreement with you. I really liked the FRCS book, and if the Pathfinder CS looks like that, I will be really happy. However, when they came out with 3.5, I wish that Wizards had just republished the CS book with the new crunch and updated fluff. Flipping through multiple books to find the info you need and then checking it against errata is not efficient, especially during game play.

The #1 Pathfinder Chonicles thing I would want is a Dieties and Demigods type book with some Manual of the Planes thrown in.

I know each religion is being covered one at a time in Pathfinder but this would be great.

The Gods and Planes can be covered in one book.

If they cant and there is extensive planes info I dont mind 2 seperate books :)

For me, a Pantheons book by itself does not get me excited about a book. My feeling is that this can be rolled up into the campaign setting book. Now if the Pantheons were added to Planes and something else (magic/spell guide, history, other mythos), that would be great. There has to be something else attached to get me to buy the book.

I am a big FR fan, but I never bought the FR Deities book, as I felt that everything I needed was in the campaign setting book.

My suggestion are for Pathfinder Chronicles

I really like what WofC did for 3.0/3.5 Forgotten realms supplements. I think it would be great if Paizo could duplicate that. It does not have to be a 160 page hardcover, but that would be nice :). Softcovers at 64 or 96 pages are a good length. 48 pages or less feels skimpy.

Specifically:
1) Regional books with background (culture & climate stuff), player options (feats, skills, PrC's, other flavor stuff), region specific monsters, bad guys, sample encounters, mini adventures, more detailed regional maps..

2) Book of villians/evil organizations....'nuff said on that. You can not have good guys/heroes without bad guys. Expanded details on the more infamous bad guys, complete with lair, minions, sample encounters etc...

3) Ancient empires/history/myths/legends

4) Exapanded pathfinder journals/fluff novels

5) Monster books - Old monsters with Pathfinder flavor, a monster manual with the new monsters (for example, when the new monster number hits ~300, its time for a book)

6) Book of mini dungeons/famous (infamous) locations. Basically something similar to Mysteries of Moonsea.

I am not necessarily attached to one system or another. A good magic system needs to be balanced, playable, with smooth mechanics. If it meets these three requirements, you can wrap flavor around them.

A monster summary page on the Pathfinder section would be great!

I appreciate the work done on this thread. Paizo is cranking out a lot of monsters. Any thought about compiling them into a Paizo monster manual? I won't take long before they are up over 100 new ones. I would even be interested in a PDF book that combines them all together.

We are certainly interested in seeing what Monte comes up with because, you know, Monte. What we do with what he creates is still up in the air, as is pretty much everything until WotC let's us see the GSL and 4e rules.

Monte has come up with some interesting ideas, and I am sure that some of them would make great special rules for a Pathfinder adventure path. I will be buying his PDF.

podcast? did someone say podcast?

sign me up!

Will that twisted Mr Logue be a regular guest? I'll take 2!

:)

done..and it looks like Pathfinder has passed Ptolus!

In general, if the PC's come up with a good idea, they should see some sort of result from it, but I would not let it ruin the feel of the adventure.

In this particular case, I would have a chunk of the fort burn down, a handful of goblins die, re-map the top with the results of the burning (maybe half of it destroyed), and keep going. The lower levels should still be in good shape, the element of surprise is lost, and there are a bunch of pissed off goblins.

When you told the PC's that it has burned to the ground, what does that really mean? Most structures that burn, still have something left standing. To me, it is more of a stretch to say that there is nothing remaining except bare rock. There would be ruins that could hide sneaky goblins (read sneak attacks). Since you stopped at that point, it seems to me that you could still say some of the structure survived, and still keep the interest of the players.

Will Paizo ever do a special edition 200 page pathfinder?

I really enjoy the background stuff. Getting the adventure, module specific monsters, Pathfinder fluff & stuff, along with the journal seems like a good combination.

Web enhancements are a great way to add content, especially with the dungeon sections. I would really like to see several web enhancements per series with side treks, additional dungeon encounters, additional flavor stuff, as well as tactical maps. While I would like to see a web enhancement for every volume, that is probably not realistic. I am ok with the dungeon getting cut short as long as it is added back in with web enhancements.

Lisa & the team,

I appreciate all the communication with the fans, and keeping us in the loop on what is going on. The interaction on the message boards is wonderful.

With that said, I am full confident that you will make the right decision. I am actually hoping that you are able to take advantage of the early offer and make it worth while.

Keep us in the loop!

Cheers!

what's the estimated ship date? Has it arrived in the warehouse?

Thumbs up for slip covers!

This was a really fun movie. I saw it twice on my trip to China on the plane. I will probably buy the DVD. If you like The Princess Bride, you should like this one.

Thumbs up!

I did not get one either.. :(

I was looking at my subscription page, and it said to expect this in late Jan/early Feb.

Is that right?

I knew there was a reason I found gargoyles interesting ;)