Out of interest, is there any reason why ODF and PDF were left off the list of allowed file formats?
I presume that OpenOffice isn't standard in the Paizo offices, which would explain the ODF restriction. But you obviously can handle PDFs. Was it just oversight, wanting to keep the list short, or is there some other reason?
Many word processors allow for custom dictionaries for their spell checkers. People might want to think about adding words that they think they will use often in their proposals/drafts to their custom word list before spell checking (or before writing) so that they will pop up as suggestions.
That's true, and something I do usually do. Unfortunately, the spell check on this machine is playing up, and so was telling me fgfghhjvb was spelt correctly, and I completely forgot to check the words I *knew* it wouldn't know about.
First off, I don't intend to be mean. I plan on submitting myself, so I know I'll be "critiqued" just as much.
I wouldn't have posted it if I only wanted rosy replies. i don't think they will get much harsher that Josh's one line email was. :)
William Sinclair wrote:
First off, the wording of this proposal is a very painful read for me. There were some obvious spelling errors, both those picked up by Word, and those not. Plus, there were some serious punctuation problems. I suggest a good writing book called "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. While dry, it does an excellent job of laying out simple rules for composition and punctuation.
I'll have a look into that, I've always had trouble understanding the rules of grammar, but then again, got *very* good English grades the last time I was tested on it (ohhh, 10 or 12 years ago now). More research can't hurt!
William Sinclair wrote:
Also, while we only get 500 words for the quick proposals, I think you should focus less on alternative ways for the party to get into the house to achieve their goals, and more on what they are suppose to accomplish and why.
I was trying to emphasise that there would be a *much* better chance of getting through the adventure in a non-combat manor. but I seem to have failed miserably in that respect too.
William Sinclair wrote:
Quote:
Initial gather information should reveal the mundane aspects to Mr Thomas William, a habitual old man, of good standing, and moderate wealth. Honourable, though elusive.
should read more like
Quote:
Parties using Gather Information find that Mr. Thomas William is a habitual old man in good standing with moderate wealth, and has a honorable but elusive personality.
Hmm, I see what you mean. I will have to try harder on that count.
William Sinclair wrote:
BTW, what is an honorable but elusive personality?
Good point, in my head I know exactly what I mean by that, but it could have done with some more elaboration.
William Sinclair wrote:
Finally, when I need to submit something, whether a proposal like this, or even just an e-mail, I find it helpful to read the piece out loud exactly as written. This way, I’m not just hearing it in my head. I have to listen to it as well, and I can discover things I might not see otherwise. Like I just did about five times with this post.
I've seen that trick before (
Spoiler:
Apparently the Roman's thought it impossible to read "in your head" and had special reading rooms where they could go to read aloud. Maybe I need one of those!
).
Thanks a lot William. I'm tempted to take your advice and re-write that proposal in a few days. Would you critique that too?
Problem is, how do you prove that a person owns the first edition?
There's this thing called a "record". I know they have them, because I can still download my Pathfinder Campaign Setting. Which means they know I bought it.
I think he meant how would Paizo know if someone purchased the book in hardcopy. ;-)
I did, and your explanation does make it make more sense. That is a good idea.
I can see where hardcopy is problematic, and I think most people will understand that. But in the case of the PDF, if you're only incurring 20% of the development cost, then I'd expect some kind of consideration for owning the prior version.
Problem is, how do you prove that a person owns the first edition? It's the same as selling PDFs with the hard copies anywhere other than as part of the subscription....
I could see sticking the PDF as a free item on the Chronicles subscription being valid though.....
That said, I can certainly see how folks would be annoyed at the implication that we're trying to re-sell them a book that they've already purchased, only this time with 20% new material.
You obviously don't buy programming books :) Usually that's their only selling point!
What if we call it the exact same thing, put some extra crunch in it, and release it as a new edition of the book?
That would be a perfectly valid model. Selling me an updated edition of the book (hell, making it so I can choose between the shiny second edition, or the well thumbed first edition that's a few cents cheaper on ebay) I have no problem with.
Making me have to pick up a book every time I'm in a bookshop because I see the title and think, "ohh, a different book" only to then realise it's not different, just updated, leaves me feeling quite mad.
Making it look more like a players guide, than a DM tool in the process is also a killer.....
James Jacobs wrote:
The problem is that there are several (not many, but several) pages of the book that are no longer necessary in the Pathfinder rules (the reprinted SRD cleric domains come to mind, as does the Pathfinder Chronicler class which is now a part of the core game), as well as some other content that's just "filler" that could be excised to make better use of the pages (such as the four random sample NPCs in the back). Furthermore, I DO think that a campaign setting book needs more crunch than the current one has—we went light on the crunch because we knew we were in the twilight years of the current system and at the time we were building the book, we didn't have the final rules for the Pathfinder RPG to work off of.
They all sound like good reasons for a second edition. I expect you'd have a big audience for it too....Just please make it obvious it's an updated, second edition; Not a new book.
Please critique away. Oh, and I spelled Absalom a bit better this time :)
Sanguine Writings:
Sanguine Writings
Thomas William is a middlingly wealthy merchant from an ancient family of Absalom. He is also a vampire. One of many heirlooms of House William, is a book. Old to the point of decay, this is at first glance a book of household accounts, somehow kept through the ages for no good reason. Rumour suggests another story. Word has reached the Pathfinders that this book actually contains a cypher, and the key to one of the oldest dungeons below Absalom; The key to untold wealth.
There are effectively two routes to gain the prize of this adventure. Depending on the group, either infiltration, and theft, or alternatively, a less combat focused route, to convince the vampire to relinquish the text. The initial interview with the field marshal should establish the second route is feasible, indeed offering a good amount of gold the the possible purchase of the book. Of course, any gold left over would be the PCs to keep.
Initial gather information should reveal the mundane aspects to Mr Thomas William, a habitual old man, of good standing, and moderate wealth. Honourable, though elusive. Higher rolls should show that no one actually knows what line of business Mr William is in, perhaps he lives off his families old wealth. The important information is that one of Mr William's habits is a post sunset walk. This usually takes an hour or so, and should give the PCs the perfect opportunity to introduce themselves, or infiltrate the house.
The house and it's inhabitants should be described throughout the most obvious route to success, the infiltration. Of course, should the characters take the other route, the details are there for the DM to run them through a tour of the house, and it's contents. The grand finale of this tour, being a grand feast, during which the PCs can attempt to persuade the vampire to relinquish the book. Of course, displeasing the vampire when he is surrounded by his minions could lead to a difficult encounter.
An infiltration would consist of the following encounters, the initial introduction to Mr William, the tour of the house, ware-wolf discovery, wherein Mr William would claim the “beast” to be an intruder and beg the PCs to destroy it, and the final grand meal, where the PCs either gain the book, or face the full wrath of the vampire.
Infiltrating the house should be a not too difficult affair. The doors and windows are sturdy and locked, but nothing outrageous awaits. Once inside, a game of cat and mouse begins, with various minions of Mr William going about their duties, and able to raise the alarm. Encounters included in this path would be the initial entry to the house, avoidance of the more mundane house staff, the same encounter above with the ware-wolf, the puzzle that would entail retrieving the book from it's casement, and then escape from the house, as a magical alarm spell brings Mr William back in a rage.
We'll eventually HAVE to reprint the hardcover Pathfinder Campaign Setting, and when we do, we pretty much HAVE to update it to the new game. We're trying to figure out how best to handle a reprinting of the book and how that impacts folks who've already bought the 3.5 version, and it's a situation with a lot of complex problems, and we don't yet have solutions to them. Keep an eye out at paizo.com, though; when we DO figure it out, all will be revealed there.
PLEASE, don't call it something slightly different, put some extra crunch in it, and release it as a "complementary" book.... :)
Nevynxxx
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Planet Stories Subscriber),
Friday, 11:47 AM
Joshua J. Frost wrote:
Here's some general advice based on queries so far:
Hey! no fair, you could have used more than one submission for your tips!
<hangs head in shame and wanders off to think some more....>
Spoiler:
Worst thing is I wrote that first sentence, and thought, hmmm, must check I spelt that right later..... wrote the rest, re-read it. Saved it, checked it had everything it should have in the header, spell checked it, re-read it, and submitted it.
This is film that was taken with 8mm cameras (for the most part) 65+ years ago. No matter how good a job anyone does restoring this footage
Well, technically, 8mm film should have a *lot* more information in it that even the nicest of digital cameras. The trick is how you get that analogue signal re-distributed, and digitised....
Not that I'm saying you are wrong, I don't actually know, but just because it's old and analogue doesn't mean it may not be inherently high def...
Josh, would the "full submission" need to include the whole set of faction missions, in addition to the story, stats etc etc? I.e. is it a "if we like it, we edit it and throw it out the door" or more a "If we like it, we'll massage/expand it quite a bit..."?
My proposal, for instance, had a lot of Iranian names, which I googled to avoid naming an npc after some real world persons or some such.
This made me giggle, I'm assuming you meant "some real world celebrate/famous person...". If they are bone-fide names, then they must be tagged to "some" real world person ;)
Here's a question: as a freelancer and contributor I'm always looking for programs that will save me time by out-putting NPCs to a word doc or rtf file in the Paizo official stat block format. I have a tool I work with that's pretty close, but can Herolabs and or PCGen do that?
Also, what about monster design? Can I design a monster in either Herolabs or PCGen and output that in stat block format?
rpgExplorer definitely can with a little bit of tweaking...Pretty sure PCGen could too.
*nod* I've been following along. Let me know if you wish to continue as DM or if you'd prefer to return to just playing Losk. (And again - thanks heaps for stepping in when I disappeared).
I'd love to go back to just playing Losk again, especially with the complexity of the current situation ;)
The psion and the wizard may have comparable uses of their powers each day, but the BIG difference is that a psion can use higher-level powers by "spending" his lower level powers. A wizard can't use three 3rd level spells to cast a 9th level spell, for example, but a psion can. To me, going "nova" is when a psion uses all his resources to never use powers at low level, but only high level powers.
A psion who does this for 3 encounters might exhaust all of his resources for the day, and the wizard still likely has lots of spells left, but since the psion was effectively casting all his highest level stuff every round, he completely overshadows the rest of the party.
And then, once the psion's used his powers up, he's more or less useless, so you have a lose-lose situation where either the psionic character gets to spend the rest of the session fragile and bored, or the party camps for the night and there's no downside to the psion using his powers to nova.
In a party of ALL psionic characters, this isn't a problem at all. It's when you mix psionics with the core game that it rears its ugly head, and THAT'S the issue I'd like to solve. I don't think psions need to be nerfed or anything... they just need to work better with the core game play experience. Swithcing them over to use the same mechanics as a sorcerer would solve this problem very elegantly, but it's not something that a lot of psionics fans are eager to see (either because they enjoy the nova aspect or the disparity between what their class can do and the core classes can do or simply because they like keeping track of power points or whatever).
Anyway, as this thread proves, whatever we do with psionics is going to be a tricky beast to tackle. We'll certainly be doing an open playtest of the rules if and when we do them, and we'll certainly be disappointing some folks because we can't please everyone. Since psionics are one of the more polarizing add-on elements of the game, it's not a battle I'm really looking forward to, and I say that...
I've said it before, but what I'd like to see is a dual treatment of psionics.
The first says "a psionic characters works just like a sorcerer with the following bloodlines, and this new spell list.
The second says, this is a power point system that can be used to play a psion, or a sorcerer, this is how you convert a spell level from the sorcerer list to spell points...
There would be a big, fat disclaimer that says "DO NOT MIX THE STREAMS^W SYSTEMS!"
EDIT: Nevynxx is still around too, although I won't speak for him. But if I missed this thread, he might well have, too. I'll post it over in our game thread.
Ack! Big Major Ack!
Struggling a bit to keep the pace on the Legacy of Fire going, but we have a reasonable amount of original players still going....
The next 60-minute Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars, will air in the UK on Sunday, November 15 at 7pm on BBC One. In Australia, it's set for the week of December 6 on ABC. In the US, it will air Saturday, December 19 at 9:00pm ET/PT on BBC America/BBC America HD.
The 60-minute special The End of Time and it's as-yet unnamed 75-minute final chapter don't yet have confirmed airdates, though it's pretty obvious that at least one of them—probably the first one—will air on Christmas Day in the UK; my bet would be either Boxing Day or New Year's Day for the second part.
All three of these specials will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the US on February 2. A box set of all five specials (adding The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead, both of which are already available) will also be released the same day. (In the UK, that date is January 11.)
It thus seems pretty clear that the US air dates for The End of Time et seq. will be sometime between December 25 and February 2.
Mac Boyce wrote:
Is that in the US too??
Xabulba wrote:
Are the BBC going to put all the last movies and specials of Tennant's into a box set?
I saw the "the Next Doctor" and "Waters of life" sold separatly and I wanted to get them but held off just in case they are going to put out a box set.
Where on earth did the ability to read the first post! go?
Half saw the trailer, looks good, but who's the woman?
I think the word "greats" could definitely be argued against here.
It depends how you define "greats".
Is it Books sold?
Is it appearance on Genre or Main Bestseller Lists?
Is it recognation by fellow genre authors?
Is it prices won?
Is it recognation by critics?
Obviously it's the one that trumps them all, Favourites of the Publisher :)
Sorry for the delay folks, really hectic week at work, and probably another this week. I have a 1yr old and a 3yr old to manage today, but should get chance to sort myself out and get a post up....
Normal service will be resumed ASAP...
Nathan draws his hellpistol and levels it at the Navigator's head in one smooth motion.
Spending this round aiming.
Sorry, should have been a bit more specific with that description. You can't actually see into the bridge yet, it will take a round or three for the smoke to clear properly. You are still a good 75ft away from the bridge too...
Nathan keeps working at the terminal while Dominik runs back to the ship for some high explosive. A few moments of working, and the charge is rigged, enough to blow a hole in the side of the vessel. From a distant corner, the button is pressed, and a muffled uummph is heard.
As you make your way back to the bridge, a cloud of smoke a debris is there to meet you. As the cogitator mutters a monotonic stream of damage report to vital ships functions, and bridge controls, the corridor suddenly seems eerily quiet. All outside sound drops to an incoherent mumble. The lights dim, and from from the darkness emerges a shambling figure, chain sword in hand, moving silently.
Suddenly a scream pierces the silence; deafeningly laud, the noise is pure hatred, and rage. With that, all sound and normality return.
Yet still you are faced with death appearing from gloom, and a psykers rage released from it's momentary prison.
Init please people. One last push and we may be there...
Vik, This is an idea I had, which would take a little programming effort on your part, and a little admin work on the store owners part, but should be pretty foolproof.
You use a limited number of distributors, and they keep records, so if you needed, you could confirm at every step that no one is cheating the system....
The system goes like this. A store orders some books. They then send you a copy of their invoice from the distributor (probably with a load of lines blanked out that aren't your stuff....).
The quantity of each book then gives you a number of PDFs that can be personalised to that shop, and added to their paizo account.
The shop then sells the book, and gives the customer the abiolity to get at the pdf (probably a specific link that will just download one of the personalised copies...but possibly a pre-downloaded, and stuck on a branded memory stick job or some such).
Now, I can see a few problems with this, the two biggest being the programming behind the system, and the admin work at paizo, that would be a damn dull job unless it could be automated in some way. Also, the store has some work to do to make this work, and if they are sensible, they will need to keep a list of which customer took which PDF in case it gets released onto the net.....
It does solve all of your concerns about traceability, and fraud though....
Thanks, and even simplified my original formula....even better!
brock wrote:
It's not wrong.
The progression is elegant but stays useful just as long as nobody releases anything that isn't based upon on it - then you are back to using tables. A minor additional point is that a table lookup is quick while maths is less quick - less of an issue these days.
You can use a program to generate the tables and then suck them into the database for the classes that do follow the rules.
Never over-think your programming: "Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." --Brian Kernighan
Good luck with your project and with your goal of levelling up in software engineer :)
Hmmm, I was thinking I would need one table per class, but I guess there are ways around that.
I am already generating a lot of the DB (most of it really) and storing in CSV files, which get migrated into the database, could always do the same but generate some numbers as I go for the class levels table....hmmm...
First off, if this is out of place, please move it. I think it's relevant as it's definitely a rules question, if not an in game one.
I'm in the process of teaching myself a few million things about programming (Ruby, GUI design, how to use GIT properly, MVC, decent database design, testing methodologies and how to actually write an app in a sensible manor) by writing set of Dm tools. Now in order to have the DM tool that tracks PCs stats across a combat, it turns out you need to know a hell of a lot that is level dependant. Mainly, BAB, and saves.
Now, I don't just want to create tables in the DB for each of the classes and have their BAB, Fort,Ref,Will etc stored for each level. It takes too long, and just seems wrong.
I looked at the BAB and managed to work out that they work like:
BAB = a - floor(ab)
where floor(x) returns the lowest integer that is <= x, a = the class level you are looking at and b = 0 for the fighter progression, 0.5 for the sorc/wiz and 0.25 for everyone else.
This is good, I now have a table that holds a name for the progression, and a small number in my DB.
I want to do the same thing for the save progressions, of which I have worked out there are two, but I can't for the life of me work out a formula that would create the pattern. I have a feeling it will have a quadratic term in it...but that's as far as I have gotten....
Losk moves to crouch by a pew, carefully placing his axe and removing a light crossbow from his back. Loading a bolt, he aims and fires, the bolt whistling through the air to land with a wet thud, and another Pugwampi falls to the floor...
Nathan struggles in vain to open the dorr using the control panel. It is completely unresponsive, almost as though power has been compleatly cut from it.
Don't they use Liquid nitrogen to do the freezing? It's cheap and quick.....
Oh and to go back to the origional post. The crop circles one was proved false. The guys that did it came out and showed people *how* they did it.....The technique is used a lot now adays to make corn field mazes....
Well you know, working out a route, finding the safest option, resupplying from your attached vessel, they were all options.
With weapons locked and loaded, the mercenaries move off from the spherical engine room, and begin to move forward through the ship. There is an eerie silence, although with the main lights re-enabled the place is starting to feel more like a real working ship again.
Passing an airlock, you see the Cogitator's attempts at fixing the ship taking shape, indicators on the door show air returning to the room, only for the external door to open, throwing the remaining undead lifeforms into the void.
Periodically, reports come from the ship as to the current status.
Eventually you make it to the boor barring the main bridge. This is still completely sealed.
Deftly side-stepping the falling chandelier, the halfling greets her enemy. "Ho, rat-warriors! We meet again. Long will your race mourn this day." Ignoring the rain of tiny arrows from above, Nuveril focuses her attention on the pugwampi on her level, bringing both weapons to bear.
Sadly, unless a 10 or 9 hits... Her weapons seem to catch on the fallen ornament of skulls, failing to reach the pugwampi's vulnerable flesh.
Except that a falling creature lands Prone, leading to a loss of Dex and a -4 penalty to AC, putting it's AC at 8. It also took damage from the fall, so roll your damage dice please!
Nuveril wrote:
Montgomery Hall wrote:
Ok, you asked for it. For future refernce *never* let me pick where you start :)
Nuveril is in I9.
[ooc]Yeah, well, if she dies, I'll totally blame you and not her utter recklessness. :)
Do you have an idea in mind of how you're going to introduce me to the party?
I would just like to create a fitting background or motivation for being at place X where he joins the group. Then I will also know when the time is getting close for me to start posting...
How much do you know about LoF?
I expect that I'll introduce you when the party meets up with their sponsor in the desert, but before they move into the Monastery. You can have met up in the desert while the party was doing their current bit of exploring....
Countme in, throw a character concept together and we'll see if we can work it in....Will take a little while since we still have some exploring to do to get out of the monastery. Shouldn't be too long though.
Nevynxxx
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Planet Stories Subscriber),
