Nicolas Logue's page

Just read it. Good stuff.

I've been putting off the Gods section of my homebrew for the reasons you mentioned. I didn't want them to be too cliche, God of law, death, magic, etc. You put things in perspective. I may take it on now. Thanks Nick.

My pleasure Cralius! Thanks for reading!

does anybody know the status of the dark horizons stuff? is it done? is it available? i really want the gazetteer. i dont want to wait any longer

Hi donald!

Not done yet! So close though. Need more art for it...then it just needs layout and its ready to go!

In the meantime, an Indulgence called Survey of the Known Universe (a taste of the Gaz, though none of the material in it appears in the Gaz, it is its own special stuffs!) should come out very shortly after Gencon!

So I finally put a new blog post in my Sinister Minds at Work blog. This blog post also has a sneaky peeky at Pele, Goddess of the Volcano in Dark Vistas #1: Razor Coast...Potentially not so safe for work, if you consider the goodness from Ye Olde 1st Edition Dieties and Demigods BAD BAD BAD! :-)

Check it out here: Sinister Minds

Lilith wrote:

Pathfinder Society Chat Summmary, July 30th, 2008

JF: I should mention that in all likelihood I won't be the Marketing Director much longer ...
Mod: Organized Play Director? Coffee Monkey? WHAT ARE YOU!!! :P
JF: And I'm not going anywhere, Lilith. Just .... shifting.

"Shifting?" One square? Or do you have a special power that allows you to shift more? :)

Lilith wrote:

Pathfinder Society Chat Summmary, July 30th, 2008

I suppose now is as good a time as any to let everyone know that Nick, for personal reasons, won't be with us after Gen Con UK.
NL: Tis true! I had a blast helping Josh set this up! Life is taking me in a different direction though.

Don't tell me he's pregnant again :)

Kidding aside, Nick, hope you still stay in the (rpg) biz. I want my Dark Vista (deadtree, please)!

Ha! Besides giving birth to healthy baby boy, I will be moving to England to accept a post at the University of Essex as their Head of World Theatre. Professor Logue...be afraid world.

And yes! I anticipate Sinister's schedule getting back on track fast once my Paizonian duties are at an end.

I also plan to freelance for Paizo as much as they'll have me. If they'll still have me...

::looks at James Jacobs with puppy dog eyes::

:-)

Anyon remember a good one from Dungeon mag?

I want to interject it in AOW AP, for when the PCs go into Mistmarsh toward blackwall keep.

Also, is there anything like a dungeon index with adventure locations/levels of all the adventure?

( I remember seeing this, but it would so help at least having the issue number to ease my search)

You could also scope out Sinister Adventures' Still Waters by Richard Pett himself. You can buy it here on paizo.com, or scope it out at www.sinisteradventures.com.

Ancient Sensei and Shane have been TITANS of event preparation too. They are going above and beyond with all the amazing work they are putting into this event! I'm lucky to have such kickass volunteers tearing this baby apart.

Edit: But hey, when you pick an Iron Dungeonmaster winner and his right hand man, you know they'll bring the funk. :-)

There should be a short email to the attendees of this event by end of month that details the structure and what's expected of you.

As I understand it, you just need to show up with some dice and a pencil.

I should also note that this isn't a Pathfinder Society event -- its a Paizo Adventure Path Preview event.

Yeppers! Just show up! We do the rest! Rock!

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

Christopher Carrig wrote:

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

Howdy folks,

Here's another update that's accurate as of this morning.

Writing for Paizo
Thu 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm (SEM00106)
55 seats reserved, 70 seats remaining

How does one go about reserving a seat?

You can't reserve a seat now. BUT these are free seminars and we have a lot of seats available. Granted, they're the highest attended seminars we've ever had and the show hasn't even started yet, but I think we'll be fine.

They're awesome! Probably my favorite part of the whole Con.

Agreed! Great seminars!

I should also note that its the responsibility of each player to create a character concept that (a) makes sense within the boundaries of the in-game Pathfinder Society (the "I hate the Pathfinders, so I infiltrated them" concept, for example, doesn't *really* make sense) and (b) isn't so totally disruptive as to defeat the purpose of getting along with other Pathfinders in order to accomplish tasks together. (Remember: no EVIL alignments.)...

We do not want to be in the business of vetting characters (and we won't) but we'll hope people will take the advice in the upcoming PFS PG to heart and make characters that, while they may be unique, odd, or outright weird, still have sensible reasons to want to be a Pathfinder. Pathfinders have a general code: Explore, Report, and Cooperate. We expect our players to follow that code, too. :-)

Word! Explore, Report, COOPERATE! Bold for emphasis! The game is most fun when we are working against common foes really, not each other. I love a little (and even a LOT) of petty bickering, for RPG sake, but really, when it progresses beyond mere talk, it ceases to be fun for everyone (except bullies).

Make weird characters, but make sure they can fit into a team of Pathfinders when assigned a mission without feeling the need to murder or push around the rest of the team! Rock!

Loved this movie. Loved it.

Ye shall PAY Greg!!! PAAAAAAAAAAAAY! :-)

Are you still looking for help for the major Drow event on Friday?

ancientsensei wrote:

deathboy wrote:

I'll be running that slot. Hope to see you there!

Sure thing, Deathboy! The only person working likely to not be there is my buddy Shane,who's wife is having a baby that week!

Indeed we could use some extra help Heather! Email me at nflogue@hotmail.com and we'll get you on the GM mailing list!

Nicolas Logue wrote:

...which, btw, our government no longer has any interest in whatsoever beyond weaponizing it.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Government weapons reasearch is how we got the very internet we're communicating with now. Weren't the first airplanes purchased by the DoD? I think they're research tends to end up benefiting us all in the long run.

Meh. We'll see. Certainly didn't benefit the women and children who lived in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or the estimated 1,000,000 dead in Iraq.

But that's immaterial really. I do think you're argument is facile. Do you really think we can't focus on discovery without focusing on military application. Just because we spent something like 600 Billion on Defense last year doesn't mean we have to keep doing it every year. We could only spend 500 Billion on Defense instead and have 1,000,000 new school teachers, reinvigorate the space program...and oh yeah, we could feed the homeless, and deal with other petty nuisance-like social issues like the nation's drug problem and crime.

I'm not a big fan of our gross military overspending, and I think we could come up with things like the internet without planning on killing people with it.

In addition, to be honest, it's not like we are that interested in even weaponizing space...more just making sure other countries don't, because then our nuclear edge dulls considerably. Space is a dead end as far as our g-ment is concerned, and that's a shame I think.

But yeah. I liked WALL-E. A lot of interesting commentary, AND it was a very well made flick.

I'll be there! For snizzle!

There may be no PvP (great, perfectly reasonable, perfectly happy with this, pvp's the quickest way to ruin a game) but there is clearly quite explicit faction v faction and this appears to be being emphasized by, for example, the monthly newsletter saying which faction's winning. If a Taldorian character appears intent on starting a war between Qadira and Osirion then whether or not it's explicitly part of their mission a loyal Qadiran character should probably try to stop the Taldorian from succeeding -- not from a PvP perspective but from a simple RP one.

The kind of missions we are creating, we don't see this occurring. Most are very subtle. Also, the faction vs. faction stuff doesn't trump the we are all Pathfinders working together style of the campaign. It's just another layer of fun, it shouldn't overtake the fun of playing wild treasure hunters and tomb raiders on another death-defying mission for their intrepid organization of relic-procurers.

Dang it...I was all ready to chime in and Vic beat me to it. I couldn't say it better. So I won't. Instead I'll just say "titties" cause I do that a lot. ;-)

Nameless wrote:

Ross Byers wrote:

Why is Cheliax a cross? I would have expected a pentagram.

Maybe it's a symbol that pre-dates the Asmodeus-worship?

That's pretty much it, actually. The nation of Cheliax has been around for a LOT longer than the past 100 years, which is the amount of time it's been closely associated with Asmodeus. The current overwhelming theme of Cheliax is devil worship, sure, but there's more to the place than that; you can have any character class of any alignment or race from there, so the actual long-standing traditional symbol from their flag of many many centuries of tradition is actually more representative of Cheliax than is Asmodeus's symbol.

Word.

Also, I dig on the "take an older symbol and pollute it" motif. Just like the Nazis did with the swastika which is actually a symbol used heavily in Buddhism and some Native American beliefs. Taking the old cross of Cheliax and sort of corrupting it up (see the flag for Cheliax in the Gaz) is a very cool analogy.

Ha! Wild! Thanks!

Actually the whole save the earth thing seems to be a miss to me. I mean would you be willing to have that future if it meant that you could create amazing technology including star ships and artifical intelligence? The earth's sun is eventually going to run out, the fact that this future made it possible to explore other worlds in other systems (why they didn't is another question, but ...). And at the end the world recovered anyway, which kind of tells you no matter how bad we make it we can't conquer nature. To quote crappy actor Jeff Goldbloom, "Life finds a way." It is only human arrogance to assume that we could actually doom the world forever. And they not only got to live more in harmony with nature, but they got freaken robots as well!

I think the move was an allegory. The "return to Earth and save it" had nothing to do with space travel, which, btw, our government no longer has any interest in whatsoever beyond weaponizing it. The "return to Earth" had to do with turning back from the ridiculous course we've set for ourselves, one of a virtual world of consumer economics where we are no longer in touch with what makes us human and connects us to each other. Also, the message of acting as Earth's caretakers as opposed to people who exploit it was well carried out in the movie I thought. I'm just glad to see a kid-friendly movie carrying such a message, especially in this day and age when it's vital to the survival of our species.

I have no doubt the earth will live on without us. I'm pretty sure we'll kill ourselves with pollution and greenhouse gases first though.

Yeah, I don't think the thematic focus was supposed to be on the kewl robots (rather they were a fantastic way of telling the story without being overly didactic, by having something other than humans wrestling with this very human problem), but rather the message of "let's take care of this place, it's our home."

That's what I took away at least. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Am I thinking about this right? I'll be playing all 4 Pathfinder Society Scenarios at Gen Con next month. If 3 scenarios = 1 level, does that mean I'll be playing my 4th Gen Con scenario at 2nd level. Also, if there are 28 scenarios per year, would I be right in thinking that no one will be hitting 12th level maximum this year since max with 28 scenarios would be 10th level?

Apologies if already answered elsewhere. I am very excited about playing!

Yep! You'll be 2nd level for the fourth Gencon adventure! That is...if you don't die. ;-)

Also, there are other ways to gain XP in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. For one, you can play Pathfinder Modules for XP (we'll be releasing conversions), and there will be special events at some conventions as well. Also, you don't have to retire your character after Season 0. You can keep playing them through Season 1 if you wish. You DO have to retire them at 12th level though.

Well, I play true neutral most of the time so, I'll just get on the fence and watch the alignment fray from up there. Doesn't matter what alignment you are, as long as you buy overally expensive stuff from Qadira :).

:-)

Nice.

I really enjoyed this movie. Much more than I expected to. I laughed, I was touched by it as well. Great message to be instilling kids with too - take care of our planet.

Everything was really well done. The musical choices were sublime and played into the characterization of the robots so well. Great flick.

Just saw this. Totally enjoyed it. Vince Gilligan is a genius writer and Will Smith delivers the goods. Loads of fun this.

When are the rules for character creation for the GENCON games going to be posted?

August 1st.

I'd be all for evil PCs if some immature players didn't take it as 'evil = stupid.' With my own players, jaded by years of Vampire play, evil parties tend to get along better than good ones...

The worst inter-party conflicts seem to show when someone plays a Paladin and decides that the party can't do something that his code doesn't approve of, or that he has to challenge the evil emperor / demigod to an immediate fight to the death or something, rather than smile, nod and then go and destroy his powerbase first.

Oh I agree. Paladins can be just as disruptive and there is a little sidebar in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play Player's Guide about Disruptive Play and how it WILL NOT BE TOLERATED, no matter what your alignment is. There is nothing worse than an a*$+*~$ paladin. You'd think LG would allow for a little compassion and a little tolerance of others' beliefs too. Anyone who can't play their paladin in a positive way simply won't be allowed to play. In other words: Jerkoff players will not be tolerated. Player vs. Player conflict will not be tolerated (this does not JUST mean combat by the way, nerfing other player's actions, options, ideas and what not is just as disruptive as attacking them with a battleaxe). Roleplaying conflicts are great as long as you are not going out of your way to ensure another player has a bad time. Doing so is a big no-no in PFS. Nuff said.

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

Kevin Mack wrote:

Not really understanding the no evil part of the campaign setting. I feel it kicks out a lot of possible choices for players.

We'd rather the organized play campaign stay focused on adventuring and exploring Golarion rather than devolving into PVP fights based entirely on choices made because of someone's evil alignment.

So no Bellac-like characters? Or would he have fit into the LN category?

Exactly. LN.

I played a CN character at our playtest at Origins and while I did some crazy stuff, never felt the need to delve into evil per se. We also have a strict rule against player vs. player conflict. We want EVERYONE at the table to have a good time, not just the disruptive jerkoff there. :-)

Dragon*Con may sadly be out of our reach this year. While we'd love to be able to send volunteers to run official PFS at every con imaginable, we need to perfect our processes first in Season 0 (our playtest season) before we can spread our wings and fly to every major convention on Earth.

Rest-assured, I want a presence at Dragon*Con 2009 as we launch Season 1 and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. By then, our processes will be solidified and it'll be much easier for us to get our volunteer corps mobilized for a Dragon*Con assault.

Word! Next Year! DRAGONCON SHALL BE BESIEGED BY PATHFINDERS!!!

While we cannot guarantee you a slot without a ticket, there's always the chance you could show up with generic tickets and get seated. We're going to release character creation guidelines ahead of Gen Con (around August 1) and will require all characters to be created prior to the start of their first scenario. This will make random players who show up with generics easier to seat--so long as they have their character created ahead of time.

My experience with massive events at the cons (and I've run a bunch) is that there is a good chance a few people at least per session can generic their way in. My suggestion: Get there early, and be like: "I am here first waiting for an empty slot." We will have a wait list that will be first come first serve for every session. AND! If we have the space and extra GMs lying around (not that I'm sure of this) I can see some people just grabbing some floor or a table outside the hall and going at it (I've done this at tournaments before and its awesome).

SO! My advice is: If you have nothing else scheduled, show up and try and get in.

We've also decided there won't be firearms in Pathfinder Society. There might be one down the road as a find in a scenario, but they will not be available for purchase from the equipment list.

A fine choice...

::Nick hides his blunderbuss behind his back and grins::

:-)

I sent my email last week (Volunteered for 4-5 sessions). Just wondering if i would be getting a confirmation or something or if it didn't go through. Dont want to clog up the mailboxes with extra emails. Just wondering if it got through. I did get a confirmation on helping out with Assention of the Drow, just not DMing the other things. Just wondering =) I know people were busy with Origins.

Thanks Erik! Looking forward to working with you my man!

Nicolas Logue wrote:

Thalg SickEyes the Cripple

Str 10
Dex 16
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 14

1st level Rogue

So, 19 point buy using the PRPG progression?

Well sussed out! It was 20 actually...but I didn't have my character in front of me when I typed the above. I may be off by a point on a stat somewhere.

Thalg SickEyes the Cripple

Str 10
Dex 16
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 14

1st level Rogue

Thalg is Ulfen of the Ice Bear Tribe. His bloody birth ended his mother, thus he claimed his first life before he took his first breath. He was born with his left arm crippled. It remains palsied to this day. Thalg is an albino, with sickly yellowed pupils and stringly white hair. He is under nourished for a Ulfen and was derided by his people all his life. Not possessing their natural strength he learned to kill with the quick twist of a blade between the ribs and back others down with a cold glare from his creepy eyes. He carries his father's greatsword on his back, though he cannot wield it, and prefers the hand crossbow up his sleeve to any other weapon. He now serves Taldor, where his insidious talents earn him far more respect than they did among his brethren in the Land of the Linnorm Kings.

The above is a real quick glimpse of my official character for PFS. I played him at Origins in a playtest (Slot 0) of Frozen Fingers of Midnight run by none other than the author - Craig Shackleton himself. If you haven't signed up to play this one yet. DO IT. Damn fine adventure.

I'm preparing a HUGE batch of Hook Mountain Dew just for the con. I'm gonna have to ship it to Indy.

Would this make a good side trek for a Savage Tide campaign? Specifically if they've already reached the Isle of Dread? If our group has levelled according to the STAP layout, I'd have to up the challenges in Blood Waters, but that isn't a problem for me.

You'd have to tweak the plot slightly, but yeah it would work well!

Dammit, McArtor. Who will we kick around this place now?

::Nick assumes fetal position::

Emailed! And I'll be encouraging my CotCT group to sign up if they're enjoying the campaign and fancy running some Paizo stuff as well since a couple of them are really awesome GMs and that way we could all get the opportunity to play occasionally as well. I'll certainly be running home games and at my old uni RP society in Sheffield. I'll see about running at a couple of FLGS, maybe at our little local con Furnace. Ooh, maybe I could organise some games in the evening during the student RP & wargaming championships... we're not hosting this year but we could well be the year after since our wargamers keep going and bloody winning despite being repeatedly told not to... hmm... *wanders off scheming*

Though since I have little experience of these things and I could do with building my confidence in running games for people I don't personally know via FLGS games first, I doubt I'll be volunteering for Gen Con UK (assuming you need volunteers). Besides, it's not often us Brits get the opportunity to experience Nick Logue's legendary GMing :P

Ha! I shall run mad afterhours games at Gencon UK...as many as Josh lets me! He needs to make sure I don't burn out my nacells! I can't do that. I have no internal sensors online that detect my nacell burnout. Josh is a good friend! :-)

But yes - GENCON UK SHALL BE MADNESS!!!

Alignment's something that, unfortunately, tends to need regulating because it's a lot easier to enforce "no evil characters" than it is "no jerk players".

Yep!

Nicolas Logue wrote:

Cpt_kirstov wrote:

If one of us brings a recorder,and sets it up for you guys... it would make a good blog post (times how many panels? 4? thats almost a week of blog posts)

Do it! That would rock! Thanks Cpt_kirstov!

I was planning to - but I just got hit with a $1500 car bill the day before I planned on buying my gencon and plane tickets. So between that and the trip in July with the Girlfriend, it doesn't look like i'm goign to make it this year (I'm already getting ready to book for next year though - before the employee prices are gone on hotel rooms)

No worries Cpt._kirstov! Man I'm sorry to hear about the car bill! Cars = Money Guzzzzzlers! Hope to see you next year my man!

Here's my question: Is Sean allowed to post "c+#@+&#@!" on the Paizo boards. An official answer would be great, but I'd settle for an example post from Sean.

Given Erik's recent admonitions to Logue, I think that should be our litmus test.

Whoa...if Sean can use "c**kpunch" and not me...I quit.

;-)

Lazaro wrote:

Creative Mountain wrote:

I've got the Paizo offering and a couple of other things at Free RPG Day, but having run the last Free RPG Day Paizo adventure, I am very gung ho to run this new one. I've done a little bit of prep to make it more fun . . . click for images

That's awesome. Where'd you get the huge maps from?

Wow! those maps rock.

Werd. Those maps are incredible!

Hi Joshua,

Just sent you an e-mail officially volunteering my services in south-west Ontario, Canada.

This is going to be so awesome getting in on the ground floor!

Welcome to the Society!

Nicolas Logue wrote:

Coridan wrote:

Hey Nic, your e-mail isn't listed on the Paizo Contact Us page! This is an affront to your honor! I recommend grabbing a glove and finding Vic at the earliest possible moment =p

Ha! You can get me at nflogue@hotmail.com or sinister@sinisteradventures.com for now!

::Gets a glove!::

Run Vic! I happen to know that Nick's gloves make a loud rubber snapping sound when he puts them on!

Indeed. ;-)

Hey Nic, your e-mail isn't listed on the Paizo Contact Us page! This is an affront to your honor! I recommend grabbing a glove and finding Vic at the earliest possible moment =p

Ha! You can get me at nflogue@hotmail.com or sinister@sinisteradventures.com for now!

::Gets a glove!::

What Nick meant to say was that we might have some news in the future about someone else making the option of running Pathfinder Society games online a possibility.

Egads, we haven't the time or people to blunder our way through an online thingy-whatsit.

Word.

Just bought it, so now it's just a matter of time before the shuttlepod arrives with it--likely wrapped in some kind of contamination-resistant lead sphere. Can't wait to crack it open! Woo-hoo, I'm so totally sold.

I already let my player group know that they've got a month or so of freedom before I basically force them all to play this. All I had to say was "Nick Logue's Event Horizon flavored Sci-Fi setting" and one of my players actually yelped and invoked deity. Gotta' love that.

Ha! Good stuff Grim! I can't wait to hear all about your campaign my man!

Taldor have Linnorm mercenaries very much based on the Varangian Guards of Constantinople. Will these be a playable option? Please?

Also, is it possible to be a GM and still play scenarios that you haven't run?

Ummm...

YES!

and...

YES!

WOOT!

I'm considering starting a Pathfinder-specific Meetup group (in addition to promoting it in the more general RPG Meetup groups). This is going to be mostly to pull together players and GMs for organized play, but could also be used for running any sort of group.

One subscription allows up to three groups to be organized. From past experience I don't expect to do more than one

If anyone is interested in splitting the subscription with me then drop me a line. The cheapest (and longest) subscription is $72/six months. so it would be $24/person (average $4/person/mo)

If you go through the Meetup directory you can see if people are waiting on a RPG Meetup group to start in the area. Note you only see this when you click through the links not when you do a general search.

Here's a shortcut: http://www.meetup.com/topics/games/rpg/

Very cool Bray! The Society Spreads!!!

Nicolas Logue wrote:

deathboy wrote:

Good to know, as that saves alot of head aches.

Oh yes! Nothing worse than Chaotic Evil jerkoffs murdering each other and calling it "gaming." It's much more like "an afternoon at Nick's place." ;-)

It's like playing Malkavians and Waywards in WoD. It's done so horribly by most people that they are outright banned in most playgroups. For those of us who play them well it's heart-wrenching (I love my Wayward)

Oh, I feel your pain. I play Evil characters all the time. The funniest thing is, I am usually the biggest team player when i am playing evil. The healthier and happier you are with me, the more likely it is I can get you to do s@~% for me afterall. I love playing a master manipulator. I usually end up with everyone liking me and no one suspecting I'm "evil" at all. That is the magic of a truly well played evil character. That insidious ability to ingratiate yourself to people and convince them what you want is the same as what they want. Genius!

Nicolas Logue wrote:

We may have some interesting news about online PFS soon!

Please no Digital Initiative of playing the game online with a goofy interface... please no...

I LIKE my pencil and paper

Ha! Nothing like DDI. Never fear!

Will the Pathfinder Society have an impact in keeping interest in 3.x/PfRPG? Earlier D&D versions never had such support.

I'm betting it will keep both of these games healthy with a fresh influx of players and a whole mess o' brand new adventures every year. Good things on the horizon for both 3.x and PfRPG! Rock!

We will be switching over to PfRPG come next year Gencon (with the launch of Season 1), but even so, since PfRPG is being designed with backwards compatibility as one of its primary design goals, the Society will continue to be a great resource to 3.x players.