Olaf the Stout's page

Still haven't got ours in the mail. Bought one at Barnes & Noble last Friday just to be safe. Though I hate paying double, will likely do the same with the last issue if it hits the stands before it hits our mail box. My fear is that with the end of the run, people will be buying multiple copies and back stock may run out. As my husband is running Savage Tide, I'd rather pay double than have to deal with his reaction if he can't get his hands on the last installment. Watching him chew on the sofa waiting for 149 before he just went out and bought one was bad enough.

There's always eBay if you ever want to sell off your extra copy. I imagine that the last couple of issues will become quite sought after in years to come, especially if the STAP isn't made into a hardcover.

Olaf the Stout

Okay, thanks for the tip, Olof.

Just to fix Olof's link, everyone should go here and check out the dice roller at Invisible Castle.

If everybody's good with it, let's use this site for dice rolling.

Thanks for fixing the link. I must have been half asleep when I posted it the first time around. I should have actually checked that it was linking properly.

And I don't expect you to use it. It was just something that I found useful. If everyone is honest and upfront there is nothing to worry about.

On the other hand, if there is no checks in place the temptation to cheat can sometimes become too much for some people (I'm not saying that it applies to anyone here, just making an overall generalisation).

Olaf the Stout

I have found something else that the OP could complain about. I was reading through one of my older issues of Dungeon and discovered that they spelled Eberron incorrectly, not once but twice on the front cover!

Oh the humanity! Won't somebody think of the children?

Olaf the Stout

Findas, have you written any more foreshadowing bits like these that you would like to share? I'd love to read them if you have.

Olaf the Stout

I'm in Australia so I don't expect to get mine for about 3 or 4 weeks. :-(

Olaf the Stout

Anyone from Paizo care to comment on the possibility of such a product being made?

Olaf the Stout

I got in at the early subscriber price and am very happy with what I'll be getting for my money.

Olaf the Stout

As always, you are much wiser than me Number 8.

*Bows gratefully to Number 8*

*Mutters to himself, "Soon the worm will turn and you will gain your rightful place a the top."*

errrr.....I mean.....errrr......

*Runs away!*

On a slightly more serious note, I haven't used the dice bag feature before. Does the dice bag give you the ability to link rolls to Character Names and allow the DM to see a history of the rolls under that name? That's one feature I like about Invisible Castle. Once a player has picked a name all his rolls are linked to that name so he can't roll for something a few times and pick the best one.

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout, otherwise known as Number 9 in this little secret society, reporting in. Since I am 4th in line, I doubt my chances of getting a look-in here. I hope you guys have fun with it though.

Sean, Invisible Castle is a good site to use for dice rolling in a PbP campaign. It keeps players honest and is pretty simple to use. All the players would have to do is provide a link in the PbP thread to their rolls.

Olaf the Stout

Mystic Marauder wrote:

I'm excited about Pathfinder, but I am a bit concerned about all of the new monsters. Like many gamers I depend on my D&D miniatures a great deal, and I prefer adventures were I can use these minis. With Savage Tide, I've been able to substitute monsters in the adventure with monsters for which I have the miniatures. However, I hope there isn't too agreat an emphasis on new monsters. Is Paizo able to use D&D monsters in the Monster Manual 2-5 in Pathfinder, or is this prohibited?

When we ran sessions at Origins we used other minis to replace the new monsters but showed then showed the PCs the swanky full color illos in the Bestiary section of Pathfinder - worked out pretty good!

It's still not ideal though. Especially for those of us that have spend hundreds of dollars on minis, just so that we have the exact mini of the monster we need for a particular encounter.

Olaf the Stout

Thank god he didn't see the issue where the had Angles instead of Angels on the cover! I can only imagine how mad he would have been when he couldn't find a single acute angle, obtuse angle or right-angle in the issue.

Yes, I'm a little late to the party. No-one told me about it. :-(

*Runs off to his room to cry himself to sleep*

Olaf the Stout

I also did notice that the price was a little higher. I figured (or was hoping) that the final issue would be a biggie.

James, is there any chance of the Dungeon Magazine Index being made available as an Excel spreadsheet so that I can sort it into whatever order I want? I remember that there was a thread a while ago discussing how to order it but I can't remember what the final outcome was.

Olaf the Stout

Any further news on this?

Olaf the Stout

Any news as to whether Paizo will be producing an annual (or twice yearly) product full of adventures similar to what one might have found in a typical issue of Dungeon?

Eric Mona suggested that you might in a thread on the Dungeon forums after "the announcement" and several people expressed interest in such a product, myself included. I still think it would be very popular, as well as a good way for new authors to get a chance to see their name in print.

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Any more news on what Giants to expect and how many? So far I know that there will be Ogres and Stone Giants but I don't know how many. Will 4 Stone Giant minis be enough or will I need more?

What other Giants will there be?

Olaf the Stout

No new news yet. But you'll probably need more than 4 stone giant minis...

More than 4 at once? Ouch! That'll hurt.

Olaf the Stout

I found an Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement to be very effective. At 10th level (when it caps out) you can do anywhere between 9-16 points of Strength damage with just a ranged touch attack. What makes it even better is that it doesn't have a saving throw (although you still have to get past SR).

In fights where there is a single powerful character it can be quite a hit to their effectiveness. Against a strong melee type it effectively gives them a penalty to attack of somewhere between 4-8 points. It also reduces damage from their melee attacks by 4-8 points.

Cast it on weaker characters like Wizards and you may be able to drop their Strength to 1. With a Strength of 1, the weight of their possessions might leave them unable to move.

Cast it on a Cleric in Full Plate and his movement will also be slowed or halted completely. All of this from a 3rd level spell (if empowered, otherwise it is just a 1st level spell!). I'm sure the people here on the boards can think of some other uses for it as well.

Even if you don't empower it, it will still do between 6-11 points of Strength damage. I find it to be one of the few 1st level spells that still has a lot of uses at later levels.

The only bad thing about it is that it is a close range spell. Other than that it is all good.

Olaf the Stout

Any more news on what Giants to expect and how many? So far I know that there will be Ogres and Stone Giants but I don't know how many. Will 4 Stone Giant minis be enough or will I need more?

What other Giants will there be?

Olaf the Stout

I only got my copy of #148 in the mail yesterday. I'm in Australia for anyone that cares.

Olaf the Stout

F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

He means goes from out hot little hands to the printer in far away and magical Cathy.

To preserve my sanity, I'm going to assume you meant to type "Cathay."

Thanks,

Erik

Congratulations, you just gave me my first laugh of the morning! :-)

Olaf the Stout

The blog is a bit misleading right now. What it means is that the files are just about to ship to the printer. We will not get the finished copies back until August.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Yeah, I just read one of Wesley's posts in another thread saying the same thing. I'd change the blog to make it a little clearer if I were you. Otherwise you'll have a million people asking the same question I just did.

Olaf the Stout

James Sutter wrote:

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Pathfinder #1 and the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide ship this week, and as such, we thought it a good time to unveil a sample spread from the guide. Presented here for your perusal are two pages full of new animals, local takes on the core classes, and a full chart detailing all of the core gods of our setting. So what are you waiting for? Click the image to download a full-size version and dig in!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Is that true? Pathfinder one and the players guide ship This Week? I thought they weren't due 'till August. Well, cool if thats true.

I was surprised when I saw that too. I thought it was late July/early August when it shipped.

Edit: Ok, I just saw Wesley's comment.

Olaf the Stout

As soon as that option is available, let me know and I will sign up.

On a side note, is the Paizo blog correct? Will Pathfinder #1 ship this week? I thought it didn't start until late-July/early-August.

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Vic Wertz wrote:

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Any idea how long it will take for him to complete that?

He hates it when I answer questions like that.

No worries. Can you give a vague timeline? i.e. Will it be before D1 ships out?

Olaf the Stout

I will not answer for Gary's time either... but I doubt he will be done before D1 ships. That said, if you sign up now for the GameMastery Modules, you will be able to make combination shipping decisions later... from what I understand.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

But if I sign up for them now, D1 will ship by itself when it comes in and I will have to pay $6.41 in shipping. If I ship it with Pathfinder I will only pay $1.41 in shipping. $5 is half another module.

As far as I understand it, at the moment, I can't add a Game Mastery Module subscription to my Pathfinder subscription and get them shipped when Pathfinder ships.

If I am mistaken and there is a way to do this, let me know and I'll go ahead and do it.

Olaf the Stout

I'd say A combined with C. I only recently got into D&D minis (end of last year). Prior to that I had a copy of Counter Collection Digital by Fiery Dragon Productions. It has images of all the SRD monsters.

All I would do was paste them into Word, resize the picture to whatever size I needed and then make as many copies as required. I would print them out in colour, cut them out and laminate them. That gave me sturdy reusable counters.

Now that I have collected a rather large amount of D&D minis I don't need to do this as much anymore. However I still use them if I don't have a mini of a particular monster or I need more than I have.

I find that using actual minis rather than counters adds a certain "coolness" factor though.

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Any idea how long it will take for him to complete that?

He hates it when I answer questions like that.

No worries. Can you give a vague timeline? i.e. Will it be before D1 ships out?

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

How do I do that but ensure that the GameMastery products are shipped whenever Pathfinder is shipped?

You can't... yet. It's Gary's top task, though.

No problem. I'll wait until Gary has fixed that up and sign up for the GM Module Subscription then. Any idea how long it will take for him to complete that?

Also, I noticed that 2 GameMastery modules are down for July. Are they going to be released at the same time?

D1 should be available in early July (it was delayed from June); W1 should be late July, though there's a possibility that it will come in together with D2 at the very end of July/beginning of August. And if that happens, there's a possibility that W1, D2, and Pathfinder 1 will share a release date, but then everything will be properly spaced out after that.

Thanks for the info.

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Edit: When do you expect the first issue of Pathfinder to ship out of interest? I just want to make sure that I add D1 to my Pathfinder order before it ships.

Right now, we can't be much more specific than "August."

Ok, thanks.

Keep in mind that if you don't sign up for the subscription, you don't get the PDFs for free....

You do make a very good point in regards to the PDF's. I might sign up for the GameMastery subscription now then instead. How do I do that but ensure that the GameMastery products are shipped whenever Pathfinder is shipped?

Also, I noticed that 2 GameMastery modules are down for July. Are they going to be released at the same time?

Olaf the Stout

P.S. Vic, your sales-fu is strong! :-)

Olaf the Stout wrote:

I take it that means if I add a Gamemastery Module to ship with my Pathfinder subscription it will cost me only $1.41 extra in shipping costs? ($6.41 - $5 (Pathfinder international shipping cost))

Yep—just like I said above.

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Will I also be able to add other things to my Pathfinder subscription package besides Game Mastery Modules?

It's on the to-do list; we probably won't have that feature ready in time for the first Module to ship, but we are hopeful that we can have it ready before the first Pathfinder ships.

Thanks for the quick answer Vic. I might leave everything for now then and get D1 and maybe some other stuff added to my first Pathfinder issue.

Olaf the Stout

Edit: When do you expect the first issue of Pathfinder to ship out of interest? I just want to make sure that I add D1 to my Pathfinder order before it ships.

Thanks for the help Gary and Vic. The shipping cost for the 2 items is $6.41. I take it that means if I add a Gamemastery Module to ship with my Pathfinder subscription it will cost me only $1.41 extra in shipping costs? ($6.41 - $5 (Pathfinder international shipping cost))

Will I also be able to add other things to my Pathfinder subscription package besides Game Mastery Modules? If I want to order, say, a back issue of Dungeon or a Critical Hit Deck or a Combat Pad, is it possible at the moment to have them added to my Pathfinder subscription package and sent out whenever my next subscription of Pathfinder is sent?

If not at the moment, is it something that you might look at integrating in the future?

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Vic, I get a shipping quote of $11.41 for the 2 products combined vs $12.82 ($6.41 x2) for the 2 shipped seperately.

Am I doing something wrong or do you just not save all that much by getting them shipped together to Australia?

I think you're doing something wrong. To be clear:

Add a single Pathfinder volume to your cart. Add a single GameMastery Module (but not D0, 'cause it's thinner). Remove everything else from your cart. Then start checking out. When given the option, click the "Wait to ship these items together" button. Make sure the shipping method popup is set to "USPS Package Service," and you should see that the combined price for Australia is $6.41.

I added the 2 products to my cart but it just calculates my shipping costs automatically on the first page of the checkout. There is no option to click that states "Wait to ship these items together". I also can't reach a screen where it lets me set the shipping method.

The only thing I can think of is that this screen is after the screen where you choose your payment method (I didn't go past that screen in case it ordered the products for me and I had to get it reversed).

Olaf the Stout

As others have said, Arcana Evolved is an updated and expanded version of Arcana Unearthed.

Also remember not to confuse Arcana Unearthed (Monte's book) with Unearthed Arcana (the WotC book full of variant rules). When Monte updated Arcana Unearthed to Arcana Evolved he changed the name partly to avoid people confusing the WotC book with his.

Personally I like a lot of the concepts that Monte introduces in AU/AE. My favourite concept would probably be the heightened/diminished spell option.

Olaf the Stout

Guennarr wrote:

Do I assume correctly that subscribing to both periodicals would count as a book posting in terms of delivery cost calculation?

They both qualify for "Bound Printed Matter" rates (which we display as a "USPS Package Service"). However, for some destinations, it's slightly cheaper to ship GameMastery Modules by USPS First Class. Pathfinder is too heavy, though—USPS Package Service is probably always the cheapest method for it (and that's also true when you combine Pathfinder and a Module).

If you'd like to estimate your combined shipping cost, put any one GameMastery module and any one volume of Pathfinder into your cart, and go through the checkout process until you get to the shipping options. Choose to ship them together, and the quote you see should match the quote you'll get when we start offering combined subscription mailings. (I think for most international destinations, the combined shipping cost will be $6.49.)

Vic, I get a shipping quote of $11.41 for the 2 products combined vs $12.82 ($6.41 x2) for the 2 shipped seperately.

Am I doing something wrong or do you just not save all that much by getting them shipped together to Australia?

Olaf the Stout

Of course it does sound a little like a dealer giving people their first hit for free! ;-)

Olaf the Stout

What are the Keep and Arena made out of?

Olaf the Stout

As I said on the EN World boards, that is an awesome set-up you have put together. It is all kinds of cool. :-)

How many hours did the Keep and the Arena take to build?

Olaf the Stout

The things that are important to me to be in the table are Adventure Name, Issue Number, Party Level, Edition (3E, 3.5E, etc.), Location (Urban, Wilderness, Dungeon, etc.), Type (Adventure, Side Trek, Critical Threat, etc.), Author, Campaign Setting (if any).

What would make it most useful to me though is if you could post the list as an Excel spreadsheet. That way I could sort the list in whatever order I wanted to. By having the information in an Excel spreadsheet it would also be possible for me ro delete any issues that I didn't own. That way I can just search through the adventures that I have when trying to pick an adventure to run my group through.

Olaf the Stout

Thanks for the answer Lisa, even if it isn't really the one I wanted to hear.

Olaf the Stout

I was looking at the Dungeon PDF's that you currently have available. The oldest issue that you had for sale was #84. Is there any chance that you will ever offer any older issues (i.e. pre-#84) in PDF form?

Olaf the Stout

Nice map!

Apart from how nice the map looked, my first thought was, "Man, there's a lot of mountains in Varisia."

There must be a lot of tectonic plates connecting together in the one spot.

Olaf the Stout

I was a subscriber to Dungeon and Dragon about 3 or 4 years so I'm not too worried. The issues took a while to arrive but they got there in the end.

I only had 1 problem in about 2 years of subscribing. No issues arrived for a few months. A couple of e-mails exchanges with customer support and I got replacement copies sent out to me.

Strangely enough, a couple of months after I got my replacement copies, the original issues all arrived in my mailbox on the same day. There were about 3 Dragon issues and 2 Dungeon issues. I don't know where they got lost but they all must have got lost in the same place! All's well that ends well I guess.

In any case, if I have any problems I'm sure that Paizo will be quick to sort them out. :)

Olaf the Stout

Thanks for that Cosmo. I guess the answer to when I should expect the mags to arrive is "Not any time soon!" :)

If the first Dungeon doesn't show up in another 4-6 weeks I'll let you guys know.

Oh well, at least the Pathfinder issues will get to me in a more timely manner.

Olaf the Stout

I recently subscribed to the last 3 issues of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. My credit card was charged on the 12/5/07 and again on the 26/5/07. Obviously one charge was for Dungeon and the other was for Dragon (I'm not sure which was which - would anyone at Paizo be able to tell me?).

The question I have to ask after all that is, when should I expect the first issue to reach my doorstep in Australia? I realise that the postage times for periodicals are wonky, even more so for ones send internationally but surely you guys at Paizo must have some sort of idea as to when I should expect to receive them.

I'm not too worried about the one sent on the 12/5 but if it doesn't show up in a week or two should I be?

Olaf the Stout

Ok, so we know that the Rise of the Runelords will have giants in it. I collect the D&D minis to use in my game. As such it is easier if I have an idea of what minis I will need in advance. If you could give any hints of what types of giant minis I will need, and how many it would be appreciated.

Olaf the Stout

Fletch wrote:

Would the Paizo team be willing to declare a section of Varisia-world to be a jungle-filled peninsula that will never be described in much detail ever?

With one of those, it'd be easy-peasy to place the SCAP and STAP Paths there in our home campaigns.

The Age of Worms has a bit too much travel to want to adapt without a better idea of the world geography, but APs 1 and 3 are pretty localized.

Oh, oh, and as a random idea, add a volcano-riddled mountain range just to the west!

Idea seconded!

Olaf the Stout

I don't mind taking the currency conversion hit. It's the additional fee on top of the currency conversion that I want to avoid. I don't get one when I use PayPal. I do when I use my Credit Card to pay for things from the US directly. It is a per transaction fee too. This means that with a month-to-month subscription I have to wear that fee every month (or twice a month at the moment with a Dungeon and Dragon sub).

If there was any way to minimise the amount of times I got this fee (i.e. minimise the amount of times my account was charged) I would be grateful. A yearly subscription option would be one such solution.

Olaf the Stout

I just received the first charge on my credit card for my Paizo subscription (not sure if it is Dungeon or Dragon). The bad news was that I copped an additional Visa foreign currency fee on top of that. For my Dungeon or Dragon subscription the amount is relatively small. However since I am also subscribing to Pathfinder that amount will get bigger.

I'm pretty sure that credit card is the only payment option for me at the moment but I just wanted to double check that there wasn't some other option I can use to avoid extra charges.

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Has a more specific date than just August been set yet?

Nope. While Dragon and Dungeon were scheduled to the day as much as a year in advance, Pathfinder is printed in China, and must therefore go through customs, which adds a giant window of variable length right at the end of the process. Thus, we won't be able to set an exact ship date or an exact street date until we've received notice that U.S. Customs has cleared the shipment for delivery, which will probably happen about a week before we start shipping.

I thought something like that might be the case.

Olaf the Stout

Olaf the Stout wrote:

Now that I have signed up for Pathfinder I am excited to see the first issue. What date does the first issue ship? I thought it was in July or August but I'm not 100% sure.

Olaf the Stout

The first volume of Pathfinder is set to ship out in August.

And we're pretty excited about it, too. : )

Thanks,
cos

Has a more specific date than just August been set yet?

Olaf the Stout