Pan's page

I didn’t realize this at first, but apparently the ghost that appeared to Fiona Shaw’s character is the ghost of the father of Matthew McConaughey‘s character from season 1. That’s cool.

And it seems the chick who got murdered six years prior had discovered something about what the scientists were up to. Or she just found something horrific. Maybe some eldritch microorganism that possessed her. And maybe they were keeping her on ice at their facility. Which could explain the “She’s awake” line. And I can’t help wonder if whatever’s going with the still births among the natives isn’t related to whatever has woken up, instead of the mine. Unless the mine is also somehow involved in what has awoken.

Either way, I’m enjoying this season. Jodie Foster’s character is particularly fun.

It's not bad, I really like the occult mystery in the air. I don't care for htem working overtime to make every person possible seem awful.

I love you Paizo!

I love you Paizo.

All this OGL nonsense has me feeling like its 2008 again.

Guess who's back in the MFing house?

Heya folks. This is a kerfuffle isnt it? Not sure how OGL 1.1 is going to shake out. My suspicion is that WotC wants everybody using their new 3DVTT like folks use Apple app store. Not sure how it will work. Im hoping the third party market comes together and makes their own OGL and thus history repeats itself for WotC. Though, it could go a lot of ways.

As for D&D One, not been super interested in 5E so far. Its fine, but its not nearly dedicated to character options as I would like (hey im a 3E/PF1 guy after all!) So, a GM really needs to sell me on a 5E game. Otherwise, ill be pretty bored. Dont know too many people who love or hate 5E, seems to be everyone's second favorite RPG system.

D&D One isnt doing much so far (via playtest) to change the above. Why mess with success right? I was interested in a set of anniversary core rule books because that seems like a cool milestone and collectors item. Also, I never bought any core 5E anyways. With OGL explosion buying any D&D One stuff is all on hold now. I mean, how cant it be?

Cheers.

opendnd

/signed

Oh man this site has a motherload of sci-fi music and sound effects.

If you like it, toss the creator a few bucks.

I hear ya, I got sucked into the collectors book because I'm certain it will just sit ont he shelf. I tend to use a lappy when GMing even if F2F. I do like the standard rulebook cover better.

The handouts really are intriguing. I hope they sell future kits for adventure modules and keep the handout game going!

I won't mention their name because I don't ask permission to do so, but we lost another forum member this week.

sad.

Off worlder right here.

Felt like the influenced by Batman movie. Touch of Bladerunner detective noir, dark rainy crime ridden city with emo rock like the crow, cat and mouse like game between the riddler like the Dark Knight... Great influences and I really liked the film, but I dont think it has its own identity, which will keep it from being considered a great movie.

Cast was excellent, and I liked a more introverted Batman we got from Patterson. Turturro proved, once again, he is a real underrated actor that out did himself in this film (so much presence!). Colin Ferrell's Penguin gave a real comic book almost Dick Tracy feel.

I was disappointed in Kravitz catwoman, not by her acting, but I feel the writing let her down. The character felt like she was there to move the plot around and be a cosplay doll. Jeffrey Wright's Gordon had the same issue. How many times does Gordon repeat, slowly, exactly what the audience just saw, knew, and read before he mutters it out? Also, why does anyone in the police force put up with Gordon? They clearly hate him and his friendship with Batman, but they just allow Gordon a wide berth.

Overall, a good solid addition to the Bat flicks.

The good news, in my humble view as a person with mild anxiety issues, is that the trigger seems to be getting ready for the game and not the game itself. The bad news, again in my humble view as a person with mild anxiety, you might have to go through this every time.

I had a panic attack once in the middle of a movie at the theater. I was alone on whatever afternoon and it just triggered. I was just learning about my anxiety (and family history) so it was very unnerving. It really sucked because I love going to movies. I have not had anywhere near that experience since. However, every time I go, there is a period of about 5-10 min after I sit down that I start freaking out. Once the lights dim and the movie starts rolling though, my anxiety melts away.

You are 100% correct about it just being in your mind. It's hard to talk to people because there isn't much sense about it. Anxiety is very personal and hard to relate to. What helps me is thinking about the process. It's routine, there is nothing wrong with me, or the situation. I have done this a million times and been just fine. Eventually, it washes away as you noted.

I hope your therapist can help better than I. All I can do is say, "yeah I know what anxiety is like."

-Cheers

Who owns the old Lucas Arts stuff? Id love to see a reboot of The Dig and Maniac Mansion.

The latest version is actually pretty playable vanilla. The only thing I miss is the extra zoom.

"Boom" "Whap" "Doink"

My favorite this time a year.

Anybody got console experience with MW5? I'm trying to talk my buddy into picking up a copy and I'm 90% cure he'll go PS4/5 with it. Im curious about co-op mode and cross platform?

In other news, still jamming on this. The update has added some nice things, and lancemate AI and spawns are much improved. Seems they even put some thought into AI behavior. Seems like enemy mechs will try and pull you away from bases during defense missions. Pretty neat.

They also added some more maps and new ambiance things like massive anti-aircraft cannon that will shake your mech if you a nearby and throw off some of your shots if not ready. Also, pretty neat.

Watching the final season now. I do appreciate the family friendly science fiction series. Seems everything has gone mature grimdark (even Picard). I think Parker Posey and what they did with Dr. Smith was incredible. I really enjoyed that. I did like the other characters too, but I felt like they had these mini arcs that they continuously faced over and over. It was like the constant death peril in every episode that just makes the series exhausting after awhile. I think they missed an opportunity to work more on the overall story.

They are not crashing, but they may not be working either. I do know that all AI seems to be using jump jets which is cool. They also like to melee which is not so cool as a teammate. They usually get smashed to death before your eyes.

It is cool that radar shows incoming drop ships.

Cool, I didnt realize this update was so recent. I just decided after a long time of not playing to fire it up again. Better Spawns 2.0 and Lancemate AI 2.0 are working still. As far as I can tell.

The update includes melee, which is nice when your mech is hot, hot, hot! Also, there are weapons caches laying around in missions you can mark for pickup.

Is there an 3D hud improvement mod? The old one I have crashes my client :(

IIRC (and I may not RC) some earlier versions of D&D, you could only get XP by killing monsters and collecting treasure (yes, treasure itself gave you XP). Earning XP for resolving quests, creative problem solving. So this quickly created a paradigm of the kill-n-loot story genre.

Early on you got XP for getting gold and treasure not from killing things. There was a lot of creative dungeons that tested players to try and get the loot without having to actually fight the monsters. It was considered a bit of a fail state if you did. This style is often referred to as skill play.

I do agree with you that videogames did up the carnage and bloodlust expectations. 3E went with an xp awarded for "defeating" encounters along with a major magic item expectation that could only be paid for in piles of bodies. Diablo influence was pretty obvious.

I'm not going to say much on the morality issue but I am a pacifist based on religious beliefs, and I enjoy fantasy violence in gaming as a safe, healthy way to let off steam. But for it to remain a healthy outlet, maintaining, respectful, supportive environments with one another at the table as well as a clear reminder that pretendy funtime games are not real life and the two should remain separated is critical.

Sound advice.

There is certainly a tendency for players to shoot first and ask questions later, but equally, there is a tendency for bad-faith GMs who ensure that no good deed ever goes unpunished - any time the players show clemency it is rewarded with treachery.

Definite two way street.

I had an old school GM for a bit that always punished the PCs for making hard choices. Though, in Kingmaker we let a couple of Bandits go. My character talked the group into it. Since in the ambush we killed a number of bandits before the others surrender. Sort of a message that the new lords are here and capable of kicking ass and mercy kind of thing. One bandit, of course, went back to the bandits, the other went back to town and became a blacksmith. The blacksmith thanked the PCs for sparing him and giving him a new opportunity he never had (which was why he was a bandit.) Was very rewarding specifically to this AP, but just in general to see good things come from the PCs being good people.

W E Ray wrote:

4) 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide 2

While Monte Cook's masterpiece 3.0 DMG is the beginning of contemporary game theory, actually showing us for the first time ever how to look at our game style and methodology, well, Robin Laws' DMG2 finishes it. We get so much insight in how to be Better DMs, creating a better experience for ourselves and our players. I mean, the chapter that identifies and describes various player-types, and points out that, 'Hey, be cognizant of both the player who just wants his PC to look cool, as well as the player who just wants her character to do crazy stuff,' should be required reading for every player in the game. (And yes, I know that technically the DMG 2 was coauthored with a few other people -- but I'm confident in saying the good stuff is almost ALL Robin Laws.)

I wrote a sizable chunk of that book, so it's always fun to see folks cite it as a favorite! :) (Was fun; I mostly worked on the Adventure Writing section, the NPC section, some of the magic items, and the Saltmarsh stuff, but WotC also had me go in and develop a fair amount of the other text to help it all sync up once the initial writing for the book was all done.)

Its a classic!

Planpanther wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Having visitors for Thanksgiving. I hear they are bringing scotch. Will update on results when I can.

Speaking of the upcoming holidays, folks got any good recommendations?

What do you like, and what is your budget?

Bourbon is my jam, but I do like Oban. I'll try anything in 30-50 dollar range but I might need some convincing to go above 80.

At one point I had 4 different bottles of Laphroaig in my cabinet (10, quarter, lore, 18). Now I just have the 10 and 10 cask strength. The 18 is my all-time favorite scotch, but they don't bottle that any more.

My friend's brewery just closed. Their landlord screwed them over. Last winter, I was really enjoying their imperial/pastry stouts. Some of them were a bit on the sweet side, so I started making them into boiler makers with scotch. Glenfiddich 14 (bourbon barrel) paired really well with a sweet stout, giving just enough bite again for my taste. I've also found that it's a decent scotch to introduce bourbon drinkers to.

Damn, thats too bad. Im guessing they cant find another site?

Here are some unboxing picks (looks sweeeeet!)

My copy has been shipped!

I love the stylized look and tone. The acting was a little off to me. Hoping a less frantic pace mixed with some quieter moodier scenes that balance well in the anime to change that up at launch. Fun teaser for sure tho.

I could also see it becoming 1984's Dune.

I dont. At worst it will end up like Bladerunner 2049.

The Dead Boy Detectives were great. I did think they played Crystal Palace too close to Jane in personality. I almost thought Crystal was young Jane for a min.

Cool. Im still dying for more Battletech tho...

Maybe someone should put together a list of gaming companies they won't give money to. They could even color code it with the companies being either red or green based on whether they're woke or unwoke.

Why is treating people with disrespect so appealing to you?

Also curious.

I just want to take a moment and say I appreciate Paizo and the Paizo community for the last 10+ years I've been a player and customer. I am not LGBTQ+ or a POC, so earlier in my experiences with PF inclusivity wasn't something I expected. I do value inclusivity, but I lacked the perspectives on why its so important. Paizo including diversity in their products and allowing discussion on their forums about inclusivity really helped me learn about perspectives I never had before. This has affected my opinions in life beyond the game. Thank you Paizo and Paizo community!

That said, the recent comments by former employees are disheartening. I do believe there is a little something to the "nobody is prefect" mindset when talking about an organization, but that certainly doesn't excuse poor behavior by individuals. Paizo really needs to address this.

The Pathfinder discord has a lot of people on it. All the games, as far as I can tell, are online games, but it might be worth looking around to see if you can find local gamers.

20 dollars a game? I thought organized play was free?

Hmm, looks like the posting for PFS at haunted was a dated ad. I'll keep looking around. I dont live in CO but have friends who do.

Yeah, if you wont go online, then you have to work with what you can. If it has to be F2F, then its likely you need to start with organized play. If there is only 5E D&D in the area, you likely need to start there too.

One way to look at it is if you are forced to go 5E org play, there are likely others in 5E org play that feel the same way. You have a better chance of finding them there than hoping a flier will get their attention.

Near Fort Collins? The Haunted Game Cafe hosts there.

Some of the negative reviews I read where taking issue with Dune part 1 not being a complete story, or ending at an ideal story point. This reminds me of some of the reviews that dogged Lord of the Rings because the fellowship movie didn't end definitively. This might be one of those things that works better holistically than in parts.

They also had the typical Villeneuve response of style over substance that critics like to use on his films. They're not always wrong about that.

Honestly, I'm surprised folks even bother with fliers anymore. The internet is a much bigger net.

Organized play was my way out of your situation. I don't prefer it either, but its the best way to meet local gamers.

My number one rule is no campaigns with people I dont know. So, I'll try folks out at PFS or one shots before moving into a campaign. I have on a few occasions just set up a chat or one shot with the intention of maybe getting to a campaign. Thats how I roll.

I haven't found that online gaming shields me from awful people.

Online is super convenient for folks and was chipping away at the F2F pool for awhile. Combine that with a pandemic, that is not over, and folks are sheepish to get back to the table. Its going to be awhile, but I bet there will be a F2F explosion in a year or two when folks want to get back to the table.

In the meantime, Id try out some PFS locally and see if you can garner up some interest.

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Best moment when I was playing my Monk was using Whirling Throw to keep a boss enemy that we were all having a hard time hitting on AC locked in the Druid's Fire Wall every turn. Everybody should be supporting everybody to find the most effective tactic.

For us that would go like this;

Druid casts fire wall. Boos saves takes no/half damage and moves out.
Monk tries whirling toss and fails.
Boss punches the sh!t out of monk and we have to pick up his unconscious body and run.

Wall of Fire has no saving throw tied to it, the only failure point is keeping the enemy in the area. If an encounter isn't overtuned there's gonna be a solution somewhere, a weakness you can exploit. That's why PF2 character building is all about diversity in options, you need to have a second and even third thing to try when your first thing doesn't work.

Again, its not about things to do and options to try its about the math. Nothing we do has any decent chance to work because 2/3 our fights are +3-4 levels higher than us. Our only hope is to chip away at the AC because the lowest saves are still high enough to succeed 80% of the time.

I thought the new 4 tier critical system would be fun. however, being on the wrong side of it has sucked so bad I dont want to play PF2 anymore. And, yes I do put the blame on our GM, but the system also allows this. How many other folks will experience this? Who knows...

How many DMs have experienced the players not being challenged due to the lack of balance of PF1 or D&D 3rd edition? Similar idea.

You have a bad DM. But the PF2 system is must better at providing a challenge to PCs of any level. That is much, much better than the players running rough shod over the game due to the complete lack of any semblance of balance over previous iterations of the game.

So if players quit due to a bad DM, so be it. I quit PF1 and previous editions of D&D including 5E due to players...

I hear you. The GM definitely has way more confidence in their ability and perception of the game than they have any right to. A big part of my frustration.

Pan wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

Pan wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

OP, how do you know that the encounters are +3-4 levels higher than you ?

Note : if the GM is giving out XP for encounters budgeted for 4 PCs but you are 5 in the party, it means you will often be 1 level below what the adventure expects. In AV, it has a HUGE impact, especially when facing enemies that have abilities with Incapacitation.

We are suing roll20 so all the numbers are being revealed during combat. After I balked at a few encounters the GM opened up a bit about what we were facing. We were told that we should be x level at y floor of dungeon which we held to, but still each fight is +3-4 levels higher than us.

GM is running it like a 4 person party and not making any adjustments for a 5th player, per the GM anyways.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Are there many enemies in these encounters or only a few strong enemies ?

Its usually open a door and find an empty room. Open the next door fight a solo severe/extreme monster then rinse and repeat. This started on floor 3.

Pan wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

OP, how do you know that the encounters are +3-4 levels higher than you ?

Note : if the GM is giving out XP for encounters budgeted for 4 PCs but you are 5 in the party, it means you will often be 1 level below what the adventure expects. In AV, it has a HUGE impact, especially when facing enemies that have abilities with Incapacitation.

We are suing roll20 so all the numbers are being revealed during combat. After I balked at a few encounters the GM opened up a bit about what we were facing. We were told that we should be x level at y floor of dungeon which we held to, but still each fight is +3-4 levels higher than us.

GM is running it like a 4 person party and not making any adjustments for a 5th player, per the GM anyways.

** spoiler omitted **

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Best moment when I was playing my Monk was using Whirling Throw to keep a boss enemy that we were all having a hard time hitting on AC locked in the Druid's Fire Wall every turn. Everybody should be supporting everybody to find the most effective tactic.

For us that would go like this;

Druid casts fire wall. Boos saves takes no/half damage and moves out.
Monk tries whirling toss and fails.
Boss punches the sh!t out of monk and we have to pick up his unconscious body and run.

Wall of Fire has no saving throw tied to it, the only failure point is keeping the enemy in the area. If an encounter isn't overtuned there's gonna be a solution somewhere, a weakness you can exploit. That's why PF2 character building is all about diversity in options, you need to have a second and even third thing to try when your first thing doesn't work.

Again, its not about things to do and options to try its about the math. Nothing we do has any decent chance to work because 2/3 our fights are +3-4 levels higher than us. Our only hope is to chip away at the AC because the lowest saves are still high enough to succeed 80% of the time.

I thought the new 4 tier critical system would be fun. however, being on the wrong side of it has sucked so bad I dont want to play PF2 anymore. And, yes I do put the blame on our GM, but the system also allows this. How many other folks will experience this? Who knows...

I did experience this, it was frustrating as a player in my first game.

Then I learned what I was doing wrong, and I got better.

Recall knowledge is INSANELY GOOD, as a caster, provided your GM tells you which save is weakest.

There is on average a difference of 5 on saves between the highest and lowest save. That's 25% chance extra to land your spell and 25% chance extra to have them Crit fail. Mesh this with an aoe spell on a group and unless you are really unlucky you'll have failures and Crit...

This is helpful and I get it. Its just kind of a bummer when a significant portion of the spell list becomes ineffective or inefficient when facing boss level fights on the regular. The martials in our group dont mind the toughness of the fights, but the casters in our group have been frustrated by the lack of useful options and success in encounters.

This GM seems to wipe parties on a regular basis in several systems and often blames the material and/or the party. Our group seems pretty savvy and managed to avoid many TPKs. So its likely something in the middle of the GM not having a good sense of system and inexperienced players.

In the entirety of the level 4 part of the adventure, there is exactly one level +3 creature and one level +4 creature. In the level 3 section, there are only two level +3s. That's it. So something isn't adding up here.

Yeah, thats what I gathered. I dont have the AP so I cant compare whats written to what the GM is doing. We are new to each other so I dont know how the GM operates. Im not the only one in the group either thats noticed this. We had a long chat and GM keeps blaming the material but I know thats not right, but I dont know exactly whats going on either.

OP, how do you know that the encounters are +3-4 levels higher than you ?

Note : if the GM is giving out XP for encounters budgeted for 4 PCs but you are 5 in the party, it means you will often be 1 level below what the adventure expects. In AV, it has a HUGE impact, especially when facing enemies that have abilities with Incapacitation.

We are suing roll20 so all the numbers are being revealed during combat. After I balked at a few encounters the GM opened up a bit about what we were facing. We were told that we should be x level at y floor of dungeon which we held to, but still each fight is +3-4 levels higher than us.

GM is running it like a 4 person party and not making any adjustments for a 5th player, per the GM anyways.

Pan wrote:

The party is a Rogue, Champion, Fighter, Wizard/Cleric, and Druid.

That's a strong class lineup, so you gotta wonder what's going on there. The immediate suspect is how the GM is handling the 5 player situation.

* Are they dividing the XP differently, so that you level slower and as a result the encounters get harder?

* Are they making individual monsters stronger to compensate for the extra players? I know the Elite template is suggested here and there to the GM as an easy way to do this, but it's not really a good idea. The Elite template is pretty powerful, and the +2 to enemy saves is very harsh on casters.

* Are they skipping "filler" encounters? Especially when the GM feels that extra players slows down the game there may be the temptation to cut some of the easy "pointless" encounters. Those are not pointless - they exist to even out the difficulty.

---

I think that Severe and Extreme encounters themselves are not a problem for casters, especially after level 5-7 when the AoE spells start getting real. In PFS a lot of scenarios (correctly!) compensate for large party sizes by adding more monsters, not making the existing monsters stronger. This works out well for casters because blasting a lot of mooks and midtier enemies is what they're good at.

Solo bosses on the other hand are a big problem for casters. As mentioned before, Magic Missile is a key spell then, because it bypasses AC. That makes its expected damage much higher than other spells that have a better base damage but might not hit.

If you ever needed an example of why spontaneous casting was really an advantage, then being able to switch effectively between area attacks and single target magic missile would be a good one.

5th player was added at 3rd level. We were already struggling so the GM said they were not making any adjustments. Which thankfully he didnt because the rogue was easily the worst PC among us. GM mentioned not really knowing how to use a Paizo AP product. They are old school and pretty much just use stats blocks and I dont think they took any guidance into consideration. Hard to tell.