Pete Apple's page

Not Smurf Vikings. Viking Vikings.

Ninja Viking Vikings?

"What should Paizo's 4E Brand/Line Be?"

Smurfs?

Ninjas?

Ninja Smurfs?

Let's brain storm on those At-Will, Encounter, and Daily Powers...

Linkified Paizocon II Poll!

I think the Paizo folks have been pretty clear that 4E stuff on here is going to be user driven for awhile. If the users aren't driving it, that's not really something that's their fault. Jeez. :-)

As far as Paizo not "developing materials for 4E" almost all the fluff they're producing could be used. And it's very pretty fluff too.

Me, I've been waiting for the books then might dig into it more. I'm sure once it's actually out things will pick up again here because everyone will get fired up about it.

The more I read the previews the less I see 4E crunch as DnD, but as a new interesting hybrid of DnD/Miniature/TCG rules. Good or bad that's what it seems like, so will provide a new gaming experience. Plus a ton of Marketing $$$. :-)

Pete

<shrug> I dunno what Paizo should do for 4E. I'm sure they're smart enough to figure it out on their own. That is, once they have something real to look at. Restart this discussion on June 7th. Oh heck, give them until June 8th to decide even... :-)

Snorter, I've got a copy if you'd like it. Actually in pretty good shape. Doesn't seem to have the map in it though, I might have to dig around to find that.

Actually I've got Vol 1 #1 too if that's of interest. As well a a few other LG things. ( V1.5 Membership handbook from May 1999? :-) Could come in handy! )

If you're interested shoot me some e-mail. (on my profile)

Hey Cosmo! Pete here thinks you're a goddess!

;)

You mean Corey and Cosmo! And they get to pick which they want to be. :-)

-Pete

Happy to hear you like it!

To answer some of your questions, it shouldn't be hard to advance things up to make them a challenge for 15th level characters. Add some more of the Sons of Perdition to the adventure to give your cleric and paladin PCs some new things to do a la exorcisms instead of just one encounter with them. If you have the time to do it, add some character levels to some of the demons. Also, you should also consider tweaking the encounter at the Demonscope to make it more challenging, like removing some of the restrictions. I'd also make that room a bit bigger. It's a tad on the small side for the fight that'll be taking place there.

Increase the number of minor demons encountered by about 3-5. You may also...

Thanks for all the tips! It's really appreciated. We're actually planning to end this campaign and this has given me a perfect way. I plan to work it so that most of the current management of the keep ends up Demon dinner so my fellows can step in as the new Holy Sentinels. Seems perfect for their backgrounds. And I'm looking forward to dragging out the Balor figure I have, finally :-)

BTW, for anyone planning to run this I just noticed Flip-mat Cathedral is out and could work well as the initial encounter.

Actually, there were a couple kids at Paizocon and they were all chattering away about "Mikey the Dragon Man". I'm surprised he doesn't get stopped in the street for pictures like at Disney.

Plus he kept the pizza warmed up. Awesome!

I just put in another order, realized I forgot something in my first one. Can you combine my last two orders and ship together? Thanks!

<NOTE: this might have spoilers>

Hey! I love this thing, downloaded it last night. Got some questions, hoping others or authors can help me out!

I'd like to integrate this into my campaign, would like some thoughts.

First off, the party consists of 4 15th level characters. A cleric(radiant), paladin (knight of the chalice), Cavalier, and arcane trickster. So as you can see, they're ripe for this sort of gig.

Now, they've been investigating a group of arch-villians who have been opening portals allowing more demon activity. D'oh! Guess you had a good idea there.

So I'll locate the keep somewhere nearby their home station and some good excuse for them to visit it and go from there.

I have glanced over the pdf a bit at this point and wonder if anyone has ideas for bumping it to 15th level. I'm trying to figure out if just increasing the number of enemies in each encounter and a few levels on the NPC's should be sufficient. Or should I substitute some different ones in? How many babau's make a herzou? :-)

Also, I don't own the tome of horrors books. Can someone just give a general description of what those creatures look like? The one sounds pretty large with his pounding you into the ground "feature".

Thanks!
Pete

It is very awful. I was just wondering if you thought he was insane at the time.

His trial isn't so much if he's guilty or not. They know he did it. But, if he was insane at the time.

So it's jail for life or mental institution for probably life.

Edit:

Side note: Do you think they need the added charge of "Hate Crime"

Isn't all murder a hate crime? I don't think anyone kills in a fit of love...

Yes, he's mentally ill. That was firmly established. They avoided the death penalty because of it.

Side Note: Yes, hate crime seemed appropriate. He was targeting a specific group of people.

I don't believe that all murder is a hate crime. Some murder is cold and calculated. Sometimes it's done simply for enough cash.

I do think that hate crime is a mental illness to one degree or another, whether it be murder, assault, or simply spray painting a wall. Someone who hates a set of people or idea so much that they act out needs to get some help.

I'm running a game online that will end up having a very caster-heavy party. It looks like two clerics, a spirit shaman, a paladin, and a scout. Other than the paladin, there's nothing that's really heavy-hitting in the melee department (even then the paladin fails due to lack of combat customization).

If the "rules of balance" holds true for 3.5, I should be able to manage fine - should I just cut back on the total number of encounters per day, so that the casters are over-taxed and thus let the party down? Should I fill the gabs that combat leaves with more skill/class specific quests? Religious mysteries, perhaps, or quests that require comprehension and delving into the lore of forgotten religious sects?

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm happy to help you with this. I'm running a campaign with 15th level characters that consist of:

Cleric of Sylvania (Radiant)
Paladin of Sylvania (Knight of the Chalice)
Cavalier (pledged to Sylvania)
Arcane Trickster

So, yes, there is a great deal of "religion" going on. So let me give you some of the things I've done over time in order to keep them busy.

Cults - There's a great mini from WotC of a red-robed cult guy. Buy about 10 of them.

Oposing religions - Whatever their god is probably has some enemies - evil priests and frothing followers.

Undead - Obviously plays to their strengths - create a nasty Lich mastermind - create some lower level servants who can act as minor bosses at lower levels. If you're using pre-gen adventures drop in clues to the evil overlord here and there to tie things together.

Plagues - These work well with the Cleric angle. They have to figure out what's causing it and then find the components to the cure, etc. Especially if they figure out that there's a sinister force behind the plague..

With each of these, you can easily build some skill and knowledge encounters (Watch Stargate:SG1 - Daniel Jackson under pressure.)

I *strongly* recommend against you doing any sort of NPC. You've got 5 players there, that's plenty. And the last thing you want is for your beefy NPC fighter to get the killing blow in battles. Takes the fun out of it for the players.

They've got plenty of people in plate mail for the front line and the clerics should do fine in battle. If you don't find that is the case then make sure the magic booty includes some good weapons, or better yet some sort of quest to recover some lost weapons of the faithful. And if nothing else they've certainly got plenty of healing!

Hope this helps!

Wish he had gotten help sooner.

I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it because I know it's going to stop at the end of the season so the writer's can do whatever the hell they want. And I hope they do. I want some carnage. No easy endings.

Knowing actors, I'm sure they're excited about this as well. Aaron Douglas must be having a blast with the slow disintegration of Tyrol's sanity.

I'm also interested to see how much farther they take the allegories to historical and current topics. Baltar coming in to tear down the altar of the "false gods" was great. "all this has happened before, all this will happen again" How far are they going to push that? I'm interested to see.

Isn't it cute to watch Jason's cherubic face light up while gleefully describing your character deaths?

B@st@rdo! ;)

The gleam in his eye when that meteor die comes out is quite... disturbing... :-)

I was lucky enough to play in Jason's game, but sadly as Iros the Archer. It sucks to have a 15% chance for a critical fumble when using rapid shot!

You owe me a horse! :-)

It was a pleasure to play with you, glad you could make the trek up from the big easy!

White box.

It was probably the 6th edition, I remember the wizard on the front, and I bought it in the spring of '78 when I was 12. $10!

Amusingly, I bought it because the store had not yet got in the "new" blue box set yet. I picked that up awhile later. My very first experience with "new" editions of DnD. ;-)

I don't have the white box anymore but based upon the link that Russ posted (thanks Russ!) it appears I have the 7th (Dec 1979) Edition of the blue box. Loved those dice chits. Looks like I also have the First Edition of Expert . I used the color'd in d20 from that in Jason's game Saturday.

And I'll give a shout out to the FLGS:

www.boardroomgames.com -- still in business to this day, amazingly enough. Stop by if you go to GenCon.

-Pete

Russ Taylor wrote:

* Bardic knowledge is now +3 on Knowledge skills, rather than a separate roll

I'm wondering if this was scalable (i.e. +1 every 3 Bard levels or some such). +3 in the late game seems rather small.

Appears to be Level/2. Oglam had +3 at level 6. The blog post has him at +4 at level 8. Seems reasonable.

Regular coins do work fairly well and don't require alot of translation. Just use 1gp/5gp/10gp/25gp.

For gems - beads or glass beads work well. Pente sets provide a collection of uniform "gems".

You can also find pyrite online or at some stores if you want an unfinished mineral look.

Pete
(who knew LARPing would come in handy some day?)

How large is this con. Or should I ask how large is this caon going to be next year. It sounds like fun.

Help figure that out!

Thanks Pete, I was hoping someone would break it down for us. I second the request for info on the adventures that were run. :)

I played in Jason's game so can pass along some info. We all played 6th level PFRPG characters in a one-shot adventure. I’ll say this, if Jason gets the die out of the bag he keeps around his neck, you best look out. He uses it to confirm criticals and it is deadly!

[WARNING: If during the telling of this tale you start to experience a slight "tingling" in the ears, pay no attention to that, or any, say, bleeding you might notice.. It's nothing really and will soon pass.]

Come then! Hear the Epic Tale of the Cursed Lot as told by Oglam Death-Drum, Half-Orc Bard!

The "Cursed Lot", as we came to be known, were a band of adventurers brought together by common luck, or lack thereof, it would seem. Each possessed some unique quality, a Je ne sais quoi, really, that set them apart from more common adventurers. Oh yes, those uncursed adventurers, with their fine armor and accolades. Bah! What do they know of overcoming challenges!

Our band of hearty folk included:
I, Oglam Death-Drum, Half-Orc Bard and my Drums of Doom! Our Enemies did quake in fear and hold their hands over their ears when I played my drums! (Sometimes my allies as well.)

Hammerson, Narcoleptic Dwarven Cleric. He was a stout warrior, when awake, and his healing skills did aid us many a time in the heat of battle, after a swift kick to rouse him.

Iros Kinslayer, Elven Ranger. His mighty bow took down many a foe. And many an innocent bystander. And occasionally his foot.

Kardaz, Barbarian Warrior of the Bear Clan. When he fought even Rovagug himself could not still Kardaz’s Rage! Or much of anything, really. And I have the scars to show for it.

Longbeard, Wizard. Longbeard claims that he is only 24 years old. Yet he appears 74. Or is it 75 today? He does seem a bit older then yesterday. We think he does become addled as he ages.

Ilian, Human(?) Rogue. Ilian has a bad habit of turning into a Rat during the heat of battle. I’ve told her I’m likely to put her on a spit and roast her by accident if she isn’t careful. Har!

We set out on an epic journey (after a bit of a misunderstanding on a boat involving Iros doing some target practice.) We sought a cure for our afflictions and I had heard of a tale regarding an ancient site that might aid us in our quests. We found a ranger who did give us council as well as warning of our certain doom. DOOM! HA! He does not know the word.

Traveling through the forests to the west, we were set upon by Trolls! I played my drums to shake their resolve and our party set upon them with all their skills. For once things seemed to go our way and we made quick work of the trolls with hardly a self-inflicted wound among us.

Locating the hills of the 5 dwarves (whose stony countenance doth look down upon you from above – tis odd to have Dwarves looking down, actually) we headed to the north into the hills.

While negotiating our way up a steep hillside we were set upon by a pack of Gargoyles. We managed to battle them without anyone falling off the mountainside, although Iros did manage to kill my horse. Kardaz got a bit over exuberant but I was able to calm him with my drums before he could cause too much damage.

We continued our journey and made our way to an ancient temple which tales said contained a creature that could free one from curses with only its tears.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the creature was guarded by all manner of foul monsters! An Epic battle ensued with flaming skeletons and foul demons known as Dretch and Vrock. Tis a sad end to our tale for some, for Hammerson doth sleep the eternal rest after the Vrock made dwarf mincemeat of him and tossed him into a flaming pit. Kardaz (who was by this time a large angry Bear) was apt to join him but for the healing wand I used (repeatedly) to keep him in the battle until he could send the Vrock back to his abysmal plane with a mighty blow!

By this time Ilian and Longbeard had managed to dispense the Dretches and free the winged serpent trapped in a ball of energy on the foul altar. A single teardrop fell into the chalice that lay below.

But at that very moment, Iros let lose 3 arrows and killed the flying snake! Villiany! With that Kardaz the Bear of Very Little Patience tore into Iros and sent him to the great beyond – or so he thought, for as I played my drum I pulled the soul of Iros as well as the winged creature into my Drum of Doom! More souls for Rovagug!

Ilian and Longbeard scrambled for the chalice and its single curse-removing tear. Ilian being quicker (it's handy not being 76 years old...) she managed to grab the chalice. She drank the single tear and turned... back into a rat!

And so ends the Epic tale of the Cursed Lot!

So I had not yet seen a write-up on PaizoCon so thought I’d put one together. Thanks should go to Russ Taylor for sharing his notes to help augment my poor memory. Any misquotes in this are my own and permission is expressly given to Paizo to correct anything (or edit for spoilers) as they choose.

So Paizocon initially started as just an idea by a few folks on the messageboards to get together somewhere and play some Paizo. (Btw, I take no credit for the idea or implementation. Other fine folks get all that credit.) It was finally settled to hold it here in the Seattle region with the thought that maybe a few of the Paizo folks might stop by. (Maybe 1 or 2, you know, just to say howdy.)

After a bit we heard that Jason would stop in, and potentially James as well. Well after a bit more that turned into Jason might run a game and maybe James too. We also heard an e-mail had been sent out to the company about it. So some time was set aside in the morning to have a small panel so they might answer some questions by the attendees. I figured with 30 fans a couple folks might stop in for an hour or something. You know, make an appearance.

In the end, here’s what happened:

Jason, James, Wes, Erik, Mike, Josh, Corey, Cosmo, Vic, and Lisa all showed up. (If I forgot someone let me know!) Plus Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Quarterly (and various Paizo contributions). So nearly 1/2 of the 23 Paizo employees were there! At 10AM on a Saturday morning no less.

The day consisted of a morning and afternoon panel session followed by PFRPG and card/board games. Jason, James, Wolfgang, and Russ Taylor all ran tables during the first session. Mike was crazy with the card games. (What was the one with the skip/extra/stop cards?)

Having been to *a lot* of Cons, two things struck me the most: 1) Paizo really values their customers. That was really clear. 2) Some of the nicest people I’d met at such an event.

If you ever doubted that this is a customer-loving company, you were wrong. They collectively took many hours out of their Saturday to hang out with 30 fans. Very impressive. I believe Jason was there the longest (from about 10AM to midnight) doing Q&A and then running two back to back sessions using the Alpha 3 rules. Get some sleep good sir!

I wrote up some notes on the panels based on my memory and Russ's notes. None of this should be considered official Paizo information as it's quoted second hand.

The morning panel was a discussion of Paizo and their product lines. After lunch there was a panel on the industry in general.

RotRL: Erik stated that RotRL was iconic by intent, and they’re putting their stylistic mojo into the current and future AP’s. Second Darkness will be inventive as well, stepping aside from the “Age of Worms” style themes that were in Runelords.

Wolfgang Baur spoke on Fortress of the Stone Giants. Most other Giants had been given some amount of treatment already. Stone Giants just hadn’t really had a culture or an extended description in D&D previously. All one knew about Stone Giants is they were big and had bears. Also Fortress of the Stone Giants gave the Adventure path an opportunity to take a break from the “tone of overwhelming horror” and “Hillbilly Ogres”.

Commonalities between RL and CT are “save your homeland from a menace”.
CotCT: PF#11 Artwork – A skeletal rider on a skeletal horse. Very cool artwork! And the 4 iconics in the background battling away. There were some discussions regarding a haunted castle.

Second Darkness: The overarching theme of Second Darkness is back to “save the world”. “Oh s%+% the big bad is going down and you alone have the opportunity to stop it.” The AP will start in Riddleport but then travel into the Darklands. And they do mean travel, ultimately crossing half the continent -- Underground!

With the publication of the info on Riddleport in Second Darkness the major cities of Varisia will all have been detailed. This was part of their plan to have Varisia be a fleshed out area for GM’s to use fairly easily.

Drow are the bad guys of Second Darkness – not really news. Cool news is the just printed out artwork. As of PF#13 covers will be major NPC’s – the 12 Iconics will be completed. Passed around stunning artwork of an Elven General as well as a Drow Queen. Drow queen had a nice hand crossbow – good to see that.

Second Darkness has outer space elements. Movies that would fit in - Alien, Night of the Creeps, The Thing, Armageddon, Deep Impact.

Artwork: Cover art of the arch at Riddleport. Includes a meteor streaking across the background – looks to be landing somewhere nearby – wonder what that could be? :-) A couple Iconics battling a variation on wererats (looks like they’re being PF reimaged ala Goblins and Ogres) as well as giant Cockroaches! Bugs! Including a “Cockroach Swarm”. Ick! Love it! (Everyone was excited about Cockroach swarms. What do you want from a room of geeks?)

Side trek adventures - Pathfinder will start having two adventures in Second Darkness. The main adventure as well as an 8-10 page piece that is a complimentary adventure. The first one in PF13 is a thieves’ guild. Not directly related to the main plot, so it can be used for extra xp, running it as a one-off, or as a setting piece as a drop in for later use. "Relevant but useful out of context"

Gazetteer: They had a copy of the Gazetteer on hand. Erik showed off the included poster (note: easily removable – no x-acto required.) It’s a four panel map. Varisia is very small relative to the rest of the map! Huge Tracts of Land!

The decision to stick with Varisia first was to free up the rest of the world for development at the same time. The Gazetteer is designed to support traditional adventuring as well as political and culture-based adventuring. They are specifically designing out areas of the world more than others to give GM’s both “ready to run” as well as “open for your development” areas.

Initially Erik drew the world map as T-shaped then realized that it wouldn’t fit well on a 4-panel poster so got some assistance. J
Various areas of the map are themed around common fantasy, historical, or geographical themes. Vikings in the north, the Arch of Eridan = Pillars of Hercules. Asia-themed lands are on the opposite side of the globe, beyond the ice cap. Mentioned briefly in the first AP, will be expanded later. There will be room for gothic horror, Arabian, oriental....just not in the initial Gazetteer. Sarusan - megafauna and the aboriginal dreamtime.

Great eye storm in the southern hemisphere. Permanent fixture from when the god died 100 years ago. The pirates use the great eye storm to flee pursuing ships.

Plans to introduce some “sword and planet” into PF as they move along. “John Carter”. Golarian is just one world – idea of the “red planet” and “green planet”. Even ruined wastelands like Dark Sun. Dark Sun might be on something like the red planet.

Into the Darklands: Paizo is looking for a fully fleshed underground setting. I.E. you go down and there is a full environment that includes multiple races and opportunities for adventure. Should include some original races. Various literary references included – including the concept of the land of the dead underground. Introduces the concept of “Vaults” – underground pockets created by sources unknown. Wolfgang has submitted an article on a Vault for inclusion in Second Darkness.

Erik: Sometimes the gaming industry kinds of sucks, but sometimes you get paid for an hour of talking about whether or not Golarion is hollow.

Pulp fantasy is the underpinnings of Golarian sayeth Erik. Pelludicar was pushed for being an influence, but the bad nasty science people said Impossible! You cannot have a hollow world! It will fall down, boom. But the English Major says “It is cool! Make me a hollow world!” Seems the Vaults were a compromise they reached – especially when a Dinosaur Vault was mentioned! Ala Voyage to the Center of the Earth. (Dinosaurs can apparently convince James to screw with science.)

The vaults are like time capsules from different times (or dimensions?) in Golarion history. They’ve left it unanswered on who created the Vaults. The Thassilonians? The Sky City guys? The Gods? People in the Ice? Wolfgang has one of the possibilities hinted at in his upcoming Vault article – at least what he thinks the answer is.

There are specific Vaults laid out in the world, but plenty of opportunity for you to create your own.

Chronicles and Companion: Companion is aimed at players as well as GM’s. It replaces the 16-page player guides. First installment is 32-pages and subscribers get that 1st volume free. Elves will be a companion issue as well as Osirion (Egypt).

PFRPG: More than 15,000 downloads of the PFRPG rules so far. (A number of folks pull out home printed out copies at this point) As long as Jason doesn’t write, he can keep up on the boards. As long as he ignores the boards, he can write. He looked tired. L Bummed the D8 Paladin change didn’t get caught, for example. Release 2 errata by next week with any luck. R3 is coming along, includes monk, ranger, and bards. Bard will be included in today’s playtest!

Well-versed is a new bard ability, as is “performance of death”? More combat feats for rangers. Animal companions are optional. Noted that most classes that have it are now are being given an option of animal companion or something else.

Monks receive upgrades here or there. Will be the masters of combat maneuvers – bonuses to those as they advance in level.

Release 3 will include quick and easy character generation rules, includes NPC. Pre-made packages for the classes.

James thanked folks for all the valuable feedback. Results so far: No “new” new skill system. Sorcerer will be upgraded a bit more.

What isn’t in the Alpha (including the Alpha’s not out yet) is largely not changing. Jason has a prototype of a character sheet. There WILL be one with beta.

Beta book out in August. Free download of the PDF. Printed version will not be at much profit – 300+ page book would be expensive for regular folks to print, so they are offering it at near cost if you want a physical copy.

Final version in 2009 will not be free – download pdf or print. The year between beta and final is for quality reasons

Monsters are not in the PF RPG, although there are rules for adopting existing monsters. Expect some sort of Monster rules at some point.

Question: Final product for the Pathfinder RPG - how do you get the playtester names in them? A: 2 point type. Jokes about fitting the OGL on a playing card. They are not sure what it will take to get a playtest credit, it may be a signup process. If you recommend dropping or adding a class, you are OFF THE LIST :) They are improving the organization for playtest feedback as they go.

Pathfinder Society: All PCs in Pathfinder are members of the Pathfinder Society

Brought up for rewards for the living campaign - nothing solid yet, but under consideration. Pathfinder Society will be set in Absalom (previously announced), but it will go into neighboring countries

Five factions based on the neighboring countries, including Osirion and Cheliaxian. You chose your faction; it isn't based on your real-world location. You get faction prestige for meeting specific goals for your faction. Each adventure will include faction goals in addition to the primary group goal. There is talk of rotating out poor performing factions in favor of new factions.

Faction example: If the main adventure is escorting a caravan, you might get faction points for the Cheliax faction by stealing a specific item or getting information in the course of the adventure.

Special events are the larger cons which will have the most impact, but player actions will have some impact in general
GenCon: All the first-run authors for Pathfinder Society will be running their games at Gencon!
GenCon: Second Darkness will have a kickoff event too (that big Drow event that was mentioned)

Events will be orderable 2 a month (planned after Gencon)
"What RPGA lessons do you not want to repeat” Better way to Track Treasure. Make it fun and flexible but not easily abused, not too much time at the end of the table. LG had a bit of wasted resources due to regional adventures only hitting a few hundred instead of thousands. PF Society will use factions and allow adventures to be used anywhere.

The modules are in seasons, Gencon 2008 starts season 0.
Many had just returned from GAMA. Response to Paizo at GAMA was very positive. Game stores seem excited about product and running PF RPG. Feedback that many stores are happy to have alternative to 4E. Retailers on board for organized play.

Favorite part of Golarion:
Wes - The gothic horror nation of Golarion is his favorite area – still to be fully developed.

James - Likes the “underground area” :)

Vic likes Varisia.

Lisa - likes the River Kingdoms. A lot like the Bandit Kingdoms or factionalized dark ages Europe. Lisa also likes "Drenchport" near that hurricane coast.

Wolfgang wants to play around with the River Kingdoms, hard-bitten mercenaries, and people on the run, exiles and outcasts. A den for breeding adventurers!

Erik - Likes the work James is doing on the cosmology. Also in the southern continent, Nex and Geb. Geb has necromancers, Nex used to have arch mages. Geb blighted the land in Nex, so that the only useful land is in the cities. There is a palace that Nex the arch mage used to live in, and there is an extra planar dungeon within, he calls it “Castle Greyhawk” meets “Lost”. He also likes Numeria with the spaceship crashes.

Erik invented Cheliax. When he was younger Erik's family in Minnesota vacationed at Lake Chelan in Washington during the off season, and damn was it boring. So when he started to write fiction, the evil empire was called Chelan. As time passed the name was changed to something cooler and also less likely to offend people now that he lived in Washington State. :)
Used to be a good kingdom, but about a century ago their god died. Big shake-up. Ultimately the devil-worshipers “kept the trains running”. Not everyone worships them, but the leaders do, and have purged the nobility (some of whom wound up in the River Kingdoms rather than be executed.) Erik really enjoyed the image of Missionary diabolists :) Oppressive devil-worshipping colonists.

The 4th AP will be set in Cheliax!

RPG Superstar #2 will definitely happen. It will be smaller and tighter though – the 3 judges had to pull multiple all-nighters on the 1st one. Probably 1 fewer round.

Q: What is the future for Kobold Quarterly in terms of 3rd, 4th, PF
A: Wolfgang would love to have some PF content. Wolfgang has not seen 4th, he needs to make a call once he sees the GSL and the games.

Industry Discussion:

Company Philosophy: Lisa Stevens told of being with Wizards back when they first purchased TSR. Took a group down to Disney for training on the “magic moments” concept. Every employee is customer facing – make the most of every opportunity with a customer. Treat the customers with respect. Hire people who are passionate about gaming and enjoy interacting with customers. The message boards, blogs, et al are not a “secondary task” but seen as an important part of the job. Building customer loyalty is a strong corporate culture.

Erik states that answering customer questions is treated as a normal part of the job, so if you're doing it you're not "wasting company time" unlike at some companies. Erik says his job is unfortunately moving from fire to fire, and pretty much everyone's is, so there's not much point in complaining about being busy because they all and always are :) Paizo is now almost 6 years old!

Adopting their product to feedback is a big part of their model, because it is the best way to gauge what will drive sales long-term "We are all super geeks", "We gamed before we drove" - Erik

Lisa talked about the best years of WotC were when they all gamed, that the company lost some focus when people lost time to game (she had a 6-7 year break with no games.) Part of that though is just becoming a larger company. There are now 23 employees at Paizo.

WotC: Fallacies: Erik says they are not trying to beat D&D's brand, they are not going to. WOTC has a 2.5M marketing budget. So WotC D&D is going to continue to drive new player growth. In the world as a whole, Paizo grows out of people who move on or want to expand from D&D.

Erik compared the GSL situation to a contractor who says your remodel will be done in “two more weeks”. Two weeks later he says “not done, but just two more weeks”. It’s been like that for some time. Can’t base company decisions on things that haven’t showed up yet. Stake in the ground.

Erik met with Scott Rouse a few days ago, along with other publishers. He believe the exclusivity is real - no OGL + 4th E. Scott Rouse may be trying to push for some wiggle room with non-fantasy games and the OGL/4th E.

Question: Chris Mortika - New Game masters coming in over the next year or so, but with no 3.5E on the chain bookshelves what do they do?
Lisa pointed out there is 3.0 product (even the core rulebooks) in the channels, even now, so expects there to be 3.5E product available for some time. Discussion of the potential to offer SRD materials as well. James stated there is thought to including SRD stats (for monsters, etc.) but it eats up space.

Talking about the worst part of the job:
Lisa - paying bills on Fridays

Vic - sorting the spam folder

Erik - paying bills & work interfering with game time :)

Wolfgang - Freelancing is always positive, but at Kobold Quarterly....headaches dealing with contracts and not getting them done in a timely fashion at his end, not the freelancer's end :)

James - Getting a good submission, and finding he can't use it. Picking Nick Logue, PF #3, a castle article. Due to various reasons, it came in and was short, and was not on the right topic, so he couldn't use it even though it was obviously hard work. It happens to all authors, new to veteran. It’s hard.

Erik - They've even had cover art orders that they could not use. That’s really hard. Always an expensive decision to can a cover, due to needing to get a replacement fast. He’s found that if you as the publisher think the cover isn’t good, the cover probably isn’t good, and you should kill it even if it upsets people, because you will see the hit on sales down the road.

Wes - least favorite part of the job is contracts :) (Because it is like work)

Q: Do you fear the graying of the fan base? A: Absolutely. But we were worried about this 25 years ago. It’s always been a worry. Lisa - retail stores are a dying breed. 8-10,000 stores 25 years ago, she estimates < 2,000 now. Now online sales replace that, but that doesn't bring in new blood quite as well. You can't walk into a store and find the bulletin board saying "looking for players"

WotC's obviously got big efforts to expand marketing. Ultimately WotC D&D is the gateway to Paizo. To spread the brand, go out and get people to play and try it. The free period is partially to give folks a taste.

Writing for Paizo: For AP #4, there may be a closed call for authors. Pathfinder Society will have open call adventures in the future. Those will probably the best way to get your foot in the door going forward.

Getting into the industry: Go into RPGs for fun, not money.

Cultivate a pleasant board’s persona, flamers might get blacklisted. Being a local helps :) James jumped into a game advertised on Usenet with Jim Butler back in the 90s.

Lisa got her start by being a big RPG player in the 80s. She got roped into a new game company via her groups. Lisa says it took 6 years to get paid, and even then it was $100 a week :) Part of why Wolfgang left WotC was the conflict between work on gaming and actually gaming.

Some comments on play testing not being that much fun. Erik got his start by being a voice on the Greyhawk list; Lisa recruited him because she was the brand manager.

Nick Logue (not present) got on board at Paizo by being chummy and bringing chocolate macadamia nuts from Hawaii :) “That guy that brings chocolate” to “Nick” to “Nick that writes some good stuff” to “Nick that writes a lot of good stuff” to “Nick, we should really hire that guy”.

So the note is making yourself known :) And go to big cons, go to panels. And Erik says sell articles to Kobold! So the lesson is finding a venue to get noticed. PDFS, boards, cons, KQ, etc.

They're baaaaaaaaacccccccckkkkkkkkkk.......

NO CGI!

SirUrza wrote:

Pete Apple wrote:

Yah, didn't have my pocket scanner with me. The drow queen and elven general were pretty sweet artwork.

It's called a digital camera. There are plenty of pictures from the event already online but none show the covers!

Where are these "plenty of pictures" located?

SirUrza:

Yah, so the "pocket scanner" was a Joke. Jeez. Digital camera? If they want to post their art, they will. What do you think this is, Enworld? :-)

Mike:
Here's a set of pics!
Paizoconians

No art though, just gamers and a cool rune giant mini.

James Jacobs wrote:

SirUrza wrote:

Hmph.. that means Mike is holding out on showing us those sexy dark elf dominatrix matrons. :)

We DID show off our first drow (the cover-girl to Pathfinder #13) yesterday at Paizocon. She'll be showing up on the blog here soon enough, in all her spiky beauty!

People are holding out by not posting pictures. :)

Yah, didn't have my pocket scanner with me. The drow queen and elven general were pretty sweet artwork.

As were the images from Riddleport with that big ole st. louis arch doo-hickey over the bay. It really brought out the scale of just how big some of these ancient leftovers really are..

Pete Apple wrote:

I'm sorry to say that after Erik's story at Paizocon on the origins of Cheliax that I now have an image of devil-worshipping water skiers... it's... disturbing...

Now we know why Cheliax is a damned place. Ha ha! Ha ha! :D

Now my image is devil-worshipping water-skiing Ninjas. Now that would be some kick ass Reynolds artwork there.

Yeah, Korvosa is its own boss now. It's a free city. Many of its nobles and citizens would like to be back as part of Cheliax, but just as many, I suspect, don't. In any event, Cheliax isn't interested in expanding borders that far right now; they've got their own problems.

And yes... Cheliax is a pretty cool place that could well indeed support its own sourcebook.

Or Adventure Path.

HA! Yah, that was funny from Saturday. Oops.

I'm sorry to say that after Erik's story at Paizocon on the origins of Cheliax that I now have an image of devil-worshipping water skiers... it's... disturbing...

I ran a campaign where I allowed the bard to use her bardic abilities to cast her spells, ala Alan Dean Foster's SpellSinger. It essentially meant that she had "eschew materials" as long as she had her instrument in hand to use. It's fairly easy to allow and balance, especially in light of any non-verbal spells that now had a verbal component (thus subject to the dreaded "silence".) So sometimes it wasn't a benefit to the character, but fit in better with the "roleplaying".

So even though they're called "spells" and on the "spell list" if you work at it you can implement them in a fashion that fits with the flavor of the Bard without breaking the game too badly.

Even so, I'm not sure you'd want to muck with the Bard abilities that much in this initial release. Certainly having a house rule like that was easy to implement because the player and GM were in sync, but it could be easily abused.

-Pete

So during Jason's playtest (thanks for running!), I got to run an early draft of the bard.

Some highlights:

* More spells per day!
* +4 on saves vs. sonic or mind-affecting
* hp came out like I was getting D8s, as expected
* Bardic knowledge is now +3 on Knowledge skills, rather than a separate roll
* Something called Well-versed that I know not the meaning of :)
* Song of DOOM, which is like a reverse inspire courage (penalties to the die rolls of your foes)

I must stress that all of this is subject to change or my misinterpretation. The orc wardrummer I played was a blast, especially when my drumming caused the group to bleed from their ears. Go team bard!

I too was lucky enough to play "Oglam Death-Drum", Half-Orc Bard and proud member of the Cursed Lot!

"A bit of light music over dinner?" "NO!"

I believe that "Well Versed" was what provided the +4 to sonic and language dependent saves. Came in very handy when the Vrock gave its screech.

Here was his complete special abilities:
Orc Ferocity
Bardic Knowledge (+3 to all knowledge skills)
Well Versed
Bardic Music (6/day)
Countersong
Fascinate
Inspire Courage +2
Inspire Competence
Song of Doom (Enemies Take -2)
Suggestion

I primarily stuck with "Song of Doom" because it was "new" as well as because Jason kept throwing mean nasties at us! I was about to "Suggest" the raging Barbarian not try and attack me again but he calmed down on his own. (The Barbarian's curse was to sometimes go uncontrolled in his rage..)

Spells 6/4/4 (Cha16)

Oglam could also cast 0 level spells at will, like the other spell casters.

"If you think my drumming is bad, you should hear me sing!"

Btw, Jason, you should write this up into some sort of one shot. (You know, in your free time... Good God Man, Get Some Sleep!!)

It was hilarious and tons of fun!

Paizocon rocked! Had a great time and it was fun to meet everyone in person.

Con Dream Day Lineup:
Helping setup (takes a village, people)
Costco Muffins washed down with Costco Soda. Yum!
Q&A on Paizo products with what seemed like 1/2 the company.
Cool new never before seen art passed around & lots of spoilers tossed out (sure to be quoted elsewhere)
Lunch at Dixies BBQ with Lisa, Vic, Lilith & her SO, Tim, and Wolfgang
Back for industry Q&A with what seemed like 1/2 the company
Playing a PFRPG half-orc Bard in Jason's game (even if my drum did make people's ears bleed.. )
Costco Pizza washed down with Costco Soda. Yum!
Winning a copy of Stonehenge in the giveaway (seemed like *everyone* got something - do you guys have any inventory left?)
Playing DnD with Dario and having him use his Pact Magic book on us. (We managed to survive.)
Helping teardown (takes a village, people)

And lots of really fun stuff in between! I've been to a lot of cons and this was one of the best. What a nice bunch of folks!

Pete

There's a big poster map and info in the Gazetteer. Got a look-see at Paizocon yesterday. Looks cool!

I have, but I'm waiting to repost them until after Alpha 2 comes out.

Well? :-)

These suck. I miss prestige classes even more now.

Prestige classes offered more combinations and more depth. They offered more options and more uniqueness. With this paragon deal, it's total crap. You're shoe-horned into only taking the path of your class (no Fighter/Assassins? What's the deal!?) and you only get a few abilities. You also cannot take different powers from different paragon paths (such as, say, I was a Ranger who wanted some from Kensei and some from Stormwarden).

They talk about more options, but 4E is really turning out to be more restrictive, almost as much as 2E was.

Prestige classes will always be the best "kit" system, I believe.

From Enworld:

WotC's Michele Carter on paragon paths:

1) There are over 30 paragon paths in the PH.

2) My paladin took a multiclass cleric feat so she could qualify for a cleric paragon path.

---------------------
So it would seem that Fighter/Assassins are fine, as long as you meet the pre-req's. Which is the same as things were for prestige classes.

Count me down for a Golem t-shirt. My pledge.

I'll pass on the black for now...I have enough black gamer t-shirts to be thoroughly misunderstood by the media. ;-)

When we moved in together my future wife loaded up two full garbage bags full of black t-shirts. And I still had plenty left. Even today I imagine a gaggle of homeless fellows walking around in Frazetta t-shirts.

So I have an official ban on any further black t-shirts. I voted on the white just because it wasn't black.

A nice green or blue would be nice.

I'm still thinking the 5th is Gaeta. He's a semi-regular character, has had a couple focus episodes, and wasn't in the EW Last Supper pic. He was tied into the government and Baltar, now is on the search ship with Kara to keep an eye on that.

Or... Holly Marshall is the last Cylon and is going to shoot Uncle Jack, betray Will to the Sleestaks, and run away with Cha-ka.

True... but also, the game has a strong, proud tradition of mispronounciation. I think that pronouncing the word daemon as "DAY mun" and demon as "DEE mun" is a pretty minor crime and one that I actually endorse. :-)

And of course there is also the DA-mon, OF Fiend(Yankee), formerly recognized by it's unkempt countenance.

SirUrza wrote:

I really enjoyed Treasure Chest 1... will there be a 2 with the fumble deck, new item card starter, some maps, and a new module? Please say yes. :)

Hate to disappoint you, but from a business standpoint, the Treasure Chest has not been a success. We just didn't sell enough of them to make it worthwhile. So I doubt we will ever do another one. Though things could change, so I don't like to say never. :)

-Lisa

The TC was interesting and I almost bought it, except the price point was high ($50) and it seemed to contain some items that I wouldn't necessarily use and I heard had issues.. (Campaign Journal?).

If you sold module, maps and item cards bundled together at around a $25-$30 price point, that might be more interesting. You wouldn't even need the "sturdy box". Just a bundle that has a slight price break or whatever. This could be very attractive for DM's with less time on their hands for planning and all it is for you is some web code.

This sort of bundle would work very well for in-store games or cons. Or for Living Pathfinder. Hmm... A living pathfinder module "bundle" that includes the maps and item cards... someone get me Nick Logue right away!

I downloaded TC1 and I really enjoy the way you tie maps/cards into the module. I think this is a great way to assist DM's. Your teams should incorporate these type of sidebars into your AP's and modules. It will help DM's find the right tools to use on the game table (and help you push product. :-) )

Pete

Has anyone converted any of the Iconics to PFRPG? At least, the classes currently available? If so, can you post here? Feel free to use this thread to discuss.

WOOT BUMP! :-)

Maybe we should bring back just "Fighting Man" "Magic User" and "Cleric"! :-)

We played without Druids, Sorcerers, and Bards for years. And we were fine! Honest! :-)

Pete Apple wrote:

Spend more time with your grandpa and help him stop smoking.

Kicks Uncle Apple to the ribs..."Smoke that stogie and its iceflow for you Glacier Hugger!"

Nope, no stogies. Just cigarettes. Back in the 70's and 80's they had redemption coupons in the cartons and packs that you could collect and send in for "valuable prizes". I remember being a stupid kid looking forward to collecting enough coupons to get the next big item out of the catalog.

Would love to go back to that kid and explain how he was going to be watching that same wonderful man wasting away from emphysema a few short years later.

So no stock picks, bad girlfriends, or fast food for the me in the past. I just miss my grandpa. Sat for 3 straight days 24x7 with him while he died.

Spend more time with your grandpa and help him stop smoking.

Since you asked so nicely :-) I thought I'd follow-up.

The rules seem to add a number of expanded options. And not just one set of options, but different sets that have to be taken at alternating levels. And some abilities are pre-req's for others, but interestingly some that are in one list are pre-req's for talents that are in another list. And some of them give magical abilities, which involves finding the right spell to choose to take. And one requires you to take the magical abilities as pre-reqs.

Perhaps a table with a list and the pre-reqs, like is done with feats and their pre-reqs, might assist. Or, potentially, figure out a better way to "fix" the rogue.

And, mind you, this is my own impression after trying to stat up a 14th level NPC rogue on a scratch sheet of paper in about 10 minutes. That's a really good test you can try - see how it easy it is to stat up an NPC.

In fact, please feel free to post some NPC's here and how long it took you to put together. Try to use as many of the complicated abilities as you can. And don't forget equipment and level appropriate magic items that fit within the expected wealth levels. I'm sure you'll do it in 30 or so seconds in order to show just how lame I truly am. Then your whole day will be made. :-)

-Pete

Pete Apple wrote:

Check out the link below for clues about the new season.

Pic

Yeah, that pic and the accompanying clues seem to indicate that Starbuck is not the 5th cylon. And, given that the 5th cylon is not in that picture, that doesn't leave all that many significant characters left who might be cylons. My guess is that the 5th cylon is Gaeta (my guess is that Baltar told him that he was a cylon back in the 3rd season, which is why Gaeta tried to kill him and lied on the stand during the trial - it's also why he didn't show up and meet the other four, he already knew he was a cylon due to Baltar,also, 3 of the 4 new cylons were instrumental in getting the humans off of New Caprica, as was Gaeta).

The other two possibilities are Dee or the original Apollo (Baltar's VP). Beyond those three characters, you really have to dig for someone to be the 5th cylon. I suppose it's always possible that it will be someone completely new (ala Al from Quantum Leap and Xena), but it's be a pretty crappy payoff if that were the case.

It's already been leaked that Starbuck is not the 5th. She gave an interview recently that mentioned that. It just makes dramatic sense as well.

Gaeta is a good possibility, but he didn't seem to show up alot in the first new episode. We'll see if his airtime increases. Obviously they'll want to highlight whoever it is going forward so we can be "shocked".

I'm still wondering if the comment made about "none of these present are the 5th" was really just a ploy to divert attention. "you ferreted that out too easy" wasn't exactly a 100% confirmation.

Based upon the photo, Lee is in the "Judas" position and I always thought that would make the best dramatic sense with him going through his self-discovery and also being Adama's son. With the comment he made about his brother coming back I wondered it even further.

Pete

Actually played in a campaign with a cleric that had sacred healing and sacred purification. It actually was fairly useful for being able to recover the party - especially if multiple folks went down and the cleric was otherwise occupied.

I had no issue with some of the new "uses" that turning had - it made the "extra turning" feat seem a great deal more useful.

As well though, I agree about the complaint regarding evil clerics. Any cleric should be able to choose whether he is calling upon positive or negative energies. An evil cleric should be able to heal his partners in crime if they're living beings.

Obviously, a good cleric choosing to call upon negative energies is choosing to commit an "evil" act. But if he does so and saves the party, has he sacrificed in his own soul and his relationship with his deity to save their lives? I see this as a great role-playing opportunity - it's a slippery slope to the dark side you know. :-)

Pete

Going through this in depth for the first time, throwing out impressions.

This section seems to be a jumble of ideas from various sources. I'm not sure how well it makes things easier then in 3.5, really.

My thoughts:
I like the consolidation of some of the skills. That's great and long overdue.

Cross-Class skills should be removed. That table has always been klunky and I know alot of folks have houseruled these out. Honestly, if I want to have my fighter spend time learning to be sneaky, he ought to be able to do it. He has alot less skill points to spend and he has to wear loud armor, so he's not going to be as good at is as the rogue anyway.

Since this is supposed to be based upon 3.5, you should keep the skill points. The leap to a SWSaga/4E set bonus is likely too far for most folks and doesn't really fix anything. I'd present it as an option. I'd certainly use it as a DM building up NPC's, it's great for that!

Pete

In mine humble opinion, one should leave iterative attacks in the game because they're such a core part of 3e. I don't like them, and I will automatically houserule them out in any game I run, but I still think that they should be kept in.

I would agree but I think alternatives should be presented. I personally do not like iterative attacks and would like to see alternatives available.

I haven't been able to go through all of the document in very much detail until just today, so throwing out initial impressions. If this is already covered already, apologies.

My first throught on the Rogue write-up is that it's too complicated.

As a DM, this doesn't make my job easier. If I want to build a 14th level NPC rogue, I've got a number of minutes (an hour?) of time involved just in building the Rogue.

Again, just giving impression.

Check out the link below for clues about the new season.

Pic