PsychoticWarrior's page

I never want to see another PC with more than a paragraph of back-story (200 words MAX). Story is what happens at the table.

In my Kingmaker game only 1 PC had more than the 200 word limit (I think he went all the way to 250) and we roleplay plenty. I frankly get tired of the false division of this role/rollplay crap. It smacks of One True Wayism and the typical elitist snobbery some gamers heap upon one another.

Yeah, because wanting to know how much of your money is going toward the charity or project is self-entitlement. Right, got it.

Glad you were able to understand my point so well

For me it would be the same if it were WOTC or the Dr. Marting Luther King monument. It's MY money and if I'm giving it to a cause I have the right to know hhow much of that money is going toward the cause that they say it's going toward. Anything else is crap no matter who likes it or not.

Look! You even proved it!

If you want to actually donate to a charity I would suggest doing that. Then 100% of the money you donate goes to that charity.

If you want to buy some reprints of books that haven't been in print since before Clinton was in office I would suggest buying these.

The price of them is actually directly inline with what the original DMG, PHB & MM cost in the late 70's once you factor in inflation. But I realize it is coming from WotC and they are Big Evil to some so whatever.

First off, this is unalloyed goodness. I have grown irritated today by the number of people on Facebook and other arenas who've said "Yeah, it's great but that doesn't change the fact that 4th Edition sucks." or "Yeah, it's okay, but Wizards has a way to go before I'll lift the curse I placed on their headquarters." or "Yeah, it's nice and all, but it's only a cheap marketing gimmick."

Yeah - it gets my blood boiling to see posts like 'Well it's nice they are giving money to the fund but...how MUCH money are they giving?'

I used to say some gamers, if offered free money and ice cream, would, in all seriousness, ask how much money and what kind of ice cream. The self-entitlement is mind boggling in some people.

1st Edition Deities and Demigods?

With Melnibone and Cthulhu Mythos?

<crickets>

<tumbleweed>

In my gaming circles it was known as the XP express. I knew groups that started on page 1 and worked their way through every pantheon collecting artifacts and levels like candy. I never understood the appeal but to each their own I say.

I think i know what I'll be asking for for my birthday (it's 4 days after the release date!)

Yup; uploading art from our PDFs to places online is illegal. We'd rather you didn't do this, and we'd rather you didn't even talk about it on these boards.

So there is no chance to see something like the old art galleries on WotC? That's a darn shame.

It was not my intention to upload anything anywhere just so it's clear. I just wanted some of the art in a slightly more convenient format as I don't have access to the pdfs (I buy my APs through my FLGS).

Mazra wrote:

If I ever get stranded on a desert island with one other person, I want the ASL Rulebook, some map boards and the Germans and Russians orders of battle. If there are several people on the island then I want the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, the Bestiary, a set of dice and box full of miniatures.

A late (and unrelated) comment, but really: I enjoy a good game as much as anyone, but if I'm going to be stranded on a desert island, forget rulebooks, dice, and miniatures. I want a woman, some kind of shelter, and LOTS of non-perishable food! :-)

Regards,
Darrell

I think I'd rather have a boat.

I increase the effective CR of random encounters. A one-fight-a-day is artificial and panders to the players, so I might as well try to make it worth the XP being handed out.

No kidding. I turned the trapdoor spider lair into a mini dungeon with 4 smaller spiders and 3 spider swarms. The PCs felt they'd been in a fight that day I can tell you!

Is there anywhere I can get the artwork from the APs (specifically Kingmaker) in an electronic form? WotC once, many moons ago, had tons of their artwork up for grabs from most of their 3E library. I mainly want it to print out for index cards I can photocopy the stuff but I was hoping for something easier that I can print out at home.

You guys will excuse me as I steal all of this for my own Kingmaker game, right? ;-)

Really cool stuff here!

You have one other option. Drop out of the game. Those are the only four options you really have.

And, five, you could start cheating yourself.

Five! There are 5 options here!

Did you expect it?

Of course not - no one does.

Wow.

So, we all know rule zero, yes?

It is in every, and I do mean every, RPG I've ever played, and I think that is true for you as well.

So imagine my disbelief when a player started to rant and rave about the 'fallacy' of rule zero. That any GM that doesn't go by the rules perfectly is an idiot.

And, to my surprise, it wasn't this one guy. There are many people out there that believe this.

I mean, what do you say to this?

Maybe this isn't asking for advice. Maybe this is just me being so shocked that there is even one player like this, I gotta vent to someone who will help me sort this out in my head.

Does anyone have anything to say to this?

I asked the player to leave. Am I in the wrong here?

I had a player like this. He would challenge and question any ruling I made that wasn't insanely in favour of the PCs. He would complain about any changes made to the rules by me (but oddly if those changes were made by the company making the game they were A-OK) even if the rest of the players agreed with my ruling.

I eventually got tired of him and stopped DMing, then playing, with him permanently.

SO no you weren't in the wrong here. Some people are just a~%+!+#s. At least it seems like you got ride of yours early!

Surprised there's been no hate for The Chronicles of Amber.

Possibly because the Chronicles of Amber are awesome dipped in cool and deep fried in badass.

Boy, am I gonna make a lot of enemies here!

*snip*

Why? DO people here not like hearing the truth? ;-p

Although I do like the LotR books - and I will be the first to admit they are as dry as deserts. All of them.

I would throw my hat(e) in with the Jordan & Martin hat(ers) but that doesn't seem 'edgy' enough to me. It's cool to hate on the internet after all.

I'll instead go with liking the Dark Elf trilogy by Salvatore for $200 Alex.

I think I like the idea of 'with great power comes great responsibility'.

If we are talking about being Heroes - y'know the reason a lot of people (myself included) play RPGs in the first place then I look at 1st level commoners being the reason I adventure. I take on the horrors they can't face so they can live the life they choose in safety.

I know this isn't popular amoung a segment of RPGers but I don't game with those kind of players anymore.

Ok so recently I have been doing research into deities for my dm, by looking through the d&d deities and demigods, and I came across the abilitiy called "life and death" which instantly kills a mortal and makes it impossible for them to be raise in anyway except by a deity of a higher rank than the user of the ability. This book also states that a mortal is simply a creature that doesnot have a divine rank. Through this I believe that if a deity were to kill a tarrasque it would stop it's regen as it is unable to raise using that.... Does this make sense to anyone else out there? Is this finally a way to kill the dreaded tarrasque?

Personally I would laugh at the DM until he was reduced to tears of shame for putting such a lameass monster into his campaign world. I would then revoke his DM license and smack him about the head with a 1E DMG.

So I'm at the public library right now. There's a huge list of Nic Cage movies on Wikipedia, but I don't know about any of them (except Con Air, which is not at this or any affiliated library). I am looking for recommendations.

Oh, and it's not that I have a disregard for the system of separate forums. IGTS JUST THAT I DONT CARE>*

*okay this basically means you can go ahead and move this thread. I'm not even sure if there is a Movies forum. I guess I should get on that. Later, when I have more time.

I would recommend anything without Nicolas Cage in it!

Master of Magic screams out for an update

Master of Orion does too (MoO 3 failed on numerous levels including actually being playable)

an RPG in the style of Ultima 4 - you get rewarded for doing good deeds and in fact must become the 'avatar' of said good deeds in order to finish the game.

X-Com or really any turn based squad level tactics game (Jagged Alliance maybe?).

If any of these are a first person shooter I will personally spit on those responsible.

I have one of these too. It is a fun, silly thing that rolls pretty well but to me seems a little fragile. The seam of mine is already starting to split (I've only had it a few weeks and have used it maybe 30 times). I think I will roll it only in my dice rolling box from now on (I have been rolling it out on the table hoping for that '20' but I'm afraid it will break open at some point). Note that the seam split is *very* small but it is there.

Maddigan, I can't help but feel you never looked at a will save on any of the monsters in the AP. In books 4 and 5, all of the big bads are fighter types, and with only a few exceptions their will saves are abismal for their level. I am not looking forward to my oracle player casting bestow curse on everything and makeing them completely useless. Not to mention his solid debuffs that make the party pretty much impossible to hit by all but the most powerful of opponents. I mean, I started up book 4 after book 2, and the monsters so far still need 20s to hit sometimes thanks to the debuffs.

I plan to up Will saves on most every major villain in the AP. With a Psion and Cleric in the group Will saves have become the #1 save needed. I won't do it for everything (obviously) but there is no way I'm letting the PCs end a BBEG fight in 1/2 a round thanks to Dominate Person (use that on the BBEG's second in command...). That's the nice thing about being a DM - I can do that! Rules are for players.

Dragons are an iconic part of the game but James Jacobs and the team basically scrapped the idea of a "Dragon Themed" AP when they couldn't find the inspiration to tell that story. Who could blame them?

Dragons are primarily a High-Level threat, and the fact is they are solo-style bosses. It's difficult to come up with a Dragon themed AP that can sustain 6 books.

I would like to see a dragon themed AP that revolved around taking down a dragon that worked mostly behind the scenes. Influencing nations, guilds that sort of thing. The PCs would be struggling with taking out the dragon's minions and infrastructure (I envision this dragon having entire thief & assassin guilds at its disposal) all the while the dragon is maneuvering into a position to take it all over (if anyone has ever read or played the old d20 game Dragonstar the ancient red dragon that currently ran the galaxy wide empire had a plan to bring it all crashing down - his timeline was measured in centuries). There would, of course, be smaller/weaker dragons entrusted to run certain aspects of this plan and their elimination by the PCs eventually brings them to the attention the Big Guy. I've attempted to design something like this but just don't have the time/talent to make it happen anymore. I think it could be awesome.

Why do adventure paths begin at level 1? I been looking through the various Adventure paths and I noticed that they all begin at Level 1, which I find to be the most boring level, and in some cases causes stretches of imagination.

Rise of Runelords part 1 for example.
** spoiler omitted **

Level 1 also tends to be kind of fickle, it's very easy to die at level 1, and thus your character is wasted. Not only that but several of the fun abilities PC have start coming around level 3-6.

Hmmm. WOuld it be possible to start an AP on the second book of the series? Just give the PCs a write up of 'the story so far' of the first book (heck most of the APs I've read usually start with a summary of what has happened up until that point). Most of the second books of the AP start at 4th level so its right in your 'sweet spot' for starting characters. Just make sure any NPCs the party was to have met already are introduced quickly.

I had forgotten about the flavor text for the powers, but aside from that and the race descriptions, there is very little flavor text or even artwork to break up the wall of text throughout the book. The presentation and layout of the material didn't help, but to me at least, it was the little things like not even trying to describe distance in anything but squares. I understand they probably had good reasons for that kind of thing, and for what they were trying to accomplish, it worked, but it wasn't a particularly pleasant book to try to read; it was more of a reference book than anything else. Neither the 3.0 nor the 3.5 PHB felt quite that bad overall, though I will admit certain places managed to accomplish that feeling, and compared to the 2nd edition PHB, they feel just as dry as the 4E PHB feels compared to them. The overall presentation in those books was equally hindering, and they were at least readable as something other than an encylcopedia, to me at least.

The first time I read through the 4E PHB I thought "This reads like freaking stereo instructions!". I agree it would have been nice for a little more 'fluff' to break up those mind-numbing character class write-ups or even more artwork to show off more of the powers in action. Imo it is a major failing of the PHB that probably turned off a lot of potential players.

That said I do enjoy 4E and have played it off and on for the last 3 years.

What's an independent book store? Never seen one. We have two used book stores, but pretty sure that is different.

This would be a bookstore that sells new releases of books, magazines etc that is not part of a national chain like Borders in the USA or Chapters/Indigo in Canada.

I know of exactly one independent book store in my hometown. I know of none in the city I currently live in. I don't feel they are something that needs some kind of special protection but I do know that when I am in my hometown I make a special point of going to the local book store and making a purchase however small. Growing up this store was also the main supplier of RPG books and magazines in the city (they have since dropped those)and has a strong nostalgia factor for me. I will be sad when it finally does close.

I don't get this response.
It's not that I don't agree that this shouldn't be censored, it just that when I see some hate-filled drivel my first thought isn't "wow I'm glad the government didn't stop that", it's "Wow, this guy's an a$#+%+%."
(Nor, just to be clear, is it "The government should stop that")

I don't expect the government to stop this kind of thing. The US government hasn't stopped this kind of thing in my life time. Explicit sex, yes. Insulting minority groups or minority opinions, not a chance.

Has there been some secret campaign of government repression of anti-homosexuals that I'm completely unaware of?

So yeah, in theory I'd defend his right to publish this unto the death, until I see some actual threat to his right to do so, I'm going to point and laugh and call him a bigot.

Most people's (i.e. not people here) first reaction to seeing/hearing something they don't agree with is to call for it to be censored (even if they don't use that word). I think we are actually on the same page as I'd be laughing right along side you. Card is a bigot and everyone has the right to be a bigot just as everyone else has the right to call them such (or at least should).

I don't text at all in the game - I have no one TO text or get texts from. I am taking a general stance against absurd accusations.
And I don't give a crap if they don't like it. If THEY are distracted by MY texting, then the problem is THEIRS. If the game isn't interesting enough or they can't focus enough for them to stay out of MY business, then the problem is NOT on my end.

I played games (Torchlight, Dungeons of Dredmore, Defense Grid) in between my turns on my Monday game because a half hour would occur between them, during combat - that was with 5 players and the GM.

I am usually surfing the internet during my other games, but a quarter to half of that is rules cross-referencing for other players and myself.

Ah - I see. Y'know I used to game with a guy who did just that.

Used to.

No, you have a problem with the game being slowed down that you are pawning off on texting.

I don't see how texting would slow down the game anyway. It's not instant communication like IM or something. It's 'turn-based' communication, for lack of a better word. When it's your turn, put the phone down, roll dice, pick it back up and go on.

Heh. Something tells me you text a lot at the game table Cartigan. Feeling somewhat put upon are we? Had some conflicts over texting have we? Too bad. When the majority of people at the table don't like it you're in the wrong. Change your behaviour or find another group.

I'll ready the Community Use Policy Page and then see if I can't get this online :)

I just started Kingmaker and would love to see this sheet! Please try and post it soon!!

While it's bad that this supposed "author" can publish hate like he does it's better than censorship.

I can only imagine what kind of person makes a living off of hacking up literary classics to make them modern or socially relevant.

When the politically correct version of Grimm's fairy tales were published they at least knew it was all tongue in cheek and satirical. I guess this guy didn't get the memo.

For me this one falls under " I may not agree with what you say but will defend unto the death your right to say it"

Couldn't agree more. Censorship is a pretty big 'hot button' for me and my personal views are probably way more extreme than most people would like.

I love that I can finally think of something to post in this thread.

I love my new Pathfinder Kingmaker group - it is made up of the best players I have ever played with over the last 20 years. As one player put it "It's like I joined the RPG Elite Squad!".

I love that my wife is keeping her job (albiet she is getting transferred to a different dept.) and getting a nice fat 15% raise when 3 months ago we thought she would be unemployed by this time.

I love that while my job may frustrate me beyond belief I am still employed full time.

I love that I worked out on our treadmill for the first time in months.

Some much better choices than the Druid of Obad Hai here:

http://coolminiornot.com/247384

http://coolminiornot.com/246072

http://coolminiornot.com/217028

Except for the first one none of those look anything like the Stag Lord in the AP and the first one only a little tiny bit.

leo1925 wrote:

Kirth Gersen wrote:

leo1925 wrote:

Care to explain?

Gygax, Gary, 1st edition Unearthed Arcana (1985), barbarian class.

It was one of those "new" AD&D books.

NOOB!

And why couldn't he travel with the Magic user and the cleric?

That's the part i don't understand.

Barbarians HATED magic types. Though I thought it was more arcane casters than divine casters but it's also been years since I've looked at my copy of UA.

They didn't just hate them - they feared them and their sorcerers' ways. To the point that they would not knowingly associate with any magic-using class.

Oh yeah 1E barbarian were just *so* much fun to have around :-/

My group just started Kingmaker this past weekend. In the first session we managed to capture Happs and two of his bandits and keep all four horses(two died from crits), explore south and negotiate with the kobolds at the moon beets field (avoiding another fight), and then summarily ambush Kressle's group in the night and capture her and three(or two?) of the others. The only enemies to die so far have been the four bandits that were crit (three by one gunslinger and the fourth by an archer ranger).

We're a fully lawful party with myself as de-facto leader. As a cleric of Abadar and fully in the mind that rehabilitation is the best method for being both just, fair and eliminating crime, we've managed to build up a miniature kingdom in just our first session.

..Did any other parties get this lucky? Do you think we can continue this throughout the rest of the adventure? So far we've been lucky to ambush every enemy we've fought (except for some random centipedes) and negotiate successfully with everyone we capture.

Any suggestions on the best way to slowly start to change the bandits' alignments? The day after we captured them my PC prepped and cast detect chaos/detect evil. A strategy that has helped us in identifying who our lawful allies are and who is chaotic or evil. I know that Kressle and her troops are evil and non-chaotic (betting on neutral over lawful..) but am not sure how to go about altering that alignment and am looking for some ideas!

Hah! My players did something very similar! They managed to capture/stabilize Happs and 3 of his bandit buddies in the first encounter (there were 6 all totaled as we had an extra player for the very first session) and captured all of their horses (not a big deal as I had the PCs start with horses anyways). They then proceeded to conduct a mini trial of each of them with the outcome of said trials being unknown to the rest of the bandits. They had a chopping block set up in the courtyard of Oleg's that the bandits were marched past on their to 'court'.

The 3 PCs running this (a LN Cleric, a NG Psion and a TN Barbarian) asked various questions about the bandit's crimes and history. In the end they ended up executing Happs as the Barbarian basically goaded him in a fit of anger in which Happs revealed several key points of the bandits layout and strategies and that Happs was going to find a way to kill them (the barb's high Sense Motive roll and interrogation technique was near perfect for Happs' personality). The other 3 bandits they stripped of gear, rode them 4-5 miles away and told them to get the hell out of the Greenbelt. The NG horse archer was kind enough to give them a short sword to defend themselves with. This amounted to leaving them, with minimal food & water in a hostile land nearly a week (on foot) from the closest settlement.

I thought this was an incredible development and one I did not see coming. The players are taking their role as being future rulers of this land pretty seriously and it really rekindled my DMing fire to see it unfold like this. One of the LN in the group (1/2 Orc Druid) has even expressed some misgivings about how the bandits were initially tricked into an ambush by the party right at the start without being given a chance to surrender. I tell you Kingmaker has brought back all the magic for D&D to me.

My players have a ranged horse archer in the group and, while they have had only one combat encounter, she did pretty well being able to stay at the back of the party firing away then dashing forward for a quick heavy flail trip attack (LOVE that CMB/CMD thing!!! This is our first time with pathfinder and as soon as she announced she was going to trip someone the groaning started - followed by an "Oh! That was EASY!!" :-D ). I agree with novalord in that given the high number of outdoors encounters a ranged attacker of some kind is needed. Have you thought about a War domain cleric taking a long/cross bow? Probably not as effective but if you concentrated on defense lowering versions of debuffs if might work.

We roll, 4d6 6 times. Point buy is the heart of min-maxing.

What utter hogwash!

I've played since '81 and rolled stats until about 1996. Since then it has been point buy of some sort or another. I remember one DM of mine who introduced me to the concept of point buy - he said arrive at your stats anyway you like but he used a variant XP bonus system. If the total of your stats was over X (80 points I think?) you got a -2% penalty to earned XP per point over. I you were under X you got a +1% bonus to earned XP per point.

Everyone in the game went for a balance of +0 (which, we found out later, was exactly what the DM wanted). I don't think I'd ever use this myself but it was the first time I had experienced a 'point buy' system in use.

I just ran across this article while surfing teh interwebz...

I know it's easy to look for something to blame rather than believe a person you know and/or care about could commit a bizarre/heinous/sad act, and I'm all for outlawing sparkly vampires, but really? Twilight made me do it? Really?

OK, I realize the suspect himself is not claiming this, but haven't we (particularly in the role-playing community) been down this road already? How hard is it to believe this guy is just a loon and acted as such?

Thoughts/comments?

You'd think with him being 500 years old and all he'd have the IQ above that of a halibut.

We are not cutting the fiction.

It is a fundamental part of the AP mix.

I get that some people don't like it, but it is here to stay.

The end. :)

When I first saw the fiction appearing in the APs I finally understood why so many people I have encountered consider the AP line as the "spiritual successor" to Dragon magazine. It is great and always seems "game related" to me at least. Glad to know it is here to stay.

From a Neverwinter write up on the official site. I have to admit I cried a little inside when I read this.

Article

The quote- Regardless of what makes sense for roleplaying, sometimes it should take a back seat to what would be fun for everyone.

Seriously?

Not trying to troll, just opening up the topic for debate.

When is it okay to put aside the roleplaying in a roleplaying game for 'fun'?

What I read... Now Jimmy, yes you play Triegnor the Bardic Dragon Slayer, but Bobby wants to play a dragon today and attacking him would hurt his wittle feelings. ???

Nice strawman!

And frankly you should put aside roleplaying for fun. I mean - why wouldn't you? You are still playing a game aren't you? This sounds like someone who takes rpgs way too seriously.

SO NOT SAFE FOR WORK

Is that because of the cheesecake or the multiple threat warnings my anti-virus program is giving me about that page?

Well I would have to be the dissenting voice and throw my support for 1E WFRP. I have lots of the 2E stuff and the system just didn't do it for me. I do like the magic system for 2E but the combat is a trifle boring and reminded me of the early days of 3.0 D&D with all of the partial actions and such. I have been an on and off WFRP player/GM for about 20 years now and just can't bring myself to use the full 2E ruleset.

Miniature Market maybe? There are dozens of websites that sell unpainted miniatures.

Say what you like about the book (and I agree that the story has profound weaknesses in the Essos part of the tale...)

Whatever the case, George RR Martin has pulled off an AMAZING sales feat this day. [b]Today, GRRM has the simultaneous #1 position in both fiction categories AND in combined print and e-book sales.[/]

NY TIMES Bestsellers

#1 Combined Print and E-Book Fiction - A Dance with Dragons, by GRRM
#1 Hardcover Fiction - A Dance with Dragons, by GRRM
#1 Mass-market Paperback Fiction - A Game of Thrones, by GRRM

McDonald's sells lots of hamburgers too.

All this complaining about ability damage in this AP reinforces my decision to run this AP using 4E rules instead.

Any conversion advice?

Re-reading Worlds of H. Beam Piper and wondering why modern sci-fi still hasn't come close to having Piper's blend of science, human drama and historical relevance.

Also starting Ghost Story by Jim Butcher tomorrow - if I can pry it from my wife's hands!!

edit - oh I also just finished Blood Moon by Sharmin DiVono. Avoid at all costs! What a terrible piece of pseudo-sci-fi covering up a Mormon lecture series. Complete garbage.

Also - do you know there a literally dozens of books called Blood Moon??! I had to click through 5 pages of them on the amazon site before I found the author of the one I read.

Yeah, they didn't try hard enough to get her to go to rehab...

The person does need to want to help themselves first. Winehouse revealed herself to be selfish and spoiled and I shed not one tear over her death. A stupid waste.

I had no idea that the APs were set to a 15 point buy level. That, ime and imo, is very low. I have usually used 28 point buy for most of my campaigns and things did get problematical especially at high levels. I never thought of the point buy level being the "difficulty setting" of the campaign but it seems so obvious now.

One question - if you only had 3 players would you adjust the point buy level to compensate? say bump it up by 25% from 15 to 19? Or would lowering the number of creatures in a combat be enough.

I don't have a problem with firearms in fantasy settings. I have a problem with firearms being a mainstay weapon in fantasy settings.

Even in the 1700s, a trained archer was much, much better than a musketeer. Even in pirate movies, pistols are used in an opening barrage, then they switch to swords.

If you want firearms, cool, no problem. If you want to have a muzzle loading musket you can shoot 3 times in 6 seconds, problem.

I have firearms house rules that reflect that firearms are more of a opening strike weapon that people use before switching to a different weapon.

This is pretty much how I feel. Firearms, for a long period of their history, were used as a 'first strike' weapon if the combatants expected to be in hand to hand quickly. With riles (and rifling of barrels) firearms gained greater range and accuracy (I was shocked to discover just how inaccurate smoothbore weapons really were - makes you wonder why anyone would use them beyond 20 feet or so). In fantasy campaigns that have had firearms (Warhammer FRP 1E mostly) the players would fire any guns they had in the first or second round (some lucky players actually own 2 guns!) then close for melee. Reload times were about 1 barrel/bullet a minute (some firearms in WFRP had multiple barrels). Not too fast but combat round were, iirc, 15 seconds each (4 rounds/minute) so even the simplest pistol would be going off once every 5 rounds.

In 4E D&D I would consider firearms an 'Encounter' power - use once an encounter - short rest to reload/clean. I certainly give them a nice damage marker though (say 3d12+Dex with high crit or brutal 1).

You know what bothers me? Jerks.

Discussions of builds and balance are great as long as the participants are well-adjusted people with whom you would want to have a discussion.

Let's be honest, the Pathfinder RPG itself does not discourage a very gamist style of play. It places a huge emphasis on gaming character creation when compared with just about any other RPG I can think of. Character creation in Pathfinder is more akin to building a M:tG deck than in any other system; a game-wide review of short-form rules clauses that you are rewarded for combining in unique and unforeseen ways. Most games aren't like that. So there's a definite attraction for certain types of player.

This is a forum for the discussion of that game. It makes sense that people who are attracted to those features of the system should want to congregate and discuss it. I think that's great, so long as they're not oppressive jerks about it.

I wish that people (including the OP here) would stop trying to blame jerkiness on a single style-of-play or an edition or a background; suspiciously never the poster's own. Jerks are just jerks. There are definitely jerks who adopt a "role-playing superiority complex" just as there are jerks who abuse rules and jerks who insist that a narrow set of options are the only good ones.

*Takes deep breath to start spiel*

Oh! I see Evil Lincoln has already said everything I was thinking.

Carry on!

I know its probably a sore subject, but I just can't imagine anyone more sane than Jack Chick really thinking that burning D&D books would produce howling demon voices.

I'd bet a lot of the hysteria was just bleed-over from the Satanic Ritual Abuse hoaxes, but it seems like fundies like Chick keep stirring the pot to this day, though with considerably less success.

Many of the folks who went all-in on 4e were too young to remember that stuff, so I figured the Paizo boards would be a good place to hunt for answers.

In your experience, has simply changing the name from Dungeons and Dragons to Pathfinder reduced the number of raised eyebrows among the fundamentalist community?

*crosses fingers that this thread doesn't become a trainwreck *

The 80's weren't that bad in this regard. Sure there was the infamous 'steam tunnel' kid (later found living in Florida iirc) and Pat Pulling's son offing himself while depressed and on drugs with his mom's revolver (but hey - it was the D&D!!). But by 1985-6 the hysteria was over and the media found some other thing to get people in a frenzy over (leg warmers? jazzerise? something stupid like that). All through the early 80's, at the 3 different middle/high schools I attended there were D&D clubs administrated by teachers so the "frenzy" never really had any effect in my area.

I saw it and enjoyed it, but I've spent the last day or so just wondering if maybe it wasn't that good, just way better than part 2. Nothing more to add except that I don't think the 3D was worth it. None of the 3D sequences were super amazing, so if you can see it in 2D for a lot cheaper, do it.

3D is never worth it. No not even in Avatar.

When you're doing your best to bring a rather image heavy anime to life, it's going to get pricey.

Anime? Was Firefly based on some kind of anime? Never heard that before.