Raemann's page

You know I used to think that someone had simplified this, but it appears not.
We just had the debate of debates with all parties in the store tossing in their two cents. it was surreal...

I saw a post where a guy asked to get the number of attacks thing answered and he seemed more confused at the end than he was at the beginning. I know that I was... he asked,

"But if the monster uses a full round action to attack it gets to attack with ALL listed forms of attack unless they are separated with the word OR?"

PUHLEASE! that is insane

Either the (@$%#$+ thing attacks three times in a round with claw, claw bite or it doesn't - SAY THAT.

We spent an hour and 40 minutes arguing over how since a goblin has Ranged short bow +4 (1d4/×3) that he can shoot three times in a round. My position running the game was, "No way, he is CR 1/3 and has 135 XP". People didn't know for certain and after an hour of searching the core rule book, all three bestiaries, the advanced players guide and a number of web sites I moved play on by saying, "I invoke the mantle of Gygax!"
"Since it is a flippin level 1, CR 1/3 monster it gets one attack a round"
"If you folks want a steroid one I will make one up, adjust the CR and the treasure and the XP to boot and let you fight that".
Of course, to this day no one can determine WTF the writer of this conflagration meant with the X3 - so we just ignore it.

I suppose someone out there knows, but I like the world I live in and since I am essentially omnipotent in it - I say he gets 1 attack a round!

But, in truth - I really wanna know the answer, so I don't run a game at a major event and get busted out as a cheater or some such (#@%%^.

Over the years (since 77) I have ran a number of games, crafted a world and played in Europe and America. So what. Now that I am gaming again and in Pathfinder RPG I feel a bit daunted and excited at the same time. Though I /flex when it comes to telling the story I find equal challenge in the chore of actually getting into the scene. You know, I want to move from running games in DnD etc and play in the Pathfinder arc, however some challenges exist:
1) I need more people to form a group locally. Though my wife is an avid player she needs a bit of help out there in the cold cruel reaches of Golarion.
2) I wanted to participate at Gencon and well, other cons to be honest, however, in order to do that I really need to know the right people. Like the person that organizes alla the tables, preps the modules, etc..
3) I like to perform and I agree with a point another person made, "GMs need to run thru their modules well ahead of the con. I have been in performances and we rehearsed. I believe that IF DMs engage their players like they are an audience - and active audience that directs the story arc - then more people would play
4) Finally, I have had to "go back to school". It never fails that I am in a game and some fellow goes, "Well, if you look on page 328, paragraph 2, table 13-11a you will find that I can indeed make my wall of stone form horizontile as long as some portion touches the floor ..." I actually love it when people do the unexpected, however in order to RP offa that I need to have the rules written well in mind.

So, any Masters out there needing an over the hill Padawan?

In my effort to find folks in the Evansville, Indiana region I have added to my blog on the Border Aethereal.

http://aetherealplane.com/border/?page_id=154

When you are playing at the convention and all of the like minded players are gathered around the multitude of tables you take it for granted that EVERYONE plays the game. Well, out here in the weed you have to do a bit of tracking and divining to get folks together.

Sometimes I speak to people that say they played other games and quit because of one reason or another. I was impressed to discover how many people have played and would again save for the various "stigma" they had attached to gaming. Things like, "I am too old...". Right, I am in trouble then. I remember talking to Gary Gygax years back and he just kinda gave a look when I asked him about age. If you get the chance to talk to Larry Elmore you will find that he is quite young at heart, where it counts. Actually he seems a bit mischievous, but that might be presumptuous on my part. Other folks suggest that it was boring and unfulfilling.Welllll...

I tell stories. That has always gotten me into trouble. Except when I am in the Nation. You know, the Image A Nation.People want to go there. They yearn to go there. They remember it from their childhood. A place where their dreams bore them aloft to such grand adventures and joys.But they got older, or someone hurt them in some way, or they just gave up on dreaming. Now they pay bills, go to work, maintain their bodies and sit in mild despair pining over they know not what, yet suspect. Then I ask them about RPGs and relay the excitement and intrigue within the Pathfinder games and, for a moment, their eyes alight and their faces glow as their minds are taken once again to the Nation - if for only a moment. Then they make excuses as if fell creatures held weighty chains in distant reaches and they were not their own masters.

These I would save. Come back into the light and play. Leave the drudgery of you limited existence and daily dose of "Grown-up Ridlin" to embrace fun, excitement and intrigue once again. Time is fleeting, fun does not have to be.

I spoke to Mark (the VC from Indy) over email some time back (before the last GenCon) and he got me to thinking about a few things. I was unable to get my crew put together because we were remodeling the bath. Now that I have finished that chore it is time to get serious about PFS gaming in Eville.

I have a Pathfinder's Page on my Blog at:

The Border Aethereal Pathfinder not D&D

I will be running through the series listed there.

- Serpents Skull
- Carrion Crown
- Jade Regent

There are a number of other points on the page and I welcome responses there on that page or via email (posted on the above page).

As I stated in another post regarding this topic I am populating a team to run these games / series and although I may fill up I will work to ensure that everyone looking for a game gets into one that they can enjoy.

At some point I want us to have a legitimate Pathfinder's Society here in Eville. One step at a time though.

Having spent some time looking for an organized PFS I have not been able to find an organized group anywhere in the Evansville area. In an effort to avoid stepping on any toes I ply this post that if there exists any person or persons currently hosting such an official group that I might come to and join them rather than creating a new and unique group. If there be any that already form even a informal group please respond as I am not as much interested in being the leader as I am in seeing such a group form and flourish.

I have been gaming RPG since 1977. That sentence is one that I see on many message boards and blogs intermixed with another, "computer gaming (mmorpgs) are replacing pen and paper games".

Nope, not gonna happen and I will tell you why.

From the very first time that I played D & D I noticed that in order to achieve my own successes I would need to assist the group in their own individual goals. Additionally as a group we needed to remain focused (at least a little) on the overarching task which we faced in the module at hand. Working together elves, half elves, gnomes, humans and even half orcs, discovered that all things could be overcome. Face to face either across from one another at the kitchen table or later on in our own basements and across the world in Germany for a time we forged kingdoms, characters, epochs and real life friendships. The real people that, admittedly, possessed numerous quirks, idiosyncracies, unique interpersonal faults and what have you all learned to see the light shining from someone else within the group. And similarly the group, although willing to tease its own, was quick to defend those brighter points of its members should any outsider seek to mar or undermine their real life character. in short as we game, we become family. Face to face with one another. Aware of our individual weaknesses and individual strengths yet seeing therein the benefits of that person as an acquaintance, then friend and at times, a brother or sister.
At my gaming table and before the reaches of the great Sardistian Continent of Maenatae I have forged friendships, played cupid, improved my marriage, and seen good friends become husband and wife in lasting relationships which faced adversity far greater and more trying in real life than any dragon might show a party of stalwart adventurers. My crews have fashioned their character both on and off paper and looking one another in the eye went out after they left my home to face a world that often considered them misfits or geeks together. Stronger now paired with like minded and creative souls who, while different than the populous, yet were they in many ways better than their critics. Now armed with assistance of numbers and seeing that within this collective there exists a people divers, talented and valuable they no longer fear their detractors realizing that regardless what others may say that on Saturday from noon till midnight over at Ray's place we will all come together as equals and sitting around that table as friends we will test our intellects which others bemoan and see what we are truly made of. In that setting everyone is valuable, every person was welcome and we, in our little microcosm were able to set aside the pain of racism, bullying and mistreatment to, for some, have the notion that perhaps other people can indeed be fun to spend time with.
However, consider then gaming over the internet. I will limit this discourse to that which I personally have experienced. Everquest and World of Warcraft. In these milieus it seems that the bullies have found a field ripe to their harvest. In that wicked land I have heard every form of hatred and filth spewed out at other persons without restraint and without compassion to a point where it often sickens me. Everything from foul references to people's mothers to open suggestions of illicit and illegal sexual activity. Demeaning and degrading - debasing those incapable of enhancing one's experience without care to their person or even their existence. Hateful people allowed to run free deriding others because the "GM" or game masters focus on cash and not on the experience. I have grown so disenchanted with their oversight of the game that I refuse to allow someone to refer to me as a GM - I am a "DM" - A Dungeon Master, a guide to the world that lies at the boundary of the imagination. An Awakener. He that teaches the soul to see before that time when death makes it a necessity. An encourager of humanity and its vibrant and hopeful cheerleader waiting for each member patiently. Realizing that every flower does not bud at the same pace yet realizing also that each holds its own unique beauty and special fragrance once allowed to reach maturity.

Indeed friends, we are in no danger of departing for we have in our midst the element which history has witnessed time and again as the underpinning of our race. Humanity. We seek to encourage and to enhance and to build bridges to the minds of others. and such behavior has its rewards today as it did yesterday as it will tomorrow.