Ravenbow's page

To the OP:

See, the idea here isn't to actually play 2nd Edition nor first. Play Pathfinder RPG, as that is your intention. The old school feel is something even the publishers of old school materials haven't quite figured out. It's not about the rules.

Consider the following:

• You already know how to play.
  
• Set the rules aside and run the game spontaneously.
  
• Don't look things up, or bring up rules during the game.
  
• Let the story flow. Imagine things and make them happen in-the-moment.
  
• If you want to make a game decision randomly, such as, "Is there a cleric walking down the street," just estimate the % chance there would be one... say 53%, then roll the percentile dice under that amount, and keep the game moving.
  
• Keep the pace of game moving. Don't wait for players to make all the decisions i.e. have someone walk into the room, an explosion occurs in a building, a carriage chase occurs in the street.
  
• Keep introducing many things as they enter your mind and you will stay "in the moment". When this happens, the players stay in-the-moment with you, because there's no time for looking things up, only time to roleplay and flow with the story.
  
• Understand the illusion you create with free will, and never speak of this secret to the players e.g. you control everything, but you always make it seem like they do.
  
• Keep players distracted by description, story, NPCs, events, happenings all around them. This sparks their imagination, and your quick responses allow you to rivet them into staying in-character, rather than focusing on rules or books.
  
• The true "feel" can occur at the table regardless of ruleset. You could be playing AD&D or Pathfinder RPG, or GURPS --- it doesn't matter.

Have a basic story outline with you, about the size of a bar napkin:
For example:
I. A swarthy looking pirate is running on foot through the town street and being chased by a demon. The demon encases the pirate in ice or stone, laughs and provides a clue about why he...

I want this as my signature line in every forum or email ever.

On a budget= THIS and Poster Razor

Chopper's Isle

A well done side quest involving the story of the "Crazy bird man"

Again great work Ed.

I use your templates every day.

Only a counter argument- not an attack.

Yet you keep the Sonic the hedgehog spell but not Haste, and the "my bow is a ballista" cheat spell, and talk about broke things.

Take that as a playful jab not as a serious prodding.

I have used so many character creation methods over the last 33 years I couldn't list them all.

Point buy has the most merits in PF but our next campaign will be 4d6 drop lowest and sort. This was decided as a group.

The oddest I have used but was quite fun was start with all 15s. Then choose a race and reduce any score without racial bonus by 2.

In a homebrew I ran long ago, Gnolls were my antagonist of choice. They were strong, darker, less hyena and more jackal. They were my orc/ogre/ and centaur replacement.

The centaur part were gnoll/lion Wemics. The heavy cavalry.

In this campaign, Orcs had led a genocidal war against goblins and gnolls, and while they beat the Goblins, they lost versus the stronger, faster Gnolls. There are no more orcs.

Years later when "the Mummy" came out, my girlfriend said "Those remind me of your gnolls". It made me smile.

I cried a little when I saw how Blizzard envisioned their gnolls in Warcraft 3 and later WoW.

The campaign ended before any depth developed in play but my plans were for them to eradicate the Mind Flayers. One advantage they had was Mind Flayers could not feed on Gnolls. Their minds were offensive tasting. Like chewing on old used coffee grounds.

Must-have skills are redundant (I'd even remove Perception as a skill)

100% agree and always have. Perception is a class skill for all in my games and every game I have ever played in.

But then I have swimming con based too.

My argument why is two fold.
You do not use strength to swim the English channel, you use endurance(con)
I could not pass 9th grade until I remained afloat in a pool for 25 minutes (minnesota state mandated at the time in the early 80s and I couldn't lift a potato sack... But I could dog paddle for a half hour easy.

Sorry. I digress.

My players were constantly stumbling through the first encounters in Crypt of the Everflame, so I modified it completely from its natural form into a Beginner Box friendly dungeon run for the presets.

I thought I would share some of the changes I made for those who might be running this module.

Having the large amount of treasure is part of what drew my players in and has not let go. I have kept up the same feel as I continued their adventures by giving more treasure than normal. Not Monty H style so much but far more than this range level would normally get and I have warned them next time (non-pregens) it will be a lot less treasure, and there is a snowballs chance in h*ll of finding a magic sword of any type, let alone a dragon slaying one, before level 3 or 4.

They laughed and said that's fine but they liked feeling "rich" while young and really what economy does it break? These characters could have 125k Gold by level 5 but if they stop playing them to make new ones.... who cares? They had fun and they keep coming back, so I call it a win.

At some point, when you find yourself adding more and more complexity to a Beginner Box game, this may be a sign that it's time to move on to the big league of the Core Rulebook.

That is the wondrous glory of these options by EdOWar. It is not more complexity. It is just a few additional choices for someone who likes the Beginners Box a lot and want to let the players play what they want.

As soon as my group finishes Crypt of the Everflame with the pregens they are each remaking characters and I cannot wait. Former Valeros is going to be a Paladin (as she stated before I ever bought the BB), My wife gets to play her Witch(currently playing Kyra or Ezren), and the Rogue wants to stay a rogue. We have had two "guest Ezren's", relatives in town who did 1 shots with us.

Now when they say I want to play (insert) or points at my DM screen I can say "No prob" and hand them a 3 or four page booklet that contains all they need. Which is how they prefer gaming. Simple but limitless.

These last few posts have nothing to do with the Beginner Box and only serve to confuse, even if very accurate and knowledgeable.

*Scratch*

My fighter's Intimidate is based on Charisma?

*more scratching*

I have since come around to acceptance but that was my initial reaction back in Beta.

52.

The Quest for Sky continues...

Dwarves throughout the world receive the same dream. Abadar, Cayden Cailean, Gorum, and another figure who is obviously dwarven but with features obscured, are on a balcony above yet clearly visible. All living dwarves surround the dreamer in a massive assembly. The other gods bow as Torag walks to a mighty podium and in a booming voice shouts "The Quest for Sky was only the beginning. The time has come to seek the Heartstone and reclaim our glorious birthright!"

All dreamers receive an image of a faceless dwarf reaching into the Starstone in Absalom to withdraw a rune covered metallic gem, ascending to divinity in the process.

The Heartstone is a mythical artifact from Dwarven Antiquity and legend which is thought among other powers to provide renewed vitality and fertility to the Dwarven race, heralding a new dawn for the failing race.

I have introduced a new set of players (3) who are completely Tabletop/Dice RPG newbies with the Beginner Box and they LOVE it and we are having a blast. My sad face comes from the fact that not a one of them wants anything to do with a 600 page book "to progress into". When we get to 5th level I am going to lose these players because of the size and for one of them layout of the CRB.

The only way I am going to keep my new favorite players is to "Basicize" the rest of the PF game.

HAH. My time is too important.

I would love to see and/or/all a redesigned CRB, a Basic 2 box for 6-10 or ideally... here comes that great heretical moment: Cut the damn thing up. The entire reason I got into PF was that everything I needed was in one book. One $50 purchase and bam I had a version of 3.+ I could stomach. Now there are how many books that you need to memorize? Arguments aside from forum members etc, to play the game the way the game is progressing, you are expected to own, know, and use CRB, APG, UM, UC, and however many bestiaries they desire to throw out. The "CRB is one book" mantra is dead. Cut it up.

Classes and Races in one place along with combat. Hit print. Get magic items out of it. Get Spells into what UM should have been. You just resold the CRB in many books, made it less daunting on new players that do not worship what 3.x was and make Pathfinder the game Paizo has proven it is able to make.

I welcome a revision with open arms and even better yet an open wallet.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

For the same reason castles and armies of NPCs are around despite CR5+ characters making them obsolete. They're genre conventions.

That reason is that the VAST majority of most fantasy worlds are populated by characters and creatures lower than CR 5. Just because a castle won't help against the powerful minority doesn't mean you throw out the design, since it still helps protect you against 90% of the rest of the world.

Adding on to Mr Jacobs response in a totally different way...

Why do we have battleships when there are torpedoes?

Now ask the original question.. Why are there graveyards when there are undead?

Your campaign may differ... but in mine, farmers still plow fields, not watch magical Johne Deere trackers do it for them.

Lamps and city "street lights" are still lit using a pole and a wick.

Bread is still cooked in an oven.

Little Johnny still gets a wooden sword before a keen mithril one, despite being the non-optimized choice.

Do some communities come to regret their graveyard? I am sure. Just like I am sure there are campers in Yellowstone who regret cooking bacon near their tents and not washing the pan.

In such a world undead, mad sorcerors, and flying dragons attacking castles without a roof happen... somewhere else. If it were common to have undead in the area, be sure additional safeguards would be used to protect loved ones.

Just 2 cents.

They sound like a pyramid shaped die bouncing on a table

Magic Item creation no longer uses xp as a cost.

Trapfinding now grants a bonus equal to half your rogue
level (minimum +1) on Perception skill checks to find traps
and all Disable Device skill checks.