Rene Ayala's page

But...but....I thought you went to find the elusive Quindore and Snorpethrush and that was why you haven't been seen in a month? Wth?!?!?!

Good luck in the future and I hope to see you at some cons in 2012. And thanks for all you did this past year as a Venture-Captain and a friend.

Ah, too late. That reason expired when you insisted I post it myself. :)

Thanks. Hopefully I can. .

So... I was like.. Holy Sh...! But then I read on and I giggled.. ;)

Cool. Glad the humor went over well. This is the tamed version. I had a much more devious version in mind.

I'd like to say I resigned because my work schedule is developing into another year of heavy traveling. I was on the road over half the year so far in what's left in 2011. Most likely in 2012 I'll be gone for at least that much time. I can also say the reason is the attendance at my FLGS (Gamer's Inn, Mesa AZ) has dropped because I can't attend and run consistently. Also, the other location I started (Imperial Outpost Games, Glendale AZ) is growing into three tables each game day. They need more time and support than I can provide. I can also say I need to start preparing for my move to NYC on April 1st.

No, the real reason I quit is because I don't like Mike Brock. The level of GM talent he has far surpasses my ability. I played at two tables he ran at NeonCon (Las Vegas, NV NeonCon.com). After the slots I went to my room and suffered through the feeling of how much better he was than me. How could I continue after those lessons. Another reason is my venture-lieutenant, Jason Leonard, is so dedicated to seeing to the success of PFS he's become a brighter star in Phoenix than I could ever be. And for that he's backstabbed me into realizing I must step aside.

Thus the result is I have resigned as Venture-Captain. Jason Leonard has taken over effective immediately.

(I hope you all enjoyed the post. This was much more entertaining wasn't it? I could have taken a typical approach of "I left", "I'm appreciative of the opportunity" and "good luck". But I'm too much of a smart-aleck to leave like that.)

Mike - maybe you should have taken me up on the offer to make the announcement yourself. Haha. Hope you had a good laugh. :)

To all my former VC and VL peers: good luck during the rest of season 3. It was pleasure working with you. Looking forward to seeing your ideas flourish.

PFS Players: you can't see behind the scenes but you've got a very dedicated group that wants to see you, PFS and Paizo successful with the campaign. Treat them well. They are good people.

So now I turn everything to Jason Leonard. Congratulations, Jason. You'll do great.

Farewell,
Rene

"After slaying dragons, exploring dungeons and pranking fey I sit down to read the latest release by Creighton Broadhurst. Raging Swan Press. What's in your satchel?"
- Cudjet Swearoath, Paladin and Explorer

(I worked with Creighton as an author for a different campaign. Always been a fan of his projects. Check out these releases, folks.)

... The way my friends and I played was always informal. We'd play verbally while walking home from school or something, not sitting down at a table, and the GM would decide what happened based on character stats and the Rule of Cool, not dice rolls..... Is the fact that I have never actually played real D&D or Pathfinder going to get in the way?...

My opinion is you have played real D&D (Pathfinder). The game is all about imagination and playing in fantastic settings. Dice, movement, etc. etc. is only mechanics. Don't be intimidated you haven't rolled dice. I'd always prefer a roleplayer like you at my table over one who only plays the mechanics. Good luck.

For Phoenix-based players or GM interested: sign up at http://warhorn.net/gathering or email me http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/about/regionalCoordinators.

Rene Ayala wrote:

... it has me signed up for two games in the same slot. How do I correct that? I changed my mind on the tier for that slot.

That is a "feature" (bug). Working to allow people to unregister for events. Hope to have it sorted early next week. Will post update. Until then, don't sweat it.

Ok. What about GM slots? How do register for those?

Registered to attend as player & GM. Playing Thurs - Fri, running Sat - Sun. Though I don't see where I can print the player schedule. Also, how would you like me to sign up for the games I'll run on Sat - Sun ?

Edit: got the player schedule figured out. Pretty cool you can click on the scenario link and see who's signed up. I just did a copy/paste to a Pages doc. Though it has me signed up for two games in the same slot. How do I correct that? I changed my mind on the tier for that slot.

Doug Miles wrote:

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:

I noticed that a little earlier today. Its a nice addition, though I still have 6 more before my first star... :/

At least you have something to look forward to ;)

I'll just change my post name to "SixStars" and be done with it.

Just reported my September events and hit 4 stars!

Signed,
VC Rene "SixStars" Ayala

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:

I noticed that a little earlier today. Its a nice addition, though I still have 6 more before my first star... :/

At least you have something to look forward to ;)

I'll just change my post name to "SixStars" and be done with it.

Great job. It looks fantastic on my iPad. To all the developers on this release, your hard work is appreciated.

@Nosig-I've got a real question for you. Is she saying all this to drop you a Roc-sized stork of a hit about a real life baby? Don't mean to pry but that would be on my mind if I was asked so much about a pregnant PC.

btw-who need rules or a timeline about this subject. Batman is still around and we're not looking up rules on venerable stats. 007 is immortal. Why can't her PC always be 5-months along? There's no need to track time in PFS if you don't want to.

Lets send the Hellknights after the thief :D Hope you find it!

Mike

Yes, we'd send an anti-paladin but they're not PFS legal.

(sorry, Issak, for the loss. Hopefully your humor side is there.)

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR PORCINES!

DOWN WITH THE RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES OF THE CANINE CLOSED SHOP!

Long live the ungulates!! May they rule the laps of pet owners everywhere. (now remove those scary grates on the ground near the road intersections!)

In all honesty, Archer's that are built for destruction(which isn't that hard) are table breakers. I know this because I have a level 11 fighter which is just wrong. On and average round of combat I do around 60 to 80 points of damage and can bypas most DR aside from adamantine. I do not know if the ultimate combat is sanction, but the snapshot feats are just horrible game breakers, the idea of threatening with a bow is just silly. Very soon you may not see many melee fighters and instead mostly dedicated archers.

Great, all we need is another Karl out there to break a combat in less than a round. Somehow the creatures now always end up with 1hp left after your full attack. Weird how that happens. :)

As long as the GM can paint the story with words and run a fun game, any rules glitches can be worked out, unless you are unlucky to have some truly anal player at the table.

The responses here drifted quickly to rules. Rules are important, no doubt about that. However, I feel this post is the most important and wanted to comment on it.

If the GM doesn't tell the story there's nothing left but 5-foot steps and rule lookups. I'd rather play a game with a GM who does a phenomenal job visiually leading us through the adventure. One where everyone talks about the story afterward. I'd quickly pass on a GM who can quote the rule book and all I come away with is tactical movement memories and an abundance of rule clarifications I wasn't aware of.

The Shadow Lodge?!

AZhobbit wrote:

FYI the warhorn reference is a gathering of player meets on the fourth Saturday, sometimes Sunday at IOG, we will try to have two tables, but space on that one is tight. Look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks for the information! I thought it was under A Gathering of Players (AGoP), but wasn't certain and didn't want to send J. Christopher on a snipe hunt.

Here's the link: A Gathering of Players (Look at July 23)

I'll need to ask Darren to train his staff to look to the bulletin board. :) The PFS schedule and link is written there plain as a daylight spell. As mentioned above, the schedule is up. I just put it up this afternoon. Good timing it seems.

Good God Rene quit whinning. While we in the 602 aren't making the list we are regularlly asked to run at conventions in the southwest, and will continue to do so. I think the measure of a good GM is do you keep em coming back for more punishment. Look forward to seeing you all at NeonCon.

I wasn't whining. To change direction on this list for a sec I'd like to ask what player recently gave the GM the most memorable moment.

Mine is azhobbit doing a face-plant into a gelatinous cube (scenario not mentioned for spoiler reasons). 16 rounds of 1d6 entertainment for me. It happily burped the Taldan snootiness out of you.

Rene Ayala wrote:

I wonder what the teacher's gonna look like this year?

Whoa!

One of these two. :P

I think of all the education that I've missed

But then my homework was never quite like this!

I wonder what the teacher's gonna look like this year?

Whoa!

I'm the coordinator for A Gathering of Players (AGoP). We play PFS on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays. Tomorrow is a game day. We run two slots per game day. Both support low tier characters. You can read more and sign up on our Warhorn site, www.warhorn.net/gathering.

So, is the $2 raise in game prices used to pay for the high profile rooms?

I remember it being $6 in 2009. Didn't make 2010 but doubt prices went down that year. My recollection is collecting three generics. Generics were $2. Again, as far as I remember.

Inconceivable!

Edit: I'll be at both. I'll even be playing a bit at both. I'd love the chance to sit at your table! Maybe we can get Hyrum to pull some strings.

My name is Venture Captain, Rene. You killed my ego. Prepare to die.

I didn't make anyone's lists. :( I didn't make any of these con's people are referencing. But regardless I'm writing down everyone's name and targeting your PCs at PaizoCon and GenCon.

My name is Venture Captain, Rene. You killed my ego. Prepare to die.

:P

I'm not a PFS member at present, so I can't name any, but if any of them happen to reside in Phoenix, AZ I'd very much like to get in touch with them. I have a friend who's working on developing an RPG-based therapeutic practice for youth on the autistic spectrum; she needs the assistence of one or (preferably) more highly skillful and experienced game masters.

Kavren, you can find our games at www.warhorn.net/gathering. Before our game I can give you the floor to see if anyone is interested. My email address is on the Web page.

Thanks for all the great feedback, folks. I won't promise everything here will actually make it into print or become legal for PFS play, but quite a few of the elements people have suggested are in line with what I already had in mind.

I hope people enjoy additional, flavorful uses for PA instead of just hoarding them for a potential resurrection late in their career.

Under current rules PA allows access to items and spell casting costs. I would very much like to see more flavor uses for PA as well. Also, perhaps even some "pebble in the pond ripples" type bonuses in CHA-based checks starting from Absolom at +X going out to e.g.Varisia at +Z to account for the Pathfinder Lodge being prevalent in Absolom but less so in Sandpoint. A person's prestige then has more influence around the City than towns in the fringes of Golarion.

You live under an underpass?

you're looking at it inverted. I live over an overpass. D'uh.

Kyle Baird wrote:

Well gollll-ly Mark! Look at that wiz-bang technology you gots there!

I'm an IT nerd, it's a compulsion at this point.

Ha-ha, that is too funny. That is so not where I live....OMG! That's my house! Spooky.

Does a continual flame go out in the woods if the adventurers are no longer in the scenario to see it?

If you level up between sessions of a multi-session Module by playing other scenarios, just keep playing the version of the character you started the Module with. When the adventure's over, apply the credit to the same PC at her new level.

See, Teribithia9, that is exactly what I was trying to say. Glad it's clear now.

Rene Ayala wrote:

Callarek wrote:

Mark Moreland wrote:

We've updated the rules pdf to correct this, permitting PCs playing through this adventure to play other scenarios between sessions. We don't want to discourage play of actual PFS scenarios if someone's caught in the middle of a Module, since play of this or other Modules is secondary to the primary adventures of a Pathfinder Society PC.

What if the PFS character levels up from regular scenarios before completing this scenario, and levels out of tier?

Example: 9th level character, starts CotED with 2 XP toward 10th, would level out by just playing one normal PFS scenario...

Would that be continue using the out of date 9th level version of the PC, or create an 8th level avatar?

I would advise making a conscience decision to not create this situation. If a PC is one xp away from leveling and playing that character in two adventures, effectively simulateously, would make his present module play "illegal" why would one proceed with a conflicting situation? It doesn't make sense. Why are more rules needed when a player should be responsible for his/her actions. My recommendation: play a different character in either the module or the scenario.

It doesn't make it illegal, because the module instructions specifically state you're allowed to play other PFS adventures with the character while you're playing the module.

Our discussion here isn't the legality of playing simultaneously. It's creating a situation where a character is now out of 'legal' tier to play Cult. If a players makes a decision to play a character in the situation you've described he or she has made the conscience decision to not continue the Cult module with the now out of tier PC.

Per the Cult OP write up:
A player may use an existing Pathfinder Society character within 1 level of the module's beginning level (8th). This means existing PCs of 7th, 8th, and 9th level are legal for play without modification.

Once a PC hits 10th it is not possible to continue Cult with that PC. So back to my earlier comment, why are more rules necessary to adjucate a player's decision to play a PC in the situation you described? My recommendation is to avoid the situation by playing a different character. As an addendum, that could be a pre-gen or newly built 8th level PC in Cult and the player participtes in both play opportunities without further dissection of the module and/or PFS OP rules.

Edit: By not recognizing the scenario that caused the level up to 10th and continuing Cult as 9th level is, in effect, banking a chronicle to level up later. We all know that's not allowed. Unless a GM ran a scenario for which he/she doesn't have a character at the level appropriate to recognize the chronicle.

Congratulations and welcome.

Mark Moreland wrote:

We've updated the rules pdf to correct this, permitting PCs playing through this adventure to play other scenarios between sessions. We don't want to discourage play of actual PFS scenarios if someone's caught in the middle of a Module, since play of this or other Modules is secondary to the primary adventures of a Pathfinder Society PC.

What if the PFS character levels up from regular scenarios before completing this scenario, and levels out of tier?

Example: 9th level character, starts CotED with 2 XP toward 10th, would level out by just playing one normal PFS scenario...

Would that be continue using the out of date 9th level version of the PC, or create an 8th level avatar?

I would advise making a conscience decision to not create this situation. If a PC is one xp away from leveling and playing that character in two adventures, effectively simulateously, would make his present module play "illegal" why would one proceed with a conflicting situation? It doesn't make sense. Why are more rules needed when a player should be responsible for his/her actions. My recommendation: play a different character in either the module or the scenario.

Well, I'm not the final word on things, of course, but if he printed the adventure out for you from his file I don't see a problem with it. You'd just have to record the ID numbers of the players as usual, then give them to your friend, if you didn't want to make a new event. It's not ideal, but it works.

Agree here. Essentially he would be the event coordinator and you are the GM running. I run many game days. I set up the event, print the scenarios for my GMs, and have them run. They give me the table tracking sheet and I report the event.

Here's a word of advice. Volunteering for 10 slots sounds cool, but it hurts. Literally. By the 10th slot last year I had to put pressure on my throat to make any noise.

Very true. Early in my GM career I had a player do the read aloud text because my voice was shot.

You get one chronicle as a GM whether that is eating it or previously playing it. You get one chronicle for playing it, whether that is before or after running it. That means, 1 GM chronicle and 1 player chronicle. Doesn't matter which occurred first. Nothing else is applicable that changes that fact. Or as Germans say, "full stop".

There are other open play systems that are very much about character abilities instead, and race is a big part of that. I often wondered why cities were okay with the party that wandered in comprised of a minotaur, revenant, kenku, orc, bladeling and shapeshifter. I'd think the first thing that would happen is that they would be attacked outright by the guard/clergy/citizenry of that city. Of course, for "game reasons" that stuff was overlooked, as they were there to save the day.

PFS, on the other hand, is very centered on the story that is Golarion. I like that. Paizo, you've done an awesome job making a game world where being human/demihuman matters. Keep it up.

All true. 100% agree and support.

Brother Elias wrote:

I, having no ranks in heal simply tell the party that my faction is asking me to collect samples of poison and does anyone have any real skill in doing so.

Why tell the party that it's your faction that requests this. Why not tell them that you would like to get a sample?

"These spiders have some nasty poison, maybe we can harvest some. That could be useful against certain enemies or to create an antidote"

No need to mention faction whatsoever. If certain partymembers go: "Oh, that must be your faction mission" that's just bad roleplay on their part.

Perfect way to roleplay it!

As for the fighters/ etc being screwed, I think that's more in the hands of the scenario writers.

I've heard scenario authors do not write the faction missions. They are written by the person listed as the developer of the scenario. Before a torch-carrying mob chases an author I thought to point it out.

Would a fighter in PFS with a 7 int receive extra bonus skill ranks equal to his level if he wore a headband of int +2 for 24 hours? How about if he stuck a +2 int ioun stone in his wayfinder?

I would say it does not. In the core book (pg 517) the text for headband of mental prowess states "...if the headband grants a bonus to intelligence, it also grants skill ranks...". Since same bonuses do not stack i.e. enhancement, moral, luck, etc. then an enhancement bonus from a headband does not stack with an enhancement bonus from an ioun stone, therefore the skill rank bonus does not trigger.

Note: the same bonus type rule is broken when using the resonant powers (method 2) rule in Seeker of Secrets. I would say the skill bonus would stack in this case as well.

Rene Ayala wrote:

I'll check these out. I'm hoping not to buy a lot just to play. For RunePunk I get the feeling RunePunk is a campaign setting and I'll need to buy the Savage Worlds core book?

Savage World core book is 10 bucks. Seriously.

Yep. Saw that. Cost isn't the factor. It's having to reference or have on hand many texts. If I only have to look at one book (e.g. the Pathfinder Core book to play Pathfinder Society) it'll make it easier for me.

The writing, and innovation. It is really well written and more different than most other such books covering the topic. Just was a new take on things.

Most books have steam tech and magic, with some cross over between them. In IK it is pretty much all magical steam tech mixed. Like take Warmachines or what ever those mech things are called. They are magical and controlled by a war caster(special type of wizard), but they also need coal to make steam to function. It is a nice blend of everything being part tech and part magic and very little pure tech or pure magic.

This was helpful. Thank you.

I have both Iron Kingdoms and Dragonmach.

I only own the first basic book of Dragonmech, but I have almost everything of Iron Kingdoms.

Iron Kingdoms is, in and of itself, a complete world. This is not to say it can't be shipped over into Golarion et all, just that it's flavor is meant to 'Stand Alone'.

YMMV

Cheers!

Not looking to integrate it with Golarion. I'm looking to integrate it with Catalyst Lab Games' Leviathians. Instead of just ship battles I'd like to create a roleplay campaign where the ship battles are an extension of the RPG sessions.

If you haven't seen Leviathans I suggest taking a look. I had a chance to play a demo at NeonCon 2009. Very fun. I'd get bored with constant ship fights. Building a campaign with an existing steampunk RPG would keep it fresh. Perhaps a campaign with small ship skirmishes from time to time that leads up to the big battle.

If this sounds interesting to anyone I'd like to exchange ideas and notes. Perhaps it could lead to a table or two at a convention.

Castle Falkenstein (engine: native - uses playing cards, genre: Victorian fantasy).

RunePunk (engine: Savage Worlds, genre: dark fantasy, closest lookalike: Perdido Street Station).

Regards,
Ruemere

I'll check these out. I'm hoping not to buy a lot just to play. For RunePunk I get the feeling RunePunk is a campaign setting and I'll need to buy the Savage Worlds core book?

IK seems like a self-contained campaign/rule set. Am I right about that?

Castle Falkenstein sounds interesting. I'm looking for Victorian Fantasy. I'll see if my local store has it.

The best done version of that I thought was Iron Kingdoms. Not perfect but IMHO the best over all.

That is on the top of my list to check out. Anything in particular that makes it better? How flexible is it to use with another campaign world?

Hey all, I would like to ask the community here if they have any recommendation for a steampunk RPG. I've done some research of my own and have a list of RPGs. What I'm looking for is feedback by those who played any steampunk. Any pro/con comments would be helpful.

Much appreciated.

For those that might have missed it. (clipped from today's Paizo blog)

As an added incentive, The Godsmouth Heresy will be the first (but not the last) 32-page Pathfinder Module that is being sanctioned for play in our Pathfinder Society Organized Play program. Keep an eye on our Paizo blog later this week for more details!

Happy Adventuring

Pick a knowledge skill, when rolling a check in that skill you get a +2 circumstance bonus. I suggest writing the knowledge skill you choose on the chronicle as the boon only applies only to that one. Some bonuses don't stack so be aware of the bonuses you currently have or those encountered during the game.

Both answers are correct.