Riley's page

After the reaction the the ship I either have to use it or build another one that's smaller. If I let Lavinia have the ship for the Blue Nixie and used the Sea Wyvern from the magazine I think my players would be disappointed (the handout will be used for attacking pirate ships!).

Any suggestions?

Give your players the Maiden. They'll be spending lots of time on it, and the size shouldn't make much difference to the adventure. I don't remember any significant role for the Blue Nixie, but maybe I wasn't paying attention.

I will have to add something or have players notice something that just doesn't set right. I thinking about them having a dream sent by Mystra to maybe warn them about the blessing but lam going to keep it vague in the hopes they miss read it and decide they have to get it :) I just think the story has a big gap in it and for the price it should not.

Deciding to get "Mystra's Gift" - I forget exactly what the name was - is one of the good ways to get ahead in the adventure. Speeds you along into the middle temple, where you have three days to figure out that things aren't right. If that doesn't work, then they'll likely get dominated, and there's a section that discusses what you can do then.

The only thing you want to avoid is the "everything's fine here, let's go" conclusion. You've got a few knowledge checks that can help with that. You've got clues on paper in drawers. You've got a priest who's been directed to really sell the "Gift", especially to non-locals and those with some spell-casting capabilities.

Make the priest slightly creepy-pushy about the players' backgrounds, and you should have the players hooked. If not, than this probably isn't the adventure for your players.

Does anyone actualy like this adventure. I preorder it cause it look like it would be a really good Adventure with the other two that are comming out but I keep falling asleep trying to read it to prepare to DM it for my group. No I not kiding at all. For me I really can not see my player doing anything to get the plot started.

I've only read up through the end of the Temple of Mystra section, but I like it so far, and I'm interested in running it.

My first impressions:
- The wandering priest of Mystra hook seems essential.
- I like the temple's interesting set of bad guy NPC's.
- The other petitioners could've been fleshed out.
- One negative: the new encounter format eats up way too many pages. I liked it in Ravenloft, and something like it would be kinda handy for complicated encounters, but it isn't needed for every friggin' area. I'm pretty sure the complete Temple of Elemental Evil took fewer pages than this.

February's annoucement was really a twofer, though, announcing both Paizo 5 and the new GameMastery Modules line.

I'm not sure how much of a twofer that is. Does announcing future big announcements really constitute a big announcement in and of itself?

I eagerly await world-shattering goodness.

Can folks talk a little bit more about why you like the games you like, and, just as importantly, who you don't like the games you don't like?

-Vic.
.

My #1 is Settlers. Carcassonne is #2, and with its beautiful new Paizo version, Kill Dr. Lucky has recently secured the #3 slot.

Why?
Settlers is a wonderful and varied strategy game. Carcassonne and Kill Dr. Lucky have the advantage that it's easy to get non-gamers to play and enjoy them, but there's still enough going on for more experienced gamers to appreciate. Finally, I have to admit I'm really only interested in playing pretty board games.

What don't I like about other games?
The only game on your list that I know and dislike is Monopoly. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Too few decisions to make - really, just figuring out how to sucker your opponents into a bad trade.

In short, I hate party games, non-strategic games, and ugly games.

I'm really interested in this series. I was glad when Wizards started publishing modules again, but I have been disappointed by their releases in this page/price range. I'm sure Paizo can do much better.

One of the announcements (but not all of them) mentions that this will be a monthly series of modules.

If so, would there be any chance of doing a subscription service? I'd be willing to pay $120 to have a full year of modules by your highly esteemed authors mailed to my door. It might save a bit of money to mass-mail them instead of individually shipping them, and it could guarantee a certain number of sales.

With Paizo's shipping rates, I'd be inclined to wait several months and buy them in a lump purchase, which wouldn't make for ideal enjoyment, and also adds the risk that the purchase wouldn't be made. Alternately, I'd probably order from alternative vendors, which would seem to mean less money for Paizo.

The USA (and Canada) does not stock Marzipan?

Wow! I've never felt so priviledged to live in the UK before...

What about christmas cakes over there? In the UK we have big fruit cakes, with Marzipan on the top, and then covered in a dense layer of icing. Do you not have this either? Or is there a substitute when it comes to the Marzipan layer? Intrigued UK readers want to know...

I've lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maryland and Newfoundland, and I only had my first taste of marzipan this last Christmas - 37 years into life. As I'm not really a dessert person, and I don't care for fruit cake, I can't say that I enjoyed the concoction as a whole. I have to hope that your fruit cakes are better than the logs in my part of the US.

I'd like to suggest that you designate one of your players, per game, as Dictionary Dude. When anyone doesn't know a word they can order Dictionary Dude to look it up.

I have a very good friend - a high school physics teacher - who actively seeks a reason to open the OED dictionary on a daily basis. Not just on game days, but every day.

Yes, he's a geek. We all are. He's also a very eloquent geek.

I would, however, know what the word meant (even if it meant that I had to Google it during preparation) so that I could explain its definition should that come up.

D&D keeps pushing our vocabulary. Playing D&D with a bunch of PhD biologists and chemists, our DM was a very talented and odd storyteller who wove vivid tales of trips to the moon and extraplanar invasions. Of course, not every session was brilliant. During one of the more mundane episodes in which we were exploring some or another abandoned ruin, we came across an old storeroom. After a long description of a packed storeroom of old junk/treasures, the DM paused. It was late, we were sleepy, and we were a little bored. No one was inspired to act, and so no one spoke.

Finally, our notekeeper looked up from his list of storeroom contents - which probably included crowns, machinery, and fantastic magical devices - and uttered: "Plinth? What the hell is a plinth?" None of us knew (DM excepted). Years later, the details of the adventure of the day have slipped from my mind, but the subsequent jokes about plinths are still vivid and wonderful memories.

...as Erik mentions above, one of the joys of reading is learning new words. Especially in the case of a word like "ziggurat" which is the precise word you need.

I still remember coming across the phrase "inverted ziggurat" in White Plume Mountain when I was ten. I didn't know what it was then, but I've never forgotten it since. I've also never forgotten the pronunciation of brazier, after telling my very amused friends about the flaming brassieres flanking the altar in some Gygax adventure or another.

Erik's editorial in Dragon #346 was so good that I read it to my wife over breakfast before she really knew what D&D was. Well worth a read (and a posting).

I've recently filled in the holes in my collection back to issue #5. However, I can't bring myself to pay the prices being asked for the first four issues.

I stuck Oakhurst south and west of Sasserine (and north and west of Cauldron) where I've carved the Elsir Valley (from Red Hand of Doom) out of the foothills of the Hellfurnaces.

The name Oakhurst, in this case, was a bit of wishful thinking/black humor on the part of the settlers from Western Oerik who founded the town in this tropical vale a few centuries back, like the naming of the gold rush towns in California.

I switched the recent Sunless Citadel history around so that the Kobolds are the long-term residents, and the goblins are the recent interlopers (driven from the mountains as outcasts or maybe an advance guard from the gathering horde). That way, I also get to drop hints about the potential threat of the disorganized hobgoblin and goblin hordes to the west.

I don't want to make a formal announcement until I have a cover to show off.

--Erik

Cover to show off... cool! I was hoping this'd be a non-magazine product. (Well, I guess it could still be a Dungeon series, but Mr. Kuntz's already got one of those.)

Paizo's print products have been top-notch, and I've been missing them since Wizards started tying Paizo's hands. A (hopefully) full-color, hardcover d20 adventure harkening back to the early days of D&D would be most welcome.

I was once very excited about Castle Zagyg, but between the (understandable, presumably health-related) very long delays, the C&C rules, and the fact that it will be a fair bit of a 're-imagining,' the shinyness has worn off for me. Of course, if Gary's Castle ever reaches publication, I'm sure that'll change.

I would suggest that you get involved over at his web site.

I don't get it. Which of the many projects relates to Erik Mona's hint? I have to admit, I was hoping for a Paizo-Kuntz collaboration.

I feel that what we did is respectful of their original Castle Greyhawk campaign, and I hope that you (and they) agree when it comes out in August.

Folks looking for a true Gygaxian version of essentially the same locale should check out Troll Lord's "Castle Zagyg," by Gary himself.
Those looking for a Kuntzian version of essentially the same locale should check Paizo.com in the coming weeks. I'm not the only one with a Secret Project, after all.

Personally, I'm more excited about this than an Age of Worms hardcover - and that's saying a lot.

Has anyone ever developed guidelines (maybe even historically based) on how many buildings and how much area would be expected for a city of a given population and density?

Seems like the kind of thing that would've made a great article in Dragon Magazine of the type that was typical around issues #50 to 100 or so. I'd still be quite interested in a 'constructing a city' article in the Campaign Workbook which gave some quick and dirty guidelines for this. If it doesn't exist already.

Correction: That happy little easy-to-use icon does appear in my address bar on just about every page in the Paizo website EXCEPT the Author pages.

Chef's Slaad wrote:

one thing I noticed: The feed on people (e.g. feed:http://paizo.com/people/ErikMona&xml=atom) doesn't seem to work. Any idea why that is?

Hmm. It's not broken for me, using NetNewsWire Lite. Our other feeds work OK on your Google homepage?

I'd love to use these RSS feeds, but I can't figure out how to make these links work in Firefox. On other websites (NYTimes, for just one example), the orange icon appears in the address bar of my browser. I grab it, drag it to my toolbar, and I've got instant access to the RSS feed forever thereafter. It's really easy and useful.

That orange box doesn't appear on the address bar at Paizo. When I click on the orange boxes in the pages on Paizo, I get a message that Firefox doesn't know what to do with it. When I try create a 'live bookmark' using the link info, it doesn't work, either.

- Greyhawk : 23
- Forgotten realms : 15
- Eberron : 11
- Dark sun : 3
- Spelljammer :
- Ravenloft : 3
- Dragonlance : 4
- Al-Qadim : 1
- Maztica :
- Kara-Tur :
- Oriental adventures / settings : 1
- Mystara :
- Midnight :
- Ptolus : 4
- Iron kingdoms : 2
- Scarred lands :
- Homebrew : 8
- Wilderlands of High Fantasy/City State of the Invincible Overlord: 1
- Birthright : 2
- The Styes: 1
- Council of Wyrms (v.3.5): 1
- Planescape: 1
- Freeport: 1

1 for the Greyhawk, Eberron, and Homebrew.

Get the book. Even though I've never really cared for the Realms, I consider the FRCS the gold standard by which all other world books should be judged. It's packed with brilliant ideas, places, and characters. I steal things from it all the time.

If you really want a great backup weapon for your mid-level wizard, I highly recommend crafting a 5th level wand of shocking grasp (3.5e). Touch attack to hit, 5d8 damage, no AOO, no save, and costs 1250 gp to craft. That's 25 gp per HIT, not per attack, since the charge is held until you strike your target.

If you've got a good enough AC, you can take out just about any big straight-up fighter type in hand to hand combat. Put it in the hand of your armored, shielded, reduced, blurred, mirror imaged halfling wizard some day.

At this point, we can't revise the questions without potentially affecting the accuracy of previous answers to some degree, but your comments are noted.

Also for next time, you left off "M.D." from the degrees. I picked Ph.D. as a substitute - probably close enough. (Although some friends of mine with Ph.D.'s claim all the other doctorates are "merely glorified baccalaureates.")

Any privacy guarantees on this stuff? I'd be much more happy to tell you about my family and my income if you'd promise not to sell this to anyone outside Paizo.

I was always quite fond of a fellow player's familiar - a raven named Quoth.

Pets can have funny names. Characters should not.

Thanks for answering my questions, Lilith, EvilTurnip, and Savaun. It looks cool enough that I'll give it a try.

I really want a computer D&D game world that I can explore in all three dimensions. So I have a couple (few) questions for anyone that's played the game, that I couldn't really get a sense of from the DDO website/boards:

1) Can I have a first person viewpoint?
2) Can I look in any direction I want?
3) Can I climb, or jump, up and down in the world?
3a) Can I get on top of a building, climb in a second story window, or crawl under a parked wagon?

(The lack of 3 and 3a are things that bugged me in NWN, because they're some of the things I really like to do in D&D.)

I agree with Lilith that the creatures' running around like ADHD kids who didn't take their meds are kinda weird to get used to

As an ADHD sufferer who sometimes forgets to take his meds, I resemble that comment.

I wasn't aware of all the new content in the book, so please don't think I was asking for a free copy of the book text. Thanks, delvesdeep, for filling me in on the details.

I thought it was just a compilation ("shovelware" in computer game re-released collections terminology) of what was in the magazine.

I'm interested in this thread because I'm still on the fence on buying the book (I intend to, but I just can't seem to get around to it). Every example of how the book improves on the modules pushes me closer to that probably inevitable purchase.

IMO, the best one is found in the Doomgrinder module--it shows more locations than any other map I've seen of the Cairn Hills, and even shows the location of 3 cairns near Diamond Lake--two across the lake (the Cult of the Green Lady's cairn & presumably the Stirgenest) & one north of it (the Whispering Cairn, possibly?).

The Doomgrinder map is also a true thing of beauty: it's painted in full color in watercolors for gosh sake, with detailed topography laying out the Cairn Hills and the Mistmarsh all the way to Greyhawk. It may just be the prettiest darned map I've ever seen in an RPG product. Well, probably excluding some of the I.C.E. products, anyway.

I'm not much of a rules lawyer - and I haven't even cast a 3rd edition Animate Dead spell yet - but couldn't the use of a higher caster level scroll of animate dead to create these creatures allow him to control them?

I also don't recall seeing anything about the Dourstone mine being around for centuries. I think the mine was built by Dourstone (hence why it's named for him) when he left Greysmere.

The apparently erronous passage is on p.63 of "Backdrop: Diamond Lake," under the heading "31. Dourstone Mine," but with what you tell me, I'll just disregard that passage and go with the description in the "The Mine Managers" sidebar while I eagerly await my copy of Dungeon 125 to sort it all out.

Thanks for the help!

I'm trying to figure out the history of the Dourstone Mine. The description of Ragnolin Dourstone in "Backdrop: Diamond Lake" says that Ragnolin left Greysmere 50 years ago, and then established several mines - including Dourstone Mine. It then says that he was later visited by evil cultists that forced him to offer them refuge.

On the other hand, the description of Dourstone Mine itself in the same article says that the mine has been in operation for <i>centuries</i>, and was esablished by Ragnolin Dourstone. It also adds that his choice of locations was guided by the hand of "The Faceless One."

Not having the second adventure in my hands yet, I like the idea that the mine predates the town, and that therefore the location of the town itself was chosen by the Faceless One. It also suggests that the Ebon Triad has been working at bringing about this particular apocalypse for centuries.

Is this right? Is it wrong? Can The Faceless One have lived that long? Does any of this, in fact, matter in the course of the AP2? Opinions and/or definitive answers would be appreciated.

Thanks,
- Patrick