Riskbreaker's page

Got mine today (6th), so for those of you worried, keep your heads up! It was worth the wait! And thanks for the response, Mr. Wertz.

I'm having an issue with the idea that a bunch of folks who play an rpg where almost everything going on is completely in your imagination can't appreciate artwork with a little less detail and thicker lines.

It's not that much of a stretch to take a slightly-exaggerated art piece and imagine how it might look in terms of reality. Anyone who is honestly struggling with this should consider the irony of playing a game that takes place in your head.

Besides this, the piece isn't even used in the adventure. Just like the magazines, Mr. Hunter's goblin is a fun little addition to the intro, with plenty of more realistic styles in the adventure itself.

I'd personally encourage the folks at Paizo to not take too seriously these folks who take themselves too seriously. And Kyle, if you're reading this, your website is in my favorites and has been since I first saw Downer. Don't let this be... a downer.

Samyk Risker is Minmatar, for those interested. I like the industrial feel they've got going. He's the Gypsy-themed subrace, which I also dig (especially for a sci-fi game).

Mine says it shipped August 21st. It's not so much a complaint as a sadness for being so excited for the product and having a tough time bearing the wait, which is actually a good thing for Paizo. Hope nothing is wrong with the order, though. Any way to find out?

I've started my Eve account. Samyk Risker, miner. Look forward to seeing some Paizonians out there!

This might sound blasphemous, but I'd be quite willing to have fewer illustrations if it meant larger text and an equal amount of content...

It might actually be easier overall if they released a sixteen-page guide of illustrations similiar to the Player's Guide. It'd give them the ability to make larger text and include more illustrations than they have now, plus it'd make it easier to show the illustrations to the PCs at appropriate times. I'd pay an extra $2...

Unless you strictly don't want anything you think is inappropriate for your kids in your house, there's also always the option of altering the context of situations without losing any of the mechanics.

For instance, if you don't like the sacrificial alter, don't make it an alter. Make it a throne or a treasure room, and say the sacrificial victim is just a captive. You can then run the encounter with just as much pizazz through skilled DMing, and still use the majority of the unique and high-quality settings/characters found in published products to get the overall feel of the adventure anyway.

Sure, doing that can get a little hairy with some of the more complex plots, but if you're running modules it'll be less work than the Pathfinder campaigns, and if you're working with kids you might not need to sweat the details quite as much anyway.

I would tend to say with the big revelation, a May 2008 release date, and the fact they are talking about outside play-testing soon, the "big" decisions as to what will be included are done. They are down to testing the smaller mechanics. Or at least that’s what I hope at this point.

I'm inclined to agree with this line of thinking.

To take a page from Nintendo's recent success with the Wii, it might be worth noting that they probably don't care what any of us think about the column. If we're all sitting here spending this much of our free time talking about this hobby, we're already customers, and they know that.

They're doing what marketing is telling them to do, which is branch out to potential new customers by being as generic and simple and "hip" as possible, assuming the hardcore crowd will be there no matter what they do. Let's be honest: we're all going to check it out, because if we weren't, we'd have left a long time ago.

Out of curiosity, has anyone run this adventure yet? I can't afford to subscribe to both Pathfinder and the Modules, but I'd like to get a module here and there I love what I've seen of the new rose-thorned fey. Does it play as good as it looks?

Seeing what has been done with goblins, evil rose-fey and fire drakes, not to mention the upcoming ghouls and ogres, I'd really like to see what Paizo can do to re-envision a personal favorite (and, I'm pretty sure, a favorite of a lot of gamers and non-gamers alike out there): lycanthropes. It'd be a bit trickier, sure, but dang, it could be beautiful.

Out of curiosity, has anyone run this adventure yet? I can't afford to subscribe to both Pathfinder and the Modules, but I'd like to get a module here and there I love what I've seen of the new rose-thorned fey. Does it play as good as it looks?

I didn't realize until the new wallpaper that they're on a dam. I am sufficiently stoked.

Your transitional Pathfinder subscription is associated with this profile (Riskbreaker), so if you are signed in with this profile when you order the Ongoing Pathfinder Subscription, it will automatically wait until the transitional subscription expires before beginning.

Thanks,
cos

Thanks for the quick response. I think I'm all set!

Assuming the speculation on 4th edition is true, does anyone know how/if this will affect the recently-revamped Star Wars RPG? Will Wizards try to revamp all their d20 products to fit whatever changes they'll make in 4th edition, or will it be more a D&D-specific change?

I can't seem to figure out how to subscribe to Pathfinder starting at issue 2, because I get issue 1 from my Dragon/Dungeon rollover. I tried the transition page, but it wouldn't let me select anything but starting with issue 1, which I didn't want to commit to because it seemed to be charging me for it instead of giving me rollover credit. The regular subscription option doesn't let you select which issue to start with, and I don't want to buy issue 1 twice. What do I do?

Heathansson wrote:

Nicolas Logue wrote:

Yeah, we ramp up the damage on the force powers as house rule when we play...of course we ramp up the dark side too...

Never underestimate the power of the dark side.

I also keep track of every PCs dark side points secretly. I never tell them when they get one. It's awesome.

*scribbles down some dark side points for Logue for having that idea in the first place*

Thanks a ton for the prompt replies. The fact that I can even make a topic like this feeling confident I'll get an official reply speaks volumes for the folks at Paizo.

Sorry if this has already been brought up and discussed, but I've got a concern regarding GameMastery products and their relationship with Pathfinder.

One of the things I was really excited about when Pathfinder was announced was that I wouldn't need to buy anything else beyond my Pathfinder subscription to fully enjoy it. I'm not sure if it was by choice or encouraged by WotC (or a little of both), but a lot of the content in the magazines referenced a lot of stuff from the regularly-produced WotC splatbooks.

While the books weren't necessary, I've sort of got a completist mindset and wasn't always pleased with the minimal detail in the magazines in regards to the references, causing me to buy the splatbooks with some regularity to get the more fleshed-out details of the source material being drawn from. I understand the word-limit of the articles, but can't help feeling a bit left out when the space-saving technique is to reference another product.

My concern is that the GameMastery products will be used as references in Pathfinder, leaving me feeling obligated to collect the GameMastery products so that I feel like I can get the whole experience of the Adventure Paths. While I do plan on picking up as many of the GameMastery products that fit my needs as I can afford, I feel that Pathfinder's increased page-count and cost compared to the magazines warrants a lack of need for referenced material.

Will Paizo be continuing the trend of cross-referencing different product lines? While I understand the usefulness and value of the practice, the paranoid side of me can't help but feel a bit gouged, as I am not within the demographic of gamers who can afford every product and I am within the demographic that feels I don't need to in order to fully enjoy the Pathfinder experience.

Thanks in advance, and I hope I'm not offending anyone with this line of thought. I'd just like to know what exactly to expect regarding the connection between the product lines.

It'd be extra sweet if the maps fit together as the Adventure Paths changed course, depending on Paizo's plans, but that wouldn't preculde me one way or another from buying one regional map that will last for a year's-worth (more than that of actual play time) of published product. The level of quality I've seen so far from the Pathfinder team makes this issue a no-brainer for me as a solid (and cool) investment.

They (Wizards) did mention a few times about bringing similar content to the internet. I assume that the people who work for Hasbro and Wizards specifically on D&D do it because they love D&D, not because thye're big fans of Hasbro.

Maybe they're somewhat right about internet content being the way to go for whatever it is they have planned? Along with that, perhaps they trusted Paizo to use their muscle in the industry to bring along top-notch OGL products, which would, if successful, help the industry as a whole and thus, WotC's new online product/s?

I know those are a couple of big maybes, not to mention a bit idealistic, but behind the business these are real guys and gals working on this stuff who obviously care a lot about pen-and-paper roleplaying, both at WotC and at Paizo. They've got to think about this kind of stuff, even if their PR people don't let them say much publicly. Maybe, just maybe, the Wizards realized (or thought/hoped) that allowing such a professional company like Paizo to concentrate fully on the OGL would only be good for the industry, which means good for them, too.

EP Healy wrote:

What motivates your orcs? As a species, are they fixated on anything?

I was thinking that they have a natural tendency towards a structured dominance competition. like chickens' pecking order, or dogs and their relatives. They are obsessed with knowing their place, and trying to assert their dominance over anyone that they can.

Hmmm... new thought. Give them a strong affinity for dogs; instant culture clash with goblins.

Before you mentioned dogs, the natural thing that popped into my head was wolves. I know orcs are traditionally matched with worgs, but, going with the also-mentioned boar idea, you could maybe make a tribal system, with different groups associated with different animals.

I really, really like the concept of using real-world, known animals (even if they're dire versions) like boars over things like worgs. It makes them almost more feral, and goes along with the idea of their corruption being a natural choice, a wong turn in nature.

EP Healy wrote:

Any thoughts on cultural additions that, while mostly fluff, would help make your orcs new and exciting to play with?

I've had a few ideas floating around, but I'm still thinking about it. I was thinking it might be cool to base them on celtic warrior culture, bare chested with plaid pants and torcs and spikey hair, but I'm not sure how that fits with the rest of my...

This is really cool too. If you like the tribe idea, you could modify each group to sort of fit the animal. The boar group could be Celtic, maybe the wolf group with sort of a twisted Roman feel, seemingly structured and organized but more with the alpha wolf, get-ahead mindset.

One of the things I ve always struggled with was how to run a SW camapign in which the players would not feel as if their living in the shadows of Obi-Wan, Luke, Han and the rest of the main characters, and that their actions where just as if not more important than than the original SW cast of characters.

Maybe it's just my players, but I've never had a hard time getting them to enjoy the Star Wars experience while pretty much completely ignoring all the main characters from the movies. Gambling cruise ships, swoop races, intergalactic gangsters, extended universe characters, the occasional stop at a super-famous place like Tatooine, using the Force and having the force-sensitive character/s get discovered by the Empire and chased down by some power-hungry Outer Rim Moff all worked pretty well to create the right feel without having to worry much about what Luke, Han and Leia were up to; I guess I just gave the players more than enough to worry about on their own.

Star Wars is big enough (and I think this is proven by the myriad of adventures all the characters, big and small, manage to go on throughout the huge number of books so far released) that epic things can take place with the idea that the "important" characters are way too preoccupied to deal with everything across the whole galaxy (and beyond). That's probably the easiest tool to use to hook players: face them with a threat where the idea is that they're the only ones who know enough and have enough time or resources/insider information to do something about it. It's a big Republic/Empire and an even bigger galaxy.

I enjoyed it for what it was, and I didn't find myself checking my watch every five minutes to see if it was almost over yet. That being said, I'll have to cast my lot in with the "not as great as it could have been" crowd. I mean seriously, Calypso? Now we have a goddess throwing her weight around?

I actually liked that part of the plot. Barbosa turned into one of the coolest characters for me because of the whole 'work with your back, not with shady dealings' stuff (although he was in a shady deal with the goddess at the time). Calypso was more representing the chaos of the sea than a goddess in the typical sense, which I thought was very piratey. It also reminded me of the second movie when they argued whether Davy Jones was in love with a woman or the sea; turns out it was both. Kinda cool.

Bottom line though, is that I didn't regret spending the $10 to see it, and as far as movies go these days, any flick that I don't regret spending money on is a winner in my book.

Seriously.

Khezial Tahr wrote:

Sorry, but you can't read a work of literature and fully understand it, if you ignore the purpose of what is written.

"The old man is just an old man, and the sea is just the sea." We seem to be on opposite wavelengths here. All I'm saying is that a person can take something else out of any work that wasn't "intended" to be there. That's what modern art is all about--you may not like it, but some people do. Each viewer takes what they want out of the experience, even if the artist was merely expressing his angst over lack of a heroin fix. Back to the original topic, if someone finds a message of humility and redemption in Judas' final act, then more power to them--even if that's not what the "purpose" was.

The Gospels weren't written as literature, they were written as history. The purpose was to present the facts as the writers' perceived them; the interpretation is up to you. Your reaction to Judas's death and the cirumstances surrounding it are your own. What you get out of it can't be wrong unless you mess up the facts (for example, with an improper or inadequate translation).

I'd pay for a nice map, and probably do so for each new adventure path, especially if they all look as good as Varisia.

I've heard a lot of people say it was terrible. What were they expecting? It's exactly in the footsteps of the first two. It's fun piratey action, not Lord of the Rings. I definitely got my money's worth and want to see it again.

Pro-firearms vote... and pro-fireworks. Thank you, ancient China. It won't hurt the flavor of the medieval setting any more than 9th-level spells, and firearms are more realistic for the setting.

I voted for the Whispering Cairn, but it was hard seeing it separated from Diamond Lake. Tie goes to the location where the dungeon-delving takes place.

Sharoth wrote:

City of Heroes / Villians all the way! You other loosers should try it! ;-P

I am a cheap Bastard and hate paying fees for MMORPGs

Considering the hours most MMO players put into them, it actually turns out to be a pretty inexpensive hobby compared to, say, a couple of nights at the movies a month.

Lust is the most deadly in a way, in that it can topple heroes who have overcome all of the other sins. I suppose you could say that about any of them, but I think if you're weak to any of them then lust will also be on your list, whereas even someone like Lancelot, heroic in every other respect, can be tainted by lust.

That doesn't mean lust makes for the most intriguing villainous focus, but it certainly has a way of corrupting do-gooders.

As an extension of your line of thought, I thought maybe in quashing Paizos market share, they might force staff lay-offs there and thus reap some excellent writing talent from unemployment queues.

Just a thought.

DD

Half the WotC writers for D&D books are freelancers anyway, with Paizo's staff and regular contributors among them in past, present and future endeavors. I saw Nic Logue's name on the cover of one of the upcoming products, and I'm pretty sure he's on board to help with Pathfinder. Not to mention James Jacobs.

Morrowind just has way more character. Oblivion's world is about as cut-and-dry as they could've made it, filled with grass, trees and the same-looking ruins everywhere, with super basic towns and cities and an as-uninspired "hell", whereas Morrowind starts in a swamp town and only gets grittier and more and more original.

They both have tons of depth below the surface. It's just that Morrowind's surface is outstanding and Oblivion's, no matter how great they look it look, is sort of bland.

I love the idea of getting that many adventures in one go, as well as the idea of using "new" authors so we can really get a good variety and give more DMs out there a chance to shine.

However, wouldn't it be somewhat confusing now that Paizo can't use any licensed WotC stuff? By that I mean it might be tough to make sure enough quality submissions remember to, say, not include mindflayers and other stuff owned by WotC.

Maybe after a year or so of Pathfinder there'd be enough new monsters, items, prestige classes, etc that authors could be encouraged to focus on the Pathfinder world to limit OGL violations.

Maybe Exhibition to Castle Greyhawk is them starting to directly support it. It's possible they could've been content with the material Dragon and Dungeon produced for the setting, and, now that they've decided not to renew their lease with Paizo, are beginning to support it more directly because of its profitability.

If Greyhawk material has always sold well, then there shouldn't be much worry that it'll disappear. However, with the main outlet for Greyhawk material being gone soon, they might want to find out just how well fans will accept their hardcover, full-length, single-volume style. It would probably be a smart business investment, especially considering they have Hasbro to answer to.

There's also the fact that we don't know the details yet on what sort of online material they plan to replace the magazines with.

Me too! And Third!! and Fourth!!! I am just glad that the SPIRIT of these great magazines is still alive and kicking. WotC made a very foolish mistake, and we are trying to make sure the hobby does not take too much of a blow because of it.

I actually think it's going to send the hobby to new heights. The community that Dragon and Dungeon created won't just disperse; with the internet (not to mention the OGL and companies like Paizo utilizing it), there are lots of ways for the hobby to expand. WotC closing the door on the magazines will only create a vacuum that'll be filled by countless independents, and probably bring a lot of the pre-existing independents more to the fore.

A lot of different groups of motivated, creative people working to expand the hobby is better than one company running everything. It's the spirit of competition and the old 'two heads are better than one' combined, and hopefully Pathfinder will be the start of something really special for a lot more people than just the fine folks at Paizo.

Depressed about Dragon and Dungeon being cancelled? Worried about Pathfinder not being worth the money? Four words: read the Whispering Cairn! The company behind that adventure is running Pathfinder, a brand new world full of fresh ideas and limitless potential? Sounds good!

I'm most interested in what kinds of pantheon and archenemies we'll be seeing when Pathfinder starts hitting us monthly. If they can do the things they do/did with someone else's Greyhawk vision, what will they be able to do when allowed to start from scratch? It's like a top-notch cook getting his or her own restaurant after years of service being the industry's best.

Obviously, if we're here, we're all big enough fans of the magazines and enough of their content to care about Pathfinder and wonder if it's worth it. While they won't be able to deliver the comforting usuals we're used to, I look at it as if they're just reorganzing how their creativity is presented.

I'm very excited to see what Paizo can do once they get the ball rolling. I envision an adventure path that they're allowed to devote an entire hundred pages to every month, free of the constraints of having to include material from multiple other published works and full of lovingly-crafted details usable in any setting.

If the introductory story arc doesn't sound exciting, I trust that the proven writers they've got working on it can make the most of things. Personally, it'll be nice to get a break from all the core elements they had to work with before, such as the standard pantheon and planes. I believe that creativity can go a long way in making the mundane exciting, and these guys have proven that they're ultra-creative inside a box; look what they've done with the Isle of Dread. What happens when you give them a whole world to create?

Sure, I was very surprised and saddened to read that the magazines were coming to an end, and I'll miss almost every bit of content, but what I loved most was how all those little things added up to a deep, enjoyable, and most of all fun game of D&D. I honestly think Pathfinder will be a labor of love from the industry's best, and even if I don't plan on running every six-month campaign arc, I'll eat up all the extra ideas they come up with along the way. It'll be like all the goodies of the hardbound books, but with a different creative group behind them. Two heads are better than one, as it were.

I think I'm a sucker for level one adventures, because Escape From Meenlock Prison really jumped out at me as having an amazing blend of creepy horror, intriguing plot and fun gameplay. I haven't seen an adventure that made me think 'wow' as often as this one since The Whispering Cairn.

Both are very much top-notch adventure sites and, for me, it doesn't get much better than them, pushing your mind and imagination to the limit to make up for low levels.

Hey, that's pretty cool. Way to go the extra mile! It looks great.

You could RP it out, having a member of the Horns be there when your PC drags the rhagodessa in to be stuffed. The member could be a higher-up who is excited to see the beast and hear the tale, offering to induct your PC then and there while covering the costs of the taxidermy.

I guess that doesn't give you an answer on cost, but it might be a fun way to play it out, since I also have no idea on cost/time.

So... where did these two go? I may have missed something in the previous adventure that killed them off/removed them from the Sea Wyvern, but if I didn't, what happened to them?

If they died between adventures (presumably by drowning), why develop them in the first place? I guess Skald served as a red herring for Rowyn, but just having them both disappear seems a little weak.

Maybe their deaths are examples of the harsh situation the PCs have gotten themselves into?

The cereborg in particular caught my attention, not just because of the psionics, but also because of the added flavor of living "far to the north in castles carved from solid ice".

Adding that to the History section and making up some connections that led the descendants of that brother to the far north can lead to some fun surprises, maybe like an age-old rivalry between the two groups of ogre magi that the PCs can get caught in the middle of.

Good times.

STAP does this in two ways: it offers "regional" feats in the Player's Guide, with the recommendation that they be bonus feats, which at least gets the PCs thinking about what their character is like and where they're from, while the feats themselves aren't overly powerful compared to normal feats; and it uses affiliations from the Player's Handbook II in Dragon 348's Savage Tidings article, which further develops characters and gives them something to belong to, again without being overly powerful.

While either of these methods aren't going to get any overly deep characters by themselves, combined they are enough to give players a clear direction for their characters without having to do a whole lot of work (some might say it's actually fun to decide which bonus feat/affiliation you want) and also granting them some crunchy bonuses (though those bonuses aren't game-breakingly powerful).

The Forgotten Realms books have some detailed regional feats you can use/steal ideas from, and the PHII has a bunch of affiliations. Kolja Raven Liquette posted a good article on the D&D official website about character "dead levels" with some skills you can give the core classes on the levels where they don't earn anything new besides HD and saves and such. That's got some good ideas on perceptible bonuses that don't actually alter the character's power much.

For my two cents, I like the (somewhat underpowered but cool)regional feat idea and the idea of cool affiliations, because they give your players enough direction that, with some good DMing, they feel rewarded without feeling forced and the rest comes as the plot evolves. Just giving the characters a dice roll bonus now and then for acting out their characters is, combined with the above tactics, usually enough to get the ball rolling without breaking the game or awarding any extra EXP.

I doubt an online poll will do anything, and a petition would probably backfire. Then again, I might just be in a cynical mood about the subject. Who knows?

What about a downloadable version, with the Wormfood articles and player-friendly maps being one purchase option (for players) and the adventures lined up together with handouts and whatnot (for DMs) as a second purchase option?

I'm not sure what sort of cost it'd be, but to get all the info from all 12 issues of Dungeon and all the Wormfood (and maybe Ecology of [AoW-related monsters], if that's doable) articles in one bunch where I could print it all up in a big binder of my own might be worth it.