Saint_Meerkat's page

Greetings, fellow stargazers!

Does anyone have a MapTool campaign file or tokens for Among The Living (or any in that series) they would be willing to share with me?

Thanks!

Seattle people (or people who know a lot about Seattle) - I am thinking about flying up a few days early for PaizoCon and doing some sightseeing, including renting a car and driving up to Vancouver one day. Any suggestions for a first time visitor? Money saving advice?

I have wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest ever since I fell in love with the scenery in X-Files and Stargate SG-1.

Hey, friends...

I am planning on flying to PaizoCon from the sunny Bahamas this year, and I am a little bit concerned about meeting the PFS criteria of having physical copies or watermarked PDFs of the novels in order to use the associated chronicle sheets. I am packing for a month, so I am a little reluctant to throw four or five paperbacks that I've already read into an already heavy bag. And I'm even more reluctant to purchase PDFs of books I've already read.

Does anyone have any advice in this area? Do I need to just forget using those chronicle sheets at this event?

I would definitely pay $1.99 apiece for apps that were based on the Critical Hits, Critical Fumble, and Plot Twist decks. I would probably pay $2.99. I don't think I would pay over $5.

Has this been tossed about yet?

Hello, friends. Spoilers aplenty.

In reviewing Silent Tide for tomorrow's game, I noticed a pretty stark difference between the way Grandmaster Torch is presented in ye olde venerable Silent Tide and the last of the First Steps module. In the former, he's presented as a no-nonsense, quid pro quo underworld information broker. In the latter, he's presented as the head of a group of benevolent watchdogs that seem to be Golarion's version of Anonymous. I've been trying to come up with some ways to make the difference a little less jarring, particularly for the player who instantly and enthusiastically embraced the Shadow Lodge after that encounter last week.

(I prefer the way ol' G-Pain was portrayed in Season 0, but I didn't start the thread to editorialize.)

In reviewing the messageboards, I found two people who'd made suggestions about this issue.

I decided that some Pathfinders had been abandoned by the Society during the original invasion, the Lodge needed the skull to try a hail mary 'speak with dead' to see if they knew the Pathfinder's remains.

This is good. I like this. However, I am reluctant to use it because it adds story to another author's adventure - something I do all the time in home play, but not in "living style" campaigns.

(edited for length) You can still have him in charge of the Shadow Lodge. You just have him present it as being loyal to the Society and wanting what is best of the individual Pathfinder agents. Going with the general fluff you find in the Field Guide.

You can present the Shadow Lodge agents the PCs have to deal with in Season 1 & 2 as rogue and rebel agents as well as outsiders trying to corrupt Torch’s vision and mission for the Shadow Lodge. ...Torch is not wild about this separatist faction of Shadow Lodge agents destroying everything he had built...

While clever, it is more complex than the previous. And far-reaching. Not only does it add story to many author's adventures, it also a campaign story arc. This would be a great idea for a home game, but not for Society play.

I was personally leaning toward having Torch warmly (heh, heh) greet and congratulate the PCs, ask them to open the safes as a favor to him, and provide the needed information regardless of whether or not they are successful. If they are unsuccessful, or refuse, their rewards would be adjusted accordingly. That seems to me to be the best way to keep the big picture, the world of the Pathfinder, consistent for the players with the smallest impact on Michael Kortes' most excellent adventure.

What do you guys think? Suggestions? Ideas? Comments?

I ran a playtest of To Delve the Dungeon Deep tonight. It's a good little adventure. I particularly enjoyed the part about the huckster skulk prophet. However, I had difficulty with two portions of the module.

1. The first was the Suicide Well in Area 12. In the text for the room, it states that "...any creature that [looks down into the well] is subject to a suggestion that urges it to throw itself into the hole." However, the suggestion spell text states that "asking the creature to do some obviously harmful act automatically negates the effect of the spell." This is confusing. The wording should probably be changed. How would/did you handle this apparent contradiction?

(Also, because this is an introductory scenario, and the Haunt rules are found in the Advanced Player's Guide, they would make a good appendix -- with a note in the room description referring the GM to it. It's not clear that players are supposed to enter initiative when someone looks down the well unless you have the Haunt rules at hand.)

2. The second issue was regarding how I perceived two of the three factions introduced in this scenario were presented. Amara Li of the Lantern Lodge was a friendly, generous person. But Major Colson Madris of the Andoran faction was described as ostentatious and pompous, and dropped a mild insult on the party. And the brusque exchange with Trade Prince Aaqir al’Hakam (Qadira) made my players decide to only take him one of the many trade agreements they found in the structure.

This seems to me to be inconsistent with the stated purpose for the First Steps adventures. I am all for colorful characters, but I had to do some improvising in order to feel that I had communicated the aims and objectives of the factions involved. Am I making much ado about nothing?

I am planning on running the First Steps series at a local store, and am thinking about using MapTool on my laptop's screen instead of using a mat.

Are the maps from those adventures available without the location keys and text? If not, has anyone photoshopped the existing maps? Recreated them in another program for use with a virtual tabletop?

Pathfinder Society play will begin in Nassau, The Bahamas with a special holiday premiere session on Sunday, December 18th at 1PM. We'll be playing at The C.A.G.E. Club off Soldier Road near Marathon Mall.

We will begin regular weekly play on Sunday, January 8th at 1PM.

The contact at the store is Stan: (242) 393-4652. The store's website is C.A.G.E. Club

You can contact me (Ken Austin) here or at saint dot meerkat at gmail dot com.

More information will follow.

I'm very excited to be a part of launching PFS down here. Some of you may remember me being involved in PFS in the Knoxville, Tennessee; and convention play around the southern US. I have obviously relocated, and am looking forward to resuming my role as Paizo evangelist here in this beautiful new setting.

I recently relocated to Nassau, and am interested in running or playing in a Pathfinder or Pathfinder Society game. My new job starts in a couple of weeks, and after that I anticipate being available any weeknight and any time on the weekends.

Are there any Paizonians on the islands?

Google Drawings! Who's going to use it?

Google (Wave + Drawings + Voice + Chat) > OpenRPG?

Persistent virtual spaces like Second Life and the late There.com always seemed to me to have a lot of potential for the extension of a campaign setting. Why haven't they been more widely employed by authors, publishers, and homebrew GM's?

I was stoked when Never Winter Nights, with its DM tools for creating your own online adventuring space, was announced. And the sheer number of people who turned out their own reproductions of modules A1-4 in the months following its release tells me that I wasn't the only one. But it didn't take off.

Millions of people quest and do the XP grind that Poppa Gary and Uncle Dave popularized, shelling out $10/month or more to explore online worlds despite their lack of Vancian magic. Everquest and World of Warcraft have been the source of hundreds of hours of enjoyment for me. But my personal impact on those massively multiplayer worlds isn't profound, like is at my Thursday night Pathfinder table.

We are spending a lot of resources and energy on turning the monitor into our game table. And we've gotten pretty good at it. Fantasy Grounds, RPGTools, Map Tools, d20Pro, are getting better and easier to use. I enjoyed playing Living Greyhawk and Blackmoor online. Tough on the arse, but it beats eating a mod, right? Maybe it has been difficult to develop a thriving online TT RPG community because we are forcing a 1970's analog on potential participants. Most of us have a supercomputer in our hands at the tabletop now, but all we use it for is a high tech book bag and dice cup.

Why hasn't something intermediary arrived on the scene? Where is the online equivalent of the neighborhood haunted house, where everybody chipped in, decorated for a week, and let the whole community have a great time enjoying their efforts? One part True Dungeon, one part Pathfinder Society, one part Second Life, one part Dungeon A Day?

I challenge everyone and anyone reading this post -- authors, publishers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists -- to begin thinking of a way that I could learn about and participate in your stories and share with you my own in a totally new manner.

Let's take the participatory tabletop story telling and role playing game into the 21st century.

We're overdue.

Josh (or those who might know),

Are there any flip-mats or map packs suitable for use with this adventure? I really enjoyed using the flip mats I already owned with the first adventure in this series.

BTW, JJF: My group loved the first part

Is anyone familiar with Brian Lumley's Titus Crow novels? I always thought they would make a good jumping off point for something like this product -- whatever happened to Arkham, etc.

Can't wait to see it.

Cosmo,

My order was missing item PZO9215 - City Map Folio Print Edition. Can you send that to me with my next subscription shipment?

Many thanks,

Ken

I'd like to have some Pathfinder themed Firefox personae. Is something like that worth the time and energy it would take to produce?

Organized Play, Knoxville's newest and best full service games and comics store, is pleased to announce OpieCon I! Join us for a weekend of Pathfinder Society, Shadowrun Missions, and Witch Hunter: Dark Providence!

OpieCon, just like all our other mini-cons so far, is absolutely free.

Something to bear in mind when deciding if you want to come:Players will be seated for the events in the following order of priority: Players who are registered on Warhorn and show up on time are seated first, players not registered but who show up on time are seated next, and regardless of registration, late players are seated if space is available. Be on time!

Warhorn link to OpieCon here.

Pathfinder Schedule - subject to change

Friday, January 22
Slot 1 7:00pm - 11:00pm
PFS #11: The Third Riddle (1-5)
PFS #16: To Scale the Dragon (5-9)

Saturday, January 23
Slot 2 9:00am - 1:00pm
PFS #24: Decline of Glory (1-7)
PFS #37: The Beggar's Pearl (1-7)

Slot 3 2:00pm - 6:00pm
PFS #29: The Devil We Know—Part I: Shipyard Rats (1-7)
PFS #39: Citadel of Flame (1-5)

Slot 4 7:00pm - 11:00pm
PFS #30: The Devil We Know—Part II: Cassomir's Locker (1-7)
PFS #40: Hall of Drunken Heroes (7-11)

Sunday, January 24
Slot 5 9:00am - 1:00pm
PFS #11: The Third Riddle (1-5)
PFS #35: Voice in the Void (1-7)

Slot 6 2:00pm - 6:00pm
PFS #33: Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible (1-5)
PFS #38: No Plunder, No Pay (7-11)

Slot 7 7:00pm - 11:00pm
Pathfinderpalooza (All levels)
Friday night and Saturday morning, tell us which PFS adventures you need to play! We'll do our best to put together a table can to help you catch up!

Venue Information:
Organized Play is a gaming and comics shop in downtown Knoxville, TN - we're located diagonally from the historic Bijou Theatre, and just across the street from the First Tennessee skyscraper. You can find our full Web site at organizedplay.org; we also keep a strong presence on Twitter under the handle @organizedplay.

Full address: 221 Cumberland Ave., Knoxville, TN 37902
Phone: 865-521-0690
E-mail: owner@organizedplay.org

What do you guys think? Did the sycophantic sponge of the infamous O.J. mansion inspire the god who wants his priests to stay drunk all the time?

You decide.

Does anybody know what happened to Lorraine Williams of TSR infamy? The last I heard, she had left the country.

Cosmo,

For some reason, I ordered two bestiaries. I think it's because I preordered it and later added that subscription.

Can you pull that off my sidecart and adjust what I owe you?

Thanks!

Starting Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Opening of Thraxus Vastus

The Lord Emperor of Aradia has put out the call for stalwart adventurers to explore, map, and catalog the flora and fauna of the vast uninhabited continent of Thraxus Vastus. Masters of the arcane arts, healers, swordsmen, and those skilled in the ways of the land and of animals are needed to help prepare Thraxus Vastus for colonization.

It is the will of The Chosen of Leastra, Thrax VIII (bless his name and extend his reign), that this newly discovered massive land, rich in resources and varied in terrain, provided to him by divine providence for the enrichment and expansion of the Aradian empire, be colonized and added to his glorious realm.

If you would have your name remembered for all posterity among the honored heroes, to serve your emperor, to be richly compensated, and to be awarded an estate at a location of your choosing in the new world, report to the Minister of Manifest Destiny this Wednesday at 6PM at Organized Play in downtown Knoxville.

This campaign will use the Pathfinder Core Rules, begin at first level, with maximum hit points, 150 gold, and first set of clothing free. Rich character backgrounds are encouraged but not required, and will be rewarded with a masterwork weapon of your choosing.

All you need is a pencil. On second thought, we can even provide one of those for you.

Character Creation begins at 6PM, October 14th. Bring any 3.5 sources you'd like to request to use in addition to the Pathfinder Core Rules.

Organized Play is a full service FLGS located at 221 Cumberland Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. For more information, contact the owner at (865) 521-0690, or owner@organizedplay.org.

Cosmo,

I need to change the payment method on this month's subscription shipment. How do I go about doing that?

I'm starting a Pathfinder game in a campaign world of my own creation, and I am eager to use, and allow use of, all my Arcana Unearthed/Evolved, Arcane Might, Divine Might, etc., with it.

Does anyone here have enough experience with the Malhavoc Press products to make a knowledgeable guess or a first-hand observation that might help me out?

We're running PFS Scenario One: Silent Tide this Saturday at Organized Play, a new game store in downtown Knoxville. We're going to do character creation starting at 10AM.

At the moment, there are two copies of the Pathfinder Core Rules on his shelves. If you're not ready to purchase the rulebook yet, we will be happy to help you make a character or print a pregen for you.

Organized Play* is a full service FLGS located at 221 Cumberland Avenue in downtown Knoxville. Lots of free parking on weekends.

*This store is not affiliated with the organization that oversaw the last few years of the RPGA Living City campaign.

I just noticed this con on WarHorn.

GameCon Memphis
September 25th- 27th

I am posting this because of Josh's thread from a few weeks ago about how can we promote PFS. Some suggested getting motivated volunteers to cons.

According to WarHorn, they still need judges for
Saturday at 2PM: MIsts of Mwangi

Sunday at 8AM: Murder on the Silken Caravan
Sunday at 2PM: Frozen Fingers of Midnight

It doesn't look like the Sunday at 2PM is going to make unless someone charismatic goes to the LFR mustering area and nabs the extras.

Any Paizonians in the greater Memphis area?

Dude, who let the girl in?

Don't let her use your dice. You'll get girl cooties on them.

What's that, Lisa? But you're cool. You're like...like...an honorary boy, or something.

/Lisa can use my dice anytime.

I read on a blog of a Paizo employee that you could swap a Pathfinder item card for a kiss. Somebody at GenCon demoed this, I understand. I gave my wife an item card tonight and she stared at me like I had grown a third eye.

I want a refund.

Or pictures. Of the card. And the young lady in question.

(He's out of town, right?)

I didn't find what days I was free to go to D*C until today, too late to pre-register. It appears there are slots left for the PFS scenarios.

Do we know who is going to be running PFS? I'd like to play, but I am hesitant to show up at the world's biggest sci-fi con without being preregistered for games. You know?

(Alternatively, does anyone around the Knoxville, TN area want to play that weekend? I'll play or run.)

Cosmo,

I placed this order on August 7th, and it says the items below are "pending." What does that mean? Are they backordered?

Earthdawn Player's Guide—3rd Edition
Earthdawn Gamemaster's Guide—3rd Edition

Thanks
Ken

Cosmo,

I'd like to add my order 1206517 to my regular monthly shipment, if that's possible.

Ken

Is anyone running anything tonight?

Is anyone working on a comprehensive index for the Pathfinder setting books and adventures? Is that something the fan website guidelines would allow?

I hope this is the right discussion thread.

I would be interested in purchasing posters or t-shirts with the iconic class portraits on them. I know full color t-shirts are expensive, but I would love to have an Ezren shirt and a Harsk shirt.

Or, on a lighter note, wouldn't it funny to have a t-shirts that say:

I thought I hated Lorraine until I met Hasbro.

Is there any way, after the fact, for you to combine my two orders to save shipping? If not, I understand. The numbers are:

1064333
1064335

Thanks for your great products and customer service. Satisfied customer here.

Hello, fellow gamers!

I'm an experienced gamer who is interested in getting into any play-by-post game, but I prefer Euro-fantasy and Lovecraft/C.A. Smith weirdness.

I would like to learn and use the current Pathfinder rules as a show of support for Paizo, but I am open to any system. (I don't own 4E books yet.)

My writing and spelling is decent, I play well with others, and I don't try to drive or wreck the plot trolley.

Give me a shout back if you have a game I can join, or if you're willing to run a Pathfinder game for me and any others we can press-gang into service.

S. Meerkat

On the CY Timeline for Greyhawk in Oerth Journal #1, there is an entry for 580 CY stating that the Magnificent Talking Goat Party was formed in Greyhawk. Can anyone point me toward more information on this organization with a peculiar moniker? Any PDF I can purchase? Or maybe someone just knows what it is and can post here?

I'm excited about the Dragon Compendium product, and plan on getting it. However, I am really, really pumped about the Best of Oerth Journal Hardback. I hear the original editor-in-chief is coming back to head the project. Is this true?

That was one great periodical.

Anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for good play-by-post Dungeons and Dragons games?

If you don't mind a plug, my current favorite is the Realms of Adventure game(s) hosted at RPOL.net. I won't go into a great amount of detail, but the best part about it (from an experienced play-by-poster's point of view) is that they have a large community of DM's from which a replacement will come if your DM has to quit mid-campaign. You don't have to start over.

They use 3.5 and they do a really good job with the Forgotten Realms setting. Players start at 3rd level, and they're looking for DM's and players now.

The URL for their OOC forum at RPOL.net is:
http://www.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=2212&gn=RoA:+OOC+Forum&date=1105385 467