Sebastian's page

Why would you ever trust them? They lied to our face. Not two weeks before 4th edition was announced (and well into development) their employees were on their own boards swearing up and down that there were no plans yet for a 4th edition. Their claim to fame was a card game designed to be addictive. Trust? why on earth would you ever? I can see liking their products, but trust them? really?

<sigh> We all know that any company will deny this until they are ready to launch officially. This has been discussed ad nauseaum before, and is reasonable. Paizo never mentioned that they were going to launch PF (a system not entirely compatible with with their early output) until they did. The only difference is that people didn't pester Paizo about what game system they were launching every five minutes. Who you trust and don't trust is up to you, but some of us don't wear lead-lined helmets.

And it is less about trust, and more about understanding how companies operate.

Morgen wrote:

That's the kind of thing you do for a closed beta, not a public play test. Hasbro has too many lawyers.

Impossible. You can never have too many lawyers.

Counselor, I concur!

Ask your DM.

I'll stick to polyamory. All of the fun, none of the paperwork.

If you've purchased a hardcover PDF of a Pathfinder product, you may have gotten an email about a new download option. As of today, the PDFs for Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game hardcovers and the Inner Sea World Guide have been updated to include a more screen friendly Lite download option.

What are the differences?

The Lite versions of the PDF have been exported with compressed and simplified page backgrounds that still resonate with the branding used in all Pathfinder products. They've also had minor tweaks to their export options that make them more friendly to use on lower end machines and on tablets or phones.

The non-Lite versions of the PDF best represent their printed counterparts. They use the fully built backgrounds used in the print versions which contain higher quality background artwork and rendering.

The following products now have this download option available:

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook (OGL)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary (OGL)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide (OGL)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Players Guide (OGL)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2 (OGL)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Combat (OGL)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 3 (OGL)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide (PFRPG)

Going forward, PDFs of hardcover products will have both a normal PDF download and a Lite PDF download. They will continue to be available in One File per Chapter and Single File formats.

Please use this thread to report any issues or ask questions about the Lite PDFs.

Show me on the doll where they touched you.

Liz is to Paizo what the Oracle is to the Matrix.

Hmmm...yeah, I'm going to go with that. Except her cookies don't typically result in memory loss.

[paranoia] oh yeah, how do you know? [/paranoia]

I hear that when Liz wants to create art, she simply stares at the paper and drawing tools and they form the picture out of fear.

Liz's cookies are so awesome, Nabisco tried to steal her recipe once. Once.

Liz can feed garbage into a computer and not get garbage out.

Well, if.....Sebastian is involved with them, they must be soulsucking vampires.
I rest my case.

The economy, race relations, foreign affairs just to name a few have seriously gotten worse under his watch.

People are talking about topics that distract us from the real problems facing our nation.

President Obama in my opinion cares more about his re-election than doing the right thing for the USA.

Where are you Mr. President? We need a statesman NOT a politician.

Signed,
A first generation American citizen.

I don’t think Obama checks these messageboards much.

Dear Paizo Fans,

First off let me apologize for my long absence from the Internet. I don’t use it for anything beyond work email these days and I am about as far out of the electronic loop as is humanly possible – my own fault, and my undoing on many levels.

I deeply apologize for the debacle that was Sinister Adventures – I can honestly say there has been nothing in my life I regret more than attempting to run my own publishing company. I have done severe damage to my own finances over the past several years, ruined my reputation as a game designer, and transformed a hobby that used to be the most enjoyable part of my life into my own personal mire of misery and shame. But most importantly I have alienated a host of lovely people who love RPGS. I used to take great joy in communicating with my former fans, and felt a growing camaraderie with several of the people who enjoyed my work, or even hated my work, but just downright enjoyed this great hobby. I let those people down, betrayed them, and damaged their enthusiasm for the game, not to mention lost the hard-earned money they entrusted to me through pre-orders.

I dealt with the avalanche of problems Sinister experienced ineptly to say the least. The failure of this company combined with crushing stress from my 90 hour-a-week day job of the last three years shook the foundation of my sense of self. This led to a downward spiral of alcoholism and depression.

My recent move back to Hawaii has restored a great deal of the vitality and psychological well-being I lost over the last few years and I am finally in a place to take serious action against the start-up gaming company that has become my personal nemesis.

I have lost over $15,000 personally on this endeavor through my gross ineptitude as a publisher. I paid for a great deal of top quality art, web design and other start up costs and then as problems arose that siphoned off more funds, I found the company wallowing in destitution. As the problems piled up, I eventually lost any ability to deal with them and kept attempting to tell myself I would “get around to it soon” once I was able to save up more funds and free up more time. I grappled with the idea of bankruptcy, but didn’t want to end up not giving those who trusted me their money back.

Fortunately I have been able to shift some funds around recently and replenish Sinister’s coffers enough to get everyone their money back. To ensure this happens in a timely fashion I will not trust my own dire worthlessness with the task. Instead the heroic Lou is once again stepping up to bat.

Through the invaluable assistance of Louis Agresta – one of the truest friends a man could ask for – I am now in a position to refund all and sundry for their pre-orders to Sinister. Lou has very kindly offered to assist me yet again, this time pooling through my mangled attempts at record keeping to ensure all of you who have not yet been refunded get your money returned.

Lou has posted instructions and details above.

Now allow me to move off my own dire failures as a businessman and human being and move on to a more salient point.

Paizo Publishing is a true gem - A company full of caring individuals who are entirely the opposite of Sinister Adventures. They care deeply about their fans, their authors, and the hobby. From my close contact with them for years, first as a rabid fan and aspiring writer, then as a go-to freelancer, then as a brief employee I have a unique view of the fine people of Paizo inside and out. They are compassionate, professional, creative, enthusiastic, and possessed of a deep well of forgiveness and generosity. They don’t just uphold high standards of how companies should operate – they set the standards as far as I’m concerned.

It hurts me deeply that their remarkable feat of kindness and an attempt to rehabilitate the degenerate hobbyist and writer I have become over the last few years could result in any sort of backlash. These fine upstanding people pour their love, blood and sweat into their company daily.

To those of you hurt by the Sinister fiasco: I implore you to keep the sights of your (righteous) anger focused entirely on me. I will happily give ample opportunity for those of you slighted (or worse) by my mistakes and failures a chance to redress the wrongs you suffered at Sinister (and my) hands. I will gladly listen to your anger, apologize, and try to make amends as best I can at Paizocon. I will attempt to run games for those of you who suffered from Sinister’s flop, languishing in limbo while awaiting news or refunds from me.

I humbly apologize for the long and resounding silence and for thinking I could get things back on the rails.

Thank you for your time and patience. Please follow the instructions and details Lou posted above on how to FINALLY get your money back.

Yours,

Nicolas Logue

Ooo, I did not know that!

It's why I'm here! :D

LazarX wrote:

Shadowborn wrote:

Scott Betts wrote:

Again, is there an ethically-defensible argument for being upset with the demise of the pre-owned games market?

How about the paradigm of every other product on the market? I can buy a used car, second-hand clothing, used CDs and DVDs, and just about anything else. Why should games be any different?

Because unlike all those other things, software IS different. You're not buying a physical product which can't be duplicated with a single click. You're buying a license to use intellectual property. You're buying a product which could not have existed in the times when clothing and cards were invented.

And don't think the MPAA is that happy about people selling used cds and dvds either. They just don't have a way of shutting down those sales.

But sales of non physical licenses.... that's a whole new branch of law. One that's still in the evolution stage.

Again where does the intllectual property end though? The pre-owned car isn't just physical property -- it's readily copyable intellectual property, as is the book, or CD.

My biggest problem in this honestly comes down to the lack of protections for the consumer. Most of the licensing contracts contain "screw you at our whim" clauses that allow for immediate alteration of the arraignment (but only by the distributor), immediate and incontestable revocation clauses and other such crap.

I am especially vexed by these sorts of things when to comes to online only media. The companies want you to pay 40~60+ dollars for something, then spend more money on it in downloadable content and still reserve the right to take it all from you at some point in the future. That is crap and not something I'm going to put up with over something that is supposed to be entertaining and a form of relaxation.

This would be like Paizo reserving the right to come into your home and take your books away if they don't like the way you are playing with it or the fact...

Sorry, don't know where this topic has gone, just saw this and feel the need to comment.

What separates buying a physical product and IP is the "Second Sale Doctrine" which gives the owner of something, like a cd or dvd - the right to sell it. Also, a small percentage of money from blank CD and DVD sales go to record and movie studios (maybe software companies too) to pay for potential copies being made with them.

What makes this different is that you don't really buy these licenses to play the games. You pay for a non exclusive license of a duration not in perpetuity. So you own nothing you ARE NOT BUYING ANYTHING, you just happen to be in an agreement that involved giving them money.

Personally, I'd be ok with a market where games are on a service like a game version of spotify or netflix. That's mostly because I'm a fan of protecting IP, and that's a pretty good way of doing it. And also because people in the business have to use licenses to obtain IP from each other (movies get sync licenses for music, etc) so it's not a big deal to me.

However, the terms of most of this kinda stuff are basically set up to screw consumers and I'd like to see that change. but really, courts tend to side with consumers when they get screwed over by 10000 page legalize minute bullcrap, so I wonder how much of those types of terms would hold up anyway.

Just doing my part to educate about intellectual property.

Devick you would be right if I didn't buy games. The companies openly admit this when in the owner's manual they call me the owner of the game. That instance and copy of the game are mine to do with what I see fit so long as I don't produce unauthorized copies and sell them as the same game -- the same goes for copyrights too -- I own the car I buy, however I can't build a copy and sell it without authorization.

It's the same with books, blueprints, car designs, shoes, and video games.

People are acting like one type of 'intellectual property' isn't the same as other types, it's all the same copyright laws.

What we are talking about here is an industry's attempt to force a supply side profit booster by limiting your rights as a property owner. Instead they should focus on making a better product as that always works better.

I'm sorry, I was a little unclear in my statement. When you buy a physical game, then yes you ABSOLUTELY own it and can sell, per the second sale doctrine. I was saying in the case of downloading games off the internet.

My bad.

EDIT: Also, there are actually copyright laws that deal with specific mediums, and laws that have exemptions for certain stuff (Works for hire, compulsory licenses). Remember that copyrights include the right to display your work to the public, and some stuff like that. You can buy a CD, but if you want to play it at a club, you're going to be in legal trouble (Well, probably not really, but in theory anyway).

So when you buy a car, you don't own the IP but you have a machine that has an engine and can propel you. When you buy a CD, you don't own the IP but instead of something that does something, the physical property is really just binary data on a piece of plastic, you're no more entitled to what comes out of it when its in a cd player or xbox than you are to the blueprints of the car.

Spectacular showing, everybody! I'm looking forward to releasing your future works through Paizo's webstore.

I'm also going to give a shameless plug for everybody to submit articles for Wayfinder. If you want a taste of what it's like to write for the RPG industry, it's a great way to get your foot in the door and get some writing credit. :D

Spanky the Leprechaun wrote:

For me, the issue is internet security: My son's gotten his online games hacked, I've heard that Sony's had a lot of trouble with credit card info being hacked, and I don't really trust them to be secure. I think it's just too big for them to protect.

If these Orbis rumors prove to be true, Sony just makes themselves a soft target for hackers. Anonymous or whomever will have a field day with them. I'm pretty sure the console will be a brick 3 months after launch.

Oh, yeah. The first guy that can haxx throught to that game download code and make 1,000,073 people's 54 inch televisions display a giant Goatse will be a made man.

That's MAD geek streetcred.
He'll be bigger than Leeeroy Jenkins, Son I Am Disappoint, and I used to be an adventurer til I took an arrow to the knee combined.

Xabulba wrote:

Sebastian wrote:

All I know is that I'm going to be pissed when I survive the zombie apocalypse, fire up the generator in my old farm house, and can't play any new console games.

You can still play zombie vs. shotgun.

Good point. Hmmm...I think my son is upstairs with the shotgun...

OMG! HE'S GONE, HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SON?!?

CARL? WHERE ARE YOU?

You're horrible.

I can't argue with that. 100% all round sensibility! :)

I plan on hoarding all of my gold into some sort of labyrinthian crypt with monsters to protect it.

Sebastian wrote:

Definitely rooting for the horde. This show would be so much better if only we didn't have to endure one more conversation about "Where's Carl!?!?" or see Lori do a 180 on an important topic (wasn't she needling Rick into killing Shane just a few episodes ago?).

Amen, brother. Lori getting all don't-touch-me after Rick told her what happened with Shane was the final straw. I've lost all sympathy for the character.

A border collie would do a better job looking after Carl...

Advice to WotC;

(1)Purchase a copy of the D&D Cyclopedia.

(2)Tidy up, but change nothing.

(3)Print.

(4)D&D for the win!

Pazio has a complicated d20 D&D-like RPG to the point of silliness going fine and sewn up, go back to the roots of D&D young WotC - find your soul again. Let go of the half-dragon/half-goblin/half-rabbit/half-elf (hmmm, that makes 2 - oh well best make it a L size PC) Wizard/Ranger/Plumber/Part-time Lover - and give us a class. Nothing wrong with being a Fighter now and a Fighter til death do you part.

Check list of D&D Cyclopedia;
(1) Classes - yep
(2) Skills - yep
(3) Feats (well called Weapon Mastery) - yep

We missing anything?

:)

However, was I the only one totally disappointed by the lack of death among those creepy living bastards. Come one undead horde! You've got the advantage! Kick their asses!

Also, what was up with the zombie visions Shane had before rising?

Think of it as the horde's version of a college Freshman Orientation - except with more blood and guts and less this is how you find your classroom.

And Shane would respond:

"NGHHGG GRRRNNGHH"

Whoa, now! There are kids on these boards. Watch the language.

Either way: GO TEAM ZOMBIE!

Edition warring is still boring and pointless.

Expert, Adept, Aristocrat, Warrior.

Honorable mention: Commoner.

More than any one type of item I would be happy with an improved crafting system.

Add a pants slot. It's been missing for far too long.

After last night's episode, I agree with Penny Arcade's take, and am now rooting for the zombies to win.

I knew you'd eventually come around to my way of thinking, Pony. Welcome to Team Zombie!

The Undead Horde: Winning with the crushing weight of numbers since 1968.

I think this is an excellent example of starting a thread intended to create controversy and engender flamewars.

But, more importantly, no sane and reasonable person should care about the existence of NCIS as a show. Cancellation would be an even better addition to the team.

Yes. The only reaction should be who cares?

Focusing on our differences weakens us.

Hey now, we are in no way liable for what the elf did of its own volition. We are honestly shocked at the level of depravity shown by the elf and its willful misuse of the power we granted. What's more we in no way endorse this sort of behavior and will be taking appropriate action to ensure our power isn't so misused again.

I think it's super.

I did not see a Congratulation post so adding one.

Congrats Adam Daigle with your new job at Paizo!

Now I will have an excuse on why I only see you at Conventions..;)

How did we go from killing animals to torturing them?

With gigantic leaps in failed logic my friend.

I am tempted to merge all the FAWTL threads into one ginormous threadball of awesomeness....

I like how much advice she had for the hit man: "Lady, you gave me the $730 dollars-in-cash-or-jewelry to kill someone, not get micro-managed, yeesh!"

The Grandfather wrote:

Why that suddenly triggers Sebastian's insulting behaviour I do not understand and since I don't visit this part of the board regularly I do not get the reference if there is any.

I like to think of it as painful honesty, and it's free with every purchase.

Yeah about that, I received an order from Ponylawyer.com and my painful honesty was missing from the box, who do I contact about that?

'Cause when I ask for Customer Service all I get is "Neigh."

"Sorry, that's not how I read the rules, I'm not going to allow that at my tables unless I hear otherwise from someone at Paizo."

I just found out that someone I've been working with for awhile is really good friends with the pony.

The only issue I have with it is that I've known her longer than I've known Sebastian.

CHECK YOUR FRIENDS!!!! They could be potential spies for the Pony Regime!!!

Happy Birthday Sebastian, have some hooker and blow.

But ... shouldn’t he make today special instead of same old same old?

Happy birthday Sebastian.

In ages past. From out of the dark tapestry comes a runaway planet, hurtling between Golarian and it's Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! the World's civilizations are cast in ruin!
Thousands of years later, the world is reborn...
A strange new land has risen from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With your companions the warriors, rouges and heroes, you shall pit your strength, your courage, and your fabulous magics against the forces of evil.
Enter Numeria!!!

I don't see why this discussion continues. Anyone with reasonable reading comprehension skills can see that the two rules don't contradict each other, and the rule from ultimate combat simply creates an additional restriction for firearms, and does not take away the weapon category restrictions for inappropriately sized weapons. Please let this die, the developers are not going to faq this, because there is nothing too clarify.

Rob Liefeld called.....
he said that gun's too big, man.

My biggest fear now is a confusing adventure into the future and/or alternate realities caused by the birth...

Just remember. If it's an evil alternate universe, everyone will have goatees. If it's just a plain, old, opposite alternate universe, everyone will have their hearts on the right side of their bodies. If it's an alternate universe where everyone is a lawyer, the goatee will be omnipresent and everyone will have scars on their chests where their hearts were removed during the infernal deal.

Congratulations!

I truly wish all the best to the Teter family; Gary's one of the good ones, and a reminder of how truly rare they are.

Sebastian wrote:

Congratulations! The kid already has a good start with two great parents.

Look—Sebastian is being nice! The world sure has changed since the Teter Tot was born...

I'm sure Sebastian was just appraising the unique Teter heritage and the young Teter Tot's extraordinary Midichlorian levels. It's also possible that the Pony is merely ill with the flu or something. I've checked the quatrains of Urizendamus and found nothing that seems to cover anything as monumental as Sebastian becoming nice.

Sebastian with a Padawan Sith? {shudders}

In case no one else has started a thread yet:

Congrats to the PMG and Sara Marie on the birth of the Teter Tot!

WOOT!!!!

Happy birthday, Mikey!

That was quite the lesson, especially knowing I couldn't respond to any of the comments.

Neil, thank you for the constructive criticism. Once again, I went too far with my entry by globalizing it. My original thought was to just tie the Alliance to Kaer Maga, and I should have stuck with that. Coincidentally, by globalizing my organization, I limited myself in terms of space to describe the con angle more fully.

Clark, I apologize if this came across as a joke to you. I attribute that as a failure on my part to convey my idea properly. Actually, I meant for the name to be disarming, but I took it a little too far.

Sean and Ryan, I can only apologize to you as well. If I make it to the next round, I intend to redeem myself with my monster.

Patrick, Solnes, Crimson Jester, Mothman, Abraham Spalding, Spanky, Craig, Aberzombie, Ambrosia Slaad, Sinosaur, Tels, Light Dragon, BigNorseWolf, Caedwyr, Marv, Mr. Swagger, Oceanshieldwolf, poizen37, Aspertix, Adam Donald, Saint Trickery, Sebastian, Cassey, Wolfthulhu, Icyshadow, Mikaze, Urizen, Celestial Healer, Gruumash, and Nathan, thank you very much for your support of my organization, even if you didn't vote for it. Several of you dissected the organization thoroughly, and I could tell it resonated with you. I know I could have done a much better job exploring important aspects of the organization, and I hope you like my monster submission.

Darkjoy and Luthia, I'm glad I ended up getting your votes, and I hope to earn them next round, assuming I make it through.

OwlbearRepublic and Standback, thank you very much for the advice. Obviously, this resonated with you in a negative way, but I appreciate you stopping in to present a thorough breakdown of how I could have done better. I truly believe that just seeing "good reviews" does nothing to help one grow as a writer.

Thanks again, everyone! The Monster Reformation Alliance got a lot of discussion. To think I was worried about voters perceiving this as too boring... :)

I'm sure he consoled himself with Gisele and his stack of money and champagne-filled hot tub