Sir Oliver's page

Don't discount video games as well.

Decade ago, "Thief: The Dark Project" made me fall madly in love with rogues, thieves and assassins. Two years later I rolled my first ever RPG character: a thief named Garrett. Ten years later, I'm still looking for a RPG experience to rival the omnious grim 'n' gritty feel of Thief's setting.

These are great, Trent! I love how you use only one Iconic per wallpaper, avoiding to make them overcrowded.

Is there any chance of you making wallpapers of other iconics who didn't got theirs. I'm talking about Paladin, Monk and Half-Elf Sorcerer? Of course, any other monster, NPC or Iconic would be totally welcome.

I don't know was this already addressed here before, but is there any chance for us to witness the walpapery goodness of WAR iconics for the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path? :-)

You don't want to fight too often. Combat is far more lethal and healing beyond a couple of wounds is not readily available. Social interaction I think is a large part of the game, the scheming of Nobles etc, Charm and Bluff come into that a lot, knowledge skills also handy

This sounds cool.

Are you starting in the Empire or where?

It will be in the Empire but not in any pre-made location. I have a bunch of ideas and plot hooks centered in and around a medieval town I'd set somewhere along the Stirland/Averland border.

start thinking about what your going to do for mages that max their level and start wanting to be higher level casters

I don't think I'll have to worry about that, at least for a while. :-)

Characters would start in their first careers and I have no idea how long or how often will I actually run the game.

have you thought about how your going to run combats;

I'm planning to do a test run or two with couple of friends just to get the feel of the combat, so that there are less suprises when I actually start running the campaign.

when I get a chance, i will ask a friend of mine what rules questions came up so you get a preview; i have a bud who tracks that kind of stuff and can probably tell me off the top of his head; we played for along time through lots of advances and used almost every skill and spell in the book; will see if I can come up with some you might want to preview how your going to handle.

Thanks!:-)

As previously mentioned , combat is "swingy" , from easy NPC kill to Player death its only one confirmed critical hit away.

Investigative and player oriented scenarios work best - have the players map out their career path and you\ll have lots of of story hooks. Think call of ctulhu in the middel ages:)

This is, a part of the appeal of WFRP for me: both the Cthulhu Mythos part and the fact the game encourages investigation, research and social interaction. In my last D&D campaign, I routinely spent way too much time preparing combat encounters, only to realize I'm bored to tears with that.

Economic systems - guns and weapons in general are ridiculusly expensive - enabling the players to sell their own and their victims weapons and buy themselves out of trouble, not very heroic:)

We divided weapon cost by 10 and it helped.

Interesting. This is complaint I heard on other message boards, too. I'll take that into account.

Go easy on skilltests- a starting PC has about 20 - 40 % chance of success with an unmodified roll.

Fear tests - see skill tests- they make combat with monsters even more random - use sparingly.
Insanity- players rarely enjoy being told how to play their charachter- you might consider upping their IP total or use minor disorders before they eventually go insane:)

Thanks for the tip about skill tests. As for Insanity, I was also thinking about upping the level of Insanity Points (10 instead of 6) or removing them althogether. I don't like the idea of disfiguring PCs just for the heck of it - I sure didn't like it as a player in a Ravenloft game - and god knows there are enough ways of that happening in WFRP already.

liberfanatica.net has fan made rules you might want to check out, and blackindustries.com have free scenarios - enjoy!

I'll check them out.

Ever since I finally got core rulebook for WFRP 2nd Edition, I've been toying with various ideas for adventures and a mini-campaign I could run. I'm going through the rules now and I would like to know are there any glitches or peculiarities of the system I should be aware of.

For example: I know that the combat in WFRP is more lethal compared to D&D, but how lethal is it? On average, how many fights in a day could party of beginners possibly take? On the other hand, I'm also interested in how useful are the rules for social interaction, knowledge or research skills.

Then there are careers for which I'm not really sure how balanced are they: it seems to me that mechanically the player of Noble or Soldier has a definite advantage over Rat Catcher - which is all the more reason to be interested into practical in-game value of various skills and talents.

So far, I like what I've seeing from WFRP: the rules seem refreshingly simple compared to the D&D 3.5: far less magic and magical items to take into account, for example. On the other hand, basics of the combat seem quite intuitive and similar to D&D, which is great 'cause it means less times for new players to adjust.

And as a side note, am I the only one who imagined Hugh Laurie voicing Karzoug? I know it makes no sense...

..considering he played Prince George and Bertie Wooster.

"Hullo there! Who's the chap with the spear?"

As for the dotted lines - thanks Sir Oliver - I thought the mountains and rivers were most often a natural demarcation, too. My hope is that the designers resist the urge to lock-down every nation. From a play perspective - I feel there should be no-man's lands between each safe haven, so that monsters can dwell and PCs can travel more freely.

I like to believe we won't have much trouble with that. For example, I really doubt there will be a clear border between Hold of Belkzen and Realm of the Mammoth Lords. It's probably only when you stop being chased by Orcs and start being attacked by people on mammoths that you realize you actually changed the region.

Now, Cheliax, if imagined as a fantasy equivalent of Roman Empire, might have more definite borders with forts, border towns and maybe even long, stone walls manned by soldiers. But from what I heard about them, they also seem to be slowly crumbling from within.

What a wonderful surprise this morning! Great colours, lush details, beautifuland enticing names like The Shackles, The Eye of Abendego and the Verduran Forest.

I mean, just look at all those huge regions on the map! And most of them are *at least* as large as Varisia!

I wonder if the little red lines marking different nations are all that nescessary - as I generaly believe that marking borders in an official way, on the balance, limits the fun. You tend to loose the frontier wilderness and end up with border guards, passports and a more static realm.

At first, that was my thought, too, but then I looked at Varisia: it's "borders" are established literally in the middle of nowhere. I seriously doubt you'd find any kind of clear demarcations there.

You can also see that red lines mostly follow natural borders: usually the mountain ranges that are obviously the largest geographical feature in the area and natural barrier between various cultures and (maybe) even climates.

Anyway, I think the lines are here mostly to distinguish one area from another, making the map more practical for readers.

The Eye is something similar to a stable hurricane.

Yes, I was searching for entries about it on these message boards. Here's what Eric Mona said about it:

"I suggest setting Sasserine on the coast of Sargava, an old Cheliaxian colony along the southwest continent of Garund, which is acros the Inner Sea from Avistan (the continent of Varisia, Andoran, Cheliax, etc.). The colony was established before Cheliax's fall to diabolism about 100 years ago, so the people there have a nobler character than their relatives in Cheliax proper.

Sargava is sanwiched between the Arcadian Ocean to the west and the vast Mwangi Expanse to the east. The latter is filled with tribal Garundi humans who do not appreciate the colonization efforts of the Cheliaxians. Just northwest is the permanent hurricane known as the Eye of Abendego, which formed after the death of Aroden. The pirates of the Shackle Isles exist between Sargava and Abendego and protect the colony from Chelish aggression--for a terrible price."

If anyone can find similar posted info about other regions from this map, I'd be more than glad to read it here. :-)

I'm really interested in what Eye of Abendego is. Also, is that a genormous lake or just a small sea in the middle of the northern continent? If Osirion is inspired by ancient Egypt, what are Thuvia and Rahadoum (on the left of it) like? Mwangi Expanse sounds interesting - I'm yet to see fantasy version of equatorial Africa...

And than there's whole northern continent with at least dozen regions as big as Varisia. What are they like?

I must admit that, with each month that passes by, I become more and more interested into buying Pathfinder Campaign Setting. I love reading fluff text about exotic non-existent fantasy lands. :-)

Korvosa is my new desktop wallpaper. :E

I must admit that upon looking over the numerous 4e threads here, I'm surprised by the vitriol people feel about the whole process. (...) But why the attacks?

I have no idea, especially because - as I learned from the various threads here over past few days - 4E is obviously inferior to previous editions, no players or DMs want to use it and everyone is gosh darn jolly about all those future discounts of earlier, superior books. Furthermore, it also induces nausea and occasional cattle mutilation.

Considering all that, it's just amazing how much time people spend writing about game they won't buy, study, play and/or use in any way imaginable.

Cover #6

8-O 8-0 8-0 8-0

...

I think I just had a screaming orgasm.

Paizo stuff, please, *please* make wallpaper out of this cover as soon as possible!

But with this much flamboyancy(?) in Magnimar what's Riddleport's flavor gonna be like???

I would totally love to see it! :-)

The Skinsaw costume reminds me of the plague-protective costume worn by Robert Downey Jr's character in the movie "Restoration."

You mean like these guys? They have already been mentioned among the villains for the second adventure path. Apparently, the plot will revolve around the plague epidemic in the city of Korvosa.

I also like how having a masked identity helps intensify the horror and paranoia (anyone can be them, and they can be many, they can even be the very person you're talking to now).

See, I didn't thought of that. Yeah, that could actually be used for a cool effect.

I agree that the cultist picture is flippin' creepy and goofy lookin' at the same time; kinda like the party first sees the guy and they're like, "Oh, hah hah! It's a clown!" and then they get closer and they're like, "Man, what?!?"

Same as goblins. And, from what I've heard about Pathfinder ogres, they also seem to fit the bill. I like that. It brings a whole disturbed fairy-tale feel to the game. Kinda like "American McGee's Alice".

The lamia... freakin' cool and dangerous looking, but the traffic cone breasts are a bit strange.

I blame her . :-D

Yeah... the look the artists came up with for the skinsaw cultists is really creepy; they all wear these freaky masks and dress in these brightly colored costumes that are almost like clown outfits that, among other things, easily hide the blood of their victims.

The cultist reminded me on the monsters in the movie "Silent Hill". He has the same "rather familiar, yet utterly disturbing" look. Make one of them three-times as big as the others and give him an absurdly over-sized knife, and you almost have a Pyramid Head . :-D One of the freakier movie monsters I saw this year.

I like it! A lot!

Picture of a Scarecrow Ghoullooks very cool and atmospheric. On the other hand, Skinsaw Cultist seemed kinda silly at first: after all, he is dressed in a jester's outfit. But then I noticed that the guy has only one, weird-looking eye smack in the middle of his face. Suddenly, picture stopped being funny and became creepy. Finally, Princess of the Market is exactly the type of NPC pictures I grew to like in Dungeon. I was very happy when I saw the same quality of character portraits in Player's Guide to the Rise of the Runelords.

Kudos to all of the artists involved! :-)

bisexual teenager

Where? Where?

In addition to the moon, which has a very interesting story behind it, two additional inhabited worlds loom large on the horizons of Golarion. The green planet, which I'm currently calling Castrovel, is covered with swamps and forests and weird gaseous seas.

So, like Venus in old pulp SF tales? :-)

The red planet doesn't have a name yet, but it will use Edgar Rice Burroughs and Otis Adelbert Kline's Mars novels as a basis in the same way Golarion proper is based on pulp sword and sorcery.

W00+!

People actually forget how much sword & sorcery contains this weird pseudo-science stuff. In "Tales of the Dying Earth" matemathics is considered the ultimate magic for manipulating the universe. In Clark Ashton Smith's stories some characters travel all the way to moons of Saturn. In Leigh Brackett's stories magic is nothing more then science in disguise and Science fiction and sword & sorcery walk hand in hand.

As I wrote earlier, I'm still not sure how much science do I actually want in my D&D but, if introduced carefully and with some restraint, it could give a whole new dimension to campaign setting. Or it could be a critical fail. I don't know.

Anyway, you guys are totally experienced in establishing flavor, so just keep on the good work. :-)

I am 90% certain that the only way to get to Golarion's moons and neighboring planets will be via magic.

Well, if it worked for John Carter of Mars...

On Pathfinder blog, there's a PDF preview for Bestiary in Pathfinder No. 2:

"It is said that in the deepest swamps of the Hollow Morass, the Stinking Sink, and the Mushfens lurk the progenitors of the boggard race: the first priests, the Mobogo. Intelligent, primeval toads of gigantic size and incredible magic power, these swamp kings are said to be the off spring and harbingers of (goddess)Gogunta herself, spreading her gospel of croaking doom."

If this ain't a D&D adventure in making, I don't know what is! I love boggards. They're so wonderfully disgusting and cheesy! :-D

I've read "The Wizard Knight" by Gene Wolfe and quite enjoyed it. Is "Book of the New Sun" superior to this?

I haven't read "The Wizard Knight" so I really wouldn't know. "Book of the New Sun" is simply... amazing. It's a tough read but well worth of it.

The thing I liked the most about Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" was it's blend of science and magic. While I'm not sure do I want any science fiction in my D&D game, I think that, in right and careful dosage, this can make game interesting. While I'm not really into idea of human space colonist or genetically produced humanoid variations, I liked your ideas of wizard's tower/rocket and weird magical dust. :-)

I was reading this article about D&D by Rich Baker where he writes:

The Dungeons & Dragons game assumes many things about its setting: The world is populated by a variety of intelligent races, strange monsters lurk on other planes, ancient empires have left ruins across the face of the world, and so on. But one of the new key conceits about the D&D world is simply this: Civilized folk live in small, isolated points of light scattered across a big, dark, dangerous world.

Most of the world is monster-haunted wilderness. The centers of civilization are few and far between, and the world isn’t carved up between nation-states that jealously enforce their borders. A few difficult and dangerous roads tenuously link neighboring cities together, but if you stray from them you quickly find yourself immersed in goblin-infested forests, haunted barrowfields, desolate hills and marshes, and monster-hunted badlands. Anything could be waiting down that old overgrown dwarf-built road: a den of ogre marauders, a forgotten tower where a lamia awaits careless travelers, a troll’s cave, a lonely human village under the sway of a demonic cult, or a black wood where shadows and ghosts thirst for the blood of the living.

Given the perilous nature of the world around the small islands of civilization, many adventures revolve around venturing into the wild lands.

I absolutely loved this bit cause it clearly described everything I like about Varisia and Pathfinder. D&D is more than just killing and looting the monsters: it's also the game where PCs brave the unknown wilderness and all of it's mysteries, dangers and rewards. :-)

Super neat! Thanks for the info, Sir Oliver! :)

No problem. :-)

Croatian! Neat! I've only ever met a couple Croatians in my life. Please tell me more about your language and naming conventions!!!

Sure, why not? :-D

First names are often inspired by New Testament - Ivan (John), Pavao Paul), Josip (Joseph), Toma (Thomas), Marija, Magdalena, Luka, Petar, Daniel... etc. Old Testament names are, for the most part, not being used. Calling your child Isus (Jesus) is considered tasteless. Female names like Ana, Anita, Aneta, Kristina, Maja, Magdalena, Martina, Eva, etc. are also popular. Female names mostly end on "-a".

BTW, whenever you see letter "j" in Croatian name, imagine letter "y" instead. Maja and Josip might as well be written as Maya and Yosip, while Danijel and Marija are pronounced the same way as Daniel and Maria.

Older, medieval Croatian names often end with "-slav" (which, accidently, means "glory"), or "-mir" ("peace"). Some of them are stil being used like Tomislav (could be translated as "Glory of Thomas"), Zvonimir, Kreshimir or Krunoslav ("Glory of the crown"), while some of them became obsolete like Drzhislav, Vladislav, Trpimir or Muntzimir...

In continental part of the country - heavily influenced by 300 years of living under the Habsburg Empire - Croatian variations of German names are also common: Karlo (Karl) or Franjo (Frantz), for example. On the other hand, coastal parts are heavily influenced by the years of being ruled by Republic of Venice and Italy so Croatian versions of Italian names are probably common.

Last names often end up on sufix "-ich","-ovich" or some variantion of that and sometimes use existing Croatian words that you would expect people from medieval times to use as last names: Blazhevich ("blazhen" means "blessed"), Kovachich (Kovach - blacksmith), Mesarich (meso - meat), Mlinarich (mlin - windmill/watermill), etc...

Of course, there are plenty of variations and exceptions I can't even think of now. :-D

Plus Takamori thinks we shouldn't name them ninja and samurai, so lets makes up some cool names, too. The trick is we've gotta do it without offending anyone's language.

If it's any help, Name them on Croatian if you want to. My woo woo is not offended by people (ab)using my country's language. :-D

As it turns out... a fair amount of the folk here at Paizo are Robert E. Howard fans. And Lovecraft. And Jack Vance. And Clark Ashton Smith.

So I noticed. :-D

Thanks to you Paizo folks, I bought myself a collection of C. L. Moore's stories and first volume of Fantasy Masterworks' edition of collected Conan stories. :-)

Over a period of a few thousand years, Taldor (which is located due east of the Isle of Kortos) spread northwest across the southern reaches of the continent of Avistan, where its frontier land claimed territory now known as Cheliax. When Taldor eventually became decadent and effete, the clerics of Aroden took their religion (and their mandate from heaven) west to Cheliax.

(...)

After many decades of instablility, the diabolical house of Thrune claimed the throne in Cheliax, using their diabolical allies to keep the populace under control.

This whole cycle of empires growing, becoming decadent and collapsing reminds me greatly on Robert E. Howard's history of the world in his Conan stories.

Now you just need to introduce some man-apes - descendants from the previous rulling cultures of men, and you'll nail it perfectly. :D

Sect wrote:

I dunno; I like the idea of the Goblin music being music that sounds fun and crazy, yet has undertones of being sadistic.

For this specific feel, try the soundtrack to American McGee's Alice.

Aaaaaah! Great minds think alike! Yes, American McGee's Alice has some wonderfully disturbing music. :-)

I can't wait to find out more info, I love ancient ruins if I were to be a D&D character I'd have to be an archaeologist bard

This issomething I was thinking about too recently,what with all this talk about ancient wizard empires and giant ruins of the past. I'm not really sure how exactly would I go building an archeologist/adventurer PC, though. Bard? Wizard/Loremaster? Cloistered cleric?

I don't want to give away any secrets about the region's ancient history

No need to! Random guessing is way too much fun!

but if you check out the map of Varisia, those islands stretching out from Magnimar do indeed look like they're in a straight line... and you'll note that there's a narrow span that still connects the two largest ones near Hollow Mountain...

In other words, a deep underwater exploration of the Varisian Gulf would certainly find more than sand and rocks on the sea floor.

<Mr. Burns mode>

Pathfinder #2 actaully has a prety cool illustration of Magnimar, as seen from the sea. And the bridge is even bigger than it looks on the map.

Well, you just answered my second question: will the article about the city contain a large illustration of Magnimar and the Bridge. :)

Even cooler is the reason why the locals stopped quarrying stone from the bridge and decided to A) leave it alone and B) not build anything on top of it

Yeah, I though the Bridge looked a bit too intact. Destroying historical monuments in order to get construction material was a time-honored tradition in medieval Europe. :-D

How far did the Irespan stretch in its heyday? Where did it go/connect to? Looks like it heads into the ocean....was it used as a large dock?

EDIT: Looking at the larger map - did it connect all the way to those small islands in the Varisian Bay?

Even more important: were those small islands always mere islands?

To me, entire area of Varisian Bay looks almost like it was once land but the greater part of it sunk beneath the sea. Only the former mountain tops remain above the water, thus creating the islands. You can even trace the former Varisian shoreline by that western island chain. Considering the Runelord wars and the fall of the Thassilon Empire, it wouldn't suprise me if the magical cataclysm reshaped the coast of Varisia into it's present state. No wonder there's a bridge in Magnimar stretching towards the empty ocean! Maybe it used to connect the shores of the earlier, much smaller Varisian Bay.

In any case, it would be really interesting to explore the depths of Varisian Bay, either by Apparatus of the Crab (I forgot it's DMG name) or with the help of Water Breathing spells. Maybe there are Atlantis-like ruins of the former Thassilon cities down there! Imagine the possibilities! Evil sahuagins could nest inside the ruins of titanic Thassilon buildings and have whole lores about how they were built by older, superior, sahuagin civilization. Of course, they weren't, but explain that to sahuagins!

good goblin battle track?

Something by Danny Elfman, like "Beetlejuice" or "Tales from the Crypt" opening themes. I mean, you just can't take those little guys seriously. They are creepy, but funny. :-D

Erik, I'd just like to thank you for your recommendation. Your praise of C. L. Moore's writing got me interested into buying the Fantasy Masterworks edition of her stories available in my local book shop. I expected sword & sorcery in the vein of Leiber (which I really enjoy 'cause it's as D&D-ish as it can get) or Howard (whom I find quite entertaining). Instead I got these wonderfully moody and atmospheric stories about alien worlds. It was a bit like reading Lovecraft, except C. L. Moore actually sounds like she writes in the 20th Century. :-D

I especially enjoyed "Black God's Kiss" and "Black God's Shadow" whose eerie landscape would make any Shadow Plane denizen proud. It's damn shame Moore didn't wrote more stories about Jirel of Joiry and these worlds.

But D&D doesn't need to be reasonable. It does need to be fun and exciting. And what sounds like a more fun and exciting thing to do with the coming month: taking apart an adamantine door; or going on an expedition to the ruins of a city once ruled by Kyuss to find out more about his history?

QFT. If I wanted to take Profession (Miner) I would never go into adventuring business in the first place. :-)

Oh I just have to mention this monster that I just read over.

The taunting haunt is a rotund jester-like creature (...) You can defeat it in a fight, but it will keep coming back every 24 hours unless you defeat it in a battle of wits.

We already have a player like that in our party. :-D

Mind Flayers of Thoon look interesting with their humanoid spies controlled by parasites, construct soldiers and that disgusting Madcrafter creature that combines magic, flesh and primitive technology. Actually, I think all mind flayers should be like that. :-)

Well, after ranting about how poorly built the Paizo Iconics are, I figured I should show how they could easily be powered up, without optimising them to the hilt.

"Powering up" a Human Fighter with TWF by changing him into a Dwarven Halberdier pretty much is a "to the hilt" approach, at least in my book. I mean, you just made a completely different PC! :D

I'm all for whimsy in D&D, but sometimes it's hard to work with these wyrmy guys, when Wizards of the Coast hands them out names that look like a can of alphabet soup exploded.

Personally, I like what you'all at Paizo have done with names for dragons in the Shackled City Adventure face. Short, fierce, and/or sinister names like Gottrod, or Dhorlot, or names that humans have given them, like Moltenwing, or ol' Hookface. Very evocative.

This is a great idea! I would also add that, if you really want to use long and impressive sounding names, try to make it pronounceable. Names like - I don't know - Nabucodonosor, which is a fine and pompous-sounding name as it gets, although I hear it's already taken by some king or other. :)