Stebehil's page

I think white wolfs' relaunch of the WOD was not nearly as successful as they thought it would be.

I still play oWoD every few months but the new stuff just doesn't hold my interest. I purchased the ancient Rome books and I felt like it was sort of hollow once I read through it all.

In that regard, nWoD is similar to D&D4 to me: both are surely interesting and fun games, but they failed to captivate me like their predecessors did. I judged them both from knowing not really much, but I did not like what I saw, and I won´t invest a lot of money into something that failed to hold my interest on first sight.

Stefan

What I find most interesting is that Fantasy Flight Games takes 3 and 4 - I did not see them as such a big RPG publisher at all. Didn´t they get into RPGs with 3.0/OGL as well? Nowadays, two of their game lines alone sell better than the whole WoD - I seem to recall that White Wolf was considered the #2 RPG publisher overall, but that was way back. So, D&D4 and D&D 3.5 seem to have the market cornered somewhat, with everything else behind that. Given WotCs/TSRs/D&Ds history as market leader, this is not very surprising. But that Pathfinder seems to be such a huge success is nice to hear.

Stefan

#1 thirded here - I met my gaming wife at - gaming. How else?

I can only wonder what plot horror the Mona card would unleash.

My thoughts exactly. Being drowned in empty White Castle boxes while starving?

Settlers of Katan-style hexes is a very nice idea - but you should have something to mount them on, otherwise the map might be "reworked" every game session...

Heh. Funnily, most of the names don´t put any questions how to pronounce them to me, as most have a german ring to them

Dramidj? DRAmidi

And Ulek? OOlek

And Bissel? BISsel

And Drachensgrab? DRACHensgrab - I know that most english speakers have trouble with the "CH" sound, which sounds a little like an attempt to clear your throat.

And Hardby? HARDbe - this -by suffix is common in northern German or Danish villages, actually.

And Yatil? YAtill

And Furyondy? FUR-yon-dee

And Vesve? VESve

And Keoland? KEE O land

And Urnst? OOrnst

Stefan

Next up, check out The Most Important Rule for Pathfinder. Basically stated, the rules are a framework to help balance things. When they don't fit your game, change them. If you are writing a scenario, however, don't change the rules unless the story/concept really requires it and you consider what the change will do to any game balance.

Right, but for a Pathfinder Society scenario, you should better stick to the RAW, I guess. Then it might be a problem.

Stefan

What I get from the original post is that not only the level needed per se is what he sees as bad, but that the master craftsman also is a not-too-bad fighter, which is not warranted with his craft. I could imagine that a weaponsmith slowly advances in levels as the gets more experienced - but why the hell should his BAB and hp get any better from smithing?

Stefan

Yeah - REAL women, not walking clothes hangers. I never liked that cocaine-waif-look.

Joana, that is a very nice backstory for those events. Thanks for sharing.

Stefan

Advanced Bestiary: Dread Mummy Drow Priestess. That should have all the "nasty" you want.

Yeah, I browsed through that book yesterday (after reading it completely after getting it). I think I might just go the route to start the PCs off with the Crypt of the Everflame and then perhaps Masks of the Living God, as suggested. From then on, I will probably use some of the Journey or Wilderness adventures of the PF Modules line.

Stefan

...will be the topic of a campaign I hope to start in fall this year. We will be using the PFRPG rules, and I will most probably be using Golarion as background. Of course, this screams Pathfinder Society quite loud. Now, I would love to start the whole thing off as an "Indiana Jones goes Fantasy" story. What adventures are recommendable for that? I´ve got the whole range of paizo publications at hand, as well as most Dungeon magazines.

I´m thankful for any ideas, also regarding the use of the Society itself.

Stefan

No matter what it is, it WILL MOST PROBABLY be responsible for my Paizo-Shipment to arrive waaay too late this time! ;)

My next shipment is not even sent out yet (probably next week), so I guess it should arrive here normally. Isn´t that stuff literally shipped anyways?

Stefan

Could be a magma quasi-elemental, or a tribe of magmen at play. Or the dwarven forge exploded finally, in a quest to produce gold fast enough to pay off Icelands national debt...

Stefan

Turning 40 a few weeks ago was nothing I cared much for, but I got a ticket for the open air AC/DC concert in May, just 20 km away from my home! Talk about some serious Rock´n´Roll! Of course, I had to buy their new album right away - even if it does not matter all that much, their sound stayed pretty much the same all those years.

Now I´m thinking to get a ticket for the last Scorpions tour, just a few days later - turning 40 is not so bad after all. Come to think of it, I recently had a very good whisky tasting with a few friends a few weeks ago, we are planning to do some motorbiking this year, and have the idea to repeat our Scotland tour "10 years after" in 2011. Yeah, life is good at the moment.

Stefan

Wolfgang Baur wrote:

Beyond that, I'm curious what people think of the use of the Fly skill in Contraptions. It seemed like an area ripe for more development.

Dammit, this magazine needs to get to me faster. I really need to run this by a friend who is running a "space boats" campaign.

Just buy the pdf and start reading instantly :-) That´s what I do.

Stefan

Thanks for your answers, and the replacements. I will look into the possibility of changing shipping and/or address, but I suspect that I will just have to live with damaged books now and then - overseas shipping has a greater chance of damage occurring, naturally.

Stefan

I only noticed the alignment of the DMs map on page 14 of Stolen Land after reading this thread, but I wondered before.
If I compare that to the players map of Brevoy (players guide p.11), it seems that the Narlmarches reach into Brevoy, with Olegs trading post being situated just east of the easternmost tip of the forest. The Shrike river bend on the southern edge of the players map should be the bend on which the Sootscale caverns (area Y) are situated. The East Sellen river should be just off the DMs map, I think.

Two questions come to my mind:
1. Do the Narlmarches extend into Brevoy? If so, this area would/should be off-limits for founding a new kingdom. I know that game maps are not necessarily to be seen as accurate, but the players map gives the impression that it is meant to be accurate. I will ignore the border shown on the players map and just define the Narlmarches as being outside.

2. Where does the South Rostland Road lead to? To Restov is obvious, but the other end? If the destination is New Stetven, it should see quite some traffic, contradicting the remote position of Olegs fort. The players map would give me the impression that a road from Restov to New Stetven would run quite straight and rather to the northeast of the Narlmarches. But what other destination could be reached? What else is in southern Rostland justifying a road? Does it lead to the East Sellen and eventually to Silverhall? Or is it just a loop connecting to the road from Restov to New Stetven in two different places?

Stefan

Sadly, my latest order once again did not arrive unharmed - the books have their corners damaged although the packaging was unharmed. Kingmaker # 1 has severely dinged corners, the NPC guide even has a break in the spine where the pages show through. I would like to have a replacement for both books.
The green foam chips do nothing to protect the corners of the books in the package, which is too big for the books contained, so the books slide around inside - and handling is sometimes not too gentle. If you could use a packaging method that specifically protects the book corners, shipping damage will probably be reduced significantly. I have no idea if this is economically feasible, however.

Stefan

Whatever the market will bear. Seriously, even with art objects, the market price can (and will) vary wildly - just think of the art auctions in the real world in the last few decades. So a treasure map that is credible can fetch any price from the right buyer - if you find an adventurous noble keen on having a daring adventure, he might just spend a fortune on that map.
As a buyer, I would probably use some divination to make sure that it is not a fake map - or the seller could offer this for a higher price.

Stefan

I am overly sensitive to movies where people get embarassed 'though, and there are points during some movies (such as American Pie 2, where the main character is up on the roof with his hand glued down his pants trying to get the policemen not to shoot him) where I have to get up and leave the room.

Murder, monsters and mayhem are fine, but the inevitable romantic comedy scene where the character makes a complete blithering idiot of himself in front of the girl he's trying to woo? That's my kryptonite.

My feelings exactly, I can´t stand these scenes as well. IMO, this is a sign of immaturity on the authors part if they have to resort to this kind of plot device, trying to provoke malicious joy or Schadenfreude. It is quite lowbrow humor IMO.

There is even a German word for this: Fremdschämen, meaning to be embarassed for somebody elses behaviour. I guess it has something to do with ones sense of dignity, which is then projected to somebody else, or perhaps you unwillingly feel like you are in the same situation.

Stefan

I think you did not miss anything. I would multiply the damage after figuring the range, however, so this damage would "only" apply within 30 ft. Within 30 ft, sneak attack bonus damage applies as well, and at BAB +16, we talk about level 16+, so a rogue would have +8d6 on sneak attacks. Iterative fighter attacks at that level are also to be taken into account. I see where you are coming from, but for applying three feats and waiting to level 16, I don´t think it is too good. Vital strike can be quite powerful if you have many damage dice to begin with, but in the end, I think it is balanced.
You would not want to encounter a storm giant fighter level 2 with these feats, however - Atk +29, D 16d6+21 each round is nasty.

Stefan

Urizen wrote:

Ross Simpson wrote:

I'm curious. Does Kobold quarterly carry info on 3rd etition, 3.5 edition, Pathfinder, and 4 edition? Or does it only talk about one of the above.

3.5, Pathfinder, and 4e.

And that's why I no longer purchase KQ. I have no desire for 4E info.

Well, at 6 bucks, I can live with a few pages of useless stuff - even Dragon had pieces on non-D&D stuff way back, it was still a useful magazine. But to each his own, I guess.

Stefan

Switzerland...ha!

I LOL´d on that one too! Just great tongue-in-cheek humor.

But I did buy a few of the modules as I've lost all my originals :(. Then suddenly Wizards stops people from buying any of the past modules from 3rd party vendors. I guess it was due to copyright issues. But to add insult to injury they're not selling them themselves. You can protect PDFs these days so why not sell these old modules and magazines in digital form.

[threadjack]

AFAICT, WotC stopped selling electronic products due to piracy. (not that not selling the stuff online would stop it - quite the opposite. The music industry has learned that in Germany at least - now that music is available cheap and easy online, piracy has gone down a lot.)Another reason I´ve heard about that is that they did not want any competition to their new game (4e) by still selling older stuff. (not that the folks buying older stuff are for the most part not hugely interested in 4e anyways...) In the end, WotC selling or giving licence to sell older stuff just won´t happen anytime soon, probably not at all. I don´t know how the contracts TSR made back then for Dungeon adventures looked like, but I guess that the copyrights are retained by WotC now. So, no luck in publishing older stuff again, no matter in what form.
[/threadjack]

Stefan

And to echo Vic's statement above, 7 months into a new game's lifespan is really really really early to start worrying about us throwing out those rules to make a new version of the rules.

Of course it is years (decades?) too early, but wildly speculating is a ton of fun :-)

Seriously, it should be clear to anybody putting only a few minutes of thought into the topic that Pathfinder RPG is obviously meant to stay as it is for a long time - two previous editions and a long, public playtest should have seen to that. I guess Jason would have a nervous breakdown if anybody proposed a reworking of the rules.

Stefan

Well, I always wanted to try PBP, but did not sign up anywhere due to time constraints (which are much lessened right now). So, if you start another first timers game, I would like to be in it. I have to add that I have read quite a lot of modules, but only one or two of the Society scenarios, so this might be a problem.

Stefan

Anguish wrote:

James has already gone on record saying he doesn't expect a major (as in 2.0) rule set for PFRPG for a long time. I recall him commenting in the 10 to 20 years range.

Regardless of what he's saying now, I really doubt it'll be 20 years before a new version is released.

But I could easily see it being 10 years before a new version is released.
Especially since Pathfinder is well on its way to being the market leader. They don't want to destroy the goose that laid the golden egg.

20 years sound like an awfully long time for a game system - around ten can happen, but 20 will most probably not. Paizo does listen to its customers and fans in their product development, and I can´t imagine folks clamoring for leaving the OGL rules any time soon, especially given the turmoil we´ve all witnessed with the 4e release. I don´t think these claims are anything more than speculation.

Pathfinder well on its way to being the market leader sounds like wishful thinking to me, however - Pathfinder may do well, but is a long shot from D&D itself. Market leader in 3e compatible products, perhaps.

Stefan

I have only read the adventures, and MST only a short while ago. When I first read Sleepless, I found the story behind it brilliant, as it was a completely new idea allowing for different styles of play - you could use is a simple dungeon romp, or try and play the various factions against each other. So, novel ideas are always good, if hard to come by. And adventures that are allowing for different styles of play, and that challenge the players ingenuity are a good thing. If anything, the adventures might be a bit too long for some tastes.

Stefan

Very cool, and quite creative. The way you built it, no minis can stand on the ramps. Is this intentional?

Stefan

I guess I thought anybody cruising these boards for a longer time would have come across these acronyms, so I did not bother to explain. Seems I was mistaken...

Stefan

Chris Mortika wrote:

Lindisty wrote:

And to comment on the original topic of the thread, censorship is one of my hot-buttons, but I don't see TSR's Code of Conduct as censorship in the least. Tailoring one's product to the audience one wishes to attract is simply sensible business. It's no worse for TSR to choose a less 'mature' or 'controversial' tone for their gaming materials than it is for Paizo to choose to cater to a more adult audience, IMO.

The censorship charge was levelled against TSR because the company required all exhibitors at GenCon to adhere to the same Code of Conduct, but at the time would not release its contents.

So companies were being turned down from displaying / selling / demoing at GenCon, but weren't being given hard-and-clear reasons why.

I don't know enough about that particular situation to judge whether or not I'd consider it censorship, though it strikes me as a really frackin' stupid way to do business. A company that wants a product that adheres to particular standards would serve its own interests best by making it clear to its suppliers what those standards are. We do not, after all, live in a telepathic society where people can be expected to read minds and discern unspoken rules.

I´d guess it was a rather hare-brained attempt to get the competition out of GenCon, so as to leave the sales directly to TSR only. It has a hint of old socialistic country style rulings - "You are arrested!" "Why?" "Because you broke rule #2867." "What says that rule?" "To tell you that would be treason".

Stefan

I´d still love paizo to pick up Greyhawk, but I know that this happens after the AoW and the ST hardcovers are printed.... Besides, with their own fantasy setting well developed by now, it would be a bad decision business-wise - this very business "strategy" led to TSR going bankrupt.

I guess if paizo were to pick up or develop any other setting, it would be either a horror setting or something sci-fi/space opera style. However, I think Chaosium has covered the horror RPG market with Call of Cthulhu pretty much.

Stefan

Heathansson wrote:

My dad took me to see A Clockwork Orange when I was six, and I turned out okay.

Yeesh, I didn't watch (or read) A Clockwork Orange until I was in college, and I still fear that it scarred me for life. ;)

Well, if Heathansson said he turned out okay, that could explain a lot :-)

Stefan

I sometimes see planescape material offered for ridiculous prices as well, especially on ebay. And 1st Ed stuff is sometimes offered at outrageous prices as well.

For 1st Ed collectibles, refer to the acaeum for reasonable price listings.
For other collectibles, I found tome of treasures to have quite good listings, if not as thorough as the acaeum.

Stefan

I found another offer for $999.98 - are people getting crazy? Are we seeing the first collectors hype about pathfinder stuff? Or are just some sellers getting shameless?
(Note that this is the price asked for volume 1, not for the whole set of six books.)

Stefan

You could have a TPK in the first room of a dungeon..

True one party I was in had to restart 4 times in a row after the 3 hobgoblin gate guards in one dungeon slaughtered us every time

Did you leave the corpses of the killed parties there? Would be a nice, if somewhat nasty, touch.

Stefan

Interesting. Nydenion looks like a cross between star wars and battlestar galactica, I think. Iron sky - I guess it is not a German production - the teaser shows Adolf Hitlers book "Mein Kampf", which a German entertainment production probably won´t do, as this book is blacklisted (besides being really awful to read - I´ve tried, but given up).

Stefan

Mortellan, I thought the same upon reading the thread title - but then, I´ve been called a "first-rank greyhawk geek" on these boards years ago...

Stefan

P.S. at only 2 bucks, I will buy this, just to have a look at it. What´s more, Dagger Rock is even free, so this is a no-brainer.

I think it is not that easy. If you are part of a religious community, this probably means quite much to you (and perhaps your family). Now, most religions have firm world views, especially regarding sexuality and/or violence, and won´t even consider different views, much less accept them. If you as part of said community have a different stance on these topics, you can either quit being part of the community or keep that stance to yourself. Depending just how much religion means to you, quitting might just not be an option. Furthermore, you have to decide if that stance is worth being ostracised. It is a conflict not easily solved.

I can understand TSR putting that Code of Conduct into effect in first place - they had no interest in alienating potential customers (or those who had power over said customers), especially under the light of the accusations against gaming rampant at that time. It was a business decision first and foremost - if you want to get into the mass market, make sure your products are fitting into that market.

Stefan

I´m firmly in the "I want it now" camp.
Even with the translated (german) version of the game, I keep buying the original stuff, as the translations can´t keep up with the original material. AFAICT, Ulisses (the German distributor/translator) has not even decided yet if they translate any adventure path. I think it is even more difficult for the translated versions to be marketed - the market is much smaller, and folks like me fracture that market even further. But from what I read, the PF basic rulebook seems to sell quite well.

Stefan

Well...except that in D&D you had Clyde Caldwell and Larry Elmore painting some pretty hot babes for their books. Anyone remember Caldwell's Bikini Sorceress from the 2nd Ed. Players Handbook? ;-)

Wasn´t that in the DMG, actually? BTW, if you look around on Clydes website, there are pictures waaay more cheesy than this - just look for "armed and dangerous". There are some definitely NFSW among his gallery, as well, especially some b&w ones.

Stefan

Yeah, funny how I used to to business only with WotC for my RP stuff only five years ago, after White Wolf slaughtered *their* on-going line for the "next best thing". ^^

Man, I hope I can stay a loyal Paizoite for a long time. :)

I think I would express that similarly. It´s all right for WotC to ignore the old guard/grognards, and it was all right for WW at the time. That´s the way life goes - sometimes, old friendships just end because one of them (or both) changed too much, and nothing in common is retained. After a period of anger or sadness, I just leave these old friends behind as life goes on.

Stefan

Thanks for the praise. Meanwhile, we started playing the adventure.

Oh, and I will look it up if this was indeed one of the recommended adventures.

Stefan

I had found a short notice on advancement between levels somewhere in the net. It contained an idea that the character gets four improvements while collecting enough xp to advance from one level to the next. The character might get IIRC

• hp
  
• bab and saves
  
• skills
  
• other class abilities
  

for every fourth of xp needed for advancing the complete level. But I´m not absolutely sure about that.

While this is probably the core of that idea, I wanted to read the original text again, but can´t find it - obviously, I did neither save nor bookmark it. It might have been written by Monte Cook, but I´m not sure about that.

Does anybody know what I´m talking about and can point me in the right direction?

Stefan

Well, if you ask... I´d like a copy also :-)

Stefan

As much crap as was brought up over a single Christmas Card send out ... I'm seriously doubting this calender thing will ever come out.

Signed

~Dream Killer

Probably. In the weekend newspaper here, there was a small note that a family in New Jersey had built a snow copy of the Venus de Milo in front of their house. A neighbour complained, and they had to either demolish it or dress it "properly" - they opted for dressing, I guess to show how ridiculous this is.

As long as facepalms like this do happen, it is probably better that no such calendar is printed. Here is one article on that.

Stefan

I´m rather for expanding existing options than creating all new options. Example: the bard class mechanic has IMO a big potential for variants, and what can be made of this is shown in the Inquisitor.
And I have to agree *gasp* with Sebastian, that some of the 2e race/class books had very good stuff adding to the roleplaying potential, like elven racial origins or fighter options or the idea of kits in general. Of course, in creating a lot of options, some weak results are all but inevitable (IMO, the priests handbook was rather weak). With 3.0/3.5, WotC created a lot of options, whereas paizo aims for quality so far. I´d rather have a few good options than a lot of options of mixed quality.

Stefan

I didn't get a red box. It had a dragon on it with a fighter and a wizard. It retrospect the art was kind of , well, icky, but I thought it was brillaint at the time. The book was greenish blue and I didn't get dice with it. I got chits you had to cut out and throw in a cup. I talked my 6th grade Math teacher out of a set of horrible polyhedral dice and shared them with my players.

Was it one of those? link to the acaeum. Just curious.

Stefan