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Colony - a french resistance style tale transposed to a scifi Los Angeles setting. Not as gritty as it might be, but interesting nevertheless.

Narcos - investigating the columbian druglords in the 1980s.

Westworld -I'm guessing you've seen it, but if not that is an excellent show...probably my favourite.

+1 for Black Mirror (this generations version of twilight zone) , excellent anthology series but its a bit depressing at times.


Thanks, John.


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I've had a huge success with having the players start their characters as 8 year olds and have a few (0-level) encounters together as they grow up.

Its worked particularly well for Rise of the Runelords, where I had the, grow up in the sandpoint orphanage (whoch for plot reasons makes sense) but it would work well in pretty much any rpg setting.

The only disadvantage is that players cant sketch out their entire childhood, but if you tell players in advance you're plannong to do this its not a problem...plus they can still get to decide who their parents were (great for later subplots about being the lost heir to the barony, long lost brothers, the full inigo montoya, etc,etc...)


Having had a player play a rogue through the majority of Rise of the Runelords...(we're about 2 weeks from the finale)

Firstly, let me add my GMing style os to add out of combat encounters and plenty of npcs to interact with. i am a cthulhu gm by general inclination, so I have alot of experience in runnning detective based games ,as well as those revolving around the characters personal lives.

And yes, I'm sorry to say....Rogues do suck MECHANISTICALLY compared to many of the other classes.
( thats just using the core book!)

I've had to work twice as hard to keep the party rogue as relevant as the other character classes (and that includes the party monk!) , I'm generous with sneak attack situations, and try to leverage rogue sklls in non-combat encounters..,,and even then (at 14th level) the character is in danger of being constantly sidelined by the party monk, bard or ranger.
(We have a six player group : bard, ranger, monk , druid, sorcerer, thief)

Dont get me wrong...THEMATICALLY Rogue is one of my favourite classes...but mechanistically it currently lacks a great deal at mid-high levels. It definitely needs a combat buff of some kind at 12th level + , in my opinion, and out of combat it needs some sort of tweaking to prevent it being overshadowed by the bard and ranger...


GM Lamplighter wrote:

Tigger, Paizo staff don't read every forum post every day.

Ferious: possibly, I had forgotten about those.

I dont expect every day. However, i think a week is more than enough for at least a moderator to make a note of things and at least say something like - " i'm not sure, I'll get back to you"....especially when the question is asked in a thread title....

....so yes, I AM a bit frustrated in the lack of feedback, especially given the faq on open quests appears to be out of date....but I wouldnt claim to be absolutely fuming about it, far from it, but the online information as it stands appears outdated.

As it is, I have now asked the question elsewhere and got a polite reply from James Jacobs.(very promptly, I'm pleased to say)

To paraphrase his response..., he's not directly involved but suggests (unofficially) most Paizo staff are likely too busy with Gencon to think about anything else right now.

In the meantime, I've got two 10,000 word commissions from other companies who DID reply to queries, whose products I'm a big fan of, so (shrug) i'm happy to earn my tuppence ha'penny a word from them instead. On top of which, I've a Convention to help organise.

Thats nothing against Paizo, per se... If right now they're not that interested in submissions due to other priorities (which is understandable) , its a bit pointless me working hard for a whole day to put together a scenario that they dont have time to examine,when I could instead be doing something else ....Which was what my original question was about.


Thanks for taking the time to reply James !


Whats the status on the Pathfinder quests open call ? Is it still valid ? Or is it on hold ?

(I had to ask that here as after a week theres no answer on the other forum, despite the question being asked - and the faq is clearly out of date !)


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We need to send in Chuck Norris.

Or possibly threaten them with a Piers Morgan tv show.


I suspect the fact that noone from paizo themselves have commented in nearly a week on a plainly asked question tells me an answer in itself. ...


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Hi Chaps/Chapesses

Question mostly aimed at the Paizo staff:

Having successfully sold a number of articles and scenarios to professional gaming publishers recently (including some articles published by Pelgrane Press and a 10,000 word scenario that will be published by Cubicle 7 as part of their *World War Cthulhu* range), I thought I'd try submitting something for Paizo ;

From reading the FAQs it appears the Open Call for Pathfinder Quests is still ongoing,and I have written a suitable 2,000 word scenario and was considering starting work on a second....
... but I get the impression from the forum Paizo is a little unsure what they'll be doing with the format at present, and that it might be better to temporarily hold off writing any further submissions.

(Possibly I've got a false impression.)

I've no intention to hold anyone to any estimates or place any pressure on snowed-under staff !

I'm just trying to get a rough feel for where we/Paizo are right now (Feb/March 2014).

so, in summary:
Are submissions still welcome , or would it preferable to receive the same submissions later when the circumstances are clearer ?

---------------------------------
p.s. Note for the FAQ maintainers
The "http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/products/quests" link in the OpenCall.pdf appears to be outdated

I suspect it should read
"http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/pfsproducts/quests" ?


Fomsie wrote:

@Bran; Hold steady! I think you did everything "right", and in fact were lenient with the party... it is not the DM's job to make up for player stupidity or hard headedness. Yes, it is a game for fun, but it is also supposed to have a sense of challenge, or nothing the players do is actually "heroic". Too easy is dull, and there are mechanics in place for healing and resurrections for a reason!

At no point did I suggest removing challenge, i agree no challenge is no fun. Dont get drawn into reading "fun = the players get everytnig they want" , thats certainly not true.

.(so we agree on that)

The point i was making is the game should be fun. Without challenge there is no fun. However, for many groups , encounters like this will also not be fun.

Each groups stumoch for RAW is different, you need to judge that.

And that is where the original gm went wrong, they misjudged the groups reaction. It happens. Its not doing everything right if someone is so annoyed they leave the group (even if they do overreact, whoch seems to be the case here).

However its not a heinous crime either. Its an experience that should be learned from. Dismissing it as "i did nothing wrong" means you dont learn from the experience.

Remember , no XP = no level up in your GM class.

At the end of the day, though, its up to the people involved whether they want to grow or to stick to what they know. I know some GMs that still ref the way they did 30 years ago..and others who have grown and expanded their skills
.
The former are playing the same ol, same ol, twenty years later..which is fine if you love the same ol' same ol... Which some do. Which is fine.

Those who have expanded their skill can both run the same ol same ol, but also run other styles. So, theyre more flexible...but they have to open their minds to this sort of thing.

Its really down to individual preference...which kind of GM do you want to be in thirty years time ? And do you think the effort is worth it ?

(Shrug) thats down to the individual. I've learned and I'm now more flexible, and I'm happy with that. i've a good friend who still GMs the same way, thrity years later, and he's happy with that...pays your money, takes your choice.


Adamantine Dragon wrote:

My thoughts (although if the game is breaking up I suppose this is only for future reference):

Undertaking a specific action to kill a sleeping/helpless PC is one of those areas that begs for a GM wisdom check before you do it. It's not a rules question, it's a social contract sort of question. It goes to the heart of what style of game you are running, and whether the players are in the same game you are.

I personally tend to avoid this sort of thing unless I know very well that the players are able to handle it. I've read lots of threads here and on other gaming messageboards where killing a helpless PC is considered a "jerk move".

Yes, you can say "The PC had a chance and failed their CMB/CMD roll by 18!" but to the players, that doesn't really feel like a chance. The game dynamic feels just like a PC being killed by a save-or-die spell without having a chance to do anything about it.

Reading between the lines from some of the other comments made, it appears to me that there are some game compatibility issues already in evidence, and this is probably just the straw that broke the camel's back.

Should your players be willing to return to the game, my advice is to sit down and have a long discussion about the game's social contract. I would even put it in exactly those terms.

.

This. So very much this. This is far more important that what ANY rules say.

The rules are really only GUIDELINES to help you have fun...not laws to prevent it.

At any time, you should be thinking as a GM, "does this add to the games fun". If it doesnt, you should try to think of another solution.

In this case, it does sound like you need to consider some of your core assumptions about your GMing style.
Try to think of it more as entertainment, or writing a story, and less a hoard game with fixed rules.

Maturity of the players certainly also sounds like an issue; their reaction seems excessive.

however, RPG is very much about "the social contract"... Finding out what sort of things people enjoy in a game, and then delivering it ...not necessarily goong by the rules , or what is written in a scenario (or even what is realistic). You've definitely done something they cant accept in their gaming.

See it as a learning experience : we all goof sometimes... Sit down and have a chat with the players, admit it was a bit harsh (although you felt you have reasons), and get some feedback.

Oh, and start practicing thinking to yourself "it doesnt matter what the rules say, what makes it fun for the players?" ...i promise you it'll improve your game immensely.

P.s hope this doesnt sound too arrogant. On the bright side, you're not the first to make the mistake, and you wont be the last... Its part of the learning process as a GM.

Pps. Think of it this way : you can break every "rule" in the "rulebook" and still have a terrific game...but if you run 100% RAW without the social contract , the game will never be fun.


You can actually run almost any roleplaying game without combat. The thing is it comes down to player expectations. In Cthulhu games everyone expects to have to run away, whereas in pathfinder everyone expects to fight.

You can wean players off the combat expectation, but the trick is to do it gradually, rather than all at once.

, i'm not a fan of indie/burning wheel game style interaction-duels. I've yet to find a game where its actually been *fun* in practice....and have frequently found it to be the opposite. Ymmv, of course.

Personally, I'm (yet another) big fan of Call of Cthulhu. Or of course you could go Cthulhu Dark, that has a great set of combat rules:-)


Sadly, its not a joke ti say you can easily fail to get from one end of the UK to another in 15 hours. Not because we're big, but because the traffic and/or roadworks is frequently lousy,


BigNorseWolf wrote:
zylphryx wrote:


How is it we are known for Nobel Laureates and lawnmower deaths???

Int and wisdom are two different stats.

Maybe theres a serial kller who likes to murder Nobel Laureattes with lawnmowers.?

Dont get me started on that map. The stat given for the Uk is nonsense.
We have one extreme right party and its an extremely fringe group, unlike in france and especially Greece at the moment.....so leading the world in fascist groups is a ridiculous claim.

Leading the world in ignoring serious issues like our citizens starving , worrying instead about the size of custard cream biscuits ...that we certainly do.


Bruunwald wrote:

Plus, pigs don't think people are evil because pigs have no conceptualization of good or evil.

.

Its funny, but a few years ago, man was supposed to be the only animal with language, but now we know differently. Who knows, maybe one day we'll discover pigs do understand evil.

Or..Evil may just be a human delusion, like the flat-earth and the existance of James Jacobs...


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Back to jokes (apologies for the double post, but seemed sensible comsidering the change of subject).

Q: What do you call an Englishman who is in the World Cup finals ?
A: The Referee.

Q. Englishman to Scot : "If you take away your friendliness, your mountains, glens & lochs what have you got?"
A: "England" replied the Scot.

Q. Why wasnt Jesus born in England
A. They couldnt find a virgin, let alone 3 wise men.

."An Englishmen is on the green of a golf course about to take a putt. Suddenly, a funeral procession passes. The Englishman raises his hat as the cortege passes as if in deep reflection
. 'I never knew a man such as yourself was such a gentleman!' exclaimed his playing partner, to which the Englishman responds 'Well, we were married for 40 years!'


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Hama wrote:
Vo Giap, Ambassador of Bachuan wrote:
Hama wrote:
Never understood why people thought french are cowards, when they actually never really lost a war.
Oh, no?
Battles sure, but wars... well aside from the hundred year war...and maybe the thing with Napoleon invading Russia, but i can't think of another.

It must be said that until the twentieth century the French had a pretty decent military record. Not as good as "never really lost a war", but certainly respectable.

Napoleon was defeated twice by an alliance of countries, not just in Russia,,..but its noteworthy that it basically took an alliance of most of Europe just to defeat him. Thats a big gang against just one guy.
Some respected military scholars think the only reason he lost at Waterloo was because of a lucky break for the allies (caused by an allied commander deliberately turning up late because he hated Wellington).

Most of their other french defeats were only temporary, although from the tudor age onwards the Brits tended to do reasonably well against them due to the fact that the french were great on land but poor at sea.

The French did, however, rather get their butts kicked in WWII , due to poor leadership (both military and political) but frankly anyone who thinks the french are cowards should read true life stories of the Resistance.

Besides, I dont think the French have a reputation for cowardice. Being unfriendly to non-francophones maybe, (but while I had some bad experiences with that twenty years ago, my more recent experiences suggests thats improved a great deal too).


People who post on internet forums


One thing to remember as a new GM is that the game rules are, in effect, only SUGGESTIONS on how to run the game.

Unlike traditional board games its not you versus them , its all about telling a fun, adventurous story ...

...so the "rules" arent there asa "both sides get a fair game" balance; if you're playing a game with kids, the heroes should (usually) come out on top, albeit after hardship and struggle (and the occassional loss).

With adults its a bit different of course, its all about what kind of story you want (as agroup) to tell.

.... so while the rules will help you build that story, the GM can ignore them whenever he wants to if he/she thinks the players wont enjoy what happens according to the rules.

No one will send the rules police around !

If you think your children would fine some of the encounters too challenging, then by all means change stuff...for example, you could ignore the critical hit capacities of the monsters weapons. There's nothing to stop you giving the players extra hitpoints either :-)

Also,if you dont have the rules for a monster, then you should happily make them up!
For example, if you want an imp thats about as tough as a goblin ,then you can use the statistics of a goblin, just describe it differently. Maybe it flys instead of runs, but at the same speed. Instead of a bow and arrow it fires fire bolts at exactly the same to-hit and damage....and so on.

Imagination and fun is the key. If you're sneaky you can even put in some education (like maths puzzles, or snippets of history or geography.)

Also, dont forget to plumb your favourite tv and movies for fun bits. The rolling ball from Raiders of the Lost Ark is often a favourite ., for example, or swinging across a pit ala star wars ., or getting slimed by a ghost ala ghostbusters...and so on..


To answer SPCDRI Very simply:

Why are mind flayers iconic ?
there were editions before third.
Back then they were pretty scary.


Kuo toa as well, i believe....its why Skum got the re-write, i think


Again, havent read the entire thread, only the first page but...

The effects system mastery have will vary greatly depending on the type of game your GM likes to play. Its all very well being super efficient in combat (as an example) but if the GM is setting encounters than, while challenging, are not the main focus of the campaign, then system mastery becomes far less of an issue. It can even become irrelevant in some rare games. The same goes for uber-skills

That is, admittedly, not how a majority of people play the game, and most PF games reward system mastery to some extent...but it doesnt have to play out that way.

There's far more of a problem with class imbalance at high levels imo. One way to compensate might be to get the inexperienced players play the classes than are stronger at higher levels and the system masters play warriors and rogues, etc....That does tend to mean beginners would likely be playing more the complex character classes I suppose, which has its own difficulties...but it might be one solution.


I agree it sounds illogical at this point.

However, it also strikes me that "a reason why" could be a great scenario hook...

Maybe their secret shame is they were once enslaved by an acid using race. Or perhaps the Apsu myth is involved... Perhaps it was their reward for some task or a reminder of a task left undone.... And so on.


Aelryinth wrote:

And when players choose what's fun and gets crushed for it, is it the game's fault or the player's fault?

Neither

Its the GMs fault.

Part of the role of the Gm is to provide a challenge to the players that doesnt overpower the,m.even if its a published adventure....or if it does overpower the,, there's a good story reason for it (or a good fun story that comes out of it like "captured by the ghoulies")

The only excuse really is if you're a starting GM, in which case you're likely to have a few problems while you get used to the system anyway.


In the UK there are apparently only one or two distributors of games (in general, not just pathfinder) that sell to virtually all the shops, so generally speaking everyone sells out of a popular product all at once.

It sucks. i had to wait 12 months for a reprint of Robinson Crusoe, for example.

It used to be worth buying from the US but ever since the airmail price hike, thats not really been practical. Sadly your best hope is that they get a restock in sometime soon - which with beginner box is fairly likely, I'd have thought, as its an obviously popular product from a big name.


I hated the 80s cartoon with a deep, deep loathing .

It discredited so many gamers amoungst their peers at the time and actually disuaded many of my friends from trying the game -not only that, but setting an image with my father that jt was "just for kids", an image that persists to this day, despite the fact I'm in my forties.


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Oh, and almost forgot this one.

One GM, while running a game set in Ravenloft, decided to have my character be the victim in a replay of a certain homosexual rape scene from Pulp Fiction.

For some reason they thought it was funny.


,y suggestion would be

1) spells.
2 ) feats and skills
3) start of book through to end of character classes
4) combat chapter
5) everything else.


My feeling on the cause /effect (of arodens death and the death of reliable prophecy)

Perhaps both the failing of prophesy and arodens death are not cause/effect, but both symptoms of another problem. Perhaps the power of prophecy is linked to the starstone, and the power of the Starstone is failing...


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I see the FAQ as a sort of test of your gaming experience and psychology.

Those vastly disturbed by it are worrying a little too much about "rules as written" , which suggests they still have some wonderful eye opening roleplaying experiences yet to come.


Exactly

All the FAQ really is saying is "if you try to abuse free actions the GM is perfectly within their rights to nerf you"

Which comes under the heading of "thats the GMs job for every rule in the game" anyway, imo, so frankly I'm disappointed people had to be told....but there you go.


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Doug's Workshop wrote:
Expectations.

Good point.

I'd also add along those lines... in Fantasy , heroes go in expecting to be able to kill the monster.
In horror, they expect they may well die themselves first. Or at the very least, know they are taking an immense risk for possibly no gain, or even loss.

One of the disadvantages of levelled/challenge rating game systems is that the players can often tell too much sbout the level of threat they face and are therefore not frightened .

Even in real life, sometimes the scariest thing is not "yes i can change things "/" no, i cant change things"...but " there will be a disaster if I dont do something quick, and I might be able to change things, but I'm not sure what to do...and if I make a mistake, people die and its all my fault"

Horror is doable in Pathfinder...but its more difficult than in systems that dont have character levels. Even d20 Coc struggled a bit in that regard.


Worst experience was in an RPGA competiton game at Gencon 1990.

Basically, the party encounters a band of stangers on the far side of a stream.

Suddenly , with no input from the players, not only were we on the other side of the river, but we were sitting around a fire sharing a drin k with the,m, while they were stealing our weapons and about to attack us.

Unfortunately, despite our bitter complaints about the appauling GM we got given, we were eliminated from the competition.

Worst experience in a game ever, and completely put me off playing "competitive" rpg games for life.


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To answer the thread title : mistakes in pathfinder due to faulty ALL edition d&d assumptions.

The worst thing in 3.0 all the way through to 4th and Pathfinder are all basically cludge fixes for the mess that having character classes &, levels cause , in my opinion.

Classes = atereotypes. In order to make stereotypes more flexible, you either have more classes, kits, or feats. Which leads to balance problems and excessive complextiy.

Levels leads to an assumption that almost every encohpunter will be balanced ; when it isnt all sorts of fixes are attempted to"nerf" this, that or the other. Without the faulty assumption that encounters should be balanced, alot of those vanish too.

But then, you might argue that without that ,its not D&d/Pathfinder, and I'd find it difficult to disagree. But then, I dont think D&d /Pathfinder is the greatest system out there...jut the best playtested and most easily available (due to its huge number of players).

P.s. Thats not to put any hating on it- I think the system fits neatly into the "decent enough" bracket, and paizo have done some good stuff with/ for the game... But really, I'd prefer to see the game with professions rather than classes , and then those professions only used in character generation, not during gameplay...something like a BRP/Pathfinder or skyrim/pathfinder hybrid.


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rgrove0172 wrote:

Ive been gaming a long time but am new to the system. (Well not really, I played 2nd Ed way back but it was centuries ago)

Occasionally the confines of the rules compromise the storyline. When this occurs do you guys adhere to the "game" or deviate to let the plot flow?

For example - a 2nd level thief manages to sneak up on the sentry guarding the gate into the citadel. He backstabs but the players and GM realize that even with maximum damage rolls he cant kill the guy right off, he is going to live to fight at least another round. Sort of anti climatic after a great stealthy approach and all.

Do you implement some hand-wavy rule option to give him a chance to slit the guard's throat silently (3x damage or something, or maybe make the guard make a save to avoid buying it instantly)

Thoughts?

I always, always, always stretch the rules in order to make a better story...or rather, adjust the story to the improve the enjoyment of the players around the table ( different players being greater or lesser rules lawyers mea s I adapt this to their personality).

Reason: to me point of roleplaying to to tell a mutually enjoyable story within a mutual agreed framework...not to defeat the GM in a rules-defined intellectual duel
(thats what wargames and boardgames are for, which I also play).

On one forum, my signature is "'rules are GUIDELINES" (i.e. only suggestions on good practice, but ones that should be ignored with a clear conscience when the situation warrants) ...which sums my GMing style up

Some people play roleplaying games as an intellectual duel -personally I think they're missing the best parts of the hobby, ...., but (shrug) different strokes for different folks.

Much like with sex, if everyone involved is having a good time, then (while I may not be interested in doing it that way myself), I say "go to it".

.


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I think it would be interesting if Cayden inherited the Death portfolio....after all if you consider all the deaths caused by drink ,either directly or indirectly, not to mention ill judged heroics....


The Truth Of The Starstone.

And have that "truth" be genuinely a real surprise that puts a whole new twist on Golarion, (but one that of course wont change the lives of the ignorant)..one that other people would never believe. The big lie.

Monty Cook did that to great effect with the nature of the world of Ptolus , and then theres John Carpenters They Live...something similarly revelationary for Golarion would be great.


Tigger_mk4 wrote:

...its not just a masterwork ninja-to...its the sword that was forged by the great kami smith Kamiko Torinaga for her lover Ohaiyo Gozaimasu Betonamu who went on to found the fox ninja clan. With this very blade, he slew the undead Daimyo Namata - if you look closely, you can still see the nick where the Liches amulet phylactery tried to resist the blow. It is said any bearer of the blade is destined to face his greatest fears three times, and if victorious, will be honoured throughout the land..but if they reject or discard their blade, tradegy will strike not just them but all they hold dear...

Masterwork ninja-to, non-magical steel with interwoven silver pattern, ignores DR when combating undead (only) ; gives wielder a 25% chance of bing recognised in any town with a strong ninja clan or thieves guild presence ; +2 morale bonus to intimidation and diplomacy checks if the blade is recognised due to its prestige. +2 morale bonus vs fear effects if the user is a ninja aware of its history. Sentient undead will treat the wielder as particularly dangerous foe.
Apart from its effect on undead DR, its totally non-magical, all other effects are purely psychologicsl.

P.s. bonus no-prize to those who get the joke hidden in there.


...its not just a masterwork ninja-to...its the sword that was forged by the great kami smith Kamiko Torinaga for her lover Ohaiyo Gozaimasu Betonamu who went on to found the fox ninja clan. With this very blade, he slew the undead Daimyo Namata - if you look closely, you can still see the nick where the Liches amulet phylactery tried to resist the blow. It is said any bearer of the blade is destined to face his greatest fears three times, and if victorious, will be honoured throughout the land..but if they reject or discard their blade, tradegy will strike not just them but all they hold dear...

Masterwork ninja-to, non-magical steel with interwoven silver pattern, ignores DR when combating undead (only) ; gives wielder a 25% chance of bing recognised in any town with a strong ninja clan or thieves guild presence ; +2 morale bonus to intimidation and diplomacy checks if the blade is recognised due to its prestige. +2 morale bonus vs fear effects if the user is a ninja aware of its history. Sentient undead will treat the wielder as particularly dangerous foe.
Apart from its effect on undead DR, its totally non-magical, all other effects are purely psychologicsl.


My favourite AP is a bit tricky...but I'd probably vote for either Rise of the Runelords or Crimson Throne

(Disclaimer.: my collection does mot include Jade regent or later)

Why?
I felt the character interaction and non-combat sections were the strongest in these campaigns. There was a genuine sense of being able to get players to care about the NPCs which I felt has been absent in the later APs.

Admittedly I'm not a fan of "sins of the savoirs"... but generally I thought they were overall better than the APs that followed Crimson Throne.

Some specifics :

Second darkness had some great ideas but had too many sections I felt were weak (although the dramatic turning of a certain imprtant character was really excellent).

Legacy of fire: not too much wrong with it but not outstanding either.

Council of thieves tried to be experimental ; I dont mind that per se, but those experiments failed too often for my liking. The whole Opera part just failed to work *at all* for me (no significant player choice for a long section of the game) and the rest of the series I could take or leave. ..the villains felt uninteresting to me as a GM.

Kingsmaker had good points, but lacked the kind of narrative cohesion I'd have liked to have seen, it felt far too "bitty" and disconnected.

Serpents skull : had alot of promise in sections, and liked the ideas of factions..but found the factions themselves a bit dull and some of the adventures felt a bit flat. A decent AP but felt it could have done so much *more* with the extremely promising core concept.

Carrion Crown : some individual adventures were good, but others less so. The one with vampires was particularly uninspired (Not bad, just..meh; the plot was far too familiar) but it was not the only offender.

Dont get me wrong, I think that as a rule the APs are creditable productions....
....for me All of the APs have been around 3.5 stars (I'm talking when viewed as APs, not how good some individual adventures are) ...but I wouldnt award beyond that, except maybe the first two APs (sins aside) which I'd probably rate at 4 to 4.5 stars.

(As a comparison, I'd rarely rate any adventure from 2e or 3e D&D above a 3 stars. I dont think I can think of any Pf/D20 product I'd rate at 5 stars, but from other systems "Masks of Nyarlathotep" , "Eternal Lies" and "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" fall into that category.)

And seeing someone (james? i think ) mentioned feedback: overall I'd rate the paizo pathfinder line as 4 stars out of 5. A line of consistently good ( not totally outstanding but certainly well above average) quality products , worth buying, correctly priced. Sometimes I feel they work too far within a "proven product" zone, particularly with adventures, but this makes sound financial sense for them, so cant really fault them for that.
I'd rate Paizos involvement with thier fans/customers at 5, usually excellent, and a model for other companies.


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Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
I've often been pondering this question. I have a player who boasts that he "never gets scared" and regards creepy things with a resounding "meh." No matter how hard I try to set up the ambiance, atmosphere and mood, it doesn't get a rise out of him. Part of that may simply be the limitations of play-by-post. It's hard to be scary and surprising when your only means of communicating it are through text. Part of it may be the fact that he's ex-military, and fear is something that's drilled out of you in boot camp. But when coming across horror trappings in-game he doesn't even bat an eyelash. He enjoys playing Clint-Eastwood sorts of characters, taciturn men who ride into town, cooly and casually deliver a beatdown to anyone fool enough to try and attack them, and treat setbacks and life-threatening situations as a temporary annoyance they can recover from and implacably march back into town to repay the favor in kind before riding out into the desert again as mysterious as they were when they arrived...How the heck do I scare a character like that?!

It is very tricky.

Part of the problem is that players like that dont usually want to invest in a game where they might actually be scared. I note you say he likes to ride off into the sunset..so, no lasting emotional investment in npcs.

Scaring folks ( as opposed to startling them, a technique Mark Kermode calls "cattle prod horror") requires them to be worried about the loss of something they are emotionally invested in (example: a sympathetic character in a horror movie).

I've run up against this problem with a similar style player ....and the moment they are asked to invest emotionally in a game, they immediately withdraw a distance - and much like in horror movies, its extremely dofficult to scare an audience uninvested in the characters...
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(And, as pure speculation : as ex-military, he may well have had enough of being scared in real life to last him a lifetime. Military folks dont become immune to fear, they are trained to function despite fear. Sadly, its why so many suffer from psychological problems when leaving the forces. We ask alot of our military personnel. )

At the end of the day a GM has to run games his players wants to play... And, well, like the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water...


Personally I think Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne are the two best paths.
(disclaimer...i have only got the paths up to but not including Reign of winter)

The fifth scenario in runelords is a bit iffy , but the rest is pretty good.

Crimson Throne has a good mix of RP and action, and has some really stand out moments, both in and out of combat.


She was probably the hardest struggle the main group i run have had in the first three adventures. They were very confused as they didnt know what they were facing, and her invisibrlity (and the sinspawn from the well) caused them alot of tactical issues.

Very difficult encounter, imo...possibly even more difficult (albeit possibly less deadly) than the original version of Xanesha ...


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Exactly. I dont think we actually are that far apart in our views;

..bringing people together is the good aspect of tribalism... We should always strive to promote that aspect, while rejecting the us-vs-them.

Like many things nationalism is a tool, and can be used for both good and bad things...it is up to us to make the world better by using it for postive things, not negative.

(Incidentally, i dont think my view is particularly to do with my nationality..most of my friends think i'm very cynical about the human condition too !. )


I certainly agree that an us versus them attitude can fostered by nationalism - and indeed any sort of tribalism ( not just race, nationality or class... look at soccer hooligans for instance)

Sadly, i think its party of our nature to be tribal. It was, after all, how we evolved...I think the best we can do is recognise it and try to use its good aspects , and overcome its bad aspects when we can.


1) knees creak

2) arrogant kids who think they invented everything when we came up with it twenty years before then (and our parent 20 years before that), and almost certainly better.p

3) when i was young, it was the mothers of women i wanted to date who liked me, never the daughters. Now I'm old, its the daughters who are into me, not the mothers. I seem to have bypassed any sort of sweet spot in the middle,..


Interesting point, hadnt thought of it that way.

All, humans seem to always have had a need for a concept of "people within my tribe" and "people outside my tribe"..logical in survival terms....I suppose nationalism is indeed just a name for one flavour of that.


Klaus van der Kroft wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
The idea is that since it's a democracy, and there are good things about living in Germany, you are partly responsible for some of it just because you have partaken in the democratic process. Every country has crap laws here and there, there is always a measure of corruption... but if we never celebrate the good things about democracy, it's not going to last long.

Also, there is the whole thing of belonging: I don't remember the exact words, but there was a very interesting article detailing the importance of patriotism as a mean of creating a national identity, and how that's fundamental in the process of human relations.

Considering Nationalism is a surprisngly new concept, I'm not sure the argument hold alot of water..for 99% of mankinds existznce we didnt have it.

Youre quite right we need social structures, of course, but nationalism is fairly "new".

Thats not me arguing against nationalism, (or for it, either)...

As for democracy...well, I'm rather with Winston Churchill on that subject.

There certainly a significant minority in the UK rather disenchanted with their democratic choices right now ; the main parties are too similar. That said, most Brits are too lazy to really do anything about it either...not an ideal situation. "You get the government you deserve"...


Sissyl wrote:

Uh... someone... wants to be... like the UK???

Wow...

Thats totally understandable.

http://youtu.be/1vh-wEXvdW8

More seriously : we have a reasonable standard of living, low crime rates, the much maligned NHS is actually a bloody good thing (despite what gets said in the US) although certainly not perfect, our racial issues are less than most countries (but still present), and you can get a decent cup of tea here (unlike america).

On the down side , we have high tax rates, are paid crap, could do with some decent political leaders - right now our three main parties are all clones (with one looking like he's about to say "more cheese gromit?" At any second)- and somehow our coffee culture has been corrupted by the god-awful megachain coffee ... But overall,its not too bad.

Plus,like we swapped out Piers Morgan to the US and the US gave us Jennifer Connolly in return....so I'd say we arent doing too badly :-p

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