Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber. Pathfinder Society GM. 5,818 posts (6,189 including aliases). 3 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Pathfinder Society characters. 10 aliases.
My main design goal when I came up with the expanded version was to maintain compatibility with Paizo's rules. If I end up doing a 2nd edition, there will be significant changes. Things on the drawing board include: country-to-country interactions, the influence of smaller organizations within a country, empires (where person A rules the empire and person B rules a country within the empire), and models of governments where people have much more influence. I could see skills having a much greater impact on these.
Right now, Profession (soldier) is the only skill that is used and that is limited to mass combat.
Don't listen to Turin, it's a slippery slope. First it's just a simple template but then it's three, four templates, class levels, cackling after midnight and RSS feeds on Turins story hour.
"The first hit's for free, kid," he'll say, "but you'll pay in blood for the rest" ;-)
I didn't want to do this. All right, I did but I needed a reason to post it. Which you have kindly given me. Muahaha.
Further Uses for Havero Appendage Points
Sometimes, they're not interested in killing everything that moves...
Alien Ecstasy (Ex): Nonlethal damage dealt by a havero cannot reduce a creature to less than 1 hit point. Haveros can inflict nonlethal damage on creatures of any creature type, even those normally immune. Yes, even undead. Yes, even constructs. In any round in which a creature takes nonlethal damage from a havero's tentacles it must make a Will save of DC equal to the total amount of nonlethal damage it has sustained during the encounter so far (for these purposes, keep track of any such damage that would have been inflicted to a creature that has already been reduced to 1 hit point) or become fascinated (further nonlethal damage from the havero will not break this condition) so long as any nonlethal damage remains.
Restraining Tentacle (3): Grants the following attack - tentacle +23 (1d6+7 nonlethal); constrict (okay, "fondle") (1d6+7 nonlethal), improved grab.
Disrobing Tentacle (2): Grants the following attack - sunder +23 (2d6+14, usable on armor).
Spawning Tentacle (3): Grants the following attack - tentacle +23 (2d6+14 nonlethal). At DM's discretion, may impregnate a fascinated creature (again, of any gender or creature type whatsoever) with... something. Pseudonatural creature, half-farspawn, go nuts.
Aphrodisiac Spewer (4): 30-ft. cone, damage 6d6 nonlethal, Will DC 36 half; each additional 4 points spent adds +6d6 nonlethal damage and 10 feet to the cone’s length.
Don't we just need two states now, Red and Blue? :-)
Pennsylvania should be split along Eagles and Steelers territory.
We should make Puerto Rico a state and buy Cuba and make it a state too for some more Caribbean beach front property.
And on a more serious note, I'm all for making a new state North Virginia "The New Dominion", home to tons of tech companies and DC wine country, out of the counties near DC since we're night and day different from parts of the state below Richmond.
Once upon a time, there was a game set in a science fiction universe where the economy was very important. Its name was not Eve.
In this game, players could, if they so chose, run a business. They could
designate a building as a shop
hire an NPC bot to stand in it
give the bot items to hold for sale
specify the prices at which those items would sell
customize the bot in a variety of ways
make use of advertising facilities to market the shop
decorate the shop any way they pleased
With this basic facility, emergent gameplay tied to the way that the crafting system worked resulted in players who chose to run shops being able to do things Ike build supply chains, manage regular inventory, develop regular customer bases, build marketing campaigns, and in general, play a lemonade stand writ large.
The upshot was that at peak, fully half the players in Star Wars Galaxies ran a shop.
Now, most of these players engaged in the system in a shallow way. Advanced versions of the capabilities cited above were unlocked based on RPG-style advancement. You had to choose to do a lot of merchant activity in order to get Merchant XP, in order to unlock more advanced advertising capabilities etc. But even a dabbler could run a small business.
Advanced players actually made the economy their entire game, working either solo or in highly organized guilds, managing oilfields worth of harvesters, factory towns worth of crafting stations, and whole malls.
The economy in something like World of Warcraft is very different in character. The peak populations on a shard in each game were comparable, though of course WoW achieved far far higher subscriber numbers in aggregate. But the peak of economic play in WoW is essentially basic arbitrage, timing the market.
There are several factors that make the functioning of the two economies radically different, of course.
in WoW all the best stuff is spawned as a result on combat. In SWG it was crafted by players.
in WoW nothing breaks; instead you outlevel it. In original SWG everything decayed.
in WoW a lot of the most valuable items aren’t actually items — they are buffs or skills in fancy dress. They aren’t transferable to other players. In SWG there was no “soul binding” and anything could be traded or gifted.
Fundamentally, though, the biggest difference has to do with the basic approach taken. You see, in Star Wars Galaxies we designed the economy to be a game, not a side effect. In particular, the merchant class was created to fulfill the fantasy of running your own business. It had features like decorating your shop because that is part of the fantasy of being a shopkeeper in a world such as that — to build up the equivalent of Watto’s junkyard, or a Trade Federation.
And this meant that above all, one feature could not exist: the auction house.
If you think of running a business as a game, then think about what you need in order to make it fun. Game grammar tells us that you are probably playing this as an asynchronous parallel game, meaning that you are measuring yourself against other players’ progress against the same opponent you fight. What’s the opponent? The vagaries of supply and demand as expressed by market price. The actions of other players have an indirect effect on this system.
Remember, a game provides statistically varied opposition within a common framework — if there is no variation, we call it a puzzle, not a game. Because of this, we invested a lot of effort into creating ever-varying economic situations in SWG.
Every resource in SWG was randomly generated off of master types. We defined “iron,” and gave it statistical ranges. Different kinds of iron would spawn with
different names, but they would all work as iron in any recipe that called for such. This meant that you might find a high-quality vein of iron, or a low quality one.
Even more, it might be high quality only for specific purposes.
Resource types were finite. You could literally mine out all the high quality iron there was. It would just be gone. A new iron might be spawned eventually (sometimes, very eventually!) but of course, it would be rolled up with different characteristics.
And in a different place. Resources were placed using freshly generated Perlin noise maps.
Crafters gambled with their resources, generating items of varying quality that were partially dependent on the resources and the recipe.
Crafters could lock in specific results as blueprints, but that forced a dependency on the specific finite resource that was used, meaning that blueprints naturally obsolesced.
All of this meant that a merchant could never rely having the best item, or the most desirable item (indeed, “most desirable” could exist on several axes, meaning that there were varying customer preferences in terms of what they liked in a blaster). Word spread through informal means as to the locations of rare ore deposits. People fought PvP battles over them. People hoarded minerals just
to sell them on the market once they had become rare. And of course, they organized sites like the now defunct SWGCraft.com, which monitored all of this fluctuating data and fed it back out in tidy feeds for other sites and even apps to consume, such as this one, which was widely used by hardcore business players much like a Bloomberg terminal is by someone who plays the market.
Then it all went away. You see, a key feature of the system was that the central NPC run shops were not permitted to interfere with this. Nor was the spawn system allowed to drop high quality items as loot. The result was that if you wanted the coolest weapon, you had to hunt through player-run shops like a mad antiquer on a summer drive. The result of the above systems, you see, was an economy where it was very very hard to see the gestalt of the trade economy. You really had to hunt to find out if you had found a bargain.
For someone who just wanted to frickin’ buy a blaster, it was very inconvenient.
In other words, we had local pricing in full effect. This meant that the individual merchant, who, remember, was there to fulfill the fantasy of running a small business, could get away with not being being great at it.
In the real world, we are rapidly approaching a perfect information economy. I can instantly look up the varying prices of something I want, determine the one with the lowest actual cost to me (price, shipping, time to arrival, physical location, quality, etc), and get exactly what I want. It is a world optimized for the buyer.
The experience for the seller, though, is not generally awesome, unless they happen to have the scale that drives victory in a winner takes all scenario. The big guys can essentially dictate prices by undercutting everyone. They dominate the visible market, and can drown out the smaller or more unique offerings. In this sort of world, the funky used bookstore with the awesome decor tends to die, and it doesn’t matter how much fun the shop owner had in coming up with said decor.
SWG eventually did put in a serverwide auction house, responding to WoW. It made life easier for the buyers. But it created a perfect information economy, and all that complexity and variation that was present in the market earlier fell away. Small shopkeepers were shut out of markets.
If that happens to you in a game, you don’t find another line of work. You quit.
So do auction houses suck? No, not if your game is about getting. It is a better experience for a gamer interesting in getting.
But the fantasy of running a shop, or being a business tycoon, is not just about the getting. It is about the having — of relationships, of an empire, of a well-oiled machine. It is about running things, not about working your way up a chain of gewgaws. The gewgaws are a way to keep score, but you play the game for the sake of the game.
SWG was not a game about getting. After all, everything you could get in the game eventually broke. It was about the having. Having your shops, your town, your supply chain, your loyal customers, your collectible Krayt dragon skull or poster or miniature plush Bantha like in the Christmas Special.
When the merchant changes went in to SWG, the merchants went out.
Getting is kind of addictive. For a mass market audience, it may well be the path to greater acceptance and higher profits. Me, I like funky bookstores; but I have to admit I usually buy from Amazon. It’s convenient.
The lesson here is that sometimes features that make things better for one player make them dramatically worse for another. Every time you make a design choice you are closing as many doors as you open. In particular, you should always say to yourself,
I’m adding this feature for player convenience. How many people live for the play that this inconvenience affords?
The small shopkeepers; the socializers who need the extra five minutes you have to spend waiting for a boat at the Everquest docks; the players who live to help, and can’t once every item is soul bound and every fight is group locked and they can’t even step in to save your life; the role player who cannot be who they wish to be because their dialogue is prewritten; the person proud of his knowledge of the dangerous mountains who is bypassed by a teleporter; the person who wants to be lost in the woods and cannot because there is a mini-map.
Every inconvenience is a challenge, and games are made of challenges. This means that every inconvenience in your design is potentially someone’s game.
In a somewhat related matter, I would love to see player crafted items that are "destroyed" when not looted go into a reserve pool within the game's "inventory" to be doled out occasionally as random PvE loot. It would be an entertaining experience to find a sword crafted by your buddy on the corpse of a bandit, or in a dragon's horde.
I have two Anecdotes to share. Great thread btw, haven't laughed this hard in a while.
Spoilered for... Not sure what but I'm not certain it's politically correct...
Spoiler:
So in a homebrew campaign, we were the poor shmucks who unwittingly partook in the theft of a deific artifact, the Heart of Shelyn, from her major temple in Absalon. The real thieves bumped into us, dropped it, and as the fates would have it, it broke. We found out later about some big shpeal about the rage of a broken heart and fated lovers reuniting mends all heart wounds (as it turned out, the bard was the one who bumped into the female thief carrying the item, and therefore their destinies were intwined and only love would mend the heart).
We track it all up and down the inner sea, using our half to find it. Dealing with various pirates, thugs, bandits, and wraiths and other ghosts an enraged Shelyn kept sending after us. Turns out Shelyn acts like any other woman when her heart is broken, and we were guilty by association (DM's words, not mine). Finally we get to one of the smaller port cities of the eastern inner sea, I can't recall each one, and we follow it's signature trail to a warehouse.
Long story short after some investigation, my inquisitor of Pharasma, the bard, and for some reason the cleric of Gozreh, decide to sneak in through the back. The rogue wanted to slide in through the roof. The Barbarian was off having her own sub plot at this point (which lead to her multiclassing into witch), while the sorcerer sat out front trying to figure out what she was going to do... Finally, she walks up to the door, and knocks.
Guard: Who's there? What do you want?
Sorc: I'm looking for something.
Guard: Oh yeah? What?
Sorc: Something I need.
Guard: And what do you need?
Sorc:... I NEED A MAN WITH A TATTOO ON HIS DICK!
At this point, the entire group busts up laughing. After about five minutes of breathing and stifling the giggles, the DM decides to roll with it.
Guard: A man with a tattoo on his dick huh? Hold on.
The guard calls Johnny over.
Guard: Johnny, there's a pissed off looking woman here looking for a man with a tattoo on his dick. Who's daughter did you knock up now?
Johnny: No one, I swear! At least, not that I've been told!
Johnny looks through and has no idea who our sorcerer is. So after a bit of back and forth I can't quite recall, she asks for confirmation he is who he says he is. There is some shuffling of crates behind the door, as Johnny stick his wang out of the peep hole (or whatever you call the sliding window door things).
Sorc: (out of character) I handle it for a few seconds to 'make sure', and afterwords.... MAGIC MISSILE!
Guy takes 3d4 points to the crotch, laughter is had by all (including Johnny's fellows). Thanks to Johnny being blown backwards enough, Guard finally notices that our rogue has been offing the people from behind and dragging them off to the shadows after he fell off his rope and into a barrel of fish. The rogue, at this point, was dragging the corpse to the darkness, stopped what he was doing, and announced he was the janitorial service. This opened combat with my True Shot -> Called Shot crossbow bolt to the FACE with a double crit confirmed (auto-kill in our group). To this day, "Man with a tattoo on his dick" elicits prolonged giggling, and the legend of Johnny permeates every game we have played since, even in different campaigns and different time frames.
Good times, good times. The only other anecdote of hilarity I can recall is from one of my oldest memories of my first gaming group.
I was playing a half-elf rogue in 3.0. Having maxed out and gotten as many bonuses as I possibly could to Pick Pocket, I was deemed the guy who could steal anything, in plain sight, in broad day light. Somehow the bard talked all of our way into a royal ball, so we could deal with the king's corrupt adviser. After the bard makes several failed diplomacy and bluff checks, I decide to liven up the rapidly darkening mood. The adviser found himself with no clothing, in the middle of a packed ball which has ceased entirely to witness the exchange.
This immediately swings things backs into the bard's favor, and my DM decides to give my womanizing, drunken, pocket filching rogue a reward for such quick thinking. The eldest, and sluttiest, princess finds her way over to him, having witnessed what he did while no one else had. Complimenting him on his fast finger work, she comments on the fragile delicate beauty of a woman's virtue, and how my character could probably steal the purity from a convent-bound princess. I decided to roll a pick pocket, and with a nat 20, declared "I already have..." while making my exit as smooth as any super spy movie.
This elicits quite a few laughs on it's own. What added to it was the DM expounded on that with her having to retreat to her bedroom to fix her dress and her hair... The smarmy barbarian (good friend of mine) goes "And thus begins the horrible legend of Kaelaran, the only man to be in and out in under two seconds."
Took us all ten minutes to recover from that one.... Man, humor was so different back then. Or at least that kind of humor was more humorous than what we got now xD.
I love the old rule system of AD&D and when they changed it, it was a shock to the system. Take note new school D&Ders, this is the original game here, this is the original AD&D the way it was originally intended.
So, not only do you want a wagon, but you also want to Paint Your Wagon?
Awesome :)
In all seriousness, I very much want wagons to actually be required to haul large quantities of resources. I also think the stuff inside wagons should not be destroyed when the owner is killed and his corpse looted. Attackers should be able to take control of a wagon after defeating or routing everyone in the group that was defending it.
AdAstraGames is pleased to hit things with sticks, as Mr.Fishy is too busy giving "bite the patient" lessons to Dr. House to climb out of his bowl to do so.
Our band of murderous monarchs resumed their conquest in the halls of Castle Drelev. Having {practically) silently slain the defenders, monsters, and rulers of said castle, they felt quite comfortable beginning a period of rebirth and renewal.
Poor, impoverished Fort Drelev (soon to be called Westville) bore witness to a fantastic parade of wealth and grandeur in the morning. Setting out with (illusory) honor guards, mounted on well-fed exotic bird mounts (mount spells, re-skinned to look like the Axebeak/Chocobo/Warchicken common to Kamelot's fields), and throwing bread to the crowd, the people of Fort Drelev practically threw themselves on their new rulers.
They progressed through the town, attracting a small horde of children, mendicants, indigents, and mercenaries, all anxious to catch a glimpse of "royalty." The small coins and food the party disbursed didn't hurt things either. Once at the incomplete wall and tower section, southwest of the castle proper, Ganon used his new Rod of Splendor in conjunction with the party's Lyre of Building to set up a grand pavilion, small stage, and complete work on the unfinished defenses.
All that occurred in the span of hours, opposed to Baron Drelev's usual "never." Distributing food, supplies, medical attention, and guidance to the gathering crowd, Ganon, Brunner, Artemis, and Queen Rilani all made fantastic positive impressions on the commoners. Brunner quickly "diplomacy'd" Satinder Morine, availing himself of the luxuries available at the bathhouse, as did Headswoman Hestia.
In the end, after a midnight commando raid, some rather violent negotiations with Baron Drelev, and a day of joyous celebration, Kamelot's Rulers have established a new point of control. They even managed to repurpose the incomplete Temple of Erastil to worship of Abadar. For now, that simply meant a new holy symbol (courtesy of Enrol and his fantastic stone shape skills), a handful of coins tossed into the huge empty room, and a couple of mooks standing guard at the entrance.
Unfortunately, since they flew/teleported to get there, Fort Drelev stands alone, unclaimed, and unsupported for now. No matter how hard I tried to sell it, a tendril of hex control leading northwest from their kingdom did not emerge. Silly players and their silly paranoia...
Gathering all kinds of new wanted posters, as well as retrieving Captain Terrion's daughter (and Rilani's Boko) from Tatzlford via teleport, the group readied to set out for Aarmag's Tomb, and the missing noble girls. Before they headed out, however, Artemis ensured her cohort Melissa, head of the Abadaran Inquisition and executive officer of the Mell'esai would return to Fort Drelev with her Roc transport vehicle and acquire as many widows, orphans, and the like as possible.
Artemis also made darn sure to ally herself with Satinder, with an "exchange" of talented girls arranged; the less savvy ones would receive courtesan training and remain in the service of the Calistrian Priestess. Those of a more discerning talent, or with certain moral proclivities, would travel to Haven and receive Mell'esai Inquisitor training.
Along the way to Aarmag's Tomb, a certain cranky Smilodon (Double Advanced & Old Dire Tiger Speartooth) tried his hardest to nom on some tasty tasty arcane casters. Despite chewing on the pair of casters and laying some scary hurt down, Speartooth quickly fell to lance, hammer, and gun. Happily, the crew butchered, skinned, de-fanged, and prepped the enormous beast for their trophy room. In fact, Ganon 'ported himself, Artemis, and their "catch" back to the capitol of Kamelot, selling some loot and delivering a fresh tiger carcass to the royal taxidermist. He then 'ported back in the morning.
The rest of the trip north proved uneventful, as the party elected to not bother with Small Aurumvorex warrens. Spotting the barbarian camp easily enough, the party spell-buffed up and set off to say "hello." In this case, that literally meant "Hail" played via Ganon's signal horn. Receiving a similar hail in return, the party waltzed right into the trap.
Xenophobic, driven nearly mad by the Black Sisters, and under direct supervision by not one, but two extraplanar babysitters, the Tiger-Lord Barbarians did what all barbarians should. They greeted the intruders with hurled axes and foaming mouths. Supported by a bound Lilend, and led by a Planar Ally Rakshasa, they fought hard and died hard. No match for the melee brutes, and too dumb (or angry) to not clump up, the axe wielding maniacs did what they needed to; they bought the necessary minute-and-a-half for the Black Sisters to begin their spell preparation.
Fireballs, clouds, shotgun, hammer and lance won the day, with noone seriously injured and the extraplanar threats neutralized via Charm. Spending more time talking to the Lilend and Rakshasha, the party gained intelligence about Aarmag (scary one-eyed barbarian lord), the Tomb (scary, deadly dungeon area), and the Black Sisters (ultra scary, crazy, pick wielding spellcasters). Enrol-lur showed a penchant for recycling, and raised a bunch of fallen barbarians as fast zombies.
Proceeding into the tomb itself, they were ambushed by those crazy, pick-wielding Sisters, and nearly got their butts handed to them. Upgunned to pose a serious threat to even such powerful characters as the party, the Black Sisters nearly put an end to the party's tale. Immediately isolating Brunner the Life Oracle via wall spells and blade barrier, the Sisters began a 10-15 round battle of coup de graces, spell immunity, and battlefield control spells. At one time, no less than 8 template spells filled the 40'x40' room.
In the fight, Brunner died not once, not twice, but three times, finally succumbing to "death" at his own hands (trying to flee through a blade barrier) after exhausting his Hero Points. Hestia also "died" from a 50-60 damage CdG, only to survive thanks again to Hero Points. The rest of the party worked doubletime, trying to gain position, not get sliced by the blender walls, and deliver enough of a beat down to off these mad Sisters.
They finally managed to do so, only to witness their remains disappear into a pile of sand and dust. Seconds later, said remains began swirling and whirling, filling up the formerly empty leaf armor and clothes of the slain sisters. Using gust of wind, Ganon managed to deposit the (not yet)undead clerics in their own pit spells, whereupon Artemis and Enrol sealed them in via stone shape and major creation spells.
Given a respite, and believing the battle won, Hestia and Artemis began to extract themselves from the deadly room. Unbeknownst to the ladies, however, the Mummy Sisters returned to the "living" whilst encased in their respective pits. Soon enough, they climbed to the lip and began pounding on the lid, attempting to slam their way through the obstacles. Ganon, Enrol, and Rilani had remained back, either to finish the fight, attempt to recover Brunner's body (easily achieved with some teleportaion magic and readied actions). Seeing the leaf-and-cloth wrapped arm of Sister 1 slam its way through solid stone cemented their resolve to finish this fight, however.
Having lost the benefit of the majority of their defensive magic, these newly fire-vulnerable, non-SR, not immune to fireball, non-fire-resistant Undead Sisters soaked a LOT of Arcane Artillery Fire Support in a very short time. Enrol proved his worth yet again with an empowered scorching ray spell which yielded over 100 damage, dusting one Sister where she stood. Her counterpart fell shortly thereafter, after eating more scorching rays, Rilani's sword attacks, and a fireball or two.
All told, probably the toughest fight yet in the AP.
The butcher's bill:
Brunner died, thrice.
Hestia died once.
Enrol lost all his zombies (mostly due to blade barrier)
Rilani lost "The Sword of Varn" (+3 Defending Longsword) due to a Critical Fumble Card (darn Nat-1/Nat-1's and no Hero Points)
We wrapped there, with the party camped in the former Tiger-Lord camp. The Lilend, still charmed by Ganon, watches over the hostage girls, while the Rakshasha fled the scene as soon as he could.
Everyone leveled to 11th level, and should be ready to resume the descent into Aarmag's Tomb in a few weeks (real) time.
I am writing today because I have just read something and I simply *must* ask you about it. I believe you have specified that the first, as in "The Motion Picture", Star Trek movie is your third favorite of all Start Trek film.
I am going to suppress my desire to say all sorts of things and simply ask; why is that your third favorite of *all* Star Trek films?
Because it has a sense of wonder to it, and because it has a neat sort of almost Lovecraftian element to it with the crew encountering a powerful otherworldly prescence, and because it was mostly absent of the later movies' abandonment of cool science fiction elements for stuff I'm less interested in.
The latest Star Trek movie was actually my 2nd favorite of ALL of the Star Trek movies. (My first favorite being Khan, of course... but my 3rd favorite is actually the FIRST Star Trek movie.)
Then I admit that my arguement is flawed, if it makes everyone happy. I do not not point fingers at any specific party. I point them at the whole two party system. It is then the Massachusetts Romneycare that set the bad precedent. That does not make it right. They too should have just taxed it.
Hey you'll get my fully hearted endorsement of tearing down the two party system (not the government -- just the parties) -- I vote for the person I think will do the best job regardless of political affiliation -- I firmly agree with our first president who said that a political party system would be the death of our country.
Answer:
Ask your GM. That's the only opinion which counts in the end here, and anything else is going to get you a firestorm of opinions from other posters who will argue with and contradict one another on the basis of the way that the games they play in run.
Question:
But I am the GM.
Answer:
Make your own mind up then, instead of juggling flamethrowers in an oil refinery. Please.
Personally instead of a plethora of subraces for every situation, I'd like to see something I've only ever seen even attempted in Rolemaster, because frankly, it's a good idea.
Separate Race, Culture, and Climate.
That way there's no need to elaborately work in (making the assumption that the gm wont allow custom houseruling of races - which is true in 85% of games) why my dwarf raised by elves knows how to dodge giants, and halforcs raised by gnomes wouldn't likely be taught to use orcish weapons.
Race: What you're born with, your potential, and abilities that develop with age, through no effort or training whatsoever.
Climate: The climate you grew up in. This could determine the skills you get for race, or maybe some climate specializations. Things you'd need to have picked up in such a climate.
Culture: Things you are taught by your society, things everyone learns in this culture while growing up, etc. Weapon Proficiencies and Dwarven combat training falls into this area.
And theoretically, you could still modify your race if they've been living in a situation so long that their racial capabilities have changed. You could make "hardy" races, "cunning", "intellectual", etc. The GM would be the only one doing this part most likely though, because if the PC says "I'm an elf racially adapted to be fireproof" the GM can say, that doesn't exist in this setting. (But if it *DOES*) then it's really easy for the GM to just plug it in and use it, without having to worry alot about "well I just made some stuff up. it looks like a comparable power level, I hope it is."
So: In a theoretical setting, let's say we're building a character where these are separated. I'm going to assume instead of having 3 separately balanced categories that you're picking from, they came up with a system of substitutions (3 different balanced things would be better, but for simplicity I'll do it this way)
So: I'm an Elf, From the Arctic Wilderness, who was raised by Human Vikings.
So I start with the Base Elf
+2Dex, +2Int, -2Con, lowlight vision, elven immunities, elven magic, keen senses, and elven weapons.
What's Racial?
Everything but weapons and elven magic..
So, assuming we're using a substitution system.
Replace Identify bonus with: +2 Survival in a cold northern climate (Climate (Arctic Wilderness)
Replace SR bonus with: +1 Hatred toward trolls and frost giants. (Culture (Viking))
Weapon Familiarity: longswords, battleaxes, medium shields, light crossbows. (elven weapons stay as exotic). (Culture (Viking)).
It would be nice to have a bunch of different climate and cultural packages - and it would be an effective and simple way to customize races for a setting without a million and one subraces needing to fill all that page space.
316. Sympathetic to the cause of the Thirteen colonies, the British colonies of Nova Scotia, Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, and Bermuda send representatives to sign the Declaration of Independence. Newfoundland remains loyal, as do East and West Florida. The early days of the United States are referred to as the Nineteen Colonies.
As the early United States is used to having insular possessions, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are admitted as states. The Caribbean is quickly considered American, and New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island follow suit as well. The Manifest Destiny extends through Central America to the Pacific, and Panama is fiercely American. Mexico loses Texas, but California is held long enough for the discovery of gold to reach Mexico City. California becomes heavily fortified by Mexico.
I agree. Number one problem with APs, they end just when the characters are getting interesting. Need some that go to at least 20, more would be better.
For anyone who needs a realistic castle for their next adventure, or just appreciates castle design in general, I stumbled on a great site.
If you're interested, check out this link and scroll down to the part that says "here are the contestants." A few of them are so-so, but others are just incredible. I really liked Anonkrankie Castle, Blaumannbourg Castle, Cragshaw Castle, FitzFirbolg Castle, Lumpkin Castle, Optipal House, Thornhaven Castle, and Tregarnet Hall.
i have several Aliases that bring back bad memories. most of which i wish i could put in this box that i could hide from myself and those around me. these aliases tend to wrack at my very sanity.
please include an 'ignore this alias' box. so that i may ignore looking at various bothersome aliases.
As the message board generally turns into a b+@!@ sessions, I want to do another thank you thread, but this time be more specific.
Thank you Ross and Liz for putting up with all of us and trying to keep the threads under control.
Thank you James Jacobs for being excited enough about the world you created to do basically a daily question and answer session on all the minutia we can throw at you about Golarion.
Thank you Sean, Jason, and Stephen for putting up with us in the play tests and answering all our rules minutia.
And thank you everyone else at Paizo for keeping 3.5 alive and vibrant.
We appreciate it, even if we are sometimes jackasses on here.
+1 on this post. Very disappointed about a pirate-themed AP. Sigh.
Well, for me, as an example, it was like that when Carrion Crown was announced, and again with Jade Regent. Both themes don't hold much interest for me. Pirates I like, so finally again something to look forward to.
OMG, an AP that isn't standard fare Western Medieval fantasy type and Zaister likes. Something's wrong with the universe! ;-)
Doesn't have to be standard fare Western Medieval Fantasy type and Zaister like. I was actually hoping for a AP based around the Worldwound to be honest. Dropping into Hades or the Abyss to help quell part of the demon invasion sounds like fun.
I've been a big fan of this idea for a while. I think a Worldwound crusade AP would be GREAT!
For that matter, given the tendency of modern gaming towards "shades of gray" morality and "working with the bad guys to defeat the WORSE guys" that has been a fairly common theme in multiple APs, I'd like to see one that is explicitly, unambiguously, unironically, and unapologetically an AP designed for the *good guys*, the knights in shining armor, the sherriff in the white hat with a silver star on his breast, the HEROES with a capital H.
In a fantasy world, should there be room for ambiguity and hard ethical choices? Sure. But here's a news flash: WE HAVE PLENTY OF THOSE ALREADY.
Also, those "hard ethical choices" are often more like: "Well, the adventure sets up to really expect you to have to do this, so hold your nose and eat it. It's theoretically possible for you to succeed if you don't do this... but... yeah... not really... so just go ahead and do it."
That's not a true "hard ethical choice." That's more like: "well, guess what, you're pretty much boned either way but you're stuck with the situation, so just try to find the least worst alternative and be happy about it."
We have plenty of APs that are designed for PCs to be scoundrels, or mercenaries out for themselves, or have the chance to ally themselves with scummy NPCs.
There are some APs where the PCs are very nearly required to cooperate with evil creatures, individuals, or government. There are others where it is less absolutely necessary, but still strongly flavored in that direction.
Are there ANY APs where the PCs are set up to be unambiguously heroic, without being forced to go through or get in bed with hell to do it?
I think Legacy of Fire is probably the only one that qualifies. The PCs are definitely set up as protectors of the local area, and at no point are they compelled to work with or for anybody scummy. You don't HAVE TO be a good guy to play LoF, but the thrust and sweep of the AP itself is heroic.
There are a few APs, ones with a more sandboxy approach in large part, that are pretty neutral on the subject.
Kingmaker has a pretty neutral heroism valence. It can just as easily be played with scumbag PCs as shining heroes. The only 'taint' factor is the implied setting of being in the River Kingdoms and having to engage politically with some shady characters in Brevoy and the other surrounding lands, but there's no compulsion in the AP to be friendly with them. It doesn't require heroism but neither does it punish it, and it's equally friendly to either approach.
I'm playing in Serpent's Skull so I haven't read them. Like Kingmaker, there are opportunities to get in bed with the bad guys, but thus far it has never felt like we were screwing ourselves by not doing that.
What we know about Jade Regent seems like heroic characters would be at home here. This one might even be a bit more in the LoF direction, in that the PCs are explicitly tied to helping Shalelu and (especially) Ameiko - NPCs that are established as being "good guys." So, while you could play a skeezy character, it would seem a bit out of place in why the Sandpoint gang would want to travel with you on this long journey to Tian Xia.
To the best of my recollection (and I could be wrong), the rest of the APs, including the 3 Dungeon APs, all seem to have varying degrees of "realistically, to play this adventure/AP as written, without making your GM invent a bunch of new stuff, you must work with some of the bad guys," whether it's vampires in or werewolves in Carrion Crown or demon lords in Savage Tide.
Is that stuff cool? Sure. Most of these adventures are really good, many even GREAT. Shoot, I write AP adventures and I dig the stuff we're doing! I'm not knocking the quality of the adventures. It's just that, if you look at the full sweep of Paizo's AP offerings, including those announced but not yet released, there are 12 of them from Shackled City to Skull and Bones. Of those:
8 require you (unless you are going to circumvent the adventure as written), at some point during the AP (if not at MANY points) to be friendly to villains.
3 (possibly 2) are pretty much neutral on the subject.
1 (possibly 2) is a straight-up, white-hat, full-on Good Guy AP.
One. Maybe 2.
Should every AP be superhero fantasy? Heck no. But look at history. Check the balance. There are customers - I would venture to guess a lot of customers - who want to BE HEROES, without feeling dirty about it afterwards. They want a Truly Heroic AP.
All I'm saying is this: IT'S TIME
Whether it's a Worldwound Crusade, a desperate resistance against an uprising of dragons, a liberation of the dwarven megadungeon homeland a la the Mines of Moria, or whatever. There are plenty of stories that can be told that would facilitate True Heroism. Most of them have ample space for some skulduggery and ambiguous shenanigans around the margins (corrupt inquisition tries to derail the Crusade; advisors against the dragons turn out to be agents FOR the dragons or infiltrators from a group that wants to control them; competing or rival dwarven factions who all want to stake a claim to "their" rightful place in the homeland), but at the end of the day the spine of the AP is true, honest to goodness heroism.
And, if I may add, the death of a PC due to drowning in a pool of rancid crab butter deserves to be enshrined in the Hall of Ignominious PC Deaths Fame.
Edit: Also Rancid Crab Butter would be a decent name for any metal band.
Every single time I've read or heard anything about the Gurkha, it's something insanely over the top and badass, like the piece on Bhanbhagta Gurung from the book Badass(appropriately enough).
A "world war" indeed. Cheliax and Taldor both have long-held ambitions of imperialism. If memory serves Taldor has fielded the Inner Sea equivalent of the Crusades with Nine (?) Armies of Exploration and at one point encompassed nearly the whole northern shoreline of the Inner Sea.
Cheliax I would guess would by influence most subtle establish one or more puppets within the ongoing 'Red Revolution'. At some point, the balance of power will tip, spilling the heated coals of misguided ambition into the powder keg of open conflict.
Andoran means well, but are short-sighted, relying upon intelligence from their "independant agents". Taldor, considered decadant and languishing in glories past, are not to be discounted if 'properly motivated'.
What at first seems to be minor skirmishes and localized power struggles - say, in the River Kingdoms - could sprout like leprosy as any number of charnel flowers come into blossom.
Treerazer and his mini-onions marshal considerable forces, distracting Kyonin's elven aristocracy from external affairs for a protracted period. A new king is crowned in the Five Kings Mountains and a quiet jihad is declared against all perceived threats within and beneath that realm, further exacerbating the strained relations with Kyonin.
Absalom, blinded by greed and confident in its lack of a land border, becomes the Switzerland of the region, eagerly laundering money and profiting from a newly signed mercantile accord with the sovereign states around the Inner Sea proper. LOTS of diplomatic intrigue, espionage and logistical arrangements with the 'neutral' party follows.
The initial 'flash' of yet another civil war in Galt goes scarcely noticed. Until it keeps going on. Both / all of the sides in the conflict grow desperate. Some resort to diabolism, some to fell necromancy, others to hiring Andoran "freedom fighter" armies as highly-motivated mercenaries. Taldan nobles along the northern border shared with Andoran and Galt seek to close the land border, aggressively patrol the Sellene River and hire out units of heavy cavalry (in order to season those troops in battle you see).
The Sellene River is a major bone of contention between Andoran and Taldor. That Taldor has a hostile southern border is one of the checks keeping another Taldan Crusade from being launched.
As the Galtan conflict rages on, some of the "petty" warlords in the River Kingdoms see easy pickings to the south and east and form a confederacy. Perhaps Choral the Conqueror returns to Brevoy. After sweeping aside opposition in his own back yard, his eye swings south away from dangerous Numeria to his west and across the tangled web of petty robber-knights across to Galt.
Choral's forces swing south, either annexing or destroying the River Kingdoms that stand in his path. Refugees flee to the west or south or into the eastern steppes. Only those fleeing south are heard from - it seems that the Conqueror has returned!
as it so happens, one overly enthusiastic river boarding goes badly, finally igniting war between Andoran and Taldor. Perhaps a cargo of liberated hobbits from Cheliax were impounded by rightful law under Taldan aegis. Perhaps the overeager knight was shived by a desperate hobbit. No one knows what happened that awful night when the longship Bratticus and the Andoran cargo ship both burned to the waterline in a hideous inferno. The only survivor was horribly burned, dying from madness and shock after washing ashore on the Andorian side of the river.
The southern satraps, seeing Taldor creak to life once more, launches a crusade of its own against Taldor, the hammer blow not unexpected. It is underestimated.
Andoran overly presses its pereceived advantage against Taldor and moves in, eager to meet the satrapies' armies in the middle of Taldor. Opparra is the jewel of Taldor, and Andoran means to snatch the glittering prize.
Chelish ambitions are clear, their patience considerable. Four weeks to the day after Andoran declares war on Taldor, the Imperial Navy and Army are seemingly everywhere. Naval forces with Hellknight marines sweep into the pirates' waters, sacking the "city", looting everything they can carry then razing it before moving to bring Sargova back into line and begin an aggressive campaign to secure Chelish holdings on Garund. The sun orchid elixir is the top prize.
An expeditionary force sent to Korvosa is soundly thrashed by a coalition force of Korvosans, Varisians and Shoanti barbarians. Not eager to surrender, the bulk of this army group deploys into dangerous lands south of Korvosa. Several years of bitter struggle ensues, although unexpected Viking corsairs plague the Chelish logistics before an even greater force of Varisian skirmishers, Shoanti shock troops, Viking longships and mammoth-riding super-heavy cavalry route the Chelish army.
The main thrust of Chelish aggression is a three-pronged offensive, one by sea, two by land. The sea offensive is presaged by concentrated effort to eradicate or sieze foreign sea ports with shipyard facilities.
Andoran and Taldor, even the satrapies, do not want the Chelaxian Empire to succeed. Can the combative parties be made to set aside their differences and unite against a common foe? Can the High King of Dwarves be persuaded to rebuff Chelish infiltration and strike when Cheliax does not expect it? Can your Heroes shatter Treerazer's offensive and turn the tide against him swiftly enough? Will the madness ravaging Galt and the northeastern lands be put to an end, or will Choral be considered the 'least evil' and ignored in the short term?
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PJ
(Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Adventure Path, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules, Battles Case Subscriber)
