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Looks great so why doesnt each week have a phase of the moon? I could add that, I suppose, but after years of playing, I've found that there're only 2 important phases of the moon - new and full. You can infer what phase the moon is in each week by whether the week comes after a new/full moon.
Here's my perpetual calendar (works from 1 A.R. onwards) updated for the new World Guide: Included in the zip file is the moon font needed to display the moon phases correctly. You need to install or copy the file into the Windows fonts directory if you don't already have it. To generate the calendar for a particular year, just type the year number into the yellow box on the first page. Holidays mentioned in the World Guide, equinoxes, and new and full moons are all marked on the calendar. It syncs with our Gregorian calendar this year (4711 AR or 2011 AD), but will get out of sync following the first Gregorian leap year that's not also a Golarion leap year going forwards (4716 AR and after) or backwards (Calistril 4708 AR and before). Moon phases are close enough to our real world this year, but as I'm only using very simplistic calculations, don't expect them to remain in sync with our real world many years into the future or past. Enjoy!
I suppose I could update my calendar now, but I made it for my CotCT game in the first place, which is in the third chapter (pbp so sloooow going) so this calendar will stay in use for a few more years. So I don't feel any urgent need for an updated "correct" calendar. And a statement like "months in Golarion have the same length they do in the real world" leaves out a lot of other required details. Like how does a leap year work? Mike McArtor established that St Alika's Birthday (a festival in Korvosa) occurred only in leap years, on 31 Arodus. How does that change with the new calendar? Are they sync'ing the new calendar with Earth's calendar in one particular year (it'll get out of sync again following the first leap year), or sync'ing with the day/dates mentioned in published canon? So on the whole, I'd rather wait and see if I feel the need to update my calendar for the new campaign I'm planning. If details are still vague, I may just continue using this calendar and ignore the official one. I and my players are used to it by now.
Any chance to make this available as a PDF? Not eveyone has Excel installed on their computer. Sorry. The main strength of my Excel calendar is that you can generate a different year by entering the year number. If such a thing can be done in PDF, I don't know how. Though if anyone wants to take the generated months and save to PDF with pretty background images, be my guest.
I just checked; the file is still there. Use the second link about halfway up the page (not the outdated link in my first post, that pointed to a previous version) duplicated below:
Assuming 360 days a year, a leap year every 8 years, my generates the calendar for any year you enter in the "Year" tab, synchronised with the only day and date mentioned in the Second Darkness AP. On those assumptions, 1 Abadius 4710 is an Oathday and 1 Pharast is Moonday, yes.
No, my calendar assumes 360 days in a non-leap year, and a leap year every 8 years. The dates sync with the mentioned leap year (somewhere) and with the specific day mentioned in Second Darkness. To get a different year, just enter the year on the first page, on the tab labelled "Year". That's why it's a perpetual calendar. It will work all the way back to 1 A.R. If it isn't what you had in mind, I don't think I've seen another version that works for years before 4707 or after 4709. It isn't pretty and attractive, but you can export the generated calendar and tack on your own favourite images.
Did you mean my Excel perpetual calendar?
At the time I made that calendar, I asked all the same questions you're asking. My research was ultimately an exercise in futility. Besides the PFCS, the calendar has only been addressed officially in the Guide to Korvosa, which states that there are 12 months of 30 days each in a year. So, which is right? Paizo has to date refused to nail it down, leaving us fans to deal with the discrepancies according to our own preferences. I chose to go with the Guide to Korvosa, because I've no idea where to insert the missing 4 days otherwise. What is certain is that they have so far set their AP's in the Golarion equivalent of the Earth year it was published. Since SD was published in 2008, it's set officially in 4708, so the date in SD is not a typo. What went wrong, I think, was the author referring to Lilith's 4707 calendar as 4708 when he wrote it. Either way, you're not going to get an official answer. Just choose one calendar you like or make your own, and use it for your own Golarion campaign. I sync'ed my calendar with SD, but I can't guarantee a future AP won't mess with a future day/date on my calendar.
The calendar made by Lilith/Fray is not official Paizo canon. I made an alternative non-canon, but perpetual (as in it works for all years) calendar in Excel that puts 14th of Arodus 4708 as Oathday. Here is the thread about it. The download link, if you're interested:
As are we all. Paizo has not, to date, published an official calendar, so we're all working on our own preferred assumptions. The Guide to Korvosa states that there're 12 months of 30 days each, which makes 360 days in a non-leap year. The Campaign Setting says 52 weeks of 7 days, which makes 364 days. My calendar assumes 360 days in a year. Have fun with it, but don't expect it to match our Earth calendar with 365 days and a leap year once every 4 instead of 8 years.
The moon font is included in the zip file. Just extract it and right click to "install" the font into the Windows font directory. Yes, you still need to either "install" or copy the font file into the Windows font directory.
Precisely. I have never understood the perceived cost to Paizo of throwing a subscriber's print copy into the trash, if said subscriber doesn't want the print copy. I used to be a charter subscriber, but cancelled my subscription after PF #4 partly because of the shipping cost for a hardcopy that had ZERO value to me (and partly because I ended my RotRL game after reading PF #3). I've been buying individual PDF's of CotCT and SD, but have decided to give LoF a miss because Arabian isn't my cup of tea. If Paizo had offered a PDF only subscription from the start, I'd probably have kept it rather than go to the trouble of cancelling and picking up specific issues I wanted, because the benefits that come with a subscription are nothing to be sneezed at - the Pathfinder Advantage and free Player's Guides. Without a PDF subscription model, Paizo is definitely losing my business for the LoF arc at least. I just can't see how it helps Paizo NOT to offer a PDF subscription.
Only the old version is gone. The updated version with Korvosan holidays is still there. Enjoy!
I'll add my voice to Sean's that Shackled City is by far the best. I'm running it online and it has held my players' and mine interest for coming to 3 years now. My personal ranking, based on running SC and CotCT and skimming the rest: 1. Shackled City
I haven't read WotBS, and it's too early to judge Second Darkness.
Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide states on page 7 that: The people of Golarion measure time much like we do as well, with seven days to a week and twelve 30-day months to a year. I'm not sure why it was left out of the Campaign Setting, but until a later publication contradicts the above, it seems pretty fixed that we have 360 days, not full 52 weeks, to a year.
Sorry for the confusion, Gamer Girl. After uploading the new version, I removed the old file from the site. The link in my second post, for the version with Korvosan holidays, does work. Now I've restored the original link to point to the new version as well. Either link will get the same file now. Hope you like it. Edit:
<Answers to a ghost question deleted.> Glad you find it useful. Now to hope more people, especially those in power, use it so we can fix on one official calendar and avoid all future date inconsistencies. ;)
The moon font is included in the zip file. Just extract it and right click to "install" the font into the Windows font directory. Since uploading that, I fixed the fonts in a few places for consistency and better readability, and added Korvosan holidays (except the King's Birthday, because you know why). The new version is here.
I made an Excel calendar generator for Golarion that works for any year from 1 A.R. with moon phases, leap days and the holidays in Campaign Setting all marked in. My version differs from Lilith's in 2 major ways: 1) It synchs with the date mentioned in Second Darkness, in that 14 Arodus 4708 IS Oathday. 2) I marked the solstices and equinoxes closer to our real calendar, on the 20/21/22 of the first month of the season, as I think that's what the Pathfinder authors have in mind when they mention things like "first day of autumn" in the AP's. Because the Campaign Setting delineates the seasons clearly by month, I've kept Lilith's method of marking the start of a season on the first day of the relevant month. You can download it here. There's a moon font included in the zip. You need to install that to see the moon phases correctly. To generate the calendar for a particular year, just type the year number into the yellow box on the first page. This being Excel, the calendar isn't as pretty as the one that Lilith and Fray made, but it does work for any year into the future. If anyone with more artistic talent wants to take it and make pretty swimsuit calendars out of the output, be my guest. Enjoy!
Actually if you downgrade to Adobe Reader 8.1 (the free version), you can do it the way Vic described. Only since Adobe Reader 9 this functionality seems to be unavailable.Sorry—I didn't realize Adobe had removed that from Reader 9! I've just upgraded to Acrobat 9 and, to my dismay, discovered this problem. Upon further testing, it seems only Paizo PDF's exhibit this problem; PDF's from other sources, as well as those I create myself, allow me to select images with the select tool in Acrobat 9. So it seems Paizo is doing something different to their PDF's that disables this function in 9. What, I've no idea, but could someone possibly investigate and maybe fix it for future products? It's something of a nuisance having to keep both Reader 8 and Acrobat 9 installed in order to run my games (online). I can live with it for now, but I don't see the viability of keeping Reader 8 around forever just because of Paizo PDF's. Thanks in advance for giving your attention to this admittedly little problem!
I've to say I agree with those finding the adventure illogical. On a quick once-over, it's giving me the same feeling I got from reading Hook Mountain Massacre. Each cool episodic event is fine on its own, but the connection between them is tenuous at best, making the whole rest on a very flimsy premise that'll crumble under my players' scrutiny. HMM was what made me drop my RotR campaign, and this one is making me reconsider CotCT although I've been looking forward to it based on the synopses. I get that you've to introduce players to a new city, but Burnt Offerings did that without a lot of logic holes. Yes, I can change and adapt the parts that don't make sense to me, but if I've to do what Foxish plans to do to salvage the adventure, it rather defeats buying the adventure in the first place.
I am most likely getting to the glassworks tomorrow and want to print the map out in multiple pages at full 1" grid size. All I have is GIMP and an entire messageboard full of folks better at this stuff than me. Any suggestions? GIMP has options to set grid size and print size. On your image window, go to Image->Configure Grid. The middle "Spacing" section lets you set width and height (of the grid) in pixels and inches. Just set the number of pixels you want for your preferred display size on screen, and enter 1 inch for the printed size. Now turn on GIMP's grid lines, and resize the map by trial-and-error until you get the map's grid to roughly align with GIMP's grid. Since you don't have to be accurate down to the pixel for printing, it shouldn't take long. All you need to do next is to chop up your map into sections of about 8 x 11 grid squares for printing on normal-sized paper. (Or in logical sections by rooms, if you prefer.) Print and enjoy.
I cancelled my subscription after PF #4, partly because the AP was not going in a direction I liked so I didn't think I'd use the later chapters, and partly because of the international shipping. US$5 per issue works out to a lot of wasted $$$ per AP that could have gone into a few GM modules when I have zero use for the hard copies. I'd resubscribe in a heartbeat if you introduced a PDF-only subscription. I'd gladly pay the same $13.99 per issue for the right to download the PDF the same time as other subscribers, and forego the book and related shipping cost. I know the answer to a PDF-only subscription has always been no, but I don't see the reason for it. Until then, I'll buy the PDF's as they become available, and in all likelihood be more selective about what I buy than if it were a subscription. Human nature.
Many, many thanks, Lilith! The lite versions are especially nice for superimposing a suitable background image over, to evoke the proper mood for a particular module.
FWIW, here's another STRONG vote for quality over keeping to a tight schedule that's obviously unmanageable on top of juggling all your other product lines.
Please cancel my Pathfinder subscription.
I'm not sure if it's what you want, but I've been running games online at www.playbyweb.com for years. It has an integrated dice roller (that players swear to be out for their blood, but...), and allows you to embed images hosted elsewhere as part of your post. I use GIMP to prepare the battle maps with character icons, then upload the images, exported as jpeg, to photobucket and link into my post. For a scenario involving only one or two characters that you want to keep secret from other players, you can even create a private thread (or "move") that others can't read. Each of your players will need an account on the site, but each account can create an unlimited number of characters with different names and avatars to play in your game.
Same for me, I have a freshly downloaded Player's Guide and I can't select portions of the map. I can highlight the text on the map, though. That is the precise proof that the map IS layered. If you can highlight the text labels on the map, it means the text is on a separate layer from the underlying map. You can select the map separately from the text, but because the map image takes up a full page, you need to do Ctrl-Click in Windows. (It's another combination on Mac, but I don't remember what.) Once the image is highlighted, right click to Copy Image to the clipboard, then import it into a graphics viewer.
Yes, the one in the free Player's Guide is layered, so you can just select and copy the map in Adobe Reader without the labels. Only the Player's Guide one works for this; for some unfathomable reason, the map in PF #1 has been flattened.
Thank you for the assurance. I'll be looking forward to future AP's then, and just use Runelords as a series of modules to be run separately.
I agree with Hiddendragon and Takasi, though not about Shackled City. I'm running Shackled City and Burnt Offerings now, and the latter is nowhere as compelling as the former. I've been trying to figure out what it is about SC that makes it so compelling to the same group of players who are losing interest in Burnt Offerings, and earlier today, after skimming through Hook Mountain Massacre, I reached the same conclusion as the OP. In SC, the first thing that hooked them into the story were the Caulron regional traits, each linked into the overall story. At the start of the campaign, most of them already had individual bits of the mystery that, though they didn't understand it, would prove important later. The shocking event at the end of Chapter 1 convinced them something BIG was going on, even if they didn't know what it was. Then I modified the premise of Chapter 2 to drop the Cagewrights' name, so they have a name to go after, though they don't yet know anything about the organization. We're only finishing Chapter 3, but the emotional investment in their characters and the story is huge. By contrast, all of these little hooks are missing from Runelords. Like Hiddendragon says, individually, each module is fun, probably more fun than each individual chapter of SC, but as a whole, the link between them is tenuous. It was SC that converted me to Paizo's AP's, but Runelords has been disappointing so far.
Yes, thanks to all involved! It's nice indeed having both versions.
Many, many thanks, erian_7! The maps are beautiful!
Slots filled. Thanks for your attention.
I'm starting a new game on www.playbyweb.com here. You need to create an account on playbyweb.com, but it's free. As of now, I can take 2 more players. Note that, as stated on the site, I don't plan to run the full RotR AP because it'll take too long and detract from my SC campaign, so if you're looking to play the full AP, please don't apply.
I simply took the cover for Chapter 4 with the umber hulk chasing that thief out of a building, and cropped out the girl for Jil. The description of Jil matches that quite well, and I didn't see the need to introduce another unimportant thief. Of course, I've hooked up the party rogue with Jil, so she's playing a bigger role in my campaign than in the adventure as written.
That seems to be one of the biggest beefs international customers have, that a lot of them have felt delegated to 2nd rank citizens/customers (to use a harsh parable), even though a lot of them have signed up as charter subscribers a long time before some of the domestic (US) non-charter customers. Exactly. The worst part of this rigmarole was knowing I was among the first to jump on board (on April 21), but was relegated to be among the last to receive the PDF just because I don't live in the US. I can deal with Paizo rewarding customers who sign up for more stuff than Pathfinder by processing them first, but not this. I've finally got my PDF now, so I'm partially appeased. I'll be fully appeased when PF#2 reaches me at the same time as US subscribers.
This: The bottom line is that we did our best to get these things done before Gen Con, and we missed by a little less than a week—but not through lack of effort. If you want to fault us for that, go right ahead, but we felt it was important to get it done right, not just get it done fast. is far less palatable than: I'm trying to see if there's any way I can speed up the process for international subscribers. Not sure if I can get it done in time to affect Pathfinder #1, but I would like to have a new system in place by the time we do Pathfinder #2. A programmer who knows how to deal with frustrated customers, now that's a rarity. Thanks, Gary. I'm still frustrated (and from other posts I'm not the only one), but at least now I can look forward to a more timely PDF next issue.
International shipments (including APO/FPO addresses) are a little trickier. While domestically, we can just print up a bunch of postage labels simultaneously, and then stick them on prepacked envelopes, international shipments all require customs forms, so we have to drop them into our standard fulfillment pipeline, which isn't as fast. So those will probably spread out over a few days as well. Having jumped on the bandwagon back in April, I'm more than a little frustrated to read this now, when I know those who went to GenCon have already got their copies, and those US subscribers are downloading their PDF's right now. When I subscribed, I knew I'd be getting my hardcopy after everyone else, but the lure of subscribing was the PDF that I was sure I'd be getting at the same time as everyone else, and before non-subscribers. And now this? I was a programmer before I "retired", so I do understand how it works. My frustration doesn't stem so much from being told it's delayed because of bugs in the code, but from knowing that others are getting their non-subscriber copies and PDF's before me. Why in the world can't the PDF be released to me first?! I give you every authority to charge my card NOW, if that's the problem. I don't care when the hardcopy gets to me. It can wait till next year if it'll help you plan your shipments, but I want my PDF! The PDF is the only thing that's really useful to me anyway. The hardcopy will be more for collection than anything. Deep breath. Sorry for the rant, but when I've been waiting for weeks to start my new campaign and keep reading about others getting their issue...
Any chance of getting the background art without Merisiel or the words, like we got for the first 2 covers?
Actually, I've got a question for you folks who use untagged electronic maps: what do you do about secret rooms? I run play-by-post games, so I use GIMP to clone or black out sections of the map that players should not see. Sure, I can clone away the numbers and S labels for secret doors too, but that's much harder to do without smudging other things like furniture or even walls. And nothing draws a player's attention like the slightest hint of a room's interior having been tampered with. The ideal, of course, would be for Paizo to provide a layered map with secret rooms and labels separately layered. Then I wouldn't need to do any work other than resize the maps. Yeah, dream on.
I took a quick glance at Yagrik's stats and nothing jumped out at me. Was there something specific you were looking at? I could be mistaken, but Weapon Finesse should only apply to light weapons, right? That means the shortspear - a one-handed weapon - attack should be +3, not +4. And the damage for a Small shortspear should be 1d4, not 1d3. Same for the javelin damage.
In any case, any ideas on what room you jump to if you avoid the falling elevator? Jumping right it on the soul forging undead seems like a bad way to 'succeed' on a reflex save. Since the elevator goes down to room 20, jumping clear of the elevator should land one in 20, only without taking damage.
As an aside - just a couple of typos that I think I found. Edgrin's attack bonus with the dagger should be +0 (+1 BAB -1 Str). But Edgrin is a halfling, so he has a size modifier of +1. Edgrin's stats are correct; it's Yagrik's, on the same page, that seem to have a few typos.
FWIW, here's another vote for bookmarks in PDF. Even better if Paizo does it on their end. Although I can live without bookmarks. I'm happy just to have the annotation ability.
I don't own anything besides Adobe Reader, so I don't know if it is even an option to save comments in Reader. However, I might grudgingly purchase a suite that would allow such modifications. Yup, it's already done, and I've already re-downloaded the "commentable" version. All hail the great Postmonster! But what I wanted to say here was, you don't need to buy an Adobe suite just to add comments. Try the PDF-XChange Viewer available here.
The slurk's statblock lists its AC as: AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 16
Unless it has some quality I missed which allows it to have a better AC flat-footed than not, the ff AC should be 13. Btw, why doesn't it have an Ecology section with an Advancement entry like the tatzlwyrm in D0?
The copy of D0 that I downloaded is not secured at all. You should be able to do anything you want with it, but not with Acrobat Reader. Try a PDF writer.
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