Vivriel's page

Is there something that I'm missing that shows the "best or most accurate" calendar? The PFCS is extremely vague - it doesn't say how many days are in a month - except the every 8th year leap year with Ardous having an extra day. So is it accurate that each month has 30 days (again, except leap day)? With the PFCS stating that there are 52 Weeks with each week having 7 days, that's 364 days. But with each month only having 30 days, there is then four days missing. The Lilith-Fray calendar doesn't take this into account.
Does Vivriel's calendar take into account that obviously at least four months have 31 days (again, except Ardous with it's leap day in leap year).
Theocrat Issak

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.

Hi all -
One of the things that I'm having a problem with is the Second Darkness module - it says that the Cheat the Devil tournament takes place on the 14th of Ardous - Oathday in 4708. However, the 14th is Sunday. For it to take place on Oathday it would have to be either the 11th or the 18th. However, the date is correct if it's for 4707. So, where is the typo? Does Second Darkness take place in 4707 or 4708?
Thanks
Issak

Download Excel calendar.

On the other hand, January 1, 2008 (Abadius 1, 4708) was on a Tuesday (my Toilday), and Viv's is on a Fireday (his fifth day of the week, my Oathday, Thursday in real life)?

I'm confused... :-/

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.

Vivriel wrote:

The moon font is included in the zip file. Just extract it and right click to "install" the font into the Windows font directory.

Hmm...well, I got the newer version (pays to come in late to the party sometimes <G>), and extracted both to the directory where I keep my Pathfinder stuff. Should I have extracted the moon phases file to the Windows font directory? It's still giving me a rain drop, closed file, downward pointing hand, and open file symbols instead of the moon phase symbols. :-(

It's all in how you think of it. People who really want the print product benefit from having access to the pdf's if desired. Those who want only the pdf's receive them regularly at the usual pdf price and won't miss issues. They have the option of receiving the print copy if they are willing to pay the shipping. For international customers, this cuts the total cost of "subscribing" significantly. Paizo does not lose on this because they don't make money from the shipping. People subscribing for the pdf's, would cause the print run for each issue to increase, as every subscriber would need to have a print issue potentially available. Not all of them would want it, which would leave Paizo some "left over" print issues, the cost of which had already been covered through the subscription model. In fact, increasing the print runs could result in some additional cost savings for Paizo. Everyone benefits in some way. But in order for it to feel "fair", people would have to change their perception - they are paying for the content, not the form of media the content is provided to them.

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.

DOWNLOAD LINK

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
2. Curse of the Crimson Throne
3. Age of Worms
4. Savage Tide
5. Rise of the Runelords

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:
No, for some reason, the old file is still restored when I try to re-upload the new file under the old name. Oh well, you'll need to use the link in my second post. Sorry.

<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!

CluelessPlanewalker wrote:

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!

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?

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.

Given a choice between keeping on schedule and putting out a more polished product, I know you won't be able to please everybody, but I'll vote for the more polished product. Five years from now, nobody will care if, say, Pathfinder #9 was two weeks late to the presses, and it took four months to get back on schedule. If people five years from now look back and say that Pett did the best darn job they've ever seen on that kind of module, I think you'll be prouder of that work.

Given a choice between fulfilling "next issue" promises and filling a book with the very best stories and articles you can muster, I know that you'll make people angry one way or the other, but I'll vote for the best stories and articles.

Please cancel my Pathfinder subscription.

See this thread.

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.

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.

Burnt offerings is kind of SUPPOSED to work as its own self-contained adventure, as are most of Runelords... <snipped> We weren't sure if a product that was All Adventure Path All The Time would be accepted by our readers and customers, and so we wanted to make sure that each installment COULD serve as a standalone adventure.

<snipped>

I'm pretty pleased with the reception Pathfinder's had so far, and MUCH more confident going into "Curse of the Crimson Throne" that we'll be able to pick up where we left off at Savage Tide much more quickly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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).

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.

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
(+2 Dex, +3 natural)

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?

Thanks! It's definitely helpful having comments available :)

Any chance this change can be applied to D0 as well?

The watermarker has been updated. If you have downloads that you want to be able to annotate, just re-personalize them.

I presume the same permission will be set for future modules and Pathfinder PDF's?

I just purchased D1 in PDF format, and found that it's secured such that I can't even mark in the discovered errata.

Is there any reason why you don't allow commenting in the document?

There're ways around it if I really want to do it, of course, but I don't see why I have to. I run all my games online, so I use the actual PDF during play, not a printed copy of it. I _need_ to be able to mark errata and my own notes in the PDF itself.

So will the powers at Paizo relax the PDF security, or even remove it altogether? I really don't understand the need to secure such documents.

Since the first Pathfinder has shipped to the printer, I presume the PDF is ready and could be made available right now? Is there any possibility of charging our cards now so we can download the PDF without waiting for the physical books to return from the printer?

When I start the Rise of Runelords Adventure Path, I will introduce a very unpopular house rules. No raising allowed. It has always irked me that dying in D&D is taken so lightly, because of the fact that you can easily (and in 3rd ed, cheaply) be resurrected. No more. Still, it is a dangerous game, and the adventure paths has always been lethal (as the various obituaries thread cleary show). Therefore, I will be introducing some kind of action point/hero point/fate point system.

I have taken a look at the AP-system in Unearthed Arcana, but it was a tad more complex than I initially wanted it to be. Have anyone tried this with luck? Or have their own system they would care to share?

I had to totally log out, add the item as guest, proceed to checkout, then login at that point, for the new shipping rate to show. But it works now. Yay!

Thanks, Gary and Vic. The reduced shipping rates are a very BIG incentive to us overseas customers. Now to see if I don't need a few other items as well...

To get the new price you have to go past the shopping cart page. Click the "Proceed to Checkout" button and the price will update. Or, empty your cart and add it back in.

I do see the new shipping options when I check out my subscription, so I'm not sure what I'm missing, if anything.

I just rechecked the shipping charge for a Critical Hits deck, and it's still the same as before - $12.50. Is there any reason a small pack of playing cards costs so much to ship? It's totally unpalatable to me to pay more for shipping than the product itself.