Wicht's page

Jadeite wrote:

Will creatures like the Froghemoth or the Marid that have been published in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiaries be included in the book?

From Greg's earlier post

"Yes, there will be crossover with it and the TOH monsters that Paizo has published in their Bestiaries. For the most part these will look really similar, but we did not constrain ourselves to that if we thought we liked another PF interpretation better. So in some cases there may be minor differences between the TOH and Paizo versions--call it regional variations--but I think these are pretty few and far between."

The real question (for me anyway) is will the new froghemoth entry be updated to include eggs, wogemoths and tademoths? ;D

Looks interesting, but I don't have a need at this time for a 16-20 level Adventure.

Its also a campaign setting, soon to be expanded upon.

Lol, well, you can use the Beta rules as a starting point. Not much changed for monsters from Beta to release. But feats, powers, and the rest are a different story.

Ah well, I'm working to download it as I type. I'll see what I can come up with for the contest. :)

I may have missed it, was there a desired ETA for the final product after the contest is ended?

I confess to being interested and also to not yet having read your psionic rules (though its on my to-buy list). You are going to compel me to buy a copy early just to enter aren't you. :)

Rite Publishing wrote:

@ Dragonmoon them 3PP are still good for you.

the Tsar series of adventures by Frog God
Monster Chronicles by Open Design (not to mention the Patronage projects)
Mythic Menagerie by SGG (I recommend goblinoids)
Book of Beasts: Monsters of the River Nations by JBE
Fearsome Foes by Tricky Owlbear Publishing
Book of Monster Templates by Rite Publishing
Coliseum Morpheuon 16-20th you don't have to stop at 15th level

Just to name a few.

Most of those I have no interest in, after looking at them, except for Monster Chronicles and Tsar series which I am a subscriber to.

Dragnmoon, how closely have you looked at Coliseum Morpheuon? In another thread you mentioned wanting full color, which it is. Its also available in book form with all sorts of additional supplements also being available to support it.

The Ruins Perilous are being released with tokens for each room. The art is by James "DevinNight" Hazelett.

Other times, I think it's just a percentage of people looking for non-standard items or little-used rules to target so they'll stand out. Only, when a half a dozen other people do the same thing, the opposite happens.

"Sure," I think to myself, "There aren't any magical coins in the book. Nice niche to fill."

Just let it be said that it's 04:06 am here and that one of the files made me wish I could grant negative stars. And you haven't reviewed the files yet. That limits the possible files seriously. ;)

I confess to being morbidly curious myself now.

If a word count is not a throwaway unimportant part of the process, one would think the acceptable method for word counting would need to be provided.

Hehe.

Alright, that one made me laugh. :D

There is an official word-count method. It was provided by Paizo so that everyone is using the same counting-engine.

What it comes down to, for me, is: What if my word processor and hand-count say 290 words, but yours says 305? (It's treating hyphenated words differently, or markup, or it's ballparking based on character count rather than actual word count, or whatever.) I can't imagine a writing-assignment-for-hire rejection over that.

Is there any rational reason to suppose the Paizo wordcounter adds an average of 5 extra words per 100? o.O

"What if's," are only productive if there is a real possibility of something happening or having happened. Has there been any evidence that the word-count counter is actually malfunctioning?

HerosBackpack wrote:

Perhaps because in the end, if you get the job, you're not going to have an "official" word counter but you will still be expected to hit the correct number of words for the adventure.

Therefore it is perhaps a good idea to start getting used to the idea of counting your own words and being able to judge whether you are under or over target rather than relying on the 'contractor' to do it for you.

Or perhaps they just consider that the 'contractor' has already supplied appropriate tools for the job and it's up to us to use them well.

I could easily elaborate - a lot - on why this is just bad but one can read the rest of my posts altogether to get it.

When I am writing I pay constant attention to my own wordcount. Its not bad, its part of the job. Moreover, when turning over a word-count specific document, I understand it is generally my responsibility to include the wordcount with the manuscript.

Like I said, if this is a contest to find who can press the correct of two buttons the most without any sort of mishap, I'm dropping out, even if I make the top 32.

This is a contest to earn a job. A job that will involve actual work and commitment. I have a hard time understanding why someone who doesn't want the job would even enter. But being willing to drop out, even if you make the top 32, over a disagreement with the placement of a forum button, strikes me as a sign that you really don't want the job.

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

and the 3pp themselves doing a better job of getting along (I've had a *lot* of conversations with other publishers that boiled down to "That's neat! do you mind if we build off it?"), it creates a friendly, and I think higher quality, overall 3pp market than I ever would have hoped for in 3.5.

Can you point to such a third-party product that builds off another 3PP ruleset?

Steve's The Wyrd of Questhaven book is also built off a 3pp idea, I believe.

Personally, I regularly use creatures from outside the Bestiary. For Coliseum Morpheuon, I pulled a couple of monsters from the Pathfinder APs for use. For the Ruined Guardhouse and the Book of Monster Templates I went to a 3pp 3e monster book and I frequently use things from Tome of Horrors and the Advanced Bestiary.

Non-monster wise, in #30 Unique Magical Blades I pulled a weapon quality from Sunken Empires for use.

One limitation, like Steve said, is that as you are writing things, you don't have as much time for reading. But speaking personally, as an OGL freelancer I am quite open to mixing and matching from material I am familiar with (it just happens I spend most of my free 3pp reading time reading monster books).

I didn't mean to imply that the ability to make a magical item in 10-15 minutes was the benchmark of success in the contest. I was refuting that the purpose of the contest was to give Paizo an inventory of items when, as I understand it, the purpose of the contest is to look for people who have the ability to create RPG material when called upon to do so, and create it in a timely manner. I was also trying to point out that it is not as economically (timewise) feasible to rifle through other people's ideas as it is just to make your own as necessary.

I think making items is more time consuming than making an archetype or creating an NPC. An item needs to be balanced and useful for the players to enjoy. Stating a villian is not important to the player, but how he is presented makes the players pay attention.

I think its going to be different for each person. Items take me about 15-30 minutes each once I have the idea. I've done 6 archetypes now (for other projects, not for the contest) and each one has taken me between thirty minutes and 2 hours. Making a non-generic NPC tends to take me about an hour, higher level NPCs a tad longer. I would like to think thats typical but I know its going to be different for everyone.

oh yeah, of course they will be riffling through the submissions and improving upon, and/or using the items in the contest! why have the contest, if not to do just that. Now keep in mind the rejects are rejected for a reason and they might require more working to make them usable, but expect all the almost good enough ideas to be reworked (or at least looked at) and to possably apear in future books. Esp the winners.

Speaking only for myself: Rifling through page after page of web-text takes hours. And then, working the kinks out of another persons magic items would probably take me 10-20 minutes, depending on how good it already is. Coming up with a magic item on my own takes about 15-30 minutes.

That's not to say there aren't useable ideas in the reject bin, but I think you misunderstand the point of the contest if you thik Paizo is using it to find magic items. They are not. As I understand it, they are looking for the people who can make magic items in 15-30 minutes.

@End - I somehow doubt all of the future #30 books are going to have 30 illustrations for each entry (and they will not all be item books either.) I sort of lucked into that one. Steve had a whole file of weapon illustrations left over from a previous project and decided it would be a good idea to use them. It just worked out well that there were just about 30 blade illustrations (including spear and axe blades) for me to work with. :)

Also, I agree with you that the scaling DCs are a fantastic idea and one I have been trying to remember to utelize in my own future item creations.

Thanks for your review Krome. Very high praise indeed!

I suggest Kingmaker or Rise of the Runelords. Kingmaker uses the medium track but I think Rise of the Runelords would work with the fast track pretty well.

No problem. Also, per your wive's post about looking for short video games, I suggest she check out Popcap Games, if she hasn't already. Their games are generally light fun and moreover, they are, until tonight, 50% off. On theme, the search games, I have found, make a pretty decent family activity with all the kids trying to find the hidden objects together.

Excellent!

Though your link doesn't seem to work for me. This one does though.

As the father of four young gamers I will most certainly read your blog with interest. Its already bookmarked.

Okay, Ladyhawke and Stardust are good, I'll give you that. Conan isn't, really, unless you like the Thulsa Doom cultist/hippies. I have a hard time seeing Mirrormask, Time Bandits and some others as fantasy, but that's another discussion. Willow is a great movie, as is Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, and I could add the Neverending Story and some others here, but these really are children's movies. I am not saying fantasy can't be children's movies, but that's really sidestepping the question. A fantasy movie can always be universally loved if it is for children.

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of bad fantasy children's movies.

I would also argue the best ones are good because they are not juvenile in temperament, sacchrine in sentiment and condescending in their script. They are intelligently written, mature in theme and appeal to both adults and children. I don't think of Labyrinth and Dark Crystal as children's movies, though they appeal to children. They are simply good movies. Same with Willow. Just because a show is suitable for children does not mean it is a children's show.

I also disagree about Conan. I think it is a good movie marred only by the presence of the hippy-cultist. But that is probably just a matter of taste.

Its been fun being a part of the ride this year. I'm looking forward to 2011 and all the RPG goodness it holds.

Even assuming, arguendo, that you are correct (you aren't, but the why is incredibly complicated - let's just say your local church can run a raffle without breaking any laws),...

I said "for-profit" companies cannot offer games of chance (typically). A church is a "not-for-profit," and has no bearing on anything I said.

And as for "no purchase necessary," I'm not sure how to use the character builder without being a customer of the character builder.

For the last day of Christmas (#12 that is) Rite is giving away 12 copies of the Coliseum Morpheuon Paper Minis! You can't go wrong with these and your chances of "winning" are pretty good so make sure to stop by Rite Publishing's Facebook page and leave a comment in the contest thread.

Short but sweet. Thank you Blackerose. :D

JoelF847 wrote:

Is there an alternate way to enter without using the character builder? Most contests have laws about no purchase necessary.

Other question - like the 3rd edition hardcover, will the movie come with a parental warning label? :)

Many contests have no purchase methods of entering... but there's no legal requirement that there be one. Otherwise state lotteries would be in a lot of trouble.

I do not think you are correct, at least in the United States. State lotteries are legal because states pass laws making them legal. Generally speaking, in the US games of chance are illegal for non-state entitites with exceptions (religious and charity raffles). There are, however, more and more states passing casino laws which make gambling legal within the state in certain environments.

My understanding (and it may be out of date as laws continue to change) is that most for-profit companies cannot offer "games of chance" legally. Multi-state companies need to be especially careful, as each state has different "games of chance" laws; what may be acceptable in some states may not be in others. Some states for instance, I believe have "small game" exceptions which allow you to gamble at home for a penny-poker game while still preventing bookies from taking large bets. But again, each state is different.

The ability modifiers were actually the main thing I agonized over in trying to balance the base race.

One solution for those worried its too effective is just to make it: +2 strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 charisma; leaving the constitution bonus for the Mereitaur.

Thank you for your review D.M. :)

Any thoughts on how to tone down race to make it seem less strong? Is it the dual bonus to strength and constitution that makes it feel just a hair overpowered?

Having the winner 'portray' their character doesn't mean they need any acting ability at all. In fact, I'd be surprised if there is very much for the winner to do at all except get dressed up and stand where told. If there's dialogue, voiceovers can fix the worst of it.

It says they will be in an "epic" battle sequence, which can be translated to mean that they will be a glorified extra in some scene involving multiple mooks or a large army where essentially they are charging into battle but not actually acting much.

Firstly, I find it annoying the contest requires you to use the character builder. I'm not going to subscribe on the off chance I might get a bit part in a movie.

Moving past annoyance, I confess I am slightly intrigued by the idea of another D&D movie (the 2nd was entertaining) but then I realize they are going to call it "The Book of Vile Darkness," and can't help but feel this sinking sensation in my stomach warning me of trouble ahead.

We are up to day 11 of the Rite Publishing 12 days of Christmas giveaway. Today Rite Publishing is giving away 11 PDF copies of Mapped Encounters: Saber-Toothed Tiger (PFRPG). Just respond on the appropriate Facebook thread.

Thank you for the review DM. :)

While I did not address commanding elementals, if you have not already done so, you might check out The Secrets of Divine Channeling for some additional ways to make your elemental clerics more unique.

Technically, he can't really do any of that. And while it's quite true that a 300-word item is realistically unlikely to win anybody great fortune or even fame, I can understand the disappointment of somebody who works hard on something, and then isn't able to share it with the world.

Keep in mind Paizo lets you post your losing item to their forums so you can share its awesomeness with the world.

But, let's say, you made a "Tankard of the Drunken Dwarf" that was infused with the spirit of the greatest drinking dwarf of all time.

I think you just skipped straight over into artifact territory. Wondrous items cannot, by their nature, be so unique as to preclude copies.

Wicht wrote:

"Herremann the Wise wrote:

...seriously what has been invested but 300 words or less on a wondrous item that didn't make top 32. In dollar terms what do you think that writing is going to be worth?

I would hope somewhere between 3 and 9 dollars.

Which I don't mind giving away for a chance at writing a Paizo module. :)

Um, not sure what Paizo pays for freelancers, but I know what Fantasy Flight used to pay when I did some writing for them.

$.03 a word. At 300 words that is $9.00. However, I'm not sure you get standard per word payment for snippets... though its been awhile, so not sure.

I'm not sure if you are quibbling with me or not but I think $9 was right in the range of what I thought my item was worth. :)

3 cents is about what I would expect, at least if I'm getting per word, though depending on who and what for it can be as low as 1-2 cents per word. My item was less than 300 words though so it would be less than $9 by itself (though I would, if using it in a project, add other items to meet whatever word count I was aiming for.)

For what it is worth, I have my other items I brainstormed for the contest on file for use in other projects as appropriate because words do, in fact, have value. Again, not that I begrudge using an item for this contest. ^_^

I must now work the word into the cost of my item.

LOL :D

...seriously what has been invested but 300 words or less on a wondrous item that didn't make top 32. In dollar terms what do you think that writing is going to be worth?

I would hope somewhere between 3 and 9 dollars.

Which I don't mind giving away for a chance at writing a Paizo module. :)

Alcore wrote:

All submitted archetypes may not contain any of the words found in your wondrous item entry, including "a", "an", and "the". The word "fungible" being an exception. It will be required that you work "fungible" into your archetype someplace even if your wondrous item already used this word.

Excellent! I've been agonizing over my toadstool-ranger, moldy-old-wizard and myconid-farming-druid. You have laid my fears to rest my friend!

One of us, I think, does not know what fungible means. :)

Wicht wrote:

Kryzbyn wrote:

If someone wanted to flesh out (no pun intended) the Reth Dekala in the back of the Tome of Battle, they'd make a kick arse, different PC race.

Unfortunately, just about anything WotC put out beyond the Core Rules is off limits as Wizards did not normally use the OGL with their books. :/

So make up something similar.

Thats doable.

What about them appeals to you, their disembodied state, their martial attitude, or something else? That is, if one was to create a substitute, what would it need to have to fit what you wanted?

If someone wanted to flesh out (no pun intended) the Reth Dekala in the back of the Tome of Battle, they'd make a kick arse, different PC race.

Unfortunately, just about anything WotC put out beyond the Core Rules is off limits as Wizards did not normally use the OGL with their books. :/

Humph, the postmonster cometh. And he has made one of my posts invisible. :/

You going to run a poll sometime on which to do next? I'm betting you've got a good enough list there already.

That's up to Steve, I'm just keeping the list neat. :)

Still adding to the list...
In the Company of Dhampirs (Dhampirs, we are told, are in the Bestiary 2)
In the Company of Nymphs/Dryads, etc.
In the Company of the Sidhe
In the Company of Treants (or some other plant race)?
In the Company of Centaurs
In the Company of Aasimars
In the Company of Teiflings
In the Company of Dragons (half-dragons)
In the Company of Spiders
In the Company of Mongrelmen
In the Company of Genies
In the Company of Satyrs
In the Company of Kappa (Kaidan, came up today)
In the Company of Demons/Succubi
In the Company of Harpies
In the Company of Dopplegangers
In the Company of Blink Dogs
In the Company of Medusa
In the Company of Sahuagin (Sharks?)
In the Company of Serpentfolk
In the Company of the Witchwyrd

Laying uncharted beneath all this type of discussion is the idea of racial levels as transformation (I really, really loved this about Malhavoc Press' Arcana Evolved). Whenever a player tells me he wants to play as a vampire (or a werewolf, or a ninja weretiger), rather than slapping him with the template and making his new favorite character disappear until the rest of the party catches up, I write up a 6-8 level progression describing his long, slow transformation....

In short, good idea for someone else to print.

Have you checked out Rite Publishing's racial books, for instance, "In the Company of Minotaurs." They contain racial paragon classes to emulate a typical racial progression from 1-20 levels and rules for each race to be playable at 1st level.

We also have a thread going at the moment asking for suggestions for future offerings in this line.

Adding to the list...
In the Company of Dhampirs
In the Company of Nymphs/Dryads, etc.
In the Company of the Sidhe
In the Company of Treants (or some other plant race)?
In the Company of Centaurs
In the Company of Aasimars
In the Company of Teiflings
In the Company of Dragons (half-dragons)
In the Company of Spiders
In the Company of Mongrelmen
In the Company of Genies
In the Company of Satyrs
In the Company of Kappa (Kaidan, came up today)

It took 19 days. Hopefully we can reduce that time a little bit but its not too bad for the first one.

Following up, Tarren Dei has the second room already to go to the editor, cartographer and counter designer. I don't know how Christmas will affect their turnover but hopefully it will be ready sooner than not.

Rite Publishing wrote:

Quote:

What I would rather see is a race books with a playable races, new feats, abilities etc. But one that could take class levels. Then add in say 5-10 optional race levels they could take as well. That what I would really love to see you guys do.

Wyrd, giants, Ironborn, Gargoyles, and minotaurs had all of this the racial paragon classes were optional not required.

Yeah but I meant you could do both and not have the race thing be 20 levels but only 5 or 10 levels. What you guys have done is good and fine. I am just saying what I would prefer personally. Like for example. Succubi are a CR7 so a 7 level class of them, based off a starter class. Then they could take some of those 7 levels or take other stuff. If that makes sense.

You want something like Savage Species for each individual monster.

I will say that for the minotaur book I aimed for the class to have identical abilities at the appropriate CR range to what the bestiary monster has. So if you take a level 5 Taurian Rog-kalem and compare it to the CR 4 Minotaur they are essentially the same thing. (The Pathfinder assumption is PC character level - 1 = CR) The remaining 15 levels then give the GM an easy way to advance the monster beyond mere HD and/or simple templates. That was my approach anyway which means it provides what you are asking for but then goes beyond giving a bit more for GMs who want tougher monsters while serving Players at the same time who want the full progression. For players who want to mix and match classes, thats also an option so you could be a Taurian Rog-kaleem 5 Fighter 5 and it would be the same as a 5th level Minotaur fighter.

The Ruined Guardhouse has reached its ransom!

Rite Publishing wrote:

My current thought is a Dhampir (Daywalker, half-vampire), but I wanted to find out what our customers wanted.

When I read the title I was going to say vampire. I would love to see a version that isn't bound to a coffin so they could actually travel around. (Maybe a PC could even be one?)

The "In the Company of..." line is for presenting monstrous races as viable player options, so if there was "In the Company of Dhampirs" it would be for players and DMs alike.