I like that I don't have to make fiends anything other than fiends. I can push the border into a more mature take on the subject.
I like that the Dark Lord of the Pit, Asmodeus, and seven Archfiends from 1st Edition rule in Golarions Hell once again. In my Golarion the Dukes of Perdition from that game's edition still hold infernal court as they did in Dragon Magazine's "The Politics of Hell".
I like that Charon is a Horseman of the Apocalypse. {And very soon Paizo will give the Daemon's their due.}
And that there are more than a few Demon Lords from the 1st Eds Monster Manual II listing still holding sway over The Abyss.
I gotta say In-N-Out is on my top five missed things since relocating. :)
When I visit family in San Diego for the Holidays my first meal coming from the airport is either a proper Animal style Double Double with Cheese with extra grilled onions or a real Carne Asada burito with real guacamole.
One of the things that amazes me about New York is the $20 burritos here can't hold a candle to a $3 burrito (the size of a prize fighter's fore arm) from San Diego. (That you can get 24 hrs a day!)
And while I can maybe eat one Steak N Shake burger at Gen Con, I have nothing but abject fear of Erik Mona's beloved White Castles! I just don't have that kind of constitution.
Preston, I applaud your decision to run Carrion Crown, I know you will do just fine. I hope you and your players have a lot of memorable times with the start of a great Adventure Path.
Secondly, be aware that the Trust point mechanic is broken and you may need to tweek this to suite your group; there are some great fixes for this on this board.
And a bonus suggestion: Do not hesitate to ask both your own players and us here on the boards any further questions you may have, even if its simple opinions or further advice. That's what we are here for.
Best of luck, and may your players confirm their crits.
Trust a Canadian to put things in proper perspective.
;)
Ahhh The Special:
Fond memories indeed!
To see Tim Hitchcock weave his yarn in front of 320+ players is a sight to behold; you have an entire room of near strangers who for a few hours have suspeded their disbelief and now have a communal bond of shared motivations and goals.
How about the three WotC GMs who quietly LEFT their own gaming session to play the special. They showed me their schedule, made pleas to the Twenty Golarion gods, and with near text book puppy eyes asked to be let in - who was I to stop them from joining the fun !
Or how about the first four generic ticket holding players who were in line to play the special who were so eager to get into the specail they had been waiting in line for over an hour before the muster, they took turns giving each other food and bathroom breaks; when we later requested volunteers to GM the special it was the very same four players who grabbed their bags and took up the call to run tables! A hearty applause there !
I also noticed a LOT of fathers who brought their young children and first time players in to play PFS; call me sentimental but each time I saw that happen it brough a smile to my face, and in the case where the kids were actual teenagers, I made a point to tell them to say thank you to their respective fathers.
And I believe it was Craig Shackleton (?) who run a great themed delve with Seven Samurai, all 1st level who took on two CR 7 White Dragons. Not only did all the PC's survive but one of the Samurai's horses snuffed the life off the first White Dragon with a tripple confirmed crit.
I also very much would like to thank all the hard work and time put in by Mark, Liz, all the sleep deprived Venture Captains, my fellow HQ staff and all the other volunteers. It's hard to complain how tired one is when threr are some four dozen volunteers around you who have put in as much work as you have and eveyone is flashing genuine smiles, throwing fist pumps in the air, and making all possible efforts to make each and every PFS session as memorable as the last.
Some of the Paizo staff and contributors took up the GM duties as well and that was all very much appreciated, hopefully we can wrangle more next year (hint, hint Mr. Mona).
All in all the energy in the PFS room would do any real gamer proud; it's not remotely hard to imagine of Gary Gygax nodding approval from beind his DM screen in the sky.
- Noel Anthony de Joya, Proud to be a Grognard, but even more proud of being part of the current fellowship gamers.
Not counting three PFS delves I run and the Fantasy Flight X Wing game I tried out (FUUUN!) the only game I actually had time to play was Mr. Brandon Hodge's Civil War Cthulhu game.
And since I had missed the boat the previous two years I was practically begging for Mr. Hodge to run it this year. It helped that a certain ne'er-do-well by the name of Greg Vaughan helped with the peer pressure and Mr. Hodge had to cave in to our pitiful pleas.
I have already praised Mr. Hodge for his Civil War Cthulhu game at Gen Con, even at the 7 am mustering the 10th PFS slot and with no vocal chords available to me I could not stop raving about his session - and I will continue to rave at every chance I get in the future. The game Mr. Hodge ran was worth the three year wait; thank you very much again! From this day on forward whenever I catch a glimpse of a nubile woman bathing in a stream I will think of you.
As for Mr. Greg A Vaughan, that darling boy scout of the Adventure Paths, of the all I can say is if after seeing the man play the part of a Confedarate Officer (a role he may very well have been born to play) - well between bouts of the enitre table slapping themselves silly with laughter (in a Cthulhu game!) and just staight out awe of him never breaking character (the SOB took my last four bullets for himself!!), I have been and always remain a steadfast Greg Vaughan fanboy; his portrayal at the table that night is the price of admission for next year's con! Even if I have to fly to Indy just to shake his hand again.
And all of the above would have been at all possible if not for our grand host's ever charitable hospitality, Mr. Lou Agresta - who no matter how hard I try I always miss on the last day of the con. I owe you yet another one good sir.
Alright, enough gushing, time for a Grognard's question regarding Hauntings:
Mr. Hodge (or Mr. Vaughan, or Mr. Agresta or actually anyone who is familiar with the older AD&D rule set) - for my New Year's gaming resolution way back in during the Holidays (it was a topic on the blog), I promised I would run a 1st or 2nd Ed game in Golarion. I decided to run the first two installments of Carrion Crown using that rule set.
Haunts in that game's editions could NOT be turned, and since chanelling posive energry is a PRPG inovation, can you give me any thoughts on how to handle Haunts in regards to and older editions Cleric turning attemps?
( I asked Mr. Hodge this question at Gen Con, and I even hit up Sean K Reynolds as he walked the PFS room, but since we had little time and beverages may have been in hand, I am posting this question again)
Again, my thanks to all thos mentioned above, and I await next years late night sessions.
Theocrat Issak, this is Noel from HQ, I normally do a sweep of the room between each slot, the only slot I did not get to this is the very slot you seem to have lost your precious tome at because I was off to Lou Agresta's game night that I have tried to get into for 3 years now. Perhaps John from HQ or your fellow Venture Captain Mark may have a lead. In fact since Mark is the local Venture Captian and all his PFS faithful from the area were top notch in the cool/nice people department I suggest you ask him to do a little bit of asking around. In the past Cons I was lucky enough to find items belonging to Pazio contributors (manscripts!) and PFS GMs (laptops and whole rule book sets) a day or two after they were lost BUT while still at the Con.
We find MANY things between slots from unique minis to IDs to badges to some signed books to wallets filled with credit cards, but alas no luck with this unique book from my end. I was also in the room early Sunday as we prepared the muster and while there was a Forgotten Realms novel and some comic book compilations there was no rule books that I was aware of. You can also call Gen Con customer service, they keep lost and found items a few days after Gen Con.
I hope you find your tome sir and allow me to help in this way, if anyone gets our Theocrat his lost tome I will send that person a $25 Paizo gift card as soon as our Theocrat gets it back.
Gen Con was almost as exhausting as it was amazing and with Paizo's dual anniversary next year it promises to be even bigger!!*
But in the middle of winding down PFS Slot 8 and beginning the muster for slot 9 I was able to run my party in the Hamptons NY via blackberry and iphone.
So while I may not be a 4 star GM, I can still multi task in several states at once.
We're working on a news/announcement blog that should hit in the next 48 hours or so.
Since I was at the PFS HQ for almost the whole Con and I did not want to ask work related questions during off work hours from the Paizo staff, I can't wait for this !
My entire "official" Con experience was the PFS HQ, sprinting to the much loved Paizo booth to get my busy GMs daily pins and then taking my very quick meal breaks to head to the Fantasy Flight both to shoot down some X-Wings.
Alright ye mighty who's works cause despair I have a challenge for you:
While this will be my 5th Gen Con and 3rd helping out Paizo, I have yet to play a PFS mod AT Gen Con. Rolling dice at the delve or interactive is fun but does not cut it this year.
Looking over my PFS HQ/Delve schedule I have but one slot availble for me to play, the early moring slot on Friday.
Spoiler:
I have a level 12 Wizard/Diabolist, Signifier Untamo Arturos Emaneil
a level 10 Evoker, Tasha of the Light Laughter
and a level 3 Alchemist, Doktor Tessla Oppenhiemer Mengele (Dr. Tom for short)
All of the Celiax Faction of course.
Tell me why I should play at your table. Also, for the winner, besides the grand pleasure of my company and knowledge that you will be adding two prestidge points to Great Infernal Empire of Cheliax's Gen Con prestidge totals; your first and last double drinks at Gen Con are on me. And a Pathfinder mini that best exemplifies your table manners.
Added level of difficulty I will be drinking with vagabonds and the likes of the near saint Tim Hitchock, Dictyoptera advocate Adam Daigle and special guest enabler Jason Bulmahn the night before, my liver will still be asleep and hemorrhaging at the time of this slot.
Reminds me a bit of my favorite typo from 1st edition; in the Monster Manual II for AD&D, there was a fire-based cockatrice known as a pyrolisk. In those days, they didn't list monster hit points; they just listed hit dice. And sometimes, those hit dice got random numbers added to them (like how Pathfinder adds constitution modifiers... only in 1st edition, monsters didn't have ability scores so this was just a way to add a few extra HP beyond what you roll on the dice).
ANYway... the pyrolisk had 43 hit dice.
Good times.
In the Desert of Desolation series I played a Magic-User who used Polymorph Other on a Purple Worm, the DM rolled a 1 and turned it into a Warhorse.
The Cavalier of the party was beyond words ecstatic to have a 15 HD Charger to mount ... until the DM ruled that the horse tried to dig itself undreground at each encounter and many a time in between.
I am volunteering for PFS HQ again this year, and the last two years I did so I should have taken advantage of the 'pick up' at Gen Con option. But alas I did not. Is that still possible to do so with this order ?
Also @ Cosmo:
Can you please bring a lot of extra Paizo Product catalogs for the PFS area for us to hand out, those things go fast. :)
And no hospital visits for you this year at Gen Con mister !
@ hopeless: That composite was released by Peter Jackson himself.
My friends at Comic Con said he and Steven Spielberg got a thurderous applause walking through the convetion ceter yesterday while they were promoting Tin Tin.
Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division is the original name. Now it's an acronym for Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. Just doesn't roll off the tongue quite so well IMO :)
In the movies its now: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
And I really like the 'fluff' associated with the trait too, very much in keeping with the likes of Inigo Montoya or Gimli the dwarf (to name a few). My apolgies to the folks like the Creative Director who do not like the term 'fluff'.
... I'm just saying that I wouldn't rate Beorn down there with Tom Bombadil.
O_o ?
A bit harsh considering even Gandalf called Tom Bombadil "Master," he was nameed by the Elves Iarwain Ben-adar (Oldest and Fatherless), that The One Ring held NO power over Tom Bombadil, and had The Dark Lord been victorious in Middle Earth, Tom Bombadil would be the very last to be overcome.
Based off just this still I am liking Bombur and Oin the most, but I really like that Gloin is brandishing (what will someday become his son) Gimli's heirloom axe !
Excalibur dental plaster ... my mom is an oral surgeon ... all these years I had no idea I could purloin her casting putty for minis ! She's retired but the next time I'm in San Diego I shall be raiding her garage in hopes of finding material. I may even luck out and find a Nitruous Oxide tank.
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