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I'm running Dragon's Demand at present, and I think Maffei may be one of my favorite friendly npcs ever.
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...and it sounds like Encounters is where most of the season's storyline will play out. That makes me feel a little better.
I'm cool with WotC's new OP offering having factions. I lice factions in my OP. I think their decision to call it Adventurers League is a little cheesy/derivative. All that said the reason that I won't be participating (to any great extent) in their new campaign is their decision to tie it in so tightly with Encounters. My schedule simply does not allow me to show up at a gaming store every Wednesday, week after week... and it sounds like Encounters is where most of the season's storyline will play out. So long live PFS! My friends and I like you more anyway.
Pathfinder will continue to be my game of choice. I'll buy some 5E stuff, but I won't be spending money on every single D&D-themed item that comes along (like I have in the past). I would like to participate in D&D's new OP campaign, but by tying it so tightly with Encounters, they have really killed my enthusiasm.
Yeah, I agree. "Adventurers League" does sound a lot like a rip-off of "Pathfinder Society." I played 4E and LF and really enjoyed it. I still enjoy PFS a great deal. I was tempted to try Next's OP offering, but-- for me-- tying it to Encounters is a real turn-off. I'm a surgeon for the love of god. I can't make it to a local game store-- much less one 1-2 hours away-- every Wednesday night. So, while it sounds kind of cool (even to me), it's just not going to work for me.
I can't say for sure, but as I was registering for events, I felt like the Origins website was kind of buggy. I would search for games, not find them, searc again (with the same parameters), then find them.
I live about 30 miles north of Pikeville in Prestonsburg. Periodically, there are games in Pikeville. When they happen, they tend to be on Mondays. If you are willing to drive a bit, there are some Saturday games in Huntington, WV. There are pretty much always Sunday games in Charleston, WV.
I strongly agree. I feel like WotC is very much trying to relive glory days and repeat things that worked for them in the past. I also feel that where they are (sort of) trying new stuff, they are copying what has worked well for others-- partnering with WizKids, making an aerial skirmish game heavily based on Attack Wing/X-Wing/Wings of War. It doesn't do much to get me excited. Anecdotally, it's doing even less to get a close friend (who loves 4E and refuses to play Pathfinder) exited.
Matthew, it annoys me too. I'm trying to think back to the Summer of 4E's release. I'm not sure if I am right or not, but I think Origins that year featured some 4E games with pre-gen characters, then GenCon saw the release of LFR. I can't remember if those LFR games made it to the event catalog in a timely fashion or not. A friend and I have been speculating what the 5E's organized play campaign will look like. Part of me thinks it will be set in a single region of the Forgotten Realms, probably the North and/or Baldur's Gate. If they go this route, there could be tie-ins with the Tyranny of Dragons story arc. Basically, WotC would steal a page from Paizo's playbook with cross-promotion between an adventure path, organized play adventures, minis, etc. Another part of me thinks that they might keep the Forgotten Realms for their published/print products and Encounters; and use Greyhawk for their organized play campaign.
Matthew, I was asking around on enworld regarding hints from Winter Fantasy about organized play support for D&D Next, but the response that I got was that everything was still pretty hush hush.
Bryce, thanks for the summary of Winter Fantasy. I've been looking for just this sort of report for the last couple of days. Matthew, a couple of years ago, I played some Witch Hunter and Arcanis living campaign games. They were a lot of fun (a nice complement to PFS). I understand that Witch Hunter just underwent a reboot.
Rosie Cuswell?! Is she from Skull & shackles? I loaned that set to some friends playing through the AP. I should be getting them back in March. Happiness growing; nerd rage falling.
Just secured a room. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.
I had a great time at WF2013, splitting my time between Living Forgotten Realms and Pathfinder Society. I was unable to attend this year. I really wanted to finish out the Living Forgotten Realms campaign, but my wife strongly suggested that I stay home with her instead. Had there been more of a PFS presence to fill up the rest of my time at the con, I would have probably fought her harder on the issue.
I finally took some time to open my case of Wrath of the Righteous miniatures. I assume that a case still provides the purchaser with an entire set. This means that Nurah Dendiwhar is not in the set! This crazy little halfling chick gets mentioned in the cover of every WotR adventure; where is her miniature? Come on Paizo, you have the best vision for halflings of any RPG ever, yet the only halfling miniature that you have given us (that I can remember anyway) is the iconic Lem. I play a lot of halflings, and my Lem miniature is getting a workout standing in for male and female characters alike. He even snapped off the base once (but I'm not complaining about that-- he was easily repaired). I'm just saying I need you guys to make another halfling miniature, ideally a female. Nurah Dendiwhar gave you the ideal opportunity to make that miniature, and you failed to take advantage of it. Note: This post is written with tongue somewhat in cheek. I don't really feel any nerdrage toward you guys, but I would have really liked to have seen Nurah make the cut into this set.
Pics or it didn't happenGoblins and Fetchlings are pretty rare. Nice. :-)
Goblins and Fetchlings are pretty rare. Says the man who sold one of my human characters into slavery. That said-- and I'll probably be killed for letting this secret slip-- at a PaizoCon, maybe three years ago, Kyle Baird actually took pity on one of my halfling characters during Masster of the Fallen Fortress and let her live when she should have probably died in a horrible fall.
I ran The Collapsed Tower for a group of friends this weekend. I would say that it alone took about as much time as a typical PFS scenario. If that holds true for the rest of the adventure, you are probably looking at running it over 6 slots of a convention.
Maybe you should increase strength and charisma a bit (at the expense of wisdom). Role-playing wise, that would mesh well with a dwarf who was previously an officer in some sort of medical corps; and who does not fully understand his newly awakened spiritual powers. With the lower wisdom, you can steal use buff spells aplenty (as you don't have to worry about low save DCs). With the higher strength and charisma, you could be solid in melee, maybe pick up channel smite and alignment channel feats. Stretching the concept a bit, you could shift from Torag to Gorum. This would allow you to play the CN alignment you seem to like so much. It also allows you to pick up the versatile channel feat so that you can channel positive and negative energy. Channeling negative energy through your melee attacks (via channel smite) will let you pack a pretty good punch in melee. From a role-playing standpoint, maybe Gorum came to your character during his near death experience to draw you away from Torag for some greater purpose of destruction.
My stable of PFS characters (counting only those who have seen actual play) includes 4 humans, 3 halflings, an aasimar, a tiefling, and a dwarf. I made the aasimar after receiving a boon at DragonCon a few years ago. I made the tiefling to be part of an all aasimar and tiefling party that my friends and I devised. Aasimars and tieflings were all the rage with my group for a while, but some of the shiny is starting to wear off now. I won the vanaran boon during the silent auction at GenCon this year, so that is a character that I am eager to make. I think the gnome is the core race that I probably see the least of (but really gnomes, dwarves, and elves are all pretty rare in our games; halflings would probably be similarly rare if I did not love them so much).
Per the blog yes.Hunter. Rangers are my personal favoured class, so to see a ranger druid... I'm more than a little titillated, I'll admit.Do we know that the Hunter is going to be a Druid-Ranger? I had it pegged more as a Gunslinger-Ranger. I see. I missed the actual blog (I have since read it), but saw an abbreviated version on enworld.
Hunter. Rangers are my personal favoured class, so to see a ranger druid... I'm more than a little titillated, I'll admit. Do we know that the Hunter is going to be a Druid-Ranger? I had it pegged more as a Gunslinger-Ranger.
I played the special with a group that I play with regularly. The party features a wizard played by a very experienced and cunning player; a highly-effective barbarian/fighter; a similarly effective archer fighter; a very well-designed soundstriker bard; a more than competent alchemist; and my own cleric of Zon-Kuthon who is okay, but almost certainly the weakest member of the group. We played through the special at 10-11 and did not have much trouble at all. In fact, we all really enjoyed it. From the most experienced (I've been gaming for like thirty years) to the least experienced (the player of our barbarian/fighter has been gaming for about one year), we all had a great time. That said, those of us who were present generally thought that last year's special was more enjoyable (even though we all died and failed to earn our goblin boons). Along those same lines, we also enjoyed level 1 of Bonekeep more than level 2. Of the party, I'm about the only player who has any experience with LFR and its battle interactives. I think this special could have benefited from being more like them. I would have liked to have seen it stretched out over eight hours. I would have enjoyed more formal reports between each act of the adventure. Special missions carried out by a select number of tables (or even new tables made up of representatives from existing tables) would have pushed it over the top. That said, I understand that the logistics of doing these things with a room full of 100-140+ tables has to be nigh on impossible. So, in short PFS staff, thanks for what you were able to accomplish and good luck on making such events even better in the coming years.
Though I've been playing him for a bit now, My principle character for Season 5 is Daxter Potts, halfling rogue and professional demonhunter. I've also got Darda'il, an angelkin aasimar paladin of Sarenrae cued up for the low-level adventures.
Private message sent.
Work has me spending more and more time in Eastern Kentucky, specifically Prestonsburg. Is there any PFS in the Prestonsburg, Paintsville, Pikeville area? If not I would be happy to try to start a game, though potential players will have to be understanding of my schedule. I am a general surgeon who takes a lot of call (at least while in Prestonsburg) and could potentially be called away from the game. The best thing, if I am to be primarily a GM, is to organize the games on the night I get into town (usually a Sunday) before I start taking call the following Monday morning.
I've got a group of six or so that might be interested.
Would you potentially be interested in Quests that flesh out adventure seeds mentioned in the Thornkeep book?
Congrats Christopher... I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do for PFS here in KY. Also, let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.
Thornkeep.
As I was out for a jog earlier today, I took some time to reflect on Winter Fantasy-- specifically the one, minor thing that I did not like about the convention. It was damn hard to earn a boon, much more so than at PaizoCon or GenCon. Between myself and three friends, only one of us acquired one boon all weekend long. :-( I think it would be great in years future if everyone at a table (DM included) earned a token. Maybe 1-2 tokens could be traded for a randomly determined boon. Even better, maybe 3-4 tokens could be traded for a boon of choice. My thoughts.
I'm already looking forward to playing more of both systems next year.
When the next part of Bonekeep comes out. I would like to run that for you guys too, if able. Not to sound elitist, but I rarely am equipped with a mod that is designed to challenge groups like yours. I am glad I was able to give you guys a tactical challenge. You even started to force my long suppressed southern accent to surface. :) Daniel, I would be very happy to have you run subsequent levels of Bonekeep for our group. I have my fingers crossed that it will not be released at Paizocon, as this is the first year that I probably won't be able to attend.
Daniel, I was the member of "Delta Force" who died. Speaking for the entire group, we had a great time at your table-- and the artifact will be so useful to the poor fools (er, adventuring companions) who normally have to suffer my god's peculiarities. All in all, I had a great time at Winter Fantasy (not a single bad game) and am already looking forward to going back again next year.
I think this is even more true in 4E (gods rest its soul) than in Pathfinder. In Pathfinder, there are still enough long-term status effects that an enemy can be taken out of a fight temporarily, but longer than 1-2 rounds, and efforts directed against other enemies. I guess I'm mostly thinking about spells like create pit. I'd rather attack a fresh enemy than an injured one that my enemy just put in a pit.
I'm sexy in an understated sort of way.
Christopher, Hey, it's good to see you so active on these boards and with the Lexington PFS scene these days (if a little weird that we use the same icon). You need to come down and visit us in Somerset again sometime soon. 1. Here in Somerset, we have a pretty tight-knit group, so we mostly audit one another (e.g. "Hey dude, I was at a con the other day and one GM there was pretty strict about what animal companions can and can't do; what tricks exactly does your tiger know?). 2. If I were to do a character audit, I suppose I'd look mostly at extreme outliers (e.g. "How exactly did you get a 42 AC? How in the world are you doing so much damage? A +32 on your Diplomacy check! I don't think all of those bonuses stack. Let's look this up.). 3. In a game at my house, where the person is presumably a friend, I'd probably shrug and be like "your loss, really; I'd love it if your cleric could join us for Gen Con this year, but some GMs are really strict about this kind of thing." At an open game day with complete strangers, I'd probably let them play that session, but ask them to put together a collection of chronicles for the following session. I would go out of my way to help them do this, but I'm a softy. 4. I trust my casters to keep their own spell list. If they were to spam magic missiles and empowered magic missiles all adventure long, I might say something along the lines of "how many of those things do you have anyway?". 5. This hasn't come up in our group so far. 6. Pretty similar answer to number 4. 7. I don't check skills beforehand. Again, we're a pretty tight-knit group, so we usually have most skills covered by someone with some redundancy where the more important skills are concerned. 8. I own pretty much all these books as does at least one more of our regulars, so I usually don't call someone out for not owning a book; that said, we don't really have players who brag about doing everything on Hero Lab and not buying the books. If someone has a glaring hole in their collection, I sometimes try to fill it as a Christmas or Birthday gift.
Out of curiosity, is the Jason Buhlman Special a two-round event that plays once during the convention or a single-round event that will play multiple times (even every slot) throughout the con?
Regarding food, there is also a nice little Irish pub within walking distance. With a well-planned and executed two-hour break, one could walk there, have a beer and bangers and mashed, and walk back in time for their next slot. Also within walking distance is a little joint that serves typical, greasy, fried breakfasts (they may do the later meals as well, but I have only ever been there for breakfast). Sadly, I can't recall the name of either place.
I sort of take the middle ground on this issue. I play both a 4th-level cleric of Sarenrae and a 3rd-level cleric of Zon-Kuthon. My cleric of Sarenrae heals all party members without complaint (though I as a player love it when the other characters can provide wands for their own healing; and I am secretly bummed when I sit down at a table, and not a single player offers me said wand). My cleric of Zon-Kuthon adventures only with a close set of friends, and they all know to provide wands.
Nicholas, Could you provide some direction to the Facebook page you guys use for organizing PFS play in Lexington? I'd like to stay on top of which scenarios you guys are running. Chad
Nicholas, I'm glad the information was somewhat helpful. I also forgot to mention that there's a small, annual convention at UK, I think in March of each year. My friend Steven ran a PFS session there last year. With proper planning, I'm sure we could provide you with several judges for that event-- 2-3 pretty easily. I hope you had a good time with your family. We played The Goblinblood Dead. Playing up, it was fairly difficult. I didn't do a horrible job with the grilling, and Smallworld and Shadowrun were both a lot of fun too. I'll check out your Facebook page and start trying to make some of the Tuesday games. Chad
Nicholas, Welcome to KY. I have been playing PFS from the start, have an active group here in Somerset, KY (about 75 miles south of Lexington), and am somewhat familiar with the gaming scene in Lexington. So, here's what I know; I hope some of it is helpful to you. My group in Somerset plays a lot of different games, but we primarily play Pathfinder. Roughly 2-3 Fridays per month, we play an Adventure Path. Right now, we are playing Carrion Crown. At least one Saturday per month (often more), we play Pathfinder Society. This weekend is a little different as it is a holiday. We are getting together today (Sunday) to play boardgames, a session of PFS, and maybe a game of Shadowrun Missions. You're welcome to join us if you get this in time. You can e-mail me (copatt75@yahoo.com) for directions. There will also be grilling and boffer weapons. I have been woefully saddened by Lexington's organized play offerings (and Louisville seems to hate OP even more). Definitely check out www.meetup.com. There's a Lexington D&D group. Traditionally, this group met one Saturday a month, but meets more frequently now. I first joined them because they were playing LFR. Some of them continue to play LFR, but I think most play non-organized play type games. I think the group also organizes PFS games on Tuesdays at a store called Amazing Wonders. I have not been able to make it up to Lexington on a Tuesday because of my work schedule, but I never see very many people RSVP through Meetup. Finally, I've got a friend named James Risner. He owns a store in Lexington callled Lokkak (I know, immediately recognizeable as a game store, right?). The store sells mostly Magic and Pathfinder product, and he hosts a lot of the Meetups. He plays and runs a lot of Pathfinder, though his store doesn't specifically host PFS games that I know of. Alright, I hope that was somewhat helpful. Now maybe you can whip us into shape and persuade us to report our events. At that, we suck. Chad
I ran an excellent table of the special. I loved the look on thier faces when I pulled a handout out of thier hands as they were going over it. You could tell they all knew that IT was ON at that point. I played the barbarian/fighter at your table, and I think my eyes did pop out a little when you pulled that handout from Steven's/Sabion's hands. Great game by the way, easily one of the highlights of any con for me.
Sillitta Ederus, female halfling wizard 12-- Andoran
Everflame can be very difficult for 1st level PCs.
Regardless of why they are going, I think halflings would make the perfect slave race for the new colony. They're small and the colonizing race could pack twice the number of them onto a colony ship. Just my thoughts for a little sub-plot.
At the PaizoCon preview banquet, I was really struck by the idea that Paizo is branching out. Yeah, they're still supporting Pathfinder and Golarion with traditional products (their bread and butter), but they're also venturing into MMOs, VTTs, card games, and goblin dolls. What I really, really want to see from Paizo though is a sci-fi RPG-- a game that could be to sci-fi what D&D and Pathfinder are to fantasy. It doesn't have to do all sub-genres of sci-fi, but it should create its own sub-genre, a smooth blend of cyberpunk, space opera, and hard sci-fi, with a hearty dash of post-apocalyptic sci-fi. The core rulebook should give us pure-strain humans, modified humans/mutants, several species of aliens, and droids. It should give us classes that are as rich as the Pathfinder core classes, though maybe not quite that many: soldiers, diplomats, explorers, ESPers, etc... It should be fully supported with at least one adventure path (that should not take the place of the fantasy adventure path for any period of time at all). There should be an alien book (with lots of extra playable races). It really could be grand. Come on, Paizo, do it. I dare you.
1. Sillitta Ederus, Halfling Wizard 12, Andoran
Good to know, and a change for the better in my opinion. |