gamer-printer's page

And me looking at the Facebook Starfinder communities, activity is picking up, getting lots of new faces that claim never having played Stafinder before and just now getting in. My third party Starfinder books are selling well - that wouldn't be the case if SF was suffering somehow. I think your experience is just anecdotal. I know many who play and run Pathfinder and never come to this board, so it's not a surprise that SF seems to be getting less attention here. Just my observation...

While it's 3PP, in my Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide, we have huge drop pods that kind of go around the "large is the largest ship that can enter, land and takeoff on an atmosphere", with a huge drop ship that can enter the atmosphere of a planet, land on the opposite side, but once landed it cannot take off again. At 2000 feet long, it can carry multiple large vehicles, battallions of marines, giant 3D printers, planetary defense equipment, terraforming equipment or any large equipment or supplies needed to land on a planet quickly. Because these huge drop pods cannot leave the planet, they are often repurposed as fortifications and pre-fab building for other purposes.

Thanks, Thilo!

Vehicles are a necessary thing in almost any role playing game, from carts to wagons, to the science fiction of flying cars and submersibles. This guide takes the known vehicles and creates a massive guide to create over 166,000 unique vehicles with these rules, not counting weapons. Just four easy steps in building your ultimate vehicle.

•Choose a vehicle frame
•Select modifications
•Select add-ons
•Selecting finishing details

Just uploaded to the Paizo Store, awaiting Product Discussion thread notifying availability.

I choose the theme to fit the theme that I want my character to have, not for the bonus.

Thank you, sir. I am Michael Tumey, the cartographer and the publisher.

Hey thanks for derailing my post with your product advertisement!

Sorry, I actually think I posted this in the wrong thread and forum. I just flagged my post as "being in the wrong forum". My previous post points to the setting I will be publishing and worth checking out. But I didn't mean for this product listing to be a part of this thread.

I was bouncing between threads (last night) intending to put this elsewhere, but I must have gotten the threads mixed up. Really it wasn't intentional.

I had 4 instances of the Paizo Boards open - my product discussion page, what I thought was my own homebrew thread (obviously not) and two of the 3PP forum. Since I was looking at the middle of threads and not the titles - I got them mixed up.

Unlike the standard Pathfinder ghost, the Starfinder Kaidan setting will include templates, as well as standard CR monsters as ghosts, since Yurei (Japanese ghosts) come in such variety - currently building 13 ghosts. Unlike PF ghosts, ghost of Kaidan have special abilities based on who they were in life, how they died to become ghosts or other major mitigating factors that was imbued in their creation. Almost every ghost you'd encounter is unique compared to others, though they are all ghosts.

One already built is the Baku Nagaru Appu, these are the ghosts of women who were murdered by abusive spouses, lovers, companions or just males in general. Although they are incorporeal, they appear as a badly beaten woman with visible contusions, broken bones and bruises everywhere, however both of her legs are severely broken, so she crawls at a slow rate (20 ft movement). She has a "bone snap" special attack, and though she is incorporeal she can beat her victim and cause blunt damage combined with magic cold damage. While some are anchored to where they were killed, some can hunt for prey for great distances, usually males whom she may watch for days to see if her possible chosin victim shows any evidence of abuse, ridicule or other trauma caused to women around him. If evidence reveals itself, she will stalk him choosing to prepare an ambush when the chosen male is away from his compansions and alone. Because misery loves company sometimes several gather in small packs to hunt male victims. Though she'll only attack males in an adventuring party, females that attack her get her retaliation in kind, however, she will never hurt children, backing off even if a child tries to attack her - even risking destruction to avoid harm to a child.

Another ghost will be the Strangling Hair Ghost (will have a Japanese name), I included in a one-shot I wrote for the original Kaidan. A bath house attendant was killed by her employer at a bath house, because the matron thought the attendant was committing an act of prostitution, something she didn't want her respectable business to be seen as a brothel, murdered her by coming up from behind, wrapping the attendants long hair into a back-scrubbing brush and forcing her under the water's surface of the bath the attendant was taking at the time, not letting her see the perpetrator of her murder. The attendant actually secretly married a young poor samurai, above her station, and just consummated her wedding, unknown to her murderous employer. So as a ghost, she is fully incorporeal, but her hair (already foot length in life grew to 12 feet in undeath) is semi-corporeal and can grapple or strangle opponents with animated hair. If she passes through her victim, she causes their lungs to fill with water, and be subject to the effects of the Suffocate spell.

So the ghosts of Kaidan are unique undead beings, often more powerful than their standard Pathfinder Bestiary counterparts, with unique abilities distinct to each ghost.

As a separate product coming close to release, Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide by Edward Moyer is a rules supplement mostly covering starship building options.

There's 21 new starship frames encompassing living ships, zoomorphic ships, necroships and bandit/salvage ships; 47 expansion bay options; dozens of system upgrades (AI, armor, computers, defenses, shields, weapons and more), the Shadow Drive is a new kind of engine sending ships through the plane of Shadow rather than the Drift for similar if more dangerous options, new equipment and more. The product includes 26 custom starship deck plans using the frames and bay options from the guide. There's rules for building colossal and colossal + (station size) orbiting stations with an included sample with deck plans for Tatsushima Station. There's a one-shot module at the end featuring many new ships using the books options

Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide is 180 pages with almost 80 pages of deck plans and illustrations. This book will be supplemented with printable and VT ready maps of all the included deck plans - which will be a lot of bonus content.

I'm doing the last deck plans and illustrations now, following a completed page layout of the product - we're only days away from release.

Thanks for releasing this.

This is the first in hopefully many products supporting Starfinder that I'll be offering. Next is a series of five one-shot space horror modules written by T. H. Gulliver called Dead in Space, that should be released later this month, and hopefully a Starship, Station and Salvage Guide by Edward Moyer which offers many options to expand your starship building, including living frames and cores for bio-hybrid ships, Lich cores for undead ships, cloaking shields, dozens of new bays, 20+ custom starship deck plans, even a one-shot module that uses many of these new rules. It looks like an early November release for that.

So this FREE module is a taste of the kind adventures and supplements coming soon from Gamer Printshop. This was my 2016 One Page Dungeon Contest entry which earned a Penultimate Winner's Circle Award, converted to Starfinder rules.

I hope you check it out!

Michael

Still waiting on approval from Paizo for a product I submitted today.

Rude Awakening is a FREE one-shot adventure module designed for use with the Starfinder Roleplaying game for four characters of 1st level - and it's a bit deadly for a 1st level module. Ideally, this module fits as the first scenario in a campaign arc.

Product includes an 18 page adventure, appendices and OGL, followed by a full size printable, layered PDF of the main map (you can shut off the labels, effects, starship and grid if you need to from within Acrobat Reader). It also includes the stats and deck plan for a Tier 3 small freighter ship fitted with drives allowing it to become a submersible. The full size maps and deck plans are followed by sliced maps ready for home printing at letter size - cut off white edges and tape together.

There tension created because the characters find themselves needing to cross areas of airless and zero-G conditions, but all their space suits have a very limited amount of oxygen left. They are in danger from the start to the final escape vessel, with trap-like hazards, attacking salvage drones, mechanics and soldiers salvaging the vessel the characters are on. It's a gritty, space-will-kill-you kind of an adventure.

Yes, the GM's Guide should be publicly released this month. There is a discount coupon available for the entire month for The Curse of the Golden Spear trilogy of modules to celebrate the GM's Guide release.

The PDF version for print has been approved by the printers and a print proof is being created now.

The downloadable PDF is now available to Kickstarter backers from DTRPG, with a link just posted in the Kickstarter update today.

It is now complete and will soon go to print run.

Not at all, just that I'm very familiar with Japanese culture, history and folklore and playing in other published Japan analog's bother my sensibilities. Nothing wrong with more imagination based extensions beyond a given culture portrayed as a setting, I simply wanted a more authentic one to also exist.

Besides in Kaidan, I've directly incorporated Buddhist beliefs, the social caste system, the folklore races, and their cosmology baked into a combined mechanic. You don't have to think about authenticity, it plays out more naturally with its own subsystem. Since Kaidan was released before Jade Regent, it uses a different honor system, but that too is baked into the classes and tied much closer into the setting than Paizo's version. Kaidan is highly rated, by Endzeitgeist and other reviewers - though it might not be for everyone. It is very much a horror setting.

Kaidan is it's own place, it's not Japan. It's closer to Japanese culture and mindset, so it's not really historical in the true sense of the word - its culturally authentic more than anything else. "Kaidan" is an archaic Japanese word that means "ghost story" or "strange occurrence", as a setting it might be said to be the land of Japanese ghost stories.

Well with Way of the Samurai (PFRPG), for example, I describe "samurai" as a social caste more than a player class, because in Japanese culture samurai are in addition to representing elements of the military are also the accountants, bureaucrats, local police, poets, even some farmers called ji-zamurai were part-time farmers and part-time soldiers, the bottom rung of the samurai ladder. Samurai as a player class is very incomplete of the true concept.

Samurai honor while formally codified as Bushido under Ieyasu Tokugawa originated as house codes by each samurai clan, and often those codes differed, sometimes in opposition. During the Sengoku Period (century of war) samurai would serve a given noble lord in one battle, was formally dismissed, and in the next battle might serve another lord in opposition to the lord they previously served (and wasn't considered dishonorable to do that). Seppuku (ritual suicide) while a tradition among samurai was technically illegal by Imperial Law. Sometimes seppuku was performed as a protest against the chosen direction on a given issue of one's noble lord as a form of chastisement. Much of the concept of samurai is much more convoluted than what Japan analog RPGs present as facts.

Samurai aren't the only social caste allowed to bear a sword as a mark of station. My own family were physicians serving the local daimyo in Matsue (western Japan on the Sea of Japan side). My family was allowed to publicly wear a single sword to denote their status, even though they were by caste, Commoners. Even though the yakuza were members of the Hinin/Eta social caste (lowest social caste), as administrators of the red light districts, they too were allowed to bear a katana to denote their social status, even during the Tokugawa Era.

There are entire Kaidan supplements dedicated to each of these races: kappa, tengu and hengeyokai, (and spirit folk from OA is not really a thing, while there was some dryad like spirits in Japanese folklore, there were no race of such beings). Nezumi are featured in one Lafcadio Hearn translated folklore tale "The Boy who Drew Cats", however, otherwise, there is little literary evidence of a race of ratfolk in Japanese folklore.

More a concept out of context, than a true mistake, but while most modern practitioners of shugendo are ascetic priests, in previous centuries the actual priests of shugendo were yamabushi (which doesn't mean "mountain fighter" as many people think). Shugenja were followers in the belief of Shugendo and not always ascetic priests. It's closer to being shugenja to Shugendo as being equivalent to Christian to Christianity. A Christian is a believer in Christianity and doesn't mean priest. Shugenja is the wrong word to use for a Shugendo practitioner - it should have always been yamabushi instead.

Kensai is a misspelling, the actual word "kensei" means "sword saint" (minor issue I know, but I always found it's use in D&D/PF as irritating).

While I do enjoy aspects of L5R, as a game, to me a game about feudal Japan should cover all the social castes and not just the samurai caste. Using the karma system and the wheel of life reincarnation cycle of Kaidan PCs will probably experience movement up or down the social caste system across the character's career. Also (minor quibble) Rokugan being a land-locked "China like" geography. Japan has some very unique aspects not found in other Asian cultures, and what really defines Japanese culture from the rest of Asia centers upon the fact that it's an island nation. I don't think Japanese culture would have survived so uniquely as it did, had been land-locked like Rokugan.

There are many tiny things, scattered throughout the various Kaidan releases that delve into the thinking behind various aspects of Japanese culture - a hint behind the veil, so to speak.

My only "hob" reference came from Katheryn Briggs Encyclopedia of Fairies, though I don't have access to that guide at the moment, otherwise I'd post a page number and title reference.

Katheryn Briggs, from my understanding, wasn't an etymologist, rather she collected fairy stories from the folk across the UK that kept the stories alive from generation to generation, then cross-referenced each tale with existing fairy knowledge to create her book.

@Ciaran Barnes - I just completed the page layout for the print proof for Rite Publishing Gamemaster's Guide to Kaidan (my published homebrew). There are already a lot of one-shots, full modules and supplements for Kaidan available at the Paizo Store, but I am hopeful that the GM's Guide will be released this year, though if not, it will definitely be released early next year.

Here's a link to all current Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG) products, though 2 other Kaidan products can be found here and here.

Incidentally, I also contributed to The Empty Throne module of the Jade Regent AP, including writing parts of the City of Kasai Gazetteer and created the original hand-drawn map of the City of Kasai. Notably, F. Wesley Schneider wrote the forward to the Gamemaster's Guide to Kaidan.

To my scholarly studies "hob" means "devil", not small, thus hobgoblin is devilish goblin.

But I do understand that those that study folklore often realize that those who converted monsters from folklore to gameplay, got it severely wrong in the design stage - I see that all the time.

In fact from my point of view (I'm Japanese American, a student of history and folklore, for example), that many of the concepts of samurai, Japanese culture, as well as the monsters of folklore was somehow mistranslated in their conversion to Oriental Adventures or any westernized game version by most publishers. It's one of the primary reasons that I created the Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG), because since I know that the previous designers got everything wrong, I wanted that corrected.

Its not uncommon for GMs to tweak or change monsters, classes and other game concepts to match their understanding and research of those things. I usually don't worry about what it says in a given monster manual, I either fix them to work the way I want them to work at my game table, or take the larger action of putting it to paper and publishing it.

I don't need to rant, I just fix it myself.

I'm currently working on a setting and modules I intend to publish called Gothic Western where guns are everywhere (and relatively cheap), and every class gets a gun-toting archetype. While there will be Gatling guns and advanced artillery, most people only shoot revolvers, rifles or shot guns. Of course the setting has a Cthulhu-esque quality so this setting is designed for Occult classes and horror adventures (expect lots of corruptions, including new corruptions) - so guns aren't the end all, be all, though they are a major aspect of the setting.

Already have a 1st level module completely written, though since our corruption rules were slightly different than Horror Adventures, we are currently adjusting our corruption rules to be compatible with HA. The module is called Unclean Brand, and features rustled cattle that have had an eldritch sigil branded on them and changing them into other worldly beasts.

Well I'm doing the final page layout for the third party Gamemasters Guide to Kaidan for the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG) by Rite Publishing (with forward by F. Wesley Schneider), so there's something for Oriental Adventures.

I'm also currently working on a third party setting called Gothic Western which features content for both Occult Adventures, Horror Adventures and the Old West. I think an Old West setting and rules is a good next setting for Pathfinder.

Regarding the Oriental Adventures post, I'd like to see something like the Mongol Empire, horse tribes, and the Spice Road.

Well there can be a situation where one or more players want to play a social centric game or an intrigue based game, and not slaying dragons. There should be a recognition between a GM and the players on the general kind of game you intend to run. If the GM runs combat heavy games, the players need to know this ahead of time, and should be recommended to the kind characters they ought not play.

I'm not an advocate of buiding ineffective characters, at the same time, combat heavy isn't always the goal, and over optimization, I consider a bad thing, something me and my players avoid. It works at our table though may not for others.

Either or or, yes, I'll do that.

Well I have no idea, other than all Rite Publishing projects currently in development will eventually be released. Since Kaidan is actually my homebrew published as an imprint under Rite Publishing, I'm the primary involved with the project - I am only aware of it, and very little of other Rite Publishing projects.

We've only got one or two illustrations left before I do the final page layout, then create a couple needed maps and ready it for the print runs, and PDF release.

We are now waiting on Steven Russell's wife to formerly take control of the company through probate. Once that's done all Rite Publishing projects will move forward, and Kaidan be readied for release.

Well as I said, I'm finishing the GMs Guide to Kaidan under Rite Publishing in support of the Kickstarter to fund that guide, and plan to continue to release Kaidan material through Rite. That said, the project Trevor and I are doing, I'll be publishing under my Gamer Printshop publishing business. Also Jonathan McAnulty is writing a single level module of an orc raid (where the PCs are orcs) for a map and "children's book" I wrote back in 2009, also will be published by Gamer Printshop.

So I'm still doing work that will be published by Rite Publishing, but I am also publishing my own work myself.

Well Trevor Gulliver and I are writing a series of one-shots for Pathfinder/Starfinder, and we're not going to wait for the release of Starfinder before we release our works. Though we might update the material once Starfinder is released just to maintain close compatibility.

And as far as Atlantis is concerned, I'm thinking about the premise that Atlantis was not an "island that sank" rather an orbiting space stations that fell out of orbit, and building a space station map deck plan to meet that premise.

Does Miranda need to release Questhaven in order for your project to move forward? Why can't you continue working on your archipelago intended as a Rite Publishing release? Kaidan is still going to be released through Miranda's management of Rite Publishing (even though Kaidan is my IP, not Miranda's). Just because we lost Steve doesn't mean we're losing Rite Publishing. Products will continue to be published.

All of these products come in several versions:

1. As entire decks up to 36 x 48 inches as printable layered PDF files. They are layered so you can shut off the grid, furnishings, etc.

2. As sliced 8 x 10 sized pieces ready for home printing. Cut of the white margins and tape together as whole maps.

3. As 100 dpi JPG files saved in a Zip file, ready to use in your favorite virtual tabletop application.

All products include room-by-room descriptive gazetteer with labeled maps.

So over the past year (long before I even knew Starfinder was on its way), I've been creating encounter scale deck plans of various star ships of my imagination for use in sci-fi games. Notably, many of the deck plans include Traveller RPG ship stats, because I do have the rules for doing that. Though recently EN Publishing What's O.L.D. is N.E.W (WOIN) has provided stats for my ships using their rules. So once Paizo offers star ship stats for Starfinder ships, I will convert the products to include stats compatible with it.

The star ships available now:

Thunderbird class Heavy Corsair star ship is a pocket warship favored by space pirates with 2 decks and crew of 10.

Crusader class Close Escort star ship performs anti-piracy duties, escorting trading vessels through dangerous regions of space. This ship comes in 4 alternate versions. Notably, this is ship is built for use by the Masonic Navy, under operation by the Interstellar Order of the Knights Templar.

Interstellar Cargo Transport star ship - is a lightly armed 1000 ton trading vessel with engineering and the rest of the ship separated by girder beam with cargo containers attached.

Peregrine class Fast Diplomatic Sloop star ship is intended to deliver ambassadors to hot diplomatic locations in the shortest time possible. Mostly a flying gas tank, this 1200 ton ship is the fastest thing out there.

Wolverine class Marine Assault Transport star ship carries a full company of 120 space marines in cold sleep pods, and a naval crew of 22. This ship carries 2 hover tanks that can reach a planet from orbit, 10 drop pods to drop troops like airborne, the rest disembark when the ship lands on the planetary surface.

Also check out a couple space stations I've created:

Neptune Station Undersea Research Facility - domes at the tops, with multiple levels beneath features a mall-like habitat level, a university, a marine biology/oceanography lab, a hydroponics lab.

Hell Station Planetary Mining Outpost - in four environments: a volcanic world, an ice planet, an ocean world and a desert planet. This facility contains 5 levels - surface/ship landing level, warehouse level, habitat level, engineering level and mine level.

Also check out a free one-shot module called Rude Awakening (written game system agnostic) includes a space station map, a 100 ton trading vessel and a minimalist adventure module and is FREE.

Soon to release a 2000 ton Sakura class Destroyer Escort star ship, a prison ship, and a mine outpost operated by a family of ghouls...

This is especially bizarre, considering that...

I guess I should have specified Norse folklore books, rather than any books. I tend to base all folklore beings to pre-20th century literary sources, and never modern fantasy (so even Tolkien is outside of consideration), nor RPG representations (for me neither are official).

Kaidan is an archaic Japanese word (not used much in the latter 20th century) used to describe a ghost story telling game from the 15th century called "Hyakumonogatari Kaidan Kai" which means "a telling of 100 ghost stories". Kaidan means "ghost story" or "creepy tale". So my feudal Japan setting uses the Japanese horror themes of the 19th century and older tales. I thought Kaidan was an appropriate choice for the setting name.

Kaidan, the PF setting was published a year before the release of that video game with the character named Kaidan (I think its not so a propos).

Much of Kaidan's horror treatment is from yurei (or Japanese ghosts), which I think your players would in fact enjoy. Most of the ghosts presented in Kaidan products have unique abilities not found in the Bestiaries.

Check out Haiku of Horror: Autumn Moon Bath House for a hand-drawn map product of an authentic 5 story Japanese bath house, several unique haunts and a multi-CR yurei ghost of a murdered bath house attendant. Also a custom curse called Ju-on (grudge) curse that is inspired by the movie, The Grudge.

The first one, the ushi-oni, is a featured encounter in Dark Path the third module of the Rite Publishing Curse of the Golden Spear intro trilogy to the Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG).

The last one, yuki-onna, is the main villain in the free one-shot module to Kaidan, Frozen Wind

Of course both products (and the rest of the trilogy and other Kaidan products) include many additional Japanese monsters that can kill you, that are not on that list, yet still authentic creatures from Japanese folklore.

@Grenage - here's a link to my G+ community. You'll need to scroll down as its been months since I posted a city map, but I have several that might work for your needs.

While it won't help you, I created the original hand-drawn design of the City of Kasai, for The Empty Throne module of the Jade Regent AP, as a commission to Paizo (I also wrote some of the City of Kasai Gazetteer, and am credited as a contributing author for that AP). In 16 hours, I hand-drew over 8500 buildings, which was a lot of work, but I was paid well to create it.

Another consideration is that what populates a town versus a city in the modern age (today) versus the medieval period is huge. Basically anything over 3000 people is a city, so your 6250 people community is a good sized medieval city, and not really a town. A medieval town would have somewhere between 500 and 3000 people. Anything smaller is a village, anything larger is a city.

If a long term campaign was going to be based within a single city, only in that situation would I spend any time developing the various businesses in a given community. Since you're goal is to run 3 sessions through it and then destroy the town, then I'd only develop the one inn that the PCs are staying, the headquarters of the villain, and any other significant location that you plan to set encounters - since I don't know your backstory, I have no idea what other place that would be. As you've stated create your villain and his minions, and include enough stats for the minions as necessary for combat, while fully stating your Villain. You probably need to create a couple helpful NPCs (other town members who aren't friendly with the villain.)

As a pro cartographer, I have some town maps designed that you could use available on my FB or G+ pages, but I have no town sitting on a mesa, as in your storyline, so I don't know how helpful my non-mesa towns will be for your needs. In the end, after 3 sessions you intend to destroy the town, so why spend much time at all in town development if its going to be gone in 3 sessions - that seems like a waste of work, so not worth pursuing beyond a cursory showing a map you're mostly not going to use.

If you're going to put the work into creating a map, I'd say you'd need at least 600 - 700 buildings. I work with the number that the average household has 10 people - parents, children, grandparents and some extended family, which is where I get the 600 - 700 buildings needed. Some buildings would be homes only, though many shops could have second floors or rear areas where the owners of the shop dwell, so not every family needs to live in just a home versus also being a smithy, inn, or other commercial location. Then include a church/cathedral, town square, keep or fortress for ruler of the city, and that is pretty much all you need for a basic town of 6000+ inhabitants. From there only detail the interior spaces of those bulidings that your PCs need to enter to fulfill your storyline.

The way I do it, orcs, drow, etc aren't 'evil' races. They are races. Some prevailing cultures in those races may have cultural values we might consider evil. Other cultures in those races might not. Various schools of thought can exist in those cultures on what is ideologically correct, and so on.

Makes things a whole lot more interesting in my opinion, and a whole lot more believable to me.

While I'll allow the existence of evil races, any individual from any race can be of any alignment, orc, drow or otherwise.

Sometimes your arguments, justifiably so, involves some 3PP not taking into account another similar work from a different 3PP, such that some mechanics seem to replace other already created 3PP mechanics. The problem here is, like yourself, we have limited funds, so the fact that you've purchased 142 PDFs from varying 3PP publishers. I can honestly say, that I haven't purchased anything near that number, more like a couple dozen at best. So without purchasing every 3PP product in existence, its likely that I may create something, that another publisher has expounded upon in their own product, that I may not be aware of. Its very unlikely that I would purchase every 3PP product out there, let alone have the time to read them all.

Right now I'm working on creating a setting and series of one-shot adventures for an alternate Old West setting, I call Gothic Western. Now I have purchased Little Red Goblin Games Heroes of the West, and even considering mentioning that product in the upcoming setting guide for Gothic Western, as all the included archetypes are viable for use in my setting, and I won't be replicating any of those archetypes, nor most of the concepts behind them - to avoid duplication. Also as a freelancer for Rite Publishing, whenever Rite Publishing releases a new product, I get a free copy, so those products like Secrets of the Gunslinger may be of use. However, there may be a half dozen (?) old west related products out there from other 3PP, that I'm not aware of, so duplication of concept may occur.

Your expectation that all PF 3PP, should be familiar with every other 3PP's mechanics, comparable archetypes, feats, spells, etc., so that duplication of content does not occur is an unrealistic one, even as much as us small 3PP try to avoid that from happening, there's no guarantee.

Here's a sneak peek at the first page of content, which follows the cover, credits and table of contents pages. Note the corner decorations used will represent the border on all pages, as well as the use of parchment for the paper background. I am using as much public domain art as I can find, to keep costs down, and still look very authentic for the project. This first page gives a concise briefing on what the setting will entail, plus a glimpse at the adventure goals.

Working on low CR aberrations at the moment. Have already created all the archetypes that are included in the one-shot, including the villian. Created several spells, but need to finish 2 more for the one-shot. I also need to make a map of the US Western Territories still. We are quickly moving forward.

Also another writer is well on his way for the writing and development of the second one-shot, The Unclean Brand.

Most everything from Rite Publishing falls into what you're looking for, especially the #30 series, #101 series, and In the Company series, are all GM products - applying to monsters, templates, races, hazards, haunts, magic items, spells, the list goes on. For my Kaidan setting which is published as an imprint under Rite Publishing there are some In the Company products that are there and not in the named categories applying to Japanese folklore versions of the same. Plus there are 4 one-shot modules (short adventures) in the Kaidan section too.

Indeed Vlad Tepes learned all his his brutal methods of torture and execution from the Turks - impalement was a common Turkish form of execution. Vlad didn't introduce anything new. Rather he was a Catholic returning in kind what the Muslims had been doing to his people for years, that is the only difference. Its true that lots of documentaries on Vlad, leave that fact out. Vlad as a vampire was never a thing until the concept was introduced to literature by Bram Stoker. Stoker invented the Dracula as a vampire myth, it never existed as myth or folklore in the centuries preceeding the novel. The Balkans is the source of vampire legends, Stoker just took that idea and applied it to Vlad Tepes as his own invention.

If you recall the 1962 movie with Peter O'Toole of Laurence of Arabia. While Laurence was held by the Turks, the Turkish commander regularly tortured Laurence everyday - which only reveals that the Turks hadn't ended their known practice of brutal torture methods even during WW1.

Oh, it's very railroady in places...

As an aside, I'm currently writing a PF one-shot module for an Old West setting (for publication) and the entire one-shot occurs on a steam train - you can't get more railroad than that. :P

And I'm still not really seeing the awesome Conan-style beatdowns that Robert E. Howard so memorably gifted us with.

Again, however, back to my point, the wizard that Conan was doing so awesome against was nothing like an 18th level wizard - more like a 3rd or 4th level wizard. I'm trying to keep things apples and apples, but your challenge is enforcing apples to oranges.

I personally don't think any of the existing martial high abilities are "weaboo" (even though I have no idea what that means) or anime. I personally hate anime, but don't consider the high level martials as that.

I was really correcting him, not you... ;)

Working on some deliciously evil artifacts just to hint to you the tone of the setting...

Archambault's Deck

Said to have been the pupil of the legendary French cartomancer Jean Baptiste-Alliete, the occultist Gilbert Archambault created this deck of cards at some indeterminate point in the 1860s near the end of his very long life, reputedly basing his designs off certain ancient Egyptian writings long since lost. The cards – which resemble a standard 52 card deck of playing cards – bear macabre illustrations that shift and change when shuffled: the images are never quite the same. Inevitably, though, the faces of the Kings, Queens, Jacks, and Jokers bear twisted expressions of madness, horror, pain, or obscene delight. Unusual hieroglyphic marks corresponding to no known alphabet adorn the backs of the cards; these also seem to change subtly when noone is looking.

In most hands, the cards of Archambault’s Deck are simply ordinary playing cards, though when dealt they often generate very unlikely results and seem to have a whimsical will of their own. When placed in certain esoteric configurations, however, the cards have uncanny power. Not only can they be used to divine past and future, they can actually be manipulated to open rifts through time and space to primordial ages long past and black futures yet-to-come, calling forth the consciousnesses of the aberrant denizens of unknown epochs. The unfathomable inhabitants of those alien aeons can possess the bodies of those near to the cards, sometimes at the behest of a deft dealer of the deck – an unskilled dealer will often find himself or herself the host, being the nearest target. As the parasitic consciousness takes hold, it begins to reshape the body of its host as well, warping it into a form closer to its own. Different configurations of cards open different conduits, piercing the ragged veil of reality. Even Archambault himself had not discovered them all. Some have speculated that certain arrays may open permanent rifts to other times and even other universes.

Fortunately, Archambault’s Deck is no longer intact but is scattered amongst occultists, demonologists, magicians, and scholars. Eliphas Levi reputedly collected a full suit of hearts, only to have them stolen in London; Marie Laveau is rumoured to have acquired the Queen of Clubs. The location of most of the cards remains unknown.

Alchemist seems like the only one that doesn't belong - I consider the alchemist more modern than a wizard, almost a scientist, which to me is the opposite of a stone age culture. Witches brew potions too, if that's your reasoning.

Just leaving this here...

That Boomerkid (Clinton), always amazing!

As an aside, I've got another excellent writer interested in doing Gothic Western PF one-shots. For years I've watched Jonathan Newell (Steerpike) develop creepy settings and adventures on campaign builders wiki site, and know he'd be ideal for this. He just PM'd me wanting to write, with 3 sample ideas.

So the staff is growing!

I build plenty of classes, and use of class skills to promote social activity in my game. I don't need what makes the vigilante a sociable character, I have other more effective means of doing that without having to disable a class to do that.

With the presence of aberrations and undead, called The Unclean in Gothic Western, as well as some of the effects of existing PF spells and magic items (and new ones), everyone is subject to exposure to corruption. So Gothic Western features the Corruption Score (0-100 scale) - we'll only include applicable lesser scales of corruption for this one-shot, but we're working on the entire scale. Corruption is a combination of madness and aberrant properties - very much inspired by CoC.

While I wasn't looking for a writer/designer, aside from myself, I've gotten a volunteer, Mike Riter, who is already designing new classes, and class archetypes (including a druid variant - the Texas Ranger), new aberrant species, and setting specific spells. We're also brainstorming ideas for modules and one-shots.

I've also secured a cool font for the setting logo (arranged for commercial use with the font designer, font is called Bleeding Cowboy).

And I've gotten Mark Hyzer, an artist who has done MtG card art, but has also done many pencil illustrations for my published Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG), secured to do the cover art for the Horror on the Gila Express one-shot. (I will post the cover art once it is ready.)

Progress is moving forward!

Working with an alternate US Western territories (alternate US) rather than a completely fictional "like the Old West, but not" setting. I plan to keep in place some of the territories established earlier in the 19th century, and include ones that many people never knew existed.

Republic of Texas - includes regions of Texas, western Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico and the southwestern corner of Colorado. Gets along with the US, in conflict with Mexico (there was no Mexican War). Defended by the Texas Rangers.

Republic of Sonora - established by the American fillibuster (freebooter) William Walker and a band of mercenaries in 1853 controlling the northern part of the Mexican state of Sonora and Baja California. Unrecognized by the US, and in conflict with Mexico.

Territory of Deseret - the theodemocratic territory of the Mormon state, encompassing western Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, northen Arizona and southern California. Unrecognized by the US, in constant conflict with the New Mexico Territory and the Unorganized Territory. Defended by the Nauvoo Legion (Mormon militia).

Territory of New Mexico - includes New Mexico and southern Arizona, claimed to be abandoned by Mexico (since no longer contiguous with that nation, being separated by the Republics of Texas and Sonora) and now a US territory. Defended by US cavalry forts, though dominated by native tribes (Apache and Navajo).

State of California - the only US state in the western territories, though consists of north and central California only.

Oregon Territory - all lands north of California to the Canadian border, currently under lease to purchase agreement with Great Britain.

Unorganized Territory - Idaho, Montana and the Dakotas, claims held by several US cavalry forts, though actually controlled by the Great Plains native tribes (Cheyenne, Lakota/Souix and Blackfoot)

The Reserved Lands - native tribes forced by US army into concentration camps called "reservations", located in eastern Oklahoma.

I am also including several organizations and secret societies important to Gothic Western:

Knights of the Golden Circle - southern sympathizers that seek to establish a new Confederacy encircling the Gulf of Mexico, by taking Mexico and the West Indies, as well as the southern US.

Knights Templar and Freemasonry - seeking control of local government through its membership, also works to secure eldritch knowledge, artifacts of power and mystery, suppress the knowledge of their existence and bury all such knowledge in their hidden vaults.

Pinkerton Detective Agency - although a privately owned company it serves as the US secret service and the forerunner of the FBI, though also serving various US industrialists and business concerns, it will not support opposition to US in any way.

Order of Oblivion - a fictional secret society consisting of anti-American European aristocrats and concerns, includes anarchists, communists, elements of criminal syndicates, working in opposition to the Knights Templar.

A great number of Roman tactics were taken directly from the Greeks. It is noteworthy that the Romans considered themselves and the Greeks to be the only civilized nations on the planet, to the point of wholly conscripting the entire Greek Pantheon of Gods.

==Aelryinth

Most Roman tactics were borrowed from somebody else (turtle formation was Celtic), as well as most Roman weapons (gladius and scutum borrowed from Celtiberians) - Romans did it better and more efficiently, but they almost invented nothing on the battlefield.

Among my many projects, I recently created an 1880's Train map set that includes, encounter scale maps (print-ready and virtual tabletop ready) of an entire steam train including: locomotive, coal tender, flat car, box car, livestock car, passenger car, Pullman luxury car and a caboose. Then got lots of interest in a possible Old West Pathfinder module idea. So I'm using my 1880's train set as an entire location for a one-shot module, and an introduction to a setting I call Gothic Western.

Its a place that gunslingers can best fit, but I'm also including a magus archetype called the Shootist, an investigator archetype called the Pinkerton, a bard archetype called the Journalist, and an inquisitor archetype called the Cabalist - though I think mad scientists, native bloodragers and shaman, occultists and many others belong. Think of the setting as gothic horror old west with Pathfinder, with elements of steampunk.

I've never been a fan of the gunslinger, but in a setting where they truly belong, it makes more sense. Plus I want to use revolvers, repeating rifles, cartridge ammo, and sticks of dynamite as normal for a setting.

It will probably be a few months before this is ready for release. Just seeing if there is any interest out there for such a setting.

If straight swords are better for fencing explain why the saber and cutlass supplanted straight swords for nearly every army and navy in Europe for centuries.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but another consideration is by the time sabre and cutlass preimminence in Europe, armor, except for some breast plate, pretty disappeared prior to it. I believe gun technology had more to do with that, than the improved blades of the same era. Anachronistic weapon comparisons, when you take into consideraton of the rest of the world's combat technologies, and not just isolated comparisons, just doesn't work for many, many reasons.