joela's page

Hope this is the correct place to post.

I have a great group of friends (all older people) who I enjoy RP with over the last 5 years. Group size varies from Core 5 to up to 9 players. We play many different type of RPG's. I DM and we swith off at at even rate so you get play time as well as running time.

Heres the problem and hopefully some advice. The gaming table has become crazy... Stopping combat to look up rules / cross table talk so those that are RPing can't even hear at times / not following the game / reading books / looking up spells on their turn ( i mean they had 10 minutes to do that during others guys turns) and just plain signs of boredom. Simple encounters takes an hour while one major encounter went almost 5 hours due to the confusion at the table. Its taking all the fun out of DMing.

Fixes i tried:
- No books / computers / phones at the table (works sorta but hard to enforce with out being a Drill SGT. about it every 10 minutes).
- Went with simplier games, easy on the rules... no dice.
- Rules where if you don;t know how an ability of yours works you can;t use it.

I tried a few other fixes... - I tried talking to them about it and they all agree its a problem but it still continues.

I love to DM with them but even playing is not as much fun anymore. Not sure how i can correct this without hurint a lot of feeling as we do other things outside of gaming.

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks

Take a break. Try non-rpg games for a while (i.e., board games, card games, etc). Break into two groups with each one playing different rpgs. Bring in some new blood.

We at Tricky Owlbear Publishing know it's difficult to choose just which 3PP to spend your hard-earned dollars on. In truth, all of them are worth the money but then the decision becomes just which product you're going to purchase out of a vast amount of material.

For the month of April, we've decided to answer these dilemmas with a Super Sale! For one low price, you can pick up all of our Pathfinder-compatible pdfs for the low price of $24.99 (nearly 50% off the combined cover price)! We're also throwing in fan-favorite Behind the Spells: Compendium to sweeten the deal.

Must...resist...pulling...out...wallet...!

[EDIT] Whew! Did it. Still waiting for the dead-tree version of FF.

joela wrote:

Pretty much this. There's no "crowd" from a buyer's viewpoint when only focusing on very specific things.

And that's very true. Even during the glut, I didn't feel there was a glut because I focused on a few 3PP (Malhovac, Green Ronin, Goodman Games and XRP mostly) and rarely bought anything outside of them. It wasn't until after 4e/Pathfinder came along and a lot of older OGL material went on sell for cheap that I began to pick up other stuff.

Yah. One of the LGS' had a massive closing sale, making it too tempting to pick up everything with a d20 on it. Otherwise, I'm usually very, very, picky.

Jack Thorn wrote:

James,

Is Aroden the inhabitant living on The Hermitage? That would be fun. :)

- Jack

Nope.

Aroden is dead.

Can he be resurrected / reincarnated?

What I've seen of 3PP is the chance to have more options but not feel 'obligated' to have it all.

Pretty much this. There's no "crowd" from a buyer's viewpoint when only focusing on very specific things.

Squee!

D&D 5th Edition Announced

'Goblin versions of your favorite dieties' sounds neat.

I could totally see Goblin versions of Asmodeus (setting himself on fire) and Calistria (swearing vengeance on everyone laughing as she runs into the distance, being stung by her 'holy wasps') and Iomedae (riding her war-pig at the nearest windmill with a righteous cry) and Zon-Kuthon (helplessly entangled in his own chains).

That.Would.Be.Awesome (especially if Wayne Reynalds actually drew them!)

That was funny. :)

^_^

R. Doyle wrote:

Do you think if enough of us ask for this they will actually make it?

No.

At least, I HOPE "no."

:-P

I just played MAID and Paranoia. "Goblins of Purity" would be a fresh breath of seriousness....

Looks like the Edition Wars have a winner--and that winner in Ponyfinder.

+1!

I would actually buy this.

Ditto.

Why is this missing from my Corebook!?!

Clark responds to some of the threads about his return to publishing rpgs, especially the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game:

Wow, normally I dont like to weigh in on threads that sort of are about me. It tends to slow down the discussion and discussion is good.

3. I have refrained from talking about why I chose this or that for fear of inflaming edition wars and I don't want to do that. But since it has been requested, I can tell you in short.

Full article can be found above.

Sending support vibes to the family.

Dark_Mistress wrote:

So instead I'll ask, know about when this will be for sale?

May is my best guess. Lot of things can make a date shift and at current I don't have enough experience to make a better guess.

Available to order via FLGS?

Greg A. Vaughan wrote:

Maybe send an e-mail to Louis Porter, Jr.

His (Louis) latest blog post is rather suggestive.

Yah...!

I heard new 3PP class books. Unfortunately, virtually none of my GMs allow me to use them in their campaigns and none of my players are interested in running any of them ;-(

joela wrote:

What the subject said. For the former, monster books and, interestingly, adventures (even though I have everything published by Paizo so far).

Hi Joel,

It doesn't seem that anyone is biting at this one so I thought I would jump in. My current campaign is the Second Darkness adventure path and my players are making extensive use of the Book of Arcane Magic, Book of Divine Magic from 4WFG and Eldritch Secrets by HHG.

For a time we had an alchemist character who used bits from Open Design's short alchemist book.

That is what we are currently using. I personally use a little bit of everything including a whack of 3.X stuff.

- Purple Mark

Coolio! Thanks for sharing.

VanceMadrox wrote:

At E7 with no 4th level spells though you wind up with the mid casters being potentially more powerful magic wise..

With 3rd level spells Bards get Lesser Geas, Scry, and Tiny Hut.

Summoners are even worse though. With 3rd level spells they get Black Tentacles, Charm Monster, Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility, and Stoneskin.

Except those classes are spontaneous casters, with no way to swap spells known. They each can get only two of those spells on their list, and cast them a few times a day. They can never find scrolls of any of those spells to increase the times they can cast them or let them cast something different. So while it may be stronger than the wizards 3rd level spells, it is all he ever has.

Yah. Unless there's a feat to allow such a swap, spontaneous spell-casters will never have the flexibility under the E# system (e.g., "Bard: What's the treasure?" GM: "A couple of non-magical rings and, oh! A spellbook!" Bard: "Oh. Give it to the wizard over there...." Wizard: "Squee! Look! More second and third level spells!" Bard: grumble grumble....

All of this subtle clue-dropping is impressive. ;)

Subtle?!? Nearly broke my back from the impact!

joela wrote:

BTW, any thought by SGG to publish its own setting utilizing its various supps?

Any thought? Of course. A lot of my playtest campaigns (Northern Rune Peaks, the Drakken Mortor, Hawksmoor, Ankharran Rebellion, Wayfarer's League) leak into our products as it is, and some can be found sneaking into Dungeonaday.com as well. There's a document Stan! (and Hyrum before he got hired away by the Big Boys) worked on back at the beginning that included the Little Hamlet of Villago and some stuff from our One Night Stand adventures as a setting.

But right now, I'm not sure the demand for us to produce our own setting is strong enough to take any of us away from existing projects. If we could clone ourselves I'd do it in a heartbeat, but a solid setting takes a lot of work and we already have roughly 416,000 words of work on the schedule for this year with our existing lines. And I'm looking to add to that with projects we have on the back burner.

So I'm not ruling anything out, but I'm also not rushing into anything. It may happen, maybe even this year, but not without some factor changing in the marketplace, our production plan, or my muse.

Understood. Thanks! I've already read that smaller, shorter pdfs sell better, too.

jeremy.smith wrote:

SGG's Mantra feats are actual mantras - they're essentially verbal components.

Mantra feats in 3.5 were essentially "trances" that were built off gaining psionic focus and were balanced around increasing the Concentration DC to gain focus.

Cool! And, thank you for the clarification.

What Owen said.

BTW, any thought by SGG to publish its own setting utilizing its various supps?

What the subject said. For the former, monster books and, interestingly, adventures (even though I have everything published by Paizo so far).

For the latter, primarily spell books. Not only do I have plenty between the Core book and APG, but still find it hard to gauge the power of some of them (especially after 3.x's Spell Compendium).

Just FYI, Mantra feats as we had them in 3.5 don't really work in Pathfinder, and there was a lot of internal discussion on whether we were even going to keep them given the mechanical and balance questions doing something like that raised.

As such, I wouldn't expect to see any Dreamscarred Press-created Mantra feats for Pathfinder, at least as they existed in 3.5.

It was something that we broke as part of Psionics Unleashed, but it was for the good of the system as a whole that it was done and it was a necessary break. For those wanting to migrate 3.5 psionic Mantra feats to Pathfinder, it can be done, it's just not very graceful. :)

How do the mantra feats from the Genius Guide to Feats of Psionic Might differ from the 3.x version?

So, when is the Genius Guide to Psionic Archetypes coming out?

Oh! That'd be nice.

Pale wrote:

I've just now realized that I have no clue where Greg A. Vaughan lives.

Oklahoma, which is weird because he and I never run into each other...

Not exactly a small state....

The layout for Frog God Games is done in Lakeland, FL.

The "CEO"-ing is done not far from the physical location of Paizo.
I've just now realized that I have no clue where Greg A. Vaughan lives.

Wherever you see George Clooney in the news....

Jason Bulmahn wrote:

This is great news Clark,

I for one, am happy to have you onboard.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Onboard? You mean figuratively, right, as in supporting the Pathfinder Roleplaying game, and not literally, as in joining the Paizo staff....

Hmmm. There's been no response so far from the Paizo about my query above. Then there's Mairkurion's laugh. Finally, what did Clark mean by the sentence below (bold is mine)?

It will be Frog God doing their thing and me doing my own thing (or, well, you'll see).

What product would you like a 3PP to publish for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game?

joela wrote:

Saw it. Coolio. Amazes me how many 3PP are working with Paizo to generate the best products for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

It's easy for 3PP because Dreamscarred Press is great group to work with and Psionics Unleashed is a great product.

+1! I think you used their psionics stuff in at least one of your products. Obsidian?

For those who have the pdfs, could you tell me a little about the content? Basically, what makes these products unique against, well, Golarion :-)

Sell me on...the River Nations!

Ha-ha-ha!

^_^

For those who might be intrested we have released a Psionics Unleashed Compatible product (with the logo even!)

Faces of the Tarnished Souk: Elspeth Black, Executive Officer of Blackblade (PFRPG) for $1.99

Special thank to Dreamscarred Press for making this possible.

Saw it. Coolio. Amazes me how many 3PP are working with Paizo to generate the best products for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

joela wrote:

pres man wrote:

I would point you to a group of books that have the core rules for 3.5 that I made on Lulu, but they are more of 3.6 or 3.5.2 pretty close to 3.5 but not exactly the same, though I did try to site where I changed things (probably missed some).

Oh? Linkies?

I don't really feel comfortable pimping it too much, mainly because the books have a lot of editorial errors. It is probably in its "beta" phase and might never get out of it. If you are interested here is a link:

Gauric Myths
As I've said before, it is mainly for players that join my group that don't have 3.5 books. Anyway, if you are interested the pdfs are free, so don't gripe too much if you find a bunch of errors.

Coolio. I'll check it out.

[Edit] Okay, there's this error on page XX... ^_^

This is great news Clark,

I for one, am happy to have you onboard.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Onboard? You mean figuratively, right, as in supporting the Pathfinder Roleplaying game, and not literally, as in joining the Paizo staff....

I would point you to a group of books that have the core rules for 3.5 that I made on Lulu, but they are more of 3.6 or 3.5.2 pretty close to 3.5 but not exactly the same, though I did try to site where I changed things (probably missed some).

Oh? Linkies?

KaeYoss wrote:

Nothing really replaces an actual book made of paper.

Spoken like a man who's never read a book penned in human blood on pages of human flesh bound with a cover made from human bone.

Did you borrow my Book of Vile Darkness again?!?

joela wrote:

scratches head. I must have misunderstood the description. I run non-psi games. How does the above feat allow psionic feats to work in such non-psi campaigns?

Once you have mystic focus you can take any of the psionic feats that require the use of psionic focus, without needing to be psionic. You don't have power points and can't use psionic powers, but you can take the psionic feats that allow you to do things if you maintain and/or expend your psionic focus (you just use your mystic focus instead). It causes those psionic feats to essentially become mystic knacks.

There are many feats that match that description in both Psionics Unleashed and GGT Feats of Psionic Might.

Got it! Thanks!

joela wrote:

Intriguing. Could you post an example?

Sure. For example the Mystic Focus feat (the use of which is discussed in a tad more details)

Mystic Focus
You can harness your personal magic energy into a tight focus.
Benefit: You can establish, maintain, and expend your mystic focus. Gaining mystic focus requires a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Once you are mystically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance in cases of races who do not sleep). You can use your mystic focus in place of a psionic focus for any feat you have that requires you to maintain and/or expend a psionic focus.

scratches head. I must have misunderstood the description. I run non-psi games. How does the above feat allow psionic feats to work in such non-psi campaigns?

Super Genius Games releases it's first Psionics Unleashed-compatible PDF, with the Genius Guide to Feats of Psionic Might.

Expanding the awesome possibilities of psionics, this product includes option for using psionic feats in nonpsionic games (including the Mystic Focus optional feat)

Intriguing. Could you post an example?

Is there any chance of Scarred Lands for Pathfinder? There is already a lot of support for PFRPG in the form of new classes, feats, spells and adventures, but I feel that there is nowhere near enough campaign oriented fluff. Golarion is great setting, don't get me wrong, but I think that we need a bit diversity. So, Scarred Lands?

I believe Scarred Lands is owned by White Wolf, makers of World of Darkness series (Vampire: the Requiem, etc.) Last I heard, Fiery Dragon (part of Mongoose Publishing?) had rights to at least some parts of Scarred Lands. (Probably by licensing).

You'll be hearing from me...

Clark

dumDuMDUM...! ^_^

I just can not figure it out....

Is it possible?

There's no such system on the boards. You'd need to post your email address for them to contact you.

From Paizo's facebook page:

Hmmm. Just got off the phone with Necromancer Games's Clark Peterson, who is looking to get back into the RPG biz publishing Pathfinder-compatible PDFs! He's still in the planning stages, so help him out with your suggestions of what he should do by posting a comment below!

Now if Monte Cook could just restart Malhavoc Press....

Ten. Factions. faints

A favorite. She will be missed. Support vibes sent to her friends, family, and fans.

Sweet!

I'd also like to make a shameless plug for Gallons per Wile, a short booklet on magic-usage with low-level gaming as focus. There's some rules on ritual magic, lower level item creation and so on.

Oh! What's this...?

Will there be one for Bestiary 2?

joela wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

I think that a "guide to high level play" hardcover would be an EXCELLENT book to print, as a result. Something that not only helped to teach and train players and GMs on how to handle high level play and how to create adventures for high level play, but also provided a lot of additional crunch and pre-built NPCs and stuff to aid such play. Haven't been able to squeeze something like that on a schedule yet, alas.

So, which 3PP's gonna write such a supp? ;-)

Just curious but where is that quote from?

From Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here! thread.