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 Recent Posts
And for more barbarian goodness, part 2 of the Last Rogue's article has arrived at Kobold Quarterly with a tiny sneak peek at Tales of the Old Margreve-- which is off to the editor! -Ben.
Can you put this in context? Was this for Halls of the Mountain King (because my hands were all over that one, especially the 4E version)? Some other project? What does this recommendation draw from? I'm especially curious as I'm going to be leading the design on Streets of Zobeck. thanks! -Ben.
Is there an estimate on how long on open design projects takes once approved. I must admit you get your money's worth, since I purchased the last one. Generally, you can look at about a 6 to 9ish month turnaround from greenlight to errata copy in your hands, but it all depends. Tales of the Old Margreve went greenlight in 2 weeks and was posted in mid-February. I think we're going to see the final copy very soon, and we've definitely had access to playtest material for some time. If that project goes much past early September, I'd be surprised. This is the first 4E project being spearheaded by an outside designer, and one who used to produce material for Wizards of the Coast. I think it will be interesting to see the schedule he sets and the paradigms he brings. EDIT: Your other comments are noted and passed up to the Head Kobold... -Ben.
And I'd like to make sure you know, you can sign up for The Lost City right here. Never post while tired, kids. :) -Ben.
Former Wizards of the Coast Designer Will Guide New Game Designers in Adventure Anthology Kirkland, WA – Following on Courts of the Shadow Fey, its second adventure compatible with the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game, Open Design announced a new project launching immediately: the Lost City project.
The project will follow the award-winning game company‘s long-standing patronage model, in which customers participate in a product’s creation from the earliest planning stages through publication. With Bonner’s guidance, patrons of the Lost City project will be invited to write three major sections of the anthology. Project supporters will decide details about the city such as its locale, history, and the adversaries players will face. From Outline to Print Publication Patrons of the Lost City adventure will collaborate to create a Paragon-level sandbox adventure with a broad range of player options. The Lost City will feature ancient threats and secrets, and multiple factions for players to ally themselves with – or against.
Patrons will choose one of these as their foundation, and will build on it through a process of pitching, critique, playtest, and refinement toward publication. Patrons will also create new monsters, treasures, and hazards under Logan Bonner’s direction. The resulting adventure will be set in Wolfgang Baur’s campaign world of Midgard, but optimized for easy adaptation to any setting. -Ben.
7 out of 10 chapters have gone to the editors. The last three are nearing completion and then its just odds and ends. The goal is to have it finished in 2 weeks. I'd be remiss not mention Wicht as been putting helping finish Coliseum, too-- and has an adventure in Tales of the Old Margreve. -Ben.
It's actually Jonathan Roberts who's doing the cartography, Jon Edwards was either the senator who ran for VP with John Kerry or the psychic medium fellow with his TV show. I mention it because he's been working with me on other things lately. :) -Ben.
Take a walk on the wild side with Streets of Zobeck... The rich in Zobeck are very, very rich. And the poor kobold miners, dwarven smiths and human adventurers who clip a few coins and mug a few merchant princes... Well, who can blame them? The city is filled with the dark plots of evil men, and some of the darkest will provide the basis for our next Open Design project. Rob the Thieves’ Guild, buy your own brothel, or double-cross the captain of the guards; it’s time to ditch the monster-bashing and live a life of real adventure. The Streets of Zobeck: Tales of Treachery adventure anthology for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a grittier set of adventures than the award-winning Tales of Zobeck anthology -- and one filled with more trickery, more hard-boiled action, and more anti-heroes and women of easy virtue. Meet the crimelords of the Cloven Nine, tangle with the kobold smugglers in the Cartways or propose your own dark urban adventure. Open Design veteran Ben McFarland (Tales of Zobeck, Breaking of Forstor Nagar, that's me!) is the lead designer, and you could design one or more chapters of the anthology as well. Visit the Kobold Store and add your two cents to this Open Design project today! (Note: For this anthology we will be checking everyone’s two cents to see if they’re forgeries. You know what they say about honor among thieves...) -Ben
Tales is from level 1 to 10, and should be headed to the editor shortly. Ed Greenwood's got one in this anthology. The project is run by Tim and Eileen Connors and they're also doing a gazetteer portion for playing beyond the anthology. Streets is still waiting to reach greenlight, but we'll be setting a level range for the projected six adventures, and then provide a lot of story seeds and support material for the locations--kind of like the old Citybooks. I'm really looking forward to working on it.
Coliseum has gone to the editor, I believe-- or the gazetteer portion has and the adventure portion is finishing up. This is written for characters level 16+. Clinton Boomer spearheaded this project, Jim Groves contributed to it. Breaking is mostly off to the editor, there's just a very little left for turnover. Maps for this one are by Jonathan Roberts (Fantastic Maps) and they're great. The artwork that's been coming back is pretty gorgeous-- very grim, but pretty. These are all great projects, in my opinion, but then I'm a little biased.
Reason:
Biased because I've either contributed something to each one of these or I'm writing them or I'm going to be designing/guiding the design for them. Hopefully that won't scare you off, though. These are pretty bang up projects. I swear. :) -Ben.
I have been seriously considering this. Maybe in August when I should have some spare cash I can check it out. I posted my review of it, as well. This is totally worth it if you want to put a system of magic in your game that everyone can utilize. ZSP did a great job of providing three flavors of incantations to work with here. I'm looking to post a review of their latest pdf sometime this week. -Ben.
Or he didn't feel it was necessary to provide an encyclopedic summary of his house rules and thought you trusted him to run the game.
Really, you ought save the rules discussion for after the session, or ask for a short break and discuss the matter away from the table. Unless a character's being irrevocably killed, rules shenanigans don't belong at the table. Let the GM run his table as he's going to run it and circle back to the matter later.
Except that he *knows* the spell is an illusion and we know:
Sure, it's a shadow, and shadows are "partially real," but then they're partially unreal, too. Trying to say that the caster can fail the save that he doesn't need is disingenuous. It's looking for a loophole to justify the usage, or picking the most advantageous order to apply a series of rules and that way lies rules-lawyery-madness. Really, it would better if it said that casters could treat their shadow illusions as wholly real or wholly unreal as they so desired, but had to decide which upon each casting (as needed)-- unfortunately it doesn't. -Ben.
You asked for it, we solicited it, and now it's ready for patronage-- Dan Voyce (_Tales of Zobeck_, _Halls of the Mountain King_, and _Tales of the Old Margreve_) is leading the way on this one.
Read more here -Ben.
So KQ plans to give you as much from the trenches reporting on Paizocon as we can-- twitpics, blog posts, tweets, the works...and it all starts with the Boothening! Sure, the report is short, but think of it as first harbringer of things to come. Get your fix here Looking for something in particular? Let us know! -Ben.
These require no character modification at all-- presuming standard incantations, which the other ZSP book had in spades. Really, incantations require a number of skill checks and a few foci to invoke a spirit and create a sort of spell effect. You can read more on them here They're a fantastic and fairly underdeveloped aspect to d20. -Ben.
No, I wouldn't require that, nor would I require multiple caster level checks. The first heal check staunches all consumptive damage, and the first healing spell removes the consumptive effect. Go back and look at the Clay Golem. :D Now there's a real piece of evil. At least consumptive damage will heal naturally once the per/round damage is gone. -Ben.
...question about consumptive wound. If the person makes the DC check on a heal to stop the damage does that also mean they can be healed normally or does the first heal check still need the DC check? Yes, if the Heal check is made to halt the per-round damage, a caster level check is still necessary to magically heal the wound. The idea was to allow even non-casters to staunch the injuries, but for accelerated healing, the check was necessary to overcome the devil's power. -Ben.
Yeah i assumed you would have no idea Vic, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. :) I picked mine up on Amazon-- that cover is the d20 book, the actual Grimm non-d20 system book is the one with kids on a bridge being attacked by jack-o-lantern monsters. It's a very cool book, I've been trying to put together an arc to inflict on my players. -Ben.
Anyone else who pre-ordered through KQ still waiting for their print edition to arrive? My order was in weeks ago, and seeing that some people have gotten their book already I always worry that my local post office has once again fouled something up. I don't think it could have been in "weeks ago," as the print edition was only made available on the 10th-- but even so. I put in my order at KQ.com on the 11th and mine hadn't yet crossed the country. Usually, I see stuff in about three days, but nothing yet. I figure I'll see it tomorrow or Tuesday, depending. -Ben.
I'd mimic the mechanic for spiritual hammer, just for consistency's sake. It's pretty close to that effect, but arcane. I like it. -Ben.
These were the (vaguely remembered by Wolfgang) benefits for patrons*
-Ben. *Some benefits may have been forgotten. YMMV. Void where prohibited. Ia! Ia!
Taking a quick look at my review PDF to confirm (and I'd mentioned this in my review), the art is all B&W, save one 1/4 page landscape picture on page 57 (But then Hugo tends to work mainly in B&W). The PDF that patrons get might be color-- and that'd be fantastic, given the preview of Jonathan Roberts' cartography-- but I can't say for certain. -Ben.
It's great to see what's going on at SGGames, and I love their work (especially your CoC stuff, guys!)-- but what about other PFRPG shops like LPJr Design, Open Design, 4WFG, or Rite Publishing? Sure, I try to keep an eye out over on the products page, but why not share the love? -Ben.
Atlas has strange printing practices...something about how the books are laid out for the printer... you might have better luck on the Atlas boards, and they're pretty responsive, too. I believe they might even do the PDF over on e23...they usually do 2 print runs before releasing the PDF, though. -Ben.
I really can't say this enough... this book is loaded with goodies. You will be swamped with stuff to play with from this book, and you'll have your choice of sources-- mundane gear, underwater-centric magic, or salvaged lost techno-items. There was *no* skimping on the offerings here, and it's all really flavorful. -Ben.
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