Im very interested in this book, I would like to know more about it before purchasing it though. Does anyone have some specifics?
Director of Game Development
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Im very interested in this book, I would like to know more about it before purchasing it though. Does anyone have some specifics?
I'm typing this from my phone in an airport? so I can't provide a link, but if you check this book on Goodman's website there is a 7 page PDF preview.
I'm typing this from my phone in an airport? so I can't provide a link, but if you check this book on Goodman's website there is a 7 page PDF preview.
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Director of Game Development
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I'm typing this from my phone in an airport? so I can't provide a link, but if you check this book on Goodman's website there is a 7 page PDF preview.Link.
Thanks David.
PC Pearls is amazing!
I got my pre-orderd copy from Paizo yesterday. It's full of unusual and serious advice, with sprinklings of levity that caught me off guard and had me laughing out loud. The cover art is gorgeous and the inner art adds spice to the text. The Lord Bedlam Havok section and insets are hysterical - worth the price of the book by themselves.
You gotta' get your hands on a copy.
PC Pearls is amazing!
I got my pre-orderd copy from Paizo yesterday. It's full of unusual and serious advice, with sprinklings of levity that caught me off guard and had me laughing out loud. The cover art is gorgeous and the inner art adds spice to the text. The Lord Bedlam Havok section and insets are hysterical - worth the price of the book by themselves.
You gotta' get your hands on a copy.
As originator and co-creator of Bedlam Havok, thank you! If you get a chance, we'd love to hear your same comments in a review. Glad you enjoyed the book!
As originator and co-creator of Bedlam Havok, thank you! If you get a chance, we'd love to hear your same comments in a review. Glad you enjoyed the book!
I enjoyed Bedlam Havok very much! I didn't realize that was you, Lou. This might be a "had to be there" but I think my favourite pearl of wisdom from the master was #18:
It's so true!
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Director of Game Development
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Mike, this reminds me to condemn you, which is something no one has an easy time doing, because you kick so much ass, but why didn't you contribute to this? Just messing with you of course. You are top notch!
Edit: I mean, s~%#, even Hitch threw in despite my efforts to edit him out. ;)
As originator and co-creator of Bedlam Havok, thank you! If you get a chance, we'd love to hear your same comments in a review. Glad you enjoyed the book!
Never posted a review, but would if I could. On another thread someone mentioned having trouble with posting reviews. I'll check back later to see if the review option appears.
Meanwhile, I just ordered five more hard copies as gifts for gamer friends and relatives, one serving in Korea. I've also purchased the PDF to make copies for my own group. What an inexpensive way for the GM to spice up play.
You rock hardcore Laserray. Extra double fudge cookies for you. :D
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Chief Technical Officer
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I'll check back later to see if the review option appears.
Reviews aren't available from the product discussion page... only the actual product page (which is probably something we should change). So if you go here, you should see the "Write a Review" link.
Reviews aren't available from the product discussion page... only the actual product page (which is probably something we should change). So if you go here, you should see the "Write a Review" link.
Got it!
PC Pearls is amazing!
I got my pre-orderd copy from Paizo yesterday. It's full of unusual and serious advice, with sprinklings of levity that caught me off guard and had me laughing out loud. The cover art is gorgeous and the inner art adds spice to the text. The Lord Bedlam Havok section and insets are hysterical - worth the price of the book by themselves.
You gotta' get your hands on a copy.
Thank you for the kind review! We had a blast writing it and hope that this product helps unlock the dreaded "brainlock" that many players get when it comes to PC backgrounds, names, personalities, etc.
If you ever hear Lord Bedlam Havok mention "Sherlop" anywhere around you, run like hell!!!
Thank you for the kind review! We had a blast writing it and hope that this product helps unlock the dreaded "brainlock" that many players get when it comes to PC backgrounds, names, personalities, etc.
If you ever hear Lord Bedlam Havok mention "Sherlop" anywhere around you, run like hell!!!
Great advice!
Mike, this reminds me to condemn you, which is something no one has an easy time doing, because you kick so much ass, but why didn't you contribute to this? Just messing with you of course. You are top notch!
Edit: I mean, s*&@, even Hitch threw in despite my efforts to edit him out. ;)
Would it help my case any if I made the audacious claim that I contributed to the initial drafts for parts of the sections entitled "Now I Lay me Down to Sleep" and "How to Stage a Successful Ambush"?
Though no doubt the good parts are by F2K and Rambling Scribe et al. . . . and kudos to Hal Mclean who came up with the concepts for both those sections if I recall. I haven't had a PC die in his sleep since working on those and I used to go through a lot of PCs.
-MiKe
P.S. Rumor has it Daigle pulled his weight on this one. . . ;)
I paid no attention to the additional stuff that was put into the book after it was sent to the editors, so I was as delightfully surprised by the Bedlam Havok stuff as many of the readers. I didn't realize Lou was instrumental in that stuff, I thought it was all Boomer and Rone. Shows you what I know -- the only thing I was told before it went to Goodman was that I wrote 1/6th of the book in 22 articles, LOL!
Contributor
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On our Tuesday game we were questioning Balacard in our Age of worms campaign. We asked a few obvious questions, and then someone else said "What else should we ask this guy? We should probably get more info from him if we can." Even though it was kind of a different scenario, I read through the lists of questions for captured enemies and divinations from PC Pearls. I'd say we quadrupled our useful info gained from that encounter, between the questions we found and the further questions that were inspired by those questions.
Those two sections alone are worth the price of admission, IMO.
And the rest is awesome too!
The Rambling Scribe
You're right, Mike. I should get my facts straight before I throw a jovial jab.
Jeeze,I should think before I type at least sometimes. ;)
No worries Daigle! That's what I get for being a lightweight. Besides, I owe you and the other editors a debt of gratitude for your work on this. It's been my evening read for a while now.
Thanks for the reviews Aberzombie and Laserray! We're so very glad to hear that you're enjoying the book. :)
As originator and co-creator of Bedlam Havok, thank you! If you get a chance, we'd love to hear your same comments in a review. Glad you enjoyed the book!I enjoyed Bedlam Havok very much! I didn't realize that was you, Lou. This might be a "had to be there" but I think my favourite pearl of wisdom from the master was #18:
** spoiler omitted **
It's so true!
Glad you dug it! Others, like Greg Oppedisano, contributed many protocols. Boomer did 95% of the fiction, and I edited his nigh perfect prose a tad. It was a group thing. Real kudos go to my friend Carlos, the real Lord Bedlam Havok. A more cynical and paranoid gamer you will never meet!
Our distributor has just gotten their restock!
Is there an ETA for Paizo getting their restock from the distributor? Or did I miss the window again?
Grr. They just don't buy enough! We'll poke 'em again.
Poke 'em to buy enough of our product while they're at it.
...Oh, wait, that's my job. :)
The excruciatingly honest Nate Collins aka DM Dreads, a two time Iron DM and also a staff reviewer at RPGnow, gave us a five out of five star review.
To this, I can only say "Yay!" and do a merry jig.
Emphasis will be mine.
"Often ignored in the bevy of products on RPGNow are the players. Yes, sure there are player supplements that provide you more races, feats and cool toys for your characters, but rarely does a product come across that give you tools to be a more complete player.
PC Pearls Volume 2: a Collection of Character Inspiration, by Goodman Games, provides players an informational 60-page book compiled with helpful design tidbits for characters. Boasting a compact yet spacious and readable layout, PC Pearls contains information for every stage of a players character.
The pages begin with various tools to turn your name and a bunch of numbers into a living character. Helpful naming guides, background tables and inspirational advice are kept concise and to the point. The tables, specifically the personality quirks and Fifty Family units are very creative. There is even a PC questionnaire that players can use to hone their character.
The next chapters deals with the characters once they enter the world. Providing players with useful advice that help the DMs flesh out the world more. There is a great little peice on gathering information and being specific with where you go to gather the information.
The book ends with information on developing high level characters taking a different approach and discussing broader aspects. The one I really enjoyed was separating into sects of a church which one of my players actually did the previous game. It is the mark of a really thoughtful player who has really taken in the world and wants to make their own niche.
For the Player
I chuckled writing this as the entire book is for the player. As I read it cover to cover in a few hours, I realized that there was not a single bad section or poorly written piece. Not even a single redundant thing. The Metagaming chapter was humorous and so true. It was one of those things that I giggled out loud at and said if every player metagamed like that I would not have a problem with metagaming. Other favorites include a section on unique (and not broken) mounts and creating a distinctive voice in game.
For the DM
Print this out, set this out at your next character creation chapter. Print extra character questionnaires. Watch the creativity work.
The Iron Word
This system-less PDF should be at every gaming table, every game. Whether you are a player or a dungeon master, it is an amazing reference tool for players to use. The collection of writers who came together on this product is a who's who of the Role Playing Game world and it is without a surprise that this is one of the best player guides in a number of years. Not since the Players Handbook II have I wanted to force every one of my players to read a book.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]"
When Joe G Kushner reviews something he is not one to pull a punch. Here's his 4 out of 4 star review on RPGnet.com
"This book is the companion piece to GM Gems. Instead of being for the game master though, it focuses on putting some style into the players’ tool box. The great cover piece by Scott Purdy is the strongest piece of art in the book. A lot of the internal art looks like placeholder art. On the other hand, a book of tips and tools isn’t going to need as much art or gain as much utility from art as say a monster book. Layout is simple two column format with a dark gray outer edge border. The book includes a table of contents, but no index. The table of contents is meaty enough however that such a tool isn’t needed. The book is broken up into four chapters ranging from character creation, early levels, middle levels and the higher levels. A ton of writers have contributed here but the book has a nice ‘read’ to it.
Part of that is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s not the in depth character resource that the old Central Casting Heroes of Legend was, but it also doesn’t suffer from some of that product’s… esoteric choices in say mental diseases.
In terms of oddities, the only one that really struck out at me isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just an odd thing. There are tables scattered all over the place. For example, tattoos on page 42 while twenty distinct voices is on page 32 and fifty personality quirks is on page 17-18. They don’t seem to follow any real ‘reasoning’ as to why they are where they are.
The book starts off by making the player ask some questions about his character. Some of these are simple like “who were your parents” and “How do you feel about killing” and act as a good primer to the types of questions players should be thinking about even as they’re designing their characters. In terms of names, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more of a listing than a guide to generating your own names. Still, I can see the appeal as it’s the whole give a man a fish idea. It’s more useful to give the reader ideas on how to make up their own names than it is to actually just give them long lists of names.
Scattered throughout the book are little sidebars with a gray background, “For the GM” that provide those readers of the book who may also be game masters, ideas on how to use the information that the players are generating for their characters. This gives the book a nice little double duty without padding the pages out.
Some of the ideas include starting off with pre-generated parties like army deserters or merchant guards. These are little snippets that give the party a reason to be in the same room at the same time outside of the dreaded tavern group meetings. It’s a nice touch and can give the players some bonding tools.
For those looking for a bit more detail in their back story, the book does provide several sample backgrounds that can be custom fitted to almost any character with a little addition of the character’s name to the background.
Other parts deal with the assumption of the D&D barbarian who is illiterate. It’s a nice little section talking about the value of memorization and its utility to such tribes but feels pretty specific to just 3rd edition barbarians. Not saying that other games may not make similar assumptions or that the material isn’t useful for anyone who’s illiterate, but the whole “shrug off damage…fly into a rage…” makes it pretty clear who that section is pointed at.
In terms of fleshing out a character’s background, sometimes it’s good to work with the typical archetypes. Even the Order of the Stick has done this with one of their members belonging to a rogue’s guild, another to a fighter’s guild, another to a dwarf clan and a member of a religious order. It’s a useful tool and can expand the options the GM has when trying to fit a character into the setting.
In that spirit, there are several organizations arranged by archetype here ranging from the Invaders, a thieves guild that specializes in destabilizing enemy towns, to the Hedge Wizards, a group of spellcasters work in the background to insure things go smoothly.
In terms of humor, one of the funniest sections has got to be Lord Bedlam Havok’s Rules of Survival in chapter three. Here we see such wisdom as “The Dragon is never sleeping. The Necromancer is never sleeping. The Demon King is never sleeping” along with “Hermits are dangerous” to “Never harass the bartender. She is a retired adventurer.”
It’s half a wink at some typical player behavior as well as a wink at old standbys in far too many adventurers and the assumptions they make about the world background. I’m not going to even get into the list of what to do with humanoid young.
There is also some game neutral advice on being useful in combat. Details on setting up a well planned ambush, knowing your role in the campaign, and how to survive. A very useful section, especially for anyone new to Dungeons and Dragon with the 4th edition, is knowing when to run. Trust me, with milestones being great and all, the urge to push on may be there, but don’t overstretch your resources.
The book ends up with some ideas on how players can worship various types of achetype deities ranging from death gods to war gods. This section includes one way to worship, another to be a former worshipper. Of more amusement to me was the meta-game protocols and the retiring ideas. The typical answer for most adventurers? Legendary shopkeeper!
PC Pearls is not a big fancy book. Not is it a highly priced, high end product. It’s one that all readers may get a kick out of and actually has some useful advice while being entertaining."
Another staff writer at RPGnow gave us 4 out of 5 stars. We forgive him ;)
"I’ve always felt somewhat leery of products that were entirely fluff-based. When I bought an RPG book, I wanted it to do the heavy-lifting for me in terms of game mechanics; to calculate numbers and invent new crunch for me to tinker with. Fluff, I felt, was something I could do on my own. Why pay for a book filled with things that I could just as easily invent on an imaginative whim? With PC Pearls, however, Goodman Games comes back with some answers – namely that it’s fun, it’s convenient, and sometimes there’ll be things that I honestly wouldn’t have thought of.
PC Pearls is aptly named, in that the book covers the broad ranges of an RPG player-character (from creation to retirement) and drops little pearls of information regarding each stage. Often told by the Lord Bedlam Havok, many of these parables are humorous, often poking fun at the conventions that RPG players have adopted for years (for example, don’t ever tell the GM that your PC is eating a meal; that’s presenting an opportunity for the GM to screw with you). Others are surprisingly useful tips and additions that are great advice for when in-game…my next character, for example, will absolutely be taking advantage of the professional services of the Grennar family.
Of course, there are also some articles that I found less than eminently useful. In many cases, these turned out to be the humor articles, where use had been traded for laughs, something I don’t particularly care for – after all, something useful now tends to be useful again later, but few jokes are as funny the Nth time around. Similarly, the book has several lists that are meant to be used when fleshing out a character (e.g. backgrounds). I’ve honestly never liked those very much; I’ve yet to meet a player who was so bereft of narrative drama that he couldn’t dream up three sentences about how his character became an adventurer, which is what most of these lists tend to consist of.
That said, it’s a given that not all pearls will be perfectly formed. However, this book definitely has more good pearls than bad. I loved the article on how to set up a successful ambush. The list of yes/no questions to ask the gods when you’re able to speak to them was quite brilliant, and the section on basic items no adventurer should be without made me nostalgic for the days of ye olde-schoole. Ultimately, I found myself grinning as I flipped through the pages of the book, making mental notes for the things my next character could use, and biting back a chuckle or two at the more amusing parts of it. It may require some buffing, but PC Pearls is something you’ll find quite valuable.
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!]"
We'll poke 'em again.
Updates?
A new review! Killah!
Thanks for taking the time, Silverhair2008. It is much appreciated by a whole lot o' people.
Woot! Thanks too, Silverhair2008!
You are all very welcome. Thank you for a very entertaining and useful book.
Just my 2 cp.