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the title kinda says it all.. which order have you been reading your pathfinders when you get them in? I surprised myself by reading in this order:
1) the pathfinder journal : great to see how the crew believes the creatures should act/sound.
2)the creatures: I love new beasties
3) other background information articles: what can I say this world has dragged me into it?
4) the introduction and sidebars in the adventure (also flip through the art of the parts I havn't read yet here)
5&6)the adventure and other articles: depending on how close I am to running it, and if any of the other articles look like they will effect how my next session will go
I just wanted to see if I was the only one surprised by the order they found themselves reading their pathfinders
I read it from cover to cover, front to back.
I guess Im booring. :)
I read about the town of sandpoint first, then the game itself followed by the monstersection and I kinda read/ glanced/ skimmed over the thassilonian section.
I read it from cover to cover, front to back.
I guess Im booring. :)
I usually flip through, glance (and I mean glance) at the non-adventure articles, see what monsters are in the current volume, maybe read one or two of the monster entries. Then I settle down and start with the introduction and plow straight through, front to back. So I dunno, I guess I'm boring too... though not quite as boring ;)
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I usually flip through, glance (and I mean glance) at the non-adventure articles, see what monsters are in the current volume, maybe read one or two of the monster entries. Then I settle down and start with the introduction and plow straight through, front to back. So I dunno, I guess I'm boring too... though not quite as boring ;)I read it from cover to cover, front to back.
I guess Im booring. :)
it doesn't help that my usual reading time is about an hour before the pathfinder chat starts weekly. Otherwise i get distracted by flashy webpages
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well, when I get the pdf, I skim the sections to see what I got coming (only use the pdf as reference later on in gameplay). After I get the book I usually flip through it again (gotta love the feeling in a book!!) & then when I actually start reading I usually read the foreward & then the background stuff first, after that usually skim the adventure, but I save that part for last usually.
Haven't read much of the journals thou, maybe a section here & there, but it is usually the section I don't read. Thou with the way the section has improved I may have to read all of them at once when I get the entire Rise run.
RM
I read the Introduction and Table of contents to get a feel for it, then usually skim the first couple pages of the adventure. After that I pick out articles I'm interested in (Sandpoint first for #1, Desna for #2). After that it gets kinda random, with the adventure usually last.
I'm with Kirstov. I jump all over. Usually I first check to see if there's some kind of guide, like Magnimar or the gazetteer and look that over, then I read over the monsters, then I read the summary of the adventure, then I look up places and people from the adventure that seem important or really intriguing. I usually end up glancing at the journal around this point, but am so sucked in by the good writing that I find myself reading the whole thing (the Kaer Maga one in particular--wow.)
I still can't say I've read every word of any of them--but I've read the same parts of each a dozen times and pick up a part I missed last runthrough each time.
I read front to cover too, but if i´m not playing right away, i skip some (most dungeon dressing) adventure sections. One more boring person i guess.
It's strange, I didn't use to read the dungeon dressing in other modules and adventures unless I was reading, but with the Pathfinders it's different. I find myself actually reading and enjoying the dungeon dressing. I think it might be me just becoming more boring though.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I usually read the "Miscellaneous" articles and world guides (such as the Varisia and Magnimar sections) first. The world is the most intriguing thing for me. Then I'll check out the Pathfinder Journal just to see what's going on there. Then... umm... I'll flip through the adventure a bit, only half-reading it for the most part (unless I'm going to run it that night). Then I look at the pictures in the Beastiary but, to be honest, I don't really care about new monsters. The artwork is neat though.
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I glance through the whole thing first - just to get an idea of what awaits. Then I read the adventure. Then the monsters. Then if there is a hisotry piece I read that. If not then I read the location piece if there is one. Then anything else. The journal is last and I have a hard time getting to it for some reason.
For me, I read the table of contents and introduction first, then I flip to the back to read the stats on the Icon's. Then I read the preview for the next Pathfinder. Next I usually read the Journal to get an "inside" feel for the setting. Then I usually read the "setting" article followed by the fluff article. After all of that I then read the actual adventure. And the last thing I read is the monsters. I also make sure to read it over several days so as to let things sink in a bit and imagine the world.
I just look at the pictures for their, uh, artistic merit. I concentrate on pictures of Seoni. I think she has a lot of, umm, artistic merit.
1: Editorial
2: Flip through for the artwork
3: what catches my eye from the articles (in PF3: Keeping the keep, Varisia Gazeteer, Journal)
Monsters as in-betweens when I have only short time for reading.
Adventure, I still spare, so I could be a player...but my resolve is weakening and I think I will be the DM again.
Bestiary first, then skim through looking at what monsters they used, particularly from non-WotC sources.
What can I say...I'm a monster junkie. :)
The first thing I do doesn't involve reading at all . . .
. . . I take a minute or two to hold the book in my hands. I caress the covers, feeling the smooth binding along my fingers as I raise it to my nose, and I breathe in the fragrant aroma of the newly opened book from the mailing package . . . then I crack the book open randomly in the middle, feel the pages and bring my nose right to the spine and breathe again the delicious smells of a new book.
Then I read J.J.'s introduction, scan the art, look at the icons (since my player uses them), and then I peruse the actual adventure after that. After I finish with Part I. of the adventure, I then either go to the Bestiary (if the artwork interests me enough) or to whatever flavor articles are inserted (depending either on the art or if I've been eagerly anticipating the article: such as the one on Varisians to see the fluff regarding Dwarves). Next, I either skip to what I haven't read yet, read Part II., or the Journal. I always try to read Part IV. last.
I re-read the adventure itself many times so I get a good handle of how to anticipate my player since she *always* happens to find the end-game scenario first in most dungeon-crawls. (The exception being Foxglove Manor, where she practically went in order as presented.) I need to be good at figuring out what happens when this happens.
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. . . I take a minute or two to hold the book in my hands. I caress the covers, feeling the smooth binding along my fingers as I raise it to my nose, and I breathe in the fragrant aroma of the newly opened book from the mailing package . . . then I crack the book open randomly in the middle, feel the pages and bring my nose right to the spine and breathe again the delicious smells of a new book.
And what are you wearing when all this caressing and smelling and breathing is going on? :D
All the indecent things in life, naturally. . .
;p
I read them numerically.
Started with Pathfinder #1, then...later read Pathfinder #2 and when #3 got in, I read that.
I reckon I'll be reading #4 next.
ROTFL
I re-read the adventure itself many times so I get a good handle of how to anticipate my player since she *always* happens to find the end-game scenario first in most dungeon-crawls. (The exception being Foxglove Manor, where she practically went in order as presented.) I need to be good at figuring out what happens when this happens.
This sounds as if you have only one player? Does this make for a better-cordinated party, or do things go horribly wrong when there isn't an extra brain or three to spot things that one person overlooks?
This sounds as if you have only one player? Does this make for a better-cordinated party, or do things go horribly wrong when there isn't an extra brain or three to spot things that one person overlooks?
I re-read the adventure itself many times so I get a good handle of how to anticipate my player since she *always* happens to find the end-game scenario first in most dungeon-crawls. (The exception being Foxglove Manor, where she practically went in order as presented.) I need to be good at figuring out what happens when this happens.
I do DM the game for just my wife in a duet game. She has been playing the four iconics without much change as stated from Burnt Offerings except that houserule maximum hit points each level.
As a single player, there's extreme party cohesion. That's not to say there isn't disagreement. She'll tell me that Merisiel thinks Kyra is a loon for being so "noble" all of the time. There's just not a whole lot of in-game dialogue of her talking to herself. That suits me fine. (If she had in-game dialogue, that would be fine as well . . . whatever makes her more comfortable.)
With any choice, she weighs them heavily between what must be the optimal choice and the choice her characters would *actually* arrive at.
As far as battle strategy, she only really lacks the experience and the time to prepare a superior plan. She handles the basics well: a well timed dispel magic
How I compensate:
I sometimes heavily hint by either having characters roll Wisdom, Intelligence checks, or specific Knowledge rolls (sometimes I lower the DC significantly unless the roll falls below a 10, etc.) or through choice dialogue from NPC's. Sometimes I'll just mention that one of her characters might want to cast a "speak with dead", "augury", or "communion" spell. After a battle, I might suggest what she might want to do in the future.
I also enjoy negotiations. Since she has come to the end game a couple of times and/or otherwise undertook great suffering to break out with a sudden break through win, she manages to get into a terrific position to negotiate terms.
I think of tremendous help have been roleplaying tips dot com and there's an old thread on the wizards site (not sure if it's still there now that it's Gleemax) by KJW called "Guide to Solo Gaming."
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I just run adventures as is, mostly.
I'll skim through the adventure content to notice anything interesting and set my expectations ("THAT is a large, uh, woman...").
Then I peruse more slowly to get a basic feel for the flow of the adventure and check out the various locations.
Finally, I'll do a detailed readthrough to understand NPC motivations, sequence of events and how the encounter locations react. If I think I need to read up on backdrops to flesh out my understanding of an area (like Sandpoint), I may do that before I'm done reading the adventure.
The new monsters section and journal are mostly secondary to me, at least until it comes time to run the adventure, then I'll make sure I understand the creatures.
