Shattered Star

Game Master Zesdead

I'll be up front in saying that I hate exercising beyond walking/hiking or swimming so anytime that I've lost weight it's largely been due to changes in diet. Dropping sodas and other sweet drinks is always a good first step as is portion control. Some people can cut things out of their diet cold turkey but for most I wouldn't recommend it - gradually cut back and don't be afraid to occasionally indulge as a reward. I've found that doing so makes it a lot less likely for me to get hit with major cravings or fall off the wagon and pig out when I'm feeling depressed or stressed about something.

(I, too, am prone to stress/depression eating.)

Be sure to come up with a wide variety of foods/meals that are healthy and that you enjoy eating so you don't get bored eating the same things and then feel tempted to start eating things that you shouldn't.

If you want to drink more water but hate drinking it plain (like me), try adding flavor packets like Crystal Light or the Great Value stuff from Wal-Mart. Most of the ones I use are sweet without being overpowering and they're basically sugar-free and have only a few calories. As a bonus, some even contain a little bit of caffeine if you need/want an energy boost without drinking coffee/soda/energy drinks or if you're trying to cut back on caffeine but hate the withdrawal headaches.

It's tough changing pattetns.

I was an avid runner for a few years (5-10K distances... never interested in marathons).

I sprained my ankle badly about a year ago, and while it's fully healed, I got out of the habbit. I couldn't run a 5k now, and I gained about 50 pounds. I've had fits and starts with getting back into running, but it hasn't stuck yet.

I find that it's a lot harder to lose weight as you get older... and I'm pushing 50!

I could give more specific feedback/advice on more specific questions but for some general tips:

1) start slow. If you overdo it you’ll hurt yourself and that will make progress even slower than being tentative. Pay attention to your body and being willing to push yourself, if you have a good trainer or knowledgeable partner put some trust in their ability to recognize your limits and let them push you some, but don’t try to just run headlong into anything.

2) have reasonable expectations. Frustration can kill your motivation, so try to go in knowing that you won’t be able to do what you used to and, just like it took time to get to your current unfitness level, it will take time to get to the fitness level you want.

3) don’t neglect weightlifting. Lean muscle burns more calories even at rest. People whose goal is weight loss often focus on cardio because the exercise itself burns more calories but in the long term gaining muscle mass will usually result in losing more body fat.

4) don’t eat or drink anything (except water) before your workout. If you have diabetes you might want to check with your doctor about this, but for most people you’re best off exercising before eating in the morning, when your blood sugar is very low (that way your body actually burns fat while you workout instead of burning the sugar in your blood; I’m not a doctor but I think for diabetics there might be some risk of keto-acidosis)

5) keep it regular. If you don’t have time for your usual workout do something half as long. If you’re feeling too tired or sore to do it, do something less intense (or that targets different parts of your body). You lose momentum fast if you don’t do it regularly, so do something as often as you can.

Hope that’s helpful!

I could give more specific feedback/advice on more specific questions but for some general tips:

1) start slow. If you overdo it you’ll hurt yourself and that will make progress even slower than being tentative. Pay attention to your body and being willing to push yourself, if you have a good trainer or knowledgeable partner put some trust in their ability to recognize your limits and let them push you some, but don’t try to just run headlong into anything.

2) have reasonable expectations. Frustration can kill your motivation, so try to go in knowing that you won’t be able to do what you used to and, just like it took time to get to your current unfitness level, it will take time to get to the fitness level you want.

3) don’t neglect weightlifting.

4) don’t eat or drink anything (except water) before your workout.

5) keep it regular. If you don’t have time for your usual workout do something half as long. If you’re feeling too tired or sore to do it, do something less intense (or that targets different parts of your body). You lose momentum fast if you don’t do it regularly, so do something as often as you can.

Hope that’s helpful!

It's quite like sex, in fact ^^

Well, I'm just gonna have to take your word on that last one.

*Blushes furiously*

Hahaha! Arsith, that’s hilarious.
Enjoy your revolution, and stay safe.

*puts on GM hat*

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that I'm (slowly) making progress on reading through the AP volumes and taking some notes on things. Once I get that done, my aim is to read through the Gameplay thread to refresh myself on some things before we start on Book 3.

Since there's a lot to read through and to get ready, I'm going to say that we definitely won't be getting started in earnest until some point in January - though I will try to get enough of the more recent stuff read so I can get the group on their way/transitioned back to Magnimar and give you a little something to react to in Gameplay.

Since I'm obviously not privy to anything that individual players might have been working on with GM Zed in the background, to come up at a later point, please PM me with the details if there are things you were pursuing that you still wish to pursue :)

I have no problem with a new beginning in January Lady L, thanks

Same here.

*collapses, sobbing and hugging newly-returned laptop*

That was two and a half weeks. That was way too long. Let's never part like that again.

So, starting in January, then? Hopefully that'll give me time to start thinking of PBP as something I want to do again, rather than this murky "obligation" nonsense.

Glad you have your laptop back!

And not that I just want people to not play but PbP is something that should (hopefully, on the whole) be a fun thing that you look forward to doing instead of feeling like a chore or obligation. If, by the time we restart, you're still feeling 'meh' about the whole thing I can look to shift Shadlah into the background for awhile if you need or want to take a break from the game. Because the last thing I want is for anyone to feel like they have to keep trucking along no matter what.

What she said ↑

I should probably post this in that thread, but since we're talking about it here, we can do the same thing with Zache too if you want? I'm not gonna give away anyone's spot if they just want a little break... I can write him out of the story temporarily if you want a little sabbatical (I have one idea off the top of my head that I think would probably get him out of the action until early January)

A January start sounds good to me!

Wishing everyone a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

GM Ladile: I'm ready to resume play whenever you are!

No pressure, but I also am ready to resume whenever our incredibly gracious new GM is ready.

Yep, haven't forgotten you guys! I've been working on prepping stuff for about 3-4 different games (including this one) behind the scenes and my intent is to stagger out the starts on each one a bit.

Most immediate is the Tier 10-11 PFS table I'm running for the upcoming RetroCon; this is a multi-table special and as such will run on a timer. We start on Monday; I've basically got my prep done for this sans pre-writing some posts to save myself time later.

Next up is this game - you'll notice I didn't specify 'when' in January but I'm hoping within the next week or two :)

After that are more PFS shenanigans (a module and the next scenario for my League group) but the PFS special and this game are the two biggest ones.

On a unrelated question... Is anyone else planning to go to PaizoCon this year?

Not this year but 2020 might be a possibility :)

Nope, and unfortunately, I'm not really going to be in a position to go for the foreseeable future.

Hope you've been having a happy new year. :)

If BF Sam gets his PhD grant, maybe in 2020 or beyond? Though with 2nd edition being the norm by then and Starfinder holding no interest for me, I'm afraid there may not be much for me at PaizoCon.

Yeah, i looked over the 2e playtest stuff and really wasn’t impressed. It kind of seemed like a better version of 4e d&d, but given how hard that bombed I don’t understand why they went that way? And, honestly, I’m not really any more interested in pathfinder2 than I was d&d4...

I'll probably make the effort to learn (and eventually GM) PF2e unless I absolutely end up hating the final product but I'm also planning to keep on trucking with 1e since there's still so much material I've never played or GMed.

Starfinder is fun but I'll probably keep it as a side thing; I'll play some but probably not do any GMing anytime soon.

Already hating the 2e PF edition, even without trying it.
I hope we will still be able to play with the first edition here.

They let people play completely different systems here, I can't imagine they're going to have a problem with people playing an older version of their own system?

I haven't looked over anything for PF2. Never played 4th ed, either. To be honest, I've become unsatisfied with how Pathfinder runs over the past couple of years.

My home group tried 4e for a time but it just...I don't even know how to describe it. It sounded cool in theory but was so lackluster in practice.

And considering Paizo still has their old forum sections from the original Pathfinder playtest, I don't think 1e play will be getting the boot from the forums once 2e launches :)

Nah, people play entirely unrelated systems here. I've seen threads for GURPS, Savage Worlds, and World of Darkness. We'll be fine. :)

I just can't see myself going to any PFS conventions, since I really don't like 2nd edition. I don't see what niche it's trying to fill. It's basically 5th edition D&D, but all the people who like D&D already have D&D, and no other system will *ever* have the marketing power and the cultural pull that Dungeons & Dragons commands.

I started running a Dungon World campaign on these boards (before I had to pull the pug for time constraints), and I've seen Fate Accelerated games here as well!

My Pathfinder group's experimentation with PF2e Playtest of Doomsday Dawn ended in... scrapping the whole thing halfway through Part 3, and starting a new campaign: Dragon Heist in D&D 5e. It's my second go-round with 5e, and I have to say that I like is SO MUCH MORE than the PF 2e Playtest.

Regarding the PF 2e Playtest: Keep in mind that it was a playtest edition, and if any of you were around for the Pathfinder Beta Edition, you would recall that the actual PFRPG bears only a passing resemblance to the beta release. I remain cautiously optimistic that the actual Pathfinder Second Edition will be at least as good a game as PFRPG. (I've also heard that the playtest PFS scenarios were a lot of fun... unlike Doomsday Dawn.)

To be honest... I'm really digging D&D 5e. I think I might actually like it better than PFRPG! It seems to solve a lot of the issues I had with OGL 3.5/Pathfinder: Play is smoother, combat is quicker, and character gen is SO much easier!

I think my problem with d20 systems is the whole concept of classes and niches. If you want something outside of the menu of options, say someone who's useful as a mage and a fighter (cough, Gandalf, cough) then you have to make compromises that make it where you're good at neither. There's also the whole builds thing. Sure I could go with this build, but if it takes five levels for it to come into its own, then that's five levels of slogging through and being mediocre in whatever your niche is.

I like GURPS because it is possible to build a character that is good at more than one or two things and, as a bonus, the crunch is closely tied to the flavor of the character. It's a remarkably simple system at its core and I feel that the claims of complexity are more than a little overblown. The main gripes I have are that the system has so many options things get fiddly fast and it can take a long time to make a character. There are also a large number of options that add modifiers and it's almost impossible to play fast because you need to reference those modifiers during play. To be fair, D20 systems also suffer from this with the added issue of modifiers affecting the target number and the rolls instead of just the target number.

I think my ideal system would probably be a mashup of FATE Core and the Apocolypse system with a dash of 13th Age's backgrounds as skills. Far squishier, but I think with a reasonable group you could get it to work. Besides. I hate the bookkeeping part of it, so this helps with that as well.

Agreed on narrative-focused "rules light" systems. Fate and the "Powered by the Apocalypse" games are my preferred systems at the moment.

My other gaming group is switching off between three different campaigns: I'm running a Dungeon World game set in Varisia, with DW conversions of Ezren, Merisiel, and Amiri as the PCs. When the player of Ezren takes over, he runs a fantasy "Weird West" game, using Fate Core. And my player of Amiri runs a pulp "sword-and-laser" game using Fate Accelerated Edition, but we're thinking of transitioning that game to Savage Worlds.

GURPS was my go-to game system back in the '90s, and I also played a fair amount of Champions / HERO Sysyem.

We are putting all of these game on hold this month to play-test a beta version of a "swords-and-sorcery" game system from Perigrine Press that's based on the GUMSHOE investigation-focused system. I've dabbled with GUMSHOE in the past, and it's by far the best system to run a modern police procedural or noir investigation game that I've come across. I am very interested in seeing how it works in a low-magic fantasy setting.

I have been mulling over how to graft the PbtA core mechanic with Aspects and Fate Points from Fate.

I am intrigued by two systems I haven't yet tried: Green Ronin's AGE, and Fantasy Flight's Genesys. I backed GR's kickstarter for their The ExpanseRPG, which will be using their AGE system. I'm also thinking of picking up Modern AGE and Blue Rose 2e, both of which use the system.

And for a blast-from-the-past, there is a new reprint of the old d6-based Star Wars RPG from West End Games. I loved that system back in the '80s!

Just thinking in type here, but what if you took the Aspects of Fate and gave them a mechanic similar to what you have with Moves from PbtA games? That would give you a narrative element of the character that gave you a mechanical advantage over someone who didn't have the same element to them but could also be used to compel your character. You could then use Fate Points to allow players to nudge things in their favor or to buy a chance to attempt something that may not make sense but could be an awesome move nonetheless.

Another way to do it would take a look at the aspects and decide what moves they implied. For example, a character with aspects like "Mighty Barbarian of the South" and "Drunk, Glutton, and Wooer of Women" would likely have moves like "A Mere Scratch", "Any Weapon, Any Day" and "Herculean Appetites". In a way, you turn the skills of Fate into PbtA moves and have the Aspects inform what Moves a character has.

Hmm, this has potential. I think I'm going to work on this a little more.

Hey guys, we're finally back - such as it is! I'll be sending out PMs to everyone too, in case anyone has stopped getting update notifications for the Gameplay thread :)

Hey folks; had a busy Friday and I worked last night. I'll aim to get a post up this afternoon before work if at all possible :)

Just thinking in type here, but what if you took the Aspects of Fate and gave them a mechanic similar to what you have with Moves from PbtA games? That would give you a narrative element of the character that gave you a mechanical advantage over someone who didn't have the same element to them but could also be used to compel your character. You could then use Fate Points to allow players to nudge things in their favor or to buy a chance to attempt something that may not make sense but could be an awesome move nonetheless.

Another way to do it would take a look at the aspects and decide what moves they implied. For example, a character with aspects like "Mighty Barbarian of the South" and "Drunk, Glutton, and Wooer of Women" would likely have moves like "A Mere Scratch", "Any Weapon, Any Day" and "Herculean Appetites". In a way, you turn the skills of Fate into PbtA moves and have the Aspects inform what Moves a character has.

Hmm, this has potential. I think I'm going to work on this a little more.

One of my gaming groups has been playtesting a new game from Pelgrane Press called Swords of the Serpentine that we are REALLY liking. (I'm in two gaming groups... this is the group that prefers rules-light systems.)

Swords of the Serpentine is a swords-and-sorcery game that's based on the GUMSHOE investigative RPG system. It has some very interesting mechanics. One of the cool mechanics is how skill ranks work. Ranks don't give you a static bonus: You spend your ranks to give your die roll a +1/rank you spend on your turn. This makes your skill ranks a tracked resource you need to manage, and simulates your running out of steam in a protracted scene (combat or otherwise... but mostly combat.) When the party defeat opponents, they gain tokens into a common pool, which any PC can spend in place of their own skill ranks. Characters also have personality descriptors that work kind-of-like Aspects from Fate. I very much like that your skill ranks are a resource you have to spend, rather than just a bonus on your rolls.

We liked the system so much that we've decided to keep playing this campaign even though we completed the playtest adventure!

I also just got permission from Pelgrane Press to run a Swords of the Serpentine demo at PaizoCon! I am planning to register to run three non-PF/SF games, one of which is Pathfinder-adjacent...

• The aforementioned Swords of the Serpentine adventure.
  
• A Dungeon World adventure, set in Golarion, using DW-conversions of the PF Iconics. I will use a familiar PFS scenario as an adventure outline. (Still noodling on which scanario to use.)
  
• A Spirit of '77 adventure: "Beast-Bound and Down"-- "Breaker One-Nine! Breaker One-Nine! Got the hammer down on I-One-Oh, and Smokey Bear is on my tail!" The PCs are barreling down the Interstate in a stolen semi with a trailer full of beer... and something else. Anyone want to join our convoy?

There is a game system I like, but never tried: Marvel heroic RPG

MHR

@Haladir: That is interesting. Only problem is I hate bookkeeping, and the skill system seems like it'd just add to that.

I know we're getting off to a slow (re)start but I've been juggling several PFS games as well + work so it's taking me a little longer to get us back up and running full steam than I'd like - but I'm still here :)

Also, I pinged Teldon since he's not posted on the forums in probably a week or more; hopefully he'll be able to drop in at some point soon.

I've been monitoring GM Zed's main alias, "Zedsdead" ever since he stopped posting in any of his six active campaigns. His last post in any of them was 10/26/2018.

Zed had been showing as a subscriber to a couple of Pathfinder lines even after he disappeared (AP, Modules, and Campaign Setting, IIRC), but as of today, they are no longer showing. My best guess is that whoever is receiving his mail got the most recent AP shipment, and then canceled the subscription. FWIW, that included Book 6 of "Return of the Runelords," which a completist might want to have even if they quit gaming cold-turkey.

Two years ago, Zed told me his real name and where he lives via PM, and I've been periodically checking local media sources there to see if his name comes up... such as in an accident report or an obituary. Sorry if that seems morbid: With the recent death of Justin "GM Harker" Warren, I've been concerned with Zed's well-being. Still nothing on that front.

I think I'm done with amateur Internet sleuthing on this point. I am hoping that Zed had good reasons to drop out with no notice, and that he's OK.

Same here. Don't suppose he handed out his email as well. I hate to say it, but this isn't the first time I've experienced this. I was in a couple of games run by DM Crispy (aka Lufien "Silvertongue" Loamin) a couple of years ago. To this day, I still don't know what happened to make him stop posting so suddenly.

On a happier topic, I'm going to try drawing Joanna soon since I've gotten back into the habit of drawing and have been getting pretty good. Is anyone interested in a character portrait? No guarantees on when I'll have them done, but I'd like to give it a shot with everyone in the two games I'm still in.

That's not morbid at all Zee - to be honest I'd do/have done/be doing the exact same thing if I had someone's real name and they suddenly dropped off the forums without a word. There are a lot of other things that can make someone disappear suddenly - some bad like depression or job loss and some good like refocusing on family or other RL interests. Here's hoping that in Zed's case it was the latter and not the former and that he's doing well.

Along this same line of discussion, I heard back from Teldon and he just mentioned things being crazy for him IRL of late. Hopefully things will calm down for him sooner rather than later and he'll have a chance to check back in with his games.

@Jo - Sure, I'd be interested to see what a Briana portrait might look like!

Cool! If you have any images that I could use for reference, lemme know. I know there's the one that you linked in her profile, but I don't remember seeing any others.

Woah, wait, GM Harker died?? I was in his PFS campaign before I (I'm ashamed to admit) ghosted out of it due to life and lack of interest. That's a real blow :/

Glad to hear Zed's well and coming back to us!

Justin Warren ("GM Harker") died suddenly in December. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it seems to have been some kind of accident. I know that he had been in a coma for two weeks before he died.

Justin's obituary

Escharid (Arsith's player) and I had been in Justin's "Carrion Crown" campaign for a few years, and he had been one of the players in my now-defunct Castle Ravenloft campaign.

Joanna: I remember DM Crispy! He had been a player in my now-defunct "Rise of the Runelords" game... and I think you were one of the replacement players! I still have no idea what happened to him.

I do have Zed's email address. It seems to still function, but I have not received any replies to the four or five messages I sent to him. (I would write him a snail-mail letter, but while he told me what town he resides in, he never gave me his postal address.)

Hey everyone,
Sorry I've been so slow to jump back in! I'm in the area that has been shutdown by blizzards and dangerous temperatures, plus my wife's been sick (nothing life threatening or anything, but pretty much confined to bed or the bathroom for the better part of a week) and I had another funeral pop up at work. I'm going to try to get a post up today, or hopefully over the weekend at the latest.

Hey, it happens. I'm just happy you seem to be doing okay, all things considered.

Looking forward to both of these games starting back up, especially with some of the things I'd like to do in this one.

Glad to hear from you Teldon! Don't stress too much on getting a post up here; things are still a little sluggish just because I've got a bunch of stuff I'm working on in the background for this game and for some of my others.

Just another check-in; I'll aim to get another post up later today/tonight!

Sounds good! I think we're waiting for you at this point.

Yup. Ready to move along when y'all are.

Just a question for our Lady Ladile, I made a couple of posts a year ago on what I'd like to do with Joanna's build going forward and was wondering if what GM Zed had approved would still be okay. Relavent posts here and here.