Aidan's page

Thank you eirip!
The thing that upsets me most is that Cosmo keeps sending out replacements for missing or damaged orders (just look at the boards: two such replies in the last hour) and I have to pay twice for an error of the courier...
And my pleas have been ignored for three weeks now. I just can't understand why?

Lisa,
this is the story of a faithful paizonian but really disappointed customer:
On October 1 I received an email from Paizo Customer Service telling me that the order #918143, which was shipped on August 15, was returned to them because the courier said the address was incorrect. Paizo asked me to give them the correct address, and warned that I had to pay an additional charge for the re-shipping.
On October 2 I replied that the address was correct – it is the same address where all of my 40 orders, including subscriptions, have been delivered since 2005. In addition, I asked why I had to pay an additional shipping fee, since the missed delivery was not my fault, but the courier’s.
There were another couple emails back and forth, and then on October 12, after not having received a reply from them, I wrote another email pointing out that, as seen in various posts on the Paizo’s messageboards, there have been cases of missing packages where Paizo sent out again the whole orders at no additional cost for the recipients. In my case the content of the order was safe, so Paizo would not lose money on missing items.
On October 17 they replied that they explored some reshipping options, but at the end of the day they would not cover the shipping costs; they also included a scan of the return module from the courier, which confirmed that the address was correct.
That was the last I heard from Paizo. On October 18 and then again on October 30 I asked if there was any possibility to combine the returned order with the monthly shipment of my subscriptions (order #1047584), so as to at least reduce the doubled shipping fees on my part. I also asked if they could include my cell. phone number with the address lines, for the benefit of the “problem” courier.
And then, on the very October 30, an email from the Customer Service told me that the monthly subscriptions package was sent out – without the returned items from the August 15 shipment and without any indication of my cell phone.
That was over a week ago. The thing that most has disappointed me is the lack of communication: I still don’t know if and when I can get the items I paid for in August, and still don’t know either how much it is going to cost me in addition to what I already paid. Why the order #918143 and #1047584 have not been combined as requested well in advance of the shipment?
And by the way, I have not received another order #1021570 yet, which was sent out on September 10. Has this one also been returned to you? Will I have to pay double shipping fees on this one, too?
And finally, why the subscriptions monthly shipment seem to have no delivery problem, and in fact I keep getting them, while those two other orders placed with your store have been so unlucky? And what’s the matter with the courier – I always asked for standard mail delivery. If the courier keeps sending the packages back to you, are you going to ask me for the shipping fees again and again?
Lisa, sorry for all the trouble and the questions, but really I have got no answers, and have a couple of orders worth $460 out there, which I paid for and would like to receive.
I appreciate the attention you usually give to your customers, and I think I’ve been good business for you so far; I hope at least to be heard and receive some answers.
Thank you for your time,
Giorgio

My hometown Monza, Italy, is a lovely town nestled between the bustling city of Milan and the rolling hills that lead to the Lake of Como and the Alps. It is famous for:
1) The Iron Crown: it is a crown made of six gold and enamel plates held together by an iron band which is said to be beaten out of one of the nails of the Holy Cross. The Iron Crown dates back to the time of the Longobards and was used to crown the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire: among them, Charlemagne, Enry IV, Frederick Barbarossa. Lastly, Napoleon in 1805 took the crown by himself, becoming King of Italy.
2) The Duomo: Monza's Cathedral was founded in the sixth century by the Longobard queen Theodelinda, and has been expanded in the Middle ages and then again in the Renaissance. The Treasury of the Duomo keeps the Iron Crown and many other jewels of the Longobard kings and queens.
3) The Villa Reale: built in the late 18th century, the big royal villa follows the tradition of such palaces like Versailles and Schoenbrunn. The villa Reale housed the Austrian Archdukes and then the Kings of Italy. In the year 1900 King Umberto I was shot dead here by an anarchist, and later entombed in the Pantheon in Rome.
4) The Park, which is the biggest walled park in Europe, double the size of New York's Central Park. Inside the Park, it has been built...
5) ...the Autodromo: this is the seat of the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Italy, which is held ...well, today! Originally built in 1922, the Autodromo has been housing F1 races since 1950, and is thus the longest used track in the history of F1, with a total of 58 Grand Prix run here. Michael Schumacher and Ferrari hold the record with 5 and 18 wins respectively.

Graphic novel sounds better than manga... Anyway, count me in!

I'm a huge fan of Monte's work. I'm already thrilled he's participating to the PRPG effort as rules consultant.

I agree, however, that the PRPG is essentially written, and think Monte is at the right level of responsability in this project. It's Jason's baby, and he's doing a darn good job with it.

Now, if we're talking of Monte designing a Pathfinder module, or, let's be crazy, participating to an AP, or, even crazier, writing a Ptolus supplement detailing the way one could fit the City by the Spire in Golarion, with campaign hooks and all, I would surely have a geekgasm!

Please, excuse my ignorance, but who actually is this Monte Cook? What has he written for Pathfinder? I cannot remember any adventure bearing his name...

- Would this be less of an issue if there was a base race that had wings and could fly?

All hail the mighty KENKU!

And what about getting completely rid of the negative hit points? With the new options in PFRPG it's not unlikely that a 1st level character starts with 30 or some HP, so... when it's zero hp, he's dead-dead.

I agree that game master is too generic and that Pathfinder needs to set apart from other games. Pathmaster is OK for me, it reminds of the good old DM while retaing the unique flavour of the Pathfinder game and world.
Venture Captain and related variants on the other side are too in-game and not immediately recognizable by newcomers.

I completely agree - BTW, when my group and I switched from 2nd to 3rd edition we never used the low vision and darkvision concepts.
My suggestion to the PFRPG design team? Please go back to the old good infravision (much more simple to handle for a player and to judge for a GM) or simply remove the different visions altogether! they really don't add to the game.

I'm all for full backwards compatibility with 3.5 and D&D splatbooks; IMO, the extensive changes made by Alpha 1 in the skills, feats or classes not only prevent full compatibility (which I really hope will be the first and foremost aim of the design team) but also add unnecessary complexity to a game that is already complex.
The PFRPG should fix only minor bugs in 3.5 rules, not change whole sets of rules for the sake of power gamers who want to have 30-HP 1st-level arch-wizards -- the risk is not only to make all the 3.5 sourcebooks obsolete, but to spoil the very fun of running an adventure path with 1st level PCs all the way through high levels.

It seems I have to be the fourth in line.

Pathfinder #1 took exactly 4 weeks to arrive - just as most of my orders from Paizo have done before.
Pathfinder #2 (order #812981) shipped October 4, and hasn't appeared at all.
Pathfinder #3 too has not still appeared, but it is still in the usual time window.

I know that international shipments can take even longer (my Ptolus order took almost 2 months!), so I'm not really worried.

It is exactly the same for me here: missing pathfinder #2 and #3 (along with Gamemastery modules shipped together with Pathfinder volumes).

By the way, Kobold Quarterly #1 and #2 hard copies only took a few days to reach me, and I think Mr. Baurs' shipping method is roughly the same as Paizo's (USPS standard).

Financial statements auditor for one of the Big Four auditing firms.

Oh, and BTW: Dungeon Master, anybody?

Given what you know so far, are you planning to:

B) 3.5 or Bust!

It's definitely B (unless my players really want to convert sooo much as to buy me the all the new rulebooks!)

Actually, a d20 Modern / d20 Future adventure path would be an interesting idea, but I fear that there would not be enough of an audience for such a product.

Just as we are on the verge of the fourth edition of the Game, I am wondering: what is the best D&D rulebook ever published?

After long consideration, my vote goes to the *D&D Rules Cyclopedia*, published in 1991 for the Dungeons & Dragons Game.

Combining in one sourcebook all the material from the Basic to Master boxed sets, it had everything a DM or player could ask for: character generation and game rules, spells, monsters, equipment and treasure, high level rules, mass combat, variant rules, campaigning advice, description of deities and the planes, and even a world atlas complete with full color maps (the never-too-praised Known World setting!).

Simply the best - back in the old days, you could go everywhere with just that tome and have everything you needed at your fingertips.
Is it hoping too much that something like that will ever see the light even for the 3.5 or 4 edition?

Sorry, Aidan, I was less than clear on that. I meant to say that the western Greyhawk map was as official as the old Mystara map - and thus, equally easily changed. I did not want to imply that there was any correlation between Mystara and Greyhawk, as there is no connection AFAIK.

If you want to make a connection, here is an idea for it: mystearth.

Sorry for any confusion I caused.

I don´t have any idea how to link Mystara to Varisia, though...

Stefan

OK, thank you very much Stefan!

Chinotto

While I cannot point out any further ties to Greyhawk, the idea is intriguing. The old map of western Oerik is no more official than the map presented in the even older D&D Companion Set (or was it the Master Set), which was invalidated by Bruce Heards Voyage of the Princess Ark in Dragon (now these were days...). So from general geographics, Golarion would surely fit to the area you mentioned, give or take a few islands - old maps are notoriously inaccurate ;-). So, as I won´t leave Greyhawk as my main setting anytime soon, I will set pathfinder there if I ever get a chance to play them...

Stefan

Sorry, but I can't really catch the link between Mystara, which was originally the "Known World" of the Dugeons & Dragons classic game (I quite don't line the "OD&D" definition) and the World of Greyhawk, which I've always believed was totally unrelated with that setting.

Monza, Italy.
You know, where thye run the Formula 1 Grand Prix and usually Ferrari wins.

hmm... then I could get a nice big box of goodness once a month with Gamemastery Modules, Pathfinder AND the latest Planet Stories...

Exactly! that would be great indeed...

Joshua, any news on this topic?
Thank you very much.

It's a fine model, but it doesn't hurt to discuss what's wrong with it.

Is there really *anything* wrong with it??

I've stayed out of this thread, we all know Australia is not part of Europe :)

Hey, Mevers, but as part of Commonwealth, isn't Australia in the UK (sort of...)? ;-)

As for what has been going on at Paizo in the past two weeks, well, I really have mixed feelings.

On one hand, I can't but agree with jow and many other posters on these boards: as a conversion of my 46 remaining Dragon and Dungeon issues, I've paid for Pathfinder on May 16, 2006, that's more than 15 months ago! And I'm bound with a Pathfinder subscription for the next 16 issues.
I could care only so much about logistical problems, code fixes, custom forms, servers overcharges, label printing, queues and whatever: the crude result is that I've still not received neither my Dragon #358 and #359, nor my Dungeon #149 and #150, nor my Pathfinder #1 (hard copy and PDF). Very unsatisfactory, considered the release date for PF 1 at some point seemed to be pretty close to August 13.
Heck, the street release date for Pathfinder #1 is scheduled to be August 29, I really hope they'll finish sending out the last subscription orders on Monday otherwise we should have better waited for the 29th and then dowloaded our PDF as the mass of non-subscribers are going to do. Oh, but we are charter subscribers, and so would have to pay for it twice!

But that's only one side of the medal. On the other hand, in fact, I still feel Paizo deserves high credit for the wonderful job they've done and are still doing at keeping us informed on what's going on, and all the efforts they are doing to get the thing over and start to plan for the release of PF #2.
And of course, Paizo really deserves our praise for the high quality products they've come up with. I have not yet seen Pathfinder (I've already told you that? ;-) but Gamemastery modules are really top notch. Hey, even the latest modules from WotC are still printed in B/W! And, by the way, I have not yet grasped the whole delve/encounter format thing!
We all know Paizo is a small business if compared to WotC and their parent, but IMO among all other OGL / d20 publishers they're really the best.
So I think I will stay with them for some time, even after my 16 converted issues of PF. My big hope is that they can figure a mean to really speed their shipping process, and who knows? maybe next time I'll find myself at the top of their list and not at the end :->

Indeed, thank you for responding Lisa.

One thing I would say, if it looks like you're not going to get all the copies out of the door by COB Friday and the shipping process will have to continue on Monday, you might want to set that expectation now - it'd save a number of us from general anguish over the weekend.

I absolutely agree: if we are not going to get the PDF during the weekend, at least please let us know so that we don't spend hours checking for an email that won't arrive anyway 8-(

Woke up for my shift this evening and the email was waiting for me, downlaoded and bben reading at work looks great. Location Scotland though I also have a GM subscription as well, and if I remember from another thread the combined subscriptions go out before the singles.

Sooo... I also have a Gamemastry subscription, have spent my honeymoon in Scotland, ...but still I got no PDF whatsoever!

That should be easy to validate, then. What are the first digits of your order # ? Mine's at 778xxx.

Mine is 781yyy, so maybe you're right.

MORE insanity!

So what...? Are they going by age? or by zip code? or are they going by hair color? (wait, and the bald?)
Got it! they are going by subscriber priority - charters first. No..., that would have put me right before everyone else (hey, I got 46 - that's fortysix! - Dragon/Dungeon remaining issues converted into Pathfinder!)

-- Or maybe (I do not dare to say) they're going randomly!!!

BTW, I'm going insane 8=}

Golem, what can I say? I have nothing yet, maybe that's because my last name begins with "V" (they're going alphabetically not by country but by name??)
However, enjoy your reading, you lucky guy!

Nothing from Italy, too. Hoped that was going right after Ireland... you know, alphabetical order... 8(

What do you think of the adventures in the Savage Tide AP? All of them to some extent seem formed by a number of interconnected "side treks" - just look at all the small quests the PCs have to complete in "There is no honor", for example.
And that's a trend the guys at Paizo are continuing also in Gamemastery modules - for example, in W1 the party has to complete a number of side treks in order to secure the trail in the Vale.
In my opinion, those are good examples of side treks which could also taken and run in a totally different campaign; how can I say? they're something more than an encounter and something less than a full-fleshed adventure.

Aidan wrote:

Two quick questions on these "extra" Pathfinder volumes:

1) are we subscribers getting a discount on these? (hey, on Amazon they offer a 32% discount!)
2) will the book come along with the PDF, as do the "regular" Pathfinder volumes?
Really, the answer to these two questions will make the difference between buying here at Paizo or somewhere else.

We actually keep setting up a meeting to discuss PDFs and additional subscriber benefits with respect to related non-subscription products, but that meeting keeps getting pushed back. Right now, I can't answer yes or no to either. (It's also possible that the answer might be that subscribers will get a free PDF if they buy the book from us, but then again, it might not be.) As soon as we figure it out, we'll get word out.

Thank you for the update, Vic!

I've ordered this yesterday. When do you expect this to be available? Are the other items included in my order (especially the Alternate Cover Pathfinder #1) set aside while we are waiting for this book to arrive, so to be sure I will not miss them?
Thank you very much!

Two quick questions on these "extra" Pathfinder volumes:
1) are we subscribers getting a discount on these? (hey, on Amazon they offer a 32% discount!)
2) will the book come along with the PDF, as do the "regular" Pathfinder volumes?
Really, the answer to these two questions will make the difference between buying here at Paizo or somewhere else.

Two quick questions on these "extra" Pathfinder volumes:
1) are we subscribers getting a discount on these? (hey, on Amazon they offer a 32% discount!)
2) will the book come along with the PDF, as do the "regular" Pathfinder volumes?
Really, the answer to these two questions will make the difference between buying here at Paizo or somewhere else.

We just want the PDF. Obviously we don't want Paizo to get in any trouble; we just want to pay for our stuff and download it.

Lisa, you should really be proud of your customers, who desperately want to pay you in advance just to be able to download a pdf!

I've tried replacing the bonus to save DC from the spell level with the caster level: at low levels the difference is not so big, but when the characters are growing up... And it reverberates also on low-level spells.

Another thing I'm considering eliminating in the "revised" 3.5ed is attacks of opportunity. They just mess up with the initiative order, and make no one moving around the place once melee has begun, since no one (PC and monsters) wants to give AoO or lose an action. So I'm just getting rid of them.

Please refer to the answer from Vic Wertz:

We believe we've got all of the bugs worked out of the system, and fulfillment is proceeding as quickly as possible.

Fulfillment is broken into two categories: domestic and international.

Domestic shipping began with UPS shipments (of which there were only a few dozen). Then we went to folks who have charter Pathfinder subscriptions shipping with GameMastery Modules subscriptions—they're getting Pathfinder 1, Player's Guides, and Module D2. Right now, we're working on the biggest group, which is charter subscribers without Modules subscriptions—so folks who are getting Pathfinder 1 and the Player's Guide. After that, we'll do the folks who chose Pathfinder as their transition option, but haven't yet signed up for ongoing subscriptions—they're getting only Pathfinder 1. In each group, shipments are sorted by zone, with the ones that have to travel the furthest going out first. The whole process, we estimate, will take around 13 hours of printing, so it won't be finished tonight.

International shipments (including APO/FPO addresses) are a little trickier. While domestically, we can just print up a bunch of postage labels simultaneously, and then stick them on prepacked envelopes, international shipments all require customs forms, so we have to drop them into our standard fulfillment pipeline, which isn't as fast. So those will probably spread out over a few days as well.

We're expecting to learn from this, and will probably have some refinements for volume 2, but that's how it's working for volume 1.

STILL waiting... BTW, I don't think Paizo's intentions were to leave us European subscribers behind, the fact is just that US customs and international shipping are so complicated.

Oh, and why this thread is titled "PDF for UK/European subscribers"? Isn't UK in Europe anymore? ;->

My full understanding and support to Gary, who's been left behind at work alone writing the code, and testing, and all, while the others are out at Gen Con...
But my question is: shouldn't have Paizo as a company tried to manage the launch of their most important product to date a little bit better? I mean, most of us ex Dragon / Dungeon subscribers have been waiting for the release of Pathfinder since April, and they have had all this time to fix things in order to have a smooth start...
It's the same feeling when you see a countdown to a new digital initiative reach zero, and then the servers crash (any reference is purely coincidential).
That said, we are all with you Gary, and of course when the code is ready, it's ready: better waiting a day more than having the credit card double charged!

I live in Italy, and I've not received W1 yet; but then also D1 took almost a month to arrive...

Actually, I bought BoNS when it came out but started reading only yesterday! My first impression is that the whole concept behind it is totally useless in a normal campaign.
But if your groups consists only of power gamers who want to spend countless hours learning new and complicate game mechanics, that's their book.

Brent wrote:

Perhaps when the "adventure" portion of the publishing schedule dies down some we will see the AoW hardcover approved.

Sadly, going off the precedence of 2E, when this happens 4E will be on the shelves.

So, now that we know 4E is scheduled for next May, are we allowed to expect the AoW hardcover out in May 2008 as well?

Just kidding, but that would be nice nevertheless ;->

Aidan wrote:

Are there any plans to provide ongoing subscriptions to the Planet Stories books, and maybe combining shipping with Pathfinder/Gamemastery?

In my opinion, that would be greatly appreciated.

In a word: yes. :-)

We plan to talk more about this after Gen Con.

Wonderful! I knew you guys weren't going to disappoint us eager subscribers ;-)

Are there any plans to provide ongoing subscriptions to the Planet Stories books, and maybe combining shipping with Pathfinder/Gamemastery?
In my opinion, that would be greatly appreciated.

PDF's will be provided when Pathfinder ships. We just haven't started shipping them, yet (a condition which will be rectified very shortly).

Thank you Cosmo!

Thank you very much for the explanation Gary. Just hoping the email is coming soon!

My card has been charged yesterday, but still no sign of the email, and I cannot download my pdf!