Al Rigg's page

I can't remember when I first met Jack but I'm pretty sure it was at a PaizoCon where I became an honorary member of S.W.A.T. Since then, I would always value time with the Minnesota Crew, at PaizoCon, GenCon, and SkalCon, a more-than-willing participant in the shenanigans of which Jack was usually a driver. I can't quite believe he's no longer with us physically but I know his spirit will always be with us at those events, and at our game tables.
Vale, my friend.

It's been an interesting challenge converting to PF2 due to the new edition just getting underway relative to PF1, but I think that's also given us quite a lot of freedom in some areas, as well. Excited about this and to see how PF2 fans react when they get hold of it.

Loved working on this AP, and can't wait to see how backers react when they get their hands on it. The Lost Lands lore is deep for those who are into it, but it's going to be pretty easy to shift it into other settings with a bit of tweaking, as well. For example, I'm thinking that I'll probably run this for PF2 but set in Eberron!

The situation is certainly not being helped through the spread of misinformation, you're right. If there is an epidemic in full swing in May, however, then limiting contact with other people will be a necessity and events like game conventions will be impacted.

Hopefully, most people intending to come to PaizoCon who have not yet booked travel will book refundable tickets. Those who have already booked, and I expect that will include many who are coming from overseas, may not have and so will have to look at their options.

With a bit of luck, however, more airlines will begin to offer full refunds, regardless of ticket class, if trips are canceled due to coronavirus. Yesterday, we received an email from Alaska Airlines stating that's what they're doing for trips booked within a certain period.

Hate to bring it up, but already there has been a number of business conferences and other events around the world canceled due to concern about coronavirus. Some authoritative sources are stating that they believe we're at the cusp of a wide outbreak across the US (and the rest of the world) that will likely last for a few months.

I assume that the PaizoCon team is keeping an eye on events and that there's no current intention to cancel PaizoCon (as we'd have heard by now) but I'd guess that it's around now that many people are starting to think about booking flights if they haven't already.

Can you let us know what the plan is if a coronavirus epidemic does take off? Is there a timeline you're working to that will determine when you'll make a call on event cancellation? If the call is left too late, many people who travel from far afield to the Con will have already committed funds that may be irrecoverable. Some will already have done so, of course, but I'd guess most currently will not have.

What's the plan, Paizo?

Hi, Lottery Winners!

If you have a ticket to The Book in the Old House, PM me your top 3 pre-gen picks from the list above!

Cheers,
Al

Hello!

I'm Alistair, the author of "The Book in the Old House," and I'm looking forward to running it at PaizoCon. If you'd like to play, best of luck in the Lottery.

Note that this is a long session that coincides with the Paizo Preview Banquet in the evening, so don't sign up if you're intending to go to that or if a ~10 hour session will be too grueling. We'll take breaks throughout the session, of course, including shorter bio breaks and a longer break for dinner but there's a lot to try to get through so it will be fairly intensive.

The adventure, as you may have guessed, includes horror themes, roleplaying (shocker!) and investigative elements so don't sign up if you don't enjoy such atmospheres. It is the first chapter in the upcoming Aegis of Empires Adventure Path that was outlined and developed by the amazing Greg A. Vaughan (who is running an excerpt from the third chapter "When Comes the Moon" at PaizoCon too) and it will be published by the equally talented Jason Nelson of Legendary Games for PF1, PF2, and 5e. It is set in the Lost Lands campaign setting but you don't need to know anything about the Lost Lands to play.

I will be distributing pre-generated characters designed for the adventure and will be happy to send in advance so that players have time to familiarize themselves before the game.

So, if you win a ticket to the game, PM me your top 3 choices (ordered, if you prefer) from the list below and if I manage to get everyone's choices in advance, I'll assign characters as fairly as I can in relation to preferences, and send them through. Otherwise, we'll spend some time at the start of the session.

The options are:

• Female human cleric (pilgrim)
• Male elf bard (detective)
• Male human unchained rogue (rake)
• Female human sorcerer (wildblooded)
• Male half-elf ranger (skirmisher)
• Male human alchemist (chirurgeon)

Thanks and see you at the Con!

I'm not going to the banquet this year either and so I've scheduled my Lottery game to run through Saturday evening as an option for others who aren't attending.

If you can spare time for a module-length experience, check out The Book in the Old House.

Good luck, James, and thanks for that reply to my inquiry a few years ago. Ultimately, it's what finally opened the door...

All the best for whatever you do next.

Thanks. And congrats to Dave Adams. Straya!

I'm one of the lucky players signed up for this. I'm expecting the rainbows, sunshine, and fluffy woodland creatures typical of Frog God adventures.

Will we have a chance to review any of the pregens prior to the convention?

-Greg R.

Hi, Damien!

There will certainly be rainbows, sunshine, and fluffy woodland creatures aplenty. That's what this game is all about. Friendship and magic.

I'm still putting the finishing touches to the pre-gens so not sure I'll get the chance to distribute prior to the game. However, as this is a master-level game, and the pre-gens are only 3rd-level, I'm assuming no-one will have any difficulty getting to grips with them swiftly. They will be a little more complex that your usual pre-gens, though, and so I'm planning to give a bit of time at the start of the session for familiarization.

Looking forward to dealing out the abu, er, fun-filled times.

A trade just came through and I'm in! Looking forward to this, Russ!

Good luck, Wes! Hope to see you at PaizoCon.

This game's on Sunday morning. I'm likely to be pretty braindead by then so a marijuana leshy may just be appropriate...

SKUNK CABBAGE! That's another name for marijuana, isn't it, Mike? Can I play the marijuana leshy, Mike? Can I? Can I?

Hey, Todd! That's me, you and Matt Goodall so far!

In! The caper is on!

Woohoo! I'm in. I'll play the moonflower leshy. That's a thing, right?

Looking forward to getting slaughtered on Scartop!

Let's do this! :-D

I think I'll drop by and watch....lurking if you will

There will be no watching from you, Skeeter. If you drop by, you're getting an NPC to run. Greg says he might drop by too, but only if his adoring fans let him leave the Banquet at some point. ;-)

Not bothering with the Preview Banquet this year? Then come and experience Richard Pett's foul city and the horrific things its citizens do to each other. Only maybe don't if you prefer your games on the lighter side. This session explores some dark themes so only sign up if you're comfortable with, er, mature content...

Ok. Thanks for expressing your views.

Further Further Edit: Alternatively, stop thinking about who or what is acquiring or inheriting anything and instead think about the rules of templates. One can be applied after class levels, the other can't. We need to apply it to the stat block of a human aristocrat. Which do we have to use?

Your original post seemed to imply you thought the template was applied to the aristocrat himself, though I see what you mean now, but I still think your fundamental premise is in error:

"This kind of template is applied to a creature well after its birth or creation" is the blurb that first describes acquired templates. "Some templates are part of a creature from the beginning of its existence" is the phrasing used to described inherited templates.

The trompe l'oeil template is applied to the creature upon its creation and cannot be gained after the fact. There is no way within the trompe l'oeil's rules that allow an already existing creature to gain the template. So by definition inherited is the only sort of template that makes sense.

That the trompe l'oeil copies it stats from a creature that already exists doesn't really seem relevant here.

The trompe l'oeil isn't the creature that receives the template. The creature that receives the template is the human aristocrat. Therefore, the template must be applicable to a creature with class levels. Ergo, the template must be an acquired template.

Edit: look I completely understand that the original human aristocrat isn't changed in any way, and that the trompe l'oeil is a completely separate creature that is simply mirroring the human aristocrat's stats. BUT the way in which we create the trompe l'oeil's stat block is to apply a template to a human aristocrat which means that the template has to be able to be applied AFTER class levels. The trompe l'oeil isn't a creature with a template. It IS the template that's applied.

Further Edit: Ask yourself "what is inheriting the template?" By your argument, you're saying the trompe l'oeil is. So what you're saying is that it's a trompe l'oeil trompe l'oeil. Do you see what I mean? The trompe l'oeil does not exist to inherit itself. A human that inherits the half-fiend template does exist, however, and so we get a half-fiend human. But we want to create a trompe l'oeil of a human aristocrat. So who is inheriting the template?

That doesn't seem to be how the trompe l'oeil works at all, Al Rigg.

I'm not sure why you think you need the template to create trompe l'oeil, the creation requirements for the canvas are just craft construct, animate objects, enter image, sufficient gold and a craft(painting) check. The template is then applied to the creature you made a magic painting out of.
You're right, you have a trompe l'oeil human, but that creature is the thing that comes out o the magical painting and not anything else.

I understand all this, Squiggit. I'm talking about whether the template should be an acquired or inherited template for the creation of the creature's stat block using the game rules and whether those rules are correct. Hence, why this is in the potential errata thread. I think the template should be an acquired template, and not an inherited template. Nothing you've said addresses that.

One could argue that the aristocrat didn't acquire the the tromp l'oeil, the tromp l'oeil inherited the aristocrat. But I wouldn't, because what's the point when there's no mechanical difference between acquired and inherited templates? Name it whichever way makes sense to you. :-)

One could argue those things but they're irrelevant to the correct application of the rules. I understand the 'story' aspect of the monster. It is a duplicate of an intelligent creature that emerges 'whole cloth' from a painting. What I'm discussing here is whether the template we use to create the creature is correctly specified or not. I'm interested in the correct application of the rules for something I'm designing that will be published and I'd like the reasoning to be correct for the adventure's storyline. While, of course, you're correct that there's no mechanical difference between them, inherited and acquired templates are conceptually separated for a reason: how and when they can be applied.

We have the following situation:

Inherited templates are gained at birth or creation. They must, therefore, be applied before class levels.
Acquired templates can be gained at any point. They can, therefore, be applied after class levels.
The trompe l'oeil results from the application of the template to another stat block. It does not receive the template and so doesn't inherit it. It "is" the template.
The trompe l'oeil results from the application of the template to a human aristocrat. Therefore, the human aristocrat stat block receives the template and so it cannot be inherited and must be acquired.

I hope my reasoning makes sense. I accept it's a minor point I'm raising but, initially, I wasn't entirely sure of the reasoning behind the template's development. It seems clear now that the intention is to have the creature emerge with class levels, though, and so I conclude that the template is in error and should be an acquired template, not inherited.

Thanks for your help.

Al Rigg wrote:

I'm wondering about the trompe l'oeil being an inherited template. It would seem to me that it is intended to be a reflection of someone as they are when they are portrayed, rather than something that simply takes their physical form and then acquires class abilities on its own afterward.

If this is correct, then the template should be able to be applied to a creature with existing class levels and therefore be an acquired, rather than an inherited, template.

It's inherited rather than acquired because the trompe l'oeil was never anything other than a trompe l'oeil. It is created with any class levels the subject has (that is, the example tromp l'oeil is modeled after a 7th-level aristocrat, it didn't gain seven levels).

I understand what you're saying but the template isn't being used by the trompe l'oeil, it's being applied to the aristocrat in order to create the (separate) creature. The resulting trompe l'oeil does not have the trompe l'oeil template.

An inherited template, say, half-fiend, applies at birth and the creature that inherits the template has the template, e.g., half-fiend human.

We don't have a ‘trompe l'oeil trompe l'oeil.’ We have a trompe l'oeil human. The human didn't inherit the template from his parents. It was applied to him later in life, and thus acquired.

This is, of course, a strange application of the template rules because we're using it to create something completely separate to the aristocrat but we have to work with what we have.

Thoughts?

I'm wondering about the trompe l'oeil being an inherited template. It would seem to me that it is intended to be a reflection of someone as they are when they are portrayed, rather than something that simply takes their physical form and then acquires class abilities on its own afterward.
If this is correct, then the template should be able to be applied to a creature with existing class levels and therefore be an acquired, rather than an inherited, template.

Thoughts? I can certainly see the case where the trompe l'oeil kills its original and then masquerades as that individual, acquiring similar class levels, but this seems to be a bit of an edge case and increasingly difficult to accomplish for more powerful originals.

Fixed! Thanks.

I get the following message when trying to download items in my account. It appears the server cert has expired.

Your connection is not private

Attackers might be trying to steal your information from remote2.paizo.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID

This server could not prove that it is remote2.paizo.com; its security certificate expired yesterday. This may be caused by a misconfiguration or an attacker intercepting your connection. Your computer's clock is currently set to Saturday, May 14, 2016. Does that look right? If not, you should correct your system's clock and then refresh this page.

It looks as though some events aren't open for the Lottery when it appears they should be. The issue appears to primarily affect Monday morning's games.

Blood in the Streets (http://paizo.com/events/v5748mkg0bi6b)
Shattered Heart #1 - The Ties That Bind - Part 3 (http://paizo.com/events/v5748mkg0biaw)
Celestian's Compass (http://paizo.com/events/v5748mkg0bi6l)
We Be Goblins!—Beginner Box Rules (http://paizo.com/events/v5748mkg0bigz)

Also, it’s possible that The Scavenged Codex Tournament Special (http://paizo.com/events/v5748mkg0bib9) on Friday afternoon should be open for Lottery but it’s a 24 person multi-table so perhaps not.

Apologies if already raised or incorrect.

Yep, confirmed as fixed for me too. Thanks tech team!

I imagine that many accounts are affected, but just in case they're not, I'll add my account to the list. In addition to not downloading, the history of downloads is also incorrect, with many products now indicating that they've "never" been downloaded.

Congratulations, both, and well done!

Thank you! This is very generous. My Runelords players are currently in the Pinnacle of Avarice so I'll be busting out these sound effects at our next session!

No, not trading it! Question away!

The answer is, indeed, yes. Pre-generated characters will be provided and must be used in this game.

I'll hopefully be contacting each of the lottery winners in advance of the game to pre-select pre-gens and then get the character sheets to them. I'd like all players to have a chance to read them ahead of time and ask me any questions about the game.

The 18+ rating on this game is also there for a reason. As the blurb states, this is a game for adults in which all sorts of profanity and obscenity may be directed toward you, and various unfair and brutal things in bad taste may happen to your character. If any lottery winners are likely to find this Taste of the Blight not to their liking, they should contact me asap.

I'm in for First World Problems! Looking forward to it, and to seeing the "mysterious questionnaire."

Sunday afternoon works for Matt Goodall and I, although we'll be aiming to be back at the Con for Serpents Rise in the evening.

Goblin brain, please. My badge name will be Al Rigg, I presume.

Well done, Dominick!

I'll be there! GMing two special events but schedule otherwise free until game sign-up opens. Getting in on Tuesday 19 evening, leaving Wednesday 27 morning.

Congratulations!

This is England's year. Just like all the last times back to '66.

Congratulations, Andy.

Awesome! Congratulations, all.

Skull & Shackles: "Damnation seize my Soul if I give you Quarters, or take any from you."
Shattered Star: "Sorshen lives!"
Reign of Winter: "O Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"

Please join me in congratulating Chris Sharpe on his promotion to Venture-Captain, New Zealand.

Since his appointment as my VL back in April, Chris has done a fantastic job of building up a strong and enthusiastic following for PFS in Auckland, a continuation of the work he started before that. He has not done this alone, of course, and continues to be ably assisted by a number of dedicated and talented GMs and event organisers. Isaac White (RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32), in particular, has been at his side throughout, spreading the word and entertaining the growing horde.

Chris' plans include not only continuing to develop the Pathfinder scene in Auckland, which he will do by bringing more stores and conventions into his portfolio over the coming months, but also helping to kickstart public play groups in other cities, such as Christchurch, Dunedin, and Wellington. If you're a Pathfinder player in New Zealand, don't hesitate to get in touch with Chris and, through him, connect with the exciting growth of the NZ Pathfinder community.

Congratulations, Chris! Go Team NZ!

Congratulations, Ben! Keep up the great work.

So we have a standard rakshasa which has a boosted SR of 25 because they're especially magic resistant, of 11 +10 CR +4.
A mythic rakshasa, by that standard, should have 11 +12 CR +4 = 27, which it has.

We still don't seem to be getting MR added to SR. I'm beginning to think it was supposed to be removed from the subtype.