Alex MacKinnon's page

With the release and shipping of the 2nd edition conversion with additional content, is there a Second Edition version of this coming?

Is there a Player's Guide for Kingmaker 2nd Ed. that I can't find?

Shipping notification came earlier today!

I can't begin to express the relief that Paizo taking this seriously brings to me. It shouldn't I guess. I'm 2,800 miles away. No one at Paizo could pick me out of a lineup, maybe Mark Moreland or the lady who used to bring cookies to GenCon for GM’s, if she’s even around. I got disgruntled with PFS around Season 3, right after Josh Frost left. Stopped reporting one-shots. That was my protest. No reason really to protest other than Josh spent time at the Crowne with a room full of first time Pathfinder GM’s having cocktails and swapping stories from our tables.
That night more than any other solidified Pathfinder as being my RPG. Folks my age, guys who would have been my friends at Largo Middle School, had built an RPG and were starting to make it. Those guys would have been at home at our homebrew game while we tracked down Vecna’s various artifact body parts - scouring the Greyhawk map for clues as to the final resting place of those items. A guy named Mike and I brought PFS into Pinellas County. We hosted tables at my house in Largo. One of those early participants went on to replace Mike as the Venture Captain. We grew to love Pathfinder as a system, Golarion as a world, and Jason, Josh, Mark as our guides into this world that allowed us to escape shXt tech jobs, bad wives and the loss of friends to ‘Adult’ responsibilities.
Fast forward I don’t know how many years…. I move to Tallahassee. I’m in my 40’s. I don’t have any friends in Tally but a couple of guys I work with want to ‘get the gang back together’ and play an RPG. Desperate to make friends I agree to GM Rise of the Runelords for a table of 7. A table of 7. 2 Min-Maxers, 2 guys who care less about dice but create backstories to rival any character in the Marvel Universe and 3 folks who are character fault driven. I’m scared to death I can’t pull this off. I don’t know these guys well. I have no idea how to manage these personalities at a table but I didn’t need to. The incredible story of the origins of magic originating from the 7 Deadly Sins does all the work for me. The campaign rocks. Two years of twice a month sessions and the table never stops rocking. Our Cleric develops her own Cayden Cailean sect using the Golden Helmet from Thistletop as her banner, our Wizard takes ownership of the library and starts a magic school of his own. Paizo made it easy. I made friends during that campaign. It’s brutal making new friends in your 40’s, I owe you guys for that which is why it crushed me to hear that my ‘friends’ were being a-holes to some of their employees.
I couldn’t believe it, but couldn’t NOT believe it there were too many corroborating stories. My Paizo friends were acting like jackasses.
Thanks for starting the process of turning it around Paizo friends. I don’t think I’m alone when I say “We’re counting on you”

I happy to ask that you disregard this post. It appears Paizo at a whole is, at it's heart, the RPG company I've been so proud of over the years.

Thanks for doing the right thing

AM

Please cancel all my subscriptions starting November 1st. Until I get a better idea of the future of Paizo's approach to it's employees I'm uncomfortable supporting you any further.

Thanks,
AM

Just saw this pop back up on the upcoming releases. Has the product been resurrected?

Disregard. The answer was an hour. Just arrived. Thanks Paizo Team!

How long should I wait before declaring something lost in transit?
Last Update was August 5th from UPS, still haven't received

Aaron Shanks wrote:

Alex MacKinnon wrote:

I noticed the regular subscription has changed to be able to start with Secrets of Magic, when can we expect the Special Edition subscription to follow suit?

We just had our launch date last week and our staff is working on the standard site and subscription updates. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for the update Aaron. Looks forward to adding the Specials to my subscriptions

It's updated!

Alex MacKinnon wrote:

I noticed the regular subscription has changed to be able to start with Secrets of Magic, when can we expect the Special Edition subscription to follow suit?

We just had our launch date last week and our staff is working on the standard site and subscription updates. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for the update Aaron. Looks forward to adding the Specials to my subscriptions

I noticed the regular subscription has changed to be able to start with Secrets of Magic, when can we expect the Special Edition subscription to follow suit?

Didn't catch in the forums that it had been delayed indefinitely.

I'll be honest, this seems a bit unlikely at this time.
Since the time I asked my question, we got more teases, and based on the number of spells revealed, the number of traditions they each have, and random comments done by paizo people, I have pretty much accepted It will most probably be one cards with list of traditions. With the best Focus spells approximations, APG would need to have no more than 30 new spells in it if there's one card per tradition, and I was told by someone working on the APG book the total (focus and normal spells) was pretty close to the advertised "150 references cards" in the product description.

Well heck. I use HeroLab Online for Character generation and the spell decks to build "Spell Books". I don't always know the source of the spell which is the primary reason for using cards to build decks. I just want to be able to sort the APG spells into the 5 boxes and be able to build a spell book to manage this.

I hope your source is wrong or this changes before production.

- my two cents

Can a Wizard deduce when someone using the Occultism Spell list casts a spell that she knows?

For example a Bard casts Mage Hand (from the Occultism spell list) can a Wizard with Mage Hand on her spell list (Arcane) determine that's what's being cast?

Is that automatic? Is it an Occultism Lore check?

Bards use magic in a far different way than Wizards, so even if the result is the same is the process for getting there the same or different? THe wizard would have memorized the gestures and words to bring the spell forth while the bard knows how to bring it out by weaving a magical melody..

My group is ascending into Kraggodan next session. We've had a handful of deaths and resurrections. We started with 6 players, at this point it's 10 minutes to complete a round of combat with all the mathiness that comes with being level 10+. One player has recently died in an ambush on The Long Road and will probably drop so it'll speed things up a bit. We should wrap in time to start Kingmaker for 2nd edition when it ships.

As a result I'm having trouble paying for anything else because it won;t show the ability to use a different payment method. The current method is expired

Been in pending state since 2017 - please delete the order

Thanks a bunch for these!

Thanks, I've been hunting for this!

I know it's Seven years after this column first appeared, but it appears the spreadsheet paizo used to have for submitting minis has disappeared. I followed Vic's link and it's a forgotten corner of the website, probably because Paizo stopped buying minis. I really just want the spreadsheet as a way of cataloging minis.
Any chance you've still got it somewhere accessible?

My gaming group is back into RPG from board games. Cancel this pre-order.

Thanks

Valdacil,

This sounds pretty darn good. My party of 4 struggled with the Sandman, but otherwise pretty good RAW. We play in person so they get a wall of text or two in email format between games, usually the PF journal in the back of the module and some collected information scrubbed from the pages and pages of backstory writes into these campaigns.

In the Iron Cages of Lust. Dozen party deaths so far. Mainly bad Crit timings. Players are having a blast. About 18 months in.

Toughest things in the adventures?
Yeth hounds have killed 3 players over 2 encounters

I'm within a month/month and a half of wrapping up both ROTR (6 players) with one group and Emerald Spire (4) with another. I'm considering running 'Kingmaker' with both groups of players but using a larger map. I thought this might lead to some cross kingdom intrigue, perhaps trade routes and border skirmishes.

Has anyone gone down this rabbit hole already? Starting to prep it now. But if someone has done this already, I'm good with not reinventing the wheel.

Suggestions?

Thanks a bunch

So using Brawler's Flurry with 3 attacks a round can I

Disarm, then Trip then attack a prone target?

Cancel the whole thing. I'm putting together another order today. I don't want to duplicate anything I can still use.

Due to these items being back ordered, I'm going to miss the date when I'll need them for my Runelords campaign. Can you cancel this order and either refund the credit card from the order or issue a credit?

Thanks a bunch

Alex

Thank you for these...

It appears the response to this ruling has been decided. In my quest to play or run 50 in 50, I've struck out in the the last 3 states I've been in. Philadelphia, Little Rock and Phoenix, their game stores near their respective colleges no longer offer Society games, even if I offered to GM. It's a shame. I'll be back in Philadelphia tomorrow and I'll be swinging by Redcap's to see what games are afoot!

+1

Ultimately players want chronicle sheets. That's their "loot". Kick down doors, kill the monters, take their loot. Chronicle sheets give their characters the ability to kick down secret doors, kill bigger monsters and take MORE loot. Lather, rinse repeat until you reach "LEVEL 12" and choose Countryside Acres or Millionaire Estates, or the 4 part Level 12 PFS adventure that sends them to the history books. Removing the rewards seems unjustified. Here's what I think is a more likely scenario...

I can see the possibility of Game stores that run a significant number of games no longer reporting their games. Their players will continue get chronicle sheets for adventures they run and enjoy, ignoring the replay rule. The GM star rewards are really minimal at best. 1 or two extra scenarios a year, one of which requires a convention or large event at best, so the impact on GM's not reporting is minimal. Most GM's I know do it because they love the game. Players will take their characters to other shops and conventions have the necessary chronicle sheets and be able to enjoy their games. Overall, players will still play and have a blast in a great enviroment with excellent adventures. Paizo will not get the games reported by their most avid fan base which is probably a shame, but the only other viable option is report the games and turn away avid players unless there happens to be a scenario released that week. Given the two options of turning a player away who's bringing a character that hasn't played (but the person has) or simply not reporting it. I choose to not report it and have a good time of it. That player is not going to "Game the Table". He's going to spend a couple hours with friends (new or old) playing in an adventure, roleplaying another class. Remembering Paizo and PFS in a good light, as opposed to being turned away. Will I get to the mythical 5 stars this way? Probably not. Will my players and the players at my table have a good time? Hell yeah. And that point isn't it?

Regards

Alex

It happens. I'll certainly be back this way again that's for sure.

Looking for a PFS game I can drop into this week. Any suggestions?

In my quest to play or run 50 scenarios in 50 states, I've played in that Philly store. That was one of the best games I've had the pleasure of playing in. The regular Monday group is composed of rabid PFS fans, devouring content and going by the come in and play mindset. We had a new guy at our table and the GM and players just rolled with it helping the rookie out all the way through. Every player got it's moment to shine and moment to get laughed at. (Stuck in a window comes to mind) Anything that would dampen that environment is bad for the Society as a whole. I would gather that that store is singly handley responsible for PFS at the University of Pennsylvania and to top it off the owner stays on PFS forums. Some of your strongest supporters...

I'd love to see AP's and Mods converted to PFS for more content. Even in our little group back home we frequently run into overlap adventures. - MORE CONTENT, MORE CONTENT! =)

Completely struck out here. Looks like a return trip is in order!

Hello Hawaii! Any Hawaiian Society players out there?

I am on a mission to run or play PFS in all 50. Working my gamer cred. No responses yet. Hawaii gamers let's hook up!

So I find myself in Mililani, Hawai'i next week and I'm looking for a PFS game to run or play in. I'm looking to play one or run one in all 50 States so I am hoping this works out, and I don't have to recruit people in my hotel bar to play. Please leave me a message here or ring me up at (727)520-4926

I swear by HeroLab for PFS. I found it easy to use. Character creation in 5 or 10 mins. I have it installed on both a laptop and a desktop (you simply get a second registration for free, there's a menu inside the app for it.) all the AP's, all the books and supplements. The ability to automatically grey out the feats and traits unavailable to Society. The character sheet is intuitive with the most commonly used items upper left or in bold. If you choose to use a pc while playing all the situationals can be easy applied (slowed, entangled, poisoned). items can be bought or sold for 0% / 50% / 100% or you can set a custom price. It has journal tracking for Society adventures - including Prestige, experience, gold.

No I am not a shareholder, just a happy user

Thanks to the Red Caps Gaming Group for a great time in “The Infernal Vault”.

Moments to remember
Marky and Bitey overcoming the doorbell.
Joe Bluth healing every damn tomb robber and achieving his faction goals without reading the mission, while “The Final Countdown” played in his head
“The Doctor”, no really he’s the Doctor, yelling “Burn me to a fellow alchemist…. Almost every fight =)
Dr. McTest Character, first-timer Alchemist extraordinaire who overcame his own reluctance, and did manage to throw bombs at “The Doctor”
Thistle, the morally challenged half elf paladin, “Just Kill Em All!”
Hangman Henry the Third, who managed to survive the adventure (apparently this is unusual) despite starting it being stuck in a window wearing deer fur and a gorilla mask

Thanks again guys. I had a blast. Special thanks to Adam for running it.

Thanks a bunch. Checked into my hotel a bit ago, logged the address into the GPS, and I'll be there tomorrow evening. Should I bring my own drink and snacks or does Red Caps Corner have them in-store for purchase?

For crack mainly. Herald's pretty much my dealer. Actually, I started playing again to find something off the computer to do with my son. Herald was GM'ing us. I volunteered to run a few at GenCon and then decided I better figure out how to GM PFS. I ran one or two a week until GenCon, I loved it, and now although I travel a great deal, I try to sneak back into the weekly event I started that Herald now runs.

Looking for a week night PFS game in Philadelphia to run or play. Any regular events out there looking for a guest GM or have room for a player?

Congrats Herald! I humbly submit to your whims my leige =)

Does this mean I can have an evil Paladin under PFS rules now? (ducking now) Good luck Josh on wherever your journey takes you.

and Paizo already has a pretty darn cool Druidic circle - from Tide of Morning. Excellent PFS adventure. I've reused that map pretty extensively

Eating breakfast at the Westin as I post

I do remember first starting out GMing and posting some permutation of the question above. The reward was the god-awesome most important thing to GMing when I first started. I had to have the reward to make my Fighter get to 6th. A dozen or more scenarios GM'd later, it's less about the reward and more about the fun. I think GMing grows on you. It still matters to me, and I routinely have to decide which character I'll apply the reward to, but the GM with another dozen scenarios ahead of me, he rarely even uses the reward anymore. We both GM. We both occassionally get to play. The reward simply lets us have a character of the appropriate tier to game with.

Just my two cents.

See y'all at GENCON BABY!

Alex