AlricLightwind's page

Hey guys,

I made this order on the 16th of August and it's still showing as pending. Also, is there any way to just hold it and have it ship with my subscription since that should be shipping soonish anyway?

Thanks

What happended with Christopher Eccleston? Assuming money/contract negotiations?

Seems more like creative differences, as in he wasn't a fan of how the show was being run.

I think my biggest issue with this season (series...whatever) is it's format. The "Blockbuster of the Week" doesn't work for me. I think someone said it up-thread, if the episodes were given even 30 more minutes I don't think it would be so bad, but it all feels rushed, and it's hurting the characters.

I want to like Clara. I'm all for her, I think she'll be a great companion...if we ever get a chance to get to know who she is. I don't feel like we've had that. It's like at the end of Nightmare in Silver, when Clara and the kids are getting off the the Tardis after their adventure and she yells back to the Doctor "See you next Wednesday!" And it clicked, because that's what it feels like. It's that person that you just met and you really would like to get to know them better, but you can only meet once a week. For forty-five minutes. And it's never a quiet relaxing lunch or a stroll through the park, you're always either playing paint ball or running a marathon...or both. Then it's over and you wave to each other, or maybe an awkward hug, and it's "see you next Wednesday!"

The beginning of the season wasn't bad. We had Amy and Rory. We've spent two seasons already getting to know them and it felt more like seeing old friends that you used to hang out with everyday all day and now you've only got a chance to see them once a week. So "see you next Wednesday" isn't so awkward, it's looked forward to...and a tiny bit sad, because you remember all the fun you guys have had in the past and you realize, that's all over now.

When we fist met Amy and Rory, and Donna, and Martha, and Rose, and the past companions (my memory's fuzzy on Classic Doctor Who - I was a kid and PBS was the only way to watch and they weren't too reliable airing the show), we had time to get to know them, the episodes had more consistency and, it seemed to me anyway, more time for character development.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the episodes. I like Clara, and I think Jenna-Louise Coleman is a great actress. But I don't feel like we've gotten to KNOW who Clara is, and it's not the usual new companion syndrome. The show has been much more focused on "Blockbuster of the Week" and less "lets take some time to get to know who our characters are".

So here's hoping that Moffat realizes his little experiment doesn't really work and goes back to how it was.

I'm all for new ideas, but I'm also for getting rid of those ideas when they don't deliver. And I certainly don't think the "Blockbuster of the Week" delivers.

At all.

/back to lurk mode

They could always pick up the Dark Energy/Dark Matter plot line they abandoned if they decided to "go big".

But personally I wouldn't mind a smaller, personal, focus in the next game. As stated, there are a TON of possible antagonists left in the galaxy that could be used as either a prequel or a sequel.

Which reminds me, I don't think I would want a prequel. It'd be like Halo: Reach, it was a fun game but I couldn't get invested in any of the characters because I knew what would happen, I knew how the game HAD to end. As such I would have a hard time playing a Mass Effect game set during the First Contact War. Suddenly my favorite race in the ME universe are the antagonists? Well ok...not suddenly but I hope you'd get what I'm going for. It would just be weird and, again, I would know how it ends. I cant change it, I can't forge my own story.

And your random question for the day: So Shepard can die at the end of Mass Effect 2...so what happens when Mass Effect 3 opens? Do they just hand wave it? Pretend it didn't happen and just chalk it up to Bioware talking before really thinking it out? Inquiring minds want to know...

If they pushed it 100 or so years in the future, I think they could easily get away with either Destruction or Control.

Synthesis would take a complete dedication to that ending as EVERYTHING would have to be a techno-organic hybrid. Granted they could do it anyway and explain in the Destruction and Control flagged games that some kind of Reaper tech was discovered that would replicate the Synthesis Wave and hand wave that EVERY sentient being in the galaxy agreed to it.

I can actually see them going with Control, with Shepard being a god-like being controlling the Reapers and taking them out of the galaxy again once he/she's used them for reconstruction, and fading into myth and legend by the time the Stargazer's time-line comes around.

Not saying Shepard couldn't fade into legend with Destruction ,esp if you get the Shepard Lives ending, but the idea of a god-like consciousness controlling the Reapers is evocative, at least to me.
Nor would I count out the Geth or EDI either. Sure, the Catalyst said that Destruction would eliminate all the Reapers and anything using Reaper tech such as the Geth, EDI, and Shepard (remember, Reaper based bionic implants), but Destruction is the ONLY ending where Shepard lives...

I think I'm one of the few who liked the idea that Dragon Age 2 had nothing to do with my Warden and told a story of someone new in a different part of the Thedas with only mentions of events from the first game. So I would be more than happy to play a Mass Effect game in the vein of LA Noir, or Red Dead Redemption, or whatever. Something on a smaller scale and more personal. Something along the lines of Dragon Age 2 even, just...you know...without the obvious reusing of maps. Over. And Over. For locations that are clearly meant to be completely different. *ahem*

Anyway. There is a lot of galaxy out there, and there are plenty of other stories to tell that don't involve Shepard.

I was in day one of the original launch of 14 and was soooo disappointed. But from what I've seen first hand of what Yoshi-P did with the game during it's super-extended free trial and from what I read on the changes he made when SquareEnix started charging again up until the epic "last battle" I have no doubts it'll relaunch a great new game.

Honestly, Yoshi-P deserves an award for the way he was able to turn 1.0 into something even remotely playable, and another for having the cojones to scrap the original engine and start over from scratch.

And concerning the PS4, it's been stated the new game engine is scaleable so with a little tweaking it will be ready for PS4, but their concentration is on the PS3 since they promised it would be available there.

I don't know how messy the servers are for Europe, but since launch here in the States it's been spotty whether or not you can get in to play. I'm sure you haven't missed the fall out surrounding the game.

That being said, once you get into the game it's amazing. The layout and the mechanics are more intuitive, you'll just have to get used to smaller areas to build your city as it's more focused on building up than out. The region play is neat (when it works), and cooperating with friends to build up a region and get a great work finished has a lot going for it (you know...when it works).

It'll take patience until all the kinks get ironed out, but underneath all the problems is a really fun, new Simcity.

Some of my thoughts:
1. Gearbox is know for cartoon/comic-book-like video games not focusing on the realism. Could this recent fame caused them to trash the horror aspect?
2. We had some good views blocked by debris. Boarderlands 1 was heavily criticized for invisible walls, so perhaps they tried to improperly fix this?
3. Could the recent NRA's name drop as video-games as culprits for violence, coupled with human heavy target game cause the reduction in realism as well?

Well for number 1, long before Borderlands came out Gearbox's big game series was Brothers in Arms - a very realistic World War II tactical shooter. So I don't think switching to the Aliens horror/action franchise (Aliens will always be more of an action movie than a horror movie to me), would have tripped them up so much. In fact I was hoping Colonial Marines would have been a marriage of Brothers in Arms and Aliens. Instead we got...well...this.

Your other two points I don't really have anything to add to, except I really hope they didn't bow to any kind of pressure from the NRA to tone down the amount of violence in a M rated game - esp from a company who just put out the hyper violent Borderlands 2.

My take on the whole fiasco?

There are several reports of current and former Gearbox employees taking to Reddit and other places saying Gearbox just laid down the foundation, got the ball rolling so to speak and passed the game over to another developer called TimeGate. All TimeGate had to do was follow the guidelines Gearbox laid out and BAM - instant hit. But, according to the "inside source" TimeGate threw out a lot of Gearbox's work and made their own stuff, so when Gearbox got the game back they were all "WTF is this crap?" and started over themselves to try to salvage their original vision in the six months they had before Sega went super nova over yet another delay of a game that was announced 6 years ago.

Now, personally, I can see this happening. It explains a lot to me. That game demo from E3 2012 that looked so awesome? I believe that was Gearbox's original work that they sent to TimeGate to demonstrate the kind of game they wanted. Now, the fact that Gearbox tried to play it off as actual game play (complete with button prompts) is completely BS.

But I also have a hard time believing that Gearbox never checked on TimeGate's progress. Never caught that the majority of the assets they sent for their game was thrown out and were caught completely off guard by a sub-par game that they had to scramble to salvage. I don't know, I just don't buy it.

In the end we'll never know. Gearbox will survive - they made Borderlands. They have two hits on their rep with this and Duke Nukem, but they'll survive and in the meantime...it looks like a decent Aliens game is a far flung fantasy.

But you never know - I mean Batman finally got a couple of super awesome games.

Also, did I miss something, or do you just not get any weapons aside from your Pulse rifle, shot gun, pistol and grenades except for the occasional limited use heavy weapon?

I was wondering all the time, if i ever got to pick up something like an SMG, combat rifle or one of the Assault rifles that the mercs and the other marines use?

Yes you do. As you gain ranks you unlock more weapons. You get an Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle, Sub Machine Gun, Tactical Shotgun, and a Combat Pistol. The game just never tells you there's a menu to switch loadouts. I found it completely by accident.

But honestly, I found the Pulse Rifle to be the best medium to close range weapon. The Battle Rifle makes an OK sniper rifle since it's the only weapon that's accurate at long range. But it still sucks until you can upgrade it's damage, and even still it takes a lot of shots to put anything down.

I'm hit with a sudden urge to watch Spaceballs.

I got it on Steam and started the download as soon as it was unlocked (2am) and went to bed.
When I woke up the reviews were out. They weren't good. EVERYBODY HATES THIS GAME!!!

So I avoided playing it, wondered if Steam had a return policy, then finally made my self boot it up.

It wasn't near as bad as the reviews had made it out to be. I was expecting unplayable garbage that dated back to the PSOne, instead I got a game what was "just" good.

I'm playing the campaign co-op with two of my buddies and it really raises the fun bar for me. Our biggest complaint? The AI. As in "what AI?"

I can forgive the occasional NPC that just stands there and watches a bad guy make a run for me. I've been dealing with that since the first Call of Duty came out (and watched it get worse with each CoD - but that's another rant for another day), so I let it pass. No...what bothers us is your NPC teammates will run through an area triggering events that would have been a big tension payoff if one of us had done it; or they will open a locked door and run off to a predetermined location starting a fire-fight while the three of us are trying to explore and immerse ourselves in the setting.
Honestly, if the NPC's would have not been added at all (making the entire game a One-Man-Army game which I hate), or, better scenario, programmed to follow my lead and only act once I triggered an event, the game would be much more enjoyable.
I know Gearbox can do it, I've seen some damn fine AI in the Brothers In Arms series, so I don't know why they have such issues here.

The multiplayer kind of let me down too. I like that you can customize your marine and can unlock different traits and such. We tried the Survivor and Escape modes, since Deathmatch is pretty self explanatory.

We had heard that Escape was like Left 4 Dead...and it kinda was. The Marines run from point A to B doing objectives to get to the end and escape. Wow - that sounds awesome. Only...it's not. Because there's only you four Marines (that's fine) and only four Aliens (that's not fine). This mode would be 100% better if there were mindless hordes of Aliens with the Alien players mixed in. I can tell they wanted a L4D feel to it, but didn't get the point that makes that game so awesome. It's not the face that there are human players as special infected, it's that there is a human intelligence mixed in the the infected horde that can exploit the Survivors, or set up traps and trip up the Survivors and can sit back and watch the horde do it's thing. Here the maps feel empty as they are rather large (though not exceptionally long - but that may be because they are so empty), so spotting an Alien player coming at you is extremely easy. And given the fact there is only one Alien type that can attack at range the Marines have a huge advantage. Add in easy to acquire Smart-guns and turrets it's amazingly easy for the Marines to win.

Survivor suffers from the same issue - large map, no targets. And it's a shame because it's a neat idea. The Marines have about 30 seconds to dig in, the the horde is...oh wait, sorry...the four Aliens are unleashed.

And that pretty much sums up the game for me. There's a lot of potential here, but it seems the Devs (and there seems to be some finger pointing at Gearbox and another studio they used to co-develop, Timegate) just kind of said "eh, that's good enough". If they'd just put in that extra umph (and for a game that's been in development since 2006, you'd think there had been enough time) the game would have came out much, much better.

As it is, I give it a 6/10. Playing co-op with my buddies gives it a 8/10. Multiplayer gets a 3/10.

Eh - it's different strokes for different folks. I 100% believe there are people cut out for certain things, and customer service is one of them.

I worked at the internet help desk for a major telecom company and I never had a good day. Once someone's problem was solved and everyone was happy, you hung up the call and immediately got yelled at from a new customer and the cycle repeated, every day, all day. Some of my fellow co-workers would yell, curse, and belittle the customer (while the phone was on mute - those that forgot to press mute were let go pretty quickly); while others, like myself, would sit there, let the customer rant, and then fix their issues. 8 out of 10 the customer apologized for their attitude and the rest of the call would be more relaxed.

It's all in how you let it affect you. You can take it personally or you can just let it go. You can dwell on the idiots who make you weep for the human race, or you can remember those that were ready to throw you a party because you were able to help them solve whatever problem they may be having.

So I have a problem with seeing an empty character slot and having to fill them, then hopping from one character to another as the mood takes me. I know some guilds have an issue with alts, so I guess my question is are there limits to alts?

And then this happened.

I'm not. I played the beta for Pandaria and actually enjoyed the Pandas, the monk class and had a lot of fun exploring the starter zone. What I didn't like was the continued dumbing down of the game, from the new Talent "Tree" to getting rid of the trainers to even getting rid of the need for gathering tools and other tweaks they made that I can't think of at the moment. I don't know...it just rubbed me the wrong way and left a bad taste in my mouth.

I miss vanilla WoW when warlocks and pallys had to quest for their mounts and other classes had specific class quests what would net an item or armor or something. Now everything just get's handed to you...

Damn kids...

Get off my lawn!!!

Seems there are five different trailers out, all the same up until the final scene after the Title. All five can be found here.

My favorite is when Elrond is using identify on the groups weapons.

Skip to the 2:20 mark if you just want the goods.

Hey guys and gals, I need to cancel my adventure path subscription...again. But maybe this time it won't be years until I can re-subscribe.

Thanks

Ah. The visual aids help to drive the point home. Well...cheap and impatient loose to common sense once again.

Question: I have a buddy going to Gencon, can I have him pick up my subscriptions? If so does he need any ID or info from me to prove he isn't just some random guy?

Up around ULM? We just moved from there, bout 3 years ago. Still own land in the tail end of western Ouachita Parish.

5 minutes North of campus, which makes taking ULM online classes seem useless. And sorry it took long to reply, just starting to recover from Epic Storm 2011.

AlricLightwind wrote:

Resume sent. It'd be an interesting change to go from Louisiana to the Pacific Northwest but I'm up for the adventure if I got hired.

Howdy, neighbor! What part? I'm just north of dead center...

Up in the North East. Good to have a neighborly presence 'round here. :-)

Resume sent. It'd be an interesting change to go from Louisiana to the Pacific Northwest but I'm up for the adventure if I got hired.

I wonder what Bat Boy is doing nowadays'.

Staring in a musical

Their original listing said it was scheduled for a fall release however, so right now I am not sure just when it is going to be out. However with a huge number of the paizo staff really into the game, I suspect that green ronin's release will get a note on the store blog when it does come out.

According to their website and forums, the PDF will be released tomorrow (December 9) with the physical copy sent to the printers. So I figure a week or three and the box set is on the shelf.

There is also a bit of star wars homage in there. At one point you rescue a woman from a dungeon and she is dressed in guard gear. One of the dialogue options is 'Aren't you a little short for a guard?'

To which she responded looking down at my Dwarf Warrior Noble: "A little ironic coming from you."

I love this game. I had high hopes for it ever since I heard it was coming out and I have not been disappointed. I especially like the fact that the game shifts to what race and origin you are. Games like this in the past (Neverwinter Nights 2 I'm looking at you), I felt, were awkward to any other race but Human and any other class but fighter. Dialogue options or events just didn't match up to what I felt were Dwarfy or Elfy moments.

I finished my first play through a night ago and immediately started a new character (Human Noble Rogue) and am already climbing the Mage tower and it's been an almost completely different experience.

My hat's off to BioWare and I hope a sequel is announced soon. And much more downloadable content than what they did with Mass Effect 1.

So did anyone here take part in the preview event for this last weekend? I'm curious about it, but I don't want to put down $100(or $90 here at Paizo)on something that I might hate and never use so I was looking for opinions.

J.R. Farrington, Esq. wrote:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

I saw this one but was wondering if I had to get Deadlands to go with it.

You do not. I bought the core book for All Flesh a few years ago and my group and I break it out every now and then for a night of pure zombie apocalypse bliss. Everything you need is in that one book.

The rules are flexible, character creation is skill based so you can be whatever you want to be and it's just a whole lot of fun.

Much more like Baulder's Gate.

http://dragonage.bioware.com/

Sweet. The games not even out yet and I've been going nuts wanting to play it. I even bought the prequel novel (which ain't bad by the way).

This makes me happy.

And their website gets destroyed. Dadgum it. I was hoping to find out the news before I had to go into work. I guess I can wait till this evening. By then someone will have been able to get in and post the news somewhere if their site's not back up by then.

Anyone get in?

P.S. I hear-by motion that count down timers be banned from the internet. Great for building up hype, but bad for the actual announcement.

I'll add my voice in for Icewind Dale I and II. If you can't find a copy, Gametap has both games available to play and it's only $.99 for the first month and then $9.99 each month if you want to stick around. A buck ain't bad to try out a game. Heck, it even has Baldur's Gate I and II, Fallout 1 and 2 and a whole host of other games to play.

Dragon Age: Origins is pretty much the spiritual successor of the Baldur's Gate series. It's the same developer, Bioware, and you can even pan the camera out to the same isometric view of the BG/IWD games. Personally I can't wait till it comes out. I've been itching for a good fantasy RPG along the lines of BG/IWD myself. I could never really get into Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, neither game really grabbed me.

Temple of Elemental Evil was the most faithful to the 3.5 rules, but as was said earlier, don't try to play it without the fan patches. I grew frustrated with it though when my entire 6th lvl party was TPKed by a giant CR2 Crayfish. I uninstalled the game after that never to look back.

My suggestion: Check out Icewind Dale I and II on Gametap and check out Dragon Age: Origins when it comes out next year.

could you please cancel my subscription. Economy and all that.

Thanks

Link

Your books entertained me, your moves were hit and miss, but I always felt my dime was well spent.

Greyson wrote:

I bet they are planning and writing these things as they go with virtually no long term plan except to go "from 1st to 30th-level." The lack of a campaign overview document seems to say a lot about how Scales of War is a write and post as we go effort from WotC.

Just to prevent any misconceptions about this, there is actually an overview document of the AP similar in format to how Paizo does it.

There is? Please point me to it. It'll make me a lot happier to have this so I can plan ahead and tailor the AP to my players.

Bah - as much as I would love to join, life is getting in the way. I don't think I'm gonna have reliable internet usage for a few weeks.

Suckage.

I've never played a pbp and am very curious. I'd love to join if you'd have me. Heck, cleric's one of my favorite classes anyway. Let me know and I'll throw out a character concept to you.

Bah. Color me unimpressed. As others have said before me, as written, the adventure is just a long string of encounters. There's nothing really tying the whole thing together, nothing to get me excited about running this AP.

I'll do it. Maybe. I'll see how the thing goes as long as it's free, but I was looking at the continued running of the adventure as the only incentive to get a DDI sub. Now I'm not so sure it'll be worth it.

I let Keep of the Shadowfell slide on it's lack of of a real plot. I looked at it as an introductory adventure and as such I and my group have had a lot of fun with it.

But if you're going to put out a full fledged AP there better be substance to it and it just seems to me that Wizards isn't interested in substance.

This really makes my arguments that you can have just as much or more Role Play in 4th edition as you did in 3.5 all the more harder to justify. I finally understand other's fears and reservations that 4th edition would be nothing but a glorified hack-and-slash minis game, with character interaction all but discouraged.

My first ever attempted AP was Age of Worms. It too started as a long dungeon crawl. But there was substance. I knew that Diamond Lake as a seedy crap hole to live in that was full of corruption. The encounters outside of the dungeon were just as compelling as within. After reading that adventure I knew that I had to run this and that it would be epic.

Rescue at Rivenroar has none of that. Brindol is a collection of numbers on a map with no key. There's no NPC listing. There's no history other than name connecting it to Red Hand of Doom. There's nothing there that breaths life into the adventure. And worst of all, to me, is the lack of a summary that I can use to fill in the gaps.

And they plan on having Dragon articles that tie into the AP "roughly every other month, starting in the August issue". As stated above, a little late to the party there guys.

I don't think I would so worried if there was just a summary for the whole shebang. Rodney got one together for the Star Wars Saga AP and I think that's helped people deal with the delays between adventures. They can come up with filler because they know the direction the AP will take. I hope Wizards follows suit soon with this. That way I can start filling in the huge gaps of stuff that's not there. New NPCs, reasons for my players to be there (other than "hey you meet in a bar". There's just more I could add to it if I had more to go on with the Path the Adventure will take. (see what I did there? Path. Adventure. Adventure Path. See...oh go on. You saw.)

By the way, I'm thinking of setting my adventure 50 to 100 years after RHoD instead of just 10. Anyone else have similar thoughts?

On a side note, how is this 'Adventure Path', which WoTC is touting as their first, really going to be different then the published modules that are coming out? It was my belief that all 9 modules were designed to get you from level 1-30.

The main difference is that the Dungeon AP are...well SHOULD be...closely tied together. One adventure leads to another. The published modules are very, very loosely tied together to where, unless the DM beats their players over the head with the connection, players are likely to miss it.

For instance, in Keep of the Shadowfell:

Here's hoping it gets better.

Just downloaded it. I'll read it over later tonight and give first thoughts on it. First I gotta see Hellboy II.

AlricLightwind wrote:

My wife literally died when she saw the trailer.

My condolences for your loss. Was it heart failure, or did a little drowned girl crawl out of the monitor?

** spoiler omitted **

It was a combination of a little drowned girl out of the monitor and a girl with a crushed larynx from the attic.

In no particular order:

1. Dragonlance - the majority of my original group grew up reading Dragonlance, but none had played D&D before, so I figured what better way to introduce them to the game. We started when the Campaign Setting was released for 3.5 and everything naturaly wrapped up just as 4th edition was announced.
2. Ptolus - if there's one setting we would all love to return to...
3. Pathfinder - need I really say more?
4. Eberron - We loved it because it was so different, esp since Dragonlance was our main setting.
5. Warhammer Fantasy - it took my group a bit to adjust to the tone and setting, but once they did we all had a blast
6. Warhammer - 40k - see above
7. Star Wars - I'll always have a soft spot for d6, but I love Saga

My wife literally died when she saw the trailer. Diablo II was the game that really got her into gaming, and it's the game that made me fall in love with her. Imagine my surprise one day, visiting my best friends house, seeing his sister not only playing Diablo II, but on Nightmare with a lvl 70ish Bowazon kicking the crap out of the denizens of Hell.

She stole my heart.

So the prospect of playing Diablo III together (despite playing multiple mmo's together) excites us both.

I can't wait till "when it's ready".

I'm a little late to the party, but this news really, really excites me!

Wecome aboard Sean!

A few games that have been running through my head for a while.

This was an idea that cooked up shortly after the Eberron book came out. It's been sitting on the back burner since then. I've only got the first adventure written so far, but 7 or 8 in outline form. This is what I was going to use to get my players interested:

"Eberron: The Rise of Xoriat: Nine thousand years ago the Plain of Madness, Xoriat, became coterminous to the world of Eberron. In that time the daelkyr and their minions flooded into Eberron in an effort to rule the world. Their plans failed due to the Druidic sect known as the Gatekeepers. The Gatekeepers succeeded in sealing the entry points from Xoriat, blocking the daelkyr invasion, but at great cost. To seal the dimensional rifts, the lead orc druids of the ceremony sacrificed their lives, leaving only a crystal skull. These skulls hold the power to open a sealed gate, or close an open one. To keep the skulls safe, and to make sure the seals remained closed, the Gatekeepers scattered them across the whole of Eberron, from the primeval jungles of Xen’drik to the Mountains of the Mror Holds to the mysterious, far off continent of Sarlona.
Now, the gates are opening, the seals are weakening. A mysterious force is looking for the Skulls and, more and more, attacks by the daelkyr are increasing. Can the Heroes recover all twelve Crystal Skulls before the dimensional seals can be opened? Or will the all of Eberron spiral into madness?"

Once the Eberron books come out next year, I'll do some converting.

A similar idea came to me for either a d20 Modern campaign or True20. Again it dealt with the Crystal Skulls (damn you George Lucas for making me look unoriginal now!) and the Mayan prophecy that the world as we know it will cease to be in the year 2012. The players were going to be part of either a government organization or a private institute that is sent to stop an organization who's leader is bent on performing a ritual to harness the power of the Event to bend the world to his evil vision.
I was planning to lead the players to believe that the Event could be stopped, and as the Ritual of Evil™ is disrupted the Event takes it's natural course and Earth "Awakens" as magic and myth are reintroduced. Not quite to the lvl that is in Shadowrun, but close.

Also using True20 was a fantasy campaign that I've had running in my head for about 10 years now. It starts off 80 years after an invading army from across the sea suddenly stopped after gaining a large foothold on the main continent. Starting with the invasion of the players home town, they would have to rescue (or escape if they were captured) family and friends from a slave camp, convince surrounding nations that they need to join forces in pushing back this invading force and finally taking the fight to the bad guys, discovering that the whole war was orchestrated as a mass sacrifice to resurrect a ancient, dark god of destruction.
I was going to use True20 instead of D&D because the magic system was going to be elemental based for all races except for elves, who would communicate with the spirits of nature to cast their spells.

I'm running Keep on the Shadowfell as we all get used to the rules. After that I'm switching off DMing with another player, and I think he's gonna set his campaign in the Realms. I'm also working on converting CotCT to 4th and working on my own homebrew until next year when the Eberron books come out, then I'll convert the campaign-I-never-got-to-run to 4th edition.

Currently we have:

Elf Ranger
Halfling Rogue
Tiefling Warlock
Human Cleric (who is gonna switch to Dragonborne Paladin)
Human Wizard
Human Fighter

Personally I can't sit and read a PDF for long on a laptop either. If you can, more power to you, but I prefer to have a dead tree copy with me at the gaming table.

But as far as using my own ink and paper that's another matter. Kinko's website lets you download your PDF files and print them out at your local store.

For the final version of the Pathfinder Alpha, it cost me $20 for all 162 pages, black and white with the first page in color all in a neat 2" binder.

And I would think other major print stores offer the same service.

I wonder if Wizards will offer the files of the adventure without having to print the entire magazine.

The only adventure path from WotC we've seen so far is the free one for Star Wars 'Dawn of Defiance'. The FAQ promises one a month. The first one came out in early November. Here we are eight months later and ... we have four releases. Not encouraging.

Still, its hard to complain much about a free product. And 'Scales of War' will be neither Star Wars (far from their premier line) nor free, so we'll see.

As I understand it, the Dawn of Defiance AP is being held up by Lucasfilm. I think I read on the DoD board that there was a continuity issue with some of the adventures and the story line for Force Unleashed and Lucasfilm wanted to iron that out.

Hopefully, without licensing issues to worry about, Wizards will be able to churn out monthly adventures. And since this IS their premier RPG line I would think (hope) they would do everything in their power to honor a release schedule.

And a sequel to Red Hand of Doom just rocks. My group still has very fond memories of that adventure even two years later. Quotes still bring riotous laughter.

Awesome! My wife is addicted to the Flair app. Now I'll have something worth putting up. :-)

It's similar with what I've been house ruling for years.

We start with all scores at 10 then use a 28 point buy. My score values are a bit lower than in Alpha 3:

11 – 1
12 – 2
13 – 3
14 – 4
15 - 6
16 - 8
17 - 11
18 - 14

Usually it creates pretty good scores. Nothing too powerful, most end up with a least a couple of 14s, a 16 or 17, and some 10s, 12s, 11s ect. At the most it gives two 18's and all 10s. It's worked well so far, and my group loves it.

*sigh* And here I was getting all disappointed thinking they didn't put it up today. Can't they at least put something on the main page or the blog saying it's available?

Now...enough complaining. Off to read.

EDIT

*double sigh* Ok so I notice it's in the News section of the site. Yes. I'm blind.

As you leave your humble bedroom on the second floor of the Lirwin Dormitory and enter the space you share with your team, you notice that a red letter has been hung on the doorknob. A letter wrapped in red could only mean one thing: it’s finally time for a new mission.

The writing on the front of the envelope is large and looping, nearly taking up the entire envelope just to say “Room Lirwin-2-D.” Those of you who have been with the House for some time will immediately recognize Layla’s handwriting and, as you open the envelope, you soon find that you are correct.

Good morning, team!

P.S. I’ll have Hesla with me, so please make sure that Byron airs out before coming to our meeting.

You have been summoned for later today for what amounts to a briefing and a picnic. Although publicly Layla scoffs at her unofficial title of “team mom,” she takes pride in it and does her best to live up to the title. What that means for you at today’s briefing is likely a homemade meal not often seen from the mess hall.

Whether you’re looking forward to hanging out with the “team mom” or not, you have a few hours to yourself before your meeting to prepare yourselves for what seems to be a long journey.

Feel free to start your roleplay and introduce your characters proper! While this is “started,” I’m going to start the meeting with Layla on the 7th and interact with anyone who wants to do so before then. Whoever posts first can have the privilege of waking the others if they so choose. I’m assuming that everyone slept in their own rooms last night, but feel free to have something else going on if you prefer!

As you leave your humble bedroom on the first floor of the Tebede Dormitory and enter the space you share with your team, you notice that a red letter has been hung on the doorknob. A letter wrapped in red could only mean one thing: it’s finally time for a new mission.

The writing on the front of the envelope is small but easy to read, almost mechanical in its efficiency, and reads “Room Tebede-1-B.” Those of you who have been with the House for some time will immediately recognize Konishi’s handwriting and, as you open the envelope, you soon find that you are correct.

Attention, adventurers.

P.S. Someone get the new girl up to speed on how we operate before the meeting.

You have been summoned for later this morning. You know that Konishi’s office is near the top of the colosseum with an excellent vantage point to overlook the arena. Those of you who are more martially inclined know that today is a day when the arena has been generously given over to the elite of the Zimarian military for training, and it’s rare that they allow outsiders to join in or even watch their elite soldiers train.

Regardless, you do have a few hours to yourself before your meeting to prepare yourselves for what seems to be a long journey.

Feel free to start your roleplay and introduce your characters proper! While this is “started,” I’m going to start the meeting with Konishi on the 7th and interact with anyone who wants to do so before then. Whoever posts first can have the privilege of waking the others if they so choose. I’m assuming that everyone slept in their own rooms last night, but feel free to have something else going on if you prefer!

Salutations, all!

Welcome to your table! Feel free to discuss and post/repost your questionnaires here. I'm still in the process of unpacking (loading and unloading was a huge success!) but I wanted to make this space for you guys. I'll have something up later tonight or in the morning for Gameplay so everyone can start introducing their characters and dotting in.

Welcome to Table 2!

Nazard as Edmund Gwenn
Daynen as Dr. Jebediah Castle
JonGarrett as Crow Irontouched
Nikolause de’Shade as River
JenkinsMyMan as Tekaronhió:ken

Link to discussion 1 and the Session Zero Questionnaire.

Congratulations, and welcome to the Whims of Fate!

Actually, they’re my whims, but let’s not get stuck on needless details.

I have decided on the 7th as our official start time. You’ll have until then to finish up the (longer than I intended) campaign questionnaire later in this post and your crunch. I’m a big fan of fluff, hence the long questionnaire. For those of you in Table 2, feel free to post here until I have your campaign set up over the weekend.

Character creation details are still on the Campaign Info tab, and I'll be looking over the character sheets to make sure they're all good mechanically before we start properly on the 7th.

I plan on having a Gameplay tab and the Campaign for Table 2 up on Sunday, and I'll link it here for those who are in Table 2. The gameplay tabs will have a small intro where you can dot in, describe your character, etc, then.

Table 1

CampinCarl9127 as Drask Umbra | Profile | Guild Questionnaire
Brainiac as Hyacinth | Profile
AdamWarnock as Joanna Whitehall | Profile
The Lobster as Maggart Craft | Story | Guild Questionnaire
Norad 3 as Byron Drake | Story/Guild Questionnaire

Table 2

Nazard as Edmund Gwenn | Profile | Guild Questionnaire
Daynen as Dr. Jebediah Castle | Profile
JonGarrett as Crow Irontouched | Profile
Nikolause de’Shade as River | Profile
JenkinsMyMan as Tekaronhió:ken | Story | Guild Questionnaire

____________________________________________________________

For the Campaign Questionnaire, I have it split up into three sections. Player, Meta, and Character. Take your time, you have a week to get it all done and even then I’m flexible. Your answers can be as long or short as you like, and I can fill in any gaps. Some of these questions have been answered by your backstory, and feel free to copy paste from there or use this to go into greater detail.

My goal here is to craft a story that includes everyone’s backstory in one way or another. As a GM, my style tends to be very free form, and things tend to change if I think I have a better idea or simply if the mood strikes. Sometimes this does lead to my thoughts being jumbled or not coming across correctly, and feel free to ask if anything seems strange to you.

If there’s any questions here you don’t want the other players to see for whatever reason (like secret story stuff), send it to my private messages. Sometimes secrets are fun, sometimes they are not. I’m here for it either way.

Session Zero Questionnaire

____________________________________________________________

One of the questions has to do with Roll20. I've been using it for years, it's what I'm most comfortable using, but I'm willing to change for the majority. If we do stick with that, though, I plan on using the Journal to keep a copy of what players know after I post them here, that way there's not as much flipping through pages in order to relearn that knowledge, it's all in one place.

I've added a link to the Campaign Info tab for a more concrete look at Zimar via a .pdf in Drive. Warning, though, possible spoilers for War For The Crown inside. I also have plans for maps, including a map of the House of Fate and Fire. I am not a great mapmaker but an Inkarnate subscription is only 25 dollars a year so look forward to some okayish maps.

Other than that, I think that's it! I feel like I'm missing something, but that's nothing new. Any questions whether it's about lore, NPCs, character creation, how my day was, ask here or shoot me a PM.

Salutations, all!

Long-time PbP Player, first time PbP GM. I have been itching for some storytelling lately, and while I haven't ran a game on the Paizo website before, but I think I have enough references to do so well. I'd like to get my start with an idea that has been rattling around in my head for a while.

Your characters belong to a mid-large size adventurer's guild. Your party has been working together for a fair while now and for whatever your own reasons are, you'd like to move up in the ranks and become the top party in the guild for some sweet rewards and recognition.

One morning, your party is called to action. The guild has been contracted by a nobleman who owned a mine in a town a few weeks out from his city, and the head honcho decided that your party would be sent.

The Lord had not heard from the miners in quite some time. The weather had been bad lately, so it wasn't too strange. However, days turned to weeks, and weeks turned into a couple of months. No couriers sent had returned, so the Lord went to the next step, magic.

When magic couldn't reach anyone from the one in charge of the mine to the lowest foreman, the Lord began to panic and reached out to your guild.

As such, you have been tasked with traveling to the mining town and figuring out what happened to the workers and others who populated the town.

What I have: I have most of the adventure already written down and ready to go, sans names. I'm horrible with names in just about all capacities; remembering, giving, coming up with, etc. However, I'm not the type to stop something for the sake of "the perfect name," and I'll have that kind of stuff ready to go by the time we start.

What I'm looking for: 4-5 players who don't mind jumping into the unknown. I'm looking to create a story driven by its characters. Since it's character-driven, I'll be asking a lot of questions about the character's backstory, personality, connections (family, friends, rivals, etc.), and more. Once the "initial adventure" wraps up, I'll provide paths for the party to go down, all of which will be relevant in some way to the characters.

Knight of Rust as a GM: Most of my GMing experience came from PFS. I am a 4 star GM of Pathfinder 1st edition, and I am/was a Venture Captain for my area (I am currently in the midst of retiring, but that's neither here nor there.) My style of gamemastering is firm but fair. Even at a table, I roll my dice in the open, and what the dice says, goes. I am in favor of the rule of cool, even if it's not completely supported by the rules. The biggest thing that hits players is that I am an avid believer of the consequences of your actions catching up with you, both good and bad. I believe in a healthy mix of roleplay and combat, but I also know how to cater to the table depending at who is sitting at it.

Game details: Pathfinder 1, level 8. Standard gold. 25 point buy. Hit points after 1st level are roll or take average. Elephant In The Room. First party sources only, but as long as it's not outrageous (here's looking at you, Drow Noble) go crazy as long as you can come up with a backstory suitable for it.

If you're interested: Let me know! I'm not looking for full character builds yet, but if you're interested and you have one already, feel free to post it. I would like at least a character synopsis with a snippet of their backstory, race, class, and whatever else you think I should know about them. If this somehow blows up, I may even run two tables just to see how different the stories will go. 5 is personal maximum per table.