Hello!
Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I need to cancel all of my ongoing subscriptions.
Thank you!
-Ki
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Hello again! I figured I should make a second thread for this, but I'm having the same issue with the cart system that others have had. I'm trying to restart/start new Pathfinder subscriptions and the incorrect things are showing up for the final order (AP 143 and Planar Adventures, specifically). These are the 4 subscriptions in my cart that I'm trying to start with (The 2E Stuff). Pathfinder Adventure Ongoing Subscription - Pathfinder Adventure: The Fall of Plaguestone
Also, since Bestiary is also coming available at the same time, is it going to also be part of the first shipment? Thanks for all your help! -Ki
....Apparently when I updated my email account on the old system, it let me access this original account with the newer email. But all my stuff exists in this older email. And I have a third email that was used as well. So new question, is there a way to merge everything? Will updating my email to my newer one mess everything up since that account exists already? Thanks! -Ki
Hello! It's been a long 8+ years since I switched my magazine subscription over to becoming a Charter Adventure Path subscriber, but I believe the time has come for it to end. I have way more APs than my groups were willing to play, not including the tons of other stuff I collected over the years. Please cancel my Adventure Path Subscription. Also, please cancel my Pathfinder Tales Subscription, since I can just pick those up when I want them. I shouldn't have anything else subscribed... Let me know if I need to do anything else! Thank you for all that you guys have done!
Awesome! Thank you very much!
Hello! I was wondering what the policy was on getting a replacement for damaged goods due to the mail? I received my Adventure Path 94, but the package was pretty destroyed and the item itself is bent and scratched/ripped in places. Album with images:
Hello! Can you please cancel my Pathfinder Roleplaying Game subscription? I wish to KEEP my Adventure Path and Pathfinder Tales subscriptions. Thank you!
I've been hunting for an answer, but as my wife and I are on vacation it's hard to do from my phone... When you finish a scenario or adventure and you gain a boon, say "Draw a random weapon from the box." Does it count against your allowed cards in your deck? And replace another one already in your deck if you want it to? Or do you have that card in addition to the cards in your deck? Also, if it stays, do you lose it the next adventure when you have to rebuild your deck? Or do you just have to remember that it was one of the bonuses you gained? If it stays, can you switch it with another weapon you come across in the next adventure? And get to keep the new weapon as an extra card? If you don't keep it, is it just so you have another choice when rebuilding your deck? And lastly, if you keep it, can a character who has 0 for that type still keep it? And if not, do they essentially do the quest for nothing? Or I guess to help another character with options... Thanks for the help!
Hello lovely Paizo peoples! Can you please cancel my 'Pathfinder Adventure Card Game' and 'Pathfinder Campaign Setting' subscriptions, please? Many thanks! -Ki
Will do! Thank you very much!
Helloooo Paizo Peoples! So I'm having a problem with the shipping on one of my orders. My wife and I moved back in March, and I had THOUGHT I had changed my shipping address to our new place. Turns out, even though I changed my credit card and address in some places, it didn't take for my subscription packages. Luckily enough, I still didn't have any troubles getting my packages as they were forwarded to me, and in my excitement they just got opened without ever double-checking the address. Fast forward to December's shipment, and it never arrived. I looked up my orders and noticed that my address hadn't changed. I changed it to the correct one right before January's shipped. I chalked December's up to everyone having terrible winter weather and things getting delayed, etc. But then I got my January one yesterday. :( The tracking info says it's still in my town, but I won't be able to get it because I don't have the correct address on my license anymore. So... What can I do? Can I have it shipped back out once it comes back to you guys? Or is there anything else I can do? Please let me know! Thank you for your time! -Ki
Hello! Please Cancel my Pathfinder Battles Subscription. There's a lot of personal stuff going on in the next couple of months, and $500 is just way too much to throw down at one time. Thank you! -Ki
I also have a 3-PC party, but my problem is the opposite - way too much combat prowess. Barbarian, Monk, and an Oracle focused on healing. But because of that party, I have no heavy armor, no rogue-type characters, nor any arcane magic. I had to change the way I planned/ran my game. I definitely give them a good amount of combat, but I had to do away with excessive traps, and most arcane dealings besides magic items. I ended up setting my campaign more in the wilderness, just because it gave the characters more free spcace to roam and use their mobility. You're going to have to change the way you plan your game, or at least plan for your characters to be able to use their abilities better -- Stealth, suprise, etc. Combat can still be a lot of fun, you just have to think of ways to make it so that the PCs aren't always trying to go toe-to-toe with foes. Or make it so that if they are, the foes they fight are on the same playing field (as in not using a lot of melee). It might help to ask the players what kind of game they want to play in. I know it goes against what you might expect your campaign to be, but it seems like they all have lightweight, stealthy chracters. And lots of combat might not be what they are after. And if it is, some sort of "out" or way to escape quickly would definitely help with players dying. I also would never ask the Oracle to rebuild. If that's the character they want to play, then you're just going to have to find a way to make it work. Pidgeon-holing a person into playing something they didn't want to in the first place always leads to disaster. As a side note, I've found that 3 is the PERFECT number for getting a lot accomplished in a game. There's a lot more focus on the characters, and their goals and agendas. And it's enough that they're not going to die every time they turn around a corner. Plus, in the pure combat aspect, it goes a lot smoother and everyone stays engaged because they get more "turns". It's one of the few times that they get to spend more time playing instead of waiting.
Placing an order for an unreleased book is a preorder, regardless of whether you combine shipping with your subscription by placing it in the sidecart or choose to ship it separately. As long as you have the Adventure Path subscription when your preorder for Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition ships, you will will get the free PDF. Awesome! Thank you for answering my question!
Hellooooooo! I had a question about the sidecart and preorders. I ordered the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition because I heard if you preorder then you get the PDF. My question is, since I put it in my sidecart, does that still count as preordering? Or since I said ship it with my usual monthly shipping, it doesn't count and I won't get the PDF? -Ki
Can you please cancel my Pathfinder Modules subscription? Thank you! -Ki
Can you please cancel my Pathfinder Companion subscription? I want to keep the rest of my subscriptions for right now, but I'm going to have to start cutting back. Thank you! -Ki
I very rarely post on these boards (mostly because I'm out of the loop so many times, and really, it just seems like you're either part of the conversation near the beginning, or you're just lost). But this one in particular piked my interest. Mostly because I think something like this would be AMAZING. I'm all for ways to expand my game and have more monsters and areas detailed and all such and so forth. But from both a Player and a GM perspective, I would love to have something like this. From a GM perspective, it would fantastic to say "Hey, Fly becomes available at these levels. Ways to counter it are..." or even better "Some ways to incorporate this is..." Things that would interest a GM at those levels. Ways to create challenging encounters, both combat and non-combat. Details about running noble houses, or guilds. And having one for each 5-level tiers would be fantastic, and the challenges that exist. From a player perspective, it would be awesome as well. Becoming a part of a guild, running a keep, varying treasures. I played a 3.5e Bard in a 2-year campaign. Combat was fun, but all the other stuff was vastly more interesting (obviously). And for a product to have things that happen during certain levels, or things about level-specific groups and peoples, I think that such a thing would be far more valuable in the roleplaying department than most other things I've seen so far. My vote is for something such as this. I have the APs, and I've loved them, but have yet to play fully through any (the people here have a really bad habit of starting something and never finishing it). And I really love Golarion. But a product that has more level-relevant information that isn't tied to an AP would be awesome.
Paizo is awesome... But now I have to budget getting all the Pathfinder Society pdfs... Oh well! It's still awesome!
Well it's a good thing I decided to log on during lunch and check paizo out. All the money I spent on all those PDFs would have gone to waste. Sigh.
Sounds fair. I'll just have to wait for it to get another run then. Is there any hope of getting another print run of this and getting it in stock so I could obtain it?Not within the next several months. We're reserving our resources for printing the Pathfinder RPG this summer. I'd really like to get it back on the press shortly after that, though...
Is there any hope of getting another print run of this and getting it in stock so I could obtain it?
Sorry, I didn't mean it to be an anti-3e thing, I like both editions. But besides the point, 4ed is really easy to get into and because the rules work so well together, like everyone else says, there's a whole lot of teamwork involved. One of my utility powers is when I'm missed by a melee attack, I can move the enemy into an adjacent square to me and gain combat advantage against them. I've used it to move them to an adjacent square that moves through a square the orc threatens (and therefore provokes an opportunity attack) and we've killed a few kobolds and goblins this way. I won't lie. Beware of rangers. As far as I've seen, they are the most deadly class in the game. Especially when coupled with the Eladrin and their abilities. Oh, and another thing, just last night, there was a secret tunnel that we had to be searching in the exact right spot for(the correct square), and I rolled a natural 20... On the space RIGHT NEXT to the secret door.
I've been in two 4ed games so far. I DMed the first Pathfinder module, Burnt Offerings, except using 4ed rules (the game fell through due to lack of personal time to set up and run the game), and the second one I'm currently playing in (It's Keep on the Shadowfell). As a DM, the game is beautiful. It really is. The monsters are much more fun, their stats and abilities are there in plain english and monsters are much, much easier to use and run. The stat blocks say "This is what the monsters have. This is what they can do. Run with it." Therefore, you spend more time actually worrying about plot, story, and creating fun tactical encounters. As a player, the game is very fun. I also play in a 3ed campaign that's been going on for over a year now, and it's a lot of fun as well. But character-wise I found 4ed to be much more enjoyable. Every class is versatile and fun. They have their own abilities and powers, and combat is a tactical challenge that's actually fun and exciting. And just because it's tactical doesn't mean we sacrifice roleplaying at all. We do what our characters would do, and there's non-stop character driven story and conversation. The game really just made combat more streamlined and enjoyable. Our party is made up of a cast of different characters. The three who are always there are myself, an Eladrin Ranger (two-blade build), an Elven Wizard, and an Orc Fighter (using the rules in the back of the monster manual). There is also a Human Warlord who shows up every once in a while. With fewer members, we really have to be more aware of what to do in combat. I particularly like my eladrin fey step ability (teleport 5 squares), and I tend to use it after exhausting my encounter to be surrounded by enemies and get an attack on just one (helpful against Minions). Then I teleport behind the main bad guy and due my Jaws of The Wolf (massive damage to one target). The Wizard loves her magic missles (which also have a hard time hitting in our group), and her acid arrow. She's almost killed me with it, actually, just last night. Due to the splash. The Fighter does what he does best. Cleaves, takes sweeping attacks, and he usually has a bad habit of rushing in, leaving us to save him. All in all, it's a fantastic tactical game. And it is D&D. There's no sacrifice in roleplay, or roleplaying spells (Roleplaying spells are still there - Utility powers and rituals). No lack of roleplay in character powers or abilites. And it's pretty cool to be able to have abilities only your character can do, and have them be named. Keep on the Shadowfell isn't fantastic in terms of story or creativity. But it is a very good adventure to get used to the rules, and we're having a lot of fun with it so far.
The only thing that's annoyed me so far is the martial classes having at-will powers. It would seem unfair if they didn't, but they've been absurd in actual play so far. Regular melee and ranged attacks no longer exist in actual play. Why would they when my characters can do special attacks every single round? It's kind of like seeing a lame fighting game where they call out their attack every single round. That's my only big pet peeve so far. My girlfriend thinks 4e is awesome though. :)
My job is 30 miles away. Our Honda Ridgeline gets 15mpg, which is what I have to drive most days. We have a KIA Spectra but another member of the family drives that (26mpg). It takes 2 gallons to get to work, and two gallons to get back home pretty much. So I'm spending roughly $15.60 a day in gas, just for work (It's $3.90 a gallon here). 5 days a week, that ends up being $78 a week, or $312 a month. Every job near us pays about $6, but at my job 30 miles away I earn $10.50. If gas doubles, or rather, is around $7.75, it won't be worth it to drive to work anymore. I'm better off getting stuck in a crappy fast food job down the street, and I'll probably still make out with more money. There's not much I can do if gas gets that high. So probably around $7.50 I'd end up quitting my job for a closer one. The worst part is that that's just for work. Going to see my girlfriend is becoming a big hassle because of gas costs (not to mention going out to eat, or to go out and do anything), nor does that include going to school (which is also about 25 miles away). At this rate, it's better off to just spend the money I have on a small plot of land, put up a tent, and grow a garden, eating as meagerly as possible. *Shrug* It's getting insane.
....There it goes. Woke up this morning and it showed up. Well.. Right on. That works. Thanks for all the help!
Hey Cos, I did get the e-mail, but there's nothing saying any credit on my account from my card. Corey said in the previous post that a replacement order would be shipped, but I don't know if that went through, or if I was just supposed to get the money back and order a replacement myself, or what. But there's no credit to my account for the bag. Thank you!
Hey Corey, My return package got delivered last week on Tuesday. Is there any update on what's going on? Nothing on my account says anything, so I was just curious. I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
Hello Customer Service Reps! I guess my quetion is... How? I ordered the Red Dice Purse for my girlfriend as a birthday present, and gave it to her just this past Thursday (May 8). Unfortunately, it's falling apart already! One of the zippers didn't work, and got snapped off, and now the inside stitching holding it together is ripping open. And it's only been 5 days! I was wondering how/if I can return it and get another one, or what? She really wants another one, it just sucks that it broke already. I went to the Product Returns page, and all it's talking about is the defective campaign workbook. There's nothing about anything else being returned. Thus, I couldn't find anything about returning anything. Anyway, any help on this would be awesome! Thank you!
Right on. I understand now. Thanks for all the help!
Hey Customer Service Team, I placed this order yesterday, and awesomely enough it says it's in the shipping phase already. Unfortunately, I went to check my bank account this morning and it has two charges on it from Paizo (and I'm pretty sure this is the only order I have). The first is for the amount of this order ($119.74), but then there's a charge after that for $98.74 that I have no idea what that's about. I'll check on it again later, but a random charge for almost 100 bucks kind of freaks me out. Thanks for looking into it!
Go with it. All I'm saying is that don't force yourself into an "I only have a barbarian and a bard" mindset. Throw what you want at the players (doing the whole CR thing). Just because a creature has something deadly/challenging to overcome doesn't mean you have to completely write it out. Perhaps they're running into a weaker tribe of Troglodytes or something. Just because you think of a cool idea doesn't mean you shouldn't use it, you should just work around it. Like there's no rogue in the group I'm playing in -- The DM knows this, and traps aren't super deadly/unfindable (and therefore able to be skipped) and most of the time aren't even an issue. From your group, there's a fighter and a performer/persuader. Hitting up heavily on their abilities are fun, but don't unnecessarily take things out just because it would be a greater challenge. As for ideas themselves, it's really hard to say. You know your players better than I do, so I don't know what kind of encounters they like. On that note though, some points I do have to say is that Dungeons are probably not your best friend. For having only two people, going down into the 15th sublevel of the Dark Vampire's Dungeon Fortress... Yeah, that shouldn't be ANYWHERE near your characters. If one goes down, the other is most likely going to go down quickly as well, or even end up having to leave his friend behind to save his own skin. And getting stuck so far down without ANY help is folly on their part in the first place. I think a dungeon with one, MAYBE two levels... That's best for your party. Ever. Anything more in depth/deadly and extraneous would be wasted and asking for a 2 man TPK (Especially with only limited access to healing). Urban adventures, things about cities, really play on the Bard's skills. Anything more run the wild plains stuff, that plays on the Barbarian's. I'd have to say something like a frontier-ish kind of place. Some place on the edge of civilized lands, where there's a really good sized city, but beyond that fortress/city lies unknown dangers; That's the kind of thing I would run. You could have some dangers threatening the city, and that would play the bard, and then the characters go check it out and find out what it is, that's the barbarian. Especially since they're helping the city with their "big problems", access to healing and shops and such would be much more accessible because of their aid in the city. Going from the SCAP, perhaps there's some group like the Striders of Farlaghn, or the Harpers or something that take interest in the characters, and watch them. And if they ever get into some serious hot water where they're missing for longer then a week, then agents are sent after them to see what became of them (aka to bail them out and keep the adventure going). Not to mention the possibility of these characters joining such a group. Something like in the DMG2, an Adventurers Guild, where there's known dungeon adventures sites, and they can gather aid from the guild in exchange for a share of the booty. Honestly a mix of all of these things might be good for your group of two players, as access to Divine and Rogue abilites are nonexistant. But I would definately focus more on small dungeons they hit up, and more urban adventures. I'm not saying the dungeons should be so small and retarded they're not worth going to, but I'm saying anything really deep would be just asking for some kind of end to the game. Hope that helps some.
I'm actually running into the same problem in my SCAP campaign, since two (of five) of the party just dropped out. And they were both the arcane casters of the group. But the way I see it, and honestly the way I always look at any of my tabletop games, is this: Story is all that's important. The way, I think, a D&D game should be run/evolve is that there's a story to tell, with combat, while fun, only existing to further the story or to break up the roleplaying encounters. Sure, there can be a lot of combat, but it should exist for a reason. Much like you did with the city adventure, there's a story there. You build your adventures around a story that you want to tell, that wants to be told, and that your players want to be a part of. The way you're going about it is "What kind of monsters can I use that my party can handle..." But there's only so many times you can kill an Orc King. I think you need to just sit down, and write an adventure - without specifically tailoring it to your players. And after you've finished designing your 6th sublevel of the Queen of Spider's Dungeon, then go back and specifically look at a monster's abilities and be like "This might cause a big problem, what other type of similar monster can I replace him with, or for what reason would he not have that ability?" I mean some of the most engaging, exciting parts in any of the adventures I've ever played in have been those times where the Rogue just got taken down by an ogre in the last room, the cleric is out of healing spells, and the trapped room is slowly filling up with sand. Some of the most memorable, creative aspects of the game come from when characters NOT meant to be in a situation, such as a barbarian stuck in court, actually occur. What would your characters, who aren't skilled in something, do to handle the situation? It shouldn't be impossible, but it should be a challenge. Another thing is to look at the characters themselves. One of the newer players (even one of the older players) are having a hard time realizing that their characters have their own desires and goals, and aren't just a set of stats on a piece of paper. Find out what that gnome wants in life, or what that barbarian wants to do. Sure the barbarian might just want to kill stuff, but if something in his backstory (like being born under the full moon at winter solstice, while flavor text, and doesn't mean anything when they write it), can actually turn into something that DOES mean something exciting further down the road, it will draw the character, and more importantly, the player, deeper into the game. As you can tell, I like story, and throw things out there that I love seeing how the players handle it, especially if they aren't specifically built to handle what it is. And I agree with Aubrey, the Action Points are a great idea for parties with fewer members. I definately plan on implementing them now that my party's dropped down to three.
Are there still no plans for an Age of Worms hardcover like the Shackled City Adventure Path (Which I bought and am currently running)? The AoW ran at a time when I couldn't really get my hands on the magazines, and so I'm missing 10/12 of the magazines for it. I ask because I'm 10 magazines over in my subscription from when it ends, so I was wondering if I should be a Pathfinder subscriber, which I want to do, and hope for a hardcover; Or should I just go ahead and get/hope to get the 10 issues I'm missing? Personally I want a hardcover, because that'd just be awesome, but... Yeah. Just wondering what I should do.
So it says that this is for anything non D20 related... But it doesn't seem to fit under D&D.... Anywho, has anyone played/run a game of D20 Modern/Future? To be honest, I'm really into it. I've already created all these tidbits of story and started the workings of a campaign and yaddah yaddah yaddah, and I'm really into what I've got down and then some. I actually don't have the Future/Future Tech books yet, but I'm gonna go try and see if I can buy them tomorrow. Has anyone run into any problems or tidbits of information they might want to share? I'm going to run a campaign that's clashing with three things: Modern times, scientific breakthroughs rapidly leading to the future, and creatures leaking through different portals around the world. So far they've been just filtering in slowly, and hiding amongst society, carving out their own existence in the rapidly changing scenery. That's where the heroes come in. They're contacted by an Agency that looks to capitalize on each characters' unique abilities. The characters have their regular lives, their regular jobs, but once in a blue moon they're contacted by this agency to come together and take on something they find they can use that characters unique abilities for. There are times when a Cybernetic SWAT team just doesn't have the tact and versatility of a hand-picked specialist team of Agents. They, of course, will have the agencies support. However, expensive things won't just be given to the characters. This game is going to be run because some weeks we just can't play in my D&D SCAP adventure (I like mostly everyone being there for it. 1 missing I can deal with, but 2+ just leads to disaster). So I'm running this as a sort of one-shot-when-I-need-it game. Characters are selected for a mission, come in, do their deed, get paid - or whatever their characters come up with, go home. I know there's a Shadowrun thread on here, but I didn't feel like threadjacking it. I'm thinking of taking some things from Shadowrun and using them in my game. Anyone think I'll have any problems with this? Different mechanics and such, yes, but I meant ideas and tidbits of "Hey, that's cool." And 3e vs 4e? I'll probably end up just getting 4e anyway. Anyway, thanks for any input you guys have.
I still call myself a "noob" DM because of all the glaring mistakes I made the first time around. Until I learn from them, I can't really call myself anything but. I know it's a constantly growing/changing thing where everytime you sit down, and really every 10 minutes there's something new, but some of the mistakes I made were just... Retardation on my part. First of all, I've run 2 other published adventures that were in dungeon magazine, but in the group there were 3 people (myself included), and it was much, much easier to wing and change things on the fly. With 4 people, your time is much, much more limited at the game table to just BS and make stuff up. Lesson 1. The second thing is to READ THE ADVENTURE IN DEPTH. This ties into the first one, because all I did was skim the adventure. It was more like "I read the description... Okay they have tactics (Didn't read them), and there's some treasure. Cool." I spent a lot more time going over the RP encounters, and those went by faster than I wanted them to. Which lead into combat/rooms that I really didn't know well enough to describe without straight reading from the text (find my players disfavor this) or even think about what would happen on the fly because I didn't read through them enough. Actually that's probably the only real problem I had. Besides thinking on my feet a little quicker (which will improve over time), the only mistake was that I skimmed the adventure, but I didn't really know it well enough to run it. At least run it as well as I should have been able to. Like giving them a wand with the illusion of a sleeping gnome? Stupid. I need to write treasure down and it's worth... I couldn't find certain things again when they asked how much it was and I was trying to flip back through all the rooms to find that one serpent ring. Made me seem completely unprepared, honestly. As for the game being a team effort to make it great -- I agree! I love the fact that we're all making this happen. But on the other side, in a published adventure, it's almost like you have to take the control out of their hands to get them where you want/need them for the adventure to work. I don't like doing that because it's almost like I had to go outside the game and go "Look. Go to Ghelve's Locks already." I'm going to reward them for caring though. Ted -- Awesome story, and awesome idea. I don't want my players down in the Underdark, but I don't want to punish them for caring about the dwarf chicks husband. Besides, they're all Forgotten Realms freaks and think the Underdark is what the world's all about. Instead, I'm going to make the Underdark come to them. Parts of it, anyway. The skulks are actually grouped up more because of their minor skirmishes with some hobgoblins who didn't know how to get out besides braving the underdark. Jzadirune is ALMOST the same. I'm just going to completely ignore some doors at this point because they're moot now that they've gone down and done their deed. Some are still a threat, but a bunch of "You open the door to find nothing." No matter how "creepy" I make them, are even getting on MY nerves. I'm actually going to up the number of encounters because my group likes combat. They're not RP heavy, but I'm trying to mold them into that direction. Hobgobs/skulks, plus the ragomoffyn they missed, and the skulks by the automatons, the centipedes. (They fought 5 skulks. That's it.) As for the Malachite Fortress... I'm actually looking to redo that. They just know of what they passed, and I can actually use the rooms as written to help out the missing dwarf. But Pyllrak (I REALLY hope he's not important...) apparently is "scared" of the PCs (What kind of Cleric attacks a creature that doesn't want to fight back!? -- Mine.), but still thinks he can get the skulks to join his side and do what they did for Kazmojen, for him. He hires 2 forsaken Drow (so no wrath of the households stuff, and I can end it right there). And between the drow, and I'm thinking a hook horror (since the umber hulk is used in a later chapter). I think he might be overpowered though, even if I do "lessen" him, since the Drow beat him into submission to join them. Unless you all have a better idea for something nasty from the underdark (Besides the two level 3 drow). And a bunch of slaves to forge him stuff and start getting his own slaves (including those four children he missed out on...). So yeah, I'm looking into doing that. I like it, it just completely cuts off that end of the story so it can move on, while letting them get the taste of their underdark, feel like they did something about it, and saved the dwarf chicks husband. As for XP... I realized now that I need to give it out after every fight/RP/Trap encounter. Well not every trap, but at certain points tack it on. My characters were still level 1 when they fought Kazmojen (noob DM mistake). Him and his dog really would have killed all four of them. In fact he should have, several times, but I fudged the dice because of my unpreparedness. And my lack of foresight (I really didn't think they'd even GET to Jzadirune, but they got all the way down to the end of the adventure. Missing QUITE a bit, true, but still.) I knew they should have XP, but I didn't think we'd just keep going... And going... And going. So I didn't give out XP thinking "Eh, I'll figure it out over the weekend." But they didn't want to stop, and honestly, neither did I. I know what to do now though... XP and Treasure -- all the time, write it down as I go. Anyway, thanks for your input guys, it's helpful with all this thinking process.
Hey, thanks for the help guys. That actually cleared it up quite a bit. I got completely confused when I read it on Monday. I realize my mistake was in the wording (I've learned to read the "gist" of things, instead of every word. For school and just reading books sake. It obviously didn't work out so well this time). But yeah, now that I read it it makes perfect sense. And I also see about casting something at higher levels, so that's a big help too, for futures sake. Awesome, thanks. Ankounite
This actually came up as a big mess on the first day of my new SCAP Campaign. The Cleric in my party chose it as one of his first feats (human), and at first I didn't have a problem with it. Until we read it and couldn't figure it all out. One of the main problems is the PHB and the DMG are completely different, and parts of the description don't make sense. First of all, in the PHB (P.99) it says it costs: 25GP X Level of the Spell X Level of the Caster. The caster must also spend 1/25 this price in XP and use up raw materials costing one-half of this base price. So, if I read it from the PHB, it costs 25GP for a first level spell (25 x 1 x 1). The part that doesn't make sense is the using "...up raw materials costing one-half of this base price." Does that mean that it costs an extra 12.5gp (37.5GP total) for one scroll? Or that the next scroll he scribes will only cost 12.5gp, for a total of 37.5GP for two scrolls; and after those two scrolls he spent up his raw materials and has to get more? The 37.5gp for each doesn't make sense anyway because to just buy the scrolls themselves only cost 25gp. Still going on that, now that he's second level, does that mean that it would cost him 50GP to make the same scroll because his caster level went up? Or does he still cast that spell for the scroll as a level 1 caster? But in the DMG (P.287) it costs: 12.5GP x Level of the Spell x Level of the Caster. (It actually fails to mention the XP cost except in the table, but it does say that the cost of materials is subsumed [included in] the 12.5GP cost). Going by that, and the table, it takes 12.5gp for a level 1 spell, and the materials are included in that cost. But again, since he's a level higher, does he have to multiply that by 2, and pay 25GP for each Level 1 spell scroll scribed? Or does he still cast that spell for the scroll as a level 1 caster?
Oh, and another thing... Can someone link me to the Crime and Punishment file on theRPGenius.com? I've been through the SCAP Archive stuff several times now and still can't find it.
I'm not going to lie, I had a BLAST. The downside, of course, is that I've only DMed bits and pieces here and there for friends and whatnot, and not in any long-term setting (The highest character I've DMed for is the level 5 dwarf fighter my older brother has, and that was all dungeon crawl). I thought it'd be easier to start off with something like the SCAP, a complete published campaign. But when you're pressed with time, you really can't go as in depth as you want to. And I've found my players don't like me straight reading the text off the pages. I keep fearing breaking something within the SCAP, and having to do even MORE work to fix it later down the road. I've come to the conclusion that yes, published adventures are fantastic, but unlike taking a map and winging it with a general outline of what's going on, they take a good amount of time to prepare for. As a noob DM, they're a massive help, but trying to run them straight out of the book isn't going to happen. It's good and bad that way. I think the best example is the Dwarf chick who says her husband was missing. That's some flavor text that made the entire party think they had to immediately delve down and take on the Underdark... As level 1 characters. Now I had to come up with a way for him to mystically show up from the underdark just to appease the players. It's good they care, but oh so annoying as well. I ended up having her be next to Gurnezan's Smithy... Her and her missing husband are smithies. She reoutfitted the full plate from Kazmojen for the Dwarf, and got a hold of some masterwork Banded mail for the cleric. We'll see how that turns out. You know, that takes me to another point... Do you all give out XP at the end of each "encounter" aka battle/room, do you wait till they've done like 1/4 or 1/2 the dungeon, or do you just do it at the end of the "session"? I think another downfall is that we played for 11 hours straight, and without me giving out XP, they REALLY weren't prepared for Kazmojen. I'm having fun, and with more focus on what's at hand then what's down the line, I'll do much better this coming Monday. Also, I found my players are too used to rollplay than roleplay. I'm trying to get them back into that roleplay, because they ALWAYS just rush in and start swinging no matter what's going on. Especially in the last encounters... Kazmojen: "What do ye want down here!? Ye're interrupting me sale!" *Magic Missle. Vhalantru/Orbius: "We have come for the Child called Terrem! Release him to us!" *Dwarf Runs off with the kid (gets tripped by Thifrane), while the Cleric proceeds to swing his mace at the beholder's closed eye (sleep ray).* I'm trying to get them into roleplaying more, but yeah... It'll be a bit more. Part of the reason is that I AM a noobish DM, and I don't think as fast on my feet as I should because I always come off with "That's not what I read in the book..." And then I get flustered, can't think of what I should and go "They say no." Anyway, any tips on ways to help me think on my feet and prepare for the unexpected would be helpful, as I have a feeling I'll be coming into that problem more and more. Alright, back to working on the campaign...
---=== UPDATE (Long, sorry)===--- Oh, the Love! The Love! The Hate! The Hate! To be honest, I did NOT have the prep time that I really thought I would have. Second of all, I spent all the time I DID have trying to look up this NPC and how to tie them in at that time and meet the characters, and yaddah yaddah yaddah. Basically a bunch of extraneous stuff that actually seriously hindered the "adventure", but was still intriguing nonetheless. I spent more time trying to add flair without focusing on the adventure itself. I think I need to stop worrying about what will happen DOWN THE LINE in the adventure, and focus on what's going on right then and there. Especially since I don't have an abundant amount of time to prep in depth beyond reading the book and checking some stuff out here and there. Another thing is falsely guessing how much time things will take. I threw in an encounter with two guards where all the PCs meet in the line, essentially to get them together, and to give them a little bit of a hassle. Honestly, it was to gauge some roleplaying out of them to see why they came to the city of Cauldron, and what they wanted to do and whatnot. It didn't last long. The first two were alright with it, got some stuff out of them, but as they just basically made their characters, there wasn't as much as I thought I'd get from them. The last one just saw the others in front of him pay a Silver Piece to get in, when asked what he wanted in the city, could only answer "treasure", tossed the guard his SP and moved on. (STARTED as 3 players.) Part of the problem, as well, is that in the other game I PLAY in that we're all there for, we play with min/maxxing overbearing semi-powergamers. They're not used to so much roleplaying. They're more used to DM manipulation and constantly moving onto the next thing; instead of taking the time to get into what's going on in depth with the people and the city. The first encounter was pretty fun, though... Until they got to Jil. She looked down, and told them to pretty much back off, and move on. They shrugged it off, but decided to become ENAMORED with the Last Laugh. They kept trying to think of ways to get in touch with the guild, and I kept telling them that they were very well hidden within the city. In fact they're STILL obsessed with finding out what that guild is all about. The St. Cuthbert temple went pretty by the book, until the cleric of our party goes "I want to stay here." "What?" "I'm staying at the temple." "But they don't have enough room for you." "Then I sleep in the pew. They have to let me at least do that, we just saved one of their Clerics." So I had to throw in my Tavern and say that she knew the owner and let them stay a few days for their brave deed. This was only the beginning of unscripted, what-the-hell-do-I-do? (as the DM) moments. They got to the orphanage, and even with the divination, after inspecting the locks, and talking to everyone, they got to Patch. He got intimidated into spilling his beans about Terrem, the Last Laugh Guild (or what little he knew), and the man he met. All this time, they keep thinking that The Last Laugh is completely responsible for everything, so they just keep trying to find out all about the guild, which I had absolutely NO information on since I haven't read that far yet. I had to play DM prod to get them anywhere near Ghelve's Locks. They did pretty much everything I didn't think they would do, and then some. All these curveball not-anything-near-what's-in-the-adventure things. They got to Jzadirune and already realized the deadliness of the gear doors within 2... 3 hours. First one was for character creation, too. Jzadirune was HORRIBLE. Warmage, Cleric, Fighter. No rogue. It was retarded. Luckily, the Fighter's Girlfriend was there listening the whole time, is actually into the stuff. I called a "DM Break", made a rogue character sheet, and said "Here, you're a rogue." Jzadirune is HORRIBLE and BORING as anything (No offense to who wrote it), without a rogue. It's just... Half the time it's useless. Even knowing they had to beware the doors with teeth, and figured that out, it was a completely useless dungeon to them without a rogue. In fact, they made the WORSE possible line through the city EVER. And, again, WITH the rogue it seemed like one of the most annoying dungeons I've ever SEEN. 9/10 of the rooms were "You find nothing of value." I know the Skulks picked it clean, and it's probably the path they took, but even as the DM I was like "This dungeon has no gratification whatsoever. They've only fought 4 skulks and are already near the elevator down and found... Nothing." Two interesting things though... I misread that throne room, and gave them a rod that has permanent illusion (sleeping gnome king). And secondly, the Warmage found two scrolls with The Vanishing. This is, of course, after angering the gnome face in the throne room and losing 6 dex. I'm saying that the Vanishing comes into play when you "use" items. So when he casts, HE has to make a Fort save. And most likely at the most innoportune time, too. Hasn't happened yet. Should be fun. Malachite Fortress, fought the statue and such... Bypassed the Otyugh/Ogre room. Boarded up the Forge room to rest, moved out, and went straight to the final battle. They were getting slaughtered. The warmage dropped THREE times. I rolled two crits on the fighter with his urgosh... And comepletely ignored them, saying they missed. I even had to take the hobgoblins out of that room. It was... It wasn't good. I think I need to give out XP for each ROOM or something. I don't know if they'd be level 2 since they bypassed so much, but still, they might have been. It doesn't say "Hey, they should be such and such level when they fight this final boss." Just says what they should be at the beginning of each adventure. If I didn't fudge 90% of my rolls, every one of them would have died. It WAS, however, fun seeing how fast they could rip off Kazmojen's armor to light him on fire. So in the end, there was... Pfew... 100+ curveballs... Problems, etc. But the funnest 11 hours straight ever, LOL. I think i'll like Mondays. Not to mention that... They left the door to the Underdark OPEN and couldn't catch up to Pyllrak and had to let him get away. And they're going back because they didn't find the head skulk with the keys. They did, however, find keys on Kazmojen they're trying to figure out what they did. PLUS they didn't rescue Keygan's familiar. It'll be fun to see how they deal with the underdark coming up, AND the skulks ganging up in Jzadirune. Oh, and the slaves in the Forge... They say absolutely NOTHING about what happens to them. And since the Dwarf Chick said her husband was taken... They think they have to delve into the Underdark to save him. Instead, I'm going to make the Underdark come to THEM and be done with it. Unplanned stuff, for sure, but fun times are ahead.
Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback! As it turns out, I'm starting... MONDAY. That's right, in just a few days. It's a lot sooner than I thought it would be, for sure. But I think I'm fairly ready for the first meeting. Oh, and I'm not running a pure Greyhawk Campaign. Honestly I don't really notice a huge difference between campaign settings besides different flavors, and because this is its entire own campaign, I won't really have to worry about trying to work a certain flavor in. I could, sure, but it's easier (and I like it more that way), to just run a purely general fantasy setting. In fact, I can't stick with just Greyhawk Gods because one of my players is dead set on playing a Cleric of Tymora, and I'm really not that bothered by it. SectionB, what Tribes are you talking about? And you're right, Price lists for Taverns and the Nobility is on my list of things to do. As for the Vanishing, the way I read it is: You get one Fort Save when you first touch an infected item. You succeed, everything is fine. You fail, and then you hit a 1 day incubation period. After that day is up, you're hit with the first 1d6 CHA damage and start fading away. Each day at the same time you're hit with another 1d6 CHA damage until your CHA reaches 0, at which point you die (Fade away). This can only be removed with a successful Break Enchantment, Remove Disease, or Remove Curse spell. So it turns out to be a race against the dice and time. I believe once the curse is removed, the CHA damage is removed as well. Otherwise, this would be far too deadly a 1st level disease/curse against Sorcs and Bards (What do you mean my Charisma went from an 16 to a 10!? My character is useless now!). That's how I'm going to deal with The Vanishing. As for XP, it really depends on how many people end up playing. There's... 3, for sure (one's wife is against him participating in ANOTHER all-day event/game on his 3 days off, but for the most part he'll be there). Then there's two others that will BE there, but I'm not sure if they'll be in the game or not. And another person might join, I'm not sure yet. So it could be 6, it could end up being 3. If it's 3, which I hope it isn't, it could be bad, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll just end up changing a few things and lowering encounters and such. Yes, I would rather cut out entire encounters and downgrade bosses before not running the SCAP. I've been wanting to run the SCAP for quite a while now. Jil will be interacted with whether they notice her or not. I'm assuming she and the Last Laugh Guild play a big part in an adventure later down the road (which one is it?). As for Alek Tercival, he'll be interacted with as soon as they return to Jenya for their reward (unless he's not supposed to be there at the time?) I'm sorry I haven't read far enough ahead to see where it's all going, but the seeds must be sown! And the Stormblades will be there when they first want to "visit a shop". Sarcem will possibly be met on the road to Cauldron as well. Lots of things going on, for sure. And Robert Brambley, you're foreshadowing people I don't know about at the moment, sadly. I would say that I could possibly read a lot more by the time they leave the Malachite Fortress, but the way I understand it, we're starting our "meeting" at around 3pm, and finishing... Between 11pm and 3am. (We all work the night shift). So I have absolutely no clue how far we'll get. And you're right, I've been flipping through Cityscape and Dungeonscape (Cityscape more though, lately), and taking bits and pieces. Oh, and one last question for all you guys who are running/have run the SCAP: Did you read the flavor text as it's written, did you just use the gist of it and do a mix of your own and it, or did you just say "So that's what's in that room..." and describe it your own way? I'm trying to decide which way to do it. Just wondering your thoughts on that. Anyway, again, thanks a lot for your input guys, if you have anything else to add, share. I appreciate the tips and help immensely.
So... Who here has the hardcover version? I do. I actually own most of the Dungeon magazines that had the original story, but sad to say, I never REALLY read them. Just flipped through going "Oh, that might be cool." It was at a time when I didn't actively play the game, just got the magazines for ideas/adventures when I actually WOULD get to play. And guess what? Well, apparently the time is upon me to run a game, and I for sure want to do the SCAP. I think... What I've read and heard of it so far has been nothing but awesome goodness. But my question is, who here has actually read the ENTIRE campaign? I mean, since it came out in adventure "parts" anyway, in the magazines, should I only look forward and read for that adventure, or should I be trying to rush rush read through the whole thing? I know I've read a few places that people think you should read the whole thing outright and get everything together and make the city come alive. But honestly that's a lot of work for someone unless you have an overabundant amount of time. It'd be awesome if I could do that, but that's a LOT of work/time I don't have, to be honest. I have a liberal sprinkling of time, of course, but not so much that I think I would be able to do that. I'm slowly reading through it, getting a feel for the city and everything, but how prepared do you think I would need to be? I'll probably get more into it after we start, sure, but what I'm really asking is what exactly, hard in stone, do I need to flesh out and think about to be prepared in the long run? Any hints, tips, tricks, whatever anyone has can be useful. I've been checking out theRPGgenius.com, and it's got some good stuff on there. But anything else anyone has to add, or things they've tried and failed/succeeded in would be helpful. So really, anything you got pertaining to the entire SCAP, specific or general, would be fantastic. I would like more focus on the city, and the starting adventures, but if you feel something's important (like foreshadowing certain people more or something), please, share.
Youngest of 3. Older Sis (2 years) and an older Bro (5 years). I've gotten both of them to play a bit here and there over the years, but my brother's more of a ladies man, and both him and my sister were centers in the "popular" crowd growing up. I was popular, but more of a gamer in the long run. Overall though, we tend to be more video gamers than anything. I'd be the only real Tabletop RPer in the family (entire). Word.
If you're going by "official" -- The Three Core Rulebooks, and then every other book published by WotC, plus Dungeon and Dragon, and the SRD -- That's a lot of offical rules, but it's all technically "official." Now if you want my take on it... Something like Warhammer (I've only played in two games of that, unfortunately), and even Second Edition are something people either like or hate. There were just hardcore rules for the most part -- That's an orc, that's what it does. The beauty (and horribleness as well) in third edition is the insane amount of customizability. Coming into the new millenia, I think they realized that most people have seen orcs and every basic fantasy stereotype in existence. So the new rules seem more like guidelines than anything in stone. It gives a general rule, and you can use it at face value, or you can go in and change and customize it all to your whims. But you're right; going to any other DM with your PC tends to be troublesome unless they both use the same rulebooks/errata/etc. The only way around that is to customize your character to their campaign and house rules. It's more like... "Whatever you want to do, as long as you try and follow the mechanics and guidelines..." is the motto. Love it or hate it, it's the way it is. The way I see it, as long as you're having fun, who really cares what it's called to the outside world?
So I come to a dilemma I think some of you guys might have faced, and thought to ask how it turned out, or at least your advice on what I should do. So here's the set up: I like D&D, a lot. I spend way too much time and money on a hobby I rarely get to participate in. It sucks -- immensely. It has become my new mission to get together a group and play (for real this time, I swear). So, as luck would have it, I'm hanging out at work, there's this other cool dude there, and we get to talking and low and behold, he plays! Or played... Both, really. He's like me... Gets a random game every once in a long while. Anyway... So between him and me (and either of us can DM. He's done it years past, and I'm currently reading the SCAP hardcover, so either way is absolutely fine with me.) we have two people. There's another guy at work, and he'd be three, and maybe even his girlfriend because she's cool like that, strangely enough. And I don't really want to intrude on this other game that goes on after the Sunday Amtgard get together, but a person or two from there might want to join up too. That'd be cool with me. (I'd find more people, but the 6pm-4:30am shift from Wednesday - Saturday kind of limits our abilities to find other people to play with. Only Sunday is available to anyone who works a normal schedule, and even then it's hard enough getting out of bed to go swing foam swords at each other.) The dilemma comes to where to play. I feel that doing all this work to get a game going, it would fall to me to host. But... My house isn't really that kind of place/house. We could, but my mom would hate all these weird people showing up and being loud and noisy and... Honestly it breaks my fantasy realm when my parents are around. Trying to balance between being geeky weird and being the awesome "good" smart son. There's two levels in my house. I'm on one, with my room and two spare bedrooms with stuff/junk in them (not large enough to game in though), the kitchen and the living room. And then my parents took the entire sublevel for their bedroom, computer room and laundry room (and to the garage). The only way to get away is by being in my room when they're in theirs. They understand my hobbies and what I'm into and stuff, but... They're different from me. My dad plays video games, even though he's been lax about it lately, but the tabletop being weird part... Not really their cup of tea. Yeah, I'm 20, and living at home is starting to get to me (I live at home still for good reasons, no bashing, kk?). Public really isn't the way to go either, because... Honestly, there's not that much around here. And often getting public places to agree to let you stay there for 4-6+ hours turns out to be too much of a hassle. The other thing is, his wife is cool, hell she might even want to play -- she already does Amtgard. I'd ask him if we can hang out at his house to play, but I'm not so sure about that either. It'd be like putting him on the spot, and I don't really want to do that. Not to mention my argument seems weak if he'd ask why we couldn't meet at my house (it makes sense immensely in my head though). So yeah, I was wondering what happens with you guys? Did someone just go "Hey, play at my place?" Or do you guys meet in public places, or what? It would seem like it'd be my respobsibility, and I agree my argument is kind of weak. But I wouldn't want to do it here if I didn't have to. Sacrifices, I guess. Answers? Comments? Paranoia?
I have to agree, me actually subscribing just started three months ago. But between the high cover price (compared to the loads you save by subscribing) and having to worry about getting every issue (I was bad with that), the subsription was the way to go. That way it comes right to my house, so I don't really have to worry about not getting an issue, and it just makes sense to save all that money when you buy them all anyway... So far so good on the deliveries though. But they seem to be on top of it, if you do actually not get an issue, so just drop them a line and they'll send you another one out.
My mistress Malcanthet says she is the one and only god. I have no choice but to ob.... More lotion? Right away, mistress!
Radcliff, Kentucky. I think I'm the only person from KY on these boards. I feel special now, representing my state... Even though I've only been living here for about 8 months. |