Apupunchau's page

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at The Soralyon, the Empyreal Lord of guardians, magic, and monuments.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Soralyon, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Mystic Angel as their patron? In what ways do they further this Empyreal Lord's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

The good guys always win or do they. It isn't often at the end of a movie the villains go over. But failure can be a great learning experience for the heroes if you can find the right balance of wins to losses. Its a hard thing to find but today lets talk about some of the issues with your players facing defeat.

Have you ever handed your player's a decisive defeat mid game? Have you ended a a story arc with the party's loss? How many wins to losses do you hand your opponents?

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at The Geryon, the Archdevil of forbidden lore, heresies, and snakes.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Geryon, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Serpent as their patron? In what ways do they further this Archdevil's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

This was a bizarre necro but I'm super happy to see some more ideas for followers of this deity. One of the one's I did was a Wyrwood with the alt racial trait that had him made from stone instead of wood. He had silver flecks throughout his body.

Well, this character (a Talisman Crafter Occultist) venerated both Desna and Black Butterfly...

So an easy tweak would be to make her more focused.

The character's interest in the blackness between the stars is essentially mystical in nature, a sort of fascination with universal mysteries...

Occutlists always seemed like the perfect class for anyone dealing with the Dark Tapestry. Although The Black Butterfly's hatred for all the things that come out of it makes the reason for studying it different than say those who worship the great old ones or outer gods.

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at The Black Butterfly, the Empyreal lord of distance, silence, and space..

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of The Black Butterfly, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Silence Between as their patron? In what ways do they further this Empyreal Lord's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

Excellent sounds like a good year of gaming. Sorry about your friend though, my condolences.

As with most people I like to reflect about what I've done the past year, and what I am looking forward to in the next year. For gaming I feel like I got a lot of good roleplaying in and I'd like to share with you what that was, and what I have upcoming in 2018. But more than that I'd like to hear about your great moments of 2017 and what you are looking forward to in 2018.

What games did you play? What were some of the most memorable moments during those games? Do you have any gaming regrets? What games are you looking forward to? Systems? Modules? Splat books?

Why does your fighter, Fight? How did he learn to do battle? Is he a combatant by necessity? Did he go out of his way to learn a combat style? How does how he fight reflect in his personality?

A lot of people look for deeper meaning in their fighter. Not just ex-soldier or fresh faced farm boy who just picked up his daddy’s sword for the first time. Choosing a lifestyle that puts you in constant conflict and possibility of death is actually quite insane. Sometimes this choice is made for your and sometimes the choice is yours (cue Black Sheep song). So today we stir the idea pot of why your character would become a fighter in the first place.

If your players have spent a good amount of time in a city they’ve almost certainly had to explore the sewer system. A quick escape route, searching for a thieves’ guild, or being hired to remove vermin are all common reasons for being down in the muck. The most common things to throw at our spelunking adventurers are rats and bugs, with the occasional alligator that got flushed down the privy. But there is a whole lot more to what can be found living. – and eating – in a cities refuse.

What unusual creatures do you like to throw at your party in the sewers?

As adventurers grow in fame and prestige they can attract a certain amount of attention. Those who want to learn at their feet, to join in the crusade, or just to be near someone they respect. I have never personally been a fond of the leadership feat but there are a lot of players who look to expand past just being the warrior who heads out into the wilderness and wishes to start their own organizations; criminal empire, school, library. So this week I look at the many ways mechanically to gain a cohort in Pathfinder as well as a bunch of roleplaying ideas for dealing with this new secondary character – which can of course be applied to most games.

How do you feel about cohorts? Do you let your players control their follower? Or do you do it? What kind of relationships do you prefer you PCs to have with their hangers on? Cohorts are just one character but what about large groups of followers? As a player what have been some of your favorite sidekicks?

Whether or not we call it that a lot of us use what I refer to as Sessions Zero.. Today I talk about what I use the pre-game session for and what I include within. Using Sessions Zero – I believe – allows me to run a smoother game in the long run.

But Session Zero is different to different people. Do you use Sessions Zero? How do you define it? What things do you include in your session? How do you think Session Zero effects your overall game?

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Geon, the Daemon Harbinger of nightmares, quartering, and trampling.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Geon, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Dancing Fiend as their patron? In what ways do they further this Daemon Harbinger's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

Fear, terror, dread, many of us reach for these feelings around Halloween time especially. Sometimes we like to add them to our roleplaying experience in the form of horror based games. Although many of the monsters we face on our adventure are terrifying just because of what they can do, there are those that use fear as a weapon. There are also those that quite literally feed off this fear. This week I touch on a number of monsters that can instill fear in your party both on the material plane and in their dreams.

What fear-inducing monsters top your list of go to creatures? How do you show this ability as more than just a panicked condition? How do you pull off terrifying dreams and nightmares?

It’s Alive, Alive. I love Halloween and one of the monsters up there with Dracula and the Wolfman is Frankenstein’s Monster. In Pathfinder we have the Flesh Golem. Its not an exact match but it is a good enough analog. This week I take a look at the creature itself and some ways to ramp up the horror factor of it. Including a small tidbit a lot of people forget. It takes the Animate Dead spell to make a Flesh Golem.

Gave you used Flesh Golems in your game? To what effect? How have you pushed the creepy factor with it? What makes it more than just a lumbering damage dealer? What other golems do you like to use to terrify?

Call up some ulfen people to help the poor guy; lycanthropes get the best treatment in the Land of the Linnorm Kings, right?

Yes the Ulfen believe Lycanthropy is a gift from the nature spirits.

On of the most iconic monsters in horror next to Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster is the wolfman. A lot of RPGs have rules for werewolves and lycanthropy in general but today I look at some interesting ways Pathfinder’s werecreatures play out. Many people forget the fact that most afflicted lycanthropes have no clue they turn into a ravening monster three nights a month. So that Lawful Good paladin might be a werecreature and not even know it. The idea that in its natural form the werewolf might be a decent person makes the choice to outright kill it an interesting conundrum – for good aligned parties at least.

So how do you handle werecreatures in your games? Are they all blood thirsty monsters in and out of hybrid form? Are they feared all over the world? Or like Golarion’s Ulfen are they respected as being blessed by the spirits of nature? What do you think of the differences between afflicted and natural lycanthropes? What are some interesting – nonmagical – remedies for the curse?

I wrote up a human inquisitor of Kabriri for a Wayfinder article that I didn't end up submitting a while ago - it was for the Osirion issue, and the concept of the article was a pair of desert guides, one helpful, one dangerous.

The dangerous one was an inquisitor of Kabriri who basically acted as a way for ghouls out in the desert to feed - he would pose as a guide, lead teams of treasure-hunters to the ghoul's haunts, and then turn on them when the ghouls struck. He used a hat of disguise and the abilities of the infiltrator archetype to blend in and act as a different guide each time.

Interesting. With that I could think of a fourth sect now of Kabriri worshipers who help feed her chosen - ghouls - in hopes of being blessed with becoming one when they die.

A bit of gameplay also gives Kabriri some character traits that could also use some explaining; if you worship him and use divine summoning rules, you are able to summon fiendish genies and their undead variants, such as great ghuls and black janni. What I want to know is what kind of relationship does he have with geniekind?

I don't know> But the Lore says that Black Jinni are considered just a myth by most other genie-kin. That they were exiled and forgotten, and aren't even considered true Jann anymore. It could be that Kabriri took in these foul creatures and gave them a home in his domain, which may also be how the first undead Genie - the Ghul - were created.

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Kabriri, the Demon Lord of ghouls, graves, and secrets kept by the dead..

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Kabriri, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen He Who Gnaws as their patron? In what ways do they further this Demon Lord's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

I love me some Halloween. Ghost, ghouls, and skeletons abound but in Pathfinder we have a plethora of other undead that go unused. I’m not sure why we stick to these mainstays – especially at lower levels – but we do. So this week I want to look at some fun undead that you might want to use in your games.

What are some of your undead that aren’t the skeletons, zombies, liches, or vampires? How your players dealt with these out of the ordinary monsters? What interesting combinations of other creatures have you found play off undead?

I’ve been slowly but surely building up a small town in an exercise on world building. Fashioning each piece of a small farming village called Nestletop and exploring some historical aspect of what the place or people would be like. We’ve talked, about smithing, trade, communal gathering, horses, and this week we look at the 2nd of the founding families and their venture as the leaders of herdsmen and shepherds.

What period of farming and herding do you use, the early medieval model with serfs raising a lord’s livestock? Do you have free peasants who control their own herds or flocks? Who tends to the animals’ veterinary needs? What kind of animals can thrive where your community is situated?

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Shiggarreb, the Qlippoth Lord of forbidden magic, and battlefield atrocities.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Shiggarreb, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Marauding Maw as their patron? In what ways do they further this Qlippoth Lord's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

I honestly get bored after level 13 or 14 so I love starting at level 1 and playing a fresh new character with a new story to tell. I've never been a fan of high level play.

Multiclassing. Some people love it and some people hate. I always find it odd that half the people who hate thing it makes underpowered character by of the lack of higher level abilities and the other half hate it because they think cherry picking class features is over powered, but that’s another discussion. I personally love multiclassing, especially in pathfinder where archetypes make for some interesting synergies. So this week I talk about that love and present some of my favorite multiclasses.

How do you feel about multiclassing? Are you in the love it or hate it camp? Why? If you’re a multiclass lover as I am what are some of your most interesting builds, not just for power but for theme?

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Valani, the Empyreal Lord of the herd change, growth, and primal forces.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Valani, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Fireshaker as their patron? In what ways do they further this Empyreal Lord's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

I’ve been working on the slow and steady build of a small town useful as a gaming location and central to a D&D game I once ran. I’ve been expanding it beyond its original bounds when I used it last and learning some new things about each aspect that I add to it. This week I look into the origins of the medieval sheriff so that we can add a bit of law and order to our town. I give a brief description of the local sheriff’s office and a background for the lawwoman of the town of Nestletop.

How does the law work in your world? Does each town have its own “sheriff” or “bailiff”? Do you use wild west style circuit judges? In your main town who provides the law and who enforces it?

Have you taken a look at this PF sourcebook?

Heroes of the Waves

They make the menehunes gnomes, but you might find something useful there by substituting halflings

Interesting gnomes is a good call too. Not in my budget at the moment but I'll add it to the list of 3rd party stuff I want to pick up.

I like these little guys. It may just be because my daughter walks around singing Moana songs, but regardless, I like it.

I had come up with the idea of Polynesian halflings ages ago but never did anything with it I made one character for a short lived Ebberon campaign. I let it set for years and I had gotten the idea again a few years ago while watching videos of the Haka but still did nothing. My girlfriends youngest daughter watched Moana three times in a row this weekend and I got up off my butt and put key to keyboard.

One of the things I always found lacking in most kitchen sink game worlds is the missing cultures based on Polynesians of any sort. In the past I’ve expanded on subcultures that already exist on Golarion as a line or a paragraph in one splat book or another. Since there were no existing snippet about any races coming close to a Polynesian culture I had to create one whole cloth. Although what I have created is couched in the lore of Golarion – being situated in Minata and worshiping Hei Feng – change a few location, people, and deity names and these Island Halflings can fit in any fantasy world.

What cultures do you think are woefully missing from kitchen sink style worlds? Of the standard fantasy races do you think halflings fit the bill for a Polynesian like culture? If not what races would you have used? Maori dwarves? Tongan Elves? Fijian Half-Orcs?

This week I continue my work at slowly world building a small town on my blog. I’ve done the smithy and blacksmith, the tavern and owner, and the tradepost and postmaster. In each article I’ve laid seeds about the founding of the town and founding families. So this week I take a look at one of those founding families and why and how the town came into existence in the first place.

A lot of time when creating a locale we only think about it as it is now. Who lives there now? What do they sell there now? Who runs the town now? But exploring the history of the town and the interactions between those who founded it can often lead to interesting hooks in our games or stories set in that locale. So if you I’d like to ask a few questions. If you created your own city/town/village when was it founded? Who founded it? The founders would have had to come from somewhere so why did they leave that place? What difficulties did they have getting there? What difficulties did they have getting the town on its feet?

Apupunchau wrote:

f the player's are being stealthy then the would notice the servant and the servant wouldn't notice them.

Are you sure? How many movies and novels feature the stealthy hero, being cautious to a fault, and yet all of a sudden has a freak, dare I say, chance encounter that the hero DID NOT SEE coming, that ruined everything.

Heck, this happens in real life. With real people that are trained professionals (e.g. Green Berets, Nave SEALs, etc.). And no, I am not trying to equate real life with the game. I am only using this as an example to say that a stealthy party will not always notice every little detail (such as the servant in my previous post).

Crap happens that is totally unforeseen sometimes, even to the best of them... And random encounters when used correctly, can provide that nail-biting, tension-strewn true element of chance, however small it may be, to your games; which has the potential to make a good game, great.

I mean sure, you obviously can run your games as you see fit of course, and I don't think anyone here is telling you otherwise. And if your players are all on board with your stance of no randomness, more power to you.

I, and a few others here are merely trying to point out that maybe, just maybe, you're leaving a valuable game mastering tool untapped and unused.

Either way, good gaming to you. :-D

If you put an encounter there and don't let the player's actions effect how it goes down that is GM fiat which is another thing I don't like. If you put the servant there and then just say they see you regardless of your stealth roll that's bad pool as a GM.

As for leaving a valuable tool on the table its not like iI just looked at random encounter tables and said to hell with them. I've used them in the past as a GM and I've decided after years of use that its a tool I don't enjoy and will never use again.

Just to take a step back from that very topic: I followed the link to your blog and did notice that you use randomness to create cool characters. I found it very interesting that your argument to do this is to challenge yourself to do new things you might normally not do.

I like to create characters this way myself for the very same reason, but accidentally that's also a reason why I do use random encounters in my games because those might add elements to the narrative or modify the narrative in a way I might not have been able to come up with if I had planned out everything beforehand.

Yeah I'm an enigma wrapped in a riddle. I enjoy randomness for somethings and as a player randomly rolling is a choice I can make. But my characters are made before I get into the game the randomness of a table of monsters bores me as both a player and a GM. And that's after years of using them and having them used bu GMs I've played with.

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Crocell, the Infernal Duke of the hidden waters, illusions, and language.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Crocell, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Soothing Sin as their patron? In what ways do they further this Infernal Duke's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

Apupunchau wrote:

For that matter the players don't even need the GM. Just roll to see if they meet monsters and then battle them themselves.

That's a bit extreme don't you think?

And it's a far cry from having randomized guard patrols within a castle for example.

Think of this example: The PCs are sneaking though the king's castle, and they turn a corner and... run right into one of the servants bringing a midnight snack to the queen. Can this be scripted? Sure, but if your players know you don't use random encounters, well, then they know that no matter how careful they were, this encounter would have happened anyway. Or, that you placed this encounter by fiat alone...

Except that's not how it would work if it were scripted. f the player's are being stealthy then the would notice the servant and the servant wouldn't notice them. This would give them an opportunity to back off, or sneak up on the servant and knock them out or attack the servant or whatever they wanted to do. You plan the encounter but you adjust depending on what course of action the players take.

But if it was random it would be like, "You turn the corner, hold on a second let me roll these dice to see if anything is there. Oh nothing ok you guys are good." Or "Hmm ok let me roll to see, of you guys come across something, let me see what it is. Oh its a servant." These both seem weak. If you want the servant there but him/her there. If it doesn't matter if they are there are not - which is what rolling says, you don't care one way or another if its there or not - just pick and run with it.

Apupunchau wrote:

but again randomness takes the narrative out of my hands.

Well, there's an awful lot of players (amd GMs) that think that the control of the narrative shouldn't solely rest in the GM hands. Because it's the player's (including the GM) story, not the GM'S (excluding the players) story alone.

The GM guides the narrative and adjusts it to what the players do. Except random rolls mean that now neither the GM nor the Players have control of the narrative. For that matter the players don't even need the GM. Just roll to see if they meet monsters and then battle them themselves.

Sorry I'm not the best at this multiple quote things. But Ill hit them in order.

For disallowing I don't say you can't rest now. But the time you take allows your enemies to move forward. Building better defenses, recruiting more allies. The bad guys don't sit on their laurels when you do. And if you're in their lair and you're resting where their guards once were they are going to come and beat you up anyway.

I dislike them as a player and as a GM. Both without making me move faster as a player they also feel meaningless. They don't drive the story. They don't do anything for the game for me as a player or a GM.

Changing the % makes no difference. Rolling on the random encounters tables gives a few outcomes.

I roll zero encounters. And now my who speech about how the road is rife with bandits means nothing. I told them how dangerous it was but no encounters because randomness has decided that's the narrative.

Maybe I roll one or two encounters. But bandits won't be the only thing on the table. So maybe I come up bandits and maybe I come up with no bandits but again randomness takes the narrative out of my hands. I could be telling a story here and now I'm just letting fate decide that there is no story and if there is what the story is.

And even at 10% or 5% there is still the chance I roll 10 encounters in 2 days and that's still all just meaningless. And its all because I've let randomness take over the narrative of the story. I don't want that, I want to build with my players a world they can enjoy. I want to react to what they do not let the dice react for me.

One advantage of random encounters is it's a good counter to the strategy of slow-advancing, over-preparing, always-resting parties which can kill the mood. Obviously, there are stories where you have to "interrupt the ritual before midnight" or similar, but not every adventure is on the clock and random encounters are an incentive to keep moving, in those cases (in keeping with the approach of earlier editions, where random encounters were things to be avoided, I generally have them provide little loot).

In pathfinder, I use story awards a lot. To mitigate the over-levelling problem, I generally reduce any story award by the amount given out for any random encounters they've triumphed over since the last one (to incentivise achieving goals efficiently).

I don't like the time drag, so I generally err on the side of making them easy. I want them to be irritating things to avoid, but not actually awful.

As a GM I don't allow the 15 minute work day period. So I've never really had this problem.And as a player random encounters have never made we want to move things along. If anything random encounters are a great way to just sit around and soak up XP before moving on top a big boss. Kinda like how most people do in Final Fantasy.

However you aren't the first person to mention using random encounters to make players speed things along. So its gotta have a root somewhere I've just never seen it

Like you I once hated the random encounter. As a fledgling GM I accidentally TPK'd a party with a randomly rolled Tiger. For years I refused to use random encounters.

Then came Kingmaker, and Kingmaker taught me the value of random encounter because Kingmaker unlike any campaign before it really centered the story on the players. Our heroes are adventurers by definition anything they do is an adventure. And Random Encounters are the heart of Kingmaker.

I really learned to exercise those improv muscles, based on the player's survival checks random encounters could be combat, mystery, roleplay or ambient.

Suddenly random encounters could propel a whole new direction for the players to go in, whether it was rescuing a man who woke up in the middle of a rushing river (and was secretly a werewolf and he didn't even know it, that character married one of the PCs later).

Sure sometimes a random encounter is just an obstacle to keep the players from resting too soon. But there is value in random encounters, it just takes a little improvisation to make it more interesting.

I guess that's why I absolutely can't stand kingmaker. I hate hex crawls. And the whole campaign seems like nothing more then explore here, beat creature that ha nothing to do with anything. move on to next space beat creature that has nothing to do with anything, move on to next space. I tried it three times with three different GMs and I just can't stand it at all.

What you're talking about is something I believe I brought up in another article and should have linked in this one. Not every encounter needs to be a combat encounter. And not everything that happens needs to be immediately physical. Fighting wolves may get across the point the are is dangerous but so to will hearing wolves whole in the distance, or find wolf tracks and the remains of a deer not to far from the camp in the morning.

Sure you could get across the point that not everything in the world is level appropriate by having them fight that dragon. But your could also do it by just having the shadow of the dragon pass overhead. The players are probably beneath its notice anyway.

And we haven't even gotten into encounters that aren't creatures. I did a whole piece of often forgotten uses of environmental encounters. A washed out road, a fallen tree, a tangled underbrush. But even with these non-combat encounters - which I really wish more GMs would use - I see no reason to be random about it. If you want to put them out there. If you want to punctuate the dangers of an area just do it and plan for it.

This week I go on a little bit of a rant. I’ve seen a lot of talk about random encounters lately and they have never sat right with me. I don’t like them as a GM and I’m not a fan of them as a player. To me they don’t add much to the game because they don’t feel like they’re really part of the story. Contained within the blog post is my rant on the subject but lets talk about random encounters.

Why do you use random encounters? What do they add that preplanning an encounter can’t? If you had a list of encounters that might occur in a given area why not just pick one or two of them to happen? Do random encounters throw off the expected level of your players by giving more XP than you planned because you rolled too many of them?

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Rowdrosh, the Empyreal Lord of the herd animals, husbandry, and shepherds.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Rowdrosh, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Divine Herdsmen as their patron? In what ways do they further this Empyreal Lord's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

Last month I started looking at worldbuilding as part of a slow process. Exploring one aspect of the world and then creating a location in a town based on that aspect as well as character – or since this is for a game world NPCs – for that location. I’ve already looked into taverns as a social center for a community and the blacksmith’s role in small towns and this week I take a look at the role of trade in a small town ., as well as the creation of a trading post and a postmaster for the town I’ve been slowly building up.

After you’ve read what I have to offer let’s talk about how trade effects your world. How does trade differ in a small town and a larger city? Do your people have a specific trading day or is there a constant every day market? What kind of trade route exist on your world and how have they changed the communities they flow through? What are some examples of the places the people of your world trade and who are the people who facilitate trade?

Apupunchau wrote:

If you scry a location like say a castle

You can't scry a location. At least with the spell, it only works on creatures.

Vicarious Viewing allows you to plant a scrying sensor on an object. But you are correct general scrying doesn't allow you to scry an object. Which I find odd because there is a specific spell - obscure oject - that stops you from scrying an object.

I disagree strongly on scrying not allowing teleport. It even gives scrying as an example for the category of 'seen casually' in the teleport spell. And of course greater teleport lets you go somewhere with just a description.

If you scry a location like say a castle I see the castle I see the land around it, I know where it is, I can teleport and scrying works like "seen casually." But if I scry a person and they're in a room. No windows just four walls and some stuff. I have no clue where that room is. Is it north, is it south, you don't know. The first line of teleport reads "You must have some clear idea of the location and layout of the destination." if you scry a closed room without knowing where it is you have an idea of the lay out but you do not know the location,

For some people high level play gets ridiculous. There are spells that seem game breaking or at least plot destroying. Three of the spells that cause GMs no small amount of headaches are the ones that allow reading minds, scry, or teleport. Today I look at some of the often forgotten limitations of these spells that help make them more manageable, and some house rules to add some flare to trying to get your mind reading victims to think about what you want.

After you’ve taken a look I put these questions to you. How have these spells been used in your games? What personal limits have you put on them as a GM? What interesting combinations have you come up with as a player? And how would you determine if someone was or wasn’t thinking about something so your player could read their surface thoughts?

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Nalinivati., the Tian Deity of fertility, nagaji, snakes, and sorcery.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Nalinivati, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Serpent's Kiss as their patron? In what ways do they further this Tian Deity's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

In my continued effort to build a town from the ground up this week I look at blacksmiths on my blog. Why were they so important to medieval towns? What did they do other than blacksmithing? We have a brief discussion on the role of the blacksmith as well as a description of a smithy and a short background on the smith who runs it to add to our town or that can be used in any other game – there are no rules present so it can be used for any system – or ported into any story.

How have you used the blacksmith in your stories and games? Is he just the big guy with a hammer who forges weapons? What is his role in the community beyond being a smith? Who is the smith in your major an/or minor towns?

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at The Lantern King, the fey Eldest of laughter, mischief, and transformation.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of The Lantern King, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Laughing Lie as their patron? In what ways do they further this fey Eldest's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?

In many of the bestiaries for Pathfinder they’ve introduced a number of new creatures that may also be playable races. The thing is that these entries are only a page long and not all of the races find their way into books that expand upon them. I’ve taken a look at off shoot cultures of more common races before such as the cannibal halflings, and the samurai elves. I’ve also done other one other new race that didn’t have a lot written about it, the kasatha. This week I’m looking at an interesting new race called the orang-pendak. which ended up on my weekly random rolls.

Have you heard of the orang-pendak? What have you done with them if anything in your campaigns? Do you find it odd that they’re basically sasquatch kin?

As a side note cryptids are fun check out the orang pendek basically the Indonesian little foot (because they’re small not large)

One of the things I love most about Golarion is that there is a ton of stuff left unwritten. It allows me to expand on things in my games and invent new things to further enrich the game world. A part of the setting that always interests me are the divine being they have and how the interact with their followers and each other. On one of the Pathfinder FB pages I play a little game of creativity where I ask about what kind of character you would make to follow a god. This week I'm looking at Arazni, the minor deity of control of undeath, and lichdom.

Sitting at our theoretical gaming table, our GM turns to us and says, "All of the characters must be followers of Arazni, although they do not need to be divine casters." What character do you make? Who are they? Why have they chosen The Harlot Queen as their patron? In what ways do they further this minor deity's goals? Why would he be attracted to this beings doctrine?