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Hi Pathfinders, it's been a while... Some of you might recognize this ol' Venture-Captain from conquests past! ;)
Perhaps you might know me as the Producer and Co-Host of the Ennie award winning Chronicles Pathfinder Podcast?
Either way, I have launched a new and unique (Pathfinder Second Edition) play stream with a companion podcast (if you prefer audio over video).
Here's a few off my list: >> A production schedule with multiple group launches, featuring Indy and/or lesser known TTRPGs. New episodes published every Monday.
>> Azmyth Busters is an anti-racist and anti-misogynous safe & inclusive space! My
>> Therapy 4 Nerds! There is undeniable therapeutic benefit from table-top gaming. Azmyth Busters will be an intimate visit into my deliberate process. That process benefits myself, the players, and especially you. >> When I'm not working as a freelance author/designer or producing this show, I am a (full time) Professional Game Master/Story Teller. I believe you will enjoy the content we are creating! >> Physical Battle Maps, scenery, and miniatures. I don't use virtual table top software. Instead delivering a visual experience (in 1080p) that closely resembles actual play, as if you were sitting at my table. I introduced myself at the beginning of this thread and if you really know me, you know that I have a reputation for always uplifting, promoting, and including my friends in everything I do! Play Group 01 features my friend Stephen Randney-MacFarland, playing the role of dwarven Investigator Theron Glimmermine. We're playing "The Fall of Plaguestone" and this is my first time running Second Edition. Who better to help me learn? I invite you to invest an hour a week out of your busy lives and join us for this new adventure! https://www.youtube.com/c/AzmythBusters https://azmythbusters.buzzsprout.com/
A funny thing I noticed when I began running this book:
Did I miss something here? First social encounter introduced is meeting Drecissa = no last name.
If you prefer Drecissa, you'll will next meet the matriarch of her (?) family, Anemora = still no last name. Or maybe you'll end up liking the guard instead and are taken to meet his Mommy, Koramallis = still no last name. Can you think of a single fantasy 'blue-blood' character who doesn't have their name, clan or family defined? How the F does this get overlooked?!
1st post in years! Don't get used to it! ~@~ [I have failed to find a RAW ruling of what an Android is officially classified. Is it organic? Is it technology? If it is technology, how does the mentioned spell affect them? How about if they are the caster? I know how I am leaning on this, but I'm curious what the PF Hive Mind thunks...]
Perhaps you might want to be a little soft handed with these encounters? You know your party and what they're capable of... + Take an orc (or whatever) out of the encounter.
There are tons of subtle ways you can even out encounters, keep your players alive and keep the AP rolling. Good Luck & Happy Gaming! -GrumpyGM
Google Image Search is your friend! + VTT Maps
You may have to play around with resolutions and sizes to get it to work with your scale. Good Luck!
I am one of a handful of Dungeon Masters who have successfully run an multi-year evil campaign to completion. It is not an easy task to pull off and requires a ton more preparation than a 'normal' run. That being said, I've been itching to run WotW for years, but reluctant to introduce a non-Golarion setting to my PF players. Fast forward four years and add the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons into the mix and I'm ready to kick this show into full gear! I'm using Herolab to convert all the main characters to 5e and re-writing anything that doesn't make sense for the system change. A year or so ago, I decided to convert my (30+ year old) home-brew world setting I call "The Empiricism of Tamaria" to 5e. This is a perfect blank slate to drop WotW into and leave the island of Talingarde basically as Gary wrote it. As I complete each book, I will make the .pdf & .por files available upon request. I also plan to discuss my WotW game in future Chronicles Podcast episodes.
[This is 100% player perspective from our campaign start. I do not know what is custom content and what might be a smidge spoilerific(?)]
I might get around to periodic updates.
It's been a really long time since I payed two Sh!t$ about the nutz n boltz of Society play, I thought I'd have a peek. At first, I thought this was a joke thread. Post after post I read deeper into it, waiting for the punch line that never came... To blame this pathetic behavior trend on west coast players makes me sad if even a shred of it is true. I wouldn't tolerate it from any player at my table. Don't like it? Walk.
I don't use this suggestion or any other 'broad-brush' approach to the PCs fiances or ship operations in this AP. The assumption that it costs a crew 1000gp each time they dock is ridiculous and lazy math! In book 5, my player's have a fleet of four ships. They calculate each sailor's pay, all expenses and materials to the coin. Our Quartermaster does a heap of work outside of the play sessions to keep the fleet's books balanced. Generalities and assumptions like this 'rule' have no place in my game.
We say by-de-by to Captain Neil and halllooooooo to Uncle Nicky! With the exception of a near TPK and (the first PC) death of the healer in the last battle, they've managed to waltz their way through most obstacles and gained every advantage available to them in Torch. It is a very satisfying run to GM and I enjoy having Spicer in my 'peanut gallery' tossing one liners at my players from time to time! Now that I've seen the Android race and the Technologist feat in action, I wish these were not starting options for players. I believe that the mystery and exploration of technology should have been prolonged throughout the story. Allowing players to buy the feat a couple books into the story, would reflect a more realistic learning curve through exposure and experimentation. I didn't allow any of my players to know Androffan until they discovered/collected/studied examples and then spent skill points in linguistics. My 0.02
Congratulations to Pat Renie for getting his break into the AP Authors Club!
No pressure. Don't it up my friend! The last time we hung out in SF, I told you that we needed to find a good excuse to have you as a guest on the podcast. [Achievement Unlocked]
When I ran this section of the book, I expanded on the drought severity, weather and its effect on my party: * I set the temperature associated with the drought just below the level requiring magical protection, creating general discomfort and constant annoyance. * All fresh water sources had gone dry within a days travel. This required his people to be actively searching for water to keep the settlement alive. With his manpower dedicated to this task, working the shipyard came to a halt. * Farming/Gardening has become impossible, further complicating the settlements ability to feed themselves. This situation allowed my PC's some additional leverage during the squib negotiating. * The local fauna have left the area searching of water and food. Hunting and Trapping are also not likely to be successful. * Monsters also begin travelling outside their normal habitat in search of food, increasing the chance of encounters with the settlement. * Last, but certainly not least, I created a Giant Wasp riding Gnome Druid who unleashed the weather attack on Rickety's settlement in an effort to drive them away from the 'his' cove.
* Our first guest, Jason Bulmahn returns to pimp out his Pirate Loot kickstarter and tease us with Occult Adventures and Unchained goodness. * Our featured author, Mike Shel joins us to discuss/review 'Dragon's Demand', the first release of the reformatted Module line. * CCW returns with a build fit to make a Dragon cry! * We bring back 'Diamond in the Rough' with guest Gary Ray to share the retailer's perspective and catch us up on his successfully funded kickstarter campaign! [Expected Release Period - 09/08 to 09/12]
It's not a podcast, but we do live streaming video of our games:
Monday evenings - Wardens of the Newborn Forge or Deadlands Homebrew. Thursday evenings - Skull & Shackles or Iron Gods AP Saturdays - Shattered Star AP or Hoard of the Dragon Queen in D&D 5e. Enjoy. Our podcast isn't live play, but it is all Pathfinder!
We have just completed our return to the airwaves episode, just in time to listen to on the way to GenCon!! We're call it Chronicles Re-Rolled #001 -- Pre-Gencon Special -- Featuring guests Stephen-Radney MacFarland and Rob McCreaey of Paizo Inc., Colen McAlister and Liz Theis from Lone Wolf Development, Matt Morton of d20 Pro, and Jason Nelson of Legendary Games. Join Azmyth and Steel_Wind for the return of Chronicles: Pathfinder Podcast and their featured review of the Mummy Mask Adventure Path, Vol. 1 The Half-Dead City. Our new domain and iTunes stream aren't 100% yet, but in the mean time you can D/L it direct.
I know folks are inclined to use these terms when describing the new rules, but I've seen no example on any printed or electronic product that uses either term (post play-test). Whenever I talk to anyone about the game, I deliberately avoid calling it anything other than D&D. I believe that deploying that kind of language perpetuates the mentality of edition wars and community polarity around them. Think Globally.
(Yes, btw if you're interested, I am playing the new D&D)
I'm not trying to provoke Druid-lovers into debate...
+++ For the last six years, I have played PFRPG exclusively:
The Druid class experienced a complete metamorphosis from 3.5 to PF.
* Wild Shaping into 3x3 elemental/creatures at high level is pure stupidity and continues to ruin every encounter by allowing the player to ignore spacial constraints and the setting's design. If I wanted a monster in the party, I would have allowed the Summoner class! In the past, I was fine with banning some of the newer (APG) classes that Paizo created. Now it's the Druid's turn to get pummeled with the ban-hammer. Moving forward, I will never again allow a Druid beyond 10th level in any of my games. They are completely off the negotiating table for AP play, unless the player is willing to give up the Wild Shape ability.
KublaCon was an overwhelming success!
* To all my GM's!!!! Without your efforts and hard work, we wouldn't be. * Andrea Brandt is a Super-Duper Rock Star Organizer! I said it many times during the weekend that Andi was the backbone of our program and really ran the show, I was just a pretty face! ;) * Euan thank you for lending your leadership, calm demeanor and wit to HQ. I look forward to seeing you back at the tables soon! * Markus for being the best Props Master a Venture Captain could hope for.
* Painlord for your continued dedication, investment and care for this community. * Brent Holtsberry for providing the AV elements for our Monday morning Special and helping me Overlord! * Erik Mona for being our Guest of Honor and running an epic 18 hour marathon of Kings of Absalom.
* To the GM's that ran PFS & PACG for the Young Players & Teen Tracks! * To our community, for which this labor of love and dedication is for.
I don't think, I know!
Perhaps aspects of Kassen personality linger in the afterlife... Maybe he was very protective of his possessions in life and that pattern continues in death? Maybe he was OCD and it's less about the items, and more about having them in the correct place (and facing the right way)? Kassen is a venerated hero from that area. If you spend the time to convey this and his importance to the local region, maybe the players won't want to rob his grave.
“KINGS OF ABSALOM” A special Pathfinder RPG Event over KublaCon Weekend, May 23-26. KublaCon and Paizo Publishing present Special Guest, Paizo Publisher, Erik Mona as he runs an epic marathon session of his Kings of Absalom campaign! Kings of Absalom comes from deep within the caverns of Paizo Publishing and is one of their official in-office Pathfinder campaigns! This epic 18-hour game will progress the Kings of Absalom story into its second chapter, which officially debuts at KublaCon! This unique auction offering consists of six separate auctions for a seat at the table with Erik Mona as your GM for 3 six-hour sessions of ultimate roleplaying over the course of 3 of KublaCon's 4 days. With each auction, potential players bid on the specific character that the winning bidder will play for the weekend event.
I agree with trying to get the players more involved beyond rolling dice, but not all of your conclusions about the skill.
I doubt there is any skill quite so divisive as perception. I hardly feel qualified to assess it. So many dozens or hundreds of men and women much more experienced than I have spent so many forum threads and blog posts debating back and forth over the issue of perception that I feel presumptuous even attempting to resolve it. But that’s what I signed up for when I said I was going to begin this series of posts, and I’m not going to back out now, so here we go. If you recall from earlier in this series, I believe disguise and escape artist are two skills which should be house ruled out of the game because they are needed so incredibly infrequently as to be useless. Well, if those skills commit the sin of a deficient frequency, then perception commits the sin of excessive frequency. The skill is so frequently called for, and so necessary, that -C uses the term “Skill Tax” to describe it. Putting points into perception is more of a requirement, than an option. And if something is a requirement for effective play, why clutter up the skills list by giving players the illusion of a choice? But I’m getting ahead of myself. If you’d like to have perception torn to pieces in front of your very eyes, read -C’s two posts linked above. He’s done a superb job highlighting the problems with this skill, and I feel no need to repeat that task. As daunting as it is to attempt to resolve the problems with perception, I have no qualms about stating quite firmly: perception does have problems. Pathfinder uses perception in two different ways: one which I’ll call active, another which I’ll call passive. Active perception checks are generally requested by the player. “I’d like to make a perception check to search this room,” or “I’d like to listen intently for someone sneaking up on me.” Active perception checks occur when the character is primarily engaged in the act of looking, listening, smelling, feeling, or tasting. Passive perception checks (sometimes called “reactive”) most often occur without the player’s knowledge. They are rolled by the GM, in secret, to determine whether or not a character is able to perceive something. This might happen when there is a faint scent of cooking coming from behind a door, or if someone is attempting to move without the player’s noticing them. Passive perception checks are useful for information which the players might not be looking for specifically, but which the characters might nevertheless notice and find useful if they’re alert. Pathfinder is actually pretty vague about when a perception check should be rolled, and what information a player should be able to gain from it. As such, we can’t exactly blame the game for the fact that many GMs and players use it as a substitute for creating & interacting with an actual environment. However, the game would function better if it presented a more focused version of this skill. In the hopes of correcting this oversight, I've broken perception down into its component parts. Below are the various uses I've seen for perception, and my attempts to work out what the skill should apply to, and what it shouldn't. Active Perception: Primarily used to find hidden treasure, discover secret doors, and avoid traps. If a room contains treasure, that treasure is either obvious, or not. Obvious treasure, such as that found in a chest, on the body of a foe, or simply laying on the floor, should never require a perception roll to find. So long as the players say they’re searching the body, or opening the chest, they should be allowed to find the treasure.I would hope that was self evident. If a treasure is not obvious, then the players ought to be forced to look for it if they want to find it. The GM should describe the environment the players are in, and if they feel there may be treasure present, they can describe to the GM where they look for it. What could possibly be gained by having the players roll to discover non-obvious treasure? If their roll succeeds and they find the treasure, then it’s not functionally different from obvious treasure. It simply required the extra step of rolling a die. If, on the other hand, their roll fails and they don’t find the treasure, then the treasure effectively does not exist, because they can’t find it. It’s not as though it’s fun for a player to simply be aware that treasure was hidden before they found it. What is fun is the process of finding that hidden treasure. Coming up with the idea to search for loose bricks on the wall, and being rewarded by finding a bag of 30 gold is a lot more fun than entering a room, rolling a die, and being told you found 30 gold behind a loose stone. Locating secret doors is somewhat different from finding non-obvious treasure in two important ways. First, the hiding place of even the most well hidden treasure ought to be mentioned in the room’s description. If it’s not, then the players have no way to know where to search That doesn't mean you need to drop obvious hints, simply that it’s not fair to hide treasure under a bed without telling the players that the room contains a bed. On the other hand, secret doors are most commonly built directly into the walls or floors. Since those are present everywhere, there’s no good way for players to search for secret passages intelligently. The second difference is that treasure is an end unto itself. It, along with experience points, is how players are rewarded for successful play. Secret doors, on the other hand, exist only as a means to an end. That end being whatever lies beyond the door. Though the joy of discovery shouldn't be discounted. Given those differences, I think it is reasonable to allow players to roll perception checks to discover hidden doors. The area for such a perception roll should be relatively small–perhaps 15ft square, centered on the character. Some characters could even be allowed to find hidden doors with a passive perception check, if they passed within 10 feet of it. Traditionally this is an ability which was given to elves, but perhaps it would be better if anyone with 5 ranks or more in perception was given the chance to automatically discover hidden doors. Reducing the act of finding a hidden door to a roll does come with a danger, however. If the entirety of the interaction is rolling to look for a door, finding a door, opening the door, and going through the door; how is that any different from rolling to find non-obvious treasure? I would propose that a perception roll allows players to, as -C puts it “learn the location of the secret door but not how to open it.” Once they know the door is there, the players are free to attempt to bash it down if they wish. Though in some cases that may be pretty difficult. Alternatively, the players can search for the mechanism within the room which opens the door. Perhaps a loose stone needs to be pushed in, or three worn-down keys on a piano need to be pressed simultaneously. And if the players notice the loose stone or the worn-down keys before they find the door in the first place, then the discovery of a secret passage will be made all the more exciting. Using perception checks as a means of finding traps is something I've struggled with as of late. My party’s rogue has frequently complained of the tediousness involved in searching every door, every chest, and every trigger that they find in order to avoid the handful of traps in each dungeon. And I have to agree: it is tedious, and not at all fun. I suppose I could make it less tedious by simply adding more traps to my dungeons, but that seems like a lazy solution. The problem is not that there’s an insufficient amount of things to find, it’s that excessive rolling is boring. Pathfinder has a rogue talent called Trap Spotter, which allows rogues to make an automatic, passive perception check whenever they are within 10ft of a trap. I propose that this be removed as a possible rogue talent, and instead, this effect be made part of the Trapfinding class ability which rogues receive at level 1. Additionally, any character with 5 ranks or more in perception could also be granted the ability to notice traps using passive checks. Judgement: In general, active perception checks seem to sap potential fun from the game. I propose eliminating active perception checks from the game, except when it comes to searching for secret doors or traps within a 15ft square area centered of the player. Passive Perception: Primarily used in opposition to a sleight of hand and stealth checks or to notice fine details in an environment. Sleight of hand may be the single most well-designed skill in Pathfinder, and rolling perception against it is a reasonable method of conflict resolution. There is no need to alter the way in which perception interacts with that skill.The stealth skill, on the other hand, has a number of problems, which I will detail once I write my overview for that skill. Speaking strictly on how perception interacts with stealth, however, I can find no fault. If the stealth roll is being utilized properly, then rolling perception against it makes perfect sense.
Using the examples above, it makes sense to roll a passive perception check to see if the players notice the Orc's leg sticking out from behind a barrel. The creature is obviously attempting an ambush, and their success or failure in that attempt will hinge on whether or not the players notice him first. That’s a good use of a roll. It also makes sense to make the roll to determine if the players notice the faint smell of cooking from two rooms over. If they notice it, they have an opportunity to prepare to enter the evil cult’s mess hall, if they don’t then they’ll be surprised when they walk into a room filled with enemies. The crack in the window, however, is essential information if the players are going to figure out the room’s puzzle. If they fail their spot check, then the puzzle becomes unsolvable unless one of them decides (out of the blue) to examine the window for cracks. Note that you’re not rolling perception based on the type of information, you’re rolling it based on how that information will be used within the game. That may seem silly and unrealistic, and it is. But realism does not equal good game play. Judgement: Passive perception is mostly fine. Just don’t use it to hide information the players ought to have. Overall Judgement: I think perception has a valuable place in the Pathfinder game. However, the game benefits significantly from reducing this skill’s importance drastically. Original Article Link:
I am very pleased to announce that during last night's Red Moon Eclipse, Joshua Archer completed his 150th game table of Pathfinder Society, earning the rank and privilege of a 5 Star Society Game Master. Josh is both an amazing GM and a integral member of my team of VO/Organizers here in the Bay Area. CHEERS!
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was a good holiday, but I DON'T want to live there... After running Wardens, I'm pretty sure that I'll have my fill of Numeria. I hope some non-techno table scraps get thrown out in 6, for those of us who are not keen on an entire season of it.
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