Bill Dodds's page

Thank you very much!

I am running a PFS scenario this weekend from season 2, specifically 2-15, SHades of Ice Pt 1. While 3 of the 4 players are using older factions since they did not have an interest in researching the new factions, the 4th player is running a new character with one of the new factions. However, there is the obvious question of 'How can I earn Prestige' since the new factions do not have missions for the old scenarios. I read through the post titles (and a number of posts) in the PFS forums looking for help, and also checked out the expanded resource page, but cannot see to find an answer. Can someone help? Should I arbitrarily assign one of the other faction missions that might suite the new character's faction?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Woot! Entered. Muahahah!

Contributing artist, but not attending PaizoCon. :(

That's what you get for going off and getting published, man. ;)

IkeDoe wrote:

Hello, have the art orders been assigned?

If you sent an email to me, It haven't been received.

Art orders haven't gone out yet, the editors are still munching on the articles.

[inserteditorhere] Om nomnomnom [/inserteditorhere]

sweet!

Grats, Liz!

and,

Curses! I should have waited 1 more week to place my order. I could have potentially had cookies.

Schroedinger's cat kind of problem. A package COULD have cookies enclosed, or it COULD NOT. Would those be half cookies? Potential Astral cookies?

I may never know..

Huzzah! Fantastic stories and stiff competition. I am honored to be listed on the blog and to be selected as one of the Fab Five. Thanks again to James for the final selections and the amazing editors, writers, and organizers that assisted the Chronicler in this endeavor, especially in such a short time!

Art orders will ome soon now guys, so, color yourselves up!

Sweet!

Seriously, though. Congrats to everyone, especially William Dodds, my close personal friend and eternal gaming buddy, who wrote the second-place winner, "A Feast to Remember". We both worked hard on these and supported each other a great deal when it was getting down to the wire, and I'm very proud to see him do so well in the face of such competition. We've already got more stories in mind for the characters we wrote about, and look forward to getting them done. I can't speak for him, but personally I would like to post "A Bride in Korvosa" to the 'Chronicler for editing and feedback. I've already registered at the site- just need to email request how to get involved with pretty much anything I can (if you remember my earliest post, I stated I was not overly tech savvy). This was a great experience, and I can't wait to get started on the stories my friend and I need to write!

Thanks Enyn, ole' buddy, and thanks to everyone for the well wishes, the judges committee (you guys rock! 67 stories read and judged in such a short time!) and James for the selection. Being in the top five with such fine competition is a point of pride. I can't wait to read more of the other short stories!

Now, to figure out Chef Vondal Daine's next tale..

Congrats, Neil! Also congratulations to all that entered and the runners up. The only way a writer can improve is to keep writing!

Crap. Now I have to go to bed wondering, dammnit. I can't wait until 3 AM! I have kids to get up for school in the morning.

razzumfrazzum..

/like

Submitted!

Writing that made me hungry... ;)

Congrats to all that entered. Several people I know submitted stories, and I am glad there will be some stiff competition for this.

I have no idea how I would stat up the main character for my story either. Paizo already won, since I bought one of the older guides in PDF for reference for the story. :)

It was a nice bonus to have a teacher-wife to edit and find grammatical mistakes too!

Good luck!

@ Gray

A MAGIC Lepliuridon! *gronk*

Even the largest carnivorous creatures that eat carrion regularly have to hunt. Hyenas, one of the most prolific kill-stealers in Africa, hunt as much as they steal. No carnivore will ignore a big pile of ripe meat..

Carnivorous Triceratops sound AWESOME!

Eff the torosaurus. Triceratops and Tyrannisaurus are the darn reason most kids get interested in paleontology and follow their dreams into making a career of it..

Larry Lichman wrote:

Would you be willing to staff your booth with volunteer Paizonians? This could help defray your staffing costs. I would gladly donate my time to help staff a Paizo booth at Origins next year, and I'm sure there are others who feel the same way...

Actually, there are a bunch of legal issues about having volunteers do a bunch of things in the booth. The number one is that only approved employees can handle the point of sale system and take credit cards. There are also insurance problems with having non-employees carry or build anything in the booth. So, that would obviously put a crimp in having volunteers. We do use volunteers to run games and to answer questions in the booth, but we still would need to send a bunch of employees to staff the booth for the above reasons.

-Lisa

Bummer. Well, if there is anything we can do to help out or promote Paizo at Origins next year, just let us know.

Alizor, as I stated in my earlier post, I suggested the volunteers just prosthelytize for Paizo, and let the Paizo employees take care of the business side. That way they would not be technically working/handling money, etc.

Thanks for the expansive discussion, Lisa and Co. While I was sad not to see Paizo (and many of the bigger name gaming companies) I can only hope that one day soon it might be feasable for a double-slot booth simply for selling your products. We'd all be cheerleaders for it and many would happily volunteer to help out simply to talk to potential customers while your staff handled the actual sales and money.

PS: DougDoug rocks.

[

I think that played a significant role. I think Ohio's depressed economy and institutional inertia/incompetence also played a significant role, as well. The year I finally gave up on the convention they ran the Origins Awards in the hallway and the statues were handed out by fat stormtroopers and someone's poor daughter dressed like a belly dancer.

Oof.

Ouch.

Can't really say anything to that one. ;)

Yeah, it's been tough in Ohio, but which state hasn't seen difficulties? GAMA needs to get their $#!+ together or Origins is going to crash crash...

Makes this Ohio boy sad.

Bill Dodds wrote:

I was disappointed though understanding why Paizo did not have a presence at Origins, having just completed PaizoCon. Origins has been growing smaller every year, and it just pains me when major game companies no longer have booths there. WOTC pulling out three years ago was a major blow. I can tell you a lot of Pathfinder books would have been sold had Paizo even a single booth there.

At least we had a great series of Society events!

I've heard they are considering moving the date of the show to get it out of the shadow of Gen Con.

If that's true, it's probably the most important step they could possibly take to get us to reconsider coming back, so I welcome those rumors with a smile.

Here's hoping it happens. Because the trend insofar as sales and attendance is concerned has not been encouraging.

You know, this is why I think Piazo rocks so damn much. On a random thread talking about a living campaign discussion at a convention, the big-time publisher of Pathfinder and one of the most recognized names in the fantasy rpg industry popped in to comment and talk straight about a generalized concern.

Wizards who? ;)

I was disappointed though understanding why Paizo did not have a presence at Origins, having just completed PaizoCon. Origins has been growing smaller every year, and it just pains me when major game companies no longer have booths there. WOTC pulling out three years ago was a major blow. I can tell you a lot of Pathfinder books would have been sold had Paizo even a single booth there.

At least we had a great series of Society events!

Gratz!

The paladin in our group had the attractive trait/feat that was ruthlessly exploited by Ms. Feathers. It was hilarious. Adding in the fact that his faction mission had him 'stealing' a book from a dead man's home had many of us loudly questioning his morality.

Good times, good times.

Oh, and the Wizard and the Barbarian were the only onles that managed to save against the dreaded Glitterdust spell. Bewtween spells, poor defensive casting rolls, and a Great Axe wielded by a raging half-orc barbarian, Pratt didn't last too long.

/agree

Managed a few Society games on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised at the GM being one of my STOUT POWAH fellows from last year's massive Gen Con event. Thanks Rob for gm'ing the 2 games and Doug for an excellent organized PFS event!

Can't wait for next year (or Gen Con in a month or so!)

Well Hello Everyone, a friend of mine pointed out this thread...

I'm actually the author and noted about the price, really didnt have a lot of guidance on it....but I think 10 dollars is fair? is that something that everyone could live with?

If you already bought the second book "Thaumaturgy" shoot me a message on drivethrurpg and I can send you a coupon for a few dollars off the other.
There are print copies of each available as well, they come in the neat sizing format of the old spell compendiums from second edition, full color with extra graphics :) These are my first tries of getting it all together, I hope you guys like them!

P.S. The MageChantry website is mainly just for my gaming group, but I am working on revamping it.

Excellent, Nanyea! Hope to see some more detailed info in the contents of your works. As far as pricing, just look at similar products and figure out where yours stands as far as page count, content, etc. Obviously you don't want to offer it too high, but on the same vein you don't want to give it away. $10 seems more in line with similar resource products out there.

Promoting with sneak peeks and tidbits of the contents are a great way to generate interest in the products. Make people want to buy it..

I looked at their offerings on DriveThruRPG last night and had much the same reaction. Even taking the 'bundle' option, which gives you both for $30.00, and knocks the individual prices down to essentially $15.00/each, it was still a bit pricey for me right now.

I also found it odd - really odd, in fact - that they'd chosen to not advertise here, even after the products were released. One would think that the boards of the company that makes the product they were writing for might be a good place to do that, yes?

Considering Paizo offers full print adventures (including the free PDF with subscription-which can be cancelled at any time)that, with shipping, cost about $20, they REALLY need to do some better market research.

Registering just to browse their products, vastly inflated prices in comparison to current market standards, no advertising and no communication with their potential purchasers is a s@~#e business model.

The company is not long for the living, in my opinion. They won't sell much.

Kharis is right. I have no idea why they have not advertised on Paizo's site for their Pathfinder product.

It's not been long since they released their products. maybe they will change their business model. Or at least advertise.

After 3 years of this, contestants SHOULD have an idea of the level of professionalism necessary and expected of them from both the Paizo staff and the public. Perhaps in the nifty emails sent out by Ross Byers they could give some insight as to the next two rounds once the top 16 are chosen. After all, those emails go directly to the contestants. Without directly giving away the total aspect of the following round away, it might give the top 16 contestents an inkling for what might be expected IF they were to make it into the top 8.

This is believing in the positive side of the human condition in that they won't immediately tell other non-contestants what the possible following round might be.

Congrats to the top 8!

Lief, sorry that had to happen, but your humble acceptance is a standard for others to work by. I know we'll see your work again next year, as it caught both of my votes this year from the two voting rounds.

Lessons learned, and others should pay attention.

Did someone say Dairy Queen? Damn I could use a blizzard right now...

(Sorry if this annoyed all you East Coasters sitting under several feet of snow. ;) )

Charles: That seems to be the consensus as well. 300 words was not sufficient to address the three stage forms of the pulvarae. Concentrating on the early stage and changing some descriptors around would have likely been a better path.

That way my physical descriptions could have been better and more vivid. AH well, lesson learned. Thanks for the critique!

As an alternate, I sent in my monster submission for review in the small chance someone got Dairy Queened. Here it is for all to see and critique! Ross Byers was kind enough to send me the judges comments to, so I posted them as well just for kicks and perhaps help next year's competitors:

Pulvarae
Description: The pulvarae are a hermaphroditic species of aberration that make their home in the cold tundra of the north. Their growth cycle takes them through three distinct stages, from sharp-toothed larvae that swarm just beneath the surface to vaguely lupine pack-hunting adolescents that grow into massive and destructive hunters.
The dangerous fields of centipede-like pulvarae larvae swarms are usually avoided by most animals as the larvae exude a sharp chemical stench which can disorient nearby prey. Pulvarae that survive to six-legged adolescence hunt in vicious and ever-hungry packs, filling the same ecological niche as northern wolves and the competing species kill each other whenever possible. They have tufts of pale wiry hair and leathery chitinous plates over thick muscle. Their sharp beaked blunt snout covers a lengthy blue tongue used to scent. The massive adult pulvarae are canny and dangerous, often driving herds of animals into the killing fields of their spawn. Adult pulvarae are extremely territorial and once they achieve their final molt they drive out the adolescent packs and other adult pulvarae.
Powers and Abilities: Pulvarae swarms have a debilitating stench that causes nausea and disorientation in a radius around them. Blind at this stage, they can sense movement above and surge upward to quickly consume unfortunate prey in an orgy of snapping beaks and burrowing claws. The wailing cry of adolescent pulvarae can be heard for miles, summoning additional members to the hunt. Still nearly blind, they use echo location and scent to hunt and harry their prey. Their keening howls can cause panic, allowing them to scatter herds for easier hunting of isolated prey. Adult pulvarae, besides their lethal natural weapons, can focus their echo location to strike large areas with a burst of force, knocking foes to the ground to be pounced upon.

Sean K Reynolds (Developer), Sunday, 03:01 PM
Cool idea for a monster, the description of its shape makes me want to see all three of its life stages illustrated.

I like how the various life-stages interact, it's a tight theme and it always pleases me when someone creates a monster that has a functional ecology and life cycle. Smart, consistent monster abilities from stage to stage, and I like how the use of those abilities changes as the creature matures.

Nitpick: it's "echolocation," not "echo location."

Greg A. Vaughan (Contributor), Yesterday, 08:53 PM
I LOVE the first lifestage of these things. You've written a Cthulhu adventure here: writhing beaked worm things bursting forth from the permafrost around the investigators' camp. The second stage is cool as a competitor of the northern wolves. I get that the third stage is big, but I don't know what it looks like. Is it just a bigger version of the second stage? I think a little more development in regards to that final lifestage could co a long way on these guys.

F. Wesley Schneider (Managing Editor), Yesterday, 09:15 PM
As stated, this is three monsters, not one... which I kind of feel like is a poor use of word count. Instead of getting one solid description we get three hazy descriptions of three very different creatures, regardless of their shared race. Even reading this a few times, I don't have a solid idea of what any of these look like (tiny buggy beak wolves that turn into big bug beak wolves?).

I do like the sonic blast effect at the end, though. I honestly even like the racial progression, but in this arena, I would have preferred a bit more focus.

Clark Peterson (Publisher, Necromancer Games), Yesterday, 11:34 PM
Initial Impression: Three monsters in one, but is there enough of any ONE to get me interested. Let’s see…

Concept (name, overall design choices, design niche, playability/usability, challenge): C+
Focusing on three aspects of one monster means you didn’t ever really give us just one thing to get excited about. That was a risky design choice and I think it backfired for you. In the end, I wound up with one sentence of description and one sentence of powers for each of the three stages. That’s not enough. Plus, I don’t really know anything about these creatures other than that they are nasty and live in the cold and hunt. Basically, even if the PCs stumble into the frosty tundra, it would take a random encounter to meet these. I think you really failed to maximize your submission.

Execution (quality of writing, hook, theme, organization, use of proper format, world neutral, quality of mandatory content—description, summary of powers): B-
See above. You failed to really spell out any of the powers sufficiently to get me interested because of your choice to do 3 in 1. I’m going to reward you for the way you concisely did the 3 in 1. Your problem was in concept.

Tilt (did it grab me, do I want to use one in an adventure?): C
Nope. You didn’t spend enough time on any part of this monster to get me excited.

Overall: C+
Swing and a miss on a risky chance to do 3 in 1 instead of just focusing on one good monster.

Recommendation: I DO NOT recommend this creature advance.

Congrats top 16! Glad to see 3 of the monsters I voted for went forward.

Good luck in the next round!

Curaigh, James, and Charles, thank you for the feedback! I was excited to get an alt position, and I plan to use the critiques I received this year to refine my ideas for the next.

It's the minor details that can make or break an item, Charles, and attention to that is not overrated. Thanks for the tips! It is a bit vague as to whether it is removable.

You might be right. I dont know. If you email Vic I'm sure he will send you our comments.

Just so you know, I loved the claw more than the other two judges :) I love symbols.

:D

Wheeeeeeee!

/dance

Bill Dodds wrote:

Well, I suppose I ought to throw my item out for review now that we are well past the Wonderous Item stage.

Infernal Claw of Torment

Bill, I dont know if I can comment at this point since you are an alternate and round 2 isnt done yet. Theoretically someone in round 2 could be disqualified and you could catapult into the top.

Really? It was my understanding that I was done for this year! Sorry about that! The email I received indicated that since all of the 32 were not Dairy Queened for their entries into round 2, that there was no way I could advance.

I apologise if I posted early on this. I thought I was in the clear for the Wonderous Item.

I am happy to wait until the voting is in on Rnd 2 before hearing any feedback from the judging team.

I will be patient.. :)

I got feedback via email on my beastie, but not the Wonderous Item.

Clark/Vic, would you fellas mind if I posted my monster submission and the judges critique I received after this round is complete and the next round begun? I just think seeing the judges comments might assist other submitters in the future.

I do not want to cause issue, so I will happily wait until 4th round or later, if you prefer.

Well, I suppose I ought to throw my item out for review now that we are well past the Wonderous Item stage.

I said I would post it here, so have a gander, friends!

(note: this is duplicated in the Clark, Give Me Feedback thread)

Infernal Claw of Torment
Aura strong necromancy [evil]; CL 13th
Slot hand(s); Price 99,400 gp; Weight 1 lb
This heavily tattooed and strangely warm leather glove and gauntlet is tipped in black talons, with swirled runes covering every inch of its deep russet exterior. Sliding the glove on is unnerving as it seems to squirm its way up the wearer’s arm until it seals itself just beyond the elbow.
An infernal claw is constructed from the heavily enchanted dismembered and deboned arm of a devil or demon and has several powers.
-The wearer gains a claw attack, normally d6+ Str modifier but adjusts for the size of the wearer. This claw attack is considered ‘armed’ and can bypass DR/evil protection.
-Holding the claw aloft, fingers spread, evokes a symbol of pain as an incandescent infernal rune lights up on the palm of the glove. The effects of the spell-like effect last 13 rounds but otherwise acts as a symbol of pain, including the 60’ radius which is centered on the bearer of the infernal claw.
-Holding the claw aloft, fist clenched, evokes a symbol of weakness as a different rune on the back of hand flares to life. The effects function like the spell, with the same duration and range as the symbol of weakness.
The symbols can each be used once per day, though there is no limit to the claw attacks. Evoking one of the symbols or using the infernal claw in a melee attack immediately ends the duration of any active symbols, though the lingering effects of the symbol remain for the standard 60 minutes. The bearer and up to three creatures of the bearer’s choosing are immune to the symbol effects.
Construction
Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, gentle repose, symbol of pain, symbol of weakness, Cost 49700

Some thoughts after reading all the critiques of the multitude of items so far:
A) SPELLinnaCAN! Damnit. I really should have read ALL the critiques from last year, but I was just uber-excited and submitted the first day I could.
B) Formatting. I believe I submitted without proper bold text, etc. (since then I have fixed it)
C) Did not alphabatize my spell requirements (again, now fixed)
D) Kept referring to the effects of the Claw as the symbol effects instead of the infernal claw's effects. This just reinforced the SiaC of the item.

What perhaps got me in as an alternate was the imagery and descriptiveness. I'd love to see if my assumptions match up with what our judging staff wrote.

Now that I have gotten heavily into this forum as a result of this contest and read thousands of posts on last year AND this year's critiques, suggestions, and submissions, I feel ready and much more prepared for next year.

Well, I suppose I ought to throw my item out for review now that we are well past the Wonderous Item stage.

Infernal Claw of Torment
Aura strong necromancy [evil]; CL 13th
Slot hand(s); Price 99,400 gp; Weight 1 lb
This heavily tattooed and strangely warm leather glove and gauntlet is tipped in black talons, with swirled runes covering every inch of its deep russet exterior. Sliding the glove on is unnerving as it seems to squirm its way up the wearer’s arm until it seals itself just beyond the elbow.
An infernal claw is constructed from the heavily enchanted dismembered and deboned arm of a devil or demon and has several powers.
-The wearer gains a claw attack, normally d6+ Str modifier but adjusts for the size of the wearer. This claw attack is considered ‘armed’ and can bypass DR/evil protection.
-Holding the claw aloft, fingers spread, evokes a symbol of pain as an incandescent infernal rune lights up on the palm of the glove. The effects of the spell-like effect last 13 rounds but otherwise acts as a symbol of pain, including the 60’ radius which is centered on the bearer of the infernal claw.
-Holding the claw aloft, fist clenched, evokes a symbol of weakness as a different rune on the back of hand flares to life. The effects function like the spell, with the same duration and range as the symbol of weakness.
The symbols can each be used once per day, though there is no limit to the claw attacks. Evoking one of the symbols or using the infernal claw in a melee attack immediately ends the duration of any active symbols, though the lingering effects of the symbol remain for the standard 60 minutes. The bearer and up to three creatures of the bearer’s choosing are immune to the symbol effects.
Construction
Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, gentle repose, symbol of pain, symbol of weakness, Cost 49700

Some thoughts after reading all the critiques of the multitude of items so far:
A) SPELLinnaCAN! Damnit. I really should have read ALL the critiques from last year, but I was just uber-excited and submitted the first day I could.
B) Formatting. I believe I submitted without proper bold text, etc. (since then I have fixed it)
C) Did not alphabatize my spell requirements (again, now fixed)
D) Kept referring to the effects of the Claw as the symbol effects instead of the infernal claw's effects. This just reinforced the SiaC of the item.

What perhaps got me in as an alternate was the imagery and descriptiveness. I'd love to see if my assumptions match up with what our judging staff wrote.

Now that I have gotten heavily into this forum as a result of this contest and read thousands of posts on last year AND this year's critiques, suggestions, and submissions, I feel ready and much more prepared for next year.

Please, Clark (and any who wish to), will you give me feedback on my item?

If that happened, I could see Chris go into a rage, snakey-hair whipping in fury, eyes blazing red as he screamed "@%$-#$%@ MOTHER@$&%@*$ SEMICOLONS!" Thank you, judges, for not Dairy-Queening him. That would suck.

..and Chris would forever hate grammar.

;)

I'm looking to be at Gen-Con, but that's probably it this year, and that's really dependent on several factors. I don't think I can afford two cons in 2010.

I'm lucky in that I am friends with an older couple that have a double-sized retailer booth and often have extra passes. They know my love of rpgs and cons and have kindly offerred them to me severla years in a row. Last year was my first chance to go to GenCon since it was in Milwaukee. I usually take my nephew to Origins each year.

Deliciously disturbing. Again, your writing skills make this wee foul thing shine above many other contestants. The little extras are what gave you one of my votes: the sounds it makes, the mercy killing, the final explosion of gore and bone shards.

You got the mojo.

I should be at Origins again this year, and maybe GenCon. Not sure about GenCon though. We'll see!

We should organize a meet or maybe even some table-top rpg goodness. PFSociety or otherwise.

Nope, but that's okay, I'll wait until Clark gets to it. I already can see the problems after readiing the reviews of all the other items.

I told myself to take a 24 hour break from pounding the 'refresh' button repeatedly yesterday afternoon.

Nearly made it. ;)

Just wanted to mention a huge THANK YOU to Ross Byers and the judges, 'cause they sent out the judges comments via email for the monster round to us alternates. Really appreciate that, guys! Perfect solution for the feeling of being stuck in limbo about our entries.

Now to go review the monsters a second time and do some voting..

Hi guys!

Congrats to the top 32 and alts. This is the first year everyone has followed through and submitted a second round entry. Usually, someone drops out. Of course, that is bad for our alts this year, but it says alot about all of you as contestants.

/kicksrocks

Good luck all!

Good luck all.

An hour and a half left!

Then you ladies get to see how the judges felt about your fellas' submissions..

Hahahaha!