Brained's page

Hello all. Myself and Ludwig Orsingher have been hard at work improving the not-ready-for-primetime release of the first adventure in the Cult of the Black Ibis adventure path.

This upgrade features many, many changes:

* A greatly improved and polished PDF file that contains a list of card proxies for those who don't want to print and play.

* An original high res map that details the areas that the adventure path covers.

* Completely new art on many cards. We've replaced the public domain stuff with images from professional artists contacted through Deviantart!

* Rule tweaks and typo corrections.

You can check it out here.

We spent a lot of time on this, and the 2nd adventure in the path is already on its way. We've already secured a lot of permission from artists for new art, and the adventure itself has been mostly written.

I hope you enjoy.

Hello all. There is an ongoing "debate" over on BGG about whether or not it's considered okay to crop images released in the Paizo Community Use Package, i.e. those images found on the web fiction section or that were published on the Paizo blog and downloadable file packages. It is agreed that Paizo doesn't want us messing with their logos or titles, but not completely clear from the wording of the policy that we can't resize and crop other images.

I am reworking my first fan made adventure, and it would be nice to get a definitive answer.

Here is an example of a villain I made. The original image has been cropped about 50% to give a better look.

Here is a location I made, where the cropping is to provide emphasis on the slave labor aspect.

Hi there. I was playing a 4p Skull & Shackles game last night. One of the players asked about Radillo's "add a spell to your hand" power feat. He wondered if he could infinitely recycle Buoyancy cards (an automatic check to recharge) using this feat, and thus examine an entire location deck in one turn. Buoyancy allows you to "Discard this card to examine the bottom card of your location deck and put it on top of that deck."

I told him "No, you can only use a power feat once for each check."
Because, in my mind, being able to cycle through a location deck even though "Anyone can play a card whenever the card allows it" just seems ridiculously powerful especially at level 1.

Assuming that I'm understanding Radillo's power correctly, what if he had TWO buoyancy spells, could he then cycle through a location deck in one turn that way?

This might seem like a really obvious question. Maybe I'm missing a rule somewhere where you can't play the same spell twice during your turn.

Did a forum search for this guy, and nothing was returned.

I opened my Island of Empty eyes pack to find the two awesome promo cards, but also a Bikendi Otongu undead wizard role card with token/story on the front. Is this just a teaser card, a mistake in packing, or was there supposed to be a whole character in the pack?

If so, I would sure like to see them.
I am feeling lonely out here.

I think the lack of interest in homebrew adventures\scenarios is in part due to the fact that Paizo is so dang prolific. Do any of you anticipate a surge of interest in fan-made content?

Unfortunately, I used Word to create my adventure PDF for my first custom adventure, and it looks really crapola. I've been searching for a mac PDF editor that gives me good flexibility and formatting ability, but doesn't cost as much as Acrobat Pro. I used Acrobat for work for a while a couple years ago, but have little experience in the third party PDF editing software world.

What non-Acrobat PDF editors do you use or recommend, if any?

To Vic and all else who know these things:

Had a discussion with Autoduelist over on BGG about what exactly the community use policy allows.

As I finish up my first custom PACG adventure, I want to make sure I'm doing everything by the book. All I want to know is if it's permissible to crop an image from the Paizo blog or web fiction area to fit or appear clearer on custom cards. I realize that Paizo would want to protect the reputation of its artists and its brand, so I would never do anything to make it look skewed or ugly, but at which point does altering an image violate the policy, and should it be more clear that Paizo is interested in mainly protecting the dimensions of its corporate brand assets (logos, game covers, icons, etc.) and not just the dimensions of all of its images, even those released in the community use policy?

Here is an example.
Here's another one.

Forgive me if this has been brought up, couldn't find it if it has.

I happily purchased a few of the class decks today, but have never really sat down and compared the many different incarnations of the main 7 iconics. I can see the logic in the different Valeroses, Kyras, Harsks, etc., but right now it seems that the original RotR Lem just isn't worth playing anymore.

Skull & Shackles Lem has:
Recharge a card to add 1d4 to a check by ANY character at your location, which would include Lem.

RotR Lem has the same talent but only for OTHER characters at the location.

S&S Lem has:
"When you recharge a card, you may instead shuffle it." This power is amazing when used properly. allowing for better odds for drawing cards you know would otherwise be at the bottom.

RotR Lem doesn't have this, nor does the Bard Class Deck Lem.

Finally, S&S Lem's ability to turn a finessed weapon into a melee weapon seems to far overpower RotR's Lem's traditional "jack of trades" aspect, since S&S Lem has all of that as well.

The only thing that RotR Lem has over S&S Lem is that he starts off with a 6 card hand.

Am I missing something, is old Lem worthless now?

Ancient geeks.

Good day! So, for quite some time I have been intensely working on a personalized adventure centering between the Sodden Lands and the Shackles. A "non-canon" area of my own design called the Republic of Etria and its surrounding lands is nestled somewhere along the mountainous coast to the northwest of the Sodden Lands.

I'm not sure if there will be any interest from the general public in this. Right now I am making it solely for my own enjoyment, but will make it available to anybody who wants to try it out.

Here's the pitch:

The reviled Archduke Lievan of Etria has gone missing, and the factions of the Republic are vying for power. The players are sent by enemies of the Duke to deliver a message to a Vizier Adelard who is in hiding in the remote mountain town of Zidan.

Once joined, Adelard will take you through the swamps toward the Shackles, where Prince Aysen, an official heir to the throne that the Duke had banished long ago, is slaving away on a plantation for the Rakshasa.

The players must return Aysen and Adelard to the court of Etria, where they will try to save the Republic from total civil war. They will also discover an ominous secret about the true nature of the Duke's reign...

What's in the Adventure:

The adventure spans 6 scenarios. It is advised that it be played by characters that have finished
5-10 scenarios already. It functions as a level 1 adventure, but further playtesting may change that.

Currently there are 13 new locations, 4 new villains, 2 new henchman, and 4 new allies.
As playtesting unfolds, this may change; cards may be added or dropped.

New Variants

Wrath of the Archduke introduces two new variants: Escort missions and faction joining.

Throughout the adventure, the players must ensure that neither Prince Aysen nor Vizilier Adelard are buried or banished. This means the players chosen to escort them will likely try to discard or recharge them so as to "keep them away from the front lines," however, both allies provide substantial bonuses, so tough choices will have to be made.

In the 3rd scenario, players may choose to ally with the Ruffians or the Bandits, who are rioting over the leadership vacuum left by the Duke's disappearance. The henchmen cards are displayed by the character who "wins them," and they provide bonuses to the scenario's checks. However, both cannot be displayed in the same location at once, or else the players immediately encounter them (they figure out that they're being conned and try to kill the players for fooling them). In the following scenario, the surviving henchmen are displayed again, and may be banished for further bonuses.

What You Will Need to Play

You will need both the Rise of the Runelords and Skulls & Shackles base sets to play Wrath of the Archduke.

For locations, obviously you can just print the cards out, since they don't need to be shuffled into the game.

If you have opaque sleeved sets (I do), your life will be much easier. You can just slip the printed card with an unused card into the sleeve. It looks fine and is undetectable in a stack.

Other than actually making the cards yourselves, you can use substitutions of official cards that I will provide in the actual documentation for your convenience. It won't be as pretty, but if you really feel like playing, it's an option.

Finally...

I've worked really hard on this adventure, and have had a lot of fun doing it. I hope there will be some interest in the PACG community. Thanks a bunch!

This adventure uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., which are used under Paizo's Community Use Policy. We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This adventure is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Inc. For more information about Paizo's Community Use Policy, please visit paizo.com/communityuse. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, please visit paizo.com.

I am in the middle of designing an entire adventure with several custom cards and locations. I wanted to have one scenario include an element of choice, where your allegiance to one side or another affects the setup of the following scenario.

In "A Rabble in Arms!," the players may lead mobs of Ruffians or Bandits.

I am usually in favor of simple rules, but this is an exception.
I'd appreciate some input on this idea.

Ignore rough draft graphics. I probably need to customize the template to put a larger font
in there as well.

A Rabble in Arms! Scenario

I read the guidelines and I don't seem to be violating anything there.

I'm making a pretty involved adventure based on some very old writing of mine, and I've been snagging fantasy images off of Deviantart and so on. Would this be considered unscrupulous in the Pathfinder community or is this considered fair use? Please forgive my ignorance on this.

I would of course credit the artists in the adventure's PDF. I just noticed that the Paizo guidelines allow me to use artwork from the fiction section, so if I'm doing something bad here I can start over with the images you provide. Any acceptable free resources you guys know about for this would also be great. I'm not into using photographs, it just doesn't look good.

Here's an example:

Sample Scenario

A first draft of a custom ally.

Hello friends. Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but I couldn't find it.
I have the template pack, but would like to start designing a cross-set S&S/Runelords adventure and will be using ships. Could someone point me in the direction of a blank ship template?

Thank you!