Brannon Branduin Brighthammer's page

Are you the same person you were ten years ago? Twenty? Will you be the same person in fifty more years? Would snapshots from different times of your life not be both equally representative of the moment but also equally different from one another?

Whether I'm writing about a character in fiction, or playing a character in a game, I know who they are at level 1 or Chapter 1 isn't who they'll be at 10th level or by the end of the trilogy.

So a painting of a person, or a character, is a representation of the person they were at that time. They will have changed by the end, but that doesn't change who they were at the beginning or in the middle. Each one is a complete picture.

I have to say I've never encountered a group that was eager to kill off their characters, even if they wanted to try new builds or whatever. I'd never punish players whose characters died in heroic combat, but if characters are dying while trying to complete adventure objectives and it's because they've made careless or purposeful mistakes, I'd at least penalized their advancement. Perhaps parts of the module are now 'failed' and they have to move on, or the rewards and XP are reduced because of other issues related to their delay.

Are these all relatively new players? That makes a difference, too. I guess it comes down to doing what's fun and fair for everyone involved. If some players (I don't know how many you have) are trying to keep their characters alive while others are playing carelessly, there's clearly some sort of disconnect regard to expectations.

In most systems, unless you're just really aching for official rules on the matter, it's easy enough to just decide which of the available races (and there are so many in this case) that your animal person of choice is closest to, and simply reskin them.

It's been my experience that most players interested in such a character concept are really more after the cosmetic rather than mechanical benefits anyway, so they'd happily play a character that was mechanically the same as a human or an elf, as long as they got to look like a wolf or a cat person. Of course, I know that's a generalization based on my experience, so if someone really wants to play a fiendish dire tigerman monk for both thematic and mechanical purposes, you'll need to do some more work.

The Savage Species stats seemed awfully arbitrary at times, as well as requiring huge ECL modifiers for some of the choices, so it didn't strike me as particularly useful.

I'd personally avoid anything that links the idea of humanized/bipedal animals to the so-called furry fandom itself, as that makes a lot of assumptions based on one very specific interpretation of what an anthropomorphic character could be. But of course, if that's exactly what you're after, go for it.

Looking forward to hearing more about this. I know there have been people trying to get PF together at A-kon for a few years in a row. Glad to see a bigger presence there this year.

As a fellow PDFer and fan of tablets, I just wanted to let everyone know that the new Asus Transformer Prime is a phenomenal piece of hardware, though as it's priced to match the iPad 2(even though it's got better hardware specs than the iPad 2) it's well worth it. I tried going the cheap tablet route last year with a refurb gTablet and while it was instructive and fun, all it made me do was want to eventually get a modern tablet.

I've tried the netbook route (an Asus Eee PC from about three years ago) and it's great in its own limited way, especially with a 2 GB upgrade and running Windows 7, but it's hard to justify a netbook these days with tablets getting more and more affordable and full featured laptops getting so cheap.

I think it's great that, no matter what the system, PA constantly refers back to tabletop gaming as the roots of the modern video gaming industry. It was great to see Paizo and other tabletop gaming companies there at PAX alongside the huge amounts of money being thrown around in the exhibit hall by the big video game publishers.

This comic was also very appropriate for my online gaming group, since we just wrapped up a game of 4e and are starting up Pathfinder. It was a hard sell initially, but my constant flogging of their products and the fantastic line support that Paizo provides finally sealed the deal.

I've never had a GM demand that the entire table watch each other's rolls, and I've played in a lot of games with a lot of different groups over the years. If I had someone in my group that I couldn't even trust to be honest with his rolls, I'd confront them right then and there over it.

"Hey Frank, I see you haven't failed a save in the last twenty rolls, you realize that's extremely improbable, right?"

"You realize that John, Bill and Bob have failed x/y of their rolls over the last twenty rolls, right?"

Things to that effect. You're either so uncertain of it (despite what you say) or you're just so afraid of confrontation that you can't bring yourself to deal with this supposed 40 year old friend of yours whose ego is so fragile that calling him out on fudging die rolls would destroy the entirety of your past together.

Don't play ridiculous passive-aggressive games, don't punish the whole table by creating a further atmosphere of distrust, deal with the root problem politely and directly.

Hey, glad to see you guys are going to be at PAX after all! I've never run a game of Pathfinder, but I'm sure looking to play in one.

We're going to be there, although in what capacity is still be determined. :)

Ah, wonderful, I was hoping there might be some sort of official presence. I know with it being so close to GenCon that there's a lot of other things going on, but this year I decided to try out something new. I'm pretty stoked about an entire convention that sells out in days.

Well, being the Seattle VC, I'd be the one running things if we do manage to get a PFS presence at PAX. I know Hyrum had mentioned wanting to get us in there, and I personally would love to do it, I'm just not certain who we'd have to go through to get there.

Just thought I'd throw out there that there's already an official RPGA presence on the PAX forums discussing what Wizards is doing in regards to their stuff. Sure would be nice to see some Pathfinder action there!

What GM in their right mind would allow any alcohol on the gaming table? Except of course cleaning alcohol to wipe the table. Some people argue that beer is ok, but i explicitly forbid any form of drinking on my sessions. Forbidding pot or other narcotics goes without saying. Ever tried to play with a baked GM/Players? Not fun. In the least bit.

I can see certain reasons to forbid drinking (underage players being the most important) or if another player really has a problem (recovering alcoholic, or just unable to control themselves) but otherwise someone sipping a beer while they play is hardly a cause for alarm. Sure, if they're sitting there pounding back bottles of Mad Dog or shots of vodka, it's pretty clear that they're just not going to be into the game very much.

Smoking is at least something that might directly bother those around you, and it's less about the nicotine than the smoke itself, especially if you're at a non-smokers house or you're at a table predominated by non-smokers.

Illegal substances are right out, of course, for the very fact of their illegality and it could get everyone involved in trouble.

Of course, if I'm at someone's house and they request no booze, then I understand. But I've been at plenty of tables where the fact that someone had a couple of beers was hardly an issue.

Well, to anyone who's interested, if you'd like to exchange info, email us at pathfinder (at) sakabatou (dot) net. Since I'm not sure when we're going to be able to get a table in the gaming room, it might be handy to be able to contact each other at the con in case whatever plans we make ahead of time fall through. :)

I plan on being at the con all weekend, though I live about ten minutes away so I'm not actually staying at one of the hotels. I'd be interested in playing and chatting about organizing PFS stuff in the future.

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Well, being the Seattle VC, I'd be the one running things if we do manage to get a PFS presence at PAX. I know Hyrum had mentioned wanting to get us in there, and I personally would love to do it, I'm just not certain who we'd have to go through to get there.

Ok, I was just curious. I know all the passes are already sold out for attendees, but I'm sure they must have a different method of admitting exhibitors and those running events. I suppose if there's no official presence I might still be able to scare up a game or two.

Hi, I was curious if there are any plans for there to be any Paizo or PFS presence at PAX in August, being that it's in Seattle near their neck of the woods?

I know it's heavily console/computer game oriented, but from what I've heard there are plenty of tabletop and wargame enthusiasts there as well. I also know WotC operates a booth and runs games.

Of course I also agree with Ævux in that I don't generally care for Paladins because they general ended up dominating the party and trying to force other into playing their way. It's my feeling that in order to play a Paladin you should have the approval of the rest of the group beforehand.

I've played with players that are annoying and disruptive no matter what sort of game, character or class is involved, so to say that somehow a specific core class should require group permission is a bit of an overreaction.

If you've got a problem player, recognize that it's the player who is causing the problem, not the system.

Well, at first I read this as a Giger Paladin, and my mind was filled with some twisted, biomechanical abomination of a paladin from the Far Realms, which then made me think, why isn't he an anti-paladin? Then I spotted the spelling. Ah well, one can dream!

That being said, like many issues of player conflict, this is less about the game and more about the people at the table. The DM either clearly wants to encourage player conflict if he allows opposed alignments, or is inexperienced enough that he doesn't realize what sorts of problems it may present. If it's the former, well, best of luck to you, though I'd never play at such a table. If it's the latter, I'd suggest an open discussion about just what the players and the DM want out of the adventure.