Chickenbeard's page

Please cancel my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription - thanks!

Regarding the absence of a "15-minute warning": I was GMing way in the corner, at Table 1. The 75-minute warning and the 15-minute warning were both loud enough for us to hear them clearly.

Not so at our table...just the usual unintelligible murmur resembling Charlie Brown's teacher. And did these warnings say anything about "finish or die" or just that the slot was about to end? Very different messages.

To be super-clear, the "finish or die" aspect was a complete surprise to our table. I (foolishly) interpreted Sheila's warning at the beginning as an admonition against camping to regain spells, not the out of game time limit of midnight, or possibly some flavor-text to emphasize the one-time nature of this PFS scenario.

And since we spent the first hour or so waiting for a DM, how could I expect otherwise?

I was at the same table as Thefurmonger, so had about the same experience with the PFS Special...

First, I want to thank the many, many volunteers and Paizo staff who put in tons of hard work to pull off a huge slate of PFS events over the weekend. Round 1 of the Special was a great gaming experience. Intense, challenging, and fun. Thanks for running a great table Carlos and it was great to meet "Sebastian" and "Zennifer" - a real pleasure overall!

Round 2, as previously discussed, was not. I went in expecting something truly "special" but my experience was three hours of tedious puzzles, followed by a thrilling final battle, followed by a TPK via boxed-text ten minutes after the slot had ended. The puzzles were tedious because no one in the party had the requisite Knowledge skills, so it was a series of random guesses followed by annoying penalties for failure. Nothing lethal, but nothing fun. The final fight, on the other hand, was truly epic (even for our Tier 5-6 party). Before starting the fight, we debated turning tail and running, but ultimately decided to take on the challenge, fully open to the possibility of a TPK. Ultimately, we triumphed over the monsters in a deadly environment. Our GM hand-waved us through the steps to acquire the maguffin and then we started our way out only to be slowed by new obstacles. We were holding our own in this fight when time was called. Yay, we had survived!

A bit later, our DM comes back after turning in our score sheet and sheepishly tells us that we are all dead since we failed to exit the dungeon. The previously quoted text about a 15 minute warning was never provided to us and quite frankly I think our GM was as surprised as we were that we were dead.

Ugh. Pretty crappy feeling. I've been playing some form of the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game at GenCon since 1998 and I don't think I've left the table more disappointed in the play experience. I trust Paizo will learn some lessons from this. I know I did...

I also had the opportunity to run the same table I had in 2010 through this year's Year of the Ruby Phoenix special. Again, as always I had a blast.

Ryan - Our whole table had a great time at the Special - thanks again for GM'ing for us!

Ryan - Everyone in our group had a great time playing Shadow Lodge -- Definitely the PFS highlight and you ran a great table for us!

- Chickenbeard & Meilin

After defeating Vhalantru, one of my players has decided that they should un-petrify all of the statues they found in Oblivion. He sees them as a way to replace the half-orc mercenaries that are so unpopular in Cauldron. He has pitched this idea to the rest of the party and even presented it to Lord Taskerhill at the "Meeting of Minds." Of course, Lord Taskerhill thinks the force will be loyal to him and my PC will try to set himself up as their trusted leader instead.

I think I'll let this work and refer to these returnees as "The 44." Of course, the events of Foundation of Flame may slow down how this plays out. He's already figured out that break enchantment will give him a really quick method to get them free.

I am really confused by the map and description of area V4 (Balcony) of Vaprak's Voice. The only interpretation that kind of makes sense is that the entire oval area (V4) is the balcony and it connects directly to V7 via the passageway (that way the giants in V7 can come help). The dotted lines represent a passage from V2 to V6 at a level beneath the balcony. However, this interpretation makes it very tough to get in this way (perhaps the intent). I can't even guess what the "smaller cave mouth" located 15 feet above the entrance is. What path does it connect? Clearly, it's not one used by the giants. Any help would be appreciated -- my PC's are on the verge of encountering!