I'm not encouraging Paizo to publish psionic rules, I'm fine with what Dreamscarred is doing.

Do you have psionics at your own tables? If so, do you run transparency? What do you like/dislike about it?

I'm finding myself to be a recent convert to psionics. Not saying I'll drop Paizo stuff, but I didn't use to like it.

I allow psionics as transparent. I enjoy the mystic flavor and never got the sci-fi feel to it that most do. I've always seen psions as ascetics and seekers of the way.

I dislike the point system, although I've never bothered, been bothered by, or have witnessed game-breaking moments. I do think it's an improvement from 2nd edition in that there were no rolls required for them to work.

I'd like to see a Numeria AP if this increases the odds for something more on psionics to get published as well.

JJ also mentioned that if there'll be psionics, it'll probably be around Numeria. So whenever the modules or AP of Numeria comes out, the psionics will probably be there are soon to follow.

Ah, cool. I'll have to look into Numeria, then. Thank you.

Ultimate Psionics

I've run games with groups like this.
The approach I developed required me to be more flexible: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The DM fairly arbitrates the rules but does not control what players do. Not all players attending games enjoy the same things. For those that write a backstory and live-in-game roleplay with the NPC's, go ahead and reward for it, but it may be a bit much to demand it. I had one player that always had to play a dwarf named Boris, but that's how he enjoyed the game and I worked around that. Ask what they want out of the game. If some of them hate the idea of talking in character, is it okay to just relay what their characters want to convey to an NPC & then get them to make a skill check? It's not fair to cripple my diplomatic Bard who has massive skill ranks when I can't as easily succeed if limited to how "un-charismatic" I may be.

+1 with what Tinalles said.

I also like to get the players's input. Do they enjoy the game, or do they also want the encounters more challenging.

I would be cautious about the anti-magic. If it's the only way to bring on a good challenge your players enjoy, then cool. Some players may feel "nerfed" if one player must pick a spellcasting class only to not be able to use it. (It may also appear contradictory to face an enemy of magic that happens to use magic.)

I have the Rifts GMG.

The indexes are just that: lists of the names and what book to find them in. It doesn't include magic items at all - for that you need the Book of Magic.

You do get fleshed out info on most weapons, vehicles, power armor, and psychic powers, though.

Cool. Thanks for replying!!!!

I appreciate this kind of blog very much. I'm a fan of intelligent items, and this was a treat. I look forward to the next installment.

If it does include magic items, are they listed as an index or crunched out at all?

The description mentions "comprehensive list" of D-Bees and monsters. Is this just a consolidated list of the "names" of these things only, indicating where to actually find the crunch on them, or does the book actually include the flavor and crunch as well?
On Palladium's website, it describes them as an "index," so I'm inclined to assume it's just a list and nothing more.

Does the list include magic items with the list of equipment, or are they in the magic book only?

Congratulations!!!

A box?!? Perfect! I would encourage you to use the Moldvay Basic Set box as the model.

*Human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfling (gnomes and the half breeds may be too much)
*Fighter/Wizard/Cleric/Thief
*Every rule and option you need to fully play levels 1-3
*DICE
*character sheets
*An amazing dungeon delve (think Whispering Cairn) with tons of GM help

*minis - no
*map - maybe

+1 especially for having dice included.

How long does poison last on a weapon after applying it? Until the first successful hit? It can stay on a sheathed weapon indefinately?

I can only find page 557-8 in the core which I can't spot any specification. I'd say unless it is mentioned elsewhere, I'd then leave it up to the DM with the group's input.

I'm running a solo game with my wife for this AP. She controls a party of 6 players. I've not had to modify the AP except for areas of personal preferences.

Assuming she doesn't want to control a party of 2 or 6, in addition to great ideas above, I'd certainly recommend her taking espionage and diplomacy skills so her character has negotiation and/ or evasion as alternatives to combat encounters. I'd also just give her a free wand of cure light wounds.

I vote for Jodi as Amiri. I don't see why the connections matter if the voting is left up to Paizo fans/ web site/ forum posters. I don't care if my vote is wasted.

I am curious about the Seoni costume. What happened?? :)

Thank you to all who took photos for all of us wanting to go but couldn't. It looks like it was a crazy fun.

I'm glad I voted. You make supreme products. My last shipment of the new APG, Orc guide, faction guide, Pathfinder novel, and the most recent AP's was quite a nice treat. I can't remember being so well satisfied with a company's stuff until now.
I hope you earn a good night's rest after this. I recall the early days of you all working weekends and holidays.
Paizo truly is a juggernaut of dreams come true.

It is possible since insanity shouldn't be alignment-based. Anyone of any alignment might succumb to an insanity. Insanity is a catch-all from developmentally disabled, ocd, up to schizophrenia.

Insanity in and of itself act without morality. Someone under the influence might be treated as if charmed. If charmed to slay an innocent, would the Gm feel the Paladin would still need to atone to keep paladin status? Now, swap "insanity" with charmed. I think it's more of a GM-group discussion and how everyone in your group will have fun rather than how the forum feels. You might get a ton of heated opinions, but your group should place "fun" at the most important part of your decision.

Very beautiful.

Based on the miracles of Iomedea, I figure they'd be tests impossible to accomplish except by DM fiat alone. Just traversing the gap should be impossible: no magic, no help, just start walking. If you're "supposed to make it," then a "miracle" happens and you make it across.
One test could be to get to walk through some element, or all of them at lethal damage, but having no special abilities to withstand any element.
Walk through a hallway of cut glass without bleeding.
Drink from an infinitely replenishing fountain until you dry it up.

Being an artist myself, I love the reprinted and untainted cover art. The art of the covers are magnificent, and I enjoy seeing them as they should be seen.

There's also the possibility of the Falcon's Hollow series of mods, starting with Hollow's Last Hope. Part of these adventures explores Droskar's Crag, which is an old Dwarven, ruined shrine.

For me it's a matter time and group dynamics.

Option 1) Gm demands minutia roleplayed minute by minute:
Assuming everyone in the group enjoys this, this works great with lots of real time to devote to such things. Any plots or adventure hooks get massive verisimilitude from players roleplaying how they take a shave every morning, count the grains of salt for material components and explain how their spell component pouches can be accessed without taking more than a quick action for each spell. I had fun with this when I was in HS, had summers to roleplay every day and all day if I desired.

Option 2) Gm waves the hand and says players get what they want as long as they have the gp for it:
This works good if time is limited, and the GM trusts the players not to get anything beyond their means. Maybe the group all have families, work, or other activities, or just having the plot proceed takes precedence over roleplaying behind-the-scenes elements.

It's not just the players or the Gm, it's both. Everyone should agree in what everyone finds fun, ideally.

I'd love to go to a Paizo Con some day. *sighs*

This would make a hecka slamming sweater.

Awesome stuff.

Drogon wrote:

However, in this situation, giving the cleric anything extra that the other players don't get could be detrimental to the relationship of that party. Neither side of the argument did anything wrong, as far as decisions.

I disagree with that assessment, as the players that left town were specifically breaking their word to Sheriff Hemlock to stay, protect the town, and give the townsfolk peace of mind and a sense of order and calm by staying and "holding down the fort" so to speak while Hemlock is gone. Instead the majority of them ditched out at first opportunity, breaking their word and making those who left out to be untrustworthy in the future, perhaps even flat out liars and cowards in the eyes of the townsfolk.

Granted, such things will have different importance and carry different weight with different campaigns and DMs, but from my standpoint, a HERO who gives his word of protection, then immediately knowingly and willfully breaks it, is a wrongful act. Thus it is my opinion that the Cleric was in the right, while the others who left, while perhaps good of intention, were in the wrong.

*shrug* Again though, it does boil down to playstyle and interpretation.

+1

A split group can be a hassle, but it's worth finding out what lead to the split. Is a player acting contrary or sincere based off of what the Dm offers the player? A player should never be penalized for acting out their character honestly based off of what the DM relays. If a group follows through with splitting up, everyone should still be involved with activity and not feel neglected. I would say both sides should feel the merits and pitfalls of their actions, which can lead to growth as characters for both as the story involves. Maybe both sides will come to understand that both sides can have good and bad results. Nothing is strictly black and white. Maybe it was good for the players to disregard their oaths, appear like backstabbers and deceitful, uncaring mercenaries in the short term if their actions lead to nipping goblin activity in the bud. Maybe it was also good for the cleric to stay behind to act as deputy, to carry the burden of responsibility of the law while the law was gone, making decisions for town problems, arresting petty thugs, stopping fights, etc. and made sure the town carried on with daily life.

DarkArt wrote:

Seriously, though, there's no table chart for the switchscythe, and the flickmace has no description.

This has already been addressed and answered in ITS OWN THREAD. Stop crapping up every other gnome thread!

Well, when in gnome. Do as the gnomans. Smurf

Seriously, though, there's no table chart for the switchscythe, and the flickmace has no description. [sarcasm/] Is this Gnomish to mean they are actually the same weapon?[/sarcasm]

"Goofs" and "mistakes" happen in "regular" games as well. I've played in groups, I've played solo, and I have DM'd groups and solo. "Mistakes" are unavoidable. The main thing is to ask each other "what will make this fun?"

If you refuse to allow more than a full party of balanced characters, then I'd allow for extreme flexibility in other areas as noted above. Easier access to potions, allowing anyone to use curing wands without ranks in a skill, and to also allow for negotiation instead of combat for encounters. Minions can be bargained with, intimidated, bribed, or bypassed with disguise, stealth, and/ or trickery.

In my current solo game, when we take turns playing, we each make a party of 6 characters. We allow for potions as a free action. Even if someone gets knocked down to -50 hit points, if someone else in the party is alive with a stabilize spell, heal skill, potion, or curing wand, and can get to that fallen comrade within that round, they are automatically stabilized.

I've also had a fun time being generous with loot. Whatever the AP or mod says, I add on more. It's never been "abused." If an encounter becomes a cake walk, I don't mind if she has fun. I know I enjoy it when I'm the player.

Anytime there's a slog, it kills the moment for us. We do whatever necessary to get the slog finished a.s.a.p. If I can see a moment in the next few pages where a slog may be close by, I will either cut it out entirely, or make some way that the character can turn it into a fun and quick encounter instead.

Perhaps it's like Springfield.

I DM's it as a solo, and it took about a year. I don't like roleplaying minutia, just the main moments in the AP. We only played on usually one day out of the weekend, and maybe 2 to 3 weekends out of a month.

Truly awesome are the powers of the DM. With a wave of the hand, three levels are gained with no questions asked.

I would expect the gnomenclature to be nifty.

Well done!!!!!

Looks amazing to me!!

I enjoy the wanted posters idea. The Tavern Wench is awesome.

I took the stone heads as one of those "sometimes the gazebo is actually just a gazebo" moment. Great flavor to keep the players on their toes.

I can only wonder what plot horror the Mona card would unleash.

Perhaps it could also mean a round of pizza for the characters.

Has anyone had their group

** spoiler omitted **

Anyway, this group doesn't usually play in modules, and I only offered to run as temporary DM while our regular DM took some time off of running it (he's playing a PC in the game now) to get married. But I think this is going to end with some anger at me for "railroading" them into doing it "the way the module wants you to." I had to patch their existing characters into Golarion to run this module (no easy task) and it's costing me quite a bit of my free time to do so. But to quote the Trilogy, I have a bad feeling about this.

If they're having a blast, I'd roll with it totally. I'd fudge the xp to pump them all up if needed or otherwise nerf the encounters as James suggests. I personally like daring, as long as the party doesn't become obnoxious and insufferable to the DM about an easy ride. I think having a great time is the main thing.

Ah, but any magical pants within, I wonder.

It's the love of the game, and the heart, and the passion, and the sheer brilliance in creativity like this that won me over immediately to Pathfinder. I look forward to this one.

The first part of this AP includes a dialogue Queen Telandia has with the heroes that detail how a new star coming closer has been spotted, and that she has already made preparations for another massive exodus while sending envoys to other nations. Followed by what the Queen offers next should send a clear signal to the party that time is of the essence. I think the Doomsday clock is cool. I think any party motivated to act quickly would be fine.

Regarding the deciphering of the glyphs, I plan on rewarding the PC taking the character traits of mathematical prodigy as well as researcher of the blot. He's an elven wizard with a high Arcane, they have all notes, and the character has been rolling aces regarding the glyphs so far. I like the idea of character traits taken early on still holding significance down to the very last chapter of an AP. The order of the glyphs will be much easier, and attributed by the sheer brilliance and skill attributed to having studied in this area.

stuart haffenden wrote:

DM's and players [what are you doing here!] what's it like as a whole compared to, say, RotRL and CotCT?

Edit: Where are the bad bits? What needs some DM work prior to playing?

I'm currently running it, and my players are having a grand ol' time. I've only run through Bastards of Erebus so far, but I'm sorry to say that that adventure is a good chunk of the Bad Bits. There's a tedious sewer crawl that takes way too many words to describe<snip>

There's a note to make the sewer crawl as long or as brief as the group enjoys. If the group feels it's a slog, the AP has given a new way to make an otherwise slog into a rapid whatever-is-most-fun for the group chase under the heading "Maze Maps Don't Work" on page 16.

For now Mindshadows is a good kludge for Vudra.

We don't have anything on the schedule for psionics yet. I think we will probably get to it in a couple of years, and at that time I expect a couple of things to happen, pretty much at the same time.

1) Paizo releases Pathfinder RPG Psionics book.

2) Paizo releases Vudra book in the campaign setting line, integrating the PF Psionics rules into the world of Golarion in a gazetteer-style product. This book would feature an Indian society with some psionics entwined with it.

3) Paizo releases a Castrovel: The Green Planet book in the campaign setting line, featuring a gazetteer-style overview of a pulp science fantasy setting that FULLY integrates the Pathfinder Psionics system into the world.

As others have said, we want to keep the Pathfinder RPG rulebooks campaign-setting neutral, because lots of people buy those books and many of them use other settings.

Sounds awesome!!!

I play a universal wizard, and it's been gloriously entertaining so far. All spells to obtain and use without limits, and I don't mind not using the more dazzling specialist abilities at 1st and 8th level.
He's also a devotee of Nethys, which turned out to be interesting as far as storyline.
As far as individual games go, a good DM could make any specialist feel "special" in any AP. I don't detect any one specialist school prevailing here.

I think in general, playing anything can get to be a drag regardless of how "interesting" a chapter is. All previous AP's got very sluggish towards the last 2 chapters. It might be the battle fatigue of having a character past the "sweet spot," or feeling like if it says to do something in a chapter, then the party must be forced to encounter it, but every group can get struck by ennui, and I'm sorry it turned out as it did. Outside problems can also be a challenge, as it was for you. Life creeps in and can kill the mood to game quickly.

I solved some chronic problems in my game with the following changes:
1) I roll dice to see who attacks what randomly unless it makes obvious sense: (Dumb Orc will try to bash that PC right in front of it in stead of another PC out of reach. I'll roll a die, though if two or more PC's are next to the Orc.)

2) We've done away with experience points. When the AP chapter says that a party should be at a certain level by a certain point, then there's just an automatic level up.

3) I try to talk or read body language to figure out if an upcoming scene or current one will be fun and why. Players who hate the spotlight but need to roleplay can just make a diplomacy check without talking...they just need to give me the general outcome the PC wants to happen. If something is turning into a slog, I try to find a way to make shortcuts pronto. Scarwall was a slog. If a party doesn't mind too much, maybe it means just cutting out some encounters. Perhaps 30 to 90% of the castle is empty as a result. The idea above to just "give" the party the sword after they join the Shoanti is an excellent emergency solution to a party wanting to wrap it up.

4) If someone doesn't understand the usual party roles (tank, medic, sneak, spell-slinger, etc.), maybe a refresher? Maybe make it very clear before making a character or accepting the item that paints the "kill-me" sign on their torso, that they get a straight-to-the-point warning? (If you make a fighter, I will have "most" enemies go after you always. If you accept this sword, then "all" enemies will forsake all else to attack only your character.)

*edit*
5) Before a character is made. Ask what role and how the player sees the character, so the DM can suggest steering clear of a bad fit towards a better fit.

All DM's should get along, should agree to some extent on rules as noted above but must be willing to have faith in the other DM and not backseat drive unless requested are good. The only other caveat I have would be a general spoiler concern, if it's an issue. Once a chapter is selected to run, there is ideally no going back from deciding to run it. I'd also suggest, then, waiting for all chapters to be received first.

This is something I just assumed would be mentioned and didn't consider the possibility it wouldn't get any fleshing out later on in this ap. So, I hope it will. They interest me as well.

Playing tag with shadows could be fun if they have the higher initiative.

It may still turn out anti-climactic for your group with just the crab, but in my game, the crab was a near TPK. Everything else was the cake walk.