Doug Maynard's page

I don't know if this is against the rules of this messageboard, if so I apologize and I'm open to suggestions of how to proceed instead.

I have 17 Pathfinder Tales novels, but lately I've been getting them on my tablet instead, and we're trying to downsize in our home. So I'm looking for someone who would be interested in adopting all of them as a single set. I might ask for this person to pay for shipping but I'm not looking to make money off of the transaction. I just want to get them into the hands of someone who will enjoy them as I did. If you're interested, you can PM me. First come, first served.

Here's the list of novels:

Prince of Wolves
Winter Witch
Plague of Shadows
The Worldwound Gambit
Master of Devils
Song of the Serpent
City of the Fallen Sky
Nightglass
Blood of the City
Queen of Thorns
Called to Darkness
Liar's Blade
Pirate's Honor
The Wizard's Mask
King of Chaos
Stalking the Beast
The Redemption Engine

Hi, everyone -

My understanding (as well as that of the store manager at my FLGS) is that U.S. stores who are running organized PACG play would get a copy of the base set. We've been play OP there monthly since November and I've been using my box, but the group has grown beyond what a single base set can manage (7 people showed up to play last night). Are we mistaken, or should the store have received the Skull & Shackles Base Set? We are definitely getting the scenarios so I think the store did what it needed to in order to get 'registered' as an OP store. Any help in clarifying what we can do to get the Base Set (if we were supposed to get one, of course) would be greatly appreciated so we can support two tables simultaneously as well as run scenarios when I can't be there with my personal copy.

Thanks!

In the Guide it states in bold letters:

We strongly recommend making 4 players your standard table size.

Clearly Paizo wants to emphasize this, but what is the reasoning? Is it because larger tables tend to run long on time (because of increased decision-making discussion length), or that with 6 there are fewer turns per player?

We have a single box for my FLGS and we are trying to decide whether to chip in for a 2nd one so we can run 2 tables simultaneously. Insights into the reasoning behind suggesting 4 as the table size would help us decide. Thanks!

I looked through the "Conquering Heroes" sticky post and noticed not a single solo "team". I had a strong team of Lini and Amiri go all the way through the AP and lose pretty badly in the final scenario, so I'm wondering if this final scenario against Karzoug is harder for smaller teams. And that last one is sort of like the Game of Thrones ("...you win or you die.").

So, my question is, has anyone beaten it solo, either because they played all the way through with a single character, or they were down to a single character by the end of the AP?

I'm retrying with just Merisiel, but I'm wondering about her chances, even if I try to optimize her to prepare for that last battle.

Hi, all -

I thought it might be helpful to have a single thread where we can ask any clarification questions we have regarding the just-released guide (which you can find here).

For now, I have two:

(1) In "Building Your Character" it says:

All of the cards must come from your Class Deck, with one exception: You may substitute any character of the appropriate class (along with a matching role and token card) from a base set or Character Add-On Deck. For example, if you’re using the Fighter Class Deck, you may use the fighter Valeros from the Rise of the Runelords base set or from the Skull & Shackles base set.

From this I assume (but would like to check this assumptions) that :

- This is essentially using a pregen character instead of one of the four characters from your class deck
- All the cards used to build the pregen come from the base set instead of a class deck
- At the end of the scenario, the cards go back into the box (in other words, you don't keep a pregen between scenarios

Is any of this wrong?

(2) Under "Higher Level Characters" it starts off by saying

"If you're coming late to the Adventure Card Guild and want to play with an established group or event, you have three options."

I think this means that if you come in when a group has already progressed a ways through the adventure decks? The wording "come late..." could be initially misconstrued to mean 'if you come late on a game night, here's how you could jump in.' That was the first thing that came to mind for me before reading further.

I'm confused about how things come together with my character's claw attack. He's a 3rd level small (halfling-sized) tiefling bloodrager with the abyssal bloodline. When raging, Herolab lists his claw attack as:

Claws x2
+4 (1d3+2)

But with the following stats while raging...

- Small size
- BAB +3
- Str 20 (+5)

It doesn't seem correct to me. The attack is:

BAB + Str modifier + size modifier
(+3) + (+5) + (-1) = +7

Shouldn't damage be 1d4 not 1d3 based on the bloodline power listing ("These attacks deal 1d6 points of damage each (1d4 if you are small) plus your Strength modifier")?

And shouldn't the damage modifier be +5, not +2?

Please let me know what I'm missing! Thanks!

Hi,

Just finished AP#2 which means I got to crack open the Hook Mtn. Massacre deck. Regarding the Giant Badger:

Bury this card to move. You automatically succeed at any check required to move. You may not play this ally during an encounter.

Discard this card to explore your location.

With the bolded text, I am guessing that this only applies for that particular power? Although you can't explore while already in the middle of an encounter so I guess it wouldn't be inconsistent with the second.

I guess I'm just confirming that it doesn't get in the way of using it for Lini's powers, mostly because revealing or discarding a card to activate a power isn't the same as playing that card (playing a card means activating one of its own powers, I believe)

That's a bit of a ramble, isn't it? But does it seem as though I have the right idea?

So I'm playing Seelah solo without any companions and she's about to do the last scenario in Burnt Offerings. If she succeeds, she gets the Sihedron Medallion as loot, but then, as I understand, would not be able to hang on to it since it's an item and she cannot retain items between scenarios. How do I handle this? Is this going to be a problem later in the adventure path?

Just picked up the add-on deck and had fun running through Brigandoom! solo with Lini and Amiri. I noticed that the reward for The Poison Pill is to draw a weapon from the box. But Lini can't have weapons between scenarios, so am I right that it's a wasted reward for her? The only thing I can see is that it's one more weapon to trade among other characters who also succeeded at that scenario during that session. Does that about sum it up?

Just to make sure I have this right, the language on the card would specify whether we can play a card to assist someone else at our same location, correct?

- You cannot play cards when they say "your check" (such as weapons which start with "For your combat check" and allies that have language like "...to your noncombat ________ check")
- You can play cards that say "a check" (such as the Tome of Knowledge, which says "Reveal this card to add 1d6 to a Knowledge check" or many Blessing cards). And in general, you need to be at the same location to do this?

Is this all correct?

Thanks!

The rulebook says "You may give 1 card from your hand to another character at your location" on your turn. But it doesn't seem to specify whether that goes into the character's hand or deck. Which is it? And if it goes into the deck, would it get shuffled in, put at the top, or put at the bottom?

Thanks (more questions to follow, I'm one of the playtesters, but I seem to have forgotten a lot about how to play!).

I'll be running this one over on RPG Geek, and you can sign up here:

http://rpggeek.com/article/15221025#15221025

We currently have two players so there's room for several more!

~Doug

Flight versus invisibility? Whichever you pick, you'll be the only person in the world to have that particular superpower. You can't have both. Which do you choose?

This question comes from an excerpt of This American Life Episode #508 "Superpowers". I'm collecting some informal data for a stats class I'm teaching later today. If you'd like to help, choose your superpower and also indicate your gender. Thanks!

p. 50, Bestiary 2

Under the bunyip's special attacks, it lists blood frenzy, but below under special abilities, we get a description for "blood rage" which is detailed in the back of the book. Are these two things the same? If not, where can I find a description of the blood frenzy ability?

Thanks!
~Doug

Let's start talking about this new scenario! I haven't read it through entirely yet, but want to check my understanding of something on pp. 5-6. It says that Venture-Captain Brackett "is able to make a DC 15 Knowledge (local) check" (p. 5) and "is able to succeed at a DC 15 Knowledge (local) check" (p. 6). I take this to mean that, if asked, he can provide the information in each 10+ and 15+ paragraph, but nothing higher. Does that fit others' interpretation?

I know that without a boon kobolds aren't a legal race for PFS play, but I was surprised to find that there are a variety of character options in Kobolds of Golarion that could be taken by non-kobolds and therefore might be usable in PFS. Does anyone know if this is going to appear on the Additional Resources list in the near future?

I'm running this tonight, and looking forward to it - this one seems to have good atmosphere. I just wish I had control of the lighting in the gaming store (and a fog machine). A couple of questions, though:

I may have missed it somewhere, but do the mists in the Blakros Museum extend from floor to ceiling? I know that in the offices it says

The mist here rolls near the floor and ceiling, creating a strange patch of visibility stretching from knee-height to a few feet overhead.

To me this suggests that elsewhere, the mist permeates each chamber entirely.

Also, does the mist create concealment beyond 5 feet, like the obscuring mist spell?

In today's blog post, I sum up the situations in which natural 20s and natural 1s result in automatic successes and failures (respetively), and the cases in which they don't. This is a simple area where misconceptions still do occur:

Delver's Diary

If you see any errors, please post on the site and I'll adjust the post!

Plus, if it's been a while since you've seen the relevant scene in Dorkness Rising, there's a link to that as well. :)

In case people are confused about how the retirement of Lantern Lodge and Shadow Lodge will affect your PCs of those factions, I've tried to summarize what we currently know in today's post on my PFS blog Delver's Diary.

I hasten to add that this is only my understanding. Although I have tried my best to be accurate and cite my sources, it's possible that this understanding may change as we get more information from the developers (in which case I will add comments to the blog post, so you may wish to follow the blog or the post itself for updates). My goal with this post was to put all this information together in one place since there are lots of questions that players and GMs are asking about how this will work.

Hope it's helpful!
~Doug

So who else is obsessively checking the product page to see when this is available? I'm running it next week, but the real reason is I want to see that chronicle sheet!

This week on Delver's Diary, I discuss the features, pros and cons of playing Pathfinder Society via play-by-post (PbP). You can check out the blog post here. Feel free to share your own experiences with play-by-post by leaving a comment on the site.

Happy gaming,
~Doug

Hi, all -

I'm running this Season 0 scenario tomorrow morning (9 AM EDT, -4 UTC/GMT) using Roll20. By my current count, we have 3 players so far (we had 5 but two seem as though they are going to back out) so there is room for a couple more. If you are interested, please do the following two things:

(1) Sign up on Warhorn here (you'll just need to create an account, unless you happen to already have one with the Capital Region Pathfinders Lodge). Note that my area is also running this scenario tomorrow, but live and in the evening - make sure you sign up for the right one (it's on the right)
(2) PM me here on the boards with your e-mail address so I can invite you to the Roll20 campaign as well as have a place to send you your chronicle sheet afterwards

By the way, currently it appears that we have mostly 2nd level PCs so it's likely (though not guaranteed) that we will run this at Subtier 1-2.

My review of Champions of Purity (with a PFS spin) is now up on Delver's Diary:

Pathfinder characters must either be good- or neutral-aligned, so a Player’s Companion focusing on playing good characters (not just paladins) should be useful to many players in Pathfinder Society. Ultimately, I find that whether this is in fact true depends upon how much your character’s goodness is a central theme in her backstory, personality, or motivation.

Read the rest of the article here, which also directly quotes the Additional Resources entry for the book.

The Pathfinder Society-themed blog Delver's Diary has been updated with a page of resources for players and GMs (small to start, but sure to grow), and a post describing my third PFS character, the lazy, hedonistic alchemist and reluctant Pathfinder agent Iestin Kendryk.

Coming up in the next few days - a review of Champions of Purity!

Hi,

I'm running this tomorrow night (guess it'll be the only time, given the recent announcement to retire it), and read through several threads which have been helpful. I have some lingering questions and thoughts:

GETTING STARTED

1) How did you get the PCs the letter from Lady Morilla to take to the gillman embassy? It seems she slips them the note, not the letter. Part of me feels this side thing is unnecessary, but I guess it gives a little flavor regarding the motivations of the Taldor faction and nation, and the gillman response at the end.

KRENSHAR ATTACK!

2) It seems a bit odd that the krenshar is "desperate for a meal," but left the deer half eaten. Still, I suppose trying to attack a lone PC while the rest sleep is fine. Seems I should ask specifically what the PCs will be doing regarding light during watches (e.g., will the one on watch have a torch lit?).

3) Does the krenshar's skullface ability give it two choices (either use Intimidate vs. an opponent or go all out by screeching too, which requires the Will save)?

4) It seemed too convenient to have the centaurs burst into the forest clearing just as the krenshar is defeated. Think I'll wait until the next morning, before they leave the forest.

HERO'S SHRINE

5) Does the whole party get the 98 gp if a just single PC leaves an offering or takes the gold? I'm guessing different PCs will have different reactions to this. I know when I played this, my PC just left the site, but didn't think to leave an offering. Everyone just left the shrine as is, and we missed out on the gp (if only someone had been greedy!)

FOGSHROUD LEECHES

6) Given that I've heard the session tends to run long, I don't think I'll be running the optional leeches encounter, or perhaps I'll just take a moment to describe it like boxed text, but skip all of the checks.

BOG MOTHER'S LAIR

7) I don't get why the Bog Mother would attack a group of 5-7 armed figures (counting Rees) and fight to the death. Being a bit "off" doesn't mean you don't value your own life. (I think too many enemies in fantasy roleplaying - not just Pathfinder - seem completely content to die for silly reasons!) I plan on playing her as belligerent and kooky, and that she threatens the PCs to take a different route, but she won't attack without provocation, and will beg for her life if forced to fight and is badly hurt. I think it's fair to give the PCs credit if they get past her (i.e., I'm interpreting "defeat" broadly here).

That's it - thanks!

~Doug

Been a while since a post on my blog, so today I talk a bit about Tim Pratt's City of the Fallen Sky, which I had a chance to read on the plane to a conference last week. I offer my thoughts on why I liked it and why it is a good one to read for people who play PFS even though it has nothing directly to do with the Society. Check it out!

Delver's Diary - City of the Fallen Sky

(and more coming soon!)

This week's Delver's Diary blog post focuses on how you can use the novels and short fiction that make up the Pathfinder Tales line to help your roleplay your character in Pathfinder Society play. Here's the beginning of the post:

"It's a common belief that roleplaying is less common and/or more difficult in Pathfinder Society than it is in non-organized play such as adventure paths and homebrews played at someone's home. This has been a topic of conversation on the Paizo.com boards (here, for example) as well as the banter section of the most recent Know Direction podcast. There are many possible reasons for this - people may feel less comfortable roleplaying among players they don't know well, organized play may reward good strategy more than good roleplaying (strictly speaking, there's no mechanic to reward players for excellent roleplaying), and players may feel that any roleplaying will take time away from completing the mission.

But this is a roleplaying game, so for me, finding a way to build in roleplaying as a player in Pathfinder Society is an important challenge to tackle. If I can build characters that are fun and relatively easy to roleplay without derailing the group's progress in the scenario, it will increase the fun for everyone around the table. So, from time to time, I'll use the blog suggest ways to do this within the parameters of PFS play."

>>> Read the full post here on my blog Delver's Diary

Hi, all -

A new post is up at Delver's Diary, where I share an Excel file I use to track my Pathfinder Society PCs' gp, gear, XP, fame, and prestige (yes, I know I'm a bit hyper-organized!).

View the post

~Doug

Hi, all -

I've just put up a new post on my Pathfinder Society blog Delver's Diary, in which I talk about my first experience as a PFS game master, and talk a bit about the approach I took to acting out the various NPCs:

"I am now officially a Pathfinder Society GM! On Friday evening, I ran First Steps Part I: In Service to Lore at the comic book store October Country in New Paltz, NY. It was, to my knowledge, the first PFS scenario ever run in the town, and alongside another GM we are planning on running games the first and third Friday of each month starting in April. Very exciting! Thanks to John Ezell who works at the store and initially suggested starting up some Pathfinder Society there. Space was a little tight, but not a big issue. And there’s a great pizza place called Rino’s just next door."

Read more...

Hi, all -

I ran First Steps Part I last night for 7 players and we had a great time (I think!). I'm all ready to report the session, but I have a couple of questions:

- Can I leave the faction blank for those players who are holding off on choosing a faction until playing through the First Steps series?
- How do I report the name of someone who played a pre-generated character? He has a pre-printed PFS # that we brought. He played Ezren, but can I leave the name blank, or do I put "Ezren"? Finally, can I report before he creates a PFS account using the number we gave him?

Thanks!
~Doug

I have someone who's playing a 1st level character in PFS play tomorrow and is playing an aasimar with the angelkin heritage, which grants alter self. She wants to turn into a troglodyte (ick). Her understanding of what happens in this case differs from my own. Here's what I think will change mechanically based on the spell description and polymorph entry in the CRB:

- Her darkvision 60 ft. will remain the same (troglodytes have 90 ft., but the spell description is 60 ft. (the "listed benefit") so this is what she gets, not 90 ft.
- +2 to her usual Strength
- Since she is changing into another humanoid, she keeps all of her gear
- She does not get the stench aura or the +6 natural armor bonus
- She gets to keep any of her own held weapons, but also gets the claw and bite attacks of the troglodyte
- No scent, low-light vision, or swim 30 ft. on the troglodyte so she doesn't get any of those. Plus her base speed is the same so no change there.

Am I mistaken on any (or all!) of these?

Also, I'm not sure if she loses her Celestial Resistance race feature, which is extraordinary. What makes me unsure is that on p. 212 it says that "you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form (such as keen senses, scent, and darkvision)... While most of these should be obvious, the GM is the final arbiter of what abilities depend on form..." Since the examples above are sensory abilities, I'm inclined to say she would keep her energy resistances. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Hi, all -

Just an announcement that I have started a new blog focusing on Pathfinder Society play called Delver's Diary. I hope to update it at least once a week. Really, it's an excuse to get more Pathfinder since I only get to game twice a month.

The blog is intended for the entire community (players and GMs alike) and will run the gamut of topics. The first two posts are up, one in which I explore the differences in playing PFS versus Pathfinder RPG, and the other in which I consider the GM101's very first tip (stand up while GMing):

delversdiary.com

Stop by and have a look! Comments and suggestions are always welcome, of course.

Thanks,
~Doug

Hi, all -

I'm seriously considering creating a Pathfinder Society themed blog and thought I would lay it out here in case folks wanted to comment on some aspect of it.

The background and idea

I have played Pathfinder for several years, and have GMed home games for nearly that entire time, and I have been involved in PFS for about half a year. Next week I will GM my first PFS game at a nearby comic store, which will be monthly. Once Paizo Game Space happens, I hope to get a little more PFS GMing/playing in as well.

I have a few ideas currently for the blog:

• For GMs: Discuss my GMing experiences in PFS, such as what worked and didn't with particular scenarios, things I've picked up from other GMs on running successful games, and resources I've run across.
  
• For everyone: Highlight any Paizo products that I've purchased that I think would be helpful for the PFS player. Discuss Pathfinder Tales that I'm reading/have read that might be of particular interest to PFS players (e.g., ones that highlight the society's activities, or feature agents such as Count Varian Jeggare). Other tips about strategies for character options, for the roleplaying aspect of it, pros and cons of different ways of playing PFS (e.g., in person vs. play-by-post vs. VTT).
  
• Perhaps also interviews with GMs and players about their experiences and lessons learned.
  

I'm sure that I'm missing ideas I have had but those would give you an idea of it. What else would people like to see?

Are there other blogs already out there?

Of course there's the Paizo blog with it's regular PFS entries. I know of Private Sanctuary's occasional interview with 5-star GMs, and I know that many regional chapters have blogs designed to keep their members updated on upcoming sessions etc. But I haven't run across any off-Paizo blogs dedicated specifically to Pathfinder Society gaming.

The name

Finally, I need to come up with a name for the blog and the domain name. A couple of possibilities:

• Explore-Report-Cooperate - I like it because it is essentially what the blog would do, in addition to being the three Pathfinder duties. I don't like it because it would make a very wordy domain name.
  
• Seeker's Plaza - You may know this is one of the areas within the Grand Lodge in Absalom, where Pathfinders frequently relax. I like this one because the title is shorter than the previous one and hints at PFS with 'seekers' in the title. I also considered "Seeker's Lodge" as well, though to my knowledge there is no such name in Pathfinder itself.
  
• Something with Pathfinder or Pathfinder Society in the title? I'm not sure...
  

I don't know if any of the above would represent copyright infringement, but I'd sure want to know if so.

Anyway, that's the idea. I'd welcome any and all thoughts and suggestions!

~Doug

The tengu is the only PFS-allowed race not to receive its own Player's Companion book. Is there any talk about having one in the future? While there's good crunch in the ARG, and a little flavor there and in Dragon Empires, I would definitely like to see the full treatment via Player's Companion.

Nicely done, Andrew. I enjoyed it!

Another nice entry - looking forward to the concluding chapter!

Hi, all -

Has anyone developed a list of the Pathfinder Tales novels and stories organized by the nation or region that they are set in?

I'll be GMing PFS monthly soon, and I thought it would help to be reading Tales stuff that is set in the same location as the adventure I'll be running next.

Thanks!
~Doug