I've generally found that a quick chat to customer service will get things fixed up. Generally. I've never dealt with Paizo, so I can't comment, but I'm sure they will be as good if not better than most. They do handle a lot of orders. Also, three weeks is a piddling wait, stop your whining! Are you by any chance British? [I appologise in advance to any whinging POMS reading this, I don't mean to offend you].
Only twice have I ever had a problem with mail order. Once with Wizards Attic, but it was in a period of change-over between owners, so admin hick-ups do happen in transition. It was all fixed up, with no need for flaming posts to any forum, though it took some time for them to find out what happened to the shipment. It was their fault and they fixed it, and gave us freebies to make up for it. They were quite the gentlemen.
The other was more recently, with a company that recently refuses to answer my emails in enquiry to the missing goods [After 11 months]. Email can be a pretty unreliable means to communicate, especially if you use AOL like this company [I get bounced a lot by AOL], so it may be an honest mistake. Given the one email responce I've got out of them in response over this period, and their apparent complete inability to return a phonecall, I instead plan to see them in person or via a personal representative at Gen-Con to voice my displeasure at their lazy-ass response to my requests to track the goods or get replacements. But I still don't flame the company in public forum, not by name at least, even if I've threatened too. [I just emailed them again, and rang to leave a mesage too, lets see where I get].
I myself work retail, we do do mail-order [Hehehe, doodoo :) ]. Once things are out of the shop, they are not within our control. In recent years we have kept tracking reciepts for every outgoing parcel and haven't had a problem since we started doing it. While it costs a couple dollars more, we cut incidents of mail fraud from hundreds of dollars per-annum to nothing, and have a complete recovery record for insurance on damaged goods. Those customers who have had reason to complain, have a full account of our and the mail companys handling of the order, and all end up happy we have done our best for them, even it the mail company hasn't. Everyone got their stuff in the end.
I'm sure Paizo will get me the goods in good order, in good time, even though I am in Australia. I'm sure if you are nice to them, and don't act like Veruca Salt, they will make sure the goods will get to you.
I'm playing a FR game at the moment where I play an exceptional grappler. The GM allowed the Jotunbrud feat. With Improved Grapple, 18 STR & 4 Monk levels, the only thing to out-grapple my PC was a very lucky giant octopus. That said, I have a one trick pony character concept. Low AC and skills resulting from pumping every point into STR + CON leaves him vulneralbe and next to useless against massed opponents including any rogues, as we discovered.
I was a little disappointed with the season finale.
All in all, I can't wait for season 2.
I agree. looking forward to season 2. I'm dying for the Generations Eps first though.
On the later episodes and the finale...[Don't read this if you are waiting for FTA elsewhere in the world behind the US screenings]
Spoiler:
I too was disappointed in the final fight, though Sylar might have allowed Hiro to stab him as part of his grand new vision, who knows. Gabriel is too good a villain to kill off so easily thought.
As for season 2, I think Peter will definitely survive, but won't be back until the later parts of season 2, they need his visions to lead them on. Nathan may or may not be dead, he strikes me as a survior type. Sylar should take a few weeks of season 2 to recuperate, but will be back. Remember, he might not be completely mad. He still seemed to have a fragment of humanity leaft in him in Ep 22. You can see why he is so screwed up though.
I think Uluru is possibly the big nasty, but who is Uluru? Is he an Aussie [will we see a return of Mark Jackson to US TV? :( I hope not!], is it Peter, or someone else? Uluru might also be a hero.
I have to say I am very happy to see the art of Jason Badower in some of the online comics. For a long time Jason worked doing art for hire at local RPG conventions in Melbourne, he's come a long way and should go a lot further. You'll notice his self-portrait in a nightclube scene with Hana Gitelman in comic #33.
A few things I'd like to see are a heroes of Arabic, Hispanic, Inuit or Polynesian descent.
Just finished "Collapse", by Jared Diamond. An excellent non-fiction read and a must read for any species wanting a future.
Currently reading "Purity of Blood", by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Good historical swashbuckling stuff. Also Reading "Art of the Duel" for the L5R RPG, "Prime Time Adventures" RPG, in prep for monday's session.
Looking forwards to getting a copy of "Music of Razors", buy Cameron Rogers, and getting my copy signed when I next see him when in Melbourne. Apparently he is all the go in modern Horror. I can say he is a nice chap too.
Thinking of re-reading "Shantaram", by Gregory David Roberts, and maybe having another read of "Jonathand Strange & Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. Also wanting to re-read "Snow-Crash" & "The Baroque Cycle" by Neal Stevenson.
When one or my current GM's was younger, he was GM'ing a game and the party walked into the final room in a maze beneath a pyramid and saw a SAR-CO-FAR-GUS. No-one initially know what he meant. He is now a Phd'd University Professor, and he is still ribbed about it, more than two decades after the incident. :)
I'm trying to get a ruling on that from the limey at the desk next to me but he's quarreling with a yankee and a polyglot kiwi about the pronunciation of bastard.
Nobody ever listens to the yankee because he's from Kentucky and speaks only one language. He's getting a little offended. Which begs the question, what do you call a Drow from Arkansas?
Their quarrel began when I showed them this thread--they are suddenly interested in my peculiar hobby.
KA (a Canadian)
School of Foreign Languages
Harbin Institute of Technology
China
I think that is admirable, since fantasy gaming is realy inspired and born out of the modern fantasy genre, which owes a great deal to Tolkien and his musings with language.
The drow (pronounced /draʊ/, rhymes with "now"; see A Grand Tour of the Reams, published by TSR) or dark elves are a generally evil, dark-skinned subrace of elves in Dungeons & Dragons fantasy.
[Edit] Sorry about the extended ascii not working. Have a link instead.[/edit]
That's the benefit of living in a country with only 20M people, we can all claim some relationship with those with fame, power, or hero (sportinig or otherwise) status.
DD
[Edit] I'll stop highjacking the thread and get back to topic now.
BTW, seeing Durand-Durand made me look up Barbarella on IMDB to check something, and I'm so glad I did. I've been telling people my mom shagged Durand-Durand from that movie, but it was Pygar, the angel man, the same guy who played Sinbad in Golden Voyage of Sinbad! Go mom!
I think Pygar would probably be considered a much better choice. Go your Mom!
Reminds me of the best PC names I've ever come across on the World Wide Inter-Web. They may be apocryphal (and my spelling is atrocious), but a Aztec/Maya themed game had a thief called Filchaqoupaketl, basically "Filtch-a-copper-kettle", and a cleric named Fixaqoupacouaco, clearly "Fix-a-cup-of-cocoa". I got a good laugh out of them, some twenty years ago on a gaming BBS.
Drow: (Dr-oww) I'm pretty sure no one here mispronounces this, but I know some one of pronounces it Dr-O, and it sounds kind of stupid when I heard it said like that.
I say Dro. Someone should really ask Gary Gygax about this one, it's an eternal mystery that only he can solve.
The Jade wrote:
Dro is what people call hydroponically grown weed here in the states.
Bow before the drow.
LOL! Is that Bow or Bow? More importantly, is it deliberate? If so I Bow before the master. If not, I hastily draw my Bow and shoot, jealous that your can be so funny and still be naive.
Githyanki: (Gith-Yank-E) A rather famous monster from the MM.
Githzerai: (Gith-Z-R-A) This one I'm not sure about when it comes to pronunciation but it's the other famous monster from the MM, who inevitably must fight the Githyankis.
I recall many years back there was a discussion of this in an early D&D source, possibly a core book, maybe dragon. Basically one race split along political and cultural lines and evolved into two slightly different races. The pronunciations we have used since then are Gith-Yank-ee & Gith-Tzar-i (like Tzar). Apparently it is a sly reference to cold war Yanks and Russians (though the Tzars had long dissappeared from Russia at that stage).
Can any oldtimer with a better memory than I recall the source? I thinki it was actually in a core book, maybe MM or Fiend Folio.
I can't believe people get so upset about this issue. The double-bladed sword, spiked chain, and repeating crossbow are all okay in your pseudo Medieval setting, but guns ruin it?
Don't lump in repeating crossbows with the others...
Yeah, I agree, repeating crossbows are real, so are a surpising variety of chain weapons.
Repeating Crossbows, however, were designed as a seige defenders area-suppression weapon. They are short ranged, low powered and inaccurate, but the rules don't reflect that at all. They need nerfing.
I was working at the TV station yesterday, and I was using an old-school VHS titler. As soon as my fingers touched the keyboard of the titler, the TV turned off. When I went over to turn the TV back on, I got a rather large shock. Neither the titler or the monitor have worked since.
How long have you been working at the TV station? Is it a recent job? Picking up charge from ambient radiation could be the source of your recent static powers. I found I generated more static when I lived close to high voltage power fields.
I have in the past caused at ~1.5" spark that burnt my finger tip... all as a result of wearing rubber shoes on the wrong surface and then finding a good earth. I'd definitely invest in some basic earthing gear, you can pick up straps at most PC vendors for nothing. Don't touch electronic stuff without earthing, I've probably killed a couple thousand dollars damage to past PC's by not earthing properly. When you are paying for repairs yourself, you learn much more quickly.
I am a fan of early guns and I don't think they are out of place in a fantasy game. Nor is gunpowder. Having seen a relatively 'High-Tech' Brown-Bess in action, I can say that guns are loud, smokey, inaccurate, short range, bulky and slow to load. Akin to a crossbow with crap range, but more expensive to make and load, and harder to maintain. Misfires and jams are a bugger to clear. Gunpowder is vulnerable to moisture and to stray sparks... burning hands or fireball spells will most likely ignite and destroy your powderhorn and probably take a good part of you too.
Removing gunpowder from the campaign concept also reduces the possibility of the scenario of my players rushing to defeat the villains to cut the fuse in time. (It can be done with magic, sacrifies or such, but to modern players the imperative of a big damned bomb really strikes home).
I think the only genuine concerns I might have, are establishing baseline tech levels for guns, and limiting PC development of vunder-tech from player knowledge.
I vote for guns in game. They won't dominate or have a big impact.
I do like the presented Reserve Feats [e.g. Storm Bolt] in Complete Mage. They can let a Wizard pack a fair punch in minor skirmishes before a big fight. The only problem is that a big spell is held in reserve, reducing untility otherwise, but not a big cost considering the benefits. My 7th Level Wizard is throwing 4D6 Storm bolts around every round, but he has to close to within simple moving distance to do it.
Somewhat humorous, but kidding aside, lack of sales are not what did them in. It was WotC's greed. They wanted Paizo's market share and wanted to eliminate the stiff competiton Dungeon gave to WotC's adventures. Let's face it. Paizo's stuff was better quality for less money, and WotC put a stop to it.
Hear, hear. I agree.
I HAVE been buying Dungeon when I might, just possibly, have bough an official product that came up to scratch. Of course that requires that official product comes up to scratch.
As an extension of your line of thought, I thought maybe in quashing Paizos market share, they might force staff lay-offs there and thus reap some excellent writing talent from unemployment queues.
I honestly believe that humanity, or in a D&D style realm, player races, make the best villains, not monsers at all. There is nothing so satisfying from a GM or Player perspective that to have the "enemy within" revealed in the last act, the mayors secretary (Not the mayor), the Viziers son (NOT the Vizier), or the ambitious captain of the guard revealed to be a traitor to all that PC's hold right. I want my villians in shades of grey, not black and white. I want the battles to result in death, for miracles of ressurection and rebirth to be rare. I stick to a more ancient world feel of heroism, where victory is born through sacrifice, Wars born out of missunderstanding and missinterpretation (How modern!), The most satifying games I've played often the heroes walked in to certain death and said their farewells doing it. Beautiful stories.
For one thing, I generally don't llike to see a lot of speices cultural intermixing, as it can hamper a sense of mystery and wonder from a PC's perspecive. A human seeing an elf for the first time should be something of a memorable experience, much like my 6'4" bearded friend travelling China... everyone stared at him. Try to do things to maintain a sense of wonder.
Think of all the old myths, only the greatest of heroes ever go to go against something non-human, and the monstrous challenges were much greater. You're Beowulfs, Hercules and the like were extraordinary folk who led extraordinary lives, fought extraordinary creatures of the like no regular man could face. PC's can build up to be big heroes, but most of them are starting small.
