Gabrielle's page

Agree. There are circuitous ways to get them to the right size (I use www.sejda.com/pdf-to-jpg to save the page as a .jpg, then photoshop to enlarge it, then save it back down to a .pdf and then print it posterized over 9 pages), but it would be nice if buying a scenario included an attachment for the custom map at the correct size... since the custom map is the one we're most likely to need to print.

It sounds interesting to me. I'm not signing off that I want the change, but I would like to play around with it and see what I think. It makes sense to roll to hit directly against the target's DC. It streamlines "I hit you with this spell and so now we get to see if I hit you with this spell" to "I roll to hit you with this spell, and this is what happens." Just like any other attack.

I believe that there was also an issue with the placement of B3 during that conversion. The description of the entrance to B3 is in a different area than the map shows the entrance.

Yes. I've tried running the published scenario with both maps and I think both ships work fine. Really, B3 can be on whichever deck you want it on as long as the physical description in the encounter text is moved to the right place.

shaxberd wrote:

A fun adventure, but yet another scenario that punishes you for not just being a murder hobo. Is there even a scenario out there below the 7-11 tier that has a Scroll of Teleport on the Chronicle sheet? Meh.

THIS!

One of the only times my group decided NOT to be murder hobos and we were penalized for it? WTF?!?!?

You're not punished for not killing it, you're punished for swearing fealty to it, above your vows to your gods and the pathfinder society. You can not-kill it all you want. You just can't bend the knee to it without consequences.

As I mentioned in the GM thread for the scenario, I laughed really hard when I saw that "boon"...after I picked my jaw up off the floor. It's so harsh, but loyalty matters.

I ran it last night for my home group. The level 2 PCs, with no healer, chose to play up...and lived. :)

Something I hadn't seen yet: they all went in together on their own backup swan boat (450g, split between party members) so that they wouldn't be screwed if they lost the free boat... Which gave them time to meander leisurely at half speed through the sand on the coral map.

Healed Kelp and Nalu; the half-orc asked Nalu if hippocampi are tasty, which made him a little uncomfortable.

Threw a rock at the dragon almost before it finished introducing itself. Half-orc ate most of the corpse before anyone could stop him. Someone cast slumber on the half-orc to save the rest of it (it's evidence! and loot!) from him.

The party did not see through the illusion, but got REALLY freaked out when they kept failing will saves, which I would make note of but then not share any consequences.

All in all, much fun. I have a medium dragon mini and a small dragon mini with the same paint job. I'm hoping next time I run it I'll have a chance to swap them out at some dramatically appropriate moment.

I haven't GM'd this scenario, but I did just play it the other day.

One other note I want to mention I find funny. Reading the "boon" by the time the brine dragon would come to cause issues for you, I feel the PC's would be strong enough to possibly even go slay the bigger dragon it is pretending to be by themselves if it was causing problems...

Oh, wow... That would be so awesome.

HEY PAIZO, PLEASE LET ME WRITE THIS!

Question on scaling encounter C2 for four players:

** spoiler omitted **

It seems weird, and I've given this a lot of thought. I'm not sure it's what was intended, and I think I'd have to play it out to be sure. On paper, I do see a rationale for it

I'd welcome players' thoughts or experiences with it.

Have yet to run but that negative boon is just hideously bad - especially for a tactic that at first read seemed perfectly reasonable. It's bad enough I'm hesitant to run it because I think it'll sap all the fun out of the session if it happens. An ominous "brine dragon will remember this" boon would be cool, but that one... ouch!

I think it's okay to take steps as a GM to make sure it doesn't happen. Maybe make the dragon extra insecure and have it attack as soon as anyone doubts its sovereignty. That's pretty much in there already. Or if they want to bow to it, remind them that they'd have to forsake their vows to their gods. Or maybe it tells them to prove their loyalty by slaying a party member or something.

I don't think it's too much GM-interference to try to guide them out of the noose, so to speak. "Are you sure that's what you want to do?" is a question GMs ask all the time. And then your party can have a good laugh about "what if we'd decided to obey the dragon" when they read the chronicle sheet.

What stats should be used for the Cultists in C3 if the PCs attack?

I'm not expecting many players in my lodge to go from hearing "What was your business in there?" to attacking without some roleplay, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that an annoyed group of PCs (especially if they are combat-heavy and have so far only had 1 fight during the scenario) might want to shoot first and ask questions later.

Give them the stats of basic NPC unarmed civilians. They're upset on a religious/spiritual level that people are coming out of their sacred cave, but they're not prepared to do anything about it. Your party of dragon-subduers would wipe the floor with them, especially after they're demoralized about their "god in the cave" just being an arrogant little dragon.

"The rift emanates the power of the Planes of Air and Water, drawing

currents and waves in a chaotic dance of destruction, though
the portal doesn’t appear to be drawing anything through
into the plane beyond."

So you just fall in the water.

Agree. It isn't sucking any living creatures into it. If you're an elemental, on the other hand, it might be a long walk back to the rest of your party...

James Anderson wrote:

My players were not happy that doing the right thing and not-fighting the dragon got them a negative boon.

In effect, what they think as the right thing might end up being the wrong thing. Their logic isn't bad, but not always adapted to that specific case. It is not inherently bad/evil to fight it, not being needed for the balance of the area nor I would miss a delusional individual, but that depends of the mood of the group. If only viewed on the lens of the Society's goals, it even might be better if the dragon is removed, incapacitated or pidgeonholed to surrender.

But I would take pains to help Nalu to get out.

Fighting the dragon isn't the wrong thing. It may be cute, young, small, whatever, but brine dragons are arrogant little sh*ts, singularly focused on gathering a following of "lesser beings" (including your party). The dragon isn't going to negotiate or be pigeonholed into surrendering. It wants servants, and as intended, the slightest disrespect will set it off and make it roll initiative. There is no reasoning with it. You can bow or die.

Removing or incapacitating it are, in my book, methods of success. There's even a provision in the scenario for knocking it unconscious and bringing it back to the Grinning Pixie alive.

The only "wrong thing" a party can do is to swear fealty to it.

In my original script, I made it pretty much impossible to swear the oath to the dragon. Just because it's what the boss wants, doesn't mean the boss should get it! Originally, the dragon would ask for a test of loyalty that would be distasteful and essentially impossible for the PCs to fulfill, requiring an evil act, which would railroad PCs back to combat when they hesitated.

Paizo made the bold decision to take that choice out of the narrative and put it back in the players' hands, essentially saying, "No, if they choose to do this, let them. They'll see what it gets them." On one hand, wow, that "boon" is harsh. On the other hand, it made me laugh out loud. I think it's daring and brilliant on Paizo's part. I've NEVER seen a chronicle sheet with such bold consequences before. And yeah, you're Pathfinders, you made an oath above your oaths to the PFS and to your own gods. Maybe next time, Paizo seems to say, don't do that.

(It's still harsh. I still love it.)

And, thank you for saving Nalu and Kelp. :)

Kerney wrote:

I am supposed to run on Saturaday and is currently unavailible. Will I have it on time?

I just checked in on this and everything should be in order at this time, is it still showing as unavailable for you?

The production page still shows the "Coming Soon" image, so that might be misleading to folks, but it is available and downloads successfully when purchased.

That worked. Thanks!

Note: if it doesn't work for you, make sure you're taking the event portion of the URL, *NOT* the event number itself.

I thought I was doing something wrong, too. Glad I came looking...

25. Use whispering wind to order a pizza.
26. Cast silence when that song you hate comes on, instead of skipping ahead.
27. Wind walk: Best way to get around at the chili cookoff.
28. Prismatic Wall: Put on some Pink Floyd; charge admission.

The missing audio books for the final Tor books are something that MacMillan Audio has the sole right to produce at this time. If folks want those, they need to convince Tor that they're worth producing. At some point in the future, these books may be available for someone else to produce audiobook versions of, but until then, the ball is in Tor's court.

PLEASE clamor, friends!

And, closer to home, is there any chance of a PFS chronicle sheet for the final Tor books?

So as not to keep you all on edge, Tales is in the same position it was previous, I'm just writing this all up for several lines in a more formal way.

Thank you for keeping us in the loop!

Lord Fyre wrote:

So these goblins have basic BASIC literacy. ;)

{pushes imaginary glasses up} Ahem:

Sir Attenwampi's Guide to the Galaxy wrote:

...Space goblins begin play knowing GUI and BASIC. Space goblins with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: COBOL, INTERCAL, Logo, MagicSmoke++, Pascal, and VisualPickle; with GM approval, they may instead choose any one language they want (except secret languages, such as Ruby on Rails or Dogcow). See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.

10 Burn all the things

That was "We Be Goblins to the Moon!," something I threw together for the con. It was meant to be kind of an introduction to the Starfinder rules (and setting), with a bunch of regular goblins stealing laser pistols and, eventually, a spaceship.

The first group flew themselves into the sun. The second crash-landed on the moon.

Ha! That's awesome. :D I can only assume how disastrous the goblin ban on reading (and love of fire) would be on a spaceship.

And thanks for clarifying!

I didn't get to play it, but I remember that there was a "Goblins on the Moon" type scenario being run at Paizocon. Is that a thing that's available for buying/downloading/playing?

Here's a question for my fellow PFTales authors: If you're allowed to say, what are you working on now?

I'm currently doing revising/rewriting on a young adult contemporary novel (my first NON SF/F work). There's an interested agent who gave me good feedback and sent me off to make it better. (A revise/resubmit request, which I'm excited about... when I'm not busy worrying that this book will never be done.)

You?

I play pathfinder society Monday’s at Green Tower in Newhall (Santa Clarita).

Thanks! This is good. Where do you find their schedule? I couldn't find Pathfinder events on their website or their FB page.

Hey, all. I've recently moved to the Antelope Valley and I'm looking for PFS that's a little closer than LA (though I'll cross that mountain if I have to) or people looking for an extra body for their home game. I've got some experience and a fairly open schedule. Most of the posts re: this area are a few years old, so I thought I'd ask and see if there's anybody out here.

Thanks!
Gabrielle

I'm so excited to play Celeste!

Stumped on that one too. I get where I'm supposed to find the cipher, but not how to use it when I get there.

Done! Whew. That was tough.

My son and I picked up a packet today and have had fun going through it. We finished a few of the puzzles, are still working on some, and are totally stumped by what to do with Keskodai's. :-)

Thanks for coming up with this!

Stumped on that one too. I get where I'm supposed to find the cipher, but not how to use it when I get there.

In a home-brew, we were in a keep, looking for a lich that was commanding the local baddies.

(...)

Player 2: "Where are you from anyways?"

Player 1: "What?!"

Player 2: "What ain't no kingdom I ever heard of. Do they speak Common in What?"

This is awesome. <3

I'm blessed with a significant number of scientist friends (I'd say I'm probably in the bottom third of my social group, education-wise), which is always handy—I've certainly tapped them to help me figure out things like orbits and planetary mass, since even after attending the amazing Launchpad Astronomy Workshop I'm still the rankest of amateurs in all hard sciences.

Hi, James. :)

I'm curious: when you attended Launchpad, I know Distant Worlds was already out... but did you already know Starfinder was going to be a thing? Or did Launchpad help inspire it, or a little bit of both?

So, GEARS OF FAITH is finally here! Not to blatantly self-promote, but to alert those of you who've been waiting for this novel and those of you who have come along since the short story "Inheritance" appeared in the Pathfinder Tales web fiction here (in *cough*2013*cough*)... the novel continues the adventures of Keren and Zae, a F/F couple, and their dog.

It also includes a trans main supporting character and a sprinkling of conspicuous non-binary folks as well. And sex-positivity. And epiphanies about respecting boundaries. And feels.

People in this book are queer and trans and non-binary and it's not a big deal to the plot or to anyone around them.

I wrote this for us; I wrote it to help to normalize us. This thread's positive and welcoming response to the short story years ago has never been far from my mind. I know the book is advertised on the site elsewhere, etc etc, but I wanted to personally thank the contributors of this thread. I hope I've done you proud.

Big thanks to Bookwyrm for a great weekend!

I'll be attending!

In Kingmaker, we're far enough along that we're running the kingdom, but we also still get wanderlust and venture out to have adventures from time to time.

We come across an NPC who, of course, needs our help with something.

Me: "Can we tell him we'll help him if he brings us a troll for the troll blood quest? I mean, there's no reason why we can't send THEM on quests too, right??"

--

GM: Your reward is 400xp each for accomplishing the objective, plus your kingdom gets +2 loyalty.
Player 1: "They're not giving us any gold as reward?"
Player 2: "When they give us gold, it's called taxes."

So are the PF Tales authors excited about StarFinder and a chance to write sci-fantasy?

The more I see of Starfinder the more excited I am about it. I'm sure the moment I start to play it, I'll be full of ideas of stories I want to tell. :)

That said, they've got to get the game out there before they start worrying about the fiction!

I'm super excited about this!

Instead of "rolling a perception check" we say "I'm percepting." I think that started as an attempt to needle the two fiction writers in our group, but we adopted it right along with them.

When a roll plus its modifiers adds up to 20, I usually announce it as an "unnatural 20" just to save the GM the follow-up question.

Gorbacz wrote:

Antiheroes are much more interesting than holier-than-thou LG crusaders, sorry.

That doesn't mean it can't be done (as demonstrated by the upcoming Gears of Faith novel).

Keren appreciates your faith in her, Berselius. Sadly, she doesn't have much to give you beyond a well-chewed dire apple! (Though I can say that Gears of Faith has a healer as main protagonist, and the LG crusader is not a generic do-gooder. No one who lived strictly by the book would ever be able to make it work with Zae.)

To get back on topic, I've worked with Sam Sykes for about five years, I have copyedited one of his novels and I've stood at a publisher's table selling books with him for many hours. I've shared meals and had drinks with him. And I didn't know until last weekend who his mother was. Writing-wise, he may have grown up with the publishing industry, but he does his own legwork and I think he does it well.

His first series, while wordy, is really a very thoughtful look at what an adventuring party is, and brings a fun, self-aware take to all the roles therein. The healer who says "What's the point of healing you so you can get yourself banged up again tomorrow," the rogue who's sneaky because he really doesn't want to fight, the mage who deals with physical consequences every time he casts a spell... They all analyze their roles in the great game, and deal with some interesting dilemmas about whether they accept those roles or not. It's meta in a way that I, as a life-long fan of quest fantasy, really appreciated.

It's not perfect, but I'd say give it a chance. I see what James Sutter sees in him. I haven't read the book, but I have faith that Sam's take on fantasy will be a fun addition to the Pathfinder universe.

The author is a friend, so I'm following this one closely (and waiting for my preorder to fulfill!). :-)

Do you hear that sound? That's the sound of an author squealing and doing a happy-dance. :D

Authors: Are there any technical books about writing (punctuation, style grammar, the business side) that you believe helped you significantly as a writer?

Chicago Manual of Style. For fiction, it's the standard punctuation/style guide for manuscripts. It's what your editor probably uses to look up where that period goes or whether this thing gets quotation marks or italics, and there's no reason authors can't look that stuff up, too.

The reason we're confused about most of the things that confuse us is that different style guides do it differently, so it's nice to be able to find out if there's a rule to follow instead of just making my best guess. They also have an extensive Q/A forum online that sometimes gets amusingly snarky or pop culture friendly, but is always helpful.

What level would you want him?

...There's now a button for that!

Specifically, the "want to read" shelf button on Goodreads. The book won't be out for a while yet, but if you're looking forward to it, you can add it to your "want to read" shelf now.

Added bonus: the Goodreads listing features a reveal of the official title. clicky here :)

Currently reading: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater. But slowly, because it's the last book in the series and I don't want it to end.

She does incredible things with words. It's inspiring to my own writing.

Keith Richmond wrote:

If not, going to have to pull out the big guns and see if we can't get Appleslayer onto a card.

WHY HAS NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT APPLESLAYER BEFORE NOW

GOOD PUP

HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS THREAD BEFORE NOW??

I would love that like crazy. :D

Been meaning to ask any news on when Zae appleslayer and co will be back? Know a story was being written with them but havent heard much for a while.

The slayer of apples and co will indeed return! Fear not and have patience. Their novel is forthcoming. :)

I saw someone refer to their significant other as their "theyfriend" the other day and I thought that was pretty awesome.

46. If onions don't make someone's eyes water, it means they have a cold heart.

47. If you sneeze for no apparent reason, someone is dreaming about you.

48. When you remove your shoes indoors, if you leave them with the toes pointed toward the door, they will help guard against spirits. But if spirits are already in the room, it will anger them.

Zae, Keren and Appleslayer will return...

Zae, Keren and Appleslayer will return...

They will! They will!

And as soon as I'm allowed to say more than that? *I* will!

Thank you for being eager for them. I'm late to the thread, but it still made my day. :)

This is so exciting! Well done, Paizo and Tor! :)

Beautiful story Gabrielle.

I would love to read a novel or two of Keren and Zae's adventures together.
The art by Kelly Perry was perfect.

Thank you! Your wish will be granted. More info on the novel as I'm allowed to share. :)

Have any of you ever tried to actually play any of your Tales characters in a Pathfinder game with other people? Or at the very least, made a character sheet for that character?

I have character sheets for all my characters, not just because it helps me stay within the world-setting rules, but because it can be useful to brainstorm backwards from when I'm stuck. (ex: "This battle scene is too boring. What ability could I use here, and what thing would have to happen to give the character an excuse to use the ability?")

I haven't played any of them, because continuity and timelines are fickle things, and they're hard enough to keep straight in one's head already.

If cool stuff happened in one place or the other, I would WANT them to overlap. If I have to stop and say to myself, "Wait, was that book-Keren or game-Keren?" or deal with some kind of disparity in equipment that works against my favor ("Can't I just say I have one of these without paying for it? She has one in the short story!"), it's just going to frustrate me.

As a result, I use game-play to explore character classes that I'm not as familiar with, thus making myself familiar enough to write about them. That way, gameplay is research for the writing instead of being at odds with it.