Harry Canyon's page

<snip> FULL POST

But humility is important. Self-awareness is important. A cis person commenting on trans issues is like an out-of-towner commenting on town gossip: even if you think you're well-informed, sweetie, you're not from around here, you don't know which points we've already heard many times over, and there's a really good chance you're making an ass of yourself if you aren't careful and respectful.

Thank you for that great analogy.

Take care,

Harry

BryonD wrote:

Did I say anything about math?

I think 3E learned a great deal from the games that came before it and evolved to be a very modern game at the time. (Math issues and all)

A lot more has been learned about what makes a game great since then and 5E, for example, has learned (again). Shoulders of giants and all that.

Plus, I still love PF, but kids that were not gaming (or alive) 18 years ago have different tastes and different alternatives.

Things change. Age matters.

Yeah, I don't really think that is all that true. The way things are going, developers seem to think that "less complexity" is the way to go with every new game out. That thinking seems to imply that developers think young people nowadays are less intelligent or educated than before. I don't think I'd agree with that sentiment.

Different perspectives...

"Less complexity" to me means, that the GM had to make 'a call' and didn't have a rules system with overwhelming minutiae to help adjudicate the situation. <shrug>

NOTE: This is not an endorsement of either edition of Pathfinder. (Or any other game system for that matter.)

Andy Brown wrote:

The Blue Fairy wrote:

Things like Resonance make way more sense as optional-for-home-play, but mandatory-for-Society-play rules rather than being hard-coded into the entire balance of the game.

Just my opinion:

Resonance (for consumables) is terrible for PFS. The current setup for healing really needs a Cleric in the party, and you can't guarantee that for PFS.

That really just brings us back around to "Resonance is a terrible mechanic". You can't force home-games to bring a heal-battery Cleric every time, either.

I'd, personally, like to see Resonance done away with entirely.

But if the devs feel they simply must include the Resonance mechanic for "balance reasons" then I think it should explicitly be limited to a required-for-Society-play and optional-for-home-games mechanic.

Err... You can rule ANY way you like in a home game... No one can tell you what to do at your home table...

Sorry, I don't get this complaint at all...

Take care,

Harry

P.S. I've only read up to the quoted post so far when posting my response.

Currently I'm doing a 'hybrid' - home-brew adventures / campaign on Golarion. I've created a village and nearby town (transplanted from my Hackmaster 4E game) in a undeveloped area of Andoran where the PCs will be adventuring (and hopefully :-) establish a home base). This allows me to satisfy the creative itch without having to come up with everything. It also allows me to easily run published adventures (without modifications) if I want to as well.

I do enjoy world building, but echoing others, I just don't have the time for that any more. This solution gives me more than enough freedom to create without having to come up with everything myself.

Err... Sorry for the thread necromancy. (One of the few spells I can cast at will...)

Just started doing some research on the Mana Wastes (and was hopeful when I ran across the info above re: Inner Sea Magic...) But I only found a (granted longish) paragraph about the Mana Wastes in Inner Sea Magic (p. 3-4, 2nd printing 2012).

Or did I miss something?

Thanks for your time.

Hi,

Please cancel all my current subscriptions (Adventure Path, Campaign Setting and Companion).

Thank you!

Take care,

Harry

Hi,

Would you please remove Pathfinder Tales from my subscriptions?

Thank you!

Take care,

Harry

Anyone else notice that the text for Alvis (p. 12) reads: 'Once a small fishing village...', yet if you measure the distance as given by the legend, Avis is about 60 miles from the coast.

:-)

So I'm going with: it's on a lake located on a river leading to the ocean.

<snip>

Personally I enjoyed 3.x more than 2e and 4e more than 3.x, and they haven't lost anything I miss flavor-wise on the player-side. I do think that each new edition has drifted further from the very flavorful monster descriptions that can be such a joy to read, with their relatively extravagant entries dedicated to monster societies and ecologies. But of course, that has nothing to do with level caps or alignment restrictions.

Hackmaster 5th edition's Hacklopaedia is IMO an inspiration for how monster manuals should be written. :-) Ecology info, where the creature is found in their game world, size comparison chart, even foot print examples, et al.

But, sorry, I digress more than usual.

I can see this, actually. I had a similar experience trying to get a new group into gaming while I was deployed. I can not remember exact numbers, but out of a group of 9 or 10, two people outright dropped out when they saw just how many books there where, not even wanting to give it a shot. I almost lost another one when I started explaining different class possibilities, and then the topic of Archetypes/prestige classes/races, etc. . . came up in casual conversation, or how much Pathfinder seemed to lack so many different sorts of options for so many different classes or concepts, but seemed to have so many for others.

In the end, about half stayed and played. Almost all of them had experience with other similar games and hobbies, from 3E or 4E, to Magic the Gathering, but it had been a while for some with TTRPGs.

It took an enormous effort from me to try to convince them all to give it a shot, that I could help offer solid suggestions as to what they might want to do or try, and that I would allow them a few free opportunities to swap things around if after a few games they didn't like it, but even with that, and even with a pretty restricted character creation (as far as books), a good deal of them found it too much effort and buy in to consider it. And that's with me already having all of the books, so the...

Only half-way through this thread....

I'm a long time gamer with four new players: my teenage son, two of his teenage friends and one of the friend's dad (my age). We started with Beginner Box to give them some basic experience. Not to long ago they all decided to graduate ;-) and we recently finished creating their new characters (CRB only). I keep telling them to not worry about all the options (even just from the CRB) and just tell me what you want your character to do and I'll tell you when/how/if you succeed and what dice you need to roll. My goal is to inspire the role-playing (but not ignoring tactics and strategy either during combat or character building). I've let them know that if some feat/skill/whatever they've taken isn't working out the way they expected, no problem, we'll just change it to something else.

I don't see any use in overwhelming new players (regardless of their experience in TTRPGs). As DMs we need to make the game accessible to new players and not scare them with 3 full book shelves of options. :-)

As to the thread topic itself: no 2.0 for me, thank you kindly. Pick and choose what you want in your game and don't be afraid to <gasp> limit your players options.

(And BTW, it's much harder to have an edition war with only one edition. :-D )

Hi Katina,

Thank you for your assistance!

BTW: Will I still be eligible to get the PDF version of Qadira?

Take care,

Harry

Hi,

Would you please remove the Strange Aeons Poster Map Folio from my next subscriptions shipment?

Thank you!

<snip>

(Dragons sometimes have some useless spell-like abilities, but they don't get rafts full of them. Detect treasure is flavorful, even though it's only behind-the-scenes flavor text. It's not like it gives the dragon extra treasure.)

Maybe if the dragon's choice of target is relatively equal, it will attack the opponent with the most treasure?

As to the original question (as has already been mentioned), I see demons more as minions and dragons as antagonist.

This will sound odd, but I hope we get something for evil healers. Why must they always be good? Bad guys need healing, too.

"Why yes, this will hurt a lot. Now hold still."

:-D

Sweet!! City of Brass please! :D

FWIW: Hackmaster 4th ed. had a meaty supplement on the City of Brass.

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

I like that it goes up level 11. Some kind of monster? Ugh. Should have gone with the thing that should not be. I don't see any Dio or Slayer in this.

'Disciple' and 'Angel of Death' are both featured Slayer songs. Thanks for pointing out the glaring and conspicuous omission of Dio; I'll have to rectify that.

Holy Diver perhaps...?

173:

A minor tear in reality connects to the Abyss. Invisible noxious vapors immediately explode forth in a 20' radius (requiring a Fort. save vs. poison; failure equals -1 to ALL rolls/ability checks/AC, etc. for d4 rounds because of the nauseating smell. You can only fail this once regardless of time spent in the area of effect.)

Additionally, demon(s) of CR (roll d10: 1-4 Easy, 5-7 Average, 8 Challenging, 9 Hard, 10 Epic) climb through 1-3 rounds after the initial opening.

The hole closes in 2d4 rounds after the first round. For each round open, after the first, the area of effect of the noxious vapors increase their radius by +10' (remember it's invisible). There is a 1% chance each round (starting on the 2nd round of more demons noticing the tear). Roll on for the CR again.

If the hole closes on the same round that the demons appear, the strongest demon in the "attack force" is keeping the hole open and attempting to climb through. It will definitely be at a disadvantage from attacks in this position.

The hole could close before any demons gain access to the current reality.

The most revered holiday of the year for the Disciple of Metal?

Why the Black Sabbath of course. ;-)

Well dang. :-(

But thanks for the info!

I'd really love to throw money at Paizo/Reaper for either metal or Bones Golarion specific monsters. :-)

Any plans for new minis?

Thanks!

Thank you!

Sorry if this has been asked before... But I don't have the time to read 1,400+ posts. :-D

Are the systems in this book mostly roll based? Or do the actions require role-playing? Something in between? Or something I haven't thought of?

Thanks!

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. (Which my wife is watching in the living room. ;-)

If you want to get into the God Of Secrets thing, I suggest you read "Lythande".

Sorry for the OT... I didn't realize she wrote a book about that character! I remember Lythande from Thieves World book 1... :-)

Edit: Oops. It's not a novel/book, but a collection of short stories/novellas.

Chess Pwn, what's your rationale for penalizing the player in the first place?

Does Hero Labs do anything for GM's beside NPC/character creation? (Not that that isn't helpful. :-) ) For example: Does it have any tools for adventure design? Can the character files be exported to other software? (I'm thinking stat blocks in an adventure.)

Thanks in advance!

First... Welcome to the hobby!!

Some very good advice so far! I'd also like to recommend http://roleplayingtips.com/blog/

You can read his blog or sign up for the newsletter (my personal choice). There's also a bunch of other info there as well.

(I'm not affiliated with the website/newsletter in any way, just a 'follower'. :- ) )

I don't recall anyone mentioning this... But read lots and lots of fantasy*! It's real easy to alter stories/encounters, et al from books and use them in your game. Slowly start using more descriptive language when describing pretty much anything. (Keep it concise though. Players don't want to listen to you monologue.) :-)

* The Pathfinder Tales are good starting points, but any 'decent' fantasy books will give you ideas.

Take care,

Harry

Because it would be fun to roleplay? I'm not in the camp that it's 'all about' eeking out every last advantage... <shrug> Just not my play style. :-)

Home brew can be a lot of fun. There's the flexibility you've noted and there's zero chance that any player has read any of the material. :-)

I always enjoyed the freedom of the personal campaign (when time permitted!). There's little if any need to nudge players back onto a 'specific' path. Just let them go where they will. Granted you can certainly do that with published adventures but if you divert too much, you're pretty much just running 'your own' adventure at that point. ;-)

I generally play really loose with plot in personal campaigns because I love it when the players come up with some explanation or interpretation that I didn't think of. Then I just steal that without their knowledge and they get to feel all clever and happy having 'figured it out'. :-D

BTW: Are you using Golarion? Or did you create you're own world?

Hi Derek,

Here's a link to the press release about doing the novels with TOR:
http://paizo.com/paizo/news/v5748eaic9t17

If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know.

Thanks!
~Sharaya

Thanks!

Take care,

Derek

I have a fascination with miniatures, so I collect and paint them. I think it adds immersion.

We had one great scenario in PFS where the druid summoned three tyranosauruses and wildshaped into an allosaurus... and had brought four dinosaur toys to the table to represent the huge and colossal creatures. It was a blast - definitely enhanced our enjoyment of the session.

That's really cool!

Take care,

Harry

I don't know anything about the adventure itself, but what if the new PCs had been adrift in a rowboat? Perhaps create a run-in with another ship on which the new PCs have passage? What if they were mistakenly teleported to (or near) the ship? Crash landed on a failing flying carpet?

I guess it depends how 'believable' you want the integration of new PCs. ;-)

Take care,

Derek

@ Lab_Rat and Saldiven

Very good points in their favor.

If I start going to cons again, I'll just have to hire a pack handler for my minis. ;-)

Take care,

Derek

Thanks for all the responses so far!

I play Warhammer fantasy battles...So yes,thousands of mini's. Many are so specific though I actually end up using numbered or marked chess pieces for many of the enemies so that it's easy to tell them apart and not be confused by differing descriptions.

The PCs always have minis for their characters though.

I was having similar issues. 'So you hit the orc with the shield and the axe on the left or was that shield and axe on the right?' :-)

I came up with a solution that worked for me. For some giant rat minis I used a numbering system with objects on the base. A 'large-ish' rock was a '5' and smaller rocks were '1'. I have over a dozen giant rat minis numbered 1 through 12 using my system. And it's easy to increase the count for future minis

Regrettably, like many mini collectors, my unpainted minis vastly outnumbers my painted ones. :-D

Take care,

Derek

Ugh... What's up with that?

Take care,

Derek

EDIT: Ahh... Just read that it's a larger format paperback. So that's part of it. ;-)

Hi all,

Seems that pawns are very popular. So, I'm curious... Does anyone use actual miniatures? (Especially personally hand-painted ones? :-D )

Take care,

Harry

Not yet. (Although my son is chomping at the bit to move on. :-D However, his friends aren't ready yet.)

I can definitely relate to what you're saying. If there were a "Basic Pathfinder" for up to level 10 that'd be just awesome. The 5E option doesn't really work for me as I'm one of those bitter old curmudgeons that refuses to give money to Hazbro. For more accessible gaming I'm just going to use non-D&D based systems. They're harder to sell to players but what other options are there?

I've always been fond of Hackmaster. The 5th edition is pretty nifty. However, it's definitely a lower powered magic game. (You can even get the Basic version as a free PDF over on the company's website.)

IMO, when moving to more complex rules, it's only the GM who really needs to know the rules. This allows the players to tell the GM what they want their characters to do in plain language and let the GM adjudicate those actions based on the rules. If the GM can then paraphrase those desired actions concisely in 'rule-speak' back to the player that helps the players gradually learn the rules.

(I also think this helps roleplaying as the player isn't sitting there calculating every pro and con for their action. ;-) )

As to the actual question... :-)

We haven't moved to the Core Rulebook yet. My son is chomping at the bit to do so. :-) However, the rest of the group isn't comfortable with it yet and still having lots of fun with the Beginner Box.

Be prepared for Passwall.

There's a broader definition than just the spell, of course. Sometimes you are going to spend an enormous amount of time and energy and creativity engineering an encounter that is going to be incredibly challenging and epic. But, your players found a skeleton key you didn't anticipate (figuratively speaking) that allows them to bypass all the challenge and awesome.

Just accept it. Reward their creativity. Learn a lesson about the gap in the encounter. Save the encounter for a future session, if you can. Don't try to reset on the fly to force the encounter on your players! That usually leads to a very unsatisfying encounter and a lot of player death, without any of the awesomeness it could have had.

While The Crusader used 'Don't try to reset...' Let me put it another way: Don't cheat the players out of their clever solution. Just accept it and move on.

Take care,

Harry

7- The PCs are not the DM's enemies. The PCs are the heroes that, as a group, will *always* win.

I'd like the add the following sub-note to this:

• but never let the PC's know that. ;-) Let them think they might lose.

Is the errata for the Beginner's Box compiled in one location?

Thanks!

(Alas, my Search-fu is weak today. :-p)

Take care,

Harry

Hi all,

Yeah, so my question shows I'm more than a bit late to the Pathfinder party. ;-) That said, it is my understanding that Pathfinder Chronicles were the Paizo products created to support 'that other game upon which Pathfinder PRG is based'. Is that correct?

Is there any place which lists which of the Pathfinder Chronicles products (if any) have been updated to Pathfinder Campaign Setting, Player Companion, etc.? How about a list of Pathfinder Chronicles products which are still compatible with Pathfinder RPG? (Or all they all technically still compatible?) Or a list of current/recent products which might even supersede content from Pathfinder Chronicles books?

Thanks!

Harry

Err... I'd like to read it, but white text on a black background gives me a headache. Maybe consider dark text on a light background?

Just a thought.

Must. Resist.

Must. Resist.

Aauuuggghhhhhh!

Resistance is futile.

I bet that character would be a gas. <rim shot>

Sweet! Thanks.

OT

Just curious...

<snip>For instance, a PC who manages to flank a prone enemy by jumping onto a table gets +7 to his or her attack.<snip>

If the enemy is prone and a character jumps on a table, how do they reach the enemy way down on the floor?

Going a bit more extreme than the current advice... Why not craft your own campaign?

Regardless of that extreme, try and pinpoint what is taking the wind out of your sails. Are combats too long? Too short? Too many? Too few? Are roleplaying opportunities too few? Too many? Too short? Too long?

Have you talked to your players? They might have some insight into the areas of a campaign in which your 'focus starts to drift'.

And sometimes, taking a break from RPGs helps too. Go read some fantasy fiction. Play some board games. Maybe you would like to play a bit rather than GM? Maybe you all need a good game of Munchkin? Or back to RPGs: Paranoia? :-D

This is one of those things that no one can answer for you grasshopper. ;-)

Good luck!

I also recommend reading lots of fantasy fiction. I've always found it easier to improve when I have all those stories in my head and the PCs go directions I wasn't expecting. :-)

Andy wants to be able to earn more than everyone else, when I asked why, he simply said so he can buy more women and gamble. Lame reasoning to me, but, it's all about the players having fun IMO.

Have his character contract an STD. Then watch the fun as he tries to get money from the party for a cure or explain his need for a cure to the party cleric. :-D

On a more serious note, I agree with the first response you got from Seranov. Players being sneaky behind the backs of other players rarely turns out well.