I.Malachi's page

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

My dad is at the doctor right this moment getting a follow-up colonoscopy. His last check up a month ago showed some blood in his stool test, so today they are checking to see if his colon cancer has come back. So, fingers crossed.

Update: They found and removed a couple polyps today, sent them off for biopsy, get results back in 7-10 days. I guess I know what I'll be worrying about for the next week or so. :/

Power hugs to you. My mom is going through the same thing.

Yeah, while I doubt the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality will ever change as it is part of the faith that homosexual behavior is inherently disordered there does seem to be a push towards treating it as just another mortal sin, which officially it always has been, but was sometimes treated as a more serious sin by some(socially speaking). So you still can go to hell without confession and stopping your behavior but at least the social stigma fades a bit.

I dunno, after the last Pope retired and was replaced by Pope Awesome the First (Francis) and his push towards tolerance if not acceptance I feel a strange stirring in my breast, almost as if the world I live in is getting consistently better.

Add to that legal gay marriage sweeping the U.S. and the legalization of pot in a few states I'm having to blink a few times as I look around, when did the world outside my door start getting fun?!

I agree about Pope Francis and your take on the dogma. Even that part of the faith, though, is better than the "I'm better than you are! You're going to Hell and I hate all sinners! Hallelujah!" kind of rhetoric I heard growing up. Yeesh.

I'm loving being able to get married if I want to(i.e. If I ever meet someone). It's great not feeling like a second-class citizen anymore.

Religious institutions are generally quite slow to accept concepts that weren't around, understood, or part of their society at the times of their founding. Many of them have elements fighting modernization and reform (thankfully most of the time it's only yelling or stern looks rather than barbaric violence in much of the world), but a lot of them also have pushes from within to retain modern relevance, adapt to modern society, or simply to admit they carry cultural baggage developed over hundreds or thousands of years that's at odds with their own founder.

Those of us with religious beliefs are trying as much as we can to push for greater tolerance/acceptance and reform against older social mores that continue to haunt us. It will be a longer struggle for some of us in some religions or sects within said religions than others, but we're working on it [I'm Russian Orthodox, so allow me to sigh and lament that it's going to be slow going at the moment].

Pope Francis meeting with gay and transgender inmates

The above made me smile.

I liked that, too, Todd. I'm Catholic and am really enjoying the openness of Pope Francis. (I actually became Catholic; I grew up in Jim Bakker's brand of Christianity.)

It's going to be slow going for quite a bit of us in being accepted, but I'm cautiously optimistic. And quite happy at seeing how far we actually have come. I wish we'd had that kind of acceptance when I was growing up; I'm glad to see our younger "siblings" getting more of it now.

That's true. I don't think any of the major religions today will die quickly; however, it is to be hoped that they may at least reform a bit.

Not holding my breath, though.

I know a great way of discerning between generations! I divide people into those that remember learning of Chernobyl disaster, and those that don't.

*looks on the lack of reaction from the folks present*

Ok...

Maybe for most of you I'll make an exception and divide you into those who remember Challenger disaster, and those who don't. It's just a three month difference.

I remember both. My father was in Moscow at the time. Thanks for providing some clarity to those definitions, though.

I'm a Gen Xer (1970) but my religious experience may be skewed by the fact that I come from the South and quite an isolated part of it at that. For us church was a societal pastime because there wasn't really much else to do. Needless to say, it was quite conservative, and I was happy to get the heck out of that church and away from such overwhelming judgment.

Thanks for this. I've bookmarked your deviantArt page and will go back and add it to favorites later.

I don't need any artwork right now, but will forward your info to someone who does. :)

I have unleashed a horrible thing on Mr. Jacobs! Pronunciation questions!

1.) Relating to your comment that hatred of the living is a trait of the undead, what's your Watsonian response to the various apocalypse scenarios posited frequently (Bodak-apocalypse, shadow-apocalypse, etc)? The doyleist one is obvious, we don't want the world devoured by shadows (unless that's the campaign).

***

4.) Who's the brainchild behind the Ecorche? I'd like to congratulate him for making my players fear for their skin.

5.) Speaking of the Ecorche, how do you typically use high CR low presence monsters (like say a Gashadokuru with its 6 intelligence) or colossal vermin?

I love the ecorche. I'm using it in an upcoming encounter in my campaign and am looking forward to see how the players deal with it. I'd like to thank that person as well.

Sorry, no questions yet, but I appreciate all the discussion in the thread. Thanks.

I don't know, I don't think the core races are played out. Axebeard the Pseudo-Scottish Dwarf may be played out, but that's far from the only way to play a dwarf, for example.

Just imagine... a male dwarf without a beard. And who stays clean-shaven.

Got one of those. Cleric of Shelyn. Preoccupied with beauty and thinks the beard makes him somewhat unkempt.

John Francis wrote:

DSXMachina wrote:

Well with the GM having access to the prd, it means that they automatically have access to all the books the player needs for their character.

Not so. The PRD does not contain items from the Inner Sea World Guide (e.g. the feat "Dervish Dance"), or from the Campaign Setting or Player Companion lines (e.g. the "Agile" weapon property, or a spring-loaded wrist sheath, both from the Adventurer's Armory).

Oh, of course. Though does that mean the GM has to bring those books for any scenario she/he's running that includes those items?

If the item is listed in the scenario then the GM is going to be aware of it already. The GM needs the book or access to certain rules because a) they need the stats for a specific NPC from the Bestiary 1,2,3, or NPC Codex, b) they need a clarification on a particular spell used by an NPC.

That said, if I wanted to use non-core rules as a player I would definitely expect to have to provide the books or pages needed. Just because I may know of something I wish to use from a particular book because I'm GMed for something that has used it doesn't mean that I can just go use it as a player without supporting text.

I'll post this in here in the main Atomic Array thread too...

Link To This Episode

A unicorn fears she may be the last of her kind, and sets out to discover why.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle was first published in 1968 and is generally considered one of the all-time best fantasy novels. The book was followed in 1982 by an animated film adaptation. Featuring the voices of Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges and Mia Farrow, the film captured the hearts of a generation of fans.

After more than thirty years, enthusiasm for The Last Unicorn is still strong. I am particularly fond of this story, and so I jumped at the chance to help Peter with the upcoming screening tour.

Visit The Last Unicorn Screening Tour Website

It's a great episode. Now I wish I were going to GenCon just to hear you sing. Thanks, Jade.

I'm happy with a "Thank you" from my players and the prestige of seeing the star beside my name. I'm still looking forward to getting that second star. I'm not really opposed to GM star rewards, but I'm also quite satisfied with the system as it is.

To me it was generous of the PFS powers that be to start giving us Con boons and other such things. But that's just my opinion. I do agree that if any new incentives were to be given they shouldn't cost Paizo anything, though, and I think Drogon makes a good point in stating that we could do well to boost our supply of great GMs.

I hope you all stay well. My thoughts are with you.

In addition to the information already mentioned here, I would like to add a suggested feat to cover knowledge skills. It is called Breadth of Experience and gives a +2 to all Knowledge and Profession skill checks. This also allows those checks to be made untrained. Since you are using a gnome character already, the only other requirement is that the character is 100+ years old. Just passing on some food for thought.

Thank you for pointing that out. I'd missed that and it's just what my character needed.

It was Heather Hogan, actually. And now I might need to add Bad Girls to the queue...

Not great but better than The L-Word: Lip Service. Some terrible characters, but there are apparently so many lesbians in Glasgow that there are still plenty for you to cheer for! (Also, some Season 2 episodes feature geek humor and nerd rage. Also, NSFW.)

You may only be able to find it on DVD - and that only for Season 1 unless you have a Region 2 DVD player (or region-free software). But I recommend it. The odd thing for me was that it's quite a serious show, but thanks to Scribegrrl's comments I couldn't help but laugh through quite a bit of it.

I'll have to look up Lip Service too. :D And now I'm seriously considering moving to Glasgow. I love the accents.

And the After Ellen episode summaries are hilarious and amazing.

By chance, do they happen to be written by Scribegrrl? Her recaps actually got me addicted to the British TV show "Bad Girls". Since I no longer own a television, I'm going to have to read those you've mentioned. Thanks! :)

I never knew this thread existed either.

I use this skill for a character based in Korvosa who crafted stones to sell to wizards to use for ioun stones. Since crating a genuine ioun stone requires one to be flawlessly cut, you bet it would bring the character profit, but would still be fairly rare and require a great deal of skill and time to make.

My character uses this as a way to make money when not adventuring so, while the wealth she accumulates is slightly higher than average during down-time, it evens out during adventures when supplies need to be bought, arrows replaced, weapons mended, etc. I guess it just depends on how you run the campaign and the flavor you tend to use in your role-playing.

Wow, how did I miss this? Congrats, Earl!

You're welcome. I've bought the whole set of the Crimson Throne series and quite a few others but haven't been able to use them until now. They're great. I'll keep getting them. Maybe next game I can post pictures.

We've got Animefest coming up on Labor Day weekend which is going to be large enough to qualify for con support, as well. Hopefully you can make it for at least part of the show.

Hmm. An extra excuse to visit my dad. Not that I needed one in the first place. :D

This is great news. I hope it all goes well for you.

Aaaaand not a single store in CT ran with Free RPG day. My favorite holiday, and I spent 5 hours tooling around the state to wind up with nada...

Is CT alone in this, or are other people having trouble finding a supporting store?

I've been trying to lobby Sarge's and the Citadel for the past couple of years to get them to do this. I haven't give up yet. I have managed to get Pat at the Citadel to let me host a few PFS games and we're hoping to make that a monthly if not biweekly event. Maybe that will give us fuel for next year.

(Good to meet you at game day in Newington, by the way.)

Thanks, guys. My GM has since told me that was an exception in my case... thanks for all the clarifications.

I don't know how canon treats Resurrection. Without further details, I'd probably consider it that Resurrection is sort of like parole. You've already been judged, but if a cleric casts Resurrection, and you elect to heed the call, you get sent before the parole board and booted back to the land of the living on furlough, but with the understanding that you will have to be judged again.

A related question:
Does the Raised/Resurrected character remember the time they spent dead? (Either waiting to be judged, or whatever else?)

I always thought it was the GM's discretion on this, but that's how I've played it. (Fun stuff - we had the character still waiting in line and bored out of her skull. It makes people stop and stare when she says stuff like "Gee, I wish I'd had one of these to pass the time when I was dead.")

I'd like to know if it's actually written anywhere.

Normally, that is true, but remember the Curse of the Crimson Throne. No one who has ever held the throne, has ever been able to have children, and they never die a peaceful death on the throne.

So it stands to reason, that the ruling family has changed over time. Either that, or the family relies on the siblings of whomever is heir to the throne, to produce more heirs.

I think it actually states that no ruler has inherited the throne from his father, but the rest is essentially correct.... which is why my follow-up campaign builds on that. The paladin of our former group has become the Queen. For now...

Hmm... I see what you mean now. From what it looks like to me the rewards for each chronicle at that tier average around 7k to 8k. If you multiply that by three (keeping in mind that it takes three chronicles to gain a level) that works out to about 21k to 24k which is in keeping with the range per level you specified. It looks as though that part is about right.

So I would say your main complaint would be about the specific items granted? I haven't had any major complaints personally, but I can see where others might. (None of my level 10 characters ever owned anything higher than +3 at that level. Since I haven't played a spellcaster at that level yet I couldn't compare.)

Sorry, I know this doesn't really help you but I was trying to reconcile the math for myself. I can understand your frustration, though, for what it's worth.

Ninja'ed by Matt on the average rewards. Thanks for putting it more succintly.

Eternal, can you narrow that location down? I'm in New England too, on the CT shoreline and there are plenty of people down here looking for players. Maybe I can help? (Drop me a PM.)

(Thanks for letting me reply. Sorry for the threadjack.)

Just curious... where are you getting the figure of 22,500gp per level? I'm not finding that in the PRD.

Congrats to all. Still chasing my second star and you all bring on inspiration.

:)

I.Malachi wrote:

Now I want to go to GenCon just to sit at Thea or Kyle's table. Too bad I'm deficient in funds.

Hrmm ... I don't be at Gencon this year ... but if you're in the midwest ... we can talk and confer and then I can run Kyle's scenario for you... Knowing him it's deadly and I have had to promise him I'll get my 2nd pc kill from it ... you game?

If I'm ever in the Midwest then definitely.

Sitting at Kyle, then Thea's, and then Bob's would give you about 2 slots worth of entertainment assuming you're not too heart broken after Kyle's. :)

I still have enough prestige points to be resurrected if I so choose. It would be worth the entertainment.

After that I could come back and GM a TPK without feeling slightly guilty.

I.Malachi wrote:

Now I want to go to GenCon just to sit at Thea or Kyle's table. Too bad I'm deficient in funds.

Why would you want to sit at Kyles table? It will all be over in 10 minutes.

Yeah, but I'd have accomplished one more thing on my bucket list.

EDIT: My character, however, would no longer need the bucket list.

Now I want to go to GenCon just to sit at Thea or Kyle's table. Too bad I'm deficient in funds.

I know that Paizo has said in other threads that they wanted to leave the details of the Starstone open because it's different for each individual and it gives the GMs more latitude in a campaign. My future god(dess) is currently a PC with a celestial bloodline and the backstory fits into what I need for the plot so she's not really a Mary Sue - she could still fail the test, at which point the campaign would simply go in another direction.

I agree with N'wah (hey, how've you been? Good to see you!) that the options for a new god should be more than just a contest and I've been thinking along the lines of a fledgling religious belief for a while now, and I keep pondering the challenges a new god would face. Just my two more cents.

I didn't want to hijack the thread but posting the details once would probably be less likely to do that wouldn't it so here you go . . .

The book I was referring to is "A Magical Society - Guide to Mapping" by Expeditious Retreat Press, I don't know if they still have a website the one I got them from seems to have dissapeared. Their products can still be found though at places like your games now on the web and I thin they have a facebook page. Also if you decide to get the "western europe" one make sure to get the 2nd editiion as it has an extra chapter and some expanded content over the first edition which is what I have.

I should warn you its focuse more on ways to actually build your campaign world. That is how the tilt of the planet will affect the weather, how to layout mountains, continents, different races and methods of working out their reactions to each other. Although I admit the little extracts with the new god of war learning the relevant knowledge for that section is fun. If your interested in that sort of thing its worth a look.

They also did, its been awhile since I purchased the products a line of different books on other things like how to build a beast or how different cultures might be affected by the presence of magic. I enjoyed them because they didn't look at the adventuring classes so much as how it would affect the general day to day lives of the people.

Or you can find it right here.

As for whether someone should want to be a god or not, I have one character who will be (as an NPC) becoming a god to a specific end in a campaign I'm working on. However, when the campaign is over, I don't see using her as a PC character anymore. What are everyone else's thoughts? What kinds of adventures would you expect to see as a PC?

Congrats, Evan!

Don, once I get through TotalCon, I may be looking into attending Carnage. When/where is it? I've got in-laws in New Rochelle and if I recall, the convention isn't too terribly far over the border into CT.

Brett, there's a Venture-Lieutenant in CT as well - Will Wadhams. And I'm sure if help is needed, Don, he'd be willing to help with Carnage or any other Cons in that area or suggest GMs willing to help out in New England as well.

Icyshadow wrote:

No offense, but I'm REALLY starting to hate the "angels are incompetent" trope by now when I've mostly gotten used to seeing them be very damned efficient outside popular media, like in the Bible. I just don't get it how in video games and most stories they just fail every damned time at what they were supposed to do EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE THE FRIGGIN SERVANTS OF THE GODS.

When I was 12, at church camp, we got into a debate on who would win, G_d or the Devil. We had some kids argue that the Devil would win because he can cheat and G_d can't. I argued that if all of Creation was on the line, G_d would throw rules out the window and just win. I had read the gap theory.* and it stuck in my young mind.

So my celestials aren't ineffective, they're just pulling their punches. They could (for example) close the worldwound, with the side effect of rendering huge areas of the planet barren of life. If the crusaders fall and it spreads unchecked, then they would do it. Better to raze the planet and increase Pharisma's backlog than let it fall into the abyss. Basically, when they take the gloves off, continents die.

*** spoiler omitted **

I really like this, including the spoiler. (Where do I find more info on that?)

Wildebob, maybe you could pop over to Super Genius's 52 in 52 thread and suggest the Celestials topic to them?

Congrats, Will. Sorry to see all you great people go, but congrats to everyone stepping up to fill in the gaps.

Thanks for everything you all do.

One week from today! SAINTS VS PACKERS!

GO SAINTS!!!!

Cheer them on for me, would you? Laissez les bon temps rouler!

I'm glad the media hyped it. If they hadn't, there would have been even more idiots out there on the beaches playing chicken with the storm surge, and the death toll would have been in the hundreds.

Indeed. It's much better to be prepared. In the Outer Banks of North Carolina and a few other southern beaches there is always a routine mandatory evacuation of visitors and residents, although many residents still tend to stay.

Most of us from the Outer Banks know these storms too well - and remember that there was a day when we didn't even know they were coming. At least today we have time to prepare. My brother's house on Cape Hatteras had three feet of water in it and his house (the house we grew up in) actually sits about 6 feet off the ground so the storm surge was quite high. The island itself is breached in five places which means there is no road access and fixing it is going to take months. The four northern villages were flooded out quite badly. Power is not restored and probably won't be for a few weeks. (Gotta dry out first so we don't start fires.) Only emergency personnel are being allowed on the ferries to the island right now. But... we were thankful not to lose lives and we'll re-build as well as we can though it will be a hard winter now with the loss of the rest of tourist season.

So, why do we continue to stay? Well, we're from there. We grew up there. It's home, and staying in a hotel while waiting to get back home drains the bank account quickly.

I'm not trying to sound annoyed or attention-seeking or anything. Friends have been asking lots of questions about my family and this is the best way to reach them other than Facebook. I realize we all have had privations because of this storm. I feel most awful for those who have lost family members to this disaster. We can always re-build homes. We can't replace people.

Anyway. Thanks for letting me post this - people have been asking me too many questions lately and it helps to put it in writing.

EDIT: By the way just to let you know I personally live in CT now, but all of my family are still home and I really wish I were. (I hate snow. I can deal with flooding. I just hate snow.)

In many of our PFS games, a friend's 9 year old son plays - now a wizard. It should be noted that his previous player, a fighter, used to make GMs cry. I think the wizard may surpass even him.

We did that by printing the map in sections on a blueprint printer. It covered the whole floor, and the effect was great.

I'll see if I can find some pictures to post.

I've said it before and I will say it again: Paizo needs to run it all. Seems, they are the only ones with their fingers on the proverbial pulse of gamers.

If I were to win a *huge* lottery, I would do two things with the winnings:

1) Get the television series of Firefly going again. We need more episodes.
2) Buy out WotC and give it/put it under Paizo's control. They know what the gamers want.

Mighty Thoth has left his mental signature

You and I are of like mind. Ah, what a wonderful dream.

I'm continually impressed by Paizo's writing and their willingness to listen to the players. I especially like the fact they Mark and Hyrum are here all the time taking suggestions into consideration and just generally making themselves available to help.

Fumbling along.

I was wondering, is there a way to copy-paste a document into InDesign that rolls the text over to several pages. All I get is single frame on a single page without anything on the other pages. This would be a real pain to do one page at a time with 10k story.

Zux,

Down in the left-hand corner of the text box you'll see a small box with a red X in it. If you click on that you can place the rest of the text wherever you want it to go.

Hope that helps. If you need other info or suggestions email me at
thekinnakeeter @ yahoo.com

Mal

Some places might demand proof of permission. A printed copy of this should help.

I work at a Staples Copy Center and keep a copy of that FAQ on file just in case. I've used it for scenarios, Chronicle sheets, and occasionally larger size maps if my GM didn't feel like drawing it.

I have that same issue. It looks as though my character went to Paizocon UK without me. My real concern is that whoever is supposed to get the credit is not getting it.

My character also has a session missing from the reports but I have the chronicle sheet for it, so I'm not worried as much about that.