Iskander's page

Put them in a between a rock and a hard place, make them choose between two evils, and have someone come after them as a consequence of the lesser one.

Sure they can take out a divine messenger or four... but do they REALLY want to?

One way to approach this is to try adding significant collateral damage to encounters as a way to escalate the conflict:

- do the PCs REALLY want to take out the bad guy(s) if it means killing all those orphans as well?
- if the PCs killed the orphans, how do all the local not-so-bad guys feel about that?
- do the PCs REALLY want to slaughter the demonstrators when the protest turns ugly?
- if the PCs kill all the townsfolk, how does that make the city's patron deity feel?

Just how far are your characters willing to go to get their prize?

Kudos to Erik and the Paizo team for staffing the booth so diligently at GenCon. It seemed like every time I wandered by, Erik was there.

Ouch. The auctions all end during GenCon Indy.

Callum Finlayson wrote:

So to summarise my preliminary thoughts I'd advocate
-- anything "received" should be earned, most likely through service of some form

That adds such dimension to the role-playing. Brilliant, really. Your suggestion here makes far too much sense to have been left out of the original text.

Technically, an important part of a Bhikku's renunciation of wealth and possessions is learning humility from the understanding that even his very food is charity. The act of charitable giving benefits the donor, and receiving it in the correct spirit benefits both donor and recipient. There is no obligation of service in either case (although a blessing is often forthcoming). IIRC, Bhikku are not permitted to beg. If no one puts food in their bowl that day, they do not eat.

The monk who has taken a VoP should subsist only on what is freely given, and suffer hunger otherwise, learning to disregard that suffering as much as he disregards the pleasure of a full belly.

Adhering to that strict regimen makes surviving day-to-day a challenging RP prospect (that could get rather dull).

Iskander wrote:

I sense someone in need of a bit of involuntary dwarf love.

I think that's illegal in some states.

Only if it's done right.

Seriously, I'd like to see either a move away from the boobs, boobs, improbable waists, and boobs school of character art towards something a bit grittier and with fewer double D cups. Alternatively, leaven the gigantic jugs with some Tom of Finland style leather rogue goodness.

I'm just sayin'.

Dwarves are a possibility, but if I have my way we'll see a gnome and a halfing first. Maybe an aasmiar.

Maybe the wizard will have a dwarf familiar. Or the druid! She could have a dwarf animal companion! The barbarian could be wearing dwarf hide armor!

I sense someone in need of a bit of involuntary dwarf love.

Where's the dwarf love?

Yay! Got my rejection last night.

Now, to take some of the intervening ideas, work them up incorporating the modest, but much-appreciated feedback, and rock'em next time.

Or something.

I am not 100% sure, but it was right around the 11 of March. The next meeting will cover all the proposals we received between then and now.

I'm guessing more like March 8th: I haven't had a rejection from my March 9th submission yet! :)

It might help performance (on many user-agents at the very least) if you paged the thread list on each board as well as within threads.

I used to visit daily, but the site seems to be grinding to an unfortunate halt. :(

One final caveat, this meeting concerned only submissions that we had received up through about three weeks ago.

Thanks for the updates. Does 'about three weeks ago' reach back as far as March 9th? I'm just wondering when to expect my rejection! :)

I like Downer. Sometimes there's not a whole lot that grabs me about an issue of Dungeon, and even then, I thoroughly enjoy the art, concept and story of Downer.

personally, I don't like high fantasy.

Just out of curiosity - do you include Fritz Lieber in high fantasy?

Yuck. The praying mantis looks like the psychic from A Bug's Life.

I wondered why the mantis had pupils? compound eyes are creepy, and appropriate for insectoids.

My dreams are much more modest and realistic. I plan on selling my fantasy novel and making thousands. :-p

-Amber S.

Mine are even more realistic. I plan on completing my fantasy novel and making my partner read it.

Wow! "Cap of Opposite Alignment", huh? Where'd they get that?

There's an eponymous Helm in the DMG. Eli must have rolled a natural one against the save, though: Will DC 15 negates.

Awesome. Thanks!

James Jacobs wrote:

Dungeon's cartographers generally use photoshop to do their maps.

I would love to see a write/tutorial on how they do it.

Neomorte

If you look closely at some of them, you can figure out where their layers are, what effects they're using and so on... some of the time.

I find the really tricky bit with PhotoShop is getting things like the lovely water effects that Christopher West, for example, comes up with.

It's been said before, but some Photoshop cartography pointers would make a really great Dungeon article... or series!

I grovel at your feet.

...although I'd be strewing your path with rose petals if you could put page numbers on the thread listing! :)

Awesome!

::runs off to spend another afternoon at work, not working::

I'd like to add my voice in praise of The Obsidian Eye, as well, and for basically the same reasons as sad_genius. The NPC character details were really great, and the whole adventure sparked campaign ideas all over the shop.

I have a slight beef with the cartography for the adventure, which could have done with less photorealism, and more practical utility. Pretty, but not terribly useful.

Yep, yep. Big vote for this from me!

...I know (now) that Dungeon receives more adventures of that level than any other kind...

Which level? :)

I'm enjoying the Paizo boards and store... but wonder if you couldn't make it a bit more responsive by paging all the threads and thread lists. As it stands, looking at a board shows all the threads on it, ever, and looking at a thread shows all the posts on it, ever... which must be hitting your infrastructure more than is optimal.

Just a suggestion :)

I also wonder if you wouldn't be better off with fewer tables, and less inline HTML formatting, and more CSS stylesheet goodness. Screw the obsolete browser crowd!

Christopher West here... For the curious: I do almost all of my work in Photoshop. <snip>

Oooh. Oooh.

::bows:: (not worthy, not worthy)

Love the maps, Mr. West. You rock.

Do you ever think of giving a Photoshop cartography tips and tricks class or demo at a convention?

Iskander wrote:

I'd like it more if it was working today... it's b0rked in Opera and IE - specifically, it's not possible to view the cart, so it's a bit difficult to check out and buy the stuff I crave.

Aaah!

Aaawwwooooogha!
Aaawwwooooogha!

Should be fixed momentarily...

...and verily, the site was repaired, and I have ordered.

Thanks for having pleasantly long-term persistent shopping carts. Nice.

I'd like it more if it was working today... it's b0rked in Opera and IE - specifically, it's not possible to view the cart, so it's a bit difficult to check out and buy the stuff I crave.

Meh. It took 3 weeks for Dungeon, and I got Dragon on the same day... I figure I'll just have to order back issues when I'm jonesing.

Groovy, thanks.

Any idea how long it takes to ship to NYC?

...snip...

As our friends in online gaming might say...

p\/\/n3d.

Great Cthulhu will eat them first. Dr. Pepper is an extra-dimensional excretion of the Elder Gods, and to drink it warm is a sign of devotion. That's why it tastes so foul.