Good stuff, Liz! Did a nice job blending the asian fiction (of which I'm a fan) with a classic western fantasy touch. :)
Search Posts
Any plans for tour activities prior to gluttonous consumption this year Timitius? Always more fun experiencing the local flavour with... the local flavour. ;)
+1 plzthx
I had a player join halfway through Stolen Lands. His background prologue ended up using Falgrim since he's one of the other "character" bandits (although a lesser one). Falgrim was leading a party of poachers (bandit hunting party). The new PC was a druid hunting the poachers. They sprung a trip on him (omg the irony is everywhere!). His animal companion died saving his life and was skinned by the poachers, the carcass left to rot in the sun. Druid, meet vengeance. Vengeance -> druid.
Talk to your players. Ask them what's fun for them. Do that. Don't do what they say is not fun for them. Quite simple, really. My particular crew has one guy who loves the draw out the map as they explore and another who likes to track all the inventory/treasure. We let 'em do it cuz they like it. Most of us are pretty old-school and like the pencils and papers tho. I honestly don't think laptops/devices bring much to the table other than audio and references in pdf.
7 5-6 hour sessions (one prologue session) and our crew just finished the last one with the Stag Lord (gasping) exploding his last breath. It's slow going at the moment but they're being completionists with the map (that's what you get for giving them a 3-foot map and pencil crayons) and there was some AP on how to deal with the fort. Don't matter, everyone's having fun. :)
Congrats Liz! Moving - so exciting! (I'm assuming you're not commuting that. ;) ).
Sautee with Zin if you must, but for drinking grab a solid Shiraz (French, Oz, whatevs) or a good Chateau-Neuf du Pape. You won't be disappointed with the latter.
WTB: 1 MC for the banquet trivia contest. Won't be the same without you. Thanks for all your great work vitalizing Paizo's products Josh, and best wishes for the future.
Bravo. I'm another of one of those mad cartographes that will take the extra step and print off a scale map for certain encounters (essentially anything that will fit on the gaming table @ 1" scale). They are always a hit, but your 3D model would be extra icing. How do you STORE that?
I could be conned into helping with this. Some of my Kingmaker players (*cough* Larcifer) are having trouble scheduling into the campaign. ;) Spoiler: first.last at gmail.
Spoiler: Heretic!
Muy festivo! Recovering from a german breakfast
grats, Mark - it'll be nice to have a level(er) playing field @ the banquet. ;) Spoiler: Explosive Hamsters!
/steps boldly to the side of the line containing WFG and Metric My biggest concern is Rapid Shot. It has the potential to trivialize all party combat encounters at low level because it's an easy feat to get extra attacks with. With it, it is extremely easy to get a bomb-dumping alchemist that can wipe most party encounters with low hit dice in a round (i.e. before others have had a chance to have fun too). I've seen the damage an alchemist can do at level 2 even sans Mad Bomber feats in my Kingmaker game, I'd be concerned with how an additional bomb, even ground-targeted, can increase damage output far beyond what any low-level ___________ can accomplish. Lvl 1 Wizard: Magic Missile! (rolls) He takes 4!
Note the conservative nature of this example. This is for a hybrid class that still gets extracts, mutagens, and mid-range armor/BAB/hps. On the rules lawyery front note that you can only affect 4 targets with splash weapons as you need to target an intersection. It is not a 5-foot burst.
I'm also a huge fan of the paper minis line and would love (and pay) to see Kingmaker finished. This product saves me countless dollars buying and hours painting campaign-appropriate minis and I would use them in any other campaign. However, I was speaking with Crystal at PaizoCon about these and it sounds like the line was on indefinite hiatus at that time while they were getting some issues sorted out with the talents/powers/distributors/can'tremember that be. Not sure if these have been resolved...
Amen, brother.
I don't think limiting a player to crafting what his Craft or Profession skills are intended for using Master Craftsman is a nerfing of the feat. The feat already provides a +2 skill bonus and allows non-casters to make magical items. It is plenty useful. Restricting what magic items made to those that are supported by the player's skills not only keeps Common Sense in play but also prevents the feat from potentially becoming OP imho. That being said, it does get a little messy with Profession & Craft Wondrous Item. Thanks for the big Pandora's Box Paizo! ;)
+1 Overall you'd get more use out of it in urban settings but it's certainly not a waste - plenty of humanoid foes in Kingmaker.
They didn't like the constant wilderness exploration, hated the kingdombuilding rules, and did not want to be rulers at all. Wow, why were you guys even playing Kingmaker? Kingmaker does have a very different feel. If someone hasn't explained "sandbox" style play to you, it essentially means that there is no traditional plot on rails - the players are dropped off in a sandbox (re: the Stolen Lands) and left to play with shovels while mom (the DM) sips sangria with the neighbours. Kingmaker 1 & 2 follow this pattern the most. I'm constantly asking my players "so... now what?" - relying on them to control direction and pace and directing traffic only if pacing slows down. Kingmaker 3+ start to introduce more of the main plot and a traditional BBEG for each chapter. The Big Picture for the most part needs to be foreshadowed with some cut-scenes or encounters of your own to help paint it earlier (if you wish). The focus is more on the nature of the kingdom the PCs are building (which is truly a major character in the AP) and less on solving any mystery of who the main BBEG is or what they are up to. If your players like the idea of having ultimate control over their own destiny and building their own kingdom, Kingmaker is for them. If they prefer a more tightly-scripted plot then be sure to have a chat with them to see if Kingmaker is appealing. If you play PC games, the difference is Oblivion (sandbox) vs Dragon Age (scripted).
Erastil would be proud. ;)
Do you always have to have Vic smiling from behind when you do it?
No point-buy system is a hard or fast rule - use what feels comfortable for you and your group. Just keep in mind that no one wants to feel outclassed by NPCs (except of course BBEGs). We're using 20-pt because we got used to it in Society play.
Brevoy is undoubtedly eastern European/Slavic. Anything from Polish to Czech (or Russian if it's more familiar for you) should work. The River Kingdoms are more of a hodgepodge. Since my characters haven't been interacting with them yet, I haven't had to fire up an accent, but I would say anything goes. It is very diverse.
Well, I'm not too concerned with the verisimilitude of the economy, moreso with the gps worth of gear available to my PCs. Don't want them undergeared for the Stag Lord. If they started doing large transactions, Oleg will certainly take a cut - he is a merchant after all... Speaking of which, need to go find that bear trap thread. They disarmed a couple dozen of 'em... and the APG has a different cost from what was in my brain.
Mild spoiler:
In Stolen Land, after Happs & Co. are sent packing, the AP states that Oleg is willing to pay full price for loots. I take it that once the initial adrenaline rush of the bandit encounter is over he returns the price he's willing to pay for found treasures to the more reasonable and standard 50% of Core Rulebook value for mundane items? Just wanted to make sure I'm keeping the party $$ in line with what the AP writers had in mind for game balance. Hoping to avoid auditing the entire AP... Help appreciated!
Apparently even shipping over electronic transmission to Canada is slow. ;)
My party cut through the mites like butter. The fey sorcerer of the party had no tolerance for evil fey and went wading through them with the wand of burning hands from the stash under the gnarled tree. After freeing Mikmek they returned the idol to Sootscale (enter anticlimactic walk through Sootscale caverns), he smashed it to pieces, and they joined him and some kobolds in the coup against Tartuk. Roleplaying the Sootscale/Tartuk dialogue (i.e. - playing with yourself) was interesting. They made a deal with Sootscale that they would leave each other alone. My future plans - players begone!: Of course, kobolds being the devious buggers they are, they're just going to expand into mite territory and become a major thorn in the side of the fledgling kingdom in Kingmaker 2. I'll be adding an event that involves the players having to go back and deal with the flourishing kobold kingdom in the middle of their own.
You should be more concerned about where people in Golarion wash their clothes. We put toilets in dungeons FAR more often than laundry rooms. lol!
All this angst for a class that's just trying to help YOU have fun (I know laying bleeding and unconscious tends to be unfun for me) is part of why most people don't like playing healers. ;) Personally, I really enjoy healing/support roles - MMO or otherwise.
For Stolen Land my crew is having fun mapping out the unexplored regions, so I blew up a blank hex map (out of the Players's Guide, sans checkboxes). Since they are not kingdom-builders (yet), the cartography is a big focus of the game. Pencil crayons are back baby! Btw, make sure if you do this they understand there's a payoff to all this drawing. I like to tease them with the fact that this will all be rewarded when they get to kingdom building for "labouring through" the overland travel and exploration. Once they're into kingdom-building, I'm assuming cartography may lower in importance (they may hire it out to kingdomlings or lose interest), so at that point I could give them the real deal and we can decorate the gaming room with the maps this activity creates. I love the mystery of unexplored regions on maps tho ("Here There Be Dragons"). I may have to figure out how to obfuscate some details... I like the idea of the "advent calendar" map with peek-a-boo hexes.
Thanks Abe, James for the insight - looked around and couldn't find a reference to it. The good news is if I print a scaled map for the game I peel it outta the PDF anyway. ;) As you say James, quality is usually top-notch in the APs - was just surprised at the apparent quiet around the error. Guess that ship just sailed 6 weeks ago! :o Stupid Canadian shipping... wait, that was punny...
Anyone else have printing issues with the map of Whiterose Abbey on p.33 of War of the River Kings ? Colour me less than tickled when my copy of WotRK came in with corners beat to hell and a the bottom 1/3 of the map unusable. My PDF is fine. tsk tsk
I was planning on starting out very abstract with the rules (churches make people happy!) because my characters have no knowledge of how to run a kingdom. I like the idea that having ranks in Knowledge (nobility) would help offset this, though. I'd hand out insight to the player that made these rolls. I had a good chat with Jason N. @ PaizoCon and he had an excellent suggestion. If you're going to dumb down player knowledge of the kingdom-building rules then you might want to consider giving the players an "advisor" NPC of sorts to get them on their feet. Don't give him too much power (it's the PCs' kingdom), but use him to provide enough insight into how to approach kingdom-building that the players don't make any major mistakes they'll regret later (and blame on you for not having told them up front).
Gamer mentors - what a wonderful idea! Would be so much more fun than being introduced to what you correctly perceive as an often immature and confrontational hobby group (irony intended). Welcome, and when you're ready to talk board games, let me know! ;)
As this was when Akiros stepped up, the group was spared the possible loss of its healer but ended up fighting to protect Akiros as Stag Lord and lieutenant began a titanic battle that ended with Akiros sustained only by his rage and the Stag Lord at death's door. You let the boss fight an NPC instead of your daring heroes? Ewwww... As for Davik, he should torment their new trade routes along the Shrike for eternity until he's put to rest. Ghosts don't play nice...
I understand your point - in my opinion Cthulhu (as an example) works best if you don't even know you're playing Cthulhu. Sometimes a grand reveal can be a lot of fun, and gifting your players with a kingdom could work this way. Or it could backfire in any number of ways (James has given several examples). As someone who used to try and pull these kind of "spring it on the PCs it will be an awesome surprise!" kind of games, I can tell you it usually works better to give information (movie-trailer style) than to try and spring things on your players - especially for longer campaigns. Too many chances that a) your players figure out what you're up to anyway over time b) you can't pull off what you really wanted (it always works out better in your mind, no?) or c) players are disappointed because your reveal totally screwed with their plans. The last thing you need is for your grand surprise to backfire and leave a sour taste in the players' mouths. That's a deal-breaker. If you have players that like to metagame and can't keep non-character information to themselves... well that's another issue. Besides, players have a habit of forgetting anything useful that a GM tells them anyway... ;)
I need to know what interpretation is correct and the only way the GM will be satisfied with any interpretation is if it comes from an official source. The GM is the only official source while the game is running. If your group doesn't have that bond of trust between GM and player that everyone will have fun around the table, then you have a problem you need to talk about.
Also, I realize that Lovecraft isn't for everyone... and I try not to hold that against you if it's not for you... but you still go on the list. :-P Hey I used to be on that list.. they can be converted! ;)
I've been playing up the "no one is crazy enough to go into the Stolen Lands" (it's like the Pit of Despair) and had one of the PCs (the ostensible leader) sent into exile with this charter as his death sentence. :) I'm assuming they'll make lemonade out of lemons...
Barbarian, bard, cleric of erastil would be the best combination. Lots of RP opportunities throughout and well-balanced. Could sub bard for a fey sorcerer if you want more damage than skills.
Sounds like a hootenany! Rob feel free to bounce ideas off the book of faces.
We'd have to rebuild the maps entirely for those sites—it's one thing to build a poster map to size and then shrink it down for a full-page map in an adventure. it's another to do the same for a single tactical site, since that'd usually just be a fraction of a larger dungeon map. We'd have to order that map separately, and that'd mean we have to spend quite a lot more on paying for the map from the cartographer, which would mean we'd probably have to raise the price of the map folios a bit, which wouldn't make many folks happy at all. As someone who is currently converting the in-PDF maps into 1" scale maps for tactical combat at every opportunity (so much nicer-looking than Sharpie on vinyl), let me say that I would much rather have Paizo do all the work with pro gear and pay them for the end result than go through all the work myself to achieve mediocre results (blowing them up loses resolution, they're always taped-together flesh golems of 8.5x11). It would also be great to see the art of the APs in handout form (i.e. printed on individual sheets). So much great work gets done to bring these NPCs to life in the AP and sadly the players typically get to see no more than a flash from the GM from the other side of the screen before s/he needs their reference back. I've been extracting and printing all the portraits/beasties and propping them up in front of the GM screen - my players love the tangible visual appearance of the baddie (or goodie) that they're interacting with. I do get that not everyone wants to go to this effort or incur the time/costs required...
Saved my ass today when the party decided to visit the local farms that were placed in the northern Greenbelt for flavor and I had to come up with some conversation topics for the locals.. :)
Agreed. While I usually run more of a "we're the good guys! Save the world!" kinda game, it's nice to have the uh... moral flexibility in this one. Fits well with the gritty frontier feel.
Tomaz Orlovsky (human bard)
Maladan Bale (human inquisitor - Erastil)
Aeric Lebeda (human alchemist)
Anatalia Miserenkov (human paladin of Sarenrae)
Jonah Evanstree (human sorcerer - fey)
Mild spoiler:
On the front cover of the Kingmaker Player's Guide there's a rolled-out parchment map. Those are the Stolen Lands. There's a closer look spanning the tops of pp. 58-59 of Stolen Land (Kingmaker 1). There is a map of Brevoy in the Player's Guide but little really takes place there. For map markings and more details, you'll need to take a look at the area maps contained inside the APs that are located in that region. Map location breakdown:
Kingmaker 1 - North Greenbelt Kingmaker 2 - South Greenbelt Kingmaker 3 - Nomen Heights Kingmaker 4 - Hooktongue Slough Kingmaker 5 - Glenebon Uplands (speculation) Kingmaker 6 - Forest of Thousand Voices (speculation) Note that there may have been a conscious effort to keep geography sketchy since the entire goal of the party is to explore an unknown land! Sketchy information I find keeps a certain air of mystery and frontiersmanship to the AP. :) The maps in the APs themselves are plenty to keep the players on the right track.
You can do what my players did - one of their characters is of noble birth and the other is an older gentleman spending his life savings on this life adventure. They chose Rich Parents (conveniently reworded as Retirement Fund in the one case) as traits and that started them off with more than enough coin for horses, supplies, and a couple pack animals without it getting too carried away. As for non-violent options, there are plenty in Kingmaker thus far. One thing you may want to keep in mind, though, is that the Stolen Lands are a hostile frontierland - they should have to slog their way though a few bogs and kick a few bandits in the teeth to earn the right to homestead imho. ;)
Re: Spell Resistance. I would err on the side of weakness in a base class. There are many good reasons why Spell Resistance is only available to powerful characters or a smattering of prestige classes. It's powerful. Very powerful. Look at the gold pieces required to gain even a 10% spell resistance. It's that good. The more other toys you give the class to battle spellcasters the weaker you have to make their SR. I agree that you'll need something other than "I resist magic" to make the class interesting. Abilities similar to the Disruptive feat are good examples of tactical abilities you can give them. Just make sure you don't build a class that sits on the sidelines with a thumb up their butt unless there's a spellcaster in the encounter.
Hrm, my PS character (10167-1) doesn't have the PaizoCon session of MotFF under his list on the web site. Oversight or expected? Josh/Vic?
|