Jim Cirillo's page

I distinctly remember there being a statement somewhere that the death tax only applied to the iconic pregens. As in, when you choose to play a pregen instead of a regular PC (even if it's because you specifically don't have a PC of the right level) then the pregen's risk is also the PC's risk.

But in scenarios where you don't choose to but, have to play a pregen, you're clearly not trying to hide behind an expendable pregen to cowardly avoid risk. So the reason for the death tax doesn't exist in that case.

I haven't been able to dig up the reference yet though.

If this is the case then it's the most logical outcome I can think of for this issue. If you play a pre-gen in a scenario that you could normally play a PC then pre-gen death would apply to your character but if you're playing in a scenario that only allows you to play pre-gens then your pre-gen's death should not apply to your character.

Del Ray has put out a pretty comprehensive collection of Elric Stories. They are six omnibuses:

Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 1: Stealer of Souls
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 2: To Rescue Tanelorn
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 3: The Sleeping Sorceress
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 4: Duke Elric
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 5: Elric in the Dream Realms
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 6: Swords and Roses

If there's no mechanical difference at all you could call it whatever you'd want at my table.

I am strongly opposed to all of these as well.

So clicking on my profile will bring you to Drakon. I couldn't pass up combining the Stargazer trait with creating a Stargazer Oracle.

2d6 + 6 ⇒ (1, 4) + 6 = 11
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (5, 1) + 6 = 12
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (5, 4) + 6 = 15
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (4, 2) + 6 = 12
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 1) + 6 = 13
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 6) + 6 = 18

32 PB with an 18. That looks like a good start.

I'll have to bow out as well. Crazy week that did not give me time to put a character together. Good gaming all!

I think I'm gonna Iron Man these rolls and see what happens.

2d6 + 6 ⇒ (1, 3) + 6 = 10
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (4, 6) + 6 = 16
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (1, 1) + 6 = 8
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 4) + 6 = 16
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (4, 3) + 6 = 13
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 1) + 6 = 13

So I'm looking at a wizard, alchemist or witch I think if I take these stats as is.

My options were limited by my rolls so Human Thief was the choice. Probably hailing from a town close by to Orlane like Guilder's Folly or Stonebridge. Should have much of character done by end of day.

Age: 1d4 + 20 ⇒ (4) + 20 = 24
Money: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 1) = 7 x 10= 70GP
HP: 1d6 ⇒ 4

1: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 4, 1) = 10
2: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 1, 3) = 8
3: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 3, 1) = 12
4: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 4, 3) = 15
5: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 1, 1) = 13
6: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 1, 6) = 12

So:
9
7
11
13
12
11

That's like old school 3d6 rolls right there. I like a challenge...

Hello,
Are you still looking for submissions? I haven't played M&M since it first came out but I really enjoyed it then and hopefully the learning curve isn't too great from the original rule set (I'll probably hero-lab it which hopefully will help as well). I have an idea for a hero-from-the-future type.

Thanks,
Jim

Very interested in this. Would it be safe to assume the Elemental Ascetic Archetype (essentially a monk kineticist) would be allowed?

My vote would be Mummy's Mask.

Name: Zoll Swiftblade
Race: Elf
Class/Level: Rogue 2
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: Mustering Area on The Crow's 3rd Floor
Catalyst: Too Many Tower Girls at the end of an adventuring day

This could have been a TPK but fortunately for the group only one death occurred. The rest were knocked unconscious and ransomed back along with the shard to the Pathfinder Society. The group had tripped the alarm on the fourth floor and Tellavee was able to scurry down to the third floor and muster seven gang members and Karisa with her donkey rats. Karisa warned the party that they should leave but when Gar, the group's barbarian threatened them with his Sarissa while carrying two previously defeated and unconscious Tower Girls over his shoulders, the moment to parlay had past.
They were able to hold their own for a little while, killing all but one of the donkey rats and one of the Tower Girls, but the numbers just overwhelmed them and soon Argus, the party's Cleric of Sarenrae was surrounded with his back against a wall. He fought valiantly and was the last to fall. While Gar and Argus, a divine hunter, were able to stabilize as the fight dragged (Argus was out of channels as the group's resources were pretty low when the fight occurred), Zoll could not.
Ayala was pleased with her gang's performance and even happier when, through her contacts in Magnimar, she found out that they had captured Pathfinders. It cost Sheila Heidmarch a lot of gold to get her Pathfinders and the Shard back. How much gold? Enough for the Sczarni Gang to relocate to much nicer digs than The Crowe, that's for sure. Between that and Zoll getting raised, the group is into the Pathfinder Society for a lot of money while having nothing left but their weapons and armor to show for their trouble this past week. The Society is garnishing 25 percent of their wages until they are paid back.
The only silver lining is our group uses a "Coming Back from Death" chart because we don't like that death, especially at higher levels, is usually, at worst, an economic speed bump. There are 99 bad things (varying from very penal to just funny) that you can roll on the chart and one good thing. Zoll hit the 1 percenter and came back one level higher as he has obviously been marked for greatness by his Goddess, Calistria.

I thought Mike Brock was joking with his first comment on this and then he doubled down. Broken tablets? That's the concern?

I think the incredibly small risk of a tablet getting cracked when a player shows a GM their character is worth the reward of how much hassle they save - especially at Cons. I'm hoping this is reconsidered.

I'm leaning towards Darklands as well. Maybe it starts near the Candlestone Caverns in Darkmoon Vale.

Jim Cirillo wrote:

I think I will be going with the Stranger in a Strange Land motif. Looking at Human Ranger (Infiltrator), formerly a loyal swordsman in the service of House Surtova, when civil war broke out in Brevoy he was killed (WHAT?!?).

More to follow......

And perhaps you needed some friends in "Low" places to provide a safe pipeline far from folks looking for revenge.....

Just saying...

While the chances of assassins being sent to Osirion to truly finish the job is pretty small, Vidic would be looking for someone experienced in tomb exploration to aid in his obsession with the afterlife. Seems Ernst would be that kind of dwarf!

I think I will be going with the Stranger in a Strange Land motif. Looking at Human Ranger (Infiltrator), formerly a loyal swordsman in the service of House Surtova, when civil war broke out in Brevoy he was killed (WHAT?!?).

More to follow......

Would love to get in on this. Will have something for you later on today.

I's recommend Tale of the Old Margreve from Kobold Press. It's Pathfinder compatible and definitely fits the corrupted forest vibe. Link to Paizo store: http://paizo.com/products/btpy8hp6?Tales-of-the-Old-Margreve

I was going to vote Mummy's Mask since it is the newest and brightest.

Was the paladin out of smites for the day? Smiting bypasses DR.

Bad couple of days for Uruvion.

Name of PC: Uruvion Galivandir - Elf
Class/Level: Alchemist 12
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: The Vault of Greed's Crushing Door

Name of PC: Uruvion Galivandir - Elf
Class/Level: Alchemist 12
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: Arkrhyst

I know this is last minute but tonight at 6:30 PM EST we are looking for 1-3 more players for The Cyphermage Dilemma via Roll20.net. The first three players that PM me get the spots and I'll send you the link to the game. Currently we have a 2nd level summoner, 2nd level rogue and a 1st level monk (kinda scary right?) so we are aiming at Tier 1-2.

Thanks,
Jim

I agree that LG had to ramp up it's scenario threat level although it could be debated whether this was just the natural evolution of the game as scenario writers had the same access to the new books as the players.

I have no clue whether this was a barrier to new players. Anecdotally I'd say no as from what I saw in my area, new players played and stayed.

I strongly disagree that power creep had anything to do with LG's demise. 4th Edition came out and Greyhawk was no longer the default setting. Living Forgotten Realms was created to replace LG. That was the end of LG in a nut-shell.

My group is five players and we are in the middle of Hook Mountain right now. Jester is right. Over time, the power bump the group had from the extra PC is mitigated by being a little behind the XP curve.

What I do is after a haunt manifests iteself the first time, I give all those with Knowledge Religion a chance to identify what is happening as a haunt. Once there is a success, the characters know what must be done to detect and end a haunt going forward.

Let's put it this way if I have a choice between a PDF and a PDF + HL Files, and the markup in price is sensible, I will always, and I mean always, select the PDF + HL Files.

Interesting. I had sort of the same experience last night. I wanted to create a Summoner 'cuz I never have played one before and found the Wild Caller Archetype which looked fun to me. I broke out Herolab and started to create when I realized it was not showing up for me as an archetype. That's when I decided to go to the resources list and found that it was banned. There was a certain level of frustration with this as it never would have occurred to me that swapping nature's ally for summon monster spells along with gaining 1/4 more evolution points per class level but limiting what evolutions you could take was considered overpowering. Then I delved deeper and saw that almost all Summoner achetypes were banned. It did get me thinking that the powers that be in PFS really don't like the Summoner class all that much. Just saying that I can relate to coming up with a cool character idea and then being disappointed when it gets scuttled by the ban-hammer.

I have never read the fiction in any of the APs. I would love that area to be used for something else, much of which has been stated by many posters in this thread. I would love to have a section giving specific advice as to what various evil NPCs in that particular volume do if they get away (who knows maybe even statted up at higher levels for their return in later volumes).

Name of PC: Rall Kaddok
Class/Level: Shoanti Barbarian 2/Oracle of Battle 1
Adventure:Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Yeth Hound

Story: The group bursts into the Chapel to Lamashtu after a very good perception check allows them to hear some sort of whooshing in the air beyond the doors. They were expecting trouble and found it in two flying Yeth Hounds. The hounds howl and Rall and his ranger compaion flee (two 1s, yuck). Rall is only gone 4 rounds total and the ranger rolled max so he was gone 6 rounds of fleeing and then 6 rounds back. This left the cleric, sorcerer and paladin to fend for themselves. They hold their own until Rall gets back. Bruthzamus shows up after awhile - extricating himself from his goblin lady-friends to don his armor and weapons to find out why the hounds were wailing. He crits the cleric with his bow sending him to negs and leaving Rall without his personal healer. Down to 3 HPs, the Yeth Hound gets off a crit for 25 points and one of Gorum's chosen enter's the Boneyard. Tough fight but the rest survived.

Saw this done in 3e with a Deep Wood Sniper. The results were pretty devastating.

Hey Don,
Someone is trying organize a weekly PFS game at Double Midnight in Manchester on Wednesday nights. I don't know who it is. We just saw the sign-up sheet for it last week. You should shoot the shop an email, they might have more information on who's trying to organize it.

And good for Opa. I was wondering what all the Pop Culture stuff was that folks were thumbs-upping on FB.

I live in Merrimack and I work right on 101A so I'm in the area a lot.

It's all good with me. There's plenty of room in their game space if you guys are looking to run a game. Members of our group usually start arriving anywhere between 5:45 and 6:30, and we are playing usually shortly after 6:30.

They have a nice selection of Pathfinder products although not as much as The Comic Store in Nashua. We've been addicted to buying Pathfinder minis there (they have a ton) since we started playing.

Oh and yeah, Relentless Dragon is the kind of store that gives game stores a bad name. I swear to God I could walk in there and clean their front area out because their employees are sitting in the back room playing instead of working. And that's only one of their customer service issues.

Our group is not meeting at the store next Tuesday. I'm the DM and unfortunately I had a prior commitment so we are taking a one week break. We'll be back there on the 25th.

Jim Cirillo wrote:

We are around. Playing Slumbering Tsar right now. Our group just started playing at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester. Great shop with a fair amount of game space.

Slumbering Tsar, huh? [Elbows Grimmy out of the way] So, uh, you got any openings?

We are currently full but I'll post in this thread if our group loses someone in the future.

PS. How does gaming at Double Midnight work? Is it free? Do you have to be a member. Just curious.

It's free to play there. Just let them know you game group is interested in playing on Tuesday nights and they should give the OK. It looks like they have room enough for players. This is a new thing for them. Usually the shop closes 7-8PM on weekdays but they are leaving it open on Tuesdays 'til 11PM for games.

It also looks like they are trying to drum up PFS games for Wednesday evenings.

We are around. Playing Slumbering Tsar right now. Our group just started playing at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester. Great shop with a fair amount of game space.

I question if this really "Has to be done"

Are you being a jerk or do you have some sort of point?

It is here the fallen should be honored. Whether in The Camp, the Desolation, at the Temple City's walls, or within Tsar itself, those who have lost their lives will always be remembered for their sacrifice in this thread.

We'll keep this like obit pages on AP boards.

Name:
Race:
Classes/levels:
Adventure:
Location:
Catalyst:
The Gory Details: (optional)

I expect this thread to be quite large before it's all said and done. My group is at 6th level right now, so in about 3-4 sessions they will be making their way to The Camp. I'm sure I will be making more than one contribution here as well.

I guess I'm in the minority here and I credit Lisa for being diplomatic in her views of WoTC giving Paizo an advanced non-renewal notice for and allowing an extension to the magazine license. In the end it was good business for WoTC to do what they did. They certianly could not provide content for them nor did they have a means to disseminate it in the platform they were hoping to use in the future. Essentially the IP would languish for a year until 4E came out. Instead Paizo did the work for them by continuing to publish a popular and high quality periodical that only enhanced both magazines reputations. A win-win for both parties involved I think.

I just think it would be a bit naive to think WoTC was doing Paizo a "a solid" by extending the license. I have a hard time believing that if Wizards digital initiative was ready to go when the licenses were expiring, that Paizo would have been able to get that extension, and it did Wizards no good to have both magazines in limbo, out of sight and mind of customers when another company could foot the bill to keep it in the minds of gamers until 4E was released.

I hate rolling stats, if only because my dice are trolls. Ever since purchasing them, whenever I pick up 4d6 and roll them I always get middling numbers. My average set looks like this;

13, 14, 14, 13, 15, 14

I hate it. I refuse to roll with other people's dice because they aren't mine, I don't want my dice to find out I've been cheating on them. The last time that happened I botched a Willpower roll in Mage: The Awakening and ended up a Marauder.

You think that is average? Just because you will not have an 18 does not mean that's a middling array of numbers.

But this attitude is a perfect example why 4d6 drop the lowest is the way to go. With point-buy, it's about min-maxing stats to make sure that after race bump you have an 18. What this has done has turned players into thinking that the stat array above is average.

Death and Dismemberment.

Jim Cirillo wrote:

Congrats.

Purchased Retribution last week to stick into my Iobaria-based Tales of the Old Margreve/Slumbering Tsar mashup. I'm hoping the Priory turns into a home-away-from-home for my group (as long as they don't die and are able to save the place from the evil that's befallen it of course).

Thanks Jim! Are you going to "give" them the priory as their own base or just let them use it as they pass back through? I think it's always cool for charactes to have a home they have fought and bled for. It makes it far more personal.

Good question. I've learned over the years to keep my expectations pretty low regarding what I would like the players to do. More often than not they choose to do something I was not expecting, but at the very least, I'd like it to be a place they can turn to. I've changed it to be a crumbling ediface to Abadar so obviously welcoming to and protective of travelers in the wilds of Iobaria.

Congrats.

Purchased Retribution last week to stick into my Iobaria-based Tales of the Old Margreve/Slumbering Tsar mashup. I'm hoping the Priory turns into a home-away-from-home for my group (as long as they don't die and are able to save the place from the evil that's befallen it of course).

Krome wrote:

Just once I'd like to Paizo print a book where the PCs meet the BBEG in the first book, get humiliated and sent running with their tails between their legs. THAT is a way to generate a desire for real revenge when you get to the last book. :)

Curse of the Crimson Throne doesn't count, I guess? ** spoiler omitted **

Problem is... players don't take well to being humiliated. If we did an encounter like you suggested, we'd risk having a LOT of would-be campaigns self-destruct when stubborn or foolhardy players/PCs TPK the group in that initial encounter.

It's an interesting idea to try out in a campaign, where the worst case scenario is make up new characters and start another campaign. Not so great a thing to try out when if it backfires, a tentpole product line for your company dies 1/6 of the way through its six month lifecycle...

Hmm.... But if the BBEG defeats them by shunting them off to a distant land/plane and then the AP is about them getting back in order to exact revenge and stop his rule of tyranny, that could be something epic right there. A lot of great fantasy is written with that type of story arc.

Very good writeup. Plus she gets bonus points for giving us the finger.

1. Yes. 4D6. Drop the lowest arrange as you wish. Rolling dice is fun.

2. Yes. It's the default for our group in Pathfinder anyways.

3. Been playing since 1983.

4. Basic D&D.