Truly, this is John Compton appreciation day.
Thanks mate. Just a small note, chainsaw pricing on cert 2 should be 4,800gp.
Can we please, please, please take the 'no scifi in my fantasy' argument somewhere else?
If you have constructive feedback about which items from the Technology Guide should make it onto chronicle sheets, that'd be great, but otherwise yelling 'yes scifi' 'no scifi' at each other doesn't accomplish much.
I'm just an average man, with an average life.
I always feel like an AI is watching me.
When I set up camp to rest.
When I'm searching the underground lab.
I always feel like an AI is watching me.
Congratulations Venture Captain! People have always had nice words to say about you on these boards. I'm sure in your new position you'll be able to take PFS organised play to even greater heights and build our hobby even more. While I'm sure you've got a big to-do list, could we get you to take a peek at sanctioning Iron Gods? We wrote up some first draft chronicle sheets for this epic adventure, but they could use your editorial help!
While her hologram is deceiving me,
Don't draw a Nullblade in the town of Iadenveigh; oh no!
I wear my veemod goggles at night
Choking: Ever since I saw artwork of the Aurumvorax cloak I've really wanted one for my characters. Both the Black Sovereign and a certain sniper in the Scar of the Spider have one, I love how it's become Numerian fashion. Divinity Drive: Battleaxe seems strange. Chainsaw would be a better fit. Hah! What about one-handed firearm (any)? ;) Reworked Nutrient Paste boon for Choking Tower: This is easily the most controversial boon written, so I am smacking it hard with the nerf-bat. OPTION A:
OPTION B:
These options keep the Int boost but removes the most broken element (DCs for int based casters). I think this is a better fit as it keeps it cool without making the Choking tower chronicle sheet a 'must get'.
Okay, I did Lords of Rust. Lemme know what y'all think. Lords of Rust chronicle sheet: Lords of Rust
Sanctioned Areas: Area P (Haunted Wreck) then the entirety of Part 3, run encounters as if the PCs have accumulated 8-9 Scrap Worth (see p35 LoR). Level 4-6 Slow gold: 3,378 Normal gold: 6,756 Select one of the following boons and cross the others off your Chronicle sheet.
Spirits Above and Beyond: You have exorcised the alien undead residing in the ruins of the Chrysalis. Golarion's horrors no longer seem so bad. You gain a permanent +2 bonus to saves against fear effects. God Killer: You have laid low the Iron God Hellion and in doing so, learnt there is little to fear in divine evil. At any one time during your adventuring career you may choose to completely ignore a divine spell or a channeling of negative energy. You may use this boon after you've determined whether you have saved successfully against the spell or channel or not. When you use this ability, cross this boon off the chronicle sheet. Your Faith is my Armour: After you destroyed the Iron God Hellion, you collected blackened scraps of steel that made up his advanced robotic chassis. Sensing the power within, you hammered these materials into your armour.
Cureall (limit 2 only) (TG) (1,400 gp)
Eh. I don't buy into fans giving the developers/creators a free pass just because they have events on their calendar. PFS sanctioning should be written into the development calendar of every adventure product Paizo releases. Unless, of course, they decide that it's not suitable (eg WOTR). If they don't have the staff to get the job done, delegate volunteers. There's plenty of open call authors/VOs/Superstar finalists that would happily take on the task.
This is going to be a real challenge for the scenario writers.
Master Kuro Poe, formerly of the Lantern Lodge, has emerged from the other side of Eyes of the Ten.
Some other promotions in Melbourne, Australia:
Can any budding entomologists weigh in and let us know how long it would take for a hollowed-out humanoid head's worth of bitey insects to suffocate to death?
Are these ridiculous questions?
So lately I've been heading to games and have been pretty weirded out by seeing lots of 'respectable' Pathfinder Society agents with belts packed full of humanoid shrunken heads filled with live, biting insects.
What is the price of a Stingchuck?
I have been using lots of music to create the atmosphere and mood of this weird fantasy/sci-fi adventure. The usual whole Wagner-esque epic battle fantasy music really doesn't fit right at all. For me, the feeling is very much of lost technology and weird glimpses into a future that never really came true. I've been digging lots of synth, particularly John Carpenter. Judas Priest's famous track 'Hellion/Electric Eye' is also a must-listen. Here are some of the music recommendations I've been using so far: Com Truise - In Decay (fuzzed out 70s/80s synth)
As always, support the musicians by buying their amazing work on iTunes or ordering their albums.
Having digger conveyor belts that move 10 feet in one direction (towards certain death) every round could be cool. Rusted iron spikes that can transmit tetanus in certain parts of the floor? Hellion could open fire on the ceiling, resulting in an area attack of heavy falling glaucite debris against a tightly clustered party. Puddles of shimmering pungent machine oil that explode into flame if a spark gets near them? Hanging chains that can give PCs a bonus to acrobatics to jump or tumble if they use them?
Last night I got started on a major edit/rewrite of The Choking Tower.
Working title for now: The Voight-Kampff Project.
*Thousands of men rise to their feet in applause. The sound is deafening.*
Can I tick a box if I utter "I do this for Taldor" after copping a brutal critical hit? This seems fun, but I'm a little worried a lot of the preconditions will be tied to combat. I hope you guys will still retain the faction storyline intrigue faction investigation that we saw in Season 5. For instance, the evolution of the Sczarni faction plotline was really nicely handled as Sczarni members tried to find out more about assassination plots. That seems a lot more richer and memorable than just ticking boxes everytime you flank a large opponent, or something along those lines. Still, keen to see these cards come out!
Iron Gods is an amazing Adventure Path and it deserves to be sanctioned.
In my mind, the best compromise is to sanction Iron Gods, but have a reward system for every piece of tech the PC manages to smuggle out of Numeria. The Decemvirate then repay the PCs handsomely on their chronicle sheets for managing to get items past the Technic League. They can't use them in vanilla PFS play, but they've been recognised as Numerian Smugglers. There are around 23 technological items in Fires of Creation. Many are timeworn. What if the chronicle sheet gave vanilla PFS approved rewards depending on how many of these items the PCs manage to find as they progress through the first book of the adventure? The best thing about the chronicle sheet system is it allows editorial creativity to bypass the immediate obvious barriers to AP sanctioning.
Another question: Can a medium sized cavalier take Undersized Mount and piggyback on the party barbarian as a mount?
... This is the logical stupid conclusion of the Undersized Mount feat so let's just go full gonzo and save everyone some time.
I'm seeing a lot of "Player's Dream" items. The kind of items that officially put the PC into god-mode, capable of killing anything they encounter with little to no risk to themselves. Folks need to know that "Which item is better?" doesn't necessarily mean "Which item is stronger?"
Showering with an open mouth in faeces is disgustingly offensive. Accusing 1-level-dippers of being power gamers is just mildly bothersome. I don't want to lower the stakes, but English works in certain ways and has various rules too.
I want to play as a Tarrasque.
The FAQ pretty much reigned that item in. This FAQ means there are going to be lots of swarm-riddled half-eaten skeletons wearing nothing but magic 200 gold cufflinks very soon in the Melbourne region. Nice one!
Emergency Force Sphere
But most of all... Hiring writers/editors with zero understanding of game balance.
The old faction symbols are no longer a legal choice for characters in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. At this time, we have no plans to put them back in as selectable options. Only the coolest factions get to retain their symbols when they get retired. Shine bright like a lantern! Ooh! Shine bright like a lan-tern!
I've lost count of the number of times when some player has pulled out an ability that I've never even heard of and I've just accepted it because I don't want to stop the game. At this point, someone could probably play a character, make up a bunch of feats entitled something silly like 'Heart of the Walrus' and as a GM I would probably just go 'Yup, sure thing, cool'. The easiest solution for GMs is not to study books upon books upon books of Pathfinder rules but instead just game with folks they know and trust.
By the way, for all the people asking for more dragons in PFS, the brutal fact is that as long as we have gunslinger Musket Master and Pistoleros, dragons don't currently work as intended. Any dragon in a fight with a gunslinger goes down in about 1-2 rounds.
I don't think we should be enacting a blanket ban on *any* rules sub-system for PFS. The important thing is asking the question: "Does it work?" If no, delete. If it's awesome, keep it in! Rules sub-systems can make a normal scenario become very memorable. Of course you're going to remember going dog-sled riding in the ice, riding a mine-cart down tunnels, trading company stocks for the Qadirans or collecting evidence in a library. Some of these activities won't work without subsystems. We shouldn't let negative feedback kill the creativity.
I picture a stone chasm in a roughly cylindrical shape. The cylinder reaches from around 100 metres below sea level to about 950 metres below sea level. Firstly there is the contingency room, but it's really more of a collection of three tight chutes connecting two short ceiling workplaces that people need to crawl through to get to the main body of the archive. Between every chute is solid, dwarven-made vault doors that look ready to seal and crush anyone making their way through the contingency room at any time. After this room you climb down into a central pillar inside the cylinder. In the centre of the cylinder there is a glass and steel panopticon style pillar elevator with in-built clockwork controls. One-way mirrors allow anyone ascending or descending the central column to look out, but if you are outside you can't look inside. Against the walls of the stone cylinder are a multitude of sturdy doors. Some are reinforced wood. Some are rusted iron. Others are just openings in the earth with rail tracks hanging out like broken tongues. These lead to the various tunnels or vaults that hold the dark items not allowed to see light. If the archivist using the elevator reaches a opening they wish to visit, they must input a 17 digit code in the mechanism. They then have their Wayfinder scanned by a Inevitable fused into the elevator. Once approval has been granted, the central crane slowly lowers a walking platform between the elevator and the vault. This platform is shaky and prone to wobbling. Every now and then a thick iron chain connects the central column to the wall, however it is noteworthy that the chain does not approach any of the doors. The Darkive experiences a near constant humming noise. Some archivists believe this is the communication of some creatures trapped down here, or a by-product of keeping so many artifacts in such close proximity. Occasionally the hum is broken by the moaning of a Dwarven guide to the Darkive who lives and works down in this forbidden place. At the very bottom of the vertical cylinder, a number of towering statues of long-dead and forbidden deities stand vigil. They are too tall for the network of tunnels and vaults that run off from the central cylinder, so they stand here at the bottom like a collection of grotesque skyscrapers, leering at anyone who descends down. They are covered in imp droppings. At the base of the cylinder, there is a single adamantine trap-door. It is festooned with holy symbols of good deities and empyreal lords. It is not to be opened.
Mark: People wanted to be able to be able to run the scenario without having to muster 15 tables of PFS at one event. People also wanted to be able to earn their 10 Special/Exclusive credits during 2014. In previous years we've had great Exclusive scenarios such as Day of the Demon, Cyphermage Dilemma, Midnight Mauler, etc. This year we've had Bonekeep. A scenario which you yourself admit to having no interest in playing. A 'Special' or 'Exclusive' isn't about the number of butts on seats. It's about showing off the strength or future direction of the PFS campaign.
Where's the archaeology? A number of classes simply do not get the required skill points to learn anything about archaeology. Heck, even clerics suck at Knowledge: Religion. The only thing all the classes can contribute to is the combat system. Hence, bashing locals gets a great run in all scenarios. To give you an idea of how the disparity in skills and work of Pathfinders goes, in a recent scenario the party is required to alter oil paintings. Because the author knows that not even the most intelligent Pathfinder bard has “Craft: Illustration” (even though this a zero photography world) the party is allowed to use Sleight of Hand to paint alterations. See also Linguistics getting a run in the Library as opposed to Knowledge: History. There are some fantastic things that we could do as Pathfinders but we never, ever will because the skill system currently seems to work on a drought or flood basis. Authors that do want to work in something suitably Pathfindery need to insert strange skill parallels to avoid butt-hurt reviews by parties who can't think of a outside the box solution (or have a GM who won't allow it). Just my two coppers.
After the long thread mentioned by Avatar, my recommendation to you would be to befriend as many PC rogues, ninjas and bards that you meet. Ask them to braid your dagger into your wig using their sleight of hand.
Can't we just use magic to disintegrate this bugbear (like we do for every problem)? SONIC WAYFINDER
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