Kyle Baird's page

Wei Ji the Learner wrote:

Why does his name stir such dramatic exhibitions of emotion?

Rats of Round Mountain Part 1, The Sealed Gate, Race for the Runecarved Key, and The Technic Siege. Mostly the first 2, but also the other 2.

Don't forget Race for the Runecarved Key part 2 where almost every table died. I blame Tim for that one. :D

How many kill tallies does/did he have of last count?

I mean, I know of a couple of GMs through no fault of their own are TPK *machines*.

Do I get to count the kills from other GMs who have run scenarios I've written?

I suppose I should comment on this...

I first met Mike (and his amazing wife) at Gen Con 2010 as his GM for Year of the Shadow Lodge, his first PFS event. I got to know him a bit more only a month later at Dragon*Con when we ran Rebel's Ransom side-by-side (oh the horror!)

Our friendship grew but was easily eclipsed by his passion for this silly little game. While Massacre Miles and his minions lead the charge in the Midwest, Mike was building something more powerful in the Deep South. That community exploded, catapulting Mike into his Overlord role where he spread his passion to the far corners of the Earth.

Without Mike, his love for the game, and his strong leadership (feat), this campaign and this game we love would be unknown to tens of thousands of people who now bolster our community.

Than you Mike. Thank you for all that you've done. I still regret not killing your dwarf.

It was the Wounded Wisp (Seekers of Secrets 26). I have no recollection of where "The Pig's Paunch" came from, but it's not showing up in my search of Paizo's published materials. It's something that needs correcting in The Confirmation.

Clarification

In The Confirmation GM briefing it states that the Pig's Paunch is the current name for the bar that was once known as the Wounded Wisp.

edit: I lied. It was the first sentence of the Summary, but it didn't make it into the final product:

"The scenario begins in a tavern in the Merchant’s Quarter district of Absalom that was once known as the Wounded Wisp."

turned into:

"The scenario begins in a tavern in the Merchant’s Quarter district of Absalom."

The oracle used to have a means to destroy it (spark I think?).

1) Find book.
2) Destroy book without regard for personal safety.
3) ????
4) Profit!

The swarms need the see in darkness ability.

Kyle Baird wrote:

I also died the night before during Stonelords.

I am happy.

So was I. I went back to my hotel room and got more beer and brought it back to the table to watch how it ended.

FWIW, I died in Bonekeep 3 about 10 minutes after that first guy. I also died the night before during Stonelords.

For the love of all gods, roleplay the roper and don't have it attack automatically at high-tier. It's a great opportunity to have flashes from each character's past show up on the walls of his little dome.

(I use a small metal mixing bowl to cover the roper up)

Kyle Baird wrote:

shadowhntr7 wrote:

Question for the FAQ/upcoming update: Will the Poison Use rules be updated for Vishkanya characters as well?

Still hoping to make a Vishkanya paladin!

HACHOOO!

*Falls*
"Dammit, not again"

Or a Grippli paladin! It would be a shame to lose your paladin abilities while sitting inside a T-Rex.

would you accept joint second?

No.

Your problem #1 is not just in seasons 0 and 1. It also appears in a recent adventure path. RAW. NPCs get to follow different rules sometimes.

This.

Question for the FAQ/upcoming update: Will the Poison Use rules be updated for Vishkanya characters as well?

Still hoping to make a Vishkanya paladin!

The Fun Sponge wrote:

Galnörag wrote:

GM Lamplighter wrote:

Scenarios like 6-01/02/03 reward characters who are well-rounded. If all you can do is one thing really well, you are hooped when that one thing doesn't work.

I vehemently disagree, these scenario's punish well rounded players, the technologist feat is a specialization, and without it, all the other well rounded skills become useless.

I'm going to take a wild guess that either you haven't played 6-03 or didn't really play 6-03.

My opinion and experience are coming from GMing and Playing 6-02 and having seen a table of 6-01 I haven't suffered 6-03 yet.

So your opinion that 6-03 punishes well-rounded players is based thoroughly being involved with one scenario and watching another one play? Okay then.

Kyle Baird wrote:

Sounds like all of you need to write more reviews.

Stars aren't everything.

Not following. Reviews = Feedback.

If someone has played all but 3 scenarios, their feedback comes from a uniquely valuable perspective.

Sounds like all of you need to write more reviews.

Zero star ratings are not 0-star ratings, they're null. Paizo's star rating system ignores them, as does mine with exception of using them to identify the popularity of the scenario.

I just caught this list; thanks for compiling it!

Is there a meta-meta-list? Do I get an award for having a scenario in top 20, in bottom 10, and in most polarizing (and for being a most polarizing author?). Yay, I'm...famous?

I'm up there too! I'll probably update these again this weekend.

If they had shields they'd be immune to crits until the shield dissipates. Haven't read the scenario though.

As an example from earlier this summer.

** spoiler omitted **

Kyle Baird wrote:

Regarding a recent review (and several other similar reviews):

"We had little time remaining so the GM, perforce hand waved a lot of it."

The scenario specifically states that if the scenario is being run in a constrained time slot (i.e. you're only given X hours), that the final encounter begins with 90 minutes remaining (assuming the PCs haven't figured a way to bypass it from happening at all).

Fair enough.

As I said in the review, I'm actually GLAD that the GM spent time where he did. With our group that was the right decision to maximize enjoyment.

Changed review to reflect new information

No worries. I know some people really don't like having a scenario with more options detailed out than can be reasonably completed in a normal 4-5 hour PFS slot.

Your PCs can, however, use blood transcription during the scenario assuming they have an open slot. And despite no baleful polymorph, any alchemist playing this scenario should be extremely happy. :-)

Regarding a recent review (and several other similar reviews):

"We had little time remaining so the GM, perforce hand waved a lot of it."

The scenario specifically states that if the scenario is being run in a constrained time slot (i.e. you're only given X hours), that the final encounter begins with 90 minutes remaining (assuming the PCs haven't figured a way to bypass it from happening at all).

You are correct, the Georgia Bulldogs (that's Dawgs for some of you), can not win the Super Bowl.

Use the windows snipping tool.

Here, I'll do mine:

I find GM stars to be helpful in making the decision. If it feels like a critical situation and I roll below an 8, I might as well reroll if I'm not confident in my situation.

Rerolls make the likelihood of a PC dying to an unfortunate saving throw much lower. They also make misfires at critically bad times a lot less likely and have other major scenario changing effects.

I think this is as intended, to keep the PCs winning, and to help tip the odds against their deaths.

That said, sometimes the dice turn against you, hard.

Whats even better from Kyle's story is if it'd happened now Joe's GM's stars would have saved him either way.

And that the PC in that story us now an NPC? :-)

This is how GMs should handle saving throws.

What's missing from that story is how Joe *made* the save on a 4, but I asked if he'd like to use his reroll. I do that quite often when PCs barely make a saving throw with a moderately low roll. :D

Would having a way of marking a review as helpful/not helpful mitigate the impact of these biased reviews? Might provide a useful heuristic of reviews that are inaccurate, at least.

Yep. Really, the Amazon review system in general would be more helpful.

The only reason that Hellknight's Feast doesn't feature in these top lists is because a bunch of players gave it a 1 star review after playing under a GM who ran it wrong.

That could be said for several scenarios, and it might even be true for some of them. That statement could go a little deeper though. Maybe the GM wouldn't have "run it wrong" if the style of scenario had been different or the information had been presented in another way.

There are so many interactions going on in any given PFS game, it's impossible for us to know which factors are the most significant.

I haven't seen a scenario I'm willing to play yet.

:(

Take 10?

Correction, Take 10 shirts.

I was using the balance and percentage of 1 and 5 star reviews for PI, in addition to a weight given for review quantity.

Next on my list is to do a quick number for reviews/scenario/months since release.

Surprising level of Parody, er parity across the playable levels:

Avg
3.61 Levels 1/2
3.57 Levels 3/4
3.59 Level 5
3.55 Level 6
3.53 Level 7
3.56 Levels 8/9
3.39 Levels 10/11

Reviews/Scenario
17.3 Levels 1/2
16.8 Levels 3/4
14.8 Level 5
11.4 Level 6
10.1 Level 7
8.1 Levels 8/9
7.5 Levels 10/11

58-60% of reviews are 4 or 5 star reviews across levels 1-9 (54% at 10-11). The only thing that changes as levels go up, is the replacement of 3-star reviews with 1-star reviews.

Check out this graph of the reviews Amazon.com style!

...

Hmm, where have I recently seen that name...

;-)

Thinking of making my first character since Garble. (yes, it's been a while).

Debating samsaran conjuration specialist with early summon monster access via mystic past life and the summoner spell list.

I still need to break this down by tier. I'm open to ideas on how to handle 1-5 vs. 1-7 vs. 3-7. Keep them separate? I wonder if that would slant the data too much based on season since 3-7 didn't exist and only a few 1-5's existed.

** spoiler omitted **

For future scenarios, do you have a suggestion how an encounter like the BH could be adapted for 4 players at high tier? A pair of advanced little ones perhaps?

Usually when I make a 4-player adjustment, I try to reduce the action economies for the bad guys as opposed to making them weaker.

Discussed a running of this with a player recently and I came away with a this:

At high-tier the NPC Codex sorcerer in the warehouse has a wand of invisibility. The GM combined repeated uses of that with extra rounds buffing for the alchemist instead of engaging the PCs per the tactics. These tactics combined with the party make-up to cause the encounter to drag out and consume almost the entire slot.

This scenario is about drenching the PCs in Mwangi culture and providing the PCs options to do their investigation. Using the entire slot for a single encounter goes against the intent of this scenario.

As the GM, it's not your job to win, it's your job to tell a narrative with the PCs as the protagonists. You have a limited time to tell the story, don't waste it all on the first chapter.

Makes sense. Blame the writers. Been a lot of that lately.

Sounded like 7 hours well spent! (This is why the scenario has rules for running the game in a limited time slot)

Thanks for the report!

Kyle Baird wrote:

Belafon wrote:

The tactic of attacking when they were halfway across was deadly.

I'm not familiar with that as a tactic. On my phone, can you copy/paste the BH tactics? The only thing I remember is its tactic to drag under water.

Quote:

In either subtier, however, the territorial animals attack the PCs as the Pathfinders approach the shore near the root they seek.

It's possible that the intention was "approach (either) shore near the root," but I interpreted it as "approach the shore near(est) the root" - in other words partway across the river.

** spoiler omitted **

I guess I meant to quote the sneaky part. I know there wasn't an intention on my part for that situation to be an ambush, but I also designed the scenario to give the GM a lot of flexibility so you can choose what makes the most sense to you. :-)

The tactic of attacking when they were halfway across was deadly.

I'm not familiar with that as a tactic. On my phone, can you copy/paste the BH tactics? The only thing I remember is its tactic to drag under water.

I suppose in hindsight, given the importance of the book, you might wonder why we travelled to Nantambu by ship instead of teleport. In our game though, the bloodrager chick was also a pirate captain with her own man-o'-war, so the thought never occurred to us.

If the PCs question why they were required to travel by boat instead of using teleportation or other magical means of transportation, provide them for following answer, as though the question were asked in Absalom and answered by Kreighton Shaine.

“The city of Nantambu and the surrounding territory are under constant watch by the Tempest-Sun mages. While the Society’s presence in Nantambu is known, the existence of a lodge there must remain a secret. I fear that any fantastical means of travel may attract unwanted attention. Surely seasoned adventurers such as yourself can handle such a lengthy trip.”

Updated after a week:

Added Ruins of Bonekeep—Level One: The Silent Grave
Fixed a couple of scenarios that had incorrect data (don't expect any of this to be perfect please)
170 new reviews in the last week! Thanks everyone!
New review breakdown: 12/12/29/66/51 – So mostly positive, but follows the cumulative breakdown almost perfectly.

Most New Reviews:
6 6-01: Trial by Machine
6 6-02: The Silver Mount Collection
6 6-03: The Technic Siege
5 5-11: Library of the Lion
5 5-22: Scars of the Third Crusade
5 5-99: The Paths We Choose
4 46: Eyes of the Ten—Part I: Requiem for the Red Raven
4 2-15: Shades of Ice—Part I: Written in Blood
4 5-06: You have What You Hold

Given that it's college football season, I'm moving up to a Top 25 KB Poll. After Week 1, here's the standings:

Top 25 Scenarios (min 10 reviews)
Rnk/Scenario/Change in Rnk
1) #2-03: The Rebel's Ransom (+0)
2) #4-03: The Golemworks Incident (+0)
3) #4-19: The Night March of Kalkamedes (+0)
4) #3-02: Sewer Dragons of Absalom (+0)
5) #3-01: The Frostfur Captives (+0)
6) #4-08: Cultist's Kiss (+1)
7) #3-03: The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet (+3)
8) #46: Eyes of the Ten—Part I: Requiem for the Red Raven (NR)
9) #5-08: The Confirmation (-3)
10) #3-20: The Rats of Round Mountain—Part I: The Sundered Path (+1)
11) #35: Voice in the Void (-3)
12) #2-01: Before the Dawn—Part I: The Bloodcove Disguise (+0)
13) #3-21: The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment (+0)
14) #16: To Scale the Dragon (NR)
15) #5-13: Weapon in the Rift (-1)
16) #52: The City of Strangers—Part I: The Shadow Gambit (+2)
17) #4-09: The Blakros Matrimony (-2)
18) #5-07: Port Godless (-9)
19) #2-21: The Dalsine Affair (-2)
20) #3-15: The Haunting of Hinojai (NR)
21) #1: Silent Tide (-5)
22) #2-15: Shades of Ice—Part I: Written in Blood (NR)
23) #3-I1: First Steps—Part I: In Service to Lore (-4)
24) #3-18: The God's Market Gamble (-3)
25) #5-02: The Wardstone Patrol (-3)

Top 10 PFS Authors (min 2 credits)
1) Michael Kortes (+0)
2) Jason Bulmahn (NR)
3) Jim Groves (-1)
4) Alex Greenshields (+0)
5) Tom Phillips (+2)
6) Matthew Goodall (-3)
7) Crystal Frasier (-1)
8) Dennis Baker (-3)
9) Adam Daigle (-1)
10) Larry Wilhelm (NR)

Season/Cumulative Avg/PI/Reviews per Scenario
0 - 3.50 (0.6) (14)
1 - 3.66 (0.3) (10)
2 - 3.59 (0.6) (8)
3 - 3.86 (0.5) (15)
4 - 3.64 (1.1) (14)
5 - 3.43 (2.1) (16)
6 - 2.89 (0.7) (12)

This is great guys, thanks for this!

Vescavor Enema

Been a while since I literally laughed out loud at a post around here. Thanks for that!

We played this yesterday and it was awesome. The crowning moment was when we had the Oracle Silenced and a fight to stop her from using Alchemist's Fire, and the Sorcerer Feebleminded the Bloodrager.

Turns out that feebleminding a bloodrager doesn't stop him from ripping you apart with claws :D

The fights were fun and challenging, and we felt that our earlier choices really helped shape the final confrontation. We went for aggressively seeking out and confronting the TL agents wherever they were, and as a result when the final conflict came we were at a bit of an advantage. Although that sorcerer really gave me the willies with the kind of stuff he was throwing at us.

I love asking for a fort save, then pausing a moment and asking for a will save. :) Sounds like you had a great time, thanks for the report!