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Sounds an awful lot like Eden's Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG; Attribute + Skill + Dice = Result, and the powerful main characters (Buffy, Angel, The Doctor, Jack) are not as able to break free of fate as the Scoobies/Companions. Not that this is a bad thing, I'm rather fond of the simplicity of the Buffy system.
Well, one thing that was offered with the traits system was the feat "Additional Traits" that granted you 2 traits. Sounds like we'll have a six of one situation.
One thing I would ask for the drow of Golarion is that they don't become so viciously and digustingly evil...that they become as predictable as many complain Drizzt becomes. I understand how today's gamers can cringe from the fanboy obsession with the "bad-ass good-aligned dark elf ranger with double blades" stereotype. But I have enjoyed several drow characters in my campaigns, with much more complex personalities than a two-dimensional "CG" or "CE" describing everything they do. Anytime you label a fantasy race, you limit them. If the rule becomes "All drow are scheming, treacherous villains," then the player will never even think of trusting a drow. How is a schemer supposed to scheme if none of his opponents ever trust a word he says? I worry that saying "Always CE" about drow limits their potential creatively. You don't get out of the shadow of an icon like Salvatore's hero by going to the other extreme. Don't get me wrong, I love all the fiendish ideas that have been thrown about for the dark elves. I would simply prefer all the options open, however remote some of those options may be.
As a gamer who plays both male and female characters, I've found that the interesting part of a PC is the personality rather than the naughty bits. Whether it's Seoni's slinky gowns or Kyra's practical mail and robes, the interesting part is Seoni bickering with Valeros, or Kyra confronting the tragedies of her past. Story and character trump T&A every time, IMHO. There comes a point where sexuality and gender has to become a part of the game rather than an offense or an obsession. It's just as prejudiced to shun a product for scantily-clad art as it is to buy a product for scantily-clad art. Roleplaying is the theater of the mind's eye...so why use pictures as a basis for judging a game's worth? I think we need to concentrate less on what we want fantasy to look like, and more on what we want it to embody.
Gary thinks he found a bug in our code. If you rename the .zip file to .pdf, does it open correctly? Yep, renaming it to a PDF file fixed it...Thanks much!
Hey guys! Just thought you should know...I've tried downloading The Ruined Town PDF several times, using several different computers. The ZIP file downloaded will not open in any of my archive programs (WinZip, WinRAR, etc). Would you let me know when this issue's been resolved? Thanks! --Marshall Hitch
It should be on the back cover. I wish I had my PDF to look... Bingo! Thanks, Rauol!
First question is quite possibly a stupid one, as I can't seem to find the reference for it, and I'm sure I'm just blind. :P What is the recommended starting level of the PCs for HoA? Also, where is this information listed? (Edit: Found it when reading James's forward, it's 10th. But if there's a place where it's regularly put, that'd be great...I can be a bit stingy with XP awards during APs, since we normally have sidetreks between chapters. I want to make sure the PCs are up to snuff for the chapter beforehand, tho...)
What is the point of an Adventure Path if there's no path? My gamers enjoyed the Blackjack scene, and gained their interest in the character. IMHO, you need times where the focus isn't solely on the PCs; otherwise the rest of the world starts looking and sounding like cardboard set pieces the PCs get to walk around in. I vote for more such moments. I also think Chris hits it right on; as long as most players know what they're seeing isn't something they can influence, they're cool with it. That said, there are some cinematic scenes that need to take place offscreen: Spoiler:
The assassination attempt of the Queen is one. I firmly believe villians need their MWAH-HAH-HAH moment, if only to establish the motive in players to defeat them. However, if the PC were present for such a scene and not allowed to retaliate...that would step over the line and cause ill will in the players. VMMV, of course...but I buy scenarios for the story. Where I take the players from there is more my responsibility as GM than the scriptwriter.
I've actually been thinking of making a sheet that is more like character journal. It would be a booklet, with all the character crunch in the beginning and then pages for background information, organizations, important npc's and so on. Like a campaign book, but for players. I love the look of your sheets, Salama, and a character booklet would rock! One request, if you ever get around to it...I like to tabletop play off my laptop, and I found the fill-in form PDFs from Alpha 1 invaluable. Any chance you'll be making a fill-in PDF version of your sheet?
Damn, you run things fast. Yeah...when your players consist of your roommates, it's not hard to find gaming time. :) Thanks for the advice, James...I think I should be able to keep them occupied now until Chapter 3.
So, my gaming group has just completed Seven Days to the Grave, and is chomping at the bit to do some downtime roleplaying and sidetreks. But I'm a bit confused as to how much actual downtime our heroes have. Spoiler: According to the sidebar, the Queen quarantines Old Korvosa just before our heroes take on the Hospice and its nasty inhabitants. So, what does this mean for the time between SDttG and EfOK? Does the story continue directly after the end of the plague, or is there time enough to do some adventuring and metagaming? My players have ties to Old Korvosa, so I'd like to find out if the island is off limits to those outside it...particularly when the plague is lifted.
I would love to see the Acadamae get more of a spotlight in the Pathfinder world, too. One thing I would ask if it goes forward is a little more coverage on heroic PC Acadamae members. With the information we have now, the Acadamae seems lethal to Good-aligned PC membership. This can be remedied with GM intervention, of course...and I definitely want to keep the sinister danger of the school. It would be nice if there was at least a bit of a bright spot inside the Acadamae for PCs to entrench themselves in should they choose.
Speaking of clouding up obvious plot points...What have people been doing to protect the identity of Blackjack? To my players (who've all watched Zorro), it won't be hard to guess which of the NPCs they're introduced to is the masked hero. What I did is give them a red herring in the form of Grau Soldano. Rather than introduce him in a drunken stupor, I had him engage our rogue (who was a former student at Orsini's Academy) in a friendly rooftop Shingles duel. By giving him a bit of a flamboyant death wish from his troubles with Sabine, he makes a perfect candidate for Black Jack...and hopefully a bit more of a surprise when the real reveal occurs.
I may be missing a few bodycounts but I have went through 3 times and only come up with being able to save 2800 people. Is there supposed to be more bodycounts or am I just missing the numbers? Well, remember that you have the opportunity to save Brienna Soldado in the first part of the adventure. That brings the total up to 2801...enough to gain the Saviors of the City tier. Brienna should definitely be counted in the total, as well as any other people the heroes heal during the story. It's still difficult to gain that recognition, but it's not impossible even without extra story elements.
Kudos to both Takasi and James! The former's handy Korvosan Yellow Pages and the latter's GM-eyes-only NPC Fate Summary of CotCT are going to be incredibly valuable to me. Thanks so much!
*raises hand* I have a question. Does WotC or Hasbro really have no way of pulling back the OGL? I've gotten this assumption from a lot of online discussion...but no real confirmation. Is the OGL a real and true public domain system? Or is there a set of circumstances WotC could use to pull 3.5 back under their wing? Perhaps this question is an obvious one. But for those of us not fully in the know of the legalese WotC's put out, it'd be reassuring to know that the PRPG is safe from any legal wrangling by WotC in that regard.
Exploring Cheliax sounds awesome...I loved Bloodsworn Vale, and would jump at the chance to run a campign in that vein. But I also gotta put in my vote for the Genie Wars. I just put in a faction of the Acadame in our campaign's Korvosa...they summon djinns instead of devils (devil/djinn battles go totally well with imp/pseudodragons, IMHO). Arabian stories rawk!
Y'know, every monster in the game is a 'playable' character, given DM approval. While I don't think we'll be seeing umber hulk druids anytime soon, There's no problem with a goblin character in the party, IMHO. I don't think we need them to be common races, living in cities and interacting with folk. But for the adventuring party that the whole story focuses on, It's fun to have a unique background like an exotic race. I wouldn't mind seeing something in the monster entries such as "Playing ______ as a Character", giving stata and/or advice on PC versions of the race.
Well, in the picture on the back cover, Queen Ileosa is wearing Yellow.... Hmmmmmmm.....
Ack! Y'know, this thread is gonna sound awfully similar in this AP, due to the background traits... Keyes - Elven rogue with a swashbuckler flair. a former student of Vencarlo Orisini who left for the Shingles in depair when his fellow student and lover was offed by Lamm. Raven - Humand cleric of Pharasma. A former Lamm's Lamb who turned to religion from the cruelty of Lamm. She's also trying to find her past, as she's an amnesiac. Eeko - A Gmone conjurer with an acid fetish. He wanted to be a member of the Academe, but his hopes were dashed when he was imprisoned for the murder of his own mother...a deed done by You-Know-The-Pud. Margda - A Half-orc orphaned fighter. She grew up with the Lambs, but angered Gaedran when she snuck a pastry. She's the only known survivor of Gobblegut's hunger, left for dead by Lamm. Gawd, that man's a bastard. Glad he's dead, and I'm the GM! o.O
That's true enough. But at least get half the AP so you have the corners of the puzzle and enough to getter a better idea of the big picture.Easy to say, but hard to do. It's tough to wait the five months from the time you get the first issue of an AP until the last one is available. Well, that depends on how important the big picture is to your players. My gaming group is more focused on character development and uses the AP as a framework to build an ensemble cast of PCs and NPCs...which then go out on sidetreks and epic paths of their own. So a month by month chapter isn't that big of a deal for me. Anything that contradicts the following chapter is fodder for sidetrek adventures. For us, leaping into the deep end is exhilarating, especially when you get splashed indirectly by a loose plotline. It builds character, so to speak.
1) I plan on sticking with 3.5. I have a bookcase of 3.5 supplements, and I'm not interested in spending the same amount of money on the same information in a different format...However: 2) Pathfinder is what brought me back to D&D. I am a firm follower of the concept of Adventure Path gaming; it's what made me a customer of Paizo in the first place. If you guys move to 4.0, I'll grudgingly go along. ot quickly, mind you...and I might skip an AP or so in favor of games I already have...but I've got a lot of interest in Golarion, and wo't stay from it for long. 3) HOWEVER. I'll be much happier if you stay with the perfectly workable 3.5. And happy customers make for return customers! (hint, hint, nudge nudge)
I found my first sparks of creativity as a young boy when my father played me through "Keep on the Borderlands" in the late 70s. Thanks for you inspiration, Gary...may you play your games eternally.
Which was 3 days after he made that post. Argh! My bad...What I get for not reading the dates close enough. Kudos, guys!
This is certainly possible. It'll probably happen later next week. I still haven't written up his backstory and all that, but it's on the schedule for quite soon. James, I think you already have..or someone there has. Isn't Ezren, our RotR #5 cover boy, the subject of the October 26th blog entry?
I would like to see an update of the history of the Forgotten Realms characters from the DC comic books of the late 80's-early 90's. While Kyriani Agrivar is well detailed in the Waterdeep sourcebook, finding information about the other characters of the two series is hard to come by. An article giving a short history of the two adventuring parties (and possibly thier 3e stats) would be wonderful, as my FR campaign's history is built around their adventures. Of course, if their stats have already been published, please let me know where to find 'em....Thanks!
I prefer the term "feisty chocobos"... Ha! I was wondering if people would make the Final Fantasy connection to these critters. From the moment I showed my players the picture of the terror birds printed in the module, they started humming the Chocobo Theme at me, and incessantly saying "WARK!". \It didn't make the battles any less intense...although I did let the rangers of the party do a little bird rustling. They now have two more pack animals, and they're making Thunderstrike even more jittery! Point here being that even if you get a little silly with names and looks of monsters, you can still make entertaining roleplay out of it.
Hope there's enough time to get with the 3rd batch! My addy is mtknife(at)yahoo.com. Awesome idea, dude...Thanks for sharing it with your friends in gaming. :)
So, here is how his trial played out: Justice Ironbriar presided, and each PC was questioned and cross-examined by barristers to discern if they believed that he was guilty of the charges of "aiding and associating with a nihilistic religious cult that plotted the wanton slaughter of the peoples of Sandpoint." Then the alchemists brother from Riddleport was brought in as a character witness, adding in his story. To demonstrate the ruthlessness of Ironbriar, Orik was sentenced to 15 years in the Hells. All in all, it was a success. Only one out of five thought it was a boring session, but she has an itchy trigger finger (er, archery finger, or whatever). The rest called it "Law and Order: D&D" and enjoyed the role-play opportunities after several sessions of dungeon-crawling.
I just had a new player join our RotRL game last week. I tried picking his brain about what he wanted to play, but the options can be overwhemling for people who have never even played a video game rpg, much less tabletop, so I rolled him a human rogue with high strength and dex, so he could feel useful in combat while still having a big pool of skills to pull from. To my surprise, he took to Pathfinder really quickly, with an emphasis on RP, and couldn't wait to continue. lucky him, he joined just in time to assault Thistletop. |
