Macona's page

Good ideas, I think I'll go for a mix of different races.

It also leads into a potential adventure where the PCs could investigate why top chefs from all over the continent have been disappearing.

EDIT: The head chef/jailer is now called Warden Ramsay

This might be a strange question but let me give some backstory.

In my homebrew campaign setting, the material plane is sealed off from the outer planes.

To get around summon monster spells; I have a gigantic demiplane prison full of outsiders that spellcasters can still summon things from (and a ruthless organisation that prowls the inner planes hunting for rogue outsiders to add to it)

I was thinking it would be funny if spells like ‘heroes feast’ are also summoned from the prison plane. What are the best creatures to use to make gourmet meals all day?

Ok, so I've built a fun character which is a whip wielding summoner with a 'gimp' Eidolon who worships Zon-Kuthon.

It's a character I built ages ago but I have been waiting for a chance to use her. I'm not sure if it's right for this campaign but I have thought of a backstory that I think will suit it despite being lawful evil. I just want to check how viable is it.

The backstory I've thought of is that she was a member of a secret zon-kuthon cult. The leader of the cult (who was also her lover) was murdered (love lost trait). Without strong leadership the cult fell into disarray and was quickly discovered by the authorities (and slaughtered)

In my mind this gives the character a hook into the story and a reason to stick around & fight the authorities. The character will also choose revenge over her religion if they ever conflict.

Could this work or should I just play something else?

Resolve points for stabilisation
I actually like the idea of all classes having a pool of points to use on special abilities, but I hate having them tied into the dying & stabilisation rules.

Egregious scaling back on power & magic nerfs
I felt Starfinder was incredibly declawed for the sake of re-balancing player choices. A lot of fun stuff was removed and the lack of casting defensively was mean. I can stand it in Starfinder because it can be seen as a brand new game, but I can’t imagine a watered down version of Pathfinder being that fun.

Ah thanks. I'll check with my FLGS

Incident at Absalom Station and the Starfield are currently set as unavailable (and their subscriptions are skipping to the October releases). Is this likely to change before the 17th?

I was hoping to buy all the August releases in one order because international shipping is really expensive.

I'm going to start a future campaign (whether it be Starfinder or Pathfinder) with a jail break adventure. It's a good way to get the party together and encourages them to think around problems.

I'll homebrew most of it, but I might steal some ideas or maps from published adventures if they're any good. Which ones are worth looking at?

(system or genre doesn't matter. I'm just looking for good themes & ideas)

Hmm

Starfinder has no flat-footed or touch AC

but under the Envoy 'Clever Feint' ability it states:

As a standard action, you can fake out an enemy within 60 feet, making that enemy open to your attacks. Attempt a Bluff check with the same DC as a check to feint against that enemy (though this isn';t a standard check to feint, so Improved Feint and Greater Feint don't apply). Even if you fail, that enemy is flat-footed against your attacks until the end of your next turn. If you succeed, the enemy is also flat-footed against your allies' attacks until the end of your next turn. You can't use clever feint against a creature that lacks an Intelligence score.

Maybe flat-footed is now a condition that gives a flat penalty or something

Cool beans. Thank you

Hi, it's been 7 days but my order hasn't shipped yet

I'm not bothered about receiving my order late, but my concern is that the payment section of my order states, 'Payment authorization - Expires tomorrow' :S

I think the preview in June will have some of the compatibility rules in it; and I don't think it's going to be too complicated.

There's nothing stopping you writing your fluff now though. I would bet that most of us are doing that currently (I know I am)

The king was called Maxen Pounder so they decided to call their kingdom Poundland

The Stellaris soundtrack has a pretty calming ambience to it

Interesting ideas; I may nick some of them in the future. At the moment I am just mapping out a sector of space for a sandbox campaign.

It will be on the edge of the pact worlds leading into a mostly unexplored area. The main hub will be a criminal run space station that is considered independent & neutral ground for any sort of trade (essentially space Katapesh).

I’ll have an alien race that is competing with the pact worlds to colonise the sector (haven’t decided what they will be yet, but probably something similar to the Eldar from 40k). A portion of the sector will be a huge war zone.

The whole sector will be covered in ruins of an ancient empire that was destroyed thousands of years ago. I’ll throw in hints that whatever destroyed them is coming again (something ancient & powerful like the Reapers from Mass Effect)

All that should give the players a bit of variety. Exploration, trading, colonising, war and a nice background plot that they might get involved in.

What sort of things are you looking to run in your first games?

Feed my hype.

I watched a bit of the playtest stream that was uploaded to youtube. It looked fun but I noticed the damage dice for futuristic weapons seem to be pretty low (basic d4, d6, d8, etc)

Do you think primitive weapons like bows will still have the same dice as Pathfinder or is everything going to be re-balanced?

I thought Starfinder was going to be mostly compatible with Pathfinder, but this just fills my head with a thousand questions :S

Yoy know you can choose, at level 7 to NOT let it grow in size right ?

The bonus stats are usually a bit lower than their normal progression if you choose that.

And he won't be able to use it as a mount at all if Mr Rex stays as medium

A wand of Reduce Animal will do the job. A DC20 UMD isn't that high if you've put ranks in it.

EDIT: Doh, completely missed Quatar's post.

There's nothing that really stands out. Pretty much all of them can be dangerous early on, but the only times I've killed players in later books is with SoD encounters.

However, Shackled City back in 3.5 days was consistently challenging all the way through. Not a great campaign though.

I don’t mind more options, but new content is being released quicker than I can keep up. I roleplay multiple times a week, but we tend to play long campaigns and a mixture of systems. There’s still content from APG, UC & UM that we haven't touched on.

It’s not a problem in home games, but it has driven me away from PFS. Last con I went to I was sat with a lizard, a fox and two glowing outsiders who were all playing weird munchkin archetypes that I’d never heard of. “I’m done”

Religion in pathfinder/d&d has always been quite integral to the setting and the mechanics. You can rename clerics to something like 'white mage' and let them choose which two domains they want, but I imagine it will be quite a different game. Another system might be better.

I'd also check if there's anything else they might have problems with in the future. (Demons, witchcraft, etc)

Flexibility really, I don't mind rewriting bits to suit my group's play style as long as the overarching plot isn't on some sort of time limit.

"You must rush from A to B to C as soon as possible or the world will end!"

I'm really excited to either GM or Play this AP. My group has often added a splash of sci-fi to our fantasy, so the theme will be spot on with our tastes.

My group tends to prefer non-linear games. Not complete sandboxes, just the chance to do some ad-hoc sidequesting, downtime and the ability to make choices which affect the plot.

How easily can Iron Gods accommodate my group?

(Please avoid major spoilers)

The Shackled City hardcover was the first AP I ran. It took years, but I f!##ing finished it :)

I think the Pathfinder APs are much tighter and coherent though.

I Just had a scary realization; I've GMed 5 APs, but I've never got to play in any :(

If you want to play a Dresden files-like game, surely it would be better to the Dresden files rpg?

Pathfinder is great, but there are hundreds of other systems out there. It will be much easier to find one that suits your game, rather than trying to pound the PRD into something that it isn't.

Macona wrote:

...One day a really fat sixth-form student with a beard on his neck turned up and invited us to a roleplaying club...

Say, what exactly is up with the neck-beard thing? Why is it endemic to gamers and if one cultivates a beard (as I do), what is so darn hard about shaving those parts of it that wander off the face to southward?

From 1d4chan:

"A more plausible theory claims that neckbeards are in fact a form of tears. Those with neckbeards grow them because no one will ever love them and thus, there is no longer a desire to groom due to the acceptance of their inherent repulsiveness."

When I die, I'll leave my gaming stuff to whoever can break into my house and wipe my harddrive.

I got into roleplaying through wargaming. I used to have a warhammer club at school in the 90s. One day a really fat sixth-form student with a beard on his neck turned up and invited us to a roleplaying club.

I started playing ad&d 2nd ed and quickly became obsessed with it. Skipped 3rd until 3.5 came out, and then moved to Pathfinder in 2010. (I do play other systems as well)

Now I’m the one with the beard who goes around trying to recruit new players..

Don't let us down Sempai

From my experience its probably 50%/50% blame, bad GM's and AP's just being meat grinders . So far I have played in ROTRL , Shattered Star , Carrion Crown . Currently trying to make it through King Maker and Serpents Skull .

I have never made it through a single AP due to insane amounts of deaths and the groups all falling apart at one point or another due to the frustration .

But I have never went back and read how the encounters were " suppose to go " .It could just have been 3 really bad GM's.

I can tell you this , if your not having fun playing a AP its time to drop the AP. Playing these things are suppose to be a enjoyable way to spend your free time with your friends, not endless amounts of frustration .

Can you post the party composition (and PC build concept) for each campaign? I'm curious ;)

Despite being a soft-touch, I do have a difficultly problem with one of the campaigns I’m currently running (Skull & Shackles). No one rolled a support or battlefield control character.

It’s just a group of damage dealers that have no synergy or teamwork. There’s nothing to stop them taking damage, and no one to heal them up after the encounter. The party is pretty much done for the day after each battle :/

I had my first session last night. I’ve only got three players, so they rolled up an NPC for a fourth slot.

Dol’roon - Half-Elf Cleric of Zun-Kuthon (backstory is that he was a streetfighter who had turned to religion through pain)
Caliad - Half-Orc Summoner (built for melee with a skill-monkey Eidolon)
Marco - Human Conjurer (Son of a rich merchant who is really naive about the world)
Percival - Human Fighter (NPC that they take turns rolling for)

I kept the city of Mearh-Varza as is, which I put in an unspecified location somewhere in Varisa.

I decided that the town was having a mid-summer festival and most of the pubs that evening were overfilled. The Stirge & Hammer was somewhere deep in an industrial district and had avoided the crowds.

I ran the first encounter (fairly badly, as I forgot to bring my battlegrid) and ALL players failed their fort save against the reaping sickness :)

You can get a third if you pick a specialization, and a forth spontaneous slot if you have a bonded weapon.

I don't know how much of that is in the BB, but I imagine herolabs is including one of them.

My main wish is that Bestiary 5 comes with a free henchman to help me carry all these bloody hardback books around.

Just go to a toy shop and buy something appropriately sized.

Um.... Shackled City, Savage Tide and Council of Wyrms?

There’s also a handful of 3pp long campaigns that go 1-20ish.

I'm probably going to steal the hat of disguise idea.

Out of interest, how long are each of your sessions? I'm trying to get a feel for how long some of the encounters are.

Hmm, I think you may be holding back a bit too much. The RAW incurable Con draining disease may be nasty, but it's an integral part of the campaign's challenge.

I too was thinking of toning things back a bit originally, but I don't think it's fair on my players to deny them the true experience.

Once in a 3.5 game I saw a fighter/rogue who took his first level in fighter, and dual wielded Katanas in battle. So basically he had barely any skills and couldn't hit anything.

I did warn the player in character creation, but he wasn't willing to listen to me.

What sort of role playing encounters are you going to add?

I'm going to have the party meet a rat catcher in the sewers (probably after the ooze fight, but before the swarm). He can give them some insight about the area, and offer to sell some Silversheen that he found off a dead adventurer.

I’ll be starting this next month.

I’m also Golarionizing it, but I’m not going to as much effort as you. I’ll swap Maramaga for Urgathoa and just plonk the city as-is somewhere in Varisa.

Let’s have a competition to see who can kill the most players.

A tend to find that a campaign’s difficulty is far more dependent on the GM than the campaign. Some GMs run things tactically 100% and show no mercy. Others pull their punches a bit or adept the encounters depending on their group.

Just think of the random encounter tables in Kingmaker. It’s possible for a first level party to encounter a Wil-o-wisp or a pack of Trolls at first level. A lot of GMs would just leave that out.

A Monk.

Any Monk.

I would cut the race options back to core. Every PFS game I've played in the last year or so has had about 50%+ outsiders or furry PCs.

The 'special' options aren't 'special' anymore if they're overused.

Obviously, the next AP will be a tie-in for the new Ponyfinder ruleset.

Arrr me hearties.

I be wondering if any of ye scurvy dogs have tales of the high seas about a problem I foresee on the horizon.

One me press-ganged crew be the meanest, most difficult sea dawg around, and the lash of t’ cats tail will only make him mad with cabin fever. He’ll probably force me to make ‘im walk tha plank rather than submit to his cap’n.

How did the rest of ye run a smooth ship with a swab like this?

Arrrrrrr

I’ve been thinking of better ways of starting a game. Most games seem to start with a variation of "you meet at a tavern" or the PFS-style “I’m your boss, do this”.

Some of the adventure paths have more interesting ways of bringing the party together:
-The players are all attending an event, when something suddenly kicks off
-The players are shipwrecked and need to work together to survive
-The players are press ganged by pirates

Here are some others I’ve thought of:
-The players are soldiers in a large army which has just lost a huge battle against [BBEG] forces. The survivors are retreating while being pursued.
-The player’s home town is attacked by [monsters]
-The players all awake together in a strange place with amnesia
-The players are all prisoners who get broken out of jail

What else can we think of?

Cheers, I’ll probably bump my players up to 20 point buy to be on the safe side.

I too was thinking of running a short level 1 module first, but I haven’t decided which one yet. I’ll look into what you’ve suggested.

Just how difficult is this module?

Do character’s need to be min/maxed to the balls, or can any player do well if they are resourceful and cautious?

In a Werewolf game I run, the players have named their pack Daddy's Little Angels.