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A website called myNoise, which features soundscape-type background sounds and music. I started using it for gaming, to provide setting-appropriate audio background for scenes (forest sounds, thunderstorm, etc.). Right now I'm listening to one called "Telecaster Licks," which is just a sort of noodling around on guitars; kind of an abstract prog rock feeling that doesn't distract me while I'm reading.
Do people get this angry about Monopoly? (Actually, don't answer that - I don't want to know...) I think it bears mentioning that we're talking about a *game*, here. Calling up your friend and cussing him out because he urged you to take a "wait and see" attitude about an upcoming gamebook is pretty far over the top (and pretty lousy behavior from someone who's supposed to be their friend). Getting this enraged about what is, let's be honest, a leisure pastime is the height of Simpsons' Comic Book Guy caricature. I understand being irritated with WotC. I just snarked at Wolfgang Baur over "Hoard of the Dragon Queen," which I thought was railroady as all get-out, filled with "Bad DM 101" decisions and far beneath his skills as a writer overall. But try to have a healthy sense of perspective.
"Is Fate Fixed?" If it's anything like the last adventure, I suspect it's as fixed as being forced to fight a high-level Dragonborn champion and succeeding only to be inexplicably met later by his exact duplicate. :/
This last Sunday was my very first Pathfinder Society game, so nothing terribly exciting or high-level, but I enjoyed playing him: Brother Eagelric, 1st level Cleric of Sarenrae, late of the Angcrist noble family line of Cheliax and, it is rumored by some members of the Pathfinder Society in Absolom, a onetime worshiper of Asmodeus. As for himself, he has said nothing of his origins before taking his pilgrimage to Katheer in Qadira to climb the steps of the Zenith temple spire, but he does seem rather familiar with the ways of infernals for a recently-ordained priest...
*pounds a tankard on the table* Count me in!
Sounds like I'll be making a Dwarf!
That would utterly rock! I love Labyrinth Lord and I haven't gotten to enjoy one of those old classics in decades. I cut my teeth on B/X and Greyhawk back in the day, and remember running B2 for my older brother. It would be a blast to tackle such a thing again today.
Just checking in. Do we have an estimate of when we're going to begin? And I wouldn't mind playing an extra character, if you need me to.
Awesome! Thanks, I'm looking forward to this.
Well, that was...background-appropriate. Best to get those bad rolls out now, I guess.Actually, the Random Starting Gold for a Rogue in the Player's Handbook is 5d4. And you x 10 the amount. Ah! So it is; I must have written it down wrong. Good thing about the multiplier, too, or else you would have seen a guy in sackcloth with a club and some rocks. But a character is more than the sum of his equipment, I say. I'll just get an opportunity to test that aphorism if you accept me to the game. ^_^
Well, that was...background-appropriate. Best to get those bad rolls out now, I guess.
Here's the character I came up with: Bloody Heck
Stats:
Alignment: Chaotic Good STR 14, DEX 16, CON 10, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 13. Skills: Appraise +2, Bluff +7, Diplomacy +5, Disable Device +2, Gather Information +5, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (local) +4, Open Lock +5, Search +2, Sense Motive +5. Feats: Persuasive. Background - TL;DR Version:
"Bloody" Heck is a thug who works for mine manager Balabar Smenk primarily as a debt collector. However, he hates his job and his boss, and does what he can to help the people who end up owing Smenk money, even going so far as to rob from the rich to make their payments. In return, he asks them to spread rumors about his bloodthirsty ruthlessness, so he can maintain his reputation. Background - Full Version: When people in Diamond Lake speak of the thug known as Bloody Heck, they say a lot of things. It is said that he once had a man drawn and quartered by minecarts; that he drained a man's entire body of blood and had it delivered to his surviving family in a wine barrel; that he's the one who cut out Old Mute Whill's tongue, had it sautéed, and ate it while he watched. They say all of these things and worse. And not a blessed one of them is true. Heck's mother, Phyrene, was a Human woman from Elredd who was abducted by Orc pirates from the Pomarj. She was made a concubine to an Orc chieftain - one of many - and gave birth to a son by him, Heck. However, an adventuring party breached the village and rescued Phyrene. She insisted on being allowed to bring her child, and the adventurers grudgingly agreed. By wounds, disease, curses, treachery, and other means incurred through their misadventure, by the time their ship sailed into port at Hardby, all but one of the adventurers were dead. This last man, Bernac the Lucky, who had originally been hired on as a simple bearer, married Phyrene and moved to the Free City of Greyhawk to enjoy the riches they had recovered from the Orc pirates. Unfortunately, the god Norebo scorned Bernac; it was said he had burned all of his life's allotment of luck escaping from the Orcs. Before long, he had spent his entire fortune on lavish food and drink and endless gambling in the pleasure dens and smoky taverns of the River Quarter. Bernac, Phyrene and Heck moved from one squalid flat to another, and soon were reduced to squatting in the Slum Quarter. Eventually, the man whom Heck barely knew as "father" was slain in a midnight tavern brawl. Even though he could barely stand to look at Heck, apparently his adopted son was good enough for Bernac to list him as next of kin in order to stand for his outstanding debts. Bereft of money, Heck was sentenced to debtor's prison, but his sentence was commuted to hard labor in the mines of Diamond Lake. After working the mines for a time, Heck's cleverness was noted by Embrel, a Human thug who worked for one of the mining managers in town, Balabar Smenk. Embrel enticed him with an offer of better work, and Heck, no fool, accepted. Embrel convinced Smenk to hire the half-orc on, and Heck quickly proved his effectiveness as a persuasive enforcer. Heck didn't care for Smenk to begin with, and quickly grew to despise him. However, Smenk was aware of Heck's debt and that he cared for his mother, who also lived in Diamond Lake, so Heck felt he had no choice but to continue working for the man. Still, Heck subverted his master in numerous ways. First and foremost, Heck felt sympathy for many of the poor wretches who ended up in debt to Smenk. Instead of behaving like most brutes, Heck tried to negotiate amicable solutions with the people he was sent to collect from. Occasionally in the past, Heck has joined Embrel and a small band of thieves to rob houses north of the Vein; much of the coin he made from these hauls were given to Smenk on behalf of debtors who had no way of making their payment. In exchange for his aid, Heck made a simple request to Smenk's debtors: spread rumors about how terribly they suffered under Heck's tender mercies. The more awful and sadistic the tale, the better. This way, "Bloody Heck" became known as an effective thug that no one wanted to tangle with; Smenk was satisfied that he was doing good work, and they would continue to deal with Heck instead of another thug who really would do something terrible to them. To offset his disgust at helping to fill Smenk's coffers, Heck has anonymously sold inside information to Smenk's competitors - most notably gambling house owner Lazare. Heck knows this delicate house of cards he's constructed can't stand forever, and when the cards fall, he'll most likely end up stretched out on a rack or scattered across the bottom of a quarry. But this is the only way he can live with himself, and he figures if he's going to die in this wretched pit anyway, it may as well be while helping other people to climb out of it.
Excellent! Thanks for posting that.
Sounds good. I tried to avoid reading any of the material in those two documents that sounded like DM info to me. I'm having a difficult time trying to decide what character to make, though - a lot of possibilities popped into my mind as I read about Diamond Lake! Half-Orc or Dwarf Rogue or Fighter, Human Cleric or Wizard... I'll work on a couple of ideas and see which one ends up appealing most to me.I didn't ruin your fun by allowing you to read the Age of Worms Overload and Dungeon #124, did I? :( No, no, not at all! I kinda wish they'd separated player info from DM info better, but I think I avoided Dungeon Mastery stuff well enough that I didn't catch anything too world-shattering. Besides, I'm used to separating player knowledge from character knowledge. If you had the time, would you be willing to copy/paste or type up a brief summary of the info relevant to players from those sources? I think I got the important stuff, but I don't know if I missed something that I should have read in an effort to avoid DM stuff. The description of Diamond Lake at the beginning of the Backdrop article was especially evocative. I think I'm leaning toward a Half-Orc Fighter or Rogue at this point...
Sounds good. I tried to avoid reading any of the material in those two documents that sounded like DM info to me. I'm having a difficult time trying to decide what character to make, though - a lot of possibilities popped into my mind as I read about Diamond Lake! Half-Orc or Dwarf Rogue or Fighter, Human Cleric or Wizard... I'll work on a couple of ideas and see which one ends up appealing most to me.
Sounds fun, and I always like to encourage new DMs! Is there anywhere you would recommend finding setting information on Diamond Lake suitable for players? I can't remember if Age of Worms takes place in the World of Greyhawk (which I'm a fan of from my earliest experiences with D&D) or not...
Sounds very interesting. I've always been interested in the reign of Charlemagne, I enjoy the thought of a historical PF game, and you've pinged some Favorites list sites (Calibrating Your Expectations, Dan Carlin). Count me as interested. What sort of posting schedule/frequency are you considering?
Kyra is Keleshite, so her skin and features are much more akin to those of real-world Persian or Arabic people. Perhaps you're thinking of Seelah, the iconic paladin, who is Garundi? Ah, okay, that makes more sense, then. My reaction was based on the original illustrations I'd seen of Kyra by Wayne Reynolds, where she seems to have a darker skin tone and different facial structure (I remembered Kyra because I had played her once in a Pathfinder session of Rise of the Runelords).
It's a beautiful picture, and I really like the homage to Orthodox art, but... I thought Kyra was black?
I've been better, but I've also been worse. Still, I'll accept what pity you'll give me.
Another of those who didn't make it, here. I feel your pain, Snorter. I didn't learn about the contest until there was only about ten days left, and between my day job and family stuff, I just couldn't finish in time. I'm disappointed, because I felt pretty good about the story I was writing, too. Any chance of doing another contest like this in the near future (hope, hope)? Congratulations (and good luck) to everyone that entered!
Well, I've finally subscribed to the AP starting with this volume (I ordered Kingmaker #1 as well) because the basic premise of this AP sounds ideal for the game I'm currently running for my friends (Imperial Roman dark fantasy set in Germany circa 7 A.D.), and I figured that it sounded like I'd be able to adapt quite a bit. I'm also really curious about the rules involving the exploration and "taming of the land" aspect of this AP. I don't have anything really specific to say about the product just yet (for obvious reasons), except that I wanted to mention that I've been wanting to support Paizo for a long while - the production quality is so consistently high (and Wayne Reynolds is one of my favorite artists), and since I recently quit playing World of Warcraft, I figured an AP subscription would run me around the same amount of money, but give me a lot more satisfaction for what I'm paying. The other APs looked really cool (based on what I saw in the store), but the concept Kingmaker is based on is what convinced me to finally take the plunge. Getting some birthday money also helped.
These days, I try to lessen the workload on my own shoulders by asking the players to come up with reasons for their characters to be together. Ideally, when we first start discussing the campaign, I try to lay out a campaign template in which it is established out-of-game how the PCs will know one another, why they work together, etc. I'm running an Etherscope play-by-post in which all of the characters live in the same neighborhood, and many of them grew up together. In the last D&D campaign I started, the PCs were each contacted by someone who claimed they stood to inherit an estate. They all arrived to meet this person at an isolated inn and were framed for murder. All of them were arrested, and were to serve their sentence by serving in the local warlord's army as 'conscripts'. So they had reason to stick together (they didn't have much choice) and had a common cause to work toward (freedom, clearing their names, etc.). But in general, I think I prefer to have their relationships worked out before the game actually starts. The last times I tried to run a game with everyone having their own distinct origins and no ties to each other, it was so much work trying to come up with a reason for them to stay together that I think the game just fell apart.
In brief, I'm with erian_7. This is the sort of thinking that leads to totalitarian governments and death camps. As much as I want to get into this, I don't have the time, so I'll just have to settle for making a hit-and-run commentary and be content to simply read the outcome. So I'll just say these three things: Zombieneighbours, your statements regarding Christian beliefs tend to discredit the rest of your argument. Your understanding of Christian beliefs as stated in your posts is analagous to a parent in the 1980s who believed that D&D was Satanic and would indoctrinate their children into a cult. The characterizations you've given (i.e. "Dominionists want to stone adulterers") bear little resemblance to the actual Christian schools of thought you're referencing (any Dominionist could tell you that Jesus *specifically* condemned that sort of thing). It is possible that you're only referring to those aberrant beliefs that one sometimes finds amongst fringe groups who call themselves Christians (for example, the KKK), but your choice of labels and general tone suggests otherwise. (You've stated that you're not a religious expert, but your argument makes that a moot point: if Friend Computer decides that belief in the existence of God is irrational, arguing over the character of God is like switching deck chairs on the Titanic.) Academics also has the advantage of usually being more resistant to dogma then say Religion or Politics. Academics is self correcting, it advances and changes with time. A) Academics has shown itself to be every bit as dogmatic as any other realm; people are protective toward their station, their reputation, their thesis, their funding, etc., and for these reasons will show resistance to the new, just like any other segment of society. Your suggestion that academia are somehow above this human trait seems to me naive. B) Politics and Religion both demonstrate self-correction; we in the US live in a liberal democracy rather than an absolute monarchy, we no longer keep slaves, we demonstrate gender equality, etc. I daresay Religion shows some of the same traits. While I have no interest in defending all religions, I will say that the way in which Christianity is practiced has changed over time; even though the core tenets and doctrines remain the same, there are non-salvific issues which have altered to suit the sensibilities of their age. The underlying problem with your premise is that it is inherently materialistic. Your memetic approach to beliefs assumes that nothing exists beyond the flesh and blood; that there is no soul, no Deity, no metaphysical universe beyond what we perceive with our physical senses, and therefore, all religious belief is delusion. Science, by definition, is not equipped to deal with or recognize the metaphysical, and yet you would attempt to apply it to all realms of human experience. That is irrational. It isn't Science, it's Scientism.
I like the idea of other PCs being able to contribute to the social conflict. Part of me (the player part) feels that way because it's good for all of the players to feel like they can contribute to the situation somehow. And part of me (the sadistic DM part) feels that way because low CHA / WIS characters may inadvertently blurt out something inappropriate or damaging to the diplomatic procedure, making success less likely.
Has anyone used Dynasties and Demagogues from Atlas Games? I have a copy but haven't yet had the opportunity to use it in a game. It contains social conflict resolution rules; three versions of it, in fact, varying in degrees of complexity. The most complex system seems to be primarily geared toward debating, with all sorts of tactics that the player can choose from as he attempts to sway people to his side of the argument, but I see how it could be extrapolated to cover all kinds of social conflict. I'm of the opinion that social conflict rules should be there as an optional rule. Just as my character may be stronger than me or more intelligent than me, my character may be more charismatic than me. Now, that could simply mean that even though the things he says aren't any more brilliant than the next guy's statement, due to his attractiveness, the quality of his voice, and his sheer force of personality, people eat it up as if he were dispensing pearls of wisdom. This happens in real life with celebrities and politicians all the time. But say, for the sake of example, that in real life I'm not a very witty person. In such a case, I might love to play the stereotypically witty swashbuckler, because I want to vicariously experience being able to make jokes and influence people and so on. It's a bit of wish-fulfillment, like the guy who gets picked on in real life might like to play the burly fighter or barbarian that regularly performs great feats of strength. Since my character is not me, why should my character be limited by my real world abilities?
I just read about the planned Pathfinder RPG on RPGnet this morning, and I'm ecstatic. I've always loved the quality of Paizo products, and I've been playing 3e and 3.5e more and more often these days. I have no plans to pick up 4e - not only do the planned changes to the system (from what I've heard and read at Wizards' site) turn me off, but I simply don't have the disposable income to invest in yet another edition of the same game. I've been playing D&D since Moldvay Red Box Basic D&D, and I've kept up with every edition of the game since then, so I feel I've already given my "brand loyalty" dues. Thus, I'm very, very happy to hear that you'll be continuing with "3.75e." While I don't think any RPG is really "dead" so long as there are people out there playing it, the Pathfinder RPG and its associated line sounds like it's going to provide a wonderful source of new material to keep the game alive. I'm looking forward to trying out the Alpha release, and I'll most likely purchase the hardcover edition when you come out with it. Thank you for making this decision!
Seems like a good idea to me. They're finishing up with 3.5, so they'll release this compendium that gathers together what, after a lot of experience with the system and a lot of supplements, seems like the best information to put together for running the game. Kind of a going-away present, really. I didn't see it as a "bilk people out of their money while we still can" thing, but rather a "here's what we've learned about running 3.5 with the benefit of hindsight" thing. I'm not planning on making the move to 4th Edition, so this may be my last Wizards purchase for a while, but the price is pretty good, and it seems a useful product.
That makes me feel better, at least for the time being. Paizo's work is so beautiful that I really want to invest in it. I've put so much money into 3rd Edition / 3.5e that I can't even conceive of buying into another new edition. I've been with the Grand Old Game through every edition since Moldvay red-box Basic, but like BPorter said, this is just a hobby, and I've got a wife, a freelance career, and crushing student loan debts to consider. I simply don't have the disposable income I once had. I can't afford get onboard the 4e train, no matter how pretty it may be - this is the stop where I finally get off. I guess that makes me a grognard?
I say we lift off and nuke the entire Realms from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.... Sure, but then you have an angry, radioactive Elminster coming after you. |
