MaxKaladin's page

I think a stereotypical barbarian would be a blast in a magic academy comedy. Kinda like that tourist from "The Color of Magic", from what I recall. ;D

I suddenly want to play a barbarian who is the son or nephew of some chief or other important person. He has grown up (so far) thinking he would be a stereotypical barbarian but now, thanks to an agreement between his people and some neighboring people, has been uprooted from his home village and stuck into some magic academy. Suddenly, he's expected to make friends with his fellow students (who all look like they'd break if you so much as breath hard on them) and learn magic.

MaxKaladin wrote:

There's always Deus Ex Machina involved. It's what makes your opponents in virtually every encounter come conveniently packaged in groups that happen to have an "appropriate" CR for your APL as determined by the designers of the game. I don't really think it's any more or less "Deus Ex Machina" if the GM ends up adjusting what counts as an appropriate encounter for the party based on their capabilities. (That goes both ways, by the way. I don't see anything wrong with the GM scaling down encounters for unoptimized PCs OR scaling up encounters for optimized PCs.)

"What the Hell?"

"Those children beat my minions? Again?"

"Send out another wave of my weakest remaining minions!"

"No, not you, Shadow Demon. You might actually hurt them. You stay here, with me."

Yes, that's pretty much what I was trying to say only you bring the absurdity of it out much better than I did. RPG villains remind me of Dr. Evil sometimes...

Dr. Evil: Scott, I want you to meet daddy's nemesis, Austin Powers

Scott Evil: What? Are you feeding him? Why don't you just kill him?

Dr. Evil: I have an even better idea. I'm going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.

If they say that the GM will just change the game to allow them all to survive and succeed, tell them you don't want to play a game where success is engineered by Deus Ex Machina.

There's always Deus Ex Machina involved. It's what makes your opponents in virtually every encounter come conveniently packaged in groups that happen to have an "appropriate" CR for your APL as determined by the designers of the game. I don't really think it's any more or less "Deus Ex Machina" if the GM ends up adjusting what counts as an appropriate encounter for the party based on their capabilities. (That goes both ways, by the way. I don't see anything wrong with the GM scaling down encounters for unoptimized PCs OR scaling up encounters for optimized PCs.)

I am reminded of this story:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2lmgf?Best-lines-from-playerscharacters#15

Andrew R wrote:

bugleyman wrote:

Handguns are weapons, period. They exist to harm or kill people.

People or animals. and picking the wrong target is misuse. you anti gun folks are smarter than this, i know you are

Go big-game hunting with handguns often, do you?

In the interest of education, I'd like to point out that there are people who go hunting with handguns. It isn't as common as hunting with a rifle or bow, but it is not rare either. Handgun hunters generally use large revolvers and single-shot pistols made specifically for hunting, not semi-automatic handguns (though I know there are exceptions). I have fired two handguns designed for handgun hunting. Both were large pistols that fired a single, high-powered cartridge and then took several seconds to reload. Either would be an absolutely terrible choice of weapon for anyone wanting to go on a shooting rampage.

A couple of quick thoughts about paladins while I wait for the gaming group to arrive:

1. I think a lot of the problem is uncertainty involving interpreting the code for certain situations. The actual character has most likely trained for years in their religion and how to be a paladin. You would expect that most established religions would have a significant body of work about how to behave properly according to their religion, including both actual scripture and copious scholarly works interpreting that scripture. In addition, paladins would probably have further training about their particular code, including further scholarship about interpreting the code for various situations as well as plenty of examples of how various paladins handled different situations as lessons in what to do and what NOT to do. The player and the DM have none of that. That creates an uncertainty the character may not have even if the player and DM do have it.

2. I think it is also problematic that the class really only allows one punishment -- "falling" for everything from the most trivial violation of the code to the most grievous offense. One would think that there might be more minor punishments for more minor breaches of a code (like, say, failing to perform a ritual properly) with falling being reserved for more heinous offenses (like slaughtering innocents).

Consultant.

Or maybe genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.

I disagree with the description of higher levels as being like a superhero game. I liken it to some sort of fantasy version of black ops. Substituting magic for technology, it seems like parties at that level are more like a fantasy SEAL Team trying to slip into a bad guy's lair with a wide array of cutting-edge magical spells and devices and a compact but lethal arsenal of the latest magical weaponry intent on causing as much death and destruction as they can (except the treasure, of course). They often seem to prefer to try to catch the bad guy unaware (literally asleep or in the bath, if at all possible), substituting scry-buff-teleport for spy satellites and stealth choppers to conduct surprise raids. They try to stay hidden as as much as possible and utilize brutally effective tactics to keep the enemy off guard and control the battlefield (aided by their array of magical tricks, of course). They never EVER give the bad guys a fair fight if they can possibly avoid it. (And the bad guys don't tend to survive to become recurring villains like they do with superheros). I am not making a judgement call on anyone's play style here, just observing how games at that level seem to play out to me.

I have a friend who requested a D&D bachelor party. He was part of my old gaming group in college and his wedding was going to represent the first time since graduation that the core members of that group got together in one place. He wanted a D&D game with the old gang. He could get falling down drunk any time. He hadn't been able to play D&D with his old friends in years and he wanted to do it again one more time.

Commoners

Seriously, it is incredibly rare to hunt down minis for commoners. The baker, the farmer, et al. And as Enrious said, even then they're all human.

If I'm going to set up a chase scene, or a fight in a market, I want it to be populated... by commoners, not 50 PC minis. How many wizards can a town hold anyway?

I'm not a big paper mini kind of guy. I really like the 3D. But if it's something like this, that I can't get from reaper or prepainted... definitely sign me up!

This. This seems like a perfect niche for paper minis. They're cheap and can be produced in large numbers. It seems way more realistic than hoping someone will do preprinted plastic commoners and the metal ones out there are relatively expensive compared to paper, especially in the numbers needed for a town scene, not to mention taking a lot of time and effort to paint. I would definitely buy paper commoners. Just make sure we have a large variety so the town square isn't full of dozens of copies of the same three people. :)

The other problem with using PC minis to populate the town square is it means the whole town is populated with healthy, fit, mostly good-looking young adults. The town evidently has no old people, no kids, no fat people, no balding people, very few ugly people (and those that are ugly all tend to be non-human), no pregnant women, no people who are missing a limb (unless you have some pirate minis then you get lots of peg legs or hook hands), few of them are dressed like someone who has an ordinary day job and just about everyone in town is armed to the teeth.

I apologize if this isn't the right spot for this.

I've grown curious about the Vancaskerkins lately. This post is going to contain disparate information about them gathered from multiple APs and a forum post followed by idle thougths and speculation. Some might consider these spoilers for RotRL, CotCT or SD so view appropriately.

I hope Hero Lab adds this sheet as a printing option so I can track characters in the tool and print sheets to insert in the folder.

I know they're supposed to be books, but I got this mental image of an insane little goblin alchemist dancing around and singing demented little songs while he mixes up his concoctions with the songs serving as a mnemonic device to remember his formulas.

What kind of play aids people have found useful for running Souls for Smuggler's Shiv and the other modules in the AP.

By play aids, I mean miniatures, flip-mats and things like that. I have the jungle map pack and two different ship flip-mats (the Paizo one and one made by another company that shows the same ship both floating and sunken).

Thanks.

I'd like to see an AP in Arcadia.

Bar crowd:

Serving wench, bartender, drunkard

I'd like to see a general line of "common folk" of various kinds. Barmaids, craftsmen, farmers, etc. Just a general assortment of people of all ages to populate town scenes with.

Stuff:

Bar table, bar counter, treasure chest, shelf with books, alchemy table, weapons rack, campfire, horse and buggy, horse and cart. I am really tired of using 2D6 for a horse and cart.

I'd also like to see some "dressing" type stuff.

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

That sounds pretty terrible actually. I might lose my house or awesome wizard's tower because I have to work, or see a movie instead of game?
It's a pretend house, but REAL time was spent earning it. To keep people playing through fear of losing their stuff is insidious. I really hope PFO isn't like that.
I play games to have fun, and have agency and be a hero. Not to watch the achievements and stuff I earned get stolen because I wanted to read a book instead of game for a day.

I am in total agreement.

As am I.

So, I found the community use maps and redid my work. Here are the results:

Map of Golarion with latitude the same distance apart as on earth per map scale and with the top of the map at 60 degrees (which puts Magnimar at roughly the same latitude as Seattle.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SMK59pkwTK7DVM2y-ArOzA?feat=directlink

Map of Golarion showing Tropic of Cancer at Mana Fields and Arctic Circle at top of Map.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ubq-RdwYslTTWWj-K8DnIg?feat=directlink

I'll take them down if Paizo wants. They'll probably come down eventually.