The sleepy village of Heldren has rarely seen so much excitement or concern. Hunters from the nearby Border Wood speak of unnaturally cold weather at the height of summer that descended on the forest just days ago. Heavy snow followed, and those who returned spoke of an uneasy presence in the woods, as well as new, dangerous predators. No one knows what this event means, but the town's soothsayer, Old Mother Theodora, claims dark times lie ahead.
As if in proof of that dire prophecy, a female dwarf was recently seen carrying a badly wounded man to the Apothecary. Rumors have begun that he was ravaged in the Wood and barely managed to escape. Now, the townsfolk cast fearful eyes toward the snowy forest, worried what might emerge to threaten their peaceful village.
Anhik:
You have spent the few days since your arrival in Heldren performing odd jobs for the locals in exchange for a few coins. From assisting Elder Natheran Safander with various rites and teachings, to Kale and Menander Garimos at the Silver Stout with their meals. During your days here, you have seen a diminutive gnome with purple hair popping out of a fitted cap, goes by the name of Bugsby and spends his days that the Stoat as well. On the fateful day our tale begins, you are helping the Elder’s wife, Zaarida, a Qadiran of your faith with secret prayers to Sarenrae to warm the cold Wood, when a young acolyte of Erastil runs in and explains to Zaarida that Elder Natharen will not be coming home for dinner. A female Dwarf carried a badly wounded man to the Apothecary and the Elder will be assisting Tessaraea in his recovery.
Avora:
As you prepare for your adventure, you have made your way into town for supplies, and noticed both a tall Qadiran looking man who has not seemed to notice you, and Bugsby, and Gnome known to be friendly with the circle and fellow lover of natures beauty. You planned to leave today while the circle dealt with the cold of the Border Wood, when news of a wounded man carried by a female Dwarf makes it’s way to the circle. You have been asked to go into town and learn more of this wounded man and what brings him to Heldren.
Bugsby:
You have been feeling the wanderlust recently, especially with the growing tales from the forest. This has been made stronger by more comings and goings than usual for the sleepy backwoods town. A tall Qadiran looking fellow has started doing odd jobs around town trying to earn money for the next step in his travels. Avora, a young druid has been slowly gathering a surprising number of supplies, with no word as to why. Lastly a merchant caravan selling the last of it’s wares has been holed up in the Stoat waiting for it’s wagon to be fixed by Tengezil, a fellow Gnome. Well, it would have been lastly if your ears hadn’t just heard about a female dwarf carrying a wounded man to the Apothecary.
Kalt and Sven:
You both have been hired by Eisele Guillet, a wealthy merchant to help protect one of his caravan’s on it’s route. The job has been going well, though the area you have recently been traveling seems a bit colder than usual for this time of year. As luck would have it, one of the wagons hit a rut the wrong way and snapped its axel. Now you both have been holed up in the town of Heldren waiting for a rather eccentric gnome to repair the wagon. While you are drinking at the Silver Stoat, you both over hear some locals talking about a female dwarf carrying a wounded man to the Apothecary.
Lachna:
You have been traveling the warmer climates of Taldor in recent years, spreading the word of Torag. You are not sure why, but you have felt a need to travel away from the more populated areas recently, and have been meandering the Taldan countryside, going from town to town. However, as you head toward the town of Heldren, you see a man staggering forward, blood pouring from gapping wounds. You feel if it were not for Torag’s gifting you with healing magics, the man would surely have perished long before reaching the town, but you have helped him, carrying him into town and to the Apothecary where he is being cared for by both the Mistress of the Apothecary and a local Cleric of Erastil. In the focus of his care, you have been forgotten about, and have free reign to explore the village.
It has been a century since the immortal witch Baba Yaga last visited the world, and the hour draws nigh for her return. But when she fails to appear in the frozen realm of Irrisen to usher in its newest ruler, pockets of winter begin to grow throughout the Inner Sea region. After 1,400 years of perpetual winter, the icy curse of Irrisen is spreading! What links do these strange blizzards and swaths of wintry landscapes have with Irrisen, and is there any truth to the growing rumors that the Witch Queen Elvanna has taken full control of the realm? Can her plans for the Inner Sea be thwarted, or will the Reign of Winter engulf the world?
The Reign of Winter Adventure Path begins with an exciting new adventure from RPG Superstar winner Neil Spicer! Every 100 years, the Witch Queen Baba Yaga returns to the nation of Irrisen to place a new daughter on the throne, but this time, something has gone wrong. Far to the south, winter cloaks the forest near the village of Heldren with summer snows. The heroes venture into the wood and discover a magical portal to the frozen land of Irrisen, whose supernatural winter will soon engulf all of Golarion unless they can discover the fate of the otherworldly witch Baba Yaga—a quest that will take them through snowbound Irrisen to even stranger lands beyond.
And so we begin!
Character Creation:
- All core sources are allowed. By core I mean a hard back book printed by Paizo. If you want to use something from one of the Chronicles, Companions, etc. you are welcome to do so, but be prepared to fit it into your character through your background, and sell me on it. The exception to this is Ultimate Campaign. Nothing from that sourcebook will be allowed. It's just too new and there is some incoming errata to be sure.
- Standard races are preferred, but others will be considered. I'm not overly fond of the strange races, so you won't be helping yourself by picking one, but I'll give it consideration.
- Core classes preferred. See "How Not to Get Picked" at the bottom for further explanation of this one.
- 20 point buy for stats. This is Reign of Winter! Only the strongest and smartest can survive in the North! Now, having said that, I would highly advise against min/maxing your stats. Not only could it hurt you, but the GM will see through your shenanigans and will likely not consider you.
- Starting gold of 150gp for all characters. Sorry, PFS is just in my head way too much. This number works well for me.
- Good Alignment preferred. I'm not hung up on Lawful vs. Chaotic. If you want to play Chaotic Neutral you will have to convince me why you shouldn't be spending time in a padded cell instead of adventuring.
- Max HP at level one. After that we will roll or you can take the PFS standard HP for the class. You decide before any rolling is done.
- Nothing will be allowed from any publisher other than Paizo.
- Two traits. Preferably one Reign of Winter Campaign trait and one other, but you can take two normal ones IF your backstory would lead you to Taldor and get you motivated to deal with witches.
PCs will not steal from or harm other PCs: I take this one seriously folks. I'm fine with you being a rogue, but you are a part of a group that needs to trust each other with their lives. There will be no excuse for this and it will result in removal from the campaign immediately.
RP Awards: I give these out randomly, and usually around the time that a level is coming or is due. This could be anything from extra gold, an NPC contact, a piece of equipment, or so on. You would do well to remember this and always be striving to better role-play your character.
EXP: The group will level up at the same time based on when I feel it is appropriate within the campaign. I will not be handing out EXP.
Applicants are expected to agree and adhere to the following:
- You must be a daily poster. Preference will be made for those who show higher activity on the boards and a history of PbP activity. I fully expect to complete the scenario as quickly as the players set the pace for. I am online for 8 straight hours during the day (8am-4pm EST) and can move things along rather quickly during that time. On the weekends there may be less activity, but I will likely make at least 1-2 posts, sometimes more.
- If a player fails to post within a reasonable amount of time without notifying the group that they will be unavailable they will be moved to inactive status, removed from the active game, and replaced with another applicant. I am taking this one seriously folks. I fully intend for this PbP to make it through all of the books, and I won't let an inactive player ruin it for everyone else. So understand what you are committing to before you apply.
- You must be willing to ROLE play, not just ROLL play. The GM feeds off of the players, so a good group of role-players helps the game take on a life of its own. You don't have to fill every post with three paragraphs describing how you took your morning coffee, but you should be able to write well and play your character well. If I find all you do is post "I follow Bob, my sword ready" and post a lot of "yug yug, I'm a barbarian" type stuff, you will be summarily removed from the campaign, tied to a hippogriff, and flown over a field of elven archers for target practice.
Your Application should include the following:
- A complete character stat block, hidden in the main post using the spoiler tag or posted as an in-character alias account. If you do not know how to use this tag click on the button below "Submit Post" of your reply that says How to format your text. For a PbP game you should be familiar with all of these tags anyway.
- A character background. This will allow me to RP with your character a little better, understand their motives, and even tailor hints or dialogue to them specifically. I will look upon those characters with a detailed background more favorably than those with two lines of "I was born, my parents were killed, I was an orphan, I want to kill things for revenge". Be creative!
- A brief note of your posting habits or schedule. If you are more available or likely to post on specific days or at specific times, let me know. I'm looking for dedicated PbP'ers who will see this one through to the end.
How to get picked:
1. Write a good background
2. Don't be a power gamer
3. Do something original
4. Make your character memorable
5. Include everything asked for in the application
How not to get picked:
1. Submit a half-ogre barbarian
2. Submit anything having to do with firearms or bombs
3. Submit anything having to do with feudal Japan
4. Be a sloppy poster
5. Disrespect a fellow poster
That's it! I look forward to seeing what the responses are and to finding that special group of folks who will make their mark on Irrisen forever!
About Me:
I've been gaming for over 20 years, having started as a much younger man with the original AD&D Basic set. Since those times I've played and GM'ed in more games and campaigns than I could ever count. I've ran 2nd Ed AD&D, 3.5 and 4e, Pathfinder, Gamma World, Star Trek, Hero System, and many more. This IS my first time GMing on this site, but I am confident in my abilities. I also lovingly borrowed a large portion of this from GM Captain Trips, no need to reinvent the wheel right!
I recently played my first game of PFS, and I have a question/concern about the game style. I like to have a character with personality, and to RP with the NPC's and my fellow characters. Is PFS the right place for this?
The game I played in, the first 15 minutes was everyone trying to complete their faction side quests, and it consisted of:
GM: Where do you have to go?
PC: XXXXX location
GM: OK, you get there, and ask for your contact, roll a Blah Blah check.
PC: *rolls* and tells GM
GM: Advise on pass/fail of check and results.
No chatting up the NPC, no discussion of options, no RP to try and find alternate solutions.
The rest of the game was a dungeon crawl, with no conversations IC and just the DM explaining that in room A3 you find 3 goblins, roll init... Very little fluff, no real mood, and 3/4 of the time, the goblins just did random silliness and ignored the PC's while we killed them. I understand there is only so many ways you can flavor up a great axe one shotting a gobbo, but it was just hit/miss, X damage, live/dead. The game ended after the final fight with a: "You get the treasure, return to base, give your reports, and head to bed. Game over"
Over-all, a fairly unsatisfying game. Is PFS usually like this?
Now, if my GM and/or other players read this; this is not a knock on you or your play style. I had fun shooting the breeze and chatting with you out of character, and it could have just been the scenario, hence my question.
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Jim Butler wrote:
FrontLineFodder wrote:
Thanks for the clarification, Jim — I had forgotten that the new store is currently applying a 15% discount for everyone during the launch period.
Just to confirm my understanding: once this transition period ends, even if we have Legendary tier in Paizo Plus, unless we maintain 4 or more active subscriptions, our subscription and add-to-next items will ship with no discount, since (as you’ve said) “Paizo Plus won’t apply to subscriptions.”
That is correct.
Thank you for making that clear.
Jim Butler wrote:
Quote:
This is where the new store is becoming more challenging for international customers here. With the higher shipping costs, add-to-next is essential for bundling orders in a way that makes shipping reasonable.
Because store sales and Paizo Plus discounts don’t apply to add-to-next items, taking advantage of sales requires placing separate orders, which means paying shipping again and often removes most or all of the benefit of the sale.
I wanted to share how this combination of rules affects customers who rely on add-to-next to manage shipping costs.
Shipping is becoming a bigger issue every day, and I think the only solution we have is partnering with other companies to distribute our products from AU/EU locations. That's on my radar, but the first priorities have been "stand up a new ecommerce store and work out all the new backend processes." We're in that phase now and likely will be for some time. But I definitely hear you on this issue; I just need some stuff to get checked off my list before we can start working on international solutions. Thanks for your patience.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Jim Butler wrote:
Right now, everyone is receiving a 15% off discount for subscriptions. We did this to match the 15% off for Legendary as we worked through the site launch. Going forward, the only way to get 15% off subscription products will be to have 4+ subscriptions. Paizo Plus won't apply to subscriptions, other than the gold it generates.
-Jim
Thanks for the clarification, Jim — I had forgotten that the new store is currently applying a 15% discount for everyone during the launch period.
Just to confirm my understanding: once this transition period ends, even if we have Legendary tier in Paizo Plus, unless we maintain 4 or more active subscriptions, our subscription and add-to-next items will ship with no discount, since (as you’ve said) “Paizo Plus won’t apply to subscriptions.”
This is where the new store is becoming more challenging for international customers here. With the higher shipping costs, add-to-next is essential for bundling orders in a way that makes shipping reasonable.
Because store sales and Paizo Plus discounts don’t apply to add-to-next items, taking advantage of sales requires placing separate orders, which means paying shipping again and often removes most or all of the benefit of the sale.
I wanted to share how this combination of rules affects customers who rely on add-to-next to manage shipping costs.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Thanks Jim,
To me, this looks more targeted at those who don't have the Legendary tier already.
When you say "Paizo Plus discounts and Store sale prices don’t apply to subscriptions or add-to-next products."
We know Sale prices do not apply to add-to-next products (disappointed having to do seperate international shipments for the BF sales), however I infer you mean Paizo Plus discounts do not stack on top of the new Subscriber Advantage discount (which is expected).
From what I can tell currently Paizo plus discounts do apply to subscription and add-to-next products. (unless this is changing from Subscriber Day onwards)
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
I subscribe in order to amortize the shipping cost over multiple physical items.
The next shipment is apparently a single flip mat.
This will cost me USD$45 in shipping for a single USD$19.99 Flip Mat.
I couldn't even pick up physical items from the recent sales to ship with the next sub order, as they were all going to be charged at full price.
No, I need to skip this next sub delivery and look at how things ship next year.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
So I picked up the new bundle, I have most of the items already but that doesn't matter.
however I am unable to ship the Elemental Stones with my next subscription order. adding the item to ship with my next sub adds it at full cost.
I do not think I want to pay $45USD to ship the one physical item to me by itself. I am already going to have to skip the next sub order because shipping a single flip mat for USD $45 is insane.
I am not even able to remove the Elemental stones item from the order.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Jim Butler wrote:
As much as I'd love to turn on the ability for people to write reviews for whatever products they'd like, the current system has been damaged by bots, international spammers, and those who hate particular product lines or editions. Paizo just doesn't have the resources to police a vast catalog constantly under assault by bad actors.
We know you're not the bad actors, but to start we need to leave the baseline as "only verified purchasers." In the future, feature gods willing, perhaps we can change that to unlock as you move up reward tiers. One more item for new feature requests...
-Jim
I understand this new subscription / storefront suite Paizo is adopting is no doubt in part due to wanting to get away from maintaining the custom build system deployed previously., however..
Perhaps once Organised Play is upgraded (I'm making the assumption it would be) then the review system could be expanded to allow confirmed players (or GM's) to submit reviews on scenarios or adventures they have a chronicle for ?
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Ectar wrote:
It sounds to me like you DO get it.
Secret Lairs are definitely predatory. Artificial scarcity and a horrendous purchasing policy.
Holiday sales ARE employing the same techniques. Watch a TV commercial for one and count how many times they remind you that it's a limited time offer. They want to create that feeling that you'll be missing out if you don't buy now.
This reward program isn't as bad as those in its manipulation. It's more boring and ordinary.
But reread the description for Legendary Loot and tell me that's not designed to induce fomo.
You may have missed Jim's clarification on the Legendary Loot concept;
Jim Butler wrote:
We don't have any plans to gate new content behind legendary loot, but it's possible you might see ultra-deluxe editions available there. You'll be able to get the current editions normally, though.
-Jim
I have absolutely no concerns about this aspect of Paizo's business plan.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Cori Marie wrote:
How about a Mythic Tier for those of us that have spent over $1500 in the last year *whistles and side-eyes*
Or a lifetime status for those that have spent over a certain amount lifetime like airlines do for their million mile flyers?
Ohh Cori, I love what you are thinking with the Mythic tier, but my wallet does not.
Lifetime status, would be nice, Anniversary gold for each year in your Tier. (anniversary date may change when you level up (or Abadar forbid, if you level down)
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
I will throw my 2 Aussie cents in
first off, the "Follow us on Social Media" reward and arguments for or against any specific platform, just cap it at 3 platforms. We don't have to catch them all, and nobody spends meaningful time on 6 platforms anyway.
If a new "Must Have" social platform comes along, offer a bonus gold reward then to get the follower numbers up.
I like the idea of offering Legendary Loot exclusives personally, and if I dropped out of Legendary tier it would not be the end of the world. This is assuming it is inconsequential items like hero point coins or pins, and not exclusive story lore that only the legends can know.
Society Scenarios, I can not work out the math right now, but the $10 off a society scenario at a list of $9 each, and discounted to ~$7.65 makes odd numbers which hurts my brain.
Will society subscriptions still be available at the 20% discount ?
It feels like to me it would be better :value" to hold off on purchasing society scenarios into larger groups to get the most out of the gold, which could delay playing society games for some GM's.
(I am sorry to be looking at the $ and c but most people will, sorry) (no I am not Canadian)
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Mark Moreland wrote:
Treasure Vault is not in the bundle. It was in an earlier draft of the product list, and it looks like I didn't catch it here when I was putting the blog together. Sorry for the confusion.
Thank you for clarifying,
Didn’t stop me from doing the bundle, it’s still an awesome deal, even if I had a bunch of the items already.
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Maya Coleman wrote:
Not for being a subscriber, but I have good news! Anyone who preorders any edition of Treasure Vault (Remastered), standard hardcover, special edition, and sketch cover, by June 3rd will get a free PDF with their pre-order!
This is great, Thank you.
though it will sit in my sidecart until after PaizoCon. I don't really need to use TV items for those characters.
IMO This would have been better than the discounts for the Earth Day promotion.
