Bleff checks! Er.
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I modded her to Holy Gun, but I'm weird. Also, we have yet to see how that goes. : /
...And an angry mob in Ustalav is hardly a surprise. Very likely, silversheen is in tall supply here.
Whoo! Go Medesha! I will personally campaign for a run of this at Cafe Mox. ; D
Hrm...has anyone mentioned Five Twelfths of Heaven? By Melissa Scott.
If you're not running anything PFS-official or the like, then your solution is a simple one - fudge. Bittersweet dark fudge. ;)
Actually...and this is a little very mean...you could goad the PCs into killing Caromarc. (Most parties seem to lean towards shoot-first-ask-questions-later, anyhow.) Leave the dead wife to bestow that information which Caromac should have, and convey in the process that he wasn't actually such a bad guy, merely much-abused. If you're playing up Daramid as less than likeable (a la Freund), then your PCs have just done a favor for rather a villain, by slaughtering a tortured noble.
@Dude Meister - I like the way you think...may borrow a deal of that, meself.
Excellent - thanks!
Another question, but I'll just throw it in here. Can folks join partway through a scenario? It would seem odd, especially at a con or somesuch, to just disallow any latecomers once you're started.
See, my players won't go for the random bully BBEG. Bullies are boring. The real hook has to be the threat to their livelihood, the freedom of life in the Shackles. My Harrigan sees himself as...a man who has had to make hard decisions. The fact that my players disagree with those decisions is what sets them against him, not the fact that he beats people up. I mean, why would Grok stick around some arbitrary sadistic maniac when there are other ships, other captains? Aside from all that, I like developing a certain sympathy for the guy, especially as opposed to Scourge and Plugg - whom he's employed because he's hard-pressed more than because he likes them - and then pit them against him. Still, different strokes, an' all that.
Thanks for the quick reply! I totally understand the first answer, the reasoning behind it, etc. As for the second, I suppose it's a bit homebrew but I tend to think of Absalom as inspired by Ankh-Morpork. The Patchwork City, and all that, you know? I wouldn't think anyone would be surprised at a kobold wandering the streets, or a goblin, or an orc - despite the more extreme prejudices in some less cosmopolitan areas of the globe. Still, for Organized Play, the ruling makes sense, or sense enough to be getting on with at least.
If three of my players wish to play registered PFS characters, who receive Chronicles and all that, and one character wishes to play a kobold who tags along with the group and couldn't give a cranium rat's arse about official Chronicle submission...is that kosher? Is there some legal requirement for any given scenario to be entirely official?
I'm actually playing him up as Neutral to my party (while leaving him NE-ish)...I wanted them to really dislike Scourge and Plugg, and their thugs, and adding Harrigan - whom the PCs hardly see in the first book, despite being stuck on a boat with him - was just too far to try to spread the hate, and for no profit. Meanwhile, if Harrigan isn't such a bad guy in the day-to-day but he's made this really terrible deal with Cheliax, there's a nice complex piece of motive for them.
Actually James, your logic - or perhaps more aptly, your notion of my logic - is flawed. It's like different programming codes - I'm not following a RAW-based logic system. I don't equate "bound" with "paralyzed" or "unconscious." One size does not fit all. I follow concept-based logic systems - a supernatural shadowcrafter, known for weaving darkness and dancing within it, can absolutely coax a bit of shade from the corner. It doesn't actually break any RAW that I've seen, and you'd have to go out of your way either to discount it or to break it. The concept is sound, and awesome, and very much situational.
Hey, Weary Willie's a classic! :P
I still say he doesn't move, and the ability doesn't let him escape - it has little other than roleplay value, as what guard in this world would be totally unfamiliar with magic? Maybe it's worth an intimidate check, or a circumstance bonus to escape artist if nobody's looking just that moment. Really, though, any half-intelligent guard is probably going to lash out right where the Shadowdancer [still] is, possibly with a boot, and say "Stop that!" Either way, it's still a great scene.
Blackstar! Wait, not quite so Good there... Probably need to think this over more... Singular. ;) Also, Binar? Lunar would be an enjoyable concept...though possibly better suited to a separate guide on Lycans in general?
The Shadowdancer's is indeed a supernatural ability. I wouldn't allow it for a straight Ranger.
Likewise, the game doesn't say you can only wear one mundane disguise at a time, but that's a reasonable assumption. "My rogue is getting the benefits from the hobo disguise and the clown costume, right? No? How sad."
Except that - and I realize this will never please a rawyer, but here it is - wrapping the darkness about you, being so intimate with it as to coax the shadowstuffs into the light, is a wonderful image. Rich, cinematic, fun to describe, fun to imagine. 'Drawing power from shadow' is flat. It's bland bloody boring. Come to that, turning straight greenscreened 'invisible' is awful boring, too, especially for a shadowdancer. NobodysHome set the scene beautifully - many of the nice folks here have supported that by, frankly, plenty of RAW for me. Anyone else - sorely lacking in imagination. :P
Well, you could be incredibly (dwarfishly) straightforward, and call them The Mines. Or you could add a randomly appropriate-sounding surname - Stonefist, Stonehammer, Ironblood, Ironveins, Hardarse, Hardhammer, Stronginthearm (yep, that one's stolen from Pratchett). Or you could name them the Mines of _____ (wherever you happen to be...Moria, for example). Mercenaries might be partial to a clan name - Goldfist Clan Quarry - or an intimidating one - Granite Grave Co. That last might be true enough, also, as the lime could be used to make a strong base...as in, mafia-strong...in which to dissolve bodies. 'Granite & Lime Gravestone Company' could have a lot of possible plays.
Aren't Golarion gnomes also migrated from the First World (Faerie)? That's an interesting combination...
See, the digital stuff is nice, but I really go for this traditional watercolorist. She'd be fantastic for some First World illustrations! Love the Iron John cover she did...I used him for a character portrait once, an old dwarf druid.
I'm gonna go with Sun Wukong. Emphasis on "flip." I'm gonna throw two out there to match the split trend, one silly one serious. Silly : She Blinded Me With Science - Thomas Dolby Serious : Labyrinth, from Dot Hack.
Just tossing another question in here, rather than crafting a new thread : The open call is requesting Tiers 1-7. Does this mean : A) Tiers 1-5 and/or 3-7... ...or B) One scenario appropriate for levels 1-7? The latter would be more difficult, if perhaps not impossible. Interesting, certainly.
Might I simply add that I enjoy the image of a Dhampir drinking potions of inflict? If he's passing for human, it's even better. End of battle, party's healing, and the Dhampir takes a swig of his potion. Fighter comes over, 'Hey, can I get a sip of that?' Dhampir looks a bit awkward...'Ahm, no.' Then he moves out of range of the cleric's channel. Hah...the scene almost writes itself.
I'll apologize in advance, as I'm sure this is covered elsewhere - I simply can't find elsewhere. There are only nine retired scenarios, correct? The others are all current, official and viable? If so, then "seasons" don't mean any more than a handy listing in order of release date, yes?
Ah.
...Did anyone else just get the Flash Gordon theme song stuck in their head? Just me?
I picture Druidic as Ogham, you know, the old Irish tree alphabet? So it must be written somewhere, yes? Loremasters - being linguistic specialists and also interested in old/forgotten/lost relics, ruins, etc etc - could easily have stumbled onto an elaborately carved staff, or tree, or shield, anything that has enough of the language to decipher. No druids required. That being said, would knowing druidic get you Bluff/Disguise bonuses to pretending you're a druid?
I was going to put this in Rules, and then I thought maybe Homebrew...it's not really Advice. Ultimately, I figure if someone wishes to move it they will. So what do you folks think? Would you allow a Scrollmaster Wizard to multiclass Bladebound Magus, with her scroll blade doubling as a black blade? I know the scrolls change, but supposing that the magic animating them is the same? I don't see any particular reason why not, although I haven't looked very closely. Thoughts?
Still wouldn't wanna get clocked by one.
Slight tangent, but I've never been satisfied with the all-or-nothing nature of RPG linguistics. I allow my PCs to break any "known" language into two "conversational" ones or three "broken" ones. Granted that this runs the risk of turning into a tedious mini-game, and nobody wants to roleplay a language barrier for long - fortunately, we haven't had that problem yet. Er, back on track, Int was originally intended to be roughly representative of IQ/10. So you're talking 300 IQ - if you put any stock in IQ, anyrate - pretty much William James Sidis. As the Wiki will tell you, Sidis was rumored to speak forty languages or more. I'd imagine that after the first dozen, it's not so hard to pick up anything in the general vicinity - you know, Latin, Germanic, Cyrillic, Slavic, what have you. Same might hold true for fantasy tongues.
I never keep the pits around long enough to watch 'em rot, but they're almost perfectly spherical and very dense. Know I wouldn't wanna be clocked by one.
I've always thought that Avocado pits would make for great sling ammunition...
So...how did your character become a Pathfinder? Did they approach you or did you approach them? Field commission, perhaps? (Also, are there any scenarios intended to allow for this? For the transition, I mean - a first-level scenario for non-Pathfinders to become Pathfinders.)
Yes, I figure you folks are busy right about now. Nothing to fear from me - my playtesting will have to be pbp, so we're talking weeks-to-months.
Not for nothing, but those things are gonna fall right out if she has to tumble...or swing that sword around...or run...or walk fast...
A note of caution : Magic the Gathering becomes rather a vicious game when counters are edible. Also, bring extra counters.
RAW? Don't know - but I've seen a lot of folks apply the variant only to PCs, and leave everyone else with HP. It preserves the cinematic feel for your players (and toughens them up a bit, early on) without complicating your work for the rest of the world. Haven't tried it yet, meself, but it's a thought.
Hey, maybe the Decemvirate is really into social experimentation. Bene Gesserit much?
I generally presumed that they took volunteers or, you know, interested parties. Didn't you sign up? :/
So, actually running an AP raises so many more questions than playing a character. A few things I've attempted to sort out : What language ought to be spoken in Ustalav? Because Skald doesn't make any sense, no matter what the guide says. I was thinking Romanian, only I've used that for Varisian (on account of them being largely inspired by Roma, and also the migration from an Italian-style Chelish, I don't know, it seemed to fit). I thought about Hungarian, though I'm using that for Brevoyan - it seemed odd to repeat the Irrisen esthetic in Brevoy when there's this lovely Hungarian style just sitting around collecting dust. Then, given Lepidstadt and whatever else, I was thinking maybe this is the German I was looking for. Only it's a little unfair to dump the country of spooks and horrors on Germany...or anywhere, come to that. So my fix is this - "Stalav" is an odd, cobbled collection of Brevoyan (Hungarian), Varisian (Romanian), and northern Andoran (German). Gives me lots of word choices for just that perfect esthetic, and also keep those grammar-nazi players at bay. (I actually have a player who's fluent in Romanian - who knew?) Meanwhile, now I've got Varisian, which I was thinking of before as the south of France (used a picture of Eze for Sandpoint, it's a perfect fit), and now I've gone and made it all Romanian. My solution, I think, is to have some odd city-evolution Varisian (French), as opposed to the 'wild' Varisian (Romanian), except I don't have an excuse for it yet. Working on that. I've adopted Brambleman's notion of Draconic as Latin, only I've kept Latin for Infernal as well - the difference being that demons have added to the old language, overcomplicated it, thrown all manner of conjugations and circumstances in, so that it's a massively complex knot of gobbledegook and legal jargon, very difficult to sort out by anyone who isn't either demonic, trained to it, or extremely patient and perceptive. I like Bomanz' use of Celestial, as well - a chorus, probably of simply sung notes, not even words, very tonal. Normal humans would never be able to get it quite right without some assitance - perhaps magical, or else just several voices chipping in to 'speak' simultaneously - though one could generally do well enough to be understood. On the same note, Abyssal could be a multitonal screeching/baying of dogs...it might not even quite matter which you go with, dialects varying massively, if only the tone and intention are important. More descriptive than translative. This would lead to all sorts of arguments and misunderstandings, but, you know...devils. I was going to say that Sylvan is Irish Gaelic, perhaps with a shot of Scotch, but I got to thinking about Aklo and Old Gnome. Old Gnome (I don't think there is a New Gnome, they just call their own language Old Gnome.) should be Irish, and Irish Gaelic, and Scotch Gaelic, and probably some Cornish, a bit of Yorkshire, and odd bits of French as well. It's a large language, breaking all its own rules, but fairly simple and adaptable, like English is in our world. Easy to learn, if perhaps difficult to master. Aklo, however, hrm...Aklo is totally dependent on story, setting and situation - sometimes it's the howling of winter wind through an ancient wood, sometimes it's the keening of a kestrel, or the long, sad note of an instrument. It takes experience to even recognize it as a language. That's fey for you. So then Sylvan should be similar, but not so bleak - don't have any examples off the top off my head, though. Whew - didn't realize I had that much saved up. Alright, then - thoughts?
You know, I don't really see the problem. I mean, the trope is certainly valid, and there are plenty of divination-type spells/senses to get around the mechanical issues. Detect spells would be tons of fun to RP. Of course you're right, it isn't comprehend languages, but then couldn't read magic be synesthetic? The only issue is the fact that remove blindness exists, but if, for example, the character has had their eyes put out...well, regenerate's a long ways off. I'm not saying this should be a common occurrence, but I still enjoy the notion.
You can see where this is going. I suppose the most integral question is, Does Braille exist? So yes, I know that Clouded Vision =/= Blind. The question is, how might you handle a character who wanted to play it as Blind, and then transcribe scrolls by touch? Could comprehend languages be considered synesthetic? Are there precedents for this? Drow Sign, for example, is a language - yet comprehend languages doesn't translate it, for fairly obvious reasons. Still, I'd be tempted to allow Braille...I can't see any major rules issue, other than that nobody else in the world would know it - but then, if comprehend works for the Oracle to read other scrolls, then other casters could use it to read the Braille, yes? What would you name a Golarion-themed braille?
Very sensible - thanks, Jeff! Though...in retrospect, it was probably a bit of a moot question. I'll probably end up trying to playtest anything I would wish to pitch, to make certain it's as enjoyable as it sounds, you know? So it might suit me better to write a pitch after I've got a draft and edit as necessary. Still - thanks!
Somewhat necromantic of me, but I'm seeing references to two different submission goals - the '12k adventure' and the '750 pitch'. Realizing that most of the threads in this forum are a few years old, should I assume that the 12k submission is a thing of the past? Or am I just failing my Perception check?
What are your thoughts on unicorns? In general, or more specifically concerning Golarion. On a related note, are you interested in the upcoming Last Unicorn re-release?
I like create water. Hrm, how loud can ghost sound get? Then again, who ever preps ghost sound? I'd only try an arrow if you stock blunts and the ally is armored. Say, couldn't you cast alarm with an immediate trigger? |