Morbus Iff's page

We didn't know the keys had run out! Unfortunately, we don't get any kind of automatic notification when the keys from one tier run out, so there is a delay between us hearing about it from the Humble Bundle team and then us actually making the keys and then sending the keys to Humble Bundle and then those keys getting put into their system! We're sorry, but we hope you understand it's not intentional. This is our most popular Humble Bundle to date, and we simply weren't prepared for the speed at which all our fans would be diving into it! We're doing out best, and we appreciate your understanding in this!

The $15 tier is out again. I bought the $30 tier yesterday, $15 was out then, got an email this morning saying the keys were back in, and by the time I saw it and clicked, the $15s were gone again :D

If you can't figure out how to profitably get Pathfinder Tales novels in my hand again, the continued and long-lasting return of web fiction would be most satisfying ;)

I have seen this as well, though I don't have the Iron Gods APs to reproduce. In my case, it happened against a friend's copy of the Second Darkness Player Companion within Apple's Books app. The background watermark on the callout boxes (he says page 12 is the first one) were entirely blacked instead of the expected washed-out-ness. The same thing happened using Readdle's PDF Expert. The only viewer it worked in was Adobe's official Reader.

I'll see if he can forward me a screenshot.

(Thanks Sam Phelan! I'm sorted!)

G'day! I sent in an email on Friday, and have yet to receive any response.
Comparatively, I've seen responses in this forum happen within a day.
How much longer should I wait before I send a polite reminder?
(Or, coyly: this is said polite reminder.)

@skizzers: new OP ID for revised Seoni (Sorcerer+UM) deck will be: #49316-1002.

Deck handler will be coming soon.

During Radovan/grimsnik turn 25, under the Blessing of Erastil:
Turn order: Korundo/morph147, Damiel/Matsu Kurisu, Amli/Akaitora, Seoni/Morbus Iff, Radovan/grimsnik.

Play Blessing of the Gods (1) and treat it like the top card of the blessings discard pile (Blessing of Erastil).
Sea Drake, Dexterity 6: 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) + (6) = 12: Success.

Suffer 1 Electricity damage. Discard Jinx Eater.

Recharge Blessing of the Gods (per Blessing of Erastil).

Hand: Arcane Armor, Confusion, Rage (A1), Turtle,

Displayed:
Deck: 5 Discard: 7 Buried: 0
Notes: Rage is available: Display this card and choose a character at your location. While displayed, that character may bury 1 card from her hand to add 1d10 to her Strength, Melee, or Constitution check. At the end of your turn, if you do not have the Arcane skill, banish this card; otherwise, attempt an Arcane 8 check. If you succeed, recharge this card; if you fail, banish it.
Sideboard:

Skills, Powers, and Perks:

Strength d4 ☐+1 ☐+2
Dexterity d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
Constitution d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
Intelligence d8 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3
• Knowledge: Intelligence +2
Wisdom d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
Charisma d12 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3 ☐+4
• Arcane: Charisma +2
• Diplomacy: Charisma +1

Traits: Female, Human, Sorcerer

Powers:
Hand Size 6 ☐7
¶ For your combat check, you may discard a card to use your Arcane skill + 1d6 (☐+1) (☐+2) and add the Attack, Force, and Magic traits. This counts as playing a spell.
¶ Add 2 (☐4) to your check to acquire a boon that has the Magic trait.

Perks:
¶ [USED IN 5-1A] (Accessory:) Once per scenario, after you roll the dice, you can reroll 1 die; you must take the new result.
¶ (Character Mat:) Once per scenario, at the start of your turn, you can discard a card to draw a card.

Cards List:

Favored Card Type: Spell
Weapon: — ☐1
Spell: 3 ☐4 ☐5 ☐6
Armor: —
Item: 3 ☐4 ☐5 ☐6
Ally: 4 ☐5
Blessing: 5 ☐6 ☐7

Turn 19 Seoni/Morbus Iff, under Blessing of Erastil.
Turn order: Koundo/morph147, Damiel/Matsu Kurisu, Amli/Akaitora, Seoni/Morbus Iff, Radovan/grimsnik

At this location, at start of turn, examine the top card (card 1): Pirate Hunting (Barrier).

First exploration:

Pirate Hunting:

Random ship: 1d11 ⇒ 1

Feathered Devil:

Check to Defeat Feathered Devil Diplomacy 5: 1d12 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12: Success.

Featured Devil is banished. Pirate Hunting is defeated and banished.

Discarding Sage to explore again. Very low on cards, but we need to explore more. And hoping another Cure will come up soon from Korundo or Amli.

Rocky Cliff card 2:

Enemy Ship:

Random ship: 1d10 ⇒ 6

Sea Chanty:

Recharging Damiel's Blessing of the Quartermaster.
Check to Defeat Sea Chanty Diplomacy 8: 1d12 + 1 + 1d12 ⇒ (6) + 1 + (6) = 13: Success.

The Enemy Ship is defeated. Close the location by banishing the boon Caltrops.

Skeletal Crew:

Character power to discard a card for your combat check: discarding Codex.
Skeletal Crew Combat 10: 1d12 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + 2 + (4) = 8: Failed. I have to use my reroll or I'm dead.
Accessory reroll: 1d12 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9: Failed. Damage has to be a 1, or I'm dead.
Damage: 1d4 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0: O. M. G.

Ok! End of turn effects:
* Move to a new location: 1d2 ⇒ 1: Everyone moves to the Coastline.
* Seoni resets her hand. She only has one card in her deck.

* Damiel to recharge Blessing of the Quartermaster.
* Damiel has to encounter the Skeletal Crew.
* Everyone else has to succeed at a Combat 8 + 2 or is dealt 1d4-1 Combat damage.

Hand: Arcane Armor, Confusion, Rage (A1), Blessing of the Gods (4), Bracers of Protection, Turtle,

Displayed:
Deck: 1 Discard: 9 Buried: 0
Notes: Rage is available: Display this card and choose a character at your location. While displayed, that character may bury 1 card from her hand to add 1d10 to her Strength, Melee, or Constitution check. At the end of your turn, if you do not have the Arcane skill, banish this card; otherwise, attempt an Arcane 8 check. If you succeed, recharge this card; if you fail, banish it.
Sideboard:

Skills, Powers, and Perks:

Strength d4 ☐+1 ☐+2
Dexterity d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
Constitution d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
Intelligence d8 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3
• Knowledge: Intelligence +2
Wisdom d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
Charisma d12 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3 ☐+4
• Arcane: Charisma +2
• Diplomacy: Charisma +1

Traits: Female, Human, Sorcerer

Powers:
Hand Size 6 ☐7
¶ For your combat check, you may discard a card to use your Arcane skill + 1d6 (☐+1) (☐+2) and add the Attack, Force, and Magic traits. This counts as playing a spell.
¶ Add 2 (☐4) to your check to acquire a boon that has the Magic trait.

Perks:
¶ [USED IN 5-1A] (Accessory:) Once per scenario, after you roll the dice, you can reroll 1 die; you must take the new result.
¶ (Character Mat:) Once per scenario, at the start of your turn, you can discard a card to draw a card.

Cards List:

Favored Card Type: Spell
Weapon: — ☐1
Spell: 3 ☐4 ☐5 ☐6
Armor: —
Item: 3 ☐4 ☐5 ☐6
Ally: 4 ☐5
Blessing: 5 ☐6 ☐7

Nevermind!

(There are only four Basic blessings in the Sorcerer Class Deck and, per The Hierarchy, that then moves me to "Use cards that have the set indicator B without the Basic trait", which allows the Blessing of Pharasma.)

Is Blessing of Pharasma missing the Basic trait?

It's included in the pregen Seoni here (based off the old 2.x PFS PACG Guide):

https://www.esglabs.com/pacg/pregens/?deck=sorcerer&tier=tier1

but my copy doesn't have the Basic trait.

BR skizzerz: I work from home and rarely take vacations (and, if I did, I'd have someone proxy for me), so I intend to play with the real cards Nearby at all time. I will still likely setup and (attempt to) use the deck handler, but I'm not sure I'd be perfectly studious in keeping it up to date.

Is a properly-maintained deck handler required for your table?

Well, I "like" Seoni better cos I tend to always like magic better.
But, I've not played either, so I have no logical gameplay rationale.
(Next step for me will be to play each in a few S&S scenarios.)

EDIT: Methinks I'm just going to play Seoni. Amiri's stats aren't that amazeballs when it comes to your suggestions (they are, "merely", better than the other characters I have), so I think I'll lean toward playing a "doesn't match your suggestions, but I know I like magic pew pew" instead of "kinda matches your suggestion, but pretty low on my list of liked classes."

Got my Barbarian and Ultimate Magic class decks yesterday. In Sorcerer and Ultimate Magic, none of the characters seemed to match any of the criteria that Akaitora mentioned. In the Barbarian class deck, Amiri has a CON of d8, a WIS of d6, and a Survival of WIS +2. Ostog has a CON of d10 and a WIS of d6, but no Survival. No one had Craft. So, I think I'm flip-flopping between Amiri (Barbarian, mechanically inline with what Akaitora suggested) or Seoni (Sorcerer, emotionally pew-pew).

Stats (and starting pregen deck list) for Amiri / Seoni:

https://www.esglabs.com/pacg/pregens/?deck=barbarian&tier=tier1
https://www.esglabs.com/pacg/pregens/?deck=sorcerer&tier=tier1

I'm hoping The Dragon's Demand being the adventure in Core is a hint of things to come.

The APs are no longer doled out over six products and six months but, instead, are a single "big box" expansion. This addresses the folks who lamented about having to wait month-to-month to run through the rest of the AP, but what about the subscribers who enjoyed getting Something New Every Month (Or So)?

What's smaller than an Adventure Path? Pathfinder Modules!

Imagine shipping a much smaller, standalone, 109-card Module-based adventure every month (or even every quarter), based off the 50 or so Modules that have already been released. Because these boxes would be standalone (and variable-difficulty-based for those who want to use existing higher-level characters), players wouldn't have to sit around waiting for "the next part of the adventure" because it's complete in-box. There's also a greater incentive for new players to continue their involvement at the $20 "small box" price point instead of the $50 "big box". Retailers would have more incentive to keep the standalones in stock too.

Please tell me this is the plan and has already been mentioned in a blog post I've missed.

Hey all. As mentioned to @skizzerz in another thread (and the reason why I chose their table): I'm a PACG, PACG online, and PFS PACG newb. I played the first-edition Rise of the Runelords solo a few times when it first came out, but couldn't ever find a local gaming group. RotR and Skulls & Shackles have languished on my shelves for years. A few days ago, I found out that online play was a possibility and then, bam, OutPost II signups opened.

I've still catching and setting up.

Still re-reading the rules, and still waiting on a shipment of the Barbarian and Ultimate Magic Class Decks (they should arrive tomorrow; I have the Sorcerer Class Deck already). Sorcerer just so happened to be what I bought when PFS PACG play was first announced, and Barbarian and Ultimate Magic because Yewstance's Class Deck analysis suggests the characters within were either Easy or Medium to play as (i.e., suitable for a newb). I hope to play Skulls & Shackles solo (two-handed) a few times before March to minimize most initial "wait, what?" questions.

I typically prefer something pew-pew-y so am likely leaning toward Seoni (Sorcerer) or Enora (UM). Based on the other characters that players have already chosen, if anyone has a particular suggestion for a "good fit" (be it Seoni, Enora, or any of the Barbarians), then I'll play that. I, literally, don't know any better and am just as quick to pick a character because "this art is better" or "pew, pew, whooo!"

(Note that I'm also posting as my main because I haven't yet set up the PFS PACG alias.)

Another newb question (sorry!):

The PFSACG Guide says that I can either "Build Your Own Character" or "Play a Pregenerated Character" (pg 8). It instructs me to "download the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Character Sheets" and that "these downloads include pregenerated starting deck lists for one character in each deck."

I don't know any better, so I thought I should use a pregenerated deck.

But, the provided "Character Sheets" download does not appear to have a "pregenerated starting character deck list" or, at least, I am unable to find one in a form that I expected (namely, for example, a form similar to the "Suggested Deck Lists" in the Mummy's Mask Rulebook, pg. 28).

What am I missing?

Do I need a character chosen and a Pathfinder Society ID to sign up? I've yet to do that yet (waiting on shipment of some class decks to peruse through) and, as such, I've yet to create a Society ID yet. (I've put my name in for skizzerz' table to placeholder, but can be bumped as needed.)

Nah, it's not dumb. There's no reason a person would inherently know how the campaigns page works. As others have passed this knowledge on to me, so I share it with you. And thus the cycle continues. ;)

Oh, good! That's the only reason I dotted here and, when it didn't work, I was like "oh, crap, I'm already off to a great start." ;)

Thank you Matsu Kurisu, elcoderdude, and skizzerz!

Dotting, as I'd be considering Outpost II play.

Signups open tomorrow!

OK, so: here's my soft history: I preordered Rise of the Runelords, and now have one of those sweet sweet .5mm larger error-fun First Editions of the entire campaign. I played it a few times, could never find a local group (and my family was kinda meh on it), and it went on the shelf. Interest renewed again when Skulls & Shackles came out (mmmm, pirates!) and the announcement of OP. Bought the base set, tried it a few times, bought the first OP adventure, never got involved in the OP, could still find no local players. I've tried the solo thing a few times, but enjoy playing with other people more. Either because I suck (WHY DO I KEEP DYING?!) or because my brain is too crowded to handle 3 to 4 characters solo.

Poo. And, since then, I've been away from the game, but the new Core and Crimson has secured a preorder from me.

So, with Outpost II signups tomorrow, I'm super tempted, but you made the mistake of asking for questions:

1) I'd be considered a newb who has forgotten (and just reread) all the rules. Friendly groups?
2) I'm literally mute. I'll happily type in real-time to anyone (I see Hangouts are used), but I don't speak.
3) What's the turns-per-day-per-player requirements?
4) Do you actually setup a table with the cards at your house, and follow along with the turns? Or do you just stare at the digital location decks and post history?
5) I likely don't have the cards required for Tapestry's Tides, so what should I buy? Should I buy the first TT OP? What's a good non-martial newb character in the allowed list?
6) More importantly, do I still have /time/ to get into this (shipping, waiting, reading, etc)? Am I a good fit? If not, don't hesitate to say so (since my ill fit would affect the enjoyment of the entire table), and I'll re-open things after May ;)

What the...

Online play? How did I miss this?!

Must read everything. Me want in.

With campaigns being a single box now, does that kill the thrill of receiving new cards (adventures) every few months?

What are the subscription options like going forward?

Will will be waiting six months to a year for new (non-Society) content?

Morbus, Pathfinder Tales books are available from the iBookstore. (Including the back catalog.)

If that's the way to go for the future, then fine. Thanks!

Received mine today. I _hate_ the new size. It is the difference between fitting them on my mass-media paperback shelves (where all the rest of my nearly 20 Pathfinder novels are) and having to be moved into an _entirely different room with bigger shelves_. If I want to keep the two different formats all together, I'm gonna have to move everything all around.

Annoying.

Not annoying enough to unsubscribe, mind you, but enough to sully the experience.

Will Paizo be selling non-Kindle versions of the ebooks? I'd prefer to keep all my notes, highlights, and annotations (and, again, along with all the other books) in my current ereader (iBooks) over splitting them (like shelves, but far more difficult to move) between iBooks and Kindle.

I'm "here", but I think I've "fallen out", as it were. I've been GMing my own
Carrion Crown in Roll20.net, which has taken up all my time of late :(

Love, love, love, love these things.

For some bizarre reason, I didn't get dotted for these responses. Sorry. Anyways, see:

http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5mff?Maps-Of-Golarioncom-Google-Map-of-the-Inne r-Sea

It contains my in-progress work.

As for PathfinderWiki, they've already been informed of it too:

http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Forum:My_Inner_Sea_ Google_Map_uses_the_Wiki

I've had a surprisingly hard time finding a similar product on the other side of the aisle...

Is Marvel Super Hero Squad still around?

Ouch. We're nebulous entities in your computer. Ditch us for your flesh beings, please!

My personal evidence, anecdotal as it may be, is that of the 7 kids in my family (my 2 daughters and 5 nieces and nephews) not one of them felt as though they could "get into" the comics as it was, and now all of them are rabidly consuming as many issues of the New 52 as they can get their grubby little hands on.

Could you talk more about this? I'd love to hear more. One of the "best" series of articles I read when the New 52 was just coming out was the four part "litmus test" series from Comic Book Resources, where they randomly proffered the books to new comic book readers and got their thoughts and "would you read the next one?" I found 'em fascinating.

We know the New 52 is a "new" timeline, so there's an underlying sense of "everything is ground floor and I am soOoOoO there!", but have you tried them out on any other Number 1st, like those from Marvel? They did their own soft "start overs" (that is, it wasn't a reboot at all, which Marvel hasn't ever really done, save for new lines like New Earth or Ultimates) on a few of their series in an attempt to get in on the New 52 thunder. I'd be curious if it's just the psychology of a number 1 vs. actually starting over (i.e., a renumbered 1 in Marvel land doesn't really start anything over).

Also, have they ever started anything else long-running in the "middle" of it? Pokemon? Yu-gi-oh? Magic: The Gathering? Naruto? Star Trek or Star Wars? Nancy Drew? Battlestar Galactica? Transformers? My Little Pony? Winx Club? Any other comics from companies like Vertigo or Dynamite?

[Note: I am not trying to challenge your evidence! I'm honestly curious. I'm middle-aged and have started, and stopped, comics numerous times over the decades, so it's been a long time since I've been of the same mindset as a new readers (though, certainly, some of the New 52 titles were brand "new" to me, but old, like O.M.A.C. and Animal Man). I know my daughters don't generically have difficulty loving new-to-them-but-old properties, primarily because they're self-motivated due to a sort of "they're sooOo cuttTTee!" mentality - my 6 year old is loving Monster High and is slowly learning all their names and likes and dislikes, and is starting to understand the product story lines. Same thing with My Little Pony - she watched all the pre-Friendship is Magic shows she could, and was cheerfully confused over which pony was which, until she learned them all, etc.]

@Matthew: FWIW, I don't disagree with you, but I just don't think those distinctions are necessary when it comes to a new reader. A new reader doesn't need to know about the differences between the cowls or the rings to appreciate the current story being told, nor do they really need to know about who came before (unless, of course, they just happened to pick up the storyline during the changeover). Knowing it value-adds to the story and universe, but not knowing it doesn't necessarily detract.

@Aaron: I also don't disagree with you, but I was referring to more of the ... "stories" told within a world vs. the world itself. The books you've listed will certainly give an overview of the environment, a concise timeline, and a feeling of physical "place" but, ultimately, they don't allow us to really connect to an *event* or *character* - not in the same way that reading an Adventure Path (or even a module) or novel can. They can not adequately summarize the hundreds of Forgotten Realms novels or the dozen of PF novels or the tens of thousands of comic issues. Of potential comparitive relevance are the "sourcebooks" for novels that *do* exist, such as Star Trek's Voyages of Imagination. Later this year (I think - maybe 2013), a Star Wars specific version is being released too.

The reason I wasn't reading comics was the amount of years of stories that needed to understand the present comics.

Eh, I call foul on that. Sometimes, the ONLY way you can get into something is by jumping right into the middle of it. That's how day-time soap operas work. That's how the long-term and expanded universes of Star Wars and Star Trek works. That's how Discworld and Xanth works. It's how comics work. It's also how Pathfinder and Forgotten Realms works (you mustn't expect every new player to read every sourcebook or novel that's been released, no?). Sometimes, there is just no good jumping on point for something.

When it comes down to it, it doesn't really matter *who* Batman is. It doesn't really matter how Superboy became Superboy, or why there are two different Green Lanterns for our sector, one with a fake ring and one with a real one. They're all the same archetypal character they've ultimately been for their Age. Yes, having read them for years will increase your enjoyment (or hatred of) the New 52 or any Marvel storyline. But, no one expects you to have read all the John Carter novels or Conan books when you see those movies, nor do they expect you to have watched all 1200 episodes of the original Dark Shadows to enjoy Burton's... ... thing.

From a marketing standpoint, picking up a #1 feels a lot safer than picking up a #623, but ultimately, if you just dive in with the start of any particular story arc, and that story arc makes you feel good, you can answer most of your "huh?" questions with a quick Google search, if you're so inclined.

In the New 52, are there any Pre-New 52 recommended reading to understand the story of one series of New 52?

Theoretically, no. The New 52 is a new/revised timeline and thus everything is "new" and slightly changed. There *are* Easter Eggs in various story lines for those who have been reading long enough, but most everything is intended to be a good starting point for new readers. The JUSTICE LEAGUE series (which has just been collected in a trade paperback) takes place 5 years before all the other comics, and is a good soft intro to the major players in the DC Universe. With that said, though, all the "classics" of the pre-New-52 world are still "readable" and most of the major events that happen Pre-New-52 are still "accurate" in the New 52. Some examples:

You might also consider reading the FLASHPOINT trade paperback to see how the New 52 was formed and came to be, but it's certainly not required. I only mention it because it HAS BEEN and WILL CONTINUE TO BE referenced in the New 52 comic series:

In this case, are they any current series that you need prior understanding of the current stories? (ex : Batman Incorporated)

You might gain a greater understanding of a character by reading a previous undertaking (i.e., the Examples spoilered above or the first BATMAN INCORPORATED trade paperback), or by having more knowledge and backstory in general (the GREEN LANTERN series would be a great example of this) but, again, they're all meant "supposed to be" accessible to new readers. With that said, I would *not* disbelieve you if you were confused by a few series (LEGION OF SUPER HEROES would be a good one, along with GREEN LANTERN). In specific cases like those, a Wikipedia read would be a decent enough summary, or simply ask your favorite neighborhood message boards ;)

@TheDreadPirateHurley and @MatopiGolem are in. Thanks all!

FWIW, it looks like I'll be taking two players, with one of them being a tank-type.

As such, being the first responder, @TheDreadPirateHurley is in.

@genjuro_zero, @PeterJ, and @MatopiGolem (and @JarredHenninger, if you're looking to rethink), could you write up a one paragraph blurb about a potential tank character? I'll choose one from the respondents by next Thursday.

I just had another question come to mind.

You are straying into dangerous territories with this line of interrogation ;)

They have come out or are coming out with the graphic novel for the Court of the Owls story arc whic is basically what, the first 10 or 11 of the new 52? Does that mean that whenever they will complete a story arc they will put out a graphic novel?

You can usually find out which issues are collected by reading the book's description - Batman Vol. 1 is issues 1 through 7, and Detective Comics Vol. 1 is also 1 through 7. You'll find it tends to vary from anywhere from 6 issues to 12 issues (any more than that and they tend to be split into multiple volumes or OMNIBUS-type editions). As for whether something will get into a trade format, "it depends". There's been, for years, a general belief and "rule" that story arcs had to be of a size that could be easily collected, and many have felt this has been to the detriment of story telling - requiring stories to be short or sped-up or unpleasingly resolved. When the New 52 started, DC had said something along the line that they were NOT going to restrict story length "just for the sake of the trades" [citation needed, heh] but, now, here we are, and every New 52 series is getting its Volume 1 over the next few months. Ideally, it looks like nothing has changed.

The fact that all the books are labeled as "Volume 1" tends to lend credence to the fact that, yes, when a story arc is finished, they're going to release a trade paperback of it. Note that not all the New 52 will get a Volume 2, as 6 ongoing series have been canceled and since replaced with another 6 ongoing series, which will likely get their own Volume 1. There has also been a few limited series that have started since The New 52, like The Shade and Penguin: Pain and Prejudice which, so far, have not had any news about a collected reprint.

Sometimes, though, and this was rampant PRIOR to the New 52 (and continues to be in Marvel-land), long-running series have never properly been collected in sequential trade paperback form, and that's why you get things like a million "Batman: SUBTITLE HERE" paperbacks that are slices of non-sequential standalone arcs from Batman. DC has generally been *really bad* about collecting "from issue 1" their long-running series - there's a zillion different formats and no real winner. "Complete run" completists tend to have a number of duplicate volumes in their library and often in not-ideal B&W-only version (i.e., DC's SHOWCASE and Marvel's ESSENTIAL).

If the above is true, it would be much easier to wait for the graphic novel, but will it be cheaper?

Ask 20 different comic readers, and you'll likely get a 50/50 split on whether single issues vs. trades are the one-true-way to read comics. But, I think the direct answer to your question, given Amazon deep discounts, is yes, trade paperbacks will be cheaper. Incidentally, if a trade paperback is offered in a *hardcover* version (TPB is, in comic-land, a generic term that can reference both softcover and hardcover versions), I would go with the hardcover version. 1) Given a deep-discount on Amazon, it's often still cheaper than the full-priced softcover version, 2) It'll last longer, 3) They go out of print faster than the softcovers, so tend to have a higher resale value.

Again, assuming I am correct, which I very well may not be, do they do that will all or most of the comics? Does Marvel?

Prior to the New 52, whether something made it to a trade paperback was chaos - very little of DCs trade paperback lineup was in the "Volume 1", "Volume 2" mentality, so if you were looking for "complete runs", you had to know where SERIES A: SUBTITLE DOGS lived in relation to SERIES A: SUBTITLE CATS. Given the New 52 reboot, and the fact that they've labeled all their forthcoming books as Volume 1, I'm really really hoping they'll keep it up and go for complete runs of things. Would make my life a toOOn easier.

If you love the chaos though, you can certainly find it in Marvel land. You can find their entire Ultimate Universe (anything with "Ultimate" or "Ultimate Comics: " in the name) in a Volume 1, 2, 3 mentality, but their main lineup continues to be all over the place, with a few exceptions here and there. They also do a ToOOoOn of events, which makes Volume 1, 2, 3 reading slightly more difficult (FEAR ITSELF was a recent event that has like 25 different collected versions just for itself, all spread amongst their main titles).

What Marvel gets right, however, is their archival quality reprint mentality - Marvel Masterpieces have been around for decades now, and strive to do awesome reproductions from issue 1 of many of their series. They come out in hardcovers first (and many of their earlier hardcovers are out of print and very expensive), but they've started to release a number of them in softcover reprints.

Dear Gozreh, this was long.

I really enjoyed the Long Halloween but absolutely HATED the dark Knight Returns and Dark Knight Strikes Again. Terrible, terrible books.

Oddly, I was the opposite - I thought The Long Halloween was meh (3/5) and that The Dark Knight Returns was 5/5. I've not read The Dark Strikes Again. Hush is also a pretty good series, available in a graphic novel reprint (4/5). That villain is a little overused nowadays though, probably due to the strength of the original series.

I've been recording every book I've read since the mid-90s but, oddly, I didn't consider graphic novels "books" until recently - 2008 or so. If you're looking for random infoporn/e-peen stuff, you can see my list over at Goodreads, along with ratings. What I find most intriguing about this list, in hindsight, is the nearly utter lack of Marvel books. I've just recently started rectifying that, and a new stack awaits.

Ultimate Spider Man - from the Peter Parker series all the way into the Miles Morales series - is probably one of the best comics on the shelf for young readers to have used as an introduction to life, death, and all that goes with those things.

I'll agree with this. It's also got a great sense of humor and is "wordy".

Aye, at this point, I'd be fine with any sort of fighter/barbarian/tank ;)

I get the feeling that the graphic novels are compilations of the first few issues or are they stand alone books?

They're compilations of full story arcs, so they're "standalone" as well (i.e., generally speaking, if you ignore the giant "Vol. 3" on a graphic novel's cover, the story presented within tends to be suitably standalone). There *are* original graphic novels out there, mind, but all the ones I mentioned, and all the "New 52" ones are, so far, compilations only.

Unfortunately, the third player just weighed in saying they wanted to be an urban ranger and,
because there was no healer, the guy who was planning a barbarian just switched over to oracle.

So, currently, we've got: summoner (angel-type), oracle (unknown type), urban ranger.

I've read, /me coughs, the first 3 issues of every new 52 comic. I'm in the process of buying all the graphic novels (which just started releasing this month, actually). That's just the sort of obsessive I am. The first collected version of the New 52 Batman is out now. I'd recommend it. The first arc does NOT cover the "classic" villains, however. Just like it was prior to the New 52, Detective Comics is also all-Batman, and you can find some classic villains in there - Joker, Penguin, etc. I'd also recommend it.

http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/batman-vol-1-the-court-of-owls
http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/batman-detective-comics-vol-1-faces- of-death

Volume 1 of Batman would be appropriate for a 5 year old, but is likely going to be over his head - it deals a lot with the history of Gotham and mind games and ancient conspiracies, etc. Volume 1 of Detective Comics might be a little "too much" - there's some gore in it.

As for the other "man, this is good!" comic with Batman, I'd go with Justice League, which also just came out with its Volume 1 graphic novel this week. It's a great intro to all the characters (and takes place roughly 5 years before all the other New 52 comics). The interaction between Batman, GL, and Superman are *awesome* in this series, as they all meet themselves for the first time. In the later issues (issue 7+), you start getting deeper into the mythology of why the New 52 exists with the SHAZAM back stories. Note that the first arc *is* about aliens, but it's a classic alien (Darkseid), so it's "ok". It is perfectly fine for a 5 year old - there's a decent amount of humor in it, and the Origin approach is a good intro.

http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/justice-league-vol-1-origin

Note that the Gotham City Sirens are a little ... messed up in the New 52. Harley Quinn appears in Suicide Squad (and I hate the new take on her). Poison Ivy shows up in Birds of Prey (and I'm meh about the new take on her). Catwoman is in her own series and she has sex with Batman (in a full one-) and generally boobs-everything up all the time. Lots of folks don't like it because of that and it is *definitely* not appropriate for a 5 year old (I have one myself.)

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine /

Things aren't 100% solidified, but one is thinking of spell caster (likely summoner) and
another is thinking of warrior type (likely barbarian). Haven't heard back from the third yet.

It's been a LoOong time since I've GMd, but I kickstarted the new virtual tabletop Roll20, so I've gotten early GM beta access. I've got three players committed to a Thursday night, 8 to 10PM EST Carrion Crown adventure path, and I'm looking for one more. We'd be looking to start in two weeks (May 24th). Random bullet list summary:

Even before the new show, my daughters loved My Little Pony so I had seen the earlier shows and movies (the My Little Pony movie is actually remotely entertaining, with the Smooze) - even going so far as to download some for their enjoyment. When we heard about the new show, we had to watch it, so we all made an event out of it and were waiting eagerly for it to start on Day 1. I was amazed by how good the characterizations were, how funny it was and, being a musical-lover, Pinkie Pie's song in Episode 2 (and the beat-jokes from the other ponies) cinched the deal for me - this would be something I'd be glad to watch from day to day. I haven't stopped.

There are several apps for Android that would work similar.. might want to do some more research and not assume just because you drank the Kool-Aid

I'm not talking about apps-specific sharing. I'm talking about an OS-manufacturer-supplied service that is available at the system level on all versions of the device with no criteria for the type of data being saved. It'd be easy as pie to replicate iCloud using your own servers for your own app - hell, "add Dropbox support and you're done!" - that's not what I'm talking about. You'll note that I *responded* to someone who suggested the exact same thing - a custom Hero Lab implementation.

The nearest thing I've found in the past (and if this is some new and unannounced or unpublicized service, please, link me to it!) for Google' own version of iCloud is its Google+ app, which isn't what I mean either. You wouldn't be able to put Hero Lab files into Google+ - only videos and photos. Similarly, other "iCloud on Android!" articles I've read have really been about integration with Google's existing services - Documents (which likely could work if Hero Lab added a conversion layer), Calendars, Contacts, Mail, etc. That's part of what iCloud is, certainly, but you can use iCloud for *any data*, such as game saves or custom data objects, which is the parity I'm talking about here (why would I care if Hero Lab could upload photos or videos or mail?)

Generally speaking, if you're going to "zomg, you're all Kool-Aid, man!", you've got to at least one-up your own response with proof of what you're saying ("faith" is why the Kool-Aid accusation works, and you've done nothing to oppose that). Given that you've provided none, I have to assume you've shared from the same cup you accuse me of ;)

Monday update: 33 more points added, for a total of 94.

Is there a way to turn on/off the points of each color?

Would it break the CU terms to add links to topics in the Pathfinder Wiki or PRD from each point?

Turning off markers based on type is coming in a future update.

As for links to the wiki, that should already be happening for you. If you click any particular point (on the map itself, or in the sidebar), you should be seeing an info window, as well as a link to the Pathfinder Wiki and, occasionally, a link to a Paizo product specific to that area or region. If it's not, please let me know what browser/OS you're using so I can take a look.

/me waves to his nearest VC, from Concord, New Hampshire.