NerdOver9000's page

Evan Tarlton wrote:

I adore Strength of Thousands, so I'd be up for an organization AP. The only snag is that an AP centred around one of the bigger organizations should probably be a six-parter.

I'm all for more six-part APs, but this just isn't true. Judging by their leaderships, any number of organizations "top out" at the mid- or mid-high levels; and extremely low-level content can be handwaved by saying the PCs were doing their organization's initiation/onboarding process, such that they start the AP at level 4 or 5.

You could even do it as a hardcover module. To beat the drum again, perhaps a 1-3 module about joining the Eagle Knights of Andoran followed by a Cheliax vs Andoran AP from 4-14, similar to how Rusthenge and Seven Dooms fit together.

It's also easy for someone to say "this organized play thing has too many extra rules and isn't worth the hassle" and just stop going. Most folks doing it want to play at a con, they're not die hards. It's already more work than a normal game with tracking chronicles, different lists of whats allowed (which aren't that easy to find for a casual player if it's not on AoN), etc. Piling stuff like this on it doesn't help those of us trying to get people to try it out.

Just want to highlight this for visibility. I've been doing organized play as a way to meet new people with similar interests and I'm willing to put up with the rules because of it, but it's exhausting to track everything down. Especially now that I'm starting to play around with running games and reporting them, bringing new players in can be a little rough. I'm a bit of an old grognard in my way and I really miss the collected PDF guide. I wish we could get a PDF guide to organized play including options and a PDF errata guide that so I can hand it out and say 'Here you go, read this and you're set!'

Gladiator AP! Unashamedly rip-off the first movie.

Book 1: Players are soldiers or great empire, fighting barbarians or whatever. Somehow end up on bad side of the wicked ruler.

Book 2: Players made to fight in colliseum, ally with other gladiators, perhaps garner attention of a noble patron.

Book 3: Break out of colliseum, lead revolution to depose wicked ruler.

--

3 part Goblin AP that really leans into how utterly ridiculous a Goblin AP should be.

Oh the Gladiator one sounds like fun! Don't think Paizo would do that now that they have abolished slavery across the inner sea and and are not mentioning it elsewhere, but I may have to homebrew it.

I tend to follow the rarity guidelines. Common is allowed, uncommon and rare with permission. Uncommon is generally good to go unless there's a compelling reason for it not to be allowed, and rare is generally not allowed unless there is a compelling reason for it to be allowed.

...snip....

Actually, not even "morally gray." Within Norse culture of the time, Vikings were upstanding heroes.

Very true, but I'm sure the monks would not appreciate that distinction. One of those instances where there are certainly different definitions of honor.

UnArcaneElection wrote:

Earlier, I wrote:

^The Runelords Strike Again!? The Infernal Empire Strikes Back? Heist of the Crown?

Here's a Runelord idea: A new generation of Runelords has arisen, but rather than staying secreted away in demiplanes or castles, these brazenly move among the public, actively moving the levers of political power and swaying the masses with crude yet glitzy demagoguery, as they seek World Domination through Political Action.

A Runelord striking north into the Linnorm Kings would be a fun Viking-based AP.

Oh I like that. A Viking AP would be a fun redux to Skulls and Shackles... instead of being a morally gray pirate AP run a morally gray Viking AP, striking south at Varisia or even further south into Ravounel or Cheliax. Scratches a very similar itch in my mind.

Man, your conversions are the best for the old APs. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Ironbear Jones wrote:

Seems like your gripe is less what was said and more how it was said, which I'd argue is equally unhelpful. I suspect that's wasn't the priority here.

I'll be a bit off topic here, but "how" something is said absolutely matter just as much as what is being said. You might have the most well thought out and legitimate criticism in the word, if you formulate it like an insult, no one will want to listen to it. Even if the person you talking to is usually willing to listen to criticism, even if they believe that it would make them improve, if you just attack them, they won't listen.

So putting the forms is important if you want to be heard, especially when it comes to criticism. Pointing out when the form of a message prevent the actual point from being heard isn't unhelpfull, it's necessary.

+1 to this.

Politeness is the grease that keeps society moving smoothly. There are times to break that social contract but whomever does so must appreciate that doing so will bring the proverbial gears grinding to a halt.

The last time I played a magus was in a 1-20 Free Archetype conversion of the Hell's Rebels 1e AP. Herod was an Aiuvarin sparkling targe magus, but that was not 100% the core of his identity. I leaned heavily on the Champion Archetype with the Paladin (at that time, Justice today) cause, follower of Ragathiel. That gave me heavy armor, an awesome spammable focus spell (deity's domain, fire), spot healing (lay on hands), and a great reaction by level 8, after sacrificing a few class feats to get extra champion abilities. At 8, I picked up the Psychic Archetype and took the message cantrip. I also specced into the Investigator archetype (via Multitalented at 9), and picked up devise a stratagem as a bootleg true strike before making those big hits. (Free Action DaS for the win!)

Later on I wound up spending most of his class feats boosting spellcasting through psychic, and the Champion line to pick up handy things to go with his reactions. He was all about big fiery hits and wound up playing more like a champion than a magus, with the ability for a really big smite. Herod was a lot of fun to play and really struck fear into the hearts of Thrune loyalists, but he really didn't play like a typical magus in a lot of ways. I always spent a round or two at the beginning of combat getting ready before making my first spell strike, and may only make one or two per combat.

I would agree that there are some limitations on the current magus, but where I felt it the most was arcane cascade. I had left Intelligence at 10 and focused on Charisma instead, but that meant I really didn't cast any spells directly at enemies anymore, and buff spells for arcane are few and far between. I wound up using either an amped message cantrip (allowing one of my allies to move or attack) or lay on hands as a way to leave an action for myself to activate it. I would prefer to see the wording required for activation to be either 'You are in combat' or 'You have cast a spell or used spell strike this combat'.

Another issue, as you can see from the number of archetypes I had, was there were a lot of levels where I just didn't feel there were any feats good enough to justify their use. Swapping out class feats for more archetype feats should feel like a big decision, but the magus made it easy a lot of the time, and not just for flavor reasons.

I'm not a designer, but if I were changing things I'd look at doubling the arcane cascade damage bonus, to +2, +4, and +6 damage respectively, without majorly impacting the power of the class, but making it more worth it to spend a turn triggering the cascade instead of doing something else useful. I would also be tempted to improve the class feats a bit, to make them more of a must-take. Some action compression with feats, blending skills with spell strike recharge like Magus' Analysis or adding riders based on the Hybrid Study would help. For example, a nice feat that I often wished existed was something to raise a shield and recharge a spell strike or enter arcane cascade at the same time.

All in all, I would say that the class is a great chassis to work with. High level spells give you a lot of versatility and spell strikes can be BIG damage boosts, especially if you know you're going to roll a Nat 20 on the boss. Hopefully the pain points can be smoothed over in another pass.

I guess I'm in the minority. I appreciated the baseball references, though I could see where it would be confusing out of the US. I'm playing a 6th level Silent Whisper Psychic in a Gatewalkers campaign and I certainly don't feel underpowered, even though I'm playing against the caster meta.

One spell you might bring up for the psychic in particular and occult in general is 'Biting Words'. It doesn't benefit from Unleash Psyche but it is a wonderful 3rd action spell. My typical start of combat is move away from danger and cast Biting Words on the first round of combat, unleash psyche at the start of the second round and cast Shatter Mind, hopefully catching all the enemies in the area, then use the single action activation of biting words as a third action. Great for picking off low HP enemies or trying to whittle down some HP on the boss, though generally I find I do more good on 'boss' monsters (PL +3-4) using gathered lore to aid our fighter in his first attack.

UpliftedBearBramble wrote:

I’m still waiting for that data that was promised in your previous posts about this topic. You said you had some sort of big picture we couldn’t see.

I mean... there's a LOT of big-picture data that, as an employee of Paizo, I can see that isn't public. We don't normally make this information (such as sales figures or subscription numbers) public, but we did recently do a more in-depth targeted survey that I hope to see the results of soon. Whether or not those results are also made public is, I think, the call of the publisher and the marketing team, not me, but in any event that information will hopefully help guide our way further into the future.

I for one am hoping that data becomes public, at least in broad strokes. Makes my inner data scientist happy. I do understand, though, that it's not your decision. Here's to hoping!

So, I would agree with other comments here that a direct sequel sounds like the 6 part AP under another name. Not a bad thing, but books in the same AP can already be a bit disjointed, so I can only imagine what it would look like with two separate teams working possibly years apart.

Indirect sequels can be a lot of fun, but they strike me as hard to do well. The characters in the APs could have done any one of a half dozen or more different things and having to account for all of that...it leads to a bit of dilution. Curtain Call worked well from a readthrough perspective because it is all about the previous AP, but I don't think I would like that as a regular thing.

My personal preference would be to see APs set in specific regions, or around specific themes, without having to be a direct sequel. For instance, let's take a hypothetical AP around a group of PCs being a group of Eagle Knights in service of Andoran, who go around the inner sea poking Cheliax in the eye before finally defeating a corrupt governor and ending their adventure at tenth level. This one could be a bit campy, a bit Saturday Morning Cartoon with a small group and slightly comical villains.

The next AP set in Andoran starts with a war between Cheliax and Andoran, and in the beginning of the AP mention is made that one of the reasons might be the actions of the PCs in the previous AP, but it might be any one of a half dozen reasons as well. So, the players could pick up the second AP as a group of 10th level patriots or mercenaries who come to join Andoran's plight, or they might be the same group of Eagle Knights from before. Tone is darker here, and the stakes are certainly higher. Both stories have a beginning and an ending that could link together, or could be separate.

I'll edit to say that I think this might also be a good place to look at the adventure line, especially with the new anthologies. A short 'bridge' adventure to bring the heroes to Absalom and then a second short bridge adventure to take the heroes from Absalom to a new AP may be a good way to mesh disparate APs. The key there I think would be to have a way to move the heroes to and from a common location, so it all meshes together.

I would love to see more love for the Psychic. I feel like they've been languishing for a good while after their initial debut.

I'm also down for any additional kineticist elements. Void, Vitality, Light, Darkness...

So, I'm pretty hyped for this one. One of the things I really liked for 3.5e/1e was the sheer number of short adventures available in Dungeon Magazine and the short modules produced by WotC and Paizo. It allowed me to easily built a sandbox by dropping leads/rumors/wanted posters to half a dozen short adventures as rumors in the local tavern/guildhall and letting my players decide which way they wanted to go. I've been using Society scenarios, but they're typically a little short for what I'm looking for. Here's to hoping many more of these are made.

I'm running Skull and Shackles right now, and a Skull and Shackles 2e Remaster Remaster with Plunder and Peril bonus content would be significantly fun.

I had forgotten about Skull and Shackles. There are so many great storylines I didn't get a chance to play back on release, and as much fondness as I have for first edition the thought of bringing in a group of players to the system or running a game in it is not something I'd consider now, especially as I'd have to manually upload them all to Foundry. Now, if they were already converted to second edition and already set up in Foundry...

GM_Drake wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Especially considering we essentially put out these hardcover versions about once for 8 or 9 Adventure Paths we publish, so in the end, at that rate, only about 10% to 15% of them will EVER be collected as hardcovers. Since that's such a small amount, we have to be REALLY careful about picking the perceived "best" ones... aka the ones we have proof that people bought a lot of or gave a lot of great reviews to.

Hi, James.

What would you say the odds are that Shattered Star and Return of the Runelords get hardcover editions?

Will PF1E APs that get done as future hardcovers be reprinted with the PF1E rules set, be updated using the PF2E rules set or would both options be available?

Not really interested in giving odds for things like this. MORE useful would be hearing from folks if they'd like to see something like that? Is there an interest in a remastered Return of the Runelords or Shattered Star? Let us know!

Since Rise of the Runelords already exists in a hardcover format, that's slightly easier for us to update than, say, Shattered Star, which only exists in the split-up-to-6-books format.

That said, any thing we update at this point will most likely be updated to use the Remastered rules and thus won't be OGL adventures. The rules themselves aren't a big deal in updating adventures as they are in updating PCs—the tricky part is handling monster and treasure swap-outs. For example, if we updated Rise of the Runelords, we'd have to replace the vargouille in the catacombs of wrath, Erylium would be come an imp, and the tentamort in Thistletop would have to change, since vargouilles, tentamorts, and quasits are OGL creatures.

This means that some Adventure Paths are easier to remaster than others. For example, Second Darkness would be a SIGNIFICANT task with all its OGL content, as would Wrath of the Righteous.

Anyway... we will continue to do hardcover compilations of Adventure Paths. Got nothing to announce or hint at yet...

Man, I for one would love a remaster of some of the old APs into Pathfinder 2nd edition. I think I'd buy every one that was released, especially if they came with a foundry release also. I have really fond memories of playing them in first edition and I'd love to introduce them to new groups with the updated rule system. With that being said, I think my top three would be:

1: Curse of the Crimson Throne
2: War for the Crown
3: Carrion Crown

I really want to like Demiplane/Nexus, but I keep bouncing off because of a lack of mobile/tablet app, lack of foundry integration, and cost.

I've bought a couple of Lost Omens books on there and I enjoy them for reading on my phone and iPad mini over a pdf, but my mobile connection can be spotty with my phone and I'm not always sitting somewhere with wifi when I read on the tablet. Part of the reason I picked up a mini vs. a full size is the ability to sit in a park somewhere and read. There's also the fact that my LFGS doesn't have wifi in the shop, meaning everything has to be done locally.

My players and I all play in foundry these days, so lack of integration there makes it difficult to justify paying for rulebooks again, for a service that doesn't allow them to be used easily.

I could see paying for it if these issues are fixed, but for now I guess I'm sticking to .pdfs.

NerdOver9000 wrote:

I will say, in the recent market research we were asked about how we would prefer APs- single volumes in hardcover or softcover, or continuing with a monthly subscription. One of the reasons I chose to vote for a single volume hardcover book was, hopefully, to help with the cohesiveness of the books and stories. Having them all in a single book gives a person a chance to read from beginning to end and spot issues before they get to print.

I am VERY EAGER to get a chance to look through that research soon, and the fact that we've actually been able to get that out there is potentially a huge step in the right direction. Message board posts are great and all that, but they're not really a great place to get big picture data.

One of the best things we did in our business was investing in more market research. I got training to be a data scientist in college, even if I'm not using it now, and always find there's so much to mine out of the data. I hope you all share some of the data with those of us who are curious.

Y'all are the best in the business, and I'm interested in seeing where the research leads you next.

I'll throw my lot in with Errant above. When I run APs I'll often wait till the entire AP is out and take a chance to read it before I run it. Inevitably, I wind up spending some time pruning lost plot threads, foreshadowing villains early, or giving a payoff scene later in the book for something that was set up earlier. There's always some work needed and the disconnect between books can be especially jarring.

THAT BEING SAID: Paizo still puts out the nicest adventures in the industry. Everyone has an off day, including companies, and while I probably won't run WoW I'm glad to have a copies in my library to mine for ideas, NPCs and monsters to drop into a home brew game.

I will say, in the recent market research we were asked about how we would prefer APs- single volumes in hardcover or softcover, or continuing with a monthly subscription. One of the reasons I chose to vote for a single volume hardcover book was, hopefully, to help with the cohesiveness of the books and stories. Having them all in a single book gives a person a chance to read from beginning to end and spot issues before they get to print.

Do most encounter with criminal in the same manner as theif and mugger end with them dead?

I think it depends on what serves the story. If you're including this, why are your characters fighting thieves? Is it a simple random combat encounter? The introduction of a group the heroes will have to deal with? A chance to drop a heart-wrenching item in front of the players, like the classic 'one more mark and I'll be able to buy the medicine for my daughter' note?

Most muggers and robbers would far rather talk their way out of having to fight, unless they have the upper hand. You see this in animals as well...most predators either attack from ambush, prey on things that cannot fight back, use overwhelming numbers, or all of the above. So, how will the bandits manage this? Will one person stand in the road and demand money while the others wait in ambush? Will they try to sneak up when the characters are asleep on the road? Surround and fire down at the heroes from the rooftops? Are they skilled thieves? Mercenaries? Peasants that are desperate?

There are so many factors that might affect things, and if they choose to stay or not. Keep in mind too that combat is fast from the perspective of the characters, even if it takes a while for us to adjudicate it. Most of the combats I run are over in 3-5 rounds, or about 30 seconds. Do the bandits have time to look around and realize 'oh crap, all my buddies are dead?' before they take an arrow to the eye? Are they experienced enough to recognize a losing fight?

In short, there's no one right answer. Let the needs of the story decide if they run or not, and relevant factors around the specific scenario. I will say that I tend not to run suicidal bandits in my games, but they have certainly been surprised before.

I like the classics. Revolution. War. Serial Killers.

I want more like Rise of the Runelords (especially chapter 2), Hells Rebels/Vengeance, War for the Crown.

I just want the newer versions of these. Geb vs. Nex total war, dragging regional actors into play. Cheliax vs. Andoran.

Revolution in Galt to install a player-led kingdom.

Avistan and Impossible Lands have a lot of stories to mine, and I want to adventure in these regions before moving on to other continents. I like to see how everything is connected in a familiar place.

I would -love- to see a Cheliax vs. Andoran AP, particularly if we're able to get into some of the weeds of governance in Andoran and the intrigue that is inherent there. Heck, could combine this with what I was talking about in my post, joining a knightly order, and have the player characters as members of the Eagle Knights.

Well, the nice thing about the Starfinder and Pathfinder being built on the same core engine is that when Starfinder gets around to making a mecha book, those should be easy to port into Pathfinder. Just change the names and appearances a bit and it should slot right in, no?

[snipped]

I’d also like more ‘traditional’ euro-medieval fantasy AP’s with which to familiarize my Christian inclined friends and family into pathfinder. I think they’d be fine with the other genre’s and themes once they learn their particular sensibilities and real world human goodness , but it’s a slow process. I certainly didn’t start with Cosmic Horror when I first began branching out.

I think this is an important point. Some APs are a bit harder to pitch to newer players of RPGs, who are largely looking for a more old school fantasy. I think an important part of any AP is the elevator pitch...often times, only a couple of people are interested in any given AP, and they have the job of convincing their friends that it's worth spending a six months to a year on. I also think something that helps is if the theme is generic enough that the GM can snag it and drop it into their homebrew campaign.

I've always said that this was why Kingmaker worked so well. It's a simple pitch...tame the wilderness and found your Kingdom. It's also easy to apply to another homebrew world...just add an untamed wilderness section to your homebrew world and drop it in.

With that being said, I'd love to see an AP about joining a knightly order. Maybe a new knightly order in Taldor, plenty of courtly intrigue in the aftermath of the recent regime change, dangerous quests across the realm, and relatively easy to drag and drop into any homebrew setting.

Back when I was first playing in high school, resource limitations were a big part of the hex crawl game. You loaded up your character and rode off into the wilderness, and tracked every arrow and ration expended, crafting or hunting replacements as you went. I don't think second edition plays well with that fantasy anymore.

I've ran a few hex crawls in Pathfinder before, but the only way I was able to make them work was through the optional rule for proficiency without level. With that, you could have general regions with a 5-6 level gap and not make them completely easy or deadly.

If my players want to explore or I want to make them search for something, I've had far better luck with a point crawl. Sketch out 15-20 bubbles with connecting lines and craft some spots that might be unique along the way, with an option for the characters to choose which way they might want to go. I'll give an example of a point from my last game:

**
The party steps out of the dense, shadowy forest, the canopy of trees thinning as they emerge into a serene glade bathed in soft sunlight. The glade stretches roughly 30 or 40 yards across, a peaceful, open space surrounded by towering trees whose leaves rustle gently in the breeze. In the center, a large, weathered stone rises from the earth, its surface smoothed by time.

Embedded deeply into the heart of the stone is a sword, its polished blade gleaming in the golden light as though freshly forged. The sword’s hilt is finely crafted, and at the pommel, a radiant red gem glows faintly, casting an almost mesmerizing shimmer as the sunlight strikes it. The weapon seems ancient and powerful, as if waiting for someone worthy to claim it.

To one side of the glade, a gentle stream meanders downslope, its crystal-clear waters winding through a patch of mossy stones and disappearing toward a darker, swampy region in the distance. On the opposite side, a well-trodden path leads upward, winding toward the base of the imposing mountains that rise steeply beyond the tree line, promising a journey into more treacherous terrain. There is also a trail on the other end of the glade, disappearing back into the forest following parallel to the mountains.

(The sword, and the stone it was standing on was, of course, a trap).

**

So, the players have the option of interacting with the stone and the sword, or one of the exits mentioned. I tried to make every point on the point crawl something interesting. This eliminates a lot of the tedium of 'Well, we explored it. Make some dice rolls and move on.' Almost all points had an encounter, or something interesting to explore, or a mini dungeon that was on the point. Some were active and the players had to interact with them. (Some of these points were just named 'ambush sites.')

To add a bit of that old school resource depletion I used a version of Goblin Punch's dungeon clock system. The party started out with 20 luck points, and every time they moved out of a point one person rolled a d6. So long as their luck stayed above 3, their luck held out and nothing random bad happened (except for things which happened when they stepped into a particular point).

If their luck was between 1-3, the party 'pushed their luck.' Their luck points were instantly reset to 3, and something minor happened. I can't find my chart at the moment but it was some of the options were 'Heavy Rain: A downpour rolls into the area. Characters are Fatigued for the next point as the rain saps their energy. A skilled survivalist may make a DC (Leveled) Survival check to make camp and wait out the rain in comfort.' These were largely flavorful events rather than major hassles.

If their luck was 0 or lower, something bad happened. I remember one of them being 'lost item.' Each character needed to make a Wisdom check, and the person who rolled the lowest had to discard an item from their pack. Another one was 'Spooked!' where their pack mule got spooked by something and deserted them. That especially got fun when they had all their loot on the hapless animal.

Once something bad happened, the party's luck reset to 20, but now they would be rolling 1d8 for luck reduction each time, then 1d10, then 1d12 and so forth. This reset back to 1d6 when they were able to rest in civilization and recuperate.

I rarely to never used random monster encounters here, preferring to leave those for when they were exploring, unless the point was in an especially dangerous area. E.g. The characters are traveling in an area near a goblin warren. Points near that might say 'XX% chance of encountering 1d8 Goblins and 1 goblin sergeant on patrol. If 'Goblin Caves' has been explored reduce chance to XX%.'

Most points had a 'Fresh' description and a 'Cleared' description. In the example above a cleared example might have a titanic mound of boulders where the rock monster crumbled, and a hole where it had hidden.

These are very broad points, but a lot of my decision making was ad hoc during the game.

Can't wait to see what you do with the new Tian Xia Character book- I've been playing with a 50 something year old bearded, grouchy male fighter / starlit sentinel who got saddled with powers took up adventuring, and a toy poppet Aloof Firmament Magus / Spirit Warrior (with a kaiju defense oath, of course), but they're just in my head now.

NerdOver9000 wrote:

I'm in the process of running Sky King's Tomb and I really enjoy the context it provides to the history of the Dwarves. I added some content to a certain location in book 2 ** spoiler omitted **

I've also run Agents of Edgewatch and it required some minor tweaking as well. I had each of my players write up at least three NPCs- an ally, an enemy, and a rival, which I wove into the story. With ABP and a salary/requisition system instead of loot-based pay, it was a big hit. Unfortunately, this was run in person and a couple of key players moved away, killing the game about mid book 4.

I really like the idea of Quest for the Frozen Flame, and if it had better Foundry support I'd probably run it next. As it is, I'm looking seriously at Season of Ghosts or Kingmaker as my next campaign. The last time I tried to run a Kingmaker campaign I cut the Kingdom rules out, but that group fizzled out.

That sounds like a good idea in SKT... I'm running Session 0 this Tuesday!

Let me know if you want some notes on the puzzles. I'm pretty proud of the lever room for the test of courage myself, even if I found out later I wasn't the first one to come up with it.

I'm in the process of running Sky King's Tomb and I really enjoy the context it provides to the history of the Dwarves. I added some content to a certain location in book 2

I've also run Agents of Edgewatch and it required some minor tweaking as well. I had each of my players write up at least three NPCs- an ally, an enemy, and a rival, which I wove into the story. With ABP and a salary/requisition system instead of loot-based pay, it was a big hit. Unfortunately, this was run in person and a couple of key players moved away, killing the game about mid book 4.

I really like the idea of Quest for the Frozen Flame, and if it had better Foundry support I'd probably run it next. As it is, I'm looking seriously at Season of Ghosts or Kingmaker as my next campaign. The last time I tried to run a Kingmaker campaign I cut the Kingdom rules out, but that group fizzled out.

I figured this, or something like this, would be the response to the backlash. Thanks for proving me right Paizo!

Yeah, it seems a little busted from what little I played. I played in an org play group with Shards of the Glass Planet and our operative got a strike almost every turn from it. Their damage wasn't that bad at first level, but especially with multiple operatives I could see how it could get oppressive really quick.

We were discussing it after the fact and one thing that we came up with that might work well would be to have the hair trigger interact with the suppressed condition or cover. Basically, if we're imagining a creature that is suppressed is either flinching back into minute cover to try to protect themselves or a creature is actually in cover, then breaking it ought to have some consequences if a creature is on over watch waiting for them to come out.

Of course, we also like the idea of a feat that grants the operative the ability to make an opponent suppressed at range...'Operative's stare' or something along those lines, that costs an action and gives the opponent a will save vs the operative's class DC or intimidation DC, which if they fail they gain the suppressed condition. Basically a "You move, and I shoot!" kind of feel.

Not sure how this would play out, just spit balling ideas.

NerdOver9000 wrote:

Here's to hoping mine gets shipped by tomorrow- I've got a society game on Saturday and I'd love to bring a new hybrid study magus to the table!

You have to wait for options to receive organized play sanctioning before using them in Society play - so that won't happen until the 28th at the earliest.

Ah, dang, I forgot about that. I guess I'll wait patiently then, hah.

Here's to hoping mine gets shipped by tomorrow- I've got a society game on Saturday and I'd love to bring a new hybrid study magus to the table!

I'll throw my hat into the ring with Dawidlzdor for this to be able to use all of the art for tokens from premium modules a person owns, or the ability to mod it to add further tokens. That would add even more value to the premium modules than they already have, especially for those of us that largely run homebrew.

They heard the blow up. Their official response in the announcement post was:

"Since our licensing update on July 22nd, we’ve been listening to your feedback on the potential impact of these licenses on community tools and websites. Paizo is grateful to these creators and spaces for the immense value they add to our brand and player community. We are committed to adding options to ensure that a range of community projects are protected by the license.

With Gen Con on the horizon, we can’t offer an immediate solution, but we are working to reach one that is both sustainable for Paizo and supports the community we love. As always, thank you for your feedback—we hear you and are working to address your concerns as swiftly as possible."

So everything is wait and see right now, with everyone just back from Gencon. I'd imagine they are talking to their lawyers now to keep everything online. Everything I've seen out of Paizo tells me they're going to do the right thing, but we'll all have to wait and see.

Man, I would love to be able to attend. Maybe next year!

NEW CHARACTER!

Small Part (Male unbreakable goblin mechanic inventor 8)

“Goblin junk is the best junk! Just wait and see!”

Spart (short for “Small Part”) is a goblin mechanic working with the Pathfinder Society to maintain some of their more unusual vehicles and apparatuses. Having collected numerous pieces of junk and scrap over the years, he recently built himself a suit of power armor out of the detritus. He lovingly calls his creation Largal (short for “Large Mechanical”). In recent months, he has used his invention to take on a more proactive role in the field alongside his fellow Pathfinders.

A refugee of the Goblinblood wars, Spart fled north to Nirmathas to avoid that conflict. In 4719 AR, after the region was overrun by undead, he was again forced to flee his home, ultimately migrating south to Absalom. There, he was taken in and put to work by the Pathfinder Society, ostensibly to “raid” other “tribes” of their dangerous artifacts to build up and guard the “hoard” of his newest tribe: the Vigilant Seal.

Pathbuilder Breakdown and Possible Progression

Tactics: If possible, lure your enemies into a hidden explosive mine as battle begins. Then activate your Overdrive and move to the enemy, or to defend your allies. If possible, let the enemy come to you to maximize your action economy. When fighting single powerful enemies, use your reach and combat maneuvers to slow them down (your including Kneecap and Tamper feats); make it costly for them to move up to you while you and your allies. If they have damage resistance, use Megaton Strike to punch through it. Take advantage of enemy energy weaknesses by feeding your alchemical bombs into your weapon siphon.

If you find yourself needing to get past an obstacle or or needing to close quickly, use your blast boots or Explosive Leap in conjunction...

Oh my goodness I love the idea behind Small Part. Is the model depicted an actual miniature? If so, where did you get it from?

My watch has ended!

Still pending on mine too. Hope the pending charge doesn't cause issues.

Great to see these! Any chance of getting token packs for books with monsters like Howl of The Wild, Book of the Dead and etc?

Jonathan, your post is exactly what I have been waiting to see. I look forward to seeing Paizo's response.

I do think people are overstating things a little to say this is the equivalent of the OGL revision WotC attempted. Like, this isn't even close. Paizo isn't sectioning off their rules or anything of that sort--the ORC is still fully intact. They are becoming more protective of their setting material, and I have concerns that they may be overreaching with that and I kind of want to know the reasoning behind it, but that's completely different from what WOTC did.

When we overstate ourselves, we obfuscate to Paizo what our concerns are, and thus make it less likely that we will be heard and answered.

I also hate to say it, but I feel like restricting Pathfinder Infinite to prevent OGL content from being included on it... kind of makes sense? Like, it sucks for PF1 players, and I do sympathize, but being a fan of the older, unsupported editions always does kind of suck, and that's not something Paizo can necessarily fix. PF1 is a huge legal liability, and while the old content is probably fairly manageable, new content is likely to mix more and more with modern Pathfinder releases and create more and more confusion about what's actually canon. We can't have Pathfinder Infinite products in 2028 still calling them drow and aboleths, because if a social perception remains that that's what cave elves and alghollthu are, Paizo is effectively still profiting off of aboleths and drow in all their works. At least, I bet I can see a lawyer making that argument.

I can fully buy that that would be a liability for the license as a whole (and Paizo, which would be directly profiting off of OGL content in that case). It sucks! But that doesn't mean it's really Paizo's fault. PF1 was always an awkward port of D&D third edition. Legally, they probably don't feel safe continuing to profit off of D&D 3.75, and they also don't want to continue to effectively promote a license under WotC's control on their own platform.

And sure, they're leaving a lot of stuff up there. I'm pretty sure that...

I think this is a very important point, and why I'm withholding judgement until Gencon is over and the staff are back on deck to give this the time that is needed to review concerns and come up with a plan. Paizo has earned a lot of good will with me, and I'm sure a lot of other players over the years, and they need to have a chance to respond. I do think it was a really dumb time to drop this news, especially effective immediately, but jumping on the train to boycott town is a little premature. Ultimately, the de-OGLification of Pathfinder had to happen after WotC's actions, but I hope Paizo can manage it with a little more grace than they're currently showing.

On the note of PDF importers for foundry or other future projects, my understanding is that these are nothing more than highly specialized PDF readers and as a result do not need to rely on licensing/agreements/policies. It would be very hard for Paizo to ever restrict the PDF importers without also restricting everyone's ability to read one of their PDFs for "normal" use. And they'd be fools to try it since the PDF importers are undoubtedly selling lots of PDFs.

They are 100% paying for themselves with me for sure. I know I started subscribing specifically to use those and I've bought a lot of PDFs because of them. I love the premium modules but those certainly made the transition smoother.

Niktorak, can't agree more. My group is planning on having a second weekly game to make sure we can get through this.

I started with Pathfinder in the aftermath of the 4e debacle, and the pathfinder to PF2e to Foundry and Deidril's importer are a large reason why I finally switched from PF1e to PF2e in spite of being an old grognard. I really like the PF2e system now, especially it's integration with Foundry, but I hope that these fan projects are not quashed in the wake of new licensing.

I have spent way too much money with Paizo over the last couple of years. Before August of 2022, I was largely buying from third party vendors like Amazon, which are a little harder to track, but I decided at that point to start ordering directly from the source. Since then, I have spent $5,446.34 for books, pdfs, and foundry releases directly from Paizo. That's not including my nearly complete PF1e rulebook collection, the ongoing subscriptions, or the money my players have spent since we switched over to PF2e or the ancillary things they have picked up because of it. I think I have every premium Foundry module released. I say this to say that I am what most would call a super fan. I'm an advocate for Pathfinder 2e out in the wild, and have brought several people into the Pathfinder orbit outside of my player base.

Paizo has built up a lot of goodwill from me over the years. They've consistently been a positive force in the RPG movement. I'm going to withhold judgement on this change for now. I do think it is an unfortunate time to drop this kind of news, when most of the office is getting ready for Gen Con, and responses may be delayed. Once further clarification has been offered I will decide my ultimate response. I know I am not alone in watching this, and the responses to it, very carefully.

Glad to help with that. I always give new miniature painters six pieces of advice.

1: Speed paints are your friend! I personally use Army Painter speed paints and I'd recommend going ahead and getting a full set. These will provide a great base layer and to start out with will be all that you need. As you get more practiced you will need opaque paints to add highlights and shadows, but you can paint a bunch with just speed paints if you're just starting out.

2: Slap chop the bottom layer for more contrast. Slap chop is a new term for a very old painting technique. On a canvas it would be called 'en grisaille', but with the 3d nature of miniatures it makes the process so much easier. Basically, you are trying to go ahead and create the highlights and the shadows on the model before you add the colors. The beauty of speed paints is that they are partially translucent, so they allow the underlying shades to come through.

To do this, prime the entire miniature with black paint. Then, you will paint on light. Imagine where your light source will be, typically straight above the miniature, and spray a white paint from that direction. I use an airbrush, but you can also drybrush on the white paint, just go from top to bottom of the miniature, always stroking down from where the light will be coming from.

What you will wind up with is a miniature where any surfaces that the light would be shining on are brighter, and those that are hidden from the light source are in shadow. Youtube has a lot of great walkthroughs for this.

3: Choose vibrant colors unless you have a reason not to. Once your model is slap chopped, go for the turquoise instead of the navy blue, and the crimson red instead of a more muted red. You're going to be looking at these models from across the table and you want them to stand out. When painting terrain or props you can reverse this and use your more muted colors, so your models are pops of color.

4: Stay away from white if at all possible. White is one of the hardest colors to get to look right, especially over large areas of a model.

5: When not using speed paints, be sure to thin your paints, and invest in a wet pallet to keep your paints fresher longer.

6: Remember these are little dudes on a table at least arm's length away. No one is going to care if the paint job isn't perfect. The display models that you see online are absolutely stunning but you shouldn't expect those to start with. Focus on getting your models painted and on the tabletop, and with time your brush control will improve and you'll naturally begin picking up other tips as you paint. If you don't like your paint job, you can always strip it and start anew, or just prime again over it.

Still pending on mine...hopefully soon.

You are amazing, I always look for your guides first!

NerdOver9000 wrote:

Jonathan Morgantini wrote:

What are people most excited to get? I know I know, favorite children and all that. But still. Pick one ;)

Most excited? Starfinder Playtest, hands down. One step closer to running a time-warping chrono trigger style campaign merging the two systems! PC2 comes close behind it, though, with the updates to Alchemist and Swashbuckler.

Lots of people are excited for this potential, but this is the first time someone has mentioned Chrono Trigger and... I wants it. I LOVE Chrono Trigger, so now I'm even more excited for something like this.

I'm surprised you haven't seen it. I've been beating that drum pretty hard for a while now when it comes up. I'm not quite sure how to fully implement it but I'm excited to get the rules so I can try. Hopefully some kind of crossover AP comes out of the compatible systems!

What are people most excited to get? I know I know, favorite children and all that. But still. Pick one ;)

Most excited? Starfinder Playtest, hands down. One step closer to running a time-warping chrono trigger style campaign merging the two systems! PC2 comes close behind it, though, with the updates to Alchemist and Swashbuckler.