Nidome's page

When someone rolls a die at the table I know the following:
1) When they rolled the die
2) How many times they rolled the die
3) How the die was rolled
4) What number was rolled

When someone uses a die roller during online play it is the same as using a die at the table provided you use one that is either built into the chat system or built into the virtual tabletop.

When someone uses a dice app I do not know the following
1) When they activated/ran the app
2) How many times they ran the app before declaring the result
3) How the app generates it's result
4) What number was generated from running the app when I asked them to roll

And I think this is the problem that a lot of people have with dice apps.
You ask a player to make that save or die saving throw - they touch the screen to activate the app and it displays a result of "1". They are the only person to see this and their finger is a mere fraction above the "button" on the screen - how many players would accidentally brush that "button" again? And how many players would do the same on a less important roll?
Do we belive that the "Fudging" of die rolls ever takes place with physical dice? If the answer is "Yes" and "Fudging" is 1000 times easier with an app it does give you pause if you notice that player always getting good rolls when it really counts.

Can we have 1 square = 5' scale on all maps please? Every so often we get a scenario with 10' squares and these are really annoying (3-14, 4-22 and 4-24 immediately spring to mind, but there are others).

1) I have seen GMs who do not spot the scale and draw them out as 5' squares which causes issues in combat - usually in detriment to players.
2) Drawing them out on battlemats etc. is a pain and takes longer as you constantly have to remind yourself that 1 square on the page is 2x2 squares on the mat.
3) Maps extracted from the PDF aren't as easily usable as 5' scale maps - I've tried adding extra gridlines myself in between the existing ones, but it is time consuming and looks crap.

Thanks.

Is this the same event that ran at PaizoCon and PaizoConUK ?

Just need to make a special mention his performance at last year's PaizoCon UK as Drandle Dreng. It was amazing.

I have to agree - Whenever I hear Drandle Dreng mentioned I picture Rob (and the same for a certain Ex head of the shadow lodge and Sad).

Rob is certainly on my top-5 list of GMs.

This is certainly useful, although I still question why Kyra still has cure spells pre-prepared in non-domain slots.....

Michael Brock wrote:

Mistwalker wrote:

Mike,

Can we get a small line added to the chronicle sheets?
"Purchased items: __________ gp"

It would likely be neater than various scrawls, may address some of the comments/concerns raised in the various threads, and hopefully ensure that all the GMs and players know that they only need to enter the gp value on that line and not record every purchase in notes section.

As much as I would like to, we (Paizo) don't have the time to go back and add that to more than 130 Chronicle Sheets.

Could we get it on the chronicle sheets going forward?

Personally I'd rather not as I still intend to list all of my purchases on there. Just having a total like that will severely slow down any audit that involves checking purchases, listing them will speed it up and I'm willing to spend the extra time if I believe that there is a genuine benefit to it.

I don't like this, because it opens up players to saying "Why can't I PVP?"

Actually I'm not sure you can't - Although the section of the Guide is entitled "No Player-versus-Player Combat" the actual text reads "In short, you can never voluntarily use your character to kill another character....." which suggests that PvP is OK provided no-one dies.

Perhaps the standard note on the Chronicle should be something like- Total Purchases (Itemized on ITS) = 4856 gp.

I thought that one of the keystones of the new form was to make auditing easier/quicker - this would make it slower and harder as you check through the players ITSs(could be multiple sheets) to find all the entries that match chronicle #29 (or whatever) so you can total them up to see if they match the total listed on the chronicle.

I have been carrying out some practical tests using the the new Inventory Tracking Sheet. Now it is entirely possible that I have made some incorrect assumptions whislt doing this through misunderstanding something, but here are my conclusions/findings:

Using the sheet as originally mentioned in guide 5.0 (assuming the player backfills it to character creation)does save time on a full character audit (approx 10%) - however the time saved is approximately one third of the time taken by the player in actually completing it. So although it benfits the auditor, it is at a greater cost to the player, however if that character is never audited then from an audit perspective time has been wasted by the player for nothing.
From an item tracking perspective - it makes tracking consumable items a lot easier for the player and for auditor answers a question as to why some of the equipment bought isn't listed on the character's sheet. For non-consumables it adds no real benefit as they are still tracked fully on the chronicle.

Using the sheet using the latest set of guidelines I have seen (only record items with a value of at least 25gp bought after the 14th August, GM must intial the purchases on the tracking sheet) - This saves no noticable time on a full audit for any character created before the 14th August but has a time cost to both player and GM.
I'm not sure how much time it would save for a full audit on a character created after the 14th, but as it does not record all items I would have to say that it would save less time then the 10% I mentioned above and completing the sheet would have had time components for both player GM, so overall it would of less benefit than above.
From the item tracking perspective pretty much the same as above except it would be missing common consumables such as alchemists fire.
It would potentially provide the ability to carry out a "Rough and Ready" style of quick audit, however such an audit would only really be an indicator whether a character required a full audit and such interpretation to if a full audit would be required is subjective.

Now as I mentioned, my conclusions could well be completely flawed and I may be miles off the mark, but what I draw from this is that the best use for the Inventory Tracking Sheet is that it should be converted to a "Consumables Tracking Sheet" and list every consumable that a character owns valued at a cost of 10gp or greater (or maybe even a minimum 1gp?) and of course any consumable bought with prestiege points. And that a GM should not be required to initial the purchase as the purchase should still be listed upon a signed chronicle sheet.
This would be a useful tool for a player as an aesy way to track their consumable items as they can mark off items/charges/other UoM as they are consumed during the scenario when they are used and you should still have the boxes to record when the items were bought/sold/consumed.
From an audit perspective it fills the hole on the chronicle which only records buying and selling rather than consumption.

.....Redundancies are annoying in a system with an already bewildering amount of paperwork for the new guy.

I have to agree with this. I spend enough time getting frustrated at work by the amount of redundant or duplicated paperwork I have to deal with. Having to do the same on my own time (as both player and GM) when I should be enjoying myself is a bit daft really.

Kyle

I have lots of blood (mostly from the fools, I mean players, who perish on my tables)
Eric - I am not a VL so not allowed to use VL green. I shall carry out some investigations into different inks z]and report back at a mutually convenient time.

Terry, You should base your colour of ink upon your mood - red for angry, blue for happy, green for calm, black for stressed and dissappearing ink when you are feeling playful:P

As has been mentioned, GenCon is a huge event and the new guide goes live at the start of the event.
Surely it is better that any issues with the new guide be queried etc. in one place (This forum) before the event starts than at multiple tables over multiple slots?

Back before any "Organised Play" or "Living" games when TSR used to run GenCon and GenCon Europe I used to be a volunteer DM for events such as the D&D Open & D&D Team events for GenCon Europe. TSR would send out the scenarios in advance of the event for the DMs to read/playtest/discect and then they would arrange for "DM meets" ahead of the Con so that we could sit down and discuss any issues we had, share thoughts and pre-empt any problems. Had these "DM meets" not taken place then we would have had a complete nightmare whilst running the scenarios and the players experience would have been poorer. Even then something that hadn't been covered would always crop up.

These days we have the advantage of internet forums. You no-longer have to rely upon small closed groups to proof read new material of such importance. The more proof readers you have, the more chance you have of picking up any issues before "go live" and the less chance of something cropping up that hasn't been covered - thereby improving the gaming experience for all of those tables at GenCon this year and the events that follow.

You shouldn't didmiss someone's post provided it it on-topic just beacuse of poor literary eloquence.

Nidome wrote:

I still fail to see how this new tracking sheet adds any value to the game. More paperwork always means more mistakes, not less - this should be a lesson learnt form Living Greyhawk.

New players find the existing paperwork daunting enough without adding more - Is this really the way to encourage new players?

How is it more paperwork than before? You used to fill in your items purchased on your chronicle sheet. Now you fill them in on an Inventory Tracking Sheet instead. And when you use wand charges, you check them off the ITS instead of manually keeping track on your character sheet. The paperwork's the same.

You still fill out your items purchased on the chronicle as before. Filling out the inventory sheet is EXTRA on top of that. It is "As well" not "Instead".

A GM must be present in order for you to purchase items, so you may only purchase items during or after a scenario. All transactions must be recorded on the scenario’s Chronicle sheet and reflected on your character’s Inventory Tracker.

Step 8: Have the player note all items purchased or sold, including spellcasting services, in the notes section (V). If the character gained an ongoing condition like a curse or disease during the scenario, the player should note that here as well. See Dealing with Afflictions on page 36 for more information on noting conditions gained and cleared during a scenario or after its conclusion. Additionally, this is where the player must list any Prestige Awards his character gains by spending Prestige Points. Sometimes a player must have you witness a roll to verify he successfully scribed a scroll into his spellbook or trained an animal companion to do a new trick. Write your initials next to any such entries in this sections to show that you witnessed the roll and that the PC was successful in the attempt. Any equipment purchased or sold should be tracked on the character’s current Inventory Tracking Sheet, denoting the Character Chronicle # (A) next to the item purchased, sold, or expended during the course of the scenario or after its conclusion.

Step 9: Have the player finish the calculations on the righthand side of the Chronicle sheet (sections I, M–O and S–T).
Step 10: Review the completed Chronicle sheet and check the player’s math. Ensure that the character has access to any items bought and that the correct costs were paid. Verifying this information now helps prevent errors from going unnoticed on future Chronicle sheets. Once you’re satisfied with the information on the Chronicle sheet, fill in the gray box at the bottom of the sheet and sign (W).....

So when people are talking about signing off the purchase, the only place the purchase is signed off is by the signing of the chronicle as before. This rule hasn't changed - it is just mostly ignored as people (GM included) are in a rush to go at the end of the session so the GM just usually (95% of the time in my experience including VOs) fills out the character awards, crosses through stuff not obtained fills out the event line, signs then hands them out to the players.

calagnar wrote:

snip -- They will be going though 2 to 4 wands per scenario. -- snip

????

It has been noted that other forms are OK. So if your build would be better served with a sheet just for wands that should be OK.

Actually I don't think anyone official has said that other forms are ok - a few people have speculated that it might be, but the last comment on the subject by Mike Brock included the following:

I still fail to see how this new tracking sheet adds any value to the game. More paperwork always means more mistakes, not less - this should be a lesson learnt form Living Greyhawk.
New players find the existing paperwork daunting enough without adding more - Is this really the way to encourage new players?
As to people who when running from slot to slot at a convention is mentioned say that it is only an extra 30 seconds to do the paperwork I say:
1) Players who have a 1st language other than English (Do they have to fill out their paperwork in English? It's an international game and GM/Player do not have to be from the same country of origin)
2) Players who have reading difficulties
3) Players who have writing difficulties
I have seen a player receive their chronicle sheet from the GM 1st and still only be half way though it when everyone else has packed up and left the table - and like everyone else they still need to complete all of their paperwork before the next slot as well as get food, drink and any other required "comfort break" activities.

On a different note - If I was to date a chronicle 07/08/13 would that be 8th July or 7th August ? Most Americans would think it was the first, whereas everyone one else in the would think it was the second (and would be correct as I'm from the UK although my characters do have chronicles dated in both US and international date formats).
You may ask why this could be an issue?
1) I remember a time trying to explain to a LG DM at Winter Fantasy that having a date of 20/09/03 on my AR (from the last time I had played that character at a con in the Netherlands) did not invalidate it through being an illegal date. He thought that there was no date format other than mm/dd/yy.
2) At least one chronicle has a time sensitive boon with an expiry based upon the chronicle date.
May I suggest standardisation of some sort be considered? The obvious would be international format (as this is an international game) or writing the month as a word eg. Jan, Feb etc.

Nidome wrote:

Chapter 8 - Regional Coordinators......

I have noticed a few things here. I don't know if these were deliberate or accidental but I thought I'd mention them.
Global—Online Play: This is listed in the USA section of the list. Shouldn't it be international?
Dave Harrison and Rob Silk were listed as United Kingdom last year. They are listed as just England in the new release - what happened to the rest of the UK?
Belfast and Newtownabbey are in Northern Ireland (Part of the UK)
Dublin is in the Republic of Ireland (or Eire)

You are correct about Global - Online Play should be under International. I will get that fixed.

I list VC titles by what the VC or VL wishes to have their title read.

I only queried it due to the change from the previous listing and departure from the format used for the rest of the international listings.

Chapter 8 - Regional Coordinators......
I have noticed a few things here. I don't know if these were deliberate or accidental but I thought I'd mention them.
Global—Online Play: This is listed in the USA section of the list. Shouldn't it be international?
Dave Harrison and Rob Silk were listed as United Kingdom last year. They are listed as just England in the new release - what happened to the rest of the UK?
Belfast and Newtownabbey are in Northern Ireland (Part of the UK)
Dublin is in the Republic of Ireland (or Eire)

The more days the merrier!
The only reason I didn't volunteer to GM anything this year was because I was expecting to have to be at work that weekend and only a last minute postponement of the project enabled me to go.

I would say that the wording on the chronicle is quite clear and leaves no room for doubt, although I would suggest that for this chronicle the month be written as a word rather than numerals - Avoids any US date format vs international date format issues.....

Since there doesn't seem to be an official one, it's probably best to just make up something that would seem appropriate. He's the god of fire and war, more aggressive than defensive, called 'the Forge-Fire' with a favored weapon battle axe and Law, Good, Fire and War for domains.

A battle axe with a flaming head would probably be the easiest option.

Angradd's weapon is a Greataxe not a Battleaxe.

I would also like to know the answer to this question.

Anyone know of any kind program similar to this for Android?

Evan Whitefield wrote:

nosig wrote:

???what???

Evan, I believe you are not correct. Please review.

Yup my first search did not bring this up:

FAQ

Thanks nosig

Welcome!

(was afread I had be teaching it wrong when I read your post!)

I have to say, the FAQ entry linked to doesn't seem relevant here.

The original question in this thread was if Wands work with Share Spells which is a totally different question as this is not about enhancing the spell with a feat etc.

There are a number of classes that involve "Share Spells".
The features are (using the term "Master" for the class which grants the Familiar/Companion/Eidolon):
1) Any spell that the "Master" can only normally cast upon themselves can also be cast upon the Familiar/Companion/Eidolon
2) The "Master" ignores all creature type restrictions when casting upon the Familiar/Companion/Eidolon
3) The Spells for (1) and (2) above must be on the spell list for the class which granted the Familiar/Companion/Eidolon
4) Share Spells does not apply to abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells.

Point(4) - "A wand is a thin baton that contains a single spell of 4th level or lower", so a wand meets the spell requirement.
So provided it meets point(3) and either point(1) or point(2) it seems to meet the requirements of Share Spells.
This suggests to me that the answer to the OP is Yes.

So, I thought I would share a weird thing that happened last night when I ran this. Spoilers

** spoiler omitted **

Just as a note - your player should have failed:

One of my players actually just brought this up earlier today, (or yesterday). I really don't see how there can be different slots for headbands and helmets. I guess because the mental attribute items are all headbands now and the devs didn't want to deny players a slot. Although the same could be said about belts, so why isn't there an extra hip slot?

Why don't you try it out - go and buy some form of headband - usually found with hair accessories as they are usually a decorative way of keeping the hair off the face, put it on and see if you can wear a hat on top.

Anyhow, the *main* argument was whether or not Storn could shoot a person inside the fort, through an arrow slit, from outside. My ruling was that he could not unless he was adjacent to the arrow slit. Pathfinder's rules say that, if you cannot draw a line from any corner of your square to any corner of someone else's square without passing through a wall, then you have total cover. More than 5 feet away from the arrow slit and that really is the case.

That arguement works both ways. If he cannot draw a line to them without passing through a wall, then surely they cannot draw such a line to him unless they have some form of one-way-only barrier.

If you think your players are two overpowered for your homegame then beef up their opponents to make the encounters a challenge rather than introducing last minute house rules to restrict clearly written character abilities.

You also have to bypass a larger area. I think making a smaller number of tumbles is easier than making a larger number of tumbles which is what happens with larger creatures.

Actually it would make more sense if the size modifier was applied to the creature tumbling rather than the creature being tumbled past.