Pete Apple's page

Ah, this is excellent news. The 4th is always busy (as it is this year - hope ya'll are having a blast!) Memorial day will be much easier to swing.

My suggestion is that you pick up B4, the Palace of the Silver Princess. It was my "go to" module for teaching new players as it's a fairly self-contained castle with very specific goals. Very easy to run.

You're not necessarily limited to what's around the hotel. If you hop on the light rail the options expand greatly.

Are these new or "broken in" first by the Paizo staff? :-)

Are PSA's part of his parole conditions?

Mike - these all sound like great changes. Thanks for listening to the feedback on last years GenCon and being so proactive.

Sad I missed out on this. Well, not very sad as I unexpectedly got to spend the weekend with my wife who I hadn't seen in 3+ weeks. So, that was a nice surprise. SKR is a handsome devil, but she wins that one every time.

I'm still very interested in extending the basic game and would like to see/hear more on that. I have a friend with lupus I play with on a regular basis and I've found that less rules tends to allow him to play longer. He calls it his "mana battery". :-)

-Pete

The space issues were in part due to construction that was expected to be completed by the Con, but wasn't. Next year events should have much more space and be completed contained in the hotel.

I took a look and was a bit concerned about the room. It reminded me too much of the room from Gencon, which was way too big and loud. I' glad to hear things will be improved next year.

Good to know their lunch buffet is decent. We generally tend to go a few blocks further afield to Kanishka. Tasty goat curry and tandoori chicken. =D

I've heard great things about the italian restaurant across the way from Matt's but I've not eaten there personally.

Out of the Redmond town center aways, but still within walking distance, I can recommend a ton of other places chief among them are, The Three Lions(Wings of Fire + Snake Bite and Black), Malt & Vine/Gyros 2 Go(Gyros, fries, and whatever porter is on tap), and Spicy Talk(Sweet and Sour Soup, Green Onion Pancake, and Szechuan Chicken).

For coffee, I prefer Tully's(which should just be catty cornered to the main Marriott entrance and down a little ways) to Starbucks and they also have free wi-fi.

Lissa is wise, listen to all she says here. Kanishka, Three Lions, M&V, Spicy Talk, Tully's. All Winners.

If you want Italian, go with Tropea. It's in a strip mall near Three Lions. Best Italian in Redmond. http://www.ristorantetropea.com/

We used to go to the Celtic Bayou a lot but between their food steadily going downhill(except for the hushpuppies which are truely awesome) and the cover charge on most friday and saturday evenings, it became less and less of a thing. Good selection of beers though and open later than malt and vine. I could never recommend the bayou fair but the celtic fair was always pretty tasty if you decide to go, except the last two or three times we had the stew and it was terrible.

The original fellows that opened it (some fellow 'softies) are long gone. I think it's on it's third owner at this point. I stopped going as much when the original owners left as well. With Malt&Vine, Black Raven, and Three Lions around, my beer needs are amply satisfied. :-)

Speaking of which - sad to say I will miss the M&G. Well, as sad as someone can be who's out on a boat in the sun with margaritas. I have to enjoy our 10 days of summer while it lasts... :-)

FTC - Blocking It's up to you to ask up front if they block, not the other way around.

I do recommend a Pinkabella cupcake to pair with coffee. The salted caramel is pretty much the most delicious I've had.

Absolutely! Margo the owner, is an old friend. I knew her before she was the "Cupcake Queen of Seattle". Seriously - she has like 5 shops now. If you stop in and she's there, tell her Pete sent you. ;-)

PS: Peanut Butter/Chocolate FTW

Btw - speaking of treats, I forgot to mention the PIE LADY at the Saturday market. YUM. "Never Trust A Skinny Cook". :-)

Yes, there are multiple free parking garages at RTC.

I'm most excited to see the new venue. To imagine that the little cramped single room at the lovely La Quinta Inn has expanded so far is mighty humbling.

But wait - that was only five years ago? Goodness, so much has happened with the company since, it seems like longer. Amazing.

I mean, heck, at least half the people at the original Paizocon are now employees, right?!? :-) :-) Ok, it just seems like it I guess.

Okay. I'm a coffee drinker. I could just use the hotel coffee, but being out there can someone give me some tips on coffee and what local shops are around.

Absolutely! Coincidentally, there's a great coffee vendor at the market. He has fresh French press there every Saturday. Roasts his own beans and sells them if you want to take some back with you.

For the other days and local coffee shops, you can't beat Victor's. http://www.victorscelticcoffee.com/ It's about a 2 minute walk from the hotel.

-Pete

I would like to try Cards against Humanity. I've heard about it but not had the opportunity to try it out yet. When is your "spare time between events" ? :-)

Hey - creating a thread for people coming to our fair city. You locals post some stuff!

I thought of this as I shopped at the farmer's market this morning. As I picked out some fresh cherries and strawberries it occurred to me that I was going to miss the farmer's market next Saturday because Paizocon was... But WAIT! PaizoCon is AT the Redmond Town Center, literally right next to the Farmer's Market. Which got me thinking - Hey - I can just step out the door and pick up some fruit to nosh on all weekend.

So if you're hankering for fresh fruit, veggies, cheese, and crats, stop in next Saturday between 9-2. Just look for all the people carrying yummy food. They've got some food vendors there as well, so you can pick up some lunch. We had some of the wood fired pizza today. Yummy.

Any other suggestions? Malt and Vine seems like a no brainer, sure lots of folks will be over there. Three Lions for the brit-beer/futbol crowd.

Warrant wrote:

So what's the verdict?

Is it official? Meet and Greet on Thursday at ClaimJumper?

Yes, let's make it official.

Meet and Eat (informally) at Claimjumper, in the Redmond Town Center, on July 5th, 2012.

Meet in the Saloon (bar) area, starting at 5 pm. We'll hang out there, and when folks are ready to eat, they can form a group to go eat together at a table, and go get on the list for getting seated.

After dinner, folks can return to the bar and continue to hang out. A small group may cut out to go to Black Raven or Malt and Vine or Three Lions for more drinks.

Woot, will see if this works with work schedule.

I'll mention that we went to Claimjumper after the father's day brewfest and it was *packed*. The Desert Fire next door is never very busy if you need overflow, we ended up over there.

Woot! Looking forward to this. I will strive to remember dice. :-)

I might bring some along, we'll see. I did so well last year that I'm not sure I could improve. Gary - Orcus still sits proudly upon the mantel thanks to you! :-)

I'll give you some perspective...for the 1st PaizoCon, we had 40 people or so. And the lottery was a top hat. In that hat were slips of paper. Each seat at a game table had a slip of paper with that game's name. People pulled one slip of paper out and BAM! that was the game you were playing in. You could try and swap with someone, but that was the game you got.

And we walked up hill... in the snow.. both ways.. to get those slips of paper...

Well, ok, maybe not. But I *did* have to carry in a lot of soda.

Thanks for all the clarifications and notes on this, very interesting stuff.

To clarify though:

I'm convinced that most of the issues that people in this forum are having are the result of trying to map the things we've said too strictly to Pathfinder RPG mechanics. Free your mind, and the rest will follow!

Well, no, not at all actually. It's simple to control within RPG mechanics - the DM can even "fudge" damage rates on the fly as necessary to help the story.

I've played *a lot* of MMO's. I am definitely not mapping RPG mechanics on MMO's. I don't expect it to be at all the same. The issue/concern is specifcally around theorycraft and DPS within video games, especially MMO's. Those whacky kids will figure out the most optimal way to blast away at folks in an extremely short amount of time, if it's at all possible. Take it from me - I used to be one of them. :-)

DPS, DPS, DPS. That's entirely the concern. Brought it up because I want the game to be "fun" and sell like crazy. It sounds like you're already thinking about these things though, so consider it "feedback" (what you want, right?) and look forward to more details as they arrive. :-)

We can launch and grow effectively even if we begin without full interior access, and that may be the route that we take—with the ideal that we'll implement fully realized interior spaces as soon as time, budget, and technology permit.

Seems like a very reasonable choice to make initially. "Interacting" with the building type doesn't require going into the interior, per se. Interaction with the interior is really about window dressing (chests, racks to display armor, etc.) that can be done in later iterations. I like it. :-)

WOOT! Welcome To Seattle Thread! :-)

PvP seems problematic to me as well, from the leveling standpoint. Sure, there will be "safe" zones where you'll be fine. But how to deal with players camping just outside the safe zone, waiting for players 10+ levels lower to come out.

With PvE it's relatively simple to do "leveling" of the dungeons (average level of the whole party - x-2, x+2, ala CoH et al). Not completely clear yet how that would work with PvP. A 15th level mage could just blast a 1st or 2nd level character (or characters - Hello Mr. Fireball!) to bits in one round.

Thoughts?

Pete Apple wrote:

Also raises interesting thoughts on how many hexes make up an "instance" per server. I'm going to assume not 1 hex/instance. And then you get into how the "intances" interact - is going from one instance to the next a hard jump (easier) or can players "travel" ad nauseum (hard). A lot of this depends upon what the underlying engine supports, of course.

Nah the world just needs to end with what looks like a giant cliff, with an odd brown surface at the bottom of some imposibly large cliff, past the edge of the world you can vaguely see what looks like giants sitting around staring at the world. As well as a bag of funyuns and a bottle of mountain dew for realism sake.

Yah, you're not getting my meaning here. The edge of the world is simple. Just as you say, provide some means of having the edge be defined and you are fine.

The tricky part is the "edge" between instances of the game servers. Creating an "endless" travel model is extremely difficult, and most game engines don't do it (or do it right - bugs or abuse, etc.) Usually better to create instances between which players travel via some mechanism. With the primary world being the River Kingdoms seems like there are some inherit splits that could be done.

Hopefully we'll be a bit faster than that. :) The design assumes a median character density of 100 logged in characters per Hex. Once we hit our stride I expect we'll be adding Hexes on a very regular schedule.

The Crusader Road area is 11 miles by 12 miles. A Hex is approximately 1.2km/1.2km.

100 logged in players per hex is a very interesting model. With Eve you were able to just scale up by adding hexes (space - the infinite map...) With the Kingdoms it's somewhat - odd - to have the "world" just keep expanding.

Also raises interesting thoughts on how many hexes make up an "instance" per server. I'm going to assume not 1 hex/instance. And then you get into how the "intances" interact - is going from one instance to the next a hard jump (easier) or can players "travel" ad nauseum (hard). A lot of this depends upon what the underlying engine supports, of course.

Cool. This is not what I expected and certainly a big leap. Looking forward to it.

Interesting investor model you're taking. 100K seems like a safe entry point. Assume higher is ok too but does ownership stake involve input or not on the operation of the company and game design?

I don't see any mention in the FAQ of being associated with any of the major houses (SOE, etc.) Are you doing your own infrastructure?

Will development be based locally? Which side of the lake?

It's the new Rankin/Bass "A Very Special Goblin Thanksgiving". I hear the claymation flaming turkey is especially awesome.

I don't believe we've announced what the sixth Small is yet, but yes, that's the figure that will be packed with the Goblin Mystic.

What's the timeline for a full list?

Woot! Paizocon even closer to home and just down the street from the office. Win! Tickets being purchased PDQ.

So, when are we meeting at Malt and Vine? :-)

Will Games & Gizmos or Uncles have a presence in the dealer room? Seems like Friday night PFS in Redmond will be relocated that week. :-)

Note that doggie care only does small dogs -but also have heard good things about them. VCA are nice folks, right next to my office so we see the pups going for walks all the time.

What? The Gnome Fighter is a common? Awesome! Nothing better then an ambush by a group of evil fey Gnomes. PC's never expect Gnome commandos.

Going to have to think of more Gnames though... Gnigel, Gnorman, Gnevil, Gnancy.... :-)

Play a cleric if you want to be good at:

...
"Using a Scimitar"
"Persuading People"

Isn't this redundant? :-)

But, wait, all Clerics have to use Scimitar's now? Great simplification! :-)

(PS: Great first preview. Looks fun!)

A friend is planning to put together some sessions for my wife and a couple of friends - plan is to for the three of them to be "Medieval Charlies Angels" and I get to play the "Bosley". We have a "Townsend Adventuring Agency" that goes out to solve murders, find kidnapped folk, rescue keeps, etc.

He's not on here, so asked me to request if anyone might suggest AP books, modules, or PFS that have "detective" like plotlines that he might pick up and use.

Recommendations? Btw, don't be too spoilery, since I might be playing these! :-)

Having grown up in Indianapolis and now living in Seattle, I miss the local flavors. At the Steak N' Shake 3 times over 6 days while I was there for GenCon and visiting the folks. Pizza King another night, White Castle very late Saturday. Chili 5 way every time at the S n' S. :-) Dad sends out cans of chili as care packages for us.

Still waiting for the report on the yearly Paizo visit to White Castle. Did all survive with guts intact?

-Pete

Vikings vs. Ninjas

How unfortunate. With his history I'm sure Bill won't have trouble doing something else if he's so inclined. I would think this cements the non-future of any further Star Wars products? He was the walking SW encyclopedia, after all.

It's interesting you mention Stephen and Michelle as well. That's "Director", "Lead" and "Senior" titles. Smells of cutting based upon salary savings, or a shake-up in product direction, or both. Seems troubling, especially since it's not even Christmas yet.... :-|

Any interest in Pathfinder Kinect? Now *that* would be something popular at the home office I'm sure. :-) :-)

Hey William!

Looks like mine have been poste, so yours should be showing up soon as well since we were in a couple together. Hope the trip back down to Portland was good.

-Pete

The Grand Melee was great! And, winning it was even better! :-) The boons were excellent. Robert, our GM, made it a ton of fun and kept it moving along at a snappy pace. Loved one initiative roll that just went on and on and on and on.

The next afternoon I played in Shades of Ice Part III. Unfortunately I had a 1st level character playing "up" with 3 4th levels and 2 2nd levels. Let me tell ya, having that final resurect boon in the back pocket made it *much* more relaxing than it might have been.

At one point there's a very large chance of death bearing down on us with everyone scrambling out of the way. ZIP - the 1st level character is flying 60' feet up. Even helped get a rope secured for those high level guys. Woot. :-)

-Pete

Btw, walking by this afternoon and saw the projection up on the wall for this. Nice touch!

Interesting, the schedule is the first thing I found in the SWAG bag. <shrug>

It was, well, Grand. :-) Good organization, lots of fun. And the rewards - awesome! Our table got through all 5 encounters. How did other tables do?

Hey - I'm signed up for the 9-noon session for this on Friday morning, but it's looking like I have to drop my wife off later then expected. Checking the scheduling, I don't appear to be able to drop it from my schedule, so this is fair notice - very good chance I won't be there - spot open!

-Pete

Dale - want to commend you for getting this going. I likely won't make it (as I'm not staying at the hotel since I live local) - but wanted to suggest a couple interesting things nearby as "destinations" for your walk. I know it's always more interesting that way.

Probably the easiest would be to loop around Lake Bellevue and back. Can probably do that in 15 or so. Go left out of the hotel, turn east on 8th, then 118th over to Lake Bellevue.

If you turn right out of the hotel and take 116th south up the hill, you should get a good view of Seattle. Near there is Willburton Park Hill, which has the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. Obviously, you might not be able to make it up, through the gardens, and back in 15 minutes. :-) :-)

Here's a map of the area around the hotel, you should be able to see both of these on the map.

MAP!

Cheers!
Pete

Yes to both EMP and SciFi.

And I have a question is the food there good? Or is that a dumb question?

This is not a dumb question - there are no dumb questions.

My personal feelings are the food there is good. It's not "great", but it is good. I'm kind of spoiled by other seafood places around here (Anthony's, etc.) The grilled seafoods are ok - the cioppino isn't bad.

The "crab pot" experience of having them dump a big bucket of stuff is fun though, so if you haven't ever done that, definitely dig in and get both hands dirty. It's definitely more about the experience of having a big crowd and having fun then it being the best seafood in Seattle.

If you're a "fresh" seafood person and that's something you really want to try - ask specifically what they have that's fresh. Over the weekend we had some of the fresh copper river @ Anthony's -- YUM.

Hope that helps!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-crab-pot-bellevue

And... none of them! And that's just fine. I figure having been to the first couple Paizocon's and having gotten to play in a number of awesome games already, I have nothing to complain about. Let the new kids have their fun!

Signed up for the Grand Melee - Look out Tim - you know we're gunning for ya! Also signed up for some low-level PFS to get a new character leveling - should be fun!

-Pete

OK! By my count to this point, I have 85 people attending!

Still some room, folks!

I just saw this thread again.

85 PEOPLE??? Um, Tim, doesn't that make the meet and greet like, twice as big as the whole of PaizoCon 1??? :-) :-)

Wild...