Robert Cameron's page

I've been running into a problem with a few inexperienced players who keep acting as if the freedom to do anything in a game also frees them of the consequences of their actions. So far this has resulted in two TPKs, mostly because a single player acts pointlessly aggressive and initiates combat with an NPC and draw the ire of all their allies and also the town guard. The rest of the PCs, showing solidarity, fight along side their completely in the wrong partner and get killed along with him when they inevitably turn to deadly force to try and escape.

I've thought about this for a little while and I decided that the new characters they make will be themselves (at least for a little while). I'm mining the classic trope of heroes from another dimension quite shamelessly, but I think that playing as themselves will make them feel more inclined to protect their life and less likely to pick fights with people to whom they fairly lost bets.

Does anyone think this will work?

I am very much of a mind to convert the 3.5 Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (with some elements of the original) to Pathfinder and run it in the world of Golarion. I am aware that there is an older thread for this, but it hasn't been posted in for over a year so I decided to make a new one. If this offends others you have my apologies.

First, I was considering placement. Part of me leans towards NW Ustalav, in the more mountainous parts of the Palatinates where a fog shrouded village like Barovia could easily be tucked away and lost to time. But others have pointed out how undead heavy Ustalav is already and that makes me consider either Varisia (probably in the SE) or the River Kingdoms, where a small village like Barovia could easily be dropped in among the constantly shifting holdings. I ask you, my fellow Paizoians (Paizoites?), to weigh in.

Secondly, I am considering if there is a way to start the PCs at first level around the village and have them work their way up to the actual adventure itself. The adventure doesn't start until 6th level so I need at least five levels of distraction before they turn their attention on the Count. I was considering using them as unwitting pawns in the priest's mad scheme from the 3.5 version. Anyone else have some suggestions as to how to tone down Barovia until they're ready for the real pain of Strahd's attention?

Now that the Serpent's Skull has been decked out with paper minis can I expect the same will soon be happening for the Jade Regent? Can I get an ETA or is this a "it's done when it's done" kind of things?

As a preface, I have been role playing pretty consistantly for 11 years, so I'm not new to the nuances of gaming. I'm also not a complete a+~!!*%. However I am faced with a problem that I have never enountered before and my natural instincts for gaming and not being a complete a~~+++& are at odds with my character's attitude.

Now, my question is whether or not I should kill two of my fellow PCs for insulting my character. On the one hand I know that a PC killing another player's character is really lame, aggravating, and there is a certain amount of betrayal and selfishness involved that tells the other person that their fun isn't as important as yours. This makes me not want to kill.

On the other hand... both of the PCs I mentioned have repeatedly insulted my character, who is a proud person (also secretly a CE anti-aristocracy anarchist who worships Norgorber) and if I may say so, the most valuable member of the group. Without me the story would not have advanced at all and many encounters have relied on my being there to prevent everyone from dying, yet those two continue to act as though my guy is a waste of space. Also, one of the PCs is a haughty princess who my character just wants to kill on principle and the other is a bossy mouthy Cleric of Pharasma, a religion my character despises as he thinks it oppresses the spirit of Man to give in to Death so easily (He's an Alchemist and at 20th I plan for him to have Eternal Youth) and they help to keep the status quo in Ustalav, where all this is happening.

The GM had a big open discussion about the possiblity of PC on PC violence as he saw the party friction increase. He claimed to be fine with it and everyone else at the table agreed that it was okay as long as it was in character and that there would be no retribution from future unrelated characters (though not from the still living PCs if caught).

The facts are out there, what do you, O possible reader, think? Do you think it's okay to kill PCs under those circumstances or not?

Any ideas for how to effectively run a 5 person version of We Be Goblins? I was thinking I might add the advanced template to the monsters but I was wondering if that might unbalance the game. Anyone already do this and have some practical advice?

Besides the paragraph in the Innner Sea World Guide I see nothing else on the Kalistocrats? Is there something in one of the APs or have the Paizo staff just not tackled it yet? I want to know more about the secular Puritans, they seem really interesting. It also seems like they're probably big players on the world stage with all that wealth.

On a somewhat related note, I would love to see a list of specific jewelry with prices for them. I want to deck out my future Kalistocrat in the finest bling.

I've been playing table-top RPGs for slightly over a decade now and for the most part I've played with people of at least above-average intelligence. In recent years however, since I left school, the intellect of the people I associate with now is significantly lower than what I it used to be. They're great people, which is why we're all friends, but for some reason most of them never graduated high school. Now please don't think I'm trying to call all people who didn't finish high school unintelligent, far from it, but with my specific group of friends this happens to be the case.

Over seven months ago I introduced some of my newer friends to Pathfinder. They were all thrilled with the idea and we quickly put together a group and I started running them through Serpent's Skull. Problems first started to show when the whole group was completely baffled by the words used in the player handouts and it brought the game to a halt for a whole session at one point. Problems continued when, after seven months, I am still being asked questions like "how far can I move and still take an action?" or "What does incorporeal mean?" or "As a Ranger I can cast spells from the Sorcerer/Wizard list, right?" How long should it take someone, who has the core rule book, access to the internet, and the free time to actually look at both to learn the rules or look up a word? Am I being to hard?

It's getting to a point where I am no longer having fun playing because every session I'm repeating the same rules over and over, but no one seems to be picking them up. With one exception I have to walk each person step by step through character creation and leveling. Last week, I spent an entire session essentially making characters for three of the players (who had died the previous session) because they didn't understand the book's instructions on how to make a character. And then after that I had to help the player who didn't die level from 6th to 7th because she couldn't do it herself. After seven levels of play she still hasn't figured out how to level her character. I also have to keep track of their xp totals because they can't seem to add them properly on their own, leading to some very frustrating nights where people are leveling way out of line with everyone else.

I've been entertaining the idea of just cancelling the game, but I know that they would be really upsetting to my friends, because dispite their lack of understanding of the game they are all very eager to play. Does anyone have any ideas on how to save this game? Or should I just give up? Or am I being an elitist jerk looking down on people who I should be giving more of a chance?

If I were to increase my character's Intelligence score after leveling to fourth so that the ability modifier went up by one would I learn a bonus language? Also do I get the bonus skill points that I would have gotten at every earlier level or do I lose out on them as well?

Title says it all, is there an archtype for Alchemists that focuses specifically on bombs in Ultimate Combat? Because that may be the deciding factor on whether I buy it or not.

Are the mountains of Golarion formed by natural processes as we understand them today or are they formed by something else, either magical or mundane? Obviously there can be more than one answer to this as there are a several mountain ranges in the Inner Sea region alone, but what would form the majority and what would be a few notable exceptions if such exceptions exist?

On a related note, what are the tallest mountains/mountain ranges on Golarion? And are any of them growing?

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Werner Herzog's newest documentary The Cave of Forgotten Dreams about the cave paintings at Chuvet Cave and it is one of his most interesting documentaries to date. For those who don't want to look it up, the Chuvet Cave was discovered in 1994 after being sealed by a landslide for more than 20,000 years. Amidst some amazingly beautiful rock formations (forming stalagmites, crystal studded rock, waves of calcite, calcite covered skulls of extinct megafauna!) the explorers found the oldest collection of cave paintings yet discovered and later it was found that the paintings were done over an amazingly long span of time in between (over 5000 years in some cases). The cave was re-sealed off and now only a handful of people (primarily scientists) are allowed to visit each year. Herzog was granted the rare privelage and for a brief period of time he and his crew were allowed to film these artifacts of human imagination. The images (in 100% non-crappy 3D!) of the cave paintings and the gorgeous undisturbed rock formations alone are worth the price of admission, however, Herzog is the real star of the show. Fans of his previous work will be well aquainted with Herzog's ability to draw in many different sources and synthesis a brilliant insight, seemingly on the spot. To Herzog the cave paintings aren't just remarkable artifacts, they're windows into the minds of prehistoric man, they're a starting point to try and find the humans behind the art. I don't think I could recommend this movie more enthusiastically!

Obviously this is based partially off of Frankenstien, but there seem to be some other influences at work.

First off, the stone ring outside of Lepidstatd called the Spiral Cromlech seems like it came (at least in name) from China Mieville's Bas-Lag world. Spiral Jacobs is a character in Iron Council and High Cromlech is a language spoken in a near-fabled city ruled by the undead (I think, been a while since I read them). Also, the spelling of the chemical works with a 'y' is reminiscent of Mieville.

The second less-than-obvious (or imagined exclusively by me) influence that I spotted was Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher (or perhaps the film by Robert Wise) in the form of the two alchemists of questionable morals.

Third, The Punishing Man is very obviously based on The Wicker Man.

And fouth, the Seasage Effigy has the fishy smell of Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth all over it, but anyone who's looked ahead at what adventures are to come probably saw that one.

Any one agree? Disagree? Spot things I missed? Mr. Pett have anything to contribute?

After years of playing nothing but Risk, poker and spades over at one of my friend's house I finally told him and the group that hangs at his house that we needed a new game. I recommended Pathfinder and much to my shock and delight I had five people asking for help making a character that week. I've got a decade of RP experience and I'm very comfortable with the PF rules and running a game; my main concern is keeping a group of first time role players interested, especially while everyone is in the beginning stages of learning the rules. Any special tricks?

Another concern, what do you do for people who just have no hope of learning the rules but have lots of enthusiasm for playing? One of the prospective players is a very nice guy, but he's not the sharpest tool in the shed; for instance, he is still challenged by the Risk rules we've been playing with for three years. While I don't want to turn away friendly entusiastic people, I also don't want to have to hold his hand every session and re-re-re-re explain why as a caster he needs to cast defensively if he doesn't want to get AoO'd.

Any ideas or advice on either subject would be most helpful and welcome!

OH! Also, what would be a good intro to the Golarian setting? I was specifically curious if there were any AP's out there with a strong urban element that would be good for first timers.

Four years ago I went through a Michael Moorcock phase and raided every local bookstore for his work. I ended up with 40+ paperbacks, all of which I felt obligated to read and ever since they've had a pretty steady rotation out to friends who've never read any of the Eternal Champion books. One of those books was Elric at the End of Time, a collection of Elric odds and ends (the title story is pretty good, expecially if you like the Dancers at the End of Time books) and a short story from Moorcock's early days called Sojan the Shield-bearer. Out of the 40+ books, the only thing I couldn't finish was that short story. I cut Moorcock a break on that story because he was probably little more than a kid when he wrote it, but I remember it being poorly writen, highly derivative, and just plain dull. Is anyone else of that opinion or am I way off about Sojan and should give him another chance?

I placed an order (#1395984) eight days ago and the transation is still pending. Is there something I should be doing? Did I miss a step in ordering?

I ordered a subscribtion to the Kingmaker AP on Monday, but for some reason it didn't ship me the book, it just signed me up for a subscription. Is that how it's supposed to work? I remember when I signed up it said it was going to be a certain amount (about $19) per book, and then when I get the email it said it was $0.00 for the subscription.
Early yesterday I noticed that the book was not shipped yet, so I requested that it be sent and it charged me the same $19 that I thought I was paying before. Did I get double charged?
Also, I really wanted to access the PDF but it says that my transaction is still pending, so I've got no access. Does it usually take days to confirm orders?