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Man, the store just did not want to work right for me this morning.... Ok, for Order 7590001 please:
During the order process, the site simply would not accept starting the Pathfinder Rules subscription on anything other than Planar Adventures and it would not let me set the sidecart items to ship with the subscription at all. Thanks,
I'm curious whether a Cleric multiclass who obtains a Domain (such as through the Domain class feat) gains access to any other domain abilities besides the domain powers (for example, does a Cleric Multiclass with Basic Spellcasting add domain spells to the divine spell list when chosing spells? Do they add the domain skill as a signature skill? Access and training with the favored weapon?). I'd understand if the skill/weapon access weren't, but the spell list add really seems like it should be minor enough to be a "freebie" as part of the access.
This ability seems a lil strong for a first level ability (situational, but still strong). "You are immune to the harmful environmental effects of outer space and vacuum." So does that mean a character with the ability is immune to radiation damage from cosmic rays, can breathe in space, and is not susceptible to explosive decompression? (Baring guidance, I'd probably say "they can tool around without a spacesuit, but still need an air supply").
Whatever it is will probably involve prophetic dream sequences, or memory dream sequences maybe (since Prophecy doesn't work in Golarion since the death of Aroden). They turn up in every Avellone game I've ever played. If the game is true to the Adventure Path, it would have dream sequences regardless of whether Avellone was involved or not....
Actually, Why is Fireball okay but not Grippli? They're both OGL, right? Nope. If it is in the SRD it is available to use, but if it isn't it is considered D&D IP and not available (other examples would be Beholders or Mind Flayers). That said, I'm surprised that Grippli showed up in the Advanced Race Guide if they were D&D IP.
People in the Kickstarter comments thread keep talking about Grippli. Grippli are D&D IP, and are not available to us without the OGL, which we are not using. Which is to say, Grippli will 100% for sure NOT be in the game. Am I correct in thinking Owlbears would fall in the same boat? How are we going to have a Kingmaker game without Owlbears dying on every loading screen?
There's been Surprisingly little american Press. No Kotaku, No IGN, no Paizo itself chiming in via a blog or news post. Which honestly is pretty darn weird. My experience is unless a Kickstarter does exceedingly well on its first day it doesn't get any special press coverage until a week or so into the project.
While I'm sure that isn't the final cover art (since a) they said it isn't and b) they tend to like more action on their covers), I totally concur on that logo. Orange is never the right answer. I'd prefer something that looked more like either the old Star Frontiers RPG trade dress or the Star Trek logos from TOS movies, if we are going to go retro.
8-9, not sure if it was Star Frontiers or the original D&D Basic set (the one before the "Red Box"). My pastor's son worked for Random House in their distribution warehouse and he would pass along freebies he got now and then. When I was younger I got Little Golden Books and activity books, but when I got older and Random House started handling TSR distribution, I got stuff from D&D, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, etc.
Garona really needed to have more CGI than just the green skin. She was just a green human with bad teeth and hair. The Alliance dialogue was bad. Sometimes you hear about great actors elevating bad material...this was not one of those times. I'll give a pass to Travis Fimmel who I could at least buy as Lothar, even if he was phoning it in. Dominic Cooper was not a good King Llane. The orcs were great across the board tho - Durotan, Ogrim, Blackhand, and Gul'dan all looked amazing and their actor's performances really shone thru the mocap, which was the best I've seen. No uncanny valley at all.
I loved the setting for Star Frontiers and it actually had a pretty good ship/vehicle/power armor crafting system (if you included the articles from Dragon magazine). It had decent support and right before it died, they published what was supposed to be the first in a series of new rules updates (Zebulon's Guide). Unfortunately, I think it got killed when Lorraine Williams took charge of TSR and switched the sci-fi focus to Buck Rogers.
Since Paizo is adamant that Starfinder will be Pathfinder compatible enough that Pathfinder monsters can just be dropped into Starfinder (Power Marine fighting Dragons!) I don't think Starfinder needs its own Bestiary Line. New additions to the Core Bestiary line just have to include an alien themed section that is more relevant to Starfinder but can be used just as well in Pathfinder and Done! It doesn't necessarily need a whole line, but there is absolutely a need for a basic collection of critters than can be used immediately with ZERO conversion for folks who are either inexperienced or don't own (or want to own) Pathfinder books. Once we have a initial Bestiary tho, I think we'll probably be able to go a while before the next (either with the critters added by the adventure path or from 3rd Party materials). Ideally the Starfinder Bestiary would mostly (80%+) be new creatures and the remaining would be converted versions of existing creatures that would be more difficult to convert on the fly, with info on how they fit into the future setting.
I don't want a design system where you can build a ship from absolute scratch, partially because it is a min/max'ers dream and as a GM I don't want to have to try to break out spreadsheets to have to microanalyze what my players are trying to pull over on me. I'd much rather have a collection of base ships that can be modified, maybe kind of like the Unleashed Eidolons - a base chassis (combat, hauler, mid-range, racer), a size template, and then a pool of available points to purchase upgrades with (along with cash expenditures for the parts and labor). A new ship might not come fully kitted out and have some points "free" for players to add new components, on others they may have to remove equipment in order to fit in other toys. You could even allow for the ships to "level" allowing more points of equipment to be added to the ship (not so much that the ship all of a sudden gets more room, but maybe some of the old gear manages to get streamlined to take up less effective space).
Ah, nice. We were looking at the same source material and coming to slightly different conclusions. 1-2 hardbacks a year isnt a subscribable line to me though so i was thinking of the AP line as the only one with the hardbacks as the occasional... I'm assuming it will be a subscribable line...it may not have quite as much as the Pathfinder line to start with, but it'll probably be enough to warrant it - I'm assuming that there will be a Starfinder GM's screen in the first six months and maybe a Player Character Folio after that, then it'll be time for the first hardcover book. That said...I wonder if Paizo will be going with the $9.99 discounted price on the Starfinder Core Rules PDF like they do with Pathfinder Core Rules PDF.
Weird, what sources did you read for that? I am doubting myself now but for some reason i was sure that it was going to be one core book and then one product line with books mixing GM, Player, Setting and AP all in one. That is why i was hoping it would be only larger page count softback a month. To an extent this kind of thing already happens. Say the AP is set in the bowels of Absalom Station, the book starts off with new traits, feats, archetypes and gear that everyone can use. the next chapter is the background and history of this part of the station, then there is the GM only AP information for a good while and then the last few pages are beastiary entries for what new creatures are used in the book. If the line does well enough we could see collected products focusing on just character options, setting info or space beastiaries but i dont see those becoming staple product lines you would subscribe to. This is from Geek and Sundry's Interview with James Sutter: With Pathfinder, we’ve got the monthly Adventure Path and the monthly Player Companions and Campaign Settings and all these different lines. Starfinder is going to be much smaller. We’re gonna have the Core Rulebook coming out at GenCon 2017 and we’ll probably do a hardcover or slightly more each year. The main thing we’re going to be doing is the Starfinder Adventure Path, a monthly AP product which will have not just the adventures, but new setting information, new rules information, new monsters. That’s going to be one of the primary vectors through which we give people new information about the world and the rules.
Will Starfinder have two lines? I thought i saw multiple references to just one line. Coincidentally having just one line is probably the concession to not wanting to rattle the Pathfinder base too much or too heavily invest in an unproven product. Having it as an all in one, maybe something around 25 bucks a month for a 94 page book? (Hopinghopinghoping) is what is really tempting me to subscribe to it. Pathfinder materials i find have only 1-2 interesting pieces per book and too many books per month to subscribe to anything which is why i wait to flip through books and see if there is anything i would put money down for. Well, the Starfinder Core Rules are a line of their own, separate from the Adventure Path's, and I'm sure that we'll see a Starfinder Bestiary soon enough. I don't expect the rules line to swell too quickly, maybe 1-2 hardcovers a year.
From what I understand the product output for Starfinder (at least out of the gate) will be significantly less than Pathfinder. Unlike Pathfinder which has five RPG lines (the rules, campaign, companion, adventure path, and modules), Starfinder will only have two (rules and adventure path). If it is successful enough to warrant additional product lines, that means it will probably be successful enough to warrant the additional staff necessary to support those lines.
I wouldn't expect it to be higher than 20 (adamantine). However, I would expect that the amount of damage a guy with a sword could do with a sword should be trivial to a battleship ( a few strategic cuts could probably disable a fighter, but on something the scale of a cruiser, it should be pointless to try).
@Robert Little - I'd like to see something that supports PCs being at stations providing things to do in combat. FrEx: Weapons station is attack rolls, engineering station is repair rolls and rolls to provide a bonus to attack or defense (via shielding) by rerouting power, comms station for diplomacy or intimidation or bluff, etc. That would be fine. I'm just wary of a system that gives ships an AC, a bunch of hit points, and has ship based weapons that do damage inline with what PC's do ("I swing my sword at the ship and hit AC 28." "Ok, you hit roll damage."..."The ship fires one laser cannon at the fighter and one at your ship. It hits both times, rolling 8d6 damage for each.")
Is the goal for starships/space combat to use a system that scales up from personal combat (ala the vehicle system in Ultimate Combat) or to have a separate system that PCs can only indirectly affect (for example, PC's directly attacking a vessel as opposed to fighting vessel on vessel). My preference would be a separate system as the scaling never seems to work right, although that might affect backwards compatiblility for folks wanting to have space cruiser vs outer dragon battles. Mecha? Golemecha? Flumphs in power armor?
So in several of the books, they point out that Aasimar don't have to be born to human parents, other humanoid races can have aasimar children as well. I was thinking of tweaking the "Scion of Humanity" alternate racial trait to allow players to plug in other appropriate races, but otherwise leaving the trait as written. Am I overlooking any negative consequences of doing this?
Dragon Empires Hardcover
Spoiler: In the comics, there is a Trial of the Flash storyline that they may be hinting at. The blurb for the collected story is:
Following the murder of The Flash’s wife, Iris, by his greatest foe, The Reverse-Flash, the two costumed characters are locked in a round-the-world race and battle – one that ended in the death of the evildoer. This is only the beginning of a startling chain of events for The Fastest Man Alive, as he is arrested on a charge of murder. A police scientist himself in his civilian identity of Barry Allen, The Flash begins to build his defense. But when his famous Rogues Gallery of villains decides to get revenge for the death of one of their own, The Flash must battle their patsy: The massively powerful villain called Big Sir. And that’s all before the trial even begins . . . It wouldn't surprise me if they are planning on modifying and adapting this arc and that shot was just a hint of it.
Bart? Bart Allen is a distant (30th Century) descendant of both the Allen and Thawne bloodlines (because of Barry's time travel, he's only a grandchild of Barry, but there are more generations on his Thawne side). At some point he gets brought to the present as a young boy and is mostly known as Impulse, a sidekick of Wally West and ward of Max Mercury.
In the past, whenever Hero Lab has offered official support for a particular book/line, some community authors have independently pulled their data files. In some cases, it was because the author's of the community files had their work purchased by Lone Wolf and their files became the basis of the official product and as part of that agreement the author's agreed to no longer freely distribute the files. One thing about LW taking on the AP files is that the community no longer has to support it - they don't have to worry about bug fixes when a new major revision of the Pathfinder files happens; its all on LW now. That can leave the community time to focus on other options like more spell adjustments :)
Sigh, yet even more Paizo Publishing promotion for what is, in a nutshell, just another version of Wizards of the Coast's "D&D Tools" (aka a stat block generator we have to pay for). One day we'll get a free stat block generator I guess...one day...one sweet sweet day... There is no possible way to have a character builder with the level of functionality of Hero Lab, with nearly day-of-release support and reasonably expect it to be free. Entering the content alone (without updates to the actual software for big changes, performance updates, etc) would easily be a full time job for at least one person (maybe two). Lone Wolf uses contractors and splits the work, so they don't need to have dedicated staff, but still, there is a lot of labor involved and that labor deserves compensation (Full disclosure: I used to be one of those contractors). Back in the 3.x days, there were a handful of folks who worked on the "HeroForge" spreadsheet for Excel and did it for free as a labor of love. They tried to incorporate most of the WotC material into the spreadsheet (focusing on stuff that was usable in Living Greyhawk), but it was at their own pace and it could be months before a new book was incorporated into the sheet. In addition, it had only a small fraction of the functionality; it didn't automatically apply spell or magic item effects and at least early on you could only use the spreadsheet on Windows PCs (as it required VisualScript functionalities that weren't available on Mac OS). I used it and honestly loved it, but at the same time, it was the best horse in the race and if there had been a program that did everything that HeroForge did and more, I would have happily paid for it (there were other paid programs available, but they offered even less functionality than that spreadsheet did). Sorry for the rant, but the whole "give me free stuff" thing is a pet-peeve of mine.
I'm curious how the Unchained classes play with existing archetypes and prestige classes. With they seamlessly work, will they or the archetypes/p-classes require minor, house-ruled tweaks, or are they largely incompatible? Does the book address this at all or does it leave it to the GM/Players to resolve?
I saw this article the other day and thought that maybe there would be a Paizo blog post or announcement shortly after, but so far bubkiss... PAIZO STRIKES DEAL WITH GOB IN TUX I'm assuming Polaris is an already existing RPG that is just being translated/adapted for English audiences, but I'm not having any luck finding more info. Anyone know anything more about this game other than what is in the article?
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