SCSi's page

Erik,

I appreciate your response. Nobody is perfect, and your response seems like its going to help the issue.

However.....

Your response is about a month too late. Your CS people have been raked over the coals and thrown in front of the bus loaded with angry customers. They were given little to no information to pass onto us and were left unsupported by the management that did this deal.

Radio silence from you for what, months? Thats really all we wanted. Isn't too hard really to pop in and say "Im working on it" or "Another meeting with ND, no real progress", especially when the CS team is prodding for some scrap of info to throw at us.

A simple "Im meeting with the ND staff at GAMA to get to the bottom of this" would probably have made us really damn happy to hear that the management cares.

As much as the CS staff did a damn good job, the writing on the wall (to me) is that Paizo Heads dont care about its customers, or its CS staff. If they did, CS would have the tools available to keep us informed, and you would have made an appearance as soon as ND went belly-up. We had a frustrated CS rep post from the heart, and now comes your mea culpa.

Thats all I have to say.

We may not be getting 'radio silence', but endless static is starting to get old, especially now that the newest hurdle is 'too busy with 2E'

This is the sticking point that really got under my skin. I probably have written/deleted a bunch of posts to this extent, but decided against posting due to me coming off like a huge A-hole.

Everything else seems to be 'more important (Cons, PF2, etc)' than this. CS will say that this is def not the case, but from reading the prior posts, its being come across as totally the case. Paizo is 'too busy' to handle this correctly. If this isn't the case then they need to prove all of us wrong.

NDA's dont have to be airtight, and with ND posting their %age in licensing fees, the NDA might have already been broken on their end.

The lack of concrete info/CS admitting that its NDA's that are the blocking factor/etc makes me think that some deals were made under the table/favors made and the reputation of the higher-ups are more important than the reputation of the Paizotanic they are plowing slowly into the iceberg.

To the CS team: I feel bad that you need to be the human shields of execs that are throwing you under the bus by proxy. All of us aren't angry at you, and I hope you all dont feel targeted.

While I agree, the simple fact is there will most likely never be as much information as backers want as ultimately it must come from Ninja Division and they are not likely to ever admit they flat out intended to rip Paizo, Archon and the backers off and anything less then such an admission would not be accepted by many people.

I think a statement from Erik/Higher Ups(tm) on what evidence he had that ND would be able to deliver after many red flags were brought up would appease most of the masses. The fact that most of us feel cheated/lead astray by the Paizo heads vouching for them despite evidence proving otherwise is really (from what I see) is the chief complaint.

Currently the vacuum/lack of information makes me fill in the blanks such as:

1. Doing a friend a favor and it blew up in his face.
2. Personally got a cut of the profits for using ND.
3. ???
4. Profit!

Crazy, I know, but nothing has been said to the extent that the above did NOT happen, so this is just a breeding ground for speculation, conspiracy theories, guesses and heartburn for the CS group.

I get it that mistakes were made, not one of us here are perfect, however understanding the "Why" and evidence thereof would put us in the shoes of "Oh, well that sounded like a good idea at the time, I can see why they decided that!" or "Thanks guys for the warnings AFTER we already signed the contract".

We need some assurances that the next time Paizo head-ups promote something, we arent going to be stuck in the same situation.

Do I agree with the whole "I'm burning/selling my Paizo products and never playing Starfinder again!" thing? No. Why deny yourself something you obviously enjoyed? That seems counter productive.

Obviously since Erik double-downed against all the warnings, now is completely silent on the issue, they dont care (to me) about their reputation with their players.

If you cant vote with your words to make change at a company, then you vote with your dollars, as hard as it might be. Unfortunately thats how businesses work now days.

So in other words, what you are actually saying to Paizo is 'Quit working on getting me my minis and get busy apologizing.'

More like have Erik take 30 mins out of his obvious very busy day to address the issue at hand and (within the scope of an NDA) what they plan to do about it. That would earn a lot more respect (at least to me) than having Sara continuously take bullets for him.

Then work on getting me my minis. :)

I think people are overstating just how bad the track record of Ninja Division was at the time this Kickstarter was produced. It was bad, but it wasn't 'only a total fool would ever work with this company' bad. I mean, if somebody thought ND were that bad at the time then they really shouldn't have backed even with Paizo working on it.

Having assurances from the Paizo high-ups that they have full faith in ND delivering has more weight than you probably assume. Thats also where most of the complaints here stem from.

Its one thing to post warnings about ND and having them buried in a forum post to be missed, its something else to have the higher-ups of Paizo double down on said warnings.

Then, when things explode in their face, have their CS manager Sara do damage control while we get radio silence from the same higher-ups who assured us it would be alright.

To throw Sara under the bus to deal with all of us isn't right, Erik doubled down, so he should be here telling all of us whats going on.

That's a lot of baseless accusations you're throwing around about Paizo staff. I'd give it a rest and wait to see if they prove otherwise.

I fail to see what they have left to prove. The facts speak for themselves:

1. They didn't heed the warnings about ND from the people who pay their bills.

2. They didn't do any evident due diligence about prior failed KS's by this company, see point #1.

3. None of the people who vouched for ND (instilling some trust that the Paizo name would make ND suddenly get their crap together) have come forward with even a recognition/statement/apology/status update.

Sara is basically their meat shield/damage control to appease a bunch of pissed off customers (some, if not most spend a lot of money/month with Paizo) who spent a lot of money with the implicit trust into something that bore the Paizo name.

The fact that the CEO/COO/whoever who vouched for ND has not come into this thread and either addressed the issue, or gave a statement of "I wish I could say more but reasons" makes me question why I am giving this company money every month if their leadership cant cop to making a mistake.

Sara is doing her job in keeping us informed, the CEO/COO/etc need to step up and do their job in taking some once of responsibility. If they are unable to do this, then maybe its time to move on to a company that show that they care.

/rant

Little bit of thread necromancy but has anyone got anything else to say about Hero Lab Online now that it's been out for a while? Are people still using it? Is it worth the money?

No.

Be it the last time my players used it ~6 months ago, it was plagued with connectivity errors, login/passwords wouldnt work, and nothing that would make me want to pay a monthly fee to use.

The group is made of current/ex IT people, so it wasn't 'user error'.

Man, I got my email just now about it shipping. Boy, I should have posted here a week ago! :)

My last name starts with a P, so I'm stuck no matter what direction they go! :)

I doubt they go by last name, but what subscriptions you get to maximize workflow efficiency and thereby reduce mistakes.

To be fair, Wizards did give us the OGL, which is how we have Pathfinder.. :)

I'm going to repeat my post from the poll thread, because I want to make sure it gets seen.

This change wasn't needed, it was balanced and acceptable. The only problem with Crane Wing was Master of Many Styles made it possible to get at 2nd level, or first level as a human. The feat was designed to be used at mid to high levels, where is was strong, but there are many counters to it. By taking it at first or second level it becomes imbalanced at that level of play.

Master of Many Styles is the culprit of many low level power imbalances. Since PFS operates at lower levels, this impacts all play levels. Instead of nerfing the feat, change master of many styles to require bonus style feats to meet the monk level requirement.

This right here. 1000 times. Having a PC that can deflect a blow from Aroden himself at 2nd level isn't 'fair and balanced', and the MoMS monk is just now getting his rear handed to him at level 7-8 when the baddies get multiple attacks and the Crane Wing usefulness drops off.

Its a good feat if you keep the prereqs, its a bad feat if its abused by MoMS and given for no cost.

I may be completely out of line here, but why doesn't everyone take a step back and look at the big picture.

We have the Paizo Lead Designer here reading our input. How many other gaming companies (of paizo's size) actually do that? Think about that for a second before you make threats and spew your vitriol. I'm sure this change took many months, with many meetings with many a payroll dollar was spent trying to make /everyone/ happy with this change.

Some people here are so focused on the one burning tree, that they dont take into account the entire forest.

The counter to this was the Master of Many Styles who avoided those.

Bingo, and I think thats where the main complaint lies because you don't need all the prereqs that balanced out the feat. Dont nerf the feat, nerf MoMS.

I just call them out on the table with their cheating. Like stop the game, and call them out.

Friends dont ruin your game by dice-roll cheating (they ruin your game by continuously arguing about rules, which is another issue), because if they do, they aren't your friends. Friends don't go #2 where their dice land. If they aren't my friend, I have no problems dropping them from the game until they get their you-know-what together.

Maybe they needed more hugs as a child, or have other issues, but I'm here to GM, not to be their shrink. I have enough issues to deal with running the game without babysitting a child (because really, who else would cheat at a frigging tabletop RPG game) and ruin it for adults who ARE my friends and don't do that.

Maybe its because im getting old, or have been doing this RPG stuff for 20 years, but this is one of my huge pet peeves.

Now I just blankly stare at the paizo site every min, longing for something to click on.

6000+ posts... Epic...

Only about 100 are actually worth reading.. :)

Even though some of you wont make the cut, you all have my respect for actually submitting something. Im way too uncreative to think of think of these things.

Well I got my 500 in before voting ends tomorrow. I'll try harder next yer.

I GOT DEDICATED MY DAY HAS BEEN MADE!

I'll add to the chorus.

My primary group game is HERO. But the wife and I both game (I met her because she was the GM of a group I joined). And we always like doing 1 on 1 roleplay.

Marrying the GM, the ultimate way to min-max your character! :)

Golden kitten fang?

Can you in fact make kittens even more irresistible?

If any of my players decide to make a tooth bling item, I think i'll have kittens and throw them out.

Like gluing 5 wands together and giving them the same command word to activate.

BEST IDEA EVAR!

Not sure if I like having the command words be in the item description.

I wish there was a voter stat page that showed the following:

1. How many votes your account has cast
2. How many votes until you hit the next "* Voter 2014" badge
3. How many total votes cast by everyone.

Im mostly curious about #3, because 1 vote = 1 min. Extrapolate that out to determine how many people years were spent here voting total.

Good ideas, I has them!

As someone who just buys a lot of stuff from Paizo (and never uses the forums), I think im going to hang around the forums a lot more because of this thread (and contest).

SCSi wrote:

Surprised nobody has made a chrome/firefox plugin that dings you when its time to vote again. Because lets be honest, after the 400th vote you can just look at the title and know exactly what the item is because you've read it a zillion times before.

Aren't you a program language literate type person? You have 45 seconds between each vote, get to it!

I can only fix servers and deal prescriptions. I only have Use Magic Device and none of the creation feats.

Surprised nobody has made a chrome/firefox plugin that dings you when its time to vote again. Because lets be honest, after the 400th vote you can just look at the title and know exactly what the item is because you've read it a zillion times before.

Their exit is a double move action but they can still attack! OMG it's a train wreck. And yes, given the age of the video, I would imagine that they are no longer doing this for a living, I hope O.O They look like they started as a circus act.

Obviously they must get a bonus to their AC with all that jumping and flipping around. They need a good dose of Hold Person.

Im working on getting my nerd card back :)

Oh, and they must have a minor charm person effect because I just cant stop watching them flip and bend and be all freak-showish.

Kinda sad to think that all of them are probably old and gone now. Thats real talent there.

For your Urban Monster inspiration viewing pleasure. I shuddered watching this. It is completely safe for work and your family, but shudder

Being able to fart on your own head just freaks me out. Almost as much as the Shorts of Riding Up You-Know-Where that they are wearing which gives them +20 to their acrobatics checks.

"Inept, inefficient, incapable, incompetent, inadequate, insufferable... there aren’t enough ‘in’ words to describe your mediocrity!"

STOP SOUNDING LIKE MY WIFE!!!! :)

kidding! kidding! *sigh*

SCSi wrote:

MY LIFE IS CONTROLLED BY PAIZO.

And if you win, you get to have your life controlled even MORE by Paizo!

They take a lot of my money each month, and I love every damn min of it. Its like crack, only on paper.

SCSi wrote:

During the day:

1. Fill Rx
2. Vote
3. Check for new message board drivel
4. Fill Rx
5. Repeat

During the evening:
1. Hold baby
2. Vote
3. Walk baby around house
4. F5 the message boards
5. Repeat

MY LIFE IS CONTROLLED BY PAIZO.

I like to compare it to watching a train wreck.

1. It goes in slow motion.
2. Occasionally you see something really horrific.
3. Occasionally you see something really heroic.

My life is like a train wreck. :)

During the day:
1. Fill Rx
2. Vote
3. Check for new message board drivel
4. Fill Rx
5. Repeat

During the evening:
1. Hold baby
2. Vote
3. Walk baby around house
4. F5 the message boards
5. Repeat

MY LIFE IS CONTROLLED BY PAIZO.

SCSi wrote:

I have not seen Pantaloons in quite a while. HOW DID PANTALOONS NOT MAKE THE CUT, I LOVE THAT WORD!

They did!

OH THANK THE HEAVENS! I NEED MY DAILY FIX OF PANTALOON!

Just a useful ProTip(tm), A microwaveable burrito takes 3 votes to cook.

Why would anyone cast a spell on a piece of clothing?

If the clothes are PANTALOONS how could you not? That word is even fun to say. PANTALOONS!

SCSi wrote:

With all the seeds im seeing there will be nothing but magical plants in all of Golarion

That's when you turn the magical items into a plot hook. All that excess residual magic has to go somewhere, right? Next thing you know you've got giant/dire versions of animals that have been feeding on the plants. They go rampaging around, causing chaos. As if that weren't enough, the druids get all sorts of testy because of the rampant imbalance of the ecosystem, so they start going to war on those responsible for the catastrophe, even their own people.

Luckily, there's a bunch of adventurers outfitted with a bunch of new magic items, just champing at the bit to help fix things...

Decanter of endless RoundUp(tm) and Everburning flamethrower of dispelling

With all the seeds im seeing there will be nothing but magical plants in all of Golarion

Should we be proud of this fact, or is it just proof that gamers just want to vote on magical items and spend their free time making snarky comments about said magical items.

"No saving throw to resist" is usually a deal-breaker for me (from a DM standpoint). Am I being too harsh?

HOLY JINKY MAGICAL ITEMS. I GOT IT.

*pssst* Wayfinder #11... Cheliax issue... Nobles curing their diseases with halfling slaves' tears.

You're serious? Dammit I cant even make original jokes! Im going to fail at this item creating business.

Oh yay got my first tears. Waiting for the halfling children tears that cure 1d4 humanoids of cancer.

Some of these items are missing:
Aura Strong WTF

Some of these items are pretty damn good to be completely honest.

That is an item, not a slot.

Ooops, sorry! Too many magical item reading + work :(

Drejk wrote:

SCSi wrote:

My day:

1. Fill Prescription
2. Vote on Item
3. Talk to Dr while voting on Item
4. Repeat.

I need a life.

I think there was item giving one.

Yeah, but I think you have to die before that works.

Physically die or just have your soul die? I think I qualify for the latter.