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I backed the original Meanders Kickstarter and I can attest to the quality of the work. While Meanders are offered primarily as digital terrain but you can also get printed boards. I own several of the boards from the first Meanders and I like them. They are durable and look good. I like them more than my Pathfinder Maps, which I like so much that I am a subscriber.

They are designed in such a way that you can fold them to make different terrain show at different (closer) locations and you can rotate the maps around to configure them to be the map that you want.

Meanders 2 link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gametilewarehouse/meanders-2-synchable -terrain-400-new-designs

This project funded last week. There is a lot of neat terrain available. I am excited for the Underdark. I have long wanted to run games set underground but it sucks to draw all of that out and this will help immensely.

I stumbled upon a type of table-top game mat -- also available as online terrain -- that is actually pretty neat in my opinion. The boards kind of remind me of some of the nicer boards for a board game, as one side is tough and black, and the boards are thick for sturdiness. They are wet and dry-erase compatible.

Anyway, about the terrain, you get to pick what kind of terrain to have. Most of what is currently available is outdoor terrain, but that is where my own table-top map stuff is distinctly lacking. With these tiles I will be able to fold them into configurations so that the terrain will appear as I want it to appear on the table and I don't have to attempt to draw it (I am a lousy artist -- I am quite blind so I often just have the players draw a map roughly according to my guidelines). I believe that this will improve the game experience for the players.

LINK: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gametilewarehouse/meanders-themed-boar ds-with-connecting-paths-for-r/description

I vote for #3. It seems that everybody these days is doing Lovecraft and Cthulu. I don't care if you do, but I won't vote for it. If you don't believe me do a search for Cthulu in RPGs.

Two notes about penguins:

1) Cerulean Seas - Indigo Ice.

The Squawk are indeed cool.

Battle Savvy Penguins is going to be awesome.

Actually a slightly different formatting is easier to read in the forums:

Weapon Class / Base Damage / Exact / Normal / Critical
Light Pistol / 2d4 / 2 / 5 / 8
Pistol / 2d6 / 2 / 7 / 12
Heavy Pistol / 2d8 / 2 / 9 / 16
Light Machine Pistol / 2d4 / 2 / 5 / 8
Machine Pistol / 2d6 / 2 / 7 / 12
SMG / 2d6 / 2 / 7 / 12
Shotgun / 2d8 / 2 / 9 / 16
Rifle / 2d10 / 2 / 11 / 20
Heavy rifle / 2d12 / 2 / 13 / 24
Assault rifle / 2d8 / 2 / 9 / 16
Heavy assault rifle / 2d10 / 2 / 11 / 20
Machinegun / 2d8 / 2 / 9 / 16
Heavy Machinegun / 2d12 / 2 / 13 / 24

Die Type / Average Result
D4 / 2.5
D6 / 3.5
D8 / 4.5
D10 / 5.6
D12 / 6.5
D20 / 10.5

I personally like rolling a big handful of dice for damage. But I can also understand the desire to reduce die rolling. But rolling dice is fun.

Even .22 bullets can be dangerous. Bullets are mean because not only do they have the entrance wound, but they bounce around inside the target. I would want to roll damage to have this chance, but in a larger fight I might do the quick-math method. A part of me likes the idea of the maximum die on a damage die can "ace" like in Savage Worlds and lets you roll another damage die. This would make it so that combat could be more dangerous.

I have faith in Gunmetal Games products. They are good, and I know that you will come up with something that is both fun and playable.

I would also recommend Mutants and Masterminds if you want to make it classless.

The thing is, classes are actually a good idea. Sure, a character COULD be somewhat decent at many things, but even when I played GURPS for 10 years I found that even in a classless system you still want to specialize in something. Generalists generally suck at, well, everything. Not recommended. It is far more effective to pick a niche, and guess what? Classes already created that niche for you.

Even in Mutants and Masterminds you will want to have some sort of theme for your characters. Again, having a minor hobby in everything is generally a Bad Idea.

This sounds like a really good one. Even better if it has a Hero Lab file. :)

Hero Lab files are usually pretty easy to make. However they take time. Which is why they are worth buying when available. Maybe after I graduate I can start making some as a freelancer.

It is kind of funny, and fortuitous, as just last week I was thinking about how much I wanted to run Interface Zero with my gaming group. Two of the players would be willing to play Savage Worlds at this time, but there are 7-1/2 of us in the group. One plays only half of the time. I was thinking to myself about how I would convert IZ to Pathfinder.

Firearms are currently Pathfinder's weak point. Granted, the Technology guide coming out might fix that, and Golarion being a fantasy setting the guns they have make sense enough. It is kind of annoying that there is a class built around their particular mechanics.

The issue with firearms is that they can really break the game. This might not be an issue with a game where everyone has firearms, but I would hope that they would be written so as to be potentially compatible with other settings. There are many threads on the forums here that bring up the concerns over the firearms mechanics. Also you want them to be as simple as possible.

One idea is to let autofire act more like an area effect weapon. I can see someone spraying lead in a line or a cone. The person saves for half damage but otherwise a hit roll is not really needed in this "burst" mode. That is how I started using it in Mutants and Masterminds. Damage is rolled, people save for half (or better if yhey have certain feats or class abilities). You could also target a specific area, kind of like in Savage Worlds. Machine guns are mean.

As for gritty, I recommend a group utilize the Laying Waste book by Total Party Kill. It is not so much damage as injuries that hamper you in other ways.

On the bright side, it isn't like he is coming out of nowhere. He already has over 50 products. One thing that I have noticed is the pledge levels can affect a Kickstarter. If there are not any lower cost levels that will affect whether or not someone pledges, but at the same time you want to have some higher levels, too. The cost for each pledge level is important, too. You want it to be worth that pledge level (the better "deal" it is, the more likely people will pledge at that level), likewise you don't want to be giving away too much for free -- the goal is to get funds for the product after all.

Daily updates, or close to it, can also help. Sometimes I have seen it keep people excited, but I have also had it where I get so tired of yammerings that I get annoyed as a backer. Communication is key. I am sure you have seen complaints when a company seems to disappear. Anyway, some things to consider. Communication is good, but being too pushy is annoying.

Some really good examples are Kobold Press and Legendary Games.

Good I am glad that IZ is coming to Pathfinder. My group wants to play this instead of Savage Worlds. It is a setting that started in d20, went to Savage Worlds, and now Pathfinder. It has psionics but they are only in it, and how much, depending on your group. It is a good setting and I recommend it.

As for rules I am glad that it will stay Pathfinder and not go Modern on us. The Technology book for Pathfinder is coming out soon, so that might help. Some things can be done as archetypes instead of new classes.

I am planning on giving it a try first. They have done revisions since the playtest. I have learned that sometimes something looks like it would suck but is actually fun to play. When I started playing Pathfinder the Magus looked like a stupid class with silly things added on (arcane pool, spell strike, etc). Then I played one. I was happy to say that I was wrong. Now I would recommend it to people.

The other day I was re-playing Mass Effect and I thought a bit about some gender-race jokes in a Fantasy setting. The Asari is an all-female race in Mass Effect.

Dwarves are stereotypically male. Over the years there have been jokes about whether or not female Dwarves even exist. Apparently part of the courting process is to determine what gender the other Dwarf really is.

Elves could also stereotypically be female. The male Elves often look female enough to pass for one. :)

What if we were to make those stereotypes become truths? All Elves are female, and all Dwarves really are male.

In Mass Effect the Asari do some sort of psychic joining with their partner (whose gender does not matter). I could see Elves being grown like a fruit from a tree, and I could see Dwarves growing up from a rock.

These ideas are along the lines of some of the legends of Earth mythology and not out of place for the Fantasy genre. Does anyone else have any ideas that would work better?

I like the new format with the series at the top. That would look good if its font stayed the same between all of the books in the series. However, that said, the rest of the fonts can change so as to fit the theme of that particular book. Demons could look demonic and creepy, angelic could be elegant and powerful, etc.

I have seen a few times where I got a message from Paizo hat said "this PDF has been updated". Then I just downloaded it again. PDFs are a heck of a lot easier to fix than a printed book. :)

Many PDF readers also allow you to put notes of your own into it.

I would think that you would have to declare it as you choose which chart to use. You cannot both slash and stab (pierce) with a sword in the same blow.

Their intent is to get the word out. Of course, being shared on Facebook would work once. After doing it a couple of times your Friends will get annoyed. The only way that I can see sharing it every day is if you get a sufficiently large number of new Friends each day.

In my group the current GM does not want to use it yet. :/ But half of us players do. So we will either have to use peer pressure or wait until one of us runs. I have been looking forward to this since the Kickstarter.

Looking it over it should be fun. It adds to the game but is not particularly complex. Being complex and not-fun is the definition of many other approaches I have seen.

The fumbles are not especially bad, but in some situations they could be devastating. "You were using a poisoned knife? Oops".

Now to get my group to use it, even when I do not GM.

I am a backer of the Kickstarter but I was not in the playtest (my time is too limited and sporadic).

I recall that there will be Hero Lab support. That is a must for my gaming group. but I am wondering how much can be used "as is". I am guessing that the system itself will not need Hero Lab* at all, but only the feats, Prestige Classes, etc. would need to be added to a data file.

*: I know that nothing requires Hero Lab. However, for my group it is necessary. Also, I am so blind that I can no longer write on a character sheet. I require the use of an electronic character generator of some sort. My desire for Hero Lab support is based on recognition of my own limitations and not snobbery against those that do not use them. I sometimes miss the days of filling out a sheet by hand. But only sometimes.

I have been not-so-patiently waiting for this one to be done. Even missing the Kickstarter soon we will all get to play with it. I wonder how many groups will use it.

It will be nice to finally have a cool crit system. Over the years I have seen many attempts to implement it, most of them just random tables. There was a Dragon Magazine article from the 80's that we tried for a few sessions back in the day but it was underwhelming. We even looked at MERP and its cousin, Rolemaster, and all they had going for them were their crit tables. They proved to be unplayable, even if it was fun to shoot someone with a bow and have an arrow go in one ear and out the other.

I trust that this will instead be a success.

Speaking of organizing pawns, what method are you using? I decided to use binders with plastic divider things of different sizes based on the pawn. I put them in numerical order. There is a thread somewhere where I talk about the divider things and maybe the notebook binder sizes.

SR 15 is really not very high and is easy to beat. I would go for the saves.

Well, the Bestiary boxes should be the same as that particular Bestiary. Only a list of the Adventure Path pawns would be needed.

At first I thought that it said "Bloodhound Gang" and the theme song fron that show in the early 80's sprang to mind.

This looks to be far cooler. :)

I have pledged. It is good to see Goodman Games coming to the Pathfinder scene. Granted 3rd and 3.5 are very similar, but still. I have several of the products for that system. I already have all of the XCrawl stuff. :) I find the setting itself to be kind of silly, but who cares? Just go on dungeon crawls and have fun with it. Not much of a world story is needed for that.

I think that it would need to be done in conjunction with the official classes as well, to give more of a baseline. For example, wizards take a bit more preparation than sorcerers, but they are otherwise the same level of complexity. Actually, given the bloodline stuff, sorcerers might be a tad more complex. Spellcasters in general are more complex than non-spellcasters, and the prepared casters take more preparation. Fighters and Rogues are the easiest to play. Classes that have pools like Magus or Ninja are a bit more complex.

That wasn't what I meant. I hear lots of ideas, here and elsewhere, about magic computers but near all of them center around bound creatures, never any other explanations.

I'm thinking like "how about magic circuit tracings made of magic dust and applied in exquisite patterns," or something. You know, other ways of making magic computers.

( Personally, I use gems that hold mana patterns that work like programming logic. Thus mages of the booksmart variety are better at making them.)

Runes as circuitry is how I personally envision magical items. The way that I see it, the item is first prepared alchemically to receive the enchantment, including the need for runes. The enchantment empowers the runes, which glow when the device is activated.

I am thinking that this will book will make everyone want to play one, at least with some sort of witchiness through an archetype if not by class.

I was wondering how much of it was going to be in the Mythic Mania. I am a backer for that. It looks like only specific monsters will appear in it, so if we want them all we should get all of the Mythic Monster stuff.

http://paizo.com/products/btpy97cv?The-Plaguewright-Lord-of-the-Microscopic

I just noticed that there is another Interjection Games product. This one is all about mutations and disease. I like Interjection Games' products. They tend to be fun and well thought out. And sometimes I find little jokes in them that give me a chuckle. :)

OK, I just had to do it.

I upped my pledge and saw it jump over the 8,000 mark. I wanted to see the project not only succeed but hit a stretch goal, too.

Are there plans to make compilations of the Mythic Minis?

Now if only the bonus pdf add-ons could be added into the book to make a mega-compendium. That would be cool. :)

The above link is bad.
It should be: http://paizo.com/products/btpy96po?One-Bling-to-Rule-Them-All-Scaling-Magic -Items

Also, another new product is Tinkering 301: Pimp My Alpha
http://paizo.com/products/btpy976e?Tinkering-301-Pimp-My-Alpha

New to the discussion, read some posts, skipped some bantering.

An idea that might work is to have an Enchantment Hit Point loss. It will reduce the character's hit points (or a willing ally, or a victim). Maybe it is something like 2 Hit Points per 1,000 gp value of the enchantment. These hit points are expended during the enchantment process, and will start to return after it is complete (or fails for whatever reason, whichever happens first). The rate of return is the reverse, so 2 HP per day. While gone, these Hit Points are treated as being permanently gone. Healing will not restore them.

So a +1 sword? That is a 2000 gp enchantment. It will take a day to enchant, which will reduce the character (or an ally, or victim) by 4 Hit Points. The day after it will drop to 2 hit points, and will be restored after two days.

I noticed that the High Court Witch makes reference to a "BONUS Book -- Way of the Witch for Pathfinder". I am assuming that this is a Pathfinder update for the original Way of the Witch. If that is so, why is it not offered to other levels? Can someone get it otherwise?

Are there going to be any feats or archetypes for other classes that allow a character to be a different sort of witch, maybe an amateur witch? Basically a character that has some witchiness but not the actual class?

Cool, I will have to check those out.

I would use a trait for being very attractive (there is charming already), maybe a feat for being a rare extreme beauty. We do not need another stat.

This is the way to go. For being ugly you could use Flaws and Drawbacks.

Insain Dragoon wrote:

Inner Sea Gods introduced so many new feats and almost every single one was terrible and such a trap.

Who would take a feat to give innocent civilians standing next to you a +2 bonus to AC? WHY?!

Some proper feats in there though, like channeling pos energy to give freedom of movement or get armor training at L-4.

I have the book yet not read completely through it yet. Sad to see the terrible feats continue. I have the Alchemy Manual as well. Craft Ooze is another trap feat. Requires a decent set of prequistes to use. As well as spending time and gold to buy the proper material needed to craft the ooze. Only to craft a ooze that is dumber than a bag of hammers and no loyalty to the creator. Even if it's one of the rare ooze types that is intelligent. The ones you craft are dumb. Great feat for NPCS. Useless for pcs. The devs seem to forget that when it comes to feats both fluff and crunch both need to be useful.

I think that this is the foundation for the "bloat" problem.

1 We have new books come out. That is a Good Thing. Yay!
2 We look at the contents of the books, and their application to the game varies. This is a Bad Thing. Naughty!
3 People become disappointed and lose interest in buying more books.

This is what happened in 2nd Edition AD%D, and started to happen with 3rd edition (when I stopped buying it). It is a problem that also happened in many other games as well.

For me it was most notable with 2nd edition AD&D. I started playing it when it came out (our group made the switch immediately). I was only 14 at the time. I continued to buy it all over the years. I was a fan boy. But while I liked some of the stuff, as the newer Complete This or That came out, I found that what was not allowed in an earlier book was now allowed (and vice versa). The playability guidelines were either ignored as things came out, or the writers had never actually PLAYED the game, or whatever. I don't know what happened, but the bottom line is that the books were not truly compatible. Some of them were overpowered compared to others. The kits in one Complete book were pretty good, and in other books they were smacked with the Stick of Suck.

That is how I have felt that some of the official Paizo stuff has become. Looking at the complaints, I can see that others also feel that way. "The Rogue needs something cool. How about we not give it to them". I am all for new stuff, but I would like things to actually be compatible with the previous products, not just splat things down. Don't the writers ever PLAY the game? It would help if they did (and continued to do as well).

There is a stigma held by many against 3PP (Third Party Publishers). A big part of that is likely from when the OGL first came out. Everybody and their pet fish were getting their ideas published. Some of it was good, but much of it was not. Hence the stigma. However. I have found several cases where 3PP stuff is more playable than the official materials. The 3PP writers actually seem to play the game.

I have seen many comments on the forums that can be summarized "we do not like the spell list for the Summoner". For me, when I see the class, it seems that the spell list is not really necessary. It seems to me that the "point" of the class is the Eidolon, all the rest is just added on because that is not enough on its own.

So, I was wondering about "what if the Summoner did not cast spells as well as it does, since that is the contention of many people". What would it do instead? I think that is probably why it is a spell caster.

What if it were a reduced caster, maybe a variation of a Paladin? If it were Divine-based, that would also give a hint as to why it has an Eidolon. Or a ranger, where the Eidolon is a sort of an extraplanar Animal Companion.

What if it did not cast spells at all? Maybe a variation of a Fighter, Cavalier, or even Rogue.

What do you think of that? Would it be fun?

Just make it an escalator. Or maybe several of them.

I love Paizo, they have made some of the best products for this style of table top gaming. I do enjoy DSP psionics but I would love to see a PF version.

Psychic Magic. . . Just. . . Seems. . . . Like arcane or divine magic. . . I don't really see a point in three separate magic classifications. . . It's not like monsters have arcane resistance or divine resistance, so all it is, is a way to segregate casters. . . (wow this turned into a rant. . . )

Personally, I enjoyed the balance of the augment system of 3.5/DSP, yes you could get more use out of it but more often then not you blew through them in a few encounters which is legit as well. DSP did a GREAT job with their "talent" system, it gave players an little bit of leeway in areas. Things like this would be amazing!

This I agree with.

However, the adreamscarred version is fun, well thought out, and not broken.

If it were based on the same Arcane/Divine method it seems to me that it would be just another spell list. Pretty much just a wizard that does not have Arcane Failure. That does not sound like fun to me. It sounds boring.

LoneKnave wrote:

It also makes multiclassing weeeeeeeird.

Nah, it's easy. You just have to decide in advance what your next level is going to be* , and then you gain it when you've earned a number of XP equal to New Class XP Total (Current Character Level +1) minus New Class XP Total (Current Character Level).

* as an aside, this is something I've considered house-ruling anyway - if a Rogue wants to suddenly pick up a level of Bard, they better have spent some time in recent adventures singing songs or playing an instrument or generally getting in touch with their creative side.

I use the PFS 3 xp per level for Medium.

It works easily enough for multiclass characters, too.

In addition to the different rate of advancement, the Fast classes get a feat every even level of a Fast class. So they get a feat every single level if they are a Fast class.

Additionally, all classes get at least 4 skill points per level. For Rogues and Ninjas, instead of bumping up the feats every even level, they get one every class level. So they actually get two per odd level, one per even level.This helps them to be the most skilled and talented of the classes.

I have heard that Hero Lab datafile is being worked on. I am eagerly waiting for it,

I am playing in the RotRL. We are about to start book 3. I have the Way of the Wicked adventures but I have not read them yet (in case I play).

I have some advice for playing evil characters (or any character for that matter): make a meta-rule that the PCs will never go against each other. No party fights, and in fact, they are all loyal to each other when it comes down to it. Sure, some rivalry is fine, but outright contention is destructive to the game.

If a character has a problem with that meta-rule, that character needs to leave the party, maybe become a NPC. If a player has a problem with that meta-rule, sorry but you are not welcome at the gaming table. You can watch and hang out, but you will not be gaming with us. This is a group activity and we need to remember that none of us are more important than the others.

With that rule you can play the most downright evil party and have fun with it. I know because I have done so many times. You can be the villain in a party of heroes. Or a hero in the party of villains. The game will move forward and you will all have fun.

I have not sat down and read the relationship rules yet, but from the discussions here it seems like an unplayable version of Dragon Age (the video game, I have no experience with the RPG).