Skeld's page

Changing my (20 year) old password made me irrationally angry.

-Skeld

I just got home from vacation and opened my package from Paizo. My hard copy of this starts at page 17. Wondering if this is wide spread?

My copy is fine, btw.

-Skeld

Yeah, sounds exactly like what Skeld mentioned above—a signature printing error ("signature" being what a set of bound pages is called). Email/contact customer service and they should be able to get a replacement sent out for you.

Right, "signature." I couldn't remember the term.

-Skeld

I just got home from vacation and opened my package from Paizo. My hard copy of this starts at page 17. Wondering if this is wide spread?

That happens occasionally. The books are printed in 16-page sets and then bound. Sometimes a set (I can't remember what they're called) gets duplicated while another left out and you get repeated pages like that.

-Skeld

I wonder how many people remember Vanthus Vanderboren?

My players, one especially, hated him sooo much.

It. Was. Delicious.

-Skeld

I just don't see it.

If you do, please speculate here.

Somehow, Xanderghul returned.

-Skeld

Skeld wrote:

After some thought, I dont hate the AP changes as much as I did initially. I dont like what i see as a lack of engagement between AP releases. Having AP volumes every month kept me more "in the loop" on what was going on. Now i think ill be surprused when someting comes out.

I have no opinion on PFS.

-Skeld

Having APs be hardcovers that are self-contained will, in theory, also make it easier for us to promote and preview and build anticipation for them as events too, which should help foster more engagement and excitement (not sure if this is what you're speaking to, specifically, but it's something that I feel like we could do better at, and having them be hardcovers should help us there).

I hope that you're able to market them more and get added engagement. The forums here are still my main source of info on what's happening because I've abandoned (or never adopted) most of the social media you guys are using (I'm not knocking you for it, it's just the facts of my individual situation). I do see the occasional trailer on youtube, but that's about it. That's probably not very common, but I don't have the insight into the marketing that you guys do.

Regardless, the idea single hardcover idea has grown on me.

-Skeld

Now that i think about it, we really need a hardcover "Infrastructure of Golarion."

Follow that up a few months later with "Taxcodes of Golarion."

-Skeld

After some thought, I dont hate the AP changes as much as I did initially. I dont like what i see as a lack of engagement between AP releases. Having AP volumes every month kept me more "in the loop" on what was going on. Now i think ill be surprused when someting comes out.

I have no opinion on PFS.

-Skeld

Souls At War wrote:

Some of us already pointed out it should help with internal consistency

People have claimed that, but I am not sure I buy it. How should it help?

ISTM, consistency or lack thereof in APs has more to do with how they are written and edited than how they are published.

Because spreading them out over 6 or 3 months means that the individual chapters are all in various stages of development at any given time. With publishing as a single volume, all individual parts will need to be in roughly the same stage of development so that the lead person can edit the whole thing at once instead of in pieces spread out over time.

-Skeld

What's the price point of an AP in the new format? I'm guessing $75ish?

-Skeld

It would be very interesting to know what’s changed here. Paizo has been doing monthly Adventure Path episodes for the best part of twenty years; I can think of plenty of potential advantages of the shift, but none that wouldn’t also have been advantages 5, 10, 15 years ago.

A non-trivial number of people buy the first issue and none of the rest. With this change, you have to buy the whole thing.

-Skeld

Oh that's nice to know. Good thing I looked here or I might have missed the news about the fundamental change to the way APs are released. Thanks.

-Skeld

You will retain your legacy discount if you are part of that small group of folks that have been subscribers since AP#1.

-Jim

I am, Jim. Thanks!

-Skeld

I'm a legacy charter AP subscriber; is anything going to change for me?

-Skeld

My question got lost in tbe churn. This is literally all I want to know.

Thanks.
-Skeld

I'm a legacy charter AP subscriber; is anything going to change for me?

-Skeld

Hands off off my legacy AP charter subscriber discount. I'll be ok if that stays the same.

-Skeld

As the "PFS AP," I was hoping for some information about the joining process for the Society.

Does anyone have any references for ceremonies, oaths, obligations, or anything similar that can be used to put together a scene for PCs joining the Society?

There's some light description of this kind of thing in the PF1 book "Seeker of Secrets." IIRC, it's more along the lines of general info about joining the society, training, etc., than about oaths and ceremonies and such.

-Skeld

This made me sad. Rest in peace, Gary. My prayers are with his family and friends.

-Skeld

Congrats! My group is halfway through Book 3. We'll be finished soon too!

Ugh. Ok. Thanks.

-Skeld

Did I miss some news about Starfinder? It's been a few months since there's been an AP release.

-Skeld

We're still doing the ol' "I'm still here" thing, eh?

I'm still here.

-Skeld

Hi! It's been a long time. Welcome back!

-Skeld

Congrats!

-Skeld

I expect we'll see a response from Paizo in the 13th, which is when I expect we'll see the final version release from WotC

I got my monthly AP authorization email a few minutes ago. Paizo might address it by not addressing it and continuing with business as usual.

-Skeld

Backlash might wreck the movie in a couple months. Lol.

-Skeld

WotC paid ~$150M for D&D Beyond... They're going to try and force everything they can to that platform and can monetize content for whether they "own" it or not.

-Skeld

I wonder if Paizo's recent about-face on errata has anything to do with this?

-Skeld

It wouldn't be a D&D edition change without a bunch of unnecessary OGL drama.

-Skeld

They could. That's a pretty boring option. You guys know your players just like I know mine. If they prefer to let the flies go and never to be bothered with them again, that's fine for you.

-Skeld

We just started Chapter 2 and my players have basically ignored the circles.

-Skeld

Skeld wrote:

Have them fly to town and begin harassing the citizens of Otari. This will give your PCs a reason to spend a bit more time in and around town (possibly picking up other leads that are useful later on) and giving them a good lesson in unintended consequences. Lol.

I wouldn't have them kill anyone in town, but an couple attacks on civilians and maybe a injury or two might give them a sense of urgency. And if they continue to ignore the flies, there might be a maggot or two inhabiting the corpse of a dead farm animal later on.

-Skeld

The lesson here is go full murder hobo though. This adventure is full of interesting monsters you don't necessarily need to kill. Doing something like this enforces the idea that players need to kill anything vaguely dangerous they encounter, which IMO is the least interesting way to approach Pathfinder.

Like, do you think your game will be enhanced of the players kill all devils on sight rather than negotiate?

Sorry, I just now saw this....

Flies, being monstrous creatures with animal intelligence, are gonna do what flies are going to do. They can't be negotiated with.

The Devils in your example, OTOH, can be negotiated with.

-Skeld

...Slurks, despite being frog-like creatures, don't swim.

I just ignored that fact.

-Skeld

Have them fly to town and begin harassing the citizens of Otari. This will give your PCs a reason to spend a bit more time in and around town (possibly picking up other leads that are useful later on) and giving them a good lesson in unintended consequences. Lol.

I wouldn't have them kill anyone in town, but an couple attacks on civilians and maybe a injury or two might give them a sense of urgency. And if they continue to ignore the flies, there might be a maggot or two inhabiting the corpse of a dead farm animal later on.

-Skeld

No, Captain!

But I completely understand and don't blame you one bit.

Let us know when you get your cancellation notice in a month or 2.

-Skeld

Ok.

-Skeld

So my group is finally in the castle, working their way from top to bottom, bypassing an enhanced encounter with the False Ileosa in the throne room. One way or the other, they're likely to end up in the dungeon next session, and I'm a little concerned about the potential encounter with the shining children. Even if they can each use their blinding light aura once (since a successful save makes you immune to a particular aura) I can imagine a good chunk of the party is going to fail at least one of those four saves! (Not to mention the Hold Person trap that initiates the encounter). And, finally, is the 2d6 Burning Touch damage cumulative per hit?

Almost seems more deadly than the Zev Ravenka encounter if they don't get some sort of energy protection up!

Cut a shining child from the encounter. Or however many you deem appropriate. You don't even have to make the decision until they enter the area. I know the 4 shining children wrekt my party, but I wanted to wreck them a little. It's good for keeping the players humble. ;)

-Skeld

Good idea, to cheat. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to run the Harrow legitimately. It appears to not have been playtested at all. And how does it make sense to foreshadow the future if all the player characters might die and the future not happen? They copied the Harrow from Ravenloft but in Ravenloft it wasn’t meant to predict the future? Wasn’t it meant merely to give the location of some items?

I am running CotCC right now too, just got done with the fishery, and I am desperate for some help on how to make the Harrow playable at all. Ideally I don’t want to ditch it or rig it, I want to get it working as intended but I doubt that’s possible.

The pathfinder campaign setting is called "Lost Omems" because prophecy/fate/etc. has literally stopped functioning (since the death of the god, Aroden). A Harrowing (in world) doesn't really work any more as a result.

When I GM'd this, I decided the idea of conducting a harrowing is more important that what the cards actually mean. So you go through the act of shuffling cards, carefully laying them out... and then you make up some bullstuff based on what the players have done in previous chapters and whatever challenges you know are coming up in the next chapter. The fact that the harrowing doesn't, and can't, actually mean anything is inconsequential to the mystery of "what does this MEAN???" The harrowing is great at injecting some mysterious foreshadowing into the adventure and for giving the setting some feel.

That, and the fact that the harrowing is used to determine how many Harrow Points the PCs receive. BTW, this is a popular campaign and the harrow stuff has been used thousands of times over the last 15-ish years, so it's been playtested. You might simply be overthinking the whole thing. It's a GM gimmick.

-Skeld

I own all the original adventures in this book and I have no interest in a 2E conversion of this material...

BUT, I really would like the tighter storyline thread between adventures, some additional material, AND a greater emphasis on on breaking the seal since I'd like to run this before Tyrant's Grasp, so this might be something I pick up.

-Skeld

I don't blame them. This place has gotten extremely toxic. I don't think it's worth trying to salvage at this point.

-Skeld

The "buy a slave" option was debated as far back as Season 1 of PFS. It was in the players' guide as an option.

-Skeld

Paizo has turned every campaign I run into a compiled hardcover couple months after I start it. Lol.

No new content, so pass.

-Skeld

For years now, I've had a nice little side hustle reselling books and some other hobby-related stuff on Ebay and I cannot tell you how many times some jackhole has emailed me to tell me I shouldn't charge $3 for shipping because Amazon ships for free.

-Skeld

$20 + $5 shipping => "This is an outrage!"

$25 + free shipping => "Cool, free shipping!"

People forget that it actually costs actual money to ship a thing from one place to another.

-Skeld

Its been nearly three weeks since the last posting by UPW. I wonder what is going on?

If UPW also has a lawyer, they probably advised the to stop speaking publicly. That's usually the first thing lawyers do.

-Skeld

If you're involved in litigation and you don't go out and hire the best* law firm you can afford that will put up the most vigorous defense of your position they ethically can, then you are being stupid. Once there's litigation, it becomes a bitter knife fight to the end. The entire point is to secure the best possible outcome for your client. Don't think for a second that the union's representation will do any less for them. It is by definition an adversarial process.

-Skeld

*No representation is made that the legal services provided are greater to the legal services provided by any other firm.

Leg o' Lamb wrote:

Humor can be a lot like food; not everybody gets it.

Also like food it can do serious harm if not approached with care.

Live ordnance is the only thing I approach with care. It is, and will continue to be, "reckless abandon" for everything else.

-Skeld

Removed a baiting post regarding posting policies, posts equating like behaviour to stalking, personally harassing posts, and a few other posts that were spam.

You say "baiting," I say "snarky humor." Then again, I'm not the one with banning powers.

-Skeld