Distant Scholar wrote: What do they do? How are they different from magic-users in play? I couldn't tell from the description. A magus has medium martial ability, but is hindered by a lack of armor and d4 Hit Dice. They cast divine spells from lists focusing mostly on divination and protection ranging from spell levels 1 through 5. Via horoscopy, a magus can sort of grant good luck. A magus's dreams may also be prophetic, and a magus is also a sage, perhaps able to answer questions related to specific fields of study.
I thought I had parameters set for this to go on sale on Wednesday, 6 January, for Epiphany, but something got goofed up. C'est la vie.
Magi study the hidden signs in the stars, in dates, dreams, and the movements of both smoke and fire. They understand that time moves not in a straight line, but rather in a great circle encompassing numerous aeons before all that is passes away only to return and repeat itself. Most creatures, unaware of this cosmic cycle, live the same life over and over again, but not the Magi.
Through their art, Magi read between the universe's lines in order to divine what is both the past and the future at the exact same moment. Armed with this knowledge, Magi can exert subtle but real influence on events, changing what was to come.
The Magus is a new character class for Swords & Wizardry. Also included are 12 new spells.
I thought I had parameters set for this to go on sale on Wednesday, 6 January, for Epiphany. C'est la vie.
Magi study the hidden signs in the stars, in dates, dreams, and the movements of both smoke and fire. They understand that time moves not in a straight line, but rather in a great circle encompassing numerous aeons before all that is passes away only to return and repeat itself. Most creatures, unaware of this cosmic cycle, live the same life over and over again, but not the Magi.
Through their art, Magi read between the universe's lines in order to divine what is both the past and the future at the exact same moment. Armed with this knowledge, Magi can exert subtle but real influence on events, changing what was to come.
The Magus is a new character class for Swords & Wizardry. Also included are 12 new spells.
In case you missed the announcements on G+ and Facebook, I've a few new, free PDFs of content for 1E AD&D ensconced in my Google Drive. Enjoy!
The Abbey of St. Martin: A short adventure.
AD&D Monsters: Alp to Xana: A dozen new monsters.
AD&D Monsters: Apsara to Zebez. Three dozen new monsters.
The Bard: Alternate class for 1E AD&D.
The Recondite Frontier: Campaign region.
Sveti Gardarkena: Another campaign region.
I'm starting a 1E AD&D campaign on 10 January. As part of character creation, I put together these house rules, and also purchased Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures (abbreviated BTW hereafter) and Further Afield by Flatland Games solely because I'd heard good things about that system's character creation process.
Going Beyond the Wall
During this Christmas season, I hosted a dinner-and-gaming night featuring spaghetti and BTW. I'd prepped by printing out a blank village map, a spooky scenario pack (from the free Across the Veil addon), four character sheets, and a list of playbooks (click here for a sample playbook).
Nota Bene: As you explore BTW products, you'll quickly notice that most of them are free. Flatland Games sells the rulebook and rulebook expansion (linked two paragraphs above), and then offers playbooks, scenario packs, et cetera, for free. Nifty!
BTW Character Creation
We started with character creation. Each player picked a playbook from the list, and then I printed only those playbooks. The soon-to-be created party of adventurers included a halfling outrider, a landless noble, an elven highborn, and a student of the dark arts. Next up, the players made up their PCs. Character creation was a snap. The only confusion came from players not reading their playbooks carefully.
Each playbook (and there are more than 30 published by Flatland Games) follows the same format. A playbook starts by giving some background information for the character being created. For example, the Assistant Beast Keeper playbook starts with, "The old witch in the village took a liking to you when you were still young, and you now keep her animals for her. While what you do may seem inconsequential, the witch seems to consider you to be vitally important, and favors you above all others. You dream of a more exciting life." The playbook then tells the player what his character's starting ability scores are. These ability scores are the very familiar Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
After this, the player rolls the appropriate die on each chart to answer a question about this character. These questions cover childhood, known non-player characters, background events, and so forth. Each roll modifies ability scores, perhaps gives a skill or class ability, and so on. With a bit more than a half dozen rolls, the players end up with 1st- or 2nd-level characters (some playbooks lead to more experienced starting characters) complete with basic backgrounds, skills, spells (where applicable), starting equipment, et cetera. All of the characters know each other, and each has even shared some sort of life-changing experience with another character.
BTW offers three character classes: warrior, mage, and rogue. Each playbook feeds into a particular class or multi-class. For example, the Village Bear above creates a warrior-rogue. Three classes seem a bit limited, but the inclusion of multi-class options widens the field, and the playbooks do a good job and making sure no two warriors (for example) are the same. This really hits the Old-School groove well. In AD&D, what made two fighters different from each other wasn't their class abilities, but instead was the backgrounds and personalities created by the players.
Based on my one game session, BTW's best feature is character creation. Hands down. No contest. I fully intend on using BTW playbooks (with some minor tweaking) for character creation with my upcoming AD&D campaign.
Let's Make a Village
After this, we put together a quick map for the Village of Lambsheim. Character creation includes village creation. Playbook prompt players to add elements to the village map. These elements focus on both non-player characters and locations. With our table of four players, Lambsheim started as a mostly blank piece of paper and grew into a village with eight important locations and eight important non-player characters.
All-in-all, character and village creation took about an hour. We ended up with four developed heroes and a pretty good idea about the heroes' village, to include some village history that was at least implied by the results from the playbooks.
The Call to Adventure
While the players did their thing, I perused The Opened Veil Scenario Pack. BTW bills itself as offering something other OSR games do not, namely the "tools to play the game almost immediately and with little prep" (to quote the main rulebook). The books elaborates, "Using special Character Playbooks and Scenario Packs, a group of players with a single gamemaster should be able to play the game with absolutely zero prep in about three to five hours, from making characters to tasting a glorious success or a bitter defeat." Our game session found this to be accurate, but with a caveat about the Scenario Pack. BTW requires little prep so long as someone else has done the prep required for a Scenario Pack.
Nota Bene: Even if the gamemaster does have to put together his own Scenario Pack, the format for such is less work intensive than, say, writing a standard adventure. (For example.) A Scenario Pack also requires far less reading than a standard adventure, and each Scenario Pack lends itself well to a more improv style of play that has built in hooks to get the players motivated.
Back to our session. As necessary details, such as nonplayer character names, emerged from the use of playbooks, I filled in the blanks in the Scenario Pack. Once my tables were completed, a few rolls of the dice generated the specifics of the adventure we would play. I had the hook, the source of the problem, the nature of the problem, and hints about complications and solutions. The Scenario Pack even included some player-generated recent events. Ready to go, we started the game in the inn (of course!).
The scenario played out as a combination of undead street fighting, a haunted jail mystery, a town drunk with looted coins, a betrayal between noble families going back two generations, several watchful spirits, a pack of zombies in the barrows, and a short but brutal fight against an ambitious wight.
The Short of It
All in all, the players had a good time. Everyone agreed that the character generation system was the highlight of the game. Kerry, who played the student of the dark arts, complimented the magic system's distinction between spells, cantrips, and rituals (although rituals did not come up during play). The game's systems for combat, skills, and saving throws are easy to grasp and should be at least almost instantly familiar to anyone who has played OSR-style games (or the original games that inspired them).
BTW's system for cantrips, which work as regular spells but require an ability score check to avoid negative consequences, has found its way into my AD&D house rules. So too has the skill system. The rules expansion, Further Afield, includes rules for starting a "player-driven campaign" that is a "shared sandbox." I've skimmed these rules. I like them, and they too will find their way into my AD&D campaign.
In short, the campaign creation rules are like a larger-scale version of the village creation process, but with the added wrinkle that elements added by the players to the world function as bits of character knowledge subject to degrees of inaccuracy. Just because a player's gifted dilettante rogue-mage thinks there is a ghost-haunted tower near the foothills a few days to the north doesn't mean that character's knowledge about the tower or its location is entirely accurate. Degree of accuracy is determined by an ability score check using either Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (depending on how the character acquired the knowledge).
Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures is a great game. Our playtest included good times, good food, and I spent more time cooking than I did prepping for the game.
Astounding Archetypes: Bloodhand Gang presents five new archetypes for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Players may adventure as a dragon warrior (fighter archetype), jotunkin (barbarian archetype), telekinetic monk (monk archetype), warp thief (rogue archetype), and yo-yo magus (magus archetype).
If you're a GM, unleash the Bloodhand Gang on your players' characters. Each villainous member of the mercenary Bloodhand Gang is a fully detailed NPC. The Gang utilizes all five new archetypes. Bloodhand Gang members run from CR 7 to CR 10 and equal an EL 14 challenge.
Dear GM: Are you tired of naughty adventurers? If so, unleash Krampus on them. After those awful murderhobos have been stuffed in Krampus's wicker basket and baked into sinfully tasty meat pies, your campaign world will be a happier place. Gruß vom Krampus! includes four short PDFs, each one providing game statistics for Krampus for four different game systems: Dungeon World, Fate Accelerated Edition, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and Swords & Wizardry.
Ho, ho, ho-zzah!
Dear GM: Are you tired of naughty adventurers? If so, unleash Krampus on them. After those awful murderhobos have been stuffed in Krampus's wicker basket and baked into sinfully tasty meat pies, your campaign world will be a happier place. Gruß vom Krampus! includes four short PDFs, each one providing game statistics for Krampus for four different game systems: Dungeon World, Fate Accelerated Edition, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and Swords & Wizardry.
Ho, ho, ho-zzah!
Nineteen new monsters. One hidden monster. One recipe for monster stew. Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods pillages the public domain to provide eager Referees with bizarre beasts to befuddle and beleaguer their players. Beware the knee-less hugag, the spike-finned snoligoster, the drunken cactus cat, and seventeen other monsters.
An excerpt from my S&W adaptation of William T. Cox's Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. That's right. It's the seldom dreaded wapaloosie!
I’ve started a new project based on William T. Cox’s whimsically delightful Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, originally published in 1910. Here’s an excerpt:
The gumberoo (Megalogaster repercussus) lives in foggy regions, especially near wooded ocean coasts in northern climes. Fortunately, gumberoos seem to be rare, but this might because this beast prefers “to remain in hiding most of the time in the base of enormous, burned-out cedar trees, from where it sallies forth occasionally on frightful marauding expeditions.” A gumberoo is always hungry and attempts to devour anything that appears to be food. “A whole horse may be eaten at one sitting, distending the gumberoo out of all proportions, but failing to appease its hunger or cause it the slightest discomfort.” A gumberoo resembles a coal-black, almost hairless bear. Its skin is “smooth, tough, and shiny and bears not even a wrinkle.” In fact, a gumberoo’s hide has amazing elastic properties. “Its elastic hide hurls back with equal ease the charging elk and the wrathy hornet.” Fire, however, proves to be a particular effective weapon against a gumberoo, but care must be taken, for these beasts tend to explode when burned.
HD 4+1; AC 2 (17); Atks 2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (1d6+1); SV 13; Special elastic hide, fire vulnerability; MV 9; AL C; CL/XP 5/240
Elastic Hide: Any attack from a physical source, such as a sword or an arrow or a claw, may bounce off the gumberoo’s elastic hide without inflicting any damage. A gumberoo is permitted a saving throw against these attacks. Success means it takes no damage. If the gumberoo’s saving throw die roll equals 18-20, the attack rebounds to inflict normal damage to the attacker.
Fire Vulnerability: Any time a gumberoo is attacked with fire from any source, it must make a saving throw. Failure means the gumberoo explodes, inflicting 4d6 points of damage to creatures in a 10-foot radius. On the plus side, the gumberoo dies.
"Can my fighter sneak up on the goblin?"
"Can my magic-user convince the captain of the guard to let us into the dungeon?"
"Can my cleric jump over that wall?"
Answer these questions and more with Optional Skill Resolution Rules (link leads to DriveThruRPG). Simple, flexible, and narrative, OSR2 gives players tools to customize their characters. Make up a fighter who's knowledgeable about ancient civilizations, a druid who's a skilled lady's man, a thief who's light on her feet, and much more.
Ean Illiam's Cavern Stores for Dungeon World is now available for purchase. Huzzah!
Aquatic Depths & Denizens is available for purchase. Woo hoo! I've accomplished something!
Find what you're looking for in Ean Illiam's Cavern Stores. Fully compatible with Dungeon World, this campaign location includes these excellent features:
* Cartography by Matt Jackson that includes blank spaces
* Not-too-complete descriptions of the cavern stores
* Two adventure fronts
* Stats and descriptions for the people, creatures, and animals found in the stores
* Pictures of the major and minor NPCs
* Lots of helpful sidebars, including questions to ask and blanks to fill in, as well as new magic items and tables for randomly generating NPC names, types, instincts, and knacks
Ean Illiam's Cavern Stores is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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I decided to start hosting Dinner & Gaming nights again, doing so once a month. I like to game. I like to cook. (I even considered going to a culinary arts school until I figured out I have anosmia.) So, I fixed taco salad, got a couple bottles of sangria, and broke out the Swords & Wizardry, In Search of the Unknown, and a couple copies of my WIP Optional Skill Resolution Rules.
With only two players in attendance, I was flexible with class and race combinations. Alex made up Brother Zaphod, an Elf Cleric/Magic-User who had been raised by weasels in the woods. I imagine them to have been giant weasels. Christopher made up Weeble Kneecracker, a Halfling Fighter/Thief who is also a skilled chef and a pariah from polite Halfling society. This stalwart pair of rookie heroes hired two men-at-arms and a torchbearer: Maximilio, Baldrick, and Leofrick.
The party traveled north into the hilly woodlands between the frontier village and the realm of the hated barbarians. After some traveling and searching, they found the entrance to Quasqueton. Weeble picked the lock on the door, and the group moved into the hallway beyond. They were startled by magical mouths that pronounced a grim warning.
Weeble crept forward, searching for traps. He determined there were none, but his intense concentration led to him being surprised by a pair of ghouls. Weeble was clawed and paralyzed.
The hirelings and Brother Zaphod battled the ghouls, killing them. Brother Zaphod suffered a moderate injury in the process.
Skill checks using my OSR2 system were made to convince the hirelings to work for free in exchange for spiritual betterment, to open the locked door, to search for traps, and to determine the weaknesses of ghouls. Based on this brief session of actual gaming, I think the system works pretty well, although I did leave out one detail regarding the characters' starting skills, which I'll have to amend next time we play S&W.
As I’ve blogged about a couple of times, Matt Jackson, career enlisted man and gamer and mapper extraordinaire, has been raising funds for the Wounded Warrior Project. His efforts under the title Maps for Heroes reflect both the best of both military tradition and of our disparate, often cantankerous community of gamers.
I served eight years in the U.S. Army. But for the grace of God, I could’ve ended up a wounded warrior, especially if I’d decided to make the military a career, which was a serious consideration until I decided on taking my honorable discharge and getting into teaching. However much I do to help others, I can always do more.
So, here’s some more. From now until the time Matt reaches his $1000 goal, 100% of the sales from these four OSR PDFs goes to Maps for Heroes: The Quid Novi? Collection, That’s a Goblin!?, Rantz’s Fair Multitude, and Rewarding Roleplaying. At this link is a PDF with more information about these titles as well as links to discounts for each of them. The codes never expire. Use them. Share them with your friends.
Huah!
Aquatic Depths & Denizens is ready for playtest release!
This OSR PDF focuses on adventuring underwater. It includes rules for swimming, drowning, fighting and spellcasting under the waves, five player character aquatic races, an assortment of aquatic spells, and a plethora of marine monsters. Download your copy and playtest today.
Of course, helpful folks who playtest the PDF and/or provide feedback receive credit in the final PDF. They also receive a free copy of the final PDF, providing I have an e-mail address. To further sweeten the incentives, playtesters/feedbackers may also select any single PDF from my on-line catalog to receive for free (again providing I have an e-mail address). My email address is mark at spesmagna dot com.
My on-line catalog.
Optional Skill Resolution Rules presents a flexible system for resolving skill checks usable with Swords & Wizardry (and likely compatible with other OSR games). With OSR2, the Referee and players define a character's skills based on race, background, and class. No skill lists restrain those choices. Do you want your Magic-User to be a ladies' man? There's a skill for that. Do you want your Paladin to have studied Forbidden Cults? There's a skill for that. Download the playtest version of these rules today and see if they work for your game.
Of course, helpful folks who playtest the PDF and/or provide feedback receive credit in the final PDF. They also receive a free copy of the final PDF, providing I have an e-mail address. To further sweeten the incentives, playtesters/feedbackers may also select any single PDF from my on-line catalog to receive for free (again providing I have an e-mail address). My email address is mark at spesmagna dot com.
My on-line catalog.
I've started to receive feedback on Astounding Archetypes: Bloodhand Gang. Excellent!
Of course, helpful folks who playtest the PDF and/or provide feedback receive credit in the final PDF. They also receive a free copy of the final PDF, providing I have an e-mail address. To further sweeten the incentives, playtesters/feedbackers may also select any single PDF from my on-line catalog to receive for free (again providing I have an e-mail address).
My on-line catalog.
You're the second person today that told me they saw "Bloodhound Gang". When typing the doc, I kept writing "Bloodhang Gang", which doesn't make much sense but at least it rhymes. :)
Here's the playtest version of Astounding Archetypes: Bloodhand Gang. Presented in the PDF are five archetypes: dragon warrior, jotunkin, telekinetic monk, warp thief, and yo-yo magus (my personal favorite). I originally featured these archetypes on my website. I've tweaked all five a bit here and there, trying to clear up unclear rules, streamline class features, et cetera. I've also put together one villain for each archetype.
I eagerly hope for your feedback, which can be sent to mark at spesmagna dot com. Huzzah!
I'm trying to start a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying campaign set at the beginning of the American Revolution with the heroes being members the Sons of Liberty, a super-group put together by Benjamin Franklin. To help players get ideas for heroes (and to help me get a better grasp of the game system), I statted up several sample heroes (and wrote some guidelines as well). Enjoy!
Guidelines for Making a Hero / The Fife / Liberty & Justice / Liberty Belle / The Patriot / The Puritan
Spes Magna Games hasn't done much lately, and little of what's been done has related to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Well, that's changing a bit pretty soon-ish. I’m going to try and finish Astounding Archetypes: Bloodhand Gang. This PDF will be a return to Pathfinder material for Spes Magna Games. It features five new archetypes, one each for barbarian, fighter, magus, monk, and rogue, plus five villainous NPCs, one for each archetype.
Unfortunately, my goal of getting Astounding Archetypes done by this coming Monday, 3 December, ain't gonna happen. Not enough time left, and I've got other things that must take priority, such as the jazz cafe luncheon my wife and I are going to Sunday afternoon.
Still, work has progressed, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to put a preview out for folks to take a gander at. So, permit me to introduce Catarina Rocha, member of the Bloodhand Gang.
In other news, it's been a while since I as productive with Spes Magna Games as I have been this Thanksgiving. So far this week, I’ve managed to get:
1. Metro Gnomes on-line for sale.
2. The Quid Novi? Collection on-line for sale.
3. Rantz’s Fair Multitude on-line for sale.
4. The Amphitheater of the Continuum on-line for free download.
Huzzah!
More Old School gaming goodness from Spes Magna. :)
Thirty pages of Old School gaming material found in Rantz's Fair Multitude, including new magic items, monsters, spells, and other goodies to reward and challenge your players.
Huzzah!
Metro Gnomes is a short, beer-and-pretzels scenario for the free RPG Geodesic Gnomes. Get your copy today before the universe runs out of electrons.
Metro Gnomes is a short, beer-and-pretzels scenario for the free RPG Geodesic Gnomes.
Since posting this announcement here and a few other places, sales are increasing. That's excellent news for Rick and his family. :)
There're about 98 pages all together between the 10 PDFs. The shortest PDF is about 6 pages long; the longest about 19.
When I started Spes Magna Games back in 2009, I also started Quid Novi?, a twice-monthly e-mail newsletter of gaming goodness that eventually became a monthly PDF of gaming goodness which has now fallen by the wayside. The Quid Novi? Collection includes the 10 individual PDFs as originally published.
About 80% of the content in The Quid Novi? Collection is for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. You get two short adventures, and curses, diseases, magic items, haunts, monsters, giant lilypads, spells, and a Psionics domain for clerics. The other 20% of the collection was written for Old School gaming, and includes two short adventures as well as curses, magic items, prismatic mists, monsters, deadly mushrooms, and spells.
Caveat emptor: If you were a Quid Novi? subscriber, you've got no reason to buy this collection. You already received all of these PDFs for free. The zipped file for sale includes 10 separate, bookmarked PDFs.
In other news, for my day job, I teach 5th grade at Aristoi Classical Academy, a small classical liberal arts charter public school in Katy, Texas. Being a charter school in Texas, we do not receive the full funding from the state that a traditional public school receives. (For example, we receive no monies for facilities.) Consequently, my salary at Aristoi is thousands of dollars a year lower than it would be in a traditional public school. Now, mind you, I'm not complaining; I'm simply informing by way of a preface.
One of my fellow teachers, who has fewer years experience than I, has hit a difficult patch. Rick and his wife have three daughters, ranging from elementary school to high school. They live in a rough neighborhood. His house has been burgled more than once. One of his daughters has been a victim of violence. Rick needs to get his family out of that neighborhood, but moving, as I'm sure you all know, requires money.
I want to help my friend and co-worker, and I figured that Spes Magna Games might be a good way to do this. For the entire month of November until the end of 2013, 100% of my Spes Magna sales will be donated to Rick to help him get his family to a safer neighborhood.
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Thanks, Endzeitgeist! :) You da man!
Ariakon: Most of the information is geared for the GM. Swords & Wizardry, for which the PDF is written, doesn't have specific rules for goblin PCs in its core. There's a early preview at this link.
The expanded PDF has been uploaded. It should go live soon. :)
I've started re-editing, clarifying, and expanding Rewarding Roleplaying. In addition to the original Action Point system, I'm adding alternative rules for giving players more narrative control, for exploding dice, and other goodies.
I'm shooting to have the expanded PDF available the first week of August. Of course, if you've previously purchased Rewarding Roleplaying, you should receive the updated file automatically.
Now available at Paizo.com:
That's a Goblin!?
Catch your players off guard with That's a Goblin!?. This Old School supplement presents 23 goblin mutations, 15 fey goblin abilities, 3 goblin subspecies, and 6 goblin tactical specialties. Mix and match to create scores of different goblins!
That's a Goblin!? also includes Tributary of Terror, a mini-adventure taking place within Reyr's Well, a detailed fantasy hamlet suitable for just about any campaign world.
Check out this 5-star review at DriveThruRPG!
Now at Paizo.com: The Accordian Files Playtest Packet
The Accordian Files pits the forces of accord, the player characters, against the forces of discord, controlled by the Discord Master. In the zipped file, you'll find all you need to playtest this new, rules-lite RPG.
* The Player's Book tells you everything you need to know to make and run a character.
* The Discord Master's Book offers helpful advice and insight for presenting the forces of chaos in your game.
* The Ghost in the Washing Machine presents an introductory adventure that pits the heroes against a sinister business owner.
Join the good fight today!
Now at Paizo.com:
Ars Natatoris
Dive into adventure with Ars Natatoris! This brief product presents swimming and drowning rules compatible with a wide range of old-school games.
Now available at Paizo.com:
That's a Goblin!?
Catch your players off guard with That's a Goblin!?. This Old School supplement presents 23 goblin mutations, 15 fey goblin abilities, 3 goblin subspecies, and 6 goblin tactical specialties. Mix and match to create scores of different goblins!
That's a Goblin!? also includes Tributary of Terror, a mini-adventure taking place within Reyr's Well, a detailed fantasy hamlet suitable for just about any campaign world.
Curious about The Accordian Files? Ask me questions, please.
Curious about Ars Natatoris? Ask me questions, please. Also, check out this 4-star review at DriveThruRPG.
Curious about That's a Goblin!?. Ask me questions. You can also check out this 5-star review at DriveThruRPG. :)
Paizo.com notified me that the updated file is ready for download. :)
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The following module (up)scales the token ring size automatically when you drag a token to the map. It also allows you to set the magnification sizes for each token size via configuration.
https://github.com/7H3LaughingMan/token-ring-adjuster
https://github.com/7H3LaughingMan/token-ring-adjuster/blob/main/module.json
PS: No idea how magnified tokens affect the "Wall height" module (as in looking for walls of certain height).
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I always had great fun playing ghouls according to their attribute stats. Ghouls always where more intelligent, wiser and more charismatic than many adventurers.
They seem like somewhat Hannibal Lector kind of creatures. Now even more than before.
Minor spoiler for Strange Aeons B1:
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It would have been nice if the Foundry+PDF bundles also got the discount. That being said, for some reason those bundles cost $1 more than the single products to begin with.
Happy holidays!
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Playing devil's advocate here: The problem is that the most important part of the example - simple DC success - is the one that leaves you literally hanging in the water without resolve. How is this is a good first beginner example on page 10 of a rulebook?
And even a more seasoned player (myself) wondered why the critical success was needed?! Seemingly something that is explained 232 pages later and an odd case that various players likely never encountered before. Personally I never had to make that role in years of playing PF1.
The authors have my deepest respect, but they could sport a more "educational" writing style that results in more answers than questions. I had hopes that PF2 would be more precise in writing. And maybe it is, I only just began to read. But the first rule example proved to be a stumbling block already and that does everyone an unnecessary disservice.
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In which case this seems like an odd example to explain skill DCs to a beginner, readers should not have to "presume" anything. Why start with an ambivalent case where the reader doesn't know what happens halfway through?
Starting a rulebook with a rule example that already sparks a forum discussion (guilty as charged here) sets an unfortunate precedence. Besides that the example itself is odd with the critical success being necessary to complete the deed. Does this mean that beating the DC is not enough for skill checks anymore, but crits are needed for instant completition now?
This touches FAQ/errata territory, which it really should not being the very first beginner example of a rule.
But to be clear: No real negativity meant here, I am happy to see the 2nd edition out and eager to read through the book. Thanks to all parties involved for the hard work!
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Why does the poor character on page 10 drown halfway through the river despite having beaten the swim DC (16)?
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Talk about non-descriptive product descriptions:
What does this "Advanced" GM screen do that the original screen does not do and what does it forfeit in return?
GM's likely will not use two screens at a time, especially not if one if portrait and the other landscape. So please tell us more allow for an educated buying decision.
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As far as I understand the argument by James Jacobs is about printed maps, not so much PDF maps. And even then, why would the map on the title page use higher resolution than the map inside the volume? Why do I get much higher resolution PDF maps from a translated product (without any interactive forms nonsense), but not from Paizo?
It's easy to make it happen, just embed higher resolution images into the PDFs. As far as I know this was the case with older AP's map folios anyway?! So why not for Strange Aeons?
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The original maps at Paizo are done at vastly higher resolution that what we are given in the Interactive Maps and AP books. Why does Paizo not offer full resolution maps in a usable format (not that hardly usable interactive format)?
Even the map in the background of the title page of ISoS's Interactive Maps PDF is higher resolution than the main interactive one.
Fortunately my native language is not English, which allows me to buy a translated version of the AP that includes high resolution maps.´
Still, why does Paizo only deliver maps in low resolution when the high resolution files are available to them?
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