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Wayward Rogues Publishing is looking for Freelance Writers to submit 500 words for a New Cavalier Order.

Pay Rate: $.02 cents/edited word USD. Paid to writers verifiable paypal account upon acceptance of finished work.
Additional Details: We are looking to add some new cavalier orders, specific to our campaign setting.
PROJECT DEADLINE: January, 17 2016 11:59 PM.
Respond to: malikjoker@gmail.com with complete, finished article.

Is 500 word the minimum or maximum? I'm just checking to see whether I need to trim my submission or expand it before sending it your way.

Hello.

I'm currently working on a series of monster-entry PDFs that I'd like to eventually publish. Currently, I'm finishing up a few entries that are set up as follows:

• An introductory letter from an adventurer detailing an encounter with the featured monster (each PDF is framed as an entry in a periodical that people submit monster information to).
• Some GM advice on how to integrate the monster into a campaign or adventure.
• The monster's statblock.
  
• Extra background about the monster's habitat or history, if needed.
  
• A few byproducts that can be harvested from the monster.
  
• One or more magical items that can be made from the byproducts, or are otherwise linked to the monster in some way; OR some other content such as feats or spells that have a thematic connection to the monster.

With all of this, plus OGL information and such (but no cover), I have it at about 3 pages. I've seen some with higher page counts, and others with even less.

My question is: From your experience as either a third-party publisher, or a purchaser of third-party content, how much content do players expect from a PDF for around $1?

Yeah, the party level is 5 and the naked sequence is relatively brief. In terms of what they're fighting, they're basically fighting a couple of guards, but that combat only occurs if they're not sneaky.

Basically, the idea is that the adventure opens with each member of the party waking up in a laboratory, naked and lying on surgical tables. The adventure revolves around them getting their stuff back, figuring out how they got there (none of them remember), and escaping the facility.

Thanks for your feedback, everyone.

Thanks. APL-2 was what I was already using, but I thought I'd ask around to get a second opinion about the adjustment.

Yes. I'm serious.

From my understanding, the CR listing of a creature assumes a party of a 4-5 characters with gear that's standard for their level. But what if the party has been stripped of all of their armor and magical equipment , and is fighting with mundane weapons? Obviously, there should be a CR adjustment in place, but I'm curious about how much I should adjust for? The APL in this situation is 5, if that helps.

When we email something, what should we expect in terms of notification and/or feedback? Is there an acceptance/rejection email that gets sent out? Just curious.

I don't know if this is something that's ever been established, but is there a certain number of encounters (combats, traps, haunts, etc.) that an average-sized dungeon usually has? I imagine that it varies depending on the CR of the individual encounters, and the CR of the dungeon itself. I was just curious if, from experience, anyone came up with an "average" of # of encounters in a given dungeon.

If you're a GM, is there a number that you strive for in planning out dungeons?

Hey, Rusty.

I was curious about what steps you took to start publishing. I've been contemplating getting into it on the side, but wasn't sure where to start with regards to forming a company (or if I actually needed to formally form a company).

Cool. Is there any chance that system-neutral articles like these will also be appearing in En5ider?

I see it at most tables I play at. Let's say a Monk wants to jump across a thing. The Monk has a +20 to Acrobatics and the DC of the jump is 15. As a time saving measure, the GM just declares the jump a success.

Is there any textual rules precedence for the "auto-success" on skill checks, or is this just a house rule?

Wayward Rogues Publishing looking for writers for realm and kingdom creation.

Project Length: 1500 words.
Pay Rate: .01 cent/ edited word. Pay on acceptance.
Additional details: I am looking for 5 additional human cultures and realms to fit into our campaign setting. Ideally, realms should be able to "stand alone" without setting background. Human cultures have bronze age tech.
Respond by: Mar 28, 2015

www.malikjoker@gmai.com

Is the email address at gmail.com or gmai.com?

That Humperdink analogy might be a case for using Survival & its associated tracking features.

"Survival" was my first thought, because you're "tracking" the person that shot the arrow, but the Knowledge (Engineering) response I've been getting makes sense too.

My character is investigating the scene of a grim slaughter. One of the victims still has an arrow sticking out of his head. A Heal check reveals that this particular victim has no other wounds, and that the arrow killed him outright.

My question: I want my character to be able to estimate where the arrow was shot from based on the point of entry, strength of impact, etc. and follow the flight path back to where the arrow was shot from. What skill heck would I use for this?

When writing adventures for freelance gigs in general, is there a specific outline that I should follow in terms of organizing the adventure? The style guides I've read deal with general writing guidelines and formatting of game terms, but not necessarily on how to layout an adventure.

My players really wanted to use these variant rules. I told them it was an awful idea, but they insisted. I explained to them that the NPCs would utilize these rules the same way the PCs did.

They laughed at the first few groin shots they pulled off. Hilarious, right? (Not really)

During that same battle, however, there were siege weapons involved. An NPC was manning the ballista.

One called shot to the wizard's groin. One critical hit.

The players recanted their support of the called shot rules, and we played as normal from then on out.

KestrelZ wrote:

There's also Explosive Runes shenanigans per the following threads -

First Explosive Runes

Second Unspeakable Presence

The second one had a genuine question about unspeakable presence, then was derailed into Explosive Runes shenanigans. Long story short, prepared, creative mages might rig a phone book up of explosive runes, summon something that has a SLA to area effect dispel magic and fail the attempt, triggering all the runes at the same time.

Fire Resistance 30 means each rune will deal 6 damage at best, you would need A LOT of explosive runes, but in the end you could kill him if you prepare enough.

Explosive Runes deals force damage, not fire damage.

There is, however, the issue of Spell Resistance for each individual rune blast.

As a standard action, you can attempt to grapple a foe, hindering his combat options.

Source

Since the character isn't trying to hinder the larger creature, I don't think it should be defined as a grapple.

I used an old version of Photoshop and just followed some tutorials. If you can't access Photoshop, I'm pretty sure there are some tutorials made for GIMP (free, open-sourced, but a harder-to-navigate interface IMO), but I haven't checked those out myself.

My pitch goes like this:

"Hey. What kind of shows have you been watching lately?"

I listen to them name off some shows, I'll usually hone in on the show with the most fantasy elements.

"Cool. So imagine that instead of watching Game of Thrones once a week, you and your friends hung out together, each played a character in a story told by one friend, and basically write an episode of a weird fantasy show together..."

If I have a d20 on hand, I'll hand it to them and ask them to improvise a concept for a fantasy-setting character "like in Lord of the Rings or something". I'll then give an opening description of the scene and tell them why the character is there and what their goals are.

The person tells me what they want to do. I explain to them that, in many role-playing games, your success at doing something is determined by a dice roll with an added bonus based on how skilled your character is at doing the thing. They roll, I set an arbitrary DC in my head, and then describe to them their character's success or failure. Rinse and repeat for a few more actions. I introduce them to a simple combat encounter with a simplified version of a d20 combat system. I throw in some social encounters too, and we improvise some fun dialogue and banter together.

This usually gets them interested. When I invite new players like this to a game, I usually encourage them to take a learn-as-you-go approach. Instead of them learning what they "can and can't do" from the rulebook, I like them learning through play where they ask me questions as I go.

"Can I kick that goblin in the crotch?"
"Can I jump on the dragon's back?"
"Can I use my two daggers to climb up a wall?"
"Can I pick up that goblin and use it as a shield?"

This helps them learn the rules as they go, while still enabling them to imagine their actions cinematically instead of strictly in terms of game mechanics.

That's just my approach, anyway.

Molthune and Nirmathas have some ongoing tensions at their border. There's a very nice Wiki that has this kind of stuff.

"I've got less than 24 hours to get rid of this bozo...and you...are wearing...HIS MERCHANDISE!?!?!"

"We dance, we kiss, we smooch, we go home. Happy? Whaddya say? Come on?"

"Uh...guys? Olympus would be that way..."

Hades, Hercules

If we were to include television, there are some great bits from the various Venture Bros. villains, and some golden lines from Supernatural's Crowley.

If it's not obvious already, I like amusing antagonists.

It means "I'm running something that uses ,at the very least, some of the Pathfinder CRB rules and there's nothin' those Pazio-forum chumps can do about it! Mwahahahaha!*"

*Mwahahahaha! completely optional

I had a "problem character" who would steal from, lie to, and even use enchantment magic on the party. Eventually they the party got sick of it and teamed up to kill him all at once. It was a slaughter.

Has that option come up? Have you just considered straight-up murdering Drizzt 254875.9?

Not that I'd advocate PVP in a team-based game! (Unless it results in hilarious violence)

One of the players was a Dhampir that had some homebrewed bloodlust/feeding mechanic. When in town, she'd regularly sneak out at night to some of the seedier parts of town to snack on some victims. She was careful most of the time, but eventually got sloppy and failed to properly dispose of a couple of the bodies.

The next morning, the party awoke to a stern knocking at the door. The Dhampir answered it and found herself face-to-face with the city guard.

"We have a few questions for you. You were seen down in Strumpet's Alley in the Red Lamp District at 0100 last night. Is this true?"

"Um...yes..."

"Bodies drained of their blood were also found in that alley this morning."

"Uh..."

"So we were hoping you'd help us track down the chupacabra that's clearly behind the attacks!"

The entire party laughed and groaned. Funny joke, right?

A few days later, another party member was attending to unrelated business in the same part of town. As he wanders down an alley, a creature pounces from behind some rubbish piles and attacks him.

The creature? A chupacabra!

It was a minor twist, but it was my favorite instance of the "turning a gag into something real" thing that I've managed to pull off.

"Sir Attenbough of Westlake, YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER!"

*Guy in full plate stands up and starts dancing*

GM: "Your armor check penalty applies to that Perform(Dance) check!"

It's a quest to retrieve a mcguffin for a Time Dragon (Thus the Time Shenanigans)

Have you figured out what the McGuffin is going to be?

I'm building a world that has some minor time travel anomalies and half a dozen dimensions/universes all based on Fictional books that the PCs have to jump back and forth between to complete their quest. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to make it work though. I haven't started writing it yet, just an outline, because I decided I was going to use it for NaNoWriMo (the story part of it anyway) which starts tomorrow and about all you're allowed to do before hand is outline and research.

In the campaign I mentioned above where they went to Earth, there were other portals and offered them glimpses to other worlds. For 90% of the campaign, they just assumed these worlds were other planets, alternate planes, or alternate universes.

The other thing I find amazing is that everybody expects the paladin to be a dick after the conception and walk off having no relationship with the demi-god or the child. What? There are not parental visitation rights on Golarion? Is the demi-god going to whisk the child off the heavens and get a restraining order against the paladin?

Best episode of Maury ever?

A roleplaying game system is like a language. Both are things used to tell a story. You can abide strictly by the rules and conventions of that language or

do some
weird

e.
e.
cummings

non
sense

What matters is that the GM creates something that they enjoyed creating and that the players enjoy playing. It's important that when we come to the game table, we make our expectations known.

Do internet arguments ALWAYS have to demonize the other side?!

Yes!

And anyone who disagrees with me is a doo-doo head. Shades of grey are for suckers! :)

Game styles I rather don't like in an extreme fashion.

Political activist GMs who shmear the fecal-matter of their agenda all over the campaign world.

Actually, severely dislike players that do that too.

This can be fun if folks don't mind the Law & Order-esque "ripped from the headlines" feel of the whole thing.

I ran a session where the goblin miners of a mining town learned about unionization somehow and went on strike. Since we're talking about Pathfinder goblins, this strike was hilarious. However, the party had been hired by the mine owner to do some union-busting, which not everyone was cool with. This lead to a lengthy out-of-character debate on real-world union stuff. It was a bit of derailment, but it was cool seeing the player's real-world political values enhance the sense of investment they had in the conflict.

It's going to vary from person-to-person. I enjoyed GMing that session so much (and not just because I had made custom-modified Pathfinder Battles goblin miniatures with protest signs) that it actually became a recurring subplot in the campaign.

Different strokes for different folks.

"Well, when sentients get together and get it on, that's the Force, baby!"

That sounds like the most amazing Jedi ever.

Lazurin Arborlon wrote:

Durngrun Stonebreaker wrote:

I dislike people who have lists of people they dislike.

Cannot agree more strongly, this thread and the contributions to it make me very, very sad. People are to be handled on a case by case basis...interest based descimination isn't more noble than skin color,or gender or any other irrational reason to hate on people.

I dislike people who post in threads just to let us all know how above it all they are.

You're taking this way too seriously.

I dislike people who dislike people who post in threads they don't like.

But I try not to complain about it, because I also dislike people who dislike people who dislike people who post in threads they don't like. So it all balances out. :)

The word was invented by the webcomic Perry Bible Fellowship, but didn't gain its current connotations until it was used in 4chan as a substitute for the derogatory term "Wappanese."

Ah, so it's a term for folks who are really into anime and such (like, really, really into it?)

I've had a couple players like that. They'll send me messages asking "I WANNA BE A CHARACTER BASED ON CONCEPT FROM (Insert Anime Here)" and include a YouTube clip.

I delete those messages.

Weeaboo is a fun word to say.

Weeabooweeabooweeaboo!

What is it anyway?

memorax wrote:

Gamers who like playing characters with high stats and really low dump stats. The 20 Con and Str with 5 Int and Cha types. Who then want little or no penalty. Or who try to get around it by pumping points into skills. I used to really dislike that. Even disallowed that in my games. Now I made a new houserule. Put a 5 int and 5 Cha. The Str and Con are frozen at 16. So go ahead and pump as many points into social skills at first level. Your character is offscreen roleplaying going around talking to people and getting better in social situations at the expense of becoming tougher and stronger.

I have never dumped a stat below 7 and never dumped more than one stat below 10. I also don't like point buy systems, but that's me. I generally use stat arrays for my one shot games and roll stats for my campaigns (haven't run one of those in a while though, no time)

The only time I ever dumped stats was when I played an old lady. I specifically dumped her STR and DEX (with additional penalties thanks to the "old age" modifiers) so the stats could convey a sense of physical feebleness. It turned out to be a really fun character to roleplay, with the added bonus of being one of the most optimized casters I had ever built.

So, my takeaway from this thread is that I should show up to a new game wearing a trillby and hypersexualized anime girl t-shirt, then play as a Psionic Lolicon Kender Antipaladin who rants about Linux and men's rights in a creepy little girl voice.

Got it.

Deirdre "Dee" Sarini wrote:

I don't know how I forgot Ca$h Daddy. That was his name and yes, you have to spell it with the dollar sign. A girl from the office I worked in started up a D&D game (one of the worst I've ever played in). We invited this guy who another guy knew and he made a Barbarian named Ca$h Daddy.

When asked by the DM to write a back story he literally wrote that he was just out for hos.

I wonder if he knows Kanye the Giant...

"Where the club at at Isildur, yo? Kanye the Giant orders Alizé."

This is exactly what video I was thinking of, but my search was fruitless since I misremembered the name as "Andre the Giant".

Mine would be PG-13 if it weren't for my gruesome descriptions of critical hits and finishing blows.

I don't know how I forgot Ca$h Daddy. That was his name and yes, you have to spell it with the dollar sign. A girl from the office I worked in started up a D&D game (one of the worst I've ever played in). We invited this guy who another guy knew and he made a Barbarian named Ca$h Daddy.

When asked by the DM to write a back story he literally wrote that he was just out for hos.

He spent the opening sequence of the game trying to find cocaine, offering cocaine to some other characters and then trying to seduce a king's daughter the moment he met her.

I think you're in the wrong thread. The thread for Best Roleplaying/Backstory You've Ever Seen is that way!

This is quickly derailing into the "Character Names Made from Wonderful Puns" thread.

I approve.

Could we perhaps change the title of the thread to "Play Styles or Roleplay Behaviors That You Aren't Cool With"? I like the idea of discussing our own individual preferences and feelings, but the threat currently runs the risk of being antagonistic.

ITT: We learn that one player's absolute "sins" is another person's shade of gray.

It's almost as if there are different styles of play/GMing and expectations that go with those styles.

The worst campaign setting was one I GM'd over and had the PCs transported to temporarily. Even if it was only for a couple of sessions, it was of my regrets as the campaign progressed after that.

I say that this was "the worst" setting I had seen was because it totally screwed over the non-roleplay-heavy characters in the party. Now their characters not only have no personality, but they had no gear or magic either. Luckily, it was only temporary, but I regret not talking to them beforehand despite the fun story/roleplaying encounters that occurred.

I would say "don't like" is a bit strong for how I feel, but there are play styles and approaches that I've grown a bit wary of when recruiting for my home games.

Roleplaying according to what they think the story wants them to do, rather than what one's character would do/say. This play style has characters rushing to do whatever it takes to "trigger" the next plot development or combat encounter, and treats NPCs like quest-givers and exposition spitters. Their characters will behave inconsistently depending on what they think will drive the primary narrative forward. Since I like players to immerse themselves in the environment and their relationships while the story unfolds organically, I give more pause to players with the above play style than I would others.

Relying solely on one's character sheet and ignoring the environment and allies. There's a scene in Futurama where Bender is playing D&D and uses a fire spell on a body of water to create a steam cloud. While not written in the rules of the spell, this is a great example of a player looking beyond the words on a page and actually thinking intuitively about how the character and their abilities might interact with and affect the game world. Many players stop thinking in such terms when they become too immersed in the RAW minutiae of the game system. While it can be very helpful to have a very rules-knowledgeable person at the table, I find that often the difficulty of getting such players immersed outweighs that benefit.

Obviously, these are just my two cents. It's not that I "don't like" such play styles or players with such styles, it's just that I've GMed enough to know what sorts of styles are compatible with my GMing style.

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

If I wanted to play a human in the same party as your noble drow, how many bonus feats do I get at 1st level to balance things out?

None i would give you the advanced template.

You've pretty much answered your own thread.

Drow Nobles are a race choice that is so powerful, that the GM has to grant templates and such to everyone else to balance things out. As a GM, it's easier to say "No" to one player than it is to add more tweaks and hand-waves to balance out the other players.

I actually think the lack of perfect balance is an important part of games. When you get the chance, look up the concept of "perfect imbalance". Mark Rosewater of Magic: The Gathering fame talks about a similar concept in an article he wrote called "Why We Make Bad Cards".

Half of the fun of making an effective, optimized character in Pathfinder is hunting around for the right combination of classes, feats, etc. If every class, feat, ability, etc, was perfectly effective, then there would be no fun in going on that hunt.

"Balance" is overrated. I actually think it's important for some combat encounters to be underwhelming in order to give the PCs a sense of confidence in their abilities. On the other side of the spectrum, combat encounters that are just the right amount of overwhelming force the players to think beyond their character sheet and look at the encounter as something more than just a game event they have to "win".

Don't worry too much about perfectly balancing individual combats. Give them a series of unbalanced combats that put them on an emotional rollercoaster that zig-zags between them feeling like badasses and feeling like rugged survivors.

Splode wrote:

Liranys wrote:

Splode wrote:

Liranys wrote:

Which Goo Gone spray should I use? There are a lot of different ones.

There's a spray one that smells like oranges and has a bottle that looks like this.

That's the one I got. So far it hasn't worked on the Ballpoint pen drawings that that dumb kid did on my mat. Haven't tried it on the ity bity almost invisible dry erase stain yet though.

You might have to let it sit for awhile after you spray it, but before you wipe the stuff off.

Yeah, I'm doing that now. :) Letting it sit. I'll wipe it off when I get home. It's sure is oily stuff!

Indeed. I highly recommend giving it a water/dish detergent rinse and toweling it off afterwards.

Splode wrote:

Liranys wrote:

Which Goo Gone spray should I use? There are a lot of different ones.

There's a spray one that smells like oranges and has a bottle that looks like this.

That's the one I got. So far it hasn't worked on the Ballpoint pen drawings that that dumb kid did on my mat. Haven't tried it on the ity bity almost invisible dry erase stain yet though.

You might have to let it sit for awhile after you spray it, but before you wipe the stuff off.