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Hey there, fellow gamer-folk, Has anyone else noticed that "Reduce Person" (now known as "Shrink") requires a "willing target"? How is this spell useful in any but the most limited cases? Also, how is there not a higher-level spell that reduces size requiring a Saving Throw? Does anyone think this could be a typo or oversight? Or is the game just ruling out that kind of transmutation attack? Yours,
Good evening, fellow GMs, I just finished running session one of "the Heroes of Undarin". It's almost midnight, here in Minnesota. I'm exhausted and drained. I knew what the adventure was like before running it but, honestly, it's so much more draining to run a game knowing you're going to kill your players' characters than I thought it would be. By the end of it, as we were breaking up, I asked if they wanted to set-up a special run between now and our normal, next session in two weeks: to see if we could finish it. They had made it through about the first third of Wave 1/Event 3. We stopped because one player had to go (other commitments; he volunteers some days) and another also had to leave because combat had taken so long and his ride back to Wisconsin had arrived. None of them wanted to go on. To quote one: "It was a slog". And, honestly: I was glad. It was a slog for me, too. I get that the goal of this adventure is to stress-test characters, seeing how long it takes to kill them. And I get that this is a necessary part of play-testing. That said, it was such a grind. And I had to wear my enthusiastic "GM Face" the whole time, running it like it was any other adventure. It was the Pathfinder equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru. Only despite how cool that kinda sounds, it wasn't. It felt like a relentless death march and, for me, that's just not fun. At all. And it wasn't for my players. So, yeah: we won't be continuing this one. We'll go on to the next. But, still, I'm not sure I want to. I'm so worn out. Maybe it's because it's so late and this was a very crunchy game session requiring tracking so many conflicting and overlapping conditions, spells, powers, and abilities that I'm figuratively seeing cross-eyed right now. But maybe I'm starting to think that this version of the Playtest, even with the updates, just isn't that good of a game. Parts of it are, sure; I really like several parts of it! But so much of it ... hurts. It's just not enjoyable. Is anyone else having these feelings? Or, to the contrary, does anyone else have any suggestions that could rekindle my cheer and enthusiasm for the Playtest? I've been playing tabletop RPGs for 38 years and I've not encountered so troubling a game session before. This really did a number on me. Any encouragement or commiseration welcome! Yours,
Just realized something while going over the module again and familiarizing myself with the updated critters and their abilities. Ghosts are not immune to fear or mind-affecting effects. Therefore, in Wave 2/Event 5, the position of the ghost mages is decidedly within the area-of-effect of the lich's fearful presence. Nothing about that Bestiary ability says that it does not effect allies. And, so, I pre-rolled their saves. Naturally, all succeeded but not critically. Therefore, on the first round of combat, the ghost-mages will suffer from the Frightened-1 condition. This seems ... wrong. Thoughts? Yours,
One of my players asked a very solid question while creating his "demon-hunting hero" for "Heroes of Undarin". Basically, "So, what do we actually know about demons"? Good question. The module/adventure doesn't say. So, I created the following hand-out. You may wish to use similar logic in your own runs of the adventure. I'll let you folk know how it goes. ------------------- The median level of demons (as a group) in the Playtest Bestiary appears to be around 10 or 11. Most are "Uncommon" which is a "high" DC for "Recall Knowledge" checks with Lore. Almost all of you would have this sort of experience given your backgrounds. I would adjudicate that knowledge of a group or type of critter (ie: "demons") would come from encountering differing types of them over time. This would increase rarity of knowledge but not level. So, if we shift the average of "high" (for "uncommon" creatures) to the right on the DC chart and use a level of 10 or 11 we would get a DC of 29/30. Since this knowledge would be gained over time (like taking a 20; but I don't see this in the Playtest rules ,,, at least not by that terminology), if we go off of logic, I would say that you would probably have some basic knowledge, having gotten at least a '20' several times in your long careers of fighting demons. Since you are level 12 characters, I'll limit your information to creatures of up to 1 level higher than you: lvl-13. So, here's what you know: Demons are fiendish natives of the Abyss who seek to twist mortals to sin. Demons seek to drag more beings into the pit following their death and final judgment. Many different types of demons exist; they possess weaknesses to cold-iron and good sources of injury and damage. The Weaknesses of Sin
Additionally, many demons can cast the Abyssal pact ritual to coax others of their kind into servitude. This is, essentially, the "Summon Demon" ability from 1st edition. The creature can call in a favor from another demon with a level of, at most, twice the spell level of the Abyssal pact, two demons up to 2 levels lower than that, or three demons up to 3 levels lower than that. If the ritual succeeds, the summoner owes the summoned demons a favor, depending on their nature and eagerness to pursue whatever tasks the summoner had in mind. Demons you have heard of (using the Playtest Bestiary) include the following:
*Those, above, marked with an asterisk are considered the toughest that you know of: your equal or even tougher. Beyond these, you've heard rumors of more powerful types going by such names as Marilith, Shemhazian, Balor, Nalfeshnee but have no personal experiences or even much knowledge about them in a general sense. Specific Lore ("Recall Knowledge") checks will be allowed during the game for you to recall more specific information.
While prepping for next weekend's running of this adventure, I was giving the module a second read-through and discovered a potential typo. It's not too crucial but I was wondering what others thought of it. On Page 62 in the "Lighting" sidebar, it says "The sun has fully set for Events 6 through 10". Additionally, under "Concluding The Chapter" on page 67 in paragraph 3, it says "If, somehow, the characters managed to survive the assault, defeating all 10 events...". There are several ways to interpret this:
Personally, for the fun of it, if any of my players' characters survive all the way to the end, I think I'll throw in a quasit for Event 10 so someone can step on it and roar to the blood-read heavens in victory... Thoughts? Yours,
So, in prepping for "The Heroes of Undarin", one of my playtest players wanted to know if he could take +3 elven chain for his +3 armor that he gets as part of character creation. He is creating an elven ranger who has spent the better part of the previous decade battling the forces of the Abyss in the Worldwound and, now, is traveling the land with the other PCs avenging the dead mortals and ridding the land of evil. Since I know that the purpose of this chapter is testing the impact of magic items on combat and staying power, I have been inclined to say yes. I mean: who better than to have a freakin' suit of elven, mithril chainmail than moderately-high-level elf who has just spent most of his recent life fighting demons?!! That's just ... appropriately cool! But when I looked into it a bit more, I found that elven armor is very high-level as far as items go. And, in terms of game mechanics, all it does is have a lower Bulk than equivalent armors and lack the noisy condition. So, basically, it only has practical impacts upon Encumbrance/Bulk and the occasional Stealth check. And, yet, it's a very high-level item. I've decided to tell the player, "No", because—in some conceivable scenario—that non-noisy armor might have an impact on how the adventure plays out. I sincerely doubt it but, hey: it's possible. And I don't want to allow something that could skew the results of the playtest. What are your thoughts on this? Sure, making it a high-level item for the sake of role-playing makes sense, when we're just doing a one-shot adventure it doesn't look like this is all that well-balanced. Every other magic item has a lot of intrinsic balance with other items (mechanically speaking, that is) but this ... this just seems to be bling. Again: thoughts? Yours,
So, Vampire Spawn Rogues ... right out of the Playtest Bestiary. They don't have Thievery. But the adventure advocates that "if their entry is blocked, they use spider climb to search for entrances on the second floor." The only entrances on the second floor are the balconies in back. Oh, sure, there are those windows on the 1st floor rooms in the back of Sombrefell Hall, but they're looking at the 2nd floor. And the Hall doesn't have a 2nd floor in the front. Several rooms mention windows that are not on the maps. I went through and tried to figure out which rooms were supposed to have windows that got left out of the maps by accident and which did not. I spent hours re-doing the map ... especially the 2nd floor which was bigger than the corresponding section below it. (I invented a patio area, in back, beneath the 2nd floor bedrooms.) So, anyway, I had the Vampire Spawn Rogues that had no Thievery, break in on the first floor. I gave one Thievery (improvised to fit in with the rest of their Skills) and had the other just break a window. The one with Thievery actually lasted a while because, after jimmying a window open and Stealthing into the Hall, he was able to use Stealth to his advantage and try to locate the hiding professor. Still, he died once the PCs found him. Anyway, this map and adventure seems strangely lacking. Are these little mistakes an artifact of poor game design, intentional "mistakes" intended to see what GMs would do to address problems, or oversights? Thoughts? Yours,
Has anyone else looked at the maps for the first and second floors of Sombrefell Hall and noticed that they don't match? When I took them into Photoshop to create layered regions (which I could show/reveal on my TV monitor to the players) this became really obvious. Basically, just count the depth of squares on the 2nd Floor and notice where the upper part of the stairs match the stairs on the 1st Floor map. From the edge of the railing (overlooking D2) to the back wall (with the balconies) it's 8 squares. At 5-feet each that's 40 feet from the front of the railing to the rear wall of Sombrefell Hall. But on the 1st floor map, if you line up the top of the staircase in D2 with the top of the staircase in the 2nd floor map, you find between 4 and 6 squares (20 to 30 feet) between D2 and the back of the house. It depends on how you line up the upper landing, to be sure, but those diagonal walls at the rear of the house only allow for lining up the two floors in a few, limited ways. I know there are trellises on the back leading up to the balconies, but the balconies are an additional 5 to 10 feet jutting out towards the lake. Basically, the 2nd floor looks as if it has a 20-foot-deep alcove beneath it. So, uh, as I prepped for this game: that area became a sun-sheltered deck, the trellises protected from sunlight off the lake. Anyone else notice this? Or interpret the maps differently? Yours,
Hey there, everyone, In case there are some refs out there who need quick Battle Maps for "In Pale Mountain's Shadow" here are the maps I came up with for my group. I created them using assets I purchased and my own Photoshop skills. I tend to display these on the TV from my laptop but I suppose they could also be printed out. I figured I'd share them, here, for refs who may need them and don't have the time or inclination to draw up their own. If anyone is interested, let me know: I'll try to find a way to post them. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best means to post a ZIP-file of PNG-images? By that, I mean, the method that a majority of folk, here, would prefer to use. Yours,
This post is looking for advice of a more interpersonal nature. The subject of this post is a gamer I have had in my games for several decades. He is currently a renter in my home and has been a friend for a long time. He is also very annoying, at times, and tends to make every game and conversation about himself. In the past, I caught him fudging dice rolls and he profusely apologized and said he would never do it again. This past weekend, I may have caught him again. I keep a Word Doc to use as a scratch sheet when I run combats. I have the character's names next to the players names, then an ellipsis, and finally the rolled initiative. On Saturday, I opened the file but my computer was going through a long, slow update of the OS in the background. The Word file, opened, but wouldn't let me scroll. Without thinking about it, I quickly did a word search and grabbed a name out of thin air: that of my problem player. My plan was to see if I could jump down to the bottom of the document and bypass the slow loading. (Dumb, I know: I was frustrated and trying anything.) Well, it didn't work, so I went to working in other files as I set-up for the game. When I went back to the Word Doc, it had finally loaded ... along with all the searches that returned this player's name. It also displayed all of his initiative rolls in the current campaign. (I'd not deleted old combats in a while.) All of his initiative rolls appeared to be in the high-teens/low-20s. Thinking I was seeing things incorrectly, I asked to see his character sheet. Sure enough, his Initiative bonus was +3 (+5 in cities) ... as it should be. I quickly tabulated and found the average of his initiative rolls. The die rolls averaged around "20". Statistically, with a properly-balanced die, I know they should be 13 or 15. I didn't bring it up (didn't want a screaming fit or public argument). I just reffed the game. In the solitary combat that came up during the run he, again, defied the odds. He sits across the room and no one can see his die rolls. I don't normally think about this because all of us players sit apart in comfy chairs/couches. But now I really suspect him. So, I have a few questions: 1. Is my math off? I admit I turned 50 this summer and, at times, find myself forgetting things or making mistakes in my assumptions. Should a character with a +3/+5 initiative bonus be averaging 13/15 on their rolls? Or am I just forgetting some basic statistics knowledge from my old High School days in the early 80s? 2. How would you talk to him about this? He is highly temperamental and defensive. 3. I have thought about suggesting to him that maybe his die is unbalanced and thus give him an out: to buy new d20s. Is this too transparent? 4. I mostly just want the behavior to stop. But, at the same time, how can I trust him going forward? 5. Does it really matter? It's only initiative. (Or is it? I don't have logs of every attack roll and saving throw he's made...) Remember: I live with this person. He's been my friend for decades. He makes every argument about it being a personal attack on him as a person and a gamer. And, yes, he's cheated, before. But I had hoped we were past this ... the last time was a decade ago (to the best of my knowledge). What are your thoughts, people? Yours,
Good day, one and all, My question is two-fold and deals with two specific issues I was hoping others might be able to answer. I'm an aging gamer-geek who started just before 1980 with Dungeons and Dragons. I'm going to be 50 this August. I've been a referee since the start and have had many players in my games but, in recent years, more of a core set of people. While I occasionally have new members join the group, we are -generally- an aging gathering. As such, there have been increasing issues that go beyond the standard "I have a mortgage and family, now" problems that arise as the years tick upwards. So, yes, the first part of my question is "How do you deal with aging as backs get worse, eyesight fades, and general health issues may interfere with sitting for long periods, eating whatever you want, etc...?" The second, more specific question, is with mental issues. Two of my core players have suffered strokes over the past couple years. Both are still eager to game and, moreover, they're great friends. One has trouble hearing, focusing, and engaging as he once did. We all love him but I'm finding it difficult as his referee to provide him with things that can elicit his participation. He has assured me that he's still having fun. At the same time, he'll forget things or not hear things quite often. I know he has trouble reading, now, which is why I don't default to preparing hand-outs as a work-around. I have some issues, too: the afore-mentioned "bad back" which has gotten in my way of sitting for too long, having to wear bifocals, and my hearing (which can vex my players). But those are things I can solve by pre-planning and taking care during our runs. They make me even more aware of people's limitations and disabilities: perhaps disabilities that are more difficult to work around. Does anybody have any recommendations for accommodating and helping players who may have mental disabilities like those I've described? I really do want to keep all of us together and make certain that everyone is having the best, possible time at our bi-weekly adventures! Thank you in advance,
I was just thinking about how I enjoy using my gaming space's HD TV for displaying artwork during the games I run. I like providing visuals for monsters, magic items, landscapes, and NPCs. I'm not the best with Photoshop or 3D-rendering, though, and got to wondering if it would be marketable for Paizo to sell a subscription service that allows the generation of downloadable art. By this, I mean having a Web-based, log-in interface (with maybe a scaled-down, free version for those who cannot afford a subscription) that would allow using models for monsters/races/classes/items/equipment/landscapes and pose these items with a selection of pre-made backgrounds. I would envision being able to render these visuals at a chosen resolution and download them. This would enable a referee to create some great resources for their game. I think I know a little bit of how a system like this could work. "Hero Forge - Custom Miniatures" does something like this at https://www.heroforge.com/ and the various CAD-like modeling sites offer some online mapping tools (although none are particularly easy to use). In the end, I think being able to have high-res output for game props/visuals would really be a potent product: one I would definitely subscribe to! What do people think? Is this just a pipe-dream? Too complicated? Not enough appeal? Yours,
Good day, all, This may be staring me in the face right now, but -for the life of me- I cannot find a single chart that lists: 1. All of the size categories for creatures,
I own the Bestiary, Core Rulebook, and the Advanced Player's Guide. HELP! This is driving me crazy! Yours,
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