Tal_Akaan's page

Tal_Akaan wrote:

There are a million things that can be said about each of adobe products you mentioned and the majority of them, in my opinion, are tools to make things easier for the designer.

While I’ve never attempted to layout a game book, or any high page count document for that matter, I don’t think there is any big secret to gaming books. It’s all about putting things in a logical order and readable format.

Not bad advice all-in-all!

I would say though, doing the graphic design and layout of a large, full-color RPG book so that it is correct from a technical / prepress standpoint, organized in a logical way AND is visually pleasing is actually pretty involved and not for the faint of heart!

Just saying :)

I wasn't trying to minimize what it takes to do desktop publishing in any way. Just that, from what I know, RPG book vs. Other high page count publication, shouldn't be too different.

I've been interested in getting into desktop publishing for some time, would be great to add to my resume, I just don't have any projects that require that skill set.

There are a million things that can be said about each of adobe products you mentioned and the majority of them, in my opinion, are tools to make things easier for the designer.

• For desktop publishing those products are best used in conjunction with eachother:

• I personally use Illustrator as much as possible for logos, but I also use Illustrator for almost everything I do, it’s what I am most comfortable with and I don’t do much desktop publishing.
  
• Photoshop for backgrounds, borders, and photo manipulation.
  
• Then bring everything in to InDesign to lay everything out. Link, or place they do the same thing, to the things you created in the other programs. This way if you decide to make a change to your logo all you have to do is update the link and each instance is changed.
  

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. This is a tough one. I've gotten some good suggestions. I'm sure I'll settle on something eventually.

Maxer is looking for the Voice of the Wild archetype. It doesn't allow you to cast spells through your arrows unless you go into Arcane Archer but you would certainly be better off just sticking with straight bard for effectiveness.

There isn't a good way to do this within RAW as far as I know.

The Bard archetype is an interesting option.

As I was typing everything out I started thinking there might not be a way to do it via RAW, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

Could a Trapper Ranger, with all of the supernatural traps flavored as various spells, work for this concept?

I considered Trapper Ranger, but they don't get launch trap until level 10, and that's a long time to wait for that pay off.

Have you looked at the hunter class?

PDR wrote:

Hunter

Hunters are warriors of the wilds that have forged close bonds with trusted animal companions. They focus their tactics on fighting alongside their companion animals as a formidable team of two. Able to cast a wide variety of nature spells and take on the abilities and attributes of beasts, hunters magically improve both themselves and their animal companions.

I had not looked at the Hunter, but while it gets a couple of things I want, it has far too much emphasis on animals and it's animal companion. Even utilizing the Feral Hunter archetype to get rid of the animal companion the class focuses a lot on animals.

Thanks for pointing it out though, I never really looked at it closely before.

Concept: A nature based archer, who channels spells through his arrows.

Background:
Setting – Eberron
A group of lycanthropes fled to the Eldeen Reaches, like so many others did during the Silver Flame inquisition. This group was taken in by a sect of Gatekeepers, Druids who protect the world from extra planar creatures, and in return used their physical strengths to aid them in their mission. Over the course of many years some of the lycanthropes/shifter were taught the druidic ways and became Gatekeepers proper. (This may not all match up with Eberron cannon, but I’m working from memory and it’s loose enough that things can still change.)

The character I’m trying to build is a shifter archer who channels druidic magic through his arrows. So when I think of what I would like the character to be able to do here’s what I come up with.

• Druid spell list (or something similar)
• Magus (Myrmidarch archetype, but I don’t need the extra armor training)
• Arcane Archer (I don’t think the abilities give me what I’m looking for, but the concept is similar)
• Ranger (for its nature focused abilities)
• Fighter (Archer archetype, mainly for trick shot)
• I also thought about Ranger w/ the Trapper archetype, but 10th level is a long time to wait to launch traps attached to an arrow
• The D&D 4e Seeker is actually something pretty close to what I am looking for

I realize that I can’t possibly get all of this into one character, this is what I see when I envision the character, so obviously I want to get as close as I can.

This description just hit me that might help get a build going, think a nature based Hawkeye/Green Arrow who channels Druidic magic through his arrows as a form of “trick arrows”.

Typing this out I have realized that this might just be something that can’t really be emulated using pathfinder, but I’m sure there are people that know the classes and archetypes much better than I do, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to post it anyway.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Not being able to draw, sometimes it is quite hard to find a good visual representation of how I want my characters to look, so I was wondering.

Are there any good character designers available? I know about Hero Machine, but I was hoping for something more like a character designer from a video game.

I realize this isn't something that likely exists, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I don't use Hero Lab, but I do use a Surface Pro 3, started on a first generation iPad, to help with running games. Other than just being a handy way to have all of my game books with me at all times, I use it for images to show players, and i have digital copied of all of my maps which is very convenient. Though I would say the most helpful thing would be using OneNote for organizing my campaign. Definitely check it out.

If you start the app itself, you'll get to choose the spellbook on the very first screen. Pinning spellbooks to the start screen is just for convenience. So, yes, they can be accessed from inside the app.

This is good, I don't want my start menu congested by a bunch of spell books.

Is there a way to use your spell book to create your prepared spells list for the day or track spells per day for spont. casters?

This may be reaching a bit, but it would be nice to be able to go into my spell book and select the spells that I will be preparing that day and have it create a sub list with my selected spells, with a way to track spells prepared multiple times. Maybe even make it able to adjust a spells level to allow for the application of meta magic feats.

I noticed in the description that you can pin custom spell books to you start screen. Is this the only way to save them, or can they be saved and accessed inside the app as well?

Thank you for the quick response.

My second map was waiting for me when i got home yesterday.

On 12/12/13 I received an email notifying me that my GameMastery Maps subscription would be sent to me in the next few weeks, and that there would be two (2) flip mats in the order:

1 x Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Thieves' Guild (preorder) @ 13.99 = $13.99
1 x Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Wasteland (preorder) @ 13.99 = $13.99

I was initially curious as to why I was being sent two, but as long as it doesn’t become an every month thing it wouldn’t be a problem.

On 12/19/13, at 2:36 PM, I received my usual email notifying me that my order had shipped, except that it only made mention of one on the two that the previous email said I would be shipped. I then got another email at 2:57 PM notifying me that the second map had been shipped as well. I have two separate transactions to my credit card from Paizo , one for each map, and two separate tracking numbers, one for each map, but my problem is that I have only received one map (Wastelands) in the mail.

I would like to know why my order was processed this way, whether or not I was charged 2 separate shipping charges, why I have only received one map when I have been charged for two, why I was getting two maps to begin with, and if the subscription has been changed to two maps every month?

For the Guild Thief I'd do abilities that would make fencing stolen goods easier, I'd give him benefits in his local enviroment akin to the Ranger, but focus on stealing, staking out a mark and maybe assassination.

For the Dragon Slayer I'd give them some benefits against dragons, obviously, but with increased benefits to attack, damage and AC against true dragons and lesser benefits against all other draconic creatures.

The Demon Hunter shouldn't depend on magic abilities at all, it could add caster levels, to make it more acceptable to casters - both arcane and divine, but it's abilities should be open to every class, like the dragon slayer.

The point of having prestige classes like these would be to build concepts. You are right that it's easy to make a good fighter or ranger dragon slayer, but making a rogue or cleric is a different matter. Prestige classes like these would make it easier for the less obvious classes to be something that fits the campaign better, a fighter could become a guild thief - classic bruiser, while a magus could go demon hunting, or a rogue could become a dragon slayer.

And seen from the GM perspective - which is most often my position - it would be easy to design a group of slick thieves operating within a city where their power grants them benefits no...

In my opinion the ease of selling stolen goods should be dependent on the location the game takes place in. The GM should be the one deciding how hard it is to sell stolen goods, based on the type of game he’s running, the campaign setting, even the town the item is being sold in.

To me, what you describe as a Guild Thief, is an Urban Ranger. It seems to offer everything you mention, unless by stealing you actually mean picking some ones pocket, it doesn’t seem to offer sleight of hand. Also in my opinion being a thief does not make you an assassin. I feel these two character concepts are very different and should not fall under the same Prestige Class. Though I could see an Assassin archetype that switches out your favored enemy for an ability that lets you assign those bonuses to a specific target.

Your Dragon Slayer also seems like a Ranger to me, with favored enemy Dragons.

Your Demon Hunter confuses me a little. I’m not sure if I’m misunderstanding what you want or what. You say the demon hunter shouldn’t depend on magic, but it will increase caster level.

1. Should the class use magic or not?
2. When you say “increase caster level” do you mean the PC’s caster level, or the typical +1 level of existing spell casting class, we see so often in PrC’s?

I get your point about it being easy to play a Ranger that is a Dragon Slayer, but wanting to play a Rogue that enters a Dragon Slayer PrC, but this confuses me also. Why play class A then go into a prestige class that mimics class B, instead of just playing class B?

Also the more generic the prestige class the less synergy there will be with the base class that you were before you entered that class. One of the things that I seem to remember about the 3.5 PrC’s was that the improved some of the abilities from your base class. A generic PrC can make no assumptions as to what class you were before entering it, so that class could not affect any preexisting class abilities. If it does add levels to existing spell casting, then it’s not suited for classes that don’t cast, and therefore is not a generic PrC. Maybe I’m being too specific regarding what you mean by specific though.

First problem: We sorely lack more generic prestige classes in Pathfinder.

By generic I don’t mean things like the ones the old 3.5 books where filled with to the point of overflowing. I mean instead classes like a Guild Thief, Dragon Slayer or Demon Hunter, classes that are solid in concept, but broad in organizational possibility.

What would you be able to do as a "Guild Thief" that couldn't be accomplished as a Rogue?

The same can be said about your other examples, "Dragon Slayer" and "Demon Hunter", both of those concepts can be created perfectly by classes like fighter and ranger, or any of the divine classes regarding the demon hunter.

Sweet.

I seem to recall a sample adventure being included in the play test, is there one in the official release?

We are processing subscriptions as fast as we can. August is the largest subscription month of the year and as such our window for shipping packages is August 12th-23rd. We hope to have all pending subscription packages processed for shipping by that date.

~Justin Riddler
Customer Service

This is the response I received when I posted on the customer service boards about my subscription order. I don’t know anything about Amazon or local stores release dates.

Still waiting...

Apparently it could take until the 23rd before all of the orders are processed.

Should I be concerned that I have yet to receive my confirmation email for my subscription this month, or are they still coming out? This is the first time it has taken this long for me to get it.

Wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of mythic weapons or something that increased in power as you leveled or gained mythic tiers?

If so, how do those look? Were they executed better than WotC Weapons of Legacy?

^I was just thinking the same thing.

I noticed LMP's post shortly after he made it, and have been eagerly awaiting the link.

Thank you. I was trying to do it from the order itself.

How do I apply store credit to my next subscription order?

I have been a subscriber of the flip mat line for a while now and never had any problem with my orders, until now. I recently received my Arcane Dungeons flip map and there are quite a few gnarly wrinkles in it. It looks like the map was folded the wrong way which caused the wrinkles. I would say it’s still usable, but given the quality I’m used to getting from this product I wasn’t expecting this.

I was wondering if this is just something that happens from time to time and is no big deal or could I request a replacement map. I don’t have any ready currently, but I could provide pictures if need to, as proof of the wrinkles.

I think why it's attacking can be used to answer the question. If it’s attacking for a reason where the PCs death is not required in order to get the desired outcome, then there is no reason for it to kill the PC.

If you're looking for a truly generic setting with just enough detail to run a few games or so, then "Goodman Games" has a complete setting you might want to check out. It covers all 5 points of the criteria you listed.

It was originally published as a boxed set, and was the default setting they used for their "Dungeon Crawl Classics" line of adventure modules back in 3.5...

The whole setting, maps and all, is available here on Paizo on PDF for $40. Here's a link: Gazetteer of the Known Realms

Gave this a look, and I'm very interested. I'm going to do a bit more research on it before I just hand over my money, but this looks good.

Actually I did mean setting, but I am open to using an area from Golarion, if it fist some of my criteria. Is Isga the only one that would?

Also, which Greyhawk book should I look for? I know there's a Living Greyhawk Gazeteer for 3.0, is that what I should get if I wanted to run in Greyhawk?

I’m looking for a campaign setting for an upcoming game I’ll be running, and would appreciate some suggestions.

Things I’m looking for:
1. Easily digestible:
I would like something that isn’t overly detailed. I only need to know about stuff that happened 500 years ago if it’s relevant to the current state of the setting.

2. Reasonable land size:
I don’t want a land mass that is too big. The game I have envisioned has a good bit of travel, but I don’t want the party spending months getting from the human lands to the dwarf mountain, if that makes any sense?

3. Iconic:
Actually I might even go as far as to say a stereotypical fantasy world. My group doesn’t really go for the off the wall stuff, they like the classic fantasy tropes, like LotR. Plus I find it’s easier for them get immersed in a setting they are familiar with.

4. Environments:
I would like something that has a few different environments; forest, snowy, desert, etc.

5. Availability:
I would prefer to buy either a print or PDF version of it. so try to steer clear of really old hard to find stuff.

Obviously I’m not going to find exactly what I’m looking for, so there is wiggle room. Though, I would like to get as close to number 3 as possible. So if I have to sacrifice on the others, so be it.

Thank you for any help you offer.

dot

I went ahead and googled the reference made in the first post.
Greywulf version

I see what it's trying to do, but i don't think it works with out as simply as intended.

I would leave inspiration as is. It’s really all they get. Almost every class feature they get cost inspiration points.

iPhone 3GS
iPad (original)

As far as apps I would like and what I would want them to do...

Combat Tracker:
-Buffs, de-buffs, and conditions. The information that is provided should be bonuses, type of bonus, and source. I should be able to select haste from a list and have its bonuses listed with the initiative slot I designate.

-Encounter saving. I would love to be able to save encounters within the tracker so I can get most of my encounters set up before I even reach the table. Just select the encounter I want from the menu and we’re good to go.

I don’t want the Combat tracker to store and display full monster stat blocks. This just creates too many issues if I want to run a custom monster or NPC.

Character Sheet:
Please note I did not put Character Generator. I do not need or want a character generator. My group plays with enough house rules that a generator would be very hard, if not impossible, to use. Or time intensive to alter if it was set up like Hero Lab.

-Math. I would like the sheet to do math for me, not because I can’t, but because it would be a big pain to have to touch 2-3 input boxes for every entry every time I level. Things like saves, skills, AC, and possibly attacks (if this can be done in such a way that you can modify if you need to).

-Notes. Every line should have a collapsible notes area so you can denote where your numbers are coming from, reference pages from books, or full descriptions of abilities if desired.

-Resource Management. The more help I can get keeping track of my resources, be they spells, class abilities, daily use items, or potions the better.

-Buffs, de-buffs, and conditions. This would be amazing. If all I had to do was select a condition and it changed my numbers on my sheet until that condition was unchecked I would be in heaven. I realize this one might be a little hard to do but it would be amazing.

Spell Management:
There are a few spell book apps out there but I think they can be done better. It would be nice if they actually helped you track your spell usage and maybe even help with applying metamagic feats.

-Multiple Spell Books. Obviously you should be able to save multiple spell books/known spells lists with an app like this.

-Calculate damage and effects based on caster level. It would be nice if I could input a caster level for a spell book/spell list and have the app calculate the effect and damage for me. Maybe even have alternate caster level fields that you can apply if you caster level is considered higher for a specific type of spell.

-Custom Spells. This would be nice, but for me not anywhere near a necessity for the app.

Here's a big one:

The more these apps can work with eachother, if that's even possible, the better.

There might be more ideas floating around in my head somewhere. If I think of anything else I’ll post it up.

This is purely speculation, but someone above said Amazon had a release date of April 18th for the book. So to Amazon it looks like all these people have been waiting for a book that was supposed to come out in April. Maybe be it’s an automatic thing that happens if customers have been waiting X amount of days for their orders.

Like I said purely speculation, and I’m not trying to justify it for Amazon, just throwing in my 2 coppers.

Tal_Akaan wrote:

I can honestly say that I probably will never use the physical copy of the character folio that I will be getting as part of my subscription, but I will probably take the time and make the pdf fallible as I play mostly from my iPad.

Are you going to make it fallible? Or fillable? :)

If the later could you post it up assuming Paizo doesn't object so the rest of us could fill one out as well. Though if you make it fallible, well I can make mistakes on my own so i don't need help there. :)

I haven't decided which on yet. I figure I’ll just keep the internet in suspense.

I can honestly say that I probably will never use the physical copy of the character folio that I will be getting as part of my subscription, but I will probably take the time and make the pdf fallible as I play mostly from my iPad.

I have been a PFRPG subscriber for some time now and recently, today actually, became a GameMastery Maps subscriber and I had a question about bundling my subscriptions to save on shipping.

If I bundle my maps subscription with my PFRPG subscription will waiting for the maps hold up my PFRPG items? One of my favorite things about my PFRPG subscription is getting my books a little early, but I don’t want to miss out on that because I bundle my two subscriptions together.

subscribers can download the PDFs when the books are shipped.

Yes we can, and while I have only had a cursory look through the book, I must say I like what I have seen.

I would say just use Star Wars Saga Edition and keep the Mass Effect wiki ready.

with some simple reflavoring I'm pretty sure you could get a really good Mass Effect game out of SAGA.

Thank you. The description in my book did not specify.

-Tal

Is a Doppelgangers change shape ability limited to the duration of alter self spell that it's based on.

Matthew Morris wrote:

Insecticon?

I see someone watches Transformers Prime. :)

They had Insecticons back in the original series.

Actually come to think of it, it might have been G2.

If I recall rest is not defined as sleep in the book, I think it's just not taking part in any strenuous activity. So if your 4 man party takes 2 hours to after setting up camp to eat and unwind from your long day of orc killing, and then 2 hour watches each you would have still rested 8 hours.

I could be wrong though, I might be thinking of a house rule, or a different game entirely.

-Tal

I think I would have to CalebTGordan on the look of the app. It feels more like a novelty than a powerful player tool with the way it looks. I think I understand what you were going for, but I think you can achieve that and still tone it down a bit.

Well then that sounds amazing. Sign me up to help test it. ;)

Well if you want my honest opinion.

The meta gaming issue matters very little, even if they strictly play this out in character at the table I don’t think it would take the other players very long to figure out what is going on. Beside that fact that there is no way that I can think of for you to have you character take control of another character without the rest of the players thinking something is up.

Have you thought about being straight with the other players and say “this is how I would like to play this character, it seems really fun and if I do take control of you I won’t deliberately make bad decisions and I’ll play him just as if he were my character.” Trying to be sneaky about automatically raises red flags, and that might be why the GM told them about it to begin with. He might just be trying to prevent his game from turning into a PC vs. PC battle royal.

Just my opinion, and you know what they say about those.

-Tal

edit: I haven't read the posts above mine, but I feel as though I just got crazy ninja'd.

This is sounding more like a character creation app than just an interactive sheet.

It sounds like the player will select a class and a level and the app will populate the class features and other info. This brings me to my question. What about if someone wanted to play a homebrew class or something from 3.5?

Otyugh, that happens to me sometimes also. Eventually I am able to check the box or close the pop up though.

Although I do feel the need to warn you, since it just happened to me a couple weeks ago. While I was inputting a new character the app crashed. It had happened before and while frustrating not the end of the world, although this time when I start up the app again all my characters had been erased. This event was enough to make me not want to use the app again until I get an update saying this bug has been fixed. I am running it on a first gen iPad so I don’t know if this is an issue with the app, or running it on my iPad. I just wanted to give you the heads up that it might happen to you as well.

I will say that once this issue is resolved I will be very happy to use this app again. I loved using it, it’s just a big risk to lose your character, possibly in the middle of the game.

Thanks for the reply.

Thanks for letting me know about the knowledge skill. I never even tried to enter in a skill. When I saw that there was only one slot I just found another way to handle it, but the way you have it working is a very nice feature. Now I don’t have space being taken up by knowledge skills I don’t use.

As for the notes feature, yeah it is personal preference, I like to include as much info about my racial abilities and class features as I can, and when I try to shorten it I usually end up leaving out something important.

The app functions almost exactly the way I want a digital character sheet to function. Between this app, my $.99 pdf reader for my digital books, and my $1.99 spell book app, I have quite an impressive device for gaming. If I didn’t prefer to roll my own dice all I would need to bring to my gaming sessions is the iPad.

-Tal

I got the d20 and 4e versions earlier this week. I’ve only had time to start inputting my most recent Pathfinder character, and I must say that I like it. I got my iPad mostly for gaming, granted I had other reasons, but let’s be honest they were just used to try and justify it to the fiancé. Any way this is the kind of app that I want from the beginning. I like that it’s just a digital character sheet that auto calculates, I don’t need it to link to the SRD or anything, that tends to make things much more rigid and more likely to not work right.

Here are a few thoughts, ideas, and questions I had:
1.Knowledge Skills: there’s only one slot for knowledge skills. There are quite a few different knowledge skills, there should be more than one slot.

2.The racial abilities and class feature fields, I would have liked them to have been done like the feats field, lined with the notes button off to the right.

3.Attack bonuses for weapons: If I have more that 1 attack can I only enter my highest attack in the to hit box? I realize there is a place for number of attacks. I know you can roll by double clicking the to hit box, but after the first attack I have to do additional math after the first attack. It’s not that big of an issue just something I was questioning.

4.It would be nice if you could paste into the notes fields.

That’s all for now, just a few things that hit me during my initial use of the app. Still though, I really enjoy the simplicity and layout of it.

-Tal

From what I remember reading, in any one of the many threads on this topic, certain members of the development staff want to do epic/mythic rules. Though as far as I remember, there has been nothing said about actually doing it. I think there are just other things that they feel are more important to produce than epic/mythic rules.