I was thinking about economic history, and how as a civilization advances, so does their economic structure and practices. It lead me to ask the question,
"Has any society on Golarion developed past commodity money, and if not, why not?"
If I may expound on a little bit of fantasy RPG economic history; most fantasy RPGs operate on a basis of commodity money, and from their medieval fantasy roots, that makes sense. Metal coins are the common currency denominations, with gold being the standard (hence the term, gold standard,) with trade goods still being useful as full-value commodities (cows, marble, silk, etc.)
The top value trade good is, and has always been, gemstone. Even in the games I play, if a player/party comes into a large sum of money, the common answer to the question, "How do we carry all this money around?" is always "Gems. They're light, maintain consistent value, and are accepted everywhere."
In previous editions of our game worlds, this made sense. Gems are a good high-level money system. They are scarce enough to avoid inflation through heavy influx, difficult to counterfeit, durable, and have general acceptance.
Where this model starts breaking down a little bit is in Pathfinder, on Golarion, specifically. Even though this system does work as stated above, there's one large variable that I feel hasn't been taken into account.
Abadar.
It's my observation that many nations Golarion display quite a few advancements in civilization, from the adoption of democracy, to the invention of black-powder weapons and firearms, to commanding vast naval fleets and governing far-away colonies. Yet the economic model hasn't moved beyond commodity money.
It has been stated that temples of Abadar offer financial and civil services to their community such as banking. The head of these temples are referred to as Bankers and Archbankers. If you were in such a community, especially a large city, and had access to Abadar banking services, why wouldn't paper money develop? Why wouldn't people start leaving all their heavy gold in the bank vault in exchange for promissory notes ratified and notarized by the Archbanker? Such notes would then start being passed person to person around the city, and they wouldn't even need to go back to the bank to cash them back in for their gold value; they would just retain their value. And you've just invented the bank note.
What's the next logical step? If the church is organized enough, all the Archbankers in all the temples across all cities could agree that each others' signed notes have value, then you've taken your city-wide banking model nation-wide (or larger,) where someone can use bank notes written in one city in a different city. This leads to the need for better control of these bank notes, resulting in them all being fabricated in one area so they can be ratified by the same governing body; at this point, you're basically printing money, and you're off to the races.
I can see some criticism for this model in Golarion; particularly, the frontier areas. If someone doesn't have access to a temple of Abadar, this banking system doesn't work for them. But to me that's normal; throughout history, whenever settling frontier land or first establishing foreign trade, high value commodities (like precious metals) were still the standard. Once a person got away from that "financial environment" and could return to civilization, they could return to the use of their modern banking system.
Has anybody introduced legal tender into their games? Is it paper money? Is it something more exotic, as allowed by the magical fantasy realm, that's simply not possible in our world, for example dragon scales? Are there any other reasons that I can't think of why this would be implausible?
I think next time my players enter a large city, they'll find the local citizens using bank notes.
Is there a rule regarding how much damage is inflicted if something runs into an object?
For example, if there is a blind individual that performs a move action into a wall, what happens?
Let's add some permutations to this example.
What if the individual used a charge action? What about a run action?
What if they ran into another person?
What if they ran into a pane of glass?
What about individuals with different movement speeds? Does a monk with 70 ft. move speed run into a wall faster than a dwarf with 20 ft. move speed using the same action?
As most of you reading this forum thread, I'm excited to begin Iron Gods and experience the epic odyssey it will surely be.
I've been elected to GM this campaign for our group, and the material in the book sounds amazing! The biggest problem I'm having is finding miniatures to represent things properly. It's a shame to have all these amazing encounters to present to my players, but not bringing that visual punch to the tabletop; or worse, using inadequate substitutes that detract from the presentation.
I'd like to know what everyone is doing to adequately represent the odd enemies in this adventure path. Hopefully this thread can grow and continue as the subsequent books are released and new enemies appear.
Personally, I'm a skilled miniature modeller/painter, and don't mind if I need to do a little modding or painting. That being said, I'd rather avoid it if possible, as my window of time to do such things is rather small. Also, I realize that most other people are not inclined to work on such things, and that table-ready options are still the best (or only) option.
Alright, enough preface! What minis are people using out there?
* I was thinking of going over the available pieces from the Star Wars Miniatures line for most of the robots and anybody using guns.
* The "Thorn" figure from D&D Mnis: Angelfire series would make good vegepygmies.
* The Kasatha are going to be tricky. The best option I could find were Reaper Miniatures' Kulathian Invaders, and even they need their faces and weapons modded out. Any ideas for the skeletons?
* There's a decent looking kuo-toa from D&D Minis Harbinger set that could be used for the blindheim, but it's carrying a spear. Any better options? The Giant Frog from Deathknell?
* Pallid Path Cultist from Shattered Star for the skulks. Anything else that could be suitable?
*Shattered Star also had the Clockwork Soldier, and there is a multitude of Warforged from all of the previous D&D Miniatures series.
Alright; so normally a PC can use the applicable knowledge skill to make a check to learn about opponents' special powers and vulnerabilities. This is based on the type of creature being fought.
The question: is information about a creatures' subtype (specifically the swarm subtype) information learned with a knowledge check, or is that public knowledge?
What I'm having problems with is the fact that the swarm subtype, being what it is, isn't tied to a specific creature type (and therefore knowledge check,) so I'm not sure if/how the PCs learn about how to deal with the special rules of swarms. At this point, I'm leaning towards the following possible answers to the question:
A) Swarm rules are a property of the monster, and with the appropriate knowledge check, the info about swarms is presented like any other monster lore;
B) Swarm rules are a mechanical game subsystem, and the information is publicly available like any other game rules, and monster lore only really applies to the individual creatures that inhabit the swarm;
C) Through trial and error let the PCs learn things the hard way. (This answer strikes me as very old-school; possibly venturing into the territory of "unfair.")
Greetings to one and all; I would appreciate some opinions.
I have been playing Pen & Paper RPGs on and off since 1997 when I was in high school. Since that period of time, I would consider myself to have belonged to about six different groups of players, each with their own ideologies and concepts as to how the game should be played. I've GM'd for all of these groups; some groups exclusively, other groups as a guest GM.
About a year ago I started a small group of players who wanted to start playing, and I've been GMing for them. It is a group of two; one of them is my stepdaughter, another is a family friend my age. Both of them were very excited to start playing, and to this day are still very ecstatic and grateful when game day comes around.
I suppose I should give some background info on our group:
Our group consists of two PCs and 1 NPC (to help round out the group.)
- Originally our group consisted of a Gunslinger (PC), a Rogue (PC), and a Witch (NPC.) Since then, the Rogue has died and that player has made a new Sorcerer. We are playing a Paizo AP; RotRL AE to be be exact.
Unfortunately, I'm having a bit of a problem with this group. After a year of playing (unfortunately, not as frequent as I would like, I would guess 30 sessions) I don't feel like they have increased their skill as players as much as I would have liked them to. They keep making mistakes; I suppose part of the problem is that the answers are always obvious to those who know the answers, and that it is hard to fathom how other individuals cannot overcome the obstacle at hand.
It just seems like they are always forgetting things, or they make bad decisions. Granted, one of the players is 11 years old, but she's a smart 11, and I'd hope she would be able to develop her logical thinking. Some examples:
-Her rogue died because she wasn't able to learn not to stand up in front of a threatening enemy after multiple previous lessons of doing that and getting knocked down again. The one time she tried that against a boss villain, she didn't survive.
-The gunslinger consistently forgets he has deadly aim and can effectively double his damage.
-They have a tendency to not loot defeated enemies, leaving them undergeared.
-They have a tendency to not search rooms, leaving them undergeared and lacking direction by not finding clues.
-The group recently found a spellbook in a dungeon; our two casters are not spellbook users. The first thought the gunslinger had was "maybe I should multiclass so I can take advantage of that spellbook; do some utility casting." The group has two casters out of three characters; the last thing they need is to decrease their martial progression.
I've been considering all the possibilities as to *why* this is a problem in the first place. Am I the only one having a problem with this? Am I expecting too much? I understand that some of these things (looting bodies, rooms, etc.) are old-school gaming conventions that have been around for 30 years, but maybe they're not so obvious to new players.
I suppose this leads to the thread title: how much do I handhold my players? There were two reasons I created an NPC that follows the group around; one was to fill in some missing gaps, the other was to help keep the PCs on track if they start wandering too far off. That being said, I don't want my NPC to be doing all the footwork, looting bodies, searching rooms, getting all the clues, following up all the leads. At that point, the other players are just watching me play with myself. GMbating, if you will.
There are a few answers and arguments to this question that I can already predict:
-One answer is to go with the old-school mentality, and let the chips fall as they may. Nature is a fair but cruel teacher. If you don't beware the wildlife, it will bite you in the ass every time. Life sucks, get a helmet. Players will eventually learn from the school of hard knocks. I'm not too fond of this answer; my players are very grateful when they receive opportunities to roleplay and they love speaking to townsfolk and villains alike. I feel that they would get discouraged if they regularly lost their characters that they put a lot of personality into.
-Another answer is the polar opposite; let your players play how they want to play and adjust the game accordingly; don't go telling them how to have fun or that their brand of fun is wrong. I'm not too fond of this answer either. Don't get me wrong; the last thing I want to do is tell someone how they should play; and if they're having fun, good job, that's what games are for. However, how far do you go with that? As an extreme example, if you were GMing a group of players and all the PCs were pants-on-head dumb as posts, would you just keep sending them against mobs of one-legged retarded goblins? Would you be happy doing that? Or would you hope they eventually clue in and develop their tactics and move on to more satisfying opponents and scenarios?
-Do I need to sit down and write out a "Pathfinder for Dummies" cheat sheet for each character? Something that lists things like Don't forget to search rooms/bodies for clues, you are a [insert class here,] here's what you are good at, here's what people *expect you to bring to the party*, don't forget to take important notes, don't forget to study your inventory/notes/spells/class abilities at the start of a gaming session? Would a list like that be to patronizing?
Am I being a big jerk?
P.S. my goal is to help these players better themselves as players. I feel like if they were to go and play PFS or with a different gaming group, they wouldn't be ready for the rigors of what their expectations would be, and would end up jeopardizing other PCs at the same table. I realize that gaming in a bubble caused by a small group doesn't help much, but it's the best we can do at the moment.
Alright; first things first: if my players stumble upon this, GET OUT! Oak and Nava, that means you!
So, some background information:
I'm GMing for a group of two. My two players were a female human gunslinger and a female elf rogue; I also have a female tiefling witch NPC following them around performing support casting. As the events of Burnt Offerings unfolded, I decided that the rogue would be the object of Foxglove's infatuation, as the rogue had a higher CHA, and the gunslinger is very much a tomboy.
Unfortunately, during the final fight at Thistletop, the rogue was slain by Nualia. The rest of the party brought her back to Sandpoint, and we are currently in the middle of a week's worth of downtime, during which I intend to hold a funeral service at the cathedral with a good attendance of townsfolk mourning the loss of one of the Local Heroes who died valiantly preventing a massive goblin uprising which would have sacked the town.
The player has created a new character; a Sylph Sorceress.
The question is, now what do I do with Foxglove heading into The Skinsaw Murders? I don't want to start over developing a new infatuation with the sorceress; that seems like backpedaling and retread. I played him as almost ignorant of the rest of the party members; impatient with their presence or any questions/conversation they might start up.
I did have an idea, but I would like the community's opinion/input:
Spoiler:
So I was going to have the rogue buried in the graveyard behind the cathedral. The same graveyard where father Tobyn's crypt was raided in Burnt Offerings. A day or two before the killing at the mill which kicks off The Skinsaw Murders, I was going to have Foxglove's ghoul cronies dig her corpse up and take her remains back to his lair underneath the Manor. That way, when they get to the Skinsaw Man encounter, in one corner of his room there will be a shrine to her, with her cadaver propped up in a corner in some pose and all her belongings lovingly placed around her with some candles, etc. I intend to make it fairly morbid, as to drive home that Foxglove is a sociopath. I'm thinking it should make for an interesting encounter.
Questions if I take this approach:
1) When should the graverobbing happen? If it happens before the mill murders, do you think it's too big and juicy a hook? I want to make sure they get invested in investigating the mill and then later, the farm. I don't want the graverobbing to take agency away from that.
2) What should I do about the letters that get left behind? Logically, they should be addressed to the Gunslinger, being the only surviving PC that Foxglove has had aquaintance with. What should the context of the letters be? Rage at the gunslinger, as in "You let her die; now you shall suffer too?"
3) Does anybody see any plot holes/problems with the scenario I outlined? Anything I can patch? Any adjustments or addendum?
Extra questions:
4) Have any other GMs dealt with this issue? What was your solution?
