Trace Coburn's page

A lot of people (including the original writer, IIRC) have said that Ezakien Tobyn was really, really bad at being a cleric of Desna, especially when it came to Nualia.
What if you flipped that a bit and said that his crap parenting was because he was actually really, really good at being a cleric... of Asmodeus? Maybe a missionary sent out from Korvosa/Cheliax to the Blighted Barbarian Wastelands of Varisia in the hopes of Converting the Benighted ’Eathens to the light of ‘Civilised Ways’, and this aasimar foundling was his Perfect Opportunity?

(In the almost fifteen years(!) since this AP was printed, I’m virtually certain that this idea has been raised before. Unfortunately, my (too?-)hasty search hasn’t turned up any previous threads about it, and despite possibly being redundant, I wanted to make sure the thought got out there before I lost it somewhere in the Warehouse 13 that is my head....)

The Fort Rannick maps I (re-)posted not a half-page up this very thread. :P Alas, if I ever saved hero339’s version of the Graul homestead map, I can’t find it again.

Trace Coburn wrote:

Turns out I also have hero339’s maps of the Hambley farm and its fields, for the ghoul-hunt portion of that module. Does anyone want/need those?

Oh yes please. I was looking for those yesterday and couldnt get any good versions.

Hero339’s maps of the Hambley Farm

House and barn

House, upper floor

Night
Farmland by night

House and barn

House, upper floor

After a little digging...

Hero339’s maps of Habe’s Sanitorium
Basement

Ground/first floor

second floor

top/third floor

Hero339’s map of Sandpoint Sawmill
Both floors

Turns out I also have hero339’s maps of the Hambley farm and its fields, for the ghoul-hunt portion of that module. Does anyone want/need those?

Has anyone got the hero339 maps for habe's sanitorium and/or sandpoint lumber mill please?

Let me double-check my hard-drive; with luck, I can find them and upload them to Imgur.

In the meantime... having returned to these forums after a long absence, I found a PM from January(!) asking for Peet’s tweaked version of the Night’s Watch ahem, Black Arrow home fortress. In the spirit of ‘better late than never’....

Peet’s revised layout for Castle Black Fort Rannick
First/ground floor

second floor

third floor

fourth floor

fifth/top floor

Go ahead and keep talking, Crocodile Dundee. You’re just digging that hole deeper... >:)

Could I trouble you for a couple of clarifications before I start composing, Salsa? My compulsion to have details to work off of is playing up again. :-S

—» Do we remember any/all of our previous ‘experience’ in the nightmare before we move on to this one, or is this particular dream completely distinct from the foregoing one?
—» On that note, do we retain any injuries we picked up in the previous scene, or are we ‘fresh’? (Pavanna still having a broken sword-hand might make any interactions or activities awkward.)
—» Also, gear-and-garb-wise: are we still as we stood at the end of the last scene? Fully tooled-up for business? Somewhere in between?

Glad to have him and Saroune back!
(And Ronnie: take care, and all my best thoughts and wishes for your RL issue(s).)

To be fair, magnuskn, when they bought the licence to restart the main BattleTech product-line, FanPro (and then their successor, Catalyst Games Labs) were only permitted to publish material and continue the timeline as long as they carried through on the Jihad and built towards the ‘Dark Age’. Whether or not you consider the creative decisions that went into MechWarrior: Dark Age ‘questionable’, the BattleTech team were legally contracted and required to make the very best out of it that they could. IMO, they did a pretty solid job.

On the novels front, I’ll second magnuskn on one particular recommendation: if you can find a copy of Wolves on the Border, DO IT. It’s arguably the old-school BattleTech novel. The tone, atmosphere, and character dynamics are a perfect representation of the Inner Sphere — most especially the Draconis Combine — in the years leading up to the Fourth Succession War.

I always liked the Wikipedia entry about the Great Emu War, especially back when the ‘result’ line read “Decisive emu victory”, and the Australian casualty count was set at “10,000 rounds of ammunition; dignity”. :-D

I actually own the DVD of Dragons of Autumn Twilight*. The NPC nailed pretty much everything I could have said about it, though if anything his tone was somewhat kinder than I would have been. :-(

Of the voice-actors, I do agree Kiefer did a good job, probably the best he could with the material he had, but that might’ve been because reading the character-summary for Raistlin let him cheat by channeling Jack Bauer at his most nihilistic. The others... I can’t speak to the pro VAs, since I’m not that familiar with their other work, but Lucy Lawless and Michelle Trachtenburg (as Tika) are great actors who were clearly working in an environment that didn’t play to their skills, and just as clearly they didn’t get nearly as much advice or help from their pro-VA fellows as they needed.

@ Mikaze & co.: you jokers realise that you’re making me imagine an animated or even live-action retelling of Burnt Offerings and/or the whole Rise of the Runelords AP, right? I’m thinking Rinko Kikuchi might channel a little Mako Mori into her portrayal of Ameiko....

* I’d heard the movie was of, erm, dubious quality and loyalty to the original material, so I spared myself some financial pain by getting it from a bargain-bin for less than ten bucks. I only watched it once, because like The NPC I just couldn’t face that pain again, and the only reason I didn’t try to get my money back from the store was because they have a strict no-return policy. :-S

“An old girlfriend, then?”

“Ewww, gross! I had much better taste in girls than her.”

I didn’t want to derail your thread about converting the canon classes by posting it in here, Adam B. 135, but I’d welcome your thoughts on my current working version of the Corinthian Elementalist. ;-)

Related to Adam B. 135’s thread, and based on Drop Dead Studios’ Spheres of Power system, but posted separately to avoid thread-jacking the effort to convert the canon classes to sphere-casting. ;-)

Now, as a metre-stick: this is meant for an E10-style, relatively low-magic setting inspired by Mazes and Minotaurs and Sean K Reynolds’ The New Argonauts. Magical healing isn’t particularly common, and permanent magic items rare, usually recovered relics or gifts from the Gods; stat-boosting items like the Big 6 won’t be a big thing. The primary Corinthian arcane classes are the Elementalist (below) and the Corinthian sorcerer(ess) (the latter of which I would gladly accept help in converting to SoP!).

How does it look? Will it dominate a low-magic campaign, will is be a drag on the party, or is it just blasty enough to be useful without overshadowing martial characters like Talented Fighters?

==========================

CASTER TRADITION: CORINTHIAN ELEMENTALISM

Corinthian academia holds that everything in the world is composed of four elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Through intensive study, Corinthian elementalists learn how to unlock and manipulate the various mixes of these metaphysical energies that lie within all things, letting them plumb the mysteries of the universe, craft and shape works of mundane utility or wondrous might — or wreak horrific destruction upon their enemies. The warrior-mages of Corinthian society, they can be found throughout the region, either fighting fiercely for their chosen causes or wresting the lost magical secrets of fallen civilisations from the tombs and ruins that hold them.

Spheres: Conjuration, Creation, Destruction, Divination, Enhancement, Protection, Telekinesis, Weather

Drawbacks: Draining Casting (general), Elongated Summoning (Conjuration), Energy Focus (see below/Destruction sphere), Focus Casting (general), Hidden Magic (Divination), Protected Soul (Protection), Somatic Casting (2, general), Verbal Casting (general)
[Note: all general drawbacks must be taken! Improvement in spell-points advancement already incorporated into class outline.]

Boons: None

==========================

CORINTHIAN ELEMENTALIST (SPHERE-CASTING CLASS)

Role: An elementalist’s abilities are best suited to dealing damage to his enemies, but a skilled elementalist can also learn to manipulate a battlefield and defend his allies against other wielders of destructive magics.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d8

Starting Wealth: 3d6 x 20 sp (average 210 sp). In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 20 sp or less. A Corinthian elementalist also begins play with a free focal staff (see below), which he is assumed to have crafted during his studies and training.

Class Skills: The Corinthian elementalist’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all; Int), Linguistics (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier.

BAB: Poor (1/2 levels)

Good Saves: Will

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: A Corinthian elementalist is proficient with all simple weapons, but not with armour or shields.

Casting (Sp): A Corinthian elementalist may combine spheres and talents to create magical effects. A Corinthian elementalist is considered a Mid-Caster and uses Intelligence as his casting stat modifier. (Note: All casters gain 2 bonus talents and may select a casting tradition the first time they gain the casting class feature.) However, the tradition also comes with limitations: he also gains the Draining Casting, Energy Focus, and Focus Casting drawbacks (see below).

Spell Pool: A Corinthian elementalist gains a small reservoir of energy he can call on to create truly wondrous effects, called a spell pool. This pool contains a number of spell points equal to twice his class level + his Intelligence modifier (minimum: 1). This pool replenishes once per day after roughly 8 hours of rest.

Magic Talents: A Corinthian elementalist gains 1 magic talent every time he gains a caster level, according to Table: Corinthian Elementalist.

Table: Corinthian Elementalist
Level . . . BAB . . Fort. . . Ref . . . Will. . . . . Caster Level. . . . . . Talents . . . Special . . . . . . . . . . .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
. 1st . . . +0. . . .+0 . . . .+0 . . . .+2 . . . . . .+0 . . . . . . . . . . . 0(+2) . . . . Casting, favoured element, focal staff, bonus feat
. 2nd . . . +1. . . .+0 . . . .+0 . . . .+3 . . . . . +1. . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 3rd . . . +1. . . .+1 . . . .+1 . . . .+3 . . . . . +2. . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . Alchemical secrets. . . . .
. 4th . . . +2. . . .+1 . . . .+1 . . . .+4 . . . . . +3. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 5th . . . +2. . . .+1 . . . .+1 . . . .+4 . . . . . +3. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . Improved Elemental Control, Elemental Defence
. 6th . . . +3. . . .+2 . . . .+2 . . . .+5 . . . . . +4. . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 7th . . . +3. . . .+2 . . . .+2 . . . .+5 . . . . . +5. . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . . . Magecrafter . . . . . . . .
. 8th . . . +4. . . .+2 . . . .+2 . . . .+6 . . . . . +6. . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 9th . . . +4. . . .+3 . . . .+3 . . . .+6 . . . . . +6. . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10th . . . +5. . . .+3 . . . .+3 . . . .+7 . . . . . +7. . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . Elemental Mastery, Improved Elemental Defence

 
Favoured Element (Su): At 1st level, the Corinthian elementalist gains the Destruction sphere as a bonus magic talent, and he uses his class level as his caster level with the Destruction sphere. This stacks normally with caster levels gained from other sources.
However, a Corinthian elementalist must choose a favoured element. He incurs the Energy Focus drawback (he cannot manifest blast types of other elements, unless they are also listed for his favoured element; this exclusion also applies to the force or nether blast types) and must use the bonus talent from the drawback to take a blast type talent associated with this element (see below). When he creates a destructive blast associated with his primary element, it deals an additional + ½ damage per elementalist level. If he has or gains access to the Conjuration sphere, his companion(s) must use one of their bonus (form) talents to acquire the Elemental Form talent matching his favoured element (acid = Earth, cold = Water, electricity = Air, fire = Fire).

Corinthian Elements
Air: Air Blast, Electric Blast, Thunder Blast; Opposed Element Earth
Earth: Acid Blast, Crystal Blast, Stone Blast, Thunder Blast; Opposed Element Air
Fire: Fire Blast, Thunder Blast; Opposed Element Water
Water: Crystal Blast, Frost Blast; Opposed Element Fire

Focal Staff (Su): A Corinthian elementalist’s casting is bound to his staff, by long tradition the symbol and focus of his power. If his staff is ever broken, lost, or taken from him, he incurs the full effect of the Focus Casting drawback and loses the benefits of his favoured element (forfeiting the bonus damage and reverting to using his caster level as listed on the table above, rather than his class level) until he replaces his staff by spending 1,000sp of alchemical resources and a day’s work.

Bonus feat (Ex): A Corinthian elementalist’s life of study gives him a broad and often deep knowledge of the larger world. At 1st level, he gain either Monster Hunter or Nature Spirit Lore as a bonus feat (this choice cannot be altered once made).

Alchemical Secrets (Ex): At 3rd level, the Corinthian elementalist gains Corinthian Alchemy* as a bonus feat.

Improved Elemental Control: At 5th level, the Corinthian elementalist’s control of his powers increases. The bonus damage inflicted by his favoured element’s destructive blast improves to +1 per elementalist level.
Additionally, he may choose a second favoured element (termed his secondary element), which cannot be opposed to his favoured element. He may choose and create additional destructive blast types from this element, applying a damage bonus of +½ per elementalist level to its destructive blasts. If he has the Conjuration sphere, he may choose to give his companion(s) the elemental form talent matching either his favoured or secondary element.

Elemental Defence (Su): At 5th level, a Corinthian elementalist gains resistance 10 to whatever energy type he has selected as his primary element (air blast grants resistance to non-lethal damage from external sources, crystal blast grants DR 1/bludgeoning, and stone blast grants DR 1/piercing). At 10th level, the elementalist gains this bonus against his secondary element, and the bonus against his favoured element increases by the listed amount.

Magecrafter: At 7th level, the Corinthian elementalist has gained enough metaphysical insights to infuse objects with magical and elemental energies. He gains Master Craftsman as a bonus feat and may use it to expand his options for crafting magical items.

Elemental Mastery: At 10th level, the Corinthian elementalist attains true mastery over his powers. The bonus damage inflicted by his primary element’s destructive blasts improves to +2 per elementalist level, and he may apply a damage bonus of +1 per elementalist level to the destructive blasts of his secondary element.

==========================

* Corinthian Alchemy [Item Creation]
Your skill with natural materials lets you create fantastic items.
Prerequisites: Craft (alchemy) 1 rank.
Benefit: You may create various magic items [described elsewhere] as long as you meet the prerequisites. Crafting items with this feat uses the normal rules for crafting magic items. Craft (alchemy) is always a class skill for you.
Special: Apart from Master Craftsman, this is the only item creation feat available in this campaign.
Note: Based on the feat Hellenic Alchemy, from Sean K Reynolds’ The New Argonauts.

Gideon - I can't promise I'd be a particularly good beta tester, but you're one of the people I'll gladly game with any time. If you have something I can download via Goodreader, that would be awesome, as I'm more mobile than I'd like these days, between work, and staying at my fiancé's place*. But I'm happy to give a world-guide document a read! =)

*Oh, that's strange... wasn't I referring to him as my boyfriend a while ago? My my my, what happened there...

... I find myself tempted to squee like a schoolgirl, except that would be a disturbing sort of look for a man of my age and weight. Congrats, Ronnie!

Hey, I’m too poor to pass up free material — silly or not! ;-D

There’s also a magic item in Inner Sea Gods which does the same thing, Haladir: Iron Lord’s Transforming Slivers. ;-)

Stranded in woods; friends missing; monster in area; trying to help woman so blinded by anti-tiefling bigotry GOBLINS could outwit her. #FML

Hey, what bard doesn’t love ’em? Just ask Elan and Julio Scoundrel.... ;P

Call me an old-school MechWarrior at heart, but I’ve always considered “What does the ’Mech say?” a more pressing question. ;-D

... and Raesh learns a simple truth: hysterically easy as it may be, trolling dwarves never gets old. :D

It’s in Bestiary 1 (PRD link).

But if you want to make up a ‘proper’ draegloth, I would suggest getting Demons Revisited. It contains modifications to the half-fiend template appropriate to eight major kinds of demon, including the glabrezu which usually fathered draegloth; from there, all you have to do is make up a drow character with the right class levels and apply the template, and you’re away laughing. ;)

Ouch.
And with reading the back-reference to #496, it makes me despise Eugene that much more. If you ever wanted a poster-child for why wizards should not be allowed to run everything, the elder Greenhilt ranks right up there with Xin and the Runelords. >:(

Tengu Verymuch wrote:

Amiri being covered with tiny crawling spiders (don't remember where I saw it)

The APG, around the "S" section of spells, I'd guess - I think it was the Spider Swarm or Summon Swarm, or Vomit Spider or something that it was supposed to be indicating. I do know the picture you're talking about.

The last one, I thought, was already mentioned, but from when it was used elsewhere.

Nice references, though! Great page numbers! :)

APG, page 235, apparently illustrating the spell phantasmal web.

A thought occurs to me, zerzix: this document includes the ‘normal’ wemic, of Forgotten Realms fame, but have you ever considered converting the ‘mountain wemic’ from Monsters of Faerûn (and discussed in Races of Faerûn)? It’s a Medium creature with only three racial Hit Dice, as opposed to the Large/5HD ‘normal’ breed — which might make the ‘mountain wemic’ racial class a little more forgiving on the character’s later advancement prospects.

There are also some Sandpoint-based BB adventures in Wayfinder #9, a free fan-zine. ;)

Scaevola77 wrote:

After Hemlock left the PCs in charge of Sandpoint, Sir Swa (the gnomish cavalier), and Ze (the human Inquisitor of Pharasma/mortician) decided to go out on patrol. I planned to include the Chopper's Isle short adventure, and chose to forshadow some of it, as well as make Das Korvut a more sympathetic character than the "grouchy old man". Thus Sir Swa and Ze stumble upon an angry Korvut chasing off some children.

The 'Chopper's Isle' short adventure? Was this something published? Its the first I've heard of it...

@ Story Archer-- here is an easy link to Chopper's Isle. My players enjoyed the plot and built relationships with a few more NPCs while playing through it:

http://www.dorkistan.com/dorkistan/PFRPG/creatures/chopper.htm

It's also available in Wayfinder #7 (a free product), along with a lot of other material that can support a Runelords campaign. ;)

NO! The ** spoiler omitted ** has Meresiel tentacled up AGAIN on page 331 of RotR Anniversary edition.

Uh, I just checked my copy, and that’s Seoni that the

Y’know, depending on what kind of chapbooks she reads in her down-time, I can just imagine her griping at the thing with each stab of her dagger:

SEONI: “If I wanted! To fight things! With tentacles! I’d go on capers! In an Acadamae uniform!”
MERISIEL: “You mean —?”
SEONI: “SHUT UP!”

Could I con you out of a copy of the Blooded Noble, Cheapy? It might be just the thing for some NPCs I’ve been looking at building. :-)

Well, it looks like I might be doing another giveaway come December. Oh, the horror, the horror....

I took the viewpoint that the conspicuous absence of her corpse might actually have been overlooked completely, since it’d play into all those daft superstitions the townspeople had about aasimar. After all, if the locals honestly believe a lock of her hair can cure a baby’s croup, or her touch can remove warts... well, I figure the scene might’ve played out like this:

CSI-literate character from modern Earth: “But if all those other bodies were found, and hers wasn’t, why did you assume Nualia was one of the dead? The fire wasn’t hot enough to incinerate anyone else’s remains, so why would it have destroyed hers?”

Townsperson: “Of course Nualia didn’t leave a body! Everyone knows that when aasimar die, their remains turn into holy water — or their angelic ancestors take them back to Heaven where they belong!”

Modern character: *glances at team’s cleric, and the tiefling swashbuckler*

Both cleric and tiefling: *shakes head/rolls eyes* ‘That is not how it works’

Modern character: *facepalm* ‘Gawd save us from medieval folk-wisdom.’

To the OP: y’know, if you’re willing to consider third-party material, the Sister of Rapture base class would be a good thematic fit for a female character trying this kind of build. It’d probably make a good mechanical fit, too, since it combines 3/4 BAB, spontaneous divine casting, good Fort and Will saves, proficiency with light armour, shields, and all martial weapons, and a class feature called “Distracting Beauty” that gives the woman in question her Charisma mod as a sacred AC bonus (when she’s (apparently) scantily-clad or nekkid, including glamoured light armour). I mean, if you’re going to go for a Cha-based character, you might as well double-down, right?
Just throwing that out there. ;-D

I’ve recently become quite taken with the simplicity of the setting material for Mazes & Minotaurs, which frankly offers a little more creative freedom than relatively well-explored settings like Golarion or the Forgotten Realms. Nonetheless, I’d like to throw in a lot of Golarion material (like, say, giving some of the ‘barbarians’ a lot of Shoanti trappings).
I’ve thrown together the following gazetteer, heavily based on the one from RMM2 but re-working the general geography to include favoured bits of Golarion and some other elements. If you were a prospective player, particularly for a Pathfinder PbP, would you want to play in this setting?

Geography - Mythika

The Land of the Three Cities
As its name implies, this rich and civilized coastal country is divided into three independent (and rival) city-states: Thena, Heraklia and Argos.
Each of these city-states is a major political power with its own culture, economy and armed forces. In the past, the strong rivalry of the Three Cities has caused several wars but they have been in peace for more than 100 years now, thanks to the efforts of the Thenan monarchs (see History).
Most adventurers will come from the Land of the Three Cities.

The Middle Sea
This inner sea has four major islands: Seriphos, near the coasts of the Land of the Three Cities and home to Minea, the fourth major city-state of the area; Proteus, an ancient island often identified as the lost cradle of Middle Sea civilization, now a land of monster-haunted ruins (and, some say, forgotten treasures and wonders); Amazonia, half-legendary queendom and homeland of the famous undaunted warrior-women; and the eastern isle of Tritonis, last remnant of the once mighty sea empire of the same name, home to the decadent and dangerous Sea Princes of Acharnia.

The Wild North
North of the Land of the Three Cities, past the monster-infested Helicon Mountains, lies the frozen land of Hyperborea, home to fierce tribes of fur-clad Barbarians who worship strange gods, and the forest-realms of the politely territorial dark-elves.
To the west of Hyperborea lie the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, bleak lands of hard-bitten viking warriors where a man’s deeds are the proof of his worth and slaying a wyrm can make him a mighty lord. But even such valiant souls as these take their lives into their hands if they trespass within the Sybaris Forest, home of the ‘light’ elves, who protect their lands so fiercely that even the mighty armies and fiendish sorceries of Umbria cannot overcome them.
To the east of Hyperborea, past the Frozen Sea, lies Irrisen, ruled by successive dynasties of witch-queens whose powers over cold and ice keep their land locked in eternal winter.

The Unknown West
The western Umbrian Sea is bordered by the ancient warlike kingdom of Umbria, a former coastal colony of the lost empire of Atlantis and now an enclaved kingdom ruled by demon-trafficking Sorcerers, which controls the access to the Great Ocean.
Its tempestuous and perilous waters are inhabited by numerous sea-serpents, sea-horrors and other sea-monsters that none but the boldest adventurers dare defy... for somewhere in the Great Ocean lies the fabled island of Atlantis, once the mightiest sea-empire of the world, home to a pre-human race of savants and sorcerers, now only remembered in half-forgotten legends... Who knows what wonders and dangers await in these uncharted waters?

The Perilous East
The east of Mythika is divided by the great Thanatari Mountains, home to many strange and dangerous beasts, such as Griffins and Manticores, and to tribes of cannibal wildmen and troglodytes.
North of the mountains lies the land of Sicania, home to the Centaurs and to the Rusyns, fierce humans with unmatched riding skills and customs strange to Mythikan eyes. Both live in the shadows of mysterious fallen monuments that some say pre-date even Atlantis....
South of the Thanatari Mountains lies the fabled Land of the Sun, with its burning sands, desert ruins and golden cities...

The Mysterious South
The southern shore of the Middle Sea is dominated by the nation of Midia and its capital Solus, a centre of trade with a cosmopolitan population of merchants, sailors and thieves.
West of Midia lies the savage land of Charybdis with its lush jungles, strange beasts and tribes of ebony-skinned warriors.
South of Midia lies the mighty Desert Kingdom, with its great stone pyramids (also full of fabled treasure), mystical dynasties of divine-blooded kings and beast-headed gods...
Rumors also speak of a dark Stygian Empire somewhere in the far south, ruled by Necromancers and their legions of animated skeletons.

Mikaze: the Leroy Jenkins of PFRPG racial crossbreeding. :P

I just opened up my e-mail client and found ‘these orders have shipped’ messages for orders #2880198 and #2906882. I placed the first of these orders in early November, and the other a couple of weeks later, and I’ll admit there were a couple of times when I was tempted to follow the example of others and post a rather testy “when will my gear ship?” thread.
But then I would remember that the website headline throughout November, including when I made my orders, had explicitly declared that the Great Golem Sale was projected to involve order-volumes that would bury the warehouse staff up to their eyebrows, so I held my peace and had faith in Paizo’s people and protocols. I believe my thought process boiled down to “They don’t need me busting their chops about doing this, especially when they’re already busting their humps to get it done.”
Now my patience has been rewarded — my orders are on their way — and nobody involved, on either end, has created any unnecessary drama about the process.

So, to those Paizo staff who have been working hard, fast and furious to fulfill that avalanche of orders completely, correctly, and as quickly as humanly possible, I say a sincere “Thank you!” for all your efforts and wish you the very best for the holiday season. ;D

After much fighting with the board’s dice-rollers (which have since re-randomised all those d20s, preventing publication of the raw results for transparency >:(), the winners of our game-of-chance were Azaelas Fayth/JTMC93, TarkXT/Tark the Ork, Ishmell, Aleron, DaWay, and Fig: gentlefolk all, congratulations, enjoy reading Odyssey (it should already be in your downloads!), and feel free to add your own review to the product page! Those who didn’t win, I’m sorry my gaming budget can’t stretch that much further. :-(
To everyone reading, I wish you a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays. ;D

While I settle up who gets what, Adama glare at that wiseacre Azaelas Fayth, here are a few additional resources for those looking to craft Greek-flavoured campaigns:

— Sean K. Reynolds’ The New Argonauts, a (free!) pdf on how to run an Grecian-style campaign in 3.5, which shouldn’t need much updating. ;)
— The old-school game Mazes & Minotaurs is far from mechanically compatible with the PFRPG, but it contains all manner of useful idea-fodder. If nothing else, the world-map should be handy for homebrewers. ;)
- Rogue Genius Games’ Papercraft Legions: Titanic Clash, a collection of Hellenic-styled paper minis for less than US$5.

You don’t have to use any or all of them in toto, and indeed probably shouldn’t; nonetheless, we’re all gamers here, and gamers all know how to loot what they need from a product and leave what they can’t use. ;)

I benefited from Mikase’s largesse last year, and now I figure it’s my turn to act in the same spirit. ;) Now, I sure ain’t rich, but I can spare a little gaming-cash this Christmas, and I need to offset a possible injustice: my mania about typos means I may not have given Little Red Goblin Games’ Odyssey: A Greek Source Book as much love as it really deserves. Therefore, I’m looking to give away up to six copies so more Paizonians can add some Greek flavour to their campaigns and get the chance to make up their own minds.

Register your interest by posting in this thread, including a spoiler-text holding a number between 1 and 20. If there are more than six interested posters by the close of entries, 1d20 rolls against each poster’s number will be used to resolve ‘ties’: the six posters whose chosen numbers are closest to their respective dice-rolls will ‘win’.

Entries will close at the start of the Packers/Falcons NFL game on Sunday 8 December, with delivery soon after the final whistle. ;)

Reviewed here and at DriveThruRPG (where I bought it). Please don’t take it like I’m holding that fifth star hostage, guys; I’m just a bit of a perfectionist on that score. :S

And as I said, I love the image of playing a Rise of the Runelords campaign overlaid with Greek trimmings: Belor Hemlock and similar fighter-PCs striding into battle in bronze breastplates with hoplon and xiphos at the ready; Xanesha’s famed impaler of thorns as a doru (and perhaps Xanesha herself recast as a medusa!); players fighting the attack on Sandpoint by Longtooth and the giants (perhaps Great Cyclopes?) from the backs of pegasi or griffons. This is a great product, and I’d be quite happy to see an expanded version come down the pike. ;D

I just wish that Joss Whedon did the flick. He would've made it centered around the Japanese copilot, and would've done a better movie.

??? From where I sat, the story was centered around Mako. Hell, you could make the case that putting a camera on Raleigh was merely a narrative device to tell Mako’s story!

He knows how to write women's parts.

NOPE. And I say this as a diehard fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

(Seriously: don’t get me started. When Whedon decided to take the mantle of ‘hero’ away from the title character and give it to Spike for the last two seasons, what he did to the rest of the characters including the titular one in pursuit of that goal... NOPE.)

Selfish as it may sound, as someone who has Bestiary 4, I’d be happy to take Option #3 and see those duplicated templates omitted in favour of fresh material. Perhaps the ‘drider’ template that was released as a web-enhancement to the original Advanced Bestiary could be one of the replacements?*

* If so, I’d like to offer a suggestion (PM on the way).

(PM sent, BTW.)

To your question, christos gurd, there’s actually a few things warring with me on that score.

— The gear offers the chance to do the ‘hoplite spear-and-shield’ routine, much like that movie where Brad Pitt and Eric Bana fought a duel.

— The suggestion of playing this as a Bronze Age setting puts all manner of ideas in my head. (I keep getting an image of Rise of the Runelords playing out in this environment, with Belor Hemlock as a Shoanti in full hoplite panoply and elves like Shalelu being exotic partly because they wear iron/steel weapons and armour so casually.)

— The stats for the Amazon ‘race’ look like a good fit for the legends, though the synergy between ‘Misandry’ and ‘Strength of Will’ could make life very, very unpleasant for any man who thinks charm person is a good idea. }:)

More may come later — RL is attacking again. :(

Keep talking; I’m listening....

“Yes... but what do you want?”

Here is the blog entry - 29/11/2011. ;)

Super Genius Games have made ‘we err on the side of awesome’ a mission-statement, not just a slogan. In terms of character-options, just the Time Thief class and the Anachronistic Adventurer range give you a dizzying array of options and creativity-fodder. Whatever they do, they do with a view to creating a game packed with flavour and fun.

Don’t let their simple trade-dress fool you: Raging Swan Press are all about immediately-useful ‘drop-in’ products to support time-starved GMs. Hit their home-page and check out just a handful of the awesome free samples(!!!) available, and I can almost guarantee that you’ll come away with at least a dozen potential hooks, stories, and scenes. Creighton Broadhurst and his people have done everything from a whole campaign-setting (the Lonely Coast, which is available free!) and entire townships down to generators for simple stage-dressing like “okay, the PCs just stumbled across a random corpse: who was it, and what does it look like?” that are priceless for adding to a game’s atmosphere without slowing play.

I might’ve already caved and gotten mine through DTRPG, but I wouldn’t mind knowing that, either. ;)

... good choice of soundtrack: Yakety Sax is the only music truly appropriate to that series of absurdities. ;D

The article in Gygax #1, "Scaling Combat Feats", includes a number of full feat write-ups which replace certain feat-chains with single feats whose benefits increase with a character's BAB. For instance, the Scaling version of Vital Strike replaces Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, and Greater Vital Strike.
(FYI: the .pdf is only US$4.95. ;) )

That wouldn’t take much. ;)

Howzat for a review, guys? I mean every word, and I eagerly await the promised goodies (and anything more anyone else involved cares to share).... }:)