Alinya's not particularly happy with the idea of torture, but these are lawfully empowered city guards of Lepistadt, and presumably they have that right. Her own noble father oversee the questioning of a dangerous warlock to discover his cache of evil secrets. Sometimes authority must use unpleasant methods towards its ends.
"I would love a small sherry and a proper introduction."
Satari swiftly shields his eyes from the enemy's incandescent spell.
He is lucky enough to also survive Altai's return stroke of arcane brilliance.
"I hate to waste valuable arcane resources on the likes of these drunkards. Still, best to be prepared." Alinya enchants the air around her to act as a shield.
Alinya concentrates on her bonded object, the symbol of Pharasma round her neck. She channels arcan energy through the amulet, forgetting her memorised spell of see invisibility and powering one last summoning spell.
"Perhaps we should get Leik off the boat and back onto the dock? Two or three people should be enough to search in the time we have before it sinks."
Conga rats Heathy, and fingers crossed for you!
Any spell we could use on the skin to find out who does it belong to? I already made knowledge checks (altough Aid Another actions are always welcomed ;D ) I was aiming for blood biography, but a) there's no blood and b) we know it was a flesh golem. One day I'll get my blood writing on the wall... One day.
Whelp, it's definitely some sort of religious artifact; something of madness, and evil, and of the dark tapestry. Alinya gets visions flashing through her head......of floating in a murky void, lungs burning, and she can smell blood in the nostrils that are in her neck?.... "ia ..ia ..Dagon fthagn..." The young wizard appears insensible to Larissa's concern or Rholf's patience. She sits when gently prompted by Rholf, but her face remains tight with terror and her mouth keeps mouthing these alien words. "...ph'nglui mglw'nfah Dagon r'lyeh..." Alinya suddenly starts shaking, trying to focus on Rholf's voice, on Larissa's compassionate presence, on Edwin's clumsy reassurances. Trying to claw herself back from the blood and the dark and the iodine taint of the sea.
huzzzah!! Brilliant! Right up to the elephant, you bricky chuckaboo :)
*waves*
Thanks Lisa. I love getting this sort of 'gamer eye view', it provides a very different perspective from the design blogs and progress reports. I'm excited that there's a real playable game that you all had fun with. Progress!
Ah. I shall see to it immediately, sir.
Hey everyone! Will from New Zealand. I had so much fun meeting you all and I enjoyed helping so many people discover the game. Back of the envelope calculation: we had 8 tables, 4 players per table, 2 games per hour, 8 hours for three days and 5 hours on Sunday. That's over 1500 people who played the demo, and from my experience they pretty much all enjoyed it. And then talked to their friends :)
Thanks for the update and it sounds like PaizoCon was a blast. I hope somebody who attended stops by to tell us about the demo experience. I'm coming to GenCon this year strictly for PFO. I hope you can give us something cool in that face-to-face time. We should start a GenCon meetup thread.
EDIT - deleted snark. I'd be happier if there was a difference between roleplaying threads and game system discussion / crowdforging threads. Separate forums or something. Otherwise these sort of forum-based political games inevitably bleed over into crowdforging threads, with bad consequences for good faith discussion. Sad Cooper :(
@Raoni Luna: It's important and a good thing to know what you're looking for so that you don't invest too much energy in things that don't fit. So in some ways having a deal breaker feature (no classes == not playing) is a good idea. In other ways it's a bit of a shame, because you might miss out on something really cool. There are good reasons why Goblinworks have taken this approach, reasons based in the reality of developing MMO titles in a sustainable way. I won't repeat them here. For my part I too have played, and loved: Icewind Dale 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 & Throne of Bhaal, NWN 1 & 2 and numerous community made modules. Hell I played Pools of Radiance and Eye of the Beholder and the Ultima series. And I'm really excited that Goblinworkds is trying something new.
I just think it would be pretty interesting to operate within a system that measures and reports to me my behavior in terms of alignment shift. It was done in SWtoR but only in terms of lightside/darkside. This is also measuring chaos/law and reputation. Perhaps it is narcissistic, but I am curious to see it work. This comes close to my own position. In the TT game I am no big fan of alignment. I see the risks that Deacon Wulf and Bluddwolf express. Batman is every alignment. A player's conception of their character will never simplify neatly into a three-by-three matrix that takes simplistic morality tales and oversimplifies them. I get all that. But... But I love the idea that my character's choices have real effects, not just in the physical sphere of items and skill-points, but in the moral sphere set by the gods of Golarion. I am fascinated to see which alignment each of my characters ends up, based on the in character choices I make along the way. It's fascinating, and I don't think it's been done before - sure there was Black and White back in the stone age, and Fable, probably others. Hmm, OK, so some of it's been done before. But to iterate that over thousands of characters, hundreds of companies, dozens of settlements... I want to see what emerges. It could all go down in flames - but I'm fascinated to see it. To be part of it. And I trust GW to tweak appropriately along the way. Or rip and replace if it's needed. That helps.
Good ideas Summersnow, and I hope we see something a lot like this. There's also no reason why this couldn't work for druids using summon nature's ally and arcanists using summon monster. This is, I think, one of two uses that we might see for necromancy, in the sense of creating undead. This is the combat version. The other version we may see is undead serfs toiling in the fields, harvesting resources, and working in the mills and forges of an evil settlement. Also, good catch upthread on the distinction between necromancy as a school of magic relating to death, and necromancy as the creation of undead, in Golarion lore. I can confirm that my understanding is that, in Golarion, undead are always evil, and their creation is always an evil act. Other D&D settings have had good liches, reformed vampires, and holy grave knights - but not Golarion. Undead are evil, but I'm thoroughly enjoying my LN necromancer in Carrion Crown.
Yes lets make WIzardfinder even more WIzardfinder. That's because you understand the covenant of the true magical arts ;)
Hey Deacon, welcome to the boards. I don't clearly understand your concern. If there is a fairly even spread of characters across the possible alignments, then any given settlement will be able to have members from 1/3 to 5/9 of the population. Characters who can't be members can still be allowed to use the training, crafting, and market facilities. I think that is supportive of a good social environment, while ensuring that alignment, and therefore character actions, have some meaningful consequences.
This interesting discussion lead me to think about my minimum requirement for a playable game, in terms of races available. I was actually surprised to realise that I'd be happy if the game launched with just one race. So not only can I do without drow, orcs, dhampir, sylphs, and grippli; but I can also do without elves, half-elves, dwarves, and halflings. I'd expect them to be in the game eventually, because it's Golarion... but if it meant EE came earlier, then bin 'em :-)
"Well, I think we've abandoned stealth!" Alinya leans in the window that Leik used and calls out, "What do you see?"
Alinya waits for the agile dromite to either give the all clear or get thrown back through the window by a lurking undead troll.
Hey EZG, thanks for asking. Your reviews are an important part of my QA process as a freelance writer - "what would EZG say?" :-) 1) I'm glad you've found a good solution for tagging - collaboration was the perfect answer! 2) I most appreciate reviews about shorter pieces from the less well covered 3PPs. There will be enough discussion about Razor Coast that I'll know whether I want it or not. The next 'Urban Dressing' release, not so much. 3) You should, at minimum, link your RSS feed to fb, g+, and twitter. They are channels to announce new reviews to those who don't use another RSS aggregator. 4) I would rather directly donate than use an affiliate scheme. Thanks for making that an option. Google "Amanda Palmer TED Talk" on more about the power of asking for help. I would love for this to become a realistic income stream for you. 5) Here so far, but I'll add your RSS feed to my aggregator so that might change. Other - I'd back an appropriate kickstarter - maybe a best-of compilation of reviews?
Yes, I'd play a character with those stats. If I liked and trusted the rest of the group then I'd enjoy being creative to overcome the rolls. If I didn't like and trust the rest of the group I wouldn't play any character with any stats. People > dice.
Those are the sort of hostilities I had in mind, Quandary, and a much more concrete set of examples than I could manage. As I say, I'd expect a blog post sometime soon clarifying the design of this stuff. And I'm looking forward to the blog that makes being a senschal/war-leader as awesome as being an assassin/wizard! My attention follows the shiny...
I expect that there is a difference between
It's the second sense of being at war that might require a settlement building, such as a War Room or Marshal's Hall. If it requires a building to make that formal, game mechanic, declaration, then that could be disrupted by an assassin, canceling the 'formal' war. You can still go and kill the players you don't like, you can still call it a war; but you will no longer qualify for the specific game mechanical benefits of war. Makes sense to me, anyway.
I'd love to hear more about the magic system - how will magic user weapon sets (spellbooks, holy symbols) work? Will there be distinct tiers for offensive spells in parallel with weapon tiers? How do saving throws and armor elemental resistances interact? What thought has gone into peaceful uses of magic so far - for example settlement buffs or alarm spells for harvesting? I'd like to thank the GW blog pixie for delivering my wish. Next up: in depth settlement construction rules please!
I'll put my vote in for having the option of 3rd person zoomed out view. While I can understand that some get more immersion from a tight 1st person, and some like the simulationist effects, it's not for me. I prefer 3rd person viewpoint to be available because it acts to replace the missing peripheral vision, kinaesthetic awareness, and audible cues that are missing in a computer monitor. Forced first person would be like driving without being allowed to use the rear-view mirror or turn my head to look out of the side windows. Not fun. There's an interesting discussion about immersion and simulation to be had. I find that books are far more immersive than movies, which are in turn more immersive than games. I usually remain aware that I am a player manipulating a constructed world; and that's fine because the strategies and outcomes are fun. But for immersion, a book every time.
A treasury of carrion...
The box he opens holds 6 vials of alchemist's fire a potion of cure light wounds and one of water breathing, a wand of acid arrow with 25 charges, two doses of dust of tracelessness, a +1 heavy mace 500 gold piecesHe finds 10 applications of silver weapon blanch The books are valuable. There's a complete alchemist's lab on the desk. There's three packets of flash powder, five pots of alchemical grease. And....500 gp, and a small velvet bag. It contains 8 diamonds worth 300 gp each.
...But in the aggregate I come away with one conclusion, PFO is not PVE enough for their taste or if there is any PVP it must be consensual in all cases... I've been following the discussion since at least the tech demo kickstarter. And while I've seen many of the same points of view that you have, it seems less like a coherent voice for 'no-PVP', and more like a combination of new people coming in and slowly learning about the PVP focus and how it will work, and well-founded discussion of things that make PVP-heavy games fun. But we're starting to get very meta- about a thread that's already meta- to the gameplay, so I'll leave it there :-)
I love these principles. If I didn't suck quite so hard at PVP I'd be tempted to sign up. My main concern in this thread is to talk about mechanisms that encourage exactly this sort of thing - constructive engaged evil-in-the-game-world but not abusive-of-the-player behaviour. And part of that is acknowledging and that many online communities turn into raging piles of asshattery. For me, this isn't a conversation about in-game functions at all. It's a conversation about what we do around and outside the game to create a community that I want to be part of for years. Very meta.
I'll just note that my reading of Keovar's intent is very different from yours, Bluddwolf. I am gaining the impression that you see every discussion of what the PFO community will be like as the thin end of some anti-PVP wedge. I think we can have a useful discussion about how, given that PVP will provide most of the game content, we build a great community. One that enables cool stories, banditry, risk taking, 'in-game evil' characters. One that does not tolerate abuse, bullying and other toxic behaviour that is ultimately destructive of the game we all hope to play. I think that one of the reasons the paizo boards, and this sub-board are useful, is because of the strong moderation; as already seen in this thread. Similar moderation will be needed in PFO, and Ryan has indicated that GM interventions will be swift and forceful where needed. So if Ryan agrees that a range of tools and techniques are required to maintain a fun and engaged community, I think there are valuable conversations to be had about the means, method, and madness of those tools.
I take it that such a discussion is exactly what Keovar was looking to prompt with his post. Similarly to the fact that online interactions can have meaningful consequences, it is pretty clear that without care, online communities can become extremely toxic. It's less clear to me whether this is a risk, a tendency, or a near certainty. In general we are in the early stages of understanding how to build effective online communities. It's not my area and I'm not aware of much academic research, though it probably exists. However there are a few people who have written articulately about creating healthy online communities. It is possible, as a casual comparison between, say, the comment threads of Whatever, Making Light, or Ta-Nehisi Coates on the one hand, and the unmoderated comment threads of most newspapers. In particular, this thread on Making Light has resonance with the current conversation.
Ongoing best wishes for the whole family recovering. I just reread that sentence, and while I'm sure the meaning made it through, it struck me that I may have accidentally translated the sentiment from japanese via finnish. All your base are belong to us.
That sounds like just what late cycle escalations should be. Except linked to the dominant theme of the hex that the escalation is emerging from, and potentially with resolutions other than combat for certain player communities with certain factional alliances. Nice.
Good links Avena; I think Ryan covers most of the important things that make for a good NPE, which gives me a lot of comfort. I actually expect the NPE to change quite a lot over the course of Early Enrolment. When EE opens, many of the initial wave of players will have been following and discussing and crowdforging and planning for several months. That's a specific sort of new player - already highly invested and informed. By the time we hit general release, the sort of new payer changes dramatically, as does the environment that they're stepping into. For example, they may have just downloaded the game based on a blog review, and have very little context at all. At the same time the game world contains characters with several months worth of specialised skill training, doing incomprehensible things for exotic emergent reasons. In summary, I expect to see a complete overhaul of the NPE towards the end of EE, shortly before general release.
Ouch :/ I'm glad the 'not believing Belkin' got wrapped up in one post; the events are traumatic enough without having additional levels of mistrust and denial wrapped around.
For my part I think that battle can be unpredictable without being random. When I think of great games of chess, or great fencing bouts, they don't depend on luck but they are definitely not predictable. They depend on skill and strategy and the ability to surprise your opponent with a well judged move. Random is the opposite of skill, and most MMO crits are like awarding a fencer several points for a single touch. And for me the gap between tiers are well merged by weapons of varying quality (1 to 300) as well as the keywords. So a high quality tier 1 weapon with the perfect keywords for your character could be more valuable than a low quality Tier 2 with keywords that you can't use.
You could easily mark offline players as not available for grouping / greyed out in guild chat, but still represent their character in game. It's a simple filter that depends on player status, not whether the other players can see the character model. Much of the server load for a character is about communicating with the player's client. When the player's logged off, it's just a game object, the same as an NPC innkeeper or guard. Not nothing, but not necessarily crippling. Dying and respawn would have to be very different for logged out characters. I'd suggest that they wouldn't 'really die' - ie they wouldn't go to a bind point or lose equipment. Probably the way I'd do it is have logged out PCs take over some generic NPC roles, at a cosmetic level only. For example, if in our settlements Forge structure there is an NPC blacksmith, then when my crafter character logs out we could replace the NPC blacksmith graphics model with my character's graphics model. Or, if someone commits a crime that summons NPC guards while Nihimon is logged out, one of the guards could have Nihimon's paladin PC's face and armor... It would only be cosmetic but I feel it would contribute to the feeling of a living breathing persistent world.
...Yes, you will have to establish the settlements, and you will certainly need a standing army to patrol the areas within your perimeter. But that is a critical element to having a secure kingdom (even one "as small as four settlements"). I'm not sure we've seen much about how a player organisation can effectively control territory beyond its actual settlements. We have heard about watch towers, but I had the impression that they were more precursors to settlements than something to put up in nearby hexes to exert control. Which leads me to another thought. In Eve, the connections between systems are relatively sparse - there may be gates to 0, 1 or multiple other systems. This means that the map has natural chokepoints where a strong defense can effectively protect a significant number of 'internal' systems. In PFO my current unexamined expectation is that every hex is accessible from all 6 neighboring hexes (except at the edge of the map). This is a significantly different tactical situation - and could make defense difficult. So I'll be keen to see if there are effective 'travel blockers' that carve up the map to provide for some choke-points. These could be natural - rivers, mountains, impenetrable forrests. Or they could be man made - walls and palisades.
I am intrigued by your concept of not burning down buildings, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
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