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Sara Marie wrote:
balterk_n wrote:
Please cancel my subscriptions (AP, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules).

I've cancelled your subscriptions and you should be receiving a confirmation email shortly.

thanks
sara marie

Thanks.

Please cancel the RPG subscription also.


Please cancel my subscriptions (AP, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules).


I noticed that there were a few copies of the CMR (OGL) on the Paizo blog. I know I've had a request to have one shipped for a while (replacement for a lost shipment, but CMR was never in stock).

Any chance of getting that into my next order?


All,

My group just finished the 2nd Darkness AP, using Beta Pathfinder rules (plus ample sampling from daemonslye's conversion thread).

We gamed about every 2 weeks for 4-5 hours from 31 August 2008 until today, 26 July 2009. Our gaming location was our FLGS (except for the last session). Three core players went from beginning to end. Two additional players dropped in/out at different times.

Main Player Characters (ending at 16th level):
Tolan, human male, Cleric of Nethys, N
Aram, human male, Sorcerer (abyssal line)/Fighter/Eldritch Knight (also dating/married to Sam - as a Cohort), CN
Davros, human male (Vasarian), Fighter, NG

Other PCs included:
Remington, halfling rogue, CN (just for Shadow in the Sky)
Selton, high elven druid, NG (mid-Armageddon Echo through A Memory of Darkness)

Hats off to the authors, Paizo, and the fan base for creating wonderful resources, great adventures, and keeping us gaming for the past year! All feedback given below is meant to be "constructive criticism" (but raw notes) of what went well and not-so-well.

Overall impression: we all had a blast! Despite the need for some heavy rails to keep the train on track (especially for the "only slightly good" party), the group highly enjoyed the modules and the flavor in each of them. Fortunately, the players wanted to play through the path, so they contrived reasons for their characters to go along with various plot directions. The path's general feel was that of a "Grand Tour of the Elven Realms" of Golarion. My impression is that although there was great depth available for the first adventures around Riddleport, the adventure quickly moved away from there with no intent to return (even with teleport - distances involved were huge). Knowing up front that this was to be a grand tour without return to a common base of operations would have helped the players to build character concepts better suited to that style of play in the first 5-6 levels. Also, betrayal is a key (and possibly too frequently used) tool in this Path, which, in the end, ended up really hurting the motivation of the characters to want to help. Fortunately the PCs always went the heroic path... mostly. The betrayal aspects needed stronger positive influences to maintain the proper motivation of both the PCs and the players. That was the major reason for the lower scores for some adventures: the motivation to help just wasn't there!.

Production Suggestion: really make obvious the transition between 5' and 10' scale combat maps!!! Especially within the same module!! Many times on a 10' scale, I ended up drawing by squares rather than translating to a 5' scale because I hadn't checked the scale before drawing the next map mid-session. Fortunately we made due, but this was still a minor annoyance.

Here are a set of reviews of the main adventure path materials:

Second Darkness Player Guide:

Traits were generally useful, but the player who joined after initial session had to really dig to find useful feats for a wilderness themed character. Generally traits gave some initial flavor, but the book was generally not used after the group left Riddleport.
Overall Score: 3/5

Shadow in the Sky:

Players were immensely happy with the mini-game, participating in the running of the casino and the various casino games. Overall, this adventure went flawlessly with rational flow between the encounters. NPCs in the adventure (Sam, Lixy, and others), were motivating to the players; as well was the Cyphermage and other factions of the city. The set-up for the second adventure was obvious (a good thing here) and the players were relieved that we got the second module in time to start it as soon as we played the first one.
Overall Score: 5/5

Children of the Void:

Again, immensely happy players. They loved getting booty, especially rare metals booty. The alien nature of the monsters and the unusual encounters (including the falling tower) outside worked well. They enjoyed playing rescuers to Sam and her party (as Aram quickly took her on a a cohort when legal). In the underground, things went well. One thing that frightens my players to this day is the shout of "Orca Attack!" It was a blast!

One nit was that it was unclear how the players should set their motivation by the end of the adventure. On the one hand, they were really getting engaged with the politics of the city. On the other hand, this was really the final adventure with easy access to Riddleport. We had an OOC conversation, and decided to follow the path (based loosely on the notes release so far) rather than wing our own campaign in/around Riddleport. Personally, I would have been happy staying in the city and adapting other adventures (or building our own); the PCs had quite the base they could establish for themselves!

Overall Score: 5/5

Armageddon Echo:

With only minimal motivation, and highly arrogant "friends", this adventure was hard to get the players into. Early on, they wondered if they should just join with the Drow and eliminate their untrustworthy elven allies. Fortunately, Shalelu made an appearance here; the three main players were engaged in another path for Rise of the Runelords, so they were amused to see her again. This alone probably convinced them to help the elves (which isn't a good reason, since it was a player thing, rather than a character thing).

However, once the battle was joined, the players never looked back and enjoyed all the various encounters and the large scale gorilla war being raged in the city. They even enjoyed going into the echo, but didn't explore as much as I hoped they might (these players were very mission focused). The players were satisfied with beating the "improved invisibility, flying Drow mage" and his pet dragon and with the closure of the adventure and intreagued to see what we were going to do with an open Elf-Gate into the Darklands. The only nit was with the boots of spider climbing, wands of levitate and other climbing/flying resources available in the path, several of the encounter areas gave the PCs opportunities to have distinct tactical advantages not obviously considered by the authors.

Eviana should have recurred more as a friendly ally. I tried, but with so few opportunities for friendly faces in the path, it was a hard at times. The best time was with Eviana and Shalelu during A Memory of Darkness, convincing the PCs to continue on the path and trust the Queen. Fortunately, the interaction with Eviana in this adventure made her useful later, if not as big an impact as Sam from the first adventure.

Overall score: 3/5

Endless Night:

The players really began to wonder if the surface elves were worth saving when the grey elf necromancer put Drow skins on them. Of course, the novelty of becoming Drow was more than enough - that plus getting away from these insane surface elves was to be a benefit. Their main reason at this point for the adventure was to save (and eventually return to) Riddleport after the Path ends.

Zirnakaynin was everything these players could want! A bustling metropolis of sin and the ability to be good guys sneaking around! The mini-game about gaining status with the family went over rather well. A bit dry at times, as I really only prepared 1-3 distinct role-playing events for each type of job in advance. After a while, the mini-game devolved into just a series of checks (which wasn't bad, but I should have had more structure to encourage more branching out into the city in their off-shifts). The combats were great, but again, with their flying/spider-climbing abilities coupled with copious invisibility spells, the PCs were tactically superior to all their opponents preparations.

The eventual fleeing from the city lead the players easily into the next module.

Again, the players and I could have stayed in the Darklands and Zirnakaynin for the rest of the campaign. Another (very brief) OOC conversation ensued and we decided to proceed with the path.

Overall Score: 4/5

A Memory of Darkness:

Again with the insane elves!! For a bit of time, the characters really considered just going on an elf-killing rampage. Fortunately, the cleric was foresighted enough to stuff a few Drow heads into his backpack. Presentation of these heads quickly ended the rantings of various elves ne'er-do-wells. After the assassination attempt and getting imprisoned by the crown, the players really did consider joining the demon's siege of the Winter Council (portrayed as misguided elven advisors to the Queen). Fortunately, the jaded nature of the elven priestess of Calistra appealed to the party, so they joined the defenders and kicked much demon and "new Drow" butt! The limited and confined space of defending a castle removed most of the maneuver advantage the group had and leveled most encounters.

At the end, even with the "reveal all" by the Queen, the party again wondered if it wouldn't be for the best for the elven nation to be destroyed. Fortunately, they still liked their memories of Riddleport, so they went on with the final module.

Overall Score: 2/5

Descent Into Midnight:

Titanic battles and interesting non-combat encounters with some evil NPCs abounded here. The party's access to travel magic (air walk, teleport, etc.) rendered most of the terrain information about the Land of the Black Blood useless. The players really just focused on scouting out the various sites via air walk (which, DR 10/- and up 60mph speed, coupled with invisibility spells in advance, gave them limitless scouting ability) and hit two sites in short order (via teleport) in the same day. Most sites were very vulnerable to the "death from above" tactics they group had perfected and generally seemed poorly set up to deal with high level/magic heavy assaults.

Air walk (in gaseous form) made quick penetration deep in to the Throne of Abraxas easy for the group (although the 5 round "re-materialize" had them getting hammered by a demon while they got ready to battle). The top battle was practically epic between the party, with disintegrate spells, spell turning, and much hacking being done from both sides. The minions were unable to really damage the PCs, but did their job of being roadblocks and distractions. However, eventually the players won (a 10+ round battle taking about 2 hours).

In the end, the PCs kept the notes about how to summon the meteor, with the cleric of Nethys muttering something about "summoning a smaller meteor to strike the elves, but not cause a whole second darkness"...

Really, was anyone supposed to like any elves at the end of this?

Overall Score: 3/5

We also used the following items (ranked from 1 [barely useful] to 5 [essential]):
-"Into the Darklands" - 5 [essential]
-"Elves of Golarion" - 2 [somewhat useful]
-"Second Darkness Map Pack" - 3 [useful] (major hindrance was the lack of sufficient resolution to easily scale the maps up for printing in advance and the shifting 5'/10' scale - did save lots of flipping through and the various city maps were handy as "middle of the game table" atmosphere)


Erik Mona wrote:


Do you like this sort of thing? Would the world be torn asunder if they were not a regular feature?

I need to make some decisions about 2010, and I don't really have a sense of whether these are "working" or not.

Please help me determine this.

Most of this has already been said by others, but here's some more input.

My group is mid-way through "A Memory of Darkness", playing every 2 weeks at our FLGS. Here are my observations from use of the map folio (some of which may be a result of my limits as a working-daddy DM):

1 - Keyed maps are not useful for game prep - take me too much effort to use effectively during my 2 hours of prep (rather than wrestling to get the keys out, I just skip it)

2 - Loose maps are useful at the game table - rather than having to keep that perfect bound book open to the right page as I translate the map to the combat pad, I can just use the single loose sheet - although I could get the same from printing the PDF from the file.

3 - Missing maps - most recently, from "Endless Night" the set piece map was not present and that was a tremendously fun side adventure for the PCs, the map was missed (because, during my prep, I failed to notice that I needed to print that map; I assumed it was in the folio). Since the product was just the DM maps from all the AP books, I mistakenly expected all the DM maps to be in there.

4 - No increase in resolution - the map folio file being the same resolution as the main adventure means that there is no difference in use when I try to enlarge the maps to support "minis-scale". I'm not big on minis, but my players are.

5 - The city maps, OTOH, were really valued by the players as a map to have on the table when we weren't in battle. They players loved having the Zinakaynin map out during "Endless Night"

My overall opinion - I wouldn't buy them if they weren't subscription as they don't really add much to my prep time as DM. I have used the folio (afterall, I do own it and crack it open when I get to the game store to draw out the first battle map).

Map folios of public places (communities, public buildings, etc) are of interest, but what has bee in the first three folios hasn't been worth the cost.

I would pay more to have keyless maps, as that would be useful to be able to hand them to the players. Additionally, maps with only obvious features (no secret doors/rooms) would be high value - even better would be a notional adventurer's hand drawn map. Also of value would be to have the maps at a resolution that supports printing for use with minis (for my players) - or includes fold-out maps for use in battles.

Heck, you could get a new product (a clear plastic overlay or pouch to protect the paper battle-mats during use) out of the deal.

This is my experience, YMMV.

Erik - definitely looking forward to the city map folio.


Here's some more detail on copy/select problems:

Using current Adobe Acrobat (9.0.0) with patches effective today.

Can copy/select images in: Gamemastery modules (but not LB1)

Cannot copy/select images in: Pathfinder #1-13 and LB1

No problem selecting images using Adobe Actobat version 8 in all files (e.g. can't select the beatie images in PF#13 in Acrobat 9, but I can select/copy them in Acrobat 8).

Any idea on why this is a problem? What version is Paizo using to create their PDFs?


Misery wrote:

I know if you look at that, you might think "just play a normal elf if you're taking away so much", but its really about the story, not the stats.

Advice? Suggestions?

I believe, from the backstory, that nobody believes Drow exist, thus a PC Drow would have to be heavily disguised so that nobody realized he was a Drow. Otherwise, an openly Drow character walking the streets would ruin the premise of the Drow being 'myth' to the people of Vasaria.

It can be done, but lots of focus in disguise and deception would be needed to get this to even fit. Plus, the character would have to have been born outside Drow society (by renegade parents who were later slaughtered?) in order to not know the society backstory of the Drow (which is something we don't have yet).

Lemme see - heavily disguised, doesn't know Drow culture... motive may be to slowly try to uncover the society that killed his parents, a society that the PC knows nothing about with allies that can't know the PC is a Drow.

Interesting roleplaying opportunities.


Torillan wrote:

I'd love to play, but weekends aren't good for me. Any chance of Friday evenings?

For reference, I'm in Sterling.

Hi Torillan! Based on the travel times for folks, and the game store closing at 10pm, weeknights would be hard (starting after 6pm to allow for travel for folks from work). I live close enough so that wouldn't be a problem for me, but I don't know about the others. If enough people want to switch for a weeknight (preferably not Friday though, so that weekend family travel can still happen), I'm game.

For now, we're going to be trying for twice monthly, so that the weekend load isn't too bad (and be flexible as to which Sundays).

Right now, folks are generating new characters (same rules as above) to start the Second Darkness AP.


Based on the reading of the Beta rules, here's the suggestion for Sunday's game:

- 20 point buy (tables 2-1 through 2-3)
- First level (0 XP)
- Any character class out of the PF Beta RPG Book
- Any race out of the PF Beta RPG Book
- Non-evil characters only
- Racial HP (pg 14) max hp + con bonus + racial HP in side bar
- Start with Average Wealth (table 7-1)

General principals:

- No PvP (it is up to the players to figure out an in game reason to be on the same side)
- Players can develop backstory that helps keep them focused on the adventure at hand (pass notes to me if there is something I may need to develop to keep your interest).
- The module will provide some backstory, but as to how the group met, we'll briefly discuss that between the players when we arrive (likely a Pathfinder expedition?)

Likely modules are LB1, D0, and TC1. Are there any preferences? Anyone played/read those modules yet?


Fax wrote:
I'd be interested in playing, if you've got room. I'd also be willing to help out with GMing duties, if things work out. Email is faxsemmar at gmail dot com, if you'd like to get in contact that way.

Excellent - that makes 2 now!


Looks like we will be playing on 17 August, from 1-5pm, at Game Parlor in Chantilly, VA (gameparlor.com).

Pathfinder Beta Rules (when they come out of the 14th, I'll post the specifics for character creation), not doing the organized play rules yet. Adventure TBD (depends on interest and how many show up), but will chose a 1st level module. I'm going to prep one adventure for 3-4 players and one for 5-6. I'm open for nominations.

If anyone is interested in GM'ing Pathfinder, I'd like to get a regular Pathfinder Society play going (2/month at least) and I'd prefer to only GM one. My home, family-friendly game will hopefully grow out of people from these sessions.

If you're not at GenCon, then maybe have some gaming this coming weekend with us down here in Virginia!


Fire_Wraith wrote:
I've been looking for a game, preferably 3.5/Pathfinder, ever since I got back into the area (I'm in Fairfax City). I don't have the time/energy to DM, but would certainly be interested in playing.

Hi! Good to meet you (online at least). We just got in the area also. Email me at dlatimer at usc dot edu (my old school account) and we can arrange to meet over coffee or something (meet my family, say 'hi' and the like)


Hi,

I'm thinking of starting a family friendly gaming session in Chantilly, VA (just South of Dulles Airport). I'm fairly open to system, can do AnyE DnD or Pathfinder (can also do Traveller if anyone does that anymore); willing to let others DM/GM as desired. We have 2 not-yet-old-enough-to-RPG girls, so bringing kids to play with them would be welcome.

My thoughts on style: Pizza and drinks style gaming, with continuity and flexible "Oops, can't make it" contigency options to keep the game flowing as Life Happens(tm).

If there is any interest, let me know.


Vic Wertz wrote:
balterk_n wrote:
Just checking in - haven't seen order 935690 arrive yet (sent May 6). I've been moving, hence my delay at getting around to reporting this. Was it returned?

We didn't get it back, but we'll ship replacement copies with your next monthly shipment.

Excellent!! Many thanks!

In the order, I noticed it is shipping to my old address in CA. Please update the order to ship to my VA address in my profile (also sent email to the customer service email with the specific addresses).


Just checking in - haven't seen order 935690 arrive yet (sent May 6). I've been moving, hence my delay at getting around to reporting this. Was it returned?


So, the basic summary of straight rules crunch that makes pseudodragons verses imps plausible are:

1 - Mob template (DMG II) or swarm template (MM), in this instance, an imp prefer to tackle a single pseudodragon before the "neighborhood watch" (local mob of pseudodragons) comes over to kill it.

2 - Class levels for pseudodragons (LA +3, MM), in this instance, 'hero' pseudodragons (likely spell casters) lead their smaller brethren. The normal pseudodragons likely distract the imps (grapple or other non direct damage maneuvers) while the 'hero' lays down damaging spells.

I initially though about advancing the pseudodragon, but the 3-4 HD version is still tiny, so doesn't really have improved damage capability (see d20srd.org section on improving monsters)

Personally, I don't see the fuss people put up on how to explain things. If it is important, the DM should just find some rules to explain it (mob or class levels), and if it is not important than just keeping it as flavor is fine.

The pseudodragon PC case plays well into explaining the fluff. Just choose option 2 and say the PC is one of these hero types. I'd probably add that things are going bad for the psuedodragons, thus the PC is allying with non-dragons to get help for his/her brethren.


My Open Office calc (like Excel) was nice to me today

Str - 1, 4, 5 = 10
Int - 6, 3, 4 = 13
Wis - 6, 4, 1 = 11
Dex - 6, 6, 5 = 17
Con - 5, 3, 3 = 11
Chr - 3, 5, 2 = 10

Looks like Thief for me...


Found in my inbox today:

Amazon.com wrote:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As someone who has purchased or rated books by Jason Bulmahn, you might like to know that Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa (Pathfinder Chronicles) will be released on February 15, 2008. You can pre-order yours at a savings of $6.40 by following the link below.
Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa (Pathfinder Chronicles) Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa (Pathfinder Chronicles)
James Jacobs
List Price: $19.99
Price: $13.59
You Save: $6.40 (32%)

Release Date: February 15, 2008

Still getting this through Paizo's subscription. I'm beginning to like digital versions for travel.

Just thought you'd Paizo people would like to know that Amazon's direct marketing emails are matching your products.


Void_Eagle wrote:


Seems like I read in another thread that the J adventures are more about the destination than the journey, but they couldn't use D because that was already being used by the dungeon adventures. Or something like that. I'll see if I can find that thread.

Edit: Found it in this thread. It's in a post by Mike McArtor, about two-thirds the way down, the one with the spoiler button.

Many thanks - Destination is the impression I got.


IANAL

Paizo seems happy to let us discuss their material on these boards.

WotC seems to be happy letting people discuss their material on their boards (on gleemax.com/wizards.com).

Both of those individually make sense as they have terms of service in place and they encourage the purchase of their own products.

Mixing WotC owned material onto a Paizo board sounds a bit iffy. If all you are doing is a "hey, so and so would make an excellent schnizzel-PRC from WotC book Y", I can't see a problem with that (only referencing).

Full stat blocks with descriptions of powers - likely to be problematic (more of a problem for the descriptions of powers, since it would be a reprint of non OGL material and not authorized by the copyright holder, WotC, for use on the Paizo boards).


So, I have J1 and J2

I really liked the adventures (J1 is my favorite of the two). Both give the chance to dislocate from one place and explore another place.

However, I am a little confused on the concept. When I originally read the J-series concepts, it seemed that there would be lots of travel (the journey) in the adventure. But both adventures seem to be primarily site based adventures.

Spoiler:
For example, J2 pretty much teleports the PCs to the site immediately. There is a short (a few mile) trek on the mountain, but no real sense of journey. Indeed the PCs are immediately teleported back to where they came at the end.

In J1, there are some events (such as the auction) that proceed the journey. However, the journey itself has very little material. Almost no information on what to expect traveling across the desert, during any sea voyage, etc. Pretty much there are some setup events in a mostly arbitrary city and the pyramid site.

So, maybe I'm just missing the point of what a Journey adventure is. By counter example, the quintessential travel adventure I've read in the past few months is "The Earl's Progress" (http://www.lythia.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=i ndex&req=viewdownload&cid=8) (okay, it's isn't D&D/OGL - heck it's Harn, which is a very different kind of RPG from 3.5).

DnD treks... "The Sea Wyvern's Wake" (Dungeon 141) is recent and fits the bill. There are more but my memory isn't exactly working at the moment.


Sequels...

W1: Bloodsworn Vale - more follow-ups related to successfully pushing through the wilderness and keeping that trade route open. Alternately, something that threatens the vale.

D0/D1 - push further into the dungeon/underdark - open up new frontier in that area (after D0, D1, and E1, I expect that entropy will win and it will become more and more difficult to continually impact the small down without breaking the various outcomes of the campaigns)

Those have been my favorites so far.


Same here - J2 does not yet appear in my downloads, despite the email telling me the download should be available.

Many thanks


I'm also in favor of having the 128 page adventure as part of the subscription. If the cost bum for that month is given notice (say 2+ months), I figure people with subscriptions should be able to plan accordingly (subscriptions aren't exactly inexpensive after all).


IANAL and IDSFP (I don't speak for Paizo)

Remember that the character names and settings are the property of Paizo (per the OGL). While you could say that some unique character name uses the same stats as one in a Paizo adventure (the mechanics are open content), the character names are Paizo property.

Self-publishing (even for free over the web) of an adventure using their character names/settings is against the OGL.

Now, as for what Paizo's position would be, that's beyond me.


I loved the feel of the adventure. After a quick on screen read from my download, I had to print out to curl up with a cup of hot chocolate to get a better depth read.

My question contains some spoilers, so if you're going to be playing, now is a good time to stop reading

.

.

.

Spoiler:
So, we measure success in how few people are killed. People are killed per hour each event is left unbeaten. However, at the rates of killing, what can the PCs do that takes any significant amount of time?

I'm assuming:
1 - individual events don't take a significant amount of time (20 rounds, tops)
2 - transition between events doesn't take a significant amount of time (1-2 minutes, tops)
3 - resting takes 8 hours (in almost any case, this results in a total loss if the PCs haven't already beaten enough events to have won anyway)
4 - I give some high level hints as to which events seem to have the most people going into them (for those the characters can see)

I may have missed something, but it doesn't seem as if there are too many tactical options that consume medium-scale time (10's of minutes or low number of hours). I didn't see any strategic options presented in the adventure for players that would consume medium-scale time either.

My concern is that the adventure seems to be either "the players win" (defeat everything before 60 minutes elapse) or lose (because they have to rest). I'm not sure how the intermediate solutions would ever really occur in play.

Don't get me wrong, I like this adventure - 'A' for evocative writing, great encounters, reusable material (the fair before the change is great source/inspiration material for home brewing). For me, the dark fey encounters are great, because I'm not good at creating that type of material.


James Jacobs wrote:

The gnomes of Golarion aren't tinkers/inventors. They wouldn't invent an airship, when flying around on giant moths or huge owls is much easier.

To cross over into another controversy... I suspect that airships in Golarion will be less common than guns. They'll be about as common as robots.

So, you're saying there's a chance... given the presence of the "not-really-nano-robots-but-you-know-they-are" in D2 exist in the millions within that swarm... man the planet must be crawling with airships... I'm surprised my PCs haven't already gotten smothered in airships ;)

Not that I care one way or the other about airships, just yanking your chain.

Signed "Your friendly neighborhood robotics researcher" (my IRL job gives me excellent toys to play with)


I imagine that Magminar/Sandpoint will put a levy onto the property to recover back taxes, reparations to families of victims, possession costs, and costs recovery for government costs due the murders (1). I imagine that the government would sell the property via some form of auction (either public or to a limited audience - assume the PCs can get invited).

If the PCs are willing to enter the bidding, the entry price would probably be some reasonable fraction (say 1/3) of the above. Other people would see see this as an opportunity to buy. You could have lots of fun having various parties bidding on the property (see Gamemastery adventure J1 for an example of bidding).

If you don't like that, assume the PCs would win if they pay some fixed percent of the government cost. I'd base the percentage on a diplomacy check. For example, use the check result as the percentage off they can negotiate - roll a 26, get 26% off whatever price - this assumes that the governments are happy with the adventurers.

Note (1) - remember PC rewards for solving the murders would be part of this cost to recover - also salaries to members of the watch, death benefits to the families of killed watch, additional costs by the government to truly verify that the haunting is eliminated (assume several spells by clerics - the city would give "generous donations" to those churches in appreciation of their support), etc.


My questions:

What were the adventures that got you hooked into fantasy gaming?

What elements made those adventures endearing?

... as a player?

... as a DM?


chopswil wrote:

I think it would be cool to have the module locations marked in the Golarion map, like what was done with greyhawk.

MapLink

I agree, especially one on the web that is kept up to date with current and future modules/Pathfinder locations indicated.

I can see this as being a good tool for DMs to use to plan adventures. My thought would be "hrm, the players are here now and want to head down there... I see that W87 is coming out in two months for a location along the line of travel, maybe I'll pick that one up!"


Dragnmoon wrote:
Paizo thanks for the free Hero's Hoard Pack in the last shipment... You guys have now sent me a bunch of these! If you keep this up I will not even have to order them before I get a full set! :-)

I'm going to guess that these inclusions are at random, as I haven't had them (nor invoices) in my past two subscription shipments.


I got my physical copy of PF#3 today!

I love that the characters get a chance to become lords of a castle and built in to the adventure.

However, I'm distressed that there is not much really on being lords of the castle in PF#3. I like that "Keeping the Keep" presents a list of events for the castle owners, but there is almost nothing on really developing the keep. I haven't seen anything like a set of repairs needed to be performed. Even the entires for the castle didn't really give me much of a sense of the extent of damage to structures (implied in the tower collapse event). Compare this with building the manor in Diamond Lake at the beginning of the Age of Worms AP, which gave a great sense of not only the extent (cost/effort) of repairs, but potentials for going above and beyond (extra fancy furnishings to improve diplomacy checks).

Further, I'm going to contrast the keep section with the wonderful work done on developing Farshore in "Tides of Dread" in STAP. In that backdrop, the characters had a chance to build up the town in a way that seemed to engender them to the town and impact the campaign. I liked having some canned developments presented. Of course, developing Farshore was central to that adventure. Ideas for Fort Rannick as finding new eagles for the aerie, patrols to protect various resource/development areas (which in turn costs soldiers/effort/money to generate future revenue), etc.

Maybe I just missed the details in my first read tonight.

To what extent is the area around the fort planning to be developed in future installments?


I second the notion of U1 in the High/Garden Quarters of Greyhawk. Overall that shouldn't be a hard fit, the adventure doesn't really rely on descriptions of places outside of the manors visited. Also the Greyhawk guard are frequently over-tasked and has frequently used adventurers before (in other published adventures), so that plot hook works well.

The hard part of putting W1 in Greyhawk is justifying why the trail hasn't been built/maintained.

Depending on how far from Greyhawk you want to put the adventure, there are multiple options:
Nearest - Gnarley forest west of Greyhawk, over towards the hills. I'd place this as a move to build a road on the edge of the Celene border. This may need some modification to the adventure as written. Rotate map 90-degrees for a north/south trail from Dryvers to Narwell in the Wild Coast. This route would take the path just East of Nelb/ToEE, so that would have a natural flow in to use that adventure (RttToEE), even if just a location resource. Most indications are that this area is pretty untame and has humanoid/other hazards that have made travel difficult (especially moving into the forested hills, which matches the adventure well). Some fudging is needed as this is only really at best "in the hills" rather than a vale in mountains (which does get images of being "very hard to travel off the given paths"). Your group's racial diversity should be fine, as most races have an inlet nearby (Wild Coast, Celene, Kron Hills, and of course, the cosmopolitan settings of Greyhawk and Dyvers).

Logical fit #1 - Mountains west/south-west of Ratik. Those mountains have forests nearby, so putting a vale in the mountains makes sense. Ratik is a logical sponsor for the adventure, as they really would like a way to get supplies from other good nations (this would require to take a mirror image of the map - alternately put this as an initiative from the Pale to expand their influence towards Ratik). This would be working to address a long standing problem that Ratik is acknowledged to have - no easy overland route for trade. This has a problem for racial diversity, although as "enlightened" members of the Theocracy may send this loyal group into the wilds to get them out of town.

Logical fit #2 - Yatil Mountains between Ekbir and Perrenland. Seeking to establish a trade route between the nations that doesn't involve getting taxed by Ket. The mountain range there is HUGE, so little problem incorporating a vale there. Almost could be run as written. Racial diversity shouldn't be too bad if you are coming from the Perrenlands.

Logical fit #3 - Mountains between Sterich/Yeomanry or Sterich/Geoff. If you are set in the most recent Greyhawk Gazetteer, then Sterich needs supplies form Yeomanry or desires to equip rebels in Geoff. In either case, the mountains have been very hazardous since the giants came down after the wars. Despite driving the giants back, it is easy to see that other hazards have come up to prevent trade or trail maintenance. In either case, rotate the map 90 degrees. This one is probably the best fit for a climate reason (I seem to think of W1 further south than the mountain ranges in the above two logical fit options). Racial diversity should work here, if you view the 1/2 orc as an ex mercenary from the wars.

Odd Fit - Place the trail going from Ull to Geoff. Creative adaption of the motives for the trail, given that it is coming from Ull, is left up to the DM.


Ended up going on a dual authored submission (one of the players in my group is pretty good at making suggestions to increase the novelty factor when we're running pre-gen adventures) yesterday at about 790 words.

Here's to a first try!


Are joint submissions supported? Two of us spent the day brainstorming and came up with an initial idea. Would that be the one submission allowed for the two of us, or can we submit two ideas (but with the other person as the lead on the second adventure idea)?


tdewitt274 wrote:

Yep. It's DeWitt. Not Dewitt, De Witt, deWitt, De Witte, DeWit or anything like that. Those are entirely different clans with more convicts than the DeWitt's. And there's an E in there. Not a U or O.

At least my new nameplate at work has the capital W. My old work, I had to white out little lines above the "w" to make it a "W".

And it was worse when Todd Devitt worked there...

Edit: Never work on a phone job. It only gets worse. "Yep, I'm Josh."

DeWitt is my first name - Imagine the joys trying to convince people "No, really, DeWitt is my first name, not last name"

I only get my name spelled right about 40% of the time on official devices (ID cards, etc) - most common problem is silly software that insists that there can be no capital letters in the middle of a name thus I get lots of "Dewitt" ID cards and the odd "De Witt". Haven't gotten too many other variations.


Final Dungeon here also

I've been subscribing via normal post at different addresses since the early 1990's. Seemed like no matter where I moved, this rag always ended up in the new home. I'll be moving again in a few months, but for the first time without Dungeon and Dragon magazines following me.

Fortunately, maybe there will be new trade rags that may be just as homey :')


Jeremy Walker wrote:
The general plan was for them to be at 4th level by the end of the adventure. Although it's no big deal if they get to 5th level (in fact, it's good if they do, the last couple encounters are pretty tough), my experience is that PCs are likely to miss a bunch of experience along the way, even with the "plot device" as you put it. :)

I guess I game with some OCD players :D. Every nook and cranny must be explored.

Good to know that 4th or 5th are the intended end points.


Trying this without spoilers...

Just some general thoughts on the XP progression for D1. Seems that the intent is to go from 2nd to 5th level, based on the encounter CR makeup and a 4 PC group. 6 PCs would be 4th by the end.

Without counting random encounters and assuming 4 PCs, I calculate that would put the party as 3rd by early/mid level 1 of the dungeon, 4th sometime early in the 2nd dungeon level, and 5th by the final encounters. Due to the (excellent) plot device, the players have to explore the dungeon almost completely and overcome virtually all encounters (to achieve all the plot devices) in the dungeon.

The final encounters (EL 7s) would make sense for a partly depleted 4th/5th level party. I'd even go as far as to say that the EL make-up of the 2nd level of the dungeon seems to assume that the characters have advanced.

I haven't noticed any game designers comments on what is the anticipated make-up or in-progress level gains expected of the adventure. Is the above (start at 2nd, end at 4th or 5th) the general intention?


Many thanks!


Marzipan is a form of candy, commonly available in specialty candy stores (not chocolatiers, but full candy stores), I'm typically given it as a gift 1-2 times a year. If fact, in the candy section of most mid-range grocery stores (at least in NH, PA, and CA, where I've lived) you can typically find a few marzipan items.

We were browsing tureens at "Sur La Table" and other kitchen supply stores - it is a little more specialized, but not uncommon - my wife knew the definition off hand without even giving her context.

Proboscis is the correct word for the part of the mosquito that the creature uses to inject you with saliva and suck out your blood. Indeed, I have no idea what else to call it (nose is incorrect, tube-like appendage may work but is vague).

Ziggarat has been used in so many D&D adventures, I forgot when I learned what it meant.

James, thanks for keeping with the spirit of the game - the vocabulary usage has meant the difference from this being a board game and being a game that inspires the imagination. I'm not an English major (heavy use of a spell-checker for me) and I do credit D&D, Dragon, and Dungeon for widening my vocabulary.

What? learning things through games?? Absurd you say? Nay! That can be some of the best learning!

Of course, if I'm in the mood for less learning, I generally pre-read my adventure and pick one that is less descriptive.


Any chance of getting the cutting room floor text for the Usi from either the editors or the contrib? I'm mostly looking for ways for the PCs to gain favor/improve relations with that specific tribe.

If nothing is forthcoming, maybe we can group-write something here.


Sben wrote:
The medal, as described, is only effective in Sasserine. Is there any reason not to make it also effective in Farshore?

I'd rule it was valid in any place where the Dawn Council rules or hold extensive sway (so yes, for Farshore; no for Fort Blackwell or the Olman tribes)


I'm probably just blind, but did I miss the description of the Usi clan in the article "Braving the Isle of Dread"?

I see the other six clans have descriptions on page 71. There are feat features for Usi tribe members, but no description of their tribe that I saw.

Maybe they were described in another issue?


My plans are to have the PCs do some "shake down" voyages in the Sea Wyvern before setting out on a 6 month voyage wth a novice crew. The PCs are seeming to be rather anti-pirate at the moment and one is heading for legendary captain, looking for a nearby pirate operating area to patrol. I'm thinking of either the EL 6 pirate encounter in Stormwrack (although that may give them an extra ship) or doing something more traditional with pirates attacking from shore on long boats (probably with spell caster support to still the wind in their sails).

This will give the PCs a chance to work with their crew for a bit and a bit more time to work on the back stories of the NPCs (except for Avner, who would still show up in a flourish as written looking for a private room and space for his horse).


Unearthed Arcana has a variant for weapon group feats. If a desire is to have people familiar with regional weapons, that mechanic could be modified so that characters from a region are proficient in the weapon groups for weapons from their region. By the UA variant, characters start off with bonus weapon group feats.

Not a perfect mechanism, I prefer the older style taking of weapon proficiencies and/or weapon group proficiencies, but this may scratch your itch regarding the ability loss for characters that take individual exotic weapon proficiencies.


I'm game for being on the distro for this

dlatimer (at) usc (dot) edu

Many thanks for your great work!


Too true

Extra kudos paizo - you all do an outstanding job!


Pg 11 lists Cauldron as a small city (population 7500) with a GP limit of 15,000.

In the Dungeon magazines, Cauldron is listed as a large town with a 3,000 GP limit. This is also consistent with the description of Skie's Treasury on page 20, with no item (except the scroll of raise dead) above 3,000.

Was this an intentional change in the population/max GP for Cauldron? Or was this a misprint?