derek_cleric's page

Has anyone run Shackled City without going to another plane? Where didn't you end the campaign? Point me in the correct direction if this has been answered before. Thanks!
--Ray.

I have color blindness and the new format for the Paizo store made it difficult for me to place an order. Would you put a "Click here to confirm" on the postal delivery page and anywhere else to help me and others navigate the order process? It took me about 30 minutes to figure out that "Standard Postal Delivery $$$$$ 3 to 10 business days in transit. Trackable." was a button. It let me go past that and just told me that "We need some information from you before we can display shipping details.", but not what I missed.

Thanks
--Ray.

Hi Sara,

Gave it a couple of extra days but it hasn't arrived yet.

Thanks,
--Ray.

I haven't received this one yet. It supposedly shipped on 6/28/2013 but it must be taking the scenic route. Would you guys look into this for me? I just received the email notification for the next order but it would be nice to see the previous one first. LOL

--Ray.

That was the problem. Updated to 1.7.0_09 and the software works.

Downloaded but it fails with a java error (both linux and WinXP). I suspect my java (1.6.0_21) is too old for this application. I will continue to troubleshot.

There is something like this in Tales of the Old Margreve by Open Design. Does he have it? Maybe he pulled it into RotRLs.

Add Galt and Taldor too. All that would need to happen is a powerful general to show up in Galt and pacify the region. Then he could turn his armies on the other nearby countries. Thus, a Golarion analog to Napoleonic France. Is there a G-Russia for him to invade? LOL!

Thank you very much.
--Ray.

Hello Paizo!

I received a damaged Magnimar, City or Monuments in order #2090101. The title page is torn at the bottom near the binding. How do I get a replacement and how do I send the damaged one back?

--Ray.

I ordered and received the 1e books through my FLGS and am now thinking that perhaps it would be wise to order a second 1e PHB. I know Paizo is selling them and I am wondering if you know how long they will be available for purchase. Is there an end date for the reprints?

Yes. We use the monster manuals and the spell compendium. As for the other books, we only pull them down to compare any changes between the two systems.

I can understand Vic's reaction from a business POV for a couple of different reasons as he has already stated. But I agree with you on this. Which has made this my favorite racial book released thus far. \mXm/

Thanks for agreeing with me Urizen. I too understand Vic's position. He's right. I only wish that no harm come to the artist for this. I'm certain that Dio's music touched him too.

--Ray.

We wouldn't do that. There's a line between being inspired by something and ripping it off, and I feel that this artist has crossed it, potentially putting Paizo at risk. If we'd known about it, we'd have rejected it.

Aspiring artists out there—this sort of thing is unprofessional: at best, it's merely uncreative, and at worst, it's actionable.

Vic,

Don't feel that way. A part of me died too when RJD died. Seeing that Dio inspired halfling gave me some closure that I was missing. When I hear or play a Dio song, it won't hurt anymore but I will think of this halfling and Ronnie's music and smile.

This is a good thing.

--Ray.

Take them out but do a "dirty" copy and paste of the various levels and mount it somewhere for download. The end-user needs to reformat that information anyway.

--Ray.

*drools too but has a towel*

To me, Golarion is the new Mystara. It has a lived in feel that many of the other new settings out there don't.

I was going to post something along these lines. A campaign setting has to have recognizable countries in it. For example Osirion is the Golarion-Egypt (G-Egypt) much in the same way that Nithia or Thothia is the Mystarian-Egypt (M-Egypt). Ya gotta have those setting analogs! :)

Thanks to Paizo for giving me a new Mystara!

We've all been been told at one time or anothing in our lives, "if you can't say anything good, you shouldn't say anything at all" and I am not saying anything now. I will let my silence speak for me.

....Just saying nothing at all.

It is finished.

:(

Thank you for the review, though I'm disappointed that you didn't enjoy it more. Good or bad, I really do appreciate the feedback.

Hi Todd (and everyone else who has posted since my review),

Sorry to take so long to tell you what I was expecting. I was looking for someting like the Savage Tidings, Beyond Sasserine (Dragon #349, p74-76, 78-80) with some addition PC information (PrC, feats, new spells). None of the areas are completely fleshed out but all of them have a short paragraph that provides a description and hook. It's a great article. A good DM could keep the PCs running in circles with red herrings for many a session with that one.

As for locations on the map that aren't fully described in the text, there are two reasons for that:

1) I had a word limit....

2) I've always enjoyed when maps contain more locations than those fully fleshed out and detailed...

It's ok to have areas on the map that aren't described but make them areas that the DM would flesh out on their own (e.g. Pyramid of Doom is ok to ignore but leaving out a description of local mountain ranges, deserts, and customs is not). As for the word count, try doing more with less. It will make the player's minds go wild about what isn't said and give the DMs enough of a hook that they can make an adventure out of it themselves. Also remember that it's a product for the PCs so, if they are locals, they would know something about the local geography and customs.

Another way to say it is, if it is reasonable for the PCs to know about it, write something about it. Cut everything else to get the essential text in the product. That's really all you have to do with a companion product. :)

--Ray.

That obviously doesn't help Osirion or Sothis, though, since THAT product's already done and for sale.

There's a way around this. Have the first "map turnover" be Sothis.

This is my full review of Osirion, Land of the Pharaohs as the reviews only seem to allow 2000 characters and I have much more than that to say about it!

The Pathfinder Companion, Osirion, Land of the Pharaohs, attempts to describe the region of Osirion on the continent of Garund in 32 pages. Sadly, it is an incomplete work and my first disappointment from Paizo.

This companion product outlines many cities, towns and adventuring locations which are otherwise just places on a map. Described are the cities of An, Eto, Ipeq, Shiman-Sekh, Tumen, Torta, and Wati as well as The Footprints of Rovagug, The Glazen Sheet, The Hungry Sepulcher, The Labyrinth of Shiman-Sekh, Lamashtu's Flower, The Lost Fortress of Mekshir, the Monastery of Tar Kuata, the Pyramid of An-Hepsu XI, The River Sphinx, The Ruins of Tumen, The Seven Stelae, the Slave Trenches of Hakotep, The Sphinx Head, Valley of the Pyramids; all the above are given major headings in the work. This is an impressive list until it is compared to the locations that are not described but available on the map. Junira River, Lamasara, Ruins of Akhenaten, Ruins of el-Amara, Klarwa Fountain, Alamein Peninsula, Cliffs of Kusha-ta-Pahk, Stepped Tower of Djedefar, Coast of Graves, Hor-Aha, Xefon-Ra, Parched Dunes, Tar Kuata, Ruins of Kho, Kho-Rarme Pass, Pillars of the Sun, Mount Osiki, Pyramid of Doom, The Swells of Gozreh, Garden of Shepeska, Burning Cape, Underdunes, Mount Na-Ken, Temple of An-Alak, The Scorpion Coast, Salt Hills, The Temples of Pharaoh Ahn, Sand Haven, and Brazen Peaks are either ignored entirely or mentioned only in reference to another location. If it is important enough to put on the map then it is important enough to describe it in the text. A single short paragraph would have been sufficient to fill the need. It also bewilders the mind why there is so much artwork using so much valuable real estate that could have been used for text when the product is incomplete. The top 50% of page 2 is an illustration of pyramids; almost half of page 4 is a drawing of some guy with a clay tablet; and half of page 7 is a Lamashtu orgy scene. There are other illustrations on pages 8, 11, 13, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30. All of them use between 25% to 50% of the available page space. The inside of the back cover is a reprint of the front cover art. This is not to say that all art should be removed, but to point out that the overuse of art does not make a complete product. If Paizo had reduced the amount of art by 50% they could have completely described all locations on the map.

On pages 16-21 is the description of the city of Sothis. I can't say anything good about it as Paizo didn't see fit to include a map of the city! There is an interesting location called The Black Dome. This is supposed to be a titanic dead scarab beetle that has somehow been turned into the largest building in the city. A map, or at least illustration, would have been appropriate for this location, but it is not supplied. Also described are Azghaad's Spire, the Council of Sun and Sky, The Crimson Canal, the Malhitu Bazaar, the Necropolis of the Faithful, The Palace of the Forthbringer, and the Temple of the Eternal Sun. All of these are interesting locations but are somewhat useless without a map of the city.

There is a prestige class called Living Monolith. I'm not a fan of prestige classes as a general rule so I am biased; however, this one has an uncanny resemblance to The Thing from the Fantastic Four!

Following along behind the Living Monolith is a section on the cults of Osirion. There are three cults (demi-gods?), Wdjet, Apep and Khepri, but there are scant details on the faiths with the exception of a short description. Three magic items are listed with one being associated with each cult.

Also included are new Osirion necromantic spells, several new feats, and a full description of Khemet III, the Ruby Prince. All of these seem to be fine additions to the Osirion Companion; however, the feats are less so than the spells and the Ruby Prince, as five out of eight of them seem to be generic in nature.

The final page is the standard Paizo “Coming Next!” previews of future products.
In the end, I think Osirion, Land of Pharaohs was rushed to the printer to meet a deadline. Eight or nine pages, give or take a few, were used on art that should have been used on text to describe the locations that were missed. Sothis is not mapped. This omission alone cost the product three stars. The Black Dome is not mapped or illustrated, leaving the reader to try to imagine how that could work. The prestige class consumed another two pages and may or may not be useful. Cosmetically, It's The Thing! The cults, spells, feats, and description of Khemet III are all useful.

There are some items missing from the product. Where's the timeline of Osirion? What exactly are Khamsin storms? What about other climate and weather? What about Osirion customs and dress? What about relationships between the classes of citizens (slave to pharaoh)?

Additionally, the entire product is printed on glossy paper. It would have been preferable to reserve glossy for the covers and use non-glossy paper for the interior pages. Paizo could have thereby increased the page count and included additional information in the product.

My suggestion is to save your money! In this economy this is ten dollars that should be better spent on some really good beer.

The book looks very cool except...there's not map of Sothis. :(

BUMP! There's a repeat of the cover art on the back cover but no map of Sothis and yet the major areas of the city were covered. You added The Thing from the Fantastic Four but no city map? Epic Fail IMO! :(

--Ray.

My town has a major university but it's known for this terrible event.

--Ray.

I was looking at the BSG RPG QSG here...

http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/m/margaretWeisProductions/battlestarGalact ica/v5748btpy7s04

... but it doesn't look like it's a PDF download. Am I reading this correctly? Does Paizo have this in PDF and I just missed it?

--Ray.

Mammoth Lords, Realm of the - Quest for Fire, Clan of the Cave Bear, 10,000 Years BC, Land That Time Forgot etc.

The last paragraph in the PCG for the Mammoth Lords on page 40 reminds me of the Mystara's Hollow World campaign setting for classic DnD.

--Ray.

Hey cool! She's dead! One less bigot to deal with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Pulling

--Ray.

Yup.... I've seen it too. Repersonalizing the pdf doesn't change it. Hey Paizo! Get a Linux LiveCD of your favorite distro and reboot! This way you guys can tinker with your pdfs and check them in Linux.

...and maybe you'll the dark side! :)

--Ray.

Psionics are not part of the current plans, but if demand is high enough, I might see what I can do about a future, stand-alone release. Time will tell.

This would be the way to do it. I've never been a psi fan but a separate release would be something I could easily ignore while the psi fans could just snap them up.

--Ray.

Genetic Engineering is a deadly sin. HA!

IIRC, Most corn is GE. Be careful what you eat! :)

In that case... what do we assume? Do we assume that the PCs enter when the monsters are awake or asleep? When the complex is on full alert, half alert, or no alert? That the monsters themselves can observe the PCs or not?

The answer is author's choice. If the GM needs to change it, they will.

Including monsters pretty much guarantees that a significant portion of GMs will need to "redo" the read-aloud text or back up and correct himself in game, whereas boxed text that simply presents the basics of the room guarantees that this won't happen. GMs should be familiar with an encounter before they run it anyway, and as I mention above... if the encounter doesn't have a creature entry (or if the encounter title doesn't have an EL listed), adding in monsters after you describe the initial scene is simple enough.

The opposite is also true for the other 50% of GMs. Remember the GM isn't always looking at the module. They are interacting with the players. It's really easy to forget details in that situation. I'm always making the gaming experience the best that it can be. Anything that will make it easier is a good thing so including the monsters in the flavor text helps me considerably.

Of course... not including monsters in read-aloud text mostly boils down to my personal preference. I hate when an adventure includes monsters in the text for the various reasons I've listed here. THAT SAID: If enough of Pathfinder's readers prefer monsters in their read-aloud text, I'll consider changing the policy. It'll have to be a LOT of people requesting that, though... :-)

Glad to hear you're open to putting them back. :)

--Ray.

But if I'm going to have to butcher the flavour text anyway why make it so that I'm forced to hum and haw while skipping over sentences because they don't apply. Sure its the responsibility of the DM to deal with changes to the flavour text but no one is doing the DM any favours by including flavour text that has a good chance of being simply inaccurate.

Simple answer here. Read then speak. No butchering required. :) It's better to skip over text that no longer applies (read: the party set off all of the alarms in the dungeon) then to miss important information. Granted, it's much harder to miss monsters these days with those insane stat blocks. :)

Better to twig the DM on to the fact that this room probably have a monster and let the DM deal with the monster flavour text 'cause their just to variable. Chances are the wall drape is there no matter what else the players are doing but the Ogre Guards are going to be acting differently if their spied on by a hiding Ninja and have no clue that there are invaders or if the party has stopped in front of the door and just spent three rounds loudly casting buff spells. In most cases there is no hope that the flavour text can handle the vagaries of what the players are doing because different groups approach this in a very different way.

You're correct! Paizo should remove all references to wall drapes and send in the Pirates! :) Yes, monsters are the variables in the mix but it's good to set the variables to begin the encounter. If the GM wants to change it then so be it.

I also generally agree with the rather odd design of flavour text where the background is dealt with and then the main attractions are put in the forefront. My feeling is this is because, ultimately, we are involved in a story telling game and one gets better results, usually, if one sets the scene before giving away the climax.

Very true. I often have two sets of flavor text when I write a module. One for the "open door, see monster."; and another for the aftermath.

--Ray.

2: Do not include monsters in read-aloud text, unless the monster is 99% of the time in the same position, and even then, only include the monster if it seems to be part of the room (such as a mimic or a golem hiding as a statue).

I don't agree. Here's why... The flavor text is a snippet of time in that room as if the party opened the door without alerting the monsters, so yes, the monster should be included in it. It is the responsibility of all GMs to adjust the flavor text as per the situation in the game as it occurs. It's simply too easy to forget a monster that isn't listed in the flavor text.

--Ray.

Evil like the cover of "Smell the Glove."

I never thought I'd see a Spinal Tap reference on this board! I suspect I won't again... Unless someone's drow go to 11. :)

--Ray.

Hello Paizo!

Do you have a pdf of Karen Wynn Fonstad's, The Atlas of the Dragonlance World? I have two originals but the maps go so close to the binding that I would have to destroy one of them to scan it. :( Purchasing a pdf is high on my list right now.

--Ray.

Prolly not. I had the same posting and mine arrived yesterday.
--Ray.

That would be like having a thread that doesn't mention D&D 4.0 or Nazis.

That reminds me.... Talk like a pirate day is coming up again!

Thank you Chris West!

I was never very excited about the MMs until you wrapped them up into a world all their own. The best part is that I'm only missing one of the original MMs!

Now the only problem is finding time to write it up!

--Ray.

Boobzilla Runelord of Lust ;)

The artist would probably have fun with that one. :)

Hey all! I've decided to not renew my subscription for only two issues and have been watching my FLGS for issue #149 to arrive but they still have #148 sitting on the shelf. I'm thinking that I'm just looking too early in my area. Has anyone else seen #149 on the shelf yet?

--Ray.

There are two tricks you can do if you're working with an image rather than a pdf.

Copy the image into the first cell of OOo Calc or M$ Excel and hit print. The map will be printed in sections with margins that can then be cut and taped together.

Alternately, you can open the image in The Gimp (There's a product called Photosomething that can do this too) and click on Image --> Canvas Size. There you can select the new size of the image and what part of the image to be set to that size. Breaking the "chain" icon in the Canvas Size window will allow you to set the height and width to anything you like. Keep saving the images as new files as you select new areas and be sure to overlap the images slightly so it will be easier to tape together.

--Ray.

Anyone remember the Red Steel setting? AIR, it was pretty hard to be smokestone (gun powder) in that setting and the guns stopped working after you left the Savage Coast. Legacies and the Red Curse really sucked (my face is melting!) but that's way off-topic.

James, Mike,

How will firearms be implemented? Just pick up dirt and put in the chamber....pull trigger? Buy lots cartridges? Something different? Harder? I'm not against firearms in the setting but implementation would have to be very carefully done.

--Ray.

What!? No Bargle the Infamous from Issue #150! Not even that two-headed chimp can compare to Bargle! He's the BBG that everyone loves to hate! :)

--Ray.

Another question James. What rulebooks have been used with Tyralandi?
--Ray.

Thanks James! Very much appreciated! :)
--Ray.

James,

Now that Dungeon is winding down, is there any chance that we can get the stats for Tyralandi Scrimm at different levels? I think it would be really cool to run her. She became my favorite iconic because of that mace!

<Everyone quit laughing right NOW!> :)

--Ray.

Actually, a new cosmology should be kept simple. Any DM that has to take their campaign to the outer planes isn't working hard enough. In other words, if you have to change the setting of the adventure, I think the DM has failed.

That said, there is a need for some kind of cosmology. I would suggest just two addition "planes" aside from the OGL planes. I think there should be an Abyss equivalent where the demons and devils live and "a place where the gods/dieties/immortals live" equivalent. Anything beyond that is unnecessary. Two good examples are the Mystara and Dragonlance cosmologies. They both are very simple and very effective.

Vague is better in this case.

--Ray.

For there is strength in numbers. Unite against WotC!

What a bad idea.

I am hoping that we see a DM's screen and monster tokens but if push comes to shove, I could live without them. The one thing I want to see is an AP that doesn't leave the Prime Material plane. I have never seen a reason for doing that. Any chances?

--Ray.

How about "Paizo, the god of games and fantasy?" :)
--Ray.

Brodie Pomper wrote:

Also, is Pathfinder going to use that miserable "delve format?" It's illegible.

Pathfinder will not use the delve format. It will use a format more similar to (but not exactly the same as) Dungeon did.

Thank the Immortals (or gods or deities)! Miserable is right! That format wastes paper and is DMing for the stupid. A description, a map and an imagination is all that a DM and players need (perhaps a good battlemat as well). On a lark I bought "Scourge of the Howling Horde" which contains a village and a 12 room dungeon. They used 32 pages for that!!!??? I could have done it in ten!

--Ray.