derrick mcmullin's page

The oracle may try to pass it off as giving the souls of her ancestors a chance to help their living relatives.
"That's not a zombie that's Uncle Olaf making up for missing my fifth birthday"
It all gets down to how the player handles it. If she confronts the others they may figure out how to work around the issue. My favorite was a necromancer that would only raise people that had given permission in advance

I have a problem with your basic assumption Power=Reward, or at least a desired life. Lets take a look at one of the most recently featured demon lords Kostchtchie. He came to power after a humiliating defeat by Baba Yaga and to this day hates what he has become. He is full of hate and loathing and even taking into consideration his power I wouldn't want his life.
The life that most of the powerful evil creatures have is not one that most people would seek after. They suffer as much or more then the people that happen to cross their path. The very nature of evil makes life not worth living, despite what it may look like from the outside.
I had in my life the chance to converse on this very subject with a man who had been one of the biggest drug dealers in SLC years after he had turned his life around and had become a family man and a devout Christian. He told me that at the height of his power he wished that he had never gone down that path. He couldn't trust anyone and even basic things that we all take for granted where denied him. He once was stabbed in the heart and was unable to seek healthcare because it had happened during a drug deal. Even years later he was dealing with issues that occurred because of his life choices.
I hope this helps

I think you've been told before that there's quite the difference between sexuality (or race, or religion, for the matter) and handedness, Matthew.

For starters, the latter can't get you jailed/killed anywhere in the world, and I don't think that writing with your left hand ever was a punishable offense in the US, while IIRC your country abolished anti-"sodomy" laws only recently.

Actually you should do some study on the treatment of left handed people. They were discriminated against as late as the early to mid 1900's. Certain people thought the left hand was the devils hand (due to some misinterpretation, in my view, of scripture). I have relatives that were beat out of being left handed. I'm not saying that this has the same standing as some of the topics be discussed but he does have a point

Hmmm... unless Imisse dsomething, the OP has been MIA for a while... so is this a troll thread?

Nope it got people talking about important things even if the original post was from a knee jerk reaction

Wow thanks for the suggestions. I'm really looking forward to using the troop template for this campaign especially in upper level play

Geez, take a nap and the whole conversation takes off. I just want to say that Sean just put forth one of the nicest and most well thought responses that I have ever read

The last campaign that I created/ran had all the PCs cast as regulars of the Pharoh's army. They chafed at following orders form higher ranked officers and objected (strenuously) to being treated as if they were expendable by their command structure.

Gamers are not necessarily possessed of a military mindset and do not like that a mission doesn't need to be to their liking and that the commander wasn't asking.

Thats a good point though I think I won't have that problem. One of my players is former military, and the other two had fathers who served and our well informed about how the military works. I will try to make sure they don't feel put out

Now that I look at the poster all I can say is this whole post seems to be a knee jerk reaction towards assuming everything is racist. All the poster points out is areas and has a picture and a brief description. I would never assume that I could understand the real intent of the writers from that. I can only assume the OP was looking for a fight and he found one. That being said the issue of racism in game design is a fascinating one especially with such a progressive company like Paizo

I'm willing to give Pathfinder the benefit of the doubt and assume that there's more stuff there. However, I think that we should be concerned that this poster, which is an advertisement for the game, is not putting its best face forward.

See this, language like this is problematic. It assumes racism when non exists. I get your point I truly due, but if you look at the poster and your first thought is holy heck racism I must run to the boards and make sure everyone knows that they are playing a racist game with out reading anymore then that you are placing way too much emphasis on racism and maybe need to let things sit for a while before you post.

I'm in the process of creating a world and a campaign that has a military bent. I casting the PC's as irregulars that in times of peace raid dungeons to help their home countries coffers and in times of war act like a commando unit.
I was wondering if anyone has done something similar and if so what advice can you give me. I'm especially looking for pot holes to avoid but cool ideas are also welcome.

He's not going to be hurt and I certainly hope he doesn't get verbally abused. The Opening Post might be critical and fighty, but there's no reason this can't be a reasonable thread.
-Skeld

That's what I would hope and I bear the man no ill will. I really think that accusations of racism push peoples type without thinking buttons. I would love to see a post from one the designers about the thought process that went into designing those areas.

Dude I think this is one of those step away from the conversation now before you get hurt posts. I feel the huge group of designers and fans alike getting ready to verbally abuse you for this post.
That being said I think you either are reading to much in or just not reading enough.
There are pirates because playing a pirate campain is fun, that's why the skull and shackles AP exists.
There are talking apes because the designers read Tarzan and other books like it and thought "Hey I would like to play here" not because all black people are apes
The Gnoll area I can't help you with but probably stems from the same hey this would be a fun place to play not hey lets make fun of black people.
This kind of post hurts anti-racism movements because these people are obviously trying, i.e. black "female" paladin and you start calling them racist. People start not trying when you do that.

Does Core rulebook only leave out Archtypes because the flowing monk would be awesome. It lets you move people around the board compensating for bad placement on your new players part and lets you make people open for the ranger, skipping that pesky +4 for cover bonus.

I think that with everything Paizo does they will take their time to make sure it works properly and innovative at the same time. The problem with 3.5 Psionics at least from what I heard, my group never saw one over third level, is that the classes were either way Op or useless.
There is also the problem with fitting into the world. If you try to shove them into a world where they haven't existed before then you have problems. I remember a Dragon article that suggested that psionics be decedents of a race that came from the same plane as mindflayers. This sort of works but only if you've planned a place or a time for it like Paizo has with Vudra

Well, in some ways, I guess that's a bit appropos. This module is intended to both frustrate and demonstrate the potency of what winter-themed fey (and their allies) can do to their adversaries. This is basically a microcosm of how Baba Yaga's minions were able to overrun the eastern lands of the Linnorm Kings.

There is a reason that winter fey have become kill on sight at our table. I personally have been loving the adventure so far.

What's more, many GMs won't want to bother. They have more important things to do than remember to make Fly checks every round :P

I think the problem is that there is no mention to even check on these rules. Like JoeOutside said nobody at our table remember that these rules existed, including my walking rules encyclopedia. I don't think it would have taken that much more space to put in a line that say check heavy snow rules

I see your point but there are no rules saying that. I play with an autistic player that goes nuts when rules are pulled out of nowhere. As it is written Hommelstaub is free to fly around and throw his rocks with its numbing cold as much as he wants

Okay. First, do note this: the weather will affect the monsters as much, if not more, than the players. What does this mean? Constant fly checks for any winged critter (ice-touched sprites and a certain winter oracle). Next, they will have to roll perception checks to try and find the party. This is a white-out condition, and only ONE of them has the ability to see through snow. Just as the PCs are blinded, so are the gate guardians. ...

As for Hommelstaub... don't forget to factor in the wind. The wind will reduce his ranged effectiveness. Eventually he's forced either to attack in hand-to-hand combat... or flee. And when the wind and snow forces him to land because he fails a Fly check? He's lame. He can't move in deep snow.

Where do you get this information. I don't see where any of this is mentioned in the book. It says that the wind affects sight but nothing else. Maybe I'm just blind but I'm not seeing it

I have looked for this in other forums but I couldn't find it though my search was no where near extensive, but having just played the fight at the winter portal and then looked it over afterwards I have come to the conclusion that Neil was doing his best killer GM imitation here.
The real killer is the combination of limited visibility and monsters with unlimited ranged attacks. We were able to put down the troll fairly easily and one of the fairies met his death due to meeting a wildly thrown alchemist bomb, but hommelstaub should kill the party every time. If he hadn't got bored a left we would have all died. He doesn't have to even be near the party to throw his rocks and even at one point of damage he can do it indefinitely and then with reduce person at will all he has to do is fly around with the PC's having no way to see him nickle and diming them until the last party member dies surrounded by the shrunken corpses of his party. The PC's inability to move makes it impossible to close to melee and they cant see him to hit him the range.
Please someone tell me I missed something because Neil Spicer is in grave danger if he comes within 100 miles of my group at the moment.

Geo Fix wrote:

DeciusNero wrote:

They could always be the ones who were trying to get away from the north...only to have it follow them. :P

Yah. Just like when some of us Canadians get hit by a cold snap in Florida.

Perhaps the adventure starts during the characters' spring break?

"Dude, my dad totally owns a time share in Cassomir. Spring break, woo!"

Better then a time share to Cheliax I guess