flykiller's page

I am interested as an Android character. Currently thinking about Galvanic Saboteur ranger. Will try to post the full character within 24 hours.

Edited as I think I found the answer to my question

Interested. Since we seem to be focusing on prestige classes in this thread, I'll be making an arcane archer.

I think Patreon is a very niche thing; I would prefer a small charge for the app (not more than 5 EUR).

I already don't remember if Wayfinder did this or not, but the ability to persistently store draft posts separately for each thread would be nice. As well as setting a default alias for each campaign.

I am interested, will post a character later today. Currently cooking up a brawler (mutagenic mauler, steelbreaker) - think Popeye and his spinach :)
Storywise he is going to be some sort of a wrestler who's gone too far in pursuit of victory.

I would be very happy about a Wayfinder fix/replacement for Android. If the app would also notify me of new posts in my campaigns, it would be just perfect.

As I am now playing in Ammon Knight's game, I've also opened my own game here. Everyone who posted here is welcome to apply.

I suppose, if we count it as a CR1 rare outsider that'd be a DC 16 to identify which I can beat on take 10

" Did it ever tell me what what is like?"

"Its home. Whatever layer of the Abyss it comes from. Does it ever get homesick while here on Golarion? Does it miss you while back there?"

I am intensely reading up on the Occultist, hope to post him up soon!

stat roll 1:

I am thinking about an Occultist, but still deciding on the specifics. Want to make some sort of exploration or support-focused character.

Fair enough, I see now that there is a class of people who GM more than they play - I didn't quite expect this, I currently have no active games (just finished one PFS game) and thought that people in this thread would be in the same boat.

I do have the urge to run Iron Gods for a gestalt party, where all players would be androids who have suddenly remembered one of their past lives, but I am hesitant to start a full AP before I have completed GM'ing at least one PbP until the end (I had to give up running APs before).

I would also be happy to run Wake of the Watcher or Rasputin must Die as stand-alone adventures; though I would have to think about the hook (especially for the latter).

But if we're sticking to my original proposal (even though I've only registered interest from Ammon Knignt so far), then I would suggest to choose among the RPGSS winner modules. I still suggest 3 gestalt characters for easier logistics and faster turns, but 4 normal characters should also be fine.

If there are not enough recruitment threads, it's not because GMs are afraid to not get enough players. Maybe it could be true for homebrew campaigns but definitely not the case for the published material - there is an abundance of applicants for any recruitment.
GM'ing a campaign quite simply takes a lot more effort than playing in one. It starts already at the point of drafting the recruitment post, and selecting applicants is also a nightmare. Creatively adapting to player actions as a GM is also much harder than reacting to the set pieces as a player.
At the same time, as a player it can be very frustrating to create fresh characters with original backgrounds for each new recruitment, only to face rejection over and over.

Here's an idea I've been tossing about in my head lately: what if instead of running open recruitments on contest basis, people who want to play several games could also commit to running one game? Then every GM would also be a player in several games. In theory I think it could drive up mutual motivation and commitment, because everyone would know that if they drop out of one game, the rest of their games would be affected too. Additionally, if RL prevails and they do drop out, only a narrow circle of people is affected. There are of course downsides to this approach, but from my experience the risk of PbP abandonment is very high and having a perfect start does very little to mitigate it.

To give an example and stand up for my own idea: I am willing to GM a 32-page PF module for people who would run other 32-page PF modules for me (except Master of the Fallen Fortress, Carrion Hill, Plunder & Peril as I've run those for my RL group). I'll discuss preferences and details tomorrow if at least 3 people support the idea.

(I've heard it's a tad cheesy, anyone care to comment on that?)

CC might come off as somewhat cheesy overall because of the strong thematic differences between books, but each book is pretty solid in and of itself IMO, it's just the transitions can be somewhat jarring.

Right, I would actually want to play an android in IG or a dhampir in CC. In MM... don't know, maybe a Suli? Still, those races are supposed to be extremely rare in the world, and a whole party of different exotics looks tacky IMO.

Interested in all offerings, in the order of IG, MM and CC.
Rules preference is mostly similar to Tiaburn:

Core races only (ok with aasimar, tiefling, dhampir but that's it)
no 3pp (exception - Legendary Games AP plug-ins)
no gestalt (except if the party has just 3 players)
PB 20 or 4d6 drop lowest with fallback to 20 for bad rolls.
LE is OK, but CN less so.
As much as possible unchained stuff, unchained classes mandatory.
2 traits, one must be from AP player's guide.

If I'm not mistaken, magical weapons in the core game are always considered masterwork. So a +1 longsword costs 2000 + 300 + 15 gp.
How does this work in unchained with 0 capacity items? Are they still considered magical and masterwork? So a capacity 0 flaming longsword still costs 2315gp and provides both +1d6 fire damage and +1 to attack rolls; while capacity 1 flaming longsword costs 8315 gp and adds +1 to damage rolls on top of that for extra 6K gp?

I am interested; are brand-new level 1 PFS characters eligible?

I disagree with the restrictions being tight here. I could locate those maps nearly anywhere and fill them with literally anything. This round is almost terrifying in its openness, more so than the monster round for me.

I'll try to clarify what I meant:

What we have here instead is a choice from only 3 very generic and iconic locations - a dungeon, a river crossing and a city harbor. The stories these locations tell have been told a thousand times already. Contestants are also are restricted to PRD creatures, so no custom creatures or creatures from Round 3. Many of those creatures would not even fit the proposed maps or CR range at all. It means that the contestants have the task to craft a Superstar encounter - original, engaging, open-ended etc. - using only basic building blocks, and the main delivery vehicle for the 'wow-factor' would be the encounter text itself. I think it's deceptively simple and in fact quite devious on Owen's part :)

Rules for Round 4

Wow. This is super cool, I can't wait to see what the Top 8 comes up with. Going from an almost complete openness of the previous rounds to such tight restrictions of Round 4 is so challenging! Top 4 are all going to be awesome designers.

Are multiple sign-ups permitted? I'm most interested in 'Library of the Lion', but would happily join another scenario if it gathers a table quicker.

If it's not too late yet, I would like to apply as Nicholas von Dorn.

The round's over and I'm (predictably) out, but I'll take this one last shot at reflecting upon my work and the critique I've got.

First, almost all of it was very useful for me. This was literally the first ever serious map I've made - I either use published maps or quickly draw some ugly rough sketches for my RL games. So I feel that by reading the feedback and comparing my entry to the winning ones I have learnt A LOT.

Second, despite that, this will remain the most dreadful round to me - simply because I absolutely can't draw, either by hand or in software. So yes, I actually did this map in Excel - and shortly before submission I realized it was a big mistake, as the lines which looked thick enough at 100% zoom inexplicably became thinner at 275% which was needed to match the image size. So the map was not intended to be one large space, it actually had clear zoning, doors and windows, but these features were barely noticeable in the final render. I will stand by my coloring though, I still find the lighter shades easier to comprehend than some of the more intensely shaded or grayscale maps.

And that limitation was driving my creative process all along, starting from the choice of the location - I needed something where square lines would not be horribly out of place. I took a risk choosing an established location, I shouldn't have done it but I did not feel free in my creativity because I was constantly in fear of thinking up more than I'd be able to execute. So for the next season, I intend to get some practice in hand-drawing maps to actually play on. And I think this should be the main learning point from my failure to any hopeful contestant who reads this - start practicing well in advance, and play on your own maps to get a sense of what 'clicks'.

In the meantime, I'll be lurking on Epson website waiting for an 'inkjet supahstah' contest ;)

Congratulations to our best half! :) Amazing work, all of you. You've set the bar very high for the next year's contestants!
As for me, back to the drawing board... and see you next season!
Also I'm happy to give feedback for Round 3 drafts if anyone's interested.

Thank you Neil and Liz for taking the time to review my entry and provide detailed feedback. Can I please ask to fix the name of the entry on the voting page? It currently says Tovin instead of Torvin.

We don't need no BBCode,
We don't need no dash control,
No word counter in the contest,
Hey, Judges! Leave the Top alone!

All in all it's just another map on the wall.

;)

Thanks Kalervo!
:-SS

Thanks to the judges for the time taken to review my item and the quality insight provided!

I did consider using different swarm types in development. There were several factors against it:
1) word count!
2) different swarms have different special attacks which would have to be replaced by confusion.
3) it would mean that consuming different-level source spells would achieve the same effect.

In an item not constrained by the word count I would probably use this approach anyway - something like a new swarm type at even spell level, and an advanced template at odd spell level. But as it is, I should have run the math on this again to make sure that consuming a level 9 spell yields a result similar to a CR12-13 monster. Currently it's probably around CR 7-8. But I was wary of empowering the lower level spells too much.

How does advancement happen in the subsequent rounds? Is it still solely by public vote? Do the judges act as tie-breakers? Or the judges are the ones deciding and the votes are the tie-breakers?
Also, will I be notified if my entry gets DQ'ed?

Submitted my map as well. My heart skipped a beat when the text submission form did not open from MS Edge. Thankfully, Chrome worked just fine.
Now, off to bed as it's 2am here. Need to sleep off all the anxiety. Good luck everyone!

Introduction time while I'm taking a break from mapping before the final review:

As Mikko has correctly guessed, I come from Latvia, but I myself am an ethnic Russian. I'm 31, married and have two daredevil boys. I work as a client support manager in a company producing financial software. I am also an undercover nerd.

I've first learned about DnD when I was about 13 or so, but I have never had a chance to actually play. My first foray happened on the PbP boards here about 4 years ago. I was quite bored on the job I had at the time so decided to enter a game. Soon I was utterly addicted, playing in about ten games at once and running two. This was all fun and games until RL intervened - a job change and a baby arrival in a very short timeframe forced me to abandon gaming again.

About a year later, another guy we hired turned out to be into DnD. I introduced him to PF, we have bought some books and started an office gaming group. This was my first chance to play IRL, but no-one wanted to run the game, so I never played any more, only GM'ed. We have got our characters to level 7 and brought in 4 other players since then.

Lately, one player has left our company and another went on maternity leave (which is 1.5 years here), so I am currently in a dry spell once more. We have a PFS lodge here in Riga but they play on Saturdays which is a family day for me, so I'm just biding my time for now.

Just finished creating the map... in Excel. :blush:
I have a terrible feeling about this...

I was a bit confused by this one.

The item keeps referring to the "caster". Do you have to be a caster to use this? Or do you have to cast a spell of some sort?

"Any text written with it seems to be subtly writhing when not under close inspection"

So is the text subtly-writhing or not? If it does writhe, don't say it "seems to be". If it doesn't writhe, then don't include it in the description.

Also 42,000gp and possibly the cost of the scroll used to essentially summon a CR1 (or slightly higher depending on spell-level) creature seems pretty useless to me.

Anyhow, I am obviously in the minority as this was well received. So good luck with maps and beyond!

Hey Grumpus,

All your points are valid. The "caster" is a relict of its past as a spellbook. I couldn't come up with a better word for the quill, now I think I should have maybe used "bearer" instead.

The writhing part is just flavor, really. When you read the text, it's not writhing. But when it's in the peripheral vision, it seems to be. It was not intended to carry any in-game meaning beside maybe a small hook to unsettle the player who picked it up for the first time.

The pricing seems high to me as well! But as far as I can tell, it matches the formula. Remember that slotless items cost double. From the comments I have seen in the past threads, overpriced item is considered a lesser offense than underpriced, so I decided to not do any adjustments to the formula result.

This was my favorite melee weapon and probably in top 3 in the contest overall. I'm so happy I never encountered it paired with mine :)
I already said everything I loved about it in the Praise thread - it just ticks all the right boxes to me, I want to see more of your work in published products!

Labvakar, Mikko! And Kiitos!
Thanks everyone for your comments! I am absolutely thrilled to have impressed enough people to make it this far, but also absolutely dreading the map round. Graphics is so much more difficult than text to me.

I would also like to thank the kind and brilliant people in the workshop thread for their invaluable feedback and criticism. Special kudos to GM_Solspiral for mentioning the quill to me - my first draft was a spellbook, but I've learnt that it had several drawbacks I did not consider. As I was reading the Strange Aeons AP announcement thread and looking through the Lovecraftian critters in the PRD for inspiration, the quill image from his feedback suddenly clicked into place and I saw how it could actually work much better with the tone I was trying to set.

To all the future contestants - if you want to seriously improve your chances, do not design in isolation, show your item to at least 3-5 people and listen to their feedback very carefully. Don't just blindly follow the criticism and suggestions - think hard about how you could go beyond them. However creative your core idea is and however perfect your template skills are, you are bound to overlook some perspective angle or some small detail during the creative crunch. For example, after all the edits I made and all the feedback I got, my item still shows 1 lbs. instead of 1 lb. Because the original spellbook weighed 3 lbs. :)

Ia, ia! The ducks are right! Quachtulhu fhtagn!

I first check the item text, without even looking at the technical details. I look forward to seeing items which execute a concept in a way that's original but not disruptive to the overall high fantasy feel. This is where I also check the writing: is it clear, evocative, structured and concise? Are any wide-known mistakes made, such as using words improperly? Is the item imagery compelling? It shouldn't be gross or boring or meta-gamey or clearly borrowed from pop-culture tropes. I am generally removed from pop culture, so if even I recognize e.g. a lightsaber, it's an instant downvote.

At this point, if I actively dislike the description of both items, I will just vote for the shorter one.

Next, I check the mechanics. I am far from a rules lawyer, but I tend to avoid dodgy things such as using a skill check in place of a saving throw, or effects without clearly defined limits, or no-save effects. I also usually downvote random effect items.

Only in case where both items rank similarly on those two scores, I begin examining the format.

Finally, if I am still not sure which one I like more, I usually vote for the shorter one.

Seeing these two items side-by-side made me realize that combining them leads to an unexpected effect... that must instantly shift anyone's alignment all the way to Evil, literally akin to killing babies. And there is no way to prevent it.

Just noticed something in an item I helped to workshop - "its true power is..." etc. Surely I would have picked this up?! Double-checked the PM's - this wasn't in the draft! Why would you hinder yourself like this, an otherwise excellent item? :(

Those who save against irrestible dance are affected by hideous laughter instead.

Went to sleep 5 hours ago with my item not in the post-cull list. Woke up to find it's back in the race again! I am happy and somewhat tired of the anxiety at the same time.

Every time you think you're upvoting your own item, the system actually turns it into a downvote in the back end.

I like this item, but that one pun is too much to bear.

These are not the sword powers you're looking for.

Out of all the animal abilities an adventurer could be inspired by, you chose this? But oh well, at least you're not worshipped by a fictional bard like your opponent.

Mentioning +X bonuses in an in-gameworld text really ruins the immersion...

"Those who have witnessed the carnage left by the wielders of the Mighty Sword of Goblin Cleaving, rumor in hushed whispers over a pint of ale that its abilities could include +1 damage to goblins!"

Entirely too much procrastination finally paid off. Time to take a break until the next cull :)

However cool this item might be for the wearer, I just can't fathom why its creators would be willing to invent/create it.

Wow. Epic name, kickass visuals, simple but clever theme-driven mechanics. Must be the best melee weapon I've seen so far. I wish this ends up in the Top.