manda's page

*glowing inside - praise is great*

Okay, the first Australian Pathfinder Society meeting is booked in for the 4th of July at 10am for 3 hours - now I just have to wait and see if it's approved...

So, what exactly would people like to see happen at the meeting?

Would you enjoy organised play testing 'rounds'? (kind of like speed dating but with RPG)

We could set up tables so that there are 5 people to a table - one DM, four players - a lot of pre-generated characters and scenarios that would test certain sections of the game mechanics. You would have maybe 1/2 an hour to play and test this section of the mechanic, 10 minutes to write notes on what you thought, and then swap to another table. It would give everyone a chance to chat, mingle and play. We could play 3 mini sessions and then have an hour to chat and talk about the changes etc.

Sorry, flying by the seat of my pants right now, so let me know if this sounds terrible...

Thanks for the replies so far.

If Paizo can't come perhaps this might work;

I was thinking of less of an organised game (in the style of what was to come for Gen Con Indy), but more of just being able to host an organised meeting of Australian players interested in the new rules sets and Pathfinder in general. In corporate speak 'a networking event'.

We could have a bit of a forum on the rules so far, get together as a group (or as several/lots of small groups) to playtest sections and have a laugh about the stupid things that our players (or ourselves) have done in the modules so far. If a DM wants, he can even host a game with the new rules, it won't be official but it would be building the society over in downunder.

Awesome - that's at least a couple of us.

I was starting to think that I wouldn't be making the trip to GenConOz - it's not as bad as Adelaide, but rural NSW is still a pain - but Paizo coming or having a Pathfinder Event/Meeting would make the convention worth it.

"Come to GenCon Paizo, we've got Drop Bears!"

This may be a little soon, but I was wondering whether Paizo will have a Pathfinder Society presence at GenConOz in July this year?

If not - would it be alright if I try and organise a gathering at the event? I so very excited about these changes that have been made in the last few days, and I know there must be more Aussies excited then just myself and my gaming group. I'd love to get a meet up happening so that we can play test the new rule sets.

Hi,

This may seem like a weird question, but when I first signed up to Pathfinders neither my husband or I were on the boards much. Now that I have had the subscription for a while, and received that shiny tag of 'Chartered Pathfinder Subscriber', my husband is on the boards quite a bit and I'm not (message boards weird me out a bit). I was wondering whether I could swap the subscription over to his name completely and he could then get the shiny tag beside his name on the boards?

Regards
Manda

Apropos of nothing (but the subject line), the last person I heard utter "I am a leaf in the wind" got a Reaver stake through his chest. RIP Wash.

Just sayin'.

Wash Lives. No seriously, I've seen the tshirt that proves it...

: )

manda wrote:

2. If WoTC started banning companies they would be making less money

While acknowleding that it is distince possibility, I do not currently believe the basics of the conspiracy that goes, "4E is just a stepping stone for a paid licence only or a non-licencable 5E." I will admit, the pieces do fit. Getting rid of much of the back compatability, delaying the new licence/rules, Having a full year where previous edition product will be minimum but the best option for some companies. If they were all deliberate (and I don't believe that every single piece of it is deliberate), then you have a recipe for less 3rd party support. Only the dedicated or those with licencing capital will be producing product for 4E this time next year.

Even if WoTC doesn't go with paid licensing, it's still gaining possible customers through them buying D&D related products. For example a dedicated Vampire Requiem player may pick up at his game store a copy of Shackled City and think it was an awesome game product, and to play it he decides to by the Core set to go with it. Paizo wins, WoTC wins. If they start to become all draconian about who can and can't publish, they'll be losing out on all those customers - and I think that both Hasbro and WoTC are much smarter in their business practices then that.

When I feel the need to see that Game Designers are listening to me - I just come to Paizo now : )

I know I don't post here often, but I've become a tad concerned about the hyped attitude that is revolving around 4E. Maybe I don't have a right to comment, considering that all I do is troll through the boards looking for what I need for my games. The Paizo boards have always, to me, seemed to be a fairly sane and polite boards. This opinion is being hung, drawn and quartered over the last few weeks as the panic over 4E worsens.

Just to explain where I'm coming from; I'm a player of D&D (not a noob, started in 2nd edition, but that doesn't make me an expert either), I don't really like 4E (but then I said that about 3E as well) and I work as a manager in a business.

I think there are a couple of things that people are forgetting;

1. WoTC would be happy to see both anti and pro posting about their product
I know this sounds like a strange comment, as they have been delete posts. But this 'war' (for lack of a better word) is helping to spread news about their product in a way it's never been done before and very successfully it seems. Think about it this way - would there be so much talk about Brittany Spears if she wasn't such a public mess. Heck, she hadn't even made an album in years, but her public behaviour even though it was talked about negatively, has allowed her to stay in the spot light. Even while people are spouting off how passionately they are against 4E - they're talking about it which is more then we can say about a fair chunk of other games. And todays 'I wouldn't touch that with a 20ft pole people' are tomorrows 'maybe I should try it out just to prove I'm right! people' . I know I did that.

2. If WoTC started banning companies they would be making less money
This statement pretty much explains itself. Not only would there be less companies paying to have the right to publish D&D stuff (and most likely be paying them in wads of cash), there would be less people being recruited into D&D. Plus, if they started throwing around banning companies - I think Paizo could be trusted enough to be straight up about it.

3. D&D is being treated like a product by a large company
D&D is no longer owned by smallish businesses that will treat it like a favourite pet. It is owned by a huge corporation that would treat any of it's other products like this - secrecy etc included. You wouldn't see them giving out information to the dedicated Potatoes Head collectors either. In their opinion they are protecting their product - not deliberately annoying the D&D community.

I think that is about it. Feel free to comment, but please keep in mind that I am in this post neither pro or anti 4E, just pointing out that if people really want to harm 4E - don't talk about it. The more this 'war' is propagated the better their sales will be.

Okay, here's the next lot of conversion that's been completed...

Green lantern corridor ended up spilling out 2 swarms of acid beetles instead of 1 and a mad slasher. That doesn't sound difficult at first but with a room full of burly guys with guns it didn't go brilliantly.

Rooms 15 - 18 didn't change. Unfortunately I didn't catch the group with the Guardian, though I really put my mind to it at the time. Actually, I suppose the major change is that the party finds "treasure" and the Hoffman Institute takes it away from them. All magic treasure has been removed at this point. That's not to say they won't have a significant bonus at the end.

Room 19, I lost the crazy water elemental and inserted 4 d20 Past style nazi ghouls. That was awesome : )

Room 8 stayed the same (god I love that area of the game)

Room 23 had another 2 ghouls down the bottom. The kid has changed a bit. His story has changed to he was spying on the nazis when they caught him and basically used him as a trap meat shield. He still wants to be buried by his family. And he developed a really bad Irish accent.

Part Three; Tomb stories lost the owlbear and was replaced by feral boars. The house is much further out of town and the family died of potato famine. Of course I looked this up later and cursed my complete lack of Irish history knowledge and encourage others to use some other tragedy. The arm was still found but the tattoo is of some gang that frequents the town occasionally to terrorise the citizens, they've been sent from the city to help Barnabas (Balabar)on behalf of their boss.

This is awesome. Right up the alley of how I have been wanting to convert the adventure paths. Do you have any conversion notes that you are using?

Salcor

Hi Salcor,

I haven't been using any conversion notes, just working it out before we play the adventures (or sometimes during the game itself : ) )

So far, major changes are starting the group at 3rd level instead of first due to the lack of healers available. The archaeology guys have turned into Nazis. I've also added a lot of extra challenges that suit a modern campaign - like settling into the town and getting the peoples trust, dealing with the agency and the amusing side adventure of the grenades in the jeep.

I started the adventure in Ireland - and I don't mean this offensively to any Irish players out there - but I don't really suggest this to any one else. After I had announced the location to the players, who loved the idea, I studied up on Ireland and found that most of the wild life is relatively inoffensive, fluffy and/or cute. And I didn't really want to put in dire bunny rabbits and have Monty Python jokes for the rest of the session. So far, critters have been replaced with really big mutant spiders, nazi ghouls/zombies and I've left a couple of the original critters in just to keep the adventure in the vein of weird Urban Arcana.

Luke will probably be commenting on most of the game - I'm a little shy :) - but I'm happy to put up any conversion notes as I go along.