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Trying to purchase the Mummy's Mask ACG Collection on the sale. Here's what I get for the 7 individual items: Subtotal (7 items) $89.93
Here's the collection, no other details changed: Subtotal (1 item) $59.99
Is this an error?
I haven't ran a Pathfinder-rules game in about four years or so, but we're picking it back up for a summer campaign. I'm familiar with the setting because I have been using it off and on - just under different rules. So, Pathfinders, what sorts of things have I probably forgotten? Any sort of primer you could point me to? Common mistakes, misconceptions, that sort of thing? Thanks, Bob
As a preface, let me say that this is not a call to action. No action is required or even requested. This is just an analysis with an eye towards problems that I see in getting the modules to ‘fit’ together and tell a single, cohesive story. Burnt Offerings takes a bit of a beating here, and that’s really unfortunate because it is one of the best modules I have ever had the pleasure of running. Also I’d point out that my approach will lead to a more conceited, less ‘realistic’ approach to telling this story. I see an opportunity to re-use and reinforce themes from the very beginning of the story, which should require less work overall and should certainly confuse the players less. Remember this thing takes the better part of a year to run, so anything to be done to tighten it up without making it boring is probably a good thing to try and do. The goal of RotRL, as I see it, is roughly as follows:
The situation, in a nutshell is:
My first proposal is that all the major elements support one of these two concepts. Not the tangents, mind you, those are fine and add depth, but the major elements. Let’s examine some problem points, and touch briefly on fixing them.
I have an idea. But in researching it first, it may be dead before it starts. Specifically I am thinking of modules for BBox GMs. Referencing flip mats and the like. I checked the Compatibility page and found that it doesn't list the Beginner Box. (Thst and it expects full compatibility with the core, which isn't quite true.) What's the status? Will I be required to go vanilla with it (the basic version of the world's best selling derivative of the world's blah blah blah)?
Assuming that my player's characters can be any level required (because we're using different rules) would it be a viable option to chain together multiple APs? For example, maybe... Rise of the Runelords > Curse of the Crimson Throne > Second Darkness > Shattered Star Maybe mix Jade Regent in there somewhere? Is it doable? Worthwhile?
I have recently finished reading RotRL AE, and had a great time doing it. Maybe, hopefully it will be as much fun to run as it was to read. I loved learning about Varisia, Thassilon, and the like. Would you be able to recommend a new product to buy/read that can add to this experience? I prefer pdf, and already have the Inner Sea book. I have read a number of different play diaries for RotRL, and that's pretty much just making me more impatient for our once-weekly play sessions. So... any ideas?
Chrome for Android can't sign in to secure.paizo.com - for whatever reason it always just times out for me. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, latest update for Chrome for Android. I can view the site flawlessly, but cannot sign in. I can sign in using Dolphin web browser from the same device on the same data connection. Just thought I'd report it in case you didn't want to wait for Chrome to get around to fixing it. :)
Just finished my read-through of the AE version and I'm ready to run this fine product for my group (once they're ready, that is.) But I've ran into yet another 'bumpy' area that I'm considering modifying before we get too deep into things. I'm trying to find a working relationship between Karzoug and Lamashtu. This is what got me thinking about it:
The problem here is that Lamashtu is a HUGE part of Nualia's background and is the patron for all the Lamia's except Ceoptra. It kind of makes sense that Karzoug intended for them to convert, and I suppose it is plausible that he never found a good time to orchestrate it, but why tolerate it now. In Nualia's contingency section it suggests that she might pledge herself to Karzoug, and to me this makes no sense. She's Wrath, first and foremost, not Greed. Plus Karzoug has no love for Lamashtu. And he was at war with the Wrath faction to the point of nearly destroying it. There are even hints that he succeeded in doing so just before the cataclysm. Anyway, how does this shore up? Any ideas?
Chapter 5 talks about having the Scribbler mine information from the PCs, potentially entering into a tit-for-tat exchange with the them. My question - how does he communicate with a typical party? He lacks the common language, having only Abyssal and Thassalonian. He scribbles in Thassalonian, per the text, which even suggests bring Quink along so he can read it. And this makes sense as none of the hold overs from the last age speak common. One assumes that it wasn't developed yet, or that they used Thassalonian as their own common. I see nothing in his stat block that gives him tongues, but assume he could prepare it as a 4th level cleric spell. If that's the case, which should I remove from his prepared list to replace it? Honestly, though, I don't know that a guy who's only learned two languages in thousands of years of life really cares about communication... The same problem, though, also should have already presented itself in the library in the last chapter. How many of those tomes were written in a language other than Thassalonian? I may give the party the opportunity to pick up the language from study there, but as the AP makes several assumptions about them not being able to read it, this could cause problems. For THAT matter, Karzoug doesn't speak common either. Did he think to cast tongues before taking Mokmurian's body in chapter 4? And if he didn't pre-cast it, could he have cast it through the link once he realized that nobody understood a word he was saying? Really, since he was musing to himself almost exclusively, mocking the party, this too should have been spoken in Thassolonian, I would think. I'm just a little surprised that after all the thousands of times this has been played to be 'finding' something like this. So I guess maybe I'm overlooking something obvious. Thoughts?
So I'm trying to see what was forshadowed by the 'Larz workaholic' joke, and I can't find it. Did I miss something? Meanwhile, I'm considering replacing and/or dovetailing this with a joke about how she's surprised to see Benny Harker out of bed so early considering how late he had the mill running last night. Thoughts?
What follows is long, analytical, and may represent a bit of a red/blue pill issue for the reader. You were warned. :) I'm working hard to absorb the entire content of the AP and the world around it into my brain, and am trying to make it 'real'. This way I'll be ready for when it goes off the rails, able to tailor it to the PCs, etc. Right up front, I have a few problems. The biggest of which is Aldern's role in chapter one vs chapter two. Maybe I misunderstood something, but I'm going to try and lay it out the way I see it: A) Aldern is in hoc with the Seven in a bad way, but is trying to renovate his family manor anyway. The manor itself is an irrepairable, haunted wreck, that is openly hostile to people within it, and potentially fatal. Yes I realize that the floor was closed up, but there are all sorts of possible problems with suicides and so forth even before Aldern kills his wife. I can't understand how anyone slept there, let alone lived there, let alone did any carpentry. But this isn't a HUGE problem, as I doubt the PC's will notice. B) Aldern 'accidentally' kills his wife and a carpenter. He locks the house and flees to Magnimar to get help with cleaning it up. C) He eventually heads back to the house, stopping at the festival along the way. D) During the attack, he cowers while goblins kill his dog. Problem #1 - What dog? The plot lays this out like a beloved family pet. And if this were the case, I'd think at a minimum there'd be an empty dog house outside of Foxglove Manor with the dog's name on it. So maybe not a huge thing to try and fix. But I can't see the dog dealing well with the supernatural aspects of the place. Though I suppose I could underscore this from the kennel, or something. It does, though, seem strange that the dog springs into existance only long enough to leverage this aspect of the goblins' hatred. Problem #2 - Why is he cowering? Set aside the fact that this guy is a member of a murderous cult, corresponding with a Lamia witch. If you can set that aside. I'm not sure I can, but I'm trying. No, the thing that's bothering me is that he's level seven, with three of those being Rogue. I don't understand why he'd be afraid of a CR 1-2 encounter, particularly when he can use his dog for flanking. Hold that thought for a second... E) He becomes obsessed with one of the PCs. Starts stealing their stuff, etc, etc. F) He invites them to go boar hunting with him and his three manservants. Problem #3 - What manservants? This is admittedly a bit nitpicky, but how does a broke dude with no place to live cart around manservants? Presumably he brought them from Magnimar, but what was he planning to do with them when he went to Foxglove Manor? Surely he didn't want them poking around? And how would he explain the caged, dead, diseased rats to them? It's just weird... Not to mention he also buys everyone horses, etc. All while being 'nearly bankrupt'. He is also paying for these people to all room at the Rusty Dragon. Unless the servants all get to sleep in the stables or something. I'd be pretty angry if I thought my lord's manor was only a short horse-ride and I had to sleep in the stables. Particularly if he was running out of money and maybe I wasn't all that well paid or something. I'd at least ask if I could ride on to the manor and return before dawn. Particularly if there were three of us. How much help could one guy need in the night? Problem #4 - Boar hunting? See Problem #2 above. This guy cowers in fear at the thought of encountering a CR 1/3 goblin, but actively seeks out and kills CR2 boars? I think I can fix 3 and 4 by replacing the manservents with a hired hunting guide. Maybe Aldern has never actually been boar hunting, but his best friend used to love to do it, and it was the only thing he could think of to be close to his obsession. But I do need to decide whether or not Aldern is a weakling in his human state. If he isn't, then he must be pretending in 'D' above. But for that to be prudent, he'd have to have had his eye on the PCs prior to the attack. And that begs a bit of roleplaying, which might make the PCs too suspicious. I think, in my particular case, I can ignore his stats entirely in chapter one, make him an ordinary human who ought to be afraid of goblins and wild boars, etc. I can play all of his power swing into his transformation. I think this makes the most sense, outside of the specific game mechanics being used to transform him. That, plus a dog house at the manor and a dog bed in Magnimar, and finally a hunting guide for the boar hunt. I have some other issues, too, but I'll do another post or something for those. Right now my immediate need is deciding how to run Aldern during the festival...
The Savage Worlds books had a bit of advice that I thought I'd try when I run through the RotRL AP: Imagine that your adventure is a Hollywood movie, and you can cast anyone you want to play each NPC. Assign an actor or persona to each one, and rely on that throughout the sessions. Right away, I'd cast Mako (from e.g. Conan) as Ameiko's father. Or maybe Ken Watanabe (Saiko from Inception), but his personality is a bit more bland. Angela Landsbury as the halfling woman from Ameiko's bar. That's all I have so far. I'm only up to the Glassworks in my read through... What do you guys think? Obviously I need strong roles for each of the major players in the story and in Sandpoint. Like the sherrif, mayor, etc.
(My copy arrives tonight, so apologies if this is covered in the material or elsewhere, but...) Does anyone have any good advice for plot hooks that I can sew into my current module that would lead in to Burnt Offerings? Right now my party is in the Caves of Chaos (B2 - Keep on the Borderlands) and probably will be for at least the next few weeks. This gives me (us) plenty of time to think up some good hooks that I can use to segue gently into the events of RotRL. The party is an elf wizard, an elf fighter, and a human cleric. One that comes to mind already is a fraternal offering from the cleric's order to the temple. But I'd rather stay away from 'backstory' or 'you have no choice' leads. I prefer found clues, NPCs that were hostages, or perhaps adventurers from Sandpoint who fell in the Caves. 'The orcs have us trapped in this room. They're breaking down the door! If you find this journal, please deliver it to my love Amiko', or something. Like I said, I haven't read it, but I plan to remedy that shortly!
I'm planning to segue my group into an AP after we finish what we have going on now, and I'm considering RoTRL. Mostly it seems like a classic and I want the opportunity to run through it (or at least read through, anyway.) The big question I have is, assuming I go with the pdf, should I grab the classic versions or the anniversary edition? I understand some content was left out of the anniversary edition, and that some of it is just gone, period. That concerns me a bit, like I have already 'missed it'. On the other hand I've also read that the individual sections flow together better with the revisions. Also, I highly doubt we'll use Pathfinder or any other 3e system to adjudicate the game. Probably Savage Worlds. That means that 'system updates' don't really have much value. I'm after the setting info, relative strength, etc. I have stat converters for PF/3.5-to-SW that I can use, if I don't just wing it. Finally I'm a tiny bit cost conscious. $42 seems like a lot for a single pdf. Yes, typing that made me feel old. But still, I'd like to see the most value for my dollar, if that makes sense. Based on the above, and/or your own preference, which should I choose?
In the shortest assessment, I probably don't have time to run a decent game, but I keep coming back around to doing so anyway. Compounding my problem, I'm running a game over maptool, which requires obscene amounts or prep work. Compounding THAT problem, I've picked both a non-popular ruleset AND a very unfriendly setting. In this context, how would you recommend I go about adding resources, if only in the short term, to get this game running smoothly? I have already reached out via Facebook, but most of my gamer friends are already in my group, and ideally I'd rather the players not be able to sort the things I did myself from what I hired out. Any ideas? Aside from the obvious: give it up, switch systems/settings, play face-to-face instead, etc - if you please.
Beginner Box Fan-Module Guidelines: Got any? If not, let's see if we can come up with some. I understand they're supposed to last an hour each? Or is that just the PFS event stuff? Four characters? (Though I've got some ideas for one-on-one modules that I'm definitely going to apply.) Listed monsters, items, etc only, I'd assume. They'll need mini's otherwise. And it probably wouldn't hurt to base it against a flip mat or two. If they don't have that mat, they could always take a marker to the blank side of the one in the box. Avoid all the usual genre-traps. Lots of other threads on those... Anything else we can think of?
I was listening to an optimization podcast the other day and it advocated that everyone take the Travel domain. I heard similar advice in a cast about dipping. I'm wondering, do GMs typically require some sort of roleplaying 'nod' to the domains a particular cleric selects? E.g., Travel:
I think it stands to reason that such a cleric would never, for example, sit on a throne to rule a kingdom. Serve as a messenger for a king, oh yes, certainly. But anything that requires, as a job duty, restricted travel would be off limits. Right? I just wonder if people don't jump right to the base speed increase without realizing that they're creating a person who WORSHIPS the concept of travel. Thoughts?
I was just in the mustache thread and I had a question, so I thought I'd ask it in a fresh thread rather than derailing that one. Question: In the 'old versions' of this game system, you used to get a quick statistics lesson about how 10 was average and above and below that was increasingly rare towards the end of that stat. Is this no longer the case?
With a 5 Cha, as I understand it, you're in the bottom 5% of all characters ever made, everywhere. You'd have less charm than the village idiot. Considerably less, per pg 308 in the GMG, that slobbering monstrosity has got a 10! In fact, with a 5, you'd probably have to Take 10 just to say hello without reducing someone's attitude about you. How does your PARTY stand you, let alone stop the local village from burning you at the stake? By the way, a Cha of 7 makes you less socially able than 84% of the people you meet. That's heroic? Even taking this up to an 8 makes that 75%. As an aside, I'd wonder what the bell curve looks like for Pathfinder characters. Back to the question - does the curve still exist and is it supposed to impact how we depict our game worlds? As a bonus question, aside from impacting skill checks, does Charisma actually do anything at the typical table these days?
So I'm listening to a certain Pathfinder play podcast that's using the real-world 1901 calendar as an analog for their game time. One of the players asked it there was a full moon, and it occurred to me that it would be possible to check. Wunderground has weather histories going back varying distances into the past. Mexico City, for example, only goes back to 73, but some of it goes to the 40's. Rain, temperature, moon phases, the whole bit. I think I'll try this in my game. I'll pick a date in history, provide some weather-condition analogs to my campaign world, and let the actual weather decide the weather conditions in-game. Should be fun. (Provided of course that I never reveal what date I'm using for my guide. That could make the players clairvoyant all of a sudden...)
The APG is next on my to-buy list, but in looking at the PRD, I'm confused. The Cav's alignment requirement is 'any'. How so? 'Sworn to follow a code' absolutely IS Lawful behavior, is it not? Is it ever addressed anywhere how this works? Or is this simply a meta-game thing of 'we hate alignment restrictions'?
Posted for your approval, Bob’s Guide to Making Alignment Work... Preface
Twin Axes, centered on Neutral
Anyone willing to share any of your online gems for running a Pathfinder game? Blogs, open content sites, community discussion places, images/maps - really anything. Just so long as it is Pathfinder-pluggable content. I'm not looking for a lot of generic content that causes me extra work... What have you got gamers?
Fellow GM's, I am interested in your input. I've got some fairly-new players who made a series of mistakes and paid for it. Now I'm wondering if I should expound on it. On the one hand I feel like I'm rubbing it in, but on the other it could add a lot of depth to the game world, character-wise. The set-up: The players are my younger brothers and my son. The PC who died was an unarmored bard who sought to go toe-to-toe with a Wight. Death was due to level drain. I would have 'pulled punches' a bit more except I specifically pointed out that they were depleted, and went so far as to suggest ways they could camp in the dungeon, etc. They decided to press on, and it went poorly. Since I want the monsters to be dangerous, and not merely canon fodder, I went ahead and pushed the button, killing the PC. The others recovered the body and fled. When they arrived at the church they balked at the price of resurrection, and the bard's player decided to roll up a new PC. They never mentioned that the bard had been slain by a Wight. They're probably not aware that Wight's can spawn undead. The decision: Do I have the church notice the condition and destroy the undead spawn properly? Or do I save 'dead-bard' for use as a menace in a later adventure? I don't wish to be insensitive to the bard's player. I really think the death was avoidable, lesson learned, and all that. But the world should probably live and breathe on its own, should it not? What would you guys do?
I was listening to the PaizoCon recordings from Know Direction today, and was reminded of a bit of GM-gold from my past. They were talking about the role of the note-taker in the improv session, and I recalled my successful experiment of giving each player a ten cent notebook along with their character sheet. They were to record anything they wanted within, but hopefully to include notes about the adventure and their characters. These had to be turned in to me and passed back out each game. It worked marvelously. And was dirt cheap. Just thought I'd share.
I just wanted to say that I'm loving my Asus Transformer with Aldiko to display Pathfinder pdf's. Works great! It's a teeny bit slow on page turns, but that's a platform thing for pdf, and Aldiko isn't super friendly when flipping from book to book. (Use bookmarks!) But I ran a game last Saturday for new players that was paper-free, and it rocked. Highly recommend it, if you can swing it.
I've recently put together a method to develop 1" and 2" mini-circle-token thingies for my face-to-face gaming needs, and I thought I'd share. I got the idea from here, but was too cheap to buy those materials and tools. Plus, I'm impatient, so I didn't want to order anything online. Everything below is available at my local Wal-Mart and HobbyLobby. Hopefully your home town has similar. Anyway, here goes... You will need: A) A printer that can handle thick paper. Preferably a color ink jet. B) Texture-backed card stock - Wal-Mart, ~$6/50 sheets C) White construction paper - HobbyLobby, ~$2/50 sheets OR Wal-Mart, ~$2/8 sheets (in a multi-color pack, wherein you give the colors to your kid and keep just the white sheets, etc) D) Paper-cutter and/or scissors. (Must trim 1/2" from construction paper so it goes through the ink jet. Also helps to slice rows of tokens into ribbons for easy punching.) - Wal-Mart, ~$11 for the sliding-razor blades model cutter. E) Spray-on adhesive. I used Elmer's Craft Glue and it works great. - Wal-Mart, ~$6/can. F) Used pizza box or similar disposable surface. G) 1" inch and 2" inch scrap-booking 'Craft Lever' punches. Like so. - HobbyLobby, ~$9/$11 H) TokenTool. This will require Java as well, but you probably have that already. J) OpenOffice or similar to lay-out the images for printing. I) Stock images. Google images works well. Also wallpapers on this site, from the pfsrd site, or from within your pdfs. You decide... Steps: 1) Locate the desired image. Save it in an 'images' folder. 2) Open TokenTool. Drag and drop the image from the images folder onto the software. Use the scroll to resize the image and drag whatever representation you wish into the circle on the left. The right-hand side will preview your token. Select whichever border-ring suits you best, and save the file in a 'tokens' folder. 3) Repeat until you've covered all the imaginable tokens you might wish. You can get a LOT of them on a single page, depending on their size, as you'll see in a moment. 4) Open OpenOffice Writer (or similar). Go into the Page preferences and set the size to 12" long. Also set the margins to the minimum your printer will support. 5) Drag a token from your 'tokens' folder onto the new document. Position it in the corner. Drag all subsequent tokens adjacent to the first one. OO handles this rather well. Where necessary, resize the image to be exactly either 1"x1" or 2"x2". You can also copy+paste image squares to easily make rows of the same creature. 6) Save this file. You never know. 7) Take a sheet of the construction paper and trim off one half inch from either side. Make sure you get a straight, even cut. If you slip up, trim it again. Better too small than it causing a jam. 8) Load that sheet, all by itself, into your printer. 9) Print the document from above. Go nudge the paper into the pickup rollers on the printer, if need-be. 10) Take the printed sheet and lay it face-down on your pizza box. Take your spray glue and give it a generous coating. Don't be afraid to over-spray. That's what the box is for... 11) Take a sheet of the card stock, hold the textured side TOWARDS YOURSELF, and lay it down against the now-sticky, face-down construction paper. Count to five and peel the two off the pizza box carefully. 12) Let the glue set. 30 minutes is plenty. 13) Trim the margins off of your sheet, so you can get your punch in close to the circles. Optionally, use your cutter to slice your rows of tokens into strips. If you do, expect some square edges on your circles. If you don't have a pair of scissors handy to get all the resulting triangles out of your way while cutting. I recommend the strips. Your call, though. 14) Remove the plastic shield/catch from the bottom of your punch. They're not intended to make circles. They're intended to make holes. Plus you'll need to see what you're doing. 15) Position the punch upside down and slide it over the circle you intend to cut. You should see the finished product in the bottom of the punch before you squeeze it. This is your last chance to make them look nice, so be careful. 16) Punch, punch, punch your way to glory. Set them aside and let them harden/dry fully. NOTES: i) Watch the thickness of your materials. That 1" punch won't take anything so thick as cardboard and punch it cleanly. Remember this when shopping for cardstock. Thin is fine. The textured back is key, as it will help keep them from slipping around on the game surface. ii) DO NOT CLEAR COAT THEM. I tried a lot, a lot, a lot of different ways to seal them and wasn't happy with any of the results. Unless you're some kind of spray-sealer expert, just skip it. Besides, you can always print more, right? Thanks guys, and I hope you enjoy your tokens as much as I'm grooving on mine.
If you're a maptool user, using PCGen, then you might be interested in the following: http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=17718 Customized for Pathfinder, as of their most recent PCGen ruleset for it, anyway. If you've got any interest, I'd be happy to answer questions about it and the like.
I'm starting up an online RPG group via Maptool again, and this time through we've selected Pathfinder as the system. Well, actually we decided to move from Starwars to D&D because the art and other assets were easier to find (reducing my own prep time - I'm a busy guy). But 3/3.5e is genuinely rather rusty at this point. Everyone said that Pathfinder was like 3.75e and kept with the spirit of D&D while piling on more 'awesome'. Since 4e looks like crap, here's hoping I've cast my lot in the right product... Having preambled all that, short of reading the entire guide cover to cover, which I will do eventually - what do I need to know? I'd take posts, but really just any links you've got would be spiffy as well. I'm absolutely certain someone has asked this question before me, despite google returning disappointing results... So: D&D 3/3.5e to Pathfinder - what do I need to read about first? |
