mgcady's page

Hello. Could you please cancel my PFS and SFS subscriptions now that I'm getting scenarios through my VL status?

Hi, I know this is an old thread... but what happens if the economy check is a nat 1? Technically that's an automatic failure, however a kingdom with a consumption of 20 and an economy of 60 should be able to cover even a disastrously incompetent set of tax collectors for one month if you ignore the failure (based on the divide by 3 rule).

Does that mean that on average, a kingdom will not generate income (besides from specific buildings) on average once every two years, and can face some really bad luck with the die rolls despite their careful planning to make sure they have a strong and stable economy?

Okay, I might be kicking the hornet's nest again... but I have a question as this scenario applies to conventions.

If you do all five quests across multiple sessions at a convention (or perhaps two local game days) what do you as the player record the final tier at? It's entirely possibly to do two to three quests with a table that's APL 1 or 2 and finish the remainder with a table is APL 3 or higher (even if your character hasn't changed their level), and visa versa. Do you

I figure this is less of a concern for a GM, who's choosing the tier based on the character for their GM credit. (I could be wrong...)

I know this has been inactive for a while, but there is a case for #2:

That undead creature over there has an awfully high Will save for whatever reason (template, boosts from something/someone else)… and even half damage is damage… especially if the party is having a hard time with killing the creature and has another means for healing available.

PFS might not be right for you, ChaosTicket… because you seem to not enjoy it (based on your complaints on the constraints.

RPG rules exist so that in our [insert genre here] game of cops & robbers doesn't degrade into a never ending cycle of "bang bang, you're dead… no I'm not." (And from some of the rules lawyer conversations I've seen over 20 years… that's not a guarantee.)

Organized play rules, whether it's PFS or whatever Wizards has now for D&D, or Fellowship of the White Star, Demon Hunter, The Camarilla (or whatever the new version of the V:TM LARP is), etc, allow more people to play across larger player pools because the additional rules keep us all on the same page.

It means that both players and GMs have those constraints.

As to your list above-

1) Reward from trying: if you don't complete a scenario, you do get rewards based on what you did do. It's in the Roleplaying Guild Guide.

2) Level capping exists because honestly, the story world and Pathfinder Society within that world isn't set up to deal with an influx of characters that will be stronger than the Decemvirate, the semi-divine beings who live on it, and eventually the gods themselves. Just as there aren't thousands of insanely wealthy trillionaires in this reality.

That being said… there are a number of scenarios and modules for post retirement play.

3) I hate it when I feel railroaded by a scenario too. I also hate it when I'm railroaded by my everyday life because of things like physics, biology, and economics.

I also know, play with, and run for, a group who likes to steal the tracks, melt them down, and build whatever the best tool is at the time to destroy the scenario. It's a challenge, especially as the GM, to make sure that that group still has a great time… but it's not impossible. Some GMs are better at it than others… just like some actors are better at improv than others, but that doesn't mean that a GM who isn't as good at that is a bad GM… they can still provide a good experience if you're willing to have one.

One of the most important things is if everyone at the table, real or virtual, is having fun: this includes the GM and all of the players.

My take:

I'd love to run Strange Aeons. It would also require the right table of players in the right mindset to do it, but oohhhh… shiny chaotic mind-bending insanity…

Ironfang Invasion: see my above comment to Farrindor. I would need a different group of players to still have a game that resembled the AP by the time they got to the end (I'm not sure that I won't have to completely re-write the last two books of Kingmaker and the second session is tomorrow).

Ruins of Azlant: ooohhh sign me up.

Starfinder: would have to have the right players willing to cross over. I wouldn't try running or playing it until it and the new setting have been out for a bit.

Harkening back to the original topic for a moment...

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My crew is one who, as a PFS module, completely dismantled the entire premise of 'City of Golden Death' from the beginning, and made our GM cry into her dice pool the entire time. Then 'deigned' to move forward without the initial premise to goad us, and stole all the things thrown at us to make us more awesome.) (This was an extreme example of our play, mind, but not nearly the only one.)

Hey, those were tears of joy and laughter (especially in comparison to the other time I ran it.)

Now, what you've done to jump the rails at level 1 in your first session of Kingmaker…

You are right about Ironfang Invasion… with you added to the team of hooligans that did massive amounts of nasty things in The Red Hand of Doom {a D&D 3.5 product that seems fairly similar} it would take some mythic and epic level things happening to still have threats available by the time 12-13 rolls around.

Congratulation Campaign Mommy!

*happy HQ member dance*

Congrats everyone!

Queue epic send off at GenCon?

Thank you for all your insanely hard work. The next person is going to have a good base to start from and huge boots to try to fill.

Okay, I have Occult Mysteries… where's the maps? (Maybe it's because I'm only looking at the lite version on my phone, but I found where the chart is, but not any constellation maps).

Okay, so I'm trying to do some research on astronomy and the constellations for my Desnan cleric…

And it seems like there's two systems of constellations on top of each other in the Inner Sea. People of the Stars has one set listed with a map of where each constellation is, but is there somewhere the map of the constellation set used in astrology is shown (and mixed in with the PoS constellation set)?

Having marshaled last year & this year… this year was a lot smoother.

The shirts (made me look like death warmed over) did a great job of distinguishing the HQ staff from the GM staff.

The different time slots for HQ and plays slots worked in that the HQ staff wasn't switching at the same time as the GMs, which also helped make things easier for us.

Paths We Choose mustering: I know we (marshals) were not told ahead of time about the mustering requirements (something to know for the next time a scenario like this happens). I knew there was something going on because my housemate had prepped it. Then when I asked a couple of GMs what was the best plan (and got a couple of different answers), I tried to communicate that to the other marshals, but this was only moment before the players came in.

I know some GMs didn't know that earlier in the weekend.

Jessica Price wrote:

My suggestion that we take the train back instead and spend the next several days hanging out in the dining car, playing the games we bought at Gen Con and solving the inevitable murder mystery was not met with much approval. :(

I think we all liked the idea in theory (or the road trip in a giant van with an online map and a donation link to bid for us to stop at local gamestores and play games along the way), but the length of the trip was just going to be too long.

Hey, I know folks who took a train to PaizoCon…

… With the way the checkouts were always flooded, perhaps it might be worth considering extra checkout stations?

They added an extra station Saturday morning. I'm not sure what hoops they had to go through to set it up (if they had to purchase one, power & internet setup, etc).

While I'm grateful for all the players who came and made it a great experience, I'm irked by the number of empty seats I saw on "sold out" events. I understand that different people have different reasons for not making it to there scheduled events, but when I see over a dozen GMs get bumped because of players not showing up to the sold out pre-sale only special, something isn't right. those seats/tickets could have gone to players who actually are invested in PFS characters that wanted to be a part of the event.

As I was leaving the Sagamore Friday afternoon a few people told me that they had been able to pick up tickets that day for that night's special at the GenCon booth, presumably from tickets that people had swapped or cancelled through the GenCon ticketing system. Heck, if I had any of my characters with me I would have picked one up. So while it was sold out, it makes sense to keep checking to see if tickets have been made available (work/travel plans change, people get sick…).

I know that when I was up at the HQ table, I encouraged everyone who expressed a concern about not being able to play in a special to make sure they had generic tickets and stuck around through the entire muster process.

I wasn't there for Legacy, but I know for Paths and Bonekeep 3 we were able to seat most (90+% if not 100%) of the generics and still had extra GMs. Although I don't see that having those loose GMs as a bad thing; it would have sucked more if we had to turn players away. It also allowed us to move some GMs to the Quests tables when they exploded on Saturday.

Kadasbrass Loreweaver wrote:

But Mike, was lichdom achieved?

I don't need lichdom. I know what the Test of the Starstone is all about now ;-)

At least *your* Test of the Starstone. IIRC there's a lot of flexibility & GM discretion on that scenario.

But Mike, was lichdom achieved?

I think we need to ask Jason Bulmahn that question.

And if one was among the volunteers (GM/HQ) and ended up running a Quest multiple times, do they get to apply it to multiple characters? It seemed like at first there was a lot of confusion on reporting.

Same question as Christopher, plus:

If you have someone who plays or GMs a set of quests multiple times, do they get credit/chronicles like The Confirmation/First Steps 1?

Not quite right. The folio has to be on the table, but it doesn't have to be filled out (cite: Mike Brock, in this post).

(I usually bring an extra one, still in the shrinkwrap, to lend out to new players if I'm playing at a low-level table).

Shirts do have to be 'worn', but some leeway is expected. Nobody wants to sit next to the guy wearing his one and only eligible shirt for the fourth straight day at a convention.

I normally wear one of my GenCon volunteer shirts and lend out my folio. And since I've sold my soul to Paizo for a couple of years (and this year in HQ hunter orange) I have pleanty of shirts for now.

I also would give leeway to someone in cosplay who has a shirt with them but not on. Hasn't come up yet (unfortunately).

Not digging the new Faction symbols. Darkives in particular, all about uncovering hidden knowledge and their symbol is burning books???

…

If this hasn't been mentioned before: based on what is going *into* the Dark Archive, I think the books are burning themselves!

I think my reaction to this iconic can be summed up in six words.

Shardra is so cool. Thank you!

It's there! Thank you!

Hello,

I thought I had emailed customer service about this, but seeing no response maybe I had the email address wrong.

I had just over $100 in store credit before a purchase I made at Paizocon (Paizo Order # 3185088 for an Emerald Spire map pack, and I had checked my balance before I made the purchase), but now I have no credit remaining. I'm not sure what happened. There's no other unexpected purchases on my account against my store credit.

Also, I tried applying my $10 certificate from Paizocon to cover the scenario I was purchasing after I got home from Paizocon, and that isn't showing up as available credit either. Since I needed to prep the scenario to run at a gameday, I was able to use my credit card with no issues.

However, over a week later I still show no store credit.

Thanks in advance.

Presumably because she still have her parents in Rahadoum (with actual positions of authority) and might want to remain on good terms with them and/or not get them in trouble with the government and its agents? Seems reasonable to me at least.

Plus, in the write up, it states she doesn't want to lose access to the resources of the government and academy.

Enora looks awesome! And I love complicated casters! I will have to file her for when I have a fabric budget though… I don't have that much blue sitting around. :)

Similar for Lucrecia… I don't have that much burgundy. I might be able to start planning out the bodice though.

For Shelyn… well… I'd have to work on my own brain before I'm comfortable enough to try.

I have a little too much tummy for Shelyn's most common outfits. :)

That being said, I love the softness that she's usually depicted with. As I loose some weight, I'll look into making that glaive.

First off all, I'm not sure if I'm in the correct part of the message boards. Please let me know if there's a better place for this to go!

I am looking to do some Pathfinder/Golarion cosplay, so I'm looking for appropriate character suggestions. Something that I could do in time for Gencon would be great, but I'm also looking for longer term projects for future conventions.

-My Criteria-
* female (because I can't really pull off an androgynous look)
* plus-sized
* wearing clothing
* fair skinned (I'm ok with using stage makeup, but there is a limit)
* I'm ok with using/getting wigs

A quick survey of the sources I have hasn't come up with many options. I know that the criteria basically removes the iconics and most of the NPCs from consideration... so monsters and villains are open as options too.

Here's what I've come up with as a list so far (may include Spoilers, so watch out for lots of clicking "Show").

-Iconics-
Lirianne, if I do a full coat and extend the vest to a normal size (with a corset/shaper underneath). I think she's the only one female that could be modded into a non-skinny female without loosing the visual character identity.

-Adventure Paths-

-Pathfinder Scenarios-

The first one in the RoW list is one that I think I can manage by Gencon... just need a lot more makeup and some prop crafting time. But multiple options are good!

Note: I am just looking for suggestions for Pathfiner/Golarion cosplay, because I've not found many myself. I realize that I'm not going to find much in the cast of characters being a plus sized woman, yet I hope that I am missing scores of possibilities in sources I don't have but am willing to pick up.

If people want to have the "we need more body image diversity in the characters/game/art" conversation as a result of my request, I'll all for it... just not here.

I got my PaizoCon store credit... but then it, and the $10 certificate I redeemed, seems to have all disappeared from my account like a certain Paracountess.

Asmodeus, and ANY deity, doesn't micromanage things on that level. That's for the church to do, and so far, the church of Asmodeus finds value in there being an organization that allows worshipers of Asmodeus to work hand in hand with worshipers of Iomedae. The same goes for Iomedae.

Actual members of the God Claw are a little bit crazy, a little bit heretical, and a little bit willing to do wahtever it takes (including associate with what would normally be enemies) in order to get a greater job done.

And also, things like the Order of the God Claw exist as exceptions... they're primarily interesting BECAUSE they break expectations.

Oh goodie. I like a reason to be a little crazy…

So that same level of "not micromanaging" would explain why Sarenrae hasn't squashed her church in Quadira (yet).

Well, considering that there's some fairly ineffective pregens (or at least ineffective in inexperienced hands which is often the case for the lower level pregens), having one that's an actually good build does seem over-powered....

But beyond the serious point.... wow, that's an amazing story.

Lord Fyre wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

You can't worship Asmodeus and remain lawful good.

Isn't this the essential bind that the faith of Iomedae is suffering in Cheliax?

No... the essential bind is that the power of the nation resides firmly in the hands of an enemy religion.

But then how do we get something like the Hellknight Order of the Godclaw, which distills the aspects of five different Law domain gods? I'm assuming that Asmodeus is ok with this organization since he hasn't had his other agents wipe them out.

I (also) ask this because I'm developing a character where the current plan is a War Priest of Iomedae into Hellknight Signfifer, Order of the Godclaw, probably from Isger.

(snip...) If you want to use spell strike with a gun you need to be a Myrmidarch magus, not a card caster. Card Caster Magus can use any thrown weapon with their spell strike ability, not just cards, but the bullets of a gun are not thrown.

And that combo (Myrmidarch magus/Gunslinger) lets you put shocking grasp on your bullets. *hee hee* It's beautiful when you crit (especially if you're a Musket Master...).

I want a Pronunciation Guide. I want one for the whole of the Pathfinder RPG product line (including APs, campaign setting, fiction... everything) and for Pathfinder Society materials.

Perhaps the former can be part of the PFSRD and the latter be under the PFS Player and/or GM Resources pages.

mgcady wrote:

One final observation: what's with Seattle and the phỡ obsession? Not just Vietnamese food, but phở specifically? Not that I'm actually complaining… yum.

Pho is very nearly the perfect food.

Oh I agree. It was the best thing to have after the OMGs insanity of my flight out to Seattle. Comfort food FTW. I just didn't expect so many phở joints in one place... like two or more in the same plaza block (even if not technically in the same plaza).

DrakeRoberts wrote:

As much as I can tell, I'm going to have to purchase the book on the first day of Gen Con, and adjust my character at the con before the game? The book is released and made official (and the ACG Playtest Guide made illegal) all on the first day of Gen Con, yeah? Or did I miss something?

You got it. Among other things some of the GMs won't have gotten the book yet either, so expect to have to show the book or PDF to them for new content quite often.

On the original topic I'm not against electronic character generators (I use Hero Lab myself). It's just always better to know where everything is coming from.

Definitely have the print book or PDF quickly accessible for your first game after GenCon if you're using a ACG class.

I use Herolab to help plan out characters, but I make sure to have at least the PDFs of all the sources (Herolab provides the source citations) in case there's a discrepancy and to make my legal choices completely legal ones.

"An Ulfen Guard is required to be of at least half-Ulfen descent, with one or both parents hailing from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings."

A) a half-Elf or half-Orc has a human parent… and that parent had/has an ethnicity. So as long as you have the books to back it up for PFS rules, I think that you can choose what ethnicity that human parent was and have that be as the human side of your half-blooded character.

For example, a half-elf from Varisia would have a different ethnic makeup/physical appearance than a half-elf from Minkai.

B) if it were a home game, I would take the above to mean that a dwarf, elf (probably Forlorn), or someone of another race with family in that region, perhaps bolstered by a region trait), could also take the prestige class. However, for PFS I wouldn't build that until there's some clarification from leadership/a FAQ update.

I had an awesome time… once I got there. Stupid hurricane and three airlines and a hotel room later… needless to say I got to Seattle much later than I had planned.

I had a great time running Merchant's Wake lots of times. There were serval right turns at Absalom that made the scenario go off the tracks but it was fun.

Best quote:
"Two wrongs do not make a right; sometimes they do make a stupid." -Skelt the Executioner

I did a little painting at the Reaper Paint & Take and ended up in a conversation about how appearance and age are not linked… and as a result ended up sitting with most of the folks that were there for that conversation for the banquet.

And while getting in line for the banquet I met Boomer from the D&D PSA videos. That was awesome. I loved that series!

The trivia contest was awesome and I was on the best team ever and gods do I need to read more to be better prepared for next time.

I don't know what was going on at the bar… but hanging out in the patio section outside of where the banquet was located for far too long was an absolute blast.

Hope to see everyone at GenCon!

One final observation: what's with Seattle and the phỡ obsession? Not just Vietnamese food, but phở specifically? Not that I'm actually complaining… yum.

This is an approximate list because my binder is in another location. Most of my characters are single class characters, except for a Gunslinger/Magus and a Fighter/Shadowdancer.

Core class
Cleric- 13
Fighter- 7 (Mobile Fighter)
Ranger- 4 or 5 (Urban Ranger)
Bard- 6 (Sound Striker)

Base class
Magus- 12 [across 2 characters (9 Myrdimarch magus, 3 non-archtyped magus)
Gunslinger 1
Oracle- 4
Witch- 3 or 4

Prestige class
Shadowdancer- 4

GM Credit babies I've not played yet
War Priest
Wizard

In play:
Human- 6 [Cheliaxian 1, Varisian 1, Tien (2, but I don't really play one of the anymore… built wrong enough that I haven't done all of the retrain math that could make her useful), Taldan 1, Osiriani 1]
Half-elf- 1
Kitsune- 1

Planned:
Assimar (lantern archon blood. I have the book on my tablet elsewhere).
Human- 2 [not sure on ethnicity but it's my Thassalonian wizard 1, Jadwiga 1]
Boons to use- a few.

I also play a Jadwiga in a Reign of Winter campaign, and will build a PFS character to use those chronicles on (already in the planned section).

Retired, no one really. Yes, one of the humans is lvl 13, but I plan to play her at specials.

Basically- Asmodeus is ok with followers of any other religions within Celiax as long as they keep their heads down and recognize his supremacy. There are some gods that this works for, including Zon-Kuthon and Iomedae, and others who it doesn't work well for… say Callistria…

Also note that one of the orders of Hellknights, the Order of the Godclaw, openly took the tenants of five different Law deities as their foundation… and Asmodeus is ok with them.

Here's my take on it:

Cleric- requires a deity affiliation. No way around it.
Paladin/Inquistor- 90+% of the time has a deity affiliation, but can access divine power via other ways.
Oracle- little to no specific deity affiliation because it's a broader divine concept that is overwhelming the character rather than a specific archetype of that concept (i.e. a deity)

For example, my little kitsune oracle of life is wandering Galerion with the Pathfinder Society because she knew there was more to the mystery of life (and healing) than could be explained by the god of medicine Qi Zhong and the mother of her race, Daikitsu.

A government using the trappings and a particular spin of a religion for their own expansionist greed? That would never happen… *laughs*

Sarcasm aside… there's a combination of heretics, separatists, and powerful people paying lip service to religion for their own gains that can completely explain a convert all the infidels militaristic version of Sarenrae.

It's similar to a question I had at one of my tables of Merchant's Wake about Pharasma at PaizoCon, mainly how can Pharasma look on Osirion with any favor (including making Orisiani clerics…) when there's so many undead around.

Yay! Go team Oh Shiney!!!

Trivia winners with 21 points.

I just played an awesome game of The Merchants Wake GM'ed by Mildred Cady. The other players were great as well, lots of good RP, sorry I cant recall everyone's names.

I'm just glad you had fun!

I'm looking forward to this (and meeting folks). I'm glad that the website for AFK Tavern is back up (it was down for maintenance when I first looked).