rclifton's page

I would think people not reward bad behavior and throw more money their way…

Just noticed, everyone’s favorite pdf download store’s “Bestselling Titles” are all 2e and 3e from the company updating the ogl…
People starting to worry old material will soon disappear?

And thirty minutes after sending the request for help, i get the shipping e-mail. No need to reply, thanks all

Despite your update last Wednesday, and the updates on your Great Golem Sale Sticky, still no movement on this order from October 1st. "Next day or so" does not equal 5+ days more. Help!

Thank you for the update

Checking on an order, placed 10/2.
26 days and counting

Awesome! The calendar is appropriately marked...

Any word on this lately? Two months since the last batch would be "on the site soon". I'd love to keep throwing money towards Pathfinder ePubs but hasn't been an additional short story in a while. And collected Journals would be great!

I'm pretty excited about the new Eclipse Phase RPG that Catalyst Labs will be releasing later this summer!

Qwilion wrote:

Rite Publishing joins Free Rpg Day 3 free Rpg products are available: Mythical Monstrosities (with the taurian player race), Fantastic Maps: The Ice Temple (Cartography by Jonathan Roberts) and Items Evolved Rituals. '

Let me know what you think of our products

Steve Russell
Rite Publishing

<sigh> Yet more cool free RPG stuff I miss out on because my LGSs (both of them) didn't participate and I couldn't justify 6+ hours of drive time to get this stuff ... <double sigh>

Why sigh? The link in the quote above takes you to the DOWNLOAD SITE. No drive needed!

I have the beginnings of a conspiracy theory, but since it would blame a particular company, people would rightly call foul on me.

My first Lone Star (Fort Worth) had ZERO Paizo stuff. The girlfriend and I drove to one other (Arlington) and then to Gen X in Bedford. They still had everything as of 1pm.

Policies the same at all three places. 1 item per person, no purchase necessary.

The Lone Star in Arlington mixed in leftovers (Traveller Intro) from last year!!!

James Jacobs wrote:

Erik Mona wrote:

It's me!

GET HIM!

That was your "plan". Get him?

Nice! Bonus points for the Ghostbusters reference!

Matthew Morris wrote:

I think it's 'end of fisical year reshuffling'

Then it would be coming in early December. WotC had rounds of layoffs the end of the year after the release of 3E and 3.5, so I was expecting this two weeks after Thanksgiving. Coming now? (Two days after they get back from Gen Con!)

I would wonder if someone in Pawtucket is seriously unhappy about the state of DDI and the heads have started rolling early.
I guess we will know in another week or so when a new crop of "fresh from WotC R&D!" freelancers start appearing.

Fiscal years don't end in December. Weird accounting practices make fiscal years end sometime around September if I remember right.

It didn't happen with this pdf for me, but it has happened for multiple other 3rd party pdfs for me. Gary fixed it by suggesting not that you change the .zip to .pdf but try opening the file using the Open With command in Windows and choose your favorite .pdf reader. Apparently, at least in my case, the files aren't really zipped, but the store tags them that way in the downlaod. The OS can't see the file as what it is because it is being told it's a zip file, thus it seems corrupted.

There are some more threads out there about this. They're working on fixing it.

Just wait until the day RPG and Book publishers get it into their head to borrow a page from software publishers. How long until the first company issues a gaming license with their product that states you only have the right to "use" the book or system, that you don't actually own it? Music and movie publishers are already moving this direction...

Grrr. Normally I'd be all happy to blame Vista or sunspots or something, but your experience actually confirms that this is a bug in our code.

But yay that my suggestion worked for you!

And again, never had the problem with Paizo PDFs, just 3rd party stuff...

Taking a wild guess here, try renaming the downloaded .zip as a .pdf and see if that helps.

You nailed it! If anyone else has the same issue and can't figure out how to convince Vista to change the file type, just Open With... and point Vista to their PDF reader of choice. Thanks Gary! IT was really annoying me!

I realized I'm in the wrong place... moving this to customer service...

This is a re-post. I think I originally placed it in the wrong forum...

I'm having a weird problem with 3rd party downloads. Not with Paizo products, as I've downloaded several modules and the PFRPGs with no problem. But I just purchased 01 Blueprints: The Ruined Town and I can't get it to unzip. The last time I had this problem was when Paizo had their big pdf sale last year. Several files I downloaded then had the same issue.

The file downloads and shows up as a zip file of the proper size. WinZip says the file is corrupted. I tried downloading another zip program, PKZip, and same result.

I'm on a year old notebook, Windows Vista, everything updated and just can't figure out what's going on.

Anybody have any hints?

I'm getting a mix. Gary and Vic, for instance are showing up in this thread sans blue box around avatar, while the OP, DeadDMWalking and others DO have a box still.

Vista and Firefox 3

I'm having a weird problem with 3rd party downloads. Not with Paizo products, as I've downloaded several modules and the PFRPGs with no problem. But I just purchased 01 Blueprints: The Ruined Town and I can't get it to unzip. The last time I had this problem was when Paizo had their big pdf sale last year. Several files I downloaded then had the same issue.

The file downloads and shows up as a zip file of the proper size. WinZip says the file is corrupted. I tried downloading another zip program, PKZip, and same result.

I'm on a year old notebook, Windows Vista, everything updated and just can't figure out what's going on.

Anybody have any hints?

I'm very disappointed in this book! It's 90% filler! The first two novels in the Annals of the Chosen (Wizard Lord and The Ninth Talisman) were great, even if I was upset about the unexpected cliffhanger ending of the second book. But you can read the first 25 pages and the last 25 pages of The Summer Palace and it completes the story. No need to read the interminable middle 300 pages.

Very disappointing read from an author I normally really like.

Antioch wrote:

I dont recall reading any fantasy media where it starts out with a lowly farmboy becoming a great hero. This is not a snipe, or sarcasm: I really CANT.

Let's see...

The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
Belgariad
Star Wars

And those, of course, are literal farmers. This is to say nothing about a whole myriad of series in media where the 'typical guy' is thrust into a world bigger than him and has to grow into it.

Don't forget The Wizard Lord by Lawrence Watt-Evans. The Rover by Mel Odom. Etc, Etc, Etc

The name calling and attitude are unacceptable. And totally uncalled for.

As for the reason for the disagreements, it seems to me two things are happening, based on which side of the coin you fall on...

For 4E supporters, and this is a broad generalization, 4E is the best and if something is not right, it is generally answered with a "It's coming", "You can house-rule that", or "It makes things so much faster".

For 3.5 supporters, and this is also a broad generalization, 3.5 is the best and if something is "broken". it is generally answered with a "It's the history of the game", "There's so much more customization", and "At least it's not a MMORPG based system".

Both sides are invested in their game, and rightly so. We're all passionate about our hobby. The least amount of provocation, from either side, makes people want to leap for the ramparts and defend their choice.

Grow up people. I don't care that CWM is pro-4E and I'm not. I just like the friendly debating. I'm not going to change his mind and he's not going to change mine.

The edition wars are OVER. Everyone won.

If you like 4E, you have WotC and whatever 3PP chooses to join that cause.

If you like 3.5, you have 8 years worth of material to mine and a company here that produces the most amazing material you can imagine.

Everyone wins. Go forth and play what you want. Leave the mudslinging to the presidential race...

rclifton wrote:

Can I get a review or recommendation for The Hedge Knight? Someone handed me an issue of the comic and it looked pretty good, but I can't find a copy of the novel anywhere. Is is worth tracking down and why?

I'd like to try this one and see if I like Martin's work before I try the epic...

Your difficulty may be in part because "The Hedge Knight" is a novella, not a novel. It was published in the Silverberg-edited Legends in 1998.

As far as being worth tracking down, it was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and placed third in the novella category of the Locus Poll. See ISFDB.

Hope that helps.

Aha! It does indeed. Thanks!

Can I get a review or recommendation for The Hedge Knight? Someone handed me an issue of the comic and it looked pretty good, but I can't find a copy of the novel anywhere. Is is worth tracking down and why?

I'd like to try this one and see if I like Martin's work before I try the epic...

Like I said above - I have known the manager for 25 years. He and I talk shop all the time. He was telling me about all of the gamers that would come in to look at the books. He started cracking down with his whole "this is not a library" routine and he found that it turned into sales as folks decided they could not wait until July. Another FLGS nearby had such a great response from its customers that they put all of their 3e stuff up for sale at 40% off. I picked up Castle Greyhawk as i had missed it when my local had it. I also witnessed some of the Amazon orphan first hand during the World Wide Game Day. They came in to play and enjoyed themselves so much that they bought the books that day rather than wait for Amazon.

I know it's just anecdotal but at my local it seemed to happen very frequently over the last few weeks.

Fair enough! I was just really interested. I don't have a long term relationship with a FLGS owner unfortunately, but I do know that I frequent the local game stores and big chain retailers on a consistent basis and, like some others I'm seeing here on the boards, I'm not seeing much movement of product. After the initial launch blitz, where it FLEW off the shelves, and a follow-up minor bump on FreeRPG Day, displays seem to be constantly full everywhere. Casual inquiries are met with a "It's doing okay" and a shrug.

crosswiredmind wrote:

My local only had 6 or 7 sets preordered not including me - I forgot to actually preorder. That being said there have been a steady stream of former Amazon customers coming by to pick up the books after canceling their online orders.

I love reading your stuff CWM. We've butted heads a few times but I've always admired your civility, even if I don't always agree with your opinions. But after reading this, I have to ask two questions:

1. How can one of the biggest 4E supporters on these boards FORGET to pre-order the books he's spent months championing?!?!?!?! I've gotta know...

2. This is the more serious question, because after reading so many of your posts, I believe what I'm about to ask is what you would ask if a 3.5 supporter made a similar statement: How do you know "there have been a steady stream of former Amazon customers coming by to pick up the books after canceling their online orders"? Are you, or your FLGS employees, asking everyone who comes in "Did you cancel a pre-order on Amazon?" Or is it totally anecdotal? What qualifies as a "steady stream"?

You've called out many a poster and asked them to back up some claim they've made. I'd like to respectfully request you do the same.

No reply CWM? I think you're slipping Sir. Or you missed the request in the 400 or so other posts... :)

My local only had 6 or 7 sets preordered not including me - I forgot to actually preorder. That being said there have been a steady stream of former Amazon customers coming by to pick up the books after canceling their online orders.

I love reading your stuff CWM. We've butted heads a few times but I've always admired your civility, even if I don't always agree with your opinions. But after reading this, I have to ask two questions:

1. How can one of the biggest 4E supporters on these boards FORGET to pre-order the books he's spent months championing?!?!?!?! I've gotta know...

2. This is the more serious question, because after reading so many of your posts, I believe what I'm about to ask is what you would ask if a 3.5 supporter made a similar statement: How do you know "there have been a steady stream of former Amazon customers coming by to pick up the books after canceling their online orders"? Are you, or your FLGS employees, asking everyone who comes in "Did you cancel a pre-order on Amazon?" Or is it totally anecdotal? What qualifies as a "steady stream"?

You've called out many a poster and asked them to back up some claim they've made. I'd like to respectfully request you do the same.

Well, after the advice above, I went and bought the Burok Torn: City Under Siege PDF for $5, and while I was at it, I snatched Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers for a $5 bargain as well.

Gotta love cheap PDFs!!!

Burok Torn is one of my favorite books just for the fluff. I hope my recommendation works for you and you love it as much as I do.

I have Hollowfaust but haven't read that one yet, although the premise is exciting.

And yes, you gotta love cheap PDFs!

Drow are Elves who have feasted on the flesh of dead Gods, forever tainted, and strengthened by their deed.

Kind of a wendigo mythology in that, isn't there?

James, I hope that while the Pathfinder list includes most if not all of the list from the 1st DMG, that there's room for lots of the excellent fantasy written since then.

Three off the top of my head that I'd like if it were my personal list would be:

David Gemell
Raymond Fiest
Thieve's World series

I've always thought the Thieve's World series was a beautiful illustration of the "D&D feel".

A new personal favorite I've found is the Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch...

So, what makes you love the drow. You know, aside from the creuly, dark sexiness, white hair, and pointy ears. Where do you think they've been done right? What drow stuff in the past has pissed you off? What's your favorite drow city? Overall, what turns you on (or could turn you on) about the drow?

I love the drow. I also like alternative interpretations of the drow.

Burok Torn: City Under Siege by Sword & Sorcery has a fascinating take on the drow, from their beginnings as staunch allies of dwarvenkind, to their betrayal by the dwarves (yes, that is correct!), to their current situation living in a moving underground city (!), scheming against the dwarves and attempting to find a way to elevate their deity to godhood again (he's been trapped in the body of an iron golem since the dwarves betrayal).

Easily one of the most fascinating re-imaginings I've read...

It's 4.29 here in Las Vegas. I feel special.

$3.92 here in Texas

donnald johnson wrote:

long live wizards of the coast.

so, flame me.

For loving wizards of the coast? Nah. For flaming 3e? I'll leave that to my colleagues on the boards with a dog in that fight and more bile than I can muster on the topic.

For grammar?

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LEARN TO USE THE f@!*ING SHIFT KEY. IT'S MAYBE AN EIGHTH INCH FROM EITHER PINKY. CAPITAL LETTERS ARE YOUR FRIEND (AND MY FRIEND TOO, AS YOU CAN TELL BY THIS PARAGRAPH). THEY MAKE IT EASY TO DISCERN WHERE A NEW SENTENCE BEGINS OR ENDS AND MAKE YOUR POSTS READABLE BY HUMANS FLUENT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. AND DON'T GIVE ME ANY PRETENTIOUS b&%#%#!! ABOUT HOW NONE OF THE OTHER PRONOUNS ARE CAPITALIZED AND THEREFORE 'I' SHOULD NOT BE CAPITALIZED.

Thank you.

You made my day! Thank you!

James Jacobs wrote:

At least the real Godzilla killed him (see "Godzilla: Final Wars") in a pretty cool scene that involved BOTH of the points above.

Yeah, I shouted "PWND!" when I saw that. The jaylenosarus got chumped without so much a backward glance.

Wasn't there also a one-off line in the beginning "Godzilla versus Destroyer" denouncing the jaylenosarus as Godzilla?

There was is ONE of the new movies, just not sure which one. It was a throwaway line where one of the scientists or soldiers asks another "Didn't the US get attacked by a giant monster last year"? The other replies "Yeah, but that was just a giant dinosaur, not Godzilla". Or something to that effect. It sailed past my son when I burst out laughing...

Well done indeed!

KaeYoss wrote:

I do agree with the childish joke part, especially since one of Pathfinder's powers seems to be "Wrong Step". But that's wizards, not the first cheap shot they've taken.

Buzz from the playtesters is that that power was in there with that name *before* we announced the Pathfinder RPG.

You've heard from playtesters? And they weren't shot for violating the "you can't discuss ANYTHING" NDA? Wow...

rclifton wrote:

The store clerk... readily admitted that Paizo product was the highest quality they sold and they couldn't keep it in stock.

I totally have the solution to this problem. Have him try ordering more!

I keep pushing for it!

My personal blessings to everyone who went out to support this event.

My kudos to Impressions and Aldo who made it happen. I hope this event goes on annually for years to come.

I got a lot of stuff at my local store (Gary's Games in Greenwood, Seattle) including the Castles & Crusades module, the Cthulhu and WOD offerings, the Harn module, and the Dungeon Crawl Classics supplement. I am really looking forward to going through all this stuff.

Kudos to the two teens who claimed two of the last three Kobold Kings while I was picking my free stuff, and to the guy in the DHL shirt who sorted through the two boxes of "random staple-bound adventures and stuff" boxes to pick out all the Paizo stuff and rack it with the Pathfinders.

I couldn't believe what I was randomly seeing. I can't tell you guys how cool it is to see enthusiasm for our product line "in the wild," as it were.

I LOVE FREE RPG DAY!!

I also got to go into evangelical mode when a guy who was looking to get back into gaming picked up Goblin King and asked "What's this"? The store clerk and I had a friendly debate for a few minutes about 4E vs Pathfinder, but he readily admitted that Paizo product was the highest quality they sold and they couldn't keep it in stock. It helped that they actually had a few in stock and I could show the guy an issue of Pathfinder, several modules, etc. It also helped that several of the freebies on the table looked like they had been photocopied and stapled...

Every year, there are retailers who promote Free RPG Day and Free Comic Book Day for months ahead of time, with flyers and posters, and even local TV spots. They come up with additional reasons to bring people into the store, and keep them there, and make them feel that they're being treated well—demos, sales, food, appearances from local "people of note." They stock additional products for the occasion, especially from the manufacturers represented in the product kit, and they make sure that if you see something you like in the freebies, they're there to educate you about the related for-sale items. In short, they use it as an opportunity to promote themselves while putting on their best face. As a result, many of these guys do gangbuster sales and acquire new customers that will come back next month or the month after.

Also every year, there are the guys who spend money on a box of books and dump it on a table on Saturday morning, and then sit around wondering why they wasted their money.

As with Free Comic Book Day, most retailers will get out of it what they put into it.

Totally agree! Local stores around here were having multiple game sessions of 4E and WOD, refreshments, plenty of staff on hand etc. They were creating excitement and quite a few people were purchasing things as I was standing there. Several even discovered the Gamer Book, a local listing of game groups to join.

As for the $90 buy-in, it's a marketing expense. Your local comic store does the same thing with the Previews catalog, Comic Shop News, and other promotional give-aways. They pay for them. They then give them away to customers in the hopes of getting new orders and business. $90 is pretty cheap for a one day event that, if properly run, can draw in some good business and create new customers...

mmmmmm

now I feel annoyed.

This is the same store, that when I asked them about PfRPG, the clerk said "I would never even look at that."

I am starting to wonder...

So did anyone else have to pay to get their Paizo goodness?

(OK technically I didn't pay but still)

As hinted above, the stores in my area allowed one item per person. That didn't stop me from hitting several stores (2 actually), but I made sure I stuck to the limit AND I made sure I purchased something at each store to thank them for participating.

Nahualt wrote:

Actually this isn't such a big thing. The real fault lies in the Graphic designer who made the mockup of the dice roller...

If this were the only misstep, I'd agree. But WotC has handled a lot of things very clumsily -- where do you draw the line between a mistake (or two, or five) and incompetence?

That's the main point behind most of the WotC vitriol here on the boards. Take any one or any two of the mistakes Wizards has made (clumsy announcement, pulling Dragon and Dungeon (sorry, my opinion that this was a mistake), bad online presence ala Gleemax, attitude, marketing, the list goes on...) and you're right. If everything else had been pulled off with precision and substance, most people would've grumbled but moved on. But when the comedy of errors kept rolling on and on and on....

So I go to the local gaming store (we only have one in town) looking for a some fun and lots of free stuff. This was my first time to the "Free" RPG day and I was a little naive I suppose.

I arrived expecting to get some free stuff, and especially excited to get Revenge of the Kobold King from Paizo for FREE.

Well, little did I know that by free they actually mean you have to spend $10 to get one of the items. If you want another item you need to spend an additional $10. What a disappointment!

Fortunately, there was a nice guy at the checkout counter with the three 4E core books and got RotKK and gave it to me. He asked why I was so excited and I told him it was part of Pathfinder.

He had never heard of Pathfinder so I found the few items in the store (they hardly ever carry third party products) and told him about it. He was excited about the world and even with an arm full of 4E, was more excited to hear about PfRPG and that it would continue the 3.x rules.

So, while I managed to get my copy of RotKK- and may have a convert for PfRPG, I still think it is totally unfair to call it "FREE" RPG Day when we have to buy stuff to get anything. It is misleading in a way. But I am naive that way.

It is totally supposed to be free. That's the point. I guess certain shops can charge a "cover" to make sure people don't walk in and just walk out with nothing else, but most shops just ask you to take one item and one item only so they can spread the love...

I'd be upset with your store, not the Free RPG Day people...

damnitall22 wrote:

What do you do in the Navy?

Thanks for asking. I'm an officer currently serving onboard USS NIMITZ. (...and in case you're wondering: No, I wasn't in that recent PBS mini-series. I reported there right after that deployment.)

Awesome! Thanks for your service! My dad was an original plank holder on the Nimitz...

Does anyone know which books are set in the 4E rules inspired timelines? From what I can tell the Unclean/Undead/?? Red Wizards trillogy is, and the new Swordmage FR book is also. Are any of the other 2008 FR or Eberron releases explicitly set in 4e rules and/or history?

I'm asking so I can avoid them, but I'm sure others would want to know so they can seek them out.

SwordMage isn't bad. I'm firmly Pathfinder, but I wanted to see how 4E would affect the FR novels. Besides some very light descriptions of areas mysteriously changed by the Spellplague, there's only one real give-away that this is a 4E novel: the main character tosses around spells before every combat. Which is to be expected of a novel called Swordmage, BUT you can almost see the at will/per encounter/daily nature of the spells.

I guess that some people will be looking very closely at the underlying code when/if that part of DDI is released. Interesting times ahead, I say.

Agreed. Even leaving aside the issues of the Edition Wars, in the last few days we've gotten the GSL debacle and now this...