samstephenson500's page

Thanks guys, this is really helpful.

I think my plan for re-entry will be

CORE book only (or maybe even beginner box only [Is that possible?]) for an introductory campaign (6 sessions).

I'm planning on bringing in some new players and I'm restarting, so will go as simple as possible to begin with.

Any suggestions for self contained adventures that fit the bill in length and fun? I like well written, interesting NPC's.

Following that campaign, I'll probably open up the advanced players HB and start an adventure path (most likely rise of the runelords since it's so well supported).

I like the NPC book suggestion from Rite Publishing. Anything that adds spice easily for GM's is a good thing. I also like using old PC characters as antagonists... hence the initial campaign... ;)

Hey guys,

I'm coming back to PRG's after an 8 year hiatus and figured I'd start where I left off.

I left right during the transition of D&D3.5 to 4.0. I bought into pathfinder as a way of riding that 3.5 sweetness without the bloat.

I'm a longtime DM, ran shackled cities, the Runelords adventure path, several D&D games, cthulhu, indie RPGs aplenty.

I'd like to get an oldschool 3.5/pathfinder group going again, but this website is so confusing. Could someone tell me what happened here?

Fill me in on the last 8 years of pathfinder/paizo history.

It looks as if the world has gone the way of world of darkness with sourcebooks aplenty and region books, etc, etc, etc...

Are the rules the same? What's changed? How many 3rd party companies are there now? What's the scoop?
;)

Cheers mates!
Sam

Does anyone have a STAP blog up and running?
I'm going to start running the adventure in January.
Are there any good resource websites (besides this one) with fan-made ST material?
Cheers,
Sam

I never received mine either. It was supposed to have been sent 8/21.

UPDATE
Chapter 1: 0 deaths (they actually used diplomacy to completely bypass the malachite fortress..... who would have known!!!)
Flood Season:4 deaths (Tongueater butchered 2 PC's, a PC died in the fall from the the gondola, a PC got zapped by Skaven as well)
Zenith Trajectory:3 deaths (Mainline fighter sneak attacked by Koa Toa, Dhorlot acidified another one, a rogue was dropped from on high by Gotrod the Red Dragon)
The Demonskar Legacy:0 Surprisingly no deaths! Althogh the whole group was dominated by the green hags and sent off to kill Nabthataron (2 birds with 1 stone for them).
Occipitus: 0 Despite rogue falling 30,000 feet.
Secrets of the Soul Pillars: 0, They healed the dracolich to death.
Lords of Oblivion:4 The group followed Mhad to shatterhorn. The 2 spellcasters died in a Wail of the Banshee trap. One party member was turned into a vampire. Later, that same character was disintegrated by Vhalantru. Two deaths for one PC.
Foundation of Flame: 0, No deaths. The party didn't do so well with this one. I had to split them up so they could hit all 4 quarters in time. They chose to teleport away from Hookface and he ravaged many citizens. Only 1000 people survived out of the original 10,000. The refugees stayed at Redgorge (despite Redgorge being sacked by them earlier due to Alek Tercival's death).
Thirteen Cages:1, The vampire character made a wish and got turned into a replica tree of the real tree.
Strike on Shatterhorn:2, There were now 2 vampires in the group. The party had decided to go after Hookface on their own. They killed him with ease. Then Hookface's wife showed up (a CR 26 Collosal Red Dragon). She cast antimagic field and killed one vampire PC for good. The other vampire PC died from a party member mistakenly Healing him.
Asylum: We'll see

Subscribers are only getting a 30% price reduction on Pathfinder instead of a 35% reduction.....

Hmmmmm..... very sneaky.

Also,
Paizo only has to pay one round of parcel post for the magazine rather than 2 for Dungeon and Dragon (a savings of $4 an issue according to staff from another post).

This really is too much.....

This is how I see it.

Retail for monthly Dungeon and Dragon is $16 at about 200 pages total.
Assume 40% (I think this is a high estimate for these speciality mags) is advertising that leaves us with 120 pages for $16.
So we're looking at a reduction of minimum 20 pages of material and a price hike of $4 for Pathfinder (96 pages, $20).

That leaves us with a MINIMUM price increase of 66%.

That is quite significant.

Why is the price increasing you ask?
Lack of advertising makes the magazine/book more expensive.
Pathfinder will focus mainly on adventure paths limiting it to primarily GM's interest thus a smaller consumer base.

However,
Pathfinder sounds as if it is exactly the kind of adventure path we have been asking for:
Non standard monsters
Rule use outside the core
Loads of setting material outside the adventure

What we are loosing:
A standard campaign setting: Greyhawk
Articles: There will be fewer of them
Money: It's more expensive
The Dungeon and Dragon name
Protected WOTC content.... no more beholder fights

BOTTOM LINE:
Pathfinder looks like an excellent resource for GM's.
I will be buying it.
It is VERY expensive compared to Dungeon and Dragon magazine.

WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE TO KEEP IN ADVERTISING TO REDUCE THE COST?
ie: KEEP IT A MAGAZINE

Indeed much ball suckage was had by many.

Suck the fat one WOTC!!!!

A new ezine doesn't have to exclude Dungeon and Dragon magazine.
Quashing the competition in such a way makes me want to spit!

I guess this explains why there isn't going to be an Age of Worms Hardcover after all.
Poop.

I have to say this brings up a lot of emotions in me. I grew up with Dragon magazine and to see it go makes me very sad.
Very very sad.

Yet at the same time I feel tremendous anger towards WOTC. Dungeon magazine has transformed in the last 2 years to one of the best DM resources available.

Would it not be possible to just change the names of the magazines and continue to publish just as you have been minus protected content?

I'm going straight to the WOTC message boards and letting them know how pissed I am at them for this decision.

OMFG!
My usualy inept group showed a surprising burst of teamwork and quick thinking last night!
They killed Vitrus Bale in 4 rounds!
What happened was the rogue got trapped in the room alone with the dracolich.
Fearing for his life he jumped down into the pit to land on a pile of money (the dracolich followed). The rest of the group cleared the icy tendrils leading down the hallway to the room with a fireball and D.Doored down to the rogue upon seeing his plight. Once down there the lich blasted everyone with acid and flew off in the darkness.
Thats when the rogue came up with "I search for his phylactery."
Crap!
They found it and began trying to destroy it (thank you hardness of 20).
The lich paniced, flew over to the group,and grappled the rogue who was holding the phylactery.
One person dispel magiced the lich to get rid of his mirror images, the cleric then cast Heal upon it doing 130 damage out of 130 hp the lich had..... what!!!!
they killed my dracolich!

Doh!

Nope,
I just enjoy reading how other groups fair throught the SCAP.
Currently my group have just finished the test of the smoking eye and are planning their actions for the next 2 months of down time.
The players really enjoy seeing how their actions effect the city and world at large.
So far they have:
Replaced the priesthood of the Temple of Kord with professional wrestlers.
Started a growing "Cult of Ocipitus" for the establishment of their "first colony" there.
Built a bank with various magical traps and doo dahs that has been tested and found not wanting.
Fallen and survived a 30,000ft drop through a layer of plasm's.
Written and published non-fiction adventure books of the groups exploits for sale and distribution through Sasserine and Cauldron.
Started lecturing at Bluecrater Acadamy to recruit adventurer's from. They have also dedicated a celestial wing of the library.
Planeshift to Celestia regularly to get recruits for their "cult of occipitus".

Redgorge has been sacked and Maavu's on the run. The remaining members of the chisel have put bounties on the characters heads. The group know's Vhalantru's secret, but is unsure how to proceed.

One of my players managed to sacrifice Kaurophon last night. The entire party was close to buying it. In addition, Kaurophon was near death and needed to roll a 2 on his concentration check to DDoor out of the flames (lots of house ruling was going on to make the whole mess streamlined). I told them this to build suspense and they were all shouting at me telling me the "oneness" I was destined for. There is always a lot of ritual involved in this sort of important roll. I called for silence and stetched out my hand to let the die drop after an inordinate amount of shaking. What followed was one of the loudest "gamergasms" I've heard at the table recently. They wanted to take a photo of the playing mat with K's mini shown in the fire and the "1" pointing up as it lay.
I was never so happy to fumble. :)

Hi Delvesdeep,
From what I've heard of your run through of the the SCAP from your posts I'd be very interested in reading your blog or SCAP journal if you've got one. Do you post anywhere about the adventures of your party?
Cheers,
Sam (Killer GM #295)

The Silver Tongue Brigade

Lets have something even more different than just changing the source of the threat.
Let's change the MO of the group and thus make the game taste different for a change.
How bout a taste of what it feels like from the other end of the spectrum, to be the ones with the driving ambition to develop an army to eventually conquer all?
Doesn't that sound cool? To have a group start from humble beginnings and through force of arms and diplomacy amass a force the region hasn't seen for millenia.
Basically you get to be the bad guys.
Now, some might say theirs a problem with alignment (ie: people can't work together if their eveil or at least don't want to).
Well, this sort of game doesn't have to be limited to just evil PC's. Say the surrounding lands are ruled by corrupt and evil dictators themselves and in reality you are just the heads of a revolution. That sort of game could cator to all alignments.
The game would also be dungeon crawl light and allow for more dynamic encounters (ala umber hulk and tax riot from SCAP) and roleplaying.
What do you guys think?
Cheers,
Sam

Chapter 1: 0 deaths (they actually used diplomacy to completely bypass the malachite fortress..... who would have known!!!)
Chapter 3:4 deaths (Tongueater butchered 2 PC's, a PC died in the fall from the the gondola, a PC got zapped by Skaven as well)
Chapter 4:3 deaths (Mainline fighter sneak attacked by Koa Toa, Dhorlot acidified another one, a rogue was dropped from on high by Gotrod the Red Dragon)
Chapter 5:0 so far, but we've only had 1 session.

Whoops. I meant to post this in the Shackled City section.
Sorry folks.

Hmmmm, is it possible to embed pics in a post?
And if so, how do I do it?

My PC's are entering it tomorrow! Bwa ha hahahahha!
So I made this with some Dwarven Forge sets. Cool huh?
Cheers,
Sammy
[IMG]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e388/sam500/DF020.jpg[/IMG]

Lower Level
[IMG]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e388/sam500/DF022.jpg[/IMG]

Mid Level
[IMG]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e388/sam500/DF023.jpg[/IMG]

Upper Level
[IMG]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e388/sam500/DF024.jpg[/IMG]

I think a special index issue once per year is a GREAT idea!!!!
Especially for people binding the magazines at the end of the year. Lots of scientific journals do this.
Sam

spoke a day too early. 350 just arrived today.

sure can.
they seem to be alright.
I've also ordered backissues from you guys that have arrived just fine using the same address.
Lets give it a few more days, I"m in no hurry.
Cheers,
Sam

The store front lists them as being pon pre-order for an expecte release of last wednesday. Is this an error? Have you already recieved them?
Cheers,
Sam

uggh. It's on backorder. Any idea when you'll have more in? I just ordered one with you.

I haven't recieved it or Dungeon 142 either and they're both the first issues of my subscriptions. ;(

My party faced tongueater last week and probably will this friday as well.
They went in the lucky monkey through the front door, battle the drunk henchmen, chased on into the baboon lair, fought the baboons, and then had tongueater burst in on them midfight.
He had plenty of time for potion-drinking and proceeded to power attack his way through two PC's (dead).
2 other PC's were brought to heavy negatives and he and the remaining baboons got busy eating tongues. If not for a clever use of invisibility by the wizard they would have all died.
The invisible wizard shoved some potions down the two uncious PC's throats and then cast rope trick to save them. Very clever, but very dangerous.
Sam

Thanks for the info, it's much appreciated.
I think I'm committed to getting them bound as hardbacks though. I love the look of magazine volumes in libraries. Do you know where your library used to send their magazines to have them bound?
Cheers,
Sam

My group had their first session a couple of nights ago. There biggest problem was with the chocker in the theatre room in Jzadirune.
With the supernatural quickness the choker was able to grab a character and pull him down into the hatchway closing the trap door behind it. The players had a lot of trouble with the opposed strength check to open the hatch. It was pretty funny. Every so often the trap door would open and swallow another PC. I dropped 3 PC's to negs before they finally flushed it out.
That trap door just loved the taste of adventurers :)

Does anyone here bind there magazines into hardcovers?
Where do you send them off to? I'm looking for no more than $60 a volume.
Do you know what method of binding is used (ie: notched gluing or oversewing).
Is there enough margin for oversewing?
Cheers guys,
Sam
(Berkeley, CA USA)

I'm trying to make an index page of adventures for when I get my magazines bound. Is there anyway I can import the adventure index table into excel?
How would I do this copying and pasting doesn't preserve the table format?
Cheers,
Sam

Does that mean that theoretically one could purchase a subscription for the next 10 years all at once?

A warning would have been nice.
i was debating whether ording a 3 year subscription this morning.

Since we raised the cover price of our magazines a few issues ago, many of you have been anticipating an increase in the subscription price as well.

Well, we've worked up a plan that allows us to keep the current 12-issue subscription price intact for the foreseeable future. In order to do that, though, we're no longer offering 24- and 36-issue subscriptions. However, we're introducing a new 6-issue subscription, and, of course, the month-to-month subscription is still available.

Here's the press release.

A worning would have been nice.

I've already got he PDF version, but I really want to get a hold of a physical copy.
Does anyone know of a seller who has any?
I'd be very very greatfull!
Thanks,
Sam

Hey guys,
Can anyone point me to a link to their blog, story hour, group session write ups of their group's run through the schackled city adventure path.
I'm about to start running the campaign and would love reading others run through it.
Cheers,
Sam

Now that wizards is producing successfull adventures again (Red Hand of Doom and soon to be released Ravenloft) do you feel it unlikey that they will give the green light for such a project?

I know about the core magazines 124-135 of Dungeon, but which Dragon or Dungeon magazines besides these contain other usefull info. I've heard of "Wormfood" articles....
Cheers,
Sam

My question's in the title.
Will Paizo publish a hardback for the age of worms adventure path like they did for the shackled city?
I haven't imvested in the magazines as I've been waiting for the book, but with still no word I'm starting to get worried.
Cheers,
Sam