synchretist23's page

Although it's still nine weeks or so, I want to start my planning, i.e. how to get there, which days will I stay, when to play what with whom etc.

Some people expessed interest in this thread, how is everybodys status?

I have a Typo3 testsite until the end of the year, should we make use of that? Or just talk about everything here?

Anybody of you people on facebook?

Addition: And let's not forget about organized play. Any of you interested? If yes, WHo will me DM etc.?

And the Pathfinder Societzy being the reason everyone adventures together?

So a Mr. Johnson will point a group of pathfinders in the right direction?

I think these questions have relevance for organized play, since it *can* be a pain to get the group together, espcially when people love the "brooding loner"/Aragon-Archtype i have seen rather often at conventions.

Made me use pre-gen characters for my scenarios, but in organized play that isn't feasible.

Hey, nice so lets see how many we are now:

Me,
Mace,
Franz,
Locworks and 2 friends.

7 people. Sounds like loads of fun =)

[I know I am being rather forward here, but I'd like to think of it only being optimistic ;) ]

If you do complete this, I will translate it to German.

For September i am indeed looking for an introductory system for use with players who probably never participated in roleplaying before. So far I had 4e in mind, but PF would suit me so much more ...

I think there should be an central editor/writer for this project. I have seen so many internet conversion projects fail because there was nobody to take charge.

If you need a free website, try pbwiki.com.

You're right on point with the "common conditions". But I'd say instead of a refernce sheet make some cards and give these to the player whose chracter is suffering the condition. Works fine.

Same for spells and Abilities. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, and now adpoting pathfinder I should do it. Each player can go through his/her options that way without the book. Also from playing various card games I remember how handling the cards eventually made you remember in dtail what each crad/spell did, while still serving as a good reminder just in case.
However, your short hand notations of the spell are a fine idea, they will help to keep card text short and sweet.
Maybe its influence from being a OO programmer, but I'd advocate cards because they are reusable, too.

I love the book and recommend it.

I only find the begining a bit long, but once Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair and Strange are on the scene, the book really gets good.

It IS a long book, but only because it takes it time to capture its time and setting nicely.

I can't really comment on the prose, as I read the german translation.

BTW ... has anyone read the new book by Clarke yet?

Very fun game, but pretty flawed (the FAQ/errata are a MUST have). Fun in spite of the flaws. But it gets a bit stale if you played roughly 30 of the 50 scenarios.
But it was worth my money.

One day i will make a system using these nice d0-2.

Well, mine have been updated and put up here and mini brochure style here

I get "404:file not found" for these links.

I quit all "I'm quiting" threads ....

I remeber watching a youtube vid of the 4e presentation where it was said that buying the books would give free access to dndinsider. That was cancled as well ... at least there're handing out Dungeon Mag and Dragon Mag for free until their dndinsider website goes up ...

Can' find a news item on their wef page.

Anyway it's a bit of a pity. I considered doing a translation myself. ;)

Edit: found it here

This would result in dozens over dozens of spells. Bad option for sorcerers.

After finishing the Gazeteer, i know i'll back up the andorans, too, especially after that "... über alles" thread.

All the arcane power my character can muster will help the cause of fledgeling enlightenment. =)

No problem at all. I took it as given that won't have to pay all athe expenses for us.

I propose when the October draws near we hash out in detail when/where/ how food is bough and how to fairly share expenses ...

((Hm, wolln wir den Thread nich auf Deutsch weiterschreiben?))

I game with stupid, dorky sociopaths. Doesn't everyone?

... as long as you're having fun, the more power to you ... 20 years ago, when i was 15, we had our dorky moments, too, but all in all i'd like to think we tell the better stories now (IMVHO).

And just for the internet, which never forgets: I'd kick anyone trying to "roleplay a necrophiliac" out without batting an eyelash.

Amen.

Some guys may feel like you described, but I would bet that many male PC’s are holding out hope that they can “get with” the BBE Girl, so they’re more hesitant. Also, I would think that some male PC’s would intentionally go melee (when they normally wouldn’t), just to be physically closer to the BBE Girl. And of course, after the fight is over, many male PC’s would “get with” the BBE Girl whether she was alive, unconscious, or dead.

O_o Honestly, what kind of people are you gaming with? I can't express how stupid? dorky? sociphatic? that is. Heck, even 4eDMG warns against these kind of players (and 4eDMG portrays power gaming in a positive light).

* * *
It's undeniably that fantasy litterature has many stereotypes, racial and moral ones ("evil"). Stories about "real" life can have lots of 'em, too (spoa operas). But I don't see a reason to submit to stereotypes. Me, I'd rather enjoy twisting stereotypes, so that they appear in shades of gray, over cookie cutter races and morals.

There are indications that not even Tolkeen intended Orcs as a "race" to be hated, Orc are rather a manifestaion of evil, and as such Orcs are not really fully realized beings (if you're interested I can give you a scholarly reference).

Hmm... I don´t know yet. I have a date for playing the dark eye that very weekend, and we were always there only on thursday. I have to think about it.

Stefan

the Dark Eye ... isn't that: the Black Eye. ;-P (sorry 'bout that)

Seriously, even if you just come on one, day be could have a game together...

Carsten

synchretist23 wrote:

Hey, me, too. $e has this throwback simpleton feel that is ideal use for Mystara.

Hey; stop disrepecticatin' us throwback simpletons!

Ain't my fault the only females for 50 miles are all my cousins!

She's a good girl, but her hooves rip the sheets to shreds.

LOL

I thought there was place for 4e in my game ecology, but haven't come out of my cover where I fled from GSL.

Hey, me, too. $e has this throwback simpleton feel that is ideal use for Mystara. And, to this date, Mystara is one of the very few world i kow where the level-system is taken to its logical conclusion: high-level guy and gals rule the land.

I was 50% through a conversion of the Rules Cyclopedia to 4e when stumbled upon the GSL and abandoned the project, not wanting to be sued when i put my notes on pbwiki.

That's a good idea in principle, but dont include it in the rulebook itself, but make it supplementary to the rulebook. A free "web enhancement".
Once you get used to classes, such beginner guides are mostly wasted ink in a book, but as a free suplement it can help a beginner to deal with all the options us more experienced player want.

Moreover, Golarion is sufficiently dangerous that people have very good reasons to be distrustful of outsiders. The Chelish traffic with devils, Varisian Sczarni rob and murder, elves cut down those who trespass on their lands; Not all of them, certainly, but enough to matter. A farmer in Taldor has every reason to be suspicious of a traveler from Cheliax, lest his soul or property be forfeit. Even discounting dangers from ordinary people, mad wizards walk around wearing harmless faces and monsters capable of taking on all manner of forms wander the night. If I met a strange person on the street and immediately became hostile towards them when they approached me because I feared they'd rob me or somesuch, I'm just being paranoid. If Farmer Grump meets that same unusual individual on his way to market, there's a very real possibility he *is* going to be robbed.

Bah, I'm ranting again. Do you at least see what I'm getting at? Yes, such feelings are racist. And racism is probably one of the most common evils of a medieval world. Heck, dwarves and elves are renowned for racism. Dwarves and gnomes get a numerical bonus for their racial prejudice. There's an entire class built around racial hatred. A racist in modern society is a despicable individual too eager to hate to see the truth. A racist in a fantasy setting, for your average commoner, is simply uneducated and overly cautious.

I see what you are getting at, but Golarion is NOT the Middle Ages. You can get info and stories from more than one source, and most bards and clerics of the good and neutral gods are probably not encouraging a myopic worldview as the church did in the Middle Ages. The Legends and myths of the Golarion are portraying many good things in addition to evil things. And even farmers are bound to hear dozens of those myths and stories. I think the Mendevian crusades are widely known. Gods of Farming and Healing, and others that are probably popular with farmers are of good alignment, so the clergy won't encourage racism. So while the lazy and ignorant may still take all strangers for evil, the others will know that the stranger could be even the adventurer that helps to get rid of the true evil. And for every mad wizard there are two just plying their trade and one more hunting evil magic.

Also there is a big difference between being cautious and being suspicious of every stranger. Suspecting evil in strangers also has a tendency of producing evil in ones own heart. If Farmer Grump attacks the unusual individual, he might be uneducated (and wilfully ignoring all the legends and stories about the good in the world), but his deed is still evil, even if said individual is evil in alignment.

Your post might explain why racism exists, but that doesn’t make it any less evil (not that I want to imply you meaning to say that racism is not evil, I just want to present the other side of your explanation). And Farmer Grump has certainly much more opportunity than a Middle Age serf to learn that the stranger could be a hero as well as be could be a villain.

You can also have a look at the "Magic Rating" from Unearthed Arcana:

here

I was thinking long and hard about joning you, but in the end it wasn't possible to come up with the 200+ € for entrance, a room etc.

Maybe you can consider coming to Essen in October, I think all of us would have no problem with english, as our prensence here pretty much proves.

I'd still maintain that a successful impersonation requires that it stands up to interaction, and also includes being able to reproduce things and effects that a standard member of the race could produce, including feats of strength.

I don't believe, that to infiltrate an organization, you have to the same exact same ability scores as the creatures you are walking around. I think it would be similar to saying that, if you were a strong human, to infiltrate a human criminal organization you would have to reduce your strength to the human average to not be suspicious to the other humans.

I can see what you are getting at, but your anaogy refers to a superior race member that would need dumbing down, while i am more concerned that the spells as written produce clearly substandard race members.

In the end that might be ok, so that a player or NPC needs more effort than a single spell for his impersonation ploy. Your objection got me thinking here, even though you seem to misunderstand my intentions here.

In the end, this is a very minor quibble, Disguise Self works as good as ever more 95% of the cases needed, except for the duration thingy. But I can houserule that, as I instantly did for 3.5. And most DMs cursed with abuse seeking gamers can still use the polymorph as Written in PFRPG.

But I still feel that this is "whine-based design", meaning the introduction of restrictive rules because people are whining that this or that can be abused.

And the question for the sorcerer remains, the PF variant will cost him lots of "spells known", maybe an arcane bloodline sorcerer would fare best here, because he get more spells know that he can select.

For those interested in joining us at Essen, look here:

link

I hope we can play official PFS adventures there and/or playtest PFbeta, and I might be ammendable to DM in english (if need be).

All I am saying is that removing XP costs and increasing gold costs is making the game more dungeon crawl dependent.

Some of us are playing mainly urban intrigue, where neither PCs or NPC are magic item chrismas trees (so there is no blanace problem), but if you need these large lumps of gold, for, say, spells you are forcing the players to dugeon crawl if they want to ,for example, resurrect their buddy.

XP cost allow the DM to lessen the "whack-fantastic-beings-guarding-random-piles-of-gold" factor. Substituting gold costs ups the "lets-kill-the-green-skinned-things-i-need-to cast-a-spell" factor. Not a good thing in my book.

I personally find the abuse scenarios implausible. In most cases, it's a problem with the player and not the rules (as Guardians of Order pointed out).

I agree that Burlew solution seems cleaner. Plus it has some additional benefits for people who want to use polymorph for purposes other than trying to rules lawyer your way to victory in combat.

In my games, polymorph was used mainly for "underover work". People trying to sneak among the orcs, the enemy organzation etc. To use this effectivly, you need the attribute value of the target creature. An orge with say ST 16, because giantform gives +6 ST, will be not very belivable to the other ogres.
Burlews method will allow to mimic creatures more closely than the PFRPG solution.

Another thing is duration: for any impersonation, a duration of 10 min/ level is almost mandatory. 1 min/lvl is combat-oriented for dungeon crawling. Its 1min/lvl because people fear that a spell might be helpful for more than one encounter. For those who dont play 15min adventure days, longer durations are not a problem and they conserve the utility of a spell outside of monsterbashing.

I realize, of course, that rulebooks must accomodate all sorts of playing styles, but sometimes its such a drag to see all those 1min/lvl spells, a precursor to the per-encounter power rules, that make the game so utterly combat-centered.

Here Are my top ideas i want to try, but my players are running off to the corners of the world and it's hard to find new ones.

1) We are not Monsters
The players are part of the races plower gamers and slayer players "love to hate": kobolds, gobins, orcs etc. One day an epiphany comes over them: why not civilze their races? Instead of living as looters, The players and their allies are either trying to reform their "monster society" or move off to a distant land and start a new nation. And/or the players spy on the "monsters" of this campagin: Humans, elfs dwarfs etc. and steal their "secrets" to build a different society for their own races.
Of course traditional orcs, goblin etc are not very much in favor of this, so the PCs will have to fight on more than one front. And, if the players try violent reform of their societies they will learn that violence won't change anything. Ah ... a goblin king and the orc ruler discussing the art of gouvernance, kobold courtly intrigue ...
Part of the fun is that D&D and philosophical intrigue based immersion playing are somewhat at odds.

2) After Evolution and Before
Takes place in the world of Monte Cooks Arcane Evolved.
The great war between the Dragons and the Giants happened. But much worse was the catastrophe that happend then. Noone really knows what happend, but most people died one fateful day and came back as the undead. The akashic record is also blocked, you cant learn what happend by this method. The survivor fled south to the Free City and are now
organzing a campagin to take back the diamond throne from the undead.
This campagin was ultra-high powered (point build 35 pts + ArcanaEvolved and Iron Heros + Gestalt characters plus more more power ups avaible in the form of soul pearls), and Anime influenced (Bleach, and Full Metal Alchemist. And battletalk was practically required).
Eventally the characters would learn the truth, but it would call into question almost everything the characters belived to be true and good. Power, development (=Evolution) would be a major background theme, shown from multiple perspectives.
I had planned 20 Episodes, and 9 were actually played before players moved away.

3) One magic
In the Shadowrun 'verse, magic and technology are incompatible. The might be otakus, with their own special brand of wizardy, but everyone seems to know that there is a metaphysical abyss beteen magic and tech that cant be briged. The characters are living counterevidence, otakus discovering that they have magical talent.
Of course, there are people in the know, and they want to keep it all under covers. And: will the characters untimatly jion the secret powers that hide the unified truth, or will they fight them to the end?

4) Space 1889 (yeah, me, too)
The idea would be to advance the timeline, introducing all the inventions outlined in the rulebook. THis is mainly an alternate history setting, explornig the 20th century if the ether really existed. WIll there be still 2 great wars? The cold war? The roaring 20ties?
What about genetics? [pulp ether transhuman space =) ]