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I've decided to to cancel my comics subscription and my adventure cards subscription. I will get the hardback editions of the comics and would subscribe to that as a product. I am just not using the cards. ALMOST decided to cancel the AP and the Pathfinder Roleplaying game because of this mythic nonsense. However, looks like this is going to be limited in scope in terms of focus and I've decided to ride it out and read the AP so I don't lose sense with the evolution of canon.
Pathfinder and 4E tied in sales in Q3 2010 I'd be proud if this were my product. Saw this at in the Enworld newsletter And posted the direct link here. Can't speak to the methodology of the data, but very cool and quite an accomplishment if true. My apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere.
Over the last three years I have run an on again, off again game for the boys and girls in my neighborhood. There's 9 kids who cycle into and out of my game. For the last two years we've been playing 4E. Last weekened, a delegation of three of the "hard core" players headed up by my oldest, who is 12, came to me and asked that we start playing Pathfinder and that they do not want to play D&D anymore. I run Pathfinder for a group of adults on a bi-weekly basis and play 4E with another group on about the same schedule. I DM for the kids every spare available second during summer vacation and during other vacations, and about once a month when school is in. When I asked why they wanted to stop playing 4E, I got he following responses: "If we want to play cards, we'll play Pokemon." "All the D&D classes work the same. It's gotten boring." "The Big Pathfinger book makes all the classes special, not the same." "Every new D&D book swells up the game like a balloon. It's gonna pop." "We play on Golarion anyways, let's use the rules written for there." "Book games (what they call RPGs) should just try to be book games. D&D tries to be Free Realms. It fails." These folks are, arguably, the target demo for 4E. They've rejected it, for a bunch of reasons. Granted, they've been exposed to the back and forth of my gaming community, which is split 60/40 4E/PFRPG, but these opinions are authentically their own. I intend to keep playing both systems as I enjoy both. I imagine they'll waffle back and forth too, especially as there are several fledgling DMs in the group. The gaming table in the great room no longer truly belongs to my wife and me. However, their rejection is fierce in its tone, and reminds me of how they acted when they left Dora and Diego behind for Ben 10, Star Wars and Teen Titans. They talk like they've outgrown it. Food for thought folks.
I imagine we won't get the WoTC designer take on this until we get the DMG 2. However, I've been playing with this as a monster template. Largest issue I see right now is hot adjudicate a rage daily power when it is deployed on a monster. I have fiddled with several ideas:
Any thoughts on this?
Can you guys give this a once over? It looks like my players will be about 5th level when they hit this encounter. Planning on five of these as a wolf pack design. Your feedback is appreciated. Carrion Swarm Level 5 Skirmisher
Has anyone seen guidelines for how to include the consumable and alchemical items in the Adventurer's Vault in treasure parcels? I have been trading out healing potions for the equivalent cash value of other consumables as I build parcels. Not finding a specific rule and I think I must have missed it.
The best table I have judged in years is the table full of kids I have right now. They are 7 to 11 and have a better time than the majority of adults I have played with. Things they do: 1) Call for mojo. I got them all the big Koplow dice because its easier for me to see their rolls and help them with their math. On particualrly critical die rolls they will hold up a d20 and say, "Give me your mojo!" Every kid at the table puts a finger on the die and says, "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sure feels like it works. 2) Giggle. They laugh alot. They really like sliding bad guys around and LIVE for fires, pits and drops of all sorts. When they see a map, they immediately look for this terrain and get gleeful when they find it. "Bad guys plump when you cook 'em." 3) Roleplaying. OK! They sound like Pokemon characters, but they sure get the talking part. Really. "OK MR. Kobold Guy. You can either tell us what we want to know, or we'll take you to town and let the Lord decide what to do with you." "Yeah, Nobody there is upset about you attacking all the time!" "I bet they'll be so glad to see you!" 4) Have wonder. Everything is new. "It's a cube of cafeteria jello that eats people?" "No, I get it, it's like a glob of snot that works like a vacuum cleaner." "That's really cool!" "Who thought of that?" 5) Get it and love what it means: "It's simple guys. These are rules for pretend... for grownups!" 6) Get something from it that they can't get from anything else. They are riveted by the action, love the attention, and get a rush out of the ability to make a story with you. "Daddy, I like being a hero, even if it's only on Sunday afternoons" So don't we all little guy. So don't we all. Get out there! Judge. Grow the next generation.
Could you guys give these a smell test for me. I am building out Elementals for my home game. This basic design will be scaled up with slight variations across all tiers. I've started with fire and will build out the other traditional types eventually. The basic concept is a typical critter of some type (skirmisher for fire) that respresents a classic summoned elemntal and a solo of the same type at a higher level that is the "noble" of its class. I see a least and minor in the heroic tier, elemental and greater in the paragon tier, and then major and elder in the paragon tier. This stuff is pure work in progress however. Drop ideas for neat powers down as you think of them for any elemental type. Anyhow, please give my first builds a good proof! Thanks as always. Fire Elemental, Least Level 2
Noble Fire Elemental, Least Level 4
One of the things I really loved about 3.0/3.5, was the ability to take any critter and level it and make it a threat at every level. Writing battle interactives for LG and Blackmoor was often about finding a good theme and pushing it "up-scale." This was great fun and also informed my homegame. For example, in 3.5, I was able to make orcs a serious threat at all levels, because I could always design some very "orcy" NPCs. I am not seeing the same ability in 4.0. In many ways this feels more like old school AD&D in that monsters have a certain relevance at each level, but are not relevant at higher levels. I remember my players meta-gaming like crazy about humanoids and their reletive threat back in the day in AD&D. I anticiapte the same thing in 4.0. Are monsters limited to a certain bandwidth of threat again? Is this fixable? Anybody have any thoughts on this? Can we make orcs that can challenge at the higher tiers and still have them feel like orcs?
I am having some issues doing conversions and some issues working with designs. There's DANG few solo critters. Encounter design in 4.0 is clearly focused on neat combinations of bad guys. It starts with a team of five at the correct level for the party, which makes for some great encounters, however, they all seem to have the smae countour. I am really trying to rework the surface of the enounter pacing with different size encoutners, especially smaller ones. There are dang few solo critters or animals and this has been a problem for me. In previous editions I would just choose a higher level single critter and uncork it by its lonesome. The "add half level to everything mechanic including AC" makes this harder to do, as there is a fair chance the target is unhittable. Anybody played with this? 3.0/3.5 suffered from too much focus on one big bad guy. 4.0 seems stuck at the other end of the spectrum. Has anyone else run into this as an issue? Any thoughts as to how to solve? Any successful conversion into solo critters?
Ok. After two read throughs of 4.0, I declare it a fine system. Going to play it every other weekend with my buddy Dave, while I run the alpha playtest opposite weekends. It's different. That's ok. It's aligned along different principles of design than 3.0/3.5. That's ok too. We will have a great time with it and drop it into the stable of games we play alongside of PFRPG, Champions, Mechwarrior and Shadowrun. Have fun folks!
Folks, I think the most productive way for us to approach this discussion, and the support we offer Paizo, is not to try to "beat" each other. In that I mean, we should be more focused on how to make other people's ideas work, as opposed to proving our own. Now why do I say this? It may seem counter-intuitive. Isn't that what has made the internet what is is? Isn't it a glorious place where one can match wits and deploy one's ideas with knowledge and vigor? Well, yes, but is that what Paizo needs from us? The Open Playtest is a gift and an investment in this community. Note the word, community. It is also central to a business model that I respect. In effect, the OGL belongs to all of us, as it is open code and we can shape it and use it as we want. PFRPG invites us to continue that tradition of active and participatory evolution. So what are we offering Paizo in this discourse? I think the best thing we can do is offer Jason and his team are options. We can take the ideas we find, pound them on the collaborative anvil of our collective reason and forge them in the fires of healthy and productive debate. If we work to strengthen each others ideas, as opposed to overcome them, then we will help develop a more diverse and stronger pool of ideas for teh designers to pick from. We can trust them. Really. Look what they have give us so far. So when we look at the monk, for example, we can talk about all the different things that we can do with the class and its abilities to make it work in many venues and many different ways. Noone is right. Noone is wrong. Everyone is playing and building their game with the tools we are given in the OGL and the PFRPG. The Pathfinder team can be fed by us. We can take their designs and field test them and offer feedback. We can discuss how the mechanics work and do not work. We can talk about what can be done to make the rules more flexible and customizable and adaptive. Or, we can fight, and be rude, and soak ourselves in our egos and play to the stereotype of self-absorbed geeks who take their game and their opinions WAY too seriously. In short, we can be part of the problem, or we can be part of the solution. We can create, or we can destroy. I for one, am about building this game and this community. Come on. Let's PLAY! Let's help each other. Let's make it better. Tad Kilgore
I've developed a six person table Monk 1 Female Half Chelaxian/Varisian
The monk is a newbie. The Wizard hasn't played since 2.0. The Elf has been out of gaming for three years having a baby and being Mom. Rogue is a power gaming LG kind of guy. Cleric is a diehard 3.0/3.5 gamer. The Paladin is a lifetime gamer and published author. He and I orchestrated the table to get an effective focus group across many levels of experience and rules knowledge. The players very much liked the flavor and mechanics of the Harrow deck and like the flavor of the city. One of them called in Ayn Rand meets Venice with Dodge City thrown in for the showdowns. On to mechanics
*Note: Effects of tides on the rivers need to be defined* The players went straight into a conflict with the gator. What ensured was 17 round running conflict as waves of the bad guys came after the PCs. Gaedrin sniped and then barricaded himself into his room. Roles
Rogue—Guy rolled 18/18/17/14/12/14. He nearly wet himself. Built a flail using disarm specialist. I am glad to report that the CMB works well and is simple. Cleric—the healing mechanic is awesome so far at low levels. Cleric had five turning attempts that all worked as area heals. She’s a veteran and took Selective Channeling. Kept the entire party on their feet as a result. Would have been horrible otherwise. Paladin—The half –orc stay on your feet thing kept the paladin in the fight. Too early to how the class will play out as we rise in level. Monk—The character was mobile and agile and able to provide flanks for his peers. The strengths of the class will play out as he levels. We are excited about the Ki pool. Feats need to be developed that augment this. Archer fighter—Played like 3.5. No new news here. Players like the new skill system. Newbies found it easy to understand, veteran like the new cross class option. XP Issues: Looks like I will need to pack another module into the arc if I want to keep up with the Pathfinder XP climb. Now, I like this as it makes level advancement feel more like 1.0 & 2.0, but it is hard for me to play test the entire A.P. I am thinking about rolling out D1 and having the Falcon’s Hollows kids be Lamm’s Lambs. All in all, a successful first play test with happy players all around.
Folks, If you could help me with two things, I would appreciate it. 1) This order is currently tied up waiting for the Samarkind solution pre-order. Please release these products and roll the novel into my next monthly shipment. I need the Pathfinder stuff for my campaign. 2) Please change the shipping option to the slightly more expensive UPS ground. I have changed all my settings on my subscriptions and I am officually over waiting for the Post Office to get stuff here. It's not Paizo's fault but every time I have used the USPS, 10 days max has turned into 15 or 20. Thanks for your speedy and always excellent attention and execution. Tad
Show of hands folks. How many people would subscribe to a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly Planet Stories short fiction magazine? I envision classic pulp style and feel with a sprinkling of reprints and some new authors. This might also be a place to begin fictional explorations of Korvosa. I'd love to see that world through the lens of fiction. Anybody else like this idea?
Ok. My sidecart is a bit jammed up right now: Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa (OGL) Print Edition
Subtotal (10 Items) $115.01
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Order Total $123.80 Please ship everything that is ready to ship now. Ship everything else with D3. Thanks!
Just spent a week in Orlando reading Planet Stories beside the pool. Drank some wine too. About the best time I have had in ages. You are doing such a service for all of us reprinting these books. These writers would have been lost without your work. The only real complaint I have is that PLanet Stories is getting in the way of my involvement in the Pathfinder beta-test. Thank you again.
Outstanding. As someone who has run an international campaign, Blackmoor for ZG, I can testify to the fervor it generates and the powerful community that forms as a result. As Paizo already has a passionate and engaged fan base, I expect true excellence from this group and a very strong campaign base. When can we expect campaign documentation? When will submission guidelines be posted? I have written 22 episodes and interactives. More than willing to throw in here. Are you going to use a soft point/hard point structure like Arcanis? In other words, will all episodes be part of a continuous plot line, or will some be one offs? Will you have regions? Will Pathfinder Adventure Paths and Gamemastery modules be compatible with the society? That is, can homeplay with your MMRPG characters be included in that character's career. ZG did this with Temple of the Frog. WOTC does it with much of its product. It both drives sales and engages the MMRPG player base more broadly with the setting. What sort of org chart are you building for your organization? When can we see it? Will you writers retain any intellectual property rights, or does their work belong to Paizo? What are you anticipating as a release schedule? How many episodes a season? How will you tier episodes? Will this be by ATL/APL or some other mechanic? Will episodes retire? I had reconciled myself to running 4.0 at cons. Looks likes they'll be SRD driven rules sets around for awhile. I am excited and will be offering my services. Bravo. Oh yes, and for Joshua !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been reading and playing a lot of Saga Star Wars lately, and I have found it to be fluid, and flavorful, but most certainly much simpler and less defined than the last go round. To say that the rules are diluted by comparison would be a fair assessment. To say that it is a poorer game would be unfair also. Most certainly it is a different game, and its difference inspired a memory in me. I moved to a new school when I was 13. My parents bought a winery and I had to pack up and go with them down the lake to another place. I was the alpha geek at my old schools and had converted all sorts of kids to playing AD&D. At my new schools, they played D&D. Now, I was the new kid, and not the DM. Teenage geek politics aside, I soon found myself playing Red Box D&D, running a dwarf, and having a great time, in a much simpler game. Eventually, I started DMing and converted folks over to the joys of AD&D and such classics as A1-A4, as well as my personal favorite from high school, Dwellers in the Forbidden City. I have said a couple of times in this forum that I think 4.0 had more in common with the design philosophy of D&D than the AD&D we call 1.0. Here's why. Old red box D&D was launched and designed as a way to broaden the appeal of the rules and acquire a new demographic. It was, conceptually, built to introduce players to a much simpler set of mechanics and the hobby in general. It was about attracting new consumers and broadening the play base. It had a softer price point, less intimidating rules, played faster and was simpler. Feel free to jump in here, but this seems to be the same playbook deployed in the design of 4.0 and the saga edition. Simpler. Easier. Faster. I remember an article I read, I think by Monte Cook where he talked about the design process for 3.0. Paramount to that design team was maintaining the aesthetic through line of the game back to AD&D. This meant gnomes, and Vancian magic and the adaptation of schools of magic and myriad other things that had clink and clunk to them, but were true to the traditions of the game and its mechanics. At the center of the design philosophy was updating the edition while maintaining the essence of the game and it’s soon to be core, mechanic. I think there is a difference in approach that has caused quite a few people to scratch their heads and say, "huh?!?" If you were the kid that pushed AD&D, maybe 4.0 seems like a step backwards. I know I enjoyed playing the old basic set, but it didn't have the depth of rules that I wanted and that I found in AD&D. My experience so far runs parallel with Saga compared to the last D20 incarnation of the game. Its fun, but frankly the cupcake is mostly frosting, which is fine, if you are a frosting kind of person. I think, quite honestly that 4.0 will have the same feel. It will be simpler, easier, & faster. It won't be as complex. It won't be as deep. It won't be as concerned with consistency and continuity as it will be with accessibility and flexibility. I suppose this is ok. The game must increase market share. It is, after all, a product, with an aging and shrinking fan base. It is in direct and aggressive competition with MMORPGs and is a guttering candle in the wind of that maelstrom of commerce. I understand. I am a Fortune 500 executive and make decisions about products like this all the time. However, the realities still make me sad. I know the writers and designers are doing their best to make the best rules set they can within the parameters of design they have been given. Simpler. Easier. Faster. Will it feel the same? I don't think so. Will it play well? Sure. Will it save the hobby? I truly do not know. I honestly do not think so. I discuss that here I do know what will. Today I ran a table for my 10 year old, my 7 year old, the two neighbor kids, one boy and one girl, 9 and 12 respectively, as well as my wife and our 15 year old babysitter. Hangman's Noose and The Croaker had them hiding under the table and squealing in fright. Granted, my rendition of the episode owed more to Scooby and Shaggy than Jason and Freddy. However, they loved it. They are gamers now and I hope, for the rest of their lives. What's my point? You all know why you play. It has less to do with the mechanics and more to do with the joy of the story. It is the same energy that gave our ancestors comfort as they sat around the fire and told stories to make sense of the universe. It is at the center of being human. So, if 4.0 is a better game, play it. If its not, someone in the market will make something better, because that is the way the market works. Regardless, support each other in the joy of the game. PLAY! To quote Bill and Ted, "Be excellent to each other." Rock on. Tad
I'd like to propose this service concurrent with the launch of D&D 7.5. Extended Care Gaming Facility In a nutshell. We get up. They feed us. We get our meds, and then game until lunch. They feed us. We game until dinner. They feed us. We either game or watch 3D holographic conversions of Buffy, Lost, BSG and Star Trek: The Rebuilt Franchise until bed time. Who is in? figured we could all use some levity :-)
I manage a marketing budget: 7 digits worth of it. The job is all about shaping consensus on product. Marketing a new product like 4.0 is going to be hell. Bloody hell, mind-numbing hell. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the self-definition of many gamers is tied to their game. Messing with it is like saying that one's spouse/Mom/child needs liposuction/a diet/20minutes a day at the gym. It's a type of criticism and most folks have a hard time with changes in something they see as personal; with something they see as theirs. Likewise, gamers are bright, inquisitive, and opinionated. That is, they are on the good side of the bell curve in terms of their IQs. They also are very adept at deconstructing double speak and spin. As these are the core tools of most marketers, they really don’t work so well with us. So Hasbro has attempted to bring us all into the fold by "deploying transparency of process." That is, they have constantly tried to feed us sculpted bits of developmental information and shown us "the man behind the curtain" in terms of design. Looks like their core strategy has been to introduce us to the best pieces of the product and then praise their own ideas in an attempt to build consensus that this is the greatest thing EVER! I hope everyone is not too surprised by this. It is the professional obligation of the marketing team to build up as much positive spin as possible. The problem I think, is the best stuff from the best thing ever, has a substantial percentage of players responding with, "EWWWWwwwwWWWWWW!" I imagine the response of both the design team and the marketing team has been a bit of shock and horror. A fairly typical response would be to unleash some counter-spin with "trusted members of the gaming community." Again, there is hazard here, because smart, picky gamers immediately respond with a critique of the spin. For example, as much as I respect the work of Nick and Ari, I also know that they have a vested interest in the success of the product. They are freelancers who have generated content for it and hope to do so in the future. I do not think their responses are disingenuous, but I am aware of their bias and I have to filter comments like, "The DMG is the best book ever!" because I am aware that they might not be informed by the most detached perspective. Taking a good old whiff of the tone and techniques I am seeing, and also keeping my ear to the ground and listening to the rumbling of folks around their NDAs, I am fairly certain that there are problems, and the people who are in charge of this are scared. Scared as in, "How the heck am I going to keep my job if this doesn’t meet goal" scared. The core of what is going on here is an attempt to broaden the play base by targeting a younger audience. It's the same sort of thing you see Tide or McDonald's or Pepsi do. Get that younger demographic! It makes sense when understood that brand loyalties, use of leisure time, and patterns of consumption develop when folks are young and stay with us our entire lives. Show of hands here, how many of us started playing before age 25? Right now the bandwidth of most teens and 20 somethings is more WoW than D&D. That cohort is the target. The strategy is structured to get that group and alo and hang onto as many old-timers as possible. To survive and endure endure the product line must generate enough revenue to support what must be an FTE heavy R&D team and a relatively low margin product line. The folks who are shooting 4.0 most likely see themselves as trying to save the game. They are trying to move the genre and their product from the back end of a consumption cycle to the front end. I respect that. Hasbro does not care about D&D the way we do. To Hasbro, it is just another revenue stream and product line. The WOTC team has to keep improving contributions to share value each year if it wants to survive. It is actually that simple. I imagine there are fiannce types and anlaysts even now saying, "The margin on print is x and the margin on minis and cards is y! Kill print and drive margin." Of course, I would argue back that is about brand development and cash flow, but that is truly the subkect of another conversation. From my perspective, however, WOTC may create a perfect storm. The GENX folks who were rolling into their early 30s when 3.0 launched were the core of the upsurge. Many folks came back to D&D after a long hiatus when 3.0 launched because their life was changing and their income and leisure time began to open up. That cohort of consumers, coupled with the grognards, carried the 3.0 wave of success for both the third party publishers and WOTC. However, the product as it stands is in serious danger of alienating the core market and not being dynamic enough to draw in the target group. The target group does not have a previous history with the game. The target group was not as deeply penetrated as the GenX crew was. They had playstation. We had Nintendo. We had Saturday morning cartoons. They had Cartoon Network. It's a different group that will respond differently to the product. Here's the secret and what is being missed: it almost always requires current players to recruit new players . So, unless the strategy involves serious thought on how to recruit new players and GMs it is flawed. Outside of Gleemax, which is a really poor geeky version of myspace, I am not seeing that attempt made well, or more importantly, specific products targeted to acquire the right bandwidth of kids. Now I don't have a silver bullet here and none of us do. I am solid enough of a marketing professional to think that if I had the right market research and sales data I could float a couple of ideas, but the issue here is a huge one. It's the same issue faced by TV & newspapers and radio. How does an old fashioned medium of entertainment stay relevant in a changing media landscape? No one knows yet, except maybe Steve Jobs and I think he just guesses right bout a third of the time. So, 4.0, will I buy it and play? Oh, I'll buy it. However that will be in spite of and not because of how it has been marketed. I really don't know if I'll play it. I am really hoping some company will fix 3.5's bugs, but I am not depending on it. However, I do love this game, and the future of the game is 4.0. I just wish I felt the future was brighter.
My Grandfather had an abiding love of fantasy fiction that he sucessfully transferred to me. Howard, Burroughs, Brackett, Zelazny, Cherryh, Farmer, Cook, Anderson, Moorcock & so many others graced his bookshelves. Some of those books are still with me. Many others I thought I had lost. Planet Stories is doing a great service to the gaming and fantasy community by re-publishing these works. It is not all Tolkien! There is a deep and broad pulpy narrative history that much of our game and current fiction is drawn from. Some of these books clearly draw from another time and sense of gender and polity. However, all have something to say about what we consider brave and what it takes to face the darkness. Thank you for helping me find some of the lost stories of my youth.
Good Morning! I'd like to cancel the remaining three Pathfinder episodes in this order and convert them into an ongoing subscription. As I've purchased Episodes 1-3 (2 through you and one through Gencon) if you were to throw the pdfs my way as an act of good faith and outstanding customer service, I would not be offended and promise to sing your praises far and wide. I authorize use of my current payment settings for the change in the transaction. Thanks, Tad Kilgore
I am running this series for my sons and their friends (age range 7-10). Burnt Offerings was ideal for their sensitivities. Skinsaw murders has a bit of a sharper edge. I very much enjoy the product, and they are enjoying it also. However, I am in the process of... softening some of the edges in the plot and was wondering what this group thinks. How would you adjust this? I am not so much concerned about murders as they understand that there are bad men in the world. I am more concerned about issues involving family violence. Explaining that daddies could kill mommies and children is one thing. Roleplaying it is another. Any thoughts on this? |
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