Shameless bump!
Anything in particular folks would like to see?
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See, I'm not nearly as wary of dual stat PF-AE as I would be for most systems. Kvantum - thanks. I'm not worried either. It will take a little more work on the end that fans don't see. That's all. If there's something you'd like to see - please let us know. I'm one of the authors.
Hm. There's also Airships by Sam DeWitt and a Mike Mearls book from the Third Edition days. Both good resources.
Terrain can be 33 1/3 of any good adventure! So, here's some stuff that worked out well: Floating cubes over an abyss that the PCs had to leap onto. If they leaped onto the wrong one, it was either a grey ooze or a gelatinous cube. Too many PCs on a given cube and it sank. (This adventure was deemed "mean" by the great Tarondor, a veteran of many a D&D Open. :D ) Contracting walls of force (almost like a moat) barring the PCs from a castle. In between the walls I had some golems attacking them. If they didn't figure out how to open at least one wall within 7 rounds - squish! Loved how much panic this one caused. Little islands in a marsh with tents upon them. The PCs had to pole a mashuf around past sentries, find a specific tent, and rescue a trapped girl. Ghouls and men in sentry tours vexed them, and then when they tried to get away - objective accomplished - the dire crocodiles really bugged them. This one was real. The Ma'dan have existed for a very, very long time. And I've verified good amounts of the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Arabs
Cool. So the druids are like nature's police? ;) How about what propels the weapons? How is it made? I had a game with gunpowder - except that instead of the classic ingredients, one vital component was a crystal found only in dead/decayed bodies. I renamed it hellpowder. The PCs were really boged out about firing weapons made (in some way) from stuff found on dead people. Yet they kept using them. It was a very interesting experiment. What kind of damage to the surface and the underworld did this war cause? Might there be bards who try to heal the wounds and rifts? A new kind of worldbalm? Who within the existing 'goodly' community has great interest in these new devices? And why? Does evil lurk behind a pleasant and plastic smiling face?
Right. The issue isn't what's allowed under the law. The issue is that Kinko's has been sued in the past. Someone at corporate headquarters decided that the safest policy was to "not allow printing of anything copyrighted" or some similarly written broad brush pronouncement. That's why they won't print gaming materials. Although local print shops are now becoming as scarce as game shops, I suggest that you look around for a printer who isn't part of a huge chain.
Ho ho! These are exactly the sorts of things that come out from Open Design. Hall of the Mountain King, the Zobeck Gazetteer, and Tales of the Old Margreve. From Shore to Sea, the Paizo Adventure, tied directly into Sunken Empires, and it detailed one very small island. If you buy both in conjunction, it's a microsetting.
Endzeitgeist - thank you for catching those typos. I might point out that the text here is over 100,000 words. Even some of the finest editors in the world have errors in their books. (It's happened to Paizo and to Malhavoc, to name two.) That said, we were a bit rushed and I wish we had more time. If you find more typos/errors, please do send them to us offlist so that we may incorporate them into the Omega edition. Any help is appreciated. With respect to unlimited dispel magic (which this is not), have you had any experiences in your game that you can share? We need to learn from people's experiences to tweak the final class. (I personally have played high level casters and several versions of the Enlightened Scholar. Brandish seems to fill a nice niche where you have a chance to affect the outcome of a fight with options other than just fireballs.) Dark Mistress - any specific points where you'd like to see conversion efforts or tips on things being more Pathfinder compatible? It's interesting thinking about a variant on a variant (Jade Oath uses Arcana Evolved) being applied to a different variant (Pathfinder).
Ha! Releases in "the dead of winter." Eeesh. I am still shuddering from that one.
Are there sheets anywhere online for the iconics? I'm trying to find some for a playtest. I loaned out my copy of Rise of the Runelords, unfortunately, and I got that as a gift so I never had the pdf. I tried the wiki, but got confused and didn't find any? Help is appreciated in advance! Thanks.
Umm, Brandon, did I miss the "Sink the Continent" rules brainstorm?
All right. It's official folks. We're sending Steve out to Charm School. It's not just that he pays us writers on time. Well okay, yeah, it pretty much is. :D @Dark Mistress - Long time no see! Glad to find other Necro Boards folks have meandered over here. Awesome review. As a (tiny) contributor I thank you and everyone else who took the time to read and consider.
Well done one and all! Congrats to Matt for his first-place finish.
There's a difference between "what's out there" and "what has been discussed on the bulletin boards in the past couple years and has been commissioned". Fifteen and twenty years ago, all a query to Dragon got you was "We have already got X number of similar manuscripts. Thank you for your inquiry."
I handled it a little differently. I voted for the adventure proposal that I liked that I thought would fit most easily into 32 pages. In hopes that the one that I liked the most - which needed far more than 32 pages - would someone get a bigger, better nod.
This was a really, really tough decision for me because I simply couldn't choose between Matt Goodall's "Cult of the Ebon Destroyers" and Jim Groves's "Doom of the Dream Thieves." Both have a lot of great stuff...I'm in the exact same boat in terms of being torn between these two. I've also gone back and forth and changed my vote a couple of times Glad to see I wasn't alone in that.
IMO the SCA is a social club, not a LARP since people wear uniforms (ie "garb"), engage in club-sponsored activities and have official "personae" but otherwise behave mostly like modern people. It has LARPish elements in places, yes. I was a landed Baron for 3 years, so I have some experience with the culture. :) That said, I think the analogy also extends to prior campaigns and other social events too. A moment or two of "Do you remember when?" "Yeah, that was funny." is fine. Going on at length about a game that half the table or less participated in, or a common social calendar event? Not really good gaming etiquette. Or general etiquette.
They don't need to say 'current'. It's implied. The Setting Search was a once-only deal.
Nice list! I'll add: Use common courtesy at all times - if you don't know what ithat is, look it up! Example: If you're running late to the game, call the DM and/or another player who is there to let them know. If you're going to miss it and you know at all in advance, call and email and give plenty of notice. Not showing with no notice is not cool, unless it's a family medical emergency, you're in accident, or something major like that.
Cool! Glad to see someone rendering the creatures.
Did you hear about the announcement for Tales of the Old Margreve, with Tim & Eileen Connors as the design leads? You can buy in now when the design work is jsut getting started. http://www.koboldquarterly.com/KQStore/index.php?main_page=product_info& ;cPath=5&products_id=66
Congrats to one and all for their efforts, and to the Top 8 for their advancement!
I can vouch for the Danish customs imposing a draconic VAT. I send the occasional care package of gaming supplies and neat food items to a friend or two over there. I found out that they charge a huge amount of money on the items. I scaled back the packages and now I send money to cover the VAT. :(
Astrumal Critter Comments As I did not have time during this last round to comment, I am going through now to offer a few comments. 1. Gotta say, I’m automatically disappointed that this is a CR 5 critter. From the prior writeup, it sang to me as being more hit dice than 6d10. That said, this is a surprisingly good rendition of a low level horror.
Overall, a pretty good rendering of a monster that’s unique. This one stands out for me for a number of reasons. I think you may have an issue if you get past this round that some of your ideas don’t get quite enough finished. Then again, maybe not. I’ll be curious to see how this critter does.
Lahamu CR 6 Critter Comments As I did not have time during this last round to comment, I am going through now to offer a few comments. 1. There is a semi-colon after hp – was something supposed to go there?
Overall, a fair execution of the concept. If it had an ability or could do more with working in a pack, that would make it more interesting to me.
I am now officially conflicted on my gaming budget. I was going to pick this up in pdf only, but China Mieville? I think I need dead tree too.
I for one would rather see plastic minis from Paizo with some or the more iconic Pathfinder creatures - starting with goblins.
I based my voting on how well the writer handled the Special Abilities actually. (I assumed that anyone who made it this far could handle a competent stat block, and it would get a revision in edit and in development.)
Oh thanks! Yes, I want to continue with that, especially for the new APG. Now that's good service!
Thank you! I look forward to receiving the last of this AP. However, I am now set for a while, so please discontinue my future AP subscriptions. Thanks.
Fairly little since I only play occasionally and don't have a chance to DM. I have Wrath of the River King, the Halls of the Mountain King conversion, and I'm a patron on Courts of the Shadow Fey, all from Open Design. That's it so far.
No interest in a rework of a submitted item. :) As to question the second, hindsight tells me that I still should have submitted what I did because of what I learned about the contest. I've entered twice. Each time, the item has been IMO wondrous technically, but it was not enough. Had I submitted something different this last time, or revised what I put in, I still think the net outcome would be the same. So I'd rather learn from what I did than worry about how I (perhaps) could have made it better.
As a note, I loved the prose. However, as a DM, this fell too squarely outside of what I need. As a voter, I was a little more interested in something new that didn't expand an already filled niche. Granted, I would rather use these than piercers (stupid critters), but I stopped using piercers long ago.
Well done all, and congrats to those who advance!
I'll be honest with you Watcher, this wound up being one of the ones on my short list of 11 that I had a tough time deciding on votes for. Despite my initial impression, they grew on me a lot. I didn't vote for them, but based on polling I'm hoping you are through to the next round so we can see what's coming.
I'm in the state in Canton. Already committed to a full (for me) gaming schedule, but if anyone schedules any conventions or anything, please post. I'd be interested! (Bristol CT used to be famous for the New Departure GM plant. That went out around the time ESPN came in. Have you been on the tour? Really cool facility in there.)
I think that's actually what he said. He lost track of writing a cool monster, one so cool that it could be iconic. All the classic D&D monsters didn't get to be iconic because they had 5000 word writeups or Archology articles of adventures about them. They all started off with little blurbs and stat blocks.
Ironically after I read it the second time, the name didn't really bother me. I am curious to see if you'll advance and we'll get to see what you intend with some of these listed abilities.
He writes what I think of as fusion fantasy - taking the modern world and bringing old legends to life in it. I think some of his stuff may have been called urban fantasy. Anyway, your writing reminds me of his in that respect - fresh takes on old ideas.
But the biggest mistake was not considering the context of the submission. This is not a monster book monster. It's only interesting before the PCs and the players figure out what's going on, and its combat stats should all be focused on making an interesting story and not an interesting combat. This monster should be a setting-book or adventure-book monster, not an entry in a list of monsters sure to be read by the players. This submission request, were it an actual call for freelancers, was obviously for a book like Bestiary II, not Strange Happenings in Darkfantasytown. Jared, thanks for having the courage to do an excellent self-analysis. I think your comment above applies to others who entered as well as yourself. It should almost be required reading if the contest uses this round again next year. :)
That shows a great deal of thought went into the creature. Applause for that! I agree by the way with your taxonomy of the two types of fey. Those are perfectly appropriate. (Have you read any Charles de Lint?)
We're in full playtest mode now guy! Got about a year to go. Come join us. (Year +/- Gen Con or Steve seeing this....)
Dammit. Post got eaten. Interpose some thoughtful comment I might have made. I have backspaced in search of your pain. Yes, a head bowed to insight now lost.
I think that's also a reasonable definition Hydro! Yes, there's lots of those here too.
@Clark - hat tip. Thank you sir. (Slightly embarrassed now, but also pleased.) @Hydro - More embarrassed, but thanks! Your small unmarked gold pieces will arrive in the mail. ;) @Matthew Morris - You'll note that yours wasn't one of them - and the lahamu was one I had a tough time deciding amongst for my four votes. :) I define a Gotcha Monster as a critter - like the Pit Fiend - that lets the DM get the last word in as the players hack his prized enemy(ies) to bits. It explodes, it tosses negative energy, or it does something to screw them for killing things. The PCs get their reward (yay, we killed it!) followed by a nasty surprise. It's a good thing when used sparingly. Best done when foreshadowed. There were a surprising number in this round. I have done it myself. I had a clockwork golem full of steam pressure. When they took it out, the thing blew up, raining pieces everywhere. Another example - a mental creature that gives off a dying screech that paralyzes or deafens something. Think "wizard with contingency to get a 'From Hell's Heart I stab at thee'" moment.
Who looked at all 32 critters? Who wrote a review/analysis/left a substantive comment? What do you think now that the round is over? I found a few interesting trends: -Guts 'n gore was in.
I offer a hearty 'congratulations' to everyone for making the excellent effort 32 times. I look forward to the next round!
Difficult to make a decision. I had eleven that I seriously would like to see written up. Ultimately I settled on: Astrumal
*Surprised myself. However, the more I read it, the more I thought "yeah, I'd like a King Rat low-level boss monster).
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