Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Hopefully this isn't considered expanding on my entry... I just want to say that any semicolons that may or may not be in my entry are Chris Mortika's fault.How odd. I was about to mention the same thing regarding you and my confusion between capital O's and zeroes.
Hah... hopefully my submission was proofed better than my post.
Good luck this round everyone. I am going to endeavor to be elsewhere as much as possible for the duration since I tend to put my foot in my mouth overmuch otherwise.
Let's get it on!
Oh, Hell! Jim broke out the Marvin Gaye on us! ;-)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Let's get it on!Oh, Hell! Jim broke out the Marvin Gaye on us! ;-)
For some reason this reminds me of the episode of South Park where they try to get the elephant to breed with the pig.
Suddenly I'm wondering what would happen if you cross bred some of the Top 16 critters....
Let's get it on!Oh, Hell! Jim broke out the Marvin Gaye on us! ;-)
Hahaha!! Ya got me Tom!
Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they fought with expert timingThere was funky Billy Chin and little Sammy Chung
He said here comes the big boss, lets get it on!
We took a bow and made a stand, started swinging with the hand
The sudden motion made me skip now we're into a brand new trip
I've had funny little songs like that ever since Dennis posted a link to that funny little YouTube song about the 'Greatest Rivals OF Destiny'. I hope they're not frackin' with my writing too much. ;-)
Incidentally, I found a funny little story about how Carl Douglas came up with that song:
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Star Voter Season 6
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Let's get it on!Oh, Hell! Jim broke out the Marvin Gaye on us! ;-)For some reason this reminds me of the episode of South Park where they try to get the elephant to breed with the pig.
Suddenly I'm wondering what would happen if you cross bred some of the Top 16 critters....
A lahagmu?
I'm just worried again that I came in so much under word count.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8
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Let's get it on!Oh, Hell! Jim broke out the Marvin Gaye on us! ;-)For some reason this reminds me of the episode of South Park where they try to get the elephant to breed with the pig.
Suddenly I'm wondering what would happen if you cross bred some of the Top 16 critters....
Madness, my man, madness. <shudder>
I'm just worried again that I came in so much under word count.
669 here.
There was an ugre to find some use for the last 31 words, but it felt I would be padding my entry with unecessary filler
Wonder if I should make other stat blocks to kill time while the waiting begins. *cue musical montage*
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Suddenly I'm wondering what would happen if you cross bred some of the Top 16 critters....
Ossuary Haga Chymick
This gigantic two-headed eagle plummets towards you out of the mid-day sky. Made of granite, it cannot pull up out of its stoop, and shatters into rubble, not ten feet away from you. Inside, you can see the remains of a delicate glass and copper fillagre construct, perhaps not designed to be dropped from a height.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8
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Suddenly I'm wondering what would happen if you cross bred some of the Top 16 critters....Ossuary Haga Chymick
This gigantic two-headed eagle plummets towards you out of the mid-day sky. Made of granite, it cannot pull up out of its stoop, and shatters into rubble, not ten feet away from you. Inside, you can see the remains of a delicate glass and copper fillagre construct, perhaps not designed to be dropped from a height.
Oooh! It's an area attack!
I'm just worried again that I came in so much under word count.669 here.
There was an ugre to find some use for the last 31 words, but it felt I would be padding my entry with unecessary filler
Yeah I came in a bit under, but not by much I wanted to try to make sure to make good use of the word count, but didn't want it to seem padded either.
Man. Most of you guys aren't easy to pin down on Facebook.
Man. Most of you guys aren't easy to pin down on Facebook.
I don't even remember if I put anything remotely interesting on my. I mostly uses to keep in touch with college and high school friends that I don't get time to e-mail regularly.
<off topic distraction> So a coworker and I are running 2 Council of Thieves Campaigns for a total of 13 high school students. Most of whom are noobs. We've spent 3 (about 2 hours each) sessions and they are knee deep in sewers. I think we both should have used some more oversight on character creation (which took like 3 sessions) no one in either party has knowledge(religion). They decided to use lots of crossbows on some skeletons with predictable results(well for the GMs anyway). We were entertained anyway. They are enjoying it, I just hope we can slowly get them to, you know, ROLEPLAY. They're high school students, they like combat. Anyway where is that snow storm they've been talking about?</off topic distraction>
Oh, man. I hate those sewers. I've run two parties through them, and both times I squinted at the page trying to find the "1 square = 10 feet" key that I knew had to be there somewhere. Had to! No. Five foot g#%&!!n corridors. Don't let them out until they're level 2!
If I ever run them again, they'll be 10 feet wide. Because come on.
On the upside: I discovered that none of the young folk have experienced brown mold. Mmm.
Seriously, I wish I had a video of the way my face lit up at the words, "I cast burning hands."
@Jason - are you the one with no photo and an empty private profile? :)
Suddenly I'm wondering what would happen if you cross bred some of the Top 16 critters....
No no no. I have no desire to see a Slithering Skintaker.
Hmm, wait. Nevermind.
** spoiler omitted **
$#@%! it! Aww, man. I don't even get a Reflex save.
***Kicks a tin can.***
If I ever run them again, they'll be 10 feet wide. Because come on.
Go measure a medieval sewer or catacomb for me. Or heck, a typical castle hallway. :)
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Star Voter Season 6
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<off topic distraction> So a coworker and I are running 2 Council of Thieves Campaigns for a total of 13 high school students. Most of whom are noobs. We've spent 3 (about 2 hours each) sessions and they are knee deep in sewers. I think we both should have used some more oversight on character creation (which took like 3 sessions) no one in either party has knowledge(religion). They decided to use lots of crossbows on some skeletons with predictable results(well for the GMs anyway). We were entertained anyway. They are enjoying it, I just hope we can slowly get them to, you know, ROLEPLAY. They're high school students, they like combat. Anyway where is that snow storm they've been talking about?</off topic distraction>
I usually do descriptive things in situations like that. "Nice shot, it would have definately slowed a man down unfortunately that guy shot just ricochetted off the spine."
storytime
Had a player who was prone to cheat, but I let her slide since everyone else knew she was cheeting and knew I was compensating. She 'rolled' a natural 20 with her bow shooting at some fresh zombies. I let her roll to confirm the crit (and of course max damage) but kept the original d6. "A great shot, right in the heart. The elf doesn't react, except to pull another arrow from his quiver and shoot back.
They panicked.
Contributor
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Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka Boxhead
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Ah, the power of description.. it does tend to be the best way to make a threat seem like nothing, or a kobold seem like a god...
New players really are the best, the fear they can sew even in the hardiest of groups is something to see...
Go measure a medieval sewer or catacomb for me. Or heck, a typical castle hallway. :)
Oh, I know. It's just a conflict of reality and rules abstraction. There are very few tactical options when you and the enemy are both stuck single-file. Not all of the intersections were terrible in that way, and on my second run through I chucked the random table which helped.
Seriously, I wish I had a video of the way my face lit up at the words, "I cast burning hands."
@Jason - are you the one with no photo and an empty private profile? :)
Yeah probably. Oh I could take a photo right now. Just rolled out of bed hair and pj's Jason could greet the world!
Go measure a medieval sewer or catacomb for me. Or heck, a typical castle hallway. :)Oh, I know. It's just a conflict of reality and rules abstraction. There are very few tactical options when you and the enemy are both stuck single-file. Not all of the intersections were terrible in that way, and on my second run through I chucked the random table which helped.
I thought there was some kind of errata post that the halls should be 10 feet. I used the table to help me construct an outline and a order in which I wanted things to happen.
<off topic distraction> So a coworker and I are running 2 Council of Thieves Campaigns for a total of 13 high school students. Most of whom are noobs. We've spent 3 (about 2 hours each) sessions and they are knee deep in sewers. I think we both should have used some more oversight on character creation (which took like 3 sessions) no one in either party has knowledge(religion). They decided to use lots of crossbows on some skeletons with predictable results(well for the GMs anyway). We were entertained anyway. They are enjoying it, I just hope we can slowly get them to, you know, ROLEPLAY. They're high school students, they like combat. Anyway where is that snow storm they've been talking about?</off topic distraction>I usually do descriptive things in situations like that. "Nice shot, it would have definately slowed a man down unfortunately that guy shot just ricochetted off the spine."
storytime
** spoiler omitted **
They panicked.
Yeah so do we. I think the DR description even says the players should be able to tell that it wasn't as effective. One of mine threw a trident at one. Fortunately he managed to do enough damage with his scythe and the half-orc fighter uses a great sword. The sorcerer has disrupt undead (but fails on firing into melee.) and we have a pathfinder converted dread necromancer who took one out of the fight. I have an outline planned that should take them to level 2 before exiting, but scaling things for a group of 7, ouch. Especially with the space issues.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Yeah probably. Oh I could take a photo right now. Just rolled out of bed hair and pj's Jason could greet the world!Seriously, I wish I had a video of the way my face lit up at the words, "I cast burning hands."
@Jason - are you the one with no photo and an empty private profile? :)
It would be more attractive than James' profile picture above ;)
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I wanted to pass along a technique that worked for me Thursday night.
No, a playtesting technique.
I found a friend who's run several Pathfinder Society adventures, so he's up on his Pathfinder rules lore. I gave him the second draft of my <redacted>'s stat block and asked him to use it in an encounter.
The parts of the description that confused him, the conflict between the <redacted>'s Feats and the tactics it was supposed to favor, the way the flavor text got in the way of the stats ... that was all good information. Then he ran the encounter a couple of times, with me and his family running characters of an appropriate CR. And the combats went pretty smoothly. We discussed what would have happened if the attack damage, or the defenses, or the critter's tactics had been different, and those were good, too.
I learned some years ago that I am my own worst playtester, because I know how things are supposed to go, and what a party is supposed to do. I need somebody else to connect ith my writing directly, to show me what's really there, and what isn't.
Chris,
I too was blessed with one of my "pit crew" (as you described them), who ran an independent playtest without me being present.
Talk about illuminating. They found some issues that looked fine on paper but didn't translate to actual play very well.
If you got the means to run a playtest, it's invaluable.
Chris,
I too was blessed with one of my "pit crew" (as you described them), who ran an independent playtest without me being present.
Talk about illuminating. They found some issues that looked fine on paper but didn't translate to actual play very well.
If you got the means to run a playtest, it's invaluable.
I considered hijacking the gaming club members at our Thursday meeting, but I realized a bunch of new players might not make an ideal playtest group. Fortunately I have a friend who has already passed the bar in 3.5 and Pathfinder.
...Fortunately I have a friend who has already passed the bar in 3.5 and Pathfinder.
There's a bar for 3.5 and Pathfinder?!
...Fortunately I have a friend who has already passed the bar in 3.5 and Pathfinder.There's a bar for 3.5 and Pathfinder?!
Why? Am I about to get lawyer'd or does he have alcoholic constipation?
That brings up a question for the professionals here. If there's a freelance assignment for "7000 words" is it preferable for a freelancer to hit 7000 words exactly, or to come in a little low, say, 6850, to give the developer / editor breathing room to add a paragraph?I much prefer a slightly* longer turnover to one on-target or under, for two reasons:
1) Sometimes part of what the designer wrote doesn't work, or inadvertently contradicts something we're publishing elsewhere, and I cut it.
2) Sometimes I'm able to find a more efficient way to describe something (such as by pointing at a universal monster rule, or modeling it after an existing spell or magic item), which means the text ends up shorter than the initial turnover.For either situation, if the designer wrote long, that means we still hit out word count. And in general I'm faster at cutting something down to fit than writing something to fill a gap.
Also, if something ran long, it's really easy to remove a self-contained chunk of text--a variant magic item, a description of an NPC, a sidebar with a real-world anecdote--and be on target without adversely affecting the document.
* By slightly I mean about 10%. Not 50%, Todd. :)
Thanks for the glimpse into the editing process. I can;t speak for others, but I know that I am more or less ignorant of the realities for what editors do (beyond my no doubt slightly of preconceptions of what they do). I know your only speaking for yourself, but it is still interesting/helpful to know.
Thanks for the glimpse into the editing process. I can't speak for others, but I know that I am more or less ignorant of the realities for what editors do (beyond my no doubt slightly off preconceptions of what they do). I know your only speaking for yourself, but it is still interesting/helpful to know.
Oh the irony. Typos in a post saying, "thanks for telling me about editing stuff". This is what happens when I just type and hit submit post.
Yeah, like I've never made major typos in important message board posts. ;)
...oh! Right, it's only Monday. :P
...oh! Right, it's only Monday. :P
Yup! Go make some maps. There's got to be a map round coming up. There just has to. I mean why else have a cartographer as a judge?
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7
aka Draconas
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...oh! Right, it's only Monday. :PYup! Go make some maps. There's got to be a map round coming up. There just has to. I mean why else have a cartographer as a judge?
If it follows last year's formula and with this year's theme, Round 4 is gonna be 'Create an Encounter (with map) with a Creature of the Top 8.'
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Star Voter Season 6
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If it follows last year's formula and with this year's theme, Round 4 is gonna be 'Create an Encounter (with map) with a Creature of the Top 8.'...oh! Right, it's only Monday. :PYup! Go make some maps. There's got to be a map round coming up. There just has to. I mean why else have a cartographer as a judge?
Gods, the suspense is killing me.