
captain yesterday |

captain yesterday wrote:I worked at a restaurant with cameras all over the place and if you so much as flipped burgers counterclockwise this big guy in an expensive suit walks out of his room to remind the proper way to flip the burgers.that sounds like a combination of awful and hilarious.
I see people in expensive suits doing all sorts of things due to the second job and the idea of a legbreaker in this years Armani coming over to flip burgers "appropriately" cracks me up.
It was in Seattle, so that's what I assumed, yes.
Alas, it didn't pay for s#+~.
How apropos, i left that job to work as a risque barista at Seahawks Stadium (in fairness, I thought it was French).

Hermit the Frog |
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"Send help. They're learning to 'Old Town Road' line dance."
"So they're horsing around?"
"...I no longer need help."
Twist: The kids only break into the dance in front of Scint. In front of everyone else, they just sit there quietly.

Freehold DM |

Scintillae wrote:Twist: The kids only break into the dance in front of Scint. In front of everyone else, they just sit there quietly."Send help. They're learning to 'Old Town Road' line dance."
"So they're horsing around?"
"...I no longer need help."
that would be AWESOME.

Scintillae |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Scintillae wrote:Twist: The kids only break into the dance in front of Scint. In front of everyone else, they just sit there quietly."Send help. They're learning to 'Old Town Road' line dance."
"So they're horsing around?"
"...I no longer need help."
Ha. Wasn't even in my room. Was one of the Rainbow poking their head out from the room across the hall to beg for freedom.

Freehold DM |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Almost done with The Rage, I see what you mean Freehold, I'd rate Byers and Kemps characters and descriptions about the same but Byers sense of pacing is waaay better.
oh WOW. They have very different feels to me, mainly because Byers is a champion fencer- won several awards in FL, actually. I am tempted to visit the state to get his autograph. I would love to study both writing and fencing underneath him.

Vanykrye |

There's going to be a 6th edition of Shadowrun.
The 5th edition kind of lost me. Let's see if the 6th can get me into it again.
I am a die hard 2nd and 3rd ed fan, as I prefer that harder, gritter world. 6th ed is starting with Ares taking on Bug City in a meaningful way, so...we will see!
My high school group played Shadowrun when it first came out. Maybe 3 sessions. And that's pretty much all I remember about that.
I vaguely remember liking it, but I think I was in the minority in that group.

Freehold DM |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

Freehold DM wrote:There's going to be a 6th edition of Shadowrun.
The 5th edition kind of lost me. Let's see if the 6th can get me into it again.
I am a die hard 2nd and 3rd ed fan, as I prefer that harder, gritter world. 6th ed is starting with Ares taking on Bug City in a meaningful way, so...we will see!
My high school group played Shadowrun when it first came out. Maybe 3 sessions. And that's pretty much all I remember about that.
I vaguely remember liking it, but I think I was in the minority in that group.
shadowrun is one of my favorite game settings of all time. I own most of the fiction, and several editions of the game. The rpg for genesis is one of my favorite video games of all time. I still use shadowspeak in my day to day life(and 4th and 5th ed seem to have less shadowspeak, which is, to me, a Problem).
Unfortunately, the game system and its various iterations are INCREDIBLY difficult to learn. I think a fawtl once described it at having to be literate in English, Spanish, French and Italian, as the game systems for each class were very far removed from each other. Moreover, there were/are a lot of "realism" fans of the game, which resulted in a lot of classes becoming far more powerful than they were at the outset as the editions moved on, which resulted in some almost slapstick level moments in game(riggers who blew all their money on an army of cheapo observation drones, for example).
Also as time went on, starting money became increasingly important in game, to the point that people would ignore stats to buy things. At least one game started with people being able to buy the equivalent of tactical nukes, and with a mindset of "if it's in the book, I can have it!", a lot of MADA occurred between players and game masters.
Also, some social justice issues rising in the game resulted in some problems at some tables, primarily with ghouls being considered a sentient race, and orcs(and occasionally trolls) becoming the black people of the game via their struggle for equal rights, and orcsploitation films entering prominence(which is weird to me, considering Neil The Orc Barbarian was a LONG RUNNING(30 years old at this point!) joke, and the idea of Elf/Orc/Troll Poser as a background for characters(at least late 4th/5th ed pointed out you are going to likely get your ass kicked by the respective races in game, similar to white kids trying to act hood and getting openly mocked by people from the hood irl). There were also issues with shaking up the mega corps and introducing ones that made more sense in modern day- places that were trying to save the world via green initiatives(getting rid of the term "decker" and replacing it with "hacker" so that the pictures of the iconic hacker wearing a "hack the planet" shirt really cheesed me off, for example) and the like. Some shadowrun gamers really hated that, others loved it- so much of the things that were fiction in shadowrun became very real technology that we use every day(I still remember how the novels predicted micro SD cards) that it could be seen as dumb if shadowrun did not keep up with the times in some senses, but not all.
That said, I HAVE to say that despite my misgivings there, The Trog Handbook is one of the BEST supplements I have EVER read for Shadowrun overall- it gets a lot of things right with respect to social justice via representation(a major issue in the book) moreso than the "Pls like orcs/trolls. Us r gud." attitude seen in earlier editions(despite their attempt to get away from that later on). I recommend the book very highly, especially as a black gamer. It is not perfect, but it gets a lot right- trolls that shave down their horns/orcs shaving down their tusks being seen as sellouts by those who intentionally grow and even sharpen them, trolls learning 20th century cursive and calligraphy because current notebooks and other electronic devices are not sized for them, and other nice touches. Good book.
6th ed is running on/selling simplicity as its main draw, which has me very interested in it. With the main storyline being a direct call back to one of the lingering issues of 3rd/4th edition via Bug City has a lot of old school fans willing to put aside their older editions to check this book out. There are only two types of actions you can take now, and the book is meant to be MUCH thinner than earlier editions- around 300 pages instead of around 500+- and has other changes(d6s only) meant to explain the world succinctly and get you playing almost immediately.
I guess we will see what happens....

Orthos |
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At least one game started with people being able to buy the equivalent of tactical nukes, and with a mindset of "if it's in the book, I can have it!", a lot of MADA occurred between players and game masters.
Maybe this just proves how out of the loop I am in non-D&D/Pathfinder games, but what's this acronym stand for?

NobodysHome |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

Moments of Sadness:
Anyway, we finally finished off Strange Aeons Book 3, and in addition to all of its other flaws (which are multitudinous), the total wealth in the book is just under 153,000 (so the PCs have to keep every item rather than selling any of it just to hit WBL), but over 100,000 is wealth that the PCs only get if they actively rebel against local governments. Lawful PC? Sorry, you get no wealth in this book! Maybe next time you'll choose a different alignment!
Not great writing...

Orthos |

Lawful PC? Sorry, you get no wealth in this book! Maybe next time you'll choose a different alignment!
Not great writing...
I have noticed this is an increasing thing in Paizo's APs. With the extremely specific exceptions of APs written "for" a specific alignment (such as Wrath of the Righteous being aimed for Lawful Good types and Hell's Vengeance for Evil PCs), almost all of their generic "made for any party" APs are actually written with the assumption that the PCs will either be or be within one step of Chaotic Good.
Lawful PCs in APs other than WOTR tend to have to either go along with the CG-leaning scheme/plan that the plot expects or have to take more difficult alternate routes to reach the same results without breaking alignment. Or, as in your case, just plain can't and lose out on rewards, be it treasure or roleplay-based, because their personality and ethos are incompatible with the chain of events and behaviors the writers expected PCs to take and rewarded accordingly.
The majority of allied NPCs tend to be CG, NG, TN, or CN; LG and LN NPCs, even those not outright meant to be opponents, are increasingly becoming obstacles that have to be worked around or tentative allies that you have to keep a lot of secrets from and/or skirt around their objections if you don't want them to become antagonists.
As someone who greatly enjoys playing LG and LN characters (not to mention tends to lean IRL toward a morality and ethics that would probably be defined as Lawful in game terms) this is something that I've found increasingly irritating. It made things difficult for the party in Rise of the Runelords, it's caused a couple (thankfully minor) issues in Iron Gods, and even all the way back in Age of Worms we had struggles with it (which makes NO SENSE to me, with the sheer volume of Undead in that campaign, why in heck would you want to make it difficult to play a Paladin?), and I expect to have problems along the same lines in Savage Tide in certain chapters to come (though I think most of my STAP party is Neutral or Chaotic, so maybe not).

NobodysHome |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

NobodysHome wrote:Lawful PC? Sorry, you get no wealth in this book! Maybe next time you'll choose a different alignment!
Not great writing...
I have noticed this is an increasing thing in Paizo's APs. With the extremely specific exceptions of APs written "for" a specific alignment (such as Wrath of the Righteous being aimed for Lawful Good types and Hell's Vengeance for Evil PCs), almost all of their generic "made for any party" APs are actually written with the assumption that the PCs will either be or be within one step of Chaotic Good.
...
As someone who greatly enjoys playing LG and LN characters (not to mention tends to lean IRL toward a morality and ethics that would probably be defined as Lawful in game terms) this is something that I've found increasingly irritating. It made things difficult for the party in Rise of the Runelords, it's caused a couple (thankfully minor) issues in Iron Gods, and even all the way back in Age of Worms we had struggles with it (which makes NO SENSE to me, with the sheer volume of Undead in that campaign, why in heck would you want to make it difficult to play a Paladin?), and I expect to have problems along the same lines in Savage Tide in certain chapters to come (though I think most of my STAP party is Neutral or Chaotic, so maybe not).
Well, GothBard put it really well: In Strange Aeons it's not being Lawful that's the problem. You're traveling down a river and you develop a relationship with the captain and her crew. Then you're asked, "Do you want to attack this government official carrying out his or her officially-sanctioned duty?"
And for players who actually think about the consequences of their actions, they say, "Heck, no! We could easily win this fight this time, but the next time our captain comes down this river she's going to be hosed if we do that."
My players actually think like that. "If we do this, how will it negatively impact the NPCs with whom we're traveling?"
I love them for it, but man, does it mess up this AP...

Freehold DM |

captain yesterday wrote:I haven't watched it either. Zelda is Displeased.Yuugasa wrote:So I just finished Game of Thrones. No spoilers but damn man.I haven't started yet, don't give away if they installed Sean Bean as king, that dude always makes it!
I will share in Zeldas displeasure with you, as I hate the TV series and what it has done to the books. Bad case of fanboys ruining things.

Freehold DM |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Freehold DM wrote:At least one game started with people being able to buy the equivalent of tactical nukes, and with a mindset of "if it's in the book, I can have it!", a lot of MADA occurred between players and game masters.Maybe this just proves how out of the loop I am in non-D&D/Pathfinder games, but what's this acronym stand for?
mutually assured destruction agreements. A huge issue in a lot of FASA based games as time went on. Basically, agreeing with the Gamemaster that the players will not use item X if the Gamemaster does not use weapon Y and so on.

Orthos |

Orthos wrote:NobodysHome wrote:Lawful PC? Sorry, you get no wealth in this book! Maybe next time you'll choose a different alignment!
Not great writing...
I have noticed this is an increasing thing in Paizo's APs. With the extremely specific exceptions of APs written "for" a specific alignment (such as Wrath of the Righteous being aimed for Lawful Good types and Hell's Vengeance for Evil PCs), almost all of their generic "made for any party" APs are actually written with the assumption that the PCs will either be or be within one step of Chaotic Good.
...
As someone who greatly enjoys playing LG and LN characters (not to mention tends to lean IRL toward a morality and ethics that would probably be defined as Lawful in game terms) this is something that I've found increasingly irritating. It made things difficult for the party in Rise of the Runelords, it's caused a couple (thankfully minor) issues in Iron Gods, and even all the way back in Age of Worms we had struggles with it (which makes NO SENSE to me, with the sheer volume of Undead in that campaign, why in heck would you want to make it difficult to play a Paladin?), and I expect to have problems along the same lines in Savage Tide in certain chapters to come (though I think most of my STAP party is Neutral or Chaotic, so maybe not).
Well, GothBard put it really well: In Strange Aeons it's not being Lawful that's the problem. You're traveling down a river and you develop a relationship with the captain and her crew. Then you're asked, "Do you want to attack this government official carrying out his or her officially-sanctioned duty?"
And for players who actually think about the consequences of their actions, they say, "Heck, no! We could easily win this fight this time, but the next time our captain comes down this river she's going to be hosed if we do that."
My players actually think like that. "If we do this, how will it negatively impact the NPCs...
Got it. Yeah a similar thing happened to our group in ROTRL.
In the second chapter when the murders start, my character - LG Crusader - was the one who got targeted with the killer's obsession, and thus when the investigation began by the NPC authorities I was the one they locked onto.
What the books seemed to expect players to do was to leave the town to investigate the murders on their own, avoid getting arrested when the suspicion was pointed at them, and eventually find the murderer and clear their name after evading arrest.
What my lawful Crusader wanted to do was cooperate with the authorities in this town that we had spent the entire first chapter trying to get on our side and work alongside rather than against, and hope that if she was arrested and thus put in a place that made her an easy target, the murderer might come for her rather than target another innocent victim or two. Which is very much the opposite of what the books seem to expect or demand.
Of course it all went to hell after that when another member of the party stormed into the mayor's office (while she and the captain of the guard were discussing my arrest and whether or not they actually thought I was guilty) and threatened everybody in the room with a grenade unless they agreed to let us go. That kinda killed the campaign, tbh.

Freehold DM |

NobodysHome wrote:...Orthos wrote:NobodysHome wrote:Lawful PC? Sorry, you get no wealth in this book! Maybe next time you'll choose a different alignment!
Not great writing...
I have noticed this is an increasing thing in Paizo's APs. With the extremely specific exceptions of APs written "for" a specific alignment (such as Wrath of the Righteous being aimed for Lawful Good types and Hell's Vengeance for Evil PCs), almost all of their generic "made for any party" APs are actually written with the assumption that the PCs will either be or be within one step of Chaotic Good.
...
As someone who greatly enjoys playing LG and LN characters (not to mention tends to lean IRL toward a morality and ethics that would probably be defined as Lawful in game terms) this is something that I've found increasingly irritating. It made things difficult for the party in Rise of the Runelords, it's caused a couple (thankfully minor) issues in Iron Gods, and even all the way back in Age of Worms we had struggles with it (which makes NO SENSE to me, with the sheer volume of Undead in that campaign, why in heck would you want to make it difficult to play a Paladin?), and I expect to have problems along the same lines in Savage Tide in certain chapters to come (though I think most of my STAP party is Neutral or Chaotic, so maybe not).
Well, GothBard put it really well: In Strange Aeons it's not being Lawful that's the problem. You're traveling down a river and you develop a relationship with the captain and her crew. Then you're asked, "Do you want to attack this government official carrying out his or her officially-sanctioned duty?"
And for players who actually think about the consequences of their actions, they say, "Heck, no! We could easily win this fight this time, but the next time our captain comes down this river she's going to be hosed if we do that."
My players actually think like that. "If we do this, how will
I have vague memories of that going wrong in other people's games too. Paizo in general needs to alter their alignment approach to adventures or let it be known at the beginning what alignments will have the most trouble in this game. That said, I REALLY liked Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance.

Vanykrye |

Got it. Yeah a similar thing happened to our group in ROTRL.
In the second chapter when the murders start, my character - LG Crusader - was the one who got targeted with the killer's obsession, and thus when the investigation began by the NPC authorities I was the one they locked onto.
What the books seemed to expect players to do was to leave the town to investigate the murders on their own, avoid getting arrested when the suspicion was pointed at them, and eventually find the murderer and clear their name after evading arrest.
What my lawful Crusader wanted to do was cooperate with the authorities in this town that we had spent the entire first chapter trying to get on our side and work alongside rather than against, and hope that if she was arrested and thus put in a place that made her an easy target, the murderer might come for her rather than target another innocent victim or two. Which is very much the opposite of what the books seem to expect or demand.
Of course it all went to hell after that when another member of the party stormed into the mayor's office (while she and the captain of the guard were discussing my arrest and whether or not they actually thought I was guilty) and threatened everybody in the room with a grenade unless they agreed to let us go. That kinda killed the campaign, tbh.
Except that's not really how it's written.
The sheriff brings the first note found at the first murder scene to the characters quietly, and presents it privately. He wants to deputize the PCs to run the investigation while he keeps to the day-to-day to keep the peace.
The only reason the book gives for suspicion to turn on the PCs is if they want nothing to do with helping the investigation. And then there has to be several more murders with additional notes before it gets to the point of having to work outside the law and clear their own name.
Don't get me wrong - a DM can choose to rewrite whatever they want in these things - I'm just saying it's not how it was intended by the authors.
EDIT: And even if they want nothing to do with it at first, Hemlock comes back to them after a few more murders and tries to hire them. For money. Only after refusing that and a few more murders is the suspicion supposed to focus on the targeted PC.

Vanykrye |
5 people marked this as a favorite. |

One of our techs just mentioned on the daily meeting that he had to clean off a piece of adware that he "randomly" got on his computer while remoted into someone else's computer.
Then the IT Security Analyst starts messaging me...
Security: Are we sure that <redacted> was not on the darkweb?
Me: Nope.
Security: How does it just happen?
Me: *sigh* Ok. I suppose you're old enough for the talk... When two or more consenting adults decide to handle each other's organic bits, one of the risks is a virus, adware, or malware...
Security: Dammit, Vany.

Freehold DM |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

One of our techs just mentioned on the daily meeting that he had to clean off a piece of adware that he "randomly" got on his computer while remoted into someone else's computer.
Then the IT Security Analyst starts messaging me...
Security: Are we sure that <redacted> was not on the darkweb?
Me: Nope.
Security: How does it just happen?
Me: *sigh* Ok. I suppose you're old enough for the talk... When two or more consenting adults decide to handle each other's organic bits, one of the risks is a virus, adware, or malware...
Security: Dammit, Vany.
I find the idea of Adware as an STI to be FASCINATING...just imagine someone going on and on about a product or service out of nowhere in a voice not their own, several times a day.

NobodysHome |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

It may be that only IT people know the hell that is trying to explain something poorly-designed and confusing to another user.
(1) I have a presentation that says, "This field is not used by the application and has no meaning. Ignore it."
(2) A co-worker tested through the practice on that area that says, "This field is not used by the application and has no meaning. Ignore it."
(3) I had a 45-minute meeting with this co-worker, wherein I explicitly navigated her to the page and said, "Watch out on this page, because this field will confuse students. It isn't used by the application. Make sure that students know that, because it's really confusing."
So of course this morning I get an email from said co-worker saying, "When are they going to fix this setting? I was looking at the application this morning and noticed that this field isn't set correctly..."
I swear, the number of times you have to tell someone to ignore something only to have them panic because they notice it...

Cap'n Yesterday, Not a Yithian |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Vanykrye wrote:I find the idea of Adware as an STI to be FASCINATING...just imagine someone going on and on about a product or service out of nowhere in a voice not their own, several times a day.One of our techs just mentioned on the daily meeting that he had to clean off a piece of adware that he "randomly" got on his computer while remoted into someone else's computer.
Then the IT Security Analyst starts messaging me...
Security: Are we sure that <redacted> was not on the darkweb?
Me: Nope.
Security: How does it just happen?
Me: *sigh* Ok. I suppose you're old enough for the talk... When two or more consenting adults decide to handle each other's organic bits, one of the risks is a virus, adware, or malware...
Security: Dammit, Vany.
Buy Sunkist.
*End transmission*

Orthos |

Orthos wrote:Got it. Yeah a similar thing happened to our group in ROTRL.
In the second chapter when the murders start, my character - LG Crusader - was the one who got targeted with the killer's obsession, and thus when the investigation began by the NPC authorities I was the one they locked onto.
What the books seemed to expect players to do was to leave the town to investigate the murders on their own, avoid getting arrested when the suspicion was pointed at them, and eventually find the murderer and clear their name after evading arrest.
What my lawful Crusader wanted to do was cooperate with the authorities in this town that we had spent the entire first chapter trying to get on our side and work alongside rather than against, and hope that if she was arrested and thus put in a place that made her an easy target, the murderer might come for her rather than target another innocent victim or two. Which is very much the opposite of what the books seem to expect or demand.
Of course it all went to hell after that when another member of the party stormed into the mayor's office (while she and the captain of the guard were discussing my arrest and whether or not they actually thought I was guilty) and threatened everybody in the room with a grenade unless they agreed to let us go. That kinda killed the campaign, tbh.
Except that's not really how it's written.
The sheriff brings the first note found at the first murder scene to the characters quietly, and presents it privately. He wants to deputize the PCs to run the investigation while he keeps to the day-to-day to keep the peace.
The only reason the book gives for suspicion to turn on the PCs is if they want nothing to do with helping the investigation. And then there has to be several more murders with additional notes before it gets to the point of having to work outside the law and clear their own name.
Don't get me wrong - a DM can choose to rewrite whatever they want in these things - I'm just saying it's not...
Huh, so noted. I don't know if our DM just skipped a step there or decided to do something different, or if I'm just misremembering how things went. It's been a few years.

NobodysHome |

Vanykrye wrote:Huh, so noted. I don't know if our DM just skipped a step there or decided to do something different, or if I'm just misremembering how things went. It's been a few years.Except that's not really how it's written.
The sheriff brings the first note found at the first murder scene to the characters quietly, and presents it privately. He wants to deputize the PCs to run the investigation while he keeps to the day-to-day to keep the peace.
The only reason the book gives for suspicion to turn on the PCs is if they want nothing to do with helping the investigation. And then there has to be several more murders with additional notes before it gets to the point of having to work outside the law and clear their own name.
Don't get me wrong - a DM can choose to rewrite whatever they want in these things - I'm just saying it's not...
Yeah, I didn't want to say anything because it's been a few years for me as well, but your description is nothing like what I remember. At no point did the town officials try to arrest anyone, because as you said, that pretty much breaks the campaign, whether or not the person surrenders.

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5 people marked this as a favorite. |

It may be that only IT people know the hell that is trying to explain something poorly-designed and confusing to another user.
(1) I have a presentation that says, "This field is not used by the application and has no meaning. Ignore it."
(2) A co-worker tested through the practice on that area that says, "This field is not used by the application and has no meaning. Ignore it."
(3) I had a 45-minute meeting with this co-worker, wherein I explicitly navigated her to the page and said, "Watch out on this page, because this field will confuse students. It isn't used by the application. Make sure that students know that, because it's really confusing."So of course this morning I get an email from said co-worker saying, "When are they going to fix this setting? I was looking at the application this morning and noticed that this field isn't set correctly..."
I swear, the number of times you have to tell someone to ignore something only to have them panic because they notice it...
I remember rolling out software updates for the HR system. It would let employees easier track their free hours, and download their contract/payment stuff/other stuff.
It was incremental. We send out updates to everyone by mail, and it was in red letters on the page, that you could start the part with your hours, free hours, ect, but things like payment slips was not working yet, and clicking on it would crash the application.
So of course, next morning, email from a guy 'yeah i saw the warning but i was curious so i clicked it anyway so now everything on my computer crashed'.
I considered starting drinking at 8:30 in the morning.

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Orthos wrote:Yeah, I didn't want to say anything because it's been a few years for me as well, but your description is nothing like what I remember. At no point did the town officials try to arrest anyone, because as you said, that pretty much breaks the campaign, whether or not the person surrenders.Vanykrye wrote:Huh, so noted. I don't know if our DM just skipped a step there or decided to do something different, or if I'm just misremembering how things went. It's been a few years.Except that's not really how it's written.
The sheriff brings the first note found at the first murder scene to the characters quietly, and presents it privately. He wants to deputize the PCs to run the investigation while he keeps to the day-to-day to keep the peace.
The only reason the book gives for suspicion to turn on the PCs is if they want nothing to do with helping the investigation. And then there has to be several more murders with additional notes before it gets to the point of having to work outside the law and clear their own name.
Don't get me wrong - a DM can choose to rewrite whatever they want in these things - I'm just saying it's not...
It might be a difference between original and the anniversary edition?

Nylarthotep |

It might be a difference between original and the anniversary edition?
Nope. It was either misremembered or the DM was being cutesy with the sequence of events and it backfired. Or maybe they wanted the campaign to end?
RotRL is VERY forgiving for players with different agendas. About the only thing it can't handle well is a goblin-type PC while you are still in Sandpoint. Once you leave Sandpoint, even that is pretty easy to accommodate if the DM is so inclined.