Drejk |
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I must say that I liked new Star Wars...
Rey, Finn, Poe, BB-8... I wasn't impressed by Kylo Ren during the movie, but after thinking about his character through later I am of much better opinion than during the movie itself.
I would tweak some things with the plot or presentation, but overall great movie.
Also, draining solar power does not fit the technology style. If you can do that, you can use that power for so many things that turn the civilization upside down that it should push you into full post-scarcity, trans-human territory.
David M Mallon |
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I forget if I remember the blue background.
Paizo circa 2004. Before I had an account or subscription, but after I'd become a loyal Dragon reader (and occasional Star Wars Insider reader).
LordSynos |
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Star Wars tonight as well, looking forward to that. :) 21:15, 2D showing, the best kind of showing. I've kept myself in the complete dark, haven't even watched a single trailer, so I'll have to be careful going in. The stories of people coming out of showings and shouting spoilers at those waiting for the next showing are depressingly common here. :/ Still, I shall not be deterred. :)
Sharoth |
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Star Wars tonight as well, looking forward to that. :) 21:15, 2D showing, the best kind of showing. I've kept myself in the complete dark, haven't even watched a single trailer, so I'll have to be careful going in. The stories of people coming out of showings and shouting spoilers at those waiting for the next showing are depressingly common here. :/ Still, I shall not be deterred. :)
I do not give a Sith. I will not keep you in the Dark, but force you to the light side. Yoda know better than to listen to others. Just do not Binks or you might miss the Jar Jaring moments. Just remember that the fights are tied and the stars are destroyed.
~groans~ Ok. Even I can't continue. This might appease you.
Orthos |
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IMO the best thing about APs is that they give you a skeleton to work with, and if you're short on time and resources they technically are a full campaign. What makes the difference between a good story and a great one, in my experience, is the embellishments and expansions the GM adds.
But understandably not all people running APs have that kind of time, and many people run them specifically because they don't have that kind of time.
Out of curiosity which were your "two good books" out of Kingmaker? It's the one I'm currently running - we're finishing up a (heavily altered) Chapter 5 this Saturday. The Varnhold Vanishing and Sound of a Thousand Screams (especially the latter) were the books that hooked me onto running the thing in the first place, but I'm curious if you're with me on that or with the large group of vocal players/GMs who didn't think Chapter 6 fit in well.
BluePigeon |
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Morning everyone. 1/2 hour before I hit the road on another slow December morning. It's trip, cab, and breakfast in that order.
Other than that, I'm going to delve into another Pathfinder adventure path to read and Castles & Crusades.
I hope everyone gets the presents they want this year.
:::Pecks around the thread a couple of times:::
Gotta go.
thegreenteagamer |
IMO the best thing about APs is that they give you a skeleton to work with, and if you're short on time and resources they technically are a full campaign. What makes the difference between a good story and a great one, in my experience, is the embellishments and expansions the GM adds.
But understandably not all people running APs have that kind of time, and many people run them specifically because they don't have that kind of time.
Out of curiosity which were your "two good books" out of Kingmaker? It's the one I'm currently running - we're finishing up a (heavily altered) Chapter 5 this Saturday. The Varnhold Vanishing and Sound of a Thousand Screams (especially the latter) were the books that hooked me onto running the thing in the first place, but I'm curious if you're with me on that or with the large group of vocal players/GMs who didn't think Chapter 6 fit in well.
Book 2 was the most popular (I added Dudemeister's monster kingdom stuff, and tweaked it a bit) - but I think all my players just REALLY liked the Kingdom building and such, and while I loved book 3, my players didn't care about the mystery, and just wanted to move on, so it was frustrating for them. Believe it or not, Book 1 was the other popular one. They loved allying with the kobolds, and they had a massacre when it came to invading the fort.
As far as my personal opinion, story-wise, Varnhold was where it's at, and War of the River Kings; I hated how book 6 was just tacked on at the end. I had to add a LOT of extra foreshadowing to make it make sense.
Orthos |
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Yeah my group loved Book 2 as well for the same reasons - monster kingdom, exploration, and I added a lot of extra stuff and expanded areas and dungeons. Some of the players loved the kingdom building as well - especially Ebon and Scint - but I as GM wasn't big into it so I just let them run with it and occasionally rolled dice, though we stopped keeping track of stuff somewhere in the middle of book 4.
The players also loved Book 3, though their characters didn't; they were rather annoyed with having to go pick up the mess left by their neighbors.
Book 6 sold the campaign to me, so any feeling that it seemed "tacked on" IMO is the fault of the rest of the AP for not properly foreshadowing it, and I've taken great pains to rectify that. My group knows enough of what's coming that they shouldn't feel too blindsided... except where I want them to =)
War of the River Kings was my least favorite, and ended up ditching it and running a scaled-up Red Hand of Doom in its place. Mostly because my Irovetti replacement ended up becoming an ally of the party rather than a rival, and I wanted them to fight the big bad dragon instead.
captain yesterday |
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captain yesterday wrote:Skull and Shackles, Kingmaker, Council of Thieves, and Reign of Winter so far. Each had about one or two good books out of the six.Which ones?
Some are way better than others.
I love Skull and Shackles personally (and not because I was the loudest voice asking for it:-D) Reign of Winter certainly has it's issues (I actually rather dislike book 1 quite a bit) but overall, one of my favorite APs, I'm also a big fan of Kingmaker, but lack a party with the self motivation to really make it work. I agree 100% with Orthos about Sound of a Thousand Screams, honestly, if it wasn't for that adventure I probably wouldn't have continued getting APs as Kingmaker was my first.
Council of Thieves... I love the idea, I'd rather they had it not focus the players so much on trying to overthrow the government and more on competing against the Council of Thieves, they tried to make it like The Godfather and Goodfellas, without the mob, mob themes just don't work with good guys (just ask Donnie Brasco:-D)
thegreenteagamer |
Skull and Shackles books 1&2 were awesome...After that it REALLY falls short. Ship to ship combat is subpar, naval fleet combat is ABSURDLY BORING, and the story is pretty crappy by the time you join the pirate council, etc.
Don't even get me started on the whole "the Chelish Navy could just sail AROUND the entirely stationary hurricane filled with Dragon turtles and giant fiendish squids, etc". It's entirely open water to the west, and their main stregnth is superior numbers and weaponry, which favors open water warfare, as opposed to skirting sneak attacks.
That part is just dumb as a sack of bricks.
Or collecting water when you have a cleric? Stupid. Step 1. Walk into forest. Step 2. Cast create water where Mr. Plugg can't see you. Step 3. Return to boat and avoid ravenous ghouls and grindylow lair.
captain yesterday |
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I had Plugg do it just to be a dick.
4th and 5th adventures are my personal favorite. Book 3 was a riot with an all animal party. You never realize how crappy pirate will saves are until you have a Catfolk sorcerer that only casts charm type spells, especially when she does so for no reason whatsoever ("I'm a Cat, I just can't walk around myself, someone has to carry me" was my wife's common refrain).
captain yesterday |
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She also paid Cog from the first book to always stand next to her at the beginning of every ship scrum so she can give him a laughing touch (or whatever the fey sorcerer first ability is) "It's important to have levity in moments of stress"
Edit: for someone debilitatingly allergic to Cats, she sure knows how to play them.
Tin Foil Yamakah |
Tin Foil Yamakah wrote:30 tourists were ran over on one day this week. I can tell I was NOT driving.BluePigeon wrote:Wow there's a blast from the past, How's vegasHey everybody!
waves a wing.
Yeah, I saw that on the news. I heard her reason was that she was frustrated. I sure would hate to see her angry.
Phallic Healer |
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I first learned what it was when I was nine and mom got me this big archaeology book, and all throughout the book this archeologist is going off "look at this tower, see how phallic it looks, oh, oh here's a phallus over here, and don't get me started on the Babylonians, talk about dick envy" naturally I went up to mom and asked what a Phallus was "we'll talk about it later" of course being ten, that was unacceptable, and since it was Christmas I went up to Grandma and asked her... After about five minutes of laughing she told it straight, Grandma was good for that.
Tin Foil Yamakah |
thegreenteagamer wrote:captain yesterday wrote:Skull and Shackles, Kingmaker, Council of Thieves, and Reign of Winter so far. Each had about one or two good books out of the six.Which ones?
Some are way better than others.
I love Skull and Shackles personally (and not because I was the loudest voice asking for it:-D) Reign of Winter certainly has it's issues (I actually rather dislike book 1 quite a bit) but overall, one of my favorite APs, I'm also a big fan of Kingmaker, but lack a party with the self motivation to really make it work. I agree 100% with Orthos about Sound of a Thousand Screams, honestly, if it wasn't for that adventure I probably wouldn't have continued getting APs as Kingmaker was my first.
Council of Thieves... I love the idea, I'd rather they had it not focus the players so much on trying to overthrow the government and more on competing against the Council of Thieves, they tried to make it like The Godfather and Goodfellas, without the mob, mob themes just don't work with good guys (just ask Donnie Brasco:-D)
RotRl is great, Mummy's mask was Ok, perhaps it would have been more satisfying with better DM. He kinda rushed us through it. I dig S%S because pirates. I may pick up Razor coast, I have heard good things about it.
Scintillae |
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Council of Thieves... I love the idea, I'd rather they had it not focus the players so much on trying to overthrow the government and more on competing against the Council of Thieves, they tried to make it like The Godfather and Goodfellas, without the mob, mob themes just don't work with good guys (just ask Donnie Brasco:-D)
Purely the fault of the NPCs, really. It was the first AP I tried to run, and I didn't properly convey to my group that as written, Janiven is somewhat overestimating the capabilities and scope of their little gang in her recruitment pitch. So if you take the quest-giver's word as gospel...yeah, the rest of the AP isn't going to sit so well.
We never got that far because I got a job and had to shelve it. However, with Hell's Rebels out, I'm planning to rework the two into a mashup once I get enough free time to DM again.
Tin Foil Yamakah |
IMO the best thing about APs is that they give you a skeleton to work with, and if you're short on time and resources they technically are a full campaign. What makes the difference between a good story and a great one, in my experience, is the embellishments and expansions the GM adds.
But understandably not all people running APs have that kind of time, and many people run them specifically because they don't have that kind of time.
As someone who does not have the time to do a full on homebrew, I appreciate the mods and AP's. I am basing the next 5 levels in our homegame off of the badgers excellent mod "Doom comes to Dustpawn" and a bunch of notes I found from my 2E days