Boy am I in a posting mood today.

I went to a con last week and played 5 sessions of Pathfinder Society (PFS). PFS lets you level your character(s) across different scenarios. It's an MMO with pencil-and-paper!

I'm relatively new (second con). Saw my first character (not mine) death. The player was ok with it, as he had gold to pay for a res. I play a dwarf cleric who focuses on buffing and healing.

At one point we also had 2/5 PCs bleeding out on the floor. One player was none too pleased; I think he took 40 dmg from a critical hit. I was playing a pregen 7th level cleric and healed them up.

I even won a $40 book and bonus for my PC. All in all good times were had.

I'd also like to play a non-PFS campaign and try out things like crafting magic armor and such. Not to mention trying my hand at GMing.

So, have any Pathfinder stories? Questions?

Thanks!

 Zygomax wrote:
It's an MMO with pencil-and-paper!

 Zygomax wrote:
Questions?

How much more fun do you think you would have had if you had played all those games using a good gaming system instead of Pathfinder/3.x?

Ok, ok, it's not an MMO in the sense that D&D4e is. I was just referring to the "build/level your character across scenarios" aspect.

Granted PFS may not emphasize "role-playing" as much as a home campaign, but it's still there.

Not a fan I take it... that's fine.

 Zygomax wrote:
Ok, ok, it's not an MMO in the sense that D&D4e is.

4E isn't an MMO at all, so perhaps you are uncertain what an MMO is?

There's an opinion that 4E resembles a computer MMO in that every character action is represented by a separate power, which can be used a set number of times.

That's all I meant. It is merely an opinion.

It also strips away elements of "simulation", i.e. how far can a horse-drawn cart travel in 4 days. In many cases, traditional RPGs (i.e. Pathfinder) also skip over such things for simplicity.

I suspect if I played 4E I'd like it fine.

What is your preferred RPG system?

I'm not really sure what this thread is about but I'll add that.

Pathfinder is good.
3.5 is good.

I played ALOT of 3.5 in the day and i'm not sure i would even want to invest in pathfinder. Maybe that's the cheapskate in me though.

Right now I'm into D&D Basic (Moldvay) & looking earnestly at HARP (High Adventure Role Playing)

 Zygomax wrote:
There's an opinion that 4E resembles a computer MMO in that every character action is represented by a separate power, which can be used a set number of times.

That's all I meant. It is merely an opinion.

It also strips away elements of "simulation", i.e. how far can a horse-drawn cart travel in 4 days. In many cases, traditional RPGs (i.e. Pathfinder) also skip over such things for simplicity.

I suspect if I played 4E I'd like it fine.

What is your preferred RPG system?

Oh, he knew exactly what you meant about 4E I'm sure. There's been no lack of discussions on this forum about disgruntled D&D fans once 4E came out, etc.

As an aside, have you ever tried Savage Worlds or any other systems?

Ah, PFS... I really need to try to get that online session going again...

We should probably avoid jumping on any statements disparaging 4e in this thread. OTOH< we should probably also avoid disparaging 4e.

As an aside, have you ever tried Savage Worlds or any other systems?

I'd love to try it. I have a basic understanding of the rules. I like the Solomon Kane, Space 1889 settings, etc.

We should probably avoid jumping on any statements disparaging 4e in this thread. OTOH< we should probably also avoid disparaging 4e.

Yep, I got derailed on that.

Savage Worlds is good IF the group is interested in a relatively light-weight experience, but also wants map-driven combat. Learning to use the various combat options to set up combos is a big deal and can change things greatly. It intentionally leaves some things vague for the GM and players to work out themselves, which some groups don't like.

OP, for gaks and giggles you should try playing Basic D&D in one of its retroclone forms.

You can find the free rules for Labyrinth Lord here:

http://goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html

LL is basically a rehash on the 1981 rules by Tom Moldvay.

It makes for a really nice contrast. 3.5/Pathfinder is really about "playing the rules," i.e., searching through books for feats and items to come up with builds, and tactical combat using mats'n'minis. Basic D&D, like this LL retroclone, is more about coming up with daring and creative ideas on the fly and then resolving the outcomes with reference to the rules mostly as guidelines.

This so-called "old school" approach to D&D can be great fun but you have to keep in mind that the rules are just guidelines. In those games, you come up with what you want to do and if the rules don't explicitly cover it (which is most of the time) then the DM makes up something reasonable on the spot.

With games like Pathfinder, that's just not the done thing. The rules basically tell you what you can and cannot do. Do you want to charge across the room into the enemy? Well, that's called a Charge and it is handled in a specific, uniform way. Sometimes you can do it, sometimes you can't. 3.5/Pathfinder is very much like a skirmish wargame in that way.

That's not to say there is no room for player discretion in 3.5/Pathfinder. No one is going to come to your house and make you do what the books say (not sure if that's true of Pathfinder Society organized play ...). But what people need to realize is player discretion is NOT the emphasis of 3.5/Pathfinder; the emphasis is on published rules.

If you really want to try a completely different style, where player discretion is 90%+ of the experience, check out those Labyrinth Lord rules. Some other ones to look at are:

http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/
http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/
http://www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/darkdungeons.html

Or for $5 you can check out Moldvay's own take:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/110274/D%26D-Basic-Set-Rulebook-%28Basic%29

Personally, I like both. But as I've gotten older and have less time to game, I tend to favor old school style D&D because it maximizes the amount of RPG fun that I can have in the minimum amount of time that I can commit. If I get a hankering to play something more structured, I tend to rely on war games or board games because these offer more systematic rules than 3.5/Pathfinder and (generally) take a smaller time investment. That said, I have no plans to get rid of my 3.5/Pathfinder books any time soon.

Manchu, I am hugging you right now. Awkward I know.

The other day I won the AD&D 1st edition Anniversary Player's Handbook in a raffle. I actually already owned a 1978 copy of the same, but winning the book set my brain churning. In a few days I've gone from an idea of running a one-shot retro AD&D game for my RPG crew, to grandiose ideas of a lengthy PBEM campaign.

In any case I didn't think the D&D/AD&D modules were available for download, but there they are, right on drivethruRPG, as you've pointed out. Google didn't turn those up with a quick search. That's why I'm hugging you. I'd like to read those modules to get immersed in the 1970s/80s flavor of them.

Also, I cracked open my 1e DMG last night and out fell an adventure I wrote in early high school. I was surprised to see I had actually finished it--it runs 3,000 handwritten words. It features an icy, mountainous region and a dungeon with mostly undead.

I DMed AD&D 1e/2e in early high school but it fizzled out due to lack of players.

Well I might run my RPG crew through the adventure I wrote. We are playing Deathwatch now, but they like fantasy too. My adventure's final encounter is a doozy though--it would take a miracle for everyone to come out intact.

I think the retro-feel, modern-ruleset idea is good too. Have you looked at Dungeon Crawl Classics? It looks interesting.

I hear exactly what you're saying about "playing the rules" versus a more free-form approach. The players and DM really need to be clicking to allow more freeform play, I think. But it's very rewarding. Reminds me of the high school days when I often ad-libbed an adventure.

Okay, I'll stop rambling now. Thanks for the pointers.

 Zygomax wrote:

In any case I didn't think the D&D/AD&D modules were available for download, but there they are, right on drivethruRPG, as you've pointed out. Google didn't turn those up with a quick search. That's why I'm hugging you. I'd like to read those modules to get immersed in the 1970s/80s flavor of them.

If it makes you feel better, they were just added maybe a week ago. WotC has a new PDF initiative (they stopped selling PDFs a few years ago due to piracy concerns, which probably caused more piracy by removing the legal PDF channel, so...) and is suppsoed to be adding new stuff regularly.

I'm running a Pathfinder game at the moment. I like it. It's like 3.5 but a bit more balanced (in that all player choices tend to lead to something interesting fairly easily.) It can still take a bit of prep to run, but Paizo have been pretty good about making content available to allow you to quickly put together NPCs and so on.

I'm planning another game in it soon. I'm also running a 4th edition Darksun game (15 levels of it, so far) and I'm finding that a breeze to run from my end but I will be making some changes to make the combat a bit less clunky and to encourage player creativity. Manchu has articulated what I think about that fairly well. It's tricky to "undo" though. I feel like our early games of D'n'D, before we "knew" the rules and how to make effective characters were in some ways more exciting for it, and that players would often just ask to do something, and I'd improvise it, because we were all too lazy to look up the rules. As time went on we learned them, and I've noticed that our play has become more strictured and metagame orientated along with that.

DaBoss, you should invite your group to a one off session of D&D Basic. Let me know, and I'll point you to some resources on the matter.

Zygomax, I have definitely heard of DCC RPG. I really like it and find it to be a good mid-point between 3.X and Rules Cyclopedia. I would highly recommend it.

I love Pathfinder, but as Manchu pointed out, it is a bit of a miniatures oriented rule set.

I prefer miniatures game to RPGs slightly, but I do love RPGs, too. Pathfinder is a bit of both which is awesome for our group. We are also numbers/rules oriented more than LARP/Freeplay oriented which is another reason we really like it.

If you want to really try something different, and don't mind crappy rules, try RIFTS. I loved that game as a kid and played it all the time. The mechanics are awful, but the setting is brilliant and if you and your group don't mind house-ruling stuff on the fly, it is super fun.

 Reecius wrote:

If you want to really try something different, and don't mind crappy rules, try RIFTS. I loved that game as a kid and played it all the time. The mechanics are awful, but the setting is brilliant and if you and your group don't mind house-ruling stuff on the fly, it is super fun.

Echoing a love for Palladium settings while a hatred for the crappy rules of Palladium games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness was probably my favorite RPG for many, many years. All sorts of mutant animals with often dangerous psionics and animals powers, coupled with the pulp of ninja weapons, time machines, dimensional travel, orbital cannons and good old fashioned parking meter clubs. Good times!

 Reecius wrote:
I love Pathfinder, but as Manchu pointed out, it is a bit of a miniatures oriented rule set.

I prefer miniatures game to RPGs slightly, but I do love RPGs, too. Pathfinder is a bit of both which is awesome for our group. We are also numbers/rules oriented more than LARP/Freeplay oriented which is another reason we really like it.

If you want to really try something different, and don't mind crappy rules, try RIFTS. I loved that game as a kid and played it all the time. The mechanics are awful, but the setting is brilliant and if you and your group don't mind house-ruling stuff on the fly, it is super fun.

Yep I like the miniatures/RPG crossover of Pathfinder. I've been scoping Reaper (etc.) for cool minis.

I'd love to try RIFTS. I skimmed the rulebook back in high school. Five minutes in, I was like, "These are crappy rules--but it's totally awesome!"

 Zygomax wrote:

 Reecius wrote:
I love Pathfinder, but as Manchu pointed out, it is a bit of a miniatures oriented rule set.

I prefer miniatures game to RPGs slightly, but I do love RPGs, too. Pathfinder is a bit of both which is awesome for our group. We are also numbers/rules oriented more than LARP/Freeplay oriented which is another reason we really like it.

If you want to really try something different, and don't mind crappy rules, try RIFTS. I loved that game as a kid and played it all the time. The mechanics are awful, but the setting is brilliant and if you and your group don't mind house-ruling stuff on the fly, it is super fun.

Yep I like the miniatures/RPG crossover of Pathfinder. I've been scoping Reaper (etc.) for cool minis.

I'd love to try RIFTS. I skimmed the rulebook back in high school. Five minutes in, I was like, "These are crappy rules--but it's totally awesome!"

Rifts great setting, han down one of the worse game system every. That way you need a point based system to convert to, I like BESM (good simple system), but GURPS and HERO work too (just a lot more book keeping).

The other problem with Rifts is that you need to add a room to your house to be able to store all the splat books.

I absolutely love Pathfinder/ 3.5, it's where I started with RPGs, (3.5) in 2005, but there have been two campaigns where we played ADnD and then another I played in with 2e rules. Simply put, I've enjoyed all of the rules sets, but pathfinder is my favorite. Golarion is a great setting and if your players aren't rules lawyers or know-it-alls, you should be fine.

I haven't played PFS, but I have recently had my introduction into the Pathfinder ruleset with a group of friends. We're doing the Rise of the Runelords adventure path.

I'm playing a Fighter with the Archer archetype. We have to play online since we're kinda scattered across the country, so we're going a bit slow. 2 sessions in, and we're about halfway throught he first book (I'm guessing).

I like it a lot. I never played 4E D&D, but from all I heard, I'm glad. This really is an improvement on 3.5 and good progression in my eyes.

Been playing Pathfinder for a little over 2 years. Managed to find some fellow nerds to play with, so now I'm GMing a game here in Afghanistan.

 djones520 wrote:
I haven't played PFS, but I have recently had my introduction into the Pathfinder ruleset with a group of friends. We're doing the Rise of the Runelords adventure path.

I'm playing a Fighter with the Archer archetype. We have to play online since we're kinda scattered across the country, so we're going a bit slow. 2 sessions in, and we're about halfway throught he first book (I'm guessing).

I like it a lot. I never played 4E D&D, but from all I heard, I'm glad. This really is an improvement on 3.5 and good progression in my eyes.

Pathfinder Society is awesome. I used to be a regular at my flgs (until I moved), and I had a blast, it was a quick introduction into pathfinder without having to drop money on all the splatbooks. Though I now own most of them lol . The great thing about PFS is that you can take your character from your PFS games, bring them to my store, and play without issue (as long as you've not played in that adventure before).

Are you playing through Rise of the Runelords, or the Anniversary Edition? Also what was the last thing you completed with the first adventure? I can tell you exactly how far you are through the book

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/25239.html



coming up next : blunt knives !

Not my cup of tea at all, for me this goes against the whole RPG ethos.

 reds8n wrote:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/25239.html



coming up next : blunt knives !

Not my cup of tea at all, for me this goes against the whole RPG ethos.

I saw this book! Or an earlier version of it, it didn't seem to catch my intrigue... I like the story and the getting through the challenges, I don't like having to fight against another player... I had to do it in one game... The player was bitter for awhile... :-\

 Alfndrate wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
I haven't played PFS, but I have recently had my introduction into the Pathfinder ruleset with a group of friends. We're doing the Rise of the Runelords adventure path.

I'm playing a Fighter with the Archer archetype. We have to play online since we're kinda scattered across the country, so we're going a bit slow. 2 sessions in, and we're about halfway throught he first book (I'm guessing).

I like it a lot. I never played 4E D&D, but from all I heard, I'm glad. This really is an improvement on 3.5 and good progression in my eyes.

Pathfinder Society is awesome. I used to be a regular at my flgs (until I moved), and I had a blast, it was a quick introduction into pathfinder without having to drop money on all the splatbooks. Though I now own most of them lol . The great thing about PFS is that you can take your character from your PFS games, bring them to my store, and play without issue (as long as you've not played in that adventure before).

Are you playing through Rise of the Runelords, or the Anniversary Edition? Also what was the last thing you completed with the first adventure? I can tell you exactly how far you are through the book

The anniversary edition. The last thing we completed in session was We also do a lot of forum RP to quicken things along, since it's 3-4 weeks between sessions.

You're exactly where my party stopped, and will be picking up this Sunday.

Some more filler for my spoiler



What experience track are you running them on? I'm assuming fast since you guys are playing very infrequently.

I'm actually a player, so I'll avoid your spoiler for now. I believe we're doing the fast. 3300xp for lvl 3. We started at lvl 2. Our next session is sunday as well, and we'll be starting that at lvl 3.

I'm the "party leader", and I think our path is to head towards Thistletop. Afterwards we'll come back and fully explore the tunnels.

 Alfndrate wrote:
You're exactly where my party stopped, and will be picking up this Sunday.

Some more filler for my spoiler

Spoiler:

The party has found the catacombs, and they're probably just going to investigate their first. One of the party members is in the town guard, so he respects and listens to Shalelu, or else the party would have run off to Thistletop as level 1 >_<

What experience track are you running them on? I'm assuming fast since you guys are playing very infrequently.

Two of our party didn't show up on time, so we decided to head into the catacombs. One joined not to much later, and we 5 manned the place when the GM had built it for 6. The fight in the summoning room took forever. Our GM could not have played it out any more intelligently then he did.

My character is now rocking a magic weapon.

 djones520 wrote:
Two of our party didn't show up on time, so we decided to head into the catacombs. One joined not to much later, and we 5 manned the place when the GM had built it for 6. The fight in the summoning room took forever. Our GM could not have played it out any more intelligently then he did.

My character is now rocking a magic weapon.

My players went to the summoning room first >_< as level 1, the Ranger dropped from a charging sinspawn, the party freaked, pulled him out, shut the doors, and booked it back to town. They rested, and I told them that they were to level up their characters. (Found out that the the fast track is the default for the game). They went back down in there as 2nd level characters, And it took them like 90 minutes to beat the Quasit, with all of her little tricks and at will invisiblity... It was rough on them. Then after that fight the cleric was out of heals, the party was at like less than half health (the rogue had 2 hp). The Rogue says, "screw it let's clear this place out". I'm not sure if your DM uses the Critical Hit and Critical Fumble decks, but they add an interesting twist to crits and fumbles.... later on, our poor gunslinger (musket master) was kissed by a Vargouille, and had 8 hours to live (would have died if they rested), and then was charged by a sinspawn, the sinspawn got a crit and hit for like 10 points of damage, and did 8 points of Dex damage with shot to the spinal cord... it was a brutal dungeon for the party... Everyone thought they were going to die, but no one did

I sent 3 of the party into the tunnel, and they killed a sinspawn and varghoul before they came back up. Then the whole group went it, and we cleaned the place out. We did the summoning room last. We went in as level 3, so it wasn't to bad. Our cleric was more then up to the task with the healing, and he even rocked pretty hard in melee, being the one who killed the quasit.

We're going to be starting Rise of the Runelords soon with a new (to us) GM. He's been playing with us for years, though. We're doing the 20 point buy method, which is significantly different from our historically 3rd edition method of 4d6, drop the lowest.

He's also really into role play versus roll play.

I'm looking forward to this campaign, actually.

 kronk wrote:
We're going to be starting Rise of the Runelords soon with a new (to us) GM. He's been playing with us for years, though. We're doing the 20 point buy method, which is significantly different from our historically 3rd edition method of 4d6, drop the lowest.

He's also really into role play versus roll play.

I'm looking forward to this campaign, actually.

We used the 20 point system as well. It's... quite differant.

I'll stop talking about events in the module now, don't wanna ruin it for you.

 djones520 wrote:

 kronk wrote:
We're going to be starting Rise of the Runelords soon with a new (to us) GM. He's been playing with us for years, though. We're doing the 20 point buy method, which is significantly different from our historically 3rd edition method of 4d6, drop the lowest.

He's also really into role play versus roll play.

I'm looking forward to this campaign, actually.

We used the 20 point system as well. It's... quite differant.

I'll stop talking about events in the module now, don't wanna ruin it for you.

As someone that has played Pathfinder Society, I wasn't a big fan of 20 point buy, so I bumped it up to 25 point buy. One of our players was sad because he, like me, tends to roll high on the stats, but he's taken on the cursed class of a Blade Bound Magus (Magus Archetype from Ultimate Magic). Every time we have a Blade Bound Magus in our party, they die just before they find their Black Blade, an intelligent weapon that they're linked to for the character's life... He almost died yesterday, but the stand in cleric managed to keep him alive (our normal cleric wasn't there and we couldn't find her character sheet, so I just used the pre-generated one from the Game Mastery Guide.).

And Kronk we can stop talking about events if you want, though personally I only know the events up to the Hook Mountain Massacre (book 3). The Skinsaw Murders probably contained my favorite location encounters I ever ran . By far one of the coolest plots of the book (so far) and coolest locations. As players, I can't wait for you two to get there

Nah, it's fine. I've just been ignoring any discussion of what a group is actually doing to avoid spoilers. I think I'm done with input to this thread, anyway.

Best of luck to the new Pathfinder players!

I started playing aswell. PFS mostly, but im working to get a home game. got 3 players so far and a GM. We will be running modules mostly.
The GM said though we have to play Tomb of horrors first for Ad&d

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I started playing aswell. PFS mostly, but im working to get a home game. got 3 players so far and a GM. We will be running modules mostly.
The GM said though we have to play Tomb of horrors first for Ad&d

Don't do it! You'll die D:

I just talked my GM into letting me drop my archetype and play a pure fighter. Turns out I'll be a better archer that way, then if I stuck with the archer archetype.

I've found that Archetypes can be good in the teens and beyond, but I'm losing out on a ton of benefits while I'm waiting to get there. I'd suggest only using them if your starting a character whose going to be level 10 or above. If your starting out fresh, just stick to the regular version of your class.

 djones520 wrote:
I just talked my GM into letting me drop my archetype and play a pure fighter. Turns out I'll be a better archer that way, then if I stuck with the archer archetype.

I've found that Archetypes can be good in the teens and beyond, but I'm losing out on a ton of benefits while I'm waiting to get there. I'd suggest only using them if your starting a character whose going to be level 10 or above. If your starting out fresh, just stick to the regular version of your class.

That's not always the case, the gunslinger in my game is the Musket Master archetype, and he's firing off bullets that do d12 vs touch AC as fast as my gunslinger without an archetype that uses a pistol.

My Heretic Inquisitor (based completely off of Gregor Eisenhorn) hasn't lost anything of note (I lost monster Lore for the most part), but I have an awesome stealth check, great Intimidate, and a few other things.

And the captain of my Inquisitor's ship is the Corsair archetype for fighters, and he's getting all of these nice benefits for his archetype.

But I don't know enough about the Archer archetype to comment on it sadly .

Fighter ones in general seem to be rather lack luster. Ranger don't seem so hot either. Those are the only ones I've really looked at in depth.

But in my case, I get better protection, and quicker solid use of a bow (lvl 6 I won't be provoking attacks of opportunity, as opposed to lvl 9), leading to less need of melee weapons and wasting time drawing them, etc...

We have a Fighter-Weapon Specialist (Composite Long Bow) from the Advanced Players Guide that does an insane amount of damage in our group.

Just started my Pathfinder game after 16 levels of D'n'D 4th.

I have to say, Pathfinder is refreshingly straightforward compared to higher level 4th. Higher level Pathfinder would probably be just as long to run a combat for, but probably not longer. My favourite part of it is how the system allows for a lot of different things to happen because players get a little more creative with it.

I still like a lot of the ideas in 4th, but I think it is best at heroic tier, which is a lot of the same problems that 3rd had.

 djones520 wrote:
I just talked my GM into letting me drop my archetype and play a pure fighter. Turns out I'll be a better archer that way, then if I stuck with the archer archetype.

I've found that Archetypes can be good in the teens and beyond, but I'm losing out on a ton of benefits while I'm waiting to get there. I'd suggest only using them if your starting a character whose going to be level 10 or above. If your starting out fresh, just stick to the regular version of your class.

My Persistance inquisitor is way better then if i chose a domain.
And have you seen a weapon master monk?

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
I just talked my GM into letting me drop my archetype and play a pure fighter. Turns out I'll be a better archer that way, then if I stuck with the archer archetype.

I've found that Archetypes can be good in the teens and beyond, but I'm losing out on a ton of benefits while I'm waiting to get there. I'd suggest only using them if your starting a character whose going to be level 10 or above. If your starting out fresh, just stick to the regular version of your class.

My Persistance inquisitor is way better then if i chose a domain.
And have you seen a weapon master monk?

>_> I don't like to kill characters, but I will kill monks on sight...

Also I'm loving my Heretical Inquisitor... Blistering Invective is the best spell ever

Thought I'd share these. My GM hired Amparan Art Studio's to draw characters up for us.

My main character.



I'm playing this guy as well, but will be handing him over to a friend when he returns from a deployment.



This was a scene he had drawn up of the Festival. He's having the Cathedral of Wrath drawn next.

That's awesome!

Super sweet!

Wow my thread keeps going!

VERY nice illustrations! I have been contemplating having some custom art done myself.

As someone that has played Pathfinder Society, I wasn't a big fan of 20 point buy, so I bumped it up to 25 point buy. One of our players was sad because he, like me, tends to roll high on the stats, but he's taken on the cursed class of a Blade Bound Magus (Magus Archetype from Ultimate Magic). Every time we have a Blade Bound Magus in our party, they die just before they find their Black Blade, an intelligent weapon that they're linked to for the character's life... He almost died yesterday, but the stand in cleric managed to keep him alive (our normal cleric wasn't there and we couldn't find her character sheet, so I just used the pre-generated one from the Game Mastery Guide.).

The Magi gets the Black Blade at level 3, right? They can't make it to level 3?! Coincidentally I am wanting to play a Blade Bound, as an alt PFS PC or in a home campaign--just need to find a home campaign. The Blade Bound is of course based on Elric, author Michael Moorcock's famous anti-hero. I am reading Elric of Melnibone for the third time (first time in a while) and it's quite good. (I was afraid it hadn't aged well--no problems there.) I wanted to indulge a retro-fantasy kick, but I would say it's timeless--I highly recommend it!

Back to Pathfinder. I'm GMing it for the first time at a convention*. I have immersed myself in the module and have fleshed it out, so hopefully that will help when dealing with PC actions. I realize you can't prepare for the "unexpected"--although handling the unexpected is one of the strengths of RPGs. I will work on being flexible during the session.

I have pulled out the stops a bit and have affixed the printed map on posterboard. Then I cut sections of the posterboard so that rooms are revealed as PCs explore them. Nothing revolutionary or anything, but I think it looks good. In the future I think I would make a digital cut-out of each room, then print each room on cardstock. I would possibly get the map pieces laminated depending on the expense.

I've also got some minis for the monsters and NPCs. Lovin' Reaper Minis! (I've mostly had all GW up till now.) However, I avoided some expense by printing some tokens for creatures. I plan to pick up the Bestiary Box as you are looking at less than $0.07 a "mini."

Happy role-playing!

* Just in case you are in Western NC/SC, the con is MACE West, Gateway Hotel, Hickory, NC: MACE West. I will be running PFS #3-21 Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment at 8am Sat.

Storming Thistletop right now... it's redonkulous. Everytime we drop something, something even harder shows up.

Cleared out the first level. Killed the chieftan. That was an interesting fight.

 djones520 wrote:
Storming Thistletop right now... it's redonkulous. Everytime we drop something, something even harder shows up.

Cleared out the first level. Killed the chieftan. That was an interesting fight.

I loved running that fight... It's been about a month since we've been able to play, but I loved running Thistletop, and I agree there is a large ramp up in the difficulty.

Have you guys come across the demon she's trying to release?

I had a good time at the convention I mentioned above.

Saturday morning when the time came for my GM debut, not enough players showed. A friend who had joined me and I jumped into another game as players. We also played in the afternoon.

That evening we talked to a girl at a board game who said she'd be interested in playing my Pathfinder session Sun. morning, and she might be able to bring others.

Sunday morning rolled around and we waited... and waited... needing her to show up. Finally she arrived and a friend of hers joined shortly thereafter. We were go! And Mike Welham, RPG Superstar 2012, who had GMed for us Sat. afternoon, jumped in.

I think it went well. They were complimentary about the posterboard map I made and the miniatures I'd painted up. We had some PCs fall unconscious but no deaths. My friend got to debut his elven wizard.

I played a few sessions with a guy whose PC was a halfling druid who rode a rhino named Sausage (plus he had a rabbit named Tater, etc.). Which leads me to my question for you:

How do you feel about humorous characters in relatively serious games?

I feel that it affects my suspension of disbelief a bit, but then I kick myself for taking it too seriously. It should be noted that the player was quite sharp and knowledgeable about the game.

-- Z

A lot of it depends on the player too... I'm currently playing in a Skull and Shackles game and we've got a goblin firebomber in our party... As evil as could be... except that he was in love with my rogue... sweetest he could be to her, and would protect her as best as he could... Also would go on and on and on about the "cookie" it was the word he used, but he insinuated that he would sneak into my character's quarters every night and climb into my hammock... It was awkward...

In another game, he plays a Warforged that only speaks in song lyrics... Like real life song lyrics... It's supposed to be a "gllitch" in his creation, but no one minds... it just becomes a little rough when the player, who has a massive wealth of lyrical knowledge becomes constrained when he's trying to explain something to the party.

It's a weird thing to get used to..

Should be finishing The Serpent's Skull campaign tonight. It's been a very fun campaign. We're all about 15-16th level, which is a shame as I really wanted to get to 9th level spells!

Anyhow, either we all die tonight, or we're triumphant. After last week, there is no escaping this show-down. I'll avoid spoilers, but this is going to be one wild ride. I'm bringing beer, I think. :-)

 Alfndrate wrote:
A lot of it depends on the player too... I'm currently playing in a Skull and Shackles game and we've got a goblin firebomber in our party... As evil as could be... except that he was in love with my rogue... sweetest he could be to her, and would protect her as best as he could... Also would go on and on and on about the "cookie" it was the word he used, but he insinuated that he would sneak into my character's quarters every night and climb into my hammock... It was awkward...

In another game, he plays a Warforged that only speaks in song lyrics... Like real life song lyrics... It's supposed to be a "gllitch" in his creation, but no one minds... it just becomes a little rough when the player, who has a massive wealth of lyrical knowledge becomes constrained when he's trying to explain something to the party.

It's a weird thing to get used to..

I think that would wear me out, particularly the Warforged.

At the convention there was also a girl playing a half-orc bard who spoke in broken "Common." I asked her what her Int was. "13--she just acts stupid because people expect half-orcs to be stupid." That was one thing, but in one session she made a decision that could have cost us the mission. That frosted my friend a bit. In the end it didn't matter.

In the end, you have to deal with unusual "characters" (both real and imaginary) if you are into role-playing. Sometimes they add some unexpected verve to the proceedings.

-- Z

We have a player that REALLY wants to play a Centaur barbarian in our next campaign. I tried to point him towards something else. The GM of the campaign finally said "Play what you want, but just know that there are rooms that you can't enter, and that goblins will have no problems hitting you (small versus large to-hit bonuses)." He's an old school GM that won't pull punches, so I'm thinking my buddy is in for a frustrating time.

The reason I tried to talk him out of it is that his last 2 characters were disappointing to him in terms of "helpful" to the party. I think he's really going to hate playing a Large creature that has no 10' reach and uses medium sized weapon damage. Ah well, he's got to learn the hard way.

 kronk wrote:
We have a player that REALLY wants to play a Centaur barbarian in our next campaign. I tried to point him towards something else. The GM of the campaign finally said "Play what you want, but just know that there are rooms that you can't enter, and that goblins will have no problems hitting you (small versus large to-hit bonuses)." He's an old school GM that won't pull punches, so I'm thinking my buddy is in for a frustrating time.

The reason I tried to talk him out of it is that his last 2 characters were disappointing to him in terms of "helpful" to the party. I think he's really going to hate playing a Large creature that has no 10' reach and uses medium sized weapon damage. Ah well, he's got to learn the hard way.

I just can't wrap my head around this sort of approach/attitude at all. Why in the world would a GM want to go forward knowing one or more of their players is likely going to be frustrated? It seems like you should either constrict character creation to match the game you're going to run, or if you have open-ended character creation flex your game to match the characters you get.

"I'm going to do what I'm gonna do, and if you don't bring something for that you're gonna have a bad time" just feels like a plain degenerate approach to running a game that's almost sure to create bad play experiences. This goes doubly true if you're dealing with a player you know has had trouble really making the game work for them in the past. The GM should be doing everything in their power to make sure that player expectations are in line with experiences that they can reasonable expect the game will produce, in addition to making sure those expectations are positive.

What in the world is the upside to going forward like this?

Chongara wrote:
The GM should be doing everything in their power to make sure that player expectations are in line with experiences that they can reasonable expect the game will produce,

He has. Willful ignorance on a player's part cannot be discounted.

Honestly, sometimes a person has to find out the hard way after being warned they'll have issues.

His character will still contribute and I'm sure will be fun to role play encounters. But there will be times that he'll struggle. I think he isn't going to like it, but it's his choice.

All GMs (at least the ones that I've met and played with/under) give players enough freedom to be able to do what they want to do. They offer insight when a character is looking like it's going to be extremely powerful to tone it down and bring it in line with the other characters, and they often give you just enough rope to let you experiment/hang yourself.

In the last game I DM'd, I had a rogue and a Barbarian that would shred everything in sight. They told me flat out they wanted to kill as much as they possibly could. I told them that this wasn't that kind of adventure, but I could accommodate them somewhat. After a random encounter in which I rolled openly in front of the party, they had failed enough survival checks and lost their way in a woods, came upon a clutch of dragon eggs... Mama came home... they killed a CR 12 dragon in a few rounds with 0 deaths... They were level 6... At that point I showed them that they weren't in control of the game, and things became more puzzle related, and less combat oriented and started to fit with the scope of the game... The rogue died in a series of bad rolls and getting curb stomped by a few traps and a combat in which they should have rested. He snuck up on an enemy, critted his sneak attack and killed the thing, the enemy's brother critted him, and killed the rogue... The Barbarian, the rogue's brother ran in critted the remaining enemy and combat was over... The party was cheap and the rogue took a reincarnation spell instead of a resurrection spell... Got a decent roll and came back. The next encounter the party got in was against a spell caster and her body guards. The spellcaster drained life and health from the barbarian while the party was in combat with the body guards. The barbarian drops unconscious, the wizard puts of a flame wall, setting the building on fire, and the barbarian dies... He doesn't roll well on the reincarnate table and comes back as a goblin... He quit the game right then and there...

He hasn't been invited back since... He asked me when we were playing our next game (we had since started a new campaign) and I told him that he wasn't invited because he stormed off when the dice didn't go his way, and frankly I didn't mind being friends with him, but he wasn't allowed back at my table....


As to the singing warforged... I'm not playing in that game, but the party likes the gimmick, and it's far from a serious game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 kronk wrote:

Chongara wrote:
The GM should be doing everything in their power to make sure that player expectations are in line with experiences that they can reasonable expect the game will produce,

He has. Willful ignorance on a player's part cannot be discounted.

Honestly, sometimes a person has to find out the hard way after being warned they'll have issues.

His character will still contribute and I'm sure will be fun to role play encounters. But there will be times that he'll struggle. I think he isn't going to like it, but it's his choice.

Exactly as Kronk says... I hope my anecdote relates this better than it probably does

 kronk wrote:

Chongara wrote:
The GM should be doing everything in their power to make sure that player expectations are in line with experiences that they can reasonable expect the game will produce,

He has. Willful ignorance on a player's part cannot be discounted.

Honestly, sometimes a person has to find out the hard way after being warned they'll have issues.

His character will still contribute and I'm sure will be fun to role play encounters. But there will be times that he'll struggle. I think he isn't going to like it, but it's his choice.

Saying "No Centaur Barbarian" is within the GMs power, if he's not doing that he isn't doing everything in his power.

If you're allowing Centaur Barbarians, or Living Muffins, or Sentient Wombats or whatever else then it's your responsibility as The GM to make sure playing a Centuar Barbarian, or Living Muffin or Sentient Wombat can reasonably be expected to be a positive experience.

Allowing something (even with a warning), is to some extent implicitly saying "Yeah, it stands a good enough chance of working out for you to give a go at it". Allowing players to shoot themselves in the foot, at least in ways that are reasonable to stop at character creation is really only marginally better than actively gunning for them to have a bad time.

Chongara wrote:

If you're allowing Centaur Barbarians, or Living Muffins, or Sentient Wombats or whatever else then it's your responsibility as The GM to make sure playing a Centuar Barbarian, or Living Muffin or Sentient Wombat can reasonably be expected to be a positive experience.

Not every gaming group and/or player is the same. Not every group and/or player has the same idea of what is fun, what is reasonable, and what should or shouldn't be allowed.

If you bend over backwards for your players so that they have a good time, great! Honestly, that's great for you and yours!

My group won't do that, nor will we tell someone NOT to play a certain race or build. If it's in a core book (Advanced Race Guide, or whatever it's called), then knock yourself out. Some people like a challenge. We say go for it.

But this particular player won't, I believe. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" is probably the best analogy for this circumstance.

Chongara wrote:
[
Allowing something (even with a warning), is to some extent implicitly saying "Yeah, it stands a good enough chance of working out for you to give a go at it". Allowing players to shoot themselves in the foot, at least in ways that are reasonable to stop at character creation is really only marginally better than actively gunning for them to have a bad time.

bs. He's an adult. He was told that it would be very difficult. "...it stands a good enough chance of working out for you to give a go at it" was never implied, nor received. He knows it will be tough but is adamant about playing a Centaur. This is 100% ON HIM.

 kronk wrote:

Chongara wrote:

If you're allowing Centaur Barbarians, or Living Muffins, or Sentient Wombats or whatever else then it's your responsibility as The GM to make sure playing a Centuar Barbarian, or Living Muffin or Sentient Wombat can reasonably be expected to be a positive experience.

Not every gaming group and/or player is the same. Not every group and/or player has the same idea of what is fun, what is reasonable, and what should or shouldn't be allowed.

If you bend over backwards for your players so that they have a good time, great! Honestly, that's great for you and yours!

My group won't do that, nor will we tell someone NOT to play a certain race or build. If it's in a core book (Advanced Race Guide, or whatever it's called), then knock yourself out. Some people like a challenge. We say go for it.

But this particular player won't, I believe. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" is probably the best analogy for this circumstance.

Chongara wrote:
[
Allowing something (even with a warning), is to some extent implicitly saying "Yeah, it stands a good enough chance of working out for you to give a go at it". Allowing players to shoot themselves in the foot, at least in ways that are reasonable to stop at character creation is really only marginally better than actively gunning for them to have a bad time.

bs. He's an adult. He was told that it would be very difficult. "...it stands a good enough chance of working out for you to give a go at it" was never implied, nor received. He knows it will be tough but is adamant about playing a Centaur. This is 100% ON HIM.

*Shrug*. I mean it comes down to the fact the group is reasonably assured somebody is going to be showing up and spending 2-6 hours and not liking it every week, for however long it takes this centaur to bite it. If that's somehow more desirable than taking the 5 seconds to go "Nope. Just not appropriate for this particular game, sorry you'll have to pick something else", eh whatever. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

I just can't grasp what value is being added by the approach at all.

Epic game last night. We completed Serpent's Skull adventure path. It's the first time we've ever "finished" a campaign, rather than it petering out. I won't give spoilers, but the final fight was a lesson in momentum swings, a reminder that the bad guy can always roll a 1 for his saving throw, and if you have nothing better to do "buff someone (even yourself)!" :-)

Fun times!

 kronk wrote:
Epic game last night. We completed Serpent's Skull adventure path. It's the first time we've ever "finished" a campaign, rather than it petering out. I won't give spoilers, but the final fight was a lesson in momentum swings, a reminder that the bad guy can always roll a 1 for his saving throw, and if you have nothing better to do "buff someone (even yourself)!" :-)

Fun times!

The "always fail on a 1" is actually a decent way to gun for things out of your weight class, so long as they don't have outright immunity. Even without any charop, it's not unreasonable to expect a party of 4 to tag something within a few rounds, especially once you've got 6th level slots and can put out 2 Save-or-Lose type effects each round.

Heaven the poor bastard who decides to become a Villian and has poor will save.

 kronk wrote:
Epic game last night. We completed Serpent's Skull adventure path. It's the first time we've ever "finished" a campaign, rather than it petering out. I won't give spoilers, but the final fight was a lesson in momentum swings, a reminder that the bad guy can always roll a 1 for his saving throw, and if you have nothing better to do "buff someone (even yourself)!" :-)

Fun times!

Grats!

I think it can be tough to balance letting players play what they want vs. having an unworkable/difficult character. Like any matter where opinions differ, you can let them know what the challenges will be, and possibly reach a compromise. I think my philosophy would be to err on the side of the player. Hopefully creative solutions can be found for issues that come up--that's part of role-playing.

-- Z

My RPG group has played some pathfinder recently, and I have to say that it's just as ridiculously stupid as all the other D&D rpgs. Too many rules. Too specific rules. Too rigid and inflexible rules. Poorly thought out skill system. And an extremely lame, PG-13 setting.

I thought I was the only one in our group who thought this, so I almost quit the group because I didn't want to waste four hours a week on such a stupid system. But when I delivered my "resignation speech", it became clear that all but one had the same feelings, so we just dropped the game mid-campaign and started Call of Cthulhu, and we're SO happy we did.

Cthulhu, Dark Heresy and WHFRP (which are the only RPGs I've tried aside from D&D3, 3.5, 4, PF) are all SOOOO much better than D&D (and Pathfinder).

 SgtSixkilla wrote:

Cthulhu, Dark Heresy and WHFRP (which are the only RPGs I've tried aside from D&D3, 3.5, 4, PF) are all SOOOO much better than D&D (and Pathfinder).

"...for your group."

For my group, Pathfinder is so much better than Cthulhu, Dark Heresy, and WHFRP. I have no idea what you mean by PG-13 rated. If your GM can't adjust the setting to the group, then you have a poor GM. (see, I can paint with a broad brush, too!)

To each their own, Sgt Sixkilla.

The question of appropriateness for the campaign setting often needs to be addressed. I often discuss what I want to run with my players and try to come up with a group dynamic before things start. for example in my current game my players are all dwarves and also all brothers whoose dad was a famous hero. the family dynamic is as or more important than any mechanic. this adds a lot to the game. however I do not always have such a strict focus and will usually try to qccomodate players. But, much like kronk's group, choices that make it difficult for you will...cause you difficulty. Some players enjoy pathos, and I'm not going to deny them the chance.

My kill count for our current campaign is getting far too high :-\

played yesterday, and I almost got a TPK... my party was entering the dungeon levels of Thistletop before the school year ended, so I was hoping to finish the adventure.

They were down 1 player because I didn't have an appropriate place to bring in his new character (the party couldn't recover his remains ). So they were down a man. Then they entered a room where they encountered , and they proceeded to have a massive fight throughout a few rooms (it was a really good fight), but I got a few crits with one of the enemies, and dropped the Magus (who was blind anyways from a crit a few sessions ago), and so I pulled out the critical hit deck, and since the Magus was on the other side of the table, he asked the ranger to draw a card for him. He drew one of the few triple damage cards in the deck, and it just obliterated the Magus :-\.

So the party survives this one, but I manage to drop the ranger and the gunslinger into high negatives... with some well placed spells and low saves on their part. The gunslinger gets a crit, and kills the caster. He manages to grab a health potion, saves the cleric, who saves the ranger. They heal up a little bit, and the ranger decides to press on, I suggested they might want to rethink that plan, and he says, "There's goblins about, these goblins are going to die." (favored enemy and what not...). So they press on, and manage to find themselves face to face with a pair of yeth hounds, who use their Bay in a surprise round, the ranger passes his save, the cleric and gunslinger fail miserably, and the cleric books it, the ranger follows suit, and the yeth hounds bite the gunslinger who fails his will save and has to cower for 1 round. The yeth hounds rip him a new one, and the rest of his party isn't any wiser...

I felt bad :-\

Failing to see how that's your fault? Your party knew they were hurt and should have rested. Goblins may be your Ranger's favored enemy and all, but he's only 1/3 (1/4? 1/5?) of the party. If anything, taking a trip out to a safe spot to rest might have given the other player whose character was already dead (and the mage who just died) a chance to introduce new characters and actually get to play.

So feel bad if you want, but your players screwed the pooch on that one, imo.

 streamdragon wrote:
Failing to see how that's your fault? Your party knew they were hurt and should have rested. Goblins may be your Ranger's favored enemy and all, but he's only 1/3 (1/4? 1/5?) of the party. If anything, taking a trip out to a safe spot to rest might have given the other player whose character was already dead (and the mage who just died) a chance to introduce new characters and actually get to play.

So feel bad if you want, but your players screwed the pooch on that one, imo.

I did point it out the players that all of the 'choices' that led to downfalls have been because of this ranger, with the exception of the first character kill of the game (the rogue asked to be lowered into a hole with a bunyip... Bunyip took to him like bait on a line). The ranger's death was due to suggesting everyone crosses a rickety looking bridge (he was our trap finder at the time, and he failed the perception check), so he, and our blind magus who was tied to him at the time, went into the sea, the ranger fell unconscious from falling damage, the magus lived, and managed to find shore through near perfect swim checks... I try not to kill my characters, but the dice fall where they fall...

I'm hoping these guys like their characters and will stick with them...

Anyone had much experience with the Pathfinder spell "Nap stack"? It seems kind of broken, I was thinking of introducing a kicker by making it cause fatigue for the next day after it is used.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/n/nap-stack

 Da Boss wrote:
Anyone had much experience with the Pathfinder spell "Nap stack"? It seems kind of broken, I was thinking of introducing a kicker by making it cause fatigue for the next day after it is used.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/n/nap-stack

I'm not seeing the problem with it, but I might be missing something. You get back hitpoints faster? It's a 3rd level spell, meaning the cleric with this can do 3d6 with one channel energy, which would do more healing.

If you're diseased, you'll be taking checks a hell of a lot faster, so if you roll well, you can get rid of a disease faster.

I guess the biggest benefit is removing ability damage from multiple people with one 3rd level spell instead of multiple 2nd level Lesser Restorations.

It's getting spells back in 2 hours I have an issue with. But not a huge issue, it just seems pretty strong to me and like it would be an auto take.

 Da Boss wrote:
It's getting spells back in 2 hours I have an issue with. But not a huge issue, it just seems pretty strong to me and like it would be an auto take.

I see. My group only lets you use your spells once per day, so it wouldn't affect us.

Also, we're used to Elves in Hackmaster only needing 4 hours sleep to get their spells back.

Yeah, I think we run elves that way too, but my group generally has an irrational hatred of elves so I can't remember the last time someone played one as a PC

I don't want to completely remove the spell because my cleric is excited about it, but I am running a slightly "gritty" game and I feel like it could remove a lot of that and make it a bit gamey. I like the fantasy trope that you can only "buy" that kind of increased vitality with future exhaustion.

It won't help clerics, since their required to spend an hour of prayer at a point of time in the day.

So basically it'll only help wizards/sorc's in regards to spell recovery.

Aha, good point. I hadn't thought of that. I'll discuss it with my group tonight.

I'm allowing Napstack without any penalties after thinking about it. It's no worse than many other spells.

Now, something I am considering banning from an open table game I want to run next year is Summoner and Ninja.

Anyone got any experience with these classes? They seem either overly complex and OP (summoner) or just OP compared to other options (Ninja vs. Rogue).
What's your take?

Ninja didn't seem all that special to me. I'd just ban it because I'm not a fan of east meets west with these games.

Summoner can be nasty, but he's gotta have the right party make up to be that way I'd think.

About to start the closing session for book 1 of the Rise of the Runelords adventure.

I'm with djones on the east meets west... I don't allow monks for the most part, though I shouldn't have issue with doing so, I just don't like the meshing of east meets west, and even though we're running Rise of the Runelords, I showed them a map of where most of the Asian influences are from, and then where we were playing, and said, it's not very common this far north... And then all of them wanted to be alternate races from the Advanced Race Guide, so I was like, that has an even less chance of happening!

*shrugs* also sadly no experience with the summoner,

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the "expanded races" either.

Dragon-kin... worst things ever, IMO.

Just starting my first campaign. this is our party makeup
1 Armored Hulk Orc barbarian
2: wolf Shaman(ME)
3: Ranged inquisitor
4: Rogue(Its a PC that is extra)
I have a feeling i might be the sick puppy.

Shadow's = bull gak.

Strength Damage? I hates it. Love using them as a GM, though when I ran the 3.5 Expedition to Castle Ravenloft my party's cleric nuked them with channels before they could do too much, every time!

We reaped a whirlwind through the dungeon, wreck the "bosses" with little difficulty. Then we run into 3 of these things and it almost wipes the party.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In regards to arcane casters and the spell that lets them be fully rested in 2 hours.

Recent Casting Limit/Rest Interruptions: If a wizard has cast spells recently, the drain on his resources reduces his capacity to prepare new spells. When he prepares spells for the coming day, all the spells he has cast within the last 8 hours count against his daily limit.

So... they may be rested, they may have memorized some spells, but if they cast it within 6 hours prior to that 2 of rest, they still can't learn spells that they had used.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Just starting my first campaign. this is our party makeup
1 Armored Hulk Orc barbarian
2: wolf Shaman(ME)
3: Ranged inquisitor
4: Rogue(Its a PC that is extra)
I have a feeling i might be the sick puppy.

Pick up Blistering Invective as a 2nd Level Inquisitor spell... best move I ever made, it's fantastic... you make an Intimidation check against a DC of 10+Wis Modifier+1/2 HD. If they fail, they're Demoralized for 1 round + 1 Round for ever 5 you beat the DC by. It deals 1d10+caster level of fire damage, save for half I believe... It's an awesome spell... My Inq has it, and is rocking a +17 Intimidate bonus atm...

People liked the last ones I posted, so here's another one. My Fighter who specializes in archery. Currently lvl 4.

It's a WIP done by a freelance guy found through Deviant Art. It'll be colored in when it's done, and I'll post that as well. If people are interested in contacting him, I'll provide the info.

Got the fully colored drawing done. What do you guys think?

I like it

On a sad note... my Inquisitor lost his hand today... if I was more spellcaster than melee combatant, it wouldn't be terrible, but I'm not... my feats are centered around melee, most of my spells are around melee... I just became useless D:

djones520 wrote:Got the fully colored drawing done. What do you guys think?

Very cool

Alfndrate wrote:On a sad note... my Inquisitor lost his hand today... if I was more spellcaster than melee combatant, it wouldn't be terrible, but I'm not... my feats are centered around melee, most of my spells are around melee... I just became useless D:

Do what our swashbuckler did and have an alchemist make a clockwork one to replace it. A pimp slap from a metal hand does lethal damage.

 Ahtman wrote:

djones520 wrote:Got the fully colored drawing done. What do you guys think?

Very cool

Alfndrate wrote:On a sad note... my Inquisitor lost his hand today... if I was more spellcaster than melee combatant, it wouldn't be terrible, but I'm not... my feats are centered around melee, most of my spells are around melee... I just became useless D:

Do what our swashbuckler did and have an alchemist make a clockwork one to replace it. A pimp slap from a metal hand does lethal damage.

That's probably what I'm going to do. Our DM isn't huge on third party rules.

I meant to say Artificer, not alchemist, which don't think is in Pathfinder as a class, but we had an NPC craft it. This is in a 3.5 game though, not PF, but there must be something similar.

There is a Pathfinder Society group starting up nearby soon, and I am thinking of trying it out to see what the organized play is like.

 Ahtman wrote:
I meant to say Artificer, not alchemist, which don't think is in Pathfinder as a class, but we had an NPC craft it. This is in a 3.5 game though, not PF, but there must be something similar.

There is a Pathfinder Society group starting up nearby soon, and I am thinking of trying it out to see what the organized play is like.

The organized play is nice , and yeah no Artificer

That hard to find a priest who can cast regeneration?

We're in the middle of the shackles and we managed to find someone in Port Peril that could cast the spell, I was useless for the rest of the night though.

Also not looking forward to my rise of the runelords game tonight . We're starting the Skinsaw Murders adventure and I'm not a huge fan of the first 4 parts of the adventure. And my favorite part of the adventure isn't going to be that much of a surprise since half the party has been in this adventure before :-\

 Alfndrate wrote:
We're in the middle of the shackles and we managed to find someone in Port Peril that could cast the spell, I was useless for the rest of the night though.

Also not looking forward to my rise of the runelords game tonight . We're starting the Skinsaw Murders adventure and I'm not a huge fan of the first 4 parts of the adventure. And my favorite part of the adventure isn't going to be that much of a surprise since half the party has been in this adventure before :-\

Well don't share much. We just finished up the 1st Module. We're gonna do a session or two of in between things, then start on the Murder's.

Got any insight on what you might be doing? I wouldn't mind stealing an idea or three

 Alfndrate wrote:
Got any insight on what you might be doing? I wouldn't mind stealing an idea or three

Well, I believe we're taking a trip to Magnimar. I need to find a cleric who can take this curse off of my guy. I also need to deliver my Mercenary Charter to the government there for ratification. We're going to meet up with Aldern, since he's crushing on our female party member. Not quite sure what else may be involved. We're going to keep XP out of these sessions so we don't end up outpacing the modules.

After that my character has a little side quest. Going to do a small adventure with Shalelu. Something to help explain his branch off into a couple levels of Ranger, and to help work on a bit of his back story. Not sure what the other characters will end up doing.

Yeah I'm unsure of how to really deal with Aldern... our cleric is the only female in the party (besides the witch but Aldern doesn't know about her yet) and our cleric is played by this timid girl that shies away from advances of that sort, and Idk how she would react to aldern's advances... though I might be losing her simply because she doesn't think playing over the internet will be fun.

 Alfndrate wrote:
Yeah I'm unsure of how to really deal with Aldern... our cleric is the only female in the party (besides the witch but Aldern doesn't know about her yet) and our cleric is played by this timid girl that shies away from advances of that sort, and Idk how she would react to aldern's advances... though I might be losing her simply because she doesn't think playing over the internet will be fun.

I can't help you there. His advances are gonna be rejected in our group, but I'm working on building a relationship with him since I need some help getting my foot in the door with the upper class of magnimar. (Yes, I know what happens at the end of the module).

Our cleric is most likely going to reject his advances as well, especially later on in the adventure, but I think I've found a nice way around the oh so boring first part of the adventure. Last year during Free RPG day, Paizo released a 16 page adventure titled, "Dawn of the Scarlet Sun". It's a free pdf off of their site, and it's for 5th level characters (of which they should be/are), and it was designed as a tie in for both Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star

Eff me.... spent 360 gold to try to get the strength curse removed from my character... and it failed.

How does remove curse fail? I thought it was an auto-succeed spell? Or have you been cursed by something more powerful that needs "wish" or "miracle" to remove it?

Harsh!

 Da Boss wrote:
How does remove curse fail? I thought it was an auto-succeed spell? Or have you been cursed by something more powerful that needs "wish" or "miracle" to remove it?

Harsh!

You have to beat the DC of the curse. 2 attempts, 2 failures. With a remove curse spell.

Woah, that's harsh! Bad luck man.

 Da Boss wrote:
Woah, that's harsh! Bad luck man.

Thankfully, we had just turned in a prisoner for a 400g bounty, and we'd contributed that to the "party fund" so we technically aren't out any gold, but I'm am still a bit irked about it.

I'm working with the GM to RP out a fix. My guy follows Erastil, the church of Erastil in Magnimar was were I tried to have this done. They have a "cadre" of Archers who acts as a guard force in the district, and since I happen to be an archer, I'm going to offer my services in payment for having the curse removed, since I already paid them a hefty amount of gold and they failed to get it done. It should work out pretty well I think.

I'm prepping my game which starts in about an hour and 15 minutes and I'm looking at the map I've just drawn noticing that there are trees and broken stone walls... so I'm like... let's try and make this awesome... so I grab my terrain box and place some trees and broken stone walls. Half tempted to throw down some terrain for a city right we have using terraclips.

Never play Pathfinder with a known flake and you only ride.
two times in a row we had to cancel a game cause this guy bails because he forgot homework or his car isnt working.

The Pathfinder Society stat generation makes me sad. It is good for following standard builds, but if you go outside archetypes it can be pretty brutal. Thought about making a Dwarf Paladin, but the best that you can get his Charisma is 14, and considering that it fuels a lot of his abilities that is fairly harsh. To get it to 16 you would have to spend 17 of 20 points to make CHA an 18, then lose the 2 from Dwarf, leaving you only 3 points to spend on the rest of your stats, which I think is either one 13, or an 11 and a 12.

Even with the 14 you end up like this:

STR 15
DEX 10
CON 15 (13+2)
INT 10
WIS 12 (10+2)
CHA 14 (16 - 2)

It isn't horrible, but I hate not having a 16 in a primary stat like that. I also may be overreacting. Maybe.

Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of the point buy system that Pathfinder uses. It leads to pretty similar stat lines among players. Almost all humans are going to see one stat at 17, a couple at 14, a couple 12, and one 10. It's the safest build.

That -2 to Dwarves Cha really hurts as well. I've got a Dwarf Cleric, who enjoys the Wis bonus, but I had to really pump a lot of points into Cha to make him useful, in regards to Channeling.

I usually end up with at least 1 8 at a 20 point buy, which I sort of like, because it means I have weaknesses as well as strengths. Sometimes the weaknesses can be fun.

I don't really mind what way the stats are generated, though some of the people I play with are adamant the game is only fun on a 25 point buy, which I think is a little too much.

Remember though youbare allowed to drop a stat down to 7 to gain a few more points to spend.

So I am guessing that no-one else is involved with the DnDNext Open Playtest.
They are, in part, going back to basics, but adding new content and mechanics.

A lot of modules are starting to come out not just for 4th ed, but also with 'Next modifications.

 Ahtman wrote:
The Pathfinder Society stat generation makes me sad.

No gak. Our new Gm is insisting on using low point point-buy.

However, the Pathfinder Society tables had a TON of people this weekend at ComicPalooza. I was very happy for them. Everyone had a great time, from what I saw. Must be some reasonably good GMs.

Only Magic: the Gathering had a higher turnout in the gaming (non-video) area.

 helgrenze wrote:
So I am guessing that no-one else is involved with the DnDNext Open Playtest.
They are, in part, going back to basics, but adding new content and mechanics.

A lot of modules are starting to come out not just for 4th ed, but also with 'Next modifications.

We had a thread about it awhile ago, and I even posted some news in News and Rumors recently. I don't think there will be much discussion until the actual, fished edition is released. For playtest discussion the actual WotC forums are the best place to go for discussing the ongoing rules. The only problem there is the other posters, of course*.

I will probably post some impressions of the book they are selling at GenCon, but probably not until after we have played a some of the adventurers included in it. Got a group of 6, five playing with one alternating as GM, lined up to play it. I know I am DM'ing one of the four adventures, and another is doing two if them.


* I kid, but there seems to be a lot of "To much like 2nd", "not enough like 2nd", "To much like 3.5", "Not enough like 3.5", "To much like 4e", "Not enough like 4e" going on.

My pathfinder game is DOA.
One guy lives to far and doesnt have a ride, My other friend, who we depend on for a ride car is on its last legs, so his family ont let him borrow it unless it is important. so that friend cant get home
:(

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
My pathfinder game is DOA.
One guy lives to far and doesnt have a ride, My other friend, who we depend on for a ride car is on its last legs, so his family ont let him borrow it unless it is important. so that friend cant get home
:(

Google Hangouts, I've been running a game on there for a few weeks now without issue. Have the GM draw up his map or w/e like he normally would, and point his webcam at it.

There was an idea, We where also thinking Skype.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
There was an idea, We where also thinking Skype.

Skype works well too, I just find google hangouts to be less resource intensive (since I'm generally DMing ) There is also roll20.net which you can also use with Google Hangouts

We use Roll20 and Obsidian Portal, as well as a Facebook group.

Roll20 is a good tool, but it's buggy as hell. We sometimes find ourselves having to a do a total reboot of the browser 2-3 times a session because things like audio just drop.

Obsidian Portal is a great place to centralize all of your campaign stuff. Also provides a good forum to allow for in-character roleplay to occur between sessions.

We primarily use facebook to coordinate when sessions will be and stuff like that.

I think I'll go with a Drawf Monk to get things started, and run around punching everything about the groin level for most humanoids. The problem still being the initial point spend. Here is what I have come up with, after racial adjustments:

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 16
CHA 5

OR

STR 17
DEX 14
CON 13
INT 10
WIS 16
CHA 5

The latter has more long term potential as it gets a primary stat to 18 at level 4, but the first is more well rounded, but harder to grow. Either way he is not going to make friends easily, and probably going to annoy NPCs at the worst possible time, such as when we are asking someone to help us out.

Paladin: We seek permission to cross your lands unmolested.
Noble: Perhaps..but...
*Monk In the background* Good lord that is one ugly baby, is the nobles wife a Owlbear? At least his son has a good strong beard.
Fighter: Shut up! And he doesn't have any sons, only daughters.

I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

I heard it in a more gruff Sterling Archer voice...

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

The dwarf I'm playing right now doesn't speak with one. A new player to the group called me out on it. Kinda pissed me off.

 djones520 wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

The dwarf I'm playing right now doesn't speak with one. A new player to the group called me out on it. Kinda pissed me off.

Did it now laddy? Well ye best be getting o'er such things if ye wanna be a Dwarf. Next your gunna tell us that ye dunna have a beard on yer character.

All Dwarves are Scottish.

It's a scientific fact.

Just like all female Dwarves have beards and everyone that tries to play their Halflings like a Kender will suffer a PC on PC kill.

 Ahtman wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

The dwarf I'm playing right now doesn't speak with one. A new player to the group called me out on it. Kinda pissed me off.

Did it now laddy? Well ye best be getting o'er such things if ye wanna be a Dwarf. Next your gunna tell us that ye dunna have a beard on yer character.

Actually, he does shave. He only wears a goatee. Take a look back to page 2 and you'll see the pic of him. His divine focus, aka holy symbol, is a mark on his cheek, so he has to leave it uncovered.

 Ahtman wrote:


There is a Pathfinder Society group starting up nearby soon, and I am thinking of trying it out to see what the organized play is like.

Hah! The thread has come full circle. And I will take my +1 internets for victory.

 Zygomax wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:


There is a Pathfinder Society group starting up nearby soon, and I am thinking of trying it out to see what the organized play is like.

Hah! The thread has come full circle. And I will take my +1 internets for victory.

In what sense? OGL is still the least of the D&D iterations, but that doesn't mean there aren't good people playing it or no fun to be had with it. I never claimed that I would never play, or had ever played play PF. It isn't like we are talking about FATAL here. You might want to go back and reread what the discussion/debate was actually about.

The GM for our Rise of the Runelords campaign is leaving for Boston after 2 sessions. (He's also our group's Chaos and Necron player). Great GM, funny guy. I'll miss that fether.

Anyway, I'll be taking the reins of this campaign, retiring my Bard that I played all of once.

I haven't GMed anything in at least 3 years, so this will be fun. I have the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition Hardback since that's what he was running and started flipping through it last night. I have until mid July since another GM will be running our other campaign (Carrion Crown) in the mean time. We rotate campaigns, giving the GM a break after each module. It works out very well and prevents GM burnout.

In what sense? OGL is still the least of the D&D iterations, but that doesn't mean there aren't good people playing it or no fun to be had with it. I never claimed that I would never play, or had ever played play PF. It isn't like we are talking about FATAL here. You might want to go back and reread what the discussion/debate was actually about.

Well, it was a bit hard to discern what the discussion was about since I was mainly getting "memed".

BUT I am OK with life and I hope you enjoy PFS. I played and GMed it at a con last weekend and had a good time.

 Zygomax wrote:

In what sense? OGL is still the least of the D&D iterations, but that doesn't mean there aren't good people playing it or no fun to be had with it. I never claimed that I would never play, or had ever played play PF. It isn't like we are talking about FATAL here. You might want to go back and reread what the discussion/debate was actually about.

Well, it was a bit hard to discern what the discussion was about since I was mainly getting "memed".

You do realize you can go back and read what was written, it hasn't disappeared, other than in your memory. I'm pretty sure saying that 4E isn't an MMO isn't 'meme'ing someone, whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

Well, I apologize for being a bit argumentative.

Back to regularly scheduled programming... Warning: minor spoilers.

I went to a con two weeks ago and had a good time mainly playing PFS.

In my first game it was Day of the Demon, the Season 4 special that "previews" Season 5, Year of the Demon. I was playing a level 4 at subtier 6-7 with 4 players (didn't want to make them play down.) I got ganked in one round by a beastie. Fortunately I was taken back to "town" and raised (I had a one-time 50% discount on raising too.) We had a bit of trouble with another encounter but we made it through. This scenario was pretty cool in terms of storyline and plot hooks. I'd recommend playing Blakros Matrimony before this one if possible.

So I had my first PC death under my belt...

Then I played a non-PFS PF game where we were drakes that helped a village fight off full-sized dragons. It was nice to be more effective than in my first game.

In the morning it was time to GM God's Market Gamble. It was going pretty well--I felt like I was in the GM "zone". Then the players forgot to check for traps... there's a nasty one. There was something built into the scenario that I used to avoid killing anyone, but their mission failed. Nevertheless they were very complimentary about the game.

Then I played a blast from the past: Warhammer Quest. I played HeroQuest back in the day, never played this one. I needed time before the evening's session to level my PFS PC, but our third game of WQ just kept going... and going... So I feel I didn't have time to do enough shopping and optimizing.

The evening session was Way of the Kirin, which wraps up the Lantern Lodge storyline. It went pretty well--I won't spoil anything.

In the morning it was The Fabric of Reality. After the dust settled, my first TPK experience. There was a spell that opened a 50' pit underneath two players, our damage-dealer was neutralized for a few rounds... eesh. Later I heard that the GM uses pretty tough tactics. Not that I am saying there should never be a TPK or the GM should coddle players. Fortunately I had enough gold to raise again.

I debated whether doing one more PFS game and reaching level 6, or playing an indie RPG. I went with PFS--The Veteran's Vault. I found this scenario a little flat. There were some humorous moments (due to our actions, not the scenario) at the end though. I lived to tell the tale without much trouble--good thing, as I wouldn't have been able to be raised.

So my PC is up to level 6 although he doesn't have a huge amount of gold or enough PP to raise should he perish. I will keep plugging away with him though and hope to get him out of this rough spot.

I feel I need to work on being more participatory when I'm a player. I don't exactly have an outgoing personality. I enjoyed GMing a bit more than playing, since you have to participate.

In the meantime I have been GMing PFS at home. We are playing First Steps Part III tonight--we're up to six players! Hopefully it will go well.

Happy gaming!

Ok so we got skype, everyone went in and we where ready, jokes a bit, a new comer made his chracter and stuff.
half an hour in our friend gets a call, had to leave.
If you are couting, 4 games in a row we have failed to get together.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Ok so we got skype, everyone went in and we where ready, jokes a bit, a new comer made his chracter and stuff.
half an hour in our friend gets a call, had to leave.
If you are couting, 4 games in a row we have failed to get together.

Bummer!

Well for repeat offenders, sometimes you have to try to form up your game without them. You don't have to "defriend" them or anything, just subtly leave them off the next email. Of course, I realize that some people will be like "when are we going to play? I'm all set" and then flake out. And finding a replacement can be tough sometimes.

Best of luck.

We are trying in two weeks again.
The last 3 times where problems with the ride. And heck, finding a game is even harder.

 Zygomax wrote:
There's an opinion that 4E resembles a computer MMO in that every character action is represented by a separate power, which can be used a set number of times.

That's all I meant. It is merely an opinion.

It also strips away elements of "simulation", i.e. how far can a horse-drawn cart travel in 4 days. In many cases, traditional RPGs (i.e. Pathfinder) also skip over such things for simplicity.

I suspect if I played 4E I'd like it fine.

What is your preferred RPG system?

1st edition D and D. You'd hate 4E, by the way. It's WOW on steroids and turns the game into a insane mix of MMO stat padding on paper. Not in a good way, either.

Oh, yeah...

The "We Be Goblin too!" thing yesterday was a riot and a half. Gaming like that makes me want to play games.

Still having piles of fun with my all Dwarven Brothers pathfinder campaign.

Players have been punking CR9 baddies at level 6, but that's with clever play and prep, which I think is fairly normal for a 3.X game.

 Da Boss wrote:
Still having piles of fun with my all Dwarven Brothers pathfinder campaign.

Players have been punking CR9 baddies at level 6, but that's with clever play and prep, which I think is fairly normal for a 3.X game.

My current party was almost all dwarven, then we were struck with other idea's.

I just had an encounter the other day, CR8 and the APL was 5, and just 3 of us. It was rough, but we made it through it. Goblins with barbarian levels...

The "We Be Goblin too!" thing yesterday was a riot and a half. Gaming like that makes me want to play games.

I played it as well! Tons o' fun!

Fun session last night, players dealt with a Glabrezu at level 7. That's CR 13, so it was a close fight! The wizard and the ranger both went down and the Cleric and Figher were fairly close. Reverse Gravity is a hilarious spell, and 5 attacks on a full attack with 15 foot reach is just horrible. Kept critting as well.
But the most fun was roleplaying him as an insane genius during the fight.

CR13 vs level 7s was a "close fight"? Isnt APL + 3 supposed to be a hard encounter? How did APL + 6 not end as a slaughter?

 streamdragon wrote:
CR13 vs level 7s was a "close fight"? Isnt APL + 3 supposed to be a hard encounter? How did APL + 6 not end as a slaughter?

A lot of things can happen... Single target fights can actually be a little higher than the APL+6 kind of thing... I was running an adventure and had a Barbarian, Wizard, Rogue, Cleric and a fighter?(I don't remember the last party member ) and they, at level 6 destroyed a level 12 Green Dragon, but were slaughtered by a spellcaster and a few lackeys. Having a single target means that you can all focus on one thing, so the spell casters don't have to worry about expending certain spells on certain monsters, they just unload on the big guy, rogues and fighters can flank giving that ever so important sneak attack, and unless the monster has some fancy combat tricks he's only going to get 3 or 4 attacks at most... Which if he splits them up is going to generally do damage a cleric can keep up with. He also did say that 2 of the party members did go down and the other two were almost down...

The answer is really: Clever play, luck, and circumstances.
The had a situational bonus that gave the Glabrezu -2 to hit and neutralised it's summoning ability (it could have regained these abilities in the right series of situations), but aside from that:
-Good positioning for the cleric to ensure he could heal without exposing himself too much.
-Clever spell selection by the wizard focusing on reflex saves, not allowing the Glabrezu much mobility without spending an action teleporting or dispelling various webs, greases and so on. (The wizard did pay for this with a massive buttload of damage, though).
-The party has been fighting a lot of demons and has tech-d up appropriately. They sorted out align weapon for the fighters, protection from evil communal, the ranger had Demons as a favoured enemy, the Fighter had a feat selection that included disruptive which stopped the demon from teleporting away.

So I was confident they could handle it and tried to play him as intelligently as I could manage. I find my players can usually deal with APL+5 if they're prepared, with the situational benefits I figured I was in that range here, and if they don't run away I don't pull punches. We also generally only have 2-3 encounters per session, so they tend to be average or higher than APL to make them mean something.

Looks like my worry about being the party tank was justified- got killed in a combat today. Looks like it might be a TPK- the game is still ongoing!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Yup, TPK! That was kinda fun!

So me and some buddies are gong through thorne keep.
No spoilers, but we unlocked a door(Two rogues with INSANE lockpicking) And went through(Or are) it backwards, we fought the boss at lvl one......who needed magic weapon to kill it, just what we didnt have(I had two castings of magic weapon thankfully)

Also: Is throwing unconcious goblins down a corridor to check for traps evil?

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Also: Is throwing unconcious goblins down a corridor to check for traps evil?

That depends on what caused the goblins to become evil, and if any died as a result of your trap checking...

We tried 4e D&D for a few gaming sessions and found it to tbe a terrible system. We made a group of all Dwarves for fun and suddenly became too tough for the GM to kill with equivalent monsters.

Now we're back at Pathfinder rules in 3.5 Forgotten Realms setting(I'm sorry, Spellplague is crap IMO). People are loving it.

As for it being a 'miniature game' over a true RPG, I think that is more in the hands of the GM. I play political heavy campaigns generally, where designing a character to be fun to RP works out better than being a combat beast. 3.5/Pathfinder makes a great thematic game if the GM is good enough. -=Shrug=-

So we found a hefty cache of thassilonian gold. 1600 coins. I'm pushing the GM to give them more value, since their 10,000 years old, and there is probably a lot of collectors out there who'd pay for them. He's resisting. Wondering if I should push harder, or just be satisfied with the gold.

Whew... my Pathfinder schedule sure is busy.

I started our home game in May with three players scheduled, then a last-minute invite made it four. Now for our session next Friday we'll be up to seven players! A network effect took place, with players inviting others.

We are using Pathfinder Society rules and tackling Pathfinder Online: Thornkeep, a compilation of five mini-modules (dungeon levels) based on the setting for the upcoming Pathfinder Online game.

Then I have a convention to prepare to GM for at the end of the month.

And then... Gen Con! A friend was going, so I decided to go. It was too late to get in on GMing PFS, but I am running Pathfinder demos called Goblin Attack. Stop by and say hi if you're there, I'm the really good-looking one. ;-)

Have fun playing Pathfinder or your favorite RPG!

hm...only three more days til the deep magic kickstarter finishes......then once it arrives, i will be able to make a super-mage...assuming i find a group to game with locally.........also, gah, another pathfinder compatible book is up on there....that i might just have to back

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/26154.html

Paizo Publishing has announced a quartet of major releases in 2014, three for its category-topping Pathfinder Role-Playing Game and one for its Pathfinder Battles Miniatures Game. Slated to debut in February will be the first in a monthly series of archeologically-themed Pathfinder Adventure Paths, The Mummy’s Mask (MSRP $22.99), which casts its heroes as tomb raiders and explorers who delve into ancient realms in order to find some way to thwart the designs of an ancient Pharaoh, who has returned to life.

In March of 2014 Paizo plans to release the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods (MSRP $39.99), a deluxe 300-page hardcover that examines the gods and goddesses of Golarion’s Inner Sea region. It includes new prestige classes, subdomains, and spells, plus new traits, feats, and magic items—everything needed to unlock the powers of the gods for characters of every class.

Next comes the Pathfinder Strategy Guide, a 128-page hardcover filled with useful advice to create and advance characters, plus an in-depth examination of the Pathfinder rules that will provide players with valuable tips to help their characters survive the rigors of the Pathfinder RPG. The Pathfinder Strategy Guide (MSRP $29.99) ships to retail in April.

Finally in October of 2014 comes Pathfinder Battles Legends of Golarion, a new collection of 55 pre-painted miniatures from Paizo and WizKids Games. This set features all-new sculpts based on the gorgeous art commissioned by Paizo for its Pathfinder RPG with figures drawn from more than five years of Pathfinder RPG releases.

Previously Paizo announced this year’s Pathfinder Battles release (see "'Pathfinder Battles: Undead Horde'") and the Pathfinder RPG: Bestiary 4 (see "More Monsters for 'Pathfinder'").

Thread necro here, sure, but still on topic.

Our glacially moving RoTRL campaign got to the point where we assaulted Fort Rannick yesterday.

My god what a mess that was. We only cleared the courtyard, and that alone took eight hours. 24 ogres, 3 with character levels. We had one NPC casualty, Jakardros. That will prove interesting, since my character is dating his step daughter.

That chapter of the adventure looks like one of the most fun ones, I reckon. I haven't had a chance to run it yet, but I love how it's written.

My Darksun group recently converted back to 3.X after getting fed up with 4th around level 16. Hilarious rocket tag shennanigans with the inevitable disparity between casters and fighters, though the Thri Kreen barbarian seems to hold his own- I used the 3.5 stats where he gets a +30 to jump!

They just took down Dregoth in a pitched battle in the ruins of the city of Raam. Mental fight, they got blasted down to near death multiple times, the Oracle died, and Dregoth wished himself back to near full health three quarters of the way through. At the end, they were falling through the air, getting breath weaponed, quickened disintegrated and attacking him while blasting him with Heal spells to damage him. Then they had to survive hitting the roof of a building at terminal velocity. Ridiculous!

It is a lot of fun, I'm enjoying it much more then the last one. Might also be because my character is looking like he might be taking control of the Black Arrows now.