Interesting Reddits

Friday, December 23, 2011

Moving, Bestiary 3, and stuff

Well, moving during the December holidays makes for a new level of crazy. Everyone wants you somewhere, and you still have to pack. You've got to get your mail forwarded, and you aren't as focused on the holidays, so you go to the store for something you need forgetting that EVERYONE's at the store getting last minute gifts. Then apartment complexes do crazy things like decide to repave the parkinglot on the day you need to be able to park a trailer close to the door for loading. Really guys? Oh well.

On a better note, the mail did manage not to return my subscription (like they did the check) and I got my Bestiary 3 and Mythical Monsters Revisited, and Dragon Empires Gazetteer. I also pre-ordered the Bestiary Box that releases in may.

All three products look good at first glance, life's kept me from really looking at them so an in-depth review will have to wait. If someone'll harp on me I'll do ones in January.

I've decided not to participate in RPG Superstar anyway this year. I simply don't have the time. I may still offer the worksheet for organizations to the top 32 to look at and comment on.

I'm also making preliminary plans to attend Paizocon 2012. I'm not sure how that's gonna work just yet, but I think its time I saw how some of this stuff really works.

That's all I gotta say this week. I might be more talkative when I'm down in El Paso.


Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Thanksgiving, Faction Sheet, El Paso

This is late. Again.

I spent the weekend that this typically falls on in Kentucky with my brother. I had a good time, got lots of rest, and two sessions of Pathfinder in the Dragonlance universe in. It was two firsts, one my first Dragonlance game, two the first time me and my sibling were both players in any D&D (there might have been once before, but I don't think so). So that was really nice. What time we typically spend on the same side of the table is usually co-gamemastering.

The other games we played were Settlers of Catan, and Twilight Imperium, both are really need games. I suggest them to people who want a "higher" board game.

I have one other major distraction going on. I'm taking a new job in El Paso, and my first day (barring paperwork issues) will be the first working day of January. So I get to pack all this back up and get ready to move.

Interesting times... but I think things are looking up, if I survive the chaos.

Okay enough distraction.

The free material for The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner's Kit is pretty nice, and helps complete the Kit. There's a second scenario, that you can either doodle on the blank side of the folding map, or go out and snag the Gamemastery Map Pack: Mines for. It also introduces a few rules the kit left out, and puts some more meat to it.

It's also likely a 2-hour scenario, a little more to do than the first, but this should be your group's second session (or later)... so you should be able to get through more. After some deeper reading, two hours was Paizo's goal, so I shouldn't be bothered by it. I may even tackle building sessions to that length. The more I play the more I notice that even when we do play for hours on end, two is about where the breaks fall.

I've also read about half of Death's Heretic it's good. I'll probably finish it this weekend between spouts of packing. The Four Horsemen installment is also disturbingly yummy. A great balance of creepy and cool... GM'll love it, players'll like it too, but not what it'll mean for their characters.

I'm delaying the Faction, and Caravan Deluxe Worksheets again, the first because the research for the introduction/simple suggestions is getting deeper that I expected, the second because there's not really anything to add. Some other companies have mentioned work on supporting products, and Paizo's admitted that right now the systems broken, so this sheet's on a "wait and see" list.

The Faction sheet's in process, and now is the focus, but it's just me, and the universe has noticed my mostly empty plate and dumped second helpings.

Well, here's hoping your holidays go well. I'll write again in a week and a half.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

So the past few weeks have been quite crazy. That said, I haven't completely been out of the loop.

The free content on paizo.com for The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner's Box helps the box a bit. There's a second module, which adds some rules the original box materials didn't cover, and can either be doodled out on the "blank" side of the flip mat, or uses the GameMastery Map Pack: Mines I haven't had a chance to read it in detail, but it's also about two hours worth of gameplay from the skimming I got to do.

The expansion book for the players covers some of the rogue, cleric, fighter, and wizard abilities the one with the box didn't, and of course, adds barbarian to the class options. The interesting thing is how the material is covered. There's almost a whole page per level of each class now. Bulky, but easy to read.

Another GameMastery Map Pack I noticed in a store (I don't subscribe to them, but that may change) is Swallowed Whole this looks like fun. Each card is some gargantuan creature and the maps valid squares are inside the creature. So if your whole party gets munched, just replace your counter with the map card and keep going.

That's enough about Paizo's stuff, now for a plug/update.

After a question posted on paizo was answered, I was pointed to a very tiny line on several Pathfinder Roleplaying Game products. "Open Content", I knew this was on the hardback books, and they were added to the list of valid books to use under the PCL. but it's actually in all the others too, and applies mechanics in Adventure Paths, and other books. This is good news, because it means I don't have to wait on two small projects I am working on. Expect a Faction Worksheet, (with a little expansion about faction generation), and a Caravan Worksheet very soon. I'm going to try and get the Caravan Worksheet done before the last Jade Regent Adventure Path releases.

Don't forget the other three worksheets I have up at Paizo now. So far the people who have commented have been pleased with them.

Now as to why this month has already been crazy. Saturday of last week I was on the way to pickup a battery, sparkplugs, and plugwires for my 2001 Dodge Ram. I was in said pickup, and so was my dad. We were two blocks from a major intersection when someone in a elderly (late 70- early 80s) chevy pickup ran a stop sign and plowed into me. Me and my dad are okay, but the truck is totaled, worse, the guy ran. I did have uninsured, and my insurance wrote me a check for the value of the truck, problem is it's no where near enough to get a vehicle even in reasonable shape. This happened in Lubbock, and I've had to be in Abilene, but left the truck in Lubbock, and my job drove me all over that part of texas this week, and the insurance guy was in Lubbock, Levelland, and all other places around here after looking at the truck. This made getting the check madness for all. Then work's been a tad crazy, not so much a huge workload as once again its spread over half of creation. All in all, just hectic.

Tomorrow, however, I have one meeting to be at that will determine who will replace me for certain responsibilities. After that, a month or so of helping the new person adjust, and I'll have lots less on my plate.

We'll see what madness is going on in two weeks!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Game Day Report, Bleach Failday

So I got really ill right before Gameday, this meant the PDD20 game didn't happen, infact about the only gaming I got in was two rounds of chess. However, we had a larger turnout than last year, and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. So while a down day for me and D20, overall a good day.

Last night was supposed to be the first major session of my BLEACH game. Yeah, mid game a combination of my DM overreaction and player stupidity cut the game short. One of my two player's is rolling up a new character. The good news is there's a lot of promise in Magus being a good option for a Kido-friendly Shinagami.

I was actually using a lot of the new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner's Box for the game. So I'll through a first impression here.

Paper pawns: These were actually really nice quality cardboard pawns with good art. I agree with some the fronts and backs should have been different, but not many people draw characters or monsters from the behind.

Flipmap: A nice dungeon one side "blank" otherside flipmat. Nothing fancy, but nice.

Module included: Straight to the dungeon crawl, which is actually kinda short, and ends with two rounds with a black dragon??? Look I know this is dungeons and dragons, but throwing a dragon in the first encounter set is still a bit nuts. There's almost enough pre-dragon combat to validate leveling your characters to level 2, and the loot built in is enough to sorta make the characters capable of surviving (and therefore, really really powerful game items that any player's new or old is gonna latch onto and throw later games power level off) but really. The module's also SHORT, really SHORT. I don't think even a totally inexperienced group would have trouble finishing this module in 2 hours tops. (Seriously, a under strength party (one experienced gm, one experienced player, one only second session player was over halfway through it in 20 minutes, then stupidity happened and we broke up).

Once that's done, the infant gm has to figure out what to do next? Sure if your party only has the one copy of the hero's handbook, and has to pass it around leveling up either their customs or the pregens, then I can see that being enough to end a evening, but it felt kinda lacking.

I'd suggested on paizo's site that this box have a lot of good "new to GMing" material, and while its there, it's all in the "read and study" section after the module.

Overall, it's a good addition to my stuff, and a good thing to hand to a group of newbies, but still isn't quite what I'd hoped for. They could have spread the action out a little, a few map pieces wouldn't have been a bad addition, and could have let them build two "locations" instead of just one that was so small. A reduced map pack (the flip mat is a game mastery flipmat) would have been a nice addition.

So, I'll be keeping mine, if I'm in a store and someone asks about rpgs, I'll be suggesting it, but maybe not the xmas gift i was hoping for for some of my friends.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Miniature Paintings By Benji

Here's some mini's my brother has painted for me.
A Woodelf Waywatcher from Warhammer fantasy:


Woodelf Lord


Reaper PFRPG Rogue (Customized)


Red Dragon

Friday, September 30, 2011

Well, at the moment of writing this, I have to say my expectations for the character sheet and realm sheet sales were low. I said I'd be happy if I sold enough for paizo to pay me once a year, I'm one sale (of either sheet) from that minimum. They've been available less than two weeks.

I don't know if the sales will keep that pace, but the closer they come to keeping it, the better chances I can turn that income back into more sheets and other projects I've had in mind for a while now.

One of those projects that has recently cropped into my head, is a Faction Sheet. I don't know everything about where this will go, but I expect it'll be in the 4-6 page range, and might have an additional 2-4 pages on suggestions about creating factions/secret societies/gangs/etc.

You all know about the Realm booklet. Well, I've got a 2 page + map "sheet" almost ready to put up at paizo, and then I've still got a lot of time on the "booklet". The booklet will be set kinda on the back burner, because I'm hoping to have enough income from the new worksheets to afford printed copies of the booklet.

Region 3 Game Day on its way. I've still got to finish a little work for it, but I know now that I will not be majorly involved in putting next years game day together. I have no idea if the USS Diamondback will host next year's yet. Even if they do, though, I'll at most be a minor assistant.

I've payed for the few pieces of art I've had commissioned for the Krenna setting, and purchased two more that Aabh had done for someone else who disappeared. I'll have to double my sales of sheets to make that money back compared to now. So here's hoping the sales don't fall too quickly (or better yet, pick up!).

But that's what it boils down to. After October, I should have a little more money, and a little more time, to devote to my gaming projects.

Two weeks from now will be right on top of Game Day... so I'll just post images of my brother's paint jobs on all the minis he's done for me. Two weeks after that will be a final report on Game Day.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

They're Up! They're Up! They're Up!

That's right, the "final" version of my character sheet, and settlement sheet are up at Paizo's website. Here's the link. It's only $2.00 for each sheet, and that's only so I can afford some work for other products. I also have a lot more worksheets in development, and will post them as time goes by. Thanks for the comments that were made, and be prepared to see more here.

Monday, September 19, 2011

A look back, before making a stronger attempt to go forward

So, looking back at somethings I've posted, I suppose it's time I should re-visit several of them.

I'm gonna touch each subject based on its current progression, my changes in attitude towards things, and at least note if I intend to talk further about any of them in more detail in a later post.

So here we go:
The Realm Sheet: This, believe it or not, is still progressing. It's been on the back burner for a while but I'm picking it back up for two reasons. 1, its split into two projects. A Realm "Sheet" which will look much like my The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Settlement Sheet, and a "Booklet" which'll look a lot more like the later per-release versions I've posted.

I'll definitely be covering this more.

Adobe and Scribus:
I still use scribus, and I'm still mad at Adobe for their heavy handedness, however, a legal copy of Acrobat Pro 9 is now in my possession, therefore I have used it to finish pdf forms. I still start in something else though (scribus or libreoffice). This will get more coverage, but only as updates (or better software choices) come up.

Pen & Paper Games, Obsidian Portal, and the like:
Well, these have still been very useful websites. I pay for OP now, and even have one "campaign" there that's just templates for certain pages.P&PG hasn't been as useful lately, but by no fault of their own.

This'll get more coverage as I finish new templates, and interesting things come my way.

Gimp:
They're still on 2.7 (2.6 if you want the stable release) and the dev release has very little pull in the windows users. There's been a little pace pickup in the last few months, but if that continues, who knows. Still great software, and once 2.8 hits I'll definitely be talking about it.

Maptool:
Wow, they were hopping b60 would be the release. Turned out to be b84, and its still being "patched" which is kinda keeping 1.4 work suppressed. Trevor's kinda stepped down, and Azhrei has picked it up. So it still progresses, but like Gimp, is kinda behind what I expected by this time...


I'll probably talk about this more once 1.4 has an alpha to play with, until then its all bugfixes anyway.


Kaidan:
Well, Gameprinter got some good luck and got everything he needed to continue on this project back. Now his first three modules released through Rite Publishing. I have all three but still have yet to play them... I'm probably gonna have to retire before I can get all the gaming I'd like in. Sigh...


If he produces more, I'll post about it.


Kubuntu:
Driving me nuts with some KDE issues that I don't see in other distros. But I'm 95% linux now at home! 4% is a pfsense firewall (technically freeBSD) and 1% is a XP virtual machine on my linux box, one of its tasks I'll be moving over to linux soon, so it's sole use will be to run Adobe Acrobat Pro, and only as long as I need it.


I don't know which distro I'll try next, but when I pick one, I'll post about it.


Forgotten Realms Drow Game:


This has halted due to some WICKED drama. It will not continue, sadly. The only bright side is it no longer cuts from time I can spend in the Pathfinder universe, or my own.


Pathfinder Fiction (Now Pathfinder Tales)


This has gone a long way. I'm liking some authors, and not liking others. I need to set down and set time to read and especially review all the stuff I've purchased. So eventually you'll see more of this.


David Weber's Universes:
The Mad Wizard Weber's had some real crummy luck in trying to write a new Bahazell book, and he's side stepped the honorverse for a time. I'm past the withdraw phase and into the "silently watching" phase.


If he finishes anything... I'll post about it.


Region 3 Game Day:
This is now less than a month away... it's gonna eat all my spare time until its done. Then, if we're asked to do next year's we'll probably be a lot better prepared.


I'll say how it went in after it happens.


Krenna:
Snakes Among Us continues, slowly, and I now have another story idea to go with it. Some of you have even been given a extremely vague hint.


This is related to most of my projects. It will get a lot of attention here.


Abilene:
Still sucks, but not nearly as badly. I have a few things to keep me entertained here, but if one of them goes the way I expect... I won't really have all that much to keep me here. December will tell more.


Sintel:
Someone wanna send me a EUR 40 present this christmas. The movie was cool, and I still wanna play with blender myself.... but life gets in the way a lot.


If they do another one, I WILL post about it...


And that brings us to 2011 which is almost over. I've taken over the PFRPG Bleach stuff... there's an Obsidian Portal Campaign called Bleaching the Path. The 7 player game died, drama + rl schedule interference. I plan on doing more and better OP templates, and Paizo sent me paperwork which I have now filled out, that once they process means I can upload my settlement sheet, and my character sheet, for sale!!!! They won't cost much, and probably won't make me much, but if they make enough for me to pay for one or two things for some krenna stuff, then some of that will be ready to put up for sale... then that'll pay for more stuff, and you get the idea.


Well, that's about it. 2012 isn't here yet, but if the rest of 11 moves at half the pace it has so far, it'll be over in no time, and 2012 looks to be a good year, a year where I can do some of the things I've really wanted to do.



Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Campaign Poll, Star Trek gaming, and stuff

First, I'm trying to decide if I should take a "second step" on getting some work done on my Pathfinder setting.

Answer Here

Second, I'm still looking for suggestions on a game for Star Trek D20 in october.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Pathfinder Obsidian Portal Templates: Redux Amoung other things.

Due to minor frustrations with browsers/websites parsing code... I'm re-posting the templates I've made so far as links to text files in the public area of my dropbox account. So grab them here:

Character Sheet -- My latest addition, It has some issues and is freaking huge, but unlike the dynamic character sheets on OP, this one prints well if copied to a word processor software.

The item sheet No changes, just saved as a text file.

Settlement Sheet

On a side note, I'm working on a completely separate from Obsidian Portal Online Character Sheet. Right now all I've got is what it looks like, nothing functional. You can look at it here. This page was a huge project, even with no dynamic properties. I still need a place to host it once I get something more functional put together.

Other than that, If someone's got a simple Prime Directive D20 scenario I can run at game day this October, I'd be grateful!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Another PFRPG Template for Obsidian Portal

This one comes from me needing a way to describe the properties of an outfit for bleach characters. It's a work in progress.

Here's What It Looks like
Here's the Code


_Fluffy description_

*ITEM TITLE*
*Aura* _aura_; *CL* _caster level_
*Slot* _body slot_; *Price* _value in gp_; *Weight* _weight_
*DESCRIPTION*
_A sentence or two about the item's abilities_
*CONSTRUCTION*
*Requirements* _feats, spells, materials_; *Cost* _price for creation_


This, and the fact that paizo's shipping 110USD worth of stuff is about all I've got to yap about. Thanks to the sibling for starting a new game, and sorry to the players of my games who've had to come to a halt due to my crazy life.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Mac Rants, Obsidian Portal Deeper Review,

First a rant about Mac's and Adobe Reader.

A while back I built and posted a Extended Reader Feature (Form you can save) Character sheet. It was huge, but all was well. My groups have been using it, and a few others have used it and said that things went well with it.

Well, one of my younger players was building her character on the little macbook her school supplies her. All well and good, until we loaded the files later from a cd she burned.

The sheets were blank, on windows and 'droid it was summer so we didn't have her mac.

Also the files were half the size. So we figured bad saves. Luckily I'd also had her save it to a pen drive I had on me the day she was making the character.

Dig that out, throw it in my nix box. Blank sheet WTF? Show forms. All the data's there, except it won't show when you hide the forms... Okay, copy to a new sheet manually. Saves just fine.

So somethings funky about the way macs save Extended Feature Files. Anyone else see this.

In brighter news. I've been using Obsidian Portal for a few games now and I like a lot of the stuff works. There are a few frustrations, some of the textile syntax are badly chosen for the situation, and there's no escape syntax so that one can use quotes in the adventure log or forums, but otherwise I'm happy.

I've got some more Krenna ideas running around in my head, and hope to continue a few of the local games that've been sitting soon. Paizo keeps sending stuff through the subscriptions, and I'm behind on looking at half of it, but real life is starting to calm down so with luck I'll have more time.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

PFRPG Settlement Template for Obsidian Portal

So I've started moving non Krenna games to Obsidian Portal for two reasons:
I have players who aren't even on the same continent.
It looks like a good way to keep notes on local games and back up info that's currently in unorganized piles on my desk or random folders on my computer.

Because of this I've spent a while making a template for a Settlement page for the wiki section each campaign gets. Here's the code:


|/3. !http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZO/PZOCOMPATIBILITYE_360.jpeg!| Pathfinder Settelment Template|
|For Obsidian Portal|
|By Notsonoble|

<small>*GENERAL INFO:*</small>

|<small>*Name:*</small>|_Name_|<small>*Also Known As:*</small>|_AKA_|<small>*Is Part of*:|_Realm or Region_|
|<small>*Alignment:*</small>|_Align_|<small>*Setting:*</small>|_Setting_|<small>*Role:*</small>|_Role_|
|<small>*Type:*|_Size_|<small>*Danger*</small>|_Value_|
<hr />

<small>*MODIFIRES:*</small>

|<small>*CORRUPTION:*</small>|00|<small>*CRIME:*</small>|00|<small>*ECONOMY:*|00|
|<small>*LAW:*</small>|00|<small>*LORE:*</small>|00||<small>*SOCIETY:*</small>|00|

<small>*QUALITIES AND DISADVANTAGES:*</small>

|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|
|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|
|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|_Enter Quality_|
<hr />

<small>*DEMOGRAPHICS:*</small>

|{background:#ddd}. <small>*Government:*</small>|{background:#ddd}. _Enter Government Type_|<small>*Population:*</small>|_Enter Number and Race_|_Enter Number and Race_|_Enter Number and Race_|
|{background:#ddd}. <small>*Government Alignment:*</small>|{background:#ddd}. _Gvt Align_|{background:#ddd}. <small>*Population Alignment*</small>|{background:#ddd}. _Pop Align_|_Enter Number and Race_|_Enter Number and Race_|
<hr />

<small>*MARKETPLACE:*</small>

||<small>*MINOR ITEMS:*</small>|<small>*VALUE:*</small>|<small>*MEDIUM ITEMS:*</small>|<small>*VALUE:*</small>|<small>*MAJOR ITEMS:*</small>|<small>*VALUE:*</small>|
|={background:#ddd}. <small>*BASE VALUE:*</small>|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|
|={background:#ddd}. _Enter B Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|
|={background:#ddd}. <small>*PURCHASE LIMIT:*</small>|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|
|={background:#ddd}. _Enter P Limit_</small>|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|
|={background:#ddd}. <small>*SPELLCASTING:*</small>|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|
|={background:#ddd}. _Enter Spell Level Available_</small>|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|
||_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|_Enter Item_|_Value_|
|<small>*NOTES:*</small>|\6. _Any economic notes Any economic notes Any economic notes Any economic notes Any economic notes Any economic notes_|
<hr />

<small>*NOTABLE NPCS:*</small>

|<small>*NAME*</small>|<small>*ROLE*</small>|<small>*ALIGNMENT*</small>|<small>*CLASSES & LEVELS*</small>|<small>*HP*</small>|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter C&L_|_Enter HP_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter C&L_|_Enter HP_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter C&L_|_Enter HP_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter C&L_|_Enter HP_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter C&L_|_Enter HP_|
<hr />

<small>*FACTIONS:*</small>

|<small>*NAME*</small>|<small>*ROLE*</small>|<small>*ALIGNMENT*</small>|<small>*LEADER*</small>|<small>*MEMBER COUNT*</small>|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter Leader_|_Enter Count_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter Leader_|_Enter Count_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter Leader_|_Enter Count_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter Leader_|_Enter Count_|
|_Enter Name as Character Page Link_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Align_|_Enter Leader_|_Enter Count_|
<hr />

<small>*LOCATIONS:*</small>

|<small>*NAME*</small>|<small>*ROLE*</small>|<small>*Description*</small>|
|_Enter Name_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Description_|
|_Enter Name_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Description_|
|_Enter Name_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Description_|
|_Enter Name_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Description_|
|_Enter Name_|_Enter Role_|_Enter Description_|
<hr />

<small>*REFERENCES:*</small>
_Enter any reference other reference page links like maps or stories here_


Feel free to use it and comment!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Paizo Releases and Announcements

First, Paizo sent me Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic, the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Rival Guide, and Pathfinder Tales: Worldwound Gambit. Here's my first impressions.

Ultimate Magic: This is another well done expansion book for PFRPG. I haven't really dug in it deep, but I'm hoping to very soon.

Rival Guide: This is an awesome concept, with a neat execution. These are not more factions, or some single recurring villain NPCs. No, these are 10 NPC Adventuring Parties who your characters could run into once, twice, or in a recurring fashion. They don't have to be "the villains" of the campaign (one party's majority alignment is even on the good side), but they can be. What they're more designed for is the parties competition. These are the groups that your party are either just beating to a location to acquire some item, or maybe picking a fight with because they have the item, then dealing with later for another item, or even working with to finish some mutual goal. They could be the mercenaries that the real villain hired to keep you at bay, or simply just out for gold themselves. They could even be "helpful" frustrations.

The execution is a set of fairly balanced parties of four NPCs, each NPC has about as much detail as the average Goloron NPC Paizo publishes, and the a page or two about the party as a whole. Wrap that around more great art, and a few extra feats, spells, and uses of skills, and you've got another one of paizo's fabulous fluff books.

Worldwound Gambit: Pathfinder Tales is still having hit or miss moments, this is (in my opinion) on the miss side. Great concept of story, but another one where the style of writing just makes it very hard to dive in. So in the novels, we've got 2 good, and 2 not so good, and 2 yet to be released. Gotta start somewhere.

What else is interesting this week?

Well, a few weeks ago they announced the PFRPG: Beginner Box, it sounds very typical of tabletop game beginner boxes, a nice piece but perhaps nothing special. Until the email I got last night.

Paizo and WizKids Launch Pathfinder Pre-Painted Minis

Beginner Box Release Resurrects Pre-Painted Plastic Fantasy Miniatures

Paizo Publishing and WizKids Games announce a new partnership whereby WizKids Games will produce a special set of pre-painted plastic miniatures for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box, an introductory boxed set slated to release in October 2011.  ...

The email goes on to say that this is not a move from reaper's minis, which will continue and are doing well, and mentions that this will be a separate product alongside the Beginner Box.

All I know is, assuming I'm not flat broke at the time (which I might be, its my debit card that'll have to pay for the conference room for SFI-Region 3's Game Day on 10-22) I'll be ordering one to go with my beginner's box (the beginners box is part of the PFRPG subscription) and may order 2 or 3 more of each as Christmas Presents this year.

That's pretty much the jist of things. I'm gonna try and continue a game I started a few weeks ago tonight, depeneding on player's schedules. Other than that life's pretty much here.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Some New Settlement Properties For Commenting

Here's some additional settlement properties I'd like opinions on from people who watch my stuff and play The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. I'm also adding the compatibility logo to the blog and following the rules since I'll be putting out the Settlement Sheet as a for purchase item.

The finalized versions of these will also be in the Realm Booklet.

New Governments:
Constitutional ______: This is actually a modifier of any other government option. The settlements with this descriptor on their government have a written document that restricts what the governing body can and can't do. (Law, and Society +1, Corruption -1)


Communal: In a communal settlement, all are equal, and have an equal voice. Goods and services are distributed evenly or by special need. Money is used almost exclusively in international trade. (Law and Lore -1, Corruption and Society +2 20% of acquiring the Anarchy Disadvantage, or the Overlord government at a later date. Base Value -50%, Purchasing Limit -50%)


Democracy: In either an direct or representational manner, the majority of the people have a vote in the laws and people providing/enforcing those laws. (Law, Corruption and Society +2).

New Qualities:
Capital: This settlement is the capital city for a larger realm. Be it momentum from the previous ruler, praise or fear of the current ruler, or just accepted tradition, this settlement sees lots of trade and political traffic. (Lore, Society, Economy +1)


Ruins: This settlement is built on the ruins of an ancient location of a previous society. Many come here to learn its secrets. Not everything in the ruins, however, wants to be disturbed. (Lore, Economy +1, Law and Society -1 Danger +5 60% chance of the Cursed, or Hunted Disadvantage)


Riddled With Hiding Places: Whether its a underground cavern system, a sewer system, or some “politically immune” location, people who've upset the ruling order have plenty of ways to escape. (Crime and Corruption +1, Society and Law -1, 20% of the Anarchy Disadvantage, or 50% Chance of the Secret Cult* Disadvantage)

New Disadvantages:
Secret Cult: A cult of an opposing deity or way of life has hidden itself here. They do not want to be disturbed, and may when the time is right attempt to overthrow the government and population. Their also quietly horde materials for their needs or destroy materials that could be used to oppose them. (Crime, Corruption, and Lore +1 Reduce Base Value by 10%)


Seiged: An aggressor currently holds the settlement under siege from outside or inside. The settlements full focus now is on breaking the siege. (Crime, Lore, Society, and Economy -6, Corruption and Law +6, Reduce Purchase Limit by 50%, all arms and armor traded either directly to “guard” or black market. Choose a force to be at war with the settlement.)


Haunted: Whole areas of this settlement are haunted, not just the occasional house, mansion, or graveyard. There is great fear among the populous. (Crime, Society, and Economy -2, Lore +2, 30% Chance of the Seiged* Disadvantage (undead force).)

Tell me what you think!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Realmsheet, Minis, & Stuff

So you remember that realm sheet that this whole blog started about. Well, I've taken another stab at it... Here's some updates:
  • Its definitely a booklet now.
  • It's going to be a PFRPG Compatible thing. I'm adding some material based on the Game Mastery Guide's settlement construction.
  • I'm trying to decide if the qualities and disadvantages I've come up with should go in it, or come out some other way.
  • I still don't know if it'll be a fillable pdf or not. I have the stuff to make them now, but it takes forever still, and I paragraph areas that print lines if you leave them empty.
  • There won't be any more free versions. The next one I plan to have up here available for somewhere between 3 and 10 USD.
  • It will be preceded by a "Deluxe City Sheet" that I'm just about finished with that is fillable and saveable, right now I just need to ad a page for all the legal stuff.
Also, I'd picked up paints and such to try and paint some of my battletech minis (and support the trying-to-be-a-game-shop) a while back. I did some painting, didn't really like where it went, but it wasn't bad. A friend came over, and was bored and painted some, and we both agreed that the little paint kit didn't come with a good color selection and the starter brush just wasn't enough. Just today I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some more things and tried again, here's what I learned:
  • How to make a "wash"
  • The tubes of acryllic paints aren't that much thicker than the bottles of it for models...
  • But they still work, and really will last me longer than the bottles would have...
  • Lead's even softer than dried glue...
  • I want another basic leatherman, so I have one for everyday stuff, and one for working on minis...
  • That base coat of primer is really important on shiny metal, and shouldn't be done with the wash you accidentally made in your experiment...
  • Using the wash on the mini after you've got it painted is really easy, and really does bring out all the little grove based detail if you weren't too heavy with your paint coats.
  • Citadel glues still suck
  • I really need to get a working camera
All in all, I might actually get the hang of painting minis at least well enough to make nice looking ones, never anything fantastic, but I shouldn't be going to battle tech games embarrassed anymore of my minis. On a really crappy note, a hard drive crash and the loss of TWO thumbdrives means I have lost a significant chunk of my work on the Snakes Among Us project. So I have no idea when it'll actually be ready. I cried a little when I realized it was all gone, which either means I'm really becoming a sap... or I'd really put a whole lot of effort into it.

On a more uplifting note, I got to drag a character or two from past games back to the surface for a game last weekend. It was fun having that big barbarian turning orcs to goo... and I can't wait to see what she'll be like (we're starting way before where we were last time) when she gets high enough for Frenzied Beserker in PFRPG, especially since I don't think we'll need that splatbook class anymore to show just how crazy she gets.

Monday, January 24, 2011

7 Players II, Maptool, SF R3 Gameday, More Krenna

First, the seven player game I ran last month had its second session this past weekend. It went well, we continued with the town raid in a different fashion from just "keep them at bay". Half the party ended up involved in rescuing kids from a burning building while others were involved in keeping orcs and such from harming children as they were extracted.

Maptool is on 1.3 Release Candidate 5, yeah, most people who follow software in development are probably scratching their head at the moment, usually the RC stage of software doesn't get that high in versions, but a rather spectacular bug appeared involving individual token fog. Other than this one piece the software does very well. They hope for a true 1.3 final build very soon.

STARFLEET Region 3's game day has indeed fallen to the USS Diamondback, out of Abilene. We're having some date frustrations, but look for it in October. Should be lots of fun.

My personal campaign setting has had another helping hand from my brother, and we now have one of the island regions kinda flushed out. I've not seen all hes got planned, and I may insist on changes, but so far it sounds good. I also have integrated the above 7 player game into that setting (unintentionally, it just really started making since as the story developed). So I'll be flushing out another section of the Taskel Empire over the next few weeks.

Friday, January 7, 2011

More Stuff From Paizo, Gaming Store Blues, and PFRPG BLEACH!

Yeah, paizo's sending more stuff,
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #41: The Thousand Fangs Below (Serpent's Skull 5 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition (preorder) @ 13.99 = $13.99
1 x Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion (PFRPG) Print Edition (preorder) @ 16.99 = $16.99
1 x Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Serpent's Skull Poster Map Folio Print Edition (preorder) @ 13.59 = $13.59
1 x Pathfinder Player Companion: Halflings of Golarion (PFRPG) Print Edition (preorder) @ 9.34 = $9.34
The Beastary 2 rocked, but I'm ready for these...

Gaming store:
Spectral Plane in abilene is about to have some trouble. Their neighbor, Game Boys, is closing at the end of the month. Between some stuff they shared with GB and the lower traffic, they've got a real issue keeping open. They have to make $36USD/day to stay even... thats no profit. Here's hoping something works out, as I've spent all I can in there for a while.

Now for the madness:
Yeah PFRPG Bleach, the one local I've converted from 3.5 is trying it out... and we're having some serious headace's... and some serious fun. Anyone with ideas of how to handle the Kido's let me know.

Aside from that, I have running game of 7 players once a month, and perhaps a game at said shop tomorrow... its just general craziness at work and such.

See you around.