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thecreaturecodex · 2 years

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Creature Codex 2022 Survey Results!

So the turnout for the survey was great! 136 responses on the Google form, but a few people sending asks. I’m not going to post all of it, but I would like to go over some highlights.

Also, to reassure folks: this was not intended as a lead in to major changes on the Codex. I’m still going to be writing monsters for PF1e, and the basic format isn’t going to change. But I wanted to see what folks were interested in.

I was honestly surprised by this result--I was under the impression that the art was a bigger draw to when and why people liked or reblogged my entries. But it’s the smallest result! Flavor text and background info are about evenly matched.

A lot of people had write ins for what RPGs they had played, and what they were currently playing. This was by design; I wanted to focus my options on D&D and Pathfinder variations, because there’s hundreds of different RPGs out there, and this is a Pathfinder 1e blog. There was a huge diversity of games represented, including some I’ve never heard of (Genesys, Lancer), games I didn’t know people still played (Mongoose Traveler, AD&D 2e and D&D 4e), and some games I had forgotten existed (Maid RPG). Notably, the most common game still being played was Pathfinder 1e, with 58 of 133 responses confirming. Followed by D&D 5e, with 56/133. I know there’s a certain amount of self-selection here because this is a Pathfinder 1e blog, but I was pleasantly surprised to see PF1e still so popular.

Unsurprised to see a majority of my voting followers do at least some GMing. And welcome, my 10% of non-playing followers! Glad you’re enjoying yourselves.

I got a number of write-ins for themes people wanted to see me cover. More people voted on what they liked than what they didn’t, and even for things that got a decent number of Do Not Want (Hackmaster and Starfinder were the top two there), there were more people who voted for them. I’ve recently done Hackmaster and Starfinder blocks, so I’m happy to leave them alone for a while.

Now, let’s look at creature types:

You guys like them weird! Aberrations are the clear winner here at 60%, but outsiders (52%) and magical beasts (43%) are no slouches either.

Not a good day to be an ooze or a vermin, it seems. Those types do have some limitations based on the PF1e rules set, so that makes a certain amount of sense. And tells me that an ooze or vermin theme block would not be a big hit. Which is useful information!

Again, useful information. I haven’t posted any playable races in a while, but have a prospect or two in mind.

The overwhelming enjoyment of historical context is why I reblogged that tarasque folk art post. If you’re looking for book reviews, I’ve been posting those to my “main” blog that has far fewer followers, @demiurge1138.

This post is probably long enough, but I do want to respond to some of the individual comments. In the interests of not completely destroying your dashboards, I’m gonna put my thoughts under the cut.

All of the comments I got were very nice! Thank you all so much!

Some to respond to:

i literally adore Creature Codex and i think you are perfect, i enjoy any content you feel like sharing and also i would kill a man to be able have a chance to play a tabletop rpg with you. :)

That's very flattering! And slightly intimidating!

Ran the spiral centurion for my party a couple of weeks back; it was well received, and they almost-but-not-quite figured they could just shove the thing over. There's a good chance they'll run into a blue slime next session.

I love this blog! It's very helpful. Right now, my players are interacting with Howler Wasps. They haven't gotten to the nest yet, but one player skinned one and made an outfit out of it. This weekend, they traded that outfit for future "favors". None of that would have happened without you.

I love your stuff! You've turned me on to a bunch of golarion lore, like mahadatari (technically starfinder but hush), the daemons, and qlippoth! I don't engage with your stuff as much as I should (in the social media sense), but I adore the blog in general. I'll fully out myself and say I'm monsterceiling! I actually took some of your advice to make a mahadatari build for Iron gods. She was a magus kasatha, but she died at the end of book one and came back as a duskwalker. I rebuilt her as a phantom blade/brawler with the (minor spoilers) juju zombie kasatha under torch as her phantom. She's currently spreading the gospel of Talavet across numeria!

I love hearing stories about how people are using my monsters at the table! I’d be happy to get those anytime.

I personally find Pathfinder too complicated; I enjoy CreatureCodex as a way to better understand the game without playing it and to see monsters from folklore I've not heard of before (and see new interpretations of ones I have!)

I enjoy all of your work with the Creature Codex, and it makes me want to try the Pathfinder system. I love the care and attention to detail that goes into each entry!

I’m glad I can help make the Pathfinder system somewhat more navigable.

I'm tempted to do something like the creature codex, but for Starfinder conversions. Any advice?

Develop a schedule. It doesn’t have to be near daily like my blog (for your sanity, it probably shouldn't be), but having a plan in mind for when to post definitely helps me manage workload. If you’re using tumblr, make use of the queue function; it’s one of the most helpful features of the site. And manage your expectations about engagement. Obviously, engagement helps me feel motivated and makes me feel good, but it takes a long time to get going, and the current culture of the internet makes it less common than it was even ~5 years ago (like when I started).

I am curious to know why you write "mind-influencing effect" instead of "mind-affecting effect". Just a pet peeve of mine. I really like your work and I want to thank you for it.

It’s a 3.5ism. I feel like “mind-affecting effect” is a clunky bit of English. There’s some other formatting quirks I do that differ from Paizo’s official stat format; I put the Perception score alphabetically among the Senses instead of separating it out from darkvision, low light, etc. And I put Defensive Abilities in their own line instead of mixing them with DR, Immune, Resist and SR.

Keep up the good work! I enjoy your blog immensely. End of the World week, in particular, was a favorite series of mine.

Thanks, but that wasn’t me. That was @monstersdownthepath who did End of the World Week. I have converted a bunch of those monsters, though. Check the “elder evils” tag.

I do not play pathfinder myself, but have you considered creating a tag for Slaad Lords, Asura Rana, Empyreal Lords, etc (I think the term for them is demigods)? A player who wants to make a cleric of one of your monsters would have an easier time looking through the database if you marked which pages would be relevant for that.

That is an excellent idea. I haven’t gone back through my old posts and added “demigod” as a tag, but I will do so in the Not Too Distant Future. Thanks!

#long post #creature codex #poll #housekeeping #feedback #thank you

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legionofpotatoes · 3 years

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my thonks on the new game I played this weekend, under the cut for length and spoilers

I softly clicked the Sable icon when first booting it up yesterday, expecting a visually pleasing indie game about nothing with Mechanics LiteTM loosely screwed on; and I am sitting here now on a platinum trophy, with messed up hair and wide open eyes, wondering what the fuck has just happened.

It completely blindsided me with the Entire Rest Of The Experience after I was done oohing and aahing at the cel shaded packaging. I was expecting a Journey-esque barebones rumination on esoteric concepts at the very best, but here I was seeing a charming story that was one hundred percent steeped in metaphors but decidedly about something. or maybe two things in my mind, identity and purpose, and it goes about articulating them through character writing which is. So good?? Sable is an actual character. with interiority and desires, and her world is peppered with NPCs that are eager to chat back and reveal that they very much possess their own, too. The story is fury-road-simple, yet her growth is palpable and almost entirely gameplay-driven through player lens and agency. You get to literally decide what your purpose is and what purpose even means by the end. And the more you engage with and give to the world, the more it gives back to inform and enrich the context around that decision. It is such a deliciously simple parable that it is impossible not to click with it on some level.

And yeah, the game design is fucking rock-solid, another surprise. Not that I short-change indies because of their scope necessarily, but they do generally tend to be on the single-idea-test-drive side of the industry equation, rarely excelling at all internal pillars at once. Not the case here. There are smart choices made in borrowing mechanics from other titles and throwing them in an elegant mix that works in the internal math of this specific world; and it is all from-the-top efficiency. Sable looks for purpose through exploration and wears her currently preferred identity on her sleeve, so the entire macro loop is dialed in on those two elements. exploration and expression, with all extra fat trimmed off. your stamina meter feeds the first, various cosmetics feed the second. deft RPG-like quest structure and varied mission chains award you with boosts to both.

It is difficult to articulate, but the symbiosis between story and gameplay is really-really tight here, the very opposite of ludonarrative dissonance, to an almost indistinguishable degree. And it is never best exemplified than during the ending of the game, wherein the ending is a choice you make, you choose to end the game when you decide that Sable has found her purpose (it is all a neat dance of mask metaphors and communal occupations); and if you decide that she hasn't, or that her purpose is the search, the text automatically supports and encourages it. You can end it with 75% of the content untouched, or glide endlessly on, wearing any mask you start liking at any point. It is the ultimate celebration of autonomy in destiny and identity, and its fluidity, and its ownership. The game makes that distinction with a gentle firmness; the gliding rituals are solitary, personal. You make that final choice for yourself, you acknowledge the consequences but it is yours to make or not make.

The game is the search, and it ends if you decide that Sable has found herself.

The word "gentle" is so evergreen when thinking about this game, too. It is incredibly chill and introspective, yet manages to achieve triple-A level forward momentum without using a lick of combat gameplay, competitive beatdowns, fail states even, just entirely disregarding violence as a form of interaction between the player and the world, both lanes. And I know I'm biased to home in on and love this sort of thing because empathy-building gameplay is something I preach about like an annoying doomsday prophet but really, it really works here, despite me and despite itself. There is genuine good game design underneath the naivete of the idea, driving engagement and keeping your attention glued to the process without using combat mechanics. In an open-world RPG-like arena. It can be done.

And it looks and sounds fucking great and there's pretty decent customization of Sable and even of your weird kinda-alive bike that has terrible pathfinding when summoned. The selective absence of depth tones can be disorienting at first, but the aesthetic sorta makes its case with time, and the charming animations (is Sable animated on twos when she runs?) lock in the spell. The game is definitely finicky in some technical areas; I encountered one fairly major bug that randomly sorted itself out after minutes of me doing nothing (the button activating the watch sundial wouldn't trigger), and fairly common pains of open-world streaming would sometimes fire off like random audio cues and NPCs spawning on top of one another and real bad frame drops in geometry-heavy areas. But I definitely heard much worse than I experienced with my run. I managed to 100% the whole thing without a hitch and even wore my princess chum dress to the final gliding ceremony.

Anyway. I want to talk about a thousand different things Sable does well but this post was mainly about how good it is with telling a story about purpose that you get to both literally and metaphorically search for before deciding to end or not end it. It is just very very good at being story-first. Please buy it! Instead of fighting giant beetles you kinda try and make them poop for science, it's amazing.

#sable spoilers #sable #text #sable game #spoilers

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unsteadygalaxy · 4 years

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all is soft inside chapter 6

a miragehound multichapter fanfiction

Also posted on ao3 at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26475064/chapters/66135538

previous | next

6. street walkers, small talkers

Notes at the end.

The three of them land in Thermal, blessedly alone. Wattson had been more than happy to agree to play today’s match more passively, and Lifeline had agreed, though Elliott could tell she really didn’t want to.

“Looking for a Wingman today, ladies,” Mirage announces, jogging over to the next supply bin. It’s got a box of heavy ammo, which he stows, and two Mozambique’s, which he steadily ignores. His brain feels foggy but over excited at the same time. The shock of seeing Bloodhound- actually seeing their face- had not quite worn off.

He flings open the door but stops dead in his tracks, words dying in his mouth. For a moment, a moment that seems to stretch out into lifetimes, all he sees is a person sitting on the hard cement floor- the most beautiful person he’s ever seen. His jaw drops open. Their face is surprised, shocked, but somehow, that makes Elliott find them all the more gorgeous. A strong jawline gives way to defined cheekbones, leading up to stunning green eyes that are filled with alarm. Their red hair falls around their face in long waves, and is set aflame by the light of the hallway behind him. Who is this person? His eyes flicker down to whatever they’re holding in their hands, and he swears his heart stops. He knows those goggles. They belong to Bloodhound.

Which means… that’s Bloodhound sitting there on the floor.

Elliott immediately smacks his hand over his eyes as words spill out of his mouth like a waterfall.

He’d been up most of the night, replaying those moments in his head over and over again. Bloodhound had not looked at all what he thought they would look like. And their hair! Their hair was incredible. He never expected it to be ginger; for some reason he had always imagined it dark, maybe brunette or black. All Elliott could think about was running his fingers through their hair and brushing out the tangles. But their eyes… he never would have guessed they’d be such a gorgeous shade of green. And they were so kind-looking, too. Ever since he had inadvertently seen their face, his stomach did flips every time he thought about them. He’d stayed awake for hours waiting for his body to settle.

Elliott remembers how rich and melodic their real voice had sounded without the modulator, and he finds himself wishing he could go back to the night before. He’d been an absolute mess in multiple ways, but being alone with Bloodhound was worth the turmoil. And their laugh! Even though it came mostly at his expense, he had nearly lost his mind actually hearing them laugh fully and uninhibited. If he focused hard enough he could hear it over and over again in his head, and the sound of it made him a little weak at the knees.

“Wingman here!” Lifeline calls. “Get yuh head out of the clouds, Witt!”

Mirage shakes himself from his reverie and looks up. Lifeline holds the sturdy pistol aloft, smirking.

“Thanks, I owe you one!” he replies. He makes his way over to her and picks up the gun, passing it back and forth between his hands. Elliott can’t help but smile as he remembers the last time he fired a Wingman. Well, I mean, technically you fired it this morning at the range but- whatever. He grins at the memory of shooting the gun at Bloodhound as they rocketed down the hill, glowing red. But now, a different image takes form in the forefront of his mind- Bloodhound flying across the field, their hair undone and billowing in a fury, their green eyes shimmering with golden light.

“Yuh gonna get a room with that thing?” Lifeline chimes, a laugh pressing at her voice. “Looks like you two need some alone time.”

“Wh- what?” Mirage stammers, jerking himself out of his thoughts for the second time that day. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He holsters the gun as his face burns fiercely.

-----

“Mirage! Duck!”

Mirage dives away from the door just as a volley of bullets comes whizzing through it. He slams it shut. “Good one, Nat!” he calls. Wattson is crouched next to the window, reloading her R-99 with flying fingers. Her pylon whizzes in the other room, generating a field of electrical energy that makes Mirage’s sinuses buzz. She sets the gun aside for a brief moment in order to place two fence posts in front of the door.

In their oh-so-fabulous luck, the final ring just so happened to be around Fragment, which had made the match a decent trek across the map. They’d held their own considerably well, and each of them had a few kills under their belts. The ring had nearly bottlenecked them in the pass between Sorting and their current location, but they had pushed up the hill, third partying a team on the way and coming out victorious.

A frag grenade comes careening through the window, only to be immediately neutralized in a flash of blue light. Thank God for Wattson’s pylon, Mirage thinks, slotting the Skullpiercer he had just found into his Wingman. The sounds of gunfire and exploding grenades pepper the air around him, and it’s giving him a headache. “Hey, Lifeline! Would you mind tossing down a care package to give us some cover?” he yells into the comms amidst all the noise.

“Won’t do much, seein’ as we’re on the second floor, but I can try an’ block the stairs, she replies. She’s crouched in the corner, her drone glowing and whirring beside her. Pulling out a small device that looks vaguely like a grocery store scanner, she leaps down the stairs and out of sight. Mirage sends a decoy after her for good measure.

Very near his head, the occasional bullet whistles through the window, coming dangerously close to both him and Wattson. He’s not sure who’s shooting at them, but he has a vague idea- only Bangalore is that accurate with the G7. He scoots over to the side and peeks through the window to try and get a look at who’s been wailing on them. Sure enough, a woman with a tidy stack of curly hair is crouched low, aiming down the sights of her scout rifle from the building across from them.

“Having fun out there, Williams?” Mirage yells across the way after he dives out of sight once more. He’s almost positive she can’t hear him, but he says it anyway.

“Is that you, Witt?” she yells back. “Might wanna get your head out of your ass and fight, instead of hiding like a coward!” Two warning shots fly through the window, and Mirage scoots away, his heart hammering in his chest. Wattson mutters something in French that he does not understand as she reaches for her Triple Take.

Ouch. Now he’s annoyed. He registers the sound of Lifeline’s care package slamming into the ground as he peeks out the window again, gripping his Wingman tightly. A large smoke grenade canister flies towards them but is zapped away by Wattson’s pylon. Now they’re just taunting us, he thinks. He takes careful aim at Bangalore’s head, but two shots from her G7 strike him in the shoulder, throwing him back. A low humming sound emanates from his shield as the pylon recharges it, and he starts to think, hard.

An ominous humming sound fills the air, and Mirage snaps his head up just in time to see Bangalore and Pathfinder running across the open square. The familiar whine of Gibraltar’s Ultimate fills the air, and missiles begin to strike the ground in a concussive barrage that makes Mirage’s ears hurt. To his dismay, Pathfinder quickly grapples away, but not after taking a hit or two. Bangalore dashes between the missiles but takes a large amount of damage, and she stumbles.

Perfect, Mirage thinks. He waits for the barrage to stop, and throws open the door. He leaps from the balcony and hits the ground hard, his knees groaning in protest. Through the smoke, the sights of his Wingman detect a red figure, and Mirage takes aim. It only takes two well placed shots to finish her off, and Bangalore falls to the ground, swearing. “What was that about me being a coward?” he taunts as Bangalore fades away.

She tries to choke something out, but she only spits blood. MIirage can’t help but feel a little sorry for her; he had been in the same position not too long ago. Bangalore slumps to the ground with a finality, just as the smoke clears. A short distance away, Lifeline stands over an incapacitated Pathfinder, and Wattson is keeping up a steady rhythm of sniper shots in the direction they had run from. Mirage ducks behind the pillars outside the building and reloads his gun. “I think there are only four people left!” he announces.

kzzzhhhCRACK!

Elliott’s blood crystallizes into ice inside his veins. He knows that sound. And he knows who is holding the fully charged Sentinel that made it.

Right in front of his eyes, Lifeline falls to the ground. Her head is bleeding in waves, and she isn’t moving. Without thinking, he leaves his cover and runs towards Lifeline’s eerily still form. kzzzhhhCRACK! Another shot divides the air around him, and the next shot connects with his head, pain blooming across his skull. His helmet fizzles out, and with no hesitation, he activates his Ultimate. The holo-emitters hum and buzz, and five decoys jump into being around him. Abandoning Lifeline’s body, he makes a mad dash for the building where Wattson is still camped, hoping and praying her pylon is still up.

The frightful buzz of a Charge Rifle chases him in bursts, and the heat of it catches his left shoulder for a brief moment. He hisses in pain, and dives behind the pillars, tucking into a deft tumble. Mirage pops to his feet and pushes the doors open. To his utter dismay, the doors shred into tiny pieces, neutralized by Wattson’s electric fences. “Dammit!” he yells, and rushes up the stairs.

Wattson is still crouched at the window, steadily shooting at the building with four bins atop it across the way. “Lifeline got Sentinel’d,” he gasps, breathing heavily. “Who’s left?”

“I believe Caustic is the third member of Bangalore and Pathfinder’s squad,” she answers, her voice even and calm as he plunges his arm into a shield battery. “I think the other remaining squad is Bloodhound, Gibraltar, and Renee.”

Mirage notes with a curiosity that Wattson had not used Wraith’s code name, and he wonders in a wild moment if there was something Wattson wasn’t telling him. He finds himself wishing he knew Bloodhound’s name, and wondering what it would feel like to whisper their name in their ear as he-

He stops that train of thought as swiftly as it had come. Focus, dumbass! Elliott shakes himself out of his thoughts once again, discards the depleted battery, and realizes with a jolt that he’d missed the last thing Wattson had said.

“Mirage?” she asks, her voice exuding patience even amidst their tense situation.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

“We can still win this. I know we can!” She gives him a smile that punches him straight in the heart with how honest and sincere it is.

“You’re so damn wholesome,” he grumbles under his breath. “Alright, how are we going to do this?”

“Well,” she considers, turning back to her sniper rifle. “I am almost positive- get it?- that Caustic has barricaded himself in the train station. I saw him run over when Gibraltar sent his missiles down. Bloodhound and their team must be over near the survey beacon- that is where Lifeline was shot from.”

Mirage nods, digesting the information. “Okay, so do you think we should try and take the train station and get set up in there?”

“It’s worth a shot,” she replies. “We can make a detour through the building to our right so we are not sniped. I will also need to find more ammo for my R-99.”

“Sounds good.” He peeks out the window one last time, and sure enough, he spots a familiar figure squatting atop a building, above the zipline shaft. He swears his heart skips a beat or two at the sight of them holding the Sentinel steady. kzzzhhhCRACK! A bullet comes whizzing through the window and Mirage dodges it, but just barely. “All right, time to leave!”

Wattson dismantles her pylon with the press of a button and loads it onto her back. Mirage’s sinuses stop buzzing, and he scratches his nose as the two of them run down the stairs and out the door. They round the corner, and a giddy delight shoots through Mirage’s veins when he sees Lifeline’s care package. A Mastiff hangs from one side of the package, blessedly out of Bloodhound’s line of sight. “Oh, hell yes!” Mirage yells, and he immediately dashes up to grab it. Wattson continues on, running towards the door of the next building. The shotgun almost seems to vibrate in his hands as he picks it up and discards his Spitfire. It takes everything in him to not jump in the air like a twelve-year-old.

“Mirage!” Wattson calls.

“Yeah, coming!” He slings the large shotgun over his back and darts across the open space and into the next building. The air is eerily silent, and the lack of noise makes Elliott nervous. The pair of them pass through the lobby to the double doors, and Mirage peeks through the blue glass as Wattson picks up more light ammo. Sure enough, he can just barely make out the edge of a gas trap pressed against the inside of the doors to the train station. How those doors hadn’t been blown up yet was anyone’s guess. He fishes in his bag for an arc star and emerges victorious. Bloodhound and their team shouldn’t have a line of sight on them, so he readies the arc star and opens the door. Mirage lobs the grenade as hard as he can across the street and into the double doors, and they explode in a fantastic flash of blue light. Caustic’s gas trap bursts open, spewing toxic green fumes everywhere before it collapses in on itself with an ominous hiss.

“Excellent!” Wattson exclaims, readying a fence post. “Try to get around to the north side of the building. I will fence this door.” She crouches low, checks their surroundings, and runs full speed across the street. Elliott follows, but turns sharply and hugs the wall northward. He peeks around the corner, holding his breath, Mastiff at the ready. No one is there, so he sneaks along the wall and crouches just outside the door. He readies a frag grenade, pulls the pin, and places it outside the doors before sprinting back the way he came. A deafening boom wrecks his ears for just a moment, and he can just barely make out the horrible spitting noise of the gas trap as it goes off.

Ears ringing, he turns and begins running toward the doors again. Just as the smoke and gas dissipate, he gains sight of a hulking figure lumbering down the stars. Mirage raises his Wingman, but he is too late. An entire clip of Flatline ammo slams into his chest, shredding through his armor and peppering him with holes. But his body is nothing more than blue-white light, and he flashes out of existence.

The real Mirage can’t help but giggle as his decoy dissolves into the air. “You got bamboozled,” he murmurs to himself, absolutely delighted. He checks his weapons, making sure they’re reloaded, and grabs his last grenade. Mirage twists the canister and throws the thermite. It slams into the ground just inside the doors and expands off to either side, sputtering and whooshing. He hears a grunt of pain and knows that Caustic has been caught in some of the blaze.

Mirage cheers silently and hefts his Mastiff into his hands. He prays that Wattson has had enough time to block off all the doors, and he sprints over. Caustic runs to the west side of the building, and immediately gets caught by a torrent of bullets from Wattson’s R-99. Mirage leaps over the wall of fire, aims down the sights of his Mastiff and pulls the trigger. A collection of bullets hits Caustic in the shoulder and back as the bigger man turns, making his shield blink and shatter. Wattson takes advantage of his distraction and shoots him squarely in the head. Caustic hits the ground immediately, and Mirage is reminded of the day before, when Bloodhound had taken him down. Andskoti, he thinks. He doesn’t really know what the word means, but he’s pretty sure it’s some kind of insult.

Elliott finally notices the dull burning in his legs, just as the thermite grenade stops pulsing. His shield has been depleted almost completely. “Hey, Wattson, do you have another pylon?” he asks, fishing in his bag for a shield cell.

She nods, breathing hard. “Got it!” The pylon is up instantly, and the familiar buzzing returns to Mirage’s nose. “Only one squad left!” Wattson says happily, running over to the north door to place fences. “We’ve got this!”

“We’re not done yet,” Mirage says, just as a very familiar sound vibrates through the air. It reaches his chest, seizing his heart and squeezing it uncomfortably. That otherworldly roar that had haunted Mirage in his dreams the night before echoes and amplifies inside his skull until his temples creak and groan. But he can’t help but love it; he can’t help but love the way Bloodhound’s voice reverberates inside his skull and overwhelms his senses.

Much too late, he notices that Wattson’s fence posts outside the west door have been shot down. An arc star comes careening across the way, but it is zapped away. Mirage finds himself thanking whatever God there is for Wattson’s pylon for the second time that day. He loots Caustic’s death box in a hurry and grabs the three frag grenades he had been stashing, as well as a shield battery.

A wave of red-orange energy buzzes through the air around them, making the hair on Mirage’s arms stand up inside his suit. “Bloodhound’s got us!” he yells to Wattson, who has just finished fencing the exits.

“Watch the south door!” Wattson calls. Mirage rushes by her and runs up the south-side staircase. He lingers on the balcony, Wingman at the ready.

The sound of footsteps echoes all around him, and he starts to feel jittery and anxious. Where are they going to come through first? Can he and Wattson really hold off all three of them? Is he going to be able to keep himself together? He hopes so, but the fear is starting to overtake him again, and he does not like it.

The east doors swing open and instantly shatter when they make contact with Wattson’s interior fence. Mirage leaps off the short balcony in an instant to bar the entrance. Gibraltar is on the other side of the fences, and he fires a volley of bullets very close to Mirage’s head. Some of them connect with his shoulder, but Mirage dodges out of the way and fires his Wingman. One shot connects with Gibraltar’s head, and the next three hit his shoulder and chest. He wavers, and his R-301 nearly topples out of his hands as he stumbles backwards. The larger man fires at the ground, but not by accident- Wattson’s fence sputters and disappears. Mirage fires one more shot at Gibraltar, and the man topples to the ground, dropping his gun. To Mirage’s dismay, Gibraltar falls into a blue-black rift and disappears, going with a flash of white light.

“Wraith set a portal!” he yells to Wattson. “I downed Gibraltar but he’s gone!”

“I am busy!” she yells back. Wattson dodges out of the way in a spectacular roll as Wraith takes a well-calculated swipe at her with a deadly looking knife. The two women fight each other expertly, a whirl of fists and bullets and knives. The east fence must be out, Mirage realizes. Gunfire echoes around him, and he turns back to the portal just in time to see Bloodhound emerge from it, eyes glowing red as they leap towards him.

Once again, time slows to a horrifying pace and Elliott’s heart beats immeasurably fast. He doesn’t know how many seconds have passed, but all he can see is Bloodhound. He imagines them charging at him, their blazing hair undone and their eyes glowing gold. For a wild moment, the feeling of wanting to surrender returns. But he shakes himself and releases every decoy he has, and then cloaks himself and runs up the stairs.

Another wave of red-orange light vibrates through the building. Dammit, he thinks. Bloodhound immediately follows him up the stairs, breathing heavily, growling intermittently. Mirage reloads his Wingman and darts up to the roof, hoping and praying that Bloodhound did not have time to revive Gibraltar before coming through the portal.

He leaps over the train tracks and takes cover behind a pillar. He tosses out another decoy, hoping to buy himself a few seconds, but Bloodhound is smart; they do not shoot at the hologram. Mirage switches to his Mastiff and turns sharply, aiming at his opponent. The hefty shotgun jerks massively as he shoots, missing Bloodhound’s quick form, but only just. Bloodhound aims their RE-45 at him, holding it steady. A brief buzzing noise fills the air as the bullets exit their gun and hit Mirage squarely in the chest and neck. His shields sputter, but just barely hold, and he fires another shot from the Mastiff at Bloodhound. It hits them in the shoulder, taking a sizable chunk out of their shields. Without hesitation, Mirage throws himself off the roof and tumbles to the ground, his ankles screaming in protest. He dives into the east doors, and realizes he was right- Wraith must have broken the fence that was there. He glances over to the corner where Wraith and Wattson had been, and notices that they have somehow downed each other. He tries to slide over to his teammate, but Bloodhound is right behind him, and a spattering of bullets crosses the floor without hitting him. Warning shots? he thinks wildly. Why the hell-

Mirage scrambles to his feet and runs down the stairs. He reloads the Mastiff and turns, hearing their footsteps behind him. They level their gun and shoot, catching his shoulder and cheek. Mirage’s helmet blinks out of existence, and so does his shield. He ducks and fires the Mastiff, hitting Bloodhound right in the neck. Their helmet and shields sputter and die, just as they’re reloading the RE. Blood seeps down their neck from under their respirator, and a wild part of Elliott wants to stop the fight right then and there in order to clean their wounds himself.

But this moment of weakness costs him dearly, because Bloodhound seizes their opportunity and fires their last remaining clip of ammo at him.

“Þú barðist vel. Ég er stolt af þér,” they say to him after he falls to the ground. The victory music begins to blare over the loudspeakers, and the last thing Mirage feels before it all goes dark is Bloodhound picking up his Mastiff and placing it on his chest under his arm, their fingers lingering on his hand for the briefest of moments.

------------------------

A/N: Thanks for your patience on this, guys! I didn't feel super motivated to keep going with this for a while, but I eventually started coming up with a better framework and I'm super excited to show you all what's to come.I kind of have this idea that all the contestants have this safety armor on under their actual shields and uniforms so that when they take enough damage to “die”, their bodies are transmatted to the dropship or something. I don’t know how it works in-universe, so that’s what we’re going with. No one actually dies, they just “die” while the safety armor saves them and transmats them. Can’t have the Legends perma-dying, now, can we?

#apex legends #apex #miragehound #mirage apex #bloodhound apex #mirage apex legends #bloodhound apex legends #elliott witt #elliott witt apex #my writing #apex fanfiction #apex legends fanfiction

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monstersdownthepath · 5 years

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Spiritual Spotlight/Theme Finale: The Monad

True Neutral Overseer of Creation, the Infinite, and Truth

Domains: Artifice, Darkness, Knowledge, Void Subdomains*: Toil, Night, Aeon, Stars

Concordance of Rivals, pg. 11

Obedience: Spend 30 minutes in meditation, clearing your mind of needs and prejudices. Then briefly wander and observe your surroundings, seeking a source of excess, accomplishment, or emptiness. Spend at least 30 minutes counteracting that phenomenon in some way, such as by creating something where nothing exists, providing comfort to a morose stranger, or thinning the excess population of ants in a field. Benefit: Upon completing the Obedience, select two Knowledge skills; gain a +4 sacred or profane bonus to the selected skill checks.

(*IMPORTANT NOTE: The Subdomains are my best guess; Subdomains are not listed in Concordance of Rivals. Anywhere!)

What a delightful Obedience! Meditate for a bit, and then help balance out the world! Awwww :)

Don’t worship the Monad if you’re a Ranger, or any other class with a Favored Enemy-Esque mechanic, because it won’t end well. I do enjoy that the Monad still allows its followers to pursue wants, though I’m sure that wasn’t the designer’s intention and likely just me toying with loopholes I see in sentence structures. Such as the loophole that you can view just about anything as excess, accomplishment, or emptiness.

Destroy a building, or help build a new one. Steal from the rich and give to the poor, or do the exact opposite (and be hunted down by me, personally). Kill bugs or introduce new ones to an environment. Destroy someone’s most prized possession, or give your own to someone in need. Comfort a stranger, or antagonize an ally whose ego is becoming unbalanced. Help to grow a crop, or take a torch to the whole thing. Really your imagination is the limit here, which could potentially lead to choice paralysis... but this also makes it incredibly easy to just Background Detail it without a need to elaborate. If your DM rudely demands details, you can turn it around and ask them details about the environment in order to find something you could correct. Two can play at that game!

Don’t be needlessly rude to kind or curious DMs, though. That’s not cool!

What IS cool is that benefit. While it’s not outstanding, becoming just a bit better at being a smart guy is always nice. Choosing Arcana and/or Dungeoneering is usually the way to go, but you can tailor your Knowledge bonuses day by day if needed. Heading into the wilderness? Pack Nature. Going into town? Might as well get Local and Nobility! The possibilities are endless! (actually there’s only ~45 combinations but y’know)

Boons are gained slowly, gained at levels 12, 16, and 20. Servants of the Monitors, though, can enter the Proctor Prestige Class as early as level 8. If entered as early as possible, you can earn your Boons at levels 10, 14, and 16. You MUST take the Monitor Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience. Monitors grant only a single set of Boons.

Boon 1: Aeon Arbiter. Gain Unseen Servant 3/day, Spectral Hand 2/day, or Gaseous Form 1/day.

Well right off the bat, Gaseous Form is painful to use most of the time. It reduces your speed to an agonizingly glacial 10ft, making it useful for getting into or out of a sticky situation but basically nothing else. You can’t really properly scout with it since you still look like a you-shaped gas cloud, but the defensive bonuses it confers means that if you get trapped in a tiny room or with a monster you don’t want to be with, any space that isn’t airtight can’t contain you. The fact it has no components also means you can cast it while grappled or restrained, so if you think you’ll end up snatched up and/or tied up, surprise your enemies by changing matter states!

Unseen Servant was, is, and always shall be one of my favorite spells in the game, even if it’s not a particularly useful one when you’re facing down a dragon, or even a single bandit. Your invisible buddy can perform all your menial tasks you require since it has an enormous 1 hour/level duration, and there’s a LOT of items that weigh less than 20lbs you could have your pal cart around. If you can’t foresee needing them later in the day, conjuring all three of them at once and setting them out on various tasks will multiply your own productivity immensely. I recently read a cute little guide online that pointed out a shovel weighs only 5lbs and a shovelful of soil will rarely surpass 3, so having a team of invisible workers digging trenches can help fortify any positions you hold. It’s just a fun spell! And it rewards knowing exactly what you can do with 2 Str and understand the limits of the servant’s manual dexterity.

Which leaves Spectral Hand, which is probably the most useful thing on this list, if less fun than UnSe. Using touch spells that aren’t Save-or-Suck is always dangerous when you’re a squishy caster, but Spectral Hand allows you to stay safely at a range to deliver them. With a range of Medium (100ft + 10ft/level) and a decently lengthy 1 min/level duration, Spectral Hand can likely last through one to three encounters to let you slap multiple foes with spells you’d otherwise never get to use. Don’t forget you can also use it to deliver buffs and healing to your allies, too! At 2/day, the only reason NOT to take Spectral Hand with this ability is if you adore Unseen Servant as much as I do, or are already in a situation (like a prison) Gaseous Form could save you from.

Boon 2: Immaterial Flesh. You gain the constant benefits of the Moderate Fortification armor special ability. If you already have a similar defensive ability, you increase that ability's chance to negate the additional damage by 10%.

This means that critical hits and Sneak Attacks have a 50% chance of doing no additional damage, for those who can’t keep track of all Pathfinder’s wild armor enchantments. It’s a boring ability, but a lifesaving one that can shear hundreds or thousands of points of damage off incoming attacks over the course of your adventuring career. Most creatures armed with Sneak Attacks have low damage on their normal attacks, so this ability can mean the difference between taking 4 damage and taking 40. Sure, it’s a coin toss as to whether or not it works, but a coin toss is better than having no way to avoid it at all!

I like the fact that if you’re already fortified or have some other method to dodge precision damage (it works on SIMILAR powers, not just fortification!), it’s increased. If you can get your hands on some Armor of Heavy Fortification, the chance to block the incoming damage becomes 85%.

I’m sad that no flavor details are given regarding what this power does to your physical body. It says ‘immaterial flesh,’ but what does that mean? Do you become a gaseous nebula or crystalline formation like the other Aeons? Do you get all swirly and galactic like the Monad? I wish it gave us more details, because it’d lighten up an otherwise bland but useful ability.

Boon 3: Creative Destruction. 1/day as a standard action, you can touch two creatures adjacent to you, or yourself and an adjacent creature. One takes 150 points of damage (Fortitude half; DC=10 + half your HD + your Cha modifier), and the other regains a number of hit points equal to the damage taken by the first target.

Ever wanted to just reach over and slap someone hard enough to kill them instantly? 150 damage--150 untyped damage, I should clarify--is not something to be taken lightly. That instantly kills most humanoids at that level and severely damages hardier monsters, with CR 16 creatures rarely exceeding 280hp at the highest. Hitting a squishy enemy caster with this power can end a battle faster than Power Word Kill, though with the downside that you must get close enough to boop them on the nose... but you aren’t required to make a touch attack. No, no attack roll is required. The only way this ability can miss is if you can’t physically touch your target, meaning incorporeal enemies are immune, and a DM may rule that certain gaseous creatures are, as well. While this ability may also intend for you to use your hands to do the touching, it simply says “touch two adjacent creatures.” You can technically use this ability by tackling someone, kissing them, or just poking them with your foot!

Now, this ability grants a saving throw for half damage, negating some of its burst potential... But that’s still 75 untyped damage that works against ANY CREATURE you can touch. Constructs, Undead, Outsiders, demigods, Great Old Ones, creatures with resistance or immunity to every element in the game and every negative condition you can think of, anything! 75 is less impressive but still impressive! It’s an enormous chunk to shave off any foe and you can indeed shave it off any foe, and they don’t have the option to avoid or lessen it at all! The fact it bypasses all forms of immunity and requires only a touch is AMAZING, and we haven’t even covered the fact that the second target regains HP equal to the damage the first victim took!

Like... 75 HP is big enough by itself. It can take a normal encounter two or three rounds to deal 75 damage, and you only need one action to undo it. And 150 HP? That’s typically enough to take someone with a d8 or smaller hit dice from 0 to full in an instant and restore anywhere from half to 75% of a Fighter or Barbarian’s health bar. But, here’s something else important: much like the destruction, the healing is also universal! Constructs are notoriously difficult to keep running due to their specific healing requirements, and Undead are similarly finicky, but Creative Destruction’s health transfer is accepted by ANY creature with an HP bar. Even yourself! That’s the best part! Even without an ally or another enemy nearby to transfer the health into, you can siphon it into yourself to beat down a bad guy!

And I suppose you could also transfer your own health into an ally that really needed it, but uuuuhhhhh 150 damage is a lot. That tactic should only be use if you have no other option!

And all you need to do to obtain all this power? Remove all your prejudices and help keep the world running smoothly. Perfect for a character of any alignment! except probably chaotic evil.

You can read more about it here.

#Spiritual Spotlight #Neutrality Notes #pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons #Theme Week 19

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sepiadice · 4 years

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DiceJar 0 END: what could have been...

Being completed ghosted for a scheduled session once again, I suppose I should finally face the facts and call the campaign. Which is, of course, very disappointing.

Let’s review the experiments I attempted in this campaign.

Experiment 1: Using a published module/adventure.[1]

I thought I might gain some valuable insight by analyzing a ‘professional’ product. By using an adventure I’d previously played myself, I’d hoped my experiences would smooth out my figuring out how to run it. Eventually, I learned the value of bullet pointed action plans, because the formatting of Crypt of the Everflame was not good for skimming, as vital information was hidden in the middle of information texts so I’d miss it during the game if I didn’t make sure to call, say, dice roll mechanics for going down a slippery hillside. It also meant I could look ahead and edit out rooms and mechanics that didn’t move the story of dungeon.

So, this experiment was technically a success, even if the lesson I took away was ‘modules don’t work well with my improv style, but provides inspiration sometimes.’ More on that later.

Experiment 2: Get a group to meet regularly.

So I’ve been wanting to do an actual play show since… well, before Critical Role and The Adventure Zone made it cool. For that, I need players willing to collaborate and also respect call time. As you can easily conclude from the time stamps, I couldn’t manage that, even when a freaking pandemic swept in and made being home for online sessions theoretically easier![2] Admittedly, my work schedule is not exactly ideal, as my Saturdays are permanently called for, and my Sundays are a wild ride of inconsistency, while my peers are moving to more conventional work life.

So, the experiment failed, and to a degree that I doubt a career or just schedule change would help. I did learn that a biweekly schedule works well for me, since I can spend the off week on planning, and still have time for my pre- and post-performance need to separate thoroughly and enter a neutral state.[3]

Experiment 3: Finish a dang narrative arc.

Ha ha. This also failed! Couldn’t get to the end of the dungeon. Welp.

Other lessons learned

I don’t online play well! Just get distracted by other internet tabs. It’s not as bad when I GM, since the stress of running the game keeps me more focused, but both the Curse of Strahd campaign I quietly quit[4] and IndigoDie’s Troika session[5] showed that I’m a garbage player online. Possibly an adoption of webcams and faces would assist, but I can’t ask for that.

People still hard! Still haven’t figured out how to get anyone invested. Can’t really be upset at the silent cancellations because I’m technically doing that with Curse of Strahd, and thus would be a hypocrite.

What was planned!

It’s only fair I give some amount of closure.

Session three ended with Bean dying, and there wasn’t a narratively consistent way to introduce a new party member…

Well, I guess if NavyDie consented to playing a bandit, or rewriting the scared dungeon prepper the party skipped…

What I decided was thus:

Bean's eyes open. The sharp pain of the punctures and tears, and the slow ache of liquid passing through those openings are gone, as is much of the world's color. The torches and other sources of light shine blue.

His companions are gathered around him, their mouths moving as if speaking, but Bean hears nothing.

For some reason, Bean feels at peace with this. This is correct.

Footsteps echo from the stairs, growing louder. A figure emerges from the floor below. When it enters the light, at first it is blurry, like many images projected upon the same space. Within the time that Bean's now still heart would have beat, the many silhouettes fade, leaving one form: Bean's father, though not the frail man Bean saw before he left Kassen, nor how bean's father looked before he was ravaged by illness, but the impossibly tall, strong, noble figure that Bean remembers his father being.

Though this man's smile has none of the warmth, and his eyes glow with an eldritch light.

"Seems you've come to some misfortune, Bernard Dipp," says this Mr. Dipp-who-is-not-Bean's-father. "Would you like some help with that?"

This mysterious fiend would become Bean’s patron for a level of Warlock, and ride around his head for the foreseeable future, threatening death if Bean didn’t do as ordered. You know, an excuse for Bean to continue adventuring instead of taking over the family farm.

As for where this fiend came from… well, I easily adapted that into the dungeon’s lore.

Kassen, whose visage is all over the crypt, is not the only one entombed within. There are also those who perished alongside him during his final battle, as well as those who perished facing him in the final battle. This includes Asar, who once adventured with Kassen until the two became bitter enemies or whatever, ending when Asar lead the charge against Kassen.

Anyways, an amount of time ago, bandits stumbled upon Kassen’s Crypt and started looting, and disturbed the coffins, looting a pair of medallions.

Here’s my adjustment: the medallions are now artifacts sealing away a fiend, and reuniting them freed him, whose presence radiated enough necromantic energies and roused Asar, who was deeply offended to be interred in a shrine to his enemy. Stupid, egotistical Kassen. Let’s channel this necromantic magic laying away and get some skeletal minions and kill those who bother me.

Which wasn’t great for the bandits, then later the advance party from Kassen, sent to make the trial safe for the youths. Blood was spilled. It wasn’t great.

Then our heroes arrived, and (hypothetically) resolved matters. Kassen’s ghost would then appear, thank the party, probably convey embarrassment at how the place is decorated, and grant boons to the party[6] before sending them on their way with a lit lantern.

Back in town, a grand celebration would turn somber as word of what happened in the tomb occurred, by it would be mixed and a feast would still be held.

The module ends with someone inviting the party to join the Pathfinder Society, but I’d cut that.

As for the fiend? Well, he’s transferred his tether from the amulets to Bean, so now he can ride the boy to wherever.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything particularly exciting planned for the others, as Bean was the only one who I got the opportunity to saddle with a commitment.

IndigoDie quit anyways.

Delilah I could motivate with eagerness to be free of her parents.

Yot… is a mercenary, so maybe Delilah could’ve paid him.

I could’ve figured something out if the players insisted on continuing with their characters. That would’ve been a discussion for after the module was completed.[7]

Moving forward!

So DiceJar waits evermore. I don’t want to admit that it’s an implausible goal, but I’m not in a great headspace about it. I still crave role-playing, but I think I’ll wait for someone to start their own campaign, or I guess see if I get a turn-over of my friend group.

NavyDie mentioned wanting to try a Powered by the Apocalypse system, and it’s only fair I actually try the mechanics before completely writing the rule set off.[8]

The next experiments I want to run when I return to behind the GM screen relates to system: Savage Worlds (once the most recent edition is back in print) as I search for a generic system that fits my needs, and Ryuutama, because Ryuutama just looks fun.

But… I don’t know what to do from here.

Until next time, may your dice (and whatever dice governs me) make things interesting.

[1] The correct terminology isa matter of pointless debate. [2] Charisma and Constitution are obviously my dumb stats. [3] Not sure my meaning is conveyed correctly. I’ll probably nail it down in a future write-up. [4] The group was too large, and after IndigoDie quit there were insufficient participants I knew and was comfortable performing with. [5] Which didn’t get a write-up because I didn’t have anything of substance to say. [6] Which, in the original Pathfinder, was something the each player can evoke for a temporary stat bonus, but in 5e I was going to change to a free Inspiration recharge. [7] Though I would not send them to Last Wall. It would’ve been time for me to spin off to my own stuff, and Last Wall… is not something that needs to be repeated. [8] I’ve never heard an Actual Play where Powered by the Apocalypse wasn’t either a hindrance or irrelevant.

#SepiaDieGMs #crypt of the everflame #Dungeons and Dragons #Fifth Edition #NavyDice #IndigoDice #limedice #VermillionDice

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theonyxpath · 5 years

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Yeah, the above art is pretty much us, dealing with Kickstarter shipping.

I’ll get back to that later, but right now, YAY! for our Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter that funded in less than a day! Right now we’re blasting through the Stretch Goals as noted below in the Kickstarter section of the Blurbs!

Thanks so much for everyone supporting this KS, we’ve had some great comments and ongoing conversations there, with all kinds of fantastic ideas for how folks can enjoy TC: Aberrant. That’s really one of the best parts of using a crowd-funding platform: the energy and ideas that backers share with each other and all of us.

Now, at the beginning, there were a bunch of concerns voiced about the cost of International Shipping, and I would like to poke at that just a bit here, because some folks are moving from “Yikes, that’s expensive!” to “You’re out to get us.”

The former being totally understandable – and my reaction, too, when getting those costs from our shipper – and the latter one…not so much.

Particularly because I made the decision to continue to allow international backers, and to be upfront about the costs, specifically so that our international community could have the information and options to be able to choose how they can obtain our projects. You can back the KS for a hardcover with shipping, you can back the KS for a PoD version, you can back for a PDF, you can not back and buy the hardcover in stores, you can not back and get the PDF and/or PoD version from DTRPG.

You see, other game companies have straight-up just stopped shipping internationally. Boom- full stop. And I understand why. Primarily, there are the costs. If you do as we have and put accurate shipping costs into your Kickstarter, backers and potential backers can get angry. As I understand it, a lot of these other companies have chosen not to take the chance that angry customers become customers no longer.

And really, all we do is take the numbers our shipper gives us and add them in; there’s no secret mark-up so we make more sweet, sweet, cash. But there’s still sticker shock. Like I said, I understand and have experienced it myself. It makes no sense to me why our own Dixie Cochran just spent $50 to ship a book to a friend in Canada. Canada! Right up there to the north and connected to the US by land (mostly). So seriously, we all relate.

Wr20 Book of Oblivion art by Phil Lee

The thing is, we’re not just wringing our hands and passing the shipping costs on to backers. We continue to explore other options that are actually possible for a company our size. Like, despite how big we seem, we’re still doing TTRPG Kickstarters, so even our biggest ship-outs to some 4,000 backers are once in several years things. Those numbers are “phftt!” to shippers; I mean they don’t earn us reduced rates or anything that could help from that direction.

We have tried to ship in bulk to individuals and companies outside the US, to the EU specifically, but either through logistics reasons or just bad luck, I’ve never been able to find a way to do that which didn’t wind up costing us more. Which is, y’know, the opposite of what we’re trying to do with our Kickstarters…we want to make the pledges go towards the KS’s goals, not to shipping.

So, I continue to look. Part of the reason we are working with Handiwork Games on the Scarred Lands 5e Creature Collection is to explore with them more potential solutions, as they are not a US-based company. We also continue to talk with our friends at Modiphius with the same eye towards finding solutions to the KS shipping problem.

Enough about this for now, I think, it’s a complicated issue that gets even further into the weeds once you factor in getting through Customs as well – which is probably a topic for a whole nother blog!

Scion Ready Made Characters art by Marco Gonzales

Gen Con 2019 is fast approaching in less than a month, and while we have decided that we won’t be in a booth on the exhibition floor this year, like I talked about several MMN blogs ago, you’ll be able to find Mighty Matt McElroy and myself around the con, chitting and chatting with anybody who will listen.

Specifically, we may be at either the IPR or Studio2 booths, or at these events:

Wednesday night – Diana Jones Awards

Thursday 3pm – What’s Up With Onyx Path Publishing? panel

Friday 11am – What’s Up with Onyx Path Community Content? panel

Friday 3pm – Freelancing with Onyx Path Publishing? panel

Saturday 11am – What’s Up with Onyx Path Publishing? panel

Right now, I’m not going to be able to make the Saturday panel, although if things change I will be there with bells on. But Matt and Eddy are slated to run things there, plus we always have walk-on creators stopping by.

It’s going to be a very different Gen Con for us, but I think a really good one.

V5 Chicago art by Amy Wilkins

Finally, a few notes from the meeting today:

#1: The Scarred Lands mega-epic adventure series, The Vengeance of the Shunned, started going on sale last week and will continue all month on the Slarecian Vault, the SL Community Content site. Check out interviews and profiles of the creators on our social media, and the projects themselves!

#2: The Storypath Nexus Community Content site is coming this week! Could be tomorrow or later in the week, but the chance to publish your Scion ideas is almost upon us!

#3: DTRPG is going to be starting their Christmas in July sale very, very soon, and as always there are going to be some great deals on our PDFs as part of it!

And that is a lot of PDFs, because we’re not just talking one game line on sale, but games from:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

The Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter funded in less than a day and continues to blast its super-powered way into our lives! We’ve already passed Stretch Goals that are enabling us to recreate missing first edition books, a compilation of the web comic, and…

N!WE N!TERNATIONAL WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT – A new PDF product discussing the N!WE, the performers and industry personnel, and various elements of professional wrestling in the world of Aberrant!

At $73,000 and climbing, we’ve got many more fantastic Stretch Goal rewards to come, so come check it out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aberrant

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Onyx Pathcast art by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features a timely deep dive (considering our new errata process and forms) by our Intrepid Trio into errata, playtesting, and how to give good feedback: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

The Onyx Path News returns with another live edition for last week here: https://youtu.be/nlQjKxQX860 Subscribe to our channel and click the bell symbol to be informed whenever a new video goes up!

The first major chapter of Matthew’s Contagion Chronicle concludes here: https://youtu.be/JUTaYwffjI0 We will return once all the players are again available!

Keep watching Travis Legge’s Scarred Lands actual play of Myths & Matchmakers over here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmiXCaSrrCIjmCJQQ7oLwLNahmDbdn_2J

Devil’s Luck Gaming continue their epic costumed pirate journey through Scarn here: https://www.twitch.tv/DEVILSLUCKGAMING

Occultists Anonymous‘ Mage: The Awakening actual play continues here: Episode 27: Hammer & Anvil With some technical difficulties, on our part, we’ve got a short episode. Songbird delves into his soul. Wyrd, Mammon, and Atratus breach the home of… someone? https://youtu.be/xmiuK7lU_oQ

And here’s the Story Told Podcast with another episode of their excellent Dragon-Blooded actual play: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-episode-9-a-road-to-trouble

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we are offering the Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition Night Horrors book Shunned By The Moon Advance PDF on DTRPG!

Like all Night Horrors books, this is usable for any of the Chronicles of Darkness game lines, although I’m told it is especially tasty as a treat for Hunter: The Vigil and Beast!

CONVENTIONS!

Gen Con: August 1st – 4th Save Against Fear: October 12th – 14th GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon) Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

W20 Art Book (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Redlines

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Development

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Manuscript Approval

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Editing

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

DR:E Jumpstart (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Post-Editing Development

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle – Figuring out art buy.

Dark Eras 2

VtR Spilled Blood

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds – Sketches coming in.

Trinity Continuum Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Ex3 Lunars

They Came From Beneath the Sea

TCFBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

In Layout

M20 Book of the Fallen

Trinity Core – Getting cover specs from printer.

Trinity Aeon – Getting cover specs from printer.

CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel

Proofing

DR: E – annotated proof back to Josh

Aeon Aexpansion

C20 Cup of Dreams – This week.

V5: Chicago – Proceeding to 2nd proof.

At Press

Dragon Blooded – Deluxe at Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Cloth Map – Shipped at Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

The Realm – PoD proofs ordered.

Trinity Core Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

TC Aeon Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

Geist 2e – Inputting Errata.

Book of Oblivion

Signs of Sorcery – Gathering Errata.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs ordered.

Scion Jumpstart – Prepping PoD files.

Scion Ready-Made Characters – Waiting to order PoD proofs.

Blood Sea – PoD file uploaded, waiting to order proof.

WtF Shunned by the Moon – Advance PDF on sale Wednesday at DTRPG.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today we are 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon’s birthday!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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cousinslavellan-archive · 6 years

Text

Rose and Rainer - Pt 1

A Botanist with the Initiative, Rose Evans came to Andromeda for two reasons: to get away from her family, and to explore as much of the wildlife as she can.

Running into a grumpy turian on Elaaden wasn’t part of that plan.

….IDK WHAT I’M DOING BUT SAY HELLO TO THOSE OC’S I MENTIONED THE OTHER DAY. IDK. ENJOY?

Eventual humanxturian. Totally OC focused. Oops. Technically fits into the universe of ‘The Misadventures of Aria Ryder’ but they never directly interact with the Pathfinder so… y’know.

Rose

You’ll look back on this and laugh, Rose. Really, you will. Managed to track down the rare-ass bit of flora-

“Initiative type, probs thought we’d gone extinct. Bah.”

-out in the middle of the fucking desert, no less, half buried in the damned sand-

“Pretty lil’thing - both her an’her ride.”

-only to completely miss the two fucking scavengers not even a hill away. Goddammit, I have got to stop letting myself get distracted!

“Oi, girly, y’listenin? We want yer ride.”

“Not for sale.” Rose snaps as she clicks back into the present, eyes narrowed at the rather scrawny pair of scavs she’d been unlucky enough to stumble upon. “Not looking for trouble, boys; just out here hunting flora.”

“Flora? Y’mean flowers? On Elaaden?” the taller of the two nearly cackles, “You outta yer mind, girly? This planet’s a desert.”

There’s a flower right in front of you, moron. She bites her lip at the last second, purposely keeping her gaze away from the tiny thing; they’d probably step on it just to spite her. “I like a challenge.”

“That right?” the shorter one steps closer, and Rose’s breath catches - not in fear, more just to stem the curses that want to start spewing out when he almost steps on the bud.

Okay, no more playing nice. Rose curls her fingers into her hand, making the motion that would set her omni to pop off an overload, 3, 2, 1-

Thunk.

Both she and the shorter scav jump, and her eyes lock on the downed form of the other man just before something whistles - watching in startled silence as the second man falls as well, dead and gone.

Sniper. She realizes, pressing closer back against her Nomad, giving the bud a quick glance - they didn’t land on it, good - before her gaze darts to the hills, Another scav? Initiative? I didn’t pick up any familiar pings out here-

There’s a figure coming down the hill, and she can tell it’s a turian well before any details are clear; the tall, lanky form and easy movements through the sand make it obvious. As the form draws closer she can pick out faded armor - a mix of scavenger and initiative tech, strangely - a well-kept sniper rifle clutched between gloved hands, blue colony markings standing starkly against dark, ash coloured plates.

Rose stops ogling the stranger when he - she knows it’s a he because of his fringe, long and almost regal looking - reaches the bottom of the hill and strides swiftly in her direction, holstering his rifle as he moves.

She doesn’t uncurl her fingers, poised to hit the trigger in case he’s not friendly, “Hey, uh-”

The turian doesn’t even glance at her. Just goes straight to the bodies of the scavs and starts digging through their satchels, muttering to himself the whole time.

Rose watches in morbid curiosity, only slightly miffed at being ignored - the way he’s pawing through the bags, it’s clear he’s looking for something.

Still. It’s a little awkward.

After another minute Rose coughs, clearing her throat. “Uh, hey? Hello? Mr. Sniper? Your translator working?”

“Ah’m busy.” the turian mutters, and okay, that makes her miffed.

“Hey, I just wanted to thank you for shooting those guys. Saved me the trouble.”

He snorts - though the sound cuts off into a sort of relieved, trilling sound when he pulls something from one of the bags - a knife? Maybe? - “Wasn’t playin’ hero, lady. These idiots stole from me. Ah’ve been trackin’ their asses fer two days.”

“Two days? Where’s your Nomad?”

“Don’t have one - it’s called walking, princess.”

“On Elaaden?! Are you crazy??”

“Spirits, quiet down, will ya? Th’planet won’t kill ya anymore, thanks t’the Human Pathfinder.” the turian secures whatever he’d been looking for in his own satchel, turning as he stands, “As long as ya can find water-”

“DON’T STEP ON IT!” Rose can’t help it; the second she sees his foot about to land on the bud she launches herself at him, weight managing to knock them both flying backwards on top of the dead scavs.

“The hell is wrong with ya, woman?!” the turian’s voice is more a growl, but she hardly notices; too busy scrambling off him to check on the bud, giving a weary sigh of relief.

“I’ve been tracking this down for a week.” she grumbles, scooting to the side so he can see the plant, “So if you could not step on it? That’d be fantastic.”

The turian’s eyes narrow - vibrant green eyes, she half-notices - mandibles quivering in what she thinks is curiosity before clamping close to his face, “What is it?”

“A Remnant Bloom - named that because of the strange colouring.” Rose gently digs into the sand on either side of the bud, only scooping it up once she’s sure she has the roots, “And, they typically only grow at Remnant Sites - which is why when my scanner picked up this little bud, I wanted to try and find it.”

“You a botanist or somethin’?”

“I am. My team’s been on Havarl since we were brought out of stasis - came here for some sun.” Rose gently deposits the plant into the prepared container, then stands, eyeing the turian as he follows suit, looking again at his odd mix of armor, “You, uh… are you a scavenger, or…?”

The sound he makes is definitely a snort this time, “Not quite. Came here with th’exiles and scavs after shit went crazy on th’Nexus, sure - but Ah began soloing when th’other’s started goin’ crazy. Now Ah freelance - mostly for th’Resistance, but some work comes from th’Initiative.”

“Right. Makes sense.” Rose fidgets under his stare - he’s a lot taller than her up close, yikes - clutching the Remnant Bloom just a little tighter as she coughs and turns back to her Nomad, “Well, uh, thanks again for accidentally playing hero. Really. I’ll just be going-”

“Ya headed back to the Outpost?”

She pauses at the question, giving him a look over her shoulder, “Why?”

“Elaaden’s sun might not be killer anymore, but it’s still damn hot.” the turian looks away, mandibles flaring briefly in what she thinks might be reluctance, “Ah did save yer hide. Mind givin’ me a lift back in that shiny toy of yers?”

“I’m not actually heading right back to the Outpost - I have a Remnant Site I need to check for Blooms, first.” Rose considers him for a moment, then shifts the Bloom to one hand as she turns, “If you don’t mind tagging along - and maybe playing lookout - then I can give you a ride back after. Sound fair?”

“Sounds fair.” he agrees, an almost relieved slump to the set of his shoulders.

“And swear you won’t turn scav on me and steal my Nomad. I’d be seriously peeved.”

“Fine, fine, Ah swear Ah won’t turn into a rampagin’ idiot and steal yer toy. Can we go now?”

“Names first.” Rose extends her now empty hand, not caring one bit that she still has sand and bits of root stuck to her, “I’m Rose.”

The turian just stares at her again, mandibles flaring in a gesture she can’t recognize.

After another moment of silence she sighs, “No names, no ride.”

That earns her a grumble and his much larger hand clasping hers in a shake, his dual voice sounding distinctly annoyed as he answers, “Rainer. Happy, princess?”

“Ecstatic. Let’s go.”

#mass effect #turian oc #mass effect ocs #mass effect fanfiction #turianocxhumanoc #rose evans #rainer vakarian #mass effect andromeda #post-canon andromeda #elaaden #fanfiction #eventual interspecies relationship #eventual #oops #idk what i'm doing #botanist #sniper

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gmcryptkeeper · 6 years

Text

Campaign Grimoire #1

With all things, there is a beginning, especially the campaigns we run. How we start is often extremely important to how smoothly the campaign ends up running. So, with that said, I will take a little bit of time discussing my role in the beginning of the campaign I’m currently running. In this entry I want to go over what made me interested in running the campaign that I am, speak a little on the campaign itself, talk about my recruitment process, talk about my players and the discussion of their characters. That being said, since this does include information about a Pathfinder Adventure Path (AP), I will do my best to not spoil overly much about the campaign but you should be warned that reading this may give you hints to the AP that (if you’re a player) you should not otherwise have.

Why GM Again?

So, I should start by stating that it has been a little bit since I’ve GM’d last, specifically before I started my venture into graduate school. I decided that I wanted to make my own campaign after being on a hiatus and would eventually bring people into the world after I felt comfortable with the product. Even so, I wanted to be able to do something in the mean time, so I chose to pick an Adventure Path from Pathfinder since my group endorsed interest in playing in it. So, knowing what kind of games I love, I ventured into selecting the Strange Aeons AP. After all, it couldn’t hurt to dust off the ol’ skills every now and then, right?

Strange Aeons, indeed.

Let’s look at the top down. Pathfinder is a system that I’m very comfortable with running and playing in. It has a lot of customizing options for both players and GMs (much of these things can be ported to other systems with a little bit of knowledge, confidence, and the hopes and dreams of small children). Strange Aeons is a story that is very involved with the Cthulhu Mythos. Now, if you remember from my introduction, this is something that I’m very interested in myself, something I’m a little more practiced with. Also, considering the people I was going to be running with, not many of them have played in a horror setting, particularly. Upon reading into the AP, there is definitely some difficulty there and ways to introduce horror in combat, in social settings, but also atmospherically. Plus, the more I thought about it, different aspects of the late game make this AP able to be tied into my larger campaign once it’s finished, despite not being on the same world, technically. I wanted to pick something that would give me hooks into my world later on but something that may not be entirely (initially) connected to my world.

So, important notes: I looked at setting, interconnections into my larger work, confidence, and difficulty. These were important to me but this may be wildly different for you.

The Pitch

I’ve been discussing getting back into the saddle as GM for a while with my playgroup. At the time of the pitch, two of our group’s members were running games of their own (one 5th edition, one Pathfinder). So I cast a wide net among the group and asked who would be interested. Keep in mind, I had selected what I wanted to run for the campaign. Now, does that always work? Not particularly, but I do believe that in order for a good campaign to get rolling, the GM needs to actually be interested in running the campaign. Additionally, I’ve played with many of these people many times. After all, we call our group (affectionately) 2′s and 20′s. I’m sure you can figure out why.

I consider myself very lucky to have this group. There are many different styles of players that bring different things to the table. We have a couple of members that formed the core of the group (the forerunners, you could say) and we have inducted more into the group as different campaigns have fired. I had a pool of about 7 to pull from in the beginning when I needed 4 players. Fortunately, 4 was not a hard number to accomplish.

Had the situation been different, there are numerous other styles I could have used. For one, the game store I work at has a lovely posting board for gamers to connect. I could have sought help through Meetup or other such sites. Or I could have spent time at the store physically recruiting people if necessary. This could be an anxiety inducing situation to be in if you’re not overwhelmingly extroverted like myself. With that said, we could discuss this as another topic entirely in another entry.

The Players

I managed to get 4 hapless fools wonderful associates to play in this AP. So let’s do a quick run down of my people. None of these judgments that I’m putting forth are meant to be critical but to show what I know about these people (and often love).

The Polymath: This is a player who I, as a GM, have to be very alert for because more often than not, they are prepared for just about any natural or unnatural disaster that I could throw at them. This is someone who has a ridiculous knowledge of the game on an integral level and is subtle about it. He’s very interested in building characters that work almost seamlessly into the plot but with abilities that seem strange, at first, but will ultimately be used to devastating effect. How often does this happen? Roughly every game I’ve run or been in with this player. As a GM, I’m excited to run for him. He’s very engaged, will come up with an intricate backstory and is someone that I’m very prepared to take the gloves off for.

The Would-Be Hero: This character is, as the title implies, someone who often will step into the heroic role. This is someone who, in real life, very much believes in being a good guy and generally believes in being honorable. He’s definitely someone that I’m used to counting on for wanting to be in melee, blazing in a path of glory. He likes to integrate his character into the plot of the story and responds well to being important to the overall story.

The Synthesist: This player is rarely a player and often a GM. That informs his ability and desire to make different types of characters that are generally very unique and often either obscure or a couple of mixed classes. He is someone that is innovative and actively engages with his environment which really pushes me to either prepare a lot of interactable situations in my setting or pushes my improv to accomplish this.

The Green: This title exists for two reasons. One reason being that she is fairly new to tabletop roleplaying, hence, Greenhorn. The second reason is that she has a knack for playing nature focused characters. See, I’m occasionally clever. She has become so much more confident in interacting with the overarching stories of games and coming up with something she connects to meaningfully with her characters. Once she’s invested, she can become a major pilot for the party if she feels strongly about what her character cares about.

The Characters

I find it is only natural to talk about the characters following my short description of the players.

Poly/The Occultist: The Occultist character is designed to be a little unhinged. This character is missing much of his past, only coming in on wisps of insight, only to be consumed by nonsense. That was the essential feeling the player gave me. Poly wanted to play a character that had occult origins that would fit well into the game. The Occultist is an elf who, between some work between me and the player, has a tragic backstory that is marked by trauma that he currently cannot remember. Lack of memories is a theme to building a character for this AP. This character specializes in Necromancy and Divination, starting out.

Hero/The Fighter: The Fighter is someone of noble bearing. He remembers being associated with a noble house and having a noble cause, but cannot remember who were his enemies or what happened to him or his estate. He is a harsh character who believes that his order, his rules are the ones to be followed. Hero wanted to play a character that was within his type but he wanted to venture out a little and picked up the Loremaster Fighter. Someone who is more knowledgeable and inquisitive while still being a fearsome foe. He chose to become a switch-hitter and definitely capitalized on the “Rich Parents” trait in Pathfinder.

Synth/The Bloodrager: The Bloodrager could be believed to be more beast than man at times, someone who is tempestuous and wild. However, underneath that frightening exterior lies someone who was created to be this way and utterly broken. Experiments dot his hazy memories, especially ones of pain, injections, and a laboratory. Synth has an entire build that he wishes to see how it turns out for this character and made a horrific backstory to back it. This character will end up having multiple bloodlines but how he originally got them is locked in his mind and something that may be better left hidden.

Green/The Druid: The Druid is someone who is solid and stable, much like the Earth she worships. She was brought up in a Circle but set out on her own to fight at the corruption that sought to taint the land she defended. But who are her true enemies and what horror did she hope to vanquish? Green wanted to stick with a nature oriented class but this is her debut into 9th level casting. She has a quality as a player that is reflected a bit in this character (based on the creation) that will very much help with this AP. She is someone level-headed and stable (at least, the Druid believes she is such) and will be a solid anchor for the rest of the party.

The Session Zero

Every game should have a solid session zero in my opinion. Doesn’t mean that good games cannot come without it but it eases parties and GMs into the game. It gives the GM more to prepare (the hooks for the characters) and the players to figure out how they’re going to work together. All of the information I just provided you was provided and developed in this Session Zero.

Here’s the but. I would have loved to have a formal session zero with a couple of hours dedicated to everyone sitting at the table and focused on this character creation process and plot building. Despite it being an AP, much of it is determined by the characters background and how I inject that into the larger plot. The party has a good dynamic of mix a classes and should be adaptable to the encounters that they run into. However, there isn’t a bunch of communication among party members as to what they were planning to do.

Now, Strange Aeons starts everyone off with the classic “Amnesia Backstory”. As in, they don’t remember much about themselves except maybe some of their older memories, so they don’t need to figure out how they know each other. They are thrown together awfully fast in the very beginning of the first book. However, there could have been other discussions, such as expectations. This is a big concept for any group. I did seed that the path would be difficult and that they should be aware that death is something that can come quite swiftly if they’re not careful. However, not much else was stated globally about expectations, which was a mistake on my behalf.

Why did this happen? Well, at the time, I didn’t push for it as much as I wanted and I believe my desire to run the game outweighed my patience. It happens sometimes. The other thing to consider is that many of us had particularly chaotic schedules leading up to this point (this is an issue that became resolved fairly quickly). As I previously mentioned, I’m finishing grad school, I’m in an internship, and I work part time at a fantastic game store. There’s a lot on that plate but I went into this setting aside some time to be able to run this and pull this off.

We were able to handle the major things:

-How often do we play?

-What time/day of the week?

-How fast should we progress?

-How we will communicate about status of attendance and whatnot for the game?

-Where will game be? (This is easy, it’s always my place).

-A reminder of limitations, what to do about cancellations, etc.

Next Steps

From here, we move on into the campaign itself. At the time of this writing, we have moved through 4 sessions. When I post the next campaign grimoire, it will likely address general things of session 1 and 2, followed by an entry on 3, and an entry on 4. I plan on discussing a little bit about what the party did/how they interacted given the circumstances of their situation but I don’t want to give too much about the game as it may spoil some of you. I will note the changes I’ve made/improvisations that came about and what was important about the sessions in terms of me as a GM. But that is a sample of the things to come. For now, traveler, I bid you farewell.

-GM Crypt Keeper

#dungeon master #game master #roleplaying game #roleplay #pathfinder #strange aeons #session zero #session 0 #gmblog #gmcryptkeeper #rpg #campaign diary

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ethantuozzoreviews · 7 years

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Mass Effect Andromeda Review

If you had to ask me what my favorite new franchise from the previous console generation was, I would say Mass Effect without hesitation. Mass Effect Andromeda is the series first jump into the current generation, but it’s more like a stumble than a full dive.

The new entry into the Mass Effect world sees you playing as either Scott or Sara Ryder a “pathfinder” tasked with finding a new home for the human race. This is the main setup for the game, but that quickly divulges into the fight against a hostile alien race in the search of ancient alien technology. That won’t be too much of an issue if the last trilogy of games wasn’t eerily similar in structure and form.

The combat in Andromeda is a nice gradual upgrade from Mass Effect 3. You can play with an array of combat, tech, and biotic powers and unlike the previous game, you can spec your character in any direction and have access to any power that you want to invest points into. The combat is also more focused on free form movement with a boost jump and lateral dashes that keep the combat moving rather than you being stuck to cover 100% of the time. The combat does fell similar to before and doesn’t feel like a perfect 3rd person action game, but it’s serviceable and gets the job done.

The game also has some technical problems that are a little hard to ignore. The character animations are stiff and the eyes of most characters feel soulless most of the time. The game also has a few hitching problems and doesn’t run smooth 100% of the time. They re minor issues, but they happen enough to start piling up and become a nuisance.

Mass Effect Andromeda is a little disappointing to be completely honest. The story didn’t draw me in like I had hoped and the only squad mate that I actually had a good time speaking with was Peebee. My least favorite character was my own player character Scott Ryder, which is hard to put up with for 30 hours. The game has potential, so I hope that Mass Effect’s next outing will learn from the issues of this entry and get back to the level of quality that Mass Effect 2 had.

Score: 5/10

#mass effect #mass effect andromeda #xbox one #ps4 #pc #review #video games

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crystalelemental · 3 years

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Not trying to start an argument but doesn't that logic make it impossible to complain about any powercreep ever? You've made posts about L!Chrom being impossible to handle on both player and enemyphase before, you hate L!Claude, you complain about forced turn 1 initiation dance trap AR-D maps, those are all counterable with the right units too and other players has been equally angry about these units as they are with F!Edelgard now. Why is her powercreep the one thats suddenly above criticism?

L!Chrom and L!Claude, technically you have answers. Also yes and no.

L!Chrom, on release, was a massive pain in the ass who didn't actually have much in the way of answers. He blasted apart every armor strong enough to take him, had a speed superboon that could mitigate damage reduction threats, and is just obscenely strong. All of that can still be handled by a strong green unit that isn't armor though. The problem was the Reposition and extra movement in Arena, alongside 180BST. That is virtually impossible to deal with, because you cannot perfectly predict all of those actions and follow his movement to know exactly where he'll attack. This is made infinitely worse by the fact that L!Azura was still on every team at that point, giving him 3 movement on top of all that. It became an issue not because the unit itself was too strong, but because his movement shenanigans became impossible to predict, so ensuring he would land on your counter to him was improbable, and getting to him first was impossible.

L!Claude actually has no counterplay. At all. Cecilia has strong against flying, strong against colorless, and Triangle Adept, and still loses to him thanks to 80% damage reduction on both phases, and how absurdly powerful he is. There is still no hard counter to L!Claude, because even Young Innes can get dunked on by just being one-shot, or Iote's Shield variants just not giving a shit if he eliminates the damage reduction. There is no counterplay to Claude aside from "hit him first," which is what I've had to do, and it fucking sucks. I don't like having to play that way, but I have to adapt my playstyle to manage that threat, or I'd just lose every time.

AR-D turn 1 initiations are actually impossible though. There is zero counterplay. Even F2P AR gods like Eldervi have looked at some possible AR-D team compositions and gone "I cannot think of a single way to beat this while being F2P." That is a problem. And much like Chrom, a large part of the problem isn't the strength of those units individually. On their own, Micaiah can beat L!Sigurd and Reinhardt just fine, but can she also ensure that all five allies are in the 3 safe spaces after combat to prevent Reinhardt from just attacking someone else? No, because that's impossible? There you go. Even with some whale tactics, it still doesn't matter. With Pathfinder and L!Sigurd combos, one of the only suggested solutions was, I shit you not, running TWO Far Save units, because running only one doesn't protect enough of the map to defend against these teams. You gonna tell me that's sensible? That's sane? Run two units with the same skill that's currently seasonal locked only? How is that not orders of magnitude worse than just getting NFU Selena?

Nothing is above being complained about or discussed in terms of what form of bullshit you have to do to win, but the difference is that one of these things is so overpowered as to be actually impossible to counter, while the others are just obnoxious. Fallen Edelgard is treated as the worst thing ever brought into the game; completely uncounterable and impossible to deal with as an F2P player. But she's not. Plenty of people have shown solutions. "But they cost 5* fodder!" that doesn't matter. So do a lot of things. You think any random archer is gonna beat Iote's Shield L!Claude with Swift Sparrow 2 or Death Blow 3? Fuck no. You require more premium fodder, but somehow that's never come up as an argument against L!Claude the way it has against F!Edelgard. Even these Turn 1 initiation maps with double Pathfinder and Ground Orders and L!Sigurd/Duo Sigurd rally traps will have people calmly analyze the teams and try to pick apart potential solutions, end on "I guess we might just need double Far Save" and try to figure that out. But somehow Fallen Edelgard is the only one that's been pointed to by just about everyone as being too much, and the cause of everyone quitting? What makes her so much worse than any of the other threats? Because what you're saying there is wrong; we had merely a fraction of the vitriol for L!Chrom and L!Claude and even L!Sigurd and this new Pathfinder bullshit as we've had for F!Edelgard. We didn't have a mass outpouring of posts about people quitting the game over anything but F!Edelgard, and she's not even the worst addition the game's ever had. Surtr was worse in his prime than she is now.

Basically, yes, anyone can complain about anything, but my problem is less people complaining about not knowing how to counter her, so much as throwing up their hands and saying she's impossible while known counters circulate. She's not impossible, you just have to put in resources for those counters. Do so and you'll find they work. Don't do so and she's going to remain impossible for you to beat, just like plenty of other threats do. So in a sense, my complaining about L!Sigurd and L!Claude is invalid, because I should have counterplay established for them. And I do! They're just a pain in the ass, because offense vs offense isn't how I like to play and it's difficult to get used to, but I have to adapt to them if I want to win. And so far, I can. And everyone else can too for Fallen Edelgard, they just have to be willing to put in the resources and effort to play around her, which sucks and is unpleasant, but that's what you signed up for with competitive.

But I do want to address Turn 1 initiation teams as the exception. I referenced OU in the original post for a reason: because OU has a banlist, because sometimes things are just too good. They're too powerful, their counters too niche, and they warp the meta in unhealthy ways. In Gen 6 OU, Protean got Greninja banned, because there was no real counterplay. Oh sure, you had Porygon-2, who arguably had the ability to tank it out, but if Dark Pulse flinched you had no resource and were definitely dead, so that's not a counter, and it was terrible against most other threats in the meta, so it wasn't a meta viable answer. If the threat has a means of getting around you anyway, then there's no counter, and if that counter exists only to counter one threat, then it's not meta viable.

Applying this to FEH: Triangle Adept Boey was brought up as a counter to F!Edelgard, but due to low BST and bad Res, he's too niche to be considered for any competitive mode. Were he the only counter, Fallen Edelgard would be too much. Selena scores better for Arena, and can actually do well against a host of other threats too, so she's still a fairly viable pick. Fallen Edelgard's best answers are things like NFU, Windsweep, and Pulse Smoke; skills that have tremendous utility against the entire game. That's why I say Flash is more over-centralizing as a threat; its only solution is NCD, which is solely good for handling that one threat, and is dead weight against almost every type of threat you encounter (Windsweep is the only other utility). If a threat can be reasonably assumed to have counters that aren't just useful in countering them, then that threat is by definition not broken. Because you have the tools.

But what are these so-called counters to Turn 1 initiation? Isolate their dancer? Oh sorry, Odd Recovery on the cav healer, try again. Okay, get to them first? Assuming you can even do that with your Lynja and dancer, Far Save B!Edelgard blanks her, and protects the entire team, try again. Tank them? Not only are you unlikely to survive guaranteed double L!Sigurd, but his Quickened Pulse set means he gives allies boosted range even if you have Special Fighter or Guard, and there are 3 safe spaces on the entire map and you have five allies, try again. Well, use the Save skills? Oh, sorry, Flash healer means the Save unit can't counterattack, and the range of threat is so wide that one of your allies is almost definitely outside their save range, and also in range of an enemy, try again.

That is the difference here. Fallen Edelgard has counters that are reliable and relevant to several other meta threats. Turn 1 initiation has no counter at all. Even its best check, Dual Saves, is outright impossible to complete because Far Save doesn't exist outside of one seasonal unit, who was on a fucking color split. That's too much to demand. In a situation where Far Save were more accessible, then maybe we could talk about Dual Save being a more reliable solution for people to fall back on. But those tools don't exist right now, so these AR-D team composition is actually unbeatable if built optimally. And even with Dual Save, now we're already talking about needing two Far Save units. Because that's normal.

#fire emblem heroes

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swipestream · 6 years

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Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

This is part 4 of my review of the Pathfinder Playtest from Paizo. You can see part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. In this part of the review, I’ll finish up my comments in this series with Game Mastering through Appendices.

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

The section starts off with six bullet points to give overall guidance to the GM. I think the guidance misses the mark a bit, but it’s a good start. Unfortunately, the advice given out in that brief segment makes it appear as if the bulk of the work for the world, characters, events, and storytelling land firmly on the GM’s shoulders. This is, to some extent, true. However, I feel that this was a grand opportunity to let the GM know that they are not the driver in the storytelling effort, but a participant with the players in the storytelling. The advice given is solid, but the tone here sets the stage for making new GMs think they are in charge. Any veteran GM will certainly tell you that this is not the case once the players start rolling with their own ideas.

Starting a Session

The segment that covers how to start a session is fantastic! I hope to see this expanded a bit in the final book, but this is a wonderful set of advice. I even learned a few new tips and tricks in this area. Well done, Paizo!

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

This section is given in a brief sidebar. I have a problem with this because quite a few readers of RPGs will skim those areas thinking they are not important. This is a perception thing because if it were important, it would be in the main text, right? I think the six bullet points I mentioned above could be combined with this sidebar to create a new approach to collaborative gaming that excels at great fun and excellent storytelling. Merging these two concepts, I think, would lead to a more powerful statement.

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

The encounter section is too brief. This is the most technical part of the game, and this can lead to it being the hardest to adjudicate properly because of the number of rules, feats, spells, skills, powers, items, monsters, and characters involved. I know. I know. Many books (and articles!) have been dedicated to this very topic, and I don’t expect Paizo to replicate what’s already been covered. However, I think a deeper dive into encounters would be best.

The exploration and downtime modes are covered very well. These two sections are lengthy and solidly give the GM the right information to execute what is a new concept for Pathfinder. The guidance and tips found within these two sections will make running them go very smoothly for an experienced or fresh GM.

Now that I’ve read the entire “Modes of Play” section, I think I figured out what is bothering me with the encounter section beyond its brevity. The encounter section was written for experienced GMs. The exploration and downtime sections were written in a manner that targets new GMs. I feel that Paizo needs to take a fresh look at the encounter section and rewrite it (and expand it) as if they were attempting to teach a brand new GM (as in, brand new to RPGs, not just Pathfinder) how to run an encounter. If they revisit and expand the encounter section with this in mind, I feel it would be a much stronger contribution to the GM section of the book.

Difficulty Classes

I’m going to be brief here. These three pages are well thought out, clear, and give some great examples on how to come up with target numbers on the fly or apply adjustments where necessary. Paizo’s team did an excellent job on this section.

Rewards

I’ve been looking forward to hitting this section ever since I learned that each level requires an even 1,000 XP to obtain instead of an upward-climbing slope of more experience points for the next level than the current one.

Unfortunately for me, the “kill a monster” XP is listed in the supplemental bestiary, which I haven’t taken the time to flip through the PDF yet. I guess that’ll be next on my list of reading (but not reviewing). On the flip side, the XP awards for minor, moderate, and major accomplishments are laid out as 10, 30, and 80, respectively. Even though they call it “group XP” it’s not divided between all the characters. If the group accomplishes a moderate goal, then all the PCs involved gain 30 XP.

There’s a sidebar for “Story-Based Leveling” that is in this section that calls for the GM to decide if and when the characters level up. This puts a sour taste in my mouth. It’s a personal opinion here, but I really don’t like these approaches at all. The players should see the steady gain of XP for their characters (even if they don’t level yet), so there is a sense of accomplishment in that area. Having the GM suddenly decree, “You go up a level.” feels too much like the GM is controlling things. Of course, this could just be me and my experiences with GMs wanting to have too much control. Your mileage may vary in this area.

Environment

There are several pages dedicated to terrain, climate, and hazards. While the lists aren’t complete (I’m assuming they will be more comprehensive in the final, larger book), what is listed there and how the various environmental conditions impact the game are well stated. I like what I see as a set of building blocks toward more content.

The hazards section is very well done. A hazard is the generic term for traps, pits, dangers, and magical effects that can harm or impede the PCs. There are ways to find, trigger, disable, destroy, and/or dispel various hazards depending on their nature. The playtest book came with a sample of three hazards. I had kind of hoped for a few more, but I’m assuming they didn’t want the playtest book to bloat up too much. I’m looking forward to seeing what the final product (and the various expansion books and adventures) have along these lines.

Treasure

The loot! We’re finally at the gold and shiny and magic and wonderful stuff portion of the book. Yeah, I’m a little excited here because I’m interested in seeing how things change up in this section, if at all.

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

After this comes all sorts of tables outlining (almost proscribing) what treasure different level parties should (must?) receive for a fair and equitable game to be run. The fact that the treasure allotment is so heavily proscribed makes me extraordinarily sad.

No more random treasure.

Yeah. You read that right. There are no more dice rolls involved in generating treasure with Pathfinder. This breaks my heart, to be honest. As a GM, I always loved rolling up treasure because it would spark new ideas, thoughts, plot arcs, and cool stuff in my brain. Yeah, if I happened to roll up a majorly disruptive magic item for a low-level group, I’d probably shift things around a bit (or re-roll). However, randomly creating magic items for folks to find is gone. I’ll be over here in the corner shedding a tear for days gone by.

Okay. I’ve had my cry. I’m mostly better now. Looking at the new approach at handing out treasure is fair and balanced. It will assist new GMs from overloading their group with disruptive items while keeping the party well-equipped for future challenges. This is super helpful for new GMs, and I can appreciate this approach at handing out goods. I just wish they’d kept gems, jewelry, and/or artwork as a form of gaining wealth because those can, once again, inspire stories and side plots, not just a gain of wealth. Now, the party will just gain some gold from the hoard and move on.

If I ever run this version of Pathfinder, I’ll most likely break out my 2nd edition AD&D treasure generators (or the first Pathfinder versions) and run with those. They’re more fun than hand-picking treasure, to be honest.

After the list o’ treasure tables ends, the book delves into materials, which is one of the best write-ups of “non-normal” materials I’ve ever seen. Excellent job here. Obviously, the list isn’t complete, but I expect it to expand in the final version.

While flipping through the treasure section, I hit the sections for snares (crafting, detecting, triggering, etc.) and I was baffled here. I’m not sure why these were listed here under treasure, instead of above with the hazards. Did the wrong pages get dropped into the layout in the wrong place?

After snares, comes the alchemical items. This is a cool section. I highly encourage everyone to check this part out. There are oodles of examples, tons of ideas, and great information about how they play in the game. Loud applause for you here, Paizo.

Runes come next, and this is the part of enhancing weapons and armor with special powers. I love how weapons and armor must now be etched with cool-looking runes to become super special. This adds flavor to the world and storytelling options (as well as some neat intimidate/perception uses when someone wearing a well-etched suit of armor walks in the door) to the whole feel of the game.

Last come the details of the various magic items that don’t fall into “weapons and armor.” This comprises the bulk of the treasure section, and I’m not going to detail each item or neat thing. I do want to say that I really want to play an archer (preferably with the elven ancestry) with an Oathbow.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

The traits are all of the capitalized keywords (such as Strike) used within the book. The glossary is a good collection of phrases, terms, and things found within the book that may not be readily known to every player.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

This is a good foundational book for what promises to be a pretty cool system. There are some rough edges (as there are with any playtest document), but I figure Paizo is wise enough to listen to the feedback sent to them (and hopefully this series of articles) to improve the game.

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

The first is that I’m already heavily invested with knowledge, money, habits, and familiarity in the first version of Pathfinder. I have too much “edition inertia” going on to abandon Pathfinder 1.0 for Pathfinder 2.0. If the shift were more subtle between the two, I could see picking it up. However, everything will require major conversions to get from 1.0 to 2.0.

The second is that I’m extremely concerned with the lack of random treasure. Yeah. It’s that big of a deal. I feel it’s a departure too far from the “source material” that was created way back in the 1970s. I don’t like that one bit.

The third is that I don’t see anything drastically improving the game that much. There are tons of incremental improvements and quite a few major changes in the playtest document, but none of them really blew my socks off. There are some new concepts and ideas in here that I think I could shift back into a Pathfinder 1.0 game, but that now leaves me with Pathfinder 1.0 and some house rules (which I already have).

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I’d probably go with the playtest version, to be honest. It’s a better game, and my prejudices built up from playing RPGs for decades (and my Pathfinder edition inertia) would not be a factor in choosing which game to go with.

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Paizo put out a solid effort here. I’m impressed with the amount of thought, care, effort, and experience that went into developing this game. They’ve certainly evolved the game. There are some high points in the evolution and some low points as well. I think the high drastically outweighs the low.

I’m very much looking forward to the final version of the game. I’ll take a look at it then and reevaluate things at that time to determine if my stance on moving forward to the new version will change.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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kayawagner · 6 years

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Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

Starting a Session

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

Difficulty Classes

Rewards

Environment

Treasure

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

No more random treasure.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

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atomicgm · 6 years

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Doomsday Dawn: The Lost Star Playthrough

So I finally got the chance to play the first adventure of Doomsday Dawn! Here is a summary of my experiences with the new system

Firstly, character creation was a blast. Ancestry, Background, and Class worked very well together. I created four premade characters including a Dwarf Wizard, Elf Rogue, Gnome Bard, and Goblin Paladin. That last one was amazing, as the races have a floating +2 I dropped in Strength. My little goblin knight had an 18 strength! As long as your race doesn’t have a penalty in the attribute, it’s a viable choice. Even with the penalty, you can start with a 16 score, which is still pretty good. The party was a goblin sorcerer, gnome bard, elf rogue, goblin paladin, and halfling druid.

As for the adventure, I did an in medias res with the first encounter. The ooze went down pretty quickly, but it did get one good hit in on the Paladin. He blocked it with his shield, banged the dent out with quick repair, and spent the rest of the adventure with his shield up. Next I jumped back in time to explain the setup of the adventure, the players immediately doubting that Drakus was a vampire. Two players were goblins returning to their tribe on good terms, so they talked their way past the first group of goblins. Taking their non-goblin “hostages” they found themselves in the polluted fountain area, completely skipping several encounters that could have netted them some of the few available magic items.

I had Talga accompany the party so I had a voice of some sort during the adventure, which may have made exploration a bit easier. The second I mentioned that the fountain was clear when the goblins first moved in, they began poking around the fountain and found the idol in the basin. The Rogue failed to fish it out with tongs so the Paladin just grabbed it out bare-handed, releasing the Quasits. They went down very quickly, but not before damaging the Rogue and Paladin. The party scanned the fountain for magic, and upon finding it magical everyone drank from the fountain. The Rogue rolled a 1 and spent the rest of the adventure with 3 hit points.

The party managed to prevent the alarm door from ringing and ambushed the goblin headquarters. The bard cast a Sleep spell, making me realize I have no idea how Sleep works. The wording says most enemies immediately wake up in combat, but I had no idea where to find that. I just had Warriors waste an action waking the Pyro and Commando. The Paladin triggered the rock trap but made his reflex save, ripped up the Warriors the Commando was using as meat shields, only to drop from a critical hit from the Commando’s horse chopper.

The Rogue tumbled in, trying to protect the fallen paladin, which moved her out of the way of the Pyro’s burning hands. Half the party got fried, but the Paladin made his death save, returned to 1 hit point, and I realized I didn’t know how the unconscious rules worked. I let him stand up, he dumped lay on hands on himself, and the fight abruptly ended as the Rogue suddenly had a flanking partner and the Sorcerer got a critical hit with Telekinetic Projectile.

The party then found the back entrance to Drakus’ hideout and found his loot. The Rogue managed to spot and disarm the trapped lock, but immediately broke her lockpicks. It wasn’t even a series of bad rolls, the lock’s DC was just absurdly high for 1st level. She needed to roll THREE 17s, and they had to be IN A ROW or her progress would erode. They scouted ahead, spotted Drakus, and half the party doubled back for the other door. Everyone had already drank from the fountain so they didn’t even notice the sand trap. They tried to bluff Drakus that they were bringing offerings, failed to open the door, and he moved into a hiding spot. As they stormed the room Drakus revealed his true form, to no one’s surprise. The Paladin dropped from a sneak attack , the rogue nearly dropped from a triple attack that hit her and the Rogue, and things started to look grim. Then the paladin burned a hero point to remove the dying condition, got up, and hit Drakus hard. The Rogue got a sneak attack, and the Druid nailed a Shillelagh critical. With Drakus dead they completed the dungeon in leisure and looted everything. The day was saved, and we were rushing everyone out of our house. That took five hours.

So, I’m positive I ran some things incorrectly. Dying is incredibly confusing. When you drop to 0 HP you are hit with both the dying AND unconscious status effects, and recovering from dying does not remove your unconsciousness. You actually continue making saves until you fail three times (advance to Dying 4, dead) or roll one success, gaining 1 hit point. When you have 1 hit point you STILL makes death saving throws. If you succeed at this point you wake up. Now your dying condition decays at a rate of one level per turn, so you can be conscious, fighting, and dying all at the same time. You also have the option of burning a hero point to remove all of your dying conditions, and with no action specified I can only assume you can do this at any time. I ran it where a single success on a save removed both dying and unconscious, and with hero points you can make my rules good the game as intended. The Paladin used them to bounce back into combat undeterred, and it was instrumental in their defeat of Drakus. Playing properly, he would have gotten one fewer reroll, which requires two hero points. Honestly, those two hero points seem like a waste when you can ignore the damage system of the game.

Edit: Technically running out of hit points takes away one of your three actions, knocks you prone, and disarms you. That’s three actions to get back into fighting shape. Maybe not so bad after all?

As far as properly used mechanics, the druid picked Acid Splash and was screwed over by the d4 damage die. Even the sorcerer grabbed Ray of Frost and started to wonder why he would use anything that wasn’t Telekinetic Projectile. That d10 is hard to argue with, especially when none of the cantrips come with meaningful riders outside a critical hit.

Our Rogue felt like she was TOO powerful in combat, out damaging the Paladin by a fair margin. Meanwhile, out of combat she felt useless. This was partly the fault of some terrible rolls, and partly due to some of the crazy high DCs of traps and perception checks she had to contend with. I think DCs of 10 to 12 are plenty when you have at most a +5 to your skill check. The Rogue wants to shine when dealing with their area of expertise, not feel like they wasted their entire character class. Side note with her, I couldn’t figure out if the players could split their movement with an action, like Spring Attack or normal 5e movement. It really wasn’t clear.

The whole party had to contend with the utter lack of healing as well. The hit point inflation from the new racial bonus to HP was not enough to keep the party on their feet. By the end half the party was down and the other half running on single digits of HP, with no way to recover. Without a 5e-esque short rest mechanic and no potions or wands to spend their resonance points on, the party ran low by encounter 2 and ran out by 3, sliding to the finish of encounter 4 on their faces.

All in all, the group said they didn’t like P2. They much preferred 5e DnD, and I would say I have to agree. I am willing to give P2 another chance and will definitely finish out the playtest. I know things will get easier as we master the rules, but I remain unconvinced that this edition of Pathfinder will scratch my itch for high-customization, high-powered Dungeons and Dragons-style play. Complexity is there, but it didn’t seem to provide anything exciting. I’m still making the same move-swing turns I always was, and I’m losing a lot of the quality-of-life tweaks from 5e DnD. I suppose we shall have to wait and see what session 2, In Pale Mountain’s Shadow will bring.

Whew, this was a long post.

#Pathfinder #pathfinder 2nd edition #Pathfinder Playtest #Dungeons and Dragons #trpg #session

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pkansa · 6 years

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I have long had a fascination with solar-powered watches. As a matter of fact, one of the first watches I bought for myself as an adult was a solar powered (and atomic-clock syncing) one from, you guessed it, Casio. Even though that was about a decade ago, they’re still making those solar powered watches (funnily enough, I just listened to a podcast from Two Broke Watch Snobs about solar watches just today). Let’s see what’s happened in the intervening decade with a look at the Casio Edifice EQB501D-1A.

So, let’s start with one thing – for the remainder of this article, I’m just going to call it the Casio Edifice, because that model name is not one that rolls off of the tongue, now is it? That out of the way, let’s get to the review. For starters, why would you even want a solar-powered watch? Well, for one, you’ve got battery longevity. The one I personally own, I’ve had that for about 10 years, and it’s still on the original battery. Additionally, solar powered gets this watch firmly into the realm of things that a mechanical watch can’t do, which is a good spot for a quartz.

When you add in that the Casio Edifice also has Bluetooth, so it can lash up to your watch? Well, yeah, you’ve got some tech under the hood. Which would explain why this watch is as thick as it is, because the radio, the solar cells, and all that’s required for the functionality of the watch. Speaking of, here’s a quick rundown of all the watch can do:

Time and date (of course)

Dual time, with a quick swap of home and travel time (shown at the 9 o’clock position) via the phone app

Daily alarm

Chronograph

Automatic calendar (up to 2099)

Watch modeling assistance provided by my 5 year old

This is a lot going on, of course. And, if I had one complaint against the Casio Edifice, is that there is a lot going on, and it can be tricky to manage via an analog dial. In fact, for the longest time, with my own Casio, I had a wallet-sized cheat sheet that I carried around just to be able to tell how to switch between functions, and know where I was in the roster of capabilities.

Fortunately, that is ameliorated with the app you use to pair your phone to the Casio Edifice. As shown above (and in the gallery below) the app can tell you what it is you’re doing on the watch. And, actually, you can set quite a few different things (home time, travel time, alarm) on the app as well – so you may not even need to fiddle with the watch a whole lot.

Then again, we wouldn’t be watch folks if we didn’t fiddle around with the watches, now would we? And in that regard, you’ve got plenty to play around with. You’ve got four pushers that drive various functions (the one you’ll interact with the most is over at 8 o’clock, and that wakes up the pairing to your phone). Just don’t try to move that crown, as it’s vestigial. As in, it serves no purpose, and is locked in place.

There’s also plenty on the watch that plays with the light. You’ve got polished surfaces galore (which does mean fingerprints, of course). One of the best comes in the form of the bracelet. With how Casio designed this bracelet, it almost looks like you’ve got two bracelets, one stacked on top of the other. It’s a neat look, and it’s the single feature that attracted the most comments.

Then again, a shiny bracelet probably isn’t the only reason you’re going to the market to look for something like the Casio Edifice. Short of any very specific fitness or outdoors needs, this is a watch that will cover off on most of the bases for many folks. With the high polish across the surfaces, this also means it’s a watch that fits into a dressier setting, which some of the things like the G-Shock and Pathfinder lines (which have similar capabilities) certainly wouldn’t.

With pricing for the Casio Edifice coming in at $300, you’ve got a whole lot of watch coming in for a rather reasonable price, in my book. Sure, there’s no atomic clock or GPS time syncing, but it does lash to your phone – which would be pulling very accurate times. So, yeah, I think this is a great option for someone who wants more than “just another” quartz watch, and appreciates some of the technical wizardry that goes in packing in solar and Bluetooth, as well as all of the other movement capabilities. Or, frankly, even if you don’t care about that, but would like some help from your phone to manage a more complicated watch, this Casio Edifice has you covered.

In regular-sized hands

What about those who are interested in a watch like the Casio Edifice, but don’t see it as daily wear? Well, then, don’t worry, because the Casio solar tech has you covered as well. Once it realizes it’s not getting light, it drops into a low-power mode. At first, this just stops the running seconds, and the main time will keep going. Eventually (I’m presuming here based on my other Casio solar) it will completely stop the hands, while still keeping time. Then, once some light hits it, it springs back to life, and it’s ready for action.

For me, that’s really where watches like the Casio Edifice shine – with quartz and solar, they’re low maintenance, put them on when you want to, sorts of companions. Adding the Bluetooth sync to the phone just sweetens the pot, giving quick time resets, as well as the integrated guides for how to operate this wunderkind. So, yeah, I liked it, and I think this is a good use of some “smart” capabilities. But, just don’t take my word for it. Let us know below, or over in our Slack channel, what you think of the Casio Edifice – I’m curious to hear what others think. casio.com

Review Summary

Brand & Model: Casio Edifice EQB501D-1A

Price: $300

Who’s it for? As I mentioned in the review, this is for someone looking for an affordable watch that brings a lot to the table and is more than “just another” quartz watch

Would I wear it? Yeah, I would – this is a good pick-up-and-go change of pace

What I’d change: I wouldn’t mind seeing the bracelet upgraded to not use collared pins

The best thing about it: How much is actually packed into this case

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Tech Specs from Casio

100M Water Resistant

Solar powered

Mobile link (Wireless linking using Bluetooth® SMART)

Airplane mode

Dual time (Home city time swapping)

1 second stopwatch Measuring capacity: 23:59’59 Measuring mode: Elapsed time

Daily alarm

Low battery alert

Full auto-calendar (to year 2099)

Power Saving (hands stop to save power when the watch is left in the dark.)

Date display

Regular timekeeping

Analog:3 hands (hour, minute(hand moves every 10 seconds), second)

4 dials (24-hour, dual time hour and minute, dual time 24-hour, day)

Accuracy: ±15 seconds per month

Approximate battery operating time:

Module: 5429

Watch modeling assistance provided by my 5 year old

In regular-sized hands

Spending time with the @Casio_USA Edifice EQB501D-1A #solar #bluetooth #under$500 #review I have long had a fascination with solar-powered watches. As a matter of fact, one of the first watches I bought for myself as an adult was a solar powered (and atomic-clock syncing) one from, you guessed it, Casio.

#bluetooth #Casio #edifice #Quartz #solar

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