Pathfinder Playtest Update for mid-July

Well, I ran two Pathfinder AOW games recently. The first session consisted of another swarm fight. Once again, I've observed that if not for double max hit die plus con modifier at least one PC would have died. None of the PC's went into negative hit points so the combat seemed to be more frustrating at times rather stress full. Not that frustrating is a bad thing. My players don't seem to be fans of stress full combats. Interesting observations none of the clerics nor the bard threw off any buffs during the combat.

To accomodate one of the player's schedule, I ran a session the following week only to find out that the player forgot. Which meant once more it would be three players. One of the players itching to both play and wanting to get done with the AP as fast as possible insisted that we play. The party was a cleric, rogue, and bard. Both combats took place underwater. Have to say that unlimited light spells sure made both encounters easier. Definately changed the mood of the encounters. No fatalities. One sidenote: this was the first session that I actually followed the rules on readying bucklers. The reason I mentioned that is the cleric never tried to channel positive energy against the ghoul, which would require a free hand. No channeling occurred cause the player erroneously thought that he had to speak to do so.

The PC's then returned to Diamond Lake with their loot. The next day the rogue and bard discovered that they had contracted a disease. With the clerics aid, they managed to overcome it. Alas, the rogue was so stricken that another week was needed for recovery. So next session takes up two weeks later in-game this Tuesday.

On a side note: the lack of James's 1E game has enabled scheduling to be rather interesting...

Listening to the new NIN album

Tuesday, I picked up the new Nine Inch Nails album, The Slip. After listening to it a couple times I think its not too bad. The Slip is very different from the earlier albums. It feels like it has a more of a "mainstream" vibe.

Game reports...or bullet points...

Instead of making separate posts for each game I played until now, I'm just going to lump them together. I'm not going to go in-depth.

Pathfinder 6/17/08 continued.

1. If the players aren't familiar with the poison rules (3.5), they are now. To be fair, a comment queried what the Pathfinder ruling was. There isn't discernible change on the issue that was at hand. That concerns me. Why? Its hard to eventually post actual playtest feedback on the Paizo boards when there is no grounded basis for said feedback. Especially when the players encounter the new Pathfinder rulings during play having not read them.
2. The players felt the quick death suffocation rules from the l.s. (no PC identified it) to be unrealistic. I think they'll feel that the drowing rules are bit too sudden when they encounter them later. I know one player commented that I should bring it up to Paizo. More on that concept in a different post.
3. Rurik the Dwarf Bard CN replaced the fallen wizard. On the whole, the player commented that he liked the Pathfinder Bard much more than the 3.x bard. I happen to agree.
4. Forgot to check if the two clerics could make untrained knowledge checks on the symbol on the earth elemental.

James Mishler's 1E game 6/24/08

Both of my characters, Friar Pudge and Twidorek (who is CN by the way) got captured due to an ambush by the bandits that serve a follower of the evil elemental prince of fire. Two PC's got away. Overall, this was more of session spent on the sidelines for me . Still I enjoyed it immensely. The session was an excellent example of die-roll based storytelling.

4E game session

Liked it. Both combats created a sense of tension that character death could happen while at the same time not stressing out about "instant" death. Kind of hard to play. The death save caused every player to worry about whether or not the should heal or stabilize a fallen comrade. 4E has made archers/crossbow(men) more fearsome than 3.x ever did. The combat encounter terrain was set up in such a way that heavy armor was a nuissance during combat. Everyone commented that once one grasped the gist of the rules that the rules are simpler than 3.x. Well, the rules are simple with pre-gens anyway... As much as disdain the use of minis, I actually want to use them with 4E. Excited too. Need to play fourth edition more in order to form a firmer opinion on it.

Pathfinder 7/1/08

When two players heard that two other players wouldn't be able to play, they opted to play board games. Honestly, the next three encounters could be brutal enough that I wanted as many of the players there as possible. Especially since two of those encounters are underwater with no light. We played munchkin instead.

Monday 3.5 game 7/7/08

I actually think this deserves its own post now that I think about it.

James Mishler's 1E game 7/8/08

Cancelled for reasons mentioned in his blog.

Finally, I've posted...

Long time no post. I kept meaning to post but kept getting distracted either by pdf stores, out-of-print vendors, RPG industry/community buzz, or general mood. I was going to comment on some Wizard World Chicago news but the internet distracted me. In addition to comic news, I was going to post game reports as well but the internet distracted me as well. Along with the fact that I find game reports to be tiresome. Oh yeah, I have and still am experiencing a 'blank' when it comes to spelling and grammar.

In any case, I have since played a session of 4E as well as 3.5. My Pathfinder game was cancelled due to two players having more important commitments. Instead, we played munchkin.