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.

Get to play 4E

A surprising turn of events happened last week. Since the announcement of the fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons (named so anyway), I expected to run the game more than play it. In fact, I've spent two or three weeks trying to set up a game to pretty much no avail. It would have been a solo game. So I realy wasn't expecting to get much experience with 4E for some time. Then last week, I found out someone was going to run a one or two shot 4E game on a Monday. Tonight is that Monday. Looking forward to actually playing, not running, a fourth edition session.

Pathfinder Session Brief 6/24/08

I realize I'm late posting the latest report of my Pathfinder playtest Age of Worms campaign. Just been delayed to some concerns of mine...

The PC's that started the 6/24/08 session:

Grinsen Barr NG 1st level cleric of Yondalla. Domains: Community, Protection. Parents own bar.
Worken Onet LN 1st lvl Cleric of Heironeous. Domains: Law, War. Connected to church.
Tywin Lighthair CN Wiz1 Conjuror. Apprenticed to Allustan. Won't use Necromancy and Enchantment spells.
Joy Feelgood LG Rog1. Unemployed/homeless.
Cilborith CG Fighter 1. Works for Moonmeadow.

Quotes and Humorous comments:
Player of Grinsen Barr made jokes about touching people and "exciting" them with the Community domain power.
Joy to skeleton lying on the ground, "Are you okay?"

Cilborith "Cause I like going into dungeons where I can get killed."
Rurik replied "Why not?"

I suppose you may be wondering, Rurik who? Well, I'll get to that soon. Anway, the PCs decided they didn't want to fight another swarm nor venture underwater so they climbed back up to the upper floor. Moved the pointer towards the blue lantern. Nothing happened. They then noticed something humanoid shaped lying on the ground at the end of the tunnel. Being cautious the party sent Joy down the tunnel alone to investigate. While searching both the ground and at eye level, Joy discovered that it was a skeleton. She rejoined the rest of the party. They moved the shaft towards the Indigo lantern. A cylindrical shaft rose up out of the ground. I jumped the gun and referred to it as an elevator. The PCs stared at it cautiously. And watched it cautiously. Cautiously. Finally, Tywin had enough and walked down the tunnel and entered the elevator, "blindly". A successful Intelligence check and a failed Wisdom check and Tywin realized something was wrong. She stayed in the elevator until rounds later when it was revealed that it was a false elevator trap that crushed everything inside. First PC death. I felt bad cause I felt that I messed something up. Sure enough I did. Based on the number of hit points the Pathfinder option gives the PC wouldn't have died from the damage alone. However, the elevator sunk into the ground. So unless the other PCs could mover the shaft lever around four or five times which includes a difficult strength check, Tywin would die from suffocation. Alas, I didn't prepare or read the module as well as I should. Didn't learn that until after the fact. After DMing and playing for fourteen or fifteen years, I learned something new.

Afterwards the players, pushed the lever a couple times towards the lantern with the working elevator.

I'll continue the rest of my report later.

Pathfinder Alpha Observations lite

This post isn't a full write-up of what came before but rather some observations I've made about Pathfinder RPG so far based on my Age Of Worms campaign.

Right now the party is still level one and comprised of a Human Cleric, Halfling Cleric, Elf Fighter, Human Rogue, and a Half-Elf Wizard (Conjuror). The elven fighter has gone the archer route. Thus, both humans tended to be the front-liners. Time will tell whether or not that lasts.

Observations:
1) Without the double max hit point option at first level, the wizard, rogue, and halfling cleric all would have been dropped down to negatives if not killed outright. This option allows the group to function without a high AC, high hitpoint front-liner. So far anyway, the adventure path gets much tougher.

2) The increased d8 hit die for the rogue has also helped that character to function as a front-liner.

3) Cover rules require a couple uses in order to get them right. Right now, the cover rules are cumbersome but with a conjuror and an archer the ease of use should improve. I've notice three degrees of cover will rarely occur. Based on my players' reactions, even one degree of cover is a hindrance.

4) The players really like the condensed skill lists, the ray attack for the conjuror, and channel energy rules.

5) The CMB is easy to use when it comes to trip attacks.

6) I've also noticed that not all the players have utilized the full extent of their PC's yet. Mostly its the use of the clerical domain powers.

Tomorrow is game night so I will provide commentary later in the week.

Pathfinder Table Rules

Mike Mearl's posting of his TOEE-inspired game's table rules has inspired me to post the table rules I plan to implement for my Pathfinder Age of Worms game. (Quick aside - still getting used to some of the features so I don't know how to link yet.) Table rules are simply rules for running the game outside the game.

The table rules are:
1) Alternating weeks comprised of 3 to 4 hours necessitate that the game start as soon as possible. If you're going to be late (in practice after 7pm), please inform me. By informing me, I don't mean telling me two weeks out. Please tell me either Monday or Tuesday.

2) As this is part of the massive open playtest, rules arguements will occur. Please keep it as non-confrontational as possible. I'd prefer it if we discuss the dispute in depth either after the session or before the next session starts.

3) Out-of-game chatter is normal and part of the fun of gaming. Please minimize it as much as possible. Along those lines, please save the discussion of polarizing topics until game ends or begins.

4) Please don't make snide references to the other players as in-character remarks no matter how well its fit in. Once was funny. Subsequent times less so.

More table rules may follow.

Tuesday Night Game Thoughts 6/10/08

Due to my work schedule, my gaming time is limited. Luckily, my schedule has Tuesday off regularly enough that I can reliably game on that day. My gaming group alternates between an AD&D first edition and a Pathfinder game every week. Our latest session was the first edition game where I am a player. Periodically, I'll post my thoughts on each game session along with the occasional session write up.



Overall, not much happened at the latest game session in the game itself due to a late start and discussion on 4E. In a nutshell, a couple of the players gathered information and then along with some extra muscle provided by the local lords we travelled until ambushed by bandits. Now, one of the purposes of the mission was to get evidence that there were indeed bandits. Due to the luck of dice and not bad tactics we succeeded without any casualties on our side. It helped that we weren't surprised. Unfortunately, we still haven't rescued one of our party members. The fight was to draining to continue on. We do have proof now so we have credibility with the local lords.



My thoughts:

I don't have too much to comment on. By the time we started I was in too much of a mood for action aka combat in order to role-play. From that perspective, I was fortunate as the ambush encounter provided all the action I needed as it took up the rest of the session. Ironically, I didn't directly contribute as one of my characters was too busy healing fellow party members while the other was stealthfully circling around one groups flank. By the time that character got there the combat only lasted another two rounds. All in all, I had fun.



Next week, I'll discuss my thoughts on that weeks Pathfinder game. I run that particular game where the players are exploring the Whispering Cairn as part of the Age of Worms.

Review: Rann-Thanagar Holy War #1

Picked up a copy last Tuesday. Yes, the day before new comics day as well as the day before issue two came out. I was planning to wait for the trade. Problem is that waiting for trade can extend past when the actual trade comes out! So I bought a copy of Rann-Thanagar Holy War #1 as an impulse to see whether or not I wanted to read the series.

Flip-Test:
A concept a learned when I was working at a comics shop was the flip-test. The flip-test is when a customer flips through a book to gauge whether or not that comic is good. Based on the flip test, I wasn't sure whether or not I would pick up issue two. The art didn't grab me.

The actual review:
In a nutshell, I liked it. The issue is paced in such a way that the flip test may not be the best gauge as one has to actually read it. Like most issues, Starlin introduces the reader to some of the concepts and characters involved.

Pros: The diversity in character types adds value to the book. A mixture of heroes, "working stiffs"/scoundrels, and "villains" abounds. Looking forward to reading about the exploits of Hawkman, the 52 trio (aka Adam Strange, Animal Man, and Starfire), and the Captain Comet. In one panel, Starlin points out that current social and environmental concerns would render an alien invasion unnecessary. Issue one contains a nice blend of humor and commentary along with a hint of action and intrigue to come. Another key feature is reader accessibility. I didn't feel as if I was missing anything crucial in order to enjoy this story.

Mix: The art. Its not bad its just that I didn't recognize it as Ron Lim. Lim's art style has changed since his stint on Silver Surfer and Captain America.

Con: As a space story, many characters will appear during the story to come. Some of the characters seem to have the same personality at times.

Overall, not a bad first issue. I give Rann-Thanagar Holy War #1 three out of five stars. A very solid first outing. I have since picked up issue two.

Normally I don't mind spoilers...

Last night after posting my very first post on my blog, I went to Newsarama. Spoilers don't normally bother me so the Final Crisis spoiler warning didn't deter me. Read the spoiler and a wave of regret washed over me. The character that dies in the first issue happens to be one of my favorites. After the shock wore off what really surprised me was how unfazed I was. Bart Allen's death upset me more and I wasn't reading his Flash title. Why? I think its because DC barely used the character in an overt manner during the last year. The character would appear a couple times in one title then disappear off the radar. I guess the character appeared elsewhere but I didn't know until after the fact. Now I'd comment more but I don't want to inadvertantly spoil whom the character that died is. At least not until I read and review Final Crisis #1, then I'll discuss my thoughts in greater length.

So it begins...

After reading others' gaming blogs, I decided to create my own. The general focus is as the title says comics and games although the games discussion will mostly be about role-playing games.

Now that I've started my blog. I'm currently speechless.

Figures.