Classic Monsters Revisited – Pathfinder Chronicles Review

Pathfinder seems to have it’s own distinct style when it comes to monsters. The recent Pathfinder Battles miniature line recently brought these iconic creatures to the game mat, but Paizo has been writing about toothy watermelon-headed goblins for years. Classic Monsters Revisited in the Pathfinder Chronicles series came out in 2008, but is still an excellent resource for looking at very common foes in a whole new light.

Reading down the table of contents of this book is like a greatest hits album of monsters that, if you’ve ever spent any time playing DnD or Pathfinder, you’ve encountered these guys more times than you can remember: Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Gnolls, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, Ogres, Orcs, Trolls, and Minotaurs. Unlike a typical monster manual, that list is a complete list of all the monsters in this 63 page book. This book isn’t geared towards someone looking for a complete creature catalog, or a casual GM who just sketches out a map on some graph paper, fills it with some baddies, rolls on a random treasure table and calls it good. Not that there is anything wrong with that. This book is made for GMs who want to know how hobgoblins organize themselves in their society, or that a bugbear lives to cause terror, as the scent of fear has narcotic effects on them. This is for GMs who want to throw a twist or two at their players.

All the common creatures in this book have general background information, but it goes so much deeper than a blurb in a monster manual ever could. For each creature there are several paragraphs not only providing a physical description of the average specimen, but their habitat and societal structure, as well as their typical role in a campaign, what treasure they would likely have, dangerous variants, and where they would be found in Golarion. Of course, if you don’t play in Golarion it will still give you an idea of the climate and general environment in which you could place them in whatever world you adventure in.

This is a fantastic resource for low-level campaigns, especially for veteran GMs and players. The variants of common monsters can bring a certain amount of mystery to even the most grizzled, campaign-proven adventurers; and the section on campaign role and ecology of the monsters is a sure-fire cure for GM writer’s block. This is a great book, and the first of a series of “revisited” titles by Paizo. This one is a keeper.

Kickstarter – A Backer’s Report Card

Courtesy of Nevermet Press

I’ve been backing kickstarter projects since May of last year. In the interest of our RPG Blog Carnival topic, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing RPGs, I wanted to take an inventory of my experiences with donating to projects and share my view into the world of crowdfunding through the projects I’ve backed on kickstarter. Not all the projects I’ve backed have been RPGs, but the majority have been gaming related. There are usually some great projects in the games section, from board games, decks of cards, dice, gaming supplements, and even brand new RPG systems.

Let’s take a look at my kickstarter stats:

projects backed: 18
funded: 16
failed: 2
pending: 0
recieved: 7
waiting: 9

avg backing: $24.07

Overall, my experiences have been very positive. There are exceptions of course. I’ve seen manufacturing delays on some projects that made them take a lot longer than expected, and two others I don’t think I’ll ever even see the PDF of, let alone a physical book. Despite that, most experiences I’ve had are excellent. The project meets or exceeds the goals, the end product is usually pretty awesome, and delivered in a reasonable amount of time. The best part is a lot of the projects likely wouldn’t have had a chance through traditional channels, but because they found an audience and had a compelling pitch, cool stuff gets a chance to be made and enjoyed by people who believe in the idea.

I would recommend using kickstarter to find cool independent projects for a variety of interests, but most certainly games. It doesn’t require a huge investment, and you get to help some creative person’s dreams come true! Have you backed kickstarter games before? Have you pitched one? Let us know your experiences in the comments.

We’ve got a few more articles planned for this month, including an interview about kickstarter and Open Design with a certain Kobold-in-Chief!

When a Friendly Local Gaming Store… isn’t

A few months ago I lamented the closing of a well-liked game store in town. I thought maybe it represented a microcosm of a contracting gaming industry as a whole. It turns out the owner of that place just wanted out, and somebody else bought the stock and is trying to reopen a new place in a different location. Cool! Another great place for games in our town! Maybe this industry isn’t in trouble after all! Or maybe it’s cutting it’s own throat.

A common acronym in this hobby is FLGS or Friendly Local Gaming Store. This refers to the brick-and-mortar stores that cater to people who are fans of RPGs, CCGs, board games, and sometimes comics or collectables. Most of the  advocates of the gaming community champion these stores as they are vital to new people discovering the hobbies we all enjoy, they can be a great place to meet other players, and places to get together and play some games.

Hillside Games in Asheville, NC has been one of these stores for years in our community. Until recently. When the above mentioned entrepreneur bought up the stock of Blitzkrieg Games, he announced he would be opening a new store in west Asheville called The Wyvern’s Tale. Once the announcement was made on facebook, Hillside proceeded to purchase every possible domain name (.com, .net, .mobi, etc.) that contained thewyvernstale. The whois records for all of those sites are in Hillside’s name. The Wyvern’s Tale posted these public records on their facebook site to let people know what was happening. Once news got out, a lot of the gaming community in town got up in arms. Hillside has since locked down public comments and “recommendations” on their facebook page to silence critics. But here is the icing on the cake, Hillside is filing suit against the Wyvern’s Tale for libel. Unfortunately for Hillside, a charge of libel has to be substantiated by the one party telling a LIE about the other. The Wyvern’s Tale was just exposing the truth.

So who cares? Why not just change the name? The Wyvern’s Tale might, but it’s the principle of the thing. Many of our readers don’t live anywhere near Asheville, but those that do should know the type of people they do business with. But beyond that, it’s important for businesses to know there are repercussions for their actions in the court of public opinion. If competition moves to town, compete by having good prices, the best staff, the best selection and a welcoming environment for gamers both new and old. I hope Hillside serves as a cautionary tale of what not to do in business in general, but in the FLGS community in particular.

I’ve purchased several things from Hillside Games, and was planning on purchasing more. It’s closer to my house, and I’ve met some great people there. No longer. I’ll drive across town to the people that deal on the level, and compete honestly and openly for my business. I hope other FLGS owners read this and understand gamers are a pretty close-knit community, and they should foster a sense of community and honesty in how they do business that helps grow the hobbies they serve.

Alright. Soap box over. Tomorrow we will be the proud host of the RPG Blog carnival with the topic: Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing RPGs!

Rothfuss and Kovalic – Stellar Indeed!

StellarCon is coming up on March 2-4, in High Point, NC. It looks to be an awesome event with lots of great events, talks, gaming, and some very cool special guests: Patrick Rothfuss, and John Kovalic.

Author of The Kingkiller Chronicles, Patrick Rothfuss is one of my favorite authors of all time. If you need an awesome fantasy book to read, look no further then The Name of the Wind. I first heard about it when the Penny Arcade guys were gushing over it a few years ago. It is easily one of the best fantasy books in several years. I just got done with the sequel A Wise Man’s Fear, and it was equally awesome. The third and final book of the series is not slated until May of next year, but if the first two are any indication, it will be worth the wait.

The other special guest is John Kovalic of Dork Tower and Munchkin art fame. I’ve enjoyed Dork Tower for years, and Munchkin wouldn’t be Munchkin without his art. Interestingly, he had something to do with the development of Apples to Apples which I have played many hours of at parties and get-togethers. It’s a pretty fun party game that can be played with a ton of people without too much difficulty.

Other events include a short film festival, and SONAR – Symposium On Nerdy Academic Research. This is the first year SONAR will be held at StellarCon, and from the description, it looks to be inspired by TEDtalks. It will be interesting to see how that all works out. Between games of Pathfinder Society, of course.

If you’re anywhere near the NC/SC/VA check it out!

Inner Sea World Guide – Review

As someone who is fairly new to Pathfinder and the Pathfinder Society, I was eager to learn more about Golarion and the specifics of the world in which the society adventures are happening. There are very few details in the core rulebook or gamemaster guide about the different peoples and regions of the Pathfinder world. It could be argued that this is a good thing, in that you can use the Pathfinder system in a world of your own devising, or a popular fantasy setting from D&D or some other book.

The history and lore of Golarion has been published expanded upon in several books since 2007, but none are more complete than the Inner Sea World Guide. Weighing in at 320 pages, it details peoples, regions, factions, deities and geography like no other source book. One of the Skyland Games guys was lucky enough to win it in a random drawing at SCARAB, and it has been an awesome resource to all of us as we have gotten involved in the growing and thriving Asheville Pathfinder Lodge.

The majority of the book is dedicated to detailing the different regions around the inner sea, and the two main continents in which the society adventures have taken place thus far. The first section is dedicated to a dozen different human ethnicities, including their typical regions, religions, and examples of family names. Many of them are directly lifted from actual ethnicities in real life, but I feel it is refreshing to see all types of people represented in a fantasy role-playing game. So often, RPG settings are completely white unless it was a specialty setting meant to reflect a far or middle eastern culture such as TSR’s Al-Qadim or “Oriental Adventures.” It’s nice to have those backgrounds to choose from and makes the world of Golarion feel much more diverse and vibrant.

Especially helpful for society players, but also for general Pathfinder fans, are the sections on factions and religions. Many of the published adventures put the party up against such factions as the Aspis Consortium or the Red Mantis. PCs who choose religious classes like clerics and paladins will appreciate a little more background on their chosen deities and the church organizations around them.

Also included toward the back is a short section of prestige classes, feats, equipment, spells, magic items, and a few monsters. But this book is mostly an atlas, not an expansion.

I would strongly recommend this book for players who are getting involved in society play, or for those who are using Golarion in their home campaigns. It is also a pretty good source book for general ideas about world building and what to include to make your homebrew world feel rich and dynamic.

Pros: Lots of detail about the peoples and lands of Golarion

Cons: Not much else for $50. This is a book with a fairly narrow audience. If you aren’t interested in Golarion, you probably wouldn’t feel this is a good value.

SCARAB Review… Chaotic Good

Watch out for dragon attacks at the aptly named FLGS Heroes and Dragons

The Skyland Games crew made our way to Columbia, South Carolina for the 2nd Annual South Carolina Area Roleplayers and Boardgamers convention. The Con ran from Friday to Monday, but we elected to just go down for the day and play a little Pathfinder Society. Of course, by a little, I mean playing two scenarios which ran from approximately 1pm-1am.

Before we made it to the event, we wanted to stop and check out one of Columbia’s Friendly Local Gaming Stores, Heroes and Dragons. Some of the guys had met the owner at Fanaticon in May, and it sounded like a pretty cool store. We had a great time perusing aisle after aisle of awesome stuff: comics, toys both new and retro, gaming books, board games, used paperback books, a huge gaming space with lots of terrain, and of course, one massive dragon. It’s safe to say we were all really impressed with the store, not only for its size, but also its scope. If you are anywhere near Columbia, its worth a bit of a pilgrimage. Once we were done checking out the store, it was time to head to SCARAB.

I should note, that of the 4-man crew, I was the one with the least Con experience. I went to something in DC with my mom when I was about 13, but that hardly counts. As Cons go, the other guys assured me that this one was a bit on the small side. That being said, all the staff we interacted with during registration and between games were really helpful and welcoming, and it was easy to navigate and get to where you wanted to be. It was held at the Scottish Rite Convention Center, which sounds like it might be a huge venue, but turned out to be about the size of a large church.

Registration was in the center lobby, which included several computers so players could register digitally for games via warhorn. RPGs were in the auditorium at several round tables that were on “stage.” The stage wasn’t raised, and was actually rather roomy and accommodated about 18-20 tables, not all of which were occupied at any one time when we were there. The lighting was a bit distracting in that it was red, blue, and yellow stage lights which tended to cast some weird multicolored shadows, but all and all, not bad. The other half of the event was in the cantina, which was about the size of a large cafeteria. They had various gaming vendors around the outside edge, and another 20-25 round tables in the middle. There was a snack bar that sold drinks and pizza and cookies to hungry gamers, and a pretty large selection of board games that anyone could borrow for an impromptu game.

We were told that the Warhammer guys had moved to the hotel were the majority of the con-attendees were staying, so we missed a bit of the action, but I think its safe to say we saw the majority. I saw just about everybody I had played Pathfinder Society games with in Asheville in attendance. It made for a cool community vibe.

Our Pathfinder sessions were scheduled for 1pm-5pm, and 6pm-10pm. Here is were a bit of the Chaos began. The tables were kind of labelled with number tents, and some had signs on them of what game was going on there, and if they were looking for players. As near as I could tell, these signs were for decoration only. We couldn’t find our table, or even our GM despite showing up early and making an earnest attempt to do just that. At about two minutes to 1pm Scott just yelled out the GM’s name until he responded. The GM led us to a table, at which we learned our characters were not of the appropriate level for the module we signed up for. No level tier was mentioned in the module description on warhorn. While some mods included this very helpful bit of infomation, ours did not. To his credit, the GM rolled with the punches and produced a level appropriate mod from last season.

Our table consisted of six players. Four from Skyland Games, one from Asheville whom I had played with at a previous society event, and one walk-up new to Pathfinder, but not RPGs. The module had a bit of a detective motif, in which we had to gather enough evidence to prove that a public official was involved in the slave trade. It was clear this GM really enjoyed the investigation aspect, and let us wander around and try to discover things with little guidance or coaching. This led to splitting the party, which led to at one point, 3 separate scenes going on at the same time, which led to a lot of downtime for some of table, which led to the first combat not happening until about 4pm. This was a bit frustrating for me as a player. I’m all for roleplaying a scene or two, but once he realized how much time had gone by, he had 3 or 4 combats to do in an hour. This was of course, impossible, and led to a lot of truncating of the actual plot of the mod while we each fiddle-farted around in scenes that had little to no bearing on the story. I really admired the GMs skills of improvisation and letting us go do whatever. In a home game it would have been absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately at a Con, since we had a time constraint, we missed out on some serious plot points and he had to hand-wave some of the bigger scenes and encounters. Of course, we ran over 5pm and nearly went all the way to 6pm by the time chronicle sheets were filled out. I wish I could say I enjoyed it more, but I’ve now read the mod and realized what we missed out on, and am more upset than I was at the time.

The next session was the convention special Blood Under Absalom. This is a special event module that requires multiple tables run it at the same time, with one overseer GM to coordinate events happening at the same time for all tables. We had 3 tables of 6 and one table of 7 playing it simultaneously. This solved the pacing problem of the previous session by keeping all the GMs on task and moving through the different scenes. The difference was like night and day. The first scene was a bar brawl that was led at such a break-neck speed it was crazy. We talked about it on the ride home and agreed it was some of the fastest combat any of us had ever been a part of. Not only that, but you could hear the same frantic pace at the tables around you, making it feel like you were actually in a bustling tavern! WAY COOL! Despite our new GMs rapid fire pace, this mod had way too many scenes to be completed in a four hour time slot. The sad thing was, there were a few that seemed trivial or unnecessary to the flow of the story and took up precious minutes. The climax was pretty awesome, as it required all the PCs at the table to continuously roll until they got a natural twenty. This represented touching the hem of the robe of a master monk. Our table was the first to complete the task, and cheered out in victory! It was a really cool atmosphere and was something you couldn’t replicate in a basement with a few friends.

All and all it was good, but a little chaotic, and bound to grow. Maybe next year we’ll stay for a few days and play more games!

Pros: Good people, pretty good venue, big Asheville Pathfinder crew!

Cons: Organization and signage could be improved, including level tiers in the description of all mods on warhorn so players know what to sign up for.

Advanced Players Guide – Paizo provides the 5e roadmap #dndnext

A lot of the 5e #dndnext buzz centers around the community playtest and modular aspects of the next edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Paizo has provided a pretty clear roadmap for Wizards to follow on both counts. The Pathfinder Alpha and Beta tests provided invaluable guidance in creating a game a lot of people have enjoyed. Paizo has created a Core Rulebook which contains everything you need to play for 20 levels of several classes and races, including Spells, Combat, Gear, and GM sections among others. On top of that, they’ve expanded the game with optional books like the Gamemastery Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, and the Advanced Players Guide.

While adding optional books to augment the core game is hardly a new concept, Paizo has done well with their offerings; especially with the Advanced Players Guide. This book introduces six new 20-level classes, variations on bonuses and features of existing races and classes, and a host of new feats and equipment that provides a lot of value.

In our recent Beginner Box game, our Alchemist (a class presented in the Advanced Players Guide) decided since he was throwing bombs he would buy earplugs for 3 copper. This lead to a pretty funny moment in which the Paladin tried to tell him something in character. He said, “What?” and threw his bomb anyway, missed, and caught all his allies in the explosion. Worth every copper.

Also presented in this book are traits, which have sometimes been described as “half-feats.” They are very similar to “background benefits” in 4e. These are used in society play, and generally provide a minimal skill or stat bonus, but can add a little flavor to your character through basic, racial, campaign, regional, or religious traits.

If you’re new to Pathfinder, the Core Rules might be enough to chew on for awhile. When you’re ready to expand your game, the Advanced Players Guide is a solid choice.

Pros: New classes, New options for Core races and classes, lots of cool equipment

Cons: Not a lot of Golarion-specific information

GameMastery Guide – Review

The GameMastery Guide from Paizo is a surprisingly versatile book. At first, I had a bit of buyer’s remorse in that the massive Core Rulebook has a fairly extensive GM section in it. Not just the chapter labeled Gamemastering, but the subsequent chapters about environments, NPC creation, and some would argue magic items are mainly geared towards the GM. Those chapters alone would be about a 180 page book themselves. At first glance through the GM Guide, it looked like Paizo just expounded upon the chapters already in the Core Rules. So why create a separate book?

This book goes in-depth on all of the GM topics in the Core book, but it also has a lot of general RPG advice that could be applicable to pretty much any fantasy role-playing game. For GMs who love rolling percentile dice for random results, this book is perfect for you. For those GMs not looking for that degree of chance in their games, it provides a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration, as well as tips and advice to avoid common pitfalls and run a great game.

There is a surprising lack of Pathfinder-specific information in here. I would have thought Paizo would dedicate a few chapters to Golarion and the Pathfinder pantheon, but those topics are covered in other publications I have yet to pick up. This is somewhat of an advantage to this book in my opinion, as I run multiple systems, but can pour through the tables in here for inspiration for any of them. The chapters they could have dedicated to Golarion are instead about creating your own world, and building exciting encounters in locales as familiar as dungeons or taverns, and as far-reaching as the planes and space. The worksheets at the back are an excellent resource for campaign, setting, and NPC planning. Also included is a “Basic Rules Cheat Sheet” that is really valuable for new players. Frankly I’m a bit surprised it wasn’t included in the Beginner Box. These are available as a free download on the product page.

It has interesting appendices that expand on the classic AD&D appendix N, in that it provides suggested reading, but also suggested movies and music to get you in the gaming frame of mind. Also there is a page of “Words all GMs should know.”

Pros: Excellent resource for curing GM writer’s block, awesome table for random NPC, item, and setting generation, applicable to just about any fantasy RPG

Cons: Not a lot of system-specific details, price is a bit steep

Own it? Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments below!

Pathfinder Core Rulebook – Review

The great part about the Pathfinder Core Rulebook is that it is nearly comprehensive. Of course, the bad part about the Core Rulebook is that its nearly comprehensive.

I’ve got the 5th and as of this posting, the most recent printing of the Core Rules. It’s a massive book weighing in at 576 pages, and details almost everything you need for years of fun adventure in Paizo’s Pathfinder. I first took a look at Pathfinder a few years ago, but as someone who never played 3rd edition or 3.5, it was a lot of rules and mechanics to absorb. Recently, Paizo has remedied this situation with the Beginner Box, which will likely prove to be the introduction for a lot of folks who are new to the system.

The Core book works great as a reference book for the entire system and makes it fairly easy to find what you need, as you need it. The drawback of this comprehensive approach is that it makes it difficult to learn the system, due to the amount of information presented. It is in effect, a players handbook and a dungeon master’s guide combined in one mega-volume. I wonder if it isn’t more wise to separate the two. It would also likely reduce the price for players who just want to own their part of the rules. As it stands now the MSRP for the Core Rulebook is $49.99.

All and all it’s absolutely essential if you want to get in to the Pathfinder system. If you know and have experience with the 3.5 edition rules, maybe it won’t be as hard a transition. If you’re coming from 4e or are new to RPGs, I would recommend the Beginner Box to ease your way in to the mechanics.

Pros: Lots of info, plenty of options for both players and GMs

Cons: Huge, hard to digest at first

Reviews of the Advanced Players Guide and the Gamemastery Guide will be up next week!

Fourthcore Alphabet – Brutally Delicious

The Fourthcore Alphabet softcover from Save versus Death arrived at my door today. At first I was concerned because its been raining here in the mountains of North Carolina, and the packaging from Lulu did not look exactly water-tight. Much to my delight, the book was shrink-wrapped to another piece of cardboard inside the box (save vs. water damage… SAVED!).

This book is very similar to one of my favorites released by Goodman Games, The Dungeon Alphabet. Both are full of inspiring ideas for dungeon/encounter design, on handy tables that you can use to randomize the dungeon you’re creating or just read down them for the perfect idea. The Fourthcore Alphabet is decidedly darker and more deadly, which makes sense if you’re familiar with the aesthetics behind fourthcore. To put it succintly for the uninitiated, fourthcore challenges the assertion that 4e characters are nigh impossible to kill. While it generally follows 4e rules, you’ll find a fourthcore encounter or dungeon to be a lot more deadly and macabre.

I’ve been a big fan of the fourthcore genre since I first heard about it from Brian Patterson of D20Monkey, back in February of this year. His review of Revenge of the Iron Lich really made me think of 4e in a whole new light. Once I read RotIL, I was hungry for more. I don’t think its a coincidence that Brian was asked to do the art for the Fourthcore Alphabet.

Lets get to the good stuff. The book weighs in at 65 pages, 8.5″x11″, full-color cover and back, black and white inside, and it is full to the brim with deadly inspirations. Awesome titles like H is for Hellscapes and V is for Violence provide instant inspiration for Dungeon Master Writer’s Block. Several of the pages actually reference other pages in the book. For instance, on I is for Idols, if you roll a 6, “Piles of trapped (49) coins and magic items surround this idol.” This prompts the Dungeon Master to turn to page 49 and roll up whatever deadly traps await under the treasure around the idol. Awesome! Some of the tables have 20 entries so can be randomized on a 1d20, some have 39 entries and can be randomized by rolling 2d20 and adding the result! Sersa could have easily stopped at 20 for each, and I would have felt I got a good value, but with a lot of the tables being 2d20, or having multiple columns or variables to describe a single feature, the possibilities are nearly endless.

O is for Overlords! courtesy of SVD press

Now the not so great stuff. One of the big selling points for me on this book was that I knew Brian Patterson was working on the artwork. At first I thought it was just the cover, which is decidedly awesome. It turns out he did little sketches for each page. (Sorry for the crappy scan.) Which is cool, but not overly inspiring. I was looking for more sweeping art or at least a full page black and white or two. Maybe that was out of the budget for this project, and by supporting this one, future books may have expanded art budgets. One benefit of launching this project as kickstarter instead of a publish-on-demand service like lulu is that you can raise some money to pay for lots of awesome artwork. As I flip thru the pages of Goodman’s alphabet, I’m greeted by two page spreads of dungeoneers encountering the obstacles being described. In fourthcore, I get a sketch up in the corner. Cool, but not hugely inspiring.

O is for Oozes - courtesy of Goodman Games

Overall, its a solid buy. Especially if your 4e players have become a little to comfortable in their healing surges, and wimpy 5 ongoing damage. This book has it where it counts most, dark and deadly inspiration. I can’t wait to see what Sersa Victory comes up with next!