Geek Comedy Friday: Always the First to Die!
October 30th, 2009 / 1 Comment » / by reveal
The song’s an oldie but a goody but this the first time I’ve seen someone make a video for it. 
Refreshed and Reenergized or “Why I don’t like Adventure Paths”
October 6th, 2009 / 4 Comments » / by reveal
Two weeks ago, we began a new Pathfinder campaign. Prior to that, we were playing the Rise of the Runelords adventure path. We were at the last end of the second module, out of six, and one of the PCs had just been killed and the rest of the PCs were running away, licking their wounds. It was at that point that I finally realized something important; we weren’t having fun. I stopped the proceedings and asked the other folks at the table if they were having fun. I got a very tepid response, so I knew it wasn’t just me. And that was the nail in the coffin. No more adventure paths.
Let me give you a little history about campaigns I have run. A few years back, I ran a 3.5 Eberron campaign that lasted 1.5 years and took the PCs from first to 21st level. That campaign consisted of me cobbling together separate adventures and tweaking them to fit the personalities of the PCs and the storylines that I had interwoven into the overall plot. I’m actually using the same adventures in the Eberron PbP I’m currently running, tweaking them as necessary and swapping complete adventures out as I see fit.
After that, a friend of mine ran a short campaign before having to turn over DMing duty to me since he was back in school. I decided to run the Savage Tide adventure path. The first session should have been a clue to me since it was a TPK. But, no, I just reset the campaign and went on from there. It was the deadliest campaign I have ever run with the PC death rate numbering in the twenties by the time we quit. We bounced around between other folks DMing until 4E came out. Once again, I decided to run an adventure path. This one was Scales of War. Unfortunately, it was miserable and, partially because of the AP and partially because we decided we didn’t like 4E, we stopped after the third adventure in the path.
Fast forward to a few months ago and I was DMing again. I decided to try out Pathfinder and run the Rise of the Runelords AP. We found that we really liked Pathfinder and even updated the PCs after the final rules came out. But, just as with previous AP’s, we ended up not liking it and stopped playing it.
To be fair, part of that is, of course, my fault as the DM. While AP’s are a good idea, there are problems inherent to them that I was unable to overcome.
1. It’s a huge railroad.
This actually became an issue in the very first session. With the way that one of the character’s background was written, it didn’t make sense for her to go along with the plot. It wasn’t that she was trying to be difficult, it was just that the AP clashed with her background. In the end, she changed her background to better fit but I hated the fact that she had to do that. In fact, during the second adventure, another player announced “But why would we do X? So far, we have no motive beyond find the macguffin.” That’s paraphrasing, of course, but he had a good point. There really was no reason for them to do it beyond “the town is in trouble and the sheriff is gone and we need you to do this.” But the problem was that if the PCs didn’t go from point A to point B to point C, it could throw off the rest of the Adventure Path.
2. It’s very hard to tailor the campaign to fit individual PCs.
This is especially true if you play the AP as it is published. So if you start with module one before module two is published, you may end up changing something in module one inadvertently that has an effect in module two or in a later module. And even if you wait until all modules have been published, it will take a lot of effort to change things because so may pieces rely upon one another.
3. If the adventure sucks, you’re stuck.
The first half of the second part of Rise of the Runelords, The Skinsaw Murders, was awesome. The scene with the cornfield and the farmhouse was intense. And the Manor itself was incredibly well written. I had a great time running it and my players had a great time playing it. Unfortunately, a half does not make a whole. The rest of the adventure was meh at best. But, in order to advance through the AP, we were stuck having to slog through it, hoping it would get better.
So, yeah, we trashed it. We decided to start over and I vowed, yes vowed!, to never run an AP again. I’m going back to my tried and true method of picking individual adventures, making the characters more a part of the world, and tailor the campaign to fit the PCs rather than having to tailor the PCs to fit the campaign.
So far, the PCs are about halfway through Crypt of the Everflame, the first Pathfinder module based upon the final rules. It’s a fun little module and really gives the PCs a chance to become part of the community, rather than just write it into their background that “so and so really get along.” By the time they finish, they’ll be third level (we use the “Fast” leveling chart) so I needed to come up with a third level adventure. I also knew that I wanted to introduce the Pathfinder Society into the campaign. So I checked my resources and, lo and behold, I have an adventure that is not only really cool but it also has the perfect tie-in to get the PCs into the Pathfinder Society.
I’m still looking at other, higher level, adventures for the rest of the campaign, but the PCs haven’t established themselves enough for me to tell which ones would fit. But that will come in time and I’ll have fun trying to find the next “perfect” adventure for the group. As it stands, I’m more jazzed about this campaign than I have been in a long time. 
Update on Burnt Offerings: “We be Goblins, ye be food!”
October 5th, 2009 / 1 Comment » / by reveal
Thought I’d give folks an update on this wonderful play that the da Vinci Arts Middle School is putting on. The teacher at the school who came up with the idea, worked with Paizo, and is directing the play has posted the following on the Paizo messageboard as “Fat Jozka”:
I am honored at the interest in the play.
We are in rehearsal with a cast of 24 humans, 8 goblins, 6 elves, a gnome, a halfling, a demon and a fire leopard.
Again, I wish to repeat the sentiment expressed here. Paizo is the most amazing community the gaming world has to offer. It makes me a little verklempt thinking about all the hard work they do for all of us, for love of the game.
Having gamed the Rise of the Runelords, Crimson throne and preparing for the Council of thieves, it is CRYSTAL clear that the writers at Paizo have a mastery of story-telling, a dedication to gaming and the true spirit of community. Community not just for the sake of making a few bucks (though isn’t that the dream of all of us) but because they recognize something important in this game.
My school is Portland’s Arts magnet school. We were started by a group of parents only 14 years ago. These were parents who wanted the artistically-oriented kids of Portland to have the option of expressing themselves in a focused, arts-disciplined environment. Frankly, we have had some great successes and a few frustrations, but we continue to grow and take leadership in the arts and in education.
For the last couple of years we have had a group of young boys and girls who have seemed to operate in isolation, not quite connecting. This is the same group of skaters/video-gamers/”ne’er do wells that I was a part of 30 years ago (Crap! 30 years????). So I decided to use my art form (I’ve been a theater artist for almost those same 30 years) to give them a taste of DnD, the game the made such a difference to me. I wish you all could see these these kids. Involved, swinging swords, trying to figure out how to pronounce Elven, Goblin and Danish (Gnomish). They are reading every bit of background I can give them, working on costume designs, fight and dance choreography, Ameiko is fervently practicing her guitar. And best of all, many of them are starting to pick up Pathfinder books and connect Paizo to the world of the game.
The main party is drawn from town:
Finn, A young errand boy for the Rusty Dragon
Ameiko Kaijitsu, Owner of the Rusty Dragon
Milosh Hemlock, Son of Sheriff Belor Hemlock
Shalelu Andosana, Elven bounty hunter.
Abstalar Zantus, Priest of Desna
Veznutt Parooh, Gnomish wizard, owner of the Way NorthMilosh and Finn are the only original additions. They are the focus of the Hero’s Journey arc of the play. Milosh to fighter, Finn to Wizard.
Come see us. Support us if you can. And please keep supporting the folks at Paizo.
If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area, or will be in the middle of November, I strongly encourage you to go to this play and support both future gamers and the school. And, if you do plan to go, let folks know on this EN World poll.
When RPGs meet theater, everybody wins!
October 1st, 2009 / 4 Comments » / by reveal
This is absolutely, 100% real. In fact, you can check out the schedule for the school here and look for yourself. The best part is that James Jacobs himself has stated that “[s]everal of us here at Paizo are trying to figure out if we can spare a day off work to head down to see the play…”
I love it when kids show so much enthusiasm for RPGs and that schools support them! If you’re in the Portland, OR, area, go and let me know how it went!
(I found this via a thread on EN World.)
A cool way to bribe my players
September 22nd, 2009 / 7 Comments » / by reveal
A few months ago, I was trying to figure out whether to use Action Points or Hero Points in my new Pathfinder campaign; I decided on Hero Points. My players really like Hero Points and they’ve become very useful in creating, and surviving, really dangerous and dramatic encounters.
In Pathfinder, there is a group known as the Pathfinder Society. In short, they are “a loose-knit group of explorers, archaeologists, and adventurers who span the globe in search of lost knowledge and ancient treasures.” Reading a little bit more on them, I found a passage in the Campaign Setting that stated:
Agents are expected to provide detailed written reports of their exploits to their venture-captains, who then forward the most compelling records to the Grand Lodge in Absalom for consideration by the Decemvirate.
And this got me thinking that I could use this to reward my players while, at the same time, encourage further development of their characters. I sent the following note to my players:
If you want, you can write up a recap of a session, a specific portion of an adventure (for example, a dungeon crawl that only takes place as the middle third of the adventure), or of an entire adventure and post it; pretend you’re writing it for an audience.
For every recap you write for a session, you earn 1 Hero Point. If you write about a specific portion of an adventure, i.e. the dungeon crawl example above, you will earn 3 Hero Points. If you recap an entire adventure, you earn 5 Hero Points.
Also, in game, you might end up seeing them published for folks to read.
Personally, and I’m probably a little bit biased here, I think it’s a great idea. It keeps the players engaged out of the game, rewards them for character development, and provides material for the in-game world.
