Tuesday, July 31, 2012

GenCon News to come

I may not be going to GenCon, but I will be Posting whatever Info I can about GenCon as soon as I hear it.

Last Year I posted everything in multiple posts, this year I might do that, plus I might have a tab for news as well.

Monday, July 30, 2012

RPG News You Can Peruse

Geek&Sundry to team up with Target!!!

This is pretty big news, and I'm quite glad it isn't WalMart, could it hurt the Gamer Industry, not likely, I think it could only help, I hope to one day see Pathfinder Beginner Boxes at my local Target soon. Gamers that are already gamers, probably won't be the target (no pun intended), audience, but exposure to tweens and early teens could get lots more people involved in gaming!

So look for the
  starting in August!!!!

RPG Blog Alliance

Woot,

Epic RPG Blog is now part of the RPG Blog Alliance!


Sunday, July 29, 2012

DCCRPG Play report

So last night and tonight we ran the 0-level starter adventure for DCC RPG.

We had a blast, Sarah, Ian & Sean each created a stable of 6 0-level characters. All-in-all 6 characters were lost. Sarah losing 3 characters, Ian losing 2 and Sean losing 1.

What I'm most impressed by, is the quality of the 0-level adventure. Joseph Goodman wrote the adventure and man it's probably one of the best intro adventures I've ever run. It was balanced with danger and reward, even for 0-level characters who die at 0 hp...and we had several characters with 1 or 2 hp.

The most important thing to remember when playing with 0-levels in DCCRPG, is DON'T get attached to any one character, most things do 1-6 HP and out of 18 characters they rolled up, ONE had 5 HP, a few had 4 and many had 1HP...

Now we get to convert 6 0-level characters to 1st level! Woohoo!

Looks like we have a Halfling, Wizard, Elf, Cleric, Warrior and Thief....nice mix...


Saturday, July 28, 2012

Kickstarter and the RPG world

So far, I've backed two Kickstarter projects. The first being Far West, the second last month, with Deadlands Noir. There was a kickstarter for the return of the original Traveller by Mark Miller which while I loved the concept, I didn't back because it was a $50 pledge just to get a CDRom of the product, now THAT is ridiculous. Traveller Kickstarter raised $294k... TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY FOUR THOUSAND, I guess a lot of people really want to be immortalized, as that was only for 2085 backers.

Far West included many stretch goals which were amazing...including an entire paper town.

Deadlands Noir included a PDF copy of the Deadlands Deluxe at the $20 level, this was added near the end. Pinnacle actually stated that that was a HUGE decision for them, as the PDFs are a large part of their sales these days.

I DID NOT want to back Paizo's bid for Pathfinder Online because I don't like the EVE style game they're talking about, I want PATHFINDER, not EVE Reskinned, and not DDO. So in 2 years I've backed 2 projects, I had to think hard about whether to back either project.

I personally think Kickstarter is amazing Engine which could really help get products out which never would have happened, now I wonder what kind of ramifications will happen when products fail to be produced as promised. 

Friday, July 27, 2012

Happy Birthday Gary Gygax

Happy Gary Gygax day!!! KEEP ON ROLL'N!

I've told the story on here before, I was twelve in 6th grade, GATE student, when I was first introduced to AD&D...the rest is history, now I've been gaming for 60% of my life. While I wasn't hard-core gaming during a few years of my teen life was when I started to get in trouble, sneaking around town as a skater, being a slacker, etc. I had tried to get my step-dad into playing with me, but he in his imminent bi-polar way, needed to prove he was better than me, so he read the book, then told me if I could answer his question, he'd play with me, he pulled an obscure rule from the DMG about wearing a helm, which at 12 or 13, we didn't' really bother with. So, I didn't answer his question correctly so he refused to play..That sucked a lot. So instead of gaming with family as I entered my teen years, I fell into the skater crowd of highy intelligent people who were pissed off at the world instead. Had my step-dad taken me to game cons, and done weekend games with me, I wouldn't have gone that way. Gaming keeps kids out of trouble in the years they need it most. Game with your kids, support their gaming habits.

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created a wonderful game that has spawned an entire industry. 

Thank you Gary...your legacy lives on, in the hundreds of RPGs inspired by your work. My kids know your name, and play RPGs, we play together, thanks to you.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

RPG News You Can Peruse


ENnies Voting


ENnie Awards voting is open until July 29.

Vote for your favorite gaming items before GenCon. I already voted, I'm not going to list all the nominees, publishers, categories, if you're familiar with the Ennies, you know what to do. If you've never voted, well go check out the site and vote for your favorites!

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

Changes at Evilhat.

If you know who Evil Hat Productions is, then you're most likely aware of how much Ryan Macklin has been involved in the Evolution of the FATE system. Ryan is moving on to other projects and is no longer a part of Evil Hat Productions.

However congratulations to Mike Olson for landing a writing position alongside Brian Engard of Wild Blue fame as they join the FATE Core team!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Gaming at San Diego Comic Con

   I remember the old days of Comic Con. Those were the halcyon days, gamers sitting in the aisles playing games, wait, no I don't actually remember those days too well strangely enough. I remember my first Comic Con was in the late 80s, I remember there were a LOT more game companies on the floor back then, but I don't really remember gaming, I think possibly because I didn't know where the game room was, and I was only at Comic Con for one day and I spent it mostly on the convention floor; looking for comics, talking to the artists and buying games with what little cash I had.

   Well Comic Con still has gaming, if you haven't gotten to the back of the program before you might not know this unless you're part of San Diego's Pathfinder Society, then you might have known to go to Marriott Marina Ballroom E. There were a full 11 Pathfinder society slots run at SDCC this year, I will confirm with Eric Brittain the total number of players who played in the PFS games this year at con, and if any special boons were granted like at KingdomCon earlier this year.

   Gaming at the Marriot also included the Wizards of the Coast area. There was plenty to play, from the DND Next playtest (under an NDA), the D&D Convention Delve (Lair of the Dread Witch), D&D Learn to play, D&D Rise of the Underdark, D&D Dungeon Command Tournament, and the new Euro style Lords of Waterdeep. So if you were a 4th edition fan, and you missed SDCC, you missed quite a lot of gaming. I'm sure Wizards of the Coast will be back again next year, and with a probable release of D&D Next coming at  GenCon, there's a good chance that will be featured again at SDCC 2013.

   If CCGs (Collectible Card Games) are your thing, then you would have wanted to check out the Marriot Hall F for Magic or Mezzanine Room 14AB for Pokemon, perfect place to bring the younger kids if you're looking for a respite from the Con floor.

   But if you really wanted to get away from the Con floor sit down, maybe even eat your lunch, there was really no better place than Mezzanine Room 15AB. This was the Steve Jackson Games MIB game room, featuring many of your favorite SJG Games like Munchkin, Zombie Dice, Frag, even out of print stuff like Knightmare Chess was present (This is one of my all-time favorite SJG Games, and I still have both of my copies excellent condition.) In the SJG Room was also SoCal Malifaux, running demos and tournaments all con. Tanto Couro the Dominion 'style' anime fan service game was being demoed as well as many other smaller games.
Robert and some volunteers getting down with some ZOMBIE DICE!

Table 1 of Munchkin

Table 2 of Munchkin at the same time!

Tanto Coure demo...1 love, 2 love, 3 love...
SoCal Malifaux doing demos for newbies

Octave getting annihilated in the second turn of the demo. 

SoCal Malifaux has some nice demo boards

Tanks for a great con San Diego!!! err what??

Malifaux Lightning tournament which went from 7-11pm

Second table at the lightning tournament

   On the floor, there are way less RPG Booths now than in past years, Privateer Press was there again with "Big Blue" so it was hard to miss. Of course the best place to buy games at Con is Adventure Retail!  One of the really cool things I found out was that the, Colt the Outlander of Heavy Metal fame, is going to be having a RIFTS RPG sourcebook according to RC Aradio. I picked up the limited edition reprint from Heavy Metal, featuring a crossover story from Rifts. As you all know, I love the Rifts fluff, not a huge fan of the MDC system.
Colt the Outlander

   I talked with Simon of Privateer Press' booth as well as getting a demo of their new Card game, it was pretty fun. We also discussed the upcoming Iron Kingdoms RPG, which they will have preview copies of at GenCon, man wish I was gonna be there!!
Simon of Privateer Press teaching a Con goer how to play Heap!
All in all, I wish I'd had more time to spend at Comic Con, 1 1/2 days wasn't enough to do everything I wanted to do. So if you're going next year, don't forget to check out all the game areas, they're all listed in the Events Guide, and make a great place to relax when you're not busy doing everything else.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Cassidy's Books - Appendix N Baby

So went to a new to me used book store in San Marcos, picked up a couple choice novels,

Deathstalker Legacy - Simon R. Green
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Anubis Murders - Gary Gygax
Knight and Knave of Swords - Fritz Lieber





Sunday, July 22, 2012

RPG News you can Peruse...

"RPG News you can Peruse!" (new tagline...heh)

So just thought I'd update the blog with a couple of online Game Cons that are approaching.

First up is InfrnoCon7. I've mentioned INFRNO before, the free gamer's social network. Pretty cool facebook style social network with plenty of gamers hanging around. Check it out...

Infrnocon_07_290x320

InfrnoCon 7 is our 10th virtual RPG convention, held online in the vast void of cyberspace. Grab your headset, your webcam, and come play with us! InfrnoCon 7 will be on Saturday, July 28th, and is currently open for player registration. Grab a seat!

So if you can't make GenCon like the rest of us, but you want to hit a con...this could be it.

The other upcoming Online Convention for Gamers is AetherCon, which is powered by the Rolld20 vitual tabletop.



I've been looking at the stuff for Rolld20, looks pretty interesting, going to sign up and check it out. A Supposedly free browser based virtual tabletop...I'll report more when I know more!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Attention! Huge 40K Tourney...At Ease!

There's a Huge Warhammer 40K tournament @ At Ease Games in Poway!

16 people are already pre-registered, 4 spots remain, at least $200 in Store Credit is up for grabs!!

So if you want to join in Call At Ease Games
1-858-679-3273

facebook/AT-EASE-Games


Thursday, July 19, 2012

Reviews - Enemies of NeoExodus - First Ones (LPJr) [PFRPG]



Enemies of NeoExodus: The First Ones

Description: 



Everything Here Is a Lie. Only fools trust anything the First Ones say, do or think. You have been warned. The First Ones - the name strikes terror into the heart of the people of Exodus. They are the bogeymen, formed of living shadow, that stalk the people. They control monsters and abominations that are loose upon the world. They snatch children and lone travelers. They torture men for their own pleasure and cavort with fiends to do their dark bidding. Those are but myths. The truth is far worse. “The First Ones” is the name given to a group of humanoid creatures who ruled Exodus before the Age of Man. Today, the First Ones include five races: the Aneishi, the Exodites, the Khaynites, the Kroca and the Kobura. In days past, each race served a specific purpose, but with the rise of the Kaga and the destruction of their empire, the First Ones remain roughly united by their desire to return to power and to once again relish in luxury while others toil for their pleasure and their comfort. This supplement includes:
  • History of the First Ones
  • Using the First Ones and First One Enclaves
  • History and Races of the First Ones: Aneishi (CR 7), Exodite (CR 7), Khaynite (CR 8), Kobura Sobeka (CR 5) and Kroca Sobeka (CR 8)
  • 25 All New Feats including Arachnid Legs, Blood Drinker, Grotesque Spell, Magic Body, Masochistic Ecstasy and Touched by Evil.
  • Two New Spells: Dispel Minions and Minion Mark
  • Relations with the other Empires and Secret Organizations and Famous First Ones
  • New Weapons, New Items, New Poisons and New Magic Items
  • Eight All New Monster including the highly dangerous Scythians and the living killing machines, the Locari.
  • Two New Creature Types: First Ones and Locari subtypes
  • Initiative and Monster Cards
  • NeoExodus: A House Divided Character Sheet
  • Combat & Initiative Tracker

OK Let's begin the second review of a Louis Porter Jr. product: As supplied to me by Louis Porter Jr.

This is part of the Enemies series for LPJ's Pathfinder Compatible NeoExodus Campaign setting. This is a pdf 49 pages in length. 40 1/2 pages of actual supplement, as the final pages are taken up by LPJ advertisments, the OGL, character sheet, combat and initiative trackers (which are good, but if you've already gotten a supplement, I suspect you already have them as the other enemies I reviewed had it also.)

Half fluff with a bent on misdirection, as to trust the First Ones is folly..The other half lots of crunch. Again, the writing is actually very decent, and makes me WANT to continue reading it, making it more difficult to breeze over it for a review, and instead do a more complete review on it.

The fluff starts immediately, diving into the origins and then into strongholds of the First Ones. I particularly like Kayen'te, with its map that includes the roper forest...nice. The enclaves are all suitable for the First Ones, with them being endgame opponents. When you get to the races considered "First Ones" you find out they all disagree on the history and myths, which makes the mystery deepen.

 Within a couple pages you're getting a little crunchy morsel with the Aneishi, a massive humanoid arachnid type beast, clocking in at CR7. They are vicious and very inhuman as an arachnid race should be. Fun for any campaign to throw the players off, and a nasty shock troop for the First Ones. Next up is the Exodite, you can see one of these creatures gracing the cover of the book (Nope, not a dark elf). The race is the epitome of Lawful Evil, and I love them for that. (Though those that stray from the discipline can be the epitome of chaos allowing their inner rage to seethe.) Crunchwise, the Exodites are presented like a player race, with their built-in shadow jump racial ability. One of the pre-gens in the FreeRPGDay adventure was an exodie. Next up, Khaynites...these guys are CREEPY

Check back over the week as I expand the review.

Also note that LPJ now has the NeoExodus Starter Bundle on sale currently for $10.99



Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Day of Rest

With 30 hours at work already this week and at least 18 more to go.., I'm taking the day off from blogging, good day sir...I said GOOD DAY!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Abandoned Arts - Class Acts (PFRPG) Reviews

The guys over at Abandoned Arts have asked me to review their new Class Acts supplements for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

I will be reviewing the following Class Acts PDFs over the next week or so (I do have to get to another NeoExodus review as well, so that will be coming also.): Barbarians, Clerics, Fighters, Rogues, Witches & Wizards. 

So far I've been perusing them in a casual manner getting a feel for what's in them. At first glance they're small supplements, only costing $.99 each. 4-5 pages, though the first page is a Title Page, the last is the OGL, so you're getting 2-3 pages of CRUNCH for a buck. Nice and affordable, but are they just more glut, or are they worth the buck? I've noticed a huge amount of supplements for Pathfinder in the last year or so, as the torch passes to Paizo, the sheer number of supplements entering the scene reminds me of the 3.0 flood. So will these pass the test?? Let's find out. (Remember, all third party supplements require a bit of an evaluating eye, as playtesting is often on the spartan side, if not non-existent. There are sometimes incredible ideas, but balance will always be an issue and must be scrutinized by the GM. You've been warned, if you allow your characters to select third party supplements with fully reviewing them your self, expect to be surprised.)




of 20.


     Two pages of bone jarring crunch! No, that's not the barbarian crushing your head between two books, that's what you get. 32 rage powers are found within the bounds of these pages. Barbarians are one of my weakest known classes, I haven't had many in the games I run (thankfully), and I haven't played one since they came out, I do know most of what they encompass and I know that as a GM a couple of these rage powers I would have to allow with the caveat that if they end up broken they get replaced. I do love "Is that all you've Got?" though it does have limited use as it requires taking a critical hit. Some of the wording of powers doesn't match Paizo standards, but it is understandable, I'm not going to ding this, because it take a nation of millions to edit...no wait...it takes a few people to make sure the Pathfinder books are written up to that standard, and they still make errors. Bloodbath is an interesting use of a rage power, granting cleave or great cleave, pretty cool.

Class Acts: Clerics


Class Acts: Druids


Class Acts: Fighters


Class Acts: Rangers



of 20! That's Epic!




This is another Class act I would allow most of in my games. 3 solid pages. It starts with 3 new combat styles: Beast Tamer, Firearms and Guerrilla warfare ( I might have named it something else Guerrilla Fighter, freedom fighter, ambush, I dunno...but I quite like the flavor of it, since it includes dirty tricks in the bonus feats.) Firearms is something which was definitely skipped in a couple classes while included in others. The rest of the class act is 15 Ranger Feats as follows: Aberrant Quarry, Crack Construct, Dragonslayer, Fiend Warden, Game Hunter, Knowledgeable Tracker, Monster Hunter, Singnature Ranger Trap, Satuach Enemy, Strider, Terrorize Prey, Topple Giants, Vile Stalker, Warren Lurker, and Woodwoe. Many of these work off of favored enemy or quarry bonuses, and while I was leery of the Dragonslayer feat, after reading it, I love it and would definitely allow it. The one I'm not really sure about is Staunch Enemy, it had a huge write-up but a short-lived benefit and use, it might be useful if you're good drow killing other drow, or in urban campaigns. Signature Ranger trap is really cool, letting a ranger modify one of his Ranger traps (APG) with a while slew of extra effects (though there seems to be a typo, sleep trap says sleet storm lasts longer...uh, what?). Terrorize Prey is awesome , I love intimidate feats. All in all it's a very useful bag of tricks presented in very few pages.


Class Acts: Rogues


Class Acts: Witches


Class Acts: Wizards



of 20! That's Epic!



     OK I'm jumping to this one because so far, this is the Class Act that completely catches my eye. It's not just wizard feats, it's 2 solid pages of arcane discoveries which aren't as can be taken in place of feats, and from a quick glance, there are some really cool ideas in this one. Animator, love this one, as it gives animate object to the wizard's spell list, and grants a bonus animate construction point. Arcane Signet is pretty sweet, but I would lower the required level, it's a weak ability for a level 20, level 11 I think would be better. I love Ioun Bond as well, the ability to add Ioun Stones to your bonded object, best idea in here. None Dare Speak His Name,  another great ability with a level 20 requirement, awesome idea, but doubtful it would ever be taken, except for NPCs, which IS a nice plot device. the last of my favorites is Living Spellbook, yes, give up a feat to turn your spellbook into a sentient item. 32 arcane discoveries, I would allow almost all of them in my game, perhaps with a little tweaking in some cases. I would be wary of Illimitable Power and Dedicated Familiar, as those two discoveries could be abused horribly. I would not allow Permanent Magic. This is an excellent and creative supplement, it's well worth the $.99 in my opinion.

Two additional Class acts are being added. Ranger and Druid. Look for these coming up.

I really hope the Alchemist, Monk, and Inquisitor supplements add some amazing abilities





Sunday, July 15, 2012

SDGC Saturday

Saturday
San Diego Gam3rCon 2012
Saturday was pretty good, Got the Traveller game run, unfortunately, it was just one player, so I had the boys jump in again to fill the gap. I think for my next events, I'll just run a prepared Mongoose Game from what I have ready, whatever people want to play, sweet lets do it. My Traveller player also showed for the Paranoia game, but...You just CAN NOT run Paranoia with 1 player, even if the boys jumped in 3 players isn't quite enough to have it be the level of Mandatory Fun required by the Computer! So the boys went down to the Video Game Lounge, and I talked to the USAopoly people about the risk games they've been releasing. I hadn't really looked into them too much, just kind of glanced at them, but once I had the Solid Snake version and the new Halo Legendary Risk explained, I must say, there are some pretty slick mods in there to speed up play, and make each game different, because let's face it, normal Risk is normal Risk, once you past the first few turns, your single preferred strategy usually takes over, and the rest is up to luck.    

     I wasn't able to get Luke to spill the beans on what the new edition is coming out, but he did say there's going to be a big announcement soon. This is pure hopeful speculation, what if there was a Game of Thrones Risk...now that would be sweet. I thought that after I saw a map of Westeros at SDCC....


The new USAopoly Halo Legendary, with Achievement victory conditions, and a ship that moves from port to  port making things really interesting.

New Starcraft Risk map for the soon to be released StarCraft Risk



   After talking Risk for awhile, I decided my Paranoia game wasn't going to happen so I decided to look for something to play, well at the Game Day in January, I played DCC RPG, and it was a blast, this time, I was given a pre-gen, and Steven told me NO CHAOTIC Character (due to the near TPK that my chaotic character created in January.) ...This was a play-test for a module that's in development currently. One of the actresses and the guitar player from Spider Baby the Musical were in the game as well (and another of the actors joined us later.). The module was fun, I had a blast with Smalls the halfling, a haberdasher by trade, who did carry his shears, and actually killed one of the goblinoid creatures with them. Steven Thivierge ran the game, and ran it well. Well enough that I'm pretty convinced I do need to pick up DCCRPG.
Thanks to everyone who played, I had a blast! And thanks to Steven for running such a fun game.


You can even see "Small's" prop scissors where I was sitting!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Moderne Worlds of 2039 system update

Moderne World of 2039 Update

I have decided to use the Legend system as the core of MW2039 for now. I plan on doing an Attribute Based FATE system later also, which will tie into MW2039, or any FATE game for that matter. However for now I'll use Legend. I like the professions in Legend and I think it will work well. I also want to wait til FATE core is released to start doing work on the FATE conversion.

Friday, July 13, 2012

SDCC Extravaganza!

Friday Comic Con, though relatively short was a blast. I'll have a full Con Coverage Report this coming week. Game room was pretty kick'n with SoCal Malifaux there, plus a Huge Tanto Cuore (sp?) table, and of Course Steve Jackson Games. When I first got there, there were two full Munchkin Games running, pretty sweet.

SoCal Malifaux also ran the Lightning Campaign tournament from 7pm-11pm., Would have stayed to play, but responsibilities prevailed, so here I am, prepping for running games tomorrow and of course, writing this!

Stay tuned for pix.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Upcoming reviews

First up will be the LPJ NeoExodus - First Ones PDF I have in the review Queue.

Second will be the re-review of the updated Pathfinder Earthdawn rules, I meant to get to it earlier, but things being what they are, I haven't been able to. From glancing at it, it seems they made a lot of the changes as fans said. Course Trolls reduced to +2STR is a bit too much in my opinion, coupled with the loss of
But hey, it's a hard to balance system...to d20.I definitely give props to Hank Woon for his attempt, even if it's not what I would have done, course I'm not a professional.

I picked up Hell on Earth - Reloaded and I'm loving it, so that's on the list.

Blood of Angels Pathfinder supplement is on the way as well.

Then I'm going to start rating every product I own in hard product. Maybe with a brief description..soem will just have a rating.

SDCC&SDGC

Obviously with this being Comic Con week, things are a bit different on the blog. I'm rushing to finalize preparations for the games I'm running,

I'm also going to be helping out the Steve Jackson Games MIBs in the Comic Con game room after I get off work on Friday. So I'll be writing an article on the Game Room at Comic Con, I had thought the games had all been moved out of the Convention center, but Robert told me they're still there.

I know there are PFS events at Comic Con, however with PFS events available every week at normal stores, it would take some special boons to entice me into a PFS game at ComicCon. (Though who knows, maybe there are some special race boons you can get at SDCC, I know Kingdom Con had a special boon you could earn...)

After Con I will be getting back to reviews, I will also post both of my scenarios that I'm running, including pics of my special hand-outs for the Insane 'IA, IA, Paranoia' event. It should be an event to remember...

Check out the line-up of events at the Gam3rCon, USAopoly Table-top Lounge.
My games are:


Saturday: 1:00pm            "Lockdown on Lazarus V"  TRAVELLER (MGP)

You've been released from service, you have arrived at the Space Station Lazarus V with some cash in your pocket and the clothes on your back. Now to relax...or so you thought...


Saturday: 6:00pm            "Ia, Ia, Paranoia!"     PARANOIA-Troubleshooters (MGP)

Troubleshooters report to sector HPL for an important assignment for the computer. Seems some tentacles have made it into the vats and are killing citizens...it's up to you to save Alpha Complex.


Actual gameplay may vary from initial taglines.

Gam3rCon is growing, jump in early!
Tickets available here!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Charity DRIVETHRURPG Bundle!

Received this thru Nferno  in my email. This is a good cause so I will be picking up this bundle, there's quite a few awesome items in it both for Pathfinder and for Savage Worlds.

PDF Charity Bundle at DTRPG for the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund 

Fabled Environments is proud to announce a PDF Charity Bundle to benefit the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund. 100% of the net proceeds from this bundle will go to The Michael Rohan Memorial Fund. The bundle will be available from now until August 1st.

Click here to learn more about The Michael Rohan Memorial Fund

On June 10th of this year, the Creative Director of Silver Gryphon Games, Kevin Rohan, lost his 6-year-old son in the aftermath of a tragic accident while swimming at a local water park. This loss has deeply affected the Rohan family as well as the friends of the Rohans and hundreds of families that they are close to and through out the community.

Seeking to turn this tragedy into community outreach, the Rohan family has decided to start the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund which will be used to help pay for swimming lessons for local families, assistance for CPR and lifeguard training, as well as help with grief counseling in the wake of a tragic loss.

There are plans for more and bigger things as well, and with the appropriate funding we will be able to achieve some great things and extend our assistance beyond just our local communities.

100% of the money raised through this bundle will go to the fund and will allow us to begin helping other families almost immediately.

Here are some of the items in the Bundle:

Savage Worlds:
Daring Tales of Adventure #1
Savage Tales # 10
Savage Insider Premium #1
Savage Suzerain Player's Guide

Pathfinder Compatible:
CLASSified: Pyromancer, Wolfsworn & Striker
Racial Ecologies: Minotaur, Catfolk & Ratfolk

3 Modern Floor plans:
Hotel, Passenger J, and Summer Camp

Equipment Cards and Modern Equipment Cards

Check it out, it's for charity!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

1 Week countdown

Wow, time is flying up on me, working on both scenarios, when I ran "Lockdown on Lazarus V" it was in a brand new rough format. Ia, Ia, Paranoia is being rewritten as pure insanity, which is what good Paranoia adventures are about.

Copied Character sheets, and got more business cards printed, super busy day printing....

Hope it's all worth it, volunteer meeting for Gam3rCon tomorrow...whew...

PF Earthdawn Advanced Race Guide costing

Well I'm starting to "cost" the Earthdawn Races using the Advanced Race Guide for Pathfinder

So far I've done Dwarf and Obsidimen.
T'skrang, Humans, Elves, Trolls, and Orcs, Windlings remain.


The hardest part of some of the point costing was definitely trying to find an equivalent point cost for certain abilities. Another was that the PFEarthdawn rules use +/- odds as well. So trying to figure out the value of a +1 Dex is harder than a +2 Dex. If the totals added up to an even it was easier to cost out.

Here's what I came up with so far.


Obsidiman
+6 Str, +4 Con, -2 Dex, -1 Int, -1 Cha 5RP (1Specialilized, 4 adv.)
      (Large grants +2 Str/+2Con/-2Dex. So Specialized Physical to give +2 Str, +2 Con, -1 Int/Cha, leaving advanced Str for 4RP)
Large Humanoid 7RP
Slow & Steady -1RP
Riderless -2RP
        can't ride animals with less than 26 str.
Sink Like a Stone -2RP
       (-20 swim)
Stability 2RP
      Increased to 2RP as it's a +6 to CMD instead of +4 CMD in addition to being Large.
Weapon Familiarity 2RP
      Battleaxe
Languages 1RP
Karma d4 1RP
Total: 13 RP

Throalic Dwarf
+2Str, +2Con, -2Cha 1RP (Specialized)
Slow & Steady -1RP
Heat Sight 2RP (dark vision)
Poor Rider -1RP (should be like a 1/2RP)
    -2 to ride skills
Scholarly 2RP (1/2 skilled)
    4 skill points at level 1 in knowledge skills....that's a lot...not as much as skilled (4RP), but it front loads the class when those skill points are most useful.
Hardy 3RP
Stability 1RP
Stonecunning 1RP
Weapon Familiarity 1RP
Language 0RP (Throalic only)
Karma d6 2RP
Total 12RP
So for Karma instead of using humans as a baseline at d8, I decided to go d4 at 1RP, and 1RP per die beyond that, since it's not something that normal Pathfinder characters have.



Thursday, July 5, 2012

'Lockdown on Lazarus V" spoiler

If you're planning on playing in my game next Saturday, don't read the comments for this thread, because there's a spoiler...

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Gam3rCon - Traveller & Paranoia

I will be running Character creation for the  Traveller  event, so everyone who wants to play will have the opportunity to roll up a character, even establishing connections to the other characters. I will also have some pre-gens, but its more fun to run with a custom made character with your own name and vision, besides I'd rather have an ABB58B character than a 787986 character any day...

I will be rolling with pre-genned characters for Paranoia however. HPL sector requires sacrifices!


State of Epic!

Well we're over 12300 hits now, but it's slowing down the last month, I know I haven't been able to post as much, but, I'm working on it, I'm working on it...Full time job plus occasional Over-time...

Comic-Con/Gam3r Con are coming up, so I'll be busy finalizing everything for those, running Paranoia and Traveller at Gam3rCon on Saturday.

I'm trying to get a hold of the Denizens guides for Earthdawn PF/SW editions, but I've got plenty to review still. Got my Judge Dredd Traveller edition, so that will be coming, I got the Monsters of Legend guide as well. I was also able to pick up the Pocket edition of the Traveller guide!!! For $19.99 it's the full rulebook in micro size. I think the micro editions are definitely picking up in popularity, I know I'll be getting more Traveller books in pocket edition.

I plan on doing some Advanced Race Guide conversions for the Earthdawn Races as well, I did the Windling yesterday and with a bit of jiggery-pokery it appears to be about RP8. But it's a weak 8. With the troll's large size, I'm guessing that's going to be a much higher RP.

I will be having coverage of ComicCon's game room and running around the floor talking to the RPG vendors as well on Friday, Sunday is relaxation day for us to hang out and also go to the Dr Who Panel Sunday morning!!! NICE!!! How cool is that? A major panel on SUNDAY!!! craziness!

In August I'll be doing news events about what's happening at GenCon again, hopefully next year we can actually go.


Monday, July 2, 2012

Review: Enemies of NeoExodus: Folding Circle


 

So the first of the two products Louis Porter Jr sent for me to review, both are Enemies of NeoExodus products. So far, I've only encountered these two products and the FreeRPGDay adventure. Now during FreeRPGDay I ran into a few issues with one of the characters for the adventure, I ended up having to download the Karissa character on my phone to be able to play her, which was not a good situation for the first encounter with one of Louis Porter's products. The Karissa character sheet in the adventure has another character's skills and equipment, which completely doesn't match what she is. Folding Circle counters that initial reaction, and actually makes me want to find out more about NeoExodus.

SPOILER ALERT!!! I WILL BE DISCUSSING THIS IN ENOUGH DETAIL TO SPOIL THIS FOR YOU IF YOU'RE A PLAYER IN A NEOEXODUS GAME. IF YOU'RE A SNEAKY GIT WHO IT LOOKING FOR SAID INFORMATION, ROLL A KNOWLEDGE (LOCAL) CHECK DC 46 PLZ.

In the world of Exodus, there are none that are more dangerous than the five person lead terrorist and criminal organization known as the Folding Circle. The Folding Circle rarely concerns itself with large-scale military style movements – The Folding Circle prefers to work with pinpoint strikes, sending a small group of powerful individuals to achieve some aim or another. Usually, one of the leaders will travel out to wherever a problem or opportunity has arisen and deal with it accordingly. The Folding circle doesn’t control territory in the sense that a nation does. The members of this organization are highly mobile and powerful, capable of traveling to an area spied through the Star Fountain, dealing with the “problem”, and returning. This travel capability means that a member of the Folding Circle can appear anywhere, at any time, with basically no warning. This supplement includes:

History of the Folding Circle
The Folding Circle – Goals and Agenda
The History of the Leader of the Folding Circle: Makesh the Undying (CR 4, 10, 14, 20 & 24), Nysska (CR 3, 7, 11, 15 & 19), The Destoyer (CR 5, 9, 13, 17 & 21), Emok Zenyaka (CR 2, 6, 10, 14 & 19), and Haru Anon (CR 5, 10, 15, 20 & 25)
Relations with the World of Exodus
Four all new Protégé Feats
Allies of the Folding Circle: Seeker-in-Flame (CR 10), Axo the Wildstorm (CR 14) and The eight members of the Brotherhood (CR 10 – 15)
Initiative and Monster Cards
NeoExodus: A House Divided Character Sheet
Combat & Initiative Tracker


This 80 page PDF is just the sort of thing needed for DMs to get started playing in the fantasy world of NeoExodus. 



What you get: I'm reviewing the PDF version of the Pathfinder compatible NeoExodus Campaign setting supplement Enemies of NeoExodus: Folding Circle. 80 pages, including cover, the OGL License and the final 5 pages are fillable initiative cards, 2 page character sheet, and a combat tracker. Full color artwork graces the pages. The layout is 2 column and easy on the printers. You effectively get 73 pages of game supplement.

Main Review: This book's main focus is to present an adversarial group, and boy does it. The first pages of fluff are an interesting story of Makesh. The history of how he came to lead the Folding Circle is presented in the first 7 pages, the writing was excellent, and compelling to read. It tells how each of 5 leaders came to power. The group is presented as a hit and run organization that uses its power to punish those it disagrees with.

The main 5 of the group are presented with multiple Stat blocks providing challenges for all levels, Makesh himself ends up as a 22nd level cleric, I wonder if he's just using the Epic Rules for 3.5 for that.
Here's the header for the stat blocks:
"The Leaders
The five leaders of the Folding Circle are more or less equivalent to supervillains – they can really put the hurt on a party. They are built using core (partially), but are intended to challenge slightly munchkiny parties with access to a variety of books. Their CRs are technically
linked to their class level, however each also has unique powers that almost certainly put them over the top – CRs may be adjusted from +0 (for the lowest level versions) up to +4 (for the highest level versions), depending on GM judgment and the party they’re up against. Note
that all leaders are given full character wealth, and maximum hit points – although hit points can be normalized if you wish. Keep in mind that without some degree of party planning and research, these NPCs can quite easily pull a complete party killing."

  This is really apparent with the "CR4" Makesh, who can hit for a whopping 3d8+8 dmg with his maul, which criticals for x3. This is 33-96 dmg on a crit, he's also large so that 10ft reach is going to play a major role in combat.   He only becomes more insane as the CR increases, he gains the Necroregeneration power which grants him equal regeneration to damage inflicted. Destruction, disintegration as spells can easily tip an already painful battle toward a TPK of irrecoverable magnitude, as they can't even be resurrected, as the souls become part of Makesh's retinue. This entire enemy unit conjures the image of Epic play, ultra powerful bad guys, on par with Rune Lords, Melnibonean Lords and Sauron himself. I doubt I would ever use the lower CR incarnations, this would be end game material for me. Let them encounter the peons of the folding circle, let them find the smoking ruins of entire cities, marked for death by the symbol of Makesh. Nysska is the Exodite (looks like a dark elf, but they're more shade-like, having the ability to Shadow Jump as a racial ability.) The character is an assassin built around those racial abilities. At CR 19 she's a monstrous assassin with greater invis, shadow jump, and the ability to single shot characters who are unprepared, plus the silent death ability, those around the victim might not realize it happened til she's already gone. The destroyer is as scary as he sounds. I think his form was chosen not by Peter Venkman as the Stay Puft Marshmallow man, but as a furry, snarling, leap the gap between two buildings, and cut your face off, kind of destroyer with an AC of 40 and over 500 HP!!!! Also, he can fully regenerate after death...unless his body is destroyed...isn't that fun? Emok is a demon in a pyrmidian body, that at CR21 is a 20th level Conjurer wizard. Haru at the CR25 apex of its power is not so dangerous in physical combat as it is in its Area effect ranged attacks and its deadly aura, those killed within 60ft of it are automatically drawn into the maelstrom of spirits. This particular monstrosity is perfect in any game, easily liftable in any of its CRs to provide a challenge outside of this group.

I really like the section on how the group interacts with the various regions and governments, this really makes the group more fleshed out as it has a place in the world.

More NPCs fill the pages of the book as well, many having full color illustrations. These lower ranked NPCs  range from a CR4 Mephit rogue to the CR15 Brotherhood leader Lo-Dora. The most common CR is 10, which is a good CR for decent challenges in my opinion. Especially for the sweet spot of 6-8, where characters are beginning to have personality without having rule-bloat.

Artwork: LPJ uses full color pieces that are around the same level as Paizo. The big fellow on the cover is Makesh. Lots of unique looking characters grace the page, what's lacking is an abundance of normal looking characters, I don't know if this is common for the setting, or if this is what you get for

Crunchtime! Crunchtime is where I talk about the crunchy bits of the book, mechanics, magic items, new feats, etc. To become one ask one, or something like that, to be a member of the Folding Circle, you must possess a protege feat. Each of the four villains has a protege feat, which grants bonuses and allows interaction with the circle. These are good for lower level enemies for characters, or as feats for use in an evil campaign that is Folding Circle centric. Scattered throughout the book in sidebards, are magic items, feats, a new sorcerer bloodline and even an Artifact. I particularly like the Scythe of Wood's Heart, which not only uses the new 'calling' item feature, but is able to be planted, and become a CR8 treant until killed or commanded to return to scythe form. The calling item ability is a +1 ability that allows the item to be summoned to the users grasp from anywhere on the same plane of existence. I think this might be too good for a +1 ability, but since it uses a swift action it can't be abused as a cheap 'returning' purchase. The other weapon is prodigious, which bumps up the damage for an existing elemental weapon by 1d6. Major NPCs all have a unique weapon, from Makesh's maul to Lo-Dora's arctic spear, which uses the prodigious ability.

The new sorcerer bloodline, the Muted bloodline is headlined by the 'Silence' NPC. Silence also showcases a second artifact, which works with the Muted bloodline to allow special attacks (a clever way to make an NPC be unique without allowing PCs to easily access those abilities, while still allowing the possibility, which I like.) Silence also uses has the new feats, Stifling Miasma and Silent Caster.

Value: All in all it's a pretty decent book, if you're RUNNING a NeoExodus game it could prove an invaluable resource and it's probably worth the $6.99. If you have some extra cash to spend and are looking for a lot of CR10+ stat blocks, this is a good purchase also.

Rating:  18 of 20 
This is a solid supplement, without a lot of obvious editing errors, I'm sure there are some but I didn't notice them, I also didn't look at every stat block with a fine tooth comb. I enjoyed reading the fluff, and it provides lots of fluff and crunch.