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.

Quick Review - Seeker of Secrets

Happy
Holidays
to
ALL!

Another quick review of a book I quite enjoy:

Pathfinder Chronicles: Seekers of Secrets—A Guide to the Pathfinder Society (PFRPG)
Paizo Publishing, LLC

At long last, the gates of the Grand Lodge have been thrown open, offering an inside glimpse of the Pathfinder Society! Packed with information about the most famous group of explorers on Golarion, this 64-page sourcebook is a must for any campaign that involves the Society, whether as employers or rivals.

Inside, you’ll find:
• How to join the Pathfinder Society, and the rights and responsibilities of Society members
• The origin and secrets histories of the Pathfinder Society
• A detailed gazetteer covering the Pathfinder Society’s reception and activities in every nation of the Inner Sea Region
• Detailed maps and descriptions of the Grand Lodge of Absalom and the Society’s newest lodge in Magnimar, plus profiles of 15 high-ranking and notorious Pathfinders
• Thirteen new kinds of mystical ioun stones, three new variants for each type, and rules on how to implant these bizarre magic items into living flesh
• Rules for the mysterious compasses known as wayfinders, and how their ancient magic interacts with ioun stones
• Three new Pathfinder prestige classes, along with sample characters for each
• New feats and spells to help characters uncover ancient secrets—and protect their own!

This book is fully legal for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Paizo’s massive world-wide organized play campaign. To learn more about Pathfinder Society Organized Play, visit paizo.com/pathfindersociety!
By Tim Hitchcock, Erik Mona, James L. Sutter, and Russ Taylor
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-178-7

Seeker of Secrets

Pathfinder Chronicles, produced by Paizo Inc, for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. This is one of the 64 page perfect bound Pathfinder Chronicles book.

This was the first of the Pathfinder Society guides that was required for Pathfinder Society gamemasters; it has since been usurped by the Pathfinder Society Field Guide.

This book gives lots of fluff, lots of background information, for running or playing in a Pathfinder Society campaign. The book is broken into 3 chapters. The first 24 pages cover "Welcome to the Pathfinder Society", this is mostly background information, with some crunch thrown in, in the form of 3 feats and 6 spells. The background information covers everything from joining the Society, duties, and training; to how the society operates and is seen around the world of Golarion. A Bit of Crunchy fluff is the 15 important figures of the Pathfinder Society scattered throughout the book, from Venture-Captains to the Master of Swords. The last bit of the chapter is the 402 year timeline.

The second chapter, "Where Secrets Sleep", primarily concerns itself with the different lodges around Golarion. The map of the Grand Lodge in Absalom is particularly gorgeous, as well as Heidmarch manor. While this chapter contains lots of information, it's definitely directed toward Pathfinder Society GMs. 

This 3rd and final chapter is "Tools of the Trade" This is the crunchy chapter, this is where the book introduces a few mundane items, and some magic items; but most importantly it expands the Ioun Stone entry, bringing several new cuts, and qualities to the stone, in addition they now interact with Wayfinders (See Inner Sea World Guide), to create additional effects. The last part of the chapter deals with Common Pathfinder Society prestige classes, three of them, the Pathfinder Delver, Pathfinder Savant and the Student of War. The Pathfinder Delver is a hybrid rogue/bard without the spells; or spell advancement, this is a real shame as the Prestige Class would have been much more enticing had it had a partial spell progression, since it also had no sneak attack it takes away far too much to be of real use. The Pathfinder Savant is a very good PrC, designed for PFS play, as it is a 7 level PrC, and you can enter it at 6th, meaning you can proceed to the final level of the PrC in PFS play. The class gives up a level  of spellcasting, not too bad, as the class grants lots of UMD based bonuses, and the ability to add non-class spells to your spell list is a great boon. The caster requirements only require the ability to cast 2nd level spells, so  it's easy to enter with a variety of classes, any can qualify though paladins and rangers won't be able to proceed to max PrC level. The final PrC is the Student of War. The Student of War Prestige class is for the intelligent melee combatant. It gives up the standard class powers for 4+int skills, and some decent powers, not optimized for PFS as you can only make 7th level, and the 2 best abilities are at 8th and 10th. 

Cost/Value: The standard $19.99 price that all the 64 page Pathfinder Campaign Setting/Chronicles books cost. This particular one is valuable to people playing in a Pathfinder Society game. I know I'll b eusing it for my PFS characters to enhance my Wayfinder. IF you're playing a Pathfinder Society Game, this can be an invaluable resource; even though much has been updated by Pathfinder Society Field Guide (also an invaluable resource).  90% overall rating.

OK so this wasn't as quick a review as I thought it was going to be...but, still a good book.

Pathfinder Society

Well the boys and I are going to be playing in our first Pathfinder Society game tomorrow. I haven't played in organized play in over a decade, I played once in an RPGA game back at Game Empire's old location.  3rd edition I believe. Can't even remember it was so long ago.


Well we're excited, I really like the character I made, Dwarven Hungry Ghost of the Sacred Mountain Monk, Using the Cheliax Faction to inspire creation, he is an outcast from his dwarven homelands, he has no full beard, only a braided goatee, he's shaved bald, though he has Asmodean tattooes all over his body, including the Asmodean Laws tattooed alll over him. He has the Faction trait that allows him to draw HP from a fallen foe=HD. He has the Relentless trait, +1 trait bonus to confirm crits (for that hungry ghost ki stealing ability later on. ) He has Belier's Bite Feat, which is a fun Improved Unarmed Combat feat which causes 1d4 bleed damage on an unarmed attack. He's Lawful Neutral, so he'll be very law oriented, which will keep him in check as far as other player's go, he wouldn't want to violate his Lodge oaths. At 5th level he'll take the Vow of Truth.  He's gonna be an interesting character for sure.

The boys are playing 'Xirus', the Half-elf Wolf Shaman Druid (Osirion faction) and a Khopesh. Ian loves his Egyptian's....=D

and Aril the Elven Rogue (Taldor Faction)