Adventurers Assemble!

Back to Leviathos we go!!!  After a really long break we finally were able to get in a game of Pathfinder again.  As an added plus, we even had miniatures for most of the party thanks once again to the incredible search engine on Reaper Miniatures.  If you haven't checked them out and you're looking for miniatures then get on over there and give them a try.  They have a great selection that is thoroughly tagged so its very easy to find just what you are looking for.  In our case we have two half elves and their companions.

My character for this adventure is Caladrel, a Stormborn sorcerer with a little bit of wizard thrown in for good measure which is how I managed to get a familiar.

 Great detail on both of these miniatures made them really easy to paint though Caladrel's face seemed slightly off.  It still painted up well enough but something just seemed a not quite even about its proportions.  I also slightly modified his familiar Jhori by taking off the end of his spear as I mentioned before.

After all the glowing talk about Reaper I unfortunately had to break away for the next pair to get the right familiar.

 Keiyendora is the Nature Warden miniature from the Pathfinder range which just keeps getting better with each new addition.  Its great to see this line continue to expand even as the Pathfinder pre-paints hit the shelves giving people tons of options.  For her ape I actually had to get an old Heroclix figure because orangutans are just not that easy to find unfortunately.  Unsurprisingly there is not a lot of detail on this one but I'm still happy with how it turned out.

There was one other character who we had to use a random mini for but hopefully she'll be able to get hold of a figure before the next game.  This session was our first using the figures (and a white board for an impromptu  battlemat) and it definitely helped keep the whole thing in perspective.

Definitely looking forward to adding more minis to my collection plus I'm hoping to get back behind the screen soon as well.  Until next time...

Sometimes One More Option Is One Too Many

"So where should we go for dinner?"

"Well, I could do Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill. We haven't had Tony Roma's for a while.  Oh, and there's Applebee's or Joe's Crab Shack.  I guess I could do Sweet Tomatoes as well.  Or there's Beanos or Denny's."

"Ummm... okay?"

Having options is a good thing but there does come a point when too much is just that.  As I alluded to last week, this is something that I tend to think the Pathfinder game suffers from.  Now don't get me wrong; I've enjoyed every Pathfinder session that I've played in and I'm really looking forward to get back to SpacerGal's homebrew campaign setting.  The really daunting thing about the system, especially for new players, is the sheer number of options that you have available to you when you are trying to build a character.

The core rulebook contains eleven different classes.  This is not too bad really as the choices run the typical gamut for fantasy from spell slingers to sword wielders and everything in between.  Where things start to get a little more complicated is when you bring in the Advanced Players Guide.  Six more basic classes to choose from and more than half dozen alternate class features to apply to each the original eleven classes.  Then throw in Ultimate Magic which only adds one new magic class but gives all the existing magic classes half dozen or more additional options and Ultimate Combat which does the same for the martial classes.

Now that is a ton of options which is great... unless you have no idea what you want to play and you are just trying to see what your options are.  Then you're looking at potentially having books worth of material to go through as you try to figure out what works best for you which can be kind of overwhelming, especially for new players.

So how do you deal with this glut of information that has been handed to you?  Well, as a player I'd suggest really thinking about what sounds like something you want to play and then asking the GM for their advice.  Which kind of a magic user would you enjoy exploring and which would fit best in their campaign?  The GM is also usually very familiar with the game system and can really help you fine tune your choice.

From the other side of the screen, I'd suggest the GM offer some guidance and maybe even limitations on the options available to players.  Setting these kinds of guidelines can also be helpful for laying out and shaping your story.  Maybe you're aiming for a low magic setting.  Take some of the magical classes off the books right from the start so you don't have to worry about fitting a wizard or sorcerer into the world you've created.  The same can be said for a more civilized setting.  How exactly would you fit a barbarian into that kind of game?  Admittedly that sounds like it could be an interesting twist but unless you were trying to focus on that character fitting into a completely different world you run the risk of either leaving that character our of the loop or leaving the rest of the characters hanging out to dry as you focus too much on that story.

Ultimately communication is the key to making sure that everyone buys in and has a good time with the game so ask the GM and if you need to put them on the spot.  Likewise as a GM don't be afraid to say "No" if someone is trying to pull something into your game that doesn't fit in.  You're all in this together so make sure that everyone is having a good time with it.  Until next time...

Skinning One Cat To Re-Skin Another

With our latest Pathfinder campaign I decided to break out of the mold and try something that I've never done before; I'm playing a spell caster.  I've always stayed away from these classes in the past because of the limitations of the spells.  "Okay guys, I've cast my one spell for the day.  Guess I'll just hang back and read a book while you guys finish exploring the dungeon."  I mean really, what fun is that?

Thankfully Pathfinder addresses that problem by giving you access to some minor spells that you have unlimited use of.  Sure they're not going to stop a raging demon out of the Nine Hells but something's better than nothing.  Of course the problem after that was which kind of spell caster.  After all, one thing that Pathfinder isn't lacking is a ridiculously variety of classes to choose from (but more on that another time...).  After digging around (and listening to what everyone else was playing...) I finally decided to try my hand at being a sorcerer.  Of the magical classes it seems to be the one that's easier to grow with.  Wizards need to be able to spend some time researching and studying to really advance themselves whereas sorcerers just have the stuff more or less pop into their head.  Gotta love that, right?

Next I choose my race, bloodline, what color socks I'm wearing, etc, etc... All the little details that go into making a Pathfinder character.  Then I hopped right over to Reaper Miniatures to search for the perfect mini.  Not a requirement for an RPG but I really like having my own little mini me to call my own so its a must in my book.  It was while I was searching for my round 25mm bases that I stumbled on this little blast from the past.

This figure is one of a familiar set that was released by Reaper years ago.  I love all the figures in the set but this one was always my favorite.  With this old treasure in hand, I headed right back to my character sheet to rebuild my sorcerer so I could somehow have a familiar which of course is where the problem came in.

This little guy is obviously not an animal which is the "normal" familiar for the magical classes.  In fact the closest that I could come up with was a homunculus but that's a higher level spell than we were starting with and I wanted to make sure I could use the little dude in the game right from the get go.  That's when the old gears really started grinding away in my melon and I came up with a plan.

Getting SpacerGal on the horn I explained my dilemma and asked him if I could re-skin one of the familiar types into something completely different conceptually but leave it the same mechanically.  He thought for a second and decided why not so off I went to the books again to figure out just what he was going to be.  After much hemming and hawing I finally decided to base him on the cat familiar that wizards have.  This makes him somewhat effective in combat and makes him ridiculously stealthy which I really liked the idea of.  One second he's there and then he suddenly seems to vanish and reappear somewhere else.  After some minor tweaks, my new wizard/sorcerer character was ready to rock... along with his own version of "Toto" too.

The idea of re-skinning some aspect of your game is something that I don't think many people think of but its always an option you should keep in mind.  Just because the rules say "You have a dog that obediently follows you around wherever you go" doesn't mean that you can't change it up and make it some kind of manservant that your family sent out to keep an eye on you.  Doing this not only gives you more creative freedom to make an exciting and interesting character but also makes that character your own.  Talk with your DM/GM/Keeper/whatever they might be this week and tell them your ideas.  Work together and not only will you be able to create a character that you're really interested in playing but you might even throw the GM something to play with too.  Just think of how many times has Batman had to go save Robin's butt over the years or vice versa.

So remember; just because you can't find exactly what you have in mind in the book doesn't mean that you can't do it.  Look beyond the confines of the rules and talk it out so that you can make it a great gaming experience for everyone at the table.  Until next time...

Leviathos Arises Again!

This week we finally managed to get role playing back to the gaming table!  We are once again returning to Spacer's wonderful, watery world of Leviathos but this time with a twist.  Originally Spacer had been running this as an open world campaign; basically just laying out the sandbox and letting us run wild in it.  He did plan out a few parts of it but he really tried to give us a ton of free reign.... which seems to have been part of the problem.

Things were flying along at a breakneck speed!  We were about to betray our former employer as she prepared to start a war against a powerful empire, that same empire had just found the hidden cove that served as one of her bases, we were running to get onto a ship to head to the frozen waters of the north with a crew that we didn't know if we could trust and even other party members we didn't know if we could trust... and then the writer's block hit.  Spacer had a mental overload and sadly the story ground to a halt.

Time has gone by and inspiration has struck for him again but this time he's looking at things a little differently.  Instead of the open ended epic campaign of all eternity he has scaled it back to a more manageable size and I have to admit that I'm glad.  Sprawling epics are all well and good but as I've mentioned before having an ending is so much more satisfying.  That's not to say that we can't revisit these characters in the future, far from it.  It just means that one story can finish before another begins... and hopefully means that I can get some more of my games to the table but more on those later.

The thing that I really wanted to mention was what Spacer did to tie up the infamous "you meet in a tavern" loose end that plagues so many games.  Just why the heck is this random band of misfits together anyway?  I mean really, a dwarven barbarian, a half-elven druid, and a very refined half-elven sorcerer of extremely high caliber? (bet you can't guess who I'm playing...) Why in the world would they have anything to do with each other?

To tie us together (and give us a little mechanical perk as well), the story Spacer is telling focuses on a dwarven archaeologist and anthropologist (aka tomb robber) turned tavern owner who we all dealt with at one time.  The barbarian has worked in his bar before, the druid has helped on some of his digs years ago, and I was also in his employ in the past as well... no doubt doing something scholarly and noble as fits the skills of one of my high quality and distinction.  (yep, this time I'm playing egotistical bastard)  The tavern owner went missing and his wife sent us letters asking us to come to the tavern and find him.  Three totally random people who have nothing to do with each other except we all know the same guy... who actually isn't missing and asks us all to help him.

Personally I love this idea as the one thing that always seems to be lacking in the beginning of an adventure is a reason for the group to be together in the first place.  Our first foray into Leviathos and my Wastelands game had both lacked this and it was really something that bothered me so I'm really excited to see how he's addressed it.  Now we just have to do the job and not kill each other.  Ah yes, good times....  But more on that later.  Until next time...

Opening Up With The Beginning Of The Path

It turns out that this video has been up for a week or so but I definitely wanted to share it in case anyone missed it.  This is the unboxing of the new Pathfinder Beginner Box by the folks over at Paizo Publishing.  So without further ado, let's check it out!

Personally I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this one. I will admit that I have some concern about the stand up pieces instead of the counters that you find in most of the 4e products nowadays but they look like they are extremely durable so I'm more than happy to give them a try. It also sounds like you get a good amount of other things in the set as well. In particular I was surprised at just how many monsters they stat up in this Beginner set. Almost 100 monsters is a pretty impressive number and shows that this set has a lot of potential for replay and customization.

This is one that I'm definitely looking at picking up soon so I'll post more about it once I actually have it in hand.  Plus if you're interested in getting this yourself and haven't done so yet there's good new!  Just click on the Amazon link at the top of the page and it will take you right there so you can get your own copy.  Until next time...

More On The Pre-painted Paizo Goodness!

Way back in August I posted about the soon to be released pre-painted miniatures that are being produced by Wiz Kids for the Pathfinder RPG.  (Here's a link in case ya missed it.)  With the release now lurking on the horizon, Paizo has released pictures of the actual production run of the hero miniatures from the Beginner Box.

As you can see these minis are really nice looking for pre-paints especially since these are actual production miniatures.  Are they Golden Demon winner quality?  No, but considering you get all four of them for about $13 they are really nice.

As for the rest of the line they are going to be blind box purchase which normally I'm dead against but in this case they really have me interested.  The price isn't too bad for what you get and it sounds like there is a good mix of minis within one case so you probably won't wind up with too many repeats of the more powerful monsters.  This does mean that getting the more common beasties will be a little tricky but Paizo has mentioned doing encounter packs in the future that won't be blind box so it shouldn't be too hard to fill out the ranks of cannon fodder.

 Ya just gotta love the Pathfinder goblins!

Personally I'm definitely looking forward to getting some of these once they come out.  Who knows, maybe I'll really luck out and Santa will throw me a brick of them for Christmas!  All I can do is hope he doesn't aim for my head.  Until next time...

Me be Vorka and you be dinner!

The goblin goodness continues!  With the party finished, its time to take a look at the critters those lucky goblins will get to meet on their quest for fireworks!  First off is Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many.  Bet you can't guess what she is!

Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many

Technically Lotslegs is only a giant spider so this figure really is too big but I like the idea of at least making the spider visually scary and what better way than making it frickin' huge?  Unlike most of the other minis, this one is not from Reaper Miniatures though they do have a very good selection of spiders to choose from if you're looking for them.  Instead I decided to use a spider from my Descent game as it seems appropriately creepy, not to mention the fact that I already own it (always a plus in my opinion).

Next we have Scabtongue, Tickletooth, and Cuddles.  Don't they sound lovable?

Scabtongue, Tickletooth, and Cuddles

According to the scenario these three are a group of vicious dogs.  Reaper does have some pretty sweet looking figures for war dogs but I decided to go with the slightly more fantasy generic wolf pack.  With wolves and goblins almost going hand in hand for most fantasy worlds it just seemed more versatile.  I don't know how often I would have players encounter guard dogs but wolves?  I'm just wondering if three is enough....

Finally there is the crazy cannibal herself, Vorka, and her pet frog, Lord Longtung.

Vorka the cannibal and Lord Longtung

Vorka is yet another mini from the goblin pyro pack.  This is another one that could be easily modified so that it has a more human looking hat but I decided that the goblin "helmet" would work for her in this case.  To differentiate between the PCs and Vorka I painted her clothes grey plus she has a pretty distinctive pose which is always a plus.

For Lord Longtung I actually went to another Fantasy Flight Game and pulled out one of the frogs from the Talisman Revised 4th Edition game.  Again this was a case of convenience for me but if you don't have this and are looking for giant frog minis I'd recommend hitting Reaper for them first.

And there we have it!  Well, almost anyway.  There is one mini left for the adventure but when my daughter saw that I was prepping a horse she asked if she could paint it.  Haven't had a chance to sit down with her to get it done but I plan on doing it soon and then we can have the big reveal for the final critter in the game, Stomp.

With all of these now finished I just have to wrangle the group together for a game.  Hopefully that will be in the next couple of weeks and I'll be sure to pass on the word of just how successful this "merry" band of goblins makes out.  Until next time...

He be Mogmurch! Chuffy be me!

The goblin goodness continues as I have more minis painted!  Here's the rest of the party...

Chuffy the rogue and Mogmurch the alchemist

As I mentioned before I'm trying to use the paint schemes to make the different characters really pop though I must admit that I really didn't do anything special for Chuffy.  He has the wonderful goblin feat pustular which means he has a serious case of teenage acne.  I was going to paint his face so that it looked pretty nasty but I like how he turned out so I'm just going with the generic goblin look.  The only other one that is close to being so generic is Poog but he is easy to pick out as he has the spear.

Mogmurch is a different story.  He has a skull face mask so I went with skull face paint for a quick and easy solution.  Of course he's also supposed to have a club instead of a sword but I think that the face paint is enough to make him stand out.

With the party done, now its time to get to the various NPC critters but more on them later.  Until next time...

Me be Reta! He be Poog!

Well, things have been a little quiet around here, at least on the blog anyway.  I've been working on a few different projects lately including the We Be Goblins game that I mentioned last week.  So for painting for that is coming along very well.  Why here are two of the little knee biters now!

Reta the fighter and Poog the cleric

For the We Be Goblins characters I wanted to try to stay as true to the characters as possible without having to do a lot of modding so I decided to focus on different paint schemes instead.  Reta for example is supposed to be wearing a wedding veil and a halfling ladies' corset.  To keep it simple I picked out one of the goblins wearing a headpiece (complete with feathers even!) and armor that almost looked a little like a dress then I painted it white-ish.  Poog on the other hand is the only goblin wearing a chain mail shirt and carries a javelin so I used on of the spear wielding goblins for him and painted his chest armor like it was made of metal.  I've still got more to do but so far I'm really happy with how they are turning out so far.

In addition to painting up these little suckers, I've also been prepping a special Halloween game of Call of C'thulhu!  No one in my group is very familiar with this game so I decided to go with the pre-gen character route.  This will let us sit down and get right into the game plus it gives me a chance to get creative with the scenario prep work.  In addition to making some handouts for the game I'm also making up some character files for the different pre-gen characters and I've also managed to get my hands on some minis for the game as well!  Of course all of this isn't necessary but I happen to love Halloween and if I'm going to do a one-shot for it I want to make sure I do it right.

But wait, that's not all!  If you call now you can also get... oh wait... sorry.  Got carried away with myself though there actually is more.  I'm also putting together a Halloween Fear and Faith battle report plus there is still more to come for the Mutants and Death Ray Guns mini campaign.  Lots of stuff in the works so I'm off to do more work.  Until next time...

Back With a Vengeance

Ground control to SpacerGal your circuit's dead, is something wrong? Can you hear me SpacerGal? Can you here me SpacerGal?! Here, I've been floating 'round my tin can, far above the world. But, I'm back, rock references in full force, bringing you a roleplaying update, a big boy game review, AND a Child at Heart review! I figure I've been gone for far too long, so why not come back with a bang? So without further ado, let's get things started!

Saurian Insanity

So, as the Snowman mentioned, the addition of the Saurian druid variant in Pathfinder's Ultimate Magic book really made me want to step out from behind the screen and be a PC again. The concept was a little bit more Land of the Lost than Conan, with me never speaking English while in character. Instead, whenever using first-person dialogue, I plan to use the (ready for this under-rated reference point?) Star Fox Adventures saurian language spoken by all the dinosaur planet inhabitants during cut-scenes. Pretty crazy, right? But hey, that's how I do, getting wacky for experimentation's sake. As far as settings go, the Snowman and I have been collaborating on both a high- and low-fantasy versions of dinosaur inhabited worlds for characters to explore. Full write-up on that to come once we finish fleshing it out in it's entirity.

Returning to Raccoon City...

I was down at one of the local game shops lately and stumbled across the Resident Evil Deckbuilding Game. I still had some fun money, and the box has my main RE squeeze on it, so we picked it up and gave it a whirl. Turns out, Bandai and Capcom have turned out a pretty great, fast-paced, (kinda) balanced DBG that I think can definitely stand up with the other big boys coming out this year from Fantasy Flight.

Look at Leon Kennedy all silly with his bangs all around. Yay!

Normally, with a game in a genre getting as crowded as the deckbuilding genre, I'd make a comparison to another game, but I've never actually played Dominion, or Thunderstone, or any of the other hyped up titles. Being my first encounter with a DBG, I didn't fully know what to expect other than a slightly "different experience with each game." So let's dig in and see what makes this game stand out in my collection.

First off, this game is easy to learn, and easy to play. Obviously there are certain strategies to it, what to buy for your deck and when, but overall, anyone can play this game, and I think that's nice. I have a ton of friends who aren't tabletop gamers, but would give this a try simply because of the franchise, and they wouldn't be lost or confused. Every turn, you get an Action, Buy, and Explore to use, and can earn more depending on what cards you play. Actions are used to gain extra damage, draw extra cards, score more Buys, and other cool effects. Buys are pretty obviously when you spend money to add a card to your discard pile, which shuffles and resets as your deck every time you run out of cards. Exploring lets you hunt zombies to kill and score points, but don't get too hasty to score, because if you can't kill the random zombie that flips from the top of the Mansion deck, you'll end up with damage, and that can mean loss of turns, or even the whole game.

We most often play Mercenary mode, one of the three different game modes provided in the rules. It's the fastest played and the least based on stalling and grinding up a ridiculous deck, plus all the characters are more unique, in that they get specific staring decks instead of the stock one used in Versus and Story modes. In Mercenary, you have 15 rounds to score as many points worth of dead zombies as possible, giving it a rapid-fire arcade type feel. It also removes the three super-huge zombies from the Mansion deck, so you don't have to be worried about being one-shot. In Story, the first player to kill the one copy of the biggest infected monstrosity wins. With him coming up at random, and being ludicrously powerful, it can be a frustrating game when you get blasted for 70 damage out of your 80 health on turn 2, but the duration means you can spend more time fine-tuning and customizing your deck. Versus is just what it sound like. Instead of using your Explore action to fight zombies, you shoot at other players, aiming to be the last one standing. With how powerful some of the character abilities are, it seems this mode can get unbalanced really fast, but it is a fun little diversion if you feel like really mixing things up a bit. No matter what game mode you are playing, you use a Scenario to determine what cards will be used. There are certain basic resources that are always there, which are the Knife, Pistol, Green Herb, and three levels of ammunition/gold. The Scenarios add 12 more cards to the available purchasable pools, called resources, and they are usually themed. For example, the Special Forces uses a lot of higher-powered specialty weapons and bonus ammo and damage actions, whereas Mobility uses less super guns and more actions that draw cards and add to your deck. This added variety on top of three included game modes makes Resident Evil remarkably replayable, and a blast for anyone into zombies, the RE franchise, card games, or fun.

I Wanna Be the Very Best

Pokemon. I love it. Look at me however you want with those judging eyes, but this 24-year-old is all about Pokemon in whatever form she can get it. Video games, plushes, figures, and of course, the card game, which is what we're here to talk about. Having not played the card game since my middle-school years, I figured I'd pick up some new theme decks and give it a whirl. Needless to say, I still find it as fun as I used to, but I do have some criticism for it.

Two new theme decks from a brand new set, featuring Krookodile and Scolipede. I'm positive you can figure out which is which.

One of the first major things I noticed when in the store was the sheer size of the deck box. I thought, this thing is huge for just housing a 60-card starter deck. But when I got home and cracked it open, I discovered that it didn't just have a deck of cards in a huge plastic insert. Take a look at this craziness!
That's a deck, a sheet of surprising decent quality damage and status counters, a set checklist in poster format, that giant two-player starter mat everything is sitting on top of which has the rules printed on the back, a 16-character code card that unlocks the deck for online play on the Pokemon TCG website (more on that later), a shiny little coin for all the coin-flip effects in this game and my favorite part, the thing I think should come with EVERY boxed card game product......Oh em gee, a deck box. Cardboard yes, but still, a nifty deck box themed to the deck to hold your new cards in when not using them. I could kiss whoever thought to include these in the marketing department. Now that I've gone over what you get in the box, let's actually look at playing some Pokemon TCG.

The rules to the game are simple. At the start of the game you put out a basic pokemon as your "active" pokemon and may place as many additional basic pokemon as you like in your "bench" area as "bench pokemon." If your active is defeated, one of these is chosen to step up and replace it. After you've got your pokemon out, you take the top six cards of the deck and set them aside as "prize cards." For each pokemon of your opponent's you defeat, you pick up a prize card. Pick up all six and you win! Each pokemon has at least one attack printed on it to start walloping your opponent. These attacks require energy cards to use, and you can only attach one energy per turn, much like lands in magic. Think your active pokemon is going to get dropped in one more attack? Maybe you should attach the energy to something on your bench so it can come in powered up, or do you take the risk and build your active up further in the hopes of riding it out? Energy management can make a huge differences in these games. Also, you can evolve one pokemon per turn by placing a higher stage version of it on the basic form. For example, that Scolipede up there is a stage 2 pokemon, so I'd have to have his stage 1 out in order to put him into play. And in order to get to the stage 1, I'd need the Basic pokemon that the stage 1 comes from. This keeps the game from slamming out too fast, but I did notice that, with a handful of exceptions, the first person to get out the big stage 2 beasties tends to sweep from that point on. We did have several games in which a player stabilized and managed to turn it around, but in general, big guy first usually means the win. In addition to pokemon and energy cards, there are Trainer cards, things that function like sorceries and instants in Magic, one-shot abilities that help you draw more cards, or search for things you need, or even heal your pokemon. From what I've seen, these are what REALLY make or break the game. A well placed extra draw or hand replacement can change everything in a heart-beat, and while all decks have access to them, it makes it feel like a very luck-based game now that I'm older and more versed in card gaming.

So, all in all, the game is still a blast, but the fact that almost the entire game is hanging on who scores the better draw can get a little frustrating. I've been reading up on the super-competitive aspects of the game, and it's almost all dependent on accelerating draw, so even above the casual level it's a pretty luck-based game. If you're looking for something light, or have someone in your life who loves pokemon, it's at least worth a look with a couple theme decks.

Oh! That's right, the online thing! This is a really cool new thing implemented in the last couple months, and I think it's a fun way to get more bang for your buck out of card gaming. When you sign up on the website, they give you three basic decks to play with that can't be modified. There are currently several different NPC challengers to play against, and if you're really feeling daring you can play against other live players. The new theme decks all have codes in them to add them to your digital collection, and with the deck-builder system currently in beta, it won't be long before you can use fully customized decks to play computers and challengers alike online. yeah, Magic's had MtGO for a long time, but it's nice to have my physical collection digitized without having to rebuy digital copies.

Last Transmission

Ah, it feels good to be back. I hope you all enjoyed my giant return as much as I have, and from now on I'll try to keep my Warp-wandering to a minimum. Next week's post is up in the air subject wise, but as always, you can expect something kiddie and something random. Oh that's right! I'm running a Beyblade tournament at the North 5th Street Toys 'R Us this Saturday, so if you're in the North Las Vegas area, come check it out. Who knows, maybe you'll even make it into the Dispatch!

Finding The Path To The Painted

A few months ago Paizo Publishing announced that they were going to be working with Wiz-Kids to release a set of four pre-painted player character minis for their new Beginner Box set. Well yesterday they announced the full line of 40 different pre-paints that will be available in their new Heros and Monsters set. Among the 40 minis will be a mix of large, medium, and small creatures that should cover the basics that you would need for a solid RPG mini collection.

The bad news is that they are being done as a blind purchase instead of open package so you won't know what you've gotten until you have it open. The price point is also a little high in my opinion with the large booster (containing 1 large base critter) running $5.99 and the standard booster (containing either 1 medium base or 2 small base critters) running $3.99. No these are not horrible prices but for a blind purchase it seems a little steep to me.

Hold your horses though as the doom and gloom don't have to carry the day. The initial set only includes 40 different minis and by Paizo's estimation you should be able to get almost the whole collection if you buy one of the factory sealed cases. Yes this will run you about $275 but when you consider that includes 12 large base monsters which would normally cost more than the $6 price point the random booster has I'm inclined to think that it starts to balance out. For those who say "but I want a horde of goblins not just one" Paizo has an answer to that call as well as they are planning to release Encounter Packs which will not be random. They haven't said officially but I'm assuming that these will feature the more common critters that people would want to have en masse (such as orcs, goblins, etc., etc.) so you don't have to buy a ton of cases to get a handful of goblins. There is no price point for these yet but they should average about six figures in each Encounter Pack.

In addition to all of this, Paizo posted a FAQ that explains their reasoning behind doing the random route from a business perspective and it honestly makes sense. This doesn't make it cost any less but I can understand why they are doing what they are and I can respect that kind of open communication from a company.

So what's the final verdict? Well based on what I've seen so far I think that these are a good option for whatever RPG game you might be playing. The examples that they've shown look nicely sculpted and painted, plus it sounds like it will be a nice entry point for those looking to get a good assortment of RPG minis for the first time. Add in the Encounters Packs and I see a huge potential for building up a good selection of minis for a fairly reasonable price.

We Be Licktoads, You Be Food!

This past weekend was Free RPG Day at local game stores. Not familiar with it? Basically it is a chance for people to come down to their local shops and try out something new, plus get something free from the store for coming down. Have a friend that's been thinking about getting into gaming? Bring them down so they can sit in on a game and see just what this crazy things is that you do with your other friends, Twizzlers, and Mountain Dew. Who knows? They might just like it...

One of the products that caught my eye as soon as it was announced was the free adventure being released by Paizo Publishing for their Pathfinder game. I wasn't able to get down to one of my local game stores but you can still get the adventure right from their website.

What is this marvelous masterpiece of fantastic exploration? Why it's none other than We Be Goblins!

In this adventure for four players, the adventurers get to play... have you guessed it? That's right! Goblins!!! Packed with four pregenerated characters, this little adventure makes a great one shot and also serves as a prequel to the upcoming Jade Regent adventure path. Even if you aren't using the published adventure paths in your gaming group, there's no reason not to pick up We Be Goblins. You can't beat free for a price and come on, who doesn't want to play a goblin one time, right?

And Now We Move... Into The Third Dimension!

The Quest For Minis For Our Pathfinder Game

After doing some exploring in the wide world of Leviathos, we started to realize that we were having a little trouble keeping track of just where everyone was during combat. Sure we could have just used some spare dice or something similar but we wanted to do it right. Off to the internet!

Our party consists of a dwarven monk, a gnome rogue, and a gnome summoner. Kind of a wacky mix but surprisingly enough it was pretty easy to find the minis we needed. If you head on over to the Reaper Miniatures homepage you can search by specific key words that let you really narrow it down to almost exactly what you are looking for.

Between the massive range of minis they produce and the ease of using the search engine on their site, I definitely recommend hitting Reaper Mini for your fantasy mini needs. In fact you might want to check them out for other genres as well since they recently added in the Chronoscope line of figures that expand their range even further. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't already!

Players? Oh, you mean my guinea pigs!

Howdy folks! Yet again I have procrastinated my post up to the wire, but it's all good as long as it's posted in time. This week we're going to talk more about some of the new experimental methods I am using in my Pathfinder game with the Snowman, and will be briefly introducing a new ongoing subject in the SpacerGal postings. So without further ado, here we go!

Director's Cut: It's... breathing!

Let's get this out of the way first. I really enjoy online gaming. More specifically, the free to play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game side of things. F2PMMORPG... Even the acronym is a handful. But anyways, my love of the genre has led me to want to try and sort of simulate an open world style game for my players, basically leaving them in charge. Is it hilarious to let the kids babysit themselves? You bet it is. Can it be remarkably more mess than you anticipated? Sure can, but in this mess is where some of the best players will truly shine. But before we get to the PC, let's take a look at the GM side of this endeavor.

Part of my ability to do this successfully comes from the fact that I am wildly scatterbrained and have about thirteen different possible story ideas flying around in my head at any given time. To get started, I sit down and lay all those snakes out straight and figure out how to fit them into my setting without breaking the feel of the campaign, usually by plopping a PNPC, or Prime NPC into the story. Then I have to concoct how not to kill my players on what could be a very high level challenge by either scaling the threat back to a more appropriate danger or taking the quest and placing it in the "High level stuff I hope players play long enough to reach" part of my GM binder. The last step is hands-down the trickiest, especially as other stories in the world progress. How do I make my players choose to take these paths?

In order to give players control while still holding the carrot-on-a-stick, I place what I call Adventure Hooks into the world, just waiting for an interested nibble to trigger some kind of event or NPC interaction that will lead into a full-blown story. Often these involve some kind of crowd gathered around something, or a flyer being handed out advertising something of exceptional interest. If it's an adventure hook within an adventure, there are usually a few ways to find it, whether that be finding an item that someone will take interest in or simply poking and prodding an NPC until he or she gives in and decides to take you on the next big journey. But what if a journey takes longer than anticipated? What happens to those other hooks? Well, some of them may still be around, but because Leviathos is a living, persistent world, some hooks can literally be completely missed, never to be seen again. Unless the game resets of course...

Space-Age Roleplay: Welcome to Cyber-space

Many podcasts and die-hard P&P roleplayers naysay the potential of roleplaying in MMORPG environments, saying it can't be done, there's not enough control, there's not enough customization to do what they want, et cetera. To all of you out there who have said or thought this, I say are you out of your mind? Did you even try to roleplay in an online game? If so, which one, and how long did you spend in your attempt? Did you make sure you chose an RP server? Did you log on during prime hours? Did you make sure you were open, approachable, or available for RP interaction? Are you familiar with the lore and flavor of the game in which you attempted to RP?... And the list goes on for quite some time more. But anyways, I'm here to say it can be done. And not just in a "Well that was an alright experience" kind of way, but rather in a "Some of my best RP experiences have been in MMORPG" way. That's right. When approached with the proper mindset and with the proper tools in hand, it can be both a fun and rewarding pass time for all players involved, without the need of a GM. This isn't to say it doesn't have it's fault, no no no. Far from it actually. There are glaring weaknesses to RP in a GM-less computer world, but these weaknesses can be mitigated by players willing to try. That list of questions should be asked of one's self before diving in, and we will be touching on the subject more in weeks to come.

Final Transmission

Space-Age Roleplay will be an ongoing topic of mine, covering the right and wrong ways to approach MMORPG as sources for RPG outlets, some of the general do's and don'ts of roleplaying in these settings, and some of the best ways to get roleplaying going with a community or even random people out there on the interwebs. I do hope our readers will enjoy a new perspective on the subject, as well as gleaning advice and tips to enjoy their own MMO roleplaying. Of course, more kid games are on the way, one in particular I know most of you have had some interaction with in some form or another, but it requires pictures and my camera is on the fritz. So until next time, this is SpacerGal, signing off. Ya'll come back now, y'hear?

Actual Perplexing Polyhedron Actuality!

From Actual Plays To Actually Playing

For the longest time I was getting my RPG fix by listening to various actual plays. Some of them were really good, others... well lets just say not so much and leave it at that. Still it was fun to listen to the shenanigans even if I wasn't actually able to take part in it.

Then I was able to hook up with a gaming group and do the real thing and let me tell you.. serious difference! Don't get me wrong. APs definitely help to scratch the itch but if you're not currently gaming I'd definitely recommend getting out there and doing the real thing.

That's not to say that APs aren't useful to listen to. If there's a game that I want to find out more about, the first thing I do is look for any actual plays that might be out there. It's a great way to hear how the game plays out. In fact there are several podcasts that do APs just for this reason, The Walking Eye and Actual People, Actual Play being two that I've listened to in the past.

Another reason to listen to APs is to see what does and doesn't work, which can be invaluable to new GMs. Maybe there is some aspect of the mechanics that can cause you trouble. Hearing how someone else handled the situation will prepare you to avoid those issues in your own game and keep things running smoothly.

All in all, actual plays are a great way to wrap your head around a system and game vicariously through others but if you have a chance to get into the real thing I say dive in head first and give it a try!

The Paralyzing Perplexity of Polyhedron Performance

In sharp contract to the relative dice-less nature of our previous Pathfinder session, this week the whole thing seemed to revolve around that most commonly used of the more exotic dice, the dreaded d20. Why the sudden change in our game play? How did it go from being a non-existent aspect of the game to a critical cornerstone on which our lives hung in the balance? Easy, this time there were ancient hieroglyphs and traps!

Unlike the social skills, mechanical skills usually still require you take out that die to see how you do and there is nothing wrong with that. Unlike social interactions, it is much harder to recreate these other aspects of the game in real life. That's not to say it's impossible because SpacerGal even has a little bit of experience with that but it does require a lot more work on the part of the GM.

The interesting thing is that while taking the dice out of the social mechanic makes the game better, keeping it in for the challenges that we faced this week made the game that much more intense. Even with some pretty hefty bonuses on the skills that we were using the die rolls simply were not there for the first half of the session which added a definite level of tension. For example, there we were facing a number of obvious traps but with no apparent way to disable them all we could do was try to avoid them which sounds easy enough. At least until you are staring at five giant pendulum blades that are swinging across the hallway with two sword wielding statues on the far side of that and a locked gate behind you leaving you all alone with one way to go... yeah, it can get pretty intense.

So what's the moral of the story? Just because taking the dice out of some things makes the experience better doesn't mean that you should get rid of them completely.

The Parting Shot...

And another one in the books from the Snowman! I know it went strictly role play this week but right now hanging out with SpacerGal has got that front and center in my mind. There is more stuff waiting in the wings from both of us but we'll look at those in the future. If you have any comments or feedback, as always feel free to post them here on the blog or you can shoot us an email at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. And if you're enjoying what you're reading tell a friend! The more the merrier is always the case here on the interwebs. Until next time...

Missing Dice and Twirling Tops

Hello world, I'm your wild girl! And this is your first real post from me, SpacerGal, the latest contributor to Sin City Dispatch.

Social Interaction Dice-ectomy

The Snowman really dug into one of the things that has become a signature of my GM style, and that is the removal of social interaction skills in 3.5 OGL/d20 system games. I've never been a fan of the Intimidate or Diplomacy rolls, as they just don't make sense to me. Granted, I like a more abstract game with less emphasis on rules and more emphasis on both storytelling and character development for my players, but even setting my distaste of rules lawyering aside, they seem so counter-intuitive to roleplaying. In my mind, the purpose of a roleplaying game is to, you know, play a role, and using dice to determine how NPC feel about you detracts from this.

Part of removing these dice actually lies heavily in how detailed an environment is, and it does take going an extra couple of miles on the GM's part. Not going to lie to you, I spend hours upon hours developing even the most minor of NPC, delving deep into imagination to forge histories, personalities, quirks, and flourishes for the people my players will be meeting. Creative writing has helped make Leviathos feel more like a living, breathing world, and I have several very lengthy stories about the adventures of my main NPC that I'll probably end up sharing here.

As far as game elements are concerned, I find my players open up much more when they have to actually talk down a furious guard captain or frighten a native into telling them about an ancient secret. This opening up leads to better player chemistry, deeper, more interesting characters that players want to come back to time and again, and a fuller world for the GM to dig into.

I ultimately decided to start trying this method out a while ago. I had kind of a falling out with D&D after a very poorly run game, and most of the problems came from the heavy-handed book ruling. After wrestling with myself about what could be done to get away from the rules without completely stripping them away, I decided to do two things. The first was to remove those interaction dice, and the second was to remove alignment (but that's a story for a different time!). I sat down and started collecting all the characters I had ever played, reworked them into a new world of my design, and ran with it. After further developing this place, I thought about all the best roleplaying experiences I had ever played out, and realized they all happened when the players were entirely in control of their path. And that, my friends, is also a story for a later day. More on my style coming soon!

Childlike Nature: Let It Rip!

I work at a toy store, so naturally I see all of the kid's games, fads, and the latest anime tie-ins. And of course, I buy these things! Occasionally, there's a real gem in the midst of the loads of crap spewed out by the major distributors. One of those gems is Beyblade, the game of high-performance top battles. On the surface, the toy line and game elements are just a cash grab based on the new show, but when you dig a bit, it's actually a surprisingly deep game with a certain appealing simplicity.

The goal of the game is to make sure your top is the last one standing in the "Bey Stadium," a big plastic bath tub with a bowled bottom and two side pockets in which your tops can get stuck. You and your opponent count down in sync and on the last count, you both launch your tops into the stadium from a launcher powered by a toothed rip-cord. They clash against each other, breaking down each others speed until one falls over. Simple enough, right? Now let's look a little further.

There are three types of tops, and your choice can literally make or break the game before you even launch.
Attack types are super-aggressive, ripping around the beveled stadium at ridiculous speeds, often fast enough to fly out and hit bystanders if they aren't careful. They hit hard enough to knock most tops over or into the pockets, making them lose. But of course, this speed and striking force come at a cost. They have little to no staying power, so if they don't win quick, you're going to be outspun.
Defense types are heavy, wide-bottomed tops designed to withstand the brutality of attackers. It's rare that an attacker will be able to even make a defense top budge further than a few inches before running out of steam, and while these have more staying power than attack types, they still suffer from higher friction due to their bottoms and weight.
Stamina types weigh in at almost nothing, stand very tall compared to other tops, and can spin for upwards of 3-4 minutes when not being hit. The obvious weakness here is the lack of weight and high profile. Attackers will eat them alive, whereas defense tops will be struggling to keep up with the speed of these lighter contenders.
Balance is self-explanatory. They draw from the strengths of each of the other types, but this blending of strategies more often than not ends up in expanding weaknesses or lower performance compared to specialized tops.

So it's kind of a rock-paper-scissors, where Attack beats Stamina, Stamina beats Defense, and Defense beats Attack. Where this can really get interesting is in the customization. Oh, did I not mention all of these tops can be stripped down to five parts and reassembled in whatever configuration you find fits? This is where all of our physics lessons come into play, and savvy players will spend time digging through parts and testing all sorts of combinations to find what works best. There's more to it than this, but I'll get into that next time.

Last Transmissions

There ya have it. I hate dice outside of combat and I enjoy silly kid games. You'll definitely be seeing more of me in the coming days, as we have another Pathfinder session with more wacky elements coming into play every week, including a discussion about my "persistent world" experiment. And of course, there's more to say about high-performance tops, so be on the look out for your favorite space-faring gamer! Ya'll have a good one now, y'hear?

Anarchistic Arcanists Without Rolling Dice!

Constructing An Arcanist Crew

For my next crew I decided to go with one of the natural enemies of the Guild, the Arcanists. Unlike my Guild crew, these "guys" aren't already painted but I really like the minis so it'll be fun to get them to the table. First up is Sasha Dubois, the leader of the crew. Unlike Sonnia, Sasha is a little more effective in regular combat but not as much so with magic. Even so she can still pack a nasty punch with what she can bring with her to the table.

Sasha Dubois
Quality 2+
Combat 3
Special abilities: animist (steam), leader, pistol, tough, unique

Being the master of the crew its no surprise to see the leader and tough abilities in there and a pistol is always handy to have. Rounding it out is the animist ability which gives Sasha access to the combat magics and also lets her control Boomer.

Boomer
Quality 4+
Combat 5
Special abilities: artificial (construct), big, heavy armor, sunder, tough

Boomer is Sasha's guard dog, following her onto the field and loyally protecting her from danger. Admittedly he's a giant metal guard dog but it really fits in with the Arcanist feel of using constructs to fill the ranks.

Next up are the vicious guns of Taryn Rose.

Taryn Rose
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire, ruthless, stealth, unique

With her pistols in hand she sneaks around the shadows of the battlefield looking for that perfect shot no matter who might be in the way. Nothing really new here as far as abilities other than ones that I've already covered.

Rounding out the crew is Valeria Alvaro.

Valeria Alvaro
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire, slippery, steadfast

In sharp contrast to the treacherous Taryn, Valeria is a much more get in your face kind of gal while the slippery ability ensures that she can slide away just as easily. As with Taryn, more familiar abilities with the exception of slippery though this ability really is nothing new. In fact slippery is actually just free disengage under a new name which is an easy way to change the feel for a game.

As with the Guild crew, this crew also really pushes for ranged combat over melee which really does fit with the theme that I've aiming for. This is an alternate wild west after all and the revolver did rule the day for most people then. This also means that you can expect another battle report soon as these two crews hit the table and we see just how well (or not so fell) my special rules work. But more on that later...

"My Eyes Glow Red As My Robe Erupts Into Magical Flames And I Say 'While I live and breath you shall not pass!!!'"
And... I rolled a 23 for my intimidate check. Did it work?

SpacerGal spoils us so. After all the actual plays I've listened to it seems that she has developed a very unique way of running a role playing game; you don't just get to role play, you actually need to if you really want to do anything.

Want to be intimidating? Bust out the angry voice and hit him with it! Diplomacy more your style? In that case do your best to be charming so that you can win her over to your side of the argument.

Our latest session of Pathfinder is a prime example of what I mean. Over the course of a four hour session I rolled my dice less than a half dozen times and at least half of that time was spent interacting with the crew of the ship we were sailing on. By comparison, during one of the actual plays I was recently listening to the players had almost twice as many roll playing die rolls just when they were interacting with two people! No combat at that point, just talking back and forth between the two groups.

This is not to say that having access to these dice mechanics is not useful because I really think it is. For brand new players and GMs it gives them something mechanical to latch onto as they get their head around the system but for any experienced players I definitely recommend that you try putting down the dice and talking it out. You'll be amazed at how much more it adds to entire experience.

The Parting Shot...

That's all for now but be sure to come back soon for more gaming goodness from the Sin City Snowman and SpacerGal. He's told me some of the ideas that are bubbling around in her brain and I can't wait to see what finally comes out! In the meantime if you have any comments feel free to leave them on the blog or you can drop us a line at SinCityDispatch@gmail.com. Until next time...

Finding The Path To The Reaching Guild

Hey everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the Dispatch!

We just had our first session of Pathfinder this week so I want to share my first impressions on that system but before we do that I thought we'd take a look at one of my crews for Torment's Reach.

Raising The Guild In Torment's Reach
Converting A Guild Crew To Song Of Blades

For my first crew I decided to just go with the Guild crew that I already had for two very good reasons. One: I already own them (always a plus that) and two: they're already painted (an even bigger plus!). First up is Sonnia Criid who I think I took the most liberty with as I made her much less effective in close combat and instead focused on her magic and ranged ability.

Sonnia Criid
Quality 2+
Combat 2
Special abilities: channeler, magic shield, leader, pistol, tough, unique

As is fitting, she is a leader and I also gave her tough as well since crew masters are should be harder to kill than your average joe. Finally I also gave her a pistol which is one of the new things I had to add into the system. This give her a +1 to her combat with a short range. Not only does this improve her combat score to an average level it also lets her reach out a touch someone without just relying on her magic. After all, a girl's gotta have options right?

Next up is Sonnia's able cohort in crime busting Samael Hopkins.

Samael Hopkins
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: entangle, hunter, pistol, scout, tough

I basically boiled down the special rules for Samael's huntin' tools by giving his the entangle ability. This lets him pin a target down (at least temporarily) and really keeps the feel of the character. He also has hunter and scout, both of which are new abilities I created. Hunter lets him choose an enemy personality mini before the game starts and Samael gains a +1 to his combat against it plus an extra victory point if he kills it in single combat while scout lets him ignore the movement penalties from ruins and woods. This makes him a very mobile mini in some situations and a potent personality killer as well.

Next up are the two Guild guards, Kyle Swift and Jacob Weaver.

Guild Guard
Quailty 4+
Combat 2
Special abilities: gregarious, pistol

These guys are really quite straight forward in my opinion. One thing of note is the fact that these guards are not actually personalities. Yes, they both have names but that is purely for fluff reasons and has no effect on the game mechanics.

Last but not least is the convict gunslinger Jeremiah Smythe just to round things out. Like the guild guards, he is not actually a personality but I wanted it there for flavor.

Convict Gunslinger
Quality 4+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire

Of the whole crew this one took the most creative license on my part for his special abilities. The gunfighter ability lets the mini use his pistols in hand-to-hand combat, giving him an effective combat score of 4 all the time. The important thing about this ability is that it is tied to the pistol ability and no other type of ranged weapon. If you've got a rifle then you're out of luck but with a pistol you're all set. Next is the rapid fire ability. Normally a mini can only make one combat per turn but this ability lets the mini make two ranged attacks for one action. This is a pretty potent ability but I tried to offset it by giving them a penalty of -1 to its combat score when it does this.

And there you have it! I haven't had a chance to try them in a game to see just how balanced (or unbalanced) the new special rules are but I'll be doing that soon and I'll be sure to pass along the experience. I also have a few more crews in the works as well so y'all come back now and we'll see how they're shaping up.

Trying To Find The Path
First Impressions Of The Pathfinder RPG

This week my role playing group set aside Mutants and Masterminds and we delved into the world of Pathfinder. This was the first of several sessions in our GMs custom world of Leviathos, a world that has been devastated by a magical disaster (caused by the elves... go figure) that flooded large portions of the world. There are still large islands scattered around and our adventure opened with us arriving on Corvaysa, a very large island (bigger than New Zealand but smaller than Austailia to give some perspective) that is the home to the strongest of the human kingdoms.

So what about Pathfinder? Overall, it seems very much like the D&D of old which isn't that surprising since that is effectively what it is. I never played 3.5 but from everything I've heard it is basically the same thing. We haven't actually had any real combat yet so I can't comment on that but other than that it seems like a pretty good system. I can see how character creation can get kind of crunch especially when you are picking your feats. There are no where near as many as 4e but there are still a pretty hefty helping of them to choose from but I had a very specific concept in mind so I was able to just skim the lists and pick what fit my character. Equipment was another story as Pat is being quite specific about this part but that is more his style and I can see a GM playing this aspect either strictly or loosely depending on preference.

So overall, it looks pretty good so far. Not a raving review but so far the system hasn't struck me as anything innovative which I really don't expect it to. Then again that familiarity also makes it very easy to get into and the Pathfinder books are beautifully done and come in pdf as well as hardcovers. If you really want the physical copy of the core book you can plunk down the $50 and get a gorgeous looking full color hard bound book or you can spend $10 and get a pdf of the same thing, all depends on your preference which is a really nice option in my opinion. Don't get me wrong; I love the book but being able to get all the info for $10 sold me on the pdf instantly.

So if you like 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons, are an old time gamer from earlier editions, or you just want to try something different from 4e for a while I definitely recommend checking this one out. The production qualities are great and having the pdf option makes it extremely affordable plus Paizo (and a good number of other companies)is coming out with new stuff for the line all the time. Well supported, high quality production, and affordable price; ya can't really ask for more can you?

The Parting Shot...

And there's another one in the books! I had wanted to put in pictures of the various models for the Guild but I'll have to add that later. Be sure to come back again as we look at some of the other crews that I'm working on (think I've got three more in the works right now...) plus I'm going to get a battle report up for Torment's Reach as well. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them here on the blog or you can email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Until next time...