Supine Arcanum

So it's been a while since I posted last and with the new job and a lot of projects on the table I have been a little pressed for time. Fortunately, I've managed to cram what reading I can into the 15 minute breaks and pre unconscious post work collapses I have managed to scrounge together. So here is a list of the Pathfinder stuff I have been reading for the last 6 months and the short reviews of a FEW of the things I've been reading. Legendary Hybrids: The Doomguard  A new 3rd party hybrid class by Legendary Games, the Doomguard is one part cavalier, one part ranger, and all angst. Basically a warrior doomed to die by the hands of some known tragic violence likely brought on by a horrible monster's hands, the Doomguard is both cursed by this knowledge and empowered by it. You get to defy fate with some modified challenge mechanics, get to change your skills based on what creature type is looking to murder you in the future, and surprisingly curses that come...

Ability Scores and Design Intent So we've got our concept and we've got a template to work from, so lets construct. To start, lets work on the stats. As I talked about before in the ability scores post, ability scores are the core from which all characters concepts spring from on a mechanical level. Build these stats in the proper priority and the character will sing on the field, build it without thinking about what stats you need and you'll be struggling the whole game trying to make it work. From our base, we have a stat line that looks something like this, Str 13, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8 Good Dex & Con, okay Str and bad Cha. This is the basic prebuilt, "elite" array for ranged NPCs from the core rulebook. Now, for a ranged based character like the bow wielding hussar we started with it's great, but for this cow riding lancer whose meant to charge into melee these stats aren't really that helpful. The high Dex is fine for good A...

Initiate Brave CR 1/2 XP 200 Human Hussar 1 N Medium humanoid (human) Init +3; Senses Perception +4 DEFENSE AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +3 Dex) hp 12 (1d10+2) Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +0 OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee Tomahawk +4 (1d8+1/×3), Lance +2 (1d8+1/x3), Club +2 (1d6+1), or Dagger +4 (1d4+1/19-20) Ranged Composite Longbow (Str+1) +4 (1d8+1/x3), Tomahawk +4 (1d8+1/x3), Club +4 (1d6+1), or Dagger +4 (1d4+1/19-20) Special Attacks skirmish +1d6 STATISTICS Str 13, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8 Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15 Feats Mounted Combat B , Ride-By Attack, Mounted Archery, Point-Blank Shot B Skills Acrobatics +6, Climb +0, Escape Artist +2, Handle Animal +3, Intimidate +3, Knowledge (nature) +5, Perception +4, Ride +6 (+10 when riding his bonded mount), Sleight of Hand +2, Survival +4, Swim +0 Languages Common, Slivic SQ mount (mustang), line of the arrow, favored (+1 Skill Point) Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds; Other Gear ...

Alright so we've got our concept, The Ogrekin Battle Cattle. The design doc is simple, and the bullets are laid out as follows. Needs to be strong and hit hard Needs to be tanky and both it and it's mount needs to be able to survive more than a few hits. This matches its giant nature and makes sure it doesn't just die to ranged attacks or a brace.  Needs to be kind of funny: It sounds silly and that's part of the point. They are like fallout super mutants on a cow. The players will laugh, and it will be disarming, which will make that first charge one of these (or a group in a cavalry charge) gives to the players all the more terrifying when it hits and the target basically explodes. It will be funny, then terrifying Now, to step 2! Step 2: Resources So, I know I want to make a mounted character, I know I want to put him on a cow, and I want him to charge things at high speed and blow them up with a single powerful hit. From previous experience in my...

For this post I wanted to try something different. I wanted to focus on one of my favorite things to finish but one of my least favorite things to do, NPC creation. I know it might sound odd, but the process of making characters in my experience is always a long, cumbersome experience. There's concepting, researching the mechanics I need to get it to work, cross referencing... the whole thing can be a pain. That said, I know I'm not the only one who gets anxious at the thought of building new characters, so I'm going to share my process with everyone here, and see if it helps. So, today I'm going to build some Blanks, NPCs that are not so much unique individuals but rather unnamed characters meant to fill in the rolls that you need during a given session. These are the unnamed bandits on the side of the road helping your king of thieves, the apprentices helping your wizard, the cavalry teams chasing you down. These guys don't have names, but they've got solid ...

One of the most difficult challenges unique to tabletop gaming is the unique demands of narrative and the audience. In tabletop, the GM often assumes that they are just here to write a story for a single viewer and that it is then performed (at best) more or less as they had written it by their players for the enjoyment of all involved. This is also the first mistake that many of us make, myself included. Tabletops are an interactive medium with not only multiple actors looking to engage with the narrative in an often literal way that changes it, but also with multiple audiences, each with their own wants, expectations, and goals when they sit down to play. In essence, each player is not only your player, but a whole new audience and demographic in and of themselves. So instead of writing 1 story for you and your 4 players to enjoy, you're actually writing 5 stories, that can all be wildly different, and might all have to be running all at once. This is a daunting task for an...