Merric's Musings

Lanharath has mutated more than first thought...

: merricb; March 26th, 21:56

Going through the levelling up process for Lanharath, my kalashtar ardent in Martin's Eberron campaign, I first began by looking at multiclass feats to retrain Martyr's Surge into. (Martyr's Surge is a great feat, but I'm not getting bloodied enough - that's Adam's job). Eventually, I settled on a bard multiclass feat, although - just to be fun - I took the Heroes of the Feywild one which gives me a skald's aura and the minor action to use the healing surge is taken by the character being healed, not me.

Then I went a little deeper, because I've been getting interested in alchemical items. How about taking the Alchemist feat? I did a search on the D&D Compendium, and in addition to Alchemist, turned up the Mark of Making feat.

It's a really impressive feat: Alchemist at 2 levels higher, Enchant Magic Item at 2 levels higher, and counts as Ritual Caster for Creation-type rituals. Ooh. Nice.

It changes Lanharath into more of a Fiddler-type character (from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen), which I'm quite happy with. It'll also give him ranged and area attacks, which will be very nice given how much he's failed to get into melee recently. Of course, it's unlikely he'll find the reagents in the middle of this swamp, but it won't be that long before we head back to civilization and he can start using the Mark.

So, in addition to giving him orange skin, the mutating effect of the pyramid seems to have given him the Mark of Making! At his next level - 10th - he'll take the multiclass bard feat (which will give him training in Arcana).

It seems like a fun thing to do with the character, and this is the right time to do it.

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Heroclix new Player's Guide and Tournament rules

: merricb; March 13th, 20:55

WizKids has just released the latest Player's Guides and Tournament Rules for HeroClix, and there are some big changes afoot. Of most interest to me was the cleaning up of the Horde rules (which work pretty much as they should), but more significant to all the players around here are the changes to the Modern Age sets.

From July 1st, Web of Spiderman (i.e. Nightcrawler) is no longer legal. We still have a couple of IG tournaments where you'll see him, but following that it's a big goodbye to one of the most annoying figures in the format.

The official announcement

Also: New Alternative Team Abilities!

Oh, and the Lord of the Rings maps are legal in all tournaments, though the Star Trek maps aren't. There is a brief reference to an "Alternative Age", but it looks like all other references to this have been deleted. (I guess that they were planning a format where ALL Heroclix figures were legal, but there were problems that caused such not to occur).

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A first look at "Lords of Waterdeep"

: merricb; February 21st, 1:58

Thanks to the kind people at Wizards of the Coast (and especially Rodney Thompson), I'm now in possession of the new D&D boardgame, Lords of Waterdeep.

The game is mostly a worker-placement game, a common mechanics in European boardgames, but not one I've previously seen in a D&D-themed game. As I really, really enjoy worker placement games, I can't wait to actually play it. Over the next few days or weeks, I'll be playing it with my friends, posting session reports on boardgamegeek.com, and eventually reviewing it properly.

The game is for 2-5 players and plays in about an hour; as your number of Agents (workers) is dependent on the number of players (more for fewer players), it looks like the game time will be fairly constant regardless of the number of players - between 8-10 moves per turn, not counting extra time for finishing quests, setting up, and all the other things that contribute to the length of a boardgame.

The game begins with nine basic actions available - which are themed as Buildings, much like Caylus or Deadwood, and include such buildings as Aurora's Realms Shop from which you get 4 gold, and the Grinning Lion Tavern, which allows you to recruit two rogues. Further buildings (and thus, actions) enter play by people choosing the Builder's Hall action which allow them to construct from a selection of three buildings. There are 24 advanced buildings in the game, and they become available in a random order, thus ensuring the game doesn't play the game each time. (Compare to Caylus where all buildings are available for purchase and some very definitive strategies have come to dominate play).

Victory points are scored at end of game for the adventurers you've recruited and the gold you've acquired, but more significant are the points you'll get for your hidden victory condition (depending on which Lord of Waterdeep you're playing), and the points you achieve for quests during the game. Quests generally require adventurers and gold to complete, and reward you with VPs, gold and/or other unique rewards.

Interfering with each other's plans is more prominent than in similar games. Of course, you still have the old standby of taking the action space another player wants, but each player also has a hand of Intrigue Cards, which range from an Ambush which causes characters to lose rogues from their tavern (supply), to Tax Collection which gives you money but allows other people to spend money to gain VPs, to the Mandatory Quests which require another player to complete them before they can complete their better-rewarded quests. It will be interesting to see how the chaos this creates plays in the game.

There are 50 Intrigue cards, 60 Quest cards and 11 Lords of Waterdeep cards.

It all looks very promising and I hope to get my first game of it tomorrow... and likely several more over the next few days.

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Planning to run a Pathfinder Adventure Path - a Sunday campaign

: merricb; February 12th, 23:45

I was recently asked by a friend if I'd run a Pathfinder game. Speaking later to Greg, he agreed that he wouldn't mind giving the system a try.

It's still early days - Greg won't be free for about another month or so - but following that the game should be good to go. Assuming we get players, of course! I'll ask around at Good Games, but a group of 4-5 players would be best.

Sessions would run at Greg's new mansion (it lies between Humffray St Nth and Water St) on Sunday afternoons (probably 1pm-5pm), on as many Sundays as the group can manage; at present that would seem like 3 out of 4 Sundays or thereabouts.

I'd run a Pathfinder adventure path, of which I have the following:

Council of Thieves

Don't go out after dark! In the run-down Chelish capital of Westcrown, fallen from grace generations ago by the rise of the devil-worshiping House of Thrune, strange beasts of shadow prowl the streets after nightfall. At the same time, the head of the city's all-powerful crime syndicate, the notorious Council of Thieves, has grown unstable, and a new power is determined to take control—even if it means burning Westcrown to the ground.

The Council of Thieves Adventure Path is a gritty, urban adventure of organized crime, corrupt officials, and ancient curses. In their efforts to help the revolutionary Children of Westcrown, the heroes must infiltrate the halls of power, moonlight as actors in a deadly play, delve into a condemned Pathfinder Lodge and a mad wizard's labyrinth, make deals with hags, and face down the hordes of Hell itself—all while pursued relentlessly by vampires, assassins, and the infamous law-keepers known as Hellknights.

Kingmaker

The land rush is on! Sent south by Brevoy, the heroes have the unenviable task of venturing into the infamous Stolen Lands and annexing the territory, facing down monsters, bandits, and worse. It's hard enough to conquer territory—but does a ragtag band of adventures have what it takes to found and defend a burgeoning kingdom from the terrors of the wild?

The Kingmaker Adventure Path takes the heroes from encounters with mysterious bandit lords and barbaric raiders through the trials and tribulations of developing and defending their new settlement in the notoriously lawless River Kingdoms. Yet when war comes to the Stolen Lands in earnest, it's up the heroes to take up a mystical blade and stand tall against the horrors of man, beast, and strange creatures more dangerous than either...

Serpent's Skull

Race to the lost city! Deep in the southern jungles, a fantastic city of wonders lies ruined and forgotten by the outside world, ripe for plundering and exploration by the heroes. Yet they aren't alone—several other factions, from deadly Red Mantis assassins to the avaricious Aspis Consortium—have also been tipped off to the city's existence, and the race is on to see who will reach it first. Of course, nothing in the jungle is as easy as it seems. For once they arrive, the heroes discover that the city may be lost, but it is not uninhabited...

The Serpent's Skull Adventure Path takes players from a shipwreck on the dangerous shores of the pirate island called Smuggler's Shiv to the deep forests of the Mwangi Expanse, and into a lost city where an ancient and powerful race of serpentfolk seeks to resurrect their dead god.

Carrion Crown

From the whispering shadows of haunted Ustalav an ancient evil rises to grip the world in a new age of horror!

Amid the mists of this land of dark superstition and dread secrets stand both those who would defy the return of evil and those who would seek its terrible favor. Can the heroes discern their allies from their enemies in time to save a tortured realm from a tyrant’s return? Pathfinder’s darkest and most frightening campaign ever sets the heroes against the agents of Golarion’s most notorious villain, the Whispering Tyrant, in a terrifying trek across a land of lurking horror and ancient mysteries.

Jade Regent

When a decades-old secret is exposed, an unassuming local tavern-owner and a close friend of the PCs discovers her birthright is to rule one of the ancient Dragon Empires of Tian Xia—the empire of Minkai. Yet the current ruler of this empire, the mysterious and increasingly cruel Jade Regent, has no intention of giving up his hold over the throne. In order to save Minkai from a would-be tyrant, the PCs must not only escort their friend from Varisia to Tian Xia, braving the frozen horrors of the Crown of the World, but must aid her in gaining the trust and support of a nation on the edge of anarchy.

So, do any of those campaigns sound appealing? (For those interested in the Pathfinder rules, the SRD can be found here or here).

This of course means I'd be running 4E on Friday, AD&D on Saturday and PF on Sunday...

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Interesting aspects of AD&D combat

: merricb; February 8th, 23:47

One of the interesting things about running AD&D combat after so long with 3E and 4E is how it allows simultaneous resolution of melee combat. In particular, when most of the group are just hitting monsters with their swords, hammers and axes, I've told them the AC they need to hit, and then let them tell me the damage (if they hit). There's not a lot of waiting around.

This is really important in this campaign, as I've had up to nine players (and three dogs) in the game at once. If we played using the 3e and 4e paradigm, which spends a lot of time on each action, then combat would be going for hours.

The fewer players you have, the more time you have to resolve individual actions. It's not a surprise that some of the best sessions I've had of 4E were with only 3 players.

Non-cyclical initiative also helps AD&D run quicker; especially as you don't have to plan out your move on your turn because the situation changes so much.

That said, if you're playing a fighter in AD&D, you really would like your DM to allow you to do Cool Stuff through description from time to time.

Of course, when I say "AD&D", I'm talking about a game that doesn't exist in the rulebooks. Gary Gygax was many things, but a good rule writer was not one of them. It's staggering to look at the rules that are missing from the AD&D tomes. A good example proceeds from the morale rules, where failed morale gives four options:

* Surrender (no problem there)
* Flee in Panic

* Disengage/Retreat

* Fall back, fighting

However, when you look at the rules for moving from combat, you get the following:

It is never possible to flee from on encounter where the opponent party is in striking range. (See Breaking Off From Melee, below)

Breaking Off From Melee:
At such time as any creature decides, it can break off the engagement and flee the melee. To do so, however, allows the opponent a free attack or attack routine. This attack is calculated as if it were a rear attack upon a stunned opponent. When this attack is completed, the retiring/fleeing party may move away at full movement rate, and unless the opponent pursues and is able to move at a higher rate of speed, the melee is ended and the situation becomes one of encounter avoidance.

So, what's the difference between "Flee in panic", "Disengage/retreat" and "Fall back, fighting"?

The Player's Handbook gives a little more detail:

Participants in a melee can opt to attack, parry, fall back, or flee. attack can be by weapon, bore hands, or grappling. Parrying disallows any return artack that round, but the strength "to hit" bonus is then subtracted from the opponent's "to hit" dice roll(s), so the character is less likely to be hit. Falling back is a retrograde move facing the opponent(s) and can be used in conjunction with a parry, and opponent creatures are able to follow if not otherwise engaged. Fleeing means as rapid a withdrawal from combat as possible; while it exposes the character to rear attack at the time, subsequent attacks can only be made if the opponent is able to follow the fleeing character at equal or greater speed.

Given that most characters have a zero modifier "to hit" from Strength - and even most of the better ones just a +1 - parrying is one of Gygax's really bad rules. All of these descriptions look like they'll be explained further in the DMG, but - surprise, surprise - such was not forthcoming.

Help comes from the various Basic D&D games, but AD&D is a frustratingly incomplete game in some of its core rules. And with some really, really overcomplicated rules.

Interestingly, the Bless spell adds +1 to morale, whilst AD&D morale is expressed in a percentage. Hmm. (It's also a really flawed version of morale; my favourite remains that in Moldvay).

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Saturday AD&D... and D&D on Sunday

: merricb; February 5th, 23:02

The Saturday AD&D "Viking" Campaign reached a milestone on Saturday with 9 players participating (not including Josh, Adam and Rich who were all absent) and the evil priest finally slain. So was Reece's character... sorry about that. The group also got to meet their local baron, who was a real bastard who took half their gold and cut off Chris's hand.

Despite that, it wasn't a big XP session, with only 500 XP or so being awarded.

It ends the second story of the game, and now I'll have to work out a new adventure for everyone, although the dungeon of the duergar remains for those who want to explore it. If you've any suggestions as to where the campaign should go from here or what you'd like to do, please post them!

Next week will be the smaller team (as Paul's campaign runs), but the week after we'll have Callan starting up his AD&D dungeon - so you can have the choice of taking your PC into either game.

I'm also giving thought to running a Sunday afternoon campaign, using whichever system people would want to use and possibly for just a couple of people (say Adam & Greg). Something like the Pathfinder Kingmaker series (where you get to found a kingdom) or something else (Star Wars) or even traditional (D&D 4E) dependent on desire. It'd be fortnightly at best, but given Greg is very unlikely to be able to make other times, it'd allow him to participate in some role-playing.

Let me know if you're interested in a Sunday afternoon game... and which system/scenario you'd like to play.

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AD&D - Item Saving Throws

: merricb; January 21st, 23:25

One of my contentions about the D&D rules is that there are a number of areas where Gary Gygax failed to give a rule because it was in a previous edition of the rules. Thus, you require CHAINMAIL to use a lot of original D&D, and there are a number of areas in AD&D that aren't described because the rules are in oD&D.

Item Saving Throws are one that have caused trouble over the years. The AD&D DMG gives the rules for how they make or fail the checks, but doesn't actually say [i]when[/i] to make the checks. So, we've seen over the years versions like "every time you get hit", "when you fail a save" or "when you fail a save with a natural 1".

However, the original D&D rules give guidelines as to when to use item saving throws! Monsters & Treasure, page 38, reads, "Magical items will, during the course of play, be struck by various forms of weapons. For the sake of simplicity, it is generally easier to assume that they survive unharmed if their wearer/user is not killed (exception, Helms). If the wearer is killed, or the items are alone, throw for them on the following table..."

AD&D 2E gave the rule as "when character failed saving throw or unattended", but - for various reasons - I prefer the oD&D rule and will be using it in my AD&D game.

The Amber RPG and Me

: merricb; December 15th, 2011

When I was at university - a very long time ago now - a rather interesting role-playing game came out: the Amber Diceless RPG. Based on the works of Roger Zelazny, it allowed the players to play Machievellian demi-god-like characters, who would spend a fair amount of time scheming against each other as well as dealing with the latest threat to whatever they held dear.

The campaign we set up lasted about three years (of which I played in a couple of), and involved from 6-13 players each session. We swapped over GMs throughout, as the game was *very* GM-intensive, and some sessions would have a couple of co-GMs just to deal with action in several places at once.

More than any other RPG, Amber taught me about story-telling and role-playing, and about how dangerous DM Fiat is. D&D has always been my first love, and I've very rarely played Amber since my university years, but the games of Amber I played and ran have informed my D&D play since.

On occasion, I get out the Amber books and run a Throne War - a one session game where the player characters attempt to overcome each other in a contest for the Throne of Amber. I've done it twice in the past decade, and I'll be running another such session tonight (in celebration of my birthday). I've got 5 or 6 players lined up for the action, and it should be a lot of fun. Unlike many other RPGs, Amber rather likes having more players, just because it causes more conflict, plotting, cabals and the like. Difficult to DM well, and the way I run Amber today will not be the same way as how I ran it 17 years ago.

Although I learnt a lot about DMing from Amber, running multiple D&D games for the past decade has also left its mark.

Back when I first ran Amber, it was in a very sandbox, freeform style; the players would drive the action. When I ran Serenity recently, I was more structured about the action: dividing the adventure into acts and scenes that I thought would occur. Though I was amenable for the players running off the rails, I gave them a lot more guidance as to how the adventure could unfold.

So, for tonight's session, although I expect it'll be mostly player-driven, I'll have a back-up plan for structuring the action.

In addition, I'll be keeping the players (perhaps not the characters) in one group, so there won't be so much "secret" knowledge... which is entirely due to me not wanting players to get bored while waiting for their turn to come around with the DM and just sitting in a corner. Secret plans and splitting up the group? Yeah, leads to some boring times. Better to have everyone there all the time, being entertained by the plotting (and failures) of the others. There'll be some secret information, certainly, but not at the expense of engagement.

At least, that's the plan. Whether it will come to pass is another thing entirely!

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AD&D - The Frost Queen

: merricb; December 5th, 2011

For the first time in a very long time, I’m running an AD&D (1st edition) campaign again. I almost wasn’t. I expected I might be running some players who were playing in D&D Encounters but who were new to D&D in general, so running both AD&D and D&D 4E for them might prove confusing, but on the day I just threw the AD&D books in my bag and went with my original desire: to run an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I’m very glad I did.

I ended up with five players: Adam, Chris, Rich, Jackson and Nash. The initial idea for the campaign was to run a Viking-style campaign – a campaign in the lands of the Frost Barbarians of the World of Greyhawk. Adam had previously mentioned to me the desire to run an eladrin, so in AD&D terms that translated to playing an elf fighter/magic-user. The other characters came from a small village that was in trouble: its longship had been sunk along with all hands in the recent raiding season, and a poor harvest meant that it would likely not have enough food to make it through the winter. Thus, the need for the young men of the village (just reaching adulthood) to go on adventures to save the village. At least, that was the initial plan. With Adam wanting to play this fey character, it changed my initial thinking enough so I had the group begging aid of the Frost Queen – the whimsical leader of the fey in Faerie. It casts the initial adventure in a suitably mythic tone and it’ll be very interesting to see where it goes from here.

Although I had about three Player’s Handbooks with me, character generation was very much a case of me going around the table and letting everyone know what choices they had rather than the players consulting the books. There aren’t that many choices in any case! We began by rolling ability scores – so the best three dice from 4d6, six times, arranged as desired. Most of the characters ended up with a 15 or 16 in an ability score; Jackson was the only one who had the highest roll of a 14! I chose not to let him reroll – either the character will prosper, or it’ll die and he’ll have to create a new character. If played well, it will prosper.

I was strict on the races and classes I allowed the players; in fact, we ended up with only characters of the base four classes (and multiclass combinations of those classes). Adam played an elf fighter/magic-user, as previously agreed upon. Rich has a human thief, Chris has a human cleric, Nash has a half-orc fighter/thief, and Jackson played a human fighter. All characters started with maximum hit points (as AD&D is hard enough to survive normally), and after buying armour and weapons, most characters didn’t have that much left over. Chris didn’t have enough for a backpack, buying a large sack instead. At least he had good armour: a necessity in AD&D! Alignments were fun – most of the characters opted for Chaotic Neutral, with Chris being Neutral Good and Adam being Chaotic Good.

The adventure began with the four villagers coming upon Adam’s character (Arathiel) being attacked by four goblins in the forest. The first combat began with the thief and fighters using their bows and slings against the goblins, Adam using his longsword, and Chris readying his mace against a charge. I rolled the goblins’ hit points – something I haven’t done for a few years, and gained the not-so-great totals of 2, 1, 1 and 6. Three of the goblins died very quickly indeed, but one was able to stab Adam for 5 damage before expiring; as Adam only had 7 hit points, this was a grievous wound. The group now had to decide what to do with this strange elf, so they trussed him up and brought them back to the village, his wound untreated.

In the village longhall, Elder Hagar oversaw the village council and our heroes in deliberation. Adam decided that what his character needed was an Irish accent, and after we all stopped laughing, Adam revealed that the village’s troubles could be solved by the Frost Queen. The Frost Queen would require a service in exchange, but he was sure that some arrangement could be made. Seeing no other option, Hagar agreed and sent the heroes to find the Frost Queen and seek her aid. I’m very appreciative of Adam’s role-playing here, which made all the set-up dialogue so much more entertaining. Eventually, Chris’s cleric (Bjorn) relented and healed Adam. The next day, it would be off to see the Frost Queen!

One fun little thing we threw in there was that Arathiel wasn’t actually welcome in the Frost Queen’s court, as he’d been expelled for uncouth behaviour. He was hoping that aiding the villagers would help get him back in the Frost Queen’s good graces.

He led the group through the forest to a gateway to the Feywild, and from there they made their way to the Frost Queen’s court. Although I’m using the original AD&D rules, my conception of the world is very much coloured by recent design of the Feywild and Shadowfell, both of which I find superior to the original D&D’s cosmology. Once there, the Frost Queen was amenable to their offer: in exchange for their service (and oaths of fealty), she’d protect the village during the winter ahead. Hooray! We have a starting point for the campaign. And, of course, she wanted them to perform a service immediately: the goblins had stolen a precious jewel from her. The group needed to recover it for her to prove themselves worthy.

One of the ongoing problems with D&D play is the presence of higher-level characters: why aren’t they doing the job themselves? In the case of the Frost Queen, that problem disappears: she’s arrogant and considers a lot of things beneath her and her court (in other words, she’s of Faerie). She’s very happy to send mortals to do the dirty work. And so, off the heroes went to the goblins’ cave to find the Frost Queen’s Jewel (a diamond).

I was improvising a lot of this session: I knew coming in what I wanted the shape of it to be, but I hadn’t sat down beforehand and planned it out in detail. During a short break, I drew up the map of the goblin cave: not that spectacular, but enough for the players to get familiar with the system. Here’s what I came up with:

The first fight was against the six goblins (hp 4, 7, 2, 1, 2, 3) in the guard chamber. Those goblins had been playing knucklebones, and the group surprised them – poor guards indeed! I decided against using the straight AD&D surprise system (as it has its oddities) and used that of Moldvay instead, giving the characters a full round of free actions rather than 2 segments of action. In that time, missile fire cut down most of the guards, and the rest were accounted for in a round or two of melee.

Chris began to get frustrated at this time with his lack of a missile weapon; I can only sympathize, though I know his plight will get better as he gains levels and thus gets better spells and also when the group meet the undead. (Next session!) I was using a modified version of the AD&D initiative system, and the group was rolling really well for initiative, so the missile fire was being very effective in this session: it won’t always be so.

I was very gratified when the group explored the passageway to the left and triggered the pit trap. I explained to them that thieves can’t actually detect large traps (that’s what dwarves are for), and that explains the use of a 10 foot pole on the equipment list. Amusingly, with a 2 in 6 chance of each character triggering the trap, only the last to cross it – Nash – fell into the pit. Nash wasn’t so amused, but used the first thief skill of the day: his 90% chance to climb out of the pit succeeded.

Rich got his moment in the sun with the next encounter, as the group investigated the room of fungi in which a skeleton grasped a leather bag from which silver spilled, but giant centipede lurked around. Using his Move Silently skill, he was able to retrieve the bag unnoticed by the centipedes! This was particularly impressive, as he had about a 30% chance (or less) of succeeding. Ah, the ineptitude of the 1st level thief in AD&D…

The group happily squashed the spiders, and then moved on to the next room of 8 goblins and their pet wolf. With initiative won by the group, Adam got off his one spell of the day: sleep. And rolled really well to affect them – all the monsters were put to sleep! (He rolled a 13 on 4d4, needing a 12 to send the goblins and wolf to sleep). The group were by now getting used to how deadly AD&D combat could be – and they were very pleased to not have to fight that encounter.

The final encounter of the dungeon was the fight against the goblin chief and his two bodyguards: all three with 8 hit points, AC 5 and attacking as HD 1+1. This one was tough, with the goblins getting three good hits against the party, but eventually they were slain. Chris used his remaining healing spells to patch up the party, and the group recovered the Queen’s diamond – as well as finding some other treasure. The chief had been wielding a battleaxe +1 (which Jackson took), and had two other gems. Random rolling revealed they were worth a total of 1,500 gold pieces… a very nice windfall which provided the group with a lot of experience points!

The group looked along the smelly passageway sloping downwards, and decided that they didn’t need to risk it. They returned to the Frost Queen, were assured their village would be provided for, and returned home as heroes… and still in the service of the Frost Queen. More adventures await, but that was enough for the first session.

I gave out some individual awards based on ability use and monsters defeated, but I think I’ll dispense with those in the future as the system isn’t as clear (or fair) as I’d like it to be. The characters gained between 500 and 800 experience points each, and so were well on the way to the second level. In all, the session took about 2-½ hours including character generation, and I’m really happy with how it played. Pacing-wise, it ran really well.

The next session will be set in the spring, the winter now behind them, and the group being sent on a new mission by the Frost Queen. It’ll also have undead in it, which should make Chris’s cleric far more potent. As the campaign continues, I’ll also delve into the Frost Barbarian lore. For now, the players can be happy with what they achieved, and the loot they gained (much of which will probably be spent on better armour…)

Pathfinder and Paranoia

: merricb; November 30th, 2011

Well, I now have most of the core of Pathfinder sitting on my shelf: the Core Book, the first Bestiary (the second is ordered but not in stock at MilSims), the Games Mastery Guide, and the Advanced Player's Guide. Next to that is 40 Adventure Path modules, and sitting on the floor wanting a place to stay is the Paizo Beginner's Box.

What I'll do with all of that is anyone's guess. If my players suddenly become interested in playing Pathfinder, I'm ready for them. However, at present I think it's going to serve more as reference material - mostly so I know what people are talking about when they talk Pathfinder.

I've started reviewing the current Adventure Path (Jade Regent) and it's been an interesting experience. Popping in to research what other people think of the books on the Paizo boards have opened my eyes to a few flaws here and there - the most damning being the problems with the caravan rules. The adventures aren't as interesting to read as I hoped (mainly because there's only so many dungeons that I can take), but the good bits are very good. Alas, there are enough assumptions and plot points that I disagree with that if I ever ran the adventures, I'd have to gut a lot of them... especially the NPCs who accompany the PCs, who, four parts out of six in, haven't yet shown themselves to be worth including.

Meanwhile, I've also been picking up the small selection of Paranoia 25th Anniversary products: the core rulebooks and the adventures. However, Mongoose are having some big QA issues on their major releases (the reprint "Redux" adventures), so I'm feeling rather let down by them.

This is another game that I don't have time to run; unlike Call of Cthulhu, it's a lot harder to run with fewer players (as an interim game). You really want 4-6 players all backstabbing each other... but I may get the opportunity next year.

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Merric's Musings

Thoughts from an Australian Gamer