Interest in my first Pathfinder Session

Hi all,

There have been a goodly number of people telling me they are interested in knowing more about my recent Pathfinder session, the first I've ever played. The session report I wrote about it can be found HERE. I hope everyone doesn't find it underwhelming!

That's all for now, folks. Please write me comments on the session report.

Slow Blog Days

I'm currently in a Sargasso Sea of busy-ness this week, between work, family, and other real life stuff. On the gaming side of my existence, I'm also using my spare time to work on my Pathfinder character (read my session report on my first Pathfinder game for the reasons why I'm desperate to tighten up my character!)

Also taking up my free time is reading some fiction as well as all the blogging I've been trying to do, all the blogs I've been reading, and all the RPGs I've been reading. Something has to give, and unfortunately the blog seems to be getting the short shrift.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask everyone again for some more advice on getting rid of some gaming stuff. My blog-based "yard sale" hasn't generated much interest (though it seems like someone who I have contacted via Craigslist might want to buy all the video games I listed).

Seriously, any thoughts? Anyone interested in anything? ;-)

That's all for now. I hope to blog something of more substance again soon. I have a huge list of more involved topics that I want to write about, and I want to do them justice. Hopefully I'll have the time soon to do so...

Stay tuned, and as always, happy gaming!

Conan Rakes in the Gold Pieces!

I know I'm a bit late to the party with this, but just in case you hadn't heard, a painting of Conan by the recently late, always great Frank Frazetta sold for $1.5 million! I find it thrilling that a piece of fantasy artwork could garner that sort of cash! Good job, Frank. You're sorely missed.

Blog-based Yard Sale!

Ok, since I asked in a prior post for opinions on using one's blog to attempt to sell some stuff, and those that did respond seemed to think it wasn't a horrible thing to do, I have decided to forge ahead and do this here post with a list of things I'd like to sell.

I still feel a bit weird doing this, but...here goes:

I have a bunch of roleplaying games, board/card games, and PC games that I want to get rid of ASAP! All games are in great condition, with just minor shelf wear, and come with all original components unless otherwise noted. The PC games are gently used, some of them barely played. These all come with boxes, manuals, and the discs are pristine!

I am selling all games for just $10 each (or less if noted next to the name of the item)! Many of these items are pretty rare (I think), so selling them at this price is a steal (I think)!

If you want to buy some things in "bulk," contact me and we'll work on a reduced-price deal for multiple items!

I am looking to sell rather than trade, since one of the reasons for this sale is to de-clutter my house. But if you really want to propose a trade, let me know. I might be interested in some fantasy RPG stuff.

In general, let me know if you have any questions. And yes, I know that there's such things as eBay and Craigslist, but these days eBay is too much of a hassle for me, and Craigslist never gives me the results I am looking for. And I figured this portion of the blogosphere has more of the target market for these items. But if anyone has some advice on how to sell gaming stuff successfully, I'm all ears!

And please, if you don't mind, feel free to spread the word! Tell your friends!

Here's the list of games:

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS:

- Forbidden Lore box set for Ravenloft campaign setting (includes everything but fortune telling dice and cards that originally came with the set)

WHITE WOLF RPGS:

- Wraith: The Oblivion core rule book

- Charnel Houses of Europe (Wraith: The Oblivion sourcebook) = $5

- Mage: The Ascension core rule book

- Guide to the Technocracy for Mage: The Ascension

- Werewolf: The Apocalypse core rule book

OTHER RPG GAMES:

- Shadowrun 3rd Edition core rule book

- In Nomine core rule book

- Continuum core rule book

BOARD/CARD GAMES:

- Risk 2210 board game

- Risk and Castle Risk combination board game

- Samurai Swords board game

- Thieves Guild fantasy board game

- Dungeoneer Card Game: Tomb of the Lich Lord (if you buy this, I will give you extra cards for the game for free!)

PC VIDEO GAMES:

- Panzer General II (includes huge strategy guide)

- Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun (with Firestorm Expansion)

- Warcraft III

- Galactic Civilizations

- Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy

- Spinter Cell

- Fallout 1 and 2 (both games in one package)

- And a rare game called Alien Logic, based on the Skyrealms of Jorune roleplaying game

Pathfinder Session: 7/25/10

So, I sat at my first table-top game in many many years on Saturday. I'm a new player in a group playing the Pathfinder Council of Thieves Adventure Path.

We played for about five hours, from about 1 PM to 6 PM. I haven't roleplayed at a table-top game in the early-to-late afternoon time period on a Saturday for about a decade! It's weird, and sort of depressing, each time something like that occurs to me.

For starters, it's a good group of people that I met! They accepted me very readily to the table for the most part. Of course there was some awkwardness, but that's to be expected in any kind of first-time human interaction, right? Most of them, I think, are around my age (30s). We didn't do too much sharing of our personal information, but I think more of that will happen as time goes on. There was a total of seven of us, six players and the GM. That's a bit of a bigger group than I have ever gamed with. My gaming groups in the past usually consisted of a GM and four players (though we often had only three players).

I never really played a game using the D&D 3.0-3.5 rules, even though I bought the three core books for that edition a few years after they came out (mostly out of curiosity). Now, Pathfinder is considered "3.75" because it sort of continues on with the 3.5 rules, with some tweaks. I find the rules a bit overwhelming, and I know I would never want to run a game using them. But I am willing to learn enough to be a player in such a game.

But it's going to take some time to become a bit more familiar with the rules. There's definitely a lot more going on than I like. I think there's too many esoteric rules during combat, for instance (I think this is where I have my biggest problem with 3.5/Pathfinder). Stuff like attacks of opportunity, Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, etc. Don't ask me to explain any of this stuff...at least not yet. But my gut reaction is that things seem needlessly complicated. Again, if I were to run a game, I would never go near this stuff. Give me old D&D combat any day!

Everyone seemed very willing to be patient with my lack of understanding of the mechanics. They were willing to guide me and give me suggestions for the most part. But my inexperience with the rules definitely detracted from my effectiveness in the one big combat we had during the game (in which I was reduced to negative hit points and barely saved from death by the party cleric).

Plus, due to the general busy-ness of life recently (on the part of myself and the GM), and the fact that I don't own the Pathfinder core rule book, my character Arvandos was only partially complete on my character sheet. I was missing many of my stats, and only had a partial list of equipment. In addition, my character started at 8th level, so I was also overwhelmed with all of the skills, spells, and feats that he has. I don't know quite yet what they all do, and I don't know when and how to use them!

I think my roleplaying skills were not as rusty as I thought they would be. My character is a sorcerer named Arvandos who has an infernal bloodline (sorcerers basically derive their power from a bloodline in Pathfinder, and these bloodlines include infernal, abyssal, celestial, etc). One of the group plays a dwarven cleric, and he plays his character as something of a lawful good zealot! I've decided that my character aspires to be Chaotic Good, so he and I sort of bumped heads. I tried to play Arvandos as something of a witty, handsome rogue (Charisma of 18!) and I seemed to manage to charm the group with my repartee...except for the dwarf, who only got more and more frustrated with my verbal fencing. But I guess we eventually got over most of our squabbling, since he's the cleric that saved me from dying!

The GM had us meet in a tavern (go figure!) where the group was looking to hook up with some more help in their endeavors. They definitely were looking for an arcane caster to add to the group. Their last sorcerer was turned into a vampire, they informed me. Hey, well, sign me up!

Of course, I joined them, and we went on our merry way about the city of Westcrown (the setting for Council of Thieves), seeking to...well, I'm not quite sure what we were seeking to accomplish! I have to admit, the plotline that I have jumped into is pretty complicated, and I don't know the world of Golarion (the default setting for Pathfinder) very well, and that goes double for the city of Westcrown. There's really a lot going on. All in all, the GM seems to be content with throwing me into the mix with minimal guidance, and I think I'm OK with that for the most part!

All I know is, toward the end of the session the group was trying to get into a certain well-guarded location that was protected by a large "force field." We bought a scroll with a teleport spell with the intention of using it to teleport through the force field. And of course, being the only arcane spellcaster, it was up to me to use the damned thing. I cast the spell, and due to the nature of the barrier we were trying to bypass, I had to role percentage dice in order to determine if we wound up where we want to be. I rolled too high, and the scroll teleported us to HELL! Needless to say, I really heard it after that!

In the end, I'm really just happy to be gaming at all, so at the moment I'm willing to put up with complex mechanics, a convoluted plot that the rest of the party is already well into, etc. I had fun, I like the people I met, and I am definitely willing to go back and see how things progress.

The group lent me one of their copies of the massive core rulebook, and I'm determined to have my character whipped into tip-top shape before the next session. On top of that, I'll be studying the mechanics and the setting as much as I can to improve there as well.

Sorry if this post is really long and redundant. I wrote this up pretty quickly (I started writing this post on Sunday but I'm finishing it up on a typical busy Monday at work), so I am sure I missed a lot of detail. Let me know if any of you out there have any specific questions. I'll also take hints and advice if anyone is willing to offer!

P.S. The sessions are every other week between 12 PM and 6 PM, and that should be fine even for a "30-something husband/father of two with mortgage" kind of guy like me ;-)

P.P.S. Just for giggles, I asked everyone if they knew about the OSR and retro-clones and the like...and they stared at me like I had two heads! No one had any idea what I was talking about! Only a couple of them knew what Castles & Crusades was. We on the blogosphere spend so much time talking about the OSR that sometimes we start to think everyone in the RPG world knows about the "movement." But it seems we are mistaken...

Status Report: 7/23/10

"Me as Player" Status: Well, tomorrow is the big day! I'm going to my first session of the Pathfinder campaign (Council of Thieves Adventure Path) in which I was invited to play! I'm almost done my sorcerer Arvandos (he's 8th level...which is where the campaign's existing PC's are at...I have to say I'm a bit intimidated by starting out at such a high level, in a system that I'm not quite familiar with, after years of not playing in a table-top game...but sometimes the best way to get into something is to jump right in, eh?).

I'm also trying to cram for the occasion, learning as much as I can about the Pathfinder setting so that I can at least inject some "local flavor" into my character's portrayal. I don't want him to seem like a "generic" character by not making any references to the setting's history, locales, gods, etc.

I'm nervous and excited. I'll be meeting most of the people at the table for the first time. It should be quite an experience no matter how it shakes out! Wish me luck!

"Me as Gamemaster" Status: I'm waiting for my copy of Lamentations of the Flame Princess to arrive (it will probably be a few more weeks). In the meantime, I am trying to take it easy on myself, so I am leisurely looking over gamemastery advice on the Web. I am also slowly looking through old Dragon Magazine issues (for nostalgia's sake as well as campaign ideas and advice). I've put my reading of the Castles & Crusades PHB on hold for the time being.

Once I get LotFP I will read that in its entirety. Then I will read Castles & Crusades (Troll Lord Games is working on a Castle Keeper's Guide but there's no word at the moment of when it will hit the streets). I actually have a copy of the D&D 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide, and I think I will read that as well (shocked, anyone?). I've also got a copy of Keep on the Borderlands coming, so I will peruse that as well. Then I'll take another look through my other RPGs on my shelf to see if there's any other stuff I might want to read.

All in all, I am taking my sweet time and not stressing out about a campaign. I'll get to it when I'm ready. I'm just studying up and enjoying the process.

The Many Deaths of Fingolfin

I'm sure many of you have read The Silmarillion (if you haven't and want to avoid spoilers, you might not want to read any further). One of my favorite parts of that book was when the elf king Fingolfin challenged the evil Morgoth, most powerful of the Valar, to single combat. It always struck me as such a powerful part of The Silmarillion, where a lone elf king dared to challenge a god. Fingolfin knew he was doomed, but he went ahead with the battle anyway. Morgoth of course slays Fingolfin, but not before the elf holds his own in the fight, and gives the god a wound that never heals. Awesome stuff.

Apparently, judging by how many times the scene has been the subject of artistic depictions, it's also high on the list of many other readers as well.

The following is the battle as depicted by long-time Middle Earth artist Ted Nasmith:

The next image, probably my favorite depiction, is the work of John Howe, another artist that has done a lot of work focused on Middle Earth:

There's many many other depictions to be found on the Web, located here (this link seems a bit buggy, try hitting refresh if this page comes up with an error), here, here, here, here, here (Morgoth seems a bit too gigantic in this one), here, here, here...and these are just a few of the many that I found through a Google search for "Fingolfin"! Try it out and see what I mean.