Mad Brew Labs

Yesterday was an interesting day for tabletop roleplaying games and crowdfunding (or at least interesting for me). I managed to publish my Age of Patronage article just as the Gamerati published an edited video of Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo Publishing, answering a question I submitted for a Google Hangout that Peter Adkison read to her.

I had asked for her thoughts on patronage and its impact on the tabletop gaming industry. I also asked if Paizo might ever utilize crowdfunding and she alluded to something to come in the near future. Then late last night Gamerati dropped a link to the Kickstarter below in the comments of the video. [UPDATE: Sometime in the night, the preview for the Kickstarter was taken down, but I did manage to grab the video and the important bits of the proposal and they are contained below. I'll leave the hyperlink in for posterity's sake.]:

From the Pathfinder MMO Technology Demo Kickstarter:

Our First Step

This Kickstarter will fund the Technology Demo of the Pathfinder Online Massively Multiplayer Online RPG.  The Technology Demo will be fully playable, integrating account management, character creation, a virtual world server, multiple simultaneously connected clients, middleware used for rendering landscapes and characters, basic game mechanics, and player communications.  The demo will only support a few simultaneous users exploring a couple of small locations, so the general public won’t be able to play it, but we will produce a short video of the demo that everyone will be able to experience, and a special longer video exclusively for backers of this Kickstarter.

Your support of the Technology Demo will help us raise awareness of Pathfinder Online and will show potential investors what the game is really about.  Funding this demo will also signal to potential partners that Pathfinder Online has an audience that’s large enough and dedicated enough to allow the long-term success of the MMO. Nothing speaks louder than a ton of people putting up money to show their support of a new concept—that’s the genius element of Kickstarter!

What Do I Get?

Since this Kickstarter isn’t meant to fund the final video game, we had to think outside the box a little bit. Pathfinder Online is based on the world created by Paizo Publishing for their tabletop Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, so we thought it would be pretty cool to work with Paizo to create an RPG book that details one of the locations that Pathfinder Online characters will start in. We settled on the town of Thornkeep—that’s the very same “hive of scum and villainy” that the Pathfinder Online community named in our first online poll back in January! To make Thornkeep come alive, we’ve enlisted the talents of veteran game designer Rich Baker. Rich is going to give you everything you need to run a Pathfinder RPG game in Thornkeep, including the surrounding woods and a detailed dungeon below the ruins upon which Thornkeep was built. This very same dungeon will also be built as part of our technology demo, providing a great window into how tabletop design will make the transition to the digital medium.

And that’s just the first half of a 64-page book! The remaining sections will be written by our Pathfinder Online design team, letting you into Goblinworks’ design philosophy and giving you inside information gleaned from the development of our technology preview. The Thornkeep book will be produced to Paizo’s usual quality standards—perfectbound, printed in full color, with lots of all-new original artwork, including a brand new beautiful cover painting by fan-favorite Pathfinder artist Wayne Reynolds (the cover you see here is a mock-up).

We didn’t stop there either! We’ve built up a wide range of Goblinworks-themed merchandise, from posters and T-shirts to an entire day spent playing Pathfinder and dining out with the Goblinworks staff at one of the world’s finest restaurants! We have a reward level for every pocketbook, so give them a look and tell us what you think!

Listening to: Mastodon – Blood Mountain – This Mortal Soil

I think we may be seeing a virtual table-top integrated with Pathfinder in the near future. While at GenCon, I spied some of SmiteWorks’ people speaking with various Paizo luminaries as well as Lisa Stevens herself intensely demoing something at the SmiteWorks booth Saturday. For those unfamiliar with SmiteWorks, they are the producers of the Fantasy Grounds VTT.

 

During the Future of Paizo seminar at this year’s PaizoCon, Eric Mona and Lisa Stevens touched on integrating Pathfinder in technology. They of course mentioned the iFumble and iCrit (I abhor the iPrefix) iPhone apps that basically digitize their Critical Hit & Fumble card decks. They also mentioned their deal with HeroLab for character generation (my own VentureCaptain.com offers a free, unofficial character generator).

During the seminar, Lisa actually says:

We know there’s a lot of virtual tabletops out there, and this is something that, you know, we even have people in our office that are purposely doing games on virtual tabletops to learn what that’s like and what kind of limitations are there. What things they’d like to see and stuff like that.

There will be sometime in the future, there’ll be a way, or maybe multiple ways, to play Pathfinder games on a virtual tabletop in an official sort of way… We’ve been exploring, and talking to people… There’s a lot of questions. We’re actively exploring those questions, and when I mean actively… it’s a very high priority thing for the company to be looking at this question.

The Purple Golem Meets SmiteWorks?

It’s all speculation on my part, and d20Pro has a long standing relationship with Paizo, so maybe we’ll see more than one VTT integrate Pathfinder in a more official capacity.

Listening to: Gama Bomb – Tales from the Grave in Space – Slam Anthem

 

Paizo ^[1] and WizKids ^[2] announced the Pathfinder Battles pre-painted miniature line yesterday, ^[3] just a few days before GenCon 2011, so I expect they will have samples at their booth (see interactive GenCon exhibit hall map ^[4]). This announcement comes practically on the heels of their first foray, the Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes ^[5] 4 mini set. The first set, Heroes and Monsters, includes 40 figures and will debut in December with the second 60 figure set to follow June, 2012 called Rise of the Runelords. No doubt we can expect some sort of collected hardcover anniversary edition of the Adventure Path of the same name.

Random Expensive

The good news is pre-painted miniatures are back (after D&D minis’ slow decline) and the promotional images make the sculpts and paint job look pretty good. The bad news is that they are random and expensive. Also, the look & feel of the minis is just a bit too stylized [anime] for my tastes.

• $3.99 for a single, random mini with a medium base (or two small based miniatures).
• $5.99 for a single, random mini with a large base

I think those prices are exorbitant for a single sight-unseen, random miniature.  A standard Pathfinder mini from Reaper usually costs around $5.99. ^[6] Yes, I may have to paint it, but I know what I’m getting. Random is synonymous with Collectable in this instance, and I’m not a fan of catering to the collector or speculative markets. It is standard practice in those markets to make things rare so people buy mass quantities of your product just to obtain key pieces… which are in turn sold on the second hand market for even steeper prices.

Case in point, the huge black dragon miniature offered through Pathfinder Battles. According to the press release, it can only be obtained through retailers who have purchased at least a case of minis. I can just imagine what unscrupulous retailers might do on eBay with these. Well, I guess it’s helping out brick & mortar shops; they need all the help they can get to survive.

Cost Effective?

On the discussion tab of the product page, ^[7] Lisa Stevens (CEO of Paizo) points to the reasoning behind the randomness is because it gives them the ability to produce a wide range of miniatures while still being cost effective:

Randomized miniatures also allow you to provide more variety. Not only can you introduce more figures at once, but the fact that you make make some of them rarer than others means you can produce plenty of the figures that everyone needs, like goblins or skeletons, and fewer of the figures that have narrower appeal, like strange monsters or iconic figures.

Another factor to think about is the brick-and-mortar retailer. It’s much easier for a retailer to stock single booster packs than individual packaged minis.

Conclusion

Paizo has earned a reputation with me for producing quality material and backing that up with exceptional customer service and fan support. They obviously are successful because they make good business decisions while I’m just vocal consumer with no experience with miniature manufacturing. Even so, WizKid’s business model seems to take advantage of the collector syndrome, which I’m not a fan of exploiting.

My strategy would have been to release themed sets, much like the Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes and like D&D tried to do but with better quality. I’d love to see a set of 10 or 20 figures for each Adventure Path or sets for PCs when major supplements like the Advance Player’s Guide are published. Then you can still produce those misfit minis that are needed, but not popular, because you’re not selling them singly. The press release does state that Encounter Packs of visible non-random re-sculpts/re-paints from the parent sets will be available, but I wonder if it will be enough to satisfy me.

Listening to: Celtic Frost – Into the Pandemonium – Mesmerized

References

[1] Paizo, the publisher of Pathfinder

[2] WizKid, the manufacture of MageKnight/Clix

[3] The Pathfinder Battles press release

[4] An interactive GenCon 2011 Exhibit Hall Map I created

[5] Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes announced around PaizoCon 2011

[6] A Reaper unpainted, metal Pathfinder miniature

[7] Pathfinder Battles product page

 

Intellectual property infringement was popular this week in the world of roleplaying games. We have seen an entire game company disappear seemingly after Berin Kinsman^[1] discovered and ousted obvious plagiarism and copy & paste jobs from two different products. And a small kerfuffle erupted over Paizo Publishing enforcing their rights as owners of copyrighted works.

RPG Plagiarism

From a Google+ post by Berin: Anaithnid Games’^[2] The Operation^[3] cuts and pastes swaths of John Wick’s Wilderness of Mirrors.^[4]

From John Wick’s Wilderness of Mirrors:
My game is about spies. My game is about spies. More specifically, it’s about creating the kind of atmosphere present in a James Bond or Jason Bourne
novel. Players want to be James and Jason and we should let them do just that. Not first level chumps who have to work their way up the ladder to become Mr. and Mrs.
Smith, but the kind of characters who can walk beside The Saint and Mrs. Peel without feeling like scrubs.

From Anaithnid Games’ The Operation:
This is a game about spies. Players want to be James Bond or Bourne or Burke when they play. Not first-level chumps who have to work their way up the ladder to become Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The kind of characters who can stand beside The Saint, Nathan Ford or Mrs. Peel without feeling like total losers.

Apparently, this is not the first product to be so blatantly copied. Berin also reported that this was after Anaithnid Games’ copied portions of Sword Edge Publishing’s Sword Noir.^[5] Luckily RPGNow/DriveThruRPG were swift in removing the infringing products, which is something that cannot be said of the digital book purveyor that Amazon.^[6] Since Berin reported the infringement, Anaithnid Games has disappeared from the web, even closing their Facebook fan page.

Paizo Publishing - This is fair use of the image, because I'm using it to clarify a news report

Infringing Upon Paizo

Geek Related^[7] first alerted me to the tempest in the teacup concerning a recent request from Paizo for the administrator of an Obsidian Portal^[8] campaign log to remove copyrighted images of scanned item cards from his pages.

Paizo has a long history of excellent fan support, and even provides a generous amount of imagery through their community use policy^[9] and community use package.^[10] Which, no one has to use, but you would be far more restricted in the use of that imagery if you only applied fair use as provided by US law.^[11]

There seems to be a lot of pissing and moaning about what Paizo did,^[12][13] and comparisons to what WotC & TSR did in the past. I also saw a lot of armchair attorneys talk about things they don’t understand (and I’ll admit, I’m not a lawyer either but have lots of experience/knowledge concerning IP). Posting scanned images of protected works, not matter how small they are or whether or not you posted copyright disclaimers does not absolve you of copyright infringement. It’s not transformative, like say the case of the pixel art cover to the album Kind of Blue.^[14]

This sense of entitlement concerning Paizo’s property is unfounded, and I think I have a very liberal philosophy about intellectual property. Paizo was even pretty polite from what I’ve gleaned from the discourse; Obsidian Portal and the offending user should be grateful they merely asked the service to resolve the situation instead of bringing legal action (cease & desist notifications, etc.) to bear.

Yeah, you bought the cards. Sure, make scans so you can create copies for personal use. But once you post them on a commercial site and make them available to the public, you’ve crossed the line. Be smart, gamers.

Listening to: Nine Inch Nails – The Crow OST – Burn

References

[1] Piracy, Plagiarism, & Hot Coffee by Berin Kinsman
[2] Anaithnid Game’s now dead Tumblr blog
[3] Anaithnid Game’s The Operation [no longer available]
[4] John Wick’s Wilderness of Mirrors
[5] Sword Edge Publishing’s Sword Noir
[6] Recent copyright infringement woes on Amazon
[7] Paizo Copyright Flap on Geek Related
[8] Obsidian Portal hosts online campaign journals
[9] Pathfinder Community Use Policy
[10] Pathfinder Community Use Package
[11] Copyright Fair Use
[12] Justin Mason complains about being asked to remove infringing material in the comments
[13] Eric Mona chimes in on the kerfuffle on ENWorld
[14] Kind of Screwed, fair use but still bulldozed

 

I have finally opened up the online Pathfinder PRG character generator beta testing to the public. You can find the generator at VentureCaptain.com. I was surprised the domain name was available (considering all the “make money for nothing” schemes found on the web). I actually plan on expanding the site to host a suite of utilities for use with the Pathfinder RPG including a dice app I’ve been tinkering with that uses true random number generation, courtesy of Random.org. You can also follow Venture Captain on Facebook and on Twitter.

TECHNOLOGY

The character generator is a plain web app. It runs XHTML 1.0 Strict (every page but the contact page validates), CSS2.1, and JavaScript/jQuery. So it should display and render fine on most standards compliant-ish web browsers. The generator exports characters as a small PDF (~40k) file, so whatever platform you are using must support PDFs.

I’ve built the app according to how I plan on using it. I run Chrome on Windows 7 have no issues. Chrome renders JavaScript blazingly fast, but I’ve also tested it on Firefox 3.5/3.6 and it runs fine. On IE 7/8, the generator performs a bit on the sluggish side. I haven’t tested it on mobile devices, because quite frankly, there is just too much information to try to display effectively on such a small screen.

THIS IS BETA

I must stress that the generator is in BETA. There are obvious things missing, as well as ton of undiscovered bugs waiting to be squashed. I am working on tying up loose ends with the current implemented features before slaying the bigger dragons of Equipment and Spells. Oh yeah, and the only guy writing code for this app is me.

Some things I’m working on now is expanding the class feature information presented on the character sheet (displaying bloodline powers, school powers, etc.) as well as creating an interface for missing elements such as being able to choose what Mercy you get when you take the Extra Mercy feat.

This being said, if you find anything missing, improperly formatted, not compliant with the latest Pathfinder RPG rules, or have a general suggestion please do not hesitate to contact me via Twitter, Facebook, or using the VentureCaptain.com Contact page. I want this tool be the best it can be, so everyone’s feedback is important to me.

FEATURE ROADMAP

Below is how I think feature implementation will roll-out. I’m naming the builds after cities in Golarion, with the first build belonging to capital of the oldest empire.

v1.0 [Sothis] Feature Implementation (bold items are finished; italicized items are in development):

• Ability Scores (point buy, tier points, racial adjustments)
• Core Classes (alignment restrictions, favored class bonuses, selectable class features)
• Skills (class skill training bonus, skill focus bonus, racial bonuses, ability modifiers)
• Calculated Combat Stats (BAB, CMB, CMD, AC, Touch AC, Flat Footed AC, Saves, HPs, Speed, Initiative)
• Feats (Racial, class granted feats, full prerequisite validation)
• Equipment (calculate wealth, calculate encumbrance, attack/damage bonuses, highlight proficiency, equip to slots)
• Spells (select known spells, select memorized spells, calculate DCs, calculate dice/bonuses)
• Portraits by 60+ Terrible Portraits
• Save to PDF (complete with calculated values, racial & class features, custom landscape layout)

v2.0 [Oppara] Feature Roadmap:

• Prestige Classes
• Traits
• Language Selection
• Custom Magic Weapon & Armor
• Random Bio Generation (Name, Homeland, Age, Height, Weight, Hair, & Eyes) based on Race & Gender
• Aging Affects validation based on Age in Bio
• Rules Info (overlays with PRD definitions for class features, feats, etc.)
• Pathfinder Society legal character validation
• Save to HTML

v3.0 [Egorian] Feature Roadmap:

• Advanced Player’s Guide Update
• Non-core free entry for class, feats, traits, skills, equipment, & spells.
• Pre-calculated Combat Maneuver & Spell sheets
• Storage Solutions

IT’S FREE!

Did I mention this web app is free? Yeah, creating characters with Venture Captain costs you nothing (except whatever you pay to access the internet already). It will continue to be free for as long as I feel like covering the cost of hosting and development. There may be pay features in the future (storing characters in cloud?), but only for convenience services, never for content.

If you like it, please follow @Venture_Captain on Twitter and spread the word, like Venture Captain on Facebook, or even blog about it.

Venture Captain Online Pathfinder Character Generator

The online Pathfinder RPG character generator that I’ve been tinkering with in my free time over the last couple of months is quickly approaching open beta testing. I currently have all the validation implemented for core class features, feats, and skills. The sole remaining elements to work on involve displaying character information effectively in the PDF export. Just need to figure out how I want to render class features and feats and it’s ready to go.

I’ll add equipment and spell selection during the beta testing, but before that, I want to optimize the validation logic performance. Seeing how sluggish the JavaScript performs on Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 bugs the hell out of me. Chrome, which blazes through most of the code, hits a bottleneck during skill validation (but only initially).

Features Roadmap

I figured I might list some of the features I have already implemented as well as those I eventually plan on including. For the moment, I am only supporting the Core Rulebook, but as I find time (and motivation), I’ll add stuff from other Pathfinder products (hint: beer money is motivational).

v1.0 Feature Implementation (bold items are finished; italicized items are in development):

• Ability Scores (point buy, tier points, racial adjustments)
• Core Classes (alignment restrictions, favored class bonuses, selectable class features)
• Skills (class skill training bonus, skill focus bonus, racial bonuses, ability modifiers)
• Calculated Combat Stats (BAB, CMB, CMD, AC, Touch AC, Flat Footed AC, Saves, HPs, Speed, Initiative)
• Feats (Racial, class granted feats, full prerequisite validation)
• Equipment (calculate wealth, calculate encumbrance, attack/damage bonuses, highlight proficiency, equip to slots)
• Spells (select known spells, select memorized spells, calculate DCs, calculate dice/bonuses)
• Save to PDF (complete with calculated values, racial & class features, custom landscape layout)

v2.0 Feature Roadmap:

• Portrait selection (using 60+ Terrible Portraits^[1])
• Traits
• Random Bio Generation (Name, Homeland, Age, Height, Weight, Hair, & Eyes) based on Race & Gender
• Aging Affects validation based on Age in Bio
• Rules Info (overlays with PRD definitions for class features, feats, etc.)
• Pathfinder Society legal character validation
• Save to HTML

v3.0 Feature Roadmap:

• Non-core open entries for class, feats, traits, skills, equipment, & spells.
• Pre-calculated Combat Maneuver & Spell sheets
• Export/Import character from database (may charge fee for storage)

Platform Choices

It’s times like these when I begin questioning the platform choices I’ve made. The entire front end uses valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS2.1, and JavaScript. The back end is ASP.NET 4.0 & C#. I also have access to SQL Server 2008 in case future features require data storage.

I passed on HTML5 because I feel like there are too many compatibility issues that need to be addressed before you get a [nearly] uniform experience across browsers. Cross-platform is still ever elusive. Just take a look at percentage of browsers in use on W3C’s statistics page^[2] and cross-reference that with the HTML5 browser readiness site^[3].

There are still a ton of users out there with little to no HTML5 support. Now consider that each browser implements features in slightly different ways and you have a nightmare for a developer wanting to build a robust app and ensure a similar experience across the browsers.

The choice to build upon ASP.NET was easy. I work with ASP.NET in my day job, so I’m pretty handy with it. The .NET library I’m using to generate PDFs is pretty slick and I’m not sure if it would be as easy to implement with another server-side language.

Concerning CB

This line of questioning is especially germane with current hobby events as I saw my Twitter feed recently choked full of bitching and moaning about Wizards of the Coast’s choice in using Silverlight to develop their new online character builder^[4].

All the geek angst seems to originate from a ZDNet article^[5] that cherry-picked quotes from Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Someone thinks Microsoft is “deprecating” Silverlight (I could not find a direct quote from the conference that ever used the word, deprecate). And of course, all of the Apple iP* fanatics are sad-faced because Silverlight means it won’t work natively on their iOS devices.

Microsoft quickly cleared up any confusion about Silverlight (within 2 days of the ZDNet article)^[6][7], because there are a lot of businesses out their using the platform. Also, I’m sure you’ve recently seen a big marketing push for Windows Phone 7. Well WP7 is practically synonymous with Silverlight, so it’s most definitely still supported. You can now think of Silverlight as Objective C that benefits from browser plugins.

Listening to: City of Fire – City of Fire – Rising

REFERENCES

[1] 60 (108) Terrible Portraits for Creative Commons Release

[2] W3School’s Browser Statistics

[3] HTML5 & CSS3 Readiness

[4] Wizards of the Coast’s CB FAQ

[5] ZDNet’s Silverlight Article

[6] Bob Muglia, President of the Server & Tools Division at Microsoft

[7] Tim Heuer, Program Manager for Silverlight

Wow, there’s a lot of dust around here!

Things have been pretty busy elsewhere in my life, so I have unfortunately had to concentrate my energies there. But enough excuses, let’s get to the RPG-related content.

ENnies Blog Shout-out

First, I’d like to give a shout-out (back?) to Tony Law and the ENnies Blog. Tony interviewed me (and many other ENnie nominees and winners) and the interview went live this morning. The interview was completed before I gave my controlling interest in Nevermet Press to Jonathan Jacobs, who is now the sole proprietor.

Pathfinder RPG App

Even though the Labs appear to have been abandoned since GenCon, I can assure you I have only secreted myself away from the villagers with their burning torches and nasty pitchforks while I gave life to my newest endeavor.

If you cannot tell from the screenshots, it is a web-based character generator for the Pathfinder RPG. I cannot say when I’ll be finished; I am currently on my 3^rd re-write of the code at the moment in an attempt to get the app to perform decently on any browser but Chrome (Chrome IS the fastest browser when complex JavaScript routines are concerned).

The character generation takes place completely on the client side through the liberal application of JavaScript until the final step where the app creates a PDF of the character and stores it for a limited time on the server (the app automatically redirects to the (Character Gen Sample) PDF in the browser).

Here is the list of features that have been developed so far:

• Point buy Ability Score calculation (though you are free to break it)
• Favored Bonus points distribution (including Half-Elf bonus favored class)
• All racial features for the 7 Core Races
• All selectable class features for  the 11 Core Classes
• Validation logic for all 176 Core Feats
• Skill bonus calculation
• Saving Throws, BAB, CMB, & CMD calculation
• Hit Point calculation using ½ Hit Die + 1 (and max HPs at 1^st level)
• Save to PDF

As far as things to come, I want to add equipment and spell selection, with automated calculations for attack, damage, and save DCs. I plan on introducing Traits from the PDF enhancement as well. I also want to look into implementing random Ability Score generation options as well as random options for Hit Points.

Since I am in the middle of development, I do not want to reveal the project’s web address (it is actually live), but any parties interested in testing the app when the time comes, feel free to leave a comment below. I would also like to thank the handful of people who have already given me feedback on the project during its infancy.

For now, I’m sticking to the core rulebook only. Once the core rules are hammered out, then I will consider adding material from other sourcebooks. The core of the web app will certainly be free, but I am considering charging a small fee to store characters in a database.

Listening to: Danzig – Deth Red Sabaoth – The Revengeful

The 2010 ENnies Awards at GenCon should be called the Year of Pathfinder. While the very awesome Year of the Shadow Lodge event was taking place at Pathfinder Society, Paizo took home 12 awards (10 Gold and 2 Silver and totally swept the Best Monster/Adversary category) and non-Paizo Pathfinder related products took earned Pathfinder another 3 (KW, City Guide, & d20PFSRD) awards for a total of 14 Gold and 3 Silver ENnies! In fact, only a single product from Paizo, Campaign Coins, didn’t place.

The ENnies began with a special a Special Recognition Award to DTRPG for their efforts raising money for Haitian relief… which really recognizes the charity of all the gamers that bought the Haiti Bundle that allowed DriveThru to donate to the cause.

The following is the list of award winners. I’ve bolded winners that matched my picks, but congratulations to all the winners!

Fan’s Choice Best Publisher

Gold Paizo Publishing

Silver Fantasy Flight Games

Product of the Year

Gold Pathfinder

Silver Eclipse Phase

Best Game

Gold Pathfinder

Silver Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Edition

Best Supplement

Gold Mysteries of the Hollow Earth

Silver Player’s Handbook 3

Best Setting

Gold Day After Ragnarok

Silver Rome: Life & Death in the Republic

Best Monster/Adversary

Gold Pathfinder Bestiary

Silver Pathfinders Classic Monsters Revisited

Best Adventure

Gold Pathfinder Adventure Path #31: Stolen Land

Silver Trail of Cthulhu:  The Armitage Files

Best Regalia

Gold Cthulhu 101

Silver Battletech: 25 Years of Art & Fiction

Best Miniatures Product

Gold D&D Minis

Silver Gaming Paper

Best Aid/Accessory

Gold Pathfinder GM Screen

Silver Gaming Paper

Best Electronic Book

Gold The Great City Player’s Guide

Silver Pathfinder Society #29:The Devil We Know, Part 1: Shipyard Rats

Best Free Product

Gold Advanced Player’s Guide Playtest

Silver Lady Blackbird

Best Rules

Gold Diaspora

Silver Hero 6th Edition

Best Writing

Gold Eclipse Phase

Silver Victoriana 2nd Edition

Best Production Values

Gold Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook

Silver Shadowrun 20th Anniversary

Best Cartography

Gold Pathfinder City Map Folio

Silver Aces & Eights: Judas Crossing

Best Interior Art

Gold Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook

Silver Shadowrun 20th Anniversary

Best Cover Art

Gold Pathfinder Bestiary

Silver Eclipse Phase

Best Blog

Gold Kobold Quarterly

Silver Gnome Stew

Best Podcast

Gold Atomic Array

Silver All Games Considered

Best Website

Gold Obsidian Portal

Silver d20pfsrd.com

Listening to: Fear Factory – Obsolete – Edgecrusher

Fey are one of the most under-utilized types of monsters in my experience playing fantasy roleplaying games. Fey are horrific, yet fantastic. They are beguilingly grotesque. These dastardly beautiful creatures are showcased in the Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey Realms from Alluria Publishing. This book, written by Matthew Cicci, received honorable mentions in the Best Monster/Adversary and Best Electronic Book categories of the 2010 ENnie Awards.

My first impression from this 27 page e-book is from the artwork, by Vasilis Zikos. There are a couple of really outstanding pieces, including the Sidhe, Fachen, and Erlking (which is also my favorite monster from the book). The second impression is from the graphic design, I really dig the iconography.

The concepts behind the fey presented in the folio are solid and interesting. For instance, the erlking can only be created from mortals, which are kidnapped by and then subjected to a tortuous rite that transmutes the victim into a new erlking. The author does a good job of reflecting the behavior in the stat block by giving the erlking some unique grappling abilities.

Which brings me to my next impression, Clans of the Fey Realms has a multitude of cool special abilities that make these monsters more than your average dry stat block. Most of the stats look appropriate for the Challenge Rating, but there are a few entries that look pretty powerful for their CR (my favorite fey being an example with a permanent darkness aura and superlative grappling skill).

Monster books are the one supplement I’ll buy from outside the systems I play because the concepts presenting can be used damn near everywhere. Fey Folio wins on two fronts, not only does it present some compelling creatures to throw at your players, it also does it in the Patfinder RPG format, which is the game I find myself currently playing the most. Pick it up from RPGNow! While it’s on sale for 5.25.

Listening to: Fear Factory – Digimortal – Linchpin

Conflict Games has recently released the Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook, “a tactically-driven system for player vs. player roleplaying using unlimited d20 rules.” Conflict is exactly what it sounds like, a PVP system for Pathfinder RPG.

I know certain gamers are going to balk at the idea thinking it is practically antithetical to everything they believe roleplaying is about. I can hear the terms power gamer and munchkin being uttered by readers right now. Personally, I think inter-player conflict can be interesting and unofficial PVP combat has been sort of a time waster with my group during times when we haven’t actually started the game for one reason or another (waiting for the GM to finish some last minute prep, waiting on players to arrive, or waiting for character creation to be finished).

Frankly, when I think about, I am surprised I haven’t seen a book like this before. Another interesting point is that the book seems to be written with the fact that there is still a GM moderating play, so players can feel free to try things beyond the rules in order to get an upper hand on each other. I imagine a couple of players could run without a GM, but I definitely see rule interpretations becoming an issue.

Here is a quick look at what the book includes:

Battlepoints

Conflict realizes that level alone isn’t a complete indicator of how well two characters are matched. Instead, players are given a Battlepoint cap and basically purchase levels, ability scores, race, and equipment.

Match Types

Match Types are scenarios with unique tactical elements, objective, and victory conditions. Some of the match types include Ambush, King of the Hill, Snatch & Grab, and Monster Mash. It really reminds me a lot of match types from first person shooters. For instance, in McGuffin, players compete in a sport like event where they have to score points by bringing a loadstone to the opponents’ goal, which reminds me a lot of UT2004’s Bombing Run mode.

Map Elements

Players and teams may purchase elements such as traps, barriers, and creature and place them on the map. The book has a lot of original elements for players to use as well as providing rules on how to create new ones.

Conflict Laws

Laws are option requirements or restrictions that can be placed on matches. Laws affect character generation, actions, and even players. For instance, the Blade Bound law restricts character class to barbarian, fighter, monk, ranger, and rogue. An interesting player law is Steal the Roll, where twice per match a team may designate someone else to roll the dice, which could be very interesting if you have a bunch of superstitious gamers.

Conflict Maps

A key element of the game, conflict maps all have grid coordinates (so tactics and map elements can be secretly communicated to your team and GM on passcards). They have map ends, centerlines, restricted areas, and a center square. Teams roll initiative and then begin claiming starting areas and may place or pass characters on their turn, which adds to the strategy and tactics involved.

Passcards

Represent the key method of commination as well as tracking round by round actions and track important character information such as hit points. The most important thing about the passcard is it allows players to secretly communicate their intentions to the GM to keep metagaming elements from encroaching upon play.

Team Feats

Team feats are exactly what their name implies, special abilities available for teams. The number of feats available to a team depends on the number of players, or GM discretion. A sample team feat is All For One; it improves the Aid Another action bonus from +2 to +4. I actually think the team feats could be used outside of the Conflict rules as something like Adventuring Party Feats.

Player Tips and Tactics & Game Mastering

The rest of the book is dedicated to helping players make the most of the Conflict rules and giving GMs advice on how to run Conflict matches.  Advice on hidden movement, when to remove miniatures from the map, and how to integrate conflict matches into a campaign are some of the topics covered.

Conclusion

Without running a few matches, it’s hard to say how well they work. However, I think Mark Scott, the designer, clearly put a lot of thought in how to make PVP interesting and tackled the critical issue of metagaming. The Maps Elements and Team Feats definitely have use outside of the PVP game and I think it would make for some interesting gladiatorial scenarios in the context of a larger, more tradition campaign.

And for those days that only a couple of players show up on game night, I think Conflict makes an exciting alternative to the current campaign.

Want to learn more about Conflict Roleplaying? Read on…

• Atomic Array: Episode 042: Conflict Roleplaying
• Apathy Blogs: A new way to play Pathfinder