Steve

Yeah, Paizo just drove a sharp stick into Hasbro’s eye with this move.

A company must be hit hard in their wallet, often repeatedly, before they listen. Cancelled accounts are a good way to get Hasbro to pay attention that they have a problem on their hands.

I’m not very sure it will work out, and just talk of things changing so radically seems to be blowing up in their faces. I haven’t seen anyone saying this is a great idea. Not one. Adding a subscription model and micropayments to monetize people is one of many things enraging the fan base, not to mention likely destroying popular smaller publishers adding to the hate. As things stand, you buy a rule book and some dice as a player, a few more books as a DM and go from there, maybe not buying anything more for years unless you are a DM. 5th Edition is already experiencing a shortage of DMs willing to adjudicate the rules. Their market seems to already be imploding. I suspect DrivethruRPG is going to melt down this week as word continues to spread and people download their entire libraries to make sure they have the latest PDFs in case they can’t after the next few days.

Beware the Dark Side! Miffed leads to peeved, peeved leads to vexed, and vexed leads to suffering. Or something like that.

There is also something to be said for being undercover operatives in such campaigns. Criminals fighting against worse people is also good for those wanting to be anti-heroes.

I suspect the biggest legal fight will be between Paizo and Hasbro, since Paizo created their own variant d20 system and an entire game world with tons of supplements and adventures for it. The new OGL that Hasbro is putting forth has truly ugly terms in it for any content creator dumb enough to sign it, but I suspect Hasbro won’t stick with it as it might end up destroying their fan base as word of what they’re trying to do spreads.

The Meatgrinder was rechristened with a new name to honor the Princess of Drinax during the voyage to Hilfer, and the travel time allowed repairs and healing to occur. The Imperium Treasure Ship had made a poor landing in the wastelands of Hilfer, and the remaining crew readied what defense they could while awaiting rescue, knowing it might take months to arrive, if ever. @Durzan Malakim summarized the challenges facing the PCs pretty well. Here is some additional commentary. The captain of the treasure ship is a martinet a bit reminiscent of the one from the movie Mr. Roberts, mixed with the British officer from Bridge on the River Kwai. He’s currently unconscious courtesy of his First Officer, Commander Mari Jagat, after I did my best to portray him as the insufferable prig he was. She’s described in the module as the slightly Mary Sue-ish protagonist of a series of science fiction military action-adventure novels occurring parallel to the PCs activities, apparently an Honor Harrington homage. Further complicating things, she hero worships Brigadier Meson thanks to his “war hero” Positive Reputation but didn’t at first believe the “pirate captain” she was talking to was him even after he revealed his true identity, throwing quotes from his own biography in his face as to why her crew was not going to meekly surrender and letting the PCs know about the armed nuclear device. Further complicating matters is the surviving Marine Commander Harc, who is paranoid that the ship was infiltrated by one or more Zhodani spies (apparently true from what the PCs later discovered) and refuses to accept the commands of any Navy officers, thinking they are all compromised puppets, and he’s not too sure about his fellow marines either. He and an unknown number of surviving marines are in full battledress and ready to fight pirates to the bitter end. There is also a spy from the megacorp General Development Company (GeDeCo), running a scheme as well, but the PCs don’t know who it is. As one of the PCs also works for GeDeCo, he received some text messages from the spy on his personal comm device as a professional courtesy (and perhaps worried they would be killed if the PCs weren’t aware of their presence).

Our first session of the year was mostly roleplaying as new NPCs were introduced to the players, including their first meeting with a psionic in the campaign, one of the Aslan females who came to negotiate their new role after the PCs victory. She is now acting as an advisor to the PCs. The remaining male Aslans had their toughest fighter, the ace fighter pilot the PCs dealt with in the last session, nearly killed in a fistfight with PC Harrison, a boxer built a bit like Rocky Balboa in his abilities. Despite the Aslan having a four SPD and a higher DEX, Harrison blocked several blows and then unleashed an uppercut that struck his foe’s head, nearly killing the Aslan after hit location modifiers were figured in. After a bit of travel time, they made it to Hilfer, where the next steps in the current adventure happened. More to follow…

Per the 2nd Advanced Players Guide (page 70), a sleeping or unconscious mind has DMCV 0. Per the 1st Advanced Players Guide (page 124), Telepathy at EGO+40 allows access to the target's collective unconscious or racial memory. That's about all I can contribute to this.

RIP Darren Watts. You will be remembered by all who cared for you and enjoyed your creations.

Vampires are possibilities because they can blend into human societies. Although a group of doppelgängers would work even better for this too. Evil sorts tend to be selfish, so why would a bunch of monsters work together? Are they all minions of someone? Flipping the script, maybe they are monsters but act as heroes. This is for players who love angst.

I just tried ChatGPT, the new AI chat bot, and for fun I gave it the following command for its first task. Write a rules compliant encounter for 5th edition dungeons and dragons. Here's what it came back with, very quickly. Sure! Here is a sample encounter for a group of five 3rd-level characters: Encounter Name: "Goblin Ambush" Location: A narrow mountain pass Encounter Level: 3 (840 XP) Description: As the party makes their way through a narrow mountain pass, they hear the sound of movement up ahead. Suddenly, a group of goblins emerge from hiding and attack the party, trying to steal their supplies and valuables. Enemies: 5 Goblins (use the stat block for goblins in the Monster Manual) Tactics: The goblins try to surround the party and attack from all sides. They use their stealthy movement to try and get flanking positions and use their short swords to try and strike from behind. If any of the goblins are bloodied, they try to retreat and regroup. Features of the Area: The mountain pass is narrow, with cliffs on either side. The party has limited room to maneuver. There are several boulders and outcroppings of rock that the goblins can use for cover. The goblins have set up a makeshift campsite in a nearby cave, with a small fire and some supplies. Rewards: If the party defeats the goblins, they can search the goblin campsite and find 20 gold pieces and a small, valuable trinket worth 50 gold pieces. Each goblin defeated is worth 100 XP. I then followed it up with this one. Write a review of The Return of The King. The Return of the King is the third and final installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. It is a sweeping and epic tale of adventure, danger, and the struggle for power. The story follows the hobbit Frodo Baggins as he continues his quest to destroy the One Ring, a powerful and dangerous artifact that holds the fate of Middle-earth in its grasp. Alongside his loyal companions, including the wise wizard Gandalf and the brave warrior Aragorn, Frodo faces a host of dangers as he journeys toward the dark land of Mordor, where the Ring must be destroyed. The Return of the King is a beautifully written and masterfully crafted novel that brings the trilogy to a satisfying and epic conclusion. Tolkien's world-building is on full display in this final book, as the various threads of the story come together in a thrilling and satisfying way. The characters are richly developed and the plot is full of twists and turns that keep the reader engaged until the very end. Overall, The Return of the King is an absolute must-read for fans of epic fantasy, and a fitting conclusion to one of the greatest fantasy trilogies of all time. If you haven't already, I highly recommend picking up The Lord of the Rings trilogy and experiencing the adventure for yourself.

Merry Christmas, fellow Heroes!

My current thinking is to add an extra +1/4 Advantage to Penetrating to do what I’m looking for, but then the trick is how to calculate the penetrating Body. Maybe one Body for every five Stun that penetrates? That doesn’t seem too overpowering.

The crew of the PC’s ship is remarkably diverse. At a rough count… Seven male humans (two are PCs) Three female humans (NPCs) One male human with cybernetics (PC) One male flesh-covered android (NPC) One female flesh-covered android (NPC) One uplifted gorilla (NPC) One male Vargr (NPC) One female Aslan (NPC) Five robots of varying levels of sentience They’ve now managed to conquer an all Aslan-crewed pirate ship with around ten female Aslan techs and a few surviving males. Forging this motley band of pirates into a unified fighting force will take every ounce of Captain Nemos’ leadership ability and a considerable amount of luck.

I was looking through the rules and wondering if there was a way to build a normal damage attack that had penetrating effect on the Stun and also the Body it did. Can this be done? Penetrating Body damage seems like it can only be done via a Killing Attack power.

Yes, there should be few difficulties. Raiding the treasure ship will be a piece of cake.

Our semi-nefarious band of pirates and rebels for hire, after a brief return to Drinax to report on their doings to the King and pay him his percentage after overthrowing one planetary government and destabilizing another in the favor of their patron there, added a few more able-bodied warriors to their crew and restocked what supplies they could. The First Mate continued to complain about the food supplies, missing having eggs to eat, a sentiment echoed by a crew tired of rehyrdrated meat, beans and rice. The captain also upgraded his wardrobe, finding he liked wearing capes and wanted an assortment of them. They then set off for Tech-World, four parsecs away from Drinax, pausing briefly in the Hilfer system in hopes of finding a ship to raid. There they encountered an enemy almost more than they could handle, a 1200-ton Aslan Halaheike-class pocket warship, the Meatgrinder, under the command of Hroal Irontooth, one of the Pirate Lords of the Theev system. Fortunately for them, it was already significantly damaged after attempting to raid an Imperial Treasure Ship and battling its escorts, the debris field showing several wrecks. The Treasure Ship managed to limp away from the battle to the planet and crash landed before the PC's ship arrived, leaving them to deal with the damaged Aslan warship. Utilizing their ship's recently repaired cloak, they were able to approach close enough to launch a boarding party in spacesuits, preferring a stealth approach to an exchange of weapon fire with a ship six times their mass. In a vicious duel with Irontooth, Meson almost died, after being run through twice in the depressurized ship's corridor they fought in. Luckily, his Imperium-made spacesuit kept sealing up and preventing explosive decompression, and he was able to kill the hulking Aslan with the aid of his new lady friend, Syrna, a raider from the Sword Worlds. She stepped into the breach when he fell, giving the captain enough time to recover a little, but not really doing any damage to the enemy captain. They now have to figure out what to do with their new prize and the surviving Aslan crew. There is also an even bigger prize still awaiting them, the Imperium Treasure Ship.

Something like the Bleeding rules could perhaps be repurposed for this, changing the time frame to a day per roll rather than by turn.

Build 20210804 I bought a skill (Computer Programming) at the 10- (Proficiency) level and then tried to add five points to it through Custom Adder. Those additional points weren't added to the cost unless I picked a full skill roll. When I picked Familiarity or Proficiency, they didn't add on. EDIT: Saved the character and then re-opened it, and the extra points were added then. Nothing else changed.

I use HAPs in my current Traveller Hero game, and they are mostly used to mitigate rolls at critical points. I home-brewed effects a bit. Neutral Luck (roll 3d6 and count the ones and sixes to see effect) also crops up from time to time. The players like that they have some control over the narrative using them. However, in my Delta Green Hero campaign I run from time to time as an alternate, I specifically don’t use HAPs to enforce the feel of an uncaring universe in that setting. If I ever run a pulp era Cthulhu Hero campaign, I would likely do the same.

From today’s Pirates of Drinax/Traveller Hero session. ”A man that can punch a gorilla in the nuts can do anything.”

For a real challenge, the Spirits of Christmas could try to reform the likes of Dr. Destroyer, Black Paladin or another major supervillain. Even Foxbat might be fun too. I would pay money to be able to watch them try. Can you imagine one of those major baddies going through a Scrooging? And just imagine if the Spirits succeeded? How about if one or more heroic, magic-based characters got roped into being among the Spirits? It would allow a rare insight into the haunted character’s past and could make for some great roleplaying in a session.

We’re now six sessions into the campaign, and the PCs have been away from Drinax for a few months now, exploring the nearby systems for loot and adventure. Not much pirating has been getting done, but they’ve successfully fomented two revolutions so far and profited handsomely from them. Captain Nemos and his crew are coming together nicely and picking up oddball NPCs along the way. Here is one of them. Blackfur: An uplifted ape (25 STR and knows a few martial maneuvers) that one of the PCs first came face to face with by defeating him in an MMA match on the pirate world of Theev, then later encountered in another system after having developed a rivalry for that PC over that loss. Two more fistfights in different game sessions ended with the dice giving more defeats for Blackfur, one from an uppercutting punch to the jaw (hit location 5) and a second with a solid shot to the nads (hit location 13). Neither hit was aimed there on purpose, just the luck of the dice. The player is thinking Blackfur wants to murder him, but he’s actually more of a grumpy, honorable rival that is secretly a bit embarrassed at being so soundly beaten three times in a row by a mere human who just so happens to be a trained boxer from his military days. Despite his grumpiness, Blackfur is a good mechanic, fights well on the PC’s side and is fitting in quite well on the crew.

What would be amusing is if one of his bad dice rolls causes a TPK or does something that implodes the campaign. I’m sure I’m not alone in seeing an epic failure like that happen, but I’m a grognard who’s been at this since the early 80s.