Category: Junk

Loot from the 25th Sublevel of the Dungeon

I recently crossed into a new age category. My Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma all now suffer from a -2 penalty. This sucks, but there are a few upsides. For one, my Wisdom and Intelligence each gained +1. They were on even numbers before, so my modifiers didn’t actually increase, but it’s still cool. I also acquired some nifty loot, pictured above. Some of it is from my very friendly ladyfriend, and the rest is just from allowing myself to be a little less thrifty than normal. Given that it is all at least tangentially related to tabletop gaming, I thought I’d take the time to share.

Pictured at the top of the image are three board games: Small World, Tsuro, and the Order of the Stick Adventure Game (Deluxe Edition). The first two of those I’ve been interested in since seeing them featured on Wil Wheaton’s “Tabletop” series of YouTube videos. He’s already done a very thorough job of explaining both games, so I would simply recommend checking out what he’s posted. Small World was the focus of episode one, while Tsuro was the first of three games in episode two.

I’ve mentioned in the past (a no doubt annoying number of times) that I’m a huge fan of Rich Berlew’s Order of the Stick webcomic. It’s funny, clever, involved, and surprisingly emotionally compelling for a comic about stick figures. So when I drove into the city to have a nice dinner and visit Card Kingdom, I was delighted to find a copy of the Order of the Stick board game on display there. It even includes a thoroughly amusing comic to explain the rules. I won’t go into too much detail, since I’ll probably write a review of it once I have a chance to play it properly. Essentially, it’s a cooperative dungeon crawling game where only one of the players can actually be the ‘winner.’ If you’ve ever played Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games, think of this as Advanced Munchkin. It’s also much funnier, which is saying something, because Munchkin is pretty funny.

Moving on, in the center of the picture are three of the old Van Richten’s Guides. Ravenloft is easily my favorite campaign setting. I love the macabre style, I love undead creatures, and I all around love the land of mists. I first encountered Van Richten’s guides when I visited a local book store and picked up Van Richten’s Guide to Vampires. The books are written from an in-universe perspective. The ‘author’ is legendary undead hunter Dr. Rudolph van Richten, who writes these books to help novice undead hunters understand the dangers they’ll face. There were tons of these guides, and they’re absolutely timeless. It doesn’t matter what game or campaign setting you’re running, because they’re structured more like a work of fiction than a sourcebook. It’s only at the end of each chapter that the various elements are explained within the structure of AD&D’s rules. Pictured are the guides for Ghosts, Flesh Golems (“The Created”), and Mummies (“The Ancient Dead.”)

On the center left is “Tales of The Dying Earth” by Jack Vance. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re already well aware of why this is significant. If not, all you really need to know is that when we talk about “Vancian” magic in D&D, Jack Vance is the guy it was named after. On page 40 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gygax directs anyone curious about the background for D&D’s magic system to read three books. Two of which (“The Eyes of the Overworld” and “The Dying Earth”) are both included in this volume. I’m a little curious as to why the cover looks quite so science-fiction-y, but I’m sure the meaning for that will become apparent once I get a chance to read it. Now I just need to power through the significantly less interesting book I’m currently reading.

On the center right is the sourcebook for Dungeon Crawl Classic. It’s a unique kind of retro clone which has integrated some aspects from modern gaming, and has some very interesting ideas in it. It’s also the first game I’ve encountered which will require me to find some of the more obscure Zocchi dice, such as the three, five, and seven sided dice. There are already a lot of things here I like, and a lot of things I don’t like. I’m sure this game will be getting a few of its own posts in the future, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Finally, I got an oversized D12. Each side has a body part listed on it: Right Hand, Left Hand, Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Leg, Left Leg, Stomach, Chest, Head, and Full Body. I’m not completely sure what I want to do with it yet, but I just like the idea of it. I’m thinking it might work best in a game like West End Game’s Star Wars RPG. That’s a game where combat is supposed to be extremely lethal. So, instead of using their system of “wounds,” you could instead use this die to determine whether a shot is lethal or not. I’m not completely sure what to do with “Full Body” though. Perhaps it’ll just mean you have to re-roll twice.

Now it looks like I’ve got some serious reading to do, so if you’ll excuse me, I want to see if Van Richten has any tips which will help me with my Mummy problem.

By the way, if you did enjoy this post, it’s Garage Sailing season. Which means my seasonal Garage Sailing site will have a post like this every week.

The Most Visually Impressive Appendix Ever

Today (as of this writing), I received my Random Dungeon Generator and Wandering Monster posters from the Blog of Holding Kickstarter campaign. Paul started the project to fund production of the former, and generously required only a $22 donation to have the latter thrown in as well! I got them laminated, and they’re now hanging in a place of honor above my workspace.

If you are unfamiliar, the random dungeon generator (pictured right) was originally created by Gary Gygax, and included in the Dungeon Master’s Guide as appendix A. The generator takes up about 4 pages of the book, and is intended to help GMs create dungeons both in preparation for, and even during, a session of game play. The variety included in the tables is impressive. Numerous types of corridors, room sizes, trap types, treasure and even whether or not a monster is present can be generated with the tables. They can be somewhat difficult to follow, and require a lot of page flipping, but the creation of it is a feat of Gygaxian proportions.

As Paul tells the story, it first occurred to him that the tables could be re-drawn as a flow chart. It then struck him that a dungeon is basically a flow chart with monsters in it. So he set out to represent the random dungeon generator as a dungeon, and it turned out beautifully. It’s extremely simple to follow. I’ve already created a few dungeon levels using it, and aside from having a difficult time finding a table large enough for it, it has been a pleasure to use. The art is top-notch as well. I know many of my readers have a soft-spot for detailed black-and-white art, and I don’t think they’d be disappointed by what Paul has done here. There are little visual treats everywhere, with tiny characters making their way through the many dungeon obstacles present.

The Illustrated Wandering Monster Tables are of somewhat less use to me, since I have so much fun creating those tables myself. But the art is, once again, very nice. Plus I think it will be fun to use in conjunction with the random dungeon generator. If I can somehow fit them both behind my GM screen, I won’t even need to bother making any game preparations any more!

So far, the poster has only been made available to those who participated in the Kickstarter campaign, but Paul has said they will be made available somewhere online soon. When it does become available, you have my recommendation to purchase it.

Half Price Books Haul

If you have a Half Price Books location near you, you need to go there. Just make sure you have some spare cash, because you’re not going to get out of there without buying a veritable library. Not only is everything fantastically cheap, but they’ve got more variety in their stock than I would have thought possible for a brick-and-mortar book store. They somehow combine a mom & pop bookstore atmosphere, with the square footage & numerous locations of a national chain like Barnes & Noble. I’ve got two locations near me, and both of them have more tabletop gaming material than I could read in a year.

Pictured above are the RPG books I got from my most recent haul. I got a number of other items as well (including a brand new 10-DVD set of Stanley Kubrick’s films for $24 which made my heart flutter), but this is a tabletop RPG blog, so I figure this is what my readers would actually be interested in.

The Dungeon Master’s Guide by Gary Gygax is the biggest find, for me. This is, as I’ve said before, a seminal work in RPGs. This text was so groundbreaking, and remains so relevant even to modern gamers, that WIRED magazine listed it first among their “9 Essential Geek Books You Must Read Right Now,” which came out a staggering 32 years after the book was originally released. I’ve been reading a PDF of it recently, which has inspired a number of my recent posts, but there’s nothing quite like having a physical copy. The book has been out of print for decades, though Wizards of the Coast is planning to do a limited reprint. So if you can’t find an original, your chance to possess this wisdom is coming up. Plus it supports the Gygax Memorial Fund!

The Dark Force Rising Sourcebook is for the West End Games Star Wars RPG, which is among my favorite games. Back when this RPG was still in print, new Star Wars novels would often be accompanied by a sourcebook, which took elements from that novel, such as ships, locations, characters, or events, and gave them game-rules. I don’t know if that kind of synergy has ever existed between media & gaming anywhere else, but I like it. And Dark Force Rising still reigns as one of the greatest Star Wars novels ever written, so I’m eager to dive into reading this. Plus there are numerous fantastic illustrations for scenes from the book, which is always fun.

Ever since reading Vecna Reborn, I’ve been really aching to get my hands on some Ravenloft materials. Being a fan of undead, and grimdark settings, it just seems like my kinda thing. I picked up three. Ravenloft: Realm of Terror, which is the basic campaign setting for second edition. Van Richten’s Guide to Vampires, which is a detailed 95 page booklet on–you guessed it–vampires. It seems to be written from an in-game perspective, which should be really fun to read. The Shadow Rift is a massive adventure module, filling almost 160 pages. I’m not sure when I’ll have the opportunity to read & run this, but it looks exciting. And I gotta give some massive props to the artist who passed up on an opportunity to sexualize the female adventurer on the cover. Bravo, Todd Lockwood!

Shadowrun is a game I’ve wanted to play for a long time. Cyberpunk has always intrigued me, and throwing magic in the mix makes for a fun time. Apparently the sourcebook I found is actually 1st edition as well. So the vision of future technology is crazy out of date, which kinda works for me. There’s something charming about a world where we all have cybernetic implants, but computers are still bulky and require wired connections.

The last two books are The Fright at Tristor, and the D&D Player’s Companion: Book One. Fright at Tristor is a 3.5 module. I haven’t had much time to look into it yet, but I’ve become very interested in acquiring Pathfinder compatible modules in recent months. I still prefer to design my own adventures, but running modules now and again has proven educational and fun. The Players Companion is a 1st edition supplement which includes more detailed combat rules, information on strongholds, classes, and new weapons. It should be informative to see how a player supplement was handled in 1984.

Now if I could only find more time to read!

Paizo's Year Long Retrospective: 1

It’s a good thing nobody relies on me for news, because I am terrible about paying attention to news and posting about it in a timely manner.

A week ago today (see how on top of things I am?) Paizo put up a fascinating retrospective on their blog. The company was originally founded in 2002, so this year will be the tenth year of Paizo’s operation. Ten years since they started bringing us the best content we ever saw out of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Eventually they would go on to create many amazing products, including my beloved Pathfinder RPG. It’s no secret that I’m in love with this company. They’ve done so much to improve gaming, and I like to hope that in the future they will continue to combine their amazing innovators, with tried and tested ideas to create some amazing games for us to spend all of our money on.

I’ll forgo the play-by-play. Though I did get a hearty laugh from some friends earlier today when I recounted the story about how Paizo moved into their first offices. “The previous company in the offices had vacated in a hurry, so the landlord offered to sell us all their stuff for a dollar. It turned out to be a really good investment, because we found a $20 in one of the desks.” Good times, good times.

I would really encourage you to read the post. It’s a fun and charming read, with a few moment that made me giggle. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this as more are posted throughout the year.

Also, is it just me, or does Lisa Stevens come off as some kind of nerd-badass genius? She was laid off from her job at Wizards of the Coast, so she took a year off to work on her Star Wars Collection!?

News: Dungeons And Dragons 5th Edition

I was exhausted and fell asleep last night, so I’m sure by now that everyone is aware that the New York Times broke the story that Wizards of the Coast is working on Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Shortly thereafter this was followed by an announcement on the WotC website my Mike Mearls, titled “Charting the Course for D&D: Your Voice, Your Game.” Now, technically, they could be talking about D&D 4.5 or something, but given the phrasing of “developing the next iteration of D&D,” I think it’s safe to assume that we’re talking about 5th edition here.

Like many other gamers, my first reaction was annoyance and anger. 2nd edition D&D was released in 1989, and wasn’t replaced until the year 2000. When third edition was released, it only took three years for them to come out with 3.5, but that was okay. Only the core rulebooks needed to be re purchased, and the update was pretty necessary. But then to completely drop third edition for fourth edition a mere five years later was frustrating. Particularly since I found fourth edition to be a significant step down from third edition. And now, here we are in early 2012, less than four years after the initial release of 4th edition, and we’re already talking about 5th. It won’t be released for a few years yet, but still. It’s far too quick.

I understand that the role playing landscape isn’t the same as it was in the 70s. No edition will ever have the 15 year lifetime that 1st edition had. Increased competition means that games need to keep evolving and improving their rules systems to remain interesting to gamers who have a lot more options than they did thirty years ago. And 4th edition, by all indication, hasn’t been faring very well in the marketplace. Competition has been particularly fierce for Dungeons and Dragons since the release of Pathfinder, which stole a large portion of the D&D 3.5 playerbase, including myself, right out from under Wizard’s Nose.

That’s the point in the stages of anger where I realize that this announcement doesn’t really apply to me anymore. I haven’t purchased a Wizards of the Coast product since 2008. Fourth edition is not a game I found even slightly appealing, and as wiser men have said: I’ve got better games to play.

So with the realization that a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons isn’t the worst thing in the world, lets scrutinize what’s going on here.

That is why we are excited to share with you that starting in Spring 2012, we will be taking this process one step further and conducting ongoing open playtests with the gaming community to gather feedback on the new iteration of the game as we develop it. With your feedback and involvement, we can make D&D better than ever. We seek to build a foundation for the long-term health and growth of D&D, one rooted in the vital traits that make D&D unique and special. We want a game that rises above differences of play styles, campaign settings, and editions, one that takes the fundamental essence of D&D and brings it to the forefront of the game. In short, we want a game that is as simple or complex as you please, its action focused on combat, intrigue, and exploration as you desire. We want a game that is unmistakably D&D, but one that can easily become your D&D, the game that you want to run and play.

This sound familiar to anyone?

Paizo Publishing today unveiled the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, a tabletop fantasy roleplaying game that will serve as the anchor for the company’s popular line of Pathfinder adventures, sourcebooks, and campaigns. Today marks the beginning of a year-long Open Playtest of the new rules, which are based upon the popular 3.5 rules available under the Open Game License. The Pathfinder RPG is designed with backward compatibility as one of its primary goals, so players will continue to enjoy their lifelong fantasy gaming hobby without invalidating their entire game library. The first Pathfinder RPG Alpha release is available now as a free 65-page PDF download at paizo.com/pathfinderRPG. Until the finished Pathfinder RPG’s release as a hardcover rulebook in August 2009, all of Paizo’s popular Pathfinder-brand products will continue under the current 3.5 rules set.

That’s an announcement pulled directly from Paizo’s news post on March 18th 2008. I guess Wizards of the Coast has been paying more attention than I gave them credit for.

Tabletop gaming has always been about community and creativity. GM not only create fantastic worlds for their players, but helpful rules to make the game more fun. Players craft their character’s persona as they play. And everyone enjoys the game together. In the age of the Internet, that community has become so much larger. It’s expanded from the small group of people around our gaming tables, or the people we chat with at our friendly local gaming store. Now through forums and blogs, our community covers the world. And it’s only appropriate for Wizards to acknowledge that, and take advantage of it. Honestly, it’s kind of silly they didn’t realize that back in 2008.

We want to be involved in the games we love. As soon as it’s in our hands we’re going to be house-ruling it anyway, so why not see if we can get some of our house rules actually included in the published game? For myself, I’m not sure yet if I’ll be participating in this project. I’ve thrown my lot in with Paizo, and I’ve been happy with their products. Still, I’m sure I’ll look over the first copy of 5th edition I can get my hands on. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be amazing. Maybe I’ll want to be part of making it better.

Time will tell.

Hey Atheist Gamers: Stop It

Is it just me, or do Atheists comprise a larger portion of the tabletop gamer population than they do of the general population? Maybe I only notice it because I actually pay attention to the gaming community, but it certainly seems that we gamers are disproportionately atheistic. Enough so that at least one tabletop forum I frequent has an in-joke of starting posts with “I’m an Atheist.” as a non-sequitur. I won’t venture a guess as to why, but perhaps Jack Chick was on to something.

Personally, this is really cool for me. I, myself, am an Atheist. And I’m not exactly passive about it. At least two people credit me with helping them on their road towards Atheism, and believers usually find my brash and uncompromising outspokenness on the subject of religion to be unpleasant. I can certainly get along just fine with believers, but if I can game with like-minded folk, so much the better! I think everyone can agree that it’s nice to feel you are with people you don’t need to worry about offending with your opinions. Not that our opinions on religion should be coming up around the game table.

I say “shouldn’t,” because, unfortunately, they do. And I’m not talking about religious zealouts who try to demonize Role Playing. I’m talking about you, my fellow Atheists.

More and more often I’m hearing tales of Atheist players and GMs who go on an in-game crusade against religion. Players who refuse to group with clerics, distrust all in-game religious institutions, or even engaging in diplomancy to convince NPCs that there are no deities. And the GM stories…oh the GM stories. I’ve heard of GMs who refused to allow any deities in their games. GMs who cause paladins to lose their powers over questioning their god’s will, and explain it by stating that all gods demand unquestioning faith. Even of GMs who have gods strike players down for minor sins, because they apparently take their deific role playing cues from the old testament.

And it needs to stop.

There’s a line most atheists are familiar with, a common rebuttal to the assertion of a deity. It can be phrased various ways, but stated simply, it goes “I don’t believe in God for the same reason I don’t believe in unicorns. There’s simply no evidence that they exist.” Well guess what motherfuckers? Pathfinder Bestiary, page 269: Unicorns.

Religion within the game world should be no more offensive to an atheist than the magic, or the monsters, or the dungeons which don’t make a lick of logical sense. (“Mad wizards” can’t explain everything, Mr. Gygax). Nearly every fantastic element in the games we love can be traced back through history to some primitive human’s attempt to understand the divine. What about devils!? Surely there are few imaginary creatures more religious than devils! Yet I’ve never heard of a fanatically atheistic GM bastardizing that concept.

I understand that you don’t like religion. I get that it hurt you. I don’t like it either, and it hurt me too. I don’t like that I spent hours of my childhood each week listening to someone tell me about what a bad person I am. But you know what? I’m betting your parents didn’t take you to the temple of Kord every Godsday. And neither did mine. Fantasy gods never hurt anybody.

So get the fuck over it.

Critical Christmas

My lady-friend will be working over the Christmas weekend, so she and I decided to celebrate the holiday today. Fancy dinner and gift giving, followed by hours of watching the Batman: Beyond DVDs I got her. Not exactly related to the content of the blog, but as it turns out, my lady-friend knows that I like:

There’s a lot of great RPG stuff here. So lets tackle it in order.

Goblins of Golarion is a small Pathfinder supplement which serves to aid people who wish to play as Pathfinder’s iconic goblins. Not too long ago I ran a one-shot game called We Be Goblins! which was offered by Paizo as free promotional material for the release of this little supplement. And I must confess, the idea of playing as a goblin really got my group excited, and everyone had a lot of fun. Goblins of Golarion is only slightly over 30 pages long, which is about how many pages were allocated to each race in the old D&D 3.5 ‘Races of…’ series of books. It’s even structured similarly to those books. It begins with “Life as a Goblin,” and goes on to cover numerous elements of goblin culture, specific goblin tribes, as well as a few player options at the end. Goblin specific feats, spells, and so on. Based on my cursory perusal, it seems like a solid supplement.

Moving on is a more full-bodied Pathfinder supplement, Ultimate Magic. I haven’t had time to meaningfully look over the options presented here, but I suspect I’ll feel about it the same way I felt about Ultimate Combat. Which is to say: lots of good stuff there, glad to have it in my collection, but way too much filler content. I really like the class archetypes system Pathfinder introduced. I think it’s a great deal better than using prestige classes. Personally, I rather wish Pathfinder had gotten rid of prestige classes altogether, rather than nerfing them and de facto replacing them with archetypes. That being said, does every supplement need 70+ pages of archetypes? Surely you’re not that desperate to fill pages, Paizo.

The rest of the book seems much better. Spell duels can be difficult, so having some advice on running them would be good. Spell blights sound extremely interesting, and I always love to get more detail on classic wizard tasks such as binding outsiders and crafting constructs. So overall, the “Mastering Magic” chapter seems cool. There’s also a sizable chapter on feats. I’m somewhat dubious, due to my aforementioned problems with feats, but at the same time I readily acknowledge that the core game lacks feat variety for casters. Hopefully Pathfinder solved the problem better than D&D 3.5 did. I’m not really sure what to expect from the Words of Power chapter, and of course, there has to be several dozen new spells for some reason. I look forward to delving further into the book. I’m sure I’ll eventually post about anything particularly interesting.

All I really wanted for Christmas was the Mouse Guard RPG. And I got it. I’ve been in love with the concept ever since I first read about it on /tg/ a few months back. After reading a few of the comics, I can confirm what I heard then. It’s a story (or game) about the creatures at the absolute bottom of the food chain trying to survive in a world where everything is a giant monster. I have no doubt there will be one, or several, posts dedicated tot his book in the future.

The ladyfriend also picked up a number of items from our game store’s “old stuff” bins. All very interesting, but the stand-out win here is a copy of Gang Busters. Classic 1980s TSR game about being a mobster or a copper back during America’s roaring twenties. The game was pretty popular in its day, enough to eventually get a third edition (though no second edition). What I got is first edition though, which is killer. I’ve really been wanting to sample some of TSR’s earlier work. I will absolutely be forcing this game on my players at some point in the future, and doubtless I’ll be posting about the experience.

I also received three issues of an independent British role playing magazine (says so right at the top) called “The Last Province.” I haven’t had a chance to peruse these much, but they look like they have some good information in them. And I always like old RPG materials, if for no other reason than collector’s value.

Lastly, there’s issue 17 of White Wolf Magazine. Truth be told, I don’t know if I’ve ever played with a White Wolf product. However, the cover says that this issue covers AD&D 2nd edition, Shadowrun, and contains 3 adventures. Those are all things which interest me. One of these days I really must get around to trying Shadowrun! Also, the woman on the cover has the boob. Like, woah, lady.

Overall, a very merry Christmas for me!

Friday’s normal colorful characters post will be pushed back to Saturday or Sunday, and will replace the regularly scheduled weekend post.

News: Pathfinder Bestiary Box

Paizo recently announced a new product which, in keeping with form, I’m a huge fan of. They’re calling it the “Pathfinder Bestiary Box,” pictured to the right. The box will contain more than 300 cardboard stand-ups with full color art of various creatures and monsters. They also mention that there will be “more than 250 unique creature images,” which makes me happy, because it would be ridiculous if a GM only had one goblin token to put on the table. The idea obviously follows on the heels of the Pathfinder Beginner Box, which had similar cardboard standups for both monsters and player characters.

Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of miniatures, which is why I like this idea so much. For years I’ve been using things like pennies and other random items found around my apartment to represent items on the battle mat. It works well enough, but I’ve never been fully satisfied with it. The cardboard standups provide a good middle ground between having nothing to mark your battlemat, or spending tons of time and money on minis.

Still, I’m not completely sold on the idea. Part of the reason I’ve never liked minis is because they steal some of the imagination from the game. If I want to throw my players up against 4 goblins and a poisonous plant creature with the head of a monkey and the legs of a spider, I don’t want to have markers for the first four, and nothing for the last creature.

Still, for those more interested in using miniatures casually, this sounds like a solid product.

No More Overzealous Paladins

Life isn’t straightforward. It isn’t black and white. The stories of vile villains and righteous crusades that we were weaned on are fairy tales. But heroes? Heroes are very real. They’re not perfect, and there’s no army of them, but they exist. They are the naive idealists without any grasp of how the world works. They are the battle hard cynics who fight on to keep the darkness from encroaching for another day. They are the unknown soldiers who die alone in the dark, with nothing to comfort them other than the knowledge that they have done what is right. Heroes fight losing battles, they are manipulated, and too often receive nothing–not even success–for their trouble. Yet heroes fight on, because some battles need to be fought.

These are the incorruptible, the charitable, the fearless. These are the paladins.

-Anonymous /tg/ contributor

I am tired of seeing paladins consistently portrayed in an un-paladin like manner. In recent years, I don’t think I have seen a single paladin–either in a game or in some other media–who didn’t suffer from a painful overzealousness. Paladins are played as assholes who object to the very concept of tolerance. They look down on anyone who doesn’t adhere to their strict (often arbitrary) moral codes. And even a slight suggestion that laws are being broken or evil acts committed will cause such a paladin to react with force. A sizable portion of the time, the paladin is so over zealous that he or she serves as an antagonist to good characters. In other cases, paladins grow so overzealous as to be actively evil according to any rational definition of the alignment.

It’s not that I don’t get it. We’ve all dealt with this kind of paladin in real life. The door to door religion salespeople, the condescendingly self-righteous believers, the snarling fundamentalists demanding that one group or another be denied civil liberties on the basis of a religion. In the real world, people with an absolute sense of right and wrong based on their religious beliefs are often brutish and unkind. Those willing to go out into the world and ‘fight’ for their religion often choose to do so by trying to bring everyone who doesn’t agree with them down. I am an Atheist, I have no reason to defend religion whatsoever. But the needless association of in-game religion to real-world religion needs to stop.

Pathfinder and D&D are games of magic and monsters. Games where gods actually exist, and frequently interact with the material world in obvious ways. In real life, a woman who kills 10 people and claims god told her to do it is crazy. In Pathfinder, the authorites would find out which god the woman is talking about, find a cleric of that god, and have that cleric ask their god why those 10 people deserved to die. If the woman were, in fact, crazy, then the cleric could use the powers granted them by their god to simply raise the dead. Whether you are religious or not, I think we can all agree that religion in a fantasy world is fantastical. Not only does it grant magical powers, but the gods who head fantasy religions are beings which can be reached and spoken to with even low level clerical spells.

Like the religions they serve, paladins are fantastical. With the rare exception of those who have fallen, paladins are paragons of virtue. They never walk past a person who is hungry without stopping to feed them, nor could they walk past a person who was cold without giving away their cloak. This is not a matter of duty–though a paladin might disagree. Paladins act always to help those in need because they want to soothe every iota of suffering possible. And when a paladin stands to fight, it is not simply to defend their honor or that of their god. Paladins do not fight for kings or queens, nor do they fight for money or prestige. When a paladin draws steel, it is because they believe they stand between innocents, and evil. It is because the only way to soothe suffering is to defeat that which causes it–be it man or beast.

I think the best way to demonstrate this point would be to relate a story of a paladin played correctly. This story has been floating around the 4chan sub forum /tg/ (for Traditional Games) for a number of years now. It is one among many such stories, though for the life of me I cannot find any others which I want to share. I’ve edited the story to work in a non-image board format. I believe it demonstrates the paladin archetype with actions better than I can demonstrate it with words.

My Warforged paladin was alone with the villain atop his tower. The villain had wings, and could fly away at any time, but since I was alone he chose to taunt me.

“Have you ever stopped to think about why you protect others?”

“On occasion, why?” I replied.

“It’s all programmed in, you know. You care about humans because you were built by humans and programmed to care about humans. You believe in everything you do because they chose for you to believe it. Look at yourself! They made you so that you like being helpful and protective, and it’s all a lie! Join me, and I can free you from it all. From the shackles they put on you. You can be a pure and perfect being, immortal and superior, with all the power you’ve ever wanted.”

“Yes, but isn’t that desire programmed in, as well? Even if none of my emotions are true, they feel true. Even if my cause isn’t really mine, it feels just. All you can do is exchange one lie for another. I’ll keep the one that makes everyone else, the ones with real emotions, happiest.”

With that, my character leaped forward and grappled the villain. I knocked him from the tower and rode him down to the rocks below, using my weight to prevent him from flying.

Just thought I’d share my characters last moments with you.

-Anonymous /tg/ contributor

Paladins are not self righteous. They are not over zealous. They are not eager to spill blood for their gods. They aren’t perfect, but nor do they suffer from the weaknesses which often characterize the “forcefully religious” in the real world.

What paladins are is goodly and just. They are heroes, and I would like to see them portrayed as such.

Pathfinder Online: Goblinwork's Development Strategy

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a Pathfinder MMORPG in the works. It’s being developed by a company called Goblin Works, and today they just made their first blog post detailing the upcoming development of the game. The post focuses largely on business aspects and broad development strategies, rather than anything specific, but there’s a lot here to be learned!

I like a lot of what I’m hearing. I’m not experienced as an analyst, but companies don’t typically talk about how little money they’re spending on a game, so I would guess that this is the truth. In fact the entire post reads like something you would never hear a game developer say. Goblinworks admits to spending a minimum amount of cash, to reducing the amount of time they’re going to be developing the game, and even to expecting to lose 75% of their new players every month. While this may be discouraging to some, it has been my experience that those who work with the least resources, tend to become the most resourceful.

I find the idea of a cap on new players to be a really cool one. By limiting new players to 4,500 a month, Goblinworks basically ensures that they’ll be able to avoid the launch-day issues which have plagued every halfway decent MMO release. And by slowly, but steadily expanding the game as the player base grows, it seems like there will consistently be new and polished content released at a good clip. But maybe I’m reading too much into things.
I’m still taking the “wait and see” approach, but Pathfinder Online is starting to look a little shinier than I first dared to hope.