Review: Ultimate Campaign – Part 1

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

It is taking me a little time to get through my Ultimate Campaign sourcebook by Paizo for Pathfinder. It is not because it is a poor book, rather that real life keeps trying to get in my way. This morning I had a bit of a revelation anyway in that the sourcebook has four chapters with topics that take a quite different look at various parts of a campaign so I should do a review per chapter. In the final review I will bring it all together and give you my overall impressions of the book but this way I am able to give a bit more of an in depth look to each chapter as we go because they are quite meaty chapters.

Chapter 1: Character Background

This chapter is largely what I was looking forward to this book for. Many of you will realise that I am a big role-player as opposed to the roll-player. I like to take on large roles, or fill my games with them so that the drama does not necessarily need to rely on combat to progress. To play a large character you need to think not only about their motivations but also where their motivations stem from. That is right, the background of the character. I have a discussion about getting into backgrounds on my own blog, which you can reach from this link.

Pathfinder has made attempts to get players involved in character background through Traits that first arose as a free web supplement and then also got included in the Advanced Players Guide (APG). Feats also could be attached to your character background as well if you so wished to do so. But in reality the background of your character has been largely left to your own to develop (which is not a bad thing) while the game focused on how to handle “the now”. As a GM I have always needed my players to use the Trait rules from the APG, taking a trait that they want and a campaign trait (to the adventure path or from the APG). This of course has led to an array of characters who all choose the Reactionary trait as their free choice and a varying campaign trait. Few of these characters ever bothered to tie these into a background of sorts.

Well, enter Chapter 1 of Ultimate Campaign (UCamp), which is in its entirety here to offer a mechanic to build your character’s background with sixty-eight pages of advice and support. As that is more pages combined of the sections that make up the Games Master section of the Core Book I think the people over at Paizo have looked at the trend of story based games that are rising in popularity and are beginning to provide some assistance on how to build well developed characters before the first game is even done.

Brainstorming

The chapter itself offers up a couple of different options to building your character. The first option is a structured brainstorming idea that helps you take on a character concept (with some really good ideas on what to do when stuck) that looks at the circumstances around your birth inclusive of family, the area, the characters social standing, exposure to magic and also a major event that is likely to be part of the formation of why the character took on a role like they did.

The brainstorm then moves you through adolescence including how you move from a child to an adult in your community, what friends, allies and influences affect you. It also asks you to think of a class event in that an event that led you to the training of your character’s actual class rather than social class, details of your first love as well as your duty and responsibilities. Then it leads into your adult life and the character you are now. It asks you to reflect on the past and how your character handles such things like their ordinary demeanor or conflict, what their vulnerabilities are, who their friends, associates and companions are. Once you have thought about this it then asks you to think about your trait choices and tying them into the background as a whole.

New Trait Mechanics and Drawbacks

The second option is a Background Generator which allows you to build a complete random background for the character. Before I discuss this I want to discuss the expanded traits that exist in this book and the new mechanics they have added to the character background. Traits have been greatly expanded in this new book. They have gone from an eight page section in the APG to a thirteen page inclusion (with all the traits from the APG included) in UCamp. The rules around traits are still that you may take two for your character. But now there is an addition to the rule where you can take three traits if you are willing to take on a drawback! New mechanic people! The drawback is something that limits your character in some way and they introduce some examples which are good but they are limited to two pages. I love this new idea as it becomes a source of conflict which adds drama to the game but only two pages of them? Come on! We want, nay need more Paizo. There are a world of flaws you can draw on and we get only a handful of good examples?

The Background Generator

The reason I covered the traits and flaws expansion before the random background mechanics is due to the fact that as you go through the Background Generator (BG) it ties results to possible traits that you should choose from so that the traits you choose are reflective of the events in your background. The BG is something that when I started reading I turned my nose up a little at it. I thought a character should come from within the player but the more I read the more I warmed to it. I thought of the characters that my players had run and how some of them had little to no background at all and thought this is a great way to show the importance of it. The BG is very old school in its approach. It is essentially a process of going to tables and rolling a percentile and finding the result. The tables go through three different stages (multiple tables in each stage.

The first stage is the Homeland, Family and Childhood stage. It lays out tables explaining about your family, what life is like in your homeland and more. As you go through and role on these tables you open up access to certain traits that you may want to take in your allocation of traits. For example, if I rolled an 82% on the Circumstances of Birth table on page twenty I would gain access to the Blessed faith and Birthmark faith trait (there is a description to the roll but I won’t be offering spoilers). Now it is just gaining access to it which means at the end of the BG when all three sections are complete I will have a list of traits that fit my background and I will then go through them and choose up to two traits from the list or up to three if I am to take a drawback.

The second stage covers the character’s adolescence and training into their class while the third and final stage looks at moral conflicts, relationships and vulnerabilities. The third stage even has an alignment generator tied to the background of the character! How cool is that? Fancy your alignment being a product of your background!

Story Feats

The final thing that I want to say about this chapter is the final new mechanic in it called the Story Feat. These are fantastic! They can be tied into character background I believe at points during the BG as a suggested feat for the character. They in essence offer you a personal quest, which gives you added abilities (like a normal feat) while you are pursuing the quest and then, once complete, these abilities tend to become more powerful. These Feats can be taken by anyone that meets at least one of the eligibility criteria at the start of it, which means they are easily adaptable to existing campaigns. The Feats themselves offer a GM automatic secondary stories or plot lines to be incorporated into your game adding a beautiful depth to the story that will be pursued by the player! Get into these feats GM’s and players alike. if you sit around in game wondering what is going on, these feats will give you motivation to stay focused and find areas that can help you complete the feat. There are a healthy eight pages devoted to these feats.

Chapter 1 Likes and Dislikes

This sourcebook is shaping up to be a fantastic sourcebook for the Pathfinder game. It is working mechanics to give an in depth story. Chapter 1 on a flick through looks to be all rules and regulations for the game and may be a bit off putting to a player. But the essence of all these rules is to bring an enhanced, in depth understanding to the character and why they act like they do. The rules do not need to be memorized and are easily skimmed through as you make your character.

The thing I am most excited about is the Story Feat, which are just a brilliant idea. They add an in game reason for focus and plot development that the player has an increasing buy in to. I can see me developing may more of them for use in my game and I do hope Paizo has planned other story feats that might be linked to adventure paths or the like. The BG also looks to be a fun way to build a character background. If I ever have the opportunity to be a player in another Pathfinder game I am going to go all in with a completely random background for a challenge to roleplay the end result. It is a very old school way to achieve a background but I think it is going to be fun to see the variations from it.

The only criticism I have of this chapter are the poor amount of drawbacks. The ones there are okay but in one lot of characters you are likely to use most of them up. Drama comes from vulnerabilities and foibles and for this mechanic to be truly embraced we need a lot more drawbacks that can be used. Before I run my next game I am actually going to have to spend a good deal of time fleshing these out as my group will get any advantage they can (three traits, one drawback is better than two traits).

There are some of you out there that have probably read this sourcebook three times over by now but I hope that some of you will read some of these reviews and make your decision on if you should include it in your rules set. I am enjoying savoring the book as I read through it and I will bring a review of the next chapter to you next Monday. Until then, keep rolling!

Mark Knights is 39 year old guy living in a small rural town called Elliott in Tasmania, Australia. I have been role playing since I was 11 years old playing the original versions of Dungeons and Dragons, MERP, Elric, Dragon Warriors and the like amongst other genre games. I played D&D 2nd Edition through the 90′s but I ran Earthdawn for my fantasy setting and loved it as a GM. When 3rd Edition came out for D&D I tried it but found it too heavy on rules. I ignored the 3.5 edition of DnD in favour of Earthdawn (big mistake) as I thought it was just a money spinner. When 4th Edition DnD came on my players and I gave it a red hot go but hated what it had dumbed the game down to be. On a trip to Melbourne to buy some 4E stuff from a hobby store an old mate of mine pointed me at Pathfinder and in a Fantasy setting I have never looked back.

Rage Quit!

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

Ever sat down at the village Inn after a hard day of cleaving Goblin heads from Goblin necks only to be told by the Innkeeper that you need to bathe before they serve you? Then the half-elf waitress makes some comment about meat heads pointedly at your expense and the next thing you know you are staring at an Inn full of dead folk all dismembered and you are holding a bloody axe? I hate it when that happens, as I am sure you do too. And I am sure that you realise you have just exited the rage that marks you as one of the fiercest fighters on the battlefield. You suffered from a Barbarian rage quit and made all the fools suffer for their arrogance.

If you have not quite guessed it yet, this is my post focussed on Pathfinder’s Barbarian class. The brute warriors with more focus on force than finesse the Barbarian throws defence to the wind in an attempt to deliver as much damage as possible in a short time. We will take a look at the abilities that make a Barbarian the formidable warrior that they are and also look at what options are available for them through the core rulebooks to make them all they can be. Conan wishes he were so good…

RAGE!!!

The core of a Barbarian is their rage. It is a wellspring that exists in them that they tap into when they loose themselves into a battle. The strength and constitution scores raise by 4 with a morale bonus increasing to hit bonuses and hit points (as well as fort saves) in the process. The Barbarian also gains a +2 to their will saves but the negative to all this is they suffer a −2 to their armour class. In game terms the Barbarian becomes wilder, stronger, a little more impervious but less focused on defending themselves as they hit their rage.

While in the rage the Barbarian can’t use skills that require them to think, consider, charm, or coordinate their body. It is seen as a period where the character goes into a wild frenzy led by their primal being. Because of this there is no in depth consideration they are capable of. The best they can do is some intimidation or acrobatic manoeuvres toward dealing the pain to their foes.

The Barbarian can rage for 4 + Con modifier rounds a day at first level and gets to add a further two rounds per day for each level they go up past first. These rounds do not need to be spent consecutively, though coming out of a rage (a free action) causes the Barbarian to become fatigued for twice the amount of time they were in the rage for. They cannot enter their rage again until the fatigue has gone.

Rage Powers

As the Barbarian progresses levels they learn to channel their rage into certain powers. The Barbarian picks up a rage power at level 2 and every second level thereafter. The powers range widely from such things as gaining a bite attack, re-rolling failed saves, extra speed, and even unexpected strikes where the Barbarian can make an attack of opportunity if an opponent enters a threatened square, even if the movement would not normally draw an attack of opportunity. Picking these rage powers allows you to differentiate your Barbarian from others and also allows you to theme the character to a style you like. The available rage powers increase with the Advanced Players Guide (APG) and the Ultimate Combat (UC) sourcebooks.

Greater Rage and Mighty Rage

The Barbarian makes some increases in his rage ability at 11th level and as his capstone power at 20th level. These powers both increase the bonus they apply to their statistics and their Will saves. These bonuses enable the Barbarian to become a much more potent foe at the right time in game to continue to making them relevant. The Barbarian is always a warrior in a battle that the foe needs to pay attention to. They can be unpredictable and become instantly more formidable the moment they give in to their inner anger.

Other Abilities

The Barbarian is not a great armoured warrior and their choice of armour only goes to medium armours. They are of course proficient with all except exotic weapons giving them a wide range of choices for how to deal this damage. Although a shield is not often a popular choice with many Barbarians (who tend to go damage over defence) they are proficient with them (excepting tower shields).

At the heart of the Barbarian is their core rage power but there are surrounding abilities that make them an attractive option for a player or an NPC foe. Over the levels the Barbarian becomes increasingly harder to pin down, firstly unable to be caught flat footed and then later not even being able to be flanked. This relates to the Barbarian’s energy level as they are always moving and always in a state of awareness. They also are masters of battling as many opponents that they can so can handle being surrounded with little problem. This energy also allows them to react to traps quicker and they gain a dodge bonus against traps as they seem almost presentient to them when they trigger.

On top of their mobility the Barbarian is also resistant to physical damage and mental domination. They receive Damage Reduction (DR) at a moderate level of power and the amount of damage resisted is dependent on the level of the character. After some time the Barbarian also becomes mentally tougher receiving a bonus to their Will saves against any enchantment magic that is used against them.

Looking Beyond the Core Rulebook

The Barbarian is broadened in scope with a mass of new rage powers in the APG. These powers make it a lot easier to theme the character as you have a synergy that exists within some of the powers themselves. This synergy makes a Barbarian able to take powers that fit both thematically as well as sometimes with other power mechanics to mesh the character into a whole. There are nearly four full pages in this section all devoted to adding a variety of new Barbarian rage powers to the class making the APG the single most important expansion amongst the core sourcebooks for the class. The book also offers up 10 archetypes that allow you to modify your character from the standard Barbarian located in the Core rulebook. These archetypes are;

Breaker: Driven not only to destroy their foes but their environment as well
Brutal Pugilist: Focus on hand to hand combat and combat manoeuvres to bring their opponents down
Drunken Brute: Their intake of alcohol fuels their rage so don’t think because they are drunk they are an easy beat
Elemental Kin: Tied to elemental forces by tribal shamans the Barbarian uses the power of elemental forces to aid them
Hurler: Focusses his rage into throwing items at their foes
Invulnerable Rager: The Barbarian becomes much more resistant to damage of all sorts
Mounted Fury: A master of mounted war they ride down their foes
Savage Barbarian: Far from modern weapons this warrior has taught themselves battle in a unique and primal way
Superstitious: They develop their rage to warn of magic and mystical abilities and more easily defend against them
Totem Warrior: The Barbarian has a totem that they focus on, revering the powers that make them more like their totem 3

The UC sourcebook offers up another slew of rage powers for the Barbarian. There are quite a deal fewer than the APG but they fit nicely with some of the archetypes also included (another 7 options). The rage powers here work well together and do expand out the options for all Barbarians making this book a good read also if you are thinking of playing in the class. The added archetypes are;

Armoured Hulk: This Barbarian masters the use of heavy armours alongside their rage
Scarred Rager: These warriors are covered in scars, and each scar has a story!
Sea Reaver: Pirates and curs of the sea these warriors adapt their rage to open water
Titan Mauler: A warrior skilled in fighting oversized foes and bringing them down as quickly as possible
True Primitive: Tribes that live hidden away from the world tend to bring out the most primal Barbarian ragers
Urban Barbarian: Skilled at operating with the city or village as their territory these Barbarians are more civilised but just as dangerous
Wild Rager: These Barbarians become more like a beast as they give in to their primal nature

My View

The Barbarian is not a class that I am overly familiar with. I have a rudimentary knowledge of the class as I have had to NPC Barbarian’s only through the Serpent Skull adventure path. I have never played a Barbarian as a player and I have never had a player take on the role of a Barbarian although that may change in Reign of Winter as I have a player who intends to take a Barbarian should his current character die. Based on this I have little feeling for the class as a whole. From my experience NPCing the Barbarian’s in Serpent Skull I do know the class is not one that anyone should underestimate.

The class is brilliant at dealing damage. Their core mechanic is one that allows them to increase the amount of damage they do as well as increasing the likelihood that they will actually manage to hit on most occasions. It is the rage powers that add the subtle abilities to the class that I struggle to comprehend with the class and is a blind spot that I know I need to address. I have tagged the Barbarian as a class I would like to play to help me understand how they work in detail.

A Barbarian is a dangerous opponent and should not be written off as inconsequential. They have a multitude of handy powers that are too numerous to describe individually here but they can and will surprise you with these abilities so expect the unexpected.

I would love to hear from you all if your favoured class is the Barbarian. Hit us up in the comments and let us know what your favoured builds are. What is the best rage powers to equip your barbarian with and why? I have listed here only the core sourcebooks and the materials for Barbarians in those books, are there other books or sources that are a must if you are going to play a Barbarian? Until next week, keep rolling!

Injecting A Little Horror Into Your Game

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

I have always been a fan of horror in my games. In fact the games that I remember the most have been those that I have centred around a horror fantasy concept. But not just any horror. If you are after a horror game that will make the players sweat bullets and jump at your every word then you are trying to create a setting that is the hardest to pull off. It is a prize I have tried for many times and failed each time. But if you want to run a game which will leave the players at the end with open mouths because of the horror story that has just been told read on.

A horror game that leaves an impression needs to be a story game on the whole. Every horror story that has been successful for me has had at its heart a tale of tragedy. Every single game that I recall was based on an innocent situation gone wrong. If you look to popular culture for examples of horror you will find a broader range of possibilities available to you but some of those are really precluded by the style of game we play. For example, the slasher flicks like Halloween or Friday the 13th are not really recreatable in Fantasy Horror as everyone has Combat abilities so the only way this style can deliver horror to the players is through the NPC’s they kill in gruesome ways. If that happens it becomes a story game rather than a gore fest. Movies like Jaws could be created but rely on a lot of suspense. Having a creature that lives in an environment like the shadow/astral plane that attacks from surprise may be an option but how long you could sustain that suspense may be limited. I must admit I have never really tried that style of game and I will put it on my to do list.

The horror that really leaves me and my players in love with an adventure are those that detail tragic circumstances leading to a horrific manifestation of evil. In my games this tends to gravitate to ghost stories but in reality it can be any style, vampire, zombie, ghoul, werecreature etc. that involves transformation from a normal innocent being into a creature of malevolence. I use ghosts a lot because I am a fan of them, especially Japanese spirits who are rich in story detail. Not to mention there are a massive amount of Japanese spirits out there to draw information on. So many you could create an entire campaign around the theme. For some idea check out http://hyakumonogatari.com which translates traditional Japanese spirit stories into English.

Once you have chosen the style of threat you want you need to weave a story around it. To be fully effective the story should be one of terrible corruption and circumstance. I will give you a few ideas for you to work with.

A girl married in secret to her love murdered by her own mother (who did not know she was married) who caught her in the act of consummating the marriage
A husband finds a box filled with letters to his wife from an admirer. Not realising they had never been opened (and therefore it is a love not returned) the man kills his wife and then commits suicide
A child born with an affliction (mental impairment or physical deformity) is kept in a sealed room until their death to save shame on the family
A vicious werewolf attack barely scrapes a baby in the wound as the mother is killed. The baby transforms into a horrid thing come the full moon…
A demon possesses the body of an innocent girl who is then convicted of witchcraft and burnt at the stake

This gives you a few basic ideas that you can turn into your own games or you can build your own from these ideas. At the heart of them all is one concept and that is innocent corrupted. If you want to look at a great (and cheap) module that follows this style designed for Pathfinder look at the recent release Haiku of Horror for inspiration!

Why is this corruption necessary? Well it may not be but in every game that I have run that seemed to get the best reaction it was at the point that the players put together the story. They find the journal that details the neglect, they find the box of letters and realise three quarters of them are still unopened etc. It is these twists in the tale where the players realise that the horror was built out of misunderstanding or prejudice that really hammer home that horror. These adventures make great side track adventures and tend to bring out a lot of roleplaying in a group if you can get them interested in the story to begin with which may be a challenge.

So how do you get them interested? Well, the easiest way is a reward. The town mayor wants to know why all his townfolk are turning into werewolves. A young couple have moved into the previous home of the murder/suicide and the parents seek the help of the players to find out what is behind their increasingly unusual behaviour. Reward is good, but then the players are not overly concerned if it goes poorly and they just don’t get the reward. Try to get them personally interested as characters (and players)! If you are playing Pathfinder, grab the Gamemaster Guide or go the the reference document and read up on haunts. You can use haunts subtly or overtly to drag the players into a game. The walls of the basement begin to ooze blood, the player gets distracted by a sound, looks back blood gone. Or something as simple as the innkeeper warning them not to wander around the Inn at night. No reason, just “Stay in your room under all circumstances!” Players love to break rules.

To keep the interest in the story really requires good pacing. String out a series of events that alternate between storytelling and supernatural activity. The players need to get a sense that there is a story to be had before they pursue it. Make the first visitation of a spirit enticing and the players will be seeking information from NPC’s everywhere. Have every NPC have a variation of a story, and throw in a couple of red herrings too. Watch them try to chase down the truth. Prepare artifacts (props) for the players to handle (the box with the letters or an old toy etc.) that will increase the interest in the story. If you feel that your players will not buy into the story without some fights make them mean something. Have the players rewarded after the battle by a bit of the story, e.g. a diary or a map that shows a secret basement level of the house.

The climax of an adventure should not be a battle with the spirit or creature. It certainly should happen though. What needs to happen is the players have to finish what they have started or the problem continues. With a spirit, they just continue to show up! You have to bring to light the circumstances that lead to the malevolent spirit coming into being. Remove the body from the hidden basement and have the parents arrested (Lawful Good) or seal them into the same room (Neutral!) should do it. One way or another the players need to continue to pursue the story until its end. It is when they put all the pieces together that you will get the response you are after. That wow factor from them as they complete their investigation and they marvel at the evil that can be done to even the most innocent amongst us.

I strongly suggest you give this style of game a go once you have run some regular games and are looking for a challenge to your GMing. To run one of these games well takes a good amount of skill and they do not always work, but when they do they have a lasting effect on your game. The players will get a boost out of solving a story based option and may reach for a roleplaying situation first. Or they may just talk about the game a lot. Both are satisfying for a GM either way!

Using Published Modules In A Home Campaign

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

When building your own campaign it can be taxing coming up with adventures on a schedule that matches your games. Sometimes you just want to pick up the module you have been reading and play that for a few sessions. That way most of the work is done. Isn’t it?

Well, it may surprise you that it can actually be just as much work building a module into a running campaign as it is to create one of your own. Especially with modern styled adventures, that tend to be styled toward sequential play. So what should you be looking at doing to run a module in your existing campaign?

The first thing that you have to do like you would if you were just running a store bought module is read it. Make sure you know your material and the flow of the module. Get familiar with the major characters and NPC’s and the background to the module. While you are doing this make sure you work out what parts of the story are going to be apparent to the players openly or through investigation. There is always material in modules that is given for GM understanding that the players never get to see but some of the information may come out in play.

Once you have a working knowledge of the module you would normally be ready to play it. But as you are adapting the module to your campaign you will now have a bit of work to do before it is playable in your campaign. First of all, tackle the easier things like how to incorporate the geography into the game. Each module will likely contain a pile of maps that show the surrounding area as well as where the action happens. You need to consider this material. Normally modules start in a town or somewhere similar. Do you have a settlement that closely matches the descriptions provided in the module? Can you slip it directly into the campaign unaltered or do you need to adjust the material in some way as the players may have already visited the settlement and expect something else. Do you need to add it all in somewhere else on the map or expand the map for this to occur?

The next step is looking at the story of the module. Many modules of today’s gaming systems are part of a larger narrative with more modules that make up a whole story. To do this the writers of the modules will consider the series as a whole and implement certain themes as well as links to other modules in recurring characters or items. It is your job to go through the module now and find those bits and pieces and adjust them if need be. If part of the module is set up building a desire in the players to tackle the next module you have to pull them out (unless you want to move on to the next module).

From a story perspective what works with the theme of your campaign and what does not. Eliminate those things that will confuse the players with their inclusion. If you are running a campaign in a world full of undead and the module is about a visit of fey inspired creatures it may jar the players from the overall campaign that you are working with. You may need to alter the creatures or the overall theme of the module to allow the narrative arc of your campaign to survive the modules length.

Alter the module so that it now includes items your players you will find useful and use the NPC’s to involve strands of your own campaign you want them to follow on with. Think of how you can turn this module even further into an adventure that the players would not know the difference between your regular campaign and the module. Alter the look and feel of things. Alter read aloud text (if you use it) to a style that is consistent with your own. Turn the dungeon into a tomb. Turn the mountain that dominates the adventure into the statue that exists in your major city. Swap all the monsters out for creatures of a different kind and drop your own NPC’s in. Modules are so called because they are modular and meant to be used in this manner.

Once all this is done take one last look at what you have done. Is all this work still going to have the module achieve what you want? If you say yes then you are ready to run. But if you are still asking questions about something you may still have some work to do. Go back through what you have done with a fine tooth comb and make sure it is at the point you are happy with before running the game.

I am always amused at the snobbery that goes on between some GM’s when you do not make your own adventures or you introduce a module into a campaign. I actually find altering a module to suit my group play time consuming when I am running an adventure path. When you integrate a module into an existing campaign it is even more work! Using modules is not the act of a GM with no imagination, sometimes you read a module that inspires you so use it! But if you are running your own campaign you will likely find slotting a module in to be a lot of work.

Keep your eye on modules that come out, especially if they are one shots! They can be really useful tools when you need a bit of a break. The more you use them too the easier it will get but it still requires work to get a seamless feel to the adventure. Every now and then you will read a module that just suits your style of play and it would be a shame not to use them! Keep on rolling.

My Old Mate Al Chemist

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

No, I am not trying to introduce you to a drug dealer! Instead I am going to be taking a look at the Pathfinder classes one by one. It will be a theme that I return to irregularly at the Iron Tavern and so I have decided to do it in the time old tradition of alphabetically. I will cover all core rules base classes and then I may even go on to look at the prestige classes if it is a popular series. So without further ado, let me introduce you to Al Chemist.

The Alchemist

“I awoke one morning to the sound of flame and explosion. Looking up I saw Seroquel literally grinding the eye of newt into a paste so he could add it to his boom boom juice. I have no idea what that is and I dislike the Gnome in his original form so I told him to wake me when he let Hank out to play.” Excerpt from Gelik Aberwhinge’s journal, Saventh-Yhi, Mwangi Expanse.

First introduced in the Advanced Players Guide the Alchemist class fills the needs of all those people who have a little mad scientist in them. They are a quasi-magical class with a range of abilities that can shape the character in a variety of different configurations. I have had the pleasure of being the GM to two Alchemist’s so far and I have to say that they are a fun class inclusion in a party. Both players though took the same path so I have seen only one configuration of the Alchemist played out and that is the feral or Mr Hyde variant.

The Alchemist class relies on infusions that are brewed every morning. Much like a mad scientist they must follow a group of formulae from a formula book and have the ability (or skill) to infuse a certain number of extracts per day. These operate essentially by applying or drinking the extract and using the body as a conduit for the alchemical reaction. The effect is like that of a spell, and in fact uses standard spells as the description for these extracts. The spell list for the class is pretty good but the spells are mainly those that operate on the individual themselves. You will see no overt ranged attack spells like magic missile or fireball amongst the allowable spells due to this fact. Also, all actions to “cast” these spells draw an attack of opportunity i.e. draw vial from backpack: move action that attracts attack of opportunity; drink extract: standard action that draws an attack of opportunity. With this in mind it pays to remain out of melee range if you are intending on making your spells the main focus of the class.

But spells are but one part of the Alchemist’s many stringed bow. The class also receives the ability to create a number of explosive devices, or “bombs” that are ranged attack grenades if you wish to think of them that way. The Alchemist creates a two part infusion, both inert unless mixed and are the only class that can mix these reagents together. These bombs are super effective against individual foes and also have a splash damage to those surrounding the target. They also gain in effectiveness with the more class levels the Alchemist obtains, adding more and more damage. They start as a base of fire damage but through the use of discoveries the Alchemist can actually vary the energy type when they make the bombs.

The discoveries that an Alchemist can make along the way may vary a lot about the class and it is through these discoveries that you can customise the character to a theme. As I stated in the introduction the two Alchemists I have GMed were of the type that followed a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde configuration. Mild mannered scientist who, upon drinking a mixture (called a mutagen) became a mighty fighter full of rage. The other stream of customisation actually takes the character more down the road of an expert bomber or demolitionist. It gives them a wide range of different energy types, delay explosions, smoke bombs and a bunch of other types. Some of these discoveries can only be taken at certain levels so there is a good range of powered abilities that the character can access through their career.

The second to last of the mad scientist abilities is the mutagen power. The mutagen is a concoction that the Alchemist can only make one of a day. When they make it they pick a physical statistic (strength, dexterity or constitution) that it will affect. Once the Alchemist drinks the mutagen they receive a +2 to natural armour as their skin hardens and a +4 to the ability that was chosen. The downside is one of the mental attributes (intelligence, willpower or charisma) takes a -2 hit. the choice is dependent on the statistic chosen to boost. It is like the Alchemist becomes a new, more feral version, of themselves and some Alchemists actually see it as a new personality and give them a name (as in the flavour text that headed this blog). The mutagen lasts for ten minutes per class level and can be an absolute life saver!

The last ability allows the Alchemist to use poison which in my opinion is not often used unless taking poison bombs. One of the Alchemist players I have GMed collected a lot of poisons but never really used them as it is a power quickly outclassed by many of the other special abilities that they pick up along the way. This power seems to be “tacked on” somehow and I am yet to see it truly benefit the class in play.

Ultimate Combat expands the Alchemist by providing new discoveries for the class, largely in the bombing area. It also provides two archetypes in the Beastmorph and the Ragechemist. Both of these classes target the mutagen powers to provide different abilities. The Beastmorph takes on animal features as they mutagen and some powers along with it. The Ragechemist is a Strength focussed class that creates a very angry alchemist indeed! Ultimate Magic provides a lot more discoveries with a much broader range from any of the previous rules sources. They do not just focus on bombs but on abnormalities too like vestigial limbs and a great variety of different powers that need to be investigated when playing the class. The book also provides no less than eight new archetypes that I will list but not go into. The archetypes are Chirirgeon, Clone Master, Internal Alchemist, Mindchemist, Peservationist, Psychonaut, Reanimator and the Vivisectionist. Needless to say, Ultimate Magic is a go to if considering playing this class.

The Alchemist is on a whole one of my absolute favourite classes. They are quirky, scientific and utterly weird which is exactly why I like them. I strongly suggest you look at the Alchemist if you are considering wanting to play a spellcaster as they really are an alternative to the arcane type spellcasters you can get. The opportunity for colourful role playing of this class is excellent and they will be embarrassing and weird, creating all kinds of fun in a group of bold adventurers. I would rate the Alchemist at 9.5 steaming beakers out of 10 for an enjoyable class to play in Pathfinder.

Settings From Different Cultures

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

Wow, what a weekend! For some it was Origins, for others it was the online Let Us Game Convention (L.U.G.Con) on Google+ Hangouts and for others (I am sure) there was more gaming as usual. I do wish that I had been going to Origins, and I am putting it on my wishlist for next year, but living in Australia may make this a little bit of an expensive trip! So it was L.U.G.Con for me and I hit L.U.G.Con with a force this weekend.

I ran four games at L.U.G.Con over the weekend, two of them were Pathfinder games set in the Land of Kaidan, the Oriental (Japanese style) contribution from Rite Publishing for Pathfinder. I have to say that the quality of roleplaying that the game promoted was excellent. Both of the games were the same (except for the players) and were based on the recent module added to the setting called Haiku of Horror. The module is a short (perfect for a con or side adventure) module set in a Japanese style bath house.

To use the module I expanded it out with 12th level pregenerated characters, most of them Samurai taken from the Way of the Samurai sourcebook from the same setting. This book gives an excellent write up of different archetypes of samurai branching off not only the Samurai class from Ultimate Combat but from the Ranger, Paladin and Wizard as well. This sourcebook gave me a real education about samurai and it was a great read with character classes being a treat to make. There was such a great variety of Samurai to choose from. To give you an idea I will include the blurb that I gave the players to help them choose their Samurai for the game.

The following all belong to the Samurai caste in Kaiden but may not be variants of the Samurai class (that will be explained in game if it confuses)

Yamabushi is a Paladin offshoot. A divine warrior monk who draws his power from the Yomi (Realm of the Dead). They generally serve as spiritual advisors to the clan head. Their powers come from a combination of inner strength and spiritual enlightenment.

Bugyo is a Prestige Class. They are a Samurai who has been given a great deal of authority. They are often magistrates, tax collectors but officials of the Daimyo who gave them their title.

Tajiya is a Samurai archetype. Champions of the natural world they seek to eradicate the blight of unnatural creatures. They stand against all supernatural foes and generally do not sign on with a Lord to avoid conflicts so they are considered Ronin.

Kuge is a Samurai archetype. They are Samurai born into a life of wealth and privilege. They start training later in life than most Samurai and spend a good deal of their training focussing on refined culture than others. They are often the ranking officers in Samurai outfits.

Onmyoji is a Wizard archetype. Respected and feared, these magicians are the court wizards of the Samurai. Their magic is delivered in the form of origami spells that when cast burst into flames as the magical energies consume them.

Yojimbo is a Ranger archetype. The Yojimbo literally translates as bodyguard. Generally serves the lord as a trouble solver travelling to areas and “fixing” problems that the lord foresees.

Mosa is a prestige class. These are the warriors that stand their ground to the last. Firmly planting their feet on the ground they draw on an inner strength to fight beyond the ken of normal man.

Nitojutsu Sensei is a Samurai archetype. These are Ronin Samurai who dedicate their entire life to the study of fighting with the Katana and Wakazashi. Fearsome warriors they are champions that need to be coerced to join a cause.

So you can see that there is a pretty comprehensive selection in the sourcebook, and that was not even all the archetypes included!

Enough about Kaidan (though I strongly recommend looking at it) and more about the game. This is my first ever attempt at running an oriental setting game. Sure I have run futuristic games with Yakuza etc. but never a fantasy setting rich with spiritual lore and the focus on oriental styled play. So I did not know what to expect but I tried to oriental it up. I fired up a Japanese random name generator, watched Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift (note: not a great help), set up Roll20 and then made the characters. Sounds easy? Wipe about a full two days off the calendar…

But the game surprised me! A lot. It has made me excited about my decision to run my own Land of Kaidan campaign after my current Adventure Path from Paizo is complete. The players in this game took to the Samurai wholeheartedly with the idea of honor and caste, really focusing on how they should authentically act in character. Plus, the module is really geared toward an investigative mode style of play. In both games there was opportunity for two or more combats but in each game the players chose diplomacy first so each game ended up with only one combat. The combat in both cases was swift and led the players on to more investigation as it created more questions than it answered.

I would suggest that if you have a tendency toward running more traditional Western fantasy that you branch out. In my two forays in different culture (Kaidan and Serpent Skull adventure path has a lot of African mythology connections but is still largely Western styled) I have had a great time and experienced some great role playing from my players. Just the fact of trying something new will have everyone nervous and excited and guaranteed to get some great responses to a new styled game.

For me, I have a respect for Japan and its heritage but little actual understanding of its real social structure. This has been changing recently as I have been gaming with some players that are in Japan so I am beginning to understand the culture and mindset of the country a little more. This is what initially attracted me to running an oriental styled game. Plus the third edition addition to Earthdawn of the Cathay setting which I so dearly want to run. Ah if only I could clone myself and find a group that still loves Earthdawn…

So, that is my suggestion, nay challenge to all of you this fine Monday. Think of an unusual setting to put your next games in. It might even be based on a traditional “Western” setting but from the cultural history and folklore of its people rather than populating it with trolls and ogres populate it with Bunyips and Rainbow Serpents (Aboriginal mythology from Australia) and think of some innovative archetypes that will bring out the best in your players as they explore something new. Do it as a one off to inject some relief into a long campaign, or build a campaign from the ground up. But please, if you have the opportunity, give it a try!

Getting Your Players to Share the Load

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The hard part about being the Gamesmaster is the building of adventures and preparation every week, fortnight or however often you play. Not to mention all the things that you need to balance in the game as well! Each week you should spend more time than your players thinking about the game and making decisions of what you will do in reaction to expected players actions. All the players need to do is show up with dice and a character sheet. Every now and again they also have to level up also. But that is not how it has to be.

Players are a great resource for you to tap into as a GM. It is a mistake to think that you have to do everything in a game alone. Preparation and story is largely up to you, be that in the form of reading a module or creating the game for each session but there is homework that the players can do that will assist you in cutting down some time on this component.

How to get your players on board

Why would a player do this though if it so easy just for them to show up, play and go home, nothing further to do? It is called bribery! You are the person in control of certain aspects of the game like hero points or experience or advancement. Whatever your game uses to make your players increase in skill. To encourage this “out of game” behaviour you can sit down and say that you are willing to offer up some of what they want for what you want them to do. the reward should be a token reward but also not so little that no one takes you up on it. My players all provided me with detailed backgrounds that made for a much more immersive experience for us all just for a single hero point!

The Journal

What you are seeking in a game is to have the players visualise their characters and the scenes that they are playing in. The first trick that can increase this immersion is to have some of the players write up from their characters perspective what happened in the previous game. There are websites out there that facilitate this (like Obsidian Portal) that enable the player to put up notes and stories revolving around the game and their character’s perspective. These stories are really valuable as it helps players refresh their memory of what happened last game and puts themselves into character as they hear it from another character’s perspective, not the player.

The Chronicler

So, you may have someone that likes writing updates or reading a journal before each game, but what if someone wants to record the details of the whole session and build up a dot point chronology? Great! I do this a lot in my games that I am a player in as I tend to get bored waiting for my turn so I sit with an open notebook and attempt to record the whole of the adventure in dot point format. I could then offer this up to the GM as a source of information that could be placed on the campaign website or just loose leaves into a folder that players can look back over and reminisce on. It is a great way to record all the awesome funny quotes and the like in such chronicles as well.

Initiative Monitor

You could argue as the GM that the previous two don’t really take much off your plate (they would for me) but here is a role that can save heaps of time. Have a player take over the role of recording and announcing turns via the initiative system in your game. There is no real need for you to have to manage this portion of the game and it is a serious overhead in game. If you are a GM that likes to keep the initial initiative of your creatures secret, just have the initiative monitor add them as they occur on first round!

The Mapper

If you use a lot of encounter based maps or have the players travelling through a dungeon or the like it can be good to have a mapper. With some accurate descriptions the mapper records only the parts of the map that the players have investigated. It saves you having to draw it out or clumsily cover the areas you don’t want them to see as you show them your copy of the map. These maps can also be handed over to the chronicler at a later stage to start forming the game’s portfolio!

The Accountant!

This is one that I had not thought about recently. The accountant records all the treasure that is found on a “ledger” and then records what went to whom. That way if one of the players says “What happened to the ring of doom that hobbit found?” the Accountant can take a quick look at the “ledger” and give an accurate answer. This saves you, the GM, having to then make copious notes about this stuff or wrack your memory and stop the flow of the game to consider the issue.

What about other roles?

There is no need to stop making roles. If the GM has a need and can think how the player could fill that role then go for it. This can even be situationally based e.g. a player falls unconscious so the GM might ask them to take on one or more of the NPC/Creature rolls for the battle to keep them occupied and to give the GM a bit of a breather in a complicated battle. Really, any roles that a GM can share will get the players more involved and give the GM a little bit of relief from all of the responsibilities to keep the game running! Give some of these a try and see how they work out!

Building Your Own Campaign World – Part 2

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

Photo By Colin Smith

Welcome back to part 2 of building your own campaign world. Last week we chose a hook, probably a world map (or at least a map of the nearby area) and a village or settlement that the characters can call their own at the very start of the campaign. Today we will look at how we inject some life into our village and also set some rules around the seed we created. We will get to the point today where we will be ready to design our first adventure which we will handle in next weeks post. Also, just to give you a heads up, I have preordered Paizo’s Ultimate Campaign addition to the Pathfinder range and when I get my copy (which normally takes a few weeks living all the way around the world from America) I will give it a good review here for you all.

Revisiting the Seed

The first thing that I need to look at after last week is put in place some mechanics to help facilitate the players life after death status should they happen to shuffle off their mortal coil on their first outing. As the idea largely forms around the character taking on the form of a ghost after being killed I check the entry for the Ghost creature in the original Bestiary for Pathfinder on pp.144-45. They already have rules for creating a ghost which on the whole are pretty good although I want to take away the idea of the ghost being a malevolent one. To do this I take away the option of it having a special attack (this could still be used if creating a ghost proper in game but for purposes of a player it does not fit with the theme of the campaign). Also I remove the requirement to change the Hit Die (as it causes unnecessary bookkeeping mid game) along with the changes to skills. The player may keep their Strength and Constitution scores intact though be considered for all intensive purposes to be able to use it only on other incorporeal creatures.

So with a mechanic in place for my hook I consider what effect this might have on the wider game. In the world I want the idea of people becoming spirits after death to be a normal thing. Therefore there are some changes to the wider game that I need to make, especially in regards to the Cleric class. As written in the base rules of Pathfinder the Cleric must choose to channel negative energy if evil in alignment. However this notion that all deaths result in a spirit form coming forth could, and does, turn this concept on its head. I foresee there being temples where wounded spirits go to be healed by kind, caring clerics that have to channel negative energy to do so. Also evil clerics may now wish to eradicate the spiritual remnants of beings and channel positive energy to do so. Thus I change the requirement of channeling negative or positive energy to be a complete choice for the cleric, regardless of the alignment.

This leaves a few loose ends to clear up in regards to this new mechanic. The first is who does cross over in this spirit form? Does it happen to every living thing? The answer here would be no if I were running this. It would happen to any Neutral or Good intelligent creature. I would likely tie this to one of the Gods on my mind map from last week as a reward, perhaps Elethna, Mistress of the Harvest deciding not to reap the crop that has served her in times of need. How long has the spirit got before Elethna harvests them and delivers them to her sister Delta, Goddess of Death? I would put a year and a day time limit on this creating for some interesting roleplaying situations if the player wants to go it in spiritual form. Finally, does this mechanic alter any of the Raise Dead, Resurrection, Reincarnate etc. type spells? Only in the way that if one of these were used that the spirit ceases to be and becomes corporeal again. Also, some of those spell requirements like needing a portion of the body to be bought back could be altered so if the spirit is present and willing then that could be enough to bring them into being (just in case their remains got dissolved by a large ooze or somesuch).

Not all seeds are going to require as much of an alteration as the one I decided to lead with. In fact the seed itself may simply add flavour to the setting rather than needing to be catered for with rules. However if your seed does need changes, consider the longer term effects of those changes. Some seeds require base assumptions to come into question (like the change to Cleric) and so rules must be put in place to cover them. But you have to consider why those rules were there in the first place. Good Clerics channel positive energy and can heal people is a no brainer in most campaigns but as this one turns the idea of who Clerics may be required to serve on its head I had to change the ruling here. It has no long term effects that would break the system and is logical so it is OK and I went ahead and changed it. But you will notice that it is still a choice though, the Cleric does not get to do both types of energy so they must choose if they serve the dearly departed or the living. Remember, the rules are a guideline, if they need to be bent to suit your idea for the campaign world then bend away. Just make sure players are fully informed of any rules changes when they sit at your table to play the campaign.

Giving Dante’s Rest Some Life

The last thing that we need to do before we start to build an adventure or some encounters into our campaign world is to breathe some life into the village that the players are set to start in. Dante’s Rest, the village atop a bluff said to house the remains of the only mortal who had lain with a God… Sounds cool but without preparation it is just another dot on the map. You could draw a map of the town if you wanted to which will assist the players to identify various landmarks. I have only ever drawn a map of a town once in my Earthdawn campaign and it saw little use. I find if you prepare a few descriptions of local stores and homes that the players become more involved. I may use a nice picture to represent a few things (such as Dante’s Mausoleum) but description and feeling draw the players in.

Consider where you, if you were a player that had a level in every class, would want to go in the village;

Blacksmith
Inn
General Store
Temple
Apothecary
Village Commons
Village Hall

Now you have that list, write an evocative short paragraph that describes each location and its owner or NPC that is to be tied to the location. I will do one to give you an example. I look to my Village template from last week and start with some of the important NPC’s listed there;

You approach the Smithy whose open verandah stares out over the Village Commons and see a small plume of smoke rising from the rear. Seeing this you know the door to the store will likely be locked as Terran will be creating some new masterpiece. You try the latch on the red cedar door to find it locked and walk around back. Under a large area of canvas you smell the rich smoke of myrtle burning to coals. Terran is there carefully considering the glowing red tip of a short sword that he has been working on. The scene is almost comical as the ruddy faced portly blonde halfling manipulates the blade that is too big for his own hands. The spirit of his wife stands behind him telling him how things should look but you see that Terran has tuned her out as he admires his craftwork.

The above gives a nice description that will help the players get the feel of Terran, the Blacksmith shop and the idea of the seed with his dead wife nagging him as he works. Next time they visit you could have the store open instead and it will give the players the idea that it is a living breathing village. Past that they might come across Terran in the Inn after a hard day. Remember he is an important NPC so he will likely know the PC’s if they are local and may be a source of employment. To illustrate this we will apply an NPC template to Terran. Looking at the cast of NPC characters in the GM guide so I grab the NPC Codex and find details of an Expert Blacksmith. It is a Dwarf but with a few minor alterations we can change it into Terran the Halfling Smithy.

In essence you now simply need to go through your list of places and follow the same example as above to create some interesting places in your town. Once you have that done, consider fleshing out the town with a few more NPC’s that you would have in the town. We know that rumour is rife in the town so you may have a rumour-mongering elder who gets involved in everyones business, asking uncomfortable questions just at the wrong time. Have some local kids that are familiar with the players and have some brief descriptions for them. A guard or two from the Mausoleum as such an important place would definitely be protected and generic stats at least for the most important of these NPC’s, at the very least a detailed description.

With these portions of the town noted down you have created a vibrant, dynamic place for your players to begin their stay. You could now start building up some hooks for the locations of the town but in reality that is more a form of designing your first adventures so we will cover this next week as we build up our first adventure. The campaign will develop through these adventures and through exploration of the areas around their initial locale. As they reach further afield you simply need to repeat the process you have done here to create exciting places to adventure in and visit. Some places (e.g. larger settlements) may require a lot more work but the process is the same.

There are a bunch of different approaches you can take to making a campaign and I am attempting to present the most systematic and user friendly version here for you to work on. This version works well but if you want to explore some of the more advanced versions of campaign building have a look at my blog where I have shown a few of the variant options that people use to build campaigns over this past week. But back to our way of dealing with things.

Building Your Own Campaign World

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

Last week I asked the question of if you brew your own campaign world and gave some cost effective options for those people that wanted to get into a pre made campaign. This week I am going to run through part one of building your own campaign world from scratch. To do this I am going to base it in Pathfinder and give references to resources that I use in that system. That said, the setting that I will come up with will be easily adapted to most rules systems so if you like it use it. Take it as a basis and make it your own.

The first thing to do is come up with some kind of hook or seed for your world. What is going to set it apart from every other campaign world. Think of the classic books: Tolkien’s seed was the One Ring and probably persistent evil, Weis – Hickman had the riding of dragons, Feist’s initially was likely the linking of worlds and the strength of magic, Gemell is normally about legend and Eddings prophecy fulfillment. All of these are generalisations and each of these authors had/have much more going on in their writing than just these small snippets that were taken out of them. It is great to start with a central idea or theme that you want to investigate or expand that makes your world yours!

You will want to keep in mind your players if you know who they are already. A group that loves high powered magical adventure is less likely to go with a premise of lowly court intrigue with little action but loads of diplomacy. It can be helpful to sit down with the group prior to your first design session and talk to them about what they like to give you an idea on what to focus on as a hook or a theme. As I am not likely to use this setting that I will create for this blog until I work out how to remain awake for twenty three hours a day I have no idea who my group is so I will select a theme that I would be interested expanding.

Persistence of Spirit

So there is my theme. It does not need to be a four page document, and mine is only three words long. It need only mean something to you at this point. But as I am trying to demonstrate how to build your own campaign I will clue you in by what I mean with those three words. I want to create a fantasy land in which death is a true transition of the spirit. In death the spirit of the creature persists for some time before the spirit is taken by the God that rules the realms of death. What this means in game is that the character can be played past a death event but I will need to develop some other material around that before I start up.

The next thing you should do is start the design and there are two ways you can go with this. Basically it all comes down to a question of scope. If you only want to have a one off game, you don’t need to create a complete world or continent, all you would need do is create the village and surrounds it is going to happen in. You only need to create the NPC’s and environments that you are likely to use. If you want to run a campaign that will last over several years though you will have to up the scope BUT you can make it one bit at a time developing more and more NPC’s and areas as you think of your world or continent involve.

In a campaign style game where I am expecting most, if not all, of my game sessions to revolve in or around the setting I would spend some time with a pen and some scrap paper or a mind map/brainstorming app for your tablet/computer to build a mind map for the idea that I have created as a seed. From this you can think about anything at all about the setting from NPC’s to locales to adventures to unique treasures, gods. If you can imagine it, write it down. Don’t edit yourself immediately just write it down. There is plenty of time to edit stuff that seems silly or ill conceived when you come back to it.

After you have done a run through at the brainstorm and you have exhausted your ideas for the time being (remember you have a long time to continue development) go through your mind map and decide what is worth keeping and what is not. Be merciless, if you look at something and can’t think what the idea came from, cut it and have a think about what you want to expand initially in the list.

The main rulebook of Pathfinder focuses much more on building a couple of adventures up front with the campaign and extending on from there. I would tend to agree with this approach with one exception. People like to see or know a bit about the world around them so I would prepare a map at least of the kingdom or country that they are in. This is a must in a game where the scope has you expecting to play many sessions in the world you create. Just because you have a map does not mean that you need to know everything about it and you can use dirty tricks like I do on my campaign map that is shown here by having unknown or unexplored regions.

The next step I would take would be to begin building the initial settlement or base for the players. in my mind-map and on the map I created for the campaign I chose the village of Dante’s Rest as the place that the players will start. The very first thing I would do is build a settlement stat block as set template as is set out in the Gamemaster Guide pp. 203-213. This will give you some statistics that you can refer to for the game but not really put any life into the setting. The stat block for Dante’s Rest would be the following;

Dante’s Rest

NG village
Corruption: -3 Crime: -1 Economy: -1 Law: -1 Lore: +0 Society: +0
Qualities: Holy Site, Rumourmongering Citizens
Danger: +0

Demographics
Government: Autocracy
Population: 134 (89 humans, 23 Elves, 15 Halflings, 7 other)
Notable NPC’s:
Mayoress Rowan Mayfair (Human Aristocrat 7 NPC Codex p. 253)
Blacksmith Terran Harfoot (Halfling Expert 6 NPC Codex p.262 modified halfling racial stats)
Innkeeper Selma Treble (Human Expert 4/Warrior 1 Gamemastery Guide p.303)
Brother Elleniel of Bindara (Human Cleric of Bindara 11 NPC Codex p.52)

Marketplace
Base Value: 500 gp Purchase Limit: 2500 gp Spellcasting: 5th Level
Minor Items: 1d6 Medium Items: 1d3 Major Items: –

To flavour the stat block a little, give your village or settlement a little bit of a historical blurb that touches on some of the salient points in the statistics. For example, the below flavour text would give you a great start in thinking of the village as more than a simple set of statistics:

Dante’s Rest is a humble unassuming village sitting on top of a bluff that overlooks the Fell Sea. It is here that the great hero Dante, Jasmine the Creator’s only mortal lover, was killed by the Graveknight Listross who was reincarnated into the Armour of the Fang to challenge the only mortal that had lain with a God. Dante’s companion Terella preserved Dante’s corpse and built him a sarcophagi of the purest veins of crystal that are found in the caves that riddle the bluff. She made it her life’s work to build an amazing mausoleum that was testament to the heroes courage.

Today it is said that only the blood of Terella may become Mayor of the village that sprung up around the mausoleum. It is far from the metropolises of the Radiant Kingdom but it attracts its fair share of religious pilgrims and history scholars. It is due to this steady flow of travellers that flow through the town that it is said that the truth of any small rumour can be found at the bar of The Fallen Siren, a famed Inn located with its outlook over the cliffs of Dante’s Bluff as the area is now known.

Now we have the backbone of our little village we need to start giving it some real flavour and build on the culture of our land. We will want to introduce a good deal of detail to the characters of Dante’s Rest when they start adventuring as it is likely the place that they have called home, though this may not be the case also. We need to build this village as a microcosm for our game and it’s seed, being the persistence of spirit. We want the first adventure to reflect this seed and so part two of Building Your Own Campaign World will focus on bringing our initial adventure and locale to life. Taking the stat block above and turning it into a place that the players will remember and talk about in years to come!

Do You Brew?

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

After last week’s post about why I prefer Pathfinder as a gaming system for my fantasy games I had a good discussion with some gamers about how much setting was involved in the core rulebooks and the Beginners Box. I had always been fairly close to the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) franchise through it’s various incarnations that the lack of setting material in these books did not surprise me at all. However there are a bunch of other games out there who apply a system and a setting in one main rule book so it got me to thinking about how many homebrew campaigns were out there for Pathfinder and who simply spent the extra money to get the PDF or actual books for the Pathfinder Campaign setting in Golarion or a third party setting.

Campaign Setting vs. Rulebook

Let us unpack this issue a little and see what we have. Pathfinder’s core rulebook is aimed at providing you as a player or a Games Master (GM) the rules to the setting as a whole. It gives player classes, character creation tips, spells, traps, equipment, poisons combat advice and the like. It is largely a book of rules with very little setting. The rules are the open source material that have been built on top of the D&D 3.5 Open Source rule set. Stripping back the rules you find the small portions of the setting that are included in the setting which is the Intellectual Property (IP) of Paizo and therefore not open source. It is their copyrighted material that they will protect. If you want the clearest example of this and you have a Pathfinder rulebook handy, turn to the Cleric character class description. In this description you find a table that lists the major Gods of the Pathfinder Chronicles describing their portfolio, domains and favoured weapons. Look at the online resource Pathfinder Reference Document you will notice this table is nowhere to be seen.

The reasoning is that the material is the IP of Paizo and it is based on a setting that is uniquely theirs. They will be very upset if you handed their setting material out for free without their express permission. It is the main reason that none of the setting materials have been put up in a fashion similar to the PRD. They could, but they want you to get a taste for Golarion through the snippets they offer in the Core rulebooks (they are scattered through there liberally) and decide that this is a world you want to play in. Now the discussion I was having after last week’s post was with a couple of gamers who felt that this was an expensive process for players to get into the Pathfinder game. I found this odd as I always knew that the D&D model (and Pathfinder as well I suppose now) is that they provided the rules and guidelines on what to do with a setting and you made the choice. You could make your own setting or go buy another book with a prepared setting.

Building Blocks

I also realised in this discussion that the reason that the Pathfinder Rulebook is so large is that they try to give you all you need to create a setting. Building encounters, environments and NPC’s is all there for you to take a building block approach to your world and develop it. In the example of the Gods you are free to create your own Pantheon of Gods for your own setting. They never say that you must use those that are included. In a game that is all IP (both system and setting) like Earthdawn there is as much setting material and plot hooks in the main rulebook as there are rules. It presents itself as a package for play in their developed world using their system that goes with it. Further books in Earthdawn tend to expand the setting much more than the rules where further books in Pathfinder expand the rules much more than the setting (though new classes can give the setting a different feel).

This means there are two types of games. Pathfinder is definitely a builders game where the GM is going to have to do a lot of work in preparing their world if they do not buy a setting that is pre made. Earthdawn is a setting complete game where the GM is more likely to spend time ensuring the adventures she makes fall in line with the canon of the story.

Keeping Pathfinder Affordable

So, if you are not terribly creative and think that building a world is out of the question how can you keep the costs down to get into Pathfinder. It is apparently the most popular tabletop RPG at the moment but it can be expensive having to buy the rules and then buy the setting. So I have come up with some options of how to go about this.

Don’t buy the rules! That is right, don’t spend a cent on the rules books. Use the online Pathfinder Reference Document website as your rules source. This way all the rules goodness that is Pathfinder is free of charge and at your fingertip (but without the art and beautiful new book smell)
Buy a reduced price set of all the rule books. In this wonderful world of mobile computing if you have a smartphone (iPhone or Android) or a tablet (iPad or Android) there are cheap App options available to you. The prices vary depending on the part of the world you are in but you should be able to buy an App that contains all the Pathfinder core book rules for under $8 that is available wherever you take your mobile device without needing internet access
Buy PDF’s of the books and use eReaders. You can buy all of the Pathfinder books from Paizo in the form of a PDF. These are a great deal cheaper than the hard copy books and contains both setting and rules
Spend the money I just saved you on a setting! Be it Golarion from Paizo or one of the optional third party settings that have been released! Book or PDF.
You can even buy settings from D&D 3.5 edition that people are selling over eBay (and the like) cheap because they are compatible as well, keeping the costs down!

Build Your Own

The other option if you are feeling creative is to build your own world! The main rulebooks give you all you need and more to create a world from scratch. What is more there is a wealth of information out there on the internet from people who do this as standard. Most of us call it a homebrew campaign or world. It is a world or country or land or village where things act in the form that you want them to.

It can be a daunting task building your own setting but it does not need to be. It is a rewarding experience to know that it all came from your imagination as a GM and I want to help this process. There are at least 101 “How to make your own campaign” guides out there on the internet so let us make it 102. Next week I will blog about how to make your own campaign world, with a slant on Pathfinder but also generic enough to be translated to any system. Don’t expect it to fit all in one blog, in fact it may be a fortnightly or monthly blog that we revisit regularly but it is an important one and one I hope you join me on the journey. In fact if you have any specific questions you want answered hit the comments and let me know! I’ll try to incorporate the issues.

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