Pathfinder Worldscape #2

The second issue of the Pathfinder Worldscape comic released this week. This issue has a bit less action than the first issue, but it does explain a good bit more about what is going on, in particular how the Worldscape setting "works". Oh and yes that is indeed a Green Martian on the cover! Woo Hoo!  I am still really enjoying this series. This is the kind of campaign setting I would really enjoy playing. The end of the comic includes some Pathfinder stats for Green Martians, an encounter map and even Green Marian firearms rules. Even if you aren't a Pathfinder player, there is good stuff in here for your games. Oh and minor spoiler>>>....
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this issue shows us that a Simian Army is on the rise! YES!!!
I personally can't wait for the next issue!

Pathfinder Worldscape!

A while back I posted about the upcoming Pathfinder Worldscape comic series. Well the first issue came out this week and I was able to sit down and read it tonight.

I really enjoyed the first issue. My only complaint is that when I got to the end of the issue, I wanted more! Even if you are not into Pathfinder, I think there is some great stuff in here for anyone who is a fan of Swords & Sorcery, Pulp type adventures. I won't give away any spoilers but I will definitely be using ideas from this series in my own games. I really like the world-setting they are creating and I can see myself running adventures in such a setting. Some Pathfinder RPG stats are including (Red Sonja!!), but I can also see myself using the setting with many OSR rules systems (Fantastic Heroes & Witchery and AS&SH immediately come to mind). Also don't forget the 2nd edition Kickstarter for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea starts tomorrow!! Anyways, I hope everyone is having a good week, and I hope you are able to squeeze in some gaming this weekend!
Later-B.B.

Pathfinder Worldscape!

While, I haven't played Pathfinder in a bit, I am rather excited about the announcement of this upcoming comic series featuring the Pathfinder Iconics meeting up with such classic characters as Red Sonja, Tars Tarkas, Tarzan and others! Due out in October, I will definitely be picking this one up!  I've always loved mixing and matching characters and settings in my RPG's so this sounds like it will be right up my alley!

Post Apocalyptic RPG Stuff!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!  It's extra hot in the Southern Rad Zone today.  The nearby Pure Strain Human radio tower is sending out heat advisory warnings today.  Sissy humans, can't take the heat.
This entry is kind of a catch all for various Post Apocalyptic RPG stuff.
I continue to read over my copy of The Flesh Weavers for The Mutant Epoch RPG, its is a fun adventure, I especially love the pregens in the back complete with illustrations. Outland Arts has a  ton of great Freebies/Pay what you want for The Mutant Epoch RPG over on RPGNow.  Check 'em out!

If Pathfinder is more your game, I just found where Fall of Man has been released, this one caught me by surprise, I remember it was in an unsuccessful kickstarter last year, but seems they have moved forward with releasing it.  I don't know much else about it, so I'd be curious to hear what people think about it. It seems to mix sorcery and science..or is that super science and sorcery?  LOL
 I'm still hoping Warlords of the Apocalypse sees the light of day, Owen K. Stephens responded to a recent email of mine and indicated he still plans on releasing it.  : )

If Mutant Future is more your game, The Knotty-Works have released quite a few resources for Mutant Future including  free Mutant Lord Screen Inserts

Skirmisher Publishing also has a ton of Mutant Future stuff for your Mutant Future Campaigns, their Wisdom of the Wastelands series is up to issue #50 and is a very affordable way to expand your Apocalypse!

Guess I'll wrap this up for now! Stay cool and Good Gaming! -B

Pathfinder Sunday

Last weekend I got to play in our monthly Pathfinder; Rise of the Runelords Campaign. 
I brought my "Dungeon in a Bag" for this one, thanks to my wife I was able to get in on the first Dwarven Forge Kickstarter, so I have a literal bag full of dungeon tiles begging to be used.  I'm really glad I have this.  Below are some pictures from the game.

 

The DM was to the left setting up, that's my Pathfinder Book.

 

Moving the party forward!  We know there is a Quasit in the next room, but what else lurks there?

 

Combat ensues, jumped from several directions at once!

 

The final fight of the evening!  That's the nasty Barghest in the upper right corner of the square room, my Flaming Sphere didn't even tough him!  We got our butts kicked!!

A tale of two games!

It has been a busy and yet cool week in the Southern Rad Zone.
Work has been crazy busy, Graduate School has been tedious, but guess what?  I was able to game TWICE this week!!!  I haven't done that in years!

On a whim I started talking to some friends at work and before you know it I had a group of five players interested in trying out 5E!  My boss even gave me permission to use the conference room after hours!  Very cool!

We played our very first session of 5E last Tuesday. This was my first time DMing 5E.  In three and a half hours we made up characters, did introductions, some role playing and had our first combat!  It was a blast! Two players had never played before, and the rest have varying degrees of experience. It went very smoothly, the newbies really surprised me, they took right to the game. .  I think 5E is great for new players, it had just the right amount of rules for the newbies.  Character creation was smooth, it helped that we had an extra player's handbook, and I had two print outs of the basic rules (Yay Staples).  Everyone had a great time and wants to play again.  My wife is one of the players, so it is great to be gaming with her again.  IF I get time I'll type up the session.

 For my second game of the week I got to rejoin the monthly Pathfinder game, I missed last game due to the birth of my grandson!!! We played nearly 8 hours yesterday! That is definitely something I'm not used to doing and had to really work to fit it into my schedule.  We are going through Rise of the Runelords and have wrapped up things in Sandpoint (I think), well other than that BadA$$ Barghest that is trapped down in the dungeon. Last night we mistakenly thought we could take him on!  Yikes he almost TPK'd us the first round, we fled and licked our wounds.  I'm playing a Human Sorcerer, Efreeti Bloodline. I was beat when I got home (getting old, I am a grandad now, LOL). 

 I'm not going to turn this into an edition wars post.  I had fun at both games, for similar and different reasons. For my group at work 5E is the perfect fit for us.  I can't wait to see where the game goes, having newbie players in a new system, feels really cool to me, in fact playing 5E felt to me like I was running old school D&D again, the rules just drifted into the background and we got down to business! I am happy to be running 5E. 

 The Pathfinder game was fun, its an established group and I'm the new guy, so it will take time to fit in. I enjoyed being able to customize my sorcerer, I would like to see more bloodlines for 5E, but the system just came out so I'm sure they are coming. Not sure what the DM has up next for us, I know there is a whole Runelords storyline, but I have never played it or read it so this is all new to me.  Anyways just thought I'd share, it is great to be getting some gaming in!

Pathfinder Saturday!

 I wrapped up my latest course in graduate school this week (still many more to go, sigh) and to celebrate, my buddy Tod invited me to play with a group of his that plays Pathfinder on occasion. When he sent me the address I was surprised to realize the group was playing just a couple of streets over from where I live, surprising because I live in a large metropolitan area and Tod lives almost an hour from my house.  Bonus for me!  I had rolled up a character beforehand per his instructions and opted to do something different from what I usually play, I made up a third level Sorcerer with the Efreeti bloodline. 
There were seven players including myself with Tod GMing.  Wow, big group.  The set up was excellent, the host, Sean, had a large bonus room upstairs, with two big screen TV's, plenty of space, dice and munchies!! We were in the thick of it in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.
I snapped one quick picture

We played from 3:00 in the afternoon to nearly midnight!  Wow, reminds me of the marathon sessions we had back when I was in high school and a freshman in college. Good Times!
With that many players, there was a good bit of side chatter and overall silliness, but I enjoyed it. The guys were great and very welcoming and it sure beat spending all day writing a paper.
Anyways, we eventually killed off the main baddie of the dungeon we were in, or at least I hope that was the main baddie, yikes she was tough.  We left off the adventure resting on the beach, dividing up our loot and dining upon giant crab meat!  -Good Times!!

Pathfinder Technology Guide

Check out the cover for the upcoming Pathfinder Technology Guide

Is it just me or does that scream Rifts?!
Use this with Warlords of the Apocalypse (oh will it ever be released??), Broken Earth, the Pathfinder Core Rules and I'm betting you could run a Pathfinder-Rifts kinda game! Toss in the Advanced Race Guide and players could build their own D-Bees.  Course these days I find myself preferring to run games that are a bit lighter on rules, guess I'll have to find someone to run it.  : )

Savage Worlds Broken Earth

The Savage Worlds edition of Broken Earth has been released in PDF.

 

They will also be releasing a Pathfinder version for those that are interested (I doubt I will get the Pathfinder edition, I need less rules these days.  LOL ).  This is the complete game, a Player's Guide has been out for a bit, But this release has the Player's Guide material and the GM Guide all in one.  I haven't posted much about Savage Worlds lately, but I think that will be changing.  I recently picked up the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition, very cool book.  It explains things IMHO better than in earlier editions.  Anyways I haven't picked up Savage Worlds Broken Earth yet, but it is on my list!  : )

Oh and I swear they used our cat for the cover of this!  LOL

Fall of Man Kickstarter

Just learned about this Kickstarter:

The look and sound of it reminds me alot of Rifts (and I mean that in a good way!), but with the Pathfinder system.  Hmm...  I've kept my Kickstarter participation to a minimum, and Warlords of the Apocalypse is still potential "vaporware" at this point, although I think Owen K. Stephens is honestly trying to get it out.  But this Kickstarter is tempting, plus it looks like there will be conversion notes for Castles & Crusades among other games.  This has spiked my interest!  The character classes sound pretty cool!  Asphalt Samurai!  Sweet! I may have to get in on this bandwagon!
Oh you can check out the Kickstarter HERE.

 

Broken Earth: Post Apocalyptic Kickstarter for Pathfinder

I just came across the Broken Earth Kickstarter. 

Here's the blurb: Explore the wastes and rebuild civilization in this post-apocalyptic sandbox adventure. Compatible with the Pathfinder RPG Rules. The bombs fell. Billions died. Generations later you must pick up the pieces and rebuild this Broken Earth.

While I'll be the first to admit having experienced some frustrations with running Pathfinder, especially at higher levels, this Kickstarter looks quite tempting to me.  Sounds like this will sync up nicely with Warlords of the Apocalypse, another game I've been waiting on forever... There is currently 15 days left on the Kickstarter and its close to its goal but not there yet, I'll be keeping my eyes peeled on this one. 

Warlords of the Apocalypse is back on Track!!

I've gotten some really interesting emails in my inbox the past day or so.
To sum it up Warlords of the Apocalypse, that Post Apocalyptic RPG using the Pathfinder rules that was supposed to come out a few years ago but didn't has been picked up by another company for release, and not just any company... Super Genius Games! They put out some great product IMHO so this should be good!
The Field Guide to Doomsday blog goes into more details.
And here I was saying I was going to hang up my Pathfinder GMing hat... LOL
]Oh well never say never.

Pathfinder Woes

 I've been running a Pathfinder game for several sessions now. My players are great and seem to be having a good time.  Me behind the screen, not so much.  Don't get me wrong, my players are awesome and we have a lot of fun, but the older I get the less and less I like rules heavy systems and for me Pathfinder is a rules heavy game.  For me its strengths are also its weaknesses. You can really create a unique cool character with all the multitude of options, skills, feats and variables but those same options and variables can be a chore for the DM to manage, at least this DM, especially once the campaign starts reaching some higher levels.  This was what eventually caused me to quit playing 3.5.  It's kind of a shame from my standpoint.  Paizo puts out top notch product, with some really great ideas, adventures etc. and I really would love to go whole hog all out for Pathfinder, but I hate having to refer to a rulebook during a game, for me it takes away from the session and even many sessions in, I still find myself having to look up alot of stuff.  Even my players, have to looks up alot of stuff, and it just seems to take away from our time at the table.  I don't mean to sound whiney, I know my experiences and opinions aren't shared by everyone, but I saw another blogger (Tenkar's Tavern) post something similar today and thought I'd chime in with my thoughts as well.
Anyways just curous what some of my reader's thoughts and feelings were about this.  Feel free to comment.
I've done enough prep to last me for a few more Pathfinder sessions, so I'm going to try to run it a bit longer, but after that, I will definately be switching to a different system.

The Return of Pathfinder Sunday

Well after a long hiatus from regular gaming, believe it or not we are returning to Pathfinder.  I tried to get some sci fi gaming going but wasn't getting any takers, I tried to get some OSR gaming going but no takers, I ran a couple of sessions of C&C which was fun BUT something just wasn't meshing for us, then someone mentioned Pathfinder, and I agreed to run it again.  I've got players coming out of the woodwork! I'm actually having to turn down players at this point cause I've got so many at the table.  We had our first session today, I think it went pretty good all things considered. 

I'll keep ya'll posted on how it goes!
Good Gaming!

Simian Saturday: Monkey Miniature Roundup!

Thought I'd post about some recent 28mm Simian Miniatures that I had found, you can always use more monkey minis in your games right!  ; )

 Up first some new offerings from Reaper, specifically for the Pathfinder RPG, but can be used for whatever fantasy monkey mayhem you desire!

If your wanting something a little more sci fi, a la Mutant Future or somesuch check out these from Sgt. Major Miniatures Get Some! line.

And wrapping up todays post some new Monkeys from Ramshackle Games

                                                Ain't they cute!!

Pathfinder Gamma World!

Sadly doesn't seem like the Warlords of the Apocalypse will ever see the light of day... I had preordered it but after countless delays I asked for and got my money back on it.  If it ever does come out I'll pick it up, since I'm a sucker for P.A. RPG's.  Meanwhile I did find a homebrew Gamma World (4th edition, NOT 4E)  Pathfinder compatible conversion here.  Looks pretty darn detailed! And for free how can you argue! 
If anyone tries it out let me know how it goes!
Have a great New Year's Eve!

   My favorite edition of Gamma World to date, the 4th edition, NOT 4E.  LOL

Gaming, Comics and stuff

     My back is finally doing better, getting old is no fun.  Went by the Friendly Local Comic/Gaming Shop yesterday, figured I could pick up some reading material while I continue to mend.  Found a ton of stuff! I hadn't been there in awhile, the Pathfinder shelves were packed! I think they had some new 4E D&D items, but I don't even look at those anymore.  I resisted picking up more Pathfinder product, don't get me wrong Paizo puts out awesome stuff, I was just looking for something different. Right before I got hurt I ran a session of Castles & Crusades which was a blast, I'll try to post about it soon, probably gonna play it some more, but I was looking for something different to read and get inspired by... 
I found it on the Comic Book aisle! 
DC has relaunched some of their titles, I won't get into that, I know some folks aren't happy about it but I was always more of a Marvel guy so it didn't bug me, + after they kept going up in price I quit buying them so much...anyways I spotted a couple of titles on the shelf that looked interesting to me. First up:
                         Frankenstein Agent of Shade

This is pretty sweet! It features Frankenstein with Guns! and even has some from the old Creature Commandos line that I loved back in the day.  This has some great inspiration for gaming, heck I ran something similar with this for D20 Modern many years ago...and if you wanted to lose the guns I can see it working with D&D as well. Heck with Pathfinder having the Gunslinger class you wouldn't even have to lose the guns really... I'm gonna have to follow this series for sure...
But what really sparked my interest was what I found next!  Those who follow my blog will know I've been on a bit of a Sci Fi kick of late, well with my Gamer ADD I'm all over the place...anyways, I spied something that really got my attention...check out the cover!

Two Awesome things Combined; Star Trek with Legion of Super Heroes!  Yeah, I know I said I was more into Marvel, but the Legion were always cool, I enjoy Cosmic Super Heroes and the Legion has always sparked my interest.  This is a six issue mini-series, where an alternate universe is created and a team of Legionairres and a Star Trek away team have to set things right.  Instead of the Federation we have the Imperial Planets of Terra, which is a mixture of Star Trek and Legion of Super Heroes!!!  I was always a fan of the Star Trek Mirror Universe also so this makes it even cooler to me!  Here's another teaser...

Awhile back I did several alien races from Marvel Comics for the Stars Without Number RPG even worked up The Dreamer race directly from the Legion of Super Heroes for the game! I'm going to be following this mini-series for sure, I think this will be the perfect background for a great SWN Campaign, instead of the Terran Mandate mentioned in the SWN Rules, the Imperial Planets of Terra can be slipped right in there, using familiar things yet with very different twists.  Will probably still have The Scream occur, but can work in Star Trek races and Legion races in a new setting! Woo Hoo!
Could also use this with X-plorers, but for some reason I'm seeing this work better with the SWN rules...
Hmmmm things to ponder.. Feel free to comment, would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this.
Anyways I guess I've rambled on enough! Hope everyone has a safe and awesome Sunday!

Loviatar #3

Got a nice item in my mailbox this week, always great to get something other than bills.

The #3 issue of Loviatar, I'm really enjoying this zine that Christian is putting out. If your not getting it, what are you waiting for? I can tell each issue is a labor of love on his part.  This one even featured a brief Planescape entry! Good Stuff!

Tome of Monsters : for the Pathfinder RPG

I recently stopped at my FLGS and was surprised to find a new release on the shelf that I had no idea was even coming out for the Pathfinder RPG.  The Tome of Monsters by 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming.

The official blurb,"The Tome of Monsters details 123 different monsters and animals, and includes information for creating another 29 variants of some of those creatures. Among the creatures are several templates and four playable races, and most of the animals include stats for using that creature as an animal companion or a familiar..."

My FLGS does new releases at 20% off and it was payday so of course I had to pick it up.  : )
I'm glad I did, it has some interesting beasties that I will definately be using for my games.  We are currently in Castles & Crusades mode, but it's easy to adapt stuff to that system with minimal to zero effort.  + I'm sure at some point we will be playing Pathfinder again so there ya go.  : )
I'm also still naively hoping that Warlords of the Apocalypse for Pathfinder will see the light of day..*sigh* has it been a year already since it was announced and I first posted about it??  Well I'll save that for another post for another day.  Anyways, if your looking for a Pathfinder Beastie book, you might want to check this one out.
Good Gaming -B.

Simian Saturday: Simian Races for Pathfinder!

For only a buck you can add three new Simian Races to your Pathfinder Campaigns!


The races included are:
The Mangani: a powerful race of gorilla-like warriors.
The Shift: an eldritch race of cunning ape-men who can take on human appearance.
The Wukong: a race of sentient, sapient monkeys with the power of speech and hands capable of fine manipulation.

   These are definately going into my campaign!
Good Gaming! -B