Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: 1st Session

I will be running the inaugural session of the St. Albert Mission Pathfinder Adventure Card Game ("PACG") Organized Play program on Sunday, October 19, 2014, at Mission Fun And Games in St. Albert, Alberta.

Participants will partake in the introductory session of Skull And Shackles PACG Season 0, as their characters cooperate to jointly face the villains and monsters of the Pathfinder universe's pirate-infested seas.  And after all, who doesn't like battling were-sharks while brandishing cutlasses and pistols?

Game sessions are no more than 2 hours long.

A demo game for first-time PACG players will be run from Noon to 1:00 pm on Sunday, October 19, 2014.

The first adventure, "On The Horizon", will commence thereafter at 1:00 pm and will end no later than 3:00 pm.

Participants will benefit from reading both the Skull And Shackles Adventure Card Game rules and the Organized Play rules (both available as free downloads from the Paizo website).

A Pathfinder ACG Class Deck (a $20-$25 investment), colored card sleeves, and matching colored polyhedral dice are necessary for participation, all of which are available at Mission Fun And Games.

Anyone interested in participating can leave a comment here, or can register their interest with Mission Fun And Games.

Thanks!

Event #	51256
When	Sun, Oct 19, 2014 afternoon (Noon - 3 pm)
Where	Mission: Fun And Games 560 St. Albert Trail St. Albert, AB T8N 6A7 Canada

Pathfinder RPG: Rise Of The Runelords Miniatures

While the Pathfinder RPG is far too cumbersome for my tastes, I do admire Paizo's related miniatures. 

Reaper produces the unpainted versions, while Wizkids is behind the comparable pre-painted versions.

The Rise of the Runelords pre-painted miniatures were released several weeks ago, but I only recently picked up a case.  The Sentry Box, after no small amount of arm-twisting, finally agreed to sell me a case of 128 miniatures for $400, the same price that Paizo was advertising on their website.

I was looking forward to this set of miniatures, as it includes several miniatures based on the artwork of Wayne Reynolds, an artist whose illustrations I enjoy.

I didn't take photos of all of the miniatures, but here is a fairly representative sample of the figures that come in the Rise of the Runelords set.  Among the figures are several iconic characters, including Seoni (centre) and Harsk, some npcs and what I presume are succubi and harpies.

The grey giants in the back row are stone giants.  There is also a red dragon in the back row and a pair of lamias in the front row, plus some other monsters that must be peculiar to the Pathfinder game.

Here's another stone giant, who appears to be casting some sort of ice globe, flanked by more of those Pathfinder-specific monsters.

The above appear to be more monsters and npcs.  Someone who knows more about the Rise of the Runelords adventure path can probably identify these.  The sculpts and paint jobs are very well done, considering the regular-sized figures cost me only $2.50 each, with the large figures double that.

I'm not much of a fan of the Pathfinder goblins.  As part of the case of miniatures, I came into possession of 11 goblin miniatures:  3 goblin dogs, 2 dog riders, a goblin riding an alligator, and 5 goblins on foot.  I have no use for these (I have 50+ LOTRSBG goblins that I much prefer to these fellows) so if anyone is interested in these figs, i'm willing to part with them for $30, which includes shipping within North America.

Having Fun With Venn Diagrams

As some have already argued, the relationship between Fantasy Art and Dungeons and Dragons Art can be represented by the Venn diagram, above.  We can quibble over whether the DnD Art circle is fully contained within the Fantasy Art circle, or whether a tiny portion of the DnD Art circle extends beyond the Fantasy art circle.  However, I think it is reasonable to suggest that all (or nearly all) DnD Art is Fantasy Art, but not all Fantasy Art is DnD Art. 

I make this observation knowing that some people will suggest that Fantasy Art and Dnd Art are (or can be) the same.  When those people make that argument, they confuse viewer inspiration with creator purpose.  An art consumer can be INSPIRED BY a piece of fantasy art, and use that fantasy art to construct a Dungeons and Dragons character, encounter or milieu.  What I am referring to, when I speak of DnD Art, is fantasy art whose PURPOSE is to reflect, elaborate or highlight the fantasy elements unique to Dungeons and Dragons. That purpose must be reflected, back, as a clear representation of Dungeons and Dragons; most or all viewers should be able to agree that the fantasy art is also DnD Art.

Having established what I mean by DnD Art, I'm posting two illustrations, below.  The first illustration is a classic piece of Larry Elmore art, which appears on the cover of the Mentzer Basic Dungeons and Dragons Red Box.  The second illustration, by Wayne Reyonds, appears on the cover of the Pathfinder Beginner Box.

Which of these two illustrations is DnD Art (or "more" DnD, if you are still on the fence regarding my explication, above) and why?  For the purpose of this exercize, please ignore the color of the Dragons.

Here is another combat with a Dragon.  Why is the illustration below "more" DnD than either of the two illustrations, above?

More Pathfinder Miniatures

Here are more images of the Pathfinder Heroes & Monsters miniatures being released in January 2012. You can find the images of the miniatures here, and on the Paizo blog. I like nearly all of the miniatures in this first set, with the exception of the humanoid monsters. Not because the sculpts and paint jobs are poor, but simply because I don't like the monster designs themselves. To see what i'm talking about, scroll down to the last three images, of the Ettin, Troll, and Goblins.

Miniatures Done Right

One of my central compliants with the prepainted Wizards Of The Coast Dungeons and Dragons miniatures line was the lack of quality. It was a combination of average to poor paint jobs and uneven poses. As a result, my DDM purchases were almost exclusively in the after-market.
Paizo's upcoming line of Pathfinder pre-painted miniatures has me quite excited. Not only is Paizo staying true to their artistic source materials, but the miniatures paint jobs are much improved compared to the old DDM miniatures. You only have to look at the sample miniatures in this post to see the improvements.
I'm not a Pathfinder RPG player. But i've already pre-ordered the full Paizo Heroes and Monsters set and am looking forward to receiving it in January 2012.

Paizo: Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box

It's unlikely you'd ever catch me playing Paizo's Pathfinder RPG. Roleplaying being what it is, I can't say never: social will always trump system. But as the natural heir to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, Pathfinder holds little allure for me.

It's the granularity. Like its cousin DnD 4.X, character generation and development is far too detailed, and i'm predisposed to viewing Pathfinder RPG as too much determined by character skills, scores and abilities; too little by player skill and role-playing.

So, given my obvious pre-disposition and therefore lack of interest in this game system, why bother purchasing and reviewing the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box? Two reasons. First, the shallow one: with certain exceptions, I really like the art of Pathfinder. I am a big fan of Wayne Reynolds, and the stable of other Pathfinder artists seem to maintain the same high standards. Second, I wanted to see if this Beginner Box set would moderate my pre-disposition against the Parthfinder RPG.

The Pathfinder Beginner Box retails for $35, compared to $20 for the DnD 4E Red Box starter set that was published by WOTC roughly a year ago. The Pathfinder box is 9" x 12" x 2.5" deep, and includes a one-page welcome page, a single-page advertisement for Pathfinder RPG and Pathfinder Society, a 64-page Hero's Handbook, four pre-generated characters (corresponding to the four characters pictured on the side of the Beginner Box), four blank character sheets, a 96-page Game Master's Guide, a 24" x 30" fold-out battle mat, a complete set of polyhedral dice, and 90 cardboard monster and character stand-up pawns.

Considering the breadth of contents, the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box compares very favorably to the DnD 4E Red Box Starter Set. Add to the above the following: the Pathfinder set allows you to go from levels 1-5, while the 4E set only allows you to go to level 2; Pathfinder includes another 64 pages of gaming material; Pathfinder includes stand-up, rather than flat, pawns; and the Pathfinder box is sturdier and more visually interesting.

With 64 pages of game material in The Hero's Handbook, Pathfinder goes into far more detail than Red Box regarding character creation. Paizo provides a solo pick-your-path adventure and an example of play in the Hero's Handbook.

The game mechanics suffer from the same malady as 4E: too many rules and too much dice-rolling. On the other hand, the art is amazing, and there's so much of it that it almost becomes a distraction from learning the rules. Paizo has gone all out here, though I couldn't say whether some or all of this art is recycled from other Pathfinder products.


Four pre-generated character sheets are included in the Beginner Box: Ezren, Valeros, Kyra and Merisel. The Beginner Box includes four cardboard standup pawns for those characters, but you can instead buy a set of pre-painted miniatures, which, at $12 for the complete four figure set, has higher production values and is more modestly priced than any pre-painted plastic figures heretofore produced by WOTC.

The 96-page Game Master's Guide delves into areas completely ignored by the equivalent Dungeon Master's Book found in the 4E Red Box. Most startling is significant page count devoted to gamemastering, building your own adventures, environments, magic items and random encounters. Pathfinder is noted for its prolific publishing of pre-scripted adventure path products, so devoting page count in the Game Master's Guide to building your own adventures is laudable. Like the Hero's Handbook, the Game Master's Guide is heavily illustrated: I will hazard to say that every page has some manner of illustration.

The Pathfinder battle mat is superior to the 4E Red Box effort. It feels heavier and is plasticized to stand up to more wear. And the cardboard pawns in the Pathfinder Beginner Box can be slipped into round plastic bases so they stand up. The Red Box equivalent are poker chips with pictures on them.

If you are playing DnD 3.5 or 4.X and looking for something just a little bit different, the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box may be just your ticket. This is good value for $35. Indeed, the gorgeously illustrated cardboard pawns are almost worth the price of admission alone.

For those that prefer old-school gaming, there is little here to convert you to the dark side. But if you're like me and have more money than sense, or want to support the underdog, you might consider buying the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box. While i'm unlikely to play Pathfinder, I don't regret this purchase.