I noticed recently that my Pathfinder group has now been running for more than a year. That's a bit terrifying, especially as Pathfinder is more of a system that I endure rather than actually like. I run it mainly for the players, and so that I can see how good the adventures are. We've finished both the Council of Thieves and Kingmaker adventure paths, and … Continue reading Running Way of the Wicked – Pathfinder
While 32-page rules supplements need to be pretty good to justify their $10.99 price, I think a lot more kindly of 32-page adventures. Quite simply, adventures are hard, and getting good ones that will entertain a group of players are to be treasured. Paizo are known for their adventures, and their latest effort, Tim Hitchcock's "Broken Chains", is the subject of this review. "Broken Chains" … Continue reading “Broken Chains” by Paizo Publishing – Pathfinder Adventure Review
Books such as the Dungeoneer's Handbook by Paizo need to be really good to impress me. At US$10.99 for a 32 page book, you're paying a premium price for not very much information, and so the book has to be superb to be worth the cover price. The book looks beautiful, with full colour throughout and glossy pages. It's a Paizo book, and they have great … Continue reading “Dungeoneer’s Handbook” by Paizo Publishing – Review
"Oracle of Philadelphia" is the first book by Elizabeth Corrigan, and starts the "Earthbound Angels" series of – I guess – Urban Fantasy novels. It is a fairly short book which starts indifferently but finds its feet about a third of the way through and shrugs off the early structural difficulties to give an entertaining tale. The book is told in the first person from … Continue reading “Oracle of Philadelphia” by Elizabeth Corrigan – Novel Review
I've been reading so much Urban Fantasy of late (about 80 books in the past two months), that Charles Ryan's The Mason of New Orleans was a delightful departure: a fantasy spun around the concept of a modern-day engineer finding himself back in France in the 12th century A.D. Told in the first person, it tells of his adventures as the engineer finds sanctuary with … Continue reading The Mason of New Orleans – Novel Review
At the end of our Kingmaker campaign, the 17th level party came up against a foe with an AC of 51. They had attack bonuses of 30 or so, which meant that the Big Bad was unhittable except on natural 20s. The solution? Cast greater dispel magic, which gave the cleric about a 40% chance of dispelling each important spell and reducing the foe’s AC by … Continue reading The Big Bad Evil Guy in RPGs
The members of my AD&D campaign have recently been spending time wandering between Rappan Athuk and their home base in the lands of the Frost Barbarians near the Caverns of the Oracle. That last has turned into something of a megadungeon itself, but Xury, Reece’s halfling, recently murdered the local lord so the group had to flee and thus returned to Rappan Athuk. We had … Continue reading A successful expedition into Rappan Athuk
One of the delightful things about playing lots and lots of boardgames is that I get to see lots and lots of different game mechanics. It’s something I don’t get to see so much with RPGs because RPGs tend to reward longer-term play where you play one RPG a lot and let the others sit idle. I’ve been fascinated by the interplay between player skill … Continue reading Randomness and Action Selection
He was a thin man, who walked along the street as if all others using it were beneath him. He didn’t notice me as I followed him. His arrogance didn’t make him superior, after all. He just believed he was. He wasn’t without his good points, though. He was well-prepared and rich. How rich? Enough to have minions do his dirty work for him. At … Continue reading Fragment of Fiction
I wasn’t meant to be running AD&D this week, but a lack of players for Paul’s 4E campaign saw me volunteering my services for some more AD&D play. Unfortunately, it also transpired that although I had the campaign notes, I didn’t have the dungeon maps. As the maps are a fair sight more important than the notes, it looked like the Caverns of the Oracle … Continue reading Into Rappan Athuk!
