Closing Out the Year With a Win

So, it's December 31. Tomorrow, it shall be 2012, and I just found out that the story I submitted to Wayfinder Magazine was selected! I'm officially a published Author!

Link here.

So, I guess I get to close this year with a win.

Yay, me!

Design Day: Prestige Archetypes - The Duelist

A while ago, I presented the first of my series of "Prestige Archetypes". Essentially, they're prestige classes translated into archetypes. I started with the Arcane Archer (a magus archetype, link), and today I'm presenting the Duelist. It's an archetype for the Fighter.

Design Day: The Artificial

Last week on Design Day, I presented a new, shadowy race known as the Shadowkin. This week, I'm still on a races kick, so I decided to throw something else together...well, not exactly that. I'm actually updating an old race I designed: The Gearman.

Except these guys got a pretty major face-lift. They've been re-designed from the bottom-up, right down to the name. In addition, they have some new flavor that I hope you'll enjoy. I've been meaning to adjust them for a while now, since they're one of the player races in my home campaign setting. So here it is:

Flavor Friday: Muira the Monk

Well, as you can all tell by now, I haven’t really been “on the ball” when it comes to the Flavor Fridays. Sometimes they’re there, and sometimes they’re not. And I’ve come to the decision that I’m going to keep it that way. I’m planning to, from now on, try to put out a Flavor Friday every 2 weeks or so. And, in the spirit of that, I’ll begin today by presenting one of the iconic characters from my personal campaign setting: Esperim.

And, since I just rebuilt the monk, I figure I should put forth my iconic monk: Muira.

Design Day: The Shadowkin

I HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR THE LACK OF A FLAVOR FRIDAY AND A DESIGN DAY ON TUESDAY.

So the Bestiary 3 is coming out soon, and Paizo has been doing for the last month or so, posting monster stat blocks and previewing pictures of the monsters in the book. I actually collect Paizo art every time something cool comes up on their blog, so I’ve been snatching all of these pictures up as they came. And, well…there was one that inspired me to make something.

Design Day: Anatia, the Witch Queen

Today, we’ll be taking a break from rebuilding the monk, and we’re going to move into the realm of the dark arts… In honor of Carrion Crown, I thought I’d try my hands at building a haunt. But just building a haunt wouldn’t be enough for you guys, would it? Nah, you deserve more than that. So…instead, I present…

Anatia, the Witch Queen!

Design Day: Rebuilding the Monk, Part 4

For the last week, I’ve been working on a near-total monk rebuild. This isn’t just a few fixes (like I did with my house rules), it’s a whole new version of the class. Last Tuesday, I went over the problems with the class, then on Thursday  I talked about how I planned to fix it. Then, on Flavor Friday, I talked about the new Paths I’m introducing.

And now I’m bringing it all together. That’s right. Without any further ado, I present the New Monk.

Flavor Friday: Rebuilding the Monk, Part 3

And Flavor Friday is back! This week, we’re continuing with our rebuild of the monk. Wait, what’s that? We’re doing design work on a flavor Friday? Blasphemy! Nah. I’m just kidding. This is part of the monk’s rebuild, but, in fact, I will include (next to) no design work today.

One of the things I ran into while I was working on the new monk was that I was going to have to accommodate all (or most) of its archetypes. And, instead of completely rewriting the archetypes to fit with the new system, I thought I’d create a system within the class itself that would accommodate switching out all of these abilities. To find inspiration, I looked to other classes that had similar systems. Classes like the sorcerer and its bloodlines, or the wizard and its schools, or the cavalier and its orders.

And so I came up with the idea of Paths. At level 1, the monk selects a path—a set of beliefs and practices by which the monk lives his life. He then gains set abilities at set levels based on that path. Remember yesterday, when I said that the Still Mind, Purity of Body, Diamond Body and Timeless Body abilities would all be rolled into one thing? That would be the…

Design Day: Rebuilding the Monk, Part 2

Hey there, everybody! Well, last time, we took a look at the monk, and some of the problems with its current design. Today, we’re going to take those problems and start a-fixin’ em! Keep in mind that this is all in preparation for a brand new monk build (which is almost complete, but I though I’d go through the whole process). That said, some of the “fixes” I’m about to propose wouldn’t really fit in with the standard monk. I’ll note the changes that work and the changes that don’t as they come. Just keep in mind that each of these will be incorporated into the final monk next week.

Let’s start with the basics, just like we did before.

Design Day: Rebuilding the Monk, Part 1

A while ago, I mentioned that I was working on a total rebuild of the monk. Well, today we’re taking our first step toward that goal, today. And, when you’re rebuilding something that you think is broken, your first step should always be the same.

Identify the problem.

And that is exactly what we plan to do, today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately, no Design Day today...and no Flavor Friday tomorrow (Aww....again?). But Happy Thanksgiving to all! I plan to spend all my time moaning tomorrow about how I ate too much...then I plan to eat left-overs and ruminate on what a nightmare the upcoming christmas season is.

But be sure that I have something special planned for next week.

-Chris

Design Day: The Guardian of the Green

And now we’re back for Design Day number 7. Today’s piece was inspired by this thread on the Paizo messageboards. It’s something I’ve been wanting to accomplish for a long time, and now I’ve finally put my mind to it and made it happen.

It’s an archetype. Specifically, a nature-based paladin. Some might claim that the ranger acts well enough as a natural warrior, but I thought I’d take it one step further and create the Guardian of the Green, a true defender of nature and the natural order of things.

Weekend Recap: Samurai vs. Ninja

Recently, my group and I started running the Carrion Crown adventure path.  I’m GM of this particular campaign, and we’ve decided to utilize the house rules that I’ve posted before on this blog (here, here, and here). Something very fun and interesting happened this weekend (we usually game on Saturday or Sunday), and I thought I’d share it with my “fans”.

I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free.

The New Look!

I decided to update the look of my blog. Before it was...eh, a bit hard to look at. This, I hope, will be a bit more appealing to everyone.

-Chris

Flavor Friday: Re-Interpreting Flavor

Welcome back to Flavor Friday! I know last week I didn’t have anything posted. And while I did have an excuse, that was no reason to leave you guys hanging. So, this week, we’re going to examine what we should have looked at last week. Now, if you remember, last week (and Tuesday this week) was considered House Rule week. I was presenting changes to the basic rules that I utilize in my home games. Now, I want to present some of the changes in flavor that I utilize.

Design Day: Chase Scenes!

Aaaand we’re back! Welcome to Design Day, where I present YOU with something fun to use in your games. Today, we’re taking a turn away from the usual. No NPCs, no magic items, no house rules. Today, we’re looking at a new set of Chase Rules that I designed this weekend during our weekly game. At first, these rules were pretty on-the-fly. One character was fleeing from another (a drunk barbarian from an over-zealous samurai), and I had to come up with a system to use at that moment.

Now, I know some of you are going to ask “why not just use the chase rules in the Gamemastery Guide?” Well, I don’t know those rules off the top of my head, and from what I can remember they’re fairly complex (requiring obstacles and a deck of cards to use). I thought I’d throw something simpler together.

To use these chase rules, all you need is a d20, a piece of paper and a pair of characters that are…well, running.

Design Day: House Rules: Classes

So…I lied. There was no Flavor Friday last week. I do have an excuse, however. I’ve been playing Skyrim for nearly 4 days straight, and Thursday night (when I planned to write the entry, procrastinator that I am) saw me getting dinner with a buddy, watching Death Race at his place, and then standing outside GameStop (freezing my buns off) waiting for the midnight release.

But enough about my failures as a human being…let’s get to design day!

Today, I’m going to continue with House Rule Week (now weeks, I suppose), this time giving my alterations to the current core classes in my games.

Design Day: House Rules: Skills and Feats

…And we’re back with another exciting design day! Today is Thursday and this week is House Rule Week. Today, we’ll be talking a little bit about Skills and Feats. Two major parts of the game.

Design Day: House Rules: The Basics

Hello and welcome to my third design day! Sorry it’s a little late. I’ve been…well, not busy, but I recorded Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels last night and…yeah.

But now I’m here. And this week, I’ve decided, is going to be House Rule Week! Today and Thursday, I’ll be posting some of my favorite, crunchy house-rules. And on Friday, I’ll have some of my more flavorful rules on display.

First off, we’ll start with some game basics. The constant stuff that affects everyone.

Design Day: The Hand

Hey! It’s Thursday, and you know what that means? Design Day! Today, we’ll be looking at another major member of the White Hand, my undead apocalypse-cult presented last Friday. In fact, we’ll be looking at the master of masters—the Hand himself.

Design Day: Tanaya, The Damned Queen

Welcome to my first Design Day! Here, I’ll be posting something design-centered every Tuesday and Thursday, whether that means an NPC, a monster, a spell, a magic item or anything else I can think of. The point of these is to present you with something you can enjoy and maybe use in your home game. And I can’t lie: it’s also good practice for myself.

Today, we’re going to go deeper into the White Hand, the organization I presented on Flavor Friday, and we’ll be examining one of its key members.

Flavor Friday: The White Hand

Hey! Welcome to Flavor Fridays, my new article where I post something chocked full of delicious flavor every Friday! Might there be a little design in these articles? Yeah, but it’s never going to be the focus.

For my first Friday, I’ll be doing something in honor of Halloween: and organization dedicated to the undeath of the world…

The Rogue: DPR Examination

After a short discussion with a commenter, I decided to re-check my numbers and post a small build with the effective DPR for it. And let me clarify up-front that DPR means damage per round.

Lots and lots of math after the jump...

The Rogue: Exploration of a Weak Class

The Pathfinder RPG class known as the Rogue is often touted as being the weakest class in the game. Its main abilities (sneak attack, trapfinding, uncanny dodge) are all situational. And quite frankly, even when they are useful, they don’t help nearly as much as abilities granted to other classes. Even in its main element of being a skill monkey, many other classes can match its strength, and most wizards can do what a rogue can do, only better thanks to spells like Invisibility and Knock.

To get a look at what I'm talking about, here's a link to the Rogue on the PRD: The Rogue.

A huge explanation and some fun suggestions after the jump.

My Design Work Thus Far

Here is all of my design work so far. It's all for the Pathfinder RPG.

Races:

Gearman v2

Classes:

Avatar v3.2
Engineer v2.5
Gunslinger v3.3
Warden v1.1

Archetypes:

Arcane Archer (Magus) v1
Dark Knight (Antipaladin) v1.1 (Final Fantasy-inspired)
Divine Agent (Inquisitor) v1.1
Dragon Knight (Fighter) v1
Dread Knight (Cavalier) v1.3
Gun-Mage (Magus) v1.1
Master of Iron (Monk) v1
Street Fighter (Fighter) v1

House Rules:

Combat Arts v1
Firearms v1.1
New Skills v1

Enjoy!

-Chris

The New Blog!

Hey everyone who may or may not see this blog! This is going to be my definitive Tabletop RPG blog, where I post my musings on the culture, any reviews I have, and all my design work.

Hope you all enjoy!