The Skinsaw Murders (02/01/2013)

Our previous game night had run a little long so we started off this week's session by running through any questions or close-outs items the players might have had. As the DM I had taken the liberty of walking the players through the last few rooms of Thistletop as if we had done so on game night because it was the end of a chapter and I knew there wasn't much more there than exploration, plus I wanted to start of tonight's game night with the new chapter.

DnD News

While most of my recent posts have been recaps of Friday Night Pathfinder fun our Sunday Night DnD group is still going strong (you can read about our current adventures here). However, DnD news has been rather sparse of late. The January update to the DDI online tools was announced this week (here) but given that this was the update that would have occurred from over the end-of-year holiday break there were little if any bug fixes.

Thistletop Island (Part Two) (01/18/2013)

As part of my preparation and DM'ing duties this week I used an IPad/IPhone app named PFRPG rd (link). This reference dictionary contains all the Pathfinder material from the core books and in an easy-to-search database. The adventure module of course contained all the material about the various NPC's, but I didn't necessarily want to print out a list of details for all their known spells - this app gave me quick access to the different spells I needed to know about and saved me from additional printing. I guess I can't absolutely guarantee it is 100% complete and accurate, but for the $3.99 I paid for it this app is pretty darn good.

Thistletop Island (01/04/2013)

Due the a spell of holidayus interruptus our Friday Night Pathfinder game had been on hiatus for a month. Everyone was eager to resume our adventure but we needed to do some clean-up from our last game night first. The last encounter had run long and there was some "end of day" details that we did not get to cover, so after we got caught up on our personal holiday stories we quickly moved into game mode.

Early Observations: Pathfinder vs DnD

Now that I have four full sessions of Pathfinder play under my belt I feel fully qualified to offer wildly speculative opinions as I relate my Pathfinder experience to my 25 yeas of experience in playing various versions of DnD. I realize there is an aspect of "Version Wars" that still floats about the RPG world in regards to which game version players think is the best. There is a segment of the general RPG population that like and prefer DnD4E, there is a solid and growing Pathfinder contingent, and there remains a flourishing "Old School RPG" (OSR) camp that prefer their pre-DnD3.0 versions of the game as well.

Catacombs of Wrath (12/07/2012)

Scott had to call in sick this evening so Corky invited Brent to come join us and play Stike for the evening. Brent fit right in with the group and had a good time. Due to scheduling conflicts and the upcoming holidays we will likely not be able to meet again this year, but we are targeting Friday, January 4th as our next session.

The Mystery Deepens (11/30/2012)

We had a successful kick-off to our Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords adventure during our first session two  weeks ago and everyone was fired up and ready to continue on tonight. It was likely that the  characters would reach Level 2 tonight also and each of the players had an updated character sheet stuck away just for this occasion. Four of our five participants have purchased the Herolab character builder software at this point and have found the pay version to be much more complete than the free demo  version - as one might expect.

Welcome to Sandpoint - The Adventure Begins (11/16/2012)

Two weeks ago our new Friday night group met for the first time and had an introduction to Pathfinder and practice game night. This week we commenced the Rise of the Runelords adventure path. The players had prepared their characters using the free demo Herolab software, prepped for the adventure by reviewing the Rise of the Runelords Players Guide, and the DM had prepared several maps and put together a collection of character pawns and miniatures and was ready to introduce the world of Golarion to the new adventurers, so off we went.

More Pathfinder Prep Work

After our introduction to Pathfinder and to new friends this past Friday night I have received several instances of positive feedback from those involved. I was afraid that playing a game that we only had a basic level of familiarity with and doing so with people we were meeting for the first time might be a little rocky, but I thought things went well and was glad to hear the others did as well. We are still sorting out our schedule – we will not meet this week but will meet again next Friday (11/16), and we will figure out our end of year plans from there.

Pathfinder - Practice Night

Our new Friday night game group has decided to give Pathfinder a shot. Because some of us have not played DnD3.* or Pathfinder, plus some have not played in quite a while, it was decided that we would start this off by having the players work their way through the practice adventure that came with the Pathfinder Beginner Box. This gave everyone a chance to ramp up their familiarity with Pathfinder but also gave us as a group the opportunity to sit down and meet each other as well.