WIR: Pirate's Honor

This time round tis be a tale of seas and sails: Pirate's Honor.

WIR: Liar's Blade

Back to the Pathfinder Tales books. This time it's Liar's Blade. I'm about half way through and enjoying it a lot.

WIR: Queen of Thorns

Next up is Queen of Thorns. I'm back to fantasy with another of the Pathfinder Tales books.

WIR: Called to Darkness

Back to Pathfinder Tales with this one. Called to Darkness takes us to the frigid Realm of the Mammoth Lords.

WIR: Prince of Wolves

Next up on the reading list: Prince of Wolves. This is another (the first actually) Pathfinder Tales novel that deals with Venture Captain Varian Jeggare and his bodyguard Radovan. Both were also in the novel Master of Devils which I've read since this site's beginning but before the start of the WIR section.

WIR: Winter Witch

Poor Age of Legend has been shelved again. This time for good. Not because it's not a good book but because, after starting the second story in it, I realized that I had read the book before. I thought the first story seemed really familiar but figured I had just started it and stopped for whatever reason. But when the second seemed familiar too, I checked on the others. Yup. Been there, done that. Sigh. That's what I get for having so many books with a bunch of them on the "to-be-read" list.

In it's place is one of Paizo's Pathfinder Tales novels, Winter Witch. It concerns the northern frozen lands of Irrisen as well as it's rulers, the winter witches. These mysterious and powerful ladies are headed by none other than that most famous of scary witches, Baba Yaga and her mortal(?) daughters.

WIR: Blood of the City

The Priests of Mars turned out pretty well, as a story not necessarily in the story. (This is Warhammer 40k after all.) Next on the list is another Pathfinder Tales novel: Blood of the City.

It follows their trend of unusual main characters with having what they call a "cobblestone druid" or a druid that inhabits a city rather then wilderness. I may have said this before, but I'm really glad that Paizo has decided to take this path (pun intended) with their novels. I'm about two-thirds of the way done already and am really enjoying it.

New Topic: WIR

I'm starting a new topic (and tag) called WIR or What I'm Reading. It will not be book reviews but more of a way for me to keep track of everything I've read and maybe some thoughts afterwards. Of course, there's always the sidebar on the right that has the current and previous book but that it too limited for me.

So to start this off, here's my current book: Priests of Mars.

I started this one a couple days ago and am looking forward to going through it. Aside from my normal interest on the 40k universe, one of my favorite things about is the Mechanicum. Plus I've read other books by Graham McNeill and has been impressed.

While I'm at it, I might was well put up the previous book: Nightglass

This one I enjoyed because it gave a good insight in the land and society of Nidal (with a little Cheliax thrown in). Being a location I knew vaguely about, the details provided here were quite welcome. Also the overall story kept me interested throughout, if a little cliche at times.

Game On: Precognition or Telekinesis?

In our Pathfinder game a couple days ago, the group went to clear a peluda (a spiny dragon-like creature) out of an abandoned fort. Having encountered one before and just barely managing to live let alone defeat it, we prepared ourselves well. Still the beast managed to surprise us without our main defense up (Communal Stoneskin). Not only that, but it was able to split the party in half: summoner and cleric on one side, the monk and ranger on the other. Sometime during the fight, the cleric started to cast Searing Light (a 4d8 damage spell). While Roy (the cleric's player) was rolling, Nathan (the summoner's player) yelled out "1,1,1,2". Needless to say, what followed will be a running joke of our group for a long time.

Gone Digital: Act IV

Act IV. The culmination of Vasuro's journey the Diablo 3 (well, his first) nears an end. I reached Act IV last night before heading to bed. Aside from the really annoying loss of some achievements due to a software bug (thanks Blizzard), D3 has been incredibly fun. I'm not what I'm going to do when I finish normal mode. Right now four things are on the table: forge ahead with Nightmare mode on Vasuro, start over with another class, jump back into miniature painting (at least my Pathfinder mini), or work on some adventure ideas I had. I think painting may win out since I can use mini now and shouldn't take too long.
Of course, I may at least write down my adventure ideas so they disappear in my head. And they're not really adventures so much as locations/encounters. A quick aside, I had talked about running a new Pathfinder campaign a few months ago for some friends. It was going to be a homemade campaign rather then an AP. The players start out as Pathfinder Society probationary members with the first few sessions covering their training as well as their "test" mission. Each probationary member is given a mission that acts as their final exam with success meaning they become a full Society member and failure meaning they can try again a year later. After 2 failures, they are out.
Back to the location's discussion. Each location would have a set theme and goal (ex: find/explore ruins). Then I would determine the minimum difficulty for the encounter based off of character level and group size (ex: 4 1st-2nd level PCs). I would not worry about party composition (i.e. does the group have a cleric or fighter?) Next I decide on the number and scale of each iteration of the location (ex: 3 scales of 1st, 5th, 7th level PCs). After that, I write down an outline of the location's parts, draw a rough map and start filling in the blanks. Each iteration of the location would use the same overall map but have it's own notes. This way I would be able to reuse the location for different sessions or scale the location to better suit the party without needing to "wing it" as much.
While part of the idea of the campaign is to have it be an open world rather then always scaled to the PCs, I don't want the PCs to go wherever they want without thinking about the consequences.

Diablo 3

It finally arrives. After having given countless hours to the previous incarnations, I foresee even more time spent trying to figure out the secret of the fallen star. My first real foray into the that new world was during the weekend beta where I played each of the classes all the way through the available levels. It is hard to say which one I enjoyed the most. So when it came time to start the adventure for good, Vasuro stepped forward to take up the challenge.

Vasuro is a tiefling monk from Dtang Ma that worships Nalinivati, the goddess of fertility, nagaji, snakes, and sorcery. And also happens to be my current character running through the Kingmaker Adventure Path. Thanks to Vasuro's selfless offer, she is now running around New Tristram kicking bad guy butt. Although what she didn't know when she chose to go on this new adventure was that a sex change would occur. (Mainly because I liked that male monk look better then the female one.)

After many hours of playing, Blizzard decided to bring down the servers. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I eventually gave up and went to bed. Although Vasuro didn't get to confront the Skeleton King, he did manage to make it to his house. The way to the fallen star continues tonight.