Recent content by jasonbostwick

I can't offer to GM a game, but another way to 'see how its done' would be to listen to/watch some podcasts/vides of people playing D&D. If you google "Actual play" you should be able to find something like that. Gamers Haven is a good example, but there are a lot more. That said, you seem to...

Close, but a small correction - you only take AoOs for moving OUT of an opponents threatened space. When you first engage with an opponent, you don't take an attack. Regarding skills: You get a +3 bonus to skills that you have trained ranks in that are also class skills. When you level up in...

These three things make me think you might want to look at E6 or a variant - basically, players progress normally to level 6 and then stop gaining levels. After that point whenever they would level up they gain a feat instead. This has the effect of removing high-level spells from the game, and...

I got this and Civ V in the last two weeks, and have barely even thought about RPGs... The most addictive part about Minecraft is that there is no natural stopping point. With Civ, you can say "one more turn" for hours, but after each turn you get a small break in the action. In Minecraft, you...

I'm not sure if it would work as the focus of an entire campaign, but I think a 'Reach' style plot can work well as a one-off. I once ran a one-shot Normal-Vision session where the players played doomed Paladins defending their high priest from an overwhelmingly powerful assassin. I used...

Put E6 in a box and I'd be happy with it :)

Typed up a big long post last night and then deleted it midway through when I realised it was just a big wank about why I stopped playing 4E. I'll make this a lot quicker and less negative. I chose Pathfinder mainly for the adventure support - the Kingmaker AP alone pretty much won me over. I...

This is what immediately came to mind for me. Varisia in Golarion is a geographically varied region with a bunch of independent city states. It doesn't really lend itself readily to what you are interested in though, as you can't just pick up a gazetteer - all of the information is spread across...

The adventure tools (and Stat Blocks in published material) include the +1/2 level bonus in the ability score modifiers so you can easily use them for untrained skill checks and ability checks. So, a 2nd level monster with an 8 Str will have a +0 bonus on Strength checks: +1 for 2nd level, -1...

Most of the Kingmaker AP can be run stand-alone. The whole thing is a sandbox, so the individual issues work without the other bits attached. Varnhold Vanishing has a cool adventure about a town that has disappeared that could be popped into any campaign without much work.

Towards the end of that thread there is a bit of discussion about it, and I've seen scattered posts on these boards and the Paizo ones. (nothing bookmarked, but a quick google found this discussion) I'm juuuuust about to start a new Pathfinder campaign and we're seriously considering going E6...

Dazed, prone, stun, forced movement, and marks are the big ones that stand out. Dazed, prone, and stun are much more severe in Pathfinder, so the frequency with which they are used by Monsters might make them a bit more challenging. Forced Movement effects are less common in PF and usually...

Or they could be stocked with the sort of people who read a ton of RPG material but never play. CharOp is almost a 'game' in and of itself. I remember a few months back we had some polls/threads about the subject, and a substantial number of posters bought and read games with no intention of...

I'm almost exclusively a GM. I've played 4 sessions as a player in various one-shots over the last 5 years or so of gaming, and the rest of the time have GMed.

At least in my experience, I think it might just be a result of GM's actively thinking about the game more when they're not playing. This isn't just because the actual tasks of being a GM require someone to seek out help on a forum, but because it is usually the most interested and involved...