Pathfinder 1E Paizo re-invents Hexcrawling

[roguerouge]

I incline towards a similar judgement, but a brilliant mind suggests to disagree.

That's got to be one of the weirdest set of objections that I've ever seen. The only one that makes a lick of sense to me is untrue to my experience of the module running it, because I did what most GMs would do, which is run it as a part of a campaign and spent a session RPing the carnival to set it up.

That's easily one of the best Gamemastery modules (nothing beats winged monkeys), but I'd be hard pressed to dignify Baur's efforts here - aka 'players follow trail from locations A->B->C->D to get to your dungeon galore!' - as "hex-crawly". I'd much rather recommend Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale.

Eh. Most of the page count is about creating atmosphere to encourage exploration and I really don't get what you're talking about with the "trail". Connections between locations? Yes. But large swaths of player experience are geared towards figuring out what the location is. That's an exploration model to me. Conquest isn't a favorite of mine, but, yes, it is even more classically hex crawling.

 

[Windjammer]

I'm hoping with all the positive response from 4E fans to Kingmaker that WotC will put some effort into a similar product too (if probably at a smaller scale). I heard the inside map of the Hammerfast booklet is printed on hexes, but left customers at a loss how to operate, as there's nothing in that booklet or other published 4E sources on hexcrawling.

(Sure there are older sources, or even recent ones, but the whole point of 4E was and is to remain an easy point of entry for newcomers in its own right. )

 

[Jhaelen]

I incline towards a similar judgement, but a brilliant mind suggests to disagree.

I don't get it: Who's this ASEO guy and what makes him 'a brilliant mind'?

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

...If only someone had already converted the first four issues of Rise of the Runelords to 4e for you...

Darn work filters!

Thanks! I'll take a look later and at least compare notes (if not yoinking your ideas completely ). I've probably got a good six months before my current campaign wraps up.

 

[Blackbrrd]

I'm hoping with all the positive response from 4E fans to Kingmaker that WotC will put some effort into a similar product too (if probably at a smaller scale). I heard the inside map of the Hammerfast booklet is printed on hexes, but left customers at a loss how to operate, as there's nothing in that booklet or other published 4E sources on hexcrawling.

(Sure there are older sources, or even recent ones, but the whole point of 4E was and is to remain an easy point of entry for newcomers in its own right. )

I hope Paizo will make a 4e version of it. I am tempted to by it as it is, but I won't buy the whole series.

 

[WesSchneider]

I hope Paizo will make a 4e version of it. I am tempted to by it as it is, but I won't buy the whole series.

Sorry man, creating content for games we don't produce is just not in the cards. However, you should find the rules quite flexible. Those for exploration show up in Pathfinder #31, for City Building in Pathfinder #32, and then details on handing mass combat show up later in the series.

Oh, and did anyone mention that we've got Ed Greenwood writing a big article on locations in the Kingmaker region and creating monsters for every volume of Kingmaker? And for Golarion fans, in Pathfinder #33 Stephen Schend takes the first step off our campaign setting's bit map, revealing the realm of Iobaria to the west. (And, going even deeper into world continuity, we've also got an article coming that finally details the crazed realm known as the First World.)

So there's a lot going on in this series, whether you want innovative new rules or just awesome old school storytelling from some of the best storytellers in RPG history.

And, as has been said, if you want a teaser of what's to come, totally check out the free Kingmaker Players Guide!

 

[WesSchneider]

Personally, I started out with an Adventure Path subscription, and today I'm subscribing to 5 lines. My inner collector rejoices . And with the PDFs I can just extract the pictures, put them in a Powerpoint, and connect my laptop to a big screen TV. I must admit I like the sound of my players going "Wow! That is an *awesome* drawing!" or "Holy F***, that dragon looks mean!"
So Paizo, you rock .

This is the MAIN reason we do stuff like this. Because readers will always have the time and passion to do cooler stuff for their games than we ever could. Flexibility and the ability to customize what we create to make it the perfect fit for your group and game will always be a big part of our business, and if you ever have any questions about how to do things like this, suggestions for how we can do things better, or are just intrigued and want to get ideas that might work for you, we've got a active, shall we say, "mod-ing" community over on the Paizo message boards and a very attentive web team.

Also, I'd love to see how this looks and I'm sure a ton of other players would to. If you ever get a chance, take a few pictures and link them over on the Paizo boards, folks will flip! Thanks a ton Arthedain!

 

[Lidgar]

Yes, it sounds like a great idea - the Bard will always be more diplomatic than the Fighter, but at least it becomes *possible* for a high level Fighter to have decent Diplomacy. He's still stuck with 2 skill ranks/level for all his skills, though.

Off topic -
This was a small issue for our group as well. To address, our DM gave our fighter the choice of a "Tactical Combat" feat (or some-such) that boosted his skill progression to 4 points/level in exchange for one feat, the idea being his fighter was focusing on tactical/battle skills (including diplomacy). I think Paizo had this as a background feat as well.
-ef

 

[James Jacobs]

Off topic -
This was a small issue for our group as well. To address, our DM gave our fighter the choice of a "Tactical Combat" feat (or some-such) that boosted his skill progression to 4 points/level in exchange for one feat, the idea being his fighter was focusing on tactical/battle skills (including diplomacy). I think Paizo had this as a background feat as well.
-ef

Further off topic... You can, of course, make a human fighter. He gets +1 skill point/level for being human, and can get another +1 skill point/level for fighter being his favored class. Presto! 4 skill points/level, even before your Int mod kicks in!

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Or ya know do like I have done since 2000 and fix the flaw by making all 2 skill class 4 skill class and be done with it. I really lobbied to have this fixed in pathfinder but didn't happen

Just always found it odd your civilized fighter was as skilled as your barbarian with an int of 6 and this is still the case wih pathfinder both being human with favored class and your int 6 barbarian is still just as skilled as your Int 11 fighter

yeah thats real fair