Jason Grubiak's page

I wish the magazine well. Good luck to those involved. :)

New Order of the Stick? You mean strips unique to this magazine like Burlew did for Dragon? If so thats pretty awesome.

Now that Shattered Star was released does that mean I can purchase a Gargantuan Rune Giant without ordering a case of minis?

Yeah I heard "The Grey" is why all the emo vampires live in Washington. They can be out all day and avoid being sparkly. :)

Ok seriously now. Grey Maidens are awesome. Love both minis.

I was really hoping you would do minis from older Adventure Paths. If you never plan on a Crimson Throne set...I'll settle for minis from the path sprinkled throughout other sets.

They are both awesome. I really dig Oriana holding her helmet under her arm.

Thumbs up bigtime this week.

Next week is Lovecraft stuff? YAY!!

Good looking figures. I love the cat familiar.

Im glad you arent afraid to make figures like Nualia. Becuase honestly she is very unique and specific to a single adventure. Shes not a very good proxy for anything else.
And I love that. Because when you actually DO play the adventure that figure is just so sweet to have.
It reminds me of when DDM made Twig Blights. So many complained it wasnt a popular monster...but when you played The Sunless Citidel they were so cool to have.

I will truly miss my preview next Friday. :(

Wow. Very nice!!

PCs are never as exciting as monsters IMO, so this isnt the best preview, but its still a great preview none the less.

A BARD!!!! DDM hated bards. What did they make in the history of DDM? Three? I am so happy to see a bard. Definitly the highlight of the preview for me.

Just a suggestion. Do you agree that when a set list for a new Pathfinder Battles set is being determined that old sets of DDM should influence it?

The Huge Black Dragon is a good example. Out of the 5 chromatic dragons all have been released as huge except the black....well...it was made but it had a rider that most people didnt want on its back.
Is this a coincidence? I really hope its not.
When the time comes for a gargantuan dragon Paizo should chose green or red since there already is white, blue and black.

Now do not get me wrong. I am not saying they Paizo shouldnt eventually make every monster in the Biestary themselves.
Im not saying they shouldnt make a chimera because DDM already has 2 chimeras. That would be insane.
I realize not everyone owns DDM and that Pathfinder Battles needs to stand on its own. I am aware of that. Im just saying I feel a LOT of people who buy Pathfinder minis are people who own tons of DDM.

I just really think that Paizo should ask themselves "what never appeared in DDM" at least a few times in each set.

- Consider the Small or Huge Water Elemental before making a Small or Huge Fire Elemental.
- Take note that DDM inexplicably never produced a Large or small Snake yet made 3 medium snakes.
- Take note what Race/Gender/Class combos were never done in DDM. There was no Male Gnome Druid. There were practically no Bards or Female Half-Orcs, or younger looking male human spellcasters.
- You did a male dwarf with an axe. Thats good. Lets not make one in every set.

Do you guys agree?

Hello. I was able to procure a copy of Gary Gygax's Necropolis.

I just started reading it and so far so good but Im only like 25 pages in.

Anyway I have 3 questions if anyone could be so kind as to help me.

#1 - Did the book come with a poster map or a map booklet? Since I have a used copy i want to make sure Im not missing one.

#2 - In chapter 2 it says the PC should gain posession of the Account of the Blemmyish Nomnad (which is a free download) and the Overview map. What overview map? Thats the other reason Im worried I may be missing a poster map or a map booklet.

#3 - The extra downloadable material off the Necromancer Games website is the Blemmyish Nomad's account and an adventure called Set's Daughters. Theres no collection of maps to print? Why not?

And last....my PCs are currently in Greyhawk. How do you suggest I get them to Khemit? Some kind of teleport? Any suggestions?

Thanks

Im sorry. I tried to find the Tomb of Horrors pdf in the store but I just cant. I can not find anything by Necromancer games for that matter.

So Paizo no longer sells it or im just inept.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

I have a PC who is a Minotaur out of the Savage Species book.

Once he hits level 6 he will be Large in size.
And once he's a full-fledged minotaur he will take levels of paladin.

So I was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of any good articles in Dragon or any D&D books that has info on equipment for large creatures....and more importantly mounts for large creatures.

Thanks.

I placed the order October 8th. Its still pending almost a month later.
Is everything Ok with the order?

Thanks

I first discovered this story when I went to Giant in the Playground to read the latest Order of the Stick.
Heres a cut-and paste of what Rich Berlew had to say:

"As has been reported by a few other gaming blogs and news sites, the Charity Auction at this year's GenCon Indianapolis was held to benefit Gary Gygax's favorite charity, which I will not name here for reasons that will soon become obvious. The fine folks at GenCon raised over $17,000 for this charity, which helps starving children in impovershed areas of the world--only to have that money actually turned down by the charity. The charity refused due to the fact that the money was raised partly by the sales of Dungeons and Dragons materials, which as we all know, puts an irrevocable taint of evil on the filthy lucre that us demon-worshipping gamers might want to use to, say, donate to starving children. Not only is this a slap in the face to every gamer, but it is especially insulting to Mr. Gygax himself, who I understand donated to their cause many times over the years. Plus, I'm sure the children who would have gotten food or clean drinking water with that money would be sort of upset, too.

I bring this story to your attention not simply so that you might let the people at this charity know how you feel (especially if you have donated to it before, as many did in the wake of Mr. Gygax's passing), but so that you would be aware that there is an alternative charity that I would personally recommend (based on our own charitable giving) if you have a desire to donate money to help starving children. Plan USA is a worldwide charity aimed at helping those who live in poverty and/or have suffered from a natural disaster, particularly with monthly sponsorships of individual children. Since the money of D&D players is clearly not welcome at this other charity, I can't recommend Plan USA highly enough to those interested in giving anyway. At least if you choose to donate through them, there's no chance your generous gifts to the starving children of the world will be rejected due to your weekend hobby.

(Incidentally, GenCon was also able to find another worthy charity with an entirely different focus, the Fisher House Foundation, that was willing to accept the money given in good faith by GenCon attendees.)"

Ive had a wonderful D&D game going for a long time.

Every Thursday after work we all gather at my friend Kenn's house and play from 6:00 to midnight. Six hours every week. Its awesome.

Now Im in my 30s so finding a group of guys my age that can actually get together on a weekly basis with maybe one or two call outs a year is fantistic. I feel very blessed.

Well Kenn and his wife (who is also a player) have announced they will be moving away to another state thats about 12 hours drive away in November.

Theres just myself and 2 other players. We lost our DM, one player and the house we play in. Its just the 3 of us now.

My game is dead meat. Even if one of us becomes DM we need more players.....
And we need a place to play that is not far enough to turn off some players...
And we need guys who can play to midnight and not mind the drive home and goign to work the next day...
And we need guys who dont have excuses always coming up why they cant make it wheter its children or whatever...

And the biggie....Players who want to play 3rd edition or Pathfinder and not 4E.

Doesnt look so good.

As a send off for our beloved DM we all went to the local Renesance Faire. We dont go all out and wear costumes but he wore a T-Shirt that said "Im the DM" and mine just had the D&D logo on it.

One of the Fair people in costume who worked there pointed at our shirts and asked if that game still exists and that he thought it died out in the late 80s.

If Ren Faire people dont know D&D anymore it really is a dying hobby. Or at least it feels that way more than ever to me now.

Just felt like venting. Thanks for reading.

Are these chips an inch across?

Not to be nit-picky....but Warhorses and Tigers and Rhinos are all large creatures that take up 4 squares.

Ok so Im nit-picky!

Anyone heard of Head Injury Theatre? This kid named Jared writes these "review" articles about horror movies and other nonsence.

His articles are actually very entertaining. :)

Well he was introduced to D&D recently and plays 4th edition. He's never played D&D before but has played MMORPGs. He wrote an article spacifically for noobies and those who know nothing of D&D.

Its a good read Check it out.

His illustraded version of the cosmology is worth taking a peek at alone. :)

The thing he says that took me by surprise (because I dont own 4th edition) is that the Underdark cant be reached by digging and that its sort of another plane. Is that true?

I know its about 3 and a half years to late...But I just got my hands on, and am reading Dungeon #114.
Thats the first issue that changed the way the magazine was laid out and its the one where it comes with the Isle of Dread map.

Better late than never I say.

There is a 1st level adventure written by Jason Bulmahn called "Mad God's Key".
Its fantastic!!!
The city of Greyhawk itself is in it and the dungeon is full of fountains of blood (literally).
For 1st level theres some cool, out-there stuff you dont expect to see so early in a game.

Anyway it ends in an open-ended way and says that the sequel to Mad God's Key is called "Key to the Grave" and its an RPGA Living Greyhawk adventure.

So my questions are:
A - Did Key to the Grave ever appear in an issue of Dungeon?
B - Is it still possible to get my hands on this adventure? (I know nothing about RPGA stuff and really dont want to join unless its the only way to get the adventure for home games)
C - Did Jason Bulmahn write Key to the Grave as well?
D - Is there a 3rd or 4th part to this or is it just a 2-part story?
E - Why does the main villiam carry a wand of magic missles since hes a 3rd level cleric with no ranks in use magic device? :)

Thanks for any help.

With the invention of the Age of Worms Players Guide Im assumign it was a huge hit that everyone loved (That why we have RotRL and CotCT Players Guides).

I know they dont officially exist...But has anyone tried to make a fan made Player's Guide for the Shackled City and Age of Worms Adventure Paths?

I have no talent, but I have seen some amazing fan-made stuff.
So I was wondering if it has already been done or if anyone was up to the challenge of makinging a small pdf booklet with basic maps, artwork of major NPCs and 1st level character's basic knowledge they should have comming into teh campaign.
Pretty much what the other 3 Player's Guides had in them.

One of the features that is on Wizard of the Coast's website that is an invaulable tool is the art galleries.

Whenever an odd monster is encountered I like to print up the artwork and paper clip it to the DM screen.

Is there any hope of something like this on Paizo's site? Especially since Pathfinder is chock full of new monsters never seen before.

Yes I know theres the pdfs I can print but Id have to white-out all the text and its a slight hassle.

Hypothetical situation...

Lets say I wanted to convert the Duskblade from Player's handbook II or a Shugenja from Complete Divine to Pathfinder RPG rules.

Or lets say I wanted to convert the Astral Stalker from Monster Manual III or the Beholder from Monster Manual I to Pathfinder RPG.

We are all allowed to post suggestions and come up with a conversion without getting into any legal trouble.

Would Jason Bulmahn or Erik Mona be allowed to post a suggestion on these boards?
Its not like its being published in a book or anything.

Just curious.

Second Darkness is definity 3.5.

Is the 4th EP 3.5 as well and the 5th AP is 3P?

Just curious.

For adventure paths the PCs must advance at a particular rate from one chapter to the next.

Im not a fan of the slow, medium, and fast experiance progression at all.

But since this system exists (for now)...what is the "default" rate of advancement. Which one will the Pathfinder Adventure paths use?

They arent just for Eberron.
Unearthed Arcana had Action Points to.

Waddaya think?

I dont know if anyone ever asked this before. I dont even know if the Paizo guys are allowed to answer it.

Before Curse of the Crimson Throne part 1 even hit shelves we were reading about deadlines for getting Second Darkness together.

This got me thinking. Paizo must have been working on and putting together the 4th Adventure path for Dungeon long before WotC pulled the plug on the magazine.

So what was it going to be about? I know its a big tease to hear about a path that will never be seen..but curiosity is getting to me.

"In the comming weeks, new releases will contain even more parts of the game, covering all the standard classes, spells, magic items, and everything else you need to have a complete campaign"

OK heres my question. How will this be done? Will there be a new free PDF called "Alpha Playtest part 2", or will the Alpha Playtest just be upgraded to have more pages?

Im just asking because I already printed the whole thing and put it in a nice binder to carry around and read on the train :)

Also a slight mistake I want to point out. On Table 5-3: Altered Skills you didnt mention that Tumble is now Acrobatics.

According to the rulebooks smiting evil or good is a "regular attack".

So lets say I have a Fiendish Dragon.

It gets a Bite, Claw, Claw, Wing, Wing attck as a full round action.

Can it assign any of those attcks as its Smite Good power and still get 4 regular attacks?

Of does it get a single attack on the round that it is Smiting?

Not good at links but here ya go:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/eberron/217237200

Its an Eberron book that is an overview of the campaign setting. Since its referred to as a coffee table book its 100% fluff with 0% crunch.

Since the D&D logo is 4th edition style and the cover layout is similar but different its a 4th edition book.

So this may be worth checking out to see what happened to the gnome and half-orc dragonmarked houses and where teiflings and dragonborn fit into things and if psionics will be mentioned.

Also...The cover looked very familiar...Ist it an old Dragon cover? 4th edition keeps stealing Dragon/Dungeon art! ;)

I had a hypothetical question for Erik and the folks over at Paizo...But I decided I wanted everyone's opinion.

If WotC gave Piazo permission to make one last Greyhawk product....just one...and then Greyhawk would be put to rest forever...What would you want that one product to be? So for the Piaizo guys...what would you create?

In this hypotetical WotC is giving you complete freedom to do what you want since they never plan on ever revisiting this setting again.
So if you want to turn the setting on its head go right ahead. The only restriction is that its for 3.5 as a going away preasent for the setting and system.

Would you want a campaign setting hardcover? An adventure path that leads up to Oreth's end? A compilation of old material updated to 3.5?

Yup. There is going to be another Star Wars film in theatres...and it comes out this year.

The Clone Wars is an animated film. Its all done in CG and it looks fantastic IMHO.

After the movie hits theatres there will be The Clone Wars TV series on Cartoon Network. The series will pick up where the movie leaves off.

How does this new Clone Wars series tie in to the old 2-D animated Clone Wars that Cartoon Network aired a few years ago? Well Im not sure yet.

Here is the Trailer

And here is a mini documentary

If not then you should. It's really good.

DC is going to be releasing direct-to-video animated movies.

"Superman: Doomsday" is already out and "Justice League: New Frontier" is next month.

I heard a rumor that the 4th DVD will be "Batman: The Long Halloween" so I gave it a read.

Im not a comic reader so theres things in it that confused me such as Commishoner Gordon having a baby boy and not seeming to have a grown up daughter. As a matter of fact Barbara Gordon is the name of his wife.

The art is kind of weird to. I dont like the interpritation of Catwoman, Joker, Penguin or Poison Ivy.

But storyline is fantastic.

I was going to run The Wizards Amulet and follow it up with Crucible of Freya but I realized the adventure was written for 6 PC.
My problem...I have 4 players.

Adventures published by WotC and Dungeon Magazine uses adventures meant for 4 PCs.
CR for monsters is based on them taking on 4 PCs.

Why does Necromancer games have 6 as the default party size?

I know in the RPG community this is a crazy thing to say and is darn near heracy...But I dont know squat about Cthulu.

Heres what I know:

- Big demon with wings and octopus head.
- "Old One" or "Old God" (whatever that means)
- H.P. Lovecraft books
- A Call of Cthulu RPG exists
- He was in an episode to The Real Ghostbusters cartoon

Thats pretty much it.

Ive played D&D and Stars Wars RPG and never branched out more than that.

Was Cthulu invented by H.P.Lovecraft or is he real mythology that Lovecraft wrote stories about?

I have this in the book section of the messageboard because I'd love a list of books I should read to know him and his mythos. Lovecraft wrote alot of stuff...but does it all tie to Cthulu or just some of it?
Because I'm very anal retentive Id prefer to read things in order. Im not one to skip ahead to the 3rd or 4th book about him because its a good one.

Thanks :)

I'm just now getting around to reading the Planar Handbook.
Theres a chapter on new PC races. Im sure plenty of players have had Aasimar and Teifling PCs. With Bariaurs appearing in in the Manual of the Planes (and back in 2nd edition Planescape) I'm sure one or two of you have had a Bariaur PC as well.

But has anyone rolled up and used the brand new races introduced in this book? Anyone? Just curious how it worked out and what the back story was and what kind of campaign it was.

Heres the races Im asking about with a short description:

Boumman - They live on the Astral plane. Their homes are built on peices of astral debris or dead gods (just like githyanki). Oddest thing about them is they take a vow of silence so they sing and humm as a language. Their names are even little tunes. Seems like an odd PC to roleplay to say the least.

Mephling - According to the book sometimes Mephits have runts called Mephlings. Mephlings look like halflings with elemental traits. Sort of like small sized genasi. Oddest thing about them is they have no resistance to their element at all. a fire mephlings can get burned just as easily as a human can. Water mephlings cant breath water. Considering mephits are practially made of the element they represent how do fire mephits give birth to this thing? How do they survive if born on their home plane? They are outsiders and are considered extraplanar if not on a plane that will incinerate them.

Neraph - A medium humanoid that looks like a red slaad. They wear armor and weild equipment and such. So its a wattered down PC version of a slaad.

Shadowswyft - From the plane of shadow. Their language uses physical motions as well as words so names are pronounced with words and motions. Examples are "Brot" acomanied by a wink or "Prag" acompanied by pointing with left index finger. That aught to get annoying after a while. They also hate standing around when action can be done. So if roleplayed correctly they would be a hated member of the party when they are always rushing in and opening dorrs while the party is formulating a plan.

Spiker - Spike covered dudes from Acheron who love battle. Nothing to weird there so I'm expecting the most popular of these new races.

Wildren - My favorite origin story. A race bred from dwarven petitioners mating with celestial badgers (hahaha!). They are from the Beastlands and are fur-covered dwarves who live in big badger burrows and can speak with badgers.

Our current band of PCs has no cleric.

The solution to this dilema was to save our gold and get a Wand of Cure Light Wounds.

So the question is. Can a 2nd Level Ranger and a 2nd Level Bard use it?

Ranger - Cure Light Wounds is on his spell list but he is only 2nd level and incapable of casting spells. Can he still use the wand?

Bard - Cure Light Wounds is on her spell list but she casts arcane magic not divine. Does the type of magic matter with wands?

Thanks for the help in advance. :)

I was going to make a poll..But I guess its not an option on these boards.

What movie are you most looking foward to in 2008. Theres a ton of I am looking foward to..but what's the #1 film that you just cant wait to see?

Heres the choices I was going to use:

- Cloverfield
- The Spiderwick Chronicles
- 10,000 BC
- Iron Man
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- The Incredible Hulk
- WALL-E
- The Dark Knight
- Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
- the new James Bond (no title yet)
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- the new Star Trek (no title yet)
- OTHER

Does anyone have this DVD or seen it? There seem to be so many cuts of this movie I'm losing track.

What makes it different? Is stuff just added or are things changed around like the Donner Cut of Superman II?

Print Edition is unnavailable. Did it sell out? Will there be more?

Lets give it a few months from the release of the new core books.

Come September 2008, what do you think the split will be between those who are now playing 4th edition compared to those who are sticking with 3.X?

I'm one of those guys who doesnt want to change and the news of a new edition comming out was a horrible blow that still upsets me. So I of course would like to think that there will be many gamers who will stick with 3.5.
However, I do not want personal feelings to judge cold hard facts. What is your untainted prediction of the future?

50/50? (I wish)
70/30 in favor of 4th? (my hopeful prediction)
95/5 in favor of 4th and I will be a hopeless relic?

Just wondering how you see things shaping up.

Other than September 2008...Whats your prediction for September 2009?

99/1 in favor of 4th?
4th Edition fails and WotC stops making books?

Can someone clarify this for me?

I was discussing with a friend the new way Dragon is being presented to us.
I made a comment saying that they are giving us so many preview articles that when issue #360 is finally available to download we will have read it already.

My friend tells me that there is no PDF that will be available later. The articles that pop up ocasionally that I have been reading is it. This is what Dragon Magazine is now.

I told him that is not right. It cant be.

If you go the the Dragon section of the Wizards Website it still says "Check out what’s coming in Dragon — our first digital issue! Issue #360 hits this month"

So it still says its coming, not that it is here.

Also it brags that there is a cover for #350 done by Marc Sasso. They cant possible say that the little picture on the page is the magazine cover can they? Thats stupid. There has to be a downloadable magazine that has a real cover.

Another thing is that they are using the traditional numbering system saying that the next issue is #350 picking up right where Paizo magazines were canceled.
If you leak an article or two every week or so thats not a magazine. Why give something issue numbers and a cover if its just web articles that arent relaesed all at once?

Im still convinced that a complete magazine PDF will be released and what we are getting now are just preview articles.

Can someone clarify for me?