Codex of the Infinite Pains

So, yesterday I took a little trip to Steve Irwins zoo just outside of Brisbane. I had a fell post to go with these pics, but something went wrong and only the picks came through. I will clean this up when I am home, but for now, keep the following in mind. I got there in time for the croc feeding and I got some great video footage. I will load it up when I am home. This zoo was very hands on, allowing us to pet and feed the kangaroos and koalas. They are surprisingly soft. The lizard you see here is quite common, running about like scaly squirrels. Crazy. Well, GenCon Oz is about to begin for me, so more to come later.

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I am in Australia. Easier to type than to actually accomplish. Not only did I have to spend about 23 hours in transit, there were also a mountain of hassles.

LAX sucks, pretty bad. There is no signage telling you where you need to go. You have to leave the building and go to another to change airlines, which means another trip through security. To top it off, the international terminal is dingy and lacks most ammenities. Ugh.

Sydney airport is very nice. Unfortunately, quantas tried to save a buck by cancelling it's LA to Brisbane flight, meaning that my plane was full of folks who needed to transfer. This meant that the supposedly convenient transfer lounge, to get over to the domestic terminal, was a nightmare. I missed my flight and had to wait two hours for the next one.

Fortunately, that is now behind me. Brisbane is a lovely town. Mark, my guide took me to a local game shop that had a solid Pathfinder selection. If you are in town and need your Paizo fix, check them out.

Now, after a good nights sleep and a shower, I am finishing up breakfast before I go out to explore the town a bit. The convention starts tomorrow.

Oh yeah, the breakfast here is pretty good. Just like I remember it from my last trip down here in 03. It a lot like an English breakfast, minus the deliciously satanic fried bread.

More from my explorations a bit later.

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I leave for Australia tomorrow night and am looking forward to the trip quite a bit.

I have been to Australia before, back in 2003, when I was flown to Sydney for Spring Revel Down Under. It was a fun show, but I kinda felt like my time there was very limited. I really only got 1 day for sight seeing and then had to fly home right after the show.

This time, I am going to GenCon OZ as a guest of honor, in Brisbane. I get there a few days before the show and should be able to take in some of the sights. The only part I am dreading is the flights. They swapped my flights there, meaning that instead of going Seattle/LA/Brisbane, I am going Seattle/LA/Sydney/Brisbane. This is really a pain, since it adds about 5 hours to my travel time... but I digress.

Once there, I am hoping to take in the Brisbane Zoo, maybe the Aquarium, and take a tour down the river. I have been told to try and get out to the Gold Coast, but I am not really sure that I have the time.

The show starts Thursday and I have a relatively busy schedule throughout. For those that are attending, here is my seminar schedule:

Thursday:
Pathfinder Conversion Seminar - 4pm to 6pm, Seminar Room 1

Friday:
Building Better NPCs - 12pm to 1pm, Seminar Room 3
Pathfinder Conversion Seminar - 2pm to 4pm, Seminar Room 3

Saturday:
The Art of Adventure Design - 11am to 12pm, Seminar Room 1
What's Next for Pathfinder - 4pm to 5pm, Seminar Room 3

Sunday:
The Professionals Guide to Being a Better GM - 12pm to 1pm, Seminar Room 1
Getting Into Game Designer - 3pm to 4pm, Seminar Room 1

Of special note is the "What's Next for Pathfinder Seminar". If you are playing the Pathfinder RPG, this is a seminar you are not going to want to miss. I will be spending the majority of my time talking about my current project, the Advanced Player's Guide. Of course, you will also be able to get the scoop on other, upcoming Pathfinder RPG products, such as the Bestiary and the GameMasters Guide.

Other than whats listed, it seems that my schedule is a bit fluid. I might be running a few quick sessions of my Pathfinder Module, Crypt of the Everflame and I hear tell that there is a special guest dinner on the docket.

If you are coming to the show, make sure to stop by the Paizo Table in the retail area as that is where you will be able to find me when I am not off doing other things.

Suffice to say, communication with me will be real spotty over the next week. I hope to have some WiFi access to make posting here and to facebook a bit easier, but we will see how it all plays out.

My next post will be from the other side of the planet.

Wow, GenCon is long over and I have been super busy these past few weeks. So busy, in fact, that I have completely forgotten to post any updates here.

Ugh.

Anyway.. GenCon was a total blast. From the crazy, madhouse rush Thursday morning to the non-stop stream of well-wishers and autograph seekers, the show went by in a blur. I spent most of the show at the booth, handing out little stickers that gave perks to folks who bought the book at the show and giving out hundreds of autographs. Evenings were spent eating and celebrating with co-workers and friends from around the country. And to close things out, we went to a brazilian steak house on the last night. Yum.

Since getting back, I have been trying to get into shape. Its a struggle, but one that has been a long time in coming. I am on a pretty good diet right now and I am trying to exercise on a daily basis. I say try because my left knee is bothering me right now. After Monday morning's jog, I have been having some pain along the right side of my left knee, right around the cap. It seems to be going away, but I do not want to push it until it is back to 100%.

Paizo moved into its new space over the weekend, which netted me my very own office. Going from a cube to an office means that things are a bit sparse right now, but I look forward to filling it with toys, posters, and other miscellany. The space we are in is significantly bigger than our old space and it certainly feels like a true office. The old space always sort of felt a little jumbled and chaotic. Aside from the longer commute, I am really liking the space and the neighborhood.

Next weekend, I leave for Australia. I am heading down to Brisbane for GenCon OZ, where I will be attending as a guest of honor. My schedule for the show is still coming together, but as soon as it is solidified, I will post the details here. Suffice to say, if you live in Australia and are attending the show, you might want to make room in your schedule to attend the Pathfinder RPG Q&A seminar. I plan on talking about the Advanced Player's Guide in a bit more depth and might even have a rules bit or two to show off.

Speaking personally for a moment, I am currently done with all my freelance and am taking a bit of a break. I have been playing Arkham Asylum, painting 40K miniatures, reading, and playing boardgames. It is good to finally get a break. It seems like forever since I have had time to just have fun in the evening.

Well, that is about it for now. More to come soon.

Today should be crazy. Not much to post yet so take a look at this awesome 40K costume I spotted yesterday.

All glory to the Commissar and the God Emperor.

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Day Two of Gencon is coming to a close. The dealer hall was a little slow today, but it always is on Friday. Tomorrow will be the true insanity. We still have a fair number of the Core Rulebook, but they might dissappear tomorrow.

I am currently waiting for the ENnies to start, sitting next to the winner of the Paizo dreamdate auction. Paizo is up for 8 awards, but few of them involve me. I have been sort of busy this year. Hoping to win anyway, especially for Best Publisher. Will update a bit later with the results.

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Well, that is it for day one. The booth was busy all day and the pile of books grew visibly smaller as time went by. I must have signed hundreds of copies. I am pretty sure it was the best day Paizo has ever had at a convention.

My feet hurt a bit, and my hand is cramped, but I am otherwise none the worse for wear. Now it is time to get some dinner and maybe a drink or two.

If you are planning to come to the show, we still have a good number of the Core Rulebook left, but I would not wait too long.

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Well, the rush of the first day has died down, but the outpouring of support has been tremendous. At one point in time, the line to our registers wrapped all the way around the booth, out into the hall, nearly to one of the corners. All told, it must have been over 200 feet long. Madness I say, but in a good way. Everybody had a copy of the book, and most had more than one.

Our stock level is holding up and I do not think we could sell out today. Tomorrow is possible, but Saturday is looking more likely.

I out at lunch now, flipping through my nifty new Rogue Trader RPG. More to come later.

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This is it. Today is the day. Eighteen months in the making. In two hours and twenty two minutes, the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook goes on sale. If you are coming to the show, make sure to stop by and grab a copy while they last.

We brought a lot. Don't believe me? Take a look at the picture. For the record, I measured it in cubits. The mountain of books measure 5 cubits, by 4 cubits, by 3 cubits. That's 60 cubic cubits!!!

Time to go run the conversion seminar, then it's on to the dealer hall.

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I am heading to Indianapolis in the morning for Gencon. With luck, I will be posting up my comments and photos of the show both here and over on the Paizo blog.

If you are going to GenCon, make sure to stop by the booth and say howdy. I will be easy to find. Just look for the tall guy in the middle of a mass of folks ripping the Pathfinder Core Rulebooks out of my hands faster than I can pull them from their boxes.

As an added bonus, I have a little perk for the first 100 folks each day that ask me to sign their book. Stop on by and pick it up!

The first reviews of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook are coming in, and so far they are very positive.

Pen and Paper Games has posted up a good review. The only complaint here was the lack of bridging material between 3.5 and the PFRPG. Fortunately, we are releasing a handy PDF conversion guide (available on the 13th) that covers most of the big changes and walks you through converting a character (along with a host of other rules elements). Of course, that will be available for free.

Then there is Game Geeks preview over on You Tube... of course, you do not have to go that far to get it. You can also find it right here.



Next week is GenCon and I will be blogging from the show both here and over on the Paizo Blog about all of the craziness at the show. It's going to be a blast.

That was quick.

The first print run of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is sold out, at least from our end. There are going to be a lot of copies in bookstore and available from us at Gencon, but if you want a copy before November (when our reorder should arrive), I suggest you grab it when you see it.

To top it off, I have been tracking our position on Amazon just for kicks and we have been steadily climbing. Earlier today we broke the top 100, but are now at #102. Great stuff.

GenCon is a little over a week away. The Con is going to be crazy. If you want your book signed, make sure you come by the booth. I might have a little bonus for those that do (while supplies last). I will be at the booth for nearly the entire show, so it should not be that hard to find me.

After GenCon, I got some more good news, but it is going to have to wait. I have to get back to hand copying the 576 page Core Rulebook. Somebody has to do it.

As of this moment,

The Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook is ranked as the #1 seller on Paizo.com.

But, it is also ranked #829 on Amazon and #2 in the Gaming sub category. Not too shabby for a book that does not release for over a month.

Of course.. we did just send out a reminder email through our webs.. I am sure that has nothing to do with it.

Ugg..

Favre in the purple of the hated enemy!

Could the betrayal go any deeper.

Check it out.

Its brief, but still, kinda awesome. Speaking of Yetis I am no where near the Y's yet in my edit of the Bestiary... I really should get back to work.

Missed Free RPG Day? Was the store near you not participating or forcing you to roll randomly to see what product you got? Well, worry no more.

Now you can get a pdf copy of the Pathfinder Bonus Bestiary (written by yours truly and Wes Schneider) for free from Paizo.com. What's that you say? You want a physical copy of the Bonus Bestiary. No worries mate, you can grab that from the same page for a small fee.

You want it.. I know you do. Follow this link to get your free pdf or to order a copy.

For those of you with a good local game store, tomorrow is Free RPG Day, meaning that you can go and grab a free product... which might just include an advanced look at monsters for the Pathfinder RPG. Each store should have a good quantity of the Pathfinder Bonus Bestiary, but you might want to try and show up early, just in case.

Want a list of retailers who are part of the promotion, follow this link.

Don't have a favorite local game store? No worries, Paizo will be posting up a free PDF of the Bonus Bestiary next week and I even hear we might have a few print copies left over for sale...

So, Paizocon 2, the Revenge of the Golem, is now in the books and it was a fantastic show. I got to spend a great deal of time playing and chatting with some of our great fans, which is always a good thing. I ran two events during the show, a sequel to last year's hilarious Cursed Lot and Fight Club, both of which went off without a hitch.

Cursed Lot is a game in which all of the characters are terribly cursed and must accomplish some simple mission. In this years event we had an agoraphobic cleric who spent half of the adventure locked away in her carriage, a hemophiliac monk with a touch of OCD and a lucky rabbit (not a foot, the whole bunny), a barbarian who was terrified of blood (and used a merciful weapon), a wizard who was 5 levels higher than the rest of the party, but only had about 5 minutes of memory and could not prepare any new spells, a rogue who was afraid of the dark and covered himself in dozens of light sources, and a paladin who was extremely suseptible to suggestion and was constantly losing his paladinhood (and carried around scrolls of atonement just in case). This years adventure was a simple one, recovers farmer Stumps missing dog, Stinky. Of course, there was a nasty surprise at the end. It was a fun event with some interesting group conflicts and problems. I am going to try to post up the characters after the RPG releases in August.

Fight Club was a monster. 10 players to a table with one judge and me running from table to table activating monsters (sometimes most unfairly) and calling for events that occurred simultaneously at all tables. Players scored points for dealing damage and bonus points for other things based off their character. There were 11 PCs available and when you died, you got to come back as one of the ones not currently in play. I was kinda expecting this to be a mess, but it actually ran relatively smoothly. It is kinda amazing what 10, 3rd level PCs can take down, including a CR 10 dragon.

Beyond that, I helped run the grand melee in the Interactive on Friday and I gave a preview speech at the banquet (many of the details of that speech can be found here.). Plus I got to chat with some of our freelancers and guests, which is always a good thing. All in all, I give this years show a big thumbs up. If you can swing it next year, I would highly recommend trying to make it. It is still a relatively intimate show, but I have no idea how long that will last.

On other fronts, the previews of the RPG continue at a blazing pace. The preview of Seelah, the iconic paladin went up today. Of all the changes, I am most pleased with the paladin, as it has been one of my favorite classes since my earliest days of gaming.

I also picked up the new Ghostbusters video game yesterday. The voice acting is pretty good and it includes just about all of the major characters from the movies. Last night I had a run in with Walter Peck and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! I came, I saw, I kicked his ass! (and yes, the pic is actual game footage). The game play is relatively straightforward and they have done a good job letting you run around the sets from the movies. To top it off, parts are actually pretty funny. If you've got a 360/ps3/wii and are a fan of the movies, I recommend this game.

So, I have been ignoring my blog for a bit, just taking some time off to attend to other matters.

It has been a busy month, working on the Bestiary and promos for the RPG. If you have not seen them, there are now three RPG promo blogs live over at paizo (Intro, Valeros, and Seoni). It has been fun talking about the final game, but it has also been a big frustrating. I made an error when creating the stats for Valeros, in that I focused to heavily on keeping him true to his 3.5 stats and completely ignored his saves, which has led to a lot of criticism. I could have easily pumped up his Will save by about 10 points. I also should have focused on some of the cool feats that only a fighter can take at higher levels. Many of these were released during the playtest, so I did not really think of them as news, except for the fact that I forgot to account for all the folks that did not pay much attention to the playtest. I could have easily given him feats to add effects to his crits, bypass DR, and to move with enemies that try to pull away from him. A lot of these feats were designed specifically to add some "oomph" to high level melee types...

It was my mistake and one I will rectify. I can certainly use a number of them in the paladin and barbarian preview and maybe I will find a way to sneak in another fighter preview of some sort before the end, just to show off some of the fighter only feats.

Ah well..

Other than that, I have been busy watching great flicks at SIFF (the Seattle International Film Festival). My favorites so far have to be Moon and Dead Snow. If you have a chance to check out these movies, I highly recommend them. Moon takes some traditional Scifi elements and turns them on their head, for a really fresh take. Dead Snow is a great horror flick that kinda turns into a comedy by the end. If you like Shaun of the Dead or Dead Alive, this is a movie for you.

Other than that, I have been playing a lot of boardgames. I hosted a memorial day get together last weekend for some of the Paizo and Wotc crews. Good times. After grilling up some fresh brats from Usingers (a great sausage maker in Milwuakee), we drank some beers and played some games. I managed to get in games of Dominion and Small World, but there were others played as well.

Still working on some freelance, although the module I am writing is far easier than all those dragon's I had to stat up for the Bestiary. Got a few other things percolating on the side, but none are really ready to be talked about just yet.

Heading down to Portland next weekend for some R&R. Hopefully I will not spend too much money at Powells (as if that wish has ever come true). The weekend after that is Paizocon, which is shaping up to be awesome, but I will talk about that a bit more in the coming weeks.