Great Idea, Amazon!

This morning, Amazon sent me a recommendation for a product I might like.

They were right, I love that product!

Iconics: Farahn and Awelara

For years, I used different miniatures to represent the cleric of War from Rhym and the warlock from Saggakar. But I did not like either of them. When I received my latest lot of Reaper Bones, I marked those two minis to replace the ones I had.

Both are tiefling or related to tieflings, so I took them together!

Battle of Farelis: Origins and Gencon

Last week I posted how I really advanced my work on the Gencon special by talking with my GMing team. Well, not only have I been able to make a lot of good work on that adventure, but by advancing the final part, the first part - which will premiere at Origins. Has also cleared up from my writer's block.

All because the second part took shape!

Now Part 1 of the Battle of Farelis is an adventure with a lot of story. There is much plot to be extirpated from it. Many significant NPCs with goals...

As this is the first of the Saggakar Year Four adventure, I had to advance the story from last year's. With all my work on Akhamet and Rhym, I barely did any work on Saggakar in a year! It really was like reuniting with the old gang as the story and the plot I have been working towards for the first three years are now ready to come to fruition and the situation ready to explode!

I am really pumped with this as I have been blasting encounters after encounters with like a million mini encounters in-between. This means I will have to cut and maybe push that into its own adventure... Still this one is really action-packed with main characters coming in and featuring the return of a fan-favorite...

Now what is the link between Origins and Gencon, both of which have the same adventure... well not quite anymore... Origins will have the "Part 1" and Gencon will have the one-shot multi-table event "Part 2". With the way Saggakar is built, it can easily support that. I can't wait to see what the PCs will decide to do and how this will affect Saggakar, and the rest of the FOEniverse...

[Campaign Report] The Awakening... the finale

After months of trying to get people together, we finally got together (most of us) for the finale of the many one-shot campaign started back in September. Today was the final of this storyline.

After the last two sessions where the party cleared out WrathKeep, now occupied by the barbarian army. And discovered some of the enemy army's secret, such as how they recognized each other. They were given a great honor by Lady Kotina, High Priestess of the Law. Because the party voted against her in a previous gathering, she gave them the great honor of standing in the front lines, outside the city walls.

Facing them were artillery made of ogres with over-sized slings. With those, they fired at the walls. Not very precise but eventually effective.

Having cleared the ogres, they rushed back into town where they realized the enemy had burrowed into town as the veterans all ran out to take out the ogres, the enemy troops were bypassing their defenses. Bands of drakonians and barbarians in orange body paint were attacking the town: setting fires and destroying what they could.

After a lull in the fighting, both sides reorganized. The barbarians made a big push against the cathedral of the Law, where the slaves of House Katel gathered and where the priests animated zombies and sent them on rampage against the enemy. Here, a large red dragon is sucking power out a power stone, only to be stopped by Keevin (ActionMan) who disrupted whatever he was doing. As the dragon was unable to control the ritual, it keep bleeding necrotic energy that nearly killed the brave Keevin, who saved at the last moment by the brave action of Togg who batted away the hand of the dragon, allowing the dragon to escape, over-charged with the necrotic energy it sought to control.

In the final act, the PCs infiltrated the keep itself, finding out their compatriot Belladonus/a faked his death in the great hall. Giving a rough idea of the situation above: his brother, Lord Zarzal was locked in battle with a mighty dragon. He told them that they could use the Miststone, a portal they used to travel "somewhere" before. They do not remember where they went, but their mission there was clearly unsuccessful... All they had to do was hit the Miststone with a bead he gave them.

Running up, Togg the hareen went to pick up the stone while the others went up-top to appraise of the situation... Yeah... They regretted it and a lot of quality clothing were soiled (except the Sad Willow darkling who did not bat an eye upon seeing the beast).

The dragon did not care for the presence or actions of the PCs until the combatants noticed the Miststone was there and Lord Zarzal called "You fools! Why did you bring it here! That's what it came here for!" Group facepalm. On its next action, the dragon moved and took the stone. Followed by a throw of the bead using mage hand...

POOF! Everyone within 30 feet of the dragon, including the dragon itself, were swallowed by the Mists. Only Om-za, the kynean sorcerer stood up to find himself alone on the roof. He avoided being swallowed by the Mists.

The dragon gone, its army lost cohesion and though it would ravage the countryside, it was no longer the threat it once had. Lady Kotina, High Priestess of the Law, took command of House Katel and restored order in Katelkeep.

In the end, only the following party members have their whereabouts still known: Belladonus/a the haver-bard, Hyree the amazon ranger, and Om-za the kynean sorcerer. The rest are lost to the Mists...

The story for another time as they say...

Note to my players I did not tell you about this during or after the game, but I will count the result of the many mini-campaigns as binding for the Tyrants of Saggakar. Therefore, your actions will be written in an upcoming sourcebook for the campaign (which you will all receive a copy when I am done with it).

[Campaign Report] The disagreeable wife (with art)

Today, I ran another of our family's home game starring three PCs. The kids taking their roles once again.

- Awelara, the apothecary (cambion warlock 4, played by Jojo)
- Nightshade, the urchin (darkling monk 4, played by Kitty)
- Zombie-Slinger, the soldier (anuka fighter 4, played by ActionMan).

At the end of the last episode, they managed to stop the dimensional web from destroying Saggakar. However, Zombie-Slinger was lost when he played with the device before it was turned off. So this adventure started as the girls arrived in a cave filled with Mists not remembering where they came from...

The two found a wanted poster in their pack. Yes, the following poster:

They had no idea who this Zombie-Slinger or Ramis of House Ougozar were... They headed to the nearby town of Pemrose in Therland where they found Zombie-Slinger working as a city guard there.

The Anuka has a treasure map where ancient orc chiefs were buried.

Having cleared out the whole caves, they found only large spiders, dead bodies, a pre-looted crypt, and a wedding locket. Flush with victory and wanting to buy more stuff, they returned to town to sell the equipment they found and buy new stuff.

The locket it turns out got them involved in an affair of a missing wife. So they began looking for the missing woman, which finally led them to a ruined keep nearby where a band of warriors kept the woman. They stormed the castle, fighting off wave after wave of reinforcements, including a magical snake, and the leader of the plot.

In the end, they found the woman which sounded a lot like their mother. And hillarity ensued... In the end, they were victorious and had lined their pockets.

Kitty colored Irene's work because she wanted her character to be colorful!

---

On a personal note, I think the maps for this part of the adventure was pretty nice and snazzy. I used the dungeon section as a way to bring the PCs into the story. They kept looking for "but there has to be a secret passage", "Are you sure we did not miss anything?", and my favorite "But there is no treasure here!"

The massive battle at the end was pretty cool, with reinforcements serving as a rechargeable lair action! (Yes, I had a maximum number of soldiers to send against them)

FOE releases Spiderfen: Terror in the trees

It's been too long since FOE published a new product. This is a book that has been actively worked on for quite a while. Pretty much from Day One of Saggakar. Spiderfen is a book that is filled with ideas to adventure in that forest.

The book deals not only with the city and seat of House Faremhi, but also the Forest surrounding it.

This book contains:
- A history of the city of Spiderfen and the Forest
- Detailed descriptions of its most important sites and features, such as the Kiflan River, the populous eastern forest, the dark and mysterious western edges.
- Odd races of the Spiderfen Forest, including driders, fey, and hareen or feral halflings.
- The city of Spiderfen is mapped and fully detailed.
- Four First One Houses
- Major NPCs described
- Unique locations and plot hooks
- Guards and spiders fully statted out for 5th Edition and Pathfinder
- Material used extensively for the Legacies Organized Play Campaign

Content of this book is usable for the Tyrants of Saggakar, but can be used in any campaign using BOTH 3rd and 5th edition of the world’s oldest role-playing game or Pathfinder Role-Playing Game. However, it is mostly system-agnostic and its content could be easily adapted to any game system.

The book is available through DriveThru RPG, RPGNow and should be available through the OpenGaming store (not yet there as of this publication).

Service is Eternal for 5e released!

You may have been wondering why I have been rather quiet on this blog for a while, and I have to say I missed it. I miss writing for it. However, with this crazy week I had, I did not have a lot of time to spend writing. I did however, take some time to write and complete work on a book I've been working on for quite a while. Of course, I mean the 5e version of "Service is Eternal", the book to the First Ones of Saggakar.

I always thought of this book as a "monster book", but one where you create and build serious enemies. So the balance in design that I value everywhere else here takes a backseat as I want to make the First Ones to be more than just monsters.

This new edition was an opportunity for me to not only review material for the setting, but also to add elements to it that were not in the original, Pathfinder version. So let's go over some of the changes that are in there.

First, a whole new section on First Ones Organizations. These organizations were mentioned in the original book, as feats and as prestige classes. I always felt these were not well defined enough in the original book. When I began thinking about them and how I had not used them much. I went back to my original material for them and expanded them. I did the Orders, but also redid the six schools, expanded and defined them. If you look at many of the main First One NPCs, you can already see where I was going with some of them, those secret background that have yet to appear in adventure and in material. I really like the simplicity of the 5e organization format. Although I initially wanted to expand the format, I opted against it, to let the GM on his own how powerful the school/organization is in his campaign.

The organizations are used for backgrounds, allowing for the creation of characters who attended the schools or trained with the orders and are either no longer members OR currently on leave.

The six races that were in the original book are still here: the half-elven Drovites, the commanding Exodites, the breeding Grexodites, the shadowy Harovites, the demonic Netherlings, and the halfling-driders: the spiderlings. But the coolest and most disgusting addition to the main races are the shapeshifting shogleths. I had these guys in adventures and when they transform from a humanoid into an ooze is always fun to describe and watch the players' reaction.

The new archetypes for the classes are based on what used to be prestige classes, such as the Dark Dancer (bard), the Kares'kor (fighter), the Jet Arrows (ranger), the Lords of the Whip (fighter), the Masters of the Veils (wizard), and the Shadow Blades (rogue).

Add new feats, new spells, new alchemical substances, new magic items, 5e version of the monsters, and sample First Ones.

You can get this book on DriveThru RPG and RPG Now. Check it out, leave a review.

Perhaps the biggest bonus is that it has a HeroLab extension! So get the book, and create First Ones through Herolab right away!

For those of you who enjoy Legacies, you get a special, "unique" LR that allows you to create a First One in the campaign!

Markelis: City in the Mists released!

I just finished Markelis: City in the Mists for Tyrants of Saggakar, I am reminded of the amount of work that must be done on a product AFTER the writing is done. This include: layout and pagination, editing and correcting, and the art selection.

When I first started as a writer, I did not do much about that, but with time, I do it more and more. The editing in particular is time-consuming but makes the final product so much better. For that phase of the product I print the PDF and go about covering the page in red rewrites and tightening the text.

What is Markelis? It is the city swallowed in the Mists, former capital of the ArchDespotate. I had most of the details I would need for it written before the Origins special. From that skeleton, I grew the locations and clarified things. I mean the Origins version was very workable for an adventure, but not enough for a full book.

The product is one that will be a first for FOE. It is published for BOTH 5e and Pathfinder at the same time! It includes new magical items and artefacts to be found in Markelis and new monsters, including some NPCs (an anuka ghast called King-Of-Mists).

Markelis, City in the Mists Twenty years ago the Mists came over the city and took more than half its population. The former capital of the ArchDespotate of Faremh was abandoned in a hurry, its treasures left behind. This book contains: - A history of the city of Markelis - Detailed descriptions of its most important sites, such as the Spire of Skulls, the Temple of Man, and the cemetary. - Adventure locations and plot hooks - Three new monsters: Ethrereal Worms, the Tar Mummies and the Warrior Daemons. - Two fully-statted out NPCs: the ghast King-of-Mists and the blind erinyes Rodwenza. - A city that will be used extensively for the Legacies Organized Play Campaign

This book is a great addition to the Tyrants of Saggakar setting. I am really excited to see this one come out!

You can get this new book from the usual sources: DriveThruRPG or RpgNOW

Writing Update: Before Gencon

I mentioned when I came back from Origins that I was filled with ideas... well I am. I am nearing completion of the next expansion book for Tyrants of Saggakar. I planned on writing a small book, somewhere around four to five thousand words.

This is not to be... As I started putting ideas down and down.

And down.

And down.

The book has almost doubled my initial estimation and may be up to ten thousand words! I am waiting to get in touch with one of my authors who will likely add even more material to the book (if she wants).

Following that, I need to complete my adventures for Gencon.

Many updates: Important stuff!

Rhym Campaign Setting

Irene is completing the work on the cover for Rhym, she has a few touch-ups to do. But that's basically it.

I created an animated gif that shows the stages of development of the cover... I really like it! Now JD and I need to finish the writing of the book.

Tyrants of Saggakar

I am working on a number of adventures right now, but none are proceeding as fast as I want them to go. *sad face*

That said, I currently have three adventures I am working on and am waiting from material from Jen and Randy. So there are many things in the works.

Conventions

Also, with convention season about to start, with four conventions in the next three months, I have a lot of work to do. I will be going to Conglomeration in Louisville, KY in April and am trying to fit in Lexicon in Lexington, KY in May.

Which mean I have to come up with some new material. New adventures. I am stuck on the blurbs.

Conglomeration will have the first public games for Rhym. JD (the author) will be running something and I will run something else. I started working on my Rhym adventure, and it will have a nautical theme! Yarrr Mateys!

The good news in all this? I think my writer's funk is lifting and I am gonna create a lot of fun stuff in a short time! WOOOOT

JP

Saggakar now available for 5e

It has been a long road, but finally, tyranny and oppression has come to 5e! While I have been playing around and poking at things here and there, I am not very happy to announce the official release of the Tyrant of Saggakar for D&D 5th Edition!

From an indifferent review I posted back in February of 2015 to today, I can honestly say that the game has grown on me. While I still grind on a few things, I found myself liking the much lighter approach to the rules, especially compared with the now over-bloated Pathfinder.

I posted a few times about designing for 5e and how different it was than doing so for other games. After some play-testing which I have done at events since Gencon this year, I have found myself thoroughly enjoying playing and running the game. Running 5e in Saggakar really makes for a good mix of the two. Oddly enough, I have always seen Saggakar as a "story"-first setting despite its darkness and gloom, is a world where you can tell stories, when adventure must happen.

It is now time for YOU to tell your stories in Saggakar!

Other than many rule elements ported to 5e, you will find some new art in there as well! Yes new art by Irene and by Peter Saga was added to the book.

Where can you get the book? They are available through RPGNow and DriveThruRPG right now!

JP

PS: I should not say this, but there is also a big sale of FOE title coming tomorrow through Tuesday...

Friday art

I woke up this morning to a welcome sight: another email from Irene with some of the oddball characters.

The poll conducted on our Facebook Group showed a clear winner: the drakonian druid! So he is in!

I had some other illustrations of the Kyneans, but none of them felt right. So I had a new one done.

The final character is a surprise! Feel free to try and guess what that one is.

I plan on having them all ready for a spin at Imaginarium in Louisville at the beginning of October

JP

FOE launches Pillars of Oblivion

Year two of the Legacies Campaign has now started - for real! I have just released the two Gencon adventure through RpgNow/DriveThruRPG!

ToS 2-01 Fate of Zealot Randy's latest adventure. This one follows up on one the thread from his previous adventure, ToS 1-05 Path To Ambition. I must say that having run both, both of these are great fun, filled with intrigue and dark subplots, both are set in Onero: City of Sins.

For the first time, I have published an adventure for 5th Edition... This adventure is my own Fogs of Days Past which premiered at Gencon and will be running next at DragonCon in Atlanta GA. ToS2-02 Fogs of Days Past ToS2-52 Fogs of Days Past Fifth-edition adventures will hold the same number as the Pathfinder version, but number in the 50s. I can't say right now if every adventure will be ported to both system, depends on time and play numbers.

As an added bonus, the Campaign narratives are now available. Now I may have gone a bit overboard here, but the story of what happened at Gencon during "Dreams of Dust" required me to write not one, but TWO epilogues to complete the story! This one was a story I wanted to write from the first moment I began to write for Saggakar. You might recognize a few classic, non-Saggakar villains therein... Shows you how much you missed indeed! Year 2 Campaign Narratives.

If all that is not enough, everything is on sale... get them 25% off!

As usual thanks for your patronage and support!

JP

Gencon 2016 AAR

Wednesday

Most of the day was spent at work, focusing on getting my release completed in time. Lucky for me, I have been cramming like crazy and from 4 to 5, I did nothing really: drank coffee, talked to my peers, and watched CNN (my office has it on a loop all the time).

Five o’clock and I drove on home, happy to be done and that I left without any bug to do (I was waiting on some to be tested, but no on-going work). Once at home, I packed what I had left to pack: some food, Florent’s stuff, some of my own junk pre-packed junk and the jitters.

This year again, my good friend Florent came over from Paris to see us with the two of us driving up to Indianapolis together. All along the road that took us up from Tennessee, through Kentucky and into Indiana. We talked about gaming mostly, about the situation in Paris, in Tennessee, here there and everywhere. I dropped him at his hotel in downtown Indy and headed to my own off outside the beltway.

Thursday

Got up early. Showered. And drove back to Indy. I parked under the Hyatt, as I did last year, found my game room tucked all the way in the back before getting my badge and convention paperwork.

I will admit to feeling quite nervous as this would be my first running of an adventure in/for 5e. I was so worried no one would show up.

But I worried for nothing. Everyone showed up and had a great time: the adventure flowed very well in 5e. Ka-ching! JOY!

My afternoon had no tickets and no one showed up. Oh well, I took the time to report my game and visited the dealer hall. I did not spend as much time there and actually walked around the place, making sure I knew where I would have to go in the coming slots.

Back to my table for 7pm, it was time to run Randy’s excellent “Fate of Zealots”. I know he had worries about the adventure he is a writer after all. I will admit I had some myself, but along different lines: worries about run time, about challenge, about DC numbers. However, I was very confident in one thing: it is a solid adventure. The choices are interesting and well-defined, making it a solid entry. It is particularly good for those who have either played the previous Onero adventures or those who own the Onero book. I am trying to swindle Randy into writing more stuff in the City of Sins…

Friday

Again, my first slot was running Saggakar using 5e. Again, the results and feedback were extremely positive. I will admit to some extremely… “Creative” solutions which made me chuckled and they chose of their own free will.

My afternoon was without sign ups, so I took the opportunity to head upstairs to the Rokugan room and played one of the adventures with my newly created Crab bushi. He was dumb, grumpy, rude, and wanted to hit things with his tetsubo. The adventure was clearly over his head so he walked around waiting for something to hit. He was disappointed. I will share my thoughts about this Rokugan thing in a later post. I had a good time is all I will say here.

The evening was back to more Pathfinder. The table had Daniel-M, with who we ruled over Tusmit back in the days. Yes it is now over a decade since I left Tusmit… He and I kept in touch through social media, but really it was great to catch up with him in person. The table created some interesting solutions to the problem at hand.

Saturday

This was my play-day. I took the opportunity to play the L5R finale, still with Hida (now Kobe) Kenji. Playing someone who is a major antisocial character (5 points) and obtuse (3 points) during a LARP was a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed. That I had not shaved in 3 days helped me look the part.

So Kenji who is a complete thug and brute is fascinated by origami, but like his player, has no talent for it. I spent time making some origami then showed it to people. Eventually the Jade Champion turned it into a minor nemuranai I went and showed everyone. It was a fun event, one I preferred over the Arcanis event, because of the many threads going on and the more active intervention of the NPCs.

In the afternoon, I attended the battle interactive part and now I finally got to use my tetsubo. Chris-H who had run me through a number of HoR3 adventures called me to his table and I gladly joined him. The first go-around resulted in my death and the defeat of my table. Lucky for us there was a “reset point” and we then kicked a lot of butts. The tetsubo smashed things left and right, it was great. We fought the battle of Oblivion’s Gate again. The table was very good and we were very good and we each took it in the face a few times, but dished it together. I can claim that I scored the final hit on the shadow dragon with my tetsubo. Splat. We win!

I then went and played an adventure of Adventure League, playing Baldman Game’s convention-only material. Seems there was a little muster snafu and we ended up being only 3 of us. Well things went as you’d expect, as our GM did not adapt much and we got our butts kik-didley-icked. The GM was good, but he needed to learn to scale for three players vs. six or seven. Oh well.

Sunday

Final day of the con! My voice had held thus far. I had but one game to run: the Saggakar special, Dreams of Dust. There was a lot of interesting lore in there, most of which I hope Chad got. I had to keep him from strangling that young kid sitting next to me… But otherwise things went well.

Then long drive home, and sleep.

Gencon 2016 was over. Time to start looking at 2017…

Just in time for Gencon

Just in time for Gencon, I have completed the first version of the 5th edition version of Tyrants of Saggakar. Based on a few successful play-tests, this book has the same content as the one for Pathfinder, updated for fifth edition.

A new version deserves a new cover! This cover depicts ArchDespot Hellebora in a dark forest. It is not yet available for sale (should be shortly though). If you are interested in getting one at Gencon, get in touch with me ASAP.

JP

Oblivion for all of you!

I ran a short survey on the Legacies Facebook Group and asked you, the players, what would be the theme for this year, that of 786IC. There were four choice, each based on an idea I had about how to drive the plot... The choices were:

- Conquest

- Death

- Oblivion

- Tyranny

I was a close affair for the longest time, but today finally Oblivion pulled ahead. This is going to be a very fun story line, one that takes builds naturally upon the plot from last year, in ways I hope will be creative, interesting and unique.

I added the new year's logo.

So with Gencon approaching, I think it is a good time to provide you with the blurbs of the adventures I am bringing with me.

TOS-2-01 Fate of Zealots by Randy Price An assassin loose in the city of Onero is nothing special. Someone is willing to share information in return for a share of the bounty. But in the city of sins, nothing is ever secret and offers come from all directions.

TOS-2-02 Fogs of Days Past by JP Chapleau A new ArchDespot now sits on the throne of Faremh. Her rule is far from unanimous, however. She needs people to retrieve the ancient crown to prove her worth.

TOS-2-04 The Sorrowful Lady by JP Chapleau The Spiderfen Forest is the premiere source of lumber in the ArchDespotate and one of House Faremhi's greatest resource. The Church of Soffro, the Merchant Lord has called upon the Great Houses to investigate a unique grove spotted in the forest.

TOS-2-0I01 Dreams of Dust by JP Chapleau Last year, adventurers recovered an icy slab from Yorix's island. The slab was locked away in the under bowels of the palace. But it did not lay dormant, but has been dreaming, dreams of dust beyond the Mists.

JP

New year, new theme, new poll

Another year of Legacies, another theme. As I am ramping up the work on the second year in Saggakar, I need to have a theme... something to guide me into the many bad things I plan on doing to people, starting at Gencon.

I have a number of issues and ideas but leave things up to you. After last year's "Seeds of Rebellion", I now offer four choices: Oblivion, Conquest, Tyranny and Death. I thought about adding "loving unicorns" but that will be for next year (maybe). The poll is held on our Facebook group (click the link to go there directly). It will affect things on every one of the mods I am working on, so the poll is something I need before putting the final touches on the adventures.

Year 2, it's coming. It's (almost) here. Gencon is where it will start.

Vote early, vote often!

JP

Meet your ArchDespot!

I've been teasing everyone about this for over a month now that it is time to actually provide you with the final part of the epilogue for "ToS1-I-02 Something borrowed, something blew", the year-end special that I ran at Conglomeration. One of the big decision they had to make was the decision of who they would offer the crown to.

Like everything in Saggakar, it was not a unanimous decision, but one that was clear enough.

The following is an exerpt of the narrative available on RPGNow/DriveThruRPG for the great price of "Pay what you want". In the coming days, I will post a series of questions on the campaign, and thoughts I have to change and improve the campaign. The narrative section includes a lot more, including how some of the NPCs

But that can wait, the ArchDespot is about to speak...

ArchDespot Hellebora walked alone on the balcony where a few hours ago, she appeared with her late husband, she smiled calmly as she waved to the crowd in the courtyard below. This was her one chance to rally the ArchDespotate to her rule, one chance to have the slave willingly accept the yoke she would place upon them. She had, after all, barely escaped the assassination attempt that claimed her husbands’ life. Now she was the one who would be their target, unless she found a way to deflect the attentions of every jealous First Ones. Lucky for her, she had a plan. Subjects of the ArchDespotate, I accepted to bear the crown my husband bore bravely, with great poise and wisdom for nearly two decades. Too long you have toiled uselessly, working against each other, advancing plots and fighting over scraps as our ArchDespotate fell apart, with rebels and outlaws refusing to pay their rightful dues, flaunting their so-called independence. That was my husband’s greatest failing, a failing he shared with me in the precious few moments we shared before he drowned in his bath. He wanted us united! He wanted us to not be just strong, but great! I call upon everyone, First One or slave, to join me into creating a grand army that will bring under our collective heel those rebels who flaunt our authority and laugh at the fighting between with ourselves! she said to an unconvinced crowd, some cheered, a few jeered, many simply kept quiet. WE can fix this! We can flood our markets with slaves. We can fill our homes with plunder. We can make our neighbors cower in fear at the mere mention of our name. Let us strike down those who oppose us, those who refuse to bow down, and those who choose to recognize others are their rightful master. We are to be feared and ruthless. WE ARE FAREMH! The crowd listened on as its new ArchDespot continued without pause. I call upon every swordsman, every spell caster to flock to my banner! she continued, her enthusiasm palpable. Together, we will re-forge a new, greater Faremh, one that will stretch from the wall of Mists to the West to the distant shores of Nyen’To in the east to the jagged shored of Zuhur in the north! I will fill your homes with slaves and gold, so much of it that we shall pave the streets with it. The blood of our enemies will turn rivers red for two centuries! Her enthusiasm carried over as the courtyard erupted in cheers. The ArchDespot’s promises filled them with thoughts of glory. Near the entrance, a single group stood quietly. As one, they turned their back to the cheering crowd harangued by the new ArchDepot, pumping her fist in the air. House Faremhi did not buy in to the dream ArchDespot Hellebora promised. They saw their hold on the throne of the nation that bore their name slip. Losing was not a virtue of House Faremhi.

JP

Player Tips: Playing a Paladin

A number of times, friends and players have commented that playing a paladin in Saggakar must be impossible to do, particularly if your character belongs to one of the great houses. It always surprises me when I hear that. And while I can see that worshipping a good deity and promoting order and goodwill may not make you a lot of friends, I firmly disagree.

Too often, a paladin lives in a place where choices are easy: a friendly populace, a government that support his goals and ideas, a public church to rely on, or an order to have his back.

It's easy to be the good guy with the lofty ideals when everything goes your way and your one choice is kill or capture.

But what happens when you cannot fight every evil at the same time? What happens when you have to hide or face a populace that is not fully behind you? When you have to choose what best way to improve the world? When simply using detect evil and beating up whoever walks up.

Is it harder? Yes.

But it is also much more rewarding.

1- choose your fights well Though you may not be the brightest or wisest in the party, doesn't mean you must or should take on every fight, immediately. You will fight evil, and much evil there is, but like a policeman, you can take down the street pusher, or you can go after the head of the snake. Pick the fight you want, and win it.

2- just because someone is evil means that all his works are The First Ones are forces of evil, and while most of their works are evil and done for evil goals, not all are evil all the time. Such works much be encouraged and not opposed: creation of a new aqueduct or building of town walls. Work to improve the workers' conditions.

3- there is nothing wrong with working within the system This does not means that you seek out to help evil forces. This means that while you are forced to do so, keep your eyes and ears open for ways you can help out and make world a better place.

4- quarter turn at a time Not everything will work immediately, so focus on making small changes. However, like with a screw, if you turn it one quarter-turn at a time, you will get far.

5- you are a beacon of good As a paladin, you are a major warrior of the forces of good. There are many ways this can be played: you can be a martyr, taking onto you the pain and suffering of other. You can be the one person encouraging others to avoid antagonizing the masters, reserving that role for you. You can be a local leader and protect your people.

So as you can see, it is definitely something of a challenge, but not something impossible. The paladin can do much more good alive, than turned as a zombie.

Service is Eternal after all...

JP

Two new adventures for Pathfinder RPG

I have added the final two adventure for the first year of the Tyrants of Saggakar setting. I really enjoyed running them quite a few times. (Click on the adventure names to go directly to the adventures).

ToS 1-08 Sailing Down the Kiflan is an adventure I have had in mind since the days when I was writing for NeoExodus. It is a fairly simple adventure where you sail down a river. This type of adventure is a nice departure from our others in that it is definitely more site-based. I really had a good time writing this one. I got to work some more with my good friend Lady D'Anne Goldstein! She makes such beautiful maps! This adventure has a lot of Hajit, those fun sneaky halflings.

ToS 1-09 One Final Night of Freedom brings back an NPC many players met and really had fun with: Lady Hellebora of House Tioten. The former adventuress is about to get married and become queen of the ArchDespotate. All that she has left is one final night of freedom!

Both of those adventures complete the Saggakar Year 1 Adventure Bundle. Get all the adventures in one go, at a reduced price! This bundle has no less than TEN adventures AND the ArchDespotate of Faremh book.

Now, on to working on the Year 2 material!

JP