Comics and fun.

placeholder for a comic I'm doing.

Pathways #20

Endgeist gave a good review on the last Pathways that I laid out.

"

The latest installment of Rite Publishing's Free E-zine Pathways is 33 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 10 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 21 pages of content that start off to a great beginning indeed - taking the new streamlined and much crisper layout from the last issue and taking it to the logical conclusion, Pathways now sports a ToC AND bookmarks! Oh, and have I mentioned that this issue is only about 3.2 mb? Yeah, it even takes up less space on your HD!

Now, David Paul's editorial is by now an institution in Pathways and this time, we get to know about Zane, a character that was not (yet) to be played. After this, we are introduced to Steven D. "Grandmaster of Monstertemplates" Russell's template of the month and get one that should have Steampunk-aficionados and fans of the Iron Kingdoms in particular cheer his name - the Ion Lich, powered by souls in his resplendent, unholy glory has been remained for Pathfinder! Nice indeed!

Raging Swan Press' Mastermind Creighton Broadhurst has also something for you with an order of cavaliers called "Order of the Scourge" that is all about punishing those sinners. As a nice bonus, w get a rank-and-file soldier of the order including mount as well as a nice CR 4 multiclassed cavalier/inquisitor-enforcer of th order.

"Spellcasting with a Price" is the article by Mike Welham and honestly, it is perhaps my favorite Pathways-article so far! Whether it be casting spells beyond one's capability, forbidden magic from dusty tomes, cursed and diseased spells that extol a price on the caster, spells that literally burn through your fortune or demand their power to be compensated by paying their price in flesh, to withering, enervating spells, spells that do exactly the opposite of what they ought to do and the good ol' sanity-shatterer - this article has them all and provides easy to implement guidelines to make magic just a tad bit more exciting and risky. This article, I can't stress it enough, is GOLD and I hope that Mr. Welham will develop a whole supplement with expanded versions of these types of magic. They're that cool.

John Bennett has new cursed items for us, to be precise two lovingly crafted ones - a puzzle-box that is not about going Hellraiser and a neat bone-piercing that may prove to be any caster's undoing. Both items come with detailed histories and hooks and can be considered true classy additions to your game.

This issue's interview is with Sean O'Connor, notably 4WFG's lead designer of PFRPG-compatible content and worth the read - as is, though I may be biased, the section on reviews, where the best 3pp-products are reviewed by yours truly, my fellow reviewer and all out great guy Joshua "KTFish7" Gullion and the new layout has also improved here, massively. Nice, though you may want to read the text of the Shadowsfall Player's Guide - its verdict is 5 stars, not 3 as mentioned in the beginning.

Conclusion:
I already gushed on about how superior the new layout is and Elton Robb, the layout-artist should really be proud - Pathways now looks completely, professional, sports a small mb-size and as all the nice things like bookmarks in addition being free! While this is one of the shorter issues Pathways, it is also, hands down one of the best, if not the best so far - Each and every contribution in this issue is made of win and it sports one of my favorite article in any RPG-magazine. Two thumbs up, 5 stars + seal of approval - if you download an issue, get this one!

Endzeitgeist out.

"

I felt my ego swell after that! :) 

A stone age setting

Imagine for a moment, a fantasy world suffering catastrophe that sends most of the world's surviving population back to the Stone Age.

Living in the stone age, the society is forced to rebuild.  It's a society where shiny gem stones are traded, and people must return to a hunter gatherer society.  Although, insular as they are, a minority of societies rediscover malachite copper and tin, forming bronze age societies.  In the interaction of these societies, you get a recipe for adventure.

This doesn't mean an RPG based on the Beastmaster.  However, it does mean an RPG that is based on the same basic idea.  The idea is only partly baked, and right now I'm doing some research to make sure everything works.  Note though, the t.v. show is badly acted.

Secrets of Magic: Firebolt

Secrets of Magic: Firebolt has been released today on 4Shared and Scribed.com.

Alright, now to do something radical. Everyone, I can't afford to "buy" a business license from my local Municipalitical government, although circumstances has forced me to use something that is still revered by our Government in the Constitution to my advantage.

That's right, its copyright. However, in order to make it rather than play the game of Publisher's Roulette, I'm offering to play Public Roulette instead. Here's how it works:

The Internet is the most efficient copying machine that man has ever created in Modern History. It has the ability to copy Energy perfectly from one computer to another on an infinite scale in the form of words, pictures, sounds, and video arranged for the purpose of education, aesthetics, or entertainment. For almost twenty years, Media Corporations could have embraced the Internet in the role it was made to be. However, individuals are much more forward seeing.

Before the Internet, we had Publishers and Printers who had these expensive, gigantic printing presses that could put Energy to paper, vinyl, tape, or to cinematic film in rivalrous goods known as books, cassette tapes, records, and film. Writers almost had to universally play Publisher Roulette in order to get their work published. In this Roulette, they'd almost always lose and only 5% of writers become a famous, well known author who could live just off of their work.

Now thanks to the internet, you can buy from the Writer directly. And thanks to Ryan Dancey, you can buy products made for Pathfinder and the d20 system written by authors who work for themselves and not exclusively for Wizards of the Coast. The OGL is the underlying cause of Pathfinder's success.

Secrets of Magic: Firebolt is the first step for me in a radical change. It's a document that takes the spell firebolt and reveals it's secrets to you in a not so generic world setting that is as generic as you can get. It's part of a series called Secrets of Magic, which you, the public, have the full rights to distribute.

After all, in order for the work to be enjoyed, it lives inside your minds; and it can only live inside your minds if you can read it. Therefore, it is released with both the Open Game License and the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. You will find that you can build on the work, alter the work, create derivatives, and even sell a copy yourself. You can even put it up on the *cough* Pirate Bay. *cough!*

You just download it, and if you like it, you can send me a donation on what you think the work is worth to you. This is Nina Paley's experiment applied to a Pathfinder derivative document.

The work is available for Free Download from 4shared and Scribd.com, and can be purchased from Scribd.com. I will accept donations in the form of a USD check, money order, gold, silver, precious stones, crystals, and food (elections have consequences, people! Food will be the new currency, get used to it!) in that order. Once I have enough money to open a bank account, I can open a paypal account.

You can download Secrets of Magic: Firebolt from here: 

Secrets of Magic Firebolt

Or from 4Shared for free!


HOW DO WE PAY YOU?

Through donations.  I'll accept Checks and Money Orders in USD currency, gold and silver, precious stones, and crystals, and then food -- in that order.  Donations can be made to my private address which I can share through private, secure email.


WE CAN DO ANYTHING WE WANT WITH THIS?

Yeah.  You can.  You can create Derivative Works, Alter the Work to your specifications, and even sell a copy of it for yourself.   You are the distributor!

THIS IS A LOT LIKE WHAT NINA PALEY DID . . .

Exactly.  This is following her cobbler model.  You will able to take the work and distribute it as an audience to any outlet you please. :)