New RPG Players

New Players in Games Today

Living in a Golden Age?

It seems like since I heard about David Ewalt’s Of Dice & Men, I—and everyone else—decided it was time to pick our dice back up and start rolling again.  I stopped playing when 2nd Edition was a big thing (the Dragon magazine 5 CD compilation was my last major purchase—and one I’m thrilled I held on to, if only out of chance).

Lately, it seems like everywhere I turn, there’s another article about how roleplaying games are becoming all the rage again.  The most recent was published in today’s Washington Post as a short comic (guessing online only!).  Some of the reasons listed are that the stigma’s been lifted, people never really knew what roleplaying games were before, among other things.

Although none of the major producers I know of release detailed sales figures, anecdotal sources tell us that the state of the hobby is strong.  ICv2’s most recent Internal Correspondence estimates that games sales are up 20% overall.  Internal Correspondence notes that RPG sales as a whole are increasing, led (unsurprisingly) by 5th Edition, with Pathfinder sales flat or declining—at least in retail stores. 

And yet, something must be going right for the kids over at Paizo.  Even if the industry insider is telling tales of their woes, Paizo’s gone and broken three of their oldest taboos.  First, they’ve consistently said no new edition for Pathfinder, at least not anytime soon.  Second, they’ve repeatedly resisted advancing their timeline, something popular with RPGs in both the domestic and international markets.  Finally, citing concerns that it was the creation of too many campaign settings that ultimately sunk TSR into Wizards of the Coast’s arms, they’ve refused to publish anything but their Golarion products—in house at least.  Instead, they’ve squared the circle, developing a new game mixing magic and technology and adding in a little interstellar travel.  Before this post devolves into a post on the merits of Starfinder (future topic!), I’ll leave it to say that Lisa Stevens at Paizo strikes me as a shrewd businesswoman.  If she didn’t believe there was space (double enténdres?) in the industry for a successful new product, it would not be happening.

Finally, we’ve seen a bevy of other games and game companies sprout up over the last few years.  This includes Monte Cook Games with their Numenera, the Strange, and Cypher System games; Fire Opal Media’s partnership with Pelgrane Press to publish 13th Age; Robert Schwalb’s Shadow of the Demon Lord (with a number of support products that are, frankly, mind boggling for a product with less than one year on the market); Green Ronin’s Fantasy AGE; and a new edition of Shadowrun, just to name a few.

What Does This Have to Do With New Players?

New players are how we keep growing our hobby!  And, because I need to write a blog post.  Because I want to see the less-well supported products succeed, I like to run 13th Age games at GenCon and other local cons I attend.  So, before GenCon 2015, I invited some friends over to my house for a little roleplaying session.  I planned on using four hours to run the first two-hour scenario in the Shadowport Shuffle series: Deep in the Red.  I felt like Deep in the Red would be a strong scenario because it offered a lot of roleplaying opportunities.  I provided pre-gen characters, but wanted to give people wholly ignorant of game mechanics quite some time to learn them.

I ended up with 7 players, only one of which had experience playing any RPG.  6 were heterosexual women, one was a bisexual woman, and 1 was a homosexual male.  That’s right our table had no heterosexual males (not that there’s anything wrong with playing with heterosexual males, but our group was NOT the norm)!  Here’s a quick rundown, all working professionals in the Washington, DC area:

·      Attorney for a large corporate firm

·      Property manager for an apartment building with 100+ units

·      Congressman’s scheduler

·      Charter school principal

·      Special events director of a museum

·      Office manager for a judicial advocacy organization

·      Partner of a real estate management and sales firm

One look at this list does not scream: members of the creative class!  There were no writers, no artists, no singers or songwriters, no architects, etc.  All in all, I was actually excited about this.  Of course, there were no engineers either, so we were killing the stereotypes on multiple fronts. 

What Actually Happened?

[MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE 13TH AGE SCENARIO “SHADOWPORT SHUFFLE” FOLLOW]

We sat down and everyone but me opened their first drinks (did I mention this was a heavy drinking group?).  I gave a quick runthrough of the system’s rules: covering ability scores, races, classes, using d20 and other weird dice, and other information on their character sheets.  Then, we talked about backgrounds and how they interact with skill checks.  We talked one unique things and icon relationships.  Finally, we jumped into play.  Here are my quick takeaways:

Roleplay Attracts No Specific Type of Person

When I’d first put out the call for GenCon guinea pigs players, the call was wide and to a large group of people (about 25), because I thought that no one would be interested.  I found that quite a lot of people were.  Some were curious because they’d never heard of them.  Others were curious because they’d heard of them, but didn’t know what they were.  A surprising number did know what they were, and had played before. 

Three of my players are from another group that frequently discusses attempting to organize a book club dedicated to cheap wine and trashy, smutty fantasy novels.  I was not surprised when they signed up.  However, I was surprised that one of them was not a fan of the RPG experience.  Another participant, who was a last minute, day of, addition, has been hassling me to organize another home game.  (Don’t worry, law school’s over!  It’s happening!) 

Fortunately, at least one of them had some rpg experience.  This was useful from a numbers management perspective.  Having two people to help six new people wasn’t an optimal ratio, but we’ll discuss that later in the post.

Roleplay Can Be Intimidating for Newcomers

One of my players had initially emailed me saying that she’d love to help out a friend, but she just didn’t feel like she was creative enough to participate in something like an afternoon of roleplay.  I assured her that she was and that if she was uncomfortable, she should by no means feel required to do anything that would upset her.  I was thrilled when she showed up that day though.

This is an area where system choices can have a real effect on new players’ experiences.  Two of 13th Age system tools quickly came into play here.  First, its montage scene feature is a system-neutral tool (it’s not even mentioned in the Core book, just in the adventures and later products) that’s useful for helping players get into their characters. 

·      GM (to Player 1): It took you two weeks to make the journey from Alepha to Betatown.  On the way, there was a great challenge that threatened all of your lives.  What was it?

·      Player 1: A man-hunting bear trained in the art of the shuriken stalked us through the forest of Beasties.

·      GM (nodding): Yes, it was a terrifying time.  But, Jord the Crazed Sword Mute saved all of your skins.  How did he do it?

·      Player 2 (playing Jord): Well, you see, it went something like this…

Montage scenes involve no rolling of dice, merely storytelling.  They are a great way to invest players in the story without needing a single mechanic.  It’s also exteremely useful for helping those players who are concerned that they’re “not creative enough” to get involved.  It’s loads easier to ask a player to give a minor detail (or set up a problem) than it is to say, “You’ve got this sheet full of stats, tell me its story.”

Deep in the Red makes use of this in other ways two.  At one point, the players meet an NPC.  After the GM gives a very brief initial sketch, each player is invited to give a detail about that NPC’s appearance and/or mannerisms (which resulted in my having to act like a physically big man with a small boy’s voice).  That’s a great way to let players develop the world: it takes work of my shoulders while investing them in the experience at the same time.  Sure, it was a pain keeping my voice high and occasionally cracking it, but my players were invested and actively listened to what the NPC had to tell them.

Deep in the Red also assumes that each of the characters owes one of the Icons, major NPC organizations in the game system, a favor.  That Icon is the Prince of Shadows, an archetypical master thief figure.  The scenario begins with the Game Master informing the players of this debt.  Each player then has an opportunity to explain what, exactly they needed and how, exactly, the Prince helped them.  This was very useful for getting players in character.

And that player who thought she wasn’t creative enough?  Well, after the party recovered the MacGuffin they were sent to find, she had a really sneaky idea.  Since the party was working for a master thief, why didn’t they just have a copy of the statue made and sneak off with the real one themselves?  Not to spoil a major reveal at the end of the scenario, but what’s supposed to be a big surprise for the PCs turned into a much bigger surprise for the NPC questgiver.  And the PCs were thrilled to see that happen (not to mention paid double for stealing only once!).

Newer Players Preferred Story over Context

I provided the info map above as a flip map in the center of the table.  My goal was to quickly convey system information (yellow) and setting information (pink) with a visually appealing backdrop.  To some degree, it worked.  To other degrees it didn’t.

What Worked

Pelgrane Press provides a beautiful, hi-res, image file of the map of the Dragon Empire.  Gaming companies put these things out and as a Gamemaster, you should run with them.  Obviously, don’t abuse their intellectual property (most companies detail how you can use these materials for your home games somewhere in their core rulebook or attached to each product).  Remember, many gaming companies are small and thrilled to have you interacting with their materials and the authors themselves will love seeing what you did.  So, get out there and do it.  Focus on what you’re best at, but don’t be afraid to stretch out—graphic design isn’t my field of expertise, but I think I did a pretty good job throwing out a 24x30 inch flip map that got everyone’s attention.

The bare bones information was helpful here.  Being able to point to the gazetteer information on Shadowport (which paraphrases the 13th Age Core entry on the city with a bare-bones explanation) and then tell them, “And that’s ALL anyone…you or I…really knows about it right now,” helped cement the setting’s malleability in their heady.  Similarly, defining the Icons enough to give them flavor but without setting them in stone was helpful.  If I run a similar campaign, I’ll consider using the 7 Icon Campaign aid.  13 Icons are great if you’re a voracious reader or a regular gamer, but if you don’t have a wide breadth of fantasy they can get a little tough.  Additionally, at least for a one shot, I wouldn’t be afraid to cut down on Icons in the future.  I don’t remember if any of my players had a relationship with the High Druid, but I do know it likely didn’t come into play in a highly urban setting (though, who’s to say it couldn’t?).

What Didn’t

A wise man once said that the rent in New York was just “too damn high.”  Mechanics information is just too damned complicated.  I wanted a simple reference guide that my players could refer to while moving through the story.  What I realized is that mechanics information is something that really has to build upon a strong foundation.  Most of the yellow space on my map could easily be replaced with more pink content or (even better), freeing up some of the underlying map to be seen.

Newer Players Preferred Roleplay Over Combat – BUT mechanics matter!

Remember when I said that mechanics needed to be built over time?  I was blown away by this.  In fact, my last blog post of last summer posited that system mastery would be the least important factor for any new player—that was why I chose a rules-light game like 13th Age over something like Pathfinder.  But, without the concepts attached and a strong explanation of those rules, sometimes things felt a little bit arbitrary.

This was especially true in combat situations.  My characters did not like combat.  But, they loved skills challenges.  They even loved how ridiculous situations got when they failed forward and more and more off-the-wall ideas were required to get them out of a jam they’d just created.

One player commented that she wished that we’d had more time to go through the character creation process.  This has helped me a lot—I’ve realized that a session 0 and a Microscoping session for worldbuilding are essential for a longer-term campaign.  Similarly, for a one shot (especially one where the play is only supposed to last two hours), offering those who want to make their own characters an opportunity to drop by a couple hours early and do so will only enhance the experience.

Go Forth and Play!

So, those were my lessons:

·      Create situations where your players can ease into roleplay and they won’t even notice how deep they get – cook your players frogs slowly;

·      Make sure you’ve got a story everyone can relate to.  It doesn’t have to be plain vanilla European fantasy (Deep in the Red is a pretty obvious Maltese Falcon knockoff), but it does need to be relateable; and

·      Ensure that players get a good grasp of the underlying mechanics and they’ll come up with ways to employ them destined to drive you crazy.

Good gaming!

First time as a regular PFS GM

So, I ran my first Pathfinder Society scenario.  Technically, I'd run a Pathfinder Society scenario back during the winter during GadCon, but I was a last-minute fill-in GM, so I don't really feel like it counts.  Plus, the GadCon scenario was a convention special and this one was a regularly-released scenario, so the types of players and the expectations were totally different.

I ran Out of Anarchy on the Monday after it came out. I was not expecting a scenario so long or so convoluted. While I hadn't had a lot of time to digest this scenario, I had reread the Pezzack entry from Towns of the Inner Sea, which really helped with the background. Without that base to work with, I would have had a MUCH harder time GMing this thing.  There are some PFS scenarios that require almost no background.  For instance, I introduced a gaming group to Pathfinder using [druidy scenario] and it didn't require much background knowledge at all.  In the Pezzack scenario, I'd have had no idea what was going on.

So, what are my takeaways from GMing a regular old PFS scenario?  First of all, GMing is all in the art of presentation.  I'm a lobbyist by trade during the day, so faking it is something I'm trained to do anyway.  But, while you can fake a lot of things, players have certain expectations.  And, unsurprisingly, how your players see you changes how they play at your table.  What caught me out?  Well, I was running short on time.  I'd printed color copies of the mad grids, but I hadn't had time to cut them so that they connected without white paper overlap.  One of my players caught me, called it a rookie mistake, and everything changed--at least as far as that player was concerned.  It wasn't bad or anything and fortunately we both knew what the rules were in all the situations that game up.  But, if there had been a disagreement, it would not have been pretty.  That said, I hope that he still had a good time even after I hadn't cut the edges off of things.

PFS in DC is also a lot more roll-playing focused than it is role-playing focused.  I don't mind that--both mixed together are what make for a fun game.  That said, there's a lot of role-playing going on in this scenario.  It was over an hour before the PCs got into their first fight (some parties might consider getting into a fight at all a liability, but not I) and everyone was excited when the time to actually roll something more than skill checks came about.

All in all, I really, really enjoyed this session.  The scenario as written gives GMs and players the opportunity to do a lot of roleplaying.  PCs should also expect to have to do some critical thinking, which was fun for a scenario.  They also tried to design a scenario that was as sandboxy as possible.  That's where knowledge of the previous, underlying gazetteer product was so helpful--I was able to lean on the knowledge (that's mentioned as being cannon in the scenario, for all you PFS rules lawyers out there) that was used to build the scenario and therefore fill in some of the plugs.

I think I enjoy convention GMing more.  For one thing, convention players are just so damned grateful to have someone running their game.  For another, there's much more time to prepare!  Also, at conventions, I don't feel as rushed (which is ironic, because you actually have a time slot at a convention).  I also feel like people really appreciate GMs that get into having terrain and real miniatures rather than just having to fly through hand-drawns maps, flip maps, and map print outs.

I've got 8 more games till I get my first GM star.  I have decided I can really opine with thoughts about PFS after that.  Until then, these are impressions based upon just two instances.  One thing I am sure about though: I'd always rather play outside of organized play at all with a set of players dedicated to telling a long-term dedicated story.

Giving Divination magic a little bit of love

Blog of Holding has a post considering how 5E Divination magic might be used against PCs by villainous organizations.  I thought it would be fun to try and do something similar, but for Pathfinder.  Before I jump into the spells, I want to discuss one of the best pieces of system-neutral advice in the article.  As GMs we know everything, but our villains don't.  How do we split villain knowledge from GM knowledge?  It suggests that the GM set a phone alarm for some period of time into the session, say an hour.  That's when the opposing forces are casting the divination spells against the PCs.  That helps you as the GM ensure that the villains are learning specific information about the PCs as well as exactly what information the villains are learning.  If it happens to be when the PCs are plotting their next move, all the better for your NPCs.  If not, well, sometimes you tune in the divination spell when people are just complaining about sore feet.

I'm also up on divination spells because my PCs never use them.  I think after such spells have been deployed against the PCs, they're apt to become much bigger fans of using the spells themselves.  Of course, this raises the same issue: what are the villains doing when the PCs tune in?  There's more than dealing with random chance here--the GM has a need to balance reality with dramatic needs. At first I considered trying something like writing out basic schedules for villains, but that gets tedious fast and doesn't provide much use beyond planning for a contingency in case the party tries something--maybe.  Finding that sweet spot between what the players could find out and what the players should find out is a challenge.  Reward them for being inventive, but don't give the game away.  It's going to be tough and I suspect it's just a matter of erring a little bit on both sides until hitting the right place.

Note: I'm doing spells from the Core Rulebook and I'm going to skip those that don't appear to have utility, like Know Direction, or those that are obvious, like See Invisibility.  Spells are listed under the lowest level they can be known--except for paladin spells, because I hate paladins.

0th Level
Detect Magic (bard 0, cleric 0, druid 0, sorcerer/wizard 0): Everybody knows this spell, but it's limited to 60 ft.  If the bad guys have an idea that the PCs have a particular magical item or if magic is rare and the bad guys can discern the party's identity by figuring out who has access to any magic, this could be really useful.

First Level
Comprehend Languages (bard 1, cleric 1, sorcerer/wizard 1): If the campaign is taking place in a large city, this spell might not just be useful--it might be necessary.  One of my campaign ideas on Golarion involves a Lirgeni diaspora community that's settled in Magnimar now that Lirgen is part of the Sodden Lands.  In my Golarion, Lirgeni is also a distinct language and it's spoken heavily in their insular community--older and more insular individuals might not even speak Taldane.  Bringing languages into the campaign means that this spell becomes more important.  Also keep in mind that comprehend languages only allows a caster to read/understand the language.  The caster cannot speak or write the language without casting tongues.  (Note: this can be just as useful for creating difficulties for PCs).

Detect Animals or Plants (druid 1, ranger 1): I'm a little lost on this one--suspect it's probably highly situational.

Detect Evil/Good/Chaos/Law (cleric 1): If the PCs are alignment outliers in an a settlement, even a first level cleric should be able to find them pretty easily.  And if the PCs' actions indicate their alignments' are outliers, the bad guys know to look.  In an evil temple city, good PCs will shine like beacons.  This isn't very helpful for low-level parties, unless they have clerics, warpriests, or paladins in them.  This is wonderful for getting back at the paladin PC that's always using detect evil on every NPC.  Finally, there's no save so absent actively using spells to foil it, the PCs are in for quite the surprise.

Detect Secret Doors (bard 1, sorcerer/wizard 1): Want to change things up a little?  Try letting the enemies invade the PCs' hideout/fortress!  Admittedly, this isn't going to be useful until the bad guys have located the PCs, but it could be a lifesaver once they have.  Is the PCs' treasure room hidden?  Not anymore.  After ascertaining his patrol safely has the run of the place, a caster using this spell can cast this spell once and travel over the entire structure while maintaining concentration.

Detect Undead (cleric 1, paladin 1, sorcerer/wizard 1): Unless the PCs are in the habit of animating things, this might not seem useful at first.  But, what if the PCs are going up against a necromancer in his own fortress?  Casting detect undead could be used in the negative.  Is the villain detecting undead to the north, east, and west approaches to his location?  PCs must be coming from the south then--that's where the undead used to be but aren't anymore.

Identify (bard 1, sorcerer/wizard 1): See detect magic above.

Speak with Animals (bard 3, druid 1, ranger 1): I sure hope you didn't piss off a druid.  Matched with a few wild empathy checks and a druid has a ready source of information.  Worse, if the druid is following you, a combination of wild empathy checks and this spell results in the party being tailed far more effectively than the druid might be able to do alone.

True Strike (sorcerer/wizard 1): You've finally come face to face with your nemeses, the PCs.  You've used divination magic to learn everything you can about them.  You know that you've got to use that spell that requires a successful touch attack to really knock one of them out of commission.  Cast this right before or in the first round of combat to make sure that spell comes off as it should.

Second Level
Augury (cleric 2): This spell's effectiveness is going to be situational.  But, I imagine it could be useful for villains planning on how to react to PCs that will reach them soon or for taking actions that will help them go from knowing there are general forces out there trying to foil their evil machinations to specific individuals that can be the target of further divinations.

Detect Thoughts (bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 2): With 18 seconds of concentration, a caster can identify the surface thoughts of a target that fails a will save.  Once the authorities have someone in hand, this is a handy spell to determine if you've got the right party at all.  Honest governments may not employ this at all, depending on how divination is viewed in society.  Most will though--at least for serious crimes and searches.  Villains with access to this spell won't hesitate to use it.

Locate Object (bard 2, cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 2): At minimum, this spell is available to a 3rd level wizard that will have a range of 520 ft. (1/10 mile) when casting it.  Bards get this spell at 4th level (560 ft.) and clerics get it at 5th level (600 ft.).  There are some limitations though--the caster needs to have seen a specific item first hand and it can be foiled by a thin sheet of lead, polymorph any object, or nondetection.  That said, if the bad guys know that the party has made off with a specific item and the party hasn't left the dungeon/fortress/etc. where the item was hidden, this is a great tool for the bad guys to follow them.  If the opposing forces also happen to live in the fortress/dungeon, they likely know their way around.  Even just knowing the general direction to an object could provide them with information very useful for ambushing the party later.

Speak with Plants (bard 4, druid 3, ranger 2): See notes on speak with animals above.  Remember that there are ranger and druid archetypes that allow wild empathy, but with plants.  If the party has pissed off a druid that can use wild empathy on the plants in a forest, their chances of hiding are nil.

Tongues (bard 2, cleric 4, sorcerer/wizard 3): Same issues as comprehend languages above.  Except tongues allows the speaker to actually communicate in the language.

Third Level
Arcane Sight (sorcerer/wizard 3): See notes on detect magic, above.

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 3): Now we are getting into some really useful abilities.  Bards aren't going to have access to this spell until level 7, but wizards are going to have it at level 5.  If the bad guys can get close enough to the party (about 500 feet), they can get a good idea of what they are up against early.  If the party is entering a villain's lair, this should be de rigeur--the villain knows that she might have to deal with the party directly so she casts this spell.  After observing the party, she knows exactly how she should prepare herself--as well as how she might counteract any buffs the party has placed on itself.

Helping Hand (cleric 3): So, technically, this is an evocation spell because it creates a hand out of force.  But, the effects are so tied into divination that I'm (right now) house ruling it as divination.  How awesome would it be for the villain to use the helping hand to lead the PCs either into a trap or right to her?  Mysterious hand appears and beckons to the party?  "Guys, we should follow it!"  And let's see exactly where it leads...

Scrying (bard 3, cleric 5, druid 4, sorcerer/wizard 4): Why would a bard ever learn clauraudience/clairvoyance if he could have scrying at the same level--well, I guess to avoid having to deal with the will save.  This is the big daddy.  At this point a caster with an idea of who she's dealing with can spend 7-9 minutes observing the party.  There's no distance requirement and through repeated castings even someone that's not aware of who exactly they are dealing with can get an idea.  Once you've tuned in, the ability to use basic detect spells and message through the scrying can be effective indeed.  A bard or wizard is going to have roughly a 1 in 3 chance of getting this off as soon as he can scry.  A sorcerer, cleric, or druid is going to have even better chances.  Imagine the fear you can create in your PCs at camp one night.  The scry works and the villain gets their time listening in.  At the very end, a message comes through, "We're coming for you."

Speak with Dead (cleric 3): This one is pretty obvious.  Did the PCs take out the villain's lieutenant?  After casting this spell, the villain has learned a lot more about the PCs than they'd ever want her to.

Fourth Level
Arcane Eye (sorcerer/wizard 4): Basically no save here and unless the PCs can see invisible objects they won't know they are being observed.  You can't send the eye through a gate, but there's nothing about dimension doors or other portals that allow it to remain on the same plane of existence as its caster.  Great way to get the results of scrying without the possibility of failing the saving throw.

Commune with Nature (ranger 4, druid 5): Once you know generally where the PCs are, you get there, you villain, you!  Then, learn how best to use their surroundings against them.  Pits, falling boulders, chasms, the possibilities are endless!

Detect Scrying (bard 4, sorcerer/wizard 4): As mentioned, my PCs often don't use divination magic.  This is the next step after they do.  The PCs think they've got the jump on their opponent but want to really check things out.  The villain's about to discuss his master plan and the PCs can taste victory by knowing exactly what they're up against.  All of a sudden, she casts this spell.  If she wins the opposed caster check, she knows exactly who's listening in on her plans!

Discern Lies (cleric 4, paladin 3): Has a will save component and only reveals what the speaker believes to be lies.  Not the most useful for our villain--unless somebody else can think of some way to make it useful.  Let me know in a comment!

Divination (cleric 4): Since this is basically a beefed up version of augury, the same rules apply.

Legend Lore (bard 4, sorcerer/wizard 6): PCs are level 11 or higher and hunting a villain?  In 2-12 weeks, the villain can have a decent idea of what he's up against.  Legendary is a loose term too.  If the PCs are far from their home base, I might stick with the level 11 base.  But, if they already have a reputation in the area, it's going to be lower--isn't a perk of heroism having songs written about you?  To be fair, it should work the same way for villains the PCs want to listen in on.  Legends are also pretty good at giving an idea of how a character or a party operates.  For less than 500gp, this is a steal for getting the jump on your enemies!

Locate Creature (bard 4, sorcerer/wizard 4): This is great when the villain knows who she's chasing.  The bright side here is that there is no saving throw.  The downside is that the spell can be easily stopped/fooled.  Running water stops it and mislead, nondetection, and polymorph spells beat it.  This is probably good for when the villain knows she's chasing the PCs, but they aren't aware of it.  If you're going to send parties out to search for someone, this is a great first step to send them in the right direction.

Fifth Level
Commune (cleric 5): Any cleric that can cast this spell should be using it to get an idea of what's going on with their enemies.  If the cleric is trying to do something terribly unholy and to move her deity's evil agenda forward, her deity definitely wants her to know what the forces trying to foil its plans are up to.  Answers are true (to the best of the deity's ability) and there's no save.

Contact Other Plane (sorcerer/wizard 5): As commune, above, except be worried about what happens if the entity you reach isn't friendly.  Sorcerers and wizards usually have better options unless they know they are contacting a friendly entity.  Otherwise, avoid this.

Prying Eyes (sorcerer/wizard 5): Chasing the PCs into their redoubtable fortress or even the tavern they're hiding in?  Prying eyes traveling the various halls can give you a great idea exactly where to go and find them.

True Seeing (cleric 5, druid 7, sorcerer/wizard 6): Let's just go with the implications here are pretty obvious.

Sixth Level
Find the Path (bard 6, cleric 6, druid 6): Like so much of divination magic, this one is going to rely on how much oomph the GM is willing to put behind it.  The caster can find the best route to something relatively knowable.  Of course, by the time the PCs are facing enemies that can use sixth level spells, the PCs' hideout might be a well-known locale...

Scrying, Greater (bard 6, cleric 7, druid 7, sorcerer/wizard 7): With a duration of 1 hour/level and all casters being at least 13th level by the time that they cast it, the PCs can be placed under constant magical surveillance.  Stop worrying about whether or not the villain tunes in at the right time and start focusing on how reliable the villain's designated scry-watching assistant is in reporting what the PCs have to say.

Seventh Level
Vision (sorcerer/wizard 7): I haven't decided if this spell is banned from my table or also functions at bard level 6.  Either way, it works like legend lore, only its faster but has a few side effects.

Eighth Level
Discern Location (cleric 8, sorcerer/wizard 8): You find what you are looking for.  No save.  Unless there's a mind blank or divine intervention going on, you are going to find it.  This spell also has no material component.  Need to find out where your enemies are?  So long as you know who they are, you also know exactly where they are.

Prying Eyes, Greater (sorcerer/wizard 8): See prying eyes above, but revel in the fact that your eyes have true seeing.  Nothing is hidden from your flying spies!

Ninth Level
Foresight (druid 9, sorcerer/wizard 9): Either cast it on yourself (never surprised and AC and save bonuses for that final combat) or use it to help you know how your most trusted lackey fares against the PCs.  Probably better on yourself--you can scry to find out how your lackey does.

Diversity-inclusive Blue Rose relaunching

According to ENWorld, the Blue Rose romantic fantasy RPG is set to relaunch in a new system.  Green Ronin of Advanced Bestiary fame will be the publisher and it will use the Dragon Age rules.  The ENWorld article notes that this is important because, "the game tackled a number of diversity and inclusiveness related issues, and those issues are very much the subject of intense - and often unpleasant - debate and conflict today."  Given the issues going on with Monte Cook Games right now, there's no better time for a debate about where RPGs draw the lines between incorporation and exploitation.

I'm unfamiliar with Blue Rose, but will be keeping an eye out for it when it drops on Kickstarter next month.

In other diversity related news:

Venice appears to be the source of the only successful conversion therapy in the history of GLBT-kind.  They basically put a bunch of female prostitutes on a bridge and had them bawl at homosexual men.  Doubtful this worked, but as the original article notes, "at least we got a bridge out of it."  (h/t io9).

And, to remind everyone that diversity isn't just about race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, and gender identity issues, here are some GMing tips that one man learned while running a game in prison.  In general, what does he advocate?  Well,

• Use a point buy rather than rolling - let the PCs power levels be pretty evenly matched
• Use appropriate CRs for encounters
• Notes, notes, notes
• Don't throw magic items around willy-nilly - holding back even non-magical gear gives the PCs something to work towards.  I really like this idea to control the smorgasbord of alchemical items that exist in Pathfinder.  In 13th Age, it's a non-issue.
• Don't be afraid to create long quests (treasure hunts) without having decided what the treasure will be
• Make custom prestige classes (my favorite on the list!)
• Giving tiny boons can help a player feel his character is unique.  AND MOST IMPORTANTLY,
• Don't let needing to peruse the books get in the way of good fun!

Pathfinder Strategy Guide Review

My copy of the Pathfinder Strategy Guide shipped today!  Normally, I like to

wait until I have my physical books, but I'm making an exception here.  I've gotten into Pathfinder Society here because my friends don't have a lot of experience with RPGs, so this thing is a godsend!  I've been looking forward to getting this as a resource that I can bring new players into the game for some time.

According to the introduction, the goal of the book is to provide "a friendly and straightforward guide to making your own character and becoming confident in the basics of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game." (4)  "This book will teach you the following:
• The basic terminology and concepts used by the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
• How to create player characters and advance them from level 1 to level 20.
• The basics of combat, from moving around the battlefield and engaging with foes to more advanced tricks like combat maneuvers and tactical analysis.
• The foundations of roleplaying, from meeting archmages and queens to solving mysteries and bargaining with dragons." (5)

Similarly, the book isn't:
• a substitute for the Core Rulebook
• "intended to give experienced players advanced insights or cunning new strategies for optimizing their characters." (5)
• comparison to board and video games. Helpful statement re: players going "tharn": "You can attempt to go anywhere and do pretty much anything in this game—even if the game doesn’t provide specific rules for your attempt, it has a variety of general rules that can be adapted to whatever you’re describing." (7)
• like that they tell players to develop a concept rather than on mechanics
Pages for new players: 7-9

The book starts with a quiz.  This is great for someone that doesn't know anything about what they want to do.  There are 13 questions that you move through to give you an idea of what type of character best fits a player's class.  In total, a player might have to go through a maximum of three questions to get to a result, which is the class' theme.  Most classes have two themes but the full spellcasters (cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard) each have three.  A theme is sort of an overarching concept for a class.  For instance, the rogue has the shadow and thief themes.  A shadow is more of a battle thief character.  Paizo's put up a blog post explaining how all this stuff goes into making a character.  A thief is the traditional skill monkey.

There are 26 possible themes:

Angel-born (sorcerer)
Animal Friend (Druid)
Archer (ranger)
Battle Priest (cleric)
Berserker (barbarian)
Brute (fighter)
Conjuror (wizard)
Crusader (paladin)
Dragon-child (sorcerer)
Dual-weapon warrior (ranger)
Fire-blooded (sorcerer)
Fury (Druid)
Healer (cleric)
Illusionist (wizard)
Knight (paladin)
Maneuver Specialist (monk)
Martial Warrior (monk)
Nature Warrior (Druid)
Shadow (thief)
Shield Fighter (fighter)
Smasher (barbarian)
Stargazer (cleric)
Thief (rogue)
Traditional Mage (wizard)
Trickster (bard)
Troubadour (bard)

Each theme gets a half-page write up including some flavor text, three "things" your character can learn to do, and some advice on which race to choose.

The next chapter is about races.  It's only two pages long.  The Strategy Guide names all of the race's traits, but only bothers to explain some of them.  All of the racial abilities are named, at least.  There is also a very helpful box that explains that races in RPGs are actually species.

Next come the class guides.  This section also has really helpful sidebars that cover some basic information like a class' BAB, save bonuses, etc.  The sidebar on the right facing page has suggested equipment for each theme.  Each theme also gets an icon with information about options for customizing your character.  There's a lot of advice, but nothing is demanded.

Here's the two page explanation of how to be a cleric.  There's three different themes: battle priest, healer, and stargazer.
Some options are discussed as being useful for clerics in general.  Others are made specific to one of the particular
themes.  Note how everything is marked in terms of suggestions rather than commands.

The chapter also has information explaining every possible section of a character sheet.  They have letters that correspond to where they appear on a character sheet.  There's ten pages of information leading up to the explanatory character sheets.  

Each class also has leveling up advice that takes characters up to 20th level.  Some of the levels have theme-specific advice, though not all do.  Finally, there's back matter that covers things like fleshing out a character's back story, saving throws, armor class, languages, etc.

The playing the game chapter is fantastic!  First, there's a discussion of the difference between combat mode and narrative mode, which is something that a lot of new players also don't understand.  There's a combat flowchart and advice for players on what they might want to do on their turn.  Helpful boxes break out what are standard, move, quick, free, etc. actions.  This is super helpful.  The pages on understanding your square (128) and attacks of opportunity (129) are particularly helpful.  That said, it would have been helpful to get some information about moving through threatened squares and enemy-occupied spaces with acrobatics checks.

Overall I really like this! I'll want to host a newbie game night to see how players are able to pick things up. Also, at some point I'll want to do a cross-reference between this and the CRB to put together a new player intro pack.

The Strategy Guide doesn't really track to a five star system, but I'll give it three thumbs up instead!