3PPT: 3/19/15

Just a reminder that this week, Third-Party Thursdays will once again be hosted by The Game Wizard - Blue Sky Hobbies. We'll most likely be wrapping up last week's adventure, though we've got some alternative options in place in the event that this week's attendance exceeds our main table capacity. Just like last week, I'll be posting a game recap Friday following the event.

The theme of our follow up adventure, slated for 3/26/15, is "Teamwork is Key" featuring a selection of teamwork based pregens from Dreamscarred Press' Ultimate Psionics and Path of War, as well as Amora Games' Liber Influxus Communis. Just like last time, anyone who shows up an hour before the event is welcome to use the table copies of either book to create their own custom character! If you already own either book, our character creation rules are pretty simple:

• Classes must be chosen from one of our featured 3pp sourcebooks: Ultimate Psionics, Path of War, or Liber Influxus Communis.
• Characters will be created starting at 4th level, though characters must be able to qualify for all feats at the level they would be gained.
• 25 point buy for attribute scores, no scores higher than 18 or lower than 8 before applying racial modifiers.
• Races chosen from the standard options presented in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook as well as fetchlings, with alternate racial traits from the Advanced Race Guide allowed. All races presented in Ultimate Psionics are also available.
• Equipment purchased using standard Wealth By Level rules. 
• Crafting feats disallowed (currently we're just not supporting the kind of continuity necessary to support them).
• Allowed sourcebooks: Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, Advanced Race Guide (core races and fetchlings only), Ultimate Psionics, Path of War, and Liber Influxus Communis.

The heroes will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of The Midnight Mirror, a highly reviewed adventure from the 2011 winner of Paizo's RPG Superstar contest, Sam Zeitlin. I'll be posting a follow up article on Sunday, 3/22/15 with more details on the adventure and our pregen heroes.

Thanks for reading everyone, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

3ppT: The Recap

So, last night we had our first Third-Party Thursdays Pathfinder event. I'm going to tell you it went really well, then I'm going to give you some numbers that might seem to contradict that statement, then I'm going to justify it.

It was an awesome success. Great fun was had by all, cool classes were showcased, there were even some statistical improbabilities:

Third Party Thursdays (or 3ppT for short)!

So, a couple weeks ago I was laid off from my day job (which kind of sucks). The good news though, is that this meant I had time to work on other things. Given that the only thing I've made money doing in the last 5 years other than banking was tabletop game design for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, I figured I'd focus my efforts in that area.

One of the biggest issues with 3rd party game design is that your market is teeny tiny. You're basically relying on a fraction of the people who participate in a niche hobby to support you, and the competition for this itty bitty market is relatively fierce. I talk a bit about the struggles inherent in the industry here. In that post, one of the things I talk about is how important it is to promote amazing materials and challenge preconceptions, so I figure what better way to do that than by starting up an event dedicated to 3pp classes and adventures!

From 6pm to 10pm this Thursday, 3/12/15, I'll be running the first instance of an event called "Third Party Thursdays". I'll be using the abbreviation 3ppT for brevity's sake. I'll be running this event every week for the foreseeable future, and each week I'll be showcasing cool new materials from my favorite third party publishers.This week's event will be hosted by The Game Wizard - Blue Sky Hobbies here in Bremerton, Washington, a short ferry trip away from Seattle (or a reasonable drive from Tacoma). Chase Linbo, the manager at The Game Wizard, is working on adding a whole section to his RPG shelf specifically for 3pp products that might be hard to find elsewhere, and I've been working to keep him in touch with the best publishers of this material.

This week's adventure will feature classes and mechanics from two of my favorite publishers, Amora Games and their new book Liber Influxus Communis, and Rogue Genius Games with their Adventurer's Handbook. I've had the pleasure of working with both companies, and one of my classes, Amora Game's Battle Lord, will be available as a pregen character! Owen K.C. Stephens has also pitched in to back this event by providing me with several copies of his Adventurer's Handbook, so not only will we be featuring classes from that particular work, but we'll have a few on hand to give away to participants!

Our roster of pregenerated characters is as follows:

Avarlene Tertheniel, an elven Battle Lord who uses group tactics called Drills to organize and bolster her allies

Gruff Grimbeard, a dwarven Shadow Assassin who specializes in infiltration and espionage.

Thurlavald Turnipnose, a gnome Metamorph whose arboreal evolutions allow him to attack with tentacle-like vines while blending into wooded environs.

Morgan Fire-eye, a human Magi who blends the arcane healing capabilities of a witch with the metamagic mastery of a wizard.

Garn Blackhand, a half-orc Warloghe whose pact with an onryo, a spirit of spiteful vengeance, gives him dark and sinister magical abilities.

Menevian Duboise, a half-elf Death Mage who uses his mastery of the powers of life and death to hunt down and eradicate undead.

And if none of those tickles your fancy, anyone who shows up at the event at least an hour before the starting time can feel free to peruse through the table copies of Liber Influxus and The Adventurer's Handbook and make their own custom character following our table rules for character creation!

If you're in the area, or can be, we'd love to have you at this week's 3ppT!