Spiral of Bones is Here!

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The newest entry in the exciting saga of Pathfinder comics hits the web and comic book stores tomorrow. This issue, Spiral of Bones #1, not only kicks off a gripping new five-part storyline, but it also marks the Pathfinder comics debut of our very own Crystal Frasier!

She's already done a few interviews with external media sites, like Comic Crusaders, Major Spoilers, First Comics News, and Know Direction. But these are mostly aimed toward the general comic fan rather than readers already familiar with Pathfinder, its characters, and its world. I sat down with Crystal to ask a few questions that seemed particularly pressing for existing Pathfinder fans—a paizo.com exclusive!

As a Pathfinder developer, you have a wide breadth of knowledge about the setting, its characters, and its ongoing plots. What inspired you to write this story, set here, and involving these characters?

I love the ways that roleplaying game settings are unique from other fictional settings, and one of the big ways that Pathfinder is so unique is the lackadaisical nature of death. Heroes come back from the dead all the time—all you need is a diamond and a friendly cleric. But what kind of world does that give you in practice, and what's death like while you're there? Valeros gets to look at that up close, and as our most... non-miraculous iconic, he's the perfect audience insert for encountering and reacting to this planar weirdness, while getting some of it explained for the lay fighter or casual reader.

Kaer Maga creator and former Paizo editor, James L. Sutter, makes a cameo appearance in a crowd on the opening page of this issue. What other Easter eggs can fans of Pathfinder and Paizo hope to find in this or later issues in the series?

There are a few here and there in the first issue, but none quite as big as Sutter grinning at the camera like a film extra. The remainder for issue 1 are mostly nods to fun setting elements, like the goblin love of pickles or classic cloaker paranoia. We get a little more free with the cameos in book 2; once Valeros is wandering around the afterlife we get to have a little fun by dropping in other characters from previous comics—many of them killed by or near Valeros.

This story arc features some crazy locations, certainly the most bizarre settings the comics have yet explored. Which was more fun: writing Kaer Maga or writing the Boneyard?

Why would you make me choose like that? I can definitely say that I am sad I didn't get to write more of Kaer Maga proper, as we move on pretty quickly from that very unique and interesting setting. I only really get to scratch the surface of a city varied enough for a whole series, and I hope I get the chance to revisit in the future. Until then, man, the Boneyard was a ton of fun to write!

One of this issue's variant covers and the comic's story itself feature Valeros and iconic inquisitor Imrijka engaged in some, shall we say, "adult activities." What's the story behind this pairing?

Imrijka and Valeros have been a popular fan relationship since we first introduce Imrijka in the Advanced Player's Guide, and they're one of the few relationships between iconics anyone has really talked about beyond Kyra and Merisiel. They're both fairly energetic and physical, but feel healthier being uncommitted, and neither are the type to judge someone at first glance. Plus, I honestly just think they make a cute couple. Or at least cute "friends with benefits," at any rate.

Thanks to Crystal for taking the time to answer these pressing questions!

"Pathfinder: Spiral of Bones #1" hits comic store shelves tomorrow and is part of your ongoing Pathfinder comic subscription here on paizo.com. In addition to the main Spiral of Bones story, this and all other issues in the series include a backup Starfinder story called "Helping Hands" by Paizo Chief Creative Officer and Publisher, Erik Mona, a Pathfinder RPG rules appendix, and a pullout poster map.

For fans in the greater Seattle area (or with the disposable time and income to make last-minute travel arrangements), Crystal will be doing an in-store signing at Outsider Comics & Geek Boutique in Fremont, tomorrow evening, March 21, from 5–7 PM. Don't miss it!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Worldscape Workbook—Under the Moons of Mars

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Issue #3 of Pathfinder Worldscape, Dynamite's blockbuster all-star sword & sorcery supergroup crossover, hits newsstands TODAY, so I figured now would be a perfect time to peel back the curtain a bit and let you know about some of the decisions that went into the Pathfinder RPG rules appendix found in the back of the issue.

This month's appendix is a bit of a doozy because the issue's story features the first appearance of one of the major stars of the series, John Carter of Mars! The great Virginian steps onto our pages to join the likes of his green Martian ally Tars Tarkas, the she-devil Red Sonja, Frank Frazetta's jungle hero Thun'da, and more (to say nothing of Pathfinder stalwarts Valeros, Kyra, Merisiel, and Seoni).

Of all Worldscape's superstars, John Carter's star shines the brightest in the firmament of fantasy literature. Carter first appeared way back in February, 1912, in a serialized story entitled "Under the Moons of Mars," by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The story appeared as a novel entitled A Princess of Mars, in 1917, and it's been in print ever since.

Carter helped to define the "formula" for adventure story heroes (especially in a science fictional setting). He and Burroughs's Barsoom (Mars) also launched an entire sub-genre of fiction that arguably includes stories like Star Wars, but absolutely 1000% includes stories like James Cameron's Avatar, which borrows heavily from the tropes established in "Under the Moons of Mars."

Like many of the sub-genres we're touching on in Pathfinder Worldscape (including mainline "sword & sorcery" and especially jungle adventure stories), the heroes of "sword & planet" stories present an interesting challenge for the Pathfinder RPG, because none of them ever wears a scrap of armor. Indeed, John Carter's world probably reveals more flesh on a regular basis than even the Tarzan stories and their various knock-offs, which star a guy wearing a loincloth.

So, as I did with the sword-devil archetype in Pathfinder Worldscape #1 (which covered Red Sonja, so to speak), this month's appendix presents a brand new archetype called the warlord that allows players to run around in their briefs and kick just as much ass as John Carter did without a massive sacrifice to their Armor Class. From my perspective, it really stinks when the rules don't allow you to play a concept you want to try out, or even worse punish you for it. This archetype (and really all of the rules presented over Worldscape's six issues) creates new space for players to play heroes like Red Sonja, John Carter, or Tarzan without getting hit multiple times every round. The Pathfinder rules don't really handle characters wearing no armor and going toe-to-toe with monsters and fully armored enemies.

At least not until this series, that is. If I accomplish nothing else from writing all of the stories and appendices for this series, I hope that Pathfinder Worldscape develops a reputation as the Catcher in the Rye of no-armor martial archetypes.

The warlord is a fighter archetype, a particularly challenging breed of archetype because, unlike so many other classes, the fighter doesn't have a ton of class features to "swap out" as most other classes do. That's partially by design. When we sat down to create the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, we thought it very important to include at least one class that was easy to understand and easy to play. The fighter has traditionally played that role, so we carried that forward into the final Pathfinder rules. This was, of course, a year or two before we came up with the idea for archetypes, so only after their introduction in the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide did we realize that this might turn out to be a bit of a problem.

That's the reason that you don't see as many fighter archetypes as you see for other classes. There just isn't as much design room to make interesting options.

The class isn't without ANY options, of course, but things are a bit more challenging. I knew this going in, but I didn't really care. John Carter is obviously a fighter. One of his books is called A Fighting Man of Mars, for Pete's sake. So I had to make him a fighter archetype, design space or not!

First off, I modified the fighter's usual class skills to include Barsoomian staples Acrobatics and Knowledge (nobility), which replace Swim (not super useful on a desert planet) and Knowledge (dungeoneering). Fair trade, in my book.

Barsoom doesn't offer the same sort of weapon options we have here on Earth, so I significantly tailored the class's proficiency list to include only weapons that appear in the John Carter comics and novels, including the radium pistol and rifle included in the RPG appendix for Pathfinder Worldscape #2. This helps to keep warlord characters "on model" and representative of the way they appear in the source material, which is the overall goal of these adaptations.

The most important power the warlord has is likely Evasive Dueling, which allows a warlord to add a +1 dodge bonus to his AC in lieu of one of the MANY bonus feats fighters get throughout their careers. This means that the player gets to decide how important AC is to his warlord, and doesn't deny him the opportunity to drop some bonus feats into his weapons or other combat abilities. He can always come back for some more Armor Class when he really needs it.

And in case he needs more AC (which he will, because he's not even proficient in armor and a lot of his powers don't work when he's wearing it), I also created a power called Battle Bravado, which (at 3rd level) allows the warlord to add his Charisma bonus to his AC when unarmored and unencumbered, so long as he is not wearing armor or carrying a Medium or heavier load. This power even comes with a few more dodge bonuses spread out over the full 20 levels.

He also gets some weapon type-specific modifications to Weapon Training, and by the time he hits 19th level, he unlocks DR/5, the benefit of a life spent surviving against impossible odds in a hostile world.

So there you have it, a broad overview of the warlord archetype from Pathfinder Worldscape #3! You can order your copy from paizo.com right now, or you can pick up a copy in person at your game store.

To make sure you never miss an issue of Pathfinder Worldscape, consider setting up an ongoing Pathfinder Comics subscription today.

I'll be back in two weeks with a look at John Carter himself. Until then, keep rolling 20s!

Happy holidays to you all!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Worldscape Workbook—Inside Issue #2!

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

The second issue of Dynamite's sword & sorcery superstar crossover series, Pathfinder Worldscape releases TODAY in comic shops, and is now shipping from the paizo.com store! The issue features a foreboding jungle adventure in which Seoni the sorcerer awakens in a deadly dimension that harvests the deadliest warriors of three worlds. Before she can reunite with her friends Valeros, Kyra, and Merisiel, she must first survive the jungle alone. Her adventure sees her face a 10-legged Barsoomian banth, the mysterious forest goddess (and first female super-hero in history) Fantomah, Frank Frazetta's jungle lord Thun'da, and Tars Tarkas, the green Martian best friend of John Carter of Mars.

Like all Pathfinder comics, Pathfinder Worldscape #2 contains a short Pathfinder RPG rules appendix and a pull-out poster map. The poster for the issue continues the jungle scene presented in Pathfinder Worldscape #1, with a focus on an immense tree with ritualistic significance. You can put each of the two maps together to create a double-sized jungle encounter!

The text of issue #2's RPG appendix focuses on green Martians, everyone's favorite four-armed original creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars novels. I'd originally intended to include stats for Tars Tarkas himself in this issue, but the background of the race and its various abilities ended up hogging up so much space that Tars himself will appear later, most likely in issue #5, where the character again plays a significant role. This issue is more about creating the rules elements that I'll later use to make that character, as well as a couple of weapons that will also come into play next month, when we get to John Carter himself.

I used the race builder rules from the Advanced Race Guide hardcover to build the green Martian rules. As with previous Worldscape adaptations, I let the source material dictate my choices. For example, Large size and four arms are both extremely "expensive" traits in the race builder system (because of their significant impact on play), and those two powers alone make the green Martian a 15-point race, putting them on par with something like the fetchling or suli (by contrast, a halfling is 9 points).

But there's more to green Martians than their arms and size. There's also their ability to detect thoughts, their weapon familiarity with longswords and spears, their legendary ferocity, and a few other powers to boot. At the end of the day, green Martians are more like 23-25 points, putting them on par with the likes of svirfneblin (24) or trox (28), but well short of drow nobles (41).

The issue also includes rules for Barsoomian radium pistols and rifles, but I'll discuss that more in future blogs.

I've been very pleased by reaction to the first issue of Pathfinder Worldscape. I can't wait to hear what you think of issue #2, and look forward to hearing about your green Martian Pathfinder heroes and villains for years to come!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

Worldscape Workbook—The Fish that Got Away

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Pathfinder Worldscape #1, my new sword & sorcery supergroup crossover comic from Dynamite, is on newsstands and is shipping to paizo.com customers NOW! Early reviews are pouring in for the issue, and I've been thrilled by the initial response. Most readers seem to be digging the "fish out of water" story I've been building as our intrepid iconic heroes meet the likes of Red Sonja, John Carter of Mars, and Tarzan, and as the first issue shows, those meetings aren't always going to go down the way you might expect them to.

Each issue of Pathfinder Worldscape contains a short RPG appendix that translates some of Dynamite's heroes, races, equipment, and worlds to the official Pathfinder rules, and while writing comic stories featuring all of these amazing characters has been a wonderful and challenging experience, writing up their game statistics has, to me, often seemed even more wonderful—and definitely more challenging.

The biggest challenge, truth be told, is in fitting everything I want to say into the relatively short appendices. When you're suddenly unleashed on the world of Barsoom, for example, there's an awful lot to say, and not a ton of space to say it. For example, Pathfinder Worldscape #2, which releases three short weeks from now, was initially to include stats for the green Martians of Barsoom, stats for the most famous green Martian of all—John Carter's best friend Tars Tarkas—and stats for a new "warlord" archetype that will be used by both Carter and Tars as a way to model the "no-armor" fighting styles of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars books. All that plus a poster map and some ideas for how to use it in a Pathfinder game.

As it turns out, I only ended up having room for the green Martian rules in #2, plus some rules for radium rifles and pistols. Full stats for Tars Tarkas, as well as the warlord archetype necessary to stat him (and John Carter) up, will come in future issues.

But my space-bursting woes did not start with issue #2. I ran into similar trouble with Pathfinder Worldscape #1, and I thought it might be fun to use this week's Worldscape Workbook to take a peek at some Pathfinder rules that might have been.

I've already spent a lot of space in this column ballyhooing writer Gail Simone's 2013 "relaunch" of Red Sonja for a Dynamite arc entitiled "Queen of Plagues." I relied on Simone's characterization of Sonja for my take on the character in Pathfinder Worldscape, and I probably read the six-issue arc a half-dozen times during my preparation for the series.

Beside the great take on Red Sonja, which really does a lot to restore agency to the character's origin and remove some of the elements that might have made sense in the early 1970s but which seem regressive by today's standards, one of my favorite elements of the Queen of Plagues storyline were the weird fish-people used by Red Sonja nemesis.

Generally speaking, Red Sonja's world is more "mundane" than that of the Pathfinder world. Based as it is on Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age, the home of Conan the Barbarian, Sonja's setting is one of ancient human kingdoms, the occasional giant here and there, and maybe a serpent man lurking in the shadows. It's not—again generally speaking, because different writers and artists bring different approaches to each story—the sort of place where you wander into a tavern to find orcs rubbing shoulders with halflings, dwarves, and elves. When a genuine "monster" appears, it's generally a sign that something very unique and special is happening.

The fish-men of that first Dynamite reboot arc are—aside from some psychic ghosts—pretty much the only monsters in the bunch, and they stick out in a very good way. We see several images of the creatures, usually in crowd or battle scenes, and what we see is intriguing. Simone's fish-men, drawn by artist Walter Giovanni, echo the vast diversity of the oceans themselves. Some have heads like hammerhead sharks. Others have beards of octopus tentacles, or are encrusted with coral. Some loom large and powerful, others sqat and blubbery. All of them look interesting, and they also look like nothing I've ever quite seen in Pathfinder before.

So I wanted to include them from the very start. The red sea-creature Kelgeth, from the opening scene of Pathfinder Worldscape #1 in which Valeros finds himself on the Worldscape, belongs to this race. I included him in this early scene in part to show the diversity of the Worldscape as a unique representative of Sonja's Hyborian Age, but also because I thought his appearance would be a good anchor for a cool new Pathfinder race in the back of the issue.

That presented an interesting challenge that speaks to the difference between writing a comic and writing a gaming supplement. Although Gail Simone put a ton of cool characterization into snippets of dialog, and Giovanni's art made the creatures unique and interesting, none of Simone's scripts actually gives a formal name for the creatures. They're called "fish-men" a few times, but it's unclear if that's supposed to be the name of the race or if it's just something people call them dismissively. From a Pathfinder perspective, we generally like to avoid gendered pronouns in race names (we use "lizardfolk," not "lizard-men"), so even if that was supposed to be their name, it didn't really work for me. I started calling them "sea-spawn," and the name stuck in my head.

I imagined a Pathfinder Worldscape #1 appendix filled with options for your sea-spawn character. Want a big strong guy? You can! Want someone with a tentacle grab attack? Ok! Just choose from this list of options and build your very own unique sea creature, perfect for any campaign.

It never lasted more than a couple of days. Once I began laying down Red Sonja's sword-devil archetype and her stat block itself, it quickly became clear that I wouldn't have space to stat up the full sea-spawn race. Maybe I'll find time in a future issue, or maybe in some other future Worldscape project.

Until then, keep your eyes on the sea. You never know what might come out!

If you have not already done so, please consider picking up a copy of Pathfinder Worldscape #1 at your local comic shop or right here on Paizo.com! Or, to make sure you never miss a single Pathfinder comic you can set up a Pathfinder Comics ongoing subscription!

I'll be back next week for another Worldscape Workbook, where I'll talk about the game goodies to come in Pathfinder Worldscape #2! Until then, please let me know what you thought of the first issue of the comic, and if there's anything from the Worldscape you'd like me to make sure to make room for before I run out of RPG appendix pages!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

Worldscape Workbook—Today is the Day!

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Illustration by Pia Guerra

Pathfinder Worldscape #1, the first issue of my new comic series that teams up Pathfinder's iconic heroes with the likes of Red Sonja, John Carter of Mars, and Tarzan, comes out TODAY. As I write this, early reviews are already hitting the internet, and I'm thrilled with the positive response so far. Most of the commentary up to this point has focused on the comic book story itself, but here in my weekly Worldscape Workbook column, I like to focus on the RPG rules elements of each issue, and let you into my head a bit about some of the design decisions I made when adapting the Worldscape guest stars to the official Pathfinder RPG rules presented in each issue's appendix.

The first hero to get a full Pathfinder conversion is Red Sonja, who also features prominently in issue #1's story. Previous columns in this space have discussed Red Sonja's class, armor (or lack thereof), and adventuring gear. This week I want to discuss the "meat" of what makes Sonja different from other rangers, her archetype.

My desire to create credible "no armor" martial archetypes goes back to the very beginning, when Paizo Creative Director James Jacobs launched the first-ever Pathfinder campaign in our office conference room. I decided to play a barbarian named Ostog the Unslain, who in the years since has become a bit of a Pathfinder celebrity character, if only because I keep shilling for him (he never did die over more than 7 years of active gaming, after all).

In addition to being a great big gaming nerd, I'm also a book collector, and my shelves at home bulge with hundreds and hundreds of vintage sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks. Frank Frazetta's iconic portrayal of the bare-chested Conan the Barbarian made a huge impact on the paperback market of the 70s, and unarmored dudes in loincloths (and a few ladies following their example) basically took over sword & sorcery book covers for a decade or more. I wanted my barbarian to come from this "no armor" tradition, but in 2008, the options for pulling off such a character effectively using the Pathfinder RPG rules were essentially non-existent. I lobbied Pathfinder Lead Designer Jason Bulmahn—hard—to include a no-armor barbarian archetype in the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide, and the savage barbarian was born.

Previous Worldscape Workbooks have covered why Dynamite's version of Red Sonja isn't a barbarian, though, so no matter how effective Jason's archetype had been for Ostog, it didn't do me much good to use it for Red Sonja. Instead, I looked at the armor power of the savage barbarian and the armor class feature of the monk to create something totally new: the sword-devil.

The name of Red Sonja's archetype hearkens back to her classic "She-Devil with a Sword" appellation, only with the numbers rubbed off a bit so that Pathfinder can use it independent of a formal Red Sonja license. We'll eventually add all of the non-proprietary rules in these Worldscape appendices to the PRD and to tools like Herolab, though it make take until the release of the final hardcover collection of all six issues early in 2017. Right now the best place to get these rules is in the Worldscape RPG appendices in each issue.

I don't want to get into too many specifics of the archetype today—after all, I really DO want you to buy the issue—but a general overview is in order. Here's my commentary on each of the archetype's class features.

Class Skills: I knew I'd be trading the ranger's spells class feature, so it made sense to swap out Spellcraft for Acrobatics. Red Sonja doesn't know much about magic, but she certainly can leap around like a monkey.

Death Vow: This power is meant to model Sonja's "Curse of Hyrkania," which features prominently in her origin and in the Gail Simone-written 18-issue run that redefined the character for modern audiences in 2013. I've used that highly enjoyable run as a benchmark for Sonja's characterization in the Worldscape series, and this is no exception. In the comic, Sonja puts the Curse on an enemy to put them on notice that she will definitely be killing them later, but probably not MUCH later. The mechanics here are an attempt to model that on the game table. Had I more space, I might have included a few other original death vows, but these Worldscape appendices are pretty tight on space, and I needed to focus on the meat of the matter.

Slashing Fury: The Sonja stores heavily emphasize her Dexterity and quickness over her Strength, with a prominent recent Conan/Red Sonja crossover written by Simone and former Pathfinder comics scribe Jim Zub specifically mentioning that Conan is much stronger than Red Sonja, but that she's no less a combatant for it, balancing things out with speed and style. I ultimately settled on a 14 Strength for Sonja. That's decent, but not enough to keep her competitive with most martial characters, who probably put their highest score in Strength. I thus needed to come up with a way for Red Sonja to add her Dex bonus to melee weapon attacks, something that involved significant negotiation and development with Jason Bulmahn and Owen K. C. Stephens, who were both extremely helpful to me during the process of building Sonja's stats and this archetype. They drew the line at also allowing this power to add a Dex modifier to damage. I tried, folks! With the damage adds from her death vow, I don't think she's much poorer without the bonus, especially when fighting somebody she absolutely wants to kill.

Inspiring Example: If Red Sonja has any "powers" above and beyond her combat prowess, it's in the inspiration she gives those she meets along the way of her adventures. As a roaming nomad who has seen two different publishers and hundreds of different writers over the last 40 years, Sonja doesn't have a very large recurring back-up cast. That means her stories typically involve her showing up in a community, encountering a problem, and solving it before moving on to the next adventure (sound familiar, Pathfinders?). A VERY common element of these stories, however, involves Sonja meeting some poor victim of the problem at the beginning of the story and later having that victim gain confidence and help her to solve the problem that once seemed unsolvable. Sort of like Doctor Who, Red Sonja doesn't stay anywhere very long, and doesn't keep companions for very long, but she does manage to leave both people and places significantly better off than they were when she first arrived. As long as they're not evil, of course!

Untouchable: This is my armor kludge, and with Sonja's 18 Charisma and a passel of dodge bonuses spaced out over various levels, she remains competitive in the AC department, so long as she's got good bracers of armor on. If she were MY character, rather than an adaptation, I'd probably pop for a dusty rose ioun stone and an amulet of natural armor, too.

Second Combat Style: This one speaks for itself. For Sonja's stats, I focused on the two ranger combat styles from the Core Rulebook, but we've added a lot more in various books that could serve to make YOUR sword-devil even more distinctive.

Seething Fury: I always feel a little goofy designing class features for 19th and 20th levels. Do people ever really make it that high? This power and the next were inspired by Dynamite's semi-recent "Vulture's Circle" and "The Black Tower" miniseries, which depict a much older—and much more prone to crazy, supernatural violence—version of the character.

Avatar of Vengeance: This is right out of those stories, in which Red Sonja becomes a living avatar of death. I made effectively no effort to balance this capstone ability whatsoever. If you've survived 20 levels wearing no armor, you deserve a gonzo reward.

And that's it for the sword-devil! I next go to work on the warlord archetype for John Carter and Tars Tarkas. I thought I could fit that into issue #2, but details on playing green Martian characters and Martian radium weapons took up all my space for that issue, so the warlord will appear somewhat further down the road.

But I'll be talking more about that stuff in future installments of the Worldscape Workbook!

Thanks for your interest in Pathfinder Worldscape! Please grab a copy at your local comic store, pick up a copy here on Paizo.com, or set up an ongoing comics subscription here on the site to make sure you don't miss a single issue!

Pathfinder Worldscape #1 is on shelves now! I can't wait to hear what you think of it!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

Worldscape Workbook—Gearing Up Red Sonja, Part 2: Finishing Touches

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The first issue of Dynamite's Pathfinder Worldscape sword & sorcery crossover event hits comic stands NEXT Wednesday, and I couldn't be more excited! As the series author, I had a chance to push the series at New York Comic Con this weekend, and it was fantastic talking to so many comics fans eager to see how the big event plays out! I signed a bunch of Pathfinder comics at the Dynamite booth in my first-ever comic signing, and I'd like to thank all of the Pathfinder fans who made it such a fun and welcoming experience.

Before I get into this week's Worldscape Workbook, I want to remind everybody that I will be appearing live at 7:00 PM at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 19th, to celebrate the official release of Pathfinder Worldscape #1. If you're local to LA (or so fanatical you're pricing flights right now), I can't wait to see you at the event and chat about Worldscape, Pathfinder, Starfinder, or whatever else you have on your mind.

Can't make it to Meltdown next Wednesday? Can't make it to a comic store at all? Don't despair! You can preorder issue #1 right here on paizo.com. Or, to make sure you never miss a single issue, sign up for a Pathfinder Comics Ongoing Subscription!

Each issue of Pathfinder Worldscape comes with a bonus RPG appendix that translates some of Dynamite's most important characters to the official Pathfinder RPG rules. The first issue presents game stats for Red Sonja, the famous "She-Devil with a Sword" who has served as fantasy's most ass-kicking female protagonist since her comics debut in the early 1970s. Over the last several weeks, I've used this Worldscape Workbook column to detail my thoughts on translating Red Sonja's stories to the Pathfinder rules. I'll continue with other characters in the series—Tars Tarkas, Tarzan, John Carter, etc.—in weeks to come, but I've still got at least two more columns to cover before I'm done with Sonja.

Next week I'll reveal an overview of Red Sonja's much-anticipated "sword-devil" archetype, which allows rangers to swap out a bunch of their abilities to be more effective combatants while wearing no armor. (I mentioned in comments recently that with the Barsooman "warlord" archetype and probably a "lord of the jungle" archetype yet to come, Pathfinder Worldscape will be the "Catcher in the Rye" of no-armor martial archetypes.) Before I get to that, though, we've got a bit more ground to cover in terms of how I chose Red Sonja's equipment.

To recap previous blogs in the series, I first decided that Red Sonja's trademark "chainmail bikini" isn't armor at all. I then tried to figure out a way that her two armbands might be important original magic items before deciding, ultimately, to make them bracers of armor +4.

Recalling the simple list of Red Sonja's standard adventuring gear from last week's Worldscape Workbook, I knew that Red Sonja needed, at the very least, a longsword, a throwing dagger, and a shortbow. While the origin story that ultimately led me to determine Sonja was a ranger focused largely on her skill with a bow, that story was weighted toward Sonja's rural upbringing as a chieftain's daughter in the rugged Hyrkanian Steppes. In the modern day of the series, she's far more often depicted wielding swords and fighting in melee rather than at range. Yes, she often has a shortbow, and yes, she's very, very good with it, but a sword is definitely her primary weapon. They don't call her the "She-Devil with a Shortbow," after all. So the shortbow was in, to be sure, but I knew I needed to put the focus on melee weapons.

I knew that the sword-devil archetype I was designing would allow Sonja, eventually, at least, to choose multiple ranger combat styles. Because I wanted to build Sonja using the Core Rulebook primarily, rather than choose from the large number of ranger combat styles we've published over numerous books, that meant choosing between archery and two-weapon combat. Given that archery seemed like a secondary focus for Red Sonja, I decided to go with two-weapon fighting, even though Sonja is most-often depicted wielding a single longsword in the 18 Gail Simone-written issues I used as my primary inspiration for her game statistics. I also read dozens of other Red Sonja comics while writing Pathfinder Worldscape, and many of them depict Sonja with two weapons—most commonly a longsword and a short sword, but also occasionally a mace, an axe, or even a morning star. It wasn't a perfect solution given the source material, but I liked a Sonja who is better with swords than bows, so I'm confident it was the right decision. She'll get the archery combat style at 11th level, so it'll all balance out in the end.

Additionally, choosing the two-weapon combat style gave her access to Two-Weapon Defense as a bonus feat, which allows her an additional +1 shield bonus to Armor Class. Even with the armor-assisting archetype to come, Sonja needs all the help she can get in the AC department.

Sonja's swords themselves posed a bit of a problem. Unlike many fantasy heroes, Red Sonja doesn't have "a" singularly important blade with a unique name and history. The shape of Sonja's sword often depends on which illustrator is drawing her, and seems to be more a matter of artist preference than any attempt to hew toward a particular specific object. She most frequently wields a longsword with a sort of upward-turned half-moon hilt, but even this appears and disappears depending on her adventure. Further, while Red Sonja is definitely a formidable warrior and it's easy to assume that her blades carry a bit of magic in the Pathfinder RPG sense, they don't burst into flame, or talk to her, or float alongside her, or really do anything else to distinguish them from other swords.

I therefore decided to give her swords a simple enhancement bonus, +2 in the case of her primary longsword and +1 in the case of her short sword. I made her shortbow a +1 composite shortbow (+2 Str), allowing her to add the +2 bonus granted by her 14 Strength to give her added damage with ranged attacks.

All of that allowed me just under 3,000 gp left of her gear budget, which I dedicated to an item that allowed me to make sense of one of the most confounding elements of Red Sonja's skimpy armor—boots of the winterlands. I can buy that Red Sonja survives combats wearing next to nothing because her near nudity distracts her opponents (the "explanation" most often given within the comics themselves). I can buy that Red Sonja is such a skilled warrior she doesn't even need to wear armor.

I can't buy that she can survive in the winter wilderness wearing a metal bathing suit.

Boots of the winterlands allow Red Sonja to travel across snow at normal speeds (her enemies constantly curse her speed, so that works), but most importantly for my purposes, the boots warm the wearer as if protected by an endure elements spell.

Both of the illustrations accompanying this blog are by Jenny Frison, one of my favorite Red Sonja cover artists. I've liked both of these covers for a long time, but with boots of the winterlands, I no longer need to worry about how unrealistic it is every time we see her in cold weather.

A minor victory, to be sure. There will, I hope, be many more to come.

Check back at this space next Wednesday for a full overview of Red Sonja's sword-devil archetype, and check your local comic store on that very same day (October 19th) to grab your very own copy of Pathfinder Worldscape #1. Alternatively, start your Ongoing Pathfinder Comics Subscription today to make sure you never miss a single issue.

And if you're in the Los Angeles area, I'll see you next Wednesday at Meltdown Comics!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

Worldscape Workbook—Gearing Up Red Sonja, Part 1: Armbands

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

This week's Worldscape Workbook covers how I decided what magic items and adventuring gear to give Red Sonja for her official Pathfinder game statistics, but before I delve into the nitty gritty, I've got two announcements about personal appearances I'll be making to support Pathfinder Worldscape #1, which hits newsstands on Wednesday, October 19th.

Later this week I'll be signing pre-Worldscape Pathfinder comics I've written at the Dynamite booth at New York Comic Con! I'll be appearing from 4:00-5:00 on Friday and Saturday, and I'll even have some Pathfinder Goblin Mini-Mates on hand for dedicated Paizo blog-watchers.

At NYCC, I'll also be on Dynamite's "Dynamite Entertainment: Our Explosive New Comics of 2017... And Beyond!" panel on Thursday night at 7:30 PM at area 1A02 in the Javitt's Center.

On Wednesday, October 19th, to celebrate the official launch day of Pathfinder Worldscape #1, I'll be appearing at the world-famous Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles to sign copies of the new book and chat with Pathfinder fans! The signing starts at 7:00 PM. I'm super excited to visit the store again and to be a part of an official event there! Please join me!

Ok! With that out of the way, let's get down to Red Sonja!

In previous weeks, I've discussed the game design challenges presented by Red Sonja's "chainmail bikini," but of course the She-Devil with a Sword has more equipment than just her armor.

A few assumptions up front.

When determining Red Sonja's level, I wanted to leave enough room at the "top end" to allow for "future" Red Sonja stories like Dynamite's "Vulture's Circle" or "The Black Tower," and I didn't want Red Sonja to be so super-heroic that she was a novelty high-level-only NPC.

We assume the Pathfinder iconic heroes are about 5th or 6th level at the beginning of Pathfinder Worldscape. I wanted the versions of famous heroes they encountered in the Worldscape to be more capable than them (naturally), but still plausible adventuring companions under the Pathfinder rules, meaning they'd be similarly challenged by the same foes. So if the iconics were 5th or 6th, that meant I'd put folks like Red Sonja and John Carter closer to 7th. High enough to get the extra attack at 6th level, certainly.

To tell the truth, I had a lot of inertia to make Red Sonja 7th level. This has to do with the Pathfinder Society's rules for pre-generated characters, which come in a few specific levels, of which 7th is one. Let's just say I had reason to think it would be interesting to end up with stats that worked as a basis for a PFS pregen for Red Sonja and leave it at that. Nothing to announce, folks, I assure you. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Anyway, I ended up going with 8th level so Sonja would qualify for a class feature of her archetype that kicks in then, about which we'll talk in a near-future column. I'll reverse engineer her stat block to 7th later if I need to for whatever reason. For now I decided to go with the more interesting character build.

So, at 8th level, by the Pathfinder rules as a player character (because, come on, I'm not statting these guys up as anything less), Red Sonja should have 33,000 gp worth of gear.

That seemed like a lot, so I immediately started looking into the possibilities. First, I turned to my notes of all the gear I'd seen Red Sonja use over the first 18 issues of Dynamite's revamped series under the guidance of writer Gail Simone. Barring various different costumes or armor worn by Sonja over these issues, that list reads as follows:

• Sword
• Throwing dagger
• Leather gloves
• Left armband
• Right armband
• Leather boots
• Hooded cloak
• Shortbow
• Waterskin

As you'll recall from previous installments of this column, I had originally planned to design Red Sonja's chainmail bikini as a suit of "decorative armor" that offered a +0 armor bonus, but didn't count as wearing armor for certain class features. That meant that Sonja couldn't wear bracers of armor, which meant I needed a solution to cheat to get her improvements to her AC that would allow her to go toe-to-toe with other martial characters of her level, who generally would be wearing a lot more armor than she does.

I zeroed in pretty quickly on Red Sonja's armbands. Although each artist draws Sonja their own way, during the Gail Simone arcs, she had a pretty consistent look drawn by artist Walter Giovanni, who gave each of the two armbands a distinct appearance. Sonja's right armband was a solid ring of gold, while the one she wears on her left arm looks more like a coiled snake. Two different armbands, I thought, two different opportunities for some cool unique magic items to get around her armor problem.

I also had another problem I wanted to solve, and this one came from actual play. Over the summer, in particular at PaizoCon and PaizoCon UK, I ran special games based on the Pathfinder Worldscape ideas I was working on in comic scripts at the time. I kludged together a storyline similar to Valeros's manifestation in the Worldscape in Pathfinder Worldscape #1, complete with anachronistic enemies and the untimely arrival of a Barsoomian White Ape, and set it upon some of Paizo's biggest fans. At the end of these sessions, I set Red Sonja herself against the party—or at least a seriously "rough draft" version of the character cribbed from a kit-bashed stat block from the NPC Codex. And every time, she blew a Will save and the encounter ended prematurely.

So I wanted those two different armbands to do two different things. One, which I originally called an "armlet of natural armor" that enhanced your natural armor bonus and one called a "coiled armlet" that allowed you to reroll a blown save. The armlet of natural armor was a boring utilitarian item, essentially a slotless amulet of natural armor at twice the price. I didn't really think anyone needed to pay a professional game designer for such a simple idea, but oh well. She needed the bonus to her AC, sexy or not. The coiled armband was a little more interesting, but given that it involved creating a gp value for rerolling a failed save, I didn't quite know how to determine a price for it.

In this, as in so many things, I turned to Jason Bulmahn, and in the process of laying out an arcane way of doing it that I have already forgotten (but will try to get him to recount for a future blog), he reminded me that the feat Improved Iron Will would give Red Sonja that rerolled saving throw on the type of save for which she needed it most.

This was the same conversation that convinced me, ultimately, that Red Sonja's armor didn't need to be some rules-breaking contrivance, but that it could simply not be armor at all. Once the armor wasn't armor at all, that opened things back up for good old bracers of armor. I decided to give Sonja Improved Iron Will, which removed my other idea for a new, unique armlet.

At the same time, Dynamite supplied me with the illustration that would accompany Red Sonja's stat block in Pathfinder Worldscape #1. Much to my surprise, it did not feature two different armbands at all. Instead, this image of Sonja (by occasional Pathfinder Comics cover artist Carlos Gomez) has two solid gold armbands instead of two different ones.

At this point I decided to listen to fate, and I simply made Red Sonja's armbands bracers of armor +4 and called it a day. Sometimes the simplest solution really is the best one.

Speaking of calling it a day, I've rambled on quite a lot! We'll pick up this gear discussion next week, when I shift the focus to Red Sonja's weapons!

Until then, please do me a huge favor and consider setting up a Pathfinder Comics Ongoing Subscription. Doing so will ensure that you receive every issue of Pathfinder Worldscape delivered straight to your door. People are always asking what they can do to support the comic, and my answer is this: If you have a local comic store, ask them to add Pathfinder Worldscape to your pull list. If you don't have a local comic shop, please set up that subscription now!

I'll see some of you (I hope!) later this week at New York Comic Con and some more of you on the 19th at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles!

Thanks for your interest in Pathfinder Worldscape!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Worldscape Workbook—Choosing Red Sonja's Class

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

We're three weeks from the official release date of Pathfinder Worldscape #1, the first issue of the new Pathfinder comic series from Dynamite! Worldscape crosses over the Pathfinder heroes Valeros, Seoni, Kyra, and Merisiel with a host of sword & sorcery superstars including Red Sonja, John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Thun'da, Fantomah, and more! In addition to six monthly issues of pulse-pounding inter-dimensional adventure, each issue includes a Pathfinder RPG rules appendix that contains official game statistics for the series' guest stars, new race information for the unique creatures that appear in the series like Barsoomian green Martians, and so on. I'm writing the series, and taking the lead on the game design portions of the appendices. That's a huge honor, of course, but it's also a significant responsibility. When presented with such a cool opportunity, the last thing I want to do is mess it up!

I've spoken at length about the characters, plot, and origins of Pathfinder Worldscape with Bleeding Cool, Know Direction, and Things from Another World, but every Wednesday from now until the end of the series, I plan to peel back the skin of the RPG side of Pathfinder Worldscape right here on the Paizo Blog, in a new series I'm calling Worldscape Workbook.

How did I choose which characters to adapt? Why did I make this or that decision about how to bring their weird powers, equipment, or racial abilities into the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game? I'll be letting you know right here every week with a look into my thought process, as wrong-headed as that may sometimes prove to be.

I'm thrilled to be able to bring so many amazing characters from the sword & sorcery, pulp, and comics tradition to Pathfinder, and the resulting discussions around the Paizo editorial office were interesting enough that I thought you would appreciate a fly-on-the-wall look at how it's all gone down so far.

Last week, I kicked off the Worldscape Workbook with a look at Red Sonja's (in)famous "chainmail bikini," and how I jumped through several hoops and ran into some development dead-ends trying to figure out how to make it work in Pathfinder. In the end, I decided Sonja's skimpy armor wasn't armor at all, and resolved to use a special archetype to give her the Armor Class oomph necessary to go toe-to-toe with some of the nastiest customers of the Hyborian Age.

But as archetypes modify specific Pathfinder RPG class abilities, before I could get to the details of Red Sonja's archetype, I knew I had an even more important question to answer: What is Red Sonja's class?

The easy, almost reflexive answer, is that Red Sonja is a barbarian. Her past as the daughter of a chieftain in the Hyrkanian Steppes is more barbaric than cosmopolitan, to be sure, but (as with most things), the "simple" solution really isn't the best, and isn't very true to her character as presented in the comic books.

Which, actually, brings up a fair point. Red Sonja first appeared in a 1973 Conan the Barbarian comic written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor Smith. A natural female foil for the hard-headed Conan, comic book Sonja drew inspiration from Conan creator Robert E. Howard's Red Sonya (note the "Y"), a swashbuckler historical adventure character from the 1934 story "Shadow of the Vulture." In the more than 40 years since that original comic appearance, Sonja has had scores of writers and artists, all of whom brought their own approach to the character. Like many multi-decade comics heroes, there are a lot of "takes" on Sonja's origin, personality, and skill set.

To prepare for Pathfinder Worldscape, I read about 100 Red Sonja comics, ranging from her original 1970s adventures (published by Marvel) to the most recent issues of her current series from our partners at Dynamite. For key character details, I focused most strongly on writer Gail Simone and artist Walter Giovani's landmark 18-issue run that kicked off with the re-imagined origin of Red Sonja in the Queen of Plagues story arc from 2013. While keeping the most important elements of Sonja's origin and character intact, Simone's revamp gave Red Sonja more agency even before the tragedy that put her on the path of the warrior. Gone was the empowering goddess Scathach, the 1970s source of Red Sonja's fighting prowess. Gone was her ridiculous vow of chastity to only bed men who had bested her in combat. And gone, too, were other depressing elements of sexual violence to Sonja's origin story that probably seemed appropriate to a male comics writer in the early 70s, but which are grating and deeply un-empowering by modern standards.

For me, the Simone reboot keeps or amplifies everything that makes Red Sonja a compelling character while jettisoning the lamer elements of the original origin, creating a hero who cut her way to greatness under her own power as opposed to a puppet of a mostly absent chastity-obsessed war goddess. Opinions probably differ, but I considered it a vast improvement. I therefore turned mostly to the 2013 arc for issues related to Red Sonja's early life, which of course plays directly into decisions about her official Pathfinder class.

As I read through my huge pile of Red Sonja comics, it became very clear to me that Red Sonja was not a barbarian at all, at least by the standards of the Pathfinder rules. For starters, while Red Sonja certainly displays anger and combat prowess throughout her adventures, she doesn't "rage" in the traditional Pathfinder sense. Her anger and fury doesn't translate into short bursts of greater power. In fact, over the course of her adventures, "Strength" isn't really emphasized at all. During a recent Conan/Red Sonja crossover, Red Sonja's speed and, in game terms, Dexterity, were emphasized in direct contrast to Conan's Cimmerian brawn. Comic book Conan may, in fact, be a barbarian, but it's simply not a good fit for Red Sonja.

Ok, then, maybe she's something funky and off-beat like the Advanced Class Guide's brawler, or even a swashbuckler? Well, maybe, but for major heroes like Red Sonja and John Carter, I wanted to use one of the Pathfinder game's core base classes to start with, because I imagine these comics will be drawing in people who are roughly familiar with the primary Pathfinder game rules, but maybe not with our secondary or tertiary class books. So I decided to close that particular door before delving too deeply into it myself.

What about a fighter? Red Sonja is undoubtedly known for combat prowess, swordcraft, and bow skill. In Pathfinder terms, she's definitely in the d10 Hit Die camp, with the resulting "best" Base Attack Bonus progression that goes with it. Fighter certainly qualified on that front. The class would also load up Sonja with a bunch of cool combat feats, which would make her an even more formidable opponent—a design goal I definitely did not want to overlook.

All that said, fighter provided one major challenge, above and beyond the fact that Armor Training is one of the fighter's most important class features, and I'd already decided that Red Sonja basically didn't wear armor. I could always use Sonja's archetype to "swap out" Armor Training for something that gave her an Armor Class bonus when not wearing armor, but when you take away the fighter's Armor Training and Armor Mastery, there isn't an awful lot of other goodies left over to trade out for other archetype powers. And, after reading 100 Red Sonja comics, I knew I had some other powers I wanted to give her.

That led me to consider a solution that, when originally posted to my Facebook fan page before my reading spree, didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. What about the ranger?

A close look at Red Sonja's origin story suggested that the idea had a lot of merit. To recap, Red Sonja was the daughter of a chieftain of the Hyrkanian Steppes, a huge land in the east of Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age. When she was 12, marauders sacked her village and murdered the rest of the family, making vengeance a huge part of Sonja's motivation from almost the very beginning. Almost. Consider this interaction between Sonja and her father, shortly before the raiders arrive, when the family is out on a hunt.

So, by the age of 12, Red Sonja is "better with a bow than anyone in our village," and she knows "every bit of woodlore we can teach." Her father further adds, "No one can shoot or track better." That's compelling evidence and probably enough to make the case alone, but there's more.

Throughout the series, Sonja' enemies call her "Sonja the Hunter," an appellation she mentions herself, as well. In Simone's second story arc, The Art of Blood and Fire, a southern potentate named Emperor Samala hires "Sonja the Hunter" to track down the world's six greatest artisans for a party commemorating his imminent death and entombment. "I need a tracker," he says on the following page.

Want more proof? Here's Red Sonja tracking a group of fish-men through a watery swamp. Note also that Sonja uses a shortbow in this scene, which she does commonly throughout the series—further proof that I needed to figure out a way to work her ranged combat expertise into her overall rules presentation.

Lastly, Red Sonja shows strong animal affinity throughout her many appearances, and seems to especially despise cruelty to animals. In the aforementioned Conan/Red Sonja crossover (published by current Conan publisher Dark Horse under arrangement with Dynamite and co-written by Simone and former Pathfinder comics writer Jim Zub), Red Sonja encounters a cruel animal trainer named Kalayah, who later appears as one of Emperor Samala's "greatest artisans in the world," much to Sonja's ire. Check out the way she talks about Kalayah's horrible treatment of his performing animals.

Spoiler alert: It doesn't end well for Kalayah.

So that's several signifiers that point in the direction of a ranger: Excellent bow skills, total mastery of woodlore, respect and affinity for animals, tracking ability so strong her reputation as a hunter spreads to the leaders of distant foreign nations. And one more thing so common I didn't even bother looking for images to prove it to you—Red Sonja constantly fights with two weapons, another hallmark of the Pathfinder ranger.

Of course, the Pathfinder RPG ranger has a lot of class features that aren't appropriate for Red Sonja. She doesn't have an animal companion. She doesn't seem to favor a particular type of enemy over any other. She doesn't have what Pathfinder calls "favored terrain." And, perhaps most importantly, she doesn't cast spells.

While those inappropriate class features look like they disqualify the ranger from contention, in fact I was thrilled to have them. Staying competitive without wearing armor is a pretty major power, and I had other elements—such as Red Sonja's "Curse of Hyrkania" death vow—that were also going to be necessary to keep her competitive with other d10 Hit Die warrior types.

Making those powers work would mean swapping out significant, powerful, and frequently useful class features—exactly the type of "inappropriate" class features provided by the ranger.

To me, that looked an awful lot like a solution.

Red Sonja is a ranger.

She's not just a ranger, though. She's a ranger with the very special "sword-devil" archetype, which I'll begin to go into in next week's installment of the Worldscape Workbook!

Until then, please consider setting up a Pathfinder Comics Ongoing Subscription, which will ensure that you don't miss a single issue. If subscribing direct from Paizo isn't your thing, be sure to ask your local comic or game store to order you a copy of Pathfinder Worldscape #1, which releases on Wednesday, October 19th!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a green Martian named Tars Tarkas who desperately needs game statistics!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Worldscape Workbook—The Chainmail Bikini

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

We're a month away from the release of Pathfinder Worldscape #1, the launch of an all-new comic book series from our partners at Dynamite! Pathfinder Worldscape throws the Pathfinder adventurers Valeros, Seoni, Merisiel, and Kyra into a prison dimension that draws in the greatest warriors of three worlds, giving us the unique opportunity to cross over the Pathfinder adventurers with Dynamite's incredible roster of fantasy and pulp characters, including Red Sonja, John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, and a host of others. I'm quite excited about the series as a Pathfinder publisher and as a pulp fan, but to be perfectly frank, the thing that excites me most about Pathfinder Worldscape is the fact that I am writing it.

I've previously contributed scripts to the Pathfinder: Goblins!, Pathfinder: Origins, and Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain series, but this is my first go as the sole writer for all six issues, and overall the Worldscape project is one I've been working behind the scenes to make happen for years, almost since the very first Pathfinder comic ever came out. I'm thrilled and humbled by the opportunity to write comics featuring the iconic characters we created, but mixing that with the chance to script the exploits of characters created by Robert E. Howard (and Roy Thomas), Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Frank Frazetta pushes the experience over the top for me to the point that it's become a real creative highlight of my career.

Pathfinder Worldscape also provides me with the opportunity to work up official Pathfinder RPG game statistics for some of these legendary heroes. As with previous Pathfinder comics series, each issue of Worldscape contains a short RPG appendix and a pull-out miniatures-scale poster map. The first issue naturally leads with official game statistics for Red Sonja, one of Dynamite's flagship characters and one of the true pillars of sword & sorcery comics. Putting together Red Sonja's Pathfinder stats was a fascinating experience in game design and creative adaptation, and in the process of making it all work it occurred to me that it might be fun to open up my creative process a bit here on the Paizo blog, and discuss—step by step—my thought process on bringing these characters to life—Pathfinder style.

So, welcome to the first installment of the Worldscape Workbook, where I plan to do just that, on a more or less weekly basis. Throughout the month leading up to the Worldscape series and during the release of the issues themselves, I'll be opening up my brain here every Wednesday (because Wednesday is new comic book day!) and letting you know what went into adapting these characters, and why I made some of the decisions I did.

Even though I'm taking the design lead on this project, of course there are lots of other people involved, giving me suggestions, modifying my mistakes, and generally snickering about my bad decisions directly to my face in advance, ideally to spare me from all of you laughing in my face after the issue comes out, and it is too late to do anything about it. These conversations have taught me a lot about the design philosophy at play within Paizo's editorial and design department, and as I was sitting there thinking about how interesting it was to sink my teeth into this stuff, it occurred to me that a lot of you would probably find it pretty interesting, too.

I won't be posting the game statistics here on the blog—you've got to buy the issue for that—but I do plan to talk about why I made certain decisions, and (sometimes just as importantly) why I didn't make certain other design decisions (or why I did, and Jason Bulmahn made me change it). In the process I'll be revealing some of my own design blind spots and stupidities, which I figure some of you will also appreciate.

So let's begin at the beginning, with the character featured in next month's Pathfinder Worldscape #1: RED SONJA!

In the following weeks, I'll discuss things like Red Sonja's statistics, her new sword-devil archetype, her class, her equipment load-out, and so on, but first things first. I've got to address the chainmail bikini.

It goes without saying that there is not currently a bikini armor type in the Pathfinder RPG, so figuring out the value of Red Sonja's armor wasn't as simple as simply picking out something appropriate from the Core Rulebook. The smallest bit of armor there that's even remotely close is the chain shirt, and while the original version of Red Sonja way back in the 1970s DID wear a chain shirt (along with some fantastic hotpants), the current incarnation wears decidedly less material.

As an aside, one of my biggest surprises in researching about 100 issues of Red Sonja comics from various eras is that her chainmail bikini isn't really chainmail.

That's more appropriately a type of armor called "coin mail," which also isn't in the Core Rulebook, in bikini form or otherwise. So my first decision regarding Red Sonja's armor was that I was going to have to invent an entirely new type of armor for her, which I did:

New Armor Type: Decorative Armor

Little more than a few small patches of cloth adorned with bits of metal, decorative armor is more a fashion statement than practical protection. Despite its impracticality, decorative armor can be enchanted with enhancement bonuses and special armor qualities.

Cost 5 gp; Armor Bonus +0; Maximum Dex Bonus —; Armor Check Penalty 0; Arcane Spell Failure 5%; Speed (30 ft.) 30ft.; Speed (20 ft.) 20 ft.; Weight 5 lbs.

This passed muster with a couple of Paizo's developers, but "decorative armor" met its match when I passed it by Jason Bulmahn and Owen K.C. Stephens, who correctly pointed out that I had created it only as a kludge to get Red Sonja enhancement bonuses, and that this type of armor would be too tempting to monks and wizards, who would gain all of the upside while suffering none of the downside. Jason did thank me for at least putting that 5% spell failure chance in there, but I'd only done that as a trick to sneak it by him, and it didn't work.

So decorative armor was dead, as I pretty much knew it would be, and I had to figure out something else. To be honest, I wasn't too bothered, as the solution never really worked for me, anyway. Slapping three triangles of a dozen silver pieces over your breasts and crotch doesn't really make for effective protection of any kind, so facing rejection of my armor solution, I went back to my original original idea, which is far, far simpler.

Red Sonja's chainmail bikini isn't armor at all.

Instead, I decided, Red Sonja would derive most of her Armor Class from a combination of a naturally high Dexterity AND a special ability of her sword-devil archetype.

But an archetype requires a class, and what class is Red Sonja? Check back here next week, and I'll tell you!

In the meantime, check out a recent interview I did with Bleeding Cool about the series with lots of details on the plot, characters, and how the whole project came together.

You might also consider setting up a Pathfinder Comics Ongoing Subscription to make sure you don't miss the first issue, which hits comic stands on October 19th!

Thanks for your time, and we'll see you in next week's Worldscape Workbook!

Erik Mona
Publisher

The Mechanics Behind the Comics

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The final issue of Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain releases today, written by yours truly and drawn by the illustrious Sean Izaakse! Can Pathfinder's most heroic and villainous iconics overcome their differences long enough to defeat the demonic Castellan? Will Ezren teach Seltyiel the true value of friendship? Will Oloch and Valeros finally kiss? There's only one way to find out, and it's hitting your local comics shop as we speak!

It's been a blast writing this series with Erik and Wes, and while all three of us worked closely together to chart out the storyline and character arcs, it was extra fun to get to write the first and last issues—both setting the stage and then tying up all the loose threads. But writing a Pathfinder comic isn't all fun and games—or rather, the games aren't all fun. A lot of work goes into making sure that everything the characters do in the comics fits within the game rules and character abilities, and the review board of me, Wes, Erik, and Jacobs is merciless when it comes to making comic authors toe the line.

This issue in particular has a lot of magic flying around—so much so that Wes suggested I take a page of the raw script and post it up here for you to see what goes on behind the scenes. So if you've ever wondered what a comic script looks like, here's an example! (I guess I should add a spoiler warning, but this particular page was chosen to avoid revealing too much. Unless you consider "folks beat the dickens out of other folks" to be a revealing too much.)

Hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain, and thanks for supporting the comics!

James L. Sutter
Executive Editor

A Little Comic Relief

Tuesday, February 3, 2016

Hiya! We skipped the ACG blog last week, so we've got a lot of stuff to share! Here are three big pieces of big news:

The Runelords Rise Again

We have been working hard on the soon-to-launch Season of the Runelords (we're previewing it this weekend at Winter Fantasy in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and it's not too late to get in on that!) and we're trying something a little different this time.

The Season of the Runelords storyline begins after the conclusion of the Rise of the Runelords. In that Adventure Path, the heroes defeat a Big Bad Guy (is it possible to spoil a story we published in 2007?). We're picking up the story of the world after that defeat, with your fresh party of adventurers operating near the familiar town of Sandpoint.

We're big comics fans, and we love the fact that several of Dynamite's Pathfinder Comics storylines take place in and around Sandpoint. Season of the Runelords Adventure 1: Dark Waters Rising and Adventure 2: City of Secrets looks to some of those comics to provide their story backbone and scenario art. Adventurers will experience the depravity of the Mosswood goblin tribe and the intrigues of the city of Magnimar, as filtered through the collective imagination of the Pathfinder Adventure Card game team. I'm not sure whether that should frighten or excite you.

Adventure 1, which will debut at Winter Fantasy, is based on the first 12 issues of the comics, Dark Waters Rising and Of Tooth and Claw. It all starts on the road to Sandpoint, where mutated goblins attack the hapless party. When they arrive in town, there's talk of a flying beast that eats the local livestock. And the town council is in turmoil. How all these things weave together into an intricate 6-scenario plot is for you to discover.

Adventure 2 is based on City of Secrets and Origins. This arc brings us to Magnimar, where the clerics of Sarenrae and nobles of the city are being targeted by mysterious forces. When you find yourself embroiled in the gang turf wars of Underbridge, you'll wonder if the big city is big enough even for you.

In adventure 3, we'll head off to Hollow Mountain, about which we can share little at the moment—the Hollow Mountain comic book arc is ongoing. The first 2 issues are out, and the next two issues can be preordered. Get them if you want a preview of the excitement to come!

Did We Mention Goblins?

Speaking of gobbos, we announced that our Class Deck subscription has been hijacked by goblins! The first Goblin Class Deck (yeah, we know "goblin" isn't a class, but they don't seem to care) is entitled Goblins Fight!, features the rotters Reta Bigbad, Chuffy Lickwound, and Ak the Survivor, whom you might have met in the Pathfinder: Goblins! comics. They're nasty and fun, and also nasty.

So where's Mogmurch and Poog of Zarongel? They're in the next Class Deck after that, entitled Goblins Burn!, naturally. It's a lot more spell-focused than Goblins Fight! is. We'll have that up on the site for preorder next month.

And who's in Goblins Burn! with Mogmurch and Poog? Well, that's a secret we'll keep to ourselves for a few weeks yet. But trust us, it'll be worth the wait.

But If You Just Can't Wait, We've Got You Covered

Maybe you don't want to wait for us to give you more goblin characters. Maybe you want to make them yourselves. So here's some big news: DriveThruCards has expanded their online Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Card Creator so you can now make your own character, role, and token cards!

This means that all major card types can now be made with the community card creator. Check out the Card Creator to make your own cards and see what other members of the PACG community have cooked up.

That's a lot for one blog! So check out Season of the Runelords, the Card Creator, and (when it warms up a bit) the Goblin Class Decks. Have fun storming the Goblin Fortress!

Tanis O'Connor and Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Designers

Let's Be Bad

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

The second issue of Pathfinder Hollow Mountain just debuted, bringing along with it an unsettling revelation. As it turns out, Seoni, Valeros, Kyra, Merisiel, and Ezren aren't the only adventurers exploring Thassilon's ruins. Demons and undead, deadly traps and lethal magic fill the ancient halls of Hollow Mountain, but those threats pale in comparison to four of Pathfinder's most unscrupulous iconics: Meligaster, Damiel, Oloch, and—of course, my personal favorite—Seltyiel.

In outlining the Hollow Mountain comic series, Erik Mona, James Sutter, and I all had preferences on which issues we wanted to write. Dividing things evenly, we knew we each had two parts to play with. Erik had great ideas for the densest, most dungeony meat of the story, while Sutter wanted the bookends. As for me, I wanted the issues with the bad guys.

As you can see from the cover, Hollow Mountain #2 reveals that the iconic heroes aren't alone in the dungeon. Fresh from their faceoff in Pathfinder Origins #3, Seoni and Seltyiel butt heads again, now as leaders as their respective adventuring parties. To his side, Seltyiel's recruited several of Pathfinder's most morally flexible iconic characters, leading them in a quest for gold and glory—but mostly gold.

Talking brass stats, though: we've known for a long time that Seltyiel's not a nice dude—past character sheets clearly note his lawful evil alignment. Clearly greed, charm, and great fashion sense go a long way when it comes to being an able member of any adventuring group. Seltyiel's the organizing force behind these rival adventurers, but he doesn't have any illusions about his team's loyalty: they don't work for him, but rather for a promised payday. It's not secret that Seltyiel's my favorite of the iconics, so I'm absolutely loving getting another opportunity to give him a voice—especially the smirking, sarcastic one I always imagine him having.

By the same sinister token, Meligaster is chaotic evil. As a manipulator, he's climbing his way to the top on the backs and shoulders of enemies and allies alike. And what his ambition won't win him, his mesmerist powers will. At his heart, I think Meligaster's a coward, but unfortunately for everyone around him he's trained his entire life (and his considerable occult powers) to assure that no one ever finds that out.

Damiel's an interesting case, as he's chaotic neutral. He's brilliant, but also arrogant, utterly self-serving, and not interested in making friends. Damiel brings his mastery of alchemy into Hollow Mountain, curious about what ancient insights and strange reagents it might hold. Despite not being evil, though, he might be the most calculating and inhuman (in-elven?) of the explorers. This makes him a fascinating character to write, as what he's feeling never enters into his motivations.

Lastly, there's Oloch, another chaotic neutral character. With his battle fervor and devotion to Gorum, though, actual Pathfinder players might find him the most relatable member of Seltyiel's team. He's along for the treasure, sure, but there's also glory and adventure to be had, placing him staunchly on the line between brutal foe and potential ally. We've all had a lot of fun with Oloch, and the Star Trek fans among us have had to be careful not to write him too "Klingon."

As the shadows of Seoni and her team, Seltyiel and his troupe are every bit as clever and driven. Hollow Mountain #2 kicks off the two groups' clash, a rivalry running the rest of the series and that promises to leave our heroes wondering what's worse: an ancient wizard's deathtrap dungeon or other adventurers.

If you're like me and always find yourself rooting for the bad guys, you're going to dig the newest, nefarious issue of Hollow Mountain. Pick it up right here at paizo.com or at your favorite place to buy comics!

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

P.S. Have you SEEN issue #2's special edition, movie poster cover? Seltyiel Bowie is pretty much the best thing ever! :D

Hello, Mountain!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

It's November, and you all know what's special about this month, right?

No, not turkey. (Though I guess eating an evolved dinosaur is pretty cool, in a "mammalian pride" sort of way.)

No, not elections, either. I mean, democracy's great and all, but let's get our priorities straight here, people.

No, November's special because this is the month when the first issue of Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain releases!

I'll give you a moment to catch your breath and clean up the coffee mug you just dropped in your excitement. Ready? Okay.

Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain is the new comic series from Dynamite, written by me, Wes Schneider, and Erik Mona. We're the same team who brought you Pathfinder: Origins, but this time instead of doing six mostly independent stories from the iconic team's past, we're hopping back to the present and taking them on a brand new adventure.

But where to take them? When we got the go-ahead to pitch a new series arc, we pretty quickly came up with two key criteria. First, the series should involve a dungeon—given how central the idea of a dungeon is to our game and to RPGs in general, it seemed like we were well overdue for a true dungeon crawl. And second, we wanted to do something continuity-heavy—something that a lot of fans of the game would recognize. After all, one of the advantages of having three of Pathfinder's lead creators writing the scripts meant that we could probably be trusted to play with some of the big toys. We wanted a megadungeon that would be instantly recognizable to longtime players of the game.

Immediately, our thoughts turned to Hollow Mountain. That giant face on the side of a mountain had been taunting us since Pathfinder Adventure Path #1. While we'd already published a high-level overview of it in Dungeons of Golarion, we'd never actually sent characters face-to-face with its horrors. Plus, the chance to illustrate Runelords in the comics? Hell yes!

Yet as much fun as it is to see some of our most notorious villains come to life in the pages of issue #1, the biggest appeal for me was much more personal.

See, back before the comic series and the Big Finish audio dramas, the only time we ever got to hear the iconics actually talk was in the little chapter opener fiction snippets in the hardcover books. And with a handful of exceptions, I've written every one of those for the last 6 years. (If you've ever wondered why the characters seem to be constantly making fun of each other, it's because I find it hilarious!) So after spending more than half a decade helping to develop the iconics' personalities in 100-word bursts, it was a joy to finally get to write scenes with the whole team, showing how they work together in combat, express affection for each other (under that armor, Valeros is a big ol' softy)—and, yes, make fun of each other at every possible opportunity.

Of course, it's not just the main iconic team I'm excited to write. There are some other very familiar faces you're going to be seeing over the course of this series. But I'll let Wes talk about those next month...

See you all at the comics shop!

James L. Sutter
Executive Editor

There's Adventure in the Air—September and Winter 2016 Releases

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Today the skies are shining overhead in Redmond, where in the Paizo office we've been recovering from a busy and exciting convention season. But we all know and feel the loom of pumpkin spice, sweaters, and clouds that's ahead from our respective desks. And if your group is anything like mine, the end of September marks the start of regular game nights. And what better to kick off this glorious season by revisiting the Pathfinder related releases headed your way?

Illustration by Romanov Pavel

This month we're releasing our third Pathfinder Campaign Setting hardcover (under the Pathfinder RPG ruleset), Inner Sea Races. This 256-page volume delves into the history, culture, and powers of the the denizens of the Inner Sea, including in-depth coverage of the seven core races, and features of the uncommon races like goblins and tengu. You'll also find an array of new feats, spells, character traits and more to add flavor to your own character or home game. Our Project Manager, Jessica Price, has just kicked off our series of previews into the pages of Inner Sea Races, so look out for more information and art previews in the coming weeks!

Download Standard | Download Widescreen | Download Mobile

Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

But what about the folks that just kicked off their own Hell's Rebels adventure? The second volume, Pathfinder Adventure Path #98: Turn of the Torrent, takes your rebel band of do-good "miscreants" through the paces as they gather allies and establish their might with the Silver Ravens. Evil is running through the streets of Kintargo, and I won't spoil it for you, but your group should probably get on that. For reasons. Your Hell's Rebels character might want to take some notes from this month's Player Companion, Heroes of the Streets for inspiration as well!

Maybe your group is more into throwing down some cards? The fifth installment of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Wrath of the Righteous is coming out, and it's got demons. A whole lot of them. But what if you don't have a group? You might want to look into the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild, where you could bring our favorite monk, Sajan from the new Monk Class Deck, to the table in fist-to-claw-claw-bite demon combat.

We also brought back the long-awaited Pathfinder Combat Pad! Now armed with more magnets, this latest printing helps keep tracking initiatives in your game just that much easier. And if this isn't the only reprint you've been holding out for, we're happy to announce the next two installments of our Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics line, City Streets and Prison, are now available.

Here's a complete look at what's releasing this September:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #98: Turn of the Torrent
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Deck 5: Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Class Deck: Monk
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Races
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Heroes of the Streets
• Pathfinder Combat Pad
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: City Streets
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Prison
• Pathfinder Map Pack: Forest Dangers
• Pathfinder Pawns: Giantslayer Adventure Path Pawn Collection
• Pathfinder Legends–Mummy's Mask #1: The Half Dead City
• Pathfinder Tales: Beyond the Pool of Stars

November 2015 and Beyond!

In addition to our announcements made in the last roundup blog, which included the announcement of Pathfinder Adventure Path #100, today we're adding the latest Pathfinder Comics series: Hollow Mountain! The first volume is authored by our very own Executive Editor, James L. Sutter, where our heroes find themselves in a position where they just may have to try to get along with some the most notorious villains out there.

It might seem like 2016 is the very distant future, but not here! As we approach the new year, our Hell's Rebels Adventure Path concludes and the counter Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path will begin. Fans and followers of RPG Superstar will also see the release of our 2015 winner Monica Marlowe's module Down the Blighted Path in January as well (and I suggest you check out the hopeful module writers in the current competition going on now!).

The January 2016 lineup includes:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #102: Breaking the Bones of Hell (Hell's Rebels 6 of 6)
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Class Deck: Alchemist
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Hell's Rebels Poster Map Folio
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Arcane Anthology
• Pathfinder Module: Down the Blighted Path
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Noble Estate
• Pathfinder Tales: Pirate's Prophecy

The February 2016 lineup includes:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #103: The Hellfire Compact (Hell's Vengeance 1 of 6)
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Class Deck: Inquisitor
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Shadows
• Pathfinder Map Pack: Urban Sites

As always, the release dates are subject to change, but you can see the most up-to-date information on the Product Schedule page, or on each individual product page.

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

The Origins of Origins

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Of the many pleasant surprises we at Paizo have run into since Pathfinder's inception, one of the biggest remains the popularity of our iconic characters. Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised—after all, when Wayne Reynolds is doing the art, it's hard to not fall in love with whoever's getting painted. But when you get right down to it, the iconics were created to be tools. (And one might argue that some of them still are—we're looking at you, Alain!) The whole reason for their existence was to keep us from having to explain to each new artist what made a ranger a ranger and a rogue a rogue—we could just hold up Merisiel and say "draw her." But people started asking questions about the backstories, and before long we were writing Meet the Iconics blogs and seeding little bits of iconic fiction in the hardcover chapter introductions. Yet we held off on doing more, always feeling like the time wasn't yet right.

Then came Pathfinder comics. Before the contract with Dynamite even hit the table, we knew that we'd found our chance to bring the iconics to life. With Jim Zub as our writer, we knew the iconics were in good hands, and it was a thrill to sit back for a change and watch them go.

But we still had far more iconics than just that core team, and after several story arcs, we really wanted to tell more tales from the main series characters' early lives. So Erik Mona came up with the idea of Pathfinder Origins, a place for us to explore how our heroes got to be who and where they are, as well as introduce some of our other favorite iconics. With Jim busy on other projects, it was up to three of us Paizo staffers—Publisher Erik Mona, Editor-in-Chief F. Wesley Schneider, and Executive Editor James L. Sutter—to chart the course.

Since Erik's already spoken at length about the first issue, we brought in Wes and James to talk about issues two and three, both available now!

Pathfinder Origins #2

I think it's no secret that getting to write for comics is something of a dream come true for all three of us. While we'd all written our share of art orders, to be able to see an entire story come to life in the hands of a talented artist is a special kind of thrill, and it still hasn't worn off. (As everyone who sits near me in the office can attest, I still can't help but crack up every time I look at Vint the ratfolk from issue #2.)

For me, there was never any question of which characters I most wanted to write—a Kyra and Seelah team-up was simply too good to pass up, for a number of reasons. It's well established that I like writing about religion in Pathfinder, and here was an opportunity to show interactions between two characters of different good-aligned faiths. I wanted to show that paladins don't have to be gruff hard-liners or sticks-in-the-mud, and to explore that interplay between righteousness and redemption. And most of all, I wanted a cover that was two badass women-of-color warriors in sensible armor—which Stjepan Sejic (of Rat Queens, Witchblade, and more) delivered and then some.

Many thanks to everyone who's already picked up the issue (and double thanks to anyone who's reviewed it!). I can't wait to come back and show you all issue #4, in which the torturers of Nidal learn why locking up Merisiel causes more problems than it solves...

James Sutter
Executive Editor

Pathfinder Origins #3

Seoni got short shrift. Being the second character to get a Meet the Iconics blog in Pathfinder's earliest days, her write-up lacks much of the in-world detail of those that came later. While we got a bit more on Seoni's background in scattered pre-generated character write-ups and in the NPC Codex, details on her remained pretty thin for a long time. That changed a bit with issue 5 of Pathfinder Dark Waters Rising. In there, Jim Zub presented a grim flashback to Seoni's youth—the manifestation of her magic, getting her tattoos, and interactions with other Varisians. It was more than we'd seen before, but also raised several even more tantalizing questions.

Hazy details weren't the only complexity we had with Seoni, though. Over the years, we heavily detailed the Varisian people and their culture—Seoni's culture. Gradually, a bit of a gulf formed between Seoni's appearance and what we'd defined as the Varisians' traditional look. So what's the deal?

Then, atop that heap of quandaries, there was the ever-popular question: Why's Seoni dress like that?

Mysterious history, atypical appearance, distinctive dress—oh, and did I mention she's lawful neutral too? Despite being one of our most popular iconics, Seoni sure seemed to present more questions than answers. So, when the chance to work on the Pathfinder Origins series came up, I knew I wanted a crack at figuring some of those mysteries out!

As a result, Pathfinder Origins #3 reveals more about Seoni than we've ever seen before. Want to know about her life exploring Varisia? There's a good bit of that. Want to know about her family? Turns out Seoni looks a lot like her mom and has a little brother. How'd she wind up with her robes? Well, they didn't look like that to begin with. What's the real story with her tattoos? That's exactly what she's trying to find out.

For all the details about Seoni's past, though, the real story's about her early days learning what it means to be an adventurer and a leader. She's not taking the easy road either, navigating the rigid city of Korvosa, dealing with Hellknights, and reawaking ancient Thassilonian magic. Fortunately, in the course of things, she learns something her magic's really good for and that her strength comes from more than just slinging spells. The comic presents the perfect medium not just to show off more of Varisia, but also to highlight Seoni's personal brand of explosive problem solving. Overall, I think folks are really going to dig learning about one of Pathfinder's most dynamic characters, while still wanting to know more about the leader of the iconic team.

Oh, and my personal favorite iconic, Seltyiel, shows up. I figured that if we're showing some skin, we'd better make sure there's something for everyone.

F. Wesley Scheider
Editor-in-Chief

There's still time to get in on the action! Be sure to pick up the first three issues of Pathfinder Origins, available right here on paizo.com or in comic shops everywhere. Also, check out the awesome Paizo Exclusive covers for issues Origins #1: Valeros, Origins #2: Kyra, and Origins #3: Seoni, only available here on paizo.com!

Editing Pathfinder: Origins

Thursday, February 5, 2015

I must admit I'm not an RPG player. I didn't grow up playing D&D, and never picked it up along the way.

However, that hasn't stopped me from enjoying editing the Pathfinder comics at Dynamite. Getting to know the characters and settings of Paizo's rich Pathfinder world has been a treat. I've watched the iconic characters of the game come to life, and gotten to know how they talk and behave: Seoni the sorcerer, Valeros the fighter, Kyra the cleric, Harsk the dwarf ranger, Ezren the wizard, and Merisiel the elf rogue. The world of Pathfinder works well with the strengths of comics as a medium. There's no story too big to tell when working in comics, and the stories so far have been pretty grand, thanks to Jim Zub.

In Dark Waters Rising, the companions investigated a strange magic that gripped the goblin tribes of Varisia, changing and unifying them. At the heart of the strange evolution was an ancient evil force that nearly killed the adventurers before they found a way to overcome it.

In Of Tooth and Claw, the group went on a hunt for the creature terrorizing the locals of Sandpoint (Black Fang the dragon), and in the process found more than they bargained for. A seemingly simple monster hunt became a twisted tale of danger and betrayal as the Cult of Lamashtu exacted its revenge.

In City of Secrets, our heroes headed to the city of Magnimar. As Ezren sought an audience with the Pathfinder Society, his adventuring allies explored the city's ancient magic, well-hidden secrets, and deep political divides. The dangers and opportunities of the big city were almost too much for the group to endure...

And that brings us to our newest series, Pathfinder: Origins, which delves deeper into the histories of the Pathfinder iconic characters, and introduces new characters to the comics. Get ready to see Amiri the barbarian, Seelah the paladin, Lini the gnome druid, Seltiyel the half-elf magus, Sajan the monk, and Lem the halfling bard come to four-color life, as they each interact with the core iconics in brand new adventures.

Another cool aspect of Pathfinder: Origins is that it's written by key Paizo staff: Erik Mona, F. Wesley Schneider, and James L. Sutter have all helped create the constantly expanding world of the Pathfinder RPG. And they have done a fantastic job here of not only telling great individual stories, but working to interweave them in this series. The result is something fresh, new, and fun. Take a look at the sample pages below by Erik Mona and artist Tom Garcia for just a hint of the exciting action in store.

Pathfinder: Origins ships monthly February through July from Dynamite, and is available right here on Paizo.com. Each issue will contain a new playable map/poster, as with prior issues. We can't wait to hear what you think of it. And come back later to find out what we have planned after Origins!

Rich Young
Editor/Dir of Biz Dev
Dynamite Entertainment

A Secret Commentary

Thursday, May 22, 2014

In case you missed yesterday's exciting announcement, the latest Pathfinder comic story arc, City of Secrets, launched yesterday to a comics shop invasion! We're still receiving isolated reports from far-flung Pathfidner agents that a few limited-edition Retailer Exclusive issues are still available among the brick and mortar retailers, but even if they aren't you can still secure your own copy of the Paizo.com exclusive cover variant and not miss a moment.

Author Jim Zub was kind enough to provide us with page-by-page story commentary, so you can follow along with the creative process!

Page 1: Starting up a new story arc and a new issue #1, it's nice to get a brief reintroduction to our adventuring heroes. Leandro does a wonderful job of illustrating the cast, following the detailed style of the Pathfinder game very closely.

Page 2-3: A tough shot but Leandro pulls it off beautifully. The city of Magnimar has really specific geography, a distinctive look and feel I wanted to make sure was well established as the characters arrived in their new home.

That huge ruined bridge in the background is the Irespan, a remnant of a much earlier time. The shadow beneath that impressive monument is called, appropriately enough, Underbridge and the Shadow District. That's where the poor and downtrodden find themselves, as well as some of the more unsavory characters of Magnimar.

Having a small excerpt from the Pathfinder Chronicles at the start of each issue is a useful way to fill in a bit of back story and give readers extra appreciation for the depth and care the Paizo crew have put into designing their fantasy world.

Page 4: The group left Sandpoint at sunset and, about 24 hours later, arrives in Magnimar at sunset as well.

Gauging each of their reactions to the city was fun to put together.

Page 5: In the second story arc we started a relationship between Kyra, the Cleric, and Merisiel, the Rogue. Readers have responded well to these two opposites coming together and this story arc carries on that relationship, giving them some new challenges to overcome.

Page 6: Speaking of Kyra and Merisiel, the two ladies got themselves into an overnight caper in our super-sized Pathfinder Special and we tie into that here. It's a fun done-in-one story that deepens the bond between the two of them.

Page 7: When the group was in Sandpoint or on the road Seoni had a clear understanding of how to lead them, but now that they're in the city the group is pulled apart by their different goals and responsibilities. If you've ever played a tabletop RPG this is actually a pretty typical scenario. City encounters tend to involve lots of splitting up and prep before the next big adventure. I wanted to reflect a bit of that and show how varied everyone's approach is to their first day in Magnimar.

Page 8-11: Ezren's age leads everyone to assume he has a great deal of wisdom and experience, but the truth is that he's kind of a tragic figure. He didn't start training and adventuring until quite recently and that lost time weighs heavily on him. It's a feeling of inadequacy that he struggles with and something I want to explore with him in this story arc.

Sheila Heidmarch is a well known figure from the Pathfinder setting material. She's powerful, confident, and beautiful – an intimidating combination, especially to someone like Ezren. Her capabilities reflect exactly how much time he wasted in his youth.

Page 12-13: Unlike many dwarves, Harsk loathes the city. He hates the hustle and bustle of city living and finds the social etiquette required to coexist so close to so many other people frustrating and unnecessary. Writing Harsk in the city was a challenge, but I like putting him out of his element. Thankfully Alabastar Park is more his speed.

Page 14-15: Valeros was at the forefront of the action in our first story arc so it felt like a good idea to have him ease back a bit here and let others push the plot forward. Val's feeling a bit cocky after the group's previous successes and doesn't realize that in many ways the city is even more dangerous than the open wilderness and dungeons they've tackled before.

Page 16-17: Kasadei arrives and the plot thickens. Like our second story arc, this one uses material from a Pathfinder adventure as a base structure to build our story from. In this case it's a short adventure scenario called "Dawn of the Scarlet Sun" written by James Jacobs. James and I chatted at Gen Con last year and came up with some fun ways to incorporate material from that adventure in with my ongoing plans for the evolution of the Pathfinder storyline.

Page 18: Having an ensemble cast of six main characters means that when the group splits up I have to jump around quite a bit to make sure everyone gets enough "air time".

I like the contrast between Merisiel's "Devil may care" attitude and Kyra's pious confidence. The two of them are so very different, but I think that's why they make such a good couple. They teach each other about a life the other has never lived and they're both stronger for it.

Page 19: Background info as someone spies on them from the shadows. Events have taken place in Magnimar before our adventuring heroes arrived and other things will happen once they leave. Giving an environment a sense of history is important as it helps build that impression of a larger living fictional setting.

Page 20-21: Faith can be a touchy subject, but I really like writing Kyra because her faith in this fantasy world is so different than our own. In the world of Golarion people know the gods exist because they have immediate proof. Deities give their followers access to powerful magic and heed their prayers. In that world it's not a matter of belief, it's more about choice. Do you choose to follow a deity and look to them for guidance or do you strike out on your own? Kyra and Merisiel embody those two extremes.

Page 22: Merisiel let her guard down as she was emotionally overwhelmed by the power of Kyra's prayers and now they've got problems.

Even though there isn't any full blown action this issue, there's an atmosphere of tension that runs through this first chapter as we showcase each character and set pieces in motion, prepping everything for the dangers ahead.

Who are these well-armed bandits and what do they want with our adventuring pair? Read onto issue #2 and find out as Pathfinder: City of Secrets continues with action and intrigue aplenty!

And don't forget that our Heroes of Magnimar contest will be wrapping up soon! If you want your characters to be enshrine in Golarion canon forever, head on over to our contest page and learn how to submit!

The Secret is OUT!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Today is the official worldwide release date for Paizo's newest comics project, Pathfinder: City of Secrets #1! With a great story by rising comics phenom Jim Zub, amazing art from newcomer Leandro Olivera, and the triumphant return of removable poster maps with each issue's Pathfinder RPG appendix, the new series is truly a cause for celebration.

So we're doing just that! Starting today, Paizo has teamed up with expert Pathfinder Society GMs to host special in-store Pathfinder RPG sessions at comic and game stores throughout the next several weeks. This Pathfinder Comic Store Invasion features original encounters based on the poster maps in the first issue. Participants will receive fun rewards they can apply to new or existing Pathfinder Society characters. Check the events page for a list of participating stores in your area.

Pathfinder: City of Secrets #1 sees our familiar iconic heroes—Valeros, Seoni, Merisiel, Kyra, Ezren, and Harsk venture to the city of Magnimar. Ezren seeks counsel with the Pathfinder Society, hoping to bargain his research into the events of the comic's previous volume into a field commission. This brings him to the offices of Pathfinder Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch, a character familiar to players of both the Shattered Star Adventure Path and many a Pathfinder Society scenario.

Kyra and Merisiel, following the events of the recent Pathfinder Special One-Shot, seek out a famous abandoned shrine of Sarenrae in the shadow of the Irespan. There they run afoul of another group of familiar villains—but that's a spoiler for another day.

The familiarity Magnimar offers gives us plenty of opportunities to tie the comic more closely to the Pathfinder world, and it's been a thrill to read Jim's excellent scripts and see Leandro's spectacular art. I'm glad that the gap between today's release and the final issue of the previous volume gave us a chance to "bank" several issues of finished art, as I'm terrified Leandro will be poached for a major title once more editors get to see his phenomenal work. Best of all, he brings an eye for detail that makes him particularly suited for the adventures of Wayne Reynolds's iconic Pathfinder heroes.

Amid all of the call-backs to existing lore, Jim Zub's script portrays the iconic characters with real emotion. We learn more about their characters, motivations, and personalities in this series than in previous arcs. We see Seoni wrestling with the responsibilities of leading the group, Harsk's uneasiness amid the bluster and bustle of the big city, and the development of Kyra and Merisiel's still-fresh romance. City of Secrets offers lots of inventive battles against hideous foes, of course, but it's also packed with genuine emotion and character moments for the whole cast.

And the pull-out maps are back, thanks to your requests. The maps have been among the most popular features of the line, and I'm thrilled to see their return. The first issue features a map of Magnimar's Old Fang Tavern, a handy little spot perfect for staging a bar room brawl.

I did just that when I wrote the Tavern Brawl encounter for the City of Secrets Comic Store Invasion event. Stop by participating stores to see how you and your friends can help save the day when the bottles start flying and people start swinging chairs.

The Comic Store Invasion event packet also includes another encounter—also by yours truly—featuring a pack of Pathfinder goblins attacking a modern comic store. Only the iconic heroes stand to defend the sanctity of new comic book Wednesday! That encounter—and the modern comic store map that goes with it—is available exclusively in the Retailer Exclusive edition of the debut issue. This extremely rare issue was limited to stores that ordered 500 copies or more of the first issue. In the likely event that your store placed a more modest order, you can always get the Paizo.com edition of the Retailer Exclusive cover right here on our webstore.

And did I mention the Heroes of Magnimar contest? Hop over to the contest page to submit a 300-word description of YOUR hero of Magnimar. A team of Paizo judges will select one character each month to be illustrated by Dynamite's comic artists, and a chosen character's stats will appear in the RPG appendix of each issue starting with #2 next month.

So! Your mission today is to head over to your favorite local comic store (or game store that sells comics, of course) and pick up a copy of Pathfinder: City of Secrets #1! The better the comic does in this crucial first week of sales, the more retailers will order of the follow-up issues, ensuring a long future for Pathfinder comics.

The best way to ensure that future, of course, is to set up an ongoing Pathfinder Comics subscription right here at Paizo.com. Subscribers receive substantial discounts on comic purchases, and can elect to have their comics bundled with other Paizo subscriptions to save money on shipping. If you love the comics and want to do whatever you can to help them succeed, subscribing is absolutely the best thing you can do.

All of us here at Paizo put a lot of work into the Pathfinder comics we produce. Your support means the world to us.

To the comic store!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Lost & Found

Friday, May 9, 2014

With the Reign of Winter set scheduled for release next month and the last three figures from that set being previewed last Friday, it's time for a very special event here on the Friday preview blog—it's time to reveal the next set!

I'm very pleased to announce that the next set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic gaming figures will be The Lost Coast! The Lost Coast of Varisia stretches from the city of Magnimar to the mighty Fogscar Mountains. It's a wild and desolate country full of lingering fogs, small woodlands and crashing waves. It's also a land of cultists and bandits and monsters of all description. Many an adventuring party has travelled to the Lost Coast seeking fame and riches, never to be heard from again...

The Lost Coast set contains 45 figures, and is scheduled for a November 2014 release. The set is not based on a specific Pathfinder Adventure Path, like Reign of Winter or Wrath of the Righteous. Rather, the creatures in this set take their inspiration from the wealth of Pathfinder products released to date, with a special focus on creatures native to Varisia, home of several of our Adventure Paths and some of our most popular releases across all our product lines.

Expect to see a wide variety of monsters, heroes, and humanoids culled from these sources. We'll fill in some gaps for encounters based on existing Pathfinder Battles figures, and flesh out some entirely new monster types we have not yet produced in the line.

I'm very excited by this set. For the first time in a long time, we were able to build an entire set around simply which creatures and images would look coolest, and which would be useful to the largest number of players. Adventure Path-themed sets are great and lead to some really unique figures that we otherwise would probably not do, but with sets like The Lost Coast, it all comes down to table use and illustration quality, period.

Oh, and the Gargantuan case incentive, the mighty Shemhazian Demon, is face-meltingly awesome. I don't want to spoil things by bragging about it before we show the image (which isn't quite ready yet), but you guys are going to freak out when you see this hideous creature. It's the biggest—and heaviest—Pathfinder Battles figure produced to date. Given that people have been asking for this creature since our second set, Rise of the Runelords, I am happy to finally provide it.

But, as I am wont to do, I'm getting ahead of myself. The Shemhazian will get his place in the spotlight in due time. In the meantime, let's take a look at three of the set's "troop builder" units—the Cult of Lamashtu.

Here we have a Lamashtu Cultist, inspired by the art from the first 12 issues of Dynamite Entertainment's Pathfinder Comics. The cultist is depicted holding a bubbling cup of magical liquid—the mystical waters of Lamashtu so pivotal to that series and to events in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path. This figure in particular is drawn from art by original Pathfinder comics illustrator Andrew Huerta, so the face in particular is a little more expressive than in several of our other figures. I love it. This guy is definitely unhinged. The Lamashtu Cultist is a Medium, common figure.

A cultist ain't nothing without some muscle to back him up. This set contains two examples of the sort of armed scum that make a cult work. Lamashtu Thug 1 is good for up-close work with a couple of nasty daggers and a domino mask, just as we saw in Pathfinder Comics #7–8. As a Medium common, you can combine this figure with the other minis in today's preview to build a really sweet battle against agents of the cult of Lamashtu. For that matter, this guy easily doubles as a bandit, highwayman, or even a masked player character.

Lamashtu Thug 2, here, is ready to back up his team with his trusty crossbow. His colors match the robes of his companions. There's a bit of wash-out on the photos here that makes the robes look a little less detailed than they do in hand. When all three of these guys stand together they look really imposing and awesome. The Lamashtu Thug 2 is a Medium, common figure.

And that's not all. The set also includes a few other figures that work in concert with the Lamashtu cultists, including leaders and monsters—but we'll get to them in future weeks, as their paint masters have not yet been completed.

As I mentioned, these figures take their inspiration from Dynamite's Pathfinder Comics. We're about to start up a new Pathfinder comic series, Pathfinder: City of Secrets, which brings the iconic characters to the city of Magnimar (on the Lost Coast, naturally). All issues of the new series contain detachable poster maps, and the first one comes out in just a week and a half, on Wednesday May 21st. You can set up an ongoing subscription to the comic to make sure you don't miss a single issue. With a hot new artist, poster maps and Pathfinder RPG encounters in each issue, and a fun urban storyline, I expect the new series to sell well and rapidly. Make sure you don't miss out!

That's it for this week. We'll have much, much more to say on this set and many more figures to preview in the weeks to come!

We'll see you on the Lost Coast!

Erik Mona
Publisher