Meet the Iconics: Kyra

Monday, July 30, 2007

The priests of Sarenrae lead double lives. Known to her faithful as the Dawnflower, the Healing Flame, and the Everlight, she teaches temperance and patience in all things. Compassion and peace are her greatest virtues, and if enemies of the faith can be redeemed, they should be. Yet there are those who have no interest in redemption, who glory in slaughter and death. From the remorseless evil of the undead and fiends to the cruelties born in the hearts of mortals, Sarenrae's doctrines preach swift justice delivered by the scimitar's edge. To this end, she expects her faithful to be skilled at swordplay, both as a form of martial arts promoting centering of mind and body, and so that when they do enter battle, their foes do not suffer any longer than necessary.

Her priests are often categorized into these two camps—those who favor redemption as a method to defeat the enemy, and those who favor the blade. Kyra is certainly one of the latter. Born in a small farming town to loving parents, Kyra grew up in the shadow of one of the Dawnflower's shrines. She was taken at a young age with the beauty of the shrine's stained glass, and the grace of the three priestesses who practiced swordplay on the nearby hill each dawn as they offered their morning prayers. When bandits attacked her small town, Kyra watched as the priestesses did their best to reason with them—and when that came to naught, to end them before they could do more damage. Unfortunately, the bandits were too strong, and the village burned. Kyra was one of the few survivors, and on the smoking ruins of the shrine she swore her life and sword arm to Sarenrae, swore to protect those who could not protect themselves and to not spare the blade when the time for redemption passes.

Possessed of a fierce will and pride in her faith and skills with the scimitar, Kyra has traveled far since her trial by fire. She lost her family and home that fateful day, yet where another might be consumed by anger and a thirst for revenge, Kyra has found peace in the Everlight, and in the belief that, if she can prevent even one death at evil hands, her own losses will not have been in vain.

Kyra, along with the rest of the first four iconics, makes her debut as a pregenerated character in volume 1 of Pathfinder and D1: Crown of the Kobold King.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Magnimar

Friday, July 27, 2007

Making its grand debut in Pathfinder #2, I hereby give you Magnimar—City of Monuments.

1 The Irespan 2 Alabaster District 3 Marble District 4 Bridgeward 5 The Capital District 6 Naos 7 Vista 8 Grand Arch 9 The Arvensoar 10 The Bazaar of Sails

11 Dockway 12 The Rubble 13 Keystone 14 The Marches 15 Beacon's Point 16 Rag's End 17 Silver Shore 18 Kyver's Islet 19 Ordellia

For a more detailed view, click on the image.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Elemental Mysteries, Part 2

Thursday, July 26, 2007

The four elements—air, earth, fire and water—have fascinated man for thousands of years. Yet, there are still many mysteries that have yet to be solved. Elements of Power—the next set in the GameMastery Item Card line—is due to release next month, and if you can solve some of the mysteries of the elements, you might just score a free deck.

One elemental mystery will be presented each week. Answer it correctly and get entered into a drawing to win a free deck of Elements of Power Item Cards, shipped to you when the set releases. Just send an email with your answer, your name, and your paizo.com screen name to contest@paizo.com.

Earth is the focus of our investigation this week. There are a number of items in this set with an earth theme, including items made of stone and metal or etched with acid. Each one of these items is of sturdy construction, with the power of earth behind them. Look for these and other items like them in the upcoming set. Next week, things get hot.

Mystery of Earth: What size Earth Elemental could be thrown by a stone giant of Huge size (assuming the elemental was willing and counted as a rock)?

All answers for the Mystery of Earth are due by 12:01 PM Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, August 2nd. Good Luck!

Mystery of Air Solution: Congratulations to Mike Davis, who figured out the correct answer that an air mephit (which counts as size Tiny when flying for the purposes of wind effects) would be blown up to 120 feet.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Kicking Down The Door

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

That more people don't know the name C. L. Moore is one of the biggest tragedies in science fiction and fantasy. This October, Planet Stories plans to do everything we can to change that.

First published in Weird Tales in 1934, Catherine Lucille Moore was writing science fiction and fantasy in a time where female authors were rare across the board, and practically unheard of in genre fiction. Abbreviating her name to hide her gender, Moore quickly rose through the ranks of the pulp authors, publishing alongside contemporaries like Robert E. Howard and even earning praise from H. P. Lovecraft himself. (So successful was her disguise, in fact, that she first met fellow SF author Henry Kuttner when he wrote her a fan letter believing her to be a man. The two were married a few years later, and went on to collaborate extensively.) What's more, she continued to excel once her gender became known, and in doing so paved the way for countless female fantasy and science fiction authors to come.

In Black God's Kiss, we've collected all six Jirel of Joiry stories, in which Moore introduced the world to the first-ever female fantasy protagonist. Where the pulp stories around her were filled with distressed damsels and helpless shrinking violets in need of rescue, Jirel burst onto the scene larger than life. Sword swinging, teeth ready to tear out the throats of her enemies, Jirel ruled her domain in Moore's medieval France analogue with an iron fist, holding it against all comers through the strength of her blade. Moore's moody, illustrative prose was equally anomalous for the time period, and from the hellish landscape beneath Jirel's castle to the fields of alien ghouls in "Quest of the Starstone," Moore's boundless imagination continues to inspire fans and authors to this day.

As noted SF author Suzy McKee Charnas points out in the introduction, C. L. Moore and Jirel of Joiry didn't just open the door for women in science fiction and fantasy—they kicked it down. Male or female, Black God's Kiss is a must-have for any serious fantasy enthusiast.

Come read the stories that started a revolution. You won't be disappointed.

James Sutter
Editor, Planet Stories

Gold, Land, and Title!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Those are the rewards promised to those who conquer the Bloodsworn Vale. In just a few weeks, you might be able to claim those prizes.

Since we are getting pretty close to the release of this module, we realized we have yet to show off a map of this large, untamed wilderness. To avoid spoilers, the map is untagged (and might just make for a good player handout, if you're thinking of downloading it). That said, there are a couple of points of interest on the map that bear some explanation.

Fort Thorn: As the only settlement on the map, Fort Thorn (the small dot near the center) is of vital importance to the region. Although its commander, Sir Tolgrith, hopes one day to make it self-sufficient, it currently depends upon a steady stream of caravans for provisions and other basic supplies.

The fort is a walled community surrounded by a 20-foot-tall palisade of tree trunks, upended and carved to points. Beyond this security there is nothing but wilderness. Tall trees and endless thickets of wild rose bushes cover much of the surrounding terrain. There are no farms or outlying buildings affiliated with the fort—any who dwell outside its walls are hermits, monsters, or worse.

The Path: This trail is being cut through the vale to establish a vital trade route with Varisia's neighbors. It is currently under construction and time is running out to meet the king's deadline.

The Petal and Coldrun Rivers: These two slow-moving rivers provide fresh water to those in the region, although the Petal (which runs past Fort Thorn) has a nasty tendency to foul every few weeks, causing sickness in those who drink from it at those times.

Mist Lake: The calm waters of this lake are perpetually shrouded in mist that moves overland to cover the nearby swamps. The residents of Fort Thorn avoid this area, as they say it is haunted.

There is, of course, much more to explore in the vast reaches of the vale, but to learn about it you just might have to journey there yourself.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Meet the Iconics: Merisiel

Monday, July 23, 2007

The elves have a name for elven children unfortunate enough to be born and raised in human society—the Forlorn. In a few rare cases, these foundlings or orphaned elves find loving homes with humans, although the fact that, over the course of their childhood, one-time playmates become their effective guardians and foster parents results in a strangely skewed sense of the self. Most Forlorn aren't as fortunate—they live on the streets as almost eternal urchins, watching alone as their companions age and move on to greater things.

Merisiel is one of the Forlorn, only now emerging from decades spent as a child of the streets into a young adult ready to make her own way in life. A master at stowing away on ships, she's called dozens of cities home, leaving one for another when her companions outgrew her or she outlived them. Life has been hard for Merisiel, made more so by the fact that she's always found it difficult to master skills that come easily to her companions. Never the sharpest knife in the drawer, as the saying goes, Merisiel has learned to make up for this by carrying at least a dozen of them on her person. When things go wrong with her carefully laid plans (as they almost always seem to do), the knives come out and what needs to be done gets done. To date, Merisiel hasn't met a problem that can't, in one way or another, be solved with daggers.

Merisiel's life experiences have taught her to enjoy things to their fullest as they occur—it's impossible to tell when the good times might end. She's open and expressive with her thoughts and emotions, and while she's always on the move and working on her latest batch of plots for easy money, in the end it comes down to being faster than everyone else—either on her feet, or with her beloved blades.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

Merisiel, along with the rest of the first four iconics, makes her debut as a pregenerated character in volume 1 of Pathfinder and D1: Crown of the Kobold King.

Click the image for a larger version of Wayne Reynolds' stunning portrait.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Wandering Monster

Friday, July 20, 2007

Finally, the entire run of Downer, Kyle Hunter's magnificent adventure epic from the pages of Dungeon, is being collected in one place! Well, two actually. Collected in two full-color trade paperback volumes, of which Wandering Monster is the first, Hunter's dark and witty comic chronicles the adventures of Downer Tarantula, renegade drow, and his band of misfit friends as they attempt to keep a powerful relic known as the ulolock out of the clutches of a bevy of mysterious enemies. In addition, this book features selections from the artist's sketchbook, a gallery of over 100 classic monsters, and a complete map and overview of Downer's home city, the underground metropolis of Oubliette. Check it out today, and get into the story from the very beginning!

James Sutter
Editor, Planet Stories

Elemental Mysteries, Part 1

Thursday, July 19, 2007

The four elements, air, earth, fire and water, have fascinated man for thousands of years. Yet, there are still many mysteries that have yet to be solved. Elements of Power—the next set in the GameMastery Item Card line—is due to release next month, and if you can solve some of the mysteries of the elements, you might just score a free deck.

One elemental mystery will be presented each week. Answer it correctly and get entered into a drawing to win a free deck of Elements of Power Item Cards, shipped to you when the set releases. Just send an email with your answer, your name, and your paizo.com screen name to contest@paizo.com.

This week we start off by investigating the powers of air. Not surprisingly, this set includes a number of magic items with an air theme, and those presented here are just a sample. Of course, air has long been associated with storms, wind, and lightning, so you might just find a few weapons and suits of armor with what appear to be those qualities in the set as well.

Mystery of Air: With a wind of 42 mph, what is the farthest that a flying air mephit could be blown in 1 round, without it moving at all under its own power or attempting to resist?

All answers for the Mystery of Air are due by 12:01 PM Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, July 26th. Make sure to put the phrase "Mystery of Air" in the subject line of the email. Good luck!

Jason Bulmahn,
GameMastery Brand Manager

City of the Beast

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

As the second book to be released by Planet Stories, City of the Beast couldn't be more perfect for the line. First off, you've got Michael Moorcock, arguably one of the most important sword and sorcery authors of all time, the man who created the original fantasy anti-hero, Elric of Melniboné, and popularized such concepts as the "multiverse." Now add in the fact that City of the Beast, the first in Moorcock's Kane of Old Mars trilogy, sends this aspect of his Eternal Champion to the red planet in an epic homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, and you've got the makings of an epic sword and planet romp.

In City of the Beast, an accident in a high-security government lab sends top physicist and expert fencer Michael Kane hurtling through space and time to a Mars of millions of years ago, in an age when the planet was still rife with life. There he meets the beautiful princess Shizala, as well as the merciless blue giants who besiege her home. Using the sword training of his youth and a tactical mind earned in the jungles of Vietnam, Michael Kane bolsters the city's defense against the barbarians, earning the respect of the locals with his quick wit and wrist. But when Shizala is betrayed by one of her own and kidnapped by the giants, Earthman Michael Kane must set out across a hostile planet in order to bring her home.

With fantastic cover art by Andrew Hou and an introduction by Kim Mohan, former editor of Amazing Stories, City of the Beast is a work of love by a master of the field. Watch for it here and in stores everywhere this September.

James Sutter
Editor, Planet Stories

Origins Wrap-Up

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Another Origins Game Expo has come and gone, and what a great time it was! We Paizo folk were there in force, with the largest booth taking up the center of the exhibit hall. Thousands of fans stopped by to check us out and pick up some of our newest products. Many got their shiny new copies of GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King, signed by none other than author Nicolas Logue himself. We sold enough of the new GameMastery Item Cards: Dragon's Trove deck to nearly empty the hoard (don't worry, we've restocked it for Gen Con). But the big winners at the show were the Combat Pad and the Critical Hit Deck. We had trouble keeping these hot products on the shelf.

Visitors who stopped by our booth on Saturday and Sunday got a special treat, as we had a few early print copies of Pathfinder #1 on hand for fans to flip through. I think you could hear the "oohs" and "ahhs" all the way across the exhibit hall.

Nowhere in our booth was the action more intense than over at the delve. Hundreds of fearless gamers walked into the dungeons of the Kobold King in hopes of scoring fabulous prizes from the Paizo treasure chest. While every player walked away with at least one key to try his or her luck, many met a gruesome end. All told, 88 characters were brutally cut down in the dungeon (55 by yours truly... I guess I went a little kill-crazy). If you missed out on your chance, you can always pick up Crown of the Kobold King (it should be arriving in game stores any day now) or you can stop by our booth at Gen Con and try your hand at our new delve event (based on GameMastery Module D2: Seven Swords of Sin). With a bit of luck, that delve will have an even higher body count.

For more pictures, check out the photo gallery here.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

ENnies Voting Open!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Voting for the coveted ENnies awards, presented each year at GenCon Indy for excellence in the RPG field, is now open to the public! Voters need not be members of EN World—merely visit http://www.ennieawards.com/voting.html to cast your lot and make your opinion known. This year, Paizo has been nominated in a number of different categories, including:

Best Miniature Product—Flip-Mat: Tavern
Best Regalia—Art of Dragon
Best Aid/Accessory—GameMastery Combat Pad (nominated as Open Mind Games/Paizo Publishing)
Best Aid/Accessory—GameMastery Critical Hit Deck
Best Free Product—Savage Tide Player's Guide
Fan's Choice: Best Publisher—Paizo Publishing

...plus an honorable mention for the Age of Worms Adventure Path as Best Adventure. So what are you waiting for? Get to the polls and let your voice be heard!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

The New Kids

Friday, July 13, 2007

Readers who've had a chance to check out D1: Crown of the Kobold King have doubtless noticed the pre-generated characters at the back. But whereas Valeros and Seoni both had pictures... we didn't have illustrations for our human cleric of Sarenrae, Kyra, or our stabby short-tempered elven rogue, Merisiel. Look for each of these two to get their own "Meet the Iconics" entries in our blog in a few weeks, but for now, these awesome sketches from Wayne Reynolds give us a great preview of our next two heroes.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Sean Signs On

Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide reveals the twenty core deities of our new campaign setting, including their alignments, portfolios, domains granted, and favored weapons—everything a player needs to know to create a cleric character. Yet there's much more to each of our deities than just this.

Starting with Pathfinder #2, we'll be presenting detailed write-ups of all twenty core deities. Fans of the Core Beliefs articles that have been running in DRAGON magazine for the last three years will find themselves on familiar ground here, especially with fan-favorite author Sean K Reynolds at the helm. His first installment details Desna, the goddess of dreams, stars, travelers, and luck, a faith that plays a central role in many of the adventures in Rise of the Runelords. You can look forward to information about Desna, her church, her faithful, new spells, new magic items, prestige classes (like the starknife-throwing priest illustrated here by Ben Wootten), and more—everything a believer of the Song of the Spheres will need to know to bring Desna's word to the masses. We're planning on detailing four deities a year (two per Adventure Path), with Lamashtu, the goddess of monsters and madness, coming next in Pathfinder #4.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Stonehenge Trailer Released

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Yes, you read that correctly—there's now a Stonehenge trailer. As in, movie trailer. Our partners in charge of translating the game into Spanish and French have created two new top-quality websites promoting it, both of which include a flash introduction using art from the game that makes Stonehenge seem... well, brush off those high school Spanish and French dictionaries and see for yourself. (Or just sit back and watch the pretty pictures—the soundtrack alone is positively epic.) Both sites have the same design—click here for the Spanish version and here for the French.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Conquering the Vale

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

There are a lot of things I like about dragons. They're iconic, they fly, they have breath weapons, they're deadly in melee, and they're incredibly intelligent (for the most part). Unfortunately, this usually puts them in the role of "boss monster" or lone combatant. Fighting against a host of dragons either feels a bit out of place or is reserved for very high-level characters. True dragons are also kind of a pain to generate, unlike other monsters.

For GameMastery Module W1: Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale, I really wanted to include a dragon-like monster that was easy to use and could be used in a group, without having to resort to the oft-overused half-dragon template. Enter the flame drake. This offshoot of dragonkind is a degenerate cousin of true dragons that breeds true. Like true dragons, these drakes have breath weapons, can fly, and are dangerous in melee. Unlike true dragons, however, flame drakes are less cunning, prove far less resilient, and do not age like true dragons, making them easier to use both alone and as part of a group (in their case, a rampage of 3–12).

Flame drakes in particular (and there will be other drake types) can unleash a ball of flame that works like a fireball every few rounds. They also have a rather nasty bite that deals a bit of fire damage with each chomp. Finally, flame drakes can call on their draconic heritage a few times per day to take an extra move action. All in all, they're a nasty critter that falls solidly in the CR 5 range. Dangerous? You bet, but nothing that a group of PCs set on taming the deadly wilderness of the Bloodsworn Vale can't handle. Their master, on the other hand, is another story entirely.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Paizo at Origins

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Origins is here, and Paizo's right in the thick of it! From July 5th through July 8th in Columbus, OH, swing by the con and experience all the action, including:

Pathfinder Preview Games
Curious about Rise of the Runelords? Sign up to run through one of six two-hour preview roleplaying sessions, GMed by Erik Mona, Jason Bulmahn, and all-star Runelords authors Nicolas Logue and Greg Vaughn. Or just stop by the booth to chat with all of them, plus GameMastery Module author Tim Hitchcock, about their work on Paizo's forthcoming adventures.

Paizo Delve
Get in on the ground floor and stop by the first-ever Paizo Dungeon Delve, based on Nicolas Logue's GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King. The delve, run by Jason Bulmahn and Nicolas Logue inside the Paizo booth during dealer hall hours, will offer small groups of players fifteen minutes each to explore and survive the Kobold King's dungeon and locate as many keys as they can. These keys can then be used at each group's Delve conclusion to attempt to open a real pirate chest and win prizes.

Seminars
Want to have all of your Paizo questions answered by the powers that be? Attend one of Paizo's several scheduled seminars, including:

• "What is Paizo's GameMastery Line?" chaired by Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn
• "Stonehenge: What's An Anthology Board Game?" chaired by Mike Selinker and other Stonehenge designers
• "What's New at Paizo Publishing?" chaired by CEO Lisa Stevens and other Paizo employees
• "Writing for Paizo Publishing" chaired by Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn
• "Introducing Pathfinder" chaired by Erik Mona, Nicolas Logue, and Greg A. Vaughan
• "Design a Stonehenge Game!" chaired by Mike Selinker, in which the crowd and Mike will have exactly one hour to create a new game for Stonehenge to be published online at the Stonehenge Library!

Board Game Tournaments
Test your strategy in one of two Stonehenge tournaments, as well as several Kill Doctor Lucky sessions and the premiere of the all-new Kill Doctor Lucky … and His Little Dog Too! rules variants.

So what are you waiting for? Hop over to the official Origins site and get your badge today!

The Pathfinder Journal

Monday, July 2, 2007

When we first came up with the outline for a typical volume of Pathfinder, there were several key things we wanted to make sure made it into every book. There had to be an adventure, of course, and several supporting articles giving background material that specifically expanded the adventure. There had to be an introduction that gave people a look behind the scenes, pregenerated characters, and numerous new monsters that could be easily dropped into that volume's adventure or a homebrew campaign. But there was still something missing—a space for us to shade in more of our world beyond just the current adventure's location. A narrative that would help get people invested and allow us to explore and expand, reconcepting established monsters for our setting and breathing that much more life into the world as a whole.

To this end, we created the Pathfinder Journal. Each month in Rise of the Runelords, we'll follow the journal of Eando Kline, a neophyte member of the Pathfinder organization, as he adventures through the region of Varisia, recording the knowledge he uncovers and sending it back to his venture-captain superior in hopes of one day being deemed worthy of publication in the illustrious Pathfinder Chronicles.

While Pathfinder Journals will normally be presented in-character as musings and naturalist-style sketches from Kline's logs, "Opening Moves," the initial installment that appears in "Burnt Offerings" breaks the mold before its even been established. In this first taste, Erik Mona sets the scene by presenting an in-depth background of the Pathfinder organization—its goals, leadership, and place in the myriad societies of Golarion. Steal a taste of the hidden knowledge that rests inside the much-coveted chronicles, and study the creeds by which all pathfinders must abide.

All of which will prepare you for volume two, in which Jason Bulmahn presents the first chapter in the wanderings of Eando Kline, pathfinder extraordinaire....

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder