Shadows Behind the Canvas

Friday, September 28, 2007

In his years of studying magical art, the sinister Imron Gauthfallow has collected a number of unique pieces from across the continent. But when he looted a spectacular piece from the abandoned mansion of a dead elven scholar, he got more than he bargained for. When he unveiled the painting in his own gallery, he unwittingly released a shadowy lurker.

These undead spirits of darkness were once the celebrated elven artisans. Betrayed by their own pride, ages ago they were tricked by the fey of the First World and bound away into shadow. Twisted by their hatred and loneliness, they were transformed into stunted, shadowy versions of their former selves. In time they discovered portals back to the real world. Ironically, these "portals" were in fact the paintings they had crafted so many centuries before, collected in galleries all across Golarion. Obsessed with their lost lives, the shadowy lurkers found their own works, and jealously guarded them from being seen by lesser beings. Over time, the shadowy lurkers have learned to manipulate the minds of people in the same way they used to play with paint and brush. Masters of light and illusion, they can be a deadly trap for the unsuspecting art enthusiast.

For more information on the perils of paint, be sure to check out GameMastery Module U1: Gallery of Evil.

Jeremy Walker
Assistant Editor, GameMastery

Pathfinder On Your Laptop!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

There's a lot to love about pen-and-paper RPGs. Sitting around a table with your friends... telling stories... rolling dice... sweating with tension or laughing yourself sick over nothing but the combined power of your imaginations. In fact, frequently the only part that isn't fun is the actual pen-and-paper part of it: the ragged character sheets, or the frantic searches through books to see if that's actually how the spell works.

Now at last there are not one, but two computer programs that can make your time at the gaming table less work and more play. Both HeroLab from Lone Wolf Development and RPGXplorer offer you a wealth of searchable, graphically-interfaced information at your fingertips. Build and update your character with just clicks of a mouse, manage your inventory, search a massive rules database, or create new game content, all in seconds.

Now are you ready for the best part? Both HeroLab and RPGXplorer have been licensed to incorporate Pathfinder content into their products. Yes! Owners of either of these products will be able to download free data sets that include all of the crunch from Pathfinder to help your game run that much smoother. Just visit the company's websites, or click here for RPGXplorer's downloads for Pathfinder #1 and the Player's Guide.

The future is now!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Attack of the Pod(cast) People!

Final Wave—Mike Selinker

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Today's final installment of the Paizo Podcast Explosion features Titanic Games mastermind Mike Selinker chatting with the good folks over at Pulp Gamer's Inside Track about everything from curling to geocaching... plus, of course, some discussion of Stonehenge and the Nocturne Expansion, as well as a preview of Titanic's latest venture, a gorgeous new game called Key Largo. Head on over to the Pulp Gamer site to check it out.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Attack of the Pod(cast) People!

Second Wave—James Jacobs

As promised yesterday, we continue our podcast blitzkrieg today with an interview with Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs! In this in-depth conversation with the host of The Tome, a D&D-focused radio-show, Jacobs discusses his long and distinguished history with D&D, the end of Paizo's Dungeon and Dragon licenses, and the shape of the new RPG world to come. Head over to The Tome's website here to give it a listen.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Attack of the Pod(cast) People!

First Wave—Erik Mona

Monday, September 24, 2007

In recent weeks, members of the design staff here at Paizo have been doing a number of podcast interviews with various gaming-themed radio shows, and they're now becoming available to the general public. They're super easy to access—just click and listen—so why not drop by and hear what the imaginations behind Pathfinder, GameMastery, and more have to say about the future of the industry?

Kicking things off, Erik Mona sat down with Chris Pramas of Green Ronin to discuss the announcement of 4th edition and what that means for the Open Game License and d20 publishing, which leads them into a discussion of Paizo's new ventures, high-level play, and more. And of course, it wouldn't be Erik without a significant foray into the "storied history of Greyhawk."

Click here to check out the 73-minute behemoth (guaranteed to keep your brain alive at work through that long post-lunch lull!) and get the inside dirt from the best possible source. And stay tuned for tomorrow, when we'll be back with more from Mr. James Jacobs, dungeon designer extraordinaire....

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

GameMastery Module Open Call

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Paizo has a long-standing tradition of bringing new authors into the gaming industry. We hope to continue that tradition with the GameMastery Module Open Call. With the Open Call, we're giving you your chance to join our stable of experienced authors who bring Pathfinder and the GameMastery Modules to life. All you need to do is download the guidelines here (40 KB zip PDF), give them a read, and warm up your keyboard. The guidelines document includes a brief synopsis of the adventure we're looking for, rules on how to send a query, and an overview of the Open Call process. One skilled author will be chosen to write W3: Flight of the Red Raven, due to come out next year.

This is your chance to write for us. Let's see what you've got.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Going... going...

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Having a product go out of print is a strange experience. On the one hand, it might mean you've done something right and your product was a success, selling through the entire print run. Yet on the other hand, it's strange to think that something you've worked on and put a little bit of yourself into is going to disappear forever (except, of course, from the gaming tables of all those who purchased it, and perhaps eBay or a particularly well-stocked FLGS).

Why do I bring this up? Because as of this writing, there are only 52 copies of Map Pack: Countryside left in our warehouse, and we don't currently have any plans on reprinting this particular set. That means that when they're gone, they're gone. If you haven't already, hit up the product page and see if your game could use things like a coaching inn, ambush site, or roadside shrine. (The rope bridge, in particular, seems to have generated a lot of excitement.)

After all, you might not get another chance....

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Masterpiece of Horror

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The idea of paintings coming to life is certainly not new. It's been excellent fodder for horror movies for years. It's surprising, therefore, that not much has been done with the concept in classic fantasy. The upcoming edition in our GameMastery Modules line tries to fill in that gap somewhat by bringing you Imron Gauthfallow and his Gallery of Evil.

Some of Imron's most useful discoveries in his quest for revenge are the painted creations. These creatures are crafted from nothing more than paint and imagination. Crafted as facsimiles of real creatures, they posses the mindless obedience and indomitable nature of automations. Perhaps their most frightening quality, however, is that a painted creation can replicate almost any creature and, to the unobservant, can easily be mistaken for the real thing.

Jeremy Walker
Assistant Editor, GameMastery

RIP Robert Jordan

Monday, September 17, 2007

If you haven't already heard, Robert Jordan (author of the wildly popular Wheel of Time books, as well as several Conan books) died yesterday after a prolonged illness. With his monolithic fantasy series gaining such incredible notoriety in recent years, Jordan brought scores of new readers to the genre, and undoubtedly into roleplaying as well—certainly many of us here at Paizo have been influenced by his work. In addition, while roleplaying games have frequently spawned successful fiction in the past, Jordan was one of the few authors to go the other direction, and whose private world went on to become a game in and of itself, with a full-on Wheel of Time d20 book (the first adventure for which can be found here). His work even made its way into Dragon, with articles in our d20 special issue detailing new hero templates and 26 new d20 monsters from the Wheel of Time series, as written by Owen K. C. Stephens and Robert Jordan himself.

Whether or not you're a fan, there's no denying that Robert Jordan has been one of the biggest players that the fantasy genre has ever seen, and his books will no doubt live on for generations to come. He will be missed.

James Sutter
Editor, Planet Stories

Create-A-Monster Contest!

Friday, September 14, 2007

The folks over at The Saving Throw are launching a new monster design contest, and they've picked Paizo Publisher Erik Mona and Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs to be their celebrity judges. Read on to find out how you can win some swag and gain serious bragging rights!

From The Saving Throw:

Ever fancied yourself a master monster creator? Ever built a monster solely for the thrill of the TPK? Now is your chance to use that skill to score yourself some loot. Simply submit your monster, template, or new race to savingthrow@rpgamer.com. Be sure to include stats, a sample monster, a detailed description, and any other information such as tactics, ecology, and lore regarding the monster. Sketches are not necessary, but feel free to include them. The Saving Throw staff will narrow the submissions down to seven and then our guest celebrity judges, Erik Mona and James Jacobs, will choose a grand prize winner and runner up. We have a copy of Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, autographed by the authors Erik Mona, James Jacobs, and Jason Bulmahn, and the other prize we have is a copy of Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land. The grand prize winner has his or her choice of which title they want.

Rules:

1. All submitted materials must be submitted by October 7th at 11:59:59 PM PDT.

2. All submitted materials must conform to OGL/3.5 rules.

3. By submitting an entry in this contest, you give RPGamer the right to post said materials on www.rpgamer.com.

4. Winners will be notified via email on or before October 15th, 2007.

5. Winners must respond by within three business days, or another winner will be selected.

6. Judges' decisions are final.

7. This contest is open to anyone with a valid email address and valid mailing address, except for the employees of RPGamer and their immediate families, and the celebrity judges and their immediate families.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Flippin' Awesome

Thursday, September 13, 2007

I don't know about you, but I have a love/hate relationship with maps in RPG gaming. Back in middle school when I first got into the hobby, we might have had a few miniatures to represent characters, plus "terrain" made from dice, pencils, and those little plastic tables that come in the center of your pizza box. It wasn't until much, much later, when someone introduced me to D&D 3.5, that I finally saw the light and realized that things like battlemats add immeasurably to the roleplaying experience.

With that realization, however, came a new problem: mapping is hard. Even after years of practice, it's still annoying to have to stop right in the middle of a crucial scene and scramble to count squares and draw out a new room in its entirety each time PCs go through the door. (I also have a tendency to spill drinks on the battlemat, but that's really my own fault.)

Which is where something like our new Flip-Mat: City Market comes in handy. Every village worth its salt has a market, so why waste valuable game time drawing it out over and over? With City Market, the work's already done for you, and your PCs are free to look through every door with impunity. Plus, if you decide you want to switch up the layout, just flip it over and use the blank paving beneath the grid to build your own town. As with all our Flip-Mats, you can draw on the durable, laminated cardstock with wet erase, dry erase, or even permanent marker and still wipe it right off when you're done.

All of which means that if I were about to run, say, the first section of "Burnt Offerings," I'd definitely consider checking out City Market and using the time saved to pack in even more goblin-related activities....

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Erik in Black Gate

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Many of you may be familiar with Black Gate, one of the biggest fantasy magazines around. Recently their managing editor, Howard Andrew Jones, sat down to do an exclusive in-depth interview for their website with Paizo Publisher Erik Mona about Planet Stories. In what's his most extensive and candid interview on the subject to date, Erik pours forth his reasons for starting the line, his hopes for the future, and the reasons everyone who loves gaming should check out some of these novels. Click here to read the full interview.

James Sutter
Editor, Planet Stories

Return to Atlantis

Monday, September 10, 2007

Ray Bradbury once referred to Henry Kuttner as "a neglected master... a man who shaped science fiction and fantasy in its most important years." Kuttner sold his first story, "The Graveyard Rats," to Weird Tales in 1936, the same year in which he wrote a fan letter to rising science fiction author C. L. Moore, mistakenly believing her to be a man. The two were married in 1940, and in the years that followed they collaborated constantly, publishing under at least 17 pseudonyms, most notably Lewis Padgett and Keith Hammond. As Joe R. Lansdale relates in the introduction to our forthcoming Kuttner compilation, Elak of Atlantis, the story goes that the two worked so closely together on most of their projects that when one got up from the typewriter to go to the bathroom, the other would slide into their place and seamlessly take up where they left off. Yet before the collaborations, before many of the Cthulhu mythos stories born of Kuttner's relationship with H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, before the television scripts and film adaptations like The Last Mimsy, there was Elak.

Elak of Atlantis was one of the first heroes of the sword and sorcery genre, and remains one of the most important. Whereas Howard's Conan waded brutishly into the public eye with little more than a sword and an attitude, Elak was something different entirely. Cultured—though still a thief, adulterer, and cold-blooded killer—this droll fencer with the flashing rapier and secret past made way for a whole new breed of protagonist, falling somewhere between the Grey Mouser and Errol Flynn. With his perpetually drunk, Sancho-Panza-esque companion by his side, Elak battled his way across the fantastic frontiers of ancient Atlantis, slaying gods, wizards, dwarves, and foul horrors from Dagon's darkened depths, thrilling the eager readers of Weird Tales and earning himself a permanent place in the fantasy pantheon.

In Elak of Atlantis, the new Planet Stories book that's shipping to the printer as I write this, we've collected all of the Elak of Atlantis stories, many of which are exceedingly difficult to locate, as well as two even rarer stories featuring Prince Raynor, Kuttner's slightly-better-behaved scion of Imperial Gobi, the empire which fell long before Mesopotamia gave birth to modern civilization.

Kuttner has been cited as an influence by everyone from Marion Zimmer Bradley to Roger Zelazny, and both Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury have dedicated novels to him. By bringing back these stories, it's our hope to introduce a whole new generation to one of the most influential writers of the genre.

Enjoy.

James Sutter
Editor, Planet Stories

Holy of Holies

Friday, September 7, 2007

In the Player's Guide to Rise of the Runelords, we had a chance to illustrate six of our core deities' holy symbols. Unfortunately, that left the other 14 deities with nothing. What happens when a player wants to draw a sketch of his cleric of Iomedae? How does the GM describe the giant symbol of Rovagug carved into the walls of the evil temple?

Eventually, the symbols of all 20 core deities will be illustrated, but for now, the following list of short descriptions at least gives you an idea of what their symbols look like. For Erastil, Desna, Shelyn, Abadar, Gozreh, and Sarenrae, the look is set. For the other 14, we may still decide to go another way with some of these symbols, but for now, you can use these in your campaign.

Abadar: Golden key with a cityscape carved into its head, with four runes and a keyhole along the lower edge.

Asmodeus: Red pentagram.

Calistria: Three slender daggers touching their pommels together so the blades radiate out from the middle.

Cayden Cailean: Slightly dented and well-used iron tankard.

Desna: Butterfly with star, sun, and moon symbols on its wings.

Erastil: Arrow nocked in a bow made of a pair of antlers.

Gorum: Iron sword thrust into the side of a rugged mountain.

Gozreh: Leaf with a drop of water dripping from its tip.

Iomedae: Elegant longsword with a circular sunburst behind the sword's hilt.

Irori: Dark blue hand, palm out, inscribed inside a sky blue circle.

Lamashtu: Monstrous three-eyed jackal head seen from straight on.

Nethys: Androgynous porcelain mask, one half black, one half white.

Norgorber: Black featureless mask with one silver starburst for a left eye.

Pharasma: Comet whose tail trails out behind it to form a spiral.

Rovagug: Circular fanged mouth surrounded by nine curling spider legs.

Sarenrae: Angel with arms outstretched and wings curled above in an ankh-like shape.

Shelyn: Exotic songbird with a long rainbow-colored tail curling up over its head.

Torag: A gleaming silver hammer with blocky runes on it.

Urgathoa: White-eyed housefly with bloodstained wings and feet and a distorted human skull pattern on its body.

Zon-Kuthon: Battered skull with no lower jaw; a spiky chain has been threaded in one eye socket and out the other, so the two chains hang down like metal tears.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

A Picture's Worth…

Thursday, September 6, 2007

With Seven Swords of Sin now out the door and arriving in mailboxes everywhere, it's time to start looking at September's new GameMastery Module. This month we are releasing U1: Gallery of Evil. This module is our first urban adventure (hence the U code), so we thought we would start out proper by exploring one section of Golarion's most important city: Absalom. This vast metropolis sits on the isle of Kortos in the great Inner Sea, making it of vital importance to the region.

Gallery of Evil specifically focuses on the Ivy District, known as being home to many of the city's most influential artists and craftsmen. It's only natural, then, that the adventure focuses on the darker side of art, with one crazed master turning his works loose on his unsuspecting critics. Over the next few weeks, we will explore some of this module with a bit more depth, but for now, here's one of our favorite art pieces and the teaser text from the back of the module.

Art for Murder's Sake

The great city of Absalom is known as a center for trade, education, and art. Inside the Ivy District reside dozens of famous artists, but one has the talent to bring his paintings to life and uses paint to conjure terrible monsters bent on destruction. Can the player characters stop the mad painter before he perfects his art?

Gallery of Evil is an urban adventure for 8th-level characters, compatible with the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. This adventure includes details on the metropolis of Absalom's Ivy District, as well as the home of the diabolical artist and his twisted works. The PCs must track down the deadly paintings and discover the true identity of the artist behind it all.

This adventure is the first to feature information on the metropolis of Absalom, one of the largest cities in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Kyle's Magnificent Menagerie

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Some of you may have already noticed a striking stylistic similarity between the fun cartoon goblin illustrating Pathfinder #1's introduction and those strange little monsters that used to appear in Dungeon to illustrate the Dungeoncraft column and the table of contents. That's because both series are done by one of our favorite artists and creative minds, Downer creator Kyle Stanley Hunter.

Much as he did in Dungeon, each month Kyle will be giving us his unique take on a key monster found in that month's volume of Pathfinder. For "The Skinsaw Murders," for instance, he's produced a fearsome ghoul, and future adventures will bring ogres, giants, and more.

We're all super-excited to have Kyle onboard for this and some other super-exciting secret projects a bit farther down the road, and for those of you unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend checking out Downer: Wandering Monster or his personal website at www.superunicorn.com/kyle/, both of which contain galleries featuring dozens more of his trademark "mini monsters."

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Pathfinder #2 Art Show!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Pathfinder #2 is off at the printer, which means it's time to give you all a sneak peak at some of the fabulous art we've got going into this volume. From the lamia matriarch to the skinsaw cultist with his fearsome war razor, we're really proud of the visual element of Pathfinder #2, and these are just a drop in the bucket when you consider how much art we have jam-packed into this book. Enjoy!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder