Sneak Peek: The Demon Within

Friday, February 29, 2008

Enjoy this art sneak peek of GameMastery Module D3: The Demon Within. The haunted castle awaits you!

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

Gazetteer: Osirion

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer is off to the printer, so here is your first look at what you can expect this juicy 64-page book to contain.

Osirion

LAND OF THE PHARAOHS
Alignment: LN
Capital: Sothis (111,989)
Notable Settlements: Ipeq (12,730), Totra (52,360), Shiman-Sekh (6,680)
Ruler: The Ruby Prince Khemet III
Government: Celestial Monarchy
Languages: Osiriani
Religion: Nethys, Sarenrae, Pharasma, Lamashtu, Irori, Norgorber, Rovagug

For almost 2000 years after the Starstone fell from space to create the Inner Sea, chaos and ruin defined Golarion. The old empires were cast in ruin, strange creatures born of darkness and fear stalked the land. It was a time of barbarism and terror, a slow decline into extinction for humankind. But humanity rose again in the jungles and deserts of the south Inner Sea coast. Osirion, a land of living god-kings and monolithic pyramids, rose as a beacon in a world ruled by barbarism, the first of the great kingdoms of man's Age of Destiny.

A prophet of Nethys known as Azghaad unified the warring tribes along the River Sphinx, initiating Osirion's first pharaonic dynasty in the city of Sothis, which still bears titanic statues carved in the image of Osirion's first ruler. The Osiriani folk honored their pharaohs as gods in the flesh, acceding to their every whim and marching upon their grand ambitions. Within 500 years Osirion controlled vast territories in Thuvia and modern day Rahadoum and Katapesh, as well as a lost colony that eventually became the kingdom of Geb. This First Age of Osirion generated pyramid tombs and temples for scores of pharaohs and their servants, many of which remain undiscovered (and well trapped) to this day.

A succession of lesser pharaohs and temporary foreign conquerors ruled Osirion in the middle centuries of the Age of Destiny, erecting cities and temples of their own in an attempt to leave a permanent mark on history. Most are forgotten today, and during this period Osirion waned in influence throughout the Inner Sea, ceding its marginal colonial territories.

Four competing warlords known as the Four Pharaohs of Ascension halted Osirion's decline about two centuries before the foundation of Taldor, restoring the nation's influence and holdings through using force and guile. The resulting prosperity fueled a rebirth in the nation's spirit, marking the birth of Osirion's Second Age.

In 1532 AR, foreign influence ended Osirion's pharaonic era when Qadiri agents toppled the corrupt government of Pharaoh Menedes XXVI, establishing Osirion as a satrapy of the Keleshite Empire of the East. Over the centuries migrants from Kelesh changed the ethnic character of the nation, crashing many of the old monuments and structures to the ground in an effort to chart a new destiny for Osirion.

This destiny brought the sun-focused religion of Sarenrae to Osirion, whose own religious traditions had always centered strongly upon the movements of heavenly bodies. As the cult of the Dawnflower achieved greater popularity among Keleshite and Garundi alike it became a threat to the satrap, who banished the dervishes to the deserts of Thuvia.

Members of the Dawnflower cult murdered the Satrap of Osirion in 2253, establishing the first in a long series of independent Keleshite sultans who ruled from Sothis. The last of these dictators fell to rebellion exactly 100 years ago, handing the nation to Khemet I, a Garundi prince who traced his lineage back to the Azghaadi Dynasty of Osirion's First Age. Thousands of years of oppression and decline made the people eager for a savior, and Prince Khemet offered them hope. Today, Khemet's grandson rules Osirion, calling himself the Ruby Prince. Some say that he might one day change this title to pharaoh, but such a shift would seriously trouble the desert nation's neighbors.

The youthful Prince Khemet III has opened the borders of Osirion to treasure seekers from around the world, offering a high bounty to those who uncover the hidden wonders of the past. As a result, Sothis is filled with treasure hunters of all shades. While the guards are keen to watch for anyone stealing the heritage of Osirion, there are plenty of ways to smuggle these ancient artifacts out of the country, and Osiriani relics have become a valuable commodity in markets across Avistan.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

New Products Announced

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

This week we announced a slew of new products:

Pathfinder

Pathfinder #14 Second Darkness Chapter 2: "Children of the Void"—A star has fallen from the sky, destroying the island known as the Devil's Elbow. Tasked by a group of elven bounty hunters to investigate a dark elf assassin tied to the catastrophe, the heroes travel to the blasted island only to find it crawling with prospectors, merchants, and mercenaries eager to salvage the legendary "skymetal" sure to have fallen from space.

Pathfinder #15 Second Darkness Chapter 3: "The Armageddon Echo"—Evidence recovered from the devastated island known as the Devil's Elbow indicates that vile dark elves have infiltrated the ruined elven city of Celwynvian. The heroes join forces with the valorous elves of Crying Leaf in an attempt to reclaim the city from darkness.

Pathfinder #16 Second Darkness Chapter 4: "Endless Night"—Disguised as evil dark elves, the heroes penetrate a hidden city in the subterranean Darklands in an effort to discover the drow plan for the coming apocalypse. The possibility of a traitor among the goodly elves of the surface world and the discovery of the heroes' ruse leads to a race through treacherous caverns in a desperate effort to warn allies of impending doom.

Pathfinder #17 Second Darkness Chapter 5: "A Memory of Darkness"—Armed with the knowledge that an elven traitor supplied the drow with the magical means to call down the stars and devastate Golarion, the PCs arrive at the elven nation of Kyonin to find their claims falling on deaf ears.

Pathfinder Chronicles

Pathfinder Chronicles: Gods & Magic—This comprehensive 64-page guidebook provides an overview of the 20 "core" Pathfinder Chronicles gods and their religions, with an emphasis on rules and information players can use at the game table, whether they're playing a zealous cleric, brave paladin, or simply a faithful member of any character class.

Pathfinder Chronicles Item Cards: Second Darkness Deck—This 54-card set allows heroes to keep track of their equipment in style and is completely compatible with all of Paizo's other GameMastery Item Card sets.

Pathfinder Chronicles: Into the Darklands—Delve the deep secrets of the Darklands, a subterranean realm frequented by dark elves, shadow dragons, and worse! This comprehensive sourcebook provides an overview of the cavernous realms below the surface of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting.

Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom—The largest and most important metropolis in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting comes alive in this comprehensive guide to the City at the Center of the World!

GameMastery Maps

GameMastery Flip-Mat: Darklands—features a maze of interconnected underworld tunnels. The Flip side features a huge, cavernous chamber.

GameMastery Flip-Mat: Desert—features a majestic desert filled with blowing sands and massive dunes. The Flip side features a desert oasis centered on a small pond and teeming with life.

GameMastery Map Pack: Elven City—Locations include: Treehouse Dwelling, Mystic Arch, Statuary Garden Temple of the Four Winds, and Council of Chambers.

GameMastery Map Pack: Ancient Forest—Locations include: Druid's Glade, Fairy Ring, Overgrown Ruins, Blighted Glen, and Briar Patch.

Planet Stories

The Hounds of Skaith, by Leigh Brackett—Eric John Stark rides again! Leigh Brackett's unforgettable science-fantasy hero of The Secret of Sinharat and The Ginger Star cuts a red swath across the brutal planet Skaith!

The Dark World, by Henry Kuttner—Henry Kuttner's Sword and Sorcery classic returns to print at last! World War II veteran Edward Bond's recuperation from a disastrous fighter plane crash takes a distinct turn for the weird when he encounters a giant wolf, a red witch, and the undeniable power of the need-fire, a portal to a world of magic and swordplay at once terribly new and hauntingly familiar.

Death in Delhi, by Gary Gygax—A giant ruby and a plea to rescue the purloined crown jewels of Delhi arrives at the villa of Magister Setne Inhetep, philosopher-wizard of the Pharaoh of Aegypt!

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

Thar's a Mighty Blow A-Comin'!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Now that we have copies of Key Largo in stock, I thought I'd show you how to play the game. It's 1899, and ten days till a mighty hurricane roars ashore (we had great weather-predicting machinery in 1899). So, before that hurricane arrives, you want to get as much gold and jewels as you can out of the many pirate shipwrecks sunk deep in the coastal waters. You start with a little wooden boat, $100, and a diver. Your goal is to become the richest salvager on the island in those ten short days.

You have five cards which allow you to go to places around the isle. You play two of them per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You can:

• Go to the Tavern to hire more divers
• Go to the Equipment Shop to buy those divers hoses, tridents, and weights
• Search a wreck for treasure
• Sell your treasures at the Market
• Take tourists dolphin watching at Dolphin Cove

Those are all good choices, but when you do these actions is critical. Everyone acts at once, and the number of people wanting to do each action can alter the prices for those action. For example, if three people want to hire divers, the divers know they can charge more. So you spend your time trying to guess what everyone else is going to do and surprising them with what you're going to do.

Oh, and watch out for sea monsters! If you don't have a pointy trident to fend off the monsters, your divers might become monster chow.

At the end, as the hurricane is bearing down, you sell off everything you have left, count your cash, and declare a winner as you ride the winds out of Key Largo. And when you come back, that hurricane will have made sure there are plenty more wrecks for you to search...

Mike Selinker
Titanic Games Brand Manager

Bring Out Your Dead!

Monday, February 25, 2008

In Pathfinder #8, we explore what happens to a typical fantasy city when the plague comes to town. The plague in "Seven Days to the Grave" is called blood veil, but it's primary inspiration is, of course, the bubonic plague—the Black Death. To supplement this volume's adventure, we present an article that discusses all sorts of diseases, plagues, how epidemics work, and what can be done to combat them. Rules for several diseases beyond those listed in the core rules are presented as well, most of them based on real-world diseases. Check out the entry for the aforementioned bubonic plague as an example.

Bubonic Plague: Infected vermin and parasites spread this disease, also known as Daemon's Touch or the Black Death, through their bites. Once contracted, the disease spreads quickly, polluting the victim's body with toxins. When it reaches the lymph nodes, the victim suffers extreme inflammation of glands, and his skin might take on a black pallor. Symptoms include fever, headaches, nausea, fatigue, and swelling of the lymph nodes (called buboes) on the neck, underarms, and inner thigh areas, and eventually bleeding beneath the skin. A victim who takes any Constitution damage from the disease must immediately make a successful Fortitude save or become fatigued until all his Constitution damage is healed. Each time a victim takes 2 points of Constitution damage from Black Death, he also takes 1 point of Charisma damage.

With symptoms like that, is it any wonder that artists did their best to anthropomorphize the disease back in the days of the Black Death? Sort of like what's going on here, with a maiden, a chipmunk, and a skeleton prancing around a stump? (That chipmunk takes the picture to an entire new level, if you ask me... especially since he's probably FULL of bubonic plague!)

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: River into Darkness

Friday, February 22, 2008

Enjoy this art sneak peek of an expedition riddled with conflict and danger! GameMastery Module W2: River into Darkness releases in April.

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

Gear for Everyone

Thursday, February 21, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, we previewed a number of cards for Adventure Gear 2, the new set of GameMastery Item Cards due out next month. Since we are going to be starting up a contest next week in celebration of the Critical Fumble Deck, this is going to be one of our last chances to take a look at this exciting sequel to Adventure Gear before it hits the streets. Take a look.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

RPG SUPERSTAR: WE HAVE A WINNER!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

In early November Paizo challenged amateur game designers from around the world to show off their skills in a revolutionary online contest called RPG Superstar. From more than 850 submitted wondrous items, celebrity judges Erik Mona (Paizo's Publisher), Wolfgang Baur (Editor-in-Chief, Kobold Quarterly), and Clark Peterson (President, Necromancer Games) narrowed the field to 32 would-be RPG Superstars, and further rounds have narrowed that field in the intervening weeks.

The final round asked the four competing finalists to propose a 32-page GameMastery Module for ultimate publication by Paizo as the Grand Prize of RPG Superstar. Contestants Clinton Boomer (Macomb, IL), Rob McCreary (Prague, Czech Republic), Jason Nelson (Seattle, WA), and Christine Schneider (Neu-Isenburg, Germany) responded with four excellent proposals, each worthy of publication in its own way.

But there can be only one RPG Superstar, and in the end after the celebrity judges had a chance to offer comments and criticism and the general public had their final vote, one proposal stood out as the clear winner.

Congratulations to Christine Schneider for her victorious proposal, "Clash of the Kingslayers." Here's a brief description of the adventure from Christine's winning RPG Superstar submission:

This module will set the heroes against the gods' blind wrath in defence of a dwarven city-kingdom. During the course of the adventure the PCs will cross swords with dwarvish valkyries, fight giants freed from the underworld, unravel an ancient secret, and explore a remote monastery. What starts as a casual dungeon crawl, will turn into a frantic pandemonium as the monastery is imbued with divine life to wage war on the city the heroes might choose to protect or even aid to destroy. Ultimately, the PCs get the chance to slay not one, but three kings in attempt to end this madness and write the final lines of an ancient tragedy. This adventure is intended for characters of 10th-level and will yield enough experience to advance them to 11th-level or even half-way to 12th-level.

As RPG Superstar's Grand Prize, Paizo will contract Christine Schneider to write "Clash of the Kingslayers," which we will release as GameMastery Module S1 in January, 2009.

But you don't have to wait until January to reserve your copy! Head over to the new "Clash of the Kingslayers" product page here on paizo.com to preorder your copy of Christine's winning adventure! If you already subscribe to GameMastery Modules, "Clash of the Kingslayers" will arrive as part of your ongoing subscription.

On behalf of judges Wolfgang Baur and Clark Peterson as well as the whole Paizo Publishing family, congratulations to Clinton Boomer, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, and Christine Schneider.

Remember those names, folks. You'll be hearing from all of them in the months and years to come. Though the contest produced only one true RPG Superstar, it also turned up a huge number of fresh voices we plan to work with for a long time to come.

And I'd like to offer one final thanks to you, the readers of paizo.com and to anyone who submitted an entry to this year's RPG Superstar contest. The event has been enormously popular here on the site, and even the wizened old judges learned a thing or two along the way. Something this successful is certain to return, so in the meantime sharpen your pencils and start working on some wondrous items.

The next RPG Superstar is only a few months away!

Erik Mona
Paizo Publisher

Conan in Space!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Okay, I lied. Robert E. Howard's Almuric, the latest release from Planet Stories, isn't actually a Conan novel. But it sure feels like one.

No, as a piece of literary history, Almuric is actually far more fascinating. Best-known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard was one of the most distinctive and well-regarded voices of the pulp era. His brutal, might-make-right take on fantasy inspired generations of books, films, and games, almost single-handedly popularizing the sword and sorcery genre in the 1920s and 30s. His friendship with H. P. Lovecraft led to contributions to the vast and intricate Cthulhu mythos. His work has been called "so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks" by none other than Stephen King himself. Even his personal life has become legend, having been turned into the award-winning movie "The Whole Wide World." And who knows how much more he might have accomplished had he not infamously taken his own life at the age of 30.

Yet for all of his extensive achievements and hundreds of stories, Howard wrote very few actual novels, of which Almuric is by far the largest and best-known. Within its pages, a Conan-esque brute named Esau Cairn, dissatisfied with life on earth and running from the law, finds himself transported to another world, where his natural strength and savagery make him a powerful captain of men. On this planet of beautiful maidens and their Neanderthal-like warrior consorts, strange beasts and black-winged men, Esau carves out a place for himself with bared steel, and in so doing rescues a valiant civilization from the oppression of sadistic masters. In short—classic Howard.

Or is it? Therein lies the mystery that's one of the most fascinating things about Almuric.

You see, Almuric was first published three years after Howard's death in 1936, supposedly from a complete manuscript discovered among his personal documents. Yet while most of the manuscript has been universally accepted to be original Howard material, the last few chapters have long been a source of controversy. Did Howard, indeed, finish the last section? Or was the story instead, as some personal letters from Howard's father hint, finished by another author as part of a shrewd financial move? For those historians who believe the latter theory, the chief suspect responsible for wrapping up Almuric is none other than Otis Adelbert Kline, Howard's literary agent and himself a prominent Weird Tales author (who, incidentally, will be seeing print in Planet Stories this September). In addition to veiled references to shady arrangements, theorists who believe Howard never lived to see a complete Almuric draft point to the novel's ending as uncharacteristic of Howard's style, whereas others accuse such conspiracy theorists of jumping at shadows. The debate rages on to this day.

So pick up a copy, breeze through its action-packed story, and see which camp you fall into. And once you've made up your mind, post on our messageboards and let us know where your suspicions lie!

And now, a sample:

Of all the forms of life I had encountered on that strange planet, none filled me with as much loathing as these dwarfish monstrosities. I backed away from the mangled heap on the earth, as a nauseous flood poured through the rift in the wall.

The effect of those vermin emerging from that broken wall was almost intolerably sickening; the suggestion was that of maggots squirming out of a cracked and bleached skull.

Turning, I caught Altha up in one arm and raced across the open space. They followed fleetingly, running now on all fours, and now upright like a man. And suddenly they broke out into their hellish laughter again, and I saw we were trapped. Ahead of me were more emerging from some other subterranean entrance. We were cut off.

A giant pedestal, from which the column had been broken, stood before us. With a bound I reached it, set the girl on the jagged pinnacle, and wheeled on the lower base to take such toll of our pursuers as I might. Blood streaming from a score of gashes trickled down the pedestal on which I stood, and I shook my head violently to rid my eyes of blinding sweat.

They ringed me in a wide semicircle, deliberate now that their prey seemed certain, and I cannot recall a time when I was more revolted by horror and disgust, than when I stood with my back to that marble pillar and faced those verminous monsters of the lower world.

James Sutter
Editor Planet Stories

The Doctor is In

Monday, February 18, 2008

How sick would you have to be before you'd drink the tonic this man is offering you?

In Pathfinder #8's "Seven Days to the Grave," your characters get to find out. The cheery chap pictured here is one of the Queen's Physicians, part of Queen Ileosa's official response to the plague that strikes Korvosa in the second installment of the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path. Of course, we can't take full credit for the costume design for this guy—it's more or less whole-cloth from the actual plague doctor suits worn in medieval times during the black death. Think of it as an early haz-mat suit. Unfortunately for the real-world doctors who wore these suits, they did relatively little to protect them from infection. Sure makes them look creepy, though!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Free Player's Guide!

Friday, February 15, 2008

In a few short weeks, we'll begin shipping the first part of Pathfinder's second Adventure Path—Curse of the Crimson Throne. As with Rise of the Runelords, we've created a 16-page Player's Guide to help you not only build your characters for the new campaign, but also to help introduce you to the city of Korvosa, where the majority of Curse of the Crimson Throne takes place.

And as in the case of the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, the Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide is free as a PDF. Even better? You can download it right now! (7.6MB zip PDF)

This 16-page product is packed with all sorts of flavor and crunch. An overview of the city of Korvosa, the largest city in Varisia, starts things off, including notes on the various districts and the important NPCs your characters might rub shoulders with. Notes on how all the core races and classes are represented in Korvosa come next, followed by some new equipment, weapons, and armor (some of which first appeared in the Runelords Player's guide, but others, like the sawtooth sabre, the doctor's mask, or the xxx, are brand new!). Several new feats are sprinkled throguhout the PDF as well (including one that gives fans of the crossbow some badly needed attention). The last few pages present several different background traits you can select for your new character to give him a instant "in" into Curse of the Crimson Throne's first adventure, "Edge of Anarchy." Oh, and the Golarion calendar is finally in print here as well—no more sifting back through blog posts to find out what day of the week and what month it is!

So go download your free Player's Guide, break out the six-sided dice, and start rolling up some stats! Korvosa's going to need all the heroes she can get before this Adventure Path comes to its concludsion!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: Seven Days to the Grave

Friday, February 15th, 2008

Enjoy this interior art from Curse of the Crimson Throne Chapter 2: "Seven Days to the Grave." Just don't breathe too deep...

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

Journey Into Darkness

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The next GameMastery Module, River Into Darkness is off to the printer. This adventure features a great trek through the dark and mysterious jungles of the southern continent of Garund (part of the Pathfinder Chronicles world for those of you not in the know). To top it off, there are angry natives, deadly monster, and questionable friends. What more could you ask for? Not much I say. Not much. Need more proof? Here is the back cover copy:

A vast merchant consortium has a simple job for you—one that pays extremely well. All it asks is that you stand guard over one of its outposts for a few weeks until reinforcements arrive. The problem, of course, is that the outpost is in the middle of a vast and dangerous jungle and the natives seem intent upon putting an arrow in you at every turn. If the journey there doesn't kill you, though, you might just learn what is worth risking your lives over.

River Into Darkness is a wilderness-based adventure for 4th-level characters compatible with the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. This adventure includes all in information you need to send your heroes on a fantastic journey through the heart of the deep and mysterious jungle, including encounters with terrible monsters and hostile natives.

This adventure is set in the Mwangi Expanse, the largest jungle in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, but it can be easily adapted for use in any setting. For more information on this environ, check out the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Forging a Connection

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

The 54 cards of the Harrow do not only portend sunderings and strife. Indeed, the cards can also express creation and unity.

The Forge, for example, represents strength through great diversity. It is a test, and those who pass the test are the stronger for it. The Marriage is a union—of people, of countries, or even of ideas and thoughts. Mergers portended by The Marriage cannot be parted.

Note how both the Forge's hammer and the Marriage's crown are positioned in the middle of the left-hand-side of their respective cards. As hinted at in the past, the alignment of each icon and the icons themselves all mean something specific for the cards. Where the position of its icon determines the card's overall demeanor, the icon itself keeps score of an ability the card represents.

Harrow releases in only a few weeks. When it does, I foresee in your future years of enjoyment.

Mike McArtor
GameMastery Editor

Paul Randles' Final Game: Key Largo

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

In February 2003, Pirate's Cove designer Paul Randles died of cancer. That story didn't have a happy ending. This one does.

A year earlier, Paul drafted a deep-sea diving board game he called Treasure Hunt. Players would salvage treasure from shipwrecks off the Florida coast. The game had pop-up boats, and little cardboard shipwrecks with treasure disks. Paul wanted a European publisher to publish it, but it wasn't good enough yet. A solid 6 on the scale of 1 to 10, he said. It better at least be a 9 before it hit the street.

Then he got sick. I didn't know how to help. My wife did. Evon suggested I ask Paul for Treasure Hunt. I'd develop the game with him, and then find a publisher to put it out. For the last months of his life, we worked on the game together.

I gave him a 21-Nerf-gun salute at his funeral, and told the legions of game industry folk there that I was shopping Treasure Hunt. It was a pretty good game by this point. Maybe an 8.

At an Ohio convention, I met Bruno Faidutti, the French designer of Citadels. He knew of Paul and wanted to help. Within a month he had restructured the game he was now calling Treasure Island into a great game. A 9 for sure. Gone were the pop-up boats and the cardboard shipwrecks, replaced now by full-size boats and card decks of sunken treasure. Now we could find someone to publish it.

Every publisher wanted to see the game, because Paul had a lot of friends. A major American board game company wanted to convert it to a dungeon-crawl game. I thanked them and declined. (Side story: Based on this, I did design that dungeon game, with my co-designer James Ernest of Cheapass Games. That game, Dungeonville, came out from two more publishers, Z-Man Games and Pegasus Spiele. So Paul's game has a son, and he's bilingual.)

Then Tilsit Editions of France made an offer, which Bruno, Paul's widow Katty, and I accepted. Editor Nicolas Anton proposed adding people you could meet on the island, the last thing the game needed to become a 10 out of 10. Tilsit renamed it Key Largo, gave it a fancy cover and a modular board, and released it in 2005 in German, Italian, and French. Which was great, except I don't speak any of those languages very well.

But I do speak English, and I do know Lisa Stevens, the CEO of Paizo Publishing. Lisa was looking to start a new line of board games, which eventually I helped forge into Titanic Games, the publisher of the color version of Kill Doctor Lucky and Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game. Titanic needed a third game, so I looked at the name of the company and said, "How about one about sinking ships?"

How about it indeed, she said. And so, in February 2008, five years to the month after Paul's passing, Titanic Games will be releasing the full-color English version of Key Largo, with all-new art and all-new components delivered by graphic designer James Davis. The English edition has a large one-piece board, nice wooden boats, fifteen delightful divers, and beautiful cards with art from Ben Huen and Andrew Hou. Everyone we've shown it to says it's a work of art. I like those people.

The game has undergone a lot of facelifts since Paul's fun little prototype, but there's something unmistakably Paul-ish in the final version. That's why the money in the game bears the inscription "E Paulibus Unum," which I can pretend means "In Paul We Trust."

I can't play Key Largo with Paul, but now I can play it with you.

Mike Selinker
Titanic Games Brand Manager

The Chase is On!

Monday, February 11, 2008

One of the problems I've seen with most game systems is the necessity of nailing down and quantifying a creature's speed. While this is certainly an important value, especially when combat begins, it carries with it an unfortunate implication—you're either always faster or slower or equally quick when compared to anything else. In other words... chase scenes are big problems in RPGs, since those static Speed statistics imply that you're either guaranteed to catch a slower foe or that you'll NEVER catch a faster foe or a foe that's as fast as you. Which is a shame, since chases have such promise to be exciting encounters (as anyone who's seen The French Connection, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or any of the Bourne movies can attest.)

Countless game designers have come up with different ways to simulate chase scenes in RPGs over the years—some of their solutions are quick and elegant, while others are needlessly complex and dull. In my opinion, chase rules should be fast and simple and exciting, and when I realized there's a scene in Nicolas Logue's "Edge of Anarchy" that had an exciting chase across the rooftop slums of Korvosa (a region called "The Shingles" by the locals), I knew that here was a chance for me to take a stab at coming up with some chase rules of my own.

Alas, I don't have room to go into the details here, but the basic concept is this: the region in which the chase takes place is represented by several pieces of paper on which are listed skill checks to navigate obstacles. A character can opt to just move one piece of paper a turn, or can utilize several different skill checks to move two or three pieces in a turn, thus risking a fall or other delay in order to close the gap between himself and his quarry. It makes for an even more abstract simulation than combat, sure, but in the end, the haste in which it all plays out goes a long way toward establishing the high-speed thrill of a chase through dangerous terrain. The last thing you want during a chase, after all, are bored players!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: Edge of Anarchy

Friday, February 8, 2008

Sneak a quick look at the mayhem that has transformed the usually peaceful streets and seas of Korvosa!

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

More Gear!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

One year ago, we released Adventure Gear, a set of item cards designed to depict most of the common items adventurers carry with them deep into the bowels of the earth. There was only one problem: You can never have enough gear to bring with you into the bowels of the earth. Enter Adventure Gear 2, a new 54-card set of item cards depicting even more of the common items your adventurer carries with them... ah, you get the idea. Anyway, enough of my talking, take a look at some of these cards from the set.

Adventure Gear 2 is due to hit our warehouse later this month.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Beware the Ravages of the Cyclone!

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

The 54 cards of the Harrow do not tell you what you want to hear. No no. They tell you what was, what is, and what will be. Sometimes, a card comes up in your reading you do not want to see.

One of the cards nobody wants is the dreaded Cyclone. This dire card expresses destruction and cataclysm. Worse yet, it symbolizes disaster wrought by thinking minds, and not the oft-random tragedies wrought by Nature.

All is not lost, however, when the Cyclone appears in your reading. At times, when it appears in specific places of the spread, this card of chaos and evil actually signifies renewal and rebirth after a blustery, trying ordeal. You must still endure suffering and tragedy, for the Cyclone never portends good tidings, but you shall survive the challenge put before you.

What other dark omens await you in the Harrow deck? Only time will tell...

Mike McArtor
GameMastery Editor

Science Fiction's Original Badass

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

I'd edited the thing twice, so I really should have expected it. Still, when Erik dropped our advance copy of Northwest of Earth down in front of me, the resounding "whump" it made was immensely satisfying. You have to understand that this thing is thick—a book measured less in pages than in pounds. And at the same price as all our other Planet Stories installments to date—$12.99—Northwest Smith is a steal for those of us who, like me as a kid especially, strive to make each dollar buy as many words as possible.

Really, though, Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith would be worth the price if it were half its size. Decades before Han Solo shot Greedo, thirty years before Captain James Kirk laid eyes on his first seductive alien, there was only Northwest Smith: a hard-bitten spacefarer with a penchant for smuggling and mercenary work, quick with his heat gun and even quicker with his shot glass, Accompanied by his shrewd Venusian sidekick, Northwest paved the way for countless science fiction heroes who chose to operate just outside the bounds of the law. With one broad stroke, C. L. Moore created one of the most cherished archetypes of the genre.

But then, why should we be surprised? After all, C. L. Moore was something of a trailblazer herself. In a time when female authors were marginalized at best, and almost nonexistent in genre fiction, Catherine Lucille Moore kicked down the doors and made the speculative fiction audiences take notice. First published in Weird Tales in 1934, she quickly rose through the ranks of the pulp authors, publishing alongside contemporaries like Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, continuing to excel even once her gender became widely known. Another of her creations, Jirel of Joiry (whose complete collected stories are available from Planet Stories as Black God's Kiss), was the first female sword-and-sorcery protagonist, a battle-thirsty, take-no-prisoners sort of warrior who showed the fantasy world that some of those clichéd "damsels in distress" could take care of themselves just fine, thank you very much.

Northwest of Earth marks the first-ever complete collection of Northwest Smith stories, including even the rarely-seen "Nymph of Darkness" (a collaboration with Forrest J. Ackerman) and "Quest of the Starstone," a rollicking cross-genre romp in which Moore and husband Henry Kuttner (a groundbreaking SF author in his own right) pair Smith and Jirel together against an evil wizard capable of moving between worlds.

I could talk all day about how important to the genre these stories are, the manner in which they seamlessly blend ray-gun science fiction and cosmic horror, but perhaps you'd rather hear about it from someone more reputable... like, say, H. P. Lovecraft himself? In his personal letters, Lovecraft has this to say about Moore's work:

"These tales have a peculiar quality of cosmic weirdness, hard to define but easy to recognize, which marks them out as really unique... In these tales there is an indefinable atmosphere of vague outsideness and cosmic dread which marks weird work of the best sort. The distinctive thing about Miss Moore is her ability to devise conditions and sights and phenomena of utter strangeness and originality, and to describe them in a language conveying something of their outre, phantasmagoric, and dread-filled quality."—H. P. Lovecraft

So there you have it. Even seventy years ago, the authors of the day understood that this C. L. Moore person was a breed apart—someone of imagination and prose far beyond the standard pulp author. We're putting out a lot of great books this year, but it's with distinct and especial pride that we're releasing Northwest of Earth. I hope you enjoy it.

And now, because everyone loves free samples, a teaser:

For a minute—for two minutes—nothing happened. Then, watching the wall, Smith thought he could discern the shape of the symbol that had been traced. Somehow it was becoming clear among the painted characters. Somehow a grayness was spreading within the outlines he had watched his own hands trace, a fogginess that strengthened and grew clearer and clearer, until he could no longer make out the traceries enclosed within its boundaries, and a great, misty symbol stood out vividly across the wall.

He did not understand for a moment. He watched the grayness take on density and grow stronger with each passing moment, but he did not understand until a long curl of fog drifted lazily out into the room, and the grayness began to spill over its own edges and eddy and billow as if that wall were afire. And from very far away, over measureless voids, he caught the first faint impact of a power so great that he knew in one flash the full horror of what he watched.

The name, traced upon that wall with its own metal counterpart, had opened a doorway for the Thing which bore the name to enter. It was coming back to the world it had left millions of years ago. It was oozing through the opened door, and nothing he could do would stop it...

James Sutter
Editor, Planet Stories

Introducing Gaedren Lamm

Monday, February 4, 2008

See that wretched fellow over there? The creepy old man with the ratty clothes and the pet alligator? That would be Gaedren Lamm, one of the first villains your PCs will be facing in the new Pathfinder Adventure Path, Curse of the Crimson Throne. One part criminal mastermind (like Fagin from Oliver Twist), one part feeble but bitter and evil old man (like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons), and one part classic RPG guild master of thieves, Gaedren Lamm is more than just a simple end-boss of a dungeon. He's the reason your new PCs became adventurers in the first place.

In the Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide, we introduce several background traits that each player can look through, selecting one to apply to his character's history. Although each background trait gives you a small bonus to your character (something on par with about half the power of a feat... a +1 bonus to a particular saving throw, for example), they also give you something more: a built-in reason to hate Gaedren Lamm. Perhaps he murdered your father. Maybe he kidnapped your cousin. Or perhaps you grew up as one of his orphan pickpockets, and experienced a childhood of physical abuse and pain. Whatever your choice, you'll have a reason at the start of the campaign to side up with the other PCs—all of you will share a hatred for this despicable old villain. And when a mysterious figure gathers you together with news of where Gaedren Lamm's hideout actually is, how the criminal pays for his crimes will be up to your group.

Just make sure to watch out for his alligator.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: Crucible of Chaos

Friday, February 1, 2008

Here is a sneak peek into one of the living nightmares that you will encounter in the Lost City. Enjoy this evocative art, representative of what is featured in Crucible of Chaos.

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant