The Sable Company

Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Guide to Korvosa details Varisia's unofficial capital, a militaristic city tolerant of fiends but ever strict in its applications of law and punishment (especially the punishment). Three military branches protect the city from external and internal threats: the peacekeeping Korvosan Guard, the hard-hearted Hellknights of the Order of the Nail, and the elite hippogriff riders of the Sable Company. Here is just a taste of what the beloved marines of the Sable Company are all about.

Sable Company
First by tradition, and later by an addendum to the city's charter, the Sable Company does not answer to the leader of Korvosa, regardless of the leader's title. Instead, the commandant of the Sable Company reports directly to the Seneschal of Castle Korvosa.
Commandant Marcus Thalassinus Endrin leads his hippogriff-mounted marines in defense of the skies and waters of Korvosa. Shipboard raids and airborne threats fall under the jurisdiction of the black-clad Sable Company, and its members offer aerial and amphibious support to Korvosan Guard operations. The Sable Company works closely with the Korvosan Guard and relies on its ties with that group to coordinate efforts with the Hellknights and Acadamae (neither of which the Sable Company gets along with).

Mike McArtor
GameMastery Associate Editor

RPG Superstar Top 4

Christine Schneider, Neu-Isenburg, Hessen (Germany)     Chase on Charred Ground     Mind the Machine     Arthelia "Lady of Legends Undone"     Theocracy of Carnamach     Arcane Anvil Clinton Boomer, Macomb, IL (USA)     Impartial Tribunal     Kakuen-Taka, The Hunger that Moves     Abzirael Ul-Shadai, the Cackling Whirling     Cyrehllan, The Isle of Cold Tears     Crown of the Breaching Legion

Jason Nelson, Seattle, WA (USA)     Vale of Rohthang's Rest     In the bleak midwinter     Avinash, Master of the Catspaw Marauders     Bereket     Phial of Ebon Flame Rob McCreary, Prague (Czech Republic)     Monkey Goblins Attack!     The Ooze Imperium     Onuyaka, the All-Seeing Eye     Iskandria     Coin Belt of Beguiling

The easy stuff is over.

In the beginning more than 850 would-be superstars submitted their best wondrous items. We narrowed that down to our favorite 32.

From there things got more difficult. The art of game design involves both rules and flavor text, of course, but if you can't handle pure flavor text, no one is going to want to read your stuff. Round 2 was a pure flavor test, leaving you armed only with the quality of your ideas and the power of your writing.

Only 16 contestants survived the scrutiny of the general public to move on to Round 3. Because every good adventure needs a great villain, we asked you to show us your worst, and you came back with your very best.

With 8 designers remaining, we asked for three thematically linked monsters to test your ability to follow directions, the power of your ideas, and your ability to handle complex rules.

The 6 most popular contestants got to design an encounter, completing a series of tasks meant to test just about every individual element included in an adventure module.

Fitting, really, since the four remaining contestants will compete for the chance to write an original adventure for Paizo's GameMastery Modules line. So far every victory in this contest has granted you bragging rights around game tables and on the internet. No more.

The winner of this contest—the RPG Superstar—gets their foot in the door with an honest-to-goodness printed product with their name right there on the cover, and all of their beautiful ideas given form, maps, and illustrations right there on the printed page.

Accordingly, the final RPG Superstar challenge is to design a complete proposal for that winning module. As in previous rounds, the judges will comment on each entry and the general public will vote on their favorites.

The author of the submission that receives the greatest number of votes will be named the RPG Superstar.

The RPG Superstar will get a production deal for a Paizo GameMastery Module.

Erik Mona
Publisher

Road Map to the Runelords

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

In the office campaign, Erik Mona once tore a page out of the published adventure he was running because he grew too frustrated at having to flip back and forth from the page the map was on to the page where the various room encounters were described. Visions of frustrated Pathfinder readers doing the same prompted us to release the key maps from Rise of the Runelords in a stand-alone product—now you can run your party through the haunted houses and dungeons and cities without having to mutilate your books!

Also included—poster maps for Sandpoint and Varisia. Because who doesn't like poster maps?

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

More Magic of Thassilon

Monday, Jaunary 28, 2008

For Pathfinder #5, we asked a small army of authors to send us some spells and magic items that had a "Thassilonian" feel to them. As it turned out, we got about twice as many as we really had room to print. Rather than just cut the second half out and throw it away, we decided to cut the second half out and throw it into a free web enhancement for Pathfinder #5. Pictured here is just one of those items—a fragment of the Gluttonous Tome, a powerful artifact that has some pretty major ties to Zutha, the undead Runelord of Gluttony. WARNING: Some of the magic items may not be wise for your PCs to use. They were, after all, invented by the runelords and their minions!

To download a free PDF of the Pathfinder #5 web supplement, click here (180 KB zip PDF).

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Terrible Trio

Friday, January 25, 2008

During Ulduvai's final days, when its citizens were caught in the slow but inevitable decline of their once-great civilization, as one by one the other flying cities fell to decadence, disease, conquest, or other misfortune, a strange wanderer arrived in the city and brought with him a relic of uncertain origin but undeniable power. This mysterious outsider found within the city fertile soil: citizens both corrupt enough to submit to perversions that others would find unthinkable, and desperate enough to try anything to escape a fate that seemed as certain as the stars.

Before long, the cult had grown to control much of the city, and at its head were three powerful sorcerers. On a dark night when the time was right, these three leaders brought the cultists together and channeled arcane power through the artifact, seeking to unlock the mysteries of creation and become living gods. The results were not what they expected.

Now, centuries later, these three cultists still linger amongst the ashes of their former civilization. Each controls a separate area of the city, and each is convinced that, given the right tools and enough time, he can return Ulduvai to its former glory and banish the chaos that has warped the city almost beyond recognition. Yet no matter what they do and what secrets they unlock, they are no closer to the answers they seek now than they were on that fateful night centuries ago.

Jeremy Walker
GameMasteryAssistant Editor

Sneak Peek: Map of Golarion

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Here is a sneak peek of Golarion, the exciting world of the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and GameMastery Modules. From the frontiers of Varisia to the devil-tainted cities of Cheliax to the frigid Hold of the Mammoth Lords, it will surely draw you in!

Note: This map is not final, and is a work in progress.

Carolyn Mull
Sales & Marketing Assistant

All Hail the Rabbit Prince!

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Within the 54 cards of the Harrow deck live your past, your present, and your future. Like you, each card is unique and has its own story to tell.

Take, for example, the Rabbit Prince. He tells stories of battle. Glorious, bloody, horrific battle, with opponents facing off in chaotic melees doing all they can to kill one another with sword and spear and axe. The Rabbit Prince relishes hand-to-hand combat and, like it, he is both quick and capricious.

Let's take a quick look at the card itself. The broken sword indicates the singular purpose of battle: to destroy. Anyone who engages in combat—regardless of courage, experience, or skill—can be maimed or killed. As a member of royalty, the prince himself can represent young aristocrats, whether royal or noble. And what meaning has the key? Does its placement on the card affect its importance?

Well, there are some things one must wait to discover. For while the Harrow knows all, it is not necessarily quick to share its knowledge...

Mike McArtor
Editor

Meet the Iconics: Lem

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Although Lem was raised in the lap of luxury, his childhood was anything but comfortable. He had the unfortunate luck to be born into slavery, to a mother indentured to one of Cheliax's countless noble families. Lem was sold a half dozen times to different nobles before he reached the age of two. Such is the fate of most of Cheliax's halflings (often called "slips" by that nation's citizens). Halflings are much valued as slaves in Cheliax since they take up less room and since their inborn optimism ironically stunts escape urges. Halflings born into slavery in Cheliax are prone to think of their lot in life as "lucky." They are fond of saying, "At least we aren't living in the gutter or starving!"

Nevertheless, halflings who rankle at the concept of enslavement do appear. Halflings like Lem. Growing up a slave in the devil-haunted empire of Cheliax exposed Lem to a shocking range of decadence and debauchery. He learned from a young age how to say what his superiors wanted to hear, and as he grew older, these skills often secured him less onerous jobs. While his kin toiled in basement washrooms or tended hellhound stables, Lem was taught to play the flute so he could entertain at family gatherings. Yet Lem was not blind to the discomfort of his brothers and sisters, and when he learned that a dozen of his kin were to be sacrificed to a devil as an offering to seal a new trade contract, Lem knew the time to act had come. Taking advantage of his increased mobility in the manor, it was a relatively simple trick to light a few fires in secret corners and then ensure that all of his halfling kin were safe in the slave's quarters. The manor burnt quickly, but Lem was shocked to see his kin rush back to the manor in a hopeless attempt to aid in extinguishing the flames. As the place burnt to the ground, and the halflings bemoaned their fate and the loss of their shelter, Lem slipped away into the night, bitter and distraught over this unexpected turn of events.

Lem left Cheliax by stowing away on a merchant vessel and never looked back. He rarely speaks of his childhood today, but one can see its effects in his high disdain for law and order, and his intolerance for cruelty. Always quick to side with the underdog, Lem has learned that his most powerful traits are his optimism and sense of humor—virtues that almost make up for his small stature and impulsive nature. Lem's reasons for traveling with his current companions vary upon the day and his mood, but he certainly values their strengths—and the never-ending supply of comedy material their antics provide him.

Lem debuts as a pregenerated character in volume 7 of Pathfinder and in GameMastery Module W2: River Into Darkness.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: Hangman's Noose

Friday, January 18, 2008

Here's an artistic sneak peek of our haunting urban adventure Hangman's Noose. Happy nightmares!

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

Monster of Madness

Thursday, January 17, 2008

"We had expected, upon looking back, to see a terrible and incredible moving entity if the mists were thin enough; but of that entity we had formed a clear idea. What we did see—for the mists were indeed all too maliguly thinned—was something altogether different, and immeasurably more hideous and detestable. It was the utter, objective embodiment of the fantastic novelist's 'thing that should not be...'

...It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. Still came that eldritch, mocking cry—'Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!'"

H. P. Lovecraft
At the Mountains of Madness

Jeremy Walker
GameMastery Assistant Editor

Congratulations to the Top 6

The voters have spoken! As the competition rises in difficulty, the contestants now have just a few days to design an encounter.

Christine Schneider, Neu-Isenburg, Hessen (Germany)     Mind the Machine     Arthelia "Lady of Legends Undone"     Theocracy of Carnamach     Arcane Anvil Clinton Boomer, Macomb, IL (USA)     Kakuen-Taka, The Hunger that Moves     Abzirael Ul-Shadai, the Cackling Whirling     Cyrehllan, The Isle of Cold Tears     Crown of the Breaching Legion Jason Nelson, Seattle, WA (USA)     In the bleak midwinter     Avinash, Master of the Catspaw Marauders     Bereket     Phial of Ebon Flame

Joe Outzen, Saint Louis Park, MN (USA)     Born of Lightning     Kotalya, Mistress of Demonlake     Moros Akalein: The Wandering Nation     Torch of Solidity Rob McCreary, Prague (Czech Republic)     The Ooze Imperium     Onuyaka, the All-Seeing Eye     Iskandria     Coin Belt of Beguiling Russell Taylor, Eugene, OR (USA)     The Darkblight     Seskadrin, Satrap of the Ahestian Sea     Eluraelon     Gloves of Force Shaping

Note: As of Round 4, the schedule has been adjusted to give the judges an extra day to evaluate and comment on entries. Voting windows will now begin on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays.

Key Largo: Sneak Peek

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

We just got the first copy of the all-new English-language version of Key Largo in the office, and it looks gorgeous! We'll have a lot more to say about this fun deep-sea diving game in the coming month, but we wanted to show off some images of the game just as soon as we had them. Given that it's a chilly winter here in Seattle, just looking at it makes me feel like I'm kicking back off the Florida coast, ordering an extra umbrella in my drink, and strapping on a 19th century regulator helmet for some underwater treasure-hunting. Take a look and see if you want to come too.

Mike Selinker
Titanic Games Brand Manager

Words of Wisdom from "Two Toes"

Monday, January 14, 2008

Back on November 14th, we had a sort of cryptic post here on the blog. Well, more of a warning, really: "THE YETI IS COMING!" Well, later this month, the yeti will arrive—just one of many dangers awaiting the PCs in "Spires of Xin-Shalast," the final adventure in Rise of the Runelords. Pathfinder #6 also presents a short article that talks about other dangers that await any who dare explore the Kodar Mountains, one of Golarion's most inhospitable regions. This article opens with some words of advice from one of Varisia's most widely traveled explorers—the currently missing Ronagard Roteshield.

"The cold's not your enemy. No, when you get it in your fool head to go gallivanting up to the top of the world, there's plenty else to be worried of. Up there, there's mountains that roar and try to eat you alive. There's air that quits caring and does you about as much good as trying to breathe a lake. There's rock that's solid as a fortress wall 'til it's the only thing holding you over a gap a mile deep. And then there's the things. The snowy, hungry things that don't let anything made of meat just pass on by.

"The cold, though, it'll kill you slow and quiet. It'll be there when you're fallen and broken, half-eaten at the bottom of some ravine. It'll make the hurting stop, wrap you up in that dull, soft numbness, and make your forget any thought of climbing back down.

"No, the cold's not your enemy. Up there, it's the best friend you've got."

—Ronagard "Two Toes" Roteshield, Mountaineer Extraordinaire

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: Guide to Korvosa

Friday, January 11, 2008

Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa gives an up-close view of the city-state of Korvosa. Enjoy this sneak peek of interior art of this civilized and very cultured city.

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

Crucible of Chaos

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Crucible of Chaos has been sent to the printer and is due to come out next month. This module features a number of really cool locations, including a crashed sky city. To get you salivating for this dangerous adventure, here is a look at the final cover and the info from the back of the module.

Uncover the ruins of the flying city

Legends speak of an ancient culture that drifted through the clouds atop immense floating cities. These same tales speak of a horrible catastrophe that brought them low, but no one has discovered the true cause. Now, a mystical compass has been discovered that seems to point to an unexplored valley, one that just might hold the secrets of this lost empire. But will the same catastrophe strike again?

Crucible of Chaos is a journey-based adventure for 8th-level characters compatible with the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. This adventure contains details on the valley containing the crashed sky-city, including the natives who live there, as well as information on those who brought about the city's downfall.

This adventure is set in the unexplored reaches of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, one of the nations in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, but it can be easily adapted for use in any setting. For more information on this area, check out the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Meet Freezemaw!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

One of the early lessons I learned working on adventures for Dungeon was that RPG players have an extra level of demands when it comes to dragons. You can throw pretty much any other monster into an adventure without worry, but if you want to include a dragon, you'd best be sure said dragon has a history and personality. And honestly, the readers are right (as they often are). Dragons shouldn't be throwaway encounters. They shouldn't just wander by as a result of a wandering monster result. In Pathfinder, I'm going to try to make sure that whenever we have a dragon appearing in the adventure, he or she has a story. Especially, as in the case of Pathfinder #5, when the dragon appears on the cover.

The white dragon on the cover is Arkrhyst—called Freezemaw by the Shoanti—an old white dragon who has lived on Rimeskull for 50 years. In his youth several centuries ago, Arkrhyst was a great and hated enemy of the Shoanti; his raids on the nomads of the Velashu Uplands and the western Storval Plateau were legendary, and many of those tribes still sing of these dark times, and of the countless heroes who sought out his home on Rimeskull to defeat him. None accomplished this goal, but as Arkrhyst grew older, his urge to raid grew less. Content now with the reputation he earned, he sleeps for years at a time on his considerable store of treasure, dreaming of his youthful rampages.

Of course, Freezemaw's only one of many menaces that wait for PCs brave enough to seek out the legendary dungeon of Runeforge in Pathfinder #5—but he's certainly one of the adventure's more memorable villains!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Is There a Nocturne in the House?

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

As the weather turned chilly, I went back to Germany to attend the Essen Game Fair, the largest tabletop game convention in the world. There, as you may have seen on the Paizo blog, dozens of demoers showed off ten different Stonehenge games. Hundreds of players hopped from table to table trying all the games.

But none of them got to see what you get to see now. Here I'll describe all of the games in the first Stonehenge expansion, Nocturne. This expansion provides new orange and black pieces for use in six- and seven-player games. And we got four more of the greatest board game designers in the world to invent three clever new games with a nocturnal theme. (Then I snuck one more in under the cover of night. More on that soon.)

Sun & Moon, by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede: With many apologies to Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan, for my money the single best game of the German revolution is Wrede's Carcassonne. So, after it became clear that the Stonehenge main game was in good hands, I made a beeline for Klaus-Jürgen. As the most German of the Stonehenge designers so far, Klaus-Jürgen turned over the most German of all the Stonehenge games so far.

Sun & Moon is about cults. Specifically, there are two: the Sun Cult and the Moon Cult. Players divide into two cults of one, two, or three cultists each. They spend the rest of the game manipulating druids to move the pieces of the giant trilithons. (This is the first Stonehenge game to start with the trilithons in their component parts.) Your fellow cultists can help by marshalling resources, but the opposing cult has a chance to take control of those resources before you can get to them.

There's some very nice game-designer sleight of hand in this game. You think you can see all the cards you need in front of the other players, but just before you get to use them, somehow it doesn't quite turn out the way you'd planned. I'd expect nothing less from a master like Klaus-Jürgen.

The Star Gate, by Bruno Cathala and Serge Laget: In my quest to get every game designer named Bruno to work on this line, I asked original Stonehenge designer Bruno Faidutti to introduce me to his frequent co-designer Bruno Cathala. Bruno C introduced me to his frequent co-designer Serge Laget, and the two of them enthusiastically set to work on one of the best-themed games in the line.

Bruno and Serge suggested that to them, Stonehenge was the perfect star gate, a way for archaeologists to unlock the secret of travel through the stars. To open the gate, the rocks of Stonehenge must be triggered in a specific order, and the archaeologists must puzzle out that order. And so the game becomes a strange and delightful guessing game, a la Clue, where everyone has some information but no one has all of it. You pick a stone, and the player who knows its location tells you whether you've gained any valuable information. When you think you've figured out the location of a triggering stone, you can lock in your guess. But if you're wrong, other players will leap ahead of you.

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether there was a particular strategy that would always work. Everybody had a theory, but no one could consistently win. That pleases me greatly. I've never seen a game like this one, and am thrilled it's in Nocturne.

Stonehenge Hippie Festival, by Andrew Looney: If I asked a room full of the top 100 game designers to guess which of them had designed a game called "Stonehenge Hippie Festival," 99 of them would say Andy Looney, the permanently tie-dyed owner of Looney Labs. The one who wouldn't get it right would be Andy, who would be too busy flashing back to Woodstock to realize the question had been asked. Hey, we only go to the professionals here.

Speaking of professionalism, Andy blew me away by having his game designed before I could send him a set of pieces. (You can read about that in Andy's blog.) In the game, you are attending the Stonehenge Free Festival, a real-life musicfest series that ran from 1972–1985. You want provisions for the festival, and go from booth to booth trying to get them. Actually, you can do a lot more than that. You can hang flags off the trilithons. You can bogart someone's bottle of water. And you can dance. Oh boy, can you dance. That's about all I can say about this game that will make sense until you pick up the rules.

And hey, how about that fine Howard Lyon piece of art at the top of this section? I'm sure I speak for Andy when I say that's a festival we'd both want to attend.

Battle of the Beanfield, by Mike Selinker: Or maybe I wouldn't want to attend that festival, as the events of this game will show. I certainly didn't plan to put another game of mine into the set, but when I read Andy's rules, my eyes turned to the history of the Stonehenge Free Festival. It ended on June 1, 1985, when jackbooted British cops took truncheons to busfuls of hippies in a nearby beanfield. This terrible incident became known as the "Battle of the Beanfield." This was an unjustifiable tragedy, which I looked at and immediately said, "Game."

So, as a tribute to my boy Andy, I designed Stonehenge's first solitaire game, and the only one not to use the board. Instead, you use the card box as a "bus," and bars which represent hippies. The eight figures represent bobbies looking to crack some hippie skulls. Your job as the driver of the bus is to play cards in front of these bobbies, freeing the hippies from the cops' clutches and getting them back on the bus. As in solitaire, you want to get as close as you can to clearing the board.

This game might not have been included in Nocturne without Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens, unbidden by me, dedicating her nights to playing about 80 games of it, and keeping meticulous records of how close she got to a perfect game. Now, Lisa's a busy woman. But I figure if she decides to play 80 games of something, we should give you a chance to play it as well. So Battle of the Beanfield snuck in as the final game of the set. If you lose a few weekends playing it, blame Lisa.

Of course, the other great advantage of Nocturne is that for your Stonehenge games, you now have a bunch more pieces. If you've wanted to bring in more players, now you can. Or if you just really like the colors orange and black, now you've got orange and black. And, oh yeah, four more fun games, with the promise of lots more to come. Have a great night.

Mike Selinker
Titanic Games Brand Manager

Mike Selinker is the Titanic Games brand manager. He has helped design and develop Stonehenge, Key Largo, Axis & Allies, Pirates of the Spanish Main, Gloria Mundi, Unspeakable Words, Risk: Godstorm, and many other games. He also directs the design studio Lone Shark Games, Inc.

A Trip to the FLGS!

Monday, January 7, 2008

It's one thing to interact with readers of Pathfinder here on the internet, be it via messageboards or chat rooms, but it's certainly no replacement for face-to-face conversation. We're pretty sheltered here at Paizo, sequestered away in the not-large-enough room we semi-affectionately refer to as "The Pit," and they don't let us out that often, with the notable exception of Gen Con.

That all changed last month on December 19th, when Erik Mona, Wes Schneider, and myself got to escape the office to visit a friendly local game store—Oroboro Games. Since they don't let us out much, I had no idea that there was a cool game store like this so close to the offices. We showed up at about 7:00 PM, and although it was only supposed to go for about an hour, once you get Erik, Wes, and I talking about Golarion, well... time does strange things. The event ended up going for nearly three hours, and it was great fun! Particularly fun for me was talking to people who were playing Rise of the Runelords, and finding out just how much those goblins get hated. Poor little guys! They're just looking for things to burn and babies to eat. Is that so wrong?

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of the event. If you look real close, I think you can see some art we haven't yet shown off on the website for book covers! Thanks, by the way, to Joshua J. Frost and Carolyn Mull for making the event happen in the first place!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: Curse of the Crimson Throne

Friday, January 4, 2008

Pathfinder #7 kicks off the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path. Here is a sneak peek of the interior art.

Carolyn Mull
Paizo Sales & Marketing Assistant

Meet the Suspects: Part 2

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Last week, we introduced four of the eight suspects the PCs will have to investigate while they are trapped in a haunted courthouse with time running out. Here are the other four candidates for the Hangman's Noose:

The Fool: Ebin Blithoddle is a peculiar gnome who dresses in motley and has a stupid joke and a bad pun for every occasion. Despite the fact that he couldn't make a hyena laugh, the poor old sod refuses to quit, dancing and capering around the courthouse in fits of manic hysteria. Still, a sinister air hangs around the smiling and dancing fool—at times, his eyes seem glassy and his smile looks fixed. Even for Ebin, there is something about this courthouse that is not funny at all.

The Curious: Of all the suspects, Killian Paltreth is perhaps the most normal. Of course, in this adventure, anything normal is automatically cause for suspicion. The alchemist seems like a decent enough fellow genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of the mystery. But who knows what this seemingly honest old man is cooking up in that laboratory of his? And how did he get mixed up in this nasty business?

The Bully: Malgrim Hurkes is one of the most notorious figures in Absalom. The leader of a gang called the Grindle Street Shades, this ruthless hobgoblin has his fingers in much of the violent crime around the seedier districts of the city. Unfortunately, he doesn't take too kindly to being questioned by upstart adventures.

The Innocent: This cute, athletic halfling named Madge Blossomheart was little more than a girl when the crimes were committed, and she retains much of her youthful charm. This unfortunate maiden doesn't even understand most of what is going on... or at least that's what she claims. But what dark secrets could she possibly be concealing behind that glowing smile?

Jeremy Walker
GameMastery Assistant Editor

Harrowing Divinations

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

It's not every day you get a chance to create a means of time travel. Some might argue that divination isn't really time travel, but the way I envision it, a harrower—one gifted in the use of the Harrow deck—uses her deck of 54 cards to travel the paths of time, catching glimpses of the past, present, and future along the way.

With this in mind, I had to imagine myself as a harrower. Each card must be defined broadly enough to cover a number of situations, yet narrowly enough for those conducting harrowings—and those running adventures—to get some real information. Once some of Kyle's evocative art began to come in, I tweaked the cards' meanings to enhance their connection to that art.

The divinatory system itself needed to be easy to run, create the proper mystical mood, and fit into the roleplaying milieu. We gave every card a symbol of one of the six abilities in a position of one of the nine alignments; for example, The Unicorn is a chaotic good Charisma card, as shown by the crown in the upper right corner. The harrower lays the cards in a three-by-three divinatory grid matching time (past, present, and future) to the Law/Chaos alignment axis. After all, the past (represented by Law) is most fixed and difficult (although not impossible) to change, while the future (represented by Chaos) is infinitely changeable. Similarly, the Good/Evil axis came to represent positive, neutral, and negative situations for the person whose questions the harrower is answering. The good section of the grid represents the positive, while the evil section reflects negative outcomes. This basic grid presents the harrower with a solid framework to begin doing readings, but the nuances of the cards are evocative and expansive enough to let a capable harrower use them in many situations—both in game and out. Take a look for yourself and see if you agree.

Teeuwynn Woodruff
Harrow Designer

Happy New Year

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

And now, here we are in 2008! We've got a lot of exciting stuff planned for 2008, but there's just as much that's still evolving. Now's a great time to head on over to our messageboards and let us know what kind of products and adventures and blog posts you'd like to see from Paizo in the coming year. Who'd like to hear a Paizo Podcast? Is anyone interested in seeing a sequel to a particular GameMastery Module? Is there a market for Pathfinder miniatures? Don't be shy! We can't make things you want if you don't tell us you want them, right?

Anyway, I don't have all that much to say or show off today. The Paizo offices are closed, and I got the honor of writing today's post. And I'm too distracted by New Year-related shenanigans to write much more, so check out my favorite picture from Pathfinder #5—some foolish runelord calling upon the dread Oliphaunt of Jandelay!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief