This is just a reminder that the deadline to enter RPG Superstar 2010 is tomorrow—Friday, January 1st, 2010, at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. If you want to have a chance to show your designer chops and possibly earn the grand prize—a gig writing a 32-page adventure for Paizo—you must submit a wondrous item by the deadline!
With most of the Paizo editorial staff being transplants from across the country, the holidays tend to be the one time of the year where we put aside talk of goblins and statblocks and deadlines for a few days (or at least try to). With much of the crew making treks across the country to spend a few days with much neglected family members, things might get a little spotty here on the blog up through the New Year. Even with the dedicated folks staying behind to man the walls, the holiday fever can get a little distracting, so to tide things over till January 4th, here's Eva Widermann's fantastic artwork for our 2009 holiday card. But that's it from us for 2009, everybody! Thanks to everyone for an incredible year, and do me a favor and yell at James Jacobs if you see him on the boards over the course of the next week. Happy holidays from all of us here at Paizo and we'll see you in 2010!
Andoran, Spirit of Liberty is due to arrive in January, and as the rest of the team is burning the midnight oil to get the next Pathfinder out the door, Wes deputized me to do a blog. Time for some preview art!
The patron celestial of Andoran is an avoral named Talmandor, and as there aren't avoral stats in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, we put their stats in Andoran—sort of a sneak peek for Bestiary II next year. The next picture shows that halfling paladins are just as badass as human ones—in this case the hero is Jamus Hainard, born to a farming family and inspired by the Eagle Knights to become a champion of freedom. Finally, a piece showing an Andoren general and his troops trying to cross a river.
Pathfinder Chronicles: NPC Guide has a lot of stat blocks—about 100, at this point in development. Most of the book is the first chapter, one page per NPC and generally one NPC per country in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, each with a history and illustration. Here’s a little preview of some of these named PCs.
Illustrations by Christopher Ocampo
Krun Thuul of Belkzen, an orc military genius
Brinian of Brevoy, an arrogant young Aldori sword lord
Halig of Geb, a ghast priest of Zon-Kuthon who hungers for power
Bjorn Grimsong of the Land of the Linnorm Kings, a warrior prince with a borrowed name
Thaim of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, a young hunter on a mission, mammoth in tow
Lord Achimair of the Sodden Lands, a sahuagin warlord with a bad temper
The holidays approach, and the Paizo staff is working overtime to get a few more products out the door before a short holiday break, but sometimes you have to sit down, relax, and enjoy some good food and good company. Last Friday was Paizo's holiday party at JM Cellars winery in Woodinville, with wine tasting, handmade pizza by Veraci Pizza, and a white elephant gift exchange. Here's a small selection of the photos from the event (and apologies in advance for the "mood lighting").
This is your friendly neighborhood events manager letting you know that the continuing open call is off to a great start! Since the queries come in at a slower clip when there's no due date, I'm actually able to respond to each one with a few words of advice and encouragement. As of yet, no one has submitted a completed manuscript, but I hear rumors that at least two people are working on them. I've also received a few queries that I would call close but not quite there yet, and also received a query from Tim Hitchcock and Mark Moreland to write a scenario that, in my opinion, will kick seven truckloads of kobold butt when it comes out.
If you're interested in writing for Pathfinder Society Organized Play, check out our rules and guidelines page for instructions on submitting a query or full manuscript. I hope many of you are busy writing over the holidays, and that my shiny new 2010 inbox is full of your ideas.
When Erik first presented me with the manuscript for Who Fears the Devil? by Manly Wade Wellman, my first thought was likely the same as yours:
Who the heck names their son "Manly"?
Yet Mr. Wellman is from a different time and a different place, and it's precisely this distance which sets him most apart. For you see, unlike many of the classic pulp stories we've published in Planet Stories, Who Fears the Devil? isn't just a fun adventure, some purely whimsical construction of an author paid to imagine things. It's a piece of Americana, a historical artifact steeped in the legends and lore of Appalachia, and its stories carry the weight of truth. This is Neil Gaiman's American Gods mashed up with Johnny Cash, and by the end you feel like you've absorbed a college class's-worth of American folklore. And where some older stories feel anachronistic today, Wellman's still has life. For even today, strange things might lurk back in the misty hills where the roads don't go, where folk live simple in sod-roofed houses, picking banjos and tilling tiny hidden valleys, praying to the good lord to protect them from witch men and the creatures scratching at their windows....
I know I've said it before (and I'll likely say it again), this is hands-down my favorite Planet Stories book. Not only is the material fascinating—an entire folkloric tradition that I've somehow remained woefully ignorant of until now—but Manly Wade Wellman is a true master of the short story. Through the no-holds-barred patois of Silver John, the two-fisted hobo saint who travels endlessly in search of rare songs and legends, we are instantly and completely plunged into another world that rings with authenticity and a strange sort of comfort, as if these were ghost stories told by a kindly grandfather. This is fantasy of a breed you've likely never seen before, and if that sounds like hyperbole, perhaps the fact that Mr. Wellman was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and famously beat out William Faulkner for the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Award (a slight for which Faulkner, one of the most important American authors of all time, reportedly never forgave him) will convince you to give him a shot.
Who Fears the Devil? has all the weirdness of an RPG sourcebook and all the comfort of your grandmother's quilt. Curl up with it. You won't be disappointed.
James Jacobs came home from the Burnt Offerings play with his very own metal dogslicer prop. In the interest of science and general vengeance against hostile melons, we decided to test how effective this (unsharpened) dogslicer is.
Behold, the innocent cantaloupe. It looks so happy!
Behold, a hideous goblin. (Burnt Offerings goblin mask courtesy of Wes.)
The playtest of the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide is well underway, with the release of the final two classes slated to appear in the book, due out in August. In this round, we are looking at the alchemist and the inquisitor. The alchemist is all about using potions and arcane alchemy to increase your abilities. This works a bit like spellcasting, but offers some interesting advantages. In addition, the alchemist is quite skilled at lobbing bombs that burn, freeze, and electrify foes (among a host of other possibilities). The inquisitor works as a monster hunter for the faith, rooting out its enemies, no matter where they hide. The inquisitor is a master of adaptation, moving her abilities around to better fight her foes. This is your chance to take a look at these classes before they hit shelves in August. You can download the free PDF containing both of these classes here.
Over the past month, we have released the other four classes due to appear in the book, including the cavalier, the oracle, the summoner, and the witch. While we are focusing on the alchemist and the inquistor for the next two weeks, the playtest itself will remain open until the end of January 2010. Time permitting, we hope to release some updates to some of the classes in mid January.
As with the Core Rulebook playtest last year, there are a number of forums set up for playtest feedback and commentary. The first is a general forum, for discussing larger issues and announcements. Following this is a trio of forums for discussing each round of the playtest. Discussion on the alchemist and the inquisitor should go in the round 2 forum.
The playtest has been a huge success up to this point. I have been receiving a mountain of play reports and comments on the classes and I want to encourage folks to continue working with these classes. As with the previous rounds, actual play reports are more useful to the process than untested observations. So, give these last two classes a try. Make a whole party of characters using only these six classes or have the PCs face off against them as villains. When you are done, post up the results. I look forward to seeing them.
Goblins Terrorize Bathhouse: Cunning Plan Revealed As Many Local Hunting Dogs Found Dead
Friday, December 11, 2009
Earlier this year, fellow intern Matt and I were invited to begin playing in a Pathfinder RPG game run by local resident Crystal Frasier. We accepted, and Matt, Ross Byers (later to leave us for reasons involving Will saves and girl-cooties), and I began our quest to become... The Stuff of Legends. Deciding to make my life difficult, I made Klar, the burly and buff bluffing bard, Matt rolled up Zirithanis the hobo druid and Destroyer-of-Worlds-Fetcher-of-Dreams-Maxwell, his longtime friend and goblin-hating murderous dog of war, while Ross Byers began his quest as the excessive sorcerer, Aurelis. Our team assembled, The Stuff of Legends' first dabble into adventuring follows.
Meeting with the mayor, we understood that we were to stop mysterious sabotage attempts on a hopeful resort town in the Varisian Gulf. Naturally, our business powwow was interrupted by screams: Goblins had invaded the bathhouse! Having studied Goblinoid languages in a Chelish Opera College, I tried to negotiate with them, but their crude language and dubious use of the honorifics "dog-lover" and "ugly-face," made communication difficult. While I eventually gained their trust, my inquiries into why they would invade a bathhouse were met with confusion over failed translations of the words "bath," "clean," "soap," and "hot water." They began to suspect that I wanted to cook them, eventually leading us to armed conflict.
After Maxwell the Dog dispatched two of the goblins (Aurelis proved his worth as an electric stove, cooking one with shocking grasp), we entered the bathhouse, only to be ambushed again! Two stirges and a goblin sniper were difficult foes, yet, with the ever-suspect "oh, are you still singing?" of bardsong, Maxwell destroyed all opposition. Afterward, finding the public bath infested with vipers, we left them for the town's pest control. When we later realized that was Zirithanis' job, we went back and he charmed them into a wicker basket and left them at the edge of town. When we later heard a picnicker was killed by vipers, we blamed Zirithanis.
However, being playtest time, an unexpected enemy followed us into town: the Goblin Oracle! She was one of the most feared enemies we have ever fought, especially since we lacked Aurelis's help (he was sleeping off breakfast in his 100-gp suite on the coast). Perhaps it was her big hat, or maybe the threat of goblin rash from her two mangy rat-dogs, or maybe her fury over the sacked child she took hostage that was greased out of her hands, but the strength of her unusually fearsome blows felled both Zirithanis and me at different points. Our leapfrog healing tactics took her by surprise, however, keeping us both in the fight. In the end, Maxwell the Dog killed her, jumping over a mountain, stopping a flood by barking, and then arriving home in time to snap her neck and take the glory for himself. Next: Maxwell Defeats Giant Wheeled Eidolon and Eats It.
There's some nonsense about face cards coming out. On the one hand, I GM, and would find them very nice to have. On the other hand, my players tend to lump NPCs into two groups, one of which is rated R but not for violence, the other is "dismemberable." They are motivated by things like money and loot, and if an old lady on a card asks them to get her cat out of a tree, they'll write "hobo, no money, hope cat dies," and then write a number which represents her physical attractiveness on a scale of 1–20. The kinds of notes they'd leave on the back of my treasured face cards would hopefully be written in pencil.
Illustration by Udon
Illustration by Imaginary Friends Studios
Illustration by Andrew Hou
That said, if you're like me and hope to one day train your players into the kind of people that are generally nice, roleplay with accents, and take feats which give bonuses to social skills, then, by all means, let them scribble on the back of something. You may be pleasantly surprised to find a card with "cool dude," or "super nice, wish her the best in Mendev," written on it. These kinds of idle hopes drive GMs to buying so-called, "nice things," and I, for one, am tired of hearing the responses my couch-seated group of closeted anarchists comes up with when I say, "blonde, good-looking, wears leather armor." I guess it's good they're just face portraits.
Much has happened here at Paizo since I last wrote. While here, I had the privilege of watching Wayne Reynolds's iconic character sketches come in one by one, and stood in the circle of other staff gaping and gawking. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly?), nobody's favorite is the same. In my unartistic opinion, that is simply a testament to the skill of our Mr. Reynolds (who caught the Firefly pun?), who can capture six new and distinctive characters in a way that appeals differently to everyone—player, GM, intern...
As for what I've been working on, two jobs have demanded the majority of my time here. The first was patchworking the freelance texts that are to be a part of our GameMastery Guide into chapters, and then styling them to match our Paizo house style.
An ongoing task has been the dreaded Rules Database—something Wes has apologized for countless times. When it's finished, it'll be a series of Excel spreadsheets that catalogues each and every monster, magic item, feat, spell, trait, piece of equipment, prestige class, monster template, and trap that has ever appeared in a Paizo RPG product (both in the 3.5 rules set and our shiny new PFRPG rules set). Did I mention the "each and every" part? It's still in the process and nowhere close to being edited—what with all the other craziness people actually pay for taking up nearly every waking hour—but eventually it should be something pretty cool.
I've also done a lot of copyediting, a few development passes of elements for Kingmaker, and am now working on a bit of Planet Stories styling. It's all very exciting!
Until the next time, keep it classy, enjoy the playtests (the last two coming up soon!), pick up the new Powers comic, listen to the Rush discography, and watch Serenity four or five times.
In our never-ending quest for complete fan transparency (or "fansparency"), we here in the Paizo dungeon like to know that our readers understand our diabolical machinations and vile lieutenants so that they may truly tremble in terror before our slavering horde. And while it's easy to quake in terror before those bold names printed on the front of our books, there are just as many wicked creatures slaving away behind the scenes, without whom our ink and pulp empire would come crumbling down.
Enter customer service: the key to Paizo's unstoppable march to the sea. Cosmo and Sara Marie tag-team problems with orders, website issues, and general customer complaints, applying their terrifying cheerfulness and resiliency to wearing down even the most dissatisfied of clientele. Longtime fans will recall that Cosmo first joined Paizo's ranks after claiming the fey crown by slaying Lord Oberon in ritual combat. Sara Marie came to Paizo through PaizoCon '09, where her mastery of the hat entranced our leadership and secured her future position in the company (as you well know, hats have been an important aspect of goblin culture since the Outerwear Wars of 3505).
To gain some insight into their jet-setting lifestyle of glamour and danger, I followed the daring duo for several hours. After they parachuted from an exploding mail plane (saving customer orders from crashing in the Andes), they stopped for a moment to grant some insight into their role in Paizo's success.
"One hundred percent of Paizo's success is all me," says Cosmo (exp 2, rog 4), who has been with the company since its magazine days. "And the secret to my success is emulating Sebastian in every encounter." He refused to expand on the subject of "Sebastian," but went on to confirm that he was, in fact, not an octopus.
"The less people have to deal with us, the better." Sara Marie (ari 4, brd 2) dodged all my octopus-related probing to continue on customer service's role in Paizo's success. "You've never heard of me? That's good! It means you've never needed to contact us." Obviously, customer service, much like assassins and trapdoor spiders, do their best work when no one needs them.
"We are part of the community," Cosmo added while repacking his parachute and radioing for pickup. "We're here to interface with the fans. Customers and customer service are what Paizo is all about." He pointed out that the website, the messageboards, the blogs—all are there to give customers better insight into Paizo, and Paizo better insight into the customers. PFS Open Calls and RPG Superstar were created to help turn the Paizo fanbase into the next generation of Paizo writers, and customer service is there to make sure Paizo customers become the next Paizo fanbase.
"There are constantly new challenges," concludes Cosmo.
"Dealing with Cosmo is a challenge." With Sara Marie's final comment, the interview evolved into more of a blood feud, with each stealing the other's earpiece and hurling literary invectives.
Without the customer service team, Paizo would have little insight into the minds of our victims, nor would we be able to best tailor our psychological assaults where we know it will hurt most. Sans Cosmo and Sara Marie, we would be forced to rely once again on the phone-answering monkey, whose courtesy is notoriously lacking, whose typing speed in unacceptable, and whose coffee is substandard at best. They are the glue that binds Paizo to it's customers and ensures that any dissent is stamped out, lest it foment uprisings and attract adventurers.
So, join me in celebrating Paizo's customer service department! Plant a customer service specialist in your back yard today!
So we're putting the final touches on the last volume of Council of Thieves as I write this post. Which also means that I'm finally starting to work on the next Adventure Path, Kingmaker. The authors have, of course, already been hard at work and we've already got four of the adventures in house in one shape or another—but the grisly process of development and editing can now start in earnest.
And so I thought I'd show off some art from the first Kingmaker volume, Pathfinder #31. Something new that's going on the inside front and back covers of every volume of Kingmaker. What could a crazy bearded man, a farmer's wife, a hungry tatzylwyrm, and an angry wild boar have in common?
Masks of the Living God is expected in our warehouse later this month. Written by Jason Bulmahn as a sequel to Crypt of the Everflame, it can be used as a standalone adventure, and helps set the stage for City of Golden Death in March 2010.
Masks of the Living God is a bit of a change of pace for Paizo adventures. While it has the usual elements of travel and combat, much of the adventure is a freeform or "sandbox" environment where the PCs are able to set their own pace and agenda for dealing with the Cult of Razmir—from the inside! In the adventure, the PCs join the cult to see what's really going on behind the locked doors of the temple. Is the Church of Razmir as benevolent as it claims to be? Are its good works and charitable efforts just a front for a gang of thugs and extortionists? Is there something even more sinister going on?
Folks have a lot to say when it comes to tieflings, villains, and high-level challenges. Ecarrdian Drovenge, fresh from his shoot for the cover of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #30, embodies all three and largely speaks for himself. A scion of one of the most powerful families in Westcrown and a son of the archfiend Mammon, few dare stand in the way of his city-shattering vengeance, but your PCs might be going toe-to-toe with him nonetheless in the upcoming endgame of the Council of Thieves Adventure Path.
In case you missed yesterday's announcement, Paizo is about to start the third annual RPG Superstar competition! Hundreds of hopefuls will swarm the Paizo server with proposals for magic items in Round 1, and Clark, Wes, and myself will read every single one of them in order to weed out all but the Top 32. Because the submission deadline is January 1st, that means we'll be working over the holiday break to get all of these done just to make sure we aren't overwhelmed in the last two weeks of Round 1 judging—and given how well the Pathfinder RPG is doing, we expect even more submissions than last year.
The contestants put in a lot of work on their submissions through the entire contest and do so under significant time pressure—in later rounds, they only have three days to create their entry—and the judges take that effort seriously. Clark, Wes, and I are living the dream (we get to work on RPG products) and this contest is a way for other people to get their foot in the door at doing the same thing. From Paizo's perspective, it's our way of finding new talent. Many finalists from previous RPG Superstar competitions have gone on to write for—or even work full-time for—Paizo and other game companies. We want the best talent working for us, and this contest is one way for us to find it.
The contest isn't easy. There are many challenges. And there's always a twist. The winner is someone creative, able to follow directions, think on his or her feet, and respond well to criticism. Do you have what it takes? Do you have the "designer chops"? Check out the contest rules. Submit a magic item. Expose your work to the critical eye of writing professionals and hundreds of other gamers. I dare you to do your best. Heck, I dare you to do better than your best.
Sci-Fried: How to make Friends and Influence (fictional) People
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Cave raptors are sated; it's time to blog!
There's a peculiar quality to the Florida swamps.
Bear with me here, because this story does eventually come around to science fiction.
More than a few feet down, the swamps and bogs of central and southern Florida are just acidic enough and just the right temperature to kill bacteria without destroying delicate tissue. This means that anything organic buried in the swamps (and keep in mind, swamps account for roughly 119% of Florida's land mass) is pickled and preserved for hundreds of years. While in college studying anthropology, I assisted on a dig (more of a 'bail,' really) in one of these swamps. We were excavating the remains of an indigenous Calusa settlement. Our professor uncovered an amazing find: an intact human skull over 1,000 years old. He gathered us all around, brushed away the mud, and raised the skull dramatically.
With a nauseating schlorp, something fell out of the foramen magnum: a one-thousand year old human brain. And that fascinated me: everything this late-adolescent male experienced, every skill he'd learned... It all laid there as a jellied grey-brown puddle in the mud. And it would have remained intact for even longer if we hadn't clumsily stumbled across it and suffered from our Indiana Jones fantasies. Ancient history always fascinated me, but seeing that brain in the mud felt almost like meeting a time-traveler. Since then, the idea of meeting people from the past has fascinated me.
Illustration by Kieran Yanner
It must be a common fascination, because that's what the science fiction classic The Ship of Ishtar covers in incredible detail. The setup is classic: Contemporary John Kenton discovers an artifact that hurls him sideways into a strange new world; but this premise is worth mentioning because A. Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar (written in 1924) is one of the earliest stories to use that device that became such a staple in later pulp. After his arrival, Kenton proceeds to beat up, ally with, or seduce everything on board a magical ship cursed by the Babylonian gods six millennia ago. Merritt narrates with both fists as Kenton interacts with an entire crew who remember a real-world culture long since vanished.
Abraham Merritt's writing style is complex and conversational, more a dramatic old man recounting the story to his grandkids between slugs of whiskey than a piece of literature. His love of exclamation points is almost poetic, and provided a host of new things that my roommates and I now yell at each other from opposite ends of the house. Probably not the most academic endorsement, but it certainly proves The Ship of Ishtar's entertainment chops.
So, in lieu of reconstituting the battered and filthy remnants of a long-dead Calusa's brains, now so much jello mold, I think I'll continue to sate my need for historical contact with fiction. Preferably of the pulp variety.
Seriously, it was disgusting. You should've been there! Seen—brains!
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