The playtest of the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide continues today with the launch of two more classes slated to appear in the book, due out in August. Round 2 focuses on the summoner and the witch. The summoner is an arcane caster that forms a close bond with a powerful outsider, known as an eidolon. The eidolon works a lot like an animal companion, but its form and abilities are decided by the summoner and they can change as the summoner goes up in level. The witch is a class that utilizes a wide variety of spells from both the arcane and divine spell lists. She draws her power from a mysterious force, which she communes with through her familiar. To top it off, she has a wide variety of hex powers to draw on, that both help her allies and hinder 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.
Two weeks ago, we released the cavalier and the oracle, and the playtest for those classes is well underway. In two weeks, we will release the final two classes set to appear in the book. While we are focusing on the classes as they release, the playtest itself will remain open until the end of January 2010.
Just like the Core Rulebook playtest last year, there are a number of forums waiting for your feedback and comments. The first is a general forum, for discussing larger issues and announcements. Following this is a pair of forums for discussing each round of the playtest. Discussion on the summoner and the witch should go in the round 2 forum.
Feedback on the first round has been immensely helpful, but I want to stress the usefulness of actual playtest feedback. Observations and general concerns are useful, but we are getting the most information from players who have actually given the classes a try. So take the summoner and the witch out for a spin and let us know what you think.
So, last Saturday was one of the most surreal days of my life. Not because I spent it all in Portland, Oregon. Not because I watched Jason Bulmahn eat a doughnut that was topped with bacon. Not because I spent an hour in an arcade filled with all the best videogaming the '80s had to offer. And not because I had a hard time finding Lovecraft books that I didn't already have at Powell's World of Books.
I'd seen photos of the set and costumes already, but I still wasn't sure what to expect. Three cars full of Paizo employees and significant others made the day-trip down to Portland, but while everyone else spent the day eating Voodoo Doughnuts and playing videogames and shopping for books and stuff, I couldn't stop wondering what that night's performance was going to be like.
In a word, it was INCREDIBLE!
From the stage dressing to the costumes to the props (real metal weapons!) to the special effects (they included the giant hermit crab!) to the acting (including songs!) to the directing, it was all jaw-droppingly amazing to see what director Tom Beckett created. Looking at the program, I see that there were almost 50 roles in the play—and at times, it felt like half of them were all on stage at once! One thing in particular that I was incredibly impressed by was how Tom's adaptation of the adventure kept a lot of the more mature elements in place—suitably downplayed in some areas, but I never really felt like anything was missing. In fact, some of Tom's additions to the story (giving Belor Hemlock a son who wants to become a hero, or adding a few Skinsaw cultists to the dungeons of Thistletop) were really cool, and I wish I'd thought of them to put into the adventure myself!
All in all, it was a fantastic time. We took a few photos after the play was over, and the smoke in the air from the special effects or maybe remnants of rain on the camera lens made the pictures a little spotty, alas, but you can see in the first one how many folks were waiting in line to see the play before it began (Note the table with gaming supplies for sale, including several Pathfinder products, that local game store Guardian Games set up in the hall!). And in the pictures of the cast posing with several of us from Paizo, see how many characters from the adventure you can recognize!
Better writers than I have pointed out that the best thing about working for Paizo is the fans, but it bears repeating: Paizo fans are awesome. And even though the work of a production goblin can be grueling (can you believe I have to be into work by 10 A.M. and only get two nap breaks?!), seeing some of the stuffour fanscreate just makes me want to worker harder.
One of the most mind-boggling of those creations is the Wayfinder, a free, fan-made magazine that was released for PaizoCon '09. The brainchild of Paizo superfans Liz Courts (Lilith), Tim Nightengale (Timitius), and Hugo Solis (Butterfrog), the Wayfinder was entirely written, illustrated, edited, and published by dedicated Paizo fans, and looked as professional as many other pricey gaming magazines. Getting my copy was one of the highlights of the con, and I know it made a lot of grown men giggle here in the Paizo offices. Which is why I'm waiting with bated breath for issue #2.
Liz announced the beginnings of issue #2 back in September and has been collecting holiday- and winter-themed articles, illustration, poetry, fiction, and recipes from Paizo fans ever since. Not only does this mean even more wonderful Golarion goodness for our fans, but most importantly: It's Golarion goodness that no one here at the office has had to work on, so we get to be excited about it, too!
Unlike Wayfinder #1, Wayfinder #2 will only be available in PDF form. Like Wayfinder #1, the second issue will be 100% free and available for download here at paizo.com. According to Liz, the goal is to start making the Wayfinder a regular, semi-annual feature, with print and electronic versions available for PaizoCon and an electronic-only version available around the holidays to bring some sunshine to your winter.
If you're a Pathfinder fan and you haven't downloaded the first issue of the Wayfinder, do it now! If you're a Pathfinder fan and you missed your chance to contribute to issues #1 and #2, don't fret. Just keep your eyes on the messageboards for updates and submission information for those issues yet to come. New blood keeps the game industry alive, and you never know where the next Karzoug might come from.
Working in the RPG publishing business is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. It's a joy to get paid to think about things like new oracle class abilities, which products to release in 2012, and what we should have artists like Wayne Reynolds paint for our next hardcover release, but in some ways working in the main office of the sausage factory can take the fun out of things, or at least lessen the surprise.
New products are a great example of this. Back in my fan days, I'd rush to the game store on a near-weekly basis, eagerly scanning the racks for the latest releases from my favorite publishing companies. Now that I effectively run my favorite publishing operation in the business, the frisson of excitement brought by a new product often isn't as strong as it once was.
By the time a "brand new" product hits my desk, for example, my mind is already several months ahead, working feverishly on the products almost on their way to the printer or dreaming up new products that won't be released for more than a year. In some sense, the actual arrival of a new product is the last step in a long process, not the first.
There are, of course, exceptions. Huge, incandescent exceptions that glow with the light of a hundred suns. Yeah, sure, by the time my adventure for Pathfinder #19: "Howl of the Carrion King" came out last spring, my personal connection to the adventure—writing it—was already more than 5 months in the past. I'd already proofed the adventure in galleys, I'd already signed off on the final PDF, I'd already moved on, more or less, to something else. Actually holding the printed product was just a physical expression of the end of a long process, and given mounting pressures related to products that hadn't come out yet, I barely even had time to stop and think about that before moving to the next emergency email or the next staff meeting.
But even if the actual thrill of getting a printed product is diminished, I always marvel when Paizo fans find a way to remind me how awesome this game and hobby really is, even if I've become somewhat jaded in my old age here in the tenth year of my RPG career. This happened recently upon a visit to the Paizo Twitter feed, where I encountered an image that brought the thundering excitement that was "Howl of the Carrion King" crashing back to the forefront. Paizo fan Snaggled posted some images of a 3D model of the Kelmarane Battle Market—the major tactical site of the adventure—created by his GM, Dave Dostaler. My chin has yet to come up from the floor since the moment I saw these images:
Photography by Todd Warnke
WOW! Thanks to Dave Dostaler, photographer Todd Warnke, and all of Dave's players for sharing their "Howl of the Carrion King" experience with me. It's moments like this—seeing what other creative gamers do to make the stuff we create even better—that returns the giddy excitement to those of us on this side of the GM Screen, and speaking as the publisher, I can't thank you guys enough for this type of thing. It really makes all of the hard work worthwhile!
Erik Mona
Publisher
PS: And if you'd like to make your own 3D "Howl of the Carrion King" terrain, don't forget to check out the Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane map kit from World Works Games, available right here on paizo.com!
Well, we're wrapping up the Council of Thieves Adventure Path here and along with it my series of new devils in each month's Bestiary draws to a close (on our end at least). At long last, let me reveal my ulterior motive. The new devils in Council of Thieves, when combined with those in Princes of Darkness: Book of the Damned Vol. 1, the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, Pathfinder #12, and two stragglers from another project I'm still keeping mum about, all sync up to give you more than enough diabolatry to fill out twenty levels of infernal adventure. Check it out!
Being told to "go to Hell" just became a much more daunting proposition, huh? I'll be sure to update this once those last two slowpokes come on across the finish line.
Beginning today, I am opening the door to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play open call not for a week but for a long, unspecified length of time. I am looking for three specific types of adventures (detailed below) for Pathfinder Society. I am NOT seeking generic Pathfinder RPG adventures nor am I asking you to pitch me a new Pathfinder Adventure Path. Any submissions that aren't specifically for Pathfinder Society Organized Play scenarios will be ignored.
Instead of asking you to send me a 750-word outline, I'm asking you to send completed adventures. A completed adventure cannot exceed 12,000 words and must (MUST!) follow the style for a Pathfinder Society Organized Play adventure scenario as established by the Season 1 scenarios. Those of you not brave enough to send a completed adventure can instead send me a short (less than 500 words) query instead that quickly describes the adventure. I will review completed adventures and queries as I receive them and respond appropriately. If I receive one that I like (especially if I receive a completed adventure that I like), I will likely give that author a contract and pay him or her for the adventure. If I receive one that I 80% like, I will likely ask that author to rewrite elements and resubmit for possible future publication. There is no guarantee at any point in this process that I will give you a contract and pay you for your work.
By making the opening the open call for a longer period of time, I hope to see an increase in the quality and volume of submissions. Paizo uses the Pathfinder Society Organized Play open calls to find new talent for our other product lines—maybe that new talent is you!
And now for some rules:
Rules of Submitting for the Pathfinder Society Organized Play Open Call
1. Only submit Pathfinder Society scenarios or scenario ideas. I won't even respond to other queries.
2. If you submit a complete 12,000-word adventure, you must include a scan of this PDF with your signature on it with your submission. If your submission lacks this PDF, it will be rejected without being read. The PDF is NOT necessary for 500-word queries.
3. All submissions must be made via email to pathfindersociety@paizo.com.
4. Your submission must be in .doc, .rtf, or .txt format.
5. Your submission must include your full legal name, physical mailing address, email address, and a contact phone number on the top of the first page. This does not count toward word count.
6. Your submission file (not the agreement PDF) must be named LASTNAME_TITLE.EXTENSION such as FROST_AMONGSTTHELIVING.doc.
7. The subject line of your submission email must be labeled the same: LASTNAME TITLE.
8. Allow 72 hours for a response before resubmitting. Allow for more time on a holiday weekend.
9. Read at least one season 1 scenario (you probably want to read all of them) before submitting. I can usually tell in about the first 50 words if you've actually read or played in a scenario.
10. Failure to follow any of the above rules will result in a rejection.
General Guidelines
Here are a few tips for your scenarios or scenario ideas:
1. Use our setting details to make your own story, don't cram your story so full of our canon that it reads like a Frankenstein's monster of other authors' work. Read this post for an example.
2. Understand that Pathfinder Society is not a good-aligned organization, nor is it evil. Also understand that evil characters are not allowed in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Also understand that all scenarios must be PG-13.
3. Avoid child endangerment stories. It's cheap, it's trite, and I'm tired of reading them.
4. Not really looking for comedies.
5. I am really looking for high adventure stories with drama, action, and roleplay.
6. Speaking of roleplay, I'd love for someone to knock me dead with a good murder mystery scenario. And I mean really good in the sense that after 4 hours of game play at a convention every class of player walks away from the table satisfied. Tall order, I know, but I'd love to see it happen.
7. #5 and #6 do not mean that all I want to see are high adventure stories and murder mysteries. If you have a really good idea that's neither of those two, I want to see it.
8. Only send me your best ideas and your (very important) BEST-WRITTEN ideas. You may send more than one idea.
9. NO EASTER EGGS. What I mean by that is this: don't be cute and include a reference to your favorite comic book/movie/song/etc. If we catch it, you're done. If we don't catch it, we could get the pants sued off of us. Just don't do it.
10. Passive voice is a rejection in the making. Read this website and this thread to understand passive voice.
It's been just over a fortnight since I risked life and limb to infiltrate the stygian depths of Paizo's editorial pit, so I thought it was time to provide a few brief glimpses into the shadowy machinations of Paizo's editorial process.
As soon as Paizo's minions discovered my presence, they lost no time in hurling reams of word-filled paper at me. Armed only with a quill and a pot of green ink, I got right to work, slashing hanging participles and eradicating the feared passive voice. Along the way, I realized I was working on a comprehensive guide to realms of a most low character. While it was my great pleasure to read and edit a plethora of famed authors' impressions of such a dangerous and unstable land, I soon learned that mapping such a chaotic territory and compiling its history into a concise timeline were Herculean tasks of epic proportions. Nevertheless, I persevered, so that you, loyal readers, would get only the best.
But these riverine dominions were not my only task, for two new classes were ready to take their place in an upcoming guide to advanced play and needed a critical editorial eye before making their playtest debut before the eager masses. I was only too happy to give the oracle and cavalier my aid, and send them happily on their way.
As for what comes next, your guess is as good mine! I am hoarding a few secrets, of course (I've been sworn to secrecy on the threat of Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts regarding the happenings at last week's secret Sandpoint game, for example), but more tidbits will slowly be making their laborious way to bloglight, I can assure you. Until then, I bid you fond farewell. And watch out for the fish!
Back when I was a little ankle-chewer in the distant 1980s, there weren't a lot of strong female role models to choose from. Most of the women on TV were simpering damsels in distress or so fashion- and boy-crazy that they triggered my normally resilient goblin gag reflex. Then in 1985, Mattel rolled out She-Ra and my youthful, violent fanaticism found someone to latch onto. She-Ra still had a lot of fashion doll in her, but she had something that no other female character did: a friggin' sword! For a long while, She-Ra was my favorite show, and I still remember it fondly today, even if the series hasn't aged well.
And why in Lamashtu's name have I forced us all down this horrifying stagger through memory lane? So that it will really drive home the point when I say quite plainly: Jirel of Joiry would kick She-Ra's alabaster ass!
For this week's installment of Sci-Fried, I picked up a copy of the Planet Stories collection Black God's Kiss. Last time around, I enjoyed Kuttner's work on The Dark World, and in my research (and by research, I mean dumpster-diving in Wikipedia) I discovered that he co-wrote most of his later novels with his wife, C. L. Moore.
Illustration by Arnold Tsang
So, major spoilers: C. L. Moore is a woman!
Armed with the knowledge that women can write science fiction, I eagerly dove into Black God's Kiss. And I was not disappointed. The intrusion of pesky adventurers kept me from finishing all six thrilling tales, as their larcenous halfling made off with my copy in the fracas. But the first three short stories were more than enough to whet my appetite and have me picking up a replacement copy today at work.
Black God's Kiss collects Moore's six Jirel of Joiry stories into one convenient volume. The original badass, no-excuses warrior woman before Xena and Lara Croft made it cool, Jirel is the military commander (and later queen) of Joiry, a medieval French territory. She's the best swordswoman in the kingdom, the toughest brawler, and supremely focused on whatever her goal might be. She's every bit as violent as I am, but with all the self-confidence and human emotions I usually use my violence to compensate for.
But like an octopus without its legs, a cool character isn't much to look at if the writing is sub par. And Moore is par excellence. Moore's writing is like an expensive meal. You get the nourishing plot, of course, but what you really love is just putting the prose in your mouth and chewing, savoring those flavorful descriptions and the rich balance of analogies. It's like eating a pickle made out of tasty Halfling toes.
"But the darkness that bandaged her eyes was changed too, indescribably. It was no longer darkness, but void; not an absence of light, but simple nothingness."
That is art. It combines such simple ingredients to create an elegant whole and makes me understand a concept I could never personally experience without visiting family. It makes me want to backtrack, taste it again, and learn how to cook it myself. Jirel's travels beyond reality are so lip-smackingly vivid that they pull me in, despite the book's glaring minority of cephalopods.
Black God's Kiss is an exciting and fun collection of adventures with the kind of action-adventure hero that anyone can enjoy, and any gamer girl and empathize with. This isn't just a book I enjoy reading, this is a book I'm going to enjoy reading to my daughter some day...
Provided I can override my natural instincts to eat my young.
It's an exciting time around here at Paizo. With all the hustle and bustle, if you've seen me on the boards at all, it's probably been commenting on Pathfinder fiction—how it's spooling up now, how some of the authors signing on are blowing my mind, and how we plan to manage things so that both the novel line and the gaming lines can flourish without breaking the world. (If you're curious, it's also the subject of the editorial in Pathfinder #29.) Yet in all this discussion of the Pathfinder fiction that's coming, it suddenly came to my attention that it had been a while since I'd talked about the amazing fiction we already have.
If you've been reading Council of Thieves, I don't have to tell you that Dave Gross is one of the most talented authors we've had the pleasure of working with on Pathfinder fiction. But I can tell you, having just finished the final chapter of "Hell's Pawns"—the noir-fantasy Pathfinder's Journal in which the tiefling Radovan and half-elven Pathfinder Varian Jeggare hunt a murderer through the upper echelons of Cheliax's corrupt nobility—that Dave has something few fantasy authors in any world achieve: Weight. Gravitas. An honest, emotional connection to characters, not just the world they live in. It's what we've always striven for with Pathfinder fiction, and there can be no question that Dave delivers—along with plenty of murder, intrigue, and gangsters both official and amateur.
But I won't get into spoiler territory. Instead, I'd rather give you all a sample of what I'm talking about, a snippet from the beginning of the story, in Pathfinder #25:
On the scaffold, a knobby-kneed herald emerges from behind the canvas. He looks to either side, shuddering with exaggerated fear when the guards eye him up and down. The groundlings laugh, recognizing him as one of the Fools of Thrune, a jester from House Sarini sent out to amuse them while they wait. I lose interest the moment he raises a trumpet to his lips and blows out a length of crimson silk and a pair of sagging pillows meant to suggest he's blown his lungs out through the horn.
I see plenty of familiar mugs among the groundlings: stevedores, stable hands, street sweepers, barmaids, a seamstress I once gave a memorable night on the Bunyip Dock. A pickpocket I know tips me a wink as he pats a mark on the shoulder while his adolescent accomplice dips his hand in on the other side. A few others touch their chins or smile when they see me. I nod back.
No one from the stands throws me a greeting, but more than a few know me better than they'd admit. I know several of them better than I'd like their husbands to know, but to most I am only the silent bodyguard of Count Varian Jeggare. The only one among them bold enough to return my gaze is Ivo Elliendo.
The Paralictor glides out of the stands where he has been receiving the compliments of the ladies. His tall figure stands out like a plow cutting through a garden. The sharp red scourges on the ribs of his black leather jack give him a gaunt silhouette.
He squints when he spots me, and I can feel his scorn hot on my face. What else can I do but shoot him my toothiest smile? All around him, ladies who had followed his gaze snap up their fans to shield themselves from the sight of a mouth that I'm told looks like a drawer full of knives. The commotion distracts Elliendo, and when he sees he is surrounded by a halo of fluttering fans, his lined face darkens.
Elliendo stalks away from the stands and mounts the stairs, followed as usual by two hulking Hellknights. I begin to frame a prayer for rotting steps before deciding that's too much to ask, even on Judgment Day. On the scaffold, Elliendo peers north at the approach of the golden Royal Carriage down the Imperial Promenade. He snaps his fingers, and the clown retreats behind the canvas to a clatter of applause. Once the carriage halts and the window shades rise just enough for the occupant—no doubt some minor Palace official, rather than the Queen herself—to peer out, the canvas on the scaffold falls away to reveal the Instruments of Judgment.
In the center is a blazing furnace in the shape of a three-faced devil. From each of its gaping jaws jut a bramble of iron implements: knives, spears, chains, rods, brands, and most conspicuous of all the Tines of Cheliax. Each is a two-pronged fork sized for a stone giant, and today there are two of them.
Arrayed between the furnaces are racks of torture devices retrieved from every civilized nation on Golarion, and several not so civilized. The spiked cages of Geb are a crowd favorite, and two of them already hold prisoners. One is a fat man who begins screaming the moment he is revealed, while the other is pock-faced Gellius Bonner, the Butcher of Merrow Lane.
I fell into the Bonner case when the boss sent me to nose around the tannery across the river. I was supposed to catch a stable master selling the carcasses of his lady's mysteriously sickened horses. That went nowhere, but I spied the tanner sneaking out of his own home well past midnight. Curious, I followed him into town, expecting to discover nothing more than a mistress in some Cheapside flat. Instead, he led me to Bonner's shop, where he joined six men wearing crude robes. Bonner greeted them with some fiendish phrase, though I could understand only a few words before he led them downstairs. I let myself in for a peek. When I saw the yak-headed thing Bonner conjured and what they intended to offer it, I ran to Greensteeples and beat on the boss's door until his sleepy halfling butler woke him. With a few questions, Jeggare confirmed that the cult was demonic, not diabolic, so he sent a message directly to the Temple of Asmodeus, who in turn asked the Hellknights to capture the cultists, minus a few who resisted arrest. They even recovered two boys who had not yet been devoured.
The discovery broke the cases of more than a dozen missing children, disappearances that Elliendo had publicly sworn to solve. As he was not on duty that night, he was surprised to hear the criers' announcement of another mystery solved by the celebrated Varian Jeggare.
If it were for the murders alone, Bonner might have met his Judgment at the edge of an axe or, if it were only one or two killings, in hard labor for a decade. The devil-worshiping lords of Cheliax, however, do not suffer the denizens of the Abyss in the city. For consorting with demons, Bonner earned his special voyage to Hell.
While not an admirer of the spectacle, I make a point of witnessing the Judgment of anyone convicted on one of our cases. This time, the boss insisted that I bring something to confirm it was Bonner and not some magic-masked substitute who did the dance of the Tines. He sent me to the Plaza of Flowers with a couple of sakava leaves plucked fresh from a plant in his greenhouse.
Once the Instruments are unveiled, four proper heralds stand on the corners of the scaffold and announce the list of Judgments. Behind them, brawny shirtless men in red hoods prepare the braces for the Tines.
When a couple of the big men unlock Bonner's cage, I slip the sakava leaves from a sleeve pocket. The size of my thumbs, they are thick green ovals with tiny white hairs glistening with oil. Just before I crush them, someone calls my name.
She is taller than me, which is not too uncommon, but most of that height comes from a pair of legs snugged in black calfskin trousers with tiny stars and suns cut out along the outer seam to reveal bare skin. Her blouse hangs loose except in just the right places to make a celibate throw himself off the roof. Her big hazel eyes are too far apart with heavy eyebrows, but they look fine above a long nose pierced above one nostril with a tiny ruby. The stone sets off a hint of late-summer red in her brown hair.
I'm staring at her over the little green leaves.
"Are you Radovan?" she asks again. I could listen to her say my name all day, but then she ruins it by adding, "Count Jeggare's servant?"
"His bodyguard." Immediately I think of three or four suave answers.
"My messages to Greensteeples have gone unanswered, and I require the count's assistance," she says. "And naturally his utmost discretion."
"Naturally," I say, but before I can give her the pitch, I feel a sharp poke just below my shoulder blade.
"Say goodbye to the girly, copper-tongue," reeks a voice inches beneath my ear. I know who it is from the stench of garlic and boiled eggs.
"Not now, Ursio." I try to sound casual, but the scratch he gave me starts to itch. Out of the corners of my eyes I see a couple of shapes that must be his backup. "I'll stay in this very public place while you and your playmates go climb your thumbs."
"These bolts are tipped with black lotus venom," says Ursio, and I know it's his treasured hand crossbow with its steel "fangs" jammed into my back. "You'll be dead before your body hits the street."
It seems unlikely that Ursio has acquired the deadly and expensive poison, but on the scaffold I see the hooded men dragging Bonner to a table, where a third man awaits with a pair of curved knives held high for the crowd's acclaim...
For more of Radovan's adventures in Cheliax, check out the Pathfinder's Journal section of Pathfinder volumes #25 through #30. I promise you won't be disappointed.
The playtest of the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide begins today with the launch of two of the six new base classes set to appear in the book. The cavalier is a martial character. Like his name would suggest, he is at home fighting from horseback, but he is by no means crippled when his mount cannot be used. The cavalier gains a number of bonus abilities tied to his order, the oaths that he swears, and the challenges he makes. Next up in this playtest is the oracle. This spontaneous divine caster draws her power from the gods that support her focus, granting her special revelations as she goes up in level. 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.
In the coming weeks, we will be releasing the other four classes, two each week. During these periods, we will be focusing discussion on the most recent classes, but the playtest itself will remain open until the end of January 2010. The release dates are as follows.
Just like the Core Rulebook playtest last year, there are a pair of forums waiting for your feedback and comments. The first is a general forum, for discussing larger issues and announcements. The second forum is specifically for cavalier and oracle feedback. We will add an additional forum every two weeks as the new classes are released.
I want to take a moment to discuss what we are looking for out of this playtest. Since these are new classes, actual playtesting is of great importance. While comments and observations are still valuable, we need playtesters to actually use these classes in play and provide reports of their experiences. This sort of feedback will really help us ensure that these classes become a balanced and fun part of the game.
Ever wanted to contribute to a Golarion-based adventure or submit your spells and monsters to a Pathfinder RPG supplement? You can with the creative and award-winning folks at Open Design. Their official Golarion adventure From Shore to Sea is on track for a spring release, and right now they are playtesting that adventure—and soliciting game design from the project's supporters for the Sunken Empires sourcebook. The Sunken Empires book is a 64-page collection of hooks, tools, spells and monsters to support water-based adventures using Pathfinder RPG rules. Join as a patron and your design contribution just might get you into the credits! Find out more about patron projects and how you can contribute at Open Design.
Also, stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes looks at the creative process involved in taking From Shore to Sea from patron project to printed publication right here on the blog as Paizo's designers continue the open-door creative process already in the works at Open Design.
No one here at Paizo really understands the significance of the 8th of November, or how it came to be known as Erik Mona Day—especially not the pseudo holiday's namesake. But sure enough, like the semi-reliable working of a clock with too many numbers, on or about the 312th day of the year strange deliverymen track their way to Paizo's door with flatteringly inscrutable prizes. Typically, it's pizza—glorious free pizza in all the flavors of the Papa John's rainbow. This year, though, on perhaps the first Erik Mona Day with our publisher actually present at the office, it was fruit. Chocolate covered fruit. On pointy sticks. A delicious gift that suggests a world of devious and appropriately adventuresome extracurricular projects.
So thanks all you weirdos who chipped in to make this another awesome Erik Mona Day (observed)! We can't say how much we appreciate it, or how far this goes toward making the long nights and weekend days worthwhile.
But now, back to snacking. We we've got a lot of fruit to go through and that punji pit outside Jason's office isn't going to build itself.
My father taught me a very important lesson as a young goblin: never try to eat a live cat. He also taught me that anything that is truly important to you requires sacrifice. And not the fun sort of sacrifice, where you get the family together for dinner and grandma bakes stollen and we all sacrifice a bound-and-gagged human for the greater glory of Lamashtu. No, it demands the unpleasant sort of sacrifice.
Gaming is important to me, and this weekend, it took its sacrifice. While running my favorite Pathfinder campaign, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and pantomiming the grisly death of a moderately important NPC, I took a pratfall that resulted in the unthinkable: my glasses were snapped like so much optometric seagull bone.
With my uncanny goblin skills (and a healthy supply of glue and wire), the break was easy to patch, but the damage has been done. I now sport the Prometheus Unbound of eyewear, and my shame is without end. No longer am I the office beauty, as any goblin should be, but rather a misshapen and hideous creature, no better than a common kobold. My game took a sacrifice of my dignity...
It also made a sacrifice of the 2d6 copper pieces I have jealously guarded since I was declared a 'combatant' at adolescence, but until we get into silver pieces, money just doesn't compare to dignity.
But I am not alone. Any serious gamer has had to make at least one sacrifice or compromise for the sake of roleplaying, and if I have to wear my sacrifice on the bridge of my nose for a few days, so be it! That delightful Tom Hanks fellow sacrificed his dignity for gaming, and look at him now! Sacrifice is an important element in the stories we tell around the table: it adds the cost that makes a victory valuable or the pathos that makes an encounter memorable. And the little sacrifices we as players make are no less important or memorable than the spectacular tragedies our characters make, and probably mean more to us in the end.
Roleplaying is worth a little hassle now and then for the happiness it brings, the friendships it forges, the occasional romance it inspires, and the birth of Warduke, who will unite us all beneath his iron fist. My sacrifice amused my friends and made their table experience that much more real, and I'm sure it will give my coworkers a few laughs as well. So as oxymoronic as it may be, I'll wear my wounded dignity with pride until I can get to the optometrist this weekend.
It is almost here! The playtest of the six new base classes set to appear in the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide will begin on Friday, November 13th. These classes will be presented as free PDF's that you can download starting Friday morning. Every two weeks we will release two of the classes, until all six have been playtested.
Each pair of classes will be spotlighted for two weeks, but feedback will be accepted through the end of January 2010. Special messageboards will be posted to paizo.com to allow playtesters to submit feedback, ask questions, and talk to other participants. The schedule of the playtest is as follows.
Getting involved is easy. Simply download the files and use them in your games. Create characters and villains using the new classes and give them a try. Then, come back here to post feedback and your play experiences in the playtest messageboards. If you are looking for more opportunities to play, these playtest classes will be available for use in Pathfinder Society events. Look for rules allowing these classes in an upcoming update to the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play.
The playtest of the core rules was a fantastic success and I look forward to working with the community to make the Advanced Player's Guide playtest just as successful.
Sometimes, art makes the choices for me. When we ordered the cover to Greg A. Vaughn's "Mother of Flies," we asked Steve Prescott to paint us a scene in a thieves' guild treasury involving the iconics in a fight against a six-armed stone golem. The art, as you can see here, is great!
Unfortunately, by the time I got to the section in the adventure where this six-armed menace made its appearance, I realized something. A six-armed stone golem (particularly one armed with a pair of tree-sized-swords) would be something like a CR 15 monster. Not really a fair fight to inflict on 10th-level characters, and certainly not good design to have the dude guarding the treasury be tougher than the adventure's actual boss.
So, in a last-minute brainstorm in Wes's office when he was probably trying to go home, he, Crystal Frasier, Lisa Stevens, and I figured out what to do with the situation. The result is a new monster from distant Vudra, the six-armed calikang, a race spawned from a deity's failure and doomed now to seek atonement for an ancient sin. We ordered an extra piece of art for this volume's Bestiary, I wrote up the monster that weekend, and everything fell perfectly in place just in time to ship to the printers.
As for the calikang itself? You'll just have to wait for "Mother of Flies" to find out what he can do!
Erik and I are headed tomorrow for city that never sleeps, the bright neon-flashing beacon in the desert, that sultry metropolis of lights, chips, and the clatter of dice. Yes, that's right, Erik and I are headed to Riddleport—I mean Las Vegas! We're bringing our dice, our pre-planned scenarios, adventures, and speeches, and hopefully the appropriate amount of clothing and toiletries. Why are we going there? Has Paizo given its publisher and events manager a much-needed rest in America's resort town? Nope! We're going there to play some Pathfinder RPG at NeonCon!
Erik is the special guest for the show and will give the keynote address for GamesU, NeonCon's game design and storytelling "unconference," while I am a not-so-special (Daigle would say, "very-extra-special") guest and will be assisting Doug Daulton, the show's coordinator, with all things Pathfinder Society. Erik plans to once again slaughter innocents in his continuing playtest of the Spire of Nex and I shall do my best to avoid slaying Pathfinder Society characters during Lost at Bitter End and The Prisoner of Skull Hill. Let's hope we're successful in our endeavors!
If you're anywhere within driving, flying, teleporting, or ethereal jaunt distance of Las Vegas this weekend, come by NeonCon, play some games, have some fun, and ply Mr. Mona and myself with food, drink, and the dazzling lights of the city. They say whatever happens there, stays there—so if we kill one of your favorite characters during a Pathfinder RPG session, heed the motto. We have reputations to maintain!
One day, not so long ago, a bright-eyed young expat freelancer was shaken from the idylls of his honeymoon with the news that Paizo Publishing, in the far-off, fey-haunted Evergreen State, had decided to add another lost soul to the depths of its editorial pit.
Knowing that such a summons could not go ignored for long, I immediately made arrangements to return to my homeland, kissed my new wife goodbye, and boarded a roc bound for Seattle. After a trying ordeal of canceled flights and missed connections, a harrowing attack by a crag linnorm, and an unexpected stay in Vancouver, I finally arrived on the cobbled streets of Redmond, ready for my first day in the hallowed halls of Paizo Publishing.
Having previously dealt with the famous Golem of Prague, I easily avoided the guardian golems at the gates, and working my way past booby traps, false doors, and nightingale floors, successfully infiltrated the sanctum sanctorum of editorial privilege. Rather than allow myself to be ignominiously thrown in shackles into the editorial pit, I rappelled down using braided ferret-fur rope (world-renowned for its flexibility and tensile strength) and staked my claim in an unoccupied and strangely cube-like side cavern.
Sadly, all my precautions were in vain, as I soon discovered that most of Paizo’s minions had apparently decided to make “Rob’s First Day on the Job” a workshop holiday. No doubt they’re imposing some sort of quarantine on me to avoid whatever virulent European plagues I brought with me. It’s been pretty quiet so far… maybe too quiet. I can sense the grammar ghouls and style sphinxes lurking in the darkness beyond my cave’s walls, waiting to vex me with riddles of usage and voice when I least expect it.
But as the ghosts of forgotten manuscripts and spectres of excess verbiage slain on the altar of editorial fiat howl about me, I remain firm, resolute, and even optimistic. How many stat blocks might I save from disgrace? How many guarded secrets can I pry from the clutching fingers of jealous writers? How many fabulous treasures might I recover from the depths of development hell?
Stay tuned, loyal readers, and I’ll do my best to bring you all the wonders of Golarion and beyond that Paizo has to offer. And not even the blue pencil-wielding troglodytes of punctuation will stop me!
Time for a little back history on everyone's favorite literate goblin (and by that, I mean Golarion's only literate goblin): I love science fiction, but I am woefully ignorant of the subject. I sat on my mother's knee and watched Star Wars and Star Trek, I read through my father's dog-eared old copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and a few of my Saturday morning cartoons were set in space. That's about it. I remember reading some John Carter of Mars in junior high, but it didn't leave enough of an impression on me at the time that I even remember it that well. As embarrassing as it is for any goblin to admit, I just don't know much about this subject I enjoy, least of all its mysterious origins.
I supposed that's why Erik Mona, Pierce Watters, Christopher Carey, and James Sutter, the quartet behind Paizo's Planet Stories, line, asked me to start reading and reviewing this classic science fiction. Without any fond childhood memories (literally; my childhood involved being locked in a rabbit hutch with my 27 siblings), I wouldn't be viewing any of our Planet Stories fiction through the lens of nostalgia. Instead, I can dole out honest thoughts and observations on twentieth-century classics from a twenty-first century perspective.
Illustration by Emrah Elmasli
From my perspective, this is both thrilling and terrifying, like riding one of those blood-thirsty horses humans are so fond of. Now I get to read the classic origins of science fiction from almost a century ago for work, but at the same time, these are books that my boss loves. If I don't like them, will he feed me to the dreaded bandersnatch? Plus the library of Planet Stories is huge, and getting bigger every other month! Growing like a well-fed literary octopus (and you thought those metaphors were dead and gone). For my very first Sci-Fried, I decided to look at Henry Kuttner's The Dark World.
Time for another confession that will get me laughed at in the forums: I selected Mr. Kuttner because I really enjoyed the movie The Last Mimzy, which is based on Kuttner's short story Mimsy Were the Borogroves. I imagined that Dark World would be somewhat similar, familiar, and comforting in this strange new land of fiction.
But no. There was nary a stuffed rabbit to be found.
Instead, the story follows Edward Bond, who is not a little girl but rather a World War II veteran who feels strangely out of place in his own skin. It turns out that Edward Bond is not Edward Bond at all, but rather the wizard Ganelon from a parallel world, trussed up with Edward Bond's memories and life as a prison. I don't want to share too much of the story, but obviously the majority of the book takes place in the bizarre titular "Dark World," and many of the descriptions of this setting are both psychedelic and believable.
Kuttner's writing style is distinctively "chunky;" very intricate descriptions and bulgy sentences that can be a little difficult to handle at first if you're used to the "say it all now" style of modern authors. But The Dark World drew me in after the first chapter, and I had trouble putting the book down once that happened. What at first seemed like a fantasy story instead took a sharp turn into sci-fi as Kuttner tried to explain everything from vampires and werewolves to Cthulhian gods with the science of the 1940s. Some of the theories stretched my suspension of disbelief, but never quite broke it. Having finished the book now, I almost wish it were longer, with more time to examine the uncanny science and history of the Dark World itself.
The narrator is probably the best part of the book. We see everything through the protagonist's eyes, but until the very end we're never told for certain whether it's Ganelon with Edward's memories, or Edward with Ganelon's memories. Control switches between the two personalities, and bits of memory bleed through to the other, which makes what could've been an obnoxiously perfect hero into an underdog I could root for. I really want to spoil the ending, because it made me cackle with delight, but instead I will demand that you order your own copy and read it for yourself.
My final impressions of The Dark World are that it can be a difficult book to start, but once you get into the pace and get used to Kuttner's narrative flavor, it's an impossible book to stop. Once all the pieces are in play, the action flows fast and furious, with only occasional chapter breaks to let you catch your breath. The Dark World is relatively short, making it a great first step into the genre of pulp that you can read in one sitting. If you love science and history as much as I do, then some of the genre explanations will make you positively giddy. A fun book, even 63 years after it was originally published, and definitely one I'd recommend.
Dark World may have lacked hyper-advanced stuffed bunnies, but that's only because this book is for grownups.
This week we released the newest Planet Stories book, The Ship of Ishtar, by A. Merritt. Not only is this my personal favorite of the 22 books we have released since the launch of Planet Stories about a year and a half ago, but it's also an interesting look at the Planet Stories process, and how in many ways we here in the office are learning just as much about the history of the most important early authors and books in the science fiction and fantasy fields as our readers are.
I often received letters of thanks form Planet Stories readers for introducing them to authors like Leigh Brackett, C. L. Moore, or Henry Kuttner. Most of these authors began their careers in the 1930s and early 1940s, publishing their stories in the pre-war pulp magazines like the original Planet Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and similar magazines.
In order to locate and restore the oldest, most complete texts of the tales we've published so far, I have accumulated a respectable selection of pulp magazines. One of my absolute favorites was called Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Along with its sister magazine, Fantastic Novels, editor Mary Gnaedinger culled the vast archives of the Munsey Magazines (primarily Argosy and All-Story in their various forms and spin-offs), collecting the best fantastic material for affordable reprints. In some ways FFM was the "original" version of our Planet Stories book line, only in this case they reprinted work from the first three decades of the twentieth century almost exclusively.
Two things strike me as fascinating about these magazines beyond the actual stories they contained (many of which were brilliant) and the fact that a woman was setting the original "canon" of science fiction and fantasy in an era when many other women had to hide behind pseudonyms to get their work published at all. Beyond those two substantive issues, the things I find most fascinating about these magazines are the art, and the reader letter column.
The art stands out particularly because most of it (especially early on) came from the peerless pen of Virgil Finlay, for my money the finest illustrator ever to work in the pulp field and one of the greatest American illustrators of all time, period. Finlay's distinctive scratchboard style, fine figure work, and juxtaposition of light and dark tones is breathtaking more than six decades after it was originally commissioned, and his work brings a continuity to the canon of Famous Fantastic Mysteries that might otherwise have been less clear, different as the stories published in the magazine may have been. Many of Finlay's works have been reprinted over the years (and a Google image search will turn up hundreds more), but like the authors whose work he illustrated, he was amazingly prolific. Many of his illustrations appear only in their original pulp form, so opening a "new" issue of FFM rescued from a used book or magazine shop can often feel like digging for visual treasure.
Beyond the stories and illustrations, tacked onto the ends of the magazines and presented in tiny type, came the letters to the editor, often dozens at a time. In the course of praising or criticizing a given issue's content, these letters often include praise of authors and stories that are nearly forgotten today. How many readers other than the most dedicated literary archeologists know much about authors like E. Charles Vivian or Charles B. Stilson? Beyond King Solomon's Mines and perhaps She, who can name the titles of further adventures of H. Rider Haggard's character Allan Quatermain or the dozens of other high-adventure fantasy novels he wrote in the late nineteenth century? FFM published many of them, and the letter columns are filled to bursting with suggestions on even more minor or forgotten works that were fading into obscurity (rightly or wrongly) more than 60 years ago. Of course, even back then, fantasy fans could agree on very few things.
One thing almost everyone seemed to agree on, however, was the overwhelming quality and beauty of language in the works of A. Merritt, particularly his groundbreaking fantasy The Ship of Ishtar.
Merritt's influential 1919 novel The Moon Pool has been in print more or less consistently since it was first published, and it was one of several stories in the very first issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries that solidified the magazine as a major success that would last more than a decade (not bad for a pulp focused almost exclusively on reprints!). He was a major stylistic influence on authors like H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, C. L. Moore, and Henry Kuttner.
Prior to coming across praise for his works in the letter pages of FFM, I'd never really heard of him. I came to Lovecraft decades ago, and in subsequent works by the above-named authors I always identified the florid, lush description as particularly Lovecraftian. In fact, Lovecraft was a great admirer of Merritt, and it's clear that Merritt's style was a huge influence upon him.
Listen to what HPL said about Merritt in a letter to a friend, praising the Merritt novel The Metal Monster: "[Merritt] has a peculiar power of working up an atmosphere and investing a region with an aura of unholy dread... the most remarkable presentation of the utterly alien and non-human that I have ever seen. Merritt is certainly great stuff—he has a subtle command of an unique type of strangeness which no one else has been able to parallel."
In the early 20th century, Merritt was considered, if not the most popular fantasist (that honor probably goes to Edgar Rice Burroughs), certainly among the top two or three fantasy authors in America. A journalist by trade, Merritt edited the prestigious American Weekly for Willian Randolph Hearst, and was one of the best-paid journalists in the world, bringing in an annual salary of $100,000 at the time of his death in 1943.
His busy career left him relatively little time for fiction writing, limiting his output to fewer than a dozen novels and about the same number of short stories. All are infused with powerful, vivid imagery, an unparalleled sense of place, and unforgettable characters.
This month's Planet Stories release, The Ship of Ishtar, is considered by most critics the finest of Merritt's masterworks, a precursor of the sword and sorcery genre that would come to inform the birth of fantasy roleplaying, and one of the most important fantasy novels of the early twentieth century. Merritt was the late Gary Gygax's favorite writer, and up until the month of Gary's recent death, he kept pushing me to publish some of his works. I wish Gary could have survived to see us get to The Ship of Ishtar, but I know he would have been happy to have one of his favorite tales presented to the audience of fantasy enthusiasts he helped to create and maintain.
The Planet Stories edition of The Ship of Ishtar features Merritt's complete, preferred text for the first time in more than 60 years. It also includes 10 beautiful prints by Merritt's favorite artist and friend, Virgil Finlay, collected into a single volume for the first time ever. Prominent modern author Tim Powers provides a compelling introduction, and the book comes wrapped in a beautiful, pulpy cover by artist Kieran Yanner.
Illustration by Virgil Finlay
I am enormously proud of this book. Many of you have sent me letters of thanks and encouragement for introducing you to some of the classic authors we've covered so far in Planet Stories. And if not for Planet Stories, I may not have discovered this book, so I offer my own thanks to Gary Gygax, and my own invitation to all of you to order the book and give Planet Stories and A. Merritt a try.
One of the world's finest fantasies awaits!
Erik Mona, Publisher
At the World Fantasy Convention
San Jose, California
October, 2009
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