Triops stock image by Steve Jurvetson, Wikipedia Commons. Blinky himself not pictured, by virtue of not being found when we checked the bowl for his corpse...
Death of a Three-Eyed Wonder
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Do you have an office pet that you can use to terrorize your coworkers? Is your terrifying office pet a living fossil that evolved just as the first terrestrial creatures set foot on land? Does your terrifying, living fossil office pet bear a striking resemblance to an aboleth? No? Well, then perhaps you should upgrade your office pet. Might I suggest... a triops?
Meet Blinky (so dubbed by Sutter). Blinky was hatched from an innocuous-seeming package of bark and detritus a mere two months ago. Even when he was a little filter-feeding larva, I could see the evil glint in Blinky's three eyes. He was destined for great things. He exercised dutifully, swimming around his bowl. He learned to hunt in that bowl, chasing down and consuming his weaker triops brethren. He had to absorb their power, as he knew he had to be strong. He moved onto the faster crustaceans that had the gall to hatch along with him, punishing them for swimming in his bowl as if they were his equal. He ate his broccoli and avoided his peas (a creature after my own heart).
It was not long before he had grown over an inch long. That's when he knew he was ready. Ready to escape his bowl and cause terror.
Alas, the poor creature has shuffled off this mortal carapace. Was it the new plant I introduced to the bowl just before the long weekend? Was it the cold seeping through the window? Was it the excitement of fulfilling his life-long goal of terrorizing Wes as he sleeps? Or was it Wes himself, intent on a mission of assassination and horror-eradication? I'm betting on Wes.
Don't worry, Wes. The next generation is already gestating. Soon, they will be larval, and before you know it, they will be tiptoeing through the vents, watching you type. Watching you with their three eyes. Waiting for you to sleep. The triops are coming for you, Wes.
It’s been a long, frosty weekend and we’re still a little lethargic, but lets start things back off right. Check out what’s coming around the corner in the final installment of the Serpent Skull Adventure Path with Pathfinder Adventure Path #42: “Sanctum of the Serpent God.”
We’re all out of the office today being gluttons. All except for Crystal’s baby otyugh, who’s just not old enough for solid food quite yet. Maybe next year little guy. Happy Thanksgiving and see you all Monday!
We've got a lot of incredible products coming out in the next few months, and it's no secret that this blog's readers love previews. While this blog does feature a new piece of art, I thought it'd be a waste not to mention another way we preview upcoming material: Pathfinder Society Scenarios.
Since print products generally need to go to the printer months before they come out for general consumption, there's a pocket of several weeks between when something's done when we know its finalized content. Pathfinder Society Scenarios are pdf-only products, and don't require the same lead-time in the production process, and that means that sometimes we can slip in some actual mechanics from complete but unreleased products.
I hope to continue the trend of including sneak previews of upcoming material into Pathfinder Society Scenarios, both to reward active players with new content before it's widely available and to make adventures as awesome as they can be by using all the tools at my disposal. Be sure to check out the two new scenarios releasing today as well as two additional scenarios the last Wednesday of every month.
Addendum: Unfortunately, due to Seattle's inability to clear roads of ice and snow, we are still without an editorial staff. Final edits are being made from home, but can't be entered into the document outside the office. Thus, today's scenarios will be a little late. We expect to have them up no later than Tuesday of next week. We apologize for the delay, and appreciate your patience.
Welcome to the second part of the playtest of Ultimate Magic, a new sourcebook for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, due to be released early next year.
We received a great deal of valuable feedback on the new magus class, but now we are going to take a look at something quite a bit different. This section of the playtest takes a look at a new way of using magic in the game with Words of Power. This system allows spellcasters to "build" their own spells, creating variable and versatile effects. Since the system is so different and new, it is not part of the Pathfinder Society organized play program, but you should give it a try in your home game or maybe in a game designed specifically to test these rules.
In this playtest, we are just giving you a small part of a greater system, representing the basic pieces needed to play a sorcerer or wizard using Words of Power. These elements can and will be applied to other classes, and indeed many of the "words" are tagged for classes outside the scope of this playtest, for now we are just focusing on the wizard and sorcerer. Once you've had a chance to play with these rules, you can post your results to the playtest messageboards. If you just want to give some general feedback or ideas, you can also check out the feedback messageboards.
This playtest cycle will last two weeks, until Monday, December 6th. We also hope to release another draft of the magus in the coming days, for a bit of additional playtest based off the feedback from the first round.
So, get a copy of the Words of Power system and use it in your game. We look forward to seeing your constructive feedback and playtest reports. See you on the boards.
For some time now James has been warning the rest of the office of his general cheeriness or crabbiness with a printout of the goblins from the GameMastery Condition Cards and a Post-It arrow hanging on his door. Without the cards themselves, though, some of the meanings have been mysterious. Like the goblin below, for example: are his ears loose? Is he using mind powers? Could he be trying to keep the demons out? Yesterday it was hard to say, but not today, with the printer proofs of the Condition Cards that just drifted in.
Illustrations by Andrew Hou
Deafened, James? If only it was that easy to make the screaming stop.
Last week we showed you a few pictures of the first few copies of Bestiary 2 to straggle into the office. But we've been remiss in introducing the Pathfinder community at large to the two newest monsters to grace Paizo HQ with their presence. They showed up here around the same time I started at the company, so it's easy to see why their arrival slipped under the radar. They serve as the official golem watch-monsters, guarding our most prized possessions. Here they are, for example, stealthily lurking at the top of the stairs outside Lisa's office.
Sulley (left) is a Gemini and enjoys long walks on the beach, games of Candyland, and Gary Busey movies. Mike (right) is a perfect match for anyone smitten by a "bad boy" type and dreams of one day having a gaze attack and growing more eyestalks. And for those of you who were expecting new monster art, well, who am I to disappoint?
Do you want a shot at becoming a professional game designer? If so, you should enter the RPG Superstar 2011 competition. Though the competition doesn't begin until December 3rd, that's just when we start accepting submissions. Be smart and start working on your Round 1 wondrous item submission now. That gives you a few extra weeks to refine your item concept.
You should also check out the series of posts I'm writing giving advice about things likely to get your item auto-rejected. They're indexed in a sticky post here on the Paizo forums. This is my third year judging, and by posting these I'm trying to help other designers—that's you!—avoid common pitfalls that'll knock you out of the competition. Fellow judge—and RPG Superstar 2009 winner—Neil Spicer has been providing helpful comments in response to these posts, too. And it wouldn't hurt to read Neil's Advice For Round 1 post from last year.
Also check out former Superstar judge Clark Peterson's extensive write-up of problems he saw in items from a previous competition, which can help you steer clear of things that'll make your chances crash and burn.
Let me point out one thing so we're absolutely clear: you have to participate in Round 1 (wondrous item) if you want to progress to later rounds in the competition! We had a few people last year miss out entirely because they thought they could jump in at a later round. Oops!
Read the competition rules. Do some research. Submit a wondrous item between December 3rd and December 31st. Paizo uses this competition to recognize talented designers we can use for freelance writing—whether or not they make it to the final round. And if you do make it to the final round, you could win a contract to write an adventure module for Paizo. This could be your big break!
Good luck, good gaming, and most of all... have fun!
Paizo Publishing, LLC® is proud to announce RPG Superstar 2011, the fourth season of its popular RPG design contest. The search for the newest talent in RPG design begins December 3, 2010 on paizo.com.
"We’ve been blown away by the success of the contest,” said Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo Publishing. "Each year the contest gets bigger and better. This year not only will we publish the winner’s entry as a Pathfinder Module, but the remaining Top 4 contestants will each get to write a scenario for our Pathfinder Society organized play program. It’s going to be an exciting year, and I can’t wait to see what gets submitted."
Paizo has selected four judges to oversee the competition. For the first time ever, Ryan Dancey, one of the fathers of Open Gaming, will be an RPG Superstar judge. Returning from the previous season is Paizo’s own Sean K Reynolds, author and developer extraordinaire. Joining them will be Mark Moreland, Pathfinder Society developer and continuity editor; and former RPG Superstar winner Neil Spicer, who debuted as a guest judge for the initial round last year. These judges will critique each round’s entries before the public vote.
Last year Matt Goodall’s Cult of the Ebon Destroyers emerged victorious as 2010’s RPG Superstar winner after a week of public comment and fan voting at paizo.com. His winning adventure releases in January as a full-color printed Pathfinder Module.
Starting at 2 PM Pacific Time on December 3, 2010, contestants will be able to submit their RPG Superstar entry at paizo.com/rpgsuperstar/previous/2011. For the first round, that entry will be a wondrous item designed for use with Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Each entry must be 300 words or less, and must include all of the proper mechanics and flavor. Contestants must submit their entry by December 31, 2010. Judges will select the top 32 entries to be announced on January 18, 2010; those 32 contestants will be assigned a new design task and their entries will be posted on paizo.com for the public to read, critique, and vote on. The designers garnering the most votes in each round will continue on to subsequent rounds, and the ultimate winner will earn a paid commission to write one of Paizo's upcoming Pathfinder Modules, while the remaining top 3 designers will earn a paid commission to write an upcoming Pathfinder Society scenario!
Specifics for each challenge will be announced as each round begins. The winner of RPG Superstar 2011 will be announced on March 22, 2011. Complete rules and a submission form are available at paizo.com/rpgsuperstar/previous/2011.
Do you have what it takes to be the next RPG Superstar?
Coming to work at Paizo is like coming home. When I first started working at Wizards of the Coast I worked with Erik, had regular chats with Jason, and Lisa and Sean were always nearby, stalking the shadows, waiting to strike.
Those were good times and I'm looking forward to revive them in my new digs. I'm excited about doing more work on the Pathfinder RPG. Throughout the development of 4e I watched its rise with keen interest. As a subscriber, I was already a Paizo fanboy. I wanted to see the solutions that Paizo would put forward, because I love RPGs and I know there is never a single solution to a design challenge. I also wanted to see my friends succeed.
Paizo's solutions were stellar and so it was no surprise that the successes have been triumphant.
When I left Wizards and was invited to work on the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide as a freelancer, I jumped at the chance. When Paizo invited me to join their staff, I eagerly leaped again. Now amidst many old friends and quite a few new ones, I look forward to making sure that you, the Pathfinder player, get the game you deserve with each and every product: a game that's exciting, evocative, and fun. So my job is to make sure you at least get what you're accustomed to and more. It's going to be a fantastic challenge.
Just this week, I finished development of RPG Superstar 2010 winner Matthew Goodall's awesome Pathfinder Module, Cult of the Ebon Destroyers. One of the best parts of the process was seeing the final art come in for the evil cultists who make this such an evocative adventure. So do what I did while poring over Matt's turnover and set your Pandora station to sitar music, get yourself a tangy curry or some buttered naan, and check out these pieces from Carolina Eade. Cult of the Ebon Destroyers is currently anticipated in stores and on paizo.com in January 2011.
As a miniatures fanatic, I'm always encouraging other people to try painting. Many people complain they don't have enough time, it's hard to paint at home because they have kids or don't have space, and so on. For a time, we had a weekly painting group meeting in the evening after work, but since Gen Con 2009, the move to the then-new building, and due to the frantic pace of publishing increasingly popular books, that fell by the wayside. Recently we started up a lunchtime painting get-together, meeting every Tuesday from noon to 1 in the upstairs conference room. Why Tuesday? Because my high-level drow game is on Tuesday nights, and this gives me an opportunity to get some last-minute painting done for the upcoming game!
Clockwise from the lower left we have Ross (painting some 40K marines), Liz (painting a serpentfolk for the Serpent Skull Adventure Path), Crystal (working on a Privateer gun-toting troll), Sara Marie (painting her PC for Rob's game), Rob (painting his badger mini an appropriate shade of "Rummy Tum Tugger purple"), Andrew (showing his art skills on a Reaper imp), Hyrum's hand (also working on some 40K marines), and the back of my head (applying some metallic base coats to some deep ones).
It's nice to work in a place where painting weird monsters is normal. It's also nice to have a regular schedule to get some painting done, even if it's just a little bit. Even if you don't work for a game company, maybe you can find a time and place to paint. And you might get someone else interested in gaming!
You've head the rumors. Now learn the truth from the journal of Howell, Tim Nightengale's character in James Jacobs's legendary Shadows Under Sandpoint campaign.
Entry from the travel journal of Howell B. Talbot III, Servant of Abadar 18 Pharast (late morning)
All praise the might and justice of Abadar!
A quick missive here, as we have met and vanquished the object of Styrian's obsession: the Sandpoint Devil!
I must say that the pictures and descriptions that Styrian has shown me do not convey its sheer horror. The wolf-horse devil was summoned by one of the ghouls that waylaid us inside the back passages of Kanker's lair, by means of a large spiraled horn. The devil's approach was marked by such a scream that both Zandu and Rummy-Tum-Tugger fled in fear, and its arrival was punctuated by a flash and explosion that left Velmarius blinded. The horror flew in over the summoned pit, and proceeded to vomit a flame over Vorn that left him with horrible burns.
A hound archon summoned by Balazar seemed to occupy the devil, while Ostog, Melga (now, where did she come from, and where is Hazel?), and I moved up to attack. It was then that I called upon the Justice and Glory of the Gold-Fisted One, and finally, after many a failed attempt at smiting evils on this mission, I buried Thundergütter deeply in the chest of the Sandpoint Devil, causing it a truly grievous wound, and doubly-so as I wrenched the axe free. Ostog, as always, delivered the killing blow. Unfortunately, the beast's final act was to spray us with its infernal breath, leaving Ostog and myself, along with Vorn, charred and bleeding despite all healing. And yet, the Sandpoint Devil is no more, reduced to a cleaned skull in the hands of the scholar that has tirelessly pursued it. Styrian tells me it belongs in a museum....
A short while after Gen Con, Jason Bulmahn sat down with the fine folks from the Games With Garfield podcast to talk about Pathfinder, Paizo, gaming, Golarion, and a lot of ideas and theories about game design and development. We even find out that Jason beat Richard Garfield at Magic: The Gathering! You should definitely listen to it here.
The Chronicles: Pathfinder Podcast guys return to the Council of Thieves Adventure Path with an interview with AP author Richard Pett, a new necromancer character-concept build, conversions of all five Abishi to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and an in-depth review of The Six-Fold Trial. You don't what to miss this one, so check it out here.
We were happy to see the latest volume of the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path starting to make its way to subscribers this week, and that means it's time to start touting the next awesome volume, Vaults of Madness by Greg A. Vaughan.
I'm currently playing this AP (having a great time as a monk/paladin of Irori in Paizo.com messageboard member Karui Kage's game), so I've tried to keep from poring over the existing installments of this campaign, but it can be hard to avoid the art. So while I don't know who or what these pictures represent, here are a few (hopefully spoiler-free) images from Pathfinder Adventure Path #40, which we expect to start shipping next month.*
This weekend designers Jason Bulmahn and Sean K Reynolds will be prowling the Las Vegas strip under the pretext of being guests at Neoncon. If you're planning on attending Neoncon, make sure you seek those guys out and say "hi!" If you have pseudo-celebrity paralysis, though, and need more of an icebreaker, I've included some suggestions along with their schedules below. And don't worry, while he looks scary, it's the other one you need to worry about.
Jason Bulmahn's NeonCon Schedule
Friday
Friday, 10 a.m.: Game Designer 101
Friday, 11 a.m.: Pathfinder RPG Design Time
Friday, 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG
Friday, 7 p.m.: Game Designer 101
Saturday
Saturday, 10 a.m.: Game Designer 101
Saturday, 11 a.m.: Pathfinder RPG Design Time
Saturday, 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG
Sunday
Sunday, 10 a.m.: Game Designer 101
Sunday, 3 p.m.: Game Designer 101
Icebreakers:
I hear you're doing an early playtest of "Words of Power" from Ultimate Magic here at the show. What's the deal?
What happened to the kangaroo that used to be on your desk?
Why, Jason? Just why?
Sean K Reynolds's NeonCon Schedule
Friday
Friday 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG
Friday 4 p.m.: Deities and Your Campaign World
Friday 6 p.m.: Miniatures Assembly 101
Friday 9 p.m.: Stories We Only Tell In Person
Saturday
Saturday 10:30 a.m.: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Saturday 2 p.m.: Designing Content for the Pathfinder RPG
Saturday 4 p.m.: Filing Off the Serial Numbers
Saturday 6:30 p.m.: Miniatures Painting 101
Plus crashing other seminars
Icebreakers
What's the coolest thing in Ultimate Magic that I don't know about?
Who's your favorite Pathfinder deity?
How's your weekly lunchtime painting group going?
I heard you're a scary germophobe. Is this true?
Why does your office look like you're moving... and then an earthquake happened... and then the apocalypse hit?
In the wake of last week's absent web fiction—an unfortunate necessity, as I was sprinting out the door to a truly excellent World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio—it's my pleasure to bring things back with a bang, introducing the first chapter of Richard Lee Byers' new story, "Lord of Penance."
Many of you may already be familiar with Richard's work—he's written more than thirty novels, many of them high-profile gaming tie-in books—and I'm proud to say that he's really come up with something special for this one. In "Lord of Penance," Richard brings us the story of Sefu, a member of Absalom's Wave Riders, and his gillman companion Olhas as they struggle against one of the would-be gods of the Ascendant Court in order to save Sefu's seemingly brainwashed sister. But nothing in Absalom is ever quite as simple as it appears, and the two aquatic cavalry men may soon find themselves swimming in the deep end of the pool...
Reports are coming in of a doughty band of adventurers facing off against the legendary Sandpoint Devil in bloody battle beneath the stones of western Varisia. Could it be true that the infamous beast, cow killer and hermit spooker, has been slain? Tune back in next week for the full report.
Until then, gird your sanity as we page through the journal of that chronicler of terrors and outrages, Styrian Kindler.
This past week jet-setting international ma'am of mystery Sarah Robinson spent a few days in what we enviously hear is lovely Lucca Italy, attending the Lucca Games & Comics convention. But from her pictures, it looks like she was far from the only one flying the Pathfinder flag over the Tuscan countryside, with Italian gamers and translators Wyrd Edizioni making an impressive showing. Just look at all those books and cool posters! A huge thanks to the crew over at Wyrd Edizioni and thanks for everyone who checked Pathfinder out at Lucca!
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