Illustrations by Mauricio Herrera and Peter Lazarski. Widescreen version here.
Long Live The Gorilla King!
Friday, January 14, 2010
It's no secret that I love gorillas, apes, and monkeys. My avatar here at Paizo is a monkey, my personal Facebook icon for a long time was a Bili Ape, and I'm always calling my kids little monkeys. (They are the Savage Horde, after all.) When I asked the art department to create a series of wallpapers, you can only imagine my delight when Crystal showed me the wallpaper below. It's about as perfect a wallpaper as I could ask for: the Gorilla King, swarms of monkeys in the background, and all of the Pathfinder hardback covers. It's been on my computer since Crystal finished it a week ago, and now it can be on yours.
Last month saw the release of the third Pathfinder Society Scenario set in the fan-favorite Absalom location of the Blakros Museum. All three scenarios in the unofficial series remain among the most popular scenarios to date, and even two and a half years later, Nicolas Logue's Mists of Mwangi is not only highly reviewed, but a bestseller in the line, and one of the most frequently reported scenarios of all time. Though the structure of Pathfinder Society Organized Play has seen several changes since the start of Season 0, including the adoption of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Mists has proven itself a perennial classic.
Thus, it was the first scenario that popped to mind when we began the task of converting Season 0 scenarios from 3.5 rules to the Pathfinder RPG. I'm proud to announce that the conversion process is complete, and we've updated the layout to match current standards. Starting later today, anyone who has previously purchased the 3.5 version of the scenario will also have access to the updated version, and both will be available for future download for new purchasers. The chronicle sheet has been removed from the 3.5 PDF, and the only legal version for sanctioned play from now on is its replacement.
We have several other conversions in the production pipeline we hope to squeeze in among all the new books we're working on, and will release them for public consumption as soon as possible. Don't forget to stop by the Pathfinder Society messageboards and let us know what you think of the conversion, and which other scenarios you'd like to have updated in the near future.
We're nearing the homestretch in development of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion and that means it's time to start leaking some of the brand-new art you can expect to find within the tome's dusty pages. Check out these relics we've unearthed while plumbing the ruins of Kho in the Mwangi Expanse and Storasta in the demon-choked Worldwound.
Off to the printer goes Pathfinder Player Companion: Inner Sea Primer, our new guide to what's what and where's where for characters in the Pathfinder campaign setting. Aside from being filled with the baseline, "what your character knows" details of Avistan and Garund, it's also our new go-to book for traits from around the Inner Sea, with each column-length country write-up including two new options for natives of that region. As a bit of a preview, here's a new trait for Sargava to help all you Serpent Skull players soon to be in need of replacement characters. (What can I say? The Mwangi's a killer.) Also, take a peek at more of Carolina Eade's incredible art: a Chelish infernal binder—just one of three new Golarion magic archetypes included in the guide. Enjoy!
Illustration by Carolina Eade
Jungle Guide (Regional): You've made your living outfitting and guiding expeditions deep into the Mwangi interior in search of ancient ruins and lost cities. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Handle Animal checks, and a +1 trait bonus on Survival checks in jungle terrain. One of these skills is a class skill for you.
Here at Paizo, the normal process for ordering a map for an adventure or sourcebook goes something like this: First the author sends us a map of the imagined area, drawn out to the best of his or her abilities. With that in hand, we check it thoroughly for any contradictions with existing continuity, and redraw or retag sections as necessary to correct mistakes, make the map more interesting, or simply increase legibility. We then hand the map over to Art Director Sarah Robinson, who sends it off as reference to a professional cartographer. Once the professional version comes back, we check it against the original and make changes as necessary. It's a process that happens every day at Paizo.
And then, once in a great while, an author turns the whole system on its head.
In this case, that's Tim Hitchcock, who provided such amazing map turnovers for several locations in Heart of the Jungle, our guide to the Mwangi Expanse, that we couldn't in good conscience send them all away to a cartographer. Instead, we're doing something we very rarely do, and including several of Tim's original art pieces—such as this rendering of Usaro, city of demon-worshiping apes—as player handouts, perfect for GMs who want an in-game reference they can show their players. Between the loads of professionally rendered, heavily tagged maps and Tim's pages torn straight from an explorer's diary, this book is one of the map-heaviest supplements we've ever done, and I can't wait to hear what GMs think when this experiment finally hits bookstores.
One of my favorite parts of being an editor at Paizo is getting to read about the new monsters in each bestiary before they come out. My favorites are the ones whose descriptions make me shiver with a delicious sense of horror and disgust. If the players facing these foul beasts make the same expression that I do reading about them, GMs will be richly rewarded for including them!
Last week, James Sutter was casually describing some of the nasties in Heart of the Jungle as he handed over a copy of one of the chapters: "You know, giant botflies, giant leeches, and [...]" Oh sorry, could you repeat the rest of that sentence? I couldn't hear you over the sound of my inner child screaming in fear.
Illustration by Andrew Hou
You see, when I was about 10, I was reading my dad's Dragon magazine back issues while en route to a week of camping in northern Minnesota, and I came across an article called "Ecology of the Giant Leech." The description of foot-long ribbons of muscle whose bite you can't even feel slowly fattening as they fill with your blood horrified me—suddenly I was terrified to be spending a week canoeing and swimming in leech-infested waters. ("Leech-infested" is not an exaggeration; the water along the shore of every beach and campsite was thick with six-inch-long leeches.)
I studied over the article again and again, poring over the stats and descriptions of their attacks and vulnerabilities, so I'd know how to defend myself when the time came. (You can laugh, but clearly, it worked!)
Now giant leeches are back—and I can't wait to read about them again! Partly because I love being creeped out by things that go bump in the water, and okay, I confess, partly to learn whether leech-fighting methods have evolved over the years.
GMs, you're going to love these wriggly critters: monsters based on one of nature's actual horrors, and whose attack is so insidious that victims may not even notice until it's almost too late. The only thing more priceless than the expression on your players' faces when they find a couple giant leeches draining one of their comrades—and wonder about that crawling sensation on their own backs—will be the look on their faces when they realize they have to cross that swamp again on the way back.
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