Design Tuesday: Superstar Maps!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

For RPG Superstar last year, I put together a series of quick map sketches with commentary on my personal blog in order to show different map turnovers, ranging from absolutely pathetic to pretty good. This year, we've migrated that information to here on the Paizo blog so it's easier for competitors to find.

As a general tip, make your maps legible. If your map is just a few wavy lines on the page, if your handwriting is so illegible that only you can tell the difference between a 5 and a 9, if you can't draw a straight line with a ruler, do whatever it takes to improve. You have to bring your A-game. Just as your text has to stand on its own without a mini-you nearby to explain it, your maps have to, too, and if a professional cartographer can't decipher your map, their version of your map probably isn't going to match up with your text.

So take a look at the map turnover examples below, and try to make your map the best it can be. If you need inspiration for a great map turnover, check out this Paizo blog featuring the work of frequent contributor Tim Hitchcock. Pretty stuff!

I'm just putting these all together for comparison's sake for the benefit of the competitors in this round.

This map gets an "F." This map is awful. It's drawn in pencil and the scan barely shows the lines. I can't easily see where everything is supposed to be. Even where I can see it, I don't know what it is! Are those lines rivers? Are they forests? Lakes? What are those circles? Are those letters or numbers next to them?

Map, grade "D." This map is marginally better than the previous one. All I did was go over the pencil with a dark pen so the lines would show up more clearly on the scan. I still don't know what these lines represent, or the circles, and the numbering isn't even clear.

Map, grade "C." This is a marked improvement, but could still be clearer. It looks like the upper left border uses the old "use a humped line to indicate the edge of a forest." The big loop on the right may be a lake, a giant mud pit, a swampy area, not entirely clear, but a quick email to the designer would clear it up. Rather than generic circles, the four locations use little icons--two forts or castles, some kind of ruin, and something that's hopefully a cave but maybe is a giant eyeball. The numbers are clear and legible.
If you can't draw forts, cities, or what have you, find a symbol on the internet, print it out, and tape or glue it to your map before you scan it.

This ENworld link is a handy collection of common gaming map symbols, and here is another.

Map, grade "B." This is the exact same map as the Grade C map, except I colored in the forest and the blob on the right--green means forest, blue means water (rather than mud or swamp or magical barrier). It doesn't matter if you color it with colored pencils before you scan it or if you're using a coloring tool on your scanned map--color helps clarify what you're depicting.

This map is still missing a compass (indicating north) and a scale marker, so I'd still need to talk to the designer about it.

Map, grade "A minus." Some map as before, except I actually named the locations on the map as well as giving them numbers. I also added a simple compass rose and a scale marker.

Note that the scale marker is based on the grid size of the paper, which doesn't show up on the scan--if squares are important (like in a dungeon), make sure the grid shows up so the mapper knows what the scale is!

Also, because the resolution of the scan may mean your map appears at a different size on your screen than the mapper's screen, thus relative statements like "1 inch = 1 mile" may change; always include an on-map scale marker so the mapper can determine the scale without having to figure out at what DPI you scanned your map.
I give this map an A- rather than an A because in some places the handwriting is a little sloppy; if you have text on a map, it's best to include a text file turnover of all the text on the map, spelled correctly. This allows the mapper to (1) just copy & paste the text onto the map, rather than puzzling out your handwriting, (2) cross off each piece of text as he works on adding it to the map, so he doesn't miss anything that's supposed to be there.

Thus, for this map, I should include a text file that says:
1 Fort Zur
2 Fort Brun
3 The Ruin of Castle Happydeath
4 Ogre Lair
Bloodmurder Forest
Drownwicked Lake
[[compass rose]]
1 square = 1 mile

(The last two entries are mainly reminders rather than actual copy-paste goals... the cartographer isn't going to put the text "[[compass rose]]" on the map. We're not expecting Round 4 entries to include a map tags list, just make your map readable, please!)

If your handwriting is bad, either use a text tool in your graphics program to add text to the map, or print out the text, cut it out, and glue it onto the map before scanning it.

Note that the A- map doesn't get an A- grade for being awesome or interesting, it gets an A- for readability and how easily the cartographer could turn this into a professional map. I am 99% sure that if I handed this to a cartographer, he'd create a map that is exactly what I'm looking for.

Note also that this map could be much more interesting, with more details and such--but remember that the cartographer hasn't read your text for the book, he doesn't know if all the extra little details are necessary for your map, or if they're just flavor to make it look cool (for example, if you draw a scrap of paper on the floor of a room, he doesn't know if you're trying to make the room look more interesting, or if that paper is a vital clue the PCs can find in the room). As you work with a company and a cartographer more, you'll gain an understanding of the acceptable level of detail. For the purpose of RPG Superstar, the priority is readable, functional maps, not creating maps that are so awesome and detailed that you should be working as a professional cartographer rather than a writer.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, RPG Superstar Judge

Golarion Day: Report from Kintargo

Thursday, January 20, 2010

It's as I thought. When Abrogail's devil-bound lackeys seized the empire, they did not destroy all of the old documents and maps from pre-Thrune Cheliax as they claim. Many of these relics and artifacts, including countless rare maps and manuscripts stolen from the Pathfinder Society and the Aspis Consortium, now lie in deep and well-guarded vaults below Egorian's city streets. But not so well guarded that I wasn't able to slip in there a few days ago, unnoticed and unopposed!

There's a lot of stuff in those vaults I hope to someday liberate, but it was the enormous tapestry-map of the world that caught my eye on this first trip. Alas... that larger map was too huge for me to smuggle out. I did the next-best thing though, and snatched a smaller (although not as accurate) copy of the map. This one—though the oceans are way too small and I'm not sure Sarusan's in the right place and Casmaron might be a bit larger—should be a fine start toward expanding the lore of our world beyond what we think of as the Inner Sea region.

Anyway, I'm off for a rest back in Kintargo. I'll see if I can't sneak out some more secret stuff that Thrune doesn't want you to see soon enough—if you have any specific requests for things that Queen Abrogail suppressed, send me a request via the usual methods. And if you get caught by the Church of Asmodeus sending the request, I don't know you!

Shensen
Old Cheliax Shall Rise Again!

It's What's on the Inside that Counts

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

We did a few tricky things with the upcoming GameMastery Map Pack: Shops and Flip Mat: City Streets:

First: NEW FORMAT! Starting with Map Pack: Shops and going forward we'll be employing the same technology that makes our Flip Mats erasable wonders, resistant to wet-erase, dry-erase, even permanent markers. One of the things we heard again and again at conventions over the summer was that folks loved the Map Packs, but wished they could write on them. Great idea! And for everyone who wished for this: wish granted!

Second: They Sync Up! Look at your Map Pack: Shops. Now look at Flip Mat: City Streets. Now back to Map Pack: Shops. Notice anything? Map Pack: Shops shows the insides and multiple floors of the buildings on Flip Mat: City Streets! Confused? Just look at the clever little illustration Crystal put together showing exactly how these two useful map tools become even handier when used together.

Cartography by Corey Macourek. Graphic by Crystal Frasier

Third: Look at Map Pack: Shops. Close. No, real close. See that? Yeah, that's a little symbol of Desna, just like the one that showed up in the Rise of the Runelords Item Cards. Tricky huh? Since these are shops, cartographer Corey Macourek threw in a few bits of inventory from our past Item Card sets. They're really tiny, so it's still up to you what these shops carry, but for all of you now in the know, it's just a cool Easter egg.

So just a few new ideas to keep your game fresh and your gaming table looking great! We've also got a few more tricks in store for the Map Pack and Flip Mat lines coming down the road, so keep your eye out for what's ahead!

Wes Schneider
Managing Editor

Battle in Kelmarane

Friday, September 17, 2010

I had the pleasure of meeting and running a game for Kyle and Nani Pratt at PaizoCon a few years back, and since then Facebook has brought me occasional awesome updates from their campaign. But when THIS showed up, it was too awesome not to repost here. Check it out, with the whole story by the mad geniuses behind what looks like an incredible campaign!

(Forewarning to Legacy of Fire players, minor spoilers might follow.)

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Nani and I actually took the inspiration from the battle market that someone else made a year ago from here. Originally we thought we were going to just make something exactly the same, but then when we noticed how good the map was, we thought we could blow it up properly to give a good "full immersion" for the market. So my wife Nani took the image into Photoshop, sharpened the image, and then increased the scale to 1 inch. When it was all said and done, we printed it out on ~30 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper and cemented it onto foam board. We had envisioned making the columns look better... but we sadly ran out of time before the game so we had to hurry with a makeshift styrofoam solution!

We really wanted to make our Legacy of Fire game have immersion and put us all into the feel of the game. It's what makes the Paizo products so great, so we're trying to go the extra mile with this one. All of our players were so surprised we had this game aid and thought it was wonderful. It really made everyone understand exactly what the market was like (and just how huge it is compared to the characters themselves. We actually already had the Ruined Crypt of Kelmarane made for after this, and decided we wanted to go the extra mile. I think our players are going to be really surprised at this one too. Hopefully World Works finishes up the Garden from the next AP in time!

The fight itself was completely memorable. Our entire party snuck in through the north entrance using Undrella's key. Our rogue, a goblin, scouted ahead in the guise as a member of the battle market, and ended up talking with both the gnolls in the guardroom and Hurvank. With some very good bluff checks he convinced the poor ogre that the gnolls had set him up to lose in his last bout with Haleen. Hurvank then went over to the gnolls in the guardroom imagining that each one was Haleen and started to strangle them all to death. The goblin quickly went over and pitoned the second door to the guard room, trapping the remaining guards inside, scaring and confusing the gnolls on the first floor. Meanwhile the rest of the party (who didn't know what was going on) heard an ogre running across the market yelling about how he was going to kill Haleen (all three of them). The character with the "Finding Haleen" trait went rushing in to attack the ogre... which caused the bugbears to join the fight against the PCs fighting the ogre. Meanwhile, the gnolls all were trying to kill the ogre and had no clue what was going on. After about 10 more rounds of confusion, the remaining gnolls/defenders on the upper terraces finally figured out what was going on and rushed to protect the remainder of the battle market. By this time, though, the damage was done and a large number of the forces were dead by ogre/bugbear/gnoll/PC hands.

Having the market made prior to this made the combat incredibly easy to run. Instead of just describing how far up the terraces were we just placed the gnolls and described how they were shooting down from above. It was a GREAT aid!

Kyle Pratt
GM & Mad Architect

All Your Map Questions Answered

Monday, September 13, 2010

I know the question on everyone's mind this glorious Monday morning has nothing to do with what you'll be wearing to the office today, or whether you remembered to put your homework in your bag before heading off to class. No, the most pressing concern for any Paizo fan worth his salt is, "What's up with that Huge Ass Map?"

Well, loyal followers, I have good news re: the HAM: we're making continual progress! Just last week we all "ooh"ed and "aaah"ed over the final, high-resolution art from cartographer Rob Lazzaretti, who deepened all the colors, added hundreds of miniscule new coastal islands, and included more detailed representations of areas like Kyonin, the Stolen Lands, and Ustalav. We've got all the tags we can fit on the existing map, and I've gone through with a fine-toothed comb to find missing locations, misnamed cities, and incorrectly placed tags. Up next? James Jacobs and I are going to go through the whole image, giving names to as-yet-unnamed rivers, mountain ranges, islands, and other geographical features.

Check out these pictures of the current iteration of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Poster Map Folio and I promise I'll have brand new art (not photos) for everyone later this week.

A map so big we couldn't handle it in one piece!	These will all have names very, very soon.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Map Swallows Desk—Editors Next?!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Remember that big ol' map that we started working on a while back? We're chugging away at it (with no signs of gibbering yet), and are moving ever closer to the final version!

I have to say, it was painful to fold the working map up, even gently, and not just because it reminded me how short I am! I was irrationally afraid of damaging it, yet that was the only way to wrestle it onto my desk without committing Ultimate Sacrilege—cutting it up.

It's hard to tell at this resolution, but the map is covered in handwritten notes: names of cities, islands, rivers, and ruins; arrows showing where existing labels should be moved to; circles grouping multi-word names; and check marks verifying locations or spellings. There are about a thousand or so notes in all, written in a variety of hands, some of which would make doctors swoon with jealousy. The thought of verifying all of those tags on the final version is a source of both terror and glee. (Tom Rex recommended we write our signoffs in our own blood to increase accountability, but his slavering makes suspect he cares more about softening us up than accuracy.)

Judy Bauer
Editor

Welcome to the Shiv!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Greetings, delicious humanoids! What's the scoop? My name is Tom. Tom Rex. Tom normally doesn't talk to Tom's lunch, but Boss Sutter said Tom has to in this case, and since Boss Sutter is all skin and bones and beans and peanut butter, and thus not edible to Tom's discerning palate, Tom has no recourse but to do what Boss Sutter says. So here Tom is, talking to things that should be screaming as Tom chews them. But Tom is okay with that, because Tom needs his paycheck.

Boss Sutter said Tom should put James Jacobs's original map turnover on this blog, so that you squawking morsels might be able to use it as a handout in your Serpent's Skull games, but Tom can't find the map. Tom thinks it's at the back of one of the shelves, and Tom's arms can't reach that far, and anyone who makes fun of Tom's arms WILL be eaten. That's the scoop on that.

So instead, Tom just kicked in the door to the map archive room, ate the guards, stepped on their stupid robot defenders, and picked up the big untagged map of Smuggler's Shiv in Tom's teeth. Then Tom put it behind the spoiler button on this post. If you're a player in a Smuggler's Shiv game, Tom will kick your ass. Right up into Tom's mouth, where Tom will eat you. So don't peek! The map behind the spoiler button is for GMs only, who want to present a blank map to their players once they find a map of Smuggler's Shiv during the course of the adventure. GOT IT?

Spoiler:

Cartography by Robert Lazzaretti

As for what Tom thinks of the triceratops/torosaurus debacle... doesn't matter to Tom. They're equally delicious whatever their names are. That's the scoop on that!

Tom Rex
King of Reporters

Best Cartography

Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 05:44 PM Pacific

Gold for Pathfinder Chronicles City Map Folio!

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Not Our Fault!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

For one reason or another, occasionally a mistake slips through into one of our printed products. I know that's a shock. I'll give you a moment to recompose yourself.

Fortunately—if you can ever call such things fortunate—they're not always our fault. From the time production files leave our tender care to the moment a fully realized book reaches your door, countless mysterious hands work and tinker in ways neither editor nor reader should dare interfere. Most of the time such mysterious forces rise and pass leaving behind no evidence at all. Sometimes not.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #35 includes one such instance of "not." Although it's too late to correct the thousands of books already sailing their way to our warehouses, we can preempt them.

Here's the deal, and I've probably already overplayed it: there's a map on page 33 of #35 that got "garbled" (you'll see when you get it). It's not unusable, but it's not pretty, and it's one of the most baffling snags we've ever seen, likely having to do with vicious data-gnawing file gremlins or other computer-age equivalents of "acts of God." Regardless: not pretty. So, hidden behind the spoiler below is the map as it should appear. It's of one of the final encounter areas of War of the River Kings, so I'd suggest all GM-fearing Kingmaker players NOT look.

Spoiler:

Cartography by Rob Lazzaretti

The volume is still awesome, with some really nasty new threats and particularly cool new rules for martially minded rulers. But we just wanted to fill everyone in as soon as we found out so there's no surprises and so you have everything you need to run the adventure as easily as possible right out of the book. We're totally sorry for the half-page mystery map you'll be seeing, but hope the version here prevents the snafus from slowing down your game.

Wes Schneider
Managing Editor

Cartography by Rob Lazzaretti

Kingmaker: Iobarian Timeline

Thursday, May 27, 2010

An ancient land of half-forgotten empires and untold savagery, Iobaria sprawls beyond the frontiers of northern Avistan. History scars and shapes the people of this rugged land, the ruins of sprawling civilizations standing testament to ages of glories long lost, but which might rise again. Supplementing the "Iobaria Gazetteer" by Steven Schend in Pathfinder Adventure Path #33, the following timeline (also by Steven) presents an overview of the land's long history, laying bare the wonders and terrors that rule that rugged realm even today.

Iobaria Timeline
Year	Event
–5293	Earthfall. End of the cyclops Koloran Empire
–3923	Pit of Gormuz opens in central Casmaron
–1281	Taldor founded by Lost Azlanti and primitive native humans
–632	The Tarrasque, Spawn of Rovagug, destroys Ninshabur. Some hidden force turns the creature west across the Tovrus and into Avistan.
752	Ulfen explorers traverse the polar ice and settle into the taiga of northern Casmaron, founding Okormirr.
753	Okormirran explorers discover the Koloran Roads and begin building Orlov among an old ruined cyclops city. Orlov becomes larger than Okormirr by 764.
780	Founding of Orost.
788	Founding of Antoll.
795	Founding of Lenusya.
809	Founding of Mishkar.
818	Founding of Kirrosuli.
846	Founding of Kirya.
905	Iobar, son of Kjell of Orlov, conquers all challengers. He unites all territories under his own banner, claiming all lands from the Icewall to the Castrovin Sea as Iobaria.
937	Death of Iobar I at the Battle of Kridorn. Iobar's son Hrugil repels the pirate fleets from the east, spending the rest of his rule improving Iobaria's fleets, intent on eradicating the powerful mercenary pirate and corsair fleets of the northwestern Castrovin Sea.
975	Kridorn rises to become a port city, not a minor fishing town.
1080	Hroran and Kridorthrost founded in this year of plenty.
1106	The Tearplague scours all settlements between the Norinor and Finadar.
1240	Human settlers claim cyclops ruins in Caemorin, dubbing the settlement Mavradia.
1412	Founding of Zradnirras.
1466	Founding of Vurnirn after a 24-year-long struggle against Hoofwood natives.
1528	Founding of Mirnbay.
1634	The Chardeath sees many spontaneously combust in high fevers. The flames lead to the eradication of a third of all Iobarian settlements. This plague's source is revealed in 1869 as the necromancer Otyb the Undying.
1717	The red and blue great wyrms, Shrodniar and Voldmannasein, clash over Fangard. Some force from the forest depths strike Voldmannasein dead, while Shrodnair crashes near Antoll. Strange glyphs are discovered, burnt into the blue dragon, scarring even his bones.
1900	The centaur tribes of the Caemorin unite under the banner of Errindayn the Seer, sacking Mirnbay and destroying numerous humanoid settlements.
1986	Errindayn the Seer dies mysteriously after an unnaturally long life. The centaurs of the region abandon their warlike ways.
2108	Mirnbay refounded and defenses significantly reinforced. Centaurs barred from the city for more than 400 years.
2546	Ohjar's Plague kills a third of all male centaurs, orcs, and humans across the land in a mere 8 months.
2602	Humans and some native centaur tribes ally together to form the realm of Zastel in eastern Iobaria, its capital in Mavradia.
2654	Iobaria begins the Reclamation Wars against Zastel.
2686	Zastel reconquered and returned to Iobarian rule.
2742	The Choking Death. A respiratory plague suffocates more than 40% of Iobaria's adult population over the course of 8 months. The plague spreads west out of Iobaria (carried to Avistan by refugees) and devastates human populations in northeastern Avistan over the next 6 years.
2767	The Native Plaguestrife: Various druid sects, guilds, and politicians fan flames against those they deem "non-native Iobarians" by claiming no plagues ever happened until folk started coming east from Avistan. Skirmishes and vendettas weaken the power bases of many for decades.
2920	Earthquake rocks Taldor, Qadira, and central Casmaron. Coastal settlements along the northwestern Castrovin all damaged or destroyed by tidal waves.
3000s	Exodus. At least three separate waves of refugees abandon Iobaria over this century to settle other colonial lands to the west and south or new domains east of the Castrovin Sea.
3150	The Pestilentropy infected many nomads and settlers in central Iobaria, causing fevers and madness ultimately leading to death by overexertion or by the blades of those its victims imagine to be their foes. The disease or its manic side effects destroy more than half of Iobaria's farms, villages, crops, and cattle, leading to a decade of lean harvests and starvation for the region. This devastation and the lack of support for the people leads to the final dissolution of Old Iobarian rule.
3212	Three warlords (one of Issian descent) and their allies band together to restore the nation of Iobaria. Rallying to banners and flags of Old Iobaria, support for New Iobaria rose quickly with their reclamation of Orlov from foreign factions and their local pawns. The Restoration War lasts for nearly a century before New Iobaria officially exists and rules its lands.
3283	House Arjal and House Korya betray allied House Narkys, sacrificing its leaders and troops to dragons of the mountains and wilds, their newer allies.
3304	The Restoration War over, King Irral I turns control and demesne of all the old cyclops ruins to their white and red dragon allies.
3679	The Great Horde. A collection of ogre, giant, and cyclops tribes rampage across Iobaria under the command of Burlor, a cyclops wearing the Crown of Mirim and wielding the Perobov Maul. These monsters remain a threat long after the death of Burlor beneath the hooves of more than 25 tribes of centaurs.
4000	Amid the blizzards of a long and particularly harsh winter, frost giants from the Ice Steppes invade New Iobaria, pillaging and murdering. They reach Orlov before being repelled.
4499	Iobarian Choral the Conqueror unites Rostland and Issia into Brevoy.
4519	The Drakeplague kills more than 60% of the dragon population within 3 months. The silver dragon Cithaythren and Finadar druids perform a ritual to end the plague before it spreads beyond Iobaria at the cost of that dragon's life.
4600s	Sarkorian barbarians flee the expanding Worldwound, a number of tribes crossing the polar ice to Iobaria.
4607	Skirmishes and battles among Sarkorian refugees, native insurgents, and Iobarian troops begin the second fall of Iobaria with the loss of Mavradia to rebel forces. Battles and rebellions continue over the next 5 decades.
4659	New Iobaria reduced to the now-isolated cities of Kridorn, Mirnbay, and Orlov, each of whose rulers now claims to be the true ruler and heir of Iobaria due to blood ties to the dead kings.
4667	Red Revolution of Galt; many Galtan nobles flee north and eventually arrive in Kridorn.
4699	Royal House Rogarvia, descended from Iobarian warlords, disappears. House Surtova assumes power in Brevoy.
4710	The current year.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Photography by Gary Teter

It's Huge!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The way the story goes, Erik walked into the copy shop with a disc holding the map of the Inner Sea Region and asked the employee there to make the image as big as he could.

"Okay, here we go," the man said, holding up a sheet maybe two feet high.

"I don't think you understand," Erik replied. "I need this big."

Thus it was that last Friday, Erik and Wes came into the office holding a map of the Inner Sea Region that, when unrolled, measured seven feet tall and six feet across. As we all stood around it in shock, looking down on it in mingled wonder and terror, I think the same two thoughts were in everyone's brains. Here was the world we'd created...

...and now we needed to fill it.

For of course that's why we had the map printed. With the forthcoming World Guide: The Inner Sea (a revised and expanded version of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting hardcover, fully updated to the Pathfinder RPG) and the Inner Sea Poster Map Folio, it's time for us to finally buckle down and crank our own obsessive tendencies to the max as we attempt to place every location that's featured in a Pathfinder game product in its appropriate place. And of course, as if that madness weren't enough, the forthcoming world guide also presents a ton of new adventure locations and notable sites for regions that previously only had a few dots on a map. While there are still countless places left open for GMs to populate and describe as they see fit, this is our attempt to create something truly comprehensive to satisfy even the most detail-oriented GMs.

This, of course, is madness. I'm sure that within a month, we'll all be gibbering on the floor as the ink staining our fingertips reaches toxic levels. But until then, the Map will be on the wall, watching us, daring us to try to fill it in. How much of our hubristic attempt to catch everything makes it into the final map folio is anyone's guess—it may be that printing every tag would result in type too small to see with the naked eye—but you'll know when you see it that the Paizo editorial team gave their all to make it as accurate as they could, boldly chucking interns and coworkers into the line of fire. That's how much we care!

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Illustration by Tim Hitchcock

Maps, Maps, Maps

Thursday, March 11, 2010

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.

Or to see what Tim draws next...

James Sutter
Fiction Editor & Developer

Winter 2010 Releases: An Early Look!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

This week Paizo posted new product descriptions for dozens of products to be released in the third trimester of 2010, including new hardcover books, a revision of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, and a brand new line of Pathfinder novels!

We've been hard at work on these items for months, and even though you'll have to wait until at least September before they hit your game table, we're thrilled to finally be able to discuss some of this stuff in public. The suspense has been killing us!

Folks are already discussing some of our new releases on the paizo.com messageboards, but as the commentary has been flying fast and furious over the last couple days, I figured it might be helpful to post a broad overview of our new offerings here on the blog, with direct links to the products in question.

So without further ado, let's plug ourselves into the future-caster time machine and take a journey forward to September through December 2010. Bring your dice and a few character sheets. You're going to need them!

PATHFINDER FICTION
The biggest announcement is a brand new line of Pathfinder novels written by some of the biggest names in fantasy fiction! The first book, Winter Witch, by New York Times best-selling author Elaine Cunningham, explores the tale of a barbarian shield maiden who ventures from Varisia to the winter-locked land of Irrisen to rescue a possessed sister—and the canny young cartographer who follows her into that haunted land. The book formally releases in September, but we'll have copies on hand at this year's Gen Con Game Fair as a special preview. October sees the release of Prince of Wolves, by former Amazing Stories and Dragon editor Dave Gross, which revisits the Pathfinder agent Varian Jeggare and his tiefling assistant Radovan, last seen in the Pathfinder Journal section of the Council of Thieves Adventure Path. Additional novels will follow in 2011 from well-known authors including Paul S. Kemp and other familiar faces. Stay tuned for more info!

NEW HARDCOVERS
Following up on the forthcoming GameMastery Guide and Advanced Player's Guide, 2010 will see the release of one more hardcover rulebook in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game line: Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2! Like the first Bestiary, Bestiary 2 will include more than 300 monsters for use with the Pathfinder RPG, including old favorites like the hippogriff and new planar creatures like the aeons and proteans. This book will cover most of the standard monsters from the history of the game that we couldn't fit in the first Bestiary, as well as tons of other great monsters you've never seen before. Each monster will receive a full page or a 2-page spread, using the same format as the original book.

Supplies of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting hardcover are dwindling faster than we can count, so in September we'll release a revised edition in the form of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting World Guide: The Inner Sea. Fully updated to the Pathfinder RPG rules and with expanded coverage of nearly every nation, the latest version of this book contains a new cover from Wayne Reynolds, an updated map, fixed errata from the first edition, and more than 300 pages packed with tons of information about the lands, peoples, beliefs, and cultures of the world of Golarion. Paizo Creative Director James Jacobs is giving this project his personal finish, making sure our campaign setting book is a solid bedrock of our publishing operation for years to come. We're really pleased with the early development of this book, and think it will be an ideal resource for all Pathfinder players and game masters.

PATHFINDER CHRONICLES
In addition to the revised campaign setting, in late 2010 we'll release the Inner Sea Map Folio, a massive 32-panel map of the Inner Sea region containing all "canonical" locations from every Pathfinder product published to date! This monster is sure to brighten up the gaming room or man-cave of any Pathfinder enthusiast, and its "four poster" format will even allow for easy reference at the game table for those lacking the wall space to do it justice. The Campaign Setting product line will also see a new Classic Monsters-style book in the form of Misfit Monsters Redeemed (and you won't believe what that's about until you read the description, believe me) as well as Lost Cities of Golarion, which explores six adventure locales from throughout the world of Golarion.

PATHFINDER PLAYER COMPANION
We can't let the GMs have all the fun, after all, so we've also planned a couple of sure-fire player's guides for the last third of 2010 that will be must-buys for Pathfinder RPG players. October sees the release of the Inner Sea Primer, a slimmed-down overview of the Pathfinder world designed specifically for players. This book will include tons of new character traits tied to the regions and religions of Golarion, and will provide a perfect "gist" of the setting for those looking to dip a toe in the water without needing to buy a big hardcover book. December sees the release of Halflings of Golarion, which rounds out the player's guides to the standard "demihuman" player character races in the Pathfinder RPG with plenty of details on how to integrate them into Golarion campaigns. Lots of fun equipment and lore in this one for fans of halflings (and everyone else, too)!

PATHFINDER MODULES

Gamers have been asking for a high-level Pathfinder adventure since the very beginning, and now I'm pleased to report that the time has come at last! Shipping in September, The Witchwar Legacy takes 17th-level player characters to the snow-shrouded witch kingdom of Irrisen to thwart a plan by the Ice Queen involving the insidious Baba Yaga herself! If that's not enough, in November we'll release a brand-new 1st-level starter adventure called The Godsmouth Heresy, set in the shadowy city of Kaer Maga, site of June's City of Strangers sourcebook!

GAMEMASTERY ACCESSORIES
Paizo's popular map products keep on coming in the last part of 2010, including the first-ever crossover between the Map Pack and Flip-Mat lines! Everything starts innocently enough in September with the release of Flip-Mat: Forest, but things really get interesting in October, with Map Pack: Shops. This 18-tile map set includes the interiors for several different stores, apothecaries, taverns, and the like, but things become super-special when you combine this pack with November's Flip-Mat: City Streets, which details a mercantile district suitable for use with other city Flip-Mats. The roofed buildings on this Flip-Mat (suitable for rooftop chases) correspond exactly to the interiors presented in Map Pack: Shops, providing a uniquely immersive tabletop experience. And if that's not enough to impress your jaded players, spring December's Map Pack: Ambush Sites on them. They probably deserve it.

GameMastery Cards keep coming as well, this time in the form of new GameMastery Condition Cards, handy reference cards for all of the various conditions in the Pathfinder RPG rules.

PATHFINDER ADVENTURE PATH
And, of course, we haven't forgotten the date that brought us to the big dance in the first place. The last trimester of 2010 will see plenty of action in the Pathfinder Adventure Path line, as the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path takes a jungle trail toward its stunning conclusion! Ruined Azlanti cities, Red Mantis assassins, monkey-men, the Pathfinder Society, ancient serpentfolk, and one very, very angry Gorilla King are all in store in a quartet of adventures by Tim Hitchcock, Kevin Kulp, Greg A. Vaughan, and Graeme Davis! The Serpent's Skull is a return to classic-style adventuring in the Pathfinder tradition, and we can't wait to get you guys into the jungle!

I'm saving our Planet Stories releases for tomorrow's blog, so be sure to tune in then for some of the biggest Planet Stories news we've had yet!

So much is happening here at Paizo these days that it's difficult to remember the uncertainty and horror of the last few years, with major changes to our business, our game system, and our lives. All of us really appreciate the support you have shown us so far, and we look forward to more exciting products in the months and years to come!

Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing

Good Maps Make for Good Adventures

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Nothing ruins a session of Pathfinder RPG more than a badly drawn map. You sit in your chair, your character sheet and dice firmly in hand, and stare at the crudely drawn map the GM sketched on the mat, struggling to discern exactly what those squiggles on the board are supposed to be.

"So, where's the door?" you ask and the GM points to a series of more complicated squiggles in the mass of squiggles. You put your mini down on the map and your GM sighs and says something like, "That's not even a room," and moves your mini over a few squares—like you could even see a room in the spaghetti shapes spattered on the mat.

Good maps make for good adventures. A bad map, whether it's drawn on a mat by your GM or published in a printed adventure, can ruin everything. If you can't tell where anything is supposed to be or what those squares, lines, tags, squiggles, or eraser marks are supposed to represent, it's going to be awfully difficult to explain them to your players—or, heck, to even figure them out for yourself. Pathfinder RPG, like its predecessor, is a game wherein eventually minis come out, get placed on 5-foot squares, and action happens. That action can either happen in a lavishly detailed temple of Cayden Cailean, or it can happen on a board that looks like a cross between a blood stain and a chalk board full of combinatory mathematics.

I have a handful of authors for the Pathfinder Society scenarios who turn over absolutely amazing maps with every adventure—sometimes these maps are so good I question why we're sending them to a professional cartographer to, essentially, just be colored. Tim Hitchcock is easily my best author-turned-map artist. The sample map below was his turnover for the temple of Cayden Cailean in Absalom for Pathfinder Society Scenario #40: The Hall of Drunken Heroes. As soon as I opened that image I knew exactly what the hall looked like, where everything was, how to get in and out, and where every set of stairs, every door, and every window was. In my art order to Mike Schley, the Pathfinder Society cartographer (and an amazing artist), I simply said, "Awesome author turnover—follow his lead."

Turnover by Tim Hitchcock

I wish I could say it was always like that. I wish I could say every turnover we receive at Paizo is art and requires no extra work on the part of the developers. I wish I could say every turnover had a one-line art order to the cartographer like mine above. Unfortunately, we receive a lot of really bad maps. That's not to say we have a lot of really bad designers or anything—far from it. It's more to say that perhaps we haven't emphasized enough what a gargantuan pain in the tail slap a bad map turnover is. Let's say you're designing a small 5,000-person city for us. Your map turnover comes in with 5 box shapes, a circle, and a few smudges. Now, we can read through your text and pull out all of the relevant tags and information about the city and add those to the map (which we'd rather not do, mind you) but, in the end, we're going to have to redraw that map ourselves—which is time we should be spending making the adventure or city write-up better, rather than fixing the turnover.

A good map, like Tim's, tells us immediately everything we need to know about the location. I don't have to redraw his map and I don't have to send a novel with the map order that includes tags and descriptions for every room so the cartographer can get the map right. Were we to send our cartographers the bad map example from above, without also sending along the entire article that goes with it, we'd get back a nicely drawn, full-color drawing of 5 box shapes, a circle, and a few smudges. Our cartographers are awesome, but their base for quality is only as good as the hand-drawn map they receive. A cartographer should be able to open the author's map and immediately get to work turning a good map into a great map rather than reading a wall of text and then turning a terrible map into a mediocre map.

A lesson for all of you would-be future Paizo authors and current Paizo freelancers: a map turnover can make or break your submission. When you're done drawing it, look it over with a careful, discerning, player-focused eye. If you drew that map for your table of players, would they have any idea what it was on first glance or would they, like the first example, put their mini in the wrong place when combat started? Your map doesn't have to be a work of art—it just has to be interpretable so our artists can make it one.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Fans Make a Fan out of Me

Monday, November 23, 2009

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!

Measuring Westcrown

Friday, October 23, 2009

It's no secret that sometimes when we build an Adventure Path key bits of information slip through the cracks. For example, Council of Thieves takes place entirely within and near the city of Westcrown, and to support these adventures we're printing a nifty map of Westcrown on the inside front covers for the duration of this campaign. That map was always intended to be more of an art piece and a representational map that gives folks a basic idea of the shape and layout of the city, as well as a spatial aid to keep track of where the various adventure locations take place. But for much of the Adventure Path, the exact distances between those various locations hasn't really mattered. That changes with the final adventure, though, where the PCs are going to be moving all over Westcrown to handle a lot of different situations in a relatively short period of time.

And so I needed to figure out what the scale was for the map of Westcrown.

As with so many other Adventure Path-related tasks, this rapidly exploded into a pretty complex problem. While on the one hand the map implies a specific scale (there are houses on the map, after all, and we all have a pretty good idea of how big a normal building should be), the map was never created with a scale in mind and thus, those buildings and streets are not accurately sized. So that's a deceptive measurement to base a map's scale on—initially, I used this to estimate a scale of 1 inch = 600 feet, which as it turned out, was really a rather poor estimation.

You see, for better or worse, the only actual unit of measurement we have nailed down in print that helps us to measure Westcrown's size is its population—114,700 people. Having no frame of reference as to what population density numbers were realistic or not, I went to the Internet to do some research. And as it turned out, one of the real world's most densely populated cities, Paris, has a population density of something like 66,000 people per square mile, so that should probably represent the uppermost end of the scale. And more to the point—Westcrown, for all its importance in Golarion, is no Paris. I looked around a little bit more. Rome's is 5,495 people/square mile. Seattle's is 7,179/square mile. New York City's is 27,440/square mile. Mexico City's is 15,410/square mile. Venice's is 1,705/square mile. Los Angeles's is 8,205/square mile. San Francisco's is 17,323/square mile. London's is 12,331/square mile. Renton's is 4,625/square mile. Point Arena's is 348/square mile. And all of these were numbers for modern cities—what would benchmark numbers from a fantasy world like Golarion look like? Even worse... I'd gathered these numbers off the Internet from Wikipedia... who knows how accurate the numbers really are?

It was about this time that I started stressing out, realizing that I was perched at the edge of a bottomless pit of statistics and urban planning and history from which I could well fall into forever, and since I had to get back on target and finish developing the latest adventure, I didn't really have the luxury of such an oblivion

So I made a few assumptions. I assumed that Wikipedia's numbers were accurate. I assumed that Golarion's baseline levels of urban density are comparable to the modern world, and given the fact that magic can more or less replace technological advancement and that the Inner Sea region's been civilized for far longer than any current real world civilization, I'm not worried that anyone can prove me wrong on this assumption.

Armed with these assumptions, I started assigning scales. At a scale of 1 inch = 600 feet (my original assumption), we'd have a Westcrown that covered an area of only about 0.26 square miles for a ridiculous population density of 441,153 people per square mile. Obviously this is way out of bounds. My desire to have numbers that fell into something closer to the range of real world numbers, combined with my desire to have a scale on that map that's easy to summarize, ended up with me settling at a scale of 1 inch = 4,000 feet (just over 3/4 of a mile). At this scale, Westcrown covers an area of just over 20 square miles, for a population density of about 10,000 people per square mile. Kind of at the low end for modern-day numbers, but given Westcrown's lack of skyscrapers and its relatively empty ruined quarter... I'm actually pretty content with that figure.

We're still a few weeks away from me having to nail down the city's scale in print, and I'm still not convinced the complex and confusing thought process I've gone through to reach the three scales I list above are 100% solid. So I decided to make this long-winded blog post, and to put the numbers up for everyone to look over and pick apart and challenge! Hopefully if there's some sort of critical flaw in my theories, someone will point them out on the messageboards in time for me to not make a fool of myself in print with a ridiculously unrealistic scale for the city of Westcrown in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #30!

So, unless I get proven wrong by the end of the month or so, the scale of the map of Westcrown on the inside covers of Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes #25–#30 is... 1 inch = 1 mile. Kind of a complicated post to arrive at such a simple number, but that's sometimes how it goes in the wild and crazy world of game design, I suppose!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

From Baria to Golarion

Friday, October 16, 2009

So, I've made no secret of the fact that I've given large parts of my 25+ year-old homebrew campaign setting, Baria, over to Golarion. One of the more successful of these imports are the Red Mantis assassins—and by extension, their home city of Ilizmagorti. When it came time to assign authors for Cities of Golarion, I was sorely tempted to claim the chapter on Ilizmagorti as my own—I was nervous that even if another author did a GREAT job with the city that the end result wouldn't match my own personal vision of the city. The same goes for the city's map, to be honest. But my work schedule being what it was (I'd already taken up two chapters of Classic Horrors Revisited, alas, I couldn't responsibly claim the chapter of Ilizmagorti for Cities of Golarion as my own. And so, with some nervous fear and much wringing of hands, I gave it up for someone else to write about.

I'm happy to say that what Rob McCreary wrought with his words is exactly what I'd envisioned for the city of Ilizmagorti—he hit every nail square, and the resulting chapter is hands-down my favorite in the book as a result (which is saying something, since there was some tough competition!). Even more exciting, he came up with some concepts that I'd never thought of for Baria's Ilizmagorti—concepts that inspired me in some really fun ways. It's really weird being inspired to write things about something you made up due to someone else's work on that concept! Weird, but wonderful!

Yet as wonderful as Rob's words were, a city can live or die by its map. For Cities of Golarion, we tackled the creation somewhat differently. We hired writers to write the chapters, but we hired artists and cartographers to create the city maps. Long-time readers of this blog might remember earlier this year when I posted the Map Open Call—the results are some of the best city maps that Paizo's had the pleasure to print. Presented here are the two versions of the map of Ilizmagorti—the first one created by Daniel Thomson, based on my outline of what the city should incorporate. The other map is the final version you'll see in the book and in the Cities Map Folio as a four-panel poster. (We've left the tags off of Rob's map so you can ogle the beauty of his work easier.)

Illustration by Daniel Thomson	Illustration by Rob Lazzaretti

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Snagged from the Vault: Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Occasionally the Vault contains wondrous oddities, such as this map of the Eternal City of Axis, rendered beautifully by Rob Lazzaretti. This map, and more information about Axis and the other planes of the Outer Sphere, can be found in Pathfinder Chronicles: The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse, due out in May. Of course, nothing but perfect symmetry should be expected from the axiomites and their Godmind.

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

The Eternal City of Axis exists among the planes of the Outer Sphere as the personification of universal law, a shining example of perfect order and harmony rising out of the churning Maelstrom. Within the plane's golden barrier walls, the streets are perfectly ordered and clean, the buildings appear as paragons of their respective architectural styles from virtually every culture within the multiverse, and the natives strive to live in orchestrated harmony. Of course, some would label the plane's perfection hollow, or its beauty verging on sterility, but given the eternal city's violent history and perhaps precarious present standing, its gods and outsiders alike dismiss such criticism outright.

The City of Glimmerhold from Clash of the Kingslayers

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Pathfinder module Clash of the Kingslayers by RPG Superstar author Leandra Christine Schneider takes place in and around the dwarven city of Glimmerhold. During the development of the adventure, the text ended up running a little long. To make some room, we dropped the map of Glimmerhold, as little of the combat action takes place in the city, and including the map wasn’t critical for running the adventure. However, the map (drawn by Rob Lazzaretti) is really cool, showing a pillared dwarven city in the middle of an artificial lake. So here it is, ready for exploration by curious PCs.

Warning: This map image is a potential spoiler for part of the adventure. If you expect to be a player in this adventure, avert your eyes!

Sean K Reynolds
Developer

Open Call: Mappers Wanted!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I'm on a crusade.

Writing adventures and sourcebooks for RPGs is tough. It takes a lot of different skills; you have to be a good writer, you have to be imaginative and creative, you have to be diligent and good with deadlines and continuity, and you have to have a head for rules and math. Truth be told, it's not all the skills you need to be a successful adventure or setting designer. You also need to be able to draw maps.

Just as with the words of a product, which are developed and edited before they ever see print, the author's maps are rebuilt and redrawn by professional cartographers. Those cartographers don't actually create the maps you see in adventures out of the blue themselves—they need the author's rough draft as a starting point. And when an author's rough draft is illegible or boring, you have problems similar to what an editor might face when a manuscript arrives that's riddled with spelling errors, bad stat blocks, unfinished sentences, and other problems. In cases where we get in maps that are illegible, one of us at Paizo generally has to redraw the map before we send it on to the cartographer.

Pictured here are four map turnovers for different locations that Wes and I created for adventures we've written for Pathfinder (spoiler warning to players: If you're playing in Rise of the Runelords or Second Darkness, AVERT YOUR GAZE!). Going forward, I'm looking at alternate ways to get excellent map turnovers—we've got a few unannounced products that are pretty map heavy, and I'm considering farming out the maps as separate freelance projects. But in order to do that, I need to find some people who can draw cool maps.

So here's the open call part. If you're good at drawing maps, and are interested in helping Paizo have awesome maps in its products, I would love to see some of your maps. Look at the four sample maps here and try to outdo them. While the sample maps are of cities, dungeons, and wilderness locations (and while I'd love to see maps of all three locations from you), I'm in particular looking for awesome city maps. Send in your map as an email attachment to me at james.jacobs@paizo.com. The maps don't need to be particularly high resolution, but they should certainly be legible. The subjects of the maps can be anything you want—and keep in mind I'm not looking for actual finished, publishable-quality maps—if you're THAT skilled at maps, you should probably send your cartography resume to our art directors!

Try to keep your maps to one map per email, and try to limit your submissions to, at most, one map per category (dungeon, wilderness, or city). I'll do my best to give brief replies to folks' map turnovers as well, and in the end I hope to have found a bunch of new folk who can draw great maps. Where this will lead in the end... I'm not sure. It's kind of an experiment.

The deadline for this Open Call is February 9th, 2009. I look forward to seeing what you can do!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

The Map of Absalom

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Absalom is a big, big city—several miles across and home to over 300,000 people. Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom is our first detailed look at this city and our first chance to map it. This full-page map should give you a sense of the city’s size, population, and majesty.

And now, a little background on this map.

Absalom is the idea of Jason Bulmahn, lead designer at Paizo. He once studied to be an architect, but he felt there was more fame and poverty in the world of professional game design. His years of grueling apprenticeship to Henri Ringelheim, Master Architect of Stuttgart, gave Jason a hunched posture and the inability to see in illumination brighter than tallow candlelight, but from time to time he is able to tap into the small amount of talent his master begrudged him, and create fine maps that are like Archimedes’ lever for your imagination.

One such map is the rough version of Absalom, City at the Center of the World. Note the square grid, a tool used by all devotees of the draftsman’s pencil. The heavy black lines, representing the cartographer’s stern intent. The green district borders and blue lines demarking the edges of the ship graveyard, attempts to inject a moment of life and joy into his work. The labels in red, representing the very blood he spilled to bring this map to completion. You can almost imagine him pausing, pen in hand, to wipe the sweat from his brow with an old rag, then patiently lowering his pen to the paper, as the nearby candle sputters in the late hours of the night. This is the work of one who loves his craft.

Plus, it almost looks like some sort of weird crab monster.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer

Map the Stars

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

It's not often that I get to show off Planet Stories art besides the covers, but I wanted to take a minute and point out that in addition to a killer story, Leigh Brackett's Skaith books (which include The Ginger Star, The Hounds of Skaith, and the forthcoming The Reavers of Skaith) all feature hand-drawn maps by the incredibly talented Rob Lazzaretti. I've always loved being able to follow along with a character's adventures on a map, getting a better sense of what the author's world actually looks like, and Rob does a fantastic job of maintaining an old-timey cartographic flavor that really makes these maps pop. The two images here are from The Ginger Star and The Hounds of Skaith. Click for larger versions, and enjoy!

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

A Bird's Eye View of Riddleport

Monday, July 28, 2008

Here it is folks, this is where it's all about to go down: Riddleport, the City of Cyphers, the most perilous pirate port north of the Arch of Aroden. Next month, with Pathfinder #13 and the start of the Second Darkness Adventure Path, the floodgates open and thousands of PCs get set loose to wreak havoc on this scallywag's sanctuary. Until then, though, things look pretty peaceful. Just check out this bird's eye view of the city. Which of these is your character's new home? In what alley will he get jumped by pirates? Under which dock will she be ambushed by bunyips? And which den of thieves will burn when that first fireball flies awry? It's all here, the Gold Goblin, Zincher's Arena, St. Caspieran's, the Temple of Besmara... you'll just have to wait till next month to find out which is which!

Here's a free one, though. The Cyphergate? It's that big arch.

Enjoy!

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor, Pathfinder

Road Map to the Runelords

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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

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

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Sneak Peek: Map of Golarion

Thursday, January 24, 2008

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

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

Carolyn Mull
Sales & Marketing Assistant

Free Pathfinder 2 Download Supplement!

Friday, October 5, 2007

It's a fact: sometimes there's just too much good stuff to fit in a given volume of Pathfinder. While we here on the Paizo staff squeeze and condense as much as we can to make sure that each book is 100% concentrated awesome, print still has certain limitations... after all, sliced tree can only hold so much ink. That's why, from here on out, you can expect to see free supplement downloads to go along with specific volumes of Pathfinder popping up irregularly on paizo.com. Whether it's an alternate version of a map, an extra stat block, or a new item, whatever we put online will add to the adventure without being essential—just us doing what we can to offer a little bit extra to the gaming community.

Today, that's an alternate map of Magnimar, tagged with 30 new streets and places of interest, courtesy of mapping fiend Wes Schneider. We hope to shortly have a spot on the Pathfinder homepage where you can easily check to download the latest free content, but until then, click here (1.1 MB zip PDF) to download a high-res version of the map.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

The Ivy District

Thursday, October 4, 2007

GameMastery Module U1: Gallery of Evil takes place against the backdrop of the largest city in Golarion: Absalom. This burgeoning metropolis is filled to the brim with people from all walks of life across three continents. Easily the most cosmopolitan city in the world, Absalom must expect the unexpected. In the jaded manner common to many large cities, nothing really surprises them.

While we intend to unveil more about our iconic major city over the course of the next several months, for now we are going to limit ourselves to one district at a time. The idea is to enable the readers to drop these districts into whatever major city they use in their own campaigns, while slowly building up Absalom's identity, history, and culture. In time, this metropolis will become one of the major centerpieces of our entire campaign setting, and in Gallery of Evil, we give you the first of Absalom's districts to be revealed: the Ivy District.

As one of the oldest districts in the city, the Ivy District sits a good distance from Absalom's outer walls. Its tranquil parks, flowering, ivy-lined streets, industrious mercantile and artisan zones, and upper-class homes have been blessed with relatively little disruption from the countless sieges that have shattered against the city walls and seaside cliffs surrounding the Isle of Kortos. The Ivy District is the hub of culture and art within Absalom and, some might venture, the greatest influence on the styles and trends of its neighboring kingdoms.

Winding cobbled stone streets and hard-packed dirt roads, separated by narrow drainage canals that eventually empty into the sea, wend their way through the district. Decorative bridges connect numerous streets with one another, each one decorated somewhat differently from the next, with bas relief sculptures, murals, or even tiled mosaics appearing seemingly at random. Its streets are among the busiest in the city, save only the market and dock districts.

The Ivy District is the most popular location in Absalom among those who appreciate the arts and the finest products and entertainment gold can buy. Because of the Ivy District's reputation for beauty, fine art, and masterwork trade goods (fine blades, stylish and top-quality armor, renowned gem cutters and jewelers, exquisite clothing, carpentry products, and so on), it is also very tempting for thieves. The district has a surprisingly low theft rate, however, thanks to the efforts of a well-paid District Watch and the Brotherhood of Abadar, which patrols the streets looking for signs of unlawful activities and disturbances.

One of the most significant areas of the Ivy District is The Ivy District Park and Topiary Menagerie. This public park is filled with beautiful oak groves, pines, beech trees, weeping willows, cedars, and a wide variety of more exotic flora. Flower gardens and fruit-bearing trees line the neat dirt paths that wind through the park, and a large pond dominates its center. At places where the water is narrow enough, gorgeous bridges arch across its placid surface. Ducks, geese, colorful fish, and frogs live in the pond. Other wildlife lives here too, such as squirrels, owls, foxes, and hares. The druidic members of the Perfumers' Conglomerate tend all the life here. Through continual effort they manage to keep the trees, grass, and flowers pruned and blooming all year round. The sparkling clean water and happy and healthy wildlife are a testament to their hard work.

One of the park's main attractions is located at the center of a tall hedge maze: the topiary menagerie. Shrubs and bushes have been expertly pruned and trained into shapes of animals, people, and even rare and magical beasts. Although this wonderful horticultural menagerie seems innocent enough, the park's attendant druids recently discovered a group of teenage kids dead in the surrounding maze and a topiary unicorn missing from the menagerie. The stab wounds on the bodies were enough to confirm their suspicions of the missing unicorn's involvement, but they haven't determined how it happened or what happened to the missing topiary killer.

Jeremy Walker
Assistant Editor, GameMastery

Flippin' Awesome

Thursday, September 13, 2007

I don't know about you, but I have a love/hate relationship with maps in RPG gaming. Back in middle school when I first got into the hobby, we might have had a few miniatures to represent characters, plus "terrain" made from dice, pencils, and those little plastic tables that come in the center of your pizza box. It wasn't until much, much later, when someone introduced me to D&D 3.5, that I finally saw the light and realized that things like battlemats add immeasurably to the roleplaying experience.

With that realization, however, came a new problem: mapping is hard. Even after years of practice, it's still annoying to have to stop right in the middle of a crucial scene and scramble to count squares and draw out a new room in its entirety each time PCs go through the door. (I also have a tendency to spill drinks on the battlemat, but that's really my own fault.)

Which is where something like our new Flip-Mat: City Market comes in handy. Every village worth its salt has a market, so why waste valuable game time drawing it out over and over? With City Market, the work's already done for you, and your PCs are free to look through every door with impunity. Plus, if you decide you want to switch up the layout, just flip it over and use the blank paving beneath the grid to build your own town. As with all our Flip-Mats, you can draw on the durable, laminated cardstock with wet erase, dry erase, or even permanent marker and still wipe it right off when you're done.

All of which means that if I were about to run, say, the first section of "Burnt Offerings," I'd definitely consider checking out City Market and using the time saved to pack in even more goblin-related activities....

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Kaer Maga

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Now that D2: Seven Swords of Sin is starting to make it out into people's hands, I'd like to talk a little bit about my favorite part of writing it: designing the city of Kaer Maga.

Going into the project, there were two different ideas for where the adventure should be set. For me, it seemed to call for an urban setting, a crazy city where anything went and the law was sketchy at best. Publisher Erik Mona, however, was eager for Varisia to have an iconic castle, a massive dungeon complex that we could return to again and again as we saw fit. The solution? Push the two together and build a city inside a castle—an enormous Thassilonian ruin of unknown function, to be exact. At this point Erik and the rest of the GameMastery team gave me the go-ahead and, armed with the working title "Dark Market," I sat down to write.

As anyone who's played in one of my adventures can probably tell you, I like to play with morality. To me, the interesting thing about evil is that it's so rarely self-identified as such. One of my biggest peeves in adventures, fiction, or film is what we around the office refer to as "moustache-twirling"—villains that are evil simply because they enjoy being evil. (Shortly after that comes my disdain for boring ol' "insanity" as a villain's motive.) In real life, things are usually much more gray and fuzzy—no evil deed exists in a vacuum, and even the most "evil" people I can think of tend to have reasons why their actions make sense in their own minds.

This aesthetic was at the front of my mind when writing about Kaer Maga. To me, all big cities are by definition neutral—get enough people together, they'll balance each other out. In Kaer Maga's case, this neutrality is the result of a free market taken to the extreme, an anarchist, libertarian utopia where people are left to sink or swim entirely through their own machinations. While many would look at the gritty streets, where every shameful vice is yours for the purchasing, and call it evil, I'd point out that Kaer Maga is also the freest of the free cities of Varisia. In rooting the city's "evil" in an ideal many of us share, I hoped to make the scene feel a little more familiar and organic.

Along with the questionable morality, it was important to me that Kaer Maga be a monstrous city, a place where we could get a taste of the alien delights that Golarion has to offer and remind the folks who inhabit Varisia that there's far more beyond the mountains than they might imagine. For those purposes, a city of refugees and squatters seemed perfectly poised to capture the sort of cultural mish-mash that I love in places like Star Wars' Mos Eisley or China Miéville's New Crobuzon. Knowing that I wouldn't have space in a 32-page adventure to truly detail many of the residents, I took a page from some of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy authors and tossed in a bunch of allusions and off-hand references with only the barest explanations. Wormfolk? Bloated Ones? Sweettalkers? When I first wrote those names, at 3:00am in a darkened room, my bleary brain didn't know any more than their names. As soon as I went back and read them, however, my imagination went into overdrive trying to think up what they could be... which is exactly what I hope happens to everyone else. While I couldn't resist from detailing some of them in the Pathfinder Journal for The Hook Mountain Massacre, I promise I'll try to leave at least a few of them alone.

For now.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Welcome to Fort Thorn

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

With GameMastery Module W1: Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale just about to ship out to subscribers, it's time to introduce your PCs to their new home: Fort Thorn. This small community is the only bastion of civilization in the Vale and, as such, makes for the most likely home base for explorers. The following are descriptions of a few key places:

A3. Keep

Aside from the shrine, Fort Thorn's keep is the only other stone building in town. This massive two-story structure is home to Sir Gyrad Tolgrith (NG male human fighter 4/ranger 2) and all of his men. The first floor of the structure contains the meeting hall, armory, mess hall, kitchen, and storage rooms. The second floor contains a smaller, private meeting hall, the barracks, the planning room, and Sir Tolgrith's private quarters.

Fort Thorn's current staff includes 40 soldiers (LG male human warrior 2), 4 scouts (NG male human ranger 2), 2 sergeants (LG male human fighter 4), and Sir Tolgrith.

A6. The Boar's Bones

Shortly after settling the fort, the soldiers faced their first crisis when the food caravan was late and their supplies ran low. Sir Tolgrith sent out his scouts to forage and hunt, but after three days they had not found much. On the fourth day they scored big, dragging the carcass of an enormous dire boar back into camp at the same time the supply caravan finally arrived. During the evening's festivities, the boar was picked clean and the fort's cook, Orrend, kept the bones.

A month later, Orrend (CG male halfling expert 3) opened up the Boar's Bones, a small inn and tavern, to serve the off-duty soldiers, workers, and visitors who happened to stop by. The bones were carefully reconstructed with wire and wood, and the now-intact dire boar skeleton sits in the middle of the tavern with a pouch hanging from its tusks. Orrend insists that any tips given to the boar are sent to its grieving kin.

The food at the Boar's Bones is of good quality (4 sp per meal), combining local ingredients with caravan supplies. Orrend has yet to perfect his rose petal ale, so whenever he has a new batch ready, all tankards of it are half price (2 cp). Rooms at the Boar's Bones are simple, with only a single cot, washbasin, and cupboard apiece, but clean and free of vermin (1 gp per night).

A8. Shrine to Erastil

Every morning, the lone bell of this stone shrine tolls twice to start the prayer service. The shrine is dedicated to Erastil (LG god of hunting, trade, farming, and family), also known as "Old Deadeye." The shrine's lone cleric, Father Apar (LG male human cleric 5), tends to the spiritual needs of the community, including healing and other minor spellcasting. Father Apar offers these services for free to the soldiers, but all others must pay the usual price. Father Apar also has a number of divine potions and scrolls for sale, but none worth more than 300 gp.

Father Apar's morning sermons are usually quite calm affairs, with the elderly cleric reading from holy scriptures and addressing current concerns. Sir Tolgrith makes sure to attend twice per week, but never on a regular schedule. After the morning prayers, Father Apar walks around town, talking to the locals about their problems or tending to the sick. Once per week, after the day's labor is over, Father Apar invites all to an archery challenge in front of the fort. To the winner he gifts a potion of his own creation (usually cure light wounds).

There are, of course, many more places to visit in Fort Thorn, but I'll leave those secrets for you to discover.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Magnimar

Friday, July 27, 2007

Making its grand debut in Pathfinder #2, I hereby give you Magnimar—City of Monuments.

1 The Irespan 2 Alabaster District 3 Marble District 4 Bridgeward 5 The Capital District 6 Naos 7 Vista 8 Grand Arch 9 The Arvensoar 10 The Bazaar of Sails

11 Dockway 12 The Rubble 13 Keystone 14 The Marches 15 Beacon's Point 16 Rag's End 17 Silver Shore 18 Kyver's Islet 19 Ordellia

For a more detailed view, click on the image.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Gold, Land, and Title!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Those are the rewards promised to those who conquer the Bloodsworn Vale. In just a few weeks, you might be able to claim those prizes.

Since we are getting pretty close to the release of this module, we realized we have yet to show off a map of this large, untamed wilderness. To avoid spoilers, the map is untagged (and might just make for a good player handout, if you're thinking of downloading it). That said, there are a couple of points of interest on the map that bear some explanation.

Fort Thorn: As the only settlement on the map, Fort Thorn (the small dot near the center) is of vital importance to the region. Although its commander, Sir Tolgrith, hopes one day to make it self-sufficient, it currently depends upon a steady stream of caravans for provisions and other basic supplies.

The fort is a walled community surrounded by a 20-foot-tall palisade of tree trunks, upended and carved to points. Beyond this security there is nothing but wilderness. Tall trees and endless thickets of wild rose bushes cover much of the surrounding terrain. There are no farms or outlying buildings affiliated with the fort—any who dwell outside its walls are hermits, monsters, or worse.

The Path: This trail is being cut through the vale to establish a vital trade route with Varisia's neighbors. It is currently under construction and time is running out to meet the king's deadline.

The Petal and Coldrun Rivers: These two slow-moving rivers provide fresh water to those in the region, although the Petal (which runs past Fort Thorn) has a nasty tendency to foul every few weeks, causing sickness in those who drink from it at those times.

Mist Lake: The calm waters of this lake are perpetually shrouded in mist that moves overland to cover the nearby swamps. The residents of Fort Thorn avoid this area, as they say it is haunted.

There is, of course, much more to explore in the vast reaches of the vale, but to learn about it you just might have to journey there yourself.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Falcon's Hollow

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

In celebration of the release of the free PDF of GameMastery Module D0: Hollow's Last Hope, the start of our Module Subscription Service, and the eminent release of D1: Crown of the Kobold King, we thought it was high time that we gave you some information about the small town featured in both modules: Falcon's Hollow. For more information, make sure to check out the appendix in Crown of the Kobold King.

Falcon's Hollow makes an excellent base of operations for a party of PCs seeking adventure in Darkmoon Vale and the dungeons beneath Droskar's Crag. In addition, the schemes of crooked politicians, lumber tycoons, and flesh-peddling crime bosses in Falcon's Hollow offer a breadth of opportunities for conflict and action. The party may become embroiled in local politics as this fledgling settlement grows and factions arise who seek a formal government in hopes of throwing off the crushing yoke of the Lumber Consortium. Additionally, the party may become involved in religious struggles between various sects devoted to all manner of strange deities, some merely against the grain of common theocracy, others downright evil and bent on corrupting the souls of the simple folk who call the Hollow home. Finally, crime is one of the largest sources of revenue in town, and gangs of organized thugs engage in every illicit activity imaginable. Good heroes residing in Falcon's Hollow won't go long without rubbing these syndicates the wrong way, and the PCs may be swept up in street wars with local criminals before they even have the chance to venture into the Vale and seek their fortunes.

Places of Note:

Church of Iomedae: With all the downtrodden to preach to in Falcon's Hollow, missionaries of Iomedae, Goddess of Valor and Justice, have established a foothold in town. Many other religious sects who fled to the Hollow to escape the Church of Light's persecution resent Iomedae's followers, and tensions run high between congregations, often resulting in less-than-holy brawls on the muddy thoroughfares of Worship Way.

Goose'n'Gander: The local general store in Falcon's Hollow is run by the only gnome resident, named Brickasnurd Hildrinsocks, who sells everything from standard amenities such as grain, lamp oil, ink, and mining supplies to such rare oddities as alchemist's fire, antitoxin, a fat petrified pseudo-dragon, and stuffed nixies (all the rage this season).

Hollow Tribunal: This is where the diminutive halfling Magistrate Vamros Harg dispenses merchant licenses, stamps mining and lumber claims, and passes judgment on criminal and civil cases. Most Falconers enjoy the irony of the Hollow Tribunal's name, since the justice meted out there is rarely equitable. The fact that Harg is firmly in Gavel Thuldrin's pocket is well known, but rarely uttered in public by those who value their lives.

The Sitting Duck: Located a little too close to the town palisade for many folks' comfort, the Duck is the local hotspot for adventurers, explorers, and other rapscallions looking for adventure. The tavern serves a potent local brew of fermented darkwood leaf that can floor an ogre in a few tankards. Raucous games of "knivesies" and "mig-a-mug-tug," two dangerous local recreational activities, both with a high rate of maiming injury, often rage late into the night. Many adventurers share tales of Darkmoon Vale and information on Droskar's Crag, and other surrounding locations can be gleaned here for the price of a mug of ale.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Sandpoint

Friday, June 8, 2007

Last week we showed you the map of Varisia, the region in which the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path takes place. This week, we're zooming in to focus on Sandpoint, the quaint fishing town that provides the backdrop for the first adventure in the path, "Burnt Offerings." See if you can spot which street names and city features were snatched wholesale from Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs's childhood!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Varisia

Friday, June 1, 2007

Presented here for the first time, in all its glory. We could say more—and believe me, we will—but for now we'd like to let Rob Lazzaretti's beautiful map speak for itself. To zoom in, click the image above.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder