The Skull & Shackles Adventure Path features a lot of "proper" devils from the Hells, but it also features a LOT of SEA devils. While these aquatic menaces are not lawful evil outsiders proper, their sharp teeth and evil looks make the name fit quite well. WizKids did a great job translating these creatures into prepainted plastic for the Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles figures, and I'm thrilled to show them all to you today.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Devils of the Sea
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Skull & Shackles Adventure Path features a lot of "proper" devils from the Hells, but it also features a LOT of SEA devils. While these aquatic menaces are not lawful evil outsiders proper, their sharp teeth and evil looks make the name fit quite well. WizKids did a great job translating these creatures into prepainted plastic for the Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles figures, and I'm thrilled to show them all to you today.
As we continue to do these sets, it becomes more and more clear to me that I should take the opportunity to do as many of the same type of creature at the same time that I can. That way, similar creatures look "of a kind" to one another because they're based on unified art, and are often sculpted by the same sculptor. Likewise, all similar figures are painted based on paint masters painted by the same artist (in this case the excellent Chris Hart, who also did all the masters for the Shattered Star and Rise of the Runelords sets.
Here's an early look at three of those paint masters for the Skull & Shackles set!
Here we have the Sea Devil, a common rank-and-file member of this hideous undersea race. Watch out for his trident. It's pokey. This is a Medium common figure.
Liven up the ranks of your Sea Devil invasion force with this Sea Devil Champion, also Medium and also common.
Every invasion force needs a leader, and in this case we've got The Matron, one of the greatest figures in the Pathfinder Battles line according to yours truly and all the folks here at Paizo who have seen it. Chris really did a great job on the painting for her, and you guys are going to freak when you have her in hand. This Large figure is slated at the rare rarity.
The sunny skies that Paizo has experienced over the past week have provided a great opportunity to get outside and enjoy the weather. Apparently we weren't the only ones thinking that, and true to form, the pirates of the Shackles paid a visit, boarded the vessel carrying our latest shipment of Chronicle sheets, and spent the weekend roistering just beyond our reach. As I have learned in my move from a relatively landlocked area to the Pacific northwest, such is the price we must pay for good seafood.
Ransom on the High Seas
Monday, May 13, 2013
Illustration by Craig J Spearing
The sunny skies that Paizo has experienced over the past week have provided a great opportunity to get outside and enjoy the weather. Apparently we weren't the only ones thinking that, and true to form, the pirates of the Shackles paid a visit, boarded the vessel carrying our latest shipment of Chronicle sheets, and spent the weekend roistering just beyond our reach. As I have learned in my move from a relatively landlocked area to the Pacific northwest, such is the price we must pay for good seafood.
Once the pirates realized just what a prize they now hold—I hear the boons are the stuff of legend—they offered to ransom the Chronicle sheets back for the paper's weight in gold! Villains! What I propose is more devious and hopefully far more to the liking of the swashbuckling sorts that frequent the Pathfinder Society. We shall build up our strength and launch a daring raid to take back what is rightfully ours.
So hone your blades and sharpen your wits as you do battle with the foes in Season 4 of Pathfinder Society Organized Play. If we see in our reports that you have soundly beaten all that Varisia can throw at you, then we shall launch that raid, share the spoils, and tell stories about it for years to come. If not... I know that the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path promises adventure on the high seas, but I cannot imagine our Chronicle sheets would survive walking the plank.
Rules for sanctioning the Skull and Shackles Adventure Path for Pathfinder Society Organized Play are ready to launch, but we await your reporting of Season 4 scenarios. Play and report as much as you can. The more activity we see, the sooner you shall see rules for new Adventure Paths. Comment in character here, and so long as I see that you have participated in at least one Season 4 scenario since, you may be one of the characters called out in a later blog's narrative should we perform the raid.
The summer release of Pathfinder Battles: Skull & Shackles is just over the horizon. Already you can hear the sea shanties of pirate crews carried on the salt-saturated air, and was that a shark fin that passed by just now? We've previewed almost half of the 55-figure set so far here on the Paizo Blog, and excitement is building for what is shaping up to be one of our best Pathfinder Battles sets yet! Designed to support the popular Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, the set includes creatures encountered in that campaign as well as aquatic and pirate-themed figures usable in any fantasy adventure.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Strange Cargo
Friday, May 10, 2013
The summer release of Pathfinder Battles: Skull & Shackles is just over the horizon. Already you can hear the sea shanties of pirate crews carried on the salt-saturated air, and was that a shark fin that passed by just now? We've previewed almost half of the 55-figure set so far here on the Paizo Blog, and excitement is building for what is shaping up to be one of our best Pathfinder Battles sets yet! Designed to support the popular Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, the set includes creatures encountered in that campaign as well as aquatic and pirate-themed figures usable in any fantasy adventure.
This week I want to show off some of the set's stranger figures in the form of three unusual passengers we think will add a lot to your sea voyages.
A long ocean voyage is going to require a lot of food to feed the crew, and who better to provide that provender than Ambrose Kroop, "star" cook to pirates, smugglers, and heroes alike? Over the course of several sets, it's our intention to provide all sorts of "menial" NPCs, from barkeepers to bouncers to barmaids, from watch captains to politicians. When I first saw the art for Ambrose Kroop come through during the course of publishing the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path campaign, I just knew I had to include him in a set. Ambrose Kroop is an uncommon figure.
And what do you think the "mystery meat" is on the tenth week at sea? Why, bilge rats, of course! Here we have a Rat Swarm ready to eat your feet or feed your belly in case things get desperate. We've put the rats on a Small base and made them a common figure so it'll be easy to build up enough to have a reasonably sized rat horde.
Here we have the menacing Gilbrok the Tongue, a chief lieutenant of one of the Adventure Path's key villains. When I saw the illustration for this character, I added it to the list for this set as a sort of challenge to our partners at WizKids, because I honestly wasn't sure they'd be able to pull off such a complex sculpt. You can't quite appreciate all of the detail from the tiny photograph above, but you're going to have to trust me that, in terms of complexity, this is one of the most elaborate figures we've done to date. He's got a glowing spell effect in clear plastic coming off his right hand and a monkey witch familiar on his shoulder. His staff is, for lack of a better term, "very three-dimensional," and his windswept robes had to be captured just perfectly. He'll work great for any crazed hermit, rowdy druid, gross witch, or just plain old weirdo you need for your campaigns. That said, we know you won't need a ton of him, which is why we made him a rare figure.
That's it for this week! Come on back next week for a look at three more figures from the Skull & Shackles set! And if you haven't seen them yet, check out the upcoming Pathfinder Battles releases White Dragon Evolution and We Be Goblins!, also coming this summer from Paizo and WizKids! Set up an ongoing Pathfinder Battles subscription today to get discounts on Encounter Packs and make sure you don't miss a single figure!
We're so deep in a state of relief here at Paizo after shipping all of our August/Gen Con releases to the printer this afternoon that I almost forgot to write this week's Pathfinder Battles preview blog! And since we certainly can't have that going into a gorgeous weekend filled with lots of stuff OTHER THAN work (for the first time in months!), I thought I'd take a few minutes to reveal some more cool minis from this summer's upcoming Skull & Shackles set of prepainted plastic fantasy miniatures!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Big Fish
Friday, May 3, 2013
We're so deep in a state of relief here at Paizo after shipping all of our August/Gen Con releases to the printer this afternoon that I almost forgot to write this week's Pathfinder Battles preview blog! And since we certainly can't have that going into a gorgeous weekend filled with lots of stuff OTHER THAN work (for the first time in months!), I thought I'd take a few minutes to reveal some more cool minis from this summer's upcoming Skull & Shackles set of prepainted plastic fantasy miniatures!
Up first we have the Cyclops, a monocular giant whose folk once controlled a vast kingdom not far from the Shackles Isles. I have a soft spot for this particular monster, as I featured a Cyclops in my Pathfinder Tales free webfiction story, "Two Pieces of Tarnished Silver". I've long awaited the chance to bring our version of the Cyclops to Pathfinder Battles, and since cyclopes feature prominently in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, this set was my best chance. A Large figure, the Cyclops is slated at the uncommon rarity.
Several weeks ago we revealed Selissa, an off-size Medium Aquatic Naga NPC from the Skull & Shackles campaign. Fans of correctly-sized monsters will be pleased to learn that this set also includes a regular Large-sized Aquatic Naga, ready to terrorize the waterways of your campaign. This figure is an uncommon.
And last up this week we have the Sea Cat, a venerable monster of fantasy all dolled up in a shiny new Pathfinder version. Sea Cats are among my favorite aquatic monsters, and I'm thrilled to finally bring them to prepainted plastic. Like the Cyclops and the Aquatic Naga, the Sea Cat is also slated at the Uncommon rarity.
And that's it for this week. At long last the sun is shining down on Seattle, and I'm headed out of the office to do almost anything other than work. I hope your weekend is as fun as the one I'm planning to have!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Devil in the Details
Today is a crazy busy day at Paizo, as the entire staff works to finalize the last little details of nearly a dozen books, all within a week of being shipped off to the printer so that we can get them to you in time for Gen Con Indy in August. It's our last chance to make sure these books are absolutely perfect in every detail. As a celebration of our meticulous, lawful activities, I've decided to dedicate today's Pathfinder Battles preview blog to devils.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Devil in the Details
Friday, April 26, 2013
Today is a crazy busy day at Paizo, as the entire staff works to finalize the last little details of nearly a dozen books, all within a week of being shipped off to the printer so that we can get them to you in time for Gen Con Indy in August. It's our last chance to make sure these books are absolutely perfect in every detail. As a celebration of our meticulous, lawful activities, I've decided to dedicate today's Pathfinder Battles preview blog to devils.
The Skull & Shackles Adventure Path includes plenty of lawful evil fiends, especially in the later installments when the devil-binding nation of Cheliax enters the fray to do battle with the player characters. As such, the Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles figures contains a nice handful of devils ready for use on your tabletop.
Up first this week is the hated Sentinel Devil, a barbed inhabitant of the Nine Hells tasked with guarding the plane's most deadly prisoners. From time to time, wicked spellcasters summon Sentinel Devils to the Material Plane, where they make great adversaries (and effective guardians). The Sentinel Devil is a common figure.
Here we have the Greater Host Devil, first introduced in Book of the Damned Volume 1: Princes of Darkness. These warlike devils are tasked with retrieving souls for their infernal masters in the court of Hell, and when they venture into the Material Plane, they generally do so in large numbers. Accordingly, we've slated the Greater Host Devil in the common rarity.
What is there to say about the Drowning Devil, first introduced in Pathfinder 60: From Hell's Heart, the stunning conclusion to the Skull& Shackles campaign? Weighing in at 600 pounds, this CR 8 fiend freely travels the waterways of Hell, spreading infernal designs as far as Golarion and beyond. A truly stunning figure in one of the most garish paint schemes imaginable, this guy definitely calls attention to himself as a fearful foe. Just like bees and venomous snakes, you've got to watch out for the bright-colored ones. The Drowning Devil is on the Large side of Large, and he's slated at the uncommon rarity.
And with that, I've got to get back to work on our Gen Con releases before the project management devils here at Paizo pull me away into a lake of fire!
They say good things come in small packages, and in the case of this summer’s Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures, they’re definitely right!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Small Wonders
Friday, April 12, 2013
They say good things come in small packages, and in the case of this summer’s Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures, they’re definitely right!
This week I’d like to put the spotlight on four Small figures from the set, each of which packs a punch considerably tougher than their statures might otherwise suggest.
Up first we’ve got a nasty winged pest we like to call the Bloodbug. The southern seacoasts of Golarion swarm with these guys, who have appeared in many of our adventures since the very beginning. I’m thrilled to finally have this figure available through our Pathfinder Battles line, as it’s one fans have been demanding for some time. And I must say, getting the size correct was a real chore that involved three different sculpts before we got it perfect. I think you’ll love him (and, predictably, your players will probably HATE him). Of course, you’ll need a lot of them, so we’ve slated the Bloodbug at the common rarity.
Bloodbugs also swarm in the jungles of Garund, where they are far from the greatest of an adventurer’s worries. Bugs are one thing, but you’ve got to look out for an environment where even the plants try to kill you. Such is the case with this fine fellow, the Vine Choker. He’s not actually a plant, but Vine Chokers have adapted natural camouflage that helps them blend into their environments, making it easier for them to sneak up on you and wring your neck. Because these guys often attack in groups, we’ve slated this figure at the common rarity.
Since we started the Pathfinder Battles line, folks have been asking for more halfling miniatures, and I’m pleased to report that this set has two of them. The first is the ever-charming Rosie Cusswell, a fellow crewmate press-ganged into the same crew that the PCs find themselves on as the Skull & Shackles campaign begins. With her fiddle in hand, Rosie doubles as a great player character figure for a female halfling bard. She is slated at the rare rarity.
Not all halflings are so much fun as good old Rosie. Here we have a slippery little miscreant known as the Eel, a male halfling alchemist with a penchant for chucking bombs. I don’t want to give away how and when this character appears in the campaign, but rest assured, he arrives with a bang. The Eel also doubles as a great PC figure for a male halfling alchemist, and is slated at the rare rarity.
And that’s it for this week. There are still a ton of awesome figures just over the horizon, so until next week, man the crow’s nest and keep your eyes peeled. There’s pirates in these shark-infested waters!
There's something I'm sure many of you don't know about our Art Director Andrew Vallas. He has a thing for creatures with multiple limbs—multiple legs, specifically. At least six to be sure. To keep our awesome Art Director happy, I made sure to order a few multi-legged creatures for the Bestiary in Pathfinder #69: Mother, Maiden, Crone for his enjoyment. Not that the whole bestiary is a chorus line of horrible monstrosities, mind you. (There are only really two monsters that fit the bill, but considering the centaurs of the Dvezda Marches in Iobaria are each bringing four legs to the party, there are a lot of legs to make a bipedal creature jealous.)
All the Legs!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Illustration by Dmitry Burmak
There's something I'm sure many of you don't know about our Art Director Andrew Vallas. He has a thing for creatures with multiple limbs—multiple legs, specifically. At least six to be sure. To keep our awesome Art Director happy, I made sure to order a few multi-legged creatures for the Bestiary in Pathfinder #69: Mother, Maiden, Crone for his enjoyment. Not that the whole bestiary is a chorus line of horrible monstrosities, mind you. (There are only really two monsters that fit the bill, but considering the centaurs of the Dvezda Marches in Iobaria are each bringing four legs to the party, there are a lot of legs to make a bipedal creature jealous.)
First up to represent additional limbs is the kokogiak. When I first presented the idea of a ten-legged polar bear the reaction was close to, "Really, Daigle?" But then I supported my brief dip into mania by explaining that I got the idea from Innuit myth (also spelled qupqugiaq), and that it's a creature that makes a person think that their loved one is lost out in the snow in order to lure the target out of safety and into its jaws. Next up is the svathurim. That is what you get if Thremyr made a frost giant into a centaur-like creature and infused them with insatiable hatred. Jason Nelson did a great job designing these two (and two other monsters in the Bestiary), so pick up Maiden, Mother, Crone to see what else is to be found in the wilds of Iobaria.
We here at Paizo HQ are deep in the throes of birthing a number of incredible products for release at Gen Con in August, and that means it's an all-hands-on-deck scenario. John and I are being called upon to assist with development and editing of products outside the Pathfinder Society Scenario line, and that means less time to devote to Pathfinder Society blogs on Mondays. So that you aren't left in the lurch, however, here are a few pieces of art from some of this month's Pathfinder releases, set to start going out to subscribers in the next week or so. Some of these images may even be useful for GMs who like visual aids for their Pathfinder Society games, though I won't give any more info than that!
You Are Not Forgotten!
Monday, April 8, 2013
We here at Paizo HQ are deep in the throes of birthing a number of incredible products for release at Gen Con in August, and that means it's an all-hands-on-deck scenario. John and I are being called upon to assist with development and editing of products outside the Pathfinder Society Scenario line, and that means less time to devote to Pathfinder Society blogs on Mondays. So that you aren't left in the lurch, however, here are a few pieces of art from some of this month's Pathfinder releases, set to start going out to subscribers in the next week or so. Some of these images may even be useful for GMs who like visual aids for their Pathfinder Society games, though I won't give any more info than that!
Illustrations by Filip Burburan, Jason Rainville, and Xia Taptara
Mike's back in the office later this week after almost a month of conventions and international business trips, and from what I understand, he's got a few good blogs in the works. Be sure to check back next week and see what he has to report!
This summer's upcoming Skull & Shackles Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures set contains scoundrels and scallywags from the water's surface, but some of my favorite figures in the set actually live below the waves. One of the reasons we wanted to create this set in the first place was to finally get some aquatic creatures into the world of prepainted plastics, and WizKids has done a great job bringing the briny deep to life before our eyes.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Shark Week
Friday, April 5, 2013
This summer's upcoming Skull & Shackles Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures set contains scoundrels and scallywags from the water's surface, but some of my favorite figures in the set actually live below the waves. One of the reasons we wanted to create this set in the first place was to finally get some aquatic creatures into the world of prepainted plastics, and WizKids has done a great job bringing the briny deep to life before our eyes.
Time is very precious on what looks to be a crazy busy Friday (I snuck out of a meeting just to write this, in fact!), so I'm going to keep today's preview short, sweet, and to the point.
Today we're going to talk about fish. It's shark week!
Up first we have, well, a Shark. This guy is Large (though not as large as another shark we'll show off in future weeks). He's mounted on a clear peg so he looks like he's swimming right for you when his figure is placed on the battle grid. You can't tell from the photo, but some of the detail inside this creature's mouth is really remarkable. The Shark is an uncommon figure.
That was a cool shark, man. And here's a cool sharkman. The Wereshark Pirate is a Medium common figure, suitable for building an entire wereshark crew.
A crew of wereshark pirates needs a wereshark captain. Here we have Captain Riptooth, as nasty a pirate lord as you're likely to serve under in the Shackles Isles. Beware! Captain Riptooth has quite a temper, and if you cross him, he's likely to bite your head off! This fine fellow is a Large figure at the rare rarity.
The set also includes an uncommon Hammerhead Shark that had to go back to the sculptors for some minor cosmetic surgery and seems to have escaped photography in the meantime. We'll get an image up of him as soon as we can capture one ourselves.
Don't forget to preorder your Skull & Shackles minis today to make sure you don't miss out on any of these exciting figures!
And that's it for the week. It is now officially safe to go back in the water!
With its piratical theme, the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path is a perfect campaign for gamers looking to add a little gunplay to their fantasy. This summer's Skull & Shackles Pathfinder Battles miniatures set therefore includes a few pistol-packing figures that will help you bring your black powder fantasies to life on the tabletop.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Shoot 'em Up!
Friday, March 28, 2013
With its piratical theme, the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path is a perfect campaign for gamers looking to add a little gunplay to their fantasy. This summer's Skull & Shackles Pathfinder Battles miniatures set therefore includes a few pistol-packing figures that will help you bring your black powder fantasies to life on the tabletop.
Guns are controversial in fantasy gaming, so you won't see a TON of them in this set (or in the campaign itself, if you don't want ‘em), but they are a great thematic match for pirates on the high seas, so we couldn't resist including at least a few of them here.
Up first is our very favorite gun-wielder, Lirianne, the iconic gunslinger we first introduced back in Ultimate Combat. Lirianne has an incredible amount of detail sculpted into her outfit, and her costume motifs bring a hint of the Old West to the High Seas. This Medium figure is slated at the rare rarity.
Here we have Tsadok Goldtooth, the first mate of Kerdak Bonefist, Hurricane King of the Shackles Isles and probably the toughest pirate lord of the southern seas. Old Tsadok here is a half-orc in a fine coat with a cool pistol and a nasty snarl. Our photo accentuates the colors on this figure and makes them look a little more primary than they look with the figure in hand. The green of Tsadok's flesh, for example, matches that of other orcs and half-orcs already produced in the Pathfinder Battles line. Tsadok is an uncommon, Medium figure.
And last up this week is the Hurricane King himself, Kerdak Bonefist! Take a close look at that pistol hand, folks. Let's just say Mr. Bonefist earned his last name the hard way. This Medium, rare figure is absolutely phenomenal in hand, easily one of the best in the set and one of the most finely detailed and well painted Pathfinder Battles miniatures to date.
Our partners at WizKids continue to outdo themselves with every aspect of these miniatures, from sculpt to paint application. I'm amazed every time they bring new figures to the office, which has been happening at an almost weekly pace lately. (For example, we're half-way through approving sculpts for the NEXT set, and have seen all but about three figures in this one).
What I'm trying to say is that it's a great time to be a prepainted figure collector, and it's a great time to be collecting Pathfinder Battles! Now I'm off to go shoot a gun into the air in wild celebration of awesome miniatures.
This week I'm in Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show, an annual meeting of game manufacturers and retailers wherein game publishers show off their new stuff, hatch massive conspiracies with one another, and work with retailers to be better partners in getting our cool game products into the hands of consumers. This year's show has been a wonderful experience, and over the last few days I've spoken with hundreds of retailers with questions, comments, and criticisms about Paizo's products. That's meant a lot of chatting about the Pathfinder Battles miniatures, and I'm pleased to report that the word from folks here is that customers are really loving our figures. The trade show has been an educational experience, and it's convinced me that the next few years are going to be even more exciting for Pathfinder fans than the last few!
This week I'm in Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show, an annual meeting of game manufacturers and retailers wherein game publishers show off their new stuff, hatch massive conspiracies with one another, and work with retailers to be better partners in getting our cool game products into the hands of consumers. This year's show has been a wonderful experience, and over the last few days I've spoken with hundreds of retailers with questions, comments, and criticisms about Paizo's products. That's meant a lot of chatting about the Pathfinder Battles miniatures, and I'm pleased to report that the word from folks here is that customers are really loving our figures. The trade show has been an educational experience, and it's convinced me that the next few years are going to be even more exciting for Pathfinder fans than the last few!
And while I've been away from the office, the Pathfinder Battles forces have been marshaling some amazing new figures from the upcoming Skull & Shackles set, scheduled for a summer 2013 release!
This week I'd like to show off three of these neat new minis, the insidious (and probably a little leaky) grindylows!
Grindylows play an important role in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, as they make great aquatic adversaries for low-level characters. Without the risk of spoilers, I think it's fair to say that your players will be seeing a lot of these guys over the course of the campaign.
With heads and upper bodies that resemble those of goblins and bottom halves more reminiscent of a greasy octopus, grindylows aren't actually goblins, but their teeth and crazy culture make them just as lovable.
But don't take my word for it. Have a look for yourself!
This little critter is the Grindylow, a rank-and-file warrior of his undersea race. Armed with a coral-studded poker and ready to bite your hand off, the Grindylow is a Small figure. Because you'll want a good number of this guy, we've slated him at the common rarity.
Here we have the evil Brinebrood Queen, an appalling grindylow matriarch. You'd better hope she's not pointing at you, because wherever she commands, a swarm of grindylows is likely soon to be!
This figure has a great sculpt and looks amazing in hand (especially the tentacles along her bottom half). She is a Small creature at the rare rarity.
And here we have The Whale, a genetic throwback to a primeval era in which grindylows could grow to any size. Grindylows like The Whale never quite stop growing, and can eventually reach size Huge. This charming gentleman is "merely" Large, and makes a great centerpiece to any grindylow-themed encounter. The Whale is a rare figure.
And that's it for this week. Stay tuned to this space next week for more piratical and aquatic beasties from the upcoming Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted figures!
It's Savannah again. The prodigal intern from last summer returns... for Spring Break anyhow. It's been an accidental intern reunion here at Paizo, as my predecessor Jerome is helping out in the warehouse this week. Personally, I think I've got the better end of the deal, since I get to tell you all about some of our upcoming products and how exciting they're looking. So, from the depths of the Editorial Pit and my appropriated computer comes an intern's-eye view (when that view isn't "hiding on pallets from the cave raptors.")
Pathfinder Preview!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
It's Savannah again. The prodigal intern from last summer returns... for Spring Break anyhow. It's been an accidental intern reunion here at Paizo, as my predecessor Jerome is helping out in the warehouse this week. Personally, I think I've got the better end of the deal, since I get to tell you all about some of our upcoming products and how exciting they're looking. So, from the depths of the Editorial Pit and my appropriated computer comes an intern's-eye view (when that view isn't "hiding on pallets from the cave raptors.")
Do you want the power to challenge the gods themselves? Then Mythic Adventures is the book for you! This is the perfect resource to help you take our game up a notch, and give your characters the power to challenge the gods themselves. Mythic Adventures allows you to take up new mythic magic items, artifacts, and legendary items, utilize news feats and spells, and walk one of six mythic paths. However, with mythic heroes also come mythic foes, and this book has over 40 of them, including mythic versions of the minotaur and the medusa!
Next up is the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Demons Revisited. This book showcases some of Pathfinder's most vicious and well-known demons and provides in-depth information, such as what sins they arise from. The balor, the succubus, and the vrock are among the demons mentioned here, but Demons Revisited doesn't stop there! There are a list of named demons, some of them from previous Pathfinder products, and some of them brand new, but each of them unique in their own horrendously cruel ways. This can help to add some spice to the conjurations of your villains (or your PCs) and nothing says "personal" quite like a named summons. As an added bonus, this book ties in with the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path!
Speaking of Wrath of the Righteous, The Worldwound Incursion is also up for August. One of the most exciting aspects of this Adventure Path is that it is the first to utilize the rules of Mythic Adventures, making it a truly epic adventure! On top of that, there will be six demon lords featured in Wrath of the Righteous, and the first of them will be in The Worldwound Incursion's bestiary.
Continuing our demonic theme is Pathfinder Player Companion: Demon Hunter's Handbook. This book explains exactly how to eradicate or control demonkind through might or magic. To help, there are all sorts of archetypes, feats, spells, and magic items to give you just what you need to take care of the vilest of demons and purge them from the land (or take their power for yourself...). Don't travel to the Abyss without one!
For the fans of steampunk out there comes Wardens of the Reborn Forge by Paizo's own Patrick Renie. This module takes place in the Grand Duchy of Alkenstar, which has withstood the ravages of the Mana Wastes thanks to the amazing inventions of its citizenry. When the clockwork guardians start attacking the townspeople, though, the power balance of the city is thrown into disarray. Can our heroes discover the cause behind these attacks and save Alkenstar from itself?
In case you were wondering about what you were going play some of these awesome adventures on, you can look no further than the Pathfinder Map Pack: Evil Ruins for all of your creepy, dungeon-crawling needs! From spider haunts to profane altars to overflowing ossuaries, this map pack brings all the horror and dark ambiance of unhallowed ruins to your game.
If frightening ruins aren't what your game calls for, then the Flip-Mat: Basic Terrain Multi-Pack might be just what you need. Its full-color textures include grassland, stone floor, street, and water. It also folds up to be travel sized, making it great for the GM on the go.
If you haven't had enough of demons yet, then I'd suggest that you check out the new Pathfinder Tales novel from fan-favorite (and intern-favorite) author Dave Gross: King of Chaos. This is another adventure featuring Count Varian Jeggare and his wisecracking hellspawn bodyguard, Radovan. This time they find themselves mixed up in the battle at the Worldwound as the demons break free of the wardstones. In addition to being an excellent book with interesting characters, King of Chaos is also a great resource for those who are running or playing Wrath of the Righteous.
To round out our Worldwound-themed August comes a new set of Pathfinder Item Cards. These cards represent the trove of treasure that characters can amass, as well as the medals that heroes can earn in their service against the demon hordes and the legendary artifacts that they will need to defeat the Abyssal armies.
From Paizo's collaboration with Lone Shark Games comes an entirely new breed of game: The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Base Set. This is a cooperative card game for one to four players. Choose a class and select your cards to create a unique character to play through your first adventure, the Burnt Offerings Adventure Deck. If you want even more card game goodness, then check out the Rise of the Runelords Character Add-On Deck, which adds on 110 cards worth of new classes (including druid, monk, paladin, and my favorite, barbarian), new items, and enough cards to expand to five or six players.
All right, well that's a wrap. Let's hope that writing this was a good enough offering that I don't get thrown to the cave raptors. Hope you enjoy all the new products!
WizKids secret agents have been making multiple weekly trips to Paizo these days, and each time they show up they have a chest full of pirate's treasure. Ok, that's not true, but for nerds like me it's pretty close. In fact they've been bringing over the latest paint masters for figures in this summer's Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures, and man, they shine like the brightest gold to these old pirate eyes!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Motley Crew
Friday, March 15, 2013
WizKids secret agents have been making multiple weekly trips to Paizo these days, and each time they show up they have a chest full of pirate's treasure. Ok, that's not true, but for nerds like me it's pretty close. In fact they've been bringing over the latest paint masters for figures in this summer's Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures, and man, they shine like the brightest gold to these old pirate eyes!
The new set supports the popular Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, and provides a host of creatures that have never before appeared in prepainted plastic (many of which, I might add, came from suggestions from the Pathfinder faithful—so keep those requests coming!). This week I present a motley, more or less random assortment of figures from the set.
Up first is Selissa, a young aquatic naga pushed into the "civilized" lands of the Shackles isles by unusually dry conditions in her usual river habitats. That means she's hungry and desperate, and ready to bite a chunk of refreshing meat from your player characters.
Selissa is an interesting figure because she's size Medium, one step smaller than standard aquatic nagas. One of the cool things about basing these sets on actual characters from actual adventures is that it gives us a chance to do some oddball figures that maybe wouldn't make sense in a more "generic" set.
The figure looks amazing in hand, with vibrant blues and greens and an aquatic shine that adds an extra layer of creepiness.
"But she's the wrong size!" some might exclaim. "Why didn't you include a Large aquatic naga in the set?"
To which I'd reply. "She's the right size for Selissa, and a cool figure to boot. You'll just have to wait a bit longer to see the Large version that's ALSO in this set!"
Up next we have a classic creature of fantasy gaming that to my knowledge has never before been produced in prepainted plastic. We call this Large abomination Shimerae, and in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path she's the beloved pet (and convenient poison source) for a nasty alchemist.
In the real world, she's an amazing, amazing miniature that I can't wait to throw up against my hated enemies (by which I mean my players).
But it wouldn't be a proper Skull & Shackles preview without a kick-ass pirate, and this week we've got a baddy who you really don't want to run into on the open sea. I give you Arronax Endymion, Lord of Hell Harbor and renegade former commander of the Fourth Fleet of Imperial Cheliax. That didn't turn out for him, and now he ranks among the most powerful pirate lords of the Shackles Isles.
I think he also makes a nice sub for any kind of naval officer or player character with a naval background. By the time we're done with this set, you'll be able to pair him up with tons of different pirate lords OR team him up with Chelish naval officers, all of whom will be sailing into view in the coming weeks.
Enjoy the splendid weather! Taste the local flavor!* Meet new and interesting people!
Welcome to Whitethrone!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Illustration by Jason Rainville
Enjoy the splendid weather! Taste the local flavor!* Meet new and interesting people!
Anyone who said Whitethrone isn't safe is just spreading some sort of propaganda. All are welcome in Whitethrone. Ice trolls, goblins, and winter wolves walk the streets and the White Witches make sure that everything runs smoothly. The only thing to be careful of are rabble-rousers and dissidents.**
Subscriber's shipments are on their way and before long GMs and players all over can eagerly dig into The Shackled Hut, the second volume of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path, for all their witch-fighting fun!
Illustrations by Miguel Regodón and Dmitry Burmak
Adam Daigle Developer
* On second thought, you should probably stick to your rations. You brought rations, right?
** PCs should disregard this. Instead, be careful being the rabble-rousers and dissidents. There's a world to save and we don't need any PCs dying on us.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Hoist the Black Flag: Skull & Shackles!
I am pleased to announce today that the next major Pathfinder Battles release will be a full 55-figure set inspired by Paizo’s popular Skull & Shackles Adventure Path! Skull & Shackles casts players in the role of a gang of pirates with their own ship, struggling to make a name for themselves in the treacherous southern seas of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Hoist the Black Flag: Skull & Shackles!
Friday, March 8, 2013
I am pleased to announce today that the next major Pathfinder Battles release will be a full 55-figure set inspired by Paizo’s popular Skull & Shackles Adventure Path! Skull & Shackles casts players in the role of a gang of pirates with their own ship, struggling to make a name for themselves in the treacherous southern seas of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting!
The new Skull & Shackles Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures set provides players and GMs with legions of figures to kit out their seafaring campaigns, from pirates to aquatic menaces to undead horrors from the briny deep!
Our partners at WizKids have been delivering amazing new sculpts and killer paint masters on a weekly basis, and things are moving very rapidly with this set as we head toward its summer 2013 release (more later on the specific date when WizKids locks down a few more details on the manufacturing side).
As with previous major Pathfinder Battles releases, the Skull & Shackles set features a special limited-edition figure available only to folks who purchase a case. This time around, it’s the Gargantuan Skeletal Dragon Brinebones, a major antagonist in the campaign that easily stands toe-to-bony-toe with our previous Gargantuan dragon releases (and other Gargantuan dragons yet to come). Check out these very early behind-the-scenes photos of the Gargantuan Skeletal Dragon from WizKids’s factory!
Of course, the set contains a fair share of Small, Medium, and Large figures as well. Let’s take a look at a few of these water-logged beasties for just a hint of what’s in store when the set releases this summer.
Here we have the squamous Sea Troll, a deadly denizen of the deeps eager to munch your player characters into chum. He stands with a bit of a curved spine, making him a little smaller than the Troll Champion from the Shattered Star set. But when you get this figure in hand, you’ll agree that he fits right in with his big land-dwelling brother. Only I think he may be a little bit cooler, which is saying something, since the Troll Champion is my favorite figure from the last set. When WizKids brought the Sea Troll to our office, everyone agreed that it was a step forward for the line. You guys are going to love it.
Of course, the set includes lots of pirates, with this guy here being just the first of several we’ll show off in the coming weeks. The sculpt detail on this fellow is amazing, and I suspect he will see lots of use by GMs as well as players looking for a cool swashbuckling figure.
There are, of course, lots more figures to show off in this set, but we’ve got a lot of weeks between now and the summer and plenty of time to show them all off.
In the coming months, look forward to more pirates, more aquatic creatures, more creatures never before produced in prepainted plastic, and more figures specifically demanded by you here on paizo.com.
And while you’re checking out the Skull & Shackles set, keep in mind that WizKids is hard at work on the NEXT set after that. With the set-to-set improvement we’ve seen on paint steps and sculpts we’ve seen so far, I can’t even imagine how amazing THAT one is going to be!
This week subscriptions are starting to leave the warehouse, and included in this month's shipment is the first installment of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path! As GMs get their hands on "The Snows of Summer," we have a little something for all the players eager to dive into the campaign, the Reign of Winter Player's Guide. Pop on over to your downloads and get your hands on this web supplement designed to help you build a character for this Adventure Path. Inside you will find character advice, a glimpse at the village you start off in, a cold weather primer so you know what you’re getting into, and a handful of additional options for your player characters.
Reign of Winter Player's Guide
Monday, February 11, 2013
This week subscriptions are starting to leave the warehouse, and included in this month's shipment is the first installment of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path! As GMs get their hands on "The Snows of Summer," we have a little something for all the players eager to dive into the campaign, the Reign of Winter Player's Guide. Pop on over to your downloads and get your hands on this web supplement designed to help you build a character for this Adventure Path. Inside you will find character advice, a glimpse at the village you start off in, a cold weather primer so you know what you’re getting into, and a handful of additional options for your player characters.
As we ease into February, we're getting ready to launch the Reign of Winter Adventure Path and we thought we'd share a bit of art with everyone from the first volume, "The Snows of Summer" by Neil Spicer. I've been filled with anticipation for this Adventure Path's release, and I can't wait for all of you to see it too. The overall look of the AP is amazing, and credit for this goes to the Art Department and their stable of excellent artists. I'll talk a bit more about the Adventure Path as a whole a little later when we release the Reign of Winter Player's Guide, so keep your eyes open for that announcement here on the blog. For now, feast your eyes on these wonderful pieces of art!
Bundle Up!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
As we ease into February, we're getting ready to launch the Reign of Winter Adventure Path and we thought we'd share a bit of art with everyone from the first volume, "The Snows of Summer" by Neil Spicer. I've been filled with anticipation for this Adventure Path's release, and I can't wait for all of you to see it too. The overall look of the AP is amazing, and credit for this goes to the Art Department and their stable of excellent artists. I'll talk a bit more about the Adventure Path as a whole a little later when we release the Reign of Winter Player's Guide, so keep your eyes open for that announcement here on the blog. For now, feast your eyes on these wonderful pieces of art!
Featured here are a few of the creatures and characters your PCs can encounter in The Snows of Summer.
Illustrations by Dmitry Prosvirnin and Dmitry Burmak
Feiya, Imrijka and Lini are among the featured Iconic characters in the Reign of Winter Adventure Path.
Illustrations by Robert Pitturru
After 1,400 years of perpetual winter, the icy curse of Irrisen is spreading! It has been a century since the immortal witch Baba Yaga last visited the world, and the hour draws nigh for her return... Winter is coming, starting with Pathfinder Adventure Path #67: The Snows of Summer. Cool-up your desktop with this new wallpaper and get ready for the Reign of Winter Adventure Path!
Illustrations by Craig J Spearing. Widescreen version here.
A Game of Crones
Thursday, January 24, 2013
After 1,400 years of perpetual winter, the icy curse of Irrisen is spreading! It has been a century since the immortal witch Baba Yaga last visited the world, and the hour draws nigh for her return... Winter is coming, starting with Pathfinder Adventure Path #67: The Snows of Summer. Cool-up your desktop with this new wallpaper and get ready for the Reign of Winter Adventure Path!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Rounding Third, Heading for Home
We’re less than a week away from the January 23rd official release date for the Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy figures! But with all the crazy Kickstarter stuff going on over the last month, we’ve still got a few figures left to reveal from the set.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Rounding Third, Heading for Home
Friday, January 18, 2013
We’re less than a week away from the January 23rd official release date for the Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy figures! But with all the crazy Kickstarter stuff going on over the last month, we’ve still got a few figures left to reveal from the set.
So without further ado, let’s jump right into it!
Here we have Portioque, a wily subterranean wizard who likes to hang out with his buddy, Caedimus. Like that erstwhile companion, Portioque is a common figure.
The ancient Runelords of Thassilon often employed clockwork servants, and this Clockwork Soldier, culled straight from the pages of Bestiary 3 makes a compelling member of an ancient Thassilonian fighting force. He’s also at the common rarity, so you can work up a whole party of them to menace your player characters.
And here we have the Tower Girl, a cunning rogue from an all-girl gang that plays an important role in the first adventure of the Shattered Star Adventure Path, Shards of Sin. She’s common as well, and also makes a nice double for a player character rogue.
Here’s another ancient underground dweller we like to call a Xulgath. This guy is also common, which would be a problem if he smelled as bad as his Pathfinder RPG counterpart, but which is awesome for building whole hordes of anthropomorphic subterranean lizard people. Wait until you see the paint detail on this guy’s scales. You won’t believe he’s a common, but he is!
Here we have a Cleric of Zon-Kuthon, who appears in the Adventure Path as a not-altogether-unfriendly evil cleric named Gein Kafog. We knew we wanted to depict this cleric with a chain weapon, which can be very difficult with plastic miniatures. Our compromise was to wrap much of the chain around his body, which certainly fits in well with a follower of a god dedicated to pain. The Cleric of Zon-Kuthon is at the uncommon rarity.
This slavering spiderlike critter is a Shriezyx, a horrific aberration cooked up by the ancient Runelords. A bunch of them still dwell in the city of Magnimar (and their stats appear in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Magnimar, City of Monuments). It’s probably difficult to tell from this photo, but I assure you that the face on this little bugger is GROSS. This Medium figure is at the uncommon rarity.
Believe it or not, there’s an old elf under this evil-looking armor. I’d tell you whether your Shattered Star players will consider him a friend or foe, but that’s spoiler territory. Suffice it to say that Ardathanatus, a rare figure, works great as any kind of black-armored figure you might need in any campaign. And he’s got a huge axe, too!
Last up this week we’ve got Sheila Heidmarch, the Venture-Captain of the Pathfinder Society’s lodge in the city of Magnimar and a patron to the player characters throughout the Shattered Star Adventure Path. With a design based on a cover illustration by Wayne Reynolds and a history that goes deep into the history of Pathfinder products, this is a fun figure I’m happy to include in the set not only because it’s beautiful, but because it will work great for just about any female spellcaster you might need. Sheila is a rare figure.
That’s it for this week. Next week the set will actually be out and you’ll be able to view the figures yourselves. I’ll do one more Shattered Star blog with high-quality images a few more figures that changed paint schemes late in the set (and hence still need to be photographed here at Paizo HQ), as well as quality images of a few figures from much earlier that had to make do with my shoddy iPhone camera shots for one reason or another.
And then it’s time to start talking about the NEXT set. And the one after that. And the one after that, and the one after that, and the one…
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Elementally, My Dear Watson
We're now less than three weeks from the January 23rd release date for the new Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures! So far we've revealed nearly 40 of the set's 55 figures, but a little math will tell you that from now until the release date, we've got to reveal a decent number of figures to show them all off before you can buy them yourselves in the store.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Elementally, My Dear Watson
Friday, January 4, 2013
We're now less than three weeks from the January 23rd release date for the new Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures! So far we've revealed nearly 40 of the set's 55 figures, but a little math will tell you that from now until the release date, we've got to reveal a decent number of figures to show them all off before you can buy them yourselves in the store.
First up we have the Medium Earth Elemental, a rocky bruiser erupting from the ground to smash some hurt onto the heads of your player characters. Painted in dark browns and grays and with glowing red eyes, this figure is a pretty typical example of its kind. Cool green crystal formations along his arms give the Medium Earth Elemental a distinctive look. The whole figure is sculpted in clear plastic because we originally wanted to leave the crystals completely clear, or slightly greenish tinted to match the colors on the original art for this creature, which first appeared in the Bestiary Box. Much to our surprise, versions of the figure featuring a pearlescent coat of green paint over the crystals actually looked much better than the clear plastic, so as in the case with some of the other elementals, we decided to go with paint over clear plastic. This surprised me (I thought we'd prefer clear), but in this case a huge consensus of Paizonians agreed that the painted crystals simply looked better.
But all was not lost for lovers of clear plastic! We used the mold for the Medium Earth Elemental as the basis for the Lava Lurker figure that's part of the ongoing Pathfinder Online Kickstarter Campaign. That figure is very much clear, with red tints that make him look like, well, he lurks in lava.
Bigger is often better, and that adage is certainly true when it comes to earth elementals! Behold the Large Earth Elemental, a dude you definitely don't want pounding you into the dirt (but whom you may wish to summon to pound someone else!). The coloration on this figure is very similar to his Medium counterpart, only at a size pushing the very top of Large, he's significantly more intimidating. I love this figure's wide jaw and expressive face. You can almost hear him shouting "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!"
The Medium elementals in this set are at the common rarity, while the Larges are rares.
I'm going to hold on to the Large and Medium Air Elementals until a future preview. They are also awesome, but I don't want to over-elementalize you guys in one sitting. I'll leave that for when you open your own boxes of the Shattered Star set and start assembling your own elemental armies!
Instead, let's take a look at two more Large figures from the Shattered Star set!
Up next we have the Glass Golem, a figure with such a complex paint scheme that it was one of the very last to be completed (and thus my cruddy iPhone photo will have to suffice for the moment). As the Shining Child from the Rise of the Runelords set and this set's elementals have taught us, "clear" figures are among the trickiest to get right in the painting stage.
Simply casting the figures in clear plastic never works, as important sculpt details vanish without proper shading. Painting over the clear plastic completely has proven to be the correct option in a few cases, but it always seems like a bit of a disappointment and a copout. The best solution, as Goldilocks certainly knew, was to get the paint balance JUUUUUST RIGHT. In the case of the Glass Golem, we wanted not just a neat clear effect, but something that actually looks like glass. After several tries, we finally got the balance right.
Last up this week is the cantankerous Fire Giant, a mean old brute ready to hack you apart with his crude sword. Thanks to drybrushing (and a little bit of clear plastic peeking through here and there), this guy looks like he burns with an inner fire. His face and fiery beard are very expressive, and will make him stand out among his other giant kin.
Also next week, we'll reveal additional details about a special convention-season promotional repaint goblin figure that we'll be distributing throughout 2013! Backers of the Pathfinder Online Kickstarter Campaign at the Goblin Squad level and above will get a certificate to receive this figure FREE at Gen Con. So come on back and check it out, this is definitely a figure you will not want to miss!
In the spirit of the end times, I thought it would be fitting to provide a glimpse at what's coming at the start of the new year—a supporting article in Pathfinder Adventure Path #66: The Dead Heart of Xin detailing all seven of the infamous runelords of ancient Thassilon. Because their potential return to the modern world of Golarion could very well usher in a catastrophe even the biggest Mayan prophecy conspiracy theorist couldn't dream up, here are the headshots of all seven. So while you're out enjoying time off work for the holiday season, keep your eyes peeled for Varisia's Most Wanted.
So You've Survived the End of the World
Thursday, January 3, 2013
So, the end of the world—as supposedly predicted by the Mayans—came and went, and we're all still here. Well, by "here" I mean alive, and by "we" I mean humanity. The more specific statement "we're all still here" meaning "Paizo employees are in the office" is less true. But that doesn't mean you don't get cool holiday season blogs from us.
In the spirit of the end times, I thought it would be fitting to provide a glimpse at what's coming at the start of the new year—a supporting article in Pathfinder Adventure Path #66: The Dead Heart of Xin detailing all seven of the infamous runelords of ancient Thassilon. Because their potential return to the modern world of Golarion could very well usher in a catastrophe even the biggest Mayan prophecy conspiracy theorist couldn't dream up, here are the headshots of all seven. So while you're out enjoying time off work for the holiday season, keep your eyes peeled for Varisia's Most Wanted.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Dog Days of Winter
We're less than a month from the formal release of the Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures! Here in the Paizo offices, things are very, very quiet, as it seems just about everyone but me remembered to take the day off to have a continuous holiday between Christmas and New Year's Day. Well, my mistake is your reward, as all this silence in the office during the "Winter Break" has given me more than enough time to whip up a brand new Pathfinder Battles Preview Blog!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Dog Days of Winter
Friday, December 21, 2012
Kyra and Seoni face off against this week's featured foes!
We're less than a month from the formal release of the Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures! Here in the Paizo offices, things are very, very quiet, as it seems just about everyone but me remembered to take the day off to have a continuous holiday between Christmas and New Year's Day. Well, my mistake is your reward, as all this silence in the office during the "Winter Break" has given me more than enough time to whip up a brand new Pathfinder Battles Preview Blog!
And since it's been a while since I've been able to hit my regularly scheduled deadlines for these mini reveals (and since we're running out of time before you'll have the figures in your hands yourselves), I want to make today's reveal a doozy.
Four figures this week, five if you include the latest repaint reveal for Goblinworks' Pathfinder Online Kickstarter Campaign, but more on that later.
First up this week, we've got a couple of dogs. Not dogs in terms of bad miniatures, of course, but dogs in terms of canine critters for your Pathfinder RPG enjoyment. Now, I've been collecting prepainted plastic miniatures for years, and if there's one thing I feel like I've got a lot of, it's dogs and wolves and various canines of all types and sizes. I don't really need more dogs, so if we wanted to include them (for whatever reason) in Pathfinder Battles, I knew they needed to be really, really special. I think these two figures ably fit the bill.
First up we have the Shadow Hound, a nasty evil outsider who appears in Bestiary 3 under a slightly more specific name. I'm not sure if the photo does full justice to this guy. He's got a base coat of black with some gray highlights that really pull out a lot of details for such a dark miniature. Gray fingernails and bright red eyes sell the ferociousness of this clever canine, and at the common rarity you'll easily be able to assemble a pack of them to threaten your player characters.
Speaking of hounds, what RPG campaign would be complete without a pack of fire-breathing flame dogs from the pits of Hell? Our Hell Hound (also at the common rarity) is a truly remarkable figure, sculpted in clear plastic and painted in tones of red, orange, and yellow that combine with the clear to give a true burning appearance. I absolutely love this sculpt, which is a requirement when dealing with a figure many players already have in one form or the other. At almost as large (or maybe even a bit larger) than a human, this is one unforgettable puppy.
From the unforgettable to the never-made-before in prepainted miniature form, we turn to the Ravenous Ooze, an uncommon slimy gray pseudopod eager to digest your metal bits (including most of your treasure). I love throwing oozes at my players, but the game has relatively few appropriate for lower-level charcters. At CR 4, the Ravenous Ooze is perfect to teach PCs respect at a relatively young age. Players have been asking for this miniature since we announced the launch of Pathfinder Battles, and I am thrilled to finally deliver.
I may be mistaken, but I believe this skulking murderer has likewise never been produced in prepainted plastic. We call him the Pallid Path Cultist, and he and his brethren play an important role in the opening chapters of the Shattered Star Adventure Path. The grayish clear plastic of the Pallid Path Cultist perfectly suggests his chameleon skin ability, which allows him to blend easily into his surroundings. WizKids did a terrific job capturing the dynamic pose we first presented in Bestiary 2, and again miniatures collectors who have been looking for a guy like this for years have much reason to rejoice.
Lastly, I'd like to remind everyone that we've got a fun Pathfinder Battles miniatures component for the Pathfinder Online Kickstarter Campaign from our friends over at GoblinWorks, who are raising money for their upcoming Pathfinder-inspired MMO. Crowdforger backers will receive several special repaint figures as thanks for their support, including the Bloodbriar Goblin Raider, Lava Lurker, Shadowfire Elemental, and Mudlord! And since the campaign just passed $500,000, we've revealed the next figure to be unlocked, the Moon Spider!
Please drop by the Pathfinder Online Kickstarter Campaign project page and consider joining up! If the campaign hits its ambitious $1 Million goal, you'll receive NINE figures (and a whole bunch of other awesome stuff), and if they manage to exceed that goal, there are even cooler Pathfinder Battles rewards in store!
And that's it for this week. I wish you all a fantastic new year filled with gaming and miniature delights. Next week we'll show off even more amazing figures from the Shattered Star set, and a few weeks after that, you'll have them in your own hands!
(And then we'll start previewing images from the NEXT set, which looks INCREDIBLE!)
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Do Clockwork Kings Dream of Electric Golems?
So here it is, Paizo fans! The Clockwork Reliquary, finally unveiled after 10,000 years of slumber, risen from the waves and ruins of Thassilon to claim the lives of your PCs before moving onward to world domination at the head of its clockwork army! Can they stop it, or will all of Golarion once again kneel before the skymetal tyrant? Erik was right last week when he called this figure "the coolest mini in the whole set, possibly the most complex and awesome-est prepainted plastic mini ever made for any set." I couldn't agree more, and I know your wait was worth it.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Do Clockwork Kings Dream of Electric Golems?
The height of a freelancer's satisfaction on any given project is often mute and unheralded. When a project is finally turned over, dutifully and painstakingly crafted over the course of months, only your developer, and perhaps your long-suffering spouse, are the ones who even know. In other words, the echo of popping champagne corks isn't commonly experienced by your typical RPG designer. Since you can't say anything, by the time a project does reach the public eye, from the initial murmurs of messageboard excitement to the dramatic unveiling of the finished product, you've usually moved well beyond the groundswell, that special creative place in your brain long-since vacated and re-inhabited with new assignments. And since words are cheap and art isn't, you're often surprised to find things have changed significantly since you last saw them, adapted to fit the artist depictions that aren't always what you remember describing. So when the gaming world starts to get excited, you often have to flip through along with everyone else, read what's become of your orphaned ideas, and figure it out all over again.
But then there's that rare time in a freelancer's life, particularly when you've cultivated a great relationship with your publisher and regularly attend the same conventions, when your excitement never quite gets a chance to quell, because they keep stoking those fires that got you so excited to work on a project in the first place. Most recently, Paizo has facilitated this with a growing list of awesome tie-in products unveiled at various stages of development, most of which stand a good chance of possessing snippets of your game design. With the introduction of the Wizkids' partnership with Paizo, this opens up intriguing new possibilities to see fantastic 3-dimensional depictions of your work, something I've always wanted to experience. Which is how I remember so vividly the first time I saw the Clockwork Reliquary.
Concept artwork for the Clockwork Reliquary.
The chance to revisit Azlanti technology was the reason I immediately jumped when I saw the outline for The Dead Heart of Xin. I had set myself up for this chance years earlier in some of my first works for Paizo: From Shore to Sea, and later the Sun Temple colony in Lost Cities of Golarion. But nearly all the Azlanti devices PCs experienced in those products were dormant or malfunctioning, only providing the merest hint of the incredible power wielded by Golarion's first advanced civilization. Given the chance to see some of that stuff working as it should, all set in the hallowed halls of the palace stronghold of Rune Magic's inventor and a true master of those arcane arts? Well... I could barely contain myself.
It wasn't long after I finished crafting the adventure (and turned over a month early, at that!) that I flew to Seattle for PaizoCon 2012, and visited a recently-transplanted Daigle and the rest of the crew at the offices. As usual for a working freelancer, most talk is on upcoming projects, but James and Erik called me over for a special little surprise: the initial sketches for the Clockwork Reliquary. I had worked hard to realize James' outline notes into a terrifying mechanical monstrosity that was at once ancient and advanced. As you'll see when the adventure arrives next month, I had settled on a technological design aesthetic inspired by the skeksis architecture and weaponry from The Dark Crystal. As a result, I remember having the most trouble with headless design and top-mounted arms the outline tentatively described, as I desperately wanted to avoid a "helicopter-head" creature. I even sketched it out myself as part of my turnover in a bid to prevent that depiction, in an almost-embarrassing drawing with more spidery legs that turned out surprisingly close to the finished rendition (admittedly done well before I knew who the cover artist would be, but shown here for your snickering amusement). I was really concerned with having the BBEG of the AP invoke the same kind of mind-numbing fear when you see a really good human-versus-dragon illustration. You look at it and and wonder "how in the world could a real person even survive for a second against that thing?" Not that my sketch depicts that, but I'm not an artist, and I was trying.
Of course, it doesn't hurt when you've got the master himself—Wayne Reynolds—working toward the same goal. When I'd heard Wayne was the cover artist, I was immediately embarrassed for my presumptions to do my own sketches, and I remember sheepishly asking Wayne at PaizoCon if he'd seen that terrible thing (mercifully he had not). But even without the visual reference, words and art connected perfectly through the descriptions he'd been provided, because his pencils sent shivers up my spine in a way I'd never experienced in seeing my work realized in two-dimensions—and I've seen a lot. The gangly arms were spot-on. The stilted legs. The clawed hands. The skymetal construction. The crystal coffin. (Fun Fact: 4 arms + 3 legs=7 limbs corresponding with Seven Virtues of Rule!) Most of all I appreciated the noticeable lack of too many gears. Despite my early enthusiasm for the steampunk genre and the creature's name, I never wanted this adventure to delve into that aesthetic, and, in fact, I had tried to skip gears entirely in my early designs which called for the various joints to be bonded not quite by clockwork, but by mini-miasmas of arcane energy. You can still see a hint of that attempt in my sketch, which would allow its individual limbs to orbit its body in weird magic ball-and-socket joints and prevent my "helicopter-head" dread, and it kept with my established Azlanti-stuff-always-orbits themes. Sure, I would liked to have seen a burnt-black skeleton and a transparent-green noqual crystal as originally designed, but those concerns vanished with the way Wayne conveyed the maliciousness of a partial skeleton without eyes or flesh to work with was just perfect, and the sloping, arched-back shoulders of its four clawed arms just conveyed the terrifying power of this mechanical horror. It was so... antediluvian... so... perfect. Truly an imperial monstrosity capable of leading a clockwork army to world domination!
But there was more! I think while James and I just sort of oo-ed and ah-ed and nodded in wide-eyed unison over just how perfect the depiction was, Erik tugged on my sleeve and led me—stunned and glassy-eyed—to his office, where he revealed that not only would Wizkids and Paizo be producing an accompanying miniature line for Shattered Star, but production was well underway... AND the Clockwork Reliquary would be one of them AND... well, he showed me the initial sculpt.
Like many Paizo fans, I grew up surrounded by action figures. Now as then, I've always been fascinated by a world in miniature. Star Wars was, of course, my first introduction, but I recall my first RPG purchase was a Ral Partha beholder mini when I was only 7 or 8 years old. Hundreds more followed. Scaled down, I could lord over these tiny figures like some deranged deity, a habit I'm afraid has never subsided in adulthood, as I still have an unhealthy habit for minis. And as I'd grown up chopping up and rearranging figures into variations that matched my imagination's own ideas—I remember a Ithorian head superglued to Obi-Wan's body as a "Hammerhead-Jedi-Knight-Bounty-Hunter" being a particular favorite—seeing something I'd imagined brought into the world in 3-dimensions was always some secret passion of mine. So imagine the thrill of seeing one of your creations actualized in the real world! Here we had a hunch nestled in James' head for years, entrusted to me to flesh out and build in imaginative words, descriptions, and statistics, then passed on the an incredible artist to realize in two-dimensions, and, finally, passed on to another artist—this time a sculptor—to realize in a third. I was speechless. Just as Wayne Reynolds had realized nearly every nuance of my Clockwork Reliquary designs, so, too, did the sculptor at WizKids realize every nuance of his concept drawing. The gangly-yet-powerful skymetal frame. Those oddly hunched shoulders that reminded me of the cocked hammer of a gun ready to fire. The howling skeleton encased in super-cool transparent epoxy. Those misleadingly dainty legs. The great details of Azlanti glyphs and Thassilonian runes and the ribcage-like reservoir and the scrolls flapping in the breeze and... *gasp.* I marveled, as your PCs soon will, at the sheer power of a reborn tyrant hellbent on reclaiming a kingdom lost 100 centuries before.
Just as I'd struggled in design with the Clockwork Reliquary's size before striking the right balance, so, too, does this mini take advantage of the best of both worlds. On paper, Large didn't seem quite imposing enough, and Huge didn't seem to fit the dimensions of a cradled skeleton and the gangly, whirling-dervish agility I wanted to convey for Xin's penultimate creation. As a result of those design assumptions, this mini is by far one of the largest Larges I've ever handled, suitably imposing and towering over PCs at just under 4-inches. Since the reliquary's longer arms are about 3 inches from shoulder to claw-tip, and bent at that, I'd say this mini gets the "gangly" theme I so wanted to convey down! The internal skeleton is fairly big in relative scale, but since The Dead Heart of Xin allows you to actually witness Xin's final moments, it isn't hard to assume that maybe the old emperor was maybe under the influence of enlarge person or other arcane augmentation, or we're simply seeing the distortion of the eldritch-warped crystal coffin. This was one bad dude, so anything's possible!
So here it is, Paizo fans! The Clockwork Reliquary, finally unveiled after 10,000 years of slumber, risen from the waves and ruins of Thassilon to claim the lives of your PCs before moving onward to world domination at the head of its clockwork army! Can they stop it, or will all of Golarion once again kneel before the skymetal tyrant? Erik was right last week when he called this figure "the coolest mini in the whole set, possibly the most complex and awesome-est prepainted plastic mini ever made for any set." I couldn't agree more, and I know your wait was worth it.
The Clockwork Reliquary is the primary villain of the Shattered Star Adventure Path's final chapter, The Dead Heart of Xin, on sale next month here at Paizo.com.
Sanctioning Adventure Paths for Pathfinder Society
Adventure Paths are the staple item here at Paizo. Since the inception of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, some people have wanted to play the Adventure Paths and receive credit for their Pathfinder Society characters. This is one of the few bullet-list items I have been trying to figure out since I arrived 15 months ago. The release of the Shattered Star Adventure Path and its close ties to the Pathfinder Society made it even more imperative that we find a way to include Adventure Paths in sanctioned Organized Play. We feel it's the right thing to do, both from a business perspective and as a way of making even more material available for event organizers and players who've gone through what we already produced and are chomping at the bit for more.
Sanctioning Adventure Paths for Pathfinder Society
Monday, December 10, 2012
Adventure Paths are the staple item here at Paizo. Since the inception of Pathfinder Society Organized Play, some people have wanted to play the Adventure Paths and receive credit for their Pathfinder Society characters. This is one of the few bullet-list items I have been trying to figure out since I arrived 15 months ago. The release of the Shattered Star Adventure Path and its close ties to the Pathfinder Society made it even more imperative that we find a way to include Adventure Paths in sanctioned Organized Play. We feel it's the right thing to do, both from a business perspective and as a way of making even more material available for event organizers and players who've gone through what we already produced and are chomping at the bit for more.
Over the past few months, we have dedicated a large percentage of our weekly Pathfinder Society meetings to make sure we have the best formula for as seamless a fit as possible in sanctioning Adventure Paths. We could not find an easy solution to allow play through an entire Adventure Path, or to easily port a character in and out of a specific volume of an Adventure Path. With the feedback of our Venture-Officers, we think we have a system that can appeal to the widest audience.
The solution we've landed on is treating one section of a Pathfinder Adventure Path volume like a module. It would generally be played over one to three sessions, and grant 3 XP, 4 PP, and a level-dependent amount of gp. An example you will find on the first Chronicle sheet is from the first installment of Rise of the Runelords, Burnt Offerings. When you play through areas C1 through E10 of Thistletop, your GM may assign you the Chronicle sheet for Burnt Offerings.
If possible, all players must use an existing Pathfinder Society character (without modification) within 1 level of the starting level of the sanctioned content from a Pathfinder Adventure Path. In the example used above for Burnt Offerings, you would use a 3rd-, 4th-, or 5th-level character.
For Adventure Path content below 9th level, if you do not have a character in the correct level range, you may use a Pathfinder Society pregenerated character or the Iconics found in the NPC Codex. If you play a 1st-level pregenerated character, you may apply the credit from that character to a newly created character of your very own, with the gp gained reduced to 1,398 gp (or 699 gp for slow advancement track characters). If you play a non-1st-level pregenerated character, you may apply the credit to your character as soon as she reaches the level of the pregenerated character played. Equipment listed on the pregenerated character sheet may only be sold to clear conditions, such as death, during the play of the module and any remaining wealth does not carry over at the end of the module.
Alternatively, if you are participating in a Pathfinder Adventure Path with an ongoing home group undertaking the entire campaign, you may receive credit for playing the sanctioned portions of the adventure as if you had played a pregenerated character. In this case, GMs running the Adventure Path are not bound to the rules of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign when running the campaign or the sanctioned portion of the adventure. Pathfinder Society characters and characters from an ongoing Adventure Path campaign may not play in the same adventure.
If a character dies and is brought back to life, the GM must determine the rewards for that character. The minimum possible reward is 0 gp, 1 XP, and 1 PP on the medium advancement track or 0 gp, 1/2 XP, and 1/2 PP on the slow advancement track. If a character participates in more than two-thirds of the sanctioned content of an Adventure Path, she should receive the full rewards. GMs and active players are encouraged to hasten the return of any characters waiting to be raised from the dead.
Players who do not complete each game session earn 1/3 fewer gp, 1 fewer XP, and 1 fewer Prestige Point for each session missed. This also applies to players who join later sessions; they receive 1/3 fewer gp, 1 fewer XP, and 1 fewer Prestige Point for each session missed. In both cases, players earn a minimum of 1/3 gp, 1 XP, and 1 Prestige Point.
As always, each player may receive credit for each sanctioned Adventure Path volume once as a player and once as a GM, in either order. Players must accept Chronicle sheets for their characters the first time they play any sanctioned content. A player may replay a sanctioned Adventure Path at the GM’s discretion, but the player may not receive more than one Chronicle sheet per adventure. The only exception is Tier 1–2 sanctioned Adventure Path content. A player may only play a Tier 1–2 sanctioned Adventure Path for credit once with a 2nd-level character, but may use additional 1st-level characters to replay the same content for credit.
Since sanctioned Adventure Paths can be multi-session events, a Pathfinder Society character may not be used in other Pathfinder Society events until the character receives a Chronicle sheet for the Adventure Path volume. GMs are advised to work with players who miss the final session of the module or AP in order for those players to receive their Chronicle sheets.
The data entry system has already been updated to include all 10 of the current sanctioned Adventure Path volumes. Data is entered into our reporting system in the same manner as sanctioned modules. You receive credit toward GM stars the same as sanctioned modules.
The Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Version 4.3, scheduled for release next month, will update Chapter 6 with all info about sanctioned Adventure Paths and how they work within Pathfinder Society.
Initially, we are only sanctioning Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition and Shattered Star Adventure Paths. If those are well received, we will consider sanctioning other Adventure Paths in the future. You can find the rules for running these in Pathfinder Society Organized Play and the Chronicle sheets on their respective product pages.
We are excited with the solution that this not only expands normal Pathfinder Society play options, but also increases play opportunities past 12th level. We hope that this will also allow players who enjoy our Adventure Paths, but have not yet experienced Pathfinder Society, to give our organized play a try.
We understand there are a lot of very strong opinions among the player base about whether we should sanction Adventure Paths and how they should be implemented. We value your opinions and look forward to reading your thoughts about the exciting new play options we have introduced today. With your input, we can make Pathfinder Society better for all.
Mike Brock Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator
... Reign of Winter Mittens Friday, November 23, 2012 Winter's almost here—are you ready? Warm mittens are a vital part of adventurers' gear, protecting hands from the cruel cold that nips at fingers and blackens bare skin. To help you survive with enough fingers left to grasp a sword, I hereby present to you the Reign of Winter Mittens! ... When I heard about this Adventure Path, I immediately started wrestling with charts and experimenting with patterns. The cozy mittens that are the final...
Reign of Winter Mittens
Friday, November 23, 2012
Winter's almost here—are you ready? Warm mittens are a vital part of adventurers' gear, protecting hands from the cruel cold that nips at fingers and blackens bare skin. To help you survive with enough fingers left to grasp a sword, I hereby present to you the Reign of Winter Mittens!
When I heard about this Adventure Path, I immediately started wrestling with charts and experimenting with patterns. The cozy mittens that are the final result are decorated with motifs representing the Reign of Winter Adventure Path's key elements: a large snowflake representing Baba Yaga, smaller snowflakes representing the 14 queens of Irrisen, the date on Golarion (and on Earth) when the AP begins, and of course the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga itself. Happy knitting!
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: OMG, It's the Wyvern Friday, November 16, 2012 Work has been so busy lately I can hardly think straight. So here I am at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon, and I only now realized that I forgot to put together a preview blog for January's upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures! ... I want to keep this week's preview short and sweet, and honestly the best way to do that is to focus on one of the set's sweetest miniatures: the...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: OMG, It's the Wyvern
Friday, November 16, 2012
Work has been so busy lately I can hardly think straight. So here I am at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon, and I only now realized that I forgot to put together a preview blog for January's upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures!
I want to keep this week's preview short and sweet, and honestly the best way to do that is to focus on one of the set's sweetest miniatures: the Wyvern.
Check out this masterful miniature!
This figure is amazing. I'd place it among the 10 most impressive figures in the Shattered Star set (yes, that means there are still plenty of jaw-droppers we haven't revealed yet). Best of all, this guy is an UNCOMMON.
Watch out, horses!
And here's a nice little size comparison to show what the Wyvern looks like next to a Medium-sized figure, in this case our iconic cleric Kyra!
So yeah, there's that. This Large figure is super-cool, but there are even cooler figures coming!
And there's also big movement behind the scenes on the Pathfinder Battles front. One of the reasons I'm so tired this week is that I've spent most of my waking hours deciding on the contents of the next TWO SETS worth of miniatures for our friends at WizKids, along with more than 100 images for their sculptors to get to work on immediately.
2013 is going to be an absolutely Gargantuan year for Pathfinder Battles!
No preview blog next week, as yours truly will be enjoying turkey with family for Thanksgiving. After that, though, I promise something extra-delicious in Pathfinder Battles Preview Land!
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: Water, Water, Everywhere Friday, November 9, 2012 In what seems like a first for these late fall Pathfinder Battles preview blogs, it's actually not raining outside our Washington State offices as I write this. But don't worry, I'm sure it soon will be. These last few weeks have shown us all the devastating power of nature, so I thought it might make a good occasion to show you two water-themed creatures from January's Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles...
In what seems like a first for these late fall Pathfinder Battles preview blogs, it's actually not raining outside our Washington State offices as I write this. But don't worry, I'm sure it soon will be. These last few weeks have shown us all the devastating power of nature, so I thought it might make a good occasion to show you two water-themed creatures from January's Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures.
I'm speaking, of course, of water elementals.
This set (and the Shattered Star Adventure Path that inspired it) features two different sizes of water elementals, the Medium Water Elemental and the Large Water Elemental. As with the Fire Elementals we've already previewed, water elementals are a staple of Pathfinder RPG play. Making miniatures of our elementals is somewhat problematic, however, as the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary features images that are not really suitable for turning into 3D figurines, and not all sizes are covered by those illustrations, anyway.
In this case, we already faced a similar problem when we put together our Pathfinder Pawns Bestiary Box collection of cardboard pawns. For that set, we enlisted one of our favorite artists, Tyler Walpole, to create brand new images for Small, Medium, and Large elementals of the four common types. I happened to be building the Pathfinder Battles Shattered Star list at the same time, so we asked Tyler to pull double duty on his assignment, creating images that would work for both Pathfinder Pawns and Pathfinder Battles figures.
While the Shattered Star set does not contain Small elementals of any type, it's probably not too big a spoiler to reveal that it does contain Medium and Large elementals of the four main types: air, earth, fire, and water.
WizKids did a great job sculpting Tyler's images into three dimensions. Here we have the Medium Water Elemental, a common figure:
As with all the elementals in this set, this guy is sculpted in clear plastic, so it looks really cool when held up to the light. The Medium Water Elemental looms over other Medium creatures, casting an imposing shadow upon his enemies.
Speaking of imposing, it's pretty hard to imagine a cooler Large Water Elemental than this:
The clear effects are more pronounced on this Large figure, which really pushes the envelope on what can be considered Large in the Pathfinder game. Even action figures would have reason to fear a drowning at this "miniature's" hands.
Don't believe me? Check out what both of these figures look like on my desk facing of against our Medium iconic fighter, Valeros. I hope he brought his swimming trunks!
That's it for this week. See you here in seven days for more cool reveals from the upcoming Shattered Star set!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: It's Raining Cats and Frogs
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: It's Raining Cats and Frogs Friday, November 2, 2012 It’s been raining cats and dogs here in Seattle lately, so I decided to take that as inspiration for this week’s preview. And since I don’t have a great photo of the set’s two awesome canine figures yet, I’m substituting a frog-like thing instead to preserve the delicate rhyme structure of my pun. ... I speak, of course, of the Boggard! ... Boggards have been with Pathfinder for a long time, and finally get...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: It's Raining Cats and Frogs
Friday, November 2, 2012
It’s been raining cats and dogs here in Seattle lately, so I decided to take that as inspiration for this week’s preview. And since I don’t have a great photo of the set’s two awesome canine figures yet, I’m substituting a frog-like thing instead to preserve the delicate rhyme structure of my pun.
I speak, of course, of the Boggard!
Boggards have been with Pathfinder for a long time, and finally get their due in a major way as antagonists in the second and third volumes of the Shattered Star Adventure Path. Because we put this set together well before the Shattered Star campaign was written, we actually used a piece of art from an early boggard appearance in the Kingmaker Adventure Path, but we liked him so much we figured he could play double duty for the Shattered Star miniatures set. He’s a common, so you’ll soon have plenty of Boggards in your collection to menace the swamps of your campaign world.
And since no frog is complete without its cat (did I just make that up?), here’s a look at the next cool miniature in the set, the Catfolk Rogue!
This lithe cat-burglar feautres in The Asylum Stone, by Paizo’s own James L. Sutter. The adventure takes place in Kaer Maga, Varisia’s very own wretched hive of scum and villainy, where weird creatures rub shoulders with elves, humans, and worse. Catfolk, which we first introduced in Bestiary 2 to much popular acclaim, seemed like a natural fit for that environment, and here she is, ready to pounce into your miniatures collection. The Catfolk Rogue is an uncommon figure.
Both of these animalistic figures have amazing paint details for their rarities. The Boggard is easily among the very best commons we’ve yet produced (if not the very best common) in both sculpting detail and paint application, and the Catfolk Rogue features tons of paint steps like fur stripes, skin gradient, and amazing eyes that elevate her to more than just a cat-headed lady.
We’ve now approved every figure in the set, and we’re well on our way to the Shattered Star set’s scheduled January release!
... From the Publisher: Changes Are Coming! Friday, November 2, 2012 As we move into the last two months of 2012, the editorial staff is hard at work on the playtest for next year’s Mythic Adventures, the warehouse staff is eagerly awaiting the arrival of our big winter hardcover, the NPC Codex, and the web team is cranking away at the exciting new Paizo Game Space virtual tabletop. Everyone has smiles on their face as they complete major tasks for 2012 and as they begin to think about what’s...
From the Publisher: Changes Are Coming!
Friday, November 2, 2012
As we move into the last two months of 2012, the editorial staff is hard at work on the playtest for next year’s Mythic Adventures, the warehouse staff is eagerly awaiting the arrival of our big winter hardcover, the NPC Codex, and the web team is cranking away at the exciting new Paizo Game Space virtual tabletop. Everyone has smiles on their face as they complete major tasks for 2012 and as they begin to think about what’s coming in 2013.
The management and finance teams, in the meantime, are hard at work finalizing 2013’s budget. This multi-month process involves solidifying the editorial schedule for the year, making go or no-go decisions on marketing programs, new employee hires, and everything else with a cost associated with it. While we always remain open to new opportunities on short deadlines, when the budget for a year closes, you end up with a good snapshot of every product, employee, convention, or other initiative we plan to do in the year. It’s a time when things get locked in, and when decisions can no longer be put off into the future.
As a result, it’s the best time to make important changes to Paizo’s product lines and general strategy. Since we’re about to put the lid on the 2012 budget, I wanted to take some time here in the Paizo Blog to speak with my “publisher voice” and let you in on a few important developments that are scheduled to hit in 2013.
Branding Changes for GameMastery
Paizo’s line of GameMastery accessories dates back to the time before Pathfinder, when we were a magazine publisher just dipping our toes into the RPG game publishing field for the first time. The maps and card products released under the GameMastery line were designed to work with any fantasy RPG, and we wanted a name for the line that suggested the widest appeal to the widest number of customers, regardless of what system they played. Since its launch, we’ve released more than 100 Map Packs and Flip-Mats, and dozens of Item Cards, Face Cards, and other card-based accessories to help you run your campaigns.
Card and map subscriptions are at an all-time high, and the design department keeps finding ways to make each release improve upon those that came before it. We have plenty of terrain types, dungeon maps, and other settings yet to go, and if anything the rate of card sets will increase in the future. We now plan to produce a set of Item Cards and Face Cards for every Adventure Path we publish, with additional rules-oriented releases similar to Chase Cards, Condition Cards, and the Critical Hit deck in development as I write this.
As time has gone on, and as the Pathfinder RPG has become not just a dominant brand here at the Paizo offices but also in the game industry in general, more and more of our GameMastery accessory releases have started to tie into Pathfinder adventures or the Pathfinder rules themselves. As a result, we’ve decided to retire the GameMastery brand, and beginning in February of next year, GameMastery Map Packs, Flip-Mats, and Card releases will come out under the Pathfinder brand.
This change allows us to reexamine how we package our maps, and gives us the chance to improve them to make using the products easier. For Flip-Mats this means packaging the maps with a wrap-around cover similar to the one used for our Pathfinder GM Screen, which gives us more space to preview what the maps look like, highlight key features, and (really importantly) to allow customers (and retailers) to shelve their maps “spine out” for easier sorting. Map Packs will feature a similar packaging metamorphosis, and will now come in a small box for easier storage and display.
Many (even most) of Pathfinder Map Pack, Flip-Mat, and Card releases will still be “rules agnostic” and suitable for use with a variety of systems, but the truth is that the Pathfinder brand has a cachet with buyers, distributors, and customers that GameMastery does not, and this change will allow us to get our products into a wider network of stores. When they make it into those stores, they’ll also be shelved with other Pathfinder products, making it easier than ever for Paizo fans to find what they’re looking for.
Pricing Changes
A close look at our budgets has convinced us that we need to make some price changes on some of our product lines to keep up with rising production costs. Starting in February 2013, Pathfinder Map Packs and Pathfinder Flip-Mats will rise in price from $12.99 to $13.99.
Also starting in February, the monthly Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes, which have held steady in price for 66 consecutive volumes, will increase to $22.99 (subscribers will pay the new discounted price of $15.99, plus their other subscription benefits like the Pathfinder Advantage discount and free PDFs). Additionally, the monthly Pathfinder Player Companion line will shift from $10.99 to $12.99.
This is the first time we have ever raised prices on the Adventure Path, and we agonized over the decision. In truth, we probably should have raised the price a few years back when the cost of paper and printing increased with inflation and increased global demand at the end of 2008, but we wanted to hold the line as long as possible. We must do it now to keep the high standard of quality we publish each month, and we hope that you’ll find the few extra bucks well worth the investment.
Keep your eyes on the Paizo Blog for more updates about upcoming products and exciting new releases for 2013. It promises to be a huge year for Paizo and the Pathfinder RPG, and we can’t wait to share some of our exciting plans with you.
Your support has been integral to the Paizo story these last 10 years, and we look forward to sharing the next 10 years with you!
Sincerely,
Erik Mona Publisher
P.S.: Look for your regularly scheduled Friday Pathfinder Battles miniature preview blog right here later this afternoon.
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: Cosmic Horror Halloween! Friday, October 26, 2012 Halloween is less than a week away, so it's finally time to deliver on the cosmic horror I've been teasing for the last several weeks. ... You've already seen the enormous Gug, which I've included again below since it is so awesome and fits the theme so well. ... But the Gug is only one of THREE mythos monsters included in January's Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures. He...
Halloween is less than a week away, so it's finally time to deliver on the cosmic horror I've been teasing for the last several weeks.
You've already seen the enormous Gug, which I've included again below since it is so awesome and fits the theme so well.
But the Gug is only one of THREE "mythos" monsters included in January's Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures. He happens to be the largest (by far), but he has plenty of company when it comes to monsters inspired by the writings of legendary horror author H.P. Lovecraft and his circle of author friends from the early 20th Century. Lovecraft is a bit of a patron saint as we approach Halloween (and just about every day of the year around Paizo, truth be told), and we've been incorporating creatures he imagined in the 20s and 30s into Pathfinder from the very start.
The Shattered Star set is no exception! Behold, the insidious Nightgaunt, terror of the darkened skies!
This horrifying creature came straight from Lovecraft's mind, making its most notable appearance in his epic "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," one of the great author's more fantastical yarns.
In the words of the master:
"Suddenly, without a warning sound in the dark, Carter felt his curved scimitar drawn stealthily out of his belt by some unseen hand. Then he heard it clatter down over the rocks below. And between him and the Milky Way he thought he saw a very terrible outline of something noxiously thin and horned and tailed and bat-winged. Other things, too, had begun to blot out patches of stars west of him, as if a flock of vague entities were flapping thickly and silently out of that inaccessible cave in the face of the precipice. Then a sort of cold rubbery arm seized his neck and something else seized his feet, and he was lifted inconsiderately up and swung about in space. Another minute and the stars were gone, and Carter knew that the night-gaunts had got him."
WizKids did a marvelous job on this figure. The sheen on its very dark blue hide looks rubbery and cold. They captured the nightgaunt's bat-wings and noxious thinness very, very well. You definitely don't want to get scooped up by these guys on some moonless Golarion night.
The nightgaunts appear in the fifth installment of the Shattered Star Adventure Path, "Into the Nightmare Rift." And I'm happy to say that they don't invade Golarion in this one, mostly because the player characters instead have to go to their vile home dimension of Leng!
Next up this week, we round out our cosmic horror with a creature created by one of Lovecraft's friends and collaborators, Frank Belknap Long. I speak of course of the legendary Hounds of Tindalos, from Long's 1931 story of the same name. The Hounds also appear in Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness," published the same year.
Belknap Long's terrifying Hounds of Tindalos dwell in the very distant past, and access the present through the angles of time to menace folk with their canine bodies and evil, hollow tongues designed for draining bodily fluids. They secrete a strange blue ichor from their hides. From the story:
"They are lean and athirst!" he shrieked... "All the evil in the universe was concentrated in their lean, hungry bodies. Or had they bodies? I saw them only for a moment, I cannot be certain." — Frank Belknap Long, "The Hounds of Tindalos"
Well, Frank, they have bodies, complete with gross backwards-bending legs and nasty claws. And they're coming your way in the Shattered Star Adventure Path!
So that's it for this week! Two terrible cosmic horrors from the depths of the mythos come to menace your campaigns.
I'd say that their incursion into your games counts as both a trick and a treat!
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: Gray Days Friday, October 19, 2012 The Halloween season is about more than just scares. Here in Seattle, the approach of Halloween means the end of nice weather and a months-long descent into the gray, a series of cloudy, rainy, dreary days often strung together 40 or 50 at a time. It's not the dreariness that gets you, or the dampness. It's the monotony of it all. The same day, every day, for days and days and days and days (can you tell I just got back from a...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Gray Days
Friday, October 19, 2012
The Halloween season is about more than just scares. Here in Seattle, the approach of Halloween means the end of nice weather and a months-long descent into "the gray," a series of cloudy, rainy, dreary days often strung together 40 or 50 at a time. It's not the dreariness that gets you, or the dampness. It's the monotony of it all. The same day, every day, for days and days and days and days (can you tell I just got back from a vacation?). But Halloween is around the corner to break up the gloom, and it does so with both tricks AND treats.
This week, I'm focusing on a couple of the "treats" in the upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures due to hit stores and subscribers in January. And since it's gray outside, I thought I'd stick to a "gray" theme.
Specifically, I'm talking about the Gray Maidens.
The Gray Maidens first appeared during the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, our second-ever Pathfinder campaign. Stationed in the Varisian city of Korvosa, the Gray Maidens were the personal bodyguard of Queen Ileosa, and became heavily embroiled in the chaos and machinations that fueled that campaign.
When the Shattered Star Adventure Path set out to revisit Varisia, we knew we wanted to include the Gray Maidens from the start. We liked their design enough that we put it on the back cover of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, after all, so it was only a matter of time before we'd revisit them in an Adventure Path.
And make prepainted miniatures of them, of course.
The figure pictured above is the rank-and-file Gray Maiden. She works perfectly in concert with the Shattered Star or Curse of the Crimson Throne campaigns, and we've put her at the uncommon rarity so it's relatively easy to build up a bunch of them. Not playing either of those Pathfinder Adventure Paths? Not to worry, this figure is cool enough to work for any female warrior in full plate, including a player character.
Speaking of character, we've had good luck so far including multiple types of the same "troop" in previous Pathfinder Battles sets, and the Shattered Star set is no exception. A squad of Gray Maidens needs leadership, so the set also includes the Gray Maiden Commander.
Pictured above is Oriana, leader of the Gray Maiden contingent encountered in the second Shattered Star adventure, "Curse of the Lady's Light". She's got some nasty scars on her face and a real chip on her shoulder, and your player characters are going to love hating her.
And what better way to focus that hate than a gorgeous prepainted figure placed right in the middle of your gaming table?
The Gray Maidens are coming your way in January, complete with the rest of the Shattered Star set. We're thrilled with the way these figures came out, and I continue to be extremely excited about the level of quality WizKids has put into this set.
But I've got days and days of gray Seattle skies ahead of me, and things are bound to get a bit gloomier between now and Halloween.
In fact, I think the horror around here is about to get downright cosmic.
Return here in seven days for unknowable horrors from the edge of the cosmos that man was never meant to experience (but which will look GREAT on your gaming table!).
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: Scary Monsters Friday, October 12, 2012 It's October, and as Halloween approaches it seems appropriate to focus on some of the scarier creatures in the upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures! ... I'm technically on vacation this week, but hey, no rest for the wicked. I can't let my personal need for a couple of days off get in the way of your personal need for more cool Pathfinder Battles previews. As a wise man once...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Scary Monsters
Friday, October 12, 2012
It's October, and as Halloween approaches it seems appropriate to focus on some of the scarier creatures in the upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures!
I'm technically on vacation this week, but hey, no rest for the wicked. I can't let my personal need for a couple of days off get in the way of your personal need for more cool Pathfinder Battles previews. As a wise man once said, "the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few."
So, on to the spoooooooookiness!
First up this week we have an absolutely disgusting menace culled from the mind of Paizo's own James L. Sutter. A while back, when James was writing the brilliant City of Strangers: A Guide to Kaer Maga, James invented an ancient subterranean race of outsiders known as the caulborn who dwell below Varisia's most unusual city. These telepathic prophets and historians feed on the psychic energy and memories of victims, which they keep in their grossly distended heads.
The third adventure of the Shattered Star Adventure Path, The Asylum Stone, written by Mr. Sutter himself, returns to Kaer Maga, so of course the caulborn make a return appearance. And in my endless quest to ply my editorial staff with 3D representations of the fruit of their own diseased minds (and 'cause you fight 'em in the adventure), I just had to add one of them to the Shattered Star set.
Here he is, a gross miniature in this grossest of months: The Caulborn!
Next up we have an oldie but a goodie, a gruesome undead mastermind even TOUGHER than a regular lich! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the dread Mesmalatu, an undead lord so powerful that even his floating skull packs a deadly punch! And watch out for those gems in his head, or your soul might end up living in one for eternity!
Sculpted in clear plastic, from the jet of ectoplasm holding up his head to the multicolored gems encrusting it, this guy is one of the major villains of the campaign, and one your player characters won't soon forget. Mesmalatu is among the smallest miniatures in the Shattered Star set, but he's also no doubt one of the most powerful enemies we've sculpted in plastic to date.
And that's it for today! Here's hoping I scared the socks off of you (or at least impressed you a bit with two awesome miniatures).
And with that, I slip cannily back to my vacation, to return with a big pile of treats for next Friday's blog!
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Big Blue Friday, October 5, 2012 I'd planned to spend the next few weeks leading up to Halloween on some of the spookier figures in the upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures, but this week our doorbell rang here at Paizo, and our partners at WizKids delivered one of the greatest pre-Halloween treats of all in the form of the final paint master of the Gargantuan Blue Dragon, the special case incentive promotional figure for...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Big Blue
Friday, October 5, 2012
I'd planned to spend the next few weeks leading up to Halloween on some of the spookier figures in the upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures, but this week our doorbell rang here at Paizo, and our partners at WizKids delivered one of the greatest pre-Halloween treats of all in the form of the final paint master of the Gargantuan Blue Dragon, the special "case incentive" promotional figure for the set.
Here she is, in all her magic-item-bedecked glory, shown here with regular-sized Seoni the sorceress for size-comparison purposes:
What you see before you is the mighty Cadrilkasta, a wyrm blue dragon that serves as the primary nemesis of the campaign's fifth installment, "Into the Nightmare Rift".
Cadrilkasta has long haunted the skies of Varisia, scanning the countryside for signs of ancient Thassilonian ruins. So obsessed with the Runelords is Cadrilkasta that she has carved their runes into her chest, as shown in this close-up image.
In the Shattered Star Adventure Path, Cadrilkasta is encountered digging up an ancient Thassilonian ruin looking for a powerful magical artifact. Since the PCs will likely have several shards of the potent artifact that serves as the basis of the campaign by the time they meet her, it's probably safe to say that she will be just as interested in them as they are in her.
When you plop this giant figure down on the table, it'll make an encounter your player characters won't soon forget! We're still trying to straighten out Seoni, and she only just met the dragon yesterday!
Before I go, I wanted to take a moment to talk about dragons in general, and the philosophy of how we decide which figures to include in Pathfinder Battles sets. The Gargantuan Blue is our first Gargantuan dragon, but it definitely won't be our last. When news about this figure first leaked on the internet earlier this week, some long-time miniatures collectors expressed a bit of disappointment, because they've long wanted a Gargantuan Green Dragon, which has not been produced to date by any prepainted miniature company. As a longtime collector of prepainted miniatures, I assure you that I also want a Gargantuan Green Dragon, and am working hard to include one in an upcoming set.
Cadrilkasta is an important dragon in the Shattered Star Adventure Path. Since this set is designed to support that campaign, the blue dragon made for a logical choice as the case incentive miniature. Based on an incredible Wayne Reynolds painting and sculpted with amazing detail by WizKids, we're confident that this is a super-cool dragon that you will be glad to have in your collection, even if you've already got a giant blue dragon in it from a few years back.
It's our intention to do every "true" dragon in every size category, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, and Gargantuan. We plan to be producing prepainted miniatures for years and years, and I'm confident that we'll get to all of them eventually (some, like the green, probably sooner than later). But when a set is made to support an existing Adventure Path, as many of our sets will be, it's going to provide the dragons appropriate for that campaign.
For Shattered Star, that means a Gargantuan Blue. But I assure you, the rest of them are coming!
That's it for this week (and what a week it's been!). Check back next week for a return to the originally intended spooooooky theme. I've got some stuff that will scare you out of your socks!
... Winter's Reign Nears! Thursday, October 4, 2012 On Monday the Paizo offices were visited by a praying mantis (something rare in western Washington from what I hear), so I thought I'd share the cover image for the first volume of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path. ... Illustration by Craig J SpearingSome of you who were at PaizoCon, Gen Con, or read these messageboards religiously already know a thing or two about this Adventure Path. For those who don't—next year in Golarion is...
Winter's Reign Nears!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
On Monday the Paizo offices were visited by a praying mantis (something rare in western Washington from what I hear), so I thought I'd share the cover image for the first volume of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path.
Illustration by Craig J Spearing
Some of you who were at PaizoCon, Gen Con, or read these messageboards religiously already know a thing or two about this Adventure Path. For those who don't—next year in Golarion is 4713 and that syncs up with the centennial visit from Baba Yaga where she puts a new daughter on the throne of Irrisen to rule for the next 100 years (something that's been going on for the last 1,400 years). Though her heralds have been seen riding throughout the countryside, no one has spotted Baba Yaga just yet. What exactly is the problem? What trickery has Queen Elvanna put into place?
Well, beginning this coming February you'll find out! For a taste, here are the titles to each of the adventures in the Reign of Winter Adventure Path:
We have some fun things planned for this coming Adventure Path, so I hope you'll join us on this world-spanning campaign. Also, to prepare for the journey check out Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter. Don't forget your mittens!
... Killer Cover Compilation Tuesday, October 2, 2012 Since we had our Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex preview yesterday, here's something a bit more general. Check out this fantastic compilation of the first 60 Pathfinder Adventure Path covers, stitched together by our own Senior Art Director, Sarah Robinson. This set collects our first 10 Adventure Paths, highlighting the themes and deadliest threats of each campaign up through volume #60. Five years ago I didn't even dare to hope I might be...
Killer Cover Compilation
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Since we had our Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex preview yesterday, here's something a bit more general. Check out this fantastic compilation of the first 60 Pathfinder Adventure Path covers, stitched together by our own Senior Art Director, Sarah Robinson. This set collects our first 10 Adventure Paths, highlighting the themes and deadliest threats of each campaign up through volume #60. Five years ago I didn't even dare to hope I might be saying this, but I guess we're going to have to start planning something really special for Pathfinder Adventure Path #100 in November 2015.
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Living Dead Friday, September 28, 2012 Last night we finished up session 35 of James Jacobs's office campaign, which has morphed into an adaptation of Gary Gygax's classic fantasy Egyptian superdungeon, Necropolis. James has done a lot to make the adventure his own, including transporting it to the nation of Osirion in the Pathfinder world, and adding several devious traps and monsters not in the original adventure. ... But we're still in ancient tombs and...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Living Dead
Friday, September 28, 2012
Last night we finished up session 35 of James Jacobs's office campaign, which has morphed into an adaptation of Gary Gygax's classic fantasy Egyptian superdungeon, Necropolis. James has done a lot to make the adventure his own, including transporting it to the nation of Osirion in the Pathfinder world, and adding several devious traps and monsters not in the original adventure.
But we're still in ancient tombs and pyramids and stuff, though, so if one thing has changed, it's that we're running into a LOT more undead these days.
Which brings me to today's preview of upcoming figures from the Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures! The set supports the brand-new Shattered Star Adventure Path, which sets the players on a quest around Varisia to reunite an ancient artifact created by the progenitor of the Runelords. It's a sort of sequel to other Varisia-based Adventure Paths, including Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and Second Darkness, but the campaign also stands alone as a self-contained Adventure Path.
And, truth be told, it's got a fair number of undead.
Here are two of them, both ready to menace your player characters and both slated at the uncommon rarity.
Up first is the Skeletal Champion, a figure I've wanted to create since I first saw his illustration in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. We later used the same illustration in the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box, where the Skeletal Champion is one of the major antagonists provided in the set. I've long had a goal to create miniatures of every monster in that set, so when it came time to plan the Shattered Star miniatures set (and the Shattered Star Adventure Path itself), I asked James Jacobs to make sure to include a skeletal champion somewhere in the campaign. He obliged, and I finally got my miniature.
The Mummy Cleric is a similar story. Back when we were doing the Rise of the Runelords set, we almost slipped in a "Thassilonian Mummy" figure, partly because a few appeared in the Adventure Path, and partly because the Mummy in Heroes & Monsters, our first Pathfinder Battles set, looked a lot more like a rank-and-file bruiser from a Scooby Doo episode than a chilling, memorable villain.
The Thassilonian Mummy didn't make the final cut for Runelords, so when it came time to create the Shattered Star outline, I asked James if he might include more Thassilonian Mummies in the new campaign (which was, after all, set in the ruins of Thassilon). We then asked artist Tyler Walpole to draw what one of these guys might look like, and he came up with a skull-faced menace that blew our socks off.
Accordingly, this figure is now one of the tougher opponents PCs will face in the campaign. He's still Thassilonian, but he's his own villain, a nasty undead cleric of Groetus, God of the End Times. We call him (appropriately enough) the Mummy Cleric.
Good luck with this one, player characters!
That's it for this week. I have other undead I could show you, but we have a few more weeks to go before things get really spoooooky for Halloween.
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Golems' Got It! Friday, September 21, 2012 Earlier this week WizKids brought by the case incentive miniature for the upcoming Shattered Star set of prepainted Pathfinder Battles miniatures. In the previous set, Rise of the Runelords, the incentive miniature was the enormous Rune Giant, which lorded over the rest of the set and looked absolutely amazing doing it. ... I can't say what the case incentive figure will be for Shattered Star yet (because I want to...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Golems' Got It!
Friday, September 21, 2012
Earlier this week WizKids brought by the case incentive miniature for the upcoming Shattered Star set of prepainted Pathfinder Battles miniatures. In the previous set, Rise of the Runelords, the incentive miniature was the enormous Rune Giant, which lorded over the rest of the set and looked absolutely amazing doing it.
I can't say what the case incentive figure will be for Shattered Star yet (because I want to show you a painted sculpture for extra jaw-droppage, and we're not quite there yet), but when we got a look at it, our excitement for this set exploded to the next level, which is something I didn't even think possible (we like the Shattered Star set an awful lot).
So I can't show off that incredible miniature just yet. But I do have a couple of other incredible figures this week to make up for it!
Up first this week is the Iron Golem. This Large figure is based on a great illustration by Tyler Walpole that I think captures a classic look for this iconic dungeon monster. The paint job on this guy is relatively simple, but WizKids has made subtle choices that make the simplicity work for it. The color of the creature's “iron” skin has a sheen to it that really sells the metal effect, similar to the way the Karzoug Statue in Rise of the Runelords really looked like it could have been made of stone. Even better, the Iron Golem's eyes and mouth are painted in a sort of pearlescent orange, giving the effect of smoldering fire within the sockets. WizKids brought by a production sample of this figure at this week's meeting, and everyone commented on how much they liked it. I think you'll like it too.
The Alchemical Golem from Bestiary 2 is one of my favorite golems in the game, so it's fitting that the Alchemical Golem from the Shattered Star set is one of my favorite prepainted plastic miniatures in any set. This Large miniature is SERIOUSLY cool.
I count FIVE different colors of clear plastic on this figure, from the green goo that fuels its body to the varicolored potions in its syringe fingers. Best of all (and not really visible in this preview photo, alas), the clear dome of the Alchemical Golem's head actually contains a little brain! Gross!
Expect preorder pages for the Shattered Star set to appear very shortly here on paizo.com, and it's not too early to ask your local retailer to make sure they order enough copies of this set from their distributor.
... Illustration by ... Dmitry Burmak Week of Free!* Thursday, September 20, 2012 Earlier this week we gave you the Pathfinder RPG: Beginner Box Transitions download and now we present you with something else with a free price tag. ... For those of you who have Curse of the Lady's Light (either in your paws or downloaded onto the digital perusal device of your choice) you might have read James's foreword where he mentions something about a free web enhancement. In that foreword, he explains...
For those of you who have Curse of the Lady's Light (either in your paws or downloaded onto the digital perusal device of your choice) you might have read James's foreword where he mentions something about a free web enhancement. In that foreword, he explains how a chunk of Mike Shel's adventure needed to get scrapped to fit the deity article on Torag (which we missed putting in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path). This isn't something we normally do, but we had the art and James really liked the extra social interaction encounters. This is GM-focused bonus material that provides a few more encounters and helps move the story from Magnimar to the Lady's Light—so stay out players!
But for everyone else, enjoy your time with the new characters you'll meet in this free supplement and use it to bring more fun to your Shattered Star campaign!
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: Feel the Burn! Friday, September 14, 2012 We've just finished laying out the packaging for the upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic fantasy gaming miniatures, which means we'll very shortly have the product up for pre-order! These figures support the new Shattered Star Adventure Path, but are of course usable in any fantasy campaign. ... At this point, all of the sculpts have been approved, and the only figure still in painting...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Feel the Burn!
Friday, September 14, 2012
We've just finished laying out the packaging for the upcoming Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic fantasy gaming miniatures, which means we'll very shortly have the product up for pre-order! These figures support the new Shattered Star Adventure Path, but are of course usable in any fantasy campaign.
At this point, all of the sculpts have been approved, and the only figure still in painting is the enormous Gargantuan "case incentive" miniature, whose big reveal is still probably a few weeks away.
While we wait for these important milestones, let's take a look at more figures from the set. Come along, won't you?
Here we have the Medium Fire Elemental in all his burning glory! Emerging from a pillar of flame, this guy stands about a foot taller than your average adventurer, which I think qualifies as "fiery death from above." He's sculpted in clear plastic, and should look extra-flamey when light shines through his clear bits.
Why call this guy a "medium" fire elemental, you might ask? Well, because there is another fire elemental at a different size coming in a future preview.
Just kidding. Here he is. This beast is the Large Fire Elemental.
This guy is WAAAAAAY bigger than a normal adventurer. Heck, he's bigger than the biggest ogre we've produced to date. He is SO BIG that it almost seems like he should fit on a Huge base. But no, he is in fact Large. We just love putting as much value into a miniature as possible, and the Large Fire Elemental is a good example of that principle in action. It's also a suggestion that if we ever do a truly Huge fire elemental in the future, it's going to be absolutely astoundingly enormous. Again, the Large Fire Elemental is sculpted in clear plastic for extra fiery effect.
And because we're about to reveal packaging that has this next guy on it anyway, I've decided to include a bonus figure in this week's preview. The Guiltspur Naga!
This creature is one of many of its kind that traveled up through the Darklands and into the ancient Thassilonian ruin of Guiltspur, site of the Shattered Star's fifth adventure, "Into the Nightmare Rift". This creature is Large and in charge. And in the office next to mine, our Creative Director James Jacobs is working on this creature's encounter RIGHT NOW!
Because production on the set is still in swing, we have not yet assigned solid rarities to any of the figures in the set, including these. Keep your eyes on this space in the next couple of weeks for specific details on the set's configuration, price, and release date.
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: That's a big sword! Friday, September 7, 2012 Last Friday, the poor Paizo Blog was bereft of a Pathfinder Battles preview on account of yours truly running the Pathfinder demo room at PAX Prime. PAX is an enormous Seattle-based convention with a primary focus on computer games, which means that the 70,000+ attendees are all decked out with the latest trends in wireless gaming and handheld mobile devices. This has the side effect of train-wrecking internet...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: That's a big sword!
Friday, September 7, 2012
Last Friday, the poor Paizo Blog was bereft of a Pathfinder Battles preview on account of yours truly running the Pathfinder demo room at PAX Prime. PAX is an enormous Seattle-based convention with a primary focus on computer games, which means that the 70,000+ attendees are all decked out with the latest trends in wireless gaming and handheld mobile devices. This has the side effect of train-wrecking internet access from virtually anywhere in the convention, which means no blogging from the show floor.
Thanks for your patience, and I hope you minis fiends out there were able to make it through the weekend without a major bout of the DTs.
Anyway, because you got no previews last week, I wanted to make sure you got something big this week. And when I think big, one of the first things that comes to mind is the massive sword wielded by our iconic barbarian, Amiri, who just happens to star in the new Shattered Star Pathfinder Battles set!
WizKids really outdid themselves with this figure, as they have with all of our iconic characters so far. I originally tried to get the company to include Amiri in our first Pathfinder Battles set, Heroes & Monsters, but WizKids politely declined, saying that the overwhelming detail and pointy bits of Wayne Reynolds's original illustration would make it impractical to sculpt in plastic. (Incidentally, that's why H&M only has one iconic character, whereas all following sets have two).
By the time Shattered Star came around and WizKids had already proven themselves more than capable of handing challenging subject matter, I quietly added Amiri back to a set list, and this time they didn't even flinch. Instead they came back with what I consider one of the most beautiful figures they've produced to date.
Looking at the figure in hand brings out a lot of awesome details that you can't quite make out from the photograph. Amiri's slight sneer, the cracks in her armor plates, and the scars on her belly really jump off the figure in an awesome way.
And yes, she's holding an enormous sword. Don't blame us! She stole it from a frost giant, and it's served her very well to date, especially when she's raging.
I think you guys are going to love her.
But since I said "big" in the title of the blog post, it only seems fair that I include an actual "big" miniature in addition to a regular-sized miniature holding a big sword. For that purpose, I've decided to also reveal the Hill Giant!
This sculpt perfectly captures the slack-jawed glory of the original hill giant illustration in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, and continues to round out our offerings of "core" giants in prepainted plastic.
Although the Shattered Star Pathfinder Battles set includes lots of specific NPCs born out of the Adventure Path itself, it's also a chance for us to include plenty of rank-and-file monsters that just happen to be encountered in the course of the campaign. This rock-throwing simpleton is just one of the many yet to come.
But they will, alas, have to wait for future Fridays, as I am all out of time!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Very Important Column
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Very Important Column Friday, August 24, 2012 We’re back from Gen Con, and holy cow things went great for Paizo at this year’s show! I was very pleased at the reception of our new Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic fantasy miniatures, as con-goers surrounded our display of all the unboxed figures throughout the exhibit hall hours, and I kept seeing the figures (along with our new Bestiary Box Pawns) all over the 95 tables of...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Very Important Column
Friday, August 24, 2012
We’re back from Gen Con, and holy cow things went great for Paizo at this year’s show! I was very pleased at the reception of our new Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic fantasy miniatures, as con-goers surrounded our display of all the unboxed figures throughout the exhibit hall hours, and I kept seeing the figures (along with our new Bestiary Box Pawns) all over the 95 tables of Pathfinder Society games that ran every slot of the convention.
I was especially pleased to accept the gold Gen Con/ENnie award for Best Miniatures Product for our very first Pathfinder Battles set, Heroes & Monsters. As proud as I am of that initial offering, from my perspective the Pathfinder Battles sets just keep getting better and better, so I’m eager to see what next year’s judges and voters think of Rise of the Runelords and the upcoming Shattered Star minis set!
We ended up selling out of all the Rise of the Runelords minis by Sunday, and I was pleased to see several gamers getting in line two or three times with piles of boosters in hand as they hunted down that one specific figure or simply augmented their growing collection of Pathfinder Battles miniatures. Reaction to the new four-figure standard booster format was very positive, and it was really cool to see people so excited about a product line I’ve personally poured a ton of attention and sweat into over the last year. I was pleased to see that our partners at WizKids felt similarly, and your support made both of our conventions among the best ever.
Of course, as much as I love the Rise of the Runelords figures, these days I’ve been spending an awful lot of time with that set’s younger, hotter cousin, the Shattered Star! This set of 55 miniatures is currently slated for a January 2013 release, coinciding with the publication of the final volume of the Shattered Star Adventure Path!
Shattered Star was our first opportunity to develop a set of miniatures to support an Adventure Path at the same time that that Adventure Path was being outlined. I’ve spoken before in earlier columns about the difficulties associated with such a plan (we have to make LOTS of decisions MUCH sooner than we’re used to in order to pull it off given the extremely long lead-time involved with miniatures production), but one of the great things about this approach is that I got to sneak a few miniatures into the set (and hence into the Adventure Path outline) that have never before been released as prepainted plastic miniatures.
Which leads us to today’s figure: The Caryatid Column!
This creature has a long history in fantasy gaming, but its inspiration has an even longer history in, well, history. Caryatids—which is to say columns in the form of maidens—have been a part of architecture since the ancient Greeks. Their use dates back to at least the 6th century BC. I was able to see one of the famous caryatids at the British Museum while visiting London after Gen Con UK a few years back, and the sculpting was so realistic that the stone dresses worn by the figure looked soft to the touch, almost like it was real cloth on a real woman.
Happily, in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Caryatid Columns actually DO come alive, making them near-perfect low(ish)-level constructs. Plus, hitting them has a way of breaking the PCs’ weapons, which is always fun for the GM.
When I decided to include a Caryatid Column in the Shattered Star set, I took a look at the drawing included in the Pathfinder Bestiary 3. a neat enough illustration, but it lacks the sort of clothing effects I expect to see on a Caryatid Column inspired by the genuine articles. Instead I asked WizKids’ artists to base their sculpt upon an actual, real-life Caryatid Column from the ancient world. I think the resulting figure looks a lot better than a straight translation of the art from the Bestiary.
By sculpting our Caryatid Column figure in “column form,” the miniature doubles as any sort of pillar you might want to throw on your game table. I’m eager to set up whole rows of these guys (or gals, as the case may be) in my dungeons. Maybe some of them are ordinary pillars, while others are monsters waiting patiently for the arrival of the heroes. Who knows? Well, I know, of course, which is one of the reasons I prefer to be the GM.
Lastly, because I’m a nice guy and because I’m sure a few of you out there are wrongly clicking your tongues and thinking “big deal, so it’s a column,” I’m going to drop ONE MORE preview on you.
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: Opening Big Friday, August 10, 2012 We're tying up all the final loose ends before heading to Indianapolis for Gen Con next week, so because I'm so busy, I'm going to let my favorite freelancer write a fun description of the creature depicted in today's blog: ... It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equipped with formidable talons. After it came another paw, and after that a great black-furred arm to which both of the paws were attached by short...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Opening Big
Friday, August 10, 2012
We're tying up all the final loose ends before heading to Indianapolis for Gen Con next week, so because I'm so busy, I'm going to let my favorite freelancer write a fun description of the creature depicted in today's blog:
"It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equipped with formidable talons. After it came another paw, and after that a great black-furred arm to which both of the paws were attached by short forearms. Then two pink eyes shone, and the head of the awakened gug sentry, large as a barrel, wabbled into view. The eyes jutted two inches from each side, shaded by bony protuberances overgrown with coarse hairs. But the head was chiefly terrible because of the mouth. That mouth had great yellow fangs and ran from the top to the bottom of the head, opening vertically instead of horizontally. " —H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"
Yes, today's featured miniature is the Gug, subterranean terror of Lovecraft's Dreamlands. This horrific monstrosity is the centerpiece of an epic encounter in the Shattered Star Adventure Path. That campaign kicks off this month, with the new Shattered Star Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures set currently slated for January.
That's a pretty sweet looking monster, eh? It has cleaner teeth than Lovecraft's version, and yellower eyes, but this miniature captures the essence of the description that inspired it, and it's sure to strike terror into the hearts of your player characters. The quality of the sculpt and paint job have a lot to do with that, but to me the most impressive thing about this figure is its size.
This guy TOWERS over player characters, pushing the very limits of the Large size category.
And the blood in his mouth is shiny.
He's great, and I can't wait to build a little shrine in my office with like eight of this guy.
Next week we're at Gen Con for the official release of the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles set, as well as a sweet new booth display of every Pathfinder Battles miniature released to date.
Stop by the Paizo booth to claim your very own limited edition Festering Spirit figure (free with $50 purchase), and don't forget to seek me out and say hi. I'd love to hear what you think about the Pathfinder Battles line (or any of Paizo's products), and what you'd like to see us do in the future.
Regular Shattered Star Pathfinder Battles preview blogs will continue in two weeks. Until then, see you at Gen Con!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Starting Small with the Shattered Star
... Pathfinder Battles Preview: Starting Small with the Shattered Star Friday, August 3, 2012 August is upon us, and we've finally reached the release month for the Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures! We'll debut the set at Gen Con Indy, which means that the complete shipment is currently sitting in our warehouse, which has picked up a distinctive smell of fresh plastic. I love the smell of fresh plastic in the morning. It smells like... Victory. ... Anyway,...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Starting Small with the Shattered Star
Friday, August 3, 2012
August is upon us, and we've finally reached the release month for the Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures! We'll debut the set at Gen Con Indy, which means that the complete shipment is currently sitting in our warehouse, which has picked up a distinctive smell of fresh plastic. I love the smell of fresh plastic in the morning. It smells like... Victory.
Anyway, you guys are going to explode with delight when you get the Rise of the Runelords figures in your hands. They are absolutely amazing, and set a new standard for prepainted plastic miniatures.
A standard we're set to exceed with the very NEXT set, the Shattered Star! This third official set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures (produced in cooperation with our friends at WizKids) contains 55 figures, and is currently slated for a January 2013 release. We're still working on some of the final details on price and packaging, so it'll be several more weeks before we have the product pages for this set up and running here on paizo.com, but we don't want to let pesky details like that get in the way of revealing some of the amazing figures we've been working on over the last few months.
Even though we haven't yet revealed a single Shattered Star mini, we're actually much farther ahead in the production process with this set than we've been at a similar period with other sets. We've approved about 90% of the paint masters so far, and are only waiting on a couple of figures. Preview images from the set should be landing here every Friday until I run out of them, and believe me when I say you're in store for some absolutely astounding miniatures.
Before I get to today's initial reveals, I want to talk briefly about spoilers and the nature of previewing a set of miniatures for an adventure campaign that hasn't been published yet—it's going to be a bit difficult, and you probably ARE going to have a few minor details and surprises spoiled by reading these weekly blogs.
I'll take care to hide truly egregious spoilers (“this guy is the arch villain of adventure three, but he's the PCs' best friend for the first two adventures, LOL”) behind spoiler tags, but as the entire point of showing off these miniatures is to, well, SHOW OFF THESE MINIATURES, I'm not going to hide every image behind a spoiler tag. If you're the type of player or GM who gets bent out of shape knowing that certain monsters are scheduled to appear in an adventure you haven't played yet, it may be a good idea to keep your eyes away from this space for the foreseeable future.
‘Cause I'm going to spill some secrets.
Let's start with some small ones, from the very first volume of the Shattered Star Adventure Path, Shards of Sin.
Up first is the lowly Mite, a rank-and-file monster from the pages of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. This standard Small fey creature plays an important role in the opening adventure (and this isn't the only mite in the set, either). I love how gross WizKids' master painter made this little bugger, and I can't wait to get a whole pile of them to add to my personal collection.
Speaking of giant piles of monsters I'd quite like to add to my collection, allow me to introduce you to a derro known as Caedimus!
Good Caedimus is a rank-and-file derro. We've given him a specific name to differentiate him from the other derro in the set (which we'll show off soon), but like the Mite, Caedimus is currently slated at the common rarity.
I'm hoping to get a bunch of him.
That's it for this week. Although both of these critters are Small, they're a good intro to the set, which in future weeks will include lots of much, much, much larger figures.
We're on the hunt for the Shattered Star! Come back to this space next Friday for a look at some more awesome minis coming your way in January!
... Shattered Star Player's Guide Thursday, August 2, 2012 About a month ago, someone in our messageboard community started a thread asking when the Shattered Star Player's Guide was going to be released. Our answer at the time was before the release of the Shattered Star Adventure Path. Well, that time is now! ... In this Player's Guide you'll find tips for making a character that fits well in the campaign. This lets players make some crucial early decisions without fear of wasting feats or...
Shattered Star Player's Guide
Thursday, August 2, 2012
About a month ago, someone in our messageboard community started a thread asking when the Shattered Star Player's Guide was going to be released. Our answer at the time was "before the release of the Shattered Star Adventure Path." Well, that time is now!
In this Player's Guide you'll find tips for making a character that fits well in the campaign. This lets players make some crucial early decisions without fear of wasting feats or making bad choices when it comes to certain class features. We also present a bunch of campaign traits and traits suitable for characters that are closely tied with the Pathfinder Society. Speaking of the Pathfinders, in this Player's Guide we give readers a rundown on the organization, since the campaign assumes the PCs will either be members of the Pathfinder Society or at least closely tied to them. Seeing as the Shattered Star Adventure Path starts in Magnimar, the Player's Guide gives a spoiler-free introduction to the city, and shows a map of Heidmarch Manor—a place that can serve as a base of operations when the PCs aren't waist deep in some dank dungeon. Finally, the Shattered Star Player's Guide provides the rules for using Fame and Prestige Points in your Shattered Star campaign. You can even get your own scribe to record your glory for future posterity!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The (Goblin) Dog Days of Summer
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The (Goblin) Dog Days of Summer Friday, June 29, 2012It's 2:25 PM and I still haven't written today's Pathfinder Battles preview blog. ... MUST BE SUMMER! ... I love the arrival of summer here in the Pacific Northwest, which for the other 9 months of the year likes to keep itself cloaked in a mantle of soggy gray misery. Finally, the sun peeks over the mountains and through the otherwise ever-present clouds, and a bit of happiness returns to the world. ......
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The (Goblin) Dog Days of Summer
Friday, June 29, 2012
It's 2:25 PM and I still haven't written today's Pathfinder Battles preview blog.
MUST BE SUMMER!
I love the arrival of summer here in the Pacific Northwest, which for the other 9 months of the year likes to keep itself cloaked in a mantle of soggy gray misery. Finally, the sun peeks over the mountains and through the otherwise ever-present clouds, and a bit of happiness returns to the world.
Unfortunately, I'm always too damn busy to appreciate it, because summer also means the arrival of the most hectic season for Paizo, with prep for major conventions like Gen Con and PAX eating up virtually every minute of the day. Right now we're working liked geased tinker-gnomes trying to get all our tasks accomplished for PaizoCon, which happens NEXT WEEK!
Oh. My. God.
So yeah, sorry it's taken a few extra hours of waiting for today's Pathfinder Battles goodness. I assure you (especially those of you coming to PaizoCon) that the wait will be very much worth it.
Speaking of PaizoCon, I'm pleased to announce that it's our intention to have EVERY SINGLE figure in the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures set on display at the convention store, so I encourage minis fanatics attending the show to bring cameras, because you're going to see some stuff there you've never seen before, even on this very blog! (The set will also be on full display at Gen Con, where we'll actually have the product for sale in line with its August release.)
Next week's blog will feature the set's final "mystery figure," the creature so challenging to sculpt and paint that it took us something like eleven tries to get it right. Can you guess what figure that might be?
In the meantime, here are two remaining stragglers who we haven't managed to show off yet, mostly due to bad camera angles on our original paint master shots. Somehow, our over-worked art team managed to snap a few better images of these shy characters (in their final production-run incarnations, no less), and now we're ready to reveal them to the world.
As you can see by this critter's gross skin and gnarly teeth, "Goblin Dogs" aren't really dogs at all, but nasty rodents trained by goblins as repulsive mounts. Goblins hate real dogs, of course, but everyone needs a best friend, and these gross creatures fill the role admirably.
Next up we have Viorian Dekanti, a rare villain from the final chapter of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, Greg A. Vaughan's "Spires of Xin-Shalast". Viorian wields Chellan, one of the legendary Seven Swords of Sin. A champion of the campaign's final "end boss," Viorian is not one to be trifled with (though her golden armor is certainly worth a pretty penny).
Of course, if you like the looks of her, Viorian can easily double as a martial player character or any important NPC armed with a sword and wearing fancy armor.
That's it for this week. ONLY ONE MORE MINI TO GO!
Then, I suppose it'll be time to start revealing figures from the next set.... which we plan to reveal at PaizoCon!
See you there (or see you here, in upcoming weeks)!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Runelord's Apprentice
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Runelord's Apprentice Friday, June 22, 2012This week I want to show off another never-before-seen miniature from the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy figures. We've come very close to revealing the entire set, but we still have a small handful of beasties and bad-guys still to be revealed. ... So let's start with a bang by revealing the one and only Khalib, apprentice to Runelord Karzoug himself! This high-level...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Runelord's Apprentice
Friday, June 22, 2012
This week I want to show off another never-before-seen miniature from the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy figures. We've come very close to revealing the entire set, but we still have a small handful of beasties and bad-guys still to be revealed.
So let's start with a bang by revealing the one and only Khalib, apprentice to Runelord Karzoug himself! This high-level transmuter was once one of Karzoug's greatest apprentices, and indeed it was to be Khalib who would rescue Karzoug after the disaster that ended the runelords' empire in ancient days. That plan failed, and now Khalib has been freed from prison because the newly awakened Runelord needs all the help he can get against the player characters.
Khalib appears as a major villain in the last chapter of the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition campaign. He's packed with ancient magic and 10,000 years of bitterness, and when you put his beautiful miniature on the table, he won't soon be forgotten!
By my count, we have only a couple miniatures left to preview in the next few weeks. Tune in next week for another major villain, and then shortly thereafter for a look at what proved to be—by far—the most challenging miniature (production-wise) in the entire set. Can you guess what it is?
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Sing, Sing, Sing! Friday, June 15, 2012The August release date of the new Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles miniature set approaches, and you can tell by the rising sound of chittering and singing on the horizon. Goblins chew and goblins bite! Goblins cut and goblins fight! the chanting goes, growing nearer and nearer. Your dog begins to bark with anxiety, casting watery eyes toward the back door. Out in the yard, you hear your horse whine in fear. ... The...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Sing, Sing, Sing!
Friday, June 15, 2012
The August release date of the new Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles miniature set approaches, and you can tell by the rising sound of chittering and singing on the horizon. "Goblins chew and goblins bite! Goblins cut and goblins fight!" the chanting goes, growing nearer and nearer. Your dog begins to bark with anxiety, casting watery eyes toward the back door. Out in the yard, you hear your horse whine in fear.
The goblins are coming. Their song haunts the darkening skies.
With the first adventure in the now-classic Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, our own James Jacobs created a brilliantly demented twist on goblins, and their haunting (and yet somehow hilarious) song about killing dogs and horses, bonking baby heads, and stewing flesh solidified goblins as the Pathfinder monster in the minds of roleplayers everywhere. That song put us on the map.
In the goblin raid encounter that starts the campaign, all the goblins attacking Sandpoint sing James's little ditty, but the one leading the song is the Goblin Warchanter, a female bard with a whip and a nasty attitude.
Here she is in all her plastic glory, screaming at the top of her little lungs. This common miniature is a great addition to the several other goblins in the set, and helps to set the scene in style with the campaign's very first series of encounters. We've even drawn out the location of Sandpoint's Swallowtail Festival on the new GameMastery Flip-Mat: Town Square, which has several perches and crannies for the Goblin Warchanter to seek refuge once the player characters interrupt her song.
But here's hoping they don't do it too rapidly. The last line of the song goes "We be goblins, you be food!", and it's always important to remind the player characters of their proper place in the world.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Golem's Got It Friday, June 8, 2012I've spent the week in New York City at Book Expo America, chatting with booksellers and distributors about Paizo's exciting upcoming products. I was very pleased to receive an early print sample of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition hardcover to bring to the conference, and it was fun to watch everyone's mouths fall agape as they took in the gorgeous book. I don't think it's much of an exaggeration...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Golem's Got It
Friday, June 8, 2012
I've spent the week in New York City at Book Expo America, chatting with booksellers and distributors about Paizo's exciting upcoming products. I was very pleased to receive an early print sample of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition hardcover to bring to the conference, and it was fun to watch everyone's mouths fall agape as they took in the gorgeous book. I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to claim that Rise of the Runelords is one of the most beautiful RPG books ever produced, and I'm so pleased with our team at Paizo and all of our freelance writers and illustrators for putting out such a great celebration of 5 years of Pathfinder and 10 years of Paizo Publishing. It really is a sight to behold.
A great campaign needs great miniatures, of course, and in this regard our partners at WizKids keep hitting it out of the park. I've been sharing early looks at the Pathfinder Battles Rise of the Runelords 65-figure set for months, and as we draw closer to the set's August release, I'm amazed that there are still so many cool miniatures left to reveal.
This week's miniature is the Stone Golem, a critical encounter as the campaign builds up to its climax.
This Large, rare figure packs a heavy punch. He's got his fists raised to pummel your player characters into the ground. The great thing about golems is that they can look like just about anything their creator wants. That's quite a handy bonus when it comes to miniatures, in that a unique-looking golem can easy double as another type of creature as needed. In this case, we pulled the crowned skull face directly from the creature's illustration, which has the helpful side-effect of making this guy a great substitution for any kind of undead behemoth you might need.
Speaking of undead behemoths, after a full week of day-to-night meetings at the Book Expo, I am TIRED and am looking forward to getting some shut-eye on the long flight to Seattle.
I'll have another Pathfinder Battles preview next Friday, so keep your eyes on this space!
... Unveiling the Shackles Thursday, June 7, 2012 When we started working on the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path and Wes drew up his incredibly detailed map of the Shackles, we knew we’d have to fill out this huge region if we wanted to do it any justice. Thanks to Mike Shel and all the excellent work he did on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Isles of the Shackles, we had a cornucopia of locations and adventure sites to put on the map. Factor in all the cool islands and seaside towns visited...
Unveiling the Shackles
Thursday, June 7, 2012
When we started working on the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path and Wes drew up his incredibly detailed map of the Shackles, we knew we’d have to fill out this huge region if we wanted to do it any justice. Thanks to Mike Shel and all the excellent work he did on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Isles of the Shackles, we had a cornucopia of locations and adventure sites to put on the map. Factor in all the cool islands and seaside towns visited throughout the Skull & Shackles AP, and what we ended up with is a lot of locations throughout the Shackles.
Like, a lot of locations.
Each volume in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path pinpoints the important islands visited in that adventure, and Isles of the Shackles maps out the big islands detailed in that book and their major cities, but beyond that, readers have yet to receive an exhaustive map that features all of the heretofore mentioned locations in the Shackles. This blog post remedies that.
The downloadable web supplement is a huge PDF map of the Shackles featuring tags for all of the locations heretofore mentioned in Pathfinder products. The map is highly spoiler-intensive since it gives the precise location for over 150 islands, towns, and sites of interest throughout the Shackles. Thus, it should go without saying that this map is meant only for those who aren’t players in a Skull & Shackles campaign or a campaign set in the Shackles. Otherwise, this map will prove an indisputable boon for GMs and readers interested in the Shackles who have no qualms with discovering each and every location in the region in excruciating detail. You can find more information on all of these exotic and often treacherous sites in Isles of the Shackles and throughout the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Bone Chiller Friday, June 1, 2012This week I'm revealing one more prepainted plastic miniature from the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set in our Pathfinder Battles line produced in conjunction with WizKids. We're in the home stretch now, with only a few miniatures left to reveal, so I'm slowing down the pace a bit to make up for the explosion of early reveals over the last few months. As my mother and work supervisors have always told me, I've got to learn to pace...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Bone Chiller
Friday, June 1, 2012
This week I'm revealing one more prepainted plastic miniature from the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set in our Pathfinder Battles line produced in conjunction with WizKids. We're in the home stretch now, with only a few miniatures left to reveal, so I'm slowing down the pace a bit to make up for the explosion of early reveals over the last few months. As my mother and work supervisors have always told me, I've got to learn to pace myself.
So if it's to be only one miniature this week, it's got to be something big and cool and scary. It's got to be something that, to my knowledge, has never before been produced in prepainted plastic.
It's got to be the Wendigo.
The rare Wendigo appears late in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, menacing the player characters as they approach the campaign's endgame. The new hardcover Anniversary Edition features lots of new illustrations, and a brand new shot of the wintery Wendigo facing off against Valeros is one of my absolute favorites in the new book.
Incidentally, printer samples of the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition hit my desk earlier this week, and it's fair to say that not only is it one of the most beautiful Pathfinder products released to date, it's one of the best-looking RPG books I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that because I love it like an only child.
A book of that quality deserves really kick-ass minis to go along with it, and I think the Wendigo is one of the most interesting and unique figures in the set. For starters, its Large size allows it to tower over many of the other figures. That size gives the sculptors more space to work their magic, so from the antlers to the severed leg stumps (mounted in a clear plastic base to give a floating effect), this guy is packed with interesting details. WizKids also outdid themselves on the Wendigo's paint steps. Check out the creature's bloody hands! They even went so far as to apply a shinier paint to the Wendigo's eyes, to give them a glassy, eerie look.
He's awesome. And he's going to scare the pants off your player characters!
We still have several more miniatures to reveal in the weeks leading up to the set's August release. We'll have samples of the entire set on display at Paizo Con, so if you're planning to head to that event, prepare to bask in the set's glory in person.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Big Bads (Volume 2) Friday, May 25, 2012Here we are on the precipice of a three-day weekend, and I got so excited I completely forgot to put together a blog for today's Pathfinder Battles preview! So let's cut to the chase and get to the previews of two of the Big Bads from the Rise of the Runelords set of prepainted Pathfinder Battles miniatures! ... Both of these characters come from the fifth volume of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, “Sins of the...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Big Bads (Volume 2)
Friday, May 25, 2012
Here we are on the precipice of a three-day weekend, and I got so excited I completely forgot to put together a blog for today's Pathfinder Battles preview! So let's cut to the chase and get to the previews of two of the Big Bads from the Rise of the Runelords set of prepainted Pathfinder Battles miniatures!
Both of these characters come from the fifth volume of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, “Sins of the Saviors,” by Stephen S. Greer. Last week I revealed some of the rank-and-file badguys from that epic adventure, and this week I've got a couple of significant enemies that perfectly set the stage for the campaign's endgame.
First up we have The Scribbler, the first big villain of the adventure. One of the evil goddess Lamashtu's most powerful mortal servants, The Scribbler dwells very near the home base of your Rise of the Runelords heroes, and he's sure to be a sworn enemy of your player characters. With a nasty sword and a mask covering half his face, The Scribbler easily doubles as a bandit leader or any kind of unique villain your campaign requires. We've placed him at the rare rarity.
Remember the Warriors of Wrath from last week's preview blog? Well, those nasty ladies need a leader, and the good (well, ok, not “good” per se) Highlady Athroxis is quite happy to keep them in line. This high-level eldritch knight Highlady of the Halls of Wrath is ready to unleash some whupass on your PCs with her +3 adamantine flaming ranseur, molded here largely in clear plastic to sell the flame effects. Naturally, this uber-high-level adversary with the shiny clear plastic bits falls into the rare rarity.
So that's it for this week of fun in the sun. Only a few more miniatures to show off, including a “chilly” mini almost no one is expecting to help you cool off on these warm summer days!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Of Sins and Saviors Friday, May 18, 2012There's something really cool about the fifth volume of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, Stephen S. Greer's “Sins of the Saviors.” After venturing through volumes loosely themed around goblins, ghouls, ogres, and giants, this fifth installment kicks the campaign backstory into high gear, with the player characters exploring a vast dungeon known as the Runeforge, a relic from the era of the ancient Runelords...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Of Sins and Saviors
Friday, May 18, 2012
There's something really cool about the fifth volume of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, Stephen S. Greer's “Sins of the Saviors.” After venturing through volumes loosely themed around goblins, ghouls, ogres, and giants, this fifth installment kicks the campaign backstory into high gear, with the player characters exploring a vast dungeon known as the Runeforge, a relic from the era of the ancient Runelords themselves.
In fact, during their adventure in the Runeforge, the PCs even get a chance to meet with survivors from that distant era, making this adventure an important pivot point for the campaign, essentially shifting things into the endgame to come in the final sixth volume.
What that means in a practical sense, especially because the PCs are now 12th level themselves, is that they finally get to face off against some pretty kick-ass bad guys who pack a powerful punch. In this week's blog, I'd like to reveal two of those bad guys. While they don't quite qualify as the Big Bads of the adventure (we'll get to them next week), these guys play key roles in important encounters, and are sure to be remembered by your players for a long time to come.
Coincidentally, both also make excellent player character miniatures themselves!
First up is the Warrior of Wrath, the result of centuries of genetic breeding and intense training in the Halls of Wrath, one of the most challenging of the seven sinful sub-dungeons of the Runeforge. These angry eldritch knights are the last of their long line, so it's a good thing the player characters show up to give them a target upon which to vent their rage and aggression! Because you'll need at least 6 Warriors of Wrath to pull off their encounter, we've slotted this figure in the common rarity.
Wrath isn't the only sin to get a sub-dungeon in the Runeforge. In the Shimmering Veils, pride is the sin that rules that day, and perhaps none in all of Golarion are so prideful as the illusionist Vraxeris, once among the most trusted servitors of Xanderghul, Runelords of Pride. Through cunning and the mastery of cloning techniques, Vraxeris has managed to survive in the thousands of years since the fall of the Runelords' ancient empire. Now, his mad simulacra wander the halls of the Shimmering Veils, eager to defeat intruders and certain that they have what it takes to keep their weird dungeon free from interlopers. Vraxeris is slated at the uncommon rarity.
We're nearing the end of the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles set (though a few super-awesome figures still remain to be revealed!), so I'm slowing things down a bit here in the blog, and plan to show only two figures a week from here forward. My head is already in the NEXT set, about half of which will be showing up at the Paizo offices later this afternoon for final sculpt approval.
The actual final production figures for Rise of the Runelords have started rolling into my office, and I'm pleased to report that the figures match the paint masters with amazing fidelity. Looking at these little pictures on the blog and holding the actual minis in-hand simply don't compare. I can say with honesty that I think the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles set will be the best and most consistently awesome set of prepainted plastic miniatures released yet for hobby gaming.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Small Update Friday, May 11, 2012We're getting to deep into the previews for the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles set that I've almost run out of pictures to show you! A handful of minis remain yet to be revealed, but I'm pleased to report that some of them are among the coolest in the set! ... Today I'd like to show off two Small miniatures from the set that leave a very big impression. ... Up first is the dreaded Kobold Champion! This lizard-like...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Small Update
Friday, May 11, 2012
We're getting to deep into the previews for the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles set that I've almost run out of pictures to show you! A handful of minis remain yet to be revealed, but I'm pleased to report that some of them are among the coolest in the set!
Today I'd like to show off two Small miniatures from the set that leave a very big impression.
Up first is the dreaded Kobold Champion! This lizard-like warrior woman might look a bit like a rank-and-file kobold, but she's in fact encountered late in the campaign, and boy does she ever pack a surprising punch! Although the Rise of the Runelords campaign contains only one Kobold Champion, we decided to slot this figure in the common rarity, reasoning that game masters can always use more well-sculpted kobolds to swarm over their players at any level!
It's probably a bit difficult to tell from the small photos here, but this figure has a remarkable number of paint steps for both a common miniature and a Small miniature, making her really stand out despite her diminutive size. From the paint gradient on her legs and tail to the bright blue tongue, this is one of several minis in the set where I think to myself "I can't believe this awesome mini is a common!"
Up next is the Redcap, a fey menace from real-world mythology with a long history in fantasy gaming. To my knowledge, no Redcap has previously appeared as a prepainted plastic miniature, which makes it a great addition to the Rise of the Runelords set. This little guy comes with the appropriate metal boots, oversized scythe, and the eponymous red cap. As fitting the Redcaps' role in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition campaign, we've slotted the Redcap in as a common, so you can easily collect a bunch of them.
That's it for this week's preview. The set contains at least two more size-Small figures, as well as a few more exciting surprises.
There's lots of great stuff yet to come! Enjoy the weekend, and don't forget to get in some gaming!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Gross, the Bad, and the Ugly
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Gross, the Bad, and the Ugly Friday, May 4, 2012We're getting close to having revealed all of the miniatures in the upcoming Pathfinder Battles set, Rise of the Runelords! It seems like only a few weeks ago that I started showing of sculpts and paint masters, but in fact it's been months, and as I type this the production run of miniatures is trundling through the factory. All of the paint schemes have been approved, all the decisions have been made, and now...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Gross, the Bad, and the Ugly
Friday, May 4, 2012
We're getting close to having revealed all of the miniatures in the upcoming Pathfinder Battles set, Rise of the Runelords! It seems like only a few weeks ago that I started showing of sculpts and paint masters, but in fact it's been months, and as I type this the production run of miniatures is trundling through the factory. All of the paint schemes have been approved, all the decisions have been made, and now all that's left is the waiting for the early August release.
Well, the waiting and a few more previews, that is!
Two weeks ago I promised something ugly, and today I'm fulfilling that dark pledge with three figures from the murkier side of the set. These are nasty dudes you definitely don't want to run into in a dark alley, and all three of them make creepy additions to your game table.
Up first is the Ogrekin, a nasty in-bred half-ogre whose clan is the centerpiece of “The Hook Mountain Massacre,” the third chapter in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path. With rippling muscles and a deformed (really gross) head, this bruiser wanders the wilderness looking... well, let's just say he's “looking for love,” and leave it at that. This common miniature is technically Medium-sized, but he's pushing the top-end of that scale, and makes for a really intimidating figure.
Faceless Stalkers were created in ancient times by the mysterious aboleths as interlocutors with the various air-breathing races of the surface world. Via a painful biological process, the creatures can warp and contort their form to take on the appearance of an enemy. When not pretending to be your wife or best friend, these guys run around in the gross, misshapen form revealed here. The photograph above doesn't quite show off the nasty detail of reddish ink in all of the nooks and fleshy crannies along this guy's skin (especially on his back). The Faceless Stalker is statted up in Bestiary 2, but even if you don't have that resource, this common figure doubles as any kind of hideous humanoid. Ick!
Last up today we have a friendly neighborhood initiate in the local cult of homicidal slasher maniacs, known to the denizens of Varisia as the Skinsaw Cultist! This common figure makes a nice rank-and-file cultist. His skinsaw mask and war razor root him firmly in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, while his robes and general creepiness make him a good troop-builder for a wicked cult in any campaign.
That's it for this week. I've only got a few more sculpts to show off, but I promise that some absolutely amazing stuff is still waiting to be shown! Come back next week for another early look at Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles miniatures!
... Introducing the Year of the Risen Rune Monday, April 30, 2012I took a break from the Gen Con push today to write this blog post, and my mind started to wander. I thought a bit about days gone by and how last year at this time we were under just as much pressure trying to get Ultimate Combat off to the presses in time. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyway, I also thought to myself, Self, what sort of blog were you writing this time last year? ... Aha! myself...
Introducing the Year of the Risen Rune
Monday, April 30, 2012
I took a break from the Gen Con push today to write this blog post, and my mind started to wander. I thought a bit about days gone by and how last year at this time we were under just as much pressure trying to get Ultimate Combat off to the presses in time. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyway, I also thought to myself, "Self, what sort of blog were you writing this time last year?"
"Aha!" myself answered. "I can do a search and find out!"
Now, those of you who've been following our Monday Pathfinder Society blog posts for a while likely remember this time in spring 2011, when we had a very lengthy series of posts covering "The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play." In fact, that series was when we started doing weekly posts and claimed Monday as our own special day of the week. So I checked back to Part VII of that series from May 2. And lo and behold, that was when we announced the title of the current season, the Year of the Ruby Phoenix.
"Self, you should do the same thing for Season 4 in your blog post for Monday," I said. And it seemed a reasonable suggestion, so I agreed.
Season 4 of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign will be entitled Year of the Risen Rune. The focus of the season is going to be the Pathfinder Society's burgeoning lodge in the Varisian city of Magnimar—the focal point of the forthcoming Shattered Star Adventure Path, which also debuts at Gen Con 2012. While that Adventure Path won't be sanctioned for Pathfinder Society credit and won't use the faction system we have in the organized play campaign, there will be a lot of overlap between the Adventure Path and the Pathfinder Society campaign. So whatever campaign you play, you'll have lots of options for exploring the untamed frontier region of Varisia and the ancient Thassilonian ruins located there.
We'll have a lot more information about both the Shattered Star Adventure Path and the Year of the Risen Rune in the coming months, but until we get closer to the launch of these exciting adventures, check out the venture-captain who Pathfinder players of all ilks are likely to get to know very well—Sheila Heidmarch—and the Pathfinder Society season's shiny new logo.
Sheila Heidmarch Illustration by Kieran Yanner
The Year of the Risen Rune and the Shattered Star Adventure Path both launch at Gen Con 2012 this August!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Behold the Black Arrows!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Behold the Black Arrows! Friday, April 20, 2012I'm on the road this week, so today's preview will be short and sweet. ... In recent weeks, we've showed off a lot of monsters and villains from the Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures. This week, I'd like to show off a trio of key NPCs that might prove to be enemies OR allies in the course of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, the notorious Black Arrows rangers! ... I'm really...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Behold the Black Arrows!
Friday, April 20, 2012
I'm on the road this week, so today's preview will be short and sweet.
In recent weeks, we've showed off a lot of monsters and villains from the Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures. This week, I'd like to show off a trio of key NPCs that might prove to be enemies OR allies in the course of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, the notorious Black Arrows rangers!
I'm really pleased with how awesome these minis turned out. Best of all, they make for great player character minis, and perfect stand-ins for whatever kind of warrior-types you might need in your campaigning beyond the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.
First up we have Jakardros Sovark, an uncommon human ranger who happens to be the stepfather of Shalelu Andosana, Varisia's famed elf ranger protector. Jakardros lost an eye somewhere along the way, but I assure you that hasn't hurt his skill with the bow and arrow!
Next up is Vale Temros, an uncommon human ranger/fighter with two axes and a whole lot of hurt to unleash on his enemies! I'm thrilled with how well Vale turned out, and in-hand I think he's one of the best miniatures in the set. I'd certainly love to put him on my table as either a PC or NPC!
Last up we have Kaven Windstrike, an uncommon ranger/rogue who might not turn out to be quite as helpful as his Black Arrow fellows. Unfortunately, Kaven's sword snapped off before we could grab a good photo of him (the paint masters are made of a much more brittle plastic than the final figures), so you'll have to use your imagination to see his supremely awesome sword. (Ok, it's pretty much just a normal sword, but as long as we're imagining...).
Be sure to get your own Black Arrows by preordering a Standard Case of Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles minis, or set up an ongoing case subscription to ensure your best chance of getting all 65 figures in the set!
That's it for this week. Next week, I promise something gross and monstrous!
... Pirate Familiars Thursday, April 19, 2012 ... Illustration by Typer WalpoleAvast there, ye scurvy swabs! This week sees the release of Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: The Wormwood Mutiny, which includes, among other things, four new familiars for you swashbuckling spellcasters out there. But pirates stole into our computers during the dead of night and made off with some valuable loot—the bonuses these familiars grant their masters! Fortunately, we tracked down the villainous knaves on the...
Pirate Familiars
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Illustration by Typer Walpole
Avast there, ye scurvy swabs! This week sees the release of Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: The Wormwood Mutiny, which includes, among other things, four new familiars for you swashbuckling spellcasters out there. But pirates stole into our computers during the dead of night and made off with some valuable loot—the bonuses these familiars grant their masters! Fortunately, we tracked down the villainous knaves on the open seas and recovered our lost cargo—and took a few extra bits o’ plunder for ourselves.
So without further ado, here’s the rules for the pirate familiars presented in The Wormwood Mutiny, with a few other pirate familiars thrown in for good measure!
Other Piratical Familiars
Trained animals are extremely popular among pirates, serving as pets, ships’ mascots, and company on lengthy voyages. Pirate spellcasters prove no different than their shipmates in their interest in pets, and find having exotic familiars wins them bragging rights and a degree of status. Creatures like blue-ringed octopuses, goats, hawks, rats, lizards, king crabs, monkeys, rats, scarlet spiders, snapping turtles, vipers, and weasels all serve as existing examples of potential pirate familiars that appear in either the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary or Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic. Additionally, the statistics for many existent familiars might be used to represent more exotic, piratical familiars. The following table presents a variety of such exotic familiars, statistics that can be used to represent them, and the benefits of having them as familiars (which, in some cases, vary from the familiar creatures whose statistics they share).
Pathfinder Battles Preview: In the Lair of the Lamias! (Also: Storm Giant)
Pathfinder Battles Preview: In the Lair of the Lamias! (Also: Storm Giant) Friday, April 13, 2012We've already revealed the dreaded Lamia Matriarch and the Huge Lamia Harridan, but the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition has even more lamias to slay player characters everywhere, and we're pleased to reveal two more in today's preview blog! ... Up first is the Lamia, a creature with ties to ancient Greek mythology and a strong pedigree in fantasy roleplaying games. Appropriately placed...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: In the Lair of the Lamias! (Also: Storm Giant)
Up first is the Lamia, a creature with ties to ancient Greek mythology and a strong pedigree in fantasy roleplaying games. Appropriately placed on a Large base, this nasty creature has a hateful streak you've really got to look out for. The common miniature also a great likeness of the art from the Pathfinder Bestiary.
Here we have the Lamia Kuchrima, the weakest of the lamia-kin. These flying creatures flock to the mountain skies of Varisia, as they have since the distant days of the ancient Runelords. Many dwell there still, and player characters in the Rise of the Runelords campaign will be facing several as they hack their way to the hidden city of Xin-Shalast at the campaign's conclusion. We've placed this figure at the common rarity, making it easy to gather a whole flight of them.
This figure isn't a lamia, but we think she's plenty cool. This Huge Storm Giant towers over player characters. The creatures feature heavily in the final encounters of the Rise of the Runelords campaign, and this powerful warrior is ready to usher things to a thunderous climax.
... Plunder and Pillage! Tuesday, April 10, 2012Avast! We've stolen your weekly Advanced Race Guide* preview because the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path starts now! Download the free Skull & Shackles Player's Guide, full of ideas and advice to help create all sorts of scallywags, swashbucklers, and other seaworthy characters perfect for this piratical campaign. Also, look inside for a preview of some of the high-seas challenges and new subsystems you can expect to see featured in the most...
Plunder and Pillage!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Avast! We've stolen your weekly Advanced Race Guide* preview because the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path starts now! Download the free Skull & Shackles Player's Guide, full of ideas and advice to help create all sorts of scallywags, swashbucklers, and other seaworthy characters perfect for this piratical campaign. Also, look inside for a preview of some of the high-seas challenges and new subsystems you can expect to see featured in the most grog-guzzling, plank-walking, keelhauling Pathfinder Adventure Path to date.
If you haven't already made your mark and subscribed to Pathfinder Adventure Path for the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, there's still time. But Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: "The Wormwood Mutiny" releases soon, so get onboard before this ship leaves port!
F. Wesley Schneider Captaining Editor
*We'll give it back to later in the week... if ye be lucky. Yarr!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: We Be Goblins! Friday, April 6, 2012 Goblins chew and goblins bite. ... Goblins cut and goblins fight. ... Stab the dog and cut the horse, ... Goblins eat and take by force! Goblins race and goblins jump. ... Goblins slash and goblins bump. ... Burn the skin and mash the head, ... Goblins here and you be dead! Chase the baby, catch the pup. ... Bonk the head to shut it up. ... Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed, ... We be goblins! You be food! —The Goblin...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: We Be Goblins!
Friday, April 6, 2012
Goblins chew and goblins bite.
Goblins cut and goblins fight.
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!
Goblins race and goblins jump.
Goblins slash and goblins bump.
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!
Chase the baby, catch the pup.
Bonk the head to shut it up.
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We be goblins! You be food!
For my money, that three-verse song from the opening encounter of "Burnt Offerings," the very first Pathfinder Adventure Path adventure, is as responsible as anything for the huge success of the Pathfinder Adventure Path line. Over the years (and really more or less immediately), gamers began to equate Pathfinder with goblins, and the creepy little critters (as envisioned by artist Wayne Reynolds and Paizo creative director James Jacobs, the song's author) soon became a sort of unofficial mascot for the Pathfinder brand.
The Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles fantasy miniature set gave us a great opportunity to revisit the first Pathfinder adventures, and we knew we needed to include as many goblins in the set that we could.
This week, I thought I'd show off most of the goblin miniatures from the Rise of the Runelords set to celebrate the fact that at long last, we're ready to reveal the set's product descriptions, prices, and case configurations!
I'll get to that a bit later. First, let's talk about goblins!
First up we have the common Goblin Commando, an elite goblin troop to supplement the Goblin Warrior or Goblin Hero from Heroes & Monsters. As you'll note in the Goblin Song above, goblins are no fans of horses, which is why this trooper's makeshift pole-arm is called a horsechopper.
Mounts beware!
Speaking of Goblin Commandos and mounts, here we have the vicious Goblin Commando on Goblin Dog, an uncommon figure that plays prominently in several encounters of "Burnt Offerings," especially in the raid on the town of Sandpoint that kicks off the entire campaign. August's Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition expands this encounter, working Flip-Mat: Town Square to set the scene. All you need to make it perfect is to add miniatures, and this guy is designed specifically for that purpose.
Here we have the leader of the goblins harrying Sandpoint, Warchief Ripnugget on Stickfoot. This teensie tyrant barks orders at his tribe from the back of a giant gecko, making the PCs' encounter with him (and with this rare miniature) one they won't soon forget.
There are at least two more goblin-related miniatures coming in later previews, so if you can hear one of the twisted verses of James Jacobs's Goblin Song echoing over the horizon, it's because we're not quite done with goblins yet!
The Nitty Gritty
We've been teasing product details for months, and I'm pleased to report that everything has finally fallen into place so that we can reveal all of the little details about the size of the set, when it will come out, and how the cases will be packaged. Click through to the various product pages for price and additional details.
Pathfinder Battles: Rise of the Runelords Set Details
Release Date: August 2012 Set Size: 65 prepainted plastic miniatures
The Standard Booster
Rise of the Runelords Standard Boosters contain four collectible miniatures. Each blind box contains a random selection of miniatures from the set, including one Large figure and three Medium or Small figures. Many figures feature colored clear plastic spell effects, crystals, and the like, and these figures range from monsters to important NPCs to Pathfinder iconic characters like Seoni and Harsk.
Standard Boosters come in the following configurations:
Single Standard Booster
8-ct. Standard Booster Brick
32-ct. Standard Booster Case (4 bricks)
The Huge Booster
The Rise of the Runelords set contains four Huge figures, from the Treachery Demon to the Lamia Harridan (shown below) to two figures we haven't revealed yet. The large size and relatively small number of these figures makes it impractical to include them in the Standard Booster, so WizKids created a new product configuration: The Rise of the Runelords Huge Booster. Each blind-boxed Huge Booster contains a single Huge figure from the Rise of the Runelords set.
Huge Boosters come in the following configurations:
Single Huge Booster
6-ct. Huge Booster Case
The Rune Giant
As we revealed last week, the biggest miniature in the set is the towering Rune Giant, our first Gargantuan miniature! The Rune Giant has been produced in extremely limited quantities, and is available for purchase only to retailers (from their distributor), paizo.com Pathfinder Battles case subscribers, and customers who pre-order a Standard case (while supplies last). For more details, visit the Rune Giant product page.
Subscribers
Customers with an Ongoing Pathfinder Battles Case Subscription receive the right to purchase the Rune Giant at 75% off the listed retail price, and are guaranteed access to this extremely rare figure at a rate of one per case ordered. They'll also receive a coupon code good for 20% off the purchase price of one Encounter Pack (such as Champions of Evil) and the standard 20% case subscriber discount on all Pathfinder Battles singles purchases made on paizo.com.
Completing the Set
We've worked hard with WizKids to pack the cases in such a way that customers who purchase a case of Standard Boosters, a case of Huge Boosters, and the Rune Giant can reasonably expect to complete the entire 65-figure set. While we cannot guarantee that this will happen due to the unlikely potential of packing errors at the factory, the intention is that a full line of cases will get a nearly complete set.
So that's it! The long-awaited full details on the long-awaited Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles set!
Next week we'll be mack with more previews and more exciting miniatures reveals!
... Prepare to Set Sail Thursday, April 5, 2012We're just a few weeks away from shipping out the first chapter of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path to subscribers. To get your peg legs itching, here are two pieces of art from Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: The Wormwood Mutiny. Both depict life aboard a pirate ship, albeit on different sides of the coin. Whether you find infamy and plunder upon the high seas or end up swabbing the decks, anchors are lifting soon and the life of a pirate...
Prepare to Set Sail
Thursday, April 5, 2012
We're just a few weeks away from shipping out the first chapter of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path to subscribers. To get your peg legs itching, here are two pieces of art from Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: The Wormwood Mutiny. Both depict life aboard a pirate ship, albeit on different sides of the coin. Whether you find infamy and plunder upon the high seas or end up swabbing the decks, anchors are lifting soon and the life of a pirate awaits! Be sure to check back next week for the release of the free Skull & Shackles Player's Guide.
Illustrations by Craig J Spearing and Mariusz Gandzel
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Big Reveal Friday, March 23, 2012Ardent followers of our Friday Pathfinder Battles preview blog surely noticed its absence last week, when necessity pulled me away to the wild frontier of Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show, an important game industry event that draws publishers, distributors, and retailers from around the country. While at GTS, I had a chance to sit down and chat with my counterpart over at WizKids, and our discussion covered where the...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Big Reveal
Friday, March 23, 2012
Ardent followers of our Friday Pathfinder Battles preview blog surely noticed its absence last week, when necessity pulled me away to the wild frontier of Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show, an important game industry event that draws publishers, distributors, and retailers from around the country. While at GTS, I had a chance to sit down and chat with my counterpart over at WizKids, and our discussion covered where the Pathfinder Battles line has been, and where it's headed in the future.
We spoke for the first time about the set after the next set (which we haven't even announced yet, but which is already in sculpting!). Sales have been strong for the line, and retailer comments at the show were very positive.
WizKids leaked a few details about Pathfinder Battles at a GTS presentation, including that the Rise of the Runelords set will have two booster configurations. The Standard Booster contains four figures, one Large and three either Medium or Small. The set also contains four Huge figures, sold in random single-figure Huge Boosters. Unlike with Heroes & Monsters, these two booster configurations will come in two different case sizes, so that retailers (and customers) will be able to re-order the size of booster that they need.
Although we are very, very close to being able to reveal specific details about price and availability, we still lack a couple of pieces of critical information that are preventing us from posting the product page so you can preorder these exciting figures right this very second. I expect that to change very soon, so keep your eyes on this space!
At the GAMA Trade Show, WizKids also revealed the worst-kept secret of the line, finally officially identifying the set's premium miniature: the Rune Giant! This gorgeous Gargantuan figure towers over Medium, Large, and even Huge figures, and with his enormous sword he cuts an imposing figure on your game table.
The final miniature will have elaborate tattoos all over his skin, inspired by the original rune giant art by Wayne Reynolds. That's the Vampire from Heroes & Monsters down there by the Rune Giant's shin. I thought you guys would appreciate a sense of just how big this figure is relative to, say, a player character miniature.
Like the Huge Black Dragon of Heroes & Monsters, this figure is produced in extremely limited quantities, and will be available to purchase by customers who subscribe or preorder cases of Rise of the Runelords Standard Boosters (as well as through select retailers). Details on pricing and exactly how you can be sure not to miss this amazing figure will come shortly.
WizKids also revealed another much-anticipated figure, the rare Runelord Karzoug the Claimer, arch-villain of the entire Rise of the Runelords campaign!
This pose was drawn from a chapter-opener image from Ultimate Magic, depicting Karzoug in battle against a hated foe. Both the magical spell effect launching from Karzoug's left hand and the flames of his pole-arm are rendered in tinted clear plastic, adding to the energy effect. With gorgeous fine detailed painting along the hem and embroidery of his robes and lavishly detailed equipment and clothing features, this is a miniature your players will long remember and really relish defeating.
Lastly this week, I wanted to show off a figure that WizKids didn't reveal at the GAMA Trade Show. I wanted to pick a monster, and I wanted to pick something distinctly Pathfinder, something emblematic of the Pathfinder brand that maybe wouldn't have ever appeared if not for the original Rise of the Runelords campaign.
I decided on this guy, the brutal Sinspawn Axeman.
This miniature is an armored, souped-up version of the Sinspawn miniature we previewed weeks ago. As the campaign gets tougher, the player characters actually fight more of these axe-wielders than they do the regular type from the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, which is one reason we've put both of them in the common rarity.
That's it for this week! We've still got plenty more awesome figures to preview in the weeks and months to come, as well as a lot more specifics on price, exact configuration, and other important details.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Burnt Offerings Friday, March 3, 2012The Paizo office is abuzz with activity as the schedule shifts into overdrive in advance of the big summer releases. We're shipping the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide today, and final pages of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition are spooling off the new color printer and into the hands of eager editors. Most of you will enjoy the fruits of our recent activity later this summer, perhaps at Paizo Con...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Burnt Offerings
Friday, March 3, 2012
The Paizo office is abuzz with activity as the schedule shifts into overdrive in advance of the big summer releases. We're shipping the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide today, and final pages of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition are spooling off the new color printer and into the hands of eager editors. Most of you will enjoy the fruits of our recent activity later this summer, perhaps at Paizo Con or Gen Con, but in order to get all this great stuff to the printer in time for its release, Paizo central is buzzing NOW.
As I write this sitting on my couch at 2:32 AM, I've just finished looking over the color proofs of the first chapter of the Rise of the Runelords, “Burnt Offerings,” by our own James Jacobs. James really set the tone for the Adventure Path (and Pathfinder Adventure Paths in general) with his devious adventure. When we decided to feature the Rise of the Runelords in the upcoming Pathfinder Battles set with our partners at WizKids, one of the things that excited me most was the opportunity to bring some of James's brilliant NPCs to full-color life in plastic.
This week in the Paizo Blog, we'll take a look at four NPCs from “Burnt Offerings.” I'd call them all villains, but that would mean spoilers, and I wouldn't want to do that to you. Besides, at least one of these folks could be convinced to join your party as you venture through the town of Sandpoint and the nearby goblin enclave of Thistletop.
First up we have Tsuto Kaijitsu, a half-elf about town whose obsessions help to embroil the player characters in the events of the Adventure Path. Tsuto's sister is the already-previewed Ameiko Kaijitsu, and players will have occasion to encounter both of their miniatures on the field of battle. Tsuto also makes for a good player character miniature. Like all of the miniatures in this week's preview, Tsuto is rare.
Tsuto's obsession is Nualia, an aasimar who is not one of Sandpoint's most upstanding citizens, to put it lightly. She's got a demon hand, a belly full of scars, and a nice big sword to carve up player characters. It took us a few tries to get Nualia's pose correct, but I'm very happy with how it came out. I love the way she's beckoning her enemies to approach.
Lyrie Akenja is another interesting adventurer and Varisian wanderer pulled into the schemes of Tsuto and Nualia. This figure gave us a chance to incorporate a familiar into a spellcaster miniature. Lyrie's little cat is super cute. This figure works great as a player character, too.
Lastly today we have Orik Vancaskerkin, a fighter who like Lyrie found himself drawn into the affairs of Nualia and her minions. Whether or not he counts as one of those minions is really up to the player characters, meaning this figure could easily double as a friend or a foe. Like Lyrie, he makes an excellent player character miniature. Orik is only one of many Vancaskerkins in the Varisia area. Others appear in other Adventure Paths (and at least one more will soon appear as a Pathfinder Battles miniature!).
That's it for this extremely busy week! I'll be meeting in person with the folks from WizKids at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas next week, and I hope to reveal specific release details (including cost, case information, and more) shortly thereafter.
Incidentally, that means we'll be taking a break from previews next Friday, as I'll be on the road and scheming wonderful schemes.
... Ultimate Equipment: What's Missing? Tuesday, March 6, 2012Now that we’re wrapping up the last of the Advanced Race Guide, the design team is starting to work on Ultimate Equipment. This hardcover will cover all kinds of mundane and magical items for the Pathfinder RPG. As we have a little time before the text goes over to the editors, we’d like to give you one last chance to provide feedback for the book. Is there a kind of magic item that you’d like to see in this book? Is there an item...
Ultimate Equipment: What's Missing?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Now that we’re wrapping up the last of the Advanced Race Guide, the design team is starting to work on Ultimate Equipment. This hardcover will cover all kinds of mundane and magical items for the Pathfinder RPG. As we have a little time before the text goes over to the editors, we’d like to give you one last chance to provide feedback for the book. Is there a kind of magic item that you’d like to see in this book? Is there an item category that’s lacking? Is there a class or game mechanic that is underrepresented in the item lists? Leave your feedback to this blog entry and we’ll see what else we can cram into the book!
Edit: Just to clarify, this book is basically a "shopping catalogue" of items fantasy adventurers may want to own and have a reasonable chance of purchasing. It isn't introducing any new rule systems or subsystems (such as legacy weapons), rework character wealth by level or the problems with the "big six" magic items, or introduce new magic item slots, new classes or archetypes, clarifications or expansions of the crafting or magic item pricing rules, castles and furniture, shift existing items to different slots, include magical equivalents of technological items (cell phones, portable stoves), items that duplicate or invalidate class abilities or feats, or futuristic weapons. We are adding new magic items to every single magic item slot. In particular, we'd like to know if there are any mundane items, weapons, or armor that fill a niche which isn't already covered in the game.
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Ogre the River and Through the Woods...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Ogre the River and Through the Woods... Friday, March 2, 2012One of the best parts of working at Paizo is getting to see the brand new art fresh as it arrives in the office. When a new Wayne Reynolds cover painting makes its way to the art department, editors and developers flock to the big monitors to check out the latest masterpiece. It's become a sort of ritual around here. ... Five years ago, when we first launched the Pathfinder Adventure Path, we marveled as...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Ogre the River and Through the Woods...
Friday, March 2, 2012
One of the best parts of working at Paizo is getting to see the brand new art fresh as it arrives in the office. When a new Wayne Reynolds cover painting makes its way to the art department, editors and developers flock to the big monitors to check out the latest masterpiece. It's become a sort of ritual around here.
Five years ago, when we first launched the Pathfinder Adventure Path, we marveled as each new volume brought a fresh take on a classic fantasy monster. Wayne's goblins on the very first Pathfinder cover (flavored by James Jacobs's insane portrayal in the text) immediately conveyed our plans for the new Pathfinder product line—delivering a fresh new take on the classic themes and monsters of fantasy gaming.
In Pathfinder Adventure Path #3, “The Hook Mountain Massacre,” author Nicolas Logue cranked the “fresh new take” into overdrive in his portrayal of ogres as monstrous inbred hillbilly brutes. Wayne Reynolds gave Nick's ogres a puppet-like look that pushed the creepiness even further.
Just as we'd done with the goblins in volume #1, we wanted to give Pathfinder's ogres a distinctive take, and a distinctive visual look. Nick and Wayne delivered, creating an adventure that remains one of the most memorable and unsettling of Pathfinder's entire run to date.
You'll get a chance to play this great adventure (or play it again) in July with the release of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition hardcover. The Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures set will support the campaign, with tons of miniatures inspired by images from the adventures.
Including three amazing ogres!
Up first is the uncommon Ogre, your general rank-and-file maniac. Like all three ogres in the set, this handsome gentleman comes directly from Wayne Reynolds's cover of “The Hook Mountain Massacre,” and he's never looked better. Don't tell the Ogre from Heroes & Monsters, but he's the runt of the litter when placed next to his, um, kin from Hook Mountain!
YEE HAW! Look out for this here big fella with the huge club! We call him the Ogre Brute on account of him swinging around that big stick, but he works just fine as a rank-and-file warrior. He's an uncommon like his brother.
On Hook Mountain, it takes a strong ogre indeed to keep all the family in line. In this set, that duty falls to the brutal Jaagrath Kreeg, a rare miniature with a leering smile and lust in his beady little eyes. I can say with authority that your players will love killing these guys, and you'll love putting them out on your game table.
Details on the release date, format, and price of the Pathfinder Battles Rise of the Runelords set are still being solidified by our partners at WizKids.
And in late-breaking far-future news, I now have a pretty good idea what will be in the NEXT Pathfinder Battles set. I can promise exciting Pathfinder Battles previews at this time in this space for many, many more months to come!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Spoiler Alert! Friday, February 24, 2012There's just no two ways about it. If you read through this Pathfinder Battles Rise of the Runelords preview, you're putting yourself at risk of some plot spoilers. If you plan to play through the campaign, I highly recommend that you do not look super-closely at the miniatures I'm revealing today, as they could spoil a couple of fun surprises in the Adventure Path. ... Our new Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Spoiler Alert!
Friday, February 24, 2012
There's just no two ways about it. If you read through this Pathfinder Battles Rise of the Runelords preview, you're putting yourself at risk of some plot spoilers. If you plan to play through the campaign, I highly recommend that you do not look super-closely at the miniatures I'm revealing today, as they could spoil a couple of fun surprises in the Adventure Path.
Our new Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition hardcover is set to release this summer around the same time as the Rise of the Runelords miniatures set (still no specifics on release date or price for the miniatures, alas). The hardcover collects the entire classic first Pathfinder Adventure Path in a newly revised edition, with plenty of fun bells and whistles we'll be revealing over the next few months.
So a lot of people who have not yet had a chance to play the campaign will soon get that chance. If you think you'll be one of them, and you want to maintain your sense of surprise as long as possible, I suggest that you stop reading immediately.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Spoilers Ahead!:
First up this week we have Aldern Foxglove, a local lord encountered by the player characters in the opening encounters of the campaign. Foxglove serves as an ally and patron to the heroes, and stars in some additional expanded encounters in the hardcover, written by James Jacobs, who introduced Aldern the first time way back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #1.
Aldern is one of many NPCs to receive a new illustration in the Anniversary Edition. In many cases, we ordered these new pieces of art specifically because we knew the character needed a miniature. In the original, we only ever saw an image of Aldern's face, so this time we wanted to make sure that we captured his entire body. I think this figure, a rare, also doubles nicely for any male noble, city dandy, or even a well-dressed bard player character.
And here we have the rare The Skinsaw Man, who for whatever reason seems to have gotten a hold of a familiar jacket. I won't say much more here, other than to mention that this figure has a long purple tongue you can't quite make out in the photo, and that the splattered blood effects bring me much personal joy and satisfaction.
A noble figure like Aldern Foxglove could really use a well-dressed woman at his side, and for these purposes we've included the cunning Lucrecia, also a rare figure. Lucrecia makes a great figure for any female noble, and she plays an important role in the middle part of the Rise of the Runelords campaign. Generally speaking, we try to limit specific characters to the rare rarity. While everyone can use a nice figure of a noblewoman holding a glass of wine, you don't really need a ton of them. Placing these specific figures at the higher rarity also gives our partners at WizKids the opportunity to layer on some really great detail, like the brocade work on Lucrecia's dress and the detail on her corset. Given how many folks liked the unarmed Human Druid from Heroes & Monsters as a townsfolk figure, I think a lot of people are going to get a kick out of Aldern Foxglove and Lucrecia!
And because every preview blog needs a good monster, here's the uncommon Lamia Matriarch. This Large snake-woman has multiple uses throughout the campaign, covering two major enemies in the first half of the Adventure Path. I don't include her in this blog for any other reason. None at all. Humm dee dummm dee dooo.
So! I hope you guys dig this latest batch of releases. They look great in hand, and I'm thrilled to have them in the set. By the time you read this, an agent of WizKids is already at the Paizo office, having delivered the very final miniatures for us to approve and photograph for future preview blogs.
That means the final details on the Rise of the Runelords set, such as price and official release date, must be just over the horizon!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Familiar Faces Friday, February 17, 2012 So far we’ve revealed plenty of monstrous menaces soon to appear on your game table as part of this summer’s new Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures set. This week, we’ll bring things back to earth with a look at some familiar friends you just might recognize from the Pathfinder world. ... Before I get into the new miniature reveals, I need to point out that we still don’t have all of the specifics...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Familiar Faces
Friday, February 17, 2012
So far we’ve revealed plenty of monstrous menaces soon to appear on your game table as part of this summer’s new Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures set. This week, we’ll bring things back to earth with a look at some familiar friends you just might recognize from the Pathfinder world.
Before I get into the new miniature reveals, I need to point out that we still don’t have all of the specifics about when exactly this set will come out, how much it will cost, or how many figures will be in each booster box, but things have been moving steadily forward on these fronts, and I expect to be able to reveal details shortly.
Until then, we wait. I hope to soothe the ennui by showing off more awesome miniatures from the set.
These miniatures support the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition, which is scheduled for a July release. The images shown below are “paint masters,” meaning they are the painted miniatures our partners at WizKids send to their factories as guides for how the production run should be painted. Expect a little variance between these images and the final miniatures, but this is what they’ll be shooting for.
Because these are pre-production images, they’re also missing some of the fine detail work on things like tattoos, fine costume design details, and similar flourishes. These are added at the factory as a final step, so if it looks like Seoni is missing a few tattoos below, don’t despair! They’re coming soon!
Anyway, on to this week’s previews!
This uncommon figure represents Ameiko Kaijitsu, one of Pathfinder’s very first NPCs, and one who has grown to become an important figure in the Pathfinder world thanks to the events of the Jade Regent Adventure Path. Way back in the Rise of the Runelords AP, Ameiko was a simple owner of Sandpoint’s Rusty Dragon Inn, but she went on to become a very important figure whose destiny spans the globe of Golarion. She appears here kitted out in her adventuring gear, ready to help your player characters in either campaign.
The elf fighter/ranger Shalelu Andosana is older than the town of Sandpoint itself, but over the centuries she’s come to view the place as home. She makes an excellent ally and information source for the players in Rise of the Runelords, and her appearance in the Jade Regent Adventure Path means that this uncommon miniature, like Ameiko above, comes in doubly useful for Pathfinder GMs running both campaigns. Plus, female elf ranger with a bow = great miniature for lots and lots and lots of player characters.
So far we’ve managed to fit an iconic character or two into each of our Pathfinder Battles releases, and Rise of the Runelords is no exception. The first iconic in this set (an uncommon) is Harsk, the iconic ranger. I love the detail WizKids was able to achieve with Harsk’s face, and some of the detail on his outfit is absolutely amazing. Artists and sculptors always complain about Wayne Reynolds’s highly complex original art for Harsk, but we think WizKids did a great job capturing the detail and nuance of this popular character.
Speaking of popular iconic characters, they don’t come more popular than this lovely lass, the inimitable Seoni! Seoni made her debut on one of the covers of the original Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path issues, so we knew we had to include her in the set (at the uncommon rarity). And I’m thrilled that we did. WizKids definitely met the challenge with this figure. The picture above is pretty good, but in-hand this miniature is absolutely gorgeous, with a great color to it and lots of excellent sculpt details. Fans of Seoni might notice that her tattoos and some of the pattern on her outfit is missing. As I mentioned above, that stuff will be coming at the factory, and what we’ve seen so far looks terrific.
That’s it for this week! The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path is a dangerous campaign, but these familiar faces will help you make it through alive, if not exactly unscathed!
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Large and In Charge Friday, February 10, 2012 A short and sweet preview blog this week, focusing on some of the Large miniatures in the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures. We’re still sorting out the fine details of product format and exact release date, so again, there’s no product page for this set, although I have reason to believe that we’ll have good news to report on that front shortly. ... In the meantime,...
Pathfinder Battles Preview: Large and In Charge
Friday, February 10, 2012
A short and sweet preview blog this week, focusing on some of the Large miniatures in the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures. We’re still sorting out the fine details of product format and exact release date, so again, there’s no product page for this set, although I have reason to believe that we’ll have good news to report on that front shortly.
In the meantime, I have more images of paint masters to show you! This time, I’m taking a tight focus on stone giants, the major threat of the fourth chapter of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” by Wolfgang Baur!
If you’ve got a copy of that adventure, take a look at the cover. You’re about to see a lot of it in glorious three dimensions. Starting here:
This Stone Giant is a spitting image of a creature from the Wayne Reynolds cover of “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” and I think he may be one of the best prepainted stone giants ever created in plastic. Because you will need a lot of them, these guys are at the uncommon rarity.
You fight a lot of stone giants in “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” and some of them have different statistics. For that reason and to mix things up visually, we’ve included the uncommon Stone Giant Champion, complete with a boulder raised high to crush your player characters.
Also from the cover, the Dire Bear makes a great companion to a band of stone giants, or as a “special friend” for your druid character. He’s also a Large uncommon.
The spellcasting stone giant Mokmurian is one of the primary villains of “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” and WizKids did an excellent job bringing him to life in three dimensions. Note the clear blue magical energy flaming from Mokmurian’s right hand, as well as the complex gold pectoral, belts, armbands, and skirt hem on this miniature. This rare miniature makes a wonderful leader for your Pathfinder Battles stone giant warband, and we’re thrilled to have him in the set.
There are, of course, more giants in the Rise of the Runelords set, but those will have to wait for future Fridays!
... New Year, New Goblins Tuesday, January 3, 2012 ... Illustration by Miroslav PetrovEveryone loves goblins, right? And by extension, folks are keen on their goblinoid brethren, the militaristic hobgoblins and the sadistic bugbears. Well, this month we introduce a new goblinoid subtype humanoid to Golarion—the kijimuna, a native of the Dragon Empires of Tian Xia. These CR 2 creatures are known for their wild, bright red hair and their wide, mischievous grins, and enjoy fishing almost as much...
New Year, New Goblins
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Illustration by Miroslav Petrov
Everyone loves goblins, right? And by extension, folks are keen on their goblinoid brethren, the militaristic hobgoblins and the sadistic bugbears. Well, this month we introduce a new goblinoid subtype humanoid to Golarion—the kijimuna, a native of the Dragon Empires of Tian Xia. These CR 2 creatures are known for their wild, bright red hair and their wide, mischievous grins, and enjoy fishing almost as much as playing pranks and practical jokes on unsuspecting targets. Much like their Inner Sea cousins, kijimunas have a deep-seated fear of a single creature, in this case the octopus, and when faced with an octopus, a kijimuna either flees in terror or desperately fights. Unlike the other goblinoid races, however, kijimunas are not innately evil, and typically have chaotic neutral alignments.
... I've Come Full Circle! Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Not many people would guess this, but my love of roleplaying actually started because of a computer game. In 1980, I discovered one of the first computer roleplaying games, Akalabeth: World of Doom. It had very simple graphics, and gameplay amounted largely to wandering through computer-generated dungeons, killing things, and taking their loot. But I was hooked! I used to go down to my local computer store—Computer World, in...
I've Come Full Circle!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Not many people would guess this, but my love of roleplaying actually started because of a computer game. In 1980, I discovered one of the first computer roleplaying games, Akalabeth: World of Doom. It had very simple graphics, and gameplay amounted largely to wandering through computer-generated dungeons, killing things, and taking their loot. But I was hooked! I used to go down to my local computer store—Computer World, in Appleton, Wisconsin—and I'd play the game on their Apple II demo setup for hours. (The Computer World staff tolerated my incessant play because it attracted lots of attention to the computer!)
In 1981, I went off to St. Olaf College, leaving Computer World—and Akalabeth—behind. I soon needed to scratch my adventuring itch, so put I up a message on the bulletin boards asking if anybody at St. Olaf was playing Akalabeth. That didn't pan out, but it did lead someone to contact me about a game that was new to me: Dungeons & Dragons. Of course, I fell in love with D&D, eventually leading me to a career of more than 25 years in the gaming business, including working at Wizards of the Coast on the launch of D&D's third edition in 2000!
My boss on that 3E team was Ryan Dancey, and when I left Wizards, I told Ryan that I'd love to work with him again someday. But our lives diverged; I started Paizo, and Ryan went to CCP in Iceland to be the Chief Marketing Officer for the EVE Online MMO. We stayed in touch over the years, and after Ryan left CCP earlier this year, I asked him what he was going to do next. His answer: "How about a Pathfinder MMO?"
Visit goblinworks.com for more information about Pathfinder Online!
At first I was skeptical. I'd heard horror stories about hundreds of millions of dollars lost developing games that were never released. Or games that launched with a big splash only to become zombies within months, their subscriber base dwindled down to a barely sustainable number. But this was Ryan, and I really wanted to work with him again. So I challenged him to convince me—to make me a believer. Over the next few months, Ryan started developing a plan for this Pathfinder MMO, and I started to believe. The plan wasn't 100%, though, so I brought the resources of Paizo to bear on it. Erik Mona, Vic Wertz, James Jacobs, Jeff Alvarez, Gary Teter, Wes Schneider, Sarah Robinson, and more each contributed unique insight to help us come up with a plan for the game—now christened Pathfinder Online—that we could all believe in. What we are announcing today is the result of that work.
Pathfinder Online's journey is just beginning. We've started a brand-new company called Goblinworks to create the game. At the moment, it's owned by myself, Ryan, Paizo, and Mark Kalmes. Mark is one of the top tech guys in the MMO field, and he'll be Goblinworks' Chief Technical Officer. (And we're currently looking for additional investors to help us move forward with Pathfinder Online.)
Traditionally, projects like this are developed in secrecy, with information leaking out in whispers for months before a formal announcement. But we don't want our loyal customers to find out about Pathfinder Online through rumored half-truths; we want you in on the ground floor.
A lot of big picture work has already been done on Pathfinder Online, and it's going to be a bit different from your traditional fantasy MMO. It's going to focus around the characters you create, in a world that will grow out of your interactions, developing the way you choose to develop it. It takes place in the River Kingdoms of Golarion, with our own Kingmaker Adventure Path providing some of the inspiration. There will be an overarching storyline, and dungeons aplenty to explore, but where Pathfinder Online is going to thrive is in the ability of each of you to leave your mark on the world. Do you want to build a castle that you own and control? Go for it. Want to start a town and rally folks to your banner? Do that. Do you want to ally with the neighboring villages to form a new nation—or perhaps wage war on them instead? The choice is yours. Want to become the most feared bandit in the River Kingdoms? The path is available. Want to become the greatest armorer that Golarion has ever seen? All it takes is hard work. If you can imagine doing something in the world of Golarion, we want you to be able to do that in Pathfinder Online.
The fun is just starting! Please use the discussion thread here on paizo.com to interact with Ryan, Mark, myself, and the rest of the Goblinworks crew as we start this new adventure. We're going to be very interactive with you, the Pathfinder community, because we want this game to be YOURS. Stay tuned for blogs, trailers, and other teasers as we move forward. In true Paizo fashion, we will keep you guys in the loop, and listen to your feedback as we progress.
Things have come a long way since Akalabeth. Join me for the ride and help make Pathfinder Online the best MMORPG ever!
Lisa Stevens CEO, Paizo Publishing
COO, Goblinworks
... Two New Kami Thursday, November 10, 2011 We’re coming up on the release of Bestiary 3 in the near future, and as readers of the Jade Regent Adventure Path have noticed, we’re already using monsters from that book in the adventures! This is more or less a necessity, since when you travel to the far side of the world, you expect to see brand-new creatures and monsters, after all. We’ve been filling the Jade Regent bestiaries with all sorts of monsters inspired from Asian mythology and...
Two New Kami
Thursday, November 10, 2011
We’re coming up on the release of Bestiary 3 in the near future, and as readers of the Jade Regent Adventure Path have noticed, we’re already using monsters from that book in the adventures! This is more or less a necessity, since when you travel to the far side of the world, you expect to see brand-new creatures and monsters, after all. We’ve been filling the Jade Regent bestiaries with all sorts of monsters inspired from Asian mythology and folklore, but we need more—and that’s where Bestiary 3 comes in.
One of the new types of monsters introduced in Bestiary 3 and the Jade Regent Adventure Path are the kami—usually (but not always) benevolent native outsiders who exist to protect that which cannot really protect itself from the advance of humanity and civilization. Pathfinder #52 and Bestiary 3 present several kami, ranging from CR 2 all the way up to CR 20.
Presented below are two of the kami who have roles to play in “Forest of Spirits.” We’re simply presenting their statistics here—what roles they play in the adventure must remain a secret until you play it or run it for your group!
Kami Subtype: Kami are a race of native outsiders who serve to protect what they refer to as “wards”—animals, plants, objects, and even locations—from being harmed or dishonored. All kami are outsiders with the native subtype. A kami possesses the following traits unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry.
Immune to bleed, mind-affecting effects, petrification, and polymorph effects.
Resist acid 10, electricity 10, fire 10
Although they are native outsiders, kami do not eat, drink, or breathe.
Telepathy.
Fast Healing (Ex) As long as a kami is within 120 feet of its ward, it gains fast healing. The amount of fast healing it gains depends on the type of kami.
Merge with Ward (Su) As a standard action, a kami can merge its body and mind with its ward. When merged, the kami can observe the surrounding region with its senses as if it were using its own body, as well as via any senses its ward might have. It has no control over its ward, nor can it communicate or otherwise take any action other than to emerge from its ward as a standard action. A kami must be adjacent to its ward to merge with or emerge from it. If its ward is a creature, plant, or object, the kami can emerge mounted on the creature provided the kami’s body is at least one size category smaller than the creature. If its ward is a location, the kami may emerge at any point within that location.
Ward (Su) A kami has a specific ward—a creature with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower (usually an animal or vermin), a plant (not a plant creature), an object, or a location. The type of ward is listed in parentheses in the kami’s stat block. Several of a kami’s abilities function only when it is either merged with its ward or within 120 feet of it. If a kami’s ward is portable and travels with the kami to another plane, the kami does not gain the extraplanar subtype on that other plane as long as its ward remains within 120 feet. If a ward is destroyed while a kami is merged with it, the kami dies (no save). If a ward is destroyed while a kami is not merged with it, the kami loses its merge with ward ability and its fast healing, and becomes permanently sickened.
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +2 natural, +2 size) hp 19 (3d10+3); fast healing 2 Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +8 DR 5/cold iron; Immune bleed, mind-affecting effects, petrification, polymorph; Resist acid 10, electricity 10, fire 10
Offense
Speed 30 ft. Melee improvised weapon +4 (1d4+2/x3) Ranged improvised weapon +6 (1d3+2/x3) Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft. Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +8)
At will—invisibility (self only), statue (self only)
3/day—hide from animals, purify food and drink
1/week—commune with nature (CL 12th)
Statistics
Str 8, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 14 Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 11 Feats Alertness, Catch Off-GuardB, Iron Will, Throw AnythingB Skills Heal +9, Knowledge (nature) +6, Perception +11, Sense Motive +11, Stealth +15, Survival +9 Languages Common SQ improvised weapon mastery, merge with ward, ward (minor works of civilization)
Ecology
Environment any Organization solitary, pair, or gang (3–8) Treasure standard
Special Abilities
Improvised Weapon Mastery (Ex) A shikigami gains Catch Off-Guard and Throw Anything as bonus feats, and adds its Charisma modifier instead of its Strength modifier to damage done with any improvised weapon, as attacks it makes with such weapons seem supernaturally lucky in landing damaging blows. Although a shikigami is Tiny, it never provokes attacks of opportunity when it attacks an adjacent foe with a melee weapon. If a shikigami critically hits an opponent with an improvised weapon, it deals x3 damage.
Illustration by Mariusz Gandzel
Zuishin CR 10
XP 9,600
LG Medium outsider (kami, native) Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect evil, see invisibility; Perception +20
Defense
AC 23, touch 13, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural) hp 123 (13d10+52); fast healing 5 Fort +8, Ref +13, Will +14 DR 10/cold iron; Immune bleed, mind-affecting effects, petrification, polymorph; Resist acid 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 21
Offense
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect, 40 ft. without armor) Melee +1 holy halberd +18/+13/+8 (1d10+7/x3) Ranged +1 holy composite longbow +20/+15/+10 (1d8+5/x3) Special Attacks healing arrow, holy weapons Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th; concentration +18)
Constant—detect evil, see invisibility
At will—cure light wounds, dimension door
3/day—alarm, breath of life, dispel magic, neutralize poison, remove curse, remove disease, restoration
1/day—dispel evil (DC 20), heal, true seeing
Statistics
Str 18, Dex 21, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 18, Cha 21 Base Atk +13; CMB +17; CMD 34 (can’t be tripped) Feats Improved Initiative, Improved Precise Shot, Iron Will, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow) Skills Fly +10, Heal +20, Intimidate +18, Knowledge (nature) +16, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20, Stealth +18 Languages Common; telepathy 100 ft. SQ merge with ward, ward (gate, doorway, or shrine)
Ecology
Environment any Organization solitary, pair, or warband (3–8) Treasure double (+1 composite longbow [+4 Str], +1 halberd, masterwork breastplate, other treasure)
Special Abilities
Healing Arrow (Su) As a swift action, a zuishin can infuse an arrow it fires to carry any of the following effects: breath of life, cure light wounds, heal, neutralize poison, remove curse, remove disease, or restoration. Using one of these effects consumes a use of the same spell-like ability. The zuishin must make a touch attack to deliver the effect to the target—the target takes no damage from the arrow. Holy Weapons (Su) Any weapon wielded by a zuishin is treated as if it had the holy special ability. A zuishin creates arrows out of nothing as part of its attacks with any bow it wields.
... Gen Con Pathfinder Society Recap Monday, August 15, 2011It's been over a week since Gen Con wrapped up, and a little less than that since we returned to business as usual here at Paizo HQ. But even though we're back in the swing of deadlines and such, the rush of Pathfinder Society at Gen Con still has me feeling high! ... Over the course of four days and ten slots, we seated over 3,000 excited Pathfinders, many of whom played their first Pathfinder Society scenario during the convention....
Gen Con Pathfinder Society Recap
Monday, August 15, 2011
It's been over a week since Gen Con wrapped up, and a little less than that since we returned to business as usual here at Paizo HQ. But even though we're back in the swing of deadlines and such, the rush of Pathfinder Society at Gen Con still has me feeling high!
Over the course of four days and ten slots, we seated over 3,000 excited Pathfinders, many of whom played their first Pathfinder Society scenario during the convention. And though we sold out almost every event months before the show, I'm proud to say that nearly everyone who wanted to get into a game with generic tickets was able to do so. We only had to turn people away in two of the ten slots!
Our Friday night special, Blood Under Absalom, was a smashing success, and we were able to get everyone who wanted to play a seat, pulling in extra tables from the hall to ensure that no one was left out. The result was 51 tables (out of a sold-out 45) of Pathfinders of all levels running through the same adventure, GMed by none other than the incomparable Tim Hitchcock.
In addition to the rewards all players get for surviving a Pathfinder Society Scenario, we had additional prizes that players and GMs could try to win by unlocking the Pathfinder Society treasure chest. Inside were signed copies of hardcover rulebooks, free map packs and flip mats, Pathfinder Tales novels, and even exclusive Pathfinder Society boons. Some players walked away with Chronicle sheets granting them access to non-core races like aasimar, tiefling, tengu, and dhampir, and everyone who played a scenario or delve got a Gen Con exclusive boon granting them weapon proficiency with one Eastern weapon from Ultimate Combat. For those Pathfinder Society players and GMs who couldn't make it to the show, we'll be trying similar promotions at regional conventions and game stores in the coming months, spearheaded by our invaluable Venture-Captains, so keep an eye out for your chance to get some exclusive Pathfinder Society Chronicles in your area.
Thanks to everyone who spent valuable time and money ensuring Gen Con 2011 was the most successful Pathfinder Society convention to date. Without all our Venture-Captains, HQ volunteers, and over 50 GMs per slot, thousands of gamers would have missed out on the launch of the Year of the Ruby Phoenix and hours of fun exploring Golarion! Keep an eye on this blog in the coming months for early information about our plans of next Gen Con, including how you can volunteer to help make Gen Con 2012 an even bigger success!
P.S. Check out this awesome Wayne Reynolds art from the first two Jade Regent adventure path volumes. See, Shalelu's hair is blond!
... Gen Con Announcement Recap! Wednesday, August 10, 2011 ... ENnie Awards: Product of the Year ... (for the Advanced Players Guide)Whew... another Gen Con over and done with! We had a great time at the show, in no small part due to the incredible support of our fans and customers. You all are the BEST! ... In a Gen Con filled with highlights, though, for me one of the most incredible moments came about 15 minutes after the Ennie Awards wrapped up, when we went up to the Pathfinder Society...
Gen Con Announcement Recap!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
ENnie Awards: Product of the Year (for the Advanced Players Guide)
Whew... another Gen Con over and done with! We had a great time at the show, in no small part due to the incredible support of our fans and customers. You all are the BEST!
In a Gen Con filled with highlights, though, for me one of the most incredible moments came about 15 minutes after the Ennie Awards wrapped up, when we went up to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play room to announce to a room of several hundred gamers that we’d won. The uproar of cheers that filled the room when Erik climbed up on his chair and made that announcement was overwhelming. Pictured is one of those many awards—the trophy for Product of the Year (Advanced Player’s Guide) held up with an enormous room of hundreds of Pathfinder Society GMs and players in the background.
We also made a large number of announcements at Gen Con for products coming out in the months ahead. Most of these announcements can be found here and there on paizo.com, but I thought I’d group them all up here in this post so everyone can find out about them at once.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Coming at the end of the year is Pathfinder Bestiary 3, followed next Spring by the Advanced Race Guide (a big hardcover book that’ll give you new options for ALL of the zero Hit Die races we’ve published to that point, as well as rules for building your own races of any power level), and then next Gen Con with Ultimate Equipment (a hardcover filled to the brim with new toys and magic items for any Pathfinder character).
Pathfinder Adventure Path: At long last, we’ve started the Jade Regent Adventure Path! But once you’re done traveling over the frozen Crown of the World and exploring Tian Xia, be ready next February for some good old-fashioned plundering and mayhem with the pirate-themed Skull & Shackles Adventure Path. And then, next Gen Con, we celebrate five years of Pathfinder and ten years of Paizo by returning to where it all began—the Shattered Star Adventure Path brings it all back to Varisia with a frantic search to be the first to recover and rebuild an ancient Thassilonian artifact—the original Sihedron Symbol—before it’s too late!
Pathfinder Player Companion: After debuting Goblins of Golarion at Gen Con, we’re ready to finish out the three-part exploration of the faiths of the Inner Sea with Faiths of Corruption. Two months later, the Dragon Empires Primer gives players all they need to know to make characters from Tian Xia. And early next year, Pirates of the Inner Sea will finally let you unleash your inner buccaneer!
Pathfinder Modules: We’ll be heading back to Varisia even earlier than Magnimar: City of Monuments and the Shattered Star Adventure Path, though, with Feast of Ravenmoor, a low-level module set in the Varisian hinterlands. Two months later, test your mettle in The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, and then next January find out what our latest RPG Superstar winner, Sam Zeitlin, has in store for you in The Midnight Mirror!
Pathfinder Battles: After WizKids releases the initial set of prepainted plastic Pathfinder miniatures of Merisiel, Kyra, Valeros, and Ezren (Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes, which ties into the upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box), you can look forward first to the 40-miniature set of Heroes and Monsters, to be followed up later next year by the Rise of the Runelords set.
And finally... the announcement that I was the most excited for: a 420-page hardcover compilation of Rise of the Runelords, fully updated to the Pathfinder rules and expanded with new encounters and tons of new artwork, due for release at PaizoCon 5 next June!
2010 ENnie Award Voting Begins! Friday, July 16, 2010Voting begins today for the 2010 ENnie Awards, so drop whatever you're doing and head on over to the ballot box at EN World! ... Voting continues through July 25th, but don't wait! Vote for your favorite games, products, and publishers today!To remind you before you head off to cast your votes, here's what Paizo and some of our incredibly talented friends are in the running for! ... Best Adventure Pathfinder AP #31: Stolen Land (Paizo...
2010 ENnie Award Voting Begins!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Voting begins today for the 2010 ENnie Awards, so drop whatever you're doing and head on over to the ballot box at EN World!
Voting continues through July 25th, but don't wait! Vote for your favorite games, products, and publishers today!
To remind you before you head off to cast your votes, here's what Paizo and some of our incredibly talented friends are in the running for!
... 2010 ENnie Award Nominations! Tuesday, July 13, 2010Nominations for the 2010 ENnie Awards are live and we couldn't be blown farther away! Paizo products are up for awards in 11 categories, with related Pathfinder projects showing in even more. Unbelievable! A huge thank you from all of us here at Paizo to all of our readers for your endless enthusiasm and help in expanding our rules and worlds, as well as boundless appreciation to everyone at ENWorld for organizing and hosting one of the...
2010 ENnie Award Nominations!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Nominations for the 2010 ENnie Awards are live and we couldn't be blown farther away! Paizo products are up for awards in 11 categories, with related Pathfinder projects showing in even more. Unbelievable! A huge thank you from all of us here at Paizo to all of our readers for your endless enthusiasm and help in expanding our rules and worlds, as well as boundless appreciation to everyone at ENWorld for organizing and hosting one of the most highly anticipated event in gaming year after year.
But this year's ENnie Awards are just kicking off. Head on over to ENWorld to check out all the nominees and prepare for this Friday (July 16th) when the voting booths open and you can cast your vote for your favorite RPG rules, accessories, products, and projects.
Thanks again from all of us here at Paizo Publishing and we'll see you at the ENnies!
... Illustration by Hugo Solis and Michael Jaecks ... They'll Find a Way Tuesday, November 24, 2009Cave raptors are sated; it's time to blog! ... Better writers than I have pointed out that the best thing about working for Paizo is the fans, but it bears repeating: Paizo fans are awesome. And even though the work of a production goblin can be grueling (can you believe I have to be into work by 10 A.M. and only get two nap breaks?!), seeing some of the stuff our fans create just makes me want...
Illustration by Hugo Solis and Michael Jaecks
They'll Find a Way
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Cave raptors are sated; it's time to blog!
Better writers than I have pointed out that the best thing about working for Paizo is the fans, but it bears repeating: Paizo fans are awesome. And even though the work of a production goblin can be grueling (can you believe I have to be into work by 10 A.M. and only get two nap breaks?!), seeing some of the stuffour fanscreate just makes me want to worker harder.
One of the most mind-boggling of those creations is the Wayfinder, a free, fan-made magazine that was released for PaizoCon '09. The brainchild of Paizo superfans Liz Courts (Lilith), Tim Nightengale (Timitius), and Hugo Solis (Butterfrog), the Wayfinder was entirely written, illustrated, edited, and published by dedicated Paizo fans, and looked as professional as many other pricey gaming magazines. Getting my copy was one of the highlights of the con, and I know it made a lot of grown men giggle here in the Paizo offices. Which is why I'm waiting with bated breath for issue #2.
Liz announced the beginnings of issue #2 back in September and has been collecting holiday- and winter-themed articles, illustration, poetry, fiction, and recipes from Paizo fans ever since. Not only does this mean even more wonderful Golarion goodness for our fans, but most importantly: It's Golarion goodness that no one here at the office has had to work on, so we get to be excited about it, too!
Unlike Wayfinder #1, Wayfinder #2 will only be available in PDF form. Like Wayfinder #1, the second issue will be 100% free and available for download here at paizo.com. According to Liz, the goal is to start making the Wayfinder a regular, semi-annual feature, with print and electronic versions available for PaizoCon and an electronic-only version available around the holidays to bring some sunshine to your winter.
If you're a Pathfinder fan and you haven't downloaded the first issue of the Wayfinder, do it now! If you're a Pathfinder fan and you missed your chance to contribute to issues #1 and #2, don't fret. Just keep your eyes on the messageboards for updates and submission information for those issues yet to come. New blood keeps the game industry alive, and you never know where the next Karzoug might come from.
... Illustration by Steve Prescott ... Introducing the Calikang Friday, November 6, 2009Sometimes, art makes the choices for me. When we ordered the cover to Greg A. Vaughn's Mother of Flies, we asked Steve Prescott to paint us a scene in a thieves' guild treasury involving the iconics in a fight against a six-armed stone golem. The art, as you can see here, is great! ... Unfortunately, by the time I got to the section in the adventure where this six-armed menace made its appearance, I...
Illustration by Steve Prescott
Introducing the Calikang
Friday, November 6, 2009
Sometimes, art makes the choices for me. When we ordered the cover to Greg A. Vaughn's "Mother of Flies," we asked Steve Prescott to paint us a scene in a thieves' guild treasury involving the iconics in a fight against a six-armed stone golem. The art, as you can see here, is great!
Unfortunately, by the time I got to the section in the adventure where this six-armed menace made its appearance, I realized something. A six-armed stone golem (particularly one armed with a pair of tree-sized-swords) would be something like a CR 15 monster. Not really a fair fight to inflict on 10th-level characters, and certainly not good design to have the dude guarding the treasury be tougher than the adventure's actual boss.
So, in a last-minute brainstorm in Wes's office when he was probably trying to go home, he, Crystal Frasier, Lisa Stevens, and I figured out what to do with the situation. The result is a new monster from distant Vudra, the six-armed calikang, a race spawned from a deity's failure and doomed now to seek atonement for an ancient sin. We ordered an extra piece of art for this volume's Bestiary, I wrote up the monster that weekend, and everything fell perfectly in place just in time to ship to the printers.
As for the calikang itself? You'll just have to wait for "Mother of Flies" to find out what he can do!
... From Baria to Golarion Friday, October 16, 2009So, 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...
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.)
... Tiffany as Cleric of DesnaKelly as Pactmaster of Katapesh ... And the winner is...! Wednesday, August 26, 2009The votes for the First Annual Gen Con Pathfinder Cosplay Contest are in, and after a hard battle, the winner is... both of them! ... Yes, it seems that our messageboard horde saw too much merit in Tiffany's fantastic starknife and Kelly's unnerving Pactmaster mask to let either of them go unrewarded. (And in a way, Tiffany started this whole idea with her costume last year, so...
Tiffany as Cleric of Desna
Kelly as Pactmaster of Katapesh
And the winner is...!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The votes for the First Annual Gen Con Pathfinder Cosplay Contest are in, and after a hard battle, the winner is... both of them!
Yes, it seems that our messageboard horde saw too much merit in Tiffany's fantastic starknife and Kelly's unnerving Pactmaster mask to let either of them go unrewarded. (And in a way, Tiffany started this whole idea with her costume last year, so perhaps we should consider this the 2008 and 2009 awards.) Regardless of how you parse it, the result is that both Kelly and Tiffany will be receiving $50 in Paizo store credit. Congratulations to them both, and special thanks to messageboard poster Taig who offered to foot the bill for the second prize—we may not have taken him up on it, but we always love seeing the generosity of our community.
As for all of you who didn't have time to compete this year: there's always time to start preparing for next year's contest! Time to start collecting those giant crab legs for your Rovagug suit, hitting the gym in preparation for the Merisiel outfit, or shaving the family dog and training it to carry your goblins—I mean "beautiful children"—on its back. The possibilities are endless!
(P.S: I'm ashamed to admit that Tiffany's contact information was lost in the shuffle of Gen Con. Tiffany, if you're reading this, please email me at james.sutter@paizo.com to claim your prize!)
... Cosplay Contest Part Deux: Choose Your Champion! Monday, August 24, 2009Another Gen Con has come and gone, and as all the editors crawl out from where we've been hiding in fetal positions beneath our desks, recovering from the exhaustion and excitement, we're forced to conclude that this was the best convention yet. The release of the Core Rulebook was a rousing success, the ENnies were kind, the community was more welcoming than ever, and our favorite industry professionals were just as...
Cosplay Contest Part Deux: Choose Your Champion!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Another Gen Con has come and gone, and as all the editors crawl out from where we've been hiding in fetal positions beneath our desks, recovering from the exhaustion and excitement, we're forced to conclude that this was the best convention yet. The release of the Core Rulebook was a rousing success, the ENnies were kind, the community was more welcoming than ever, and our favorite industry professionals were just as zany and fun as last year. Yet all that in no way lessened the excitement of...
PATHFINDER COSPLAY!
Despite the relatively late warning (next year's contestants: consider this your starting gun), we doubled our Pathfinder cosplay turnout this year. That's right: two intrepid individuals spent portions of their con wandering around in full Pathfinder regalia, forever winning our hearts (and potentially $50 dollars in store credit). This year's contestants were Tiffany as a cleric of Desna (whose same costume last year inspired the contest, and hence is allowed to compete this year as well—unfortunately, only last year's photo is available) and new challenger Kelly, who wowed us all with his incredible rendition of a Pactmaster of Katapesh.
Tiffany as Cleric of Desna
Kelly as Pactmaster of Katapesh
Which costume is the best, and most deserving of reward? It's a tough question, but it's up to you to decide. If you want to weigh in on the matter, or just congratulate them both on their amazing costumes, head over to the Pathfinder Cosplay Contest thread on our messageboards and make your voice heard. Votes will be collected for roughly 48 hours, at which point we'll announce the winner here on the blog. So what are you waiting for? Let the voting begin!
... Welcome to Paizo Friday, August 21, 2009With the release of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, there are a lot of new faces here on the board, so we thought that this would be a good time to say hello and to give folks a quick tour of the site. ... I suspect that many of the new folks are here because of the Pathfinder RPG, so there is no better place to start than our new Core Rulebook. Of course, we have much more in store for this game, so you definitely want to visit the...
Welcome to Paizo
Friday, August 21, 2009
With the release of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, there are a lot of new faces here on the board, so we thought that this would be a good time to say hello and to give folks a quick tour of the site.
I suspect that many of the new folks are here because of the Pathfinder RPG, so there is no better place to start than our new Core Rulebook. Of course, we have much more in store for this game, so you definitely want to visit the Pathfinder RPG main page where you can see a summary of all of our upcoming products. Be sure to check out the Bestiary Preview and the Pathfinder RPG Conversion Guide, both of which can be downloaded for free. All you need is an account. Tip to the wise, make sure you have the most recent version of Adobe Reader installed on your machine to read these pdfs. Both of these free products, along with a host of other valuable free documents, can also be found on the Pathfinder RPG resources page, which also contains our community use policy (for those thinking about setting up a fan website) and the compatibility license (for those planning to make products using the Pathfinder RPG rules). The resources page also has the most recent errata document for the Core Rulebook, which contains a number of small changes and fixes to ensure that your game is running smoothly.
Next up, if you need to quickly reference the Pathfinder RPG online, there is no better resource than the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document (or PRD for short). The PRD contains all of the rules from the game, organized just like the Core Rulebook, making them easy to find. If you are playing your game in reach of a computer, I might recommend a bookmark or three.
We really want paizo.com to be a great community for gamers of all stripes, whether your passion is the Pathfinder RPG, other RPGs, board games, card games, or anything in between. Our messageboards are home to thousands of gamers just like you, looking for advice, sharing stories, forming groups, and getting answers to rules questions. If you are navigating the messageboards, look out for the following forums.
First up is the Pathfinder RPG messageboard, which includes a large number of useful forums. The General Discussion Forum is where you can discuss nearly anything related to the game, from reviews to announcements. The Rules Question Forum is where you can ask questions about the game. If one of your fellow fans does not help you out, one of our staff will try to help get an answer to your question. There is a lot of great discussion going on right now on the boards about the game, but I do want to take this moment to offer some advice. The rules are brand new, and there is a lot of information to digest. Before posting, make sure to take a good look through the book to see if your question is answered elsewhere. Since the game is a revision to the 3.5 rules, there are a number of discussions going on right now comparing the two and weighing the pros and cons of each change. While this is only natural, I do want to remind folks that many of these changes are designed to have a specific effect or to work in combination with other changes, making the whole of the game easier and better to run. If the rule in question still doesn't work for your group, do not hesitate to change it. It is your game after all, and you should feel free to change it in any way that would add to the fun and excitement of your campaign. Alright, back to the tour.
Next up in the Pathfinder RPG section is the Pathfinder RPG Products Section, which includes two forums for discussing individual products. One for Paizo products and one for any 3rd party product that is compatible with the game. After those forums are the Community Content forums. The first of these is the House Rules Forum, which contains a host of tips, tricks, and suggestions used in the games of fellow messageboard members. This forum also includes brand new rules content created by fans. The second forum is the Conversions Forum, which contains fan-made conversions of a host of 3.5 rules and products, making them easier to use with the Pathfinder RPG.
In addition to the Pathfinder RPG forums, you will find an array of other forums for our other products. The Pathfinder General Discussion Forum is for talking about any product with the Pathfinder logo, focusing on products that are compatible with the Pathfinder campaign setting (such as the Pathfinder Chronicles, Pathfinder Companion, Pathfinder Modules, and Pathfinder Accessories products). The Pathfinder Adventure Path Section contains a forum for each one of our Adventure Paths. These products represent complete campaigns, taking your characters from 1st level to the heights of power. The forums contain tips, tricks, and tools to use for each Adventure Path, as well as a number of great stories and anecdotes from the campaigns of fellow members.
This is also a good time to talk about the Pathfinder Society. This program allows you to play the Pathfinder RPG around the world, using the same character for each event. Pathfinder Society events can be found at most major conventions and in a number of game stores. In addition, your GM can download these PDF adventures and run them for you at home. For discussion about these exciting events, check out the Pathfinder Society Forums.
Concluding our tour of the messageboards, you might want to investigate the Paizo Community Forums, which includes forums for 3.5, 4th edition, board games, card games, play-by-post games, movies, books, television, and the always busy off-topic discussion (drive up your post count with a 3-word game today!).
Before this blog gets way too long, I want to take a moment to talk about the Paizo Store, which features just about every RPG, board game, card game, miniatures game, and accessory known to man. Be warned, there are a lot of good products hiding in there, and my wallet has paid for my curiosity mightily over the years.
Pathfinder Costume Contest at Gen Con! Friday, August 7, 2009 Here at Paizo, we have many different levels of experience with cosplay, from Art Director Sarah Robinson's complete disdain for anything other than the latest trendy fashions (seriously, the woman has every purse in the western hemisphere) to Jason Bulmahn's days playing a lumbering oaf at midwestern renaissance fairs (how little things change!), to Wes Schneider who may, in fact, be a Pokémon. But the one thing we all have...
Pathfinder Costume Contest at Gen Con!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Here at Paizo, we have many different levels of experience with cosplay, from Art Director Sarah Robinson's complete disdain for anything other than the latest trendy fashions (seriously, the woman has every purse in the western hemisphere) to Jason Bulmahn's days playing a lumbering oaf at midwestern renaissance fairs (how little things change!), to Wes Schneider who may, in fact, be a Pokémon. But the one thing we all have in common is that we love the idea of people dressing up as Pathfinder characters.
We never thought such things were possible until we met Tiffany, a real-life cleric of Desna, at last year's Gen Con, and thanks to her we're now convinced that anything is possible. Which is why I'm filled with glee to announce the First Annual Pathfinder Gen Con Cosplay Contest!
Here's the deal: At some point during Gen Con, you show up to the Paizo booth dressed in your best Pathfinder costume (faction shirts and other official Paizo merch don't count). We should stress that we're looking for monsters and characters with obvious ties to our world itself, not generic cosplayers (that wizard hat could be from anywhere), or people dressed up like actual Pathfinder books (very clever) or members of the Pathfinder staff (the world already has one James Jacobs, and one is enough for everybody). In addition to drawing a crowd of happy Paizoites, the contestants will have their pictures taken. Those folks with the best costumes, as decided by us, will end up on the Paizo blog once we return from Gen Con, at which point we'll allow the posters on our messageboards to pick their favorite. What criteria that mad and merry crew will use is anybody's guess—creativity? recognizability? skin-to-clothing ratio?—but whoever they select as the best Pathfinder cosplayer will walk away with fifty dollars in store credit!
So what are you waiting for? Get out that sewing machine and hot glue gun, send your party members on a run for foam rubber and acrylics, and show us what you're made of!
... 2009 ENnie Nominations! Tuesday, July 21, 2009The dash toward the 2009 ENnie Awards has begun with Paizo accepting nominations in six categories, including a fan nomination for Best Publisher! These acknowledgments start off the process of honoring the best products and ideas in the last year of tabletop gaming, but in the end it all relies on you! Be sure to check back in with the ENnies this Friday when voting begins, giving you the chance to cast your ballot for your favorite games and...
2009 ENnie Nominations!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The dash toward the 2009 ENnie Awards has begun with Paizo accepting nominations in six categories, including a fan nomination for Best Publisher! These acknowledgments start off the process of honoring the best products and ideas in the last year of tabletop gaming, but in the end it all relies on you! Be sure to check back in with the ENnies this Friday when voting begins, giving you the chance to cast your ballot for your favorite games and accessories.
Here's this year's rundown of Paizo Products up for honors:
Check out all the publishers at the ENnies Awards homepage, and be sure to check back this Friday for your chance to cast your vote! Thanks to ENWorld and all of you for this year's nominations and the endless support!
... Paizo Twitter Friday, April 24, 2009We've been tweeting! As of yesterday afternoon Paizo has its very own Twitter account. Come join the more than 200 Twitter users already getting nearly 24-hour-a-day updates on all sorts of Pathfinder info, Pathfinder RPG details, and other Paizo ephemera! Follow along on the Paizo Twitter page right here. ... There's also a new Twitter page for Planet Stories, where you can get endless updates on all your favorite pulp science fiction and fantasy...
Paizo Twitter
Friday, April 24, 2009
We've been tweeting! As of yesterday afternoon Paizo has its very own Twitter account. Come join the more than 200 Twitter users already getting nearly 24-hour-a-day updates on all sorts of Pathfinder info, Pathfinder RPG details, and other Paizo ephemera! Follow along on the Paizo Twitter page right here.
There's also a new Twitter page for Planet Stories, where you can get endless updates on all your favorite pulp science fiction and fantasy stories and authors as well as other exciting news on all our upcoming adventures!
... Illustrations by Jesper Ejsing Illustration by ... Wayne Reynolds ... Pathfinder iPhone Wallpapers Friday, January 30, 2009Several of us at Paizo have iPhones, but some of us flaunt that fact a bit more than others. Take Managing Art Director James Davis, for example—since he got his iPhone, we very rarely see him without at least one earbud stuck in an ear, and he heads back to show me some (admittedly cool) new app he found once a week on average. ... Of course, the good news is...
Illustrations by Jesper Ejsing
Illustration by Wayne Reynolds
Pathfinder iPhone Wallpapers
Friday, January 30, 2009
Several of us at Paizo have iPhones, but some of us flaunt that fact a bit more than others. Take Managing Art Director James Davis, for example—since he got his iPhone, we very rarely see him without at least one earbud stuck in an ear, and he heads back to show me some (admittedly cool) new app he found once a week on average.
Of course, the good news is that his iPhone obsession sometimes results in cool stuff we can share. Such as these three Pathfinder iPhone wallpapers! Check 'em out!
Pathfinder in 2009! Wednesday, December 31, 2008So one year ago today, I made a post to this blog about what was coming in 2008 for Pathfinder's Adventure Path. I just went back and looked and it's some interesting reading. For the most part, we accomplished everything on that list, although as we got toward the end of the predictions for 2008, I note a few things that didn't quite work out the way I'd planned for them to. Pathfinder #16 didn't have a gazetteer of the Darklands surrounding...
Pathfinder in 2009!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
So one year ago today, I made a post to this blog about what was coming in 2008 for Pathfinder's Adventure Path. I just went back and looked and it's some interesting reading. For the most part, we accomplished everything on that list, although as we got toward the end of the predictions for 2008, I note a few things that didn't quite work out the way I'd planned for them to. Pathfinder #16 didn't have a gazetteer of the Darklands surrounding the drow city, and as I'd feared, the article about Demon Lords did indeed slip from #17 to #18. But overall, pretty close!
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that here we are at the end of 2009, and I need a topic for a blog post. Especially after we missed several posts over the past few days due to snow-related apocalypses. So, without further ado, here's what you can look forward to seeing in Pathfinder in 2009!
January: The Second Darkness Adventure Path comes to a close this month with Brian Cortijo's "Descent Into Midnight," taking the PCs into one of the deepest reaches of the Darklands. A gazetteer of the mysterious Land of Black Blood and an article about the 29 most notorious of Golarion's demon lords rounds out the first volume of the year. Followers of Eando Klein's adventures in the Pathfinder Journal won't want to miss this volume, for this installment brings his long adventure to a close!
February: We heat things up in chilly February by traveling far to the south of Varisia to start the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path. Paizo's own publisher, Erik Mona, penned this volume's adventure, "Howl of the Carrion King," and New York Times bestselling author Elaine Cunningham takes over the Pathfinder Journal, starting a new story that'll run alongside of the Legacy of Fire campaign.
March: Those who didn't get enough gnolls from the first Legacy of Fire adventure in February will love "The House of the Beast," by Tim Hitchcock. The picture shown here by Svetlin Velinov depicts just one of the exciting encounters you can look forward to in this massive dungeon crawl, proving that there's more than gnolls waiting for you! Sean K Reynolds continues his exploration of Golarion's deities with Sarenrae, and Steve Kenson explores the region around Pale Mountain in northwest Katapesh, ground zero for half of Legacy of Fire's adventures.
April: In April, we begin Wolfgang Baur's four-part series of articles about the Genies of Golarion, starting with an exploration of what it is to be one of these magical elemental creatures to begin with. Darrin Drader's first Pathfinder adventure, "The Jackal's Price," takes the PCs into the second-largest city in the Inner Sea region, and Richard Pett shows us what goes on in a typical Katapesh marketplace. Be afraid, as they say…
May: RPG Superstar finalist Jason Nelson's adventure, "The End of Eternity," takes the PCs into an unexpected realm both near and far from Katapesh, while Todd Stewart, author of The Great Beyond, explores the chaotic extraplanar race of the proteans. Wolfgang's genie articles continue with an exploration of methods to bind and command genies.
June: At the height of summer, Pathfinder heads into one of the game's most legendary sites—the efreeti-ruled City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Greg Vaughan's adventure, "The Impossible Eye," delves deep into one of the city's palace fortresses, while Wolfgang Baur explores the rest of the City of Brass in a gazetteer of the mythic realm. And Sean K Reynolds adds Rovagug to the list of big deity articles.
July: The Legacy of Fire reaches its explosive conclusion in RPG Superstar finalist Rob McCreary's "The Final Wish," where we get to see just what happens when a crazed genie gets too generous with his wish-granting mojo. Wolfgang's genie articles end with all sorts of genie-powered magic, and we pull back the curtain on the spawn of Rovagug. The tarrasque is only the most famous one of many, after all!
August: Things start to get a little bit hazier once we move into Gen Con, as they usually do, but I do know that August sees the launch of something no less than the first ever Pathfinder RPG Adventure Path, "Council of Thieves." Fully compatible with both the new rules and the 3.5 SRD, this Adventure Path heads back north to the city of Westcrown in Cheliax, home of devil worshipers, tiefling bandits, and lots and lots of rebels! We've been pitching the adventure in house here as "The Godfather" meets "The Omen," but I'm still not quite sure what exactly we mean about that. Those of you who've been waiting patiently for lots of details on the Hellknights should find one of this volume's support articles of particular interest.
September: The Council of Thieves Adventure Path takes place entirely in and surrounding the city of Westcrown, and as a result, many of the adventures in this campaign will have a distinctively urban feel. This volume's adventure ups that ante, asking the PCs not only to brave the perils of urban adventures, but to take part in a violent and dangerous play in order to impress the local nobility! Anyone can kill an otyugh, but how many adventurers can remember their next line on stage during the middle of a fight for their life?
October: The PCs continue to oppose the Council of Thieves as Westcrown falls ever more under the influence of the mysterious thieves' guild, and the second part of an exploration of the Hellknights of Cheliax (a series scheduled to begin back in August) shows us even more about this organization's methods and resources.
November: At some point along the way in Council of Thieves, I suspect we'll be talking quite a bit about devils and Hell—about Mammon and Erebus in particular. I won't promise a lot more about this archdevil in November, but chances are good! This volume's adventure, tentatively titled "The Infernal Syndrome," explores just why it's a bad idea to rely too much on diabolic magic for comforts around the home.
December: It's pretty likely that by this time, we'll have a nice big article that examines the tieflings of Golarion. Also, I probably should have mentioned that Sean'll be taking a long look at the church of Iomedae back in September already, but in December we've got a toasty gift for everyone—Asmodeus, one of the deities most requested for an exploration in Pathfinder, finally makes his debut here!
And that's that! Wes and I are going to be spending a fair amount of time this week getting Council of Thieves all mapped out in detail, and in the months to come I'm sure we'll have more to say. But for now, the hints and clues and teasers above will have to suffice. Next year's looking like it could be Paizo's biggest year yet, in any case—hope to see you all there!
... illustration by Iker Serdar Yildiz ... Planet Stories and Pathfinder: Together at Last Tuesday, November 25, 2008Science fiction and fantasy. To much of the literate world, they're the same thing—they even get shelved in the same section at all but the most enlightened bookstores. Yet among those who enjoy these genres the most, the lines between the two are sharp and expansive (even if no two people agree on where that line is drawn). Many of the friends whose book recommendations...
illustration by Iker Serdar Yildiz
Planet Stories and Pathfinder: Together at Last
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Science fiction and fantasy. To much of the literate world, they're the same thing—they even get shelved in the same section at all but the most enlightened bookstores. Yet among those who enjoy these genres the most, the lines between the two are sharp and expansive (even if no two people agree on where that line is drawn). Many of the friends whose book recommendations I take to heart scoff at the idea of getting science fiction chocolate in their fantasy peanut butter—they'll read one but not the other. It's a sort of literary apartheid.
For me, though, there's never been that divide. Science fiction and fantasy are two great tastes that taste great together, and I don't mind rocking some boats to keep the ampersand in SF&F.
Sometimes, of course, the purists are right. Every time Wes and Jacobs comb through one of my manuscripts to make sure I'm not slipping hidden particle accelerators or robots into Pathfinder, I'm forced to admit that they're correct to do so—it's important to keep a world internally consistent, and getting too hung up on science in a magical setting can break the feel (or the author). Never mind how cool it might have been to make Varisia's towering Spindlehorn a space elevator for ancient thaumateurgic astronauts... it just doesn't fit.
Which is why I was so happy to get a chance to write the "Into the Black" support article for Pathfinder #14, a gazetteer of Golarion's solar system and the diverse cultures which inhabit it. These days, I spend a lot of my time buried in Planet Stories manuscripts, visiting worlds like Leigh Brackett's exotic and dying Skaith in the Eric John Stark books, or Robert E. Howard's Almuric, not to mention swashbuckling Burroughsian pulp like the Mars novels from Michael Moorcock and Otis Adelbert Kline. With this article, I (with significant influence from publisher Erik Mona) got the chance to finally bring hardcore Planet Stories SF into the Pathfinder Chronicles setting.
While I included many more modern SF tropes, from the terminator-line society of Verces to the irradiated liches of Eox the dead or the Jovian floaters of Liavara and Bretheda, Golarion's closest neighbors are straight out of the sword and planet genre epitomized by the Planet Stories books. The green planet of Castrovel, with its steamy jungles and beautiful telepathic matriarchs, meshes completely with the 1930s image of Venus, and any fan of Burroughs or Brackett will quickly recognize their Mars in Akiton's four-armed warriors and desert strongholds.
If you're like me and already enjoy mixing and matching your genres, I hope Pathfinder #14 hits the spot. And if you're a Pathfinder or Planet Stories purist, well, this might be a good point to give the other camp a shot and see what you've been missing. After all, despite what Dr. Egon Spengler might say, sometimes it's good to cross the streams...
Pathfinder! Now in Two Amazing Dimensions! Wednesday, October 29, 2008Anyone who's haunted the Paizo messageboards for a while has likely come across the artwork of Ashton Sperry, our own N'wah. (If you haven't, look for his posts in this thread!) That Ashton is a big ol' Pathfinder fan goes without saying. His deluxe-sized rune giant paper miniature so impressed us a few months back that when asked if we'd like to see more Pathfinder characters receive the same 2D paper miniature treatment...
Pathfinder! Now in Two Amazing Dimensions!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Anyone who's haunted the Paizo messageboards for a while has likely come across the artwork of Ashton Sperry, our own N'wah. (If you haven't, look for his posts in this thread!) That Ashton is a big ol' Pathfinder fan goes without saying. His deluxe-sized rune giant paper "miniature" so impressed us a few months back that when asked if we'd like to see more Pathfinder characters receive the same 2D paper miniature treatment there was absolutely no way we could turn him down. Well, the artistic fruits of Ashton's labor showed up today and they're simply too awesome to keep to ourselves! Heroes, and villains, and goblins aplenty! More proof that we have the most talented, most insane, most incredible readers in the world. So a huge thanks from all of us here to Ashton and his colorist Ben's (Benchak on the boards) amazing work!
And as we keep having to tell people, they're not paper dolls, they're precisely scaled miniature combat aids. There's a difference.
... New Products Announced Wednesday, February 27, 2008This week we announced a slew of new products: ... Pathfinder Pathfinder #14 Second Darkness Chapter 2: Children of the Void—A star has fallen from the sky, destroying the island known as the Devil's Elbow. Tasked by a group of elven bounty hunters to investigate a dark elf assassin tied to the catastrophe, the heroes travel to the blasted island only to find it crawling with prospectors, merchants, and mercenaries eager to salvage...
New Products Announced
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
This week we announced a slew of new products:
Pathfinder
Pathfinder #14 Second Darkness Chapter 2: "Children of the Void"—A star has fallen from the sky, destroying the island known as the Devil's Elbow. Tasked by a group of elven bounty hunters to investigate a dark elf assassin tied to the catastrophe, the heroes travel to the blasted island only to find it crawling with prospectors, merchants, and mercenaries eager to salvage the legendary "skymetal" sure to have fallen from space.
Pathfinder #15 Second Darkness Chapter 3: "The Armageddon Echo"—Evidence recovered from the devastated island known as the Devil's Elbow indicates that vile dark elves have infiltrated the ruined elven city of Celwynvian. The heroes join forces with the valorous elves of Crying Leaf in an attempt to reclaim the city from darkness.
Pathfinder #16 Second Darkness Chapter 4: "Endless Night"—Disguised as evil dark elves, the heroes penetrate a hidden city in the subterranean Darklands in an effort to discover the drow plan for the coming apocalypse. The possibility of a traitor among the goodly elves of the surface world and the discovery of the heroes' ruse leads to a race through treacherous caverns in a desperate effort to warn allies of impending doom.
Pathfinder #17 Second Darkness Chapter 5: "A Memory of Darkness"—Armed with the knowledge that an elven traitor supplied the drow with the magical means to call down the stars and devastate Golarion, the PCs arrive at the elven nation of Kyonin to find their claims falling on deaf ears.
Pathfinder Chronicles
Pathfinder Chronicles: Gods & Magic—This comprehensive 64-page guidebook provides an overview of the 20 "core" Pathfinder Chronicles gods and their religions, with an emphasis on rules and information players can use at the game table, whether they're playing a zealous cleric, brave paladin, or simply a faithful member of any character class.
Pathfinder Chronicles: Into the Darklands—Delve the deep secrets of the Darklands, a subterranean realm frequented by dark elves, shadow dragons, and worse! This comprehensive sourcebook provides an overview of the cavernous realms below the surface of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting.
Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom—The largest and most important metropolis in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting comes alive in this comprehensive guide to the City at the Center of the World!
GameMastery Maps
GameMastery Flip-Mat: Darklands—features a maze of interconnected underworld tunnels. The Flip side features a huge, cavernous chamber.
GameMastery Flip-Mat: Desert—features a majestic desert filled with blowing sands and massive dunes. The Flip side features a desert oasis centered on a small pond and teeming with life.
GameMastery Map Pack: Elven City—Locations include: Treehouse Dwelling, Mystic Arch, Statuary Garden Temple of the Four Winds, and Council of Chambers.
The Dark World, by Henry Kuttner—Henry Kuttner's Sword and Sorcery classic returns to print at last! World War II veteran Edward Bond's recuperation from a disastrous fighter plane crash takes a distinct turn for the weird when he encounters a giant wolf, a red witch, and the undeniable power of the need-fire, a portal to a world of magic and swordplay at once terribly new and hauntingly familiar.
Death in Delhi, by Gary Gygax—A giant ruby and a plea to rescue the purloined crown jewels of Delhi arrives at the villa of Magister Setne Inhetep, philosopher-wizard of the Pharaoh of Aegypt!
Pathfinder On Your Laptop! Thursday, September 27, 2007There's a lot to love about pen-and-paper RPGs. Sitting around a table with your friends... telling stories... rolling dice... sweating with tension or laughing yourself sick over nothing but the combined power of your imaginations. In fact, frequently the only part that isn't fun is the actual pen-and-paper part of it: the ragged character sheets, or the frantic searches through books to see if that's actually how the spell works. ......
Pathfinder On Your Laptop!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
There's a lot to love about pen-and-paper RPGs. Sitting around a table with your friends... telling stories... rolling dice... sweating with tension or laughing yourself sick over nothing but the combined power of your imaginations. In fact, frequently the only part that isn't fun is the actual pen-and-paper part of it: the ragged character sheets, or the frantic searches through books to see if that's actually how the spell works.
Now at last there are not one, but two computer programs that can make your time at the gaming table less work and more play. Both HeroLab from Lone Wolf Development and RPGXplorer offer you a wealth of searchable, graphically-interfaced information at your fingertips. Build and update your character with just clicks of a mouse, manage your inventory, search a massive rules database, or create new game content, all in seconds.
Now are you ready for the best part? Both HeroLab and RPGXplorer have been licensed to incorporate Pathfinder content into their products. Yes! Owners of either of these products will be able to download free data sets that include all of the crunch from Pathfinder to help your game run that much smoother. Just visit the company's websites, or click here for RPGXplorer's downloads for Pathfinder #1 and the Player's Guide.
Attention To Detail: The Story Behind Pathfinder's...
Attention To Detail: The Story Behind Pathfinder's Supporting Material Saturday, April 21, 2007When coming up with the format for Pathfinder, one of the biggest questions we faced as a team was, Okay, adventure path, check—but what else is going to be in there? While we knew that the adventure that is the heart of each volume would grab people, that only accounts for a bit over half of each book. Something that's hard to grasp until you're actually staring down the...
Attention To Detail: The Story Behind Pathfinder's Supporting Material
Saturday, April 21, 2007
When coming up with the format for Pathfinder, one of the biggest questions we faced as a team was, "Okay, adventure path, check—but what else is going to be in there?" While we knew that the adventure that is the heart of each volume would grab people, that only accounts for a bit over half of each book. Something that's hard to grasp until you're actually staring down the barrel of a pagination is just how massive each one of these books is going to be—without in-text ads to eat up space, almost a hundred pages is a daunting amount of white space. What were we going to put there?
Ideas flowed fast and furious, and many of them quickly crashed and burned. Everything from familiar content like appendices of magic items and reports on current gaming news to outlandish proposals like a miniature Adventure-Path-related comic book in every issue (my own misguided suggestion, and an undertaking only slightly less expensive than putting a man on Mars). In the end, however, we came up with two guiding principles for all "back matter" (as we've taken to calling the supplementary pieces).
1. Everything in an issue of Pathfinder must be actively useful to a DM running the Adventure Path.
2. At least some of it needs to be fun and useful for players as well as DMs.
While one of the nice things about the Pathfinder format is that supplementary pieces have the luxury of being more free-form with their structure, much of the back matter in Pathfinder falls into one of the following general categories.
Cities and Regions: One of the strongest selling points of Pathfinder, in my mind, is that it gives you literally EVERYTHING you need to run a campaign. While we of course encourage people to adapt the Adventure Path to their own homebrew campaign worlds—some of us at the office are doing the same thing—we also think it's important to make the setting itself as compelling as the plot. In Rise of the Runelords alone, we have three extensive city write-ups detailing cities that the PCs will visit in the course of their travels—Sandpoint, Magnimar, and Xin-Shalast. These aren't just town stat blocks—these are massive affairs filled with locations, NPCs, backstory, encounters, and maps of surpassing intricacy and beauty. (You'd think I was exaggerating, but when Wes Schneider brought in the map he'd drawn of the city of Magnimar, site of the second adventure, I would have sworn he'd traced it off of Google Maps... there was simply too much detail. When asked how he managed it, he shrugged and replied, "latent obsessive-compulsive tendencies, I suppose.") In addition, we'll also have a large-scale map of the entire region of Varisia, in which Rise of the Runelords takes place, with write-ups for dozens of locations that simultaneously help flesh out the world and give you instant story starters for additional adventures. (I don't know about you, but I'm always a huge fan of provocative regional maps that give you just enough flavor to get your mind going, then turn you loose.)
Ecological Write-ups: Designing a new setting and working under the OGL means that we have the opportunity to introduce new monsters and re-imagine classic ones. (If you want a taste of where we're headed, scroll down to the last blog post on the goblins in our world.) In Rise of the Runelords, we plan to reveal our vision for stone giants and dragons in depth, taking things beyond a mere MM entry and showing you their society, their beliefs, their insides... in short, everything that makes them tick. Because while a good illustration can make a monster intriguing, it's how they think (and how you play them) that makes them great adversaries.
Gods and Demons: Similar to my feelings on monsters, I think that gods and demons (somewhat interchangeable terms in our world) are the most fun when they have engaging stories. Several times in each Adventure Path, we'll pick one of the gods or demons from our campaign setting and give you an in-depth look at everything about them, from their story and stats to their worshippers and heralds. For the first path, that'll be Desna, Song of the Spheres and patron of gypsies, and Lamashtu, the Goddess of Monstrous Birth.
Additional Encounters: What if your party skipped half the encounters in part of an adventure, or heads off in a direction you hadn't expected? Additional encounters in the region, conveniently tied to the Adventure Path, can help save you a lot of scrambling.
Bestiary: One of the few supplementary sections guaranteed to be in each issue, the Pathfinder bestiary will contain a number of brand-new monsters each month, both actively involved in the adventure and unrelated but thematically tied. For a sneak preview of what sorts of creatures you can expect to see in the first volume, keep watching this blog!
NPCs: It takes more than just a stat block to make a fun NPC, and whenever possible, Pathfinder will present the supporting cast—both heroes and villains—in an expanded format designed to be easily to cut-and-pasted into other adventures.
Pathfinder Journal: One of the other constants in the back matter, the Pathfinder Journal will explore a new aspect of our campaign setting each month and help tie together elements of both Pathfinder and the 32-page GameMastery Modules, helping to increase cohesion and give you even more options for expansion.
Miscellaneous Crunch: Ah, the joy of the miscellaneous category! Here you'll find everything from new spells, rules, and feats tied to sin magic (a magic system tied to the seven deadly sins and utilized by the Runelords) to pieces on how to run and maintain your own keep or castle.
History: I'm sure that by now you're probably getting the general gist of the Pathfinder ideology, but the history of a game world is just as important—and potentially inspiring—as it's geography. A chance for us (not to mention some of the biggest names in the RPG business) to shade in the historical background of our world? Yes, please!
Pre-generated Characters: Never again will you have to worry about players forgetting their character sheets at home. Each volume of Pathfinder will feature pre-generated characters based on Wayne Reynolds's stunning depictions of the Paizo iconics, allowing you and your party to grab the book and jump straight into the adventure with a minimum of prep time.
Whew! Keep in mind that those are only a few of the broad categories you might find in each volume—as I mentioned before, one of the things that excites me most about Pathfinder personally is our freedom to run the pieces that need to be run, regardless of whether or not they fit in with an established section. To build something from the ground up and have the authority to experiment is a glorious thing, and I believe strongly that when an author says, "how detailed should section XXX be?" and we can answer, "as much as it needs to be," everyone wins... especially the reader.
