The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Gets Ready to Fly!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

As I write this, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (which I described in an earlier blog) is getting ready to go to the printer. We're incorporating the last bits of feedback from playtesters and developers, templating the cards for consistency and flavor, and rearranging the rulebook so that it's fun and easy to read. This is the end of the development process, the point where a game designer gets ready to bid farewell to his design as it walks out the door for a rich new life.

As you can tell, I'm a little sad to see it go. I mean, I know it will do great things. If, as they say, it takes a village to raise a child, then this child got one mighty fine upbringing. Even if it started as a very different sort of child indeed.

Conceived out of mad science in my lab, born of the unholy union of Epic Roleplaying Game™ and Cooperative Card Game™, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game was not destined to go unnoticed. The first clue was its larger than average size. At 1,155 cards released over a year, it's a colossus. At the point I learned that all of them would fit in the same box, I thought, "Man, that is some box." All of Rise of the Runelords packs into more than 30 epic adventures. That is a lot of adventures.

The front and back of the adventure Burnt Offerings, and both sides of its scenario Attack on Sandpoint.

But it isn't a hulking brute. This game has moves. It plays with a catlike grace, whipping along and keeping you in suspense as you play. If you're the kind of person who looks at a polar bear and thinks, "I'll bet that big thing can't catch me," you're gonna get caught by this game too. Once you set up a session, the game will guide you through a thrilling adventure, ticking down to a moment where panic will set in as to whether your party will win or lose. And just like that cuddly polar bear, make no mistake: This game might just kill you. It's sure gonna try, anyway.

Oh yeah, the whole village thing. This game went through a stellar development team, both in my group (Chad Brown, Paul Peterson, Gaby Weidling, and Tanis O'Connor) and at Paizo (Vic Wertz, Wes Schneider, James Jacobs, and Jason Bulmahn). At some point, I convinced the Paizo team to run a "semi-open alpha test," where we gave it to more than three hundred Pathfinder Society members and said, "Break this thing."

Boy, did they. Over three months of testing, we received thousands of pieces of feedback. A single card might have 30 forum comments about it; put two cards together and a vigorous debate about card combos would break out. My favorite thread title: "Harpy + Treacherous Cave raises suck to a new level."

The monster card Harpy, both sides of the location card Treacherous Cave, and Teleport, the spell you wish you had when you encounter the former in the latter.

Everything got sanded down and reshaped. Vic, Chad, and I were on the super-secret playtest forum every day, answering questions and updating the game at a breakneck pace. The Pathfinder players made our game into their game.

The game has been through an epic journey over a year's time, just like you will make when you play it. And now, it's getting ready to leave the nest. I'm going to miss it. But it's coming home for summer, and I'm keeping its room open.

Mike Selinker
Lone Shark Games

Rise of the Runelords Deluxe Collector's Edition Unboxing!

Thursday, November 28, 2012

The Rise of the Runelords Deluxe Collector's Edition pre-sale promotion has been extended! From now until Sunday, December 2nd at 11:59 PM Pacific Time, active Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscribers who order will receive a free PDF edition of this book when the print edition ships.

Join Paizo Publisher Erik Mona as he gets his hands on the first available copy of the Rise of the Runelords Deluxe Collector's Edition and gives a rundown of its awesomeness. The edition is very limited, so order yours today!

Mike Selinker on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

So, there is an announcement on the Paizo blog about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game going into semi-open playtests. The "collaborative deck-building game" (which is neither completely collaborative nor completely deck-building, but work with me) is probably the best game system I've ever designed, and I'd like to tell you a little bit about it.

The basic concept is this: It's a cooperative game for one to six players. Each player has a unique character composed of a deck of cards and a set of stats. Roleplayers will find the stats very familiar—characters have roles and numbers that define their abilities and skills. As you go through adventures, you'll improve your deck by acquiring new items, allies, weapons, and other cool things as you explore and overcome challenges; over time, you'll be customizing your deck to suit your own individual vision of your character. All adventures are composed of infinitely usable cards and decks. There's no Game Master, no recordkeeping, no expository dialogue. It's everything I want to do in a roleplaying game without the workload. It plays in an hour to an hour and a half.

These playtest cards were designed for single-sided, black-and-white printing. In the finished game, card borders will have colors instead of just shades of grey, and the charts that currently overlap the images on "Them Ogres Ain't Right" and "The Rusty Dragon" will move to the back of the card.

How We Got Here

About a year ago, Rian Sand came to me with a theoretical idea of a design space that hadn't yet been explored much: a card game that mimicked many of the behaviors of a traditional RPG, but without a lot of the time and administrative burden. I had also been thinking about some mechanics for a system like that, and Rian's enthusiasm and support made me invest serious design time into it. There were a lot of problems that had to be solved—persistence, goal development, game speed, and so on—and I'm pretty sure we solved them all.

The original game was for a new intellectual property that I'm not prepared to talk about yet. Suffice it to say that it's really cool, and Mike Vaillancourt and Matt Forbeck had a lot to do with making it cool, and you'll see it someday soon. Not sure when, not sure how, but soon.

But as we were doing this, we were thinking about what our first licensed game had to be. Various ideas were tossed around, but for Rian and me, there was only one choice. Rian was a major fan of the Pathfinder RPG, and I... well, I was a major fan of Paizo. Owners Vic Wertz and Lisa Stevens have shown considerable benevolence and respect my way over the past years, leading to such awesome projects as the Harrow Deck, the Kill Doctor Lucky color edition, Yetisburg, and the American version of Key Largo. Lone Shark has done more games for Paizo than for any other company, and if they were interested in following us down this garden path, they were going to get to do so.

It turns out that after a discussion with Paizo's Publisher Erik Mona and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Alvarez at the GAMA Trade Show, they were very interested. Pathfinder Lead Designer Jason Bulmahn saw a version of the system at the first unveiling at Gamestorm, and brought back much appreciated words of praise. I showed it to the Paizo team back in Redmond, including James Jacobs, Sarah Robinson, and Wes Schneider, and we were underway within a few weeks. And over those weeks, we were bombarded with very heavy books and offers to help from everyone on the Paizo staff. It became a project all of Paizo could participate in.

The game continued to grow and change under the Paizo stewardship. My talented developers Chad Brown, Paul Peterson, and Gaby Weidling quickly came to understand the magnitude of the challenge ahead of us. Pathfinder is huge. Paizo had given us the now-classic Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path as a template for our games, which meant we had to adapt an incredibly deep and involving series of stories into the few words and concepts that fit on cards. It was not so easy, but it made us examine and reexamine every aspect of my system to make it work. It's now much tighter and much more fun.

Under the codename "Project Swallowtail," we showed off a very raw version of it at PaizoCon, and a more robust version at Gen Con. And now we're going into a massive playtest with the Pathfinder Society to get the game exactly right. It's got a ways to get there, but it seems pretty good now. Time will tell.

How the Game Plays

You start by creating a party of adventurers. Each of you gets a character card such as Valeros, Seoni, or Merisiel. That card tells you what cards your deck consists of. A wizard might have more spells than weapons, and a fighter will likely have more weapons than spells.

You'll select an Adventure Path, which consists of several adventures, which consist of several scenarios. A typical scenario tells you what villains and henchmen you'll face (if any), and the locations in which you'll face them. Each location has a deck of cards, drawn at random from appropriate stacks, and then shuffled in with a villain or henchman. You won't know where the villain is until you find him.

Throughout the game, you'll explore locations, encounter monsters, and find new weapons, items, spells, and the like. But you're racing a clock. The adventure deck is a stack of cards that you'll flip one card off of every turn. If the adventure deck runs out of cards before you find and defeat the villain, you lose. If your character deck runs out of cards, you die.

But if you don't die, then you'll advance your character. You'll get to put new cards in your deck, expand your powers and abilities, and rebuild your deck for new adventures. If you defeat all the scenarios in the game, you'll be a mighty adventurer indeed.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you like the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. I can't wait to see what you think.

Mike Selinker
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

Playtest the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Friday, October 12, 2012

Paizo is pleased to report that in just a few short weeks, we're expecting to begin the playtest for next year's Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (known to some of you by the code name "Project Swallowtail"). Because playtesting a card game isn't quite as simple as letting everybody download a PDF, it's not going to be quite as open as our RPG playtests have been, but if you'd like to get involved, read on to find out how that might be possible!

First, let me tell you a bit about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is a cooperative game for 1 to 6 players designed by Mike Selinker and his team at Lone Shark Games, which Paizo intends to release at Gen Con 2013 (if not PaizoCon 2013).

Each player has a unique character comprised of a deck of cards and a set of stats. Roleplayers will find the stats very familiar—characters have classes such as fighter, wizard, and rogue; they have numbers that define their Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.; they have skills and proficiencies.

As your player adventures, you'll improve your deck by acquiring new items, allies, spells, and weapons as you explore and overcome challenges; over time, you'll be customizing your deck to suit your own individual vision of your character.

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game product offerings will begin with the Rise of the Runelords Base Set, a big box containing more than 400 cards including the "Burnt Offerings" Adventure Deck. Your party will explore locations such as the Sandpoint Cathedral, the Rusty Dragon, and the Glassworks; you'll meet helpful NPCs like Ameiko Kaijitsu or friendly Aldern Foxglove; you'll visit the Swallowtail Festival, delve into the Catacombs of Wrath, and invade Thistletop. You'll fight goblins, sinspawn, Warchief Ripnugget, and maybe even face the Sandpoint devil, and eventually, become the heroes of Sandpoint! The Base Set supports 1 to 4 players; a 110-card add-on deck will expand the number of players to 5 or 6, as well as adding more character options for any number of players.

We'll follow the Base Set with bimonthly 110-card Adventure Decks presenting the subsequent five chapters of Rise of the Runelords and, if all goes well, we'll adapt other Adventure Paths after that!

The Pathfinder Adventure Game plays in an hour to an hour-and-a-half; it's easy to learn, yet offers a lot of variety in play. Mike Selinker and his team did a stunning job capturing the feel of the Pathfinder Roleplaying game, the Pathfinder campaign setting, and the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path in a fun card game.

But to make this game is as fun and exciting as possible we're going to need playtesters—lots of playtesters. If you're interested in being one of them, find out how on our messageboards!

Vic Wertz
Chief Technical Officer

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Rise of the Runelords Round-Up

Friday, July 27, 2012

We're still in the process of photographing the paint masters for the next Pathfinder Battles set, which ties into the Shattered Star Adventure Path. The first installment of that campaign debuts in just a few weeks at Gen Con Indy, where we'll also debut the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles set.

While our cameras are clicking in anticipation of future blogs, I thought it was high time to reveal the complete official set list for the Rise of the Runelords set, complete with collector numbers and rarities.

I am really excited to hear your feedback on this set later this month. I think you're going to love it. And for the first time, here's a complete, official list of the set for your collecting pleasure.

More next week, including honest-to-goodness images of the first Shattered Star set. I swear!

But for today, here's the list!

Rise of the Runelords Set List

Common		Uncommon
1  Bugbear Hero 2  Goblin Commando 3  Goblin Dog 4  Goblin Warchanter 5  Kobold Champion 6  Faceless Stalker 7  Ghoul 8  Harpy 9  Ogrekin 10  Yeth Hound 11  Denizen of Leng	12  Redcap 13  Sinspawn 14  Sinspawn Axeman 15  Skinsaw Cultist 16  Alu-Demon 17  Lamia Kuchrima 18  Shining Child 19  Warrior of Wrath 20  Wraith	21  Goblin Commando on Goblin Dog 22  Jakardros Sovark 23  Lyrie Akenja 24  Ameiko Kaijitsu 25  Harsk, Dwarf Ranger 26  Lamia Matriarch 27  Malfeshnekor 28  Orik Vancaskerkin 29  Tsuto Kaijitsu 30  Vale Temros 31  Kaven Windstrike 32  Khalib	33  Ogre 34  Ogre Brute 35  Seoni, Human Sorcerer 36  Shalelu Andosana 37  Viorian Dekanti 38  Dire Bear 39  Stone Giant 40  Stone Giant Champion 41  Vraxeris 42  Lamia 43  Wendigo 44  Yeti
Rare		Huge	Promotional (Gargantuan)
45  Aldern Foxglove 46  Jaagrath Kreeg 47  Lucrecia 48  The Scribbler 49  The Skinsaw Man 50  Highlady Athroxis 51  The Mithral Mage 52  Runelord Karzoug	53  Stone Golem 54  Azaven 55  Lamatar Bayden 56  Mokmurian 57  Forgefiend 58  Nualia 59  Warchief Ripnugget 60  Young Red Dragon	61  Karzoug Statue 62  Lamia Harridan 63  Storm Giant 64  Treachery Demon	65  Rune Giant

Good luck completing your collections!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Spirit of the Season

Friday, July 20, 2012

With the glories of PaizoCon behind us, the Paizo editorial department finds itself deep in the throes of that fabulous annual event called Gen Con Prep. The office is abuzz with the work of getting ready for the Big Show. All of Gen Con's big releases (Ultimate Equipment, the Bestiary Box, etc.) were finished long ago, of course, but there's still a ton of stuff to do before we can head to Indianapolis next month. We've got catalogs to finish, signs to complete, Pathfinder Society events to edit, and a million other tasks that are probably invisible to Gen Con attendees, but which are absolutely critical to making sure the show goes off without a hitch.

That's all a very long and elaborate way of saying I've been too slammed this week to write a proper blog introducing the next set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures, which ties into August's Shattered Star Adventure Path. We've seen about 2/3rds of the paint masters for this set already, and they continue the tradition of steady and amazing improvement we've been shooting for with each new release in the Pathfinder Battles line. The WizKids production manager is bringing over a bunch more paint masters tomorrow, and I'm hoping we'll have seen almost the complete set within a few short weeks.

The first pictures of some Shattered Star minis will come next week. This week I want to show off a miniature that fits in between the Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star sets. And it just so happens that this miniature ties into the general theme of Gen Con Prep, as it's the official 2012 convention promo figure: The Festering Spirit!

The Festering Spirt made its debut at PaizoCon, where we included a complimentary figure in every attendee's goodie bag. We'll also have the figure at Gen Con, available for free with any purchase of $50 or more.

Many of you may recognize the base sculpt of the Festering Spirit as the Spectre from the Heroes & Monsters set. This time, we've cast the undead horror in clear plastic, and then drybrushed the figure with shades of opaque green. The mini really shines when held to the light, and the whole thing adds a very "toxic" luster to what is already a spooky miniature in any color.

We'll have singles of the Festering Spirit available following Gen Con here on paizo.com, so those of you who weren't able to make PaizoCon or Gen Con will still get a chance to get your hands on this very cool figure.

And with that, it's back to the salt mines for me! Next week, we'll take our first real look at the Shattered Star, and you guys are going to be blown away!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide

Thursday, July 5, 2012

With the imminent release of the new Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (and its super-special Deluxe Collector's Edition), we've released a free Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide PDF! Within these pages, you'll find new traits for your characters, a thorough gazetteer of Varisia, and... well, why are we even talking about it? It's free—go download it already!

James Sutter
Senior Editor

New Books and Epubs!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

It's an exciting day over here in the Pathfinder Tales department! Not only does today introduce the final chapter in Erik Mona's "Two Pieces of Tarnished Silver" (which you can read right here for free), but it's also the release date of two things that folks have been anxiously awaiting for a while now.

Illustration by Daren Bader

The first is Robin Laws' The Worldwound Gambit, a rollicking heist novel set in the demonic madness of the Worldwound. Hitch a ride with veteran con man Gad as he gathers the perfect team of scoundrels and thieves to infiltrate a cult's living tower deep in demon-held territory. Together they'll attempt to pull off the biggest job of their lives, saving their home from destruction and keeping business booming. Along the way, they'll have to deal with insufferable paladins, a dangerously seductive priestess, their own quirks and faults—and of course, plenty of demons. By turns hilarious and disturbing, Robin's new book is a dark, witty romp that will show you Mendev and the Worldwound like you've never seen them before.

Illustration by Jason Engle

The second thing we're proud to unveil is the latest batch of Pathfinder Tales ePubs, which includes not just several of the web fiction stories, but the first three Pathfinder's Journals from Pathfinder Adventure Path, available now in compiled electronic form, complete with all their original illustrations! For years, people have been asking for compiled versions of the journals for ease of reading and transportation—in fact, before he worked here, Mark Moreland compiled all the Eando Kline stories into a self-printed chapbook to read on his commute—and we're glad to finally be able to oblige. Appearing in this first batch are "Hell's Pawns" by Dave Gross, which marks the first appearance of Varian Jeggare and Radovan; "Dark Tapestry" by Elaine Cunningham, which follows the adventures of half-elven Pathfinder and desert druid Channa Ti; and "The Compass Stone: The Collected Journals of Eando Kline," which presents the entire epic journey of Pathfinder Eando Kline from his first appearance in Pathfinder Adventure Path #1 to the stunning conclusion in #18. Much longer than a typical web fiction story, both "Hell's Pawns" and "Dark Tapestry" are full-length novellas, while Eando's story is roughly as long as a Pathfinder Tales novel! "The Compass Stone" also comes complete with a new foreword by yours truly, discussing the evolution of the Pathfinder's Journal, and of Eando's story in particular. Joining these journals are the compiled web fiction tales "Lord of Penance" by Richard Lee Byers and "The Secret of the Rose and Glove" by Kevin Andrew Murphy.

And this is just the beginning! We hope to unveil the next novel in the Pathfinder Tales line fairly soon, and you can look forward to seeing further batches of web fiction stories and Pathfinder's Journals compiled for your electronic reading enjoyment at regular intervals. Because when it comes to Pathfinder fiction, more is better!

James Sutter
Fiction Editor

Burnt Offerings

Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 02:11 PM Pacific

The audience fills in for the final event at PaizoCon 2010: a video showing of Burnt Offerings on Stage.

Ross Byers
Assistant Software Developer

Trollin' on the River

Friday, February 19, 2010

We've had the cover for Pathfinder Adventure Path #32: "Rivers Run Red" (written by our own Rob McCreary) up for sometime now, but it bears another mention, as this cover sees the climax of a long and interesting evolution. It's little surprise that we were only three months into the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path—and Pathfinder's life in general—when it came time to order art for our first troll. How to handle this got a little tricky, though, as it's important to us that our creatures walk the line between familiarity and distinctiveness when it comes to earlier incarnations of the game. What we ended up with was the gnarled, lanky, long-nosed fellow from "The Hook Mountain Massacre". Neat! And totally a cool piece of art. But definitely nothing ground breaking.

Illustration by JZConcepts

Several months later, against all odds, we found ourselves ordering a cover for a Bestiary. Attempting to follow in the tradition of the "a whole bunch of monsters about to getcha!" covers from classic gaming bestiaries, we wanted a swarm of little monsters, one or two medium monsters, and a big monster. Creature ideas went around and around, then sketches did their circles, and what we ended up with was goblins, a maralith, and WHAT THE HECK IS THAT! OMG, that's a TROLL! Awesome! You don't get an incredible Wayne Reynolds cover and then say, "That looks amazing, but could we get this guy to look a little ganglier." This was our new look for the troll.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Flash forward a few more months and we're ordering Kingmaker covers. So we want a cool bandit and a sexy fey and a barbarian dude and a—hey, how 'bout a troll boss! Okay, that'd be cool. And thanks to Vincent Dutrait, here he is.

Illustration by Vincent Dutrait

So our trolls have come a long way over the course of the past few years, but without a doubt, things are settled now. And if that nasty claw-claw-bite wasn't enough to send your PCs running for their alchemist fire, just wait for "Rivers Run Red" to see all the nasty tricks Chief Hargulka has in store for the Stolen Lands.

Looking back, trolls actually had it pretty easy. You should have seen the backstage identity crisis the ogre had before its debut. But that's a story for another day…

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Dogslicer vs. Cantaloupe

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

James Jacobs came home from the Burnt Offerings play with his very own metal dogslicer prop. In the interest of science and general vengeance against hostile melons, we decided to test how effective this (unsharpened) dogslicer is.

Behold, the innocent cantaloupe. It looks so happy!

Behold, a hideous goblin. (Burnt Offerings goblin mask courtesy of Wes.)

Chop!

Midair chop!

Dogslicer wins! Not bad for goblin craftsmanship!

Sean K Reynolds
Developer

Da Vinci Arts Middle School ROCKS!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

So, last Saturday was one of the most surreal days of my life. Not because I spent it all in Portland, Oregon. Not because I watched Jason Bulmahn eat a doughnut that was topped with bacon. Not because I spent an hour in an arcade filled with all the best videogaming the '80s had to offer. And not because I had a hard time finding Lovecraft books that I didn't already have at Powell's World of Books.

What made it surreal was watching da Vinci Arts Middle School's stage production of my adventure, "Burnt Offerings," the first adventure in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.

I'd seen photos of the set and costumes already, but I still wasn't sure what to expect. Three cars full of Paizo employees and significant others made the day-trip down to Portland, but while everyone else spent the day eating Voodoo Doughnuts and playing videogames and shopping for books and stuff, I couldn't stop wondering what that night's performance was going to be like.

In a word, it was INCREDIBLE!

From the stage dressing to the costumes to the props (real metal weapons!) to the special effects (they included the giant hermit crab!) to the acting (including songs!) to the directing, it was all jaw-droppingly amazing to see what director Tom Beckett created. Looking at the program, I see that there were almost 50 roles in the play—and at times, it felt like half of them were all on stage at once! One thing in particular that I was incredibly impressed by was how Tom's adaptation of the adventure kept a lot of the more mature elements in place—suitably downplayed in some areas, but I never really felt like anything was missing. In fact, some of Tom's additions to the story (giving Belor Hemlock a son who wants to become a hero, or adding a few Skinsaw cultists to the dungeons of Thistletop) were really cool, and I wish I'd thought of them to put into the adventure myself!

All in all, it was a fantastic time. We took a few photos after the play was over, and the smoke in the air from the special effects or maybe remnants of rain on the camera lens made the pictures a little spotty, alas, but you can see in the first one how many folks were waiting in line to see the play before it began (Note the table with gaming supplies for sale, including several Pathfinder products, that local game store Guardian Games set up in the hall!). And in the pictures of the cast posing with several of us from Paizo, see how many characters from the adventure you can recognize!

Also cool: they gave me my own dogslicer.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

GameMastery Guide Cover!

Monday, October 5, 2009

I may have mentioned this before, but the main villain of Pathfinder’s first Adventure Path, Karzoug, was no stranger to tormenting PCs. He was one of my homebrew campaign’s major recurring characters—a powerful wizard who served as the true menace behind the throne of an evil warlord. In my homebrew, Karzoug wielded a scythe and had already made the transition to lich and wasn’t as concerned with greed, but he was very much still the campaign’s poster child for “evil wizard.” He eventually met his end when a pair of heroes, the barbarian Verik and the wizard Zefram, confronted Karzoug in, of all places, Baba Yaga’s dancing hut. Karzoug was trying to claim the hut’s legendary power source for his own evil purposes, and while this certainly annoyed Baba Yaga, she wasn’t about to give the PCs uncontested access to her magical fortress. And so these two high-level PCs snuck through the depths of the dancing hut filled with fear about breaking or even touching anything, avoiding every single encounter and trap through an uncharacteristic caution that, in the end, served them quite well. I’d intended them to finally reach Karzoug and have the final battle with the evil wizard after the PCs had depleted much of their resources dealing with the natives of Baba Yaga’s hut, and when they reached Karzoug with much of those resources untapped, I figured they deserved the advantage. Turns out, they needed that advantage anyway. Even in the 1st edition of the game, Karzoug was a menace.

And so, when it came to deciding on a villain to inflict upon Golarion, it was with quite a bit of pride and nostalgia that I resurrected old Karzoug. He’d changed specializations (necromancer to transmuter) and weapons (scythe to glaive) and got a promotion (from the power behind the throne to the guy who sits on the throne), but in a lot of other ways he remained the same. Of course, getting Wayne Reynolds to illustrate him was one of the more surreal moments of my gaming career... and now, seeing him on the cover of our upcoming GameMastery Guide, that sense of surreal pride has returned. Wayne Reynolds has done a fantastic job making Karzoug epitomize the role of "super-powerful wizard." Take a moment to look through all of his stuff! Caged imp, pet blue dragon, throne manacles for prisoners, spellbooks casually stacked to the side, crazy crystal ball with some sort of apparatus wrapped around it, a throne that can probably see—and that doesn’t even touch all of his fancy magical equipment he’s got ready to ruin the next PC to step his way!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Hellknights Unleashed

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Illustration by Kevin Yan

More than two years ago it fell to me to write the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, setting the stage for characters to take part in a world that was, at the time, painted not even in broad strokes but more in generally tossed bucket-sized splashes. Over time and through hundreds of thousands of words, though, what started as made-up names have transformed into some of the better-known characters, organizations, and locations in Golarion. But probably the passage that folks have grabbed onto most zealously comes from the description of the paladin on page 8, "Korvosa—in its traditional ties to Cheliax—enthusiastically supplies Citadel Vraid, bastion of the Hellknight Order of the Nail. The Chelish Hellknights pay homage to no deity, but rather bend the rigid law and infernal traditions of Hell to their will."

For years now folks have asked for more details on this iron-shod order of enforcers, even beyond their details in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, but the time has never seemed quite right to give away the entire farm—I admit, I've been kind of precious with my pet antiheroes. At the same time, rules for running or playing Hellknights have always been vague, largely because I didn't want to work up a class that would immediately have to be updated to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. But now, with the PF RPG rules in circulation, my blasphemous baby Book of the Damned Volume 1: Princes of Darkness nearing the shelves, and the Council of Thieves Adventure Path being set in the very city where the Hellknights were formed, the time finally feels right.

So, as of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #27, the Hellknights finally march forth, that volume revealing everything characters need to confront, research, and even join the numerous orders of Hellknights. That's right, that does mean there's finally going to be a Hellknight prestige class—and one of the largest ones I've ever seen at that.

But that's not all: in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #28, expect the other side of the coin, with a GM-focused inside look into the mindset, citadels, and history of these infamous orders.

So that's back-to-back months of Hellknight action coming at you, finally answering many questions about the deadly knighthood, yet also revealing dozens of new mysteries. For example, taken from Pathfinder #27, presented here are just two of the several new lesser Hellknight Orders detailed therein. But that will have to do for now—not surprisingly, the Hellknights frown upon spoilers.

Lesser Orders

Despite the cull of 4639, numerous lesser orders of Hellknights still exist. Most of these orders work at the edges of Cheliax's sphere of influence or within the countries once within the Chelish empire's thrall. Despite their smaller size, the majority of these factions uphold the same code as their elder, better-established brethren, though many uphold practices that subtly deviate from the core knighthood. Most are careful not to defy the mandates of the Measure and the Chain (the core philosophies of the Hellknights; detailed in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #28), however, as the larger, more powerful orders are mindful of those who would use the Hellknight name to opposing ends.

Order of the Crux: One of several bands of mercenaries dubbed Hellknights during the Chelish civil war, the skull-clad Order of the Crux refused to disband after the revolution. Hunted down and destroyed by the Order of the Scourge in 4663, the butchers were slaughtered and their fortress, Citadel Gheisteno, put to the torch. However, 25 years later, three graveknights clad in scarred Hellknight armor rose from the ruin. Calling themselves the Order of the Crux and led by the venomous Lictor Shokneir, the undead triune lurks upon the border of Nidal and Molthune, seemingly biding their time.

Order of the Coil: Among the smallest Hellknight factions, the Order of the Coil maintains holdings near the Sargavan city of Eleder, from where they viciously seek to tame the tribal natives of the country and put an end to their backward pollution of the outside world. Seeing the efforts of scholars and adventurers—particularly Pathfinders—as spreading a disease of savagery by carrying curios from the jungles into the world beyond, the Coil hunts down and destroys such explorers and artifacts, notorious for ending these perceived corruptions with poison and flames. The favored weapon of the Order of the Coil is the greataxe.

Wes Schneider
Managing Editor

Road Map to the Runelords

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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

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

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

More Magic of Thassilon

Monday, Jaunary 28, 2008

For Pathfinder #5, we asked a small army of authors to send us some spells and magic items that had a "Thassilonian" feel to them. As it turned out, we got about twice as many as we really had room to print. Rather than just cut the second half out and throw it away, we decided to cut the second half out and throw it into a free web enhancement for Pathfinder #5. Pictured here is just one of those items—a fragment of the Gluttonous Tome, a powerful artifact that has some pretty major ties to Zutha, the undead Runelord of Gluttony. WARNING: Some of the magic items may not be wise for your PCs to use. They were, after all, invented by the runelords and their minions!

To download a free PDF of the Pathfinder #5 web supplement, click here (180 KB zip PDF).

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Words of Wisdom from "Two Toes"

Monday, January 14, 2008

Back on November 14th, we had a sort of cryptic post here on the blog. Well, more of a warning, really: "THE YETI IS COMING!" Well, later this month, the yeti will arrive—just one of many dangers awaiting the PCs in "Spires of Xin-Shalast," the final adventure in Rise of the Runelords. Pathfinder #6 also presents a short article that talks about other dangers that await any who dare explore the Kodar Mountains, one of Golarion's most inhospitable regions. This article opens with some words of advice from one of Varisia's most widely traveled explorers—the currently missing Ronagard Roteshield.

"The cold's not your enemy. No, when you get it in your fool head to go gallivanting up to the top of the world, there's plenty else to be worried of. Up there, there's mountains that roar and try to eat you alive. There's air that quits caring and does you about as much good as trying to breathe a lake. There's rock that's solid as a fortress wall 'til it's the only thing holding you over a gap a mile deep. And then there's the things. The snowy, hungry things that don't let anything made of meat just pass on by.

"The cold, though, it'll kill you slow and quiet. It'll be there when you're fallen and broken, half-eaten at the bottom of some ravine. It'll make the hurting stop, wrap you up in that dull, soft numbness, and make your forget any thought of climbing back down.

"No, the cold's not your enemy. Up there, it's the best friend you've got."

—Ronagard "Two Toes" Roteshield, Mountaineer Extraordinaire

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Meet Freezemaw!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

One of the early lessons I learned working on adventures for Dungeon was that RPG players have an extra level of demands when it comes to dragons. You can throw pretty much any other monster into an adventure without worry, but if you want to include a dragon, you'd best be sure said dragon has a history and personality. And honestly, the readers are right (as they often are). Dragons shouldn't be throwaway encounters. They shouldn't just wander by as a result of a wandering monster result. In Pathfinder, I'm going to try to make sure that whenever we have a dragon appearing in the adventure, he or she has a story. Especially, as in the case of Pathfinder #5, when the dragon appears on the cover.

The white dragon on the cover is Arkrhyst—called Freezemaw by the Shoanti—an old white dragon who has lived on Rimeskull for 50 years. In his youth several centuries ago, Arkrhyst was a great and hated enemy of the Shoanti; his raids on the nomads of the Velashu Uplands and the western Storval Plateau were legendary, and many of those tribes still sing of these dark times, and of the countless heroes who sought out his home on Rimeskull to defeat him. None accomplished this goal, but as Arkrhyst grew older, his urge to raid grew less. Content now with the reputation he earned, he sleeps for years at a time on his considerable store of treasure, dreaming of his youthful rampages.

Of course, Freezemaw's only one of many menaces that wait for PCs brave enough to seek out the legendary dungeon of Runeforge in Pathfinder #5—but he's certainly one of the adventure's more memorable villains!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Happy New Year

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

And now, here we are in 2008! We've got a lot of exciting stuff planned for 2008, but there's just as much that's still evolving. Now's a great time to head on over to our messageboards and let us know what kind of products and adventures and blog posts you'd like to see from Paizo in the coming year. Who'd like to hear a Paizo Podcast? Is anyone interested in seeing a sequel to a particular GameMastery Module? Is there a market for Pathfinder miniatures? Don't be shy! We can't make things you want if you don't tell us you want them, right?

Anyway, I don't have all that much to say or show off today. The Paizo offices are closed, and I got the honor of writing today's post. And I'm too distracted by New Year-related shenanigans to write much more, so check out my favorite picture from Pathfinder #5—some foolish runelord calling upon the dread Oliphaunt of Jandelay!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Pathfinder in 2008!

Monday, December 31, 2007

Wow. Here we are at the end of 2007—I don't know about you, but it kind of snuck up on me. Things have been crazy busy here at Paizo over this last year, between the end of one era of monthly product and the beginning of another. Launching Pathfinder was great fun, but it was also a lot of work. Fortunately, Team Pathfinder has just about recovered from the triple duty of working on magazines, launching Pathfinder, and going to Gen Con—all just in time for our second Adventure Path to begin!

There are a lot of "Best of 2007" lists out there on the internet, and I suppose I could do something along the lines of "James's Favorite Moments of 2007" here, but to tell the truth I'm more excited about what we've got planned for 2008 in Pathfinder. We've got the contents planned out to volume #18, and even though a lot of those adventures and articles haven't yet been written (or even commissioned!), I do have a pretty good idea of what's coming next year for Pathfinder. And after reading the following list, you will too!

Listed here are 12 exciting things you can expect to show up in the pages of Pathfinder over the course of 2008. I'm only going to list one thing for each month, and as we get further out, details are more and more likely to change, but at this point they're pretty set in stone. Some of these details I might have mentioned on the Tuesday night chats, while I'm pretty sure I mentioned a few others last week at the book signing, and at least one of the following is something I haven't talked about outside of Paizo yet at all.

January: The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path ends with a trip into the Kodar Mountains, and inevitable confrontations with abominable snowmen, giant-sized giants, dragons, and worse, in the ancient ruined city of Xin-Shalast, pictured here.

February: Pathfinder's second Adventure Path begins! Curse of the Crimson Throne is a much more urban campaign, filled with politics, plagues, and peril above and below the streets of Korvosa, the largest city in all Varisia.

March: Our exploration of Golarion's deities continues with Abadar, Master of the First Vault, written by Sean K Reynolds.

April: Want to know more about the rakshasas of Golarion and find out what role they play in Curse of the Crimson Throne? Then be sure not to miss the April Pathfinder!

May: There've been quite a lot of requests for more information about the Shoanti—Varisia's tribes of barbaric nomads. Those questions will be answered this month, in "The Shoanti Way of Life."

June: Check out your map of Varisia. Particularly, that little note in the east that says "To the Hold of Belkzen" and has an arrow pointing off the map. In June, we reveal where that little arrow is pointing. HINT: Belkzen involves orcs. LOTS of orcs.

July: The final adventure in Curse of the Crimson Throne, "Crown of Fangs," appears in July, marking Adventure Path master Tito Leati's first appearance in Pathfinder. I've looked at his maps of Castle Korvosa, and all I can say is wow. Actually, I can say more, but I'd better move on to August before I do.

August: Pathfinder's third Adventure Path begins! The Second Darkness Adventure Path answers the question of what Golarion's drow have been up to, and starts out in the lawless city of Riddleport. Assuming I ever finish writing this volume's adventure, that is…

September: Not everyone in Riddleport's out to rob you. A lot of the folk there just want to have fun. Worshipers of Cayden Cailean would fit right in, which is why in September we'll be exploring his faith in detail. Bring your tankards!

October: There's something sinister afoot in the Mierani Forest in western Varisia, particularly in the abandoned elven city of Celwynvian. Alas, you'll have to wait until October to find out exactly what waits for your PCs here!

November: By now, you know that Second Darkness features the drow as primary antagonists. And as logic dictates… that means the campaign should eventually head down below. We still haven't quite settled on a name for the vast reaches of caverns that riddle Golarion's underworld, but by November we will. I hope. Because that's when we're running a Gazetteer of the regions below that pertain to this month's adventure!

December: This MIGHT slip into January, depending on if we come up with a few different ideas, but before Second Darkness comes to an end in early 2009, you can expect to see a big, juicy article that talks about the demon lords of Golarion. They're who the drow worship, after all! And one or two of them might just be trapped here on the Material Plane with your characters…

So there you go! Something (hopefully) to look forward to each month for the entirety of 2008. Of course, the list above just scratches the surface of the adventures and supplementary articles and monsters you'll discover in Pathfinder in 2008—the bestiary will keep going strong, as will Eando Kline's adventures in the Pathfinder Journal. Cayden Cailean and Abadar are only half of the deities we'll be examining in 2008, and the drow are certainly not the only (or even the most dangerous) foes your PCs will face in the deep below.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Oh no! Otyugh!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Wayne Reynolds continues his streak of brilliant artwork for Pathfinder—this background for the cover of Pathfinder #7, the first installment in the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, shows us that there are much worse things than alligators living in the sewers.... I particularly love the little details, like the inn's sign  or the Hellknight about to take the monster out singlehandedly before the iconics get the chance. Click on the image to download a larger version.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

KARZOUG FHTAGN!

Friday, November 30, 2007

I've mentioned before my fondness for H. P. Lovecraft and his mythos of insane and malignant Great Old Ones, and starting in Pathfinder #4, the world of Golarion gets its first real taste of the Cthulhu Mythos—pictured here is a hound of Tindalos, one of the new monsters in this volume's bestiary.

These strange time-traveling, soul-eating monstrosities were invented by Frank Belknap Long back in 1929 in his short story, "The Hounds of Tindalos," but they should be no strangers to those familiar with the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game published by Chaosium (itself one of the longest-lived continually-in-print RPGs ever—check them out at chaosium.com). Any self-respecting gamer looking for more inspiration on the hounds of Tindalos (or cosmic horror of any flavor) should certainly check out the huge line of books and adventures that have been produced for Call of Cthulhu for more. The actual game stats for the hounds as they appear here are pretty different than those from the Call of Cthulhu version, of course, but flavor transcends rules.

We'll be returning to Lovecraft country later on in Rise of the Runelords, getting a glimpse of the realm of Leng and unknown Kadath in Pathfinder #6, and now and then you'll be seeing other name drops occur. Yet don't expect don't expect Golarion to fall too completely into the clutches of the Great Old Ones. When the mythos rears its ugly head (or tentacles, or tongue, or color—whatever passes for a "head" in each monster's case) in Golarion, they have to be justified by the adventure's story and needs. In addition, that particular element needs to be something that doesn't feel out of place in the sword and sorcery genre. It also needs to not be tied to Earth. For example, Cthulhu himself is pretty much stuck in R'lyeh, which itself is located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (at South Latitude 47° 9', West Longitude 126° 43' for those of you with boats and death wishes)—it doesn't make sense to have him show up on Golarion, so don't expect his wiggly mug to pop in any time soon. Things that travel through the dimensions (like hounds of Tindalos) or come from remote corners of the universe (which are equally as far from Golarion as they are from Earth, really) or are from other realms entirely (or, in the case of Leng or Kadath, are other realms) are all fair game.

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Rise of the Item Card Contest, Part 4

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Three Runelords have grabbed a deck of these cards using the powers of sin. With the Rise of the Runelords Item Card decks now hitting our warehouse and the holiday weekend before us, this week has an extra special prize, with an extra difficult question. Answer it correctly and get entered into a drawing to win a free deck of Rise of the Runelords Item Cards, shipped to you when the set releases... plus with this being the final week, we will also throw in a signed copy of the alternate cover version of Pathfinder #1! Just send an email with your answer, your name, and your paizo.com screen name to contest@paizo.com. Make sure to put the phrase "Runelords #4" in the subject line of the email.

For this last preview, we wanted to show you some of the cool items from the rest of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path. You can expect these items, along with a host of other treasures, to appear in parts 3 through 6.

Question #4: The journey from Skull's Crossing to Urglin requires you to travel through about 48 miles of the Wyvern Mountains, and 120 miles of the sandy Cinderlands. Assuming you went there and back again, traveling for 8 hours per day at a speed of 30 without a path, how many pounds of salt, on average, would you have when you returned? Note that your chance of running into an encounter is roughly 20% per hour and you always seem to run into four creatures whenever one occurs (and each one has 5 items in its bag). Please round your answer to the nearest pound.

All answers for Question #4 are due by 12:01 PM Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, November 29th. Good Luck!

Question #3 Solution: Congratulations to Jonathan Cruz who correctly answered "10th" to last week's question. We got a number of creative answers (some that involved level drain), but "10th" was the correct answer, as Kyra would need to pick up two feats to qualify for the Spherewalker prestige class.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Rise of the Item Card Contest, Part 3

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Two Runelords have grabbed a deck of these cards using the powers of sin. I'll let you guess which ones. Will you be next?

With the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path well underway in the pages of Pathfinder, and a special Item Card deck tied specifically to those adventures soon to be released, we here at Paizo Publishing have decided to give you a chance to score one of these great accessories.

One question about Pathfinder will be presented each week. Answer it correctly and get entered into a drawing to win a free deck of Rise of the Runelords Item Cards, shipped to you when the set releases. Just send an email with your answer, your name, and your paizo.com screen name to contest@paizo.com. Make sure to put the phrase "Runelords #3" in the subject line of the email.

This week we're taking a look at items from the second part of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, "The Skinsaw Murders." These items in particular are not ones you might want to bring to the next royal ball you attend, but their power makes them valuable nonetheless. Next week, we'll wrap up our contest with some cards from the third installment, "The Hook Mountain Massacre."

Question #3: Using the version of Kyra presented in "The Skinsaw Murders," at what level could she take her first level of the Spherewalker prestige class (assuming she had a change of heart concerning her deity and stuck with the cleric class)?

All answers for Question #3 are due by 12:01 PM Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, November 21st. Good Luck!

Question #2 Solution: Congratulations to Bobby Nichols, who gave an answer to question #2. We realized upon attempting to determine the winner that the Iron Golem has had different prerequisites over the years (and in recent books... I'll get you, polymorph any object!) so we decided to accept all of the entries.

Jason Bulmahn,
GameMastery Brand Manager

The Yeti is Coming!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Rise of the Item Card Contest, Part 2

Friday, November 9, 2007

The first Runelord has grabbed a deck of these cards. Will you be next?

With the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path well underway in the pages of Pathfinder, and a special Item Card deck tied specifically to those adventures soon to be released, we here at Paizo Publishing have decided to give you a chance to score one of these great accessories.

One question about Pathfinder will be presented each week. Answer it correctly and get entered into a drawing to win a free deck of Rise of the Runelords Item Cards, shipped to you when the set releases. Just send an email with your answer, your name, and your paizo.com screen name to contest@paizo.com. Make sure to put the phrase "Runelords #2" in the subject line of the email.

This week we're going to take a look at some of the cards that represent tools for your arcane character. As it turns out, when you're dealing with runelords, items like these are bound to be plentiful. Next week, we move on to look at items from "The Skinsaw Murders."

Question #2: If all 7 runelords sent a 16th-level wizard apprentice to craft an iron golem, using only the spells they possess, without any outside assistance, which runelords would have to execute their apprentices for failure?

All answers for Question #2 are due by 12:01 PM Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, November 15th. Good Luck!

Question #1 Solution: Congratulations to Kevin Reynolds who gave the correct answer of 39 to question #1. Note that we also accepted 40 as an answer if you assumed that Tsuto was still alive.

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

Downloadable Pathfinder #6 Background

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Your desktop icons will never know what hit them. Click the image above to download.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

They're Huge!

Monday, November 5, 2007

At this point, what more can really be said about Wayne Reynolds? I mean, after one awesome Pathfinder cover, we were excited. After two we were elated. But now here we are at Pathfinder #6, and they just keep getting better. Not only are the giants great, but it's the little things—the architecture of Xin-Shalast behind them, the totally original yet authentic-feeling swords—that really make this piece for me. Plus, if you look closely, you'll see that our newest iconic, the wizard Ezren, has popped in just in time to get clobbered. Let's hope he survives long enough to get on a few more covers...

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Rise of the Item Card Contest, Part 1

Friday, November 2, 2007

With the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path well underway in the pages of Pathfinder, and a special Item Card deck tied specifically to those adventures soon to be released, we here at Paizo Publishing have decided to give you a chance to score one of these great accessories.

One question about Pathfinder will be presented each week. Answer it correctly and get entered into a drawing to win a free deck of Rise of the Runelords Item Cards, shipped to you when the set releases. Just send an email with your answer, your name, and your paizo.com screen name to contest@paizo.com. Make sure to put the phrase "Runelords #1" in the subject line of the email.

This week we're going to take a look at some of the items your PCs might encounter in part 1 of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, "Burnt Offerings." While many of these are wielded by pesky goblins, a number of them might end up in the hands of your adventurers.

Question #1: How many creatures in all of Thistletop can speak the goblin tongue?

All answers for Question #1 are due by 12:01 PM Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, November 8th. Good Luck!

Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager

How to Stage a Haunt

Monday, October 29, 2007

With Halloween coming up, we thought it a good idea to look back to the Foxglove Manor chapter of Pathfinder #2 (which, incidentally, would work extremely well as a standalone haunted house romp for All Hallows' Eve) and explain a bit more about one of the spooky innovations introduced there.

In "The Skinsaw Murders," we present a new way to handle an old classic—haunts. The mechanic for haunts is cool because it allows us to present really atmospheric encounters in a way that combines crunchy game play and creepy flavor. It also allows for a lot of flexibility in ways that classic haunted house monsters like ghosts don't really work. You want a room with walls that bleed? A haunt can do that. With a ghost, it's a little trickier.

You can expect haunts to show up now and then in Pathfinder—when they do, we'll reprint the basic rules so you don't need to always have a copy of Pathfinder #2 on hand. But one thing became clear as I started reading messageboard posts about "The Skinsaw Murders": what's missing is a section that talks about how haunts play out in the game. I posted the rest of this blog post on the messageboard, but I think it's important enough to "graduate" into the blog, so here it is! (WARNING: A small spoiler for "The Skinsaw Murders" is built into the rest of this post!)

The best analogy for a haunt is a trap. Treat them in play as traps, but traps that are evil and freaky and have a malevolent guiding intelligence behind them.

Take the first trap, the Burning Manticore, as an example. The PCs may smell burning hair the first time they pass through the room. The second time, the haunt manifests. Ask the PC who's haunted by burning to make a Spot check. If he fails the DC 20 check, the haunt manifests, makes its attack on him, and if he's hit he makes a Reflex save to avoid catching on fire. If he catches on fire, to his friends it looks like he just spontaneously combusts—he's the only one who can see the haunt, remember. Once the haunt's done its thing, that's it. It's done for a day; it can't be triggered again for 24 hours.

If the haunted PC makes that DC 20 Spot check, have him roll Initiative. Describe to him the image of the manticore lurching to life, its face shifting and its fur igniting, but don't have the haunt do its thing until initiative count 10. If the PC alerts his friends that something's going on, they get to roll Initiative checks as well. Anyone who goes before 10 gets to do something about the haunt (but remember, only the haunted character can SEE what's going on). This includes attempts to turn undead, to run out of the room, to cast resist elements (fire) on the haunted character, and so on. At initiative count 10, the haunt triggers (unless its target is gone, in which case it fades away and can't activate again for 24 hours) and does its thing, then fades away.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Beware the Mother of Oblivion!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

You've heard the legends, now witness the awesome glory of Black Magga! Read all about her interdimensional horror in this sample spread from Pathfinder #3's Bestiary section: 552 KB zip PDF.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Wayne Does It Again!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Wayne Reynolds just delivered the cover painting for Pathfinder #5: Sins of the Saviors, and man, is it a doozy! Looks like Valeros has learned a valuable lesson about what it means to play meat-shield for the party when there's a dragon involved.... Click the image for a larger version.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Welcome to Riddleport!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

By now, Pathfinder readers are getting to know Magnimar (detailed in Pathfinder #2). And when we launch the second Pathfinder Adventure Path, Curse of the Crimson Throne, there'll be all sorts of details on Korvosa. But what about Varisia's third city, Riddleport? While we do indeed have plans to eventually present Riddleport in greater detail, for the foreseeable future there's not going to be much about the notorious port town at the northernmost edge of the Lost Coast.

In Pathfinder #3, we'll be presenting a gazetteer of Varisia. Remember all of those names and locations on the map from the inside back cover of the Player's Guide? They all get, at minimum, a paragraph of descriptive text. Riddleport gets a little bit more—it gets a picture to go along with the following entry:

Riddleport: Varisia's northernmost port, the infamous city of Riddleport is renowned as a haven for scoundrels, outcasts, and worse. Cutthroats fill its harbor and dockside brothels, with Riddleport's officers of the law being just another gang of thieves (and hardly the most powerful one at that). Yet even in such a den of inequity and vice, scholars and historians abound, attempting to decipher the runes of the great arch known as the Cyphergate, which spans the mouth of the harbor and looms over each vessel that passes into the city. Although any progress on the inscription has been kept quiet, recent excavation hints that the massive arch might actually be just one segment of a ring that extends into the cliffs surrounding the port.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Free Pathfinder 2 Download Supplement!

Friday, October 5, 2007

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

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

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Bidding Adieu to Volume 2

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

So after what felt like years of waiting (it was more like weeks), we finally got in our office copies of Pathfinder #2 today! Which also means that we'll be shipping them out to subscribers and distributors very soon. I actually walked by a pallet of them down in the warehouse earlier today, and seeing "SKINSAW MURDERS" written on a stack of boxes as tall as me was strange. The Skinsaw Man came out of a game I ran back in college set in my own campaign world, and seeing the word on those boxes really brought it home—the word may have been born in central California, but then it went up to Seattle, then over to England, then back here, then over to China, and now it's back here and ready to begin its final step in global saturation. It's exciting. And a little surreal.

In any event, that's about a wrap for Pathfinder #2! We'll have an alternate map of Magnimar to show you on Friday's blog post, and then starting next week we'll start revealing tidbits about Pathfinder #3: "The Hook Mountain Massacre." Demented ogres, haunted campfires, castles and gazetteers and lake monsters, oh my! I can't wait to show some of it off!

In fact, I don't want to wait. Check out this sneak preview of one of the pieces of art from Pathfinder #3. Who could this dwarf be? Does he have nefarious plans for our heroes? Why is his ass so tiny?

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Kyle's Magnificent Menagerie

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Some of you may have already noticed a striking stylistic similarity between the fun cartoon goblin illustrating Pathfinder #1's introduction and those strange little monsters that used to appear in Dungeon to illustrate the Dungeoncraft column and the table of contents. That's because both series are done by one of our favorite artists and creative minds, Downer creator Kyle Stanley Hunter.

Much as he did in Dungeon, each month Kyle will be giving us his unique take on a key monster found in that month's volume of Pathfinder. For "The Skinsaw Murders," for instance, he's produced a fearsome ghoul, and future adventures will bring ogres, giants, and more.

We're all super-excited to have Kyle onboard for this and some other super-exciting secret projects a bit farther down the road, and for those of you unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend checking out Downer: Wandering Monster or his personal website at www.superunicorn.com/kyle/, both of which contain galleries featuring dozens more of his trademark "mini monsters."

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Pathfinder #2 Art Show!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Pathfinder #2 is off at the printer, which means it's time to give you all a sneak peak at some of the fabulous art we've got going into this volume. From the lamia matriarch to the skinsaw cultist with his fearsome war razor, we're really proud of the visual element of Pathfinder #2, and these are just a drop in the bucket when you consider how much art we have jam-packed into this book. Enjoy!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Pathfinder #4 Cover... and Desktop!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

In the past, each time we've shown off the cover to a new volume of Pathfinder, we've been immediately deluged with requests for it as a downloadable desktop background, which we inevitably put up a few days later. This time we figured: why wait? After all, there's a long weekend coming up, and we wouldn't want your monitor to have to go without new Wayne Reynolds art for all that time. So here it is: the cover to Pathfinder #4, featuring everyone's favorite butt-kicking cleric of Sarenrae, Kyra. Looking at the stone giants Wayne's dreamed up for us, it's kind of amazing the heroes ever win, isn't it?

Click here to download the image at desktop size.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

First Peek at Pathfinder #2

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

With Pathfinder #2 currently on the proverbial slow boat from China, here's a sample spread from the bestiary to whet your appetite. Introducing: the boggard! Download the 528 KB zip PDF.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

4th Edition

Friday, August 24, 2007

We're all back from Gen Con, and aside from the launch of Pathfinder and our new Planet Stories novel line, the hot news at the show was the announcement of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, from Wizards of the Coast. Messageboards across the internet, from paizo.com to EN World and Wizards of the Coast's own site, are abuzz with discussion of what was revealed at the show, what changes are in store for our favorite game, and what the future may hold.

Naturally, lots of folks want to know what the announcement means for Pathfinder and for our line of monthly GameMastery Modules.

Right now, the answer is this: It's too soon to tell.

No one at Paizo has seen a copy of the new rules yet, nor have we seen a draft of the Open Game License for it (yes, there will be one). We have plenty of reasons to believe that the new game will include lots of improvements over the current system, and that the new OGL will, if anything, be even more permissive than the one for 3.0 and 3.5.

Ever since the announcement of the end of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, we've been careful to say that Wizards of the Coast and Paizo are still on good terms, that we're still communicating with one another, and that we hope to work together in the future. This is not just so much blown smoke. The guys at Wizards have been very forthcoming with information on the new edition, and we look forward to learning even more in the weeks and months to come. I am personally optimistic that this will, for the most part, be a welcome change at my gaming table.

But it's way too early to say what Paizo will be doing about 4th edition. Please give us some time to take a look at the new rules, to take a look at the new OGL, and make an informed decision. We promise we'll let you know what we're planning just as soon as we figure it out ourselves.

For the time being, both the Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Paths will be released as announced for the 3.5 rules set, as will all GameMastery Modules at least up until May of 2008, which is when Wizards will release the 4th edition Player's Handbook.

All of our announced products for the first quarter of 2008 are "rules-light" and should not be adversely affected by the change in edition whether we convert or not. We will be making no significant changes to the announced product schedule.

I'm aware that many Paizo customers will not be converting to 4e. Honestly, before I heard some of the things I heard at Gen Con, I wasn't sure I wanted to convert either. So I sympathize.

Pathfinder currently plans to support officially sanctioned conversions for Castles & Crusades and True20, so assuming we do convert, I suspect it is very likely that we (or some affiliated partner) will provide 3.5 conversion guidelines.

Or we might stick with 3.5. We haven't seen the rules yet, and can't make the decision until we do.

One thing I can say for sure: As a gamer I would be a lot happier with a game that doesn't require two hours of prep-time for four hours of play. I have heard that the new system addresses this problem, and that strikes me as excellent.

If Wizards of the Coast can streamline the rules without robbing the game of its variety and complexity, I will be very impressed.

So far, I am optimistic.

Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

By Popular Request

Monday, August 20, 2007

And now, by popular request... Pathfinder 3 wallpaper!

Pathfinder 3 Cover

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

We're currently in the middle of working on The Hook Mountain Massacre, the third volume of Pathfinder, but we just couldn't wait to show off the new cover, courtesy of fantasy art superstar Wayne Reynolds. We've already introduced Merisiel, our iconic elven rogue, in a previous blog post, but just take a look at those ogres! With those flat teeth and crazy jaws, something about them just screams "Muppet gone wrong." As for how wrong... well, some of that is still up in the air, but let's just say that readers will no doubt conclude that author Nick Logue should probably be in a straightjacket somewhere. Fortunately for us, however, he was still at large and writing as of this posting....

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Magnimar

Friday, July 27, 2007

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

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

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

For a more detailed view, click on the image.

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Sean Signs On

Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide reveals the twenty core deities of our new campaign setting, including their alignments, portfolios, domains granted, and favored weapons—everything a player needs to know to create a cleric character. Yet there's much more to each of our deities than just this.

Starting with Pathfinder #2, we'll be presenting detailed write-ups of all twenty core deities. Fans of the Core Beliefs articles that have been running in DRAGON magazine for the last three years will find themselves on familiar ground here, especially with fan-favorite author Sean K Reynolds at the helm. His first installment details Desna, the goddess of dreams, stars, travelers, and luck, a faith that plays a central role in many of the adventures in Rise of the Runelords. You can look forward to information about Desna, her church, her faithful, new spells, new magic items, prestige classes (like the starknife-throwing priest illustrated here by Ben Wootten), and more—everything a believer of the Song of the Spheres will need to know to bring Desna's word to the masses. We're planning on detailing four deities a year (two per Adventure Path), with Lamashtu, the goddess of monsters and madness, coming next in Pathfinder #4.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

"Burnt Offerings" Ships to the Printer!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Now that the first volume of Pathfinder is out the door to the printer, take a few moments to check out this gorgeous sample spread (284KB PDF), pulled from one of the volume's supplementary pieces on ancient Thassilon. And remember—there are 94 more pages where these came from...

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

First Look at Pathfinder

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Pathfinder #1 and the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide ship this week, and as such, we thought it a good time to unveil a sample spread from the guide. Presented here for your perusal are two pages full of new animals, local takes on the core classes, and a full chart detailing all of the core gods of our setting. So what are you waiting for? Click the image to download a full-size version and dig in!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

The Sandpoint Devil

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The real world is a great resource for monsters. Many of the game's critters come from real-world myth and legend, but one venue that seems to have been largely ignored are cryptozoological accounts. I'm talking about Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, of course, but also about more obscure creatures like the hodag, Mokele-Mbembe, and the Yowie. And, of course, the Jersey Devil, the inspiration for one of Pathfinder's first new monsters. Rumors and legends of a rarely seen but terrible monster have preyed upon the fears of Sandpoint's populace for decades. The rumors listed below comprise the most common—though oft-conflicting—tales regarding the famed Sandpoint devil.

Bad Omen: It's bad luck to see the Sandpoint devil. Any who do are cursed to suffer an ill fate. Before tragedies, murders, and shipwrecks, it's said the devil flies unseen by all but the doomed through the night sky.

Devil-Spawned: The Sandpoint devil is the son of a widow named Agatha Leeds, a woman who used to live north of town and was said to practice dark magics and consort with evil beings. When she wandered into town round with child, she ignored all questions about her pregnancy. Weeks later, her home was found reduced to cinders with its mysterious owner missing. It wasn't long thereafter that the first sightings of the Sandpoint devil began.

Disappearances: Evidence of Sandpoint devil sightings often disappears before it can be examined. Tracks, bitten animals, weapons dripping with its blood, and similar such evidence simply vanish, no matter how well watched or guarded. In fact, even those who have sought to catch or kill the Sandpoint devil have disappeared without a trace, both during their hunts and in the weeks after returning home from a failed attempt.

Fire Starter: Paintings and reports of the Sandpoint devil mysteriously catch on fire, sometimes burning entire homes to the ground.

Immortal Protector: Some Varisians claim they Sandpoint devil has lived along the Lost Coast for thousands of years, and that it protects the coast's resources from those who seek to exploit the land. Its modern misdeeds are merely its way of fending off the most recent encroachment of civilization.

One of Many: The Sandpoint devil is sometimes seen in the company of other local legends and spooks, most commonly a white stag, the ghost of a young girl, and a zombie with missing feet.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

Sandpoint

Friday, June 8, 2007

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

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Humans of Varisia

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

As mentioned in previous blog posts, the Varisian region contains three prominent human ethnicities:

Chelaxian: Monument-haunted Magnimar and imperial-minded Korvosa vie for control of southern Varisia. In these cities and the numerous vassal settlements of each, the majority of the populace can trace their ancestry to the sharp-featured people of Cheliax. Those of Chelish descent possess dark hair and eyes contrasted by pale skin—along with a taste for artistic fineries and high art.

Shoanti: Across the northeastern reaches of Varisia, the seven ardent tribes of the Shoanti make their homes. A turbulent people adhering to traditions unchanged in hundreds of years, these natives live harsh lives, preying upon predators and eking what they can from an unforgiving land.

Varisian: Passionate and fiercely independent, Varisians (shown in the sketch presented here) lend their name to their homeland. While these clannish wanderers can be found in many lands, nowhere are larger populations found than in the land of their ancestors.

Insular and adhering to an ancient, nomadic way of life, extended families of Varisians form wandering communities, traveling wherever fate directs them. Varisians don't believe in claiming land and thus see no hardship in their nomadic lifestyle. While nature provides for most of their needs, these wanderers often visit the cities and towns of settled people to trade art and curios from their travels, earn coin by entertaining and performing small jobs, and sometimes to con and steal from the unwary—a practice indulged often enough to make Varisians widely distrusted and unwelcome by those not of their society.

The typical Varisian possesses deep olive skin and hair that ranges from black to auburn, often worn long by both men and women. Customary tattooing leads most to exhibit complex patterns and symbols significantly different from those worn by the Shoanti who share their homeland. As wanderers and often entertainers, Varisian dress tends toward extremes, from functional garb fit for traveling to wildly impractical dress meant to accentuate their dancing, exotic tattoos, and naturally fit forms.

Wesley Schneider
Associate Editor, Pathfinder

Varisia

Friday, June 1, 2007

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

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Points Unknown

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Since we just got in some great rough sketches of notable Varisian landmarks courtesy of Andrew Hou, we thought we'd introduce you to some of Varisia's more infamous adventure sites. Presented below are but a few—look forward to more in the upcoming Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide.

Bloodsworn Vale: A fey-haunted pass to southern lands which played an integral role in Varisia's break with the crumbling empire of Cheliax.

Celwynvian: The doom-haunted capital of the Mierani elves, abandoned by its people.

The Face Pyramid: A great, timeless stone edifice rising forth from the Mushfen's murk.

Hook Mountain: A peak of dark repute, bent to resemble a colossal hook and the ancestral home of several tribes of inbred, brutish ogres.

The Mobhad Leigh: A vast and deep pit, which the Shoanti say has no bottom.

Riddleport: A depraved and lawless city whose ancient harbor bears a massive, rune-carved arch.

The Storval Stairs: Titanic steps cut into the face of the Storval Rise, the cliff face separating the lower half of Varisia from the eastern plateau.

Viperwall: The Citadel of Snakes, its walls of carved serpents endlessly leaking a venomous gas.

Kaer Maga: A city built inside the ruins of a single great structure of unknown function, perched atop the Storval Rise and renowned for its anarchic population of squatters and outlaws.

Wesley Schneider
Associate Editor, Pathfinder

Founded on Murder!

Monday, May 21, 2007

The foundation of a new town is not a matter to be taken lightly, nor one to be funded by one soul. Four powerful families from the city of Magnimar had designs on settling a region 50 miles to the northeast, and rather than work against each other, they consolidated their efforts and formed the Sandpoint Mercantile League. These four families, the Ameikos (glassmakers and jewelers), the Valdemars (shipbuilders and carpenters), the Scarnettis (loggers and millers), and the Deverins (farmers and brewers), sailed north to claim their land after securing the rights from the Magnimar Charterhouse. Yet when they arrived, they found the place already settled by a particularly large tribe of Varisians, who held the region as a traditional place to spend the winter.

Unwilling to change course, the Sandpoint Mercantile League began a series of talks with the Varisians, promising them an important place in the new township. Unfortunately, after a week of talks seemed to go nowhere, an impatient man named Alamon Scarnetti took matters into his own hands. Rounding up a group of his brothers and cousins, the Scarnettis mounted a murderous raid on the Varisian camp, intending to kill them all and leave evidence implicating local goblins for the deed. Yet the Scarnettis, too drunk and overconfident, only managed to kill five Varisians before they were themselves forced to flee, leaving behind three of their own. The incident caused a several-month delay, but eventually amends were made and the town of Sandpoint was born.

Despite these violent first months, in the forty-odd years since Sandpoint was founded, things have been rather calm and quiet. The late unpleasantness, involving Chopper's murderous spree and followed closely by the Sandpoint Fire, constitute the worst thing that's happened to the town. Yet Sandpoint's current mayor, Kendra Deverin (female human aristocrat 3/expert 4), can't shake the feeling that the unpleasantness was but a preamble, and that dark times indeed are coming to her home town.

The excellent headshot accompanying this post is one of several Andrew Hou's worked up for Pathfinder—Kendra Deverin herself. Kendra has served as Sandpoint's mayor for the past five years. Lawmaker, judge, and general peacemaker, she has proven to be both an adept diplomat and stern hand when need be, both skills honed during her youth in Magnimar. With a personal—some say sisterly—style of governing, most of Sandpoint's citizens hold deep respect for their fiery-haired mayor.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder

The Late Unpleasantness

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Though he's too busy statting up Orcus and Iggwilv for Dungeon 149 to make a post himself, Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs thought you might be interested in a bit of Sandpoint lore he's been working on for "Burnt Offerings":

When Jervis Stoot made clear his intentions to build a home on the island just north of the Old Light, locals paid him no mind. Jervis had already garnered something of a reputation as an eccentric for his one-man crusade to carve depictions of birds on every deserving building in town. Stoot never made a carving without securing permission, but his incredible skill made it a given that if Stoot picked your building as the site of his latest project, you seized the opportunity. Sporting a Stoot soon grew to be something of a bragging point, and Jervis eventually extended his talent to include ship figureheads and even carriages. Those who asked or tried to pay him for his skill were rebuffed, Stoot telling them, "There ain't no birds in that wood for me t'set free," and going on his way. Stoot often wandering the streets for days before noticing a hidden bird in a fencepost, lintel, steeple, or doorframe and securing permission to "release" it with his trusty carving knives.

Stoot's excuse for wanting to move to the isle seemed innocent enough—the place was a haven for local birdlife, and his claim of "Wantin' ta be with th' birds" seemed to make sense. So much, in fact, that the guild of Carpenters (with whom Stoot had maintained a friendly competition for several years) volunteered to build a staircase, free of charge, along the southern cliff face so that Stoot could come and go from his new home with ease. For fifteen years, Stoot lived on the island. His trips into town grew less and less frequent, making it something of an event when he chose a building to host a new Stoot.

Sandpoint was no stranger to crime, or even to murder. Once or twice a year, passions flared, robberies went bad, jealousy grew too much to bear, or one-too-many drinks were drunk, and someone would end up dead. But when body count suddenly began to mount, the town had no idea how to react. Sandpoint's sheriff at the time was a no-nonsense man named Casp Avertin, a retired city watch officer from Magnimar, yet even he was ill-prepared for the murderer who came to be known as Chopper. Over the course of one long winter month, every few days brought a new victim to light. Each was found in the same terrible state, bodies bearing deep cutting wounds to the neck and torso, with both hands and feet severed and stacked nearby and the eyes and tongue missing entirely, plucked crudely from the head.

Over the course of that terrible month, Chopper claimed 25 victims. His uncanny knack at eluding traps and pursuit quickly wore on the town guard, taking particular toll on Sheriff Avertin, who increasingly took to drinking. Many believe that he even took to beating his wife and daughter, and that, in its own way, may have been the genesis of the Sandpoint Fire. In any event, Sheriff Avertin himself became Chopper's last victim, slain when he finally caught the killer mutilating his latest victim in the side street that would come to be known as Chopper's Alley. Yet in the battle that followed, Avertin managed a telling blow against the murderer. When the town guard found the sheriff dead with another victim several minutes later, they were able to follow the bloody trail left by the killer.

A trail that led straight to the stairs of Stoot's Rock.

At first, the town guard refused to believe the implications, and feared that Chopper had come to claim poor Jervis Stoot as his 26th victim. Yet what the guards found in the modest home atop the isle, and in the larger complex of rooms that had been carved into the bedrock below, left no room for doubt. Jervis Stoot and Chopper were the same, and the eyes and tongues of all 25 victims were found in a horrific altar to a birdlike demon whose name none dared speak aloud. Stoot himself was found dead at the base of the altar, having plucked his own eyes and tongue loose for a final offering. The guards collapsed the entrance to the chambers, burned Stoot's house, tore down the stairs, and did their best to forget. Stoot himself was burned on the beach in a pyre, his ashes then blessed and then scattered in an attempt to stave off an unholy return of his evil spirit from beyond the grave. And in the months to follow, Sandpoint did its best to forget the terror, although even today, children who remember the dark times only six years ago sometimes wake with nightmare visions of Chopper hiding under their beds.

Weapons, Varisia-Style

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Hot off the server come three of the latest Pathfinder sketches, this time for the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide. See what Player's Guide author Wes Schneider has to say about each of them:

Dog Slicer: A savage weapon created from castoff bits of sharpened waste metal, goblins named these small swords after the act for which they're most commonly employed. Holes drilled in the blade make them easier to heft by enthusiastic but weak-armed murderers. Most dog slicers are size Small.

Varisian Scarves: Well known as entertainers with a flair for the dramatic, Varisians often employ seductive garb and entrancing props in their performances. Scarves of colorful cloth and transparent silk, or bearing elaborately embroidered scenes, are thus favorite accessories of the wandering folk. Aside from the mundane variety, though, clever Varisians have subtly repurposed these iconic tools for a variety of covert uses. The Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide features three types of modified scarves to aid Varisians in their adventures: bladed, pocketed, and reinforced.

Star of Desna: An ancient weapon favored by Varisian wanderers, this weapon has been adopted by the church of Desna as a second holy weapon. From a central metal ring, four tapering metal blades extend like points on a compass rose. Wielders can slash with the star or throw it like a less-aerodynamic chakram.

Excited yet? The above are just three of the twelve new Varisian items we'll be introducing in the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, which will be available in printed form for just two dollars and online for free at our website. For information on things like the earth breaker, barbarian chew, or ogre hook, you'll just have to stay tuned...

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Mark of Sin

Friday, May 11, 2007

As you can see, I've just received the final go-ahead to reveal to everyone the rune designs that artist Jeff Carlisle has created to go along with our new system of sin magic, which we'll be introducing as a primary theme in the first Pathfinder campaign. Needless to say, they look fabulous and we're all pretty excited about them. Jeff and Senior Art Director Sean Glenn spent a lot of time working together to create this unique look, with Jeff pulling inspiration from Wayne Reynolds' intricate tattooing and embroidery on the images of Karzoug, Rise of the Runelords' big baddie, and Seoni, our iconic sorceress.

Even beyond their sheer visual impact, I think my favorite thing about these runes is that they're practically puzzles—even without knowing which rune is which, you can still figure them out easily once you know what you're looking at. Which, while I'm fairly certain I understand the reasoning and symbolism behind each one, is why I'm curious to read your explanations. See if you can tell what led Jeff to draw each symbol the way he did, then post on our messageboards and let us see if your answer is better than ours!

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Varisia: Players Welcome

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

One of the biggest challenges when starting a new campaign is getting your players invested in the world. Sure, you may have set up the adventure and prepared all your notes, memorized your maps and picked out accents for the various local NPCs the party will meet... but what about your players? They can't exactly read the same source material you are without tripping over spoilers, and sitting down for a three-hour lecture about the local history and customs of their home region isn't most groups' idea of a fun first session. So how do you get that information across?

For Pathfinder, we've made it easy. Instead of all that hassle, you can just hand your players the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide (which you get as a free bonus if you sign up as a charter subscriber before the first book ships in August) and let them go to town, entirely spoiler-free. What's more, each Adventure Path to come will have its own specific player's guide filled with information to help players get their bearings in the world and craft unique, interesting backstories for their characters... so much so that DMs will probably want to pick a copy up for themselves as well.

Inside the player's guide, you can expect to find:

• Full-page maps and art of Sandpoint (the starting town from "Burnt Offerings") and Varisia (the whole region the Adventure Path takes place in), plus detailed write-ups on both.
• World-specific information on the core races—the things that make elves, dwarves, and all the rest unique in Pathfinder and GameMastery Modules.
• How to tailor the core classes to Varisia, and specifically to the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path. Trying to decide which deity or favored enemy to pick? Unsure what your wizard's motivation to go adventuring is? This section's for you.
• New world-specific feats.
• New non-magical items and weapons popular in Varisia. (What the heck is a "star knife" or a "dogslicer," anyhow?)

Since this is one of the first detailed looks the public will be getting at Varisia and our campaign setting as a whole, all of the information in the player's guide will eventually be available online for free download in addition to the printed version. But after seeing the amount of art and information presented in this 16-page booklet, you might not want to wait... particularly since it's likely cheaper than any of the snacks at your gaming table (and free to subscribers).

Still not excited? Pathfinder editor and Adventure Path veteran Wes Schneider, who's writing the guide, kindly offered this preview quote which shows that, despite its mysterious monuments, rich adventure, and fierce independence, the land of Varisia isn't for everyone:

Savagery and regressivity epitomize the disfigured lands of Varisia. Jagged mountain chains break the worthless, dusty clay at queer and reckless lengths. Tangled forests grow wild with titan weeds—the flora of these fecund briars little more than tenacious brambles. Blasted reaches of cracked earth and rolling scrub form the parched paradises of all manner of backward savages, including the doomed final generations of humanity's brutish ancestors. And everywhere the land bears the scars of a forgotten people whose eroding ruins and savage attempts at artistry litter a landscape already scarred by its own geological leprosy.
—Darvayne Gios Amprei, Merciless: Abendigo, Belkzen, Varisia, and Other Hells

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Pathfinder backgrounds

Monday, April 30, 2007

And now, by popular request... Pathfinder desktop backgrounds! While a desktop is obviously a totally different size than a book, and certain design elements are still being finalized, these three images are perhaps the best preview to date of what the first three Pathfinder covers (including the alternate cover for volume 1) will actually look like. So while you're waiting for "Burnt Offerings" to release, why not download one of these and throw it up as your wallpaper? After all, as far as we're concerned, everyone could use a little more Wayne Reynolds art in their lives...

Desktop #1: 1024x768, 1280x960

Desktop #2: 1024x768, 1280x960

Desktop #3: 1024x768, 1280x960

James Sutter
Assistant Editor, Pathfinder

Raising The Runelords

or, "How To Recover From a TPK and Make It Look Like You Planned It All Along"

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Once upon a time, I was running one of my favorite adventures, White Plume Mountain, for my players. They messed up good, got split up, and ended up all being dominated by a certain vampire charged with guarding a certain hammer. Now, I didn't want to admit I had a TPK on my hands, so I took a cue form another favorite adventure, "The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb," and introduced a whole ancient society of primeval necromancers over the span between game sessions, and next time we gathered, I had the now-dominated PCs sent by their new vampire lord to release the first of several slumbering wizards from a forgotten age. They let one out, but then escaped their charm and spent the rest of the campaign trying to undo what they'd done. But the idea was too cool to let my players fix. They defeated one of the ancient wizards, but once one woke up, the others came back in a chain reaction. Today, my world has several new nations ruled by these reborn necromancers, all because back in college a few friends of mine blew their saving throws.

And now, that fateful happenstance extends to Pathfinder. The ancient Runelords of Thassilon have developed into their own unique force, but they certainly owe their conception to that fateful day deep under the game's most famous volcano. Reproduced below are some of my notes on the nature of the Runelords and Thassilon. Warning for those who plan on playing in the Rise of the Runelords campaign: serious campaign spoilers ahead!

The Runelords

In the first Pathfinder blog post I mentioned how we needed to build a new region to set Rise of the Runelords in. In fact, it's more complicated than that. We actually had to create TWO regions. The first of these is Varisia, the realm in which the new Adventure Path takes place. The other is Thassilon, the ancient empire that once sprawled across much of this corner of the world. An empire that was, at its height, ruled by seven powerful wizards known as Runelords.

Thassilon was a sprawling empire that covered an area about as large as the western half of the United States. The Runelords were maniacal arcanists who used magic to fuel their own decadent vices. They forged alliances with dragons and enslaved giants by using secrets of rune and glyph magic stolen from the aboleths. With their enslaved giant armies, the wizards of Thassilon built massive tombs, enormous magical constructs, and staggering monuments that survive today, mute testimonies of a mysterious age long past. Yet as all evil empires must, Thassilon fell. The reason for this fall remains a mystery, but as the end drew near, the seven Runelords retreated into the depths of their greatest monuments, entombing themselves with orders for their minions to release them later to reclaim their empire. Alas, Thassilon's minions were enslaved or slaughtered. No one was left to waken them, and so the wizard kings of Thassilon slumbered for countless ages. Virtues of Rule, Sins of Magic

At Thassilon's dawn, the Runelords held that wealth, fertility, honest pride, abundance, eager striving, righteous anger, and well-deserved rest were the seven virtues of rule—rewards that one could enjoy for being in a position of power. But the Runelords soon abandoned the positive aspects of these traits, instead embracing greed, lust, boastful pride, gluttony, envy, wrath, and sloth as the rewards of rule. Today, long after the fall of Thassilon, the original seven virtues are held as the great mortal sins, although only a few scholars who have studied ancient Thassilon know of their true sources.

The Runelords' magic was closely tied to these seven categories, to such an extent that they developed their own schools of magic. All of the Runelords were specialist wizards. They recognized seven schools of magic (lumping divination magic into the universal school), and each school was associated with one of the seven sins. A Thassilonian wizard selected one sin when he became a specialist, and that determined his prohibited schools, as detailed below.

Envy
Focused on the suppression of magic other than your own.
Specialty: abjuration
Prohibited Schools: evocation and necromancy

Sloth
Focused on calling agents and minions to perform your deeds for you, or used magic to create what you needed as you needed it.
Specialty: conjuration
Prohibited Schools: evocation and illusion

Lust
Focused on using magic to control and dominate others to force them to satisfy your desires, and in the control of other creatures' minds, emotions, and wills.
Specialty: enchantment
Prohibited Schools: necromancy and transmutation

Wrath
Focused on the destructive powers of magic, and the use of magic to channel destructive forces.
Specialty: evocation
Prohibited Schools: abjuration and conjuration

Pride
Focused on using magic to perfect your own appearance and your domain through trickery and illusions.
Specialty: illusion
Prohibited Schools: transmutation and conjuration

Gluttony
Focused on the use of magic to manipulate the physical body in order to maintain an unending thirst for continued life.
Specialty: necromancy
Prohibited Schools: enchantment and abjuration

Greed
Focused on the use of magic to transform things into objects of greater value or use, and for the enhancement of the physical self.
Specialty: transmutation
Prohibited Schools: enchantment and illusion

The Big Bad End Guy

Although Rise of the Runelords touches upon many different aspects of the ancient empire of Thassilon and its evil rulers, we knew from the start that we wanted to focus on one Runelord as the main bad guy for the campaign. Not only is it better to have a single villain for PCs to obsess over and hate, but by leaving the other six Runelords more or less undeveloped, we're leaving lots of room for further expansion to this Adventure Path and our campaign setting as a whole. We also knew that, in order to realize his evil plot, this Runelord would be harvesting the souls of creatures that had succumbed to his favored sin.

But still—which sin to pick?

Wrath seemed like the obvious choice, because who can't get behind an explosion-launching bad guy who has fire for blood and lightning for hair? (That's probably a little over the top, but you get the idea.) Wrath certainly fit well with the giants we wanted to use, but it broke down when you applied the themes to the second adventure, which requires a group of murderers who are murdering prominent citizens. If we went with wrath, they'd just be killing themselves off.

So then we looked at lust. Also a great sin to build a villain off of, and it certainly works well with the second adventure in a Jack the Ripper sort of way. But then we get back to our giants. These guys are huge menacing brutes. Not really known for being sexy and what not. So lust was out the window too (though it shows up in the GameMastery module Seven Swords of Sin).

That was when we hit upon greed. With the Runelord of greed, we had a big bad end guy who had a built-in way to tempt and gain his minions; he was filthy rich. Giants are certainly easy to see as greedy, and having our murderers stalking and killing merchants and politicians (and maybe even adventurers like the PCs!) worked perfectly. It also gave us some interesting options when designing his look. Gemstones embedded in his knuckles and forehead! Tattoos made out of gold! And if we do our job right, and our Runelord of greed ends up being a really effective villian, you get to see the looks of worry on your players' faces when, at the end of the Adventure Path, you remind them that there are six more Runelords still out there. Runelords associated with far more violent sins than greed…

And that's how we ended up with Karzoug, Runelord of Greed, becoming the first megavillian of Pathfinder. That's him up near the top of this page. He's lookin' pretty good for a guy who's probably over a thousand years old, eh?

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Cover illustration for volume 2. Click to enlarge.

What's Pathfinder All About?

Thursday, April 19, 2007

By this time, you've probably heard all about Pathfinder, Paizo's brand-new Adventure Path series. (If you haven't, of course, you should drop whatever you're doing and go check out paizo.com/pathfinder.) Yet even now that you know what's going to be in Pathfinder, you're probably wondering what it's all about. The vision behind it. Where its heart's at. And to answer that, we've brought in James Jacobs, Pathfinder's Editor-in-Chief. Says James:

"Pathfinder's at once the most exciting and the scariest thing I've worked on here at Paizo. On one hand, it's a chance to dive headfirst into a brand-new world and craft a story from scratch for you to run your players through. And on the other… it's a chance to dive headfirst into a brand-new world and craft a story from scratch for you to run your players through. There's no convoluted canon or established game history to work around and make sure that we've got right, but that also means there's no awesome nostalgia or tradition to build off of. We have to start completely from scratch... right?

"Well, not quite. There are still an awful lot of classic monsters and other material we can use in the SRD. And while we can't really build directly off of established canon, we can certainly draw upon themes from the early days. We can also do the same thing that Gygax, Kuntz, Arneson, and the others did back at the game's dawning—we can draw upon real world myth. So as you read through Pathfinder's first Adventure Path and begin to uncover the sinister conspiracy that has driven the stone giants of the Storval Plateau to war, you might also see a few familiar names and themes from real-world myth popping up now and then, like Lamashtu, Baba Yaga, the seven deadly sins, and even Asmodeus.

Welcome to Varisia!

"The first step to building a new Adventure Path was a doozy, though For Pathfinder, we didn't have the luxury of a pre-existing game world to set our campaign in. Before I could even start writing the first adventure to Rise of the Runelords, I needed a world to set it in.

It all started with Erik Mona building up an enormous T-shaped map over the course of several sheets of graph paper. What he ended up with was several continents; way too much room for a single campaign. So I chose one relatively small (small as in "about the size of California") section of his map and started filling in the blanks. At the same time, the rest of the Pathfinder team—F. Wesley Schneider and James Sutter—and I began to work out the plotline for the inaugural Adventure Path: Rise of the Runelords. To a certain extent, the shape of this new region was dictated by the plot we came up with: we needed a mountain range to rival the Himalayas, a vast cliff face stretching hundreds of miles, and remnants from an ancient empire.

The result is the realm of Varisia.

During the course of Rise of the Runelords, we'll visit six major locations on the map of Varisia, including two cities, two legendary mountains, a fortress of giants, and a lost city. Yet those account for only six dots on a map—at current count, Varisia's got approximately 40 locations (including cities like lawless Riddleport and ruins like sinister Brinewall) and 20 sub-regions (including the inhospitable Mushfens, haunted Ashwood, and the giant-ruled Storval Plateau) waiting to be explored. Some of these might get some exposure in Rise of the Runelords, others will be the focus of GameMastery modules, and some are destined to be the stars of future Pathfinder Adventure Paths. But the point isn't to build just what we need for the next few Paizo releases—there's enough adventure in Varisia to set dozens of campaigns.

"Over the next several days, I'll be revealing more about Varisia, Rise of the Runelords, and other exciting developments on the Pathfinder front here on this blog. Want a taste? Then check out these notes I've jotted down for one of those mysterious locations on the regional map of Varisia—the remote island of Chorak's Rest.

Chorak's Rest

Although the Varisians have no name for this tiny and remote island, the giants of the Gnasher Mountains do. They call the place Chorak's Rest, after the legendary warlord said to be buried in a great tomb there. The giants of the Storval Plateau were not always the barbarians they are today; this much is obvious from even a brief perusal of the texts stored in the History Wing of the Great Library of Magnimar. Yet the giants of Chorak's Rest seem to have retained more of the old ways than their brutish cousins in the Gnashers. Whispers hint that these island giants are the descendants of King Chorak's honor guard, and that they've remained guardians for the past several centuries, preventing approach to the island by giant and human alike. Boats attempting to land on the island are quickly bombarded with boulders and spears, and aerial approaches are shot down with massive ballista bolts carved with strange runes or blasted from the sky by bolts of lightning. Yet for all these defenses, none have approached close enough to determine what, exactly, is behind this prodigious defense. What awaits the lucky (unlucky?) souls who finally manage to reach the island's shores is unknown, but many treasure seekers are sure it would be well worth the trouble.

For daily news breaks, sneak previews, and behind-the-scenes insight into Pathfinder, the GameMastery product line, and other Paizo projects, stay tuned to this blog!