Joy to the world on this glorious, sucrose-fueled nightmare night! And if you Paizonians are anything like the Paizo staff, then you know there’s only one way to celebrate Halloween: By hiding your face so evil spirits can’t find you and make you learn to read.
But this year is different! This year you can hide your face in style with your very own Paizo Pathfinder goblin* mask, free of charge. To bring your goblin face to life, just follow these easy instructions:
Download this handy goblin-face PDF and print it out on your home system. Don’t have a color printer? No problem! Goblins print just as fiercely in black and white, and then you can color it in yourself and fool your friends and neighbors into thinking you have crazy, Paizo-level artistic talent. Don’t have a printer at all? Also not a problem! Just grab a piece of paper, draw a circle, add two red eyes and approximately fourteen thousand teeth.**
Paste your goblin face and ears to poster board for added stability.
Carefully cut out your goblin face and both ears along the dotted lines, then snip out the dotted eyeholes in the face. Kids: Always remember to get an adult’s help when using scissors! Adults: Always remember to get a kid’s help when following dotted lines! To make your goblin performance more authentic, do not cut out the eyeholes and instead cut out a tongue-hole.***
Glue, staple, or magically bond the ears to their appropriate sides of the goblin face. If you can read the abhorrent letter guides, you are not a true goblin and should stop this farce immediately!
Use string, tape, rubber bands, or spittle to secure the goblin mask to your face. Drool to excess.
When evil spirits come looking for living to torment, simply cock your head toward someone not wearing a goblin mask and give them a wink. They’ll understand.
If you want to make your goblin appearance more genuine, try a few last-minute, so-easy-an-elf-could-do-it goblin costume tricks:
Roll your rattiest clothing around under the car. Alternatively, roll your clothes around in rats.
Smear a little black makeup around your eyes to help them blend with the mask. Or to reflect the darkness in your soul.
Eat a pickle.
Brush your clothing’s elbows, knees, and cuffs with rough sandpaper or a wire brush to make it appropriately goblin-esque.
Grab a paper towel tube and stuff one end with red crepe paper, wrapping paper, and ribbon for an impromptu (but sadly not enflamed) torch. Tape a small flashlight in the other end to give it a bit of a glow! For a more authentic goblin torch, melt pitch and bear fat and use a bigger flashlight.
Hose your forearms with a little hairspray or spray adhesive, then run them under the bed!
Eat another pickle.
Practice your crazy laugh. 90% of goblin is attitude (much of the rest of snot and belly-button lint); the laugh is half the attitude. So if you master the laugh, you’re like... 97% goblin.
* Any resemblance to actual goblins, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
** Fourteen thousand is merely a rough estimate. Goblins mouths range anywhere from seven to twenty thousand teeth. Shazo the Grinny currently holds the record for most teeth in a single mouth at 21,337 (not all his).
*** Paizo does not advocate this approach for anyone without the Blind Fighting feat. Or anyone. Ever.
Illustrations by Yngvar Asplund and Dmitry Burmak. Widescreen version here.
Don't Be Late for Your Very Important Date with the Harrowing!
Friday, June 24, 2011
It's no surprise that our childhoods influence who we are today. That's especially true for writers, since everything we do gets stored in our brains to be mashed together and filtered through our experiences, ready to jump out when the Muse strikes. The Harrowing, an adventure written by Crystal Frasier and designed for 9th-level characters, is such a mash-up: one part Time Bandits, two parts Alice in Wonderland, with a dash of a David Bowie-styled Labyrinth. In this adventure, the long-dead bard Sonnorae feared that her collection of stories would be lost when she died, and so she created a demiplane within her personal harrow deck to contain them. Over time, these stories took on lives of their own, and melded with the images on the cards themselves. But not all stories have happy endings, and the storykin who live in the Harrowed Realm have their own motivations and plots for power and some have even escaped into the real world. When the PCs find themselves drawn into the Harrowed Realm in search of a disappeared scholar, they must use all their wits and steel to navigate the landscape and politics of this strange wonderland and make it home again.
This adventure features an entire plane of fanciful locations and characters inspired by the popular harrow deck of the Pathfinder campaign setting. In addition, you'll find a brand-new monster and an optional rules subsystem allowing players to bend reality to their wills by using all 54 cards in the optional Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Harrow Deck to manipulate the strange demiplane in which they adventure.
We'll be shipping this adventure next month but until then, we hope this wallpaper fills you with Wonder.
Illustration by Dave Rapoza. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
Invasion of the Body Stitchers!
Friday, April 15, 2011
Burghers of Paizo, rejoice! The Beast of Lepidstadt has been captured! Next week we'll begin shipping the second installment of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, and the Trial of the Beast will begin. The Punishing Man rises in the square outside the courthouse! The logs have been stacked against his flanks and the oil has seeped into his veins. The Punishing Man waits to take his passenger to the depths of Hell! And soon, he shall have his feast. Until then though, enjoy this wallpaper!
Hyrum Savage
Marketing and Organized Play Manager/Town Crier
Illustrations by Andrew Hou, Michael Saas, and Florian Stitz. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
Goblins for All!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Because you asked for it, the following changes are coming to Pathfinder:
Introducing the next in our popular Players Companion line of products: Goblins of Purity!
Goblins are popular. But they're not popular enough! With "Goblins of Purity," we're giving you what you've been asking for—the chance to fully embrace all of the madness and mayhem that is being a goblin—but in a way that allows you to still be a hero. This book is jam-packed with all manner of fun and exciting options for goblins dedicated to fighting against the rise of evil (as most often personified by greedy adventurers, slavering dogs, and those hateful horses with their sharp, sharp hooves and soulless eyes), all while maintaining the rip-roaring fun that being an arsonist or a baby-eater brings.
Goblins of Purity includes:
Two dozen goblin archetypes, including the Dog Hunter ranger, the Friendly Picklechucker rogue, and the Peaceful Beachcomber paladin
An extensive discussion of brand-new goblin versions of your favorite deities
An exciting reworking of the alignment system that allows you to play arsonists and baby-eaters while still being good-aligned
A brand-new 20-level base class built especially for would-be goblin heroes—the Goblin Babysitter, a class that gets extensive use out of this book's new "innocent accident charts"
We're not there yet, but when we send the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook back for another reprint, we'll be adding goblins to the list of core player races. Now everyone can be a goblin!
Starting today, goblins are now mandatory for play in the Pathfinder Society. Every group must have at least one goblin in the party. I expect some awesome stories from your games this weekend!
Later this year, we'll release the Goblinomicon, a 64-page book that outlines the foes goblins confront in daily life—including true and accurate stat blocks for dogs and horses!
Spoiler:
And... if you haven't figured out already, Happy April Fools Day!
Illustration by Daren Bader. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
What Happens in the Worldwound Stays in the Worldwound
Friday, March 25, 2011
Oceans 666—that's the best short description for Robin Laws's The Worldwound Gambit I've heard yet. Gambit is the fourth book in our Pathfinder Tales line and will be coming out in May, just in time to tuck it away in a bag and head to the beach. In this novel, preternaturally handsome and coolly charismatic swindler Gad decides to assemble a team of thieves, cutthroats, and con men to take the fight into the magic-twisted hellscape known as the Worldwound, intent on striking directly at the fiendish leader responsible for a series of raids into the surrounding territory—the demon Yath, the Shimmering Putrescence. Can Gad hold his team together long enough to pull off the ultimate con, or will trouble from within his own organization lead to an untimely end for them all? You won't be able to find out for a few weeks, but until then you'll have plenty of time to gaze on this great piece by Daren Bader.
Illustration by Kieran Yanner. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
A-Hunting We Will Go...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I think we can all agree that Kieran Yanner is an amazing artist. And with this image, used as the cover for the latest Planet Stories volume, Hunt the Space-Witch! by Robert Silverberg, he's hit one out of the park. This cover screams pulp sci-fi and it proudly sits on my desktop as my wallpaper for this week. And now you too can adorn your sci-fi device of choice with Kieran's latest masterpiece.
Illustration by Dan Scott. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
Bark at the Moon!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Last week we showcased the cover art from Howard Andrew Jones' Pathfinder Tales novel Plague of Shadows. This week we go back to the beginning and give you a wallpaper based on Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross, the novel that launched the entire line. If you haven't read it yet you really should. It's got fighting, murder, mystery, true love, werewolves, ancient magics, curses from beyond the grave, and even dead Pathfinders! Best of all, if you know any Pathfinder Tales subscribers, they may have received a free copy to give away...
And tune into this spot on Monday as Pathfinder Designer Stephen Radney-MacFarland guest-blogs and things get... explosive.
Illustration by Sara Forlenza. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
Paizo Is Divine
Friday, February 18, 2011
It's been a divine week here at Paizo. On Wednesday we talked a little about Faiths of Purity, a book that discusses in depth the good-aligned gods and the role of religion and faith on Golarion. In that post we spoiled the code that paladins of Shelyn live by, which you can read about by clicking here.
Yesterday, James Jacobs gave us the subdomains for all of the deities mentioned by name in The Inner Sea World Guide that didn't in turn get a write-up in the Advanced Player's Guide That post built on the one from the week before, where he gave us Pharasma-friendly versions of the Death domain and the attached Souls subdomain. He also gave us the Dark Tapestry, Stars, Dragon, and Saurian subdomains, which fall under the Void and Scalykind domains, both of which can be found in The Inner Sea World Guide.
All of that is a roundabout way of presenting this week's wallpaper, a great piece depicting a paladin of Shelyn. Enjoy!
Illustrations by Christophe Swal. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
The Pathfinder Society Needs You!
Friday, February 11, 2011
One of my duties here at Paizo is to oversee the Pathfinder Society, the organized play program for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, your character is a member of the Pathfinder Society, seeking fortune and glory all over the face of Golarion. Pathfinders are a diverse bunch of scoundrels and wanderers. Their loyalties lie on all shores of the Inner Sea, and beyond their adventures as Pathfinders, they often find themselves mixed up in the murky politics of Absalom and the five nations who seek to control the City at the Center of the World from behind the scenes. The campaign centers on the sprawling city of Absalom, where five factions (for now) engage in a shadow war for control of the city's politics and economy.
Pathfinder Society Organized Play is a constantly evolving mega-campaign played by thousands of players and the adventures you experience are shared by players around the world. Play is organized into Seasons, throughout which the actions and achievements of you and your fellow Pathfinders create an ongoing storyline. Each season consists of at least 28 Pathfinder Society scenarios (short, 4-hour adventures) set in a variety of exotic locations across Golarion.
Currently, the Society is waging a secret war against the Shadow Lodge, former Pathfinders working to bring the Society to its knees. This wallpaper, designed by Crystal Frasier with art from Christophe Swal, showcases some of what the Pathfinder Society is all about.
If you want to learn more about the Pathfinder Society, and the entire Pathfinder Society Organized Play program, head on over to the PFS Page to learn more.
Illustrations by Andrew Hou. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier.
We Love Goblins!
Friday, February 4, 2011
We definitely love goblins here at Paizo. In fact, more than anything we love them blinded, helpless, and fascinated. And with this new wallpaper, you can too! This wallpaper uses artwork from the soon-to-arrive Condition Cards, the latest Game Mastery card set from Paizo. With these cards you'll be able to easily keep track of the Pathfinder RPG's most common conditions, making it so you'll never miss a modifier again!
Illustrations by Kerem Beyit. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
Snakes, I Hate Snakes!
Friday, January 28, 2011
I've been in the gaming industry for a decade now and I still get a smile on my face when new product arrives from the printer and I get to thumb through it for the first time. This week was a banner week as I got preview copies of Flip-Mat Village Square, the new Pathfinder Tales novel Plague of Shadows from sword and sorcery master Howard Andrew Jones, and the theme for this week's wallpaper: "Sanctum of the Serpent God," part 6 of the Serpent Skull Adventure Path. This awesome piece showcases
Spoiler:
Vyr-Azul, the High Priest of Ydersius, the insidious villain of Serpent Skull who plans to restore his god and usher in a new Age of Serpents. You'll finally meet him at the heart of the serpent-god's sanctum, and the fate of Golarion hangs in the balance!
Illustrations by Carolina Eade and Mike Sass. Wallpaper design by Crystal Frasier. Widescreen version here.
Ebon Destroyers!
Friday, January 21, 2010
As I was contemplating which wall paper to put up on the blog this week, Warehouse Will made it super easy since he came by to drop off advance preview copies of our upcoming products. The Inner Sea Poster Map Folio (3-1/2' × 5' of map goodness) and Condition Cards are awesome, but what really got me excited were my copies of Cult of the Ebon Destoyers. Written by RPG Superstar 2010 winner Matt Goodall, the module pits 8th-level PCs against a murder-cult of terror set against the backdrop of Jalmeray and its capital city of Niswan. Can the PCs wipe out the Ebon Destroyers before the beloved ruler of Jalmeray is beheaded? You'll be able to find out in a few weeks! Until then, enjoy this fabulous wallpaper depicting one of the many members of this evil cult of Vudrani assassins.
Illustrations by Mauricio Herrera and Peter Lazarski. Widescreen version here.
Long Live The Gorilla King!
Friday, January 14, 2010
It's no secret that I love gorillas, apes, and monkeys. My avatar here at Paizo is a monkey, my personal Facebook icon for a long time was a Bili Ape, and I'm always calling my kids little monkeys. (They are the Savage Horde, after all.) When I asked the art department to create a series of wallpapers, you can only imagine my delight when Crystal showed me the wallpaper below. It's about as perfect a wallpaper as I could ask for: the Gorilla King, swarms of monkeys in the background, and all of the Pathfinder hardback covers. It's been on my computer since Crystal finished it a week ago, and now it can be on yours.
Illustrations by Vincent Dutrait and Kieran Yanner. Widescreen version here.
You Tried to Kill Him, Now Try to Save Him!
Friday, January 7, 2010
A few years ago we released a little family board game of murder in the dark. Kill Doctor Lucky had you racing to see who can kill Doctor Lucky while nobody was looking. It was a great product and has provided hours of fun. A few weeks ago we released the sequel, Save Doctor Lucky. This time you're on a titanic cruise ship sailing across the Atlantic with one very lucky old man and an errant iceberg that's just hit the ship. Doctor Lucky is a charismatic and well-respected philanthropist with a heart of gold. Of course, you secretly hate the old bastard, and you're probably going to try to kill him someday. But killing him aboard a sinking ship would be pointless. So you've decided to save his life instead, and do it while someone else is looking. That way, even if you go down with the ship, you'll at least go down in history. And now you can include this lovely wallpaper on your computer as you float to the bottom of the sea.
Illustrations by Eric Belisle and Wayne Reynolds. Widescreen version here.
Release the Hordes!
December 31, 2010
It’s the last day of 2010, and once again the Paizo offices are closed, this time in honor of the new year. It’s been an amazing 2010 here at Paizo, and we managed to cap it with a great new hardcover book. Bestiary 2 has begun to arrive in stores and in hands around the world, making it easy to surprise your players with new monsters during your games this weekend. Bestiary 2 is full of some great adversaries for you to defeat, and the poster we recently released will help you keep track of which ones have met their demise at the hands of your players. In honor of both the new year and the release of Bestiary 2, here’s another great wallpaper from our art team!
Illustration by Matt Dixon. Widescreen version here.
Happy Holidays!
December 24, 2010
None of us are in the office today, we're hither and yon, fording rivers and traveling through woods, celebrating the holiday weekend with family and friends. However, we hope you enjoy this week's wallpaper and that you have a wonderful holiday, eat as much great food as you can, and have the chance to decorate your home with the finest crystals available.
From all of us, to all of you, may you have a joyous crystalhue!
Early last year a promise was made, a promise to those GMs who go beyond the call of duty. The promise was a special scenario, exclusive to 4-star Game Masters and Venture-Captains. Hints were dropped by Mark Moreland back in October that something special was coming, and now I can tell you that the special 4-star GM scenario will be released in January and enjoyed worldwide soon after.
"The Midnight Mauler," a Tier 1–7 scenario written by the always amazing Crystal Frasier, sends members of the Pathfinder Society to the former crown jewel of Ustalav's royal courts, the decaying city of Ardis. Tasked by the Society to look into the fate of Absalom's former Master of Blades Vonran Vilk, what they find will lead to exploration, diplomacy, murder, haunted pasts, and tragic love. Can the PCs discover the identity of the Midnight Mauler before it kills again? Find out in 2011!
Last Friday, Managing Editor extraordinaire Wes Schneider spoke a little about the upcoming Carrion Crown Adventure Path. This amazing AP starts with Pathfinder Adventure Path #43: "The Haunting of Harrowstone" and a stellar cover by Dave Rapoza. In honor of the upcoming AP, and as a new feature on the Paizo blog, we're proud to offer the first of many new wallpapers. Just download the image below and in no time you'll be able to gaze at Feiya and Merisiel kicking the snot out of skeletons to your heart's content, all from the comfort of your office chair. This might be the first new wallpaper in a while, but it definitely isn't the last, so keep an eye on the blog for more in the coming weeks.
We’re all out of the office today being gluttons. All except for Crystal’s baby otyugh, who’s just not old enough for solid food quite yet. Maybe next year little guy. Happy Thanksgiving and see you all Monday!
First: NEW FORMAT! Starting with Map Pack: Shops and going forward we'll be employing the same technology that makes our Flip Mats erasable wonders, resistant to wet-erase, dry-erase, even permanent markers. One of the things we heard again and again at conventions over the summer was that folks loved the Map Packs, but wished they could write on them. Great idea! And for everyone who wished for this: wish granted!
Second: They Sync Up! Look at your Map Pack: Shops. Now look at Flip Mat: City Streets. Now back to Map Pack: Shops. Notice anything? Map Pack: Shops shows the insides and multiple floors of the buildings on Flip Mat: City Streets! Confused? Just look at the clever little illustration Crystal put together showing exactly how these two useful map tools become even handier when used together.
Cartography by Corey Macourek. Graphic by Crystal Frasier
Third: Look at Map Pack: Shops. Close. No, real close. See that? Yeah, that's a little symbol of Desna, just like the one that showed up in the Rise of the Runelords Item Cards. Tricky huh? Since these are shops, cartographer Corey Macourek threw in a few bits of inventory from our past Item Card sets. They're really tiny, so it's still up to you what these shops carry, but for all of you now in the know, it's just a cool Easter egg.
So just a few new ideas to keep your game fresh and your gaming table looking great! We've also got a few more tricks in store for the Map Pack and Flip Mat lines coming down the road, so keep your eye out for what's ahead!
As the new Reaper Pathfinder minis roll into (and just as quickly out of) the warehouse, it makes me appreciate how crafty Paizo fans can be. With all the miniatures, sets, props, and stage plays we've seen kitbashed together around here, it's easy for even the unstoppable Paizo warband to feel humbled. And of all these projects, miniatures occupy a special place in most gamers' hearts. Something about having that 25mm scale representation of your character touches a special, squishy place in every geek's heart. My own collection of painted minis rivals even that of Czarina Catherine the Great (little known fact: Cat was gonzo for 1st Edition, and ran a game of Traveller every other Thursday), but EPA lead regulations and simple goblin humility prevent me from sharing them here.
To get you geared up for your brand new Pathfinder Reaper minis, here's a quick collection of links to help teach and inspire every crafty Paizo fan.
In the last few weeks, the Paizo messageboards have been buzzing with painting tips, tricks, and (most of all), examples. With active discussions and a welcoming group familiar with the Pathfinder line, this is your best place to get started and learn from a friendly group you might already know. Even the official Paizo Paintmeister, Sean K Reynolds contributes to the discussions and offers insider tips. If you don't need to pick up the basics, it never hurts to hobnob with fellow Paizonians, show off your work, bask in the admiration of the faceless masses, and know for just a brief moment how it feels to be a world-famous goblin blogger and production specialist. Also it facilitates that sense of community that makes Paizo fans the best of the best.
If you love the idea of having a tiny metal avatar of yourself, but don't know where to start, then one of the best places to learn is the Miniature Painting Guild. They feature several handy tutorials for all skills levels, as well as forums and a large gallery. My personal favorite: a catalog of "restored" miniatures, rescued from terrible paint jobs by the Guild's loyal members. And if you're simply one of the Paizonians with more time than money, the Miniature Painting Guild also offers professional paintings services on commission.
Once you're comfortable with the basics, Reaper Miniatures offers some of the best figures in the industry, covering hundreds of niches and character archetypes. Searching the Reaper catalog the old-fashioned way, while exciting, can take weeks, so be sure to try out their Figure Finder to pick out exactly the right miniature for your character needs. Or just browse through their Inspirational Gallery for ideas to customize your own painting work. Once you know what models you want, you can order most any of them here in the Paizo storefront and combine them with the latest Pathfinder supplements and GameMastery items you'll doubtless be using with them.
Of course, old-fashioned pewter miniatures are only the beginning: everything from repurposed game tokens and children's toys to your favorite illustrations can be turned into prime gaming minis with a little creativity and know-how. I've seen a man run a game with nothing but miniatures molded by his own, gnarled hands from Sculpy, and my great-grandmother ran tactical table wargames with an entire Napoleonic regiment made from the piled entrails of her fallen enemies. The smell was horrendous, but it gave her a certain psychological edge. As gamers, we share a lot of creative outlets, but few that are so easily appreciated and constantly in play as our minis. For some of us, minis were even that neat little gimmick that first got us into gaming. So lay your hands on some lead and show off your skills in the forums, and let us revel in this common facet of gaming culture. As the immortal Steve Martin put it: Let's get small.
As we all know, the business environment changed radically when the Internet achieved sentience back in '03. Suddenly, the clean, predictable world of code became a tangled, heaving jungle of logic chains and creeping ads. Companies suddenly found themselves in want of both a competent programmer and an experienced survival expert. Luckily, Paizo has both.
This week I caught up with Ross Byers, Paizo's assistant software developer. Though he rarely disconnects his neural link to the server, he agreed to share what he could about the inner workings of Paizo's cyber-bwanas.
"It's a blast! I love working here." Ross had just finished carving out a virtual farmstead for the PaizoCon '10 protocol, and allowed me to interview him while he relaxed with a few protein pills. Originally hailing from the primordial swamps of central Florida, Ross is no stranger to life-or-death struggles against an oppressive environment. Now instead of wrestling 'gators, he turns his life experience toward Paizo's digital settlement. Like any small settlement in a strange world, the Paizo website and forums can be challenging to oversee, but Ross considers them among the better places to code a family. "Sometimes people get a little crazy, but generally [they] keep it on an even temper. They're nice to one another."
Software development is no easy job: from plague-bearing mosquitoes to deadly jungle predators, Ross risks his health and safety keeping Paizo.com prosperous. Though his duty is life threatening, he still finds time for fun. The smurf filter, beloved by the messageboard regulars, started as an April Fool's Day gag, but is now maintained and lovingly updated by Ross. "I also get to see the blogs 12 hours before they go up."
Ross first approached Paizo during the 2008 RPG Supersar competition, where he landed as one of the top 32 finalists. Having been a regular face in the frontier saloon that is the Unofficial Paizo chat room, Ross and his rugged style impressed the Paizo founders, and he eventually found himself shanghaied to the remote digital outpost he tends today.
Paizo's web presence, even in these turbulent times, is a factor in its success. Or, as Ross phrases it: "We require the [online] store for people to give us money. If we didn't have the store, people couldn't give us money. That's very bad for a commercial enterprise," although even he readily admits that Paizo's success hinges entirely on "high quality products to sell." Still, the Paizo website combines quality products from dozens of companies, including treasures that even the Amazon.com Imperium doesn't stock. With Ross's loving care and everything carefully organized by Jeff Alvarez and Vic Wertz (more on them later), this holdout frontier town has blossomed into a thriving community under some of the worst conditions.
Ross serves as the right hand of the unphotographable Gary Teter.
The holidays are an important time in every culture; they remind us of the things that really matter in life and remind us why we stay far, far away from our families most of the time. But aside from those core elements, every culture celebrates its holidays differently. As Paizo's only practicing member of the Reformed Church of Lamashtu, it falls upon me to explain Lamashtan holy days. In the interest of spreading tolerance and understanding, it seems a good idea to share that information with Paizo's fanbase as well.
A lot of myths and slander float around about Reformed Lamashtans. Rumors about blood sacrifice and stealing babies. Most of it is true, but we obsess far less over boring ceremony than Orthodox Lamashtans. A few quick cuts, a muttered "death to all," and then we move on the dinner and drinking, and we haven't used real baby since I was in junior high. Within the hour, Uncle Rax is drunk and telling his old stories about the '70s and the kids are torturing the holiday halfling. Good times, and not altogether different from the family celebrations of friends I've visited.
This past weekend marked one of my favorite family holidays: New Ears' Eve. One night a year, goblins gather together to celebrate the passage of another 12 months in the traditional way: By comparing the ears they've collected that year. Ear collecting, as you well know, goes back thousands of years. Young goblins receive their first Heary-Thing Jar during their earmitzvah, which marks a goblin's coming of age. Though the brine is changed out periodically, and few gobbers can resist the lure of the occasional pickled hearing, the jar itself is treasured and kept safe for a lifetime. Ears of victims, debtors, and civil servants are collected as keepsakes of important events or remarkably gassy days, then added to the preservative fluid. By the time New Ears' rolls around, most of us can boast half a dozen or more new additions.
Traditionally, the pecking order for the coming year is hashed out by comparing the number, size, variety, and stories surrounding the most recent audial acquisitions. Orthodox Lamashtans settle ties with the holiest of rituals: the drunken knife-fight. In the Reformed Church, the family order is largely unaffected by collections, aside from determining the favorite child for the year to come. New Ears' Eve instead gives the family an excuse to get together, talk, and enjoy ear-based cuisine (like grandma's cochleabread men and shepard's pinnea). Noisemakers are passed around so everyone can be sure they have both ears. Festive hats are worn both to gloat over the continued possession of both ears and because hats are the most sacred of head coverings. As midnight approaches, we pick the juiciest trophies from the winner's Jar, set them on fire, then let the delighted children throw them around the room. The smell of burning earwax fills the home and reminds us how lucky we are to still have a loving family. And our ears.
This lovely tradition not only brings families closer together, but it associate a sense of community and togetherness with an activity everyone loves anyway: cutting off ears and stuffing them in a jar of cold, stagnant vinegar. To this day, whenever I mutilate the body of an enemy or someone who has served me cold coffee, I can't help but think of my loving family and smile.
So, from all of us here at Paizo, to all of you out there in the Internet: Happy New Ears', and may your Heary-Thing Jar never grow waxy!
In our never-ending quest for complete fan transparency (or "fansparency"), we here in the Paizo dungeon like to know that our readers understand our diabolical machinations and vile lieutenants so that they may truly tremble in terror before our slavering horde. And while it's easy to quake in terror before those bold names printed on the front of our books, there are just as many wicked creatures slaving away behind the scenes, without whom our ink and pulp empire would come crumbling down.
Enter customer service: the key to Paizo's unstoppable march to the sea. Cosmo and Sara Marie tag-team problems with orders, website issues, and general customer complaints, applying their terrifying cheerfulness and resiliency to wearing down even the most dissatisfied of clientele. Longtime fans will recall that Cosmo first joined Paizo's ranks after claiming the fey crown by slaying Lord Oberon in ritual combat. Sara Marie came to Paizo through PaizoCon '09, where her mastery of the hat entranced our leadership and secured her future position in the company (as you well know, hats have been an important aspect of goblin culture since the Outerwear Wars of 3505).
To gain some insight into their jet-setting lifestyle of glamour and danger, I followed the daring duo for several hours. After they parachuted from an exploding mail plane (saving customer orders from crashing in the Andes), they stopped for a moment to grant some insight into their role in Paizo's success.
"One hundred percent of Paizo's success is all me," says Cosmo (exp 2, rog 4), who has been with the company since its magazine days. "And the secret to my success is emulating Sebastian in every encounter." He refused to expand on the subject of "Sebastian," but went on to confirm that he was, in fact, not an octopus.
"The less people have to deal with us, the better." Sara Marie (ari 4, brd 2) dodged all my octopus-related probing to continue on customer service's role in Paizo's success. "You've never heard of me? That's good! It means you've never needed to contact us." Obviously, customer service, much like assassins and trapdoor spiders, do their best work when no one needs them.
"We are part of the community," Cosmo added while repacking his parachute and radioing for pickup. "We're here to interface with the fans. Customers and customer service are what Paizo is all about." He pointed out that the website, the messageboards, the blogs—all are there to give customers better insight into Paizo, and Paizo better insight into the customers. PFS Open Calls and RPG Superstar were created to help turn the Paizo fanbase into the next generation of Paizo writers, and customer service is there to make sure Paizo customers become the next Paizo fanbase.
"There are constantly new challenges," concludes Cosmo.
"Dealing with Cosmo is a challenge." With Sara Marie's final comment, the interview evolved into more of a blood feud, with each stealing the other's earpiece and hurling literary invectives.
Without the customer service team, Paizo would have little insight into the minds of our victims, nor would we be able to best tailor our psychological assaults where we know it will hurt most. Sans Cosmo and Sara Marie, we would be forced to rely once again on the phone-answering monkey, whose courtesy is notoriously lacking, whose typing speed in unacceptable, and whose coffee is substandard at best. They are the glue that binds Paizo to it's customers and ensures that any dissent is stamped out, lest it foment uprisings and attract adventurers.
So, join me in celebrating Paizo's customer service department! Plant a customer service specialist in your back yard today!
Sci-Fried: How to make Friends and Influence (fictional) People
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Cave raptors are sated; it's time to blog!
There's a peculiar quality to the Florida swamps.
Bear with me here, because this story does eventually come around to science fiction.
More than a few feet down, the swamps and bogs of central and southern Florida are just acidic enough and just the right temperature to kill bacteria without destroying delicate tissue. This means that anything organic buried in the swamps (and keep in mind, swamps account for roughly 119% of Florida's land mass) is pickled and preserved for hundreds of years. While in college studying anthropology, I assisted on a dig (more of a 'bail,' really) in one of these swamps. We were excavating the remains of an indigenous Calusa settlement. Our professor uncovered an amazing find: an intact human skull over 1,000 years old. He gathered us all around, brushed away the mud, and raised the skull dramatically.
With a nauseating schlorp, something fell out of the foramen magnum: a one-thousand year old human brain. And that fascinated me: everything this late-adolescent male experienced, every skill he'd learned... It all laid there as a jellied grey-brown puddle in the mud. And it would have remained intact for even longer if we hadn't clumsily stumbled across it and suffered from our Indiana Jones fantasies. Ancient history always fascinated me, but seeing that brain in the mud felt almost like meeting a time-traveler. Since then, the idea of meeting people from the past has fascinated me.
Illustration by Kieran Yanner
It must be a common fascination, because that's what the science fiction classic The Ship of Ishtar covers in incredible detail. The setup is classic: Contemporary John Kenton discovers an artifact that hurls him sideways into a strange new world; but this premise is worth mentioning because A. Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar (written in 1924) is one of the earliest stories to use that device that became such a staple in later pulp. After his arrival, Kenton proceeds to beat up, ally with, or seduce everything on board a magical ship cursed by the Babylonian gods six millennia ago. Merritt narrates with both fists as Kenton interacts with an entire crew who remember a real-world culture long since vanished.
Abraham Merritt's writing style is complex and conversational, more a dramatic old man recounting the story to his grandkids between slugs of whiskey than a piece of literature. His love of exclamation points is almost poetic, and provided a host of new things that my roommates and I now yell at each other from opposite ends of the house. Probably not the most academic endorsement, but it certainly proves The Ship of Ishtar's entertainment chops.
So, in lieu of reconstituting the battered and filthy remnants of a long-dead Calusa's brains, now so much jello mold, I think I'll continue to sate my need for historical contact with fiction. Preferably of the pulp variety.
Seriously, it was disgusting. You should've been there! Seen—brains!
Back when I was a little ankle-chewer in the distant 1980s, there weren't a lot of strong female role models to choose from. Most of the women on TV were simpering damsels in distress or so fashion- and boy-crazy that they triggered my normally resilient goblin gag reflex. Then in 1985, Mattel rolled out She-Ra and my youthful, violent fanaticism found someone to latch onto. She-Ra still had a lot of fashion doll in her, but she had something that no other female character did: a friggin' sword! For a long while, She-Ra was my favorite show, and I still remember it fondly today, even if the series hasn't aged well.
And why in Lamashtu's name have I forced us all down this horrifying stagger through memory lane? So that it will really drive home the point when I say quite plainly: Jirel of Joiry would kick She-Ra's alabaster ass!
For this week's installment of Sci-Fried, I picked up a copy of the Planet Stories collection Black God's Kiss. Last time around, I enjoyed Kuttner's work on The Dark World, and in my research (and by research, I mean dumpster-diving in Wikipedia) I discovered that he co-wrote most of his later novels with his wife, C. L. Moore.
Illustration by Arnold Tsang
So, major spoilers: C. L. Moore is a woman!
Armed with the knowledge that women can write science fiction, I eagerly dove into Black God's Kiss. And I was not disappointed. The intrusion of pesky adventurers kept me from finishing all six thrilling tales, as their larcenous halfling made off with my copy in the fracas. But the first three short stories were more than enough to whet my appetite and have me picking up a replacement copy today at work.
Black God's Kiss collects Moore's six Jirel of Joiry stories into one convenient volume. The original badass, no-excuses warrior woman before Xena and Lara Croft made it cool, Jirel is the military commander (and later queen) of Joiry, a medieval French territory. She's the best swordswoman in the kingdom, the toughest brawler, and supremely focused on whatever her goal might be. She's every bit as violent as I am, but with all the self-confidence and human emotions I usually use my violence to compensate for.
But like an octopus without its legs, a cool character isn't much to look at if the writing is sub par. And Moore is par excellence. Moore's writing is like an expensive meal. You get the nourishing plot, of course, but what you really love is just putting the prose in your mouth and chewing, savoring those flavorful descriptions and the rich balance of analogies. It's like eating a pickle made out of tasty Halfling toes.
"But the darkness that bandaged her eyes was changed too, indescribably. It was no longer darkness, but void; not an absence of light, but simple nothingness."
That is art. It combines such simple ingredients to create an elegant whole and makes me understand a concept I could never personally experience without visiting family. It makes me want to backtrack, taste it again, and learn how to cook it myself. Jirel's travels beyond reality are so lip-smackingly vivid that they pull me in, despite the book's glaring minority of cephalopods.
Black God's Kiss is an exciting and fun collection of adventures with the kind of action-adventure hero that anyone can enjoy, and any gamer girl and empathize with. This isn't just a book I enjoy reading, this is a book I'm going to enjoy reading to my daughter some day...
Provided I can override my natural instincts to eat my young.
My father taught me a very important lesson as a young goblin: never try to eat a live cat. He also taught me that anything that is truly important to you requires sacrifice. And not the fun sort of sacrifice, where you get the family together for dinner and grandma bakes stollen and we all sacrifice a bound-and-gagged human for the greater glory of Lamashtu. No, it demands the unpleasant sort of sacrifice.
Gaming is important to me, and this weekend, it took its sacrifice. While running my favorite Pathfinder campaign, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and pantomiming the grisly death of a moderately important NPC, I took a pratfall that resulted in the unthinkable: my glasses were snapped like so much optometric seagull bone.
With my uncanny goblin skills (and a healthy supply of glue and wire), the break was easy to patch, but the damage has been done. I now sport the Prometheus Unbound of eyewear, and my shame is without end. No longer am I the office beauty, as any goblin should be, but rather a misshapen and hideous creature, no better than a common kobold. My game took a sacrifice of my dignity...
It also made a sacrifice of the 2d6 copper pieces I have jealously guarded since I was declared a 'combatant' at adolescence, but until we get into silver pieces, money just doesn't compare to dignity.
But I am not alone. Any serious gamer has had to make at least one sacrifice or compromise for the sake of roleplaying, and if I have to wear my sacrifice on the bridge of my nose for a few days, so be it! That delightful Tom Hanks fellow sacrificed his dignity for gaming, and look at him now! Sacrifice is an important element in the stories we tell around the table: it adds the cost that makes a victory valuable or the pathos that makes an encounter memorable. And the little sacrifices we as players make are no less important or memorable than the spectacular tragedies our characters make, and probably mean more to us in the end.
Roleplaying is worth a little hassle now and then for the happiness it brings, the friendships it forges, the occasional romance it inspires, and the birth of Warduke, who will unite us all beneath his iron fist. My sacrifice amused my friends and made their table experience that much more real, and I'm sure it will give my coworkers a few laughs as well. So as oxymoronic as it may be, I'll wear my wounded dignity with pride until I can get to the optometrist this weekend.
Time for a little back history on everyone's favorite literate goblin (and by that, I mean Golarion's only literate goblin): I love science fiction, but I am woefully ignorant of the subject. I sat on my mother's knee and watched Star Wars and Star Trek, I read through my father's dog-eared old copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and a few of my Saturday morning cartoons were set in space. That's about it. I remember reading some John Carter of Mars in junior high, but it didn't leave enough of an impression on me at the time that I even remember it that well. As embarrassing as it is for any goblin to admit, I just don't know much about this subject I enjoy, least of all its mysterious origins.
I supposed that's why Erik Mona, Pierce Watters, Christopher Carey, and James Sutter, the quartet behind Paizo's Planet Stories, line, asked me to start reading and reviewing this classic science fiction. Without any fond childhood memories (literally; my childhood involved being locked in a rabbit hutch with my 27 siblings), I wouldn't be viewing any of our Planet Stories fiction through the lens of nostalgia. Instead, I can dole out honest thoughts and observations on twentieth-century classics from a twenty-first century perspective.
Illustration by Emrah Elmasli
From my perspective, this is both thrilling and terrifying, like riding one of those blood-thirsty horses humans are so fond of. Now I get to read the classic origins of science fiction from almost a century ago for work, but at the same time, these are books that my boss loves. If I don't like them, will he feed me to the dreaded bandersnatch? Plus the library of Planet Stories is huge, and getting bigger every other month! Growing like a well-fed literary octopus (and you thought those metaphors were dead and gone). For my very first Sci-Fried, I decided to look at Henry Kuttner's The Dark World.
Time for another confession that will get me laughed at in the forums: I selected Mr. Kuttner because I really enjoyed the movie The Last Mimzy, which is based on Kuttner's short story Mimsy Were the Borogroves. I imagined that Dark World would be somewhat similar, familiar, and comforting in this strange new land of fiction.
But no. There was nary a stuffed rabbit to be found.
Instead, the story follows Edward Bond, who is not a little girl but rather a World War II veteran who feels strangely out of place in his own skin. It turns out that Edward Bond is not Edward Bond at all, but rather the wizard Ganelon from a parallel world, trussed up with Edward Bond's memories and life as a prison. I don't want to share too much of the story, but obviously the majority of the book takes place in the bizarre titular "Dark World," and many of the descriptions of this setting are both psychedelic and believable.
Kuttner's writing style is distinctively "chunky;" very intricate descriptions and bulgy sentences that can be a little difficult to handle at first if you're used to the "say it all now" style of modern authors. But The Dark World drew me in after the first chapter, and I had trouble putting the book down once that happened. What at first seemed like a fantasy story instead took a sharp turn into sci-fi as Kuttner tried to explain everything from vampires and werewolves to Cthulhian gods with the science of the 1940s. Some of the theories stretched my suspension of disbelief, but never quite broke it. Having finished the book now, I almost wish it were longer, with more time to examine the uncanny science and history of the Dark World itself.
The narrator is probably the best part of the book. We see everything through the protagonist's eyes, but until the very end we're never told for certain whether it's Ganelon with Edward's memories, or Edward with Ganelon's memories. Control switches between the two personalities, and bits of memory bleed through to the other, which makes what could've been an obnoxiously perfect hero into an underdog I could root for. I really want to spoil the ending, because it made me cackle with delight, but instead I will demand that you order your own copy and read it for yourself.
My final impressions of The Dark World are that it can be a difficult book to start, but once you get into the pace and get used to Kuttner's narrative flavor, it's an impossible book to stop. Once all the pieces are in play, the action flows fast and furious, with only occasional chapter breaks to let you catch your breath. The Dark World is relatively short, making it a great first step into the genre of pulp that you can read in one sitting. If you love science and history as much as I do, then some of the genre explanations will make you positively giddy. A fun book, even 63 years after it was originally published, and definitely one I'd recommend.
Dark World may have lacked hyper-advanced stuffed bunnies, but that's only because this book is for grownups.
Ecology of the Pathfinder Product, Part 6: Move 6d6 Tons, and what do you get?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Illustration by Crystal Frasier
Cave raptors are sated; it's time to blog!
So far, we've uncovered the shocking details of raising an innocent idea into a rebellious roleplaying product, but if your beloved book never moves out of the house, then it will never really make anything of itself. Now is the time when a PDF, so self-important, must go out into the world by itself. And sure, it may come back wrinkled or torn, or even upside down, but without that life experience, it will never truly be its own book. It's time to talk about the physical, blue-collar side of game design: printing, warehousing, and distribution.
For all intents and purposes, Dwarves is ready to pack up and head off to college. Out of sight of its overprotective developers and even its best friend, the art director, it will grow into a bearded adult of glossy pages and the comforting scent of ink. Then it comes home, where its loving parents criticize its dress, notices it's gained weight, and implies that it should cut its hair because it looks like a hippy. Then it leaves again.
Printing of RPG products is arranged through horrible, arcane methods, often via deals with unseen and unknowable supernatural powers. Paizo prefers to deal through the fey, who are both adept at weaving physical products from ideas and accept readily available sandwiches as payment (in truth, lead developer Jason Buhlman's most important contribution to the company is his astounding egg salad, which pleases the fey queen Titania and ensures a lasting business relationship and a minimum of ironic curses). Once the electronic layout of a book is finished, it is transferred through a series of tubes to the distant faerie courts. The attending pixies immediately spin it into gold, and then press the gold itself into physical books and arrange for its return. Total elapsed time to print a Paizo product: 14 minutes. Sadly, due to the unstable chronological connection between the First World and our own mortal realm, upwards of two months may pass in our world during that 14 minutes.
Eventually, sprite couriers, glamered as UPS drivers, drop off multiple tons of product at the Paizo warehouse. This fabulous structure, adjacent to the production offices, is the realm of warehouse manager and 10th-level monk Jeff Strand. The warehouse stores not only Paizo's catalog of products, but also much of the stock for the online store, and so organization is vital. Inhuman physical strength is also important, as every pallet of products can weigh up to an Imperial ton (which is to say, it weighs as much as 2,000 pounds worth of emperors). Jeff and his able-bodied assistants work tirelessly to ship orders out as soon new product arrives, focusing first on Paizo's thousands of loyal subscribers. During these rushes, Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens and Vice President Jeff Alvarez can even be found braving the warehouse's icy trenches and lurking glabrezu in order to send books far and wide.
The enormity of Paizo's distribution efforts is staggering, especially to a little goblin. In addition to sending out literally tons of product at a time to subscribers and fans, pallets of each and every product to come through the door immediately goes back out to retail distributors like Alliance and Diamond. Like NBA scouts, these distributors then ship our MVPs all across the U.S. of A. and beyond, across the ocean to Europe and even north into the fabled Canada. And this volume doesn't even include our licensees who translate Paizo products for non-English-speaking fans.
Printing and distribution are vital to the lifecycle of a gaming product. Without that final kick out of the nest, to plummet or soar, pages would be doomed to constant revision. Roleplaying is built on a spine of pulp and glue, and losing the physical quality of the game book means losing an important piece of our heritage. Without that healthy respect for the past, the next generation will grow up cold and mechanical, controlled as they are by the fluoride in their computer screens. By the end, we'll bow before our PDF overlords, and soylent green will be people!
Plus, if you drop your latest Pathfinder in the bathtub, you can fix it with a hairdryer—try doing that with an e-reader!
This wraps up our quick review of the Paizo publishing process; you now understand as much about creating new products as I do. Starting next week, we'll take a look at existing Paizo products with our new feature, Sci-Fried.
Ecology of the Pathfinder Product, Part 5: Layabout
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Illustration by Crystal Frasier
Cave raptors are sated; it's time to blog!
There comes a time in every game product's life when a developer has to learn to let go; to let his sweet, innocent babe go out, make mistakes, and grow into a book. A game product needs to stay out late, crash the car, and hang out with the wrong crowd. And that wrong crowd is the art director, in Paizo's case the amazing Sarah Robinson and the undefeated James Davis.
Welcome to the jungle we call layout.
When last we saw Dwarves of Golarion's's art director, she was a childhood friend helping to tutor the infant sourcebook in good grooming and healthy posture. But now that editorial puberty has hit, the art director becomes a corruptive influence. She'll introduce the book to page composition, gateway fonts, and the pagan ways of design. While the developer cares about making a good text, the art director (or humble-yet-beautiful production goblin) is only concerned with tarting the book up.
Once development and editing are finished, layout is everything else. It means making an attractive page that doesn't remind the reader of a junior-high science textbook. It means making sure the words, the art, and all the stat blocks don't trip over each other. It also means constantly harassing the developers and editors to cut or add words and send material to work with in a timely fashion. The process is arduous, often checking a work line by line for tight spacing or dangling widows (who hang around poorly laid-out products to get their kicks; during last month's move we uncovered no fewer than thirty-eight widows cleverly concealing themselves in the recycling bin). For any given product, the process may take hours, days, or even weeks, depending on how recently the art director has been fed.
In ye olden times, layout was performed by hand, using glue and a layout churn to mock up a page and send it away to the printer by horseless carriage. These days, much of the hard work of layout is performed by computer, where all the trimming and gluing are handled digitally. The common computer terms "Cut," "Paste," and "Churn" actually hail from these pre-computer layout processes.
This is the basic workspace, with the guides for page and column sizes. Boring enough.
Our text needs to live somewhere fancy, so first we design an attractive page.
We drop in the formatted text from the developer next.
Now we switch everything to a dwarfier font and adjust the text spacing a little.
Add some frames and titles, so we all know what we're looking at.
Now we drop in our artwork, wrap the text around it, and make sure everything fits.
And that's a finished spread!
Like a fancy show octopus with a mastery of sign language, a well laid-out product is a joy to look upon and easy to understand. While the prose might make a book beloved, its layout makes it popular, and often the only difference between a bestseller and a discount special is how well each page presents itself. Without good layout, even well-written books would languish in exile, their hideous countenances creating a wall between themselves and the general populace. Resentment would set in, and as their numbers grew alongside their discontent, murmurs of revolution would spread. Cries of "Viva la Composicion!" would echo through the winding streets, followed by bloody, horrific riots. Heads of editors and writers alike would roll as the dispossessed texts yearned for justice, but settled for vengeance.
To dodge that bloodshed, make sure to follow up your writing and editing with a loving layout. The bourgeoisie will thank you for your effort.
And now our baby manuscript has grown up into a finished book! Or has it? Still nothing more than a digital file and a pile of black-and-white printouts, Dwarves won't be it's own book until it has returned with a diploma from one of several prestigious printers. Next week, we'll examine what goes on once the book is out of Paizo's hands.
Ecology of the Pathfinder Product, Part 4: The Editor's Compositional Fitness Challenge
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Illustration by Crystal Frasier
Cave raptors are sated; it's time to blog!
Yes, editing: the sport of grammatically minded kings. So far we've examined the natural growth of Dwarves of Golarion, as well as its invaluable hours of education, and yet we've ignored physical fitness. Without a steady regimen of editing, our little manuscript could turn into a clumsy butterball, drawing ridicule and cruelty from other game products.
To keep a product trim, healthy, and happy, it's going to need editors to run it through its paces.
According to Paizo's editorial tag-team of Christopher Carey and James Sutter, an editor's job involves neither crushing the dreams of authors nor blindly hacking away at text, but instead is a carefully crafted routine to burn off flabby text and improve narrative posture. Like a cephalopod, any quality Paizo product needs to hit the gym regularly to keep it healthy. Just like any fitness-obsessed octopus will hit both the free-weights and the treadmill, Paizo products will rotate their editing to catch problems with grammar, spelling, word choice, continuity, voice, and even the occasional rewrite to adjust the word count. Even the greatest authors will occasionally dip into the candy-coated bacon of purple prose or forget to tie their punctuation, so a good editor can help make sure every product can fit into its cover before the big class reunion.
The amount of editing any given product needs is easily determined with the formula n+1, where n is the amount of time you actually have to edit the book. Because of this conundrum, it's important for editors to make the most of the time they do have. At Paizo, the ideal grammatical specimen sees four editorial passes: two from each of Paizo's own hard-nosed prose-wranglers. A 'pass' is a single read-through. Obsessive-compulsive as any wild pack rat, these editors greedily gobble up any mistakes they sniff out, trading it for proper spellings or active voice. And because anyone, even editors, can make mistakes, multiple passes and different editors help to ensure that no errors go unexamined.
For Paizo products especially, the editors also serve the dual role of security. They stand constant vigil over continuity of Golarion, ensuring that dead NPCs don't crop back up, that cities don't spontaneously shift location, and that worst of enemies aren't running around as BFF. The editors have the blessing and curse to read every product Paizo releases, from thrilling Planet Stories to mysterious modules, and serve as living repositories of the universe.
And yet they stay so svelte, just like the products they care for.
Editing is necessary for the health and longevity of a product. Without it, mistakes, typos, and plain, old dead wood can slip through into the final product, clogging intakes eventually leading to frustration overheating in readers. The heat released by frustrated readers contributes to the inconvenient truth of global warming, melting the polar ice caps, flooding coastal regions, and causing alligator populations to explode. Ultimately, mankind devolves into primitive tribes of swamp dwellers, hiding in terror from the maurading ultra-gators that have made this marshy, dystopian Earth their own!
So to keep your writing trim and healthy, and to ensure the survival of the human race, edit!
Now that our product is happy, healthy, and knows where its going in life, next week we're ready for that special time in every product's life when it truly becomes a book. Next week, we examine layout!
Ecology of the Pathfinder Product, Part 3: An Outbreak of Art
Tuesday, October 5, 2009
Illustration by Crystal Frasier
Cave raptors are sated; It's time to blog!
As it stands, Dwarves of Golarion is now written and assembled by its loving developer. Though awkward and gangly, we can see what it will finally grow up into. But at this point, this happy child is nothing more than a text document in the daycare that is a documents folder, happy rolling in the mud and receiving bowl cuts from mom. But there's an ugly truth for gaming products that this little production goblin's learned at her junior prom: you can be creative and brilliant, but if you don't look good, nobody'll pick you up.
Enter the art order, the good grooming of game design.
The majestic octopus mates for life, and hopes to find a sensitive and intellectually compatible lover that shares its appreciation of American Gothic poetry, but it will make its initial judgments based on appearance and health. Similarly, good art can make a product seem interesting and romantic before the first words are even read. It can make the difference between a product you don't tell your friends about, and one you take home to mom. But like an attractive octopus, a quality illustration must be carefully cared for if it is to be worthwhile.
The art order begins once the text for a product has begun development. By now, the developer knows how everything will shake down, even if the specifics remain a mystery. The developer will sit down with the decorator crab that is the art director, and with careful attention to the budget, they decide how much art the book can stand and what compelling elements to call out in pictorial form. With that list completed, the task is kicked back to the developer and his editorial cronies, who write up brief descriptions of all the illustrations they'll need to get their product a seat at the popular table during lunch.
By now, the art director is already comfortable in its den, combing through the preferred artists list and thinking about what to assign to whom. Just like writers and tutors, different artists' styles lend themselves better to different moods and fit different products*. A happy, bubbly, or wacky artist would be a terrible fit for Dwarves of Golarion's "quiet and cool" attitude, and would be better suited for its goofy sidekick, Gnomes of Golarion. Once the art orders are written, the art director mails them along to the illustrators of choice, together with the promise of great riches.
The first thing received from the artists are those embarrassing family photos we like to call 'sketches.' These are passed out among the editorial and art staff, who make crippling judgments about cowlicks, large ears, and crooked teeth that will haunt the product well into adulthood. They also make note of any changes the artist needs to make.
Finally, the finished images are received from the artists who, like the octopus, die shortly afterwards. This cruel cycle of nature provides the few glimpse of a grown-up, mature product that needs to be home by ten because tonight is a school night.
Illustrations by Jeremy McHugh
The art order is vital in a product's life cycle because it prevents the normally docile artists from breaking free of their enclosures and wandering the streets, mauling and tagging innocent civilians at random. It also serves as the cranial implant that prevents the art directors from seizing the reigns of power and assuming their rightful places as god-kings, directing the entirety of a company's funding into a single, penultimate illustration that makes children weep and grown men fall to their knees in prayer. Very important if you are a company looking to put out more than one product.
By now in the life cycle, our game product has begun to grow up and go through some awkward changes. Suitors have come calling, and its started wearing makeup. Tune in next week when we'll examine how to cope with your precious first draft's frustrating period of editing!
Crystal Frasier
Production Assistant
*Except for Wayne Reynolds, whose art is universal and can bring peace to warring nations.
Ecology of the Pathfinder Product, Part 2: The Awkward Development Years
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Illustration by Crystal Frasier
Cave Raptors are sated; It's time to blog!
When last we left Dwarves of Golarion, it was a mere egg of an outline, being fussed over by attentive parents and waiting to hatch. But now it is time for that blessed moment when an idea emerges into the world as written words! It is time for… the development phase!
Development is the process of growing a book from an idea and a few rough notes into written text, rearing the infant outline into a rebellious and hateful teenager who will keep you up at nights, drinking your secret stash of scotch and praying to god it turns out alright. Much like the rearing of the noble octopus, a game product requires two separate parties: the designer and the developer. Designers are the writers and artists (more on those wily and attractive artists next week), while the developers are the core who tie everything together. Where developers are comparable to an overprotective parent, designers are more akin to teachers: chosen carefully by the developer to impart information and direction to their snot-nosed offspring.
Of course, this is not an insult. Both octopi and game developers are widely known for their post-nasal drip.
Choosing a writer is a careful task. Like parents, developers want someone who will make their job easier. These choices are made by means of an arcane formula that takes into account past products, punctuality, and relative position of the stars. Managing Editor Wes Schneider admits that Paizo relies on a small, incestuous lot of authors to rear our products. Putting new designers through their paces requires time and branding irons, both of which Paizo has in painfully limited quantities*.
For roleplaying products, the ideal designer can fill three vital roles for the juvenile product: author, game mechanic, and artisan. Telling a good story and having a firm grasp of the mechanics are important, but just as vital and oft overlooked is the role of player-friendly artifacts in a young game's life. Like a sweater vest, legible maps and gripping player handouts are those little touches that decide if a product rides along on the bus or resides at the cool table at lunch.
The developers' job is just as challenging and vital to give their books the best chance at happiness. They need to organize everything those precious bundles have absorbed from their designers and make sure they play nice with the other products. A developer needs to tweak the mechanics to balance with the system at large, rewrite some fluff to keep the narrative canon, and embarrass the product in front of its friends. Even the best writing needs at least a week or two in development, says Schneider, because "folks aren't here every day, and they don't know exactly what we need."
Dwarves of Golarion and similar anthology products are like troubled foster kids: they get bounced between several authors and other corrupting influences. A firm and loving eyeball is needed to guide them through this troubled time. The twitterpated Sean Reynolds, developer in charge of this problem child, has had his hands full. Every line written by its savage gang of authors needs to be reviewed for balance and continuity, and he must occasionally search its room for illicit substances and pop culture references.
Without proper development, a game product suffers. Its already-overworked Paizo parents stretch themselves too thin trying to write thousands of words a day while maintaining their backbreaking day jobs in the grammar mines. Neglected and uneducated, the books would fall back into dull narrative habits and eventually turn to crime to make ends meet. Crime rates skyrocket, property values plummet, and we are all left unprepared for the forthcoming invasion of the reptimen from the Earth's core!
So, for a happy and contributing addition to the RPG landscape, make sure you follow the example of the methodical octopus. Keep a close group of talent to help raise your products, but don't give away your own parental responsibilities!
Tune in next week, when we examine the art of art, and stretch the octopus metaphor to it's breaking point!
Crystal Frasier
Production Assistant
*Wes also mentions that if you're a newcomer who'd like to write for Paizo and has a high pain threshold, you should still write and submit. Both the Pathfinder Society Open Call and RPG Superstar are Paizo's favorite tools for reviewing new blood in an organized setting. Publishing your own material online through a blog or website is a good icebreaker as well (check out Paizo's Community Use Policy for more details). Being on productive and nonviolent terms with other publishers also helps, as the RPG industry is made up of a mere 73 people, all of whom know each other personally and frequently gather for the imbibing of caustic organic solvents.
Ecology of the Pathfinder Product, Part 1: Hatching an Outline
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Illustration by Crystal Frasier
Cave raptors are sated, so now it is time for blogging!
Few things spring into the world fully formed, and game products are no exception. And if you aren't involved in the publishing industry, you might expect the life cycle of a supplement as unknowable as that of an octopus.
And it is.
As a neophyte nanny in the Paizo maternity ward, my elbows-deep, on-the-job training has been a real eye-opener. And if I have to suffer through that experience, then there's no reason not to share the pain. Over the next few weeks, we'll take a look at the stages of development of a young sourcebook, show off embarrassing baby pictures, and generally demystify the miracle of life as we follow Dwarves of Golarion from Outline, to Development, through Art Orders, Editing, Layout, Extra Editing, and finally Printing and Shipping.
The octopus knows it is time to reproduce when the seasons are right. Similarly, Paizo Publisher par excellence, Erik Mona, explains that a product first emerges when the various carriers demand a season's previews for their catalogs. At this point, the development team enters a furious ritual to determine whose memes are passed on to the next generation of Pathfinder canon.
Once the product ideas are agreed upon, each one goes on to outlining.
As a book egg, the outline doesn't tell us much, except that the book is healthy and to start preparing the office for its blessed arrival. We know who the proud papas are, and the outline hints if the book will grow into a fluffy nerd or crunchy jock, but nothing is set in stone just yet. Developers dig out warm nests in a hard drive to house the outline, lining it with file folders and sticky notes until writers can be assigned to help the book hatch and develop. A title (and adorable nickname) is decided upon, the chapters are parsed out, words counts are decided, and a handful of notes give developers and contributors an idea what the baby book will look like all grown up.
Unlike the noble octopus, the developer does not hover over the outline, constantly blowing salt water over it. Sean Reynolds occasionally spills latte on his, but more in a crude ritual to beg the gaming gods for the product's continued health.
Some things are immutable: Companions and Modules are Small sized (32pages), while Chronicles and APs will grow to Medium size (64 and 96 pages). Much like octopi, the largest, healthiest writers get first claim to the larger, healthier books, though until the outline hatches into development, even it's parentage can change.
Dwarves of Golarion Outline
As we can see from these adorable Dwarves of Golarion baby photos, the prenatal book doesn't resemble the adult product except in title. As the final draft of the outline, it's already showing the beginning signs of development: Exact words counts for each chapter have been decided and writers have been assigned to sit on the project until it hatches. We can also see in the bottom, left-hand corner that a goblin has chewed on this outline: an obvious indicator of superior product!
Without the outline, development would grow higgledy-piggledy, with chapters repeating each other, growing like tumors until they stretched the page count to breaking. Writers would run free, uncontrolled and burning things they shouldn't burn. Chaos would spill into the streets, and civilization as we know it would crumble.
So remember kids, be like the mighty octopus: plan your books carefully before getting started and save us all unneeded anarchy.
Greetings from the new Paizo caverns! As the newest addition to the war party, it falls on me to write today's blog. I am Crystal, and yes, I am named after a shiny rock. We can all thank my grandfather and his love of all things shiny.
When I first met the very talented Sarah Robinson in a hotel restroom and asked her about layout and design, I never expected that to turn into a real internship, let alone a job. My own experience in production work has been limited, but my enthusiasm, wit, and mastery of fire have impressed the Paizo staff enough to bring me into the fold.
It's hardly surprising, of course. Much of my life has been spent gaming or burning down peasant villages, the two skills the gaming industry demands.
My first experiences with roleplaying come from junior high, where I was none-too-politely barred from joining the gaming club for 1) being a girl, 2) never having played before, and 3) mauling the faculty advisor (see issue #1 and #2). My first play experience came in high school, thanks to Palladium Books' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness. As a poor country goblin, I didn't even have my own fancy dice; instead I used paper lunch sacks. I filled them with numbered chits, and just drew my results instead of rolling for them. Some days I miss my "b20." Since then, games have filled my life, even to the point of writing and developing a few projects for small companies. Some of the stellar games I obsess over include Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds, Wizards of the Coast's d20 Modern and Ghostwalk, Hijinks (created by Paizo for Polyhedron #158), and Margaret Weiss's Serenity RPG, as well as the obscure and unheard-of Pathfinder RPG.
My mastery of fire is a meandering, unlikely tale and will need to wait for another day.
Working with the Paizo crew is exciting; these are some of the best writers, developers, and designers in the industry, and they work hard at jobs they love. Never have I seen such dedication in any career that did not include the words "chocolate factory" or "brewery." The offices themselves are delightfully non-Euclidean, and I've learned the hard way to keep my distance from the impossible corners and ignore the whispers.
As a production assistant, I help fill in the cracks and manage the grunt work for Paizo's savage art directors, James Davis and Sarah Robinson. This usually means managing the digital archives, making changes the editors want, and topping off the coffee. The harder I work, the easier it is for James and Sarah to weave their arcane rituals, transforming the mad, gibbering scrawls the editors create into those glorious Pathfinder and Gamemastery products we all know and love. Also, twice a week I descend into the sub-basement and feed the cave-raptors, lest their terrible hungers overwhelm them and they rampage through the offices, making books late.
And none of this would be possible if I hadn't worked up the nerve to talk to Sarah about learning the layout arts. So remember, if you really want to work for Paizo Publishing, the secret is propositioning someone in the bathroom!*
Crystal Frasier
Production Assistant
* The secret is not really bathroom propositions. Neither the author, nor Paizo Publishing, LLC endorse this course of action. Paizo will not be held liable for resulting criminal charges or civil lawsuits that may result. Offer not valid in Minnesota. Side effects include nasal discharge, headaches, and dice bags under the eyes.
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