Taxfest!

Monday, April 15, 2013

For those of us living in the United States, today is the deadline by which we must file our taxes. Luckily, we in the real world aren't the only ones doing our civic duty today; inhabitants of the Inner Sea region are also participating in their own celebration of taxes, sponsored by the church of Abadar. Editor-in-Chief F. Wesley Schneider got his taxes done early, and used the extra time to put together a special holiday blog for the Pathfinder Society community. You will find a special Pathfinder Society Chronicle sheet below, which you can download and apply to a Pathfinder Society character during the date ranges noted on the sheet.

Illustration by Jason Engle

No one enjoys paying taxes. Every year, though, on the 15th of Gozran, priests of the church of Abadar spend the day walking city streets, doing what they can to make the bitter pill of annual taxes a bit easier to swallow. From dawn to dusk, clerics of Abadar attend the tax collectors of sizable communities as the tax wagons roll from door to door. More than just aiding in the yearly errand, the faithful personally thank every citizen for contributing to the improvement of their city, extol the public works funded by their contributions, and foretell the grandeur of civic projects to come. The disenfranchised and destitute they attempt to comfort as best they can, quoting from their god's dogma on work and worthiness, but this is not a day for discounts or deferrals.

At dusk, the Abadarans host several celebrations in parks, plazas, and other communal areas about the city, organizing donations and contributions from local vendors to feed and entertain all comers. Having already preached to most of the city over the course of the day, the clerics perform only a brief opening ceremony, dedicating the feast to Abadar, the city, and its great people. These celebrations are often quite distinct from neighborhood to neighborhood and are almost always divided along economic boundaries.

The festivities involving the wealthiest citizens usually happen on the steps of city hall or other grand civic buildings and feature the best music and food, but often little more than polite card and guessing games. These galas usually wrap up by midnight.

For the common folk, the parks and marketplaces take on a carnival atmosphere, with simple but good food, local ales, performances by talented citizens, and games of chance going on well into the night. A prevailing superstition through these festivals is that, during the celebration, it's lucky to kiss—or in some regions, pinch—a cleric of Abadar, leading to many a rosy cheeked cleric.

Even the city's poor are given reason to celebrate, as the local temple of Abadar hosts a cheery but unabashedly religious gathering on its steps, feeding all comers, doling out a hearty ration of wine, singing hymns of the faith, and providing tokens for a second wine ration for any who return to attend a service within the month.

For a holiday that revolves around paying taxes, this Abadaran festival isn't as reviled as one might expect.

Use the Chronicle sheet below to celebrate your pending tax refund or for a little escapism from the realities of whatever you may owe. And for those of you in other countries where taxes aren't due today, maybe you want to earn this boon while you can and save it for your nation's tax day.

Click here to download the Taxfest 4713 Boon! — (90KB zip/PDF)—This Boon is no longer available as of 5/4/13.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Synergistic Maps

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

When I'm not working on the next upcoming hardback rulebook, or apps, or whatever needs to be done around this place, my mind is on maps. While the talented Jason Engle makes our Flip-Mat and Map Packs gorgeous, I'm the guy who dreams up what goes on those maps and how they work together. And that's a fun job!

For the past year and a half I've been working hard to make these lines as fun and useful as possible. I've worked to make many of our Map Packs more modular, so that you, the GM, can build the kind of complexes and adventure sites that dance around your imagination. I've also been working to create synergies (excuse my use of such an overused and often misused term) among these products whenever possible.

For example, if you have both Map Pack: Marketplace and Map Pack: Rooftops, you'll notice that you can use them to create large and evocative city spaces. I like running urban adventures, and I'm a sucker for mapping aids that will help me illustrate the twisting alleyways that serve as the stage for a chase, gang war, or a run-in with local bravos with more guts than brains. When we put these products on the schedule I wanted to create the product that I always wanted, and that I figured a lot of you would want too.

But there are other types of synergies within current mapping products. Lately we have worked to have some of our maps fit well with some of our Adventure Paths. The latest ship maps provide the layout for the chief vessels the PCs command in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, and Flip-Mat: Town Square provides two chief encounter locations within the town of Sandpoint for those of you running Rise of the Runelords. The goal of this type of synergy is to give a tool to GMs who are running Adventure Paths, without making the maps so specific that they're hard to use for those GMs who aren't.

The question I pose to you all on this fine autumn Tuesday is, "Are we on the right track?" Do you like the synergies in the mapping products? Have you noticed them? Are we going far enough? Let me know your mind on this matter and help me to create the best products for your Pathfinder game.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

Choose Your Enemy

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Since the Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex is so packed with images of worthy allies and deadly foes, we’re starting the previews for it a bit early. This time, check out a crew of mid-level marauders, which you’ll find both in this expansive character catalog and in the Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex Box (the humanoid-heavy sibling of the Bestiary Box). Be sure to watch this space in the coming weeks for even more NPC Codex action!

Illustrations by Jason Engle, Damien Mammoliti, and Miroslav Petrov

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

Mapping the Path

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

I’ll be honest with you. I love maps. I always have, so when Erik, Wes, and Jason asked me if I wanted to start designing the Map Packs and Flip-Maps for the GameMastery line, I just yelled, “Gimme!” Then I ran away, laughing manically with my new toy.

This is a section of the “artwork” I sent to Jason for Flip-Mat: Pirate Ship. It’s ugly, but gets the point across, which is the purpose of the sketch.

By designing maps, I don’t mean that I actually do the cartography. That’s a job for far more artistically savvy folk, like the talented Jason Engle, who is currently doing the artistic heavy lifting for these products. But before we can have Jason do his magic, there is a lot of work and planning that goes into each of these products. This week, I’m going to hijack the blog to shed some light on the process of designing a GameMastery Map Pack or Flip-Mat product.

Each map product starts out as a vague concept on the product schedule. I say vague concept, but there is actually a lot of thought that goes into the concept phase. A few of us sit around the table, look at the current map products we have available, determine which ones sold well, which ones didn’t, and rifle though the Paizo messageboards about such products and see what kind of things the fans liked, what they didn’t, and what kind of things they would like to see in the future. Often, a Map Pack or a Flip-Mat is meant to complement Pathfinder products set for release around the same period of time.

For instance, both the upcoming Map Pack: Ship’s Cabins and the Flip-Mat: Pirate Ship were expressly designed to complement the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path. Sure, each of these products features cool ships that you could use in any campaign, but each one also details ships that the PCs actually use in that Adventure Path. Because of this dual purpose, I worked closely with Rob McCreary (Adventure Path developer extraordinaire) to make sure that each map product would have everything that he and the AP designers would need for that project. This give-and-take started with Rob giving me preliminary information about the AP adventures, particularly encounters taking place on the various ships. From there, I put together rough sketches of the maps and had Rob give me feedback on them. That feedback often forced me to go back to the drawing board, create a new round of rough sketches, and then we would start the process all over again, iterating until everything was right.

Jason Engle’s final product using my rough sketch and area descriptions as direction. The final product is beautiful and spot on. Jason rocks!

While the maps connected to the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path were a little more cooperation-intensive than most map projects, every early map product process starts with brainstorming, rough sketching, and making sure all the stakeholders are happy with the initial map design. Once that’s achieved, the next step is to make those rough sketches something more concrete—more than just a bunch of pencil scribbles on graph paper. They have to be something that an artist can understand clearly and easily. This involves cleaner maps sketched with my set of gaudy-but-striking colored pens and a map order that lists all the important details of the map. These refined rough sketches and the map order then goes to the art department. The art director, Sarah Robinson, then takes a look, makes sure it is as clear as possible, asking me questions about things that seem vague or somewhat questionable, revisions are made again if necessary, and then she sends it to Jason for beautification.

The process does not end there, though. Jason sends us his preliminary work on the maps, usually in the form of a black-and-white “sketch,” which is nearly complete, except for the color. We then take a look at his work, making sure that all of the details presented in my initial drawings and map order are all there, and take a critical eye at the often wondrous details he provides. Once that’s done, we either send a list of small changes or—more often than not—just let Jason know that his work is spot on and then move on to the next step: final or nearly final turnover by the artist.

With the color maps in, we look over them carefully, making sure everything looks gorgeous and the details are correct, and then move on to last-minute approvals from all the stakeholders and the business team. On rare occasions, the map goes back for some last-minute tweaking. When we are all happy with the final result, packaging is designed, and the files get sent to the printer. Lastly, the product gets shipped out to subscribers and distributors. It’s final journey ends with the “ooohs” and “aaahs of players” as GMs everywhere plop the finished product on the game table before uttering that magical phrase, “Roll initiative.”

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

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

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #14

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook releases tomorrow at Gen Con and game stores around the country. Over the past 14 weeks, we have look at all of the core classes and one of the prestige classes that can be found in the book. We've taken a look at a host of feats, spells, and magic items, as well as a few other rules bits along the way. This week, we are investigating the most important rule in the game. Not surprisingly, it is also one of the first rules in the book.

This is your game.

The rules in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook are presented to help you tell the stories that you want to tell. They are organized to help speed up play and enrich your world. You might find that, through play, some of these rules do not suit your style of play or do not serve the story you are trying to tell. Feel free to change them. Sit down with your group and discuss what "house rules" you are going to use as part of your campaign. Add, subtract, or even polymorph these rules to fit your needs. If you are the Game Master, you should work with your group to determine what changes are appropriate. If you are a player, remember that the GM is the final arbiter, but do not be afraid to make suggestions or bring new rules to the table for him to review. When you play the Pathfinder RPG, we want to make sure that you have fun. The rules are there to serve that goal, not to stand in the way.

Since this is the last preview, I want to take just a moment to thank all of the playtesters that spent countless hours playing, reviewing, and critiquing the Beta version of the game. I think you will find that they had a large influence on the final design and deserve a great deal of credit for all of its improvements. It was a lot of work to weed through over 100,000 messageboard posts, but the final game makes all of that effort worth it. If you were part of the Alpha or Beta playtests, I would like to say thank you.

As of this posting, a number of folks have already received their rulebooks, and discussions are already taking place on our messageboards about the changes and additions to the game. So, instead of talking about the rules, I wanted to close this preview with a look at some of the fabulous art that you will find in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. The Core Rulebook is available in stores and at our booth at Gen Con starting tomorrow. See you on the boards.

Illustrations by Jason Engle

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Snagged from the Vault: Sepid Div

Friday, May 8, 2009

As my foolhardy companion and I limp away from our latest excursion into the vault, we leave for you as a weekend preview the sepid div, a terrifying entry in the Bestiary of the upcoming Pathfinder Adventure Path #23: The Impossible Eye, as depicted here by Jason Engle.

Four curling horns sprout from is giant's head and an inhuman tongue flickers among sharply filed teeth. Covered with pale, pockmarked and spiky flesh, this monstrous warrior stands fully twice the height of an average human and assumes a confident stance as it effortlessly hefts a sword large enough to cleft a horse in twain.

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Snagged from the Vault: Dark Markets—A Guide to Katapesh

Friday, March 6, 2009

Once again, fellow Paizonians, my colleague and I have managed to pilfer a spectacular sneak glimpse into the vault. Behold the Zephyr Guard, illustrated here by Jason Engle...

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Though the Pactmasters are rarely seen outside their palace walls, they are keenly alert of all that transpires within Katapesh through their network of spies and active patrols of the Zephyr Guard. The Zephyr Guard is made up of diverse ethnic groups and races, but mostly humanoids such as humans, half-elves, and half-orcs. Their unifying feature is their expertise in combat and the precision with which they carry out their duties. A Zephyr Guard squad is usually composed of five elite soldiers (LN fighter 4) and their squad leader (LN fighter 6). Each squad leader carries a charm of aluum control, which is magically bound to them, making it useless to anyone else. Aluum are powerful golems created to maintain order in Katapesh when other forms of authority fail (see the Appendix for statistics). Dormant aluum are scattered through the city in key locations for the Zephyr Guard. They stand silent vigil at street corners, in the shadows of buildings, around busy squares, and throughout the numerous bazaars. No matter where one goes in Katapesh, an aluum is never far away.

Look for the full article on the Zephyr Guard in the upcoming product, Pathfinder Chronicles: Dark Markets—A Guide to Katapesh!

Illustrations by Jason Engle

Katapesh Fashion Show

Monday, January 12, 2009

One of the fun things about moving out of Varisia and into a new land for the Adventure Path is that the NPCs end up looking quite different. While generating art orders, I suspect we've spent days surfing the net looking for more and more exotic outfits and apparel to clothe our characters in. The upcoming Dark Markets: A Guide to Katapesh bears the fruit of those hours of Internet research—pictured here are three of the NPC portraits that appear in the book, each representing a different type of character you might encounter during an adventure in the region, be they surly half-orc merchants, graceful but deadly swordfighters, or even a desperate young child who MIGHT just grow up to be a world-famous iconic paladin!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief